Casual Breaks Turned Family Empire: How Ryan Knowles Built “Like Father Like Son”

- No way.

“- Let out such a cheer that I almost fainted.”

- All right.

- I literally almost can't stand.

I felt myself get woozy. - A lot of our listeners probably are like, "How do you turn the hobby into business?" I caution people, this is not the, this is made for everyone.

- Welcome to the Collector Nation Podcast. Here on the Collector Nation Network. Whether you're chasing Grails or calling Bluffs. - Take you inside the hobby. Here's your host, Ryan, all for me.

- We've been a lot of time talking about value in the hobby, but not as much about why people actually enjoy it. Cars aren't just something you collect. They're something you share with your community. Whether it's with the parent, a kid, or someone,

you get into the hobby. That's usually where the real connection comes from. Ryan Knowles, the founder of like father-like son,

built a brand around that exact idea.

- Ryan, welcome. - Good to see you.

“- Thank you so much for having me on me on me,”

and it's a real honor. And I've just been seeing everything you guys have been doing. So this is a real treat for us to link up and chat. - Yeah, brother, we got a lot in common. And I spent a lot of time up your way.

Jersey, New York, seven years. So probably you'd inadvertently came through your stomping around through there, I imagine. - At one point, right? And now with us traveling so much,

I feel like we're in a different city or state every week, and we were just in North Carolina. So not too far from you as we can. - Hey, that's right, what was the North Carolina? - One of our favorite promoters out there,

James, he runs sports wax promotions. He did a sports sports sports card show. All sports. So it was like so up our alley. And if you don't know James,

he's definitely somebody you should. He's probably arguably the greatest promoter in sports card shows right now.

“- That name sounds familiar, probably, for that reason.”

- Yeah. - Easily. - I'll take introduction for sure. - Absolutely, the next show he's has is in Concord, North Carolina, which is some time in June.

I just don't have the date off the top of my head, but somewhere in June, Concord, North Carolina, he's gonna have a collector's jam. About a 600 table show, and that won't be just sports. That'll be an eclectic show.

- Yeah. - It's cool, man. Well, maybe we can meet up at one of these events. - That'd be amazing. - So Taltoo, man, what's the evolution of father,

this like father, like son? - I mean, it really wasn't ever anything that was planned. It really came to fruition at one of the worst parts of my life.

I was running construction company. It was the top guy and me. We had 178 employees. There was $100 million in construction. It was multiple facets.

It was this big monster that just grew kind of overnight.

That never was supposed to be as big as it was.

It was only supposed to be, say, like, seven to eight employees when I was first brought on. And it just kind of just took off. Well, the company is no longer things when sideways and, you know, there was such a fall

from grace for me. I was at the top of the game in the construction world and Philadelphia doing the largest, high-rises, hospitals, casinos, you name it. And it all came crashing down.

So then I had to go back with the tools, which, you know, I brought myself up to those ranks by doing so, had no problems with that. But there was a lot of hardships with it, especially financially, obviously.

And then my son, who was in the Pokemon, a dear friend of mine, said, "Oh, you're in the Pokemon. Why don't you get into the cool stuff and gift it on a bunch of football cards?"

Base. But he was five, six at the time. And it was just base, base inserts. And we, you know, we loved it. He didn't know value.

He didn't care what a card cause. It was just, hey, this is cool. And this is a player I know. And I can watch them on the TV. So his love for cards transition from Pokemon to NFL players.

We started watching Break School War. Every night, we would snuggle up in bed and we'd watch a break, whether I had already gotten in, and we'd watch a replay, or we would do a live on every single night. And it was our little treat, as long as he was a good boy

and getting good grades and everything like that. And one day, amongst all this heartache for me, he was like, "Why don't you do a break bad?" And I was like, "Buddy, I just literally lost my job." We have the house, the cars, the bills,

for that job, I got to figure something out, pal.

Well, I don't have a father. He was my first born. So I feel like I was put on this earth to be a father. And he changed my world immensely. So when that little boy says something,

you know, it's hard for me to say no. So I gave in, I was like, "Look, buddy, we'll do it."

“I think I grabbed a couple blasters of Phoenix.”

And we, you know, I said, just set it up for your friends. It was like, maybe like a $5 or $5 random. We did it. Prior to going live, I have a major major fear of public speaking, or at least I used to.

That's funny. I told me, it's funny because I am very extroverted. I'm a Leo, so I am extroverted, but in front of a classroom,

or whatever it may be, a board room, I always would choke up.

So prior to this live, I was ready to be ill. I was like, "Body, I don't think I can do this." Like, you know, "What? I'm not getting anything out of this." And here I am ready to throw up over,

open in a couple of bars of cars. So he's like, "Come on, dad, and I did it." And I was green, and my hands were shaking. It was against the blank wall. There was no thrills, no.

But everybody was like, "Yeah, that was really cool. Can you do one tomorrow?" And that turned into tomorrow. And that turned into tomorrow.

“And then I said to my wife, I was like, "Do me a favor.”

I never collected unemployment a day in my life." We successful in all fields I've ever been in. I said, "I'm just going to chill off the construction for a minute." And I'm just going to do this and see what happens.

So we started the brand, we started to do things, and it just kind of blew up out of nowhere, right? And we just celebrated March 14th, was technically our third year anniversary, but we're celebrating it tomorrow in our Facebook room,

our third year anniversary. And it's just taken us all across the world. We've been into multiple countries, all over the United States. We were voted top 10 content creators and influencers of the year by mantle, which was powered by Yahoo Sports,

recently this last year.

So it's like, I always tell people, don't pinch me, brother,

because this can be real life, it really can't, because it's like too good to be true, man. - I love it, man. This is exactly what I wanted to do this shift. It's the talk to guys like you.

I've been kind of weeding through both good names and not great names and wonderful names to get to Ryan Knowles. Like, I'm telling you, this is awesome. And it's all true, man, it's just authentic.

You know, we were vulnerable. I was at the point that I was pointing my life. And people always say, like, how did you get here? And it's all organic, it's all authentic. I don't, you know, I don't know what I'm doing

with technology or did it when I started. My children break with me, my wife breaks with me.

So you see a family man handling his children.

There's times that I have to yell at them. There's times I have to crack them. There's times that mean my wife made bigger. We may, you know, say how much we love each other. But our community watched us grow over the last three years

and they really are the reason that we are where we're at today because they've been so, so supportive. Beyond anything I could ever ask for. Is this the job now? I've been full time for three years.

Yeah. Yeah. I created that March 14th, essentially, was when I decided to step away from construction in my union job and try to give this a go.

So yeah, this has been 100% full time. What's, let's talk about, like, what exactly are the tenants of the business? Like, I mean, is a business guy? I kind of now I'm like, okay, what?

What are the revenue streams or like, what, you know, how are we set up, like, now it sounds like you're doing some branding things you're going around. But maybe walk me through, like,

“because I think a lot of our listeners probably are like,”

how do you turn the hobby into business? And I caution people, this is not the, this is made for everyone episode. It's more, I'm just curious, I think it'd be fascinating. You kind of hear the nuts and bolts of it.

Well, obviously, I mean, I know they turn entrepreneur. So one thing that streams to me when I hear entrepreneur is work ethic, right? A lot of people want to jump into the hobby because they think it's easy money.

Bro, I'm up at four or five o'clock in the morning and I don't stop until 9/10 o'clock every night. Whether it's customer service, whether it's networking, whether it's just checking on, yo, Joe Schmo, I know he had a birthday or his kids birthday, how did it go?

We yesterday. And so much of that is the stuff

to your brand, to your business, as well as I feel

“something that you should do for people that give their time”

and choose to spend their money with you. As far as the revenue streams, it started out solely that it was breaking. We were barely making ends meet because a lot of people think that there is a lot

of money in breaking, but unless you're at that top of the game, we know behind the scenes that there's so many different little things that go into it. It's not as simple as just adding up a break and saying, "Why know this box costs X amount of dollars?"

So that was, it was keeping things afloat,

but I knew it would never take us to the next level

and then the next level. And unfortunately, if you want to be somebody in this hobby, you do have to continuously try to level up. In the beginning, I failed. I thought bigger was better.

I had about 10 or 11 people on my team. And it was hasten my decision, bringing these people on the team because, you know, I, there was greed in the beginning.

“I got to get big just because I got to take care”

of my family and that didn't work out. And then just became organic again. And then we started breaking and that's when we decided to release our own repack. And we went to branding and released our first tier repack

and then we released another one. And when then they went nationwide and I had breakers across the country, essentially breaking those and then selling those wholesale, that became another revenue stream.

And then finally, we went to Fanatics Fest year one.

And we were only there for one day. I took my wife and my son. And we just wanted to check it out in New York. Well, we were so blown away that we walked out of there and I said next year, I'm gonna kick the fucking door in.

And that's exactly the type of attitude that I had with it, part of my language, but I was so fired up because we were like, this is what we want to do for the rest of my life. So we come year two.

“I was actually chosen to be in the Fanatics game.”

So I got to compete in the Fanatics games. We threw a rooftop party, we went all in. And we basically took a lot of money, dumped it into Fanatics Fest, started our social media because that's really when the Instagram started.

And everything kind of just started to snowball. And then the sponsorship started, we are partners with Christine Auction, Arena Club, and All Touch. And it's great.

I mean, they want us to travel to places, to set up a shows or be there with them or shoot content. And I mean, like I said, again, dude, it's a dream come true, right? I love that man, talking with Ryan Nulls.

He's the founder of like, father of like, son. Is, how old you're son now? He's time now. Okay, just a one. No, I have a 10 year old who could literally sit

in this chair right now and do this. I'm not joking in the least it anybody. Let's get him out of school. We'll get him. Get you.

He is so incredible. I'm showing it off. I don't care. He just won the best defensive player in the state of New Jersey award.

He is a freak this kid. He's a freak in nature. Congratulations, dude. I'm so obsessed if you couldn't tell. But he's like so passionate about the hobby.

He loves going to shows. He walks off on his own. He's got, I shouldn't say this. But he carries a few dollars in his pocket. Yeah.

Does deals like a man, right? Yeah. Kate's hands. Looks at guys. It's so advantageous for the youth as hobby that a lot of people

don't realize that they're going to be able to do business deals better than I ever was, ready to at that age. So that's my 10 year old. Then I have my seven year old Bronxy boy. He's my wild child.

He's my ginger.

He's a stud, he quarterback, amazing, the best little brother.

But he's just dipping his toes into the hobby. And unfortunately, his favorite thing about the hobby is the money. I don't like that. But for some reason, this kid is like passionate about making money, not the cards, which I don't like.

I want him to love the cards and love that stuff as a true hobbyist. So that's something that I'm navigating as a father. And then I have my daughter who's six Berkeley rows, who was literally the devil. She just started to want to do interviews in the space. She interviewed a dear friend of mine, Army ATC, Alex Tressler, just at the Philly Show.

And she likes the camera. So she's not shy. She wants the attention. So it's a really a family business that happens organically.

a part of it, we're like, yeah, please.

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. They're very close to kids. It's like, I don't know.

I mean, we know, a kid's in, I mean, I'm in and marking my whole career, you know, kids and babies. So what? They sell. Just a baby shaking hands.

That's politics for me in the union, bro. Yeah. Ryan. So now we're traveling around with that sponsor, but we're still breaking. I am breaking, it's unfortunately, there's just not enough time in the day.

And then I noticed, you try to hire people to do the breaking for you, but for whatever reason it is, it's like, you know, when somebody calls and they call the shop and they're like,

I want Ryan and they're like, well, Ryan's not here, but Bella's here, Bella's amazing,

right? Yeah.

“And that's what I felt like it just no matter how amazing other people are, people want”

to talk to you. People want to see me. They want to see my family. So it's a, it's a tough dynamic that we're trying to navigate, but there's just not enough hours in the day.

So yeah. And if anything is, is you're probably, there aren't enough, all that rain truth, so I get it. And people are asking for Bella more than they're asking for me, so, but, uh, sorry, I guess you had a name because it's, well, it's not, no, but you're right, uh, it's, it's like that

on other things, but that's why I've got Bella, like front to turn on the store stuff. I, that's why I didn't name it like Ryan's car shop. It's like, I, uh, I have that on my business, but my business has been around a while. I'm, I'm kind of, I'm ready to not be the dude, I want to be the just orchestrator behind the scenes.

That's what I'm trying to do, but it's just, um, you know, it's one of those things that you struggle with and, you know, in business, there's so many things you struggle with. So it's, yeah. That's one of my Achilles heel that, you know, because the, the, I guess you're now in a position

“where you've got the attention to where the brakes would probably pretty lit, you know?”

And they do and they fill well and, and we can happen, but still, you know, it's, you're just sometimes you're, you know, doing content or having other show and how many shows are you guys doing, like I mean, is it every weekend? I've been in nine states in the last three weeks, brother. All, and it's just mainly, yeah, sponsored driven are all sponsored driven.

Not all. Okay. Starting to be that last year we invested about six figures, no baloney on just traveling with the airfare hotels. Yeah.

Some, well, not sometimes in the summer months, the children are with us, uh, during the school year, it's just my wife and I, uh, she's my videographer, my social media content, she handles so much.

She's my business partner, um, she's incredible.

She's incredible. She's my best friend in the whole world, um, I'm obsessed with my family. I was, yeah, no, I'm the same way. I wish my wife would quit and do the same thing. We might kill each other, but, uh, we do, I mean, we, I mean, that's real.

And that's what I was saying. Like, when the lives, there's times where I'm like, yo, shot up like, but it's not, it's not something that comes from a bad place, it's just natural as natural as business. Really. But yes, um, but yes, she, um, she handles all that and, uh, so last year we invested

everything, uh, or like I said, the six figures and the just traveling and then at the end of the year when I did my facts as I was like, all right, I cannot assume all these costs for people that want to set the show. So we started to get a little bit more strict with our contracts and what are listed the demands, um, are to come to a show, collab a show, promote a show and then shoe content

at the show. But we're also, I guess the little thing that helps us a bit is we're a double-edged sword where most content creators go to the show, shoe content, so be it. We're actually buyers because we run so much with our repacts that we also have a guarantee of a minimal amount of spending.

So the people already know when they are bringing us to the show that there's a large buyer in the house as well. So they get it from both angles and it seems like it's been advantageous for us and the promoters so far.

“And you know, you have to know your worth, right, right?”

So it's like, uh, I know what it was in the table. I know what it was in the table. Yeah. No, I'm glad you guys are doing that because I see a lot of these influencers and different people doing things.

And I'm like, are you factoring in how much time, like, you know, I even get pressed for deals on the business side, a lot of business apps and different things. And I'm like, and they want us to shoot the content, you know, we're editing the content. We're giving them turn key content.

And then you're using my name, image and likeness to promote your product. And it's like, this fee only covers like one end of that.

are factoring in your time and how long it takes to edit.

Well, and yeah, AI can help and all that, but it does do everything. We just said, uh, we guarantee James 30 Reels. So we did 30 Reels from Friday to Saturday, some informative, some silly, some, then they're highlight, whatever it may be, but like you said 30 Reels is, um, a lot of hours of work.

And then, you know, the cost to get there and so forth and so on.

“But the problem is a lot of people in this space also, uh, I think a lot of people are so”

loose thinking lazy, um, and that when we were talking about how do you make it work ethic as a huge thing, that a lot of people get in this because they think, oh, it's going to be easy. I can, you know, only do a few hours here and there and make a ton of money. And that's not the case for me.

No. That's high. Yeah. You've got a family support and that, but those guys are, you know, they're the ones of the, you know, their parents' basement still and.

Precisely. And it's like, and that's another wrong with look, everybody's got a different ask for as a life. I'm, if you're happy in the basement, I'm happy for you to be in the basement. Just makes me shine brighter. Yeah.

That was never my dreams.

It was never my aspirations. I was supposed to have my 488 in the driveway at 40 and I decided, hey, uh, I have these kids the worry about for actually many years. So yeah, dude, it never, we can plan all you want, but I mean, you got to have good heart good intentions.

And then you got to, I don't know, money matters. It really does, but it doesn't make it happy. And everybody says, well, you would know me, you've got money. It's doing it. Yeah, but I can have a whole lot more money and be a lot, a whole lot less happy.

One of the things I always say is one of my saying is like, just one, uh, now I'm going to trip myself up. I just want tomorrow to be today, essentially, where it's like, I have enough from. I really do. As long as my bills are paid, my kids are taking care of.

We can go to the store and not be like, can I get this? Yeah. We're good.

“And like, that's all I'm asking for because this life is so awesome.”

I hope in a X amount of years that I don't have to grind as hard as I am right now in the brand is large enough that, you know, there's some sort of kickbacks, um, but that's business. And that's why you work so hard to get to that point. And we're, we're a far away way.

So not worried about that. I'm talking with Ryan Null's founder of like, father, like, son, uh, what kind of feedback do you get when you're out there? I mean, obviously, people know who you are. We probably got some good stories, I mean, it's got to be rewarding.

Dude, I'll get off set. I'll get off set. It's very touching. I, like, for a boy to, you know, grow up without a father. It's, uh, you know, you have your issues.

So for me, when I see these father's sons that come over to us and, uh, they want to talk, they, they're, and their kid looks up to you. And you can see that he's looking at you, like, he's enamored with you. And I'm like, dude, I'm, I'm like, I'm a, I'm a dad that sells sports cards. You know, that put stuff online and got following's like, I'm not an athlete.

I'm not a celebrity, but these kids, they treat you like that. And they treat my children like that, uh, because now they see them as, you know, children, content creators and dude, it's something that I just, I, I, you can't take for granted. It's, it's like a, it's this crazy blessing.

We just got on a baseball card, me and my son and my family, um, the first ever

card. So that was, that was my son and I choice sports. So we have autographs and that, and we have a quad picture without my daughter and that one. And, uh, you know, this was the same for my community. I did like a thousand inscriptions of a lot of people that are supportive of us, uh, in

the hobby. And we did a big fun hunt for that. But I carry a stack of them on me and, and kids will come up and be like, I get your autograph from my, this is worthless, but sure you get it. I look, I want the road show come in to a collector station and then you can sit right

here next to me in the studio. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it.

Absolutely. Let's make it happen. This year, brother. What's, um, what's the, I mean, obviously, I mean, not, I hear non-states in three weeks that I was, I don't know, I'm just eight, but what's the thing was eight?

Eight states, either way, well, is it like non-stop, less the rest of your look like?

“So we, so we call about balance and, and that's how I really run my life.”

Life is about balance. My wife and I devote our whole entire lives to our children, but we also go on a date once a week. We still like to hang out and party, you know what I mean, and let loose once a week because

So we really preach everything about balance for us. It's, you know, Jesus, family, and, you know, pleasure to be honest with you.

“And you need to have that, that blend to be a happy person as far as I'm concerned.”

Um, so what that said, we notice when we travel hard like that, we start getting embalanced. And then with that embalance, we notice that the children start acting up a little bit

at home, and the amazing children.

So we will hit it hard for a little bit of a stretch, and now, ever since it's North Carolina trip, we are going to take a few weeks off, unless somebody comes calm with a big bag, and then you have to take it, but we try to plan our year like that. And, you know, it's that EBSIN flows of traveling, staying home, and then, you know, refocusing on the family, and it's hard, bro.

So hard, but we're figuring it out, we're moving to the Florida. Oh, so you've been in Jersey now, you're going to Florida? Dude, we just, so I'm still Jersey of you. I know. I'm really bored and raised, so we moved the South Jersey 10 years ago, so I don't want

people to think I'm from Jersey. I'm from Philly. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Go.

Go. All right. I guess, but we just put our house up on the market a week ago. We just got an offer, we're basically closing in like six weeks and taking everybody down Florida.

“So life is like been mad as right now, but where are we going in Florida surrounding Tampa”

area? Okay, beautiful. Nice area. So excited. So excited.

My dad was stationed in Tampa on the air force and I was, I was, I didn't think I was conceived

yet. I was close to it, but we've gone down there from out, because some proof of relatives in the area and that's a friend's that lived down there. It's beautiful. I love it, man.

I love it, man. That's going to be heaven for you. I love it. I love it. You're so excited.

Open the northern temperatures and the, you know, the weather and then get me. I don't know. I mean, it's a fight. It's a different lifestyle altogether. I imagine.

It's definitely more hedonistic. It seems like the people are happier. They are more pleasure seeking people around here miserable. Yeah, when he even talks to you. We went down there.

We took like five days to drive around all the neighborhoods and you're like, has it tinted. Ask somebody for a question or ask somebody something and then excuse me. And they come over. They're so elated.

This chat with you. You're somebody to be like, get out of here. You know what I mean? Oh, I know. I lived in Manhattan for seven years and it was out in Jersey a lot and all around the, the

area is. I'm in South Tom. I'm South Carolina man. I'm like. Hey, man.

It's on a gentleman. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like. What's wrong with you?

I know, bro. I worked. I did. We're still a lot going on, man. Holy cow.

Taun, bro. What do we think? I mean, now, you want to national. You're going to the financials. Again, are we doing all this?

Absolutely. Absolutely. Everything's all booked. We're so excited for both of those events. I wish they weren't so close together.

And I know that. I'm a hobby of both. Yeah. It's a little hard and then with the world cup being at fanatics festival, we're trying to figure that out because from last year's prices, the this year's prices, everything's

going like five to six times up and I'm like, dude, this is crazy. And obviously, you know, like, I was being out there. You don't get paid. You're just. You're there, right?

Yeah.

“So it's part of the business that I feel like those two shows you have to be at.”

But I'm excited for them, too, because as a hobbyist, they're incredible.

This is good as a gift. Oh, yeah. I did the double last year. And it was fun, but they were close together. But it's like, I mean, they're very different.

But they're in the nationals of his firehose of, you know, cards and the card show. It's a card show. And actually, that's a brand activation, really. It meets a card show, kind of comes together. But I think Michael does a good job with it.

I think it needs to be different. It is a different thing. And they're building, you know, the empire there with fanatics and all that stuff. The enormous stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. It's a fanatic. It's a fanatic. It's a fan experience, bro. Yeah, it is.

Who is Ryan Knowled's collect? Eagles, brother. We started with, you know, we went after Jalen Hertz so heavy. And then we transitioned to Jalen Carter super heavy. We just loved them and then we backed off because I'm one of those dudes that I want to

collect and teach my children or my sons to collect wholesome guys.

Yeah.

“So that instant in answer last year really turned me off to be Frank.”

Yeah. But yeah. So we go over, if they're Eagles, that's heavy. What I was raised by my grandfather and he taught me to love all the teams minus Dallas Cowboys.

I will never love the Cowboys, but he told me to love football.

So if the Browns were playing the Jets on Thursday night that I could still sit down and enjoy a football game with them. And that's what I'm teaching my kids. So we collect, you know, all the players and try to get them to love all the players. And then what they'll do is go flip those ones, keep them for a little, maybe flip them

and do another player. But the Eagles is the PC, once we get one of those, they don't leave the cases. What's the best, or less, not necessarily, I mean you can talk about if it's expensive. It's less, I was just more like what's the means to most to you. So I'll get upset over this one.

I'm emotional dude. I was raised by women. No, no, no, no, no, you're type Ryan, you're a cryer, I'm a cryer, I'm a cryer. I'm a cryer.

No, I'll give you a hug if you start crying around me, you know, it's a running joke in the

community whether or not I'm going to cry or not doing it, like a longer stream. I mean, I'm just so thankful dude, it's crazy that we get to do sports cards and sit down and talk right now about sports cards. So I don't take it for granted. But this right here is hands down.

I pulled this with Beckham and it was like, I couldn't believe it. We pulled the 101 jail and hurts gold bar. No. No. Let out such a chair that I almost fainted around, I'm 44.

I literally almost cast out. I felt myself get woozy, but yeah, we pulled that together. I don't care what the value is.

I don't care if somebody said, well, if somebody said 100,000, maybe we'll put it back.

But it's one of those that the sentimental value far exceeds whatever, you know, monetary value you would put on that. Wouldn't you pull that out of impeccable. Yeah, impeccable has ever since 2016 when they started doing the silver bars, they put 20 gold bars in the product up until last year they did 50 and I think this year they did

100. But they were rare chases. So most of the cases would carry a silver bar and then the few rare ones had a gold bar. So it's crazy for the Philadelphia breakers, die hard, eagles fans to pull that together. And I was like, the person that pulled it, so we pulled it for somebody.

He flat out was like, dude, just give me my money back for the spot in the break. And I was like, no, dude, no, I can't do that.

“And like that's how it was such a crazy moment that he was like, you have to have that”

card. But we came to an agreement, I bought it off. But it was just that gesture was like, wow, dude, that's so awesome of you, man. But that's what building community, that is building community and I think it's a strange thing like in business and I'm in marketing obviously in like, I'll say you say you read

those terms like building community and people go like, well, what does that really mean? It really means what you just said, like when it becomes so moving to them and they followed you in the know where you live and you know, they may not know every intimate moment, but they feel like they were late to you on some level. And when whatever that card was worth, the guy was probably 100% willing to probably let

you have it for what you've paid in. When someone's wanted to do that, that means you built community, let's put that, that ramble I just did in the dictionary of what building community is and what your example is, your little real life example of it, so many people so many of our members say the reason that they're so loyal is because they just felt like an extended version of our family.

And when you're on camera every day and you talk is freely as we do, Bella asked me and she said, oh, we can edit anything out if we don't want to talk about anything.

“And all things taboo to me because then if that's how you were to be, then that's not”

authentic. Maybe there's some things that I may be uncomfortable talking about, but you know, life is, you know, right now, when they're bringing in a special guest, we, we found her on that. You matter when you're a teen, right? She's coming.

Yeah, Marry Povey's. Like, you think you came on for like, you know, some Diapila or something and then, no, we've got, we brought your ex girlfriend from when you were 17. This is really a friend podcast. You got, what was the, what was that prank, the, the show jackass or whatever else?

There was other person who actually put your dead. I think it was a prank, yeah, punked punk, that's it. I knew pranked. Yeah, totally right. Yes, we had jerky boys, that shows my age when I was a.

What do you do? Yeah, I do. I'm 48. 48, I'm 44. So jerky boys was right there with us, dude.

somewhere. Like kids. We did. We woke up at four. Like these girls that got our, with our high school, their moms and we would, literally,

put the tape recorder on, and I, I could, I mean, I can talk, I could do voices, pretty good.

And I'd go, I'd go, hey, Leonardo, you know, those kids, they, they're always acting up.

They're, they're fucking crazy, you know, like an answer on some cuss words, like with another mom. And could I, I could make it sound like the other mom did, and she'd go, I know, I don't know what to do with Tommy. And like, we, we know all conversations getting them to like, bad mouth people in the

neighborhood.

“Now that I think about it, I was like, we're going to be in the neighborhood, dude.”

I'm just going home and they're like, they should be around here, like demons. I just, I love, but I mean, that's like something that we so harm was back in the day. I was like, go on, because of the way the world's turned, and it's not the way I wish it were to face. I found there's magazines, and I'm a bad, oh my god, have you had that happen?

Awesome. Oh, that they're back memories, turkey boys, so you never know, dude, it's been fun. I really appreciate you having me on and letting us tell our story, it's a, you know, it's a good story. It's a good story.

It is. It's a good story. And that's, you know, if anybody watches this, and they're like, hey, I want to do this, or how does somebody do this, you know, if they can relate to that story, or they can relate to something, then you've done, then, you know, this, it's worth it.

So we're just trying to spread some positivity and joy in the hobby and do it while raising a family and just try to put some food on the table and rock out for the rest of my life, you know? I love it. Raising a brand.

Yeah, bro. Yeah. It's pretty cool. It's a little rapid fire for you, Ryan, three, four, three quick things. Impacts are buying singles.

Oh, it depends on my answer, dude. It depends on the answer. Ripping packs is so stinkin' fun. Buying singles is not. I say this all the time.

We wanted, uh, Sequan Barclays downtown as soon as I saw that. So we tried to get it in breaks for fun. We did it. So then eventually I bought it. Is that foolish from a monetary value?

Okay, sure.

“I can argue that if you want to argue that, but I had fun doing it.”

And my boys did too. So that's what we chose to, uh, for me, just to buy a card that I want. I find really no excitement, joy in that. I like the chase of it. I like to open packs.

I've been doing it as a child. Now that's for the fun. That's for the entertainment. There is a fine line on where that you need to draw a line and understand your financials and everything like that.

For buying a single, that's the safest bet. For me, like I said, that's the vanilla way. That's the boring way of doing it. But I do buy a lot of singles also for the business side where, as you know, like I said, the repacts.

That's a big part of my business. So it depends on my answer. It's too hard to just say boom, boom, boom. I have it in my periphery, like of what I'm going to do, like things I want to get done in the hobby.

And what I want to do is brand the fact, because there's always this quote.

I always ask that question and there's always similar answer. Usually, all man, everybody says singles typically, there aren't as honest as you are. But I want to print, ribbon packs is about fun. And you happen to get cards too. It's an experience.

It's like when you go to six flags, you ride a rollercoaster. You don't get done riding the rollercoaster and go, where that was a bad investment. No, it was a good investment because you invested in the fun and the excitement and the

“chase and the thrill, and that's what we need to brand more of, and obviously responsible.”

Of course, fun, but it's about fun. Yeah, you can buy singles. Of course, you can. That's how you, if you're collecting and that's all you care about, 100%. That's the smartest way to collect your favorite player.

But don't, let's not throw away the fun and the entertainment factor that this hobby could be as well. Dude, if I bought a card for my kid, it could be a $30,000 card.

He's going to be like, oh, this is amazing.

What's time's baseball tonight? But you know what I mean, that's not what it does. When we, I shall have the memories, core memories of the big hits that we've had, that will never go away. And you still talks about them.

So they're like those memories that you may just buy and something, it depends on the

For me, the hobby's entertainment.

It's meant to be fun.

“I don't really do it too much for investment and asset building and all that stuff because”

I love it too much and I keep them all anyway. So it's like, I lose out on when they're high and I usually sell low and I'm terrible with that stuff. Ryan, drop all the deeds where I can keep up if they aren't already with everything you guys are doing.

So we are primarily on Facebook. We have a Facebook community, a private community. I say it's a private community because it's not for everybody. If anybody acts out of line or uses language in the kid-friendly breaks, they are no longer

allowed to be part of the group.

We keep it pretty wholesome. We do do an adult only night where we get a little bit rowdy. But the Facebook community is a private community that we don't like people to complain and be nasty and ruin the time for everybody else. So it's a really, really awesome place.

It's a safe space for really cool hobbyists. We do all of our Instagram content, like Father likes on underscore cards. We just started a YouTube, the whatnot, the TikTok. Like I said, it's still work and progress for other, but the website is actually being tinkered with right now and will be launched any minute.

So we'll have that up soon. I'm sure it's probably going to be somewhere like Father likes on. If you look at that up, I'm sure you'll be able to find it in a few weeks. Get that SEO going. You probably have.

Yeah, all your social channels should point them there.

“I think it's all due because you're the head of marketing.”

I'm a construction dude. I think you're probably going to sit in your house row all this all the time. Dude, I don't know what I'm doing. Dude, you got my DM, I'll show you myself.

You can see the advice is always free.

Thank you. Man, it's been fun. I got to get this in there, man. I know. We're, I got a bar stool right here at the pack bar and we'll save you a seat at the

big table with ever and right here next to me when everyone's doing live breaking their brother. Dude, that's I'm saying, let's do it. Let's plan it. I'm serious.

Well, let's get on the counter. You didn't freaking November. Whatever it is. I'm a man in my wardrobe. Definitely.

But Bill will help coordinate that and it's been fun, man. There's a pleasure. Thank you so much, man. Thanks to your community. What the stores absolutely gorgeous for anybody that missed the beginning.

“That's how I saw you guys was the drive through.”

I was like, that's bananas. But, you know, keep being somebody that is trying to be original in the hobby and do it the right way, man, and Ryan's are better people anyway. Yeah. We got to stay together, brother.

Yeah, as you know, to find us, thecollectordation.com, you'll find the full linked episode, highlight clips, links to all of Ryan's stuff that he mentioned as well as you know to find me. You can also find out all my business content of it to a business show. The number one show on Apple in marketing and business for three years, running over

800 episodes. Go to Ryan is right.com. If you're interested in business and learn more about marketing, I give way. All my advice for free, just for you, for being here. We'll see you next time.

Thanks for tuning in to the show. Be sure to follow us on your go-to podcast platform and catch the full video episode over on YouTube. Visit us at collector-nation.com and follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Alford. Now get out there and collect yours.