Look Behind The Curtain: The Detailed Strategy Behind The Empire That I'm Building #TheOnePercent

You know, after 13 years of entrepreneurship, six of that talking, looking for the right opportunity, looking where to put my attention to allocate my time, resources, talents, I wanted to give you a peek behind the curtain of where I've decided to go and where I'm going to be putting my focus moving forward. And I'm really proud and excited to have you along that journey. It takes one free person to create change. This is the show for them. We are the creators of the free world. This is capitalism.com and we are the 1%.

What's up, friends and haters? Ryan, Daniel Moran here. Good to see you. Thanks for hanging out with me. Hey, let's start off today with my favorite hater of the week. Don't know if you know this about me, but I really do see every email you send in to ryanapitalism.com. i really do see every YouTube comment, every Instagram comment. This was my favorite one of the week. You're ready for this. So I have a lot of long form teaching style videos on YouTube. Basically everything I know I publish on podcasts and on YouTube and then, you know, help the entrepreneurs that I work with as a client or in one of our communities. And I just love this comment. This is on one of my videos about going from 0 to 10 million on Amazon. It's an older video. New comment says, this is from Magic Fitzpatrick and he says he never tells you what he's selling. So it's basically a useless video.

I gotta get some new haters because my old ones are turning into fans. So, you know, by the way, before I go in today's topic, just so you know, if you're not getting haters on the Internet and not replying to them, first of all, it's one of the most gratifying, satisfying things in your day. It is so much fun. And the other is I look at every hater as an opportunity to create a raving fan because I have some of the best success turning somebody who is very obviously emotionally passionate about what you're doing into a raving fan. So use it as fodder on all of your social media stuff. Hey, everybody, thanks for listening to the show. This is Ryan, and today I'm going to give you a peek behind the curtain. I took a very different approach ever since the podcast that I did back in September called you are Enough, where I talked about what I realized had been driving me for a long time. And since that time, I have done what I would call gone dark, been real quiet, gotten really internal about where I'm going as a human, as an entrepreneur. You know, one of the things that I don't give myself credit for or give myself pause for is I had a hellish couple of years. You know, I've talked about the entire business journey here on the podcast, but the reality behind the curtain is that four years ago I found out I was gonna be a dad. Out of nowhere. I was super shocked by this. Most of you know the story cause I've shared it here on the podcast, but I was very surprised by the news. I had to rearrange my entire life, learn how to be a dad while I was also growing a new business. So I was thrown into the fire of being a dad and a full time entrepreneur. Building a team, hiring and firing, really for the first time, having a, you know, permanent residence for the first time, going through a separation, moving three times, scaling a company, selling a company, building a new business that is now capitalism dot com. And I recently, my life wasn't chaotic enough, so I bought two homes at the same time, moved into both of them, one of them a lake house, one of them my mostly primary residence, which is down the street from my little girl. And I've never ever taken a break in that time. Never. Not for a week, not for a month, never.

And over the last six months, I've really gotten curious and observant about what drives me to do the things that I do. I at least gave myself the ability to go real quiet. And what that means to me is I moved out of downtown, as silly as that sounds. I moved away from a lot of the hustle and bustle. I did things like sleep, I did things like therapy. I did things like read and journal a lot.

Most importantly, what I did was just get quiet in my own mind to listen to the noise and the chaos going on inside of there. We've all got it right. We've all got the voice in our head that is critical or excited or that drives a lot of our thoughts and behaviors. And my work has been in the last six months, really diving deep into what I want and then communicating that to other people. People like my team members. So one of the things that I made the mistake of doing for many years was simply identifying, quote, talented people, bringing them on the team and throwing them in the bullpen, right? Saying figure it out. Never realizing that I was doing both of us a disservice by not sitting down and stating exactly what the goals were for this role that would determine success. This might be a podcast for Another day. But I have done a lot of work around communicating with the people around me about what my expectations are, because if I don't communicate them, then I'm just gonna have a story in my head and so are they, and they may or may not match. So if we are upfront about them from the beginning, we know if we have progress or not. All this to say, in order for me to be able to do that, I had to go real quiet. So I have not started new projects in the last six months, which is hard for me. And I realize now that in the past I would start new projects, pursue new opportunities as a distraction from what I didn't want to deal with in front of me. So it's always exciting to see a project at the beginning, right? There's everything is growth, everything is exciting, everything is new idea. And the minute you hit a roadblock, the temptation is to go on to the new thing, right? And what you are doing is you are avoiding the pain of what is in front of you. And that pain can be as simple as not wanting to do the work because it's not what you really want. Or the pain might be you have a little bit of space now and you have to deal with what's going on inside your brain. I had a mix of both and a pain of a lot that has happened over the last several years. Anywho, before this becomes a therapy session, I'm telling you this because most entrepreneurs have chaotic minds, live chaotic lives, and if you don't give yourself the break to identify what you really want, what you really want. Now, I did a whole keynote on this at the Capitalism conference. It's been posted here on the podcast. But it's worth restating. Most of us are building businesses and lives according to what other people want and not what we want. We love the step by step plan. We love the reverse engineering of a certain result because we buy into the lie that the result is what we want. But that's not true. We want what's on the other side of the result. And so we're constantly pursuing these different paths that don't really end up taking us to where we want to go. And until we're really honest about what that is, it makes it really hard to get. If your goal is to just make a bunch of money, be proud of that. It's okay to do it. I don't necessarily think it's the best way to get that result. I think the way that you get that result is by creating a product that People really, really want and putting it out into the marketplace. But if you just want to make a lot of money, say it, and you'll attract other people who just want to make a lot of money. Or if you want to build a really big company, you just got to know, like, you have to do the really hard work of figuring out what it is that you want, because once you have any sort of success, you realize that you can be successful at whatever you work hard at. So what is it that you want to work hard at? Or do you not want to work hard at all? Which either one is totally fine. But most people grow for the sake of growth, which is the mentality of cancer. Just growing because you want to grow, grow because you have to. Right? That's an addiction. That's a real thing. That's a real addiction. You are addicted to something because you don't want to deal with something else. What is it that you want to deal with? That's a much more interesting question. So I dealt with that for a long time, meaning I wrestled with that, of getting really clear of what it is that I really enjoy. And in 2018, I was finally able to communicate what it is that I enjoy most. I have goosebumps as I'm just talking about it right now. And the thing. And it's so freeing to be able to even communicate what it is that. That you enjoy doing what you want. And the thing that I enjoy the most is lighting fires, is starting something and watching it grow, kicking it off, having, like, the burning torch and then taking that torch and lighting another fire, for example. You have no idea the joy that it gives me when someone comes on the podcast and they get put over because of the size of this audience. You have no idea the joy I get out of talking about the partners that I work with, like Jeff Lieber over at Turnkey Product Management. You have no idea the joy that I get out of talking about one of my companies and watching people start to look it up. That is so joyful for me. You have no idea the joy I get out of having a podcast and putting my buddy Max Kerwick on stage and watching, you know, people who need his help work with him. That gives me so much joy because I get to create an impact at doing what I do best. And so that, to me, is like the zone, my zone of genius. It's what I enjoy the most. And so what I have looked at doing, what I got really quiet and started to analyze, was, how do I build a life and a business that allows me to do exactly that. And that's what I'm gonna share with you. This is a peek behind my empire, and I believe it's the way that I will at least get close to owning the Cleveland Indians. This is the sword I will fall on. This is the strategy that I will amplify because it's the most fun I could, I could, could possibly have as an entrepreneur. And if I can be in the zone of lighting other fires. Another way that I would do that, by the way, is the conversation that I, that I love to have about politics and religion. When I can start a fire around a certain topic, when I can have a deep conversation about a politician or a religious view, it's the same thing. To me, it's seeing those ripple effects happen. That is the thing that gives me the most excitement and the most joy. Now I'm talking about myself a lot, but I hope that you can see through the lens of me that if you can identify that thing that you enjoy doing the most. For me, that is communicating. It is being in front of other people. It's sharing deep ideas and messages to other impactful people. Because I can see the ripple effects that happen very quickly as a result of doing that. Maybe you can see what yours is too, both as a person and within your company. Michael Michalowicz calls this the queen bee activity. In one of my favorite books, it's called Clockwork calls it the queen bee activity. It's the activity that makes all of the other activities possible for you physical product sellers. That's creating good products or launching good products. For some of you, it's content creation. For some of you, it's servicing clients. It's the thing that makes all of the other things possible. It's the queen bee for me that is communicating big ideas, creating content around those ideas so that we can light other fires. Right? So that to me is the central thing that I want to build an empire around. That is why I am building out capitalism.com as a content empire. And I'm going to share with you over the next few minutes about what the empire is going to look like. So first things first. My goal here is to be able to buy the Cleveland Indians. So the process of doing that requires me to have a strategy of doing my singular skill on a grand scale so that I can light a fire big enough to buy the Cleveland Indians. And there's basically a two tiered approach to this. Number one, it's building really impactful brands. Now I'm going to be doing an entire podcast about my new approach to building physical products brands. But I really enjoy the process of building physical products brands. They've been actually my most fun businesses to be a part of. Now the way that it was done in 2012 is different than the way it's done in 2019 and 20. We're going to talk about that on a future podcast. Hey gang. I'm interrupting you briefly to talk about cash flow and investing. My strategy for financial independence for the rest of my life is to build businesses and and invest the profits. But the investing piece can be confusing sometimes. Where do you start if you're just starting out in your journey? I always suggest looking into dividend paying stock. It's an easy way to generate cash flow. But if you're further along in your journey, the foundation of my strategy is by setting up a wealth warehouse. A wealth warehouse is kind of like a second bank account except it's tied to the market so it goes up in value, but it does not go down in value. It's a really cool strategy that a lot of my really wealthy friends use and Tony Robbins recommends this in his book Money Master the Game as well. And the team that I use to set this up is wealthwarehouse.com it's run by my buddy Sam Prentice. He is the sharpest person that I have met on this topic. He also has access to some really cool investment opportunities to buy cash flow as well. He shares them in some of the podcasts that we've done. But if you go over to wealthwarehouse.com or if you search for my name and Sam Prentice, you'll find any of the podcasts that we have done together as well as some of the opportunities that are available when you deploy this strategy. It's who I use. He's one of our backroom partners and it's the team that I go to for sale. Some insider investment recommendations as well as setting up my wealth warehouse, which is the foundation of my strategy. That's wealthwarehouse.com in order for me to be following an effective strategy, the foundation of it has to be building or being a part of really big impactful companies. And the ones that I know are physical products brands. This is why I invest in physical products brands. It's why I talk about physical products brands. It's why I document my journey because I will attract other brands like them. And those are the brands I know. They're the ones I know how to impact. They're the ones that I have a network around for example, I'm an investor in Onnit, Aubrey Marcus's company. I surround myself with private equity people. Is that the right term? Private equity people, private equi tiers, whatever. I surround myself with entrepreneurs who are following that journey. Why? Because my resources are made to impact those types of businesses. And if I can be a part of one that goes to a billion dollars, like Dollar Shave Club, like George Clooney's tequila company that got sold for $4 billion, like an RX bar that sold for $600 million, when I am a part of one of those and I'm at a 20% investor, 20% advisor, or a 51% founder, that is hundreds of millions of dollars which can happen in five to 10 years. That's a nice down payment on the Cleveland Indians. It's a great starting point. It's a great proof of concept for the billion dollar business that I'll flip or be a part of over the next few decades. Who knows? So the foundation of my entrepreneurial career still has to be by surrounding myself with good companies and starting good companies. And I'll share my approach to physical products brands moving forward on an upcoming episode. Now, the way that I will impact these brands or be a part of these brands is by continuing to double down on my singular skill, which is communicating and lighting fires. So when it comes to brands, there's two things I can do for them. One, I can bring my network and my resources to them. Right? I have retail connections, I have investor connections, I have people who want to buy companies. I have connections in private equity. This is why I talk about this stuff. It's why I network in this world. Because all of that is a set of resources for the right physical products brands that I can be a part of or invest in. And so the next part is gonna be creating a pipeline of that type of deal flow, right? Okay. Now the other way that I can impact these brands is by taking my audience and giving those brands a platform which is ultimately what is going to put a brand right in the center of all kinds of magic. It's kind of like when Tim Ferriss talks about the new supplement he's taking and it sells out all over the place. That type of impact is very, very valuable. Those are the two torches that I bring to the fire. And I need to be all in on those two in order to be able to burn up the right opportunity when it presents itself. So I'll bring resources in the network, maybe some capital, some strategic advice to the right physical product brand. And I can give that physical product brand a platform if my audience is big enough and responsive enough. This is what I'm building. This excites me. Like, you have no idea. If I can pull that off, the amount of joy about from doing that on a regular basis, you have no idea.

You could put me in a box, and I would love to be a part of that process. So how do I build a business that allows me to be able to be in that zone and have that type of an impact with myself and the platform and my team members and everything that we are doing together? In order to do that, we have to be maintaining connection with our audience, which is why I create so much content. I'm still only creating about 20 to 30% of the amount of content that I want to be creating and maintaining a pipeline of exciting businesses by helping entrepreneurs. And I'll help entrepreneurs through the content that I create by documenting the building of the brands that we're starting buying, helping them invest the profits. Because by talking about that, you also maintain a pipeline of other investors who might want to be a part of a project or another business that you want to be, that you want to start. And what I intend to do moving forward is interview people who are in other types of businesses. So, like all of us, I tend to get pigeonholed into a certain way of doing things. And moving forward this year, I'm. I'm gonna start pigeoning, pigeoning out, branching out into other types of entrepreneurial ventures, just out of curiosity and to keep myself sharp. So one of the things you're gonna see us do over the next coming weeks and months is pivot over to more of what I would call a network, a content network. So you might look at it like a podcast network. Just like a TV show or a TV show lives on a network, you're going to see us start to publish additional content like the capitalism network. And we don't know if that's what we're going to call it. We don't know if that is even the right analogy. But the way that we see it is we're creating the system for amazing content to connect with entrepreneurs and help them build businesses, invest the profits, and create lives that they love, because that gives us the system to help entrepreneurs at scale and to bring the message that we want to bring to the world at scale so that we can continue to light other fires. So one of the things you're gonna see us do moving forward in the next months, in the next year, is move over to More of that network feel with myself and maybe some other people and as hosts on the network or show leaders on the network. Right. That allows us to do what we do best and impact brands and give us a megaphone for the causes and the businesses that we want to be a part of. Now this is the part where. Oh, man, this is. This is such a good idea. I'm really proud of myself for this one. In a couple months, maybe sooner, we're going to be adding a physical element to our monthly continuity program, which is called the 1%. And you think about this like an entrepreneurial box. So you're getting case studies delivered to your door about businesses that are doing interesting things or books that we're reading or what's working right now. So every month you're getting content and you're getting case studies so sent to you. Here's why. Twofold. Number one, you are always seeing the best of what's working and what other people are doing. But number two, that allows us to syndicate exciting businesses to thousands of entrepreneurs around the world. So if you and I meet one day and you have a business that you wanna put in front of 5,000 entrepreneurs who have connections and audiences and retail partnerships and.

Other connections that they want to ideas and capital that they bring to the table immediately, we can take a business or an idea that we're excited about and syndicate it out to impactful people around the world. So, for example, one of the things that I started to outline as part of this product inside of this program is, is businesses that I would start if I had more time, right? Like business ideas that came to me and I like, write up a quick business plan about it, send it out to entrepreneurs who are already in motion. Because I figure somebody might start it and it'd probably be a business that I would think about investing in if they had momentum, right? So in this way we're able to create, curate and continue to facilitate and continue to stoke that fire of businesses that have a chance at growing to eight or nine figures. Isn't that cool? We just create the entire pipeline. You create the entire distribution. And if you own the distribution, then you have the asset that all the other businesses and brands want to be a part of. Right? So the core of the business, the core of what I'm attempting to do is to build up a torch of resources, connections, capital, advice that we can take to any business or idea and set it on fire. Now throw in a second torch of distribution to impactful people, to an audience, and to be able to speak to that audience and watch the idea explode. That lights me up. And so now the second part of the strategy needs to be maintaining a pipeline of those types of businesses that we can take our torch and light. Which is why sometime over the next year, I'm going to be putting together the foundation of what I'm calling a mentoring program. A mentoring program for entrepreneurs who are not yet at like mid seven figures. And I don't know what I'm going to call it yet. I don't know all of the details of who will be involved, but it's not just going to be me, but it will be.

Basically like the training grounds and the network and the resources that somebody who has an audience or has a product in the marketplace needs to be able to take that business to the mid seven figures, maybe even the eight figure level. So when we have someone in our network who has Facebook strategies that are really working for our types of businesses, we can bring that expertise into this mentoring program and impact all these other businesses. Or if we have a retail connection that has content that will help people get ready for retail, we can bring that into the mentoring program. Or if we've got connections with some brokerages that are strategically positioned to help businesses sell for twice as much money, we can bring that expertise into the group and help people build businesses, hire the right teams, bring in all of our other resources in order to help those businesses grow. Why? Because that gives us the steady pipeline of additional businesses that we can light on fire. Make sense? So there has to be a very long game here. And then the final part will be my inner circle, my back room, which is where we will source additional opportunities. So this will be like the, the, the seat at the table where people will go when they want to have their brand set on fire. Somebody who's already doing seven figures but knows that they would benefit by having their product syndicated out to thousands of people or being talked about on a podcast network, or needs the connections firsthand, not just to learn from them, but to sit at the same table as them. That's where all of our opportunities are curated and created in the back room. It's like it's the seat at the table for all the opportunities that we're creating for those entrepreneurs. It's probably the businesses that I will invest in first. Right? So the foundation of the business has to be the two torches. The torches of resources, of capital, of expertise, of a network, and then the torch of an audience that buys the types of products that attract the brands that we want to be a part of. And then what we do with that is create a pipeline of businesses that we can set on fire. And we do that by teaching the model. We do that by putting together groups and masterminds and mentoring programs that allow us to source the next opportunity, which allows everyone to grow and which allows our team to be doing what we do best, which is creating content that helps entrepreneurs build businesses and invest the profits.

Do you have any idea how good it feels to be able to communicate that openly without worrying about people copying the model or doing what we do? Because this is what I would do for fun. And when you can attach the business model to it to the end goal of what you want, which for me is buying a major League baseball team.

It'S about to get real fun. It's about to get real interesting. So out of, you know, after 13 years of entrepreneurship, six of that talking and looking for the right opportunity, looking where to put my attention to allocate my time, resources, talents, I wanted to give you a peek behind the curtain of where I've decided to go and where I'm gonna be putting my focus moving forward. And I'm really proud and excited to have you along that journey. Thanks for being a part of what we are building here@capitalism.com I find it very poetic to be documenting the process of building a company that is capitalism.com it's the story of capitalism. On capitalism.com I'm also going to be documenting the process of how we're building physical products, brands for the new approach, the new approach we've got to building these businesses. I'm going to be documenting that very publicly on the Brand Builder podcast and that's with my, my business partner and buddy, Max Kerwick. So if you want to see the inner workings of the physical product side of this, go subscribe to the Brand Builder podcast. We'll be publishing some of the episodes here on this feed, but it'd be a good idea for you to be subscribed to both. Hey, thanks for listening to the show. I appreciate you and I root for you. I really do. I'll see you on the next episode.