Ryan Blair is a New York Times bestselling author, self-made multimillionaire and serial entrepreneur who established his first company when he was twenty-one years old and has since created and actively invested in multiple start-ups. Now at age of 38, he has founded and sold numerous businesses for hundreds of millions of dollars, runs global healthy lifestyle company, ViSalus, and is a venture capitalist.
In March 2013, Blair released his paperback version of his #1 New York Times Best Seller, Nothing To Lose, Everything To Gain: How I Went From Gang Member To Multimillionaire Entrepreneur. Uncensored and raw in his account of growing up in the face of adversity, Blair effectively imparts lessons learned from obstacles he faced and provides a road map for entrepreneurial success. Blair is no ordinary businessman: he’s a master of personal reinvention. His captivating story was also a USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Inc. Magazine, bestseller amongst others. Through a candid and unfiltered voice, Nothing to Lose speaks to everyone, from struggling youth to thriving businessmen alike, illustrating how to turn failures into successes.
In April 2014, Blair debuted Nothing To Lose: The Documentary, which follows his inspirational story as he overcomes challenges and adversity as well as his personal hurdles while building ViSalus into a household brand. The documentary has won the “Best Producer” award at the Beverly Hills Film Festival and “Best Documentary” at the Los Angeles Art-House Film Festival.
On October 4, 2016, Blair revealed his second book, Rock Bottom to Rock Star: Lessons from the Business School of Hard Knocks, which explores how he rose to the top and shares his personal formula for going from rock bottom to “rock star” to be the absolute best at what you do.
His biggest endeavor yet has been the overhaul of ViSalus, the company behind the Body by Vi™ 90-Day Challenge, a weight and fitness transformation platform. In 2008, as CEO, Blair went all-in, personally investing his last million dollars on a new business model that would later revolutionize the 118 billion dollar direct selling industry. In just 21 months, ViSalus went from 600,000 to 30 million dollars in monthly sales, and in 2011, they increased sales seven-fold from 34 million to 231 million dollars. In September 2014, Blair, with his co-founders, announced ViSalus and former parent company, Blyth, had reached an agreement to sell back 90-percent of shares to the founders of the company.
Blair appears regularly on CNBC, MSNBC, Bloomberg TV, CNN, and Fox. He has also been featured in major publications including Inc Magazine, Fortune Magazine, BusinessWeek, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times. Blair took a turn in movie production serving as Executive Producer of Man in the Glass: The Dale Brown Story, an award-winning documentary about the legendary LSU Basketball Coach.
Growing up in a “Brady Bunch” family environment, Ryan shares with us how his life wasn’t always as grandiose as it is now. Being a child in a veteran a family, at the age of 13 he witnessed his Fathers downward spiral, leaving his Mother alone to raise the children. Being paid just above minimum wage at the deli job she accepted to pay for her family, Ryan remembers a life of unfortunate poverty.
Being forced to move “to the other side of the tracks” due to their financial situation, Ryan gets real about life on the other side. After his sisters best friend lost her life in a drive by shooting, Ryan decided to retaliate, indulging in the gang scene or “illegal entrepreneurship activities” as he called it.
Growing up first-hand in the “rock bottom” kind of lifestyle, his real life experiences made it easier for him to write about it all, and gave him that extra motivation and push to not end up like his other brothers and sisters. Ryan wanted a plentiful and peaceful life for himself and his own future family.
Thankful for his spiritual upbringing because of his Grandmother, Ryan goes on to share with us that at times, it was truly his spirituality that he leaned on heavily, to get him through life, along with love the he had for his Grandmother and Mom.
“They had always told me, ‘You can be anything you want to be.’”
And Ryan did just that! In fact he went far beyond his wildest imagination.
If you’re in need of a shot of inspiration, you’ve come to the right place! Ryan’s interview is the answer you’ve been looking for.
In This Episode You Will Learn About:
- Going from rags to riches
- Leaps of faith
- Overcoming adversity
- Perseverance
- Hard work
- Choosing your path
- Spirituality
Resources:
- Nothing To Lose, Everything to Gain by: Ryan Blair
- Rock Bottom To Rock Star by: Ryan Blair
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