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A Founder's Life
Join me as I explore the powerful intersection of entrepreneurship, health & wellness, and parenthood. In each episode, I’ll be interviewing inspiring individuals who excel in one or more of these areas, sharing their stories, insights, and lessons. My goal is to provide valuable takeaways that can help you thrive both personally and professionally.
A Founder's Life
Why Saying “No” Builds Better Businesses - Rusty Fulling - S6 - E13
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👤 Connect with Today’s Guest – Rusty Fulling
Website: https://www.fullingmgmt.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rustyfulling/
Company's LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/fulling-management-&-accounting
What happens when burnout lands you in the hospital?
In this episode, Rusty Fulling shares how overwhelming stress and unhealthy work habits pushed him to completely rethink his career and eventually launch his own accounting and fractional CFO business.
Rusty opens up about the early years of entrepreneurship, balancing faith, family, and business, and the lessons he learned about saying “no” to the wrong opportunities — even when they looked financially attractive.
We also discuss running, health, purpose-driven work, mentorship, and why entrepreneurs should never try to build alone.
What you’ll learn:
• Why burnout can become a wake-up call
• The importance of defining your ideal client
• Why saying “no” can protect your business
• How purpose improves health and performance
• Why entrepreneurs need strong community and support systems
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Welcome to a Founder's Life. I'm your host, Leo Gastetna. On this show, we dive into the real stories behind the highs and lows of entrepreneurship and how we pursue a more balanced and meaningful life along the way. This podcast is sponsored by Thanks, helping founders like us scale with reliable remote talent. Email founders at Thanks.com. That's T H A N K Z dot com with the subject line a founder's life and you'll receive preferred pricing. Well, today I'm excited to be joined by Rusty Fulling. Rusty, thank you for joining us. Would you like to introduce yourself?
SPEAKER_00Hey, thanks, Leo, for having me. Uh sure, Rusty Fulling. I have a company in uh the Kansas area in the United States, Fulling Management and Accounting. And we provide fractional CFO and accounting services for companies around the U.S. primarily.
SPEAKER_01Excellent. Well, thank you. And uh what I'd love to start off with, can you talk to us a little bit about your work journey, sort of what brought you to where you are, and then a little more about what your business is doing for your clients?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you bet, you bet. So I think it was uh 1999, so back in the 1900s for the younger crowd, uh I was working for a CPA firm in uh Kansas City, and I was just working way too many hours, Leo. I know you've never done that, but working way too many hours, and and uh so much so, Leo, that I ended up in the hospital. The acid reflux and just that stress was just eating away in my body. And uh I wasn't eating right. I know we've talked about health uh health in the past, but um um it was after that hospital stint uh that a colleague of mine said, I can't believe you haven't started your own business. And so sometimes it just take a takes a trusted friend to to give you that affirmation. And so literally April Fool's Day of 2000, I launched fulling management and accounting with three little clients. And one of those little clients are one of our biggest clients almost well over 26 years later.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's a great story. I love that. And talk to us about so you know, for business, you've you've described that a little. And talk to us a bit about family, what that looks like for you, what that means to you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So again, early days uh when I was at that CPA firm, our our two daughters are three and five years old. I would leave the house in the mornings, they would still be in bed. By the time I'd get home from work, they'd be back in bed. I was just missing out on life. And so making that switch to say, I want to be intentional about, you know, family, faith, business were kind of my three, three tenets that I was really focused on. And there's definitely balance and integration built into that. And so today, our little girls have now grown up and and we actually have two granddaughters now, and and uh just having more of that work-life balance, work-life integration just makes such a difference in hit hitting those those purpose goals where we can spend time with family. And so, yeah, we we're uh we're all close. We're we're within 30 minutes of each other and probably see our grandkids two or three times a week now.
SPEAKER_01So perfect. And if they annoy you, you can hand them back. That's exactly right. Return to sender. That's right. And uh talk to us about health. Obviously, I can see a bunch of metals in the background there. Talk to us about uh how health looks for you, whether that be mental health, physical health, nutrition, running.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. So yeah, so those are just a prompt prompt for today, since uh I know you're you're uh quite the runner, uh, but and we talked about that as well. But yeah, it was about uh I think it was boy, I think I was about to turn 50 years old. So a few years ago, but I told my wife, I said, hey, before I turn 50, I want to run a 5K. Leo, I have not, I'd never run before in my life, you know. So so a 5K sounded pretty daunting. And she goes, Oh, that's sweet, honey. You should do that. And and so uh, you know, I'm thinking, how do I train for a 5K? And then next Sunday at our at our church, our pastor gets up and says, Hey, we're gonna do a partnership with a group called World Vision to raise money for clean water around the world. And we're gonna run a half marathon or a marathon to raise funds for that. And my wife kindly elbowed me and said, You should do that half marathon thing. And I thought, okay, that's different than a 5K. I don't know if you realize that. So that was my journey and my second half of life here as far as health. I'll tell you, and I I'm sure I know you've experienced this too, but just doing something like that. Like ours was definitely for purpose for uh, you know, beyond us. But boy, personally, it really helped just a lot better eating habits, a lot better sleep, a lot less, you know, good weight balance now. So uh I think you know, finding purpose sometimes can help trigger, hey, let's let's not only help somebody else, but we get helped in return.
SPEAKER_01Definitely. I think it's uh so so positive in so many different ways. Yeah. Yeah. I also think it's very meditative for me when I get out. I mean, I had a nice run this morning. There's nothing that's both meditative, it's a very start of the day, feels good.
SPEAKER_00One of the things, Leo, that came out of this I wasn't expecting is it I don't know if you ever run with a friend or or other colleagues, but I've had so many incredible conversations on the running trail. I actually started a website just under my name, RustyFulling.com, but the the subtitle is Lessons from the Walking Trail. And it's just lessons that I've been learning in business and life along the way that I've just been posting uh out there and sharing stories. But what's really neat is I got to go to Ethiopia in Kenya last summer, and I mentioned partnering with World Vision. I got to actually see the Ethiopia World Vision headquarters where they go out and do the digging of the wells and help help provide that clean water. So it you know, running, which I thought was just going to be a little 5k has literally taken me to Ethiopia, to Honduras, to Canada, to all different places. And again, not not to not to win medals necessarily, but just uh just to make impact. And sometimes that's just walking along the trail with another friend. That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01And what do you like to do for fun? I mean, I'm assuming running's fun, you know, so that's part of it. But what else do you like to do for running?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, running's fun. Yeah, I uh, you know, again, I I love the walking trail, but uh we live on some uh property. We bought an old house built in 1860, so an old, old farmhouse years ago. And uh, we love hosting groups, and so we we'll have church groups, school groups, different groups out for bonfires, and we used to do hay rides and and all kinds of fun things, but love hosting and and just creating space for people to connect. So that's definitely one of the things. And and again, yeah, when you begin having grandkids, boy, definitely grandkids will will keep you busy. So love doing field trips and uh just fun, fun little things with with uh a four and a six-year-old these days.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely. I think it's uh I was finding funny. I mean, eighteen hundreds, you know, that that is a decent old far farm. I mean, for America that's like ancient. I I joke because I just came back from the UK. Uh okay. I mean, the newest property I'd lived in in London in the you know, 30 plus years before I moved to uh LA was uh built in 1910. That was literally the newest property I'd lived in. Wow, wow. My parents' house, I don't know, probably that kind of age. But uh the like the church nearby, this is in the centre of London. Yes, you know, it's got it lists Vickers back to the year 1100. Wow.
SPEAKER_00Wow, wow.
SPEAKER_01And then I went down to the south coast where I spent a lot of my summers and weekends as a child. And uh the house was built in the 1700 years. The church was built in the year 930. Wow. Um you know the a little village that that's in principle nothing special, which is a small village on the south coast of the UK. Yeah, you know, it's it's got a Roman name, been around for it's funny that uh, you know, it puts uh I was there with a couple of American friends and it it puts things in perspective. Yeah. For them, everything is you know, in the last 250 years. Well, yeah, that's a blink of an eye. Well my daughter, I think my daughter was probably in about fifth grade that's a while ago, and the kids had just studied history. And you know, they were doing little skits, like little plays on the different things they'd learned. And uh, you know, afterwards a friend of mine came up to me and said to me, So what do you guys call the American Revolutionary War? And I'm like, We don't really talk about it. He's like, Why? Sore losers? I'm like I'm like, no, we study thousands of years of history. We talk about the Romans, you know, the the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the Middle Ages. America in the 1700s wasn't may now be the world's superpower, but back then it was wasn't even important. I mean, like India, for example, would have been the corner of the Silk Road. That was important. I mean, America, beyond the king's ego, there was nothing important about America.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think perspective is so helpful. Yeah, I love that. Love that history. I uh I get that when I was over in uh Kenya and Ethiopia this past summer, you know, sometimes you you have different perspectives on things, and sometimes getting out of your comfort zone, and I know you've done some incredible traveling, but sometimes stepping into those areas where, yeah, you just assume everybody's just like you, and then you step into something like, oh my goodness. And sometimes it's you know, you may have some empathy for their situation, but you also can have some appreciation. Wow, appreciation for 1700 you know, a building in the 1700s and getting to have that incredible history that you were just describing. So, so I I love that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and uh so you seem to have a pretty balanced life, hence why you started your business. But talk a little bit about that, what balance looks like for you. And you know, balance again, I often say this, but balance to me is that center line. No one's permanently in balance. That's right. Tax season, you are not in balance. But overall, what do you how do you look at a balanced life?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your your comment reminded me of uh flying an airplane. If you think uh the pilots have talked about this, where it's not a straight line when you're going somewhere, you're constantly making those adjustments. And I think for for perfectionists, no, you've got to stay here. That can be that can be really difficult. And and and so a couple things that were helpful, Leo, just not too long ago was going through an exercise to kind of help develop some purpose, you know, like what's your purpose? You know, what what are you what are you made for? And for me, I came up with five words. They're encourage, guide, equip, listen, and serve. And what's really neat about those is those can be used in business and in personal life. And once you kind of determine, hey, what is your purpose? All of a sudden, if you're if you're leaning into those, boy, it really balances things out because you're you're doing the things you're made for. A book by a guy named Patrick Lencioni talked about working geniuses, and he he broke it down into six. Two that you're a genius in, two you're okay in, and two that are frustrations. And if you're always working in your frustrations, that's going to feel like unbalance all day. Leaning into your purpose, into your geniuses. Man, that that that's that's part of that balance. And for me, it again, it's probably faith, family, and and and business kind of stuff. And so, you know, making sure you're putting on top what's those priorities and and and making sure that's the focus and you're not getting distracted by the shiny objects.
SPEAKER_01That makes a lot of sense. And talk a little bit about one of the questions I always like is what has been a pivotal moment in your life?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Well, definitely we talked about one just in business as far as uh taking taking a a leap into entrepreneurship. You know, sometimes it's um I'd say another pivotal moment is deciding to say no uh at certain times in business. When uh around 2020, we started getting tons of inquiries to to purchase our business. And that's pretty that's you know, pretty common these days, you know. Uh and and we'll probably still get at least one solicitation a day. And those can be very tempting, but again, those pivotal moments, sometimes you can get pulled into, well, that sounds very attractive. And and learning to say no, I think it uh it can be again one of those pivotal moments. This year, I I was I had an opportunity to go to back to Honduras for uh I think the sixth time to do some mission work there and and and man, it's looking forward to it. We've been planning this for some times, and stepping back, understanding the political culture going on in the U.S. and and just some travel challenges, stepping back and and saying no, not for now. We needed to do that. And that that can be tough as a leader in one of those pivotal moments to say, hey, I know we promised we're gonna do this, but circumstances have changed and we need to unpromise. And so that's been a those kind of things. Saying no has been a pivotal, one of those pivotal moments.
SPEAKER_01And you're so right there on the sometimes you may have said yes, but you've realized that was wrong. And you're not doing anyone a favor. Like especially, for example, a potential client. You've said yes to a deal, but then you've realized that actually you're not right for that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So they'd much prefer a no.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_01Even if that's after the fact. I mean, sometimes you've got to admit it. No, we shouldn't have accepted this. I'm sorry. It it went all right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Leo, Leo, about year 10 in our business, we took on the biggest client we'd ever taken on, doubled our business overnight. I'm shopping for new cars, I'm, you know, this is this is great. We hit it. Within six months, we lost that client. I mean, I don't know that we'd ever lost a client for any service reason to that point, and we lose this massive client. Just heartbreaking. Well, the problem was is we weren't they were not a good fit for us. We were not a good fit for them. They were way too big for what we do. And what's fascinating is that same client came to me, I think year 20, so 10 years later, and said, Hey, would you be interested in doing this work for us? And I'm like, No. No, yeah, we tried that before. We bef between then and in that year 20, we had identified that ideal client per you know, profile. Sometimes we we don't take the time to do that. We're just chasing the deal. So again, that's one of those pivotal moments, too, is you know, defining who you serve best and and don't get sucked into the big, the big uh, oh, this would be great. Because for that situation, it was saying no is the right thing. You know, it it was an expensive lesson year ten.
SPEAKER_01So Yeah. The other thing I think is really important for people to learn is sometimes you've got to fire a client. And for me, there's one of two reasons really. You know, it it's that small little client that actually is just not worth the work. Sometimes and and and the smallest clients, by the way, over the years, the smallest investors, the smallest like the people where the money is more important to them are the ones who actually scream the loudest, are actually the nightmare, and sometimes you gotta say, we're not a good fit for you. The other one is I'm a massive believer as I've got older in the uh no arseholes rule. I I've definitely fired clients who I just I'm not saying I have to love everyone I work with because I don't. But I can't just I I can't cringe having that call coming up thinking, I just don't want to speak to this person. I don't need as a client.
SPEAKER_00Yes, absolutely. Yeah, there there's uh there is a exercise that we've done over the years and and it's oh, it's called the pumpkin plan. And basically the idea is you you know, any any kind of produce you're growing, you need to weed out those other things that are going to suck the nutrients out of that that main you know pumpkin in this case. And part of that is what you just talked about, sometimes you have to prune. You have to prune those that are sucking the life out of it. You know, when when Leo calls, am I going, oh, it's Leo again, or hey, it's Leo. And so knowing when to prune, yeah, can be that's that's a great exercise. Can be painful, but um, yeah, great, great, great reminder of that.
SPEAKER_01Um so what's one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring entrepreneur?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I would say don't do it alone. I think so many times business leaders get stuck in the nobody's going through or have gone through what I'm going through, or uh, I, you know, I'm I'm I'm having trouble making payroll or paying bills or or or just facing a challenge. And so don't do it alone. There's some incredible advisory groups, roundtables, mastermind groups. You know, there's different names for them. So many are now virtual. And and and so that's where I've seen so many business leaders just thrive versus just survive when when they have that supportive community. So I definitely encourage you. Look for ways to engage in community. Great.
SPEAKER_01Good advice. And thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00Hey, Leo, thank you. I will look forward to seeing you on the running trail soon. Thank you. And how can people find you? Hey, uh, Rusty Fooling on LinkedIn is is probably the easiest, or Fooling M G M T is our is our company website. But uh yeah, thanks so much, Leo. Appreciate you having me on today.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you. And thanks for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed the conversation, don't forget to subscribe to the channel, tell your friends, and please leave a review.