Unleashing Opportunities: Ryan Kugler’s Success Journey in Business Transformation

Someone always asked me like, Hey, how do you do this much in sales? These millions of dollars? I don't, what is like, what is that one thing? Like from the movie cities, like what is it? And it was more of the intention. It's the decision to do it. If you're finding value in what you're watching, consider hitting the subscribe button and turning on the bell notification. Oh, and don't forget to drop a comment. I love hearing your thoughts and ideas. By the way, we have got a ton of other videos waiting for you. And if you are ready to level up your mindset, come hang out with us in our private Facebook group called mindset for business success, I'm your host. Shahid Durrani. Today we have with us Ryan Kugler. Ryan is the president and co-founder of DVA Inc with an account base of over 350 companies, including such retailers as Best Buy, Target, Staples, and more. Ryan has built and grown the division to 30 plus employees and generating 20 plus million dollars annually. Welcome to our show, Ryan. Thank you, sir. Thank you for having me. We've actually changed the name of the company. It's called plan B because that applies more to the world. When people have excess inventory, what's their plan B? Oh, I love it. It makes so much sense. No, I just got the bio. I guess it wasn't updated. I also saw that you, uh, directed a short film with the cast of cheers and actually cheers was my favorite show. I just realized now my parents never stopped me. That was all drinking and they never said anything. Anyways, it was really exciting when I saw that because it was one of the best shows that I was hooked on back then. Yes, it is a great show. I enjoyed it. It's a great story. I just happened to walk onto the set one day and just sit there watching and Ted Danson's who are you? And why are you here? Uh, Hey, I want to be a director. Great. Why don't you make a little short film with all of us in it and have a good time. And I'm like, what an opportunity. I never realized how much of an opportunity it was. And that was such a good gesture on his part to give a chance to someone, right? Like it means so much. Very kind man. So amazing. Knowing your background in the entertainment industry, especially in filmmaking, how did that influence you in entrepreneurship and especially managing a plan B to build it? I think that was a spark that got me to realize here's an opportunity. Let's take advantage of it because we are all have many opportunities all the time presented to us. And I think it just goes over and we don't even know it. And so that was kind of a, Hey, here's an opportunity. Take it and run with it. Just like anything, go for it. And I'm like, okay, let's go for it. And then it just, it's the spark. It's the springboard that makes you go and say, go after something. And it was a little bit of a feat to be honest with you, to get him to him. And the cast are all busy people. They're filming the number one show in the world at the time. And it was to get them to, okay, when can I get them all together? Which for a 13 year old kid is a lot of work. So that's entrepreneurship right there to get this, the cast of four people from a to all take their time on a lunch break. And it took several months to schedule it and get it done. And then we did it took one hour and it was great. Oh yeah. But what I was trying to understand and to help the audience as well in the entrepreneurship world and actually managing DVA at the time growing DVA. And then obviously you changed the name now plan B, but anything from that experience influenced the way you ran the business or the management of it. Yeah. So it completely changed my wiring. It hotwired my brain and my mind to, okay, take advantage of something and get going. So as I finished school and then got into business at the time, DBA, I basically, there was another opportunity that came to me while I was there where someone, I would take all the calls, the office, cause I'm the newbie there just coming out of school, wet behind the ears and just, Hey, what do we do with this? So someone called once and said, here's an opportunity. And all you have to do is do this. Every other person might've been like, yeah, whatever. But I'm like, no, I'm going to do it. I'm going to make some phone calls. And that's how I got the target account. Literally someone called and said, because we were a distributor, we are a distributor, we're a wholesaler and said, Hey, we have a product for sale. Why don't you take it and just go to target with it? It's the same thing. Ted Danson, why don't you make a movie with me in it? Okay, let's do it. So another opportunity fell on my plate, which then springboarded the company to then be one of the largest distributors and actually got target to start selling DVDs at a lower price at the time. Actually, right behind me is the invoice. You can see it. I'm pointing to it. That's why it was the first big deal. Yeah. Anyway, do you consider yourself lucky as well? Yes, I do agree. I do feel there's a certain degree of luck, but I also feel that if you're wired, we as salespeople have an energy, a motivation to go after something and make something happen, no matter how many stops or barriers are in the way. And that is the key to entrepreneurship. Anyone could have taken the opportunity for Ted Danson, just go, sure, I'll do it. And then just go off and go play with your friends and ride bikes and go dirt biking or whatever, or the same thing. But the guy says, Hey, why don't you take this and go to target? I could have just gone home, gone to sleep, woken up, maybe gotten around to finding the phone number of the buyer and all that, because it does take a lot of work to follow through, especially this day and age where technology, as much as it helps you, it doesn't, you can't find the correct person to speak to. Yeah. So it comes down to mindset. You mentioned people in sales for sales professionals that, you know, we're not all like that. We might even see, like you said, the opportunity might just come to us. We won't even notice it just because we're not wired to notice it. So it definitely helped that you had the right mindset without any training in it. Just as an unconscious competent, you had the right wiring for these opportunities. Yes. And I think that all of us do, it's all innate, meaning there's always opportunities that are presented to us. And entrepreneur, yes, he takes the opportunity and runs with it. Entrepreneurs and the other 50%, the other hand will have an idea and run with it. So it's, but again, it's an opportunity because entrepreneur, we get a million thoughts in our head all the time of, Ooh, let's do this. Oh, here's a great idea. And here's a great project. What if we created a business like that? It's the follow through. It's the, then persevering and going after and being execution. Yes. Execution. Yes. Do execute. Yes. So all of my business has come from an opportunity. Yeah. Unfortunately, it's not a big percentage that may find it easy to execute because of the overthinking of the self doubt or any influence from someone else that may So there's different situations that people face, but when it comes to the right mindset, you push through it. So that's wonderful to hear. Yes. Um, when I really intrigued me to see. Yeah. So what I, what was intriguing to me was the fact that you built these strategic partnerships and they're so important. Relationships is a primary code in entrepreneurship and in life is one big relationship. But could you share some insights, how you build or initiated those relationships? I know you mentioned target, but there's any other examples that you could share how you initiate those relationships and built upon them to create the growth that the company needed? Yeah. So my first suggestion to anyone is being persistent. First, you want to decide that you want to go after something. So for example, let's look at staples in the account that I sell to. Okay. This is a great example. Okay. So just bear with me for 90 seconds. So met with staples at a convention. It's always key. Go to conventions, meet new customers, get a trade cards, say hello to the person, see him face to face, not email the email or LinkedIn to LinkedIn. And then they, this is what I have for you to offer to you, whatever the product or services, and then you meet them and they go, okay, yeah, I want to buy it. I want to try it. So then I sell the staples. Then maybe they don't buy from me in a while, but I keep persisting. I keep calling. You always want to keep following up, follow up. So maybe five, 10 years went by of no business. And then all of a sudden this little thing called COVID hit us in 2020. Staples, a lot of people went home because we were told to go home. I actually still came to the office and staples called me and said, Hey, we haven't been able to get all of any wholesalers and we need to buy this, which was PPE, which was the items for COVID masks, gloves, all that stuff. While I was here, I answered the phone call. I got the order. It was a very large order and it kept going, meaning they kept ordering. Why? Because I was here and I was available, but I kept persisting previous to that March 13th of 2020, which means my name was in their head somewhere or my business card. So you got to keep persisting as an entrepreneur. You don't just make one call and give up. You got to keep going and not let it go and not give up as much as five nos or 22 nos, you're going to get a yes eventually because you're the guy that followed up and you're still on their head. Good advice. Yes. But not too much, not to be at a point where they may get annoyed in a kind manner, finding a way to persist in their world. It's all a kind manner. You know, you don't get aggressive. Okay. You just, there's a fine line and just, Hey, I'm here to help you. Hey, just see if you need anything. Just want to help just like that. Yeah, no. Wonderful. So I noticed you also into community service philanthropy. I believe one of the organizations I saw is say no to drugs and that's commendable to this investor time. And to bring that awareness in the communities, into people, into their lives, someone like yourself, discussing that on a regular basis is so important. But for any entrepreneur that's listening, the goodness side is great. Doing something like this, investing your time. Does it also have an effect on your business by having the social responsibility and contributing to society? Does it have an effect on the entrepreneurial success as well in your experience? A hundred percent. So number one, the say no to drugs. We've basically it's say no to drug addiction now because certain States there's certain medicines that are legal. So it's more, we're tackling drug addiction. People are just addicted to it. Like the disease. Number two. Yes, I did that on the, just on the weekends on the side, it was more of a humanitarian philanthropy thing because I feel that everyone should do something that helps some area or some passion that they have. Yes, it did springboard and got me into another opportunity, which is I now have an event company and we put on events for other nonprofit organizations. So we're helping 20 or 30 different nonprofits a year, put on some awareness raising event, like a 5k charity runner walk that everyone's probably been to. Every one of your listeners has been to one here or there. And yes, it did turn into, because I did such good work there. People start calling me. Literally the phone was ringing again. Another opportunity like Ted Danson, like stables where someone said, Hey, I heard you did this senior drugs event. Can we hire you to put on our event? When interesting. Okay. It was just something I did on the side. It was fun. It was my golf game on the weekend, meaning it was my hobby and it turned into a business and now we help out 35 different nonprofit organizations from every element, from kidney to prostate, put on an event just using what I learned from that. Yes. Wonderful. That's great. Keep it up. Keep it on. Yeah. You experienced a great deal of growth under your leadership. Can you share some of the key strategies or principles that help with the growth that, that you could share with other fellow entrepreneurs to help them? I think everyone, every entrepreneur, everyone, here's what I've noticed. We all, at least I think for me, maybe it's true for you. I love your shirt. You're wearing a super entrepreneurship, but I think that we all get an idea in our head of something we can do, whether we're driving or in the shower or making dinner, we get an idea. Oh, this would work for business. Write it down and pursue it ASAP. Okay. Because there's thousands of ideas and thousands of things we can do to help our business and literally every idea I get, I go and pursue. And the more you put it into action execution, like you said earlier, well done, the more it happens because these ideas are valid and they're going to help your business. So that's the first thing. And then second is just be persistent and follow up because there's a lot of things that can stop us from doing what we want to do these days in business from technology to just people don't answer phones anymore to reply to emails. And you just got to keep following through. Any other tips in sales that could help someone? Yes. When I, someone always asked me like, Hey, how do you do this much in sales? These millions of dollars? I don't, what is like, what is that one thing? Like from the movie cities, like what's the one, what is it? And it was more of the intention. It's the decision to do it. So we all wake up in the morning and we have to do this. We have to do that, but it's like, it's, we decided to wake up. We decided to have a cup of coffee. We decided to take a shower. We decided to eat a bowl of cereal. We'll do the same thing with work. This is what I'm going to achieve. It's almost like you're writing your goals down. So that is something that I definitely like every the night before or the morning of, I have a little checklist here of things that I do, where I say, okay, this is what I'm going to do. And then what's the end product of it? What am I going to achieve from doing this? Well, I'm going to close a million dollars sale today. Hypothetically. Yeah. I like the example that you shared. What's the next intention? I'm going to have a bowl of cereal. This also should put a feeling in entrepreneur's heart that just take it easy, make it a little bit fun, even the work stuff, make it that you get to do something, not have to do something because eating a bowl of cereal, that's you get to, you get to, it's fun. You enjoy it. So if you bring that type of energy into the tasks that you have to do on a daily basis for your business, without worrying about the end result more off, you just actually focused on the actual moment in the task that you're doing for that moment. I agree with you. And that is yes. And yes, you always want to have fun with what you're doing. You don't want to strain yourself. You don't want to beat yourself over the head and stay at the office until 11 PM. Yeah. But you want to write down what you want to achieve. You want to get to the goal. And honestly, once you get to it, leave the office. If you achieve, you had a good moment. It's something my father taught me. Like once you have a win for the day and you achieve something, walk away. Because if you stay longer, you might get that one call from another account that says, I want to cancel an order or something. Yeah. So the book that you coauthored with Eric Sherman, it's about the film distribution business. Can you share what inspired that format? What are you hoping for people to, to gain from that book? And the entrepreneurship world. If we had to focus on a book, I did write another one called how to start life. That is more of an entrepreneurship book. The distribution book that I worked with Eric Sherman was actually at the time, how to get your movie onto a video, meaning a VHS or a DVD. Unfortunately, that world is going away because it's all streaming now. So we wrote the book because so many people were coming and saying, Hey, you're a film distributor. How do I get my movie on the blockbuster shelves past tense old. So it doesn't really apply to life anymore. Cause the whole world of film distribution has changed because really you're going to a streamer like Netflix and you're getting them to hopefully pay you something and then they put it up and hopefully you get so many downloads or streams, the book, how to start life was really inspired because I would interview people, including my own kids and just realize, wait, there's some missing things that aren't given to kids in school on how to do certain things. So when they graduate high school or graduate college, they don't know. Like how do they get a car? How do they get a lease? How do they get rent an apartment? How do they get a credit card? How do they turn in a resume? What should they do in an interview? So it was really just some basic things that I felt for some reason, inclined to put into words. Just, I just wrote it on a whim and it's a short book. It's a pamphlet. It's a manual. It's a 50, 60 pages. I don't even know. But anyway, that's what inspired it because I felt that kids who don't have direction, need a little direction, maybe something to read. It's easy. It's not small print. It's big and give some charts and all that. That was really as, as I interviewed people, I realized there was something missing. So Ryan, just a friendly recommendation. I think your online information, maybe on your website is not up to date. The web, it does go through a history. So that's why, but the actual, all websites are being updated. Now we have a person who comes in and so it's going to be corrected soon. Basically the current, I did write that book and it's, but it more has to do with film distribution with movies, music and so forth, but how to start life is a better book, which is more, more up to date and great for kids, parents, whatever, to give to their children, et cetera. Yeah. I just, the reason why I was saying that just in case someone is watching or listening to this and they go to the show notes, go to the website and they find some information. So I just wanted to clarify that at least they know an update is coming with the, with the correct information. Yeah. No problem. So if you had to do this all over again, Ryan just had to start all over again for whatever reason, what would you do different? What would be your first two to three steps, immediate steps to gain success or gain enough income where you can grow from there? I'd invest in real estate as a 20 year old. I don't regret anything I've done with business. To be honest with you, I think I've had some great opportunities. I think that as a younger person, who's just starting out in life and working, you get a paycheck, I would say to buy or invest in something. Because I, I started doing, I know this is totally off channel here, but just you asked the question and that's the first thing I thought of, and that's how I go in life and what's the first thought I got and I would sell anyone to invest. So you have an extra 500 bucks. You have an extra thousand, go buy a piece of real estate because real estate just keeps growing your money work. Yeah. Just yeah. Because then it's turns into passive income. So you're getting, so you still have your job, you have your day job, you have your side hustle, but then you have this other income coming in, which is great. It goes up and down. Sure. But, and sure you can invest in the stock market too. You can invest in precious metals. You can invest in Bitcoin. There's so much to do. Just the key is to invest. And what I've noticed is real estate does the best. If you're in the middle of big a bid, Nebraska, that's a fake name. There's not much going on in any big city. Real estate just keeps going up and up and up. So Ryan, for anyone that is looking to get into the entertainment industry, someone trying to get into a movie or Hollywood or even direct or produce their own movie, I guess they're all different worlds here. Just pick one. But can you share what advice you would give someone like that, what they should initially do to get noticed? Yes. So going back to the book that you did write, the distribute that I did write the distribution book, it did say the key is have a home for it. So what I have found, and one of the reasons that I wrote the book is a lot of people say, Hey, I made a movie and how do I get it out and how do I get it seen before you make the movie and you go get investors or you pay for the movie. Figure that out first. That's my first suggestion. It's like, now I'm in the wholesale business. Someone makes a product. They make, they make a stapler. Who's going to buy it? Who is your audience? How many people need the stapler? So the same thing. Yeah. I'm going to make a movie about a squirrel that eats nuts. How many people want to watch that movie of a squirrel that wants to eat nuts? Like actually go get some comparisons. It's called comps in the world. Go see how many other movies were made about a squirrel that eats nuts. None. Okay. Maybe that's key. But now if your squirrel turns into a magician or a spaceman or this or that, not maybe there's a need for it. Maybe people want to see that, but movie studios will go and ride the wave of other successful movies. We've all seen all these superhero movies. Okay. We only used to see one every couple of years. Batman was the start of it. And then we got into Superman and then we got an Avengers, Iron Man and this and that. So they know that people want to see superhero movies. So if you're going to make a movie, make sure you have your audience, your buyers who would potentially watch the movie. So that is my advice coming from the movie industry and being in it for so long. So that's what I would suggest is find, go backwards, find your audience who wants to do it. Because a lot of people, again, not to be redundant, they make a movie because they're passionate about it. Oh, I had a dog who only had one leg and couldn't walk. Do people want to see a movie about a dog that couldn't walk? Or is it just you who wants to make the movie about a dog that walks? So that's my suggestion there. Pleasure talking to you today. Thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show. I was enthused to discuss these things with you and hopefully we added some value in someone's life or in their business, but yeah, I'm grateful to meet you and definitely keep in touch. Uh, if there's anything else you're coming up with in the future, uh, we can see if we can bring you back on. Thank you so much. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. You're a good man. My pleasure. Well,