Travis Ruskus: How to Find Balance in Business

I gotta ask you a question. Have you ever worried about not having enough cash? Now listen, if you listen to the show. Do we what? That's not how you do a reading, Kelsey. Well, maybe it is you. Have you ever worried about cash, Kels?

Yes.

In your business, you're the jewelry business.

Yeah.

Sometimes you can't afford a kiln.

Right.

Well, with a line of credit, by the way. Oh, is it kiln?

Yes. Every time. I know not kill him.

Why are you adding a superfluous u?

So that it's clear that kill lum.

Oh, oh, is it killun. You ever not know how to pay for one of those killins you have?

It's a great, great reading.

I know. Let me finish the reading. You know who can fix you, Kelsey?

Who?

An insane asylum.

Nobody can fix you.

No one can fix you. But if you have a cash issue, a line of credit from Financing Solutions is the ultimate cash backup plan. Because here's the deal, here's how it works and I've done this. The cash is a revolving line. It sits there. It's ready and available when you need it. It doesn't cost you a dime to have it. The interesting thing about business is when you have a need for money, you can't get money because no one wants a loan to someone or lend money to someone who's desperate for money. So you get this line in place in advance. Then when you need it, that's the only time you pay for it. Now listen, it's not the cheapest thing in the world, so don't use this. You know, so I can't cover payroll this week. Oh, you know, I want to buy some new stuff. Oh, we need a new computer. If you start using that way for the standard operations of your business, I think get into a trap. But get the line in place so that when you have a true need that you can recover from pretty quickly, you have a bridge for you. And guess what? As a loyal listener to entrepreneurship elevated, go to fscreditline.com and put in my name Mike M I K E in the referral section and they'll throw you $400 as a credit on file. 400 more bucks ain't bad. You never know when an emergency might happen. So get that prepared today. All right, my friends, it's time you strap on that dangly neckerchief of yours because we're about to discuss rock balancing and how it applies to business. Plus, there's a brand new book coming about out or is out about this too. You're hear that? And so much more. In today's episode of Entrepreneurship Elevated. I just staring Kelsey down waiting for her nod. Was she gonna give me a smile and a yes or was she gonna slam me? I don't know. You never know what's coming from Kelsey. But you do know what's coming from me. Mike Michalis, the authority on a mission to radicate entrepreneurial poverty. That's what's coming from me. I am here to help you to make your business permanently successful to achieve that vision you have. Yeah, I do it through my books like profit first and clockwork. My brand new one fix this next. Yeah, get that. It's on pre order right now. And we do it through this show called entrepreneurship elevated. I'm joined studio with my dear friend and sometimes enemy Kelsey Ayres.

Hello, friends. Thank you for listening to us. Please don't forget to subscribe wherever you're listening.

Yeah. And also in studio is the one and only Jacob Bloom.

Hey, what's up?

Jay Colone?

You ever.

You go out to national parks, State parks pretty regularly. You're a hunter.

Yes.

Do you ever do rock balancing?

I actually did try a little bit, but not. Not seriously. It's hard. It's not easy.

It is hard. Or is it? I think our guests may challenge the difficulty of it. I think it's a mental game. You and I were talking about kind of how our minds. Why you wouldn't look at me that way.

It's hard. I don't. It's hard.

How much rock balancing?

Oh, rock balancing. I thought you said rock climbing.

Sorry, did I say rock climbing?

I think you said balancing.

I don't know. Have you ever rock climbed?

I have. Yeah.

I've done that too.

Yeah.

That is super hard.

It's really hard.

Yeah, but that's also. It's interesting. I think when it comes to rock climbing, a lot of people think it's all about strength and it's not. It's about positioning, skill. It's the mental aspect. I didn't realize this. My son's a rock climber. Like he competes now. And you can. Jake does. And you can do. I don't know why you're looking at me. I feel obligated to tell you who he is. My youngest son, Jake. You know him and he can. It's all about the use of your legs. That's the main muscle. It's really about the strategy and knowing what the path is you're following. But have you done some rock balancing Cals?

I have tried yeah. What have you tried to make those structures?

First of all, you just did on the camera, you see the TP structures. That's not called rock balancing. That's called a rock house. No, they stack on top of each other. Yeah, they stack on top of each other. All right, well, we're gonna discover there's a lot of lessons. And this gentleman I met actually in San Francisco at a Creative Live event, he. I knew his mother, actually, and she said, I want my son to check out what you're doing. And we had just an interesting conversation, and I've been following his story ever since I purchased his artwork. He does artwork too, with. He does photography of his rock balance stuff. So he has displayed in our house. Yeah, it's really breathtaking. Kel, do we have a shout out from one of our listeners?

We do.

Nice.

This comes from Natalie4Cat. She writes this podcast. And Mike's books and methods are truly life changing. The podcast is so upbeat. Even if I'm in the worst mood, listening makes me optimistic again. I love to start my Monday morning out with this podcast.

Natalie, Natalie, this section's for you. And I want you to clip this out. And every time you listen or you're down, you can listen to this. Natalie, you're a badass.

That was good, right?

That was pretty good, right? Yeah, we should do that for the, like, one podcast, like just every person. Jeremy, you're a badass. Kelsey.

Yeah.

We should. We should do that for all of our listeners and then they can just play it over and over. Hey, Natalie, thanks. Thanks for giving us a shout out and we appreciate you keep kicking ass, my friend. Hey, I want to thank nextiva Voice over IP phone system.

Thanks. Nextiva.

I'm sorry, what? How do you pronounce the company?

Nextiva.

Oh, sound like you said.

Neck Diva.

Neck Steva. Next con will have been completed, of course, by the time this. This broadcasts. They do a two day event teaching business strategies. Now, what's interesting is I don't know of another phone company that does something like this. Like they compete against Vonage Ringcentral. You're ready for a joke to come?

I was waiting for it, yeah.

There's no joke. They're the only company I know of that does this. They're really out to support small businesses and they are the ultimate small business phone system. So check them out. Nextiva.com. all right, Kelsey, I think we're gonna get into the show. Is that cool?

Yeah, that's cool.

San Francisco based artist Travis Ruskus combines temporary rock Balance sculptures with photography. Freezing into an infinity. The ephemeral moment.

Who writes ephemeral?

Ephemeral. Who writes words I can't pronounce? You do the. The healing energy of the meditative work showcases a transformative or transformation of stress to clarity, scarcity to abundance. His additions and workshops investigate the reconnection of human and earth. And he has a brand new book that's out there. You've got to pick it up. It's on Amazon right now. It's called the Rock Balancer's Guide. So with no further ado, I want to welcome Travis Ruskus to our show. Travis, welcome.

Welcome, Travis.

Thank you, guys. It's great to be here. Thank you for the intro.

So we meet in San Francisco. Do you remember what I was wearing? I don't recall, but I. We. No, we started bullshitting after I was teaching a conference, teaching a thing called CreativeLive out there. We started talking after. And Travis, I think at that time you were at a defining moment of your life. Like, should you go a career path that society deems appropriate or should you pursue your passion, which is rock balancing.

Yeah. And I think that defining moment is every moment. But really. Yeah, that was really externally kind of out there of what do I do? And I just. I mean, luckily I found my guru, Mike, to guide me towards the light. But yeah, it was. It was something where. When I met you, Mike, I was. I was between so many things and just looking for someone to be like, no, go in on your passion. Do that. And I'll kind of forever be grateful for you to. To embrace that part of me that I couldn't even embrace myself. But since then, I've just been leaning in on that. And it's been a really difficult road, don't get me wrong. But I think that that's what allows other people to kind of fade off so that the strongest people rise to the top. And when it comes to art, it's tough because you got to have a unique idea. You got to be essentially the only person in the world that does it for anyone to consider you of value. But I think with this, what I'm trying to do is show that anybody on earth can balance a rock. And through my workshops and just working with people one on one and seeing how they instantly go, like you guys were saying in the beginning of that's hard to. That's easy. Or I can't. I can. Because ultimately the rocks are just a metaphor for writing emails or driving in traffic. And I'm just trying to get People who maybe aren't going to go out and balance rocks or touch a rock to just look at how they approach anything in a different light.

So this is a business of yours. You found ways to monetize it. What got you inspired to balance rocks in the first place?

The origin story is always this long, drawn out thing that I don't even want to get into right now, you know, but what really it was is I was just in the river one day and super sad, like just, just reconsidering everything. And I was just standing in the water kind of numb. And I looked down and the water was rushing past, but the stones were still beneath my feet. And just out of curiosity, I picked up a rock. And it was, I think because I was so sad. When we're really sad, we get almost more open, we're more receptive to the things around us. And when I picked up that rock, it was almost like I picked up a rock for the first time and I could just see the deep purples in it and the gold and all this visual sensory just explosion. I could hear the wind. And it was almost like my thoughts for a few moments just kind of went away and I could just tap into the moment. And that alone to me was weird because it didn't really happen before. But then I was just thinking, how old is this rock? And when I couldn't really come up with an answer, I saw that I was holding it and I had these, these fingertips that were, I think it was 22 or 23 at the time, holding this like million or billion year old entity. So when I was trying to compare how old is 23 to a million, it's very, very. There's a huge gap. So there had to be a reason that I was there. And I, you know, looking back, it's like, well, of course the balance rocks. But in that moment I'm just thinking, okay, well you know, let's go to the next moment. And it was just me trying to balance a rock in the most difficult way possible. And after 45 minutes it just still wasn't balancing. So I, it just kind of got exhausted. And I kept with it with my exhausted mind. And by doing that I was able to feel more and just kind of see where the rock was going to wobble to one side. Okay, you just correct it. And after a little bit only, you know, a minute or two, it just clicked into place and locked into place. And it's kind of spooky when you first do that, but after that moment happened, I Just kind of went mad. I went rock crazy. And I just kept going back there and I had all these people coming up to the park and, you know, taking this photo of me. And, you know, it was super validating at first, but after a while, it's like, here I am having this really deep experience in the river, and, you know, someone's just leaving with a photo. They're not really getting transported into that world with me. So what I've done is I've just taken all of that knowledge of 45 minutes of struggle and then condensed it down into a minute to teach you how to rock balance. So it's amazing seeing people of any race, any religion, any age, any color on their skin. The rock treats you all the same. And it's getting someone to just shift their approach to themselves over and over and over again. There's like this. This look that people get in their eye when they balance that first rock in like a quote unquote impossible way. And once I started to see that look in every single person that I taught, it was kind of like seeing. It's hard to explain, but seeing God or seeing yourself, you know, the energy that kind of surrounds us all, it's almost like you're recognizing with it. So for me, I thought, hey, you know, there's gotta be a good business model in this. Like, if I'm clicking with every single person that I teach, then there's gotta be something going with it. But that has been the process of it is getting something that looks completely amazing and people are shocked and awed with to actually being a profitable thing that I can pay rent with.

So how do you monetize it?

So with this, I've been selling the artwork, I've been doing workshops, and this book has been a great tool to monetize and something that I didn't really think about too much, but my publisher actually really wanted to. When she approached me with this book contract was like, translation deals, because how cool would this be in Japanese or Spanish or stuff like that? And the whole process of giving birth to a book, I kind of forgot about that. And then once it was out, she just sent me a couple random emails like, oh, hey, this French translation deal went through. Oh, hey, we got it in South Korean. And here's like a couple thousand bucks in your pocket, like come next pay period. So for me, I'm just like, this book is amazing. And at least for me, it gives me something where if people can't afford the artwork because it is, you know, much higher Price and value. They have a book with all of my information, all my insights, and just all, like, there's, I don't know, 40, 50 pieces of artwork in there that you can kind of have. So I guess it's just having different price points to have it. And it goes even further of, like, if you want a Zen garden and stuff like that, too. I'm trying to incorporate what I call a healing room into corporate environments. So coming down in San Francisco, you got Facebook, and Facebook is essentially filled with stress, and you need a little room where people can go in and meditate and rock balance and trying to work through some people, either in Facebook or some other companies that I know to. To just make it happen. Because all you need to do, what I'm seeing in this is you got to have one person take a leap on you, take a risk, and believe in you, AKA Mike. And then from there, you get other people that see that, and they're like, oh, well, if they did it there, then they must be cool here. But it's really, really hard for people to take that leap. So if you can have someone to kind of bridge the gap, it always helps. So.

So tell me about the process of balancing rocks. I always thought, take the most flat part of the rock and bounce it to the other most flat part of a rock, and that's basically it. But you've proven there's combinations that are perceivably impossible, but they're clearly not.

Yeah.

How do you go about this?

Well, the. The way that you balance a rock is totally valid way to balance a rock, and it's probably a great way to. That's probably why you're great at building businesses, because you just look for the most kind of easy, consistent, strong thing that you can, and there you go. No wind is really going to knock it down. And what you're doing in this whole process is discovering where, I guess the balance lies between your limits, the wind blowing, your mindset. There's a variety of factors, but to be real basic with it, you just sit down and. And you balance a rock. But what happens with that is we start to think, well, what rock should I balance when I take one rock? How. What angle should I balance it on? What about this next rock? How does this fit in? So it's more of before you even start balancing, just getting clear and finding a couple moments to just take a few breaths. And by doing that, you can tap into, I guess, your story right now. And a lot of what we do in our daily life is Getting caught up in the past or worrying about the future. And if you can just breathe, it's almost like a little poke you give yourself to say, here you are right now. And that alone has allowed me to save a lot of the angry emails that I would write if things weren't working out or something. Just kind of take a breath and just be like, okay, no, this is the moment right now of something didn't go your way. And I believe that every failure is a test to see how much you truly believe in something. And ultimately, with rock balancing, all it is is finding the point within yourself of when you're happy. So I've taught people that are never satisfied. They want to have just one more rock and just one more rock and just one more. And then when it's like, definitely at the edge, they just want to put one more on, the whole thing collapses. And, yeah, and when I talk with them, it's. I can just sense that they're never satisfied with it. And there are other people on this, the swing arm of that, where it's really hard for them to just pick up another rock and put it on top when they think they're at their limits, they're not actually at the limit. You can put about five more rocks on. So you kind of need me to come by and be like, no, no. See if you can do them more. And it's more of a complex process, but simply put, you're just putting rocks on top of each other. So for me, I like to go with the rule of every time I make a rock balance, it's got to be better than the one I did before.

Oh, that's cool.

It's not invalidating what I'm making previously. It's just saying, no, previously, you're at your edge. Now we need to find a new edge and a new edge and a new edge. So that's why I think I've been able to make this work that blows people's minds because I've just gone so far. And then that's kind of the step one for the next balance.

So, Jeremy, I got a question for you. You were like, as we're talking, you're leafing through his pictures. I'm curious how rock balancing influences the outside consumer. So you saw some of the pictures of Travis's work. What was your impression?

It was amazing. I mean, they're not angles that you would imagine the rocks at, and the rocks look like they're pretty heavy. So what I. My first thought when I saw that one image Was do you have to hold the three rocks to get them together and hold it with one hand before you put the little ones on top?

Good question. How do you do that, Travis?

Yes. Sometimes, you know, you're just bouncing one rock, sometimes you're balancing two, sometimes the last one or the one before. The last one I just did was called Revolution, and it was, I think, eight different rocks at a time, like eight different rock balances in one rock balance. So it's something that's hard to explain how you do eight at a time. It's all based in this core principle of the triangle method. So if you take your hands, almost like, capiche, like you're pinching some salt, and you have a little triangle, basically. And if you take your other hand and you, with an index finger, you put it in that little pinch, you're going to see kind of how these rocks are getting essentially pinched into place. So if you have a small rock on the bottom and you have a bigger rock on top, it's still pinching into these little divots or grooves that are in every single rock. So when you have eight at a time, I'm doing the first rock, I find that, okay, it's solid. I do the second one on top, it's going to be solid. But then after I start to get to the fifth and sixth on there, it shifts the weight at the base. So I have to kind of do everything. I'm putting some elbows in it, maybe a knee or something like that to make sure that it doesn't shift too much. And then at the very end of this thing, and actually throughout the process, I'm breathing, because I don't know if you guys are breathing right now just hearing this. It's like you want to kind of hold your breath and hang on to that anxiety. But really, it's in these moments of tension that you want to find the flow, because then you can find. Oh, well, there's the. The. The easiest thing to do can click everything into place, but our minds are so caught up in. Well, I got to make it complex. It's got to be more beautiful. And it's just really one simple shift can make all those eight balances click into place.

So one of the things that I thought of is how do you avoid getting angry and frustrated when you're working on this thing for like an hour and it keeps falling and falling and you can't get it? Because I know it's supposed to be zenful and mindful, but to me, that would be infuriating.

Well, you let go of ego and really when you can see it more of as a spiritual practice of whatever your definition of God is. My definition is more of the rocks and the trees and the wind and you know, Mike's warm voice and all this stuff that surrounds our world.

Adorable.

That surrounds our world really in this moment, that to me is God. And when I can see myself failing, it's just showing me that I need to kind of remove the me out of this a little bit more and start to listen into the rocks. Because either for me especially as I start to get super complex and I can go to space with this almost, I need to kind of reel it back a little bit because a lot of my ideas don't actually meet up with reality. And maybe that's what it is. Either your ideas are too far to what your current experience level is, or you're not maybe going far enough and you're just kind of frustrated because you saw this cool guy do it and it looked really cool. And you know, this is your third time rock balancing and you can't even get anywhere near to that. All I just say is your balance that you made is perfect just, just because you made it. And if you can find that happiness within yourself to say, hey, I put one rock down and that's cool, I'm just going to sit with that and enjoy me. But if you're trying to compete with me, it's kind of hard because I've just dedicated my life to this. I go in all the time and go to the furthest extreme. So I think that the anger, and I associate heavy with anger because it's the opposite of my peaceful spiritual kind of enlightenment side of myself. So when I ever I encounter that anger, I just know that something within myself isn't jiving with my current surroundings. And instead of me getting mad at the rocks, I almost use my anger to get mad at myself, to calm myself down and just listen to what's around me. Because in those angry moments, we become blind and deaf. And if you can just, like I'm saying, breathe and just really kind of feel the wind on your face and just enjoy this moment, then the next step is going to reveal itself to you.

Over my 12 years of being an author devoted to the small business entrepreneur, I've discovered the biggest challenge. And you know what it is? It's profitability. That's why I wrote Profit first and that's why I'm now hosting a two day workshop here at my offices in Boonton, New Jersey, where I will teach you and my team will teach you how to become permanently profitable. Go to profit first live.com right now to get details again, profit first live.com find the dates that work for you and I'll see you here at my office. Well, this is a good stages as well. For my next. My question, Travis, is you build a structure and you get. Toward the end, it falls apart. You built a successful partnership with Airbnb with the rock balancing at Lands End Experience, and I think it was the national parks who shut you down. Tell us about that.

Yeah, and that's a great example of what are the real limits? Because in the beginning it was, well, can I do this workshop? Do I have it in me? Are people going to actually show up? And then once that started to happen, it was, wow. I mean, how can I get more people in it? Or once we started to get booked out every week, every Friday to have an experience, it was amazing because I could finally have a solid source of income, rock balancing. And after a while, it just became too popular and the National Park Service found out and they said, hey, first off, you don't have a commercial permit. So that was definitely an error on me and Aaron, me and Airbnb's part. But to get a commercial permit, we can't actually give you one for rock balancing. We can give you one for hiking, equestrian, so like horse riding, or a variety of other things. But for rock balancing, unfortunately, we can't grant you that because it violates our Leave no trace policy. So if I'm picking up a rock and it could potentially damage animal or plant life at a microscopic level or something, but at the place that I was doing it at, it's pretty funny because the rocks are constantly being pushed in and out due to the tide, so there's not even really any microscopic plant life on it. Which I know people are going to come after me and say, well, you don't know the microbiomes and all this kind of stuff, but you're right, I don't. I just know that when I hold a rock and it's clean and I can just go balance it, I'm not really hurting anyone. And I just want to show what that can do to another person. Because I. I would have people from all over the world visiting San Francisco see this little thing on experience, on Airbnb's Experiences, press a button, show up, and then I'd be like, okay, so here you are, and here are all the things you're telling yourself, and I'm not going to show you how to do it. You're going to show yourself how to do it. I'm just going to help guide you through where you get stuck in your daily life, because how you do anything is how you do everything. And when someone's coming up and they're balancing rocks on the beach and they got that just one more mentality, or, you know, they don't want to have another one, they want to balance another rock. Or I had someone who had a panic attack on the beach, and I'm like, we're on the beach. Like, I can't walk you back because you can't just enjoy this moment right now. And I know that may seem a little harsh, but there was seven other people just sitting around. We were at sunset just enjoying it. And by doing that, I allowed her to just kind of sit with herself for a little while longer. And she ended up balancing this. This huge rock, just one rock on its nose, by itself. And because she went through that instead of avoiding it like she had always done, she was beaming and glowing.

Wow.

She left a great review. And once I had all these people writing these really positive reviews, it just snowballed on the algorithm, and I was just always at the top. So inevitably, that's when the national park was like, hey, you can't do that. So I tried to do a couple of things, like just do meditation, make it so there's no rock balancing involved. We're just going to go to the same spot on the beach, and I'm gonna teach you everything you need to know without any rocks. Because I think, like, the highest form of rock balancing is when you don't need rocks. You can just balance yourself. Driving in traffic. Like, to think about Mike balancing rocks while he's in traffic is, like, a little scary, but it's a great visual. Yeah. So ultimately, that's kind of what happened with that. So because I went through that, it gave me this ability to teach anyone on Earth, even if they couldn't even speak English and know that there was just this magnetic attraction to it. Unfortunately, I lost the platform, so now I can only do it with private experiences. But at the same time, it's just. It's. It's almost that proof of concept that I discovered kind of worked.

So, yeah. Yeah. So that'll definitely spin into something new. How can. Before we let you go, how can our listeners get started on rock balancing and start having these revelations about themselves? Do they take a class with you? They get your book, which I'm definitely gonna Suggest they do. But should they skid out and just start playing around with rocks? As long as it's not in a national park and you're not, you know, messing with the biosphere.

Yeah, mess with the biosphere. Yes. Do not throw your rocks into space. That would be. I suggest that step one, you just breathe. So right now, everyone, we're going to be a little awkward and just take one little breath. So wherever you are in your breathing, just exhale all the air out. So breathe in nice and full. And you exhale. So that's it. You're just in the moment. So if you can repeat that when you're doing anything, either happy or sad, then at least you're going to tap in. And from there you can look around at all the opportunity that's around in front of you. And for this, if you're balancing rocks, you look on the beach and you say, well, how do I pick a rock? Which one do I do? And it's like, I don't know, do you pick the rocks or do the rocks pick you kind of thing. And either way, whenever you get a rock in your hand, you just start going with it. And as you start to do that, you need to believe in yourself. Once you do that, like I'm saying that easy, like, okay, just believe in yourself. But once you truly believe that, yes, I can do that, I can get to one more or do that rock on its nose and do something crazy, you'll have that moment of balance. And once you figure out, okay, this is how you balance stuff, maybe it's even balance in driving, in traffic and that flow of, you know, changing lanes or not getting stuck in that terrible lane, that's balance that I'm talking about, too. From there, you realize what your limits are. So you can only lane change so fast and you know there's going to be a cop or you may get in a wreck. But with rock balancing, it's just defining that limit of, you know, the national park is telling you you cannot go or they're going to contact law enforcement versus me just the first day being like, I can't do that, like, I'm too scared or someone's going to judge me. So it's, it's pop in that bubble of limits. And once you get to that, it's the most important part of release and letting go. And this is where you're actually seeing a huge misconception with what rock balancing is. Because if you see a rock balance on a trail, it's usually a sign of Somebody's attachment that they're here promoting this ephemeral kind of thing. Ephemeral means like spiritual, like a ghost kind of like. It's hard to explain what it is, but it's just this feeling of energy outside of yourself, essentially. And when I see rock balances on the trail, I just see someone who's like, hey, look at my ego. And I'm trying to knock those down if I see them. But you got to be careful if I'm telling this to other people, because in certain parts of the world, these cairns or rock totems are used to actually, like, they want to mark where the trail is, but it's also these spirits of energy. And in Japan, there's a great thing where you want to actually put one more rock on top when you cross these balances as a sign of good luck. So in Japan, they treat it as more of this ancient totem that just keeps slowly building with each person. It's this, this, this collective consciousness. In the usa, it's quite the opposite. It's very, you know, you can't do that. You're disturbing the earth, leave no trace, all this kind of stuff. So if you're gonna go out and do it, I just recommend that, yes, you do it responsibly. But also if you're. I can't stop you. And if you're in the national park and you're like, hey, I really gotta. I gotta balance real quick, man. Just make you use it to align your energy, that you just knock it over and release. And some of the most amazing moments when I am out there rock balancing and creating these amazing sculptures is when I let go, because it's showing me that I've not conquered. But I was able to face that part of myself that didn't believe that I could do it. And here I am just moving past it. So when you can release, you can embrace what comes next. So if we were on this interview, it's amazing. I've had such a great time talking with you guys, don't get me wrong. But you can't have a new guest unless we hang up this interview.

Good point, good point.

So from there, it's just a cycle of evolution and just kind of repeating the process.

All right, well, we are going to release you, but first, first I want you to share where people can pick up the rock Balancers guide. Also to sign up for the classes to procure your artwork. Where's all the resources you can share with us?

Yeah, so just go to my website, travisruskus.com my last name is spelled R U S K U S and that'll point you to the book and everything like that. The books are available in bookstores, actually in the US and uk. As far as workshops go, you have to contact me privately in order to make it at your company or event or something like that. Just shoot me an email studioravisruscus.com and yeah, we can go from there. I have a bunch of videos as far as, like, free tutorials on YouTube that thousands of people watch and I get messages all the time. So if you don't want to give me a dollar, go on YouTube and just give yourself something. That's what I got to say with that.

That's super cool. And I'll tell you, my friends get the book. I just purchased it as we were talking. It's the Rock Balancers guide. I got it on Amazon. Here's the deal. If you have no interest in being a rock balancer, you have no curiosity. You probably need this book most. The greatest way to expand our insights into our own business, our own lives, is looking outside of our comfort zone. I'm not an aspiring rock balancer, but dammit, I have the guide now, so I'm going to do it. Travis, thank you so much for joining us today.

Yeah, thank you so much. And I would just say on a side note that I actively promote the profit first system to everybody that I can. And I just think it's so awesome what you're doing, Mike. And I really thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.

Oh, Travis, it's a joy to know you. And I heard that you promote us because the last time when those park rangers were coming down on you for saying Barack sculpture, you were yelling, I'm part of profit first. I'm part of profit first. And you ran away and I got arrested.

Good story.

It's a total lie. All right, Kelsey, here's what we're going to do.

What are we going to do?

We're going to play a game. Do you. I have a game if you don't. Jeremy.

Yeah. I have a game. I have riddles.

All right, I'll do my game and we'll do riddles again next episode just to shake it up a little bit. I want to first thank Nick, Steven for what they do for us. They are. They're our rock. They've been with us since the beginning of the show. 200. How many episodes were in? 253. Almost 300 episodes, Kelsey.

Yeah. Wow.

Is that unbelievable?

It is. Unbelievable.

My God.

I'm going to go home and balance 300 hours. Nextiva phones on top of it.

That's a good idea.

Yeah.

Yeah. But they've been a rock. They've been with us forever. Check out nextiva.com. get your voiceover IP phone system there. And plus, they have a new CRM that's just released. It is unbelievable. Called Next OS. All right, cows, you're not going first. You always go first. What did you learn, Jay clubone.

Well, first of all, a side note, super annoyed about the. The National Parks Department with that. There's so many things that you can.

See the horses walking through the stream, knocking rocks, hikers walking through, but God forbid you pick one up.

Yeah. People going off trail. That causes more issues than. Anyway, that's. Yeah, I need to balance rocks right now because. Yeah, no, I think that the lessons for business, take your ego out of it. Have patience and be present.

Yep, dug that. Here, I'll tell you to wrap us up. Here's my takeaway.

Okay.

That sadness makes us more open to the things around us.

Yeah.

I love that when he said he was in a very sad moment in his life, that he became much more aware and much more curious. I picture him pick up that rock and just staring at it and really pondering it, where when we're maybe happy or in a different state of mind, we don't consider those things. So sadness has even more value than I expected. So I thought that was pretty cool. And I like this step, too. Start with. Start with breathing. It's interesting. I'm like, what's the first step to bouncing rocks? He's like, breathe. Pretty interesting. What'd you take away?

That, too. I really super love this, but I think I really like when he said that it had to be a good business model if he was doing it. And consistently, everybody he connected with got something from it. So it made sense that it would be a good business model. And I feel like that's so true. And I love that that's true because it's something that serves him and his purpose and it also serves others really effectively.

Yeah. Fascinating that there was that much demand. He became the number one or leading kind of provider on Airbnb experience. So I wonder if there's a studio here or if he can partner with someone else, maybe like a yoga studio to get part of their space to bring in house rock balancing. I don't know. There's definitely something significant there.

Yeah.

He was talking about Facebook. If anybody can afford to create an artificial river in a building Right. Where you can go and balance rocks. It's them.

Yeah.

They could have a whole room with a river running.

Yeah. What a great client. Yeah. Facebook. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it's perfect. I just love. He's able to monetize all the different things. He's not just doing the process for his own enjoyment. He found a way to make it sustainable by offering the experience through artwork, through workshops, through his book. Now he's monetizing it, which is actually expanding the word and allows him to sustain what he's doing. Very smart.

Yeah.

I really love Very smart man. All right, should we do listener mail for. No, we don't have listener mail anymore. So why can we. Why should we do that? Let's go to Ask Mike. Right? You send an email. Ask Mike McCallow.com random yes.

If you have any questions for Mike that you want answered, send an email to ask Mike. Mikemicalitz.com all right, here's three jobs.

You guys tell me which one's the fake.

Okay.

How the game works. Two of these are real jobs. These are all entrepreneurial businesses. And, you know, sometimes you have some weird, weird job offerings. You be a car kisser. Do you know. Do you know people like to kiss their car? You buy that brand new baby, you kiss on the hood or something. Well, car kisser ensures that the experience is optimized. So there is a job at potentially a car manufacturer or two that hires car kissers. I'm just saying. Or you could be a train pusher. You know, sometimes there's trains to stop. It's so hard and difficult to get into a train that you need to push your way in. Well, why not hire someone that pushes people into the train faster?

Really?

Oh, that one you like? Yeah. Hey, you're not getting the train faster. Move your ass. They're also in New York. They're called Move youe Ass or Move your Assers. And then full time Netflix viewer.

Callous.

You watch Netflix constantly?

Yeah, constantly.

Well, you have Netflix. I love Netflix. Yeah, it's just. It's just movies about your neck. From the head up.

Right. It's all flick. Yeah, it's only the neck. It's not even the head. It's just the neck. That's a great flick about the neck.

Adam's apple.

That's on only because Adam's apple is massive. What's going on? You can be a Netflix viewer. Watch TV all day. Netflix. Give feedback. So which one's the fake one? Two of those are real by the.

Way Kalis I say the fake one is the car kisser.

Why would that be fake?

So silly.

When you got your new car, did you kiss it?

Even if other people do it, why would you need somebody to test out that process?

Well, some people. First of all, some people even name their cars. Do you name your car?

Yeah.

What'd you name your car?

Pippa Larue.

The Subaru Pippa Leboo.

Larue. Larue is a family name, so she's Pippa Larue.

So Pippa Larue. Oh, she's a she.

Yeah.

So a machine is a she.

Are you saying machine can't be a she?

No, it can't be. I mean, listen, like, they name shoats boats, like ships. I didn't say ship and a boat at the same time. But it's a shoat they name ships. Like she, you know, like. And airplanes.

I like your other. The other one better. Gemma.

Oh, Gemma the go getter.

Yeah, Gemma the go get it. Yeah, I like that. So, okay, so carcasser. Okay. What about you, Jayvon?

I agree. I think car kisser. Because I think in Japan, they actually do have people that push them on the trains. And then the last. What was the last one?

The Netflix. Full time.

Oh, yeah, that's definitely a thing.

So it would be a miracle if three consecutive weeks in a row. You both are wrong. Right?

Yeah.

And so you were wrong. Well, it depends on this episode comes out, but you were wrong. I got. I got sweep. I got sweep again. And today, no sweep. You guys got me. You guys got me. A car kisser is totally made up. There's no one that goes out there and kisses cars except for some kind of weirdo. Train pushers are in Japan. They're called ashiyas. They're hired. They're hired to ram and cram people into the train because of the overflow. They also exist in other. Oh, no, I thought in London, but no, that's not true. Just in Japan and then Netflix. Sure enough, you can get paid for watching Netflix, giving feedback and reviewing on the viewing experience.

Okay.

Yeah. So there you go. All right, Kelsey, I think we're good. Raise there anything else to talk about?

Yeah, I think we're good too.

Let's get out of here.

But thanks for listening, guys.

Yeah, we appreciate it.

We do appreciate it.

Is there anything else that call to action you have to say or. That's it?

No. Don't forget to subscribe.

Yeah. Please don't.

Yeah. And if. If you're watching on YouTube. Make sure you sign up for notifications. And hit the bell.

Yeah, the bell right below the. The picture of the video.

Yeah. And then every time you put out a new video, you get a little notification.

Yeah, we got tons of good videos and one last third step. Now it's the last steps, but three steps is easy enough. Go to Mike Motorbike, that's our website. And click on get the tools. We'll hook you up with tons of free content in all, one email. All in one email. That's right. See you.

Sam.