In today’s episode, Max Kerwick shares a keynote from the Capitalism Conference by Tom Bilyeu — the man behind Quest Nutrition and Impact Theory — a 60 minute compilation of all of his most valuable business secrets.

Tune in to hear what he learned on the path he took from hand-making protein bars in his garage to a multi-billion dollar brand.

Key Takeaways

[03:00] Tom introduces himself and explains how he was not a born entrepreneur: he even went so far as to deliver papers for free because he was afraid to ring the doorbells to collect!

[05:30] The two childhood goals Tom had zero idea how to achieve.

1. 1. Become rich
2. 2. Have 6 pack abs
3. [06:20] The king of menial jobs… So much so that everyone expected him to fail.
4. [08:10] Who is your white rabbit. Tom talks about his two very muscular rabbits.
5. [09:23] Tom’s superpower — Nietzsche said it best to the people he cared for — suffering.
6. [13:40] After Tom endured his work and his riches without meaning, he quit, so he could start asking different questions. Failure and sadness are the only guarantee.
7. Know the odds, while you’re striving for success and happiness, and do something you love.
8. [19:36] A unicorn company is a formula, the before and after pictures are there. But there ares difficult parts: being afraid, feeling stupid, lost and hopeless.
9. [20:49] To build your own unicorn company you have 2 jobs. Job 1:

• - Develop your mindset and understand that what you believe is a choice: the Matrix has you, it’s time to lift the limiting veil.
• - Keep listening for job 2!
• [30:00] From a decidedly utilitarian perspective Tom shares his method to develop usable new skills.

• - Be an eternal student — you are not yet the person you need to be to accomplish everything you want to accomplish
• - Meditate
• - Be open to change, don't just talk about it
• - Execute
• - Develop grit
• [34:00] Have an ego, everyone does, but have it about the right things. Make certain you pride yourself on things that will drive your goals, don’t pride yourself on being right.
• [36:45] Grit is sustained effort over time, persisting through your boredom and suffering, develop this faculty and learn to tell the difference between lack of grit and disinterest.
• [38:24] One of the questions Tom hears most frequently is how do you find your passion? Like for building a Unicorn company there is a formula: Interest + Mastery = Passion.
• [41:41] We said keep listening and here it is: Job 2, build your business, Tom breaks down the how to’s:

• - Find your why and make it blindingly clear
• - Be transparent
• - Focus on value, it’s the only sustainable thing
• - Be authentic
• - Connect with your audience — Tom’s tricks, get the green light from thought leaders and engage influencers to access their 1 000 screaming fans
• - Add value (customers hate your content)
• - Finally, execute and grind baby grind because it starts with a willingness to persist long after it’s boring.
• [1:01:30] The central mantra of Tom’s life is “Just because you’re incapable of something today, it doesn’t mean that you’re not capable of learning that thing. It’s about who you want to become and what price you are willing to pay to become it”.
• Mentioned in this episode
• Quest Nutrition
• Impact Theory
• Book: The Will to Power by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Book: Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink
• Book: Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (Incerto) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Book: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
• Book: Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
• Joy Remetta Super Fan Award
• Jenna Marbles

If you mixed Brian S. Lee and Gary Vaynerchuk together, what you’d get is who Ryan wants to be when he grows up. Don’t miss this game changing interview with Brian Lee, the incredibly humble man behind 3 different billion dollar companies.

How does he identify opportunities and build exciting companies? Tune in for an in-depth talk about his philosophy for bringing together people, products and capital.

Key takeaways

[5:22] Brian’s latest project recently launched, he talks us through how the idea turned into what is now Art of Sport. Shopping for sunscreen and realizing there were no mission-driven sports body care brand out there started it all.

[8:56] In a pile of thousands of entrepreneurial ideas how does one pick? it’s all about the idea that sticks with you, the one that keeps coming back.

[9:44] If you’re going to make and sell a product, make it the best possible product. Vet the formulations, the ingredients, the scents. When your idea or product resonates with someone, that’s when you can get them involved — that’s how Art of Sport attracted Kobe Bryant as well as a long, long list of other athletes — always focus on the product.

[11:52] The “Producer Mindset” is a good key, and it helps to palliate all of your weaker areas. Be the architect of your project, find and bring together the pieces and people you need for your business: product, capital and audience.

[13:18] Sometimes though, producer mindset won’t help you, only good ‘ol grind and hard work, that’s how Brian’s Legalzoom was started. The Honest Co. was a different story...

[15:36] Brian needed to decide if he wanted to be a CEO, again, after doing it for so long, so he thought about how and where he could bring more value to the capital he had raised.

[16:26] Most people want to build companies to sell them so they can leave but Brian wants to build sustainable, generational businesses.

[17:44] How does Brian define success? Am I Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, have I reached the pinnacle, changed the world, revolutionized the game and will I transcend time? It’s a tall order, he’s still working on it. Ask him if he is fulfilled and satisfied instead.

[20:26] Go for audience first, what else is there? When considering who to partner with to launch consumer brand its about the relationship between the market and influencer, it’s got to relate. There needs to be a 1:1 relationship between what the person is marketing and what the audience expects them to market.

[23:07] BAM Labs is a place for Brian to start his own companies. BAM Ventures is a seed stage fund: we have to love the entrepreneur and not hate the idea. Too many investors fall in love with ideas. How does Brian chose his entrepreneurs? “Tell me about your best friend and I’ll get an idea of your character, passion, fire, smarts and and trustworthiness.

[26:50] The surprisingly simple way Brian funds the companies he starts.

[28:53] Brian shares an investment story from Legalzoom. Sometimes just 750$ will do it.

[29:29] Ryan asks for Brian’s advice on where to go next.

Mentioned in this episode

Brian S. Lee

Art of Sport

The Honest Company

Legalzoom

Seven Spark

Churchhome Global

In today’s globalized yet isolated world, the pressure to perform, create and provide has fallen squarely on the individual, and the loss of community has exacerbated the weight of this task.

Ryan’s last quarterly meeting turned into a profound philosophical realization on the importance of fostering partnership and a network of support for your team so that they can in turn derive purpose and growth from this communal journey.

Can the means, and the ends that justify them, be added unto you when there is no meaning behind any of it?

Your relationship with your customer is like a bank account. Make no mistake: every time you ask someone to buy something, you’re making a withdrawal against relational equity.

Since it can’t be all withdrawals, listen in to Ryan Deiss to master 4 fundamentally human ways to build up — make a deposit in — your relational equity vault: laughter, tears, belonging and generosity.

Ryan and Marx talk about the dynamic nature of life and happiness, and how speaking less and less in a universe that has reciprocity coded in has had painful results: hurt people hurt people.

Are you serving a person or are you serving Amazon? The more value you give the more money you get, focusing on a person and giving them what they want will drive you forward, no cat (you’ll have to listen in to get that one!)

Max Kerwick — BBP co-host and brand building secret weapon — speaks to a select group at the 8 figure exit workshop at Ryan’s home. Who is your singularity, the figurative customer who is most predictive of your long term success?

Be weary of “busy moms” or “25 to 35 year olds” and their variance, establish your bullseye and aim for it. Tune in for some insight on brand design methodology: building an archetype on goals and interests, identifying its variants and gathering data.

Sean’s first engaged quarterly retreat was an epiphany for the whole team. What happens when you go from “being” the brand to building a brand? Your business becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

And when the brand needs to grow beyond you, how do you shift your leadership style? Clarity of purpose will engage your team in a meaningful way and drive them through that first dip in the sigmoid growth curve. Preach your why and rally the masses.

After meeting with Gary Vaynerchuk, 3 time billion dollar brand builder Brian Lee, and going through a therapy workshop in LA Ryan Daniel Moran shares his insights and breakthroughs about business and life.

Ryan shares an insightful conversation from a recent 8 figure exit event he held at his home. Matthew Fichtner explains his perspective on the world as a veteran, and why he now sees that we are seeking military solutions for issues to which opportunity is a better answer.

Tune in for a chat on creating safe spaces for people to build for themselves because the best thing you can provide hopeless people is opportunity to build for the future and building something without knowing what you want effectively translates to scaling unhappiness.

Jesse Itzler shares what magic dust he uses to scale businesses quickly and sell them before jumping into his next enterprise. Check the box and move on.

Tune in for some great insight on the importance of a network of authentic relationships to propel your business forward; how challenging yourself can move your kids and loved ones to chart their own path; and how the amount of days you have left needs to factor into how you choose to live.

Is emotional intelligence innate or acquired, and why is it even important? You make decisions based on emotions, and so do other people: learn to use that to your advantage.

At an earlier Capitalism Conference, Gary Vaynerchuk said that it’s all about people EQ skills. Tune in to find out how to increase your emotional intelligence: your body, your habits and going further than empathy.

If you don’t brand yourself, your customers will brand you. Max Kerwick talks to Steven Black about social listening, a great tool to begin or improve your ongoing market research processes.

Tune in for some serious advice: your social media channels are not secondary sales channels, engage with your customers! The importance of customer retention, abandoned cart sequences and stop apologizing for being in business.

Ryan shares a resonant keynote from the Capitalism Conference, Bedros Keuilian gives tangible advice in 4 areas of business strategy: Vision, Mission & Values; The 3 R’s; Scaling your business; and Leadership.

Tune in for a profound conversation on the nature of entrepreneurship and find out how Bedros deals with fear, stress, pressure and the internal struggles of building and growing a business.

Who is Charles Crawford? The advertising ninja. Ryan Daniel Moran probes and prods at the best Facebook advertiser in the world, to find out, among other things, what it is that makes him the best.

Charles is working for a billion dollar exit, but where does he derive meaning from? What’s his mentality and what shaped it? Can he fail? Can you? Listen to this titan dissection.

If it seems unlikely at first glance, an employee-less million dollar company is possible. You don’t have to have everything figured out to start your business, but there are a few key things to consider if you’re going to go it alone.

Your business is a means to an end, your ‘end’ is ultimately the lifestyle you want, and so that needs to be the first thing you establish. Find out what non-employee options exist out there. Tune in for an expert breakdown of what is required to launch and grow your one-person show.

Some people are natural born leader and some less so, but leadership is a skill and so it can be developed. In this episode of Freedom Fast Lane, Ryan Daniel Moran breaks down what you need to do.

Tune in for a deeper understanding of what you have to practice to develop your own leadership. Own your own life, make decisions, set boundaries and communicate your expectations but above all of this: have a vision and cast it.

First, have a great product and customer experience. Second? Ryan details the 3 steps you need to take on your journey to beating out your competition.

Should you simply try to outrank your competitors, are there different things to try? Tune in to hear how to play a higher game and win: build something meaningful, sustainable, scalable and sellable.

80% of Amazon sellers are not entrepreneurs, they’re hustlers — and Ryan loves hustlers! But what if you want to go from hustling to building an 8 figure exit business?

Can you walk away? That is the difference between an income stream and a business. Don’t waste the opportunity you have built, turn your business into a brand. First, start transitioning from operator to owner, then listen in for the next steps.

In this episode of Freedom Fast Lane, Ryan Daniel Moran talks about the habits you need to develop to help you in maximizing your life.

Listen in to learn the 7 principles of freedom and how these can help you build better results for yourself and your business. Become a real capitalist: responsible, creative, generous, sagacious, coalescent, transparent, healthful.

Take the time to listen to this important episode and find out what Ryan understood when he hit rock bottom, and what thoughts he had about himself at the time.

Ryan talks about the fact that there is no shame in mental illness, there never was: we all have junk! The people you surround yourself with is very important, but the confidence you have in who you are and what you want will set you free. And take care of yourself, body and mind.

You sell on Amazon but you want a brand, can the shift be done and if so, what steps should you take? Ryan Daniel Moran breaks down for you.

First, mindset: you are not just an Amazon seller, you are a brand. Second, identify: find out who and where your customers are. Third, diversify: get out of the Amazon platform and get to your customer!

Max Kerwick plays it differently today by tackling a common listener question: “it’s great to build around an ideal buyer, but how do I market to multiple types of people?”

Do you really have to speak to different customers? First, diagnose and second, decide if you need to segment. Listen in to find out how to do both of those things efficiently.

Ryan Daniel Moran is interviewed by John Crestani for an honest, gritty take on why Ryan won’t apologize for his success, what path he took, and what prices he paid to get where he is today.

Listen in for some fundamental insights on how human contact can and will propel you forward, who you surround yourself with will change your biology, and success is a tribal event: it benefits everyone.