How A Burned Out Owner Set Up His Company To Run 6 Months Without Him | Dan Kuschell

Dan Kuschell (0:00)

I realized that I had built my own version that was a misleading version of success. I was given my health left over. I was over 85 pounds heavier, Tommy, than I am today.

I was hardly home 90, 100 hours a week. When I went through this heart procedure for four plus days, it scared me is what it did. And I came out of there. I'm committed to make some shifts. You talk about it in your book Elevate, a lot. Who do you got to become? And so I sat down and identified, you know, what do I really want?

Tommy Mello (0:35)

Welcome back to The Home Service Expert. I've got a guest today who's going to rock your world. His name is Dan Kuschell. He grew up on welfare in Detroit. Watching his dad fight to find clients at 22, he started a direct mail company for health clubs. Hid a million dollars in revenue his first year and eventually grew that business to over 200,000 clients with 170 employees before selling it. He's built 12 companies since then, served as the CEO of Joe Paulish's Genius Network, who helped over 5,000 founders across 180 industries. Today, he works primarily with home service businesses. Dan joins us for this episode to break down his one message, method for landing ideal clients, a referral system that generates without ever asking for it. Why most companies are selling wrong?

It's kind of funny, Dan.

I did a three-mile walk with Joe this morning.

Dan Kuschell (1:31)

No kidding.

Tommy Mello (1:32)

That's amazing. Yeah. He's always a hoot. I mean, the problem is I ask him for one referral, he'll send me 40

He just knows everybody. So he gave me a few referrals this morning.

Dan Kuschell (1:47)

He wrote the book on it, Life Gives to the Givers, Takes from the Takers, and he's always been that way. I've known Joe for about 20 some years, even before he started Genius Network. But that's his superpower. He's just amazing.

Tommy Mello (2:02)

So Dan.

Dan Kuschell (2:03)

Well, I want to share something that leads right into our unique system. You talk a lot about process, and so we wrote the book on this, which is called Direct Response Branding. It's the merge of those two things. It's not one or the other.

It's do both. Bring them together, and then magic happens and you hit that bullseye. Anyway.

Tommy Mello (2:23)

I love it. I've read a similar book by Dan Kennedy called No BS About Direct Marketing, and I've studied that book. Then No BS About Marketing to Affluent Clients.

The idea being is, I'm not in the richest of the areas of the United States yet. I mean, there's pockets in Phoenix, there's pockets in Michigan, there's pockets in Milwaukee. But I just know once I get into South Florida and some parts of California, like you don't need as many clients. We're going to talk about all this stuff, Dan. I just want to, I always get to know, the audience has got to get to know you, but I wanted to get that off my chest. So, and I want to sign copy of that book.

Dan Kuschell (3:00)

You got it.

Tommy Mello (3:01)

So you grew up on welfare in Detroit watching your dad fight for clients. I did as well. My dad had a transmission shop on Grashit, which you know because you're from Michigan and I'm from Michigan. At 22, you started your direct mail business for health clubs and hit a million dollars your first year, which back then was a lot of money. Not saying you're old, but it's just 22 It was a long time ago for both of us.

How did you go from welfare to figuring out direct mail marketing?

Dan Kuschell (3:33)

Well, here's a story. I don't think I've shared very many places, Tommy. So out of necessity, number one, watching my dad struggle, I was 10 years old when he lost his first business, which was a restaurant and bar in the inner city of Detroit. It was a bad location. He didn't know how to market. He didn't know how to run a business. And we went on welfare. We were on food stamps, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, man, this is painful. I don't like this. And so this was also around the time. Because of that, I started my own landscaping business in the area and shoveling snow in the winter, lawns, etc.

And started earning money and started understanding that side of it just at a grassroots, in the trenches kind of way.

And then my dad started another business and I was a bit big into sports. So I thought my real dream was going to be to play pro baseball. And things were heading that direction and then I had an injury at my senior year of high school. But along the way, my dad started that second business, a printing company in Livonia. You probably know Livonia. So he added in Livonia, it was called Minuteman Press. And things were going, but I watched my dad not be able to market and he didn't know how to run the business again. I was a little bit older. And this was when I started studying. My dad had got me excited about biographies. And most of it was sports related, Tommy. You know, people like Willie Mays, Mickey Manil, Pete Ruhn. I started seeing the characteristics, the qualities. You talk a lot about that in your book, Elevate and also in Home Service Millionaire. You know, the qualities and who do you have to become? And I was fascinated with this as well as psychology. And then my senior year of high school, my high school coach blackballed me and said, I'm not going to promote you to, you know, the pro scouts that are reaching out or the big colleges that are reaching out because I was playing for another coach in the summer. And I felt betrayed and all this sort of stuff. So what do you do? You do what you can do. You control your controllables. My dad certainly instigated this, but we literally put a direct mail campaign. My dad just passed away last year about this time, but he actually had the direct mail campaign.