What’s up, everyone!

I had one of those moments this week where somebody points out something that should have been obvious, and you immediately start thinking about all the times you’ve gotten it wrong.

I’ve spent most of my career in marketing. I know how much positioning, storytelling, friction, and customer experience matter when you’re trying to sell something. Then Nicole Feenstra, founder and CEO of The DNA Agency, got me thinking about how most of us completely abandon those principles when we try to hire someone.

We write a painfully boring job description, throw it online, list 15 responsibilities and wonder why the people we actually want aren’t lining up to apply.

And I realized: I’ve done it too.

Nicole’s point was simple. If you wouldn’t market your product this way, why are you marketing one of the most important opportunities inside your company this way?

Your next great employee may already be out there. The question is whether you’re giving them a reason to choose you.

🚀 This Newsletter Is Brought to You by GoHighLevel

Getting a lead is one thing. Actually following up, nurturing that relationship, and turning the opportunity into revenue is where businesses leave a lot of money on the table.

GoHighLevel brings your CRM, lead capture, marketing automation, follow-up, and customer communication together so fewer opportunities slip through the cracks.

If you’re trying to grow without adding another five platforms to your tech stack, take a look.

👉 See what GoHighLevel can do for your business:
https://www.gohighlevel.com/ryanalford

🔥 Here’s What We Hit

Stop Advertising a Job. Start Selling the Opportunity.

What it means: Most job descriptions focus almost entirely on what the company wants: responsibilities, requirements, experience, and tasks. Nicole challenged me to flip that around. What does the person get to build, learn, influence, or become by taking this job?

Your Move: Pull up one of your current job postings and read it like a candidate. Within 10 seconds, can you tell why a talented person would actually want this opportunity? If not, rewrite the opening.

Your Hiring Funnel Is Still a Sales Funnel

What it means: Nicole sees a major disconnect between companies saying they can’t find workers and people saying they can’t find good jobs. Her argument is that the story and journey between those two groups is often broken. Finding candidates, getting their attention, communicating value, and making it easy to take the next step isn’t that different from acquiring a customer.

Your Move: Apply for a job at your own company. Count the clicks, unnecessary steps, generic emails, waiting periods, and places you would personally lose interest. Then start removing friction.

Retention Starts Before Someone Accepts the Job

What it means: Acquisition and retention are two different problems. You can bring people in the front door all day, but if they don’t see growth, mentorship, training, more earning potential, or a way to contribute to something meaningful, they’ll eventually walk out the back.

Your Move: Ask three employees a simple question this week: “Can you clearly see what your next step here looks like?” Pay attention to how quickly they can answer.

AI Makes Human Skills More Valuable, Not Less

What it means: Nicole believes AI will continue taking over repetitive work, but creativity, perspective, storytelling, judgment, and real human experience become more important as that happens. She also sees enormous opportunity in skilled trades and other physical jobs that AI cannot simply automate away.

Your Move: Instead of only asking which jobs AI can eliminate, identify the people on your team whose judgment, creativity, relationships, or specialized expertise become more valuable as AI handles repetitive work.

Perfect Is Usually Slower Than Learning

What it means: Nicole’s approach is to get something good into the market quickly, measure what happens, and iterate. Ryan and Nicole agreed that companies can spend so long perfecting an idea internally that they could have already tested three versions and learned from actual people.

Your Move: Find one project your team is still “perfecting.” Decide what the smallest credible version looks like, put it in front of real people, and use their response to determine version two.

🤝 Connect with Nicole Feenstra

Nicole Feenstra is the founder and CEO of The DNA Agency, where she works with companies, industries, and organizations to simplify complicated problems through storytelling, strategy, and measurable customer journeys. A major focus of her work today is workforce development and helping organizations rethink how they attract people to careers and opportunities.

🌐 The DNA Agency:
https://thednagency.com

💼 LinkedIn:
Search Nicole Feenstra and The DNA Agency for more of her writing and insights on storytelling, workforce development, and marketing.

So, What’s Next?

The biggest thing I took from Nicole wasn’t another hiring tactic.

It was realizing how strange it is that companies will spend enormous amounts of time figuring out how to sell a $100 product, then put almost no marketing thought into attracting the people who will help build the next $10 million of the company.

Your people are part of the product.

So go look at your careers page. Read your job descriptions. Try your own application process.

And ask yourself:

If I were really talented and had options, would any of this make me want to work here?

The answer might tell you more about your “talent shortage” than another stack of résumés ever will.

See you next week.

Cheers,
Ryan Alford
Host | Right About Now
CEO | Rad Collective

What’s up, everyone!

There’s a point in business where confidence can quietly turn into something much more expensive. I’ve experienced versions of it myself. Something starts working, you get a few wins under your belt, and suddenly taking a bigger swing doesn’t feel nearly as risky as it would have six months earlier. Success has a funny way of convincing you that you’ve figured out the game.

That’s what made my conversation with Jason Brown stick with me. Jason went from growing up with very little to teaching himself the stock market, turning a $10,000 student loan into more than $100,000 and eventually building his account to around $300,000. Then he risked roughly $250,000 trying to make $500,000. At one point, he was already up $100,000 and decided it wasn’t enough. The trade reversed, and he lost it all.

His mistake wasn’t simply taking a risk. It was taking the risk without deciding beforehand what would prove him wrong.

That’s an investing lesson, but I think it’s an even bigger lesson about money, business, and knowing when enough is enough.

🚀 This Newsletter Is Brought to You by GoHighLevel

Growing a business is hard enough without stitching together five different platforms just to manage your leads, marketing, follow-up, and customers.

GoHighLevel puts those tools in one place, helping businesses automate more of the work between generating a lead and turning that lead into revenue.

If your tech stack is getting more complicated than the business it’s supposed to support, it might be time to simplify it.

👉 See what GoHighLevel can do for your business:
https://www.gohighlevel.com/?fp_ref=ryanalford

🔥 Here’s What We Hit

Decide How Much You Can Lose Before You Think About What You Can Make

What it means: Jason calls it having an “I’m wrong” level. When he made his biggest mistake, he knew how much he wanted to make but had never decided when he would get out if the trade moved against him. By the time emotion entered the equation, there was no real risk-management plan.

Your Move: Before your next investment or major business bet, write down the number or condition that tells you your original thesis was wrong. Decide it before money and emotion are on the line.

Greed Can Make a Great Return Look Small

What it means: Jason was already up about $100,000 on the trade that eventually wiped him out. His target was $500,000, so $100,000 suddenly didn’t feel like enough. He told me that’s something he’ll never say again.

Your Move: Define what a win looks like before you start. If you keep moving the finish line every time you get closer to it, you may eventually turn a win into a loss.

A Rising Market Can Make You Think You’re Smarter Than You Are

What it means: Jason admitted that some of his early success came from riding a market that was going up. You don’t really know whether your strategy works until you’ve seen it survive good markets, bad markets, and everything in between.

Your Move: Stress-test whatever is making you money right now. Ask what happens to the strategy if the market, customer demand, or economy moves against you.

Nobody Will Care About Your Money as Much as You Do

What it means: Jason’s first investing experience turned $2,000 into about $700 and eventually pushed him to learn how markets worked himself. His point wasn’t that everyone needs to become a full-time trader. It was that you should understand your money well enough to know what questions to ask and what you’re actually paying someone else to do.

Your Move: Pick one area of your finances you’ve completely outsourced and spend an hour understanding exactly how it works, what it costs you, and how success is measured.

Follow the Money, Not the Headlines

What it means: When I asked Jason what he’s watching now, his answer was AI infrastructure, semiconductors, cloud, storage, and data centers. Rather than chasing every new story, he looks for where capital is consistently flowing.

Your Move: Whatever market you operate in, ask where serious money is moving before deciding where you want to place your next bet.

🤝 Connect with Jason Brown

Jason Brown is an investor, options trader, educator, and founder of The Brown Report and Power Trades University. He’s also the author of Five Year Millionaire, where he shares his approach to investing, wealth accumulation, and financial independence.

🌐 The Brown Report:
https://thebrownreport.com

📱 Instagram:
@thebrownreport

📺 YouTube:
@thebrownreport

Jason also offers free stock market and stock options starter resources through The Brown Report.

So, What’s Next?

The biggest thing I took from Jason’s story wasn’t a stock pick. It was that making money and keeping money are two completely different skills.

The more successful you become, the easier it is to believe the next bet deserves to be bigger. Sometimes it does. But Jason’s experience is a reminder that protecting the downside matters just as much as believing in the upside.

Whether it’s a stock, an acquisition, a new hire, or your next business venture, know what winning looks like, know what losing looks like, and decide what you’ll do in either scenario before the money is on the line.

See you next week.

Cheers,
Ryan Alford
Host | Right About Now
CEO | Rad Collective

What’s up, everyone!

Imagine your product is selling faster than you can make it.

Every case is already sold. Demand is exploding. You're building new facilities as fast as possible just to keep up.

Sounds like the dream, right?

Tony Vieira has actually lived it. He helped take Blue Moon to the top of the craft beer market and later had a front-row seat as White Claw became one of the fastest-growing alcoholic beverages ever. At one point, White Claw demand became so intense that every case they could produce was already allocated, and the company built three massive breweries in three years to keep up.

But Tony told me something every business owner should hear:

“Don't build the church for Easter Sunday.”

In other words, don't mistake a massive spike in demand for your new normal.

Because growth can make you a lot of money. Building your business around growth that doesn't last can cost you even more.

🔥 Here’s What We Hit

Don't Build for Your Best Month

What it means: Tony watched demand for White Claw explode almost overnight. The challenge was figuring out how much infrastructure to build around that growth. Build too little and you leave millions in sales on the table. Build too much and you're paying for capacity you no longer need when demand normalizes.

Your Move: Look at the growth assumptions behind your next major hire, facility or investment. Are they based on sustainable demand—or your best quarter ever?

Pipeline Fill Isn't Real Demand

What it means: Tony saw this mistake hurt craft breweries repeatedly. A huge initial order from a major retailer can look like explosive growth, but filling thousands of stores once isn't the same as those stores consistently reordering. Confusing the two can lead to expensive overexpansion.

Your Move: Separate new distribution from repeat demand in your numbers. Before investing behind growth, know how much is coming from customers buying again.

Don't Fall in Love With Your Idea

What it means: Tony's advice to entrepreneurs is pretty brutal: your first 10 ideas probably suck. Founders get attached to what they've created and start defending the idea instead of questioning whether the market actually wants it.

Ryan put it another way during our conversation: don't fall in love with your idea. Fall in love with your customer's problem.

Your Move: Take your biggest initiative right now and ask your team one uncomfortable question: If we hadn't already invested time and money into this, would we still choose it today?

The Market Doesn't Care About Your Category

What it means: When Tony joined the company behind Mike's Hard Lemonade, traditional brewers didn't want anything to do with products like it. Years later, everybody wanted into ready-to-drink beverages. White Claw didn't win by following what the established industry thought a beverage was supposed to be.

Your Move: Look at the behavior your industry dismisses as a fad. Your next growth opportunity may be sitting inside something your competitors aren't taking seriously yet.

Great Marketing Can't Rescue a Bad Product

What it means: White Claw benefited from incredible branding, timing and viral moments that the company couldn't have manufactured. But Tony kept coming back to something much less exciting: quality, flavor and meeting the consumer where they are. Marketing can accelerate demand. The product still has to earn the second purchase.

Your Move: Stop looking at acquisition for a minute. Look at retention, repeat purchases and referrals. That's where you'll find out whether customers actually want what you're selling.

🤝 Connect with Tony Vieira

Tony Vieira spent more than three decades in the beverage industry, including working on Blue Moon as it became the country's leading craft beer and serving as Vice President of Brewing and brewmaster for White Claw.

Today, Tony is the CEO and co-founder of Motion Drink Works, where he and his son are applying those lessons to building Mōcean, a better-for-you energy drink designed for an adult consumer.

🌐 Mōcean:
www.drinkmocean.energy

Mōcean is also available on Amazon and at select retailers.

So, What’s Next?

Tony's story got me thinking about how dangerous success can actually be.

When something isn't working, you're forced to question it. When it's working incredibly well, questioning it is the last thing you want to do.

That's when you hire more people. Sign the bigger lease. Add capacity. Increase inventory. Put more money behind the thing that's already making you money.

Sometimes that's exactly the right move.

But before you bet on today's growth continuing tomorrow, make sure you know whether you're seeing a real change in demand or just Easter Sunday.

That's a distinction that can be worth millions.

Ryan Alford
Host | Right About Now
CEO | The Rad Collective LLC

What’s up, everyone!

There are a hundred things I could spend the next 200 hours on. A new marketing campaign. Another sales funnel. More content. Another podcast.

Most of those things work… for a while.

But this week’s conversation with Chandler Bolt with Selfpublishing.com challenged me to think differently. Instead of asking, “What’s my next project?” he asks, “What’s the next asset I’m building?”

That distinction stuck with me.

A great book isn’t just another piece of content. Done right, it becomes something that builds authority, generates leads, helps close sales, earns referrals, and keeps working long after you’ve finished writing it. It’s one of the few business assets that can continue creating value for years.

It made me realize that too many entrepreneurs spend their time chasing the next opportunity instead of building something they’ll still benefit from five years from now.

🔥Here’s What We Hit

Build Assets, Not Just Activity

What it means: Most marketing disappears the moment you stop paying for it. A book is different. It’s a long-term asset that continues generating credibility, conversations, and business opportunities.

Your Move: Ask yourself, “Am I building something that will still create value five years from now?”

Write for the Reader, Not Yourself

What it means: Chandler’s framework starts with understanding the reader’s problem—not your story. The best books aren’t written around what the author wants to say. They’re written around what the reader needs to hear.

Your Move: Before creating your next piece of content, write down the one problem you’re solving and the one person you’re solving it for.

Don’t Chase the Bestseller List

What it means: A bestseller badge doesn’t necessarily build a business. The real goal is using your book to generate more leads, close more sales, and create more referrals.

Your Move: Instead of asking, “How many copies can I sell?” ask, “How will this help grow my business?”

Your Time Is More Valuable Than You Think

What it means: One of the biggest mindset shifts from our conversation was understanding the difference between spending money and spending time. Many entrepreneurs try to save money by doing everything themselves, but end up wasting the one resource they can never get back.

Your Move: Identify one task you’re still doing that someone else could do better or faster.

Your Best Ideas Shouldn’t Stay in Your Head

What it means: Chandler reminded me that most people talk themselves out of writing a book because they think they’ll “get to it someday.” But your experience has value today, and someone else could benefit from what you’ve already learned.

Your Move: If you’ve been thinking about writing a book, stop asking if you should write it and start outlining who it’s for and what problem it solves.

🤝Connect with Chandler Bolt

Chandler Bolt is the founder and CEO of SelfPublishing.com, one of the world’s leading book publishing companies for entrepreneurs, coaches, and business owners. His team has helped publish thousands of books and has built a proven process for turning a manuscript into a long-term business asset.

🌐 SelfPublishing.com
https://selfpublishing.com

👤 Chandler Bolt (Official Bio)
https://selfpublishing.com/ceo-chandler-bolt/

📚 Published. (Book)
https://www.amazon.com/Published-Proven-Blank-Published-Author/dp/1539412334

💼 LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandlerbolt/

📺 YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@ChandlerBoltOfficial

So, What’s Next?

🎧 Listen to the full episode: How to Turn a Book Into Your Most Valuable Business Asset with Chandler Bolt

🎙️ Right About Now (Apple Podcasts)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/right-about-now-legendary-business-advice/id1346054199

🎙️ Collector Nation (Apple Podcasts)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/collector-nation/id1832831782

🎙️ The Vibe Science Podcast (Apple Podcasts)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-vibe-science-podcast/id1693460042

When I think about the entrepreneurs I admire most, almost all of them have something in common. They don’t just build businesses. They build assets. Products. Systems. Teams. Brands. Books.

The question this conversation left me with wasn’t, “Should I write a book?”

It was, “What’s the next asset I’m building that will still be working for me years from now?”

See you next week.

Cheers,

Ryan Alford
Host | Right About Now
CEO | The Rad Collective LLC

What's up, everyone!

I hear the same question almost every week:

"How do I go viral?"

Most people are looking for a shortcut. They want the perfect AI prompt, the right posting time, or the newest algorithm hack.

After sitting down with Brendan Kane, I realized that's the wrong question.

Brendan has spent years studying why certain stories capture millions of people while others disappear after a few hundred views. His conclusion wasn't that social media is unpredictable—it was the opposite. The biggest creators don't rely on luck. They understand storytelling, test relentlessly, and use proven formats over and over again. That's how they make "viral" feel repeatable.

It reminded me that whether you're building a personal brand, selling a product, or leading a company, attention isn't random. It's earned by communicating your message in a way people actually want to hear.

🔥 Here's What We Hit

Storytelling Always Wins

What it means: Brendan's biggest point was that social media isn't about tricks or algorithms—it's another storytelling platform. The businesses that consistently grow are the ones that learn how to tell better stories, not just create more content.

Your Move: Before you post this week, ask yourself: Is this sharing information, or telling a story?

Stop Chasing Hacks

What it means: Posting times, hashtags, and AI tools all have their place, but none of them matter if the content itself isn't compelling. Great content outperforms clever tactics every time.

Your Move: Spend more time improving your hook than researching the "best" time to post.

AI Won't Make You Interesting

What it means: Brendan sees AI as an incredible tool, but not a replacement for creativity. The winners will be the people who understand storytelling first and use AI to execute faster—not the other way around.

Your Move: Use AI to brainstorm ideas, refine copy, or speed up production—but make sure the original insight is still yours.

Think Bigger Than Your Niche

What it means: Brendan introduced the idea of the "generalist principle." Speak directly to your ideal customer, but package your content so anyone can find it interesting. That's how algorithms expand your reach without losing relevance.

Your Move: Look at your next piece of content and ask: Would someone outside my industry still stop scrolling?

Your Personal Brand Is an Asset

What it means: Companies can be sold. Products can change. Your personal brand stays with you. That's one of the biggest reasons founders should consistently show up online.

Your Move: Commit to publishing one piece of content each week that builds your reputation, not just your company's.

🤝 Connect with Brendan Kane

Brendan Kane is a bestselling author, founder of Hook Point, and one of the leading experts on social media strategy and digital storytelling. He's advised Fortune 500 brands, celebrities, and entrepreneurs on how to build audiences by understanding what actually drives attention online.

📖 The Guide to Going Viral
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=The+Guide+to+Going+Viral+Brendan+Kane

🌐 Hook Point
https://hookpoint.com

📱 Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/brendanjkane/

So, What's Next?

🎧 Listen to the full episode: The Science of Going Viral with Brendan Kane

🎙️ Right About Now (Apple Podcasts)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/right-about-now-with-ryan-alford/id1434407036

🎙️ Collector Nation (Apple Podcasts)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/collector-nation/id1758867735

🎙️ The Vibe Science Podcast (Apple Podcasts)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-vibe-science-podcast/id1786021735

The biggest thing I took away from this conversation wasn't how to get millions of views.

It was that attention isn't something you stumble into.

It's a skill.

And like any skill, the people who study it, practice it, and keep refining it are the ones who eventually separate themselves from everyone else.

See you next week.

Cheers,

Ryan Alford
Host | Right About Now
CEO | The RadCollective LLC

What's up, everyone!

A few years ago, if you asked me what growing companies needed most, I probably would've said capital.

More funding. More people. More resources.

The more businesses I've been around, the more I've realized that's usually not the problem.

This week, I revisited a conversation with Dr. Naveen Goyal, physician turned entrepreneur and co-founder of Loud Capital, and one idea kept coming up throughout our conversation: throwing more money at a business rarely fixes what's actually holding it back. The companies that grow the fastest aren't always the best funded—they're the ones that know exactly where to focus their time, talent, and energy.

That was a good reminder for me because it's easy to confuse activity with progress. The real advantage comes from identifying the handful of decisions that actually move the business forward.

🔥 Here's What We Hit

Execution Beats Capital

What it means: Naveen explained that founders often believe they need more funding, when in reality they need better execution. The businesses that use capital wisely usually need less of it because they're solving the right problems first.

Your Move: Before spending money to solve a problem, ask yourself if it's actually an execution problem instead.

Discipline Is a Competitive Advantage

What it means: Naveen credits discipline—not intelligence—for helping him go from physician to entrepreneur and investor. Consistent habits compound into extraordinary outcomes over time.

Your Move: Identify one habit you've been inconsistent with and commit to it every day for the next two weeks.

Most Businesses Don't Need Venture Capital

What it means: One of the most surprising moments in our conversation was hearing a venture capitalist say that most companies shouldn't raise venture funding. Growth capital comes with expectations, and not every business is built for that path.

Your Move: Ask yourself whether outside capital would actually accelerate your business—or just amplify the problems you already have.

Focus on the Signal, Ignore the Noise

What it means: Business owners are overwhelmed with information. Naveen's team uses AI to identify the handful of activities that actually create enterprise value instead of getting distracted by everything else.

Your Move: Write down the three activities that create the most value in your business and spend more time there this week.

Stay Humble Enough to Grow

What it means: Naveen believes the best founders combine ambition with humility. The willingness to learn, adapt, and bring in people who know more than you is often what separates good companies from great ones.

Your Move: Find one area where you're still trying to do everything yourself and identify someone who could help you level up.

🤝 Connect with Dr. Naveen Goyal

Dr. Naveen Goyal is the co-founder of Loud Capital, an investment firm focused on helping early-stage companies grow through strategic capital, experienced operators, and hands-on execution. He's also the founder of Mobile Anesthesiologists, bringing anesthesia services directly to outpatient practices.

🌐 Loud Capital: https://www.loud.vc/

🌐 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/navin-goyal-md/

So, What's Next?

🎧 Listen to the full episode: Building Better Businesses with Dr. Naveen Goyal

🎙️ Right About Now (Apple Podcasts)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/right-about-now-with-ryan-alford/id1434407036

🎙️ Collector Nation (Apple Podcasts)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/collector-nation/id1758867735

🎙️ The Vibe Science Podcast (Apple Podcasts)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-vibe-science-podcast/id1786021735

Most founders spend their time asking, "What do I need next?"

This conversation challenged me to ask a better question:

"Am I getting everything I can out of what I already have?"

Because more capital won't fix a business that lacks focus.

Better execution will.

Cheers,

Ryan Alford
Host | Right About Now
CEO | The Rad Collective

What’s up, everyone!

A lot of entrepreneurs think the next breakthrough comes from landing a bigger client, launching another product, or finding a new revenue stream.

Sometimes that’s true.

But after talking with Mark Kohler, I was reminded that one of the fastest ways to improve your financial future isn’t making more money—it’s keeping more of the money you’re already earning.

Mark has spent decades helping entrepreneurs navigate the tax code, and one thing became clear throughout our conversation: the people who build wealth don’t see taxes as something to fear or ignore. They treat tax strategy like every other part of their business—they learn it, plan for it, and use it to their advantage. That shift in mindset alone can completely change how you build wealth.

🔥 Here’s What We Hit

Treat Your Side Hustle Like a Real Business

What it means: Mark explained that a side hustle isn’t just extra income—it’s an opportunity to unlock tax advantages, build assets, and create long-term wealth if you run it like a business instead of a hobby.

Your Move: If you have freelance income or a side business, separate your finances, track every expense, and start treating it like the business it is.

Stop Delegating Your Financial Future

What it means: Your accountant is an advisor, not the CEO of your finances. The most successful business owners understand their numbers, meet with their advisors throughout the year, and actively participate in tax planning instead of waiting until filing season.

Your Move: Schedule a proactive tax planning meeting this quarter instead of waiting until it’s time to file your return.

The Tax Code Rewards Action

What it means: One of Mark’s biggest points was that the tax code is designed to encourage certain behaviors—starting businesses, investing, creating housing, hiring employees, and strengthening the economy. The people who understand those incentives often build wealth faster.

Your Move: Ask yourself what investment or business decision you’ve been putting off that could also create tax advantages.

Good Bookkeeping Makes You Money

What it means: You can’t deduct what you don’t document. Mark emphasized that poor bookkeeping isn’t just disorganized—it costs entrepreneurs real money every year.

Your Move: Review your bookkeeping process this week. If every business expense isn’t being tracked consistently, fix that before the end of the month.

Build Wealth as a Family

What it means: One of the most interesting parts of our conversation was Mark’s philosophy of involving your family in the business. Beyond the tax benefits, it teaches financial responsibility, creates shared ownership, and builds a legacy that lasts beyond one generation.

Your Move: Think about one way your spouse or children could become more involved in your business while learning valuable financial and entrepreneurial skills.

🤝 Connect with Mark Kohler

Mark J. Kohler is a CPA, tax attorney, bestselling author, and founder of one of the nation’s leading tax and legal education platforms for entrepreneurs. He specializes in helping small business owners legally reduce taxes, build wealth, and create long-term financial strategies.

🌐 Website: https://markjkohler.com

📚 Books: https://markjkohler.com/books/

🎙️ Podcast: https://markjkohler.com/podcast/

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkJKohler

So, What’s Next?

🎧 Listen to the full episode: How to Keep More of What You Earn with Mark J. Kohler

🎙️ Right About Now (Apple Podcasts):
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/right-about-now-with-ryan-alford/id1434407036

🎙️ Collector Nation (Apple Podcasts):
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/collector-nation/id1758867735

🎙️ The Vibe Science Podcast (Apple Podcasts):
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-vibe-science-podcast/id1786021735

Instead of asking, “How can I make more money?” this conversation challenged me to ask a different question:

“Am I keeping as much of the money I already earn as I legally can?”

For most entrepreneurs, that answer is probably “no.”

Sometimes the biggest financial opportunity isn’t earning another dollar—it’s learning how to keep more of the ones you’ve already made.

See you next week.

Cheers,

Ryan Alford
Host | Right About Now
CEO | The Rad Collective

Whats up everyone!

I’ve always had a habit of walking through stores and studying the shelves more than actually shopping. Packaging, placement, pricing, colors, categories. I’m always looking at what made one brand win space while another disappeared.

That’s why my conversation with Monica Nassif, founder of Mrs. Meyer’s, stuck with me. She didn’t build one of the most recognizable household brands by making a cleaner that was just slightly better. She built it by understanding that crowded markets don’t reward small improvements. They reward brands that are clear, different, and impossible to miss.

Monica said she tells entrepreneurs to go to Target and ask themselves who they are going to kick out, because no one is handing you extra shelf space. That is the real business lesson. Whether you are selling cleaning products, building a service business, launching a podcast, or pitching a client, you are not competing in empty space. You are replacing someone else.

And if people cannot quickly understand why you deserve that spot, they will keep buying what they already know.

The Ideas That Stuck With Me

Main Idea: Better Is Not Enough

What it means: A small improvement does not make people change behavior. Monica’s point was simple: if your product is only slightly different, no one notices and no one cares.

Your Move: Look at your product, offer, or pitch and ask: “Would someone immediately understand why this is different?”

Main Idea: You Have to Know Who You Are Replacing

What it means: Monica tells entrepreneurs to go to Target and ask who they are going to kick out, because shelf space is not created. It is taken.

Your Move: Identify the competitor, habit, or current solution your business is actually replacing.

Main Idea: Creativity Comes From Paying Attention

What it means: Monica does not wait for ideas to appear. She walks stores, studies categories, tracks what interests her, and borrows inspiration from outside her industry.

Your Move: Spend 30 minutes this week studying a business outside your category and write down one idea you could adapt.

Main Idea: Build Something People Can Feel

What it means: Mrs. Meyer’s worked because it was not just functional. It had a story, a personality, and a reason to exist beyond cleaning.

Your Move: Ask whether your brand gives people something to believe in, not just something to buy.

Main Idea: Pull Back Before You Get Pushed Out

What it means: When the early Target test was not working, Monica pulled the brand out instead of waiting to get kicked out. That protected the relationship and gave the company time to get ready.

Your Move: Look at one area where you are forcing something too early. Decide whether pulling back now could help you win later.

🤝 Connect with Monica Nassif

Monica Nassif is the founder of Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day, the brand that transformed the household cleaning aisle by proving everyday products could have personality, purpose, and premium appeal. In her new memoir, I Bottled My Mother, she shares the entrepreneurial journey behind building the brand and the lessons she learned from the woman who inspired it.

📖 I Bottled My Mother
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=I+Bottled+My+Mother+Monica+Nassif

🌐 Monica Nassif
https://monicanassif.com

What's Next?

The businesses that stand out aren't always the smartest. They're the ones that refuse to blend in. That's what I'm taking with me this week.

Don't compete for attention. Create something people can't ignore.

See you next week.

Cheers,
Ryan Alford
Host | Right About Now
CEO | The RadCollective

Whats up everyone!

I've met a lot of entrepreneurs who only tell the highlight reel.

Revenue milestones. Big exits. Growth charts.

Those stories are inspiring, but they're rarely the ones that teach us the most.

This week, Rick Jordan came back on the show after one of the hardest chapters of his career. After taking his company public and scaling from $4 million to $15 million in revenue, a series of failed acquisitions nearly brought everything crashing down. Instead of hiding from it, he walked through exactly what happened, what he missed, and what he'll never do the same way again.
The biggest lesson wasn't about failure.

It was about realizing that every setback leaves behind a blueprint for building something even stronger.

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The Ideas That Stuck With Me

Main Idea: You Rarely Go Back to Zero

What it means: Rick made a point that really stuck with me: even after everything fell apart, he still had relationships, experience, systems, and a foundation to rebuild from. Entrepreneurs often lose money, but they rarely lose everything they've learned.

Your Move: Instead of asking, "What did I lose?" ask, "What assets do I still have that can't be taken away?"

Main Idea: Don't Treat the Symptom

What it means: One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is throwing money at a struggling business instead of fixing the underlying problem. Cash can buy time, but it can't solve a broken model.

Your Move: If your business has a recurring problem, spend this week identifying the root cause instead of the quickest fix.

Main Idea: Build Systems That Survive You

What it means: Rick compared building his company to McDonald's—success came from creating systems that could be replicated, not relying on one person's effort. That's what makes a business scalable.

Your Move: Pick one process you still do manually and document it so someone else could execute it tomorrow.

Main Idea: Incremental Improvement Wins

What it means: You don't have to rebuild everything overnight. As Ryan pointed out, five or ten percent improvements made consistently are still progress, and they compound over time.

Your Move: Choose one area of your business to improve by just 5% this quarter instead of trying to overhaul everything at once.

Main Idea: Your Greatest Gift Deserves Your Attention

What it means: One of Ryan's observations was that constantly putting out fires pulled Rick away from the work he was actually built to do. Leaders create the most value when they're spending time in their unique strengths—not living in crisis mode.

Your Move: Look at your calendar and ask yourself: "How much of my week is spent using my greatest strengths versus reacting to problems?"

🤝 Connect with the Guest

Rick Jordan
Founder of ReachOut Technology and host of the ALL IN with Rick Jordan podcast.

Rick is a technology entrepreneur, investor, and speaker who has spent more than 15 years building and scaling IT companies. In this conversation, he shares an unusually transparent look at what happens when rapid growth collides with painful setbacks—and how he's applying those lessons to his next chapter.

🔗 https://www.rickjordan.tv

🔗 X & Instagram: @mrrickjordan

What's Next?

🎙️ Right About Now
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/right-about-now-with-ryan-alford/id1434407036

🎙️ Collector Nation
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/collector-nation/id1758867735

🎙️ The Vibe Science Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-vibe-science-podcast/id1786021735

The entrepreneurs I admire most aren't the ones who've never been knocked down.

They're the ones willing to be honest about what happened, learn from it, and build something better because of it.

That's what resilience really looks like.

Most startup ideas sound obvious in hindsight. This one didn't.

This week, I sat down with Chris Joseph, co-founder of Autopilot, a platform that lets investors automatically follow the portfolios of politicians, hedge fund managers, AI-driven strategies, and other successful investors. Today, more than $1.7 billion is allocated through the platform.

But what caught my attention wasn't the investing product.

It was how they built it.

Chris and his team noticed something everyone was already talking about: politicians seemed to be making suspiciously good stock trades. Instead of treating it like a one-week news story, they built the Pelosi Stock Tracker, turned it into one of the most followed finance accounts on social media, and used that attention to launch an entirely new category of investing platform.

The lesson wasn't about politics.

It was about finding something people already care about, building trust around it, and creating a business that solves a real problem.

The Ideas That Stuck With Me

Main Idea: Build Around Existing Demand

What it means: The best businesses don't always create demand. Sometimes they simply organize and solve a problem people are already talking about.

Your Move: Before launching something new, ask yourself: "What conversation is already happening that I can add value to?"

Main Idea: Transparency Creates Trust

What it means: Chris repeatedly came back to transparency. In a world filled with financial influencers, AI-generated content, and conflicting advice, people want proof.

Your Move: Identify one area of your business where more transparency would create more customer trust.

Main Idea: Attention Is a Tool, Not a Business Model

What it means: Millions of people saw the Pelosi Tracker. What made it valuable wasn't the views—it was having a business ready behind the attention.

Your Move: Review your marketing and ask whether it creates customers or just impressions.

Main Idea: The Best Products Remove Friction

What it means: Autopilot's core insight was simple: people want better investing outcomes but don't want to spend hours researching stocks. The product removes that friction.

Your Move: Find the biggest point of friction in your customer journey and ask how you can eliminate it.

Main Idea: Trust Is Becoming More Valuable Than Reach

What it means: Chris made the point that AI is making it easier than ever to create content, but harder than ever to know who to trust. The businesses that win will be the ones that can prove credibility.

Your Move: Spend less time chasing attention and more time building proof that your expertise works.

🤝 Connect with the Guest

Chris Joseph
Co-Founder, Autopilot

Chris is the co-founder of Autopilot, an investing platform that allows users to automatically follow investing strategies from politicians, hedge funds, AI portfolios, and experienced investors. He also helped build the viral Pelosi Tracker and Politician Trade Tracker brands that reach millions of investors every month.

🔗 JoinAutopilot.com

🔗 X: @ChrisJJoseph

What's Next?

🎙️ Right About Now
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/right-about-now-with-ryan-alford/id1434407036

🎙️ Collector Nation
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/collector-nation/id1758867735

🎙️ Vibe Science
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vibe-science/id1786021735

This week's conversation reminded me that some of the best businesses aren't built by inventing something completely new.

They're built by paying attention to what people already care about and solving the problem better than anyone else.

That's exactly what Chris and the team at Autopilot did.

Cheers,
Ryan Alford
Host | Right About Now
CEO | The RadCollective

Coming back into the trading card and collectibles space reminded me how expensive bad information can be.

You can look at one recent sale and think you know what something is worth. But without the full picture—supply, scarcity, grading trends, and demand—you may be making a decision off incomplete data.

That’s what stood out in my conversation with Ryan from GemRate.

On the surface, we talked about cards and grading. But the bigger business lesson was simple: messy markets reward people with better information.

Whether you’re buying inventory, hiring talent, investing in marketing, or evaluating a deal, the danger is the same.

Bad data creates bad decisions and bad decisions cost money.

The Ideas That Stuck With Me

Main Idea: The Last Data Point Is Usually the Worst One

What it means: Most people anchor to the most recent number they see. In business, that could be last month's revenue, a competitor's pricing move, or a single customer complaint. One data point rarely tells the full story.

Your Move: Before making an important decision this week, identify two additional data sources that challenge your first assumption.

Main Idea: Better Information Creates Better Opportunities

What it means: The easiest way to gain an advantage isn't always working harder. It's understanding something others haven't taken the time to understand.

Your Move: Find one area of your business where you're operating on assumptions instead of facts. Spend an hour gathering real data.

Main Idea: Most Markets Reward Clarity

What it means: Confusion creates friction. The people who simplify complex information become valuable because they help others make confident decisions.

Your Move: Review a process, report, or presentation your team uses regularly. Ask yourself: "Does this create clarity or confusion?"

Main Idea: Don't Confuse Activity With Insight

What it means: More information doesn't automatically create better decisions. The goal isn't more data. The goal is understanding what matters.

Your Move: Choose one KPI that truly drives your business and focus on that metric for the next 30 days.

Main Idea: Information Gaps Create Opportunity

What it means: Every market has blind spots. The people who identify them first often create the most value.

Your Move: Ask yourself: "What does everyone in my industry believe that might not be true anymore?"

🤝 Connect with the Guest

Ryan Stuczynski
Founder, GemRate

Ryan built GemRate to bring transparency, supply data, and market intelligence to the collectibles industry. His work helps collectors and investors make more informed decisions by looking beyond surface-level trends and understanding the deeper story behind the data.

Learn more at GemRate.com and subscribe to the GemRate newsletter.

Whats Next?

Listen to the full episode— Collectibles.show

Cheers,
Ryan Alford
Host | Right About Now
CEO | The RadCollective

A few years ago, I remember interviewing candidates for a project and being surprised by who ended up performing the best.

It wasn't the person with the most impressive resume. It wasn't the one with the biggest network or the most polished story. It was the person who had been overlooked.

That idea kept coming back to me during my conversation with Brad Rothenberg this week.

Brad's organization, Access U Foundation, helps talented student-athletes earn college opportunities they might otherwise never get—not because they lack ability, but because they lack access. In many cases, the talent is already there. The opportunity isn't.

It was a good reminder that business works the same way. Most people are looking where everyone else is looking. The best operators spend time finding overlooked opportunities, overlooked markets, and overlooked people.

Because sometimes the biggest advantage isn't discovering something new. It's recognizing value before everyone else does.

The Ideas That Stuck With Me

Main Idea: Access Matters More Than Most People Realize

What it means: Talent alone isn't always enough. The people who get ahead often have access to opportunities, networks, and information others don't.

Your Move: Think about where you've benefited from access in your own career. Then look for ways to create access for someone on your team.

Main Idea: Systems Don't Always Reward Merit

What it means: Brad pointed out that millions of soccer players exist outside the traditional development system, meaning talented athletes can go unseen.

Your Move: Ask yourself where your business might be overlooking talent, customers, or opportunities because you're relying on the same channels as everyone else.

Main Idea: Opportunity Compounds

What it means: One scholarship doesn't just change a student's future—it can change the trajectory of a family and community.

Your Move: Focus on decisions that create long-term leverage, not just short-term wins.

Main Idea: Show Up and Say Yes

What it means: One of the lessons Brad learned from his father was to keep your head down, do great work, and say yes to opportunities when they appear.

Your Move: Say yes to one opportunity this week that feels slightly outside your comfort zone.

Main Idea: Success Is Measured by What Happens Next

What it means: Access U doesn't just measure success by getting students into college. They measure it by what happens after graduation and the opportunities that follow.

Your Move: Evaluate your goals based on long-term outcomes, not immediate milestones.

🤝 Connect with the Guest

Brad Rothenberg
Founder, Access U Foundation

Brad founded Access U to help high-achieving student-athletes from underserved communities access the academic, recruiting, and financial resources needed to earn college opportunities and graduate debt-free.

🔗 AccessUFoundation.org

Whats Next?

Listen to the full episode— www.ryanisright.com

Cheers,
Ryan Alford
Host | Right About Now
CEO | The RadCollective

There’s a certain kind of conversation that makes you pause mid-sentence.

Not because the guest is being dramatic. Not because the stat is loud for the sake of being loud. But because suddenly, something you thought was a “policy issue” starts looking a lot more like a business problem, a consumer problem, and a money problem all at once.

That’s what happened this week when I sat down with Ismail Vali, President of Gaming Compliance International and founder of Yield Sec.

The conversation started with online gambling, but it quickly became about something much bigger:

What happens when a market exists whether lawmakers acknowledge it or not?

Ismail’s point was simple, but hard to ignore. People are already gambling. The question is whether that money is protected, monitored, taxed, and kept inside local economies, or whether it disappears into offshore, unregulated markets.

According to the conversation, the U.S. online gambling market was worth around $125 billion last year, but only $28 billion was regulated, leaving roughly $97 billion flowing through unregulated channels.

Biggest Takeaways

1. Ignoring a market does not make it disappear.

Ismail made the case that gambling is already happening, whether a state allows it or not. When legal options do not exist, demand does not vanish. It just moves somewhere harder to track.

Your Move:
Look at your own industry and ask: what behavior are people already doing that businesses, regulators, or leaders are pretending is not happening?

2. “Regulation” might be the wrong word.

I pushed back on the word regulation because, like a lot of entrepreneurs, he hears it and thinks of red tape, bureaucracy, and government getting in the way. As the conversation unfolded, the better framing became systems. Not more rules for the sake of rules. More visibility. More accountability. More structure around markets that already exist.

Your Move:
When something feels chaotic in your business, do not immediately ask, “How do we control this?” Ask, “What system would make this safer, clearer, and easier to scale?”

3. The hidden cost is usually bigger than the obvious one.

The obvious concern with gambling is addiction or irresponsible behavior. But Ismail pointed to a much bigger economic issue: money leaving local markets and ending up with offshore, unregulated operators. This was not just about gambling. It was about roads, schools, jobs, taxes, local business, and where consumer dollars actually end up.

Your Move:
The next time you evaluate a business issue, look past the most obvious consequence. Ask: where is the money going, who benefits, and who is quietly paying the price?

4. Technology moves faster than policy.

Smartphones, high-speed internet, livestreaming, prediction markets, social casinos, sports betting, and trading platforms have all blurred the lines between entertainment, speculation, and gambling. I connected this to a broader truth: we are often using old frameworks to deal with new realities.

Your Move:
Audit your own assumptions. Are you making decisions based on how your industry used to work, or how customers are actually behaving right now?

🤝 Connect with Ismail Vali

Ismail Vali is the President of Gaming Compliance International, founder and former CEO of Yield Sec, and a leading voice on illegal gambling, market integrity, and online gaming compliance.

Website: ismailvali.com
Gaming Compliance International: gamingcompliance.com
LinkedIn: Ismail Vali

Whats Next?

Listen to the full episode— www.ryanisright.com

This week’s conversation was a reminder that the biggest problems in business are not always the ones we can see.

Sometimes they are hiding in markets we have ignored, systems we have not updated, or consumer behaviors we do not want to admit are already happening.

Cheers,
Ryan Alford
Host | Right About Now
CEO | The RadCollective

A few years ago, if you told someone high school athletes would be signing endorsement deals, brands would be investing in teenage quarterbacks, and college sports would become a multi-billion-dollar business ecosystem, most people would've laughed.

But that's exactly what stood out to me in my conversation with Justin Giangrande this week.

Justin built his business by leaning into uncertainty long before everyone else was comfortable with it. While most people saw chaos in NIL, he saw opportunity. While others were waiting for the rules to be finalized, he was building relationships, learning the market, and positioning himself where he believed the future was headed.

It was a reminder that some of the biggest opportunities in business don't appear after things are figured out—they appear while everyone is still arguing about what's going to happen next.

The Ideas That Stuck With Me

Main Idea: Opportunity Lives Inside Chaos

What it means: Most people avoid uncertainty. The best operators learn how to navigate it.

Your Move: Look at an industry that's currently being disrupted and ask yourself where attention, money, or demand is moving next—not where it is today.

Main Idea: Attention Is an Asset

What it means: Justin made a compelling point that brands are increasingly interested in college and high school athletes because attention is shifting there. Attention has always been monetizable.

Your Move: Identify where your customers are spending more time today than they were two years ago.

Main Idea: The Early Bet Is Usually the Best Bet

What it means: The biggest returns often come before everyone agrees an opportunity is real.

Your Move: Make a list of three trends you believe are underestimated and start learning everything you can about them.

Main Idea: Relationships Compound

What it means: Justin repeatedly emphasized trust, long-term thinking, and building relationships before a transaction exists.

Your Move: Invest in one relationship this week without expecting an immediate return.

Main Idea: Think Beyond The First Deal

What it means: The smartest operators focus on lifetime value, not immediate value. Justin's philosophy is to put clients in the right situation first and trust that money follows performance.

Your Move: Evaluate your biggest business decisions based on where they'll put you in 3–5 years, not 3–5 months.

🤝 Connect with the Guest

Justin J. Giangrande
Founder & CEO, Network

Justin is one of the earliest pioneers in NIL representation and was the first person to represent a high school athlete in the NIL era. Today, Network advises athletes, schools, conferences, and brands on the rapidly evolving business of college sports.

🔗 https://thenetworkadvisory.com
🔗 Instagram: @jg.network

Whats Next?
Listen to the full episode— www.ryanisright.com

🎙️ Right About Now

🎙️ Collector Nation

🎙️ Vibe Science

Cheers,
Ryan Alford
Host | Right About Now
CEO | The RadCollective

Whats Up Everyone!

Last week I caught myself doing something I see a lot of business owners do. I had a list of things I knew would move the business forward—follow-ups, content, outreach—but I kept pushing them because they felt time-consuming or unclear.

Then this week’s conversation with Dave Charest—Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, who works directly with thousands of small business owners—reframed it for me in a simple way:

Most small businesses don’t fail because they’re doing the wrong things.They fail because they don’t get around to doing the right things consistently and that’s where everything is changing right now.

AI isn’t just about doing more—it’s about finally doing the things that used to sit on your to-do list forever. Emails that never got written. Campaigns that never got planned. Ideas that never got executed. Now? You can get something out the door in minutes. The businesses winning right now aren’t perfect. They’re just the ones showing up.

The Ideas That Stuck With Me

Main Idea: Doing Something Always Beats Doing Nothing

What it means: Most small business owners aren’t lacking ideas—they’re lacking time and execution. AI removes the friction so you can actually take action.

Your Move: Pick one thing you’ve been putting off and use AI to get a rough version done today. Not perfect—done.

Main Idea: Consistency Is the Real Advantage

What it means: The businesses that win aren’t the most creative—they’re the most consistent. Showing up repeatedly compounds results.

Your Move: Commit to one channel (email or one social platform) and show up there consistently for the next 30 days.

Main Idea: Stop Trying to Be Everywhere

What it means: Trying to do everything at once leads to burnout and poor results. Focus beats fragmentation.

Your Move: Choose ONE platform to focus on and build a simple plan before expanding.

Main Idea: You Don’t Own Social Media—You Own Your List

What it means: Social media is rented land. Your email list is the only direct connection you control.

Your Move: Add one simple way to collect emails this week (lead magnet, signup, offer).

Main Idea: AI Is Your New Marketing Partner

What it means: You don’t need to do everything yourself anymore. AI can act as a second brain—helping you plan, analyze, and execute faster.

Your Move: Take real customer conversations and run them through AI to uncover patterns, pain points, and ideas.

🤝 Connect with the Guest

Dave Charest
Director of Small Business Success, Constant Contact

Dave works directly with small business owners to help them simplify marketing, use AI effectively, and build systems that actually drive growth.

🔗 https://www.constantcontact.com
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davecharest/

Whats Next?

Listen to the full episode here

Stay plugged into the conversations shaping how we think, build, and perform:

🎙️ Right About Now

🎙️ Collector Nation

🎙️ Vibe Science

This week was a reminder that the gap between where most businesses are and where they want to be isn’t strategy.

It’s execution.

And right now, there’s no excuse not to start.

Cheers,
Ryan Alford
Host | Right About Now
CEO | The RadCollective