Jeremy Weisz
Why did you share that? I mean, in the book, because you didn’t need to, for someone to execute on you give some really tactical advice in the book. I mean, a lot of books either go very tactical, very high level, I felt you did a really good job at both of them. Why did you share that story at the end?
Ryan Moran
If I think the the game that we’re all playing is becoming more and more of who we naturally are, like that, like what that is what freedom is, is the desire for have all limits removed, so that you can be yourself pursue the things that you want to pursue, enjoy the things that you want to pursue. And what I learned through that process was you take yourself wherever you go, so you better enjoy who you are now, rather than put it on pause, and then go make the money to be able to liberate it because all you’ve done at that point is you’ve wasted time. Yeah. And what I have discovered is is you can you can be who you are, you can enjoy the process now in motion towards those things that you genuinely want. And then they become much more effortless in those pursuits. And so that that is that was my message to myself after going down this route, and then coming back and reporting on what I had learned and still have to learn. Because that 2324 25 year old kid, I wish I’d gotten that message or learn that lesson. And so that was me embarking that message on to the people who are starting their journey.
Jeremy Weisz
You mentioned Ryan mistakes with selling the business
Ryan Moran
so many,
Jeremy Weisz
you know from an outside perspective, it looks like it went Amazing, right? You laugh but go
Ryan Moran
Well, I mean,
Jeremy Weisz
you allude to this in the book actually you talk about it you Only you briefly mentioned a couple things and I’m like he needs to talk more about like used to be another book about this. I could tell you couldn’t flush it out because that wasn’t the purpose
Ryan Moran
of that was it was still in process like right when the book went to the printer. The company that I sold declare bankruptcy. So it was an end what happened there is basically I sold my dog to a bad home and it got abused.
Jeremy Weisz
terrible
Ryan Moran
is and is Yeah, it’s depressed and I mean they still they still owe your money and you still have equity In the business, but you have no say anymore.
Jeremy Weisz
I felt there was another book in there like waiting to come out there.
Ryan Moran
There. There could have been. Yeah, have to publish at some point, right? Yeah. No. I mean, like boohoo, I got my money, right. I like boohoo, I got at least some of what was owed to me. boohoo, I learned a lot of lessons. And I’m a better man for this process, like, what the hell do I have to complain about? But if I could do it again, of course, there are mistakes, I think, I think this is the biggest lesson from everything, Jeremy, which is, we all have this vision. People really want the pot of gold at the end of the exit the big thing of money, what they don’t realize is how valuable great businesses are. I mean, the game is not when you go sell the game is building a great asset, that Gary Keller says, You should never sell a good business. Now, of course, there’s life and there’s wanting to de risk things, then there’s all of this, but the game is in the building of something great not in the payday at the end of it, when you when you cash in your chips, you’re done, you know, then then then what then then you start over, right. And that was a much bigger adjustment than I expected of on the other side of the exit filling in that space. Because the way that what I did was I took like two weeks where I read books, and then went right back into workaholism. That muscle was well trained at that point, what are you working on nothing important. So there is the game is in building the great asset. And the asset that is the greatest is the one that creates meaningful change in the world. And so the faster that you can learn that lesson, which I had to, you know, I learned by making mistakes, and boy, did I ever run into walls and say that hurt, I’m not going to do that anymore. And then you come back and you adjust. And eventually you just learned that you’re playing a big game, you play the game that you want to play, you can be who you want in the game, and you’re creating whatever change is meaningful to you.
Jeremy Weisz
So Ryan, talk a little bit about a few of the myths if you were to go back, you may have done things differently. And I know asked to make you feel bad or anything but because like someone’s gonna be selling their business, they’re maybe watching this or thinking of selling their business. And a shout out to Paul Miller, who’s actually in your book and Kellianne Fedio who they have a podcast Amazing Exit. So shout out to both of them. But um, you know, what, are some of those six people? Are there look going to be selling their business at some point? What should they avoid?
Ryan Moran
You know, this is this is the biggest thing. If you can realize that you’re the hot girl at the dance. If you can realize that the person with the money needs you more than you need them. If you realize that you’re the one with the asset that money wants, you realize that there are equity groups and investors who are waking up in the morning saying I wish there was a good company to buy. You realize that you’re the one with all the cards. So I wish that I had gone into into my my negotiations, not looking for ello eyes, which is what you know, the person who is helping us sell the business was going in collecting ROIs, I wish that I had had a term sheet not waited for one said these are my terms, can you meet these terms? And if they say no, Okay, great, that’s fine, we’re happy keeping the business carry on, move along. Because what we did this is, Ah, oh, Ryan, in the past, if you’re hearing this, please don’t do this. What we did is we went up, we have this great business, your $3 million in EBITDA, ah, going out looking for offers and when you take the offers, you go under an exclusive Li. And now you’re in the dating period. You don’t even know if you like that person. And and I had a sense of the person who bought this is like, I know that I want to do business with this person, but they have an offer on the table. And we have to decide if we’re going to go through the process or not. And then five months of due diligence, are you gonna say no to the check, because you don’t like the guy because now you really hate your life because you’re running the business. And you’re doing due diligence in this process. And there’s a carrot at the end of the of the stick. But had I gone into the original negotiations with these are my terms, one of these terms is you will be a cool human being one of these terms is that this is my price. And my terms are that I will work this much and this is what I will. Now I’m in the position if they say I can’t work with this guy. Great. I’m so glad we got that out of the way now we’ll move on down the line. I would have probably doubled my valuation had I done this and and the business would be a $50 million a year company now instead of bankrupt. So these are just the things that you know, a 28 29 year old entrepreneur who He’s never done this before goes through, that you can avoid if you learn from somebody like me. And I would, I would. The other thing I would say is like get real help. Now unfortunately for me, I kind of I kind of started the market of people who were selling specifically econ ecommerce businesses, that took a lot of sales on Amazon, we like we kind of set the market and made that cool. Now, people were not selling their businesses before then. And what happened with us was that there was really no precedent for this, so and m&a companies, we’re not in this yet. And so we went with a broker, which is like, you know, the 2009 version. So I wish we had waited to get real help and gone out and got a, like people who had sold companies for the valuations that we wanted before, because we just, we had Podunk Cal.
Jeremy Weisz
You know, I want to talk about the beginning, you know, you talk about in the book, really some strategic and tactical things. And in the beginning, you had, you know, in your Amazon business, you had three businesses you’ve talked about, and it kind of you separate them into I don’t know, your words, not mine, you know, homerun double strikeout, right. And I think it’s an important lesson learned, like, you didn’t just have necessarily one thing that was like home run out of the gate. So talk about why that was, and maybe differentiate those three.
Ryan Moran
Yeah, I mean, there’s what I lay out in the book is a very clear process. But that process still has to be married to a good business, and to unto a good entrepreneur, and to a good market. And when I started doing e commerce businesses in 2014 13, or 14, I kind of went wide. And I had a couple partners, and I said, I have an idea for this idea for this idea for this. And all of them were probably equally good ideas. One of them, I had a partner that we were just a rocket fuel, and we work together. And we were both committed to the process. One new entrepreneur, smart guy, we had to double. One, one partner, you know, probably wasn’t the best business idea. We were in it for the money on that one. It was also his first business. We never worked together before that one was a strikeout. And so it there are all of these different factors beyond just the process, the idea, the product. And for me, it was all of those things and timing and partners. I also started three businesses at once. When is that a good idea? You can really only commit to one
Jeremy Weisz
you’re just trying to be like Elon Musk as
Ryan Moran
well. Elon did one thing really well, before he, before he went wide. And for me, you know, one of those things got all my attention. And one of those things, you may be a multi millionaire.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah. I think Ryan, one of the things you talked about which I, again, I need a constant reminder of the slap in the head with his market to a person. And yes, you talk about that with the strikeout. Right. So what you know what, how does that relate to the strikeout
Ryan Moran
market to a person when you’re selling a product? You’re selling it to everybody? So here like right now, drinking a Virgil’s ever had a verge?
Jeremy Weisz
No. What is it? Me? No,
Ryan Moran
- Have you ever had Zevia?
Jeremy Weisz
Yes.
Ryan Moran
Alright, so this is like a xebia. But like, it’s like a Gore. Amazing. I mean, it’s just like Gore. Amazing. It’s like foamy and it’s just, it’s like luxury luxury in your mouth. You got to try it. And so Jeremy, why do you drink zevia?
Jeremy Weisz
Well, um, it’s healthier. You know, it’s obviously got no sugar, because it has
Ryan Moran
no sugar, right? Yeah, it’s and do drink diet soda during things with aspartame. Yeah, you don’t right, but you’ll drink it but you’ll drink a Zevia sweetened soda. Yeah, so this now we have a very clear person. I don’t know if you can see yourself a low carb or keto or any of that but you but you are low
Jeremy Weisz
carb via
Ryan Moran
Okay, cool. So you’re a low carb person who doesn’t eat a lot of sugar and likes
Jeremy Weisz
kombucha low carb person.
Ryan Moran
I’m very clear person. And guess what? I’m that person too. And I drink Zevia Virgil’s. Right. So it is just easier and more profitable to market your products to people, rather than and like I mean, I’m saying Virgil’s, and you’re like, Oh, I gotta try it. All right. I just told you about it. And you’re like, Oh, yeah, I gotta try. If I were to say to my grandparents who love Coca Cola, you got to try this sugar free Virgil’s. They don’t care. Yeah, they do not care. So even if Warren Buffett who loves Coca Cola, like Yeah, but Virgil’s is sugar free. He’s like, not your guy. So I can have the best Sugar Free soda in the whole wide world, if I’m selling it to Warren Buffett, he doesn’t really care. And so it is all about the person that you are selling to is then much more about that than it is about the product. Sometimes it is not that your product sucks, and it’s not that you suck. It’s just that you’re marketing it to the wrong person. And that flips, everything. Beauty is an eye of the beholder and so his value value is in the eye of the beholder.
Jeremy Weisz
Ryan, you know, you’re a busy guy building companies, brands, why’d you decide to even write the book?
Ryan Moran
I couldn’t not. You know, Jeremy, everybody has their http://www.canadianpharmacy365.net version of freedom in mind is being able to deliver a message unencumbered. It’s it’s saying what you believe, regardless of the consequences. Yes. And you and I are sitting here, this is election day,
Jeremy Weisz
I was just gonna bring up you’ve offended a lot of people.
Ryan Moran
I have some very fine people on both sides. Yeah. And the book is one way for me to come. Just express what needs to be said in the way that I want to set it say it.
Jeremy Weisz
How do you handle you take a lot of flack you do speak your opinions on business, politics, religion? Um, so, one? I don’t know, you know, it’s election day. So it’s appropriate to talk about that. But how do you take in the criticism? You know it? I don’t know. I don’t know if I could take that amount of criticism that you take.
Ryan Moran
You know, it’s it’s interesting, because I don’t notice it as much as other people do. But then when you say it back to him, like I guess I really do. I guess I do talk about politics and religion a lot. And I guess these are hot button topics for you. I do get a lot of flack from people from from people about this. Now, now that you mentioned it there. I mean, there’s one example one, everyone smile get to me. I did a response video to Andrew Yang’s appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast. Okay, which which I did this video response to it. And I mean, hundreds of hateful comments. I mean, 100. Why?
Jeremy Weisz
Just
Ryan Moran
because because I didn’t think that Andrew Yang was honest. In the interview with Joe Rogan. I thought that he was he, his facts were incorrect, and that he was stretching the truth in order to make a point. And so I just got hundreds of hateful comments from the online Yang gang. I got I got nothing against Andrew Yang, but I have had a lot against what he had to say. That one kept me up for a few hours, right? It was just an onslaught of, of people wishing things upon me.
Jeremy Weisz
When you made the video, what what were you thinking the reaction was gonna be? Or you don’t even care what the reaction is gonna be? You’re not wanting to speak your mind? Correct?
Ryan Moran
Correct. I don’t care what the reactions are going to be. There there is it the minute that you’re playing for reactions you’ve lost, because now you’ve given your power to the peanut gallery, rather than decided to say what you feel needs to be said. This is why social media is an echo chamber. Because we cater to what other people say, rather than just an or care about what people say, rather than just owning what it is that you feel needs to be said. Like, you don’t have to respond to all the comments. I don’t. You don’t have to reply to all the haters. I don’t, sometimes it’s fun. But I made my point in it. My superpower is communicating. I can say a lot of things in very few words. And I put my intent in the post or the video or the podcast, the comments that are made to engage you I already said my piece. And and you could be out at that point. So when you are playing for the responses I think you have you have already lost.
Jeremy Weisz
I think you know, Ryan, one of one of my interviews, I think is the most commented on interviews was my Perry Marshall interview that I did about evolution 2.0 and referee about that. Yeah, I want to hear about it. And you know this God exists, frankly, the conversate going in the conversation usually talking about business. I was uncomfortable doing the interview, talking about the topic. It was fine. But the talking about the topic makes me uncomfortable for whatever reason. And you chimed in in the comments and you have some interesting views. Also because you were set out to be a pastor. So anyways, what’s the story but I do want to
Ryan Moran
Well, I mean Asterix I like Perry. I don’t think Perry could pick me out of a crowd. But I saw That interview that you did with Perry. And I invited him on my podcast to, to have a go. And it was such such a bad interview. He actually went on and it could that Yeah, and but but I couldn’t post it. It was it was,
Jeremy Weisz
I was like I remember seeing it.
Ryan Moran
Yeah, right. I didn’t post it. It was just his. And he was like, Oh, you could post this to him. I’m okay being controversial. And my goal wasn’t the controversy. It was just it was I like Perry. I like his message. And I like what he stands for, but it was, but now you inspired me to reach out to him as a result of of that interview. But but the interview was,
Jeremy Weisz
what was it about it? What would you change about?
Ryan Moran
This was five or six years ago? So
Jeremy Weisz
yeah, it was five years ago. Exactly. So.
Ryan Moran
So I mean, I mean, Perry’s point, which I think is, is that he sees evidence for the divine or evidence for God in science that he sees, he sees evidence for a divine for God in the makeup, and the DNA of that is reflected in evolution. I think that’s awesome, we can have a really nice philosophical conversation about that. But the minute that you try to make the other side the enemy, or like anti your view, I think that you kind of defeat your point. You You lose the argument by setting it up, as there’s another side that disagrees with me and making the conversation about the other side. But if you can, you kind of can take the moral high ground by saying, Yes, they are totally correct. And that gives me more evidence for the point that I believe, which is that there is divine fingerprints in science. I think that overall point is a beautiful point. And and worthwhile to discuss. But I don’t like when it is made is there is a right team and a wrong team and we are just debating each other.
Jeremy Weisz
So your journey as a pastor, why did you set out on that journey? To begin with, because even from a young age, even in the book, you talked about, I want to make a lot of money, I want to be a millionaire.
Ryan Moran
Yeah,
Jeremy Weisz
but you still went on the pastor route.
Ryan Moran
Yeah, that was that was a time of conflict in my journey, for sure. When I was in high school, I really got my comfort, my solace from the church. And, and being like president of the youth group, if that means anything. You know, I was I was a leader of, of, of my, my youth group. And that was where I got a lot of meaning and purpose. And I mean, if you look at kind of what I’m good at, I’m good at communicating and making complex ideas simple. And I am usually the leader in the room. And when you’re in a church setting, that means it kind of becomes natural for you to pursue something like a pastoral route there, but there was definitely a some semblances of, of wanting to make God happy in that journey, as well. And I remember going into orientation at my university, and hearing, somebody in the admissions office said, saying that they were declared entrepreneurship. And I envied them. And it was, I remember it so distinctly, because I was in there, like punching my ticket for pastor. And I hear somebody say they’re studying entrepreneurship. And I was like, Oh, why not? Me? Yeah. And it was kind of the first indication of, maybe I really want something else. And that I’m stifling that out of some other indication in that case, it being guilt or desire for significance or, or something else,
Jeremy Weisz
what made you stop then the the pastor journey, I had
Ryan Moran
a really good piece of advice given to me from one of my professors. And I share this in the book, I give this to aspiring entrepreneurs, the same piece of advice. And that piece of advice that she gave me was, if you can do anything else, besides being a pastor, and still be happy, please go do that other thing. Because there is nothing that will require a more commitment and sacrifice than being a pastor. So if there’s anything else you can do, go do that thing. And for me, I was like, I’m gonna go be an entrepreneur. And I say that to aspiring entrepreneurs, now. It is anything else that you can do? Right? And still be happy? Go do that thing. Yeah, because it will expose all of your cracks. And most people aren’t ready for that.
Jeremy Weisz
How have your views on religion changed from your journey as a pastor to now
Ryan Moran
there’s a logical progression or an emotional progression that most people like me go through where there is, is, so I don’t consider myself religious at all anymore. And the progression that I went through that I think a lot of people go through is that there is like the peak where you’re all in then the questioning, you can decide what to do with that questioning, some people fill it in with very weird beliefs to cover up the exposure. And some people will work through that and, and people like me end up saying, I’m out. And for me, it was very black and white, because the church that I came from was basically saying that if you don’t accept all of it, you don’t get any of it. And I said, Well, I don’t accept all of it. So I guess that means I’m out. And so the natural or logical reaction is to be angry, to be an angry atheist to thumb, your nose, at the church, call it evil, call it broken, call those people stupid, and go through your angry agnostic atheist phase or stage. And then if you’re open to it, then there is this wide open field where you can say, Well, now that I’m okay, questioning everything, I’m also okay exploring everything. And now I can take this piece and play with this and work this in and massage this and, and sprinkle a little of that and, and decide for yourself what you believe to be true. What what what you believe to be the the nature of reality. And if you’re willing to do that very hard work, of not having the playbook given to you, then man, it’s a beautiful exploration of this world and why we’re here. And so my what where I have come to now is that I don’t believe in any specific religion. But if you give me a topic, you know, we could probably, I can debate the Christians and I can debate the atheists and have a good time in either direction.
Jeremy Weisz
You know, Ryan is a part of the book that I need closure on, and that I didn’t believe it when I read it. Okay. And it’s, it’s the part about one of your suppose the best friends. And when you approach him when he was saying things about I mean, that that part, I think about it, it still stings me, I can’t imagine how much things you but I cannot believe when you confronted this person and what they said, Okay, I just can’t believe it. I want to call that person right now to to see if this is true. But anyways, I only need to tell that story for a second. Briefly. And, yeah. So I was like, no way. I listened to the boy like, no, that’s not possible. Um,
Ryan Moran
so now here. So here, here’s the thing, Jeremy. It is 100% true, as I remember it.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah. And I’m not saying you’re lying.
Ryan Moran
And you’re saying better. That’s the important phrase, as I remember it. Okay. So, he has a different story, based on how he remembers it. Right. So what Jeremy is referencing is that when I was in middle school,
Jeremy Weisz
I don’t know why this is like, my favorite part of the hub is demonic. Because like,
Ryan Moran
some part of you relates to this.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah, totally. It’s some
Ryan Moran
some part of you has a reference point for a similar experience, and that is that I was my parents were divorcing, I was changing schools. And my body was changing all at the same time. I’m 13 years old. And and I’m leaving the Christian school to go to the public school because my parents can afford to, my parents are split, they can’t afford to send me to the Christian school anymore. My whole life is changing. I had one friend who I clung to, right. And I dress like him. And I followed him around. And I even found this. Oh, this is so embarrassing. I found this one photo of me in my, like, eighth grade yearbook, where I’m with him and I’m with this crowd of people and everybody’s got a big smile. They’re like hands in the air. And I didn’t smile because he never smiled in pictures, huh? Right. So I mean, I really modeled this person and suppressed myself to fit in with him and, and, and he was kind to me, he introduced me to other people we did after school activities together. But he was like the person that I looked up to and and then I want one day After spending, you know, two years as friends, he like looked at me from across the table. And I don’t remember how it came up. But I think he’s intro by saying, I find you really annoying. And I get that a lot, right? It’s funny. He just said, I find you really annoying. And I was and this open up a conversation of the way timeout. And, and he said something to the effect of, I’m really only friends because I feel sorry for you. And I never went back to the lunch table. I hid in the computer lab for the rest of the school year. Like every lunch break, I get in pack lunch, I just went worked at the computer lab, told my friends that they needed my help in the computer lab. And like, my, my, my whole like idea of social, my place in this in the social world was broken. And I avoided him for years. Okay, like we had a couple conversations. I never brought it up, but I mostly just avoid them. I mean, he had been to my house. We had we had played poker together. bizarre. And, and, and we were and that was it. But in senior year of high school is towards the end of the school year. And I find it was like I I’m gonna I’m gonna confront him. Like, I want to ask him what the hell happened. And so I, we were a lot we were in an after school program together. And there’s nobody else left in the room and I went to an ice and I said, Can we talk about the day that you told me you didn’t want to be friends and that you only felt sorry for me? And he’s like, What are you talking about? And I brought it up. And he’s like, I never said that. Like we retirement, I’ve avoided you for four years because of this. He’s like I I don’t remember this. I have no recollection of this. Sorry. Now, the interesting thing I told you at the beginning that the story is 100% true is I remember it. He remember something completely different. I have no idea how he remembers it. I don’t know for certain if I remember it accurately. I remember the emotion. I remember the shirt I was wearing I remember the look on his face, I remember exactly how I felt I remember the fear, I felt going back to the one shape. I remember the resentment and anger that I carried around about this person for three years. And I hated that he won most likely to succeed. And I got second place. I wanted to beat him so bad. I remember that feeling. I don’t know for sure if I remember it accurately. And I don’t know his version of it. So you said that you wanted you wanted a college closure around it? Yeah,
Jeremy Weisz
exactly. Sure.
Ryan Moran
I mean, the closure is I have looked him up three dozen times. And he has no Facebook. No social media. Can’t find him anywhere.
Jeremy Weisz
Well, you asked a question, Ryan, though. Tim is like, well, didn’t you notice that we just haven’t been talking before? I mean, you know, we hung around every day. And you asked him that question, and you think you’d have a good deal if that were the case, if you didn’t notice. Like, it’s just bizarre to me.
Ryan Moran
But I I have no idea what was going on in his life. Yeah. Now here’s here’s what I do know about him. I do know that he was an absolute overachiever, workaholic and had very few friends was very closed. I know that he felt in the line in the shadow of his very successful family. I have no idea what his demons were. Right. No idea. I know that one day, his became mine. And I wore them for four years until I decided to let them go.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah. No, I love that story. Because it just you don’t know what’s going on for someone else ever. Like someone could be that you happy? And you know, you can’t really unfortunately, even if it’s a happy thing, like can’t take it personally.
Ryan Moran
That’s right. And this is this is why it makes no sense to make your decisions or your evaluations based on what other people do. Or say. Because you have no idea what’s going on with them. Most of us don’t even know what’s going on within ourselves. We don’t even really know what’s driving us. Yeah. And and the people close to us, you don’t know what’s going on with them. And certainly, whoever responds to you on the internet, you don’t know what’s going on with them. Go. And when you get that you can be humble about it. And you cannot take things not so seriously. Not so personally,
Jeremy Weisz
you know, so when I was listening to the story in the book, right, and I was thinking the path was going to take a totally different turn. I was thinking this is the person we end up starting in business together. This is why I sold the company with that’s where I thought the story was going obviously went the opposite direction.
Ryan Moran
So here’s here is the conclusion to all this. I was journaling about this in a in a room with some friends of mine. And we were having like, you know, one of those moments, we were all I think we were actually at an event. And one of the speakers kind of unearth some stuff. By being vulnerable and sharing his story. It was Aubrey Marcus actually kind of shared a really vulnerable story in it forced me to go really internal. And I was talking about this with my friends. And I shared that story for the first time. Hmm. And I said, I said to them, I was like, I didn’t know that I was still carrying this. But some part of me, I think, is still looking for the approval of that kid at the lunch table. Because I remember, he was really into fitness. And now I’m really into fitness. He was really into business. And now I’m really into business. And I feel like, part of me is still trying to beat that kid who hurt me at the lunch table. And, and I cried, and they all listened, and were very kind. And you know what one of the person that I was sitting next to, I knew through my business, and the other two people, I had a relationship that resulted from me moving to Austin, Texas several years later. And I was kind of able to kind of connect all the dots back to that moment at the lunch table of like, because of that moment at the lunch table. I went here and did this and acted in this way through this. It affected everything. And I looked at my friends after talking about this for a good hour. And I was like, oh, my goodness, this moment is brought to you by that person’s name,
Jeremy Weisz
which is sort of like thank God moment.
Ryan Moran
Yeah, I was like, I wouldn’t have never known you had it not been for this person, I would not be coming to this realization of it not been for this deep wound, I would never have moved to Austin or did this thing or started this thing. And now I’m not saying like that I’m carrying this around and making decisions from this place. But it becomes part of your personality, those deep wounds drive the decisions that you stack on top of one another for years or decades of our lives. And it had it not been for that moment in mine, I would have not had this beautiful journey that led me to that moment. And meeting those individuals. Yeah. And so it was at that for the first time I got to be grateful. And I truly was grateful to this person for being the role that he was in my life. And now I have no animosity. No, I have no I have no regret or hatred or any like if I saw him, I give him a big hug. There’s there is there’s total acceptance and healing around that. Because I realized that all the things that I’ve collected along my journey, were partly because of exactly that moment.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah. Oh, I’ve totally I’ve had friends where one comment, I’m sure the person does remember, like, Oh, you’re so weak. And then that person becomes like a super athlete and works out every day just because of one person in high school. made a comment, right? And that person doesn’t even remember they made the comment.
Ryan Moran
Right? Sure. That’s right. That’s exactly right.
Jeremy Weisz
Um, we talked about modeling. Okay, you know, you were modeling that person at the time. Now, you’ve chose different people to model probably better decisions. Um, I hope so. So, talk about cap con for a second. Hopefully it comes back when events come back, who you consider to be the best speaker, or maybe top two best speakers at cap con. And, and you’ve had some amazing relationships because of the speakers you’ve gotten to know.
Ryan Moran
You know, it’s so cliche for me to say Gary Vaynerchuk, but there’s a reason why. So our first capitalism conference was in 2014, or 15. I think it was, I think was 2014. And Gary Vee was kind of just at his rise. You know, he was just really starting to become popular. He was still wasn’t, you know, the Gary Vee we know today, but he was on on his rise. And he was really known for hustle, Gary, back then. And he was our keynote of the first day. And he snuck in the back door, had no entourage with him, was in a hoodie. Very calm, soft, spoken, humble, quiet, and present. And that shocked me. And when I introduced him onstage, he walked up. And he looked at me in the eye shook my hand as I was coming offstage. Like we were the only two people in the room. He showed me sincere gratitude. And then he went on stage I was like, Oh, you know, and was and was character Gary. But that left such an impression on me on how present and grateful and Humble he was at that time. So he was the person who surprised me the most, the person that I have learned the most from, throughout this process has been Brian Lee, Brian Lee. He gets embarrassed every time I tell him this, but Brian Lee taught me so much in the one hour that I had onstage with him. That it was like a masterclass in how real business gets done. And it was the first time that I saw someone operating from a place of what I would call true ownership, rather than entrepreneurship. And Brian’s model is to come up with the idea to raise the money to hire the CEO, and to get the hell out of the way. Say, Call me when you need me. And that really inspired me to think, a different game think a different level. He said to me recently, we spoke a few weeks ago, and he said, My goal is to build billion dollar companies, if I only own 20% of a business, am I really going to be that upset? It’s $200 million. My gonna be upset that I gave up 80% because I couldn’t have done it without all these other assets. So his his goal is to build a company not to control the pie. And that’s why he wins and he built Legal Zoom, he built Shoedazzle, he built the Honest Company, hibel, otter, Art of Sport, he was the first investor behind honey, the app that sold $4 billion to paypal. He’s got $4 billion companies on his resume. But he shabby. And he’s like 50 years old. So watching how he actually does business changed the way that I think about things and I think, saved me 10 years and put me on a different path. So I learned the most from watching Brian.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah. And also you mean Gary Vee, and you have some parallels with him on on the Jets you want on the Cleveland Indians? Is that still on your roadmap?
Ryan Moran
Well, you’re asking me at an interesting time, because I’ve never been so interested in baseball, because there’s no fans and stands. And I just can’t get myself to be interested. I really do predict that contract values are going to come down revenues are coming way down in baseball. And so I’m kind of interested to watch where the market goes, if there’s a resurgence of interest in baseball, awesome. And then, and if there’s no interest in baseball, and the price comes way down, okay, I’m still in. But I’m not interested in or owning a boring baseball team or a boring sport. And I think that the the sport overall, is playing for 1995 or 2005, rather than 2021 and beyond. And so I’ll have to see how things shake out. Yes, it’s still my North Star of how I’m organizing my life. But the sport isn’t very exciting right now.
Jeremy Weisz
I think you have some really interesting ideas around VR, I want you to own the SR, bring VR to the MLB, I think is genius. I’m glad.
Ryan Moran
I’m glad you saw that. Thank you. So what Jeremy’s referencing is, I think it’s absolutely inevitable that we’ll be watching baseball and maybe
Jeremy Weisz
shouldn’t share this, Ryan, because like, then you could get the Indians implement all the VR in the Indians and across the MLB and every sport, and you’ll be good to go. Well, I
Ryan Moran
reached out to the team a couple of times and was like, I think that there’s some things that you could do to save the fan base. And one of them being that we have all the technology to watch a game in VR, and pick your seat. One of them being the catcher’s mitt, you know, watch the pitch, watch it from the batter’s view. Totally. Yeah. And I love it you most people would rather do that, then go to a game or watch it on TV 100%. So I think that that is how it is going to have to play out if if teams are gonna end up staying relevant, because I really believe the days of being around 50,000 people at a time or I don’t know that they’re ever coming back.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah, no, I made my daughter last night for 40 minutes. We were watching VR videos on headsets because I’m like, What you said is like that is genius. Like, we people I need to start learning that technology and like buying a headset just to just to see what’s going on because that could be the future especially in the virtual world, right? I mean,
Unknown Speaker
yes. Yes.
Jeremy Weisz
How do you think that’s gonna change? Have you have you explored that at all more in depth? Yeah, I
Ryan Moran
mean, this morning, I was running my peloton. And my daughter came in there, it was like 645 7am and my my daughter wakes up. I’m riding my peloton, and my daughter comes up and she’s like, She’d never seen me ride the peloton. I just moved it from the basement into the living room. So she had never seen me riding it before. And her eyes light up because there’s this big bright screen. And I had two thoughts immediately. One of them was, my daughter is immersed by a screen, my life like my life is over. And then my second thought is the hell am I doing right now? Like, what the hell do I think I’m, I’m immersed in the screen, watching my fitness instructor tell me how to ride the damn bike. So it was like, ah, I don’t think this is going away. You know, like, we all try to talk about limiting screen time and how it’s bad for us like, it’s we’re only going to get more screens. Now you go to the gym on a screen. Now you have now I have face to face conversations on a screen. Right? It is absolutely inevitable that we’re going to be having headsets on for most of the day. Maybe all of the day? I think it is. You play this out further. I think it’s kind of inevitable that there will be people that live their life in the cloud that live their life in VR. And I don’t mean like spend all their time playing video games. I mean, you start VR businesses. I mean, you have I mean, you’ve got a relationship with somebody that you have only met in VR. I mean that you have a digital child with that you can only take care of when you’ve got the VR set on.
The thought is hilarious.
But but play but play this out. It’s kind of inevitable. I mean, we thought online dating was weird. Totally. Now there are people who have full on relationships, long distance or not all digitally. It’s only a matter of time that they could become they could be fully virtual businesses or virtual relationships will be virtual. Until I I mean, I’m now talking hundreds of years into the future. But I think that what Ilan is doing with the name escapes me the Hyperloop yes, no, not Hyperloop. is I think it’s hyperlink. Oh, Hyperloop was the the train but hyperlink is like the implant where you can save memories and stuff. I mean, I think these are just signs of things to come.
Jeremy Weisz
Right. Ryan, I’ve one last question. And I just want to thank you, thanks for sharing, you know, always sharing on line on Capitalism.com on your podcast, everyone should check out Capitalism.com, they could check out in purchase 12 months to $1 million. And eventually, when the conference comes back as well, you know, I just want you to talk about The One Percent. And there was an 18 year old kid in The One Percent in anything else. If I haven’t talked about how else people can engage with you, whether it’s the podcast, the book, your you know, your site, but I would love for you to talk about The One Percent what that is, but there’s any other places people should engage with you? You know, please mention it.
Ryan Moran
Yeah, thank you for that. I mean, I mean, the most accessible way to immerse yourself in my work, or my methodology is my book called 12 months to 1 million. And my podcast is, is called Capitalism.com my website’s Capitalism.com. And there is this kid that I have kind of an affinity for is this very young, 18 year old kid who was wrestling with this pain point of sharing his idea and sharing his business publicly, which I get so often from young entrepreneurs who are who say, I’m afraid to share my idea. What if somebody steals it. And I’m like, you don’t think that you think I have so much free time, that I’m just going to steal your idea. And do it like ideas are plentiful, I’ve got lots of ideas, lots of ideas, most of them will never happen. So they aren’t worth anything. And after a few weeks of kind of wrestling with this, I encouraged him to take the deck that he had put together and put it publicly on his own Facebook page. And the encouragement and outreach that he got from that was like, that’s when that kid was in. Like, that’s when he was like, it was an idea in my brain that I felt weird talking about. Now I get that other people want to be a part of this, other people want to invest in it. And I’m all in that one of the first things that we do with some of our higher end students is we’ll walk them through putting together a pitch deck so that their idea is really clear. And then we get them to share it publicly somewhere. Because what happens is when you talk about what’s inside of you, and you bring it to the forefront, other people who vibe with that start to reach out and offer where they can be of help whether it is money like with me. I offer to invest in companies, their people have audiences offer to Share it with their companies, this woman that you have pulled up on the screen right now Adama. Adama has influencers that offer to share her work. Right. So, we, we, I have so many entrepreneurs who struggle with this idea of sharing their ideas publicly. And when as soon as I can get them to do that, and they see how much support they have in the world, their, their life changes, and that sort of that 18 year old kid is is one of my favorite examples of that.
Jeremy Weisz
What is The One Percent?
Ryan Moran
The One Percent Is my mentorship program for entrepreneurs who are building businesses and investing the profits.
Jeremy Weisz
Everyone, Ryan, first of all, thank you everyone, check out Capitalism.com. Everything is there, check out the podcast check out the book. Ryan, I’m the first one. Thank you so much.
Ryan Moran
Jeremy, you’re a phenomenal interviewer. Thank you for so much.
Jeremy Weisz
Thank you. Appreciate this.
