The Breakdown Before The Breakthrough

This conversation is about the unraveling that happens before real growth and learning who you are beyond performance, productivity, and external success.

In this episode we explore:

• Why the skills that make you good at your career don’t automatically make you good at business ownership
• The hidden cost of building your business around tactics instead of foundations
• Why entrepreneurship humbles even the most successful high performers

Quotes from this episode:

“The best decision that I ever made in my entire life was when I made the decision to truly surrender and loosen my death grip on the how.” – Ryan Lang 

“The skills that make you good at what you do are not the same skills that make you good as a business owner.” – Ryan Lang 

“The most successful people that I have ever known are constantly seeking the next level of themselves.” – Ryan Lang  

“There’s always a next level available to us that we should be striving for.” – Becca Powers 

“When we hit a certain level and we’re not growing, all of a sudden your fulfillment tanks.” – Becca Powers

Connect with Ryan:

• Website: http://www.empirepartners.io
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realryanlang/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ryan.lang.984
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-lang-b46a545b/ 

Mentioned on the episode:

• Empire Partners Quiz

Useful Links:

·      Watch Full Episodes on YouTube

·      Becca’s Website

·      Follow Us on Instagram

·      Connect on LinkedIn

·      Find Us on Facebook

·      Get Becca’s Book: A Return to Radiance

·      Book Becca to Speak

Podcast Produced by Jen Kourtei at Savvy Edge Marketing

Transcript

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Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies

Becca Powers: Welcome to another episode of The Empowered Half Hour. I normally say I'm excited about today's guest, but I am super excited about today's guest because I am bringing you the one and only Ryan Lang. You may or may not know him by name, but he is a fantastic business owner. He is my coach, but he is also the CEO and Co-founder of Empire Partners.

And I'm just thrilled for you listeners that you get to, like, hear some of the wisdom. So pressures on Ryan to deliver. Yeah. But welcome to the Empowered half Hour. 

Ryan Lang: Listen, set your expectations right above low and I'll try to rise to meet them. 

Becca Powers: There you go. There 

Ryan Lang: you go. I'm excited for this. I'm stoked.

Let's, I thank you for having me. 

Becca Powers: Yeah, it's, a pleasure. Meaning that, that I am excited to share your wisdom with everybody because it's in there and you've got it. But I would love to start everybody off and like, Hey, we might be wise now, but we've also gone through some lessons to help the wisdom come to the surface, right?

And I've gotten to know you and some of the things that you've overcome, which makes you really good at what you do now. so you're the CEO now and co-founder of Empire Partners. You really take. Coaches and business owners and help them turn their business and from a, maybe like a passion project that's a business to a real foundational business with revenue pillars and projections and things like that.

Which is amazing because not all coaches do that who say they're gonna do that, but what got you on that path and why are you so passionate about helping other people, like other business owners actually make that milestone turn into their business? 

Ryan Lang: Yeah. Well, I'd, I'd probably the easiest point for me to start with that is to say that I had a, you know, a, long career in the oil and gas industry and, co-founded and built a business, a service firm to, over eight figures in that industry.

And when I left. I was at a, really difficult point in my life and, I had all of the metrics and the money and the cars and the house and all of the things to show for all the work that I put in. And internally I was just a hot mess. And so when I made a transition out of that business, it took me a little bit to kind of figure out where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do.

And I kept coming back to the idea that I really wanted to help people. I really didn't have a lot of that in my previous business. And so that was kind of what got me into the whole coaching industry. I had a background as an athlete and a personal trainer, and I thought, okay, you know what?

I could go, I mean, I love fitness at that time, I'd gotten totally deconditioned in my previous career and I got my ass back in shape, but. And I was like, you know what? I can identify with these high performers, these executives and business owners and you know, who are having a hard time with this.

I think I could do this. And that led me into the coaching industry and to get to the answer to your question about Empire and what makes me passionate about it is that I walked in, to that business just with so much. unnecessary, well, unnecessary is probably not the right word, but so much swagger that was unfounded and I didn't even know it.

I mean, I was such an idiot. I was so sure I was just gonna crush it, and I absolutely got my ass handed to me. And the reason that I'm passionate about what I do today is that I was, what I knew plenty about business that I had learned in my previous career. But I was a really good operator at a very specific skill and I wasn't able to translate that into my new business.

And it took me many years and getting punched in the mouth a whole lot and losing hundreds of thousands of dollars to figure out, that the skills that make you good at what you do are not the same skills that make you good as a business owner. And that's what I'm passionate about helping people with.

Becca Powers: I'm just gonna mic drop that there because I think you hit a check mark for everything that I've been through, like spent this amount of money, like had this really awesome career that I kicked ass at that I thought would translate to business ownership, and I'm like, wait, that, that didn't go. But I've been in sales, marketing and sales ops for my entire life, so.

I appreciate that you shared the honesty, but also that you figured it out. 

Ryan Lang: Yeah, and listen, I mean, these were, tough lessons to learn, but think the interesting thing about it is that I had the good fortune through the period of time of figuring out that I really was an idiot and I didn't know what I didn't know, and I had to kind of start from scratch to some degree and really wipe the slate clean between that and knowing what I know now.

I had so many fortunate opportunities to not just try on my own and fail and have some success and then go forward to go backward and all of the things. But I also had the good fortune of, working inside as a consultant of some really unbelievable businesses and with some really fabulous practitioners, and I got to see the good and the bad and everywhere in between.

And it also gave me a look at literally to this point. Probably close to, several hundreds of solopreneur businesses, especially for coaches, experts, you know, practitioners, people like that. And it's a lot of kind of what helped me to figure that out. It was a long ass journey, that's for sure. 

Becca Powers: So what would you say sitting in the Ryan you are today, if you were to advise your old self or advise any listener that's kind of like.

Damn. This is making a lot of sense. I made the jump. Everything's not clicking. I was sure I was going to get it. What would you say to that person with today's insights? 

Ryan Lang: We have two hours for this podcast, right? 

Becca Powers: You're like, which, what am I gonna pull forward? Because there's so many. 

Ryan Lang: Yeah. I'll tell you a couple that just pop right to the top of my head.

I mean, the first thing is the master is the constant student. And what I mean by that is I walked in with all the things that I thought I knew and had I walked in and humbled myself and went, Hey, maybe I've had some success. Maybe I've figured some things out, but. I'm gonna pretend that I know nothing and I'm gonna, find the right mentors to kind of fill up my cup.

Uh, people that have been places that I want to go, and have experienced things that I want to be able to experience, and that's what I'm gonna do instead of trying to lean on, you know, this knowledge that I thought I had. That would be one thing. 

Speaker 3: I 

Ryan Lang: think one of the other things that I would just mention is that one of the things I found out the hard way, it's so interesting because when I built my previous business, I think I felt like such a fish outta water when I got into the, coaching industry, because I never had to do, there was no digital marketing.

I didn't have to do that. I did a lot of sales. I have my whole life, but not like high ticket, you know, coaching sales. I wasn't. concerned so much about like pricing and things of that nature, and I had to learn the hard way with all of those things. And I think one of the things that really sent me sideways in the beginning was the belief that my business is a tactic.

And it's so pervasive, Becca, in today's, in the world that we're living in, it has been for the last 10 years that, you know, especially in the marketing world. We have a lot of things that get put in front of us that, just seem to be the end all fix to our business. And they're not. They're just a tactic and tactics break, and when they do and you've built everything around a tactic, you're in deep shit.

So those are a couple of the big ones that I would say right out of the gates. 

Becca Powers: Yeah, no, I think that's really wise and for me, coming out of corporate sales and sales leadership, much different than being on your own and that digital marketing aspect is a beast. It's, and I like that you shared the reality of that.

It's a tactic. And then also the humility of the sooner you can admit that you don't know and get help and work with people like yourself, you have spent. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know I've spent tens of thousands, if not a little bit more in the hundreds. These lessons can be long and painful.

So being able to, have someone like you to mentor under and to learn under has been like lifesaving for, for my dream, for me and my dreams. 

Ryan Lang: Well, you know what, one of the things that I think that, you've certainly learned by now and that I had to learn as well is that the other piece is that when you come into something, even when you have great mentors and you have, the right people around you, 

Like there's a reason that there are not a lot of people that are business owners and entrepreneurs and out there trying to do it on their own because it is hard. 

Becca Powers: It is hard. 

Ryan Lang: And I think that one of the things I wish I could have learned early on, there were so many people that floated into my life that gave me a belief that there was a way that this could happen, like with a shortcut that you're 

Becca Powers: magic wand looking for.

That 

Ryan Lang: I, Russell Brunson, but like, you're not one funnel away dude. 

Becca Powers: Yeah. 

Ryan Lang: Okay. I'm just gonna say really there is no magic wand. There is no quick fix. Even when you have the right mentors, you gotta build it. You gotta build it the right way. You're still gonna have setbacks, it's still gonna be hard.

It's just that those mentors and, the right people in your corner help to accelerate that. And they help to lessen the suck a bit. 

Becca Powers: Yes. Yes. Agreed. Yeah. I was just like, yes, lesson. The suck is true. So I wanted to pivot and every time I say that word, I laugh because it makes me think of like Ross and That Friends episode, pivot, pivot.

 but I wanna make sure we have enough space to talk about it. So we're gonna do the pivot. So, with Brooke, who's your business partner? You guys have created the past to mastery, right? Is what, how you Yeah. Mm-hmm. Well, it, okay, I just wanna make sure I got the framework right and I'd love to go over that with the listeners, if you don't mind, because I know in my listenership, there is a lot of.

Side hustlers, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and people, big dreamers. So, I think, to your point, a lot of us big dreamers think we're gonna go like right to success and like mastery. Like we got this just gimme one year and it's gonna be amazing. Yep, yep. And I love that you have brought it, like, created like four pillars and I'll pass it to you now to talk about that.

Ryan Lang: Yeah, so I'll go back to kind of what I said earlier, which is that the skills that make you great at what you do are not the same skills that make you great as a business owner. And part of becoming great as a business owner is understanding that there's a sequence to success, just the same way that there's a sequence to failure.

It's like the analogy that Brooke and Isles like to use. It's like if you're baking a cake, you can have all of the right ingredients, but. If you switch the flour and the frosting and stick that baby in the oven, you're gonna get a pretty f-ed up cake when it comes out. true, it's, it's, it's not just like, Hey, these are things that I need to do.

It's understanding how to really utilize the right tools and tactics and systems at the right time. And so from a sequential standpoint, we kind of look at business through. Four phases, and that's what we call the path to mastery, startup stability, success, and mastery. And the goal really, I think where people get this wrong, a lot of times remember the old board game shoots and ladders?

Becca Powers: Yes. 

Ryan Lang: Yeah. 

Becca Powers: So fun. 

Ryan Lang: So, you know, it's kind of like a game of shoots and ladders. If you have a business that's in the startup phase, for example. You see a tactic or a strategy that you may not realize is very advanced, and it really probably applies to people who are, high stability or success level, and you try to implement that when you're at startup.

You'll climb the ladder for a hot minute and then you'll slide right back down every single time. And so what the path to mastery really does is it teaches you the idea. two really core ideas. Number one, to build a foundation that's unshakeable instead of building a house of cards, you know? And then secondly, it's that we're not trying to go from where we are to mastery.

We're trying to go from where we are to the next level. That's the mission. 

Becca Powers: Yeah, I love that. And I think that, it's hard for us, uh, I would say like baby business owners. I think when you're making, and I would love to hear your opinion on this because this is just my observant opinion. It's not fact.

But, um, for me, I have found that, just because I can hit two, 300,000 in my business. It doesn't make me a successful business owner. And I think that not only we have the conversation around, hey, if you're gonna do this, like be aware that there's these things. But I would beg to say that if you're producing under 300,000.

That there's a lot about business that you still have yet to encounter. 

Ryan Lang: That would be an understatement. 

Becca Powers: I knew you were gonna say that. Let's talk 

Ryan Lang: about it. That would be an understatement. Yeah. I, I think you know, it's interesting because when we talk about like going, some of the things, that I love about path to mastery is that we really have looked at it in a way where it's not just tactical, but it's identity driven.

And one of the things that we think about is when you're talking about a 300 KA year business, you know, that's somebody who has graduated from startup into the stab zone, and probably the sort of upper level of stability, so to speak, but. It's an interesting place to be because when you're a startup, you're just flailing around and you know, it's like, oh my gosh, I just gotta figure something out.

I gotta get a few clients in the door, you know? And then you get a couple of clients in the door and you start having some somewhat consistent revenue and you start figuring things out and you get into stability and you grab one or two team members, you know? But that 300 KA year spot is a really interesting spot because.

By all intents and purposes, if you tell most of the people in your life that you're doing 300 KA year in, your business, that seems impressive to most. 

Speaker 3: 

Ryan Lang: And what 300 k actually looks like in terms of what you're putting in your pocket and how much work you're having to do to get to 300 K. A lot of people get to 300 K and they might as well be working at McDonald's.

Becca Powers: I've experienced that. 

Ryan Lang: Me too. It sucks. 

Becca Powers: And you're like, wow, okay. It takes me about 300 K to run this whole office. Yep. And alright. 

Ryan Lang: Yep. And I think like one of the big learnings at that zone is, you know, from an identity standpoint at startup, you've got to learn to go from purely being a good practitioner of whatever you do into being an operator.

And you can exist at the 300 K level being an operator. But when you wanna go beyond that and you get closer to like seven figures, you have to make an identity shift from operator to owner, and that's a totally different ball game. You and I have had lots of conversations about this, right? I was just saying that sounds 

Becca Powers: familiar.

Ryan Lang: Uhhuh. It's a totally different ball game. you gotta get excellent at, leading, building great systems and get really vigilant about not doing so much doing otherwise it becomes impossible. 

Becca Powers: Oh my gosh. And you know, we talk about distinctions a lot. We talk about lane ownership and it's one of those things that I think I just see in, leadership.

Period. But then also when we get into this, like that transition from operator to owner, is that a lot of leaders' mentality is almost like self-sacrifice, even if it's in a good way, right? 

Speaker 3: Yeah, 

Becca Powers: yeah. Meaning like, you know, I wanna go in and help my team and we're all one team and everything's coming from a good place.

But When you stay in that lane. 'cause we again, distinctions in lanes, you're not allowing your people to grow. You're not allowing yourself to grow. You're not allowing your business to grow. Because to your point, and like what I've learned as we've shifted me is that I'm gonna be learning new things. I don't have the space to stay in my old ways to get to the new goals that I have.

And. For me too, because I'm so nice. I'm like, well, that feels mean, you know, or that feels icky or whatever. I have feelings. But then what I realized is once we get to the other side of a big shift with me, I was like, actually that was really like over needed. Like I should have done that a long time ago because I was really hurting myself and hurting my team by doing what I thought was right.

But I just didn't have enough insight to know that that wasn't right. 

Ryan Lang: It's, that's, it's a tough one because it sort of flies in the face of most logic, right? you know, part of the other thing I think, Becca, that's tough too, is that we have heard so much over the last, especially the last like 15 years, you know, it's like the hustle culture and grind and do all the things and, you know, work 80 hours a week, blah, blah, blah.

 I think that, first of all, there's societal pressure on that and we get into this zone where we feel like there's a bit of a guilt. I should be the one who's having to do this. You know? But I also, think the piece that we end up missing, you touched on something that's really important, which is that you sort of hamstring your team's growth.

And I actually think that if you're truly evolving and growing in a path that is actually seeking out mastery, and by the way, that's not for everybody, but if that's your path. Then you should be putting yourself in situations where your goals force you to become someone different than you've been in the past.

And that's sort of a shift in what we're talking about right now. That's sort of a shift from going, Hey, I know I'm an excellent doer of these things and I know that I could go step in and do the thing equally as well, if not better than other people on my team. in order for me to grow to the next level in my business, to grow to the next level, I then have to become elite at teaching and coaching others to do the thing, and cultivating enough trust and self-discipline in myself.

To say, Hey, I've taught you, I've given you the tools, or you came in with some amazing tools that mm-hmm. I think are great. I'm gonna hand you the thing and I'm gonna have you go do it, and then you check back in with me. And I think even just getting to that point is a, that's a game changer. 

Becca Powers: Oh, it totally is.

And then on the other side of it, to be able to feel that growth and know that, like how you said, like. Not in a bad way, but I think a lot of us, when we have a 20 year career or we've closed multi eight figure nine figure deals ran $500 million businesses or whatever, there's a vibrato that shows up when you first walk through the door, like, I got this.

You might not think that there's much more room for growth and what I, I've also been humbled by business ownership and learned that there's a lot of room for growth. 

Ryan Lang: Yeah. Listen, I will tell you that one of the things I found out a long time ago that I hold too, literally every day of my life is if I ever wake up and feel like I got it, I am screwed.

A hundred percent screwed. The most, successful people that I have ever known in person and from afar are constantly seeking the next level of themselves. It's, it's not necessarily money, uh, in some cases maybe, but more than anything, it's the next level of themselves. And they always believe that no matter how old they are, how long they've been in business, how long they've been doing a thing, there's always a next level.

Becca Powers: I love that. And I think it's aspirational too, just because there are a lot of career people who listen to this. And I also know that when we hit a certain level in our career and we're not growing, for those that are still in the corporate arena, like you get to a certain level, whether it's director or vp, and you're like, haven't had a promotion in forever and all that stuff, like all of a sudden your fulfillment tanks, your, all the things that you were chasing that were the high right.

Are no longer there. Now you're like, where'd my joy go? Where'd my passion go? Where, where's all this? And so, I think it's just a good invitation no matter where you are in your journey or what your business looks like, whether you're employed or self-employed or whatever, that there is always a next level available to us that we should be striving for.

So that's was very motivational, Ryan. Thank you. 

Ryan Lang: You're welcome. Well, I and I, if I can, I'll, I'll, I want to touch on that real quickly because 

Becca Powers: Sure. 

Ryan Lang: You know, that's, well, I, it's been a very long time since I've been in any kind of corporate seat. It's just not suited for me. I suck at rules and red tape, but.

 when I was in my business previously. I've certainly had the experience that a lot of people in corporate have. When you get to that space where your joy is kind of gone, your passion is kind of gone, your motivation is kind of gone. And towards the end of, my career in my, previous business, that's really how it felt.

I mean, I could have kept doing that as long as I wanted and, continued to make plenty of money. I guess on paper live a decent life, but like whether you're in corporate or you're not, one of the things I think that I believe we have a responsibility to ourselves and our creator, whatever you believe on that front to listen when there's an inner voice that says there's something more for you.

And I think that when I kind of like had a big honking, you know what I call it my HPM, my high performance meltdown. 

Becca Powers: I'm like, now I know what to call it because I had 

Ryan Lang: one 

Becca Powers: too. 

Ryan Lang: The hpm. When that happened for me, I think that was a big part of it, is that I couldn't see it at the time, but so many of the reasons why things were kind of crumbling down for me internally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, was because of the fact that it was time for me to move into a whole nother arena.

And as much. Pain and difficulty and money lost and, scratching and clawing and all the things I believe it was necessary. I needed to go through that experience. I needed to be challenged and humbled. I needed to, learn what I had to learn in order to do what I'm doing today, and I wouldn't give that up for anything.

Becca Powers: Yeah. Amen. I say that it is like the best, worst experience that I've ever gone through. 

Ryan Lang: Yep. Amen to that. It's funny because isn't it like when people ask you, would you do it all over again? I'm like, well, 

Becca Powers: no. 

Speaker 3: I know. I take deep 

Becca Powers: breath. I'm like, yes, for the wisdom, but I would 

Speaker 3: brain. 

Ryan Lang: Yeah. 

Speaker 3: Yeah. I would.

Okay. 

Becca Powers: Just 

Speaker 3: start. Not, not, not now, but yeah. 

Becca Powers: That's so funny. I knew 30 minutes was gonna go by fast. So we've got a few minutes left. I'm gonna transition a bit one more time. Okay. I wanna ask you like, I love ending the show, which is like an empowering message for the listeners. So it's kind of open table what you would like to say or share, but I'd like to ask you.

What empowering message would you like to share with the listeners today? 

Ryan Lang: The best decision that I ever made in my entire life was at a point where I had left the previous business. I got into the new one. I'd been trying for about three years or so and bumping up against the ceiling and really, really struggling and I could see so vividly in my mind what I wanted and where I wanted to go, and the end game and all of the things like I could, see it like I already had it.

And I couldn't understand why I just couldn't get there. the thing that changed everything for me was when I made the decision to truly surrender and loosen my death grip on the how. And I would just say this, like, if you're gonna make a jump to go do something great, whatever that is, and whatever your position in business or life or corporate is right now.

Do it and then forget about how it's gonna happen, because you'll never be able to connect those dots until you get where you're destined to go. And you'll be able to look backwards and it'll be absolutely divinely perfect. 

Becca Powers: Damn, that was awesome. I've got nothing. We're just gonna mic drop it right there.

That was, that was awesome. And I felt it too. So I hope the listeners got a good takeaway from that. Well, let's go ahead and share how everyone can stay in touch with you. We're gonna put the, um. He has a quiz. I'll let him tell you a little bit about it, but we'll make sure that is in the show notes so you guys can take it.

But go ahead and share how to stay in contact and a little bit about the quiz. 

Ryan Lang: Yeah, so when it comes to staying in contact, you can find me on pretty much all the socials, but I'm a big LinkedIn guy. come find me on LinkedIn. You can also grab me on Instagram at, at Real, Ryan Lang.

We have a, great podcast called The Path to Mastery Podcast, and it's on Apple, iTunes and Spotify. And then relative to the quiz, this is really cool if you are a business owner of any kind, even if you're a solopreneur practitioner and you want to know like where on the path to mastery your business is at right now, and what is the biggest constraint that's holding you back from the next level.

You can get that. Just go to pww dot empire partners.net. Forward slash quiz and, uh, you can take the quiz. It's a hundred percent free. It's, probably the best diagnostic tool we've ever built. I think you'll like it. 

Becca Powers: That's awesome. Well, Ryan, I know I enjoyed having you on the show and I know that listeners did too.

Thank you for being a guest and you know, I'll see you next week on a coaching call. 

Ryan Lang: Sounds good. Thank you for having me, Becca. I appreciate it so much.