Growth Hacker Marketing and The Obstacle Is The Way. Ryan’s an expert on media manipulation, resilience and growth - and his new book Ego Is The Enemy is due out soon. Tune in to hear why ‘fake it til you make it’ is terrible advice, why Donald Trump won’t last long, and what you can learn about business from Angela Merkel, Marina Abramovich, and Kanye West.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:12 – Nathan’s introduction
- 01:40 – “I’m fascinated with the accumulation of wisdom over the last thousand years”
- 02:25 – Ryan dropped out of college, and assisted Tucker Max and Robert Green
- 02:40 – Ryan was the director of marketing at American Apparel and has since authored 4 books
- 03:50 – He had a $250k advance on his first book, Trust Me, I'm Lying
- 05:35 – The economics of books - the advance might not be high, but sales can build
- 07:42 – The Obstacle is the Way has been used by the NFL, the military, and other competitive areas
- 09:06 – “If you can build multiple income streams, you can take more creative risks”
- 10:10 – Why write another book?
- 10:33 – “Writing is what I love...it’s what makes me feel fulfilled”
- 11:05 – Ryan’s latest book is Ego is the Enemy
- 11:55 – “You want a book to provoke a discussion”
- 12:30 – Almost every business book is based on the idea that “you’re doing great” - Ryan wanted to take that idea down
- 13:31 – “There’s a difference between confidence and ego. Ego is when you lose self-awareness and start living in illusions”
- 14:54 – “If you start believing in your own greatness, it’s the death of creativity” - Marina Abramovich
- 16:00 – It isn’t ego if you have a realistic confidence in your abilities - based on your own track record
- 16:40 – When ego becomes dangerous is when you act as though you’ve already accomplished the things that you’re really only starting to work on
- 17:50 – The problem with social media is that you can get credit for things that you haven’t yet done
- 18:43 – “If you tell a kid that they’ve done well because they’re smart, they’ll do worse than if you praise them for working hard”
- 19:28 – What about brainwashing yourself? Nathan: “Sometimes you can only achieve things by convincing yourself that you’re better than you are”
- 21:10 – Kanye West’s fashion line has failed because he didn’t apply the same work to it that he applied to his music. He made the mistake of thinking that he was successful because of who he was - not the work he put in
- 23:03 – Successful people aren’t successful because of their ego - sometimes it’s in spite of their ego
- 24:29 – “Passion is not a substitute for knowledge, it’s not a substitute for a plan or knowing what you’re doing”
- 27:15 – “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” Would you want your doctor faking it until he makes it? Would you want a firefighter faking it until she makes it?
- 28:33 – “As a marketing tactic, talking about things before they happen is great - but don’t buy into your own crap”
- 29:39 – “Fear is a bad adviser” - Angela Merkel
- 30:58 – Fear of missing out and fear of risk are both bad advisers - focus on the data and you’ll make better decisions
- 32:08 – Donald Trump? “Demigods are successful in the short term - they’re very rarely successful in the long term”
3 Key Points:
- Confidence is great - but once you start believing your own hype, you’ll stop working effectively.
- Don’t let fear or ego make your decisions. Look at the data.
- You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do. There’s no substitute for sitting down and doing the work.
Resources Mentioned:
- Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
- Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
- Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
- Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives