YouTube Channel: @RyanDanielMoran

Ezra Firestone walks through his course launch strategy: beta pricing at $997 versus $1,500 retail, webinar sales, and evergreen marketing. They discuss depression as grief for your life, drawing on Lost Connections, and how disconnection and low status drive it. Building community and intentional living matter more than brain chemistry alone.
Questions this video answers
Retail ~$1,500; beta price $997.
Lost Connections.
Improving sleep: about 6 points on a 1–51 scale; antidepressant medication: about 1.8 points on average.
Chapters
Let me tell you what else hurts me. You say what, say what you will about. I don't want any of this on video.
The big hairy, audacious goal@capitalism.com to create 100,000 DECA millionaires, which is a trillion dollars. Call it the trillion dollar mission figure. That's bigger than attrition. It's bigger than a lot of governments. And you know, my feelings of government.
I mean, ultimately what we have is a combination of like stuff that I've. Stuff that, like I've been doing course for six years or something, stuff that I've learned, stuff that I learned from digital marketer, stuff that I've picked up in the industry that we have over the course. Because the way that we always do our courses is we come out and we launch a beta version. All we do is we write the sales webinar for it. This is what we are promising people. Here's what the course is, here's the story that we tell that engages people in a conversation that's like, has them be interested in this, shows them the value of this subject matter. And then here's what we promised they're going to be able to do once it's, you know, once they've been through this training. Then we run it live. Four weeks, five weeks, like webinars, me teaching, or in this case, Colleen teaching. Smart project management. By running it live to a small group of people who get a discount. They get it at a discount. So let's say it's a $1,500 course. Our price points are 1,500 bucks. We sell the betas for 997. So you get $500 off and you get, you get the professionally recorded version for free when it's done. So you get two courses. Basically, you get to go through it live, give your feedback. You're agreeing as part of the beta to give your feedback to tell us what you think, to say, hey, I want more content in this area. So we kind of learn through that LIVE thing what it needs to be, what people want, how it wants to lay out. So we don't come out and just create a course. We just run it with 30 people, 50 people, 100 people. Then after that, and it's more work, but you end up with a better product. We go back and record the final version of the thing, which we then Evergreen Market was the plan. The way we used to do it was do a sales webinar, teach the thing live, be done, don't sell it again. We sold it as A live training. And that was that launch model that was a lot more work than necessary and ultimately never creating assets that we could come back and remarket.
Cash flow play. It wasn't building a business.
Yeah. And so through doing that for years, we kind of figured out a structure for, like, how do you onboard someone to a training? How do you engage them and get them? Is it better to drip it or have it all lay out? Look at all that. You know, spreadsheets for.
Yeah, I'd love to see that. I'm really good at the telling a story, getting people in, converting them. It's. I have such a hard time going into the product development mode now. If you give me a room full of people and eight hours, I can blow them away. So you play well off of people.
But sitting by yourself, thinking module one.
Through, I cannot think that I would rather go in for eight hours of nothing planned and I'll blow them away. But trying to structure all that out is just incredibly labor intensive for me. So I'm looking for that person that gets in the thinking product. They think in product.
I might know somebody, by the way. Can't reveal who they are, but if you shut that off for a second, I'll bleep it out. Do me a favor. Just shut it off for a second. Do you wonder where big, hairy and audacious came from? There's these things that pop up where it's like. Like, for example, take massive action. Everyone says massive action as if taking action was enough. It's gotta be massive. Where did that come from? Big, hairy and audacious. I've heard that in our community a thousand times. Big and hairy and audacious. Like who? Where do those things that catch on? Maybe Snuffagus.
Yeah, I'm sure that's who did it.
Is that the big, hairy, audacious guy?
The big, hairy, audacious Sesame street character?
Yeah.
I don't know. That's how it starts.
I also feel like there's one right now that, like, really bugs me, which is up level. Where do these things come from? In 2009, it was Castle.
Where is it now? It's Mario.
Is that Mario up level? Because now, everyone, if you notice, this year, it's 2017 is the year of leveling up, of up leveling. And it's like I have started to use it and I'm like, wait a minute.
Why?
Where did. How did this get into my.
How did this crushing it up level?
Yeah. It's like, dude.
What is it with these lingo Terms that take hold in the business and entrepreneurship community that everyone there's now I'm sure there's books about leveling down or leveling up, whatever it is. But like level has made it man. Up level is the one. This year.
You know the counter trend is gonna be like chilling down.
Chilling down.
Yeah.
That's what I've been promoting. I'm trying to promote the chill method.
I have a good friend of mine in Austin has an Amazon based product business. It does like 7 to 10 million a year. And he, he tells me, he's like, I would consider myself an entrepreneur. That's interesting. Why not? He's like entrepreneur is like building a vision for companies. I'm a life optimizer. That is, I feel like that's the next trend is you're going to be a life. Well, if you think about entrepreneurship is really people only want to be. People don't really want to be entrepreneurs for the most part. Now people like you and me, we like have an empire and a vision that I can't do anything. El. Right. But being entrepreneurs at this point, yeah, it's a life sentence. But, but there are most, I'd say the majority of people just want freedom. Sure.
Of some variety, time, location, whatever relationship.
And so entrepreneurship is the path through which they become personally responsible for changing something, which is a great path.
Which is then they get caught up on it and they just. Hamster wheels.
Is that what you're saying?
Caught up on, on the entrepreneurship path. They don't intend to be an entrepreneur but then it happens and then they just, just hamster wheeling.
Well.
It'S more. I think entrepreneurship is a gateway for personal responsibility, which is a fantastic gateway. But then they get caught in like the money game becomes the pursuit rather than pursuit.
Then they're just trying to up level.
It, then.
They start crushing it and they want to up level. That's what it is. But I think most people really want to be lifestyle optimizers. I really think you just want to have the best lifestyle possible.
I was listening to this guy, he wrote this book on depression. He's got some really controversial new viewpoints on depression that most people, 1 in 5 people in America at some point will be on an antipsychotic or antidepressant. So they're clearly over prescribed because one in five people are not depressed or antipsychotic. But here's how he framed it, which I thought was really fascinating. So the narrative that they will tell you when you go to the doctor is that your brain that it's a chemical imbalance in your brain and that you need to take these pills that will modify the chemical balance and whatever. So depression is measured on a scale from 1 to 51. And to give you a sense of this, modifying your sleep routine will give you six points. If you just sleep more and take better care of yourself, that's worth like six points. On that scale of one being you're in. You're in ecstasy or on ecstasy, maybe 51 being you're, like, suicidal to really suicidal. So the depression medication will move you 1.8 points on average, which is great. If you're suicidal, it can take that edge off and help you.
You know what I mean?
But this guy's basically discovered. Yeah, it's pretty intense. He's discovered that there's a lot more to the narrative than just you have a chemical imbalance in your brain. And that the way he framed it was that. That when they. So in the 70s and 80s, they were like, figuring out kind of what depression was, how to identify it and stuff like that, and that it has almost literally the same symptoms as grief. Like, check the boxes. Grief, like the way you feel when you lose a loved one.
Is like how you feel when you're. When you're clinically depressed. Same checkboxes almost to the number. And so he framed it as depression being grief for your own life. See, when you're grieving for someone else, you can go hug your family and loved ones and this and that, you know, but depression being grief for where you're at in your life, there's no expression for it. There's nothing. So it was a whole thing. It's a really interesting book. It's called Lost Connections.
Up Leveling Depression.
Up Leveling Depression. Anyways, I don't know how we got on this connection. I think it's called Lost Connections.
That's interesting because I have this theory that pretty much everything that we do foundationally is made to connect with other people.
I think you're right, man. I think that's what it's about.
If you look, there's a great podcast interview James Altucher did on his show where he was talking to some brain psychologist about the happy hormones.
I've not heard of oxytocin, serotonin.
Yeah, I know what those are.
Dopamine. Those are the three. Right. So check this out is, let me.
Tell you, the book Lost Connections Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression and the Unexpected Solutions. Fascinating.
So what's the Connections piece is that.
Like, when we connect Ultimately is that like this is the first time ever in society that we have detribed. We usually, like humans are herding animals. We have tribes and here we are. You know, you can tell like obesity that it's a societal problem. Like obesity came when we as a society went into, you know, he talks all about it, all the different ways that we're not eating real food anymore. And depression has, like been on the rise as a society as we've gotten less and less in tribal. Tribal and communal and relating with other people and feeling connected to a mission and a purpose and like having, you know, the narrative that society sells you is that you want to make money. You want to work all day and all night and slave away people. Most people check their first email at 7.40am on average and leave work at 7pm they make all this money. They're fucking, pardon my language. They're in their work life to buy these things that ultimately don't bring them any meaning.
It's the replacement for the connection. Right. And the reason I brought brain science is because it reflects this. But before we go there, you're building a community, Right. Like an intentional community.
Ish.
And I want to do the exact same thing.
Mine will be smaller than yours. Your vision sounds quite grand. Yeah, that's like. That's 30 times whatever. It's much larger than the group I want by.
I think I'm 30 times bigger. That means your community is going to be four people.
Yeah. So maybe 50 times I'm gonna have two kids.
One or two other families kind of thing is what I'm thinking anyways.
So dopamine is the distraction chemical in your brain. It's the new opportunity, it's the newness. It's see a pretty girl, see the red, the red light on Facebook, text notifications that, oh, it's the something. Yeah, it's the distraction. Right. And then serotonin is the status hormone. So I grow, I have progress. I'm measuring point A to point B. Or it's the bragging. It's the I'm better than this group. It's the comparison hormone. When I compare how I'm doing, serotonin goes up. And then oxytocin is connection. And they can be sequential. So it's like distraction, Facebook comparison serotonin so that I can feel connected, get oxytocin. But at the end, we're all just trying to connect to one another. We're all just trying to get oxytocin because that makes us feel safe and it makes Us want to procreate because.
That'S what we do when we connect.
We're in a group and we have fun with one another.
Do you think we're gonna get accused of bro sciencing right now?
Bro Brain Science. Bro Science, that's the name of a podcast.
I recommend the book. Alright, I'm not trying to say I know about this stuff. I read some stuff I thought was really fascinating.
I recommend the podcast. I don't know anything about this stuff.
I do think JamesAlticher, the funny hair guy, I spoke at the same event as him one time and I was struck by his appearance. I think it's a good shtick. Whatever he's doing like that. You gotta have a shtick, man. It's like it helps, it makes you mem.
And it's like uses the man bun.
I got the button. But I'm more than that. I got more going on. I could explain my shtick to you, but like, here's the thing. My viewpoint is that like we judge books by their covers. You're gonna. Your appearance is going. People are gonna prejudge you based on how you look, how you. What your window dressing is. And window dressing is a lingo term that I use to describe how people communicate. What their cadence is, like what their tonality is, like what body gestures they're using, whether or not they're directly connected or if they're hiding behind, you know, some bullshit like dressing. So like how you appear physically, how you dress. And your window dressing, that is your style of communication is going to give people a sense of who you are, who they think you are, and they're going to judge that. And so it might as well be deliberate. This doesn't mean con people, this doesn't mean. Not be authentic, but it just means that like, know that you're presenting in a way. If you're going to come on camera, if you're going to talk, if you're going to do things like you're putting on a show. This is show business. It's all show business. Right. Because ultimately we want people's attention. In order to capture people's attention, we must also entertain them with the content. So I do have a schtick and it's very deliberate and it is also a side of me. It's not like the whole me, but it's like this is also who I am, you know?
Yeah. When you start projecting something, I think that's that. I think that in your lens of depression is a nice reflection.
This guy's lens of depression.
Well, the idea of somebody who are projecting something that they don't feel is really them in order to get status.
Right.
But really it's not them. And so as a result, they become grieving about where they are in life. I totally get that. Because they're not the projection that they're putting on. I had somebody recommend, like, let's. It would be good for your Instagram following. Let's go rent some Lamborghinis and drive around. I was like, I don't want to be. I'm really happy the guy who drives a Tesla lives in Austin as a great dad.
Totally. But you did have a funny video and a fancy car. So you're not above.
You're not.
Yeah. You're not above funny videos and fancy cars. Now you're.
What was my funny name?
There was a guy in there and he disappeared and he came back and the whole thing.
You talk about JP Sears.
That's the guy.
He's a good person.
I'm sure he is.
Hi, JP Sears.
Luke seems awesome. What's up? I don't know if he's watching, but he seems like a good dude. But the point is, your fancy car video wasn't. Oh, look at me and this status symbol. You could be me and have the same status symbol if you then buy my shit. It was some kind of entertaining, informative story about your life.
It was well done and I genuinely like driving a Tesla.
I do, too. I love. I have never enjoyed a vehicle more. I lived in New York City for 10 years. I forgot that cars were any fun to have. I didn't have one. I then got an Audi and that was cool. And I had a car and then I got a Tesla and I was like, oh, this is the most amazing thing ever. It's so much fun to have. And also, I believe in the mission and all that. I'm sold. I am a fan. You know, I'm sold on the whole, you know, shtick. But also it's the best car ever. Anyways, I think c. Money's gotta go.
It does. I remember what we started talking about. We were talking about, I want to build compound.
Can I have your help? Yeah, that would be an interesting post. Talking about what it takes. I'm so fascinated with this, with community building and group living and.
The communication structures that you need to manage and facilitate a group that actually works. Because there's obviously a million examples of groups that have failed. I have a lot to say.
Jim Jones, you know, they went out.
Together, they didn't yeah, that's not so good. You want to be on the Comet drinking the Kool Aid.
So can I cut a quick story? I'll take your silence. I said yes.
Let me check. I'm listening. I just gotta check my checks.
Yeah. When I sold the company and I got the check in my brain, I was thinking, okay, I gotta reverse engineer my investment strategy to give me the lifestyle that I want. But then I was like, wait, what's the lifestyle that I want if I'm gonna set it up to where I never have to work again, never have to worry about money again, what is the lifestyle I really want? And I started to think, I want to wake up and hear my best friends cooking breakfast in the next room. I want to go to a workout with my good buddies, make some fun videos, have some people come in, talk about business. I start to map it out. I was like, what I'm outlining is a community. It has nothing to do with anything except who I'm spending time with and how we're all connected with one another. And I just don't think that anyone's having the conversation about. The answer to almost every question is, who visitors? It's not what, it's not how, it's not when. It's who. Who do you want to be with? Who are you going to do this with? Who can help you with this?
Yeah, you get what you want from people who have it. I mean, that is. It is the apprentice model, and it is still the way the world works. You're not going to get what you want from some college professor unless you want to be a brain surgeon, in which case, right on. But, like, if you want to learn how to run an Amazon business, you find Ryan Moran who knows how to do that, and you get that from him.
And, like, have you ever been on a trip or, like, the same place twice, and one time it sucked, and one time it was great because of who you spent your time with, like, who you met along the way.
The interesting part, while we get into this is, okay, so you get this group of people together and you're all committed to this grand vision.
Yeah.
What are the power dynamics? What are the communication structures? What do you do when someone does not live up to the agreed behavioral structure that you've set? Not saying one way is right or one way is wrong, but you set some. Like, here's how we're gonna do it. This person's gonna cook dinner this day. This is who's gonna take out the trash. What do we get, how do we resolve conflict? I mean, there's so many things. And this is why most relationships of two people cannot make it really. I mean, it's hard to make a relationship.
That's why mine is gonna be one polyamorous community. So everyone's just getting down and I'm the alpha male. Sex it. If anyone breaks a rule, I chop off. Right?
I mean, that's a tough way to go. I don't know if that's gonna work for you, but let me know. But I mean, listen. Sex, money, religion, time. These are the areas that people are victimized in their life most commonly. Money, sex, religion, time. That is age and how much you are going to spend your time with, and politics and religion. That's where people are most heavily victimized. I mean, there's other areas, but you gotta cover those things in a group setting. And I think one of the ways to do it is to set it up such that people are not sharing houses. So communal houses are harder than people who have personal space. And then there's shared communal space. That's more like co housing. There's a model that exists, co housing, where people have their own individual houses, and then there's a communal space that you share and there's structure around that. When you have everyone living in the same house sharing bathrooms, sharing kitchens, that's a little more difficult because. And so the way I grew up, actually, I grew up on a commune where people shared houses and bathrooms and stuff like that. A little more difficult to make those communication structures work than if you have. I mean, it's still difficult, but it's. Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be interesting. Did you buy the land?
Not yet, no. I'm courting different opportunities.
One of the interesting things about your model that I think is probably a good move is the people who are a part of the group share a similar.
Lifestyle, ideal lifestyle. Entrepreneurs who are committed to projects in the world, who are building things, who are using that. So there's like core. It's not an ideology that you're asking people to subscribe to, that you are prescribing to them, which would then be like a cold right, where it's like, you must subscribe to this ideology and I'm going to tell you what it is, and you're not part of the group unless you subscribe and you prove that subscription in all these number of ways you're saying, I think from what you're saying, from what you told me is like, I'm looking to curate A group of people all moving in the same direction in the world. You don't have to be a particular religion or whatever. So that already, I think gives you a good shot because you have.
Yeah. And imagine what we could do if we all were here together. And part of this was my last workation, if you will, with one of my mastermind groups. I'm in Mexico with some of my best friends in the world who are all productive entrepreneurs. I was so creative, I felt so much like myself, I felt inspired. And the best connections in the world are literally next to me. Why don't people live like this?
Are you familiar with the concept of phenylthylamine supplement? No. It's literally the chemical that your body produces when you meet someone new who you're interested in procreating with. So here's what happens. This is why people are serial monogamists is because what happens is they meet someone and for six to eight months their body is literally pumping chemicals through their system that has them rose colored goggles has them really into this person. And then at about the six to eight month mark, nature figures, oh, you haven't procreated. If you're going to procreate, you've done it by now. If you haven't shuts off and then people are like, where did the magic go? What happened? And so the hard question that I proposed to you is a workation is you step out of your normal life and you go party for a little bit and then you go back. What happens when people get sick? What happens when the initial excitement wears off and someone's not carrying their weight? It's not insurmountable. Obviously, as someone who wants to have their own community as well, these problems are not insurmountable. And I have ideas around how you solve them and stuff. But with a group that large, those problems compound by a lot because you're opening up more opportunity for that. And that is where I get to. The group that I grew up in was about that size. It was between, I want to say 6, 50 and 80 people at any given time. It's a large group. And what usually ends up happening in a group that large, there's like a subgroup that's kind of running things, you.
Know.
So I think a smaller group's a little easier to manage. Cool. Anyways, this is not.
We were not. Yeah, this was not what we were gonna talk about. But actually this is what it's all for anyway, right? I mean we talk so much about money and grind and hustle and levels leveling up levels but really we're all in this because we want I think to connect with one another we want to have lives defined however we define them and this is what it ultimately leads toward lead towards conceded don't explode the rocks never explode you exploded it.
I did it just to show you what not I did it to show.
You what not I didn't I followed.
If you want a jellyfish you're welcome I'm out of here hold on hold on let me show you one more let me show you one more I don't trust you snail you can snail that's the base of the snail oh.
I see I was took some explaining.
Yeah how about this one how about.
This one there's more yeah yeah here.
We go turkey I got I got.
I got all kinds of athenal finestrine going on me when you touch me.
Like that phenylamine final.
Yelp anyways and cut.











