We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ryan Sneddon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ryan, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard
Our local newspaper is written at a post-grad level. This is such a miss because to reach the masses in America, you should be writing at a sixth grade level or lower. People get upset about this because it makes them sound unintelligent. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Honestly, the grade-level system is a silly way to judge reading difficulty. But our local newspaper’s stories are so complicated that people don’t enjoy reading it. I can take the same information they spend 1,200 post-grad level words conveying and give it to people in 100 words at a fourth grade level. Which one do you think people like better?
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My business is local news. I use an email newsletter to tell the good people of Annapolis, MD (and soon more cities) what’s happening. It’s the best way for them to find out where the live music is that night, where the parties are that weekend, what new restaurants and stores are opening up. Basically we tell them how to have fun where they live.
I got into this because I lived in a city that had a similar publication. Once I moved away, I missed it. So I created it. I have no background in journalism or anything like that. I’m an engineer. But I know if you can fill a need, you can have a good business. This fills a need and it’s on its way to being a great business.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
This is still my favorite story of the business. I decided to have a party to celebrate one year in business. I rented an awesome venue, hired the best caterer in town, picked a nonprofit to donate any proceeds to, and went off to the races. I was so confident we would sell out. And we did. But it took right up until the last minute.
A day before the party, it came time to pay the catering bill. It was $10,600. The business bank account only had $10,900 in it. My personal account probably had about $2,000. Aside from a small stock account (worth less than $2,500) that I won’t touch except for in extreme need, that was all I had in the world.
I was so scared to pay that bill. But I did. I knew I’d figure it out. From then on, I was bulletproof. I knew if I could do that, I could do anything. No challenge truly scares me in business anymore. I’ve laid it all on the line and bet on myself multiple times since then. Always bet on yourself.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I showed up. If you do business in one specific area like a law firm, restaurant, etc., show up at everything you can in town. People seeing your face will always be worth it. I’d delay work until the wee hours of the night to hit every event I could think of—networking events, grand openings, open houses, everything. Soon enough, everyone started to know me.
It’s the same way I made friends in high school. I just kept hanging out until I was part of the group.
Contact Info:
- Website: naptownscoop.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naptownscoop/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifeof_scoop