The Exchanges

Q So then tell us a little bit about What your childhood was like growing up? Uh, what made you want to become an entrepreneur? Who was your inspiration for all that?

A Yeah. So I grew up in, uh, Northern Utah, uh, community that really celebrated entrepreneurship. A lot of independent, um, business owners, small business owners were kind of in the community. It definitely was not a big employer town where there's a big employer and a lot of people work there. Everyone was pretty independent. So I observed that at an early age, but probably where it all started was just being an early teenager. My first job was, um, picking radishes at the, uh, the local farm and you were paid for performance and it was entirely motivating to be the best radish picker possible. And when the season of radishes went out and we started picking peas and corn, You got paid by the pound and it was motivating. Like I, I found that I, I thrived in that environment. And so at an early age, it was pay for performance. And I just fell in love with that concept. So fast forward in high school, I was really struggling and I had a career counselor say, Hey, you should really consider we're going to start an entrepreneurship class. And it's our first time ever doing it. What do you think about it? And I jumped in, fell in love with it. And Went all the way through to college where I found a program where, ah, the Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University offered an entrepreneurship degree. So everything in my life was packaged up from just early years all the way …

AI assessment note: “I grew up in, uh, Northern Utah, uh, community that really celebrated entrepreneurship.”

Q was helping out in the front office with insurance companies and filing claims and all that kind of stuff. Um, and it felt great to make money, but, you know, seven dollars an hour sucks, I think, looking back on it now, although at the time it was great. So let's get into after college when you finished your degree. What, what was the first thing you did after that?

A Well, I graduated at a really, um, interesting time. I graduated in 2008 and the economy was tanking in December of 2008. My business school really prided itself in its job placement rates. So they had a 94% placement rate of new graduates had jobs before they walked and got their diploma, which was a major statistic they were super proud of. When we graduated less than eight percent had jobs and it's because the economy was falling apart right at that very moment. So I was newly married. Um, my wife and I kind of had to have one of those moments where we said, okay, we're, we're both, we both graduated the same day and it was, what are we going to do? And I knew I wasn't going to get a job. They're just, I didn't have any industry experience. Someone's going to hire a kid. In entrepreneurship to come in and work. So I said, well, I'm going to practice what I love. I've learned it all through high school, through college, you know, let's do this. So we moved to Phoenix, Arizona. And the reason we did that is I did some research in this market had one of the highest density of small business owners in America. And I knew I wanted to be in a business that served and catered to other business owners. I wanted to be in business to business. I, I knew I was passionate about that and I was passionate about small business. And so we didn't know anybody. We picked up our stuff, got in …

AI assessment note: “we moved to Phoenix, Arizona... within 90 days we started a business”

Q So you accept to go on Shark Tank. What was the process of preparing for Shark Tank? Uh, how long between the call and actually being on the show? Uh, and then how long between the, the recording to the airing and talk about the experience the day of and all of that.

A Yeah. So, so the process was not a quick one. I don't remember the exact sequence of events. We went from kind of a phone screen interview to a written application with a series of questions about the history of the business and financial data. And then we went from there from a series of questions where you tape, kind of record yourself, answering some questions, doing a little live pitch. And they liked that. And that, that basically got them to the round where they started interviewing me via Skype with their junior producer panel. And I think we just had a creative story to tell, uh, something that was outside the box. And so they invited me and I think it was, it was in July to go and record and, and how they position it is, is you, We'll fly you to Hollywood. And that doesn't mean you're going to record. And if you record, that doesn't mean you're going to go on air. And so they kind of keep that carrot in front of you to kind of, you know, step in line and obey the rules of the process all the way through of privacy and don't talk about it with anybody. And, you know, they scare the crap out of you. You signed non-disclosure agreements, probably it's 60, 70 pages worth of legal docs. You have no idea what you're signing. So you, so you get to Hollywood and they lock you all up into a hotel and they say every day, we're going to give you an envelope with some cash to be a…

AI assessment note: “We went from kind of a phone screen interview to a written application”

Q an offer with a company that you think sounds good, and then it turns out to not be good, you know, it's a huge headache, and you know, it costs a lot of time and energy and money to Replace them after training them and, uh, trying to deal with finding somebody else. And so, yeah, I think it's a fantastic feature. How did you come up with that idea?

A Well, you know, kind of the first iteration was a job board called localwork.com and it was an Arizona only environment and we ran it for five years and we were able to help over a 100,000 people get jobs in the state of Arizona through our platform. Uh, our customers were American express, Chase Bank, PayPal. I mean, we had some big companies, State Farm, I think was our biggest client. We, we, we probably helped them hire over 15,000 people in that timeframe. And it was, it was an incredible experience, but because of our continued focus on feedback, not only from the job seekers and the employers, we realized that our top five percent of job postings Came from companies that talked about who we are as a company and what we can achieve together. Meaning they put purpose ahead of roles and responsibilities because you find a lot of job postings. Like you said, sterile is a good word. It's usually all about what you're going to do for me. It's not about here's our purpose. Here's why we have that purpose. And here's how we can accomplish that together. When you can have that dialogue, it creates an emotional attachment to a job seeker to where if they're looking at five different job opportunities, they're going to remember yours ahead of everyone else. And when you call them to set an interview, they're going to put their best foot forward for you. And when the next person cal…

AI assessment note: “we realized that our top five percent of job postings Came from companies”

Q I've always Found it very easy to move in between different age groups and religions and cultures and languages. And I think that's been really helpful for me to be successful in my own life. So, uh, you said you moved to Arizona and you started a business within 90 days. What business was that?

A Yeah. So I came down here and started a small business marketing. So at the time, your everyday contractor relied 100% on Business through the yellow pages. And my goal was to say, how can I convince them to stop paying for yellow pages and pay for digital marketing? And today we kind of chuckle about that. Oh my gosh. I was like shooting fish in a barrel. It was hard. It was way more complicated than it should have been because we didn't know what we know now. And, and the way yellow pages was positioned was it's, Where you are. If you're, if you've got a full page in the plumbing section and you're the first contractor, you lose that position. If you stop paying and then pay the next year, it's all by seniority. So they didn't want to lose their position in rankings that if the digital marketing fell through and then they went back to yellow pages, they might be position. And that was a really good sticky point that yellow pages had on these contractors. They did not want to lose their bread and butter. Anyway, we got through it and was able to do a lot of free workshops, convinced the Phoenix library system to let me do free trainings and coaching and mentoring for small businesses. And they could come in and ask me anything for two hours and I teach them. And that just created my referral flywheel that was able to help me grow marketing, marketing machine.

AI assessment note: “I came down here and started a small business marketing.”

Q this guy's not just building another startup. He's also putting a significant amount of his energy into telling people about what he's learned and talking to people and getting them to share what they've learned. Um, and so it creates tremendous amount of value for everybody. So I want to move closer to Shark Tank. What was the business you created that made you go on to Shark Tank? Yeah.

A So right, right before, um, my wife and I had our first child, we decided to go spend a couple months in Europe, kind of go stay in hostels, do the quintessential backpacking train rides from country to country, city to city. And we, we just fell in love with some of the styles. Um, in Italy, there was a, there was a watch that was super popular there. They were starting to incorporate a lot of like silicone bands as is kind of the watch. Uh, strap and bright colors. And you know, you're on the subway early in the morning and you got people in suits and ties and they're wearing like a bright green silicone band watch. And now that was totally new. There was no one in the United States was doing this bright colored watches. This is in 2008, end of 2008. And it was kind of revolutionary. So I started blogging about, I actually created a blog spot account. And blogged about the styles and fashion that I was seeing. And I noticed there was a couple of posts that were getting a lot of traffic. And I saw an opportunity to be an entrepreneur when I got home and seeing the analytics. So I actually started sourcing product out of China and found some bright colored silicone bands. Now at the time, at that moment in time, you started seeing the NBA wearing power balance bands. Started seeing baseball players wearing the, uh, the necklaces, the braided necklaces. And the idea was that it …

AI assessment note: “let's create a negative ion watches, uh, with these bright colored bands.”

Q side, and thankfully you were able to prove that these lawsuits were ridiculous. Unfortunately for my other guest, Lori, she just had one guy who sued her multiple times. They were thrown out each time, but it cost her everything because she went broke basically defending these frivolous lawsuits. So what happened with that business? Are you still doing that today or did it kind of fade away over time?

A Yeah, similar, similar experience. So one of the four lawsuits was From a fortune 50 company called Exxon oil and gas. And they came at me hard. The reason was, is I had named the company Esso watches, E S S O. It's an Italian phrase. Like if you, if you're an American, you're like, oh, that's legit. That's kind of the phrase that Italians and he's like, so it, it, it's like, oh, that's cool. And so that was the name of the watch company. Well, Exxon oils, the, Trademark. So because it was so oil and so gasoline and originated out of Canada and was filed. Gosh, decades and decades and decades ago. And they, they felt that I was infringing on their trademark. I obviously didn't think that I'm selling a fashion accessory. They sell petroleum quite different. And The cost to defend myself in that really took us down a path that a side business couldn't support and didn't, didn't need to support. So we ultimately settled with them and shut down operations. So during that whole experience though, it gave me so much life. And I know we're kind of talking to the negativity side, but man, I really got fired up on doing good. I saw the negativity, and I'm like, you know what? Those people that called me and fed me with light and life, I love those people, and it motivated me, and I realized I need to chart out what are my core values? What are Ryan's core values? What do I believe in th…

AI assessment note: “So we ultimately settled with them and shut down operations.”

Q in sales through Lori, like these kinds of things. So the last person I spoke to, Lori Cheek, she didn't go into such detail about her experience, but, uh, she told me a little bit more about what happened afterward, and it seems like you and her have a similar experience in that you were both sued after being aired on the show. So what happened that you got sued?

A So, so I filmed in July and my episode did not air until the following February. So it was quite some time. In fact, I kind of gave up. I thought, I thought my episode just didn't make the cut. Now I wasn't upset about it. I wasn't happy, but I wasn't upset. And I got a call. I think it was on a Thursday night from one of the executive producers on the cell phone. And he said, Hey, listen, this is Clay. We're going to air your episode tomorrow. And it's not going to look good, but I really, in fact, I sold him a bunch of watches. He wanted like my extra inventory when I was done pitching it. Cause he wanted to give it to his kids. Like people liked the product I sold out of every piece of product I took with me. Cause everyone was giving me cash to buy my extra watches. Everyone loved it. So I got to know him a little bit while I was there. And he said, you know, I really enjoyed our time together, but I just want to let you know that The way it got edited, it's, uh, it puts you in a tough position. And I said, okay, I don't know what that means, but okay. And, uh, so I told my wife, I said, hey, listen, it looks like the episode's going to air tomorrow. And I didn't share that additional info that it's not going to be the best experience out there. And anyway, she was there and she had a surprise party waiting for me when I got home that night for Friday, loaded with neighbors…

AI assessment note: “So I filmed in July and my episode did not air until the following February.”

Q yeah, it's a fantastic thing. So How long did you do that business? And then when did you decide to move on to something else?

A Yeah. So that business, uh, ultimately I went through a couple, you know, branding changes myself and it still exists today. I have a director of operations that runs it. It's blue Aspen marketing. And, you know, I've been able to build that up to a business. That's kind of self-sustaining. We build the right processes and frameworks and customers and gosh, I've got businesses That, you know, I was just laughing. I had a contractor. We're going through a remodel here at my home and the contractor I chose was the first contractor that I sold a website to when I moved to Arizona. He's been a client of mine for 12 years and it's just been great. It really, really loyal customer base. Um, because he started with a deep foundational element to teach. And I think what there's a sense of inherent trust when you can teach someone You trust them. You look back at your college professors, your teachers, you naturally trusted what they were telling you because they were teaching you something. And I think that in business, that's been one of my ultimate ways to beat out competition was I'm more committed to teaching the client than they ever will be. And that's gone a long ways for us.

AI assessment note: “it still exists today. I have a director of operations that runs it.”