{"id":6071,"date":"2020-07-17T11:11:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T09:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/?p=6071"},"modified":"2020-10-30T15:01:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T13:01:09","slug":"interview-with-taylor-ryan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/experts\/interview-with-taylor-ryan\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Taylor Ryan"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>What would you say about yourself and your business?<\/h3>\n<p>I\u2019m Taylor Ryan:<br \/>\nAn American entrepreneur living in Denmark for the last 4.5 years<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve started 6 different companies over the last 12 years in a variety of sectors and I\u2019m constantly on the hunt for new things to learn.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, I\u2019ve got my hands in a TON of great projects:<br \/>\nI run a <a href=\"https:\/\/klintmarketing.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">growth-hacking agency<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.udemy.com\/course\/digital-marketing-growth-masterclass\/?referralCode=598444738D013AAD30B7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">masterclasses\/online courses<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/architecturequote.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> an award winning Saas start-up for Architects<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/taylorryan.io\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mentoring<\/a> when I have a few extra moments.<\/p>\n<h3>How would you describe yourself with a few words?<\/h3>\n<p>Start-up junkie, growth-hacker, and advocate of learning.<\/p>\n<h3>How did your career growth begin?<\/h3>\n<p>My career started like most entrepreneurs I know. As a kid. I had \u201cside hustles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Every season brought a new type of work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Winter:<\/strong> Shoveling snow<br \/>\n<strong>Spring:<\/strong> Umpiring (referee) and yard work<br \/>\n<strong>Summer:<\/strong> Mowing lawns<br \/>\n<strong>Fall:<\/strong> Raking leaves<\/p>\n<p>I first started pushing a lawn mower around neighborhoods and knocking on doors at the age of 8.<\/p>\n<p>Check out my presentation on how I got into entrepreneurship:<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_92TcCdiQbI?controls=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Is there something careerwise so far that you have not done?<\/h3>\n<p>There are \u201cdreams\u201d and then there\u2019s realistic expectations. As my companies grow, I keep setting little bench markers further away but not so far that it\u2019s completely out of reach.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Secure a big round of investment for <a href=\"https:\/\/architecturequote.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ArchitectureQuote<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Implement my growth-engine for innovation with 1 large corporate partner<\/li>\n<li>Finish writing my book<\/li>\n<li>Reach 20 employees<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Would you change anything in your career path if you could go back?<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Of course- wouldn\u2019t we all? There\u2019s all kinds of jobs we spent too much time trying to make something work only to realize it was a giant waste of energy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The choices we make shape the journey. I think most of my career decisions have granted me a lot of teachable moments which have given me insights I\u2019d never had before.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Moving to Denmark was a good move for me personally. Professionally, it\u2019s been a minefield of experiences that have also given me the chance to grow. I think working with so many different types of people allows for serious reflection.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sometimes there\u2019s a Nietzschean philosophy applied to start-ups when it comes to failure. You\u2019re supposed to come out the other side a more well rounded and appreciative person. Always a work in progress, right?<\/p>\n<h3>Tell us about a hard decision you had to make in your career. How did you deal with it?<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One of the hardest things I occasionally have to deal with is letting go of an employee. Even if it\u2019s an intern, it\u2019s always incredibly uncomfortable for me to sit down and explain why we must part ways.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I almost always look at it as a failure on my part to not give people the right set of expectations up front or enough training to do the job.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sometimes it\u2019s just not a good fit and the reality is, I\u2019ve been there many times myself. I always try to give something on departure or something that lessens that loss for the other party.<\/p>\n<h3>Were there moments when you wanted to give up and if not, what stopped you (or not)?<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There are so many metaphors in the start-up world about \u201cpeaks and valleys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We go through the \u201croller-coaster\u201d rides on a weekly, if not daily basis. Most people think that\u2019s exciting, it\u2019s actually quite scary when you\u2019re over extending yourself.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We\u2019re all just one big win or loss away from total bliss or destruction. This entire \u201cfeast or famine\u201d is just part of the dance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Last week I won a pitch competition for my PropTech startup ArchitectureQuote and beat 209 other start-ups to take first place. The next day I found out I was turned down from a grant and accelerator program for contradictory reasons (you\u2019re too far ahead for this or not far enough).<\/p>\n<h3>Is there such a thing as a balance between personal and working time?<\/h3>\n<p>I\u2019ll let you know when I find it. Many people I talked to have said \u201cI\u2019m so lucky\u201d to get so many opportunities. What they don\u2019t see is that most of this has come for sheer willing things to come together.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve given myself so many opportunities that even if something halfway turns out right, it\u2019s going to be okay. Lucky for me, I have an incredibly supportive girlfriend that understands this lifestyle isn\u2019t forever.<\/p>\n<h3>What would you like to say to our readers?<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So many directions to go on this. Take chances and make opportunities by putting yourself out of your comfort zone. Putting time into anything eventually gets you further along, give yourself time to improve in areas you\u2019re eager to get better.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I\u2019ve been going all in on online networking because events and conferences are no longer a thing (thanks covid19). Find new ways to connect with people and get back out there when things open up.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The most important thing I\u2019m working on now:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I\u2019m trying to connect with C-level leadership at larger organizations that are interested in implementing a growth-engine.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I want to take the same processes I\u2019ve used to scale some of the fastest growing startups to build up innovation projects within a larger organization.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As of lately, I\u2019ve gotten into some really interesting conversations; but I\u2019m eager to meet someone that shares the vision of unlocking speed and growth-hacking for entrepreneurship projects. Is that you? We should talk!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Key take-away: If you\u2019ve got a goal in mind, do what I just did (above) on social media and see what happens. You never know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What would you say about yourself and your business? I\u2019m Taylor Ryan: An American entrepreneur living in Denmark for the last 4.5 years I\u2019ve started 6 different companies over the last 12 years in a variety of sectors and I\u2019m constantly on the hunt for new things to learn. Currently, I\u2019ve got my hands in &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":874,"featured_media":4401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[202,204],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}