What Separates Great Brands from the Rest with Ryan Bartlett

Can You Build a $150M Business in Just 3 Years? That’s exactly what my guest today, Ryan Bartlett, did. As the founder and CEO of True Classic, Ryan scaled his company from zero to $150 million in just three years—and he’s only getting started. Now valued at nearly $1 billion, True Classic is rewriting the rules for what it takes to succeed in e-commerce. This conversation is an absolute game-changer for anyone who wants to understand the mindset, strategies, and work ethic behind building a thriving business in today’s world. In this episode, Ryan breaks down the key pillars of his success, including his unique approach to marketing, which he describes as “the best marketing isn’t marketing.” By prioritizing authenticity and creating content that makes people feel connected, True Classic has built a loyal customer base. But it doesn’t stop there—Ryan shares how relentless customer focus has set them apart, from premium products at accessible prices to moments of over-delivering on customer experience. We also dive into the real challenges of entrepreneurship. Ryan gets brutally honest about the emotional toll, the late nights, and the do-or-die moments, like betting $40 million on inventory. But his ability to turn risks into rewards and to lead with empathy has been critical to his company’s meteoric rise. If you’ve ever wondered whether entrepreneurship is worth the grind, Ryan’s insights will give you the clarity and inspiration you need. Key Takeaways: Marketing Done Right: Why emotional connection, not hard selling, is the real game-changer in building a brand. Customer Experience as a Superpower: How creating "wow" moments for your customers can make you unforgettable. Risk and Resilience: Ryan’s lessons from gambling big on his business and why fearlessness is essential in entrepreneurship. Scaling Without Sacrificing: The challenges of growing fast and keeping a strong culture intact. Ryan Bartlett’s story proves that success isn’t just about hard work—it’s about working smart, being relentless in creating value, and playing the long game. Whether you’re starting your first business or scaling to new heights, this episode will leave you inspired to take your next step. Let’s max out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

  So hey guys, listen, we're all trying to get more productive. And the question is, how do you find a way to get an edge? I'm a big believer that if you're getting mentoring or you're in an environment that causes growth, a growth-based environment, that you're much more likely to grow and you're going to grow faster. And that's why I love Growth Day. Growth Day is an app that my friend Brendan Burchard has created that I'm a big fan of. Write this down, growthday.com/ed. So if you want to be more productive, by the way, he's asked me, I post videos in there every single Monday that gets your day off to the right start. He's got about $5,000, $10,000 worth of courses that are in there that come with the app. Also, some of the top influencers in the world are all posting content in there on a regular basis, like having the Avengers of personal development and business in one app. And I'm honored that he asked me to be a part of it as well and contribute on a weekly basis, and I do.

• 0:45Ed Mylett?

  So go over there and get signed up. You're going to get a free, tuition-free voucher to go to an event with Brendan and myself and a bunch of other influencers as well. So you get a free event out of it also. So go to growthday.com/ed. That's growthday.com/ed. I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 AM to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 PM. And my third day, 6:00 PM to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time too.

• 1:30Ed Mylett?

  And you definitely can't afford to waste it waiting weeks on a big bank for capital. Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's favorite small business lender, and for good reason. Over 20 years in business, over 12 billion deployed to small business across America. Stop letting bank delays slow down your momentum. Head to cardiff.co/ed. That's cardiff.co/ed. Cardiff.co. Real growth, fast funding. Cardiff, borrow better.

• 2:04Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends. Like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra because it's not just a superior like beer. It's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com slash superior access to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 2:38Speaker 02

  This is the end mile show.

• 2:42Ed Mylett?

  All right, welcome back to the show, everybody. So I'm so excited about today because you're going to learn from somebody who is currently in the hunt, doing something great in business in their life. And, you know, I've been asked a lot lately, you know, why is it that I don't always just have celebrities on the show? Because we've had lots of celebrities on in the past. And one of the reasons, that's just for other shows, to be honest with you. I want to put out podcasts every week that can impact and change your life. And oftentimes I feel like when I have someone super well known, it's just sort of platitudes and general statements. That's not always, you can look at Matthew McConaughey episode we did and others, they're just incredible. But I want people that can change your life that are doing it right now. And this man fits the bill big time. So my guest today is Ryan Bartlett.

• 3:25Ed Mylett?

  He's the CEO and founder of True Classic. It's a men's apparel line. Listen to this guys. He scaled his company in three years to over $150 million in revenue and is in the hunt of building a billion dollar brand and a billion dollar company. He does it every day, including today. And so I want you to be able to have me pick his brain for you about business and life, balance, all these other things that he's clearly mastering right now in his life. So Ryan, welcome to the show, brother. Thank you so much for having me, Ed. Yep. And the name of his company, everyone, is True Classic. And I got their shirts myself. They're up on my closet today. I probably should have put it on to honor you during the episode today, but I love what you're doing, brother. So let me ask you this first, just give people hope. I'm just curious about you. Have you always been an entrepreneur? Did you work somewhere else prior?

• 4:10Ed Mylett?

  Did you get some entrepreneurial? Michael Gerber in the E-Myth calls it an entrepreneurial seizure. Like you wake up one day and go, I gotta be an entrepreneur. So what's your background? How'd you end up doing this?

• 4:20Speaker 03

  So I've definitely been an entrepreneur in terms of having the right DNA. And I just think that all the things that I did in my life helped shape that DNA in the right direction. But I think at the time, I didn't really understand that. I'm still looking back. But I mean, originally, I was in music. I was, uh, music came very natural for me, playing instruments. I got into music production. Inevitably, you know, everyone told you, you gotta do what you're good at. You gotta follow your passion. So I tried to do that. And I went to college, and that didn't work out so well. I flunked out of Michigan State in my first year, just partied my ass off. And told my parents, look, I don't expect you to pay for school anymore. I'm willing to go down to Florida and go to this music school. That's my true calling. Like,

• 5:05Speaker 03

  you guys wanted me to go into business, but I really think music is, is what I should do. So I went down there and got my degree in music business, got my audio engineering degree, and then moved to Atlanta and tried to figure it out. And very quickly realized that it was tough to make a living in music. And I was playing, I was like a session musician at recording studios, and I would try to, you know, work as an intern. But the creative component really helped build that creative muscle in my brain that I now use in business all the time. So that's, to me, one of the big components of, of my DNA that has wielded itself well, through entrepreneurship. So it really started with that.

• 5:45Ed Mylett?

  Okay. And so leap forward a little bit, because obviously, that has almost nothing to do with a guy, well, you can put it together for us, who's building a men's apparel line. By the way, guys, I want to say it again, 150 million in three years. 150 million. So something incredible is happening here. So did you start another company that failed? You've been to three, two or three, and finally, you found one? Or is this your first venture that was yours? And how did you start it?

• 6:13Speaker 03

  So the venture I had before this was a digital marketing company. So I did that for about a decade. So it starts to make a little bit more sense. When you look at like our marketing and our ads and how we do a lot of comedy and it's super creative. It really just comes from me over caring about that aspect of the business so much. And also recognizing that like, I'm not out here to sell. I'm not here to just make people laugh and feel good and create an emotional connection. So originally it just started with, you know, trying to really make a better life for myself. And digital marketing was something that I had a lot of skills in, in, in computer science. So inevitably I fell into that space and started building that business. And it was really just about helping business owners do SEO and digital marketing and, and build their website.

• 6:57Speaker 03

  And I just had a knack for that. And so it was just skills that I had kind of acquired over the year. I didn't really go to school for it, but I was super savvy on the tech side. So it made a lot of sense to go into B to C. And it was really easy to make money. Like it was really easy to stack up retainers and do sales and follow through with great work. And I built a lot of people's businesses over about a decade. So it really allowed me to see how to do things right, how to spend the money, how not to go in debt. And really just use what works on the internet to really leverage attention and dollars and all those things. So that when I finally started True Classic, it was very clear what I needed to do. It wasn't like I just, you know, woke up one day and decided to do e-comm.

• 7:39Speaker 03

  It took, you know, I put in my 10,000 hours leading up to that.

• 7:43Ed Mylett?

  And by the way, when I look at True Classic, and by the way, we're going to pick apart everyone, get ready right now. Because when I look at True Classic, the first thing I do think of is your marketing. Branding and marketing.

• 7:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:53Ed Mylett?

  And so I want to kind of pick that apart for everyone out there. If you're in the mortgage business, you're in the real estate business, you're thinking of starting a business. You should be following their content because it's very interesting. So here's the, I heard the statement you said, which I want you to unpack this for me and help me understand it. You said, actually, the best marketing is not marketing. What do you mean you say that? So everyone lesson, huge lesson right now for you, your brand, your marketing and anything you're doing. What do you mean by that?

• 8:19Speaker 03

  I think that like when people think about selling, they think they got to really sell the value props. They really have to go overboard on selling. And I think people are tired of that ultimately. And I think if people just create great content that makes people think or feel or laugh or whatever it is, you need to just create an emotional connection is the punchline. So it can show up in a lot of different ways. It just so happens to be comedy for us. Because what I realized when I started doing comedy was that making people feel good was all about, you know, like our, our mantra here is look good, feel good. So when you put the clothes on and they fit better, you feel better about yourself. So comedy is just an extension of that. So we just made a lot of sense for us to go deep on that. And I won't say that, you know, we crushed it in the beginning, but we've gotten much better over the years. And now we

• 9:02Speaker 03

  create some pretty amazing assets. And it's just, it's the most fun kind of creative to make, really, to be honest.

• 9:10Ed Mylett?

  What if someone's listening to this, they go, okay, I got a business. I'm really not that funny. But I do need to get more attention. Are you, are you a believer like if you're getting attention, you can kind of market whatever you want through that brand? And if someone's like, hey, my jam's not funny. Let's say your jam wasn't funny. Give me one other idea in marketing that could get me attention. Is that like, what if I were educational? Like, what if I was providing value?

• 9:34Speaker 03

  That's exactly what I was gonna say. You can do edutainment is what we call it, which is where you're educating people, but you're also entertaining them. So I would just say that like going deep on the product and helping people understand not just what they're buying, but what that is going to do for their life is really kind of the punchline there. So what I always try to go back to, I'm in business is like, what problem are you ultimately solving for people? True Classic was solving the fit problem. It was solving the comfort problem. It was also solving a premium price problem where I was kind of looking at the market and everyone was overcharging for premiums. And I just thought, I want to bring that price to the masses and really make, have it make sense for everybody. So that even people that want to buy James purse can now afford it with True Classic because we're just not going to gouge

• 10:19Speaker 03

  the customer. And so I would Just say that like in terms of content, there's just a lot of different ways you could go. But definitely going as deep as you possibly can on the actual product itself. I think is where people get lost and they don't really kind of know what that means. But you just have to sit and work with amazing creatives, brainstorm some great ideas. And then test the market and see how it does on Facebook ads. And if it doesn't resonate, you pivot and you reiterate and you just keep going. So it's just, it's a constant game of reiteration on paid media. You really just have to test, test, test a million times over until you find out what works. In the beginning, we were doing a lot of like cool guy ads, which were super boring and I hated it. Which kind of inevitably led me to comedy.

• 11:02Speaker 03

  And then when I saw how well comedy was doing for the business. It changed the whole way I thought about marketing in general. And so now we just try to put out as much goodness as we can. And not really worry about overselling. Now there's certainly parts in the ad where I will try to have a moment. Where it talks about your class or it shows the fit or whatever it is. But I really make 95% of the video just about being funny and making a connection with people.

• 11:27Ed Mylett?

  So good. So guys, stay here. We're gonna go through all kinds of different like techniques. Depending on your business, we will hit your business in a minute. So I want to ask you about that. Like you said something that I learned when I was building my brand. So I've never done any paid traffic at all. So I'm all organic, which is pretty incredible to get to, you know, 10 million followers organically, right? And my value prop was what you just said, I'm gonna provide you value. I'm funny once in a while, but like my prop is like, come to me, I'm gonna bring you value. But what I did learn after about a year, and I just want you to reiterate the point and speak to it a little bit more. Cause I don't think people understand this. When I started, I created lots of different types of content. Meaning some of it was highly curated stuff, like professional looking stuff. Then some of it was in my car on a phone and it was, you know, some of it was funny.

• 12:12Ed Mylett?

  Some of it was personal development, some of it was business, some of it was sales, some of it was fitness. And what my team told me was, let the market tell us what content people like. And once you have a piece of content that works, you don't necessarily have to keep creating more content. Keep moving that same piece through. So that's what you mean when you say. Say the market tells you, correct? And, and if you were talking to, let's say there's a, a guy right now, a lady right now, and they've just got into the real estate business and they're in, I'm making it up, Dallas, Texas, right now. And they're like, I gotta start creating content. Everybody tells me that I gotta create a brand. What micro information would you give them about doing it? I know I'm pushing you on the topic, but I think it's that important because no one covers this on podcasts.

• 12:57Speaker 03

  I mean, look, I'll tell you what it all goes back to, and then I'll get to the real estate thing. What it goes back to ultimately is being insanely customer centric. Right? So like really understanding what the people are looking for. So if you're in real estate, what I would do if I was an agent in Dallas, I, you know, what people love are those top five spots to visit in Dallas. If you're looking for a private school and a, in a big yard or whatever it may be, those list type, um, videos absolutely crush. So if I'm, if I'm that guy, I am just going and making every video and a version of that, that I possibly can think of, and then just putting it on YouTube, doing some SEO, making sure that my keywords are in there and you're ranking for the keywords that people are searching for organically. And then I'm also documenting my life as a realtor, right?

• 13:42Speaker 03

  Like I love the guy who's just starting out, who hasn't, he's not the, the Frederick Eklund just yet, but he's on his way. And I think people underestimate how powerful that journey and people watching that story really is. So if you're just the guy starting out, that's enough. People love that story. They love the zero to hero story. So it's like, put a camera on yourself, vlog a little bit, put some content out there, and then just keep building your, your journey. And inevitably, if you create good stuff, and you will create good stuff as you get better. In the beginning, it's never going to be great, right? Like it's going to be rough and you're probably going to have to edit by yourself because you're not going to be able to afford an editor. But at least you're going to be creating something and you can't really get in your head about,

• 14:26Speaker 03

  oh, I have no followers, I, I, no one's watching. It's like, just keep moving in the right direction and inevitably the market will respond. And if you really crush it on digital, especially in a market like Dallas, you really will get all the business because I will say that like most realtors. Are just not doing the best job of that yet. And the young up and comers that are really digging in and leaning into those platforms like Tik Tok and all these other ones that no one's really thinking about.

• 14:53Speaker 03

  They're going to end up getting all the attention and all the business in the future.

• 14:56Ed Mylett?

  I love the answer, everyone. Had I asked me that question, it would have been the same answer. I'm not kidding you. I would 100% become the mayor of my town. On social media, I'd be the mayor, the best of this, the best of that, the place to go, the secret this, the da, da, da. And start to create value. And then the other thing is zero to hero journey. Most of you aren't in real estate, you're in something else, but take pieces from today's conversation and start to apply it. That's why I wanted Ryan on. That's why they went to 150 million in three years. Okay. The other thing you're great at that I see, there's a through line, whether it's apparel, digital products, you know, real estate, mortgage, hard assets, a restaurant, whatever it might be. My friend, Andy Frisella, my business partner in my coaching program on First Form.

• 15:41Ed Mylett?

  And that is this, customer service is like 90s. Everything today is about, and you call it the customer experience, right? What, what is the customer experience and why does that matter so much in today's world?

• 15:57Speaker 03

  It's something I'm obsessed with and probably a little too obsessed with. But I will tell you that when I started this thing, I was definitely on the same page with my co-founder Nick, that we were going to be Ritz Carlton and we were going to create such unbelievable moments for people that they were going to tell those stories forever. And so like, we would be talking to a lady, we would hear a baby in the background and we would send them some sort of baby gift along with their refund. And so there's just like, there's so many nuanced moments that I can think about. I've sent a guy a Tom Brady jersey because I found out he, he, he lived out there and he was a huge Tom Brady fan. And he was having a bad experience with us. So like, those are the kind of things where if you go above and beyond for people, they're just always going to remember you, right?

• 16:41Speaker 03

  They may not even end up buying your product, but someday they'll tell a story when they see that advertisement and they'll tell somebody in the room, that guy sent me something one time and it just really made my day. And I think a lot of that is lost today. I think people are trying to really automate customer service as good as they can with AI. And they're trying to create all these chatbots. And I just think having a human be able to make an impact on your life in a moment where you're frustrated and you really need someone to show up. That is really the time to do that. And I think people ultimately just don't want to deal with customer service. I see it as an unbelievable opportunity to show up in that moment when they need you most

• 17:22Speaker 03

  and over index for them so that they can just become a fan for life of the brand and really say, you know what? This is definitely lost in this era and this one company did show up for me that one time. So that when they consider us in the future, that's just something that's ingrained in their memory about us. And that's the feeling I want them to take away, which is just like I said, look good, feel good. It's feel good on the ads, it's feel good on the product, it's feel good in customer service, you name it. There is a feel good component to every part of this business. And that's why it operates at a 10 in every facet and how you're able to grow so fast like we have.

• 17:58Ed Mylett?

  Man, I'm telling you, this is so good. My kids are going to watch this today for a business course, I'm telling you. So hey guys, I want to jump in here for a second and talk about change and growth. And you know, by the way, it's no secret how people get ahead in life or how they grow. And also taking a look at the future. If you want to change your future, you got to change the things you're doing. If you continue to do the same things, you're probably going to produce the same results. But if you get into a new environment where you're learning new things and you're around other people that are growth oriented, you're much more likely to do that yourself. And that's why I love Growth Day. Write this down for a second, growthday.com/ed. My friend Brendon Burchard has created the most incredible personal development and business app that I've ever seen in my life. Everything from goal setting software to personal accountability, journaling, horses,

• 18:41Ed Mylett?

  thousands of dollars worth of courses in there as well. I create content in there on Mondays where I contribute as do a whole bunch of other influencers, like the Avengers of influencers and business minds in there. It's the Netflix for high achievers or people that want to be high achievers. So go check it out. My friend Brennan's made it very affordable, very easy to get involved. Go to growthday.com/ed. That's growthday.com/ed.

• 19:05Ed Mylett?

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• 19:48Ed Mylett?

  Go to ro.co/milet to see if you qualify. That's R-O dot C-O slash my let to get started on Ro. For side effects of GLP-1 medications, including boxed warning, go to ro.co/safety. R-O dot C-O slash safety. So when I ended up buying the island, we had to do all of our outdoor decorating, and I spent a fortune in the first half of the place. And I'm like, I don't want to do this anymore, but I want the best stuff. And that's where Wayfair came in. My wife wanted to get this new garden bed, and Wayfair was the place that offered the perfect solution. Wayfair also helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value, and trusted reviews. Wayfair verified products are hand-vetted by product specialists. They use a 10-point quality inspection system. Here's all I can tell you. The stuff has lasted over time.

• 20:32Ed Mylett?

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• 21:09Ed Mylett?

  You guys, I think Ryan, the reason that customer experience isn't something most ask yourself if you're listening, by the way, one to 10, how is your customer experience based on what he just described? Because I think it's a separator because you really almost can't teach it. Like you can go to any business course, you go to any seminar, but you actually have to think through customer experience. It has to be part of your culture, like you have to bleed it and it is the separator. The other cool thing about it is nowadays, it's the advantage to the small business over the big business because you're more nimble. You can have more listening skills, you can move faster, you can create culture easier. Small businesses have huge advantages if they take advantage of them over big ones.

• 21:53Ed Mylett?

  Now, one of the advantages they don't have though, and this is what I want to ask you because you've done this, you've scaled really big, really quickly. I mean, that's electric, like meteoric growth that you've had. What's been the hardest part of scaling so big, so quick? And can you scale too big and too quick and harm your company when you do it?

• 22:16Speaker 03

  Absolutely. So we're up to about 600 million now. We did 200 million last year. We're in year five. We just got valued at 950 million. So to get to a billion in five years in terms of just enterprise value is pretty mind blowing and it still feels pretty surreal to be honest with you.

• 22:35Ed Mylett?

  Okay, so I completely undersold you at 150. We're, we're, we're

• 22:39Speaker 03

  It's all good.

• 22:39Ed Mylett?

  Nine times that. Thank you for fixing. By the way, it's more impressive. Keep going.

• 22:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, so absolutely you can. I mean, there's, this could be just an hour in itself. I mean, we've made every mistake under the sun. I would say that we always have to burn every department all the way down before we figured out how to rebuild it back up. So I would say most of the challenges we've had in the early days were overbetting on inventory, which is like the classic mistake of every e-commerce company where they just overbet and now they have all these receipts coming in that they can't fulfill because the sales aren't there. And so like in year two, I made a $40 million inventory bet because I just, I was like, hey, we're going to the moon, guys, and we're, and we're just going to keep going. So that was right after we had hit 100 million in year two. So we did 15 million the first year and 90 the second year.

• 23:27Speaker 03

  So right after the second year, I was feeling really confident and I was like, look, guys, and I'm sitting around the table with our executives and I'm just like, let's just make a bet. What do you guys think? And this is the, so after music, by the way, just going back, I, after I kind of gave up on music, I got into poker. And that took over my life for a good amount of years and I became a, I guess what you would call a pro is really just not having a job and trying to gamble. But um, that really built my risk tolerance and it showed me that what, what it feels like to lose and just getting numb to that losing feeling, which in hindsight, was a huge advantage in entrepreneurship because as you know, you have to go from kind of failure to failure. Without, with no loss of enthusiasm, which is one of my favorite quotes. I think that really sums up entrepreneurship.

• 24:12Speaker 03

  So what I did was after, you know, doing poker for a while and also failing at that, it definitely built up my risk tolerance. And one of my other co-founders, it was also a poker pro at one point, which does not help us by the way in business. It just, it, it really, you know, we, we had no fear. For better or worse, we had no fear, but ultimately, even though we made that $40 million bet, I think what we were telling ourselves was even if this doesn't go well, like let's just play out the worst case scenario. Even if it doesn't go well, what, what's going to happen? We're going to have to go back and renegotiate with our manufacturers. Right? Like, we're going to have to um, hold some safety stock. We're going to have to pay some interest, whatever it is, we just believed in our ability to negotiate with these people.

• 24:53Speaker 03

  And level with them on a really human, human to human basis and say, look, you see us going to the moon. Do you want the business or not? I know we overbought this time, but stick with us and you'll be our preferred vendors in the future. So that was kind of our pitch to them. And it worked out. All the people that stuck with us in those early years when we overbet and couldn't pay our bills on time. Ended up eating it for a short term for the greater good later because they just knew that we were going to figure out a way. Plus it was like inventory that, it wasn't like I was, you know, holding yellows and oranges. This was like sellable inventory. So they all like, could see that. They're like, okay, this is core product. They're going to get through it. But I would say that is a very easy way to sink the business.

• 25:33Speaker 03

  And um, that has been the hardest part. It's, it's called demand planning in our business and we still don't even have it perfect. And we're in year five. It's still a nightmare. We run out of stuff all the time. And then I would say outside of that, now in year five, what I'm dealing with. In terms of, you know, what are the biggest problems I have? It always goes back to people, you know, and I love people to a fault. And I'm overly empathetic, which is why I win in business because it really works for the customer. But where it doesn't really work in business is employees. And I have had to learn to put the business first in a lot of situations. And when you move as fast as we do and you're a startup and you're scaling fast.

• 26:16Speaker 03

  One of the problems with people is that when you hire a person for a role, they quickly, the business outgrows them very quickly. And when we were at a hundred million, that CFO is a different level than at 500 million. Right? And now we're looking back and we're going, well, where do we put this guy? Like we, we, there's no other spot for him to go. And a lot of times we will find a spot, like if it's wrong person, wrong seat here today, we will try to shuffle them around and make it work ultimately. Because if they're here, they're here for the right reasons, which is they have the right DNA. They're gritty, they hold all our core values. But, um, you know, we really try to now look and say, you know, I got a guy who works for Kitch. Maybe you can go over there. Let me just ask him if he's looking for a CFO.

• 27:00Speaker 03

  CFO because he's doing, you know, X amount of revenue and you're perfect for that bracket. And so it's really tough though, because you have to have insanely hard conversations with people. And people are going through their own stuff too. You know what I mean? Like a lot of times it's not even about work. I mean, ultimately the someone that doesn't work out here, it's for one of two reasons. I always tell our employees, because a lot of employees will come to me and they'll go, why didn't it work out with so and so? And I'll have to have these hard conversations. But what I always say is like, it's two things. It's either wrong person, wrong seat, and they're just really not qualified for that job because the business needs them to really move at an absolute 10 to make it work. We don't have the luxury of having 20 people for one job and they can just kind of chill

• 27:44Speaker 03

  and let things go. Like this isn't that environment. Like if you're here at True Classic, you are building a legacy. You're working with an insane startup and you better be providing real value for the business. So if you can't live in that world, we're just not a good fit. But people know that by now. They've seen enough. Casts or they've listened to us and they know how we roll. So it's not a big surprise anymore. But it's been really tough to watch all the OGs of true classic kind of make their way out of the business. Because you start with one group and you end with a completely different one.

• 28:14Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 28:15Speaker 03

  And but it's for the better. I mean, I look back now and all these people are thriving in different departments. So when I let people go or I have to let people go for the sake of the business, I always tell them, look, I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna be an amazing referral. This is not, this doesn't have to be a negative. You know, there's always severance, obviously. Like you can help people land softly.

• 28:34Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 28:34Speaker 03

  It's not just like, let me cut the cord and never see you again. It's like, no, I'm gonna see you again. And I can promise you, when you go start interviewing, they're all gonna be pinging me about you and saying, hey, how did this person work out? And I'm gonna give a great review because I just know that you're a great person. You work hard, you're gritty, and you provide value. So I'm gonna show up for you there. But that's, those two things take up all the, you know, what's the hardest part of the business? In my brain, it's just, it's those two components are always the toughest.

• 29:05Ed Mylett?

  By the way, no pun intended. Well, it's a pun, but I mean it. I'm like, this is a truly classic interview about entrepreneurship. That's one of the realest answers ever on the show. By the way, when he's speaking in a vernacular, everybody about right seat, we're both thinking about a book named Good to Great by Jim Collins. We're talking about seats on the bus. And I'm just, in general, before we move into something on you and personal development, I'm gonna ask him that in a minute, everybody. But is that your overall philosophy? CFO is different. Like you could have a specialized person at a certain scale. They had to have been in that position somewhere or close to it before. But in general, talk about your hiring and firing practices. Are you more of a hire for the position? Or are you like, this is an incredibly great person. We're gonna get him on the bus and then we'll find the seat.

• 29:48Ed Mylett?

  And then B, take a while on it. And then B, when do you know it's time to let somebody go? And do you actually do it oftentimes? How do you terminate people?

• 29:59Speaker 03

  Um, I haven't done it in a while, unless it's somebody that has started with us that's a kind of an OG that I have the best relationship with. It tends to always go by relationship when we let people go. I've also just realized that if I do it, it tends to go much better than if like a manager does it. For whatever reason, I think I'm just able to level with people and they don't get in their head about the reason. And ultimately, it's not, it's us that have to pull the trigger, but it's really the team that around them that fires them, right? Because what will happen is when you have a bunch of A players and you bring in a B player, the A players don't want to play with the B player because what it does is it forces all of them to work harder and keep up the slack, right?

• 30:42Speaker 03

  It's like the guy in high school who didn't want to work on the project, who everyone else had to do all that work and you're bummed about this guy, you're like, dude, what are you doing? So inevitably, it starts bubbling up very quickly when it doesn't work and then we have to make the call on it. But it's not after a lot of feedback, that's like number one. We always try to give a lot of feedback to people, but in terms of our hiring process, it's lengthy and in my opinion, it's too lengthy. Um, cause I'm such a move fast guy that I tend to always bet more on the human than, but like if you ask our executive team or leadership team, they would say, we have to do a homework assignment, we have to do this, we have to do that. Like they have to do a personality test.

• 31:26Speaker 03

  So we're getting really granular with people to see if they're the right fit because we've quizzed people that aren't the right fit and we know which personalities just don't work here now. So that's really the hiring process. Sometimes it can take like a month and a half, which is just mind blowing. And then they need another four weeks after that to quit their job or whatever. So, um, that's our hiring process and then, um,

• 31:49Ed Mylett?

  What about bus seats? We hire someone because they're extraordinary and then find the right seat or you'll move them around? Do you do that?

• 31:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, for sure, for sure. I do a lot of that because we love generalists over here and there are certain jobs where you have to be a specialist, like CFO is one where you just didn't know the numbers, right? Like there's no generalist running our books, I'll tell you that.

• 32:08Ed Mylett?

  Right, better not be.

• 32:09Speaker 03

  They're math nerds, right? Which is exactly what you need and like our in-house lawyer, like obviously you need to be, that's, you can't be a generalist.

• 32:17Ed Mylett?

  They're not over on social media marketing, right?

• 32:19Speaker 03

  No, they're not. They're not making posts, thank God. But I would say that, you know, It's a, it definitely is a DNA thing and we have core values and you have to kind of fit the bill on all those core values. So you have to move fast, you have to move with empathy, you have to execute like a pro, you have to be creative and you have to harness grit and those are really what we look for in people. And really who fits that bill, I'll tell you, is the entrepreneurs. So now we're like, well, maybe we should just hire like all entrepreneurs moving forward because what entrepreneurs are so great at is wearing all these different hats. And they may not be a master of anything, but they are a jack of all trades and I love the

• 33:01Speaker 03

  jack of all trades guys. I would also say that some of the most value people, valuable people that we have are the creatives. It's the ones that understand storytelling at a high level, they can look at an email and just go, guys, what story are we really trying to tell here? Are we really just trying to sell the percentage off? Or are we trying to show people that if you, if you take this piece of clothing and this one, you match it together, it can make an outfit and that's why you should buy it. Not just because of the percentage of the sales promo. Like you need those people to be a voice of reason on your creative. Otherwise you'll just get lost in the performance marketing aspect and you'll always be kind of like trying to hack together to get a click or, or whatever it is to make it look good in, in the analytics.

• 33:46Speaker 03

  But creatives just have that magic sauce that you just can't buy. It's like you either kind of have it or you don't. And man, do I value that in an organization.

• 33:57Ed Mylett?

  What a great answer. I, uh, I'm sort of the, I've become the last three or four years, I'm called obsessed, but I've really studied Steve Jobs. I've been blessed that I sit on a board with Cook who runs it now and I also am a neighbor of his and I've just been fascinated by the difference between the company when Jobs was sort of at the helm, the first time and the second time. And Cook, and people ask me all the time, what's the difference with Jobs? And it's the, and I always say this, he had the DNA of a storyteller. He was a vision stretcher, a dream seller, a storyteller. And you gotta have somebody in your company, if it's you or a team of people that can tell your story. Cause that's what everything is now, guys. It's a narrative. It's a story that's told. People buy into the story and want to be a part

• 34:40Ed Mylett?

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• 35:23Ed Mylett?

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• 36:08Ed Mylett?

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• 36:46Ed Mylett?

  I'm listening to you today and I told you off camera, your ability to articulate, your energy level, all of it is off the charts. And you're, you're one of the great guests I've ever had on. And I wonder about you. I know what it takes. I, by the way, I went up to three years with you. Now you're in the fifth year and the numbers have exploded. But I know what it takes in year five. I know the fatigue. I know the mental fatigue. I know by now you've had people screw you. You've had catastrophes, disasters. You've almost been out of business a few times, I'm sure. Right? So if all of that is true, and you can tell me whether it is, what do you do to grow you and protect you and, and fill your own cup?

• 37:29Ed Mylett?

  Because as the CEO of something, as a founder of something, everybody, rarely will a company outgrow you. Very rare can a company outgrow your ability to extend your own identity, your own vision. So what do you do for you on that? Cause it's apparent to me you've done a lot of it.

• 37:46Speaker 03

  I probably should do more time for myself. Really what I do is, you know, I spread myself really thin with everybody.

• 37:55Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 37:55Speaker 03

  And, you know, but I've got a good balance now where I, I work from basically nine to three and I pick up my kids from school and I go home and I really lock in with them. I have three kids, eight, six and four. And I lock in with them from 3:30 till they go to bed at seven. And so that's really my time with them. And that's where I can really recharge and focus and put my phone down and not worry about business and just worry about showing up and playing with them and just having those moments. Cause I remember, you know, growing up, I had a great dad who played with me. And I remember how magical those moments were for me. And it really fills my soul when I can just run around the yard and make them laugh and, and just play games and do whatever I can.

• 38:38Speaker 03

  Um, and then after that, I spent time with my wife, you know, after, after I put them down, it's those three hours before we go to bed that is really locked in with her. And then the next day I started all over and in the morning it's all about my employees and it's all about my customers. I wouldn't say I have a ton of time for myself. But I'm also okay because I love this business. I don't love apparel necessarily, but I just love the business of serving customers and showing up and finding creative ways to do that and build a big business in lieu of that. So, you know, I get a lot of fulfillment in reading comments and stories and feedback from people and people just loving the product. And, you know, I get, you know, comments from wives that say that, you know,

• 39:21Speaker 03

  this product has really changed the way he feels about himself when he leaves the house. And that's just a really magical thing that you can do for $49. Like, who would have thought just a t-shirt could make a difference? And that's, that's really fulfilling to me. So, I don't really need a ton of extracurricular things to fill my soul.

• 39:37Ed Mylett?

  Let me ask you the real. So, and by the way, that's awesome in year five at 900 million. But take me through year one or two, just for someone that's a startup entrepreneur right now. What did year one and two look like schedule wise?

• 39:49Speaker 03

  Terrible. It's part of the reason we were profitable in the beginning.

• 39:54Ed Mylett?

  Sure.

• 39:54Speaker 03

  But the three founders, we did the work of 15 people for about a year and a half, which is not recommended. Like, we waited way too long, but we were hell bent on staying profitable. And we were hell bent on not going in debt and, and raising money. We were like, we're making this thing profitable from, from month one. We're not taking a salary, we're not taking any money out of this company. And we're just gonna like operate at a 10 and kill ourselves for a year. And then we'll start hiring the right people. And plus, like, at the time, we couldn't really afford killers like we can now. Took us a while to get there to hire like the, you know, the ex-meta people and the people that come from Yale. And like, those people come later and they help add tremendous value. But in the beginning,

• 40:36Speaker 03

  it was just three scrappy entrepreneurs who were, you know, I was really good at like the creative and the marketing and the digital. Nick was really good at the apparel side. He knew how to talk to manufacturers. And Matt was just really good at finance. So, he was kind of like our, our makeshift CFO in the beginning. And we ran the company, you know, as good as we could for, for that first year and a half. But it was absolutely brutal. I think most people would have probably given up in our seat. But it was just so hard. And, you know, also, hey, you know, having the background that I did, it allowed me to save some money. So I wasn't struggling, which was making it easy to not have to take money out of the company. So at least we had that going for us.

• 41:16Ed Mylett?

  Was there ever a do or die moment? Was there ever a moment where you're like, we're gonna close the doors maybe? And if there was, could you describe it?

• 41:23Speaker 03

  I would say that the do or die moment was really going back to that $40 million bet when we just couldn't pay the bills. And what happens is, is those bills start coming in and you can't cover them because the receipts just don't match the revenue. So like, all of a sudden, they're hunting us down and they're like, what's going on? And we're trying to push them off and we're trying to talk, but it got really dicey. And if enough of them band together, they can put you into bankruptcy. But we had such solid relationships with them that it just really worked in our favor. And then we were able to get out of it a lot sooner than later.

• 42:00Ed Mylett?

  Okay, I got a tough one for you. So, social media makes entrepreneurship look very easy, very sexy. It's like, once you start a business, you can get a Lambo and you're going to be in Greece and Turks and Caicos every three weeks, right? And you and I know that that's not the case. The other thing that's become, because of the Shark Tank stuff we see, I think most people start a company thinking, I'm starting this to exit it, and I'm going to exit it in two or three years. And I think when you start a company with the idea of an exit already, one, it's unrealistic, and two, you can do things to your company that really can do it

• 42:38Ed Mylett?

  harm if you think that way. Having said that, that's just a theory. So when you started True Classic with your partner and the three entrepreneurs that you said were involved in the beginning, was it like, hey, we're going to build this and in three years we're out? Or were you building a company that in your mind you may keep for a decade or two?

• 42:56Speaker 03

  We've always wanted to keep it private from the beginning. We never had thoughts of going public.

• 43:01Ed Mylett?

  Those are the best companies, bro, that at least think that way. But go ahead.

• 43:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, because ultimately, you're not thinking about the customer. Like, it always goes back to that, right? Like, if you're thinking about the money, you'll never get to what's best for the customer. You'll always just be thinking, how do I growth hack this to get a multiple on an exit? And that is just the wrong way. You get the multiple by building a great business for the customer, right? So it's a very backwards way of thinking. So when we came into this, you know, Matt does come from the M and A world, but I told him from the beginning, I'm like, I don't even want to think about this stuff. Like this is, I am not interested in talking to bankers. Um, I don't, you know, maybe in the future, we would take some chips off the table, but I really don't want to use

• 43:43Speaker 03

  any kind of VC cash and I definitely don't want a boss. I think that's other people think they, they forget that like, if you put, someone puts money in, they inevitably become, uh, they have a seat on the board. They're going to ask you a lot of questions all the time. All of a sudden you have quarterly reviews. Like it's not fun going from being a founder, which you know, you want to get out of having a boss and then you go back to having a boss inevitably. Yeah. So I would just say that that's, that's just, you have to do right by the customer and think about that aspect. And the money will come. You create immense value at scale for people. The money will always follow. If you look at the people that are crushing it, it always goes back to the product, right? Like it's not, the marketing is just a vehicle for attention.

• 44:25Speaker 03

  But if the product doesn't crush, you have no business. Like I, I saw someone the other day post on LinkedIn, the true classic is doing these crazy numbers all because of their marketing. And I just had to chime in and level set with the guy and be like, guys, just so you know, you don't get to 500 million on garbage product. You just don't. It like, it has to really stand on its own and that has to be the pillar that you build off of. The marketing is just there to support it and just tell people about the product. But like, if you want any kind of retention or repeat purchases, you have to have a great product. And the repeat, by the way, is, is the profitability. Cause we're really not profitable on first customer acquisition. Like when we acquire a customer, we're basically break even. So you have to get them to come back to make a profit.

• 45:09Speaker 03

  Right? So we're constantly pushing email and SMS and everything that retention is built on to get people back to the site. And by the way, that's also creating new product categories so that you can get them to come back and be interested in other things, other than just T-shirts. Cause they may think we just sell T-shirts, but we really sell absolutely everything now, including, you know, activewear, denim, underwear, you name it. We, we do everything for guys now, but, um, people know that whatever we create is going to be great for them. Cause it's always going to have a good fit, be comfortable and have a really good price attached to it. So.

• 45:45Speaker 01

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• 46:15Ed Mylett?

  What about broad versus narrow focus? I got two more entrepreneur questions. That's so good. You have a company built for men. It's not just like an apparel company. Now, I don't know if in the future you would do things for for women or not, but sometimes I think people's business idea is either too broad. Like, OK, what are you exactly? Right? You have too many products too soon. Or it's like too narrow in the sense that there's not that big a marketplace for you. So you did start, correct me if I'm wrong, as sort of a shirt company for men. At least that's how I knew you in the beginning. Once you built that base, then you added verticals, which are other products to the mix. But you have decided to stay in the lane with men.

• 46:59Ed Mylett?

  So just discuss all of that for a minute.

• 47:01Speaker 03

  It's the only way, in my opinion, and it was very strategic. I knew that if I didn't hang my hat on one thing with people and give them something to remember, we would just be the gap. And that was the last thing I wanted. I didn't want to just roll out with a million things. So I was like, OK, not only am I going narrow, like not only is it just a T-shirt, it's a T-shirt that's fitted in the shoulders and arms, very specific, right? So I went incredibly narrow, so even narrower than most brands. And not only so that was so that people could go, oh, the shirt that fits you better. I got it. And they're priced better. That makes sense. And then eventually I was going to roll that model across everything. So denim, same thing.

• 47:41Speaker 03

  Like if you buy our denim, they are, you know, $200 premium denim that you get for like 50 bucks. So it's like we're just taking the premium market and bringing it to the masses, like I said originally. And But yes, to your point, if you go too broad too early, how do you really expect people to identify you?

• 47:59Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 47:59Speaker 03

  People are in their heads about everything going on in the world. And if you can't stick out and stand for something, you stand for nothing ultimately. So it's like, you have to go super specific, market it that way, and really be a solution for something. That's the other component to going narrow is like you have to solve a problem. And when I get people that come to me and they go, hey, I want to do this. I want to sell this. What do you think? I, my first question is always like, what are you solving for the market? And if you're not solving anything, good luck. It's gonna be, if it's gonna be a lifestyle brand, buddy, that's gonna be a rough road and it's gonna be really tough to get there. Not to say you can't do it, and a lot of people have, but I would say that you have to just live in problem solving mode 24/7

• 48:43Speaker 03

  in product development. And that will get you the audience that you're looking for. And then you can eventually tap into other audiences, like with women. We are talking about launching women's sometime in the future, but I'm not gonna do it until I really solve a problem for them, the same way I solved the problem for guys. Like, I'm not into checking the box and going, hey, guys, we need extra revenue. Let's hurry up and check the box for women and make all this extra money. I'm like, no, no, no, no. What is the shirt solving for them specifically on the fit? And do they absolutely love it? Is the price gonna work for them? And if so, now we're on to something. We can have that conversation.

• 49:18Ed Mylett?

  This is so good, bro. I'll give you one more business question. This is so good. Like, I'm, I'm sitting here literally thinking my, my son's gonna listen to this, my daughter today. I don't care where you are in college or what business class you're at, or any of you that have an MBA. This is a little bit of a separator today for you. It's cool here, two entrepreneurs just chop it up. It's just, it really is. I've heard you say, I think three times in the interview, at least twice that I can recall, kind of a debt aversion. Stay out of debt, which a lot of entrepreneurs aren't afraid of. I am also. I'm scared of debt. I don't like it. It doesn't feel good to me. I don't even know that I'm a real entrepreneur in the sense that I don't have that gambler thing you have. I wish I had more of that. But in general, when someone's scaling, I know a lot of real entrepreneurs would want me to ask you this question.

• 50:02Ed Mylett?

  What is your philosophy about, should I take on debt if I need to scale? Or should I take, give away equity? And if you had to do one or the other? Which would it be most of the time? Give equity away or take on more debt? Tough question, right?

• 50:18Ed Mylett?

  Or is, are both deal breakers for you?

• 50:21Speaker 03

  I would definitely take on some debt versus sell equity. I mean, if you cannot take on debt, great. Like, if you have that profitable of a product. See, we have kind of tight margins. So we have to take on, like, we have a credit line.

• 50:34Ed Mylett?

  You've got lines everywhere.

• 50:35Speaker 03

  Exactly. And not only do we have lines everywhere, like, we have a big bank line, but we also have amazing credit terms with all of our vendors, which is another thing that people don't think about. Because I always say, I tell people, like, we started this company with $3,000 and scaled it to astronomical numbers. The only way we were really able to do that, well, it's two reasons. Facebook is just unbelievable in terms of their modeling and conversion. But I would say the other component is we negotiated with our manufacturers and we got terms out of them. We said, okay, we're going to pay you in 60 days, not 30 days. And a lot of them want money upfront. So we negotiated, we pushed the money out. We also just said, hey, can you float us half a million in credit? Right? That way, we don't have to go raise money. We don't have to raise debt.

• 51:20Speaker 03

  And they did that for us. Not to say that we also didn't try to put things on credit cards early on, but I would say that getting a line with, like, an E Capital or one of these companies or Wayflyer, getting a small line can really do wonders for the business. It can help you explode. It can help you. Now, if you can just do it without, that's the perfect scenario. I'm not big on selling equity. I just think that there's, the debt is a way for you to retain that equity and, and keep that value to yourself. And then just, listen, you got to give something up. There's a trade off. So you are going to pay an interest rate and it can be pretty hefty. Some are more expensive than others. We've worked with really expensive ones. And then we've worked with ones that are single digit interest rates, which are obviously where we're living now. And then, once you get to a certain size, the banks will work with you,

• 52:05Speaker 03

  like the JP Morgans. And then you can really get the interest rate down to something manageable. But to answer your question, a debt all day.

• 52:14Ed Mylett?

  Okay, that's spoken like a real entrepreneur, by the way. And this is a general statement, but this world today of giving equity away for investment, the shark tank world, I'm always very skeptical when people have asked me for investments for equity and especially startup companies, because basically it tells me you don't have a lot of confidence in yourself, because if you had confidence, you'd take the debt route and keep your equity. So you're willing to spend and lose my money, but not your own. And so that's a general statement, it's not true all of the time, so I don't need a bunch of feedback about that from everybody, but in general, when I ask that question, I want to know about their debt answer first, and you answered it exactly how I would answer it and how I would hope an entrepreneur should. Okay, last question, by the way, it's been extraordinary today, and I'm really grateful that we've done it. And by the way, everybody, go check out True Classic.

• 53:00Ed Mylett?

  I have their gear, I am proud to have their gear. You can tell that it's run by a good man with good values and a good culture, and he's provided all this value for all of you today. So, by the way, it's Christmas time for a lot of you when you're hearing this coming up, great gift for your dude, is True Classic, so make sure you do that. General question, it's kind of a cheesy question, but like, answer it honestly. Not that you haven't been so far, but is this worth it? This entrepreneur thing, man, people underestimate the stress. They underestimate the stress and the mind space it takes up. Like, you're built now, like, you've done so many reps of the mind space of an entrepreneur

• 53:41Ed Mylett?

  that I'm watching a guy in the throes of his prime, and you're not even aware right now, until someday when you exit this, and you're actually really breathing completely, or whatever happens, and you go, oh my gosh, the toll this was, because you're just, you're built in it, you're in the throes. It's like finding a quarterback in the third or fourth quarter of a Super Bowl, they don't know the stress they're under.

• 54:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 54:02Ed Mylett?

  But to some extent, if you could step out of it and look...

• 54:06Ed Mylett?

  Is it all it's cracked up to be? Or is it not so bad to be like a number two at a company making two or 300 grand and let the owner have all the stress?

• 54:13Speaker 03

  Honestly, I'm super jealous of those people. Like, I, I, I sometimes wish I wasn't so fixated on making an impact in the world because it certainly puts me in a spot where I am defaulted into the CEO at the top. And it's a brutal position to be in because all you do all day is firefight in every aspect of the business. And that's what makes you effective in an organization is that you're able to fight the fires that no one else wants to fight. And it's always the worst of the worst problems that you're dealing with, whether it's people or business. I mean, even like, we lost a CFO a while back and we had, myself and Ben, our president, had to essentially become the CFO.

• 54:58Speaker 03

  And there's just times where you have to fill a role or fill a void for the sake of the business because you have to, not because you want to. And I would just say it's really tough at the top because, you know, it's also very lonely and people, they look at you differently. And I feel like I'm the same guy. I really still feel like that broke musician from Michigan who was just kind of getting by and happy to be alive. But like, they start to look at you differently when the numbers get bigger. And if there starts to be this disconnect. So I tend to do a lot of one-on-ones and a lot of quick pulse checks with people, just touch base and let them know that I'm here for them and that I'm listening and anything they want to bring me, they can.

• 55:40Speaker 03

  But to answer your question, I think most people would much rather be a three or a four than a one or a two all day of the week because you're still going to get paid a lot of money and you don't have any of the excess stress that you carry with you once you go home. Because when I go home, it follows me. Like, when I get back on my phone after putting it down with the kids, it's a nightmare. I'm just like, I'm looking at my Slack and it's just problem after problem after problem. And then it's just like, I'm back in it. You know what I mean? And you just never really escape that. So you have to just really be at peace with yourself and just understand that this is part of the process and it's Also not forever, right? Like even just going from year one struggles that we talked about to

• 56:20Speaker 03

  year five struggles. My wife has definitely seen an evolution of where I was in the early years and where I am now. And she's much happier with with kind of what's happening with the business. But it is absolutely brutal. And I don't say that lightly. And if you're doing it for the money, it's only going to get worse. Like, you have to really do it for the love of it. You have to love providing value to people, creating jobs, creating economy for people. You have to just absolutely love it. Otherwise, you'll quit because it's terrible. At the end of the day, it's like, the payoff is the money. But I think what people don't realize is like, once you have the money, it's like, it just goes back to like, quality of life. Like, what do I

• 57:00Speaker 03

  need just to be happy? And once your bills are paid, you immediately check that box and then go back to like, your health, your kids, your family, and all the things you can't control. And so, but to answer your question again, it is a tough road, and especially startup world and entrepreneurship, you're just constantly trying to make the best decisions for everyone. And everything you say can get taken away. It can make people feel bad. You know, I definitely have done a better job over time of not just jumping in channels and spouting off about a topic, because I know how it affects people. Right? Like, I just try to be empathetic. But I'm just in go mode all the time. Like, I'm just in like, execution mode. This needs to get done. What are

• 57:43Speaker 03

  we doing here? How are we doing this? Like, hey, it's just like how we roll, right? But people can take that and they can go, hey, why is he calling me out in the channel? And why this? And people get in their heads about it. But that's just how you move and shake as an entrepreneur. You're just, I got to solve this problem today. I have 27 more on my plate that need to be done by 3 o'clock. So, you know, let's figure it out. And let's go now. But yeah, it's tough.

• 58:08Ed Mylett?

  All right, unbelievable conversation today. I cannot thank you enough. I mean it. This is a truly classic conversation. And everybody, go check out True Classic. Give us your social, where they should go, Ryan. And again, thank you. Where should they go?

• 58:21Speaker 03

  It's just my name on everything, Twitter, Instagram, it's LinkedIn, it's all just Ryan Bartlett.

• 58:27Ed Mylett?

  Okay, Ryan Bartlett. Hey, everybody. Rock star entrepreneur, as you guys all heard today. You're welcome, because today is heavy note taking. You could share with anybody who's got a business mind, or has a mind or a heart that wants to go into business as well. All right, everybody, God bless you. Max out.

• 58:44Ed Mylett?

  This is the Ed and Myron Show.