When most of the children waited in long lines to roller in Hershey Park, Ryan Stana found himself on something that gave him a much greater thrill: Park Theater. “I sat down and watched the programs – and I was captivated,” he said Entrepreneur. “And when I was a senior in high school, I still watched these programs, but I started noticing this” unpaid “quality. Maybe my glasses in the color of rose cracked, but I saw the opportunity to ensure perfection and innovation in attractiveness and recreational entertainment. “
Stana says he had two dreams when he was a child: grow to be a contractor on Broadway and grow to be a teacher. And these two passions gathered when he launched his own company soon after graduation RWS Global. “I am lucky,” he says – “Both my parents are entrepreneurs and support very much – they taught me that everything is possible with hard work.”
Since the premiere from the corner of a crowded apartment in New York (more about it later), the RWS has grow to be the power of live entertainment, filling programs on Broadway Lion kingBy creating entertainment and experience for disc lines resembling Disney Cruise Line, producing global events resembling the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024, and much more.
Loan: RWS Global
Entrepreneur He talked to face to get a full picture of how he launched and bred his company. Like the programs and events of RWS Global, its history is filled with drama and motion.
Tell us about the moment when you made the decision to start out your personal company.
As soon as I finished College, I moved to New York and became an associate producer of corporate and retail events. I did $ 600 a week. The company I worked for had amazing creativity, but they didn’t know find out how to act and budget. I can not consider that I even say it because when I used to be in highschool, I used to be terrible in mathematics. But I noticed: “Hey, they earn $ 200,000, but spend $ 250,000.” I saw that you have to have a balance between creative and operational pondering. One day I called my parents and said, “I hate this work.” And they said: “Ryan, why don’t you go and open your own business?” And I said, “OK”. So I gave up.
So this is the decision – how did you truly start a company?
I returned to my apartment in New York. At the time, I had two roommates, Barry and Colby and I said: “I will open an office in the corner of our salon. And when the phone rings, I have to answer that people work here. If you are interested, please contact us.” I didn’t tell them that I had it because who was to trust the 21-year-old?
And when did you know that this concept would work?
About three weeks later, Clear Channel called me a presentation and asked for a $ 150,000. I remember how I got here in and threw myself, and when I left the room, the client left and said: “Ryan, we give you this concert.” And I knew that we had something special in our key offer: turnkey operations. We deal with creativity, people and operations and systemalize this process.
Your company does so many several types of events. Can you clean it for people ignorance of the space of live events?
We are a world leader in creating live moments in entertainment and sport. Basically, we are divided into six divisions: the destination where we actually design amusement parks, garden gardens, aquariums, museums, centers for visitors. Then we have our land production department, in which we offer temporary experience and live live shows in amusement parks, retail centers and seasonal programming. We make pop-ups brands in hotels and resorts. Then we have our AT-SEA production department, in which we offer full-fledged Broadway productions and engaging experience on cruise ships. Then we have a retail and freight department. And our sixth department is our casting unit. We provide over 8,000 jobs around the world for technicians and contractors. We create a trajectory of our talent, so you possibly can start working for us at Six Flags, move to a cruise ship, and if you manage well, be placed at the show on Broadway or promoting. This allows us to show off the market.
Loan: Medior Musical
As a performer, you could possibly simply say, “Hey, will I throw myself as Simba?”
I could not say it and no person would love me to say that. I still have a lot of joy seeing the success of our talent. It drives me. And when I say talent, it is not just people on the stage. He sees people in our office also succeed.
Can you give us a sense of increase in your organization’s revenues?
We achieved nearly $ 50 million revenues a 12 months after the pandemic. Since then, we have grown to nine characters. We have expanded mainly through acquisitions. We took over the casting company in 2016 (Casting Binder), and then we bought a design company in 2021 (JRA). Then we bought our largest competitor in Europe in 2022 (TED). And then we bought a sports department in 2024 (large large events), and recently we bought an application (Harmony Helper), which helps contractors learn their music faster, which allows our productions and our clients get monetary savings. In 2023, we also covered Private Equity, Bluestone Equity Partners. I sold a minority amount of the company to transfer our company to the future.
Did the theater school prepare you for all this?
I just learn when things come. I actually consider that if you have a passion for what you do, you’ll come up with it. I recently said a friend that you simply don’t have to spend time getting an MBA. If you have a passion and work hard, you can be successful. But if you think being an entrepreneur is not 24/7? You don’t be concerned.
How do they grow in a possible technique to master, which does not spread too thin?
From the first day I didn’t offer you to not succeed based on me or any person. It’s about the development of systems and processes. And having a schedule of motion. We say that these are things that we wish to attain in 2025 and if a latest idea appears, great, we hit it until 2026. So after putting this foundation, the integration of those corporations is quite simple. Now I’d mislead you to say that it wasn’t bumpy when you purchase six corporations, but you hearken to people and respect what they say and go forward.
How do you switch off the brain? Can you watch programs and not have your brain?
I can not loosen up when I watch the program – I can promise you. People would probably laugh when I speak, but it’s about finding a balance between skilled and private life. And the only one that can change the balance between skilled and private life, you are as an individual. I all the time make sure that once a week I have one day I’ll turn off. This is the lazy day of Ryan, in which I just watch mindless television and leisure and spend time with my husband and family to recollect it without these people, I could not do what I used to be doing.