Your Next Video Could Go Viral — Here's Why You're Not There Yet

What does it actually take to go viral, build businesses from scratch, and stop waiting for someone to give you permission? Ryan Boswell did all three — and today he's here to break it all down. Ryan cold-emailed 300 longboard companies at 12 years old, dropped out of college to join a startup, and accidentally filmed a video in a $129 horse trough that got 5 million views overnight. Now he runs a high-ticket deal negotiation firm, has built multiple companies across industries, and has generated 250-300 million views on content about personal development and productivity. In this episode, Ryan shares why your first idea is probably wrong (and why that's a good thing), how creators and entrepreneurs can stop being fatally married to one path, and the mindset shift that separates people who go viral from people who stay stuck. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Who is Ryan Boswell 0:45 - 5 rapid fire questions 1:15 - Is going viral mostly luck? 1:35 - Doubting yourself and doing it anyway 2:10 - Why doubt is actually healthy 2:40 - The mindset that separates action takers 3:05 - Ryan's entrepreneurial roots 3:45 - Cold emailing 300 longboard companies at 12 4:20 - How social media sponsors found him at 17 5:00 - Running social media for college sports teams 5:45 - Joining his first AI startup as employee #1 6:20 - Getting diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, and OCD 7:00 - Why Ryan started making content about mental health 7:25 - The $129 horse trough that changed everything 8:00 - 5 million views overnight — what actually happened 8:45 - Building a 150K following around cold plunging 9:20 - How a TikTok video led to running a business 9:55 - Moving across the country to be CEO of Cold Plunge Studios 10:40 - Getting the business to profitability and handing it back 11:10 - Should you leave college for a startup? 12:00 - Why Ryan treats his career as a direction, not a path 13:15 - Experience over money — the real formula 14:10 - When the goal is experience, everything is a win 15:30 - The fanny pack failure and what it taught him 17:40 - The number one thing that kills deals 19:35 - Don't be fatally married to your idea 22:45 - The Slack origin story — from video game to billion dollar tool 25:00 - The three pillars of building a successful business 30:25 - How Ryan wants to be remembered 32:10 - Why he hates the word "networking" 36:20 - Working at McDonald's and the hand model reveal Subscribe So We Can Hit 1K Thanks For Watching!