A talented wealth manager and devoted family man with global publicity and credibility to boot, Christopher Russo is no stranger to growing a successful business enterprise and raising a beautiful family, all while being in the celebrity spotlight. A self-made millionaire by the age of 26, Christopher has used his business savvy and charm to navigate through the ebb and flow of prime time television while gaining exposure that helped propel him to further success with his wealth management firm, Worldwide Wealth Group. Today Christopher is here with us to talk about balancing his time on television with his family, business and personal life.
It’s great to have you with us today, Christopher! Can you share with us a bit of background for our readers to get more acquainted with you as an entrepreneur with the business savvy to land a role on The Apprentice?
Simply put, I am a Wealth Manager who primarily focuses on the equity markets to invest clients’ money. Clients count on me to handle their investments primarily in the equity markets. That could range from individual stock trading, to retirement accounts, annuities, defined benefit plans, and insurance. I have been licensed since 1996 and I have experienced the Booms and Busts of the last 25 years which has provided me with wisdom the average person just doesn’t possess.
Thank you for sharing, Christopher. Now that our readers are more familiar with your business background, let’s talk TV! How did you end up being on The Apprentice?
So, it’s a funny story. I was with my fiance at home one day, and back in 2003 we still had answering machines on our telephones at home. The first message pops up from one of my fiance’s friends who lives in Tennessee saying that Donald Trump was going to be doing a reality show and that Chris could look into it, then beep next message, another one of my fiance’s friends, Catherine also telling us that Donald Trump was doing a reality show and I should check it out. My fiance and I looked at each other like what the heck is that about? Back to back messages, two different women, two different states, don’t even know each other. So I looked it up right away and I became hyper focused on making sure I would make the program.
What prompted you to decide to take the plunge and join the cast of The Apprentice?
I grew up with a single mom, no brothers or sisters in a basement apartment. The one picture that I had on my wall since I was roughly eight years old was Donald Trump. When you don’t have money, you want to aspire to be the person who’s looked upon as the most successful. So it became an easy fit when the opportunity was presented, I knew right away this was something I really wanted.
Being on such a successful and well known show must have had its ups and downs. How did you juggle your personal life with being on reality TV? I know it can be a handful for a lot of people; how did you cope with that?
Being on the apprentice was a blessing and a curse at the same time. The positives were the amazing experience I had and the opportunities it brought. Overall, I just had a fantastic experience and it opened up many doors for me. Obviously being on TV was just spectacular for me at 30 years old. The hardest part of it all was that our first born, Marco, came a week prior to the first show airing. When you’re on the number one TV program in the country and you’re following the sitcom ‘Friends’, there’s millions upon millions of people that are watching; the amount of attention that came to me, a guy that never had any attention, while starting a family where the attention is supposed to be on our firstborn, created some resentment and tensions and I really had to make sure I knew what my priorities were. I did have one last hurrah and that was where 50 cent bought Mike Tyson’s house and he threw a party that was televised by MTV. It was a great way to cap off the 15 minutes of fame. After that I decided that I wouldn’t have anything to do with the socialite world so I could put 100% of my focus on my family and my business. Fast forward 18 years later, they’re both going as strong as ever.
You touched on the opportunities that being on the Apprentice brought you, can you give us more details on what that was like?
While filming for the show, I lived in the Trump Tower for two months on someone else’s dime no less. I was able to meet and compete with some of the brightest and most talented people throughout the country. I played tennis with John McEnroe and Anna Kournikova, I had lunch with Rudy Giuliani and Mayor Bloomberg. I was on the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary II. All were great experiences.
Of course The Apprentice was the pinnacle, but it definitely opened up other doors after the show wrapped. I was able to participate in Battle of the Network Reality Stars, which was really cool. We competed out in Pepperdine university for nine days with reality television stars throughout the country. I made two appearances on QVC, one during The Apprentice and once after when they brought my team back to sell the DeLonge panini grill, which was a lot of fun. I also appeared on Kathy Griffin’s “The D List” a program on Bravo, the Tony Danza show and interviews on CNBC. That rolled into my becoming a semi-regular on the financial circuit on Fox News.
Wow, sounds like you had an amazing time before and after the show! Can you shed some light on your gig with Fox News and how the experience helped grow your business and brand?
That was definitely one of the greatest highs I had after being on the show. I had the opportunity to be a regular guest on all the Saturday morning financial shows on Fox News, and that was followed by Neil Cavuto, who would call and have me on once every other week or so in the late afternoon where they would ask questions about the economy or politics or my opinions on equities or commodities. So that was an amazing experience. It really helped on the business side of things, building my credibility with my clients at Worldwide Wealth Group because they would see me on TV talking about some of the same recommendations that I was buying for them in their own portfolios. It helped to really put the face behind the voice. Being able to speak and show my thought process and my talents with the financial markets on national television was spectacular.
Now that you’ve wrapped up your time on television, and you’re focused on your wonderful family and growing business, what does the future hold for you?
My future is the same as my past and present. To help navigate my clients through the changes in the financial markets. It may sound cliché’ but I love my job and my responsibilities, so going to work doesn’t feel like a job to me, it’s more like a way of life.