Ryan Garrido on Teaching Funding Before the Business Itself

Robby Bryant:0:06
Ryan Garrido, why is it that everyone wants to get into dropshipping so that they can travel the world, but only a few are ever actually able to get their business to that point?

Ryan:0:18
Great question, Robbie. I think that most people they want to get into dropshipping because everybody wants to live wherever they want. They wanna travel the world, they want to be their own boss, they wanna decide their own future. But I would say the biggest thing that separates people that wanna do it versus ones that actually are successful is really comes down to work ethic.

Really, a lot of people that are willing to put in the time, the hours, the effort necessary are the ones who are able to really succeed in not just dropshipping, but any venture. You know, I particularly chose dropshipping high ticket as my business, I did well, funding and other things, but I would say even broader than that.

The number one thing that separates people who are successful from ones that aren't, in my experience, is big goals. The people who are successful, they have much bigger and broader goals than people who aren't. So that's that's the clear delineation between the two categories, if that's your if that's what you're getting at.

Robby Bryant:1:24
Yeah. So big goals is the dividing line of who's gonna get ahead and who's gonna get left behind.

Ryan:1:31
100%. You know, most people they have very small goals, right? They say, well, you ask somebody on the street, just pull some random person off the city block and go, hey, what are your goals?

They might look at you like, what? I don't I don't know. I want to eat a pizza tomorrow. That's my goal, right? I want to go home and watch Netflix. That's my goal. Right? I can't wait to see the new, I don't even know these shows, Game of Thrones. Whatever new show is out, that's my goal, right? But when you talk to a business owner or a successful person, you ask them their goals, you can't get them to shut up about it once we ask them.

Because they have so many goals and they're so big and broad. So that's what I would say is one hundred percent the difference maker between people who are successful and and not successful, regardless of what industry, profession, or you know, what they decide to pursue ultimately.

Robby Bryant:2:28
Yeah, I I appreciate the in-depth explanation. To those listening at home, this is the High Ticket AI Systems podcast where we talk with real business owners about what is really helping them grow their business. Today we're here with Ryan Garrito, Legend in the Make in, not just in drop shipping, also in world traveling and funding, I believe, which we are going to get into. Ryan, apart from your own drop shipping with dropshipping high ticket, what is your business? What is your offer and and how is it positioned for the people that you sell to?

Ryan:3:04
Sure. So it's very interesting you asked that. The the base question is I teach people how to start their own online high-ticket dropshipping businesses. Right. So the best place to start would be with my own personal story. Right. So I started this process by a friend of mine that I knew from high school was posting on Facebook. He was Maybe you've heard of Affiliate World, it's major conference they have in Dubai and in Thailand. So he was speaking at the conference, and I asked him, What are you doing? He says, I do high-ticket dropshipping. And if you want to learn, you can buy my course and start your own company. So I bought his course in 2018, and I started my own high-ticket dropshipping store at that point. So I was running my store. You know, I did about 3K in revenue my first month, 30 days, 30K my second month, 130. thousand top line revenue my third month and a million dollars in my first year and then three million my like my year two or three two and a half per year so and then I capped out around four million and I was doing quite well and all my friends and family obviously they see me posting on Facebook staying in five star hotels and taking you know first class air air travel and post people said what are doing how are you I know what's going on so I said okay well I I I decided at that time I didn't want to teach people, but just to kind of get people so many people to ask me, what are you doing? I said, okay, well, I made a I'll record what I'm doing and I made a video course just for my friends and family. Just because I can't explain what I do in 20 minutes or 30 minutes, right? I just said, hey, watch this course.

That I made but 10 hours of content and then no one asked me any more questions. I could just enjoy my dinner or my lunch and have fun with my friends rather than pestering me about what I do for work, right? So that was my original kind of foray into this entire thing. So I started there. and then at some point my friends and family watched the course and wanted help, but I'm obviously busy, so I had to charge my time.

Ryan:5:15
And teach them, okay, one hour for consulting. I start doing a consulting rate. And then the People grew and they were successful. And so I started becoming more and more needed amongst more and more people. So at some point I said, okay, I gotta turn this into a business, right? So I created the dropshipping high-ticket conversions, a company here, and I started actually promoting the course and offering my main offer to answer your question is six months of coaching where I guide people through how to start their own high-ticket dropshipping store. So from scratch, same thing that I learned, and I teach people how to do it in their own niche.

To continue on with that thought actually, so I ran that for a little while, but I was kinda I had like a at one point I had like ten sales guys. I know In your space, you probably know the high-ticket closing industry, right? So I had a whole bunch of guys. My background is in door-to-door sales, and I had a team of guys I'm very familiar with the industry. So I said, okay, let me start promoting this course, you know, a lot. And then it was kind of annoying. I didn't really want to do it anymore. I just wanted to run my own company. I didn't I kind of took on this big task without really even feeling the need to do it per se, right? Just because people had asking me. So at that point, I decided so I would teach high-ticket dropshipping. And then when people would start their stores, I would show them personal and business funding, right? Which is how I'm able to travel the world. You know, I've been around the globe like four times. I've been digital nomad for 10 years. Right. So I've been traveling and traveling. But then what I did was I I flipped the script.

Ryan:7:03
And it made my life way easier. And I think this is probably the answer to your first question was instead of you know teaching the business and then teaching funding, now I teach funding first. So people have bad credit, I repair their credit, help them get that sorted out. Then I help them access 100k in 0% APR personal funding.

250,000 in 0% APR business funding. And then once they have the funding they want, then it's very easy to get them to start their own company because people suddenly have liquidity. They have resources that allow them to invest in themselves, in their business, and in you know, ultimately in their own future, really. So

Robby Bryant:7:49
Amazing. Props to you for being the guy who figured that all out and and was able to make your life into what many people dream of theirs when they embark on their dropshipping journey. There's so many drop shipping courses and coaches and gurus out there right now. What do you think most of them get wrong that you're getting right?

Ryan:8:13
man, it's very clear. So ninety nine point nine nine percent of dropshippers, they are number one flavor of the month, right? So they You probably remember fidget spinners, pro probably, right? So there a lot of people are doing low-ticket dropshipping, right? So low-ticket dropshipping is the model that everyone knows about, right? So you have products from Alibaba, stuff from China, you import it in, you know, delivery times are 14 days plus. I mean, it's it's better now, but the profit margin, the gross profit is what, $2 or $3 per sale. So suddenly you have to deal with 3,000 orders to make

Robby Bryant:8:27
Course, yeah.

Ryan:8:54
hundred bucks or whatever the numbers work out to be right so it's almost not worth it what I do is specifically high ticket drop shipping and before I explain that let me just take a step back and for those who may not know what dropshipping is the model itself right so ultimately I have a brand website people customers purchase from my website then I give the order to the manufacturer and the manufacturer ships directly to the customer that's the drop shipping model Right? So I don't hold the inventory, I don't touch the inventory, I focus primarily on branding and marketing. so high-ticket drop shipping, which is what 99.99% of people don't do, is expensive stuff. So think saunas, couches, outdoor furniture, pergolas, gazebos, hot tubs, things that are typically over $700 or more. Also, it's US manufacturers to US customers, or in some case European manufacturers to European customers, right? So no customs, no expensive shipping costs, no tariffs, things like that. Right? Those things don't affect the business model. So that's the the high-ticket drop shipping model. And that's what I've been doing. So I think the biggest thing that people get wrong to answer your question directly is they do low-ticket drop shipping. So they have to sell, they make four dollars per unit and it's there's no it's not sustainable.

In my case, you know, profit margins are, I don't know, gross profit is probably you know $500 to $2,000 plus per sale. So it's a much, much, much more lucrative business model compared to the low-ticket you know, people who try to you know get away with like free YouTube content to start their business.

Robby Bryant:10:45
Right. And I think that's what a lot of coaches are doing. it's interesting that you mentioned saunas because I get a lot of saunas in my own feed, and I never I guess I never thought that that's dropshipping at its core too. some of them are priced six hundred to a thousand dollars and they'll come and drop a a box at your house and it's a wooden sauna. What are some other examples of items that you like to sell?

Ryan:10:58
yeah.

Ryan:11:11
Well my my particular niche, so most people in industry don't share their niche. I will because you know I don't really mind. I'm I'm the industry leader in this topic. I don't share the actual site, but you know, I sell bounce houses, if you're familiar with like cast bouncy castles and like children's parties and events, stuff like that. but there's so many. You know, some of my clients do online treadmills, outdoor sheds, scuba diving equipment.

I mean list literally goes on and on and on. Anything expensive. So anybody who wants to kind of open up their eyes to this perspective, the very, very, very first step is just to begin to recognize expensive things around you. So most often when we live our life, a lot of things just kind of blend into the background. You know, you're so used to seeing like a a bench in the park.

That you don't realize, somebody had to buy that, somebody had to build that, somebody had to purchase that, right? A ventilation system for commercial refrigeration units. Someone had to buy that, right? Everything that kind of blends in the background to start to identify expensive things that are around you. That's step one for somebody who's interested to kind of start that path.

Robby Bryant:12:24
I see. And is the reason that you start with funding because you need funding to get ho get your hands on these more expensive products? And you think it's not worth wasting your time with those little trinkets?

Ryan:12:38
Good question. Yeah, so I Actually, there's no need to have a lot of money, right? So somebody who begins could start the entire process with $500 for advertising, plus maybe $200 or $300 for you know software. Shopify has some cost, and there's a little $5 a month, the domain is ten dollars, right? So you do have to have some funds to begin. If you're struggling to, you know, pay for lunch, probably not the best time to start a business, right? You're probably gonna get that take. taken care of first. what I talk about for the funding perspective is that exact reason is most people want To be an entrepreneur, right? They want to start a company, they want to be their own boss. You know, I talked about it, you know, briefly, I talk about it very often actually, but I think it's your second birthday. And what I mean by that is everyone's born, but the day they become financially independent, time independent, or they're able to pick their own path in life and do literally whatever they want when they want, I call it a second birthday. And I think every person should experience that. And a lot of people simply don't have, and there was a study by Bankrate in 2015. It's an online kind of publication. Bankrate, we've heard of them before. They found that most Americans, if they had an unexpected bill for $500, they would be bankrupt.

Ryan:14:08
Right? So they wouldn't be able to, you know, live or survive. So how can you expect anyone to start a company if they are in that position? So the funding is really to create a condition of abundance in your lifestyle, right? So you're able to get credit, access to funding, and then you actually have some room to take a risk. For most people, they can't take a risk because if that risk doesn't pan out, they're literally on the street.

Right. So this is something which allows them to have time to hone their craft and learn the skills necessary and also just to make long-term choices.

Not short term, you quick I need it right now, but decisions that will set you up for the long term. So the funding aspect in my case was more for that. And also because once I get someone a hundred thousand dollars in funding, they say, well, now what do I do? I want to start a business. Well, perfect. I have the dropshipping high ticket business here for you available to start as soon as you're ready. So people are very eager to invest once they have access to the funding they need.

Robby Bryant:15:20
Yeah, awesome. That kind of goes into my next question. How do you bundle that? Is the funding part of the drop shipping coaching or is it its own separate service? How do you work that?

Ryan:15:33
Great question. Great question. So originally, as I mentioned, it was like at the end. So I would do high, I would do high ticket drop shipping, I would teach that. But then, you know, a lot of people don't need the funding at the end because they're already making money. But I would I positioned it originally as like a point in rewards and travel bonuses and rewards and that that sort of thing. Because you know, one item might cost ten thousand dollars, that's the entire sign up bonus for a credit card. You get all the points on one purchase. So that was my original thinking. But then after being Being in the marketplace, and now I teach the funding first. So a lot of people will come to me and they say, Hey, I have bad credit, for example, right? So in that case, what I do is I repair their credit. There's laws in America and the FCRA, the Fair Credit Reporting Act. You're actually in control of your credit report. So you can get any derogatories, charge-offs, collections, bankruptcies just off your credit report, and it's perfectly legal.

So people don't know that they are in control of their credit reports. So I learned this process. I started helping people repair their credit, get back on their feet, and then access the funding and then get into the program. So now the funnel, instead of being the coaching and then the business credit, now I start with a credit repair. Depends on where they are. Some people have good credit, so I get them funding immediately, personal funding and business funding, and then the coaching program, but ultimately.

I have three main offers, right? So I have my base consulting where I have, you know, hourly rate. I charge $300 for credit repair. So that'll be a one-time call where I go through all the steps. first half of the call, I show them how to read their report. Second half of the call, I show them the process. And then after the call, I give them all the paperwork they need to get it repaired. Takes 30 days to 90 days, depending upon how many derogatories somebody has. Second program I have is the personal credit class. So once a week we meet and I have a whole Class at 1 p.m. Eastern, and we I teach people how to how to access 100K and 0% personal funding. And then the business class is Wednesdays and Fridays, and which case I teach people to access 250K and 0% APR business funding, which is a different, you know, most people don't even know there's business credit and personal credit.

Ryan:17:53
Different reports. And my last offer is my coaching program, which is the high ticket offer, which is a six months of coaching and consulting video program, all the paperwork, and then I meet with each individual personally for one to two hours a week for six months to help them get their store up and running.

Robby Bryant:18:13
Okay. Wow, so you handle everything A to B to get someone's business off the ground for dropshipping.

Ryan:18:21
Correct. Yeah. Personally. So I don't have any coaches or mentors that are underneath me. I do it myself. You know, I I did have some of that prior and I just found that I enjoy it way more just connecting with people directly. So I decided it's not worth it to have coaches and mentors because they're not experienced enough, they don't answer the questions properly, and ultimately I just really want to help as many people as I can. You know my Personal passion is to create as many entrepreneurs and to give as many people that second birthday as I possibly can while I'm here.

Robby Bryant:19:01
Yeah, that's awesome. That was gonna be my next question as far as how many people you have under the hood. And obviously, like I said, there's so many courses and coaches out there. And I think, of course, to scale, you want to start hiring a bunch of coaches and a bunch of you know CSMs. But immediately your product is going to start to deteriorate. It doesn't matter how good the coaches are, it's never going to be exactly

Ryan:19:06
Sure.

Ryan:19:20
Right.

Ryan:19:27
Right.

Robby Bryant:19:28
what you had envisioned. and I I'm sure that goes even farther as you go get into the credit repair stuff. How let's take the average American, let's say, you probably know better what the average American looks like financially than I do. given what how much money they have in their bank account and what their credit score is, can anyone just get funding? Can any anyone have credit repair and get funding?

Ryan:19:54
Yeah.

Yeah, that's the crazy part. So the credit anybody can access it. So a lot of people, you know, most people are under the impression if you have a late payment, a derogatory, you have to wait seven years for that to fall off your report. Inquiries take two years to fall off your report. And that is in some cases true, but ultimately, when you the way the law is written, I call it slippage. So the law is written in one way, it it's you can look it up, it's a fair credit report.

This is a law which governs the credit report. So the way the law is written and the way that they actually operate are almost are quite different. So I call it slippage, right? The way the law was written and then the way things actually operate over time have just gotten a little bit different, and then now it's completely different than it used to be. So the way the law is written, all of the federal protections protect you as the consumer. So I ex I I kind of met a draw an analogy like this.

So imagine you're at war, you're in the foxhole, you're in the trenches, you got a Kevlar, bazooka, ammunition, AK-47, all the ammunition you want, and and the creditor, the lender, whoever you know is on your credit report, is in the field naked with no weapons. I mean, every law protects the individual, the consumer. So if you dispute or you say, hey, I'm not familiar with this account, they have to provide evidence to say

Ryan:21:28
They don't keep those records, oddly enough. So they oftentimes cannot actually provide validation and the way the law is written, if they cannot provide it, therefore it must be deleted. So that's a quick high-level overview of the credit report. Ultimately, because of this process, you as an individual are in control of your credit report. It is not something beyond your control. So that's the most important, I think, foundational principle that somebody should. should kind of chew on and kind of get familiar with. And then after that, once the credit is repaired, usually takes between 30, 60 to 90 days, depending upon if there's sticky accounts. I call them sticky accounts. Maybe they take two rounds of disputes perhaps. Once those are removed, then you can immediately access up to 100,000 plus, I'd say up to but generally 60 to 100,000 in funding within 30 to 40 days after the negative interrogatory accounts are removed from the report. if somebody has some derogatories. If somebody comes to me and says, hey, I got good credit. I never even looked at it. I don't have any late payments or charge or nothing like that. Then that person is eligible for funding immediately. They could access, you know, $200,000 in two months if they wanted to.

Robby Bryant:22:46
And I'm assuming most of these funding instances are loans. Where are these loans coming from typically?

Ryan:22:54
Yeah, good question. So Mostly not loans, some could be loans, right? There are some loan programs out there that have good rates and and so forth, but a prime the majority of it, let's say sixty to eighty percent of it, would come through zero percent APR credit cards. So introductory offers, right? So you could sign up for a credit card. credit card will have an intro offer of zero percent, meaning no interest for one year, somewhere up to twenty-one months, and you get that card and you get you know Balance on there. There's there's ways to kind of hack the system so you get a much higher credit limit than if you would have just gone out there with no education or training. So there's ways of getting a much higher limit, and then you'll have basically let's say you open one car that gives you 15,000 or 20,000 or even 10,000. You open three or four cards, that you can see those numbers can add up pretty quickly, right? Now, the key detail here is I don't recommend people access funding and go buy a Louis bag, go buy a Of you know, of something, you know, personal use, right? The idea is to use that, find those resources to invest in your company, to build up your your your future, provide for yourself, right? So, but if somebody did have a large balance on a card, let's say 0% meaning no interest for one year, typically it's $50 for every $5,000 in monthly payments. So if I have balance.

Then my minimum would be 50 bucks. Now month 11 comes, I'm like, my god, I have to start paying interest next month. Okay, well, you open up another card.

Ryan:24:34
And you move that balance from this card to the next card, you pay a one-time three to five percent fee called a balance transfer fee to move that money over to the other card, and now you're back on zero percent interest for however long. And you can kick that can down the road pretty much you know as long as you want, but ultimately the real play is to move all that debt from your person over to your business, and you want to have that debt on your company and no longer on. person and that's gonna be the best play for the majority of people.

Robby Bryant:25:12
You totally got my head spinning as far as possibilities that you know, we could all go from here. and I'm sure anyone listening i i their minds are spinning too. I don't want to get too into the weeds of that. Anyone that wants to know more about that can go come to you and and look for your services. jumping back to the business side and how you make it work as a business.

Ryan:25:15
Okay.

Robby Bryant:25:36
I'd imagine, you know, if you're going from making multiple six, seven figures from dropshipping yourself, you'd have to be selling these services either at quite a high ticket or quite a high volume to make things make sense right now. would you mind kind of breaking down your pricing model or or what you find works the most is as far as the funding to the coaching?

Ryan:25:43
Yeah.

Ryan:25:54
Sure.

Ryan:25:59
Sure.

Yeah, absolutely. So I'll give you the price points. We just raised our prices August 1st. So I don't know the new numbers off the top of my head, but ultimately the I'll just give you the price points for every each of the products. So the consulting is $300 per hour. The personal coaching program is now $1,700. So $1,700. It's a one-time fee.

And then I w I guarantee that person a hundred per a hundred thousand dollars in zero percent interest credit.

So I so there's no time guarantee. I guarantee that I will work with that person until they reach that goal. Most people do within four to six months, but ultimately it's a class environment, right? So we we meet again, you know, once a week for personal, twice a week for business, and that's the the ticket offer for the the personal credit program. The business credit program I think is priced at 2300? I think I have to look. Again, we just raised the prices three days ago. So I have to look and see exactly. It was around two thousand dollars, twenty two hundred, twenty three hundred, and I guarantee two hundred and fifty K in zero percent business funding for the business class. Also a bundle where people get in both classes. I give a five hundred dollar coupon along with a fifteen percent fast action discount. So people sign up immediately within two days of getting the offer, then I I drop the price fifteen percent.

Ryan:27:28
So those are that's how the pricing and the the business model works for the personal and business funding program. The high ticket coaching program used to be 8,000 and now it's 10,400. So it's a very high-ticket offer. So I tell most people they probably can't afford it, to be quite frank, right? So it's really for people who are serious about their future. And also that's why I get the funding first for most people. So people start credit repair, they work up the ladder, right? So they get their credit repaired, get their personal funding, get their business funding, then they get into the coaching program.

Robby Bryant:28:07
So i is it r a requirement that people go through the funding first or say they come to you and they already have money and they just want to become viciously good at drop shipping, would you take them on?

Ryan:28:19
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I take everyone on who's interested. Well, at least I'll I'll have a conversation. You know, some people occasionally I'll have to turn people away if I'm overbooked or 'cause I do everything myself, like I mentioned. So I've obviously limited spots, you know, but ultimately if people are truly dedicated, you know, because even money is great, but it's really about the mindset and the goals that I mentioned before. You know, some from I have to be motivated to meet with somebody once a week.

To get them, you know, someone's like, I've had people pay and then not even show up for classes sometimes. And then it's like, okay, well, so you really you gotta make sure that it's the right qualified candidate. but ultimately there's no, I have no requirement on the funding versus the program. It's whatever somebody wants ultimately.

Robby Bryant:29:10
I see. Okay. Switching gears a little bit, can you take me back to before you launched this? You said that you were knocking doors at one point. I started in knocking doors before moving to some more remote ends. what exactly were you doing and what gave you the idea to to leave all that behind and say I'm gonna go full fledged into dropshipping?

Ryan:29:31
Sure. Yeah, so I cut it's where I cut my teeth, right? So, you know, I started so I was nineteen. So I was nineteen when I was doing door-to-door sales in DC on behalf of Verizon.

So was a management training program, so B2B sales. I'd walk in with a badge, a binder, a notebook. I'd just ask for their phone bill, and I'd sell them new phone services, new internet services. And I had a team of guys, it was 100% commission, right? So I had a team of guys that I trained, recruited, I managed. I was interviewing daily, training daily, going out in the field. They just gave me a map. Hey, here's a map. Go out and talk to people, right? I had a tracking sheet, I had a note every business I talked to, you know, and all this sort of thing, right? So that was my original. original you know and I I started doing that even to go further a little bit a little bit further back because I always wanted to be very successful.

I always wanted to be a billionaire, be extremely financially successful, to be able to provide the lifestyle that I wanted for myself, my family, my friends, and so forth. And I was very introverted. So I recognized that it's not really gonna work unless I become outgoing and become good at sales as a foundation for any company. So I was like, okay, let me figure that out. So I did door to door. Door did it for three years, no vacation, no holidays, just straight, you know, 100% the entire time. and then, you know.

I I my life went up made twists and turns and all these different things, but I had a moment where I could have opened up my own office with my team, moved to a new market, opened up the market, or I but at that time I started doing meditation. So I fell in love with meditation. So I I decided to move to Korea when I was 23, 24, and I studied meditation full-time for about a year and a half. And I just kind of wandered around and I started traveling a bit and teaching English in in Korea for a little while just kind of doing

Ryan:31:23
odds and things. And then that's when I fast forward to, you know, this I graduated in 2006, so I'm 37, right? So fast forwarding to 2017, I made a lot of I had a big windfall. Have you ever heard of the kimchi premium? Is this you ever heard this term before? Kimchi premium.

Robby Bryant:31:51
No, I like kimchi, but I've never heard of the kimchi premium.

Ryan:31:54
So it was a time where the price of Bitcoin in Korea was 30% higher than everywhere else in the world. It was like the end of 2017. So at that time, I was I luckily I was living in Korea and I had a Korea bank account. So I was buying in America, selling in Korea, and I was able to do this for like three weeks before the government stopped stopped the loophole. So I was making like three grand like a night for a few weeks, right? So So it was really fun, as you can imagine. So I was doing that and then and then so I I started doing like crypto arbitrage. So like I had a bacon count in this country, baking count in that country as I'm traveling.

Buying here, selling here, and that's how I was like, you know, living my lifestyle. It's by making like around a hundred grand a year at that time. And then that's when I discovered my friend's dropshipping course and he introduced me to it and I started the business. So it's kind of long path, but I cut my teeth in door to door, but then it was probably a 10-year window where I was just trying to figure it out, so to speak.

Robby Bryant:33:02
Yeah. Wow. And I believe you are somewhere out of the States right now. Where are you right now?

Ryan:33:09
Yeah. I'm in Thailand. I'm in Koh Samoy. So it's like an hour an hour north of Singapore, an hour south of Bangkok. So it's southern Thailand, if you're familiar.

Robby Bryant:33:19
I I am familiar. I love Kosamoy.

Ryan:33:21
Yeah, it's beautiful. I've been here about a month now, roughly.

Robby Bryant:33:22
Very fun, very very beautiful. Yeah, it's it's a good spot for digital nomads, right? Lots of foreigners. Yeah, cool. when you got into dropshipping at first, it did you immediately see that hole in the market that you're talking about, or did it take you some time and some initiation before you realize like, okay, I gotta start going forward, the high ticket stuff.

Ryan:33:31
yeah. yeah. yeah.

Ryan:33:47
Mm. Yeah, it was it was a second business for me for about six months because I was still making good money doing arbitrage, you know, buying and selling crypto. And so I was making, you know, decent money. And so it was like a s I didn't really have a a huge motivation to start it. But what happened is it was running on the back burner and then sales just started coming in.

So it was like, you know, one three I wake up one morning, Shopify for three thousand. wait, what? Okay. And then next day a two thousand dollar order and a three I'm like, okay, this is a business, you know, making more and then it just kind of naturally I started making more money doing drop shipping. And so I just put the trading on the back burner and then it became, you know, the rest is kind of history.

Robby Bryant:34:35
Awesome. And when you have, let's say, the ability to give people this funding, would you say that's what helps you step apart and and set yourself apart from other people in this space when they're trying to get others into dropshipping and and teach dropshipping? Is that the thing that you think sets you apart?

Ryan:34:56
Man, that definitely does. That's one of the things, no doubt. The biggest one, I think, is the fact that I just don't water down my services, as you mentioned prior, with the like you know, customer service reps and coaches and mentors. It's kind of crazy, I think, to have somebody teach something who's never done it. So all these coaches, there's maybe like three or four other guys that there are even two of them who have been doing it longer than I have.

But I their reviews are are horrible. They the peop I know people that go in their programs and they come to my program and they actually get results because I actually hold their hand and I work with them over time until they are successful. Whereas most people, they just kind of in my experience anyway, I'm not I'm speaking broadly, no not calling out any specific individual. You know, they'll kind of just get people the door and then they'll have like this wall between them and then the client right and so they put up this virtual assistant wall and so the virtual assistant there's always this in-between person and so the client is never satisfied because they know the this this mentor or the customer service or whoever doesn't really know the answer and so it's always filtered through somebody who's never done it.

And so it just ends up in my in my kind of you know my guesstimation just not being as successful for other people that are doing it that way. So and I just you know I really enjoy helping people. So for me it's just it's fun. You know, I don't understand why people would hide behind.

Ryan:36:36
That sort of customer service reps or you know whatever. I don't even know you call them coaches, mentors. It just doesn't make sense to have now I use the analogy of like skydiving. Like would you learn how to skydive from somebody who's never been skydiving? It's crazy, right? Right, right. Anyway, you get what I'm saying, right?

Robby Bryant:36:52
Something you can't see.

Robby Bryant:36:56
Yeah. Yeah, of course. How how do you let that come across to your prospects? You know, how how are you getting clients right now?

Ryan:37:07
Hmm. So a lot of it is like through JVs, you know, so other people that I know in the industry. So they email their list or I'll do like podcasts like this. I mean when I'm in the space, especially now with AI, I mean The inbox is just filled with everybody who wants your time. I mean, I get 10 podcast recommendation invitations a day. You know, it's just it's constant. Everybody wants to do SEO for you. You know, it's there's so much solicitation these days, right? So you could I pick and choose ones I think I'm interested in. and also a lot of referrals, a lot of referrals, and then advertising of course you know so I advertise and you know on on on the dropship store itself you know I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of like half a million dollars in in Google ads right so I'm very competent in advertising but for the coaching program I tend to prefer mostly JVs you know I do a little bit of YouTube content stuff like that and people just email me and I just most of my clients I get just through email. They email me and we have a conversation A lot of people I get them funding first and they go, okay, well now what do I do? Okay, well let's start let's start the program. And that's typically the the the most common sales process for the majority of clients.

Robby Bryant:38:28
Awesome. So in my own words, it sounds like you just build good practices over a good business and keep things personalized and that's been you know, carrying you and and getting your your name in a lot of doors.

Ryan:38:45
Yeah. And it also it also helps to do like, you know, you guys focus on like AI systems, right? And a lot of AI development. And so, you know, that has allowed me, you know, I started working with Replit, you know, last like December. So I've never done I wasn't a software engineer, never coding or anything like that. I've always had ideas. I wish I could build out this infrastructure, I wish I could make this process more smooth or wish I could have some software that I'm not paying this much money every month for. And so, you know, I started vibe coding.

December. And that's been a game changer, to say the least, right? Now almost, you know, the dropshipping store is almost 100% automated, 80%-ish. You know, there's still some human interaction, but mostly automated now. where all the the coaching programs, so maybe you're familiar with services like help a reporter out, quoted, featured. So these are places where you can get like I, you know, the business insider did a whole page on me.

Right. And then other public the publications you can just submit to them like a quote and they'll use your name and they'll use your quote and articles and so forth. So things like that have really moved the needle for credibility. Right. And all these things are now like, you know.

It there's only 24 hours a day, but now it feels like there's like, you know, 200 or 400 hours in a day because you can do so much more, or I could do so much more than I could do even last year, implement implementing like AI systems and stuff like that.

Robby Bryant:40:15
Yeah. And I I'm curious about that because I've personally worked on a couple of offers over the past couple of years by some well known creators that you might even know, I don't say any names, in the dropshipping space. And a lot of them have funnels that start with something like a free course. They get a lot of their leads coming in through a free course. What are your thoughts on that as far as longer term?

Ryan:40:35
Right.

Robby Bryant:40:44
outlook for their business and longer term outlook for a lot of the people who are clicking on those free course links thinking that they're gonna change their life.

Ryan:40:51
Mm.

Well, I mean, ultimately think about what's the goal, you know.

So here's what I also offer a free, you know. So my my program is four phases, right? So first phase I call it the best part, right? So it's the best part of building your company, so I call it the best part. The second phase is get ready, that's where you build the store, you're getting ready. get the phase three is get started, so that's where you start building, and then phase four is let's go, and that's where you start making money, right? So I have four phases, I give away the first phase for free, right? So people can go on my website, dropshippinghighticket.com, and they can sign up for the free ebook and I give away that first part for free. So anybody can look at that and learn the entrance, the doorway out of the business model. It's like a maybe two hours of content, something like that. And I give away material. So a lot of people do that. But what you tend to find is very few people take action, right?

People get an ebook or they watch a video and they don't really feel motivated to to do something. You have to really have multiple touch points and consistency over time for people to actually be able to do something. So what what I've noticed and

Ryan:42:07
I just try that method, like a free course or an entry webinar, or I did try that in the beginning, but I just wasn't satisfied with the results. And I I guess you could tweak it and tweak it and tweak it and eventually you build up enough people to where the numbers make sense, but What I found is that most people were just confused, right? You look at like general knowledge and then you say, okay, well, how does that apply to me? I want to know how it applies to me, right? I don't want to know some general principles. Maybe my situation is different than the general. I don't know, right? That would be the person might be thinking like that. So a lot of people, they can't do anything because they don't, they're confused about this or that. So they need an opportunity to to to voice their questions to ask what what is this or what is that and to get their mindset right and then they take action. naturally because the mental blocks are removed through conversation and through you know being able to ask those questions right so for me that's been the the best you know no-brainer position right so I for bec with that in mind I offer free email assistance right so anybody can email me and I'll charge for it they can ask me a thousand questions for a year and I'll guide you every step of the way for free through email.

Right. So, but if if they want to do consulting or have an hourly rate, then I there's a charge for that to hop on the phone, to put in my schedule. Other people want that time. I have to give, you know, there's there's a cost, but I can respond to an email by underwear at 3 a.m. if I want to, right? So who cares? I can just I can help anybody. So that's been what I think is the most valuable way to get people to actually start is just by actually helping them, not just giving away a general free course, like okay, it's cool.

Ryan:43:58
but it just it doesn't it's not a purple cow doesn't it doesn't stand out you know you know the the analogy like a purple cow doesn't stand out again in any way but somebody who actually cares and actually takes the time to help you for free That stands out, right? And so there's systems and processes I build to make that process easier for me to do because there's lot of people. But ultimately, when you can do that with a true sincere interest or just a sincerity, then people feel that. And then ultimately their questions get answered and they go to the next step and the next step and the next step. And then they actually want to do it and they can see themselves kind of stepping into that role. You know, so that's kind. been my I think my calling card I guess of just sincerity and then just actually wanting people to win. I'm not you know make money you have you have to make money in life right if I'm gonna pay for a service it's just a natural thing to exchange value but you have to actually like have sincerity I guess is the main point I'm trying to make you help people you want to help people and then they feel that and then they reciprocate

Robby Bryant:45:15
Yeah, I appreciate you being real about all that. I think a lot of people are stuck in loops on both sides, whether they're the people coming into the courses or the people who are trying to run and build and and grow their own coaching programs. and and maybe that's the key that they're missing, just that personal touch and they try to hire out too quickly. what advice w what's the single best piece of advice that you would give to a younger entrepreneur who is, let's say very well versed in dropshipping and they want to start selling their coaching.

Ryan:45:49
sell so a younger guy who knows dropshipping, who wants to start coaching.

I would get I would teach people for free first. And nobody wants to do it because they don't want to give away their time, right? But I would either get in front of somebody else's audience and talk about it multiple times without the thought of any return, just giving away value for free, just constantly and with consistency, not just one time. That would be the first thing. Or just just teaching people for free would be the most obvious way. you know, but nobody really wants to do that.

Hears that from everyone, right? And they yeah, that's the way to do it, but I'll do a different thing. Do you know what I'm saying? But ultimately, you need people, you need case studies, and you need, I don't even, you need just that momentum and that practice of working with somebody and getting them from point A to point B. You know, it's like I don't know if you're familiar with like Malcolm Gladwell tipping point and and he has a few books. So, you know, a lot of celebrity, like a lot of I think it was him who wrote it, but it's like a lot of pe like if you take like a a really good pitcher, a baseball pitcher, does it mean that they can teach someone else how to be a really good pitcher?

Robby Bryant:46:52
Yeah.

Ryan:47:06
Right. A lot of people who are really good at something are not good at teaching somebody that skill. They just say, it's just intuition. I don't know. I just do it. Right. But there's actually, in my experience, there's three separate skills. There's doing it. There's there's the higher level is teaching somebody how to do it. And the highest level is teaching somebody how to teach somebody how to do it.

Right. And that's where you really start to multiply your skills. you know, so I think for that person who's just starting out, just get in front of people.

Just get in front of people, just get their attention, and then just work from there. Cause it's a long road, but it is a point, there's a breaking point. You put effort, effort, effort, effort, effort, and there's a point where it's just flows without much effort. But to build it up takes a lot of effort in the beginning, and people oftentimes are not willing to do that. You know what I'm saying? And that's why I come back to

Robby Bryant:48:05
Yeah.

Ryan:48:06
goals. Your big goals you'll put in the effort.

Robby Bryant:48:10
Yeah. Do you ever see yourself going into that next tier of teaching the teachers? Or are you very comfortable with the program you're running right now?

Ryan:48:20
thing the the thing is that most people who run their store don't wanna be coaches because they're making a good living. Do you know what I'm saying? So I would never have somebody who never ran a company teach people how to run a company. It's like the craziest concept, it doesn't even make sense to me. But people love but everybody wants that idea, but it's not real. There's no such thing as a passive business in my opinion.

Right, everything requires your time, energy, or investment, or something. So in my case, if I had people who were already successful, that I had taught that wanted to become a coach, then I would you know think about it, not consider it. But I would never take someone off the street and say, Hey, here's my model, go teach it, and I'll p It doesn't it doesn't work. It won't work. You know? You'll have one out of ten people, you have one guy who's successful. My success rate is like ninety-five percent. I've had one guy not be successful, and that was just because he didn't and he didn't listen to me. You know say I guarantee success because I know every facet of the company. I've done every part of it. I know I can take it apart, rebuild it, take it apart, rebuild it a thousand times over. Do you know what I'm saying?

Robby Bryant:49:36
Yeah. Okay, yeah, I completely understand. When you're already profiting so much and you have a system in place in one domain, it takes you know, a a bigger goal or a bigger incentive to go to that next level. So I guess that's not necessarily what you're looking to get into at the moment. I I wanna end looking forward though. Over the next twelve months, what's the number one thing in terms of you know, dreams, numbers, visions that you are excited about or you are trying to accomplish with this business.

Ryan:50:08
I have a huge goal that I'm working on this year. So this July 1st, I wanted to test myself. So the big test I wanna see, it's a really numerous goal, so people might not like it, but like I wanna make a million dollars in profit in six months. It's the biggest, it's the most I've ever made.

Right. So I want to see if it's if I could do it. Because you know, the most I made a profit in one year is probably like, I don't know, three hundred thousand, four thousand dollars. Right. So it's a huge jump even for myself. I'm talking about doubling it in six months. Right. But the reason I want to be able to do that is I think AI systems, Replit, s it's a lot these things can I can do so much more.

So I'm testing myself. That's my big goal right now. You know, I want to just see if I can make it happen. I just want to see kind of what's my potential, right? Is it possible for me to do that? So I've just been grinding for the last, you know, two months, and I'm will grind for the next, you know, four, I don't know, four months at the end of the year. I'll take a break in January, I think. But ultimately that's my big goal right now. And then, you know, I'd like to have tons of, I've been talking about goals forever. I'd like to retire my parents.

I want to do all these sorts of things, continue to travel the world. you know, I want to I have a whole itinerary next year already for traveling and stuff like that. but the big thing that's front of mind for me right now is that financial goal. It's just something, you know, in business, it's like you're doing well.

You always want to see what what could I do? I really push myself. You know, I go to the gym every day, I'm super focused. Like what is possible? So I'm just trying to explore the the the the boundaries of my potential to see what's possible.

Robby Bryant:52:01
Awesome, Ryan. This has been an awesome conversation, especially for someone like me. I've also come from door door and I have always appreciated traveling and working in you know settings where I'm able to keep traveling and keep working in the domains that I want. So I really appreciate all of your advice and tidbits. where can people find you if they want help with their either funding or drop shipping?

Ryan:52:27
Sure. So there's two main ways. The the first way is just the website. There's lots of free materials. dropshipping high ticket dot com.

Very simple. We have I have the free the free ebook on there, as I mentioned, the free course. You can apply or the newsletter. There's a blog with God knows how many articles at this point. 300, 400 articles all about dropshipping, how to get funding, how to start your own e-commerce business. Tons of stuff on there for free. If you were interested in that. The other way is my email. Just email me directly. So my email is Ryan R Y A N at dropshipping highticket.com.

Send me an email. I respond within 24 to 48 hours.

Robby Bryant:53:12
Awesome, Ryan. I genuinely appreciate you getting into the weeds with dropshipping and as far as growing your business and what's required there. That's the kind of stuff that a lot of people usually don't hear. I think why a lot of people are churning so much in this space. So it's really awesome that you were able to give us some of your knowledge there. So everyone listening, that's the episode. We'll see you on the next one.