Disruptive Thinking and Radical Results

At the end of the day, people do business with those that they know they like and they trust. And so I want people to see the real me, that this is what you see, is what you get for good, bad or indifferent. And it's going to attract those that are like minded.

I am Jeff Duden and we are on the home front. And as always, this podcast is brought to you by Homefront Brands. Simply building the world's most responsible franchise platform, encouraging entrepreneurs to take action to transform their lives, impact communities and enhance. Enhance the lives of those they care the most about. All the while delivering enterprise level solutions to local business owners out there on the home front. So if this sounds like you, check us out@homefront brands.com today and start your next chapter of greatness, building your dynasty on the home front. I will be looking for you here and we have a exceptional treat today. Welcome, Ryan Alford. How are you, sir?

Great, Jeff. Good to be with you here on the home front.

For those who don't know, Ryan Alford is a provocateur and inspired leader of the Radcast, a massively successful podcast. He's built a name, a global network and countless brands on this exact approach to disruptive thinking that generates radical results. From crafting ads on Madison Avenue and pitching Verizon's can you hear me now campaign to Growing An Eight Figure Marketing Agency and Top 10 Podcast. He has worked hard to crack the code on what drives real success and he's all about sharing the cheat sheet too. So I'm going to dig into that. Through coaching, courses, speaking and more, Ryan helps brands and leaders develop courageous thought leadership that challenge assumptions and solves problems others can't or just simply won't. And he helps businesses trade friction for traction by identifying the white hot insights and human truths that resonate with people and generate action. Ryan, can't wait, brother. Welcome.

No, it's my pleasure. I was trying to. I was. As you were talking, I was going, I hope I can. I think I've. It sounded familiar but I was like, I think I can live up to everything you said.

Is that true? I mean, is. I didn't get anything wrong, did I?

No, it's all true. It's all true. Guilty. Guilty as charged. Radical. Amazing. Interesting. Yes, I'll take it all.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, so our listeners oftentimes are people that are considering an entrepreneurial journey and you have a great one. Would you mind sharing a little bit about your background, how you grew up, so we can get a sense of where all this Awesomeness came from.

Well, it started the product of Steve and Mary Linda. That's my parents DNA. Driven as we all are, I guess. You know, I grew up with two entrepreneurial parents and was born. I told, I tell the joke often when I go on shows. I, I try not to repeat everything, but it's one of my favorite lines. They say, you know, there's old money and there's new money. Well, we came from no money, so it was, it was neither. But I did have two entrepral parents that, you know, raised a, a son and a daughter, you know, how to take care of themselves, how to fend for themselves and how to go get what they want. Whether by strategy or accident. They did a great job of certainly instilling in me, you know, the fundamental desire to want more and to seek more and to learn more. And you know, I've watched them work multiple jobs growing up in South Carolina, the upstate Greenville where I'm actually home now. Great place to raise a family and great place where I grew up. You know, I watched them, you know, work the day job but then do side hustles throughout my life. And I think it made me both learn from them how to make a dollar and that that can happen in a lot of different ways, but while also one of my key differentiators. And I think, and that's resourcefulness, you know, figuring it out and how to make things happen and how to get shit done. And I think, you know, I watched them do that perhaps on a lighter level than what maybe my own ambitions ended up being anyway did all of that and was always resourceful. Having some side hustles or it was baseball cards or figuring out how to trade. The Oldsmobile 98 my parents gave me, that was my grandmother's first car. That was the, the car they gave me when I was 16 to turning that into a Jeep CJ5 three months later. You know, I was resourceful. You know, my, my parents always gave me a hard time. They said, you know, son, you, you want more than, than I think this family is going to provide for you. I said, well, I'm going to figure it out, man.

I'll tell you what, there's a, there is a real no money advantage. And I've always said to my kids, I said, I will not steal from you the opportunity to be successful on your own. And until you're walking on that tightrope without a net, if you don't have a reason to be resourceful and to figure out another way, man, you Just. You just stop trying. That's right. And I've had it both ways, man. I mean, I've had it, you know, without money and then with a little bit of money. And I do prefer with. But it is better. Yeah. You know, but I also appreciate the times that we had to go through to kind of, kind of bootstrap it together and the sleepless nights and you just got to figure it out because that's really where your courage comes from.

You're 100. Right. And I think, you know, you know, to be clear, I always had what I needed with my parents and a little bit of what I wanted. But I did learn to get the stuff that I really wanted. I'd have to figure it out for myself. Ended up being one of the first offers to graduate college. Went to Clemson University. I did play basketball in a lot of team sports and had some D1 and D2 offers and blew up my ankles, both ankles, my senior year and sort of limited my D1 prospects. But grew up a Clemson Tiger fan and ended up seeing that dream come true. I graduated from there. I was a marketing major. A lot of people, I think, struggle with knowing, changing, you know, their, their curriculum and different things like that, their majors. A lot of times I was self aware enough to know that, you know, there is a distinction I talk about a lot between marketing and sales. But somewhere in that line I knew I kind of had that, I don't know, human behavior dynamic, the understanding for how to make money, how to motivate people. And so that natural correlation for me was marketing. And was one of those lucky enough to stick with that major and go straight into the ad agency business right out of Clemson. There were certainly jobs in between, from washing dishes to working at a stakeout delivery, steakhouse delivery place, while, you know, paying a majority of my way through Clemson. But then did graduate and went on to the ad agency business where I worked at the same agency actually for 13 years. I have no problem working for other people. I did it for a long time and made them a lot of money, which I now understand owning my own business, but had the opportunity to work on some of the largest accounts in the world. Verizon Wireless, Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Lexus. The who's who of brands. First campaign that I did work on and was involved with was can you hear me now with Verizon. The first iPhone launch really ushered in the smartphone era. Working with a lot of the smartphone manufacturers and Verizon and others and then actually ended up working with the NFL on One of the largest sponsorship agreements in the in history, which was Verizon's NFL Mobile app. And Verizon being the first carrier to offer games on the smartphone through the NFL Mobile agreement. So helped Verizon and the NFL usher that in around the 2010 marker. But then, you know, touched brands like Budweiser and. And Lexus and Audi. You know, I tell people I probably worked on or had a hand in some of the most recognizable TV campaigns of the last 25 years. And so did that for a long time. And then, you know, came out of that and worked for a couple startups, did a couple things, and then started my own gig at Radical and starting kind of Radical, the Radcast and what I'd call the Ryan Alford personal brand, all at the same time in that 2017, 2018. And that leads us here to today.

So did you grow up in Greenville proper?

Yeah, I did. I was born and my parents lived in Easley for about until I was four years old. And then I grew up in Proper. I was actually born at Greenville General Hospital, which no longer exists. It's now Greenville Memorial Hospital. But. But I did grow up in Greenville proper.

So kind of country mouse moving to the city. What was that adventure like, man? Did you like living in the city?

Yeah, as much as you can call Greenville a city. The city of Greenville.

Oh, no, I'm referring to New York. When you move to.

Oh, yeah.

When you went to Manhattan.

Oh, yeah.

No, nothing. Hey, Greenville is a city now. Greenville was one of the fastest growing cities in the country for many, many years. And it's got Mercedes Benz and all of that stuff there. It's got a lot of great. Yeah, but. But it's not Manhattan.

I know. It is not. That makes more sense as a question. I get it. Yeah. Look, I'll say this. It was a change for me, but it was one that I embraced because I think I was always ready for that. I think what allowed me to do well in New York was that I embraced the speed and the culture of acceleration combined with creativity was suited me well. But then I think my accent and being a Southern guy, you know, that was always a little like, it turned people like, who's this Southern kid in the room? You know, like out of my mouth and, you know, my accent and there's like, I'm at the C suite of Verizon at 26 years old like talking campaigns and like, who's this guy talking like. And then, you know, I talk long enough and there'd be something Smart actually said. But it was, it was, I think always like, huh, you know, like turn heads. But then, you know, I like to turn heads with my voice and turn hearts with my work.

Nice. Fantastic. So you talk about, you know, marketing and sales kind of, you know, tag teaming together. But then at some point now we talk about Martech like it is, it is technology driven marketing and people's attention is so hard to get and it's the competition for. It's so high. How did you evolve inside of that? And when you work with your, your guests, I mean, are you tying the, the marketing to their sales piece of it or are you, are you, you know, are you delivering the eyeballs for them and then they've got to convert to it? Like what do you like, how does that work for you? Yeah.

You know, often say marketing rights to check and sales has to cash them.

Okay.

You know, like at a certain point there, I'm not saying marketing's job is done, but nothing crushes great marketing faster than, than a loose funnel and, or sales team that lets it go. So there's definitely an interplay of those things. But I think, you know, for me, I'll say this, and there's still, there's, there's studies by the smartest people and some of the largest groups in the world that still show this creativity and creative idea and be creative still drives sales and advertising effectiveness. Ultimately, what does that mean to me means the big idea still matters. It means that we can have all the science and all the funnels and all the UTM codes and all this stuff in the world, but if the creative, the ideas, the execution of the strategy in a way that moves hearts, minds and wallets isn't happening, then all of that stuff doesn't really matter. Because nothing I've seen, I counsel clients, people that work with that. If you don't have a clear strategy and then a creative execution that ladders to that in an effective emotional way, then all the other stuff doesn't matter. So I'm still a big idea guy, a creative guy. Like what's the creative? You know? And yes, now we've got to then layer on all the digital opportunity things to get attribution and do all those things and all that matters. But I see a lot of people that have the greatest martech stack in the world, but the creative sucks.

Just doesn't resonate.

Doesn't resonate. Yeah.

Who cares?

Exactly. Right?

Cares.

Yeah. And it's just not one ad and one sale. Right. It's more complicated than that it's still more complicated than that. And certainly in 2012, running Facebook ads was easy because it was so targeted and so new. But now that people are aware of that and they're getting hit in, their attention is so fleeting, it's not one ad to sale. So thus you got to have a creative breakthrough and then you've got to hit them with all touch points across the funnel and then tying all that together. So.

Yeah, so. So volume and frequency matters because you can't just have one great idea and one post and then sit back and wait for it all to roll in.

Well, I mean, and did not get into a media discussion, but like media's reaching frequency, you know, like how many people and how many times layered on with how great the creative is. Yeah, because I can hit you 100 times and 100 the right people. But if the creative sucks or isn't motivating or isn't emotionally driven, then all that other stuff doesn't matter.

So in 2017 and 18, you transitioned to be an entrepreneur. Can you tell us what the drivers in that decision were?

I didn't know it at the time. You know, the agency that I worked at, which was EP&CO, it was always labeled as an entrepreneurial company and they said that and it was the only place that I had worked. So I didn't know it. But now in reflection, it was they hired good people and they let them go. You know, they didn't put a lot of rules and regulations. My boss always told me, I now tell my team two things. One, unless expressly forbidden, it is allowed. There wasn't a lot expressly forbidden. Let me tell you that, and especially when you were driving dollars. I turned a 3 million dollar retainer into 45 million over 13 years. 45 million dollar annual retainer, one of the largest retainers ever in the history of marketing and advertising, I would argue. So thus there was a lot of rope given to drive relationships. And you know, my boss always let me go like he gave me the tools to succeed. I was not the world's greatest junior account executive, but you know what? I understood how the money got made in the agency. I knew how to make relationships and I was an idea guy. It's a very good combination within the halls of an agency that's very powerful.

Very powerful.

Thus I will say in 2017, 2018, I had been primed and readied and it felt in many ways like an entrepreneur within my own agency because I grew my own team. I had over a hundred people that reported to me, a lot of things that would come with entrepreneurship. And so in 2017, 2018, I knew it was time to use what I had learned, combined with a natural drive to build something I could call my own. And I don't know that I've actually ever said this on a podcast because I try not to make it as much as it may seem with my personal brand, others about me, but Radical Rad is Ryan Offer Digital.

There you go, there you go.

So that's what that. And that was what I was going to call the agency. It was going to be Ryan Offer Digital. And I said, no, let's call it Rad. I think I was always being primed for that moment ahead of the 2017-2018 time period.

Yeah, I want to unpack what Radical Agency is and where you're at with the radcast and all that. I will share an anecdote though. There was a great franchisor. His name was Tony Martino. Have you heard of the companies Mako and Amco? Of course, Amco was a, a Martino company and Mako was Martino, a Anthony company. So two of the largest brands in automotive that, you know, that are international. And he just basically did a play on himself. So I don't think it's a bad thing because, you know, building a company that resonates with who your authentic self is is I think part of the success. I mean, look at Elon Musk. Everybody can see his fingerprints all over at Jobs, the great ones. So tell us about Radical Agency, what it is, who you work with and then we'll maybe move over to some podcasting because I have some questions about that.

You know, one thing, I was ready to do my own thing, so obviously the drive to be and own my own gig and like all of those things that make people want to be an entrepreneur. But I watched a few things happening in the agency space, the social media space, and what was happening? So one, agencies were slow to move on the power of video and the democratization that was happening with video, the speed of content development, the need for constant video resource, the reality that you weren't going to get paid a million dollars for 30 second TV spots. You know, like this was all happening in the 2014, 15, 16, by 2017, like, I'm like, okay, I gotta go get on this train because everyone else is moving too slow. Yes, everybody moved to digital. People knew that social media was powerful. But this combination of video democratization, user generated content and social media and the true power of social media I would argue Even in 2016, 17, when I was formulating the ideas and concepts for Radical was slow on the uptake on the agency side. And so I kind of started with this premise of social media is truly king, video is truly king, and we've got to do it faster, cheaper, better, and the idea and iteration chain has got to go in order now. You have to layer on like ideas and a lot of other things with those. But that was sort of the fundamental shift for me. And so started radical and very quickly, you know, with myself and two people to start the 3, 4 and 5. We're, we're generating hundreds of pieces of content quickly. I had kind of built a lot of contacts in the business and the who's who of people that were starting to get in this train. And I had created the, anyone young might not get this, but your older audience will get the Rolodex of now, the iPhone contact list of the best of the best resources that were kind of in the same mindset that understood the speed, the iteration, the cost of all these things needed to go down. You could do all these things for other people for a long time and that credibility comes with you. But Verizon didn't jump ship to Radical. The one man Ryan offered Shop Pepsi didn't come to the right, you know, because you have to build the team, you have to build the credibility within your own walls. But I'll say my early clients got some of the best world class ideas of any, of any clients ever because, you know, I had done these things, but then here I am working with some local outfit and they're paying me, you know, $3,000 a month. And I mean, I'm not like tooting my own horn, but I'm like, some of the strategies I even want to deploy, I'm like, I got to remember this is a local yoga studio and we're not going to be able to do, you know, I'd like temper my own drive. But I think, you know, some of the ideas were bigger than the clients maybe, you know, so you have to learn those things as an entrepreneur, especially when you work. It's one thing starting as an entrepreneur is you're 21, you don't have all these things that you've learned and done. But it's another, when you start later in life, you realize you still have to build that credibility for your own company, your own business. And so, you know, but Radical now is, you know, we talk about time, we, we don't believe in B2B or B2C, we believe in B2H business to human. That's a big, big approach for us when we talk to clients because a lot of what we see is speeds and feeds and all these things. And I'm like, look, I, I, I know that a business, a B2B transaction is what's more complex than buying a T shirt online. I get it. But you know what? Until this world is driven by all run and owned by robots, there's a human on the other end of that communication. And it's amazing. They go, you know, you're right. Yeah, right. So it, but we try to unlock that for customers and clients and, you know, to do our messaging through that. Combined with what I would call the best suite of the martech and all those things. We got all that, we got that checked. But we're going to give you big ideas, a lot of content, a lot of video on top of it.

Capacity building for entrepreneurs is very hard to justify. But you got to take those yoga studios and those veterinarians and dentists and all these people because you're training your team. And a team doesn't start executing until they've had some reps on them. So unfortunately, or fortunately, it comes out of your pocket while you're building all that and those early clients.

Muscle memory, you got to build muscle memory. And it's like I've, you know, building a team and we got a great team now. They don't know what they don't know and I don't know everything. But we've got to go through the trials and tribulation, tribulations together while also learning that capacity. Like you said, you know, you can't, you can't bench press £50 until you've bench pressed 30. I'm probably like every entrepreneur. Like, I like to move fast and I like to move speed. And sometimes I get frustrated, but I'm like, have my Zen moment, drink an energy drink. I'm like, the opposite of that. I have my energy drink. So I go like, take it out on something else.

So Radcast, is it one property or. I know I saw something online. You've got your vacay hat on. So you've got a vacation podcast, I think, coming out or something similar. So what is, what is the landscape of Radcast?

Yeah, we started as a podcast. When I started back to like, the premise of Radical Three Things, okay, I knew what Radical needed to do, but as a company for how to market the company, three things needed to happen. One, I got tired of Looking on social media and all these gurus. And I'm talking to you too, Gary Vee, because I've done way more than you in the ad agency business. But you came from wine, I'll give you that. But like, you know all these people that look and I give it. I like Gary. I'm joking. No credit taken from Gary. But I'm just saying, like a lot of gurus that weren't Gary go, you know, all this stuff online. I'm like, marketing ninja, marketing wizard. I'm like, wait a second, I thought I was the marketing wizard. And I'm like, okay, I gotta do three things. When I start my agency, I need to be more known. Because the more known you are, the more it helps your company. And not just to be known. There's all these guys online, they're like that bash personal branding. Because they go, you could be known, you know, but it starts with having the. I'm like, yeah. I mean, the premise is you gotta be known for something and have a skill set. So. Yes. So getting myself more known, getting the agent. So thus raising my profile. Will raise the agency's profile. And how else to do that would be the podcast. So I started the Radcast when I started Radical and I started heavily investing in my own personal brand. I'll even admit it, any money we made the first year with Radical was pretty much 100% thrown into my personal brand in the podcast because we were playing the long game for how to build and raise again. The high tide raises all ships. Ryan offered. Profile grows. The Radcast. Profile rises. Radical rise. Right? All played together. So started podcast business and marketing the radcast. We had 50 listeners the first six months. 49 of them were my mom. But look, I was playing the long game. I knew that it, that it would take time, but I literally started doing two episodes a month five years ago. And I said, we're going to keep doing this. And we're over, you know, 350 episodes now. This weekend we hit number four in business and marketing on the Apple Podcast network. We gave her 450,000 downloads a month. We've created a show that's actually worth listening to now. And, you know, I got better, the show got better, our guests got better. We bring on celebrities and well known people and famous founders and, you know, we're going to have Jeff Duden on. And so like all the best people, right? Are on, right? Exactly, yes. And so you put them on a chart. Radical, the Radcast. And Ryan offers personal brand. They all have, over time, grown together.

I'm interested to know how much posting you do outside of, of the podcast content. I know that you cut, cut up the content and you've got great bites out there and you do what you need to do with that. How much does your personal posting on weekends, at home, stuff like that, play into it?

Yeah, I mean, it's huge. Like at the end of the day, people do business with those that they know they like and they trust, and social media allows you the ability to do that. And look, I'll admit in any given month it might skew 70 to 80% some of that podcast content, but I try to keep it more than that, 50 to 60%, where the rest is me talking about a current event or me showing as much as I'm comfortable showing with my kids and my wife and my family. You know, some people get nervous about, you know, sharing their kids stuff and all that. I'm not sharing every personal moment, but I do share that we spend a lot of time with the lake. I show that. And so I want people to see the real me, that this is what you see is what you get for good, better and indifferent. And it's going to attract those that are like minded and you don't. It helps kind of in a way cut through some of the filtering that needs to happen anyway because sometimes if you go into something cold or don't know, you have to learn that, okay, we wouldn't have worked well together because we weren't like minded. I kind of get to knock a lot of that out because a lot of the people that kind of call on me have already seen all that and they kind of know at least 30% of what they're going to get ahead of time. And I like showing that side because, look, part of me is legacy because I want to leave behind a record of what I've done for my kids, for my family. But I also want to inspire and make people want more for their own lives.

Yeah, it's everything. The people that I follow on a regular basis, I feel like I know them and if I walked up to them on the street, that we would just continue with the conversation that we've had online, which is them talking and me listening. So, yeah, 100%. So podcast is podcasting for everybody. When is it? When is it right? Do people come to you and you just feel like you really shouldn't do a podcast?

I think it's usually more right than it's wrong. Here's how I answer that question, Jeff. So I used to answer it a different way because I used to go, you know, it takes a certain personality to do this. And I still think that some of that's true. But here's the thing. Everybody attracts a different audience. And so somebody that might not have the weird culmination of Southern deep accent voice like me, that might resonate with certain people, that isn't necessary because there's a seg. A large segment of people that want the more timid or, you know, like approachable, like maybe like voice and they learn better from that type of. And so everybody's got a type. I think it's probably more, yes. An opportunity than it is. No, the only time I say it's not an opportunity is just if you have to kind of unlock the ability to be comfortable talking. Like if you just can't make yourself comfortable talking in sentences or doing like what we're doing here now, it gets difficult to carry it on. I don't think it necessarily takes a certain type of voice or personality anymore, but you do have to kind of unlock the ability to feel comfortable talking about your expertise piece in a way. So it's more of those things than it is style.

So you mean like a 60 minute podcast edited down to 11 minutes wouldn't work for pauses? Wouldn't work that well?

I don't think so. I mean, because the software now will take all the ums and I'm very conscientious of those. I try to keep them out, but I have my markers too. Like my editors, they have my kind of, what do you call them, throwaway words or something. And they, and I've told. We've. We edit those out now. Like I have these, like a couple of them. I've gotten rid of most of them having done 300 something episodes now. But I have my ones, I'm like just, just set the filter up to remove those.

Transitional words are a problem for me. Extra words everywhere.

Yes.

You know, words. I'm throwing, I'm throwing word salad out all the time. Well, you, you got right to the point of what I wanted to ask in doing research for this podcast and researching some guests I've had some great guests on, but. And they had a podcast and I would go to their podcast and they're literally speaking to this narrow set of people. The audience is just so specific and so targeted and it's for specific people that are in this and doing that are interested about that. It would not have broad appeal, but yet they do it and they have a lot of followers and they're very successful and it serves their purpose versus a broad reach podcast. I've listened to several of yours. I was listening to one today and it was extremely entertaining and it was current events and all kinds of stuff on there and, and it was just, but you could tell it was just more of a broad outreach and, and it would be very palatable, very nice to listen to on a car ride or, or going somewhere because it's easy going and it's not going to give you a bunch of homework in your head. It was just very entertaining. So depending on what your audience is, this is just a communication method. It can work for anybody.

Yeah, I'll say this, I want to be the Joe Rogan business podcast. I don't mind throwing Joe Rogan's name out there like a business podcast on its in its own premise is going to be limited on some level because it's in that category. Right. But I do want to be the business podcast that anyone and everyone could take both entertainment knowledge and insight from. And so I, because I'm playing the long game and that's why it took five years for the podcast to take. I knew that, I knew that our broad approach would take time, but I didn't need revenue from the show year one or year two. I just believe the more known Ryan offered is, the better it will be for the long term business of the agency. And Ryan offered. And so I'm playing a different game. Some people, if they've brought, you know, targeted, hyper targeted niche because look, they do see podcasts as a business development channel, they want to monetize more quickly. And so the more hyper niche you get, the faster you'll get to those goals. And I know that and I coach clients that work with us to get there faster to niche down, which is the opposite of what I do. Depending on what your goal is from the show will determine how niche or how specific you get with topic and guest.

The slope of the line is long and flat for a while generally, I would expect. But if you get more specific, you can target those people and those people are going to be specifically interested. I wonder though, when you have a narrow podcast, if the duration where people listen to it is shorter because you're talking about the same exact stuff all the time. I mean, unless you're just into South American dung beetles. And this is the dung beetle, this is the dung beetle podcast.

I'm so glad this isn't that.

But I mean, I don't even know it could Be. It could be. I got to see what current events we have, but they could be, you know, I mean, I don't know if they're even from South America, but I don't either. But, you know, but you would exploit that entire audience relatively quickly and. Yes, so. And for the Home Front show, I mean, it's all about informing entrepreneurs. So it's a business podcast, it's about entrepreneurship, it's about journey, it's about dealing with fear. It's how people decided that to, you know, to do great things and what were the drivers and how they dealt with that. That's for us, that's the change that we want to make in the world and it directly ties to what we do on an everyday basis.

Well, this is because you guys have access to some of the best brand and franchise opportunities in the world. And so you talk about entrepreneurship and what that means so people learn, you know, what the ins and outs of those are. But then you have a back end solution which is we have the greatest, one of the best franchising opportunities across a number of brands. So all that ladders together, right?

It does, but I don't have any misconceptions that we're going to somehow have a million followers by the end of the year.

No. Yeah. It's a long game no matter how specific you are. But you know, when you tie those things together with is what is goal versus topic, it typically will lay out your strategy for you. It becomes pretty clear and if it's not, then you hire someone like us or, you know, you go hit Jeff in the DMs and someone smart will teach you that.

How does guest selection play into all of this for you?

Yeah, it's huge. We'll talk about current events and all those things and you're going to get a marketing lesson for me on something so you're not going to miss that. But getting the guest selection is big for us because I'm a big person. Like circle coi, when I do in my coaching, like with branding and stuff like circle of influence. So you've got borrowed interest. Circle of influence. If you have a low coi, then you need to borrow from others. These circles need to overlay and in the ones that are bigger than yours, you're bringing them on yours. Because once you have a large show, when I had a small show, I'm trying to borrow influence because I need bigger names with bigger audiences than me to help give me credibility and interest and that's what it helps you do. So the Bigger the name in your field or industry. For us, that might be celebrities or athletes or famous founders like Jeff Duden, but that's what we have to do to make our show interesting to broader people. And if you've got a smaller, more niche target, back to those dung beetles in South America, the biggest specialists known on the face of the earth. On. On the. On that topic.

And by the way, that person's widely available for shows largely. Largely open. Just telling you.

Jeff. D.M. jeff right now. And ask him about. I'm getting.

I'm getting canceled by the dung beetle groups. Yeah, yeah.

But I will say this, all right. I try not to talk out of both sides of my mouth, but occasionally I'll turn this way for this. This comment.

All right.

A lot of goodwill comes from having guests on your show. And I've had names, and you'll see them that are not just strategic, but if I want to extend or have a relationship with someone that may not do anything for my show, but sometimes a strategic relationship. And what the goodwill that you can get from having the show, you'd be amazed at the power of what that does with a relationship that can't be understated, not just to get something out of it, but because it gives you power in helping someone or making someone feel a certain way. And you can't underestimate what that can do, both literally or just how it can make someone feel.

What would be an example of that?

You've met someone that's getting started in a certain field, and it's. Maybe it's not going to, like, blow up your audience, but you've got a. A good place in your heart for them. You feel really good about them, but they need an opportunity so you can showcase them and create that opportunity for them, especially if they leverage the right way. They create content, they. They amplify it. They do all those things. And the other thing might be strategically from a relationship. Roger Jones has a lot of great contacts. Strategically could help me in different ways, but Roger Jones isn't really known or isn't really the greatest talker of all time. But I need to have Roger Jones on strategically to create a place for us to have a dialogue and to build a relationship and to him to feel like a million dollars, for sure.

I have also found people that are fascinating but not famous.

Exactly.

Yeah. I had a guy, he was. He was a trained interrogator. It just. He knows his stuff inside and out. And he's worked in loss prevention, getting confessions and hostage negotiations and Doing very well, but, you know, not a. Not a big following. But man, was that an interesting. Every, every bit of that was. Was worth listening to.

Grace, my assistants in the room, I'm going to tell her to write down that fascinating but not famous because I'm going to use that. Because that's. I will say that filter that I use, I love that. Yeah, don't. Don't charge me too much for that.

No, you can, but you can tweet it. Just, just tag me. I'll have to. Let me. I'll have to set up my Twitter. I'll go set up a Twitter, then you can do it.

I've never said it that way, but that is what I do. Like, I'll send something to Grace and they'll be like, why? I'm like, because I just find her really interesting. And I think our audience. No one will know who the heck it is, but if they really listen, they're going to get a lot from it.

What else do you want people to know about the Radcast and the other properties that you're developing within it?

The Radcast has grown as big, but that's why we created the podcast network. We bring on one of the largest shows in Nashville. I can't name it right now. So if you're listening, you got a nice show, you want to get on the umbrella, you can reach out. And they're not all the same. They're be different genres and different things like that. We've got a system and we've kind of manufactured and engineered a platform for doing these things. And so we're helping other shows, we're bringing shows under that umbrella that feeds into kind of the scope slash expertise of the agency of radical. You know, we've kind of honed in on a few different channels and that's one of them where we have expertise. And so we do buying and planning for media and sponsorships. We're negotiating a half a million dollar sponsorship deal for a show and that won't be doing anything with the Radcast Network or even the Radcast, but other shows and things like that.

One thing I share with people is that success is not around or backwards. It's through. And the next evolution, there's always a next evolution to every business. And the Radcast group that you're putting together is just right on the shoulders of the work that you've done for five or six years in building this platform. And it makes perfect sense and you've earned the right to have that Success, you know, what a, what a testament to what you've done. All right, can I get your hot take on some current events?

Let's do it. Titan Sub leads. It leads.

Yeah, man.

I mean it's terrible, but innovation is great. But I'm never going up in a rocket or going down on a sub until they've can prove to me that it's like whatever airplanes are. 99.9 chance of never crashing.

Yeah, well, first of all, I've seen the videos of that thing. You're six foot four, five. So you sitting cross legged in that thing for eight hours, that's not. Who is that working for? You would be charged double and you'd be laying, you'd be laying along the edge while everybody else is sitting there.

No, I'm not. I mean it's a tragedy, but it's.

Just like, it's horrible. It's horrible. I used to think that, that when I could afford it that I was going to go to space. And yeah, now that I'm 55 and I can afford it, I'm not that interested in going.

No, I'm not either. I'm like, I just, I can watch the video. I mean, don't get wrong. If an airplane could fly to space as safely and there's been how many flights to now, like billions of lights, like okay, fine, but not until.

All right, so this whole thing is giving me the idea for an app and. All right, so when you go down in that sub, right, you have this little window to peek out of, but you're really watching outside on television screens.

Yeah.

I mean you might as well just go to the Internet. You're going to get the same exact pictures. You're sitting in your living room doing it. So my wife and daughter are in Spain right now and they're sending me all these crappy pictures of like Columbus's tomb and all this stuff. So what I think.

Stuff that you go.

Yeah, so what I think should happen is, is your phone just follows you around and then it loads the best pictures from the Internet into your photos on your phone. So those are the ones that you upload. You don't have to take them. You be.

Yeah.

You know, now if you want to be in them, I guess maybe it could just stick you right in them. But I mean there's so much.

Isn't that, isn't that what deepfakes are and all? I guess it is when experiences truly no longer mean anything. I guess it's not the photos as much as the actual. But Isn't that what the promise. The promise of the metaverse, sort of like ultimately, and it's like being anywhere is on, you know, when it's actually feels real. Not cartoon world.

Yeah, it's people. Are people still flocking to the metaverse?

I know we, we panned it from day one on the Radcliffe. That's that. I'm gonna go to my grave on that. I'm sure it'll be something one day, but we panned it from day one while everyone else was saying it was the greatest thing ever. And sure enough, here we are, and it's sort of being panned everywhere.

All right, well, Ryan, today is National Coconut Day in the United States. What are you doing to celebrate?

Oh, I'm definitely having a pina colada. There you go.

Fantastic.

Yes.

And then who do you, who do you have in the cage? Zuckerberg or Elon Musk? Musk.

I think Musk would take Zuckerberg.

Do you think so?

I don't know.

I think. See, I think that's unpopular. However, I, I. He's gonna figure out a move.

Like, I think, I think he's smarter than Zuckerberg.

I think so.

I think Zuckerberg don't get on. They're both highly intelligent. I have no idea what their IQs are. I think Musk is a little more of a brainiac deep down. And, and a. And a more creative thinker.

Yes.

I don't think. I don't think Zuckerberg is that creative of a thinker. He's just a think. He's had one big idea and the rest have kind of been. I don't know. So, so yeah, it's my opinion. Well, I think Moss has got a lot of them.

Yeah, I think he would, he would have a strategy that he would. Yeah. A well thought out strategy that has physics.

He creatively work himself out of it.

Well, true. There'll be some physics involved and it would just be this.

He's got a chip in his brain. Right. So he's probably could figure out how to give himself, like, super strength for like five minutes.

Does he. Is he doing the chip? Is he put us.

I don't know. I think he's been like, trying to mind map the whole brain. I think so.

Yeah.

Like, he's. I think he's on another level, like on the intelligence sphere than, Than. And I don't love everything that he does. I mean, I'm. But I think he's wildly intelligent.

Well, you know, I'm not sure, you know, mentally what you know, how, how his brain works. But it's a testament. I kicked off a training this morning and I talk about limiting beliefs because the decisions you make and the limitations that you put on yourself that you actually believe put you right exactly where you are today. And if you could remove those people that somehow just don't have those limiting beliefs are so free to be able to do great things. And I think you have some control over to the extent that you, that you expand your opportunities by releasing or reducing some of your beliefs and inhibitions 100%. Yeah, man.

Right. That's, that'd be in the Orion offer playbook of, of, of definitely mantras. Yeah.

Who would believe that we would have the lives that we have today, that we get to be sitting here doing this? It's awesome.

I know.

It's amazing.

Blessed beyond compare. But you do have to remove limits from your mind.

Yeah.

Because if I wouldn't be sitting here if I listened to either myself. Well, no, and I shouldn't say myself. Anyone else, because I thought I was crazy, including my wife about the podcast and everything else about how the path to get to certain places.

Yeah. I, I was starting my first big business and I had someone very influential in my life. Tell me the business is never going to work. All the subcontractors in this town are already working for somebody else. Okay. That's like, oh, I, I, I won't be able to get the work done as a contractor because they're all working for somebody. You know, you need to.

All of them.

All of them. There's no, there's nothing I can do. Oh, well, I thought I had a good idea. I guess not.

I hate words like all never. Yeah, you know, it's like, because it's, it's just not true. Like, it's not.

Ryan, I've got one. A big sentence we like to wrap up with or a question for you. If you had one sentence to make an impact in someone's life, what would that be?

The strength of the wolf is the pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf. Oh. As someone that likes to do everything themselves, you can't get where you need to go without a great team. But the great team is limited by how limiting the teammates are.

Yeah, I love that. That's fantastic. Ryan, how can people reach you?

Ryan Alford. That's one L A L F O R D dot com has all my stuff. I'm at Ryan Alford on every social media platform. You start searching. R Y E N A L F R D. You'll see that blue check next to every one of them before you could buy it. And you'll, you'll know it's me, but all my stuff's there. You can get linked to the agency. The podcast, the Radcast is obviously start searching. That's pretty unique. It'll pop up as well on all the platforms.

Ryan, you are fascinating and famous and I thank you for investing time with us today on the home front.

Hey, Jeff, my pleasure, man. I can't wait to grow our relationship and I would love to reciprocate and have you on the Radcast.

I'd love to do it. It's going to be fantastic. And as always, this podcast has been brought to you by Homefront Brands, delivering enterprise level solutions to local business owners out there on the home front where it counts. So if this does sound like you today, check us out@homefront brands.com and start your next chapter of greatness, building your dynasty on the home front. I will be sitting right here looking for you. Thank you for listening.