Start With A Win - The Hardcore Closer Part 1 with Ryan Stewman

Episode Date: April 13, 2022

Ryan Stewman is a genius loan officer turned rogue Internet marketer. He is the CEO of Hardcore Closer, an online learning resource for salespeople, including topics like advertising, marketing, funnel, sales and social media. His online courses have everything you need in order to start marketing your business online and crushing your competitors.But his success did not come easily.Ryan likes to say that he is a prime example of what’s possible in America. He was adopted as a baby but grew up in a rough neighborhood. He dropped out of school with only an eighth-grade education, his “business success” began with selling marijuana and cocaine. After spending two years in prison, Ryan went to work at a car wash with a goal to never go back to jail. One of the regular customers noticed his hard work and offered him a job in the mortgage business. Within two years, he was a multi-millionaire at only 26. But after a federal gun charge led him back to prison for 15 months, he lost everything. And it was far from the last hurdle Ryan would encounter.After overcoming so many hardships in his life and yet still finding his way back to success, Ryan has a simple question for you: what is your excuse? He believes it is all about the mindset plus the work ethic. We always have to have the mindset to work harder. Once we adopt that mindset in our lives, we really can be unstoppable.Ryan believes it is also important to establish a mission for our lives. His personal mission is to help as many people as possible to become the best version of themselves. He also has three words he lives by: Fuck Your Excuses.Ryan and Adam round out the conversation by talking about accountability. Ryan’s accountability is found in God and knowing he will have to give an account for how he stewarded his life and talent here on earth.Be sure to join us next week for the second part of this interview!  Episode Links:https://www.hardcorecloser.comhttp://jointheapex.comhttps://www.facebook.com/realryanstewmanhttps://www.instagram.com/hardcorecloserhttps://twitter.com/ryanstewmanOrder your copy of Start With A Win: Tools and Lessons to Create Personal and Business Success:https://www.startwithawin.com/bookConnect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

Hey, Mark. Hey, Adam. Are you ready for some really intense, how do I get better with myself, with my business, with my life? Yeah, I'm so ready. Sometimes in life, we need a little tough love from time to time. We do. I feel like this is that time. Well, today we have my friend, Ryan Steumann, the hardcore closer on the show. And just a heads up for everybody, if you have little kids in the room, there are some adult words in this. So we will get the E on this one. But here's the reality. This is a great two-part episode. Let's get into it. Welcome to Start With a Win,

where we give you the tools and lessons you need to create business and personal success. Are you ready? Let's do this. Hey, everybody. It's Adam Canto. Start with a win here at Brand Viva Media Studios. Hey, we got producer Mark in that studio. Of course, it's your studio. You're here. But hey, today we have Ryan Steumann. Ryan is a great friend of mine. He's known as the Hardcore Closer. This guy is a best-selling author, podcaster, blogger. He's best known for consulting with amazing entrepreneurs and business owners on rapidly growing their ideas in sales, marketing, and ultimately how to become a better person. Welcome to the show, Ryan. What's going on, fellas? Thanks for having me be a part

of your show, man. I'm excited. Hey, you bet. This is really cool. I've had the opportunity to meet you through a lot of different major business masterminds. And I say major business masterminds because you deal with some of the top entrepreneurs out there in not just the US, but people all over the world. People know who Ryan Steumann is generally. They know what you're about. But we may have a few derelicts out there in our audience that just might not quite have found you yet to change their lives. Can you give us a flyover? What do you do, man? I mean, you're known as a hardcore closer. You help entrepreneurs build businesses, and you're really, really freaking good at it.

Can you give us a flyover of your business? Yeah. So I feel like these days it's easier to say the few things that I don't do. I feel like, you know, it's like, well, I'm not a doctor or a rocket scientist or any of that, but I am an entrepreneur. I own a lot of businesses. I am an investor in even more businesses. But the main thing that I am known for and that I run as far as the businesses is our Apex Network. I am the founder of one of the largest business training, leadership, and networking masterminds in existence. It's crazy to even be able to say that. Yeah, nice hat. I feel you.

And we've just built an amazing network. And because of that, I've been able to invest in a lot of entrepreneurs, businesses. I've been able to meet contacts like Adam here. And you know, my, my two second, three second story is I've had just about every hardship you can imagine in life. And I'm still here on a, on a pretty high end winning streak. streak, and I'm just trying to show the world what's possible. All right, so let's dig into that a little bit because it's interesting, Ryan. When we have people like yourself on the show, they just don't walk in and somebody hands them the golden ticket to life. I mean, it just, it doesn't happen. For anybody that thinks that's

going to occur, sorry, get that out of your head. Unless you're this massive trust fund child and you might, you know, maybe you ended up this way. God love you if you did. But the reality is 99% of the people that really, really find satisfaction in their successes in life start with nothing, or most often a negative sign in front of what they're doing and where they're from. So can you give us a little bit of flyover on your hardships that you faced? I mean, you got thrown in prison. You ended up broke. You got nothing.

And now you're doing very well for yourself, not just doing well for yourself. You're doing well for others because you're a contributor, a massive contributor to a lot of people's successes in society and, you know, helping folks. So tell us about your hardships. Well, you know, if anything, I want you to hear this and know that, that I am an example of what's possible in America. And you can never say that I'm lucky because I have the receipts for everything that I'm about to share with you. At age seven, I was adopted. At age 15, I dropped out of school.

That would be in the ninth grade, meaning that I have an eighth grade education. That was the final level that I completed. In my neighborhood where I grew up, the first business opportunity anybody was presented with in sales was of narcotics. So I sold marijuana and cocaine. At one point, I got arrested for selling cocaine and went and did two years in prison, got out of prison and did my time day for day, two entire years, got out of prison and did my time day for day, two entire years, got out of prison and went to work at a car wash. Cause that's where felons go to work at, you know, places like car washes and worked my ass off. And I had a goal in mind. Okay. I was stinking small,

but I had a goal. My goal was to never go back to prison. And in order to stay out of prison, I had convinced myself that if I became the best freaking car wash guy in the world, then there would be, I would eventually own one of these things or run one of these things or something. And it would keep me out of prison. I had given up on money. I didn't want to, you know, I thought drug dealing was going to make me rich. I didn't want to be rich or any of that anymore, but somebody noticed me and gave me a chance. One of the customers gave me a chance and got me into the mortgage business, helped me overcome some hurdles and everything else. Within a year of the mortgage business, within 18 months of being in the mortgage business, I'd made over $700,000. I learned

how to invest in real estate. I bought a portfolio of 32 houses. Within three years, the police thought I was selling drugs and they raided my house. I am a multimillionaire at age 26 and the Allen Police department raids my house thinking that I was selling drugs. I was not selling drugs. There were no drugs in my house, but nowadays pandemic and stuff, everybody working from home is no big deal. Back then I learned I'm a really good computer person. I learned how to hack into the bank server from home. And so I could just work from home and I would have people coming and paying me rent and I would do the mortgage stuff from home and everything else so that I had, you know, people paying me rent and maybe a beat up old Honda Civic.

And then right behind them, an S600, you know, Benz coming in with a real estate agent. So I get it. In retrospect, it was a dick move on the cops end, but my previous record and living in a nice house, I could see how they drew a terrible conclusion. They could have just asked me. But anyway, I beat the case because there were no drugs and, but there was a gun in the house in Texas. You can have a gun in your house. If you're a felon, that's just part of it.

Um, but after I beat the case, they were scared I was going to sue them. So they turned me over to the feds. The ATF does not recognize state rights. The federal government basically, uh, they say they supersede state rights, which isn't true. I'm in a legal battle to get all this stuff handled now, actually. Not a battle. I'm whipping their ass. They're in a legal battle against me to settle all this stuff. But here's the thing. I went back to prison, a millionaire, walked out with $25 in my name. My wife left me, took all my money, cheated on me, like everything that you could imagine horrible that would happen to somebody that was innocent,

by the way, going to prison happened. And for 15 months, I was locked up inside, came out with $25 to my name, went back into the mortgage business, started making about $300,000, $400,000 a year during 2008, 2009, when it was the toughest times in existence to do that. I was still climbing my way to the top and Don Frank happened and Obama signed Don Frank. And they said, if you're a felon, you cannot originate mortgages anymore. So I'm like, son of a bitch. Okay. You put me in jail. Then, then I get out and I do good. And I like tied into church, dressed like Jake from state farm, talked like Ned Flanders, good guy. I go back to prison. What the hell? I go back to prison. I lose everything that I have. Then I

build it back again, right? I make three, $400,000 a year in a terrible economy. I build it back again. And then you take it from me again. Look, for the love of God, what do you want from me? Right? Like how many times do I got to prove that I'm going to be successful, but I didn't quit. Each one of these setbacks, I didn't quit, but that's when I got into the internet. I was like, man, I need to create my own business. That's legal. That doesn't require a license that the government is not regulating that I can do ethically and integrity. And so I started social media management and quickly learned that that, that was a hard, hard job to keep up with at scale.

But after I did that for two years, I started coaching, and I've been doing that, basically running a coaching company amongst other things ever since. But here's what I want to say, and I don't want to be – I kind of do want to sound like an asshole when I say this to those listening, but – and I kind of want it to piss you off, but I want it to piss you off at yourself, not me, okay? But I done had it, lost it, had it, lost it, got it back, two felonies, three divorces,

and got it back again and still got it a whole bunch of it. So what is your excuse? You've been out this whole time, people. You haven't been through those setbacks that I've been through. So if you're sitting here right now, listening to this and you're saying what's missing from success, I can tell you your work ethic is what's missing from success. The only reason that I've been through. So if you're sitting here right now, listen to this and you're saying what's missing from success, I can tell you your work ethic is what's missing from success. The only reason that I'm here right now counting these stacks of papers, driving cars that the rappers rap about, flying in private jets every other day on my own dollar and not missing any of it is because my work ethic. You think the cars, the jets, the watches are a flex. It's the work ethic. As soon as you decide that you're going to put your nose to the grind and not pat yourself

on the back for hard work, but hard work regardless, I'm telling you over the years, it comes back. And I know that that's the only reason that I've been able to have all these setbacks and still come back and win is because I went, shit, I got to work harder. Every time, not Adam stole from me. Adam broke my heart. Adam, blah, blah, blah. No, no, no. No, I got to work harder. Not Adam, anything. You don't have shit to do with me. My thing is myself. I got to work harder. Once you adopt that mindset, you become relentless. You're unstoppable. I'm telling you, I'm proof of it. I'm literally living That's what I'm saying. I'll tell you, man. I mean, being able to spend some time with you is just off the charts. And I get to spend the time with some incredibly successful people.

And so people who work. Yeah, that's a big compliment from you. I appreciate that. Well, thank you. But here's a reality, though. I like to spend time with people who have the mindset and the work ethic. You said it over and over again. You're out there busting your ass to get these things done, to make things happen. And you don't wake up in the morning with an excuse on your lips.

You're not getting up going, oh, it's raining out. I don't feel like it or I'm tired or whatever. I mean, every time I see you on social media social media and by the way, um, where can everybody follow you on social media? I want everybody to take a, you know, to make sure that this is in their social media feeds so that they can see what the heck you're doing because the content you're putting out is exactly in alignment with this and will help them. So where, where can everybody find you, Ryan? Uh, so on Facebook, it's Ryan Steumann and only profiles with the blue check. If it don't have a blue check, it's either a fan page or something like that. But me personally, it's blue check.

Same on Instagram. It's hardcore closer. The only one I will never DM you. I would never like hit you in the DMs and tell you to send me money or borrow anything from you. Like there's lots of spammers out there. Only the profiles with the blue checks. That's the cost of, I just want to say that's kind of spammers out there, only the profiles with the blue checks. That's

the cost of, I just want, I just want to say that's kind of the cost of fame. Uh, and it's whatever you want to call it to some level is man. There is a lot of people like trying to scam people with fake accounts of, of mine out there. Thank God that like I got verified years ago. Cause I can only imagine if I wasn't verified now and I was starting to get popular and people didn't know how, uh, frustrating and maybe even like tarnishing that could be to somebody's character, you know, getting scammed and all that stuff. And somebody think it's you. Totally. Hey, let's shift over here because you talk about work ethic, but work ethic is a result of mindset. I mean, you just don't wake up in the morning and go, I don't want to do this,

and then put your effort into it that's going to create the results. You got to want it, and you got to own it, and you got to go after it with everything that's in your heart and in your soul. And you live this mindset, this, you know, your brain sends your heart those signals, and your heart validates those signals and sends them back to your brain and goes back and forth and things like that. But tell me about mindset. What do you wake up in the morning thinking, Ryan, and why do you get to become – or you don't get to become shit. You work for it. But why do you want to go out and work for it and make this stuff happen? I mean, you're trying to prove something to yourself. Are you,

are you, do you want to give back or what's your mindset, man? So it's a couple of things you have, you have, uh, I have a mission and, and most people have one or the other, they have a mission or an excuse to not do that mission. And so I have a mission and three words that I live by. And so my mission, first of all, is to help as many people as possible become the greatest version of themselves. It's not to help a thousand people. It's not to help a million people.

It's to help as many as possible. And it's not to become rich. It's not to become better family members. It's to become the greatest version of themselves. Because if we'll start with ourselves and make that change within, there will be change without. I promise you. I promise you, right? We need more people that, what I call the example, where people look up to people like you, Adam, and say, that guy's an example of what's possible in America with a work ethic. That guy is possible, an example of what's possible in America when you take self-responsibility and you go take action, right? And so most people,

they don't have a mission. You know, when I got out of prison the second time, my mission was to prove my ex-wife and everybody who said that I was a one-time successful person wrong. And that's a toxic mission, I'm just being honest, but it helped me get to where I had to go. And then when, when it was taken from me and the Dodd-Frank act, my mission became like, well, I gotta, I gotta figure out how to take care of myself because I'm tired of failing. Right. And I still got to prove these people wrong. Once I proved them wrong and ran laps around everything, my mission became, I need to help as many people as possible become the greatest version of themselves. I feel like every day I'm becoming a greater version of myself. That's what I'm in pursuit of every day. And it feels awesome.

And I love my life and I want to help people attain that feeling in their life, but I've got a mission. So first you got to have a mission. And then there's three words that I live by that, that anytime I don't think that like this morning I wake up and I don't want to do, so I had to get blood. So I couldn't go to the gym and I had blah, blah, blah. And all these things I didn't want to do this morning. But, but I know that as part of my mission, I have to do these things, right? Going to the gym early in the morning, waking up 435 AM to go to the gym. I hate that shit, but it's part of my mission to become the greatest version of myself.

Cause I got to help as many people. I'm a person to become the greatest version of my, of myself. I got to go to the gym. But so these three words that I live by have the initials tattooed on my hand and it's fuck your excuses. So anytime I'm thinking about not following through on my mission, anytime I'm thinking about a reason not to go do what I know I'm supposed to do, despite how hard it is, or despite how inconvenient it is, I got, I'm, I believe in this so much that I have it tattooed on my

hand. And so does 90% of my employees, by the way. They have it tattooed on them somewhere too, because we literally live by this stuff. We have zero excuses and a million percent accountability to go where we're trying to go. That's the mindset. You mentioned accountability. That word just jumps out. Every time you start talking, you talk about excuses, you talk about hard work, accountability. That word just jumps out. Every time you start talking, you talk about excuses, you talk about hard work, accountability. Do you think that is that what's missing from a lot of people is they refuse to hold themselves accountable or they don't have somebody else? Or I mean, how does accountability fit into what you just said with excuses? Because Ryan, let's face it. You don't have to do this for anybody, okay?

There's nobody holding you accountable. And, I mean, maybe you walk into your office in the morning or after you go to the gym or sometime, whatever, or maybe it's in your house and your amazing wife Amy says, did you do this? But, I mean, how do you hold yourself accountable to accomplish things? Because sometimes people, you know, obviously the first excuse, I didn't have time or I'm too tired, shit like that. But that doesn't even come to your mind. How does accountability boost you past this? And where do you get it?

Well, I'm accountable to God. You know, it's that simple. I'm accountable to God. One day I'm going to have to go up there and he's going to ask me, did I do the work despite, did you do the work despite wanting to do it? Did you do the work despite what was good for you? Did you do what you were supposed to do all every time that you had a chance to do what you were supposed to do, even when nobody was looking, that's my accountability. Cause one day I got to go up there and I got to be an example, not just here on earth, but I got to be an example in an

afterlife too. Right? Like that's, that's how deep that I'm thinking. Like I want to like, what good is it if I prove and you'll never know, but what good is it if I prove everything's possible here on earth, but I ended up sending eternity in hell. Now that would be really inconvenient and weird, wouldn't it? So like, but I also feel like if I went up to, to God and I was in, and you know, if you're offended, you're offended, but I'm just gonna say, if I went up to God and I was in, and you know, if you're offended, you're offended, but I'm just going to say, if I went up to God and I was fat and I was poor and I wasn't a good father and I was lonely and I decided not to become a leader and not go through my following. And God said, I created you to be this.

And he showed me an image in my bank account and my cars and all my relationships and everything else. I created you to be this, what I am right now, but you decided to be this. And I'm this, this just a waste of flesh, man. They not going to let me in. They're not going to let you in either. In my opinion, no matter how they say, Oh, but I was so nice to people, but you wasn't nice to yourself because you didn't take care of yourself first. You had an opportunity. You were created in the image of our maker and not to preach to you, but you were created in the image of our maker. Do you think our maker is fat and ugly and lazy? Hell no. I promise you he's not or she, whatever,

but what, but what I'm saying it, I promise he is not, but here's what I can tell you. Maybe all that's some loony tune. Hey man, I'm just, I'm not religious. I'm just a believer in God. Maybe that's some loony tune stuff that I'm tied into, but it's a risk I'm willing to take in a lifestyle that served me very well in the meantime, you know? All right, that was part one of the Hardcore Closer. And next week, we're going to have part two. We'll see you then.