Ryan Stewman, the “Hardcore Closer,” is a world-leading sales expert who teaches B2C salespeople how to sell online.
In this episode of The Salesman Podcast, Ryan shares why we should stop making excuses and how to turn on our sales swag.
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Transcript
Will Barron:
Coming up on today’s episode of The Salesman Podcast.
Ryan Stewman:
You have to train yourself that, that a hundred grand is not enough or 250 grand is not enough. And one of the best things that you can do is get rid of your money. It isn’t doing any good sitting around in a bank account anyway. Go invest that stuff, spend it, put it to work for you, make it work for you.
Will Barron:
Hello, sales nation. I’m Will Barron, host of The Salesman Podcast. The world’s most listened to B2B sales show. If you haven’t already make sure that you click, subscribe. And with that let’s meet today’s guest.
Ryan Stewman:
Hey, what’s going on? I’m Ryan Stewman president and CEO of PhoneSites. And if you need a sales funnel and you’re not generating leads online already go over to phonesites.com and sign up now.
How Much is the Average B2B Professional Leaving on the Table by “Doing Enough?” · [01:00]
Will Barron:
On this episode of the show with the legend that is Ryan we’re diving into. The difference between power and force, how you can become a sales savage and how you can stop making excuses and really double down on your sales career. So, let’s jump right in. How much is the average B2B sales professional leaving on the table day to day, year on year, by having the mindset or the attitude of, I’m just doing enough. I can just survive on what I’m doing versus kind of really wanting to get down and really thrive and crush it?
“If you go back to school, they teach you about hunters and gatherers. And you’re either a hunter or a gatherer. And if you’re a hunter the reason why we get hungry for example, is because we have to be angry to go out and kill something to eat it. That’s our primal self inside. And I think you have to have that same primal hunger for success. And most people don’t.” – Ryan Stewman · [01:26]
Ryan Stewman:
Well, it all starts in your mind. And so think about this, you have to have a hunger for success. And I believe there’s, if you go back to school, they teach you about hunters and gatherers. And you’re either a hunter or a gatherer. And if you’re a hunter the reason why we get hangry for example, is because we have to be angry to go out and kill something to eat it. That’s our primal self inside. And I think you have to have that same primal hunger for success. And most people don’t. But here’s what happens. There’s this virus that’s infected our planet. If you look at the Bible, they say that it was the apple in the garden of Eden. I believe that this planet that we’re on was programmed like a microchip or a simulation, and there’s a virus that’s loose that I call the force of average.
Ryan Stewman:
And what it does is it convinces you, it’s the most deceitful thing on the planet, it convinces you that things are okay, that it’s good enough, or it’s okay for you, or it’s okay to be comfortable, or you’ve gone it nice. It convinces you of those things and satisfies what should be that hunger for success to so many of us. Especially that are 40 years old, like I am and older. When our parents told us a hundred thousand dollars a year was a lot of money. And so at a young age, we’re ingrained in our mind, a hundred thousand dollars a year is a lot of money. Flash forward, I’m 40 years old. Flash forward, we go to 2019 and all of a sudden we’re looking at a hundred grand is like almost impossible to survive in London and New York, in LA, in Houston, Texas.
“One of the best things that you can do is get rid of your money. It isn’t doing any good sitting around in a bank account anyway. Go invest that stuff, spend it, put it to work for you, make it work for you. So many people get comfortable because their bank account or their 401k or whatever’s filled and they can always go borrow against it if they have a bad month.” – Ryan Stewman · [03:04]
Ryan Stewman:
It just won’t cut it after uncle Sam’s gets his part. And if you got child support or anything else. Dude, I mean, you’re out there. And so you have to train yourself that, that a hundred grand is not enough or 250 grand is not enough. And one of the best things that you can do is get rid of your money. It isn’t doing any good sitting around in a bank account anyway. Go invest that stuff, spend it, put it to work for you, make it work for you. So, many people, they get comfortable because their bank account or their 401k or whatever’s filled and they can always go borrow against it if they have a bad month. But once you understand that mindset, that you’ve got to be that hungry as if you are hungry for food, you have to be that hungry for continued growth and success.
Ryan Stewman:
If you don’t have that mindset, you might just be a gatherer. You may not be a hunter. I’m not trying to insult you. There’s two of us, obviously not everybody can be one. I like to think most salespeople are hunters. But somewhere along the way, the force of average convinces us to settle. And sometimes it’s our spouse. Sometimes it’s our boss. Sometimes it’s the lead ceiling we hit on the commission tables at the company. Sometimes it’s exhaustion. But either way, that’s what causes it. Now thinking, now this is a better question for the audience. Now that I’ve said that what I want you guys to think about that are in B2B, how much money have you left on the table?
Ryan Stewman:
So, let’s just say in the last five years, you’ve left a million dollars on the table because you were okay in the force of average attacked you. What could you be doing with that money right now? A million bucks in five years, you could be, what? That’s two or three properties that you could have right now, renting out cash flowing. That’s tax deferment that you could have put in an IRA or something of that nature. You could have built a real estate portfolio. You could have leveraged it at a bank and built a $10 million business. But instead you fall victim to the force of average. So, I want you to think about how much you are missing guys and gals that are out there listening to this and think about not letting the force of average attack you. And the way to keep it from attacking you is to stay focused.
Ryan’s Definition of Making a Lot of Money · [04:50]
Will Barron:
When you were younger, Ryan, a hundred grand was, I don’t know if that number was kind of pulled out there or just generally it’s a round number. So, it makes sense. But if that was drilled to you as that’s a lot of money, to give the audience context on you now, and the Ryan that we’re having the discussion with. What will be a lot of money for you right now? What’s that kind of number or ceiling, or figure in your head?
Ryan Stewman:
So, my goal is 10 million a year for 2019. We came pretty close to it last year, but didn’t quite hit it. So, just stuck with it till I hit it. This year we’ll most likely pass that between all the companies that I run. But it was hard for me to go from 500 grand, because I don’t have that many bills. You know what I mean? I don’t. I invest most of my money. I don’t have a whole lot of bills. So, making half a million dollars a year is a lot of money to me. Making a million dollars a year, I can’t spend it all. I can invest it. I’m pretty good at investing it at this point. Making $5 million a year is … Dude, I paid off my bills three years ago. What am I …
Ryan Stewman:
And so constantly finding new things to do. Like I just hired a CEO for my company so that I can be freed up to do the right things and he can run all the operations and stuff on the back end. So, making those tweaks. But also again, I don’t have $5 million sitting around in the bank account. That would be ridiculous. I got seven houses and software company that I’ve invested in that I’m running, and employees that I pay and office space that I have. And I mean, it’s out there working. We have a loan fund where we loan people money and things of that nature. So, I got my hands in a few things working with the money. But for right now the next ceiling that I’m going to blast through will be this year, be 10 million.
Will Barron:
So, this is something interesting. And I see this as a trend, as people who come on the show like yourself, who are perhaps five, 10 years ahead of me as an entrepreneur and the sales side of things that we do with the sales and podcast, sales school and all that. And also the people who come on the show who are doing a hundred million and CEOs of larger organisations, which I’m sure you will be in that further 10 year period. If that makes sense. The trend I see is, and you said it very clear of, I have very few bills.
What Ryan Does with His Money and the Reasoning Behind Staying Debt-free · [06:50]
Will Barron:
Is this something that you see separates people that perhaps are on Instagram and are flexing, and perhaps the sales people. I’ve seen, there’s a bunch of YouTubers at the moment that are popping up, that work in sales or real estate. They’re all buying nice cars, but they don’t really talk about the fact that they’ve paid off their mortgage, that they’ve got this investment, that they’ve got this or that. Do you see a trend between people who are long successful and who have paid off the bills versus people who look successful and just look successful who are particularly wealthy underneath it all?
Ryan Stewman:
Well, I think it’s … First of all, let me purpose this with this. There’s a million ways to make and save money in America. And really in the world. I know the we have a lot of international people, but I don’t have international business experience. So, speaking about America, there’s a million ways to wealth here. And so for me, I don’t have a paid off mortgage, that really doesn’t make sense because I live in a house that’s seven figures and we put money down on the house to buy it. We mortgaged it with a bank. It’s a low cost. It just cost us about four grand a month to live here. And so it’s not very expensive. And at the same time, if we had to sell it, we have equity in it because we put money down.
Ryan Stewman:
But it also gives us a tax write off here. So, it doesn’t make a whole hell of a lot of sense to pay it off. And let’s say I paid $2 million on the house. I could have taken that 2 million and invested in five flip homes instead of just having it sit here, debt free. So, I’m not rich enough yet to where those kind of moves are the smart moves for me yet. I think that happens at the $10 million mark. You know what I mean? I don’t know, I’ll find out. But I think that, that’s kind of the case. But even Grant Cardone he still leases the place where he lives. So, like I said, there’s a million ways, some people it’s being debt free. For me, I always carry a mortgage on my personal home.
Ryan Stewman:
And I always carry a note on my cars. I have great credit, like perfect credit. I’ve never made a late payment on anything. So, I get the lowest rates everywhere. So, if I go buy a two or $300,000 car, doesn’t make sense, again, to spend 300 grand. Because I’m going to drive it $300,000 worth anyway. So, I’m going to finance it, drive it for a year, get some of my money back, have the expense of 500 to a thousand dollars a month, is about what it works out to at this point owning the cars and I get cool cars. So, I’m making financial sense of it at the same time I’m buying the car secondhand. So, I’m not blowing all my money and taking big hits and everything else. But those are the only things. I don’t have credit card debt, no student loan debt, no loans against any of my businesses, no investors, no, anything like that.
Ryan Stewman:
So, you think my car bills and house bill, and plus let’s say private school for the kids is 15 grand a month. And I just told you the types of dollars we’ve been making for a long time. At some point you have a watch with diamonds on it. You fucking had it for three years. You don’t need another one. At some point I don’t recommend anybody being completely debt free, like the Dave Ramsey way, because there’s so much more you can do with your cash. But again, it may change. My buddy, Ed Mylett, good friend of mine. The guy owns about 150 million worth of real estate with no mortgage on it. So, that’s how he feels comfortable. That’s his path of wealth, but he also makes in the nine fucking figures a year. So, it’s a little different level up there than it is down here.
The Relationship Between Success and Financial Literacy · [10:10]
Will Barron:
Let me ask you a better question then. So, it’s probably a similar question but now you’ve outlined that for us and made that clear. It’s probably more useful for the audience. Is there a trend between the Ed Mylett you mentioned Grant Cardone as well, is there a trend between these individuals and having good financial literacy, understanding how to use money versus individuals who are … There’s plenty of salespeople that make hundred, 200, 300 grand a year, there’ll be tonne this audience, but they don’t have anything to show for it at the end of the day. So, is the better question successful and super successful people, finance wise have good financial literacy. And that’s perhaps a gap between the two groups.
Ryan Stewman:
Well, think about the sports players that there’s Roger Staubach, who is a Cowboy’s quarterback. He’s worth almost a billion dollars. He’s built the largest commercial real estate firm in the world. I mean, or at least in Texas. I mean, Staubach sells everything around here because he understands financing and banks and how the commercial world happens. And then you’ve got guys like, what is it right now, Allen Iverson? No, it’s not Iverson. It’s … shoot, man. But he’s like homeless and he was like, dude, he won. He made like a hundred million in the NBA, but he’s like homeless right now. Dammit, I can’t think of his name. He played up there for the 76ers. Anyway. So, the difference is being financially savvy. And in order really to get that, you just have to take risks.
Ryan Stewman:
You just got to be willing to lose some money, and learn some lessons, and learn what to look for next time or pay smart advisors, which are just the same as losing money to protect you on things like a lawyer. I have a friend who’s been a realtor for about 15 years. He makes about 250 grand a year, but he is probably worth 15 or 20 million, because he’s been investing in real estate and holding doors, and building this whole machine. And he lives, you look at the guy, you wouldn’t think he made 50 grand a year. But he’s been building this whole machine behind him. So, again, he understands the leverage of I’ll make the sacrifice now and I’ll reap the reward later. I live that life too, I’m 40 years old like I said earlier, it wasn’t until I was 38 that I bought my first exotic car.
Ryan Stewman:
I mean 38 years old. It wasn’t until I had several years of seven figure year income before I bought like, shit, a house. You know what I mean? I leased and everything. Right now, if you look, I’m wearing like a $14 shirt from Amazon and some pants my wife bought me. I’m not that guy. You know what I mean? And so the same thing though, I had to learn what to do with money. I’ve lost money on supplements. I’ve lost money on real estate deals, but I gained experience and I went into it no different than going into the blackjack table at Vegas. It’s like, dude, if I win, awesome, it’s going to pay good. If I don’t, I’ll learn a lesson.
Are People Wired to Take Risks But Just Love Making Excuses Instead of Taking Action? · [12:58]
Will Barron:
And you are wired like that, Ryan. Because I’m wired in the saying of kind of burn the ships behind you. When I left my last sales job, when I jumped into this business and selling all the ad space and everything that we do with Salesforce, LinkedIn, HubSpot, all these huge brands. I literal kind of didn’t burn the bridges, well, I couldn’t go back to the company now, put it that way.
Will Barron:
I’m sure they wouldn’t spit on my face in the street and we left kind of fine, but I definitely made a point to kind of claim that I would never come back to them and all that kind of stuff. Because they wanted me to come back for a while, because I was crushing it on the territory that I was on. I still live on the territory. So, they were chasing me to come back afterwards. But I had to burn the bridges. So, I’m wired like that. I think you are wired similarly of willing to take risks. Are people wired like that, but they use excuses not to do it or are some people very literally on a deep DNA level is the hunters and farmers?
Ryan Stewman:
That’s a really good question. I don’t know because I’m not inside other people’s heads. And as I’ve had, one of the biggest issues that I’ve had to face in the last five years is a lot of people have hit me up and said Stewman, give me a job. I can sell anything, blah, blah, blah. And turns out they were wrong. And I’ve had to let a lot of people go. And when you let somebody go and you’re their hero, and then you’ve got to fire them for whatever, dude that causes problems and it’s never their fault. And I’m such an asshole and everything else. But I let those people go in the past, because I don’t understand how they think. You know what I mean? I think there’s true hunters and gatherers.
Ryan Stewman:
You’re either out there wired for it or you’re just simply not. And the only way that I would suggest maybe you could change that if you’re a gatherer and you want to become a hunter, then you got to get hungry. If you were gathering up berries and everything, and one day you said, hey man, I want to go kill shit. They’re going to be like, well you got to get mad and hungry for you to kill stuff. And so for me, I’ve had the boats burn behind me. And we were talking about excuses earlier. I have every excuse not to be here. I mean, let me just give you like the quick five minute breakdown of my life since I was 18. I sold drugs, died of a drug overdose. Went to prison, got out. Got a job at a car wash with no money to my name, got offered and recruited into the finance industry. Became one of the top loan officers in the country.
Ryan Stewman:
2005 police thought I was selling dope. Kick in the door, take everything from me. I walk into prison two years later, a millionaire. I walk out in 2008 in July 11th, 2008. I walked out with $25 to my name. Got a job making 300 grand a year. Not on salary, 100% commission. Did that two years in a row. 2010, the feds jerked by financial licence. Then didn’t have a job started doing odds and ends figuring out stuff on social media and everything else. Then started like getting my groove together, start making 20, $30,000 a month again. Got divorced, had to give it all away. So, I’ve had to start over so many times that now I’m like, dude, look, you don’t have to burn the boats. You can just put them in reverse. It’s okay. I get it.
“We have abundance on this planet. The only limitations that are set, are set ourselves in what we believe we’re able to achieve in a world full of abundance. Literally when you open your mind to that understanding, then why wouldn’t you want to go out there and get every single thing you can. Because you know everything you could ever want and more is right here in one place. And it’s nothing new. It’s just a matter of you getting your hands on as much of it as possible.” – Ryan Stewart · [16:50]
Ryan Stewman:
You don’t have to burn them anymore. Let’s just put them in reverse. We might use the boats again later. How about that everybody. But I have every excuse why I should have said, well, this isn’t for me. But I have that mentality to where I could never just sit back and go, well, I’m just going to experience the life that I was given. I’m going to go get everything I can. I would challenge you to this. This world has everything we could possibly need. Think Amazon, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, these guys have the resources to send rocket ships to the fricking, not the moon, but Saturn and Mars and stuff like that, dude. We can have this Skype that we have right now, but nothing under the sun is new, there’s a not so new element that we might discover something new. But it’s been there all along.
Ryan Stewman:
I promise you. And so think about this. We have abundance on this planet. The only limitations that are set, are set ourselves in what we believe that we’re able to achieve in a world full of abundance. Literally when you open your mind to that understanding, then why wouldn’t you want to go out there and get every single thing you can. Because you know everything you could ever want and more is right here in one place. And it’s nothing new. It’s just a matter of you getting your hands on as much of it as possible.
How Switch From Wanting to Live a Comfortable Life to Finding The Fire to Go After Everything We Want · [17:28]
Will Barron:
Right. And with all that said, which is more effective. Because I feel like you are a bit of a savage and I mean that in a real positive way as in you’d get on the phone, you’d make things happen. Whereas there’s other people where, and I get this feedback of, I listen to the podcast, I learned this, this and this. And I did more of the same, or I did slightly better at this one, two or three things. And the more that I grow with what I’m doing and the more that I hear … And I spend time with people like yourself on the show. It’s not more of a little bit. It’s just being a savage. That’s the best word I can come up with it. How do we make that switch form not just, yeah, I want that new car.
Will Barron:
I want to feed my family. I want to do this. And I’m going to show that on the phone with how passionate I am and that’s going to come across and translate. And people will get, because people love that. If you’re charismatic on the phone, people get sucked into it and people will buy from you. How do you take that to the next step though? Because I feel you’re very, you consider over [inaudible 00:18:29] you do. And last time we spoke, you’re quite calm and collected today. But I feel like you could switch on this savageness. And again, I mean that in a real positive light, in an instant. How do we find that fire that’s probably within most of us or well, consider it’s just the hunters now that’s listening to the show, how do we find that spark and how do we freaking ignite it?
Ryan Stewman:
You got to have something bigger than yourself. Let’s talk about Tom Brady. He won his sixth super bowl ring yesterday. And do you think that he went in the locker room and he goes, let’s go get another ring guys. I really like the way they look on my hand. You know what I mean? Do you think he went out there and goes of, let’s go win another game? No, he went in there and he said, let’s leave a fucking unpublishable legacy that no one will ever be able to shake, deny or claim anything against that will remove all doubt from the world that we are not the best franchise in the history of sports. And so he’s thinking about legendary stuff, same thing for me, man. I’m thinking about my kids, kids, kids. And at this point in the beginning, I’ll just be honest with you.
Ryan Stewman:
I did this shit for money. I have bills to pay. I told you earlier, I don’t have many bills left. So, at this point I give away 50 times the stuff that I charge people for. However, and I’m charging less money that I’ve ever charged before. Not because our products aren’t worth any more. I want to help more people. That’s my legacy. Every day somebody’s telling me, you saved me from going to prison. You got me a job. You helped me make more money. You changed my life with my family. You saved me from divorce. You saved me from addiction. These are the things that every day, because as salespeople, we weren’t born with silver spoons in our mouth. We’re troubled people. We’re well known. Like the biggest shows that have ever been made of movies of salespeople are drugs, and alcohol abuse, and hookers and everything else.
Ryan Stewman:
And I’m not saying we’re all that way, but a lot of us had been there and I’m not judging, but I know that the legacy that I’m leaving is not just of money and not just … Like we won’t know how much Tom Brady money, when he dies. We won’t know how much he’s worth, nor will we care. We’ll just know that he left the legacy and was the best at what he did undeniably. 17 years, nine appearances, six wins. That’s unreal. So, I’m doing the same thing for my life. What you’ve got to do is you got to think of something bigger.
“What you’ve got to do is you got to think of something bigger. Go get behind a charity. Go get behind a church or an organisation or a religion, whatever it is that you want that’s bigger than you. Fund a mission for your kids. Do whatever it is that you can do that’s bigger than you. So, that A, you don’t feel guilty for having the money. And B, it’s going to take you working your ass off to make that thing bigger than you come true.” – Ryan Stewart · [20:53]
Ryan Stewman:
Go get behind a charity. Go get behind a church or an organisation or a religion, whatever it is that you want, that’s bigger than you. Fund a mission for your kids. Do whatever it is that you can do that’s bigger than you. So, that A, you don’t feel guilty for having the money. And B, it’s going to take you working your ass off to make that thing bigger than you come true. And I can tell you 10 million is just the number, because we got to have numbers to run our business. But I know the amount of lives that, that 10 million reflects. And that’s the game changer for me.
Why Do People Feel Guilty About Having Money? · [21:31]
Will Barron:
Why do, because I’ve felt this before. I’m much better now from dealing with pretty much being psychotherapied on the show a few times. Why do people feel guilty about money? Because I feel like this is an underlying excuse that people have, but then they call it other things and they translate it into, and manifest itself in other ways. But at a deep level, Ryan, why do people feel guilty about having money, earning money and having success with it?
“Most of our parents weren’t rich. And what we equate subconsciously at a young age is that money equals responsibility. And many of us just aren’t very responsible. And guilt comes along with that, because you know you’re not responsible for it, but you pretend to do.” – Ryan Stewman · [22:08]
Ryan Stewman:
Well, most of us are from those kind of neighbourhoods where we’re the only ones that really made any money there. And so they use the lines like, oh, you think you’re fancy and all this. And then plus the stuff that we were told, money doesn’t grow on trees. Most of our parents weren’t rich. And what we equate subconsciously at a young age is that money equals responsibility. And many of us just aren’t very responsible. And guilt comes along with that, because you know you’re not responsible for it, but you pretend to do. I had a client one time tell me, he’s like, I know I’m going to the strip club. I know I’m blowing my money on this, but I can’t seem to fucking quit. And he’s like, but I’m making all this money. So, I’m like justifying it.
Ryan Stewman:
But then I feel guilty the next morning when I look at my bill and it’s just simply the responsibility. Like I said, my money’s not sitting in just the bank account. It’s sitting in real estate, and then software development teams, and in payroll and all these other things. That’s a lot of responsibility. I got a shit tonne of people that work for me. I have a shit tonne of clients that depend on me. You know what I mean? And more money is definitely more responsibility, but you’re better equipped to handle it. A lot of people till they make that shift, don’t get to that level to really understand that.
Is Discipline When Managing Our Money All We Need to Be Successful Long-term? · [23:05]
Will Barron:
So, it seems like there’s multiple route to solve some of these issues that we’re talking about here, Ryan. One of them is to kind of man up, get through these excuses, break through them. Another one though, and maybe you are kind of hot on this seems to be discipline. And seems like, if you can have enough discipline over enough time, nothing else matters. Is that fair to say?
Ryan Stewman:
Yeah-
Will Barron:
It’s not sexy to say that, is it though?
“Everybody quits, a few of us stick around long enough to really win.” – Ryan Stewman · [24:04]
Ryan Stewman:
No. I mean, there’s been plenty of times where I’ve woke up and been like shit, is this really what I want to do? Who can I find to replace me? But you have to be disciplined. I live and die by a calendar and I’m on a semi routine every day. I travel a lot. So, it’s hard to keep up with a perfect routine. But you have to be, and there’s plenty of times where I thought I wasn’t going to make it. Or I felt like I was wasting my time. Or I was failing here and there just like anybody else. But you got to be disciplined enough to push through that shit too. Everybody quits, a few of us stick around long enough to really win.
Will Barron:
Because that is exactly what I was going to ask you. I know you’ve got a bunch of podcast content as well. It’s been going for a long time, longer than, or similar to what we’ve been doing here with The Salesman Podcast. I’ve seen so many podcasts come, go. We’ve just hit over like a million views on YouTube. About 25 million audio downloads. 20,000 subscribers on YouTube, obviously like 21, 22, as we record this. And people ask me all the time, what’s the secret? How’s it growing? And there is no secret for us. It’s literally just been constant content and I wish it more sexy than this, but constant content and our downloads every month goes up, how many thousands it goes up every month. And it’s just a straight line, no matter how much we spent on doing Facebook video ads.
Will Barron:
We were working with a HubSpot last year, I think we spent like 20,000 a month on ads to grow our show and aligned it with their brand and things on that front. Made no difference, just straight line. And every month for our revenue goes up just in a straight line. And now, I’ve talked about this on the show before. So, I sell the ad space on the podcast. The ad space is sold out for 2019. There is no more ad space. I’m now doing, hopefully going to be doing a deal for 2020 and 2021. 2021, yeah, that’s right. Just to tie everything together. And I’m looking for, this is one of the reasons why I’m doubling down on the sales school. We were touched on a kind of a, before we click recorder of all software development that we’re doing.
How Much of Success Comes Down to Being Consistent? · [26:21]
Will Barron:
So, I can start selling B2B to sales managers. So, I’m actually selling a product. Anyway, I’m going kind of off the rails here. Long story short, the only thing that I’ve ever done for more than two, three years is this podcast. I’ve never had a sales role in one organisation for three years. And the more and more I think about all of this, the dumber it is that I didn’t just stay perhaps in the last organisation I was in where you could easily do multiple six figures, high six figures by just a little bit of work. That might have been the smartest move to become financially free, wealthy, because there isn’t the responsibility of hiring people. There isn’t all this faffing around. And if entrepreneurship wasn’t so cool and sexy, and it’s kind of dying off a little bit now, that trend, I perhaps would’ve stayed in that role. I’m far better off than where I am now, all by just being consistent. So, how much of success in general, Ryan, do you think comes down to, with this long-winded question that I’m throwing at you here, comes down to just consistency?
Ryan Stewman:
All of it. Again, everybody quits. If you don’t stay in the game, you for sure won’t win. And this is the longest I’ve ever done anything. So, 2012, I started hardcorecloser.com. 2011 I started podcasting. 2009 I started making videos. So, somewhere around whichever time you want to count that I picked up, I’ve been doing this shit almost every single day. And I can tell you come 2013 and I wasn’t a millionaire yet like all these info products promised me and the money that I am making, I’m having to dump back into the business. And I didn’t have my private jet, Ferrari like all these people had promised and everything else. There was a time where I even went and took a job for six months when my ex-wife got pregnant with my oldest son, because I needed insurance.
Ryan Stewman:
So, there’s been setbacks along the way, but guess what I did every Wednesday, while I worked at the car dealership. I recorded my podcast in my car from Bluetooth, with an automatic dial in thing. Anyway, it was complicated shit. I probably could have made it easier. But bottom line is I stay consistent. When people log into Facebook, I’m just one of the channels that they’re surfing, no different than a remote control. I’m just one of the channels they’re surfing. They know they can go to my channel, because there’s consistently new stuff. Same on Facebook, same on Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, everything. And they know that I’ve been there for a long time. Like you ever show up at a sales job, especially in B2B, and the dude that’s worked there for 20 years is like the top producer. Why?
Ryan Stewman:
Because at this point, everybody that wasn’t working there has quit along the way. And he’s been the one person that they could consistently rely on and he’s been in it long enough so he must be an expert. He hadn’t moved around. He hadn’t switched things. And so that’s the way I look at it. I didn’t get it to be one of the top guys in the world at doing what I do just overnight. It took 10 freaking years of consistency. And it’s not easy. Most days I don’t feel like doing it. But I act my way into a feeling because I’ll never feel my way into action.
How to Stay Motivated Even When Things Aren’t Going Your Way · [28:53]
Will Barron:
How do you act your way, and we’ll wrap up with this, Ryan. How do you act your way into to getting motivated for this? Because I feel like this is the difference between, in anything, an amateur and a pro? A pro, whether it’s football, whatever it is, goes on the pitch, whether they’ve got a cold, whether they feel like shit, it doesn’t matter. They get on there, they take a role in from the manager in the locker room half time. They go back on, they run until their legs won’t carry them anymore. Whether they win or lose. They’re training the next day. An amateur in the UK, we have Sunday League Football. If it’s raining, half the teams, half the matches, don’t kind of get to play, because people go, ah, don’t bother. It’s cold.
Will Barron:
And obviously it’s not a huge priority for them, but that’s them between the amateur and the professional. So, how do you, because I suffer from this sometimes. So, I’ll take this on board myself. When you don’t feel great, when there’s something going on in your personal life, when there’s other things going on and you just can’t be bothered. You start getting that inner voice that goes, you know what, Ryan, you’re freaking crushing it this year, mate. Getting 10 million in revenue. You’ve got your team. You’ve just had a CEO. I deserve a day off. How do you turn that voice off and just sit down and do the work?
“The problem is most people are looking to be comfortable, but we weren’t created to be comfortable. We were created to sleep on rocks, floors, caves and on grass patches, and trees. We’re primates. That’s really the way that we were created. But for some reason, we’ve sold ourselves on this idea of being comfortable. And I know this, if you don’t get uncomfortable, the world will not reward you. There are no rewards inside the comfort zone.” – Ryan Stewart · [29:57]
Ryan Stewman:
Well, the problem is most people are looking to be comfortable, but we weren’t created to be comfortable. We were created to sleep on rocks, floors and caves and on grass patches, and trees. We’re primates. That’s really the way that we were created. But for some reason, we’ve sold ourselves on this idea of being comfortable. And I know this, if you don’t get uncomfortable, the world will not reward you. There are no rewards inside the comfort zone. So, for me, I’ve been on the road for two weeks. Okay. This one’s going to go a little long, because I’m about to go crazy on you. I’ve been to Ed Mylett’s house, Kent Clothier’s event and spoke. I’ve been to The Bahamas, got raided by the department of Homeland security when I got from The Bahamas. Then I went to the 10X Growth Con and then just came back last, like just came back yesterday in time to unpack my bags, get my to the office this morning.
Ryan Stewman:
And I woke up this morning. The last thing that I wanted to do was go to the gym. The last thing. I don’t like it on a good day. I damn sure don’t like it when I’m tired. And I couldn’t have laid there. And the longer I’d have laid there, the more I’d had reasons and excuses to convince myself that it was okay not to go. Because they start as soon as I think about it, got to go to the gym. Okay, man. Tell him you’re just tired. You’ve been on the road. He’s not going to buy that. It’s got to be better. Okay. Tell him you’re sick. Tell him you’re hungover. Don’t lie to him, tell him you’re hungover. And I start thinking, I’m like, you know what the easiest thing to do is just to get up and go. When I say act, I mean, literally you need to make a sales funnel.
“The easiest way to become an action taker is first time that excuse pops up, show it who’s boss.” – Ryan Stewman · [32:00]
Ryan Stewman:
Don’t stare at it forever. Just start clicking buttons. You know what I mean? Nobody’s going to see the monstrosity you’re going to build the first time around anyways, so just do it. And you don’t feel like having the conversation with one of your employees or with your boss, just do it anyway. It’s almost like I was listening to this guy talking about the three second rule. If you see a chick, you got to go talk to her within three seconds. You see a hot chick in the bar, you got three seconds to take action. Because if you don’t take action, the first three seconds, you’ll talk yourself out of it. It’s the same thing in our lives. So, the easiest way to become an action taker is to first time that excuse pops up, show it who’s boss. So, I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning, but I sure did.
Ryan Stewman:
The other thing is, and again, that’s getting out of your comfort zone. That’s where the reward starts happening. The second thing that I want to share with you guys, and we can close on this is the difference between power and force. So, in sales, many of us try to force our way into sales. In life’s the same way. We’re cold calling people, we’re banging on doors, we’re belly to belly. We’re bumping into people giving them our business card at Starbucks. We’re sneaking into office buildings and meetings, and all the things that we have to do. Forcing things. Spamming email that’s just trying to force a sale to happen. Well, force will get the job done. Force will make you money. You go and you force your way in, finally follow it up enough. But force will also, man, you’re only going to hit your head against the wall so many times before it starts to get soft.
“Many of us try to force our way into sales. We’re cold calling people, we’re banging on doors. But power is making boss moves, because bosses are powerful people. So, boss moves are starting a podcast, writing PR, getting interviewed on other shows, getting people to write articles about you, getting influencer pages on social media to mention you. Those are power moves. And what those power moves do is they start to attract, because that’s what power does. It attracts. It starts to attract the people that you want to do business with versus going out there and forcing just anyone to do business with. You’ll actually attract the best people to do business with, because you’ll be operating from the space of power.” – Ryan Stewman · [33:11]
Ryan Stewman:
And when you can make the transition from force to power and I’ll explain the difference here in a second, your world changes. So, when you think about power, I explain what force is. Force is knocking on the doors, cold calls. Power is making boss moves, because bosses are powerful people. So, boss moves are starting a podcast, writing PR, getting interviewed on other shows, getting people to write articles about you, getting influencer pages on social media to mention you. Those are power moves. And what those power moves do is they start to attract, because that’s what power does. It attracts. It starts to attract the people that you want to do business with versus going out there and forcing just anyone to do business with. You’ll actually attract the best people to do business with, because you’ll be operating from the space of power. So, many people are out there trying to force things to happen, but a king doesn’t go take things by force himself.
Ryan Stewman:
What a king does is he steps into power and lets force do the work for him. So, when you’re out there and you’re going to do your marketing, you’re going through your sales pitch, ask yourself, is this a power move or a force move. Is this power or force? Because power moves again, attracts. So, think is what I’m doing, this Facebook post, this article, this video, this podcast, whatever it is you’re doing, is this going to get the attention and attract the segment of the market that I want versus trying to close them, like get in them and handle their objections and “argue” and everything else with them. Versus them just saying, hey, you know what? Seen some things, got a few questions. If you answer them right, you can have my money.
Will Barron:
Is this something you’ve come up with Ryan? Because I’ve never heard it put it like that before.
Ryan Stewman:
Yeah. Yeah. It’s all me, man.
Success is Having Consistency, Making Yourself Uncomfortable and Then Taking Risks That Perhaps Other People Aren’t Willing to Take · [34:48]
Will Barron:
Because what you’re describing is what I’m literally experiencing at the moment of, first … And obviously the audience size are smaller. So, it more difficult to sell the, or, maybe it is the price of the sponsorships of the podcast are always relative to the number of downloads. So, maybe I’m making an excuse there of why it was so difficult at the beginning. But now I’ve got more inbound as I mentioned earlier in the show. We’ve sold out for the year and it’s from having a bigger audience, more people want to be involved and it’s attracting people to it. We’ve got way bigger guests reaching out to us to want to come on the show and it gets easier. And again, I think a lot of this is, and tell me if I’m wrong here, but it seems like to pull from both sides, it’s to have consistency over a decade and then to make yourself uncomfortable and take risks that perhaps other people aren’t willing to go. Is that the smart strategy here? Is that a good conclusion for the show perhaps of to pull from opposite directions like that?
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from all my very wealthy friends, it’s that simplicity is key. The people out there that are trying to over complicate things all the time when it is the simplicity of staying dedicated and consistent with something.” – Ryan Stewman · [35:42]
Ryan Stewman:
It’s pretty simple, man. If there’s one thing I’ve learned and I’ve learned from all my very wealthy friends, it’s that simplicity is key. The people out there are trying to over complicate things all the time when it is the simplicity of staying dedicated and consistent with of something. And then in my case, making power moves.
Ryan’s Advise to His Younger Self on How to Become Better at Selling · [36:10]
Will Barron:
Well, I wish you tell me that five years ago and I wish you’ll probably tell me tomorrow, because a lot of this will be over complicated by the time I think about it. And have a shower later on, Ryan. With that mate, I’ve asked you this before. And I’m going to ask you it again. So, I’m going to ask everyone that comes on the show and that is, if you could go back in time and speak to your younger self, what would be the one piece of advice you’d give him to help him become better at selling?
Ryan Stewman:
Man, I think my younger version of me was probably a better salesman than I am, because I had to try harder. You know what I mean? Now I have the authority and the credibility and either want to do something with us or you don’t. But my younger guy was a bigger or salesperson, but if I could go back and tell my younger self anything, it’d be the same thing I said on the last show, it’d be like, hang in there. You’re going to turn out to be a bad mother fucker one day. Be thankful for all this shit and just know that you’re actually going to get through it. So, enjoy some of it.
Parting Thoughts · [36:54]
Will Barron:
Love it. Well with that, Ryan, tell us about PhoneSites and then tell us about anything else you think is relevant from the 500 company that you run, mate.
Ryan Stewman:
Yeah. So, PhoneSites would be a big deal for this community. One of the things that you can do that’s a power move is create a website that collects data. Data’s the most expensive and valuable resource on the planet right now. It’s more valuable than oil. If you look at the top four guys that are the richest people in the world, we got Zuckerberg, he made his money from data. Jeff Bezos, he made his money from data. If you like this, would you also like to buy this? Warren Buffet, he’s got data from the shipping. He owns the railroads, the furniture stores, the real estate, the car business, the housing. I mean dude, the insurance. He’s got the data to monetize that stuff. And you look at Bill Gates, they’re not selling computers anymore. They’re selling their data to all these companies.
Ryan Stewman:
So, data is the most expensive thing. If any of those four guys decide to get into your business, you’re in trouble. And the best bet that you can have is an exit plan is to sell your book of data to these companies when they come in to take over. The best way to collect that data is through something called a sales funnel, which is a very simple web website with a call to action, asking them to enter whatever information you request, their name, email, address, phone number, or whatever the case may be. Now you might be thinking website. Dude, this is got to be hard. I tried it with GoDaddy and Wix and it was a pain in the ass. That’s not the case. Like I said earlier in the show, I believe in simplicity. And so PhoneSites is the easiest, simplest, fastest, best way that you can build one of these websites.
Ryan Stewman:
And we even have a training programme that shows you how to do everything, but really you wouldn’t even have to watch it. You can just click a few buttons and make it happen, because it makes sense in real time, drag and drop. You can use your phone, your desktop, everything else. And prove it to you I’ll give it to you for free. You can go over there and make your first few funnels absolutely for free. Just go over to phonesites.com. You don’t even have to enter your credit card. You can just go over there, sign up, check our software out.
Ryan Stewman:
And once you create one of these sales funnels, sharing it on Facebook, on LinkedIn, sending it to your email list, to start collect that data and monetizing it. Who’s interested in what. It’s a complete game changer. Second thing that I like to say to you guys is everyday I do a podcast called Rewire and it’s three to five minutes, real quick and I should be the first thing you listen to every morning. I talk about the wisdom from my experiences, the mindset shifts that I have. And occasionally business stuff. But mostly mindset things. The idea is to programme your mind and rewire your mind first thing in the morning when you get up and you’re most vulnerable, let that be the first decision that you make every day. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, best place to get it is at hardcorecloser.com. That’s my blog. There’s tonnes of articles, videos, all my podcasts are there and everything else. So, PhoneSites and then the Rewire podcast over at hardcorecloser.com.
Will Barron:
Good stuff, Ryan. Well, I’ll link to all of that in the show notes this episode over at salesman.org. Well, Ryan, genuine pleasure as I always, mate. Congrats on all the success. Look forward to seeing you progress moving forward. And thank you again for joining us on The Salesman Podcast.
Ryan Stewman:
Thanks for having me.
