Doubling Revenue In A Single Year with Mike Ryan
Moving from a job in big corporate to building a soloist expertise business is a bit of an adjustment. Consultant Mike Ryan turned his sweet spot into a thriving business and last year doubled his already significant revenue—he shares his story:
The transition from being a buyer to becoming the seller—and how he built his referral “machine” (hint: cold calling didn’t work).
Why he ignored advice to grow by hiring employees—and what he did instead.
The two things that first accelerated and then doubled his already significant revenue.
Why understanding the relationship between fees and value for his clients was a major turning point in his business.
How to resist the temptation to dial back after a 230% growth year and keep thinking bigger.
LINKS
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BIO
Mike Ryan is an expert in solving supply chain and inventory challenges for middle-market manufacturers. He quickly analyzes complex issues, generates cash, and improves EBITDA to deliver repeatable results.
With over 20 years of experience working for companies like GE and Goodyear, he tailors blue-chip best practices to help manufacturers achieve their goals.
RESOURCES FOR SOLOISTS
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TRANSCRIPT
00:00 – 00:29
Mike Ryan: There were 2 things at play. 1 was figuring out how to work in parallel, work with multiple clients at the same time, which was definitely a mindset shift. And the second 1 was being confident and having the confidence to be able to look at a client and say, hey, here’s the value we are going to unlock in your business. The beautiful thing about the work that I do is it’s all measurable. Here’s the value we expect to unlock.
00:34 – 01:17
Rochelle Moulton: Hello, hello. Welcome to the Soloist Life podcast, formerly known as Soloist Women, where we’re all about turning your expertise into wealth and impact. I’m Rochelle Moulton, and today I’m here with Mike Ryan, who is an expert in solving supply chain and inventory challenges for middle market manufacturers. He quickly analyzes complex issues, generates cash, and improves EBITDA to deliver repeatable results. With over 20 years of experience working for companies like GE and Goodyear, he tailors blue chip best practices to help manufacturers achieve their goals. He is also a super smart and generous guy, so I’m delighted to
01:17 – 01:18
Rochelle Moulton: have him on the show. Mike, welcome.
01:19 – 01:21
Mike Ryan: Thank you, Rachelle. Thank you for having me.
01:21 – 01:31
Rochelle Moulton: Oh, I’m delighted. I’m delighted. So you and I have been in each other’s orbit for a few years through my other podcast, The Business of Authority, and we’ve had some rather eye-opening discussions over the
01:31 – 01:33
Mike Ryan: years. We
01:33 – 01:56
Rochelle Moulton: have. But our last chat made me realize that I had to have you on this show because you broke a significant revenue barrier that many ex-corporados struggle with when they go solo. So I thought we could start there. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So how did you come to create your business? Was it always intended to be solo, or did you flirt with hiring employees? What was your plan?
01:57 – 02:42
Mike Ryan: So the plan for my business and really kind of the genesis was I realized that through consulting, instead of being tethered or obligated to 1 business, I could help multiple businesses. So that was the thought process behind it. And when it came to figuring out my niche, really where I started was I looked back through 20 years of resumes through all the supply chain and operations experience. And what I realized was I had a knack for freeing up cash by fixing supply chains. So that’s how I decided to focus in on helping middle market manufacturers solve
02:42 – 02:44
Mike Ryan: supply chain inventory problems.
02:44 – 02:52
Rochelle Moulton: I love that You targeted your genius zone, right? And how long did it take you to hit your first $100, 000 a year?
02:53 – 03:37
Mike Ryan: Ooh, that’s a great question. So I hit it year 1. Part of it was had a relationship, got into a business that was being cleaned up for sale. So I hit it the first year, but I missed it the second year. And it’s been said the lessons you pay for the ones you remember. And with that, I mean, it was a 9 month engagement. I was fat dumb and happy ringing the bell, getting paid, making great money. And when that engagement wrapped, What I realized was, oh, sugar, I haven’t had a single business development conversation in
03:37 – 03:48
Mike Ryan: 6 months. So that second year, I did not crack $100, 000 and then got back up years 3 and 4 back over that first hurdle.
03:48 – 04:03
Rochelle Moulton: Was there a panic in year 2? Because what you describe is not that uncommon, right? The first year you find a good whale client and it’s so easy not to do all the spade work of business development because, as you said, fat, dumb, and
04:03 – 04:19
Mike Ryan: happy. For me, it was the realization that no matter how engaged I am with a client, I have to set aside time to keep conversations going and keep relationships moving.
04:19 – 04:25
Rochelle Moulton: Yeah, so when you started your business, did you already have all the contacts you needed from
04:25 – 05:01
Mike Ryan: your corporate jobs, or were you going out and finding new contacts? New contacts, cold. I mean, I had been corporate for 20 years, GE and Goodyear. And it’s interesting because it’s kind of a bubble. So once I got outside of the corporate role, my first client, they were private equity owned, was able to get to know the operating partner, sort of the bridge between the PE and the business. And it was the operating partner who exposed me to the PE. And that’s where I realized private equity is going to be a huge source of referrals for
05:01 – 05:27
Mike Ryan: me. So it was figuring out where to fish and 2, then ended up creating a middle market networking group in Northeast Ohio. And the spirit of the group was really just helping good people connect. And it was through that combination of doing work with and for the private equity and the middle market networking group that helped me expand my sphere.
05:28 – 05:33
Rochelle Moulton: So, can I take that to mean that you did both the in-person piece in Ohio, but also virtual?
05:33 – 05:35
Mike Ryan: Yes, absolutely.
05:35 – 05:45
Rochelle Moulton: Okay, I love that because we almost never hear about people doing like actually in-person local networking anymore, but it sounds like you were able to use that to kind
05:45 – 06:26
Mike Ryan: of worm your way into the middle market space? Absolutely. I mean, pre-COVID, our last event before COVID, we had something like 65 people. And the list at that point was maybe 250 people, and we would rotate the list. And what we found was 65 people was too many to have a conversation with any meeting. So through COVID, that forced us really to be much more intentional about who we invited to the events. And what we found was 25 to 30 people really became the sweet spot where you’re gonna meet somebody new there’s gonna be a few
06:26 – 06:34
Mike Ryan: familiar faces but everybody can have a decent conversation without feeling like they had you know a football field to cover.
06:34 – 06:59
Rochelle Moulton: Yeah yeah I can see how that would evolve. Well, you kind of glossed over something that I sort of imagine our listeners saying, what, cold calls? Cold calls? Talk a little bit about, especially since you didn’t think of yourself as being a sales person. So how did you do those cold calls? Did you literally pick up the phone and call them or did you have a different process?
07:00 – 07:41
Mike Ryan: No. I think I tried 3 cold calls. I’m like, this is not who I am. What I learned was, I guess, first is refining that fishing line of, I help X with Y, being very, very concise about it. As I met people, whether it was just, you know, Northeast Ohio or through the private equity and their portfolio companies, it was asking them, Hey, you know, is there somebody else I should talk to? Or is there somebody else interesting that you know?” And wherever possible, I try to make it a warm introduction or a warm connection because
07:41 – 07:59
Mike Ryan: to me, I’m always open. I don’t have a call with anybody. I’m happy to help. But at some point, it’s, hey, I need to make sure I’m fishing where the fish are and really focus my time on people that either I could help or potentially they could make introductions for me.
08:00 – 08:18
Rochelle Moulton: I like that. I just want to point that out to listeners, this idea that when you have a conversation and you’re providing value to the person on the other end, and then when you’re done, you say, is there somebody else that you think I should talk to, is a very low key way to expand your network because they can just say, no, can’t think of anybody.
08:18 – 08:20
Mike Ryan: Yep, which is okay, yeah.
08:20 – 08:24
Rochelle Moulton: Yeah, but most times people will come up with somebody that they think you should meet.
08:24 – 08:24
Mike Ryan: Agreed,
08:24 – 08:33
Rochelle Moulton: yes. So Mike, as long as we’ve been connected, you’ve been pretty active on LinkedIn. Is that where you generate your leads now?
08:34 – 09:16
Mike Ryan: LinkedIn is a way for me to stay engaged and stay visible. At this point, most of my leads come through referrals. So it either comes through primarily through private equity channels where, hey, Mike, I heard you helped company XYZ, we’re having a similar problem, can we have a conversation? So a good portion of my work now is either referrals or repeat client work, where I’ve got a client from 3 years ago that said, hey, we need your help again. Can you help us? So it’s, I would say it leans heavily towards referrals And LinkedIn is a
09:16 – 09:26
Mike Ryan: way to stay visible. And as I work with clients who are active on LinkedIn, it’s another way for me to engage with them and help support them.
09:26 – 09:54
Rochelle Moulton: Got it, got it. And you know, it’s funny because People have a love-hate relationship with referrals, but when you’re doing a high-end service for corporate or in this case, private equity, and you build a reputation, you literally can get ongoing work from referrals and not have to spend a lot of time on business development once you’ve created the machine. And of course, I’m sure your second year, you were scratching your head trying to figure out how
09:54 – 10:29
Mike Ryan: you were ever going to create the machine. Yes. Right? And it is. I mean, Rochelle, you’re absolutely right. Creating that machine, nurturing the machine. I don’t know if I’m stretching the analogy too far, but keeping it fed and oiled, that’s the thing. Because if the machine stops running, there’s a lag. It could be 3 months, it could be 6 months, but all of a sudden the phone stops ringing. So keeping that machine going, even if it’s low key, just maintaining that momentum, right, that helps me 6 months a year and further down the road.
10:29 – 10:46
Rochelle Moulton: Yeah, there’s always a point where like we could just stop feeding the machine. But to your point, at some point it runs out. If we’re really good and really lucky, it can go quite a while. But it takes so little to nurture it on an ongoing basis. Like why would you stop?
10:46 – 10:47
Mike Ryan: Yeah, I agree.
10:47 – 11:18
Rochelle Moulton: Yeah. So it was an experience you told me about I would just love for you to share with listeners. And it was a while back and you told me about this experience from your mastermind. And I think it’s instructive for people who are trying to figure out their ultimate end game, whether that’s the sale of a business or retirement or just paying for a whole lot of college tuitions. If I remember the story correctly, you told your group that you wanted to have $3 million in your pocket in 10 years. And
11:18 – 12:00
Mike Ryan: their advice was? Go hire a whole bunch of people. That for me, the way I look at it, I’ve got blessed with a wife and 4 children. I am happy with that responsibility, right? Keeping my family fed and a roof over our head. For me, hiring an employee is a huge responsibility because not only am I responsible for my family, now I’m potentially responsible for somebody else’s family. So what I’ve done and how I’ve helped with bandwidth and capacity is I have a network of trusted advisors where if somebody needs help with the voice of a
12:00 – 12:33
Mike Ryan: customer, I’m going to call Dave Loomis. EOS, I’m going to call Kimberly Dyer. So I’ve got different areas that are adjacent. In most cases, they have solo businesses themselves, so they’re not dependent on necessarily revenue from me and they understand, hey, I absolutely will call you when the opportunity arises. And having that flexibility by hiring other contractors or other soloists has worked very, very well. Well, the responsibility is
12:33 – 13:09
Rochelle Moulton: so different. So if you don’t call them in 2024 and give them an assignment, they’re not gonna starve. You’re not gonna feel guilty that you haven’t created opportunities for them. It’s that, I think it’s that psychological or emotional component that people with integrity realize when not always right away but once you actually have people on the payroll you’re like oh I’m responsible and so yes I have to lead these employees they have to create the conditions for them to be successful and for us to be successful together. It’s just a whole different ball of wax. But
13:09 – 13:42
Rochelle Moulton: what I remembered at the time was that the idea was, okay, hire a bunch of people, build up your business, and then sell it at the end of 10 years for $3 million. And the other part of that, that’s really the fallacy is that the market will be ready to buy that at that price when you get to that point. I mean, 1, you might not get there to the market might have changed dramatically. I think when I sold my company 6 months later, the deals were a lot smaller. It was literally like half, some of
13:42 – 14:02
Rochelle Moulton: the deals were half the size of ours for the same kind of situation. So yeah, it’s difficult and it’s more dicey versus, okay, well, so if I wanna have $300, 000 or $3 million in 10 years, then if I make $600, 000 and keep half of it, I’m there.
14:02 – 14:20
Mike Ryan: Right. Yeah. And that’s right. There’s there’s multiple ways to get to that destination. You know, I’ve kept that bogey in mind year over year over year and figuring out, you know, how do I break through the next revenue hurdle and in what ways can I continue to be successful?
14:21 – 14:25
Rochelle Moulton: Well you just led me right into the next thing I want to talk about. Thank you.
14:25 – 14:27
Mike Ryan: That was very smooth. You’re welcome.
14:27 – 14:50
Rochelle Moulton: Well, whenever we talk, you’ve often attributed your success to your willingness to raise prices and tie them to the value that you create and I was hoping you could talk some more about that because you more than doubled your income which was already Substantial in a single year And so I really love for to kind of tease out how you did that.
14:50 – 15:04
Mike Ryan: Yep, sure. Yeah. So looking back at 2023, the revenue for 2023 was 230%. So just over double of 2022. So
15:05 – 15:08
Rochelle Moulton: a fantastic year. Yeah, by any stretch.
15:09 – 15:48
Mike Ryan: And there were 2 things at play there. 1 was figuring out how to work in parallel. So work with multiple clients at the same time, which was definitely a mindset shift. And the second 1 was being confident and having the confidence to be able to look at a client and say, hey, here’s the value we are going to unlock in your business, right? The beautiful thing about the work that I do is it’s all measurable. So here’s the value we expect to unlock. And if I’m asking for a 10th of that, you’re gonna get the payback.
15:48 – 16:25
Mike Ryan: The payback is going to be there. Having that confidence, knowing the value that we can unlock made it easier for me to say, hey, I want to be of service. I like your business. I like the people. Here’s what the investment is going to look like.” And I found that starting from, hey, here’s the value we anticipate creating and walking back to the investment for an engagement, I want to make it as much of a, oh my God, yeah. So I get to put $9 in my pocket and I give you $1. Okay. Right? I’m good
16:25 – 17:05
Mike Ryan: with that. And really the other thing that helps with that Rochelle is private equity understands that every dollar that we can put to the bottom line, there’s a multiple associated with it. If it’s a manufacturing business that has an EBITDA multiple of 6, every dollar we put to the bottom line, when the PE sells that business, each single dollar is worth $6. So if I’m asking for 10 cents of that $1, when it falls to the bottom line, there really is, there’s no math involved. It’s like, cause they know they’re gonna get a multiple of whatever
17:05 – 17:10
Mike Ryan: we can kick to the bottom line. So again, it just, it helps to bring it all back
17:10 – 17:16
Rochelle Moulton: to value. Well, plus speed, I would think. I’m thinking most PE companies want to be able to turn their companies around faster.
17:17 – 17:44
Mike Ryan: Yeah, Absolutely. So this is, you know, hey, there’s a three-year payback. No, that’s not going to fly. Right? We’re typically looking inside of a 12-month window to realize whether it’s freeing up working capital, unfreezing cash that’s frozen in inventory, or making the business more profitable. It’s typically a 6 to 12-month window that they’re looking at.
17:45 – 18:08
Rochelle Moulton: Gotcha. Well, I want to really look at both pieces of what you said. And 1 is this idea that you you went from serial to parallel. So serial, what you mean is you’ve got 1 client and when you’re done with that client, you look for another 1 or you take on another 1. Correct. Yes. Okay. Which is almost like a corporate mentality, like a job, right? I can only have 1 job at a time. Exactly.
18:08 – 18:51
Mike Ryan: And the first, I’ll say, unlock for me was as I got clients outside of my geography, traveling out there and spending a month on site, it just, not to say it couldn’t be done, but it wasn’t practical and it wasn’t how I wanted to work. And I remember distinctly the first client where from initial conversation to sign engagement letter was 100% virtual. I had never done that before. Understanding that I can build a relationship over the phone and teams in Zoom, do the work, deliver the results, and it doesn’t have to be all day, every day
18:51 – 19:26
Mike Ryan: consumed with a single client. So that was kind of the first shift. And then from there, I realized, okay, I own my calendar. My calendar is mine. And that was a huge corporate mindset shift. But saying, hey, yes, with each client, we’re going to have some standing meetings. I have 1 client is Monday is at 1. I’ve got another client. It’s Tuesdays at 3. There will be some standing meetings I need to work around. But otherwise, it’s here’s my link to my Calendly tool. You need something, grab the time. If you want to book a meeting
19:26 – 19:47
Mike Ryan: and you can’t find something, let’s talk. Working virtually, working in parallel, realizing that I didn’t have to dedicate all day, every day, that it was really all about creating the results. That was 1 of the big things that helped me in 2023. Did you see
19:47 – 19:56
Rochelle Moulton: a shift in how many hours you worked total? I don’t just mean client hours, but your marketing and business development time? Oh, that’s a great question.
19:56 – 20:35
Mike Ryan: Yes. I think the total, the actual hours I worked were down. Part of it was understanding that it’s all about the deliverable, it’s all about the outcomes. And 1 of the things that we haven’t talked about it yet is I don’t go by the hour. So for me, it’s the more efficient I can be, the more profitable I am. So, you know, and this would go straight into Jonathan Stark’s wheelhouse of, you know, if I’m billing by the hour, I’m incentivized to do it as slowly as possible. Whereas if it’s a fixed fee or a retainer,
20:36 – 20:49
Mike Ryan: I want to be as efficient and quick as possible. So that model has helped me be more judicious with my time and helped me free up my calendar a little bit. Yeah, I
20:49 – 21:02
Rochelle Moulton: think the thing that people just kind of can’t wrap their heads around sometimes is that you could increase your revenue by, in this case, 230%, and actually work fewer hours. Like, I can picture people going, what?
21:03 – 21:38
Mike Ryan: Yeah. Well, it’s double your prices. Double your prices and you can work half as much. I didn’t double my prices. That’s not how I got there. I’ve worked with having the trusted advisors network really has been empowering for me because it’s helped other people that I’ve worked with understand what their value is where never forget the first time I brought somebody into work and engagement with me and they were very much appear. I wasn’t like super subordinate they were peers said okay well. Let me get an idea from your perspective, what do you think it’s involved?
21:39 – 21:51
Mike Ryan: How long do you think it’s going to take? And ultimately, what kind of rate are you looking for? And they said, I’m looking for like 70 an hour. And I’m like, oh my God, no. I’m like, you should
21:51 – 22:22
Rochelle Moulton: be charging like 170 an hour. And they said, really? Like, yes, let’s just look at it from the value that you’re creating. So we did some quick math and they said, Oh, I see it now. I’m like, yeah, so we need to up your rates, right? I want to do well. I want you to do well. We both do well. We’ll keep working together. Well, it also reflects on your brand, right? Is somebody billing $70 an hour, just all else being equal, does not appear as valuable as somebody billing $500 an hour.
22:23 – 22:23
Mike Ryan: Right, exactly.
22:24 – 22:48
Rochelle Moulton: So I want to hit confidence in a little bit more depth. So you started your business in 2017, as we’re recording this as 2024. How did you see your confidence at the beginning versus now? Did you see some dramatic uptick in your confidence level the year that you grew your revenue or was it more of a slow, steady build as you learned how to create this business of yours?
22:48 – 23:24
Mike Ryan: It was more of a slow, steady build. This is me, this is my grind. Part of it is just getting more comfortable in my own skin and being able to sit with a client or sit with an executive leadership team. I remember this vividly where, and with a client, they’re explaining to me their process. And I know I made a face, I must have made a face. And the chief supply chain officer looks at me and he’s like, Mike, what’s wrong? And I said, without even thinking Rochelle, I looked at him, I said, I followed the
23:24 – 24:03
Mike Ryan: process. It’s just completely twisted. And everybody, you could hear a pin drop and I’m like okay they’re gonna walk me out and 2 seconds later the room burst out laughing like yes you’re right thank you for saying that so in a constructive way being able to call something out that doesn’t make sense. Because I almost see it as an obligation where if a client has a problem and I have a solution, it’s my obligation to help get them there. I’m not going to sit idly by and watch them flail. I want to be of service. And
24:03 – 24:40
Mike Ryan: I think having people and clients understand that I’m here to help, I want to help, when there are, we’ll just call them constructively critical observations, they’re accepted as opposed to people falling out of the chairs and fainting. So part of it is getting comfortable in my own skin and realizing the value that I can create not only in the problem that I’ve been brought in to solve, but in showing how to communicate constructively, communicate effectively across the business. Yeah, you heard me laugh at
24:40 – 25:15
Rochelle Moulton: the twisted comment. But the truth is they expect a consultant, a seasoned senior consultant, to speak truth. Yes. And you’ve seen a lot of these and you know it’s twisted. So I love that you said it. And frankly, if they did usher you out the door, they’re never gonna solve the twisted problem. Oh no. Yeah, Love it. So what do you do after you’ve had a 230% growth year? Like, what do you do for the next year? Do you say, Oh, well, that was just a crazy thing. I’ll just aim lower. Or do you, you know,
25:15 – 25:19
Rochelle Moulton: shoot for the stars? Like, How do you think about this going into this year?
25:21 – 26:03
Mike Ryan: So that is the 2024 Mastermind question. So every year there’s a group of 7 of us, we get together for 4 days and it’s very much our professional and personal board of directors. And as I was preparing for Mastermind, it was in January, my question was, okay, I need some help setting my revenue target for 2024. And I’m like, do I set it at 75% of last year or 80% of last year? I was thinking, I don’t know if I can do this. And as soon as the words left my mouth, I realized I had said
26:03 – 26:46
Mike Ryan: something stupid. To a man, they all look at me and say, no, Mike, there’s no stepping back. Instead of thinking 75%, you should be thinking, how do I grow this business another 30% this year? And that was where the group challenged me. They’re like, hey, put a plan together, want to see what the current client stream looks like, what’s coming up after that, what do I have in the pipeline? And we meet once a month and they are helping hold me accountable to that goal of nearly 35% on top of last year.
26:46 – 27:17
Rochelle Moulton: I love that so much as you know. Yeah and I love this because it’s the same mastermind that gave you maybe some not great advice on how to grow the business but once they saw what you did, they’re in and they’re pushing you in the right direction. 100%. 100%. And it’s interesting because we’ve got the relationship where somebody can say, hey, hire a bunch of people. And I’m like, that’s not me, right? I want to figure out a different way. I want
27:17 – 27:27
Mike Ryan: to get there, but I need your help figuring out a different way to get there.” The group’s like, okay, yeah, let’s figure it out. It’s been very
27:28 – 27:39
Rochelle Moulton: beneficial. What do you think is the next frontier then for you to grow? Is it getting more clients? Is it changing the business model in some way? What do you think is next?
27:40 – 28:30
Mike Ryan: What I think is next is changing the business model to go to More of a success fee model where. Hey we’ve got a bubble on the balance sheet we got a working capital challenge and the business is borrowing money to have a revolving line of credit. So the idea is, okay, everything that we can unfreeze from inventory and turn back into cash, I want some percentage of that. And The thing that helps in this current environment, businesses are borrowing at a rate from 8% to 15%. If the business isn’t what’s known as bankable, like if they
28:30 – 29:11
Mike Ryan: can’t go to a traditional bank and they have to go to an asset-based lending company, then they’re looking at rates of 18% or 20%. If I can help unfreeze that cash, put it back in their pocket, not only does that cash become liquid again, but they’re also not paying 15% interest on it. Again, if a business is paying a million dollars, which is not unusual, a million dollars a year in interest, if we can cut that in half, that half a million they’re not paying in interest falls right to the bottom line. And then there’s a
29:11 – 29:24
Mike Ryan: multiple that goes along with that. So it becomes a win-win situation, both for the business and then for my business as well. So that’s what’s on deck for 2024. Well, and what
29:24 – 29:48
Rochelle Moulton: I love about the success fee idea is that it aligns the interests of you and your client and it keeps everybody focused on value. Yes. Yeah. So Mike, I have to ask you a question I like to ask everybody. So if you could go back to who you were when you first started your business, What’s the 1 thing you’d advise him to do?
29:51 – 30:28
Mike Ryan: Get out and talk to people. So this is a story I love to tell. When I decided to go solo, when I decided to hang up my shingle, I spent literally 3 months back office getting a logo made, building a website, building collateral. Didn’t talk to a single person. And there was a manufacturing show in Cleveland and I’m like, oh I need to get a shirt. So I went on Vista Print, got a shirt, a golf shirt with my logo on it, and I’m tracking it and I chose up at the house and I run to
30:28 – 30:58
Mike Ryan: the mailbox and I hold it off all proud and show it to my wife. And my wife looks at me and says, you’re the best prepared consultant that has no work. You need to learn how to sell. And I love my wife dearly. She was 100% right. She’s a smart woman. A very smart woman. I definitely married up and I called a very good friend of mine. His name is Matt and I said, Matt, will you teach me how to sell? He’s like, Mike, you know how to sell. I’m like, Matt, I don’t know how to
30:58 – 31:32
Mike Ryan: sell. Will you teach me how to sell? I said, come on, all right, let’s grab breakfast. And I sit down with Matt and Matt’s been the leader of sales organizations, CEO of businesses for 30 years. And he goes, Mike, you know how to sell. I’m like, Matt, I don’t know how to sell. It’s building relationships. Because you know how to build relationships. I’m like, yeah, yeah, I can build relationships. So now there’s some mechanics involved, right? You have to follow up. You can’t take the first no and You have to follow up and follow through and
31:32 – 32:10
Mike Ryan: do as you said you’re going to do because if you add that layer on like I promise you will be successful and he was 100 percent right so if there’s any advice I would give to by 7 years ago self, it’s just get out there and start talking with people and get the feedback. Really because it was the feedback that helped refine my niche and I went back and had to redo my website anyway. Go out there, talk to people, get your first client, and then you can worry about setting up an LLC and getting a
32:10 – 32:26
Mike Ryan: business bank account and all the other administrative stuff. So, land that client first, and then take care of the administrative stuff. So that would be what I would tell my 7 years ago self.
32:26 – 32:59
Rochelle Moulton: Yeah, it’s all, I hear it all as part of the transition from being in a corporate environment where we have to be buttoned up. We have to get everything all or ducks in a row first before we get anything out there versus being an entrepreneur, especially a soloist where it’s the reverse, right? We start with something and then we adjust as we go. Exactly. Well, Mike, we’ll be putting all sorts of links to you and your sites in the show notes, but where’s the best place for people to learn more about you? The best place really
32:59 – 33:04
Rochelle Moulton: is my website. There’s a ton of case studies, ton of examples, all real world.
33:05 – 33:14
Mike Ryan: And the website is, I like to call it, it’s my engineering creative name of M, as in Michael, R-Y-A-N, MryanGroup.com.
33:16 – 33:35
Rochelle Moulton: MryanGroup.com. Awesome. Mike, thank you so much for being so generous with your stories and your learnings and I’m just so excited for you that you had such an incredible jump in your business this last year and it doesn’t take much to predict more success for you.
33:36 – 34:07
Mike Ryan: No, thank you. And Rochelle, I want to thank you for all your support along the way. Having you as a resource has been absolutely phenomenal. And not to mention your book, The Authority Code, that was great as well. Knowing that you’re there as a resource, Rochelle, to answer questions I may not feel comfortable asking the general public, It’s been fantastic. So thank you for your support and thank you for the opportunity to be on your show.
34:07 – 34:09
Rochelle Moulton: Well, thank you, Mike. That was an unpaid
34:11 – 34:26
Mike Ryan: endorsement. I’ve got the book on my shelf. I know we’re audio, but I’d be happy to, yes, that was unpaid. That was me just touting all the help I’ve had through the years, and I’m grateful for it.
34:26 – 34:33
Rochelle Moulton: Well, thank you. And that’s it for this episode. I hope you’ll join us next time for the soloist life. Bye bye.
