Beyond A Million

Ryan Daniel Moran is a serial entrepreneur, investor, author, and the founder of Capitalism.com, responsible for creating over 100 millionaires, many in 12 months or less.

While Ryan's specialty is helping entrepreneurs make their first million, that's only a small piece of his overall business model. The company acts as an incubator for entrepreneurs with high growth potential. In return for a 30% equity stake in their business, Ryan provides them with funding, mentorship, and access to his network. Essentially, the community he coaches is a pipeline for future deal flow. His goal is to help them reach the $10M mark, exit within 3-5 years, rinse and repeat.

In this episode, not only do we talk about Ryan's business model, but he explains how he uniquely structures the company to increase valuations, raise capital, and incentivize employees.

We also dig into how he built Sheer Strength Labs, a muscle-building supplement brand that led to a $15M exit for him and his partner. Unfortunately, the private equity firm that bought it drove it into the ground. They took it from a million dollar per month top line revenue with multimillion-dollar EBITDA to a company that did just over $1M per year in sales and took home no profit.

Five years later, Ryan bought the company back for pennies on the dollar. You'll learn why the existing company failed to scale, how exactly he was able to re-acquire it, and his plan to reposition the brand to bring it back to life.

Key Takeaways with Ryan Moran

• How Ryan built and sold a $15M supplement brand, and why he bought it back 5 years later at a major discount.
• How Ryan's company, Capitalism.com, invests in entrepreneurs early on and takes a 30% equity stake in their businesses by agreeing to help them reach the $10M mark.
• Ryan's roadmap to reposition an existing brand, revitalize the product line, and acquire customers, so he can scale from $1M to $10M.
• Why good communication and understanding people is a superpower in your business.
• One of the biggest reasons entrepreneurs fail to scale between the $1M-10M mark.
• Why taking as much off the table as possible when exiting a company is so important.
• Ryan explains how putting out content leads to incredible community and connections.
• How to structure your company in a way that allows you to attract and retain top talent.
• Defining your customer avatar and creating product lines that serve them at different stages of life.
• The power of self-talk and how to use it to accomplish anything.
• What Ryan believes is the most effective sales strategy in the entire world.
• How your beliefs determine the filter through which you see the world.

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Tom Shipley is a serial entrepreneur, eCommerce investor, strategic advisor, and speaker who has become one of the leading experts in omnichannel brand building.

In 2005, Tom and his partner launched Atlantic Coast Brands and grew it into one of America's largest direct-to-consumer multi-brand companies. They generated over $2 billion in sales before successfully exiting in 2021.

More recently, Tom co-founded two other companies, including Foundry, an e-commerce and Amazon brand aggregator, and AVA, which aims to acquire and scale 30 advertising agencies annually.

In this episode, Tom shares his entrepreneurial journey and his process for building successful businesses. We dig into his mental frameworks and how shifting his operating assumptions and everything he thought he knew about growing a company led to him raising $100M in 18 months.

You'll also discover why some companies never scale despite having the full potential and how to think like a billion-dollar brand builder, so you can reach levels of success you never imagined were possible.

Key Takeaways with Tom Shipley

• How to become a category king by creating purple ocean opportunities—and an example of how Tom used this strategy to build his first billion-dollar brand.
• Want to buy a business with no money or track record? This is exactly how Tom acquired a $15M/year business when he was out of cash and fully leveraged.
• Tom went from $800k/month net positive to losing $600k/month six months later. Find out how he used Massive Imperfect Action to climb his way back to profitability.
• How Tom challenged his preconceived ideas of what was possible and grew from $35M to $100M in 18 months—all during the pandemic.
• Tom's framework for removing blinders, thinking big, and making the "impossible" a reality.
• What his company AVA is doing to disrupt how agencies grow. Learn about their process to scale at speed through acquisition and organic growth.
• The importance of expanding your product line.
• Understanding when it's okay to overpay for a deal.
• Return on relationship versus return on investment.
• Pulling enough money out of your business so you always have a plan B.

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Michael Bernoff is the President and Founder of the Human Communications Institute, a leader in the personal and professional development industry dedicated to creating rapid and lasting change in people's lives.

He believes that communication is an underdeveloped and underutilized asset that, if appropriately harnessed, can help someone achieve anything they want in life. He's used his strategies to help entrepreneurs, athletes, executives, Fortune 500 companies, and more.

Today, we're talking specifically about how Michael's communication principles apply directly to the sales world. Although, selling isn't the term he would use to describe what he does best…

Michael uses the power of communication as a tool to influence people into action. Instead of persuading someone to buy, which he believes serves his own self-interests, he empowers them to make a decision for themselves.

In this episode, you'll learn the language that influences buying behavior, the psychology behind decision-making, and how to use emotion to overcome objections, so you can close more sales.

Key Takeaways with Michael Bernoff

• How to charge more by creating extra value upfront—and an example of how to use this sales tactic when a prospect asks, "how much does it cost?"
• How Michael piques interest and attracts clients by saying and doing things differently than they expected.
• Find out why Michael never tells his team he's proud of them. Use this strategy to empower your customers to buy—not because you told them to, but because they wanted to.
• How good can you help somebody feel by empowering them to decide what they want to do?
• The psychology behind decision-making and why "I have to think about it" is just a buyer avoidance technique.
• Why average sucks and is the metric that controls your level of success in every area of life.

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We hope you enjoy this episode and that you find some golden nuggets within this interview. Trust us, it's there!

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Ryan Deiss has founded dozens of companies and had multiple 8-figure exits. He created a name for himself in the marketing world through startups like DigitalMarkerter.com, War Room, and Traffic & Conversion Summit, the largest digital marketing conversion conference in North America.

In this episode, we talk about hiring salespeople that are the right match for your ideal customers, the importance of building a sales process that doesn't rely exclusively on rockstar sales reps, and why building a brand and marketing are critical to scaling up.

We also dig into Ryan's latest company, Scalable, which helps entrepreneurs build operating systems to scale their businesses without sacrificing freedom. You'll learn all about Ryan's process mapping framework, an approach to document and visualize how your company creates value from start to finish, so it can ultimately run without you.

Key Takeaways with Ryan Deiss

• The biggest mistakes Ryan made when he started to serve enterprise-level clients.
• Why your approach to hiring and sales needs to change depending on who you're targeting (B2C vs. B2B).
• Slow to hire, quick to fire OR quick to hire, quick to fire? Important considerations you should be thinking about as you build your sales team.
• Reasons why you shouldn't rely too heavily on rockstar salespeople to scale your business.
• Business process mapping to visualize how your company creates value from start to finish.
• The million-dollar napkin that allowed Ryan to escape bankruptcy and scale his company.
• The 7 levels to scaling a business that Ryan's company teaches entrepreneurs.

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Randy Cohen is the owner of Z'Tejas (a renowned TexMex chain in Austin) as well as the Founder and Chief Energizing Officer (CEO) of TicketCity.

He started TicketCity in 1990 with the goal to make it easier for fans to get tickets to their favorite events. Since then, the company has grown into one of the largest privately held ticket marketplaces in the world.

By 96' he had reached $12M in sales. As the internet took off, and with the acquisition of SoldOut.com, company revenues surpassed $100M.

In this episode, Randy shares the story of starting and scaling TicketCity into the company it is today. We discuss the challenges of running an event based business during Covid and how he kept all his staff happy and employed, despite being hit hard.

We also dig into Randy's framework for building a culture of trust and empowering staff to make decisions on their own, while serving customers at the highest level.

Key Takeaways with Randy Cohen

• The story of how TicketCity started and scaled its first $12M in sales by 1996. By 2000 the company reached $100M after acquiring SoldOut.com.
• Why Randy bought a failing restaurant and his philosophy around taking a chance on people who have a passion to win.
• How Randy navigated the struggle of running 2 event based businesses during Covid, without letting any staff go.
• The core values Randy instills in all of his staff that empowers them to make decisions on their own.
• The power of a morning huddle and how Randy energizes the people around him to be the best version of themselves.

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David Hassell is the founder and CEO of 15Five, a performance management SaaS solution that helps companies create better managers and successful employees. Their software combines surveys, weekly check-ins, peer recognition, and people analytics all in one platform.

In this episode, David and I talk about why he decided to raise capital after bootstrapping the business for 6 years. He explains his steps to grow from 50 employees and $6M in revenue to 300+ employees and closing a Series C financing round for $52M.

We dig into his approach to company culture/core values, tactics for tracking and evaluating employee performance, hiring for fit versus skill, and more.

Key Takeaways with David Hassell

• How 15Five got started and why David spent six years bootstrapping before taking on VC funding. He recently closed a Series C round for $52M.
• David's humanistic way for managing and leading people that allows his company to win, while also unlocking an employee's full potential.
• Why company culture can only be influenced, not controlled—and the 4 core values David's company stands behind.
• How to create a high performing team, without sacrificing a high level of care for your people.
• Tools and tactics for tracking and measuring employee performance across various roles and responsibilities.
• The pros/cons of using numerical ratings when evaluating performance.
• How often should you have performance reviews and check-ins?
• Hiring right fit people, both in terms of culture and skill set. How do you avoid subjectivity when evaluating candidates
• How the sales process changed as he grew from a 50 to 300+ person company.

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David Lawver is a mortgage lending expert, real estate investor, and entrepreneur, who took his mortgage brokerage business from $200k to $12M/year in revenue.

His years in the mortgage industry naturally lead him into real estate investing. He started with single-family homes, dabbled in short-term rentals and apartment buildings, and eventually got into retail centers, which became his most profitable real estate asset class. Since 2014, David has acquired over $75M of real estate projects.

In this episode, I dig into David's story, his progression from broker to investor, and what makes retail centers such an attractive vertical for him.

We also discuss the value of great mentors, his process for recruiting and grooming a top-performing sales team, the VC business model, real estate tax strategies, and much more.

Key Takeaways with David Lawver

• How a mentor's advice helped David scale his mortgage business from $200k to $12M/year in revenue.
• The value of learning from those who are just out of reach versus leagues ahead of you.
• Stop competing on price if you want to charge more for your services. Do this instead.
• How David grew his mortgage team and the recruiting/grooming process he used to increase employee retention.
• David's transition into buying real estate and doing $100M in deals with zero overhead expenses.
• The downsides to investing in short-term rentals.
• Buying a $5M apartment building with $500k down and flipping it for $7.3M twelve months later. He also purchased a group of homes for $3.8M that he sold six months later for $7.2M.
• The many verticals of real estate investing—and why retail centers are David's preferred asset class.
• How David finds solid tenants for his retail centers.
• Why he decided to invest in one of his tenants, Crunch Fitness—and how they thrived during the pandemic when most gyms went out of business.
• Reframing your behaviors and habits around spending. How much is too much? How can you justify "expensive" dinners, cars, and more?
• Does the VC business model actually work? And what will come after the easy money era ends for cash-burning tech companies?
• Leveraging real estate tax strategies to legally pay little to no tax—and how David strategically positioned himself to save $1.2M in taxes last year alone.

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Perry Marshall is a marketing expert who is best known for his reinvention of the 80/20 principle—the theory that 80% of your results are determined by 20% of your effort.

His work has helped thousands of companies reshape the way they think about sales & marketing, by teaching them how to focus on pulling the levers that drive the biggest impact for their businesses.

He's published a bunch of books, including The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords, which laid the foundations for the $100 billion Pay Per Click industry and went on to become the world's most popular book on Internet advertising.

In this episode, Perry explains that sales is not about ramming your product/service down someone's throat or persuading them to buy stuff they don't need. Sales and marketing are about finding proper matches; it's the art and science of helping people who need each other, find each other.

While 80/20 patterns exist everywhere in your business, we specifically dig into how it applies to your sales and marketing efforts.

You'll learn how to use the 80/20 principle to qualify your most profitable buyers, filter out and reject clients who aren't a good fit, and find the most powerful points of leverage that produce the biggest results for your business.

Key Takeaways with Perry Marshall

• The 5 essential requirements that are always present when a sale is made. Use these criteria to match what you're selling to the marketplace instead of ramming it down their throats.
• How your business can differentiate and succeed in a seemingly commoditized market.
• Understanding The 80/20 Principle and how to use it to prioritize the most productive inputs to grow your business.
• Why the amount of time you spend on customers has very little correlation to the amount of money that you actually make from them.
• Perry explains how he uses filters to guarantee results for his customers.
• What to expect when you oversell to your customers—and why your industry and product are highly relevant when determining healthy refund rates.

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Most of the time, I'm interviewing high 7, 8, 9, and even 10-figure entrepreneurs to uncover the tactics and strategies that worked to scale their businesses. However, this week, I'm doing something a little different…

In this episode, I wanted to share some of the best sales advice featured on the show.

Our team went back through the archives and pulled the biggest takeaways from 3 killer entrepreneurs—Neal Tricarico, Cole Gordon, and Ted Miller—who have all hired and trained thousands of salespeople.

While each of these guys has their own full-length episode on the podcast, I wanted to narrow in on some of the key elements of their sales processes.

We only scratch the surface here, but there are a variety of actionable sales tactics and strategies that your company can start using today. Key Takeaways

• Why drilling in and asking good questions is such a critical step in the sales process.
• Understanding customer pain points vs. unfulfilled desires.
• The distinction between selling and enrollment.
• How to create value that people will pay for—regardless of the price.
• Getting prospects to reveal why past solutions didn't work, so you can give them something that will.
• How to tilt the buying criteria in your favor, so prospects buy from you and no one else.
• Why a proven sales script is the roadmap to guaranteed success.
• 2 criteria for evaluating high-quality salespeople.
• Training your sales team—an alternative to roleplaying.
• Should the sales cycle incorporate multiple roles?
• How to build high-performing sales teams at scale.
• How to use group interviews to identify standout performers.

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We hope you enjoy this episode and that you find some golden nuggets within this interview. Trust us, it's there!

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Justin Donald is a low-risk cash flow investor whose strategies and principles for investing to earn passive income have helped thousands of people create wealth without creating a job.

Before turning 40, he multiplied his net worth to over 8-figures in under two years, then doubled it again 2 years later. He quit his job, retired his wife, and started The Lifestyle Investor to help others achieve the life of their dreams.

Justin has 20+ years of experience negotiating deals with hundreds of companies. He has invested in a wide variety of asset classes, including mobile home parks, self-storage, single-family, multi-family, land, private equity, startups, and more.

His knowledge as an investor allows him to vet "invisible deals," get preferred terms and create unique opportunities—not only for himself but for his exclusive mastermind community.

Today, I'm sitting down with Justin to learn more about his investing philosophies and how he built a life by design, not by default.

We talk about scaling his first company, his approach to hiring good people, return on relationships (ROR), and how he invests for wealth, freedom, and lifestyle.

Key Takeaways with Justin Donald

• The recruitment and training processes Justin used to take his former company, IFM Restoration, from 0 to $10M in 16 months.
• Investing in mobile home parks and making 20-105% cash-on-cash returns in year 1.
• Justin's early success as a division manager for Vector Marketing and lessons learned from managing a team that generated $5-$10 million per year in sales.
• Ideas for recruiting top talent and how to use personality assessment profiles to hire the right people for the right roles.
• What Justin credits as being the top factors to becoming a better investor.
• How to allocate your time so you're not wasting it in the wrong places.
• Investing in real estate: limited partnership vs. full ownership.
• Why Justin is willing to take less profit and control in return for more time.
• The Lifestyle Investor Mastermind—an exclusive community of investors that get access to "invisible deals" that aren't available to the public.

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We hope you enjoy this episode and that you find some golden nuggets within this interview. Trust us, it's there!

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