276: The Purple Pill

Buck: Welcome back to the show, everyone. Today we have episode number three of our sort of Real Investors of wealth, Formula County type shows here where we’re basically talking to real investors in our group, people in our community, our Wealth Formula community who are going through their own personal financial journeys. And it’s been really fun. Today we have another member of Wealth Formula Network. He’s basically in our Investor Club, a very active investor there and obviously a listener of our group. His name is Ryan Stieg. Ryan, welcome to Wealth Formula podcast.

Ryan: Thanks, Buck. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

Buck: Well, great. So, Ryan, Let’s do this. Why don’t you kind of tell us a little bit about where you started in terms of your financial journey and kind of give us an I’ll interrupt at various times like I do to kind of probe a little bit more.

Ryan: Sure. Well, I’ll try not to go all the way back and I’ll try and fast forward to the parts that are a little slow,

Buck: You can leave the prenatal parts out if you want.

Ryan: All right. We’ll go forward a couple of years. So I was blessed with a dad who was a business owner and entrepreneur and owned real estate through some of the businesses that he had. I had a little bit of an indication of that entrepreneurial spirit. And when I got to high school, I thought I was going to be a financial planner. That was my goal. I was going to College and for a couple of different reasons, it just didn’t really feel like that was where I needed to go. And in the middle of college, I picked up that little purple book that is referenced pretty much on every podcast.

Buck: I think we just call it The Purple Pill from now on. The Purple pill. I think that really captures it. Don’t you think?

Ryan: You take the purple pill and then you adapt from what you learn from it.

Buck: Exactly. Yeah.

Ryan: So after I read that, I was inspired. I thought, hey man, this is where I’m headed. And reached out to a local real estate investor in Phoenix where I lived at the time. And he said, oh, if you’ve read that book, you’re my guy. You’ve got the same mindset. I do. Let’s go. And so I worked on and off with him for about a year or So. And as life goes, I need a paycheck and we’ve done with college. And so I went down the traditional W2 route and started on a 401 K.

Buck: Wait a second. You started as a real estate agent?

Ryan: No, I was just working with him as the Purple Pill says, learn to earn. Yeah. So I worked with him for a little bit, and then I got into the mortgage industry, started plugging money away into a 401 K. And I met another guy who was investing in real estate. Now I got to dig into this a little more or again. And so eventually learned a little bit from him and where he was headed. And my wife and I bought our first house and closed on it. I think that the day the market started to crash in Phoenix. So we eventually moved back to Montana, where we’re from. And I became an accidental landlord and so held on to that property and life kind of moved on for a couple of years. And one day a friend of mine asked, What are you doing in finance? I know that that’s an interest of yours. What are you doing? And I hadn’t really done anything active for a couple of years, so I thought, man, I really don’t feel qualified to answer these questions anymore. So I got into the podcast here trying to catch up and learned what I was interested in a long time ago. And I hadn’t really kept up on one of those podcasts that I stumbled across was a guy named Buck Joffrey.

Buck: I’ve heard of him. Shady character.

Ryan: As you say, a charlatan. No, not at all. You and a couple of others were podcasts that I really dug into and became a regular listener not quite all the way back, but as far back as I can remember in probably 16 or So. And so that’s really where I started to get back into finance and put into place some of the things that were introduced in The Purple pill. And so through a journey of turnkeys and eventually getting into this syndication line, one of the things that happened as I started investing in turn keys was I had a conversation with my wife, and I said, You know what? Here’s the number. I turned to properties we’re going to have to buy to replace our Income. And it seemed scalable

Buck: Yeah. It seems silly.

Ryan: Yeah. So I kind of hit pause on that. And where it really turned is being able to see the scalability. Obviously, it takes time. But the scalability of getting out of real estate syndications and Western Wealth was the first one I got into through an introduction through you. And that’s how I got to where I am right now.

Buck: Let me ask you this. We keep joking about The Purple pill. Some people might actually not know what we’re talking about. And we’re really talking about the books from Robert Kiyosaki now I’m sure for Ryan, I’m guessing it’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad. For me, it happened to be, and I think it’s just because I was in an airport in Puerto Vallarta and I had no idea who the guy was. And it was either that or some romance novel. It was like that one guy back in the nineties with the long hair. I can’t remember his name, but I don’t know, whatever he was on that. So I picked up this book and I actually ended up being the Cashflow Quadrant, which I think actually was probably more appropriate for where I was at my life. But let me ask you this, when you read that, when we talk about The Purple Pill, was that feeling that you had after reading that? Because I’ve talked to a lot of people, I’ve experienced it myself. For me, I’ve always described it as sort of a lightning bolt, an awakening of not just about real estate, but just about entrepreneurial activity and just being free financially and all that. What exactly was it when you read that book that changed?

Ryan: You know, I think it was probably the fact that I was headed down that financial planner route, the traditional route, as we say, traditional versus the alternative space. And we can talk about that all day long. So it took me years to put into practice. But what I wouldn’t introduce to me is the cash flow accumulation versus just the accumulation. Buying stocks hold them forever, wait till you’re 65 and then turn it in, turn it into a small stream of income that you can pull off of that stack of cash that you’ve accumulated forever.

Buck: And hopefully you don’t outlive it.

Ryan: And hopefully you don’t live it. And so really, the thing that flipped for me is turning a cash flow approach versus just an accumulation approach. And he introduces a bunch of different stuff in the book. But that was probably the thing that really flipped for me is going down that way.

Buck: One thing, too, that I think it’s important to talk about. And it made me think of this when you talked about sort of the, you know, how many houses do we have to get kind of thing to replace our income? One of another similar question, Ryan, that I got from an investor one time was, wow, I make a half million bucks a year, and I’m doing the math here. And, you know, it’s basically if I’m going to be just looking at cash flow here, I’m going to have to invest, I don’t know, 78,000,000 bucks. That’s a lot. That’s a lot of money to invest for somebody who is making a half million dollars a year and probably paying a chunk of that into taxes. And so that was one of the things that I remember thinking, gosh there’s that purple stuff. You’re right on one point. But the author of The Purple Books himself does things differently. And he’s introduced that through concepts with Kenny McElroy. So Robert Kiyosaki talks. But Kenny McElroy can always talk about refinancing, giving people’s money out. Now, his model has been different than when you’re talking about Western Wealth Capital. It’s not like, you know, turn them quite so fast and do that kind of thing is more like a hold forever. But the concept of velocity became very clear in that. And so the idea then is that you don’t have to pull off 8,000,000 dollars of investments in order to get that cash flow that you want some day. But what you do need to do if you’re going to think about having those kinds of cash flows is you really need to figure out how you’re going to recycle the capital in and out of multiple opportunities. Did you have that kind of an aha moment to during this? Because I’m guessing that that’s probably part of what has drawn you to the Western Wealth Capital model that you mentioned.

Ryan: Yeah. That’s a great question. Until early on, my thought was, Let’s go for growth and eventually turn that velocity around. Like you said, whether it’s a refinance or a disposition of that asset, Let’s reinvest that capital and increase that velocity. And that’s the formula for Wealth Formula. But a thing that changed for me, too, is that right now I’m transitioning out of my W2, and I’m transitioning into an entrepreneurial role.

Buck: And remind me, what’s your W2 now?

Ryan: Insurance. So kind of a little bit back to that, I was in a family owned insurance agency my father started, and we’ve transitioned and sold at that agency. And so right now, I’m transitioning out of the role of the agency that I work for now. So one of the things that changed for me is I used to be growth, only I don’t need the income, the cash flow. Let’s go for growth. And now I’ve transitioned to having more of a balance of both growth and Income. So there is a healthy balance of having both sides of it while increasing that velocity on the dispositions of refinances with less and wealth and other syndicators that I’ve invested with.

Buck: Right. Because that’s a challenging thing. And especially when you’re starting from nothing, like if you got no cash flow whatsoever now, and if you’re thinking you’re going to try to replace your income, and it’s just like a mountain that you have to climb, but you have to take that first step. But our switch, I think, largely had to do with that idea of how do you accelerate this process and create a lot more principal or a lot more create a bigger stash. So at some point, you can, I don’t know, buy a Walgreens or do whatever you need to do and have a ton of cash flow. You’re transitioning out of this business. So what’s your life like now? I know you are involved now and getting into a franchise opportunity. Tell me a little bit about what that is, as much as you want about that to tell us. And you know why you decided to do that?

Ryan: Yeah. That’s another thing that I’ve taken from the Buck School of Wealth Formula is last year you had a guest on the name Kim Daly. So I reached out to her and I thought, hey, that’s another passive stream of income that I can build up while I’m still working. And kind of naturally came to a point where I felt a need to go do something different. And so I started the transition out of my W2, which I’m still working out right now. We bought into a franchise through Kim Daily. And so I’ve kind of always had that entrepreneurial bug to have something going. So it’s a really great opportunity now. We’re still very early on in our pre-sale process, but it’s an opportunity for me to involve my kids, for me to involve family. And so it’s something that we can look to grow and build from scratch. But it’s also another income opportunity that I have in order to add on to what I have on the passive side through syndication. So really, it was meant to be a bridge. But now it’s going to be the main focus that I have as a transition out of my W2 while working to continue building my passive income streams through different investments.

Buck: Do you consider yourself right now as you transition out of your W2 essentially a full time investor then?

Ryan: You know that’s eventually the goal. And I’ll take a little bit of a tangent here. One of the things that came out of your group is a relationship with some other, Wealth Formula network members. And back at the very first meeting, I met Dr Ian Kurth, and we all know inside the group. We all know we and he’s been on the podcast now. But I also met a guy named Jim Pfeifer, and he was on a recent episode too as a Wealth Formula guest. And he and I connected at the very first meet up down in Phoenix. We kept a conversation going, and we have since formed a tribe. Tribevest, another thing that’s been presented through the podcast. He and I joined the Tribe together kind of a couple of years ago. We thought these indications are great, but I want to have diversification. So we formed an LLC with five members, and so we were able to invest in more deals rather than having to spread ourselves so thin across fewer deals. And so that was a relationship that Jim and I had. And as we had regular conversations, we said, hey, it’d be kind of cool if we could help build a network and educate people about the same things we’re doing. And he said, I’m starting a local group up here. Why don’t I introduce you to the guys that I’m working with? And as you were introduced to on one of the last episodes, I’m one of the co-founders of Left Field Investors with Jim, and it’s kind of grown out of an organic idea of let’s just network with other people that are doing the same thing we’re doing and all learned together. So it’s been a really fun journey. But to get back to your question, yes. Between kind of working with that community and becoming growing my income streams through passive income, obviously, I have this franchise opportunity. It’ll be dedication to get up and off the ground. But, yes, eventually, I do see myself as becoming a full time investor and having, as you do, to a couple different entrepreneurial endeavors going on at the same time. I kind of have that desire to keep going that way, too.

Buck: For sure. So in terms of the franchise stuff, obviously you have the entrepreneurial bug. I think it’s probably worthwhile to talk a little bit about that journey as well, because people think about business ownership, they think about starting a business, they think about buying a business. As long as you’ve gone down this route, take us down sort of your thought process in terms of why you decided to go down the franchise route.

Ryan: One of the reasons, too, is I know that starting a business from scratch is a lot of work. And so I looked at different opportunities. Is there an opportunity to buy a business? Is there an opportunity to start a business or as franchises are kind of a business in a box, and they take a lot of those growing pains out of getting a business up and off the ground, and we aren’t even open yet. We’re still in the pre-sale phase, but it’s got a lot of the same heartaches that entrepreneurial endeavors do. But what I’ve found that’s been fun for me anyway is it’s kind of like an MBA in a box. I’ve got all different aspects of business, and so it kind of gives me expertise and the opportunity to kind of work on all aspects of the business and see if from the ground up. So that’s been one of the things that obviously it’s a lot of work, but it’s been a good experience for me so far.

Buck: And I would argue it’s probably better than an MBA. Because here’s the thing. A lot of people, it’s funny. People think MBA is like learning business. They don’t learn business. They learn how to be managers, and they learn maybe a little bit about finance stuff like that, but they do not teach you, you know, how to be a business owner. They’re basically teaching you how to work for other people. And I don’t say that in a way to denigrate whatever an MBA is. But my brother is an MBA smart guy. But no, he’s not an entrepreneur. That’s not what they taught him. He’s like managing a sovereign wealth fund, but that’s not owning the fund or whatever. And what you did, what you’re talking about is, I think, really understanding how to operate, learn and operate the components of a business. I think that the franchise root is an interesting one. And people should consider talking to Kim Daly. I think you can look her up. What was her website?

Ryan: The Daily Coach

Buck: She’s really a good person to talk to about that if you’re interested. But, you know, that is something that I think is worthwhile for people who are going down the business route and who don’t have business experience. I was one of those kamikazes, right? Like I learned just by completely going out there and having no idea what I’m doing and just saying this is how I do it, and then I’m wrong. This is not how I do it and just finding out that’s tough. That’s a different personality. Type two. And I think for me when I was younger, that’s what worked. So you’ve gone on this journey. I’m curious, circling back to the idea of Tribe. You have Tribevest, which was another interesting interview we had a while back ago where it’s a company where these guys basically put together. They essentially Act as a function to let people invest in LLCs together so they can make their money go farther away, because sometimes the minimum being 25 or 50,000 dollars. And it’ll pretty wipe you out if there’s 15 deals a year, so it allows your money to go a little bit longer. But the idea of Tribevest going deeper into the idea of tribe, which I think is an important concept. I’m curious. Your experiences through Left Field Investors, through as you mentioned, you’re part of Wealth Formula Network. How important or not important, you tell me, I’m not trying to guide you, have those been to you and your growth and how so?

Ryan: That’s a great question. I’ll start first with Wealth Formula Network because I’ve been a longtime listener. What I’ve found is I never consider myself an expert in any one of these areas. And so one of the things that is relatable for me to your podcast is the ability to bring it down initially when you’re introducing concepts to anybody who’s being introduced for the first time. And next is action. I used to be a guy that was paralysis by analysis, and so I’d stop and I’d wait. But a couple of things other than what we’ve mentioned that I’ve taken from this network is bi-weekly calls. I’m not able to be on the calls, but I listen to them, and I’ve really invested heavily in going down the path of syndications. But also Wealth Formula Banking. You’ve had an episode there where we’re able to dive deeper into that. But really the way I see it is if I’m surrounding myself with smarter people, you hear the concept that you are the summation of the five people you hang around. Well, if I’m surrounding myself with smart people and people who are doing some of the things that I like to and want to do, I’m going to have that incremental learning journey where I started with turn keys, and that may not be where I’m headed in the future, but then I was introduced to syndications and Wealth Formula Banking and other concepts that I’ve really tried to see and filter through what works for me and what what fits my journey and then take action. And I might fail sometimes, but largely over the course of time. It’s been a great network to be a part of. And I’ve tried to implement the things that can fit in my journey.

Buck: How much of it do you think is just courage? I think that part of the value of these, whether it be my group or the one that you guys. you and Jim have through Left field Investors is you find a tribe and you see others doing what you think you want to do. They’re actually doing it. And it provides a little bit of courage element as well, don’t you think?

Ryan: Oh, absolutely. And we talk about it in Wealth Formula Network. And that’s a big part of how Left field Investors started. When Jim and I first met, he was one of, if not the first person that I had met who actually invested in the same syndication that I did. As you talk about money and finance and the things we talk about there. You don’t have a lot of those in here in your circle of friends. So that’s why we find these networks that do. And so one of the things that Jim and I connected on is that connection on courage. Of hey, we’re both doing the same thing. Let’s find other people who are and he had organically kind of started that out in Columbus, and COVID kind of allowed us to explore, expanding our network outside of Columbus, Ohio, in order to grow our group. And one of the things I found with Left Field Investors is it’s just a community of like minded individuals who are trying to learn. We’re all in different parts of our journey. We’re just learning from each other. And that’s what I found. I never want to be the smartest guy in the room, and I probably never will be. So I learned something with every engagement I have with your group and or with left field investors. It just gives me that incremental knowledge every time I engage with the group.

Buck: It’s funny because it’s almost like I remember in medicine for non physicians. This may sound scary, but the old adage was one each 1 with the emphasis on one. But that’s kind of what it sounds like. And what does it feel like to be on sort of the starting the group side of things as opposed to being do you feel like you’re learning more on that end, too?

Ryan: Yeah. I think one of the things that is fun with our group, there’s five of us. Jim found and there’s five of us in that founders group, and we’ve all got different skill sets. And I’ve learned where my weaknesses are. I’ve learned where my strengths are as it relates to being an investor. And then as the group expands, you just learn so much from that group. There’s people who have worked with different syndicators that I’ve never heard of, or there are people who are using different strategies that I’ve never heard of or tried. And so really it’s just an exploration of what people are doing, and then we just pick and choose what makes sense for us. What makes sense for our journey, what have we not even considered or learned about yet.

Buck: Yeah. I highly encourage that kind of set up. I think it’s great, whether it’s Wealth Formula Network or just a few of your friends or whatever. Check that out. I want to leave the show with, and I’m going to put you on the spot here. Think of one or 2 things in the last couple of years, specific things that you have learned either through Wealth Formula or Wealth Formula Network or things that we talk about that you think have made the biggest impact, you know, whether it’s conceptual or whatever in your personal journey. And I’m asking you this not because I want a pat on the back, but because sometimes it’s hard in my position to understand. You know, I’m sitting there, like, thinking about this stuff all the time, and I forgot what things people that are just starting on this journey, like, what do they find most useful, most valuable. And I’m trying to, like, sort of liquidate that down. If you could think of one or 2 things, tell us what those are, the lessons or whatever

Ryan: Lessons learned. Why, you did put me on the spot. I think one of the things, too, is once you flip that switch, whatever that is from conventional wisdom, there’s another path, whether we call it alternative or whatever you want to call it. Once you’ve either been introduced to or flip that switch mentally, I think that’s probably one of the things that I’ve taken from. There isn’t every episode that relates to me or Wealth Formula Network, how it relates to me, but I’m introduced to different topics that I can know and understand and learn about. So I think just having the diversity and what other people are doing in that network of people to collaborate with and learn from is one of the things. But one of the things that I’m particularly high on is, Wealth Formula Banking. I think that goes it’s a lesson in patience in building that framework work, but it’s in my mind, it’s one of the things that seems simple and probably boring, but it’s foundational, I think, in your investing journey for how you can structure and add velocity and add arbitration into your investing path. And so that’s one of the things that I’ve really taken hold of, as well as an introduction to Syndicators and other people. Really. The network is probably the third piece or key that I’ve pulled out of the groups that I’m involved with. Because, like you said, if you’re just on this on your own and you’re not talking to anybody about it because nobody around you has the same interest or desire, you’re not probably going anywhere. But I’ve grown exponentially by being part of the networks than I ever would have on my own.

Buck: Are you coming to Dallas?

Ryan: I’ve got it penciled in on my calendar. I’ve got to move a couple of things, but I’m planning to come to Dallas.

Buck: Talk about what that experience is like. I know you’ve been to a couple, right. And it’s been sort of sad that we didn’t have a Wealth Formula meet up for almost two years. I think, again, not as a plug, but this is an experience I try to explain to people. It’s not really just about the information, but the types of people you meet and the connections you make at that kind of event.

Ryan: Yeah. Well, like I said, Ian Kurth was literally the first person I met in the lobby. He and I kind of recognize each other from Balls or from the Facebook group or whatever. So he was the first person that I met, and obviously, he’s kind of our “poster boy”. So I use that as an example. Along with Jim, those are two people that I met on the very first time, and I’ve had a relationship with them since. But I think really what the meet ups do is, yes, there are great speakers. I met Tom Wheelwright and Kenny McElroy and several others that you hear across the podcast and the books and stuff that they have. But the networking is really where it changes, even if you’re part of the Wealth Formula Network group and calls that’s one form of engagement, but personal one on one or group networking down at those events is really key as well as if I was an investor in Western Wealth before I went. But the tours there really take you through the visual of what you see in an email or the updates to making it real life and talking to Tim or Dave and understanding the process. If you’re an investor in that, it really takes it to another level.

Buck: Now it’s good stuff, and I’m looking forward to it. And it’s also nice because Tim McCleary is out there buying drinks for everybody, especially after he has one or 2 to himself. He’s out there. He becomes sort of the Mother Teresa of beer, and he’s buying everybody’s stuff. So anyway, it’s great to have you on Ryan, and we’ll love to see what’s happening with you. Obviously, I get to connect with you every couple of weeks on these calls, but I’m curious what will happen with all these franchises, keep us in the know on that. And when your experience really kind of comes to fruition, we should have you go back on and talk about it some more.

Ryan: Sure. Love to.

Buck: We’ll be right back.