The Rustic Cuff Story | Founder Jill Donovan Shares How She Grew Her Company from an Idea to a 127-Employee Business

Audio Transcription

Speaker 1:
They said, Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you’re on the cover of Oprah. And I opened the side cover and it said Oprah wearing rustic cuff. And I I about I about died. I don’t think that I ever thought that I w that I would get bigger than I was when I was sitting on the floor in my bedroom and my orders were written on a piece of my daughter’s craft paper cause I literally knew nothing about running a company. Nothing about, I mean zero. Some of the celebrities that I have been excited about that I’ve seen wearing rustic Kath Britney Spears, Miranda Lambert, Kathy Lee Gifford, Michael bublé, Juliana Ransick on E news for me. And I think for all the 25 girls that work here is become so much bigger than just cuffs. I think you have to get with people who have been there, who have walked the road and who are still walking in and can impart some wisdom to you.

Speaker 1:
The years of experience from all of the people that are part of thrive 15 I, you cannot get that elsewhere. It is like reading an amazing book. You can actually sit down at your computer had 15 minutes of watching somebody with amazing knowledge. If I would’ve had this three years ago, I would have known so much in the beginning. That took me years to learn just through the experience for a mom who thinks I just can’t do that. There’s no way that I could ever do what she does because I have four kids or I have zero money or all the cans that you would put in front of you. If you really, really want to do something, you make the time and you find the way to do it. Five years ago that this wasn’t even a thought in my mind, so all that I would say to somebody who has a dream or desire or is good at doing something, just put one foot in front of the other. You don’t have to know where you’re going to be in five years and thrive 15 can be a really big part in helping you put one foot in front of the other

Speaker 2:
Mark. The two men do after they’ve built 13 multimillion dollar businesses, they started from the bottom. Now there, dr Zoellner and clay Clark, welcome you to the thrive time show.

Speaker 3:
[inaudible] started from the bottom.

Speaker 2:
Now we’re on the top, top knew the systems to get what we got come Dixon’s on the hooks. Coppertone the books who sees Brigitte’s of wisdom and the book as the father of five. That’s what I’m a dive. So if you see my weapon kids, please tell them hi. It’s the seat and seat upon your great D. Oh, and now three, two, one. Here we go.

Speaker 3:
[inaudible]

Speaker 2:
yes, yes, yes. And yes. Thrive nation. On today’s show, we’re going to play audio from the actual in-person thrive time show two day December, 2019 workshop where we had the honor of allowing J Jill Donovan name is Jill Donovan, the founder of rustic cuff.com. And I’ll give you some time here to do Google search. It’s rustic cuff.com. It is a company that, um, provides, uh, basically apparel, these, these cuffs, these decorative cuffs that women wear. And uh, not only do women wear them, but I mean celebrities are wearing her products. Now, Kathy Lee, you know, and Hoda wear her stuff. Carrie Underwood wears her cuffs. She’s grown from just her. And the idea is it just started with Jill Donovan and her idea, and she’s grown the company to now to now employ 127 127 women now call rustic cough. Um, their employer a hundred. The company now grown from just an idea to employing 127 people.

Speaker 2:
And Andrew, as you’re joining us here, we’re talking about the audio of Jill Donovan. Speaking at our last in-person thrive time show workshop, which we’re going to cue up in just a second. But if you’re going to grow a company from one person to 127 employees, what kind of stuff do you have to master? A, you’ve got to master a lot. A lot of checklists, a lot of system creation, a lot of sales, a lot of marketing and lead generation. Let’s start, let’s start with the, let’s say you got to start with w one a product that people want, right? True. A product or service people want, yeah. Product people like, but to the branding has gotta be good, right? It’s gotta be hot. The branding’s gotta be good. The logo, the website, all that has to look great. Everything you touch. Then you got to have a system for marketing the business.

Speaker 2:
So step one, have a product or service people want to, you got to have a brand that looks great. Yup. Three you’ve got to market that business a turn key way. Four, you’ve got to actually sell something. A lot of people have a lot of leads, but don’t sell anything. Five, you’ve got to master human resources and recruiting people. Hiring, firing. Six, you’ve got a master managing those people. Oh yeah. Seven you got a master accounting. Oh eight you gotta go Aster legal. I mean there’s so much you could learn from this lady. Her name is Jill Donovan. She’s not a business coach. She is a entrepreneur. A woman who calls herself CEO ish cause she’s kind of funny. Yeah. And now if any further ado, here’s the audio from Jill Donovan of Jill Donovan presenting at the December, 2019 thrive time show and person two day workshop. I hope that somewhere in this story that you can take the part that applies to you and just stay with me because in the end it all comes back full circle. I was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and my goal was to be an Olympic gymnast. My idol was Nadia Comaneci. So if you don’t know who she is, then you’re, you’re really young. I’m really young, but I had a poster of her on my wall and I wanted to be an Olympic gymnast and everything I did was geared toward that. I ate, slept, breathe, everything, gymnastics. And I just, it was my

Jill Donovan:
goal. I knew this was going to happen for me until one day and I would go four to five times a week. I was on a team and my coach, Eric asked me, uh, he did, he pulled me aside one day and said, I need to talk to you, Jill. I need to level with you. I’m going to tell you that you need to start looking to do something else. You will never make it as an Olympic gymnast. And now I was nine years old. So, I mean, and that’s sort of crushing for a nine year old and you would think that somebody would have said, no, don’t listen to that coach. Let’s go to a new one. But somewhere deep in my heart, I knew because I had never gotten my splits fully all the way down that I was not to be a gymnast.

Jill Donovan:
I just knew it, but I was crushed at the same time. And what I said at nine years old is that if I can’t be a gymnast, then every year, starting at the age of 10 my birthday is the first week of the year. Starting when I turned 10 I’m going to do a new hobby every single year. And that’s all I’m going to do for the entire year. And on December 31st I would choose another one and I would do it. I would go full force that by the time I was 50 I would be the most well rounded person you’d ever met. But I wanted to do something until I landed right in the center of my passion. That thing that I knew I was created to do. And so I, the first thing I did that first year at 10 was learned Russian, which sounds really overambitious. It was the last time I was that, that was a little crazy, but nobody was learning Russian.

Jill Donovan:
When I was 10, everybody was learning Spanish. And so I thought I’ll learn Russian. So for a whole year, everything in my house, it had a sticker on it. And it was the Russian word for table frigerator mom, dad, whatever it was. And then the next year, um, I, well, I’ll tell you throughout the years I did things like play the harmonica, I ice skated, whatever hobby you have done. I have tried, I took cooking lessons for a year. Um, I, uh, I tap dance for a year and at the end of every year I would have a recital. Like, what’s your favorite hobby? What do you love to do? I hunted for a year, a whole year. I hunted. I didn’t really hunt, but I got a hunting magazine. So I, cause those kids come to your door and then they, you pay for magazines like that. So I did this every single year because I knew one day I would find that thing that I was created to do and I never found it because I figured the year that I would not want to go onto something else would be the year I found it.

Jill Donovan:
I went to, I lived, I grew up in Pensacola, Florida, and I went to school here in Oklahoma and still hadn’t found that thing I wanted to do. Graduated from uh, you at 21 didn’t know. And what, you don’t know what your passion is, it’s very hard to put your whole heart into it. And so everything I did, I just felt that I just had to say I have to go to work instead of, I get to go to work my entire life. Every adult had always said, I have to do this, I have to do that. And I said, where are the adults that say I get to do this? But I was on a mission to find this thing. And so that’s when I decided to go to law school because I figured that surely is a get to either some attorneys in here.

Jill Donovan:
I know a, and believe it or not, it was not my, it was not my get to. I went to law school and one hobby turned into five years and then I thought this is not it. I have an amazing office. I, I have great clients but this is not the thing that I wake up and say I get to do. Surely there is something more than this. And so I grew up watching the Oprah Winfrey show and I decided that the night after I graduated from law school, when I started practicing that I would, for one year I would try to get a ticket to the Oprah Winfrey show just to sit in the audience cause I felt like somewhere in Chicago was my get to. I didn’t know what it was, but maybe because Oprah helped find people. Maybe if I sat in the audience I would be able to find my get to.

Jill Donovan:
And so I tried for a full year to get tickets, busy signal back when they had busy signals. Um, or if I ever got through it was, I’m sorry we don’t have any tickets this season, callback next season. And so I tried the second year and now I’m a little superstitious. I have to sort of finish what I started. So I was not going on to the next hobby or the next goal until I finished this one going on four years to get tickets to the Oprah show. I just want to, I would have sat in the back seat. I would have been fine with that. So one day as I was practicing law, I said, I’m there, I Joe, you’re smarter than this. Figure out a way that you can just get a ticket. You just go stand in front of the door in Chicago. What do you do?

Jill Donovan:
You start making phone calls to different people. Well I got on her website and the first thing it said is, do you want to be on the show? I don’t think be on the show. Okay. That’s if that’s a seat, I’ll, I’ll do that. And it had five things that they were asking for people to be on the show and I was determined that one of those was going to fit me as long as it wasn’t illegal. I was going to fit one of the things that she was looking for. And the very first thing that Oprah was looking for, it said, are you a re gifter? And if so tell us your stories now you know what her we gift or is when you get a gift that you don’t want and you give it to somebody else under the pretense that you bought it yourself.

Jill Donovan:
So I grew up in a home. My mom was a very big believer of re gifting our entire closet where you would normally have towels and linens wa they were all the gifts my mom had received over the last decade and she would make me go shopping in her closet for my 10 year old friends. Like nobody wants to give a 10 year old girlfriend a Yankee candle or whatever it was. That was my mom’s closet. And so I said, mom, when I get out of this house, I will never have a gift cause I’m going to go to the store like normal people do when it’s time to get a gift. And then I ate those words because I had the most incredible gift closet when I graduated from college and now Oprah was looking for me. And the great part is I had just had some really funny stories.

Jill Donovan:
My mother-in-law had given me a gift as soon after I got married and it was like how to be a better wife or mother, which is never a good thing to get or to give ever. It didn’t really say that on there, but it was like a sewing kit and a cooking book and all the things that I didn’t love. And so I wrapped it back up, put it in the closet. And when her birthday came around the following year, because my brain was so filled with a lot of stuff from law school, um, I didn’t, I thought that’s a perfect gift for her. It’s a cookbook. She loves to cook, she loves the soap. And I gave it to her, which is super fun for your relationship when you do that. And I was like, I bought, I bought you something that I thought would be really special for you.

Jill Donovan:
And so they took me awhile to, to deal with the fallout from that. So Oprah now is looking for that story and so without telling anybody. Yeah. As I was sitting in my office, I wrote three stories really quick, quickly. I have a twin brother and he had just gotten caught as well. It runs in the family. And so now I got to tell Oprah these stories and I hit send. Two hours later my secretary called me and she said, Jill, Maria from the Oprah show is on the phone. And it was like my get to, it’s within reach. I see it. It’s all, I don’t know what it is, but I feel it. I felt something. I felt this excitement that I had not felt in a very long time. And so she said, Jill, we just read your email. We loved it. We want to fly to Tulsa to film your gift closet.

Jill Donovan:
We’re doing a show about etiquette and we just want to interview you. So immediately I went home and I ran over to Utica square and I purchased, I didn’t have any money, but I purchased everything that I could to fill the gift closet up, knowing I was going to return it all the next day. But I justified it cause I, I said, that’s the best advertisement these stores will ever get that they’re on the Oprah show. So they flew to Tulsa the next day. It was an incredible closet. You’d never seen a gift re gift closet like this. They interviewed me. It was very funny. It was lighthearted and they flew back to Chicago and I didn’t even ask, could I, I know they had my clip, but I didn’t ask if I could be, uh, if I was going to be able to sit in the audience. I just felt like if this was the door God wanted me to go through, I did not have to push it.

Jill Donovan:
It was going to be organic. And so the next day I got a call and they said, we loved your clip. We want to fly you and your husband to Chicago to sit in the front row of the Oprah show and they’ll air your clip and Oprah will say, thank you Jill for being, and all I want you to say is thank you. And I was like, good. I’ve taken a lot of languages in the course of all my hobbies. I can say it in five different languages. And so we flew up there and we’re sitting in the front row. I am so excited. I feel amazed. They do your hair, your makeup. I have this sense that I knew something big was going to happen. I didn’t know what, but I just knew it. And right before the show started, Maria came up to me in the front row and she said, Jill, there’s been a change of plans.

Jill Donovan:
You’re going to, Oprah wants you to sit next to her on the couch to be her guest. And she wants to interview you for the whole first segment. And you get to tell all of your stories and you try to be really cool. I’m like, Oh, okay. But inside I am just screaming with excitement because my geo, I had no, up to this point in my life, I didn’t have that thing that I felt I was landing right in the center of of that calling for my life and I didn’t know what this was or whether this was the destination or whether this was where I was landing or it was just my transportation to where I was going. And so I’m up on the couch and Oprah sat down next to me and she smiled and then she looked at my shoes and she said, great shoes.

Jill Donovan:
And when I heard that it sounded like she was saying, do you want to go to lunch after the segment? So I may have said, yes, have your driver picked me up. I’m staying at the embassy, all suites hotel, which is where she puts all her guests up. So I was like, I’m going to lunch with Oprah. And really she just said great shoes. Then I look across the stage and there’s another couch and there are two etiquette experts from Canada who were going to watch the video and then you just be there. And we were going to talk about how fun this re-gifting thing is. So they looked at me and they said, great shoes. And I was like, Oh my gosh, they’re going to lunch too. Like we’re all friends together. So the show starts. That’s all. That’s all we talked about. We should choose like, and that was like one sentence.

Jill Donovan:
They aired the clip and Oprah after it aired. It was funny. It was very lighthearted and Oprah looked at me and she said, well Jill, what do you think about now that you’ve been exposed to the whole world now it was airing to 20 million people, which is no small number. And I said, well over that I feel a little bit exposed. But then I’m thinking, how do I segue into my first of three stories? And she said, before you go on, Jill, let’s go to the etiquette experts and ask them what they think. And I was like, good because I believe we’re going to lunch afterwards cause they just said they liked my shoes. So I’m looking at these two girls on the other side of the stage with bangs, long straight hair from Canada who I really liked. They just were sweet and smiley and then in one fell one second would, it felt like an eternity.

Jill Donovan:
They said Oprah, we think that Jill is rude and she’s hacky and what she’s got going on there is wrong. That entire gift closet needs to go to Goodwill. And I was like, I’ve got to take it back to you to go square first cause I don’t have any, I’m not giving it to the poor people. I don’t have the money. I got to take that back and I’m watching their mouths moving but it feels like they’re not speaking English. It feels like they are just attacking me with these, uh, like they’re taking knives and throwing them at my heart and they are dashing. Every dream. I was at this mountaintop. I had not been in a long, long, long time. And my eyes started to fill up with water just like I knew that if I blinked I would cry. So now I have the biggest bug.

Jill Donovan:
I like this because I don’t want to blink on the show and my heart is hurting so bad and I could not defend myself. I just couldn’t. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to. I tried, I could not. And Canada kept going on and on and on, like my love for the country when I had no love for the country. By the time this segment was over, it ended. I didn’t get to tell a single story, nothing, nothing. 12 minutes of this. And I went back to my seat and then the show ended after the other segments. And Maria came up to me and I said, I beg you, please don’t air this. Like this was supposed to be my get to. You can’t. Please don’t hear this. And she said, it’s not as bad as you think. Well, it was worse than I thought. I went to Geno’s pizza right after it ended, after our segment air ended taped and I was talking to my husband not talking, I was crying.

Jill Donovan:
And it wasn’t so much that I was embarrassed. I can trip in front of a lot of people and be embarrassed. It was that my hope for what I thought something was going to be was dashed. So it wasn’t the humiliation. I can get over the embarrassment. It hadn’t even aired yet. I can get over that. It was the death of a dream that I had had that I was so crushed. But because I believe that God has a bigger purpose. Um, and at the time when I was so distraught, I said these words, and when you’re in a fog, in business or at home, there are moments, you have a one moment of clarity and then you go back to a fog of pain. And I would encourage you to write down, when you get a moment, if you’re sitting in here and you get that moment, write it down because sometimes it doesn’t come back to you.

Jill Donovan:
But I had this moment and I said to Terry, I have no idea what the purpose, why in the world. God would take me from a mountain top to a very, very low Valley in the matter of 15 minutes when I was happy just to sit in the back row. I have no idea why, but here’s, here’s the clarity. But I know that in my lifetime I’m going to see the significance in this pain. I just know it. And I said it out loud. And then I went to a fog. Three weeks later the show aired. And I remember going out, it was worse than I had remembered, but I remember going out in public and you’d go to dinner and people would come up and they’d say, gosh, you look so familiar. And I’d always say something like, yeah, I Susie Orman, everybody get that from everybody.

Jill Donovan:
Um, save your money. Uh, cause everybody thought I looked like Susie Orman. And so, so then, then it aired three months later. She said it was their highest watched episode of the year, three months later. And then that year or three times worse. Every time I went home, I took every, after I took everything back, I took everything that was left in the re gifting closet and I put it in trash bags and I handed it to my husband. I said, I don’t ever want to open this closet again, which is equivalent to, I don’t ever want to dream again. I don’t ever want to set goals again because it’s setting goals. Got me to this pain. Then it wasn’t worth it. And so for five years I set no goals. I dreamed no dreams and I kept this closet closed. I never opened the closet, we never had sheets or towels, but it didn’t matter.

Jill Donovan:
I just could not dream again because my hopes were so dash I was so crushed. And I know in the grand scheme of things there is death and destruction and there there’s divorce, there’s terrible pain, but when it’s your pain at the moment, whatever it is you are going through in your business or your relationships, whatever it is, it is, it is the biggest thing in the world to you. And so five years of this I felt like I died inside and I had been living my whole life and working towards this get to five years later I was laying in bed and I had two beautiful little girls and at two o’clock in the morning I had not fallen asleep and I sat up in bed and said it’s time to forgive Canada. And so I did. I forgave the girls cause I realized those girls were just part of my story.

Jill Donovan:
I thought it was the end of my story and I realized if I would’ve just had a great 15 minutes, that’s all it would have been. But they were part of my story. I opened that closet back up and I said, God, would you give me another idea? Would you give me an idea to fill this closet up with? And then I will start re gifting this myself. And so I used to work for American airlines. I worked my way through law school by working at American airlines. And every country I would go to, I would buy a big cuff as a reminder of my memories in that country. And I had a whole drawer full and I opened this drawer and that hit me. As soon as I forgave Canada, I felt like this whole thing lifted off of me. And then this idea came, I had been blocked for five years and I said, I’m going to teach myself how to make cuffs, fill this closet up and I’ll start giving them away with no plan, no plan.

Jill Donovan:
I I did, did not enjoy the word entrepreneur because entrepreneur to me meant work and work to me meant have to, I wanted that thing that I got to say I get to. So I just wanted to create something. So I got up at two o’clock in the morning, sat in front of my computer and typed, how do you make cuffs? And then it sent me all this prison stuff about like handcuffs. And so, so I, I know how to do handcuffs as well. So I learned how to, I would go to the store, I would buy big leather hides, I would die. This letter, I ruined rooms in my house. I didn’t care. Cause when you’re so in love with what you do, you don’t care. I never slept again and I loved sleep. I mean I was the sleeper in sleepest and this girl you’ve ever met.

Jill Donovan:
I loved to sleep. I would go to bed at four or five in the morning because I was so in love with learning how to engrave, how to stamp, how to snap, all these things that that would never, my hobby, these were all brand new to me. I was so in love with it. And then I thought, you know what? I don’t want to be an entrepreneur, but how cool would this be to see these cuffs that I would put cool inspiration quotes that I would have wanted that girl for five years to read like a this too shall pass or things to remind them one day at a time. I would love to see how with spending no money, I can get these cuffs on people that I watch on TV every day. So I bought a whiteboard, the kind that you just peel off the back and stick it on the wall and I wrote down 20 people that I admired out in this world that I would watch on TV.

Jill Donovan:
And some of them were singers, musicians, some were actors, some were newscasters and I researched and when you’re so in love with what you’re doing, you don’t care, you will do everything and anything for that. And that’s how I thought and it wasn’t work. It was so exciting. I would write these agents of all 20 people, dear Mr. Levine, whatever. Um, my name is Jill Donovan. I am a, I was a law professor at the time. I’m a law. I taught, taught law as well, but I thought it sounded better if I said law professor instead of just an attorney. So I said, I am a law professor and on the side I make cuffs and wanted to send some to your client, no strings attached. I just wanted to see, I sent out all of these emails and wouldn’t you know it because there was no pressure because it was just this thing.

Jill Donovan:
I just wanted to give them to the clients. I started getting these emails back, dear Jill, I will see Miranda Lambert next week, send them to me and I’ll get them to her. Well, what I realize is if I wanted them to wear these cuffs, I couldn’t just send them something generic. So I researched the heck out of Miranda Lambert, what her albums were, who her when she got married. Uh, all these things. And I made seven cuffs for every celebrity, every person that I picked. And so when they open it up, like it’s bad luck. If you throw something that has your kid’s name on it, you just can’t and you kind of, you wear it no matter how bad it is, cause it has your kid’s name on it. So I had no packaging, but I knew the number one thing. I didn’t want somebody to know I was in my back bedroom doing this.

Jill Donovan:
I wanted the very first time they saw this cuff for it to be in the most incredible packaging ever. So I found a guy in Seattle that I’ve still haven’t met to this day. And I said, what kind of a box can you make me that looks, I’m doing this out of a New York showroom. So he created these boxes for me. So whenever these people got it, they had no idea. I was just in my back bedroom and I had 20 boxes lined up and my board, and this is all just me, I didn’t, it wasn’t telling anybody. I mean in I, I forgot I had kids, I was so involved in this. They would come to me for dinner and I would be like, you ate three days ago. Like we why? Why do we have to eat every day in this family? I still feel that way and you’re going to go home and tell your kids we ate on Monday, let’s, we get away to a few more days.

Jill Donovan:
And so on one day I sent out 20 boxes and I FedEx them all. I was so excited. See, nobody had any expectations of me because this was just something I wanted to see where it could go. I was so in love with it. It’s a bit like when you first fall in love, like you’ll stay on the phone and just, just, just be, even if you’re not talking, you just want to be with them. That’s how I felt about what I was doing. And so the next thing I knew, I would turn on the TV days later and I would see the first person I saw ms Kathy Lee Gifford, and she was interviewing Barry Manilow, who I’m a big fan of Barry Manilow. And she went up and she put her arm on Barry Manilow and I freaked out because she was wearing a cuff. I just made in that back bedroom a few days ago.

Jill Donovan:
And it was like Barry was wearing one of my cuffs, like the joy and excitement. And this just started happening and I thought this is crazy. No money except just to go to the leather store. And then I would have my friends say, well, I want to buy one. And I thought, okay. And so I put said everything to $38, which is a great way to not start. I’m and I spent hours on something and I’d say $38. Well at one point this closet became, I started putting them in the closet and this closet became so full that I felt like I had to do what I originally was called to do and that was to start re-gifting these cuffs. And so I felt called to put three cuffs on my wrist and to go across the street to strangers. It’s one thing to give them to your family members cause they’re obligated to wear it.

Jill Donovan:
But um, to strangers and to take it off my wrist and just say not to promote my company. At first it was just to give it to them cause that is what I felt called to do. Often the things that we feel called to do are counterintuitive to what the whole world is saying to do. But it is the thing that gives you a breakthrough. And so that was a quote. I hope clay got that. Um, and so cause it rhymed a little bit there too. And so I went over to the grocery store and at this point it wasn’t even so much about making money, it was about the joy of it. And I, um, I looked around the brochure, it was packed with people and I said, please let the girl who was supposed to give it to be in the very back, cause it’s embarrassing to hand it to a stranger with a bunch of people watching.

Jill Donovan:
But I knew that, I knew that the girl who was checking people out, like few registers over, it was the one for me. And I bet God, please don’t make me go to her. There’s seven people in her line. But I felt called to do that. And when you do, you, you can’t, you don’t ask why, you just do it. And it is amazing the things that will happen. So I got, I pretended like I knew what I was doing at the grocery store. I was like, cheese goes with bread, right? And I just put some stuff in there and I got in line and when I got up to the front, there were still five people behind me. And I thought, okay, Jill, you can’t, you can’t not do this. And so without looking, I reached down like this and I wasn’t gonna say anything about rustic cuff.

Jill Donovan:
This little company I named a rustic cuff cause everything was rustic. Um, that’s why I named it rustic cuff, cause everything I was doing rustic. It’s like naming your child when you’re high, like when you get on high years later, you’re sorry that you named them a tree by the river. But that’s how this was with my company. I have nobody really named their child tree by the river in here. Um, so, but I do like the name river. Uh, so without looking, I took a cup off and I said, ah, it was a big leather car. It was a leather cuff. And I handed it to her and I said, um, I just feel like I’m supposed to give this to you. And immediately she started to cry and she said, um, and I said, are you okay? And I’m looking at these people looking at me, looking at her, and she said, um, you’d have no way of knowing this.

Jill Donovan:
But, uh, yesterday I was diagnosed with breast cancer and the doctor’s office. And she said through my tears, I prayed that God would give me a sign of hope, that everything would be okay. And I looked down and it was a pink one that I had randomly not so randomly given to her. And she said to me, thank you for being that sign of hope. And I got in my car, shut the door. And I said, if for no other reason than I went through this pain, that was it. To give her the hope. And I said, every single day from that moment, that is what I want to do. I want to give them away every single day. And wouldn’t you know it when you do the things that you feel called to do, even if it’s counterintuitive, God has a way of turning it into something amazing.

Jill Donovan:
And from that, um, just grew and grew and grew. And, um, the full circle moment came years later when I got a letter from Oprah and had not been in contact with them at all. And it was a March issue of one of her covers of magazines and she’s on the cover of every magazine and there was a letter and it said, dear Jill, congratulations. Rustic cuff has been chosen to be on the wrist of Oprah for the March issue. And when I looked at her wrist, I started to cry and laugh at the same time. It was a cuff that I had gifted to Gail King who was on the CBS morning news and she used to wear that cuff on the CBS morning news and somehow it had found its way re gifted to Oprah who is now wearing it on the cover of her magazine.

Jill Donovan:
And had I sat down to write this entire story, I could not have done that. I am the least likely person to ever be an entrepreneur. I had zero desire to ever do this, but because I feel like I was not capable of doing that is why I think God had me in this position because the only way I can do this is through prayer with the help of the amazing people that I have around me. So my, my advice or my piece of advice that I would leave to you is, is to do all things, even when you are teeny tiny in your bedroom or when you’re serving a million people to do them with excellence, but mostly is to obey what you’re supposed to do. Even if it doesn’t sound like the thing that everybody else is doing. Anytime I’ve tried to do the mainstream thing, the formula that everybody else is doing, it didn’t feel right even if I tried it.

Jill Donovan:
And when I went back to doing the organic thing as the thing that I knew I was called to do, it’s like a downpour happened. And so, uh, I’ll end with my favorite quote, which is don’t compare your chapter one to somebody else’s chapter 20. I was, I, all those 20 people. We’re at chapter one. When I started at chapter one, I’m still just a chapter three, but Michael Kors had a million followers and it would’ve been so easy to look at that when I was trying to promote through Facebook and think, I will, he’s at a million. How will I ever get there? And I thought, guess what? He was at a hundred where I am right now. He, at one point, he was at 100 he was in his back bedroom at some point, but he did not give up. He kept going. And so then you pray for really creative ideas.

Jill Donovan:
And I created somebody named Joe Johns on Facebook who became my best friend and Joe Johns liked every comment that I made and Joe Johns was there and he was by Facebook person with rustic cuff. And Joe Johns at grew helped me grow. It was all these creative ways, putting a picture of a celebrity, good product or not somehow makes your product appear better or bigger than it may be. But all these creative ideas kept coming. And I appreciate that 1 million Facebook person, what they have. And I will learn from that, but I have to keep my eyes right where I am in that has made all the difference. So thank you very much,

Speaker 5:
Donovan. Yes, I want to

Speaker 2:
respect everybody’s time, but I also want to, uh, give us some extra time here. So we’re going to be rejoining tomorrow. At 7:00 AM if you guys could please be here at six 36 45 ish, that’d be great. So we can start right on time. Um, it is three. Um, but I do have one of a few housekeeping notes. Um, one Jill, what’s the name of your, your book, the kindness effect. And if people buy too rustic cuffs, they get a book.

Jill Donovan:
We only have 30 books left, but Michelle said she didn’t say this, but I’m putting the words in her mouth that will, they’ll take your address if you buy two cuffs cuffs and they’ll mail you a book if you would like.

Speaker 2:
And will you stick around for a little bit? Sure. So will you sign some books? I’d be happy to answer some questions and stuff. Yeah. Does anybody have any questions for Jill right now before we wrap up this session? Just real quick. Yes ma’am.

Speaker 6:
[inaudible]

Speaker 2:
does Oprah know

Speaker 6:
that you were on the show as long as show on the [inaudible]?

Jill Donovan:
It was not, uh, it was random. They did not know at all since then. Um, the year two years later we did get a call from the Oprah show and they said Oprah has chosen your, a sting Ray cuff to be her favorite thing this year. And, and the truth is people say, do you want open a no, I don’t care because cause it doesn’t [inaudible]

Speaker 2:
here’s what I would think if you were touched by her story. I think it’d be fun if you emailed Oprah and said you should have her on the show. I’m being serious. That’d be fun. As we usually as if you get 160 emails from different people, I’m telling you, you should write that down. We are doers here. We’re not just talkers. If you do it, it might just happen and you go, I made that happen. That’s a cool thing. I mean cause that’s a neat, neat story. Andrew, you’ve been present for the interviewing of so many big names. You know, people like Wolfgang puck or pastor Craig Groeschel, the pastor of the largest church in America, the iconic Wolfgang puck, the leadership top leadership expert of all time. John Maxwell, the top public relations person of all time. Michael Levine. I mean, we can go on and on. The people that you’ve got a chance to watch and how has being in the room and hearing those interviews and taking notes for those interviews impacted the way you think?

Speaker 7:
Yeah, it has greatly because, uh, I get to meet and talk to and see people who have actually done it, who have been there. They’ve walked the path. And so you can take a lot of good chunks and nuggets from those things. Uh, so that way you don’t have to make the mistakes. You can just learn from them, wake up early, get your stuff done, follow a calendar, follow it to do list. Uh, and so it’s cool to be able to see what to do before you have to just walk through it yourself and make all the mistakes. And another cool thing that I’ve found, uh, after have, you know, seen so many successful people and from every different industry, like Wolfgang puck has restaurants in a food product line. It’s completely different from Ross Golan who, uh, he works with music right at like writers and artists. And so, uh, the cool thing I’ve noticed though is that they’re all the same person. They all do the same thing. They all wake up early and they all follow a calendar. They all have the, the first answer to all of their, the questions that they get is typically, no, can you come do this for me? Can, you know, it’s all the same thing. So it’s cool being able to see that, watch the patterns, um, and meet a lot of cool people. Jill shared during her presentation about the importance of a decade of diligence.

Speaker 2:
Jill talked about that. I think people might have missed that part. I think people get excited about the big story. Oh my gosh, wow. This lady started from nothing and has grown to now employ 120 827 people. That is so exciting. But I think a lot of people are the, the messy middle. I think the messy, I think people want to skip over that. Or maybe, maybe we don’t want to. Maybe we just do, I don’t know. I talk to me talk to the listeners about the importance of that daily diligence

Speaker 7:
for a decade. Oh yeah. I mean it’s, and that’s all it comes down to. And you know, everyone likes to hear about the home runs, but it’s all about just the consistency. It’s all about consistently doing the same thing every day until success. If it works and you know, it works, just keep doing it until you have success every day. Do the same thing. If it works, you know, whether it’s your diet or whether it’s gathering Google reviews, if it’s working, keep doing it. And over time it will compound and you’ll start to see results. What day is it today that the actual day that we’re recording this show? What day is it? Wednesday. Today’s Wednesday? The first. Why are we here on the first, I mean a lot of people are taking this day off. True. We only take on 160 clients. And how many of your clients have been on the call today?

Speaker 7:
Uh, all of them have been there. So tell me about what clients specifically have been on the call today. What kind of daily diligent clients are you dealing with right now? Because we only take the best of the best [inaudible] so many of you have reached out and said, I want to become a coaching client. And that’s why there’s an application process. That’s what we do. A 13 point assessment. That’s what you have to talk to one of our team members to kind of orientate you. And then we do a 13 point assessment. Am I say weep? I personally do the assessments. Andrew, let’s talk about your clients. What clients have you met with today that have showed up, showed up today despite the fact that it’s a holiday. Yeah. So today had some great people. Cottage pottery studio, David up there. He is killing it in Canada.

Speaker 7:
Yes. Yeah. He’s, he’s doing a great job. He’s killing it. Uh, he is implementing a lot of systems right now with his team, uh, going through a lot of changes with his team right now. Uh, implementing a lot of systems sights, sounds, smells, tastes for his business there to make sure it’s an enjoyable experience for everyone coming in. Um, and he’s getting a lot of Google reviews is taking a lot of photos, getting a lot of video testimonials. He’s doing a great job. So you’ve had people, you had your clients are here today. [inaudible] yep. Now let’s talk about this. What kind of person’s not a good fit and what cause you, you’ve see this well, why do I, why do we only take on 160 clients? And what kind of person’s not a good fit for the program? Yeah, I mean, I would say there’s a lot more people who aren’t a good fit than are.

Speaker 7:
And the kind of person who wouldn’t be a good fit is the kind of person that would close the business to their customers on a day that, I mean, frankly, it’s Wednesday and people still want to buy products and services. And so if you’re closed because you overslept or because you, you know, wanted to sleep in for today or for whatever reason, uh, then that’s probably not going to be a good fit. Cause you have customers out there who are willing to buy things. So you should be out there selling stuff. You’re saying that Starbucks has opened on the first Starbucks is open today. You are, you, are you saying it’s quick trip open today? Quick trip. Yeah. QuikTrip Sullivan is the mall open today, the mall and that, that’s the thing. The mall is open. And the thing is, this is the time when the large companies, they understand how it works and that’s why they’re large companies is because they see that today is a great day for people to come out and buy things. So they take advantage of it. They go out there and they sell something. That’s why they’re big. What ah, does it, does it ever slightly

Speaker 2:
bother you at all when you’re on the phone with awesome cause again, if someone’s not a good fit, what we do is we just tell them, Hey, you know what? It’s not a good fit. And we have, we have people to reach out every day. I mean, dozens of people every day. This isn’t not maddening to you. When you see a client who you, you meet them, you talk to them or, or a more like, more than likely a potential client at a conference who could be successful and you can see it because you’ve, you’ve coached your clients to massive success this year. Our average client has grown by over 35%. And when you see somebody who wants success, and then when you tell them how to do it, and then they to say to you, I’m not a morning person, or when they say, I just, I can’t work during the holidays, does it not crush a part of your soul?

Speaker 7:
Uh, it really makes me, I don’t understand it. I just can’t comprehend it. If you’re not willing to make a couple of sacrifices for a success in your life for you and your family, and your business and your employees and every not willing to make some of those sacrifices, it’s pretty weak. And it’s really frustrating to see.

Speaker 2:
I’m going to put a link to many of our clients. I’m going to put a link to a 15 pages of client success stories from this year. Oh yeah. On today’s show notes. And why can I? Why can’t I so cavalierly, so easily? So why is it so easy for us to, without effort to put on the agenda, Tuscaloosa, ophthalmology, Dr. Timothy Johnson, T town, eyes.com up 16% why could it, why is it so easy for us to say Williams contracting? Travis Williams will dash [inaudible] dot com up 33% why is it so easy for us, Andrew alphabetically speaking to go to the SS and say snow bear, heat and air. Daniel Remos, Amarillo, Texas SnowBear air.com up 41% by the way he did, he ended up higher than 41%

Speaker 7:
I think he’s at 42 from what I recall from the agenda. So easy for us to cite

Speaker 2:
all these victories and all these client wins cause the 96% of businesses fail, right? According to inc magazine. Why is it so easy for us to,

Speaker 7:
to just give countless examples of client wins? Yeah. Because everyone you just listened or listed are all, they’re all diligent doers. Every time we get on the call with these guys, they’re all, uh, they always have their action items done. So we’re like, did you get this done? They’re always, they always have everything knocked out. They wake up early in the morning, they make their calendar, they schedule in the action items that we talk about in our meeting time and they make it a priority to knock them out, you know, so they’re always getting stuff done. They’re always making progress. They’re always gaining more and more traction because they’re taking action and they’re doing it. If you don’t do it, if you don’t take action, if you don’t complete the action items, you will fail. You will, you won’t grow.

Speaker 2:
Do you think that cause and effect is something that the average person fights against?

Speaker 7:
Yes. Or understands?

Speaker 8:
No. Well, what time did you wake up today? On new year’s day? Um, my wife and I, we got up at two 30 this morning. Why? Uh, because we like to get up, we like to get a workout in. We like to read, um, and get some good breakfast and shower the bed. Uh, last night, uh, new year’s Eve, we, uh, we fell asleep at eight, eight or 8:00 PM, but you’re wanting success more than you want to stay up and watch. Steve Harvey announced that the ball’s dropping in times square so much more. I didn’t even know Steve Harvey was doing that. All right, so if you’re out there today, um, Andrew is 21 years old, you and your wife, you save half your income. Am I right? Yup. Yup. Okay. So Andrew bloomer, his wife, man of bloomer though the future, uh, Jill Donovan’s of the world. I mean, if you want to be that, this, the future success stories that we talk about on this show, go to thrive time, show.com.

Speaker 8:
Apply. See if we have a spot open for you. Usually we have like one opening a month or every couple months because a client’s selling their company. And why would a client sell their business? Andrew? Uh, the client would sell their business because one, they’ve built it up to a position where they can, they built the systems and everything and maybe they just want the time freedom. They want to sell it. They built their baby business up. Now it’s sellable and so they want to, I won’t mention the name of the person, the gender of the person or the industry of the person, but it’s kind of fun for you right now working with a client who’s going to sell their business for eight figures. Yes. That is sort of a carefreeness to their attitude. Oh yeah, that’s right. And excitement. It’s a good tie. It’s a lot of, it’s a lot of hard work and years paid off, um, uh, coming to fruition and finally happening. So it’s good stuff. The American dream is possible and now it’s not any further. I do three, two, one, boom.

Speaker 9:
I can do this and I will do this. This is what I tell myself each day.

Speaker 9:
Times are tough these days. All you have to do is turn on the news to find out she, that will trigger the next financial meltdown. I’m not here to talk about plans to deal with this until 2017 I’m saying we’ve got a real problem that is crushing us with an average American household awaiting $15,000 on the credit card, $33,000 in student loans. The number of people who work their whole lives and still retire with debt is skyrocketing. People don’t even think it’s possible to be upwardly mobile anymore. That’s the American dream. They think it’s dead. You probably know someone that feels the same way that my friend, they are wrong. History shows us that people have always faced adversity and have overcome obstacles. So can you, John Rockefeller had to drop out of school at the age of 16 to provide for his mom and his siblings after his dad left the family to fend for themselves, but his adversity did not stop.

Speaker 9:
Yet. By the time of John’s death, his assets were over $340 in today’s money. Well, his success, a choice. Think about Oprah Winfrey was raised during legal segregation and experienced a devastating childhood trauma over five years. She had no factual reasons to think her future was bright, but she kept looking forward and went on to build a media empire. Becoming the first female African American billionaire was their success in choice and for me, I know your choice matters because of racial segregation. I wasn’t even allowed to use the front door of the bank in Greenville, Mississippi. I remember the back door, but I refused to let that slide caused me to fail without the idea of family setting and making a living in the cotton fields of the Delta. I shifted my thinking and so can you, I imagine possibilities that did not even exist at the moment.

Speaker 9:
They eventually became my reality. I became a purely as a nominated author and entrepreneur who helped to introduce stair master exercises to the world. Now the president and CEO of two small businesses and one of the owners of a bank that 50 years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to even walk through the front door. The American dream is not dead. Let me say it again. The American dream is not dead. Maybe a jumpstart is all in me. So it was my successful choice. You’ve got to believe it was definitely my choice. You see, adversity for many of us is a catalyst that initiates the change. It isn’t easy. It’s not always fun, but it’s a choice. You can do this no matter what situation you find yourself in. You can maximize your potential. You will meet adversity. Trust me, it was strengthen you. You will fail.

Speaker 9:
It will be lessons learned. You would never forget. You will be challenged, but your creativity will amaze you. Get rich quick schemes don’t work no matter how enticing. And if you are willing to shift your thinking and make the choice to work hard, believe in yourself and continuing educating yourself, you can accomplish whatever it is that you have imagined. Just imagine the possibilities and be ready to work them into reality. You know, we’re excited to help you jumpstart your own success story. Now, roll up your sleeves. You can do this. Be your own dream. Come true. Welcome to thrive. You have T

Speaker 2:
now, if you’re out there listening today and you can hear my voice, you know I don’t often ask a lot of you and we put a ton of free content every month. Many have actually said we put up more content per month than any other entrepreneurial podcast, and we do that because we want to help you grow. I do that because I know what it’s like to grow up without money and financial resources, but I’ve got a big ask for you today. I would ask that everybody out there. If you could take just a moment and go to Oprah’s website. Now, this is gonna require you take, I’m just, I’m asking for five minutes of your time. I want you to go to oprah.com everybody go to oprah.com and at the bottom of the bottom of the website, there’s a button that says contact us. All right, and I would like for you to ask Oprah email the people at Oprah ask if they will interview Jill Donovan, the founder of rustic cuff.com on her show.

Speaker 2:
Let’s see if we could make this lady’s dream happen. This wonderful woman who you’re not paying to inspire you, but, but I think she just inspired you. This, this woman who has, uh, gone from a dream to the just the very dream to massive success of woman who now employs 120 728 women who decided to take time at her schedule to invest in your future. Let’s reciprocate everybody. Go to oprah.com and click on the contact us button at the bottom of the website and reach out and suggest just say, well, you should have Jill Donovan, the founder of rustic cuff.com on one of your shows. We just heard her share a story involving you and we just would love to have you interview her, her. Let’s see if we can all do it today. Everybody take a moment. Just take the five minutes it takes and let’s go to oprah.com click on the contact us button and see if you can get Oprah to interview Jill Donovan on one of her shows. And now without any further ado, let’s let’s in the show, not with a boom, but with an action item. Let’s go do it.

Speaker 2:
Alright. I mean, I, I, I, here’s what, here’s what, here’s my deal. I’m not going to stop playing this music until you go to oprah.com and request for Oprah interview, Jill Donovan. Look, I’ve got a 10 hour mix of this song. Don’t go, don’t make me play this 10 hour extended mega mix of jeopardy theme song. Okay, here’s, here’s, here’s our little deal. If you leave to go to oprah.com and you reach out on the contact us page, the bottom of the website, get a scroll down there at the bottom. If you can find the contact us button and you can invite if you, once you’ve invited Jill Dawn and you asked, uh, Oprah to interview Jill Donovan, then I’ll play you something. Okay, well, I know you’re filling on the form. I’m patient. Get, get out your smart phone. Come on. You can do this. If you’re listening on Spotify right now, the Spotify podcast will continue playing while you go on the internet. You can do it. If you’re in your office right now, just put down whatever you’re doing. Let’s go right now, oprah.com Claire, I can’t do it. My Mike, I have carpet tunnel. Get outta here. Go to O P R a H oprah.com and fill out the form and ask for Oprah to interview.

Speaker 10:
Hold on. Can I trust you? Did you do it? Can I trust you?

Speaker 2:
Look me in the air. Let me look in your ear. Turn right. Turn your ear to the speaker item. Come on, let’s wait. Well, okay, let’s, let’s, let’s make some eye contact virtually. Here I’m asking you, did you do it? Did you go to oprah.com are you a doer? You’re not just a hearer of the word, right? Are you a doer? Come on. It could have cost you 30 seconds of your life and

Speaker 10:
for 30 seconds of your life

Speaker 2:
you might be able to magnify and celebrate a great drive time show guest and maybe she’ll reciprocate and reach out and see. Maybe she’ll reciprocate and you don’t feel kind of guilted. It’s like she has to have Oprah. On our show, right? I mean, so let’s reach out right now. Okay. You did it. I can trust him now Jill, during her talk talked a lot about re gifting and uh, when I turned 38, I recorded a song called rise and grind and uh, many of you, it’s thousands of you’ve told me that you like the song quite a bit. And so I thought I would go ahead and re gift my gift that I gave to you almost two years ago. Here it is. The often requested rise and grind. I’m re gifting the gift that I gave you on my 38th birthday there. So here we go.

Speaker 11:
Oh yes. It’s time to arise and grind. Yes. Before the rooster Crow hose, it’s time to rise it all. Yes, I wake up at three to get it all done and money on my mind and my watch. No one can touch rope cause I’m a Christian in it for the dog game or nothing. Get rich quick. Nah, I don’t do it. But if you’ve got a real good, I help you with Sue [inaudible] you can do it. You can do it. You can do seize the day. Carpet, eat them son. Ever going to make the Benjamin success request. Self discipline. Self discipline. Self discipline. I just said it three times in a row in a row. If you look at parochial hero here, you gotta look in the BMR pro. Would you be a victim or a Victor? Go missing it off. How us the resources you need [inaudible] you got to get three jobs.

Speaker 11:
Like I wants to target MLPs and direct TV, which meant on never watch TV cause I was on the ground I a two, three or like that. 12 to the TB. Do you feel man, like a petting zoo? Stick to your clothes. Like glue, like 80 hours a week. Put suit to the serious because I get smoke, I’m aware of cause and effect and I note that your life could be ripped or your left could be great. So what will you do today? Let’s catch a ball with nothingness or the middle. But thickness when you’re waiting for Santa in and help this just, and you could be having to say no to the handouts because they hurt your pride when you could be out looking at other guys when you could be. I’ll look at the other guy. What would it be? I’ll look at the other guy. Yes. Uh, yes. It’s, it’s tough to rise it. Oh yes. Before the rooster. Provos yes. It’s time to rosin. Yes. Everybody’s singing now. Oh yes. Uh, yes. It’s time to rise. It thrive. Yes. Methow rooster Crow. Yes. It’s to Razah. Yes. Short shorthand life is to repeat, to get started. Cause if no redo 38 80 grade, I’m half dead, dude. I’m half dead, dude. Well, hell’s bells. I’m going to go take a nap.