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?

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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.

Oh, thank you for having me, quite an

introduction.

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?

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.

I want to talk about your first entrepreneurial

venture. I mean, the very first, when did you catch the bug?

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

Are there any themes that you keep seeing show

up again and again, between the businesses?

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.

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?

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.

Yeah, he's made it ijnto 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.

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.

What's your favorite meal? Doesn't have to

be one of your restaurants.

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.

Can we do a quick lightning round?

Yeah, hit me.

What's one thing you own that you should probably

throw out?

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.

Who's the person you always wanted to meet, but

never have.

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.

So you can settle the debate than firsthand about

whether the moon landing was a hoax?

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. He was so so

amazing. Just a wonderful guy.

What's the one habit or practice that saves you

the most time each day?

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.

Define what success means to you, and how

you know when you've actually achieved it.

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.

What's something significant you've changed your

mind about recently?

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.

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.

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.

So what's next?

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.

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.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great

day.