The Entrepreneur DNA - The Billion Dollar Standard How Ryan Serhant Built A Brand That Wont Stop Ryan Serhant

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

In this episode, I sit down with the one and only Ryan Serhant — Netflix star, best-selling author, top broker, and CEO of a real estate juggernaut. We go way beyond real estate and peel back the curtain on what it actually takes to scale a brand, lead with authenticity, and stay mission-focused while juggling a million things — from fatherhood to multi-million dollar investments. Ryan opens up about his morning routine, his “future self” philosophy, why content without authenticity fails, and what it’s like running a brand that operates in 12 states and just raised $45 million. Whether you're a content creator, founder, or aspiring real estate mogul, this one is stacked with gems. We even touch on AI, his vision for SellIt.com, and the new Season 2 of Owning Manhattan (OUT NOW). This is a playbook episode. Let’s go. Ryan Serhant is the CEO and founder of SERHANT., a multi-faceted real estate and media company, star of Netflix’s “Owning Manhattan,” and author of multiple best-selling books. With over a decade as a top broker in NYC, Ryan has grown his firm into 12 states and recently raised $45M to expand a tech-driven ecosystem for modern agents and entrepreneurs. Ryan Serhant’s Socials Instagram: @ryanserhant YouTube: Ryan Serhant Website: https://ryanserhant.com Sell It Platform: https://sellit.com About Justin: After investing in real estate for over 18 years and almost 3000 deals done, Justin has created a business that generates 7 figures in active income through wholesaling and fix and flipping as well as accumulating millions of dollars of rental properties including 5 apartment buildings, 50+ single family homes, and 1 storage facility Justins longevity in real estate is due to his ability to look around the corners, adapt to changing markets, perfecting Raising private capital, and focusing on lead generation which allows him to not just wholesale and fix & flip, but also accumulate wealth through long term holds. His success in real estate led him to start The Entrepreneur DNA podcast and The Science Of Flipping podcast and education company, and REI LIVE where he’s actively doing deals with members. He has coached and mentored thousands of aspiring and active investors over the last decade. Connect with Justin: Instagram: @thejustincolby YouTube: Justin Colby TikTok: @justincolbytsof LinkedIn: Justin Colby Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Entrepreneur DNA, welcome back. Obviously, you are seeing I'm with a very special guest here. He is not just a TV star. He is a Netflix star. He's a best-selling author. He's a tech CEO. He's a top broker. He's an investor and entrepreneur, a father, a husband, just an overall great guy.

Ryan Serhant is here. Thanks. These aren't having me. Yeah, I'm excited to have this. This is going to be a good one. Yeah, welcome to my office. That's it. This is an incredible office.

So if you ever get the chance, we're here in New York in his office. phenomenal. This place is unreal. Your nine's all the way through and through. I want to ask you the first thing first. I just gave you a resume. How do you get all this done? People. Power and people, power and numbers. Scale. One of the first things I learned when I got into the real estate business in 2008, when I looked around at everybody else that was competing with, and I saw that there was this real nobility in being able to do everything by yourself. Right. So that was a thing. You know, like, I, I hit the ball by myself. I did the work by myself.

It's like, I think there might be another way. Especially in the service business, which is hard because everyone wants you, right? It's you, me, you, you, you, you, how do you scale you? If you know how to train and you know how to teach, right? Like, if you look at any great manager, some managers show, some managers tell the best one's teaching. Yeah. Learn how to teach. Then you can start to create different branches to, you know, your oak tree.

Yeah. And so I've just always really focused on the fact that I can hire people to do everything, but hire people. And so I just spent a lot of time finding and looking for great people. And they help me do all of that stuff. Yeah. I mean, even if you just consider some of the things people know you for, you are a content creator, you are top of the spear of the content creating world, in my opinion. That is not easy.

You're a bestselling author. you are on a million dollar listing New York. You have owning Manhattan, season two coming out now. Save trip. December 5th, season two, owning Manhattan. Like, just that alone. In anyone else's world is a full-time job, right? To be able to keep up with that.

So take that and then you actually still do the thing that you're known for. Yeah, have to do it. And that is something that I give you, as someone I've been in the real estate space for 20 years, I give you all the credit because there's so many people. people now that are trying to become branded like a surhand, but they stop doing the thing. And that's a tricky spot. Yeah. Yeah, I think the audience and the community that we build now really, really sees through bullshit.

And they really understand authenticity. Like, they just get it, you know? Like, you know when things are produced. You know when people are full of it. You just get it. It's why Swite Time now is so fast. Yeah. because you just know, like, fake, fake, fake, fake, authentic.

And we all pause on authentic moments. It's why, even in the age of AI, we just all get locked out. Reality TV is the biggest right now across streamers and cable. Because even if moments are put together and produce and, hey, go stand over here, there's more authenticity there than in someone paying to make content, to put it in front of you, to please like it, so we could sell ads. No one cares anymore. And so I still have to do the thing.

And I also, I think it's important to make sure that I never lose touch with every single part of the business and what makes it run. And there's credibility in the fact that if I'm going to teach people to sell, I need to actually be selling. I don't want to be your coach. Yeah. And I never was able to elicit to people or learn for people who were like, well, I've never done this personally. But, you know, it's like a personal trainer who's out of shape. They might be book smart. You talk about that, right?

But they might be book smart, but I'm like, if you, you got to be able to walk the walk and talk to talk, at least once to say this is how you did it. Right, right. And then goes through that process. I just, a fun story. I was just in the gym this morning. I do a morning routine.

I want to get to your morning routine, but I go to the gym very early because I'm also a father and I run companies and I need fine time. This older guy, huge beer belly. Maybe one day he was in shape somewhere, but not anymore, is talking to this shredded, ripped, we're in the sauna, sauna. This guy has an eight-pack, he's like 25 years old at most, like just shredded.

Yeah. He says, hey, weren't you that guy running up and down the street on whatever street for like an hour and a half doing wind sprints? And the kid's like, yeah, that's my Sunday routine to keep my body in motion. Yeah. The older gentleman decides to go on a 30 minute, and I was only in the sauna for 15. I left and he was still going. rant on teaching him what he what would make him better yeah and i was looking at this guy with a huge beard belly trying to give the guy that has an eight-pack advice on how to be more athletic and

stronger and more fit whenever flush for it yes and you go what the fuck is that so anyways uh so let's talk about a morning routine because i think you again father business owner you got a million people needing you wanting you you're leveraged what is a morning routine machine look like for Ryan's our hand. Well, say when I was younger, like, definitely when I first moved to New York City, I was not used to the pace of the city because the city moves incredibly quickly. It will provide you all the fuel you need to power the fastest car, or it'll provide you all the gas you need to burn your fucking house down, right?

That's been great. Yeah. And you get to choose. Yeah. You get to choose go fast or you get to choose breakdown lane. I am dying. I'm depressed. I have to move home.

I'm using this, by the way. The city is both. Okay. Yeah. And so when I first got here, I was like, like, 9 a.m. is a good, like, it's early, but, you know, that's morning. I would go to the gin at night. Like, my gym on the upper seven, I first moved here, would close at 10. I get there about like 8.30 p.m.

Yeah. Because the thought of doing anything before 8 a.m. Which is like, you'd have to, I would have to be forced. Yeah. And then I get a job and responsibility. And then I started to learn the value of minutes. and time, and I started to build out my thousand minute rule of because I control what I can control. I can only control my time. And so how do I control what only I can control? If I can't

control the weather, I can't control markets, I can't control a grandmother who's going to lie to my face to save $5. I can't control him. I can't control you. I can control my time. And so let me maximize my lifespan with the amount of time that I have. And so I flipped it and I did the inverse. And so my meditation, like my church, is plus minus five to eight a a year. Okay. Roughly. Yeah. Definitely five to seven, depending on the day, but five to eight, I wake up at 4.30,

six days a week, I like wake myself up. I read. I look at email. I look at the news specifically. See what happened overnight. Kind of catch up. And I start firing off messages. It's what I've done for like 17 years.

It's important to me. Everyone is all saying, yeah. It's important to me to let everybody know that I won and I beat you. It's a small joy in my life to let everyone know that by the time they wake up, they're looking down to like, walk, he's at a two-hour head start. You literally sometimes say, I win. No, I've never actually said that. I think it's implied.

Yeah. With my emojis. But I also have, listen, I also have clients all over the world. So like, especially in Europe, especially in the UK, they're five, six, seven hours ahead of us already. Yeah. So like, I just have gotten the cadence when I was. much younger to just move that fast. So only now are people like, dude, with the iOS update, you can use SED later and

like, that's for pussies, you know? Like, that's an extra CET for meat. A hundred percent. That's right. I get it. Work-life balance. Questionable that you can post this. So I do all that stuff up until 5.30, depending on the day.

I'll go to a big gym that's by my house and I'll work out. Again, if I'm in New York, like a standard day, work out there from like 530. I come home, shower, CYFC baby for a hot second, get in the car, go to work, and then I'm 15 minutes on the mark for the most part. This is four 15 minute blocks. Yeah. It's one to two. Other than that, we keep things pretty tight.

In your dials to go. Yeah. Yeah, dials. So the question you brought up was this balance. So I wanted to go off on this because I think everyone that wants to be Ryan Surhan, doesn't know how to even get to become Ryan Surhan. They believe, I have their strong opinion. I don't believe there's balance.

You have one life and you're all in on family and you're all in on work. And it's one life. There is no like family life work balance in my opinion. Do I want to spend time with my kids and my wife? 100%. But when I'm there, then I'm all in on them. When I'm here in office, let's say, then I'm all in on this. How do you view this work life balance?

Because you have a million things, far more than most people watching this and hearing this. How do you do this work life balance? pretty simply I am very goal oriented. I definitely can't be with anybody who is all sympathical, who like just wants to go with the winds. Maybe that'll be in my second life. I do think about those people and I envy them. Brentwell-lawyer did.

I know where I want to get to this year. I know what the chapter in my book for 2025 is going to be. And I know that there's going to be twists and turns and there's going to be good, good stories and then some bad stories because that's what makes a book interesting. I also read a book that's like, and then everything was awesome. No one watches.

All the time. No one watches that Netflix show for sure. You know, they want to watch where everything fucking burns, but he came out a bit alive. And so I plot the goals, and the goals are personal and professional. Okay. Personal is Ryan and then family, right?

Professional is CEO and the company. So I have four quadrants. what are those goals for the year? And I march towards those goals. Do you physically write them? Oh, for sure. And I keep everything in focus at all times. That way, when everyone brings me different issues,

those issues are not a focus, and the focus will not be that issue. And then I get to just move forward that way. And like, that way I can plot out. And then obviously things happen and things change and things move around and that's okay. But like I wanted to make sure last year that I spent more time with my grandmother this year

who lives in Mequan, Wisconsin, which is nowhere near me, because she's turning 100. And so she did turn 100, and I was just in Milwaukee. Yeah. Dude, I think there's like hurricanes in the Midwest. Everywhere now, dude.

It's insane. God is saying you guys fuck this world up, dude. Might of well, it's been in Miami. Milwaukee was underwater, could barely get back to the airport, but I saw Nana. It was not my goals. But I also wanted to.

to make sure that that happens so that I can then follow the follow the plan that's kind of how I do so much to unpack because I just did the same thing with my wife my grandfather's 96 now right and I'm like I need to get my happy ass all the way to California and just sit with a 96 year old yeah and just talk because they talk and just yeah and it's just like peaceful you just sit there and go oh all my stresses I'm just here with a 96 year with a 96 year so hopefully you found the same thing uh you know me it's nuts like I everyone I know over the age of 70. If you ask them, like, what's the way,

every time, man, if you ask them, what's the one thing that they would change? For the most part, it's have more kids, right? That was really what you had to say? What? That's what you had to say right now? Sorry. For the most part, it's having more kids

because it's like, like I sat, I talked to his CEO, we sold his house for a $1 billion. And I always asked, like, what's one piece of advice you have for me, between now and the time I get to your age, you know, old man. He's like, have more kids. He has five.

Like, dude, really? And he's like, yeah, but I don't regret a single one of them. Right. Right. And the pain that I had when raising them, whether it's financially, for sure, because raising kids these days is obscenely expensive. Okay. What?

Whether it's the pressure on your time or everything, we're all going to hit at age. If you're lucky, all that stuff is meaningless. All those people are gone. The stress is gone. The work is gone. The stuff is gone. They're going to be old. Your basket of hurt. You're just sit there. All you're going to have is your kids. And I'm sitting there at my grandmother's birthday. And it affected me three weeks ago, wherever that was. And she's 100 years old and she has five kids. And they're all there, one of which is my mom. And all the grandkids, she doesn't know who anybody is. And then she falls asleep and she wakes up and she's like, I know who all of you are. It was kind of fun. I was like, who, which grandmother are we're going to get right now. She's 100. And it's like, wow, man. And nothing that happened to her when she was 40 years old that was really stressful that day.

At work at her job means anything in that moment. So my really long answer to your question about four-client balance and everything else is, dude, yes, it's goal-oriented, but I put in the work every day for future me. Like, that is, that's my job. That's who I worked for is me at 75. who's somewhere in the future, Olds Buck, who really wishes that I wasn't doing snatches,

okay, at the gym at my age, because now his shoulders. I would hire your shoulders, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know. And he's sitting there, but I hope he's happy and surrounded by people and not sitting there alone at some desk saying, yeah, but look, right? I think the yeah, but look,

fear of embarrassment is 100% an epidemic that we have to fix, and now I'm going on a tangent and I'm just out. So I have a concept that I really hold near and dear to my heart, but I want to get your perspective of this. It has to do with the balance, but like I love my children and my wife more than anything. And there are times right now, like more than anything. She's right there. But I will tell you I'm not built to be a dad the same way she is a mom.

for sure. I literally have been judged because I've come out all my social media and basically said, listen, I love them. But if I can rock an hour or two and give them all hour or two I got, I'm going to have a great fucking day. And if that was, that's perfect for me. Yeah, because we think it was battle, man. We have to go fight dragons all day long.

And I can't do more. I'm not built to do more. Do you agree, disagree? What's your thoughts on all that? My wife first introduced me. She's for Athens. And she used to me to her dad. And she had always called him Leo.

And he introduces himself as Leonitis. I was like, dude, you came Leonidas is my potential father-in-law. He doesn't fight anybody now. I'm like, man, yeah, we got to go out. We have to hunt and gather. And I think it's in the DNA. I think, listen, there's a little bit of like nature nurture as well, right? And you do become who you were raised by.

And so we probably had similar upbringings. Like, all I remember is my dad waking. at 5 a.m. having a banana. I'd like going to work, traveling around the world, two weeks out of every single month, us being with my mom, him coming back. We had to do school reports every single day. We had to do chores and everything on the weekends all the way through college if he was going to pay for it. And work is worthy, the value of a dollar, because they went through the Great Depression. You know, his mom died when he was fucking 16. He had his first kid when he was 19, like just a different world to live in, you know.

His dad had polio and the wars and all that stuff. And so like we're raised by that. And so when we get out of school, it's like, oh, shotgun. Time to go and freaking go do the things. And then to not do that is really, really just, I don't know, genetically uncomfortable. But then there's also the nurture part of it, which is learning to adapt with a changing, a changing world and making sure we are there more than the 47 minutes that I think I read today that said that's all you need to be there for your spouse for them to still love you.

Shut up. Yeah. I forwarded that. I forwarded that. So you're right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, look. I'm not right. I was like, listen, it is science. Yeah, science. I think her response was, when was the last time you talked to me for 47 minutes? And I was like, unducend, unducent, unduced, undisance, damn it back fired. Uh, too good. Well, so let's go and go a little bit about challenges.

We talked a little bit about it. But when you're faced with, like, something goes wrong. A deal blows up in front of your face. I mean, this literally is a little raw for me because yesterday I had just a seventh figure. Oh, dude, every day. Every day. How do you handle it? How do you handle it?

How do you deal with it? How do you just like, what does that look like for you? Well, at the beginning of my career, it could not. Okay. And I think the reason there's such churn in sales is that we are, conditioned to become most improved players and most valuable players. And we all get good enough grades to get out of elementary school. And we're all told that we're going to be great and we're beautiful little pumpkins and everyone gets a trophy. And I'm not the only person to say

everyone says that. And so then you get into a success based economy. That's a merit based economy. You're like, oh, wait a minute. I can't get there unless I do stuff. And then what happens if the stuff doesn't work out, but my brain already moved up there. And then we have a mental happiness detachment that for me was really hard, especially moving to New York City to try to be an after, because that's what I came here to do. And so I had two years, which is not a long period at all, where I was rejected to my face because of my face, you know, and dude, I went great when I was 16, man. Like I, you know, and I realized very quickly that I was not as great inact. as the people in New York City that were incredible, you know,

and tons and tons of rejection every day. And so you build up a thick skin. And then I got into real estate. And I saw that in this business, people don't like the rejection. They don't like not being paid. They don't like not having benefits. They don't like not having their weekends. And so they quit.

That's why it's like 90% of the people that get into this business are out of the business in the first couple years. It's just, it's hard. It's terrible. Like I wouldn't recommend it to most people. But for those that can make it. it through, it's endurance for the win. And what I taught myself is two things. One is one is mindset one's tactical. So mindset for how to get over loss is flipping it to understand that my job is to

lose. If I think my job is to win every deal or to win most deals, then I'll be devastated when I don't because in my brain, oh, that was my job. And his deal went through. He made money. So if I make it that my job is to lose, my job is to pitch and not get it, then, okay, I did my job today. Every win then becomes a bonus. And that really, really, really helped me, whether it's employees quitting or team members leaving or deals not going through, everything. Now it's just, that's the job. It is literally what I'm here to do is to try so hard that things don't work out, so much so that enough really does. So that's mindset. Tactically, I started doing a thing a while ago

where anytime something really bad happens I lose a deal, someone does something to me, I go on my phone, and I go into my calendar, and I go 30 days from today. Right? So whatever day today is,

I'll go 30 days out and I'll just say, read me, and I just fucking unload. I'm like, this one marker, you know, this deal died. I hate it. I hate this. I hate this person.

He sucks. And I just unload everything I feel. And then I have to go to my name. next appointment, right? I move on. And then 30 days later, I look at my calendar and it's that day and I see her read me and I'm like, no, shit. And I open it and like, well, God, oh, I fixed it. Oh, I don't care anymore because I did 10 more deals since then. Oh, yeah, that deal was never going to go. It's totally fine. Because time heals all wounds and now I don't care. And so what happens when you do that, the more you do it, the muscle memory you build from just typing the note is a little,

bit of a spiritual guidance to your heart because you now know in 30 days I'm not going to care. So future me is going to show up today, not 30 days from now. And right now, I already don't care as much because my job is to lose and I know what's coming anyway. Yeah. Right. It's like when you go through a breakup and you're like, I'll never date anyone. My life will be over. And the next day you meet someone you're like, dude, she is, wow. Imagine if I was still with that. So, like, it's just keeping that thing going and that's how I get through it.

That's, I mean, that's, I'm going to adopt that. Thank you for that. That was great. Because it is that. Like, yesterday I wanted to go, and I was flying here and I want to spend time on the white, and it's literally a multiple seven-figure. Yeah.

Fuckery. That just explode. And I go, always here. We're going to, martini. Got it. Let's go. But you got to be able to remind yourself,

like, I've been doing it 20 years. You've been like, you always get through it. And you always get through these things. The opportunity to be in the room to talk about that deal means that those deals are going to come and more of them are going to come. And the next one's going to be a little easier. It's just not going to look like the one you thought you were going to put together.

Like always. I always thought, I was convinced I'm a real estate broker in New York before I started this company. One day I'm going to do a deal for $100 million. I have to. Right. If I'm going to be the best and I was the best, I'm going to do it. The first $100 million dollar deal, it was in Florida.

And I was not a broker in Florida when I did it. And... Oh, I see your book. Yeah. I read all three of your books. Oh, thanks. On the way, get all three of his books.

If you're watching this, listening to this, it doesn't matter. The probably best business books, Brandon, like Sir Hamp, was phenomenal and I want to get into this. I don't know. Appreciate it. That, we're going to get into that.

Sell it, like, Sir Ham, money and the sales now and all the AI. Yeah. Sorry, go ahead about your budget. No, no, but like, so what I'm saying is, the goal is to do a, to do a deal of that size. You put it out there.

You think about it a little bit every day. And it's now in the world. It's going to happen. You just don't know when it's going to happen. Like, you know there's a finish line to the race. I just, I thought it was going to be over there because that's what that guy said. But actually, it's over there. And so I'm going to run that way.

And holy shit, we just won the race. And I just, no, it's fine. Like, as long as you just keep running and you don't stop. That is the number one way to not win is to stop. That's it. As long as you keep running, I know that running over a long period of time is really hard. And most people aren't going to run that far or that fast or that hard. And slowly but surely they will drop off or in our business go to jail. I will do that business and win.

Yeah. Do you do like vision boards and say, hey, I want to do this $100 million deal or maybe not cars at your level? No, I could. I just personally haven't. I know a lot of people who do. And it's great. They've had their vision board is their, you know, their wallpaper on their phone or their, you know, they're, yeah, because you always think back to like Drake's screen saver was that house and then he bought that house, which is cool, you know, fun stories like that. I've always been a big, like, written goal guy. Like, it's even, even down to, you know, now that we have this whole company, right?

And I have these department meetings and these division meetings and these function meetings. And like, I make sure in every agenda is the annual goal. We will never not think about it and will never not pass a. over. I don't want to have any meeting where we're just going to talk about stuff or anything. Are we marching towards that goal? Right. So that way everybody knows. And then when we cross it, great, now we get to accelerate it. You know, that's what we do. So I have five laws of success. First law of success, decide what you want who you need to be to get it. Commit to it, take action, obvious. Be extremely uncomfortable. And this is where I think some of your brilliance is,

is you keep pushing your own needle and it's uncomfortable, but you keep going anyways. Yeah. And I think for those of you, watching this and wanting to be like a Ryan or even a me at a smaller level, we're always uncomfortable because we're pushing your own levels and that's uncomfortable because we've never been there. And lastly, you touched on it, why I brought it up was remove your time expectation on the result you're trying to achieve. Because if you just say, and you were saying like you always have a year end goal that you're going for, that's great. But if you could just do it faster, why don't you do it faster? Why do you have to wait for the year?

It's Perkins's law, which says that everything you set out to do is going to take exactly as long as you said you were going to do it. It's going to take you 30 days. It's going to get down in 30 days because you have 30 days to do it. If you can say, I can go do that in 24 hours, you're going to get it done. You see that in content all the time. All the time. You could take a week to do it, but you could also do it by tomorrow.

Yeah, or today right now on your phone, just whip it out, right? These guys. I was the same way in college. If I had a semester to write a 15-page paper, I guess when I started writing this damn paper. Yeah, the night before. He said, like, all nighters of all. Oh, ripped them. Right, right until my senior year where I got caught plagiarizing

because I was so tired, I just took her books. The OG! Oof. Literally out of books in a library. I was like, how did they find that? He had to wild stories. Oh, they're going to be great. They're going to be so impressed with Dad.

But I'll be able to give good advice. Let's put it that way. Great advice coming from me. We have owning Manhattan season two coming out. Yeah. Excited? Ready? Yeah, it's up takes for every. or you talk about like timelines.

Yeah. It's faster. It just, you know, we, yeah, like I started with Netflix in 2022. Season one did come out until June of 2024, you know. And you're right. It drops all at the same time. And you kind of have like a couple weeks. Yeah.

Of when it's there. And then there's 7,000 other shows that come out. Yeah. And it worked. Like it worked. I really pushed to create something that was additive to the, pop culture landscape. I do not want to do something I've done before.

And I think because I'd done Millionaire listing for 10 years, I wasn't going to go do that again. Yeah. So it had to be different. It had to be a different journey, a different story. And so season two is complete insanity. Like, I've seen it now. It's wildly crazy.

It is very scary. And I don't know. I hope people like it. What do you mean is scary? Like you lived it already. Yeah. This is in the year. doing real estate, you running a team, you running an organization.

Because it's so real. Yeah. It's so vulnerable. It's, like, most people, like, listen, you're going to edit this and you're going to foot this out. Yeah. You're going to watch it. You're good. You're probably getting out.

It's an interview. Less scare. You're not saying anything in here. It's like, man, I wonder if that's going to be. In this show, there is, there are no boundaries. And there are things that happen. There are scenes. there are things that are said that are like that make me very nervous sure like how people are

gonna because it's not just me anymore as an agent right now it's the company the brand the people it's one piece of content to cross eight hours that we drop to 300 million people on one day and everyone who's involved in this company has to be cool so like you know and there's it's uh everyone had to sign off right some sort of oh i mean if you're on camera yeah yeah yeah yeah um Yeah, now I understand why it would be scary because there's just times where even a content clip where I say some vulnerable shit like talking about like,

I'm not meant to be Mr. Superdad all the time. I'm like, am I going to get, I'm going to get, I'll lose some followers. But I can only imagine exposing. How long was the recording? It was season one was one year. Of revering. Oh, yeah, of filming because we were trying to figure out

what the show was while we were making it. It's like a business. It was a dart up show. Like we, they greenlit doing a show called House of Suriant about me selling real estate with agents in this building because of building so it's called Surinand House

all of our clubhouses that's what they're called Surin House, New York, Surin House, Miami, all that stuff. And then, but like we didn't want it to be a million-dollar listing. It was a big thing for me. And I was really annoying about I'm not doing that show 2.0.

It must be different. It must be something. I want to make sure what people watch this show they're introduced to me in a way that had never been introduced before or they have no idea what they just watched. And a lot of the press and the feedback we got was exactly that.

It's like, I don't, it's not reality TV. It's not scripted. It's a new genre of like occupational doc use. Like it's just, I think there was a variety article or maybe it was in Vogue or something that was like, this show charts a new path for what, doc you follow can look like

which was like the biggest compliment I could have gotten because it spent two years of my life making it. Season two, we knew what we're making now, so I didn't spend six months checking color and shots and interview preps and all that. So I could go in and just spent six months just going fucking

ham, a month, creating the absolute most entertaining and scary show possible. It's funny. I'll tell you, you did a brilliant job in season one. And the reason why I can say that is because this woman over here, did not know you for a million dollar listing and I said, hey, I'm in real estate

so I love these shows and got to know you through a million dollar listing and we watched owning Manhattan and it was like every night hey, let's go watch that Ryan guy again right? And I'm like, fuck yeah, let's ride. Right? But fire the tattoo guy.

Oh, that was a big thing. That's weird. Yeah, yeah. Have you circled around? Have you seen that guy again? Just. Okay, just wait. Got it.

We'll keep that secret for a little while. Yeah. Well, I would ask probably the last question to kind of leave you and I know you're time blocked. And what do you see next? You've done some amazing shit, dude. And you and I've talked to a lot of great people doing amazing shit. Do you see bigger? Do you see push to more?

Do you see perfect what you built? What do you see is like the next chapter for Ryan as a person, as a CEO, as a tech founder, or as an author like, bro, you got a lot. His resume is big. What do you see the next season for? Good on writing books for a hot minute. Bro, it's brutal. I wrote a book.

It took me a whole year from one book. It's a lot of work. Yeah, it's a lot of work. Good on running books. We're going to put three. I actually wrote a new chapter for Sell X or Hand. We're going to re-release it as part of a box set in December when the show comes out. That is all about how to sell using AI.

Because I sell to a lot of tech people. Right. Yeah. And they all then read my books. which is incredibly uncomfortable. Because they know how I talk. And I'm like, wait, wait, you can't know my secrets? I use those to make this deal happen.

And they're like, no, no, no, no. AI is going to replace a lot of jobs, just like every technological invention is done of the course of history. But it doesn't replace houses, and it doesn't replace the skill set of selling, human to human. Yeah.

And so, yeah, there's a cool new... We could do a whole other episode in a couple months about that. I think that would be an interesting episode on your frame on that. That'll just ever fit. It's all. There you go.

Listen, I think I'm, I kind of, like I said, pretty goal oriented. You know, my 2010 to 2020 was to become the best real estate agent I could at the top of the market to be number one in the United States. Right. If I could do a billion a year in sales plus on my own with a team help that would get me there. So I did that. Now the goal is to become the best real estate firm, right? The best CEO that I can in the country, okay? By 2030, if I can do that, then the possibilities are endless, I think.

Okay. I think our metrics are incredibly strong. We're moving incredibly fast. Our customer acquisition costs is zero. And is that all based around your brand, Your ability to be a content creator that did it the right way and was authentic, and it drives that amount of traffic? Everything we do here is inbound, right? The goal is to build leave flow in your sleep.

Yeah. And so my problem is growth. My problem is supporting the growth. That's right. And so I'm excited about the next couple of years in aligning our companies now with the people that will really understand that what got us here doesn't necessarily get us there. and just go for broke, man. Take big swings, you know. I love that.

That is because why not? What's the worst to happen? You're going to die. I mean, I could die. It depends what swing you're taking. I got an MRI. We came back clean, but I do. Are you big in your health?

Because I did the same thing. I did a whole CT scan. I went to... Every August. See? I went to Texas to do this because I wanted a CT, not an MRI of your whole body,

because a CT can get your heart and it can get everything. Yeah, I do that every other year. because of the radiation, but yes. Yeah. I'm big on that because I want to be around. I don't want to just be here for a short time. I'm going to be here for a long time.

Yeah. I'm the opposite. I was kind of like, I have that fucking stay. Really wanted to have that sit down, really, guys. I'm out. Yeah. Day is gone. You know the record.

Yeah. It's a bit rough. Yeah. You guys have killed me. If you can give those people who are aspiring to be bigger content creators, I believe fullheartedly you've got to build your personal brand. What can you speak to branding? You've been brilliant at it.

Talk a second about branding before we leave here is the power of it, the need for it, what to lean into. Do you lean into your company? Do you lean into your personal brand of Ryan Sourhand? What can we leave the listeners and watchers of this? That's a little good question. It is.

You wrote a book on him. Get his book. That question is not. Just buy his fucking book. You'll get the point. But in a minute or two. I don't actually know what a content creator is in a bubble, right, other than someone who is taking videos or taking photos of a thing or a

person and putting it out to the world and asking the world to pay attention to me. Okay. So that's kind of like the tool. I think what are we trying to do across social and platforms, trying to create attention or trying to build community, trying to build audience. And we do that because you're getting followers, right? But followers do what? Followers. Followers. are following leaders, right? You're either a leader or you're a follower. And so you have to make a choice. You're either going to be a follower,

which means you're going to do a lot of copycat stuff. Yeah. Or you can be a leader. You can carve your own path. I think the best leaders, who then therefore are potentially the best content creators, but I would not look at myself as a content creator or look at myself as a leader,

a subject matter expert, right? I think the best leaders, let me say this way. I think good leaders convince everyone else to believe in you. I think great meters, the best ones, convince everyone else to believe them themselves. And that's what makes great content that you want to follow, does you want to listen to? I have no interest in swiping through and being like, oh, his life is great. I have interest in seeing people where I'm like, man, my life could be great.

Yeah. Right? Because everybody is just stuck between two years, if they're lucky. and that's where I think people need to take a step back and focus. Stop focusing on the output and start focusing more on what even is that input that makes you a leader that should create a following, even if it's small. I think it should be small, right? There's riches and niches that way.

And that's how you create that authenticity. That's why we have our audience. That's why you have yours. That's why my guy, Hormozzi has his. Like people follow authenticity. All of us here or here in part in some way because of Gary. Like in some way, you know, there's no doubt. Early, early, early influencer and Casey, right?

Like those guys that carve path to and, you can really build something on the back of community. But you have to pick your lane. I'm a follower. I'm a leader. If I'm going to be a leader, then I need to produce stuff that makes everyone feel great about that. Yeah. Not about me. Brother, that was phenomenal.

Guys, this episode, you don't even know half the shit we said behind the scenes. But if this was pretty cool and you like this guy Ryan's for you. I'd love for you to show it with two people because owning Manhattan season two comes out December 5th. Get his books. If you believe in branding, if you're watching those in this, probably because you believe in me and follow me. Make sure you follow him, but get his book. It talks all about branding the power of it. I appreciate you guys.

See you on the next episode. Thank you. So, call to action. Let's go.