OoM 075： From Rock Bottom to Rock Star with Ryan Blair
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Summary
Ryan Blair is a serial entrepreneur who came from nothing to lose and everything to gain. At the age of 21, he had already founded his first business, 24 Seven Tech, and has since created and sold numerous other companies for hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of his career. In 2011, he wrote a book titled Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain, How I Went From Gang Member to Multi-Millionaire Entrepreneur. And in 2012, Ernst & Young named him Entrepreneur of the Year. Today, he s here to talk with us about his new book, Rock Bottom to Rock Star.
Transcript
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Somewhere at some point you have hit rock bottom. I know I certainly have. For me, it was seven years
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ago when my wife and I decided to call it quits. Fortunately, I hit it hard enough and fast enough
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I was able to do something about it and save our marriage. Today, I talk with my friend and New
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York Times bestselling author, Ryan Blair, about hitting rock bottom, how to dig yourself out of
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it, and become a rock star. You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears
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and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every
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time. You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life.
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This is who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and
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done, you can call yourself a man. Men, what's going on today? My name is Ryan
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Mickler and I am your host and also the founder of Order of Man. As always, I'm glad you're here with
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us today. You know we're talking about all things manly in this show, specifically how you can be a
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better man in your life. A better leader, a better father, a better husband, a better business owner,
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again, just being a better man. Men, we are three weeks away. I'm so excited about our inaugural
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Order of Man Uprising. This is a three-day experience in the mountains of Southern Utah.
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It is designed to help you be a better leader, a better protector, a better provider in your family,
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in your business, in your community. And basically, we're taking what we talk about on each and every
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show of the podcast and we're putting it into action. So if you're interested in the details,
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go to orderofman.com slash uprising to get all of those. I mentioned the discount available to
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veterans last week. It still applies and we literally have three spots left. So make sure
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you jump on that quickly. Now guys, I want to get into the meat of the show. We've got a great one
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lined out for you today with my friend in New York Times bestselling author. But before I introduce you
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to him, let me give you two quick resources that you will be interested in. First, you can get all of
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the details, the show notes for this show at orderofman.com slash 075. And second, make sure you join
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our closed men's Facebook group for a deeper conversation about this show at facebook.com
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slash groups slash orderofman. Now let me introduce you to my guest today, Ryan Blair. He is the co-founder
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and CEO of Vaisalus Sciences. He's a number one New York Times bestselling author, a serial entrepreneur
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who came from nothing to lose, everything to gain. And at the age of 21, Blair had already founded his
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first business, 24 seven tech, and has since created and sold numerous other companies for hundreds
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of millions of dollars over the course of his career. In 2011, he wrote a book titled Nothing
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to Lose, Everything to Gain, How I Went from Gang Member to Multi-Millionaire Entrepreneur,
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which reached the New York Times bestseller list. And in 2012, Ernst & Young named Blair as
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Entrepreneur of the Year. Today, he's here to talk with us about his new book,
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Rock Bottom to Rock Star. Ryan, what's going on, man? Thanks for joining me on the show today.
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Hey, I want to lead off with a strong question just to get right into it. You wrote a new book
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and the title is From Rock Bottom to Rock Star. And I really want to know what you mean when you say
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rock star, because I think there could be a lot of confusion about what that actually means.
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Yeah, you know, it's interesting. You know, people ask me that a lot. Rock star today is used to
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describe, you know, rock star engineers, for example, people that are just the best of the
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best in their chosen sport, you know, and I wanted to, I wanted to take the meaning of rock star and
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apply it to anyone doing anything above and beyond people that are fulfilled, that are happy,
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and that are living a life, you know, of their dreams, and regardless of their chosen profession,
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whether they want to be a rock star teacher, rock star engineer, or a rock star entrepreneur.
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And that said, I use the word rock star because I have had some experiences that, you know, that I
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teach my readers in Rock Bottom to Rock Star about, and specifically what not to do many times is
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what I'm talking about, because, you know, certainly having had some of the success that I've had,
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And I know a little bit about your story. You grew up without a father figure in your
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life. You got involved in gangs, and some of this is similar to me, and I'm curious about
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the differences between learning what not to do and learning what to do. Is one more effective
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than the other, or how do you deal between the two?
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Yeah, well, you know, everything in life is trial and elimination, right? So, you know, it's a process.
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So you have to try something and eliminate it. So it's a combination of both. I could tell you if you
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can learn what not to do, you know, and if you can learn what not to do from a person like me,
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who has tried a lot of different things, that's the best form of learning. So I would rather have
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a list of what not to do than a list of what to do, because we all instinctually know, or we've
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been told what to do, and we elect not to. So, you know, I like to share a lot of my reading and a
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lot of my writing is really about, you know, teaching people what not to do.
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How do you see this in other people? Because you're right. I mean, you definitely want to learn
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from other people. You don't want to go through it the hard way or reinvent the wheel. You might as well
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just learn from someone like you or anybody else who's struggled in their life. How do you see this
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and recognize this in other people and then apply it in your own life?
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You know, you just have to ask good questions, you know, and have good friends. And, you know,
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I, for example, this Saturday, I was sitting down with a friend that I know named Zach Scholler,
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who sold his company for a ton of money. I'd known him for a long time. And we were just talking back
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and forth about what not to do or what did we learn or who, you know, who would we not do business
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with or how did this transaction come out to, you know, not work out the way it should have and so
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forth. So you just got to have good people around you and ask good questions. Uh, but you got to
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constantly ask questions and steer the, steer the narrative, not toward talking about all the good
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things you've done, all the good things they've done, but all the things that we want to learn
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from each other. Yeah. I think it's really easy to get stuck in our own ways and then just not be
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open to asking those questions. I, I just spent four days with some guys who had managed to be
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very, very successful in the online space. And it was amazing to see how these guys interact with
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each other. It's not beating their chest. It's not telling each other how great they are. It is a
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lot of question asking in what each of them have learned and how they can improve in their own
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business and in their own lives. Yeah. One of my values is, uh, you know, be a, a good teacher
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and a better student. And that's the explicit value that I've written down is I always want to be
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a good teacher, meaning, you know, my, my goal in life is not just to teach us, you know, it's to,
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to be a good teacher, but an even better student, which means you got to listen, you know, you got
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to, uh, you know, put yourself in environments where you can learn and you got to be a lifelong
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student and a lot, and, and the best of the best, especially in our world that are, it's changing so
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much. And specifically, as you said, online advertising or online marketing, or, you know, I mean,
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that changes nearly every day. And so if you're not a good student, you're, you're not going to be
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relevant for long. I'm really curious about, cause I know a little bit about your network.
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And I know you've mentioned in the book, the type of, and the caliber of people that you're
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spending time with, not only spending time with, but your friends with, I think we hear this a lot.
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Like your network is your net worth. And we hear these cliches. I want to know how you've been able
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to build the network that you have, because I think that's critical for guys listening today.
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Yeah, no, it is. And, and, you know, and I'll tell you, I'm a, uh, you know, based on the way I've
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been raised and everything else, I just, I I've come to some very clear focuses in my life.
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And I realized that I needed a mentor early on. And so I approach everyone, even to this day,
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uh, you know, I need mentorship in a particular subject. So for example, uh, I have an office in,
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uh, Troy, Michigan. I was contemplating moving my office from Troy, Michigan. It's a 63,000 square foot
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facility to Detroit in partnership with Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans and the owner of the
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Cavaliers. So the first person I tried to get ahold of to have this conversation was him.
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Now I knew that Dan, you know, likely doesn't have a lot of time and would likely not receive
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a ton of value by meeting me. Uh, but I took the shot and he did take the time. And next thing you
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know, I'm on a, you know, I have a relationship with the guy. So I guess aim high, go after the
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very best of the best. And a lot of times they'll just point you into, you know, someone else within
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their organization, but you know, and I'll even give you another example. I was talking to the guys
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at WeWork, the big, you know, the big shared office, uh, unicorn that's now worth 15 billion.
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Uh, I I've known the founders for, you know, a long time. I had a question. I reached out to the
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founders. They didn't send me to the, the, you know, the correct individual within the organization,
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but I'm always pinging these people. I'm always asking questions and I'm always attempting to
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engage them and, you know, knowing that their time is limited. So when you say you reached out to
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these guys, what does that tactically look like? Uh, well, so I'd met the guy a long time ago,
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Adam Newman, uh, through a mutual friend. Uh, when WeWork was getting started, he asked me to
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invest in his company. I passed, uh, it was a $250,000 investment in 2011. My friend, uh, made
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250 million or something like that as a result. Yeah. So, you know, I, I, I knew that I wanted to
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keep these guys close, but I hadn't talked to him in a long time. So tactically, uh, one, one day I'm
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reading Forbes magazine or fortune magazine. Adam's a number one, 40 under 40. And I reached out to him
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and gave him a congratulations to my surprise. He remembered me and replied right back and,
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you know, and I reengaged with them. So I'm constantly looking for reasons to reengage
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somebody I know. And I'm also seeking to narrow the gap of degrees of separation. So for example,
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one of my goals is to be on a first name basis with the president. And so I've, you know, I've
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done a lot of different tactical moves to do just that, adding value to the president, uh, lobbying on
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some initiatives and I'm a Republican by the way. Uh, you know, and I love Democrats and Republicans,
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but you know, I, I had to take a unique approach to try to add value to a democratic president.
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So that way I could have my voice heard. And next thing you know, I'm in the white house.
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Interesting. So are you on first name basis? No, no. I always call him Mr. President.
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Okay. You'll get there though. Right. I hope so. One day.
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Yeah. Very cool. It sounds to me a lot like just being deliberate, like knowing what you want and
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then creating a plan. And you mentioned finding focus is, is one of your strengths. One thing
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that you're good at, how did you find that focus? And what are the areas that, that are your hyper
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focused on in life? Yeah. One, one thing I'll say just back to you saying being deliberate on
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networking, just to add one more piece of value here, I'd say that you have to have an angle with
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each individual, right? Because everybody needs to be approached uniquely and, and, and, and personally,
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and you need to have an objection and object, an objective with them, uh, and that angle that is clear and
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concise and spelled out. So they get it as soon as they either read the inbound inquiry or whatever
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the case is, or somebody communicates why Ryan wants to meet you, Mr. President, for example.
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Sure. So you've got it, you know, you've got to find a unique angle, one where you offer value to
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the individual. You're not just simply seeking to receive value because every day of the week,
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somebody gets, you know, an inquiry of somebody asking them to invest or blah, blah, blah, blah.
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So that said, I just wanted to add value there because I do believe Ryan, you're absolutely right.
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Networking has been a huge factor in my success and will continue to be one.
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Um, so I, you know, I hope that that added value now.
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No, that makes sense. One thing I may want to mention just really quickly is I know that you
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are going to be speaking at Lewis house event and we actually just had Lewis on the podcast.
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And what was interesting is I reached out to him about a year ago, not anything against him.
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He's busy. I mean, he's at a level that I wasn't at at the time. And so we didn't make the connection,
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but like you said, I kept reaching out, kept reaching out. And then I finally reached out to him and I
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said, Hey, we're getting some traction with the podcast. And this would be a great time for you to come
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on the show so we can promote the event. And because I came and I led with value, he said,
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yeah, that makes sense. Let's do it now. So just a quick antidote to your, uh,
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Yeah. And Lewis Lewis is a great friend of mine too. And, you know, he asked me to be on his show
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a long time ago. Uh, and, and I, I said, Hey, you're both, we're both in LA. I like to hike.
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Let's go on a hike before the show. And we built a great bond on that hike. We got to work out in.
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So, you know, we were, it's kind of a life hack work while you work out, so to speak. And,
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you know, and, and, uh, Lewis has become a great friend. So, you know, that's just how,
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that's how it works. But you have to, like you said, you have to have intentionality and you also
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have to delete people from your network from time to time that are, you know, perhaps counterproductive or,
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you know, they're not growing as an individual like you are. And so you can't keep space for
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them or you can't, you know, you gotta, you gotta, you know, you gotta grow at the pace and speed that,
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that you are set to grow at. And if other people are holding you back, you gotta, you know, you gotta
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sometimes remove, I guess, uh, communication with friends and reduce communication with certain
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people and increase communications with others. I obviously we're talking a lot about value. And
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one of the things that I've seen a lot of guys get wrapped up in is they don't know how to
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provide value in the book. You actually talk about your relationship with John Maxwell and the value
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that he was actually looking for from you, where, where you assumed he was at a completely different
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level. Talk to me about that. Yeah. So, uh, uh, you know, I've, I've always tried to reach out to
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everyone and anyone. And when I have a chance to connect with a person like John Maxwell, you know,
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I take it regardless of my direct desire of our agenda to, to say, you know, earn money or,
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or do business deal or whatever the case is, I simply go after it. And I go after it, uh, as a
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connection that I know that will result in something somewhere down the road. And I don't
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have a specific agenda in many cases, John Maxwell is one of those people that I just reached out to
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saying, I want some of him to rub off on me. Right. And that is it. Uh, and when I sat down with
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him, you know, at first I was kind of skeptical because here's a guy that's, you know, that's super
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wealthy, super famous. He sold 70 million books. He's, he's one of the most brilliant individuals
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I've ever met. And I just asked him, why, why are you sitting here? Cause clearly it's not the amount
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of money that I could pay you because you know, the, the, the world's leaders call upon John for
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counsel. Clearly it's not because you want access to my friends because you know, John and I are a bit
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of a generation apart and he likes to play golf, uh, probably five days a week in his later years.
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Uh, and I don't play golf whatsoever. So, you know, through process elimination, we came to the
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fact that he is seeking to leave a legacy and he felt like leaving some of his valuable wisdom in
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my head, uh, would, uh, continue his work press beyond his lifetime. And it was a magical thing
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for me to have clarity in what he wanted. He had clarity in what I wanted. And when you have that
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clarity, you can build great relationships. In fact, my next book, rock bottom to rock star,
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John gave me a beautiful testimony for the back cover of it. I was so excited when it came in.
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Very cool. Yeah. Again, it just sounds like being deliberate and asking, right? I think that's the
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lesson. Just asking, how can I help you? How can I serve you? And it sounds like he knew exactly what
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he wanted and it was a win-win relationship. How do you manage all this? Because I know like for me,
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you might be somebody that I want to get ahold of and then I want to get ahold of this guy and this
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guy. And how do you manage your, your relationships? Yeah. Well, you know, it's funny that you say that one,
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I have a fantastic staff. I have a right hand in my office that she used to work for Madonna.
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She's a director of my office. So she, she knows how to operate at a very high level.
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And so I hired, I hire people that are, you know, the best in the world at, at what they do. So
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that's number one. Number two is I try to create systems. And right now I'm actually working on,
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you know, my system to make sure that I'm constantly engaging individuals that are within
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my network, sending them value, whether it be a copy of my new book signed to their daughter or
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their son or whatever the case is. Uh, whether it be an article that I like, uh, I, you know,
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I own a company called by Salas. It makes world renowned and great health and wellness and healthy
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lifestyle related products. And so I'm constantly just trying to add value to people. And then at
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some point I know in time, you know, the law of reciprocation will occur and value will be added
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back to me, but I do it without, uh, you know, a specific intention to receive, just knowing that
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putting it out there, I'm going to get it back somehow, some way. Yeah. Just knowing things
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will take care of themselves. Yeah. I have a little more intentionality of just, you know,
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let's toss it up and hope because hope isn't a strategy, but I know that I tell my friends I'm
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on a hundred year plan. So, you know, and I tell everybody that like when my friend's going through
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a relationship issue, I say, look, you know, you don't have to worry if your wife chooses sides and
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doesn't like me or whatever the case is, cause I'm your friend for a hundred years. Right. So we're
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playing for a hundred years here. Uh, don't think about things in short term. And so I think that's
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one of the keys to me managing these relationships is setting expectation with them that we're doing
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this for life for one, and there's no looking back. Right. So now we might separate or we might not
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have constant time together, or there might be separation as a result of environment or things
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going on in life and all that doesn't matter. If you look at life with a hundred year plan, so to
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speak. No, that's a great point. We talk a lot about actually planting your flag. And if you
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haven't planted your flag where, you know, it's going to be forever, then it's very easy to get
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sidetracked. It's very easy to do things that are not in your best interest over the longterm,
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but are really just built for short-term gain. So I get that. Yeah, very much so.
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So I think I got you sidetracked a little bit here because we're going to talk about focus and the
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areas that you focus on. So I want to come back to that. No, I appreciate that. So focus. So for me,
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I'm blessed with ADD. I have a son with autism named Reagan and he's a magical. So focus in our
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family is fleeting, but when we do focus, we have a hundred percent, you know, our blinders on and
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intentionality toward whatever the task is. I also talk a lot about, and rock, but I'm the rocks are
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compartmentalization. And so I look at life, you know, as a single day and a single day is 24 hours and it is
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all one in the same to me, right? If I'm fulfilled at work and I'm fulfilled at play and I'm fulfilled
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in my relationships that are non-work or non-professional, then I had a great day.
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And so we focus and compartmentalize on what we got to get done every single day. And when you're
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dealing with very difficult times, like, you know, like I have, my mother was in a coma for two years,
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for example, and that was a real rock bottom moment for me. And, you know, and when I, the way I was
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able to get through that was I compartmentalize the time that I dealt with that away from,
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the time that I had to apply to my business, the time that I had to apply to my writing career,
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uh, to my social relationships and to so forth. So you got to get good at compartmentalizing
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because it's too easy sometimes to let one thing knock off, knock you off track on another.
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And you can't allow that to happen because you have to have, you know, a purpose and a vision
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that, you know, you have to be highly optimized in order to say, provide for your family,
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or in my case, provide for my family. And then the thousands of other families that,
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that, you know, that I support, uh, and eventually provide for hopefully the millions
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of families that my charities will be giving to. So, you know, you gotta, you gotta continue
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to be focused, but you gotta look at it in a very tactical, uh, manner and a very strategic
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All right, men, quick mid podcast break. I mentioned it earlier, but we've got three spots left to the
00:18:13.020
inaugural order of man uprising, which is September 15th through the 18th, 2016. Now I began a journey
00:18:18.380
seven years ago to be a better man in my family and my business and my community. And I want to
00:18:23.320
share with you a live experience regarding the lessons that I've learned along the way between
00:18:27.480
the tactical scenarios that we're going to be running. We've got survival situations. We're
00:18:31.520
going to be executing the perfect day. You're going to walk away with a ton of tools, some resources,
00:18:35.700
the strategies, everything that you want and need to excel in life, to take your life to the next
00:18:40.660
level. Everything is included food, lodging events and instruction. You just have to get to Las
00:18:45.660
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care of the rest. We're going to be filling up these spots quickly. I've got three left.
00:18:54.360
So go to order at man.com slash uprising, secure your spot right now as we gear up in the final
00:18:59.880
weeks to the uprising. Now, let me get back to my interview with Ryan.
00:19:04.460
So what are some of the systems then that you're using, whether that's, that's computer programs or
00:19:09.620
just a process maybe that you've developed, even if that's in your own head, that the guys can
00:19:13.380
extract from you to say, okay, here's how I take the priorities in my life and then actually spend
00:19:19.260
my attention on those important things. Yeah. I mean, for one, so one, I guess the most
00:19:23.880
important system that you have is trying to, to, to self actualize as best as you can to self improve,
00:19:29.940
to look yourself in the mirror and say, did what I was today a good day? Like, did I get the job done
00:19:36.000
today or did I screw up? And believe me, I do this all the time, you know? Yeah. And, and yeah,
00:19:41.580
so it's like, you know, yesterday, uh, I caught up on sleep and I had appointments that I had to
00:19:46.820
cancel and everything else. And, you know, and, and, uh, I realized, Hey, I could have made a better
00:19:51.640
game time adjustment than, you know, I could have caught up on some sleep on Saturday and Sunday,
00:19:56.460
as opposed to just relegating it all to Sunday and missing some appointments. So, but you wanted to
00:20:01.280
be fresh for this show, right? So I, I basically sacrificed a hundred meetings yesterday just for
00:20:05.920
me, Ryan. I appreciate that. Yeah. But you know, you got it, you got it, you got to constantly seek
00:20:10.700
to optimize. And the best analogy that I can use is I used to own a company called sky pipeline and
00:20:16.380
sky pipeline was in the broadband wireless communication space and broadband wireless is
00:20:20.860
simply radio frequency communication. Now here I'm a total nerd here. So give me one second,
00:20:25.440
but when you think about radio frequencies and broadband, imagine a radio dial with a hundred
00:20:30.580
different knobs on it, or imagine the old equalizers on a, on a stereo, you have to constantly adjust
00:20:36.100
them to get the right sound. And every one of us is going to have the right, you know, sound or the
00:20:40.500
right frequency. And that changes over life and it changes over time. And so you got to constantly
00:20:45.060
dial in your knobs and tune in your, your instrument, so to speak, in order for you to, you know, to
00:20:49.800
continue to operate at your highest frequency possible. Yeah. We talk a lot about, uh, I call them
00:20:55.300
after action reviews, which is basically going through the end of your day and looking about what you got
00:20:59.460
accomplished, what you didn't do and what you really want to improve tomorrow. Without that,
00:21:02.940
you're never going to have a benchmark for what you want to do. Yeah. Yeah. I, so I, I tend to do
00:21:06.680
mine. I tend to get up to say three hours. My, my best days are when I'm up three hours before
00:21:12.400
everybody else, meaning everybody else is going to try to contact me. I'm three hours ahead as opposed
00:21:17.100
to waking up, uh, to them contacting me or, you know, allowing, uh, uh, life to take over your agenda
00:21:23.520
during the day. So I try to do my planning and, uh, prior day review after I've slept on it.
00:21:28.580
Cause a lot of times when you're dealing in say, you know, uh, high cost, very expensive,
00:21:33.340
uh, high risk or high, uh, uh, emotion, uh, environments, you know, dealing with sort of,
00:21:38.760
you know, buying a company or selling a company and that type of stuff. A lot of times sleeping
00:21:42.520
on, it's a good, healthy thing to do as well to review. Hey, you know, did I act, uh, the way I
00:21:47.180
wanted to yesterday? Did I get the things done that I wanted to do? Did I have a fulfillment that I
00:21:50.980
wanted to have? And I tried to get up three hours before to do just that, to have that review.
00:21:56.080
That's interesting. Yeah. I've never looked at it like that. I do mine at the end of the day,
00:21:59.020
but that's something certainly worth considering that I may have to try and see if that works.
00:22:02.880
I've done them both. And some days I do it at the end of the day as well. It just really depends on
00:22:06.400
when my day ends. Sometimes my day ends at four or 5 AM, uh, based on, you know, my travel schedule.
00:22:11.800
And sometimes I'm shifting time zones and, you know, I was on the road for nothing to lose.
00:22:16.440
Uh, my first book, I was on the road for 220 days, uh, for two years in a row.
00:22:23.240
Oh my goodness. Yeah. So I'm, I'm, I'm, uh, uh, I was a bit of a road warrior and I did have to
00:22:28.840
create unique systems just to me and my lack of sleep in many cases.
00:22:33.500
Well, I think the point you're making is that you have to get it done and just do what works
00:22:37.260
for you. But as long as you get it done, that's the goal, right?
00:22:39.920
Yeah. The goal is, you know, you're, you're, uh, you're, you're, you're review process is
00:22:43.740
absolutely right. A person has to find a time when that review is in their best place. Like
00:22:48.540
for example, you know, you have a few children, I've got a child. There might be times where
00:22:52.980
I need to make sure that I do it after he goes to sleep or before he wakes up. So you just
00:22:57.260
got to find yourself a real optimized schedule.
00:23:00.280
I want to talk about this because it actually leads me into some of the premise behind the
00:23:03.580
book, which is some of the things that you've gone through and learned the hard way that
00:23:06.420
we can learn from. And, and the first one I want to cover, because this is
00:23:09.540
something a lot of guys, including myself, including you at times, uh, do to ourselves,
00:23:13.700
which is excuses. And you've got a whole section on excuses. So I want to talk about
00:23:17.720
how to identify when you're actually giving yourself an excuse that's probably just BS
00:23:23.760
Yeah. You know, that's interesting. Um, you know, it's tough because it's real easy to make
00:23:28.540
an excuse and I'll give you an example. Uh, you do it subliminally. So for example, I live
00:23:34.440
in the Hollywood Hills and you know, I live on top of a hill and I get this great wind and I
00:23:39.080
have an ocean view and you know, blah, blah, blah. And then I have an office in Midtown,
00:23:43.560
Los Angeles, for those of you not familiar, like this is the flatlands and it's the office
00:23:48.500
is in a skyscraper. And I found myself not wanting to go into my office. Right. Which
00:23:53.040
is, you know, which is not a, uh, uh, a great thing when you have a number of employees that
00:23:57.660
would like to see you. And so I realized that, you know, that I was making an excuse every
00:24:03.360
day not to go into this office because I liked the environment of my home much better. I'm
00:24:08.760
inspired by views. And so the action I took was one, recognizing the excuse, communicate
00:24:14.600
to my peers and my colleagues at my office, Hey, I noticed that I'm doing this. Help me
00:24:19.960
recognize if I find myself into this trap again. And then the last one is I'm moving the office
00:24:24.920
to a place that's more friendly to the environment that I want to create, so to speak.
00:24:28.740
Hmm. Yeah. So it just sounds like you're owning that and finding ways that make it work for
00:24:33.200
Yeah. You have to. And that's a lot, a lot of what I talk about in my next book is I wanted
00:24:37.180
to create a business that operated around me. So I never wanted to sell it or leave a business
00:24:41.080
again, because, you know, you know, as you know, um, I, I bought and I've sold and I've
00:24:45.860
been part of a lot of different businesses. And so I wanted to, with my Salas, when I bought
00:24:50.440
it back, I wanted to make it something that, you know, I, I, I owned forever. And so, you
00:24:55.480
know, that's a very important aspect of, of how I'm trying to design.
00:25:00.300
How does that differ knowing that you're going to own it forever versus having a buyout
00:25:07.160
Yeah. Well, for those of people not familiar on the phone, you know, I sold my first company
00:25:10.840
sky pipeline when I was 24 years old in a $25 million transaction. Um, yeah. And I started
00:25:17.000
when I was 21 and, uh, the venture capitalists made 24 to $25 million for round numbers.
00:25:24.260
So I learned all kinds of things about full ratchet provisions and the influence and the
00:25:28.100
way venture capitalists, you know, will manipulate the board or manipulate the buyer or they, you
00:25:32.660
know, they do everything they can to, to win on behalf of their investors, not necessarily
00:25:36.980
on behalf of their entrepreneurs. And so I saw and learned that the hard way. And I also
00:25:41.460
saw the heartbreak of some of my employees that lost their jobs when the company got bought
00:25:46.400
or lost, uh, the cause or the purpose or the chemistry that we had. And so when I, when I bought
00:25:52.440
by South or I bought by South in 2005, after selling sky pipeline, I, I, I didn't think I was
00:25:58.200
going to sell it. And then I got an offer in 2008 and I decided to sell it. It was a five-year
00:26:03.460
earn out. They, they bought it for evaluation of 32.5 million. Uh, and at the end of the five years,
00:26:09.900
it was worth 792.4 million. And so at the end of the five years, I, once again, I'd sold my company
00:26:16.140
through an interesting structure and you know, uh, a really, uh, unique transaction. I wound up
00:26:23.040
getting the company back because the buyer basically couldn't afford to pay me to leave
00:26:27.580
or pay me to stay. Uh, and so, you know, by the, by Sal's story is, is an interesting one to study
00:26:34.120
as a kind of a bit of a case study. Um, and when I bought it back, I realized, you know, I'd sold it
00:26:39.000
eight times EBITDA, which, you know, means basically the performance of the company,
00:26:43.680
their profitability over eight, you know, for eight years of getting paid. Now that's a cool
00:26:48.540
thing, but I realized, wow, I plan to be alive a lot more than eight years. So why would I sell
00:26:53.100
eight years worth of profit when, you know, when I got plenty of years left in me to build this thing?
00:26:57.680
And so that was a mistake. And it's funny. I sat down with my friend as a private equity Titan
00:27:01.840
and he's like, so selling by Sal's is a mistake. And I'd never thought of that because, you know,
00:27:06.680
I'd made a huge amount of wealth. I, you know, I'd certainly established myself as a, as a
00:27:11.720
successful deal maker and entrepreneur and builder of a company, but I realized it was a mistake.
00:27:16.380
So the difference this time around is I'm trying not to make the same mistakes twice. Um, you know,
00:27:21.020
we'll see where it goes. Nothing is fixed in stone, but the odds of me selling by Sal's anytime soon
00:27:27.080
are very, very low because me and my co-founders, you know, we bought this company back to build it
00:27:31.460
together for the rest of our lives. So, you know, who knows what'll happen? Uh, anything could change
00:27:36.520
and industry can change. Regulatory things can change. You know, I have no control over a lot
00:27:41.100
of things, but right now my focus is the longterm, not the short term. What sets a guy like you apart
00:27:46.680
from everybody else? Because I hear this, you've got your 21 year old kid, four or five years later,
00:27:50.940
you sell this thing for 25 million. You've got another business that sells for over 30 million.
00:27:54.740
These are stakes that guys just, it's not even resonating with people. I want to know how you got to
00:28:00.460
the mindset of playing at this caliber of, of level that you're at right now. Uh, you know,
00:28:05.320
the best, the best description, because you believe me with, with all these deals and
00:28:09.400
transactions has come a whole lot of criticism and hardship and sacrifice and all this stuff.
00:28:15.600
Right. So, so there is a, there is a double, uh, edge to this sword. You know, one of the,
00:28:20.700
the people I've studied a lot in life and I've always been inspired by way back in my start of my
00:28:25.700
career in 95, uh, was Steve jobs. And they used to say he had a re he was a delusional that he had,
00:28:33.020
you know, uh, a reality delusion, so to speak. And I've just been delusional. I've just, I just
00:28:39.240
thought that I could be a billionaire. I've just thought that I could make hundreds of millions of
00:28:42.960
dollars. And when people would tell me I was delusional, you know, I believed, and that's the
00:28:48.000
one thing you have to have. I mean, if you want to start a company, you're starting a thing. It is a
00:28:52.780
belief is what you're starting that, that, that first share that you have, or the, you know, the shares
00:28:57.580
that you have, all that is, is a piece of paper that has no value. And you see the value there and
00:29:03.020
you build the value there when no one else does. And as a result of that, you then have something
00:29:06.960
very valuable. And a lot of people just don't understand equity and the values of it and the
00:29:12.600
beliefs around it as because we're programmed to, you know, to believe it takes money to make money
00:29:17.660
or that we should get a good, you know, hourly, hourly wage, or that we should go to school and get
00:29:23.040
good grades and go to a great college so that we can one day work 40 years to then retire. And that
00:29:27.880
reality doesn't work for the majority of people. And, and so it's an illusion. And so I just chose
00:29:33.580
to create my own rules and my own beliefs. And I chose not to subscribe to anyone else's unless they
00:29:39.840
were an expert. So I don't listen to a single person's advice unless I believe they're an expert
00:29:44.280
in the advice category they're giving me. How do you create those beliefs in yourself when maybe
00:29:50.240
there isn't anything that you've done to prove that you should believe that way?
00:29:54.880
Yeah. You know, you, you have to, you have to have a bit of faith. I I'm a spiritual individual
00:29:59.080
and you know, I'm not here to preach my spirituality, but there's a, there's, there's,
00:30:03.360
there's so many great, wonderful things that I'm so grateful for that. I, I can't even tell you how
00:30:09.740
it happened. Like, how was I so fortunate to be born in America at a time of technological
00:30:15.460
revolution at a time when we are the richest superpower in the world at a time when you
00:30:21.320
have the innovate innovations of the internet, you know, self-driving cars. I mean, all these
00:30:26.520
things around me, I believe that I came here for a reason and that I was, you know, that I was gifted
00:30:31.700
this, this beautiful life that I have for a purpose and that's to give back. So I have a bit of faith
00:30:36.920
that I'm supposed to go through the good times and the bad times in order to teach and in order to
00:30:42.220
make the world a better place. And that's what I believe, you know, I've been so blessed to do.
00:30:46.540
And that's what I believe my life's work is. And so when you have that purpose, you know,
00:30:50.880
a lot of things get a lot better when you start to have clarity and why you're doing what you're
00:30:55.720
doing. Yeah. I mean, you sound like a guy who's obviously comfortable. You're confident with
00:30:59.540
yourself and your abilities. You talk about in the book as well, identifying yourself and the
00:31:03.900
importance of that. I want to, I want to address that issue because I think there are a lot of men
00:31:08.780
who listen to this podcast, who feel like they're wandering around a little bit aimlessly and are
00:31:13.480
never going to achieve the results they want to, and the results you're talking about, unless they
00:31:17.840
find a way to get clear with who they are. Yeah. Well, you know, and I got to tell everyone on the
00:31:21.980
phone here, I'm, I'm more confident now than I was yesterday, but believe me, I have, I have my own
00:31:27.920
challenges and, and, you know, a lot of results of my upbringing, you know, it was a very unique set of
00:31:35.900
circumstances. You know, I, I got kicked out of school when I was in ninth grade. I went to juvenile
00:31:40.340
hall. I was involved in a gang. I mean, all kinds of stuff like that. And I had a lot of insecurities
00:31:45.740
and I still am working on my insecurities. Right. But some of those things that are weaknesses can
00:31:51.300
drive you. And so you want to harness those things. Right. So as opposed to, you know, uh, seeing a
00:31:56.960
weakness as a weakness, I see it as a potential strength. And I sit, you know, like, for example, if
00:32:02.200
there's something that just keeps me up at night, you know, I, I, I don't, um, get mad at myself and
00:32:08.380
upset that I'm so tired. I think it's a magic that's keeping me up and I'm supposed to work
00:32:12.800
through that and determine, you know, is that something I got to fix or is that something I
00:32:16.760
got to grow with? Interesting. Yeah. I mean, there's never been anybody who has any level of success that
00:32:22.500
hasn't gone through some sort of hardship. But what's interesting is I noticed a common thread
00:32:26.840
between the most successful people and they are consistently and constantly bringing up and
00:32:32.360
talking about and how these hardships or the obstacles or trials they face actually made
00:32:37.240
them a stronger person. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's the whole premise of rock bottom to rock stars.
00:32:40.780
And when I do the interviews, uh, you know, in preparing for the book and some of the people
00:32:44.480
I've interviewed, a lot of times people don't realize because they suppress these rock bottom
00:32:49.440
moments. Like it might be, uh, if you're successful, you might've gotten that way because of an
00:32:53.980
abusive situation because you, you know, saw a friend or family member go through a tough time
00:32:58.520
or because you individually went through some sort of tragedy. And, and as a result of that,
00:33:02.660
you, you, you know, you made a decision or a vow, or you modified your behavior consciously or
00:33:07.500
subconsciously. And so a lot of times people don't realize that that is the foundation. In fact,
00:33:12.360
it was a JK Rowling's quote that inspired me to the title of rock bottom to rock star. And that is,
00:33:17.460
she said, rock bottom became the foundation for which she built her empire. And when I saw that,
00:33:22.220
I realized, wow, me too. Right. That, that is the absolute foundation. One of the principles
00:33:27.060
that I write about is, you know, what weakens you strengthens you. And so there's a lot of people
00:33:32.160
that are very connected to their rock bottom moments, but they don't, they don't disconnect
00:33:35.720
from them enough to be able to grow from them and build from them. They, they wallow in them and
00:33:40.780
they dwell and they complain and they, you know, they, they have apathy and grief and shame and guilt
00:33:46.520
and all those negative, you know, emotions connected to it. And you got to just in life,
00:33:51.540
in my opinion, you got to delete the past as soon as you have it and go to work, you know,
00:33:56.880
today in the present and then hope for a great future and spend, you know, a fair amount of
00:34:01.120
time thinking about the future. But all we got is today for the most part. Yeah. What did that look
00:34:05.840
like when you came to this realization of hitting rock bottom that you actually had to do something?
00:34:10.420
What did it look like and feel like for you? And then what was the response of that and how to deal
00:34:13.940
with it? You know, well, so for one, I didn't realize the worst period of my life was when my
00:34:20.020
mother was in that coma. She fell down a flight of stairs. I'm a mama's boy. Uh, a lot of what I did
00:34:25.400
in life was to make her proud. You know, after I got my mentor at 17, I wanted to win. I wanted to
00:34:31.140
make my mother proud. I'm highly competitive. And now I had to see, you know, my mother's suffering and
00:34:36.180
going through a, you know, a very, very difficult, she had a brain injury after falling down a flight of
00:34:41.600
stairs. And, you know, this was a gruesome period. I didn't realize how much of a rock bottom period
00:34:47.520
that was for me, how, how much that was taking out of my energy and my life force, so to speak,
00:34:52.280
uh, until after I got through it. And, you know, by the grace of God and a miracle, my mother woke up
00:34:58.460
from that coma. And, and, you know, and I now get to have so much clarity in what I was supposed to go
00:35:03.340
through and learn from that experience. But during the period of time, sometimes you don't realize
00:35:07.500
you're about to hit a bottom. In fact, most people don't, because that's why they keep falling lower
00:35:11.640
and lower and lower. And, you know, and, and that's why, you know, sometimes people never
00:35:15.480
actually rise themselves back up because, you know, one of the rules of, uh, when you're falling,
00:35:20.860
right, when you're in a hole is to quit digging. And a lot of times people just keep digging when
00:35:24.900
they're in the hole and you got to just learn to quit digging when you're in a hole.
00:35:28.360
No, it makes a ton of sense. Ryan, we could cover so much and I know we just skimmed the surface,
00:35:32.140
but for the sake of time, what I would suggest guys go out, get the book. I've gone through it.
00:35:36.360
It's got some incredible insight, incredible value, and the stories in there I can really
00:35:40.160
relate to. So I appreciate you sharing that because I think it's going to change a lot of
00:35:43.600
people's lives. Awesome. Thank you, Ryan, so much. I really appreciate it.
00:35:46.620
So I want to ask you a couple other questions as we wind down here. And the first one I prepped
00:35:50.860
you a little bit for, and I ask all of my guests, what does it mean to be a man?
00:35:55.260
You know, that's a great question. And I, you asked it for me, uh, asked me that question earlier.
00:36:00.600
And I, it says, I have a struggle with it because, you know, to me, I didn't have a father growing up.
00:36:06.360
Uh, and I have a seven year old boy that, that named Reagan that has autism. And unfortunately
00:36:11.540
me and his mother didn't work out. We, we couldn't raise them together. We, you know,
00:36:15.200
we just, we grew apart and, and that separation could never really be healed. And so I have,
00:36:20.480
I'm a single father. So to me, uh, being a man is taking care of my son and doing whatever it
00:36:25.820
takes to make sure that he learns the lessons that I did not. And he's a better man than me.
00:36:29.780
And so being a man to me is being a great father. If you're not a father out there,
00:36:33.860
then be a mentor to someone, be a great mentor to a brother, to a sister, to a cousin,
00:36:38.260
you know, being a man, we have to show and model our leadership and our essence and in our society.
00:36:44.140
I don't see that happening enough. I see so many broken homes, so many fathers that have
00:36:48.420
disappeared from their children. And so to me, being a man is just, you know, standing up for
00:36:52.740
what's right and being a leader. And, and if you have the blessing of having a child, being a great
00:36:57.240
father. Powerful stuff, man. And right in line with what I believe that to be and what I know a
00:37:01.460
lot of the guys do too. So, Hey, I want to let you know, we appreciate you. I appreciate the book.
00:37:05.420
And as, as this comes available and the guys read it, I know they'll appreciate it as well.
00:37:08.560
And all the work that you're, you're doing and the lessons that you've learned the hard way. So I
00:37:12.660
don't have to. Yeah. My pleasure. Thank you. How do we connect with you? If you want to learn more
00:37:17.920
by the book? Yeah. If you just go to ryanblair.com, you could find out all the information there and
00:37:22.020
all my media, social media links and so forth. The book will be available, uh, or, you know,
00:37:27.180
throughout the United States and every bookstore and so forth, October 4th. Uh, but if people want
00:37:31.500
to join me on my, I have a pre-sale offer that will be coming out here very shortly where I actually
00:37:36.140
give back to charity if people, uh, purchase the book, uh, on a pre-sales basis. So if you want to
00:37:41.660
put me to work and see me giving back to charity firsthand, go to ryanblair.com and I hope you join
00:37:46.340
me in the launch of this book. Uh, obviously I give all kinds of money away to charity and all the
00:37:51.260
proceeds from my books as well. So, you know, it's all for a good cause. Right on, man. I'll make sure
00:37:55.980
we, uh, link everything up in the show notes so the guys can take advantage of that, taking your
00:37:59.500
time on the show. Awesome. Thank you very much. And I appreciate talking to all your listeners too.
00:38:03.900
It's awesome. There you have it guys. Mr. Ryan Blair teaching us a little about what it'll take
00:38:09.140
to go from rock bottom to rock star. Make sure you check out the show notes again at order of
00:38:12.920
man.com slash zero seven five for the links, the resources, and a link to the book that we shared
00:38:18.380
during our conversation today. In the meantime, also guys, check out the inaugural order of man
00:38:22.440
uprising, September 15th through the 18th, 2016. It's going to sell out. We're really close. We've
00:38:27.360
got three spots and we are bringing in new instructors, new information each and every day
00:38:31.760
as we wind up to the event. And it's going to be unlike anything you've ever experienced.
00:38:36.840
Go to order of man.com slash uprising for all the details guys. I look forward to talk with you on
00:38:40.980
Friday for Friday field notes, but until then take action and become the man you were meant to be.
00:38:45.340
Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life
00:38:49.940
and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.