How A Regular Guy Built And Sold A Brand For 8 Figures w/ Judson Morgan

Here's three things that you need to know about this video. Judson, who you're about to meet, is a regular guy. Judson just sold his business for over $10 million. And Judson listened to me on a podcast and said, oh, I can do just exactly that and built a multimillion dollar business. So I hope this gives you permission to actually go do it. You just had an exit and you're.

About to tell me something about it. Yeah, so I'm an. I just had an exit. I'm a regular guy, you know, trying to figure it out. And you know, I had a pretty big exit actually. You know, well, whatever, right? Somebody has a $200 million exit or a billion dollar exit. So what's a big exit? But the word physical product, the first time I ever heard that was from Ryan Moran. And, and you were like, you know, I really like this business doing like physical products because it's not me. And you know, I'm, I was stuck in a business where I was, I had to be on set directing the movie or on set acting in the movie, or on set directing the commercial or producing. And to have a business that was outside of myself, that there was a product that wasn't me, felt incredible. I was like, oh my gosh, that's it. A physical product. That's something that can scale beyond me. Flying across the world, your time and your, your energy. Yeah. So you trailblaze there and then you trailblazed by being the first person in the history of the world to exit an Amazon brand. That whole path to sewing. Oh my gosh, I can, I can actually exit this brand. These brands. Then that was sort of what I went for. And then I got lucky. I exited at the perfect time. The height of the height of the multiples.

It was a big transition for you to go from the business you were in to selling physical products. And then you crossed a million, which to you was like, oh my goodness, I'm rich. And then.

You go from that to over the next few years having an eight figure exit.

What was the catalyst for all of that change? Meaning such a big transition in just a few years to go from listening to me on a podcast to having an a figure exit. And I know that there are people listening to this podcast and I'm trying to find a way to give them the permission that you received on that first episode when you heard me talking with Pat Flynn about the grind, the growth and the gold. So what was it about your transition that started the change? Do you know what I'm asking.

Yeah, well, I think so I could answer in a couple of ways. We all have an emptiness inside. We all have pain. We all have struggle. And what motivated me or what sort of unlocked me the. The ability to scale the physical products company the way that I did was this pain inside. And so what actually ended up happening was life was great. And then I got married, which marriage is hard, but to a wonderful woman who I didn't understand at all, which I think is true of every man in their life.

Or their girlfriend or whatever, where men and women are very different. And. And so.

I. We reached a point in our marriage where it became very difficult and almost to the point where maybe it wasn't going to work out. And we already had a child. And so one of the factors in that was she always made more money than me. So she ended up being quite a successful actor, starring in TV shows and stuff. And that's very hard, like making a million dollars a year.

Doing acting. I couldn't beat that. You know, like, I would have had really, really succeed to, like, lever above her. And so was that a problem for her?

You or both of you?

You know, it was sort of an unspoken issue that neither of us fully understood, and it was right. It was part of the dynamic of who we were, among many other things. But I think there's. There's a challenge for when. When a. I. I often. When. If a woman is the breadwinner. I just think that can be a challenge for some marriages. So that. So it was a challenge. It wasn't something that we discussed that we are, like, openly talked about, but I think it was in the dynamic. But that was one piece of the puzzle that I knew I could probably fix. Around that time, I started, like, voraciously listening to podcasts and all that, and that's when I discovered you and I. And I've told this story before, but I. I heard so many different business models, so many different businesses, gurus and whatever. And it was that one thing that you said, like, you can unlock that the physical products, companies can unlock the scalability outside of you having to be there, that it's this business that can not only be scalable, but it also can. Can be sellable. So. And it can be creative. And like, for me, creating physical products felt like similar to creating a movie.

Yeah. It's an experience, if you can think about it that way.

Yeah. And I think that was one of the things that really worked for me, was thinking about the products as a creation, as something beautiful. As something that I could, you know, sink my teeth into creatively. And then business turned out to be that way, too. I was like, oh, my gosh. Business is like. All it is is creative problem solving with other people, which is what you do in a movie. You have a crew. You have a huge crew of people. And you're just like, every day you're like, okay, how do we shoot this scene? How do we tell this story? How do we express this thing that we're trying to express? And it's just creative problem solving. So I was like, oh, that's business. And so once that.

Before you go further. The first time I ever got a glimpse of what I now call the owner's model was from something that my longtime mentor, Travis Sago, called the producer's mindset. And he said, if you look at the producer of a movie, he doesn't write it. He has a writer. He doesn't fund it. He has investors that fund it. He doesn't act in it. He hires an actor. And when you put all those pieces together, you have an actor that now will sell tickets so you can raise the money. And then you. You raise the money, and you go pay the writer, and you just sit in the producer's chair. And he says, take your producer mindset to business. And I combined that with things I learned from Brian Lee and Trevor Blake's hub model. Combine that all into the owner's model, where.

You don't have to put up the capital or do the marketing or manage Amazon or any of this. You just need to have the producer's mindset or the owner's model. So what you're saying is from coming from the film world, taking that creative mindset, I think people undervalue the creativity that goes into producing a film. Slash, creating a business. Business is a creative pursuit. In business, you're creating something that never existed before. You're creating something that has value in the real world. It's a new entity that came from your mind and the minds of other people. A lot of times people think that business is just about numbers and effort and getting paid for what you produce, but it's actually a creative process where you are building something that has never existed in the world before. And you don't need to be the one to plug in for every variable. You just need to be the producer of that piece of art.

The way that I think about it now is I don't want to do any of the work. I find the people who are really good at each piece of the work. And for them, it probably doesn't feel like work. It feels like they get to do their thing. Like, I'm really good at this part. You know what I mean? I'm good at designing of it. And they don't want to do the bookkeeping and the bookkeeper doesn't want to. For me, I started when we really got. When we got to a million bucks and we were like, wow, we have something here. All we did really was double down on what was working. Right? Like, I think people get stuck where they're like. And maybe they get stuck at a hundred thousand with the same problem and they're like, oh, I gotta. All these shiny objects. And they're gonna, okay, I gotta do this kind of marketing. I gotta. Okay, Tick tock's big. I'm gonna go do tick tock. Right? Like, right. Just those kinds of problems. And. And I saw other brands that were sort of similar to me. Slow down. Because they started to struggle with focus. I put the word focus behind my desk like a huge, you know, mural that said focus. And what we just did, we just doubled down on what was working. And part of that was finding pivots along the way. It wasn't like we didn't change course, but we, like, you know, whether it was a different kind of product line or whatever, like, we found a product line that was really working and then we expanded into that as big as possible. Right? Even launching a second brand. Right. And back in, Moran was the only one talking about building a real brand in 2016.

You know what I mean? The entire ecosystem of e commerce was all about hacks, all about gaming the system. And I wasn't that smart. My instincts were like, well, you know what sounds more fun to me? Yeah, right?

What?

What sounds less embarrassing to talk about at the. You know, to my wife. You know what I mean? I wasn't a genius. I was just like, you know, this actually feels better to me. And that. That speaks to something that I wanted to talk about was. So you mentioned the three. Three simple steps, guys. What was his name again?

Trevor Blake.

Yeah, Trevor, you and I. I was introduced to Trevor Blake because Ryan, offhand mentioned him one time or something on a podcast. And I was like, let me look into that. Because Ryan hasn't led me wrong. I read his book. So my thing from Trevor Blake was intuition.

Is massive. And the point b to that is women have better intuition than men. So I have this crazy story where my wife, I said to her about a year before we exited our brand, I Said to her, how much do you want to sell for? And she. She doesn't know the numbers. She doesn't know. I mean, you know, she knew we were doing really well, but she.

Thinks about it. And, you know, this isn't, like, analytical. This is just in her spirit. However you want to discuss, right? In her soul. It's just her intuition. And she just says this number. And to me, it was huge. It was bigger than I was. Like, oh, my gosh, that would be okay. Yeah, that's the dream number.

And it was exactly the number we sold for. What I started to do was to try to tap into my wife's intuition and my own intuition, and I tried to develop products. So what I would do is I put a set of products. We'd get a bunch of samples. I put a set of products out for my wife to check out. So my wife was our avatar, right? Which I think I heard you mentioned recently. You can be your own avatar. Your wife, your. Your best friend, your whatever. And that's a great. Because you know that person intimately, right? It's like you. You know everything that they're. They're Their fears, their wants, their desires, what products work for them. And I would put these products in front of her and just watch. And this wasn't, like, work, right? It was just like, hey, babe, I got a bunch of cool stuff. Do you want to see it? And, like, and her intuition, she would pick something, and I'd be like, I wouldn't have picked that one. Right? Is. We often we try to analyze so much and when we should step out and, like, just. That's why we have all our best ideas in the shower, right? Because you're not, like, at a computer. You're not thinking right on a walk, you know, like, these things, like our intuition, the subconscious, there is something going on that we have. We're living two lives, you know, like, one is the subconscious and one is the conscious. And, like, so it would. It ended up being our number one necklace, like, forever. Like, it still is, you know? And so I. So that's one of the. The things that really ended up working was I. I'm dumb enough to have to rely on my intuition. And. And it feels sometimes like guessing. It feels sometimes like I don't know what I'm doing. When you're insecure, when you're secure, you're like, oh, I'm just. I'm listening to the inner voice that is so much smarter. You know what I mean? And I don't even understand it.

I don't look at data when coming up with what products to sell in my business. I don't look for information that's out in the world in order to inform me what my customers need. Instead, I'm thinking completely about where there is alignment between what my customer needs and what's enjoyable for me to create. Because if either one of those two things don't align, I don't want to do it. My business isn't the best to be able to produce that somebody else can do that. A really fun, lucrative, easy business is one that matches where you want to create value and where your customer needs help. That's where the magic is. And you don't need information or data in order to know that. You need to be in tune with your customer.

Think and grow. Riches is basically the bible of, of becoming rich. And it's, it's, there's no tactics, there's. It's right. It's basically like.

A desire and obsess about that desire in a good way. Like, and the universe will start to put things in place for you and it'll start to work out, you know.

And, and that's a hard jump for a lot of people. Like it's a hard jump for me. So there's, I think there's an in between to talk about there. And that is as simple as when you believe it, you start to see the how.

Yeah.

But if you don't believe it, there is no amount of how that can convince you to move forward.

So.

And that's that in between part because the people who believe the least, the people who have the most doubt, have the most information because they are trying to convince their doubt to change. But you can't do that with outside information. We think we are so logical. We think that we look at the evidence objectively and then we reach our conclusions. No, we do not. We reach our conclusions emotionally first and that determines the evidence that we see. That is how the brain works. That is not pseudoscience. That is not woo woo. That is how the brain works. You have an emotion that creates a filter through which you see the world and you find evidence to justify your beliefs. It happens slowly over time until you have a filter that is in support of what you actually want. In fact, most people's goals and what they say they want is actually not what they want. It is the opposite of what they don't want. So they are trying to fill a gap internally. So what they are actually seeing is all the information that supports their fear rather than Their desire. And so this is why when you say something like the universe starts to give it to you, it sounds woo woo, but there's this entire middle step, the psychological step before we even need to get spiritual. Because when you. When you believe it, which is a jump like it is work to work yourself into belief. It takes some people 10 years because they're doing it unconsciously and they don't recognize that they are projecting what they don't want, not what they do want. But when you are clear on what it is that you do want and you believe it, you start to see the how. Because when you see other people who have done it, you no longer size yourself up against them and say, oh, I'm such a failure. You say, oh, this is someone I can learn from and I can implement. And now I'm one step closer. And you walk through life in that way. And that's the test. If you see other people who have accomplished what you want and you feel bad, that means you don't believe it. But if you see other people and you feel good or excited or closer, that means that you are at least in the realm of believing. Which means now you are ready for the how.

So let me help you with one of those beliefs. One of the, One of the things that I think works is your.

There is a flow in life, right? Like, Ryan, I know you're trying to get into, like, you want to do things with your day, with your time. That feels like you're in flow, right? It feels like we can say that in different ways. But, like, I think everybody knows what that means.

You know, there is a flow in the world, and this is woo, woo. But there's a flow in the world of where the money is flowing. I guess there's two verbs. One's woo, woo. Or it's like, well, I'm looking for the flow. And then there's others. Like, you can just look at numbers. Like, okay, you know, I got into Amazon, I got into E commerce when the flow was like, oh, dang, there's a huge upswing in E Commerce, right? Yes, thank you for that, Ryan. You're the one who pointed that out to me, you know, without knowing me. So the. There is a flow of money. And you can look around and say like, okay, so people, a lot of people think there's a flow toward cryptocurrency or bitcoin, right? Because people. The government's printing money, whatever, right? It makes sense you could have. So if you're scared about taking action, just sit and think about where the flow of money is going in the world right now. And there's no question there's still a flow toward E Commerce. I mean, completely.

We.

I got the very beginning. You know, you and I were at the very beginning of it, or maybe not at the very beginning, but toward the beginning of it. We're in the, like, it's more mature now, but there's still so much movement of like, Covid accelerated it like crazy. You saw that. But like, where's the flow of money? Go into the flow, find the flow and take some action.

You know, that's pretty much the secret to life. And I will add to this, I believe that we are in. We're about to enter Chapter 2 of E Commerce because as you mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, valuations were crazy.

Yes.

Now money has dried up, valuations have come down, which means you have to actually run profitable businesses. And there is this window opening for a wide open west period. Again, it's going to look different than the last one, but there's a window opening in which now people who are even just getting started can have a foot in the door because they're not competing with big money anymore.

The. The chapter two of the little guys winning is starting to happen again because obviously you're an investor in sheer strength. So, you know, I'm buying back my old company for $0.03 on the dollar for what I sold it for.

It's amazing.

And my story is not unique. The only thing that is unique about my story is that I bought it back. A lot of people sold their businesses. Those businesses went under and they're just dying. And so you have death of the old way, which always gives way for the new person. And since valuations are going down, you see institutional money flowing out, which means now you're not competing with people who are coming in with millions of dollars. And then you have things like this new era of organic reach, TikTok, and now Facebook fan pages and YouTube shorts is wide open. And so you have these new opportunities where the big money, the big players aren't yet. And so it's a whole new wide open west period starting. Which gets me so jazzed. Judson.

Yeah.

What's old is new again. I know a lot of people are gonna listen to this whole thing and say, yeah, it's great for Judson. He started six years ago. Or good for Ryan. He started in the E Commerce game back in 2013. And I want you to know that it's not too late. It may have Been a different time, perhaps even a better time to start a business five years ago, but the next best place to start is right now. Part of what I hope you take away from this is that I believe that we're about to enter into a new era, a chapter two of E commerce, of selling physical stuff on the Internet. Because the marketplace has changed so much that it's almost experienced a reset. It's like going back in time and starting a business right now because the people who played the old game are starting to fade away. The big money that came in and funded all these businesses is drying up. Amazon has shaken up their marketplace and there's different platforms and places to advertise that didn't exist just a few years ago. In fact, right now, Facebook organic content and Facebook ads are wide open for E commerce sellers and very few people even know about them except you because you're watching this video. So if you combine what I've been talking about for years with what's working right now, there's a whole new area of growth that did not exist back in 2013, 14, 15. So I want you to know and take away from this, that you're starting with new opportunities that didn't exist for me 10 years ago, that didn't exist for Judson six years ago. So rather than bemoan that you didn't start at the same time as us, know that when you start right now, there are opportunities that neither one of us had and you have a strategic advantage going into the next five years.

You guys listen to this because that, what Ryan just, just said was exactly, you know, there were different words, the content was a little different, but it was the exact same thing that Ryan's genius, he understands these things. That's all he said. He said, you know, Amazon, you, you can launch to whatever, like whatever you said back in five years ago, I just took it and did it. What Ryan just said, he gave you the, the recipe, right? That's all it is, is, is you just said tick tock YouTube shorts like there's a wide open new, wide open west period. And, and, and, and to give you even more confidence, like Ryan is getting into it with sheer strength. I sold for a lot of money. I'm getting back into it too because it's fun and because I still see the flow of money. And what Ryan just said was exactly, I was thinking similar where my, my next thing we want to do. So when you have lots of money, it's like you're doing it for different reasons, right? I'M not doing it to.

That's right.

Right. So I'm doing it because I want a brand that maybe potentially is a legacy brand for my kids. Not financially, but, like, that matters in the world. That's doing something cool, that is products that they'll be proud of, that.

Could I read this book called the Second Mountain? Have you read that one?

No, I don't know that one.

Yeah. So it's sort of like you're getting to your. Your. You've reached a point where you're. You've had success. You've had Your first big success is like your career has gone really well. Maybe you have, you know, kids, a wife, whatever. Right. You. You're sort of, like, established, and you've reached the top of that mountain. So I've got three awesome, healthy kids. I sold a business for a bunch of money, got a wonderful wife. I'm sitting in this, like, empty room here because I'm renovating, like, a beautiful house and, like, a beautif area of the world. I've reached them out, and it's. It's imperfect. Completely imperfect. I don't mean want it to sound that way, but, like, the.

What's next? I'm only 47. Right. I'm gonna lift 100, 120. Right. So, like, what's next? What's the second mountain? And it's. It's more moving from, like, success to significance. It's more like.

The flow. Like, what do I want to be doing? Like, I don't have to build another company.

It is so liberating when you just stop caring what other people think. And what's funny is that most people think that success will give them that. If I have a lot of money, I won't have to care what my boss thinks or my family thinks. I'll just do what I want. The interesting thing is that when you do what you want, you don't care what other people think. You start following your intuition, and you start starting brands because you want to. You start selling products in a way that matches who you want to be in the world, and it's a whole different energy. And I love that you sort of conclude this by saying that you are going into a new business not because you need the money, but because you want to.

And we're both doing that right now. We both end together because you're part of sheer strength, and we both get to go into brands with the mindset that we've cultivated up to this point that we wish we had had five years ago. And it's a beautifully liberating thing when you can operate from that place. You just heard this entire interview. You just watched me talk to Judson, who heard me do one podcast on Pat Flynn's show six or seven years ago, and he was like, all right, I'm going to do this thing. Please let this be the video that you say, okay, fine, I'm convinced. I know that we're about to enter into a new chapter of E Commerce. There's a yet another example of somebody hearing Ryan talk about this stuff and have an eight figure exit. I'm convinced. Please let this be the video that gives you permission to go all in on a big business that brings you joy, fulfillment and profit. Because all three are possible in this business. I'm Ryan Daniel Moran with capitalism.com if you need some help getting started, you can see it in the description below. Thank you for watching. I hope to see you on the next video.

And now a quick word from Katarina, one of our members from the capitalism.com community.

I would definitely join. I would join. 1% it is. There's so much learning to do in there, but you'll get so much business from other people and helping each other with that. And as long as you give, because you have to give to get right. So that if you need help and everything, you've got to figure out what is it that you can offer. Like every week I have a goal. Every week I do a give. So I think all week, what can I give the group? What is. Even if it's something small, it might be something small, might be something bigger. But based on what I've been reading this last week, what is it that I can help everybody with? So figuring out how you can refer somebody to somebody else, like whenever someone has, like the guy that Christopher Cho with the spice thing, I said, well, contact Myra, find out, you know, so you can collaborate with each other and that's the kind of thing that will help you in 1%. But if you just go in there and sit there and not participate to pay, you're not going to get much out of it.

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