Disclaimer: Transcripts were generated automatically and may contain inaccuracies and errors.

---

If I wake up in the morning and money isn’t the primary driver of why I make decisions, what different decisions might I make? That was a scary and adventurous place to be, and I’ve now been able to live in that space for the now better part of almost eight years now to where I wake up and the decisions that I make are not driven by how much money do I have to make?

How do I pay these bills at the end of the month? How do I put food on the table? Because that’s the freedom. That’s the freedom that has come from building a portfolio of real estate that has many advantages, one of which is cash flow. What would your life look like if you could replace all of your working income with simple and conservative investments that could do it for you?

Over the last 13 years, we’ve helped thousands of clients transact over half a billion dollars in simple and conservative real estate transactions, allowing them to begin replacing their work income with real estate investment income. Each week we’ll be pulling back. Written on the ins and outs of real time retirement based real estate transactions that will transform your financial future even if you have no real estate experience.

This is Replace Your Income with me, Kevin Clayson and Steve Earl. All right, well, hello everybody and welcome to Replace Your Income with Kevin and Steve. How’s it going, Kevin? Good. Hey, I got worried about your first second because I, uh, I said Kevin, and, and then there was a silence. I didn’t know if you fell asleep.

I maybe you haven’t had a Red Bull yet, Steve. What’s, Is that the deal? Is that what’s going on? Kevin, I think there just me must be a little bit of a delay here on the squad cast that we’re doing here today. Okay. Okay, let’s go with that. Cause that about as quick as I have ever responded. What’s going like

Hey man, it’s gonna be with you. I’m so glad we’re back recording. It’s been a minute. I feel like we say that often, but, uh, we’ve got an amazing episode today. Before we get to our incredible guest, Steve, what’s going on in your. Well, you know, uh, there’s a lot going on, but, uh, in reality I think you got something more exciting than anything going on.

Um, you’re taking off this afternoon with your family to go do something fun. What is it you’re doing again? It’s like, I don’t even know if you work around here anymore. You’re always gone. You’re always traveling. Yeah. You’re always vacationing. I don’t know what’s up with it, but tell us what, what you’re doing this afternoon.

Yeah, I try to load you up with as much as possible so that I can go play. I feel like it’s working out well. I feel like it’s freaking out. We are headed to the happiest place on earth, the Disneyland. We are heading to Disneyland. I’m taking my kids and I’m super excited, Steve, because you know my youngest Brody, he is a massive fan of the cars, movies.

Do you remember the cars movie? Oh yeah. And the last time we went to Disneyland, he was not big enough to remember cars land or to go on the cars ride. And so I’m, he is like just so excited. I was asking him, I was like, Hey buddy, you know, we have these, uh, we have these monitors in our car and we could like download movies.

To watch on the way. Um, I would just have conversation with my children, but I don’t wanna do that. So I just put on a movie. It’s a great babysitter. Um, it’s, but they learn way better principles from Disney movies than from me anyway, let me tell you. . Uh, but I was like, Buddy, what do you wanna watch? He’s like, I wanna download all the cars, movies.

And so I thought that that was pretty cool. So he is really, really excited. Um, we’re, we’re really excited just to get away. I love Disneyland. I don’t think I’ve talked too much about on the podcast, but I. And, uh, I don’t love some of the things that they’ve been doing lately, but you know, it’s still the happiest place on Earth, so we’ll roll with it.

Yeah. , I, I don’t hold it against yet. I think you’re gonna have a fun time. Oh, thanks. You know, speaking of fun, we have one heck of a fun guest today. Now, I gotta tell you guys on the podcast today, this is like such a special treat because not only. Is the individual coming on the podcast today? Somebody who I consider a very close friend of mine, but he is also somebody I consider a hero of mine, somebody that I look up to, that I that, that I look at what he accomplishes and how he goes about in this world doing good.

I look at what he’s done from a business standpoint, what he’s done from a real estate standpoint, and we’ll kind of lay the whole story down. But what’s amazing about our guests, Is the first time we met Ryan Lee was thinking about his financial future and he came to an event that we did years ago.

Like this is what I don’t know, right? Like 12, 13 years ago, Something like that. And he came and watched an event and made a decision after kind of talking or after hearing about some of the real estate that we talk about. He made a decision and today he is 100. And 50000000000% financially free. Owns an incredibly thriving business, owns a ton of real estate, is just getting ready to go buy additional real estate.

Totally free and clear. He is the owner and founder of an amazing company called Cashflow Tactics, which, uh, we’ve worked with a lot of cash flow tactics, clients, cash flow tactics. The business is incredible. Here’s a guy who walked away from a six figure job to command his own financial future because of real estate and because of the principles that he espouses, that he believes, and that he teaches to others.

And now, uh, as the founder and owner of Cash Flow Tactics, this is an amazing company that takes very principle based approach to helping people. Keep more of their money, save money on taxes, generate wealth and income so that they can walk away from their job as well. And he is just a, an incredible personal friend of mine.

Ladies and gentlemen, my friend, my hero, one of the best dudes you’ll ever meet. And an incredible just human as well as podcast guests, the one and only Ryan Lee. Dang dude, Kevin, that was, man, I’m gonna remind me to send the check, man, that that was like over the top introduction. I appreciate that Kevin, and honestly, it’s been, today is a tremendous honor to talk to you and to your audience because man, I feel like I started with you guys when you guys were just starting out and you helped me see a brand new world and the crazy part about it, you know, before I met you, I had never even had the thoughts.

That I could be financially free in a condensed period of time, but you guys planted a seed in my mind that became an obsession that became not only an obsession or reality and I’m, I’m excited to kind of walk through that story with you guys today. Oh, that’s, that’s awesome. So it’s just such a pleasure to have you, you know, Steve and I, you know how much we think of you and your company and your clients, cuz we work with a lot of your clients.

And, um, it’s just such an honor. I just gotta tell Ryan, so I gotta tell a couple stories to kind of lead this podcast off and then we’re gonna get into your story. Okay. So the first story that I want to. Is, I want to tell how Ryan and I got reconnected. Now here’s what you guys need to understand. So Ryan came to a seminar years ago.

I remember Ryan and I sitting down in my office kind of talking about his game plan and talking about things as he was starting to buy some real estate. And we’ll talk about his real estate here in a minute. And then honestly, I, I knew Ryan was out doing real estate. I knew he’d started a business. I did not know what was happening in Ryan’s story.

Okay. I didn’t know, like we, you know, we just kinda lost touch. I was kind of watching you from a distance, Ryan, but then I just, you know, we just kind of lost touch and I just knew you were out there getting after it. I didn’t know what, So then I go to an. I think this was 2019. Um, it’s a marketing event that I love to go to called Funnel Hacking Live.

And, uh, Ryan and I get to interact with a lot of really amazing people in the Click Funnels community and in the funnel hacking community. And, um, I go to this event, this Click Funnels Funnel Hacking Live event, and I hear Ryan’s name and I was like, Right. I’m sitting in the audience. Okay. And this is like, there’s like four or 5,000 people in the room, okay?

The only people that are touching that stage are people that are wildly successful. Like not just, I made a fail today, but like incredibly successful. Okay? Multi multimillion dollar success stories. And I’m sitting there and I hear Ryan’s name and I’m like, Wait, Ryan is there, Is there two of you? Like this?

Can’t be Ryan Lee. Like Ryan Lee. And he comes out on the stage, he and his business partner, Brad Gibb, and they started to talk with the owner of Click Funnels, Russell Brunson. And I was like, I felt like I was in an alternate reality. I was like, this is like, this is Ryan. Ryan. Like holy, this is freaking Ryan.

Like I couldn’t believe, not that I’d ever. Doubted your ability to go and just smash everything, but I just didn’t know what you’d been up to. Right. And so to see on that stage, I was like, it was like this moment of. It’s almost hard to describe because I was so thankful to know you, so incredibly proud of what you’d accomplished, but also feeling this kind of comparison deficit, like, holy cow, I, man, I, I would give my left arm to be able to, to be on that stage and have somebody talk about our business the way that Ryan’s business is being talked about.

And it was just this whole weird mix of emotions. And it was as a result of that, Ryan, that you and I reconnected, we started to talk and now here comes the second story and then I’m gonna, This is one of my favorite stories about you, Ryan. So, uh, Ryan and I were having lunch at a wonderful Mexican place called Maria Bonita.

How did I do with that? We should go to Maria Bonitas right after we get done with this podcast. Like some of that sounds good. Hey, you guys speak, You guys both speak Spanish. So how did I do Maria Bonita? That I didn’t pass that . Um, and uh, a little bit of a German accent to it though there,

Um, so we’re, we’re sitting and having some, some delicious Mexican food at this amazing restaurant, Maria Bonita, which is right down the street from our office here at D f. There’s a group of individuals that come into the, the restaurant and they are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Um, which happens to be the faith that Steve and I are and that Ryan is. And, uh, all of us have actually served our respective missions for, for our church had been those guys in white shirts with name badges, right. and all of these missionaries come into the restaurant and they’re sitting in the back room and they’re just having, They’re just having lunch.

Ryan calls the server over as he and I are finishing up our meal. He calls over the server and he says, Hey, all those missionaries that just came in, please use this card and pay for all of their lunches. The server was shocked. So was I. Ryan paid for this entire group of missionaries lunch, and here’s the best.

Ryan didn’t go over and say, Hey, I just bought you a lunch. What do you think? Nope. Ryan just walked out. He just wa That is, if you guys wanna know the kind of human that Ryan Lee is. I just gave it to you. Yes. He’s accomplished a lot in business and real estate. He’s successful in money and in entrepreneurship.

But he is a successful human being. He’s a wonderful father, and, uh, just an incredible guy. So with that all out of the way, Ryan, take us back to the moment when you decided to come to that first seminar and share with us your story. Thank Kevin. Um, man, that was, that was a powerful introduction again, dude, and I appreciate it because, you know, here’s, here’s my belief about life.

Um, I believe that in life we have an opportunity to make an impact. An impact on other people’s lives. And the fact that I get an opportunity to tell my story with the two of you on this podcast together is pretty amazing. Because my story started with you, you had an impact on me, and that Ripple has now rippled out over my entire life.

It’s changed the trajectory of my life and, uh, to, to have an opportunity to pay that forward to other people is just a small token of appreciation to you and who you guys are. Kevin, you know, look, man, when, when I started my professional path in life, you know, I’ve got kind of a, a funny story if we wanna take it all the way back, but I’m, I’m a high school dropout, right?

I never, you know, school for me was a difficult place to be. I, I, I had big dreams, I had big ambitions. Um, and I didn’t drop outta high school to, to chase big dreams or big ambitions. I dropped outta high school cause I was a stupid teenager. But when I got my head back on my shoulders, You know, all the social conditioning that I grew up with that was surrounded me, it just kicked in.

And I didn’t even question that reality. And the reality was, you go to school and you go to school to get a job, and you get a job. So you can work hard and you work hard. So you can save a lot of money and you save a lot of money. So you can put it in a 401k and after all those things work, then one day at the end of that yellow brick road, you are gonna be able to retire.

I didn’t even know what that meant, but that was the path that I found myself on. And uh, you know, like so many people. I didn’t even question that reality and that re that, that belief system around money and around the path led to the actions that I took and about four years outta college. You know, I found myself in a really precarious position, right?

Four years outta college. 2008 happened, and I remember leading into 2008, I had about a hundred thousand dollars in my 401k. I had no idea what that meant, but somehow I thought I was on track. And after, you know, 2008, I watched that 401k drop pretty much like a rock, right? I mean, it went from a hundred thousand dollars to, at the, its lowest point.

I hit 28,000. And I remember, I remember that was my first reality check, right? My, my first reality check was, Man, this isn’t working. I don’t know how to correct that. And the more I searched for answers, the more I found empty spaces. Right? There were no answers. It was just wait longer, work harder. Right.

And, you know, on the tell end of that, um, about two months later, um, I had the second and probably the greatest awakening of my life, um, you know, I was a father at that time. I’d married my beautiful sweet hearts, uh, that I met in college. We’d been married for. Three years, um, and four years, excuse me. And we had a three year old son.

And you know, as I was climbing the corporate ladder with the intention of making a lot of money and saving a lot of money and retiring and all the things, um, I thought that if I worked harder and saved more, maybe, maybe I could retire early. That was kind of my ambition and goal is to retire in my fifties.

That was what I was hoping for. Right. And 2008 called into question whether that was even. But then shortly after that, man, um, every climb in the corporate ladder, it came with little trade offs. And I didn’t recognize those trade offs in the moment, but I certainly saw them when this time came around.

But every trade off for me was bigger territory, more travel, more time away from family, more stress, all think. I found myself living in a different state twice in my career, but in this particular moment, I lived in a different state than my family and I commuted in and out, right? I flew out on Sunday night to work up in Indianapolis, and I came home sometimes on Friday, sometimes on Saturday, and you can imagine what kind of a father and a husband I was, Uh, tired, just, you know, stressed out, overworked, uh, definitely underpaid.

All the things that go along with. And I just thought that was what you had to do. Um, but I got a, a call from my wife and I’m an up in, up in Indianapolis, and she told me that my three year old son. Who was born with a heart defect and we knew about it, but I’m an optimist and I thought he would grow out of it cuz the doctor said that might be a possibility.

And she called me on the phone and she said, Hey Ryan, um, Doug needs an emergency open heart surgery. And man, at that moment, Kevin, like, I literally, I mean I, you know, I don’t question. My life to that extent, as much as, as much as I did in that moment. But I felt like a failure all across the board, and I didn’t know how to fix it.

I was stuck, man. Um, I felt like a failure as a father, as a husband, as a provider. Like everything that was on my shoulders I was failing at. And I, you know, I, I got on a plane. I flew back home, Spent the next couple of weeks in the hospital with my son. He recovered. He’s strong. You, you got to go out to dinner with him, with, uh, me and him a couple weeks ago.

Stronger, smarter. Um, just a wonderful young man, stronger, smarter than I am in every way. Grateful for him. He’s 16 now and working hard making pizzas, right? Yeah. Now, now he is, he’s flipping the pizzas, uh, down here at, uh, uh, pizza joint here, local, but. Man in the hospital, I felt like Doug, my son, had been given a second chance, but I also felt like I had been given a second chance.

It was time for me to figure out this thing called life, and as much as I resisted it, I knew that it centered around money. I was trading my time, my sanity, my health, my relationships and everything I cared about for money, and I had to figure out a way to take control over my money. To buy my life back, to buy my time back, to buy my sanity back.

And that led me on a pretty interesting path. But I’m really grateful because it landed me in your office learning an entire new paradigm around what money is, what it represents, and how you can use it to build and live a life that matters. So any time I hear your story, and I don’t think I remembered what you’d been going through with, with Doug and that whole process, and he is such an incredible young man, I mean, An amazing kid.

Just super inquisitive, smart. Just a good kid and you’ve done such a good job with all your kids, but what an incredible story. And that is some, you know, I, I always say that everybody has their own rock bottom, right? Like, sometimes we sit back and we try to judge other people’s rock bottoms. Like sometimes it could be because of substance, sometimes it could be because of financial ruin.

That’s kind of, for me, I, I had two rock bottoms, right? I, I had a divorce and I had financial ruin, right? And, and that’s probably, there’ll probably be more. Um, but, uh, the choice, and this is one thing that I, I. Think is important for the audience to understand because if you look at the trajectory of what Ryan’s been able to accomplish since then, and we’ll kind of dive into that here in a second with what the real estate portfolio looks like.

But you had a choice in that moment, and I think that so often that choice that we have, maybe sometimes that choice seems. Incredibly difficult to make, but even when we choose to do nothing, we’re still making a choice, right? And I, I think that’s something that not a lot of people understand When we get to that rock bottom place or we get to that place where we don’t know, should I go buy a place of property?

Do I need to do something financially when we choose to not act? That is still a choice. It is still a signal to the universe or to God or to the world, or to our own financial wellbeing that, that we are making a conscious choice to not. And then we are surprised when we don’t see the results that we thought, because maybe we’re not active because we’re skeptical.

Maybe we’re not active because we’re worried about what the real estate market’s going to do. Maybe we’re not acting because we’ve seen that interest rates have increased. Maybe we’re not acting because we feel like the tax scenario with the current administration is not gonna go in our favor or whatever it is.

There’s always reasons to not act. That not acting. We sometimes, I think, let ourselves off the hook, right? We’re like, Yeah, I’m just gonna sit and wait. I’m just gonna wait. I’m just gonna wait it out. We are making a conscious decision to say, I do not want to affect my immediate future. I wanna sit back and wait it out.

And that is something that, for you, Ryan, it would’ve been so easy. Yes. You were at a rock bottom, but you definitely could have made the decision to just slide into a place of, All right, status quo, all the, I’m just gonna figure it out. I’m gonna grind it out. But you made a different decision. You made a decision to come to the office.

Why was it that you came to the office? What was it that made you say, Okay, I need to do something different, and maybe real estate might be the pathway? Yeah, man, that’s a great question. And here’s the principle that I live by. Um, I believe our freedom requires our stewardship, right? And the greatest stewardship we have is over our choices that we make and our choices that we make lead to the outcomes of our life.

And if we feel like we’re a victim of our life, it’s because we’re not making choices to be a victor. So after that couple weeks in the hospital, I decided to go down a very scary path of alternative finance, right alternative. And man, that led me on a roller coaster, right? I thought the stock market sucked, man.

I went to alternative finance and that was a bigger roller coaster with higher highs and much lower lows. You know, over the next couple of months I probably threw money in all kinds of different scenarios. I thought, uh, Jim Kramer. You know, the baseball bat. Dude, I thought he was my best friend. I was following that guy and trying to make all the trades.

I bought some foreign currency, the Iraqi dinar, cuz I thought that was gonna be the pathway. Whatever. Right? I’ll do thing. Hold on, wait a second. Ryan, I dare you. I, I gotta just tell the, this sidebar. Okay. In the early days of our company, you know, we would fly people in to kind of get to know our company.

And I remember we had this guy that flew in and he was so deep in the dinar and he came, I don’t know if you remember this, Steve, He came with a suit. Handcuffed to his arm full of Dinar and then he us somehow leaving the suitcase at our office when he flew home. But anyway. Did you leave in the office if his handcuff, I’m still waiting.

I had somebody come and give me a $20,000. Uh, You know, note for Dinar and I, cuz I would always make fun of Danar not, and listen, look, not that against it. Like there was a maybe a shot of something there. There’s a lot of content. But this guy came into my office because I was so sort of antiar and sort of positive to on real estate as something more tangible.

He came in and he brought me a $20,000 note, Danar note, and he slammed it on my desk and he said, This right here is either going make you a bunch of money or prove me a fool. And I think it’s gonna make you a bunch of money. , do you have any phrase? I still, it’s, Hey, listen, it has been a great bookmark.

It’s been great. It’s been great. You’ve been a great bookmark. But dude, I tried all that stuff, man. And, and you know, the, here’s the biggest thing that I came away with, and it goes right back to where, what you just said of making choices like I could. I could not predict the outcome. I could not impact the outcome of something I did not have control over.

And so I was searching and searching and searching, and I think the answer was always in front of me. I was scared to look at it. And I picked up that crazy little book called Rich Dad Poor Dadd. Um, and I remember the very first thing I read in that book shifted my entire. Thought process that I could not save my way to financial freedom, right?

And that then led me down this pathway of maybe real estate and cashflow is the way to go. But again, I found myself in a very dangerous spot because I went out and I bought three properties. And I’ll be honest with you, Kevin, the first time I bought my first property, I kind of walked around with my chest puffed out, and I said, I’m a real estate investor.

I had no idea what that meant. I owned a piece of real estate. And to get that real estate, it required a decent amount of time, effort, and energy and thought process. But it was my first one. I went out and I did it again and again. I’m by the third property, Kevin, Dude, I remember coming home, it was over Mother’s Day weekend, and I was literally hyperventilating, like I was sick to my stomach.

Because I now had three properties and what I refused to acknowledge until this moment is I now had two jobs, right? For every property that I bought, it required finding a property, rehabbing it, renovating it, um, securing a tenant, managing the tenant, collecting the rent, dealing with infections, dealing with repairs.

And here’s the reality. I sucked at every single piece of those, you know, every single step in there I sucked at. And if you really looked at it, I basically had a part-time low paying job in real estate thinking I was on the path to financial freedom. So, you know, a few months into this thing I’m realizing, holy crap, man, there is no possible way I can be free.

I can’t figure this out. Everything I’m doing, I either don’t have control over, and if I do have control over it, I’m spending a lot of time to get an outcome that may or may not ever lead me to what I want. And I’m not a very big, um, Radio AM listener, right? I have very rarely. I mean, this was kind of back at before the days of podcast, and I don’t wanna date myself, but I remember I got back home from a business trip, you know, it was late one night.

Um, I’m driving home from the airport and I flip it on a local Utah, you know, station ksl. And there is an advertisement for this seminar to do real estate to become financially free. And I, you know, my mind was now attuned to this. I’m searching, I’m searching, I’m search. And for whatever reason, it piqued my interest.

Now, Kevin, you said some really nice things about me and you made it sound like I’m social. I’m the most antisocial person ever, . I’m, I’m a very big introvert and to go to a seminar like literally made me want to puke in the back of my mouth, but I’m like, Dude, I gotta figure this out. So I go to a seminar.

I can’t even remember where it was. It was a pretty small little seminar. I mean, I think it was right when you guys were first starting. There was probably 20, maybe 30 people in there. I sat in the back of the room, I pulled my hat down low, folded my arms. That was way too cool to be in there, even though I had no idea what I was doing.

And, uh, the crazy part is during that seminar, everything that was said, spoke, not to my head, but to my heart. Everything that was said was exactly what I wanted, and it came from the stage, but where it really came from is it came from the people in that room. I started hearing stories of other people in that room who were doing the thing that I wanted to do, and I realized there was nothing special or unique about them.

They were just doing it radically different than I was doing it. That land then landed me in your office a couple days later where I had an opportunity to see a possibility for my life, which today I call a game plan. But you showed me what would your life look like, feel like, and be like if. You bought real estate but didn’t do the work.

Now, that was a radically new concept to me that someone else might have expertise in the world of real estate. I might want to run a business where they could find property, rehab, property renovate, property managed property, and sell it to the end user, which would be me. And the work that I was doing would be cut down like by, I don’t know, a hundred percent, 99.

But I could own and control the property. This then really outlined and opened up a possibility for me that maybe real estate could be the pathway, because I could do it in a way, and I don’t like the word passive, but I could do it in a way where I could maximize my expertise, which is managing, being a steward over a portfolio and paying other people to do work really well.

And because I’m paying them, maybe I could hold them to a standard. A standard of excellence because their business is my real estate man. This set me off on a path that over the next couple of years, I went from those three properties to 16. And it opened up a whole bunch of doors that were always there.

But again, our perception determines our reality. I couldn’t see those doors. I couldn’t see those possibilities until I had the casual flow coming in. And man, that gave me confidence to look at the world and what was possible for me in a different way. So that’s how my real estate journey got going. And I remember.

Even to this day, I think you’re coming out with a book, you and Steve on it, but I remember how simple you made the game of real estate. I mean, you took something that I thought was this complex, big, scary monster and said, What if you could just do stupid success swinging singles? Now maybe you didn’t say stupid, but that’s how I thought about it.

Like a brain dead guy like me. Uh, high school dropout could actually be successful in real estate doing simple, successful. Like, what’d you call it? Stupid simple success swinging singles. Like if all you did is get up there and ra, rather than trying to knock it outta the park, you just try to get on base.

And if you got on base and got on base and got on base before you know what you’re driving and runs, one hit at a time, one single at a time. So my obsession became three bedroom, two bath homes in middle America and doing it with a team. And that’s what I’ve done ever since. Right. And that’s, that’s awesome.

I love what you described there because you described what we, we kind of explained to people all the time that there’s no way. Of getting around the pain of real estate because investing in real estate is painful. Mm-hmm. , and it oftentimes becomes that second job. And at the end of the day, like that was the premise.

That was the theory upon which then for real estate was based. Right. And the idea that we could remove most of the pain. You know, even with everything that we do for clients, there’s always a little bit of pain involved because it is a physical asset. You still have evictions, you still. You know, months where you might not get rent or repairs and that kind of a thing, but the fact that somebody else professional is handling all of that for you and you get to hold them to a standard is huge.

And what it does is it empowers individuals, regular people who are doing their thing. They’re busy being doctors or dentists or lawyers or school teachers or firefighters or whatever it is that they do, and they get to continue to do that and do that really well. And still invest in real estate without all of the time, effort, and resources and expertise that it takes to invest in real estate.

So I love that story. I love the fact that it, it just so perfectly illustrates the power of what it is that, uh, we’re striving to, to offer our clients. Isn’t it crazy when your business mission actually makes a difference in the people that you serve? I. Dude, that’s exactly what you did for me. You gave me a new and renewed hope that I could do real estate without doing real estate.

That I could own real estate and control real estate without having to know the nuts and bolts and the ins and the outs. Because, man, I’ll tell you what, there was a point in before I met you guys, um, and I tell this story to some of the people I work with, where man, I, I thought I was gonna fell again.

Like I lost all my money in 2008, right? And when the market crashed and after that third property, I was at a breaking point. I, every time my phone rang, I had a panic attack because I knew exactly what was on the other end of that line. It was a problem that I couldn’t solve, I didn’t want to solve. It wasn’t like, it just, man, whether or not I was like I had real estate or not.

I was further away from freedom than when I started because I was tied to a portfolio and a strategy that I, I couldn’t handle. You bring up such a good point, and this is something that I think is really critical for everybody listening cuz. A lot of you guys that listen, we love you so much. You know that our, our income replacement Ranger crew out.

Some of you are our clients, some of you are not. We always want you to come and feel welcome on this podcast, whether you’re working with our company or not, because we wanna, like Ryan takes a principle based approach to wealth in their company. We take a principle based approach to real estate and the principles that we talk about on this podcast should benefit you in in many, many ways.

But one of the things that I think is really, is really critical, and Ryan just alluded to it, is that the principle. Of starting and then building upon that start, right? I think that that is something that so many people when we talked about a little bit earlier, that they’re afraid to start. We talk all the time about stacking micro wins, right?

That we just wanna stack micro wins and that, um, by stacking that micro win on top of another micro win, on top of another micro win, we eventually get to the big win. And if somebody were to sit back and just see you up on that stage, The way that I saw you after having known you for years and lost contact with you, it would be really easy for somebody sitting in a chair to look up, and I see this all the time cuz because we’re part of that funnel hacking community.

You know, you guys have to understand, I mean, the funnel hacking community is, I don’t know how many tens of thousands of people and all of them. Want just like an ounce of the kind of success that Ryan and his partner Brad have had. And so when Ryan’s at one of these events, and I know because Ryan loves being social, like I know you get hit up by people all the time and they wanna know the shortcut, right?

They wanna know the shortcut from where they are to where they wanna get. And what I love about your story, Ryan, and what I love about the Prince, That you talked about is that it started with something and then you build on that thing and you build on that thing and you build on that thing. And by stacking those micro wins and hitting single after single, that’s when the results start to come.

It does start to accelerate. It does start to ize at some point. But it’s gotta begin somewhere. And I think so many of us get in our own way. We’re so fearful of taking any form of action because we don’t know what the outcome will be. This is the beauty of the Microwind philosophy that Steve and I talk all about and that we’re literally, I got the manuscript of the book right here on my desk that I’ve been pouring over and just making adjustments to, and we to read that book, Man, I can’t all.

I, I hope, I hope you’ll enjoy it. But what, what’s so cool about what we’re trying to do here and what really your story has been, Ryan, is guys, if you’re listening, if you could just, I just want you to imagine for a moment, like, I don’t care how many properties you have out there. I don’t care if you have a lot of real estate.

I don’t care if you have one property. I just want you to ask yourself this question, What’s the next smallest step that would take me one little bit further than where you currently? Everybody can take a digestible step forward, right? It doesn’t have to be the catapult from where you are to where Ryan is, or to the point where you are told you have your income completely replaced.

Income replacement with real estate happens over time and over multiple properties being stacked up and over doing what Ryan did. I mean, Ryan, how long is the journey been so far that you’ve been doing real? Man, I’ve been in the game of real estate now for 11 years, and that’s, that’s like, I feel like I’m just barely getting started, right?

But when I sat down with you guys, it was 11 years ago. And so, I mean, a lot has to happen to get there, but you’re absolutely right. And I think here’s one of the biggest dangers of podcasts listening, right? I love podcasts. I listen to podcasts all the time, but we oftentimes confused listening and reading and consuming information with production.

The way you convert this knowledge into wisdom is you have to do exactly what Kevin said. You have to take that small, simple action and that action will give you real world application of what you’re. Because Kevin, man, that that was really how it got going for me. Like you guys lined up a pathway for me and I said, Okay, here’s what I’m now going to focus on.

And you know, over the next four years I focused on buying real estate. I focused on working with teams. I focused on refining a discipline decision making process to buy the right real estate with the right team to allow me to own and control the majority of my. And, you know, as I went from those three properties, then up to 16, something really interesting happened, right?

I started to see more possibilities in my life. You know, you know, I, I ended up seeing my job not as like the, the thing that, you know, I des you know, despised and the thing that held me down, but now I saw it as a tool of production. If I could create more value, I could make more money. If I could make more money, I know exactly where to put it to get the outcome that I want.

And every little house started stacking up and I knew I was getting one step closer, one step closer to. This idea that that was a dream, but now became inevitable of financial freedom. And it was really interesting, man. I, I, I took one last promotion and, uh, my wife and I decided to move to Denver, Colorado.

Uh, you know, I made, made more money, had biggest bigger bonus potential and in Denver we ended up buying a bunch more real estate, um, and all of that. But it was cool because I took this promotion and I knew it was the last step. I knew that something was going to happen, you know, cuz my portfolio had gotten big enough that I started seeing all these opportunities and I’m I’ll never.

The day that I was able to quit, Kevin, that was probably one of the most surreal days ever because my wife and I had been tracking this portfolio, had been tracking the cash flow. We’d been watching everything stacking up, and here, by the way, we weren’t consuming that cash flow. We didn’t use that cash flow as a permission slip to go buy more stuff.

We just kept rolling it in and one home turned into two, and two home turned into three, and then before you knew it, my cashflow was kicking off more money than I could actually save from my paycheck. And so my portfolio was helping me build my way to financial freedom faster. And I remember, I remember my, my boss came in.

Now, my boss never came in. I was, I’m the type of guy that you give me the responsibility and I’m gonna maximize it and you’re gonna know that I am there cause I’m gonna create value. So he never showed up. Right. But he was there that day. And I remember I walked into the office and I knew something was either wrong or I, I.

Something was wrong, right? Something was wrong that Rob didn’t come around for, for no reason. Now this was still, you know, it’s, it’s what, three, maybe four years post 2008. And companies are still tightening their belts and the, the, the mantra was do more with less. Right? And so Rob was there to give me a mandatory promotion, right?

Rob was there to say, Hey, we just let go of a couple people you’re taking over there geography. Congratulations, you’re gonna make a little bit more money, but you’re back on the road. And that was the opposite of what I wanted. I remember sitting in that office as Rob was telling me about the awesome promotion and whatever, you know, little extra money I was gonna get from doing.

In the back of my mind, it was kind of like that Charlie Brown, you know, where I, I like Rob drowned out. He was just the W W W W in the background and in the back of my mind, all I was doing was adding up the cash flow over and over and over and over again, and it was there. I just needed to give myself permission.

And before I knew it, when Rob said, Hey Ryan, are you listening? I looked up at him and I said, I quit . And man, I didn’t go into the office that day with the attention to quit. And as soon as I said it, I put my hand over my mouth because I didn’t mean for those words to come out, but I said it and it was out there.

And man, I quit. And it was so freeing. He was like, What? I, he, he didn’t, That took him by surprise. That took me by surprise. And once you knew I was serious, then he started adding on all the supplemental things that would come from me staying in the job. And it was like, No, it’s done. I’m quitting. And I walked outta that office and I had the most important call to make because I didn’t walk into the office with the intention of quitting.

And I had to call my wife Bethany and say, Hey, Beth, um, I just quit my job. And you know what she said? An amazing woman that she is. She said, Ryan, It’s about time. I love it. And that opened up what is now the, the greatest adventure of my life. It allowed me to step into, what the heck if I wake up in the morning?

And money isn’t the primary driver of why I make decisions. What different decisions might I make? That was a scary and adventurous place to be, and I’ve now been able to live in that space for the now better part of almost eight years now to where I wake up. And the decisions that I make are not driven by how much money do I have to make?

How mu you know, how do I pay these bills at the end of the month? How do I put food on the table? Because that’s the freedom. That’s the freedom that has come from building a portfolio of real estate that has many advantages, one of which is cash. That’s awesome. I mean, it’s such a cool, such an amazing story, and I just, I hope that everybody, as you’re listening and you, I hope that as you went to that place with Ryan, I want you to just imagine what that would feel like for you.

Um, and, and, and I love the question that you just posed, Ryan. And if you could wake up every day and money was not the primary driver, what would you do? Um, even that exercise of asking that question, you guys is so powerful, right? Um, in fact, One of the recommendations I would make, and this is something I did for a long time, is when I would go to bed, I would ask myself that question and then I would visualize what the answer would be, right?

Mm-hmm. , what would I do? And uh, that’s why Steve and I, we, we say all the time, like, we sometimes feel guilty cuz like we don’t work, we just get to come and like hang out with our friends and like do awesome stuff, right? Um, and it’s really, really add one thing to what, what Ryan just stated because I know that, that a lot of people find you.

Find freedom in, you know, maybe replacing their job with doing something that it is that they really love. One thing with our clients is I know that a lot of our. Actually really love what they do and they, they would love to be able to go do that without it being tied to the money factor. So if I can just make that, that, you know, correlation where imagine the day when you could get up and go be that firefighter or that school teacher and you’re not doing it because you, you need the pay, you know, to pay your bills, but you’re going there because you love the children and you love teaching and you love being in that arena.

And to be able to free up that space in your mind where you’re not worried about, you know, how you’re gonna pay those bills at the end of the month. You just get to worry about how you’re going to show up better for those children, you know, as a, as a teacher. And it’s a very similar principle. Because I know so many of of the clients that we work with, like they are just the consummate professionals, they chose the work that they’re involved in because they’re passionate about it.

And their goal, their objective in life was to figure out how do I get to do that without this ball and chain of the financial part of it, You know, being a big part of like why they have to show up as opposed to I get to just show up because I get to go play every. Steve, Man, I, I think the craziest, the most powerful part of what you just said is when you’re there out of desire rather than out of necessity, you produce at a higher level the thing that you love.

You now love even more because you show up every single day saying, I’m choosing, I’m choosing to be here. What am I going to do with the time that I’m going to invest? And man, I see people all the time cuz look, here’s the reality. I thought I want a financial freedom to go sit on the. Right, and I, I wanted that because I was in so much pain.

I wanted just to have my freedom to know what it would feel like to sit for a moment and think. I thought that’s what I wanted. But after a very short time, in fact, after no time at all, I realized, my goodness, I have some really unique God given gifts, skills, talents, and abilities, and when I can put those in the service of other people, some really awesome things happen.

Number one, I solve someone’s problem. Some of those like the solutions that I can bring to the table come easy when I’m acting in my talents and they actually make a difference in other people’s lives. That’s the problem that you guys solve for me. You guys were in your unique genius and solved the problem for me, and when, when we do that, We solve someone’s problem, but we actually find a sense of fulfillment.

And that fulfillment comes in a lot of different ways, but more than anything, that fulfillment comes because we’re using what comes naturally to us to serve and help other people and make the world a better place. And I love that what you said there, Steve, because I believe that’s financial freedom.

Financial freedom isn’t retirement, it’s not working, and then stopping. It’s being productive in something that gives you the ability to use your talents and the service of other. 100%. And the word you used, fulfillment is I think the thing that most humans probably lack, right? There’s many people that have money, but not fulfillment.

There’s many people that have responsibility, but not fulfillment. When you’ve got fulfillment and then it comes with a responsibility that you love or that you take on, and it happens to come with some financial cas that come with it, now you’re, you’re looking at a trifecta that’s pretty powerful, but that, that concept of fulfillment.

I like to talk about what we do at times as financial fulfillment, because there’s fulfillment that comes through the process and without that fulfillment, all you’ve got is is assets and liabilities and assets and liabilities. That’s just a balance sheet. A balance sheet and dollars and cents does not bring fulfillment.

It’s just numbers. But when those numbers can transform it as something that creates real fulfillment, all of a sudden now there is a different level. And, And just to, to Steve’s comment, you know, this is something that, you know, I think I’ve kind of. My full story on the podcast, Steve, I can’t remember, but you know, I walked away from the company for a couple years, uh, kind of took a sabbatical so that I could write, flip the gratitude.

And I didn’t know if I was gonna come back to the company. I kind of thought that that was what God wanted me to do and I was gonna go do that, and then it was just gonna, I don’t know what, become a New York Times bestseller and transform. I don’t know. I don’t know what I thought, but when I was trying to self flip the gratitude switch, or trying to go speak on Flip, the Gratitude switch out of a financial necessity because I’d stepped away from other forms of income, it was like hitting my head against the wall.

I was like, I’ve got this really great thing and it’s not going anywhere. The journey of the company and, and Steve, you know, being so cool to, to have me come back after we’d made some, some changes in the company and then kind of retool what we were doing had done for real estate to just move it forward.

Building on all of the amazing things that Steve had been doing while I was out writing the book. Now. You know, it’s crazy, but I speak more often and sell more books than I ever did when it was a necessity. And the thing is, now when I show up to go speak or talk about something that I put in a book, that means a lot to me.

There’s not this feeling of sort of this, I don’t know, underlying scarcity of I’ve gotta do really well so that people will give me more of what I want. It’s just going and serving at a higher level and, and I think you. From the entire conversation today. For you listeners, if you’re listening, if there’s a way that you could take the things that you’re doing and you could find some additional fulfillment, if you could stack a few more micro wins, if you could do.

Something inside of the framework that you’ve already developed. If you’re listening to this podcast, you’re just like, Ryan was, if nothing else, right? Who went, Who started to do something different than what life had generally taught him that he should be doing? You are already, if you’re listening to this podcast, you’re already in a position that is better than probably 97% of Americans out there because you are looking for something different.

You’re looking to shift your life and to shift the trajectory. Of your financial future, you’re looking for additional fulfillment. I hope that you take this podcast, you take this moment and you acknowledge the fact that you’re listening to these words, that you’re considering something different than the majority of Americans, and I hope that you’ll do something to go get your next micro win because that single micro win could be the trajectory shifter that leads to fulfillment.

That leads to the. Fulfillment that you’re kind of hoping for. And, and that brings us full circle to where the story is now. Right? So I’d love for you to say, to just kind of wrap up the story, tell us what’s happening right now from, whether that’s the business or what the real estate portfolio you’re going in.

You’re buying a couple of additional homes with us. You’re building this dream home. Take us to the end of the story as it is right now. I know there’s much more to be written, but take us to the end of that, wrap the episode. Yeah, so here’s the thing. It’s been, it’s been about 10 years working with you guys and, um, my, my objective always from the beginning was to be financially free.

It was to own and control my time and so, You buy real estate and you sit on it and you just let it grow and you let it build. And one of the cool things about real estate is there’s so many different advantages from real estate, from the leverage that you get to use that allowed me to start with not having a lot of resources to start with.

The cashflow that builds up over time. The appreciation that magically, not really magically, but appears as the house goes up in value as your tenant is paying down your mortgage consistently. And the abundant tax advantages in real estate, your money’s working in so many different ways. That it allows you to build wealth fast.

And then, I’ll be honest, man, in the beginning I was kind of, I was so hyperactive. I was like crazy about how do I get the next property? Where do I get, find the next, you know, down payment? How do I go fast? And then once I got to this point that it was just working, especially when I quit that job, I let go.

And I started to embrace this idea that financial freedom isn’t a destination like I thought it was like retirement. It’s not, my life starts when. Financial freedom is actually a lifestyle. And when you have a framework to get consistent, predictable results and you can put your money into a system that you know that if I want to raise my expenses, I just need to raise my cash flow, and here’s how I do it.

It started to open up this new possibility. And after quitting my job, I started a company because I had so many people in the beginning saying, You’re crazy. But then as things started working, they kept coming back to me saying, How are you doing it? Like, what the heck? What is going on? And you know, the company has been an amazing piece of just growth and learning and expansion and fulfillment.

For me, it’s been one of the biggest challenges in my life, but it’s been one of the greatest blessings and opportunities in my life as well. But, you know, one of the interesting things we were just talking about, um, this right before we flipped the, the switch to record the podcast right now imminently like it was supposed to happen on June 1st.

Uh, but it’ll probably happen next. We’re moving into our dream home and, um, man, I never ever even imagined that this was possible. When I started, I started in pain. I started not knowing what to do. I started with all the things though that those stories started from. But you know, it was interesting. A couple years ago, my wife came to me and she said, You know what, Ryan, I’ve helped you with your dreams for years and has been so fun to watch those dreams come to fruit.

I have a dream and I was kind of curious, Well, what the heck is your dream ? And she’s like, My dream’s always been to build a house. And she had told me about that dream, but that wasn’t ever my dream. And I didn’t acknowledge, It’s like, shame on me. And we sat down a couple of years ago and I really fully understood.

For the first time ever, I listened and I understood, not understood because it was my dream, but I understood what she wanted and she wanted to build a home. And so we got to work to figure out how to do that. We bought a lot and we got all the plans designed out, and she just was in love and in heaven and doing all their.

When we got the budget put together, I realized, holy cow is, that’s an expensive dream you got right there, . And, um, you know, at first I thought, Man, it’s, it’s gonna take some time, right? It’s gonna take some time. I need to go out and figure out how to make a decent amount more money so we can pay for that dream right there.

But I’m committed now. It’s your dream and there, therefore, I’m gonna support you in it. And it was really interesting. My, my business partner who, you know, uh, Kevin, Brad. How dude is, he sees the world in numbers, and I’m grateful for that because I don’t oftentimes see the world in numbers. He’s like wrestle pro in a beautiful mind.

He’s like, Oh man, he is here. He’s a genius with it. And, and you know, he, I was kind of going through the budget and telling Brad what I had to come up with. He’s like, Hey, Ryan, you dummy . And he can also be a little bit brass when it comes to numbers. He’s like, Hey, Dum. You’ve got all the money sitting right over there on that big old real estate portfolio that you have, and I didn’t understand it in the beginning, but there were millions of dollars of equity in that portfolio, millions, and I’d just been letting it sit there and I’d used that equity a couple of times.

I’d taken some equity outta the real estate portfolio to buy more real estates, which turned my 16 portfolio into over 30 properties, but by and large, it had just been sitting there and they had a lot of equity as the properties had gone up in value and attendance to pay down mortgage. So what I did is I went to that portfolio and I took out enough money outta that portfolio to build our dream home.

And here’s the crazy part guys, and I don’t even understand how to even say this to you without, and I don’t know if you’re gonna understand the gravity. Like I took out a lot of dang money outta that portfolio, 100% tax free to build my dream home. And all that required me to do was to buy simple three bedroom, two bath homes with an amazing.

And repeat the process. And in the beginning, yeah, it took some effort, it took some time. I had to figure out how to do it. I had to have discipline to say I want long term success and roll all of the profits back into building the portfolio and allowing that to think to scale and grow before I ever took anything out to consume.

And I never, My intention wasn’t to take it out to consume. But here’s the crazy part. After 10 years of doing that, I was able to take that, that money out to B, build the dream home and guess. The portfolio was still growing, , it’s still getting bigger. That money, yes, it took a little dip in value because I harvested that equity, but man, it is still massively growing.

And so guys, that’s the thing I wanna share with you more than anything is look. Financial freedom. It’s not a destination. It’s not about sacrificing and scrimping and waiting for one day. It’s about using money literally as a tool, a tool to build and live a life that matters. Not one day, but right now.

And I think over the years, as I’ve worked with you guys and really focused on this idea, this craft of cash flow is freedom. It’s really allowed me to open up to more and more and bigger and bigger possibilities. How can I use. Cash flow and financial freedom is a lifestyle rather than a destination. To quit my job, to start a company, to hire people to, you know, chase down some of my craziest, wildest dreams, including building my dream home with my wife, and so.

Guys, I just wanna end where we started. I’m so grateful for you and everything you’ve done for me. You helped me see a possibility and plant a seed in my mind that became an obsession. And that obsession then became a reality. And like you said, Kevin, this thing’s just getting going. Like, it’s so funny to say that I’ve been doing real estate for 10 years and somehow I should have some credibility cuz I’ve been doing it for 10 years.

Like, dude, I’m just getting going. Like expertise is built over decades, not in months. And so I’m excited to see what the next 10 years has in. It’s so amazing, Ryan. Your story is so inspirational. It’s so incredible. You know, the podcast is called Replace Your Income and there is a real possibility if you’re a listener, that you are already on a path to income replacement.

But income replacement doesn’t happen overnight. Uh, income replacement happens over time and it’s doing the things. Ryan is such a perfect example. Uh, using three bed, two bath, two car garage type, simple and conservative real estate invest. To then watch that portfolio grow, leverage that portfolio, grow that portfolio, and get to the point where not only is his income, well more than replaced, but he’s out there making a tremendous amount of impact in people’s lives and, and adding unbelievable value with his company and that he and Brad own and, and, and run very successfully.

And so, Brian, you’re just such a, you’re such an amazing example for me in so many. Everything from real estate and money to just being a human, like I talked about at the beginning. And I think anybody that is can sit has heard your story today, likely wants to hear more and wants to be able to interact with you and, and what you guys do, um, for your business even more.

And they should because you guys are really exceptional. Do you mind sharing just, uh, a little of how somebody could go find you guys, how they could consume content that you put out there? Cuz you guys put out some of the best content on the. Yeah, my man. I appreciate that. So guys, our mission is to wake you up.

That’s all it is, is to wake you up and help you see and understand how to use money radically different than what we’ve been taught. Now, whether it’s been done by nefarious means or it’s just the way the world is. There are a small subset of people out there, and you are likely one of them because you’re listening to this very podcast and that subset of people are people who want more out of.

Give yourself permission to acknowledge that that want is planted in you for a reason. You have more to give to this world, and it’s likely money that’s holding you back just like it was for me. Okay? So what we do is we do what, what we call a five day financial awakening experience. And all this is, it’s to help you use your numbers in your situation to see and understand once and for all that traditional finance going to work.

Putting your money in a property diversified portfolio, hoping and waiting. It will never work. Then we help you cross over the bridge, the same bridge that I crossed over, the same bridge that Kevin over there is waiting with open arms and Steve to say, Hey, why don’t you come join us? Join the party right then.

It’s to help you see what might be possible for you if you aligned your money. Resources and assets like real estate that gave you multiple ways to win and multiple ways to thrive. Right here, right now in what I’m calling the age of inflation. So go to cash flow tactics.com. It’s free. It’s a green button at the top that says, you know, free webinar and walk you through the whole thing.

We call it the Financial Freedom Formula, and that’s all it is. It’s just a principle based approach to using money, not just a little bit better than you’ve been taught to do, but doing the exact opposite to get the exact opposite results, which are extra. Yeah, I highly recommend you guys go and check that out.

Ryan and and Brad also have a podcast that’s phenomenal and uh, they’ve been kind enough to have me on that podcast and to be on some videos with them as well. And so we have a lot of good work to do together, Ryan, for the good people that are listening and people out there. And I’m just so thankful for you and for your story.

Thank you for coming and sharing and thanks just for being a part of this incredible. Family. We’re so fortunate to be a part of yours. We feel fortunate that you’re a part of ours and, uh, what an amazing episode. And I hope everybody today listening felt inspired by Ryan’s story. And I hope that you’ll do something.

And go and do something a little bit more today than you otherwise would’ve because you had heard this story, because you heard about Ryan. Don’t just be a podcast listener, be an action taker. It makes all the difference in the world and can quite literally shift the entire trajectory of your life that leads to the kind of fulfillment that you’ve always been seeking.

So, Ryan, thank you from the bottom of my heart, brother, appreciate you, uh, love you as a brother. So thankful for you and for your story. Steve, any last words as we sign? Uh, nothing other than. Thank you so much, Ryan, for taking the time to be here today. Appreciate you taking the, the time that you have to come and be with us and with our listeners here today.

Your story is extremely inspirational and it’s fun to see where you, where you’ve come and, and, uh, congratulations. Appreciate it, guys. Awesome. All right, everybody, thank you so much. We’ll talk to you real soon. Thanks so much for listening to Replace Your Income with Kevin and Steve. Do you have a question you want us to answer on the show?

Head over to Apple Podcast and do three simple things. Leave us a rating and review and tell us what you think of the podcast. Then in that review, ask us anything you want related to real estate or income replacement. Sit back and get ready to have your mind blown. And if you wanna shout out, leave your Instagram handle or your name and that’s all.

Then listen in to hear your question answered. Live unfiltered and uncut. Thanks for joining us on Replace Your Income and just remember income replacement for you and your family may only be one property away. See you next week.