Turning Crumbs Into Bricks. The Entrepreneur’s Come Up

Posted on August 17, 2016

Ryan Stewman

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My first entrepreneurial venture was selling drugs. You’re more than welcome to get all high and mighty on me, but chances are you’ve bought your fair share, too. As a young man without anyone in my life to give me business advice, I saw an opportunity to sell drugs to the people I worked with. They were all doing it and gonna buy it somewhere, it might as well have been from me.
 
I started off investing $150 into the game. Then I flipped that $150 over and over again until I’d bought guns, a car, paid rent in a nice apartment complex and more. I was by no means “rich” but at age 19, I had more than most of my friends. About two years into full-time drug dealing, I got caught by the cops (long story.)
 
The police, as expected, took everything. My jewelry, guns, cash, drugs…and left me with a $25,000 bail. So, instead of having cash flow and assets, I had massive debt and was stuck in the county jail. By the time I made it to state prison, I realized drug dealing was not the path for me.
 

I haven’t sold a drug since.

 
While I was locked up, I read a lot of books. Not novels, business books. I realized I had a great business sense, just no one to teach me about business. So, I educated myself. After all, I had all the time in the world.
 
Upon my release, I got a job at a car wash. And I learned everything there was to know about that car wash. From the machinery to the soap-mixing ratios, I memorized it all. I ran the most efficient car wash location on the entire chain. After working there for two years, I got a job offer from one of the regular clients of the wash. She offered me a position in the mortgage industry and promised to teach me everything she knew.
 
I had nothing to lose. Only making $9/hour plus commission (which wasn’t much), I figured jobs like that existed everywhere. I could always get another. Problem was, I had no savings. No cash flow. No income. I was starting a commission-only job with no draw.
 
I didn’t like the idea of not having money or a certain income, so I started hustling on day one. By the fifth day, I had a deal in my pipeline that paid me over $6,000 thirty days later. I was hooked! Where before it had taken me 2-3 months to earn $6,000, I was now doing it in less than a month. Selling mortgages was easier than selling drugs. Paid better, too.
 
The next month, I made a little over $7,000. Since I had no debts or bills, I was able to take that money and invest it into buying real estate. Flash forward 12 months and I owned 33 homes and was making just shy of a million in gross income. I didn’t own the homes free and clear. Instead, I leveraged mortgages against them, so I got paid several times on each transaction.
 
I had come up. For the first time in my life, I had money, cars, assets, rental houses and equity partnerships in companies. I was earning so much money and buying so many toys the local police thought I was selling drugs again and raided my house. Obviously, they were wrong about the drugs, but they did find a gun. The Allen PD arrested me for felon in possession of a firearm and turned my ass over to the ATF.
 
I ended up with a 15-month sentence in federal prison. That’s right, I was moving out of the nice neighborhood and into FCI Seagoville. I had seen the “top” and been pushed back down.
 
But it gets worse…
 
Two days before I was set to turn myself into FCI Seagoville, I got into an argument with my (then) wife, who pulled a slick one on me. Turns out she was banging the yard dude and they had a plan. She had me picked up by the police and while I was waiting to make bail, cleaned the house, the bank account and left me with a restraining order.
 

Talk about rock bottom…

 
In less than five months, I went from being a millionaire to a broke dude serving fed time. I read books, worked out and got my game plan together for when I was released. I knew I was going to get back into the mortgage business. I even had a job lined up.
 
After 15 months passed, I was free, and so broke, I had to sleep at a halfway house for six weeks. The job I’d planned on…fell through. The mortgage industry was crumbling. LOs were leaving the industry left and right, some even committing suicide.
 
I didn’t let that keep me from sticking to the plan, though. I ended up getting a LO job with a large mortgage bank, and as soon as I did, put in work. Within 2-3 months I was the top producer. In 2009, when everyone else was broke, I closed 183 loans and made multiple six-figures.
 

Fresh out of prison without a single excuse!

 
In a year, I had money in the bank, a home, two cars and was living the high life again. Until March of 2010, when the Dodd-Frank Act passed and I was no longer allowed to originate mortgages.
 
“Dammit. Can I just get one f*cking break?”
 
At least, this time, I wasn’t in prison, and I had a few dollars to my name. So, I invested those dollars on a “sure thing” and lost them all. No money. No job. And the bills weren’t paying themselves. I did odd sales jobs and became a hired closer for a few people when they needed me, but it was nothing steady.
 
That’s when I turned to the Internet. In prison, I learned a lot from books, so I figured I’d learn a lot from watching videos about businesses, etc.
 
I had to make something work.
 
I was introduced to Frank Kern and Kevin Nations after I took their $8,000 course. (and after hustling to get the cash for the program.) They taught me how I should run my online business. I decided I was going to teach loan officers how to close as many loans each month as I did.
 

Since I couldn’t compete, I’d collaborate.

 
I had a business model that would now work but had almost no money for marketing. After paying Frank and Kevin, I was literally out of money. I remember sitting at Kevin’s house as AJ Roberts taught me how to run FB ads. He’d set my daily ad spend to $100/day. Suddenly, I was worried my card would be declined.
 

Once again, I’d be turning crumbs into bricks, though.

 
By the time $25 of that $100 ad spend was gone, I’d made a $2,500 sale. Next, I scaled that ad up to $200/day until I could no longer take on clients.
 
That was early 2012, and I’m still over here scaling daily. I’m still flipping bricks. Although last month I bought two homes to flip!
 
The reason I shared my story with you is simple. It’s to remove any excuse for failure you have. My journey has been long and hard. I didn’t arrive here overnight, but I arrived, nonetheless. I’ve lost so much shit in my life, that I know how to get it all back and quick.
 
I’ve faced struggles that many people have nightmares about.
 
Whatever it is you are letting stand in-between you and your come up, it’s complete bullshit and you need to get over it. How do you get over it? Do the work! F*ck your excuses.
 
A month ago, I wrapped up an 8-week course on the “killer mentality” it takes to get through hard times in order to prosper. The course is called “Own It Academy.” I highly recommend you get a copy of it when it comes out. It’s life-changing material folks. Also, if you want the detailed version of my journey, buy my book Hardcore Closer on Amazon. 
 

 

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