Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Ryan Zofay - Entrepreneur & Speaker | From Homeless to $100M Dollar Business
Transcript
- 0:00So 95% of what we do is unconscious, the poison of the known is better than the poison of the unknown.
- 0:06Society wants us to be run of the mill. Sit down and have a moment and ask yourself,
- 0:10are you really living the life that you designed? Babe, just be happy with what you have.
- 0:16That right there kills somebody's dream. Everything that's blocking you today from where you
- 0:21want to be in your life has everything to do with situations that you went through as a child.
- 0:25You're going to continue to live based on those limitations.
- 0:28If I want to make my company more valuable, I need to make my people more valuable.
- 0:31Perfectionism is the thief of execution.
- 0:34What I learned through this journey is your level of decision making has everything to do
- 0:41with your belief systems. I'm going to make decisions based on that belief.
- 0:44People that believe in themselves make decisions and take action towards their future self.
- 0:52Welcome to success story on your host, Scott Clary. The success story podcast is part of the
- 0:57HubSpot podcast network. Very exciting news. HubSpots inbound converts is back, which means you got
- 1:03to clear your schedules, mark your calendars, get the sitter, three jam pack days from September 18th
- 1:09through the 20th live and Boston. You're going to hear inspirational narratives,
- 1:13candid interviews on the highs and lows of incredibly notable figures, business owners,
- 1:19politicians. You're going to learn from successful entrepreneurs like Ryan Reynolds and Serena Williams
- 1:24on how they reinvented themselves and their businesses to achieve massive success. They're going to
- 1:29gain valuable insights from industry leaders, visionaries on effective strategies for personal
- 1:34and professional growth. And there's so much more. And on top of all that, I'm speaking again,
- 1:38this is my third inbound. So I'll be doing a segment. So if you want to hear from Ryan Reynolds,
- 1:43Serena Williams or you want to hear from me, go to inbound.com, go see the lineup and grab your
- 1:50tickets today. I'll see you in Boston. All right, Ryan, thank you for coming on. I appreciate
- 2:03you a lot. I'm excited for this. There's a lot that we're going to go into. There's a lot of,
- 2:09I guess, negative when you were growing up that we're going to talk about what I want to actually
- 2:13kick it off like this. When you think about your childhood growing up, tell me about a positive,
- 2:20or even a positive memory or a happy memory or something that happened that was like a net positive
- 2:25in your life. Yeah, so one of the first memories that come to my mind was my fourth, it was my
- 2:35my birth is December 19, so typically Christmas and my birth there celebrated within like within a
- 2:40week. So my parents actually did not do two for one on that. Like I actually got both gifts. Yeah,
- 2:47so they didn't they didn't hustle me on that. And so it was my fourth Christmas. And I remember
- 2:52that I wanted the Batmobile and my sister got the Barbie car. And I just remember that I was so
- 2:59excited as a kid just like racing my sister. And I remember this one moment where I got sad because
- 3:04the Barbie car was faster than the Batmobile. I'm like, I have his belief that like the Batmobile is
- 3:09the fastest car. And then I like, this is not true. This is not true. I just remember that that was
- 3:13that was my one of my first memories as a as a child growing up. That was exciting. You know,
- 3:18when you when you think back, I mean, I want you to just at least talk about, you know, we can start.
- 3:26I think the the first thing that happened that was difficult was when you were five years old. Yeah,
- 3:30and you're your sister passed. This is like a string of unfortunate events that happened over
- 3:38your life. Yeah. Do you feel like you are grateful or hateful for the experiences that you had as a
- 3:50child? Interesting. So before I did a lot of the trauma work and the introspection and the
- 3:59healing, I would I had a lot of hate and I had a lot of anger and a lot of resentments because
- 4:05you know, and this is crazy to say like I would unconsciously blame my sister for why I didn't
- 4:14get the love that I thought I deserved for my parents. And I didn't know this. This was like an
- 4:19unconscious pattern and unconscious behavior and doing work, you know, reliving those experiences
- 4:27and healing that stuff. I was able to see that that I was holding on to resentments and it's
- 4:33kind of crazy to say because it's like my sister didn't do anything intentionally to cause this.
- 4:40But in my mind as a little boy, my sister got all the attention because she was sick all the time.
- 4:47And so I just felt like I was always put on the back burner. I was always like second. I never
- 4:52really got the attention that I felt like I deserved. And then when she died, that just continued.
- 4:58It was like, what about me? You know, like I lost a sister too. Like I am your son as well. Why aren't
- 5:05you giving me the attention that I deserve? And then shortly after that, my mom divorced my
- 5:10dad. So like my entire environment was like, nobody loves me. Everybody hates me. I'm worthless.
- 5:18And if they cared about me, they would treat me differently. And so that was like my experience
- 5:25as a child growing up. That was my story. That was my perception of that. And you feel like it was
- 5:31that story real. Like when you when you look back, behind sites, always 2020, when you look back,
- 5:37you believe that that caused a massive shift. And obviously your parents divorced. Was it because of
- 5:43the sister? I believe so. My mom was very resentful to my father because my father was incapable of
- 5:50like supporting her emotionally. And my sister, the day my sister passed, she threw a phone at my
- 6:00mom. It was yelling at my mom saying, I want my daddy. I want my daddy. And my mom was just so
- 6:05angry and resentful at my dad because he wasn't there. And my dad thought, you know, the way to
- 6:12handle this was like just a work. My dad was a workaholic. And so he just hid himself
- 6:18and just staying busy. And so when my sister passed, my mom was just so broken. And she hated
- 6:27my dad because of it. And so she left them. So obviously that like really, they really shifted
- 6:34the family dynamic. Speak to me about just the relationship you have with your mom, the
- 6:41relationship you had with your dad, because I know there's some stories from both. And sort of that
- 6:47how that formed your first early years and sort of the path that it led you down. Because this
- 6:54is tough, but I think that the story that you had is not just a normal divorce, right? This is not
- 6:59just normal divorce. It's not just, you know, we see, you know, we we we choose one family or one
- 7:05one parent on this Christmas, one parent on the other Christmas, like a lot of really dark shit
- 7:10happened. Yeah. Yes. So my mom remarried. And the man she remarried was very abusive.
- 7:19And so I remembered it was my ninth, I was nine years old. I remember I came home from school
- 7:27and I walked into the house and my father was drinking alcohol at the time. And he looks at
- 7:32step step that stepfather. Well, my real father. Oh, real father. Yeah. So I walked into my home
- 7:36and my father was like, your mother was just shot by your stepfather. And I was just like, what?
- 7:44And my dad was drunk. So I didn't have the relationship with him where I felt like I could like
- 7:51like talk to him or even like have a level of of like safety where I can like cry in his arms.
- 8:00I literally went to my bedroom and I remember just kicking the wall, stomping the wall and like
- 8:05making holes everywhere. And it was the first time that I considered like suicide. I was like,
- 8:09this is just like I was the pain was just so severe. You know, the only thing I had in my
- 8:15mind was like my mom left. My dad's an alcoholic. My dad abuses me. My mom just got shot by Kevin.
- 8:22And like in my mind, like my mom chose Kevin over me, you know, and it was just this this deep
- 8:29desire of like not feeling loved or not feeling appreciated. And so that was like my first like
- 8:35real traumatic experience with with my mom leaving my dad and and and having that that experience.
- 8:44When you think about how that impacts you, so this like when did you start to become
- 8:50impacted the point where not just suicidal, but you got involved with like how do you describe
- 8:55like just like reckless ass behavior? Like you're obviously sell and I'm actually super curious if
- 9:01you feel like drugs substance abuse. Was that like to numb pain? Was that because you realize
- 9:09that if you're sober, you did want to commit suicide. You just like you're looking at your life
- 9:15at a young age and you're like abusive stepdad, dead mother, dad who also is not in a good spot.
- 9:24But you think I don't even understand how you were living through this and
- 9:34candidly came out on the other side. Like it doesn't even compute to me because you have to understand
- 9:38like I didn't come from a heart upbringing. So it's really hard for me to even like ask
- 9:43the right questions because it's such a fucking traumatic thing that a kid should never have
- 9:48to go through. Yeah. It's like how do you how do you coming from that not kill yourself? How do
- 9:55you come from that end up in a good space? Yeah. It's wild. It's absolutely wild. Yeah it's heavy
- 10:01stuff dude and you know I only know that that God was guiding me through that you know and I
- 10:11believe that my sister was my guardian angel through all this. My mom survived that that that
- 10:18situation by the way. She I guess the gun was like like point blank in the fact that it was so
- 10:24close that it didn't have a chance to like expand and blow out the back of her neck so she survived.
- 10:31Yeah but watch this she gets back with him and he then stabs her 13 times.
- 10:38And so that was that was just a horrific experience for me and you ask like how I made it I don't
- 10:45even know how I made it to be honest with you like it was it was something above me you know like I
- 10:50was on a destructive path I was just just I didn't care I was wild I I was hanging out with
- 10:58older kids that were just just relentless ruthless kids and I fit right in you know like it's crazy
- 11:07this sounds is like I didn't have the safety or the love that my parents were capable of giving
- 11:14me so I found that somewhere else and so what I know today like the human mind is always looking
- 11:20to put you in position is to protect you like that is that is the design of of a human mind and so
- 11:25my protection mechanism was hanging out with kids on the streets because there was some sort of
- 11:32community there was some sort of like support and all of that and then yeah using the drugs
- 11:39allowed me to numb I I didn't have to feel those feelings and so I started using at a young age
- 11:4611 and by the time I stopped I was 16 so those five years of use it was you know I ended up
- 11:55getting like 21 felonies I was in year 11 you don't even have money dude it's crazy like I'll
- 12:01look at kids today that are 11 and I'm like I was robbing houses at that age like it was crazy I was
- 12:07stealing cars at that age like I it's hard for me to even comprehend dude it's hard for me to even
- 12:12like look back and like believe that's like what I went through like even sitting here right now like
- 12:17there's this there's just like this emotional like cloud over me right now like it just got real
- 12:23deep for me because I'm like in it and I'm just like holy shit man like how did I make it out like
- 12:28I don't it's like it's it's truly a miracle because I don't think that I mean I speak to a lot
- 12:35of people that had tough stories right and some people that went through some shit but it's like no
- 12:39one's doing this at 11 right people are doing this one they're like 17 18 19 20 to 25 getting
- 12:48in the drug not 11 like you're your your brain is not even fully formed when you're 11 years old
- 12:55so you go down this path for until you're 16 yeah um so funny because I love the concept of
- 13:06rock bottom because rock bottom can be a catalyst for people sure but you hit rock bottom like
- 13:11repeatedly it was like once it was like many times so some some heads are harder than others I
- 13:20yes so 16 tell me what happened with 60 when you were 16 years old um this is the accident that
- 13:31you got into yeah so it's interesting dude so it's like it's like a Friday and I went to my best
- 13:36best friend Jonathan's house and they were big advocates of like introducing Christ and
- 13:42introducing like youth through the crew that you were running with this is a even when you
- 13:46were doing drugs or no so this he he was like the good guys uh like I had like good friends that
- 13:52like cared about me love the love me and so I remember going to his house on Friday and and he
- 13:56was like begging me to stop and he was like please Ryan please because he already knew I was in
- 14:00an out of juby and I was looking at 25 the life I had like a secondary felony hanging over my head
- 14:06and he was like crying and him and his his parents were like begging me and and I was just so addicted
- 14:12that nothing was gonna stop me and I literally remember walking down the street and he was like
- 14:17Ryan you'd be lucky to see to to make it past 16 and I remember I was like dude I don't even care
- 14:24like if this is my fate this is my fate and so that was Friday Monday morning I partied all weekend
- 14:31I was on like a robbing spree I robbed a bunch of cars to supply my drug use and it was Monday morning
- 14:38I was driving in the front seat of my best friends car at the time and I just remember like the
- 14:42drugs one working I had like a handful of Xanax and I was like dude I think I'm gonna come into this
- 14:46stuff and we just started popping them like tic-tacs and shortly after that I don't really recall
- 14:52what happened I woke up weeks later in the juvenile detention facility and I found out that I was
- 14:58in high speed chase we flipped the car and I was proclaimed dead at the scene and I was trauma hawk
- 15:03to delirium medical center and so I found all that out after being in juvie and my dad told me this
- 15:10and then my dad told me you're not my son my son would never do something like this pretty much
- 15:14I disown you and he hung up on me and so that's where I was at at 16 years old and I think a part of
- 15:20it was he was scared that he was gonna lose me because he knew that if I kept getting in trouble
- 15:27I was gonna spend the rest of my life in prison so I think that was his way of like like closing the
- 15:32door for himself because he was devastated that I was doing that stuff um do you look back and blame
- 15:40him no I don't man my dad was so incredible dude like although his approach may not have been
- 15:49ideal and it may not have fit the standards of society today in terms of his approach and yet
- 15:57although it was very painful but that man helped me become who I am today and the as many lives
- 16:06as I'm impacting and my dedication and my grit comes from him and so I'm so grateful for him
- 16:13today and no I don't blame him for what he was doing at that time when you think back do you think
- 16:20that like all the all the shit that was happening in your family like how did that impact how you
- 16:29thought your life was going to unfold yeah man it's interesting like today I know you know the
- 16:38the developmental part of of a child's brain is between age of two and seven and that's when like
- 16:43the majority of your your belief systems and the model of your world is created and so I was
- 16:49I was just a monster dude like in my mind like I was a wrecking machine I was angry I was resentful
- 16:57and nothing was gonna stop me I did whatever I want whenever I wanted with whoever I wanted to
- 17:02do with and you can't tell me anything otherwise like I didn't listen anybody I didn't care like
- 17:08there was nothing you could tell me and a lot of that stuff still lives with me today but I was
- 17:15I'm now able to turn it for good now I'm able to use it to like give impact and and create businesses
- 17:22and and and lead people and influence people but it was it was it was a lot of work bro to work
- 17:29through that stuff because even when you so you wake up after this like Xanax binge and then
- 17:35you're basically like you don't even remember what happened is that the moment when you're like
- 17:42I'm changing my life I mean a lot of addiction and generational trauma leads to a certain leads you
- 17:49to that point sure I don't know what you're what happened with your parents parents or anything
- 17:55that was passed down but was there a point when you were like and was that it like this is no
- 18:00longer gonna be my you know my lineage is no longer gonna be my life I'm gonna change it
- 18:06because it's not just like you slightly got better you like did like a 180 yeah you're like
- 18:12I'm gonna build a business around the people that actually helped me at my worst point I'm gonna
- 18:18start giving back so there's a there's a massive mindset shift at some point yeah was that it or
- 18:23was it later so two major things happened to me at that time October 8th was the accident 2001 so
- 18:33in the month of October to the most impactful things happened to me in my life at that time the
- 18:39first most impactful thing was the consequence that I was faced with because at this point there was
- 18:48nothing I could do there was nothing I could do literally I was like powerless and that was the
- 18:52best and I could have happened to me because that was the moment when I had no choice but the surrender
- 18:59I had to surrender because there was nothing I could do to get out of this and so that was when I
- 19:04started to develop my relationship with God because literally all I could do was pray to God like
- 19:09please give me out of this one like and at this point there was what he's facing like like criminal
- 19:14charges 25 to life is won't he five to life yeah okay and so I already spent two years in Juve I
- 19:18had a second degree felony had multiple burglaries multiple grand thefts and the judge said if you're
- 19:23coming back you're done and I was prison mates with people that had way less charges than me
- 19:30that went up the road for 10 15 20 years so I thought I was done I was like this is it so that was
- 19:36the first most impactful thing that could happen to me because it was a moment of like true surrender
- 19:41the second thing was my mom got sober my mom got sober she survived all that still alive
- 19:48she's still alive like I bless her bro because she's I don't know man she's she's freaking
- 19:52incredible bro and my mom's gorgeous bro and so I'm in Juve I haven't talked to my mom in years
- 20:00she comes barreling through the detention center gorgeous and they say they say something in
- 20:06in recovery in AA it's attraction not promotion and I was just like what because this was like
- 20:12my street partner like she taught me the street she taught me how to be a criminal she taught me
- 20:16how to steal how to lie how to manipulate how to angle like she taught me that and so when she
- 20:21came through that juvenile detention facility door I was like who is this she's no longer with Kevin
- 20:27she passed now yeah at this point no she's no longer with Kevin she left Kevin after he stabbed her
- 20:3213 times then she finally decided to move on thank God yeah well he did 18 months in prison so I
- 20:37think that helped yeah and then she got sober because I think this was probably like right around
- 20:42when I was like 13 14 so she got sober like a year-ish before my 16th birthday so she had like a
- 20:49year plus at this time of sobriety and so when she came in it was it was like everything
- 20:57that I've been looking for my entire life is just one of my mom to love me and she came barreling in
- 21:04and she was going to do whatever it took to make sure I didn't spend the rest of my life in prison
- 21:09okay so this is this is this is like the true rock bottom but you also have your mother coming into
- 21:16it now what is like the first step that you took to whatever pack because I mean like this is not
- 21:24the end of the story by the way like you still have a lot of other not so great shit that happened
- 21:29yeah but the good times going yeah so like I don't want to I don't want to pretend this is like okay
- 21:38so like the next day you started a business at the hundred million dollars he's speaking on stage
- 21:41he's helping people this is not this is not at 17 right now so what was the first thing that you
- 21:48tried to do because I mean like so when you started working I'm talking about like some of the
- 21:53trouble you got into with the FTC and yeah was that like the the job the work I'm going to
- 21:58start making money I'm going to be like on this right narrow so it was a little after that so
- 22:02it's like there was definitely like some some glory days after my mom coming in you know
- 22:08have the Superman cape on she got me through it the judge gave me one more chance she fought like
- 22:14tooth she fought tooth and nail my probation officer I had some I had some allies um everyone needs
- 22:21yeah and and my mom remarried a gentleman at this time that was actually in this space in the
- 22:28substance abuse and mental health space that I'm in now and he was very reputable and he was very
- 22:33familiar with going to court and getting people into like drug programs and getting people support
- 22:39so he was also an advocate and and getting me sober and so they they I went to court to
- 22:45carp for three months so I got out and now it was just like like all the things I didn't get as
- 22:50a kid I now I'm getting like I'm the center of attention my mom's like proud of me my dad's proud
- 22:56of me Joe's like loves me like I'm now like I have this incredible reputation because like all the
- 23:03kids that grew up with they only knew like the crazy shit that I did and they they it was in news
- 23:08like all the shit that I did was like all over the news and so like I was like very popular now
- 23:12and so like I went from like a nobody to like a somebody and and I'm sober and so like I knew
- 23:19like sobriety meant everybody's gonna love me I knew like sobriety meant like everybody's gonna
- 23:26praise me and so like I was like I'm never gonna get high again like this is incredible yeah
- 23:30and that's exactly what happened for five years and I was like the poster child of recovery
- 23:35down here in South Florida and then my mom relapsed my dad was diagnosed with cancer
- 23:44and so like my whole world came crashing down my whole childhood so wild how like even even even
- 23:51when you're like killing it and life's going good yeah it's like yeah the importance of parents
- 24:00so true bro that's absolutely wild that even though like everything was going good I mean
- 24:08two major life events and all of a sudden right back to the bottom I really hated myself hated
- 24:14everybody else I didn't want to talk to nobody because my my family unit was gone you know my mom
- 24:20and Joe divorced because my mom got high my mom Joe and my dad they owned a business together
- 24:26in recovery helping people get sober that all split and blew up and so now my dad and Joe hate
- 24:32each other they're fighting um and now I'm like gonna lose both my parents again and so I was like
- 24:39F this like I got to figure this out on my own you know this these beliefs of like no one no one's
- 24:45gonna protect me no one's gonna be here for me and then I was introduced to a gentleman by the name
- 24:50of Matt Meyer who introduced me to commodities and once I realized that I can be a millionaire
- 24:55you know selling commodities I was like this is my new drug this is this is my path out this is my
- 25:01this is my this is what's going to fix all my problems was money and that was my new drug
- 25:08um how do you even become good at this coming from no background and finance no background and sales
- 25:16no so I went to I went to his office it was a Friday it was actually December 17th 2007
- 25:22remember like I was yesterday he showed me a 72 you think he was praying on you because he knew
- 25:26that you could be manipulated probably yeah because they guided me down a path that was very like
- 25:33yeah it was it was not yeah I do believe that but that was that was the environment that they were
- 25:39in like they didn't know any better like they they were looking for guys like me that were in
- 25:44recovery that had like an obsessive obsessive compulsive type personality that wanted to be rich
- 25:52and so I was the perfect avatar for what they were looking for and I remember walking in and he
- 25:58showed me a 72 thousand dollar check and he's like I made this in a month and I was like that's
- 26:01what I'm making in a year like are you fucking kidding me and I was like what do I gotta do that he
- 26:06said all you have to do is work harder than everybody else that was that was easy because that's
- 26:10what my dad taught me I was like what yeah first here last to leave dial more than everybody else and
- 26:14I'll be a minor that's easy I was like give me the keys to the office give me the script and just
- 26:19leave me alone seven months with grinding you know I wasn't making a ton of money I was probably like
- 26:252000 to 3000 bucks a month barely getting by I literally like sold all my stuff like sold my truck
- 26:31moved into my grandparents house and so this was October 2008 right around the market was crashing
- 26:39and I remember walking into his office and I was like I'm struggling bro like I don't think
- 26:45this is for me and he looks at me and he's like you know Ryan this isn't for everybody he's like not
- 26:53everybody makes it and at the time that was what I needed to hear because I'm very competitive
- 27:01in this not really challenge accepted yeah so like people tell me you can't do it okay I'll show
- 27:06you yeah and so then I but here's get here's the part here's the best part I go home my grandfather
- 27:12went to university of florida masters degree very reputable professional like education was his
- 27:21path and like all his kids went to school and I sat down I was like I was like looking for support
- 27:25looking for some guidance and he literally looks at me and it's like Ryan it makes sense that you're
- 27:31not good at this you didn't go to school and so now I have the belief of like I need education
- 27:37and I was like all right well fuck you I was like you don't think I could do it all right cool so I
- 27:40came in the office on Monday and I didn't even say nothing to Matt I just started dialing and I
- 27:45literally was I'd never worked this hard before my life and I grinded all week was Friday like six
- 27:51o'clock Matt is in the restroom he's like dude Ryan like I have to close the office I'm like I'm not
- 27:56leaving until I close a deal I was like I was relentless I usually average like 300 dials a day I was
- 28:02probably doing like 500 dials a day so while I'm out I was just like in I was relentless bro I was
- 28:07like I got to get this guy to say yes and then finally the last call I made Matt was in the bathroom
- 28:13he's like when I'm done using the bathroom I'm closing the office the guy asked a blind question he
- 28:18was I was pitching like I think it was October so I was pitching heating oil you know because the
- 28:24demand of heating oil goes up in the winter because more people use it so it just common sense
- 28:29and the guy's like what about corn or what about wheat and I was just like I got a bottle
- 28:34I was freaking out I was like hold for training class I transferred it to Matt Matt wrapped it up
- 28:39but that was the first yes that I got and it was over from there bro that was my first yes
- 28:45and once I felt and understood what it took to get it yes it was done because I had the work
- 28:52ethic down I had the I was just I was I was a grinder bro like I work I work I work I work I work
- 28:58I work I work I work I work anybody that was my mindset but then once I heard the yes I was like I
- 29:02got addictive then it was then it was easy the next year I made a million bucks year after it was
- 29:08history but a lot of people that go into sales do not get sued by the FTC and a lot of people that
- 29:13go into sales can make a lot of money too so is this like just like paint the picture for people is
- 29:18this like like like like wolf a wall street kind of like pink sheets because you're talking
- 29:23about commodities you're not even talking about super volatile like small market cap no name companies
- 29:31yeah I was on a New York market talk exchange to talk about trades so I was like a license commodity
- 29:36broker and the regular the regular the regular the regulators were tightening up their their
- 29:44supervision on our industry because we were trading options and so I knew at this time like worst
- 29:49case scenario I get I lose my license I guess suspended so I didn't care I was just a gunslinger
- 29:54because that's what they taught me because everyone was probably everybody was gunslinger in my in my
- 29:58firm we didn't care about anything we just wanted people to buy options and 90 something percent
- 30:04of options expire worthless so at some point somebody's going to lose and I didn't care because I
- 30:10was triggering people's greed and I was speaking to that part of them they were responsible for what
- 30:16they're doing it was literally like I'm at a casino yeah and I'm like standing there promoting like
- 30:20complete 21 you might win yeah you know and so that was essentially what happened I got suspended
- 30:25from the NFA but then I kept going with leverage metals and so this was an unregulated market we
- 30:32would buy physical bullion and we would do a leverage contract and so it'd be like a financing
- 30:37agreement so you'd give me a hundred grand I would use your hundred grand and buy 250 thousand
- 30:42dollars worth of of silver there was an interest payment and there was a finance agreement but it
- 30:47was a leverage agreement so it was the same pitch and then I would charge commission on the total
- 30:53leverage value so I ended up getting a significant commission for this and then Obama came into office
- 30:59the Dodd-Frank law passed now the FTC is supervising this market this industry they came in they
- 31:06sued me for 10 million and yeah that's exactly what happened so you've never been sued up to
- 31:13that point never okay so being sued by the FTC for 10 million is stressful as hell for anybody
- 31:19so okay so even just like walk through what you experienced with that did they win though I don't
- 31:23know the outcome of this no so soon or no yeah so they came in they freaking dropped the box on my
- 31:29receptive they physically walk into the office they had a sort of process server again so
- 31:36four months before this happened I got a phone call from an old employee that said the FTC
- 31:42just called me asking me questions so I got the regulators phone number and I called the guy was
- 31:47like hey yeah I think his name was Gideon Simicent Simicent or something like that I don't know
- 31:53and I remember I called him I was like hey this is Ryan Zofi the owner of sterling precious metals
- 31:58well I might understand that you were contacting ex employees asking questions and he was like oh
- 32:02no and you know just just you know whatever he said and he was like and I was like there's
- 32:06anything you need for me you know feel free to call I'm here to help whatever I can do
- 32:11because at this point like I like in my mind I'm watered up like I have compliance department I'm
- 32:17like according all conversations like everything I did from from a compliance perspective was legit
- 32:24like they sued me four months later after that phone call and I ended up beating the preliminary
- 32:30injunction so the preliminary injunction was the first part if the FTC won the preliminary injunction
- 32:36they freeze all my assets and I have nothing they take everything well that was the first piece
- 32:42that needed to happen so we went to court on Monday we fought the case I presented all my evidence
- 32:49it was very obvious that what the FTC was saying was not accurate but it took like 30 days before
- 32:56the judge concluded his final decision and this is interesting dude like
- 33:02this was like a huge turning point for me in my life but I'm also wondering why they even went
- 33:06after you in the first place like so somebody called them and made a complaint well so interesting
- 33:10here you go I forgot about this so they increased margin requirements in gold and silver
- 33:15because remember gold and silver running through the roof yeah so the they increased margin
- 33:19requirements and naturally the market's gonna die for us yeah so the market tanked overnight and
- 33:24all my positions got smoked because it's on leverage contracts so like the market created an
- 33:30environment where it dropped significantly all the people that were in the market lost money
- 33:37at the end of the day the evidence that they were stating was like you charged x dollars in
- 33:43commission they have nothing left that's a problem but they weren't considering the market dropping
- 33:49then we're considering any of that stuff you were above board it was just yeah above board but
- 33:54morally and ethically yeah I knew it wasn't right I was wondering because I'm thinking about like the
- 33:58fact that you go into this world and you even spoke about um you know like when you
- 34:05sort of came out of that Xanax binge you were like the only reason why I'm here is God
- 34:09and the only reason why like and then you start to realize that there's like a purpose beyond
- 34:13yourself yeah but it's interesting the second you start making money off of trading
- 34:18it's like it's a very selfish way to make money because you know that there's gonna be a lot of
- 34:22losers in it yeah it's it's it's it's just a tough it's a business but it's a tough business so
- 34:30it's sad I don't want to put words in your mouth it sounds like you like glossed yourself for a minute
- 34:34yeah and you're like focused on making money and money solves all problems yeah and like families
- 34:40not family sort of falling apart again this little cohesive unit that I had for a couple years
- 34:44fell apart again so like I mean money but then money becomes addictive yeah and then you don't
- 34:50stop it's not like you just made a salary and then got back on the right track it's like let me see
- 34:55how far I can push this yeah because you're like that kind of per your very competitive person like
- 34:58I get it like I totally get it it's it's a good personality for an entrepreneur and it's sometimes
- 35:03a bad person yeah if you're if you're not on the right path so this is like another like wake up
- 35:08call for you yeah I'm assuming I don't know I'm so 10 million dollar lawsuit I go home
- 35:14yeah my fiance leaves me why because the guy I was who I was being the guy that was but she
- 35:22she met you when you were doing so she met me right before I started on commodities so
- 35:28interesting and she felt that you changed enough she well I kept promising that I was gonna stop
- 35:33I kept promising I was like just one it was like I was addicted dude I literally couldn't stop
- 35:37and I literally would come home we'd fight probably every three or four months she'd like Ryan you
- 35:41said when you get to this number you're gonna stop why did you hate it so much because I was she
- 35:45didn't she knew what I was doing was was morally unethically wrong and she knew in my heart that I
- 35:50didn't love it because I would come home at night and cry at times because like people would lose
- 35:54money and it would crush me because like these people are trusting in me these people are literally
- 36:00like believing in what I'm saying you know and although what I'm saying is true the risk
- 36:0790 percent of the people lose and so it was just devastating to me and so the FTC came in they
- 36:15sued me I go home she leaves me the best thing that could have happened to me happened dude it was
- 36:19again another moment where I had no choice but to surrender and so I was so blessed for that because
- 36:26I don't think I could have stopped and so God stepped in for me and here's what's interesting
- 36:31so 30 days after I go to the preliminary injunction I'm on the phone my first sponsor
- 36:37so my sponsor I'm on the phone I I finally divulge everything to him I've been avoiding him I've
- 36:41been ducking him because now I'm not like really working a program because it's hard to like
- 36:45go work an honest program and be spiritual and love God when you're being a scumbag
- 36:52and so I finally like broke down and told him and I was like scared to death Scott and he literally
- 36:57says to me he's like Ryan the second step is all about turning your will in your life over to God
- 37:04he's like are you that's the third step are you ready to give your life to God and I was scared I
- 37:11did I was I was hard I was like really having a hard time making this decision and I was like oh my
- 37:17God like I didn't realize how hard this was and I got to the point where I was like okay I'm willing
- 37:23I'm willing to let this old life go I kid you not Scott as soon as I hope to phone with him
- 37:28my lawyer emails me and says Ryan you won the preliminary injunction and so as soon as I gave
- 37:34it to God God's like here you go and I was like holy shit I was like this is crazy that was like
- 37:40that was like 90% of the case now my lawyers are like all right we're good now we can go to the
- 37:44table and just settle this and just move on because I didn't want to be in the industry no more
- 37:48if I wanted to be in the industry I could have been I didn't want to be and so we went to the
- 37:52mat we did a suspended judgment I paid my fine and now I have like reporting requirements that
- 37:58I have to do now but you're not barred from the industry no I mean I can't sell precious metals
- 38:03anymore I could get back in the NFF I wanted to I could get my my series seven if I wanted to but
- 38:09I don't have any interest to do that um okay so I'm so okay what does God mean to you
- 38:14yeah it's interesting dude like it's changed throughout my life um you know like I started going
- 38:24to Christian church for the last five years and I started being introduced to Jesus Christ as my
- 38:29Savior and I I believe you know Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and I believe a lot
- 38:35of what they say but I also have a hard time believing that you're gonna go to hell if you don't
- 38:41believe in Jesus because there's 8 billion people on earth only 2.4 billion people know about
- 38:48Christianity so you're telling me that that's true I didn't know that yeah I did this research
- 38:53because I'm like this is crazy like I just have a hard time believing that like God is gonna say
- 38:58like you're going to hell if you don't believe that Jesus is the path to me so I it was it's I'm
- 39:04like dude like I'm always like facts check like this yeah it's it's an innate part of me so I was
- 39:08like let me do some math and some research I'm like dude there's 8 billion people in the world
- 39:12only 2.4 billion people know about Jesus Christ so you're telling me the other 5.6 people 5.6
- 39:20billion people are gonna go to hell because they just never knew about Christianity so I don't
- 39:24know what that means but I think that there's I think God's a very good thing I think that believing
- 39:29in something beyond yourself is good and I think that Godlessness is not a good thing I think a lot
- 39:34of society is godless right now which I think is why or there's a whole bunch of issues but there's
- 39:38always issues it doesn't matter but I believe that even like some parts of like organized religion
- 39:43that some of it's fear based too you gotta think about where a lot of like religion like originally
- 39:47came from and the people that like sort of expanded and it's like some of the messaging I think is
- 39:52a lot of fear based so that's not good but I think that like believing in God believing in something
- 39:56beyond yourself I think is very important for sure because if not then who are you accountable to
- 40:02and you just do whatever the fuck you want and if you're not in jail then who cares right that's
- 40:06also not a good way to live your life why I've been I've been I've been down both paths unfortunately
- 40:12unfortunately I guess no I mean like you everything is that everything is a learning experience right
- 40:17yeah everything's a learning experience like so when you look at what you've built now
- 40:22it like it's not like it's not like a religious calling but I mean part of your belief in God
- 40:31prompted you force you sort of push you towards building something that was really altruistic
- 40:38it was like building something that was bigger than yourself and I think that's actually
- 40:42I need to tell you got to where you are like right now because even a lot of the stuff that you do
- 40:48we talk about this offline like why are you waste we're in your studio right now why are you
- 40:53wasting your money and your time building this right it's like you have a fully functioning business
- 40:59but and not only is your business helping more people than the average business
- 41:03it's not just like selling like products or services like still I want to do more many people
- 41:10that build a hundred million dollar businesses do not learn learn how to teach and speak and and
- 41:16run works like it is not like the average thing that somebody does right so I think that
- 41:21all the stress and all the bullshit that you dealt with actually put you in like made you a
- 41:26pretty damn good person yeah from what I've known so far so so as you sort of progress in your
- 41:33journey no more commodities your sober again I'm assuming I was sober I was sober through the whole
- 41:41time so then the next big thing is we level up right that's the the next sort of yes and of your
- 41:47life so yes so by the FTC fiancee left me and actually before I came on set I actually called
- 41:53one of my really good friends who introduced me to onsite yeah which was the foundation of my
- 41:59inner healing and inner trauma and so I went to onsite in 2012 and I learned about what's
- 42:05onsite it's a it's a it's a it's a first development program like a retreat and they deal with like
- 42:10inner child traumas and and so that was the first time that I was exposed to like early childhood
- 42:19trauma and like I finally understood like why I was doing the things that I was doing so I was
- 42:24the first moment when I had some like acceptance around me being a scumbag because like up into
- 42:31that point like I didn't know I didn't I kept like finding myself like when I was 16 I woke up
- 42:36in jail and I'm like how'd I get here like what the hell is going on yeah and that's how I know
- 42:40God was guiding me I got super the FTC I woke up and was like how did I get here like what the
- 42:46hell is going on like this track why why sometimes dude I didn't want to be that guy I was like how
- 42:51did I become this guy but then I finally realized that I had to take responsibility for myself
- 42:57and I learned that at onsite and I was like holy shit like there's so much trauma around my
- 43:02mom getting shot my mom getting stabbed my dad abusing me using drugs being taken advantage of
- 43:07manipulated all that stuff was like the core of why I was doing the things I was doing and so
- 43:12that was the first introduction to this version of Ryan and I was like well holy crap like I can
- 43:18I can heal people I can teach people I know what they need to do now like I know the answers I was
- 43:24like I gotta let everybody know this and so that's when I started um we level up it was 2013
- 43:30but if I mean you didn't even have experience building out I had no I have to have another
- 43:34question forget me for before we go down that road um somebody listening to this they're like yeah
- 43:39no shit he had a lot of childhood trauma like that's that's very evident but you've done a lot of
- 43:44work with with trauma in general um what do people need to know about childhood trauma even if
- 43:51they didn't experience the type of life that you experienced and and the very obvious trauma like
- 43:56what is actually stuck in our subconscious yeah so 95% of what we do is unconscious and so like
- 44:04what side of the bed do you sleep on right side how long you've been sleeping on the right side of the
- 44:09bed since forever right yeah and so that's an unconscious pattern for example so the human
- 44:14mind is designed to stick to the pattern yeah that keeps you safe and so that's why they say the
- 44:22the the the the poison of the known is better than the poison of the unknown because the human
- 44:27mind is designed to just state stay its course to keep you safe and so between the ages of two and
- 44:33seven our belief systems are created our patterns are created based on our environment and those
- 44:39programs are still running today and so it doesn't matter if you have severe trauma like me or you
- 44:44just had a normal childhood even someone that had a normal childhood still has moments when they
- 44:49didn't feel loved they didn't feel appreciated they didn't feel heard they didn't feel important
- 44:55and so those moments whether there was a severe's mind or not they are still impacting you today
- 45:02which is why I teach what I teach now because it's my responsibility to show people how unconscious
- 45:08they are and once you can become conscious of your unconscious programs you can now take responsibility
- 45:16because most people live in a victim environment because they don't know they literally don't know
- 45:21like the definition of a victim is something that just doesn't know is helpless and so most people
- 45:2698% of people today walking around on earth are in this victim mindset which is why they work a
- 45:32nine to five they do the things that they do because they don't know there's another opportunity
- 45:37and society programs us this way society wants us to be run of the mill society programs us to like
- 45:44go clock in go clock out go home and be happy be grateful for what you have and so that's the
- 45:49victim mentality and so it's my job to show people like hey there's more to life than what you're
- 45:55what you're living how do you so if you're if you're just looking at your own life and you feel like
- 46:02listen I got a good job I don't feel like a victim like what's the what's the the step to sort of like
- 46:07open your eyes so to speak so that you see the other the see the other alternative like it's
- 46:12victim mentality versus I'm assuming it's like choice to take action or whatever it is is there
- 46:18than audit that you get people to do is there some sort of like wake the f up and realize yeah
- 46:24this is not the life that you're put on this earth to live what is it sure so the example that you
- 46:30just gave in terms of this individual that has this good job and they're happy yeah is this good
- 46:34job that they're happy with is it something that they just accepted as their standard or is this
- 46:40truly the dream job that they wanted it are they truly living their dream life I don't even think
- 46:47people know what what their dream is right I don't even think people think about it right people just
- 46:52sort of meander through life and fall in maybe quasi purposefully into next job next promotion
- 46:58whatever but I think dreams have died a long time ago because I think anyone's dream is to be like a
- 47:03CPA for 40 years right like I mean it's a good job right you're comfortable so why do they stay
- 47:09stuck why idea right it's about that so they so they they're like I'm just going to my job and I
- 47:14could support my family and you know I'm somewhat happy with what I got and but all of a sudden
- 47:21they're like but am I really living what I really want to live and so think about it like we get
- 47:26these downloads like like for me like I'm now speaking on some of the biggest stages in the world
- 47:30that was a thought that was a dream five years ago but I didn't stop chasing that dream I didn't
- 47:35stop pursuing that dream I did whatever it took to get to that point and so that's that's the
- 47:40first auditing tool is like sit down and have a moment and ask yourself like are you really
- 47:46living the life that you designed or are you living the life that society deems is what's
- 47:53appropriate or the people around you because sometimes the the the people that we love the most
- 48:00are the ones downloading these thoughts that like oh just be happy like you could be your wife could
- 48:05be your husband like babe just be happy with what you have that right there kill somebody's dream
- 48:11kill somebody cut their legs out from underneath them imagine coming home I'm a husband
- 48:16I come home I'm a CP I've been with CP for 20 years and I sit down my wife and say babe you know
- 48:20like I watch this ad on on TikTok and I I've always dreamt of like speaking on stages
- 48:28do you think I could do that babe babe what stop it babe like you're a CPA you at the school
- 48:32to learn numbers you know numbers like just eat your food and just be happy that guy is dream
- 48:37just got crushed but he wanted it he desired it but he didn't follow through with it because the
- 48:43person he loved the most doesn't even know what they're doing but they're literally cutting your
- 48:47legs out from underneath you after the parents a lot too yeah parents who you know you said like
- 48:53what's what's a normal family I mean normal so subjective but like let's paint a picture of
- 48:57normal families and like very risk averse parents career parents daughter parents and then you
- 49:02want to go build something you want to go it's not like it's not like they this is this is my
- 49:07family to a tea right sure not like they mean bad by telling you that like maybe be careful like
- 49:13yeah no don't take those risks yeah they don't know that world right they don't know that world at
- 49:17all so for them they're not trying to hurt you they're trying to trying to save you yeah but I
- 49:22mean they're trying to save you they're pretty it's so dude and so you asked me about my relationship
- 49:27with my dad I'm so blessed for him dude although like his teaching styles and his way of doing
- 49:33things were not ideal but my dad was the type of guy that was like you're not going to sit on
- 49:38you're not going to sit on the couch yeah you're going to go outside and play go build a tree for it
- 49:42go swim in the lake like so my dad was always like go play go do your thing and so that that
- 49:49created the the part of Ryan that has these these these visions in these dreams and and and could
- 49:57go out there and pursue them because I was like I'd come home like hey dad like I want to build a
- 50:01tree for it my dad would go buy wood and bring he'd literally go buy wood from Home Depot
- 50:06grab me a box of nails grab me hammer and say figured out and I was like all right and then I'd
- 50:10bang wood on the thing and it had so much fun as a kid but dude that was so important for the
- 50:15developmental part of my my childhood although I had other traumas in there but those were
- 50:20those magical moments that has allowed me to create what I create today because it's like when I
- 50:25have a thought like I know that I can go figured out because I did it and I'm doing that my whole
- 50:30life what I just not to complete side track so we'll go back to we level up sugar but um
- 50:38you've mentioned something before about there was a point when you were super curious you're
- 50:42super inquisitive and it seems like that's the kind of kid that your dad wanted but then he shut
- 50:47down that like you were talking to him or asking the questions and he's like you just basically told
- 50:52you to yeah and I'm so curious like looking back why did he do that it was his own trauma that he
- 51:00was going through and he basically shut you up when you were trying to ask questions about something
- 51:04yes I was seven I was in the front seat of his pickup truck my mom just left him and I was like
- 51:10always I was like a very active loving outgoing kid bouncing around just like I just had a lot of fun
- 51:18and I remember I would always ask my dad questions and one day he like I really angry at me
- 51:23because of his own stuff that he was going through with with my mom the divorce and him not feeling
- 51:27good enough and him blaming himself for my sister dying all the things that I'm sure he was
- 51:31telling himself at the time and he's like show your mouth Ryan you ask a lot of damn questions
- 51:36and I was just like but that like scarred me and it literally still to this day I battle with that
- 51:43dude like even getting on this podcast with you like there's a part of me that still has that like
- 51:49that scar that wound that like people don't want to hear what I have to say you know like
- 51:54shut up Ryan like you're nobody like keep it quiet you ask too many questions and so like I have
- 52:00it's a conditioning now like I work through it but yeah do that that that scarred me that that
- 52:06really really scarred me I just want to take a second and thank the HubSpot podcast network
- 52:10for sponsoring the show's success story we've been part of their network for the past three
- 52:14years now if you're a podcast fan you have to check out some of the other incredible podcasts in
- 52:19the HubSpot podcast network like my first million hosted by Sam Parr and Sean Perry they feature famous
- 52:24guests like Alex or Mozie Sophia Emma Russo Hassan Minhaj sharing their secrets on how they made
- 52:30their first million and how to apply their learnings to capitalize on today's business trends and
- 52:35opportunities listen to my first million wherever you get your podcasts like I mean there's a
- 52:40couple lessons there first of all like this childhood trauma like it's like it's it's so deeply
- 52:45ingrained like you were just talking about that it like really messes with you when you're trying to
- 52:50as a functioning adult functioning professional you're trying to go through life because it's
- 52:54always going to be running in the feedback loop in your brain there's a really interesting
- 52:58guy that I actually want to introduce you to that you you guys will get along but his work is
- 53:01actually trying to like remove that like repeating loop of trauma in your brain and he then he has
- 53:07some science behind it but the point is everybody has this so like that one sentence you remember
- 53:13that like whatever like 30 plus years later right that's phenomenal in a bad way then also the
- 53:18other lesson is like we're we're so selfish to think that everything is about us
- 53:28when we're younger even when we're older and we keep thinking that like man this person said
- 53:34this about me I must be a piece of shit I must be worthless I must be my wife said you can't
- 53:40do that so I'm not going to try and do it but we never even stop for a second and it's like
- 53:46there's so many clichés but like you know like the person is going through their own shit
- 53:51and the person has all their own problems in their own life and we don't even consider that
- 53:55when they say a sentence or a word or they lash out at us yet we take that to heart and we don't
- 54:03consider why they're actually saying that we just take it at its face value so your dad is going
- 54:08through divorce your dad is going through a lot of shit with you know his his wife and he lashes out
- 54:15at you in a better circumstance he wouldn't have said that yeah but that you only take it at
- 54:21face value and you're like something wrong with me where there's probably 2000 things wrong with
- 54:25his life at that particular point it's causing him to say that shit well so to that point at 7
- 54:30I was incapable of understanding what was going on yeah and so I'm only going to take it the way
- 54:36it feels at that age and so a part of the healing journey that I do when I take people through
- 54:41processes to heal inner child or heal trauma is I bring them back to that moment allow them to
- 54:47express themselves pick up the pieces and change the meaning that they're giving that situation
- 54:53and so to your point what you just did is actually a part of the healing process is to rewire the
- 54:58story around what one thinks of so my story at one point in my life was my dad doesn't love me
- 55:06he was being mean he was being abusive and he didn't give a shit about me that was a
- 55:12time in my life when that was my story now because I've done the work I have that story where it's like
- 55:18hey he had a lot going on it wasn't personal if my dad had a choice in the matter because my dad
- 55:23wasn't even a choice at the time he was incapable of even doing anything different he would never
- 55:28have wanted to do that and I understand that now and so that's why if you're listening it's so
- 55:33important like everything that's blocking you today from where you want to be in your life has
- 55:39everything to do with situations that you went through as a child and until you go and address it
- 55:44until you go pick up the pieces and make sense of it and rewire the story around it you're going to
- 55:50continue to live based on those limitations you know I would take it even further and say that
- 55:56even as adults we do the exact same thing yeah even as adults we don't consider what the other
- 56:02person is going through right as a child are probably incapable of as adults are probably just naive
- 56:07and selfish um so you build we level up what's the first version of we level up it's really just
- 56:15I'm assuming it's treating somebody who was yourself yeah 10 years ago sure so September 2013
- 56:21my dad partnered with a guy Kevin Sparks who had like a small outpatient program he was
- 56:29struggling with sales and marketing so I had some experience in sales and marketing I felt like
- 56:32anything was possible and I knew a bunch of people in the industry because of my stepdad my new
- 56:37stepdad Joe that one that helped my mom um so I had a bunch of contacts so we jumped into the
- 56:42business and within a very short amount of time I realized that like this is something that we
- 56:47can do and then I realized that the guy Kevin that I was partnered with was the chokehold and the
- 56:53growth of that business so we bought him out and then we just grew the business from there so that
- 56:57was 2013 we've had a couple different iterations of brands so that was like holistic by the sea
- 57:03and then it became a holistic treatment center and then in 2019 we branded it we level up which is
- 57:10what we call today which kind of ties into like everything that we're doing here with like lifestyle
- 57:14brand teaching purse development teaching professional development high level coaching I'm executive
- 57:19coaching teaching people to build a skill or business teach people to brand teach people to speak
- 57:23from stage it all ties into how I've been able to grow we level up to the company that is today
- 57:29and and when you look at because where you at now you have you crossed a hundred million dollars
- 57:35in top line this year we we should cross a hundred million so that's super impressive um
- 57:40great business uh what differentiates you between people have been doing this for so long in the
- 57:46market that have not hit that level sure so I feel the one of the biggest differentiators in any
- 57:52business is culture is marketing and your ability to produce results for patients and so my
- 58:01industry specifically and and you get that pretty much has overlap with many industries um if you
- 58:06look at like the main pillars that that drive a success of a business it's clearly your marketing
- 58:11your sales the product and and then the culture the people and so my x factor is the ability to
- 58:19understand human behavior understand the psychology of the mind and I've been able to teach and coach
- 58:26and motivate my people to believe more in themselves and they can perform at a higher level so you
- 58:34have a guy that comes in that is hungry that has the desire to learn you can coach that person up
- 58:41to become more valuable and so my belief in what I started to do back in August 2018 when I'm at
- 58:47Tony was like okay if I want to make my company more valuable I need to make my people more valuable
- 58:53and so I have now 600 employees think about this if 600 employees are valued on a scale of one to
- 59:00ten out of five then if I can take those 600 employees and make them a seven my company is
- 59:08naturally going to be more valuable and so my approach is make the people more valuable and your
- 59:13company is going to become more valuable rather than looking at the top line of like I need to make
- 59:17more money I look at the people like how can I make this person more valuable how can I make this
- 59:22person create more impact how can I make this person believe more in himself so he can execute
- 59:26better so he can make better decisions he has more confidence in making decisions and then all
- 59:31of a sudden the byproduct is a more valuable company I love that um I think that compared to like
- 59:38a traditional model where you hire somebody to do the job that they're meant to do and you're
- 59:44upskilling them at a certain skill set that can take them to like the next level so you go from
- 59:51entry-level employee to manager to director to VP you're giving somebody like almost like a
- 59:57360 upskill so you're like I'm not just gonna teach you to be a better employee and teach you
- 1:00:03to be a better human better entrepreneur I'm actually curious how this works for your organization
- 1:00:08because I've seen the type of coaching that you give people your employees and just people that
- 1:00:12sort of have come to your events and shit and it's I would be not not worried because I'm on
- 1:00:21the same page as you but somebody listening could be worried like if I if I teach people to get to
- 1:00:27the next level like Ryan is with my employees how do I know they're not going to go off and start
- 1:00:31their own business did their own thing and basically leave because you're giving them literally
- 1:00:34all the skills like you don't really hold anything back yeah when you're teaching so you're
- 1:00:38teaching like this is how you you know this is mindset this is time management this is energy
- 1:00:43levels this is how to close your first clients is how to market use like quite literally an
- 1:00:48employee could start their own business sure in any category forget about competing category any
- 1:00:54category be successful sure there's so much to unpack there and I think where I'll start is
- 1:00:58we attract what we are in life and so if I have an abundant mindset so there's two types of
- 1:01:04mindset there's a lack mindset and abundant mindset if I'm worried about somebody leaving me then I
- 1:01:10am in a lack mindset and so that will be the inevitable outcome so I got to a place because I have
- 1:01:16lost people along the way but what I when I lost those people if I look back at where I was on my
- 1:01:21journey I was worried about losing them and so I realized today that I have to become so valuable
- 1:01:29come from such an abundant mindset if that they leave me then that was what was meant for me
- 1:01:33and now they never leave and so the second piece to this is why I think it's so important to
- 1:01:39scale a business the biggest reason why I think scaling a business is necessary is you need to
- 1:01:45give people a compelling future scaling it this way yeah with not not milking out every drop of
- 1:01:50revenue not so the different ways to scale a business or scaling it this way yeah it's going
- 1:01:55this way with people right like you're building a company based on people and so if I have an
- 1:01:59employee that comes to me that is a rock star he wants a compelling future yeah so I need to find out
- 1:02:04what his compelling future looks like and meet his needs but if I'm meeting his needs and he's
- 1:02:09meeting my needs then we're growing as an organization and so that's when I made the shift and I started
- 1:02:14to identify other people's needs and start meeting those people's needs because if I'm coming from
- 1:02:20an abundant mindset I'm not worried about if you're going to leave me because if you're leaving me
- 1:02:24then cool it was meant for me if you're not leaving me then that's meant for me too but now that I
- 1:02:28have that mindset nobody leaves and now we have some mega-orbitable is incredible yeah and it's so
- 1:02:36funny it's like it's not just I also know that you pay your guys like very well you pay them like
- 1:02:41exceptionally well you're not like um again it's a different mindset for different kind of business
- 1:02:47for a different kind of business leader but I think the way that you run your business is a way
- 1:02:51that all businesses will eventually have to be run yeah like I'm a big but we just passed a law
- 1:02:55about the non-copy did you see that I saw that yeah so it speaks exactly exactly so now if you
- 1:03:01want to go somewhere else like you can go nobody can nobody can come after by the way those
- 1:03:06non-copies are already BS it was just scare tactic but um but what I've what I've always believed is
- 1:03:14I don't I don't I can't at this point in my career do what you do and teach people the way
- 1:03:21you teach people what I what I do try and do is get into a contract with somebody to say if I
- 1:03:26hire somebody I want you to give me say let's agree on two years sure two years and I'm going to
- 1:03:31help you to the best of my ability I'm not going to have the whole mindset uh upskilling that
- 1:03:35Ryan can have but I'll I know a little bit of shit sure I can help you get to where you want to be
- 1:03:40and um and we're going to agree that the whole time you're working with me for two years you're
- 1:03:45not going to be looking for other jobs but at the end of two years I'm going to commit to getting
- 1:03:48to you to where you are I'm not expecting you to stay longer than that yeah so you can make this
- 1:03:52agreement where your business your business goals and objectives are aligned with that person's
- 1:03:57professional goals and objective and it's not it's not like ambiguous anymore it's not like after
- 1:04:03three years this this this quiet quitting stuff where there may be like interviewing for five jobs
- 1:04:09a week while still working in your company it's like you don't want that right you don't want that
- 1:04:13because it hurts the business you're going to be probably a little bit surprised when they leave
- 1:04:18and then you have to staff up or you have to put their work on someone else sure which is also
- 1:04:22not great so like it's just about getting aligned and just being real with how people like to work
- 1:04:26and where they want to go and people don't just want to work in one company for 30 years 100%
- 1:04:30and and I like what you're saying and and I also have a version of that as well it's it's like
- 1:04:34putting everything on the table like yes let's talk about let's be mature adults here
- 1:04:39and but it's the responsibility of the owner or the responsibility of the leader to have those
- 1:04:42conversations and you mention you know you can't do what I do and it's not intended for you to do
- 1:04:50that but that's why I believe partnerships are so valuable right like I look for strategic
- 1:04:55partnerships because there's people that are in my organization that do not what I can't do
- 1:05:02what I don't want to do right like the work that I've had to go through to get here is a lot
- 1:05:06somebody else may have taken the path of like marketing for example like yeah they master
- 1:05:10marketing cool if I wanted to master marketing I could I don't feel like doing it so I'm going to
- 1:05:14get you to do that and that's why strategic partnerships are so important so like look at Tony
- 1:05:19Robbins and Dean Gracio see like Tony Robbins is is is a leader he's a transformational speaker
- 1:05:24he does interventions he can identify pretty much any block and anybody he just want to do with
- 1:05:29marketing so he brings in the best yeah and that's and that's so important for any business is
- 1:05:34I mean that's also how you hire not just with partnerships like that's how you hire right like if
- 1:05:38you're hiring people that he should be always be hiring people that are better at yeah that
- 1:05:42thing than you are else what are you doing right like if you want to hire a CMO a CRO whatever
- 1:05:48I find it fuck I can't do finance right yeah it's like I want somebody I know enough about
- 1:05:53numbers that get me in trouble but Jesus like I'm not sitting here putting pianos together
- 1:05:56no it's a lot you're not finding me doing that when you when you look at when you look at some of
- 1:06:04the people that you work with in the in the addiction space what is one thing about addiction
- 1:06:11that is is just completely incorrect that the outside world who's never dealt with addiction
- 1:06:18uh assumes of somebody who's had substance abuse problems somebody who goes through a program
- 1:06:26somebody who's gone through some of the stuff you move through the shame around being an addict
- 1:06:33is just so strong at times I remember when I first got sober like I hated the fact that I was
- 1:06:39an alcoholic I was so embarrassed I was so ashamed like I wouldn't tell people about it and so one
- 1:06:45of the most overrated parts about addiction is like the people that have this disease are some of
- 1:06:53the most incredible people I've ever met my entire life there's a lot of people that are sober
- 1:06:58today that are in recovery that haven't made it public that are just incredible humans because
- 1:07:04there's like this innate desire there's this innate obsession to want to be better it's like once
- 1:07:10you get sober like the program talks about it's a daily reprieve so like every day when I wake up
- 1:07:17my practice is like hit my knees pray to God ask God to use me today God let me live your will versus
- 1:07:24my will and so that is an intention every single day of my life I wake up with the intention to serve
- 1:07:31God normal people that don't have a 12 step program if you don't have a practice like that you're not
- 1:07:38intentionally trying to be a better person so like the effort to and the attempt every day
- 1:07:44ultimately will put you in a position where you are being a better person and so that is something
- 1:07:50that I feel is just so overlooked because dude the addiction is is cunning and powerful dude and
- 1:07:57and and behaviors are are displayed at times that are just so disheartening but like I look back and
- 1:08:05think about some of the things I didn't do to crushed me and so something that I heard that I
- 1:08:10think is just so powerful and it's it's crazy but you know this this this may be very debatable the
- 1:08:16person I'm about to share with so I was at Tony Robbins House and and Tucker Carlson came in and
- 1:08:21I had an opportunity to share with him and one of the things that he said to stuck out to me the most
- 1:08:26is he said that I would much rather have somebody on my team or in my life that has gone through
- 1:08:33some heavy shit than to somebody that hasn't because I don't want somebody that's going to say
- 1:08:39here and tell me I've had this perfect life because one they're probably full of shit to the person
- 1:08:43that has had some difficulties the person that has adversity and figured out how to get through that
- 1:08:50developed a level of character that I would want in my life and so when I heard that I was like whoa
- 1:08:54that's really cool because if I think about it like look at Tony like he's had so much adversity
- 1:09:00look who he is as a human like look at Nelson Mandela he went to prison for 25 years
- 1:09:05look at Marlita King like these people had adversity they had to overcome something that was
- 1:09:10much bigger than them and look who they were because of it so once I thought about that I was
- 1:09:15like holy crap like now I'm proud to be an I should be I would even take it a step further
- 1:09:20and I don't know if you'll agree with this or not but if somebody who has like an abuse
- 1:09:28problem you call it disease is that yeah so if somebody has this disease of like
- 1:09:34robbing cars to make money to support a habit or there's like always an unhealthy behavior it's
- 1:09:39very rarely like I have a trust fund I never work and all that happens too but I'm gonna have to
- 1:09:43hold other conversation yeah if you are so committed to like getting high and you're so committed
- 1:09:51to like doing this thing I would assume that if you can get through this the mindset of somebody
- 1:09:57that can be so committed to something would actually make an exceptional entrepreneur because
- 1:10:02you replace one by first of all everything's a vice church is a vice drug or vice alcohol's a
- 1:10:07vice women are is a vice gambling everyone has vices whatever I've also heard it referred to
- 1:10:14like Patrick that David said this how everyone has a god right it's not god it's something else
- 1:10:20money yeah it could be work too yeah and I think for a lot of entrepreneurs it is worth a lot of
- 1:10:25entrepreneur and it's it could be good it could be bad it depends how it impacts your life I
- 1:10:31think that all of us need something to feel and feel like if the world took your business away
- 1:10:35tomorrow and your and your and your name and your ability to speak and teach you have unlimited
- 1:10:41money I don't think you'd be happy no you wouldn't I wouldn't be happy either with just unlimited
- 1:10:46money it'd be fun but like trust you get bored very very very good work yeah so I think that
- 1:10:53everyone has a vice and if somebody who puts that much energy towards something could pivot that
- 1:10:59vice to something productive there'd be exceptional because they understand what it is to go all
- 1:11:04in on something right and almost have blinders on and focus on nothing but the thing that they're
- 1:11:09working on and I don't know if that if you see that people that go through your program if you look
- 1:11:14at like their career or like what like truly healed people like are they ruthlessly effective as
- 1:11:20entrepreneurs as people as individuals once they've gone through all this shit kind of like
- 1:11:25with Tucker Carlson said not just adversity like just like myopic laser focus on like an end result
- 1:11:30100% so true bro and like a lot of the friends that I have today that are like super wealthy super
- 1:11:36successful are in recovery interesting so it's true that you said that and so often in life people
- 1:11:41think it's like a knowledge problem and so to your point about people that have vices or that have
- 1:11:47the level of obsession some of that's obsessed with an outcome they don't have an application problem
- 1:11:54see most people in life think it's a knowledge problem like oh I need more information if I have
- 1:11:58more information then I'll know what to do no no it's an application problem like you need to start
- 1:12:02applying what you already know about the knowledge you have and then all of a sudden the light will
- 1:12:06illuminate when you go down the path so you'll get more insights more awareness because of the
- 1:12:09application because of the experience because of the data yeah and so that's what people in recovery
- 1:12:15like myself do like I just execute like I don't I don't worry about the knowledge because I know
- 1:12:20like I know at some point I will get to where I need to be based on executing and applying what
- 1:12:24I already know and I would say the people that wait for too much knowledge they actually end up
- 1:12:29learning so much at the self sabotage yeah bro like there's some rich people that are not super
- 1:12:35bright either right right they just they just do it they just execute and I think that you can
- 1:12:40it's like paralysis by analysis yeah whatever it is I think sometimes the less you know the better
- 1:12:47for sure dude 100 percent dude perfectionism is the thief of execution
- 1:12:53there's someone sitting there trying to be perfect trying to be perfect wait for the perfect moment
- 1:12:57they're gonna be sitting a long time those that get in the game get their hands and feet dirty
- 1:13:02are the ones that are gonna be successful what is what is one thing about this addiction and
- 1:13:08recovery process that you wish more people knew I mean I guess what comes to me is is just
- 1:13:15the sincerity and and the misunderstanding that the stigma that that people have and there's
- 1:13:22some of the most loving and caring people that I've ever met in my entire life I mean if you
- 1:13:26think about it right like the only requirement for recovery is it is a desire to stop and so you
- 1:13:32walk into a room full of people doesn't matter where you've been doesn't matter what you've been
- 1:13:36through or what you what what you've done they're going to love you unconditionally and so
- 1:13:44a lot of my healing has come from those rooms because when I walked in broken I walked in ashamed
- 1:13:51they just looked at me it was like thank you for being here we love you and I'm like what this
- 1:13:55is crazy I never had somebody say that's it like I just told you I robbed 20 houses and stole this
- 1:14:01and stole from my grandma there and they're like thank you for sharing I'm like what the fuck I was
- 1:14:06an asshole like we understand you I'm like thank you oh god man that's when you look back at like
- 1:14:17I mean you've taken some you've had lessons you've had life lessons you've had lessons from
- 1:14:23I mean everyone teaches you lessons between your stepdad your mom your dad your second step
- 1:14:29Tony Robbins like you have some pretty serious people that have taught you lessons in different ways
- 1:14:34yeah if you look at all the different people that have taught you lessons what has been the one
- 1:14:40that has stood out that has been the most impactful I would say my dad did because my dad was very very
- 1:14:49aggressive with me verbally and physically he he had a belief that he needed to
- 1:14:56prepare me for this world my dad had a story that this is a cruel world it's a difficult world
- 1:15:02and I need you to be tough and so it brings me back to my literally game it was the all-start
- 1:15:10game it was the I was a championship game we were the number one team playing the number two team
- 1:15:14and I had the flu and I didn't want to play and I was fighting with my dad I was crying my mom
- 1:15:22was fighting with my dad and my dad was so relentless and so like headstrong on the fact that I was
- 1:15:27gonna play I was a starting short shortstop first lead off batter and it was the final ending we
- 1:15:34were the home team it was we were it was a tie game two outs I'm up the bat I was throwing up in
- 1:15:42between innings geez and my dad was not willing to let me sit he was like you're playing and so I
- 1:15:49bunched the ball down third baseline I I out ran the guy the guy on third scored we won the game
- 1:15:56and that moment will never ever leave me because my dad taught me one of the most important
- 1:16:02lessons that I need to learn that I needed to learn that I used today is no matter how difficult
- 1:16:08it seems no matter how scary it is no matter how overwhelming it is if you show up and you give
- 1:16:14it everything that you have you will win and so I use that today I mean that's that's like the
- 1:16:20core of who rise of is because dude there's times in business and you know this bro like I like
- 1:16:26there's days when I'm like how are we gonna make payroll like I have a million dollar payroll like
- 1:16:31I need Blue Cross Blue Shield to make a drop or I'm screwed yeah like there's been a lot of those
- 1:16:35moments dude but like in those moments I have these memories of like I'll get through I'll get
- 1:16:41through I'll figure this out and dude that has allowed me to just just push through so many
- 1:16:46limitations you know it's so funny as as a business owner you deal with this shit all the time
- 1:16:52where like you so you focus on these massive negative things because as humans the negative
- 1:16:58and prints on our brain much much easier than the positive for sure for sure but then
- 1:17:04and I'm curious how I'm also just very curious how you found Tony Robbins because I know Tony is
- 1:17:10all about playing bigger and I think there was like an intervention that he had with you at one
- 1:17:14point about you're playing too small even though you're building a massive business and his mind is
- 1:17:18too small so outside of somebody hanging out at Tony's house which is not everybody can do that
- 1:17:27maybe even speak about what he taught you and and what he sort of opened his eyes to but when
- 1:17:32somebody's dealing with all the day-to-day BS of a business assuming everything else in their
- 1:17:38personal life is going fine and with their kids or spells which is also not always the case
- 1:17:43how do you after you cross at certain threshold where most people do not have experience say you
- 1:17:51build a 10 million dollar business 50 million dollar business 100 million dollar business not very
- 1:17:56many people is not many people you can go to say like hey what do I do next right how do you always
- 1:18:03think bigger think next when every day is like an absolute battle yeah so what I learned through
- 1:18:12this journey is your level of decision making has everything to do with your belief systems
- 1:18:20and so whatever I believe I'm going to make decisions based on that belief so if I think I can
- 1:18:27then I'm gonna make a decision that is gonna emulate that I can do it if I don't think I can
- 1:18:32then I'm gonna make a decision that emulates that I can't do it and so one of the most important
- 1:18:37things that Tony taught me is that I am the creator of my life and I know you hear this I know it
- 1:18:43seems cliche but if you just like really stop for a second and unpack that when I went to Tony
- 1:18:50August 2018 I got there by my ex-fiance by the way she went to the event at UPW and she's like oh my
- 1:18:57god you gotta go to Tony so I went to Tony I went to Tony with the idea of like I need to learn
- 1:19:01more business skills so I want the business mastery then I find out it was a psychology problem
- 1:19:07and so one of the biggest things that Tony taught me was like Ryan like whatever you want in your
- 1:19:12life you can have it so you can be the creator so I was like wait a minute like you're telling me
- 1:19:17anything I want yeah but this point you have a business already I was doing 10 million
- 1:19:20year in revenue yeah that's what you're selling is not like you're you screwed up as a business owner
- 1:19:24right you're killing it yeah and so but I needed evidence I just needed evidence to support that
- 1:19:30belief system see the mind is designed to look for evidence to support your belief system yeah
- 1:19:36and so if I believe I can't then I'm gonna look for evidence to support that and so going to Tony
- 1:19:40was like no you can Ryan so that was the evidence that I needed and so somebody at his caliber just
- 1:19:46telling me like you can do this I was like oh my god I was like holy shit I was so scared but what
- 1:19:51happened is I collapsed space and time and I became that person just because he believed in me
- 1:19:59and so I left Tony's July 2020 in the midst of the whole country shutting down watching his business
- 1:20:06like go to bankrupt overnight I watched him apply everything that he taught me real time and the
- 1:20:12lesson for me at that time was the playing small was the level of impact that I was creating in
- 1:20:20the world because I've been through so much I've overcome so much and I'm not teaching and so that's
- 1:20:25what he was like dude like you're you're the people are starving out there for this and you're not
- 1:20:30out there teaching this but that's when I change my whole approach to business and that's when I
- 1:20:35started to identify like I'm in the impact business I'm in the results business I'm not in the
- 1:20:40making money business I'm in the results business I'm in the impact business I'm in the
- 1:20:44transformational business if I transform somebody's life long enough and impact somebody's life
- 1:20:50long enough and provide the solution to somebody's problem long enough eventually the byproduct of
- 1:20:56that is income that's exactly what's happened for me so like I obsess with how to solve somebody's
- 1:21:01problem so when somebody comes to my seminar I am literally obsessing figuring out what's going
- 1:21:07on unconsciously in this person's life that I can give them a shift so that they believe in
- 1:21:12themselves because that's all it is people that believe in themselves make decisions and take
- 1:21:19action towards their future self people that don't believe in themselves make decisions and take
- 1:21:25action that brings them to the part of them that doesn't believe it and so it literally goes down
- 1:21:30to what you believe as as simple as it may sound and then like when you're going through like an
- 1:21:34experiential process it's it's real because you can see energetically where people are at do
- 1:21:41outside of like just words that like unlock this sort of awareness of what you can potentially do
- 1:21:48tactically maybe it's something you did through recovery I'm curious because it's something that I
- 1:21:53do is I do this I sort of I keep track of my wins I keep track of the things that have gone right
- 1:22:00in my life so when that's like when I'm not sitting in a seminar or when I'm not sitting in front
- 1:22:04of Tony Rob is in that self-doubt like creeps in I remember that I've won 2,000 times that week and
- 1:22:11like 50 million times over my life so even if I get sued that day or an employee quits that day or
- 1:22:18I lose that deal I've won x amount of times and that gives me the confidence to sort of like reset
- 1:22:25and get back on track I'm curious if you do something like similar to that process at all just because
- 1:22:31I know that no one's perfect so even though you're teaching people up here I can guarantee there's
- 1:22:36times when people are not in this room when you're sitting in your office you're like what the fuck
- 1:22:40you're doing yeah that's the actually it's really worth it like exactly 100 percent so how do you
- 1:22:48I love that strategy dude because like think about like what you just said was that now you have
- 1:22:53evidence and references where you can go back to yeah look and then it propels you forward no longer
- 1:22:59emotional it's just logic just logic it's like the date right right 100 percent so yeah I mean I
- 1:23:04definitely have a version of that and see for me it's like it's not so much what's talked about
- 1:23:11at the meetings like although that's important the strategy is important it's it's showing up every
- 1:23:16single week meeting with my team and having those conversations so I actually start off and Tony
- 1:23:20taught me this we always start off with every single meeting with jackpots wins and celebrations
- 1:23:26and so we're always conditioned and trained to find what's right in every situation and to celebrate
- 1:23:31the wins because you can't Tony taught me this you can't build on failure you can only build on
- 1:23:36success and so the momentum of like yo you just won now what's the next best thing to keep winning
- 1:23:42because if you're looking at what's wrong now you're always stuck in like what's wrong and what do I
- 1:23:47do now am I a failure and you say stuck there yeah it's all about motion it's all about momentum yeah
- 1:23:53and how do you keep that momentum going as you look at my wind going yeah um what do we not talk
- 1:23:58about today we talked about a lot of stuff I mean I think I think something that's really cool man
- 1:24:03is like is like how I met you you know yes it's so crazy I think that people overlook like
- 1:24:09relationships and I think what I've learned from you and you know how nervous I was the first time
- 1:24:14I met you because I was coming into something that in my mind you've done for like I don't
- 1:24:19mean when I first met you just so people know like I was doing an event and and you came to spoke
- 1:24:24at our event yeah and like I've never sold from stage ever like my background is like jump like
- 1:24:31it's like b2b enterprise software it's like jump on a zoom call and it's I mean I was even more
- 1:24:38moving sales process in my last time when I did that because I had sales reps the work first
- 1:24:43you have inside sales rep jump on a zoom call pass it over to an account executive I would get involved
- 1:24:48like two months later when we sit down with the CEO of the company we're gonna sell to it was not
- 1:24:53going in front of a room of people that you never heard of or spoken to before and then try
- 1:24:57and sell something right I like speaking but I like teaching but then it was very uncomfortable for
- 1:25:02me to like ask people for money from the first time I ever met them yeah standing in front of them
- 1:25:07it's like stage fright compounded with the posses syndrome compounded with all the other shit yeah
- 1:25:12anyway you come out and and I'm nervous as hell because I'm like oh god like I don't know what
- 1:25:18the fuck I'm doing like this and I'm like this guy's been doing for forever and like you're
- 1:25:23you're a your phenomenal speaker and and I was like he's gonna think I'm an absolute idiot like
- 1:25:30but he screamed at me think why I didn't one time I didn't think that no I don't one time but
- 1:25:34that's how that's how that's how powerful your mind yeah that's all I'm thinking the whole time
- 1:25:40right now we're like friends you know yeah yeah so I thought you crushed it bro I was like wow
- 1:25:45he's actually really good up there like that's what it got all like I like this it's so a bit
- 1:25:49also that's another lesson like you always feel like you're worse than you are yeah hundred percent
- 1:25:53always feel like you're worse than you we always think that we're unqualified but the point is like
- 1:25:57so I don't know where you had me coming from something that was a totally different industry
- 1:26:02partnering with somebody who knew this industry I mean even you've been doing it for a while but
- 1:26:07you're also not Tony Robbins either he's been doing it for I don't I've seen videos of him
- 1:26:11okay it's like 40 yeah he was like a kid doing this stuff too and he's not young anymore so you
- 1:26:16partner with somebody that knows this industry well and you like you compliment your skill sets and
- 1:26:20you compliment what you know what you don't know right yeah yeah that is a cool story yeah and so
- 1:26:25I think what's interesting is like people like like there's so many like ideas or perceptions
- 1:26:33around like sales like what sales is and so like my the most some of the most influential years
- 1:26:38that I had was like doing the commodity stuff because I got knows every single day like 300 knows
- 1:26:44a day was like people are a cussing I mean stop calling yeah all the different things and what I
- 1:26:49realized like through all of those calls and through all of the stage opportunities I've had it's
- 1:26:55all about trust like people just say no because they don't trust you they don't trust that they
- 1:27:02can do it they don't trust that they're they're gonna be able to follow through a lot of it's like
- 1:27:08sales is calling people forward calling people to be a better version of themselves and so once I
- 1:27:14understood that I stopped worrying about if somebody's gonna say yes or no I started worrying about
- 1:27:21am I building trust in this person's life am I showing this person what's possible
- 1:27:27am I being the example that they need to see so that they can become a better version because
- 1:27:32here's the thing about this got right like say you're here's you let's just use the example like I
- 1:27:37want to become a motivational speaker you have the idea of it and then let's say there's there's
- 1:27:43this version of yourself that you see in the future and there's a gap in between where you're at
- 1:27:48and where you want to be as soon as you make the investment you collapse space and time and you
- 1:27:54become that future version because now you're executing you're taking action and so people
- 1:28:02overlook how important it is to make investments and so as soon as you make an investment
- 1:28:07in your future self you automatically condense space and time and now you're that version now you're
- 1:28:12literally sitting at the doorstep of like okay my new life yeah new version but then obviously
- 1:28:18there's follow through and you have to be commitment commitment you know committed yeah and stuff
- 1:28:21but it's it's also like so there's different ways to do this so there's some really stubborn people
- 1:28:27like even myself for example so I've I've not done things the easiest way my whole career
- 1:28:36do not like really proud of it's just to some people just like try and figure it out and I think
- 1:28:40that investing in the right people really fast track shit really really fast track shit and I'm
- 1:28:47learning that I'm learning that more and more as I get as I get older and wiser that like you
- 1:28:52don't always have to figure shit out yourself but I mean even even the motivational speaker part so
- 1:28:59what I should be doing is I should be going to sign up for somebody who teaches like motivational
- 1:29:04speaking you know what I'm actually doing it's not good advice this is just real advice this is
- 1:29:11real right I love what I'm actually doing is every time I so I'm speaking tonight at an event
- 1:29:16and it's like more motivational than educational yeah education like I can do all day because I just
- 1:29:21talk about the stuff that I do in my day so watch this kind of coach you right now 100% and so so many
- 1:29:26people um have these these these these identities or these stories and so you're saying it's more
- 1:29:34motivational than educational so just just shift that story because when you
- 1:29:41motivate somebody it's all about educating somebody on what they need to do
- 1:29:46to get to to to a to a future destination right somebody's at a place in their life they're stuck
- 1:29:52they don't have the information or the experience of somebody that's traveled that path and so
- 1:30:00a lot of times people misunderstand like motivation is actually educating on educating somebody
- 1:30:06on something that they don't think that they can do and so you're literally just standing up there
- 1:30:10and saying like hey I'm the example yeah here's where I was at here's where I went you can do it
- 1:30:15because I did it that's motivation people don't even understand that so you're just educating
- 1:30:20somebody on the idea of like hey here's where you are here's where you want to go I did it here's
- 1:30:25the steps that I took if you do this in your life this could be an example even that frame
- 1:30:29reduces actually a lot of the a lot of the stress about it yeah that like framing it that way
- 1:30:34reduces for sure that that's I mean because what I've been doing so far is I've been driving around
- 1:30:39I've been going to like looking so like it's like a 15 minute talk right and like I know that
- 1:30:43there's like between here and like the place that I'm driving going to be 15 minutes right and I'll
- 1:30:48just do the talk and then drive and then I'll go pick something up from like a CVS and I'll like
- 1:30:52drive 15 more minutes I'll do the talk again dude it's it's the frame it's it's so true it's my
- 1:30:59training but I mean the point is there's probably a lot more a more efficient way to like do what I'm
- 1:31:04trying to do which is yeah the strategy but 80% of it is is your psychology just getting there and
- 1:31:09doing it and then you're gonna have that evidence and then you're gonna have the opportunity to look
- 1:31:13back and say okay what could I've done what could I have done better yeah and then you'll get
- 1:31:16that insight and so Tony is actually the master of the pre-frame I mean that skill is just incredible
- 1:31:22because the mind you know the human mind receives like 1.2 billion bits of information a day
- 1:31:27and so the mind generalizes deletes into sorts information and when you give people frames
- 1:31:32it simplifies it it's digestible and so that is like half the battle so when I get up on stage I
- 1:31:39create frames to show people it's simplified it's like oh okay so like I said like earlier like
- 1:31:47there's two mindsets there's abundant and there's lack there's things in between of course but if
- 1:31:52you just digest it from that perspective it's like hey if you have an abundant mindset this is what
- 1:31:56the outcome is gonna be if you have a lack mindset this is what the outcome is gonna be what do you
- 1:31:59want to do like oh clearly I want to do a bundle okay great now the mind moves forward and so now
- 1:32:05you're able to advance somebody based on the frame that you gave them it's they did this study
- 1:32:11and this is the problem with dating today by the way because social media these dating apps you
- 1:32:16have too many options yeah and see when the human mind has too many options it stays stuck a confused
- 1:32:21mind doesn't buy it's the same thing with anything so you want to simplify it they do this study where
- 1:32:26it's like they they had they had two people one person you got an opportunity to pick like five of
- 1:32:32your favorite ice cream flavors the person I only had five options pick the their favorite flavor
- 1:32:38within minutes the person that had 30 options took like quadruple the time and so it's a simple
- 1:32:44lesson and when you're communicating on stage you want to simplify it so it's digestible so people
- 1:32:50can make a decision and move forward with improving their life which is it's actually that's just not
- 1:32:56a sale that's not a stage strategy that's like sales 101 yeah sales 101 like even if you want to
- 1:33:01I mean even but do you know motivation is selling yeah yeah your information is selling like hey
- 1:33:06dude do you want to have a better life and outcome right yeah and so everything is selling and so
- 1:33:11once I started to understand this it was like whoa like I'm not just selling somebody something
- 1:33:15because I want them to buy it I'm selling somebody something so they can better their life yeah
- 1:33:19and then it becomes way easier because to equate it to somebody who's selling a product you can't
- 1:33:25sell a product if you don't believe in it right go try working for a company where you don't believe
- 1:33:29the product does what it says it does right as a salesperson you know this because you weren't sales
- 1:33:33person you're you're not gonna last long right or you're gonna feel burnt out you're at like you
- 1:33:37will physically feel tired dude even when I was doing commodities like I could have 100%
- 1:33:44gotten sued for a hundred million dollars but there was this internal conflict yeah because I
- 1:33:48knew what I was doing wasn't aligned with who I really wanted to be so to your point I was selling
- 1:33:53a product that wasn't benefiting people it was only benefiting me and I struggle with that every
- 1:33:58single day which is what my fiancee I promised her I'm gonna stop doing this more times I
- 1:34:04encounter and she got tired of it and she came in one day and was like do I'm done with you like
- 1:34:07I'm done you got sued like I'm done like I told you we talked about it I'm done I was like what it was
- 1:34:13yeah yeah yeah and so something that we didn't talk about is I just want to shower you for a minute
- 1:34:19with just love and appreciation dude like you've been so influential in my life thank you
- 1:34:25dude for many reasons one like building a brand that is impact driven and and you've actually help
- 1:34:32my belief system around the quality of the customer that I want to serve because in my mind like
- 1:34:39I didn't elevate myself to believe that like I could impact people that you're impacting I mean
- 1:34:45you're you're dealing with entrepreneurs at very high levels half a billion dollar company sold
- 1:34:49hundred million dollars like I know I'm there but it doesn't feel like it's sometimes that like
- 1:34:54I'm qualified and just you are you more than are yeah thank you for that and that's what I'm saying
- 1:34:59so like your support bro has just been it's been huge in my journey man and like I'm so grateful
- 1:35:04that God put you in my path and like what you're doing is just incredible man and so you know
- 1:35:10to my point early before we got on set like anything I could do to help you bro and and support your
- 1:35:15community support you I'm in I appreciate it yeah I appreciate it dude yeah you know you got to
- 1:35:20recognize what you've built thank that ask thank you but it's very about it's exceptionally bad
- 1:35:24us it's not easy to build what you've built I mean too it's a hundred million dollar company like
- 1:35:29I don't see it like oh man yeah no I was the reason I'm sorry that's about dating was I was
- 1:35:35wondering if if after all this like like improvement it's like changed how you look at relationships
- 1:35:41because that was the goal that was the goal yeah you can find some find some hot whatever in Miami but
- 1:35:48I mean like really like have you changed like who your partner is what they what they look for like
- 1:35:54what you look for like as somebody who's like now you're like all in an entrepreneurship so I mean
- 1:36:00you don't stop and I'm curious to somebody who is almost married because I you know I'm very
- 1:36:07blessed because Gina my better half like she also has a business right so we get it like we get it
- 1:36:13like I've ever been so out of sync where she was upset that I was doing something that was
- 1:36:17unethical or un moral sure sure but I mean in terms of like time commitment there's not
- 1:36:23as many hours you can spend time together but we both get it so she's doing everything I'm doing
- 1:36:28my thing so I'm curious just as like somebody who's you know you you gone through an almost
- 1:36:33marriage and then it broke up for a couple different reasons but now where you're at in your life
- 1:36:38what is like the partner that fits somebody who's like a high performing entrepreneur business owner
- 1:36:43yeah it's so true bro and like definitely my vision of what she looks like has definitely changed
- 1:36:49yeah over the top over time and I think a lot of the work I've done has has like hindered
- 1:36:55opportunities because like I have this like obsession to like be better and sometimes it it
- 1:37:01causes me to be critical yeah and where I may like look at a woman that may not be where
- 1:37:08they want to be in their journey or we're worth thinking that I could do better and so it's
- 1:37:13challenging at times right because like sometimes I'm always like damn like can I do better like is
- 1:37:17this the right one for me and so I just have faith man that like God's going to put her
- 1:37:22in front of me when the time is right and like I don't think I would have been able to build what I've
- 1:37:27built impact as many lies as as I've impacted if I was with somebody clearly because I'm not
- 1:37:34and so for me like number one dude is like somebody that has like an unshakeable belief in God
- 1:37:39you know somebody that like your wife is like done their own work is doing their own work is on
- 1:37:44in alignment with their assignment doing their work and then just has an understanding
- 1:37:50and a compassion for like my work and and and the impact that I want to leave on this earth
- 1:37:56and so it's challenging bro it's a very unique person bro like like you know hence why
- 1:38:02we connect because if you think about it like there's not a lot of people out there that are
- 1:38:06vibrating at our frequency and so it's the same thing with dating like like and maybe I'm just
- 1:38:10not in the right rooms maybe I think it's tough I thought you know I would never ever like I'll
- 1:38:16never say you know I would never ever want a different circumstance I'm praying that nothing
- 1:38:21ever changed with my relationship but I thought like if something did change I don't think it's
- 1:38:25easy to find somebody that where you connect so easily on so many different levels and that's
- 1:38:30somebody that you actually want to fight for because again like relationships are not always all
- 1:38:33positive is sure ton of good but you there's things you disagree on a shit like that but like when
- 1:38:38the person is down for the mission that you're on and and the mission that you're on like they know
- 1:38:44from day one the kind of person they're getting you know into this relationship with it's like
- 1:38:51it's like like fuel on the fire I really believe that because there's been times where shit hasn't
- 1:38:56gone right and I'm the kind of person that like I overthink everything so I would totally spiral
- 1:39:03I would totally spiral if I don't have somebody who's like Scott like you know like it's not over
- 1:39:09like we talked a lot about like you know you know outside in I can put I can put up some
- 1:39:15motivational quotes and tweets but I'm like and everyone's live there's times when it's really
- 1:39:19going rough and that's the value there's value all the time but that's like the exceptional value
- 1:39:28of somebody who's on your team because fuck dude like there's times when it's like tough like I
- 1:39:34when business hasn't worked out I don't want to be sitting alone dealing with that so I don't know
- 1:39:40but yeah it's hard to find someone who's like that and I hear this like I hear with Tony I hear
- 1:39:45with you I mean there's definitely people that I model like what like I model what I want what
- 1:39:51I have what you have I want to have a Tony and Sage have like and that's exactly what they say
- 1:39:55they're like like once you find that person that is gonna hold it down with you it just it just makes
- 1:40:00the journey so much more enjoyable because that's really it like because even Tony's at another
- 1:40:07level then then then any you know so think about Tony like anybody looks at Tony's like this guy's
- 1:40:13got his life together but I can guarantee you there's lawsuits there's portfolio companies have
- 1:40:19been bankrupt like when you play at that level the shit that's flying at you is nonstop yeah a lot
- 1:40:26of it's not fun so you got to you got to find somebody you got to find a way to overcome that or
- 1:40:31you got to find somebody who can be a sports system yeah do I hear success is going from failure
- 1:40:36to failure without losing enthusiasm or losing your mind and so having somebody that's like
- 1:40:42loving you and supporting you and that believes in you that has your back I mean dude that would
- 1:40:46be incredible yeah yeah for sure all right dude all right if you were gonna sort of look back after
- 1:40:52everything you've done I was gonna say tell your 20 year old self one lesson but maybe go
- 1:40:58earlier than that tell your 16 year old self one lesson what would that lesson be yeah all the
- 1:41:04challenges that you're going to go through or what's going to create the man that is going to make
- 1:41:11massive impacts on the world because I'm a firm believer that you can't teach people what you
- 1:41:16haven't experienced and so like going through those challenging times are only going to give you
- 1:41:20an opportunity to teach somebody else that it's going to be okay and you're going to get through it
- 1:41:25yeah I love it um what do you want people what do you want to leave people with final thought
- 1:41:30with first of all where can they go to find you yeah so I mean go to my Instagram that's the easiest
- 1:41:34Ryan dot zofa z oh f a y you can follow me there everything that I do I I pretty much promote it
- 1:41:40there cool um and so I'd be the easiest way to find me okay you got a book you got a book
- 1:41:46likely business man yeah you got a book created it took me three years right that book by the way
- 1:41:50I think books not it's a whole other yeah I want to leave it right now yeah podcasts is like
- 1:41:56jump on zoom records them bullshit like it's like to us it's a lot of work bro okay so when
- 1:42:03people people are looking at you they're they can I mean we're sitting in this beautiful new
- 1:42:09studio that you set up um so there you run events here all the time yeah all that's on your website
- 1:42:15next events wherever whatever you're working on yeah okay people never green to nothing coming up
- 1:42:19yet but what's the what's the what Ryan zofa dot com yeah Ryan zofa dot com is my website yeah cool
- 1:42:25put that in the show notes um last thought to leave people with
- 1:42:29um
- 1:42:31september 2023 september 18 2023 I started meditating and I have a missed a day every day I
- 1:42:41meditate for a minimum of 30 minutes sometimes up to an hour and that process has allowed me to truly
- 1:42:49fall over myself and now I have a level of self acceptance and self love that I that I've never
- 1:42:55experienced before and it has just made this journey so much better dude the experience of life
- 1:43:01is just so much more rewarding fulfilling and so I would say like pick up a meditation practice because
- 1:43:08you're faced with yourself you're faced with your thoughts yourself and when you sit with yourself
- 1:43:14that long you only have one thing to do follow yourself and so that has been some of the some of
- 1:43:21the magic that's happened for me over the past six months when you when you meditate what does
- 1:43:29that force you to do it force you to be present force you to be present and and your mind is going
- 1:43:36crazy your thoughts are going crazy and so the idea is what is the issue that it's solving with
- 1:43:42people in 2024 yeah I mean so many people are reactive and they're in this survival mind yeah
- 1:43:47and so it forces you to to be calm long enough to where you're the observer of your thoughts you're
- 1:43:54no longer your thoughts you're the observer of your thoughts so that means you can control your
- 1:43:58thoughts and once you can control your thoughts then you can control your choices you can control
- 1:44:03your behaviors you can control your experiences you can control your emotions and so managing your
- 1:44:08emotions is everything in life and so that has allowed me to manage my emotions and some of the
- 1:44:14most stressful times and so you only have one option is like I have to be okay with me and you
- 1:44:20sit there long enough to send power you have to there's no other choice like you can't run you can't
- 1:44:25avoid you can't escape you're just there you're like okay I guess I better start loving this guy
- 1:44:30you think many people even know themselves absolutely not dude 95% of what people are doing is
- 1:44:36unconscious pattern and thought so they're just moving through life and their program they don't
- 1:44:39even know so slowing down allows you to really see like what's going on and really see all parts of
- 1:44:46you and then and then the only thing that can happen is there's a moment of grace where you're
- 1:44:50just like wow like like this is who I am like they say you can't change spots on a leopard I believe
- 1:44:55that's true I think you can't change the spots on a leopard but once you become once you fall in
- 1:45:02love with those spots and fall in love with who you are they don't have the impact that they used
- 1:45:06to have because you have acceptance around it like we're not going to change who we are but we can
- 1:45:10change our perception of who we are which will change how people experience us I love that okay
- 1:45:18looking back you know you've had very wild life let's say the least what is a you know going
- 1:45:26forward what is success mean to you for me today success is impacting more lives you know like I
- 1:45:33just have this this obsession to want to continue to to master you know human behavior which
- 1:45:40would ultimately unlock people with where they are on their journey and their path and so the more
- 1:45:46I can do that the more fulfilling I feel and the more excited I get because I'm developing like
- 1:45:52deep meaningful relationships that's really cool