The Entrepreneurs Radio Show 034 Ryan Lee

THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW
Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business
Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur‟s Radio Show Page 1 of 22
EPISODE #34: RYAN LEE
In this episode, Travis talks to successful entrepreneur Ryan Lee, the founder of the successful fitness
and coaching website RyanLee.com. Ryan‟s exploits led him to be one of the most trusted fitness
coaches in the business today.
In their talks, Travis and Ryan pointed out the importance of perseverance and dedication as well as
cultivating your interests in order to achieve success in your online business. His achievements both in
his business and personal life is admirable and a wonderful example of a well-rounded entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs out there can pick up a lot of wisdom from this episode such as achieving more traffic for
your website to taking your business to the next level.
Ryan Lee – Online Marketing for your Business
Travis: Hey it's Travis Lane Jenkins, welcome to a new episode of Diamonds In Your Own Backyard.
Sandra my co-host is in the center of Daytona International Raceway as you probably know, we've
talked about that on the last few episodes, and she's going to be there for the next few weeks. So
Sandra I know you're listening, as usual, we miss you and we‟re ready for you to get back with us as
soon as possible.
Today we‟re talking about growing your business the smart way which is really kind of a broad
statement but it's something that is definitely worth going deeper on, although I want--before I introduce
you I want to ask you to do me a favor. If you've enjoyed the podcasts that we create for you, help us
reach more entrepreneurs like yourself by going to iTunes and posting a comment and rating the show
and of course send and let me know that what we‟re doing matters and this would be a big help for us
in reaching and helping as many as entrepreneurs as possible with the great guests that we have come
on each and every episode.
So to give a little context, each and every episode, our show that we do, our objective is to give you a
seat right next to us as if you were--as if it were just the four of us at the table talking.So you‟re part of a
conversation with the some of the most brightest entrepreneurs and thought leaders in the world.
People, that have found success themselves and want to help you by sharing what is that they know
and what they've learned in their own business, so everyone that we talk to has found success doing
what they teach.

So it's taken as years and lots of money to get access at this level. The guests in our show are
normally direct connections that we have or they're referred or recommended to us through other
accomplished entrepreneurs and basically, you're right here at the table with myself and my guest
today so let me tell you a little bit about Ryan Lee. Ryan grew his fitness site into a massive empire
expanding multiple markets that generates seven figures per month, that's not per year, per month and
everything from health, nutrition, software and membership sites. Ryan is the author of two books The
Millionaire Workout and Passion to Profits, as well as contributing to a New York Times best-selling
series the Worst-Case Scenario Business Survival Guide and lots more. Basically, this guy is a great
example of an entrepreneur that takes action. So without further ado, welcome to the show Ryan!
Ryan: Thank you Travis, I'm excited to be here and ready to deliver some solid content for you to
listen.
Travis: Excellent, excellent. So what are the premises is I don't believe, "I believe most people will care
what you know until they know that you care.” And I think a lot of times the best way to get to know
somebody is understand how they got to their level of success. You and I hadn't talk about this, would
you mind sharing us you‟re story of how you ramped-up to this level of success.
Ryan: Sure, yeah. I've started like most people. I was a recreational therapist at a children's rehab
hospital, it's not how most entrepreneurs get started.
Travis: Right.
Ryan: So right after college, you know I again studied this major, which was basically, I worked in a
children‟s rehabilitation hospital, and I did fitness, sports, even arts and crafts like everything with the
kids. Adapted Aquatics and on the side I was an athlete in college, I ran track and I was captain of the
track team and I just loved it and I always worked out. So on the side while I was working on the
children's hospital, I became a personal trainer and I set up my own business and I was having some
good success on the start. I worked all day but it was working for me.
And then 1998 the internet started taking off all a little bit and I think I should build a little website for my
personal training business. Now I have no technical experience at all and people laugh at me, yeah,
right, no, I'm serious. So I had my twelve year old neighbour Jonathan, at the time he was twelve, he
helped set up a website for me and I used a program called FrontPage 98 and it was a simple website.
It was just about training athletes and I wrote some articles. Back then there was no YouTube, there
were no videos, everyone had the old dial-up, you know, AOL or Prodigy, and it just started growing
from there. I started getting more and more people coming to the site. I was just before I got married, I
was living home in my parents‟ basement, I tried--I left the job after a while. A large internet company
bought my site for basically what was stock, so they said “oh were going to make it millions." So I left
the job, this cushy job at the hospital, went to work for them and after two months, the bubble burst. I

have a job, found another job in the internet company. I was fired after seven months because I
couldn't work in a cubicle. And then I became a gym teacher, all at the same time, still trying to build my
internet businesses on the side, and some months I'd make five hundred bucks, some months I make a
thousand.
So then working as a schoolteacher, as a gym teacher, I was in the South Bronx in Hunts Point, which
is the roughest area. So I'm turning to high school, I started, I think, you know what, I'm really going to
get serious about my internet business. And I created in 2001 what's called the membership site. I
basically took all these content, I was giving away for free and I said, "okay, now if you want to access
it, you have to pay." And there weren't many companies doing it at that time, and this again was the
strength coaches, people who train athletes and college and high school coaches.
First month out of the gate, it brought in five thousand dollars. And at the time, I was making less than
that as a gym teacher. So six months later, after six months of consecutive income of five to six
thousand a month, I left that job and that was early 2002 and now the business is generating seven
figures a month and my wife and I, we have four young children ages three, five, seven and nine, and I
get to help a lot of people. Now, I had so many people asking, "How did you do this Ryan?” that I help
personal trainers and now I help everyone essentially turn what they love to do, their passion, their skill,
their hobby into revenue online.
Travis: Let me jump in there real quick. So I knew you were partially kidding about the way you got
started, it's the same way that everybody gets started. Although that is true--correct me if I'm wrong
because this is where it happened for me, I felt like that I could do a better job than where I was
working out, is that one of the first things that come to mind for you or that's a good idea.
Ryan: You know, I had always had this vision that eventually I'm going to work for myself and try to do
my own thing and have kids. I didn't know what I was going to do, this was before the internet, and the
one thing--and I love working in the hospital and I like working at the school but I always felt like I was
put here for a reason and that was to help millions of people and I felt like--while working at the
hospital, the school's great, I could only help ten or twenty people at a time and I felt like I needed a
bigger platform, and I just needed to take something larger. So that was really...
Travis: So you're just going to leverage your time. Alright?
Ryan: Oh, there was no leverage of my time, if I did--Look, at that time at the hospital and the school, I
was salaried, so you get vacation time but yeah it was it, my salary was kind of capped unless I did stuff
on the side.

Travis: I mean not even just your time at the hospital, I'm talking about as a trainer when you were just
getting started as a trainer, of course you're extending you're time for your money which is the stepping
stone but of course it's not leverageable and it's not, well it's not scalable.
Ryan: Right it wasn't leverageable and scalable at all, the only way I was trying to find, I was always--
I'm fanatic about trying to find more leverage and at the time I was doing personal training, you know,
everyone in the industry--this was like 1995, let's say. Everyone in the training would do one on one,
fifty, sixty dollars for one on one session and I had a couple of kids who wanted to trade instead. So,I
said, "well you know what, instead of one on one, I'm going to train three of you. So I called it semi-
private training and instead of charging fifty an hour, I charge each kid forty dollars, so for the same
hour instead of getting fifty for one client, I got forty from three kids, I've made a 120 per hour.
So I was finding ways to make more leverage but you're right, I couldn't sit home and watch a movie
and make money at the time, if I wasn't out there hustling, I wasn't getting paid.
Travis: So is that the idea or what spun the idea of the membership type thing so early on because
that's way ahead of the curve?
Ryan: Yeah, no, absolutely. And I saw some other models, this guy Chad who I know. He did it and it's
the kind of weight loss health and fitness market, and I said. Well, if you can teach him for the health
and fitness market then why can't I do it for strength and conditioning? And a couple of other people
were starting to do it, but you're right it was very early in it and I'm all about taking a calculated risk. It
didn't cost a lot to set it up and instead of people really want this, let me see if they‟re willing to pay for
it, and knock on wood, they were, and they're still willing to pay for it. And there are some people who
live in a world of things. They don't embrace abundance, they're not--they're all at. Well, no one's ever
going to pay for my content because you defined it all online for free. And there's always people willing
to pay for content, or community, or different ways to create this referring revenue.
Travis: I think a big part of the problem now is there's so much content that it's--you're drowning in it
and so most people would, will pay for quality even if you're just curating the content not even creating
the content, do you agree with that?
Ryan: That you're not that other people creating content that you don't have to create it yourself?
Travis: Yeah, right. There's just as long, I think the caviar is that it's quality and most people will part
with their money when it's quality regardless of how you--or getting that content out to them.
Ryan: Well, there's a couple of things. If you're going to pay for it, obviously, it's going to be good, I
mean it's gotta be good quality content, there also has to be a real reason, like they can't just be, like
having good content isn't really enough, you know it's not a strong enough, it's not a strong enough

incentive because there are free magazines that give great content, there are blogs that give
really,really good, free content, so why are people willing going to pay you? What you're going to bring,
what's special, what are you bringing to the table that they're going to actually take out their credit card
and put in--enter in their numbers? It really comes down to--I think the easiest way to do it is you tell
people, you tell them solutions to solve their problem.
Travis: Right
Ryan: That's really it, whatever their problem is, you‟re really in the problem solving business and I
think people don't get that. They're like, hey, I love to teach people how to juggle. That‟s great! That's
more of hobby. Maybe you will get some people pay to learn how to juggle. Unless it's a pain that
really keeps them up at night, you're not going to be able to charge premium pricing and you're
probably not going to get a lot of people.
Travis: Right. So, the more severe the problem is, the higher the value of the content or the solution is,
right?
Ryan: Yeah, in general, right? So if you're picturing--and then there's... Excuse me; I‟m just taking
some water. There‟s a different topic that you'll be able to charge different amount of money for. So,
I'm looking at like in spectrum, right? We've got all the way on the left side. If you have a piece of paper
and you draw a line, all the way on the left is going to be the content that you're going to be able to
charge, basically the least amount of money for. And those are what I call softer topics. More a hobby...
Travis: Yeah, exactly.
Ryan: If you think a hobby, you think of knitting, and baking, and gardening, and maybe even--just a
little softer topic. And as you move along to the right, you start getting into, okay, health and fitness,
that's a little bit more personal development, maybe even cars and fixing cars, and the cost of that, now
you start moving along the line, you're able to charge higher prices. And then on the other end of the
spectrum where people pay the most are going to be, in general, the return on investment, the how to
make money. And it doesn't have to be how to make money in the stock market, or how to become a
millionaire online. It can be how to build your accounting business, how to make money in real estate.
There's so many different topics but in general it is easier to sell those because people can--they could
say, "okay, I'm going to invest $50 a month.” However, if he can give you stock bids and other projects
getting one good stock bids, and I make $51, it was worth it, because you wouldn't pay $50 for 51, so it
is always easier to sell the harder topics, but you can make money absolutely in the soft topics.
You have to really think about what you're going to sell and what you can offer. It's not about you and
that's another trait the entrepreneurs make mistakes. They think it's all about them. It‟s like, "well, I

want to teach it, I want to teach people how to make bowl. Well no one else wants to know how to
make bowl."
It can be an example but they don't care about you, it's only about what's in it for them. I don't care if
you‟re a 2nd generation bowl maker, with a bowl-making certificate from the University of Bowl, I don't
know, right?
Travis: Yeah, and that's an--they would be a great night of back-story of the bowl, but it's not the
driving force of selling the bowl...
Ryan: Right. You're not going to have tens of thousands of people coming on and buying just for that.
Exactly.
Travis: Right. It's a great point, a lot of people don't get that and of course if you can teach someone to
make a money, like you said, in a variety of ways whether to grow your business, grow your portfolio,
grow your whatever, it's much easier for them to validate that expense and quite often in business-type
applications they can write it off as a business expense as well.
Ryan: Yeah, exactly. And I'm certainly not a CPA, I'm the furthest thing from it but it's definitely an
easier sell, so if I have, for example I do a ton of consulting and coaching in my groups, so I'll get
someone who will say, "I'm a massage therapist, and I have a successful massage therapy practice,
and I have a massage therapy studio, and what I want to do is create a DVD teaching people how to do
self-massage." And then sometimes as we go in to it, we go deeper, and I start asking questions and
they start doing some soul searching. I'll say, "What are the most questions you're getting, not just from
them but from anyone." And maybe this massage therapist will say, "Well you know what, everytime I
go to a conference everyone asks me, how do you handle a successful massage therapy to be a want
open more?" I need the people like ready to spend money on. So maybe that's a market, maybe that's
what you do, you teach what you're good at and teach other therapists how to open it up, as oppose to
trying to go a mass market product. And a therapist probably have a much better chance of success in
that market as oppose to being like any other massage therapist in the planet.
Travis: Right. You know that plays into another thing that I wanted to backtrack and talk about. So
you've built this business to some pretty incredible levels and I've been fortunate enough to where--I've
done something similar in my first business and most people think, they look at the entire
accomplishment and they think, "Wow, this guy's on another level, I could never accomplish that." And I
think it's important to illustrate that the success is not--you didn't go from zero to seven figures a month
in a year. In my business, my first year of business, I did a hundred thousand and I was impressed, I
was happy, and in the next year I doubled, and the next year I doubled, and it just grows.

And so, talk about that evolution so that people don't get overwhelmed and say, "This is impossible, I
can't do that." Tell me from your perspective about that.
Ryan: Yeah, you're a 100% right Travis it takes time. Especially if you're going to do it right. When you
look at people online and it's like, "Oh, I went from zero to $100,000 in 2 months because of a big
product launch." What you're not saying is where is the business a year or two later? Because it's
usually not a sustainable business.I'm all about looking at long term wealth and taking your time, and I'll
use one of my students as an example.
This guy is a tennis player, he played college tennis, he was number one in the country in college and
then he played pro. He didn't end up in like I think in the top hundred, and he made it so he played at
Wimbledon, and U.S. Open, and maybe he made it past the opening round and won the two of them.
But he loves tennis, lives and breathes it, and he said, "You know what, I'm going to study Ryan and his
method", and he created a tennis membership site where he teach those tennis lessons online. But he
says, "I'm going to take my time, I'm going to really put out good content, I'm going to connect with
people, find out what they want, and go into it slowly." And now he said he didn't really start making
good money, now it's a nice, really solid, strong six figure business until about a year into it.
But it takes, absolutely you have to have patience, because if you try to rush it and you try to rush the
sale, you might make some short-term money but long-term, it's going to go away. And you can still sell
well with hype and a getting people to buy, but if you're not there for the long term and really providing
just--not, you know, everyone's well provides good customer service. I'm talking beyond that, I'm
talking of going above and beyond. Then you're not going to be in it for very long so it actually takes
time and you have to have patience with it. And that's why I always recommend don't quit your day job.
Travis: Right.
Ryan: I have one person during my coaching group and she's a pharmacist and she said. "You know, I
told my boss I'm going to quit in six months." I said, "You better go back today and tell them, you know
what, never mind, I'm not going to quit because and I said, I will not accept you in my group unless you
do that because I'm not being responsible for that."
Rule number 1 is pay the bills, and there's some guys who recommend the different, you know, burn
the shit and just go for it. Who needs that kind of pressure and stress? So I think you could absolutely
do this stuff on the side, but you have to be patient, it does take some time but it will pay for itself over
the long run.
Travis: Right. Okay so, our listeners are entrepreneurs and a multiple of stages and that conversation
right there or that piece of advice really speaks to the person that has an entrepreneurial spirit and
wants to make the jump. What do you feel like existing entrepreneurs that want to take their business to

the next level? What do you think most entrepreneurs are missing right now that really could take their
business to the next level, but you seem to see as a common problem amongst business owners?
Ryan: Oh man, where do I start?
Travis: I know it's a broad question.
Ryan: Yeah, no, and there's a million places, I think, that where with entrepreneurs are just lacking.
Travis: Do you think of the low hanging fruit is?
Ryan: Okay, low hanging fruit is they're not productive. They're like, I don't understand, I'm working 10-
12 hours a day, and I'm not--their business is stalling, and often it's because you're not doing the right
things, you're checking email 400 times, you're playing defense all day when you should be playing
offense. You're getting side-tracked with Skype and instant messaging and everytime the phone rings
you're picking it up, and you're texting, when you should be just sitting down and focusing on what is
going to make me money, period.
My sister opens her own real estate company in New York City and I sat down with her and I said,
"What makes you the most money? What helps your business?" And she said, "Well, it's getting the
listings from these landlords." And I say, "Well, how do you get that?"She said, "Well we call them. We
cold call them and get their list." I said, "Okay."
Do you do that every day?
Well, no, not every day, sometimes we're busy, we have to do emails. I said, "This should be different.
What you should do is the first thing in the morning, you should spend 2 hours doing nothing but calling
landlords, that's it. That's your business."
And when she started doing that, the business started to grow.
Travis: Right.
Ryan: But most business owners don't do that. That's the part that makes the money and then for
some reason they don't do it. You got to find out what those profit producing activities are and do that,
and don't stop doing that. Which kind of leads me to the next point of what they're not doing is they're
not prolific enough. They'll say, "Well, my business is as well." I said, "What did you do yesterday to
market your business. Oh, yesterday we..., and the help really do anything, you know, or I'll say, okay,
they want to do video marketing. "Okay, how many videos did you do last week? Oh well, we did a
video like 6 months ago but it didn't really do much."
Travis: Right.

Ryan: That's not really a video marketing strategy. So they're just not hustling, they're not getting out
there and they're not only in hustling. If they are hustling, they're usually doing the wrong stuff, and
they give up sometimes too easily on the thing. They'll have a promotion that'll work pretty well and they
never repeat it. Like they just kind of go like, "I'll do something else." So there's just so many ways in
terms of growing your business. And they're not innovative enough, they get lazy, they get very relaxed
in what they do and they're not looking to innovate in their market and they're not creating new products
because no matter how good your business is, that lead product, whatever it is. There's always going to
be some type of lead product, even if you're selling coffee, like there's that lead product. Eventually that
lead also goes stale, or doesn't work as effectively. You have to find ways to innovate and put new
things out there into the market place.
Travis: Right.
Ryan: So those are just a few things off the top of my head.
Travis: So let me go deeper on both of this. So the first one is, I just want to re-clarify to make sure
that we're driving this message home because both of these are super important. What you're saying
and I agree with you 100% is most people view the marketing as an event rather than an ongoing
constant thing that needs to be done. It's like bathing; you need to do it every day, every day, every
day, every day. It's not a one time or a couple of month event. Fair clarification from your point there?
Ryan: Yeah. I'll take it even a step further Travis. Marketing is not only a vital part of your business, it is
your business. I will almost say, I'll tell you that you're in the marketing business, no matter what you're
selling. I know you're co-host owned the coffee company right?
Travis: Yeah.
Ryan: She's not into coffee. She's a marketing company that sells coffee. You might not be in the soda
business; you're a marketing company that sells soda. So, I think that's what people--you're not in the
pizza business, you're in a marketing company that sells pizza, and I think when people make that shift,
their business explodes because everything is about marketing. And they can lose it, because that's it,
without that, you could have the best coffee in the world, handpicked in Chile and every--it's born and
you polish it and then dipped in gold. It could save the world, but if no one knows about it, what good is
it? You're not helping anyone; you're not building a business, so it's all 100% about marketing.
Now obviously, you have to have the good products and the service and the systems, but without
marketing your company's going to die.

Travis: Alright. So I do a lot of deep dive assessments of businesses and in mentoring and the most
common thing is chocolate shops are great at making chocolates, but they lack the business metrics
and the marketing. A bakery, same problem, maternity, same problem, doctor...
So they're all good at their craft, their specialty, but they're lacking the business metrics and the
marketing. And those two things are the driving force--well they actually determine the success and the
survival of your business, right?
Ryan: Right, and obviously they never read the e-myth, right? Every entrepreneur should read the e-
myth because you're just subscribing that to a teeth. Someone's good at making chocolates and they
think, okay, I got to open up the chocolate shop and all they're doing is making chocolate and they're
not growing and driving their business.
Travis: Right.
Ryan: And I think another big problem, another big issue is that they don't look outside of their
industry. So using your example of the personal chocolate shop, what they're going to do is they're
going to say, I'm going to open the chocolate shop, I'm going to do my research and I'm going to look at
10 other chocolate shops, and I'm going to see exactly how the 10 other chocolate shops market. And
I'm going to see how they set-up their store and how much they price, and they basically try to copy
every other chocolate shop. So what happens is no one even notices if it's working well because
everyone--it's just a clone of chocolate shops, where...
Travis: Everybody's doing the same thing.
Ryan: It's becomes like ancestral marketing. So if you start looking outside your industry and you start
saying, "Okay, I own the chocolate shop, but look at that store next to me, that's a dry cleaner. They
have lines out the door, what are they doing? Let me look at their marketing tactics; let me look at their
pricing. Oh, they have a VIP membership at 29 a month and it gives you first in line, maybe I could do
that in chocolate, maybe I could have the chocolate of the month? Oh look at the way they created this
promotion on Valentine's Day, maybe I could do that in my chocolate shop."
So once you start going outside of your industry is when huge breakthroughs happen, because
otherwise you just get stuck. And thank God for the internet because it's so easy to spy on your
competition now, because you can prey on businesses now, and you could look at all the promotions
you can get on their email list, you should buy their products. Look outside of your industry, and that's
another big way to...

Travis: Great advice. Now what was the second thing? You mesmerized me with your wonderful
answer there so much that I got so focused and then I forgot what the second item was and I wanted to
go deeper on that.
Ryan: That's all I do, I just mesmerize.
Travis: Yeah.
Ryan: Okay, you said marketing is the driving force, and then--I can't remember either, I got lost in my
own greatness.
Travis: We were both mesmerized there Ryan. Listen, let me backtrack on another thing also. So the
name of the show is Diamonds in Your Own Backyard, and it's really a playoff of acres and acres of
diamonds which is a great story about a guy that dreamed of incredible wealth on the other side of the
world and he ended up leaving his beautiful family and selling his farm, only to die in his journey of this
incredible wealth. And several years later, and you probably already know the story, several years later
they found acres and acres of diamonds on his property that he sold. Are you familiar with that story?
Ryan: Yeah, I‟ve read that years ago but I do remember acres and—yeah.
Travis: And so, the really interesting thing is there was a time in my life where I lost everything and I
really thought it was the end of my life and it was one of the toughest phases in my life and as I got a
little clarity. I've come to realize that really was the birthing of the newest phase of my life and it really
conditioned me for the next phase of business and everything else. And after, I got 18-20 months
beyond that. I realized it was the best thing that ever happened to me, so it was my diamond in my
backyard. Basically, a turning point in my life and my career. Have you had something like that?
Ryan: You know. Funny, because I've been asked...
Travis: A big one or just several little ones?
Ryan: I've been asked this question in so many different ways, but it is become that specific. And I
really haven't had that one thing where my...yeah, it's been like little. When I launched my first
membership site back in 2001, after the first day it has gone like a thousand dollars that was like, "oh
my God! I can make a living out of it." So that was one--there was no seminal, the light bulbs went off
and I'm like, "Ahhh!” For me it was just in a process, but every dayI feel like I have breakthrough. I
have a brand new publishing company I'm going to be creating and I just came up with it 3 days ago.
The goal's going to be, including that one to within the next 3 years for $50 million, and we're going to
do it. So, but yeah, I know...

Travis: Well you know Ryan, it's probably just because you're smarter than me. I'd built this big
business and I just couldn't get out of my own way. I felt like I needed to be at the helm all the time. I
didn't set the business set to run without me. I did so many things wrong and so I guess the powers that
be decided that it was time for me to learn a lesson, a lesson on humility...
Ryan: No. And there‟s definitely a lesson with that. I've definitely been kicked and feel like I've been
beaten up a little bit. I've had a bunch of those especially when I had someone who is doing my taxes
who is not the right guy for the job, and I got hundreds and thousands of dollars in penalties. It was just
a butt-kicking, doing, creating, trying to get so innovative and being stubborn, and saying, "hey, I sought
all these successes, everything I do works, what we launched then and it doesn't work.”So I definitely
had, I'm certainly not quote at all, too perfect. It's a furthest thing from it so; I'll have lots and lots of it.
Travis: Yeah, just smaller little blips rather than a catastrophic thing. So let's take it back in the
direction of getting more value to the entrepreneurs that are listening. What are some of the other
things that you feel like, if you could just give a couple of more pieces of advice to entrepreneurs, what
else jumps out at you or comes off the top of your head about this?
Ryan: In terms of entrepreneurs who already have a business or just in general?
Travis: Yeah, well just in general, whichever way you want to take it.
Ryan: You know, not having a good hook. For example I worked a lot in the fitness industry when I first
started, that was like my love, I was the trainer and I helped other trainers. And at the time a trainer
would come to me and said. "Okay, I want to sell my product.” I said, "Okay. What's your kind of hook,
what‟s your reason for being? What's your, people like Jane has the USP, Unique Selling Position or
Proposition. What is it that makes you different, what's you hook?" And that there's, “well, I train
everyone from 8 to 80.” And it's the old phrase that if you try to sell to everybody, you sell to nobody,
and it's too general. There's no hook.
So I'm all about finding what it is that makes you different, what makes you special and super super
focusing on your niche. So whatever it is, so digging down deep.
So I have one guy, Josh Hankin, who was again a personal trainer, and he each had an hour in and he
says, this whole thing now is a sandbag, literally, training with sandbag. And the fitness industry, he's
well-known, if anyone says, "Choose the guy for sandbag training.” They all say Josh Hankin, personal
trainer.He has certification, literally, he's got a certification, he teaches other trainers how to get them
certified and training with sandbag.
Travis:...sandbag.
Ryan: Sandbags, sandbags, I kid you not.

Travis: I love it.
Ryan: And it's a really, really, really successful business. He sells sandbags, he sells books, he sells
DVD's all about sandbag training. And who would've thought it, who would've said, there's no way that's
going to work, but it works.
What I like to do is if you can, and this is kind of going a little off tangent, this is almost beyond the
hook. This falls more into finding your market, but in terms of your market, narrowing it 3 times.
Give me an example Travis of any general market and we'll have a little fun with this.
Travis: Home improvements.
Ryan: Okay, so let's say you're a great handyman at home, you can tackle the ceiling and you could
put lights in, you could do all these different things, and you want to sell a product, you want to be the
online home improvement guy. So maybe that's too specific, because if someone's looking online
maybe they're not necessarily typing home improvement, they're typing in something very different. So
it can narrow home improvement down one level, you could maybe say, „okay, this is going to be home
improvement for...‟ you could do it by sets. I'm the home improvement, who's teaching other guys how
to do it, or I'm the home improvement for women, or I'm the home improvement for specific profession.
Hey if you're in an attorney who wants to do your own home improvement, I'm your guy. And you speak
this specific language. Or you can do home improvement for age.
Travis: How about first time family owners, first time home owners?
Ryan: Exactly! So you can keep narrowing. You could narrow it down to home improvement. So home
improvement is the broader category, you can narrow it down and say, „I'm the drywall guy. Anything
about dry wall.‟ You need to know about any type of thickness or any type of drywall, the sound-
proofing the room, anything with drywall; I'm your drywall guy. You're looking for drywall? I'm the
drywall guy. You can be the indoor lighting guy, you could be the--or a girl, I don't care, I'm just saying
that, you can be the carpet person, I'm the carpet guru. You want to know about carpet, measuring and
software, I'm the carpet guy." So there's so many ways you can narrow down that home improvement.
So that's kind of an example, and in the personal training world, the big category can be fitness, you
can narrow it down on fitness for women and you can narrow it down further. I teach women how to get
fit using Pilates. Or home improvement, I teach men how to be a better carpenter using just hammers,
I'm the hammer guy, I'm MC Hammer, right?
Travis: Right.

Ryan: Or I'm the Duck tape guy. So there's so many different things you could do and you could have
a lot of fun with it and when people now--so people go online and they go to Google and they type in
„how to drywall.‟ You want to be the person coming up, as oppose to a general thing like home
improvement. So that's what I mean by kind of narrowing it down two or 3 times.
Travis: Yeah, I think if you want...
Ryan: Yeah, I'm sorry.
Travis: You know what; I think it's kind of like reversing the funnel rather than trying to be all things to
everybody like you're saying. Be more specific. I think Dane Jackson said, "it's better to invent ten
people 100% of the way than a thousand people 10% of the way." and I think that's the point that you're
making there right?
Ryan: Yeah, everything now is niche, and I think you have to do that especially online, especially with
all the competition because it's so easy to start a business now, as oppose to years ago. To start a
business is so much more difficult, you have to go to the town, and this, and if you have the market you
have to create marketing materials, and flyers, and mailing lists. Now you get a domain name for 8
bucks at Go Daddy and you can start--you could build a website using Word press for free, and you can
be up and running in about 15 minutes, and you can buy ads on Facebook, and you could start hard,
literally.
If I said, right now, I have an idea for a website or a product, in 1 hour; I can have a website up,
generating traffic, and possibly making sales, within an hour. When else in history can we do that? We
couldn't. So there's so much competition, so you have to really speak to people and you got to solve
those problems.
Travis: Right. How long before you found success and you discovered these principles, in your story,
was it 2 years before you actually discovered this level, or started really ramping up to find high levels
of success?
Ryan: I would say that the first year or two, I was still kind of playing around and trying to figure out
what I'm doing. For me it's still a learning process. I learn every single day; I read one to two business
books per week, minimum. I never ever stop learning. So I consider myself still beginning. I am...
Travis: I'm with you.
Ryan: And the ones who think they know it all, the ones who are, "Oh, and I'm not going to attend that
event, I already know all that stuff." They are the ones who end up suffering.
Travis: Right.

Ryan: And plus, I live and breathe this stuff. Just before I was in the car for about half an hour, I listen
to an audio book. And I'm so obsessed with this stuff, and it's a business audio book, and I'm so
obsessed with it I listen to it on double speed, so I can get twice the amount of information in that one
hour. So in one hour I can--no, literally...
Travis: No, Ryan I'm laughing because I'm reading from your playbook, I do the same. I consume
books like their audio books, like they're going out of style because I can jog, I can work out, I can fill
my drive time and everything with learning, and I enjoy it, I'm passionate about it, it makes me smile. So
it's easy to consume two books a week, right?
Ryan: Oh, absolutely. I think I'm the only guy in the planet who looks forward to a six hour drive with
my four kids in the car, because I'd put my iTunes on, I look into my books, and I'm just like, "oh great,
5 hours, I can look into a 10-hour audio book, and get a few really good nuggets of information, and all
it takes now is one idea to generate a lot of money. And I just live and breathe it, and when you find that
intersection of what customers really want, what they're really desiring with what you're good at and
what you love doing, it's the greatest life in the world, and your business literally becomes unstoppable,
from all that helping people, find that spark, but I never stop learning, ever. I'm going to keep--people
like, "oh Ryan, you should just kind of relax". What else am I going to do? I love this. The other thing,
one more little lesson we talked about entrepreneurs is still, even though as you're building your
business, or growing your business, you still have to have that balance. So everyday I'm still home by 5
o'clock. I'd be home every night with my family, with my wife, with my kids play, I still coach
kindergarten soccer and 3rd grade Lacrosse, and I see movies every week, every week my wife and I
go out for date night, I play platform tennis at night in the winter.
I still have a full life, it's not just that, because that's the last thing you want to do, be in your deathbed
and regret it, because no one's on their deathbed saying, "I wish I'd spent more time with my laptop."
No one does that. So you still have that balance but be super super productive and be conductive by
doing the activities and things that build your business, that help you move forward, build more
revenue, and help more people, it's what's it about.
Travis: I think most entrepreneurs that have found success probably have a little bit of a challenge
with being excessive. That's part of what makes you successful, or at least that's what I found. And so
every once in awhile I'm guilty of pushing too hard and working too long and too many hours because I
enjoy it and it really excite me. And so I do struggle with finding balance and pulling back. Now I hear
that you speak balance but is it an easy thing for you?
Ryan: I don't want to make it sound easier than it is but I really do, I really do think it's easy because
that's just, for me it's never been a question. It is never ever been a question of should I do this or
should I stay home with my family. I think from a young age my family and I were very close. My mom

passed away a couple of years ago but I was brought up knowing that there's nothing that's more
important than family, family always comes first. And that's just the way, that's just in my soul, so it's
never a question. Like if there's a great event I could go speak at and make 50 grand for a talk, or it's
my daughter's birthday, it's going to be her party. Not even a second thought I'd stay home for the
birthday party. It doesn't even--I wouldn't even consider, even if I needed the money, I wouldn't do it.
For me, it's never been about money, I was happy working in the children's hospital making 26 grand.
The money's great but I don't do it for the money, I do it because I love this stuff. I love building the
business. The revenue is a great way to keep score but it's just--it should never question it's and I just--
when I teach my entrepreneurs how to build their businesses I'm always hammering home the
important stuff. I have a coaching group and every day I give them something to do. Like yesterday
was,“you have to get on an online radio show, and request to be introduced.”All of them are doing it
and taking action. The day before that I said, “here's your task for today, find someone who you like, or
you love or influencing your life who you haven't spoken to in awhile and reach out to them just to say
hi.” And some of us, “oh my God, I reached out to my old professor I haven't talked to in 2 years and
he was so happy to hear from me.” That's what it's about, so never ever lose sight of that. You know,
the...
Travis: Very, very cool.
Ryan: Yeah, I know, you see, first it drives me crazy in people, like personal development and self-
improvement people, and again, I'm certainly not perfect, and I'm not the best father and husband in the
world, I try to be but, you know. You see guys who have been divorced like 4 times and they're all up
there preaching relationships or how to live balance and they're not living it, so you got to try to live
really up to it.
Travis: Alright. How old are you Ryan?
Ryan: I'm 40.
Travis: 40, okay.
Ryan: Yeah, still young.
Travis: Well, very quite accomplished, I commend you in your balance and your business acumen and
all those other great things. A lot of times people don't know how to give out. I feel like entrepreneurs
really don't get much appreciation, or love, or thank you or anything, because a lot of people, they don't
want to inflate your ego; they don't know how to approach your, whatever it is. And so I'll recognize you
by saying, "good on you, great job." It sounds like you're really well-rounded individual that is out to
make a difference and not only grow your business but help other people at the same time. And so
congratulations on that.

Ryan: I appreciate it, thank you.
Travis: Yeah, you bet. Let me segue into--you've got a multiple of businesses and I wanted to ask you,
give me a feel for what it is that you do and what an entrepreneur person that wants to make the leap to
be an entrepreneur. What do they do when they come to you and what's your specialty?
Ryan: When they come to me at different stages, I get some people who look complete beginners, like,
"I don't even know what to sell." And then I take them from A to Z. And then I have people who are
already doing pretty well and they want to go to the next level. I specialize in what's called information
marketing. It's really creating products, programs, where it gives you what we talked about earlier,
leveraged income. So teaching people how to build their site, how to brand themselves, and market
themselves, and promote themselves, and create products and programs that sell.
They could be eBooks, DVD's, home study kits; I've had people create seminars, workshops,
certifications. One kind of niche I've known for specifically is membership sites, marketing world what
we call a continuity income. So I teach people how to do their own coaching groups, and CD of the
month, and DVD of the month, and newsletters, and membership sites where people could prey you
over and over and over again for the information.
But really I specialize in people building, internet businesses. I do have people who have all kinds of
businesses and I just teach them marketing and getting more traffic but it's mostly internet. And I have,
if you go to RyanLee.com, R-Y-A-N-L-E-E.com. You could see I have a newsletter you could sign up
for, and I have a program and coaching groups and I do what I like to do, its strategy calls for people.
Every day I usually do it between--usually that's 7 or 8 free strategy calls, talking to entrepreneurs who
have an idea and we just spend 10-15 minutes, kind of going over the business. What's working, where
they're getting stuck? I usually give them a couple of tips, and sometimes they ask me about my
coaching programs, sometimes not, it's fun. That's what I've been doing now in the afternoon is just
helping people.
Travis: Cool, cool. Let's move to the lightning round, we're getting close to the hour mark, we still have
a few minutes. I want to try to throw you curves, see if I can catch you off guard.
Ryan: Not a chance, not a chance.
Travis: I love the confidence. Okay, what book or program made an impact on you related to business
that you'd recommend and why?
Ryan: Book of books, about a million.
Travis: Give two or three.

Ryan: Sure, alright. You know how to go a Michael Masterson Ready, Fire, Aim is a good one, I read
that again, 3 years ago I'm actually--and the reason it's in my head is because I'm rereading it right
now.
Travis: Right.
Ryan: Jay Abraham, I had to pick the more recent books. Seth Godin, I'm a big fan of, Tribes was a
good book. There are just so many. Influence Robert Cialdini is a classic for marketers. Read go old
school too, anything by Eugene Schwartz, Breakthrough Advertising. It's like 60 years old but in terms
of learning copy and how people think, that is a classic, so that's a good start.
Travis: Yeah.
Ryan: And Stephen Covey, 7 Habits was a great book that was one of the first things that really
influenced me. That turned my life around years ago, that was great.
Travis: What's interesting is in--I re-listened or re-read books often myself just to drive it back into my
level of consciousness and memory, so I didn't know that other people did that with regularity, so I'm
glad to hear that.
Ryan: Oh yeah, I don't think you really get it so you listen to it multiple times and read it multiple times.
Travis: Yeah, right. I just recently finished How to Win Friends and Influence People again...
Ryan: Dale Carnegie, I read that a couple of times.
Travis: And you know my point there is I think there's a lot of people that think just because written in
1984, 1946, or 21 or whatever, that they think that's outdated information but we're very predictable
animals and so these brilliant people are tapping into the behaviour that was prevalent hundreds of
years ago. I think it's important for people to realize that just because the book was written anywhere
from 10 to 100 years ago, don't dismiss the quality of the information in it, do you agree with that?
Ryan: 100%. They're like, "well, I'm just going to read the book on How to get 500 more Twitter
followers." They're not understanding the foundation of human behaviour, human psychology, and
that's everything. It's like building--It's great to have these great plans for a mansion but you're building
it on sand, you're building on a shaky foundation. And obviously there are the classics like Napoleon
Hill, Think and Grow Rich, you got to read that. I think it's a law that if you're going to start a business,
you got to read that book multiple times.
So yeah, I agree, I'll still read the classics. Again Eugene Schwartz, Breakthrough Advertising is still
relevant. Some of the terminology comes the way you phrase--it still works.

Travis: I just finished Think and Grow Rich and it's alarming because the steps that he's talking about,
the book is happening right now again.
Ryan: Yeah, it's amazing isn't it, I know.
Travis: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so for the next question is what is one of your favourite tools or pieces of
technology that you've recently discovered if any, that you'd recommend to other business owners and
why.
Ryan: Technology?
Travis: Yeah, right, a tool or something.
Ryan: I tried to--I use Dropbox, you know what I like? I'll give you one, Basecamp, I love Basecamp,
BaseCamp.com, it's a project management tool and I put my whole team on it, we all use
BaseCampnow, it's better than just trying to do email. You could put files in there. It's so user-friendly.
You drag and drop, and it just keeps, especially if you're running multiple projects, it's just a great way
to stay organized. So I'm a big fan of Basecamp.
Travis: Excellent, I agree. And then the final question is, “What's a famous quote that would best
summarize your belief or your attitude in business?”
Ryan: That is a good one that is a good curve ball. What would be a good quote? I'm trying to think of
something that's just not so cliché, because there's so many that is so cliché. I'm going to go with a
really really simple one that does summarize exactly what I think and how I work, and it's Nike, Just do
It.
Travis: I like it.
Ryan: Like it's just--you have the idea, just do it. And rather than taking an oath, you tell, rather thinking
and over analyzing and waiting months and months, paralysis by analysis. Maybe I'll add my New
Yorker and say, “Just freakin’ do it.”
Travis: You added the PG version of that in there, right?
Ryan: Yeah, exactly. You know what, I‟d get really emotional of the stuff, and sometimes I'd curse, and
sometimes we kid now, I'm kind of tack about things so I PG it up.
Travis: I've got 27 year old son and he cusses at every chance he gets, and I'm trying to talk some
sense into it. "Son, son, you can still make that point without cussing."

Ryan: Add some class to it, you know, there's ladies around, let's keep this classy. I agree with you, it's
just kind of an evolutionary thing. Now, you gave us a URL that everybody can connect to you. Do you
mind if I go ahead and out your social links out there, like your Twitter, Facebook and other stuff like
that as well.
Travis: Yeah, yeah, put it up, definitely.
Ryan: Okay, cool. Alright, well listen, I want to thank you for being on the show, hangout with me for a
minute and let me wrap things up if you don't mind. Do you have a minute?
Ryan: You got it.
End of Interview
Travis: Okay great. I want to remind you that we've got show notes at the bottom that you can go and
find all the links to the books, and the resources, and of course, how to connect with Ryan. I want to
remind you to go to DIYOB.com, so that's short for Diamonds in your Own Backyard. Enter your name
and we'll send you the 2013 Business Owner's guide, From Frustration to $70 million. It's a behind the
scenes look of what you need to know to grow your business to that next level of success, and like we
talked about in this interview. It's not something that happens overnight, it's multi-steps that you have
to go to.
When you opt-in you'll become part of the authentic entrepreneur nation, which is really a network of
people, tools, and resources that you can refer to grow your business. This is basically mine and
Sandra's private rolodex, that we use and we recommend, and we'll have this up for you in a matter of
weeks.
Now one of the biggest challenges I believe in growing your business is finding people that you can
trust, people that can actually follow through on their promises. This has been one of my frustrations or
it was for many years. There's a large number of people that are teaching strategies they don't use in
their own business, or their providing services to your business and they're not qualified to give you that
service or provide that service. So of course this means that you have to go through a trial and error of
guessing who to trust and who not to by unfortunately, normally paying the money and then not getting
the result. Now I know this, again, because I've been there and I've spent an absolute fortune choosing
the wrong people along my journey as an entrepreneur.

So what we've come to realize is, you really don't know or what I've come to realize, at times I speak for
me and Sandra, that you really don't know who you're connected with or you really don't know who‟s
legitimate and who's really competent until you're connected and you can see what's going on behind
the scenes. I hope I'm doing a good job of trying to illustrate my point there. And it really comes from
high level masterminds or events and connections that come out of those and so based on this, this is
why I decided to create an area where you can access our people, tools, and recommendations.
So rather than focusing on the negative and calling out those people by name that I don't think are--that
are less than straightforward, I'd rather just tell you who we consider to be excellent. And then of course
you'll be able to connect with them if you find that it works for you and what you need in your business.
I want to close this show today by reminding you how important what you're doing as an entrepreneur
is to your community and your circle of influence. It's something that we even talked about in this
episode. You're probably not even aware of the impact that you have on people around you, meaning
your circle of influence, because it's not obvious and most people will not tell you.
As an entrepreneur, you're a model of what it looks like to go after your dreams and take action no
matter what, even in the face of fear and uncertainty. Now that inspires people around you to do more
and be more, although they may never come out and tells you this. And then the second thing is, the
next impact is more of a direct and obvious thing. You're providing jobs inside and outside of your
business, taxes, leadership, everything that strengthens your community. You‟re the 8% of the
population that employs remaining 90% and that is leadership. So whether you know it or not you're an
inspiration to those around you, and I want to encourage you to keep it up, even if you're struggling
right now. Success is a formula, just like Ryan was talking about. It's a series of skills and tactics
combined with your tenacity. So hang in there, what you're doing really does matter.
This is Travis Lane Jenkins signing off for now. To your success, may you inspire those around you to
go after their dreams. Talk to you in the next episode.

How We Can Help You
We know that finding someone that you can trust online today is hard and that so many “so called
gurus” are self-‐appointed and have never really even done what they teach you to do. That‟s exactly
why we created the Double Your Profits Business Accelerator. This is an exclusive offer for our fans at
a fraction of its normal cost.
Here's what to expect. We'll Schedule a 'One on One' private session, where we'll take the time to dive
deep into your business and tell you what is missing, so that you can have your best year ever!
We'll do this by performing a S.W.O.T. Analysis. This tells us your Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats within your business.
This will be an eye opener for YOU, for several reasons, however some of the most common reasons
are.
As the 'Business Owner' it‟s difficult to see the big picture of your own business because you‟re in the
middle of a daily management.
And you are too emotionally involved to completely impartial.
This is a common problem for EVERY business owner. It doesn‟t matter if you are a one-man army, or
an army of 150, the problem is still the same.
Travis Lane Jenkins
Business Mentor-Turn Around Specialist
Radio Host of The Entrepreneurs Radio Show
“Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs That Grow Your Business"

The Entrepreneurs Radio Show 034 Ryan Lee

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