Episode 139 | Ryan Phu | Military Millionaire Podcast

00:00 - 05:00

David:

What's up everybody? This is your host of the military millionaire podcast with my beautiful co host, Alexander Felice and my friend.

Alex:

Beautiful?

David:

Yes. Beautiful.

I don't know. What do you want me to say? Manly?

Alex:

I couldn't agree more.

Alex:

Sexy kink.

David:

Sexy? There you go.

And my good friend Ryan who.. We hang out every now and then here in San Diego. So Ryan is and I'm gonna give this intro a total butcher job. But Ryan got into e-commerce and some Shopify stuff when he was in high school as a sophomore in high school, I think and he corrected me on all that I messed up as we go.

And then he got his first real estate deal under contract. He actually wasn't 18 yet, so he had to get somebody else to help him sign on it. He's done a little bit of real estate, done fairly well with e-commerce. And the My favorite thing we're going to talk about here in a little bit was how he graduated high school. And we're going to dig into that as well.

But Ryan is just one of those guys who doesn't let things stop him. He's 18. And he's already doing things that a lot of people talk about doing. And I wanted to get him on the show. So we could talk about some of the mindset stuff and some of the stuff that he's been going through because I think this is really cool. And we'll just kind of open, open eyes to what's possible if you put your mind to it.

So yeah, that's my intro. Ryan. Welcome to the show, brother.

Intro:

Welcome to the military millionaire podcast where we teach servicemembers, veterans and their families how to build wealth through personal finance, entrepreneurship and real estate investing. I'm your host, David Pere. And together with my co host, Alex Felice. We're here to be your no BS guides along the most important mission you'll ever embark on your finances.

Vehicle one. You're clear to depart our friendly lines. Roger Vic one, Oscar Mike.

Ryan:

Thank you. Thank you, David. I'm excited to be here. I remember it's kind of crazy, because I'd used to just scroll through all your videos, and then look at this podcast. And now it's like I'm talking to you. But it was even more crazy. When I went to the meetup last year, and I was actually talking to you, that was just a mind opening thing. You really have changed my life, David, and I'm happy to be here.

David:

I appreciate you.

So Alex, you asked before we got on the show if he was selling anything, and he's selling me so you better back off. Let him do it.

Alex:

I’m not gonna do the hockin bullshit.

Ryan:

Guys, if you want to buy my course, link in the show notes, you know, it's one spot limited, you know, only today, it's not going to go to a clickfunnels page. Trust me, like, come on. 2021. So I got those gurus.

David:

Oh, my gosh.

Alright, so Ryan, give us a little backstory here. I know, I know, you did some e-commerce stuff. You want to just kind of catch people up on what you've done over the last few years. And then we're gonna dig into the fun stuff.

Ryan:

Yeah, sure.

So I mean, my humble beginnings started off in San Diego, I'm born and raised here. Parents are both Asian. I don't know if that's important or not, but put it out there. So my whole life, living in a small kind of area, we're well off. But you know, we had some struggles as a family. I have an autistic sister. You know, some things happened in 2008, where my dad lost his job. And then my mom got bipolar. With everything that's happened with the market, we also lost the three properties that we had in Texas. And that just puts a huge financial burden and stress and everyone in the family.

So what happened with that was my mom got bipolar, and eventually got worse and worse. Until about 2014-2015. She suddenly quit her job and wasn't taking medication, and it pretty much devastated our family. And my dad was still like barely surviving because he just got a new job. And now he has to deal with an autistic sister's son, and trying to find his wife who disappeared.

You know, I love my mom and everything. But no, these things just sometimes happen with families and it really does suck so that that was just atrocious because I didn't see my mom for around three years. Some nights I didn't know if he was dead or alive. It was pretty emotional and I had to take care of my sister while I was in Boy Scouts in school and doing sports.

So I really learned how to balance my time from a young age. And I was also very into money. I tried to get my first bank account when I was in first grade. I was begging my parents to get my first debit card. No, it's kind of funny actually. With all the cryptocurrency that's happening right now, my friend and I tried to buy bitcoin. We were like an eighth grader and it was only like, like 10 bucks or whatnot, or not. 10 bucks is pretty cheap. But I was trying to convince my parents to get a debit card.

During that time when it was like eighth grade my mom had left and I just really wanted to be like the breadwinner for my family just to make sure that they were able to like my sister and my dad didn't have to worry about money because that was a huge stress factor. Right?

05:00 - 10:00

Ryan:

I went behind my parents back, we on parent with my dad only being there and I started looking into drop shipping. I got into drop shipping when I was about 13-14 I started off with social media marketing. At first I grew my page, my brand page for dropshipping from zero to 25,000 followers. So that was pretty funny. But I remember like he was like yesterday where I would be looking. I was hungry for like a 13-14 year old, meaning I couldn't get a job until 16. I was like, well I want to have I want to be rich like these influencers in gurus shiny, showing off their lambos and Gucci x Li Bataan trash bags, whatever they have now, but I really wanted that image, which is the wrong image by the way, if you're, if you're young, like you're like under 18, or if you like that stuff, I mean, it's fine, but should be going after something else.

Anyways, to get on track. I had no debit card, I was doing this through a PayPal account. And I wasn't even sure if it was legal to run a Shopify store off of a PayPal account when you're like 13-14. So I was doing that. And I've actually done my first sale after dming people and doing all sorts of crap on my Instagram page and growing it. I was just growing my followers and then got up to a 25,000 on my brand page, and then 100,000 on the influencer page, and I was basically feeding the influencer page as traffic and funneling it to my brand page and building a brand off of that.

Eventually, it was exactly the Stranger Things show, the show kind of died off because it comes in different seasons. And it was pretty inconsistent. But by the time I turned 16, I saved about $10,000, which is pretty good. Then that was the time where I kind of fell in a rut, and I let college get into my head, I thought, you know, hey, well, I'm getting into my junior year, this one when mom came back to life was actually getting better. You know, we had caretakers in the family. So people taking care of my sister, I was basically like, well, maybe I should just live like a normal kid not being able to do that at all. And I like to call it. I let it get to me pretty much. I started trying to be the popular kid. I also thought of having a stable income. I wanted the ego of maybe going to Harvard or some like stage school or having some nice job as a title.

And then my friend came who was the one who introduced me to Bitcoin and likes drop shipping pretty much, which was Dave the one that you met that was my best friend. We met at the meetup last year. So he got me into pretty much real estate and showed me who David was. He showed me how to get into real estate. It was your most popular video but was that David?

David:

Who knows back then? It might have been my how to get rich in the military with a budget for beer.

Ryan:

Yeah, that's the one I know that's when it had the red kind of like, I remember the thumbnail like so. Well, I have a photographic memory but I remember it and you know, I thought only with only one month of real estate knowledge. You know, all I knew before I was 16 or actually turned 17 I just turned 17. All I knew was ecommerce and all that stuff back then.

Alex:

Ryan?

Ryan:

Yeah.

Alex:

We got up here. 17 I got you. You're a slacker. How do you turn it around?

Ryan:

Yeah, I was 17 and I was slacking. I was being a little bit to be honest. Trying to go to college and chasing things weren't really like me.

So then my friend, I see David on a live thing. Hey, everyone, we got a meetup downtown. It's our first Oh shit. Holy fucking shit him from YouTube. Holy fucking shit. Real Estate! Money! Let's go. I drove to my friends. Definitely. Dude. Come on. We got to go. Let's go. His mom says no. I'm like, dude, I don't get this shit jump in the car. gets in the car. We just drive down there as fast as we can. We came a little late.

David:

I thought you have a curfew?

Ryan:

Yeah, no, no, no, not me, it was uh, I feel I did. Because my friend and we actually got in trouble that night. I was told that he couldn't see me for two weeks or talk to me from his parents. So it was worth it though. Because what I learned there was more than school as taught me with opportunities.

David and you know, a couple of people like a D and I think Don like they showed me wholesaling he the deal first showed me the short term wholesaling I was like well it's something drop shipping but on a larger scale. And so then after that meetup I just dove straight into this real estate and I was like, well, this is like the next drop shipping basically.

Alex:

You gotta surround yourself around people that motivates you. Wait, so why did you change? Well, I guess you explained earlier that you're doing the dropship thing without ending. You didn't know what to do next?

Ryan:

Yeah, well, because back in. Wait, it was like actually 2018 at the time and then a stranger things like season the next season it was like being delayed and stuff. And also everyone in their mom knew about dropshipping at that time, like from 2018, up to 2018. It was completely saturated. Facebook ads started to cost a lot more. Things just went up shipping times, everything.

10:00 - 15:00

Ryan:

It got pretty much worse than I just wasn't enjoying it because the margins are so small. It was really worth it for the time I was putting into it. I mean, I was from like 13 till I was about 16 or 17. The reason why I'm five three and the reason why that's why behind that is because I hustle day in and day out during school nights on the weekends. Just to, you know, for dropshipping basically, I only got four hours of sleep consistently, because I was doing school while waking up, going to school, coming back, I tried to do some drop shipping work at school too all my phone. I mean Instagram stuff.

And then after I got home from school, you know, I had homework, but not only did dials have basketball practice and basketball practice was consistently like to sometimes practice was about like five hours, like, different practices. And then I'll have dinner, and then Boy Scouts sometimes and then on top of that, I'd be like nine o'clock, I'd worked from nine to one or two in the morning. Day in and day out from that time. And okay, that's why I'm so frickin short.

Alex:

Is that what you're gonna do? Is that you’re gonna do the wholesaling?

Ryan:

No, definitely not because health is more important. That's why I learned, health is a lot more important.

Alex:

The complaint you made about drop shipping was the margins came down, the competition came up. And the overhead increased.

Ryan:

Yeah.

Alex:

You worry that you're coming into wholesaling at a very popular time?

Ryan:

Yeah, I think, you know, it is getting more popular and more popular. But I think with other other ways, I mean, it's the best way you can get your foot in the door with wholesaling. And they can open up into other opportunities of real estate that won't be saturated, like creative financing options aren't going to be saturated. Because I feel like these people and we're learning from things like Tik Tok and stuff. They're learning from 10 second videos, which are just showing the good side of the business. It's a 10 second video, what can you really learn from it? And they're just going at it through motivation. And I think they'll just die out quickly, because they think it's a get rich quick scheme. And wholesaling takes a lot more time, I think a lot higher of a barrier of entry than drop shipping.

Alex:

Yeah, I don't know the barrier to entry dropshipping there's definitely a higher barrier to entry to wholesaling than most people. I think you're right. People hear about it, they're like, you can make money in real estate 1000s on one transaction with no money and bad credit. That's what they hear. And it's like, maybe at a year, five to $10,000 budget of billion knows.

Ryan:

Yeah.

Alex:

A lot of embarrassment. You know.

Ryan:

You also have to have a lot of character too but in drops, you don't really have to do that. Well, because with real estate with higher margins, you kind of have to wait for the first deal. Your first deal could be eight months from now, and then it'll be 10,000. But with drop shipping, you get your first dollar after like 15 days. So you've got to be motivated.

Alex:

You have to be patient enough and committed enough to get through.

Yeah, it's a long game in real estate.

Ryan:

It is a long game.

And that's what I realized. And I was like 90% of millionaires. This statistic, I don’t even know if it's right, because 80% of statistics are wrong, but 90% of millionaires, I don't know from where that's where I heard it from, but they came from real estate, but I definitely know and I started to see that real estate is where long term wealth is played, and you'll see fucking dudes flashing Lamborghinis and like, Gucci trash bags.

Alex:

Yo, my man. He's got a pet peeve right.

Ryan:

I hate fucking gurus, bro. I hate gurus.

Alex:

But you like David, but you like David? I can’t understand this kid's logic. How does that make sense?

Ryan:

David, he's a duru. He actually does the business. He's not like you know, these people who are trying to sell the business and you know, who aren't even in it. So that's it's it's really the difference in you know, you know some Durus are good.

Ryan:

I love this dynamic that we have right now.

David sits in the middle of being his every day average self and I'm pulling him down like an anchor. And you are putting them on this pedestal like a Greek god. I love this. And he's just sitting there like, I'm a regular dude.

David:

What's this phrase duru? I could dig this.

Alex:

Yeah, he is making up new acronyms and acronyms. Like don't don't break your wrist jerking him off. Okay, just calm down.

Ryan:

It’s just a Swag. Oh, gosh.

David:

Gosh. So.

Ryan:

You didn't mention that one time on the show where you just got that duplex in your bed right? You mentioned that yet? I was kidding.

David:

Oh, no, no, no, no.

Ryan:

That's that's for the meetup. That's for the meetup. So if you guys want to hear the story, you have to come to the meetup. Yeah, episode bias course. Well, I'll help you, so don't worry.

15:00 - 20:00

David:

He's running my shopify.

Ryan:

Yep. Yeah.

David:

Oh man, alright Ryan. Okay, so you got to tell the story of high school, your senior year.

Ryan:

Yep.

So senior year, which is last year's 2020. I go to the meetup. I get hyped up from, you know, this February meetup looking into real estate. And then I looked into wholesale lease options by Joe McCall. That wasn't a good call, especially for the market in San Diego. It's not like a renters market at all.

And so what happened was I kind of spun my wheels for a little bit and then I just decided, Well, let me just do wholesaling itself. Because the reason why I chose wholesale lease options, which is like, just like creative financing for real estate, was because I thought it was less competitive, like, wholesaling. Well, that wasn't really the case. But it was just another thing that I could add my tool belt with regards to wholesaling and making real estate deals. And so I just deep dived into wholesaling. And what I did with it was I started looking for partners on YouTube.

So I looked at a San Diego wholesaler, and this guy popped up. And I partnered with him, because I was under 18, I wasn't as confident as I was like, I don't know if it's gonna work. And that pretty much broke off. I was driving for dollars every day, while going to school, I was doing a lot of stuff doing a partnership. And I just felt like he was still at his job. And he wasn't putting as much time commitment into I mean, he was a great dude and stuff. And he had a couple deals under his belt, but I just wasn't getting any traction with him. And I felt like I was just doing it on my own. So I decided to go into the Ohio market and go virtual and just do it by myself. I didn't even care if I couldn't if I was 18. I mean, I should have had it in mind. But I was like I'm gonna figure it out. Because my goal was to start taking it seriously back in October, I said, I'm going to get one deal, no matter what, before the end of the year. And I'm also going to be an Eagle Scout. And I'm also going to finish school within within one month so I can get that out of the way and get my fucking deal. That was it. There were no ifs, ands or buts. There's nothing else.

And at the end of 2021 before I turned 18, my birthday is December 22. So on December 20, I actually closed my deal. Well, I didn't make any money, any anything off because I mean, we can go into that later, but I basically got blackballed and scammed. By the end buyer.

Alex:

Are you allowed to do that before you're 18?

Ryan:

Yeah, but you're supposed to have it in an LLC. I didn't have an LLC, I just started making phone calls and texting people. And that's why I had the partner at first because I was like, Well, you know, I should just do it the safe way. But we weren't getting any results from it. I mean, my daily routine for that was basically wake up in the morning, 5am go driving for dollars, then go to school, at 8:30. But I would be at my laptop, I'd go to school in the car. And then I'd go downtown, stay in the zoom, kind of pull the probate leads, come back home in another zoom meeting for school and then start cold calling until like midnight. It was a tough market in San Diego pretty much and I was only gonna get like 10% of the deal. If I did close it.

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20:00 - 25:00

Alex:

Well look when you're new. You're all risk and no experience.

Ryan:

Yeah.

Alex:

You know people It's kind of I'm glad you recognize that but people take, they get greedy when they're new, right? Like, take 10%, you don't know you don't know anything, you're somebody who's gonna do most of the deal, but you end up So what you're saying is you went off on your own Ohio and you close a deal right before your birthday. And then hang on, you didn't explain how you mucked it up, how'd you not get paid?

How did you get away with doing it when you're 18?

Ryan:

Okay, so what I did was, I mean, what I did was, I just pretty much found someone on Facebook, which I do not recommend. It was just some random person, kind of, but he was another wholesaler. And I mean, this guy was like helping me throughout the hallway because I met him right as soon as I got into the market.

And as soon as I got into the Ohio market, two weeks later, I got a hot lead. And that was when I got the deal. But so it was two weeks of just getting on the phone on a phone call with this guy just talking about wholesaling and how things were going, he was in the same market. And I just had a feeling that I could really trust him. And he seemed like a good person.

I mean, I've never met him in real life or anything still to this day.

Alex:

So what happened?

Ryan:

He signed it, and we had to close in like 10 days. And pretty much what happened was the property, it was like a very higher end property was a frickin mansion. This property was a mansion, which is you're not gonna get a lot of buyers. So I finally got to buy off for like two days. So we had seven days or 10 days to close it. And so I was in a time crunch. But I was like, I need to get this deal. I need to get this deal. I need to get this deal. And I just kind of took the first buyer. And he kind of just led me around. What he did was I think he was trying to wait for me to let the contract expire, because he knew it was like 10 days. I told him the contract price. Yeah, I was stupid. He's trying to get around me like the whole time. I just thought he said he had like 30 years experience and things like that. So I was getting really fucking stupid.

Alex:

We're gonna work on your hard time skills. I still don't know what happened.

Ryan:

Okay, so what happened was the contract expired, I found a new buyer, the end buyer just went around me and didn't even pay me out. Even though it was a title and everything.

Ryan:

Okay, how much did the deal make? How much did he make?

Ryan:

The heat? Will the person who signed it for me?

Alex:

The person who bought the deal?

Ryan:

The person who bought the deal? I'm not even sure. She wasn't..

Alex:

How much was the ARV of the property that you got under contract?

Ryan:

Okay, ARV was about 500. And I got it for 235.

Alex:

Bro. Bro, what did you learn? Let me ask you a question. What lesson did you learn from this, this transaction?

Ryan:

Look for have more time to deal. And just like, have a good buyer's list and make sure you're more confident in yourself.

Ryan:

That's a good lesson.

Ryan:

That's pretty much it because I was super pressured on myself just to pick the first person.

One thing I think I would do better is also know the area a little bit better. Because that area, no one would want to put 200,000 into that or like 500,000 all into that property because it was really fucking beat up, it would probably take like 150k and work. Now I'm looking back on it. And I just didn't have a system to find like the buyers. I knew how to get to the part where I got the deal from the seller, but..

Alex:

Dude, you act like you beat yourself up about this. But I don't think you realize that everybody mucks up their first deal, everybody.

David:

Yep.

Alex:

Right. It's always the deal. Like oh, I mucked at my first it's not my I didn't get a deal out of it. Because I F it up. He’s been doing it for years. And he's still in gun one, right?

Ryan:

I thought it's shots fired.

David:

I've lost 30 grand on a flip before. So at least you didn't lose money in this deal. You learned a lesson.

Alex:

But look, you're looking at the wrong side. Yeah, look, you created $200,000 of value out of thin air at a talent. And you messed up the procedural side, which you got basically 81 years to fix.

Ryan:

Yeah, that's why I try to look at the bright side. I mean, after that I got the next deal . The same day I turned 18 I got another property under contract. And I've been working on that one for a long time. But long story short, I just kept going after that. It didn't. I didn't let it let it take me down.
Alex:

Ohio union?

Ryan:

I'm not in Ohio at all. I'm in San Diego.

Alex:

What part where's the wholesaling going on?

Ryan:

Oh, you asked him where the? Okay, it was Cleveland, Ohio. Yeah.

Alex:

Are you still doing wholesaling out there?

Ryan:

Yeah, I am. We're just falling for a couple leads. But what we're doing is I'm switching markets just because I'm looking for bigger deals because a lot of the spreads are less than 10,000 year.

Alex:

Dude.

Ryan:

For like wholesale assignments.

Alex:

Yeah.

Ryan:

And there's a lot of problems with the seller, and like the issues with the property like a lot of the properties that we can buy or like require like a full full rehab

Alex:

Bro. You're killing me right now.

This kid David is killing me.

Why? Well, why did you choose Ohio in the first place?

25:00 - 30:00

Ryan:

Because it was just a lot quicker to get a deal bare than San Diego.

Alex:

So where are you going to go? Do you think it is going to have higher margins? That you already did a deal in Ohio. So you are already starting to learn the market? You're going to give all that up? You're gonna start it on the market.

I'm curious, what market do you think is so much better and less competitive at this point in the larger? I mean, have you seen? Have you seen what's happening in real estate right now? My friend?

Ryan:

Yes, I have.

Alex:

I think it's more mania right now than it was in 2007.

It's insane.

Ryan:

Yeah.

Alex:

What market are you gonna go start in, right, you're going to start over right now.

Like, look, if you're going to start over in a new market, now's the time. But I know buyers in Cleveland and they're buying deals in the Midwest. I think that's the best place in the US to do if you're looking for buyers that are like bulk buyers who are going to do long distance rentals, airbnbs or flips. That's the place in the Midwest, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Columbus in the Midwest out there. You said you're gonna leave. I don't know, do whatever you want to do in your business.

But I'm curious. You did one deal there when? Okay, not great. You're working on a second one. And you're like, I'm gonna pick up and go, you're gonna go greedy. You said I'm gonna go find some bigger margins.

Ryan:

No, well, I What happened was I actually did two deals after that by JV. Because I understood that like, like, Listen, I don't know the streets in Cleveland. I've never been there before. I didn't know the market too well. And you really have to, like, be there and like, live there to really know what streets are good and not. And, you know, I should have just done more homework before I went into the market.

But yeah, one thing about Cleveland. Probably like Texas, like South Texas.

Alex:

You're killing me.

Do you know it? Do you know about South Texas?

Ryan:

No, I'm doing my research. So I'm really I'm pretty much debating, like, where to go. I just know, I don't want to be included, because the crime rates are increasing over there.

Alex:

That’s a good answer.

Ryan:

I don't, I wouldn't want to be there like myself. It's pretty. I don't know. I sort of want to be there.

Alex:

He said Cleveland, Ohio, and everybody who lives there as ratchet. That's what he just said.

Ryan:

Yeah, most people there.

David:

That's why he's not there.

Ryan:

Yeah, a lot of the people that I've like, met and worked with like, like, I'm not trying to be like, you know, just like, throw shade out there. But you know, they're like, fucking cocksuckers they're really like, fucking cocksuckers out there. Like, I'd say, like, nine out of 10 people were just trying to like, fucking like, go around you or, you know, maybe it was just me, but I try to come off as nice. And you can't really play nice out there, you have to pretty much fight fire with fire.

Alex:

Let me tell you something.

Yeah, you're young. So people are going to, they're going to try to give a shit with you. And that's just the nature of it. And so you're like, Hey, you gotta be tough. Yeah, you kind of have to be. But you know, in this business, good values go farther, people that are really transactional, and like that will snake you and those kinds of things. They're not going to last the long run.

So don't learn too much from that behavior. Because that behavior doesn't last. People who do bad business like that. Don't make it very far. So you don't want to like, like, you're gonna go to another city. It's like, I mean, I feel you but people are people, right? They're not any worse than Cleveland. They are in Texas. Promise.

Oh, David's here, I forgot.

David:

Good official piece of advice, something I would recommend off your first deal is looking into potentially filing Memorandum of affidavits. When you get something under contract. I think that's the right term, it's kind of changed up depending on what market you're in.

But it's basically you can file it with your county when you can do it, your title company can help you with it. But basically what it is is like intent to intend to purchase, officially. And so what it does is like if someone tries to backdoor you on that, like on that last deal, they would essentially when they come to closing on title, they would essentially need your signature to let them close the transaction.

And it allows you that, hey, we had a contract. So now I'm going to ask you for 10 grand or whatever, to close this deal, or I'm going to uphold my end of the contract and you can't buy it.

Ryan:

Yeah, but what was actually happening was, this seller started to resent me because I didn't close on that like 10 day period and expired Bennett, the memorandum, I would have to do it through like the person who signed it. And the title company like it was weird, because since I was under 18, they couldn't really just wire me the money. They just couldn't because I was under 18.

So what they would have to do is they'd wire it to it was just really complex because I was under 18. We tried to do that. But you know, we just, it just didn't work out. I tried to talk with the title company to do that. But they're like, Well, we know what they're saying. But it was something about because I was 18 it's hard to kind of structure where I get paid out. So I'd have to get it sent to the person who signed it and then they would sign it, they would send it to me. But at the end of the day it would be the way that would be done was the seller or no the buyers, end buyer would have to make a separate agreement between us. And she wasn't going to do that until it closed, apparently.

30:00 - 35:00

Ryan:

So we let it close. And I tried to contact her. And what she told me was, What the fuck are you doing? You should owe me my whole property was a clusterfuck. And then we never talked again. But.

Alex:

Look, man, this is a hard business to go. Like, it's so good. Glad you’re 18, because now you don't have to go on the law. Like this is a hard business.

I mean, that's not like, you know, it's not immoral. It's just, you know, a technical law. So I love breaking technical laws all day. But it's good to just do that, because that's a pain, right? And then people are gonna take advantage of you. If you're breaking the law, then you tell the cop the people in the transaction that they can break the law. Right, like, I don't give a shit then they're like, Well, you know, what are you gonna do? You know.

Ryan:

Yeah, definitely. And that's what, that's what happened. She knew the laws. She's like, Oh, I don't have to pay him shit. This so she just, she just did it.

So like be 18.

Alex:

Be 18 that's the best advice.

Ryan:

A fucking 18.

Alex:

Look, I love that I don't even, I am not giving you a hard time. I love the tenacity to have. You know, I love that you tried to you're doing it before you were 18. That's just awesome. Because I was at least every bit of 10 years older than that before I thought about this stuff.

Ryan:

Yeah.

Alex:

So you gotta get a big head start.

But let me tell you something, man. People still burn me in this business, people that I've known for a long time. People that have given money to that worked out and then one day, they just take your money and go so you know, the tough? I guess they're you know, that's not really the way I would say but you know, when someone's gonna burn you.

Ryan:

You just gotta be careful.

Alex:

You gotta be careful. You don't think it's like, if you don't think that people are capable of it. You're definitely wrong. So you should always know that what situation would have to occur that they feel for me or whatever the case?

Ryan:

Yep, exactly.

And it's like, it's like, I wish I just had a LLC. I wish I just set that up. It's just hard because my parents really weren't supportive of me doing this at all, just because of the bad experience in 2008. So it was just like, I needed to get this deal no matter what. I don't care if I'm 18, bending all the rules, sleeping in my car, getting school done, you know, it's just, I had to do it.

I don't care if I wash. I do care if I go to jail, I'll be a bad thing. But I need to get that deal no matter what. And I was still content with I'm not even getting paid out. Because it was just a huge, like, stake in the ass at the end for like the lesson learned.

David:

Getting zero on a deal is a much better way to learn a lesson than losing a shitload of money like most people do.

Ryan:

Yeah, yep.

That's what I told myself could have been like, way worse. Way, way worse.

Alex:

Yeah, you're gonna have worse deals like you're owed at least one now. You lose money sometimes, you know. So that's a part of the best part of the business, though. But it's good that you did that first one. I love that.

Ryan:

Yep.

And so then after that first one, I kind of just started to wander off and was like, well, maybe I should JV because I don't really, I don't really know my numbers here. I don't think I have enough buyers JV with for my next two deals. And those are not well. And yeah, I'm pretty much at a point where I'm just trying to rebuild like my foundation in regards to marketing, because I'm trying to make it in a way where it's like really organizing a part of where I know which leads are getting called, if they're like, you know, just like trying to organize my marketing. If you look into REI sift I can't really explain it's like so hard to explain REI sift. Have you guys heard of that product?

David:

No, I haven't. I haven't used it personally yet. But there's a zoom call going on right now that I'm probably gonna watch the video on afterwards.

Ryan:

You should use it, David because it's a you're you're doing deals in Mississippi, right?

David:

Missouri.

Ryan:

Missouri.

Yeah, I would suggest you look into that. Because pretty much with Rei sift the reason why I like just like, doing a hard stop and trying to like to re educate myself is because with Rei sift, like when I was marketing back in October, I didn't even know who was like I wasn't keeping track of my leads at all. I wasn't keeping track of pretty much anything. And I'm at this point where I'm trying to just build a foundation for like a lean and virtual team for wholesaling.

David:

So we got a few minutes left. And we touched on it before we got on the show. You've sent me an article. So I'm curious. I'd like to hear. What I'd like to hear your take a little bit on what you've been reading about Elon Musk as far as mindset.

Ryan:

Sure.

So what I've been reading about and what I've been pretty much just going through and reading his autobiographies. I've been looking into what makes him like just like a lot of the great thinkers so much different than just us and they're really, actually not because we can all be like them.

35:00 - 40:00

Ryan:

What I looked upon was the way he thinks was based on first principle thinking. And with first principle thinking, it's a lot different than how we're usually taught from a young age, which is pretty much conventional thinking, which is things are the way they are, because that's just the way it is. We're pretty much taught that from school, we're kind of just given that things are there, because things are there, they can't really be improved, because we don't really go into our creative senses into improving upon it.

So well, first principle thinking does is it breaks down things to the very most fundamental levels. And then you build upon that. So like, for example, what Elon is doing is he made the Tesla car, right, so cars are supposed to get from A to B in the most efficient way possible. He realized, you know, gas wasn't very efficient. And he wanted to accelerate that.

Another example could be how he changed like Tesla battery cells, in which he made it a lot more cost effective, because according to him, the batteries were too expensive. And they were impossible to fit, like in a car, in the Tesla car or whatever. But he broke it all down. And he restructured it in a very creative way.

You'll see that in the article, I just read through it yourself, but it explains more about it. And you'll get an excellent, better explanation about it. But it's changed my mindset on a lot of things, because it's pretty much like the vision and mindset, because with wholesaling, it's not the end game for me.

For me, I think where I want to be at the end of my life, I think it's very short, you have to think we don't we're not we're on this earth, not for very long. Nothing's for certain except for that. I'm here like you were just you yourself are alive and breathing and talking. I don't know if this is a simulation or anything. Pretty much went on a crazy tangent here.

I'm surprised you guys are still here, not sleeping. But I just wanted to say that my vision here isn't the end game isn't wholesaling. It's a lot grander than that. And I'm probably going to go into some other things. But yeah, I really don't know what else to say half this, I feel like I'm going on for too long.

David:

I think I think the big takeaway from all this, Ryan, is that you started at an earlier age than most and so you experienced some unique struggles in a lot of that right through whatever your personal life with the family, some of those struggles, or the fact that you literally got cut out of a deal because you weren't 18 yet. And I know you briefly touched on it here. But you know, the stint where you were like literally sleeping in your car to make ends meet while working through all this.

But I think the point, and what the reason that we want to have you on the show was that, like, none of that stopped you right? Like, the idea that you're still going you're still optimistic, you're still moving along. And you know, there's a lot of people who are much older than you that haven't started for whatever reason, is just the mentality of like, Okay, cool. Well, look, hey, Ryan's doing it. And he wasn't even legally old enough to do it. You know.

So I think the main I mean, the main takeaway for me with all this, and the reason that I like hanging out with you is just the fact that it's like, man, if I had been able to start some of this stuff, when I was that age, like I would be so much further along in life, even if I had made some made some big blunders along the way. Because time is on your side, right? Like you can afford to take some risks. You can afford to lose a little bit here and there.

Ryan:

Yeah, exactly.

Things aren't really as bad as what you make it like sleeping in a car like us. It's not, it's not that bad. I mean, it is if you're like under age, and you know, you're out of the house, but no, things aren't really too bad when you're a lot younger, because like the worst thing that can happen is I mean, America is like very safe compared to other countries, you wouldn't really like die from dehydration or not having enough food. I mean, that's pretty much given here.

It's not as risky, as you think, like wholesaling and venturing into whatever business actually I wouldn't say that because every business can be different. I could be saying like forex or like crypto when you're getting sucked into an MLM scheme.

David:

You know, enough to spot that you're 18. So that's, that's a good start.

Ryan:

Yeah.

From military, to millionaire, crypto, forex trading group.

David:

Alex is trying to get me to sell this stuff for years. And I just keep telling him, it's not my thing.

Alex:

Not me, I don't think so.

Ryan:

Alex who?

David:

Yeah, not that guy.

Alright, Ryan. We appreciate having you on the show. I would like to ask, because I asked everybody this, do you have a resource that you recommend for anyone looking to get started in real estate?

Actually, you know what I know. So for reference, I am gonna link to that article that you sent me. So that'll be in the show notes. Because I found it interesting as well. But a book, a course or a website that you found very helpful while getting started in all of this.

40:00 - 41:31

Ryan:

Yeah, so first of all, that article is really good because it kind of separates what your kind of true mindset is for you know, just like selling anything in life, also, something that would be good is I first started reading a couple books that I would recommend is the Miracle Morning. And I would also recommend Rich Dad Poor Dad, because that's what also got me started. And those are great resources, you have YouTube via Google. And you can even follow me on Instagram, I'm trying to best as possible document my journey with wholesaling and just everything that I do, like a Instagram vlog style. But you know, I'm kind of struggling with it, because I usually don't have Instagram. I uninstalled it, because it's just distracting. I haven't had it for a year, but I'm trying to post and I'll be keeping you guys updated. But it should be in the show notes for my Instagram. It's Ryan@Ryan. But the for the A's for our y for n bi z is my Instagram handle might change in the future. But as of now that's what it is.

David:

I'll link to it in the show notes. And I'll be sure to share it and tag you and it all goes live.

Ryan, always a pleasure. Thank you for joining us this evening. And I hope that we see you here in a couple of weeks at this next meetup.

Ryan:

Yep, definitely. Thank you, David.

And thank you, Alex.

David:

Absolutely.

Alex:

It was fun. Good to meet you.

Ryan:

Yeah, good to meet you too guys.

End:

Thank you for listening to another episode about my journey From military to millionaire. If you liked it, be sure to visit Frommilitarytomillionaire.com/podcast to subscribe to future podcasts. While you're there, we'd love for you to rate the show. Give us a review on iTunes. Now get out there and take action.