What I Learned Going Broke Last Fall

Ryan Roehl

Jan 23 • General discussion

For those of you that joined and have no idea who tf I am, let me reintroduce myself.

My name is Ryan Roehl. I'm 21, running what I call a "sports marketing agency" - just me and my Philippine editors.

Some numbers to show I'm not full of shit:

Hit my first $10k month at 19, purely through sports content (events, brands, etc.)
Record month was last summer - $45k at about 50% margin
Total 2024: ~$200k in revenue as a college dropout

Numbers sound cool, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows.

This past fall I took a nice hit. Went down to damn near zero due to some bad business decisions.

During that low period I learned something: if I want to build a real lasting business as a creative with a sports background, I can't just make "cool" content. I need to build ecosystems that drive actual results for clients.

So I started exploring the stuff I'd been avoiding - paid ads, funnels, the full marketing picture beyond just videos.

And it changed everything.

Here's what I realized:

My eye for creative vision can be applied to way more than just content. I can combine creative abilities with marketing principles and become a machine that turns eyeballs into actual dollars for clients.

Tactically it looks like this:

Organic content + paid ads + funnels = $$

But here's where it gets interesting.

When you learn this stuff, you escape the trap of trading time for a set rate. Instead, you trade your time for unlimited upside.

Right now you probably charge a couple hundred, maybe a couple thousand a month for a set number of videos. You film, you edit, you deliver. End of the line.

Meanwhile I made almost $8k off one client in January.

Here's the real breakdown:

Client A - January

Base pay: $2,000/mo
Rev share: 15% of revenue I generate
Deliverables: 30 posts/month minimum
Total payout: $7,974

That rev share exists because I can prove my work makes them money. So I take a cut of what I generate.

So here's what's happening next.

I'm going to start running calls every other week inside the community where I break down exactly what I'm doing - the content, the ads, the funnels, the client structures, all of it.

No course. No pitch. Just me sharing what's working in real time.

If you want in, hop back into the Skool group and introduce yourself. Tell me what you're working on right now.

Talk soon, Ryan

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