When most children had been ready in lengthy strains to trip curler coasters at Hershey Park, Ryan Stana discovered himself gravitating to one thing that gave him a a lot larger thrill: the park’s theater. “I’d sit and watch the exhibits — and I used to be captivated,” he informed Entrepreneur. “And once I was a senior in highschool, I used to be nonetheless watching these exhibits, however I began to note this ‘unpolished’ high quality. Possibly my rose coloured glasses broke, however I noticed a chance to deliver excellence and innovation to attraction and leisure leisure.”
Stana says he had two desires when he was a child: to grow to be a Broadway performer and to grow to be a trainer. And people two passions got here collectively when, shortly after school, he launched his personal dwell experiences firm RWS International. “I’m very fortunate,” he says, “Each of my mother and father are entrepreneurs and are extraordinarily supportive — they taught me that with arduous work, something is feasible.”
Since its launch from the nook of a crowded New York Metropolis house (extra on that later), RWS has grow to be a powerhouse in dwell leisure, casting Broadway exhibits like The Lion King, creating leisure and experiences for cruiselines like Disney Cruise Line, producing world occasions just like the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Video games, and rather more.
Credit score: RWS International
Entrepreneur spoke with Stana to get the complete image of how he launched and grew his firm. Very like the exhibits and occasions RWS International produces, his story is full of drama and motion.
Inform us in regards to the second you determined to start out your personal firm.As quickly as I completed school, I moved to New York Metropolis and have become an affiliate producer for company and retail occasions. I used to be making $600 per week. The corporate I used to be working for had superb artistic, however they didn’t know how you can function and finances. I am unable to imagine I am even saying that as a result of once I was in highschool, I used to be horrible at math. However I noticed, “Hey, they’re making $200,000, however they’re spending $250,000.” I noticed that you might want to have a stability between artistic and operational considering. So someday I referred to as my mother and father and mentioned, “I hate this job.” They usually had been like, “Ryan, why do not you go and open your personal enterprise?” And I mentioned, “OK.” So I give up.
In order that’s the choice — how did you truly begin the enterprise?I went again to my house in New York Metropolis. I had two roommates on the time, Barry and Colby, and I mentioned, “I’ll open an workplace within the nook of our front room. And when the cellphone rings, I would like you to reply it so it seems like individuals work right here. I am going to deduct cash from our utility invoice each month for those who do. I despatched out an e-mail that night time to all of the individuals I had labored with and mentioned, “I now work for RWS International. In case you’re , please attain out.” I did not inform them that I owned it as a result of who was going to belief a 21-year-old?
And when do you know that this concept was going to work?About three weeks in, Clear Channel referred to as me about an upfront presentation and requested me to pitch for a $150,000 occasion. I keep in mind moving into and pitching, and as I used to be leaving the room, the shopper got here out and mentioned, “Ryan, we’re supplying you with this gig.” And I knew we had one thing particular in our key providing: turnkey operations. We deal with the creativity, the individuals and the operations, and have systemized the method.
Your organization does so many various kinds of occasions. Are you able to boil it down for individuals unfamiliar with the dwell occasions area?We are the world chief in creating dwell moments throughout leisure and sports activities. We’re basically damaged down into six divisions: Design vacation spot, the place we are literally designing theme parks, zoos, aquariums, museums, customer facilities. Then now we have our land manufacturing division, the place we’re offering short-term experiences and dwell exhibits in theme parks, retail facilities, and seasonal programming. We do pop-up model experiences in motels and resorts. Then now we have our at-sea manufacturing division, the place we offer full-scale Broadway-type productions and immersive experiences on cruise ships. Then now we have a retail and merchandise division. And our sixth division is our casting division. We offer over 8,000 jobs the world over for technicians and performers. We create a trajectory for our expertise, so you can begin working for us at Six Flags, transfer to a cruise ship, and for those who do properly, get positioned in a Broadway present or a industrial. That enables us to nook the market.
Credit score: Medora Musical
As a performer, may you simply say, “Hey, I’ll solid myself as Simba?”I could not say that and nor would anybody need me to say that anymore. I nonetheless get lots of pleasure in seeing the success of our expertise. That is what drives me. And once I say expertise, it isn’t simply the individuals on the stage. It is seeing the individuals in our workplace have success as properly.
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Are you able to give us a way of your organization’s income progress?We reached near about $50 million in income a yr after the pandemic. We have now grown to 9 figures since then. We expanded principally by acquisitions. We acquired a casting firm in 2016 (Binder Casting), then we bought a vacation spot design enterprise in 2021 (JRA). We then purchased our largest competitor in Europe in 2022 (ted). After which we bought the sports activities division in 2024 (Nice Massive Occasions), and most lately bought an app (Concord Helper) that helps performers be taught their music in a sooner manner, which permits our productions and our shoppers to economize. In 2023, we additionally took on a personal fairness agency, Bluestone Fairness Companions. I bought off a minority quantity of the enterprise to maneuver our firm into the longer term.
Did theater faculty put together you for all of this?I simply be taught as issues come. I actually imagine that when you have a ardour for what you do, you’ll determine it out. I informed a buddy lately that you just need not spend time getting an MBA. When you’ve got a ardour and you’re employed arduous, you are going to have success. However for those who assume being an entrepreneur isn’t 24/7? You are useless unsuitable.
How do you develop in a manageable manner that does not unfold your self too skinny?I’ve made it a degree since day one to not make our success primarily based on myself or any particular person. It is about having the methods and processes for the corporate to develop. And having a timeline for motion. We are saying these are the issues we wish to accomplish in 2025. And if a brand new thought comes up, nice, we bump it to 2026. So as soon as we have laid that basis, the mixing of these companies could be very easy. Now I’d be mendacity to you to say that it has not been bumpy if you’re shopping for six+ corporations, however you hearken to individuals and respect what they are saying, and transfer ahead.
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How do you flip your mind off? Can you watch exhibits and never have your work mind going?I can not calm down once I watch a present — that I can promise you. Folks would most likely snort once I say this, but it surely’s about discovering a work-life stability. And the one one that can change a work-life stability is you as a person. I all the time ensure that as soon as per week, I’ve someday that I shut off. That’s Ryan’s lazy day, the place I simply watch senseless tv and chill and spend time with my husband and my household to keep in mind that with out these individuals, I could not be doing what I do.
