Hardcore Closer Ryan Stewman

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All right, welcome back to the show. This is Brad, and I have got a very hardcore episode for you guys today. This is going to be hardcore. That's because I've got no other than the hardcore closer himself, Ryan Stuman. I'm going to introduce you to him in just a second. He's my guest. But before I get into this, I want to let you know that this episode is actually brought to you by a couple of awesome sponsors, and I want to give them a shout out. First one is Organifi Green Juice. So Organifi was founded by a friend of mine and a former guest, Drew Canole. And if you have ever struggled to get all your nutrients and greens and powders or greens into your daily diet, Drew developed an amazing green juice supplement. And it's a powdered greens. You just throw it in water, it tastes delicious and it's awesome. And you can get that. Just go to Organifi O r g a n I F I dot com and you can check that out. It's also brought to you by Trubrain T r u B r dash A I n. It's a nootropic supplement company. So this is all about improving your brain and cognitive performance using nootropics or smart drugs. I interviewed the owner and founder of Trubrain recently on a previous show. Just go to baconrathbusiness.com braindrugs I believe you'll see it right there. And if you're interested in purchasing any of the supplements that they have to offer, which I personally use, use the code bacon at checkout. And I believe you'll still receive a 25% discount. So here I am hooking you up. Now, if this is your first time listening to the show and you're on itunes and you discovered it that way, click that little subscribe button and you'll never miss an episode. If you're not on my newsletter, where I give a lot of great information that doesn't go out on the podcast, you can get that. Just Simply go to baconratbusiness.com now let's jump into my guest today. Today. So Ryan Stuman is a guy that I've known for a couple years now. He was in a mastermind of mine, and I've gotten to know what he's doing or some of the stuff that he's doing pretty well because my wife, who is a mortgage officer, was in his program and learning how to increase her leads in business through a lot of the social media and sales strategies that he uses. And he's been teaching this stuff to all types of sales professionals in the past. And he's. I gotten to witness him grow his business, and it's been pretty cool to watch. He's got a fascinating backstory, and I'll have him get into that in just a second. But there's a lot you can learn from him, and I think you should pay close attention. So without any further ado, Ryan. Welcome to the show, my brother.

Hey, what's up, Brad? I'm super happy to be here, man. And I'm confused. You, like, have all these commercials for great, healthy stuff, but the show's called Bacon Wrap.

Gotta balance it out, baby.

Or what, man?

Gotta balance it out, right? You gotta get your bacon and your greens. Bacon, greens. And brain drugs.

So it's funny, I didn't know that they were sponsors of the show, but I actually use both of those products, actually, because of you. I saw the True Brain episode, and. And Drew, if you, like, need a testimonial about his products ever, just look at him. Like, if you've ever met him in person, the dude is glowing. Like, he's, like, built with every man's dream body, and he's, like, glowing. So you're like, I want whatever that dude's on.

Totally. Totally. Yeah. It kind of pisses me off. I like to say that we'll stand aside each other. I was like, I'll be the before picture, you be the after.

Yeah, I'm not taking a picture or a selfie with that dude. Like, it's as popular as he is. I'm just gonna meet him and Brad Pitt.

Yeah, he's no fun to go to.

The beach with, pictures with those guys.

Trust me, he's no fun to go to the beach with, so.

Right.

So let's jump into this. I'm glad you, you know, decided to be on the show. It just so happens that some of the best, most downloaded episodes that I have have to do with sales and selling and client, you know, getting new clients into your business. It just. So that, I guess, is a pretty big hot button for my audience, which is cool because it's, you know, one that I've got experience with, and I know you've got a ton with, but let's jump in a little bit to, you know, kind of how you got your start. Why you're the hardcore closer, because you've got a backstory that is, that is probably more, I guess, inspirational than a lot of the folks that I've spoken with.

I got the name Hardcore Closer. It sounds a lot better than Hard Head Closer, and it's just more catchy, right? But it's because I've lived a pretty hardcore life. It's not that I'm some really pushy salesperson. That's kind of the joke about it. I'm a great salesperson. I consider myself one of the best. Right. Numbers to prove it and everything. But at the same time, I'm not a pushy, aggressive, like mean bulldog type of or a con artist type of salesperson. The people that go through sales experiences with me, whether they buy or not, they enjoy it and they actually like the process and don't leave, you know, going, man, that guy was a douche that tried to talk me into doing a bunch of stuff that I don't want to do. Because I've learned in my business that, you know, oftentimes it's the follow up. People say no the first time, then you end up doing business with them six months down the road. I've been in business in this particular online space for six years now with the same company that I've owned. I started from scratch from my in laws extra bedroom. I'll talk about that here in a little bit as we get into it. But, you know, and the key is, you know, just being able to follow up with those people because they're not going anywhere. We're connected on social media through email, you know, newsletters and all this other stuff and Facebook groups. So, you know, you want to do your best to make every interaction they have with you, especially being a known salesperson, for it to be a positive experience. So they want to come back, you know, but back to, sorry, I got sidetracked.

No, it's good.

With the add.

No, it's good. Well, and before you go into that, so they just. So that people have a better concept of what you, what you sell for your business. Because, I mean, you can say, this guy's in sales. Okay, what's he sell? Copiers. So explain a little bit of what you actually sell right now. And then I want to go back and, you know, rewind to the backstory so that people understand, look, you Weren't born with a silver spoon and every advantage and life has just been super duper easy for you.

I'm pretty sure I didn't have a spoon at all, but we'll get into that. Like, so what I sell is I sell how to information, right. On how to close more sales. I sell ironic, right? The matrix of sales here. I sell sales training, I sell how to create funnels and I do a lot of done for you services as well. I have a team of salespeople, but I'm all around Internet marketing. I do live events. Just a lot of the things you do, Brad. I create systems for people, I consult people, I do live events, I do speaking engagements. I have digital products that I sell. I run a sales room that sells my digital products. I own a tech company, so I do a lot of stuff. It didn't start out that way. I've been in this business for six years and each year I've added a few additional streams of income to a point. Now we've got 28 different streams of income that we'll get in as we go through this as well. But I sell a little bit of everything from real estate to how to sell sell stuff to people that sell real estate, believe it or not.

That's awesome. Well, that and that gives a good frame. So where people come from, I mean, in essence, people come to you to learn how to sell more, to get more clients and to use multiple channels to do so. Is that pretty good wrap up like summarization?

Yeah, yeah. And you know, regards to real estate and stuff, I've worked with the top producers from TV to your local market, man, I've been very fortunate to work with some very high level people and help them achieve even higher levels of success. So that's been really cool as well. Right?

That's awesome. So, yeah, so give us some backstory here. Where, where did you come from?

So, well, I came from Dallas, Texas. Right. But here's my story. I've been adopted at age 7, I quit school. At age 17, I was in prison in Texas. By age 20, I was making a million dollars a year. By age 26, back in prison again by 27. And then I have been divorced three times along the way thanks to having to go back to prison and not living my life correctly. And I've had everything taken out from under me multiple times. I guess the first time, the first thing I had taken away from me was my, my father. He left when I was seven years old. One of those like, hey, I'm going to the store, never came back. Thing like, traffic's a bitch in Dallas, but it ain't that bad, you know. And he. I make light of it now because I'm old, right? But I mean, the truth is he. He left. And. And I had to change my name. I got adopted by my stepdad. My mom remarried eventually, a few years later, I had to change my name. And I remember going to the third grade and having to explain to everybody that my name was no longer Ryan Russell McCord, that it was now Ryan Keith Stuman. And so. And it was. So it was normal to me because they like the. All the adults said it was like a normal thing, right? Within the kids are like, what did you do? Like, what are you in the witness protection program? Like, what's up with your parents? Like, you know, and it was weird. So I had to get good at talking, right? I had to be able to communicate and I had to be able to explain to these kids what happened. And I had to be, you know, like, learn, you know, what. What not to get. I was a skinny kid, so what not to get my ass kicked for saying that stuff for. And then, you know, so on and so forth. And by. By age 16, I had been working for my stepdad, or adopted dad, whatever you want to call him, at his car wash. He was like a general manager for car wash. And I had been working there for a few years and. And I was selling car washes, right? So in my after school, I would go to the car wash and I would clock in and I would sell people car washes. So they come in, they want a $10 wash, and I might sell them a 12 or 15 car wash. Well, that car wash would do, you know, 500 to a thousand cars a day. So the two hours to 10 hours on the weekends that I was there, I got to talk to a lot of people and put a lot of sales pitches on people. So I got real world experience every single day right there, you know, for really impressionable years of my life. So it just became like natural sales stuff to me. But I also learned to sell drugs. And that, you know, obviously got me in some trouble at age 19.

I'm guessing that's what the jail was for.

Yeah, it's a weird enough story, right? Like, the universe works in mysterious ways, right? And so I had been selling drugs to pay my rent because the car wash really isn't a glorious lifestyle. For those of you that were wondering, I have been like selling little drugs, a little cocaine on the Side nothing massive. I wasn't like, you know, some people like to say they weren't Pablo. Yeah, no, I was nothing. I was trying to make 100 bucks a week or something like that, you know. And so one time a girl, you know, it's always a chick, right? Talk. Talked me into trying it. And I guess I don't like it because, like, my heart stopped and the ambulance came and like, everybody thought I was dead. It was this whole ordeal and that's how I end up getting busted. So I had the drugs on me because I was like, everybody thought I was dead.

Nobody talk about a bad day.

Yeah, man, I woke up like Uma Thurman in Full Fiction. Man. It was not cool at all. Except for. What's worse is I was handcuffed to the hospital bed because, you know, I was under arrest for possession of drugs. And, and so fast forward a year, you know, I'm on what do you call it, pre trial release or whatever the case and bond. And my lawyer, he says, listen, you're, you're 20 years old, you're young, it's your first offense, you didn't have a whole lot of drugs. If you'll, you can do 20 years probation, it'll be off your record. Like, I'm not, I'm barely 20 years old, dude. I didn't even make it this long without screwing up twice, you know, and. And he's like, or you can go do two years in prison, but what will happen is you'll make first parole, which is about three months, and you probably won't leave the county jail. So you could do three months here in Collin County Jail and you won't have any issues. And Collin County Jail is not a bad place at all. If you're going to go to jail anywhere in America, that's probably the one you want to go to. And so that sounded like a really good deal, right? Like that was either that, you know, three months or 20 years. I'm going to gamble myself for three months. And I was kind of already in the mentality of I was going to work at a car wash or something like that my whole life anyway. And I knew I could sell stuff, so I just like take the charge and deal with it. As a man, it was my fault anyway. My lawyer lied or he was uneducated how things work because they end up doing 18 months in one of the most violent prisons in America. I mean, there was like a hundred and something. Like, I think it was 160 murders in this, the eight months that I was in this one facility. Could you imagine? Dude? Man, it was riots every day.

I was always. I was always curious about that. I mean, you know, you always hear about the violence and the. You know, there's murders and Jenkins and things like that, but you never know the numbers, like how many people, how often it actually happens. That's amazing, dude.

Oh, man, it was. This one particular place I was at was just absolutely insane every day. I mean, most of the time we spent lockdown, but, dude, if the door opened for a second to shower, eat, or anything, man, it was like. And I was never in the middle of it, right? I mean, you have to fight a few times when you're young, like, you know, 20 year old in prison, you're gonna get in a few fights just to prove your man and stuff, But I was never in the middle. I never associated myself the Aryan brotherhood or the Bloods or the Crips or any of that stuff, But I seen the people day in and day out, like, we're all stuck there together. And it's so much drama. And I can laugh at it now, but, I mean, it was just horrible. I remember when I made parole, Brad, I gave away all my stuff to the dudes that were cool. And then as I was leaving, I gave, like, the finger and, like, told everybody f off, and y' all belong in here and all. And the bastards turned around and sent me back to the unit two days later to the same place. They made a mistake. I wasn't supposed to make parole for another month. Like, dude, this is the kind of life that I've had, right? It's like, you do drugs, you die, you go to jail, you tell everybody to f off, Then you come back and you find yourself in worse situation. And so, yeah, that really happened. And, yeah, that really happened, unfortunately. But it was a crazy time. But I learned a big lesson. Like, hey, I was. I was never gonna get in trouble again the rest of my life, right? And no matter what money, and I wasn't making any. But at the time, you think you are when you're young, you know, no matter what money I thought I was making, selling drugs, it wasn't worth being locked up with those animals for the rest of my life. And, you know, I was in a unit with 6,000 people, and there was maybe 150 of us white dudes on there, so it was crazy. You talk about experiencing racism in today's times and stuff. Dude, I have been on that, man. There is like. It was nuts. And so a very Valuable lesson learned there. And I got out, I went back to work at the car wash and at the car. This is how they get the hardcore part right? I go back to work at the car wash and a lady that owns a mortgage company comes in there pretty regularly and I'm selling her car washes on a regular basis and she's like, comes in for $10 wash, always ends up with a $30 wash. And she offers me a job. Mortgage is not telling her I'm a felon and I don't even have a car payment and. And you know, I'm a loser. I'm just supposed to wash cars or whatever. Finally she stays on me and closes me to come to work for. And within like three weeks of working there at the mortgage company with no prior experience, luck landed in my lap and I ended up closing one of my friends deals just by proxy. And I made like 6,300 bucks. Nice, man. I had to work like three months and some change at the car wash to get that money. So I was like addicted, like what? This is better than drug money, man. Yeah, that was about the time that movie Boiler Room came out, right? And I was like, dude, we're like, yes, that's us. So without the illegal stuff obviously. And from scratch. Literally within two years, I owned a branch of the bank and was closing 50 to 60 loans between my branch every single month. And we were buying and flipping houses. And I made in 2005 like a gross income of like 770 something thousand bucks, right? And I had never made any money kind of like that ever before. So I bought cars, I bought houses, I bought, you name it, I threw parties, dude. And I was like 20, 25, 26 years old. Well, the police thought that I was selling drugs again. And they kicked in my door in 2005. And obviously I don't have any drugs in the house. And they were kind of embarrassed. And I wasn't even in the house. I showed up after the fact and like walked through the door. I was like, hey, what's going on? What are you guys? I thought somebody got onto my roommate or something like that and they found a gun in my home. That was my stepfathers and another gun upstairs in my roommate's bedroom. Well, in the state of Texas, you can own a gun in your primary residence five years after you're released. It was 2005, I was in or charged. I was charged in 1999, so I was within my rights. But you know, thanks to George Bush, he had some kind of Weird law, in fact, that they were rounding up people that had guns. And I'm a victim of gun control, honestly. And they took my rights from me. They took the gun from me. They tried to give me 25 years, Brad, in federal prison just because I was minding my business. They made a mistake and didn't want to admit it. I beat the state case, but then the ATF picked it up. Like I said, thanks to George Bush. And you don't beat the feds like John Gotti, you know what I mean? He's doing life sentence. So I just kind of. I had to plead out. They're trying to give me 25 years, but as luck, I have the shittiest but yes bets yet. Best luck at the same time, because at the time that I, I. My case was going through my lawyer, his name is Craig Watkins, got elected to be the first black, first Democrat, first pretty much everything in the history of Dallas County. And he was the district attorney. So he went from representing me as a criminal to all of a sudden, like, letting us, you know, deciding who gets to go and who doesn't get to go. Well, obviously it was a conflict of interest for him to represent me, but he was a big historic figure, and it made a lot of people upset around here because, you know, just A, being a Democrat, really, because Texas and Dallas was specifically is very Republican, and B, he beat the. The guy that was a sure thing. You know what I mean? And. And so anyway, there was some tents, and they were trying to give me 25 years of it, but right in the middle of this, his team happened to catch these guys called the Scarecrow Bandits. And a Scarecrow bandits robbed, like, 18 banks. And he helped get me time reduced by leveraging them. Not that I snitched on him or had anything to do with them. He was just like, hey, if you want us to turn these guys over, you gotta let my boy go. Because he knew I was a good dude. He knew I didn't do anything wrong. I had paid him a bunch of money. He was a good lawyer. Yeah, I had refinanced his house for him and everything.

And he lived in a big house, so, you know, everything helped. I'd sent business to his title company. You know, he. He's. He still is a good dude. Matter of fact, they kicked him out of office here in Dallas because he was letting too many people go because he was in charge of the DNA exoneration project.

Oh, wow.

They were mad that he was letting so many people go after they've been locked up 30 years. He really is a good dude. But so he, he bargained for me to get two years and then they knocked it down to 15 months in federal prison. So at age 28, after I made, you know, millions of dollars at this point in the mortgage game and was innocent, I had to go back to this place again. And it was a different experience on the federal level. I mean, I never even saw anybody get in a fistfight. We had movie theater that we go watch movies on Fridays. We had an air conditioning library, we had a gym. Dude, it's like it is club fed. We were just missing our wives. And so completely, completely different experience. So I went through there for 15 months while I was in there. My wife at the time divorced me and left me for the landscaper. And like when I came out, she had sold all my assets. Like everything was gone, dude. Like I had nothing. And I was in a scenario yet again where I was like, I had nowhere to live, nothing on my back. No, no, no nothing, man. No spending money, no job, you know, barely a cell phone or anything to be able to get in touch with people. Social media wasn't really a thing back then. It was just getting started. And man, through my network, I found a job at a bank. And within three months, I was the top producer at the largest privately owned bank in the state of Texas and was top producer there, made a bunch of money for the bank, became like a really good loan officer. And I'll be damned if in 2010, Dodd Frank passed a law that said if you have a prior felony that was of moral turpitude, which owning a gun is, then you can no longer get a financial license. And they took my loan officer abilities away from me. Once again, rug was gone.

Damn, dude, that's hardcore, huh?

For real. You've earned it. You've earned that name.

And so I was like, literally I didn't have anything. No. No job. Again, no nothing. And so one of my real estate agents that I did business with, a guy named Michael Reese, who's now a big time Internet marketer with national association of Expert Advisors. He's like, dude, you should do what I do. You should teach real estate agents and you should teach loan officers how you were able to do this. Because he's like, most of the people in the game, they like failed at their job and so now they try to coach people. He's like, dude, you closed 180 something loans last year and then your license was taken from you. People want to know how to do that. And I'm like, dude, everybody hates me because I take their business. I don't want to, I don't want to teach people how to do it. And after he, you know, showed me some stuff from Frank Kern and Ryan Dice and the usual suspects that you see when you're getting the gateway drug to this industry. I was like everybody else that you decide on, you know, whether you like something or not. And I was addicted and I somehow came up with this name, Hardcore Closer, thanks to one of my friends cracking a joke and started this, this business in March of 2010 and have just been growing it ever since, man. I literally, I have one thing I can say, Brian, is that I've never faked it till I make that. When I was in my in law's house, I was saying, hey, I'm here now. But y' all see me before. I've made millions of dollars twice in two different industries. Just watch me come back and do it on the Internet too. It's just another set of circumstances that I got to push through. Believe in me, give me a chance and watch me work for you. Matter of fact now, if you'll watch me work for you, I've got to work harder than I ever have before because I've got to make my name improve. My point in the marketplace people started taking chances on me and you know, it's been six years now and last month I had 370,000 people visit my website. We took in 1700 leads, we closed over 106 products that we, we sold. We sell pretty big ticket items. We sold over 106 big ticket items. Brand new. That doesn't count recurring and, and I mean we're just kicking it in in full force. We've already sold, you know, $40,000 worth of stuff the first seven days of the year this year. And that's brand new stuff. Non recurring contracts, cash collected. Right. So everything I do I talk about in real time numbers.

I love it. That, yeah, that by the way, that's rare. We won't go into that. That's very rare. People like, man, I just closed a million dollar client if they stay with me for 10 years, right?

Yes. Mine's cash money only.

I like it, I like it. So. Alright man, that's awesome. So let's get into, let's get into some of the meat. This is where we get into the sizzle. Like.

The sizzle of the show, right? It's bacon wrap business. So what is working now? Give me something that you're Doing. And most importantly, you're doing. And you and other people who learn from you can repeatedly do. That's working. That the people listening here can be like, oh shit, I'm gonna try that.

Well, a couple of things, right. The biggest thing that's working for me right now that I think most of your audience probably doesn't do. Not that I'm being like Judgy McJudgerson or anything like that. I'm just saying. But most people don't contact everybody that comes into their funnel. That we have autoresponders and we have all these mechanisms out there to make sure that we don't have to contact the customer. So it. And that's the way everybody's doing business. And listen, anytime everybody's doing something like, and I mean everybody, then it's a good idea to revert back to be a little different.

So when you talk about contact, you mean like actual one on one, like pick up the phone and talk to them contact?

Yeah. So what happens is even God forbid. Yeah. If you go to hardcore closer.com right now and you sign up for a copy of my book for free or you opt into my email list for free, I'm your. The ability to leave your phone numbers. Optional. But most people will leave their phone number because you never know. And my team will text you, they will call you. It's a live person working here in America. They will call you, they will text you, they will send you an email, and of course they want to sell you something. But really our whole goal is to provide value. If you are on my website, you obviously have questions or you would like to learn something. So we want to make sure we provide you with the link to the blog, to whatever it is that you're looking for. And if you're looking to spend money and get some education on a product, we want to make sure that you land on the right one so that your problem is solved and you're not still left hanging going, well, I bought this stuff, but it wasn't what I needed. We want to make sure that you get the right decision because you're there for a reason. And so we want to make sure that you get service while you're there. On our website. So many people don't do that. They just allow the autoresponders to do everything. And if you reach out, you reach out. If you buy, you buy. And we're still, hey, if you buy, you buy. But this way it allows us to. I mean, think of how, how awesome that is. Brad. If you hop on somebody's website and then somebody sends you a personal email, it's like, hey, Brad, thanks for coming on our website. If you have any questions related to your business, just give us some topics. We'll be more than happy to put together a bundle of blog posts and articles that'll fit your needs. That'll help you out, right? Yep. And so that's what my sales team does. That opens the door for that person to go, dude, that's awesome. I was thinking about this. And that's where the gate, the door, like, cracks open for them to start figuring out why it is they were on the site and what maybe we have that they could purchase that would help them solve that problem.

I love it. So go back to that. So you tell them. So somebody subscribes, especially if they. If they put in their phone number or whatever, but you contact them. And one of those bribes is will what, customize the stuff for you? Explain that again.

I have. I have a sales team. And so what the sales team says, basically, they'll send an email and a text message out that's like, let us know what you're looking for. That way we can customize a bundle of blog posts for you. Because I have over a thousand blog posts, so there's no way they can find them. We know how to use the site. The average person doesn't. Right. So at least this way we give them four or five just links to blog posts, which doesn't take us but a second.

Sure.

You know, just links to blog posts that they can read that'll fit their needs. Now, here's the other thing. At the end of that, they say, after you read these or if you have any other questions, feel free to reply to this email or reach out to me at blah, blah, blah, phone number. Right. And so when they can look them up on, click so to see what social media channels they're on and everything else so that they can see their real people. But the cool part is, every blog post I write, Brad, has a call to action to buy a product in it.

Of course.

So we're driving them back to read an article that's full of content, but it's just like every other commercial and every other monetized platform out there. It's 80% content, 20% sales pitch. So the last two paragraphs that they read in that article are going to be, if you want to know more stuff like that, here is the applicable program that fits this type of criteria for your people. And if we're Sending them four or five blog posts, and they keep seeing that this thing solves this problem. This thing solves this problem, and it solves this problem, too. It's going to be hard not to spend a few hundred bucks, at least with us.

Yeah, well. And I like how there's so many people who are just afraid to sell at the, like on their blog post or wherever. I mean, if you've got value, you know, ask for the order. That's probably one of the biggest problems that most people have is they don't ask for the order in life, you know, and, you know, I respect that about you, is, you know, that's kind of like a. That's kind of a. I mean, it sounds like you've just, you know, circumstances be damned. You asked for the order. Whatever it was. I really admire that you didn't. Just like the majority of the people have and do who are in your situation would have just folded and they. And said, yeah, my life sucks. I'm going to either stay, you know, stay with crime or just take a crappy job and blame the man for, you know, not getting ahead. So I think that's awesome that you just said, now I'm going to. I'm going to write my own story in this life.

Well, I feel like this, man, and this could be just totally egotistical, narcissist, whatever you want to call it, right? But I feel like that I've been put through all this hell, for lack of a better phrase, for a reason, because I'm able to connect with guys everywhere. Not so much with women, but with guys everywhere. Right? Guys can say, dude, I've been in bad situations. I've been locked up, I've been rich, I've been broke. I've been an entrepreneur. I've been fired from my job. I've been divorced. I've been adopted. I've been on drugs, I've been homeless. I've been in the hood. I'd like all these things that I've done because the mistakes I've made in my life have made me a tough as nails dude. There's no circumstance. You think I'm worried about my business failing? I survived seven months in Beat 01, dude. I could care less if my business fails, right? I could care less if that sale gets blown. I've had to talk my way out of getting killed several times, right? So, like, I. I know how to sell and I know how to work this up. I'm confident in it. But I feel like I went through all that, so that my experiences could pass off and be proof that other people that have had less, maybe the same experiences, but to less magnitudes can remove their excuses to where they have no reason but to take massive action. You know, absolutely.

No. And that's a, that's, that's awesome that that drives you. And hopefully if there's some people out there who kind of feel as though they've, you know, who are listening right now, you know, feel as though, you know, hey, you had a lot of bad stuff happen in your life. Well, yeah, you know, a lot of us have. Some of us more than others, as you're hearing right now. But, you know, you can be defined by your life experiences or you can define them. So.

When it comes to, when it comes to just professionally on here, what.

I broke my train of thought here. I did have a good question for you. I'm trying to think exactly what it was.

I do that often.

But.

What do you think is the hardest part for most of your students and clients and people to learn? So you get people coming in with all different levels of experience. So I know that like my wife who started with you had one level of experience, and then you have some people who are more tech oriented, some people are more people oriented or whatnot. And in order to really kind of master this, you have to only master a handful of moving parts, right? So there's the, you know, get people, you know, this is the marketing. Get people to, whether it's your website, your Facebook page or whatever, get people to. You get them to raise their hand and ask for help and then, you know, and then sell them something. What do you think is the hardest part for most people to master? Is it the technical stuff, the Internet stuff? Is it feeling comfortable just getting on the phone and closing? What have you seen for other people is the biggest hurdle that you have to spend the most time on helping them?

The biggest hurdle for my people is the technical side. Most of the people that come into my sphere are already guys that are earning. I say guys because most of my business businesses dudes. So like, they're, they're guys that are earning. Most cases multiple six figures in annual income. So they're already established. They're just looking to be able to scale their team and go to the next level. So they're used to the phone, they're used to closing, they're used to networking, doing business. But this whole sales funnel and Internet thing is, you know, it's Greek to them. And they get. The thing is, you know, dealing with alpha males like myself and you, we can have tempers, and we can get frustrated easy. And we could have 50 million things pulling us 50 different ways, and it can frustrate us to where we, like, pull our hair 50 million different ways, you know? And, I mean, even when we got on this podcast, you sound like you've been working out in the gym, but I know you've just been doing business, man. It's just like, it can be exhausting, you know? And the thing is, like, I had to learn to be patient with these people and especially the guys, right? And be patient with them and assure them if they'll just put in that first initial hour to do the stuff that'll all start making sense when they get to the end. Because these guys are exactly like me. And like most of your audience, probably, they have add. They want stuff done immediately. And to have to take an hour out of their busy schedule to learn some new stuff that doesn't just fall into place immediately can frustrate anybody, let alone some alpha male that's already making a bunch of money calling shots anyway, you know?

Yeah, you know, it's interesting. So I've been in this business one way or another since, I guess, 2008, and I remember getting started, and it's all relative. Like, right. So back then, there were some new tools out that were a lot easier than people had five years prior. But, man, some of the tools out and the technology out, that just makes a lot of the steps easy.

It's getting better and better. Like, a lot of the tools you and I use and some of the stuff, you don't have to be a wizard at this sometimes. And I know you've encouraged people to just use Facebook, if nothing else, if you're not tech savvy enough to use a website and everything else, you can just use Facebook as a crutch. So tech shouldn't really be a crutch for most people. And there's, you know, with so many of the resources out there. But when it comes to the selling part and when it comes to getting people on the phone, do you use any specific formulas as it goes, you know, with the. With the conversation? Because when you have a lot of conversations, obviously structure is your friend. Is there anything that you typically go through?

Yeah, absolutely. So there's this equation like bonding and trust, interest and desire, familiarity and the ability to flows, right. So what I do is when I get on the phone with somebody, the first thing that I do with them is I say, hey, where are you from most of the time, I know anyway, I say, hey, you know, where are you from? Or how's the weather over there in Philadelphia? Or whatever. And, and, and when they reply to me, I'm like, that's awesome, man. You're over in Philadelphia. I have clients over there that I worked with this time of year, last year and built some funnels for them. Great market over there. I'll immediately let them know just in that friendly beginner conversation that they think is just like casual talk. But to me, it's strategic. I'm letting them know that I've already gotten results for someone geographically close to them that's similar to their situation before we've even gotten. I've already trial closed and planted some seeds in their mind that there's someone like them in their marketplace that has what they want right before we even get into it. And then from there, because people identify with three things. What's your name? Where are you from? What you do for a living? So we try to cover most of the leads that come in. I know those three things. They've given me their name. I just don't know where they're from. So that's the go to question for me. That starts that bond with them, lets them know that I have somebody in a similar situation that's got results that they want. And then from there I ask them, what made you decide to reach out? I think that's a very powerful question because any admission or vocal or whatever, it even works via text. But anytime somebody replies to that, they're admitting subconsciously that they made a decision that you were involved in. And most humans dread making decisions because decisions, Brad, they come with consequences. And most of us make a bunch of stupid decisions, myself included. I just told you my story. Most of us make a bunch of stupid decisions which have negative consequences. So we get indecisive. And anytime we're indecisive, we don't make a yes or no decision. We just stay indecisive until we're 100% confident. That's just, that's the reason why most people won't buy products is because they're not 100% confident in what you say. Now back to this, though. People, you know, they're scared of consequences because they, they have made bad decisions before. And consequences show intention. And the difference in intention is huge. You can always pass something off and say, I didn't mean to, but if you meant to and you knew what the consequences were and you still screwed it up, in other words, If I'd invested in a $25,000 mastermind and then I didn't take action, that's my fault, right?

Yeah.

And so, but a lot of people know they won't take action, and so they're not confident in that. So they give you the rebuttal. But anyway, so going back to this, people will avoid making those decisions. So you saying what made you decide, you decide to reach out to me, and them giving you a reply to that is. There's two things that I've already done 30 seconds into the conversation. That's planting seeds for down the road to close them. Right. Makes sense.

Yep. Yeah. I mean, you're gathering, you're planting seeds, you're gathering information on them and what they need. And it's, it's a, it's a really powerful position. When they raise their hand and ask to talk to you, you're not cold calling people from out of the blue. They're asking to talk to you. So when you get on the phone, there's a, you know, you're, you're in a powerful position there to help them, but also to persuade them.

Yeah. And because in my business, my job, I learned this from the car business. Right. In the car business, they say, make sure you land them on the right car. That means if somebody comes in and they, they want to SE model, but some of the stuff they're talking about is in the SEL model. Don't put them on the SE model. Take them to the sel, make them fall in love with it, and then they'll pay an extra couple bucks a month in payment. Right. Because they got what they wanted. Because everybody's always got a low ball intention, and then they end up getting what they want, which always costs more than their desire. So in my business, I have to land them on the right product, so I have to diagnose their problem so that I can give them the prescription for the right product that fits their needs and solves that problem. Right. And so that's huge. I have to actually, in my sales team too, once we go through that, what made you decide to reach out? Most of the time, the answer they give us is bs. Sometimes they'll just jump right into it and be honest. Most people are not. I deal with salespeople, so they're, they're guarded. Right. They're trying to see what we're made of. And so we just ask them questions. You know, it's like, what do you want more of? What made you decide to reach out? Like, we're just trying to find out what it is. Some. Oftentimes I find my guys won't admit that they're the ones that want to sharpen their sword and get more sales training, so they pass it off as their sales team that needs it. And so if I start selling to them, then it damages their ego sometimes and they won't buy it. But if I start selling, the fact that this will help their team, help them. And oh, by the way, if you want to take it too, that's cool. You'll like it. But you don't necessarily need it because you're the big shot. Right. Then that plays to their ego and that's what they want. Wanted to hear whether they watch it or not, still accomplish their goals.

Yeah, that's great. And do you find that salespeople are. So do you find the salespeople are harder to close or easier to close? Because I know that. I've heard this, but I know for me, I'm an easy close because I'm a salesperson. Like, I can get. It's very easy for me to get excited about stuff and to be optimistic and to say, yeah, hell yeah, you know, I can do it. And then sometimes I've been sold stuff that I don't really want because I'm an easy sell. But I'm. I'm a good salesman, but I'm an easy sell. So do you find it kind of the opposite or do you find it.

More like.

Dude, I'm the biggest lay down sell on the planet, man? I'm a good. I'm like, I consider myself one of the greatest salesmen alive and I am one of the easiest people to get money from. That is. I'm not even kidding, man. Like, oh, yeah, I buy stuff because I don't. I think it's karma, man. I don't like to tell people no, because I don't like being.

I know, dude, I'm the exact same way. And to be a salesperson, I mean, to be a salesperson, you kind of have to be like optimistic and see the. You have to see what's possible in the future. Right. Because you have to lead your client through that, which means it's very easy to get led down that path yourself. But so I was always curious if you found selling to salespeople harder or easier. Same thing. Go ahead.

Well, sorry to interrupt, but the thing is, the best salespeople are the easiest to close. Salespeople in general can be hard because a lot of salespeople struggle.

Yeah.

Financially, they struggle to drop their ego and admit that they need some help. But the best salespeople, the most confident, just like you said, their lay down sales because they know if whatever they invest their money and they'll get it back. I'm not worried about it. You know what I mean?

Absolutely. That's awesome.

So what, is there anything else you're working on right now that you're really excited about?

Yeah, I'm super excited about this tech startup company that I founded. I know that sounds so hipster, but you know, I'm one of those people that once I figure out how to do something, I'm like all in behind it. And five years ago, coming on podcasts like this, honestly I would get on a podcast and I would say like, you know, find me at facebook.com realryan steuman or find me at Hardcore Closer or I have a podcast on itunes. I don't do more, but I did back then. Or I have a, you know, I would just like give people 20 different spots where they can find me on Twitter. At Hardcore Closer there's a bunch of different places to find me. And it got annoying because it seemed like we would take three to five minutes of airtime saying where to find us. And then, you know, email signatures, there's more social media channels came online. It's like more links in your email to give people decisions and more icons on your blog taking up space and in hiding places that you could put calls to actions there and things. So, you know, it started to frustrate me. And five years ago I started developing a product called click. So clyxo.com is the actual website. Clixo C L Y X O. What clickso does is it houses all of a person's social media profiles in one place. So it's like one address. So instead of saying find me on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, you just say find me on clickso Closer and then you can go to that website and then there's all my social media channels or at least the top 12 social media channels. And you can. If you're not on Facebook but you're on Instagram, we connect there. If you're not Instagram but you're on Facebook, we can connect there or you can connect at all of them. Them, it's your choice. And as a person that has a click so profile, you can list whatever you want and delist whatever. So if you don't want people to find you on your Instagram or Twitter or whatever, you can only list whatever you want. Can put your contact information, if you'd like, website, phone number. And it's completely customizable in a sense. You can drag and drop the icons in whatever order you want them in. If you want to write in a box and put your information there, fine. If you don't find like. So we don't force you to give us any information that you don't want to give. But it's basically an online business card to where no more needing a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Snapchat icon on your business card or website. You just use my Clickso logo when people click on it or when they go there, they see your availability at all those sites and how they can reach you. So it just makes everything easier in time. Say, find me@clickso.com closer then get all my information there. And then also, you know, less space in print and all that. And then more importantly, as we're at like 1400 users now, it's literally just a couple of weeks old.

That's great.

And I'm barely starting to promote it and it but like, literally, you know, in a year or so, when we're at, you know, 50,000, 100,000, a million people, however many people sign up for it, it'll be a place where you can search for people. If I want to find Brad and see where you're at on all your social media channels and maybe follow you on Twitter, Instagram, follow your podcast and everything else, I can do it right there. Instead of having to go to Google and find 10 different brag stanzos and all the other stuff that you have to do right now. It's kind of inconvenient to find somebody on social media right the second. And I'm trying to solve that problem as well.

I like it. I think that's cool. And before we got on and started recording, you told me about it. I signed up and I believe it's clyxo.com Brad Costanzo. So anybody listening and want to see what I did? Just took me a second to do and it's pretty cool. I like it, man.

Thanks, man. Yeah, I designed it to where, you know, easy to do, takes less than two minutes in most cases to set up.

Yep.

And it'll be free forever. I never plan on charging people for this. This is a resource that I have, a way to monetize it to where the users will never pay for it. You can set up your business page there too. I won't charge for those either. I've got a different monetization model that I'll follow on it. So if you sign up, you have a lifetime free account forever. You got my word on that.

Oh, beautiful. So. So what is your. What is your click? So, id.

Clicksor, of course.

Nice. Well. Clickso.com/closer.

Right? Yeah. Clickso.com/close.

That's awesome. Well, man, it has been. It's been. It's been a lot of fun hearing more of your story and, you know, diving in and kind of hearing the. The real backstory behind it. And it. It goes to show that, you know, it's a little ambition and willpower. It doesn't matter what you've been through, you can have some amazing success, especially these days with all of the. With all of the resources out there, from mentors to information products to online training to whatever. I posted something on my Facebook last night just as a kind of a test. Like, you know, what advice would you give to a young person who's just starting off in, you know, with no experience or low experience, you know, what do you think they should do? And my little combinations were, you know, just get a job based on your skill set now and work and save and, you know, climb the ladder or, you know, work for free for somebody. Hire a mentor. I put a whole bunch of different stuff on there, but the truth is, there's so many things that you can do. Twenty years ago, when I was just getting out of college, I know, like, you know, you basically just could go get a job, and if you wanted to learn from people like yourself who've. Who've done this stuff, it was really hard to find people like you. You had to be watching an infomercial and get a late night, you know, make the call and get a Tony Robbins thing. But these days, you can. You can get a lot of free information on your blog, and then you can decide, listen, I want to leapfrog, not stand in line. I want to hire somebody like, you know, like Ryan to show me the ropes and show me what he's done, because there's no. There's no need to have to, you know, do it the hard way anymore. I mean, you've kind of paved that path. That's good.

But you're right, man. When I first got into this, that was, you know, or, you know, when I was younger, I shouldn't say when I first got. When I was younger. The only way that I. You could learn anything is if you stayed up late at night. And you're right, infomercials came on or maybe some Saturday during The news or whatever and info products is really what helped me start making money in real estate. I left that part out. I bought Robert Allen's no Money Down Real Estate after going to an event that I saw a commercial for late at night on tv, just like you mentioned. And when we were young, we didn't have access to that stuff, you know, we had to go get a job. And now the guys, kids these days that, I mean, if you, if you haven't gotten to college and you're not thinking about going to college, like, take my advice for what it's worth, if you have no debt and you're a sharp person and you can hustle, there's, there's really no need for college. I'm not saying don't go to college, but there's really no need for it. If you're a sharp dude and you have hustle, you can make money. And if you don't go to college, you don't have debt, right? And if you, if you're young, you don't have a bunch of credit cards, you don't have kids yet, you don't have a wife yet, you don't have a husband yet, you can travel, you can live really cheap, you can crash on friends houses and you can save your money, right? And so if you'll just like, I know they try to tell you in music and everything else these days to blow your money and ball all out when you're in your 20s, but due to A, it's so much funner in your 30s and 40s, trust me on that.

Oh yeah.

And, and, and B, like if you'll just save and work your tail off during your 20s, man the game, you'll be a game changer by the time you reach your 30s.

Yep. I wish I would have done it. I just, I kind of towed the line and had a bunch of fun in my 20s, but didn't get serious until my 30s. So. I agree completely. Orion, man, this has been awesome. For more information on you, go to hardcore closer.com or clixo.com closer and you can see all of, you know, not only sign up for what you know Ryan has built, but have it for free. And get your, you know, your own social profile site, your own Clixo account out there.

Everybody else, if you, if you have any questions for me, if this is resonated, if you have more questions, if you, if you want to get in contact with me personally, you can always shoot me an email to ask. Bradakenrappedbusiness.com and you can get on my newsletter for free where I share a lot of cool stuff that I don't share on the podcast. Just go to baconrappedbusiness.com but the best thing you can do for me is share this this episode on social media. Talk to your friends about it, ask them if they've heard the show, because that's how we continue to grow and grow and get bigger and bigger. And Ryan, man, it's been fun to watch you grow and watch your business really, really take off and excited to see what happens next.

Dude, I'll never forget the first time I met you, man. I was waiting out in front of, like, the seediest hotel in all of San Diego, man. Tell the night. And you rolled in in this R8. And I was like, yeah, this dude's legit. This is going to be a good night.

That was fun, wasn't it? We had a good time.

Yeah, it was, man.

That's awesome. Well, brother, I appreciate you and I will see you on the Book of Faces.

All right, thanks again for having me on, man.

All right, bro, talk to you soon.