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

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I let out such a cheer that I almost fainted, bro. I literally almost passed out. 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, we take you inside the hobby. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. We spent a lot of time talking about value in the hobby, but not as much about why people actually enjoy it. Cards aren't just something you collect. They're something you share with your community. Whether it's with a 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 to Collector Nation. Pleasure, Ryan. Thank you so much for having me on, man. 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, you know, link up and chat. Yeah, brother. I, we got a lot in common and I spent a lot of time up your way. Jersey, New York, seven years. So probably inadvertently, you know, came through your stomping grounds 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 last weekend. Hey, that's right. What was it? 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. But easily, I'll take a introduction for sure. Absolutely. The next show he has is in Concord, North Carolina, which is sometime in June. I just don't have the dates off the top of my head, but somewhere in June, Concord, North Carolina. He's going to 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 talk to me, man. Like, what's the evolution of father this like father, like son? I mean, it really wasn't ever anything that was planned. It really, you know, came to fruition at one of the worst parts of my life. I was running a construction company. It was the top guy and me. We had 178 employees. There was a hundred million dollars in construction. You know, it was multiple facets. It was this big monster that just grew kind of overnight. That never was supposed to be as big as what it was. It was only supposed to be, say, like, seven to eight employees when I was first brought on. Um, and it just kind of just took off. Well, the company is no longer things went sideways. And, you know, it was such a fall from grace for me. I was at the top of the game in the construction world in 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 into Pokemon, a dear friend of mine said, oh, you're in the Pokemon. Why don't you get into the cool stuff and gifted him 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 cost. 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 transitioned from Pokemon to NFL players. We started watching breaks galore every night. We would snuggle up in bed and we'd watch a break, whether I had already gotten in and we watched 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. I can't play with cards right now. Well, I don't have a father. He was my firstborn. 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, it, you know, it's hard for me to say no. So I gave in. I was like, look, look, buddy, we'll do it. I think I grabbed a couple of blasters of Phoenix. And we, you know, I said, just set it up for your friends. It was like maybe like a five, ten dollar 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. You're full of 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, buddy, I don't think I can do this. Like, you know, one, I'm not getting anything out of this. And here I am ready to throw up over open in a couple of boxes. 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, yo, 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. Um, we're successful in all fields I've ever been in. I said, I'm just going to chill off, you know, 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 it, you know, 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. Um, and it's just taken us all across the world. We've been into multiple countries, you know, all over, you know, the United States. We were voted top 10 content creators, 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't be real life. This it really can't because it's like too good to be true, man. I love it, man. This is, this is exactly what I wanted to do this show is to 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. And it's just authentic. I, you know, we were vulnerable. I was at the point, the lowest point in my life. And people always say, like, how did you, um, how did you get here? And it's, 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 correct them. There's times that me and my wife made bicker. We make, 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. If you work in university maintenance, Granger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Granger is your trusted partner offering the products you need all in one place from HVAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more and all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock. So your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRANGER, visit Granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. 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 and 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, as a business guy, 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 or going around, but maybe you want 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 to kind of hear, you know, 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 nine, 10 o'clock every night, whether it's customer service, whether it's networking, whether it's just checking on, yo, Joe Schmo, I knew he had a birthday or his kid's birthday. How did it go yesterday? And so much of that is the stuff that you don't get paid for. What it's advantageous 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. Yeah. 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, well, I 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 hastened my decision bringing these people on the team because, you know, I, I would, there was greed in the beginning, like 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 going to 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 had, you know, 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 pristine auction arena club and all touch. And it's, you know, it's, it's, it's great. I mean, they, they, they want us to travel to places to set up at 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. Talk with Ryan Knowles. He's the founder of like father, like son is a, how, how old's your son now? He's 10 now. Okay. So just the one. No, I have my, 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 bit. Anybody that's Get him out of school. We'll get him. He is so incredible. 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. Whoa. He is a freak. This kid, he's a freak of nature. Your guys are laces, dude. That's 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. Shakespeare's hands looks at guys. It's so advantageous for the youth this 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 broncy boy. He's my wild child. He's my ginger. Kids a stud. He quarterbacked 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. And 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 them 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 Rose, who is 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 it's a really a family business that happens organically. And, you know, obviously something that we don't like to push on them. But if they want to be a part of it, we're like, yeah, please. Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean? Yeah, everybody loves the kids. It's like, I don't know. I mean, we know kids and I mean, I've been in marketing my whole career. You know, kids and babies. They sell just a baby shaking hands. That was politics for me in the union, bro. Yes. Ryan, so so now we're traveling around with a sponsor. Are we still breaking? I am breaking. It's unfortunately, there's just not enough time in the day. And then I noticed I you try to hire people to do the breaking for you. Yeah. 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, rise, not here, but Bella's here. And Bella's amazing, right? Yeah, that was not Ryan. 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 the funny thing is, is you're probably there are enough. All that rang true. So I get it. And people are asking for Bella more than they're asking for me. So. So I guess you use that name because it's the one. No, but you're right. It's it's like that on other things. But that's why I've got Bella like front and center on the store stuff. I've that's why I didn't name it like Ryan's card shop. It's like I have that in my business. And my business has been around a while. 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, 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 funny thing is, you're now in a position where you've got the attention to where the breaks would probably be pretty lit. You know, and they do and they feel well and we can happen. But still, you know, it's. You're just sometimes you're, you know, doing content or at another 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 sponsored driven or all sponsored driven. Not all. It's starting to be that last year we invested about six figures, no baloney on just traveling with the airfare hotels. Yeah, sometimes. Well, not sometimes in the summer months, the children are with us during the school year. It's just my wife and I. She's my videographer, my social media content. She handles so much. She's my business partner. She's incredible. She's incredible. She's my best friend in the whole world. I'm obsessed with my family. I wish. Yeah, no, I'm the same way. I wish my wife would quit and do the same thing. We might kill each other, but but. We do. I mean, we. I mean, that's real. And that's what I was saying, like on the lives, there's times where I'm like, yo, shut up, like, but it's not. It's not some. That comes from a bad place. It's just natural. It's natural. I mean, it's business, really. It is. But yeah, she she handles all that. And so last year we invested everything or like I said, the six figures into just traveling. And then at the end of the year, when I did my taxes, I was like, all right, I cannot assume all these costs for people that want us at the show. So we started to get a little bit more strict with our contracts and what our list of demands are to come to a show, collab a show, promote a show and then shoot 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, shoot content, so be it. We're actually buyers because we run so much with our repacks 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 I, you know, you have to know your worth, right? Right. So it's like, I know what I bring to the table. I know what I bring. 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. You know, we're giving them turnkey 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. I know, right? You know, if you had her box for like some of these influencers to do a video, I'm like, you are factoring in your time and how long it takes to edit. And yeah, AI can help and all that, but it doesn't do everything. We just did. We guarantee James 30 reels. So we did 30 reels from Friday to Saturday. Some info, some informative, some silly, some vendor highlight, whatever it may be. But like you said, 30 reels is 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, I think a lot of people are so stinking lazy. And that's when we were talking about how do you make it work ethic is 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. That's not the case for me. And that's how you got a family support. And no, but those guys are, you know, they're the ones that, you know, their parents' basement still and precisely. And it's like, and that's nothing wrong with, look, everybody's got different aspirations in life. I'm if you're happy in the basement, I'm happy for you to be in the basement. This makes me shine brighter. Yeah, that was never my dreams. It was never my aspirations. I was I was supposed to have my 488 in the driveway at 40. And I decided, Hey, these kids to worry about for X amount of years. So yeah, dude, it never, we can plan all we 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 you happy. And everybody says that, well, you would know me, you 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 sayings is I just want. Now I'm going to trip myself up. I just want tomorrow to be today, essentially, where it's like, I have enough room, I really do. As long as my bills are paid, my kids are taken 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 an X amount of years that I don't have to grind as hard as I am right now and the brand is large enough that, you know, there's some sort of kickbacks, but that's business. And that's why you work so hard to get to that point. And we're, we're far away away. So I'm not worried about that. Talking with Ryan Knowles, founder of like father, like son. 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 upset. I'll get upset. It's very touching. I told you, I like for a boy to, you know, grow up without a father, it's, it's, you know, you have your issues. So for me, when I see these father sons that come over to us and 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 dad that sells sports cards, you know, that puts stuff online and got followings. 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, our 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 in 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 in the hobby. And we did a big fun hunt for that, but I carry a stack of them on me and kids will come up and be like, I get your autograph. I'm like, this is worthless. But sure you can. I look, I want the road show coming to a collector station and then you can sit right here next to me in the studio. I would like to, I would like to like that happen. Absolutely. Let's make it happen this year. Brother. What's, uh, what's the, I mean, obviously, I mean, not, I heard, I hear nine states in three weeks that was all right. Yeah. Eight, I think it was eight. Eight states. Either way, is it like nonstop? What's the rest of your look like? So we, so we thought about balance 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. Uh, we still like to hang out and party. You know what I mean? Um, and let loose once a week because we need that. So we really preach everything's 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 with that said, we notice when we travel hard like that, we start getting imbalanced and then with that imbalance, we notice that the children start acting up a little bit at home and they're amazing children. So we will hit it hard for a little bit of a stretch. And now ever since his North Carolina trip, we, uh, are going to take a few weeks off. Unless somebody comes call him with a big bag and then you have to take it. Uh, what we try to plan our year like that. And you know, it's that ebbs and flows of traveling, staying home and then, you know, refocusing on the family. And it's hard, bro. It's so hard, but we're figuring it out. There you go. We're moving to Florida. Oh, so you've been in Jersey. Now you're going to Florida. Dude, we just, so I'm from. Jersey of you. I'm Philly born and raised. So I'm so we moved to South Jersey 10 years ago. So I don't want people to think I'm from Jersey. I'm from Philly. Oh, yeah. Go birds. Go birds. So Northern of you. 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 then taking everybody down Florida. So life is like bananas right now, but where are we going in Florida? Surrounding Tampa area. Okay. Beautiful. Nice area. So excited. So excited. My devastation in Tampa and the Air Force. No kidding. I was, uh, I don't even think I was conceived yet, uh, but I was close to it, but we've gone down there from out, cause some perfect, uh, relatives in the area and then have some friends that live down there. It's beautiful. I love it, man. Yeah. So that's going to be heaven for you. I love it. I mean, all the kids are so excited. Over the Northern temperatures and the, you know, the weather and then get me out of here. I don't know. I mean, it's probably just a different lifestyle altogether, I imagine. It's definitely more hedonistic. It seems like the people are happier. They are more pleasure seeking. The people around here are miserable. Yeah. I wouldn't even talk to you. We went down there. We took like five days to drive around all the neighborhoods and you're like hesitant to ask somebody for a question or ask somebody something and that, excuse me, and they come over and they're so elated this chat with you here. Somebody 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, and all around the, the areas and I'm in South com from South Carolina, man. I'm like, Hey, man, what's wrong with you? I know, bro. So we're excited. It's still a lot going on, man. Holy cow. Taun, bro. What do we think? I mean, are you going to national? We're going to finacist again. Are we doing all this thing? 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'll be at both. And it's that part's a little hard. And then with the World Cup being at Fanatics Fest, we're trying to figure that out because from last year's prices to 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 us 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. It's as good as it gets. Oh, it's incredible. Yeah. I did the double last year. And I mean, it was fun, but they were close together. And, but it's like, I mean, they're very different, but they're, and the nationals, the firehose of, you know, cards and stuff. The national is a card show. And I guess it's a brand activation, really. It meets a card show kind of comes together. I mean, 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, an empire there with fanatics and all that stuff. enormous. Yeah. It's a fan experience fanatic. It's a fan experience, bro. Yeah, it is. Who, who, who does Ryan Knowles collect? Eagles brother. Uh, we, we started with, uh, you know, we went after Jalen Hertz so heavy. And then we transitioned to Jalen Carter, super heavy. Uh, we just loved them. And then we backed off because I, um, I'm one of those dudes that I want to collect and teach my children or my sons to collect wholesome guys, good guys. Yeah. So that incident after last year really turned me off to be Frank. Um, yeah. But yeah, so we, we go over after Eagles, uh, that's heavy, but I was raised by my grandfather and he taught me to love all the teams minus Dallas Cowboys. I will never love the Cowboys. Um, 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, and try to get them to love all the players and then what they'll do is they'll, they'll, they'll flip those ones, keep them for a little, maybe flip them into another player. But the Eagles is the PC. Once we get one of those, they, they don't leave the cases. What's the best, uh, or less, not as necessary. I mean, you can talk about if it's expensive, this less, I just more like, what's the means the most to you. So I'll get upset over this one. I'm emotional dude. I was raised by women. I know you're type, Ryan, you're a crier. That's okay. I'm a hugger. I'm a hugger. I'm a hugger. 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 to wear like a longer stream. Um, 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 one on one Jalen Hertz gold bar. No way. No way. Let out such a cheer that I almost fainted, bro. I'm 44. I literally almost passed 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 a hundred thousand, maybe we'll say that. But it's one of those that the sentimental value far exceeds whatever, you know, monetary value you would put on that. What did you pull that out of? Impeccable. Oh, 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 a hundred, 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 was 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. Ah, 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. Um, but we came to an agreement. I bought it off. But it was just that gesture was like, wow, dude, like that's so awesome of you, man. But, um, but that's what building, you know, building, that is building community. Hands down. And I think it's a strange thing like in business and I'm in marketing, uh, obviously in like, I'll say, you say, you read those terms like building community and people go, Hey, what, what does that really mean? It really means what you just said. Like when it becomes so moving to them and they followed you and they know where you live and you know, they may not know every intimate moment, but they feel like they, they relate to you on some level. And when whatever that card was worth, the guy was probably a hundred percent willing to probably let you have it for what you've paid in. When someone's wanting 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. You're the real life example of it. So many people, so many of our members say, uh, the reason 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 as 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. Nothing's taboo to me because then if that's how you were to be, then that's not, not authentic. Maybe there's some things that I may be uncomfortable talking about, but, you know, life is, you know, right now. We like to bring in a special guest. We, we found her on the, you met her when you were 18, right? Yeah. Mari Povich, like, you think you came on for like, uh, you know, some diet pillar or something and then no, we've got, we brought your ex girlfriend from when you were 17. This is really a prank podcast. You got a, what was the, what was that prank? The, uh, the show, jackass or whatever else. There was other pranks. The one that Ashton Kutcher did. I think it was pranked. Yeah. Punked. Punked. That's it. I knew pranked. It sounds totally right. Yes. We had jerky boys. That shows my age when I grew up. Did you do? Salo to you, right? Yeah, dude. I'm 48. 48. I'm 44. So jerky boys was right there with us. Dude, I actually did prank calls back in the day. Like tape recordings of them somewhere. Like kids, we did. We would tape record like these girls that go to our, went to 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, Lenore, you know, those kids, they're always acting up. They're, they're fucking crazy. You know, like an ad throwing some cuss words, like with another mom and can I, I could make it sound like the other mom did. And she goes, I know, I don't know what to do with Tommy. And like, we had a whole conversation getting them to like badmouth people in the neighborhood. Now that I think about it, it was like, we got a lot of girls. Kids are going to beat over here, dude. Kids are going home and they're like, they speed around here like demons. I just. I love, but I mean, that's like something that was so harmless back in the day. It's like going because of the way the world's turned. And it's not the way I wish it were to be. I found those magazines in Tommy's bed. Oh my God, have you had that happen? So awesome. Oh, that threw back memories. Turkey boys. Oh, my brother. 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 it's a good story. I think it's a great 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 that you've done, then, you know, this it's worth it. So we're just trying to spread some positivity, enjoying the hobby and 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. It's pretty cool. I got a little rapid fire for you, Ryan. Three or three quick things. Ripping packs or buying singles? It depends on my answer, dude. It depends on the answer. Ripping packs is so stinking fun. Buying singles is not. I say this all the time. You know, we wanted a Saquon 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. OK, 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. 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 repacks, that's a big part of my business. So it depends on my answer. It's too hard to just say boom, boom. I have it in my periphery 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 question. I always ask that question and there's always similar answers. Usually, oh, man, everybody says singles, typically. They're as honest as you were. But I want to brand. 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 write a roller coaster. You don't get done writing the roller coaster 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 it. And it obviously responsible. Of course. Fun. Of course. 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 percent. 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 time is baseball tonight? But you know what I mean? That's how quick it goes. When we I still have the memories, core memories of the big hits that we've had that will never go away and he still talks about them. So they're they're like those memories that you may just buy in something. It depends on the person and what you want to go for. For me, the hobbies 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 at 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 is a 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, like son underscore cards. We just started a YouTube, the what not, the TikTok. Like I said, it's it's it's still a work in progress, brother. But yeah. Hey, man, the website 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 like father, like son. If you look that up, I'm sure you'll be able to find it in a few weeks. Get that SEO going. You probably all your social channels should point them there. I need to talk to you because you're the head of marketing. I'm a construction dude. Like I get to fix your pipes in your house, bro. All this stuff. I'm like, dude, I don't know what I'm doing. Dude, you got my DM. I'll shoot myself. You can. The advice is always free. Thank you. Man, it's been fun. Let's get down 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, whatever. And right here next to me, whatever you want to do a live break in there, brother. Dude, that's what I'm saying. Let's do it. Let's plan it. I'm serious. Well, let's let's get on the counter. It is freaking November, whatever it is. I'm a man of my word. Definitely. Bella will help coordinate that and it's been fun, man. It's a pleasure. Thank you so much, man. Thanks to your community. I would the store is absolutely gorgeous for anybody that missed the beginning. That's how I saw you guys was the was the drive through. I was like, that's bananas. Um, but, you know, keep being somebody that is trying to be original in the hobby and do it the right way, man. And and Ryan's are better people anyway. So we got to stay together, brother. Guys, you know, to find us the collector nation.com, you'll find the full length 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. I've been doing 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 learning more about marketing, I give away all my advice for free just for you for being here. We'll see you next time on collector nation. Thanks for tuning into 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. Allford now get out there and collect yours. When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. 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