From Jail to Multi-Millionaire | Ryan Stewman Interview

All right, welcome back to the show, you guys. Today we've got a fun guest with us, Ryan Stuman, on the show. You've probably seen him on Instagram, YouTube, all over the place, the Hardcore Closer. Ryan, welcome to the show.

How you doing today, man? I'm doing awesome. I'm excited to be here hanging out with you. You know, I was telling my wife earlier, I said, I got an interview with this young man who's like really got his stuff together that I met a couple of weeks ago. His name's Bridger Pennington. She goes, man, that's a pretty amazing name. I was like, dude, if you see that name on a resume, that guy's getting hired. You know, it's like, I just want to commend your father on giving you such an amazing name. That is like the name of success, sir. Own that.

Oh, wow. Okay. Well, thank you. I, uh, it's actually funny. I call a lot of people, like I'll be on the phone, people, I live in Utah. People outside of Utah have never heard the name Bridger before. And, uh, it's actually, yeah, it's, it's, it's nice having a unique name though, because people, yeah, people remember it and it's kind of, kind of new a little bit. So thank you though. Yeah. Hopefully I get hired a few places, but, uh, um, we met about man, what, 2 and a half, 3 weeks ago in Arizona at an event. We sat down, we started to talk, and I was like, we gotta— I gotta have Ryan on my show. Um, you've done a lot with sales, you've done a lot with, uh, just building teams, building companies, and, uh, I think, I think you'll be a great addition for the show today. It's gonna be pretty fun. So to kick things off though, give people a little bit of background on you, how you got into this game, um, and got started off.

Well, I've been in sales my entire life. I've never had a salary job until the one that I have now that I created. And, um, you know, I started off selling car washes when I was 13. So like someone would pull into a car wash and they might want an $8 car wash, and it was my job to bump them to $10. And I got like a nickel or a quarter for every car that I bumped, right? And, uh, so that was like my first taste working in the summers, getting commission. Um, well, I met a drug dealer working at the car wash, and so my side hustle was selling cocaine for a couple of years. Never did this stuff except for once and I overdosed and was arrested in possession and stuff. And so, long story short, me and coke, we're just not a thing. But anyway, end up going to prison, got out of prison, came back to work at the car wash because that's what losers that go to prison do and about the only place that'll take you, you know, when you got a drug felony in the '90s. That's how long ago this was.

Mm-hmm.

And worked my butt off though, man. Like, I've always been a hard worker and I've always been able to like, I got out of prison. There was at least a sales job there for me, right? Selling car washes again. One day, one of the customers, she says, uh, you know what, you work really hard. You work harder than anybody I've ever seen. I'd like to give you a job. And I was like, yeah, well, what do you do for a living? She's like, well, I work in banking. And I was like, dude, I don't even have a bank account. I pay my rent in cash, truck cash. Like, I'm not qualified. She goes, I'll teach you. And I was like, that's cool, but there's also another catch. And I was like, I'm a felon. She goes, what'd you do? And I was like, got caught with drugs. She goes, ah, hell, you'll be fine around here. And so, she literally took me under her wing and within a year in that business, within about 15 months, I had made $700,000. So, I went from like making, you know, $40 grand a year at the car wash, convicted felon, to just smoking it in the mortgage and investing world.

And what I did— You're doing mortgages or what?

Yeah, mortgages. And, but what I did was everybody else was chasing real estate agents so that market was pretty saturated. Everybody else was trying to, you know, knock doors and all this other stuff. I started going to events like the Avengers, right? And I'm like, okay, Bridger's here at this real estate mastermind. He probably buys real estate. Guess what? I got money, you know? And so I started going to Rich Dad Poor Dad seminars. I started going to, uh, the Fortune Builders seminars. And back then there was, uh, you know, no money down real estate. There was a ton of seminars out there that were free. And so, I would show up and I would see the people that bought the program and then I would just hand them my card and be like, you're wanting to invest in real estate? We have investor loans. And so, one person might do 50, 60 loans with me over the course of, you know, a couple of years. So, I built a hell of a portfolio so much that when I made the $700,000, I owned 32 properties. I was a landlord. I had people come up by my house to pay rent, people come up by my house to drop off applications, and I lived in a small town. The cops thought I was selling dope again. They raided my house. I didn't even have a sandwich baggie in there. I wasn't even remotely on drugs, near drugs. They raided my house. They threw a flash bomb in there. They thought I was cooking meth, of all things. I don't even have a meth conviction. But anyway, um, and who throws a flash bomb in a meth lab? But that's neither here nor there. They don't find anything, and, and, but they find a gun. And it's, it's weird, in Texas you can be a felon and own a gun. There's, there's nothing wrong with that. So they charged me. I beat the case, got it dismissed. The damn ATF picked the case up because federally they don't, they don't recognize the state's rights. So it's like a double jeopardy thing. And I don't know, I'm not reading federal law books or I wouldn't have had the gun. I wasn't using it for anything anyway. It's not like I was doing stick-up kid stuff or anything, you know, just had a gun to protect my house. Long story short, I can tell you how it all happened, but they tried to give me 20 years. I got it down to 15 months because of the grace of God. Had to go do 15 months in prison, lost everything that I had, came out 2009 with nothing, but then made $300,000 back in the mortgage industry in 2009, like the worst year to be in the business. I just came out of prison and hit it hard. But 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act took place that said certain things like felons could no longer write financial instruments or be mortgage people. They changed the licensing. So when it expired in Texas, I couldn't get it federally. And I needed to find something that would allow me to make a good living, not have a boss, not need a license, and the government couldn't step in. So I stumbled across the good old internet, internet marketing, right? So, you know, I bought programs, went to seminars, learned all this stuff. And, you know, in the last 11 years, I've had over 25,000 clients. Uh, we have millions of followers on social media. I've been on, you know, thousands of podcasts. I've been on thousands of articles written about me. I have 13 bestselling books. I've been on the stages of some of the biggest conferences in the And coming from like super— and I just gave you guys the Cliff Notes— but coming from super humble beginnings to where I'm at today, every day I wake up and I'm like, man, I hope this dream never ends, you know?

Wow, that's, that's incredible. Now I want to ask you a couple questions. Number one, when you're— what's the mindset of you and all inmates coming out of prison? And it sounds like you had a correct mindset. What— and I, I— this is getting a little off track, maybe. It's kind of fun though. What, what's your thoughts on, on current, uh, I guess educational programs for inmates or people that are convicted and in prison to help them do what you did? I mean, you're like this success poster boy of that. And like, what are your thoughts on that whole process?

Well, I was in 9 different or 8 different maximum security prisons, uh, so I didn't just get to go to one. So I had my fair share of roommates and people that I socialized with in there. Socialized being a very loose term, obviously. Um, but not every— you know, I may know 3 people that came out of there the way that I am. I know a guy that owns a car dealership here that's done very, very well. He probably does $30 million a year in his car dealership, uh, one of the top ones in the Metroplex. He was in federal prison with me. Um, I'll tell you a cool story though, man, that this will, this will just blow your mind. This is my life, man. Like, I— if somebody wrote a book, like, like if God was the author of my life and he wrote a book about me, it would have to be called the accidental success, like the things that have happened to me. It was no accident that I lost my mortgage license. Look where I am today. I don't write mortgages. I pay somebody else to do that stuff for me now, you know. Not there's anything wrong with it, but it wasn't my calling in life. It was just a means to making money, you know. This is my calling in life. But so in 2005, I read my first like, like book on success. It was called The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill, and it's like 1,200 pages, right? And I read this book, and at the end of it And I'm 26 years old. I've just made, you know, close to my first million dollars. And I got a girlfriend that's there and I read this book and I was like, I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but I wanna be like these guys on the stage that I'm seeing at these seminars. You know, I bought the houses, I made the money. My track record from where I came from is a lot more colorful and interesting than them. I wanna do this. I don't know how I'm gonna do it. She looks straight in my eyes. She's like, you're an idiot. Who the hell would wanna listen to you? You're a felon. And you know, you're like 2 years into this business. You know, those guys, leave it to the professionals. You know how people that you're the closest to, they tend to hate and shit on your dreams. You know, so we get married. Flash forward, the cops raid my house months later, maybe a year later. We end up getting married to that lady before I went into prison. I need somebody to be a conservator over all the things that I had, right? But that didn't work out. She left me for the gardener. But when I went into federal prison, I went in thinking, okay, I only got 15 months in here. I got a woman waiting for me. I got some money waiting for me. I'm gonna get in here. I'm gonna lose weight. I'm gonna read books. I'm gonna focus. I'm gonna educate myself. I'm gonna come out a machine.

Yeah.

Right? 90 days into there, it's like, you know, I got that Dear John letter, you know, all of a sudden it's like, oh dude, all these things, the force of average just trying to distract me, right? So about, about, let's say 90 days in, I get this letter. 92 days in, so I've been there in prison for a few months at this point, I'm standing in line. It's a, it's a wet rainy morning and the dude 2 people in front of me is the ex-drug dealer. from 1999 when I got in trouble.

No way!

You know, I guess he didn't get out of the business. So he's standing in front, he's a big-time operator, right? And, uh, I never was, but, but I just— he was. And but I never snitched on anybody, I never owed anybody money, I got good standing, good ethics no matter what I'm in. And I tap him on the shoulder, I was like, yo, Angel, you remember me? My name on the streets was Breeze. And he's like, yeah, Breeze, man, that's— the hell are you doing here? I thought you cleaned your life up. It's like, me too, you're not gonna believe this shit, right? Like, it's so Um, he goes, man, you're doing— we got to talking. He goes, you're doing banking stuff now? He goes, dude, me and my boys, we got like less than 5 years, but we got millions of dollars on the outside that we need to figure out how to clean up. And I was like, well, I, I can teach you. I mean, what are they gonna do, put me in prison? I'm already here, you know what I mean? Like, so I'm literally having this like Shawshank Redemption type of moment in my life, right? So I go back— this is all in the same day— I go back to my cell About 2 hours later, the biggest Mexican with face tattoos you ever seen in your life, like, like he makes Danny Trejo look like, you know, a Disney character. I'm serious, man. This dude comes down and he's still in there. He still sends me texts on Facebook from the federal prison all the time. They got a phone in there. When he comes downstairs—

No way.

Yeah, yeah, they're not supposed to, but these guys, like, he comes down and gets me and my cellmates like, I don't know what you did with the essays, man, but like, don't bring that back down here. I'm like, I don't even know what I did, right? But Angel obviously is a Hispanic dude. And so I go up to the place where this big-ass Mexican dude brings me. And these guys are sitting in a cell. It's like a rap video, dude. They're smoking weed. They're wearing Air Jordans and shit in prison. Like they're living like this free world life. Like meanwhile, I'm over here for 90 days in prison. These guys like getting high, got like the latest, you know, they got cell phones and stuff, right? I'm like, oh man, there's like levels to this stuff in here.

Like different kinds of kingdom inside there.

Yeah. And so the, the head guy, the shot caller for all the Hispanic people in the Southwest region of American federal prison, just happens to be in my building, and it's his cell. And he's like, hey man, word is you can help us clean up some money problems that we got. And I'm like, yeah, so tell me what you got, you know, I'll help you. He's like, look man, if you start messing with our money on the outside, we'll kill you, blah blah blah. I was like, yeah, you— I'm good. I don't need your money, man. Like, I'll help you guys out. Just, you know, keep me from getting raped in here or whatever, right? Like, occasionally I need a bag of chips. Bring me a bag of chips, you know, like, you know, I'll work it out with you guys. And so I started meeting them in the library every Wednesday. So I'm teaching these guys how to buy houses with money orders at an auction, right? So look, you go into cash, you go get a bunch of money orders, you go down to the auction, you buy it money orders. That's the only way that they're going to take it. Then you take the deed to the house, you refinance it, you get your cash back out of it. Now you got an asset, legal money.

Yeah.

Oh shit. You know, like they're doing— so they're calling like You know, they're putting money on my books, taking care of me. Like, everything was covered down there, right? So this was my first shot at giving a seminar in front of the toughest audience you could imagine— people that are in prison for killing and running. Like, the head guy, he was, he was sentenced to 21 years for 19 tons of cocaine. Tons, you know? Like, and so we're talking about boatloads of the shit. And so this— these are the people that I'm like speaking in front of. So people are like, hey, do you get nervous when you get on like Ed Mylett or Russell Brunson stage, like, you don't even know how I started, right? I'm like, nobody in that audience is gonna kill me, you know?

Yeah.

Like, if I give them wrong information, I'm just an idiot. I'm not somebody that's gonna get shanked in the shower, you know? And so, but I carried that with me when I got out, uh, 6 years later. I'm, I'm, when I get out 4 years later, I start this business. And, and 6 years after that, so 2016, business is going pretty good. That leader gets out of prison and calls me and says, hey man, you changed my life. We've been giving your books around prison. We got all these people's lives you changed in prison. You have no idea. I want to come work for you for minimum wage. I need my parole officer to— for me to have a job. I was like, bro, you don't even know what the internet looks like. You don't even know what the internet looks like. And he's like, I'll figure it out. That dude still works for me today. He's my general manager, and he can build a funnel better than Russell Brunson.

Wow.

Like, I'm dead serious. And this guy had— he went into prison before the internet was a thing, before Google was even a site. And this dude now, he's like our head of marketing and stuff. And, and so, and we make a lot of money together legally, you know. And, and it's— but it's cool to see that like what I do now was a direct stance from— and think, I had to get jerked out of the mortgage business to be doing what I do now. I had to get jerked out of those relationships and put into prison to get that hardcore experience. So it's just I know that has nothing to do with typically how your show works, but, you know, it's an interesting story nonetheless, you know.

Well, no, that's, that's so impressive. I, uh, one, I love your— I love that attitude. And that's something I brought up on the show before, is life doesn't happen to you, it happens for you. That's a Tony Robbins quote, right, of, of different hero types. You have the victim mentality, the survivor mentality, the hero mentality, right? And I love that you've, you've turned that entire mess of, man, I was in prison twice, and I come out and you turn into this hero mentality, and you've gone on to do incredible things. And then have other inmates come and work for you and change their lives and get out of, you know, that system and that, that bad life that they were in. That's, that's pretty impressive. Um, with— in regards— now I'm gonna shift gears here a little bit. So this show, we talk about investing, we talk about starting funds, and I know, I know you don't run a fund currently. But you've been pitched by a lot of people for deals, I'm assuming, right? I'm sure you've had every, you know, Jim, Jane, and Jolly come, come ask you for money. Walk me through people that you like to invest with and why. What sales pitches are compelling to you? I know you're a good salesman. How did— and then from— and then on the other side of the table, for people that are listening to the show that want to go pitch, what can we glean and learn from that?

Well, first, I think the best resource for pitching investors is, uh, anything that Oren Kleff does. Uh, I don't know if you know him.

I talk about him all the time.

I love him. I love him, man. Pitch Anything is amazing. And I bought several of his training programs and he's really good at that specific process. So yeah, it's good that you already knew that. So of course you would, you're a smart guy. You know what other smart people are like. So, um, that's how I found him too, right? Like, I'm a smart guy, so I'm looking to learn from Oren. So anyway, Um, for me, you know, I'm not your traditional guy. Again, again, you just heard my story and little snippets of it. I'm from the streets, so I don't typically— like, I'm the type person, like, if you run off with my money— let me give you an example. The last person that ran off with my money is about to go into the prison that I just left with the guys that I just talked about. He ain't gonna do so hot, right?

Mm-hmm.

And, and so, like, that's how I operate. But everybody that does business with me knows that, like, I'm not your typical Hey, we're gonna have to get attorneys involved and stuff like that. I would be more of a loan shark, right? Or an investing shark, right? Which doesn't make me, which, you know, really eliminates 99% of the people with bullshit pitches that aren't certain about it. Because they're not alone. You don't wanna mess with Ryan and his gangsters. Like, that's just not the guy. So like, you only come to me if you got good stuff. And so, but really Bridger, what I look for is relationships. So just last night, Fleischman, Sent me a message and he's like, "Hey dude, you should throw some money at this thing with me." Okay, cool. How much do you want? All right, I'm gonna send it over. Right? Like, and and I don't need to look at the papers. I don't need. Dude, I got millions of dollars with with Wags and and Fleischman, and I don't need to look it over. I know they got my best interests in mind. They're going to take care of me because they're stand up dudes and we've done stuff together. Usually the people that I invest with are people that I'm close with. Me and my best friends is a guy named Steve Kuklo. He's like the biggest bodybuilder on the planet right now. He's like the guy, you know, probably will be Olympia this. year in 2021. And, uh, he's my best friend. And, you know, when he calls me, he's like, hey, we got this thing that we can put money into. I'm like, all right, cool. I'm gonna look it over, but we're in it. Because, you know, he's just a smart guy. He's analytical. He's already done that before he brings it to me. So, typically, you know, like yesterday, we got $150,000. We need to throw it in an investment. I just called Wags up and said, hey, you know, I need to send this money over to you. You know, uh, if you think it's better to buy corporate, that's fine. Or if you want me to buy another Evergold branch, that's fine too. And, uh, and so, you know, that's just how I operate. I got some people that I trust. And so if I was on the other side of that and I'm trying to gain someone's trust, right? Because here's the thing, that you were with us for the Ever Bowl thing. I, I think my people bought 13 of those. So not only did I do business with Aaron and bought 2 and bought into corporate, uh, fixing to be a 3rd one, I sent him 9 more locations. And it may be more than that, but I'm just going to conservatively say 9 because I know for sure it was at least 9, but 9 more people bought those from him, right? So like, I can be— I'm that person that like, shoot, if I invested in your fund and told people, hey, I'm giving Bridger money, like my players in Apex would be like, oh shoot, man, if Stuman's done his due diligence and this guy knows who he's dealing with on Stuman's end and he's still willing to put his money in there, like that's a good deal, you know.

And what's funny about that, just to cut you off for a second, is what's funny about that is that's not an uncommon tale.

Okay.

You think, well, and I, you know, you have the other side of the coin of like the very analytical, the former investment banker consultant, the family office, and they're gonna go very, they're very analytical investors, right? It's how they make a lot of money. What's funny is I've heard a similar story from people like you. They're like, hey, I have just great relationships with people that I trust. And I know that they've got my, like you said, my best interest in mind. And I, yes, I'm gonna look it over. I'm gonna make sure it makes sense, but I'm gonna put some money with them. And I think for people listening, I think don't over or underestimate the value of relationships and actually becoming friends with people and building. A lot of people think when they're trying to find, if I just have the best numbers, money is just gonna find me forever. And that can be true. But a lot of times, especially when you're starting at the very beginning, you need, you know, 10-year relationship with Ryan. We're best buddies. That's going to do way more for you than, than having the best pro forma and spreadsheet ever built but no relationships. And so I just want to echo what you're saying. I think it's a, it's a very crucial thing. Sorry, cut you off, but keep going.

Yeah, and you know, to that, I have a family office, and, uh, but, but I do what the fuck I want to do, and they just look at it, make sure all the paperwork's in the right place, right? And then, with my lawyer, he looks over the contract. So, if there's any gotcha stuff in there that maybe they don't know about, then he's gonna pull that for me. So, I've got smart people looking it over. And if my lawyer's like, yeah, man, it's a decent deal, you know, seems legit, right? And then, the family office is like, yeah, that's cool. Then, boom, I got it. But, you know, after I've done one deal with Wags, I don't need to go back to the lawyer and to the family office again. I just keep feeding into that. I do one deal with Dan, I don't need to go back to them again. Maybe if we got another contract coming in, but we've already seen it at this point, you know. So, um, I think for me, I invest a lot. I don't like holding on to money cash. I'm not a cash is trash guy, but I don't really need that much. Uh, my business, I don't have loans, I don't owe banks, I don't have business partners. I'm 100% self-made, self-funded, bootstrapped all the way to where we're at now, which is, you know, well into 8 figures a year. And, um, a very marginal online business, as you can imagine, right? And so, but with that, you know, I got different things like, so I do, uh, these electricity investments. They pay 25% guaranteed money. Uh, they're 15-month notes, but they're only like $10,000 deals. So $10,000, $15,000 a pop. I'll go drop $100 grand on those. And I've been running those for 3 years now. So they've compounded at 25%. So it's almost doubled. You know what I mean? Because of the 25, then the doubling of the 25. Um, so I do like things like that, that short-term that I know, hey, I ain't got that long and I got this money coming back. I buy real estate, you know, that's something for cash flow. I don't flip houses anymore. I used to need cash like that, so I flipped houses, but now I want to own stuff. So I own some rental homes. I like to buy new construction. I own some Everbowls like we were talking about. And then I have some investments in some corporations that I think will sell in the next 5 years. So, that's what I look at it like. If I'm putting money away, like, worst-case scenario, I should get my money back in 5 years. You know, a lot of the things I do, you know, because long-term money, I'm investing in myself. I buy my own stocks. I got my own self-employed IRA that I put $58 grand a year or whatever that is. And I've been doing that for— it's a big portfolio at this point. I've been doing that for forever. And so, what's big to me? So, you know, for me, when someone's pitching somebody something, you really need to figure out what they're interested in. Like, for me, if you're trying to pitch me a 10-year investment, like, I'm 41, man. I don't know if I'm gonna be here in 10 years. I'm getting old, you know what I'm saying? But I know I'm gonna be here in 5, right? I'm just joking, but I know I'm gonna be here in 5, right? I can't really tell what the economy is gonna do 10 years from now. We could be in flying saucers and stuff, marrying Martians. We don't know. Things are advancing pretty quick. So, but 5 years from now, that's unlikely to happen, you know. And so you need to find out the person's needs. Also, the reason why I like Everbolt is, you know, I've got real estate that cash flows, these EverBull businesses that cash flow, and then I've got stocks that are appreciating equity. I'm about to buy a commercial building to move my business in that will depreciate equity. I'll be able to write off too. So, you know, I like to have different means of investments as well. But, you know, the thing is I bought into maybe, maybe 2 funds, like over time where they were buying either a piece of real estate or, you know, it was a fund buying into the corporation of EverBull, obviously. But, you know, if you're gonna pitch somebody, got the relationship, cool. But you should really ask your people before you pitch them what their goals, what their money is, you know. And oftentimes I see people, it's like, back in the day I didn't have that much money. I was spending it all on my business, but people thought I had a whole lot of money. So they're like, hey man, we need $2 million for that. I'm like, shit, me too, you know. I'd like to have $2 million for that too. I ain't got it right now. I don't know why you thought it was me. I'm flattered, but I ain't your guy. Right. So you just gotta make— but that also shows me they didn't do any research. They ain't asked the right questions, or there's no way that they would have hit me up for that dollar amount back then.

So— Gotcha. Doing a lot of the— well, yeah, and I think that's a, that's a great point. I think Oren Klaff makes that point in his books too. He talks about asking it— like, I would echo what you said— asking investors what their goals are, where are they at, and what is— and you're essentially being more a consultant there. You're not a salesman, you're a consultant, right? Is this the right, the right fit for you? Is this something in your timeline? Maybe you're not— you don't like 10-year offerings. Well, hey, we're doing a 3-year offering. Is that something you're interested in? I think that's crucial when probing different investors and seeing where you're at. On that note, I want to ask you about sales. A lot of people— running a fund is sales, right? People sometimes don't even think about that, but you are a salesman selling a fund, getting investors, and selling partners. You're selling people to sell you sometimes a deal or give you a cheaper offering. Um, what did— what advice would you give to, uh, let's see, let's call it a young salesman, a young salesman that's just getting started, even if it's not the fund space, maybe just in sales. Well, what advice would you give to those types?

You need the, the very first fundamental thing in sales, right? Sales is different from closing, different from marketing, different from advertising, right? They're all different. But in sales, the thing that you need is an offer. So many people don't really have an offer now. They say, you know, they got an elevator pitch, but if I got to listen to you pitch me some shit for more— like, I had a guy today, he was— he wasn't asking for money, he was asking me to check out his software, and it took him 20 minutes to explain it. I'm like, you know, at the end of 7 minutes, I'm out, you know what I'm saying? Like, dude, when am I gonna stare at software for 20 minutes, man? I'll like fall asleep here. I just can't do it, you know? Hey, you got cool product. 7 minutes in, hey, I see everything. What do you want me to do? Right? Like, I'm trying, and not everybody's like me, but, but I'm a busy guy. But you got to get your offer down so that when you, like, for example, uh, I'll go back to Everbolt because that's something that I'm buying now, is, you know, the offer is you 40% buy and you ain't got to do nothing. They send you 40% net every month once it gets the reserves met. So that's, that's an offer that's easy. I wouldn't even care if they weren't selling delicious ice cream. It's like, okay, so I'm getting this amount of money in, $150,000 in. 40% ownership. Y'all pay me 40% of the net income every single month in perpetuity until it's sold with an exit plan. That's it. Perfect, right? Makes complete sense. So, if your offer— here's what you need to have, and you guys are smart, smarter than me at this stuff, but here's what I look for, right? So, in my offer, I'm gonna give you 2 layers, okay? Layer number 1 is you need to have 4 parts. You need to have what the product is, right? Like, what are we investing into? What is the team that's going to manage the investment or going to run the product, right? What is the exit plan? Okay, and what are— what is the— what is the exit plan to sell? Like, how am I getting my money back? And what's the expected ROI, right? So if you can tell somebody those 4 things pretty easy, they can make a decision. Okay, I'm putting $150,000 in, I get 40% a month, 5-year exit plan, should exit out at $2 million. My 40% of that is okay, cool. Right, $800 grand. Perfect, right? Like, you can, you can, you can see that that's an easy offer. When people start trying to explain all the intricacies and like, I got a friend that runs a hedge fund with artificial intelligence, man, it sounds amazing. I won't put money in it because I don't understand it. I'm like Warren Buffett in that sense. I'm like, if you're that smart, you're smarter than me, and I'm a little scared that you might be able to manipulate my money, right? So that's layer 1. You gotta have the product, the team, the exit plan. and the compensation, right? How are you gonna get the return on investment? That's one layer. Now let me give you the second layer to this offer. It needs to be how to get what they want without having to do what they don't want, right? Most chances people would say, well, they wanna make money and they don't wanna lose money, right? It's gotta be a little deeper than that, right? The offer needs to be, hey man, how would you like to retire in the next 10 years by only putting 10% of your income into our fund? Right. Okay. Well, that's cool. I can retire in 10 years with 10% a year put into your fund. That's easy. I'm giving that to the church anyway, right? Like, you see what I'm saying? And I'm not saying that that's possible. I'm just saying when you can nail your offer down like that, like you figure what that person wants. Like me, I just want to be rich because the more lives I can impact, the more money I can put in the marketplace, the more pieces of food and I can put on people's plates because they're employees and contractors and laborers. That's my vision. It's not about money for me. It's about how many people can I feed? How many people can I keep employed because of the moves that I'm making in the rain that I'm draining over here, right? But so, for me, like, I'm not trying to retire. So, if you're pitching me and retire in 10 years, I feel like my job wasn't done. But a lot of people that are investing money, they're investing because they don't want to work anymore. I'm a workaholic. Most people are not. They're like, hey, how long till I can take this out and I ain't got to work no more? Right? Especially the younger people, you know.

Yeah.

So, your offer needs to have those 4 things and then what they want and what they don't want, and it needs to be quick. If you couldn't tell me in 2 or 3 sentences exactly what you do, what you offer, and how it benefits me, Like, you need to— you need to— as Dan Kennedy would say, you need to dial that thing in over and over and over again so you can get it in 4 sentences or less. Wow, I loved it.

That was, that was awesome. Um, yeah, that was to the point, right? I think so. The 4 things— having those 4 things very clear, to the point, in 3 or 4 sentences or less, and then giving that— I love that the second point of it too, you get what you want without The, the whatever, the hardship or the thing that they, they don't want to do. I think that's, that's wise words for someone. And that could be in the fun space. That works as well for whatever your sound work—

that works. Think about it, how to get across the board, how to get 6-pack abs without going on a diet, right? How to find the woman of your dreams without having to take a shower, right? Like, that's like, these, these are the offers we see every single day on the internet. How to get X without Y. X represents what they want. Y represents what they don't want. Yeah, how to get rich quick, you know what I mean? Like, that's the ultimate offer right there, you know? They want to get rich, they want it quick, you know?

Yeah. So, and I love that you mentioned the, the, the sale— well, on the ability of the offer, the, the whoever has structured together the offer really transforms the sale. And then being able to communicate that offer clearly, succinctly, precisely to what they want. I love it.

Um, well, we call it an irresistible offer.

Yeah.

If my offer is irresistible, I don't have to close you because my offer is irresistible. You're going to take me up on it. And so when you can dial in an irresistible offer, because keeping it simple sells, so an irresistible offer has to be simple because if you start giving me a bunch of information and numbers and analyzations and stuff, that's a lot to process. And I got to think, I really do got to think about it. But if you're like, hey, 10%, 10 years, this is the deal, you're out, blah, blah, blah, it'll get you this. It's like, I don't have that much to think about. There's not a lot to process there. See, I was in the mortgage business and I would watch these dudes be like, okay, so here's how it goes. Like, all right, the interest rates today are 4.5%, but if the bond market fluctuates tomorrow, they could be at like 4.875%. But if it goes down, they could be at 4.275%. Then, then they would hang up with the client and then they would come bitch to me. It's like, none of these clients want to lock in a loan. None of them want to lock in a loan. None of them are committing. I'm like, Because you're telling them shit they don't need to know. I would get on the phone with people, be like, look, you don't even want a mortgage. Nobody wants a mortgage. You want a house. When do you want the house? What do you want to pay for it? Okay, we'll work it out from there. Perfect. We'll close on July 31st. Your payments will be $1,200 or less a month. I'll send you the paperwork over. That's all you need. It was an easy decision. Yes, I want to close on the house. Yes, I want this to be my payment. I was making more money than most people because I let people choose their payments. If I'm educating you on a rate and giving you a payment, guess what? Then you're like, oh, you know, well, I'm gonna go call the other guy and see if I can get this. But if you tell me, hey, you know, I don't know, I figured it's probably $1,400 a month and I can get it to you for $1,200. Are you gonna shop me around? No, you're gonna assume that I could have ripped you off at $1,400 a month and I didn't. So I'm a good guy.

Oh, wow. That's cool.

But nobody wanted a mortgage, just like nobody wants to risk their money, right? They want the end result, which is compounded interest. an investment that makes them rich or an investment that makes them better off financially, right? They don't want to risk— an investment is synonymous with risk. They don't want to invest. They want the result of investing, which is the return of the investment, right? So if we keep focusing on the invest, they don't want to be sold that shit. You focus on the return of the investment, that's what they're dreaming of. Yeah.

Oh, I love that.

Yeah.

And well, that, that makes sense in so many ways. It could be investing, it could be mortgages, it could be selling your little Amazon widget. Um, no, that's, that's right on par. So for— well, actually, I want to, I want to switch gears here for a second. I know, I know you got to go in a minute. I want to, I want to talk about a few things. What does your crystal ball look like for the next— that we're recording this in February of 2021. What are you seeing from your seat over the next 18 months, 24 months, 36 months in the United States? We printed Anywhere from 20% to about 35% of all US dollars have been printed in the last about 12 months, have been created. And we see asset inflation. We are not seeing consumer price inflation. A lot of people are saying we have a bubble, it's going to pop. We have these crypto, we have these huge IPOs with different— we have all this stuff going on, all these data points. I want to hear from you though, bottom of your heart, what do you think is going to happen over the next— This is just speculation. This is for fun. But where are we at? Are aliens going to touch down? Like, what's going on?

They're already here. Elon Musk is married to one. Um, or has a kid with one anyway. Hey, here's the thing, man. Like, I did time with federal criminals that were political activists and, and, and under-the-table money washers for the Fed and stuff like that, right? So I've like run into those guys through the years. And I can tell you this, man. People are like, we're going to go through the Great Depression, man. It took a long time to bounce back from that because we didn't have the information. The government's not going to let us fail. It's not in their best interest for us to fail. They're like, the middle class will get wiped out. That's not in the American or any country's government's best interest. The best interest is to keep the middle class flourish. What we have these days, which is different from any other time in the past, is the ability to run the largest psyop on the planet. So, if they need to push up the market, they just get CNBC to keep saying the market's doing great. People have confidence. They keep throwing their money at it. There's 2 things that I really think about them printing all the money last year. It's like, cool, that just means there's more money out there. Why aren't we getting as much as we can? That's what I'm trying to do, right? Right. There's more to get, you know. We could be like, hey, they're running out of money. But now they just gave us a whole bunch more. We should go get it. We should get all of it. And they're giving it away like damn near for free. I just gotta Car. Okay. Not a, not a house, a car, which traditionally has higher interest rates for 2.34% for 72 months. How am I going to turn that down? How am I— why would I pay cash for that car when they are giving it to me for 6 years for 2.34%? Like, that's, that's insane. I just refinanced this house that I'm in, saved 25%. I just bought the house 3 years ago. The rates are so low, 2.875%, it saved me $2,500 a month, right? So think that $2,500 a month in savings goes to take care of the majority, all and then some of the car payment, obviously, that I just took out. So like right now is a time where they're setting you up to win. However, if you're not paying attention, you're going to miss out on this window. I watched this happen in 2005, '06, and '07. Right? So like there was the subprime boom. They had the market propped up and the bottom fell off. But if you think the bottom, like I was still busy in 2009 and '10, but by the time 2013 rolled around, Obama had us turned around and back up and rolling again. You know what I mean? It took him a few years because Bush, the things that happened under the Congress when Bush was president got a little wiry in that world. It took us a few years to get back on path. But think about it. We went last year unemployment 50 freaking percent. Now we're back down to 6%. Right? And so, like, we have the ability to run the press, turn the media on, and keep the middle class flourished. That's what the government's really set in place.

When does that stop though? Does it, does it, is there ever a day of reckoning?

I don't think it's gonna stop.

You think it's just gonna go forever?

Dude, if you could print, okay, so like there's a guy in the Avengers with us, right? Brandon, who prints crypto, right? You can make your own money and then you can just be like, buy these coins, and then you can just take that money and do whatever, hookers, blow, whatever you want with it, right? That's the Fed. Like, this is on a small scale with these coins. That's the Fed. So why would, why would you quit printing it out? It's like, dude, if we keep prospering— but things keep costing more money too. In the 1960s, a house, you know, cost $1,500. A car cost $300 brand new, you know. So it's always going to be more expensive. But then you just get to flex that you're a millionaire, you know. It's like, oh, you used to make $100 grand a year and now that's the equivalent of a millionaire. Congratulations, you're a millionaire. Don't mean shit, but you're a millionaire now, right? Like, And I'm telling you, but that mindset, people think, oh yeah, I'm a millionaire now. That keeps that middle class pumping. They don't want us to fail because if we fail, you know, first of all, there's a lot of gun owners in America and they already showed what they could do at the Capitol. I'm telling you, the government's a little scared of the regular person right now, right? Like, if you were in government, you should be like, that was a little weird. We should be cooler to these people, right? They've also got some smart people. And traditionally, as crazy as this sounds, I liked Trump, but as crazy as this sounds, Democrats typically do better in economies. Maybe it's because they inherited from Republicans, I don't know. But Bill Clinton had the better economy, uh, than, uh, Reagan, and, uh, Obama ended up with a better economy than Bush when he left. Uh, Trump ended up picking that up and doing even good with it. I'm sure Biden's gonna keep the ball rolling on some things because again, it's not in their interest to fail. Now all the conspiracy sites be like, they're coming against you, it's going to be socialism. What's the benefit of that? What's the benefit of that for like, like for them, right? Because if we— because Americans are lazy. You put us in socialism, you're gonna have to be supporting like 80% of us because we're just gonna play video games and smoke weed all day, right? Like this ain't China where it's like, oh man, socialism, I better get a job at Apple for a dollar a day. No, here in America they'd be like, shit, this $600 a month just gonna have to do. It's a different mindset, right?

Yeah.

So I don't think all these worst-case scenarios And listen, I've lived an entire life of worst-case scenarios and still worst-case scenario never came true. You know, worst-case scenario, 20 years, shit, end up being 15. Worst-case scenario, oh no, man, my heart's broken, I'll never love again. I'm married with 4 kids. You know what I mean? Like, worst-case scenario never is.

So what is your— what's the play then? What's the play then? We know that's happening. What's the play for, for someone that's listening to this show going over, going for the next 18 months? Is it buying? Is it buying real estate assets, starting a business? Where do you see the play strongest? And maybe it's a conglomerate altogether.

Well, don't downplay what I'm about to say. My job and my— like, I got one talent. I'm not an athlete or anything like that. I'm not even that good of a speaker. I have one talent of taking complicated shit and making it really simple. But the problem with most people is when I make it simple, their mind tries to re-complicate it so that they can talk themselves out of it. But the reason why I make something real simple is so that you can make a decision, okay? So you can make your decision on this because what I'm about to say is real simple. Uh, keep buying stocks and real estate while it's going up. And as soon as that shit acts like it's gonna fall, you got 2 choices: sell as soon as you can, right? Like, we watched people in March of last year sell all their stocks, right? Oh shit. Or April, sell all their stocks. Oh shit. I just held on to mine. They're worth like 3, 4 times. I held on to my Bitcoin. I held on to my stocks. I'm like, that's money that's invested. I don't need it out. So watch it. Hey, if you feel like you need to pull it out, pull it out fast. You need to watch the news every day if that's you, if you're that kind of person. The second thing though is, you know, I learned from Warren Buffett. He's like, you know, if you just leave shit alone, usually it works out, right? So like what you've got money in your funds and things like that, you know, unless something crazy happens, just leave the money in there. The big play is going to be the commercial market. At some point it's got to fucking collapse because we are not going back to work. And I don't say that because the virus or anything like that. We're not going back. Why the fuck would I go sit in traffic? For 45 minutes to go to work when I've been working at home for the last year from Zoom and we're still productive? Why would you make me go in the office now? If I'm a company, why would I pay $20,000 a month in rent for the building I'm in when my people can work from home and I can save $20,000, $240,000 a year that I can invest back into my business to grow it? So commercial is gonna fall apart. There's gonna be a collapse in it without a doubt. I work in the largest building in North Texas, right? I'm on the 2nd floor. It's 3 20-story towers. Google, YouTube, Hilton headquarters, like big huge Regus, big huge multi-billion dollar companies in my building. That place was full of nothing but people. Like there was a bar there, there was restaurants. It's been empty for a year now. We're the only stupid people that still go to work there every day. But I'm paying 10 grand a month in rent. I'm like, if I'm paying for this shit, I'm gonna enjoy it, damn it. But like we're literally the only— the restaurants aren't open, the store's not open, Google's not there, YouTube's not there, Hilton's not there. Nobody's there, man, which has allowed me to throw some really cool after-hour parties in that place because ain't nobody there, right? We've had some really fun there. But, but that building, at some point, they just refinanced the debt in November. I know this because I had to resubmit some financials for them to get with the bank, right? So, they just refinanced that debt. Some of that debt they took on was for remodel. So, I see them doing the remodel but nobody's coming back. It's been a year and nobody's coming back. So, When these contracts, maybe they got 5-year leases with Google, but they're not going to renew, right? When it's over with, why would they spend— Google's probably spent $120 grand a month with them. Why would they do that? Like, and think Google's got, I don't know, 200, 300 locations that cost that much or more around the country or the world that now these people can work from home. Like, so commercial's got to be something you guys got to keep your eyes on. You know, I'm trying to buy a commercial building right now and I need it quick. But it's like, damn, man, I know, I know at any moment that's going to be the first thing that pops because nobody's going to work. I still drive on the freeways here and we ain't got traffic yet. So nobody's at work.

Interesting. Do you think the devil's advocate is companies that don't work in the office are going to over time are going to lose and business owners are going to realize that they got to be in. So do you think working at home is here to stay?

I believe so. You know, I've been working at home since 2005. You know, and I mean, I have an office now. I was forced to, but I still stay here most days, you know, and my, my contractors and employees that work out of the office, they're not required to go in every day. They stay home as long as they get the damn job done. I don't care if they're in Timbuktu.

Yeah. I love it. Okay. I know we've, we've gone a little bit long.

I know you got it.

You probably got some fun stuff Friday night with your, with your family. What's, uh, just parting, parting words, parting advice for people on this call that are— I love your story of of resilience. And I wish we could talk for 3 more hours. I bet you've got stories forever. And actually, if people want to go listen to you, they can go find you all over the internet and everywhere. You can hear all those stories. But what's some advice for people on this call thinking about getting into entrepreneurship, not even just funds, but just entrepreneurship in general, and getting into this investing game? Maybe they're hesitant. Maybe they're, I don't know, it's a risky thing. What's some advice you would give to people that are on the fence or thinking about it?

Well, I'm gonna tell you this, and this is the cold hard facts, okay? So if you're— there's 4 levels of business, and I'm gonna tell you what the levels are and what it takes to get to each level, to level up, right? We always hear that term level up, then you don't know what the hell level you're on or what the next level is or what, you know. So I'm gonna give you that. So when you're an employee, I started off as a salesperson, still an employee. I had to master sales and marketing, right? That's the ability to generate leads, okay? That marketing is not just putting my name on a billboard, it's getting leads. And then master sales to be able to close them, right? So I got to be able to get a customer, have a conversation with that customer that puts money in my pocket, right? When I master those 2 skills, I no longer need the corporation. I can go out on my own. I can generate my own leads, close my own sales, or I can make my rules as an entrepreneur at the company, right? But I need those 2 skills to graduate to becoming self-employed, which is level number 2. Okay, it's self-employed. You already got the sales and marketing down. So those aren't— those are skills you continue to use and build, but those aren't the skills that you need to go to the the next level. When you become self-employed, the 2 skills that you need to go to the next level is you need to learn how to hire and train people. Okay? So, first, sales and marketing, that gets you to start your own business. Then, you got to learn how to hire and train people so that you can grow and scale that business. Once you get to that level, you got 4 or 5 employees working for you, board of directors, things of that nature, you move into level 3 which is the CEO. You're an actual person that's running a corporation. You're not a self-employed LLC sole proprietor. You're the CEO of a corporation with a board of directors, a chairperson, And all that good stuff. Well, in order to move to the fourth and final level, the skill that you need there— there's two skills that you need there— is the ability to build a brand, because you don't want to be the face of what you're doing forever. So you need to build a brand that's bigger than just you, the CEO, right? We don't really know— most people don't know who the CEO of Google is. Most people don't know who the CEO of Apple is, right? Like, they just— they— the product has outlived their original founders. Um, same, you know, 10 years from now, most people won't know who the CEO of Amazon is, right? Well, actually, he's quitting this year, so we may not know who it is next year because nobody will care after Bezos is gone. So, you got to be able to build a brand that lasts the company long-term, and you got to, you got to develop your leadership skills because now you're not only hiring and training people, that's cool, but now you're managing the leaders. You're the CEO, so you're managing the board of directors. So, you need leadership skills and brand-building skills to get to the 4th and final level, which is where you step away as CEO and you just own the business and make money from the business, but you never work on the business. Maybe you're the chairperson. that shows up there. So, that would be, depending on where you are, now you know what level. You're either employed somewhere, you're working for yourself, or you've got a company that you own and that you've built, or you're on your way into not retirement but ownership, right? But those are the 2 skills at each level that matter the most to be able to plug in, to be able to escalate and level up. So, hopefully, that helps in some way.

Oh, that's great. I love that. That's similar to Robert Kiyosaki's Model, isn't it?

Yep, yep, yeah, yeah, very simple.

I love how you expand upon it though. Yeah, he kind of sets that model, and I love that of of and remembering. Yeah, where I love you, where you're leveling up from. You got to level up, right? That I think that's a clear roadmap of where to level up. Um, Ryan, thank you so much for coming on today. Where can people come to learn more about you if they want to get involved with your programs? Or and we got a lot of stuff online. Where's a good place to send people?

Um, you know Instagram or Facebook. So I have blue checks. If it doesn't have a blue check next to it, it's not me. It's an imposter account or whatever. So be careful. I'll never DM you and ask you to buy shit. You got to hit me up first. Like, I don't operate that way. So make sure if you see my profile, it's the ones with blue checks. There's imposters every day, but it's @hardcorecloser on Instagram and it's, uh, Real Ryan Stuman on Facebook. Both of them, like I said, have blue checks. Uh, my website is hardcorecloser.com. And, uh, not to throw a bunch of stuff out at you, but I have a podcast as well, and it's different than this. I have 3 million monthly listeners, and it is 5 minutes or less a day. I put out one every single day of the week. I just did episode number 750 this week. And so, every single, uh, day, Monday through Friday, you get a 5-minute podcast. So, you can binge listen to 4 or 5 of them on the way to work or whatever. There's 750 after all. But they're called Rewire. So it's Rewire with Ryan Stuman, 5-minute motivational, thought-provoking, quick spit stuff. We put songs out and stuff like that too. So, um, you know, I, I figure your audience will really like that because it's all about how you think and act and take an action to something. And it's the most popular thing I do.

Well, I love that. Well, and I, and I gotta give a shout out. I've loved your content. I've followed you for a long time and I've loved your content. So go again, we'll put them in the show links below where people can find you, but Ryan, thank you so much for coming on today. It's been fun.

Yeah, man, it's great hanging out. Appreciate you having me on here.

Yeah, thank you. See you on the next one. Bye.