Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - The Force of Average with Ryan Stewman

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

Ryan Stewman gained prolific social media experience and he wanted to teach what he learned. Which is how Hardcore Closer was born. Ryan decided he wanted to teach others how to sell online, instead of just doing it for them. This would allow him to reach more people and help change more lives. That’s exactly what Ryan did. In January of 2012, he registered HardcoreCloser.com and started teaching loan officers how to use social media to gain business from real estate agents. In the first year he did over 150k in gross sales. Year 2 Ryan did over 300k in gross sales. As of 2016, which is year 4, he's closed over 2 million in gross sales. Now he teach people from all sales fields across all industries, how to sell online. Key Highlights: The Force of Average- how people get stuck in their normal day to day habits and never expand. Why Immigrants come over and within a generation run shit. The purchase of his Ranch and what it means to him. Ryan not being above manual labor jobs. America being brainwashed by Hollywood and being entitled of the riches. From carwash sales person to generational wealth. Learning to leave things and places better than you found it/them. Not having a choice to be successful and creating a perfection complex. His conviction and how he lost it all and gained it back 10 fold. Connect with Ryan Stewman: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hardcorecloser/?hl=en Website: https://ryanstewman.com/ Connect with Shawn: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theshawnfrench/?hl=en Website: https://theshawnfrench.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at good to know facts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit good to know facts.org. And I want before we get too deep in anything, I want to bring this up because, you know, right now a lot of people don't want to do the work. You know, I'm not above being a janitor now.

I'm not above going and scrubbing toilets now, even though I'm worth a whole bunch of money and very successful and all these other things that you can put to my accolades. I literally go spend time working on now fixing to be my own, but people's ranches. I go spend my time like doing, you know, labor stuff. I work out in a gym with no AC, no heat, and just like, I'm that kind of person, right? What is up, guys? Welcome back. Sean French here with another episode of the podcast of Determined Society.

Before I introduce today's guest, I want to remind you, if this is the first time you're hearing the show, hit the follow button, subscribe, and leave a review. Let me know what you think. Love to hear your feedback. And so without further ado, today's guest, man, guys, this is a doozy. One of the realest dudes I've ever come across, ever had a pleasure of meeting via social media. He started in sales at 13 years old selling car washes. And because of his work ethic, one of the customers really recognized his ability to remove himself from the actual job that he was doing,

but loved the fact that he was so detail-oriented and he just kicked ass at his current position. And so from that point on, she offered him a job in mortgage. And after a big reluctancy of his, he finally agreed. And by 2009, he was one of the most prolific producers on the planet. In 2010, though, everything changed. And my guest today had to channel his determination and reinvent himself completely. I have with me the determined, the iconic, straight up badass, the hardcore closer, Ryan Stumann.

Welcome to the show, brother. Hey, what's going on, Sean? Thanks for having me, man. No, man, I appreciate it, dude. Happy holidays, of course, first and foremost. Yeah, same to you. Same to you. Thanks, buddy.

So, you know, I love that story, and that's why I picked that as the intro. I came across to you quite some time ago on social media. You know, I know you were helping a lot of people on social media and learning and teaching them how to grow their business. And you just had a lot of amazing things to say. And they were very kind of in your face and hardcore. And that's what drew me to you back in the day. And in fact, you know, it's, uh, it's something that I always kind of went to to, you know, feed my soul for the business to business sales representative position that I had. But this specific story of when you were 13 and, um, starting as selling car watches, there's a lot of people out there, right?

that start jobs that feel like they're beneath them and they're worth you know they're they're more than that right and they don't ever really just submit to doing a great job what about you as such a young man allowed you to be just different than everybody else um well you know i don't really think i had much of a choice if i'm just being honest um my stepdad ran those car washes he did not own them he had you know started off as a worker and then basically was general manager for a few locations, which was probably an $80,000 a year job or something like that. You know, nothing upper class or anything like that.

But he was, I'm adopted, so he was like my stepdad. And he didn't really understand me. So putting me to work was like his way of not having to pay for a babysitter and maybe getting some control or something like that. And so, you know, working for parents, like you ever, Sean, you ever like work on your dad's car with you and he like asked you for a wrench and you hand on the wrong wrench? Does that ever happen to you? Like, like nothing to hurt your feelings worse.

You know what I mean? Like you're, you know, your dad will go off on you. Bro, I feel like, you know, I usually do a lot of research on my guests and I feel like you read that about me somewhere because that's exactly what used to happen to me. That I've used that in my book. I've talked about that everywhere. Man. damn well yeah that's that's that's it well you know you're about my age and that's like our parents generation they behaved that way you know and and so it was kind of the same at the car wash i had

to become a a perfectionist almost because i got my stepdad nitpicking me and yelling at me and everything else so you know i was uh you know just became like i said sort of a perfectionist there but i just mentioned this yesterday on instagram and and i want before we get too deep in anything, I want to bring this up because, you know, right now, a lot of people don't want to do the work. You know, I'm not above being a janitor now. I'm not above going and scrubbing toilets now, even though I'm worth a whole bunch of money and very successful and all these other things that you can put to my accolades. I literally go spend time working on now fixing to be my own, but people's ranches. I go spend my time like doing,

you know, labor stuff. I work out in a gym with no AC. see, no heat, and just like, I'm that kind of person, right? And so I say that because, you know, a lot of people, they're not that kind of person. They don't want to go work a dirty job. And they're like, spend their whole life working some mediocre job in hopes that one day, that big job will just show up like a gift from God or an answer to a prayer or a dream or something like that. And just yesterday, it's like right now nobody wants to work.

So let's say that you don't have skills, but you're a hard worker, like a real hard. worker, not like a bullshit hard worker, like a for real hard worker. And you, you may live in the hood. Let's just say you live in a neighborhood like I grew up in that really wasn't that good. There's not a lot of professional people there. And you go and you're a hard working at the convenience store in the hood. Well, you know what? You're not going to see anything but average people and people that don't own businesses and people that can't give you breaks and people that are just the same people from your neighborhood. So your work ethic goes unnoticed, right? Because those people that live in that neighborhood with you, they don't look for a way to, hey, you work hard,

come work for my company because they don't have a company for you to work for. So if you've got that hard work ethic, then do what I did. And there's a book Eric Thomas wrote called UOU. And he talks about one of his clients doing this too, is I went washed cars in the rich neighborhood. I didn't live in the rich neighborhood. My family didn't live in the rich neighborhood, but poor people don't pay other people to wash their cars, right? That's something that luxury that wealthy people can afford. So car washes. are in wealthy neighborhoods, right? Like, at least the kind that I worked for.

And so that was my whole thing. It's like, I'm in, at the time, I'm just working there because it's a job that I got. But in retrospect, I look back as like, A, my stepdad was very abusive and mean and nitpicky and all that stuff. So like I had to commit to excellence in order to keep my butt from getting in trouble when I got home. And B, I'm in a position in a good neighborhood

that eventually somebody that owned a business saw me and said, hey, if you'll work that hard for my business and the mortgage world, like you do for this business, the car wash world, you can exponentially grow your wealth. And, you know, at the time, I didn't really believe it because I'm like, yeah, whatever, just, you know, like, why would you want to hire me? But in reality, if you're out there looking for a job in or maybe you're working really hard at a job and it doesn't seem to go anywhere, look at your proximity, right? Who's coming into that job that can maybe present you with more opportunity?

Could you go work for maybe even a few dollars less, but in a better side of town and in a couple of years gain a reputation over there and eventually get something that really takes care of you because that's what happened to me, you know? Dude, that's badass. Like, I wrote down a couple things, right? The first one was no one wants to do the work now, you know, because I think it's like that that easy bake oven ladder to success now that everybody's talking about on social media. Like, I can get you 40 leads in 20 minutes and you'll make seven figures.

And it's easy. Just pay me this money. But the real idea is the work. right like putting in whatever whatever your action items are every single day is put in the fucking work right eventually that shit adds up it compounds and then you make a successful income you either go to work for somebody that sees the value in you or you just blow up and you're making a ton of money for you know some corporation in sales whatever it is but there's no substitute for doing the damn work why do you think why do you think so many people now are

afraid to do that, are afraid to dive into the actual work. It's, it's 100% ego, but sometimes it's accidental ego. For most people, it's just pure ego and I'll get into it. But sometimes it's accidental like they were brainwashed into this. Because what you said, you know, like, look, let's be, let's be real. I'm friends with the smartest human alive. You can Google who's the smartest human alive and my friend's name will show up, right? and they make movies after this guy.

He saved the world from complete chaos like 1,200 times because we have idiots running governments and they rely on him to come in and bail him out. Like he's literally the smartest man alive. He and I are together last year and we're talking because, you know, I'm trying to download some wisdom from the guy. And this is what he says. He says, I don't give a fuck what these people in this room say. There is only 5% of society that makes over 200.

$150,000 a year. He goes, I know numbers, blah, blah, blah. But I say that because you're right. Everybody right now, and this is the ego part of it, everybody sees, I saw an ad to date. And a guy used three different number amounts for his income within a minute and a half. Like, nobody caught that. Like he said 14 million. Then he said 27 million.

And then at the end, he said $109,000, $100,000 a month for 109 months. None of that added up to what he was saying. It's like, you don't even edit the math in your own video, right? But if I'm not an educated, smart person that knows this kind of stuff, I'm watching that. And I think, now, why would I want to go to the car wash when this dip shit's making $27 million a year? This kid ain't made $27 million a year. If you took every dollar that he's ever made in his entire life and you extended it on an annualized program based for the next 400 fucking years. But they don't know that because here's the thing, right?

When you dig a hole with the shovel, your arms look like this, right? When you've actually gone in and you dug a hole a hole with a shovel, your arms look like you. this, your forearms got veins in them, because you've had to physically put in the work. So you know what somebody looks like that dug a hole with a tractor, right? They've been sitting behind the, they've been sitting behind the gears over there, drinking beer, getting a beer gut, like being soft in the arms. You know the difference between someone who's done the work and someone who got something else to do the work for them and said they did the work, right? Like you noticed that. So we have a saying in our office like, hey, like, I dug this hole with a shovel and I got the

receipts and the body to prove it. And so what that means, it's not so much about, you know, having a physical thing, but it's like, you know, when somebody says, well, hello, darling, I'm, you know, working from home and, uh, because our building is under construction. And my one year old just snuck in here. Sorry about that. That's awesome, dude. I'll get just try to make things. You're good, man. I've got three kids. So if they, if they make an appearance, they make an appearance. So, uh, they're out of school. So, um, we have a huge, you know, I bought a 22,000 square foot, multiple story building for our office and is under construction. And so we are kind of displaced. My whole team's working from home. Anyway, back to the point here is here's what

happens, right? If I'm some young person and I'm impersonable, I'm not saying a person's dumb or whatever, but it's easy to make an impression on me if I'm a young person because I don't have the wisdom of someone that's 43, 45, 50 years old, right? So if I'm in my teens or my 20s and I see somebody saying, hey, I made $27 million getting 40 leads a day selling them BS stuff or blah, blah, blah, and I'm rich because of it. Look at my Lamborghini. I've been on private jets and all this crap that these people do, right? Then you think, why would I want to go and work at a car wash?

Why would I want to go be a greeter at a steakhouse? Why would I want to go do that when this kid over here is making millions of dollars? I want a shortcut. And the shortcuts, the hackers, the, you know, I love Russell Brunson and he's changed it lately, but trying to show people how to hack their way to success is the worst thing you can do for somebody. That's like showing somebody how to build a house and not teaching them how to lay a foundation. Like, yeah, you've got a beautiful house. But the second the wind huffs and puffs, it's going to blow over.

And so people, what happens is they think, I'm above that because it's easier. In America, we've been brainwashed through the media and Hollywood stuff. It's easy for them to go, yeah, I deserve, especially today's society, I deserve these luxury goods and all this rich stuff. I'm not going to put myself to the level of a job that quote unquote an immigrant or something like that would do. But what people don't pay attention to is these immigrants come over here and they do those jobs that nobody else wants to do. And within a generation, they're running shit. Nobody's even paying attention to what's going on. And the thing is when you're here and you don't appreciate that stuff, you think things are below you.

But what happens is it is below you, but you have to build a foundation below you before I could never run the companies that I run today with the work ethic that I have. today if I hadn't worked for minimum wage. When I first took my job, I made $3.85 an hour, right? Like my final job, like the last real job that I had where I got paid something other than commission, I made $10.50 an hour. So other than that, I've always wrote my own checks. But like literally, that was my last like salary or whatever you want. It wasn't even a salary.

I had to show up to get paid, right? But because of that, my janitors that work for me in my building, they know I'll clean the toilets. and they know that if they're not clean and I got to clean them, I don't need them. Right? Versus, oh, he makes us clean the tool. It's because he's above it. It's like, shit, if we don't do it, he'll do it.

And then he won't pay us to do it anymore, right? There's a difference in how people treat me as a leader because I'm willing to do that stuff. You know, there's a difference in how I'm perceived because I'm not above anything. Even today worth a whole bunch of money. I'm still not above that. Well, we, we travel privately a lot in jets, right? that's like one of the few i don't call it a luxury because i make money from it but it's one of the few luxuries that that i will pay for if i have to right but when we i borrow i don't own a jet so

it's none of that stuff i borrow one of my friends jets i got like four or five friends but i borrow it and pay for insurance gas pilots all that stuff right but like i get off of there and i clean the whole thing me and my crew clean the whole thing every piece of trash like we most people just leave that to the pilots and the staff right they're like oh i paid all this money, you know, you have to take care of me. And but the thing is, we're showing these, this is why my friends will give me their jets, because we're showing them that, hey, you give us something. We're going to bring it back to you better than we brought it to you. And so many people aren't that way. And what happens is everywhere we go, whether it's flying private,

or whether it's at a hotel event that we're at or whether it's in our own place, people see that we're not above doing that work. They see that the CEO, the CEO, the lead salesman that made a million dollars this year. All of us will still walk behind everybody and pick up trash, push chairs up. And what that does is that doesn't say, oh, what are they, they're doing the menial work. What happens is people say, man, that's leadership. Those dudes aren't afraid to do what needs to be done, whatever it takes. They're not overlooking anything. They truly do live by them core values they say.

Dude, that's fucking powerful, bro, because here's the thing. This reminds me of I played baseball at Louisiana State University, right? Division I baseball played two super regionals, playing the college World Series. 2003. And the biggest thing was is you better leave that fucking dugout cleaner than it was when you found it. No matter where you're at. It didn't matter if we were playing at Ole Miss, Auburn, or one of the hated

rivalers at University of Florida. We picked up the damn cups, man. It didn't matter. And so, and this whole story that you're telling right now is very parallel to sports because, and people that are very successful. Why would you stop doing the work that fucking got you all that money? everything that you got right now. It's not time to lay up off the gas.

It's time to continue to put the foot down on the gas, clean the damn toilets, show everybody else what leadership looks like. So, like, I love that story. And that is, that's a fact. Too many people get there and then just retreat from what got them there, right? And I think that's a big problem. There's a reason for that, right? So when God created this planet, you have to create governance on the planet.

Right. So there's the, in the Bible, for example, there's the seven-day system that he used, right? There's day one, he said, let there be light. Day two, right? So like day one, let there be light. That's speaking of vision. If you're thinking big here, right? Let there be light.

That's speaking of vision, right? So like, hey, let's give a vision for this planet. So there's governance on this planet that God created. I call it the force of average. Okay. And the force of average works like this. Like if you live a below average life, there is lots of social programs. people and everything else that will help you out.

For example, if you're homeless, let's say in California, there's people that will put money in your cup. Starbucks will give you free food or free coffee rather. You know, society will give you in San Francisco some places, even a place to live. You know what I mean? They give you free drugs, anything to just keep you average and off the streets, right? But then when you get shit on the sidewalk.

Exactly. Then you get average people and they can. get locked into their job, you know, they make a six-figure job and, and, you know, they're taking care of their family. They're living paycheck to paycheck, but they're getting by. Society loves those people. I mean, that is what the government loves. They're the easily controlled. They're the, it's easily budgeted for. It loves that. But what happens when you start chasing greatness, right? So below average and average is a pretty easy life, but when you start chasing greatness, what happens is you get attacked by the force of average. See, the force of average will lift you up.

living below average, it'll give you everything you need to stay happy and comfortable and the average. But when you chase greatness and you start ascending and you say, you know what, I don't want to be the same physicality as everybody else. I want to be in good shape. The force of average comes in and goes, man, you're really going to like these brownies that are sitting out at the counter. You're really going to start seeing all the food that you've ever never gave a shit about is all of a sudden going to be delicious because you can't have it. It's forbidden food all of a sudden, right? The force of average comes in and goes, you know what, if you just just eat one ice cream cone today.

I mean, it's no big deal. And what happens, some people, they go in, they lose a whole bunch of weight, 30 pounds, 30 days, 30 days later, they got 60 pounds back on. That's the force of average, right? The same in business, right? When we're chasing greatness, what happens is a lot of people, you know, hey, they have a breakthrough year. They make six figures.

They make seven figures. They have a breakthrough year. They take their foot off the gas. They stop doing the stuff that they used to do. And now on a sudden, they're like, I don't know. I had a great year that one time. I don't know what happened, right? For me, I understand that the force of averages are enemy.

And so the enemy is trying to distract me. It's trying to tell me, hey, you don't have to clean toilets anymore. You're above that. The moment I believe that, it's game over. The enemy is saying, hey, you don't have to write 5,000 words anymore. You've wrote enough words to last a lifetime. As soon as I believe that, it goes away. The enemy says, hey, you don't have to do podcast interviews or you don't have to do your own podcast.

You've already written 14 books. You can just take your foot off the gas, right? relax and rest on the lulls and the fruits of your labor the second that i believe that it's over with i have to stay on it because the things that got me here are going to get me there you see what the force of average does it gets people to lie to say what got you here won't get you there bullshit doing the work and being good now what got you here improved gets you there not what got you here changing it out for something else it's what got you here improved gets you there right that's what we're supposed to do is improve every single day and so if we know that we're being a

with distractions that are designed to keep us chasing greatness average, that what we have to do is understand that's a weapon and an enemy. What is our weapon and our power move that we can do to fight the enemy with? And that's where focus comes in. And when I say focus, I don't mean like staring at an eye chart trying to figure out what your prescription glasses is. What I mean is like having a vision and then chasing that vision relentlessly. But there's a catch to this.

While you're chasing that vision relentlessly, you have to understand that you have to be grateful for what you have right now while you're still chasing that vision that you have because if you don't understand what it's like to be humble and happy and have gratitude for everything even when you're going through the struggles that you're going through because the struggle never goes away it's just a million dollar struggle versus a ten dollar struggle it's still a struggle no matter what level you're at but what happens is when you start realizing that you're grateful for where you are right now while still in pursuit of what's next that's how you chase pure math mastery and happiness in life.

I'm telling you from firsthand experience. But so many people, they fail to do that because they get somewhere. They, oh, look. Oh, what got me here won't get me there. Let me switch it up and go here. And then it never gets them where they planned on going in the first place because they keep switching maps. Yeah, that's a great point, man, because the whole gratitude piece, you know, I think,

you know, as human beings, we can get stuck in, you know, comparing ourselves to other people, right? And that is the one dangerous. that is the most dangerous thing. That's fucking dangerous because what happens there is the gratitude is stripped. Your power is stripped. You are open to the enemy. Your force of average.

Or for Annie for sale, I like to say your bitch voice. That all just comes in and just hammers you. And then your internal temperature calls down to a point where you're just self-sabotaging. Like you're gaining back that 30 to 60 pounds. You're not doing the reachouts for your business or your sales career. you're not making any more money you're stuck at that 150 to 180,000s or maybe even backsliding to 125 you know and you got to explain to your wife like holy shit like I don't know what's going on

babe you know gratefully in my corporate sales career I've continued to go higher and higher and how hard because I am working and I don't know if this is a great choice of words but I'm going to say it I work in fear every single day I work in fear of me not chasing the man I'm supposed to be And so if there's a call I don't want to do, if there's an email I don't want to fucking write, if there's a phone call I don't want to make, that's the first thing I do when it's open for business. I'm getting that shit on and off my plate. What would you say to people that are struggling just doing that one thing?

Well, you know, first of all, the struggle, this is, I'm a big realist. I believe everything, there is a correlation to everything on this planet, natural and supernatural, right? And so the struggle, so many people spend their life avoiding it, therefore they never have a victorious life. And like, let's go back to the gym. Okay, because everything physical relates to everything mental, if you really think about it. So if I go to the gym and I don't struggle, there's a lady that works. There's a lady that works out with us.

I call her average. And I don't know her name. I just see her in the gym. She's always late. She never sweats. She never pushes herself. She's always making excuses and kind of backslide arguing with the coach that's in there, right? And that's like average, average person.

So she doesn't struggle, therefore, she's never getting the muscles. She's never getting stronger. She's doing the same. She doesn't have 10 years in the gym. She's got one year repeated for 10 years in a row, right? Or one day repeated for 10 years in a row. So for people who have to understand in the gym, the struggle makes you stronger. The more I push weight, the stronger I get.

the more my bones get density in them, the more I can lift the next time. So if I push myself and lift 100 pounds today, two weeks later, I might be able to lift 105 because that struggle at that hundred makes me stronger. Well, the same thing in life. When financial struggle comes our way, that's God giving you a puzzle for you to put the pieces together so that you gain the wisdom to go to the next level. It's not put there for you to go, God doesn't hand us problems so that you can go, oh, poor me, and then pray about it.

God gives us problems because it's an opportunity for you to provide a solution to a problem in your life that will allow you. Think of it as the cheat code for a video game. That problem, once you solve it, unlocks the next level of your life to where you go on to bigger and better things. But so many people, they run from that struggle. They run from the divorce that they need. They run from quitting that job and starting the business. They run from getting inside a church and getting plugged into a community. They run from the right relationships.

and they keep going back to the toxic people in their life. They run to that safety and security, but God didn't make us in his own image for us to be safe and secure. We're made here to manifest greatness. And the only way that you're going to do that is struggle. I'm telling you right here, I am very wealthy. I have more money than probably 10 generations of my family could spend at the current rate.

Like the interest alone from the money and the properties we have is more than we can spend that comes in every single month like clock. work. Why do I tell you that? Because every day of my life, it's been a struggle. I've been adopted. I've been in prison. I've been divorced. I've been on drugs. I've been off of drugs. I have had every damn struggle in my life. That's how I got strong, right? That's, I didn't get mentally strong because, you know, I just had everything handed to me on a silver platter. Life's all been peachy keen and everything else. No, no. I struggle every day right now. In this year, This is the biggest financial year of my life.

I wrote multiple seven figure checks to be able to grow to the next level. That might not sound like nothing to you. But like, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but. What you don't understand is. Is the bigger the bigger the problem, the bigger the solution. So even at this level, you don't look at me and say, oh, you know, you know, Stumann's worth all this money got all this money coming in and poor him. Even at this level, I'm still struggling to go to the next level because it, you know,

there's a guy named Elon Musk. who's at the top level right now and somebody's going to beat him eventually right and it's not just about money necessarily but i'm just saying in the money game there's somebody else light years that's proven that it's possible in the fitness game i just left mr olympia in las vegas on yesterday as a matter of fact there's people next level obviously in the fitness world they mean so that shows what's possible so again i say all that because so many people they get caught up in the mindset of the average but the truth is the struggle is what makes you stronger so when you start seeing things and say, hey, you know what?

This is a problem in my life. But instead of poor me, think when I solve this problem, it's more for me. Right? Like you have to understand that like this problem is here for this struggle is in my life to make me stronger. And you should celebrate those struggles because they bring wisdom. Dude, you're firing me the fuck up. Okay.

Because unlocking the next level when we talk about struggle, right? Everybody has their story. And I want to clarify it. I don't think that about you. I think, hey, everything's relative. Everybody's going through their shit. It doesn't matter if you're in your place or, you know, someone's a little bit lower.

Everybody is stretching themselves to get to that next level. So I appreciate that about you and I fucking respect it, right? The big thing, man, and I want to go to it because that's part of the story that really gravitated me towards you was in 2010 there was, well, you did go, like you said, you went to prison. And that impacted, that created your whole reinvention as far as I'm concerned, right? Like watching you and following you. You had a choice in 2010. It's like, fuck, I just closed 183 loans in 2009.

One of the more prolific mortgage producers on the planet. And now I can't get a fucking license. Like, to me, because this show is called the Determined Society. And I only had people on that are determined. So when I look at you, that is the moment right there. If I'm looking at you, that's what shows how determined you are. Can you walk us through that? So for the people that are listening,

that can actually hear that struggle and how you fucking came out of it? Yeah. So in 2005, the police raided my house, right? And let's say that they raided my house in June, which is, I don't know when it was, but let's just say, right? Well, in March of 2005, I had the biggest revelation still to this day in my life. And this is why it's important who you get around in life. So I got this chick living with me.

We ended up getting married down the road. But at this point in the story, she's my girlfriend, right? She lives with me, cute blonde girl. And I read this book called The Law of Success. Matter of fact, it is still here in this room somewhere. I should probably, yeah, it's right here. background purple book in the corner right there so anyway you i read that book and i jumped up on a coffee table in front of her we were in our living room of our house and i was like this is it

this book told me what to do i want to help people put this together i want to help motivate people inspire people and show people at the time i was i had just made a million dollars right like literally i was finally crossed the million dollars in earnings and i've done it in about a year and a half working in the mortgage business and I was flipping homes. It was during the subprime boom, so anybody could have made a million dollars with half a brain, right? I'm not saying that I was some wonder kid or anything, but I wrote that really well, right? And so here I am thinking, hey, this is my way to give back. I'm already teaching at seminars and stuff like that for, because that was how I recruited people. It's like, hey, come learn how to flip houses from a 21 year old or 20,

I guess I was 26 at that time from a 26 year old dumbass with a GED and then people would come and then I would do their loans for them as a loan officer, right? That was part of my funnel back then. So anyway, I'm jumping up, but this is my dream. This is my life. This is my calling. This is what I'm going to do. And she goes, who would want to listen to you?

I mean, you've made nothing but mistakes in your life. You've adopted prison. You've already been divorced once. Like, you think that's really what you want to do? And it was like, man, you ever like, was like, you kick your dog and they put their tail between their legs and they run off, right? It was like, you know, that's how I felt. It's like the person that's the closest to me. doesn't believe in me.

Damn. I can't blame it on, oh, it's because I'm this race or this gender or this sexuality. I got to, like, I'm a heterosexual, white male. I got to take that personally and do some inventory of why the person I'm with them and I can't blame them, you know? So June, house gets raided.

I end up, you know, getting charged with some, like some dumbass gun crime. And I beat the case. and then the feds picked it up and I ended up pleading out to it. It's a whole ridiculous thing. She divorces. We end up getting married. She divorces me while I'm in prison, takes everything.

My houses, my money, my stocks, sells it all by the time I got out. You know why I still got that book? Because dumb people don't mind your ass. No, that's the same book too, right? She took everything I had for my books. I literally got out of prison and all she left at my mama's house was a box full of books because dumb dumbs don't read, right? And those are the most valuable things that I have.

right like you know what those books got me those houses those books got me this empire that i've built so back to the point so i get out of jail i go 2007 to 2008 i get out of prison and i go back to work and my whole process is i'm approved to her that she was wrong and i'm just going to be the best loan officer and i'll get back into that and it wasn't that i wanted her back, it was just like, man, that person didn't believe in me and it shit on me in the worst way possible. I got to prove to myself they were wrong, right? So 2010 happens. Dodd-Frank comes along. They say, if you're a felon, you can't originate mortgages anymore, I'm out of the game. It was at that moment that God came back to me again five years later and said, this is your shot.

You blew it last time. I told you, I gave you the idea to go help people. You didn't do it. I had to put you in prison to separate you from the people you were with to separate you from the wife that you were stuck with that didn't believe you. I had to do it. This is your opportunity to do it again, right? All right. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to do it. I started a podcast before they were known what they were. And man, nobody listened to it. Like, I'd like to tell you was just like, hey, I blew up and blah, blah, blah. Nobody even knew what podcasts were back in 2010, right? But about two, and I kept doing it, and nobody listened for like six years, seven years, nobody listening.

And when I say nobody, like a couple hundred people in episode, right? 2017, 2018, it started to take off, right? Now we're at five million listeners. And I say that because in my life, God leaves clues. And it's my job now to pick them up as quick as possible. But I look in the past in that struggle, in that relationship, it made me stronger. That struggle losing my job gave me the opportunity to get stronger. I could be sitting here right now going.

woman broke my heart. I was wrongly accused and incarcerated for some stuff I didn't do. And then they took my license for me when I was getting my life back together. It just poor me. But instead, like you have the determined society, instead, I was determined to follow my life's calling. And listen, man, it wasn't easy. I'd like to tell you that I was one of these internet kids that, that I'm going to tell you just, I'm going to be honest with you.

You introduced me at the beginning of this podcast. You said one of the realest dudes I've ever, I've ever known. that's me. I am real, which means I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to tell you some shit that I haven't done. I'm not going to tell you that you can make 27 million and 27 days. I'm not going to tell you any of that stuff because that's not been the example that I live, right? My life's been nothing but hard, core struggle, after struggle, after struggle. But the mindset of, hey, no matter what, I've got problems, good. Problems are the great philosopher Puff Daddy said it best. Both problems, more money. That means the more problems you got, the more problems you got, the more money, you get an opportunity to get as well by solving those problems. Whereas most people go, oh, more problems, more money. It's more problems for me. When you understand the struggle makes you stronger, those problems are there for you to unlock to go to the next level, like I said. So, you know, it wasn't like some story of just me blowing up. It was, here's what I know. They say, if you just make 1% improvement a day, you got 365% improvements at the end of the year, right?

some of us started below zero so it might have taken seven or eight years of one percent per day of improvement just to get back to normal and then grow from there i feel like that's kind of my situation because i've been doing this for almost 13 years now but here's the here's the thing that nobody else has that i have nobody none zero anybody else in the game 13 years or longer ain't got this i got zero one-star reviews i've never been on the rip-off report i don't got pissed off ex customers who say I stole from them and didn't do what I said I was going to do. I don't have investors I own money to. I don't have partners that I've screwed over and stole from.

None of that exists. I'm one of the most famous entrepreneurs alive today. It's crazy to think that, but I'm one of the most famous in the space entrepreneurs alive with three ex-wives and ain't nobody come out and saying bad things about me or things that I did or any because it don't exist. It don't exist. And that's, ladies and gentlemen, a struggle in itself that's, I've had to fight every day to get stronger.

To always do the right thing. Do you know what the fuck that's like? Most of you've never done it, right? But I'm telling you for 15 to 20 years now, I've been making the right decisions. And they're always the hardest, the hardest thing to do is always the right thing. But that struggles made me strong. You know, that struggles. There's not too many problems you can't throw my way that I'm unable to fix.

That's what people love about you, first and foremost. The other thing, man, is I have one ex-wife and I know how hard it is to navigate that shit. So, you know, the fact that what you just said is your reality is amazing. I want to touch on something because it would be terrible of me not to address it. You mentioned God spoke to you again and said, you didn't listen to me last time. I had to put you in jail to remove me from the people in that ex-wife. wife you have that doesn't believe in you.

Brother, that right there, audience, people that are listening, please hit stop, write that down, rewind it five more fucking times and listen to it because the thought was and the statement was God did that for him. He wasn't wrong for being put in prison, being put in prison. And that is the main, that is the mindset. That's the paradigm shift. It's powerful, man. There's a story.

there's my favorite story in the world ever ever told there's you know the story jesus and all that's great but if we're being real my favorite story is and our favorite stories are always the ones that we can relate to the most right but in the bible in the book of genesis it tells the story about a guy named joseph now this isn't jesus's father joseph this is a different guy joseph when he was young he was his father's favorite he goes out hunting i'll give you the paraphrase here. He goes out hunting for the day with his brothers. They end up selling them into slavery. They sold him to a slave trader because they were jealous of them. Joseph commits to being a man of excellence, even as a slave, and goes and becomes the most favored slave. He works for this guy

named Potipher, who is like a general in the war, right? A general in the army for Egypt. And so Potiphar, very powerful man. Maybe he's like a general or a governor. Joseph becomes his right-hand man, simply because even though he was sold into slavery, he chose to do the work. He chose to operate with excellence. Well, Potipher's wife accuses Joseph of trying to rape her. They throw Joseph in jail. He loses favor with Potiphar. In jail, two guys get arrested. They're the cook and the cup bearer for the, for Pharaoh, who's the president, the king of Egypt, right? So he's Potipher's boss. These guys, they say they're thrown in there because they refuse to to relate a dream, like to interpret a dream for the Pharaoh. Joseph listens to it, comes

with what the dream means goes to Pharaoh ends up working for Pharaoh becomes the most second-hand man the most the most the what was the most powerful man in Egypt behind the king behind the Pharaoh he's like the right-hand man to the freaking king and the the area goes through a famine his brothers and his fathers show up as representatives from the town that they're from asking Egypt for more grain and stuff to feed their animals to transport back. They're sitting in the room and they didn't even recognize Joseph because he's all grown up and everything else, right? And at the end of it, he says, I'm going to give you guys what you need, but do you remember

who I am? And they're like, oh, my God, it's Joseph, right? He goes, what you guys meant for evil, God meant for good. And that statement right there, what you meant for evil, God meant for good. She meant to break my heart, but God did it because I got better now. society and the government did it to break my spirit, but I didn't and I got better now. But the struggles that this world gave to me, God did it for me. The world may have done it against me, but God did it for me knowing that when I get,

I have the capability. That doesn't mean that as a human I choose to do it, but I have the capability, which I choose to do the work. And that always has been that thing that, hey, you know what, that made me the government, the people that broke my heart, my enemies meant it for evil. but God did it to make me better, stronger, bigger, faster, whatever. Man, I love that, Ryan. You know, like, that's something that right now, I think, in society that we struggle as a whole to really realize right now.

There's nothing in this world that was ever made that is beautiful without some type of pressure, right? You got diamonds. You've got, you know, just like you said, multiple times with fitness, you have to break down in order to get stronger. I mean, that's just the way it is. You have to be in pain. You have to tear your muscle fibers. You have to fucking sweat. You can't just be there going through the motions.

And like you said, all the physical work translates into the mental work as well. Everything in our lives can be broken down in that hour and a half or however long you spend in the fucking gym or not. Because those habits are going to translate to your work habits to how you show up as a a husband to how you show up as a father or a dog owner. I don't give a shit if you own birds. It doesn't fucking matter. But the bottom line is, is if you do not work hard there, it is going to translate into other areas of your life.

It's all connected, man. I mean, if we could just get better as a society at that, like, that's a fucking start. Well, you know, it works like this. We used to in schools, right, where they brainwash people. That's what schools are. they're not education, they're brainwashing people, brainwashing our children. We used to brainwash them into being athletic, strong, tough, macho, right?

That was what society brainwashed them into, right? We would brainwash them into doing the work. Hey, I don't care if you're skinny. You're on the C team on football, but get your ass out on the cleats, right? Like, get your pads on, right? Oh, you're tall and skinny good. You play basketball. I don't care that you can't jump.

We're going to make you work with everybody else. Oh, you can't do that. You're a boxer now. Like they used to push people into athletic abilities. Yeah. Somewhere around 15 or 16 years ago, they said, oh, well, you know, we'll put them in PE. And then PE isn't anything. And then somewhere they said, oh, we don't even need the minimum athletic requirements anymore.

They can just take educational stuff. So people don't understand that. And what that does is that creates you as a great recurring income source for big pharma down the road. The fucking 100%, dude, 100%. Yeah. When we're, I mean, I'm 44. You're around the same age. Right.

Like, we grew up in that same area as you mentioned. Yeah. So, dude, there used to be in PE. Like, when I was in sixth grade, there was tests. And I'm not talking about just to sit and reach with a pull-up test. That was fucking, that was hard, man. Sixth grader doing pull-ups, that was tough. And we were competitive.

And we were competitive. We wanted to beat the other kids. Yeah. Yep. Hey, what'd you run the mile in? Hey, what'd you run the super lap in? All that's week. I did it this.

Like, it was, it was a society of competitive. competitive motherfuckers. Now it's, that's completely stripped away. Like there's, everybody gets a trophy now. We're not keeping scoring little league games, which as a baseball drives me fucking crazy.

Like, dude, these kids are keeping score in the dugout. You know, these literally commissioners and, you know, parents say, well,

we just want them to have fun. Yeah, fucking no shit. I want my kid to have fun too. But I want them to understand. There's something on the line. And these motherfuckers are counting runs. in the in counting runs in the dugout hey my kid comes to me hey dad i think we're winning six

four i was like okay okay and when you think that's enough you know but fuck yeah it is fuck yeah it is it's not it's not fun to be in little league and get your ass kicked and someone get you a trophy or a snack at the end of the day and tell you it's okay i used to have to fucking and losing that car with my dad no fuck yeah man like getting into the car after a bad game with my getting in the car with my dad. When I want to say, hey, ride home of your pops, fuck. Like, I struck out twice. Like, I'm, I'm toast when I get in that truck.

I'm toast. You know, and, you know, a lot like you, it created a perfection complex. You know, and I had to, you know, Friday night when everybody's out party and getting drunk at the, you know, high school parties, I'm sitting in my garage hitting off the baseball tea to my hands blood. Yeah. That was my life. That's what I did.

But look, man, we got to land the plane here. We're coming up on 45 minutes. Listen, I want my audience to be able to connect with you. If they don't already know about you, what are some ways they can connect with you on social and that also take advantage of buying one of your 14 books and possibly working with you? Best thing is on social is Instagram and Facebook. That's really where I'm active. It's the profiles with the blue check hardcore closer on Instagram and Facebook.

It's real Ryan Stumman. you know my books are all on amazon so i appreciate you saying that really what i would encourage people if you got something from what i said today and you want to win against the force of average i offer something free called the g code and the g codes four things that people live by on a daily basis so instead of saying you want to make a million dollars a year we get serious you make you make three thousand dollars a day right then you got to go to bed knowing whether you played all in or not and so basically we break it down to a day you get four points up to you four points in the day. You should be able to get 100 points or more a month, right? That's how you

keep on the street. 100% free, nothing for sale, nothing like that. Just go to gcodechallenge.com, read the rules, sign up for the software. Again, it's free. There's not, I literally got nothing to sell you or anything like that. But start getting those four points a day. And I'm just going to show you something here, like how serious I am about this because this isn't just something I made up. You're looking at this right here. My score is 4198. I've been doing this. for 1,250 days with 643 days without even missing a second or a beat. The most successful people in my company and my clients all have 1,000 plus scores because they've spent a whole entire year developing themselves on this.

So if there's anything that I could give you that would help make 2023 and beyond the best years of your life is to get plugged into the Gcode. Go to Gcodechallenge.com. I love it. I just downloaded the Gcode actually earlier today. I come across it. I'm jacked up to get started on it. So guys,

they're listening, girls, definitely he doesn't ask you for any information on there. So don't worry, don't flip out, download, go to the G-Co challenge and dive in. This is about personal development.

That's what this is about and holding yourself accountable and do the fucking work. So Ryan, man, I really appreciate you, bro. And I can't wait to connect with you further.

And this has been an impactful show. And I just know my audience got the most out of it. So I appreciate you, buddy. Cool. Thanks for having me, Big Doug. You got it, brother. Peace.