Ep 228: Serving, not Selling with Steve Ramona

If they want to go and scale and get. They need you. They need to pay you to do the coaching for real estate investing, private equity, who have talked to many of those, if that's what you want to do, if you want to just take my advice and kind of go gradually with your podcast, we use that example. I'm happy about it and they're happy about it. Yeah, again, we gotta walk in their shoes.

Welcome to the Next Level Income show, where it's our goal to take your income, your investments and your life to the next level. I'm your host, Chris Larson. If you haven't yet, get a copy of our book for free at our website, nextlevelincome.com. that's www.nextlevelincome.com. just click on the book link and I'll even send you a copy if you put your address in. On today's show, we have Steve Ramona. Steve is a unique super connector who specializes in building partnerships through his personalized introduction. These introductions are emails, include video explanations adding a personal touch to each connection. Steve's introductions have been incredibly successful, resulting in $25 million in deals over the past 11 years. This track record speaks volumes about the value he brings to each connection. He also has a podcast, doing business with a servant's heart. With an audience of over 40,000 people per episode and growing, he also has a TV show called Together We Serve, which has a 1.2 million person audience and 9 million viewers on the TV channel. Steve shows mostly feature CEOs, founders, presidents and entrepreneurs with incredible stories. He finds great people to partner with through these shows and introduces partnerships, collaborations, and he's going to share his tips, tricks, and what he has learned from not only only millionaires, but also billionaires in his business. Steve, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

I'm excited to be here and I'm excited as well. We were talking a little bit beforehand with just some of the things that you and I have shared in our backgrounds, kind of business, personal business, those sorts of things. And as we were talking about how you work with businesses, something went through my head. You really focus on social media serving versus, you know, what's in it for me? You know, like Zig Ziglar said, if you help everybody get what they want, you'll always have enough of what you want. And, you know, I was thinking about that and Steve, I think that really personifies, it really exemplifies, you know, what you do. So I would love for you to share a little bit about Your background with the audience before we dive into your, you know, serve versus sell mentality.

Yeah, thank you, Chris. I've been an entrepreneur my whole life. My dad was a business, a building contractor.

Yeah.

So I saw that as a commentary. Oh, you. Same thing. Oh, that's very cool. I love that. But we saw that, Chris.

Yes.

Yeah, we saw. Dad had his own time, but he worked hard. He always had time for me and my. And my siblings, sports and things. But again, he worked a lot, but that's okay.

Yeah.

Because he's always helping people. And the people that weren't helping, he wasn't helping. But if he worked 8 to 5 at, I'm in San Jose, California at, at the time, IBM or those big companies, he couldn't do as much. So I really resonated, probably like you did, Chris. But what I learned is at 18, high school, summer, going out, you know, what do we do as 18 year old? We want to go out. So I need money. So my, my family have launched a health club around 17. Yeah.

Oh, wow.

It was like 1979. 78.

Yeah.

So my cousin goes, hey, why don't you work here? We could always use staff, you know, I know you're a good guy. So I started working the front desk. And what I learned from this networking side of things was I'm meeting these very successful business people, males and females. But what I was doing, which I was beknownst to me, I was building relationships.

Yeah. Yeah.

Hey, have a great workout. Hey, enjoy, you know, have a great day. How was your vacation? Hey, how's your granddaughter? How's your new baby? You know, you have these conversations and just organically growing my network. Remember one quick story? Tony came in and threw me a book and says, a wealthy barber, he says, read this, I'm going to ask you next week. Kid used to call me a kid. Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna ask you one question. I want you to answer it. So he comes back the next Tuesday and say, hello. Okay. What'd you get from the book? Save 10% of my income a month. Just put away and leave it. Let it be. Well, 10 years later, I happen to look at the account and it's $68,000 in it. Now, keep in mind, audience, I'm making four or five dollars an hour, right?

Yeah.

I'm like, holy.

This is a few decades back too, to be fair, right?

Yes, yes. I'm 60, 30. So it was a while back, but still it resonates today, which is the.

Powerful thing 100% right, right.

So he told him, because I saw his number and said, hey, hey, I want to pay you a thousand dollars. And because that was your business, you were a financial advisor. He says no, no, no one, I'm retired so you don't need to do that. But he said, and this was very clairvoyant to me, he said, Steve, my universe changed when you took my advice and it worked for you. Somebody came in my universe because I served you without any money, any compensation. But maybe a millionaire came in, maybe a billionaire. Maybe I made a, you know, a hundred thousand dollars helping this person as a client. We don't know that, but I'm sure that happened because I was very successful.

Wow.

Well that lit my, you know, I didn't realize at 28, yeah, I knew I made a lot of money but then I realized when I went to my next venture, we sold in 2000 and again, having network, one of the members reached out and said, hey, I'm launching a restaurant, you want to come work with me? I'm like, dude, I know nothing about, I'm 29, I didn't have a resume, so like I need work. I said, yeah Jim, let's do it. Well, here's the value of the network. I took that thousands of people I met over 20 years from the health club and said, hey guys, girls, I'm launching a restaurant, come visit me. Within six months, we're the top restaurant on the street. Because all my relationships I built, yeah, came to that. And then the next project I did after that same thing, I took the restaurant network and every opportunity just grew. And I learned about five years ago the power of that serving and building network with building relationships.

I love that, I love that. And that was, I had to chuckle because when I was in college I worked, I worked at a gym so I would open in the mornings. So I'd get up at 4:45, I'd roll out of bed, I'd walk across the street, it was like quarter mile. And I would be able to open and get everything turned on before 5 o' clock in the morning. Getting up at quarter to five. Now remember I'm in grad school, so this is this rough for a 20 something young, 20 something year old kid, you know, might as well be, you know, three in the morning now. And these two gentlemen would come in every morning, Chris and George and I talk to him, same thing, say hi, you know, and um, this, this went on for months and months and months. Well I, I graduate, I'm looking at options and I decided I wanted to go into sales, ultimately medical device sales. Cause I was. Wanted to generate income to buy real estate. And it turns out that, you know, the top company at the time with sales training was Pfizer. And I wanted an interview with Pfizer. We couldn't get an interview with Pfizer because they had a hiring freeze and all this stuff. Well, Chris and George ended up working for Pfizer, so they lifted the hiring freeze. And not only did I get an interview, but I. I got two offers, like, two separate offers from the company. And it all came from that networking, just like you said. So it's. I was laughing because, you know, growing up with my stepfather as a contractor and then having a very similar experience, I realized I'm like, wow, like, your network is your. Is your net worth. And, you know, I'll never forget that. So I just had a gentleman call me that I used to race bikes with. He's retired now and he wants to get into real estate. I said, yeah, man. So we were. Spent some time on the phone. So I love, I love that philosophy. And, you know, I think it's a balance, right, of, you know, not giving everything away, but looking to. To serve individuals while still being able to grow, you know, your business. And so maybe that's a great. Next question, Steve, which is, you know, how do you balance serving without being like, say, maybe saying being taken advantage of or, you know, not being able to mind your own business? Like, how do you kind of square that?

It's a great question. I've got a little different take on it. I give my, like podcasting. I'm a mentor for podcast. I give them all my secret sauce.

Yeah.

I do a free podcast workshop, like, to you, but I give them the whole game plan. Here's what I do. Here's why I'm successful. Because what I've found over 18 months and talking to very successful business owners, give them all my playbook. They can't run the playbook like me. I'm the coach.

Yeah. They want you to help execute on it, Right?

Exactly. I'm the Belichick, and you're Brady. Tom Brady. Belichick. Belichick didn't need. Well, kind of needed Tom, but that's what I look at as I'm a big sports guy. I could give you all my playbook, but get how you execute. Yeah, you might be able to execute a little bit. You might go on Google and figure it out. But how much time and how much effort are you going to put?

Oh, it's way, it's. Yeah, it makes way more sense to bring an expert in and take. I say, I say you can either, you know, pave the road yourself or you can buy the shortcut through coaching. And you know, it's like, it's like the Google maps, right? Yeah.

Yeah. My dad used to say, don't ever recreate the wheel. And in contracting, as you know, my dad found, you know, five or six guys that were really good. They go cement, they do the framing. My dad just said, I found good people. I'm not going to try to do it myself and create a wheel. The wheel's been built and he built millions of dollars worth successfully. So it works.

Yeah, I love that. I love that. So I guess, Steve, tell us about your business. Like what, what exactly is your business? And, and how do you, how do you grow it?

So I'm in partnerships and a promoter. Not a promoter like a boxing match promoter. People like, oh, you put people together so they fight. I said, no, no, not that kind of promoter. What I do is I, I partner up in joint venture. Familiar companies come together and they pay me a little piece of that because of the introduction of my wide, my large network and I've built my network to millionaires and billionaires with the podcast. Be able to get to meet them on something like this, get to know them and then offer, hey, I've got this guy I need you to meet. I think it'd be a great synergy for you. Yeah, I probably do 20 referrals a week or more. I did. Wow. I did 1800 last year.

1800 referrals. That's incredible. Yeah. So you're like a, you're like a business matchmaker. You're like, you're like, you're like that, that, that woman, that. Well, you know, that well dressed woman in the, in the American Airlines magazine, you know, matchmaker. Yeah.

So I'm not the beautiful woman. I might be well dressed, but I'm not the beautiful woman.

Listen, some people are listening. They don't know that by your voiceness.

That's, that's true. Well, I'm a handsome guy and we'll just leave it at that.

Exactly, exactly.

The power of this is. Especially nowadays, Chris.

Yeah.

We're so fomo. We're so fearful.

Yeah.

You know, this company next door to me just went out of business because of COVID or the recession. I've got to do everything I can to pitch Slap Don't Work. And people see it, they're more alert because of The Internet. Why not build that relationship and serve them?

Yeah.

My goal in every call show that I come on is bringing value if you do that. And I had a conversation with the lace, not understanding it. She's like, but how do I get a sale? I said, I can't tell you how, when, or where, but it will happen. And maybe it's not through the person you're talking to now, but it could be in their network. Yes, if you got in my network and I introduced you some people I've had sales, you know, some I get paid on, some I don't. That's not the goal for me, but I know there's been a lot of stuff. And I just had two ladies on my podcast yesterday that I introduced to do an event in Maui. A couple's cool.

Yeah, yeah.

That's what it's all about. I'm not gonna get a piece of it. That's. I won't ask for that. But here's what I say. I'm a faith guy. I call it God's currency or universe. You put that value. That servant meant heart.

Yeah.

Good things will happen.

I love that. I love that. And I believe. Yeah, I believe something similar. And, you know, when we. When we meet, when we connect with people, whether it's virtual like this in today's world or face to face, there's an exchange of energy. And that energy, you know, travels, you know, out through the community, through the universe, and does that. We could do a whole podcast on that, but we might. Some people might not quite follow us, but that. But that brings up another thought. So, you know, one of the things, when I was a manager, you know, people would call me like, oh, how do I break into the business and do this? And medical device sales, very, very challenging, very competitive business, because, you know, you can make high six figures or even seven figures in the business. So a lot of people want to get into it, and people send me their resumes, but if people would actually call me, I'd say, listen, that's not how you get a job. But I just would think back to, you know, my gym days. I said, they're like, well, how do you. Like, what do you do? And I said, you call. You call people that you. You want the job with. And then you just say, hey, can you. Can you walk me through this? You know, and then when you're done with that person, you. You ask for a referral to the next person and go on and on. I said, because nobody's going to hire you for the most part off of LinkedIn, you know, it's through. People want that connection, especially today. And I told them, as a hiring manager, I said, I'm not looking for somebody to hire. I'm looking through resumes for somebody not to hire. And whoever's left, like, that's. That's who I want to be. And if you can show me that you're that person and, you know, have somebody call me, I said, and, you know, just seeing what I did through maybe happenstance worked. Worked well, you know, kind of. Steve, what's your take on, I guess, you know, how would you call it, like, the right way to network in today's digital world? Like, what are some best practices that people can use, whether they're, you know, trying to get a job or trying to grow their business? You know, what do you recommend to people?

Great question. And I've come up with a principle. It's called the asla. Kind of a weird.

Sorry, say that you cut out just there for a second. Say it one more time.

The ASLA principle.

Okay, maybe I did hear it right. Yeah, yeah.

Kind of a funny name. But I do that. I keep it that way because it does draw attention. It's a ask. S. Shut up. Oh, listen. And a ask. And really quick, I'll walk through. I meet Chris today.

Shut up.

Listen, listen and ask.

Yep.

I ask questions. So what's your challenges today, Chris? Because I shut up and I listen and then I ask you. Okay, I hear your challenges. This would this gentleman. Does this help get you closer to where your goal is? Because you told me your goal was this.

Yes.

What I've done is I've shut up, I've asked, I shut up. I listen, I ask again. But the other thing I'm doing in my mindset, and this is powerful. You is serving. I didn't think about these and go, okay, Chris, buy my package. It's 10,000 a year. I could help you grow an ROI. Now I'm pitching. Yeah, you just lost them. You want to ask the person. The person. Because what want to do is learn about them, how you can bring value to them.

Yes. Yeah, I love.

As I said, it's so powerful. I've done it for 18 months. I get three to 10 referrals daily. I could probably look at my email. I got a referral because Steve's out serving, bringing resources, intros, tips. Now, eventually they're going to go. And I get this all the time. Steve and I had this morning. Lady goes, man, I've jumped on this Call to help each other. And you've helped me so much. What do you need? Boom. When that door flies open like that.

Yes. Yeah.

I'm not saying taking advantage, but now you can go, hey, I'm a real estate coach. I'm looking for people that want to invest and make money in real estate.

Yeah.

And then she goes, I don't do this. But then they eventually go, well, I might be interested. Debbie. Great. Let's jump on a call. Let me explain this to you. I'm excited. I love what I'm doing. This might be a fit for you.

Yeah.

Did I pitch? No. I just explained what I do because I brought her value.

Yeah, absolutely.

Chris. This is how. How I look at Chris Day at 7 years old. Let's think about that. We wake up the earlier. Earliest we ever wake up. 6, 7am we want to beat our parents to the tree. We run to the tree, we open that gift, go, I got the bike. Oh, my God. You know, and you start riding the bike around.

Yeah.

What we lose sight of is, as a child, we probably made gift for our parents at school or at home. You know, we didn't buy anything, but we made something. There's a gift exchange. If you learn to serve, there's a gift Exchange that happens 90% of the time. Nothing's a guarantee. 100. But I've seen 90 of the time. It's powerful.

Yeah. No, absolutely. And, you know, same thing, like, I've seen this as well, when, you know, I'd sit down with surgeons, which was our. Which were our primary customers. You know, I'd go in and the reps are like, all right, like, what are we. What are we going to sell? What are we going to sell? Dr. Ramona today? What are we going to. And say, nothing. Like, put everything away. They're like, what? We'd sit down and say, what are your goals for your practice? What are you trying to achieve? What are the challenges that you're facing? Right? Because that. That was the trap you fall into. Right. And this is the. It's kind of. It's like. It's almost backwards. Right? Because in sales, you know, going back to Pfizer, we'd stand up in front of a camera and we would have our pitch deck, and we would go through it, and then we'd criticize each other, and we would talk about how we can improve and do all that stuff. And that's what you rehearse. But what we didn't rehearse was the piece of, how do you uncover what's really valuable for your, for your customer. And how do you find out what, what is really important to them as well? Right? What are their challenges that they're facing? Like you said, it's important. I love that. Asla ask. Shut up. Listen to what they're going to tell you. And then the beautiful thing is they tell you exactly how you can help them. And sometimes you can't, like, to your point, Steve. And that's okay because then you walk. It's like going on a date, you know, sometimes it's not a good fit. Nobody's like, oh, I went on a bad date and I'm sorry it didn't work out. You're like, well, no, it was a bad date. Like you're, you're glad that you. Yeah, you're, you're, you're glad that you don't have to go on another date, probably.

So I've got a great tip, Chris. Sorry.

Yeah, please.

A great one.

Dating. I mean, I'm happily married. Just.

Oh, me too. And my wife, she heard this out. Trouble. So one thing I say is next. And I say that my head. Not in a bad way. Tony's not say neck.

You said say next.

Next. My head. The next person who's next, who am I going to bring serve today? But here's a tip. Audience, please.

Yeah.

If you take anything from. This is so huge.

Yeah.

That person says, no, bring more value. Like, you know what? I'm not a fit for you. Like you said, so well, Chris, here, let me introduce you to Z. I think they're a perfect fit for you.

Yeah. Yeah.

I think that's all. The very wealthy, very highly successful business people I've talked to all do that. Most of them do that.

Yeah.

Because they know it comes back as a boomerang. The they come back, it doesn't fit. And it's a fit.

Yeah.

But think of from the gift standpoint, how many times do we get a no? That person's like, chris, now this is not a fit because they're scared. They're scared of your response. You're going to be upset. They're scared of what you're going to do. And you come back and go, you know what? I'm going to. You know, here's a tip, here's a resource. I heard you say this. I've done that twice this month. And I've got huge opportunities come my way. A week later, they reached out because they're like, I can't believe you did that. You served me without even getting A sale?

Yeah, yeah. And it's, it is, it's like some people may hear that and say, well, that's disingenuous because really, you know, it's like people say, oh, we'll give you, give money away. You're just doing it out of altruism, but it makes you feel, feel good and it's like you're actually getting something. It's like, okay, but to your point, I think it's, it's how what you prioritize, right, and what you focus on. And you know, you, you, you. I think you brought up before, I think this was before we started recording, you know, But I've had partners in the past that are, are, are focused on money to a fault, whereas they, they lose sight of what's best for the people that they purportedly were trying to serve. And people see through that. They catch up to that. You know, some, a lot of times people say, well, that those people are really good negotiators. But ultimately they turn, you know, those same people turn and say, but I wouldn't want to really do business with that person, you know, And I think especially in today's world, so much is transactional, so much is digital. You know, we crave these authentic relationships where, you know, we're shuffled into these echo chambers in social media, you know, and, and the different algorithms that work and it's, it's really kind of pulling us apart. And I really think that there's a tremendous value for those that value connections. And you know, I, I remember reading Rich Dad, Poor dad and Robert Kiyosaki talked about like, the value of being a salesperson. It's one of the reasons that it appealed to me and kind of encouraged me to do that. But I think in today's world, something that we, we really lack are true leaders. And like, that is to me the most valuable thing when it comes to skills that you can ultimately build. Working with billionaires or millionaires. Billionaires. Sen. Millionaires. Steve, you know, what have you seen in terms of what makes the best leaders, in terms of a servant mentality and some things that you can share based on that. Are you a high income business owner or professional earning 2,300,000 or even more a year, but still feel like you're living paycheck to paycheck? Are you comfortable working until you're 65 or 70 to retire, or do you want to achieve financial independence and live life on your own terms? You could join myself and Matt4 and learn how we both became financially independent in our early 30s, we will teach you how to make, keep and grow your money, teaching you strategies to, to maximize your earnings, keep your income that you've earned through tax strategy and legal structures, and ultimately teach you how to grow it by determining your personal investing strategy, as well as teach you how to analyze investments so you can grow your passive income to the point to live life on your own terms. Our coaching clients reliably do this in seven years or less. To learn more, check out our coaching program at nextlevelincome.com coaching. That's nextlevelincome.com forward/coaching.

Most of them will tell you they're mentoring somebody and a lot of times it's free. And that's what I do it. I follow their, their advice and I do a free business mentoring twice a month and I do my podcast mentoring once a month for free. Yeah, because it's giving back, first of all. But when you give something free away, people remember you, you talked about earlier so well and Zig Ziglar said that a great way to remember. Here's my playbook. Go for it. If you need me, I charge this and that's where the ask comes in for you. Hey, if you need more of me, of course, my time's yes. So it's this amount. This is what I charge. If it doesn't fit, come back next month. But you can't. So here's something to think about for all the investors. There people in your audience, they can't scale a business coming to my free webinar every month. If they want to go and scale and get. They need you, they need to pay you to do the coaching. For real estate investing, private equity, who have talked to many of those, if that's what you want to do, if you want to just take my advice and kind of gradually with your podcast, we use that example. I'm happy about it and they're happy about it. Yeah, again, we got to walk in their shoes. Not my shoes.

Yeah, absolutely. No. And I think that's great. It's the same, it's the same philosophy. And that's, you know, my boys are soon to be 15 and 13, so they're 12 and 14 right now. And I'm, I always look for, I'm like, if I can distill a lesson down that my sons can understand and I can apply it on a daily basis, you know, but I'm able to teach them that lesson like that. To me, that's, that's a good thought process for me to go to Go through, you know, and we were talking. I was talking to my older son who wants to be team captain for his lacrosse team. And he actually said, I think this is something I should be interested in basically at this point and where I am. And I said, that's great. You know, so we talked about, you know, act as if. And I think that's, you know, as a leader, if you act like that mentor, like if you're listening and you say, well, Chris, I'm not a leader. You know, I'm. I'm a salesperson. You know, I might be in a revenue producing position or I'm not even in that position. You know, I'm in a. A support role or I'm an administrative role. That doesn't mean that you can't employ these same techniques that you're talking about, Steve, you know, looking, looking for ways to, to find value. And that's what I, that's ultimately what I said to my, my sons. I said, listen, when you talk to somebody, if you want to be a leader, you know, if you're on the lacrosse field, look for something you can do to help step that player out. You know, maybe it's. Maybe they don't know anybody and it's knowing their name. Maybe it's given them a tip, you know, in terms of their shooting style or doing that. You know, maybe it's like my younger son likes to string sticks. You know, maybe you offer to do that, you know, for somebody. Now he gets paid to do it. Now people come to him to do that. But I think whatever role you're in, whether you're a leader or not, find a way that you can find value and think about, like you said, Steve, who can I connect this person with? And that might be a good fit for them. And I agree with you. I feel like it does come back.

I love that with your kids, because I think kids. And I talked to one of the top high school football coaches in Georgia. Oh, that's what he does. He says, I know the mentors along the guys, the mentees, because they're learning. But hopefully a mentee becomes the mentor and leadership. And I use this example with private equity and the company, you know, your office, let's use a sales team. You've got five salespeople. They've all got a quota most of the time. Yeah, well, sales A is struggling. He's his happening. And sales B could go, I'm not going to help him and mentor him because I've got a quota too. Yeah, but he's going to sales. Hey, I heard this phone call you, this and this. He wants you tweak it here and do your next call. He does the next call, tweaks it and he gets a sale. Yeah, well, B is like, well, that gets my quota from some people thought process. But for me and you and the people get this.

Yeah, I'm mentoring. That's right.

It's a short two minute mentor. But the universe will change. Leaders will always be successful.

That's right. And that person may say, hey, Steve, this, this, this deal is too big and too complex. I can't handle. I need your help on it. Or that could turn into a partnership. Or, you know, that could be your most loyal salesperson. When you ultimately, you know, get moved into that role, people, people really see that and leaders see that. Right? Leaders see, business owners see that and say, wait a minute, you're, you're a leader. We need you to do those things. You know, leading.

It's a great point. You get me so excited here. I apologize. This is such a great show. I say transformational, not transactional. You said that?

Yes, yes. I love that. Transactional.

Let's take the number.

Transactional.

Yeah, yeah, let's take the numbers. Say it's a $100,000 commission deal.

Okay.

And you, and you're right, they're up. And maybe A gets 40,000. This A, you know, B gets B gets 40 and A gets 60 because it's his client. Yeah, well, he would have got nothing if he didn't help him. And this guy would have gotten nothing at all. So the company doesn't grow. Think about that little sphere there. It's game changer in sales business. We can't worry about the money because you know what, if I was B, 40,000. I'll take it and run and go make my own sales.

Yeah.

Help each other.

One of the best pieces of advice I got from one of my, my young, when I was young, as one of my bosses or mentors, he was both. Todd. I don't know if you're listening, Todd, but thank you. But he said, take care of your clients and the numbers will take care of, of themselves. And I love that saying. And I was like, you know what? I was so focused on the numbers. And when he told me that, I was like, oh, there's a way better. And sure, I could still focus on the numbers, but on a day to day basis, you focus on providing that value and doing that. So Steve, share with the audience, like who is your ideal client and who do you love to work with. Who do you find that you can really help provide the most value for in your network?

Yeah, I'm looking for highly successful business owners. I help host a mastermind called the Pantheon alliance where we get alliance networking events and stuff. So people that, you know, this is a high end mastermind, you know, cost wise, but you're also working with highly successful people. And I want think about getting into their network of highly successful people. We also host an in person event in Utah every month. So you have access to that free of charge. Just got to get out there. But one of the guys running it's worth a hundred billion dollars. You'll get to meet a guy worth 100 million.

Billion. I thought I heard billion. I was gonna say I'm not impressed with the 100 million anymore. I need to, but the billion will get me going. So. Yeah, I'm just kidding.

No, no, it's so good. And for example, we've connected through our network. Richard Branson is going to be available and we haven't announced yet. I probably say it, but guys like that are starting to come to look at this because they want to serve and connect.

Yeah, absolutely.

People very successful. And you probably heard Chris, when they've got all the money, more money than God, I'm not a big fan of that phrase. But they've got so much money, like 100 billion.

Yeah.

What do they want to do? They want to support and mentor others. Maybe it's money, maybe it's resources, maybe it's a tip, whatever that may be. But start now when you don't have them. You've practiced that mindset. When you do have the money and these guys are growing, it's not like this guy, you know, went from 1 billion to 100 billion, but he grew every month. I mean every year. Because he's out supporting other people.

That's right.

And, and I know audience, maybe not this audience, but people listen like, I'm not making any money. Okay. Go and serve people by just opening the door for somebody. Yeah, give them a tip. You've learned something. Reach out to somebody. Hey, I just heard the Steve Ramona talk. He mentioned get better 1% every day. Why don't you start doing that? So take what I've given you on this podcast and Chris, what you've given for podcasting and share with other people in your network. Bring them value.

Love that. Bring them value. Get 1% better every day. When you run into somebody, genuinely ask, figure out, you know, what's important to them. But Then just ask a simple question. Hey, is there anything I can do to serve you today? Is there anything I can do to help you out? And you'll be amazed what some people will come to you with and if you provide that value. And those are the people, those are the friends. I just went through a really tough time here in my life and it's just amazing to see the people that I've helped over the years. I had a good friend, he came over, brought three meals in a row. Three dinners in a row. Phenomenal meals. Like, I mean, just incredible meals. Amazing steaks, this chicken stir fry. He's probably. Listen, he knows exactly who he is. And I said, I said, this is incredible. Like, why, why are you, like, why are you doing this? And he goes, when my wife was sick, you took care of us. And I'd forgot about it, but he didn't forget. And he goes, you took care of me and I'm going to take care of you. And those little things that you do for people, they don't forget them. So, Steve, thank you for sharing your message of how to serve and make a bigger impact. I love that. Transformational, not transactional. What's the best way for the audience to get a hold of you and learn more about what you're doing?

I'm on LinkedIn all the time. Steve Ramon. T E V R A M O N A Almost misspelled my name. That would not be good. I have a digital business card. Infone I N P H O N E C O slash podcast. You'll see it in the, in the show notes or you know, I gave you the wrong link, but I'll put the right link in the podcast. That's actually my calendar. But they'll never get a hold of me that way because it's so full. When you serve a lot of people, that's what happens. Your calendar fills up, which is a good thing. But I'll put it in the chat and you'll have it in the show notes. It's info co slash podcast. And here's the, here's one thing you said that finish with. You just talked about your personal life. Something very catastrophic happened. You build those relationships, bring value like you did to this gentleman a while back. He never forgot. Now he's bringing value back to you. So this spills over business and life does almost monthly. So be.

Yeah, it does. And yeah, that's why I really was excited to have you on, because this is a philosophy that can really help you whether you're young, whether you're older, whether you're a business person, whether you're in sports, whatever it is you're doing, it's a philosophy that can make make genuine change in your life. And Steve, thank you for doing that today, for providing this to our audience.

Thank you. It was a fantastic show.

Hey Chris, here again. I hope you found this episode valuable. Now, I have one more thing to gift you. We have a page for my coaching clients where you can get a free copy of my book as well as much more from previous guests on the show. Just check out nextlevelincome.com coaching to get a free copy of my book, audiobook, and much more. I'll send you a copy of my book and cover all the shipping costs as a thank you for listening to the podcast. Also, please like share and take just 90 seconds to give us a rating on Apple Podcasts.