Episode 114: Losing your passion and making new dreams come true — with Ryan Mason

We often talk about “finding your passion” in life… but what happens when you find your passion, and then you feel it fade away? Where do you go from there?

According to Ryan Mason, you find a different dream and make it come true.

Ryan is the Founder & CEO of two successful businesses. The first is Luxe Brand, America’s leading luxury shoelace provider, which has been featured on Good Morning America, the NFL Network, in Foot Locker stores, and on more than 30 athletes and celebrities – and the other is BizBuzz, which provides integrated marketing automation software and services for more than 250 small and medium-sized businesses. Yahoo recently named Ryan one of its Top 12 Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2020.

During this episode, you will hear Ryan talk about:

• His promising early football career — and why it came to an end during his college years
• How an Instagram post set him on the path to building his new creative business idea — and the hard work and focus it took to make his idea a reality
• How Luxe Brand captured the attention of celebrities, the media and Foot Locker
• The people who have mentored and supported Ryan throughout his career journey
• How repeatable processes and unique marketing tactics helped Ryan’s companies grow

To find out more about Ryan and his work, visit his official website or the websites for his companies Luxe Brand and BizBuzz. You can also check out his Digital Playbook, which is currently available for early access! Additionally, you can connect with Ryan on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.

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The episode transcript is below.

Carolyn Kiel: Today on Beyond 6 Seconds,

Ryan Mason: Failure is the key to success. Successful people literally fail their ways to the top. And once I was able to understand that, hey, I have to go through failure and I have to have big enough goals and dreams and big enough challenges that I’m going to fall short of those, then I realized how I could really grow.

Carolyn Kiel: Welcome to Beyond 6 Seconds. The podcast that goes beyond the six second, first impression to share the extraordinary stories and achievements of everyday people. I’m your host, Carolyn Kiel.

If you’d like to listen to the Beyond 6 Seconds podcast, you might also enjoy watching it on YouTube. I’ve posted the videos of my most recent interviews, including this one, on the Beyond 6 Seconds YouTube channel, just go to YouTube and search for Beyond 6 Seconds. Also while you’re there, please click the red subscribe button under the video, and then click the little bell icon, so you never miss a video. Thank you so much. And now here’s my interview with Ryan.

I am here today with Ryan Mason. Ryan is the founder and CEO of two successful businesses. The first is Luxe Brand, America’s leading luxury shoelace provider, which has been featured on Good Morning America, NFL Network, Footlocker stores, and on more than 30 athletes and celebrities, and the other business is BizBuzz, which provides integrated marketing automation software and services for more than 250 small and medium sized businesses.

Yahoo recently named Ryan one of its top 12 entrepreneurs to watch in 2020. Ryan’s known as a disruptive force with an eye for setting new standards of excellence, and he never shies away from the opportunity to tackle new and interesting challenges. Ryan welcome to the podcast!

Ryan Mason: Wow. What an intro! Thank you for having me. Can I use that one?

Carolyn Kiel: Absolutely. I’ll send it to you in an email after the show. Absolutely.

Ryan Mason: Thank you. Super excited to be here and to join you today.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, I’m very happy to have you here today. So I’d love to learn more about your own personal story. It’s so fascinating to me. I understand that when you were younger, your biggest dream was not necessarily in business, but it was to grow up and play in the NFL. So what inspired you to do that?

Ryan Mason: Well, mostly it was my father, and I also had a cousin, but my pedigree or my background revolved around sports. And the main sport was obviously football. My father, he actually, um, came from a small town, but he grew up and he basically went on to play football for the Green Bay Packers. So that is where most of my inspiration derived from.

Carolyn Kiel: Oh, wow. So did you get into playing football early in life or was it something that you just always loved doing?

Ryan Mason: Yeah, so, um, that’s a really good question. One thing my father always told us, he, he really didn’t believe in starting his kids playing football so early. Well, my brother, he kind of took a different turn cause he begged him so much until he finally say yes. But for me, funny story. I actually, I begged him to, but I started around maybe in the sixth grade, I believe fifth or sixth grade. And I played for about two weeks, about two weeks. And I gave every excuse in the book. And by the next time maybe going into the seventh grade, I said, listen, it’s time. I’m ready. I had to grow up. And I did do that.

Carolyn Kiel: It makes sense sometimes with different sports. It’s not always, um, you know, you have to grow into it as you said, right. And be ready for it. The big physical and mental challenge that football is.

Ryan Mason: Yeah. It’s a lot. It’s a lot.

Carolyn Kiel: So you started playing, I guess, consistently starting in seventh grade, and then you were playing in high school as well. And having quite a bit of success on your high school team. And I guess the way it works with getting to the NFL is that either are scouts that come to high school or college scouts. So how did that process work for you?

Ryan Mason: Yeah, so I did start it in seventh grade and for me, which kind of gets into my story, but the biggest thing that my father always told me was, Ryan, all you need to do is perform. He already knew I wanted to go to the big schools. Um, the Alabama’s the Auburn’s, but he said, Ryan, you don’t need to focus on that. You need to focus on doing one thing and that’s going out there and performing and doing the best that you can. And I can say that I did exactly that, you know, through high school, I actually ended up breaking a couple of state records for most tackles in a single season, most tackles and for years, and also, I think I had, maybe I was ranked in maybe number six or something like that for the most tackles in a single game. So I did perform, but that led me into some of the unhappiness that happened later on in my story. But yeah, he said perform, and for me, I did that. And I just remember so many times where I would go in and I would go to these football camps and I would be looking at a guy and looking at them from a distance. And I was a linebacker. And, and basically I’ll just look at his status and his time. In my head, I’m like, Oh, I’m going to run circles around him. And I would go down there and stand beside the guy. And he would literally be like six five, and he would look like a mannequin in the store. And here I was five 10, five 11, you know, just looking up at him like, geez. And he’s, we play the same position?

Carolyn Kiel: So I understand that that was an issue is you didn’t quite have the size that I guess a lot of professional football players either have, or it’s kind of preferred, or at least what the scouts are looking for. So, you know, you were playing so well in high school. And I know it sounds like you were really looking for an athletic scholarship or something to move on to college, so you could continue to play football. How did that impact where you decided to go to college?

Ryan Mason: So basically, you know, obviously my dream was that I really wanted to go to Alabama and for me, it impacted me a lot. There was times where I would go to camps and people could just see it on my face. You know, I remember going to Tennessee and they were measuring the size of my hands and I was like, well, I just caught 10 more balls than him, does that even make sense? Um, but that’s part of it, you know, so for me, what happened to be one of the better things that has ever happened to me life, I only got one scholarship and that was to the University of North Alabama. And, you know, for me, I was in this mental space of, I deserve so much more. I deserve better.

And I would see my counterparts who were literally under me and stats for tackles and productivity. And they would, they were actually going to Alabama. Yeah. And this was hard for me. This was really hard because I took it seriously and, you know, I trained and I was the guy always staying late and doing extra and honing in my skills. And I knew that I had it, but yes. So I ended up going to the University of North Alabama. And I did get a full scholarship and their big pitch was, you know, hey, we are, you know, obviously they had won a couple of championships, but at the time they were going division one. So for me, this was an opportunity for me to go on and continue my career in football.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. So what was it like playing football in college? Was it very different from high school? And what was that experience like?

Ryan Mason: Yeah, it was very, very different and it’s, so it wasn’t what I expected. You know, when I look back on it about two years in, you know, I realized a couple of things were happening. I realized that for one, my grades were slipping. And if you know the structure of being a college athlete, I was waking up at four and five in the morning, going to work out, you know, rolling out the bed, literally trying to rush to workouts. And then. You know, maybe about eight or nine I’m in class. And then from there I get about 20 minutes to eat lunch. I’m stuffing my face, running out the cafeteria to make it to meetings and then to go right into practice for a couple of hours in the hot sun and get beat up on all day. You know, it’s a lot of tenacity intensity, you know, so basically from there, we would be done with practice maybe around five or six sometimes. And now I’ve got to study for a test, it’s hard. And then on the weekends, when you expect to be studying for a test or something like that, we’re on the road, you know, so traveling with so many players, it just, it’s a cycle and it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of effort. It’s definitely a full time job and more cause this has mental and physical strengths that normally you don’t have.

But about two years in, I realized that man, this is a lot of energy and focus just being burnt. I felt like I had, at this point I had, you know, obviously politics are involved and I just kept running up against certain things and basically I was unhappy. I was unhappy. I lost love for the game. And there was a couple of things in my head that was basically just keeping me in a state like, Oh God, what do I do? What’s next for me?

Carolyn Kiel: So then you’re saying you get about halfway through and maybe two years into your third year of playing football, which was your dream for so many years, and then kind of getting to a point where it’s just not something that you enjoy anymore. Like what did you kind of start thinking at that point? Did you have any ideas for what else you wanted to do? Or are you just thinking, like, what do I do at this point? Do I stick with it and just graduate or what’s the thoughts on that?

Ryan Mason: So there were a lot of voices in my head. I mean, there were a ton of voices. My biggest fear at this point, going into year three was, you know, Hey, if I spend all of this time and energy and I don’t work on something that I possibly will be doing for the rest of my life, I may never get those years back, you know, I may miss out on opportunities. So in my head it made perfect sense, right? But in the surrounding world’s head it, you know, for me, it was like, I don’t want people to see me as a failure. I don’t want people to see me as giving up on a dream or because I’ve just always, I had a lot of people looking at me. And another thing, I had a younger brother who was seven years behind me, but he was being ranked in the country. I mean, at one point he was ranked number two in the country in high school and I’m like, Oh my God, you know, here’s big brother, he’s, he’s getting ready to get off a scholarship. You know, he’s getting ready to run. But basically that kind of led me to just really trying to figure out what’s the next steps, you know? And I didn’t know what that was at first, but there were a couple of things that needed to happen. I needed to figure out what that was. And I needed to also figure out if I was crazy or not from trying to leave a full scholarship.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. I mean, that’s another important point is that you’re there to play. So if you make the decision that you don’t want to do it anymore, then the scholarship goes away as well. And you have to find not only another direction or another interest in what to pursue, but another way to fund it. So that’s a big piece too.

Ryan Mason: Right? It was, it was a very unhappy time. You know, I remember sometimes where I would just think to myself, man, you know, what have I done to deserve this? You know, or what has happened? You know, that I, I just couldn’t figure out what happened. You know, I just couldn’t figure it out. And for me being, you know, maybe 19 years old or something like that, nothing in my head made sense because it was for me, I was like, gosh, I’ve done all the things that I need to do. And even on paper, you can see those things that have been done. And why am I still in this place?

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. When you finally made the decision to say, I’m not going to play football anymore, I’m going to do something else, what was that like? Was it like, you kind of woke up one day and made it, or was it more gradual decision for you?

Ryan Mason: It was definitely a gradual decision. You know, it actually started off with my mom. Basically I decided, hey, I have to talk to someone about this because I can’t just stay in this state. This is unhealthy. So what I did was basically went to my mom and what most parents would say, you’ve lost your mind. You know, you think you’re going to get off a scholarship, you know, you’ve lost it. No, I mean, and later on, as I grew through it, I understood why, because she wanted me to feel safe and she wanted me to just realize, you know, hey, what I had already worked towards and that’s completely natural. Right? So from there, that didn’t get anywhere. From there, I decided to go to my grandfather and I remember sitting down with him and he was just so sweet about it. And he basically said, no, you know, but he gave us, you know, how grandparents are, he kinda eased it in there and said, you know, Ryan. You really got to think about it, but it meant no.

Right. So I’m back to square one after that. So immediately there was a Christmas break. And this was time for me to just figure something out. I didn’t know what I was going to do still lost, still stuck at that point. Still have not talked to my father, which I dreaded that moment. So basically what I decided to do was, you know, Hey, if I’m going to plead my case to anyone else, I need to have something, I need to have a plan B, a backup plan. I need to, it needs to make some type of sense. So for me, that started when I went home for Christmas break. There was a guy on Instagram who would basically take apart shoes, and he would cut it up with a blade and he would replace the shoe and basically craft and create his own shoe made from like exotic skins and leathers and he would use Italian lambskin and suede and python and all these cool combinations of leathers. And for me, it was like, wow, this is so creative. You know, it’s not just drawing on shoes. He’s creating a shoe. And I thought to myself, well, Hey, I’m going to try this. I’m going to invest in myself. I’m going to figure this out. And so I remember going back home and finding an old air force one shoe, and I took an Exacto blade and I started cutting it up. And my brother is looking at me while he’s playing a video game. Like, what are you doing? And I remember my mom coming in the room, looking at me and just like, with a weird stare then my dad did the weird, the weird stare too. Basically, it was like, Hey, what is this a project? What is it? Why is he cutting up shoes? Um, But I get it. I totally get it. You know, I would probably have been doing the same thing.

So for me though, you know, I have this idea and this idea was to basically increase the value of a shoe in some form or fashion. And in the middle of cutting up the shoe, I realized that for one I really just didn’t have the resources to learn how to do this the proper way. I’m in Alabama. The closest class was probably hundreds of miles away of how to construct shoes. And basically also I was still in college. I was still on full scholarship, so I didn’t have a time commitment to learn that skill. And I just really was in a bad place. So for me in the middle of cutting up shoes, I realized, well, wow, shoelaces have not been changed in forever. And when you think about this, people love shoes right now. And the shoe market has just exploded here recently. But for me it was like, well, why can’t I make leather shoelaces that look really good on both sides? And they actually look like a shoelace. They function like a shoelace and they aren’t similar to the old style boot laces that you can’t really tie or they don’t look really well. Right?

So I had this idea and I decided one day, you know, that basically, maybe I need to go and figure out do my research. So what I did was I actually went to the computer and I started searching online and I found as much research as I could, but I really couldn’t find much. So what I did was I decided to go to a local leather shop. And, uh, basically I went to this local leather shop called Tandy leather, and I got there. And of course I felt out of place. You know, I was in a leather shop. I have never seen a leather shop, been in leather shop before. And when I walked in, people were just staring at me. So you know, basically from there, I decided to just tell him, Hey, I got an idea. I don’t know how plausible this is, but, it’s something. And we literally went to the back of the shop immediately and I learned how to cut leather and skive it and make it look good. And it was enough for me to literally decide to invest myself even more. And I literally took the $300 I had in my account and, and bought my first leather hide. And went back home with a gold leather hide.

So you can only imagine the looks I got then. Yeah. So that’s how it started. But basically from that point, you know, I had an idea to make leather shoelaces and you know, here I am working my butt off trying to figure this out.

And in the meantime, school is starting back now. So I go to school and now the difference is I have this burning desire to figure this out, to figure something completely new out and to invest in myself and make something of myself and prove people wrong. So the first thing I did was I got on the computer and basically I decided to reach out to everyone in the college of business. I reached out to the top seven people that I possibly could. The Dean, the associate and about 5 of them actually picked up the phone and actually decided to give me a reference to a man named Dr. Bora, who we are extremely close. And I credit a lot of my success to him, but I reached out to him, and it’s so funny because he never, he’s never changed, but he said, Hey, where are you at? And basically I went and sat down with him and I pleaded my whole entire case to him. So from that point I pleaded my entire case to him and it took about an hour to an hour and a half. And I was looking for one thing. I was looking for him to tell me if I was crazy or not.

And I told his about the ideas as well. And he said two things to me after that, you know, and then here I am pouring my entire life story into someone I’ve never even heard of his name before. For one, he said, this idea is really cool. Um, how serious are you about it? And I said, I’m 110% in, I’m super serious. He said, well, great. We’ll work on it during the summer. And the next thing he said was, Ryan, it seems like you already have your answer. And I walked away pissed. I mean, just absolutely. I was extremely mad. Because I didn’t get my answer and I didn’t know, I didn’t get it in the form that I could digest it so that I needed him to say, yes, you’re crazy. No, you’re not crazy. Right. So, um, after that, I actually decided to go to another person. His name was Dr. Calhoun. And basically I told him my entire story as well. And the crazy  part about this is he actually said the exact same thing, Ryan, it seems like you already have your answer.

Okay. And at this moment I knew, Oh my goodness, it was time for me to go to my father. It was time and it took a couple of months, but I finally did it. And to my surprise, when I sat down with my dad and I told him how I felt, and I told him that my energy and I told him the same story that I told everyone else. And he literally said, Ryan, I support you 100%.

And that was all I needed. And that was at that point, I felt like a burden and weights had been lifted off of my chest and I was going to finish. I went and finished on spring training and then I told the coach, Hey, I’m done. Yup.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. So from there thinking about what that means, you’ve made the decision to stop playing football. Which means that now you have a crossroads, you can, you know, you have something that you’re passionate about, but now there are questions of, do you stay in college? Do you get another scholarship? Do you, what else do you study? Do you take a break? So like what happened after you wound up leaving the football team?

Ryan Mason: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s so funny. Cause now that I look back, I never knew the football field had a distinct smell until I pass it. I pass by it on the other side, when I wasn’t a player anymore. It’s like, Oh my God. It has an actual, I mean, not a stinky smell, but an actual aroma. I’m like, geez. Oh my God, I miss that. But basically from there, football was over for me and now we’re kind of. I’m faced with a couple of decisions. You know, I never thought about getting off a scholarship and quitting school. So that was not the case at all. The next step for me was to figure out how I’m going to pay for school and go make something of myself because I had, there was immense pressure for me to do that just because, and it’s so crazy because the pressure, what I realized was all in my own head.

I had support, you know, but sometimes we just, we put so much pressure on ourselves mentally, but basically from there, the next thing that happened for me was I got to make something of myself and now it’s time for me to work hard. I wanted to get experience in some fields with my, my degree was in professional finance. I wanted to get experience in finance. I also wanted to get experience and business and entrepreneurship. So basically. I remember sitting down in the caf one day and I had actually just pledged into a fraternity, um, Omega Psi Phi, and here I am sitting down. I have a bald head. I have no eyebrows. I have a purple jacket on. I have camo pants on and spray painted gold boots on. Okay. And I’m sitting down in the cafeteria and a friend of mine comes up and she says, Hey Ryan, are you going to the career fair?

I just look at her and I’m like, does it look like I’m going to the career fair? I’m not going. And basically, man, this was one of the big turning points for me because what came over me next was, I’m going to that career fair. The worst that they can say to me is no, you know, and Hey, I’ve been looked at funny plenty of times, I’ve been cussed out by coaches and everything like that. So, you know, the worst they can say is no. So I ended up going to the career fair and it was a great conversation piece. It was a great conversation starter, right? And I got a chance to actually talk to people and tell them, you know, Hey, what was going on. And, and they would laugh. And. But we would have great conversation.

And the next thing that happened, I ended up getting interviewed on the spot. The next thing that happened after that was I was interviewed again on the next day. And it was a small company and local to Florence, Alabama named called ES Robbins. And basically. I got the internship, which is my first one, and super excited, I’m telling everyone about it. And basically from there I started, and basically I was going to be their marketing intern.

And a couple of months down the road goes by. And you know, I’m not on scholarship anymore. I have big boy responsibilities per se. And I have to take care of myself even more. Right? So moved out. I had moved into my grandfather’s just to help with financials and costs. Right? Well, basically my mom calls me one day on the phone and she’s crying. And she gives, you know, I kind of stopped for a second. I was walking, I think I was going to class at the time or walking from class, but I said, mom, what’s wrong? And she said, have you looked at your tuition? And immediately my heart drops because I have not looked at any of it. I haven’t paid attention. You know, I was pampered and taken care of, um, beforehand and, uh, you know, I had the best of the best. And well, she goes on to say your tuition is paid and you know, I really couldn’t explain it for a second. And basically she starts to read off like, you know, what it says and the company that I interned for decided to pay my scholarship, and this was not discussed beforehand. And they were going to give me a hundred dollars stipend basically, but basically. Yeah, that was the moment in my head where I’m like, Oh my goodness, maybe I am going in the right direction.

Maybe this is where I’m supposed to be. And from there I just kept working. I remember I ended up getting another internship with what’s happened in Atlanta, which is where I am today. And it was with a bigger company, a multibillion dollar company. It was Sherwin Williams actually. Wow. And this was the time I was going to get an internship in my actual field.

And basically with Sherwin Williams, I had to tell ES Robbins like, Hey. I kinda got an internship opportunity and you know what they did? They pushed me out the door. They said, Ryan, if you want to go and get training by Sherwin Williams and you came back to us, we will take you beyond a doubt. Go do it. Go be great, Ryan.

And they knew my aspirations to, to build a business and or to work on what I already had been working on. And it’s so funny because I never forget. There was a friend of mine named Brandon Gillis, who literally took me under his wing when he saw the things that I was trying to do. And he said, Ryan, I don’t know if you’re gonna really like this.

And I was just, I was kind of mad when he said that I was like, what do you mean I’m not going to like it? I, I worked so hard to get an internship! He said, I just know you Ryan. I was like, what do you mean you just know me? I don’t understand that. Well, that happened to be true. That happened to be very true, but this was the turning point for me. And this is when I realized that. I was actually moving in the right direction.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. And that’s amazing that the company that you were interning with made that decision to pay your scholarship. It’s just what an incredible gift and opportunity and just a, such a validation and that they believed in your skills and your, and your dreams. And that’s really amazing that they were able to help you along your path that way. While you were going through and doing that internship, what was going on with your project, with the shoelaces? Were you able to do that outside of work or work it into work somehow?

Ryan Mason: Yeah, so, you know, obviously that passion spilled over into everything, you know, I couldn’t turn it off. I remember interviewing and stuff said maybe, maybe you shouldn’t mention that, but basically, you know, everyone knew about it. Everyone knew that I was actively trying to build a business and what was actually happening was I was pitching. So I was learning, you know, learning the industry. Basically for me, this is when I really figured out that it was unique was I ended up getting into some of the, in touch with some of the largest manufacturers in America, and I was dealing with their customs department and I was showing them and stuff of how to do this stuff. And basically after a while I realized eight months later or eight weeks later that they had never seen it before. They’ve never heard from it before and here I am. I’m making laces by myself, basically. So, and amongst all of that, I’m making laces. I’m selling laces. I have put up a website. I am pitching for investment opportunities and also I started another business about six months later, just because I’m just, I am literally full of energy at this point and I just want to go and do something.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. So it sounds like there are a lot of things converging at this time that are helping you along your way. So your internship in marketing while your degree was in finance, your internship was in marketing. But, uh, you know, fast forwarding, you now are the CEO and founder of a digital marketing company. So clearly that was helping you along your journey. And of course, any kind of study of finance helps with anyone who wants to start a business. Yeah. So there are a lot of, you can kind of see the pieces starting to come together to move you along with your path.

And that’s really, really incredible. So. At some point, you get the motivation to start your own business around the luxury shoe laces that started as a project and now sort of evolves into a business. So tell me how that evolved.

Ryan Mason: So immediately after me trying to just pitching it and learning how to sell the product and figuring out market fit and doing all of this extensive research, we started to get some traction. We, we started to get some traction and I didn’t know, realized at the time some of the things that I was doing to get that traction was kind of, it was amazing from based off of what other people have told me. So, you know, I started to get some traction and you know, I think the first big thing that happened was, a rap artist named Kevin Gates. He wore my laces and basically there was a customizer who, who designed shoes and he cuts my shoes. He put our laces in and he presented them to Kevin Gates. And Kevin Gates took pictures of him holding the shoe. And that was the first big thing I was like, Oh my God. I listen to him all the time. He’s wearing the laces now. And. The next thing that happened was, so one of the bigger things. Um, so from this point I actually, in 2016, I graduated. Okay? So after I graduated, my number one biggest thing I wanted to do is basically work full time in my business. I wanted to forget everything else to grind and work full time in my business.

And thank goodness I was able to do that. But by this time company was making a little bit of money, but it was enough to keep it afloat, right? So within working a full time for a year, my business, after getting more and more celebrity attention, now my shoelaces are actually, you know, being worn by several celebrities and athletes, some being like DJ Khaled. Antonio Brown, you know, James Bradbury, James Weston, then they actually landed on the McCourty twins who wore them two years in a row in the Super Bowl. Oh yeah. And then one day I’m literally sitting down and just a regular day. I’m actually here at the office in Atlanta. So I’m working out of Atlanta.

I had moved over to Atlanta and someone tagged me in a post, and I’m looking at it and I’m like, okay. It’s an NFL snippet. And basically the commentators have literally a guy named Marquise Goodwin has caught a ball and he’s dragging his cleats across the line before going out of bounds. And the commentators like, Oh my God, Nate, gold laces, Nate? That’s beautiful. Where do you find that? And it was my laces!

You know, just after that, you know, I just really, I had a burning desire just to just keep going, just keep going. And some of the things that I was throwing at the wall were actually starting to really stick and manifest. So the next major thing that happened was, one day, one morning, I wake up out of the bed and I roll over and I checked my email and it’s Good Morning America, Tory Johnson, cohost of the show has asked, she loves the product and she has asked basically to bring the product on the show and, in my mind I’m like, there is definitely a catch to this. There is no way that this is happening. There is absolutely no way. So I remember getting, you know, immediately, and I’m actually, I’m here in Atlanta and I’m staying with a cousin for a second until I can, you know, figure out what I want to move next. But I run upstairs. I’m like, Hey, what should I do? I’m in shock at this point.

But basically I got on the phone with them and they said, no, we just love your product. And we want you on the show. There is no catch. And so then I’m asking about, okay, well obviously in my head, I’m like, I’ve never had press like this. How many laces do I need to have? Like, and I told him, I said, maybe what a thousand? And they literally busted out laughing. And basically from there, I said, okay, well I have to do some preparing. Which later that turned into basically assembling a team of at least about 15 people. And, and that’s literally was only production. So we’re not talking about all the extra stuff going behind on behind the scenes, but I was able to pull that together.

So the crazy part about that is about five days after that, I wake up, I roll over out the bed and I promise you, I have an email from Footlocker saying, Hey, have you ever worked with Footlocker? And I’m like, of course not. So we go and we get on the phone and we go through the spiel and you know, it’s so funny because they were, you know, just doing research and considering and stuff like that.

And I said, well, uh, I am getting ready to go for Good Morning America. And at that time they sent the contract immediately, the deal was done! So those were the, some of the big things that happen with in Luxe Brand and just reassured me on what I was doing in my life’s journey.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. So when Good Morning America called and you asked them how many laces you needed, a thousand, how many did you need? Cause I like, I would have no clue if, if I were in that situation, what would be appropriate? So what did you wind up having to do with that?

Ryan Mason: Yeah, so actually I asked that question and they said it really varies. They said some companies literally, and this is just a 24 hour spiel. And basically it says some companies have sold over 20,000 units. Some have sold as little as, you know, 5,000 units. We produced as much as we possibly could. And we sold through every ounce of that. We sold out on every category for the first time in the history of the company. So it was a great feeling. It was an absolutely great feeling right before Christmas.

Carolyn Kiel: That’s incredible. And then, so what was the turnaround time between Good Morning America calling you and you having to like, get everything produced and get on the air with them?

Ryan Mason: Immediately!

Carolyn Kiel: That’s what I thought! I’m like, how do you pull this together immediately?

Ryan Mason: It’s almost like they want to make sure you’re ready for it. So if you’re not ready, they’re going to just keep moving. But I couldn’t let them know that. I was on calls literally. As soon as we hung up that phone, mom, dad, what do I do? I’m stuck. I’m calling uncles. I’m calling cousins, you know, and I’m really calling mentors trying to figure out what’s the next step. Wow. And it was, it was a journey, but Oh my goodness. I learned so so much.

Carolyn Kiel: Oh yeah. Yeah. I guess learning through, going through that experience is, uh, the way that you really learn, how to, uh, build your own business and deal with that kind of, you know, amazing opportunities and visibility.

Ryan Mason: Right. Right. I threw myself in the fire kinda.

Carolyn Kiel: So was that kind of the beginning of the rise of Luxe Brand luxury shoelaces at that point?

Ryan Mason: Yes. Correct. Correct. That was definitely the beginning.

Carolyn Kiel: I understand from your story that, you know, at some point, I don’t know if it was early on in Luxe that you were trying to get off the ground with it. And there were some challenges around either fundraising or getting traction. And I just say this because anyone who’s starting a business, there’s a lot of ups and downs and there’s a lot of false starts and challenges and of course, you know, if you stay with it and keep your focus and your passion, many, many times it can pay off in incredible ways, but I’m always interested in what you have to go through to get to that point where you have that amazing success. So, yeah. What were some of the challenges that you had building the business?

Ryan Mason: Absolutely. So consistency was a big thing. And what happened was I was doing certain things and expecting a certain outcome. And when that doesn’t happen, time and time again, our natural instinct is to give up, you know, but the biggest thing, what we have to realize as entrepreneurs or even in life, you know, failure is the key to success. Successful people literally fail their ways to the top. And basically once I was able to understand that, hey, I have to go through failure and I have to have big enough goals and dreams and big enough challenges that I’m going to fall short of those, then once I’ve realized that, then I realized how I could really grow.

Right? Yeah. So some of those challenges for me was I was in Alabama starting that company. And I didn’t have access to the cool shoes that were in bigger cities, like New York and Atlanta. So that was my target market. And I literally would have to go to the store and buy shoes, put laces in them and return them. And I did that until I couldn’t do it anymore. And that’s just the reality of it. You know, I literally went from doing that to asking friends. Bugging them and begging them, Hey, can I borrow some shoes? I’ll give you some laces or something, right? To put shoelaces in them to take pictures. It was a, it was a struggle.

It was a struggle, you know, but I made it through, you know, and well, some of those things, you know, taught me a lot of valuable lessons just about business. You know, I think the second that I literally started just doing things. That’s when I started to learn as such a fast pace that propelled my growth as such a fast pace, because I was doing so much, much.

I never was looking. Yeah, I really wasn’t looking back. I was just saying, Hey, this is a good idea. Let’s try it. So I’ve seen the other side of that too as to where a lot of people, you know, sometimes we get so, how do I say this? We get in a situation where we don’t like to change or we get so comfortable. Right? And you know, that’s okay. But if you’re trying to grow, that’s not a good place to be. It’s really not. So those are some of the things that I was taught, basically just by going through this stuff.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, absolutely. And dealing with change is something that a lot of, or I would say almost all entrepreneurs have to deal with. And certainly in, in these times is, um, you know, adapting to rapidly changing environments. Yeah. And, um, yeah, so, you know, now Luxe Brand, you’re still the CEO of that company. And I guess in the meantime, you’ve started another company, so you’re actually running two companies. So, um, what inspired you to start a company focused on digital marketing?

Ryan Mason: Yeah, so I was doing a lot of things and it goes back to me doing a bunch of stuff that maybe some was right. Some wasn’t, but basically I was in Alabama, you know, and I was trying to figure out I’m in school too. How do I reach those New York markets? How do I reach California? And in Georgia and Atlanta, how do I reach those fashion cultures?

And what I had to do is I had to get very, very creative. And I had to learn to tell my story and I had to learn to do untraditional things because the way marketing works is the ones who are doing the same thing over and over, you know, the same thing as their competitors as well. They’re seen as the same, you know, it’s nothing unique about it.

So basically from doing that and getting traction in a small town and area, I had a lot of local businesses reach out to me. And they said, you know, Ryan, can you help us? Like, you’ve done a lot of things. You’re maybe, I was 23 at the time, 22, 23. Let’s say you’ve had obviously some tremendous success. Like, what are some of these, what are you doing? And I realized some of the things that I thought were kind of crazy was actually not so crazy. And people were literally leaving meetings with me and saying, dude, that is genius. Like how, I owned a local business for 40 years. And I haven’t. That’s crazy! And it’s working and I know why, I see why. So basically from there, you know, I decided, but to start working with some local businesses and that kind of grew, that grew over time. And I realized, you know, some of the things that I was doing, I was able to start putting that and formalizing that and putting it into a process so that it made sense. And, you know, I realized that I could get paid to do it as well. And, you know, I can pay some bills and it kind of grew from there.

Carolyn Kiel: Oh, I mean, that is a perfect evolution of your experience, marketing your own business in a very creative way. And I think it’s incredible that it translates to other local businesses who can benefit from that as well.

Ryan Mason: Right. Right. And you know, when I talk about the process, you know, I really believe when it comes to, you know, building a very powerful business, you know, there’s three key ingredients. The right people use a process. Right? And they use platform to do it at scale. So people process and platform, and, you know, for me, that’s where I started to create.

You know, I realized that, Hey, these businesses need a platform, which is our software, the BizBuzz software. They need a platform to actually do these things, but they also need the process. So yeah, one of the things that we’re doing now is we’re basically I’ve taken that entire process of what I’ve done to be successful in my businesses, but also have helped 200 plus other businesses and I put it all in one single book. So. Now you have a process, but also you have the platform to do all of this at scale and grow your business.

Carolyn Kiel: Oh, and I’d imagine that, you know, now we’re recording this in September 2020, so it’s a difficult time in history in terms of, especially trying to run a business, you know, over the past couple months, things have been just been so different and just so much change and so much uncertainty in a lot of ways. And you’ve certainly been through a lot of change yourself and, you know, finding your own life path and building your own business and, and finding your way and executing your passion. Do you have any advice for business owners about kind of how to manage change that may kind of seem out of control or totally unpredictable right now?

Ryan Mason: Yeah. So specifically, and it, this carries over into life as well. But the one thing that has helped me manage change is processes, and that’s the practice of actually documenting that stuff. So what happens is for me, I really believe that if you have to do something in your business more than three times, then maybe you should document that in a way that basically. Not only you, but anyone else can literally pick up that form and actually go through that checklist and have the same results.

Right? So that is one of the biggest things while so much is changing right now, we have to realize the importance is not to be so all over the place, but to basically record what we’re doing and literally systematize it so that we can do it more efficiently and also not only us, but whoever else we hand it off to can do it as well.

Carolyn Kiel: That makes sense. Yeah. I hear sometimes from business owners that, you know, sometimes it’s easy to get stuck sort of working in your business as opposed to working on your business. So it seems like systemizing those processes and I don’t know, maybe you could automate something or outsource something or just make it more efficient, uh, frees up your time and energy to do other things.

Ryan Mason: Right. That’s a very real thing. You know, honestly, when I look back at it, like some of the things, some of the other challenges that I had was I didn’t have the systems and the integration, and this was literally if I didn’t have the system, if I had the process. It became so hard, the process as you start growing your business, it becomes complex.

And if you don’t have the right systems in place or platforms in place, it almost becomes impossible to do it at scale or to grow it. You know? So for us, one of the things that we had to do in BizBuzz was we had to release a free version of our software and we wanted to do this because for one, just working with so many local businesses, we understood the challenge. When I thought back on it, I realized, and I didn’t really realize this growing up and building my company, but my father, my uncle, my grandfather, and all five of his brothers, all own local businesses. All of them, every last one of them. And so I knew the pain that they were going through. I saw it. I grew up in it, you know, I would go and work with my grandfather and some days my dad would ask me to go in and build commercial fences with him, you know?

So we released this free toolkit that basically allowed those small businesses to, you know, manage their listings like on Google and Yelp and Bing and all those search engines, but also, they could build their reputation. So ask for reviews, monitor reviews, figure out what people are saying about their business and use that to their advantage.

Also post and schedule content to social media, to go out to all of their channels, or build a one click website that basically, if they were not, you know, they’re let’s say a local business and they couldn’t sale things anymore because all of that stuff was in store or now all they can do is basically click a button and upload their inventory. And now they can go and start selling right away. Um, and then also the advertiser place where they could actually, you know, get those ad reports and understand their target market and the audience, and who’s the best fit for them if they haven’t already, because obviously we know customer habits are changing so much, so we wanted to basically create a free version of that for all of our potential customers and all of our local businesses who could actually just go in and use it and help them stay afloat.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. That’s really powerful. And just so incredibly useful, especially at a time like this, so wonderful. So, yeah, Ryan, how can people get in touch with you if they want to learn more about your business and either one, either of your businesses?

Ryan Mason: Yeah. Sure. So I’ll give you Luxe Brand first. Um, so Luxe Brand is L U X E hyphen brand B R A N D.com. And you can go there and, and lace up with Luxe Brand. Okay. So the next thing is RyanDMason.com. And Ryan has spelled R Y A N. So if you get there, there’s a couple of things you can do. For one, you can get started for free, which is basically the free toolkit that I talked to you about. And basically if you hit that button in the top right hand corner, it’ll take you over to BizBuzz so you can get started for free. Also, if you would like to purchase the book, just to understand, you know, to, to go home and digest it and start implementing some of the things that I’ve seen to be successful. Basically you could scroll down the page a little bit and you’ll see it’s called the Digital Playbook. Okay? Secrets to building repeatable revenue through digital marketing. Um, so basically right now we have an early access list. Please. I encourage you. If you come to it, click it, fill out the form there and we’ll give you, we’ll add you to the list for early access. And then yeah, if you want to work with me directly, then that it’ll say work with Ryan directly and you can start that process from there.

Carolyn Kiel: All right. Fantastic. And I’ll put those website links in the show notes so that people can access that easily as well. Well Ryan, thank you so much for being a guest on my podcast today. As we close out, is there anything else that you’d like our listeners to know or anything that they can help or support you with?

Ryan Mason: Well, I think the biggest thing, you know, that I’ve lived my entire life by is if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. So make sure that you surround yourself by people who are positive. People who are going to motivate you and push you because what happens is, as you guys grow together, you guys are actually able to really, really understand the fruits of life. So yeah, I encourage you guys to just surround yourselves by good positive people.

Carolyn Kiel: Right. Really powerful words. Thank you so much, Ryan. I really enjoyed talking with you today.

Ryan Mason: Thank you so much. I enjoyed it as well.

Carolyn Kiel: Thank you for listening to Beyond 6 Seconds. Please help us spread the word about this podcast. Share it with a friend. Give us a shout out on your social media or write a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player. You can find all of our episodes on our website and sign up for our free newsletter www.beyondsixseconds.com. Until next time!