Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 2533: Bold Moves – Part 3: Sampling

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“Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’”

Fast Company Magazine recently ran an article about 10 CEO moves that changed business. We can learn from each of them.

As you know, I like to complete running races.  The good races that attract lots of runners will have lots of goodies and snacks at the end of the race that we get to take home.  Whether it is protein bars, healthy snacks, energy drinks, etc. these samples are what many times will influence me to ask Patti to buy some of them the next time she shops. But, sampling hasn’t always been a way to acquire new customers.  It was William Wrigley, Jr who in 1915 decided that he would boost sales by obtaining the mailing addresses of 1.5MM households that had a telephone in their home and using that list to reach each household by sending them free chewing gum samples.  It worked and at the same time we learned about the power of sampling we also learned about direct mail. Two for one in that case. The psychology of receiving a free sample is powerful.  If I receive something, try it and I like it, then I want to try it again, because I am already ahead of the game.

I’d like to suggest that each of us are God’s samples that He gives out to the world.  Are we not, with each moment and interaction we have with another, if we care, support and help others, not the sampling for them of what God can do in their lives if they choose?  We don’t just rush out and buy something because we are given the sample; we must experience the sample, decide if we like it, then make the purchase. We may never know what our sample for God will bring about, but we can know that if we aren’t trying to be there for others then we aren’t being a sample at all.

Reference:  Matthew 22:9 (New Living Translation)