Ryan Holiday on The Economics of Book Writing, Why You’re Moneti…
About This Episode
Ryan Holiday discusses the business of being a modern philosopher, detailing how he monetizes intellectual property through books, email lists, and high-margin physical products like coins. The conversation explores the economics of 'perennial sellers' and why building a backlist is more lucrative than chasing short-term trends.
Episode Description
Show Notes
- 00:28- Background on Ryan and MFM
- 05:42- Stories and learnings from Peter Thiel
- 07:20- Why to sell coins instead of shirts
- 31:45- Why to publish through a traditional publisher
- 42:00- Buying a ghost town
- 52:00- What fuels Ryan?
- 56:15- Ryan's daily routine
- 58:30- Ryan's thoughts on Tucker Max
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- Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
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- Additional episodes you might enjoy:
- #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
- #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
- #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
- #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
- #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
- Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
- How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
Key Takeaways
Optimize for the 'backlist' by creating products or content that serve as perennial sellers, ensuring consistent revenue years after the initial launch spike.
Prioritize physical products with high margins and low SKU counts, such as commemorative coins, to avoid the logistical complexity and inventory risks associated with apparel.
Utilize physical assets like bookstores or ranches as content sets; the primary value is often the media produced there, while the retail or rental income serves as a secondary subsidy.