#187 - The Long Game: Ron Rubin on Building Culture, Compounding Wisdom, and Finding Gold in Your Backyard

0:00 I always had this dream to have a vineyard and winery someday. It took me about 40 years, but I was able to purchase a vineyard and winery. All right, you all, hey, welcome back for another episode of The Necessary Entrepreneur. I think we're going to be smiling the entire time. If it isn't good to listen to, just watch this guy because he's got smooth and clean lines all over his life.

0:46 I'm sure if we discover the past 55 years, I'm sure it isn't always built that way, but the outcome seems that it seems like an idyllic place to be. So today's guest is Ron Rubin. He's the CEO of the Republic of Tea. one of the most distinctive and purpose-driven brands in the beverage world. Ron's also the author of Gold in Our Backyard. It's a book about leadership, culture, and discovering extraordinary value in places most people overlook. His perspective on entrepreneurship is thoughtful, long-term, and deeply human, which makes him the perfect guest for the necessary entrepreneur. Ron, welcome to the show. Thank you, I'm honored to be on your show.

1:28 Um, I'm honored to talk to you, man. think this is going to be a nice, um, moment here for me to learn and for me to grow and, to do some deep dives on what 50 years of building your dream. Yeah. Has been, um, you know, today, the newest thing is the Republic of T and your book of gold in our backyard, but you've had three to four businesses. you've been an entrepreneur, a wife long entrepreneur. You've been an adjunct professor in MBA programs at universities. You've lived a heck of a life. Thank you. Can you break this married for 50 plus years? Can you break this life down into simplicity the way that your wife has evolved and what you built?

2:12 Is it simple how you can explain five decades of this life? Well, I think it's simple to the fact that I started with mentors. My dad was my mentor. And I think having mentors in your life, in your business, uh really helps, helps you succeed. And I think that that, you know, if you, if you don't have any mentors who've been there, done that can help bring you through, you know, I think that's really been a key for me all through my career and all through my life. The second thing is I read, I read a tremendous amount of books. I read business books and I'm reading about all these successful entrepreneurs and you know, what did they do to make themselves successful?

3:03 And I think, uh, I never received an MBA degree, but my MBA degree was reading over 1500 business books over, you know, my whole career. had a goal. of 50 books a year, a book a week, and I enjoyed it. I learned so much from their stories. So I think really to break it down simple is really having a mentor and reading, know, and educating yourself. I can go on with some other, but that's simplicity at its best. Yeah. What do you think? I mean, imagine the lessons that you've learned from those 1500 books.

3:46 How do you think that practically applies to the in and out of daily, the daily environment, being an entrepreneur? I can take those lessons that I might learn in that book and apply them to our own business, whether it's the tea company or the winery and, you know, and, and incorporate that business into, mean, that lesson into our business. And so it's really, uh, you know, one of the lessons I learned about having uh a personality. profile tests for all the employees that you were going to hire.

4:28 We never had anything like that. And I discovered that about this company called Caliper and we used it, we've used it for the last 30 years. You know, I read about strategic planning, you know, people talk about it, but you know, 30 years ago, there weren't too many people talking about strategic planning, but I learned about strategic planning from reading in a book. And so what I do is try to apply the lessons. One of the lessons I just applied from reading a trillion dollar coach was low lights and highlights. And when we have our board meetings, we always start with the low lights.

5:11 Everybody starts with the highlights, but we start with our low lights. How did I incorporate that from a book that I read? So I think. taking little nuggets and applying them to your business or your life and uh is really helpful. Do you feel that they've all compounded? the origin of the question is, do you pick one up and use it now and set it down and go get another one or do they all compound? yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Just what you said, Mark. They all compound. You bring them in and then you use them for numbers, a number of years. We've, we've, we've used strategic planning for about 30 years.

5:54 And when I bought the winery and never had a winery before, but one of the first things we did was strategic planning for the winery. You know, the, uh I learned in a book about, you know, having a a byline or a message, you know, under your brand name. And we never had one at the Republic of Tea. And I learned that we should have one. had one, we created one, Leading Preveyor of Premium Teas. And that's what we're all about, Leading Preveyor of Teas. So I buy the winery. They don't, it's called River Road Family Vineyards and Winery.

6:35 Doesn't have uh a tagline. And we come up, our team comes up with a tagline, a beautiful experience. And so we use that. We want you to have a beautiful experience, whether you come visit us or you try our wine in your home. We want it to be a beautiful experience. And so you incorporate those ideas that you've learned and you can take them from one business to the next business. Hmm. I bet that to you details matter. Sure they matter. So as I tell you why I know that details matter to Ron, I'll let you go into why they matter.

7:20 I opened up this awesome package that you sent us with your book and with tea in it, but I opened it up and the packing, went, these are tea bags. next That is a detail down to the finite principle of what you're building. Thank you. Sure. We think about all that. You know, I read this book, uh, shut up and listen. Okay. And they talked about the last 5%. And it ended up what they meant is businesses get 95 % correct. What they do, they have the systems in place, but it's that last 5 % that's going to make a difference.

8:08 And so when we design. What you received is with the book, we had trouble getting the book, taking the book out of the box. And if you look at that box real close, you're going to see there's a little place for your finger to lift that box book out of, out of the box. Do you see that? Yep. So when we originally designed it, that wasn't there. And so what we call that the last 5%. So. I think business entrepreneurs and owners, should focus in on that last 5%.

8:48 Should we focus on the last 5 % after we're in the business? And I asked that because I see too many people waiting too long to make it perfect before they start, but maybe you would counter that. it seems like some people never start because they're worried about the last 5%. Well, I think you have to start any entrepreneur wants to start, but, um, I think you just had to keep that in the back of your mind. Let's get 95 % correct first, and then we're going to move to that last 5%. A constant improvement. you mentioned before we jumped on, asked you about your travels and I mean, you get to live in three different places throughout the year, but you mentioned about going to China and I'm assuming that was to find the best tea.

9:37 tends to be in China and Taiwan. That's correct. Yep. What'd you take back from? I'm always interested in what I bring back from cultures. It could be another city within our country. It might be another country. It could be a continent away, but you can't go much further than Asia from where we are. Is there something that impacted you there that you saw that you could really bring back to even grow and build a better life? Well, I did see and what made the difference in my life, in our businesses and also personal life, was learning about feng shui. You know, the flow of energy, water and wind, placement.

10:20 And I learned that in China. And I wanted to, I just fell in love with that concept. But the way I really learned about it was picking up as many books as I could read. about Feng Shui to understand. And then we were able to use a Feng Shui architect to design not only our home, but our business, the Republic of Tea. We use a Feng Shui architect for River Road family vineyards and winery. And we have really tried to educate our team what Feng Shui is all about. And so the placement of uh just the colors that we use, the way the desks are set.

11:03 The design, the flow, when you walk into the winery, it's a curved road, not a straight road. I mean, it's just a, and we try to educate not only our team, but our customers. So I would say Feng Shui was really a life-changing learning lesson for me going to China. What do you have to do to be open-minded to embrace that and see those moments though? This applies to traveling, applies to business through growth. How were you positioned to recognize that and to be interested and take it away? Well, I worked for my dad for 17 years till he passed away and he had this expression, gold in your backyard.

11:51 And the expression that he used meant that when I came back to work for him in Southern Illinois, I felt dad, there's no way that, you know, I'm going to have a, I have college friends that are, you know, went to Chicago, they went to New York, they went to LA. There's no way somebody. in Southern Illinois, you know, is going to be as successful. And my dad would say, there's gold in your backyard. You just have to dig deep enough. And so I think what he did is he helped Trami look for those opportunities. And you know where the opportunities are? They're in your backyard.

12:32 What's that metaphor? What's that metaphor mean? What does it really mean? It really means look where you are today, successful, where you started. You didn't have to go to New York to be a real estate broker and become successful. didn't, you know, you took the opportunity that was right in front of you, right where you were. And I think that that's what it means. Now today, a lot of the young adults, they go off to college and the last place that they think that they want to come back is their hometown. I think it's the first place they should come back. It's, it's like, it's right there. Well, you know, I'm not coming back home.

13:13 mean, we can't, we can't do anything. You know, I can't be successful back home, but you can be. It's right there in your backyard. You just had to dig deep enough. What, um, what's special about back home in Southern Illinois to you? Is this, I have, have a mentor person that I spend time with now that was a head me a business. was from Cape, Cape. Yeah, sure. I in Carrow, Illinois. We would go to Cape all the time. But I think what's special, of course, is the people. I mean, they're hardworking. They came up on a farm. They appreciate.

13:55 A lot of times we could leave the doors unlocked. It's just a small town. You knew everybody. Everybody tried to take care of each other. You know, it was a little slower pace, uh, not the big city, but, anyway, I just, it's just calm, peaceful. Boy, technology's brought the big city to all of our doorsteps, hasn't it? Your hands, but I, I enjoy it. You know, my new assistant is Chad GPT. you all have a great relationship, We have a great relationship. know, I thank GBT every time I put in something and tell them how great they are.

14:41 um Do they ever tell you something you don't wanna hear? Well, I think that they give me some information that I'm not agreeable with at times. I don't know if it's not that I don't want to hear, they, uh, you know, they, they give me some, I have different opinions than they do at times. So what do do with it? How do you interact with it then? Do you keep going? Do you have a conversation? Do you leave it alone and come back? How do you interact? I think the interaction, what I've learned going to some seminars is the more detail you can be and put in the information. It's like, uh, you know, that expression, what garbage in garbage out or something like that.

15:23 You know, it's like, if I could type something for maybe two or 300 words and really give them what I'm searching for or what the answers I need or what we're all about, you're going to get a better. To me, it works better. I get a better reply. When you were an adjunct professor at St. Louis University, um when you look back on that time, what was your takeaway? I'm assuming you don't do that anymore. No, I don't do it anymore. Okay. What was your takeaway in your quiet moments, not outside of the students and you sit down in an office.

16:04 What was your takeaway from that time? Well, I think the takeaway was being able to teach students from someone that was personally involved in business. For example, I talked to them about the importance of no debt, running a business. Then you can run your life with no debt and really talking about debt. We talked about innovation. I talked about the most, the finest business book ever written. Do you know which one that is? You're about to tell me. The little engine that could. love it. I think I can, I think I can. You know, I brought some, uh if you got a minute, I'll tell you a story from that.

16:49 I brought some toy uh cars, know, railroad cars, know, the engine. And I gave them out to all of our students. And I'm sitting there just waiting, waiting. Now, do know what you did when you were... a little kid and you got a toy somebody gave you. I'm instantly playing with it. I'm you're playing with it. I'm playing Yep. And it's like, where did that go? That's what I'm trying to teach him. Where did it go? You know, and then I said, okay, you guys can unwrap it. I don't have to tell you to unwrap it.

17:31 And then I'm waiting for him to play with it. Nobody's playing with it. Finally, we got one brave student starts playing with it. You know, he starts to do choo choo, choo choo. And it's like, You just see that you've lost that, you know, you lost that and I'm trying to bring it back, you know? And so that was important. I also tried to teach them that, you know, if you're on time, you're late. And how important it was to be on time and then go out in your backyard, you'll read a story. I'm not proud about it, but I set the guidelines that if you're late to my class.

18:14 You're going to get fired. It's just that simple. Trying to teach them how business works. And of course we had one individual that came late that didn't have an excuse and he got fired. And he said, well, I'm going to go to the Dean and you know, I can't graduate without your credits. Well, I called the Dean first and I said, listen, you know, this is, this is where the rules, this is, you know, business. If you want to. have him come back, it's not going to be in my classroom, you know? And the next week, everybody shows up about 10 or 15 minutes early.

18:55 And then I let them out 10 or 15 minutes early, which they're happy about. But, know, trying to set a little discipline, trying to tell them what the real world's about, telling stories, you know, what, no debt, learning, you know, just business. So. I enjoyed it. It was fun. Did, um... Do you know what that person became? Have no idea. That'd be interesting. But I know that there are some that were in my class that have been very successful. that stay in contact with that have a uh strong connection. um The of all these businesses, do you have a favorite one?

19:40 It might be asking you like which one of your kids is favorite. I don't care. I'm going to ask the question. I'm allowed to ask whatever question I want. are what are one of, do you have one of the favorites? Well, when I, when I grew up, uh, and went to the university, Illinois, my last year, I knew I was going into our family wholesale wine and liquor business. And an individual told my dad, Ron should go to the university of California at Davis and study viticochrine and enology. And so my senior year, I drove out to California and studied viticochrine and enology at UC Davis. And I fell in love with. Northern California, fell in love with the wine, wine country.

20:22 fell in love with the product wine, my wife and I fell in love together out there. And it just became, I always had this dream to have a vineyard and winery someday. And what happened, it took me about 40 years exactly from 1971 to 2011, but I was able to purchase a vineyard and winery. And I think that that happened because I had a heart problem or issue that at age 60, that really woke me up and said that nobody promises you tomorrow, you know, and you have to seize the day.

21:08 And when I survived from this heart issue, I told my wife, I said, I want to start looking for that vineyard and winery out in California. So I guess, you know, I, I enjoyed that. I enjoy that business very much. I also enjoy the fact that our son, Todd is running the Republic of T now. So, you know, it's very proud of what he does. He's the minister of evolution and president, and he's done a tremendous, great job. Our daughter, Julie. She's an entrepreneur, she's a speech language pathologist. So, you know, I think for me, I think the wine business is something I dreamed about.

21:53 I'm doing it now and I really love it. So you love both of your kids' businesses. I get it. um That churns up a question in me around this idea that... Once you own the winery, what is it as sweet as the pursuit of trying to own it? sweet. I think it was sweet because I set goals. And so there was an opportunity to look at that winder and say, you know, we're doing about 20 to 25,000 cases of shipments.

22:39 Can we reach 100,000 cases? Can we grow that business? And that's what our goal was. It took us eight years, but we made it. And so I think it was a big challenge. know, it's taking a business and growing it. So I would say yes. When I had the Republic, when I bought the Republic of T in 1994, my first goal there was how fast could I pay off Southwest Bank in St. Louis, Missouri, the money that I borrowed to buy the company. And that took me six years, three months and 15 days.

23:20 And since June 15th of 2000, the Republic of T's been a debt free company. And the winery, when I bought it, saved the money for 40 years, we became a debt free company. And so why? Because my dad taught me that, you know, he taught me how to run businesses and how to grow a business. You know, and we're talking about a small family business. I mean, I understand. You want to go public and I understand if you want to be on the stock exchange, but you know, what makes up the economy in the United States, in my opinion, is all the small businesses that we have in the United States.

24:03 Yeah. Yeah. Do you think a business, does it ever get to the point where growth isn't essential? So you built it from the 20, 20 to 25,000 cases to a hundred. Cause we hear this an out, like if you're not growing, you're falling behind. I think so. I think, uh, my three favorite words are sell, sell, sell. And I think it's top line revenue that really helps the day, you know? And so for me, it's always been a challenge. Now, how do we take that a hundred thousand cases to 200,000 cases? a man and speak and speak in my language.

24:44 know, and so that's, that's where we are now. And we're going to, it's, it's not going to be a straight path. It's going to be kind of a zigzag path up and down, but you hope over time you're going to reach it. So, you know, some years it's just, you know, COVID came around and what can we do about that? I mean, you just have to realize, you know, it's going to have a big effect on your business. And so then the next year you just try to continue to innovate. trying to look for opportunities and to grow your business. So I think growth has to be number one. Yeah. What have you done?

25:25 COVID is a perfect example, but I bet over 50 years of business, there's been multiple moments that you didn't foresee that were massively challenging, that you didn't have the solve prepared for. What do you do in those moments? What do you reflect on that this was the approach? Were they all different? Did you have to rely on a different set of skills or is it a singular approach that every time something like that happened? Well, in the book, Golden Your Backyard, I have a lesson about pivot. I know you hear that word and it's kind of a slang word, but really in business, you do have to pivot at times. I'm going to give you kind of a quick, real quick answer if you don't mind.

26:07 You know, I write gold in your backyard. can distribute it, we can sell it, we have a warehouse, we can ship it. And we start doing that for six months. And I realized that I have to go to Ingram. I have to play their game. You know, if we want to get this book out there and distribution, I thought we could do it ourselves through the Republic of T, but I learned no, not going to work. And so did I want to change? Not really. But I realized for the best, had to pivot. had to change, you know, So you see those things and you just go a different direction.

26:52 Now, when I bought the Republic of T, we wanted to be a specialty tea company and not mass. And so mass market. And so I think you come to a fork in a road that you're either going to be, in my opinion, you're either going to remain specialty or you're going to go mass. And you can't do both with a brand. And we decided to stay specialty. Now we've been a specialty company for over 30 years. You know, this is our 34th year. And so, uh, we're not going to change. We're not going to pivot. We're not going to, we're going to stay right in that lane.

27:35 want to be, that's where we want to be specialty. Hmm. And I guess that's your own personal reasons, philosophies, what your goals are for the business, how you make those decisions, right? Yeah, but we have 150 or more families that rely on their livelihood with the Republic of T. You know, when I pull into the parking lot and I see all these cars, the first thing I think about is, you know, your team that they're given so much time of their life. Why don't you have the strongest company that you can? You know, we want, we want to provide for these families. So anyway.

28:17 Do you operate these companies with the same principles and values or do those evolve separately within whatever culture is built? Well, at the Republic of Tea, we have a mission to enrich people's lives through premium tea, education, and innovation. So when I bought the winery, we only had to change one word. We enrich people's lives through premium wine, education, and innovation. So we took the same DNA is the same principles and we applied it to another business.

29:05 Do you think you could take that and your son, if he were to do it and continue on the pathway, do you think you could apply this to almost any business or has it worked in the beverage space? Cause that's what you came up in. I think any business to the extent that I think education is a key and innovation is a key. So not only do you have to educate your team, but you had to educate your customer and then you have to innovate. The other thing I might say is I had a mentor tell me there's only three keys to success in business. And I thought, wow, now that's, I'd like to hear about that.

29:48 So Mark, do you want to hear the three keys to success in business? Not just me, you've got us all on pins and needles. We all want to hear it. Well, the first key is customer satisfaction. Okay. If you can't satisfy your customer, you're not going to have a business. It's all about satisfying your customer, customer satisfaction. The second key is employee satisfaction. Okay. Because if you can't satisfy your team, you don't pay them enough and you just don't have the right fit and the right people. You're not going to have a successful business. So employee satisfaction.

30:30 So you have to have customer satisfaction. have to have employee satisfaction and you're ready for the third key, final key, cash flow. That's it. These are the lessons that you find in gold in your backyard. Why is cashflow so important? don't want to skip over the first two because those are fundamental. mean, I think here's, I think people listening to the first two, anyone who's even not an entrepreneur, this term entrepreneur, that that's an employee that works in, they would agree with those two. The third is high level, C-suite, entrepreneurial, director level.

31:15 They understand this, but not everyone does. Why is cashflow? Cause you didn't say profit. You didn't say gross margin. You didn't say net. You said cash flow. cashflow. A lot of people don't understand it. Entrepreneurs need to have a cashflow report every week. I get one every Wednesday. I've gotten it for a number of years. You know, it's the heartbeat of the business. You know, you have so many entrepreneurs I know today start a business, they go out and they get a big sale from Target or whomever, Walmart or whoever it is. And then they need to go buy more material or more items, more supplies.

31:57 And they're waiting for their money. They don't have any money. You know, they get strung out, you know, and it's like, oh, it's just, it's that cash flow that that's the heartbeat, the energy of your business. And you have to learn what that's all about. And you do a cashflow projection for the next four weeks, you know, the money coming in and the money going out. It's just the heartbeat of the business. That's on my mind. I can't tell you how many times a day. It's number one in the forefront of my brain because everyone on our team understands that one and two have to happen or we don't have a business.

32:42 But the third one is a separate parallel idea that if we don't have that, we don't have a business either, but it's a total separate category. That's correct. But it is, you know what I've told people? said, here's how I can explain cashflow. It allows me to make my mistakes and keep going. just, it just does because It just eliminates the worry. allows me to take on more risks than almost anybody around me, because I just know the lifeblood is I might, I'm not taking it for granted because I built the thing over years, but I see what's happening over the next 30, 45, 60, and 90 days. And I realize if these things don't go well, I realize that if we do spend money in this area, I understand what's going to keep us going and moving forward.

33:27 And I love profit. I do. Right. But. Profit's a short term distraction for the business. are you going to do with profit? What am going do with it? Go buy something, make my wife a little bit better. mean, reinvent. Yeah, that's fine. But cashflow is the wife blood. is the heartbeat and the blood in your body. If that's not working, doesn't matter what other organs going on. Right. Yeah. And you need to be on top of it. Just like you said, you know what the next two or three months are going to look like. And you need to get a statement every, every week. And you know, I preach preach cashflow statements. teach that and I taught that in my class.

34:09 I had to learn it to your point. don't, it was important for somebody to hear today and hear that for you or listen to their adjunct professor. It's important to hear, but until you're in it. You don't really know what it feels and what it looks like because I think also what it's allowed me to do is it allows me to make the right decisions for the business. Right? What, what expenditures look like? Can we invest in this? Do we need to push that off till the next quarter? And then if you don't like where your cashflow is at, if it has limiting aspects to the company, then make some changes on sales. There's a number of things in my book, the gold in your backyard that you won't find in an MBA class. And one of the things I'd like to mention to you for your listeners and leaders to hear is that I'm a big proponent of term life insurance.

35:00 Okay. Especially if you're starting a new business, especially if you take on a lot of debt, that you know, you can relatively buy term life insurance. that will help, you know, your family and God forbid something happens in case of emergency. It won't strap your wife or whatever, whomever oh with your debt that you might've taken on for, you know, being an entrepreneur. And for me, it was just, uh it just helps you sleep a lot better at night knowing God forbid something would happen that this bank is going to be paid off. There's going to be enough money for our kids' college education.

35:43 You won't have to worry about the mortgage on your house, you know, and your car payment because of term life insurance. And I'm really a big proponent of that. for you. um bet, and I learned after having it, I couldn't get any further insurance. There you go. So make sure you have the heart problem. have the ability to earn a high amount of cashflow. That's great. What do you, what do you love most about business? What do love? Well, I learned it's a learning experience every day. learned something new. So it's exciting.

36:23 It's, know, we're in the game or in the game of business, you know, or playing the game or, know, it's just like, uh, anybody in sports, you know, what do they love about football? What do they love about whatever sport they might do? It's, it's a sport. It's a game, you know, I'm not a golfer, you know, and so, uh It's just exciting. There's a challenge. Keeps your brain going. I we said, I don't know if it was on the podcast or just before. I said, you said you work four days a week. And my response was, no, no, no. You work seven days a week. And cause that brain is always working and I'm open. Tell me if I'm wrong.

37:04 It is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All the quiet moments and the things happening that no one else sees. Yeah. What's your style of, do you feel like you have a style of leadership? Uh, style, you'd have to ask the, all the ones that work for us, you know, I think, uh, trying to be humble, having empathy, taking care of your team. You know, I think that's educating them, you know, helping them grow, promoting from within. I'm a big promoter that. Women, they rule, you know, women in your business, I think.

37:45 I learned that early on, you know, we have women in leadership roles in our business. They, they're just fantastic leaders. They just, know, the guys, you guys, have to realize it. They're, they're coming on strong. You know who says that? One of the shark tank guys, Kevin O'Leary says that same thing. Really? Yeah. I pick it up from Kevin O'Leary, by the way. No, I think you probably built it yourself, but, if you hear the things you've built and you hear successful people, they leave footprints and they leave receipts. That's the mentorship idea. Right. And so all it takes for me is to hear the same thing from just two or three really successful people. And you have to go, okay.

38:27 That must be a truth. Right. Great. Yeah. The, um, this book that you wrote. You know, you had this 40 year pursuit of acquiring the winery that started in 1971. Um, and then you were able to buy it in 2011 was writing this book. it a similar path and trajectory of a goal? Eventually you would. Well, what my goal was that each year I would write something down that really was made a difference, know, something that stood out during that one year in business.

39:09 And so over a number of years, I would accumulate these one-off lessons. And when I would give a uh speech, Like to the young presidents organization, YPO, I could take my 15 lessons and talk about each lesson for two or three minutes. And Hey, that's my 45 minutes speech all wrapped up in one. And so I just, um, I had these lessons and so the goal was really, let's, let's put them in a book. You know, so they'll, they're something to pass on.

39:49 And I just think it took a. a number of years to write the book, but I had the lessons, you know, somewhat already prepared, I guess, through my career. You know, one of the lessons I learned about is just a MedJet Assist. Have you ever heard of MedJet Assist? No, I'll say no. Something about it seems familiar, but so no. Okay. So MedJet Assist is a medical company that flies you anywhere in the world. Uh, if you have a medical event on a medical plane. Okay. I learned about that reading in Fortune magazine.

40:29 signed up for it. was $300 a month. I mean a year, uh, to have this MedJet Assist. Well, the bottom line of it is when I had my heart problem in California, I needed to fly to St. Louis. And it costs $60,000 on a medical jet. And my son called up MedJet Assist. They said, yeah, Mr. Rubin's all paid up. We'll send a jet and we'll fly you no charge from California to St. Louis. So it's in my, it's a lesson I learned. That was the most important lesson. So there's a lesson about MedJet Assist. So I had a friend of mine read the book and he said, you know, I never heard of MedJet Assist.

41:14 But my parents are going over to Japan for vacation. And I just went on MedJet Assist and I bought, I bought the insurance for my parents because it gives me comfort to know, God forbid something happens to them in Japan. I can get them home on MedJet Assist. Thanks Ron for telling me about it. You know, and so that's really what a lot of these lessons are about. You won't find them in MBA school, but you'll find them in the book. What's this a crossroads of you being an adjunct professor and believing in education, but the 50 most valuable things that you found to wrote down to write down won't be found in those places.

42:00 What do mean they won't be found in those places? oh two or three of the lessons that you say are in the book that you say you won't hear these in NBA program. You won't, but there are some lessons you probably hear in NBA program, you know. Yeah, but what about this? What's the, you know, what's the crossroad of that? It's not to devalue traditional education, but what's the principle in I think the principle is that it's a book written with somebody's been in there, played the game, is playing the game, is current. And the lessons are uh from an active person who's really had experience running businesses. Not just a, and there's nothing wrong with professors or teachers or whatever, but you know, true entrepreneurship, you know, and I think that that's, that's the value, you know.

42:53 Yeah, someone's been there done that. You know, 20, 21 years ago, I found myself in a night class at university here where I'm from. And there was an adjunct business professor and one comment on one night led me to go obtain my real estate license. Wow. That's powerful. And so when you started, when you, when you early on said about listening, obviously I listened. Right. And then there's the action that you have to take from that. think you have to put both together. You have to listen in life, look for the mentors, listen to the people that have the receipts that have the experience, but then you have to have the fortitude and the desire and the commitment to actually take action and make the thing happen.

43:43 Yeah. Yeah. Um, as we wrap up, okay. think we're coming, we're coming to the end of, end of our time. Um, does, does this idea of legacy matter to you or what's it mean and does it matter your legacy? I don't think about that. I guess it doesn't matter. name's not on a building. You know, I'd rather help others, help someone along the way. more about what you leave behind. Yeah. And, uh, right now it's all about saving lives. So how can we save lives?

44:24 know, teach people CPR, have an automatic external defibrillator. They saved my life, giving back to causes that helped save people's lives. That's what you do with the other three days. um us about, we're all so fascinated about these wineries. What makes it special? What you love about your time in Florida, you love walking on the beach. What you love about being at the winery, you love walking the vineyards. What is this about? You love these walks in places. What's that about Ron? Well, I ran for 30 years. was a runner.

45:04 Okay. So basically from age 30 to age 60. And then I had my ventricular tachycardia right after I had ran 20 miles. And then the cardiologist said, Ron, you can't run anymore. And I think the running time that that time just being alone, thinking, you know, just taking in nature and just, gave you, gave me time to think. And I think walking provides the same thing. And then of course, exercise. I think it's, you know, your responsibility to be in good health if you're leading the team. And uh so I think the exercise part is great for me and I'm no longer a runner, I'm a walker.

45:54 And you're enjoying every moment. Um, what is, uh, this book? It's the, it's the most recent thing, but the winery, mean, where, uh, you worked with Ingram on it, but is it also on audible? Can we listen to it? Is it only read? It's on Audible. made an Audible and we're getting that set up now through Ingram to be on Amazon, but you can buy the book on Amazon or at the Republic of T. Okay. The, did you read the book? Are you the audible? I read the book. Yes, that was quite an experience. It was fun. I enjoyed it. Tell us about that.

46:35 That'll be our last wrap up here, but I want to, so we can go on Amazon, the auto will be out soon. The Republic of T, you can find everything out about you and we'll put all the tags, but tell us about the experience. My was that I wanted to read, uh, do the audible, but at the time that I had to do it, I was in Florida. And so, you know, I'm thinking, you know, that's not going to work because they want me to do it, but I'm in Florida. And so I go to Naples, Florida and sure enough, right there is go to my backyard. I find a studio. that does audio books every day.

47:16 That's their business in little Naples, Florida. And so for about three or four weeks, I did my audio right here in Naples, Florida. Got to continue to walk on the beach. Mmm. Good. And you walked to the studio? I could, it was unbelievable. It was like, there it is, in your backyard. That's awesome. Good. Well, Ron Rubin, I appreciate the time. The Republic of Tea, I'm assuming, I looked at Dave, our producer here, when you guys sent this, went, this has the feel of monthly subscriptions.

47:59 This has the feel of high level elite tea drinking. rate. Is it, um, I'm assuming that we can get online and buy subscriptions and not just one off and receive stuff in the mail consistently. I correct? Okay. He's like, somebody else is running it now. Um, well, Hey, this bank pumped. put my finger in the little slot so I could pull it out. But, I know that there's massive care and intention behind it because this hardback I love, this is a fung shui. It feels like it's the, the binding is different. It's cleaning. There's it's so clean in the lines and the gold on top, just the experience of reading it.

48:41 think is going to be fun. it's Ron Rubin, golden, your backyard lessons in life, leadership and the power of a dream. You All right. Hey, thanks for the time. if I'm ever in Sonoma, I know a lot of people ask some stuff, but I'll probably try to entry and say, I'm bringing a, I'm bringing my camera guys. We're coming to do a piece where we want a tour of the wall. We'd love to have you. When are you in Sonoma? from June 1st to November 1st. June 1st and November 1st. Okay. Sonoma here we come. you to have a beautiful experience. Okay, you're awesome. Thank you very much. And again, remind us the name of the the winery and the one.

49:23 River Road Family Vineyards and Winery. River Road. River road. Yep. Thank you for the time. Enjoy your walks on the beach. The rest of the afternoon. Okay, thanks Mark. time.