Paper Routes to Payroll Empire: Rob Basso’s Wild Ride Through Business | Financial & Tax Series

Intro  

Welcome to another edition of inspired stories where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes, how they’ve overcome adversity, and explore current challenges they’re facing.

Anthony Codispoti
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codaspote and today’s guest is Rob Basso. Rob has spent 27 years buying, selling, and investing in businesses. He was the founder of Long Island Advantage Payroll, which at the time was the largest independently owned payroll tax filing and HR service firm in New

He sold this business in 2018 to a publicly traded company. Then he built another company called Associated HCM that focused on human resources, payroll, time and labor management and insurance services and exited this business to a different publicly traded company in 2021. He founded an insurance company called Integrated Coverage Group that he ran for 10 years. So Rob understands how hard it is to build something from

He now travels the country as a keynote speaker, a coach, and a consultant where he speaks the truth to entrepreneurs about how to get profit now and exit big with his strategy. His website is robbasso .com. That’s R -O -B -B -A -S -S -O .com. Now, before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom

One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cashflow by implementing one of our proprietary programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefitsagency .com. back to our, excuse me, back to our guest today, Rob Basso. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Rob Basso (09:59.08)
Thanks, Anthony. And you know, I heard that introduction and I’m like, I’m wondering if my mother wrote it because whenever I hear it, it’s still like, did I really do all that? I don’t feel like I’m that old to have actually have done that stuff. So thank you for putting it together concisely. And it still surprises me to hear it every morning when I wake

Anthony Codispoti (10:16.946)
Yeah, and I’m excited to get into more details about some of these things that you’ve done. So today, Rob, you’re really focusing on consulting, coaching, keynote speaking business. But as we heard in the intro, you’ve accumulated a number of impressive work experiences along the way. Maybe we can start at the beginning and just kind of give people some highlights so that people listening understand

Everything we’re going to hear from this point forward is coming from a person that’s speaking from a place of real experience.

Rob Basso (10:49.172)
Well, I mean, you know, the logical place to start is probably when I was really young and I had my first real kind of work gig making jewelry in a strange person’s basement when I was like 12 years old. Now you’re gonna think that’s weird and creepy because it kind of is, but the fact of the matter was I was working and I was responsible for myself.

and rarely did the checks bounce, but once in a while they did when they tried to pay me. But then I had one of the traditional jobs that people back in the day had, I was a paper boy and I did the morning paper. I did the Philadelphia Inquirer outside of Philadelphia. And I can literally still remember those cold mornings all bundled up while my friends were still asleep. And I was delivering newspapers on the doorstep. Now,

You know, they seem like really simple things, but those things are the genesis of who you will eventually become. And I didn’t know anything about business. I was a history major when I was in college. I was going to be a social studies teacher. I was going to have the patches on my arm. I was going to show up with the chalk on my hand and, you know, fill the young minds of America with the history of our country. And that didn’t work out. So I went into business. That’s the short story.

of how I got where I was going.

Anthony Codispoti (12:13.372)
I love that because I think that paper route and the jewelry work that you were doing at such a young age shows that there was probably something hardwired into you. You came out of the womb just kind of ready and raring to go. Obviously, as you went along, you picked up lot of skills and learned a lot of lessons. But yeah, I feel like you have something you want to say to

Rob Basso (12:40.092)
No, I was gonna, you know, it was also out of necessity. know, my parents were divorced when I was very young and if I wanted something, I had to get it. That, you know, we were not poor, but we certainly didn’t have an abundance of anything. So if I wanted a new bike or I wanted something special.

It just wasn’t there for me. And I don’t want to, there’s no sob story here. That’s not what it was, but I knew at a young age that if I wanted things or to go to a concert with my friends, I had to do it myself. So it literally wasn’t an option to get something from somebody else. And that’s where I learned my significant independence. And to this day, I look back at

And I don’t think I was happy about it at the time at all, but nor, mean, who is really happy about that hard work while you’re in the middle of it? It’s only in that perspective where you look back and you go, well, that’s why I’m like this now, or that’s why my parents taught me this or that. I’m hoping to do the same for my kids who are 21 and 23 right

Anthony Codispoti (13:44.684)
It was gonna be, it’s a great lead into my next question, because I’m curious, as somebody who’s been very successful in business, like you said, when you were growing up, you weren’t poor, but you didn’t have excess, right? If you wanted something as a kid, you were gonna have to earn the money to go and get it yourself. Now, you’ve moved on, you’ve been very successful in your life, your kids probably grew up in a bit of a different home, a different environment than you did. How have

been able to translate some of those lessons of grit and hard work and determination that wouldn’t have been just naturally baked into their life experience.

Rob Basso (14:21.652)
It’s interesting. I think about this a lot and I did not know you were gonna ask this question, but I’m glad that you did. I struggle with it greatly to tell you the truth. My wife and I do because I mean, I’ve been self -employed since I was 22 years old. And you know, they’ve seen me since the day they were born, hustle and work hard, but always have time for family when I needed to.

you would make this assumption that they would collect something by osmosis. And I would say that only worked some of the time. They grew up very differently, like you said, where I probably spoiled them. I probably gave more of the things that I wanted as a kid. And probably by the time they were 10 or 12 years old, my wife and I started having serious discussions like, we keep doing this in a significant fashion, and this is not going to help them when they get older.

So we made a conscious decision to talk about money, to talk about success, to talk about what it took to go on this vacation or do that. And some families, it’s taboo to talk about money. It’s taboo to talk about work. It’s taboo, how much money did you make? It was a topic of conversation all the time in their tween years, all the way up until now as young adults. And I have to tell you, they both turned out pretty darn good. My son,

is probably a little underemployed and struggling a little bit, good. And I tell them that, and I’m not willing to really reach out there and be like, well, you need a nicer apartment? Here, here’s an apartment. Not a chance, not in this house, never gonna happen. And it was my choice. And I’ve got other very successful friends who do it the other way, buy the multi -million dollar place for the 20 year old kid right out of college. Okay, I’m not.

you know, that’s their life and there’s nothing wrong with that if that’s what you choose. For me and my kids, it was about earning your own way. The simple fact is we’ve had conversations about our estate planning and you know, what that’s gonna look like when we’re no longer here. And I wanna build.

Rob Basso (16:30.334)
good usable functional kids in society that are gonna really shepherd the next generation and be part of the good things in America, not part of the old school money situation. And where has that gotten us in this country, regardless of the political aisle that you’re part of. But to this day, even sitting here thinking about it, Anthony, I struggle. I wanna do more, but I know it’s not in their best interest.

Anthony Codispoti (16:55.814)
It is hard, Rob. You know, I’ve got two boys, ages eight and 10. This is something we think about in our house a lot too, because man, we hate to see them struggle, right? We hate to see them go through a pain and, you know, and deal with hard things. But then, you know, I look back on my life and some of the greatest lessons came through those painful, stressful, strained periods of time. And it builds character. That’s where I think growth happens at

Rob Basso (17:20.776)
Yes.

It

Anthony Codispoti (17:25.4)
uncomfortable edges of life. And so it’s a hard balancing act as a parent because when there’s like when your son’s struggling now, he’s underemployed, you know, maybe he’s not living in the nicest place. Like there’s a part of you that wants to help him. There’s a part of you that wants to see him be better and more comfortable and happier. And there’s a part of you that knows, man, my path was struggle and it’s helped to put me in a much better place long term. So short term pain, long term gain,

Rob Basso (17:52.852)
And additionally, they’re not us. They’re not even little mini versions of us. They really are their own people. And they might have some of our traits, but to really do them service, you’ve gotta let them be their own people. So maybe he won’t be an entrepreneur. He wants to be in business and he’s doing well at it. My daughter thought she wanted to be a business student and is just finishing up her career and she’s picked a different path. That’s fine. My wife was a teacher for 30 years.

You know, if that’s what they wanna go into, that’s great. I’m here to shepherd their dreams and hopes. I’m not here to do it for. There’s a difference.

Anthony Codispoti (18:29.135)
I like that. But let’s talk about the things that you have done. And so the first company that we mentioned that you sold, the Long Island Advantage payroll, how did you come to start that? How was it you got yourself into that space at

Rob Basso (18:45.832)
Well, I was working in a deli in an office building when I graduated college, looking for a job. And I decided to wrap my resume in the sandwiches for all the business people coming into the office. I see you smiling because it gets funnier. I could literally picture them pushing the mustard aside and I would look out over the counter and people’s heads would be up like, what is this?

But I got five job interviews. I got four job offers in the marketing department working for various firms. I took a job working in healthcare and I was back in the deli while they were waiting for the position to be available a couple of weeks, no problem. Still making the lady sandwiches that gave me the job.

And she came down one day and she says, Rob, I have some bad news. And I had the apron on with mustard on the apron. And she goes, we can’t hire you. We’re the few young people. I’m sorry. And I had said no to the others. So I was back in the deli. But I didn’t lose my cool with that woman. I didn’t get upset or mad. said, I understand. I’m disappointed. If something opens up, please let me know. Couple more weeks go by. She goes, you know, my husband runs a payroll service company.

He’d like to interview you. I’m like, I don’t even know what that is. Didn’t have any idea what that was. I’ve been paid cash or barely a check. Definitely no payroll company. I’m like, okay. And that’s how I got at my start. The gentleman hired me and I was their top salesperson out of their 22 offices my first year.

and underpaid, underappreciated, very underappreciated. And everybody listening, that’s a big important part about the beginning of your career. While you have to work hard, you should be someplace that you’re appreciated. So I left without a job. And the rest of the story, you know, could take us another few minutes about how I ended up starting my own thing. you know, realistically, that gave me my impetus to be out on my own because I was treated poorly and underpaid.

Anthony Codispoti (20:46.788)
I want to hear how you went from zero to top salesman in the first year in a place that’s got 22 locations.

Rob Basso (20:54.79)
Well, you know, and I think about this and I talk a lot about it and the crazy part is it’s not a singular answer, it’s not even multiple things. I didn’t know any better. So I just listened.

I did what I was told. I didn’t pretend that I knew how to do something. You know what, Rob? You need to stop at a hundred and you need to knock on 150 doors this week. Okay. I assumed everybody else was doing that because my boss told me you need to knock on 150 doors. Meanwhile, everybody was lazy and not actually doing that. They were knocking on 10 doors and going to lunch and taking extended this or that. I ripped through the volume of work.

Nowadays you might say, there’s faster, better ways to do that. But I will still disagree to that to this day. I did my 10 ,000 hours. I did my reps. I knew how to stand in front of somebody who did not want to talk to me to get them to talk to me. So that’s where I learned all my basic business communication skills, cold calling, knocking on people’s doors. And for whatever reason, whatever I had to say resonated with them and they bought from

They bought from a complete stranger that would walk into their office, not know them from a hole in the wall. And within a few minutes, set a second meeting maybe with the boss and I’d close them right on the spot with the contracts on the table. My first year, I think I closed 130 businesses, which was a lot. I mean, I had to go on thousands and thousands of cold calls and telemarketing calls. I would come home.

and hand write hundreds of letters, hundreds of, and you’ve hear this from some of the big tech success stories that are out in the marketplace now and they’re humble beginnings, they hand wrote letters. I didn’t know that that was not a thing that people did. I’m like, I’m gonna write them a note. I got such an overwhelming response from writing a personal note.

Rob Basso (22:50.78)
I think more and more when we get to the automated world, which we clearly are in now, and the advent of AI, there is still always a place for that human connection, for that one -on -one. And for me, it’s still gonna be a big part of business going forward alongside of the technology. And I just don’t want people to lose sight of that.

Anthony Codispoti (23:11.491)
This is really interesting. So do you think handwritten letters still work today?

Rob Basso (23:16.212)
100%. I know they do because I still do it. I don’t write hundreds of them, but when I’m impacted by somebody or something, however small, Anthony, you might get a letter by whatever the interaction I had with them.

You think about what it does to somebody mentally because nobody really does it or very few people do it. You had to take the time to open a piece of paper, whether it’s personalized letterhead or not. You had to take your pen out. You had to think about what you were gonna say. Even if it’s generically sometimes the same or you had to think of an interaction, you put an extra few minutes into your day. You wrote it, you folded it up, you put it in an envelope, you had to stamp it, you had to put it in a mailbox. That’s a lot of effort just to say, thank you.

or hello, but you could have sent a text and said, hey man, thanks for the podcast. Appreciate it, nice meeting you. And okay, that works. And that’s what’s expected, but it doesn’t really create a relationship with somebody. So a hundred percent it works today. And I get thank yous for my thank you notes, which is crazy, which doesn’t make any sense to me, but that’s what happens. So

Anthony Codispoti (24:21.568)
Yeah. Okay. So how long were you at this payroll company where you were underappreciated before you left? Okay. So just over a year and then you leave, you don’t have anything else lined up and somewhere between there, like what was the gap between there and starting your own payroll company?

Rob Basso (24:26.676)
about 14 months.

Rob Basso (24:39.634)
Less than six months. you know, when I quit the job, I called my father who was a nuclear engineer by trade, you know, very regimented. You know, he’s had a

Jobs his entire career, know, just go to work, do your thing. You know, he’s been very successful at it, but he had a very different mindset. He’s like, are you out of your mind? You quit your job? how, don’t worry, I did well. I got enough money for a year. And he’s like, really? And then I told him how much I made my first year. He almost fell off his chair. Like literally, he’s like, well, I didn’t even know what to say. He’s like, okay. But while I was contemplating what I wanted to do next,

I started looking in the industry and I found this company called Advantage Payroll Services. And I called them up out of the blue and I asked to speak to the president. And they’re like, no, we’re not gonna put you on the phone with this guy. But I was persistent. The guy finally got on the phone with me and then dumbed me down to somebody else. And that’s somebody else who was a guy named David McAllister, who’s still my friend today. He’s probably about 15 years older than me. And he took a shot into me and said, you know what, this kid’s got something. I

you know, let’s figure out what to do with him. You know what, Rob, we want you to open our Long Island office. I was 22 and a half at the time. And I’m like, you want me to open your office? I said, no, I don’t really want to open your office. I want to own this office. And you can imagine his reaction, kind of laughing, like, yeah, no, no, we’re going to give you a job. And I’m like, I don’t want a job. I want to own this office. So he and I devised a plan to present to the president.

to say, if I did certain things, they would let me buy that location back from them. It took a while, but because of David’s advocacy and my thorn in the side personality, the guy did it. The guy said, okay, fine. What’s the worst case scenario? The kid will sell some deals and we have a presence in New York and then he’ll take the job, right? So there was not a huge amount of downside when you really thought about it. Well, I crushed it. I killed the numbers

Rob Basso (26:47.314)
He didn’t have a choice. I remember the look on his face because I went physically to see him. And the look at his face was like almost pure astonishment. It’s almost a little annoyance that he had to do the deal. But I did it. And I independently owned that office of the Bigger Network for many years. And we were the largest out of the entire Advantage organization and the largest in New York state. So the only ones we really competed with were our public competitors.

I still look back at like, excuse my language, but the balls that it took and the gumption that it took, I don’t know that I would do that now. I don’t know that I would do that now. I just didn’t know any better. And I just said, this is what I want to do. And I’m going to assert my way in a positive reflective manner until it becomes a reality. And that’s how I got started in the industry.

Anthony Codispoti (27:40.416)
And so then what was behind the decision to exit in 2018?

Rob Basso (27:44.988)
a lot of years of planning. you know, I knew from the day I started that business, I don’t know if it was intuitively or, you know, through conversations with others, you know, I can’t really put my finger on it, but I know it was the thought, well, am I going to do this forever? What’s after this? Or how am I going to get the most out of this? You know, I had seen or heard of people buying and selling businesses. So from day one, I thought about the company that I would want to build and eventually sell.

And as the years clicked on, you realize all of those little things matter, the soft things, the way you choose to manage, how long you keep your employees, how clean you keep your books. So when you go to sell, you’ve got this beautiful roadmap. You just hand to somebody and they look at it and go, wow, you’ve got this beautiful accounting.

You had somebody here for 20 years, half your staff has been here for 20 years, that doesn’t happen anymore. Well, you must be a decent human being and you must do something right by these people. So I was at a young age, I realized what was important when I was ready to exit. The final decision really came down to it was time. And you know, I wanted to…

try something different and slow down a little bit and really monetize the last 20 something years of my life. The multiples were good at the time. I knew roughly what they were paying and these public companies were loaded with cash at the time. The company that bought me was sitting on 600 million in cash and not to digress, but they need to do something with that money.

They need to, for the shareholders will demand that they use it, invest and grow. And they were willing to pay significant multiples to get significant books of business. And the bigger you were in my industry, it’s not always the case, usually it is, the bigger you are, the better, bigger multiple you command. And I commanded a significant multiple and it was enough to never have to work again, ever. And at 48 years old, to never have to work again,

Rob Basso (29:51.58)
and do everything with the rest of my life on my terms was a pretty cool prospect. So that’s why I decided to exit. And then the quick two year stint growing the other business was because I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I could do it really fast and make another quick hit. And that’s exactly what I did.

Anthony Codispoti (30:10.653)
And so the new company that you started focused on some of the same services is what you just exited. Was there not a non -compete

Rob Basso (30:17.053)
It did. Yeah, you’re sharp, Anthony. I negotiated no non -compete and my friends are like, nobody does that. And I don’t think I was a genius and I don’t think anything special. I think that public company realized that I’m just fodder. I’m a future acquisition. As long as I couldn’t take the clients that I sold, if I was out there in the marketplace building something, they’re just gonna buy it. Well, they didn’t get that bid. They didn’t win the business. There was somebody that outbid them.

So somebody else ended up buying it. But you gotta remember, even when I said we were a big business for New York State and ours, compared to these, the company that bought me is a company called Paychex Corporation, $3 billion company. No, even if I was a hundred million, I’m this big compared to them. So I couldn’t really damage their business. I could only help their future growth. So I don’t think it was so much about my Wiley negotiations. I think it was more about

them not wanting to argue about it and realizing that they had an opportunity in the future. yeah, in a few years, we built a nice formidable group because I knew how to sell, I knew how to build sales engine and I had the right people in place, the key people that stayed and got the right people in the positions and very quickly. The reason that I sold so quickly was,

When I decided to exit the first one, I knew it had to be quick because I did not want to spend the next 10 years in the industry and not because it wasn’t good to me, but because as an entrepreneur that’s owned and invested in many businesses along the way throughout that part of my career, I really believe that for me to try something different, I needed to leave some stuff behind. And that’s what I chose to do.

Anthony Codispoti (32:00.84)
What are some of the other businesses that you were involved with along the

Rob Basso (32:05.62)
I was a founder in a bank. Myself and 60 other people raised about $50 million and we created a bank called Empire National Bank and we had a handful of branches. And I got to see how the banking system really works from De Novo’s setup.

dealing with the Office of Currency and Control. While I did not hold a position at that bank, I was very involved in understanding what happened. And I met a lot of tremendously talented, smart people while doing that and continuing to get an education on how business works in this country and worldwide. That bank eventually sold to a large New York -based bank.

and it did okay. It didn’t do as we expected, but everybody made money. It just should have been more. Unfortunately, when it sold, it was just not a great time period for banks. But 10 years after the start, the investors were demanding their blood, their currency back. So the board got pressured to sell and it’s fine. So that was one of them. The insurance agency you alluded to at the top, I had a partner.

He did the day to day and because I owned a human resources and payroll company I was talking to the same decision makers and I sent all the business over to him to handle I was fully licensed to sell life and health insurance, which I still carry today Don’t particularly use it, but I have it I’ve invested in tech companies. I recently invested in a retail business called Kindred the founders of Lane Bryant

the inclusive size giant that’s been around for a hundred years, the great -grandson started a new line and I invested in that and brought some of my friends and family along. So it’s been very diverse and very satisfying, Anthony.

Anthony Codispoti (33:59.579)
That’s amazing, Rob. Such a fantastic collection of different business stories. Now, everything we’ve heard up until this point has been about success, about momentum, about positive outcomes. But as business owners, you and I have both been through some really tough things, know, really challenging experiences, maybe some businesses that didn’t work out or maybe along the way, businesses that were eventually very successful that

hanging on by a thread. And these are the stories that people don’t really get to hear as often. So I’m curious to hear about, whether it’s professionally or personally, some challenges that you went through and lessons that you learned coming through the other side

Rob Basso (34:45.778)
there’s one that I can think of that I don’t really talk about that much, but it came through my mind a couple of weeks back because I just recently moved homes. I moved from the New York area down to South Florida permanently and I was going through some old stuff. So it was a company called CoCentral and I started this in the middle of running Advantage Payroll Services. And part of the reason I started this type of company, and I’ll tell you what it is in a second, is because the payroll company,

was really like the hub of a lot of transactions that took place with your employees and other vendors. Nothing happens without paying your people. So what we did was very interconnected to the individuals in the organization and the decision maker that made the decision to buy our services also made the decision to buy lots of other services.

I coupled myself with seven or eight different businesses like the equipment leasing company, cleaning services, and I created this little network, what I would call the spokes in the hub, that I owned all the little pieces or made deals. And I went out and marketed this as co -central, what your business needs was the tagline.

I had a launch party, I made up all kinds of paraphernalia. It was at a airfield and we made little airplanes and we threw them at the launch party, it? A little literal. And I had hundreds of my colleagues show up and it failed absolutely miserably, very publicly. It just didn’t work. And I think it was a good idea. Did I do it poorly? Did I, you know, just make a big splash without enough back, without enough

Was the market not ready for a one place to buy everything? Sounds familiar, right? Now you go to Amazon or other places and they aggregate everything. But this was probably 16 years ago. So it wasn’t a ubiquitous thing. I keep telling myself I was a little early, but the truth is it just failed. It failed in its execution and it stung. It stung because it still came up years later. Whatever happened to that company, Rob? And I’m like, well, you know, it just didn’t work out.

Rob Basso (36:56.648)
and I spent a bunch of money, which I never got back. But what I did learn from that, Anthony, was you can have a great idea and you can even execute it well. But if the market isn’t ready for your idea or they don’t get it in the way that you get it, you could have the smartest idea in the world and even get a few people to believe in it. And sometimes things just don’t work with ever what your best intentions are.

And that’s only one of the many stories. And what’s only been in the last six or seven years, have I really talked about my public failures because general building my career, I wasn’t waving the flag. My shit is crashing and burning. anybody you’ve had on this show that’s run any number of businesses has crashed and burned in many things. Most people are afraid to talk about it. And I was when I was younger, but not anymore.

Anthony Codispoti (37:45.283)
And I appreciate you opening up about that. I’m curious, you know, as you were coming through that, and it was still very raw and fresh. What did you do to sort of, you know, lick your wounds and pick yourself up and move on? Because I mean, you’d had a track record at that point, right? And

Rob Basso (38:02.502)
A singular track record. Remember that though. Really a singular track. I had one business and maybe invested in a few, but yeah, I’m sorry.

Anthony Codispoti (38:09.435)
And you hit on the point that I was gonna make is even with that track record and a very good success story, you still questioned yourself. And you’re like, man, did I get lucky? Can I do this again? Do I really have what it takes? There’s just a lot of imposter syndrome that kicks in after something like that happens.

Rob Basso (38:21.525)
god,

Rob Basso (38:27.112)
Bye.

Rob Basso (38:31.474)
I had all those feelings and what I did was I re -concentrated on my core business and I said, okay, was this just a distraction? Was it because I wasn’t putting the right effort into it? And the year following that failure, we had our best growth year at my core company.

So I put my energies and efforts back into the sure thing at that time. And others might say, well, you just didn’t like the failure and you went back to the well. You know what? Yeah, I did. And I’m okay with that. The well was deep and it kept getting deeper. And I was fine with that at the time. So that was my way to cope with it was to dive back into something that I knew really well to lick those proverbial wounds to build my self -confidence back up again.

You know, even the failures after that, or the investments that didn’t work out. I mean, I gave back in the day, was like 50 grand or a hundred grand. I forget what it was exactly. You know, I know it was $50 ,000 to some guy and it turns out I didn’t do a background check and he was a criminal. He was stealing money from everybody. I had to go to the bank multiple times and keep presenting the check to see if he had money in the account to pay me back. And eventually.

I told them that I was gonna go to Newsday, the local New York newspaper and come to think of it, I probably could have got myself killed. I probably shouldn’t have done that. whatever I said to him, I went, I cashed my check and then he got arrested like six weeks later. I’m still waiting 15 years for someone to call me back and say, hey, you got your money back. Where’s the rest of our money? People were, listen, at the end of the day, when you think you can do no wrong, when you think, you know,

that you’re better than somebody else or that your one success is gonna be indicative of all your future, you are sorely mistaken. And this is a big world we live in. And I stopped playing the, can do better than this person or I can do better than that, or you can’t. And even someone like Bezos or somebody else, there’ll be someone to supplant him at some point.

Rob Basso (40:38.834)
And you know what my wish would be? My wish would be that folks like me and you were, and not because of my ego, believe me, I got a healthy enough ego, but the world looks at Abesos and nothing, take nothing away from him. What an amazing story. But like, that’s what they aspire to. Really? You really think that’s realistic to aspire to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars and that keeps you going on a daily basis? I’d rather be inspired by being Anthony.

You know, mean to me, because that’s at least somewhat realistic, you know, to be in this small business world and still live a life that people would only dream of. But that’s generally not what happens. They focus on these eight or 10 wicked success stories and they are awesome to follow. But that is such 0 .00001 round, whatever the percentage is of actual successful people in this country.

That’s kind of my hope and dream is that people look at guys like you and me more towards, you know, this is what I should be striving for because not because you shouldn’t reach for the stars, but because it’s more realistic in today’s world. And you might not feel the same way or not. What do you think, Anthony?

Anthony Codispoti (41:54.102)
I feel exactly the same way. Yeah. And as you were talking about that, it made me think of a parallel for a lot of young women, they have body image issues because they see these airbrushed models on the covers of magazines and on TikTok and Instagram, Facebook. And it sets an unrealistic expectation for what they want to try to attain. so, yeah, for guys like us or maybe people aspiring

to be us or further along. It’s a similar kind of a thing. You’re setting yourself up for failure because it’s an unrealistic expectation that you’re, an unrealistic yardstick that you’re holding yourself to.

Rob Basso (42:40.146)
Well, that’s why the book that I wrote a handful of years back, which was published by John Wiley and Sons is called The Everyday Entrepreneur. And the reason I called it that was for the exact conversation we’re communicating now. Yeah, I’m an everyday, regular person that just worked their ass off. And maybe there is a little luck involved. Maybe there’s all kinds of confluences which make somebody successful.

And the one thing is for certain, you don’t do it alone. I’ve heard speakers, you know, talk and they’re like, well, I did this and I did that. It drives me absolutely bad. I don’t know. You look like you’re in a pretty decent size office. You didn’t get sitting in your office without the help of all the people that are sitting on outside. And you just didn’t. And I know you know that, Anthony, but a lot of people don’t. They just they take it to heart. This is my company and I did this. Yes, you had the idea. You had the impetus. You got it started.

Yvette Hector who helped me run my company was my first employee. She was the senior vice president at that company that I first worked at. I convinced her to leave and come with me when I was 22 years old. She had to be out of her mind, but she spent her whole career with me. you know, so that to me, you know, that’s what that when people start really hearing those stories, they’re like, maybe I can do this rather

you know, the Instagram bullshit that you see. I mean, and then I’m on Instagram and so are you, Anthony, but you know, it’s a tool. It’s not what people’s lives are really like on a daily basis. At least my estimation, they’re not. I know the stuff that I post is real, but it’s not every day. I’m not flying in a plane every day or out on a yacht every day. You know, then it’s part of my life, but it’s not even the most important part.

know, in today’s world that we live in, you do need to grab people’s attention and you do need to use the tools and techniques that work. And I won’t forget that.

Rob Basso (44:36.628)
But what I want people when they come to my social media is to enjoy the content and really pay attention to the content. I don’t care if I have 10 ,000, 20 ,000, 100 ,000, a million followers. I don’t care. I’ll tell you why. Cause I don’t need that in my life. What I care about are the few that are listening and paying attention. There’s a value added. And when they think about me nicely and they recommend me to a friend and I get a new client, what’s better than that? I don’t need to impact.

all of America, need to impact this teeny little bit that thinks about me on a consistent.

Anthony Codispoti (45:06.259)
It’s a much more realistic expectation for yourself. Yeah. And so let’s talk about kind of where you are today through your current business venture. Because there’s a lot of people out there who present themselves as coaches and consultants. Though I like the term that you use, a coach -sultan. And I think a big part, Rob, of what makes you special is that you have such a strong and buried track record. Explain to me why you find that so

important and how you’re able to leverage those past successes and struggles to provide a more effective message to your clients.

Rob Basso (45:45.938)
Well, I can tell you what my clients say. And the way I go about approaching an engagement is clearly I let them ask a lot of questions, but the stories I tell are about me running businesses and the difficulties they had and some of the stories we’re talking about here. And when they start hearing the stories, they’re like, this is what happens to me every day. And the separator,

between myself and someone who might have gone and taken some courses and be certified to do something, but didn’t actually ever do it. In this particular case, is nearly in my mind, nearly impossible to do as well as someone who’s actually been there, done that. Because there’s all the soft skills and the soft learning and…

the finesse that it takes to get to move somebody from point A to point B. And unless you’re actually, you know, skilled at that and failed many, many, many times over many years to get to that spot where you can say you’re an expert at something, having somebody who doesn’t have those skills is just not as valuable. And this is what my clients tell me. Every single client that I’ve gotten on the specifically the coaching side tells me the main reason they’ve hired me

is because what they found on the internet about my background. And they said, they said no to others that were, I coach this person, I coach that person, I did this and I went to school and here’s my certificate. That’s all great. And I’m not saying they’re even a bad coach necessarily. They just can’t possibly have the types of experiences that professionals like myself and you have had running the day -to -day business. So to me, that’s the separator.

And I think the art of communicating and listening and getting your point across succinctly has gone by the wayside. And I think when you’re communicating with a prospect or a client or your friends or your family or whoever, know, telling your story or whatever it is, getting someone to understand what you’re doing and how you’re doing it quickly and succinctly is the key to any long -term relationship success.

Rob Basso (47:59.62)
And sometimes I do it really well and sometimes I suck at it. know, I mean, sometimes you’re not on every day and you flub and you bomb the conversation. You’re like, what was I saying? I remember the first time I was on live television. I was on Fox Business News. It doesn’t forget the political affiliation. I’ve been on CNBC too, but I happened to be on Fox Business News. And I forgot Obama’s name.

I’m like, the president and I’m looking and Neil Cavuto goes, Obama? And I’m like, yes, President Obama. And then I just went, I’m like, they are never gonna let me back on. They are never gonna let me back on. And I spent six years on that particular network as a guest three days a week. even when you think you’re bombing, sometimes we’re our own worst critics, Anthony.

I’ve gotten a little softer on myself. I still demand a lot, but I’m not as critical as I used to be. And I think that’s another challenge, you know, with human beings where we really can be to the point where we’re so hard on ourselves that it cripples us.

And that’s an ongoing thing that I work on on a daily basis that I try to say, okay, Rob, you did the best you could, know, tomorrow you’ll do better. And if you don’t, well, you know, maybe this is something you’re just never gonna be amazing at. And sometimes it’s okay. Sometimes it’s okay. You can’t be great at everything, Anthony. And I’m definitely not.

Anthony Codispoti (49:25.799)
And so it’s just that regular sort of reaffirmation that, I tried my best and just, it wasn’t like a magic switch that sort of allowed you to be softer on yourself. It’s just this repetition

Rob Basso (49:38.548)
You know what’s really humbled me? I’m learning how to fly airplanes right now. And I tried this 30 years, 30 years ago? 25 years ago. But I had kids and literally it was like six weeks of lessons. I couldn’t finish, I was too busy. So I said, you know what? I got time on my hands. And so I’ve been learning to fly in these little planes called Cirrus. It’s a Cirrus SR20.

The beginning of the training, could take off the plane. I could land the plane. I’m like, this is easy. No, it’s not easy. It’s not easy at all. There’s nothing easy about it. And I am struggling at the tail end here where all the cumulative knowledge you have gets compressed like this. And you have to take this final test with the FAA examiner and you have to do every single skill perfectly.

basically with zero mistakes in an order that they set. It can be in a particular order, it can be out, they can tell, and they can ask you any question about aviation that they want. Two hour oral exam minimum, and then two hours of flying. And I can’t get a couple teeny pieces spot on. And I, about two months ago, said to myself, I was really down and I was talking to my wife and she was like, Rob.

Why are you putting so much effort? You’re not learning to fly to become a commercial pilot. Isn’t this supposed to be fun? You don’t look like you’re having fun. And I’m like, you know what? She’s right. I’m so used to doing and achieving, I took the freaking fun out of it. So I had a…

Epiphany, my wife helped me make and I, you know, I started having fun and not only did my skills get better, I didn’t put that enormous pressure getting into an aircraft when you have pressure to do something perfectly. That’s not a good idea.

Rob Basso (51:28.456)
But it’s a metaphor for life too. You put that kind of pressure on yourself day in and day out and without a release, something is gonna pop and it won’t be good. Whether it’s a heart attack, whether it’s you yell at your spouse, whether it’s you’re a horrible boss and people quit, know, being gentle with yourself sometimes is appropriate.

Anthony Codispoti (51:50.26)
I like that message a lot. want to go back to, we kind of glossed over the media appearances. You’ve had a lot of them. You mentioned Fox Business News, MSNBC, probably many others. But Fox Business News in particular, they had you on as a regular guest three days a week. That’s amazing. What kinds of things did they have you on to discuss?

Rob Basso (52:13.502)
was on the air when Moammar Gaddafi got assassinated and you know, they’re like, Rob, what do think it’s gonna do with the oil prices in the world? Now, the reason I loved it so much, Anthony, is because realistically,

I’m not an expert in the oil industry, but I live in America. I know that there’s an oil producing nation. I’m like, well, I imagine that through the Strait of Hormuz and blah, blah, blah, there’s gonna be a constriction and shit just came out of my mouth and it sounded pretty good. And I think I was mostly right. it was so much fun because it was one of those times where you had no idea what was gonna happen. And you had to react with the calm and confidence that you had an answer.

and you had an answer because your general knowledge of the world and how things basically work. And I don’t have to tell you about television news. It’s news as entertainment and they try to put people on these stations which are smart, they try to, can speak well, look a certain way if you haven’t noticed. And for me, it was the best part of my career because I had hundreds of thousands of eyeballs on myself and my brand.

I tried very carefully not to be very political because I didn’t think that would help my brand, not because I’m not afraid to speak my mind, but I got stakeholders at my business. Like I talked about earlier, it’s not just about me, it’s about those people. And if it damaged my business, it damaged them. And I was not prepared to do that. So I was on probably for six or seven years straight and then they cycle through and they, you know, I wanted a job there and they didn’t hire me. And when they didn’t hire

I was gone. know, see you love

Anthony Codispoti (53:56.347)
And so how were they presenting you? This is Rob Basso.

Rob Basso (54:00.52)
Well, for a long time, I was on for a lot of the jobs reports and anything numbers related because I owned a payroll company. And if you don’t know your listeners, ADP, the biggest payroll processor in the world, comes out with ADP’s unemployment numbers, just like the government does. So you’ll hear on these talk shows, the ADP numbers are out and I would comment.

on the ADP numbers and talk about unemployment and talk about small business because I had thousands and thousands of small business clients. And when I originally pitched them, this is all true, we told them that I had literally been personally in and out of thousands of small businesses, which was true. So they’re like, okay, he’s got the small business perspective. He’s a business person himself. We need new people on the air. Let’s give them a

And then eventually just like any media cycle you run your course I wasn’t as valuable to them anymore and they needed a new face and then I was gone just like that Not back on for years. So that’s nope

Anthony Codispoti (55:01.742)
Have you been back on? No, okay. When it was gone, it was done.

Rob Basso (55:06.74)
And then the people move on, they got you on and they don’t care. And if you don’t remember that particular network had major problems with their CEO. I have a handwritten letter from Roger Ailes. Okay, all the Roger Ailes haters. I didn’t know what he was doing. I didn’t know what type of person he was. But you know, I have a handwritten note asking me to speak

a professional round table for 30 of his young professionals that worked at Fox. I was blown away that I got a chance to do this, yet they still didn’t hire me. Why? Because they could get me for free a few days a week. That’s what I think didn’t, partly didn’t happen. And at the end of the day, that experience and the major media stuff was great. I still get press coverage now, but the television stuff,

is much harder to get than it used to be. It was really about who you knew at the beginning and with some relationships shift is very difficult to just automatically pop us up as a regular guest anymore. They have different needs and wants today than they did a handful of years ago.

Anthony Codispoti (56:16.326)
Hmm. Shifting gears, Rob, curious to dive into the two halves of this question with you. think you would have a kind of a unique perspective, especially given your strong sales background. You know, as business leaders, as business owners, we’re always keeping an eye on the bottom line. Right. And there’s sort of two ways to giant buckets or giant levers ways that we can adjust that number. One is, you know, how do we boost sales? And the other is how do we decrease expenses? Let’s kind of talk about those maybe one at a time.

first on the sales side of things, what are some creative things that you’ve tried in your businesses and or coached some of your clients to try that you found have been successful?

Rob Basso (56:58.95)
Well, let me think about one from a current client situation. I have a client that runs a medical billing company and they wanted to have exponential growth over the next few years and they were struggling deciding where to put those resources.

So the first thing we did, we figured out was, you know, clearly who their audience was and who, where was their biggest centers of influence, where they were getting the referrals from and were there any that they were leaving on the table. And then we did some testing with different opportunities within that kind of vertical to see what they responded to the most. So we took three different options about the way we communicated a particular message and we selected one of the options because we got more of a reaction.

And we chose to do something that they didn’t do in the past, which was online advertising. And sometimes it gets a bad name and sometimes people say it’s throwing good money after bad because who knows what you’re actually gonna get from it. But when it’s done well with the right vendor in the right industry, it can be very successful. And they had the results that they wanted because they chose not to build out.

a sales team, did not want to invest in putting bodies on the street. They wanted to do it with as few bodies as possible. You might have, they might’ve spent almost as much money, but it was a management philosophy that that CEO chose. And because they didn’t want to have more individuals on payroll with benefits and all the other good stuff and just personalities. So he trimmed down his staff to be able to pay for some of this stuff. And the organizations subsequently grew more than it had grown before. But I think the overall answer to the question is,

It depends, it depends on your industry, it depends on what your absolute goals are and how you feel comfortable getting there.

Rob Basso (58:53.14)
for me, know, the PR, I’ve had a full -time publicist for 25 years. And even when I couldn’t afford it, I did. And the reason I did is for all the reasons we’ve been talking about, because people automatically assume that you’re connected with successful things, even if it’s stretched, especially at the beginning, the whole kind of fake it till you make it kind of situation. There’s some truth to that. But when it comes to growing, it’s pulling, like

said those right levers, spending the right amount of dollars in the right categories that make sense for your industry. To be quite frank, it’s not rocket science and most business owners after a fairly brief conversation about the options they may have in front of them do get it and that’s part of the reason about coaching you’re not there forever.

you’re there to kind of shepherd them along. And then if you really do your job well, you instill the things you need to instill, and then they move on without you successfully. Not that they need you forever. So I hope that answers the question okay. So.

Anthony Codispoti (59:55.45)
How were you able to, yeah, it was a great answer, thanks Rob. I’m curious, how did you leverage the media exposure that you were getting for several years to actually turn that into sales and clients?

Rob Basso (01:00:09.714)
Well, back when I was doing that stuff, I also had my own little web show before people were really doing these little web shows. It was called Basel on Business. And I would go out and interview local people, solve their problems, and I

put that out there and then I would have live events and I would invite there’d be a hundred people that come and we’d watch the six minute episode and then the crowd would give feedback on how the person could have solved the issue or give input so they had this one business owner would have a hundred people helping them with the problems and challenges they have. Now it took a particular business owner to be able to say I got problems and put it out there in the world. Some of them were very reluctant but the smart ones

it and it would help their business. So at the same time I was doing the media stuff, I was putting these little videos out so more and more people were seeing me as that business helper. Even though I owned a payroll company, I never build myself as the guy who owned a payroll company. I build myself as a successful entrepreneur that helps business owners.

I wanted to separate myself from my core industry because I felt that more people would want to work with me. And that’s partly why the media chose to work with me. My clients, when they Googled my company, would pull up five different things. If it was against me and any other local competitor and they pulled up a Fox clip, a CNBC clip, something from the Associated Press,

It’s almost a no brainer for prices are similar. Who would you go to? You’re going to go most likely to the person that looks more trustworthy in the marketplace. So I can’t even put a number value on how important I believed it was. And the reason I wasn’t just my company that was successful, meaning the buyout that I got, it was because of all of these things that I got above industry multiple.

Rob Basso (01:02:08.87)
If you had found somebody in my marketplace that had a similar client count with revenue, they would have got less money. Because I sold the Paychex Corporation on me and the breadth that my ability had in the marketplace and that people would continue to do business with them. And they paid me extra for that. So it does matter. People think it doesn’t, it absolutely does. You’ll never convince me otherwise.

Anthony Codispoti (01:02:32.046)
So let’s talk about the other lever. How about some creative strategies for lowering expenses?

Rob Basso (01:02:38.344)
You could fire every, no I’m kidding, you would not do that. You don’t fire everybody, Anthony. So the truth is sometimes people get, companies do get heavy. They get heavy on the employee front. It’s the last place anybody wants to cut.

When you look at these big public companies, as soon as their earnings are looking a little shaky, 7 % gone without any thought. And that’s okay in that world because they have stakeholders and shareholders and they have to do what they do in some respects. But I think for small and medium sized business owners, I don’t recommend being the place to cut because we all know the old story of how much it actually costs to train and retain somebody. You’re gonna find yourself needing to hire people back. It’ll cost you more later.

I routinely advise my clients to have an annual or bi -annual every two years review of every single vendor. It’s a simple place to get low -hanging fruit, but it can bear significant rewards. I had a delivery company that delivered all of the payrolls believe it or not.

Even now, people still get an actual paycheck. It’s not always direct deposit. So I would charge 10 bucks for a delivery and my delivery service would charge me five or six. And every year their rates would creep up six, six and a half and seven. And I would renegotiate and invariably get a much better deal which would save me, know, 80, $100 ,000 a year routinely.

Many people think just because the vendor’s good and you have a nice relationship with them that you shouldn’t communicate with them about getting a better price. There is never anything wrong about communicating even with your best vendor to say, hey, it’s a competitive marketplace. We love what you’ve been doing for us and we really appreciate it. Here’s where we are.

Rob Basso (01:04:27.876)
and we went out to get some competitive bidding and this is where we fall. You we’d like you to work with us the best you can. Almost never do they not take off something.

Okay, now some vendors you can’t do that to every year because you you just can’t, they need to make a living too. You gotta be cognizant you can’t cut your vendors to the bone because then what happens is their business suffers and you suffer because they can’t provide the service at the right level. And we can see that in today’s world with the big online shopping companies and this and that, it’s cut so thin that they just can’t provide the level of service that I think the clients demand. That’s one way.

Another way is to really take a look at your staffing. And now I know we talked about not cutting staff, but routinely you can find that sometimes people that have full -time jobs might not be really working full -time and might appreciate a few hours less work. And I’ve had to do this routinely and we carefully select the right folks that we know have other things going on in our world or

or might be more primed to having that conversation if they’re in the right department. And routinely, if you have probably more than 50 or 60 people, you would find that there are people willing to make those kinds of adjustments. And even if they’re only temporary, to not lose them when you needed them again full time. There is nothing inappropriate about having a professional conversation, even if it’s uncomfortable.

And a lot of people, especially small business owners that wanna love everybody, hold on to people and they get buried because they can’t afford to pay the human beings. To me, you’re doing a disservice to the rest of the company, your family, your clients, if you keep people that you can’t afford and it starts hurting.

Rob Basso (01:06:26.478)
the ability to run the company properly. You’re actually doing a service to the stakeholders that remain. It does not feel that way when you’re the person being fired. Believe me, I get it, but it is a function of business and it’s just one of the other ways that you have to look at and you should look at your payroll critically on an ongoing basis. Just like everybody has told you before, your business plan is supposed to be a living breathing thing and you don’t just make it, put it in the drawer and hope that you’re following it. That is supposed to be ever present in your world

to be tracking relatively close to that. Did I always do that, Anthony? No, because sometimes I would follow the shiny object and go willy -nilly spend money where I shouldn’t have. And I would probably say more than half the time it didn’t work because I went willy -nilly to the shiny object.

Anthony Codispoti (01:07:13.712)
Let’s think about employees in a slightly different way. Like there are times definitely when you need to cut and that’s a really hard thing to do It’s a hard decision. It’s a hard conversation to have and the other end, you know We’re still in a pretty tight labor market And so there are a lot of businesses that are having trouble finding and then holding on to the folks that they really want to keep I’m curious when you think about it from that perspective. What are some different things that you’ve tried from recruiting and retention standpoint that you found have

Rob Basso (01:07:43.688)
Well, specifically on the retention standpoint, it’s being ultimately flexible. Be as flexible as you can until you feel that you’re gonna break. Because people have options, they have significant options. And if you’re really good, you’ve got more options. I don’t wanna say you have to cater, because that’s a hard word, cater to your staff. But in some respects, they’re the only reason you’re even in business. And there’s these ebbs and flows where,

the employers feel like they’re in control. And then there’s this flow where the employees think they might have more control. I think that’s all basically an illusion. I think if you’re a good employer, you take into consideration the wants and needs as the best that you can, everybody on an individualistic basis. You might say, I’ve had hundreds of employees, that’s impossible. It’s not impossible. It’s just really hard.

to put that much effort into caring about everybody’s individual situation. I remember one of my staff members early on couldn’t get to work, her car was unreliable. I bought her a car.

Now you might say, that’s ridiculous, Rob. You can’t buy everybody a car. I did not buy her a nice car, but I bought her a car that I knew that would get her there. And, you know, my friends are like, you’re out of your mind. She’s gonna take that car and she’s gonna quit in a week. It wasn’t a week, it was probably six months, but I critically needed that person at that time. And I got six good months and she did leave and thank me up and down. She found a better opportunity that was willing to pay her more. And that’s fine. But business owners do what they need to do to sometimes survive in the moment.

If you don’t treat people with the extreme flexibility in the world that we live in now.

Rob Basso (01:09:28.084)
I think you’re gonna find yourself at a very difficult place. mean, JP Morgan Chase, all these other companies, you’re back to work in the office or you’re fired. That didn’t go so well for them, right? It just didn’t go so well. The world might never go back to what it used to be. And this is the new new. And I have friends that have had their whole career that are much younger than me, never seen the inside of an office, never had a coworker to sit next to. I think that’s weird, but whatever.

They sit on their laptop and one of them is in Thailand right now. That’s their life. So flexibility. I said it like four times, but be flexible.

Anthony Codispoti (01:10:04.329)
I like it. Rob, are there any specific mentors, books, experiences that have been particularly helpful for you in your journey?

Rob Basso (01:10:13.852)
You know, I’m gonna say somebody’s name and you’re gonna be like, everybody’s gonna be like, yeah, figures you said this guy. But I don’t care because I saw him live. It’s Tony Robbins. And you know, he gets, you know, he’s got a lot of followers. He’s got a lot of people that don’t like him because they just think he’s a big talking head and he is a big guy. He’s got a big head actually, but he is larger than life. And when you meet him in person and you have a conversation with him,

It’s almost like when you meet the President of the United States, and I got a chance to do that twice, you’re almost at awe of the presence of an individual. And the way he can convey his message in a particular way, resonated with me so strongly when I was at one of his events. It was a private event, so there’s only a couple hundred people there. It wasn’t one of this big, massive event. So we really got to spend a little bit of time with him.

he had a way to communicate how to make big decisions and then why, how you should make them and why you should make them. And after that event, there was a big decision I needed to make actually with a staff member. And I had a much clearer head about how to make that decision, why I needed to make this decision and how it was actually gonna be better for that person. And he’s the first person and the first author, you know,

coach slash guru type person, after all the readings I’ve done my whole career really impacted me in that significant of a way. And for the folks that are listening, he’s not really just a talking head and I don’t work for him and I don’t go to his Tahitian retreats. And I did buy a couple of his books, but I think if you find somebody…

that you resonate with and that you have this connection with whatever it is, that’s the person that matters to you. And sometimes you don’t get a chance to pick and choose that. You read a chapter out of a book or you read a line and you’re like, like it could be just one thing. And you’re like, I really, I get this now. No one’s explained it that way. And it might be different for you, Anthony, than it would be for me. My guess is it would be. We’re wired different, we’re humans. Everybody’s got a different thing.

Rob Basso (01:12:29.84)
I had such an experience there. It wasn’t like an out of body experience or epiphany. I don’t mean weird about it, but it was a pointed experience that turned my head in a different direction. And to this day, I make decisions more critically and more swiftly than I had in the past.

Anthony Codispoti (01:12:46.793)
It’s terrific. Rob, I just have one more question for you, but before I do it, want to do two things. First of all, if you’re listening today and you like today’s content, please hit the like, share, subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. The second thing I want to do is tell people the best way to get in touch with you. Would that be your website? So it’s robbasso .com. We’ll have it in the show notes, but for those who are listening and not watching, robbasso .com.

Rob Basso (01:13:03.09)
Yep.

Anthony Codispoti (01:13:13.617)
And then the sort of the last thing that I want to ask you here is, you know, we were talking a little bit in the pre -interview about how you’re able to help businesses that are maybe at a certain stage of growth where they need some additional resources. I’d like to hear more about that and what you’re able to do for those folks.

Rob Basso (01:13:33.416)
Well, I’ve been recently asked and been taken on as an advisor to several companies, one in startup mode and several other that are mature. they’re the two that are a little bit more mature are having stagnancy issues. And, know, whether

the need for capital, for growth and stability, whether that’s the need for connections in particular industries that will move the ball forward or acting as a board member, even though I’m not technically on the board, to help coach and mentor.

the other executives in the organization, what some organizations find is that outside voice that might not even have specific industry experience has been extremely important to them because what they tell me and what I found out is I can walk into a business and not really know a lot about the industry other than the basic research and then I ask lots of questions. And by asking those questions, I see the stairs in their faces like, I’m not sure how to answer that, all

Do you think our clients are thinking that? And it creates this whole other conversation to start the creative juices flowing to help them solve their own problems. I can’t always come up with the solution, but what I can do is push all the right levers to help people come up with the solutions that might already be in their head. They just haven’t thought about it from that direction.

and I enjoy it so much. When you have a breakthrough with a company and they change a direction or they make a significant decision based on the prodding and coaching and mentoring that you’re giving to the folks, there’s no feeling like it. Yeah, and they pay me to do it, which is great. But the simple fact of the matter is I get so much enjoyment out of helping others that it’s a joy to wake up every day and have these clients.

Rob Basso (01:15:29.908)
I’m looking for anybody that might be in the need for either growth capital connections to that kind of capital situation, someone who might be stagnant or someone that just doesn’t know a direction that they need to take, someone that needs help in getting where they think they should be or want to be. And my track record really speaks for itself, my ability to not only help myself, but the employees that have worked for me for 20 years plus.

All did well upon the exit and I can help people get their businesses ready for sale even if it’s a startup. And I think many people, Anthony, forget the minute they get into business, like I talked about earlier, you need to think about how you’re gonna exit this business even if it’s 20 years from now. And you hear talking heads talking about this all the time, very few business owners actually do it. And I can help you get there.

Anthony Codispoti (01:16:24.539)
That’s great. Yeah, there’s such a breadth of experience there. You know, not only can you help coach people on the sales side of things, I mean, we’ve heard many examples of how you were able to, you know, rocket sales in a relatively new space very quickly. You’re able to help on the operational side of things. You have successfully exited multiple businesses to publicly traded companies.

you just an experience that’s rather rare to find in a coach. And now you’re also able to layer in some of that capital support, you know, again, yeah, it’s maybe somebody’s a little bit stagnant, they need to invest in some new product lines or some new, you know, talent to bring in. Maybe they’re at a rapid stage of growth and to support that growth again, they need access to a form of capital to help them with that. And so what this picture that you’re painting is sort of like this, you know, one stop shop like total

solution that can be really helpful for a lot of different businesses.

Rob Basso (01:17:23.068)
And you know what I found out and I’m sure you felt this way in your career, maybe this morning when you woke up, sometimes it’s very lonely. You think you can talk to your friends or your spouse or maybe even a coworker, but they don’t understand, they’re not going through what you’re going through. They can empathize, but they really can’t generally help you through some of these challenging times. a lot of my clients where I’m critically listening and hearing what they’re saying,

you know, my responses help them move the needle. And sometimes it’s just willing to sit and listen to someone to listen to you and understand they know what you’re talking about. So my reaction to them is genuine and real. And I could talk for hours about it because I’ve seen like on the camera, a lot of my stuff is on, you know, through zoom, you look at somebody and you just see how all of a sudden something changes in them. And it’s like, I got it. I got them there. And there’s nothing like that. There’s nothing like.

Anthony Codispoti (01:18:22.96)
Rob Basso, I wanna be the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate

Rob Basso (01:18:29.48)
Thank you, Anthony, and you might get a personal note.

Anthony Codispoti (01:18:32.336)
I’ll be checking the mailbox. Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.