What is the Most Direct Path to Income Producing Activities with Ryan Lindner

This week on the Chasing Financial Freedom Podcast, we have special guest Ryan Lindner.

Ryan is a personal development specialist who has worked as a behavioral coach for clients and top organizations worldwide. After two sudden, unexplained cardiac arrests at a young age, he began to explore different perspectives with clients that come with any profound, life-changing event.

If you aren’t living, you’re dying. It wasn’t uncommon for Ryan to teeter on unconsciousness even, at times, while working with a client, requiring him to prioritize his energy and time masterfully and assist clients in doing the same.

In this episode, Ryan will talk about his experience with these health issues and how they affected his work and life. He'll also share tips on how you can apply these lessons to your own business or career path if you're facing similar challenges!

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Transcript

What is the Most Direct Path to Income-Producing Activity with Ryan Lindner

[00:00:00] Ryan: Hey guys, Ryan DeMent from Chasing Financial Freedom Podcast. I hope you guys are having a great day today on the show. We have Ryan Lindner and he is a coach. He is also a development specialist and an author, and he's had a couple of things happen to him in his life that I don't know if any of us have experienced it.

[00:00:23] Ryan: And we'll get into that conversation. As soon as we bring him in, Ryan. Welcome to the show. 

[00:00:28] Ryan L: Hey, Ryan. Thanks for having me. 

[00:00:30] Ryan: You are more than welcome. So before we get into your journey, tell the listeners a little about yourself. 

[00:00:39] Ryan L: Yeah. So I started my career in wellness. So really, for both individuals and organizations, wellness programming gravitated toward that.

[00:00:47] Ryan L: I was someone who grew up and still am very introverted. I suffered from just really tough anxiety. Just soul-crushing anxiety. I was very nervous, a lot, very afraid. I, I would be so anxious at times. I would just like sweat through my shirt. Like I took a shower, it was really insane and really suffered with, the anxiety, some O C D.

[00:01:11] Ryan L: So really sought out wellness, sought out ways to get better improve myself. That was a time. I think there are more, there's more awareness of it nowadays. There's more treatments available or ex better known. And once I got into I just, again, gravitated towards it, that personal development, just trying, seeking services for myself and fell into.

[00:01:31] Ryan L: I did one-on-one coaching for a long time. Helping people, see their blind spots overcome the anxiety go through transitions, get outta their comfort zone. So a lot of big life changes. I help people, through and from there, after the coaching, I went into more working with organizations.

[00:01:48] Ryan L: So I help leadership trainings. I content. I trained big customer service teams. I've worked, with major companies all over the country and all, all over the world. 

[00:01:59] Ryan L: So what got you into the space initially? I know you had some, some life events, but what got you into coaching just for the simple fact of researching for yourself or were there some other things that happened that got you to that point. 

[00:02:14] Ryan L: Other things comp completely. I actually never knew it was a career option, so just like a lot of people, it I know it fell into it never sought out to be a coach, never planned on being a coach. But I was in wellness. I figured, ah, I don't know what to do. I felt a little bit aimless, but I said, what am I good at?

[00:02:31] Ryan L: I love personal development. I love helping people. I love having just conversations. And I discovered that, I was really good at just listening to people and helping them, break those habits. And I always gravitated towards working with other introverts, other people who suffered through anxiety, cuz I could always relate to.

[00:02:47] Ryan L: Someone reached out to me and offered me, Hey, I think you'd be a great fit for this coaching role. And I said, coaching what is that? So I fell into it. I never knew it was a possibility. So 

[00:02:59] Ryan: coaching is a unique, I say a job, but really it's a unique aspect that we can help others in.

[00:03:05] Ryan: It's. Typically based upon something that's happened in our past and something I do. And I don't advertise it, but I help other people that are struggling with debt, and I too, right here, man, over a hundred and some odd thousand dollars in debt, and I had to figure out how to make it work.

[00:03:21] Ryan: There's so many, there's Dave Ramsey and there's all these other gurus out there. And you gotta take your little pieces of what they talk about and find something that works for you. And. I fell in it too myself. I, it's a side hustle. It's a passion. It's along with the podcast, it's a passion project, but I enjoy helping those people.

[00:03:40] Ryan: And it's interesting how I hear other people that are in coaching. They fell into it because of something that they came across or experienced and they think they can help others that have going that are going through that situation. It's cool. I really like. Yeah. 

[00:03:56] Ryan L: Yeah. And you made a good point, there's all different types of coaching out there.

[00:03:59] Ryan L: You're talking about financial coaching and there's I did health and wellness coaching for a long time, but I, with transitions, I actually got into more of the career coaching as well. I went back to school, got additional training for all that stuff. Even worked for a neuroscience company that kind of studied leadership and transitions and things like that.

[00:04:16] Ryan L: Really working with organizations helping reduce their turnover. Improve, performance. And yeah, I think being an introvert and suffering through the anxiety, it definitely shaped how I coach and shaped the coaching. Funny story though. I, I guess it's funny in a weird way.

[00:04:33] Ryan L: So I actually obtained what I would call my dream job, my dream coaching job. It. I was there, I was offered the role. I was there maybe a month and then I had a couple cardiac arrests. Oh boy. And I was there only a month. And being there a month, I didn't have any paid time off.

[00:04:53] Ryan L: I didn't have any No time off. So no insurance, the insurance didn't kick in yet either. Wow. Just a terrifying, place to be. And when you go through something like that I had two cardiac arrests a day apart and a lot of people say did that really shape your thinking?

[00:05:09] Ryan L: Yes and no. I'd already sought out personal development for many years, but it, it really changed. It changed the sessions in, in, in that, cause I was back at work five days later cuz you know, I had a financial need. So wait 

[00:05:24] Ryan: you, I gotta back up. I gotta ask you were back work five days after having two cardiac arrests.

[00:05:31] Ryan L: Yeah. Yeah. It against 

[00:05:34] Ryan: doctor's orders. Of course. Wait. I was gonna say the doc, they released you and said it was. They didn't 

[00:05:39] Ryan L: say it was okay.

[00:05:43] Ryan L: but, I had a financial need. I was a dad, wow. Single dad and just it was such a tough time. And what I learned, cuz you know, it dramatically changed the sessions you, I was in virtual sessions at the time, all telephonic . I'd be working with a client and I'd be attached to all these wires that they couldn't see.

[00:06:01] Ryan L: And I'd be attached to, heart monitors and all kinds of things. And it really shifted cuz going through something like that and developing PTSD as a result not good for the old anxiety that I suffered from. So yeah, it didn't help that. But what it did do for me was that.

[00:06:23] Ryan L: I became someone who was very good at boundaries. Someone who was very good at managing their time managing their energy. And that's what a lot of people struggle with is really those boundaries, self care, things like that. Oh yeah. I had to be, because if I didn't, if I wasn't good at managing those things, I would actually get sick.

[00:06:43] Ryan L: My, my blood pressure would change. I would get lightheaded and, I would be close to another episode again. So 

[00:06:52] Ryan: is terrifying. Is that something that you deal with today? 

[00:06:58] Ryan L: I am dizzy, basically 24 7 right now. Oh my gosh. Yeah. No family history. No. Cause that anyone can pinpoint this is, over 10 years.

[00:07:09] Ryan L: I was 30. I was 30. Wow. And yeah, no, no family history. Obviously I was in wellness, as I mentioned for many years. So nutrition, fitness, getting enough, sleep, drinking, plenty of water, doing all the right things. And so going through something like that, which is, unexpected and just how terrifying it is.

[00:07:26] Ryan L: It really made me a as, as a coach, even, lot of coaches I know have approached at least health and wellness coaching more a academically, you that you went through a training and they but for me, when I relate to people, I was usually the one who was the most introverted, the most anxious, the most wow.

[00:07:43] Ryan L: And going through. So I can really connect with people, I think, on a different. 

[00:07:48] Ryan: So how do you, and I'm just gonna be blunt. How do you function on a daily basis if you're dizzy all the time? 

[00:07:54] Ryan L: It, sometimes it is it forces me to be fully present in, in the present moment. I don't have time to, to worry, like I did.

[00:08:04] Ryan L: And as someone who grew up in anxiety, I had to learn quickly how to not worry about things, because if you do, if I do that I really do get sick. I get der and lightheaded and all those things because 

[00:08:17] Ryan: Does it allow you, I, you said earlier boundaries, sorry to cut you off, but yeah, I this got me down a rabbit hole already.

[00:08:24] Ryan: So here we go. It sounds like it's helped with your anxiety, but also created a whole nother level of focus for you to where you have, like you're lasered in you're targeted and you're just making sure that you're getting the things that you need to get done. Exactly. 

[00:08:45] Ryan L: I, I think, when you go through something like that and I, I have a pacemaker now it's my safety net, so I'll fill that out there.

[00:08:51] Ryan L: Yeah, after the second one and I was saying my goodbyes, I thought, pacemaker sounds good. Let's get one of those. And after many years of searching on seeing world renowned specialists, yeah, nothing wrong with the heart. I, the closest I can come to is it's electrical. So really the brain and how the brain regulates the.

[00:09:10] Ryan L: For most people, if they stand up, for example, their heart rate and blood pressures adjust. Yeah. My mine don't really adjust and it just so happens when I pass out. I, my heart also stops. So 

[00:09:20] Ryan: But so they can't really, they can't explain what is going on at all, other than it's your brain.

[00:09:26] Ryan: They can explain 

[00:09:27] Ryan L: the cause or what caused it. But yeah, basically it's. Just electrical and it's the brain that's, but in terms of the cause it's still a big mystery. You're right. I, every,

[00:09:41] Ryan L: I have a couple ways I can handle this and I can be totally like, oh, my life is terrible and I feel terrible and yeah, but I decided. How long can you do that? I want to be there for my family. I have lots of goals I have and I had to, there's some things I could never do again.

[00:09:58] Ryan L: And I was real big into fitness and I had to reevaluate sort of my identity and was I more than any of those things? And , I have to. Turn invitations down. Sometimes I have to really be honest about what I can handle and what I can handle. I have to get a certain amount of hours of sleep.

[00:10:21] Ryan L: So I have to prioritize the self care in terms of the worrying I've had to learn to drop things and let things go a lot more. And it, and so I've decided what positive, what positivity can I pull from that? And it's really the notion that just keep putting one foot in front of the other today.

[00:10:39] Ryan L: I'm gonna worry about today and I'm gonna trust that no matter what happens, I'm going to respond to it. I'm gonna myself. Most things for most people make things very high stakes. They're anxious about the work meeting or the person who cut you off in traffic or yes. And I've decided that cuz I have to, I'm just gonna handle things as they come.

[00:11:03] Ryan L: It's not worth my energy and you're right. I have to be absolutely laser focused. 

[00:11:09] Ryan: That's amazing. Something that's life altering like you had has changed you for a very big, positive role that majority of us as human beings struggle with on a daily basis and take advantage of it. That's the sad part in this is, we've never physically met.

[00:11:30] Ryan: This is the first time we're talking. The second time we're talking, but you're a sound like a great guy. You're doing some great things and. you turned a horrible situation into a positive thing. And there's people out there that have very little issues, health wise, and they're doing the opposite of what you're doing.

[00:11:51] Ryan: It just boggles my mind that people don't realize how good they have it, and to be thankful for the things that you do have on a daily basis. 

[00:12:00] Ryan L: Yeah. And, especially, I've had thousands of clients. When we are, when we treat ourselves the worst is when we're feeling the best.

[00:12:07] Ryan L: No, one's, worried about they're toothache until they have one, and they don't realize how good they had it before. And I talked to, if you ask somebody what's important in their life, everyone has an answer. Oh yeah, my family and my career, and, But no one ever seems or few ever seem to actually reflect that or apply it.

[00:12:27] Ryan L: And this is one thing I've seen after the thousands of clients is we can't see ourselves, no matter how smart somebody is, I've had psychologists as clients. And I just thought my first psychologist, I was why are they working with a coach? I thought they had it all figured out, but.

[00:12:43] Ryan L: We can't always see ourselves and, we're all just people. And I think we get lost in the busyness, we lose the big picture. And unfortunately, sometimes it does take a trauma or something, no, one's worried about mowing the grass when they're laying in the ICU.

[00:12:55] Ryan L: No, 

[00:12:56] Ryan: it's just, and it's. Prior to me becoming an entrepreneur and running my own businesses. I failed at two prior businesses. I spent 25 years in corporate American. One of the things that I learned was corporate American ever taught me to be someone that could fish for myself, go out and catch my own meal and take care of myself.

[00:13:19] Ryan: It, my belly was filled every two weeks and then once year I got a pretty substantial bonus. So I never really had to fend for myself and having two failed business. Has really changed my outlook on life. And one of the things that I found in this journey through a very good friend of mine is being grateful or gratitude.

[00:13:38] Ryan: Putting that out there. My inners match my outer. I'm grateful for the little things in life and I preach that on a daily basis. I go to bed and be thankful for, the things that I have, but there's times where I feel like I'm not grateful enough. Those times come when I'm fat on the, I say fat on the hog, in the business.

[00:13:58] Ryan: , but we're going through another transition to where we're growing the business. And I'm probably gonna go back to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because I don't wanna fail. And there's fear in that, but also the same time as I will not make my family suffer because I'm trying to grow a business and scale it, they continue to live by all means we don't live some high life or anything like that.

[00:14:22] Ryan: I'll joking aside. I can do peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or basic healthy things. Protein shakes, cuz I don't eat a, I don't try to eat a crappy diet to do that. And I'm thankful to be able to do that piece just for the simple fact. I know what it feels like to say. I can go without, but it changes for me.

[00:14:44] Ryan: It's changed my mindset before I was like I said, I was in debt. I was trying to keep up the Jones. So I wanted to go spend every dollar I had coming in to keep up an appearance and that wasn't me. And it just, it hit rock bottom one point and had to make a change. And I apply that to everything I do in life now.

[00:15:05] Ryan: It's you are thankful for the things that you have roof over my head closed on my back food on the table. Bills paid. Everything else is bonus. Great health, all those great things. Those, these are I'm in bonus time in my mind. And that's huge for me. And I live by that. And it's amazing how many people don't think of these things until, like you said, there's a tragic event.

[00:15:29] Ryan: And then all, everything starts coming into focus in life. And why does it take us to get to that point in life to say, wow, I should be thankful for these things. . 

[00:15:41] Ryan L: Yeah. And some of the things I've had to really reevaluate, like I can't do 12 hour work days or 14 know, like some people.

[00:15:48] Ryan L: If I had these goals I've got to figure out, I've got to figure out, like I have 30 say I have a 30 minute window. What can I do in that 30 minutes that. What would've normally taken me four hours, cuz everything has to be, and you take a look at some of the really successful people out there.

[00:16:07] Ryan L: My guess is Jeff Bezos doesn't get into the weeds a lot. He makes no, he has the same amount of hours. So what I'm getting at is you learn to make higher quality decisions, correct with your time because. If I only have 30 minutes, I'm not gonna throw up my hands and say guess forget the goal.

[00:16:26] Ryan L: I'm gonna say, what could I do that would chip away this goal? And I just put, I'm just consistent with it. And I let go of the outcome. I just make a series of high quality decisions every single day. And that requires. I'm not surfing social media, two hours a day. Some of the toxic relationships in my life have gone away.

[00:16:49] Ryan L: That's awesome. You get really clear on wh where does my time actually go? And what does it mean to make a high quality decision? Cuz we all have the same hours. 

[00:16:59] Ryan: Can we go down that rabbit hole and start talking about how to make high quality decisions? Cause that's really, that's huge for every single one of us.

[00:17:07] Ryan: Like you said, we all have the same amount of time. It's what you actually do with that time. How can you make more effective roles or make more effective, excuse me, effective decisions in the role that you're in. Because ultimately if you're as a, I joke about this, but it's how I think now is if I'm doing a $10 hour job, I'm doing my business, a disservice, nothing about a $10 role.

[00:17:32] Ryan: I'm just saying me as a business owner, if I'm sitting here posting stuff on social media or editing this podcast that we're on, I'm not making us money, cuz my skills are in different places as the business owner entrepreneur. And it took me a while to figure that one out too, from my first two failed businesses because of that, I thought I had to be doing everything because that's.

[00:17:56] Ryan: Unfortunately, what I was taught in corporate America as a business leader, I was doing everything. I was managing 2 2500 to 3000 people at a time in call centers. Wow. And I was doing everything there was I, there was not a single thing that I didn't touch just for the simple fact. I needed to have a visual all the way from the top to the bottom of my business org.

[00:18:19] Ryan: And that's just how I managed. And. I would say that's horrible. You surround yourself with people who have a different skill set than you. That compliment you, that can effectively manage those areas that you're weak in to be able to allow you to grow the business, but also expand your horizons and then expand your control.

[00:18:39] Ryan: And I've learned that very quickly because now I can manage more. When I have a team that actually is different than I am and have those skills that puts us over the. 

[00:18:50] Ryan L: Yeah, I love it. You said so many things there that, that resonate, sorry. Especially, I love it. I love it. It's like in the call centers too.

[00:18:56] Ryan L: And the, like for me I do the same thing. There, there are I delegate what I can, if I have a certain amount of hours you ask yourself, what's essential. What's essential that I do. What I've had to learn is if there's something, some admin stuff that takes an hour is can someone else do that?

[00:19:15] Ryan L: That will allow me to make better decisions. I'll make more money wor working on the strategy there than spending an hour, doing something that somebody else could do. And if you come out ahead, great, that's, those types of decisions and a lot of people don't focus on the essentials too, especially when they're starting a business.

[00:19:31] Ryan L: They think, I always think of what's the critical path. What's the most direct route to income producing activity. You can worry about other fancy stuff later. You can get embroidered shirts and you can get business cards. You can do all that on the second day. The first day is what's gonna actually make you money and bring the money and you can get fancy.

[00:19:53] Ryan L: So every day is a, I'm oversimplifying here, but every single day is what needs to happen today. That and I think it's learning, it's really just prioritizing really, and you focused on bigger impact first. So you know what needs to happen today. That's gonna help me the most and every day you reset.

[00:20:17] Ryan: But here's the, here's where I come in. I agree with all of that, but how do you, and this is a question to you, cause I wanna learn more is how do you really streamline that? Especially when you're starting up and you're brand new and you have all these shiny objects, how do you switch that mindset?

[00:20:36] Ryan: Cuz most people that come into entrepreneurship are coming from corporate America. So I have a little bit of experience in that, to where they struggle. Do you work with those type of clients and is that something we can talk about? Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:20:49] Ryan L: Awesome. Yeah. I've helped people scale and grow and, start businesses.

[00:20:52] Ryan L: Some are leaving corporate America or even the military. So I've worked a lot with, people who are maybe retiring in the same role for many years. And then, they have this big new goal and they want to test it. They want to try it. 

[00:21:03] Ryan: So how can somebody streamline their day?

[00:21:06] Ryan: I can't remember your exact words, cuz I want to, I'll have to go back and listen to this. Cause that might be the headline for this podcast is how do you stay focused on money, making activities on a daily basis and now get caught up in, in all the shiny minutia that's out. 

[00:21:23] Ryan L: I can tell you what works for me.

[00:21:24] Ryan L: And I know I do, as a coach I help people explore what works for them. And there, there is some difference there. Cause one thing I've learned is, a lot of self-help is shelf help. So it's, you have 10 gurus and they might have, 10 different ways of doing it.

[00:21:38] Ryan L: That's like the perfect way. So for me, I like to start Early in the morning and just understand what's going on that day, big picture. And I try and sometimes I'll actually use a timer and I get through some of the big stuff, 15 minutes, 20 minutes. And my day is really it is just, I've got meetings like everyone else, but it's really yeah.

[00:21:58] Ryan L: Prioritizing higher impact stuff. and things and I actually tend to move pretty quick. So if I'm checking something a lot of people in business are checking numbers, metrics, and so forth. I'll just high level look at those. And I think what really gave me more time is absolutely learning to, to delegate.

[00:22:16] Ryan L: You've got virtual assistance out there right now that are fairly inexpensive. They can do things like help you build your brand. You some of it's learning how to work best. So in other words, if you're writing content, for example, maybe you just give them a couple bullet points can turn it into an article, a post, a blog.

[00:22:35] Ryan L: They can do all kinds of things because as an entrepreneur, you're not only you're growing a business, but you're growing a brand you're growing awareness. You're building out these tools. What it could take 10 minutes is you just giving a couple bullet points to a virtual assistant and having them turn it, into a whole bunch of different things.

[00:22:55] Ryan L: You can have someone else work on your branding. You can have someone else work on the and some of this stuff is fairly inexpensive, but what you need to focus on is steer in the ship and. Like that really focus on where it's going and how to get clients, customers, or whatnot right away.

[00:23:11] Ryan L: So those high level marketing tactics, where do your I, where do your, I'm speaking very general now. Cause there's so many industries, but where's your ideal client? Hang out. Where do you find them? Okay. How can you get them? How do you automate that? To take a little time.

[00:23:26] Ryan L: So those are the types of things you wanna start thinking about 

[00:23:30] Ryan: those. Those are big things. That is, that's huge about steering the ship in the right direction and VAs. I've had a VA for almost five years now, and she's been the best thing since slice bread. And now scaling up with VAs.

[00:23:46] Ryan: So I've been introduced to a network of VAs through her that will bring a whole different. Skill set to the table that I need. So today, I used to post product the podcast. I would do social media, all that's been offloaded, while ago. But now there's additional things, like you said, you're talking about where's your ideal client at blogging videos.

[00:24:09] Ryan: Cause I put out a daily video. So there's a lot of different things that I put out and they all need work on the back end. So I need to find somebody to, to handle that, but you'd be amazed how affordable they are. One and two, you can find a VA that has the skillset that you're looking for, but there's so many other tools out there that you can combine with the VA that can help you.

[00:24:33] Ryan: One of them is, they have the artificial intelligent writers, like copy dot. jasper.ai, no plug guys, even though I use your product, I love it. No plug . They're great. I literally can create 15, 20 keywords that I want to be able to focus on, give it to them and they get to use the platform and they can create, a blog post in a matter of 10 minutes.

[00:24:55] Ryan: And then we go through and humanize it and then put it up on the website and you go, you just have to find the effective tools that can help you get. But like you said, if you're not focused daily on the ship and where it's going and how it's gonna grow or become bigger. You're setting yourself back.

[00:25:14] Ryan: And I don't know who said this quote, but basically it said if you're in the daily minutia in your business and not running it as the CEO, you'll never scale your business to anything more than a couple hundred thousand dollars a year in revenue. And it's true. I saw the, I think the small business puts out an annual report that I saw here just a couple weeks ago, maybe longer 92% of small businesses never exceed a million dollars in revenue, annual.

[00:25:40] Ryan: Something like that. It's some big number. It, it tells you once you exceed more than a million dollars a year, you're in that point. Oh, 0.0 5.07, position in life. That's pretty good. 

[00:25:52] Ryan L: Yeah. And I, to add to that, I would say from what I've seen, so many people are. You're right.

[00:25:58] Ryan L: You're a CEO of your own business. So you need to act like that. And , if you're too busy working in the business, you can never work on the business. And I think that's a shift a lot, cuz a lot of people are working in the business and they're not, they don't have time to work on it.

[00:26:12] Ryan L: And another thing I would suggest. Hey, I'm all for borrowing ideas and stuff. Find people out there in your industry who are making it work and just see how they're doing it. See do some research out there and just try to, devour any sort of feedback you get from people who are really doing well and just implement.

[00:26:32] Ryan L: So you've gotta really dig in. And a lot of you'd be surprised. A lot of people will talk to you. If you just ask, 

[00:26:39] Ryan: that's all you have to do. And don't be afraid to ask maybe that potential business leader could become a mentor to you. So it's like absolutely. If you don't put it out there, how do you expect to get something back in return?

[00:26:53] Ryan: And it's. It the podcast for what I'm doing. I'm very grateful because I get responses and people reach out, and this is a little bit of a rabbit hole. A lot of the people that reach out to me unfortunately, are younger than me. I'm pushing 50 and they have a different mindset of I'm gonna be in internet, TikTok star with one of my posts and it goes.

[00:27:17] Ryan: Okay, great. If that's what you wanna do, I'm not gonna stop you. But the odds of that happening are pretty high against you. So what else are you gonna try to do? And they reach out, oh, I wanna start doing some stuff like you, you wanna be an eight year overnight success and I'm not even a success.

[00:27:34] Ryan: It's eight years of grinding away, peanut butter and jelly, late nights, not sleeping. Cuz you want to make sure that you wanna get payroll taken. It's not fun all the time. It's not what you think it is. And I tell them the first thing you gotta think about is what really makes you happy or what are you passionate about?

[00:27:53] Ryan: And can you monetize it? If there's not a market, you can't monetize it. You have to go to something else. PE some people say you can monetize anything, but . I have a feeling that you can't monetize everything because there are certain things. People are just not gonna buy and that's just life.

[00:28:09] Ryan: But if you don't put the time and effort in to figure out what you really want out of it, how do you expect it to grow and how you expect it to become a full fledged business? 

[00:28:20] Ryan L: Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And one, one thing I did. , I've worked across different industries, but I've also worked with a lot of other coaches in helping them grow their own business.

[00:28:28] Ryan L: And that's tough because it's It's just freelance. You're out there. It's not like you have a brick and mortar location. You've gotta really do the work and reach out and develop your brand. So one thing I did and you can't be afraid to put yourself out there. That's what you're gonna have to do.

[00:28:43] Ryan L: You're gonna have to put yourself out there. So initially when I was building clientele and I was doing, I work with mostly organizations now, but when I was working one on one. I said, you know what? You gotta get creative. And I said, what if I partnered with other awesome coaches? And cuz some coaches are really well established but maybe I bring something different to the table.

[00:29:06] Ryan L: Maybe there's specialties a little bit different, but we have a similar audience. They would have an incentive to work with me because we do something slightly D. . And so what I did was I reached out, so I specialized in a few areas and I discovered so that you have to know your audience.

[00:29:22] Ryan L: Of course. And you learn where your niche is. So I said, you know what? My audience, a lot of them are parents. And they are like parent coaches out there. And they help with, raising kids, people, raising kids, or like parental coaches and. So I actually reached out to a few that were super successful and they were totally okay with chatting.

[00:29:45] Ryan L: So I got them on a call and we ended up with at least, I'd say four or five of 'em and they were totally happy to work together. And we, we would do workshops together. And basically I had access to their entire email list and vice versa. And it's about that level of creativity where you.

[00:30:07] Ryan L: I have something unique to offer what is that? What's my, what is your bread and butter? That's a good question for anyone. And what is your bread and butter as an entrepreneur? What do you do differently perhaps than anyone else and how can I provide value? And connect with other people who are killing it, and that's a great way to, to build your reputation as.

[00:30:27] Ryan: It's it's also about the hard work that you put in too. I bet you, that was a lot of time and effort that went into that one to find the coaches two, to connect with 'em and three, get 'em on the phone or however you met and be able to have that discussion because sometimes people are gonna be shut down, but that's really a great thing.

[00:30:48] Ryan: That other coaches would wanna work with you, especially if you got that ying and yang. If you have a specialty and they have a specialty that really helps out in those workshops, that's a really good idea. If you guys are, when you guys are listening that, think about it. Doesn't you have to be a coach.

[00:31:04] Ryan: You could be a you business owners, whatever the case is, start putting out some quality information where you're not charging and people are getting some great information for free and consuming. All you could do is, somewhere in there, ask 'em to sign up for your newsletter or email something in exchange.

[00:31:22] Ryan: So you get that offer. And now you've got 'em on a mailing list and you can start marketing 'em that way. Yeah. 

[00:31:28] Ryan L: If you were too focused on anyone listening, if you're too focused on, oh, I just gotta make the money. I gotta make the money. I gotta make money. You're not gonna go anywhere with it.

[00:31:39] Ryan L: So I would recommend, focus on filling other people's. In other words, just focus on the value and I promise you, people will come, if you build it, they will come. And, but service others focus on the value. Exactly. Just focus on the value, cuz people can sense that, 

[00:31:54] Ryan: And it's, and maybe I could be off, but it just seems like a lot of people that get into, or they're so enamored with entrepreneurship or business ownership, it's about the money.

[00:32:06] Ryan: And I belong to a couple Facebook groups that are personal development groups that I'll go in every so often post. And there's this kid that's trying to learn wholesaling in real. And he partnered up with some guy and basically it's not going well because the guy's just basically using abusing him to make cold calls, but not teaching him any type of the business.

[00:32:26] Ryan: What it sounds like after a year. I don't know. It's just messages, but anyhow, he got into it for one reason money. He thought since I can wholesale, I don't have any money. I'm 21 or 22 years old. I can start making $5,000 a house. Every time I wholesale. And it's okay, you got in for the money, but what else, if it's just the money, why don't you just go get a job?

[00:32:49] Ryan: That's what really a job is give you money and you can climb the corporate ladder, whatever you wanna do. Entrepreneurship. I joke about it is, like you said earlier, it's not about the money. It's about the service to others. And when you realize that and the light bulb goes off, ting. Things start changing and you start putting your message starts changing.

[00:33:12] Ryan: Your branding starts changing your personal branding starts changing. All of a sudden people start coming. You're like where was I? Several years ago when I didn't get this, 

[00:33:20] Ryan L: I love where we're going with this because someone said something to me once and it always stuck. And so a lot of entrepreneurs.

[00:33:27] Ryan L: Yeah. I'm an entrepreneur at heart. I love to create things and . But you have to get clearer of your exec, your why? Like, why are you doing this? And amen. I think a lot of entrepreneurs think that they don't wanna work for the man anymore or whatever, and they don't wanna do corporate anymore cuz they feel like they were cogs there and they were like stuck in the corporate atmosphere and they want to be freed.

[00:33:49] Ryan L: And I, I get all that, however, Like to me, it's all about your life situation and what it provides for your life. Now, whether I'm working for someone or, if you're owning your own business You're still working for people. It's called the bank. It's called the customer calls. Your employees.

[00:34:10] Ryan L: Yeah. Yeah. Your employees, to me, it's all about the state of your life situation. So why do you wanna be an entrepreneur? And someone said something to me once and they say, you know what? A lot of people be on they're entrepreneurs, they're working 80 hours a week to avoid working 40. And I thought. Wow. I know some entrepreneurs who, whose lives are like way worse than they were when they were working for somebody.

[00:34:33] Ryan L: And I thought, yeah, not, and not every corporate culture is terrible. No, I know some amazing cultures that are pay well and flexible hours and things like that. So I, I would my, what I'm getting at. Why do you want to be an entrepreneur now? Now I love doing it because it gives me the creative freedom.

[00:34:55] Ryan L: But you want to be clear about, why you're doing it, where you're going, and if you're doing it just cuz you feel like you're a in it for the money or B. The evil corporate empire. I don't know if you can generalize like that. I don't know if that's the right way to look at it. I would say it's gotta be, cuz you're passionate about something and then that direction it gives you the control there.

[00:35:20] Ryan: Totally. I totally agree. And most people that I interact with and talk to about entrepreneurship, that's what they're talking about. Or they're telling me is they wanna leave the evil man. And it's what's so evil about it. I, my mom, every year, Beginning of the year for the last eight years, asked me if my prior employer, which was a fortune 20 company said, I want you to come back with a promotion plus X amount of dollars on top of what you're making my exact words every year is no.

[00:35:50] Ryan: I found my passion. I found my calling. I found what I'm doing. I rather struggle through this process, but I back up and say, some people are just not wired to be an entrepreneur or can't adjust. As I say, cuz you can. Adapt and overcome, but you have to be willing to put that work in. And if you're just leaving, like you said, the, to not work for the man, cuz it's horrible or the evil empire, you're doing it for the wrong reasons.

[00:36:19] Ryan: And entrepreneurship is, it's an it's stupid. It's a calling, owning a business is a calling because you've got a lot on your back and you're not just an owner. You get to sit back and watch the money come in. You're grinding away. There's I was talking to a good friend of mine that I didn't talked to in, in a few weeks he had COVID down, whatever.

[00:36:40] Ryan: And he says like, how's it going for the last two weeks? And I said, I've worked seven days a week for the last eight weeks, just to get us to where we're going for this next scale up. And it doesn't feel like I'm working. I take time off, like you said, to be creative and have the freedom to do that. I'll take time off during the week and go do something, but I'll get back to work later in the.

[00:37:02] Ryan: but I don't have the constraints of if I'm a W2 employee that I have to show up and work nine to five or whatever your schedule is, that's the difference in the creativeness is it allows you to do what you need to do to get things done, not in a set period of time. And I think that's where a lot of people struggle is that they don't.

[00:37:24] Ryan: They think that once you're the owner, you're not gonna put the time and effort in, and it's the. We put more time and effort in. Absolutely. 

And 

[00:37:34] Ryan L: I guess you putting that much effort in and work. Do you still love it then? Because you're right. I, and I too know people who are just miserable, they're just work and yeah.

[00:37:43] Ryan L: Yeah. You're an entrepreneur. Congratulations. You hate it, but that's great. Yeah, also, there, there are people I know who, they think outside the box, maybe. Or a contractor for a company and you're, or a consultant and that's part-time and then you do something else, part, you it's like putting a puzzle together.

[00:37:59] Ryan L: You can create your situation in your life, in, in the way that you want to, you just have to figure it out. And it is just putting a puzzle together. It's not like you're either working for an evil company or you are, working, seven days a week. It's not an either or situ.

[00:38:17] Ryan: Yeah, and everybody's situation is different and you have to play it out and figure it out. The it goes back to what I said earlier, I think is if you don't sit down and figure out what you're passionate about and you can monetize it. You're doing your, it's not you are doing a disservice to yourself, cuz you're not gonna, you're not gonna succeed.

[00:38:35] Ryan: And I'm just talking from my own personal experience. Like I said, my first two businesses, they were all about the money. They weren't passions, they were something I was very good at. But it wasn't passion. It was okay, we can do this and we could capitalize on some stuff and make some money.

[00:38:49] Ryan: And that was it. It wasn't something that was gonna be long term. And that was dumb on my part. But guess what I learned. I learned a lot. And would I do it over again? I don't know, but I learned a lot from it, cuz it was painful. There was a lot of painful points, but I wouldn't give up the learnings and the painful points.

[00:39:09] Ryan: I think I would've stepped back and said I would do a better job planning up front and mapping it out and understanding what it looked like before I jumped head in it. 

[00:39:23] Ryan L: Yeah, cuz then you're spending money and you're learning the hard way on a lot of things and 

[00:39:27] Ryan: And it just became unmanageable for a period of time very consuming and it was all about a number and it just didn't work.

[00:39:35] Ryan: It's, don't get me wrong. I'm for profit. I get all that, but now. We build houses for people in the affordable housing space. We're starting to work with veterans now to where we can start putting a veteran community together. These are things that are rewarding to me. My dad is a military veteran, so it's near and dear to my heart.

[00:39:52] Ryan: People that have been left behind in some of these cities that we do business in that have been renters all their life and have never been given an opportunity to buy a home. That's rewarding to me by any means. I. We make a profit, but it's not, astronomical, profit, but it's healthy. And it, it's rewarding to see a family that's lived in a rental all their life, all of a sudden have a asset now that they can share and pass on to generations if they truly want to, or they could become real estate investors.

[00:40:23] Ryan: After a period of time, they. Wanna move up in another house, turn this into a rental. Now they're a real estate investor. So there's a lot of different things they can do. It's just rewarding to see these individuals jump from their financial situation. They are today to where they go. It's, , it's great.

[00:40:40] Ryan: It makes me smile every single time I talk about it. 

[00:40:42] Ryan L: I love it. I love it. Yeah. And right now I work in I work in three for three businesses and three different industries. So that's my point is you can go whatever direction. You want to yeah, you don't have to have it. Labeled or defined, you can, but you gotta love doing it.

[00:40:57] Ryan L: And, in my case it's all about one thing, going through what I went through is really taught me is to fit how to figure things out because entrepreneurs, it takes a special person to to be that in my opinion it's what do you do with failure in your internal dialogue? So most people, they fail and oh God, I knew it wouldn't happen.

[00:41:16] Ryan L: I'll see I'm a failure. And that doesn't help you. So it's really, I had to reevaluate my own self dialogue, which is for a long time was really bad. I had to let go of. Okay. Yes, I failed, but it doesn't make me as a failure as a person. What can I use from this?

[00:41:35] Ryan L: I don't have time to dwell on it cuz I, I literally don't have time to cuz you know, I, and I just take something and I move on. I do it again. Take. So what something I've learned, move on and I do it again. And you're right. I think, there's a lot of people say, oh wow, your business, I have a breakthrough and they go, wow, that was quick.

[00:41:51] Ryan L: It was like, no, I've been working on that for 10 years, 10 years. And you just now saw, but you just gotta stick with it. And again, every day is really. I may not, I can't spend 12, 14 hour day it's laser focus. And what can I do in this 30 minute window right now? And most people go, oh, 30 minutes.

[00:42:13] Ryan L: I can't do anything. I'm gonna go surf Facebook, but it's really 30 minutes. What could I do? And there are things you can do. You just have to figure out, what. 

[00:42:22] Ryan: Yeah, you do. And it's it's amazing how many of us and I can be at times wasting time, but man, when you get laser focused and you start getting stuff done and you start moving that, that goal post or that goal line and you keep on moving it it's rewarding.

[00:42:37] Ryan: It's great. And you feel like you've accomplished a lot more and it's, there's just so much waste. It's a struggle and I'm with you. I'm I look over my camera and I've got a whiteboard that has probably about 15 things on it that I need to offload off of my plate because they're not making the business money that I do, and I need to find a VA to match that.

[00:42:58] Ryan: So that's my next step today. And tomorrow is interviewing VAs that can take over these steps because I won't be able to do those things and be able to drive the company to the next level. as much as I don't wanna give those up. I have to cuz they're not money makers. They're nice to haves.

[00:43:17] Ryan: They're branding, they're outreach, that type of stuff. My VA can do all those things. It's gonna be my post. It'll be my face on it. But at the end of the day, they don't know who hit enter or hit. It doesn't matter. So it's exactly I struggle with it to the, to this day, but I know I've gotta let go of things.

[00:43:36] Ryan: So I'm a hundred percent with you to get laser focused. Absolutely. Sir, this has been a great conversation. I've enjoyed every moment of it. How could the listeners get ahold of you if they want to talk to you, reach out to you that type of. 

[00:43:52] Ryan L: Sure. They can check my website out. RS linner.com.

[00:43:55] Ryan L: RS, L I N D N E r.com. All my social media links are on there. LinkedIn don't be afraid. Anybody can reach out. Ask me anything. I'm happy to make recommendations on VAs or whoever. My book I have a book that came out called the half known life. That's on the website as well, half known life book.com as well.

[00:44:14] Ryan L: Feel free to check it out on Amazon. It's really about what we were talking about in terms of, we can't always see ourselves. It's about our blind spots and really how to break away from that. 

[00:44:24] Ryan: Amen. That, so I will link your website and your book in the show notes. So we'll make sure everyone gets that.

[00:44:31] Ryan: Ryan, thank you for coming on the show. It's been an honor. Thank you for sharing your story and your journey. It's very powerful. And what you're doing is really. 

[00:44:40] Ryan L: My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome.