Unleash Your Creativity: An Interview With Content Creator C-Money

So we're back.

And we're back. It's been a while. It's been a long time.

It has been.

We've done an Empire Report, and these.

Are my favorite ones, my favorite episodes.

People haven't heard me, except for my little things on the podcast.

Your intros, stuff like that.

Yeah.

So what's going on in the world?

C. Money. Oh, man. Well, I don't know. I've been really geeking out on podcasts, which works out well, and geeking out on YouTube stuff, which. That's great that my. My life and my work are so intermixed that it doesn't really feel like work.

What are your favorite podcasts right now? Besides ours, of course.

Yeah, of course. Of course. Capitalism. Dot com. Every. Everything else, you know. So Conan o' Brien needs a friend. No, it's actually just called Conan Needs a Friend. Armchair expert as Dax Shepard. Dax Shepard. And I guess that's. That's mostly it. There's another one with Andy Richter.

Really?

Three questions. You remember that Andy Richter controls the universe. We were growing up. Yes.

I loved that show.

Yeah. And, you know, there's like this web of podcasts where you start with Conan and then you go to this guy, and then they were a guest on here. And, you know, Andy is the co host on Conan's show, like, in the chair. And so it was interesting to kind of learn more about him. And he asks, where did you come from? Where are you going? And what did you learn? And those three questions are really just a way to dive deeper.

Yeah.

I love the Penn Jillette with Tim Ferriss.

That was an excellent episode.

Oh, I'm glad. I was gonna ask you about that.

Penn Jillette is actually when it. When people ask me who would I most like to have coffee with. Yeah. Or like, have lunch with. He's in my top five.

I love. He always slips in those like.

Like this.

Laughs.

He's such an interesting guy. He's just such an eclectic mix of. I mean, he's. He's atheist, but incredibly respectful towards religious people outside of the context of his TV show. Yeah, he was very polarizing. But, yeah, I just find him very interesting.

Other than that, I've been. I've been pulling away from the entrepreneurial business marketing podcast we're in this bubble with. And I want to say what was. I realized the reason I was diving so deep into Conan was this comes up. He said that, like, silliness is my religion. And I think there's. There's times in life where you have to decide, do I want to be taken seriously, Do I want to come across as intelligent in this interaction in this world, or am I willing to make fun of myself in order to bring some joy and laughter to the room?

That's interesting.

And I realized that's what was resonating with me so much as I've. I've been so serious learning about all this, like, optimization of your mind and your work and your schedule in your brain. And I just realized over the new year, now it's 2020, is, like, that's probably the biggest resolution, is I want to embrace the sillier side of me that likes performing, that likes entertaining.

Me, too.

And that sometimes I might be at that crossroads where it's like, do I say this thing and look like a fool, perhaps, and look like I'm not well informed, but lighten everyone's mood and we're having a good time? Or do I want to, like, come across as, like, a pretentious jackass? But maybe I'm like, well read, and it's like, I want to go down that road more, you know? And so, yeah, I realized that's why I was binging it so hard.

Is that binging Conan?

Yeah.

So would it be fair to say that Conan is in the zone of what you really want to be like?

Like, he.

He embodies that fun, silly, sarcastic, humorous person, and there's a part of you that wants more of that. And so you're gonna binge that because it's some way he calls it out of you.

I wanted, like, 10%. You know, I don't. I don't need to be jumping off the walls, but what's funny about these. These podcasts about entertainers is that in some ways, it's actually still kind of the same thing, in that it's about extraordinary individuals who have worked incredibly hard to get where they're at and who have something, like, unique to value the marketplace of maybe entertainment or, like, comedy specifically. He has a lot of comedians on. And so it's interesting as, like, I'm kind of taking a break from these entrepreneur podcasts, and then I'm realizing it was like, oh, in some ways, it's like, the same thing.

I 100% agree with you.

And so I've always been drawn to extraordinary people who are, like, the movers and the shakers who are doing the things. And.

I'm, like, ashamed of that. I binged probably 50 episodes in the last two months, and there's not a single person who's like, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I just kind of drove to LA and somebody handed me my opportunity and it's all been easy sailing since then, and I never doubt myself. And I like, Conan has so many insecurities and he's so incredibly hard on himself. And he says, he said he'll be taking a pee at like 2 in the morning and then he'll be like, damn it. That joke would have killed two years ago when I was on stage and I had the opportunity and his wife is like, what's going on in there? Oh, just nothing. Nothing.

I mean, we've all got it. And it's nice to hear that from people like Conan.

But, you know, it made me think.

About your background in comedy and performing and how you think about that line in being yourself, being funny, being entertaining. I think both now and then growing up, because there are certain jokes that don't work, maybe in a more religious community. And yet you're trying to find that line of like, okay, how can I. How can I get the attention and brighten up the room but then not rub everyone the wrong way? But now you're the steward of capitalism.com, where you want to be taken seriously. You want people to join your community. So how do you think about that?

Well, I mean, I've had the same transformation as you. Not transformation, like same insight as you over the last year of it's way more fun to be yourself. It's way more fun. I would just call it like that zone of ease where it just feels like you're you. And I think you can tell me if I'm wrong. But I think you've watched me slide more into that and as a result, also try to empower other people to be in that zone of ease too. So I don't really care if I'm taken seriously anymore. Let me say this differently. Let me say this very sadly. I care less about being taken seriously now than a few years ago. Because if I have to prove myself to someone, then we're just not ready for each other yet. There's. There's just. We've got more dancing to do before we go home together, if that makes sense.

When I first started working with you full time in like 2017, I was at the grocery store and I ran into. I don't know, I might as well just say her name because you know who she is. No one listening knows. But I ran into Shelly of Orange Co Working.

Yeah.

And she was like, oh, I love the work you're doing. I just feel like, there's almost like two Ryans. There's like the guy I meet in real life and then there's like in front of the presenter, capitalism.com. and she was like, I just want to see more of that other side come out. And I think it has come out.

You remember when we were with Gary in New York and he said that when he met me, I had aspirations of authenticity.

Yeah.

And now I have real authenticity. It just comes from, I think, realizing that the more you manufacture something, the more forced it has to be and it doesn't feel good. And you can be totally in alignment with who you are and who you want to be and still pursue great things. And it's just a lot more fun to do it that way. And so this is my. That's been my. Probably my biggest shift is just allowing it to be fun and easy and forgetting the lie that it has to be a grind all the time. I heard the quote recently that there's no such thing as a happy ending to a painful journey or something like that.

There's a joyful journey and there's a joyful ending.

Yeah.

Having it suck for a long time doesn't mean that the prize on the other end is better.

So how do you reconcile.

Working hard and things being easy? Because it's funny. Actually, that was another takeaway from the Conan thing. I like go into this rabbit hole and this comes up again and again and again and again. It's like I respect people that work really hard. Everyone worked really hard. Everyone's doing 80 hours a week. Actually heard a great one with the guy from this American Life and it's like it's running that show for the last 20 years has been his life. It's like 80 hour weeks. It's a lot of weekends. It's a lot of. So how do you balance, like, it's supposed to be easy. I'm supposed to be in my zone of genius and there's like, things you don't want to do.

The.

Word I would throw into this mix is suffering.

So working 80 hour weeks, are you suffering those 80 hours or is that where you're choosing to spend your time? Because there's. It's the most meaningful thing for your time and not always the most fun, but the most meaningful thing for you to be showing up for at that time.

Yeah, that's.

That's different than the hard work. That is just grinding and suffering at the expense of yourself.

That's where I would make the distinction.

You know, it's funny, you Say that because when I think about work, not feeling like work, I actually think about writing the episode outlines for Capitalism tv because. And I've sent you some ideas for ads and like scripts and stuff, and there's so much creation in it. And I've talked about like almost this relationship where I can be the producer, director, cinematographer. And you're like, talent, you're like the actor, you know, you're like the. We remember in Ukraine. And you were like, I just want to be Robert Downey Jr. Who's like in the movie. And I don't have people consulting me on what the poster looks like and what the. You know, I remember that.

And yeah, that's just. I really got into a flow where, man, it was a lot of fun. So I'm trying to do that more and more.

You mean recently you've gotten into that flow or another time you got into that flow?

That was the most time recently, like this week I got into that flow and it was creating video outlines. Huh, that's great, because I know it's gonna be a one plus one equals three thing where you're gonna take some of the ideas I came up with and add your own flavor to it and you're gonna like, you know, it's like it's gonna blend into something that was greater than.

If I went on the other side of the camera and I tried to be Ryan, or if you went on the other side and you tried to write the scripts and do the video stuff and do the edits and make it all come together. And we're doing this and I'm thinking, oh yeah, let's cut away to a funny thing here and let's throw in some memes about being triggered and Occupy Wall street and all that stuff.

That's co creation right there. That's collaboration, I would say. So something I've realized is that if I'm not feeling in that zone of genius, I have to take a step back because the human temptation is to say, well, I don't feel that flow right now, so I'm going to work harder to try and find it or force it. And now you're using, you're just using pure sheer will to try and make something happen. And I'm yet to find that result in the flow. And so if I'm, if I'm hitting up against a wall where I don't have that, the, the temptation is to go do more, but the solution is actually to back up. And one of the, the really big opportunities I've had is when Philip was born, I had this, you know, I took about three or four weeks where I took a step back.

You said it was going to be six.

Did I?

But that didn't.

Oh, well, three to four weeks where I got to. I took a step back.

Yeah.

And I didn't go to any meetings. And I. I did a lot of thinking and writing in between sleepless nights and basically got a lot clearer on what the next stage of the business looks like, of what the next stage of my life looks like. And that was my flow, was writing out, like, in intimate detail where we're going next, what we're doing next. That was flow for me. But it comes kind of spontaneously when you're. When you don't have to do anything, when you have to do something, you're no longer free to create.

Yeah.

When you're in like this open space where you can take a bit of a step back, that's when creativity starts to come in because now you're free to create again. So that, that is what I've been telling a lot of backroom members who are just like completely burnt and they. They feel the same way as you. Well, I gotta work harder.

Yeah.

I'm just gonna work 80 hour weeks. It was like. It doesn't. It doesn't work that way. If you want to have the next chapter of growth, you have to take the step back so that you can see what the next stage looks like.

Yeah. There's like five directions I wanted to go now and this, like. But it's funny because first of all, myself, it's like when you presented me with this sales humanity course from Jeremy of.

The Brotherhood Garrett White Group. I did start to see a future for myself that was more like a path. And that was that, like, storytelling is going to be a very integral part of the growth of capitalism.com and like the Ryan Moran brand, those two. And so that was. That was good for me to see that path. And I was also thinking about your interview with Ajit Nwalka, your mentor for Mindvalley. He talked about the best ideas you're gonna get are going for a walk.

In the shower on long drive, raking leaves.

So walk me through, like, what does it actually look like, though? Like, Philip's asleep and then you go to your desk and you write on paper, journaling. Or are you, like, when you talk about taking space away from work.

How are you actually kind of brainstorming?

It often comes when I have some extra space and my mind relaxes. I want to read Books again. And when I want to read books again, I can tell I'm charging. And then I'm open to new ideas. And those ideas start to like, go into my brain and plant seeds. And then I'll be on a long drive or I'll be at the gym, and I'll just start to feel the flow coming out of like marketing angles or product ideas. And then I'll usually talk to a mentor. Like a jit was really helpful for me during this time. And he'll like, point it, help me point all that in the right direction and give me the challenge that we're trying to overcome. And it's like I have all this creativity to go through it.

Yeah.

On like a day to day basis. That means like I'm. I'm getting up at like 6:30 most days and sometimes earlier, depending on what the kids are doing. And I have like an hour to myself. It's my cherished time. I've been doing a lot of long meditations. Like I'm 30 minutes, I have no problem going 45 minutes, I'm like, no problem. It's. And it's the best part of my day. I mean, I've never thought that I would enjoy it as much as I enjoy it, but it's where I start to just create the emotions that I want to feel and just allow myself to feel them. It's very enjoyable. And.

That'S where a lot of kind of my space comes from. And then at night is when I'm doing my reading or I'm at the gym or I'm driving or I have a little bit of quiet again. If I allow myself, it's very easy for me to drown it out.

Yeah.

But I've learned the cost of drowning it out. I've learned the ROI of boredom. The ROI of letting there be nothing.

And yet at the same time, you can't overindulge in the boredom because then you're just sitting around.

Chilling, you know, doing nothing. So it's almost like a balance. Right.

I think at some point your brain kicks on with the impulse or the inspiration to do something.

Yeah.

At least I am. So I. I find no indulgement in boredom. I just recognize that it has value. It's the transition between chaos and creativity.

So, like, sidebar. Do you think there's like a genetic component to ambition or do you think how much of that's like nature versus nurture? Like your upbringing, your environment, your friends, your community?

I don't know. But I think that you definitely have More of a proclivity for ambition. If you've had struggle, if you've, if you've had.

I've always. You've probably heard me say that all the brain knows how to do is compare, right? Well, I think about it different, even, like wider now, where we're always contrasting and comparing everything. So if you're born into adversity or struggle, then you have a greater contrast possibility.

Yeah.

If you're born into nothing, you have the best shot at having everything.

Because. So I don't know if there's a genetic component, but I do think that there is contrast that happens that ultimately determine how ambitious we are.

I do have a lot of empathy, oddly, for the people who are like trust fund babies, generational wealth, certain things are just. The bar is kind of set so high.

Yeah.

You're almost like, where do I go from here? And some people get into philanthropy and some people do amazing things, but for me, it's like, I don't know. I remember growing up and wondering if we were gonna lose the house and we would get these. My parents would. This is like the story I have is my parents would buy these like seven dollar cheap shoes because they were like, well, you're gonna grow out of them. And I would wear through them. And instead of like, I don't know, like the cool shoes that the other kids had, it was like, you don't need to worry about that. They're on your feet. They're gonna get you where you're going. And from that you can dream for more. You can dream big. And it's funny, bring this round circle. It's like I grew up so much in, in elementary school and middle school, watching Conan and thinking, what if I'm going to be on that couch someday being interviewed because I do something with my life that is worthy of being on a podcast or something. So, you know, media's changed, but, you know, I'm so close to your content through the emails, through the Instagram, and I do see these recurring themes coming up again and again. And it sounds like a bit of what is happening is you're starting to take your own advice.

And maybe that's because you've given yourself the space.

To go within, look, look within instead of, like looking outward. And so when you talk about being in your zone of genius and working smarter versus harder, and it really sounds like you're just starting to listen to what you've been telling other people.

I mean, I think there's some truth to that. I think for a long Time I said, I don't have a me to give myself the advice that I give other people.

Yeah, that's true.

And so some. So.

What some of my mentors have been able to do is they can point me in the right direction, and then everything that I already know kind of kicks in to support that. But at the same time, I think.

I don't know what I have to teach. I only share my life experience.

Yeah.

Like, if you really look at my content, I'm just sharing my life experience. So when I am sharing something with another entrepreneur, it's usually from the filter of whatever transition I'm going through at the time.

Yeah.

And so I might not get it in terms of application until after I've shared it with a bunch of people, because I'm still in that transition.

Yeah.

Or I've identified the problem that I'm going through enough to be able to speak to it.

Yeah.

But I don't know the solution yet. Or I can.

I can see the solution, but I don't know how it applies to me yet. I can see how it can be applied to other people first.

Yeah. Where have you.

Where have you seen me taking my own advice?

Okay. Well, this is a kind of nice transition. Since we just had our quarterly. I had this experience of kind of like, Ryan goes away for three or four weeks, and then he comes back and he's like, hey, everybody, the company's going in a new direction. We've got like a whole network. You know, there's like a shift in the priorities and the culture. So I was gonna say, how would you describe the direction that we're going.

From? Basically 2019 versus 2020.

Yeah. Yeah. So the way I described it in our meeting was, I realize now that we, up to this point have taken an outside in approach, and that meant we created a lot of content. We went out and tried to kind of push the envelope of our network of who would be cool to have on the podcast create all this content, knowing that if we created a lot of content, some people would follow us and they would come into our community, or they'd come to our events, they would pay us money so we could keep the machine running. And.

You, you challenged me once in saying, what would. Ryan in the chair, Ryan in the hot seat.

Yep.

What advice would I give myself? And that kind of gave me the insight of, I always tell people, go 100% in on the customer, not on your processes. Going all in on the customer. And that's really easy for me to get in a Physical products brand or a SaaS company or.

Yeah, like if you're selling keto cookies or you have a CrossFit community.

If you're selling anything that isn't you, you're selling something that is tangible, that doesn't require a face on it. But I couldn't figure out what that was for us because I've been the face. So there's always been kind of this idea of like people kind of show up for Ryan in a lot of cases. And that feels good. I appreciate that. But it's also a trap. So what is that for me? And then I had the realization after kind of playing with the question you asked me. Well, we do all of this stuff. We'd make all this content. We do all this activity for people who are not our customers. So what if we took that energy and that focus and just put it on the people who are paying to show up? We just put all that energy and attention on creating the content that was exactly what the customer wanted, exactly what the people who were paying to show up wanted. Well, if we did that, then our audience would probably grow a lot faster because it would no longer be about what Ryan wanted. It would be about what the customer wanted.

It's funny you say that. It almost takes like a certain level of faith and yet there are like hundreds and thousands of examples of. You've seen that that works where it's like, oh, have to give up this broader approach. And you know, but yeah, the way I thought about it was like, oh, so we're gonna like, we're gonna like flip the funnel.

Yeah. And so now we take an inside out approach.

I remember telling someone a while back is like basic. And this is like straight out of Russell. Russell Brunson is like, every business is a funnel. Like you have cold traffic and then you warm them up and then you. And.

Yeah, there's something too about just going all in on your people. And it's been really cool to see people really energized and start showing up. Not because it is thousands of people who are like, yeah, Ryan Moran, capitalism.com, but it's like a hundred people who are super fans. And that's been frustrating for me sometimes over the last like three years when we meet someone and like you had a tremendous about like, you know, improvement on my life. And I wouldn't be where I was without you. And I've watched every single video you've ever made. C Money. And I love hearing and I'm like, why is this the first Time I'm hearing of you.

Yeah.

I've never seen you in an Instagram comment or you know, and I think part of it is people do assume or like too busy or too expensive and when you just give someone your attention, it's almost like a form of love or validation that's just as like I see you. And that's something we've talked about in our marketing for entrepreneurs, for people that are.

Signing up for what we're doing, just acknowledging that.

So that's, that's the key right there, which is realizing that.

All of the people who make our work possible.

Are not me, I'm the creator. But all of these people are the ones who are supporting it. And so I need to go all in on those people while still staying true to who I am and what our message is. And if you can do that, then you're really powerful. And I had done again in a physical products brand it's easy to go all in on the person cause you just iterate the product and. But when there's a person and that person is the CEO of the company, I had a blind spot into how do I balance. And the only way I knew how to do that was to have like a separation. Like there's Ryan stuff and capital. I couldn't find that. But when I realized that we can show up and do our thing and go all in on the people who are paying to be in the community or paying to come to the event and create it specifically for them, that's when I had to okay.

I know how to make this.

The vision that we've always wanted it to be.

So for me at first when you started talking about this shift, this change, I was almost worried, what does this mean? How is this gonna, gonna change things? Then I realized it's actually easier because it's taking less of like an SEO approach and our content, it's an outside in approach. What are people on the Internet searching for? What is every 16 year old kid in their basement on YouTube looking for versus now we go in the 1% Facebook group for example, and, and we find the experts there in the group and we find the questions they want to know there, the things they're struggling with, the areas they're stuck. And we've decided to really put our attention on what's happening within million dollar brands, within the 1% group. And yeah, it's just been so cool to see people responding to the newsletter, to the box we're putting out.

Yep.

And we just had a lot of momentum so the last month, let's talk.

About what you just said in the context of like Amazon.

Okay.

So an outside in approach would be looking at what keywords are hot and creating products for those keywords. It's an outside in approach.

Pink umbrellas, really, that's where all the money is.

And the result of that is you end up competing with all the people who are doing exactly the same thing. An inside out approach would be saying who are my customers and what do they believe and what do they want? And then developing the product that they want and putting it for sale on Amazon and then you can use SEO and Amazon tricks to get it to rank or whatever.

Yeah. The thing I found in the content land and a lot of entrepreneurs ask me about this stuff, is that has very subtle ways of affecting your copy and your images and the messaging you use. And when we started talking about where the company's values, it really, in very subtle ways started to change. Like just the copy and.

Is less important for me. I think that it's a huge viral success as the right people are showing up.

Yeah.

And that's the shift I've been seeing is we've talked a lot about.

Ownership and responsibility and you know, the, the.

Value of hard work.

Right. And service to others. And there are a lot of people, especially in the kind of Internet marketing, get rich quick. Just tell me how to make money on Amazon. They're gonna be turned off by that. Like, I don't want to serve anybody.

Just just how to make money.

Give me the money.

Yeah. And it's okay that they're turned off by that.

Exactly, exactly.

It's probably a good thing that they're turned off by that.

I think two years ago we were like, I don't know, how do we just get the numbers a little bit more?

Yes.

At least I was, I was thinking like, how do we get million views on this video? How do we grow to a million on this? And now there's been just definitely a shift of like, do we even want those people? I want the right people on the bus or on the boat, you know?

Yeah. I mean, if our vision as a company is to light fires, then you need influential people with good ideas and people who are in motion. Like you need that type of a person if you want to be famous on the Internet. It's a different thing that you're optimizing for.

Yeah.

And it's okay to be either. But I think what we've discovered is that we were saying that we wanted to be an influential Platform, an influential company, but we were playing like we wanted to be famous on the Internet.

Yeah. Yeah.

And finally it was. It was giving up the fact that.

That wasn't as important as we thought and that it wasn't making us happy that has allowed me at least to free up that energy to put into what it is that we do want.

I.

Probably the biggest.

Mind shift I've had in the last few months has been allowing myself to think about what I want again. I don't know where it got lost, Chris. I don't know where it got lost. This idea of being able to daydream about what I want, about how life could be. When I was a kid, that was all I did. All I did was think about how I wanted life to be and what I wanted to be when I grew up and what. And there. And there was no. There was no, like, you'll see me and how great I am. It was like I just dreamt about what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be and how I wanted to experience this life.

Do you think it's because you. There's this other voice in your head that tells you, like, that's not possible, or be practical or don't dream so bad?

I mean, maybe, but those are other people's voices, right? Those are, those are. Those are other people saying, like, well, this is reality. That's great. But here's reality. And what I've allowed myself to do recently is. Is just allow myself to not look at reality, but to say what could be? I remember I was. I was driving home from. I'm nervous to put this out.

Oh, boy, this is the juicy stuff. I was driving.

I was driving home from San Antonio and I passed some. I think it's where the spurs play. I don't even know what it's called. You. You know better than me.

I don't know.

I don't know about the spursodome.

And I just saw this, like, this arena and I said, we're gonna have a capcon there.

Like, I just. I just.

I just dreamt. I was like, I think I'd like to have a capcon there. What would it be like to have a cap? Now, a year ago, I would have immediately kicked in all the reasons why that wasn't possible.

Oh, 600 people come to Capcon. Well, there's no way you could fill up a room of 10,000 people. And all of a sudden I was just like, I know it's not possible right now, but what if it could be? Yeah, what, like what, what if that was possible.

And I just allowed myself to think about it and that has created so much room in my creativity. So, for example, you don't, you don't know this, Chris.

So there's not much I don't know at this point.

So, you know, what's our singular mission in terms of numbers? Was our singular goal as a company? Aligning. Aligning all resources behind one singular goal.

And that goal is like 10,000 people and the 1%. That's right. Monthly continuity, membership, community.

That's right, yeah. 10,000 members in the 1%. Now, what you don't know is that after I put together the plan to get to 10,000 members, I had so much fun thinking about how to get to 10,000 members and dreaming about 10,000 members and dreaming about having all 10,000 people in an arena where we do this party together, we call it the Capitalism Conference. I had so much fun dreaming about the process and just coming up with new ideas for it that I then went, what if it was a hundred thousand?

And now that the company is in motion.

Yeah.

And you've seen the momentum in the numbers. Like. Well, I think when I, when I told Sean that it was 10,000 with the target, he's like, well, we're talking big numbers here. Like, he, he immediately was like, whoa, we're talking big. But you've seen the momentum just in the last month.

Yeah.

And the momentum that's happening in the group and all of a sudden it doesn't seem unreasonable anymore. Yeah.

And we know things grow exponentially when you're serving your people and they're all taken care of and we're doing amazing content. There are things just happen organically where they're telling their friends like, oh, you got to get in on this and you got to come to this event. And I don't know, it, it kind of blows my mind, I think, to just step back and realize like the impact we could have on the world. And, and I was thinking about the other day we did an interview with Jeremiah and I talked about these two paths he could have gone down in which I'm imagining him as a 16 or 17 year old and he had a exit for I guess $4 million at 21. And I'm imagining what if it his life would look like if he never came across our content, never went to a workshop, joined the back room where he would be right now. And then you just multiply that times ten thousand, ten thousand or a hundred thousand, and then it's, it's just like, fills you with like, a sense of awe, you know, That's a good word for wow. We're doing like, my work matters. And these.

That's right.

These little videos people are actually watching. And you know, I remember before we started working together.

I was just shooting some testimonials and I started to see like, yeah, these are real stories. This is like a guy who used to be a teacher and is running a business. This is. This is a guy who was making 100k a year in corporate life and hated it and now loves his life running a business. And that was almost like the initial inspiration of like, yeah, this is like, this is real. This isn't like, there's a lot of. There's a lot of BS in the scammy Internet marketing world. And when I think about multiplying that.

It'S just really exciting.

And you've. You've seen the, like, the pace of growth pick up a lot more. So all of a sudden, 10,000 doesn't seem so impossible.

Yeah.

Well, I've allowed myself to go even one step further and say, what if 100,000 was possible? What might that look like? What might that feel like?

I don't know if I'm ready there.

But that's why I'm at shared it with the team. Yeah.

Because.

So we're about to get into. If you clipify this. This is exactly. We're going to start clipifying this. Okay. So that I'm about to get into the weirdest things that I believe right now. Because I. I believe some weird things right now.

End episode right here. I'm kidding.

I am. I am choosing to believe certain things right now that have given me a lot of freedom. And one of them is.

If. If. Let's just make it super practical before I go weird. If we believe that anything is possible, literally anything is possible. There is no impossible. Then all of my justifications for why things can't be are bullshit. And so like 80% of my work is just allowing those voices to not matter. So if we agree that nothing's impossible, then it's possible to have a hundred thousand paying members. Okay, step one. I believe it's possible. If you believe it's not possible, then you'll find all. You will. You'll find all the reasons why it's.

Not possible, your brand to look for.

Yes.

Things are going to stop you. Like.

That's right. That's right. But if I believe it is possible, then I just have to think about what would have to happen for it to be possible.

Yeah.

And then I start to think about that, and I let that percolate for a while, and then I. And then I start to just, oh, this is me daydreaming now. I'm daydreaming about what that might look like and how much fun that might be. Or. Or if your brain says that sounds hard, you say, well, what if it was fun? How would I do if it was fun? And it's just this mental playing that I've been doing. Now here's the weird part.

So.

Gosh, where am I?

Don't tell the world. I listen to Abraham Hicks.

So if you believe in the quantum field, which I'm becoming more and more convinced is a real thing, the idea that all possibilities exist at the same time, even if there's one reality, even if there's one real reality, then all next possibilities within that reality exist at the same time. So if that's the case, then the reality that I can make up in my brain exists in the quantum field.

And so if I just don't put any justification as to why that can't be real.

Then I can allow it to become real.

Does that make. Does that make sense? Yeah.

It almost sounds like you. You're willing a future into existence over here, and then you almost pull yourself. That's it. That's into it.

I get up to speed with it.

And along the way you have the steps to get there, but there's this thing that's seemingly impossible, and you're almost literally creating an. Almost like in an alternate dimension into something that didn't exist. And then you, like, pull yourself into it. That's right.

And I don't know if I'm right. I don't know if I am fundamentally or scientifically right. All I know is that it's creating a lot of space for me to play in a way that is very empowering compared to how I used to play, which was just pure force and will.

Yeah.

So another example would be like.

I'm. I'm getting back into my anti dad bod plan, right? Like, I just had another kid, gained some weight during the pregnancy. I want to get rid of that weight. And before it was just pure, like, counting calories and just burning myself into the ground is awful. And now it's more like, well, if I accept the fact that that future reality already exists, I don't have to work so hard. And if I don't have to work so hard, then I'm less likely to binge eat late at night. Yeah, Because I have a little bit of space around it mentally. So maybe I'm just playing like mental Jiu jitsu. Maybe I'm just finding a way to get my brain to think the way it needs to think so that I can do the things I need to do. Maybe that's the case. It doesn't matter to me so much as. As much as it is. It brings me peace and it brings me clarity and creativity to think about. Well, what if I could make any reality I think up possible? As long as I don't get in the way. What if. I don't know. I don't know if that's real, but I sure am enjoying the process. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I do know, like, everyone who's done anything great has believed it was possible. And that's what I loved. Within the other half, which is a new course we just started offering, the first lesson is to dream big. And you said, almost more importantly, that I don't know if you can be successful, that I don't know if you can be happy without that ability to dream. Like, you need to have some light at the end of the tunnel or this idea that your future could be better than today. And part of that is like, you're talking about, like, kind of manipulating your brain, tricking your brain a little bit. It's like, I need to give myself some goal posts and some vision of a brighter tomorrow and a better future.

Well, here's where I've messed up with this, though. If you say your goal post is increase my income by X number, and then you go into it and you are thinking about how you're going to get there, or you're thinking about the fact that you're not there yet, or you're thinking about how it would be really hard, or you're thinking about what can I do now to double down? Now you're using force.

Wait, but isn't 10,001% members just a number? So what's the difference here in how you're approaching that?

The difference is in, are you approaching.

The.

Number as the thing you're reverse engineering or using the number as the thing that is pulling you? I'm trying to think of better words for this. What most people will do is they'll look at what they can do now faster in order to hit those numbers. If you're looking at the number as a proxy to get you to unthink the things that you're doing now and think of a more creative way to get there, that's power. That's powerful.

Yeah.

So if the number makes you work hard, harder, then you'll burn out. But if the number makes you stop doing things you're doing now because you know they're not going to get you there, and clears up room for you to think about it differently now, it's helpful. Does that distinction make sense?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Most people will take their past and their present into the future. So they'll say, well, I'm making this much now, and I get paid this much per hour. So if I work this many more hours and I get this much raise, then I could. And I could get. And that could be helpful. But it's so incomplete.

Like, wrap my head around lately because I was listening to Dave Asprey on the Armchair Expert podcast. He was talking about living to 180 and longevity and all this stuff. And I was just thinking about how much. Yeah, I'm probably gonna be making more money in my 40s and my 50s. And that also.

This. This kind of traditional idea of hanging things up when you're, like, 70 might not be the future that we're looking at. And so I'm even thinking about, like, stocks I'm holding and investing. It's like, I don't know, what if I'm sitting on that stock for, like, 60 years? Or it's sitting. What if it's spitting out dividends for, like, 90 years?

Yeah.

And so you start thinking more long term. And specifically, I was thinking even, like, Indian markets and Indonesia and China because they're growing. And you're talking about Amazon coming online in Africa. Yeah. And.

Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, it's interesting, I guess a lot of this. This shift just to bring things back was. Was really about becoming a father for the second time.

So, I'm sorry, before we go there, I want to talk about you for one more second. So I know you want to make more money. And part of my goal as leader is to clear out all of the things that you don't love doing so that you can be in your total zone for a couple reasons. One, I know that that's the thing that even if you were a millionaire, you would do anyway.

Yes.

And so, like, I want for you to be doing the thing that you would do because you enjoy it so much, because now, now, like, I already know we're good, but, like, now I know we're really good.

Yeah.

Right. Number two, you're gonna use that here so we both benefit. And as a side thing, I will have to pay you more money because you'll be so good at what you do, I will have to pay you more money. I'm sorry, I hate how that sounds like.

You will then like write your own ticket.

Yeah. I'm thinking about how do I create more value in the world and that income will just show up.

That's exactly right.

Some way or another.

That's exactly right. That's exactly it.

And yeah, some of that is just getting, getting into the things I'm good at and away from the things I'm not good at.

And it used to be like, let's do it for the numbers. And if the numbers move, then we'll get the result that we want. But now I know that if I free you up to just be you, that then the numbers will move. But it will come from the creation. It will come from the inside out.

Yeah.

Not from the outside. It won't be that you're so good at knowing the algorithms that you can make the video perfectly the algorithm. It's that what we create together is so good and so much fun and so easy that the numbers will come to it. And then everybody else will reverse engineer our style and our strategy.

Yeah.

And then, and then the customers will come to us and be like, hey, we're making more money now. We're going to share this some more. Like that. That's how it happens. It happens inside out. And I, I, I realize now that I had been approaching pretty much the entire world outside in and it's just so much more fun to think about it inside out.

Other people will be ripping off the capitalism content strategy. Like, why isn't it working as well for me? Well, because, you know, you just ripped it off. That's exactly right.

But no, I was thinking about creation. You were talking about creating this impossible future and it just got me thinking about, you know, creating a child. And it's interesting. I was listening to your interview with John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods, and he said that Whole Foods, like is like his child. He doesn't have any kids and is someone I think both of us look up to. So that's interesting to think of this massive brand like Whole Foods once upon a time just being an idea in someone's mind to being a reality.

Yeah.

And I can only imagine what it feels like to bring actual life into this world. So, I mean, how are, how are you kind of thinking about that feeling about that right now?

It's weird. I mean.

It.

I know it doesn't.

Seem like a big deal right now because, because he's a blob. He's basically an amoeba that screams at me.

A formless blank slate.

Yeah. But when I think about, you know, I have the contrast of Esther now. Like, Esther. Esther's going into kindergarten.

Yeah.

What?

Well, it's weird. It's weird for. For me to know that I'm probably going to see Esther grow up.

Yeah.

And I'll be like, Uncle Chris when she's, like, graduating high school.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. That just blows my mind because, you know, I'm only 31, so just the idea of, like. Yeah, the whole thing's true. Yeah, it is.

So to think about knowing that Philip is going to have the similar. The same thing gives me just. That gives me a different perspective. And knowing that he's going to become a man, and he's. And my dad was visiting when. When Philip was born.

The three generations of men.

That's right. And realizing that he is watching me going, like, where did the time go? Like, I remember when he was just this. And I know that I'm going to have the same experience with this amoeba that's screaming at me. That's trippy. That has shifted my perspective.

So that's what it's like. So it's like bringing life into the world.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm gonna leave that one to you. You know, we'll see. Maybe I'll change my mind down the road. I know you got a backroom meetup coming up here. We should wrap this up.

I do. Yeah. I mean, by the way, I am so enjoying what we're doing in the back room right now. Yeah.

What's. What's. How do you think the direction's shifting there?

So.

I have been able to give this same shift that I've had of freeing up all these, like, internal resources to other members of the back room. And so several people, Travis Zigler included, have. Have just referred to them as our therapy sessions, where I used to think that when someone brought their challenge or their bottleneck to the table, it was my job to help them solve it. And now I realize it's my job to free up how they're thinking about it so they can cast the vision for what it is that they want. And so there's a completely different energy in the back room.

It's totally different. One of our new members, you know.

It used to be, okay, you're at a million. Now let's get you to 10 million. That was kind of the whole. That was.

That was the focus, and that's and that was. That's still what I would offer to someone byproduct, though.

Right. Like, and it's right. Right when you dial into.

Your.

I don't know, you can three step your way to a million. You can follow a formula to get to a million. When you want to get to 10, you have to actually be good, or 100 or a hundred. You have to actually be good.

Yeah.

You have to actually build a business, and that requires this transformation. And so I've been. I've really been enjoying unlocking that. And it used to take me a long time to unlock that in somebody, and now I'm doing it in an hour for people because I've gotten so clear on my transformation that I can now make it easy for somebody else.

Yeah.

It's been so much fun. Like, I really enjoy. Just after the kids go to bed, I go for walks in my neighborhood, and I'll just call clients or call followers on Instagram or members of the 1%.

Yeah.

And just have what Travis calls the therapy session. And I've just enjoyed it so much.

Yeah. It's funny you say therapy, because I know we both have a lot of interest in really just going deep with people. I think I was telling you, I met my girlfriend's mom the other day for the first time, and she was like, man, he has a lot of personal questions that get really deep. I'm like, yeah, I guess now that you mention it. But it's so in alignment with what I'm doing, which is like storytelling, creating content and.

Bringing things out in people and examining them and helping them get to where they want to go.

Yeah.

And it makes me think of this quote by.

Damn it. I tried to go super, super highbrow for a second. There was. Yeah. Ram Dass just passed away recently, and he said that we're all just, like, walking each other home.

Yes, that's true.

And whether you're helping someone with their issues that are holding them back in business, or I'm, you know, interviewing someone or trying to get a testimonial out of them, it's. It's kind of this. We're all just in this game having fun, trying to figure things out and.

Walking each other home.

Yeah, exactly.

That's exactly right. I want to give a quick plug for the Ryan Danny Moran podcast, which doesn't exist.

Yeah.

So my context for this is, since we're going all in on our customers@capitalism.com, i need my outlet to just talk about.

Politics and religion and esoteric stuff and so we've decided to start our own side thing, if you will. It's called the Ryan Danny Marion Podcast, and it doesn't exist yet, but it's gonna.

I think it's gonna be. It'll be good for both podcasts, but I think I'm excited about this project because there aren't a lot of expectations. Meaning it might outpace the business capitalism podcasts, or it might.

No one will listen. Yeah.

Or, you know, a couple people will really like it. And it does, you know, it doesn't matter. And yet creativity is not, I think, a finite resource. It builds upon itself. The more you use, the more you have.

That's right.

And I think you having this sandbox to plan of the Ryan Daniel Moran show, where you can discuss anything and everything is going to actually make it more compelling content over on the business side that are just purely business focused, whether it's real estate, whether it's E commerce, whatever. I think, you know, you just kind of like get on a roll where now it's, you know, we haven't. It's always been tricky when we do black man versus white man or we do your ayahuasca experiences and then we talk about Amazon and they are all connected. And when you were talking about you have to be really good to get to 10 million, I wanted to ask, do you have to be really good or does the business have to be really good?

The leader of the organization, if they are building it for the first time, has to. Has to be good. Yeah.

And the reason I bring that up is that all these things are connected, you know.

Yeah.

It's not just the tactics, it's not just the strategy.

100%. Right.

So, yeah, no, I'm, I'm super excited for the Ryan Daniel Moran Podcast. You're going to hear us probably promoting it and trying to send some people over there. And I hope. I see, like people are going to. I think a certain part of the audience is hungry for that. And then a certain part of the audience is like, oh, thank God, now Ryan's been like, shut up about all this politics and stuff. When you want to talk about Trump and the Democrats and this very. I'm sure we're going to be scintillating 2020 election.

I can't wait.

It's the greatest show on earth.

It really. It really is. If you take your ego out of.

It, how can you not want to talk about it? So.

Well, we're going to.

It's going to be good.

Well, thanks for hanging out with me, man.

All right. Thanks for hanging out.

Love our chats.

It's capitalism 2020. Let's do.