8-Figure INCOME – Building Multiple Successful Businesses

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of disruptors. Today, we have Ryan Benito who flew in from Vegas to talk about how you went from baseball to crushing real estate to becoming an influencer. If this is your first time tuning in, I'm Steve Trang, sales trainer, and I'm on mission to create 100 millionaires. If you get value out of the show, please tag a friend below or share this episode right now.

That That way

Ryan Benito: we can all grow together. So real simple is tell us how you got into entrepreneurship. Man. So I never even thought about entrepreneurship growing up. You know?

I think today with social media, it's kinda cool. And people are like, I wanna be an entrepreneur. I wanna be an influencer. I wanna be a YouTuber or wholesale or whatever. And it wasn't like that for me.

When I was in high school, and that makes me feel older, but back when I was in high school, all I cared about was playing baseball. Like, that was it. It was never like, man, what job am I gonna get? What business am I gonna open? It was just play baseball.

Don't worry about anything else. But even my friends and everyone I talked to, nobody thought about being an entrepreneur. Mhmm. It was just, alright. I'm gonna go to college, and I'm gonna be a doctor.

I'm gonna be whatever. So the word entrepreneur was never something I thought about. Fast forward, you know, I I get out of high school. I go to college, taking this route. But for me, at that point, I still knew college wasn't really anything for me.

I just went for baseball. Yeah. Ended up getting drafted by the Oakland A's, and I ended up finishing my college degree too. So I got a degree in economics. You know, I'm playing baseball, and I'm realizing that, man, I'm not making any money, you know, doing this.

I'm making $1,200 a month.

Steve: So $1,200 a month.

Ryan: 1,200 a month. Yeah. So It's not glamorous as it looks. No. And I was 21, and I'm just sitting there like, man, what am I gonna do with my life, to make money?

So I I I just fell into entrepreneurship because nobody's gonna give me a job when I leave six months out of the year where I'm like, hey. I gotta go later, dude. Did you ever have a job? I don't think I've ever had, like, a real job where somebody told me.

Steve: You never had to report to anybody?

Ryan: Other than other than again? Other than baseball. Like, I had to report for my games and stuff. But, that I would say that was the only real job I had. Yeah.

Because, you know, as I was playing baseball, I said, okay. What am I gonna do to make money in the off season? So I became a realtor. I was 21 years old. I just fell into that because my mom had been a realtor for thirty years.

And I looked at her life, and I said, okay. She doesn't have a boss. She does what she wants. Like, this will work for me. Mhmm.

Quickly learned I hated that. Did it for a couple of years.

Steve: And What did you hate about it?

Ryan: I hated working with clients. I hated that, you know, you work so hard to make so little money back then. 2010, you know, prices were stupid cheap. Yeah. They were.

Yeah. So I was working so hard. Nobody could, qualify for loans. Everybody had just went bankrupt or did a short sale. Or foreclosure.

Foreclosure. It's just the whole thing was just rough.

Steve: Well, just wanna take a step back here because you're talking about, you know, growing up, you didn't say, mom, I wanna be a YouTuber. Like, you can't even not until, like, four years ago do you even say, like, I wanna be a YouTuber when I grow up. And so you're talking about, these kids today, they're saying I wanna be an influencer or whatever. The one great thing about social media today is that we've opened the eyes to a generation that you can actually be your own boss.

Ryan: It's a

Steve: little different the way you be your own boss.

Ryan: Yeah.

Steve: You know, when I was coming up in engineering, I was like, I'm gonna be a poker player. That's gonna be my self employment thing. Yeah. And in Vegas, robbed me with those dreams because they're brutal over there.

Ryan: Yeah. I forgot. I I didn't mention that part. I I also was a gambler. You know, definitely not a professional, but I did win a poker tournament in Vegas when I was 18.

Don't ask me how I got in or what happened, but I that did happen. And I also played on full tilt in online poker. So You did?

Steve: Were you any good at that?

Ryan: I was pretty good. I I played Heads Up, and, I was good at Heads Up. Yeah. I didn't have the patience for a normal game.

Steve: Well, speaking of that patience, because you're a driver, naturally.

Ryan: Yeah.

Steve: On a p what are you in a PI? Maverick. Maverick. Okay. So you're a driver, naturally.

And I think you didn't know about entrepreneurship necessarily, but let's face it. You're not employable.

Ryan: No. I'm not. For sure. I couldn't and, like, I didn't know that. I just was like, man, I'm not gonna work for somebody.

Right. So, you know, I I'm in baseball and real being a realtor sucks. So I'm like, what am I gonna do to make money? Because I don't know when my next house sale will be. Everybody in real estate can relate to that.

So I so one of my friends tells me about substitute teaching. He's like, dude, you can make a $100 a day just being a sub. You could pick what days you wanna work. Super easy. Just show up and take role, and that's it.

I'm like, alright. You know, being a sub actually sounds pretty good. You know? I could make $2,000 a month and work my own hours, pick what days I wanna go. So I remember I I got approved, and I ended up Is that hard?

It it was kinda hard. It it probably took a few months because you gotta get fingerprints and all this stuff. So I end up getting approved, and the way that you pick a sub job is pretty interesting. Like, every day, I would wake up and see the list of schools. I'd be like, alright.

Is there one near me? Preferably starting later, you know, like, I don't wanna go to high school at seven in the morning. Like, is there any eight or nine? And so, I I ended up picking, like, every day would be I didn't know where I was gonna go work. And so I'd be like, alright.

That looks cool. I'll I'll go work at that one. And then if there was none that I really liked, I'm like, I'm just not working today. Interesting.

Steve: I had no idea. Yeah.

Ryan: So that's how I did it. And, man, I've worked the high schools, the elementary schools, the middle schools. I quickly learned which ones I liked and did like. Elementary school? No way.

No? Because that ain't taking role. Like, you're teaching in elementary. Mhmm. This is the same class.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: You know, high school and middle school is the same. Like, you just take role, whatever. Then I

Steve: quickly Take role, you're just doing attendance and that's it. That's it. You're not even teaching anything?

Ryan: No. You just you you take attendance and then it's like study hall or watch a video or something. Yeah. So it was super easy. But but through that, I posted something on Instagram the other day.

Some girl tagged me from, like, eight years ago Uh-huh. Of a picture of me substitute teaching. And she was like, oh my gosh. You'll never believe this, but hot substitute teacher is now a millionaire. And I was, like, I was like, what is going on here?

Someone sent it to me. I was like, I need to get a Twitter. I didn't even have a Twitter yet. And, it was random. She had this picture of me from back in the day.

Like, I didn't have one. So Yeah.

Steve: She was low key stalking you.

Ryan: She was low key stalking me. And like, I'm like, how do you have a picture from eight years ago of this? This is crazy. So Once she was dreaming about you. You know, it is what it is.

Steve: Yeah.

Ryan: But but yeah. No. Everyday, I'd go to middle school high school. Man, the the girls oh my gosh. It was, like, so annoying because, they just be, like, giggling.

Like, they they don't hide their emotions or anything. They're, like, not discreet about anything. No filter. Yeah. And I'm just, like, oh my gosh.

This is, like, every every class. It's it's just a a repeat all over again.

Steve: Because they're

Ryan: I'm not the sub that they're expecting. They're expecting some, like, old guy and whatever.

Steve: Well, you remember those guys. Those are the guys that would get upset at us and scream at us. Yeah. Were you a screamer as a sub?

Ryan: No. I just I was like, do your work. Like, who's who's here? But so we you know, and also too back then, I was like 22, 23 years old. So I was pretty close in age to Yeah.

Be like high school and stuff. So they're they thought a a lot of times people thought I went to the high school. I'm like, no. I'm the sub. So yeah.

Anyways, quickly learned subbing was annoying also. So I start, thinking about other ways to make money. And during subbing, it was actually beneficial because I started reading books. Well well, the kids were watching videos. I started reading books.

First time I read Rich Dad Poor Dad, some of the classics. I'm like, okay. This is the way you make money. I end up moving in or my wife and I get married. You know, I'm 24 at the time.

She just turned 21. And, we furnished our place. And, you know, I've furnished it for, like, a thousand bucks. And I'm like, man, I bet you I could sell this furniture for a lot more. Now granted, I wasn't gonna sell the furniture that we just bought, but I go, let me just test this theory out.

So I buy a couch. You just have this random thought. While I was subbing. I had the

Steve: You didn't start flipping the couch.

Ryan: Yeah. You

Steve: didn't see it anywhere else. You didn't see it in Craigslist. You just?

Ryan: No. It was not a thing. It wasn't it wasn't a thing even till I made it a thing like last year. So I ended up, I'm sitting there while I'm subbing. I'm thinking about it.

I'm like, man, I got such a good deal on that stuff. Oh, and also too, I think I was looking for more stuff while I was subbing. I'm like, alright. We need, the pick whatever, a patio table. Like, I don't know.

And I'm sitting there thinking like, man, I bet you I could probably flip a couch a day for, like, $200 profit. And I'm like, I'm sitting here for a $100. This is interesting. So I test my theory out. I tell the guy while I'm subbing, like, I I find a deal.

I go, hey. I'll pick up this couch, you know, today after I get off work. And, you know, I get off work. I'll pick it up. You know, like, few days later, sell it for $200.

And I go, dude, I just made more. That took me an hour to go do that and versus six hours here. And then I was thinking about it. I'm like, opportunity cost. I didn't even know what it was, but I'm thinking about well, actually, I did.

I I went to college. I knew it at that point. But I I'm thinking about it. I'm like, if I miss out on a couch because I'm subbing here, that's bad. Yeah.

So I immediately stopped subbing.

Steve: So just cold turkey.

Ryan: Yeah. I'm like, this is dumb. I'm I'm flipping just random stuff. So, yeah, that was that was the start of my first real business of my own. Mhmm.

And I remember I made probably like $2,000 the first month, and I worked, like, not at all. I was like, dude, this was crazy.

Steve: So just walk me through this. And and, you know, this we hear these questions. Right? Why would anyone sell real estate at such a discounted price? How can you make money through it?

How how is that possible? But I really have this question about couches. How are you finding discounted prices on couches, and who are you finding to pay more if it was available in the same spot?

Ryan: Yeah. So people ask me that all the time. They're like, so you bought them on Craigslist. Where'd you sell them? Craigslist?

I'm like, yeah. They're like, I don't get it. So, yeah. I mean, I would just look just like on the MLS.

Steve: So just find motivated sellers. Well, I

Ryan: was also it was a speed game. You know? If somebody listed within, you know I was checking my phone every thirty minutes for new listings. So I look at it. I see a new listing.

I'm like, great. Let me hit that guy up. Make an offer. He says, yes. I say, I'll pick it up right this minute because you have to be fast.

Mhmm. So, you know, I pick it up right that minute. They're super stoked because they just listed it and now they're getting rid of it. They're happy. You know, I go pick it up.

And then, all I did was clean it up just by taking off the covers and washing them and throwing them back on. It's like I was shampooing them and all this stuff. Alright. And the the big key was just offering free delivery. So end up offering free delivery, you know, buy for a 100, sell for 3, offer free delivery.

People are stoked.

Steve: And Do you have a warehouse for all this?

Ryan: Yeah. Well, so when I first started, I was in my apartment and I was just the apartment. Right? And then once it became business, I go, alright. I need a storage unit.

So I get a storage unit that's right next door to our apartment. Mhmm. You know, I fit I fill it up within, you know, a couple weeks. I'm like, I need another unit. So I get another unit, then another unit.

And these are 10 by thirties. These are big units. At one point, I had five units of, and so it's funny. Like, people would come for one couch and I'm like, come see my gallery of, you know, let me show you what else we have. And then so they picked the, like it was like they're going to RC Willie or something.

So it became a business that I just learned over time how to do things that have for sure helped me in my career. You know? I I I realized, okay. I need a truck. I need a better truck if I'm gonna do this.

So, you know, I buy equipment. Then I realized, alright. I need, some cleaners at the sites. I need, you know, some lint rollers and these things just to make things presentable. I need air fresheners so they don't stink.

And so you learn these things and then, I learned what descriptions work. Right? SEO.

Steve: Yeah.

Ryan: I learned SEO on Craigslist because I started using keywords in all my titles Mhmm. In all my descriptions. I didn't know what I was doing. Marketing. I was just learning it.

Steve: Yeah.

Ryan: Same thing with the free delivery. I'm like, people pay for convenience. They don't even negotiate. Mhmm. That's what I realized.

Most people don't But

Steve: the free delivery was in was in the title. Yep.

Ryan: It was in the title. And they're like, oh, free delivery? $300? Like, dude, let's do it. Yeah.

I also learned about transparency because, you know, if I had to catch that at a hole or a tear or something. Right? I remember my first time I delivered one, they've not seen it, and that it it had a hole. And they're like, well, this wasn't in the pictures. And I'm like, you're right.

Like, you know, so I had to I don't even remember what happened. I gave them a discount or something there. I said never again. So I started disclosing everything about the couch in the pit. I go, hey.

Tear here. Tear here. Tear here. You still want it. I'll deliver it.

And then if they say like, ideally, I try to get them to go see it first. I'm like, hey. Come see it. Make sure you want it. So for the people that would say, no.

I'm not gonna see it. Like, just deliver it. I'd be like, alright. Acknowledge these. So I was learning these real estate things I do now.

Yeah. And just the couch leading taught me so much, with that and then with negotiating. Because I was making literally, you know, tens of offers every day. I was negotiating sales. I mean, I sold You had a

Steve: lot of reps.

Ryan: Yeah. I got so many negotiation reps. I mean, I sold over a thousand couches. So that's a thousand negotiations that Yeah. Made me who I am.

Steve: That's incredible. So how long did you do your couch full thing?

Ryan: It was like two to three years. You know, I I started off, I was making like $2 a month, 3, then 4, then I scaled it up to $8, and we're talking net. You know? Yeah. And I I had a month where I made $12 during Christmas because, Black Friday is the biggest time people get rid of couches.

Mhmm. You know? So on Black Friday, I remember, like

Steve: Why is that?

Ryan: Because they all bought a new couch on Black Friday. Okay. So they, all are just giving them away. So I remember in November, I bought, like I was buying, like, four couches a day after Black Friday. Yeah.

I had all this inventory, and I sold it off in, December.

Steve: So you were doing this all by yourself?

Ryan: Yeah. One man crew. Starting out, so when I was telling you about November, it was just me by myself. And then once I started getting into house flipping, that's when I started to delegate. Got it.

So And

Steve: now you've created this, like, cash flipping army.

Ryan: Well, it was just one other guy.

Steve: No. I'm talking about, like, today.

Ryan: Oh, today. Yeah. So, you know, I've got a YouTube series called Flip Nation. And man, it was crazy. And and we'll talk about the YouTube stuff later, but I ended up just making a video about couch flipping because it was just something I did.

I'm like, this is just something I did. Maybe it's valuable to, you know, you guys who are trying to hustle and make some money. Mhmm. It went freaking viral. I was like, what the heck is going on?

Yeah. And so people's dude, people walk up to me all the time and they're like, dude, I've been flipping couches. I'm making $5 a month. It changed my life. That's awesome.

Yeah. Dude, super crazy. And I tell people that all the time. They're like, I don't have a job. There's I'm like, why don't you just flip couches?

Like, it's so easy. Mhmm.

Steve: It's incredible what what you've done with that. Okay. So, a few years, and then you get into house flipping. When did you start flipping houses?

Ryan: So I got the bug at the 2014, bought the first one 2015.

Steve: Got it. And there's a delta there, 2014, 2015. Yeah. Massive research? What what is it?

Ryan: So I've told this story many times. You know, we're on our one year anniversary back this you know, our anniversary is late October. And I I got the calling from God, I felt like, to go do this and look into it and research and do this stuff. So ended up, doing that, and so I go into November. I'm like, I'm flipping a house, dude, no matter what.

And at the time, I'm still flipping couches, making that's how we're making a living. So for, November to December, I'm literally just consuming podcast this whole time. Just trying to learn and research everything I can about flipping houses. And then, going into January, I ended up, feeling really confident and good. I had hard money lenders lined up.

I had my credit lined up. Like, I knew exactly what I needed. And then, I think I found the first deal in, like, January, and then I closed in, like, February. And, you know, the rest is history, man.

Steve: Have you taken the Colby test? No. Okay. I'd be interested to see, you taking it, because there's four things in there. There's action taking, fact finding.

I can't remember the third one. That's terrible. And the fourth one is how much you enjoy working with your hands, you know, bringing your vision to life. You doing you bringing your vision to life. And the it's clear to me that you love going really deep.

Like, when you research, it's not cursory. It's not

Ryan: that seems like a good idea. Let's do it. Yeah.

Steve: You're kinda like I I I can kinda imagine you just kinda be, like, buried, not under a room full of books because that doesn't happen anymore. Right. But just deep, deep research.

Ryan: My research these days involves me just talking to people Yeah. In that industry. Today? Today. But before?

Before, it was podcast, it was books. Yeah. You know?

Steve: But then when you take action, it's not like a little bit of action.

Ryan: No. It's I'm all in at that point. So like for me, I always if I'm gonna get into a business and we'll talk about the new businesses I'm getting in. Mhmm. I am going to do everything possible so that when I launch it and I announce it, it's already going out with a bang.

Yeah. Because I've already done all the prep that no one has seen. Mhmm. You only have one chance at a first impression. You only have one chance at a launch.

And so it it just everything I do now is just anything I anytime I launch something, people are like, holy crap. Like, how is it how did it do well, you didn't see the last two months of me leading up to it.

Steve: Yeah. Alright. So 2015, you said? Yeah. So you're flipping houses.

That's going really good. Mhmm. Going really well. And then in the last couple years, you kinda, like, was looking at some other things. Right?

So, let's talk about just for those that don't know you, right, Talk about your your flipping, house flipping business.

Ryan: Yeah. So 2015, I started doing it. Flipped five that first year. And, mainly in we're not all in Vegas for that. And then, I go to doing 20 the next year all by myself.

And then 2017, I really start to scale. We did over 50. Hired my first guy, at 50. And then 2018, was my first year out of baseball. So I finally retired at

Steve: the beginning. So you did 50 transactions while you're still playing baseball? Yeah. It's really impressive.

Ryan: Well and baseball taught me a lot too. I I talk about couch flipping teaching me a lot. Baseball taught me a ton because to do those, you know, first 80 deals while playing baseball

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: I had to, delegate, obviously.

Steve: Alright.

Ryan: So when I was gone playing, I had hired project manager. I had a guy to go look at deals for me and I had to get comfortable buying deals without Most people starting out would never do that. Right?

Steve: No. They wouldn't trust them.

Ryan: No. But I had to learn trust. Yeah. And so now I have, like, extreme trust in everyone that I hire. And Yeah.

So that helped a lot. But, anyways, so I I retired from baseball in, like, August or something, I think. And, you know, I go into the August or September. You know, I'm just, like, thinking about my life. I'm like, man, you know, I had a good baseball career.

You know, house flipping is going really well. Obviously, this is gonna be my path going forward. Mhmm. What can I do to amplify this? And so the guy who was, my project manager, his name is Nick.

I'm like, let's start a brokerage. You'll be the broker. You know, I'll we'll we'll have these house flips. It'll pay for itself and whatever. So he starts this brokerage.

Just me and him. No agents. And, we ended up, now we have over a 100. But then, you know, we got the office space. We're like, we're going legit.

And then I started to really think about branding. Mhmm. Because house flipping before that, it was just me. Right? Right.

So I created my company Home Run Offer, you know, SEO based. Right? Home offer. But then Home Run, you know, meh meshes with me.

Steve: I didn't even think about that. That's awesome.

Ryan: Yeah. The SEO component. Yeah. So that was the SEO component, which when I thought about it, I'm like, this is as good as it's gonna get. So, that was my first, like, real shot at branding with that with the brokerage Forever Home Realty.

And 2018, we go into it as, like, my first year. Like, I feel like I was unleashed as an entrepreneur. By this point, I know I'm an entrepreneur. Mhmm. And, you know, we did over a 140 flips.

The brokerage grew. We outgrew the space that we rented just a few months later, and I had to get another space. And it was my first time really hiring people at scale, you know, hiring, acquisitions people, cold callers, and, you know, it was cool.

Steve: So one thing that you did, I know we talked about before, was, you got a lot of flips through social media. Yeah. So you're talking about branding. Can you elaborate on the on the branding component?

Ryan: Yeah. So branding has been something that I started taking more serious in, like, 2016, 2017. And it wasn't like as this big influencer guy. It was just me going to my flips and going on Facebook live and, you know, showcasing it. I don't even have an Instagram, man.

So it was just me showcasing on Facebook live. It would be me, just doing a simple how to. I'm like, hey, you know, here's how I got two deals yesterday, blah blah blah. Nobody was doing it. Mhmm.

And I just thought it was cool and people were getting a lot of value out of it. I wasn't on YouTube. I wasn't on Instagram or none of these things. I just was doing on Facebook and people would be like, man, you know, I wanna work with you. Like, I I've got deals.

I've got money. I've got whatever. So I got private lenders. I got deals. I was like, these video there's something to these videos.

Mhmm. And mind you, they weren't edited. There there was no mics. Nothing. It was literally just me and the phone.

Steve: Yeah.

Ryan: And whatever mess ups I had, that was it.

Steve: Right.

Ryan: One take.

Steve: So you're very comfortable doing one take back then.

Ryan: Yeah.

Steve: You're a lot more polished today. Yeah. Can you talk about that evolution a little bit? I know we're gonna talk a little bit more, but can can you talk about the evolution? Because there's a lot of people that are very uncomfortable with the one take, and they're like, everything's gotta be polished.

Everything's gotta be perfect the first time. Can you talk about that?

Ryan: Yeah. So when I first started, it's funny because all of my circumstances have led to me becoming who I became or, I guess, who I'm still evolving into. So with the whole one take thing, I literally didn't even think about, man, how could I possibly edit this? It was just like, yeah. I I have to nail this.

And so the one takes weren't truly one takes. It was multiple takes of the same video. Mhmm. I'd rather be like two minutes into it and I'd mess up or I'd lose my train of thought. I'm like, dang.

I gotta start over. And so I'd start over again. Okay. And then again and again. Got it.

And so eventually, I could make a four or five minute video without looking at a note, whatever. And so all of that time, I was developing my speaking skills, my improv skills, my off the cuff skills. And, the videos were good. People got a lot of value out of them. Terrible quality, terrible, like, flow of, you know, there was no structure to the story or it was just like off the cuff.

Yeah. All over the place. Then when I got into YouTube later, I understood, hey. I need to script. I need to sequence because in order to keep a viewer engaged for ten minutes, you have to walk them through the video in the proper way.

You have to hook them. You gotta keep them hooked. And so I've learned a ton about structure.

Steve: Yeah. Alright. So, you

Ryan: got the brokerage and then you got this accounting company? Yeah. So, you know, we're we were crushing it with the flips. You know, I wrote a book. We were having a lot of success.

In 2019, I had my first, like, negative experience. I lost money on flips and all this stuff. And the reason was my accounting wasn't, like, good. I just was winging it. You know?

In 2018, I did over a 140 flips with no bookkeeping, no p well, I had a p and l. I should take that back. But no bookkeeping, nothing. Wow. I was just winging it.

Yeah. And we made a lot of money but then in 2019, I'm like, where's the money? And I realized that, you know, I just wasn't properly accounting for my cash flow that was going in and out. I didn't know what money I had that was designated for rehabs, and I was using my rehab money to buy deals. I just didn't know it.

Yeah. So in 2019, I I from failing, I was like, man, k. We gotta take accounting seriously. And so I ended up hiring my my soon to be partner, Matt, and, he gets our book straight. He's great as an accountant.

You know, 2018, I made a lot of money and, you know, I did not pay a lot of tax. And I was like, I like this guy. So, Great quality. Yeah. Great qualities.

So then, you know, he's he's working for me for all of 2019. I'm like pretty much his only client. And then, we end up, talking about it just at one of our q three parties. He's like, I think, you know, we should start a company. Mhmm.

And maybe in as an entrepreneur, I'm thinking about it, and I was like, what did you just say? He's like, man, like, when when we gonna start a company? Because he was working for a big firm. Mhmm. And, I thought about it.

I was like, that's a good idea because everybody's always asking me for referrals. So we talked it through for a couple of months, and then we launched TrueBooks, at the very beginning of 2020. Mhmm.

Steve: Well, it's great that you survived because what buries a lot of flippers isn't even losing money on the flips. It's the having all that money outlaid, having that cash crunch because of poor accounting. Right? Or I I could be wrong. I don't flip as many houses, but I think that's, like, where a lot of flippers kinda get into trouble is to run out of money.

Ryan: Yeah. You don't. A lot of flippers don't realize their burn rate. Yeah. You know?

And what they're spending on marketing and salaries and let alone the Hard money and the hard money and then the distribution of, like, hey. These funds are designated for one purpose and that's rehabs.

Steve: You can't

Ryan: use them. Even if you get a good deal, you can't use them. Mhmm. So, having the CPA company when I first started it was strictly just for me to, like, for my own family. Like, hey.

If the CPA company can pay for all my accounting needs, great. Mhmm. But now, you know, we service hundreds of people across the country.

Steve: So

Ryan: yeah. We actually we're in the process of really scaling. We just hired four full time people, you know, and, you know, two of them were 6 figure salaries. Two of them are, you know, so it's like, now we're really pushing it forward.

Steve: It's a real business. Yeah. It's crazy. And then at some point, you evolved into adding education. So, like, right now, we got, flipping houses, wholesaling, brokerage, accounting.

Let's add something else.

Ryan: Yeah. So, you know, in 2018, when I was having success, so many people were telling me, like, man, how are you doing? How are you doing? I kept answering the same questions over and over again.

Steve: Which was read my book.

Ryan: Well well, before the book, yeah, it was I was answering them. I'm like, man, this is annoying. I'm saying the same things over and over. So it finally forced me to write a book. So I wrote a book after I'd flipped a 100 houses.

I said, here's how I flipped a 100 houses. Here's the guide. And people loved it. And I'll probably never do it the way I did that one again. I I actually wrote that one myself.

No ghostwriter. No idea how to be an author. Just winged it. Granted, I did do research on how to write a book. Okay?

Just like we're talking about. But end up being really good. Made a course with it. And, you know, that was my first taste of education. But it wasn't like, man, I'm going into education to light the world on fire.

Mhmm. It's more of like, hey, if you need it, here it is. Cool. I didn't wanna be a salesy guy.

Steve: Alright.

Ryan: So 2019, you know, same type of deal. It's just I'm talking about it every so often. If you want it, you want it. Cool. If not 20 at the 2019, after I learned so much from the failures early on in the year and, you know, getting to where I was at that point where, you know, I had filled hundreds of homes, Eventually, I was like, alright.

You know what? I think I'm ready to finally coach. I've been through ups. I've been through downs. I've I've built teams.

I've, you know, done a lot of things. So I start my coaching program in December 2019. And, you know, to this point, education's it's cool, but it's not even close to, like, my income, like, a percentage of it. And I do the coaching program for all of 2020. And with that, it just starts taking off because of also social media, which we'll touch on later.

Steve: Right.

Ryan: But yeah. You know, I I really started taking education serious, at the beginning of 2020 when I had the coaching program.

Steve: Yeah. And it's something that, you know, we talk about, well, I guess there's a couple different things. First, we talk about, when you're doing your research before you're flipping houses, you maxed out your credit card when you bought your when you first started flipping houses. Yeah. And we've had this conversation, like, isn't it isn't it wrong, right, to allow someone to max out their credit card to invest in a course, enforce investment program, whether it's one of the major ones or some of the other ones that our friends run.

Does it make sense to allow someone to do that? And it was kind of a a crisis of, I don't know. Ethics is the right word, but conscience. Crisis of conscience. And, then I'm talking to you.

It's like, well, Ryan maxed out his credit card. When, like, on his is it a first house? Yeah. On his first house, he maxed out his credit card. And me and my journey.

Right? Like, I maxed out my credit card at thirty nine thousand. Right? Chasing my dreams. Yep.

So then the question is, like, should we be kicking people away because we would be kicking people like us away. Like, who are we to say no to their dreams?

Ryan: Yeah. And that was something I thought about as well because you go with, like, the world's stigma and you're like, oh, yeah. No. Don't do that. Yet the world says, go to go to college and go get $200,000 in student loan debt.

You know, that's cool. Which is useless. Yeah. Which is way more useless. And so I'm like, after I thought about it for a long time, like, I looked at my situation.

I look at big entrepreneurs. Look at Elon Musk. I mean, that guy, he he sold PayPal, made a few 100,000,000, risked it all on Tesla and SpaceX and on the verge of bankruptcy with those companies. Mhmm. You know, they are what they are today.

So my point is, I always talk about risk now. And I'm like, look, if you ain't willing to take a risk, don't even talk to me. Yeah. Because playing it safe ain't gonna vibe with me and what I tell you to do ain't gonna work. Mhmm.

Because there's no way to play it safe and and win big. Yeah. You could play it safe and over time, you know, you'll grow and have a safe life and that's cool if that's what you want. Yeah. Ain't what I want.

Steve: If it lines up with your life's goals, great. Right. But then I'm not the coach for you.

Ryan: I'm not the coach for you. Because I'm a be like, dude, let's go. Yeah. So yeah. You know, I think when it comes to education, we man, it's something that's been a evolution for me as far as what I'm willing to tolerate and accept.

And, you know, I'm I'm much more lenient now. I'm like, hey. Look. Everyone's a big boy or a big girl. Mhmm.

Make your own decisions.

Steve: Yep.

Ryan: You wanna max out your credit cards? It's up to you. Mhmm. I'm not gonna tell you to do it. Make your choice.

Steve: Yeah. And then there's also a stigma in the education world, which I think kinda cleaning up a little bit. I think it's getting a little bit better. I don't know. But, you know, is that something that you think about?

Like, how do I make sure I'm not one of these gurus that's, you know, getting torn apart?

Ryan: Yeah. So that was a big thing as I was growing my social media last year. You know, I'm like, man. Okay. Education's, like, gonna be making more than my house flipping soon.

Mhmm. And, which is great for me.

Steve: Right.

Ryan: But also too, we look at our students and we have so many that are crushing it and and doing great things, like we've changed their life. And so that's reinforced it to me that, man, if I did not really push hard on education and promoting it and trying to get people in it, these people's lives wouldn't be changed. Right? It's not just about my company making more money. And, that gave me the, I guess, the conscience to be like, alright.

I'm gonna promote more and push harder because before, I was always like, I don't wanna be that guy who's always pushing and selling and, you know, all this stuff. But when you don't tell people what you have to offer, you you're doing them a disservice. Yeah. Because, you never know how you could have, you know, changed their life with something that you could do unless they don't unless they know about it.

Steve: You know, so I had this experience and I should remember it more often. But I actually had someone come up to me when we were in Houston for whole scaling. Right? So 2019. And he pulled me aside, and he said to me, like, I wish I knew you had an education program.

You know? I wish I knew about it. Because instead of going with you, I went with this other guy, and it was a complete bust.

Ryan: Yep.

Steve: Right? Because I wish I went with you. You could've changed my life. I was like, ugh. Yep.

That's tough to hear.

Ryan: Yeah. And that's the thing. It's like, I truly believe we have the best education there is. So why am I not Second best. Second best to to Steve.

So I truly believe we have the second best education in the world. So it's like why are

Steve: Forbes certified. That is true too. Yeah. So,

Ryan: you know, at that point, if I'm not telling people about it, who is? Right? I mean, my students do. We get a ton of referrals from students. But Yeah.

Like, somebody else is gonna shout their name from the rooftop, and then maybe they're good, maybe they're not. But, the person who's the best marketer is typically gonna win. Alright.

Steve: And that's the whole beta versus VHS. Yeah. Okay. So we kinda touched on this throughout, but would you consider yourself an influencer, YouTuber, TikToker? Like, what do we call what

Ryan: you do now? Yeah. So, you know, I'm thinking about it. It's funny. Whenever I do, like, my bio for something or the tagline for, like, you know, ryanpineda.com.

Right? You gotta write a tagline. Mhmm. And so we're looking at it, like, we're, like, do we write entrepreneur? Do we write real estate investor?

Do we write, influencer? Mhmm. Do we write YouTuber? Like, right? There's so many things.

I don't know what it's called, man. I don't I don't really care. So for me, you know

Steve: So what it is you do? If I if I walk up to you on the street, say, hi, Ryan. I'm Steve. I run a podcast. What do you, like, what do you do?

What do

Ryan: you say? Dude, you know what's funny is I ask my wife this. I go, when people ask you what I do, what do you tell them? She's like, I hate that question so much because I don't even know what to tell him. I'm like, what do you tell him?

She's like, it used to be he was a baseball player. Then, you know, it used to be he's a real estate investor. Mhmm. But now at this point, whatever you wanna call it, like, he's a entrepreneur, he's a influencer, he's a YouTuber, he's a investor, crypto guy now somehow. So I don't know, man.

I enjoy I enjoy so many things in it. I think that that helps and it also hurts. Because if you are known for one thing, you know, you're the guy in that one thing. Mhmm. And I felt like I was that way with house flipping for a while.

But now that I've branched into all these other things, now it's like, oh, oh, yeah. I forgot. That guy flips houses too. Mhmm. So So

Steve: you think you might not be on as many, first call?

Ryan: Yeah. It it's just, like, kind of whatever's hot at the moment, I think, for a lot of people. So for instance, right now, I'm here to speak at Carlos event Mhmm. For freedom. And, I think I'm probably, I don't know, at least one of the top three or house flippers there Mhmm.

You know, out of a thousand people. But I'm not going there to talk about flipping houses.

Steve: I'm going

Ryan: there to talk about social media, and I don't think anybody's gonna even ask me about flipping houses, to be honest. Yeah. Let's see

Steve: what we got. I'm trying to think of the audience there or the speaker panel. Yeah.

Ryan: So alright. But but, anyways, I guess, you know, the shift that I made was in 2020, you know, we're sitting there during the pandemic. And I remember, I came on your show Yeah. Like, probably right around now.

Steve: I think it was March.

Ryan: I think

Steve: it was was it right before? No. You didn't get permission to come here from like, your wife had to be comfortable with it.

Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. So I'm pretty certain it was right around May, June.

Steve: Okay.

Ryan: Because, I started my YouTube channel May 1.

Steve: Okay.

Ryan: And I remember coming on the show. I think I had about two or 3,000 subs at the time. But I was talking about it in a way that, like, I had all these subs, which I didn't. But I was so certain that it was gonna work out. And I just remember telling everyone on the audience, like, hey.

Here's why I think YouTube is great. Here's why I think Instagram sucks. Here's why I like TikTok. I probably had, like, a 100,000 TikTok at the time. And I was, like, this is all I'm doing for the next year.

You had

Steve: a 100,000 at that time?

Ryan: Yeah. I'm like, so this is all I'm gonna do for the next year. Just I'm gonna devote all my time and energy to this. And, you know, a year later filming this right now, it's like, okay. We've got over a 100,000 YouTube subs, over, a 100,000 Instagram, over 600,000 TikTok.

Steve: I was July.

Ryan: July. Yeah. So I had 3,000. And, I have I launched the podcast, and now it's a top new business show. And it's all happened within one year.

Mhmm. And it was just because, like you said, I did that deep research into it. I felt like I had a good blueprint from what I learned. And I had conviction that this was the best path going forward. Because I just looked at the world.

I looked at my businesses. I looked at everything. I said, what is the best use of my time right now? We all have twenty four hours. What can be the best use?

In my mind, I think, oh, the best use is, you know, going on seller appointments and being the CEO and managing people and whatever. Right? Working on my business. And then I was like, I don't even think that's the best use of my time. I think the best use of my time is being the promoter Mhmm.

Of my businesses.

Steve: Which is a huge paradigm shift because we know a lot of people that are ultra successful and what they focus on is working on their business. And I think it takes a lot of I don't know, what it is exactly, but this takes a lot to move you from a paradigm. Alright? And there's a reason why we call it a paradigm. It's this is the way it is.

This is the way it's always been done. This is the way we're always gonna do it. You know? Sometimes it's like, who who are you to say that there's a different way for it to be done? Yeah.

And so I applaud you for having that, foresight,

Ryan: you know, the vision. Diction, foresight. Yeah. Yeah. Because nobody was doing it.

Nobody was thinking about this back then. And every obviously, you know, COVID hit. Everybody's trying to, like, light fire or, you know, put out fires across their businesses and figure out what's going on. And I just tried to, like, take a step back from everything and remove myself and say, what is, like if I had no other obligations, what would be the best path going forward? And I just felt like social media was it.

Yeah. And, you know, fast forward a year later, obviously, it was a good decision. But now you're seeing other people follow suit.

Steve: Right. Not enough people follow suit.

Ryan: Not enough. I'd still think more need to do it. But I think you will see even more follow suit here in the coming years.

Steve: Yeah. But you called

Ryan: your shot.

Steve: You're like,

Ryan: you're on a thousand subs.

Steve: But you called your shot and you said, this is what I'm gonna do. And then and because I do this, I'm gonna get these results. And you did it. And you put your time into it. So, when did you stop going on seller appointments?

Ryan: By at that point, I was already done.

Steve: So by that point, you're already done. July. Yeah. Got it. Okay.

And how much time in a do you work forty hours a week? How many hours do you even work in a week?

Ryan: Mentally, twenty four hours a day. Physically at the office, thirty five hours a week.

Steve: Okay. So within the thirty five hours a week, how much time is set aside for creating or procuring content?

Ryan: Literally, like, almost all my time.

Steve: All of your time? Yeah. Yeah. That's really tough to compete against.

Ryan: Yeah. I mean, because when I when I look at the thirty five hours, right, I would guess on the actual businesses, man, maybe I spend, like, two or three hours Mhmm. As far as giving them feedback or, advising them or whatever. So I do that. I also have my coaching call once a week, so that's an hour.

So maybe five hours is actually me as a business working on the business. The other thirty hours for sure is just filming, scripting, revising, you know, driving to, you know, locations.

Steve: Does your tell does your team still need you? Like, do they still have, like, hey, Ryan. We're dealing with this problem.

Ryan: Yeah. They they could I'm still a consultant.

Steve: Okay. Yeah. That's kinda where you're at this point. You're a consultant for your company.

Ryan: I'm a consultant for my company. Like, what Sean Bob, you know, he sees here. He'll he'll be like, we got this deal. What would you do? Yeah.

Steve: I'll be

Ryan: like, here's what we need to do.

Steve: Right. Yeah. Yeah. And that's kinda like for me, like, when they have to bring me in is because it's this really bad situation that

Ryan: Yeah. I mean, we did yeah. Shamup was telling you because we we use your coaching, which, by the way, is amazing. I'd I'd highly recommend everyone use it. Affiliate code down below for me.

So, we, you know, we got 25 deals last month. That was our biggest month ever. Impressive. Yeah. And those 25 deals, I think, are gonna do over $700,000.

But once again, nobody probably cares about that. They they wanna know about social media at this point.

Steve: Right.

Ryan: But, yeah, I just think with with those deals, I I probably was in the loop on one of them that they had an issue on.

Steve: Well, we were kinda joking here. Seon here is, is also recording. You and I are doing two deals in Albuquerque. Yeah. We are.

And you found out from Sean Bob. Yeah. And I found out from Max. Exactly. Right?

We're doing deals together.

Ryan: We are.

Steve: We didn't even know we were doing deals together.

Ryan: I know. It's super random. It's, it's a beautiful thing.

Steve: It's phenomenal. I could not ask for anything more. Yeah. So you said, I'm gonna do this influence thing, and it's gonna open up these other opportunities. So before we jump into your other opportunities, have you found because one of the things that I've noticed or a a blessing in having a podcast is that almost nobody I can't get a hold of now.

Ryan: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? Like, if I say I need to get a hold of somebody, I might not know that person. But I'm probably one or two phone calls away

Ryan: from me

Steve: to get a hold of that person. Mhmm. Have you found that to be the case for you as well?

Ryan: Yeah. I can pretty much get a hold of anyone. I mean, like you said, you're you're literally one person away. Mhmm. And when you have influence, you probably know the one person.

Steve: Right.

Ryan: You know, I was trying to, talk to meet Kevin the other day. Mhmm. And, you know, I know a bunch of people that know him. At the point to this point, I haven't really had a need to talk to him. Mhmm.

But I had a need because I wanted to provide you know, I had this opportunity. I won't talk about it. But, I hit up my friend, Chandler, who, Chandler Smith. He's a YouTuber, multifam guy. I'm like, link me up with Kevin.

And then within a minute, we were on a group text, and we were chatting about things.

Steve: Right. Yeah. It's incredible. And I remember you came out here, a couple of months ago. We did our event.

It was me, you, Kong, and Sam out there. And someone asked me, like, you know, why do you do this? You know? Why do you keep doing the podcast thing? And I and I said to him, like, look.

I do it to help a lot of people, but let's not hide the fact that this benefits me.

Ryan: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: Right? And, like, and they say, like, why be an influencer? And influencer today, we just kinda look at it in the social media context. But, historically, if you have influence, you have power. Right?

You can sway things. I mean, right now, you just pay influencers to post your thing on their your product on their website, and then they you pay that influencer for that. But influence traditionally means, like, you can get things done because you have that influence.

Ryan: Mhmm.

Steve: Okay. So you leveraged influencing

Ryan: to what? Man, so the moment I started taking it seriously and, it started to grow, all of my existing businesses just went bonkers. I mean, people buying courses, coaching, people wanting tax services, people sending us more deals, more money, you know, agents joining our brokerage like crazy. Mhmm. I'm like, yeah.

This is a pretty good thing. And,

Steve: Or your your your accounting firm, you said you had to hire four more people.

Ryan: Yeah. We did. Because I need I need bookkeepers. We have too many we have too many clients. Yeah.

So it's good problems. And, we ended up, I just looked at it. I'm like, holy crap. Like, with influence too, if you have existing businesses, they do really good. Now you could start new businesses almost from the jump and be extremely profitable if you do it right.

And so, you know, as an entrepreneur for the the last year, I was strictly focused on building my influence. You know, my existing businesses, they were what they were. You know, the traffic will go to those and it'll be fine. But now, I'm gonna start two businesses that, just make sense with what I'm doing and, you know, can be potentially huge. Yeah.

So, the first one was Panayta Capital. Mhmm. And by the time this airs, I mean, we should be finally up and running. But, it's been a process for the last, like, three, four months. Essentially, I started a fund for real estate where we're gonna go buy multifamily, commercial, do some land development, everything.

And it's something that is I've wanted to do, but I just the timing wasn't right.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: But now with influence, it makes it very easy because I have, you know, the business skills to set up the operations and all that. I know how to start a brand and marketing. But the biggest thing that influence provides is people who want to invest, you know, I I'll the moment I open the fund, I already know we're gonna fill it in a week. Yeah. The second thing is access to deals.

You know, so many people that know I have a fund are now gonna be like, Ryan, like, invest in our deals. Now I don't have to do anything. I can just you know, as long as I can underwrite it and make sure that we're getting into good deals and manage those operators, we're gonna be ultra successful. Mhmm. And, so the fund is really gonna be cool because, not only are we gonna get into some really good deals, but, all the people who've wanted to get into real estate investing, but who don't want to be flippers or wholesalers or even, you know, buy and hold single family.

They just don't wanna do the work. Mhmm. They can now just join and just, you know, partner up with us.

Steve: Just kind of a crowd fund kind of thing.

Ryan: Yeah. They don't have to do anything. Now granted, we are only taking accredited investors. Mhmm. But still, it's like it's such an easy way to get into it and get all the benefits of real estate with depreciation, with appreciation, all these things.

And that's part of the reason too I'm starting the fund is, you know, with the success of the other companies, I'm gonna have a really large tax bill.

Steve: You're gonna have to finally pay taxes.

Ryan: Well, not necessarily. So if my fund buys enough deals, we won't. No. Yeah. Because depreciation will will write off everything.

Steve: Yeah. And there's you're talking about influence. You're talking about a fund. I mean, someone's already created a blueprint for this.

Ryan: Yeah. My boy, GC. Yeah. He's not my boy. But

Steve: yeah. So Grant's already created a model for this. Right?

Ryan: A blueprint. Well, you look at Grant's business. Right? Look. With every influencer, there are always pros and cons.

Right? You're you're not gonna vibe a 100% with somebody. Right? There's people who like me that, you know, may not like an aspect about me like my hair or something. That's fine.

So, they you know, you look at Grant and he's got some pros and cons. Yeah. But I I choose to look at the pros. And the pro is that he has other businesses that make him a lot of money, 10 x and all these things. And then he's got his fund.

And the fund essentially wipes out all of his income here. That's why he doesn't pay taxes. Mhmm. And on top of that, he also acquires billions of dollars in real estate.

Steve: Yeah.

Ryan: And he has shown the blueprint for what can happen if you have influence and you have real estate savvy. Yeah. And I feel like, I could easily do what he's doing.

Steve: Oh. Well, I know I have no doubt that you can. And before we go into your your next venture, we're talking about the benefits of having influence. So, while we were chatting before the show, you noticed something on my whiteboard. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, we're looking at a social media marketing agency, which I might have borrowed from somebody else, that idea.

Ryan: I think, you know, you've borrowed quite a bit of my ideas, but it's all good.

Steve: So we coach each other accountable to each other. So but there's these opportunities that come up because

Ryan: of

Steve: what we do.

Ryan: Mhmm.

Steve: Alright. So last venture for now. What's the last venture for now?

Ryan: Yeah. Like, this this week's last venture. So, you know, this one this one was one that I have been thinking about for a while that I was on the fence about, the Amazon automation stuff Mhmm. Ecommerce. You know, I've had my store for five plus months now.

And it's done really good. And I went I'm fine. Good. So let me take a step back then. So back in, like September, October, guy reaches out to me on Instagram.

His name's Tony. Used to be a wholesaler, now he's an ecom guy. He's like, hey. Like, I've seen your YouTube, all this stuff, you know. And I just want you to know it's changed my life.

Like, you've done a lot for me. You don't even know. I was like, dude, I love that. That's awesome. He's like, you know, I'm in ecom.

I wanna make you a store for free. And, you know, obviously, most people charge $3,040,000 dollars for these stores. Mhmm. And I'm like, okay. Like, I'll just do it for fun, like, for the content really.

Steve: Really. Exactly.

Ryan: I wasn't even in it for, man, I'm gonna get rich. Like, I I was skeptical. So we get the store, you know, it takes like a month to get it going. And, you know, December, we start selling stuff. And, and I make a thousand bucks net.

I'm like, whatever dude. This is it's cool. What but whatever. Alright. So then, January pops up.

We make, like, 3,000. I'm, like, still whatever. This is not anything. So then February pops up and it does 5,500. I'm, like, this is getting interesting.

Mhmm. You know, where's this going? And, you know, this is not insignificant anymore. Plus, I'm getting all these credit card points. So, March rolls around, and we make 8,000.

I'm like, okay. Like, show me what's going on with this. Because if I'm making this, you know, my first four months, what are the guys who've been doing this forever making? Mhmm. So, you know, he shows me the back end of a bunch of their stores.

You know, they had, a ton of them. So I see I go and and I was like, and show me the good and the bad. I wanna see what a bad store looks like. I wanna see what a good one looks like, all that. So, you know, I see stores that are just beginning.

They're not making any money. That's just part of it. Then I see stores that have, you know, had years of experience and, you know, making $20.30 grand a month, net. I'm like, you're telling me that these guys are really making that much money, and they're not doing nothing. But, yeah.

Like, we manage their stores. Like, this is freaking crazy. And so, I also during that time, I was getting hit up by all of the Amazon store people that sell them. Mhmm. You know, they want me to be an affiliate.

Steve: Right.

Ryan: And they're all like, man, if you're with your influence, we could sell millions in stores. Right? And, you know, we'll give you we'll split the profits and, you know, we'll fulfill it. You don't have to do anything. And I just sat there looking at it and I'm like, I definitely could make millions of dollars doing this Mhmm.

But I don't trust you to fulfill it. I mean, just it's not that they wouldn't or that they're bad guys or anything. It's just like You

Steve: just don't have the confidence. Yeah.

Ryan: It's just look, I I own all my own businesses. Mhmm. I'm very rarely an affiliate for anything unless I've I just know them on a personal level like you, your sales training.

Steve: Yeah.

Ryan: I affiliate it to my students. I'm like, hey, you Steve because I know Steve and he's gonna perform. So I just didn't feel that way about Amazon just because the nature of the business is so different than anything else. And, I thought intangible. Like Well, you have a store but the thing is when take for example the education business.

In education, if I give you the information. Right? I gave you the right information, you know, it's great, but you don't perform, it's on you. You know? You just did not apply it.

Mhmm. You can't blame me. The information was right.

Steve: Yeah.

Ryan: With Amazon, it's all on you as the provider. They gave you the money. They gave you the credit card. It's your duty to perform. And if you don't, it wasn't their fault.

It's your fault. Yeah. And so when I looked at that from the affiliate perspective The accountability. Yeah. I'm like, guess what?

If they don't perform, sure, they're on the hook, but I'm on the hook also.

Steve: Well, and you and I have talked about this privately, is that our brand is our most valuable asset. Yeah. And if you were to do that and an affiliate that you can't control Right. Craps the bed. Yeah.

Ryan looks bad.

Ryan: Yeah. I mean, when I look at the whole grand scheme of my life, you know, I'm 32 years old right now. You know, I I'm just getting started. It's like, okay. If I if I truly see myself as a billion dollar brand in the future, which I do, why am I gonna risk it for a couple million bucks now?

Mhmm. And so I just said, you know what? These guys might or might not fulfill. But if they don't, I don't really have a way to control what happens next. Like, you know, if we wanna refund somebody, are they gonna do it?

If we wanna, you know, get them a new store or whatever. Long story short, I ended up going back to my guy who originally did it, who no one knows about, not a guru, nothing. Just a cool dude who's managed a bunch of stores. And I said, what would you think about if we partnered instead of me doing an affiliate with these guys? He's like, I'd love to partner.

And, so we worked out our partnership. And for, like, the past two months, we've been working in silence to, you know, build out everything. Like I said, when I go deep, I go deep. And so we've just been literally building out everything to this point, hiring people with anticipation of of launch, which will probably happen here. I don't know when this airs, but, May.

Yeah.

Steve: Just give me forty eight hours notice.

Ryan: Forty eight hours notice. Yeah.

Steve: So I want I want, you know, the first store.

Ryan: Yeah. But no. It's it's cool, man. I'm excited for that business because it's different than real estate and all these other things. Like, it truly is.

You don't do anything as as the buyer. Like, you know, it it's crazy. I just I've never seen anything like it. And I'm curious to see where it goes because you're starting to see drop shipping go on every store. You know, Target has it.

Home Depot has it. Walmart has it. It it used to just be Amazon. Mhmm. And so now it's gonna be this business that evolves across all different stores.

Somebody was telling me the other day, it's actually like what Tai Lopez is doing with all these defunct stores he's buying. So he's buying, like, Pure One. He's buying, these other stores, and he's gonna drop ship on them. So it's definitely the business is not going anywhere. The only thing I would say for people who are interested in buying stores know that it's always a moving target.

And so, like, what works today for sure will not work six months from now. Like it's just it's going to change whatever that looks like.

Steve: Sounds like the texting game that we play in wholesaling.

Ryan: Yeah. Same deal. Yeah. Well, the other thing too was when I made the first YouTube video about it just for content. Right?

I I tell people, I'm like, yes. I opened the store. We dropped shit from Walmart to Amazon. And, you know, yada yada. Everyone's like, that's against terms of service.

You're gonna, you know, you're gonna get shut down, blah blah blah. And, like, I seriously have no idea what they're talking. I'm like, well, I'll I'll look into it. And, you know, I look into it, and it is like, yeah. It is against Amazon's terms of service.

Yes. Many people do get shut down. But then I started to think about it for the perspective of, everything else that we do that's potentially against terms of service. Right? I'm like, okay.

What is a subject to deal That is against the bank's loans.

Steve: Just a little bit. Yeah. Just one paragraph that has a bold heading.

Ryan: Yeah. K. Subject to is for sure against terms of service. K? Somebody was telling me on YouTube, whenever I talk about YouTube monetization or how much an affiliate pays or something, it's against terms of service.

Is it? Yes. You you are not allowed to do that. Interesting. Yep.

But guess what? YouTube makes money when you do it. Not only they make money, they make a ton.

Steve: Yeah. Some of the highest performing videos.

Ryan: Or talks about what YouTube pays. Yeah. Yeah. So YouTube, they shut those videos down. Yeah.

Same way with Amazon. They're making a ton of money from drop shippers. They're not dumb. Mhmm. So, you know, if a store does get shut down, I look at it also.

I always relate everything to real estate. It's kinda like, if your house gets flagged for permits. Your house is shut down. Mhmm. You can't work on it till you get the permits.

You do the stuff. You gotta deal with the city. They approve everything. Now your house is back up and running. Right.

So It's the same exact thing.

Steve: So let's talk about the last thing that you're an expert on, crypto.

Ryan: I'm not an expert at this.

Steve: Well, you and Cory Boatwright. That's who I look to. Right? I have a question about crypto. I'm texting you guys.

So you're dabbling in it.

Ryan: Yeah. You could call it that.

Steve: I mean, you obviously learned a lot about it. Are we talking about deep research? Yeah. Yeah. So you've called you you're telling you're proclaiming Bitcoin's hitting a 100 k.

Ryan: For sure. I mean, it's not even a question. So Yeah. Can you elaborate for those that are still skeptical? Man, so my crypto journey started at the 2017.

I, bought into that first type and, put 50 k in and ended up, like, dropping down to, like, 5 or $10. It just I was like, crypto is so dumb. I didn't know what I was investing in. I was just buying in the hype. And, at that point, I go, I'm just keeping it, like, what what's the point of selling it?

Mhmm. You know, the Ethereum I bought then. I bought Ethereum at, like, 800. It it tanked like a $100. And I was like, oh, man.

I bought a bunch of altcoins. Just really dumb. Yeah. So, you know, fast forward to the 2021. Right?

You know, the 2020, crypto started to make some moves. Right? And, I'm looking at it again. And at this point, my mindset my my mindset is way different. Not only have I matured for three years, during this time, I started reading a lot of books about, how the government really works with printing money, how the Fed works.

I also started reading a lot of technology books and, talking about how tech is going to be changing the world in so many different ways that, man, you guys, I it's crazy what's going to happen. And, I guess the the one thing I would I would leave viewers to look into is is called Moore's law. If you just Google Moore's law, you will understand what I'm talking about with how quick tech moves. Essentially, what it says is tech is an exponential thing. So, like, it takes forever to, you know, get established.

But once it does, it explodes. Right. And that's where we're at. Everything is exploding as far as the world. The world is gonna change, like, rapidly here soon.

And, it already is within the last year. So I was reading those books heavily influenced. I was heavily influenced by seeing how much the government was printing and money

Steve: Yeah.

Ryan: And, all the stuff that was going on. I was like, we're about to have some severe inflation. And Bitcoin and crypto are really, like, the only way to hedge against it, like, on a quick level. So in January, I was like, alright. I'm just gonna bet on it.

So I put $200 into Bitcoin. It was, like, $30 at the time. And then I just kept getting more and more conviction. I was like, alright. I'm buying some Ethereum now.

Bought, like, a 100 of Ethereum. And then, you know, closed deals, made more money. I'm like, alright. This cash is trash. Like, I'm starting to see things, and so so I keep buying more and more and more.

And, sure enough, I'm in it for half $1,000,000 in the span of like a month. Mhmm. And, end up, you know, today it's as of right now, it's worth like 1.1. And in that time too, I started flipping some all coins which some have done good, some have done bad. But,

Steve: pump and dump schemes?

Ryan: Yeah. A little pump and dump schemes. So I'm I'm down with that if you, are smart about it. Yeah. So we, you know, long story short, I think Bitcoin and Ethereum are the safest bets.

Are they gonna get the best ROI? Absolutely not. I mean, there are tons of Altcoins that are gonna crush them. Mhmm. I just don't know which ones they are.

And if you're It's like the crafts table. You gotta

Steve: put a little bit on every single one.

Ryan: Yeah. I don't know which one they are, but, you know, you could pick the right one and ten x, you could pick the wrong one and zero. Right. So that's the hard part.

Steve: It's fascinating. So, I'm counting here, double digit businesses. Right? So I'm gonna ask you a question that my wife's asked me. K.

When is enough enough?

Ryan: I think for me, the enough enough or enough is enough would be when I start feeling stressed about it. You know? So

Steve: you don't feel stressed?

Ryan: No. I enjoy it. Yeah. I I enjoy the challenge of creating businesses, of, you know, reaching new heights, of trying to become even more efficient with my time and like how much I could achieve in a day. Mhmm.

That really, like, gets me going every morning. Seriously. Because I'm like, alright. I gotta do x y z. K?

A a normal person would take a week to do this. How do I do this in five hours? It's gonna be great. So just just knock it out. But, you know, I look at, it was funny because these these last five months have been a whirlwind Yeah.

To start 2021 or, I guess, four months. Like, if I just I was doing this the other day. I was looking back at what I've accomplished in the last four months, and it was, like, kinda mind boggling. It was like, okay. I launched the podcast.

That that was really difficult, and, you know, it's a top show. It's got 1,400 plus reviews. I am doing a fund that's about to launch, you know, a lot of work, doing the ecom, Lunar ecom. By the way, I don't know if I said the name. So I launched Lunar, you know, in middle of this month.

I've rebuilt our content team to, you know, do all of this growth. Now it's its own whole organization. We held a workshop, which was a whole new thing. I filmed my rental property course, which we just launched yesterday. You know, that was a whole endeavor Mhmm.

While still putting out, like, this massive amount of content and, you know, making my existing businesses also even better and tweaking them. I'm sure I'm forgetting some other stuff, but, it's been a lot of work.

Steve: Yeah. And you're not stressed at all?

Ryan: No. I love it. So I would be stressed if I had nothing to do. That would stress me out. Yeah.

Seriously. I'd be, like, twiddling my thumbs on, like, what should I be doing now? What what's next?

Steve: So I had a panic moment about three, four weeks ago. And I was literally, like, I was sitting in this classroom over here. Mhmm. And I was, like, it's 11:00 in the morning on a Friday, and I literally have nothing to do. Mhmm.

And I started freaking out.

Ryan: Yeah.

Steve: So we started three different ventures.

Ryan: There you go. See, that's the same thing. I get stressed when I have nothing to do. I'm like, man, I gotta be something to optimize.

Steve: Right. And then I wanna end with one last thing here. Actually, two things. You've been talking about the importance of embracing your religion in your content. Mhmm.

And everyone says, don't be controversial. Don't do this. Don't do that. Mhmm. And you're saying, embrace it.

Yeah. Can you talk about that?

Ryan: Yeah. So, anyone who follows me knows I'm Christian, and I share my faith all the time. You know? I'll do stories about when we have our Bible studies. I literally will do a whole podcast about faith and talk about it.

So, I'm definitely not afraid to share it. I mean, that's number one what God calls me to do, any Christian, really. If you're, being scared about sharing your faith, you need more faith. Mhmm. That's what it comes down to.

But two, it's like, for me, there's two things about it. One is that is the big picture of everything I do. Like you said, with influence comes power. Mhmm. And if I can influence people in a way that leads to salvation and eternity, that is far greater than helping them make $200 today flipping a couch or whatever.

Like, that is the big picture of it all. In fact, I've already I have visions for what the not the back end of my life, but the next stage of my life looks like on the nonprofit side. So we're gonna be doing a lot of stuff with Christian like, one one is for me Christian entrepreneurs.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: So I have this vision of starting a com or a thing called CEO, Christian Entrepreneur Organization. Pretty cool. Yeah. So as I look at the business world and it's like you said, people do not wanna share their faith Yeah. Because they may lose a client.

They may lose a relationship. They may lose this or that. I just don't care. Like, that's the reality. And it may be it may be that I don't care because I know I'm supposed to do this, but also because I know I have so many businesses that it just doesn't matter.

Alright. If I alienate somebody, who cares?

Steve: Yeah. If you're deploying your career, it doesn't matter if you lose someone that is offended by your message.

Ryan: I really don't care. Yeah. And so, in fact, it makes your community that much stronger too because For

Steve: sure it makes your community stronger. I mean, there there are things I wanna say that I don't say. Dude, just say them. Not saying them. But, anyway

Ryan: Well, okay. But here's the deal about that. So, faith to me is different. Mhmm. K?

Like, we're talking way bigger than business and everything.

Steve: Right.

Ryan: When people get all worked up about politics, that's a whole different ballgame.

Steve: That's kinda what I'm talking about. That's what I'm not talking about.

Ryan: Alright. So I'm with you there. Like, for me, you know, when I make a video about Biden or Trump, it always gets a funny reaction. I'll still make them because I don't care. Yeah.

But I like to think when I talk about it, I'm very neutral. Mhmm. I'm just like, here's the facts. Yeah. This is why Biden's tax proposal is really stupid.

Yeah. And, whether you voted for him or not, here's why you're about to get screwed by this. And so I'll just make the video because I don't care. Well, I was

Steve: gonna say, like, the the what's interesting about it is that you kinda mentioned, right, you're not gonna be paying taxes. You're you're doing these things to reduce your taxable income.

Ryan: Yeah.

Steve: And so, like, everyone that votes, like, hey. Let's raise taxes. Let's raise taxes. No one that knows what they're doing is paying taxes. Yeah.

So it only passes back onto the middle class who voted for

Ryan: Well, so tax policies. So we just filmed the podcast, with Matt, my my partner at TrueBooks. And, we talked about all the different propose proposals that, you know, Biden's talking about passing, because people wanna know. Right? And in the video, we we talk about how right?

Look at real estate. Right? Who's getting hurt the most in real estate right now?

Steve: Right now? Yeah. The people that wanna buy a first time home.

Ryan: Right. Yeah. So okay. Those people are getting hurt the most because of current policy. Mhmm.

And and I said that in in the podcast, maybe it'll be out by the time this goes too. Like, look, everything we see today was Trump's issue. Like, the fact that during his administration, we printed all this money. Mhmm. We did all these things.

We shut down the economy. Mhmm. Even though he didn't wanna shut it down but you know, we did those things.

Steve: Happened during his his

Ryan: His presidency. Presidency. And now, a year later, we are seeing the repercussions of that. Yeah. Okay?

And so there's no inventory. There's no, you know, there's so much money in the world that they're bidding up these houses. Mhmm. Okay? I'll tell you, all my rich friends are buying houses and selling houses like hotcakes Mhmm.

And they're living large. I'm building a house on a mountain. K? And it ain't because I'm just like this great real estate investor. It's because of these circumstances.

Right. I'm making more money than I've ever had, because our flips just sell for $30.40 grand more than I thought.

Steve: Because of the policies.

Ryan: Because of the policies. But my point was, okay, you can still blame Trump for what we see today, but what Biden is proposing is going to amplify it. No.

Steve: No. It's gonna make it worse.

Ryan: It's going to make it worse, and there's no doubt about it. You cannot debate. There's just not even debate. I don't even care what anyone says.

Steve: Yeah.

Ryan: Because what's you know, the moment you start trying to force higher capital gains, you try to force no ten thirty ones. Well, guess what people do? They don't sell. And so guess what happens when people don't sell? There's no inventory.

Yeah. Guess what happens? There's no inventory. Prices keep going up.

Steve: And first time homebuyers get screwed.

Ryan: Ever and they get screwed. Yeah. It's it is what it is. And, there's not really much to do about it. The only way you could stop it is, you know, let free market play out the way free market is supposed to play out.

You know, rates are so low. They're they're gonna keep pressing things and stimulus. And it just is what it is, man. And, I'm happy to talk about and share it and just, I just I just spit facts, dude. Yeah.

That's it.

Steve: So last thing is, what are you excited about right now?

Ryan: I would say I'm most excited about, you know, the launch of, Lunar Ecom and Paneta Capital because I've been working on those for the last bunch of months. And, anytime you launch new new businesses and stuff, it's great. So I'm super excited about those. But, you know, I'm also really excited about taking social media to an even bigger level. How can it get even bigger?

Trust me. There's a lot of things. So, you know, this it's officially like a year today since I was like, hey. I'm doing this. Okay.

It's been a year. So with any business, right, once you're a year in, you have a lot of data to tell you, hey. This worked. This didn't. Here's how we should adjust.

Whatever. Right? So for the last year, I've been essentially winging it testing, and it's done well. Mhmm. But now I know how to optimize.

And so I was I was alluding to it before. You know, we build out the social media team in a new way. I am now when I first started, I was spending $3 a month on editors and stuff. I've raised the budget to $40 a month. Yeah.

So there's definitely ways to take it to the next level. Yeah. And, you know, I have enough videos now and knowledge to say, hey, this is what people wanna see.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: And, I'll just say, you're gonna see totally different content now.

Steve: Yeah. Be exciting to see. Yeah. So if someone wants to get a hold of you or find you, what's the best way? Your cell phone?

I'm just kidding. Of course.

Ryan: You know, we talked about a lot of different businesses today. So, you know, I'm not gonna list them all. Go to this, this, this. Yeah. Easiest way to do it is just go to ryanpineda.com.

From there, you could see all my socials. You could see all my businesses. You can contact me directly. If you want, you know, to to work with one of my businesses, you can just email, for anything, what's the best email? Do I want all these?

Yeah. You could just email me. So email ryan@ryanpineda.com. And, you know, whether it's e com, whether it's you wanna go into our fund or education, whatever, I can point you in the right direction.

Steve: Awesome. Alright, guys. Again, if you guys got value today, please like, subscribe, share, comment. It helps us, helps the algorithms. We can help more people.

Thank you. This is fun as always.

Ryan: As always, man.