You ARE The Media | Ryan Daniel Moran

There's something on my mind. Are we going to be more divided after the election or less? I have ping ponged on my opinion around this several different times. Regardless of what happens, or if the election is contested or if we're ripped apart, I have taken heart in the fact that there are more of us who want peace than want violence. Reasonable people don't get attention, Reasonable people don't make the news. Reasonable people are usually drowned out by those who are causing a lot of chaos and noise. That's where the news cycle goes. And as a result, we have all kind of followed into this hypnotized view of the world that those who are chaotic and those who are not peaceful and those who are judgmental are running the world. But the truth is that most people, when you have a face to face conversation, are reasonable and are willing to listen. Now, that doesn't get attention, that doesn't make people click, it doesn't make people stare at the screen. And so it's very difficult to create a news cycle out of what is normal and reasonable. So right now we live in this world where in order to get attention, you have to be more and more polarizing, more and more chaotic. I'm working on a video right now in which the takeaway is you are the media. If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? In science, the answer is no, because sound is an interpretation. Sound is the translation of a vibration. Sound is our interpretation of something happening. So when the media makes noise, when other people are loud, if there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Even the word media? What is a medium? A medium is a channel through which noise travels.

The noise can travel, but you don't have to hear it. Media is silent until you tune in. You are the media. So as we blame the media, as we notice that the media is negative, the only way that it can be negative is if you give it attention, is if you tune into it. You can tune into whatever you want. Do you know how easy it is to find good news right now? Do you have any idea how easy it is to find opportunity right now? Do you have any idea how easy it is to find connection right now? Because we're demanding all of those things more than ever. There's more demand for those things, there's more desire for those things. But most of us are trained to be tuned into the negativity and the automatic things that are being broadcast. If you tune into the Automatic broadcast. Well, no fucking wonder.

It continues to grow in attention and you continue to go down that path of negativity because you're not in control of what you're paying attention to. You are giving your attention to whatever makes the most noise. But you're the one who is receiving that. You are the one who is deciding where that attention goes and flows. If there's no receiver, then the media can't travel. The noise can't travel. If there's no one there to hear the sound, then it can't make a noise. Morning, Todd, how are you?

Hey man. Doing good, how are you?

Doing good. Good to see you. What's up, dude?

So I'm right on the verge of launching product number one.

Awesome.

With a new brand. Just the fact that it's a first of its kind. So I don't, you know, it's an accessory for a popular product. There's no direct competition. Is there anything additional kind of here in the last minute stages that you would suggest I focus on?

Yeah, I would suggest that you focus on doing demos of your product in front of your audience and then put those people onto a hot list. If you're not already doing that. Oh yeah, you're already doing the hot list.

Yeah.

What do you got on the hot list?

About 120 on the hot list and about 80 beta testers.

That's great. That's fantastic. So I would just continue to do blog posts since I know you do blog posts. Put content in front of the people that already see your stuff, that highlights the product and bring them over into that hot list and you'll have sales day one. And as you are getting closer to the launch date, continue to tell them things like we're bootstrapping this thing. We're not a VC backed company. So we've got 500 units. There's 500 people already on this hot list. Just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate the support. We'll do a second round of orders as soon as we can. But if you want to be one of the first ones, time's not on your side. Like it's real scarcity. It's not like limited time only.

Right? Yeah, just, just be really honest about the fact that like if you want to be first in line, you know, they should, they should get off the pot and you'll. And I don't know if you'll sell out, but you'll have sales on day one for sure.

Yeah. I'm a little frustrated that we've got these initial Inventory limits on Amazon. Right now you can only send 200, and I've got almost 600.

So let's reframe this. Now you have another reason for scarcity.

Also true.

So now you can legitimately say to your audience, here's the thing with COVID Amazon only lets new businesses have 200 of these. I've already got 200 people on this waiting list, so if you want in. I just want. I'll give you a secret link. You're gonna be the first one to know, but there's probably not gonna be any left after launch, and it's gonna be six weeks before I get another 200 in. So thanks for being first in line. Just want to let you know that there's a very real limit here. And boom. I mean, it's a good problem to have when you sell out.

It's true. That's true. True. That's a good reframe. I like it.

Yeah, this is. You're in a great spot. You're exactly where you should be at this point in the process. And I think that the more you can show the audience what you got and what their expectations should be, then the easier the sale will be when you're live.

I will definitely put some focus on that here in the last couple weeks.

Great.

Thanks, man. I appreciate it.

Congratulations. I'm excited for you, Todd. Thanks a lot. All right, keep me posted. What's up, dude?

I wanted to know, like, when to consider, like, working with an influencer, like in a. In an equity sort of position, like, offering them, like, a small stake in the company and, like, how you would even go about, like, knowing who to do that with and, like, how much of a stake to offer them as.

Far as who to go to. I look at it the same way that I look at an employee, so an employee. I've got three criteria. They've done this before. They have a network of people that they can call upon when they get stuck, and they're really passionate about what we're up to. That's what I look for when I'm hiring an employee with an influencer. It's exactly the same. They've talked about brands or businesses before, and they have a community that buys that kind of stuff. They have a network of other influencers that they could call upon because they're gonna be so excited about what they're doing that they're gonna wanna call their friends. And number three, they're really excited about what it is that we're doing. It's hard to convince an employee to be excited about your business. But it's really easy to motivate somebody who's already excited. Look, I don't need to be incentivized. I'm just so glad to be incentivized. Cause I love this Stu. Now you might find that only 2 out of 10 people that you reach out to have that type of mindset, which is great because you only need one. And so it is not about finding the influencer and persuading them to be part of it. It's about finding the people who already have that type of excitement, which requires you to also be excited about your stuff. So rather than go for the ask too early, just liberally share your stuff, knowing that one out of those 10 is gonna be like, this stuff is awesome. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna buy 10 of these and you get them Nat. If they're naturally excited about it, they're really easy to motivate. Incentivize. Now, as far as splitting the pie, I carve out 15 to 20% of my company for advisors, relationships and influencers. And that's really just what I would call exposure. What I like to do is I'll have one anchor influencer exists to be my primary source of exposure. And then I allow them to go recruit other influencers that I might throw a point to or half a point to, or a quarter point to in order to build up more of a distribution network.

So what would that mean, influencer? Maybe? Is that like five points or something like that or.

Yeah, I mean, so 5 points is great, 10 points is great. 15 points can sometimes be appropriate. Whatever you decide is, is fair or reasonable, I would recommend that you do it on a vesting schedule. Let's say that it's six points. You're going to do two points a year for three years and you both have the option to renew or not. So if either of you are not happy, you can, you can, you're out, you can be out. So your downside risk is 2 points. Then I would add a, I'm sorry to get all complicated on you, but to protect myself even more, I'd add a provision in the agreement that I could buy out to their 2% in the event that they decided not to continue. So in that contract I've got that they can opt out of the contract at any time, but if they do so, I can buy their shares at a fair valuation and, and we might set what that valuation would be from the get go. So that way everybody knows what the agreement is, and you can get out of the way and go party.

Okay, that's very helpful. Thank you.

You bet. First step for you, though, is go just give to the people that you might want to work with and treat it like a relationship. So go on a few dates. And going on dates is a lot easier when you're the hot girl at the dance. So how do you be the hot girl at the dance? Have a great product, talk about the product, and give away that product to people that you think would naturally like it. And then you can go on a date.

Okay. Gotcha.

Make sense?

Absolutely.

Yeah. All right. Don, Good to see you.

You too.

So let me share with y' all my billion dollar idea.

I believe that we find evidence for our beliefs. We don't create our beliefs based on evidence. Most people think that they come to their conclusions logically, but they don't. They come to their conclusions emotionally, and then they justify them logically. This is why when you have a debate with someone on politics or religion, you each bring your set of facts and no one is persuaded. Ben Shapiro likes to say that facts don't care about your feelings. And he's right. But the opposite is also true. Feelings don't care about your facts. So if you want to persuade someone, it's difficult to do it with facts and logic. All of this to say all of our beliefs are bullshit. They're all made up. We've all arrived at them based on the experiences that we've had in our life, not based on the evidence that we find. We find evidence based on our beliefs, not the other way around. And I said to myself, I don't believe that capitalism.com could be a billion dollar company. I believe it's my audience. I believe it's my purpose. I believe it's my message. I believe it's my passion. But I've never. I've always thought, if I'm gonna have a billion dollar empire, it could be fueled by capitalism or. But it wouldn't be capitalism dot com. So I challenged that thought and I asked myself the question. Well, if I believed that capitalism was a billion dollar company, how would the company change? If I believe that capital, capitalism.com is a billion dollar company.

What happens when I look at the company? And immediately I started to see all the things that were holding us back that were not in alignment with a billion dollar vision. And then the billion dollar vision just, like, beamed in clear as day. And I have had the idea of making capitalism.com more like a marketplace in which People brought their business plan with a write up of the business plan and a write up about who they were about as an entrepreneur and allow other people to bid on investing in the company, supporting the company as an influencer, serving as an advisor. So I talk about, I shared with Don about carving out 20% of the business for partnerships and relationships. Well, if someone comes to capitalism.com with the business that they want to start and the problem that it addresses in the world, and they have 20 to 40% of the company earmarked for investors, relationships, advisors and influencers, if they create a pitch deck about what their vision is and how it changes the world and other people can now submit inquiries to be part of this business. Well, what you have is you have other people seeing this business and wanting to support it, wanting to invest in it, and you have a platform for entrepreneurs to present their business plans and the vision and the direction that they want to go. So if you think about Kickstarter from a product perspective, this is the marketplace or the platform for creating change for the business ideas that solve problems. The marketplace for change or the platform for change. If you know that you went to this marketplace and you could put your business plan on it and you would have high caliber investors throwing money at you or offering you money, influencers coming to you and saying, hey, I want to be a part of this, I'll share it with my audience, I'll take a quarter point. And you have advisors who are looking at it, sharing it with each other, saying, hey, look at this idea, check out this idea. We should support this thing. You now have a platform to bring influencers, money and great ideas to the table and be able to incubate those businesses. And if the Capitalism Fund invests in one of these businesses, we've vetted it. We already have the network and the distribution, we already have connections, we already have the advisors that are supporting this business. So if another investor sees that this business is capitalism funded, then it's almost like a vote of confidence that this is a good idea and, or a good entrepreneur. So the businesses that are now capitalism funded, that are getting money from the Capitalism Fund, get a little bit of a lift in their valuation, in their exposure, and the type of caliber investors and advisors that are brought to the table to support this business, and that's how I'll make my billion dollars, is I have a piece of these companies and all of these other businesses are now coming to support this idea and I own a little bit of it. And it only takes one Twitter or One quest nutrition. To really establish this as a marketplace that churns out great ideas and great entrepreneurs. Here's another thing that would add value and credibility to those listings. If you have someone who is listed as a capitalism incubator graduate or incubator graduate, and now this person has gone through the proper trainings to be able to build an eight figure business, a business that creates change, a business that is worthy of being supported by an audience. And as a result, you see that this is the type of entrepreneur that is going to follow the certain system and you get more of that attention and you have more of that focus around that business. So as a result of us doing what we do of supporting entrepreneurs and teaching entrepreneurs, we can also give them a platform on the marketplace that gives them more exposure, the funding and the opportunities that they need in order to scale beyond their previous levels. And we'll have a small piece of all those businesses or, or at least the option to buy into those businesses as a result of creating exposure for them. So that is my billion dollar idea and that came from simply playing with the idea of if I believed that it was a billion dollar business, what would I do? If I believed what I can't currently see, what would I start to see? Your brain is a filter, it's not a creator. If you change the filter, you change the inputs and the outputs. Thanks for spending part of your Thursday with me. It's great to see all of you. I'll talk to you soon if you're in the 1%. I'll see you on Sunday. Take care everybody. Have a great day.