I recently went one-on-one with Louis Rossmann. Louis is the founder of Rossmann Repair Group, the Executive Director of Repair Preservation Group, the President President FULU Foundation USA, and a highly successful YouTuber.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Louis: I was 17, working at a recording studio in New York because I wanted to be a recording engineer. There was a session I was working on that required Logic Pro that only worked on MacBooks. I got a MacBook from eBay that had a broken screen and decided to fix it myself. When I didn’t need it, I made about $250; at this point, I hadn’t made more than $450-$600/month in my life. I had lost my job, so I thought, “Hey, maybe I can actually do this for people.”
I started putting up pull tab signs, Craigslist ads, Backpage ads, made a website, and people started calling in. Apple’s prices & turnaround were so bad, people were willing to meet a teenager working out of Herald Square Park stealing electricity for his MacBook chargers & soldering irons with an extension cord to get better service. 25 minutes & $175 sure beat 2 weeks & $750.
Eventually, in the next few years that followed, I realized New York was full of standard scam offerings when it came to electronics repair. Everyone was outsourcing board-level work to either this one particular store in NYC or China. There was this giant opening in the industry. So I did what any reasonable person would do- stayed up till 3 am every day for years, teaching myself how to fix logic boards. Nobody made any of those educational resources public back in 2012. Once I figured it out through mentorship with great technicians, I started creating videos because I did not want people to go through the same crap I did.
The biggest setback? I have faced some really tough times in my life. There was a time when I could not afford my gas bill and had to take cold showers for months because I was gambling on repair parts, not knowing if I’d be able to make that money back. If I stocked more parts, I could say yes to more repairs, so I ran this Ponzi scheme on myself, trying to time everything properly. That didn’t always work.
To add to that, I remodeled a new shop right before COVID hit. Suddenly, I had $20,000 dollars in weekly payroll and everything was supposed to be shut down.
Every failure taught me something. Above all, if I tell the truth, whatever happens is the best possible thing. Even if it’s horrible, it’s better than the alternative, and there’s nobody worse to lie to than yourself! Every time people tried to shut me down- YouTube videos getting reported, hate comments, and emails, etc, it just confirmed that I was on the right track. If you’re not putting someone off, you’re probably not doing anything important.
Adam: How did you become an influencer?
Louis: That’s definitely not what I am, and it’s not what I set out to be. An “influencer” today is someone who makes their living getting you to buy crappy headphones you don’t need. They sell their audience to advertisers.
My goal is to clean up my corner of the world – not just by talking about problems, but pushing for real change. If a company says you can’t fix your device, I’ll show you how to do the same work my lead technicians do. If the legislature laughs a wheelchair repair bill out of the senate, I’ll fundraise grassroots efforts until the entire state’s disabled population is outside their doors.
The real story starts with my grandpa, Jack Rossmann.
He was a machinist in the South Bronx during the crack epidemic of the 1970s. While taking care of my mentally ill grandma, he’d walk through gang-ridden neighborhoods that sane people avoided and fix up abandoned buildings with his own tools. These buildings were full of teenagers cutting school, drinking, smoking weed – society’s throwaways.
People thought he was crazy. Here’s this blue-collar guy in his 50s, broke as hell, dragging building materials into dangerous areas to work on shit that wasn’t even his. His neighbors said he was enabling gang members by giving them safe places to hang out.
But here’s what actually happened: those kids started helping him. He taught them how to use tools, and watching him work got some of them to want to do what he was doing. When a group tried to rob him one day, a kid yelled, “Wait, that’s Mr. Jack! He cool!” and they left him alone.
His approach was simple: “This is your place. If you’re going to hang out here, you might as well make it better.” He didn’t yell, shame, or threaten them. He met people where they were and treated them like humans.
Most of those kids didn’t become valedictorians, but that wasn’t the point. Just because you can’t fix everything doesn’t mean you neglect tidying up your corner of the world when others have abdicated their responsibility.
Fast forward to my “viral moment”:
I was teaching people how to fix their devices when CBC reached out, wanting to compare Apple’s pricing to mine. They got a laptop that Apple quoted $1,200 plus $900 for what turned out to be a tiny connector issue costing almost nothing to fix.
That went viral. My shop went from 4-5 to 12-16 people overnight. I started documenting my search for a bigger NYC location, and apparently watching someone get screwed by real estate brokers is peak entertainment – my channel gained half a million subscribers just from that series.
Now I have over 2 million subscribers, every single one organic. I don’t run ads, don’t work with sponsors, and actively tell people to install ad blockers.
Like my grandpa, I’m cleaning up my corner of the world. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Adam: What are the best leadership lessons you have learned from leading a non-profit organization? What are your best tips for fellow leaders of non-profit organizations?
Louis: The best leadership lesson I’ve ever learned with regards to changing my corner of the world is that planting a seed in people’s minds is the most important part. As an activist, my job is to let people in on the joke, and make the people messing with them the joke. I can never make the people I want on my side, the joke.
After working for many non-profits over the years, I have just stepped up as the President of FULU Foundation, an NGO focused towards fighting for digital rights and ownership of consumers. With FULU, our aim is to educate people and spread awareness on day-to-day ownership issues.
Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Louis: Leaders don’t tell people what to think or what to do.
First, you get a name tag, but nobody cares about what’s on your name tag. Your position is irrelevant to them.
Then, you accomplish something useful. People might start watching, coming to you for advice, or emulating your style.
Next, you accomplish something that helps others. This will win people over to your side.
After that, you teach your colleagues how to lead others & teach them how to solve their own problems.
I didn’t realize it consciously, but I don’t yell at people telling them what to do. At my business, if I want us to respond to walk-in customers immediately, I don’t yell at my employees. When a customer walks in, I could be in the middle of a complicated repair 70 feet away from the front, but I’ll jump out of my seat and run to the front s soon as possible to greet them. The person sitting 2 feet from the customer will get the message that this is the standard I hold the business to, and this is the standard they should hold themselves to.
For my work, I didn’t spend most of my time telling people to care about my cause, put up a hashtag or a bumper sticker, etc.
- I talked about problems with Apple repair.
- I showed how to fix what Apple said couldn’t be repaired.
- I created materials that let beginners replicate my results.
- I went over the underlying principles & gave advice that let them help aspiring repair people.
- I showed them what I did & why it mattered to me. I made it fun.
I didn’t have to twist people’s arms or guilt them to support right to repair; they were already invested in it.
The aim is to build a foundation so strong that your organization can also function without you. If everything falls apart, if you aren’t present, then you’ve just failed at your job. Bosses that have god complexes like the idea of everyone coming to them to solve problems. The best thing to do is work to build a team that, someday, doesn’t need you; that learns & grows on their own.
Lastly, a very important learning from my advocacy and work so far is that stop trying to be liked by everyone. Sometimes leadership means making decisions that put people off, and it’s okay.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?
Louis: First, solve real problems. I started my business because I saw a gap in the repair industry, and I wanted to bridge that. Not because ‘repair shop’ was a trending business to own. Don’t do what you want to do, do what the world actually needs. Don’t “start an AI company” because that’s a thing. Start an AI company because there is a lot of demand to solve x.y.z problem that a.b.c and d.e.f business over there aren’t doing it.
Second, your reputation is everything. Be it my business or the non-profit, the amount of transparency I like to maintain overall is only to make sure that tomorrow nobody can come up and say that I cut corners.
Third, don’t be afraid to call out bullshit. If you’re thinking something, there are likely 100 people thinking the same thing who aren’t speaking because they’re afraid to be the first domino. Be the first domino; I’ve been doing that for more than a decade, and I’m doing just fine. If you tell the truth, whatever happens is the best possible thing. It’s a tough thing to believe.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Louis: Everything in the book “Start with No” by Jim Camp. Learning to say no and walk away from bad deals completely changed how I approach business. Most people are so desperate to make any deal that they accept terrible terms.
That book was a turning point in me doing better at advocating for myself without feeling guilty.
Adam: What can anyone do to pay it forward?
Louis: In 2028, when your neighbor’s dishwasher requires a subscription after year 2 to do a hot-water-wash, don’t call them an idiot for buying a Bosch, because that’s what’s coming around the corner for the brand you chose to buy from too. I find people spend their time looking for cheap dopamine hits, looking for any excuse to make themselves feel better at the expense of someone else. You bought the “right” car. You chose the “right” phone. You deposit money at the “right” bank. These people believe that the reason others get screwed isn’t because of injustice in the world, but because their neighbors aren’t as smart and refined as they are. This attitude is how we allow ourselves to be ripped off.
Question corporate messaging instead of just accepting it. Companies have convinced people that not owning what you actually paid for is actually the norm, and that’s utter nonsense.
Install an ad blocker. Stop feeding the machine with your data and attention.
Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?
Louis: I am trying to build a repository of all the consumer abuse cases to make it a go-to platform not just for consumers, but for journalists, senators and everyone who wants to educate themselves on how companies are screwing you over. It’s called consumerrights.wiki, where anyone is allowed to access and contribute to the cases. I would urge everyone, who has ever faced an issue in terms of digital ownership, subscription, and repair services to become a part of this movement.
If that is not something they can contribute to, I would urge everyone to follow the FULU Foundation on LinkedIn and be connected to this fight, because every voice matters.
