My 2024 Tribal Biz Building Recap
What I learned this year as an entrepreneur
This is Part 2 of my 2024 Tribal Annual Recap Series.
Part 1 shared my 2024 Tribal Coaching Recap. Part 3 will cover Personal Growth.
In this write up, I cover 8 biz building insights that came out of this past year.
What new things did I try?
What was the result?
What did I learn?
What did I spent a fuck ton of money on? And more…
Here we go.
A Note On This Recap:
This is the biz building recap I’d want to read.
It’s for the version of me who dreamed of becoming an online entrepreneur, building a brand, creating a community and hosting events.
If you’re looking for tips to become a better endurance athlete, you won’t find that here. Those are inside Part 1 of my 2024 Tribal Annual Recap Series.
I purposefully made this write up fun and easy to consume.
It’s tactical, artistic and leaves me inspired to keep building.
There are photos, links to videos, podcasts, bullet summaries and big ideas.
I hope you enjoy it.
1. Bringing On A Right Hand Man
2024 was the year Tribal Prof
joined the coaching staff.Goldstein brought his wisdom as a Professor, Philosopher and Sports Psychologist into Tribal.
He was monumental in supporting/facilitating Team Calls and engaging with athletes 1 on 1.
We became an effective 1-2 punch for athlete development with Goldstein’s expertise targeting an athlete’s heart and my expertise targeting an athlete’s mind.
Here’s how he helped me grow as a biz owner:
I had to evolve to share responsibility.
I learned to trust someone else with team instruction, delegate responsibility and realize that the team can move in the direction I want without my hands gripped tight to every single thing.
Actually, what I learned was that the team moved even more in line with my vision with Goldstein’s support.
Our partnership also did something I didn’t expect…
It unlocked my creativity and willingness to try new things (like the Team Call structure/concepts below).
Plus, it’s just more fun to build cool stuff with awesome people.
Follow Goldstein’s Substack here:
2. Adding Structure To Digital Community Building
I mentioned in Part 1 of my 2024 Recap how important Team Races became…
But a lot of why they were so powerful was the increased team engagement built in a new Team Call structure.
In 2023, Tribal had unstructured Team Calls every month or two.
In 2024, we launched “Tribal Tuesdays” and offered a Team Call every week, rotating between:
Tribal Cafe (exploring new ideas)
Tribal Symposium (open forum discussing new ideas)
Group Coaching Call (coaching tactics and training plan review)
Community Call (team connection, sharing race experiences and more)
This was huge for 2 reasons:
exploring ideas and allowing Team Themes to emerge
This is a key way having Goldstein around was huge for my mindset as a coach:
Creating space for emergence.
I learned that not everything I share on Team Calls needs to be a perfectly packaged presentation. In 2022/2023 I put loads of unnecessary pressure on myself to have Team Calls super polished. It stressed me out and I did them less.
Goldstein helped me drop stress and let them be messy. They became fun and frequent.
The result?
The foundation of the Tribal Philosophy began emerging in real time.
The consistency and structure let us dig into what ideas/needs/challenges were alive with athletes and bring them into broader discussion amongst the whole team. We saw patterns and hammered into them.
Examples:
Adapt and Overcome (Keith Lesson)
Enter Action With Boldness (My DHT Speech)
Lower The Bar, Raise The Execution (Grant Lesson)
Showing up in service makes the experience more meaningful (Zion Lesson)
The team creates space for deeper meaning to emerge beyond just the race (Chattanooga 70.3 Lesson)
building relationships on the team
We had a core group of athletes attend these regularly.
They were the same athletes who grew the most this year across training and life development.
3. Building Brand Values
I think too many founders try to create brand values before their brand is even a thing.
I did this with the tagline: “Commit. Endure. Ascend” in the first year or so of Tribal, and to some degree you do need a launching pad.
But here’s what I saw in Year 3:
It’s more powerful letting values come to life in real time. They’re more truthful and tangible.
This happened through reflection on real athlete experiences (in training, racing and life), weaving them into our common language and expanding the brand identity around them.
Here’s an example:
“Enter Action With Boldness” was the theme of my Do Hard Things speech, which told the story of my dad and I mending a 10 year gap in our relationship through him training for and completing Chattanooga 70.3.
The Team Theme was applied to athletes across training, fitness and most importantly - chasing new opportunities in life.
Then it was reference as athletes took bold action in life, doing things like launching side hustles, publishing content online and moving to places aligned with their identity.
Then a new logo (and merch) was created to solidify it:
Bonus:
I recorded a 20 minute podcast on:
the design process of this logo
how it’s inspired by the Grateful Dead
how I’m building the Tribal Brand through real team experiences (rather than just launching random logos).
Listen HERE.
4. Expanding In-Person Community Building
We’ve done Team Races and Training Camps since 2022. But this was the year that Tribal went from…
an online community with a Team Race and Training Camp opportunity
To…
a Team that is connected online and gets together throughout the year to train and compete
Team Races:
I shared in Part 1 how we had over 20% of the Team at 3 separate events throughout the year.
But what I didn’t mention is that this was the first year we had members of the team show up to Races just to support/crew and be part of the experience.
If you’re looking for more meaning and connection in life, you’ll find it at a Tribal Team Race (even if you’re not competing).
Live Coaching at Races:
This was a major level up this year.
Through 2023, I competed with the team at most Team Races (exception: 2023 Muncie 70.3)
This year I learned that I can 100x the athlete race experience by just coaching at races (specifically Ironman races), not trying to be athlete and coach at the same time.
I traveled to Chattanooga 70.3 to host a full experience ranging from team dinners to on course support.
And Goldstein and I did the same thing together at Ironman Florida.
Training Camps Evolved:
Well first, they almost didn’t happen at all…
Here’s why:
I totally dropped the ball on pitching the June Training Camp to the Team and had 2 of the 3 guys I recruited cancel last minute.
This was another big mindset block that I had to work through.
I was stressed about booking logistics, hesitant on pitching the cost, and pretty much stuck doing nothing…
Once those 2 guys had to cancel, I really wanted to punt on the whole thing.
“Maybe I just won’t host a camp this year…” I said over and over in my head.
But I had one problem…
I had already included camp in another athlete’s package.
So I leaned into the opportunity to deliver a customized 1 on 1 experience and booked a solo AirBnB for my athlete.
What happened next?
The camp was a smashing success, my athlete got a lifetime experience training in Colorado, took down his first Century ride, learned tons of form tips across all 3 sports and enjoyed meals with my family at my house.
Not only was the Camp fkn awesome, it gave me a big mindset unlock on athlete housing:
I realized I didn’t have to stay in the Team AirBnB.
This is something I’d done the past 2 years, and it added a layer of unnecessary stress on my wife to be solo with my son for 3 days.
With the confidence of a successful camp, and the lesson that I can host these without such a family lift, I launched a second Training Camp 2 months later for athletes doing the Team Race at Ironman Florida.
I went from nearly bailing on Camps all together to doubling the number I expected to host, and did them differently (and more successfully) than in year’s prior. LFG!
The Team Camp was a huge success, and I added in a final touch that we’d never done before: the group competed in a local Olympic Tri in Boulder on the final day of camp.
The Tribal Ironman Experience:
This showed me how amazing of a complete Ironman experience Tribal can provide.
My athlete Zach became the example:
joined up with Tribal in the Fall of 2023
did his first triathlon with us at Training Camp (race with teammates, coach on course)
raced with the team in Florida (and crossed the finish line with 2 other athletes)
How freakin’ special…
5. Business Growth and Lead Gen
To date, 90%+ of new Tribal Athletes join the Team via Word of Mouth.
An additional 5%+ have come directly from speaking at the Do Hard Things Conference the past 2 years.
The final 5% have found me online, with little prior knowledge of Tribal.
Since the day I started Tribal, my mind has glorified a perfect lead funnel of Free Resource > Email Sequence > Book A Call > Make An Offer.
That still hasn’t happened.
Whether correct or not, my attention is much more focused on just making the experience for athletes already inside Tribal as amazing as possible.
(I did create a new 5 day “Master Endurance” email course this fall. I still make an effort to build new things and create authority).
A Shift In Endurance Accelerator:
Endurance Accelerator is the online Cohort that I launched in 2023 as a way for athletes to join Tribal and experience what we’re about, without having to commit to 1 on 1 coaching from the jump.
In 2024, I shifted that from an external offer to an internal team building Cohort directed toward organizing athletes who are participating at upcoming Team Races.
Example:
6 to 8 weekly Coaching/Team Building/Mindset calls leading up to Zion 100, Chattanooga 70.3 and Ironman Florida.
The in-Team Accelerators were effective for strengthening the Team, but I also realize that core members of the Team came in through the 2023 Accelerators (and have stayed).
I’d like to find more harmony between the options in 2024.
6. Creating New Opportunities (And Offers)
I am intentional to take athlete feedback and implement new ideas right away.
The best example of this was launching the Tribal Accountability Group for athletes looking to lose weight.
This was an athlete suggestion that I jumped on, and it’s grown to include ~1/3rd of the team to provide support around diet and weight loss goals.
But it’s evolving in real time…
As we wrapped up the year, many athletes expressed needing Accountability in areas outside of weight loss/training/fitness (specifically athletes building businesses and creating content online).
So on the last day of 2024, I launched Tribal Writers Workshop, a 3 call course to teach the team what I know.
New Offers:
Another huge unlock with Goldstein coming onboard was us creating a 2-on-1 Self Leadership Coaching Package.
We launched this to a select few athletes as an add-on experience within Tribal.
Here’s an example of our results:
I mentioned launching Executive Coaching in Part 1 to provide highly customized support for athletes looking to grow in mindset, biz, content creation and more.
What I’ve observed is that longer an athlete is a part of Tribal, the more opportunities open up to support them in their goals outside of athletics.
I help people solve problems, clarify their vision for their life and step into their dream identity.
And that’s not limited to endurance sports.
Example of results:
7. Where Did I Invest To Grow Tribal?
“We don’t make movies to make money. We make money to make more movies” - Walt Disney
My biggest investment in 2024: Team Content
I paid to have a videographer come to Zion 100 and Chattanooga 70.3 to capture the team experience, provide personalized race photos and create documentary style videos of the race.
The highlight of all this was the Zion Movie.
This was my opportunity to be Creative Director on a full length documentary, and launch of Tribal Films as an extension of Tribal’s brand.
(The Zion Movie has 11k+ views on YouTube - most of any video I’ve released)
What Worked:
Captured meaningful life moments that were missed by stock race photographers
Enhanced athlete experience and made people feel a part of something bigger
Strengthened and added legitimacy to Tribal brand
I got to create a new form of art
What Didn’t:
Big lift to have a videographer come out (cost, logistics, etc.)
I don’t know if it was the most effective way to achieve the goals above
Here’s why…
In addition to the Race Content Package, we set up a remote process for day to day YouTube content on how I’m building Tribal, how athletes are growing, etc.
The logistical set up was: Ryan captures footage via GoPro > upload to DropBox for videographer edit > edited videos and still photos returned to Ryan for publish
For day to day YouTube content, this has been kind of a flop.
Pumping out YouTube videos has objectively not led to anything more than a few athletes saying that’s cool.
But an unexpected unlock happened…
The team content filmed on my GoPro (Team Training Camp + Ironman Florida) captured an even more intimate experience than having my videographer there.
I was able to capture exactly how I coach, what’s happening in the race/at camp and more.
Check out these photos…
They might not be exactly as picture perfect quality as the in-person photography…
But they’re 95%+ of the way there. They’re more than good enough.
And here’s the Ironman Florida video:
What I Learned:
getting great footage that highlights athletes is most important
my personal Day In The Life videos are not very valuable to my audience (or a good use of my time and energy to make)
GoPro videos of Team Events can meet my content capture needs, without having my videographer come all the way out to the event
8. Magic Moments
This is my favorite way to build the brand and create loyalty.
What are Magic Moments?
Surprise ways to recognize athletes and show appreciation for them being a part of Tribal and our Team Experiences.
4 Examples:
Tribal Flags waiting for every athlete when they arrived at the Zion Team House
“Unity Axes” sent out to every athlete/crew member who was at Zion, symbolizing our Team Spirit
The Adventures of Tribal Training Chattanooga 70.3 Comic was printed on card stock and sent to every athlete who participated, turning them into superheroes
Mug Club mugs sent out to everyone who completed our Team Ironman (mugs from all 3 Years of Mug Club are in the photo).
But I don’t just like these for brand building and creating loyalty.
These are fun projects for me. I get to make cool things.
I collaborate with artists, designers and craftsmen to bring the Tribal Spirit to life and honor my athletes in the process.
That’s the whole point of having a biz.
Summary Ideas
Brought on Goldstein. Huge unlock.
Expanded Digital Community with structured Team Calls
Building Tribal values and logos through real experiences
In-person coaching at Team Races & expanded Training Camps
Tribal is growing through Word of Mouth, room to bridge Old and New Accelerator Cohorts
Creating new offers within Tribal: 2 on 1, Executive Coaching, Accountability Group
My biggest financial investment in 2024: Team Content
Creating Magic Moments are the whole point of having a biz
Do you want to be a part of everything I’m building?
Thanks so much for reading,
Ryan
What a YEAR we had on the team
2025 is doubling down on ALL THIS
Let's work brother!