Nothing Starts with No, with Bill Rancic – Episode 460 of The Action Catalyst Podcast

Entrepreneur, television personality, author and speaker Bill Rancic talks about becoming an entrepreneur at age 10, the 3 biggest lessons he learned from competing on (and winning) The Apprentice, how he was treated by Trump, words of wisdom from Howie Mandel, breaking down goals into smaller victories, “The Mega Brands That Built America” on The History Channel, the way fatherhood forced him to change both his personal and business mindset, and learning from Neil Armstrong if the moon landing was a hoax?

About Bill:

After bursting on to the scene as NBC’s first Apprentice, Bill Rancic has traveled to every part of the globe, sharing his life experiences and business acumen with tens of thousands of leaders, businesses and organizations on a variety of important topics.  His expertise ranges from why some companies thrive in chaos — and others don’t — to the leadership behaviors needed in a world beset by turbulence, uncertainty and dramatic change.

What makes Bill so unique is that he is both a student and teacher of leadership and has a healthy obsession with what makes great companies and leaders tick.

Having invested nearly two decades living the topic, Rancic has authored four books. These include New York Times best-seller You’re Hired: How to Succeed in Business and Life, which examines how some companies and leaders make the leap to superior results; the enduring classic Beyond the Lemonade Stand which teaches young people empowers them with the value of both money and positive self-image. In addition, Rancic co-authored I Do… Now What? with celebrity wife Giuliana Rancic where they share secrets to a supportive love and true partnership in marriage.  He also just penned his first novel, First Light.

Driven by a relentless curiosity, Rancic really began his business journey when graduated cum laude from Loyola University. He then went on to become a successful entrepreneur when he founded a monthly online subscription-based retailer.  Since that time, he has inspired millions of people around the globe to work towards reaching their full potential, both in business and in their personal lives. He is currently co-owner of the RPM Restaurant Group and the Giuliana Prosecco.  

Rancic appears regularly on numerous daytime broadcast and cable television programs such as Today, The View, Rachael Ray, Steve Harvey and various CNBC programs.

He currently resides in Chicago with his wife Giuliana and son Duke.

Learn more at BillRancic.com.

The Action Catalyst is presented by the Southwestern Family of Companies. With each episode, the podcast features some of the nation’s top thought leaders and experts, sharing meaningful tips and advice. Learn more at TheActionCatalyst.com, subscribe below or wherever you listen to podcasts, and be sure to leave a rating and review!

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(Transcribed using A.I. / May include errors):

Adam Outland
Bill Rancic is the winner of season one of The Apprentice, a successful entrepreneur many times over, author of four books, and has delivered hundreds of speeches for prestigious clients like Coca Cola, Capital One, Marriott, Wells Fargo and others. You can now catch him featured on History Channel’s The Mega Brands That Built America. Bill. Welcome to The Action Catalyst.

Bill Rancic
Oh, thank you for having me, quite an introduction.

Adam Outland
Bill, you’re joining us from Chicago today. You’re from Chicago, your career seems to always keep you around Chicago or take you back to Chicag. For our listeners who’ve never been there, what’s so special about Chicago? And why is the pizza better?

Bill Rancic
Well, I’ll answer the first part of the question first, and it’s the people. You know, Chicago is a big city that gives you a hug when you come here, you know, the people just are real. They’re hard working. And they’re from here. It’s generational. And it’s like Boston, and a lot of these great cities where people take a lot of pride in their city. So the architecture is amazing. You know, the lakefront is incredible. But at the end of the day, it’s about the people in the pizza just as the best. The deep dish pizza, no one makes it better than here in Chicago.

Adam Outland
I want to talk about your first entrepreneurial venture. I mean, the very first, when did you catch the bug?

Bill Rancic
Well, the first the first business I had was with my grandma, and I was 10. I was at my grandma’s for the weekend, my mom and dad were heading out of town. And I woke up one morning and my grandmother is in the kitchen making breakfast. And you know, it’s probably like a lot of entrepreneurs out there. I would always ask a million questions. You know, what goes here? Why are you doing that? How does that work. And my grandmother decided she was going to take me in the kitchen, and she was going to teach me how to cook. But I spent all day making pancakes with her in the kitchen. And then the next day, I woke up, and I raced into the kitchen, and I picked up the phone and I called all the old ladies who lived on my grandmother’s block. And I invited them all to come over for a pancake breakfast. And they loved it. And then when they left, they all left $5 bills underneath their plate, and I said Oh my I’m onto something here. So then for the next five weeks, I went to my grandmother’s every weekend, and I had this big shift restaurant, that my mom caught wind of what was going on and she shut the operation down, she claimed I was taking your sole Security money. So that business ended immediately. That was my first start to be honest with you. And then from there, I started buying and selling used cars when I was 14, there was an old publication, this is way before the Internet called the trading times. And I was using that to buy new cars and then resell them. And then I had the boat wash and wax business in college. And then when I was right out of college, I took a job briefly for about eight months. And I realized that I couldn’t work for anyone else. And then I started a an Adelaide cigar subscription company that we send cigars to your home every month, we had over 10,000 monthly subscribers getting these boxes sent to their home every single month, it took off, I started in a 400 square foot studio apartment. And then it quickly grew and grew. And it was, it was something.

Adam Outland
Sounds like you internalized a lot of these important business principles very early on. I actually started a division of our company where we focus on providing one on one coaching to youth and I currently serve as president of our foundation, Kindness for Kids. And in that foundation, we actually it just reminds me that we actually work with young people in particular, the foundation sponsors, underserved youth, aging out foster youth, students that don’t usually have mentorship and guidance in their life. And then we wrap coaching around them to help develop their skills, the exact kind of skills that I think it sounds like you practice that so many successful people practice early on in life. So you know, if you could walk us through some of the skills that you learned in those early days?

Bill Rancic
Well, you know, for me, when I was growing up, the best lesson I learned from my parents was, it’s okay to fail. It’s okay to make mistakes, but it’s never okay not to try, you know, with social media and the way the world has evolved. Everything has to be perfect. You know, and that’s not how the real world works. And a lot of kids are afraid to try something because they’re afraid they’re gonna fail, you know, or they’re afraid with their friends or their colleagues are gonna say, and they might be embarrassed. So, you know, entrepreneurship is really the birthplace of innovation. If you look at all these major companies that are out there today, they started in a garage or a studio apartment, you know, and they evolved into these massive corporations, you know, Apple, Amazon, I can go on and on. And we also you We are able to change the world through that innovation as well. And we have to keep Main Street alive. And I think we got to keep that spirit alive in America.

Adam Outland
You were the winner of season one of The Apprentice, which maybe people don’t remember, was an absolute phenomenon when it was on the air. What was it like to suddenly be in the public eye? And what are some of the habits and practices that set you apart from your peers and competitors? And ultimately helped you win?

Bill Rancic
Yeah, it was huge. It’s funny that I won the first season of The Apprentice 20 years ago, last month. So it’s kind of ironic, and it changed my life. There is no question about it. You know, we had 25 million viewers every week watching, it was, you know, today, if the hit show gets 3 million, that’s considered a complete success. So, you know, that was the golden age of TV and in our generation, but it was remarkable. You know, it was just as if someone flipped the switch. And I was introduced to the world. And I would say, but I learned a lot of lessons, because we had, you know, really good competitors, we had, you know, there were 16 of us, great entrepreneurs, great business people, you know, Harvard, and Yale, and all these amazing, you know, business schools. And I think there were three things I learned that I implement every day. And one is you have to be agile, you have to be willing to adjust and adapt and react to what’s happening around you. And we saw it during COVID, you know, those who were able to adjust and react stayed around those who didn’t became extinct. And that is my belief, with or without them it, I think, you know, secondly, we have to learn to think like a conductor, you know, you have to check your ego at the door, and you’ve got to think of a conductor of an orchestra, that’s hiring the best people. Don’t try to play every instrument yourself. So you know, a lot of people that they think they know everything. And I don’t believe that I think you got to get the good, you know, the best people you can around you. And I think you have to stop making excuses. I think, you know, one of the reasons people fail is because they point to their left, and they point to the right, and they blame everyone and everything around them. If you look at the people who are in that rare air, they point the finger at themselves, because at the end of their career, there’s no one else to blame, but themselves.

Adam Outland
Your first gig after winning was helping to manage the construction of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago. That must have been intimidating. Had you done any real estate before?

Bill Rancic
Hmm. Well, I had done a little bit, but the biggest project I had done was a 34 unit building. So much, much different. But you know, I went into it with the right mindset. And I think it’s kind of a Midwest mindset, I went in, and, uh, my goal wasn’t to, you know, try to be the big boss, I went into trying to be the sponge. And I realized that I didn’t know everything, and that I had to get good people around me. And that was it. And I wanted to learn everything I could from, from everyone, great architects and engineers and mechanical engineers. And that was kind of my goal. When I first got on, I took my time, I kind of sat back and I took it all in before I started to kind of get into my role.

Adam Outland
We don’t want to spend a lot of time talking about Trump, because there’s a lot about him out there already on both sides. But is there anything about him that everybody’s got wrong?

Bill Rancic
You know, I will say he treated me exceptionally well treated me like one of his children. And ultimately, he wanted me to succeed. He wanted me to be as successful as I could. And I think that’s what he wants. For most people. You know, I don’t want to get into politics, or any of that, I get it, you know, the world we’re living in is very divided, but I can just share with you. My personal first hand experience in the way he treated me was he far exceeded any expectation I had, and really took me under his wing. So it was a life changing experience that I will always remember and always cherish. And I look back on that experience of being on that show. And I met my wife through that experience I had my child like it was really was amazing. I’ve been able to do a bunch of TV shows as a result. So life is full of opportunities, and you have to seize opportunities. I was just with Howie Mandel the other day, and I’m going to give him a shout out. He had a great quote, he said, you know, nothing starts with no. And you know, if you always say no to opportunities, you’re going to wind up with nothing, you know, I came home and I told my, my 11 year old son that because it’s amazing advice, you know, you got to be willing to take risks and go out there. And when I took that opportunity, this was the early days of reality television. 20 years ago, the TV show stations weren’t filled with the reality TV that we had today. So, you know, it could have ruined me, you know, could have it could have been an absolute disaster, and I could have embarrassed myself. But you know, I knew that I wanted to take a risk and the upside, I think outweigh the downside.

Adam Outland
But like you said, The Apprentice didn’t scare you away from reality TV because you made your way into producing and starring in reality television alongside your wife, Giuliana. You’d already been in the public eye, but how did you cope with having your personal life in the spotlight instead of just your professional life?

Bill Rancic
You know, we we made a kind of a promise to each other that if we were going to do what’s called the Giuliana bills show and it ran for eight seasons on E. And we said we’re going to use the show for good and naughty, you know, so many of these shows are poisonous, and it’s just putting out the wrong thing. You know, and over the course of the eight seasons were able to tackle infertility, before anyone was talking about infertility, we’re able to talk about Joe and his cancer battle with breast cancer, which raise so much awareness, all of our mission trips to Haiti and, and the different philanthropic things we did. So, you know, we really use the show as a positive platform, and it was a show you can watch with your kids. And that was something we were proud of. So that was kind of what we did. You know, we were the executive producers on the show, we controlled all the content, and our lives aren’t filled with drama. Now, that’s just not how we live. We’re we’re Midwest people, you know, normal. I’m a regular Chicago guy.

Adam Outland
Well, continuing that long television career, you’re now featured on The Mega Brands That Built America airing on the History Channel, which is a really entertaining look into the early innovations and some of the biggest businesses of our time. Do you have a favorite episode, or one that surprised you the most?

Bill Rancic
Well, I’ll tell you, I love the History Channel. I’ve always been a fan of the History Channel. In the early days, I used to get out binge watch Modern Marvels and all their amazing programming. And when this opportunity came along, I knew I wanted to do it took me all about 10 seconds to say, Where do I need to be? There’s so many great episodes this season, the evolution of credit cards, you know, there was a gentleman who was out to dinner, and back in the early days, you had to pay cash, or you wrote a check. And this guy was out to dinner with clients, he forgot his checkbook, you didn’t have enough cash on him. He was horribly embarrassed, he had to go to the men’s room and call his wife and she had to bring the checkbook. And he left he said, I’m never gonna let that happen again. And through that embarrassing moment, he created Diners Club card. And now it’s a $6 trillion industry in the credit card business. So you know, I love how, you know, innovation really comes from necessity. You know, Nike is another great one. I’m a huge fan of Nike. But you know, the co founder of Nike, along with Phil Knight was in his kitchen when his wife was making waffles. And that was how he came up with the soul of the Nike shoe from a wall flight, he made the first shoe on a waffle iron. So it’s really educational. I watch it with my 11 year old son, you know, he loves it, he would watch it even if I wasn’t on the show. It’s a great way to give people the vitamin without them knowing they’re taking the vitamin.

Adam Outland
Are there any themes that you keep seeing show up again and again, between the businesses?

Bill Rancic
Well, the one thing is everyone has failures, right? All these people have failed at something wrong way. And you know, we don’t learn much from success, we learn a hell of a lot failure again, and that’s my theme, like the young people coming up today have this absolute fear of failure, right? It’s something that they have to overcome, otherwise, they’re not going to grow, you’re gonna really stunt your growth. And I look back on my career. And you know, I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way. But I don’t make them twice. That’s a real failure. We can make them twice.

Adam Outland
Bill, if you were making the show 100 years into the future. Is there a modern day brand or company you think would make the cut?

Bill Rancic
Everything Elon Musk is doing? No question. The guy’s changing the world. I mean, he what he’s got going on the way his brain is wired, is her modern day, Einstein. Like, it’s unbelievable. What he’s going to do with these, you know, self driving taxis and view Oh, Tesla, even down to the chip that he’s putting in use people’s brains. I mean, there’s a guy, he’s a paraplegic, and he’s able to play chess and all these games with this his mind, I mean, think about this, right? It is absolutely remarkable. He’s the first guy to let re land a rocket. You know, NASA has been doing it for 55 years, 60 years. And he comes in, and he’s able to read real land a rocket. So I think anything he’s doing will be on the show. He’s wired differently. And where we see problems that, you know, are insurmountable, he comes up with solutions, you know, and that’s what I always tell people that work for us, like, Don’t come to me with problems coming up with solutions, because there’s always going to be problems, no one’s going to live a problem free life. So you better be good at solving problems. And that’s, I think, the way his mind is wired, nothing is out of the question, would you have ever thought you’re gonna put a brain ship in a human beings brain, I would have never thought that never in a million years. And it’s, it’s happening. So he’s got a gift, you know, and he’s been public about it, you know, he is on the spectrum and has Asperger’s and it goes to show you that the beautiful thing about life is that we’re all different. And we all have strengths and we all have weaknesses. And, you know, we’re a lot of people may see that as a disability, he turns that into into a hell of a gift and element advantage, because, you know, he’s not neurotypical.

Adam Outland
Yeah, he’s made it into almost a superpower. Okay, let’s talk about food. You mentioned earlier that you’re mixing your love of food and business already at age 10. And today, you own a number of highly celebrated restaurants across the country. Tell us about your evolution into full on restaurant guy.

Bill Rancic
You know, I realized early on that, that I love food and I loved cooking. But I also realized as an adult, that it’s the worst possible business you can get into has the highest failure rate. You know, it’s like investing in resources. You know, it’s just like, not a great return, but my wife was born in Naples, Italy, and whenever her mom would come into town to visit we would have people lined up to come over for dinner at the door, to have her home cooking from Naples. And then one day Joanna said we should open up an Italian restaurant. And I’m thinking this is this is a way to burn money, like horrible idea, horrible idea. And we’re out to dinner one night with a guy named Greg Olson, who used to be a Chicago bear. He’s now a commentator for Fox. And Juliana and I are at dinner with him and his wife. And he says, Well, you’re gonna open up an Italian restaurant, you should talk to my friend argit. We kind of coordinate each other for a year and a half or so. And then we opened up our first one, you know, 13 or 14 years ago, right here in Chicago. And we open up a second one and the third one, and now we have we have them spread throughout the country. And we’re opening up more, we’ve got a lot in the pipeline.

Adam Outland
What’s your favorite meal? Doesn’t have to be one of your restaurants.

Bill Rancic
You know, I love a good cheeseburger. I love cheeseburger and fries. And I ran the New York Marathon. A couple years ago, when I finished I got a double cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake. And it was just like that was it. That was that was happening for me.

Adam Outland
Can we do a quick lightning round?

Bill Rancic
Yeah, hit me.

Adam Outland
What’s one thing you own that you should probably throw out?

Bill Rancic
Oh my gosh, one thing I own that I should probably throw up a lot of old clothes, I got to donate a lot of these clothes. Because just they’ve been sitting there for 10 years, and I haven’t worn them. They probably don’t fit anymore either after COVID picked up a few pounds during COVID. So it’s harder to come off now that I’m in my 50s. But yeah, just stuff that I’ll never wear again.

Adam Outland
Who’s the person you always wanted to meet, but never have.

Bill Rancic
You know, I was always a huge fan of Frank Sinatra. And he’s someone I just loved. And just just thought he was so cool. I loved him. I was fortunate enough, I met Neil Armstrong, about 15 years ago, I was at a event speaking in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and he was also speaking. And that was someone on my list. I never thought in a million years, I would meet him and we had dinner together. It’s just I’m a huge aviation fan. Unbelievable to be able to have dinner with him.

Adam Outland
So you can settle the debate than firsthand about whether the moon landing was a hoax?

Bill Rancic
Absolutely not. Absolutely not. He was so so amazing. Just a wonderful guy.

Adam Outland
What’s the one habit or practice that saves you the most time each day?

Bill Rancic
I plan out my deck stay the night before. So I have a big legal pad guy. And I pick out what I’m going to wear the night before. So when I get up, I’m going it’s ready to go. No thinking about it. That’s it. I’m a big list guy and I love I get a real satisfaction from you know, from checking the items on the list.

Adam Outland
Define what success means to you, and how you know when you’ve actually achieved it.

Bill Rancic
Tough question. For entrepreneurs. It’s it’s your it’s kind of a blessing and a curse. Because oftentimes, you have that never satisfied mindset, you know, and it’s something that I’m I’m trying to improve upon. Right, I think, you know, when you climb the mountain, you got to stop and look what you just did, instead of trying and staring at the next peak that you have to climb. So for me, you know, I celebrate successes along the way. And it was something I learned from training for a marathon, when a competitive marathon runner starts the race, he breaks it down. And he says I’m going to get two mile five in this time, and I’m gonna get some mile 12 and 15. And he has little celebratory mile markers along the way. And that’s kind of how I approach things in life, I look at the bigger picture. And that’s in the back of my mind, but then I set little ones along the way and, and I take time to celebrate those little victories on the path to the larger one.

Adam Outland
What’s something significant you’ve changed your mind about recently?

Bill Rancic
That’s another great question. Wow, these are awesome. I think, you know, I think I’ve changed my mind a little bit on being your flexible life. And I think having a child makes you do that, you know, when I was in kind of growth mode and in business mode, you know, I was very regimented, and you know, kind of very precise, and I think having a child, you have to you have to kind of be a little more flexible, and you got to you got to slow the train down. And I think that’s okay. In life, you know, you go through different seasons in life and you don’t want to have any regrets. And for me, I’ve learned to kind of be okay with working less, and I don’t need, you know, I think I know when enough is enough. And I think I always wanted more and more and more. And now I’m like, Okay, well, that doesn’t happen. That’s okay. You know, I’ve got I’ve got a plan. And I’m learning to surrender more, where I used to try to muscle it myself. And now I just kind of ended over to the big man. And I never grew up with money. And now that we have, you know, the cheat a little bit of success realize that Yeah, my mom was right. You know, money doesn’t buy happiness. You know, my parents are both school teachers. So, you know, it was that was ingrained in my head and I didn’t want to believe them. And they were right. You know, you got to, it’s about the people that you surround yourself with in life. It’s about the relationships and, you know, I think being a good steward with the gifts God gave me. You know, I think that’s ultimately the mission in life. You know, you gotta you got to use the tools that you’ve been given and use them wisely.

Adam Outland
Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. Can you share the best piece of advice that you willfully and totally ignored.

Bill Rancic
Oh my god. Well, I’ve ignored a lot of advice, and certainly could have gotten in on deals early. You know, I won’t say the names of the companies, but I passed out on and, you know, it would have been a massive windfall. But I, you know, I think I learned this, and I got this advice early on, but I didn’t really realize how true it was until later in life, that there’s always going to be those people around you who wish they had your drive, your ambition, your vision, but they don’t, well, they try to pull you down. In order to build themselves up, you got to be very careful about the people that you come into contact with, because those people, they may be your friends, your family, but they don’t really have your best interest in mind. And you have to be aware of that. And I read this article that it said, the majority of the people we come into contact with on a daily basis are negative, we’re going to say you’re never going to be able to avoid these people. But when you’re aware of who they are and what their intentions are, you negate their power. Right? And that’s something that now I’ve learned to do. And I’ve learned, sometimes you gotta fire friends and you gotta love people from afar. And even family members, you know, and you got to remove that toxic, you know, bind from life. It’s just It’s poison.

Adam Outland
So what’s next?

Bill Rancic
Well, we’ve got restaurants now RPM, Italian seafood, steak and pizza reporting as we’ve got a Vegas, DC we’ve got five in Chicago, we’ve got one coming in West Palm Beach, hopefully Nashville soon. So we’re growing that I just started filming a show called dollar bill and it’s going to be airing in all your airports on rich TV, and it’s a business talk show. And we just had Howie Mandel on. I had Dennis Quaid on we got a really great lineup, really trying to bring financial literacy to people. So I’m really excited about that. And then hopefully, we’re gonna be doing a lot more than mega brands have built America. As I love doing that it’s one of my favorite projects to do.

Adam Outland
New episodes of The Mega Brands That Built America are now airing weekly on Sunday nights at nine eight o’clock Central on the History Channel. And the series is also available to stream the next day on the History Channel app, history.com and across major TV providers Video on Demand platforms. Also available to own on Amazon Prime video or wherever you purchase your favorite series. Bill. Thanks for your time.

Bill Rancic
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great day.