IAM1009- Entrepreneur Helps Others Achieve Lifestyle Freedom

Ron is passionate about helping others succeed at achieving their goal of lifestyle freedom. This drive to help improve the lives of others was cultivated in the United States Army, where he toured Afghanistan and learned the importance of teamwork and dedication to a cause. Now, Ron’s mission is to help people live and work on their own terms.

In 2016, Ron left his home in the United States and pursued the digital nomad lifestyle full-time.

And now five years and twenty-one countries later, he’s learned a thing or two about traveling and working as a digital entrepreneur. Along the way, he’s built quite the online resume as well. He’s a blogger, business coach, consultant, eCommerce specialist, and digital marketer, just to name a few. Throw a professional poker player and world traveler on top of all that, and you’ll find it hard to find a more interesting person for a dinner conversation!

• CEO Hack: Using other people's efforts, technology, or a combination of the two to ease the pressure that comes with being a CEO
• CEO Nugget: Focus on one thing and keep your mindset shut
• CEO Defined: Giving back, complete control and freedom over your life

Website: https://redpillrebellion.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RedPillRebellion
Instagram: http://instagram.com/red_pill_ron/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RPRebellion
Pinterst: https://www.pinterest.com/redpillrebellion/

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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00:30 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:58 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Ron Tuck of Red Pill Rebellion. Ron, it's awesome having you on the show.

01:06 – Ron Tuch

Thanks, I appreciate you having me here.

01:07 – Gresham Harkless

Definitely super excited to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Ron so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Ron is passionate about helping others succeed at achieving their goal of lifestyle freedom. This drive to help improve the lives of others was cultivated in the United States Army, where he toured Afghanistan and learned the importance of teamwork and dedication to a cause. Thank you for your service. Now Ron is on a mission to help people live and work on their own terms in 2016, Ron left his home in the United States to pursue the digital nomad lifestyle full-time. And now 5 years and 21 countries later, he's learned a thing or 2 about traveling and working as a digital entrepreneur. Along the way he's built, he's built quite the online resume as well. He's a blogger, business coach, consultant, e-commerce specialist, digital marketer, and digital nomad coach, just to name a few. Throw a professional poker player and world traveler on top of all that. And you'll find it hard to find a more interesting person for a dinner conversation. Ron, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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02:07 – Ron Tuch

Let's do it.

02:08 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, well, let's do it then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more about how you guys started, and what I like to call your CEO story.

02:17 – Ron Tuch

Yeah, sure. So as you mentioned, I'm an army veteran. So I left the service back in 2010. And so I was kind of the hardest thing is not going into the military. It's coming out, right? So I was trying to adapt, and figure out what my direction was, and where I wanted to go. I worked for Corporate America, and I found very quickly that I just didn't like it. I didn't feel like I had control over my life. So I set a path to start my own business and basically experimented with all the different things that I would want to do what my skill set was and what would be a good match for me. And of course, I had a lot of trials and tribulations along the way. And eventually, I started an e-commerce business and have since let that go since the pandemic. But now I am blogging and coaching full-time.

03:12 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate that and appreciate, you know, hearing the journey. As you said, there are always ups and downs no matter the journey, it seems like, especially in business and entrepreneurship. But I wanted to hear a little bit more about your coaching, all the services you provide, and how you work with the clients that you have now. Could you take us through a little bit more of that and what that looks like?

03:31 – Ron Tuch

Yeah, absolutely. So as I mentioned, when I got in the military, the hardest thing for me, like I said, was readapting to society. Part of that was because I was used to a culture, right, of camaraderie and just a certain set of values that we had in the military that don't necessarily exist outside of the military and civilization. It's just that everybody has their own level of different priorities, especially in a place like North America, where it's very individualistic, and I'm used to being a part of a community. So for me, I felt that aspect was missing. And as far as finding my cut path, it was not, it was not very easy. I went online and I really started researching all these things.

And the reason that I took that path, to begin with, is I just didn't feel in control of my life. I remember being in a 9 to 5 job running a warehouse. I used to be a logistics manager, right? Because that's what I did in the military. And when I exited that, So for example, at the end of the day, I had people that would just drop their stuff off at the end of the day, and they would tell me in 1 sense, you're not allowed to have overtime but also at the same time, we need you to get this done today. And by the way, I'm going to drop it on your desk at 6 pm. So it's like, okay, you want me to get the work done, but you don't want to pay me for it. So I don't know it's very contrary.

So that was the point when I was just, you know, kind of for me enough was enough, and I just wanted to gain clarity and control on what direction I went. And so from that point, I started researching everything and I found a group of people called Digital Nomads, right? That's somebody that works from anywhere that has an internet connection and all they need is their internet and whatever technology they use to operate their business, usually some software as a service tool. And I got into e-commerce. And as a result of that, I found some mentors that were able to help me. They were already making something along the lines of multiple-figure revenue from their business.

So I made friends very quickly in that community and that led me to starting an e-commerce business and that kind of got my start in internet marketing. But at the same time, I was very, very intrigued and passionate. I was spending my days working and learning my business and how to make it thrive. But I was also very, really energetic towards this new lifestyle is very excited. I was meeting all these people from different places who were entrepreneurs that I was rubbing, rubbing elbows with that their experience then was able to trickle off to me because we had all these very, in-depth conversations on the digital nomad and what type of business you do?

And I got a kind of a sampling, if you will, of all the different types of styles of business that people have. And I was very excited about that. And fast forward, post-pandemic, right? Or almost post-pandemic, as I should say, where I now have a business that I've kind of got into full-time blogging. I have a blog that is fully immersed and the location-independent lifestyle what type of businesses you can run online and what type of destinations are a good fit for somebody looking for a digital nomad lifestyle. As a result, I had an influx of people who were curious, how do I do what I do?

How do I also live from a remote location and earn my money in my home currency? So now I coach my clients using my digital nomad coaching program to help them, mostly aspiring entrepreneurs who are struggling with their 9 to 5 jobs to help them create an exit strategy that involves starting a remote digital business that is custom-tailored to their strengths so that they can work from anywhere and earn a sustainable income So that is kind of the long-winded version of my journey.

08:07 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I appreciate you, you know, sharing, you know, your journey and how you got to do all the awesome work. And I think so many times people don't realize that something is possible until they see somebody who's actually doing it. So that's what I love that you've been able to do it, but even more, so that you've created the coaching program, the blog, all the content to help people kind of realize that there are opportunities that sometimes we're not even aware of.

08:27 – Ron Tuch

Right. Yeah. I mean, I wasn't aware of it myself. I was looking for direction and I'm so glad that the information, although it wasn't as much as it is now, that it was out there. And so I kind of just want to pass that buck along to other people who may be struggling in their job just feel uneasy or are not in the right place. And I want to help them make that transition.

08:49 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I appreciate you for doing that so much. And so I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself or your business or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

09:01 – Ron Tuch

So for me, I think that a lot of people in business, kind of the chicken or the egg thing, they're like, Oh, you know, I haven't made it, I'm struggling. But for me, in order to make it, you do need to struggle. And I just, I've gone through a lot of struggle, mostly in my life for the very thing that led me up to entering the military service, to hitting the stepping stones along the way to get to where I am now. And I believe that the resilience that somebody has makes them who they are. But for me personally, aside from that, I think that you know, it's kind of like Tony Robbins says, if you're not growing, you're dying. But if you just stop learning, you're going to really become stagnant and potentially even forget where you were when you started that process in the first place.

09:57 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

10:10 – Ron Tuch

Okay, so this is a big thing for me because one of the main things I teach in my coaching program is productivity. And the number, there's 2, you know, I guess, common issues that people have when they're trying to make the transition to become a CEO or a, you know, an entrepreneur. And 1 is time management. And the other 1 is financial preparedness. Now they're kind of 1 in the same but 1 hack for me is as a solopreneur the most difficult struggle that I've had personally and that a lot of my clients have is that if you are not, you cannot do everything yourself. If you're trying to do everything yourself, it's just not possible. I mean, as a CEO, you have to put on many different hats.

You have to be a marketer. You have to be a customer service manager, right? You have to be an accountant, you have to be your own therapist sometimes. So there's a lot of things that you need to do. And I think either using freelancing or other people's efforts or using some kind of technology or software tools or more than likely a combination of the 2, you need to alleviate that time and that pressure from yourself so that you can kind of just glide into your goals and it'll be more simple. It might not be easy, but it'll definitely be more simple because you're not putting so much pressure on yourself. So that's a very important lesson that I've learned.

11:42 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And so what about now for what I call a CEO nugget? So that could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

11:54 – Ron Tuch:

I would say that my big nugget again is, maybe It's the resilience piece, but you need to focus on 1 thing. There's so much distraction and negativity out there in the world that as soon as you walk out the door, you're distracted and you're getting hit from marketing and all this different stuff And in order to combat that, you need to be extremely clear, 100% clear on what your path is, you need to have that cut out for yourself. And you need to focus on one thing and just keep your mindset sharp. Now, if

12:33 – 13:04
Ron Tuch: you can do that, right? If I had this advice to my younger self, to be honest, I would be in a different position, but like they say, hindsight is always 20-20. So that would be my big nugget because really it's so easy to get distracted by all these different opportunities. But what you have to realize is by saying yes to 1 opportunity, you may be saying no to a future opportunity that might be more important to you and it might be more aligned with your goals.

13:05 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's absolutely huge. And definitely a lot of us are probably shaking our heads about shiny object syndrome and how something sounds like it's the best thing. And I think if we go back to the hack and where we were talking about the resources, understanding that we have limited resources, we have limited energy we can spend on certain projects. So you have to be very, very focused on that mission, that goal that you have, and how those things align with it and filter that out to make sure you're making the right yes decisions instead of the kind of decisions that sometimes can lead us into the trap we don't wanna be in.

13:37 – Ron Tuch

Right, yeah.

13:38 – Gresham Harkless
Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping that different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Ron, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:50 – Ron Tuch

Well, CEO means to me, having complete control and freedom over your life. It allows flexibility, but you're also, you're giving back in a way. You might be giving back economically. You may be giving back in terms of jobs. You may be giving back in terms of jobs, you may be giving back in what you like to call your zone of genius, where you know you're offering a service or a product or a good or whatever or a good or whatever it is that you do, it's unique, it's different, and people want to hear from you, they want to buy from you, and I think that that's really what it means to be a CEO, is to take control of your life and cut a clear path and find your direction. You might get off the path, but as long as you end up at the same destination, then that's what it means to be a CEO for me. It really, sounds clear today, but it's really just fulfilling your dreams.

14:50 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely appreciate that definition and kind of understanding how mission-driven it is, especially too, because as you said, throughout the journey, sometimes we get off paths, sometimes our path might even change, but understanding that we're still aligned, you know, with that mission is absolutely huge. And even as you said, and as you help out so many digital nomads or people that are even interested in it.

And understanding how we get back in so many different ways to kind of see the value and see the expertise or the experience that we have and how we can give out to so many people is absolutely huge. So truly appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time even more Ron. What I want to do is just pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

15:34 – Ron Tuch

Absolutely. Yeah, no, I just wanna say thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to come on the show and share with you and the CEO, the IMCEO audience. I appreciate that. And if you want to reach out to me, you can find me on my blog at www.redpillrebellion.com or you can also find me over at Instagram which is at red underscore pill underscore Ron And thanks for having me.

16:05 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely appreciate you for contributing so much to our sites and of course, you know, taking time out today, we will have the links and information that shown us as well too so that everybody can click through and follow you and engage, but thank you. Appreciate you my friend and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

16:18 -Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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