Overview

On this episode of Build Your Network, Host Travis Chappell interviews Dave Ruel, the founder of Effic.

Topics Discussed:

• About Dave Ruel:
  • He’s a Canadian from the east coast.
  • Been an entrepreneur online for about 10 years now.
  • His latest company is Effic, helping entrepreneurs get more efficient and effective.
• Dave’s first business experience:
  • He’s not very academic, school wasn’t great for him.
  • He didn’t know what he really wanted.
  • Bodybuilding was his obsession in the early 2000’s.
  • His first business was cookbooks for bodybuilders
  • He coached people 1-1, he was making recipes to make bodybuilders diets less bland.
  • He built his first business out of necessity, but he did want the freedom part.
  • He met a fellow bodybuilder named Lee Hayward, he wrote a bodybuilding blog and made 6 figures a year.
    • He learned a lot from him about blogging, marketing, etc.
  • He then branched off into supplements, publishing and coaching.
• What’s your favorite thing that you’ve done so far?
  • Out of everything, he loves creating the most.
  • Over years, they became really good at setting up systems for businesses.
  • Overall, he’s done pretty well with systemizing and they started Ethic out of demand.
  • He’s been running mastermind groups for about four years.
  • Really specializing in organization and systemization.
• Masterminds are the secret weapon.
  • He joined Vince Delmonte’s mastermind.
    • He was the number one guy in the bodybuilding space.
    • He was able to meet so many people who became great friends.
    • Uses a lot of affiliate marketing to grow his businesses.
    • Out of demand, he had the opportunity to start his own mastermind.
  • He’s been doing one or two mastermind groups every year.
  • In group coaching, he holds entrepreneurs accountable to reaching their goals.
  • The big goal is to create the right environment for them to perform at their best.
    • Workflow, working with teams, hiring, etc.
  • He holds them accountable for an entire year.
  • Often you make friends for life and you have access to collective brainpower that you don’t have on your own.
• How crucial have masterminds and mentorships been to Dave’s success?
  • Crucial – you must be a part of a mastermind that’s going to get you to the next level.
  • You need to be with your peers and who are going through the same thing as you.
  • Everyone should be a part of at least one mastermind at any given time.
• Be a part of a mastermind that pushes you, but also get into a mastermind with all of your peers.
  • As online entrepreneurs, it’s important to have that aspect of community.
  • When you want to grow, pay to play.
  • When you pay in, you’ll find a way to create ROI.
• Do you believe that what you know or who you know is more important, and why?
  • It’s both. It’s what you know and who you know in the right context.
  • You can know a lot, but it could be irrelevant to other people.
  • What you know needs to be in the right context of who you know, creating synergy.
  • He used affiliate marketing a lot to grow his business.
  • If he makes his affiliate win because they’re getting more business, he also makes himself win because he gets more eyeballs on his site.
    • You have a perfect triangle, because you have to have the right context, the right people and the right product.
  • What’s the most annoying thing a person can do when they’re trying to network or meet another person?
    • So many people are too strategic about it. They try to extract as much information from someone as if they’re never going to meet them again.
      • They ask you things like “What’s your top 5 tips for success?”
    • When you’re too strategic about relationships, you’re not going to be great at relationships.
    • When you’re not strategic and have no expectations, things turn out the way they should.
    • Don’t be weird about networking, just show up, be cool, be a part of the conversation and play the long game of building relationships.
      • It’s slow, it’s like dating.
    • Has building relationships come naturally to Dave?
      • Yes, he’s an extrovert and social.
      • The best deals have been done over drinks or cigars.
      • Every time he’s at a social event, you get into conversations that are not about business.
      • His deals weren’t made at the bar, but the inception was there.
        • You get to see who people really are and sense their agenda.
      • Advice for introverts:
        • The key is not to go wide, go deep.
        • You can be strategic with the amount of people you’re going to meet, not the interaction itself.
        • Be self-aware about your style. Instead of trying to talk to everybody, get deep with one or two people.
        • You don’t have to try to be someone that you’re not, just push yourself outside of you comfort zone.
        • Masterminds are great for introverts.
        • Masterminds are a safe environment where people won’t judge you for being introverts.
          • The caliber of people you’ll be with at a mastermind is usually pretty high.
        • If you had to narrow it down to one tip on networking, what would it be?
          • Pick the right mastermind for you and give it a go.
          • From there you will expand your network.
          • The high caliber people will introduce you to their network.
          • Don’t think about masterminds in terms of ROI.
            • 100% of the time, the value you get is completely different from what you expect out of a mastermind.
          • Since you’ve been in business, how much have you spent on masterminds, conferences, etc.?
            • Multiple six figures.
            • This has lead to the millions of dollars he’s made in his businesses.
            • He spends that much, but a lot of people that he’s met have contributed to public speaking events that he gets paid to do.
              • He also gets mastermind clients from these events.
            • What he spends he gets back because he gets paid to network.

The Random Round

• What profession other than your own do you think it would be fun to attempt?
  • Hockey player
• If you could sit on a park bench for any hour with anyone past or present, who would it be?
  • Jesus, get to the bottom of what His vision was? There are so many variations of His message now.
• How do you like to learn best, books, blogs, podcasts or video?
  • He learns from every platform, but especially through osmosis. He’s a fan of just in time learning, he researches all the mediums as he needs them. He likes to be around people and observe.
• Give us a glimpse of your morning routine:
  • Wake up around 6-7
  • Drink a big glass of water
  • Go and have 15 minutes of meditation on his land, uninterrupted.
  • Does his gratitude – he writes down what he wants to accomplish or where he’s heading
  • Cooks his daughter breakfast and hangs out with her
  • Goes to the gym
  • Post-workout shake
  • Starts day around 10am.
• What is your go-to pump up song:
  • Mumford and Sons – Babel
• What are you not very good at?
  • Copywriting
• Can find him on Instagram and Facebook

• • • • • • The Effic planner – uses the production method.
            • You create buckets and break things down into smaller chunks.
            • There is a system to prioritize your tasks.
            • Quarterly planner.
            • Coupon code for Effic planner is TRAVIS to get 10% off.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “When you want to grow, pay to play.”
• “The key is not to go wide, go deep.”

Resources Mentioned:

Buildyournetwork.com – Podcast website

Buildyournetwork.co/fb – Travis’s Facebook group

Effic.co – Dave Ruel’s business website