Ryan Foland

Heidi is gone. 🪦 250,000 miles. One head gasket. Zero warning. Losing my car reminded me what it actually feels like to be a customer. New EntrepreneurSHIP article is live. ryanfoland.substack.com/p/heidi-is-gon…

@rahkitt72 😆 I think it’s fun. But it’s not for everyone.

Sometimes it takes three times. The first try? Not it. The second try? Not it. The third try? That’s the one. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going.

@AndImPo It was an epic kick off to Irvine Tech Day.

What did this accomplish

I rapped to Still D.R.E. in city council chambers. A 🦄 showed up. I ended on the marble countertop, fist raised. Nobody said I could. Nobody said I couldn't. ryanfoland.substack.com/p/you-never-ne…

The Blue Water Cruising Club has maintained the same cove since 1945. Eighty years of work weekends. Because enjoyment without maintenance doesn't last. Same goes for your entrepreneurSHIP.

Do you have balance. Or is there no such thing?

Your keyboard is dusty. Your screen has a smudge. Your stickers are faded. And someone already read all of it. Your stuff is talking. Are you listening? New Substack article is out. ryanfoland.substack.com/p/what-does-yo…

I used to dread leg day. Then foil boarding taught me I needed it. Now I've learned to love it. The sourness isn't a warning. It's proof something is being built. That lesson changed how I show up for hard things in business too. 👇 ryanfoland.substack.com/p/no-leg-day-n…

Too many ideas is a real problem. It feels like a good problem to have. But when you can't choose, you can't start. And not starting is the one thing that guarantees nothing gets built. This week I share the framework I use to help people cut through the noise: Passion. Problem. Profit. Three inputs, one focus, one real problem, three possible solutions. Plus what my mom used to say when nobody believed in an idea. ryanfoland.substack.com/p/the-simple-w…

Failing does not guarantee learning. Learning from your failure does. That's a narrow distinction. It's also the one that matters most. We talk a lot about failing fast and failing forward. But if you fall, dust yourself off, and go right back to doing exactly what you did before, that's not a lesson. That's just a bad day. Real recovery is operational. It means looking at what you missed. Building in the checkpoint that didn't exist before. Checking the dock for rusty nails before you jump back in. This week, I took a nail through the hand on the water. Here's what it taught me about what it actually means to learn from a failure. open.substack.com/pub/ryanfoland…

Use the fewest words to say the most.

Practice does not count less because nobody is recording it. It counts more. ryanfoland.substack.com/p/the-record-b…

5+ years ago, I had a crazy idea to mix two things I love. Speaking 🗣️ + Boating 🚢 I didn’t know what it would look like. I didn’t know how to pull it off. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. But I kept talking about it, dreaming about it, taking baby steps toward something I couldn’t fully see yet. Tomorrow, it launches. The idea 💡: A speaking workshop on a boat. I call it SpeakerSHIP at Sea 🌊 And honestly? I’m as scared as I am excited. The stakes are low. My first beta group are friends. But it’s hard not to feel the weight of it. Hard not to obsess over every detail being perfect. It won’t be perfect. It’s the first time. And I always tell people: the first is always the worst. Things will be rough around the edges. My planned agenda probably won’t go the way I’m envisioning it right now. But it’s happening. This is the shakedown. The real-world test of what works and what doesn’t. I’ve got a bigger vision for what this becomes, but I’ll never know until I cast off the lines and leave the dock. As the countdown ticks down, I keep coming back to this: SpeakerSHIP at Sea doesn’t have to be perfect. It just needs to float.

@GroupeSAI …and…?

@ryanfoland ...and...?.

I make a lot of introductions. And every time someone replies all and copies me on every scheduling email that follows, I learn something about them. Not knowing how to BCC is a founder tell. New EntrepreneurSHIP article: the full guide to BCC, warm intros, and the small habits that build (or erode) professional trust. open.substack.com/pub/ryanfoland…

The worst business decisions I made didn’t start with betrayal. They started with: “It’s probably fine.” Red flags are rarely loud. They’re subtle. Rational. Easy to ignore. Here are the 5 I ignored and what they cost me. ryanfoland.substack.com/p/the-red-flag…

@SachinRamje Ohh, that's good.

@ryanfoland So true, Ryan. The hook matters more than the handbook.

Put. The. Firehose. Down. If you need 30 seconds to unload everything about your idea… you’re doing it wrong. The more you talk, the less people listen. The less you talk, the more they ask questions. And questions are where interest begins. Your elevator pitch isn’t supposed to explain everything. It’s supposed to earn the next conversation. Say less. Spark more. open.substack.com/pub/ryanfoland…