LA Business Podcast

16. Frankie Russo, CEO, Russo Capital

LA_Business_Podcast_16_Frankie_Russo
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We talk to Frankie Russo, CEO of Russo Capital, about managing multiple businesses, trusting teams and the people you hire, agency growth hacks, and changing with the industry.

Russo Capital

Into: [00:00:00] Welcome to the LA business podcast, a forum for business owners and senior executives to share the experiences about the elements that drive their success. Your host is Robert Brill, CEO of Brillmedia.co, an Inc 500 company delivering the power of hyperlocal advertising. Robert writes for Forbes, Inc and Ad trade publications, our goal is to bring you the stories about successes and failures of people who are making big things happen in marketing, entrepreneurship and management.

Robert Brill: [00:00:42] Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of the LA business podcast. Today our guest is Frankie Russo, CEO of 360 Intelligent Automation is also the founder and angel investor of Russo Capital and founder and CEO of Potenza. So, Frankie, thank you so much for being with us.  tell us a little bit about yourselves and how are you able in 24 hours to manage? Not one, but three different businesses?

Frankie Russo: [00:01:09] All right. Thanks a lot. It’s, great to be on the show. So, I guess the easiest way to answer that is, with a lot of help from my friends, or a little help from my friends. However, the song goes, you know, there’s no way to do it without having really good teams.

And one of the things, just so you know, is it makes it easier, is that one of the companies were Russo Capital owns the other two companies, so they kind of have synergies already. And so that makes it a little bit easier. But a lot of it is been, you know, over a decade of really getting the right types of processes, not only in, in the business, but also for myself personally.

A big thing for me is that I make sure that I have a certain amount of bandwidth that I always leave open because, you know, the hardest thing about running businesses is the things that you can’t anticipate. Right? Or some sort of crisis or something, you just can’t, predict. And so one thing I’ve learned over the years, because at the end of the day, you know, you want to enjoy your life.

And so you’ve got this whole work life balance thing and you’re trying to work through. And part of that is, is really giving yourself enough bandwidth to, handle situations each day that you don’t know are going to come. So, I try not to be always booked if you, if that’s a way to put it.

And what I mean by that is, is making sure that it’s never, I used to book myself wall-to-wall with meetings and it was always this really frustrating thing and always felt like I was, you know, one step forward, two steps back. And a big thing for me personally was getting into a place where I, I left enough bandwidth for myself to, maneuver things that I couldn’t anticipate. But the other piece of it is, is that if you want to have multiple companies, it’s fine, but you have to have good operators and you have to have good staff and teams to be able to really fulfill the vision and the product of each one of the companies without you having to personally be in the middle of all of it.

 which is takes a while for people to transition. From being self-employed, to then being a business owner, to then thinking and operating more like an investor. And today that’s how I try and focus. That’s really what created Russo Capital so that I could try and look at all of my businesses, as an investor and as a board member.

Robert Brill: [00:03:36] Yup. So, so let me ask you a question. I’m looking at your LinkedIn profile. I also see.   you published a book, The Art of Why. You’re a partner in Artiststone Records. You are a Cofounder and Partner of 24/7 out of home and Voodoo Growers. So let me ask you a question here. First of all, what came first, what was the first thing that you did that led, led you down the path of having all these connections and, businesses running.

Frankie Russo: [00:04:09] Yeah. Well, it’s funny you ask because what came first isn’t even on the list.  that was actually a mortgage business before the mortgage crisis. And the short story is that there was a mortgage crisis and it fell apart. But after that, or during that time, I created this little, graphic design company on the side, and it was actually for my little brother.

And, uh. We created that. And when everything went under with mortgages, the only thing that I really had left that we could utilize that wasn’t heavily regulated yeah, was Potenza. And at the time it really wasn’t much, it was just a little graphic design firm. And we were able to really kind of build everything around Potenza for a long time.

So the original of all of these companies was actually Potenza Inc, and we designed it so that we would have a company that could help other businesses grow. And that’s where a lot of the experience came from. That’s where I was able to, you know, have my second run at starting a company from scratch.

And it allowed for me to work in a lot of industries really fast and see how their businesses worked without having to work for them personally. And I just continued to kind of grow my team. And then that evolved.  about five years in when I realized I needed to be, in the technology space. And that was really where the journey led me to get into 360 IA was basically because I as a service company, Potenza Inc we didn’t have what we needed, to be successful as data and technology and, media was changing rapidly. We needed to have something that helps us. And, sorry, I probably should, we’re to pause that I had a kid jump in.

Robert Brill: [00:06:04] They’re always jumping in and out.

Frankie Russo: [00:06:07] Yeah, right.  okay. I don’t know where, where, where to stop off there, but.

Robert Brill: [00:06:12] No, that’s interesting.

Frankie Russo: [00:06:12] But basically, yeah, so that’s kind of where it started. You know, the thing about Russo Capital and the way I’m able to be involved in so many different companies is that, especially like the record label and the Voodoo Growers, which is for cannabis farm out in Oregon.

And, you know, some of these other pieces, I’m not the main driver, and that’s really the theme for where I’m headed next and what Russo capital is all about. I’m, I’m. The main, a hundred percent owner of 360 IA and Potenza Inc. But these other companies, I’m a minority shareholder, and that’s more the model that I am moving towards where I am a minority investor in 25 to 30 companies at any given time.

 they’re all at different levels and some are exiting and some are starting up and some are in the middle. And so that’s kind of the vision. The next five to 10 years. And for a long time, I thought I would kind of wait to do that until I was older and, basically realized that if I do it now, I can utilize the same model with everything that’s already in place.

And that’s a big part of how I’m able to do it, is that most companies that I’m involved in now, I’m not the main person trying to start it from scratch.

Robert Brill: [00:07:33] So it sounds like, Potenza and 360 are your two main drivers? Like that’s what’s driving your revenue.

Frankie Russo: [00:07:44] That’s right.

Yeah. They’re the big ones right now. They, and they both have been very fast-growing companies. Potenza have made the Inc 5,000 list six years in a row. And just this last year, 360 made the Inc 500 list and they had 1600% growth in three years.

Robert Brill: [00:08:04] So I run an advertising company. We’re focused on media exclusively? No creative. None of the marketing drip, you know, email, drip campaigns, none of that. None. No website building and or landing page was just full on media buying. So how do you grow an advertising agency for six years? And keep it on the inc 5,000. What are some of the factors.

Frankie Russo: [00:08:32] Yeah. So, some of the, main factors for getting an agency to grow that fast is really being open to change and being open to adding new tactics and new services as the industry has been changing. I mean, you guys have been in this for a hot minute, so you know that there’s a lot of pieces.

A big part about that is really focusing on the client. And whatever the client needs. So, for us, the way it happened was pretty natural as far as the fast growth. We just would get a client and we would look at their industry and we would really go all in to try and serve all the different aspects that they needed, which for a while we were kind of a mile wide and an inch deep.

And you know, it wasn’t until about five years into Potenza that I think we started to realize what we even were as a company. Because for a long time it was, yes. What was the question? And you know, that’s kinda how we built the business. But, you know, you can’t really continue, you can’t do that forever.

It’s quite when you get started. But if I was still a yes, what was the question? With some of these companies, we’d be in a bad spot. And from time to time, I tend to be that way and it drives my teams nuts. So, I try not to, get too involved in any kind of like yes or no questions anymore cause it, you know, try not to exasperate everybody.

Robert Brill: [00:10:04] Right. So, it’s interesting, I’m glad we’re talking because the core reason why I started this podcast is because we, have some really great growth over the last three years. So, we’re also on the Inc 5,000. And, basically I was like, okay, well. You know, I think we’ve maxed out on the way we’ve grown is we’ve done a lot with partnerships, so we work with agencies and consultants and it’s come out of my, just whatever network and relationships that I’ve had.

So my question to you is like, now I’m on on like, I’m trying to find the, predictable and repeatable model that I can use to grow my business with. Those same agencies and partners and consultants in a way that it goes outside of my network and that’s like hot, basically. My question is how did you do that?

Like how or did you rely exclusively on network?

Frankie Russo: [00:11:09] Okay, great. That’s a great question. No, absolutely not. I did not rely solely on my network. So, what happened for me as I looked at the industry, the agency industry, and the broadcast industry. And what I did was I identified what the Achilles heel was for both of those and teamed up with those companies.

So I was able to get into over a hundred markets very quickly by teaming up with different, broadcast companies and advertising agencies that didn’t have the type of technology and the type of data usage and automation that we had. And up until recently, our product was fully white, labeled by other companies.

So we, we had over 200 different companies, white labeling the product so that they all had their networks. And so you can see how that could expound, exponentially when you do it that way. It’s kind of funny. I always laugh. I never have liked, multilevel marketing. You know, I’ve always kinda been not been a big fan of it.

We’ve all tried one of them and, but I’ve always said that if I owned the product, I would love multilevel marketing. So, if I was the guy who owned that crazy powder with a mushroom from Africa that cures cancer but can’t quite get the FDA approval because they don’t wanna, they don’t want you to know about it because they rely on medical.

You don’t talk about, as long as I own that weird powder that cures cancer, I’d be fine with multilevel marketing. And it’s funny, I don’t own the product for multilevel marketing, but it’s kind of in the same vein where I’ve got a broadcast companies and TV station companies selling it to ad agencies and ad agencies selling it to clients, and by going back and forth and basically everybody gets a cut.

So I became a wholesale business and I was able to use my technology as a white labeled program that they can bundle with other media and kind of change the way in their markets around the country, the local businesses look at them. So it actually was born out of this need for broadcast companies to reinvent themselves as spot TV.

And all the traditional media landscape was changing rapidly.  and we’ve done that in a pretty big way, especially in automotive.  we have a division called 360 auto that. It’s probably our most powerful product of, all my businesses. And that’s really become, a huge leading, force for us.

Robert Brill: [00:13:52] So basically, it’s providing a solution that can be white labeled by other companies and making them, helping them succeed.

Frankie Russo: [00:14:03] Yes. And basically, that’s, to me, that’s, that’s really what the art of why was about. On on like a personal and business level is that the why or the purpose for all of us is helping others, when it comes to business, if you create a business that’s designed to help other businesses grow and to do it in a very tangible way where you’re, partnering up with them and you’re doing a revenue share or something that everybody’s got skin in the game and nobody gets paid unless we all get paid and you create something like that.

It can really help, create jobs and revenue and grow businesses that aren’t just yours. If you find ways to think up into that, your business will always be growing fast.

Robert Brill: [00:14:49] That’s interesting that we don’t have any technology, but that’s how our business is set up where we power ad agencies.

Digital ad buying capabilities. So if you’re familiar with programmatic advertising, and I’m looking at your site, looks like you have, you know, you’re in that space in terms of the solutions you provide. What exactly, does 360 IA do? Like I’m looking at social, I’m looking at display, like what does it do?

Frankie Russo: [00:15:26] So the best way to think about 360 IA it’s not even about the media. So the way I approached this whole thing was that everybody is selling media, right? And so there was traditional media, all of a sudden there’s digital, everybody’s getting into digital, and today it’s just media. And the new thing is that traditional or digital media, the new thing is technology and data and everything that is going to drive media in the next 10 years will led and at the heart of it will be how you use intelligent technology and big data to really change the way that the consumers experience happens. So the way 360 IA technology is, it’s broken into four pillars. The first is called the 360 target. And in the automotive space, we call it the auto target.

And that really is the biggest, most powerful piece is that we identify who people are. That are going to buy large products like real estate and furniture and automobiles in neighborhoods that local companies are trying to serve. We can identify people in many cases before they start shopping, and once we do that, it allows for us to utilize the CRM.

So our tool also has a CRM in it, or we call it a CXM, which is the customer experience management tool. And the CXM is designed to be like an original older model of a CRM, but enriched with all this third-party data around the person so that the relationship that you do build as a salesforce is more unique. It’s more customized, and it’s more in line with what consumers have come to expect from their experience. And you see this a lot in e-commerce where it’s all automated and there’s not a lot of people involved. So ours does involve the people because we’re working with companies that have sales forces in many cases.

And what we’ve done is we’ve made all of our marketing, or at least the majority of our marketing that we’re spending on digital and direct mail and television products like over the top, all of it is designed to be addressed to the individual. And so we call it auto targeting. And that’s why people, companies have started to really buy into our program is that at the end of the day, yes, we are a media company.

And yes, we sell media, but the media is almost secondary to the program and the approach because for the first time, all the money that these local businesses are spending on DSPs like yourself and,  display and video and search and social and email and direct mail, and over the top television, there’s seven main tactics now that for the first time, those people that are being advertising advertise to which traditionally anonymous who they are, right.

You know what types of people they are, you know how many clicks and impressions we got and click through rates. And sometimes you know, if they called or emailed after they saw the ad or clicked on the ad. But this takes it a step further in that we now dictate who is going to be in these seven tactics now that the technology is advanced, where we can share that type of data.

As long as we’re the author of the, person data. So everything comes back to the person and everything that we do is about people.

Robert Brill: [00:19:05] Yeah. So what are the types of things you’re doing Frankie, to grow your businesses? You have the ad agency, the ad tech data, technology.  you have Russo capital, like what are the things like you have Potenza.

How how do you grow? What can our audience learn about growing business from your experience?

Frankie Russo: [00:19:31] Okay. Great. Yeah. So the biggest thing about growing businesses is the type of business that it is. So our business is, B2B business where, we work with clients that we’re working with consumers.

So our business is different than our clients, business because our business is predominantly referral. Now, all businesses rely on referral and word of mouth. And just at different levels. But for us, a big part of our business is about doing really good work and growing it to referral basis. And that’s one of our, strategies of how we do it.

The other strategy of how we’ve grown the business is through partnerships or joint ventures and strategic alliances. So, you know, one of the things that is,  a great way to grow your business fast is by finding other partners that are aligned with the same objectives that you have, especially if you have something that they need to be able to enhance their business.

So, a great example would be, the broadcast industry. So I’ve worked for a long time in the broadcast industry and created a lot of strategic alliances where the broadcasters. And radio stations, TV stations, they have a media product that they needed to have something, to make their offering to their clients more robust and in line with where the industry has changed with technology and media and things like that.

We have something that they don’t have. And so we create a strategic alliances and revenue share opportunities where they’re boots on the ground and salespeople become our salespeople and we become a part of their offering. And that has really been a great way for us to grow, especially our technology business, and software business.

Because it’s allowed for us to have local activation without having to have offices throughout the country. And that’s been a big strategy. And not all businesses can put something like that together, but the more you can align with other businesses to give them something that they need, especially if those businesses have a solid distribution channel like a salesforce, then that’s something that you want to look for in trying to grow your business.

But still, at the end of the day. The number one way to grow a good business is to have a really great product that people actually need. And it works well because usually that will have its own strength from a referral and word of mouth standpoint that you need to be sustainable long-term.

Robert Brill: [00:22:05] So for your agency business, do you use testimonials.

Frankie Russo: [00:22:08] Yeah, to a degree. I mean, we don’t do a lot of advertising. Honestly. The agency business is really unique because it’s so custom and it’s so specialized. We always have an endorsement from another client on almost every situation.  if it didn’t come from them being told about us from a client, then we usually will offer up a list of references.

So that, new prospects that, have learned about our agency are thinking about partnering with us have an opportunity to talk to someone else that is already familiar with our brand, familiar with their services. And so we do, regularly have,  our existing clients offering references, which is similar to a testimonial, but it’s not broadcasted, which I think actually works better than a testimonial.

Robert Brill: [00:22:55] So it really is word of mouth.

Frankie Russo: [00:22:58] And just so you know, so Robert, that just for the agency. So I have two businesses, have multiple businesses, but two main businesses. The agency is designed that way because we’re looking for long-term partnerships.

My other business is, a different business altogether with where we are looking for long-term distribution partners for our software. And that is not set up the same way or grow in the same way as the agency.

Robert Brill: [00:23:30] So is that, it sounds like. You know, so when you sell your team of sellers like do you find that just calling and emailing is the best form of access, to reach, to generate new sales?

Like I get, I get the referral element. Certainly. I think that’s very right.

Frankie Russo: [00:23:48] The type of business. Yeah. I’ll tell you this, the type of business that we do, the only thing that we’re able to do on the phone as far as selling goes, is setting the appointment. The type of businesses that we were in, the level of the price tag on it and the long-term commitment that we’re looking for requires a face to face meeting because  it’s all larger ticket items.

Like a small ticket would be 10,000 a month for our products. So that’s something that people have an expectation in business to have that type of relationship that’s going to be face to face. We rarely get any deals done just via email because of the nature of our product. It’s not as transactional and it’s not a small enough ticket item to be able to be handled via email.

Now, you can sometimes get feedback, but email becomes more of a supplement than a driving force for how we’re able to, for our businesses, for how we’re able to get new customers acquired.

Robert Brill: [00:25:00] Do you guys feel like social media is relevant for, for your businesses?

Frankie Russo: [00:25:06] So social media is similar to email in that it’s, when I say supplemental, it’s important, but more from a branding standpoint.

Robert Brill: [00:25:13] Right.

Frankie Russo: [00:25:14] So social media is, is, is, is become similar to PR, and PR and social media are both really important brand tools to have this like perception and position around your company that allows for, when people do go to make that decision, it’s kind of like the references from the client.

It gives them that much more confidence. It’s just like any brand that you buy as a consumer. You want to have that confidence and a lot of what branding and PR and the length of time that accompany and a track record of a company, all that matters when it comes to when I’m going to make that decision.

So it’s attractive. You don’t get a lot of good direct leads necessarily for our type of business, from social media directly. But what happens is over time, it’s just like when a local company. That is for consumers running TV ads every month for years at a time. It’s designed to be for, when the person, the consumer, whether it be a business or whether it be a regular consumer, when they’re ready, it’s what makes them confident in their decision.

But ultimately that’s not actually what’s creating the sale. It’s what’s reinforcing the sale.

Robert Brill: [00:26:30] I like that. I think that’s super interesting. I mean, we find the same thing for our business, so when we get new businesses because it’s a referral or relationship.

Although what’s interesting to me is I’ve gone on Reddit and, you know, been in the marketplace talking on Reddit and got clients from Reddit, from Twitter.  but I do think it’s hard to scale that. I think the best, way is referral followed closely by very personalized sales conversations, where credentials help provide some authority and some credibility to the, to the conversation.

Frankie Russo: [00:27:19] Exactly. For sure. And I think at the end of the day, there, there’s a lot of type of relationships that can now be made digitally via email and phone calls and social media. But again you know, you have to kind of put them in the right buckets as it relates to like how much you invest into those thinking that it’s going to give you the return or the distribution channel that you want for a long-term sustainable, culture and client base.

Robert Brill: [00:27:48] Yeah. I think, I think the challenge, you know, for me as well too, to that point is that like, like where do I allocate my time, right? Like, I’m going to be the best seller of my business. However. We get clients based off of relationships. So it’s actually partners who have the best relationships with advertisers.

A lot of our goal is to get relationships with agencies, and as a result, it’s like if I spend too much time on social media, I might be missing opportunities to form one on one relationships with agencies. So I think the constant refinement of our sales and marketing apiarists do I spend more time on social, this modern I more time selling, and that’s dependent on the economics of the business and where I think my time is best used.

The other part of it is not everyone in a leadership position is a seller. I think business owners are inherently going to become the bestsellers of their business. But the challenge that I face is that I’m just inherently not a seller. I’m getting better at it, but I’m never going to be as good as like true salespeople.

So do you have a sales background?

Frankie Russo: [00:29:02] So I have a sales background only as it relates to my own company. So I’ve been an entrepreneur since out of college. And so my sales background has been homegrown, selling my own businesses, but I didn’t work as a traditional seller bore dating into business, but I’m very familiar with it and I’ve worked with a lot of sales teams. Over the last 15 years.

Robert Brill: [00:29:25] How do you sell it? Like, what are the tactics that you deploy? Do you even sell at this point?

Frankie Russo: [00:29:32] Yeah, so what I do, I don’t sell. I present.

Okay. So I still will present, either to a group or to directly to stakeholders at a business.  but I have sellers. With me at all times. So there’s always a seller that is the actual sales rep that will join me. I’m more of a presenter or demo, or if you will, of our product and program. So I usually only get on in for those types of things.

So I’m not, I’m not actually prospecting. So that piece of selling, which is a huge piece of prospecting, I don’t actually do that in my day to day anymore. So nowadays I’ll still present and I’ll help close. But that’s, that’s the extent of my personal involvement with sales currently.

Robert Brill: [00:30:34] I’m sure that it’s difficult to find the right seller. Tell me about that experience.

Yeah. So my

Frankie Russo: [00:30:48] experience with, with sellers is that you either are one or you aren’t, first of all. So the only thing that you can, you can grow in a seller is their affinity for your program and some of the things that you use as positioning.

And as it relates to what’s going to happen after the sale. So when I sell I present, I’m always thinking of what’s gonna happen after the sale and all my focus is on that. So I try, and give that to the sales reps that we work with is like, cause at the end of the day, we’re not, I’m not in a transactional style business.

I’m in a partnership business. So I need this to go beyond the close, if you will. So when I’m looking for in a seller is someone who is already a seller, meaning they’re not afraid to prospect, they’re not afraid to cold call. They know what their role is, it’s to build relationships and keep them and collect money, and then I groomed them from there.

But I haven’t successfully made a seller that wasn’t already a seller, ever. So I look for people that are already in sales, and quite frankly, some of the best sellers are older.  because there’s the younger generation, it’s harder and harder to get people that are set up and have the right mentality of sales.

Even though we have a cutting-edge product you would think would be best sold by young people. Not always the case.

Robert Brill: [00:32:21] So do you find that if you have two sellers in front of you, do you hire the one that has less category experience and more sales knowledge?

Or do you bet on the person that has more, maybe hasn’t been in sales as long, but like really knows the business.

Frankie Russo: [00:32:48] Yeah, so it’s definitely a balance, but if I have to pick one or the other, I’m going to go with category because the fact, yeah, and I’m going to tell you why the, when I say category, as far as I’m concerned, good relationships have conversations and good relationships that are sustainable has strategy.

And so again, this isn’t for every sales organization, right? Or some sales organization it doesn’t matter what the product is, these guys are going to sell it. For ours, it’s a little bit different. Like it’s important for them to be able to conversate about experiences they’ve had that are similar to the experiences of their client base.

That so that they can earn that rapport. It’s going to be necessary to sustain the amount of revenue that they’re going to be getting from this client every month. To be that strategic partner that that the client’s looking for. You still want to have a rep that at least has an understanding of the category.

And I’m saying category, the kind of, it could be media. Like I’ve taken a lot of media reps and turned them into good, automotive marketers. Okay. But the fact is a lot of what goes into automotive marketing is big ad spend. So they’re already familiar with dealing with big ad spends and clients when things aren’t good, and having to work with clients through that.

And so I can teach them, in many cases, the automotive piece, but I prefer them to have both if possible. So they’ve, they’ve worked with a lot of automobile dealerships. Maybe they’ve worked in an automotive dealership, or maybe it’s furniture and it worked for the furniture store, or they, you know, been involved with one plus they also have sales experience. I look for both, but I put a lot of value in, the category because I think it’s important as things have become more and more niche, clients expect to have a certain amount of, um. You know, they expect their partner and their reps now to have a certain amount of understanding of their business.

And I think that’s what would more and more you see with industries, they want to go with vendor partners that are specific to their industry, which can be good and bad. Sometimes it’s bad because they become so ingrained in the industry that it becomes, it doesn’t have the strategy or customization that is what the client really needs. So it’s, you know, you have to have a balance, but I really look for both in those aspects.

Robert Brill: [00:35:12] Right. So even if you have a really strong strategic team inside your organization, if the salespeople don’t demonstrate that knowledge, the client will never have an opportunity to meet the operational folks, have the strategic knowledge.

So basically, the sales people.

Frankie Russo: [00:35:26] Yeah. And some of that can, some of that can be learned for sure. You know, some of that can be learned. But what I found also is that the time it takes to get that learned, depending on the product that’s being sold, can be longer than you can get the sales person where they need to get.

So you got to balance those pieces.

Robert Brill: [00:35:47] Absolutely. In the last few minutes, we have left Frankie, tell our listeners how they can reach you and, anything you want them to know about you and your businesses.

Frankie Russo: [00:35:58] Great. Yeah. So the best way to reach me is that Russocap.com and I’m available via email [email protected].

That is the best way to reach me. I always love to talk to new, innovative, entrepreneurs as well as entrepreneurs that feel stuck in where they’re at in their business. Those are usually the two areas where we have the most to offer. And that’s really where we specialize.

Robert Brill: [00:36:28] Very cool.

One last thing before we go, actually almost forgot this we do one quick thing about food. I’m a big foodie, what’s like your favorite food? What do you like to eat in wherever you might travel?

Frankie Russo: [00:36:42] That’s a great question. So my favorite place to eat is New York City, and the best restaurants in New York city are the Michelin restaurants.

And there’s two in particular that are, in my opinion, the best restaurants in the world. One is called 11 Madison. It’s usually a blind 10 to 14 course tasting menu. It’s pricey, but does not disappoint. It’s probably the best food experience I’ve ever had anywhere in the world.  and similar to that is a French restaurant called Le Bernardin, which is also in New York.

Both of them are a caliber of restaurant that I’ve never seen before. And then as far as sushi a Nobu in Dubai is the best experience I’ve ever had for sushi.

Robert Brill: [00:37:28] I think you’ve, definitely upped the game on eating opportunities on this podcast. Frankie Ruso thank you for being on the show. I really appreciate it. Great to talk to you.

Frankie Russo: [00:37:39] My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Robert Brill: [00:37:40] Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the LA business podcast. If you like what we’re doing on this podcast, please consider subscribing on Apple or Google play. Leaving a five star review and sharing with your friends.

If you have any questions, comments, or recommendations for a guest you’d like to hear on this podcast, please email me, [email protected] thank you. Have a fantastic day.

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Credits

Intro Music: Echegoyen Productions

Created By: Brill Media