From an 8-Figure Business to Becoming a Coach: Lessons from Ryan Lang's Entrepreneurial Journey

0:01 Welcome to The Coaching Equation, brought to you by Empire Partners and hosted by Ryan Lang and Brooke Bishop. Our mission is to help you build a profitable and impactful coaching business by cutting through the noise and all the expert advice to deliver tried and true, actionable insights that you can deploy in your business today. Each week, we bring on expert guests, unveil cutting-edge tactics and strategies, and share the secrets and stories that we've gathered from working with the most successful coaching companies on earth. Welcome to episode 24 of the Coaching Equation podcast.

0:42 I'm your host, Ryan Lang, CEO and co-founder of Empire Partners, alongside my co-founder and co-host, Brooke Bishop. And this is a super special and fun episode for yours truly. I get a chance to dive into my story. And Brooke has the opportunity to turn the spotlight on me this time and interview me and ask me questions. This is an episode that was a lot of fun for us to put together, but also something that I'm really passionate about sharing because we're all about sharing our experiences so that you can get farther faster. In this episode, we're going to dig into the entrepreneurial journey. We're going to dig into building businesses.

1:23 We're going to dig into what it's like to be successful at building an eight-figure business and then go out and try to start a coaching company. And what are the pitfalls? What are the things that you have to look out for? We're going to talk about the messy middle and kind of being in between the beginning and success and understanding how to navigate that space and even being willing to go backwards a little bit in order to move yourself forward down the path. So, I hope that you find a ton of value in this episode. Buckle up, get ready. This is episode 24 of the Coaching Equation Podcast. Welcome back to the Coaching Equation Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Lang, CEO and co-founder of Empire Partners, alongside my co-founder and co-host, Brooke Bishop. What's up, man?

2:04 What up, what up? This is going to be a weird episode for me today because I'm the one who's getting the proctology exam today. I'm the one who's got to go under the... I don't know why you feel bad about that. That makes me the proctologist. That's true. That's fair. Actually, my sister, who's an MD, told me I have to go do that sometime soon. So, I don't know. Now we're going down a path that we just don't need to go down. It's very early in the episode for this already. Son of a bitch. Well, anyway, we had an opportunity to really share Brooke's story as it related to sales a couple of episodes ago. And we decided to do an episode regarding my story and a coaching business and how in the world that ever happened and all of that good stuff and our hope and all.

2:46 of this really is that this is something that resonates for you where as always just as we did during brooks episode it's really something where we want to we want to give you the benefit of our experience and hopefully save you from some not all i hope you have some pain because if you don't you're not doing this right yeah But hopefully save you from some of the pain that we endured and get you where you want to go a whole lot faster. So, with all that said, man, I don't know what the fuck is about to happen, but I'm like, it's all yours. Proctology exam, pain. What other boxes have we checked here so far? Yeah, no, I'm pumped. Full transparency. I am a terrible backseat driver. So, this kind of excites me to be in the driver's seat in terms of stuff.

3:29 Steering you down the lane of, I literally want to go down memory lane with you just because I know there's actually a lot of pieces. I don't know. There's a lot of pieces I do know, but there's a lot of pieces of your past and history and how you got to where you are, how we got to where we are. Obviously, I know where that story picked up and where our romantic interlude. This is the moment where you find out how many partners I had and you're like, what the fuck? I don't know if we can be together anymore, man. But no, I'm super, super pumped to just pick your brain. And in the spirit of that, where our world converged, I want to go back. I want to go back to the very beginning. So what can you tell us about third grade?

4:10 Not that far back. I know you have always been very competitive and an overachiever growing up and like super athletic. And like, I know those pieces, but I'd love for you to just share like where that piece began and then where you moved into the corporate world, because you had a number of huge successes before you ever even entered the world of coaching, consulting and personal development. So I just I'd love to. Yeah, let's start there. Wow. All right. So in finding a good starting point, I think probably a good starting point is, When I originally graduated high school, I wanted to be a sports journalist. And so I went to University of Central Florida to study broadcast journalism.

4:50 And if you know me, this is not a surprise. I went in and out of college and I was like, how is there a faster way to get me into broadcast journalism than four years of this slog? And so I ended up going, I had a really close friend. who was a recruiter for the army and he was a really good guy. And he always, you know, jokingly, he'd poke at me. When are you coming down to, when are you coming down to the office, man? When are you coming down to the office? And I'm like, Oh yeah. Okay. That's nice. And one day he, he, He called me and he said, look, I've got a first sergeant right now that is, I mean, that has got all the connections.

5:31 I think I can actually get you a job as a broadcast journalist. And I was like, what? Okay, well, let's talk about this. Let's go. And actually, really, it wasn't that long before that. I was... I was strongly considering going into the military as an intel analyst. But when he called me with this one, I was like, okay, game on, let's talk. And we did. And sure enough, I mean, she was incredible. And before I knew it, I had paperwork in my hands to sign, you know, go to the army to become a broadcast journalist. 46 Romeo. Yeah. Long story short, it ended far sooner than I ever anticipated that it would at a medical discharge.

6:12 And it was within the first year. And I came home and I was kind of like, oh, crap. All right. What now? How am I going to get into this broadcasting thing now? And I ended up coming across a program. I don't even know if it exists anymore, but it was called Broadcasters Training Network. And they had a curriculum, you know, and stuff like that. But more importantly, what they would do is they would actually pair you with a mentor in your area who was a professional broadcaster at a major station. And so I ended up kind of getting in with a guy there, one of my mentor in broadcasting, Steve Austin, amazing dude down in the Tampa area, a long, long, long time successful broadcaster.

6:55 And Steve, the whole endgame of this was that... at some point I would get an opportunity to get placed if everything went well at the station that Steve was at. And sure enough, it went according to plan and Steve was able to get me a job. And it was like a dream thing for me because the FM side of the station was, was a, was probably the most successful country music station in the Tampa Bay area. But the AM side was sports radio. And that's what I wanted more than anything. I grew up an athlete, absolutely obsessed with sports. I loved talking about it. I loved writing about it, everything. So I got a job in broadcasting. Basically, I spent the next three to four years in broadcasting, working for the New York Yankees, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, ESPN.

7:43 I met a whole bunch of incredible people. I had incredible experiences on fields and in rooms that you'd never believe. It was amazing. But I got to a point where I was getting close to 25 years old. And, you know, from a trajectory standpoint, my time in broadcasting was right where it should be. I was getting impatient, though. I... I was not the type... Again, if you know me, you would know this. I was sick and tired of roughing it. I was sick and tired of making barely enough to live on. And I was in a situation where I couldn't even get a full-time position. I was working double time with overtime pay because they didn't have...

8:27 This was a major, major, major broadcasting corporation. I won't name the name. But Suffice it to say, they're one of the biggest media conglomerates in the world. And my station didn't have any full-time positions available. So I couldn't get benefits. I couldn't get... It was really... It was tough. And I wanted to go make some money. So I got to a point at that stage where I just said, you know what? I got to... I'm going to quit. And I gave up my dream and I had no idea what the hell I was going to do with myself. And that was kind of the point that things shifted radically in my life. And my dad made a call to me one day. I'd grown up with him being an entrepreneur.

9:08 And when I was a little kid, he was in the oil business. in Colorado before we moved to Florida. And when he made this phone call, he had just sold a business and didn't know what he was going to do with himself and called me up one day and said, Hey, I've got this opportunity to go do this project in the oil business. I'm bored to death over here. I don't know what the hell I'm doing with this. I don't know how long it'll last, but you want to come do it. And I was like, okay, sure. How old were you at that point? That was right about... Let's see. I was 26. I was 26. Okay.

9:48 That happened. Yeah. That's a big shift. That's a big pivot. And it makes so much sense why you crush all of our podcast episodes. Now knowing about your journalism background, Ryan's got just gangster radio voice. One of the first times I met you, we were at a karaoke experience. And I totally thought of you, you know, I'm just like, oh, Ryan's this laid back, mellow guy. Like I saw you as being I wouldn't say reserved because that wouldn't have been the right word for it. But just like you had this chill vibe. And all of a sudden I just saw you go run into this stage and I'm like, what the hell just happened? Yeah. Who the fuck is this dude? Um, where, cause obviously there was a music dynamic that crossed into the, like, where did that lane weave into this experience?

10:35 Cause I know you had that whole other side of your, your life that played into that too. Yeah, I mean, I've been a musician most of my life. I grew up with my mother and grandmother were both from Austria and the piano was a focal point in our household. And it wasn't really a question of whether I was going to play the piano. It was just like, that's what's going to happen. You're going to learn to play the piano. And I'm grateful for that because while I never became a piano player, that was really an entry point for me in understanding music. And so I played my first paying gig when I was 15. I have somebody drive me there. I got into, you know, I was playing the guitar a little bit, but mainly I was a vocalist and...

11:21 And that kicked off really several years. I thought for quite a long time that I was going to be a professional entertainer of some kind. You know, I was deep into music. I was also into theater and film acting. While I declined to go, I was accepted to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater in New York City. That's the top 10 theater school in the world. That's awesome. And really, with all of the entertainment stuff, I loved it and it was a big part of my life. But once again, there kind of came a point where in the entertainment industry in general, you can spend your career being an unbelievable musician, an incredible actor. And if the stars don't align, you might just be the best unknown, amazing musician or amazing actor that ever walked the planet.

12:10 So there was kind of a point for me while I always had like a really, really strong rooting in creative pursuits. I would say that's what drove me in many ways. I also had a very strong need and want for financial resources. Like I like nice things. I like to be able to... go to a nice hotel, go out to a nice dinner, buy a nice bottle of wine, have a nice car. Like I enjoy that. And especially in the early days, that was part of what I wasn't getting. And I felt like I could get it if I had an opportunity to kind of shortcut that. So many interesting undertones within that, like being the best unknown. It's like, I think we know a lot of coaches.

12:53 Amazing coaches that are a little bit hidden, little secret agent ninjas. So... That totally makes sense. And I didn't know about New York and I didn't know about the acting piece. Like I knew about the musician side, but that's super, super cool how that all comes together. And this makes so much sense when we're running trainings and you on stage, why you seem like, yeah, it's a second home for you. Whereas I'm like a nervous wreck. Yeah. Okay. So you go into the oil, gas, gas and oil business. What happened there? What did you learn? What were some of the challenges? Like, how did you, how did you crack the code on that? Because I know that that's a huge chunk of that next chapter of your world as it relates to business for sure. When I first said yes to that opportunity, the primary reason that I said yes was that I had had experiences.

13:37 You know, as somebody you're working on broadcasting in the early days of a broadcasting career or you're a musician or you're an actor, any of those things, you're working some kind of other job. And I had worked a lot of other jobs and in many cases for major corporations like... Chase Bank and Hilton and Darden restaurants and stuff like that. And at every one of the things that pissed me off to no end, and it happened to me again in radio, is that I was at a skill level that would allow me that should dictate that I could take the next step up. Like I would lap my peers in terms of output.

14:18 You can identify with that. And then I would get stuck. Right. Because they would tell me, no, there's this red tape that says that there's this one criteria that you don't fit or you haven't been here long enough or blah, blah, blah. And it really pissed me off. And I think that was the early part of me. Like I watched my dad be an entrepreneur, but... and a business owner. But I think that was... I never really thought about it too much until I started running into those roadblocks. And I was like, man, to hell with this. I don't want roadblocks. I want to be able to write my own ticket. Like, if I'm good enough, let me run. And so when I first started in the oil and gas business, that's what that represented to me was that I didn't have to have a college degree to excel.

15:04 I didn't have to have a piece of paper. Like, it was legitimately... How good can you get? And based on that, you're going to be able to command a certain amount of pay. And in addition to that, there were going to be investment opportunities, an opportunity to really understand business, to make connections with people in the industry, all that stuff. So the thing was, when I first started, I had no idea what I was doing. I remember the very first day. I can remember it like it was yesterday. We were doing this project. Our first project was in southern Indiana and western Kentucky. And I was in a hotel room in Evansville, Indiana. Yeah. I remember getting to the end of that first day and just going, my God, what have I done?

15:50 I don't understand this. I don't understand. I don't understand the language. I don't know what I'm doing. I feel like such a fish out of water here, but the opportunity again, I had a really big reason why I wanted to be able to provide for myself financially. And that seemed to be a, you know, an opportunity without boundaries. And so, uh, I just I decided I was going to just keep going and not quit. And over time, it was a progression. You know, we started we had a service company and a brokerage company. And I started where I was just, you know, one of the guys, I was a landman out there going and buying oil and gas leases. This is where I had already had a lot of sales experience, but this was a significant amount of sales experience.

16:36 Going out and buying oil and gas leases, researching mineral title, things like that. I was just doing the day-to-day grind. And then over time, as I got better and better, I asked for opportunities and they were provided to me. I said, hey, guys, I'd like to run a team. And, you know, eventually they said, okay, yeah, we'll do that. And I was able to do that. I did it at an extremely high level. So then I was like, well, give me something more. And eventually, it grew to a point where they offered me a partnership in the business. And I ran an entire leg of our company in the Appalachian Basin between Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, New York.

17:16 At that point, I had an office in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. We were an eight-figure company. We were managing upwards of 200 people at a time. At that point, we had a thriving business and we had an incredible reputation. And it was quite a... It was something I was really proud of. So, dude, this is super cool. So, question, because obviously each one of these pivots, as they naturally do, it's like you have to learn a whole new skill set. You have to learn a whole new mindset. You have to learn a whole new, I mean, literally languaging. Like if I had to look at a piece of paper with mineral rights on it right now, I mean, it'd be like I'm looking at Japanese, right? Yep. Yep. Yep. But as it pertains to the most critical thing that you learned in that experience of growing the gas and oil business, what do you think was the number one trait or the learning that you had that allowed you to thrive in that space?

18:08 Okay. I'm going to actually... You asked for one. I'm going to give you like three. Number one, and I actually, I don't think I've ever told you this, but that business was founded on relationships. You know, we just did an incredible training with our good friend, Barb Betts, for our members. Barb! On relationships and referrals. And that business was built on relationships. We did not advertise. Like, we might have spent a little bit of money putting an ad in trade publications from time to time. But we didn't really advertise. We never had a marketing agency. There was no social media at that time.

18:49 There was no LinkedIn, which would have been a more relevant platform for that industry. It was built on relationships. So when we started that business, our third partner, David, is a longtime friend of my dad's and kind of like a second dad to me. David had... stayed in some way, shape, or form in touch with people in the oil and gas industry. And he was an unbelievable example. He's one of the best connectors I've ever known in my life. Great at just picking up the phone, actually staying on the phone. That dude... I love David, if you're listening, attached to the phone. But he was so good at reaching out to people consistently.

19:29 And even if there wasn't like a deal or a project, it was just what's going on. Let me talk to you. You know, and then eventually, holy cow, there is a deal. There is a project. And the other thing was that both my dad and David had reputations in that industry that stuck with them. So, in that industry, it's very interesting. There was a big gap of influx of young people. So when we got into this work around 2004, a lot of the people that my dad and David knew from the old days of oil and gas were still in the business in different capacities, working for companies and things like that. And there was this funky gap of influx of young people. And so their relationships stood the test of time.

20:12 And the cool part was... They only had to ask a couple of times like, hey, we're back in the biz. Would you give us a shot? And then we'd execute at an extremely high level. So number one is relationships built that business. And by learning that, that's exactly what I was able to then go and grow and cultivate in my part of the business in the, you know, up in the Northeast. because I learned that from them. Additionally, we executed at an extremely high level and we had a reputation. So if you've got great relationships, but you can't deliver and you can't execute, you're screwed. And one of the reasons we were able to execute at a very high level is because we had systems and structures.

20:58 that we deployed across multiple offices. So we started a company where from the very beginning, we developed SOPs and structures and systems. And we tinkered with them and we nailed them and we got them right. And after we did that, we just went and copied and pasted in the other locations that we were doing business. And that's what allowed us to go do business all over the country. So we didn't have to do everything out of one office anymore. And I would say... The third piece really is the incredible... Really, it's the incredible value of understanding sales and human connection. Because if I hadn't been as good as I was at going out and generating relationships, this type of sale is a very interesting one because I would go out, especially my first project was not an easy one.

21:51 These people... In the area that I was working, there was old oil and gas production. And a lot of it hadn't been done very well. They had old wells that were sitting on their property that had never been properly reclaimed. They were pissed off about it in a lot of cases. Or... They'd had companies come out there and offer them a lease, never really do anything. They get pennies on the dollar. So there was a major trust factor there that I had to overcome to get somebody to say yes. And I learned the value of understanding how to effectively communicate with people, how to understand the give and take of a real sales engagement. and how to make sure that on the back end of that, they were really well taken care of.

22:35 So I would just say in general that that was... I had done plenty of sales before that, but that was the first piece that told me, holy crap, if you can learn to do this at a high level, you can do about anything that you want. I've got notes galore here. So there's so much. Ask for one, get 10. So... It's really fascinating. I think this is so critical for anyone who's listening. Right. So there's this dynamic. I mean, what you just laid out was you guys had a legit business. You had relationships, which in today's vernacular could be you had a database. You had you had people connections. Wasn't just names on a list like you guys knew these people and you guys connected with them. There's another huge piece and I want to, I'm going to throw an exclamation point on this just, and this is my personal opinion.

23:20 And I laugh if you disagree with me, we'll have fight in words, but I feel, I feel like so much of... The world of business has become so transactional. Yes. And in the space of that, this kind of, it's like two birds, one stone component. One is most people have let go of relationships. The second piece that you mentioned is so freaking important. And I think it's so critical in the world of coaching. You executed at a super high level. I cannot tell you how many people in the world of business. I don't know if anyone's gone out to a restaurant lately, but it seems to be that executing at a super high level doesn't seem to be important these days for a lot of companies. So the third part was you mentioned the word reputation, which could also be a brand, right?

24:05 Like this is how. Yes. This is how they know you, right? This is critical. And you guys, it sounds like you guys put a good amount of energy into maintaining a good quality reputation. Systems and structures. As this relates to our world of coaches, I know a lot of coaches that don't have very many systems and structures. Well, let me reframe that. They all have systems and structures. Most of them are not intentional and or they are chaos. And then establishing trust. So there was this element that you woven within that. sales, influence, trust, being able to move people, being able to have an effect and get people to, in essence, to work with you guys. Dude, there's so much gold in that. I'm actually going to want to go back and rinse, repeat some of those dynamics.

24:48 Okay. So you're now in this gas and oil business. I know that this triggers a pivot down the line, but how long did that run and what led to the next chapter that came out of that? Yeah, so that really right about 2015. And we'll tell this story on another episode because it's a very long one and doesn't even I can't do it justice by doing the CliffsNotes version. So we'll do it another day. But suffice it to say that I was living our home office was in Franklin, Tennessee, suburb of Nashville, one of my favorite places in the world. Shout out my Franklin peeps. But our home office was in Franklin.

25:30 I was traveling to Pittsburgh. And for several years, I traveled anywhere from 50% to 75% of the time. And fast forward to 2015, I've been married by some act of God. Still married at that point. I had... You know, my girls were one and three years old and life with me traveling that much was just getting very messy. Let's let's put it that way. And I had a legitimate, full on, total meltdown as a human being. And. It made me realize that I had to make a choice at that point. I could either save my marriage, be with my kids, and be a lot more of the type of person that I wanted to be and stop traveling.

26:15 Or I could... keep that up and probably run myself into an early grave and lose a whole lot of the things that I really care about, all just to go chase another buck. Because the one thing I will say about that part of my life is that up to that point – That's really... I was so put off by not being able to make money early in my life and doing something at a really high level that I wanted to make money and I wanted to make more money. And that's what it became about. It became about the next car. It became about the next house. It became about the next deal.

26:56 And it's a bottomless pit. So... We made the decision. I went to my dad and David one day and I said, look, guys, I can't do this anymore. I got to fix my marriage. I can't keep traveling. So we either got to shut down this office or somebody else has to go run it because I can't anymore. And so we decided to shut it down. And when we did, we had an office in Denver and it was going to be a very difficult transition because we had somebody who was fully manning that office. He did a fantastic job. I was going to have to go figure out how to weave myself into that ecosystem without upsetting the apple cart. But we made a decision to move to Colorado and I would do work in a place where I could, you know, work and live at the same time so I didn't have to travel anymore.

27:43 And the truth is, after we did that, you know, I spent a year working out of that office and I just, I had lost my gusto for it. I, yeah, I still wanted to go make money, but like... That was the only thing I was chasing and I had done so much inner reflection because of the difficult personal situation that I was in. It's the first time in my life where I really cultivated self-awareness. I basically said, I don't care and I want out. I want to do something different. So I thought about it for a while and eventually one day I came in and I said, guys, I love you but I can't do this anymore. I'm out and I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. But I'm going to go figure it out.

28:25 So that was kind of the exit from that business. And that was kind of what eventually landed me in the coaching space, which was leaving that searching for something and eventually landing on the fact that I had grown up an athlete and my first job, you know, after I quit competitive athletics, when I was in college, I got a job as a personal trainer and became a director of personal training at a gym and For whatever reason, that was the thing that I kept coming back to when I started thinking about what I wanted to do. And I think it was just that in this particular case, when I was traveling in oil and gas, I'd gotten really out of shape.

29:06 And the first thing that I did when I needed to make a personal transformation was get myself back in shape. Because for me, while it's not for many people... that felt like low hanging fruit. I knew what to do. I knew how to do it. It was literally just about get up off your ass and go handle your business. And I did. And so I kind of had a new story to tell on that front. And I had new people that I could relate to that I couldn't relate to when I did it in my 20s. So that was kind of the entrance into the coaching world. I'm seeing a reoccurring theme of like, okay, so there's this dynamic of always being a hard worker, knowing you can out hustle, knowing you can just push the envelope. But also, dude, you've got a good track record of diving in and committing and getting it to the point of getting some badass results.

29:53 So was it all roses and fairy dust when you got into the coaching world? Or what happened when you decided, I'm going to be a coach, I'm going to help people transform their health? Yeah. Super easy? Yeah, not exactly. Not exactly. When I first started, I thought, okay, I didn't know anything about the online space at that point. And my first thought was, you know what? I'm going to just... I can't go... I cannot stomach the idea of going to work for somebody else. I suck at that. I've been working for myself now for nearly 15 years. I cannot go back to that. So... My first thought was, I'm just going to go back to personal training, but I'll create my own studio.

30:37 And we happened to be living in a pretty sizable house at that point. And one of the rooms in that house had an exterior entrance. So I could use it as a tax write-off as a pure place of business. And I made a little studio in there. And I started trying to figure out how to go out and get clients. And I did all kinds of shit. I ran ads on Groupon and stuff like that. Yeah. Oh God, man, it was, it was messy. But eventually I did get some clients in person and what I had forgotten, however, up to that point, one of the things about my previous lifestyle is that I had complete autonomy and I could go anywhere I wanted, when I wanted, do whatever I wanted and still get my work done.

31:22 And in this case, you try having 15 clients in person every day and thinking you're going to go take a vacation. Fuck that. Yeah, good luck. Like you can't go to the grocery store, much less take a vacation. So I, it was like six months in and I'm like, oh my God, what have I done? This is not good. The only thing I think I had done right at that point is not go and actually like... rent or lease a space and put a bunch of equipment in it. I was this close to doing that. And my God, thank the Lord, I did not go down that road. That was kind of the point where I was like, okay, I can't keep doing this. I don't want to keep doing it this way. I've always been really, really technically inclined, loved computers, loved the internet.

32:08 And I was like, man, I had started learning about people doing this online. And I just went, okay, how would I do that? How could I do that? Yeah. And I started searching and seeking things out. And I, at first, this will sound familiar to some of you. I was like, I found a couple of things that resonated with me. And I was like, oh my God, this is going to be easy. Are you kidding me? This is going to be like shooting fish in a barrel here. And I took a course on like how to make a course. And I took a course on like how to make a webinar. Yeah. And I took a course on like how to do Facebook ads. And I put my first funnel up and I spent, I think I spent $2,000 and it made me zero.

32:57 I didn't even get a lead. Like it was an absolute disaster. And I kept trying to kind of figure it out, unsuccessfully so. And I still had a few clients in person. Meanwhile, by now, my money is gone pretty much. Like I had a little bit, but this was like the emergency fund. All the play money that I had when I walked out the door at the oil and gas business was completely gone at this point. And I was literally in a spot where I was sitting at my kitchen table. It was spring here in Colorado. It was kind of a dreary day, which doesn't happen very often here. Nobody was home. I was hungover as hell. And I'm just staring blankly into my computer going...

33:41 I don't know what to do. I can't. I don't know how to build this. I don't know how to grow this. I don't know how to get clients. I'm fucked. What am I going to do? And I happened to see an ad for basically a service that was teaching you how to go out and successfully build, you know, cold traffic funnels and get clients, even if you didn't have, big online reputation or big following or all that stuff. And I literally just thought to myself, okay, one more time. I'm going to try this one more time. And I took a good chunk of the money that I had left.

34:23 I made a seven figure investment in this approach. I went all in because that's, that's one thing. I don't really know how to do it any other way. But I burned the boats. I went all in. And that was kind of another turning point for me was it gave me a much better... It was the first time I really felt like I understood at least what was happening in terms of paid advertising and funnels and client attraction and all of that stuff. And it was also the entrance for me into starting to understand that particular type of sale, the high ticket coaching sale.

35:07 This is huge because I know a lot of times out of our desperation is where we can find our inspiration. It's like in that moment of like, something's got to give. Just total side question. Did anybody ever tell you that you jumped into a niche industry, at least in the coaching world, that's one of the most competitive? Or did everybody kind of blow smoke up your skirt and be like, yeah, you got it. You can do it. You can do it. You can do it. Well... And most of the... Nobody in my life knew anything about the coaching industry at all. Nothing. So, no one... I didn't have any mentors to tell me, hey, watch out for this. Hey, don't do that. I didn't have any of that. The only thing that I did have was my dad in the background.

35:49 I mean, he was very supportive of me going out and doing something that I was passionate about, but he did not understand that business. And so, at every turn, I'd tell him what I was doing and he'd be like... Okay. Well, boy, I hope that works out. I never told him how much money I'd invested. He would have just lost his mind because that's one thing between my dad and I that we are a little bit different. He's certainly not by any stretch, not completely risk averse at all, but I have a much higher tolerance for risk. And sometimes that's good. Sometimes that's bad. But no, I had nobody to tell me that.

36:29 So I jumped in literally. I just thought sunshine and roses. I'm going to go out and do this. And especially it wasn't just coaching. It was the health and fitness industry, which is ridiculously fuel out of fire. Oh my God. It's ridiculously competitive. So yeah, I wish I had somebody tell me that, but no, there was nobody there on my shoulder. Everybody was like, go, give it a shot. Meanwhile, I'm just dying in the background when I'm not telling them what's really going on. This is interesting because this and that once you migrated into to that space in terms of really getting your head wrapped around the marketing side and getting those those dynamics buttoned up. What do you feel? Because I've got two questions I want to lean into on this.

37:12 One is. What do you feel was the skill that was missing that you were like, oh, thank God. Cause I know you started to crack the code very quickly thereafter that, but what was like that one skill and you'll probably give me three to 10, but what was the, the one thing where you're like, okay, that was one of the big missing puzzle pieces that helped me change the game. Yeah, I think that the first thing, I didn't understand marketing at all. Like at all. It was so nebulous to me. The only thing I understood, I was very adept at marketing. being able to meet people even from a cold conversation, develop relationship, cultivate relationship. But like when it came to actual marketing going anywhere beyond referrals or relationship building, I didn't understand it at all.

38:01 And one of the big keys to that time was that I started to understand one way of of client attraction. And that got wheels turning for me big time because that one way, I'll be frank and say that what that did for me right out of the gates was within a couple of months, I was able to recoup my investment in that program, which was good. What was difficult, however, was that I was never able to get that cold traffic funnel dialed in ever. I was never able to do that. And I spent...

38:43 We'll get into that in a minute, a lot. But what it did do for me was it taught me one way of client attraction. And it also got me, because it didn't work right out of the gate, it wasn't long before I started going, okay, well, this is not working. What other ways are there? What are the other things that I could be doing? And that's what led me down the path of starting to understand copywriting and email marketing and starting to understand a little bit about organic social. So I would say that was one of the big gifts that that first engagement with a very successful company gave me was just...

39:27 It gave me that initial understanding of marketing, but also put that like I that I had a bug. I wanted to know more. I want to learn more. And yeah, that was really important for me. Well, and that's one of the things that stood out to me when I when I met you is you're, you know, in the space of, you know, you mentioned the word relationships and connection and reputation like you are. Yeah. a wizard at connecting and networking. And I know you've been involved in a number of masterminds. And I know that a huge piece of the draw is the, you know, the subject matter that appeals to us, the thing that attracts us in. So I know you've been in some insane, not just business masterminds, but also like really dialed in marketing masterminds, sales masterminds. Like you've, you've put yourself in the room with some really important, just brilliant human beings.

40:13 And I've gotten to witness, you know, just over the course of time of you and I knowing each other, Like just the knowledge gap, like you, my dogs were driving me nuts today. So you were like one of my dogs that grabbed the bone and then decided to fight over it. But, uh, you know, I'd love to just hear about that side of things. Cause I know you've, you've put yourself into the incredible orbit with some of these just next level rooms. Um, how did that play in and where did that come into the fray? Was that always that way? Or is that something that came in like the last five to 10 years? Yeah. You know, one of the things that I learned in my broadcasting career was that it was all about the rooms that I could get myself into.

40:54 Who could I meet? So early on, I was able to get a job, you know, producing a couple of pretty good shows. And one of the things was like, well, you got to get some guests on these shows. And, you know, it's kind of like, well, once again, going back to sales, I learned the skill of meeting one person and seeing if I could get them to connect me with another person. And, you know, in terms of athletes, and then also like at organizations, the value of getting to know one person in a big organization like an ESPN. I'll never forget. I was able to get the cell phone number of one of the VPs at ESPN. I swear to God.

41:35 I call this guy in Connecticut and he's like, how the hell did you get my phone number? I'll never tell. But early on, I learned that if I could get myself in the right rooms, I could make the kinds of relationships that would lead to more relationships and more relationships. And I think that inside of... the coaching industry because I knew no one and I had no idea what I was doing. I came in, I really walked in the door with so much hubris, man. It's embarrassing to say, but I was so successful in that prior business that I walked in just instantly believing that I would have success here.

42:16 And for any of you that are currently in a situation where you're successful and you're thinking about this or you were successful and you're wondering why you're not like it's real. It's not just transfer. You're going back to white belt. Here you go. That's exactly right. And so I think in terms of kind of the groups and the masterminding and the networking, I think. First of all, I identified as an A player. And one of the things that I wanted, I wanted to play with people who were further on down the road than I was. And while it was financially a really horrible decision, I got into a high-level mastermind and... Within a couple of years of being in coaching, it was really not a good financial decision for me.

43:01 But the crazy part about that is those relationships, I still maintain them today. We do business with people who I knew from that mastermind. It's insanity. And so one of the things that that taught me, I've always thought... Since those days in radio and learning the value of this, I've always thought, what rooms do I want to be in and who do I want to play with? A case in point, you know, it was within the last 18 months that I heard somebody on a podcast and a major podcast and was like, hmm, I don't just want to work with that guy's team.

43:42 I want to work with him. So I got connected with the dude's team and eventually I figured out how to work with him. And now I know him personally. In fact, I happen to run a sales team. So, and that's led to other connections and other opportunities. So, I think to me, there is no... I'm so bullish on joining a group of people that are swimming in the same direction as you are, that can understand you. Some that are further back than you, that you get to hold up and mentor and coach and teach because there's value. an advancement in that, but also people who are farther on down the line than you, who you look up to, who you're going, man, how the hell did you do that?

44:26 How can I learn from you? Who else in that network can I learn from? I would say, generally speaking, that I wouldn't be I would say 80% of the success that I've created in life and in business has come from my desire and want and need and consistent work on creating and maintaining relationships and being a part of the right groups. Love that. Absolutely love that. And, you know, just to bring us home, because we're going to need like three more episodes like this just to unravel all the different pieces. But just to help us wrap this up, I'd love for you to share. If you had a chance to do it all over again and coming into the coaching world as you know it now and being on this side, having gone through, you know, literally decades of learning marketing, sales, deliverables, executing at a high level.

45:18 If you could give advice to somebody who's listening, somebody who's on the other end of this podcast, what would you share with them? If you had a chance to do it over again. Hmm. Oh, man, we could do a whole episode just on this topic. Okay, I'm going to try to be concise here. I would say first things first, I just want you to know that you're going to get your ass handed to you. You just are. It's not a question of when you're going to get punched in the face. It's just a question of how many times and how you're going to react. And I don't care how much success you've had in the past. It doesn't matter. I don't care what your background is. This is not going to be an easy road.

46:00 I think the second piece is I would say one thing that we didn't talk about that I think I'd be remiss if I didn't mention when I got into coaching and. It was so unfamiliar to me that I forgot so many of the tenants that made me successful in my previous business. And I had nobody to tell me, hey, idiot, this is a business just like any other business. Like you still need the systems and the structures. You still need certain financial components that I wish I want to give this to everybody who's listening to this episode. No one is telling you that when you walk in the door as an independent coach, that you're actually now a business owner of one.

46:43 You run a business of one and it is a business just like every other business. and all the same tenants that make successful business elsewhere apply in coaching as well. And I wish someone had told me that. And I would say lastly, don't be afraid to go backwards so that you can go forward. In my journey, there came a point where after dumping all this money into this mastermind and paid ads that weren't working, I had no money. And I had a family and it was a hell that many other people listening to this probably know where you're driving a BMW and you live in a 4,400 square foot house.

47:28 And you literally are going, do I have enough to buy what I need at the grocery store right now? and in order for me to move forward at that point, I couldn't figure it out. And I literally had to say, okay, I need something else. And I went and did some consulting and oil and gas. I still had opportunities there. And previous to that, that I had known your uncle Mark and, and I had an opportunity to, to get in and do sales and deep dive on that. And that gave me that opportunity. But because I, I couldn't figure out, couldn't piece together how it was going to go forward. I knew I wasn't going to quit, but just keeping doing what I was doing, wasn't moving the needle.

48:10 And I had to go backward a couple of steps and humble myself and get better mentorship and learn more and find out other things that I didn't know and make some money so that I could get back in the driver's seat and move forward. And I think that had I not been willing to do that, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. So it may not happen for you that way. But if you find yourself in a spot where you're banging your head against the wall, don't do the thing that I did for a long time where you have so much hubris that you say, I'm not willing to humble myself and go backwards. Humble yourself, go backwards, and you'll have an opportunity to go forward at a much faster pace. So much gold.

48:52 So much gold. Well, dude, this has been awesome. I've got like three pages of distinctions here that I pulled just in. Like so much good stuff that's here. We'll definitely have to do a part two just because I know there's layers of this that I'd love to just unravel. And I think that everyone would get so much benefit from. And I mean, shit, this was fantastic. So, yeah, brother, you want to close us out just to bring us home? Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you. You're the journalism expert. So for me to do it, I'm like, I'm going to trip all over myself. So I'll let you do the professional work. Here's the keys back. Oh, man. Well, first of all, thank you for doing this. This was a lot of fun.

49:32 And I hope that if you're listening to this right now, you got value out of this. That's really our hope is once again to be able to let you learn through our experiences. So with all that being said, Brooke, thank you. my brother. And really excited that we had an opportunity to do this. Happy and excited to share more at some point down the road. And thank you for listening to this episode of the Coaching Equation Podcast. Until next time, be well. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coaching Equation. Please hit subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you got value out of this episode, we would be so grateful if you would share it out with a friend and leave us a review on iTunes or your favorite platform.

50:16 To learn more about Empire Partners or to inquire about working with Ryan and Brooke, please visit www.empirepartners.io forward slash go.