Hey, everybody.

I'm a host Jake, Gino, podcast here with my co-host, a multifamily mentor, the coach,

chef, the father, six, the bestselling author, The GDady.

Gino Barber, Gene, how's it going?

Jake, I hope you can appreciate the shirt that I'm wearing for you for this pseudo-Monday. It doesn't look like a blue color shirt. It looks like a snobby thing you got going on there. But at least I wanted to liven it up a little bit today. I wanted to make your pseudo-Monday go well. How you brother what's the word i think everyone is using booji

you know you're looking bougie doing good man always make it happen today's guest is a blue collar

entrepreneur best sign author of blue collar cash and mentor who helps people design the life they

want without a four-year degree wow it's uh very timely timely, right? We'll say that. With decades of

experience building successful businesses, he inspires others to create comfort, peace, and freedom

through meaningful work and practical financial wisdom. So without further ado, Ken Rusk, welcome the show.

Thanks for having me, guys. I really appreciate it. Welcome to a pseudo-Munday as it is. That's right. Day after Labor Day. So we're going to, Gino's going to want to be your friend and get to know you and all that. But my first question is here. When did you realize we were entering the Mike Rowe dirty jobs economy and that you had something with this blue collar message. I don't even know what

your message is yet, but I have a feeling here. So I just, did you have a crystal ball? Because

blue collar is here. You know, tech jobs are waning. People are higher, you know, the normal,

you know, displacement. So go weld. go weld it up, baby, right?

Well, yeah, I mean, I first started writing blue collar cash about eight years ago. And even

before then, you know, when you run a bunch of ditch diggers like I do, and I'm probably one

of them, I have been since I was 15, you know, you tend to become an involuntary life coach, okay, whether you like it or not. And I don't have any letters after my name. I don't have any formal training. I never went to college. So I had to like coach people just from what I knew. And, you know, you're helping people out with their first job, you know, their first

department, their first checking account, their first visa, getting their driver's license

cleaned up, all that kind of stuff. And it got me really thinking a long time ago about,

hey, you know, there's a lot of people out there that can create some really awesome lives

without having to go this traditional route that vortexes you into a bunch of debt in four years of your time. So, yeah, I've been doing this for a long time. It started with coaching 25, 30 years ago, and it ended up running into this book somehow, which I still have no idea how that happened, but it worked out okay. Okay, how did you get into the construction business? Were you one of those guys who was not employable who didn't want to go to college and just said, I'm going to get kicked out of the house. I need to do something. Is that how you got into construction? You know, my father said to me when I was, I started 15 digging dishes in the summertime and in the, in the wintertime, I worked in the office at a building. It was literally right next story of my high school. So I kind of learned both sides of the of the house, if you will. And when I was 18, they came to me and they said, look, we know you're thinking about going to college or whatever, but we're going to start opening franchises and we want you to help us do that. So I went to my father and said, what do I do?

He said, listen, they're going to allow you to go open businesses on other people's dime and make mistake on other people's times and that kind of thing.

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