|
25 years, beginning as waitress, then to bar manager, then to food & beverage
manager, then to hotel manager! She has easily been the biggest influence on my life with my brother a close
second," Todd told us with pride
and appreciation.
In high school he was Sports Editor of the school newspaper and a
DJ for the school radio station.
Todd said, "My plan after high school was to move to New York or L.A. to be a
disc jockey and comedian
with no college
necessary, but my brother had different ideas and enrolled us both in college at
Indiana University. We both graduated
in 1988, him in Business, me with a Bachelor of Arts in
Communication. After college I wanted to pursue a career as
a writer for television so I moved to
Los Angeles immediately after graduating.
In my first job, from 1988-1991, I was selling business telephone systems for American
Business Phones which was bought by PacTel. I was a top salesman each year out of
60-80 sales reps in California. I left and joined
Lehman Brothers as a stockbroker in 1991 and worked for several big brokerage firms such as
Smith Barney, Prudential and
Dean Witter/Morgan Stanley."
1989
in Los Angeles - Todd
Ryan in his first job at American
Business Phones.
|
Those years gave Todd the experience he needed
to go into business for
himself in 1996 when he
launched his Registered
Investment Advisor firm American
Business Capital Corp, a
company he still
operates today. "At that same time I started ABC
Productions, a film production
company," Todd said, ' I found it difficult to get hired into a network sitcom writer's room so I decided to start
my own production company and work on my first feature
film."
"In 1997 I wrote my first screenplay titled Xchange about two very different LA high
schools. One was in the notorious South Central area of Los Angeles with a large gang presence while the other was an all girl preparatory school in a very affluent neighborhood in
Palos Verdes Estates. When two classes, one from each school, get together for a
poetry exchange, things quickly get out of hand. The movie's message is no matter where a person grows up or how they may express themselves,
we are much more alike than
different, and no one is better or above any other
person." A few years
later the film went into
production with Todd
directing and co-producing
with aspiring filmmaker Gerardo Flores
Villarreal, who is still
his production partner today.
Distributors changed the
title to Rappin' n' Rhyming
and released the movie in
2002. "Gerry and I produced our second feature titled
Las
Angeles, which he wrote and directed, in
2010," Todd added. |
|
The
DVD box cover for
Rappin' N; Rhyming', a
2002 feature film
written, directed and
co-produced by Todd
Ryan. |
|
|
"I have been working on my next feature film,
Goodfinger, for more than a
decade. We had a big setback when actor Ray Liotta
unexpectedly passed but hope to get the film in production in 2027. My stepson,
Eduardo Wienskoski, who is a fantastic filmmaker and part of the production team on
Goodfinger, works at the
Television
Academy and has made it possible for my wife
Beatriz and I to attend the Emmys
for the past three
years."
While going to the Emmys has been a great
experience, the biggest thrill
any movie-loving kid could
imagine happened for Todd many
years before that. "In
addition to the Emmys,
I've been fortunate enough to attend the Grammys as well, but the highlight of awards shows for me was
taking mom to the Academy Awards in
1991," Todd recalled
with the delightful memories
of the occasion (below) still
fresh in his mind. |
Todd
and wife Beatriz at the 2026
Emmy Awards
ceremony in
Los Angeles September 14th. |
Todd
Ryan and his mother Cathi at
the 1991 Academy Awards ceremony.
The Oscar winner
that year was Dances With
Wolves. (AI used only to correct
color and image sharpness).
Todd's
journey in the domain world also got
off to an early start. "In 1997 I registered my first domain name
- abcproductions.com for my
company. The second domain I registered was
ToddRyan.com. I was fascinated that
anyone around the world could go to abcproductions.com and learn about my
first film. Along with that film, I produced a
soundtrack that had some high profile artists on it at the time such as
Snoop Dogg. I thought it would be cool to have Snoop Dogg's website help promote my film but
Snoop was not managing his own site at the time. In fact, he had a web designer who was
holding the domain hostage because he felt he was owed some money for building the
site. I worked out a deal with
the designer and acquired SnoopDog.com
SnoopDogg.com and SnoopDogg.net.
Before giving them to Snoop, I redirected all three to
abcproductions.com and it certainly helped promote my film and it's associated
soundtrack," Todd said.
"I also had a friend who was a disc jockey in the
Cincinnati area who owned 2pac.com and
SnoopDoggyDogg.com and he agreed to forward those to abcproductions.com as
well," Todd recalled. 'That's when I realized the value of domain names and the traffic they provide.
I was also friendly with actor/rapper Ice-T
at the time and noticed he was using the domain name
mcicet.com for his website. I assisted him in
filing a UDRP for the domain name
IceT.com, got a positive outcome for him
and he still operates on IceT.com to this day."
|
Todd's
fascination with domains
continued to grow over the
years that followed. "In between making movies, I was busy buying domain names and building
websites," Todd said.
" From 2002-2010 I built a portfolio of
more than 5,000 domain
names, mostly four-letter .com domains. At one point I had more than
3,500 four-letter .com domains. I spent a lot of time on
NamePros reading about what other domain investors were doing, and
contributing as
well."
"I followed all the domain blogs closely, especially
DNJournal.com. Reading your lists of reported sales would be the
number one motivator for me to be part of this
industry," Todd noted.
" I simply was mesmerized by the thought of selling a domain for thousands of dollars after buying it for less than $10. Snoop Dogg gave me
$300 back in 2002 for
SnoopDogg.com and |
Todd
Ryan and Ron Jackson (DNJournal.com)
at the
2022 NamesCon Global
conference in Austin, Texas. |
|
SnoopDogg.net as a courtesy because I was giving him the domains after I used them for promotion, so I don't consider that my first sale. My first sale was for
SnoopDog.com to domain investor
Gregory Ricks on January 27,
2003." |
That first sale over 23 years ago was the start
of something bigger than Todd likely
could have imagined at the time.
"Since then I've generated nearly
$3 million from hand registered domain
names," Todd said. "The most I have ever spent on a domain is
$1,200 for CaliGirl.com
(purchased from Monte Cahn) for my brand
Cali Girl that I created in 2001. My cost basis for domain names is
lower than most other domain investors because
my portfolio consists of 98% hand registered domain names that are
15 to 20 years old. The increase in .com registration costs and renewal fees are the only things that have increased my cost basis over the years. In 2015 my portfolio reached a peak of
6,500 names, with 3,500 of those being four letter .com domains. I sold approximately
2,000 four-letter domains in 2015-2016 during the
Chinese domain boom. Today my portfolio
is just over 1,000 domains."
|
While Todd doesn't have to manage as many
domains as he did a decade ago, he has
been busier in the domain business
this year than he has ever been.
"I am still a domain investor, but my primary business in the domain industry is my role as Managing Director and Senior Paralegal at
JJN Solutions Law, PLLC, where I work closely with Founder & CEO
Jeffrey J. Neuman on advising clients on domain name disputes, domain portfolio management, intellectual property, entertainment law, licensing, contract negotiations, and brand protection. We
are very proud at JJN Solutions to have
helped some of the best companies in the world apply for gTLDs in this latest
round. Now that Reveal Date is
over, we can proudly share that
Cloudflare, Lovable, Notion, Ramp, Datadog and World Chess are a few of the clients that we have assisted in applying for gTLDs this round. In addition to working with Jeff at JJN Solutions, I am co-founder of
PayNow.com with co-founder, domain industry legend (who I consider a brother)
Chad Folkening. PayNow allows business to get paid directly to their domain name." |
JJN
Solutions Founder Jeff
Neuman
speaking at the
January 2026
ICA Annual Meeting in Las
Vegas. |
That would be enough to keep anyone
busy, but for Todd there is more.
"I regularly participate as a speaker, moderator, and panelist at industry conferences, including
NamesCon and the
Internet Commerce Association Annual
Meeting, and host two weekly podcasts, the
Domain Name Law Show with Jeff Neuman
and David Michaels, focusing on legal and policy issues affecting domain names and
The DNX Show with Josh
Reason, focusing on domain-name investing.
At NamesCon in Miami next month
(November 11-12, 2026), I will be moderating a question and answer session with three of the industries top attorneys,
Jeff Neuman, John Berryhill and
Jason Schaeffer, and I will be on stage with the
Domain King, Rick Schwartz, showcasing builders who are participating in his
Beanstalk Challenge
just before you (Ron Jackson) join him on stage to announce the winner of stage one of his challenge in the
big finale. I will also be roasting domain industry participants at this year's NamesCon and
again at the ICA Annual
Meeting January 25-27,2027 in Las
Vegas."
Todd
Ryan's roasting skills were on full
display when he barbecued Braden
Pollock at the 2026 Internet Commerce
Association Annual Meeting in Las
Vegas. Todd had the audience in
stitches from start to finish. Todd is
flanked at left by Jeff Sass (.ART)
and t right by Monte Cahn (RightOfTheDot.com).
|
When asked why he joined the ICA six years ago,
Todd told us, "I joined because I've
benefited in so many ways from being part of this industry and felt it was long overdue to
support the ICA
who does so many things to advocate on my behalf. The ICA team has grown quite a bit over the past few years and I appreciate the whole team as well as the board of directors. I am very fond of
Nat, Zak, Kamila and Tiffany and consider them each colleagues and friends. I make it a point to attend as many in-person and virtual meetings as I can and am honored that they allow me to lead many of the calls. The whole membership is a group of smart, professional and fun individuals and the
commercial members are the leaders in our
space. If not |
|
Todd
with Jimmy Kimmel
and Bill Hader in
Hollywood. While
Todd has met many
stars over the
years, many of his
most valued
relationships have
been made in the
domain
industry. |
|
|
for the ICA, I likely would not have built the strong partnerships with
Jeff Neuman and Chad Folkening that I have today." |
In the first sentence of this article I wrote
Todd going from "small town
Indiana to Hollywood and back."
The "and back" part might
puzzle some of the many friends
and acquaintances Todd has made over
the years. Todd explained, "After living in California for
38 years, I recently moved to Bloomington, Indiana
with my wife Beatriz, my English Setter dogs
Max (white/black) and Bobby (white/orange), and two horses,
Obeda (cremello) and Ringo Star
(brown)." That's sounds like a Happy Ending if there ever
was one, but knowing Todd, it's just
the start of yet another exciting new
chapter!
|
