051: Using Calm Focus to Create Success with Ricky Carruth

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback? On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. Ricky Carruth is not like any other ultra successful entrepreneur I've interviewed. There's a huge, huge calm, focus, sense of neutrality and faith about him that is evident throughout our whole conversation. Growing up in a hard working family filled with manual labor, Ricky was roofing with his father from about age 12 until 20 years old when he got his real estate license in 2002. By age 23 he was a self made millionaire. That is until the market crash. Ricky found himself bankrupt at age 25 and forced back into the roofing housing business. And he worked in an oil rig as well for that full year. Now, unlike so many in real estate, this never derailed him. He figured out how he lost everything, decided to read over 100 books, study the market, and then in 2008 when the market was really crashing, he got back into the real estate game with a new plan and always added value to relationships over transactions. This worked for him in the worst of possible real estate times. In 2014, Ricky became the number one ReMax agent in the state of Alabama twice. He now helps agents to reduce the failure rate in the industry. Join in today and learn firsthand how Ricky leveled up and created everything from nothing. Ricky, thanks for being here today. I'm dying to jump in and talk to you about how you've created this mega success and name in real estate. Especially after everything you've been through. Thanks for being here.

Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Super stoked.

So Ricky, take me and my audience back a bit because people look at you now, especially on Instagram or they can google you and you've just tremendous success in real estate. You've been number one several years. You help others, you just have created this huge brand around it. But I know that you were not always this mega success. Can you take us back to who you were before all this and even what you went through because you went through some major rough spots when you were 25 even and how you got to where you are right now?

Yeah, no problem. Do you want the full story? You want to know from top to bottom?

I Want top to bottom? Yeah. I want to know how you, how you did it.

Okay, cool. Well, I grew up in Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Alabama. Right, right on the Alabama, Gulf coast, on the Florida, Florida, Alabama line. It's absolutely gorgeous. There's palm trees, white sands, million dollar condos. People don't know about this area. It's hidden secrets.

I did not know that about Alabama anywhere.

There. Yeah, Google. Google Orange beach and Gulf Shores and tell me what you see. It's really a special place and I was really lucky to grow up here. But growing up here, you actually take all that for granted when you're a child. You don't realize all the different things out there in the world. You don't realize how good you have it. So I took it for granted. Really. I didn't realize there were, you know, kids out there that didn't grow up with the beach and, you know, the sun and then the waves and all this stuff that I took for granted. So when I got older and I became a teenager, I started roofing houses with my father. He owned a roofing business. And that's what I got into, you know, because he had me and my brother out there on the job site, we're really young, cleaning up the job sites. And by the time I'm 12, 13 years old, I'm laying shingles and learning all the ins and outs of the roofing business and how to actually be a roofer.

So actual hard work, actual manual labor and hard work?

Yeah, yeah, real hard work. All through my teenage years, all until I was 20 years old. And I loved it. You know, people are like, how did you do that in the hot sun? But I loved it because when you're born into something and you really don't know any different, just kind of, it is what it is. You just. That that is what it is. I didn't know anything else, and so I love getting up. Working now would be a different story. You know, I'm older, my body's not. It wouldn't work now by any means. But at the time I enjoyed it and I enjoyed the challenge because I was scared to get on the roof. You know, I mean, I could fall. There were some big scary roofs that we did. And it really got me out of my comfort zone, which really is kind of a foundation of growth, is getting out of your comfort zone and doing things that you don't necessarily want to do, but you know, you have to do it to be successful. You know, that's a big foundational part of being successful. So I got that early on and being, you know, nervous and jittery about doing that. So in roofing, you get paid for what you do. You get paid for how many shingles you laid. So when I was 20 years old, it was 2002, I got my real estate license. Okay. So with four different colleges in two years, I failed a history class at University of Alabama. And I said, college is not for me because I'm so production oriented. Like, I have to be producing. And although I felt like the school was important and the connections I could have made were important, I just had this desire to produce instead of feel like I was draining resources, you know, as far as. I mean, it costs so much to go to school. I'm wasting all this time doing it. When I got to be in the game, I can't be on the sidelines.

Okay, so Ricky, before you keep going, because I got a couple questions that I want to make sure I'm grabbing here. No, this is good. But I want to know, like, one, what did you learn from your father? Like, what did you believe about hard work and labor? Because it's not normal that I've heard, like, you know, a 12 year old, 13 year old kid to teenager going, I was excited, I wanted the challenge. I was into the roofing. So what did you, how did you view from your dad that role? And what made you so production oriented? Like, what, where did that come from? And then why did you even start going to college with that mindset?

Right, right. Well, that's all kind of wrapped up into the same answer that, like, what my dad taught me and the reason why I was so excited to get to work is really all from him.

Okay.

Because as you know, a 4, 5, 6, 7 year old, I learned really early on, like, what he was doing when he left home. Like, he was busting his ass trying to provide. And I saw that as, okay, that's, that's how life is. Like, that's what you do. And so there was something that happened when I was born that wired me in a way that I got to be the best. Whatever, whatever I'm doing, I'm all in. There's no second place for me. It's.

Did your dad complain about that hard labor or did he talk about it like, amazing?

No, no, no, no. He taught me a lot of things he never said. Like, it's amazing.

Okay.

His thing was, is like, this is what you have to do.

Got it.

Like, this is how it is. Like, you work, you provide, and that's it you know, that's what the man of the house responsibility is, you know, and that's. That's what adults do. Right. And so I was already getting into that mindset of, okay, this is what it's going to be later, so I might as well go ahead and dive in this and master this now long before I actually need it. That way, I'm ahead of the game.

Yeah, got it.

Okay.

So you decide you want more, though, you attempt going to college initially because you decide you're not going to be in roofing for based on production. Always.

Well, that was just another thing that is kind of the mainstream thinking of what's the next step? What are you supposed to do? College was the next thing I was supposed to do. Right. So I finished high school. And what do you do next? Okay, go to college. All right. I'm gonna master college. So, you know, I got into college and I had a football scholarship. So I went there in Missouri, Missouri Valley. I went there for a semester. Too far of a drive, okay? Way too far. It was 18 hours, and I was 18 years old. And so when I came home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, back to back. When I came back that second time, I said, this isn't working. I'm not going to drive 18 hours every time to visit or to come home for this or that. It's just too much. There's colleges around here. So I went to a little community college for a semester locally, and then I went to the University of Alabama that next semester. Okay, that's when I failed a history class. And because I went through high school with my head down and made all A's and B's, you know, I could retain all the information. I could hear what's going on. It was easy to me. And. But college is not. It's the exact opposite, actually. You really got to put forth the effort and do a lot of studying and reading and. I mean, it takes a different kind of animal to graduate college, I'll admit that. So that's when I decided and I went to my fourth school, which was Shelton State in Tuscaloosa, to get my real estate license. So that's kind of how that all.

What got you interested in real estate?

Well, down in Gulf Shores, Orange beach is such a small town, there's really not a whole lot of options as far as what can I do? Where my income is, sky's the limit.

So you chose it by default?

I did. I did. I did. There was. Well, see, my mom owned a hair salon and she cut all the real estate agents. Hair. Okay, cut all the, you know, the judges, the cops. And I was the little guy running around there because we never had a babysitter or daycare. You know, we went to work with mom and dad. That's one reason why we ended up. Me and my brother ended up roofing houses at such a young age. Because we were there, like you say, by default, because they weren't going to get. They weren't going to let us go to daycare or have a babysitter or whatever. We were with them.

Wow.

So that's another very interesting dynamic. Just another kind of side story short. My mom owned a hair salon and my dad owned a roofing business. So they were both entrepreneurs in their own sense because they own their own business. They were also blue collar workers because they were the workers in those businesses. And so me growing up, I had the best of both worlds of the entrepreneur side and the blue collar hard worker.

Well, it's cool because you learned early what a lot of entrepreneurs don't learn till later. You learned early that it's hard work.

I'll take it a step further. What's even cooler than that, and you're gonna love this, is that my mom is a big dreamer, you know, and my dad was such a just straight hard worker. So the big dreamers, they don't want to necessarily. They think that that one idea or that big dream that they have is gonna save them from ever having to work hard. Right. They always have these big ideas and take these big risks, and they put it all on the line. And the hard worker is very conservative, and they never take those big risks because they're scared they're going to lose everything they worked so hard for. Right. I had this entrepreneur, blue collar, and a mix of a big dreamer and a hard worker. So I had, like four corners of this. And I thought about this because I started to write my third book a while back. And as I was starting it, this is kind of what came to my mind. And I realized it. I was like, wow, that's why I'm where I'm at. Because I was exposed to all these different ways to live and to build businesses, you know, at such an early age.

So you get into real estate and you become successful really quick. Like more successful, it sounds like, than anyone else in your family had become.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. What happened was, like I said, in roofing, you get paid for what you do. How many shingles you lay, you get paid based on production. And it got me out of My comfort zone, it was a perfect transition from that to real estate, because real estate is exactly the same. You get paid on what you do, and you have to get out of your comfort zone to succeed. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was the same thing. It was a really good fit for me, my personality and the way I operate, so. But it did take me eight long months to make my first sale.

Okay.

Yeah. So that. It's kind of funny looking back, because maybe a couple years ago I started to try to do a team, which I don't do. I ran into so many brick walls there. I don't have a team. But when I was doing a team, my thing was if you don't sell anything in six months, then you're not on the team.

And then I thought harder than what you. You wanted someone better than what you are initially.

And then I thought about it and I was like, I would have fired myself.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So I would have fired the number one agent in the state. Crazy. Yeah. So anyway, I got going and what happened was, and when I took the real estate course, I got in real estate, I knew the broker because my mom cut their hair. I knew, you know, the family, and I had a lot. I knew all the agents in the area, you know, so I was very comfortable. And I thought, you know, this is it. I'm done roofing. This is. I'm retired. I'm fixing to crush it. I'm fixing to make so much money, I quit everything. I go full steam real estate for 30 days, don't sell anything at all. And bills start coming in. So I have to go back to roofing to survive. So now I'm back roofing with my father and doing real estate on the side after work and on the weekends and whenever I'm not doing anything. So now I'm doing both, you know, so that's kind of what took me so long to make my first sale, because I was roofing houses at the same time. Roofing houses is an 8, 9 hour a day deal. You know, you can't necessarily answer your phone all the time. You're hanging from a roof, you're tired, it's grueling.

You had every, like, excuse and people would have validated it of why.

Yeah, yeah, no doubt, no doubt. So anyway, you know, after that first sale, I started clicking two sales a month for a little while there. And I kind of got my feet planted. And after about a year or so, I look back at those Eight months, I didn't sell anything. And I realized that there were all kinds of opportunities during that eight months. I was just too new to realize that they were there. A, and B, how to capitalize on them.

Okay, explain that a little bit more, because I feel that there's a lot of people in this world, especially people listening to this, that they feel there's no opportunity. And I would be willing to bet you could take a successful person in that same field and they would find opportunity. So I always think, like, if opportunity is always there, it's what are we looking for and what's our view that we're looking at them through.

The problem is most people think in such a scarcity mindset of everything, and it's so abundant, it's not even funny. Like, everything is just so unlimited, you know, it's just as much as you want. As much. I could sell properties 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the rest of my life, you know, if I didn't have to sleep, you know, there's literally enough business, you know, it's the same with everything, you know, I mean, closings are happening every day, you know.

Sure.

Regardless of what industry you're in. It's called if it's car sales and the market crashes tomorrow, people are still buying cars every single. Every single day.

Yes.

There's not even a day off where there's not thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of car sales in the country every single day, regardless of the economy people have to have.

I love it that you're saying that because so many people blame everything else, you know, like, especially on online space. Well, it's Facebook algorithms. Well, it's. I'm not getting reach or people don't have money or it's near the holiday. But you're right, every day.

It's still moving forward every day. And that's when the market crashed on me. That's what I learned. You know, I lost everything and all that. But after looking back, that's the big takeaway was that business was still happening and I was in that scarcity mindset when that all.

Ricky, can you give us, like, I would love to hear, like, an actual this will help people. An example, like, can you think of a time where you didn't see an opportunity that, like, looking back now, it would have been an opportunity. I'd love to hear, like, just what that looks like to you.

Well, like, after I made the first sale, started making two a month, started doing well, then the market started to completely, erupt. Like it just blew up property, you know, prices doubled in a couple years and I was making so much money by the time I'm 23, I'm a self made millionaire, just on top of the world. I have this, I had that, all the material stuff you want. And two years later I'm completely bankrupt. Sleeping in my car, sleeping on friends couches. The only bill I had was my cell phone bill. I let everything else go. So the market crashed on me. No one really expected it to be so bad. And what I've done is taken all my money and put it into properties and I borrowed a lot of money with it to buy all these investment properties. And I thought that was a great idea. You know, it's like there's no way to lose, right? But I did. I lost big time. I've never had money, no one in my family's never had money. So I didn't know what to do with the money when I had it. And that was actually the best thing that ever happened to me because when I lost everything and I was basically just didn't really have anywhere to really go, that was the biggest breakthrough moment for me because that's when I realized that I can lose. And I'm the kind of person that you only have to teach me something or only have to learn a lesson one single time. So when I lost it all, I sat down and I was so happy because I knew 100%, 100,000 million percent that I was going to get it all back. And when I did get it back, I would never lose it again because I was going to figure out what I did wrong and make sure that I took the proper steps not to ever let that happen again.

So wait a minute, so you lose the market crash, which a lot of people went through, you lose everything. I mean, clearly you weren't instantly happy, so.

No, I was happy. I was happy because yes, the thing is, right now I feel the same as I did when I was in that car sleeping that night. Because I'm grinding. I was grinding then and I'm grinding now. There's no difference in my mentality of what I'm doing, what I'm here for, what the big picture is. Because like if I think about where I want to be in 10 years, 20 years, I basically am homeless still or not like not homeless, but like in the sense of the word of where I stand in the world, I'm still sleeping in that car.

So you're operating from that mentality of I don't have A lot. So how does that work? Because a lot of people will coach others into. You have to have this mentality that I already have it. Act as if you're already there, but you're actually. If I understand correctly, you're kind of saying the opposite. Like, no, I'm always assuming I don't have it. I need to work.

Yeah. I mean, that's the way I operate. There's a gray area, though. It's not black and white. There's a gray area in there where, you know there's a very dangerous place to be in life. And that's when you have it all and you're unhappy. Right. Like, there was a time when I made a lot of money one year and I wanted to make more money the next. A lot. I was making a lot of money. This is only four or five years ago. And I wanted to make so much more the next year. And the next year started, and I could see I wasn't going to hit it. And I became very depressed. And I was sitting here making a lot of money already, but I was mad at myself because I wasn't. It didn't look like I was going to hit that goal that I wanted. And so that's when I dug deep. I hired a coach. I was just like, what is wrong? Why can't I do this? And I realized that, wait a minute. That's a dangerous place to be because you're actually doing very well. You need to have this mentality, which is the gray area between being happy and satisfied and content and very hungry. Because most people are happy, you know, when they're happy, they're content and they're not pushing as hard. And there's people that are unhappy that are pushing really, really hard. And I want to be right in the middle where I'm happy. Like, extremely happy, but still extremely hungry and still pushing forward. See what I'm saying?

So happy and hungry is really your goal?

Yeah. No, it's that I'm already there. I've been there for several years.

You know, what kept you going through even that time? If you look back, like, to when you became bankrupt and when you lost everything?

What made me so happy at that moment was, like I said, I knew 100 million percent that I was going to get it all back, but it was going to be real the next time. And just the thought that I knew that was going to happen was all I needed. And so what I did is I went back to roofing. I roofed houses during that time. And 05 was the last property I sold until 08, there were three years in there where I didn't sell a single property. I roofed houses and I went and worked on an oil rig for a year. 2007, from January to December. I worked on an oil rig that entire year, week on week off in Mississippi. Wow.

So this is interesting because you have this unique combination. It's almost like you have this faith that things will work out, that they'll always happen for you, and you have this drive for happy and hungry, and you just, you go back to hard work, hard work, hard work. I can do it. But you do realize that a lot of people would go, I don't get it. Like, I don't get how you could be bankrupt and happy. So what would you tell somebody that's in that spot that's like, God, I'm a disastrous right now? Like, because you could have convinced yourself that, you know, I was a failure. I tried. I'm just going back to manual labor.

It's just that I could have convinced myself that. Right? So it's all perspective. It's all how you want to look at the situation. Okay. There's a big, big thing I have that I share with my real estate agents about losing deals, right? When people are so. They get so down when they lose a deal, when they lose an opportunity, when they don't reach their goal, when they. There's all these things that they get their self down about. And when you lose a deal or you miss an opportunity or something bad happens, there's so much positiveness that comes out of it, but you're looking at it wrong. And it's so mainstream. The negative mindset is so mainstream. I think everybody brainwashes everybody else into thinking in this way. Like, when you lose a deal, a, you learn something, right? That's the cliche. That's the cliche part of it, but it's real. Like, you learn something, and every little loss that you learn something from is slowly molding you into a better person, a better agent, a better human. But the thing that I find even more interesting is the fact that you get future time back that you don't have to spend on that deal anymore. Going forward.

Interesting.

It is. It's so interesting when you think about it. And when you think about not just real estate, any opportunities that you lost that you're upset about, goals, you didn't hit everything. Like, it all reverts back to, I'm molding myself into a better human, and I have all this future time. Time is the most valuable asset, but right behind health.

Yeah. So you just have this unique way, Ricky, of like, you have a gratitude for, like, that's gratitude, clearly, that you're finding that it's interesting to me because you truly have this interesting mindset that's worked for you. And it's not like from a book you read, because, you know, I think of every interview I've ever done of somebody that created everything from nothing, and it's like the same similar answers, and your answers are actually very different. So it's unique. It's very unique.

That's why I started writing, speaking, coaching and stuff, because I feel the same way that it's unique because I see all the mainstream stuff and the way that the training is going and the way that people think and I see the look on their face when they lose a deal. And I'm just like, man, I have to do something. I've got to get this mindset out of my head and into everybody's head that I can so that I can help them. Because, you know, it's just. It is. It's different and it's a big deal.

Well, the underlying message I keep hearing from you, you haven't even said this, actually. But what I keep. What's coming up for me is just do more work. Like, you're just not afraid of hard work. And I think a lot of people do. I mean, I don't want to be kidding ourselves. Like, people get lazy sometimes they have a failure and they say, I'm done. But you go right back to the grind because that's what you learned, is to do more work. Like, I'm just gonna do more work.

Yeah, well, the losses are part of the work. You know, people use the losses as a roadblock, but that's actually what you're looking for. You know, it's just. It's what you're looking for is the losses. You get way more out of a loss than you do a win.

Yeah. So you had this gap 2005. If I had the timeline correct, that you every. You're not selling, and then again till 2008, and then you've got. We've got the big crash, 2008, 2009. What happen then? And how do you become to what you are now? Because now you just have this crazy amount of success.

Well, when I lost everything in 0567, on top of roofing houses and working on an oil rig, I read over a hundred books. I was so thirsty for knowledge. And what did I do wrong? I Just studied the real estate market here. I watched the top producers in my area. You know, I wanted to figure I was going to figure this thing out because I knew that there was something there. I mean, there's, you know, why did I lose everything? I'm the hardest working guy in the world. You know, like, I outwork everybody. Why did I lose it all? And so I was just on this journey to figure it all out. And at the end of the day, what I realized was that the first half of my career, from 2002 to basically 2008, I was a high pressure salesman. Okay, I was a high pressure salesman. And what I realized was that I had to flip that. And being a low pressure salesman was the way to not only crush the game, but also survive any market crashes. And so I had to reverse engineer my thought behind what I saw happen through the crash and that closings were still happening. Then I thought, okay, well, properties are still there. Just because the market crashed doesn't mean that they tore the properties down and there's nothing there. No, they're still there. People still own them and they still need to sell it because something happened to them or they want to buy it because the market's down or whatever the case may be. There's still people doing stuff. And the key word is people. There's still people doing stuff. And so it took me a long time, a lot of research, a lot of just thinking about this before it really hit me. And when it hit me, it was like a ton of bricks. And I was like, okay, this is what it's about, the people, not about the deal. And that's when I came up with relationships over transactions.

Love that.

Right. And so in 2008 was my return, because when we had the new president, oil prices, I think, were down and there was a lot of stuff going on politically. So I got laid off from the oil rig. So here I am getting laid off from a oil rig in the middle of all this. Yeah, luckily, probably three or four months before I got laid off, I was already dabbling in real estate with my newfound ideas and theory, and I was already talking to some buyers and sellers and stuff. And luckily enough, when I got laid off, I had a couple deals going and about 30 in a time.

That was awful for everybody else in real estate.

Yeah, it was ridiculous. It was ridiculous. But the thing was, I flipped my mind around to the fact of. And I'm going to, no doubt about it, reduce the failure rate in the real estate industry with this one thought. And that Is that when the market crashes, buyers want to buy right now while it's down before it goes up. And sellers got to sell because they're in trouble. And there's so much urgency in the market. And most of the agents get out of the business because it crashed. They don't know what to do. And so there's so much urgent business and there's no agents doing it.

You're right. Why? What? You say that and it's such common sense. And you're right. No one else did that. Everyone else ran.

When the market crashes next time I'm going to single handedly reduce the failure rate in the industry by spreading this message. And it's going to prevent so many agents from having to get out of the business during that time. Wow. Yeah. So that's how I did it. I just reached out to people and I said, hey, there's condos on the beach. They're half the price they were five years ago. Who wants in? You know, people were emailing me left and right. So that's how I got my foot back in the door.

Wow.

Yep. And so 2008 hits and the crash happened and all that. That was really the best time to get in real estate. I just started selling when I got laid off. I had a couple deals going. It took about 40 days to close those two deals I had. And I'd saved up money from the oil rig and I was living off that. And I remember a week before I closed on those two deals, I had to borrow $500 from my dad just to make it through that next week to get to my closing.

Okay.

I'll never forget that. I had to borrow $500 from him. And then when I closed on those two properties, I made like 20,000 on those two deals. Then I was back in the game. Like there was no stopping me now. I had money in my pocket. I was full time real estate. I knew what was going on. I had it down. So I just started clipping along. I did really well in 2008. I did really well better in 2009. 2010 BP oil spill hits. The oil spill hit in the Gulf of Mexico and affected my area 110%. Nobody came down here to vacation that year. They were scared of the oil and the poisons and all that. It was a mini crash. It was a mini little market crash, recession, downturn, crash.

And in your area. Yeah.

And I said, yippee ki, yo ki yay. I get to try out my new stuff. And so that year I made more Money than I did the year before.

Put the paddle in that.

And it was a horrible time. There were less sales, there were. Prices went. Went way down that year. Agents were leaving, they were leaving the Gulf and going to Birmingham saying, oh, we're never going to be able to sell real estate on the beach again. I remember telling all the agents around me, I said, just stay calm, call your clients, keep them informed of what's going on and see what you can do to help them through this. That's what I did. So I had clients that wanted to dump their properties because they were scared. So I listed them and sold them at great prices. I had buyers that wanted to take advantage because prices were so cheap during that little three or four month window. Just took advantage of the situation the best way I could. It's not taking advantage of the situation, it's helping people do what they want to do during the situation.

Yeah, gosh, lots of light bulb moments for me because, you know, like everything comes in sort of phases. Like in that those early 2000s, like you said, real estate was booming, mortgages and all that. And I'm even thinking now to the space I'm in, which has been a heavy part of its digital marketing. Right. And so there was. So if you look five, six years ago, people were booming in digital marketing. And now that has shifted with a lot of people because social media algorithms change. And there's a lot of excuses going around in that field like, well, Facebook's changed or I just don't get the same reach. But I'm sitting here listening to what you're saying and I'm like, okay, what are those things that those people are not doing right now because of the story that algorithms change everything else because you went into the storm instead of letting that be an excuse.

Same thing with social media. When the algorithms change or they have an updated feature or something else that you don't like. Think about that for a second. That's creating a mainstream group of people that are upset about it or don't understand it or hadn't figured it out. Right. That's an opportunity because they're sitting on the sidelines while there's all these new features you can use. And if they change their algorithm, it's like, okay, there's an opportunity there because there's something about this that nobody's using yet that you use to get some more exposure.

Totally. Yeah. And I'm just thinking, how many fields that can that be applied to? And it's like, as you explained it, it's so simple. But it just seems so such a struggle for people in those moments, you know, because, like, I don't know of another real estate agent or mortgage broker I talked to that came up with that solution. While you're in it now, people got into the foreclosing thing or flipping houses or short sales, but you really just dove into, I'm going to sell more. I'm going to help people sell more.

You know, I'll tell you the story. There's. During that time, there were foreclosure agents that were representing the banks and they were making so much money. People were so envious and jealous because they were knocking down 20, 30, 40, 50,000amonth during this crash. But they wouldn't answer their phones. They were very horrible customer service. They knew the bank was going to give them all the foreclosures. They didn't have anything to worry about, so why would they answer the phone?

They can just transactional.

Yeah, the properties are going to sell. They're not worried about, you know, what we got going on or whatever. And I said, you know, okay, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to represent the people buying these foreclosures and I'm going to create this lifelong relationship with these people. And what will happen is in four years when there's no foreclosures, that person is going to sell that property for a profit. I'm going to list it, and they're going to upgrade to something else. I'm going to get two more deals out of this. On top of the fact they're going to refer everybody they know to me because I went over the top for them. I took that situation and said, I'm going to create this database of people that want to buy that I can help buy stuff now and turn it into a snowball of deals later over the long run. Meanwhile, I knew for a fact that the people that were selling the foreclosures wouldn't be in business in five years when there were no foreclosures. And that's exactly what happened. You don't hear those agents that were selling foreclosures. They aren't around here anymore. No. And so some of them are, but most of them that weren't answering their phones and stuff, they're not in business anymore selling real estate that I know of. And I knew that that's what was going to happen, that they were going to win short term, I was going to win long term. An interesting concept that I came up with during that Time was that every Prospect is worth 10 to 20 deals to you over the life of your career if you create and maintain a lifelong relationship with them through repeat business and referrals. And referrals of referrals.

Yep. Wow, that's really powerful and that. It's so true. You're right. I mean even if they don't buy a house for you and you give them great service and put people over transaction, they're going to tell others about you.

Oh yeah, yeah. I love, I love the buyers that don't buy anything that I make a really good impression on because they come back in five years and buy. And who are they going to buy from, you know and who are they going to refer all their friends and family to, you know, and people. Real estate. You know, I don't want to talk go into much real estate stuff because I know that's not necessarily your podcast, but there's so many real estate agents that really want to nail down that, you know, like nail them down on paper that they're going to use them or get them pre qualified before they show. I've never done that because that's just telling the prospect that I'm all about the deal when you know I'm not about the deal. I want to help. They want to look at properties but they're not interested in buying anything right now. Cool with me. Let's go look at all the properties. You want to, you want to buy something in five years, let's go look at some stuff today.

That's amazing and I love that attitude and you're not enough people do operate from that space. And I'll tell you what, I'm one of those people that lost in 2008, 2009 and I almost foreclosed on a home and I ended up short selling and the agent was so transactional that my friend who was not who I hired, who was real estate agent helped me through that short sale and helped me find a rental and like forever I will recommend him and use him on anything. I buy rent because because of how he showed up for me and dealt with me as a person versus a transaction. So I'm so with you on that.

Yeah, think about how big people's businesses would be and this, this goes across any industry that if you view the relationship over the transaction, it's enormous.

Yeah, that's amazing. I love that. So I've got some questions for you. So for those of you that don't know and you can google him or follow him on Instagram you will see he's uber successful right now with real estate. And from talking to you, your mind just works different. And I love that, Ricky. And you're not. You're not trying to even enroll me on your mindset. It's just there, it's pretty cool. I have some other questions. Like one, did you always have this vision that you would be uber successful or did you. Was it just that I'm just going to work hard and see what happens.

From the moment I was born, I knew that I was. And I still. I knew that I was going to do it. I knew that I was going to just be the. I knew I was going to outwork everybody. And because of that, I knew that I was going to beat everybody, you know, and everybody, meaning everybody, you know?

You just knew.

Yeah, Yeah, I just knew it. And I really love figuring things out. And I think the. One of the biggest problem for people that work hard but don't become or don't hit their dreams and goals is the fact that they don't adapt, they quit. They don't figure out what works and what doesn't work. I love that part. I love trying new things and figuring out what works, what doesn't work. How can we tweak this? How can we tweak that? I'm not a big analytical numbers guy and statistics guy. I do love trying new things and seeing how it feels and seeing if something works. And once I hit something that works, I go all in. Because I know if that one thing blows up, like I think it's going to blow up, and that could be the thing that takes me above the crowd.

Well, you sound very neutral to me. Like you're not. Like I'm not a very emotionally charged person. Is that accurate or do you have like. I am very emotionally charged. I have bad days, good days up and down, and a lot of entrepreneurs I talk to are that way as well. But you sound very neutral. Is that just what I'm hearing now or is that how you.

I do not get very emotionally charged. Because. Because I know the result. I know what the outcome is going to be in 10 years. And I know that the micro losses or what's going on day to day doesn't really matter per se in the long run. It's what's going to happen over the course of time, not necessarily today. When something bad happens a I see the good in it. I squeeze that for every. All the goodness it has to offer. That's what I look that I love looking at that side of it because I learned so much and I gained so much out of those losses. And so I really, I, you know, I mean, I would love for you to tell me what is something that you might get emotionally upset about or what, you know, could, you know, affect you.

So me and anyone I've interviewed really like I hear this constant like disaster happens or disaster in our minds. Right. And we, whether you shift after 90 seconds or a month or a year or whatever it is, I tend to hear this like I fell down, I felt bad, I wanted to give up. And then it's like then you, you maybe react but then you come later to, okay. And then it was a great lesson for me and I got together. But your ability to shift is just like really crazy fast. Like something bad happens and you don't miss a beat. You just have this faith or this sense of calm that it's going to be okay.

Because I don't see anything. I don't, I don't see it as bad. I don't see anything happening as bad. I mean, true, there's some bad things that can happen. You can lose your parents, you can lose a child. You know, there's life things that can happen that can really screw you up. I get it. But on a business level and a day to day level and outside of the life changing, you know, moments like that. No, it's like people tell me that they're scared to make phone calls.

Yeah.

And I say, tell me what you're scared of. And they either a, do not have a reason, they can't tell me anything, or they tell me something that is absolutely nothing that they should be afraid of. It's crazy. Like they might ask me a question. I don't know. I mean, what is so bad about that? You know, there's just they. People assume what's going to happen and they assume the worst possible outcome and then they base all their decisions on that.

Yeah, they do. I want some of that. How do you have, is it faith? Is it training? Is it your parents? Like, where did that come from? That sense of calm and that you're like the opposite of anxiety.

Literally, it's from when I lost everything, you know, and I know how that feels like and I know that that's about as bad as something that could happen. You know, that was the worst crash I ever had. I got caught with my pants down. I was a 25 year old that didn't know what he was doing with his money. You know, that's as bad as I can have it, you know, outside of some big catastrophe or something like that. Yeah, but just going through that and that, not phasing me and just all the battle scars I have. Sure. To be honest, I think I'm just numb to it.

Yeah, it's. I mean, it's. It's pretty cool. But they sell pills to help people with this. You got it. You don't need the pills. It's. I mean, I'm just actually really amazed. And I'm finding that I want more. I'm like, how, How. But how, but how. And I want to do it for my daughter. And let's say it's pretty impressive. Amazing. So do you ever have moods? Like, do you ever have a mood where you're in a bad mood or you just don't feel like going after it or working hard?

No, never. I'm. I'm so.

Really, never.

I work seven days a week.

And you're fine with that?

I love it. I love it. I'm doing what I want to do.

Are you married with kids, Ricky?

I'm married with no kids.

With no kids. Okay. And your wife's okay with this, the seven days a week working?

She loves it. She's the same way.

Yeah.

Yeah. We share a lot of this, a lot of similarities in how we think about the world and, you know, negativity and positivity and she's also a workaholic. No, it's a good fit. We definitely. When I say seven days a week, I have two businesses. I'm running a real estate business, my personal real estate sales business. And then I have real estate coaching business, which is, by the way, absolutely free. I don't charge agents at all for it. And I'm teaching them everything I know, every little thing. There's nothing hidden.

Any agent anywhere.

They have to be any agent anywhere in the world. Yeah. And the thing that. The reason I'm free, I started out charging, but I figured out real quick that's not going to work. I can't reach enough people. And plus, the big thing was it wasn't my personality. When I'm free, I don't have to hold back anything, hoping that whatever I held back was enough for you to pay me to get whatever I held back. You see what I'm saying? And so this way I can give you everything and not worry about it. You can just hear, you go, you can have it. And through that, I can build an audience where I can sell books and speeches and, you know, all that stuff later.

Yeah.

So I'm running Two businesses and the coaching business, the real estate business, I've been doing for 16 years. The coaching is brand new. It's two years. And so the real estate is on kind of an autopilot a little. I don't have to put so much effort into it as I used to because it's so big. And the coaching business is what I'm really having to push at really hard because it's still just getting off the ground. I'm having to do a lot of videos and I'm having to do write a lot and come up with ideas and try to figure out what Facebook ads will work and YouTube and Instagram and trying to figure out how all that stuff works. On the weekends, that's when I'm editing my videos and I'm thinking of stuff really putting a lot into the coaching business on Saturdays and Sundays, you know, and a little bit after work during the week if I need to. And then during the week, you know, the regular Monday through Friday, you know, 9 to 5 is real estate.

Now you're coaching. You said you only. It's only real estate. Are you teaching them tactical stuff with real estate or you teaching mindset like you have?

Both. Both. You know, I'm teaching them everything I tactically do to run my business and everything I went through, everything why I do what I do, how it works, why it works, everything there. But then the mindset is such a big part of it. I mean, you can't just tell them what to do and then expect them to know why, you know, why you do it or why you think that way. You've got to incorporate both. It has to be both.

So. Okay, I've got a few more questions for you I'm dying to know because now that I see how different you actually are from a ton of entrepreneurs that I've talked to, I'm wondering, like, how do you start your day? Are you an early riser? Do you have like a routine in the morning?

Yeah, I just, I released a video this morning. My new morning routine, which I started about 90 days ago or so. So I've been doing it for maybe three months. But I get up at 4:30 and then I drink a cup of coffee and then just kind of get my mind going a little bit. By five o' clock, I'm doing cardio. So cardio from there to 5:30, 5:30 to 6, I'm eating a big breakfast, huge breakfast. And then at 6 o' clock I'm in the gym. I'm powerlifting from then to 7. And then after 7, I'm back at the house, I'm getting ready for work, I'm at the office before 8:00'. Clock. And so once I get to the office, I'm going to meditate about my business. I'm going to sit down with all my stuff and I'm going to make notes on what's most important. I'm going to prioritize everything going on and then that takes normally 15 minutes or so. And then from there I just go, whatever's on that list, I just knock it out, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And just try to do the best I can do to help everybody that needs to be helped that day.

Now, Ricky, some people would say looking at you like, oh gosh, you work seven days a week, you're so successful, that's great, but get a life, you know, I'm sure you've heard that before, like get a life. What would you say to that? Like, do you.

I would say that I'm doing what I want to do. If, if my birthday is tomorrow, what do I want to do? I can have the day off. I'm going to, to the office, I'm going to meditate, I'm going to go, I'm going to do everything I just told you because you know, financially I could just hang it up right now. I could say I'm good, I'm going to go live in the Bahamas or something and I'm done. Right? I could do that right now and be comfortable the rest of my life and live off of the investments I've made and all the stuff I got going on and be done. I could do that if I wanted to. Nobody is forcing me to come do this, right? There's, there's something inside of me where I can't breathe if I'm not progressing and I'm not challenging myself and I'm not helping people. You know, in real estate, I got in real estate because I wanted to help people. My thoughts were I wanted to help first time homebuyers. Well, after a couple of first time homebuyers, I realized that's not the most efficient way to do real estate because there's so much work behind the first time home buyers. I can actually help more people. If I represent this other group of higher end people that buy and sell a lot of property, I can not only help more, help more of them do what they want to do, I can make more money with that money. I can help more people. Right? And so it all revolves around helping People.

I love that.

That's why I'm doing the coaching. That's why it's free. And you wouldn't believe, you wouldn't believe the messages I get daily. Hundreds of people that I'm helping and that they're, they're really getting into it and understanding it. And it's just, it's been a really, it's been a roller coaster.

The coaching, is it like video based?

Is it, it's everything based. There's a, there's a free course and then there's 90 day action plan. I do live training twice a month. It's whatever they need. They reach out, they can call, they can email, text message.

I know people are listening right now going, where is this coaching? How do find it? And real estate do it?

I think so. I think you can get in there and see what you can use with what I have there.

How do they find it? 0 to diamond.com 0 to diamond.com okay, we're going to make sure we put that in the show notes.

Yeah.

Okay. I do have a final question for you. So somebody is in a rock bottom spot right now listening. Maybe they lost their house or they have their own financial hardship or, you know, the algorithms change on social media and nothing's working for them. But they're in their own personal rough spot and they're not born and wired the way you are. So they're in the woe is me moment and definitely enrolled in the excuses and what's gone wrong. And everybody else around them understands too and they want to shift. What are three pieces of advice you'd give them? Like to start getting out of that right now.

I think you have to start molding your mindset behind not being a victim or not feeling like things are bad. And I think the best way to do that is YouTube and books and podcasts. I think that puts you to where when you're listening to a podcast, like the people listening to this right now, you feel like we are in the room. You feel like Natalie and Ricky are sitting right there having this conversation right in front of you. Like you can reach out and touch us. Yeah, that's the power of this stuff. And to be around people, here's something you got to realize and that is that there are human beings out there who think positively, that are succeeding on the level that you want to succeed at. There's thousands and hundreds and millions of them that are doing what you want to do. They're out there. And so you got to realize that it is possible but it's not easy. And what the people went through to get to the success that they're at wasn't easy. And if you want it, who's to say that you don't have to go through what they went through to get it?

Yeah, that's good.

Like, you have to go through that hard part to get to the good part. There's no way around it. Everybody's looking for that workaround. They want it. They don't want to go through that. They don't want to. You know, they get all the way to the edge and they say, I don't want to do that. You know, I don't want to make those phone calls. I don't want to have to. You know, Ricky made 100,000 phone calls in his 15 year. You know, he worked 15 hours a day for 15 years. I don't want to do that. Right. But if you want what I have, if you want to be where I'm at, then you do have to do that. Right. And so you got to realize that there are people out there that are succeeding at the level and doing the things that you want to do. And so by knowing that, hopefully that triggers something in your mind to say, okay, I can do it, too. Now I need to start molding my mind with books, podcasts, and video to get to the same mindset as them so that I can start implementing what I need to implement to get where I want to be.

Yeah, that's good. Yeah. And you are living proof of this, like several pearls that you've said, but I did pick up the. You're not afraid of hard work. You read a hundred books, and then just this work ethic. And I think that is in the gap of a lot of people, is they want it to be easy, and you're not afraid of hard, and you're showing that hard can be rewarding and make you happy. And, you know, it's interesting because people think they're going to find happiness by achieving a goal or getting to a number or getting to something. But happiness is really when you progress. And that's why you're happy, is because you continually progress. That's what I hear from you.

Happiness, to me, is excitement, being excited, what makes you excited, you know, what makes you excited to get up, what makes you excited to live, you know, and that's happiness.

Yeah. Ricky, you're amazing. Where can people find you? I've got the information on where to find the coaching. Where else can they find you? I know on Instagram, where else.

Yeah, yeah, just search Ricky Cruth anywhere. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, zerotodymond.com. my real estate stuff is rickycruth real estate.com and anything I could do to help anybody listening to this reach out, you will get a response. That's one cool thing. That's the difference between me and a lot of the gurus out there is I actually will respond and help you with whatever kind of thing you got going on.

I can see that. And I'll actually share that I had followed you on Instagram before this interview and I got a message from him last night that said thank you for the follow. Let me know if there's anything whatsoever I can do for you. So I love that.

And then you message back. And then I message you right back.

Yeah, you're. You're on it. I love it. Thank you so much, Ricky.

You're so welcome.

Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review. I appreciate those so much. I read all of them and, and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram @nataliejofit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.