YouSaid · the spoken record

Eric Ryan

lines on the record: 63
first: 2025-06-26
most recent: 2025-06-26
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Eric, when you launched Method 25 years ago, it was a different landscape. But how do you think about distributing a product, selling a product? Are you leaning heavily into online? Do you still believe in the traditional Walmart's targets and Kroger's of the world?”
2025-06-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so, I mean, you look at method, it almost looks like what a kid would want to clean with. Ali, what I did was I brought kids gummy vitamins to the adult market. Welly, I got adults to wear, you know, bandages that were supposed to be for kids. And I think that's how I create that emotional connection is this almost like an inner child approach to these very, very serious categories.”
2025-06-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Is and it's not just I mean, I see design as part of a tool and creating brands that have an incredible emotional connection. And I want to create brands and products that the second you see it, you want it, and then hopefully you actually need it, which is fun going into these more fundamental categories. But the heart of it, what I'm trying to create is almost like objects of desire. And I want to create this emotional connection through great design, great creativity, like working every touch point to be able to do that. And I think if you really dig down a little deeper kind of part of, like I say,”
2025-06-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And really, you've become known as a sort of a creative brand builder. Like, you focus a lot on, in the method conversation, we talked, I think, a significant part of that conversation was just talking about the bottle design, that that really was so important, even though you were making an organic, because a lot of people think, okay, let's make an organic soap, we'll slap organic on the label. It'll say toxic free, and people will flock to it for those reasons. And your view is, well, that's not good enough. Let's make a beautiful bottle that looks so nice you want to put on your sink. And, you know, if they discover it's organic, afterwards, great. Like, so is design for you the core, the sort of the center of how you build products?”
2025-06-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. And you pick yourself up and you get right back at it, or you keep building. But no, failure has to be part of it. As I said to my kids, like with skiing, if you're not falling down, well, you're just not trying hard enough.”
2025-06-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. I love to tone it like a dear friend, Tony Shea, who we lost. Would I always say sometimes you're sitting at the wrong poker table? And, you know, until you get into an industry and really understand the characteristics of it, and look, you always have to go in being naive. Having that beginner's eye, otherwise, you wouldn't do it. But no, failure is part of it. I've had failures of both on the business side as well as within the companies that have been successful method. We had a regional personal care line called Block that was a massive failure.”
2025-06-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's amazing how many different brands you've built and how so many of them have been successful. One of the things that I think is really critical to mention, Eric, is that you've also started brands that didn't work out, right? Which is really important to know, right? Is that in order to have those big successes, you know, Ollie and Welly and Method, you've got to take big swings, right?”
2025-06-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. So I've always wanted to, I think Willie Wonka is my favorite movie of all time. So let's go be Willie. So Tandy is better for you candy, low sugar, nothing artificial, tastes great, but each one has a functional benefit.”
2025-06-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so I definitely have a little bit of an academic approach to it. Unlike a lot of founders, we'll follow something they're really passionate about or they see a problem in the world they want to solve. I really start with like categories. And so I will look for spaces that I think are a sea of saveness. And that's kind of the clue dig here. And what I do is I look for what I call like the cultural shift or the macro trend that that category is missing. So in the case of method, we found two is lifestyling of the home. Like nobody thought about these products as a form of self-expression in your home. I mean, you look at a dish soap more than you use it. At the same time, this is back in 2000, you couldn't buy a natural product outside of a natural store. But yet you were asked to pollute when you clean or use poison to make your home healthier. So those were the two macro trends of high design and deep sustainability that we built the brand off of. And so within each business, that's the opportunity I look for. And I kind of then build a.”
2025-06-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Recommend it. It's an excellent episode, and we will put a link to it in the show notes. Eric, before we get to today's callers, it's been a few years since you've been on the show. So I wanted to just kind of ask a couple questions. First of all, one of the things that you've done and really started with method is you're not an expert necessarily in any of these things, in vitamins or soap or first aid. But you go into spaces that where you find opportunity. So how do you think about starting businesses? Are you literally looking for where there might be an opportunity?”
2025-06-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You were originally on the show back in 2018 and Adam Lowry, your method co-founder. I interviewed you guys in person in San Francisco. And just to remind people of the story, you guys were childhood friends from Michigan. You were both on the sailing teams. And then after college, you moved to San Francisco. And then the 90s started to talk about starting a cleaning products business. And this, by the way, was when everyone in San Francisco in the 90s was talking about a tech company. You guys are talking about a cleaning products company, but one that was like was environmentally friendly but that actually worked. And so in 2001, you launched Method selling the now very well-known colorful soaps in those sleek bottles, which we talked about on the show, how you spend so much time designing those bottles. The brand was eventually acquired by SE Johnson. Then you went on to co-found, as I mentioned, a bunch of other brands, including the Gummy Vitamin Company, Ollie, and the first aid brand, Welly, which were also acquired. By the way, if you guys haven't heard my original episode with Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry, I really...”
2025-06-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let's get to it. Joining me this week is Eric Ryan. He's a serial entrepreneur, co-founder of Wait for it method Welly Ollie and so many other brands Eric, it's great to have you back on the show.”
2025-06-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If you've been listening to our show and thinking about that business you plan to start one day, Shopify makes it easy to make it happen. Everything you need to start selling is included and ready from day one. From your very first sale, Shopify checkout will help your customers finish their purchase one tap and they're done and with Shopify taking care of the setup and checkout you can focus on growing your business and the tools that will help you get there Shopify's millions of businesses worldwide from some of the world's biggest brands to small businesses just getting started with Shopify nothing stands between your idea and a real business so go make it one Start your free trial at shopify.co.uk. That's shopify.co.uk slash build. Shopify.co.uk slash built.”
2025-06-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT