Sales Is the Way Out – Hardcore Closer Ryan Stewman Talks Life, Strategy and 8 Figure Business

Welcome to Make More Marbles. My name is Brad Hart and we're here to interview the game changers, the future makers, the co collaborators and creators who are here to collaborate with one another towards a better future for all of us. Enjoy the show. We've got a great guest coming up for you right now. Welcome to Make More Marbles. My name is Brad Hart and today I am thrilled and honored and overjoyed to have the hardcore closer, Mr. Ryan Stuman the show. Thank you so much for having me, Ryan.

Or hey, I'm excited to be here, Brad. I'm excited to be here, Brad. It's gonna be good times today. They're gonna remember this one when we're done.

Yes, sir. Let's get the energy up. Let's get it rolling right into it. So. So, Ryan, you have a pretty awesome story. The first time I was in interacting with you was at Russell's event. Russell Dillon and Todd over at Funnel Clickfunnels rather. They did Funnel hacking live. And you came on and you just rocked the audience. I mean, I was blown away by a lot of the speakers there. You know, we had Marcus Lemonis, we had Sean Stephenson and others. But the way you kind of just were able to just help people right on the spot with their objections or with their issues with sales. I mean, you're the guy that people look up to, along with Grant Cardone and others, to really, like, be that I'm gonna make it rain. I'm gonna be the guy who makes it happen. Right? All salespeople really drive all commerce. So I just wanna say I appreciate you being that for people. And also I would love to kind of get some of your thoughts on what brought you to where you are today as a person reflection.

Well, you know, I've been on a hell of a journey and obviously you heard my story at Funnel Hacking, but I mean, I've literally, right now I've got a net worth of a little bit above $5 million. And in 2008, I left federal prison with $25 to my name. There was no dude with like, a briefcase full of cash and snakeskin boots with a, you know, Cadillac with bullhorns on the front of it outside of the prison waiting for me like, hey, dude, we're glad you're back. Here's a boatload of money. Now you're rich. Like, like that. For me, it was like I left and I went to the halfway house and I literally, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I had been locked up for two years. And I was watching. And prior to that I was in the mortgage business and I was watching the mortgage business implode from them, from like literally the inside of a prison. So not only my life was in big jeopardy at that time because being locked up and stuff, but like there was my friends, they were losing their business and they were losing their homes and having to start over. 2007, 8 and 9 were some of the worst years in the housing market in the history of America. I mean, Jesus, we had to give the bank $700 billion just so that they could pay their frickin bills, you know what I mean? And, and I got out of prison and I didn't know that I wanted to go back into mortgages. And what's funny is I've never had a salary job my entire life. I've never taken like a paid vacation. I've never been like paid time off. It's like, if it's meant to be, it's up to me, right? And so I went and I've never been turned down for a job and I've only applied for like two jobs in my entire life. I've always been recruited away from wherever it was that I was working at. So I go apply for this job and it was like a dream job. I mean, after being locked up in federal prison, it was at the top of a penthouse and or at the top of a building and there was like vending. I still remember, man, this was all so cool to me back then. There was like vending machines with Red Bull that was free. There was a TV above every cubicle and I was like, dude, I'm going to come in here and I'm going to wreck shit shop for these people, right? But they did this job interview process and it was like this guy thought he was like, Ben, what's it? Ben Affleck from Boiler room. He comes there, he's like, sales is blah, blah, blah. And I'm sitting there thinking, dude, I probably made more money sitting in prison the last two years or two years prior to go to prison than I did than this guy's making right now. And he's acting like he's this like big sales guy. So I like, you know, I like let them do their thing. And. And they called me back for the second interview. And the second interview I didn't pass the background check. And since the first time in my life I've been turned down for a job and a sales job, no doubt. And they were like, we like, you Think you'll do good here, but you know, you're kind of an idiot. You've got a lot of red marks on your, your background. And so because I was like devastated, I was like, dude, I'm gonna work in the Red Bull vending machine office, man. Like, I thought that was gonna be the shit, you know, and, and it really like set me back. And one of my friends, I was telling this story, we're drinking a couple beers, right? So that's what you do when you're poor and you don't have any money. You go and you drink a couple beers and bitch about your sorrows with your friend, right? And he's like, well, dude, I could get you a job at the mortgage company I work for. And I said, man, I don't know about that business. I mean I did good in it, but I've watched CNBC tell you that it's a bad idea and the banks are going to float and we're all eventually going to be homeless. And I don't know if I'm going to buy into that. He's like, you know what? You don't have a job right now.

You had an optimistic viewpoint at that time.

Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, if you know how it is, you go into a negative spiral, right? I just got out of prison, they won't give me a job. This is some bullshit. Like that's what we do. I'm not above that, right? And neither is anybody else. And so I go through that and I was like. He goes, well, look man, you can work there for as long as you want. It's not like you have to work there for forever, but at least you'll have a job. And I thought, all right, I'll give it a try. And my first day on the, I took another mortgage job. And for a place that I competed really heavily against within the past was kind of a conflict of ego. Well, but I, my first day there, I was like, oh shit. They give us leads, we get leads here. I'd always been self gen, right? And I made a bunch of money being a self gen guy. It's like, I don't have to leave this place. And they send me people that are actually interested in diamonds. I've been talking strangers. They have no interest in doing stuff. Dude, man, it's like I biohacked the mortgage industry. Well then I had this like this inclination to start asking all my friends that had quit the business, like, hey man, what you do with all your contacts? And because at the same time the market was imploding, mortgage rates were dropping like flies. And so I was like, hey man, let me refinance your database or let me take care of your database. You're not going to use it anymore. And in 2009, one of the worst years on the record for mortgages, I ended up originating 183 loans, made like $300,000, my cut on a W2. And that's like one year out of prison and two years out of prison time. 2010 rolls around, President Obama signed something called the Dodd Frank Act. I lost my ability to originate mortgages. And so that would be like a common story with me. The state of Texas is okay with guns, but there's some guns that are banned federally. And that's what I went to federal prison for, is I got caught with a gun. That state says cool. The Feds didn't. Well, the same thing. The state said it's cool for me to write mortgages, but the Feds say that it isn't. And so unfortunately, here in America, it's supposed to be states rights over feds rights, but they're two to treat as two different entities. So if one doesn't agree with the other, then the other one's definitely not going to take your back. And so I was out of a job again. And this time instead of $25, I had about 25,000 saved up. And I quickly blew through that because that's what we do, right? And my level of living was at 300 grand a year. So $25,000 saved wasn't going to last me with the bills and shit that I had for very long. And I went to go ask a friend of mine for a sales job, and he's like, hey man, why don't you try this Internet marketing thing? Why don't you build a business based around your expertise and the things that you've done? I mean, you're like the comeback kid. And I was like, yeah, man, but don't nobody want to hear me, man, can I get a job for you? And he's like, I'm going to do you a favor. Yes, you can always come work for me. But I'm going to give you these DVDs that I paid $8,000 for. And I'm like, dude, this guy's like the cheapest bastard I know. I'm like, you paid eight grand for something? I'm going to check this out. And he gave me these DVDs, and they were Ryan Dice's continuity blueprint. And it taught me how to upload a blog and build a website and a bunch of stuff that kids these days would never do. But I knew at that point I was on to something. And now for seven years, I've been a full time Internet marketer. Our company will probably do somewhere around 6 million in sales, maybe a little bit more this year. Last year we did a little bit over 2 million in sales. And I have six other companies as well. So I have like, over the last seven years I have really built this thing up from like absolutely failing again, having to start all over again, and having no direction through a sales machine how We've already done $112,000 in sales today. And so. And thank you. But what's crazy is that's not an abnormal day for us these days. And so, you know, and I don't say that like, well, I kind of say it to practice. Fucking cool. I never thought I'd be able to say that in my lifetime. You know what I mean? But on the other hand, it's like I literally, like, you have no excuse. The folks listening, they're trying to build a business that have college education to parents that give them loans and credit cards and money in the bank and all these like, things like inheritance and all this. I don't have any of that. I, I had two criminal convictions. $25 and drive. And I promise you, the drive is what's taken me to where I'm at now. And I've done that through sales. Obviously, the entire way to the top has been obviously not only just making sales for my company, but teaching people how to make more sales as well. And I'm one of the few people that's had thousands of clients and been doing this for a long time. And I'm not on the rip off report, I'm not on the salty Droid. I got a few haters, but they've never been clients. It's that kind of thing with me. And I never lied. Like I was never like, oh yeah, here I am in my garage or my mansion with like fake cars and stuff. There was times where I was like, I screwed up people and I have to live with my in laws, but I will get through this, you know what I mean? And I've just kind of owned it this entire way. And you know, now we just moved into our office. This is the first podcast that I've shot from our new office. And we just moved into our office. It's 3200 square foot look overlooking the Dallas North Tollway and some of the most prime real estate in all of Dallas, Texas, our office. When you walk in, everybody that comes in is like, holy shit, this is nice. So, you know, literally, I've worked my ass off for the last seven years to make all my dreams come true to a point where I gotta. I gotta find more dreams, you know, I gotta dream bigger.

I guess that's a beautiful thing, right? You stepped into your vision, as it were, and here you are. And now the law of familiarity will kick in. You gotta make a new vision, but that's okay, because you're here where you're at, and you have more resources and capacity to do more for more people, if that's what you choose to do. And that's what's funny is like, people that think, oh, I'm going to get to a place to retire. You're going to probably want to stick bicycle spokes in your eyes before you want to do nothing.

Right? Right.

You're driven for a reason. The drive never really goes away. It's because you always want to grow and you always want to contribute at a higher level, at some level. Right. And that's what makes you successful. So I appreciate that about you and I want to support you in whatever way I can. A couple things I want to pull on some threads here besides yourself and your products and services, which are awesome. I haven't gone through them myself, and I'm looking forward to checking some more out. I read your book a little bit, but what would you recommend? Like, what were some of the people in the industry that you looked up to when you were learning about sales that you would be like, yeah, I would absolutely recommend this person's program. Like, we always hear about the, you know, the Grant Cardone's or the Jordan Belfort. I've taken his course on straight line persuasion. I don't think he sells it anymore, you know, and things like that. But what are some of the ones that you really like?

You know, I've taken just about all of them. And I think the best thing that any sales guy can do, short on giving your money to me, is to buy a book by a gentleman named Chet Holmes called the Ultimate Sales Machine and read that book and watch anything that Chet's ever put on. He's. He's passed away now. He's been dead for a long time.

Yeah. I think Amanda runs the company now, right?

Yeah. Well, I don't even think she has anything to do with it anymore. I met her when I spoke at GKIC not too long ago, and I think she's kind of independent of that now nowadays as well. She was doing some like monk stuff, I believe when I was there anyway. But so like he's the most like, even though he was way ahead of his time, he's the most similar sales process to me. And I never got an opportunity to pay the man because he was passed away by the time I discovered him. But him and Oren Clef has been another one. That book pitch anything, it's best to get it on audiobook because Oren's got a ton of energy and it literally bleeds through. But I'm a member of Oren's Mastermind program also. Kevin nations has been huge. Like Kevin taught me how to take my sales from. Kevin's a master salesperson too. And that's not really what he's known for, but he taught me how to take this natural talent that I have and put it into a system that I could duplicate for my employees, my clients and everything else. Him and Chet Holmes have been the two biggest impacts as far as sales and then selling from an online perspective, obviously. Frank Kern and Russell Brunson have been the biggest impacts for me there.

Right on. And of the things that you have and people are listening at home, let's say they are starting a business or want to scale their business, what would you say the first thing is? I mean, we always talk about product market fit, building a team, raising capital. I think it's all about sales, right. If you can't sell the idea, then you haven't figured out a way or the. Or nobody wants it. And that really needs to be the beginning, like before you go and get any investors enrolled. Because you're only gonna get friends and family, you're not gonna be savvy at that stage when you'll have that product market fit and verifiable returns. Like, you know, that's really the key thing. And if you're not that guy or can't get there fast enough, or girl for that matter. I'm not trying to be gender specific.

Who are you to assume the listeners gender, Brad?

You know, like I just want to shake these people up and just get them to understand that you never get around selling. You're always selling, you're always selling your ideas, who you are as a person, your identity, your brand, what have you. And what would you tell somebody who's just kind of like not going all in on it?

Well, you know, you're right. Without sales, the world would be full of a bunch of cool that Nobody knows anything about. And so applying that principle, the first thing that you need to do is like, in my business, I'm a good salesperson. Like, I'm one of the best in the world's been said by thousands of people at this point. So in the beginning, I made my own sales, but one of the in my first hire was somebody to support me in my sales. Like, I made the sale, then they delivered all the stuff to them. But for most business owners and CEOs, like, sales really isn't their thing. And it feels weird sometimes. Like, my product is me, right? We have digital products, but it's stuff with me in it. And so it feels kind of weird to some people to sell themselves. They're like, well, I don't want to be all douchey or be like, my ego or all that. And I understand that, and I struggled with that too. But you can either struggle with that or you can struggle with what to do with all the money you make from sales. I'd rather struggle with the latter. So what I did, what I recommend for people who aren't salespeople who own a business and have a brilliant idea, go hire a sales guy. And even if you have to give them a salary or some kind of base, you know, make your pay structure to where they get a base once a month or once every two weeks, where you get a whole month or a whole two weeks worth of work out of them, and then they've made some sales by the time if you sell like a low ticket product, they ain't made sales in two weeks. Pay them their $300 base and get them the hell out of your company and find somebody else. But I think that, you know, if you're not the sales type, the first person you need to hire is a salesperson. The second person that you need to hire is someone that can support you and the salesperson as they make sales, right? So you don't want your sales guy to have to make the sale and deliver it and do customer service and tech support. Hell, they'll never be able to sell anything. You want to get somebody who can get in there in their only job. We call it staying in your own lane. Their only job is to collect credit cards and close people.

And that's a great point, is like, not everybody in the company needs to be selling, but the sales organization in the company needs to exist. Even if it's just one guy to start, right? And everybody gets hung on the, oh, I don't know how to sell, or I Don't know, you know, what to do with that. So that's actually a really great point is like the teamwork can make the dream work as well. And at the end of the day, once you get past that part now, I mean sales is just process conversations, then you move into funnels, then you move into more elaborate things. So I guess it's a good transition. What does your sales funnel look like today versus what it used to be, which was just literally picking up the phone and calling people.

Yeah, so my old sales funnel was. It's funny, I have a couple of good lessons here for everybody. So my first sales funnel I was selling to loan officers was when I had experience as so like I could teach them how to do what I did. And my first offer was a video that went to a wufu link. That was it. You watch the video on Facebook and then you click a woofoo link and you fill it out. Tell me a little bit about yourself. And the offer was, if you're not closing $2 million a month in mortgages and you want to get $2 million a month, I can help you. Well, the thing was I got a bunch of leads from it and I spent a bunch of time, you know, on the phone with people and my closing ratio wasn't what it should be. But I realized my wording in that was if you're not closing 2 million, so that might be someone who's closing zero. Right. And so once I learned that for a month I went back, recrafted the offer, made another video, said if you're closing $2 million a month or more, I'd like to help you get to five. See I know in my business if you're doing 2 million, in the loan business, if you're doing $2 million a month, you're making about 15 to $25,000. So they can afford what I was, I was selling. So I went back and requalified them for it. But literally it was just a video with me. Spend about three minutes talking and pitching them basically. Well, now our funnel consists of you go to elevator to the top comm, you can get a free paperback copy of my book shipped to your house. Then we have two upsells that come in there. And then once you buy any of our programs, we have upsells coming all across the board too. So my funnel went from literally being a wufoo form that was the funnel to, you know, these days being probably an eight step process to get through the in the entire thing while being entertaining and Stuff like that. At the the same time, it's like, if they buy the book, cool. If they don't, then they get emails trying to get them to buy the book. If they buy the book, then they get offered a $47 thing. If they don't do that, then they get offered it for a dollar and like, so on and so forth. And so we just keep making offers to them and pushing the envelope until they're finally like, you know what, dude, I am going to do this. And we're closing right now. Out of everybody who goes to our deal, we're getting about one and eighth people that. I'm looking at the numbers now that convert. Yeah, one point. One out of every five that convert. No, I'm sorry. One out of every five that Convert for the book. One of every eight that take us up on the $47 and one out of every 12 that take us up on the $47, take us up on the 297. So we've got it all scaled and like right now, we were looking this morning, we're getting leads for this. We're giving books out and it's costing us $2.35 per book to give it away. So it's actually profitable. Like that's almost unheard of. A free plus shipping offer. It's only profitable to the tune of $0.58 per book. But shit, that's still better than most because most of them are paying 10 or $20. I know Russell Brunson's paying $10 for every book that you give away. You know what I mean? So, yeah, you got some people that mailed it. Yeah, well, I mean, you got some people that got a dead list and just want a bunch of free books. That shit can cost you quick.

Mm. Yeah. And I really like how you start with all those because I just had a Hawk. Mikado, he's another.

Yeah, yeah, I know him.

No Hawk. So Hawk and Kate run the funnel. Genius. And they're talking about the seven funnels that every business needs. And people get so hung up on having everything before they want to start. Just start with the one thing, right? It just started with a video, a three minute video of you talking. And then go to my application page or my. My calendly link or whatever. And I can literally give you all those tools right now how to set it up. And with like, very little investment, very little time saved. It would save you, you know, it would just get you moving, you know, and it's just so important to just get moving. Get momentum. Like Alex Charfen. I just had him on the show. He talks about momentum.

He's a friend of mine.

Yeah, I love Alex. And, you know, really, guys, like, once you're in motion, life tends to support you. So I just want to make that point. Like, it'll start showing up the next answer, and the next answer will show up. So just get started. Really, just start being okay with failing. As soon as you give yourself permission to fail, life opens up to you.

It's a beautiful Alex. Charptin is my boy. Alex, if you listen to this, you're my boy, but you got some weird shoes and glasses, man. We're going to work on your fashion sense. I've been to Alex's office, like, three times, man. He's a really good friend of mine. He's actually speaking at my next event.

Yeah. And he was actually at Funnel Hacking Live the time you were there.

That's where I met him. That's where I met him, actually. He was on stage right before I was, I believe.

Okay, well, that's actually a good thread to pull on. So what are the. What are the role of relationship building in your life, like? So Garrett Gunderson is somebody I haven't met, but I really look up to the one thing that he talks about a lot of things. I've learned a lot from him. But one thing he said that stuck with me is you start with mental capital and you build relational capital with your mental capital, which leads to deals that create actual capital. And what has the role of relational capital been able to leverage for you in your life? Because obviously, you're now a more seasoned entrepreneur. And to me, relationships are everything. So I'd love to hear about what you think of them.

Well, man, I'm going to be a little bit different than everybody else you probably hear of. At age 7, I was adopted. And at age 15, I ran away from home. And so, like, the reason why I share that with you is the people that should love you the most and. And be there for you, your parents. I hated them. I still can hate them today. My dad just called one of my friends the other day. He's like, I'd like to meet my son, my friends. Like, I am not going to present that offer to him. Right. And so it's just I had a really bad childhood. I just, like, you know, but because of that, I learned that, like, my parents weren't going to help me. Right. Like, every time something happened, my parents were never there. Hell, half the time they were the cause of whatever it was that was happening. And so I'm different. I never really relied on any kind of relationships because I had to be. So in prison, who you gonna have a relationship with? That's called being somebody's, you know what I mean? And, and, and then, and you know, obviously with my parents and so I came up in this business and I tried to be friendly a little bit. You know, I had some of the, the guys that have been around for a while and they're kind of to me, some of them, not all of them. And I get that. I'm that way too. But, you know, I present myself as kind of a. You don't like you. You're never like cyber. Like, I never figured he's like that. You kind of know that with me, like that guy either ways. Yeah. But some guys that acted like they were really nice, like, weren't as supportive as they thought. And now I get it, you know, now that I'm on some of their levels, or usually I pass most of them at this point. But, you know, like, I get it because it can be overwhelming. And a lot of people hit you up and they want to be like what we call kangaroos, like people that want free stuff, you know, And I get that. But I realized quick that nobody was good. Like, I took Frank Kern's mass control and he's like, just get a bunch of people to JV for you. And I'm like, cool. I hit people up. Will you push my product? And they're like, no. You know, and so I just had to learn to do it on my own. And nowadays the relationships I have, like, I don't have a whole lot of referral relationships. I don't do JVs with people. I only cross promote people. Stuff that I actually buy or like myself. And. But people know that about me, so they're like, hey, Ryan's truly self made. You know what I mean? He doesn't need us, he don't owe us. I don't owe anybody. So I don't owe credit cards, I don't owe JV partners. I don't owe any of that stuff. It's just. That's just kind of my take on it. Now. I've seen a lot of people build their business way faster than mine based on referrals and way cheaper than mine because it costs a lot of money. I say we make 6 million. It costs a lot to make 6 million because everything's an investment in ROI and so on and so forth. But I feel free this way. You know what I mean? I don't feel like I owe anybody. And nobody's gonna come back to me and be like, remember that one favorite I did for you that one time? And so, you know, just because of my sketchy past and I was. How I grew up as a kid in the most impressionable time in your, in your lifetime. I just been wired differently towards relationships. I look at relationships like this. Like some last for a season, some are there for reasons, very few last for a lifetime. So I just look at them that way. It's like, why is this person in my life? What business deal are we going to do? And how long can I expect this relationship to last? Because I see a lot of people with me, they come in, they're like, stuman's the man. I love this guy. Everything he says is on fire. He's got podcasts, he's got videos. I love him. And two months later, like, I fuck that guy. He says shit I didn't agree with, right? I see it all the time. And so I know that those are phases because I'm going to be me regardless, right? And I'm not going to change. Like, you know, if you drag me into your church on Sunday, I, I might be victim to have to go to your church on Sunday, but I'm still going to be me while I'm there. I'm not going to change due to my environment. And some people, they think they're ready for that, but they're not. And so I've learned, you know, the people that I've got on my team now probably had to fire 500 people, probably 50 people in order to get the 10 people I have on my team right now. But short of me probably walking in there and punching one of them in the face, they'll never leave, right? Because I've built these relationships specifically with them. But these are, these are the bonds I have with the people that work with me. Not necessarily like, you know, networking relationships and stuff like that. I know it sounds counterintuitive to most people, but it keeps me free and helps me sleep better at night.

Well, and you're self aware enough to know that it's coming from your own experiences, it's coming from your own stuff. And not everybody needs to feel away. And it's not wrong. It's just different, right? It's different.

I'm just different.

And it works for you. And the value of a belief is not whether I think it's right or not. Who the hell am I, God? You know, but it's like, is it working for you? You can believe in the Jolly Green frickin Giant for all I care. Is it working for you? Is it, is it helping you towards your outcome in life or what you're trying to create? So that's awesome man, and I appreciate you just flying that flag. And additionally, if you ever decide to step off of that, then you know, we'll create space for you as well. We'd love to have you more in the community. And you know, I do believe that you can create relationships that create value and generative relationships not, you know, you're not good on your own, you're going to do fine and I'm going to do fine. But when we come together, maybe we're.

Better than some of our parts.

That's just something to kind of. And you attract what you are, right? So if you're putting the cold shoulder out to people, well, alright, cool. You know, it is what it is, it's not what it is. So for me, man, yeah, I want to just understand kind of what the next step is, right. We've talked about how you kind of hit all your goals and maybe you haven't made new ones yet or maybe that's not important to you right now, but like you're now at 6 million here, you said, and you'd like to get to X maybe, or maybe there's a contributive force behind you or maybe you care about a charity or cause or something that you'd like to see change in the world. What is that for you that's next?

Well, you know, for me the number one guy in my space does about $20 million a year. So that's my next goal, 21. And so it's coming, I'm coming for him too. And he knows that I'm coming for him too, man. He's got about a 30 year head start on me and he knows that it's not friendly times between the two of us, but it's all good. But so my deal works like this. In 2003, it was the first time I cracked open a book outside of like a novel from like, you know, like every now and then I'd read novels or something like when I was bored or that couldn't afford a TV or cable bill or whatever, right? And I cracked open this book and I don't remember what book it was and that's not important but it made me realize that I have a higher calling and it made me realize that like, you know, I shouldn't just be like. My goal wasn't to be the good loan officer. My goal wasn't to be a good real estate property flipper. My goal was to help people make money and change lives. Because listen, I've been broke, been rich, been broke, been rich again. Every time I've been broke, I've been miserable. Every time I've had money, I've been pretty damn happy. And I see that trend in my clients and at least the people that I attract as well. Money, maybe not. They say money can't buy you happiness, but look, I'd rather cry in my Maserati than the, you know, the beat up truck that I drove 10 years ago. So.

Have you ever seen somebody sad on a jet Ski?

No, no, no. And when we. And when we fire up the wake surf boat on Saturday, that's gonna make me happy, you know, and it's gonna make my kids happy and everything else. I mean, dude, I live in a golf course neighborhood and own a golf cart, right? That is happiness right there. I don't care how upset you are. If you get in my golf cart and ride across the golf course, you're gonna be happy by the time we get off of that thing, right? You'll be like, I was suicidal. And now I'm revived. And so I know that, and I know this, that we live in a world that's dominated by people they call the Illuminati and all that. I'm not a big conspiracy theory, don't worry about that. But there's the same people that have been dominating this country, in this world for a long time. Kings and bankers and stuff like that. And I believe that if I help enough people become millionaires, we can change some of that, right? I don't want to take power from people and like overthrow governments. I'm not into that. But I think that if we get, if I create, let's say, 200 new millionaires over the next 10 years, that's 200 people of influence that can get the right senators or maybe the right governors, or maybe even the right president and donate to the right campaigns and things like that to change the landscape. Not for, no offense, people watching, but not for liberal or right wing agendas or anything like that. But to make this a more business friendly planet. That's my thing. Because that's what we do. We're all a part of this machine. They call it the economy, but we're all a part of this machine. And the more business we do, the more production we get. But what the Problem is, is that a lot of times governments put hindrance on business. You can't make enough money to be able to do what you need to do. Right now, I got to pay 35% of my taxes. Like, that's. If I make a million dollars, that's 350 grand to the worst business partner on the planet. You know what I mean? And when you get to a point where you're making 6 million a year, when you get to a point where you're making $6 million a year, people say, why don't you just write it off? What the am I going to write it off on? Right? We're running out of places to write things off on over here. You know, we can keep contributing more, but there's a certain point where you're going to show profit and you're going to pay 30 to 37% of it to the government. And that's not counting capital gains and all the other stuff and sales tax and everything else. And because of that, that keeps me from hiring $350,000 worth of new employees. It keeps me from being able to put $350,000 into a new real estate project or into an investment fund that stimulates the economy. And I believe that my higher calling is to help people find their purpose, make money from that purpose, and then change the world according to how they want to change. I'm not here to say, now that I've made you a millionaire, you have to vote for Trump. I could care less. Now that I've made you a millionaire, I want you to be a good steward of the money and the responsibility that comes along with being a millionaire. And that's really my higher call and my drive. Every time I've deviated from that plan, I wound up in prison, divorced. And now, finally, I just said, you know what? There's a voice in the back of your head that's always telling you you should be doing this. And half the time, we silence it with drugs and alcohol and sex or weird stuff or whatever you're into, right? And I'm not judging. I've been there, right? And we try to silence. And we're like, shut up, boy. Shut up. I'm trying to do something. The voice is like, you're supposed to help millions of people a week, Ryan, become better at life, have better marriages, have better businesses, and just overall just be better. And I'm like, shut up, voice. I'm doing mortgages, right? So, you know, like, now I've learned it's like the voice Is like, hey, Ryan, I need you to do this. Like, yes, sir. Because I don't want to go back to prison again. Right. Like, I realized that I'm a hard head, so it takes huge shifts to get me to make change. And I've been slapped enough times now to where I listen.

Well, two stories that really cry out to me because your story relates to mine, is When I was 16, my dad walked in drunk and beat the living shit out of me. And he had to leave and go to prison and do all that. And I had to leave home and we repaired our relationship and he passed away on 24. So that was one thing that I wanted to share with you. But I get that talk. Totally get like not trusting the ones that are supposed to love you most. And the other piece is I went to a Tony Robbins. I'm sure you're familiar with Tony Robbins. And Scotty the facilitator wealth mastery tells a story about how, you know, life kind of gives you these feathers. Ryan. And you can ignore the feathers if you want, but one day life's gonna get annoyed and just say, hey, Brick. Right? Oh, crap, I gave him the brick. And you could ignore the bricks too. But one day you're gonna be walking down the street and Mack truck is gonna whack you. So feathers, bricks and trucks. So my deal was I was in my head and out of my heart. You know, this thing is not meant to make you happy, by the way. It's meant to keep you alive. This is where the capacity is. So I'm on my way home. It's a beautiful, bright sunny day in Marco Island, Florida. I got my frickin, you know, beach cruiser bike and I'm riding along, riding along. And for no reason in particular, I start getting my head about something. And I think that I make eye contact with the driver, the vehicle that's about to make a right hand turn. But I go to cross the street and he starts to pull out, make the right hand turn and crushes me and the bike and knocks me in traffic and scurr. You know, basically I about almost died and I got away with a few screwed up knees. And I remember going back in and getting patched up by the medic. And Scotty walks over, he's like, hey, what happened to you? I'm like, you know, Scotty, I was thinking a lot about that story about the feathers, the bricks in the trucks. Oh, I forgot the best part. So I look up at this driver of the truck that had just hit me and it's full of paving stones or bricks. So I literally got hit by a truck full of bricks.

Truck full of bricks. Truck full of bricks at me.

So I'm like, I go back in.

And I'm telling Scotty. I'm like, man, this. This.

This story, the feathers, the trucks, and the bricks, it's real, man. He's like, yeah. I'm like, no, it's real. Like, there's real trucks full of bricks out there hitting people. So anytime I start to feel the feathers as you're talking about that little.

Voice that says, hey, hey, hey, hey.

You start paying attention because you were here to do a specific thing. At least I believe that. And I'm not saying I like that, man.

Feathers, bricks, and trucks.

Yeah, so. So I just wanted to connect with you on that. And I. You know, I think everybody's got a similar story if they're willing to really dig in and feel it. And we're all here.

You have to have a different story to be an entrepreneur, because if your story was the same as everybody else, you'd be working in my building instead of owning it.

You know, and that's another beautiful thing, is, like, people think, oh, well, Ryan's doing the sales things. I can't do that too. Do you know how many people need help with sales? Ryan's one guy. His company does 6 million a year. There's trillions of dollars flowing around on the planet, billions of hands, you know, trading a day. There's so many people that want, need, and desire what you have. And guess what? They're not gonna like the cut. Orion's Jib or they're not gonna like his story. They're not gonna really agree with what he's doing.

But they still sales guys or whatever.

Pick your industry, but don't ever fall into the trap of thinking that there's not enough to go around. That's just ridiculous. We can always create more.

That's kind of 7 billion people on this planet. Someone will buy your shit. You know, the people that like Cardone don't necessarily care for me too much. The people that like me definitely don't like Cardone. And, you know, and Jordan and I, we're a lot of like. I like him a whole lot. You know, we have a lot of similar clients, but, you know, the people that go to Brian Tracy or Zeke Ziegler, they're probably not for me either, because I don't teach door knocking or cold calling or going to church on Sunday, you know, so there's room for everybody When I stepped into this, I'll share this with you, Brad. When I stepped into this business, I looked and I said, if I'm gonna be a sales trainer, I don't want to be like everybody else that's wearing a suit and tie that doesn't have tattoos. It's talking about going to church on Sunday and, you know, positive mental attitude and all these other things. Right? There's nothing wrong with any of that. I'm not knocking it, but there's already a bunch of that out there. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to show up as a guy and it's me. I'm going to show up just like I show up in the office. I'm going to be wearing a T shirt, I'll be covered in tattoos. I'm going to be able to talk like Floyd Mayweather because I can go get anything and outsell pretty much anybody. And at first the marketplace was like, this guy can't be a sales trainer. He's a pothead covered in tattoos. Right? I don't fit the normal mode. And now what's happened is if you watch guys like Grant, like, he's cussing now and talking about how he used to have drug addictions and you know what I mean? And like these dude, they're trying to catch up to me. They're like, oh, who knew that honesty worked all along, right?

People love it.

Yeah, Authenticity, right? And so, you know, I saw a need and I said, you know what? I'm damaged goods. I'm willing to admit that. And most people I've met in the sales industry are damaged goods too. Meaning they don't want to wear a suit and tie. They don't go to church on Sundays. They're usually out with hookers and cocaine on Friday nights blowing their paycheck. And that's not just a stereotype. That is a large part of our industry because we have upper limits and we make a lot of money and we come from screwed up backgrounds like me. And I knew that I could step into this world and help those people, but I knew I couldn't do it looking like everybody else who tried to help them but didn't get their situation. You know, when I make a post about something, people can reach out to me and be like, hey, man, I'm a convicted felon too. Or, hey, man, like you said, my parents, my dad beat me up. Or hey, man, I had this XYZ life changing event in my life and I've gone through so many xyz, life changing events in my life that there's really nothing that I can't connect with somebody who's had a disconnect from everybody else. If Zig Ziglar, he was my neighbor, he's like, he's perfect, man. He went to church on Sunday, he never cussed. He was like a man of God and everything else. You can't go tell Zig that. You just, I mean, he's passed away now, but I mean, you can't just go tell a guy like him that Friday night you up and you had three hookers in your room and y' all did an eight ball of cocaine and the cops arrested you. He's not going to have any empathy for you because he doesn't understand that. But I do. Yeah, I do, you know, and I knew I could help people that were normally unhelped, just like church in the unchurched, you know, and that's why I.

Love being that connective force, right? That's why I value relationship so much because I can cross pollinate, right? I can take ideas from what you're saying, I can take ideas from somebody straight laced like a Zig Ziglar or whoever and really relate to them at a high level. I think that's my gift of what I'm here to do. And then together we can be the better of the sum of our parts. You know, that's, that's really a beautiful thing. Okay, so let's talk about the future just for a second because I want to get your take on this. You know, you're in it, you're an entrepreneur, you're voting with your dollars. You're creating the new economy. But what does the economy look like? 10, 20, 50 years, however long it takes when AI and VR and robotics and all these things start kind of gobbling up some of the lower level jobs or maybe some of the higher level white collar jobs too. And we now have all this time, right? This time, this energy, this attention to now do whatever the hell we want with. We're no longer just paying attention to how we can individually survive. And that's taken up most of our time. But now we can thrive and be creative. What do you look some of the things that people will be doing or what do you look at as being the new economy?

Well, first off, most sales jobs will be gone in the next 20 years. You hate to say it, but I got friends that are running businesses that do two and three times more than I do, that don't ever even have a Sales guy, AI, autoresponders, technology, all that stuff's out there and the threats real. And so what I've been teaching salespeople is, you know, now you need to be building the robots, you need to be building the systems, you need to be building the next, maybe not the next Zillow, but you need to be building something that when Zillow misses a lead, you collect it. You know what I mean? You've got to start building these robots yourself because they're not going anywhere. The world's obsessed with, if you read any Entrepreneur Inc, Forbes or any of those magazines, they are obsessed with the future of robots. And we're coming into. We had an industrial revolution where people went from working with tools to working with machines on an assembly line and burn in like running trains and cross country transportation and all this stuff. We had this huge industrial revolution and now we're seeing, we thought it was there before, but now Moore's Laws caught up to us enough to where we're seeing a huge technology revolution that'll fill this for the next 50 years. But just like the industrial revolution got rid of the blacksmith because now we have model T cars, right? The technology, the technology revolution that we're going through will get rid of a lot of salespeople. And you know that I read the other day, the number one and number two job at risk from technology are doctors and lawyers, two of the most expensive things out there, right? So like, if they can replace doctors and lawyers, me and you as salespeople ain't got shit on them. Well, yeah, they're gonna be able to use technology to operate on a heart. But yet you still think you're gonna be able to pick up the phone and make sales calls? Come on, man. And I can see it happens.

You know, doctors, it's easy. You got IBM, Watson to diagnose. That's already happening. And then you've got robots and surgeons will eventually be replicated. You know, they can't make those little fine motor movements and they can't do it anywhere at any time. So you can plug a surgeon, have.

A steady robot hand than a human hand.

Exactly. Even the best surgeon can never compete with that. And then on the lawyer side, Blockchain and Ethereum, smart contracts can replace that.

Absolutely.

That's all it is, is just standardized contracts. And we're already starting to see that legal zoom and other legal zoom.

Yep.

Yeah. So that's awesome and I appreciate you giving that perspective. Like, I never really thought about the sales people component, but really that's what we're creating is a way to have those sales conversations that actually scales. Because even if you're the best closer in the world, you're still a guy who maybe has 10 productive hours, 12 productive hours in the day, and after that you got no more capacity. Meanwhile, we can raise Frickin $37 million in 10 minutes on an ICO and blockchain, which is happening all over the world. So it's a really interesting future. I guess my mission, and maybe you share this as well, is just how can we shift people's belief structures fast enough and value systems fast enough so that they can thrive and survive in this new world and maybe add a little more value than they would before instead of just being victims, right? Creators. Instead of, instead of victims.

That's how I see it. Like this. We, you know, a lot of people younger than me especially, they grew up in the everybody gets a trophy generation. And your parents telling you you're special. And I got good, I got bad news, buttercup. Nobody's special. We're all different. We ain't special. You think you're special? Go out and ask somebody that you never met before. It's like, how do you think, do you think I'm special? They're going to tell you, no, get the hell away from me. You're weird. That's what you are. We're different, but we're not special. You see, words are important. And the words that people have been planted on their head, Special in like it basically it ignites narcissism, right? Because you think special includes that you might possibly be better than somebody else, right? You might be worse, but you might possibly be better than somebody else. And so it ignites this narcissism inside of us. But we're not special. What we are is different. And when people say we're all created equal, some of us are special. That's not true. We're all created equal. And we're all created differently. My buddy Patrick, that works for me, he's 6 foot 2, his jump shots a hell of a lot better than mine, right? But I'm a better salesperson than he is. We've got that equal ending us out, right? We're both different. He's got, he's tall and dark and I'm, you know, short and blonde. So, you know, we have like these, these differences, but they equal us out as well. And so a lot of people, they get caught up on special. Special doesn't, it doesn't insinuate that you're equal. It insinuates that possibly you're better. And I believe that, you know, the key is for us to believe that we're different and not special. I think that that that fundamental change in somebody's thinking can carry them a long way, too.

Yeah. I heard somebody say it's your uniqueness that gives you an edge. Right. If you can just tap into what makes you unique. And it's more than more or less than anybody else in the world that you have that one thing that's you. And is there similarities? Right. We can all learn from each other and glean from each other's stories, but at the end of the day, you're you. And there's never going to be another one like you. And you got to make the best out of that thing that you got. There's people out there with a hell of a lot less than you or I as far as talent, as far as whatever that are just killing it. So there's no excuse at the end of the day.

Okay, Ryan put here last thing. You were put here with a unique DNA code for you to do something. Maybe it was play sports. Maybe it was work on assembly line. Maybe it was sales. Problem is, most of us spend our entire life doing the opposite of what we were programmed to do. And we never get fulfillment, and we never. Fulfillment doesn't have to necessarily be money, but we never get the fulfillment or the happiness that we were put on this planet to experience because we spend our whole life doing something else.

Almost like your DNA is that little voice calling out to you for you to live your fulfilled purpose. Right? And successful men is ultimate failure. And we know this. But, you know, so many people learn that lesson too late, after the ego is done driving the bus off the cliff. So two last questions. I want to be respectful of your time. What do you see your legacy being as a man, Brian Stuman? What do you want to leave in the world? What's the story you want to be told after you're gone?

The man that accomplished everything that was told that he couldn't. And really, it's not about my legacy. I'm building this company, Break Free Academy. And as it evolves, I want it to become the premier place where people are like, oh, I got a problem. Oh, you just need to go to Break Free Academy. And I want this to be like, you know, we're building personal development products, and it's not just about me. I've got talent now that are building products. I've got, you know, people that are doing. You know, I'm the CEO of this thing. I'm not the face of it anymore, and. Or that's the way that I'm moving. So my legacy is to leave a slew of products that change people's lives, you know, and maybe one day my kids could step in. But the key is I've got so many talented people that are doing things right now. You know, 300 million lives is the legacy that I want to leave when I die. Want people to tell jokes at my funeral and be drunk and high, and I want them to be able to say, reached 300 million people and change their lives.

You know, 5% of the current population of the world. I love it.

It's a lot of people, man. It's also the number of people that are assumed to have the title salesman on the planet.

Mm. I love that. Thank you, Ryan. And then the next logical question is, since we're the Make More Marbles podcast, we're all about making more as opposed to just taking what's there. What is a way that the community or myself or anybody listening can add a connection, a resource, an opportunity, a person, or a system to your life that will help further that mission to its completion?

You know, that's a good question. You know, I have. One of the things that I struggle with as a human is asking for help. Obviously, we've talked about that a little bit, and, you know, I'm a do it myself or internally type of person. But, you know, I believe. And as an artist, it's hard because I consider somebody who creates content an artist. And as an artist, it's hard to go, look at this painting. Awesome. I did it right. Like, if you're like, listen to my music. It's awesome. I made it. Like, people are like, it's kind of douchey, but I believe that I make videos that aren't from me. There's a voice this divine, I call it the divine coder that downloads this stuff into me, and it just comes out of me when I push play. And, you know, there's going to be videos on my Hardcore Closer fan page that aren't about sales, that are going to resonate with a lot of people in this audience. So I would just say the best thing that you could do to help contribute for me, let's go to the Hardcore Closer fan page on Facebook, watch some of my videos or maybe read some of my blog posts. If they resonate with you, share them with someone who needs to hear it. You know, like, my contribution is really reaching those 300 million people. And it's like I make more money than I ever thought I was gonna make in my life anyway, and I'm totally okay with that. We always want to grow and do more just by n. But really my goal is to help those that can't get help. And I create a lot of content, not because I like doing it, but because I truly do give a damn and I really do want to help people. And your folks going over there and maybe consuming it themselves or sharing it with somebody that can benefit from it will not just help me. It'll help them look good and then help the person who can consume the information.

Thank you, Ryan. And I appreciate the directness. Where can people find you online these days?

So, you know, I got all the social media sites. The easiest thing to do is go to site clyxoclyxo.com closer and there's all my social media channels in one place. That's like a free site you sign up for. And instead of having to tell people 20 different URLs and places to find you, you can just host them all in one spot. So if they want to find my blog, podcast, Facebook, whatever, it's all in that one spot. Click. So C-L-Y-O.com closer.

That's an awesome value add to the community. And thank you. And also About Me. That was a great idea, by the way. About Me was trying to be that and they ended up selling AOL for 400 million. We all know that went. They didn't really manage it super well, but great idea, great value add, Ryan. Thank you. We're so grateful on the behalf of the Make More Marvels community for having you here today and just sharing your gifts and what you're here to contribute to the world. So thank you.

Yeah, Brad, I appreciate you having me on, man. And I look forward. I'll share the episode and stuff like that when you get it all uploaded. So thanks again, brother.

Thank you, Ryan. Thanks so much for listening to the Make More Marvels podcast for more tips, hacks and strategies to create an amazing, abundant life in your health, wealth and relationships. Whatever that means to you. Head on over to makemoremarbles.com check out our cool explainer video about what we're about, and join our community of entrepreneurial game changers. We want to help you level up your life in every possible way. And don't forget to subscribe to us on itunes, Stitcher or Google Play, wherever you're listening your podcast. And please do leave a review. Thank you so much. And we'll see you on the next podcast.