TYE AND ANN RUSTRUM
TYE AND ANN RUSTRUM
FROM 9-5 TO "IMPACT PLAYERS IN THE ENTREPRENUREIAL WORLD
There are so many ways to create an income, but there are far fewer ways to create a life. Like most people, the Rustrums were taught “go to school and get good grades, so you can go out there and get a good job”. Once they entered corporate America, however, they realized that doing almost anything, even if they loved it, for 40 hours a week, for 40-50 years of their life was not the life they wanted.
The Solution: They became business owners so that they could control their own time and money. Rather than building someone else’s business, they decided to build their own business.
The Rustrums started pursuing side hustles outside of their jobs. This included day trading stocks, putting together real estate deals, and owning a car dealership. Eventually, through networking and getting around the right association, they got going in the e-commerce world where they found their passion.
Growing up, the Rustrums learned the value of a dollar. Tye saw how his father and mother worked all the time to make a living. Ann saw her parents struggle financially after her father got hurt on their family farm. At a very young age, Tye promised himself that he wouldn’t have money control his decisions in life. His goal was to be able to walk away from his job by 35 years of age to become a full time business owner. He missed that mark by a year. He went full-time with the business at 36 and Ann went full-time at 29. They are now full-time business owners, entrepreneurs, motivational speakers, and dreamers!
How did this all happen? We decided to take you back to the very beginning before they had any type of success in owning their own business…
TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR CHILDHOOD AND WHERE YOU GREW UP?
Tye: I grew up southwest of Portland, Oregon in West Linn and Wilsonville. My parents owned a successful manufacturing company in my younger years. We lived comfortably in a 4,500 square foot house on 5 acres. A “Street of Dreams” builder built it. I was the oldest of 3, raised in an incredible, loving family. We loved to play soccer, camp in the backyard, have huge family meals, laugh and cry together. We had an open door policy and friends were in and out constantly. Needless to say, life was great for my parents and our family.
This changed suddenly when the manufacturing economy crashed in the mid-1990s. My parents went through bankruptcy when I was 13 years old. Due to the financial challenges, we downsized our lifestyle considerably and moved into a smaller house in Wilsonville. It was a very important life lesson about never taking anything for granted because you could lose it all in a second. Through all of it, my parents were always there for me and did everything to take care of my sister (Alix), my brother (Chase), and I.
I struggled in school but found success in being an athlete. I played every sport I could but found my greatest level of success while playing soccer for a premier club team called FC Portland and eventually for the Olympic Development Program (“ODP”). After high school, I made the Yavapai College soccer team in Prescott, Arizona, which was, and still is, an extremely elite soccer program. Although I sustained a few sport-related injuries over the years, my experience on the field was a highlight of my youth. From there I went onto Oregon State University to get my degree in Business with an emphasis in Management and Accounting.
Ann: Well, I grew up in Canby, Oregon, on a farm. I love my family and the way I was raised. My parents instilled the importance of hard work and strong Christian values and morals in my older sister and I. We lived humbly; shopped at second-hand stores and ate food that was grown or raised on our farm. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we shared a lot of love and, the most important thing, TIME. Time to eat together as a family at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Time to pray together, to talk about life, to read stories together, to just be a family together. I was extremely shy, which would later be a stumbling block that I would have to overcome in order to become an entrepreneur, but as a child, my shyness helped me devote all my attention toward school. I was homeschooled until 7th grade, then attended, and graduated as salutatorian, from a small Christian high school. I worked hard and earned an academic scholarship to Oregon State where I graduated with my degree in accounting.
YOU BOTH MENTIONED OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY, IS THAT WHERE YOU MET?
Ann: No, we actually met at the Clackamas County Fair. The summer after my junior year in high school, I was working in the snow cone booth there. Tye got my number and several months later, we started dating. We were pretty much inseparable from the beginning. I used to wear his varsity soccer jacket around the school during my senior year. I also remember Tye showing up at my high school graduation with a ton of roses. I was so proud to be with him. I think deep down, I just wanted to be with a winner in life. I eventually followed Tye to Oregon State University.
WHAT MADE YOU TAKE THE LEAP INTO ENTREPRENEURSHIP?
Tye: Around the time that I was entering middle school, the family business went upside down due to outsourcing. My parents lost their company, filed for bankruptcy, and things got pretty tough for us. We didn’t have health insurance, we went from eating steak, to eating hot dogs, and we moved to a smaller city. The stress of the situation was too much for my grandpa and he passed from a stress-induced heart attack. I was devastated. I became depressed and even contemplated suicide. I reached a low point in my life. I had to make a choice and I decided, “This isn’t how my life will be.” I recovered, but hit a similar low point as an adult when my accounting job became too stressful and demanding working 70 to 80 hr work weeks. I started to have thoughts of hurting myself and my job anxiety caused me to develop heart issues. At that point, I knew I couldn’t continue to live my life being an employee and continue building someone else’s business. It was time for me to go after my own dreams and goals!
Ann: Having our job/career control our time and our income made us focus on owning our own business and stepping into entrepreneurship. We wanted to have control of our future, not someone else. If you want to change the ending, you have to start by changing the beginning; changing right now. I’ve personally watched other people, including our own parents, experience losing the ability to make income at a particular job because they were fired or laid off, because of medical reasons, or other conditions out of their control. We decided that we wanted to be in control of our own paycheck, not someone else.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR?
Tye: Entrepreneurship means to step out into the unknown and take the risk. To be willing to go all-in and give it everything to go after your dreams and goals. No excuses! It’s about building assets that produce ongoing income and getting away from trading time for money.
Ann: To be an entrepreneur is exactly what Tye said. However, the difference between us and most entrepreneurs is that we have been extremely blessed to work with other successful business owners who “taught us the ropes”. They would say, “Do this” or “Don’t do this” based on their experiences. For us, we had failed at 3 business ventures before we turned 30 because of a lack of experience in our lives. We knew that we had to find people who had been successful and, more importantly, would be willing to teach us.
HOW DID YOU FIND YOUR CURRENT BUSINESS?
Tye: I watched a good friend of mine that I played college soccer with walk away from the insurance world at 27 years of age to pursue his own business full-time. When I saw the options and choices he was able to obtain, I sought him out and asked him to teach me how to do what he had done. A couple of months later he did just that and bridged the gap to my current business partners. They helped me change our mindset from being an employee to being a business owner. Since making those connections, we have never looked back. We put our head down and built our own business.
WHAT WERE THE BIGGEST INITIAL HURDLES TO BUILDING YOUR BUSINESS AND HOW DID YOU OVERCOME THEM?
Ann: We were our own biggest hurdles, honestly. I am naturally very introverted and shy. I used to avoid confrontation, even if it was necessary to move forward. I actually used to pretend to be busy on my phone to avoid conversations with people I wasn’t comfortable with. I had to grow and work past that fear. I had to get over myself and my own insecurities and focus my eyes on helping other people.
I still overcome it every day, but I’ve switched my mindset. I realize now that being shy and introverted is a selfish way to live because it makes it nearly impossible to uplift and empower other people.
I had to get over myself and my own insecurities and focus my eyes on helping other people.
Tye: I agree with everything Ann said. In addition to that, I got in my own way by being too eager to leave my stressful job situation. I tried to quit my job before I had the money to do so. I got in an argument with my boss and wanted to quit, but I had to learn to be logical and patient. I truly thank God for aligning me with Dale and Carol, because they are phenomenal business partners who were able to keep me grounded in those moments. They taught me that I needed to build my own business/asset before I could walk away from my own job.
DID YOU EVER DEAL WITH NEGATIVITY FROM YOUR FAMILY OR FRIENDS CONCERNING YOUR ENTREPRENEURIAL PURSUITS?
Tye: We sure did! Early on, we went through a major rough patch. In the beginning, when we started the process of expanding our business with others, all 14 people who we met with about the business turned us down. They didn’t understand our business or business model. We had some of our best friends and family members tell us that they thought we were making a big mistake. That was a huge disappointment, but we never quit because we didn’t have anything else to quit too. What I mean by that is that our jobs were not ever going to give us the results we wanted. So we pressed onward and learned to listen to people who had the fruit on the tree that we wanted.
Ann: Yes, our parents and some of our close friends just couldn’t understand why we would pursue something outside of a “dream job” in Corporate America. I wish I could say that we didn’t let that derail us, but unfortunately, it did. We never quit, but it took us a couple of years to come to the realization that if we didn’t change, we would be living the same life 5-10 years later.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY IN HINDSIGHT?
Tye: Two things. First, we didn’t initially seek coaching the way we should have because we thought, “We went to college for business, and we know how to do this.” However, the way we went about it resulted in multiple failures, but it wasn’t because the business didn’t work. It was because we weren’t working the business correctly.
Second, we have come to realize that most people are very critical of others and don’t go after their dreams and goals because they are caught in STATUS, LAZINESS, and/or FEAR. So looking back I wouldn’t have listened to the haters. Now some of them ask us how we have achieved our level of success. We are glad that we didn’t listen to them, but sought coaching from people who lived a life we wanted to live. The truth will always set you FREE!
WHAT MOTIVATES YOU?
Ann: Helping other people and giving back. Are material things nice, well yes they are, but ultimately they don’t create significance in our life? Tye and I want to help people reach their dreams. The most exciting thing is watching a person’s face light up when they realize they were created for greatness and can do anything they want to do. Helping someone put a game plan together to pay off debt or solve money problems. Watching parents have choices and options so they can sow into their own family. We have helped a lot of people and it is by far the best part.
Tye: Another thing that really drives us is helping couples in their marriage. There are a lot of broken and divorced families out there. We do everything in our power to speak belief into couples and their marriage. We want to help restore the family unit. Another passion for me is sharing my experiences when I struggled with depression and how I overcame it. I think at the end of the day people need hope and to know that they are loved. I personally found my love and security in my FAITH. There is hope!
WHAT DO YOU KNOW TODAY THAT YOU WISH YOU WOULD HAVE KNOWN WHEN YOU FIRST GOT STARTED AS AN ENTREPRENEUR?
Ann: I wish I could have somehow traveled forward in time to experience our life now so that I really, truly knew what was available. Having choices in your life is hard to explain until you’ve experienced it, all of it. No more setting the alarm clock for a job, no more rush hour traffic in the morning, no more major stresses around money, having the time to personally grow in areas we want to improve in, the devotions we are able to do early in the morning as a married couple, the ability to travel without putting it on a credit card, I could go on and on. I would tell myself, “It is worth it! You are worthy. Keep pushing forward. Ask more questions. Seek more advice. Wake up renewed each day. Pray more. Tell those you love that you love them. Be fast to forgive. See the best in others. You’ve got this.”
Tye: I wish we had known the importance of believing in ourselves, from the beginning. That was a foundational step that we missed. We were scared, and we let the fear of others’ opinions really paralyze our progress. We were motivated and fired up about our goals, but still apprehensive about people’s potential responses to what we were doing. I also wish we would have erred on the side of over-communication with our business partners as opposed to trying to figure it out ourselves.
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A POTENTIAL BUSINESS PARTNER?
Tye: I’ve found success by focusing on people who want more for their lives. It’s not a skillset, but a mindset. We would rather run with 10 than drag 1,000. We love to partner with people who are driven and willing to give it all they have.
HOW DO YOU DEFINE SUCCESS?
Tye: Having the tools that allow joy to permeate every area of our lives. When I met our mentors, they expelled pure joy. In their marriage, in their relationships with their kids and grandkids, in their health and travel – everywhere. They had choices: the freedom to do the things they wanted to do, instead of things they had to do. When you’ve reached a level where you can live your daily life with that type of satisfaction, that’s success.
Ann: Success is in the small things. I’ll give you an example of a typical day at our house: I wake up to my kids now instead of an alarm clock. I hear Brody, he’s like an elephant coming down the hall (I have a thud alarm clock). “HI MOM!” He’s always so excited to be awake. We are in no hurry at all. I ask, “What do you want to do today Brody?” Lexi sleeps in until 9, and then we have a big slow breakfast. There’s no rush hour traffic. 10 AM on a Wednesday is dance party time at my house.
Success is having the ability of buying groceries and not worrying about how much cheese costs. Success is having time for true relationships with the people in our lives. I recently surprised Tye with a new, topped with big red ribbon. That feeling was amazing. I think it is just enjoying the results of years and years of our hard work is my definition of success.
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR GREATEST MOMENT OF SUCCESS?
Ann: If I had to pick a moment, it was at 10:38 AM on February 24, 2017 – The day Tye walked away from his job. I was able to leave my job and become a full-time business owner in 2012, so on February 24, 2017 it was total family VICTORY for us. We had built a business that replaced both of our incomes, so although we appreciated the provision that our jobs had provided for us, being able to have Tye come home and join me in our own business was absolutely amazing!
Tye: Exactly what Ann said for us personally. Walking away from my job and stepping into the world of running my own schedule and controlling my own income was indescribable. The last day of work was like getting out of jail for me, I was totally FREE of the restrictions my job put on me! It’s been even more rewarding to be a part of helping other people experience this feeling as well. We have helped a lot of people and excited about helping more. There is nothing like it sowing into our people’s lives! It’s What drive us now.
WHO HAS BEEN YOUR GREATEST INSPIRATION?
Tye: My grandfather was such a dreamer; he never let fear stop him. He was so encouraging and he inspired me to continue his legacy by being fearless and successful. His passing has taught me a lot about life and how short it is. Also, my parents have always been there for me, encouraged me when I was going through challenges, loved me, supported me, and have been my biggest cheerleaders in life!
Ann: This is impossible for me to answer because different people have been my greatest inspiration at different times and in different areas of my life. For example, my mom and dad have inspired me the most spiritually and in their marriage. How they live their lives putting Christ at the center of their lives. How they put each other first after that. Emotionally, one of our mentors, Julie, has been my greatest inspiration. She has taught me how to be emotionally stable despite the craziness of life. Pushing me out of my comfort zone, Tye has been my greatest inspiration. He always pushes me to be my best. I could go on and on, but there wouldn’t be enough words, so I’ll stop there.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY WAS THE SINGLE MOST INFLUENTIAL FACTOR IN YOUR BUSINESS’ SUCCESS?
Tye: Without the right coaching & association, we wouldn’t have the level of success that we enjoy today. Once I got around the right leadership in the business world, that’s when things changed. It truly came down to partnering with the right people.
Ann: I 100% totally agree with what my Tye said. The right association was the key for us to change. Without the right people, we would probably still have our old jobs and not be living the life we truly wanted. We are so blessed and thankful for our life today.
Without the right association, we wouldn't have the level of success that we enjoy today.
-Tye Rustrum
