Discover the Power of Community Building with Ryan Moran and Essential Books for Entrepreneurs

Posted by Anant January 18, 2023

Ryan is behind Capitalism.com and the Freedom Fastlane Podcast. In this interview, we dive into his unique ideas around building a thriving community… plus the four books every entrepreneur should get their hands on.

TOPIC RYAN MORAN COVERS

→ His unique ideas around building a thriving community

→ His four books every entrepreneur should get their hands on

→ What is the Freedom Fastlane podcast

→ He talks about how we grew to 100,000 a month and a million a month

→ How does he define Freedom

→ Why does he draw to physical products and what’s going through his mind

→ He is the founder of Capitalism.com

→ Capitalism.com promotes the idea that entrepreneurs can solve world’s problems with less government interference

→ Freedom Fastlane podcast teaches entrepreneurs how to build businesses and invest profits for personal freedom through case studies and experiences

→ And a whole lot more

LINKS & RESOURCES

Capitalism.com

Freedomfastlane.com

WATCH THE INTERVIEW

READ THE TRANSCRIPTION

Bronson: Welcome to another episode of Growth Hacker TV. I’m Bronson Taylor and today I have Ryan Moran with us. Ryan, what’s up on the program?

Ryan: Me man, let’s do this.

Bronson: Let’s do this. I mean, you know, usually I have more energy than the guest. I don’t I don’t think I do today. I think the guest has more energy. And that’s like one.

Ryan: Thing, some push ups.

Bronson: It’s just you don’t want to see me do push ups, you know? That’s not a game I win. All right. So, Ryan, you are the founder of Capitalism Dot.com, which I don’t know how in the world you got that domain. I’m sure there’s a story there and it’s push ups. That’s how you got it. That’s fantastic. Yeah. And you’re also the host of Freedom Fastlane podcast. So just in a nutshell, to start out this whole thing. Tell us, what is capitalism dot com? What is Freedom Fastlane podcast? Who are you? Why should we listen to you?

Ryan: Yeah, I believe that entrepreneurs are the best shot that we have at solving all the world’s problems and that government gets in the way. So the best thing that we could possibly do is get government out of the way and allow entrepreneurs to profitably solve the problems that we have. I believe that fundamentally we have lots of problems in the world and we all agree that we want people to have health care. We want people to have access to clean water. We want people to be healthy, wealthy and growing. And that the best shot we have is a personal responsibility. And through a pro-business, pro entrepreneur, pro individual. Pro personal responsibility. Pro small government atmosphere. I believe that’s how we’re going to do that. So I talk about that and highlight entrepreneurs who are making a difference, who are making an impact on capitalism dot com. And I teach entrepreneurs to build businesses and invest the profits so they can live life on their terms through case studies and through what I’ve learned in business on the Freedom Fastlane podcast.

Bronson: So you believe in capitalism and you believe that capitalism is a vehicle for freedom. And that’s kind of how these two brands of yours come together, is that you’re going to use capitalism. It’s what solved the world’s problems, and it will get it is the thing that gets you personal freedom at the same time.

Ryan: Yeah, exactly. And Freedom Fastlane is my outlet to share what I’m learning. I do income reports, I share about my businesses. I talk about how we grew to 100,000 a month and a million a month and then built and have exited multimillion dollar company things and how I invest those profits. Capitalism dot com is my media side where I highlight other entrepreneurs and we spread a message of personal responsibility pro small government, pro entrepreneur. And then we do case studies in my story over on Freedom Pass.

Bronson: Gotcha. Perfect. Now, you know, you just mentioned it and how you get to 100,000 a month, a million a month. I mean, those are some huge numbers. But one of the things about you is you’re not just about let me build a product and sell that product. You are very much about building an audience. Walk me through how you see the world, how you see audience building, because I think your insights insights on this could really be a game changer for the people that hear it.

Ryan: Yeah. So I just realize that there is a tension that exists in these like almost hubs, these pockets around the world, and it’s changing rapidly. And at the click of a button, you can be in front of people if done strategically. So I remember you might you might remember this a few years ago, I think it was Carl Icahn, the investor. They tweeted that Apple stock was undervalued. It was just a tweet. And do you know what happened to Apple stock the next day?

Bronson: It probably went up.

Ryan: Oh, right. So this guy with a tweet creates billions of dollars.

Bronson: And of course, he probably own plenty of that stock.

Ryan: Yeah. I mean, it’s just it’s absolutely incredible. If we look at Oprah. Oprah takes over as the spokesperson for Weight Watchers. What happens? A Weight Watchers stop or Tim Ferriss talks about athletic greens or missing in Maine. What happens to the sales of those visit? So there’s there I was I see this happening. I go, that’s the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life. So what I have realized is that if you can garner attention, if you can garner eyeballs, if you can rally people behind what you’re doing as a business, well then advertising almost becomes unnecessary. If you can crank a lever, if you can push send and of the ideal people who want your thing. So I see a tremendous opportunity missed by entrepreneurs who think that they need to go get customers or they need to dance around this idea of controlling eyeballs. I think that the fastest way that you grow, that you hack your growth is by going to where the eyeballs are. And that could be through influencers or becoming the influencer or just putting your message where the maximum number of people are already hanging out and cranking that lever. And I just want to be the fastest way to create an exponential growth curve in any business.

Bronson: Yeah, and I like what you just said. You know, it’s either. Going through the influencer or becoming the influencer, because I look at you and you’re obviously an extrovert, you’re well-spoken, you’re the kind of person that can garner attention and create an audience. Some people watching this are thinking, look, I can build a product. I can’t do what Ryan does in terms of personality. But what you just said is you can go through the Ryan’s of the world, even if you’re not the Ryan of the world. Is that correct?

Ryan: You know, what’s funny is I will flip this because I consider myself a terrible salesperson. I but I do love people. And there’s nowhere I’m happier than on stage. But if. But the best copywriters I know are introverts who don’t want to leave their house and craft amazing sales messages or craft amazing blog posts. All the best ones I know are introverts, and they’re better at creating audiences than I am because they can profitably craft a message that could then be advertised and create millions of eyeballs. So if you’ve got a profitable process for turning a message into money, then you can buy all of the attention that you need to be able to control the audience and be the influencer. An influencer could just be somebody with a 500,000 person email list. That’s an influencer that changes companies. So me actually being out there and talking about this stuff, I think I’m on the slow lane because I don’t consider myself a good salesperson or a good copywriter, and I need to go get those people to craft messages to be able to buy the media to that.

Bronson: Absolutely. Now you call your podcast Freedom Lane. How do you define freedom? It’s all of those words that, you know, a lot of people bring a lot of different ideas to it. How do you define it?

Ryan: Yeah, freedom is the ability for you to make your own decisions and to be able to own the responsibility and the consequences of those decisions. So if you are not held accountable for your decisions, you’re not free. And if you don’t have the ability to make those decisions, you ain’t free. So for me, I decided that what I want out of life is I want to own the Cleveland Indians, so I’ve got to own the responsibility of that decision. And that’s going to require me to work really, really hard. So for some people, it’s making ten K a month and peace an out and say for me my own decisions means I’m going to have another mai tai. And that’s fine as long as you own the responsibility of the decisions that you make. And one of the things that I think is kind of a danger in our society today is we want the freedom to make decisions, but we don’t want the consequences of making those decisions. And I think that you cannot have one without the other.

Bronson: Well, see, I like so much of what you’re saying. I mean, I believe in personal responsibility. I believe in grit. I believe in, you know, that kind of stuff. And that’s why I like the way that you spun it. It’s about having the freedom to take the responsibility, because a lot of people say you have the freedom to get the rewards. No, no, no, no. The rewards come because you took responsibility. The rewards come because it was your fault and you owned up to it and you learned from it and you did something different. The rewards come because you had the grit to persevere, not because you’re pointing fingers and blamed. And that’s a very different mentality. Freedom is hardship in a lot of cases until the rewards come.

Ryan: Yeah. And, you know, there’s there’s all whenever this comes up, there’s somebody who says, yeah, but you’re two white dudes talking about entrepreneurship who have no idea what it’s like to struggle. And I’m like, No, no, no, you don’t get it. Struggle is the path to freedom. It is part of the process. If you take that away from someone, you have get you’ve taken away their best shot at being successful. And that’s the part that I think we have lost.

Bronson: Absolutely. I mean, it’s me coming from nothing that still I have a chip on my shoulder. I still have a fire inside of me. If everything was easy, I would be lost. You know, it’s absolutely terrible. That is the reason. The responsibility and the rewards are right in front of me.

Ryan: 100%. You are. You’re preaching to the choir. Am I right?

Bronson: Absolutely. All right. So you’ve interacted with so many people. I mean, I was looking on your site today. You have these conferences. You do. Give us a quick plug. What’s the name of the event you do?

Ryan: So we do an event called the Capitalism Conference. All right. And through all of our communities, events and trainings, we’ve created over 100 millionaires or been a part of over $100 million businesses. So I feel very proud.

Bronson: Pretty good batting average. So, you know, you have these conferences, you have this podcast, you’re interacting with very intelligent people, entrepreneurs, founders, successful business people all the time. What are the absolute best insights you’ve acquired that really have helped you become free, that helps you, you know, take on the responsibility and eventually the rewards? What have you picked up along the way? That by giving to us you can just flip the script?

Ryan: Yeah. So this past month, I closed a deal with about a thousand retail stores for one of my physical products brands. I crossed $1,000,000 a month in one. My businesses. And then I got on the phone with my best friend. His name is Mark Jenny. He runs a company called RB Sharekhan. It’s the biggest RV rental site in the world. He’s like, Yeah, I think we’re going to add 100 million. But I sat across the table from this other guy last week who is part of a $4 billion company like ours, and I felt like a chump. And here I am, feeling like a chump. After just coming out of this meeting where I’m like, we hit $1,000,000 a month in one of my businesses. I’m stoked we got this retailed, Oh, I feel like a chump because I’m not at the level of the guy on the phone or the guy that he’s on the phone with. So one of the cheat codes that I have found is that all our brains know how to do is compare. Yes, I like it. What is what’s happy? The difference between what you’re what you’re experiencing and what you expected is fact. A comparison of my expectations and reality. What is rich a comparison? It’s all a comparison. Always. The reason you feel depressed is because you have a comparison in your brain. The reason you feel unsuccessful is because you have some sort of a comparison in your brain. And I found and what I find that successful people do is that they’re just in control of the comparison. If they’re really happy, it’s because they’re comparing it to something else. That could be. If you feel loss, it’s because you’re comparing what used to be to what is your reality. And and the most successful people that I have found have found a comparison, taking their ego out of it and said, okay, how do I duplicate that result? And it’s just numbers. I have a I have an acquisition fund called the Capitalism Initiative. We just we just acquired a $3 million anti-aging brand. And it was my first time ever raising money for a for a project or an acquisition. And I sat there and I had a seven figure wire that I like. I had one thing to do. My only job was send the the million dollar wire. All I had to do right. I raised the money and I had to go send the seven figure wire. And I had, like, all this tenseness about it, right. Like, yes, I’m a millionaire, but like I said, I’ve never sent someone else. You know.

Bronson: It’s a lot of money when you type in that routing number and it goes, yeah, that’s it. Don’t do that on your account.

Ryan: Yeah. So I’m, I’m like, I’m texting my business partner like you sure. Everything is. We’re all good to send everything signed.

Bronson: Everybody’s okay.

Ryan: Right? Yeah. And, and he just sends me this text message. He comes back from he comes from the finance world where he deals with like hundreds of millions of dollars at a time. And he says to me, Ryan, they’re just zeros. Like, I have all this mental energy and like emotional energy attached to it. And he’s like, Dude, it’s just zeros. It’s like, it’s not a big deal. There’s no emotion to it just is the what is like, oh, all right. To him, it’s a comparison of like, dude, is it about two zeros? And to me it’s like, but I’ve never sent a wire up $1,000,000 before. And I have just found that regularly changing what you perceive as normal. Yep. Is cheat code to creating different results.

Bronson: Absolutely. I mean, I think about like a rubber band like it stretches and then it’s normal is a new normal. It’s bigger than it was. And then it stretches again and it’s like you get used and feel okay and comfortable in situations that would have scared you five years ago and now you didn’t even remember you had to do it today. It was so nonchalant, you know, whatever that thing is. Now, let me ask you this. You know, you talked about the contrast, the comparison. The human brain is just an expectation machine saying is what I wanted, what I have, and what’s the gulf between the two. And I think about the studies that come out saying that people that spend X amount of time on Facebook are less happy or it’s because of that. They’re seeing people on Instagram with a life they want. They don’t have it, and they’re frustrated. And then I think about Tony Robbins. He says, don’t be a billionaire. Hang out with billionaires, like it’s because you get to where that feels more normal and then you start adding zeros to what’s possible. So let me ask you this. At some point you hang out with people that demoralize you because they’re too far ahead of where you’re at. And at some point you’re hanging out with losers that are dragging you down. Is there like a happy medium of like you want to hang out with people that have one more zero than you so that you’re actually learning the lessons to get to the next level and not trying to recapture lessons. Two levels ahead of where you’re at that makes sense.

Ryan: Lopez says, breaking into 30 threes 33% of your time with people who just scare you and talk about things that make you feel like an idiot 30% of your time with people who are on or at your level and 33% of your time with people who energize you or where you are giving energy to you are mentoring them. Or it’s just your buddies from college who are happy and they’re at their desk jobs. I love that person that I’ve heard talk about that exact split, and I found that to be the most helpful.

Bronson: You have one of the question. I’ve never had an answer, so I really appreciate that. What was the name of the person you attributed that to?

Ryan: That was Tai Lopez. I actually my Lamborghini.

Bronson: Is.

Ryan: I actually love Ty. That would be it. He’s not a popular guy in our circles, like we’re going to love again.

Bronson: I don’t know anything about him. I just see him on YouTube all the time. Yeah, that’s what I know about him.

Ryan: Yeah. And what did he do? He built a huge audience to now he can put up anything and it gets seen by a million people. He can put any anything he wants on the map. I’m just fascinated by his model.

Bronson: Yeah. So tell me this. You know, you namedrop Ty Lopez and, you know, insights you got there. Who else inspires you? Like, who should we go Google? Whose videos should we watch on YouTube? Whose books should we get on audible like name drops and people that can change the way we think. Because I do think everything’s a mind hack. You change your brain, you change everything. And so we got to start by changing the way we think. Who should we go to?

Ryan: Yeah. So my mentor is Travis Seago. He doesn’t blog or do a lot of. Podcast. He’s been on mine many. He does some writing, mostly on his public Facebook page, but everything he says, go listen to it, go read it. Anything you can get your hands on all the books he recommends. Name is Travis Sago as a geo. He’s probably the reason I’m a millionaire because he taught me how to sell in a way that was in line with my personality. Just a brilliant, brilliant human being. Go, go read the book. Straight line leadership by somebodies name who I don’t know how to pronounce for a for or something. It sounds like a sneeze. I think so. A straight line leadership. Go get your hands on it. Go read The Primal Connection by Mark Sisson. It’s a book every entrepreneur needs to read. It won’t smack you in the face as something that like, Oh, this is for entrepreneurs. But it is absolutely about how it’s a it’s basically like the health manual for entrepreneurs and like upgrade your brain and body to ensure that you’re always in peak performance. The best book I’ve ever read that was like every entrepreneur needs to read this. Go read The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. If you want the 32nd version, it’s about how compounding effects create our results, not leaps in expectations. It is by these little things that we do consistently until an exponential impact hits. So and then the one other book that we give all of our clients and customers is Ready Firing by Michael Masterson. It’s about the straight line path to 100 million. I live by that. So those are the four books and the one person that I’d recommend you listen to.

Bronson: All right. So after this, I’m going to watch this interview myself, write down all those names again, and then go buy their stuff. And fun fact Mark is actually one of my investors, so I got a major respect there for sure. Let’s change gears slightly to close out here. So you are very excited about physical products, right? And a lot of people in the circles I run in, it’s all about the ones and zeros. It’s all about the code. It’s all about software as a service, it’s about platforms, it’s about markets. And here you are doing physical products. Why are you drawn to physical products? What’s going through your mind?

Ryan: Couple of things. One. Predictability and probability. Predictability meaning? I know exactly. If I create a physical product and I put it in front of the right people, they’ll buy it. The second is those markets have already been proven. I know what the size is of the yoga community. I know how many people buy supplements. I know how many people buy beauty creams. I know exactly where they hang out. They hang out on Amazon.com and they buy in retail. They also shop on Facebook and they do some research on Google. It’s very, very easy to predict the buying habits of those individuals. I also know that it is a business that can be built and sold in a provable way. I have students who have sold businesses for $20 million, $16 million, $10 million, $2.3 million. I know it has been a proven process of building $1,000,000 business and selling a business for millions of dollars. We’ve helped people do it over 100 times. So it’s a model that I think is as provable or as like system visible as possible. And I at this point in my career, that’s exactly where I wanted to go, because I had I decided a few years ago I never wanted to have a company that was just dependent upon me or my face or my copy or me showing up. So when I sell physical products and they get the physical product, you’re done. You nurture that customer, you create that buying experience. But for me, I want them to be happy and tell all their friends they come back and buy more things. And now I have a brand and I can always build upon that brand by releasing new products, by marketing to them in a different way. And it was there was a mentor of mine several years ago. I was probably 24 at the time. And I said I said, Hey, so what would you do if you were a 24 year old guy like me really trying to make it in the world? What would you do? And he’s first, he said, as many women as possible. And I said, Well, that’s not my style. That’s not what I that’s not what I’m about. And he said, All right, well, then I would sell physical products. I would sell stuff. Everybody’s trying to create the new thing. Everybody’s trying to create information or or software because that’s hot. But people have bought stuff for hundreds of years and they will buy stuff for hundreds of years. And I want to be in businesses where there are entrepreneurs who are old, rich and happy. And if you’re in one of those industries where everyone around you is old, rich and happy, you’re probably in the wrong industry.

Bronson: No, it’s awesome. And I’m so glad to talk about e-commerce and physical products because, you know, it’s a side story about me that I never talk about on the show ever, ever, ever is I actually have a product that I manufacture, distribute and sell, you know, through all these different retail stores on Amazon everywhere. And it’s actually this virtually indestructible bootlegs. It’s a bootlegs for people that never want their boot laces to break again. It’s called Rhino Laces. And so nobody knows I’m behind this, but I’m the guy behind Rhino Laces dot com. And the funny thing is, is how much money it makes. Like, I’m not doing anything that smart with it. I’m not doubling down on things that are working. I’m not giving it the love it deserves. And yet I get PO’s coming in nonstop that I’m just like, What is going on? Like, I have learned not because I was sorted out, but just the world has thrusted upon me that the desire that humans have for physical products is absolutely insatiable. I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain it.

Ryan: Yeah. How how many SAS businesses does Warren Buffett own?

Bronson: Zero, but I do physical products.

Ryan: Business. Yeah, it’s all of them.

Bronson: I mean, I was just reading the audio book, the Listen audio book yesterday talking about Warren Buffett’s furniture store in Omaha and how that like Amazon can’t compete against him because he has so much inventory and you want to sit in the chair and he has all the distribution channels and he has all the levers to drive down the price because of the volume. So here he is in the middle of this, you know, nowhere state killing it with furniture, you know, and it’s like that’s Warren Buffett. He’s a billionaire. We’re not.

Ryan: Right. And everybody’s chasing what’s new. I chase what’s provable or what has already been proven. Like, I want to be a billionaire. What are billionaires doing? And that’s where I’m going.

Bronson: Yeah. And I mean, I like both sides of like, I love software, I love, you know, physical product. So I think it’s interesting to hear this other side that like, you know, just, you know, signing up like we got a POW a couple of months ago, a single pillow or boot laces. Let me remind you, it was for $140,000 in boot laces for one pillow. And I’m just like, are you kidding me?

Ryan: And what I have to do for that, you had to ship them the product.

Bronson: I didn’t do it. Like, we’re just like, hey, let’s put together more boot laces and send them to this address. There was no insight, there was no ingenuity. There was no like we just did what they wanted because they told us how much they want to. Yes. Yes.

Ryan: So we’ll system visible model.

Bronson: Yeah. So this is awesome, Ryan. I mean, I love this discussion because it’s so different than I think what we normally talk about on here. I have two final questions that I always close with. The first is what are you working on as soon as this interview is over, whether it’s launch, whether it’s taking the dog for a walk or whether it’s close, $100 million deal.

Ryan: I’m going to do some push ups on key and then I’m prepping for another podcast for the people who follow the one thing which is another another.

Bronson: But I love that book. Yeah, I love it at any given time. There’s one thing that matters. Start doing everything else. Yes. Cliff Notes. Yeah, I would recommend that audio book to last.

Ryan: So we’re talking about investing and audience building on that podcast.

Bronson: That’s the one thing that you think matters, and that’s going to be a great podcast there as well. All right. What is the best advice you have for any startup is trying to grow. Maybe it’s something you already said. Maybe it’s something new. Best advice you have for any startup trying to grow.

Ryan: Yeah, I just say look at where the attention already is and go there. And that might be around an influencer. It might be on a Facebook ad like your people are already hanging out somewhere where a lot of people and especially entrepreneurs I think get this wrong is they try and sell a product and they forget that there’s a person behind the product, but the ideal person is already hanging out with all their friends and neighbors saying, I wish this thing would just show up in front of me, but you’re busy selling a product rather than finding the people. And that is a mistake where most people completely fall flat and their businesses. So there’s two ways to do it. You can put stuff in front of those people or you can put up a message and attract the people that you want so that you become the influencer. Either one is fine, but who is the person behind the the buying behavior of your product go where they’re hanging out. And that is the fastest way to build a seven figure business in any industry with any model.

Bronson: That is awesome. Ryan, thank you again for coming on Growth Hacker TV. This is amazing.

Ryan: Hey, thanks so much for having me.

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