175. How Ryan Pineda is Building a Real Estate Empire

Summary

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Real Estate Investing School Podcast – Episode 175

How Ryan Pineda is Building a Real Estate Empire

Date: July 15, 2024
Host: James Faucet
Guest: Ryan Pineda

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Overview

This episode features an in-depth conversation with Ryan Pineda, a former pro baseball player turned prolific real estate entrepreneur, educator, and content creator, recorded live from Ryan's office in Las Vegas. The discussion covers Ryan’s unique journey from baseball to business, his strategies for scaling real estate operations, leveraging social media, hiring, entrepreneurship mindset, work-life balance, faith, and his most recent focus: dominating digital marketing in real estate.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Authentic Branding & Social Media (01:34–02:22)

• Authenticity as a long-term strategy: Ryan emphasizes being genuine in the era of social media.

  • "If you try to build your brand, it’s hard to fake it long term. You better just be authentic. Be you." — Ryan (01:34)

• Challenges of building an online presence: Both host and guest agree it's not easy to be authentic at first—eventually, you have to just be yourself.

2. Ryan’s Background: Pro Baseball to Flipping Houses (02:22–06:42)

• Family Influence & The 2008 Crash:

  • Ryan’s mother was a realtor, his father an entrepreneur; both lost everything during the 2008 crash.
  • “I was forced into being an entrepreneur… I was literally forced into making it happen.” — Ryan (04:24)

• Early hustling out of necessity: Flipping couches, playing online poker, substitute teaching.

• Starting real estate: Licensed realtor during college/offseason; hated driving clients, preferred finding and executing deals.

• Transition to flipping: Inspired by Brandon Turner’s book around 2015; flipped 50–60 houses while still playing baseball.

3. Scaling & Delegation: Learning to Build Teams (06:43–12:31)

• First hires out of necessity: Managed 20 flips while still playing; hired a project manager.

• Key lesson: “I learned I didn’t have to do everything… Most entrepreneurs miss that part.” — Ryan (11:03)

• Full-time business leap: Left baseball in 2017, scaled flips to 150 deals/year with an actual team.

4. Leveraging Social Media for Business Growth (12:31–15:44)

• Early impact: Even “a couple thousand followers” led to significant deal flow and funding.

• 2019 pivot: After a mastermind with Brandon Turner and Investor Girl Britt, Ryan started intentionally building his social brand.

• COVID acceleration: Dedicated time to TikTok/YouTube; rapid growth in education, brokerage, tax firm.

5. Hiring Philosophy: Generalists First, Experts Later (16:07–19:03)

• Entrepreneurs’ struggle: Most don't hire due to cash flow and pride—fear no one can do things as well.

• Building with “generalists”: Early hires are jack-of-all-trades; experts come later as business justifies it.

  • "Everyone's going to be a generalist to start… The business has to earn its way there.” — Ryan (18:10)

6. The Pain of Growth: Navigating Plateaus (19:09–22:08)

• Growth is not linear: “You grow, plateau, then have to take the pain—financial or otherwise—for the next jump.”

  • “During the downswing… you feel pain and want to retreat. But good entrepreneurs… figure it out, and that's what leads to the next level.” — Ryan (20:40)

• Avoiding complacency: Must have a higher purpose—taking care of self, providing for family, now “bringing people to Jesus.”

  • "The reason most people become complacent is because they're selfish. Their needs are taken care of, so they don't feel the need to work." — Ryan (23:18)

7. Standards, Accountability & Leadership (25:51–29:15)

• On setting standards: Codify expectations, be “nitpicky” to uphold the culture and standards.

  • "I would err on the side of being nitpicky… that's the only way to hold standards." — Ryan (25:51)
  • “If they can't hang, they can't hang… There's 8 billion people in the world.” — Ryan (27:22)

• Reinforcement: Standards must be repeated constantly—“You literally have to tell them every day.”

• Attracting like-minded people: High standards attract those who appreciate them, repel those who don’t fit.

8. Working IN vs. ON the Business & Role of Marketing (30:18–35:12)

• Short-term vs. long-term work: Early hustle is all short-term, but investing in long-term (e.g. content) yields exponential future payoff.

• Ryan’s digital marketing focus: Fed up with agencies, brought all marketing in-house; paid for expertise and trained his own team—saw it as a long-term investment.

  • “I made the choice… around Thanksgiving of last year… My goal in the next year is to devote myself fully to just digital marketing.” — Ryan (35:12)

9. Marketing Mastery: Creativity, Ad Testing, & Lead Kitchen (35:36–44:36)

• Ryan’s approach: Applied organic content principles to paid ads, outperforming “industry standard” agencies.

  • “I was like, let me do it myself... And sure enough, freaking smacked.” — Ryan (37:48)

• Lead Kitchen genesis: Created because he cracked the code for Facebook ads in real estate, then scaled it for clients.

• Dual problem-solving: Most real estate investor “lead gen” fails because of two problems: high lead cost and poor sales teams.

  • "Now we're solving two problems… That's what all these other lead generation companies don't solve." — Ryan (40:04)

• Creativity as a differentiator: Postcards, PPC, cold calls—low creativity. Social media ads require constant creative iteration.

10. Pursuit of Mastery & Going Deep vs. Wide (44:36–63:48)

• Competitive background: Constantly “wanted to be the best” in whatever he does, but not always at once.

  • “Whenever I wanted to do something, I solely devoted myself to that thing for a period of time until I felt like I had achieved my goal.” — Ryan (46:16)

• Shiny object syndrome: Admits to going wide at times, but best results come from deep focus (especially when ventures align).

  • “I’ve had other businesses that have failed… cost me money and reputation… If I have lead kitchen, that’s clearly aligned with Home Run Offer… triple effect.” — Ryan (61:07)

• Advice from Neil Patel: “You should focus on real estate—you’d make way more money.” Ryan admits Neil’s right: “Real estate is my core competency.”

• Content strategy: Ryan prefers blending real estate, business, lifestyle, and faith in his content/podcast, even if it “hurts money” in the short term, because it expands relationships and long-term opportunity.

11. Real Estate Strategy, Passive Income & Business Building (69:21–74:57)

• Flipping is foundational:

  • “You gotta learn how to flip houses. It teaches you finding deals, construction, raising money.”

• Passive income myth: Rentals aren’t truly passive—same with businesses. The real value of rentals: long-term wealth storage.

  • “It’s far easier to build passive income through building a business than it is through building a portfolio.” — Ryan (71:45)

• For everyday investors: Buying rentals is best. For entrepreneurs: build cash-flowing business, then invest/stash in real estate.

12. Faith, Adversity & Life Perspective (74:57–80:48)

• Faith journey: Grew up Christian, but truly tested after being released from the Oakland A’s—uncertain, directionless, but learned to trust God’s broader plan.
  • “Faith is like a muscle… as you keep trusting and He keeps providing, your faith keeps increasing.” — Ryan (75:40)
  • “Everything is for your good. The tough times, the good times, everything’s for your good. And I truly believe that now.” — Ryan (79:07)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On hiring and delegation:
  "Most entrepreneurs miss that part… I was forced into it, so I’m grateful." — Ryan (11:03)

• On personal growth cycles:
  “What growth really looks like is you go up a little bit and then you plateau… you either take the pain that leads to the next stage or you stay plateaued.” — Ryan (19:23)

• On entrepreneur motivation:
  “Once your initial circle is taken care of, what happens next? I want to bring people to Jesus... It has to be so much bigger than just me.” — Ryan (22:31)

• On standards:
  "There is no other way around it… If they can't hang, they don't need to work here." — Ryan (27:22)

• On business synergy:
  “If I have Lead Kitchen, that’s clearly aligned with Home Run Offer and coaching… It’s going to have a triple effect.” — Ryan (61:07)

• On focus vs. variety:
  "It’s a balance. What are you truly optimizing for? More money, more impact, or fun? For me, I’m finding myself going deeper and deeper into real estate.” — Ryan (63:41)

• On adversity and faith:
  “God’s refining me somehow… I don’t know where this leads, but I know I’m being refined.” — Ryan (80:06)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:00–02:22: Introduction, authenticity in personal branding.
• 02:23–06:42: Ryan’s background, struggles, family context, and entry into real estate.
• 08:48–10:14: Retiring from baseball, first hires, early delegation.
• 12:31–15:44: Social media’s business impact, intentionality post-2019.
• 19:09–22:08: Growth plateaus, mindset, complacency vs. purpose.
• 25:51–29:15: Management style, standards, accountability.
• 30:18–35:12: Working in vs. on the business, internalizing marketing.
• 35:36–44:36: Lead generation, creativity, and digital ads (Lead Kitchen).
• 44:36–63:48: Pursuit of being the best, going deep vs. wide, aligning opportunities.
• 64:00–68:23: Podcast/content strategy, building relationships outside real estate.
• 69:21–74:57: Strategy for new investors, “passive income,” business vs. rentals.
• 74:57–80:48: Faith, adversity, and long-term life perspective.

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Episode Flow & Tone

Ryan’s style is direct, driven, and honest, peppered with entrepreneur grit and Christian faith. The conversation flows easily between tactical business strategies and broader life philosophies, maintaining a conversational, sometimes humorous but always purposeful, tone.

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Useful for Listeners Who:

• Aspire to scale their real estate or any business
• Struggle with delegation, hiring, and mindset barriers
• Want to learn about integrating social media for business growth
• Are curious about the realities of entrepreneurship and leadership
• Value transparent discussions about personal growth, faith, and purpose

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Links Mentioned:

• Lead Kitchen — Ryan’s real estate digital marketing agency

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Transcript

[Ryan Pineda]

I had two choices. Choice number one, quit house flipping and just do baseball. Choice number two, quit baseball and just go all in on house flipping or create this third choice that most people would never do and find a way to do both.

[James Faucet]

What is up, guys? Welcome back to the Real Estate Investing School podcast.

[Ryan Pineda]

This is your host, James Faucet.

[James Faucet]

And today I took a little bit of a field trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. So we have an. An awesome guest today. And every once in a while, we get a guest on here that doesn't really need an introduction, especially when it comes to the real estate space. And today is that guest. So what's up? Ryan Pineda.

[Ryan Pineda]

Hey, happy to be here, dude. Thanks for having me.

[James Faucet]

Thanks for having me, man. We're. He invited us down to your office where you got the. You got the setup all dialed, so it makes it easy for us.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah, we got your logo and everything. Guys, good to go.

[James Faucet]

This is amazing. So it feels like my office, but, dude, pumped. Pumped to jam with you a little bit today. It's. It's cool. Cause we met a couple of months ago, and we went to dinner afterwards. Got to see your office. And it's cool because I feel like now today's day and age, you meet so many people through social media. Don't even meet them. You get to know them through social media, and then every once in a while, you meet that person in person, and they're a different person, and you're like, oh, all right. I can tell all the filters are a real thing, but, yeah, just for you, I felt, like, super genuine. Met your wife, super awesome. You can tell that you just rock this authentic lifestyle. And it just so happens that it's also on social media versus the other way around. So. Appreciate that about you, man.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I tell people that all the time. If you're trying to build your brand, it's hard to fake it long term.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

You better just be authentic. Be you. You know, if you're. If you're controversial, you get political views, you got religious views, you got whatever. Just. Just be you.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Attract the people you want to attract.

[James Faucet]

Totally, dude. No, I. I clearly agree with that. It's interesting, too, because it's not always that easy. When you're first starting out, I feel like you're worried about making sure you say the right thing, making sure you dress the right way, all this stuff. And then eventually just gets to the point where it's like, all right, dude, I'm just gonna be me. Yeah, 100%. Well, dude, you have a lot going on here, obviously. It's a real estate podcast. We're gonna dive in some real estate stuff today. But also, I want to touch on just business, lifestyle, and then just selfishly, I have lots of questions that. All right, I get this opportunity to.

[Ryan Pineda]

Ask you, so let's do it.

[James Faucet]

Let's. Let's start out, just kind of give people an idea of your background, kind of just what happened from going from pro baseball player to real estate investor to. I would consider you, like, entrepreneur, real estate, business influencer. Just nowadays.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah. It's funny, my wife has the same dilemma, because people ask her, who don't know me, like, so what's your husband do? And she's like, I mean, he does a lot of things, so I don't even know what she says anymore.

[James Faucet]

That's funny.

[Ryan Pineda]

But, yeah, dude. So, you know, I played pro baseball for eight years, so that was my dream. I was fortunate to play that long, but didn't get to the big leagues, make the millions that I thought I would make. In fact, I was only making, you know, know, 6,000, $7,000 a year playing baseball. So forced into entrepreneurship, that led me into weird things like flipping couches.

[James Faucet]

Did you have that bug just naturally, like, while you're playing baseball or like, hey, no, I be an entrepreneur.

[Ryan Pineda]

No, dude, I never cared about that. I just did it out of necessity. You know, I got. I went to college from 08 to 10, which was the recession, so I literally had to find ways to make money. I mean, like, I forgot I even did this, but I was telling my team upstairs yesterday about when I used to play poker. So I was playing online poker and stuff throughout college to make money. Like, I've always just been a hustler.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And so I was playing online poker. I was a substitute teacher. I was flipping couches. And people wonder why I start so many things today. And I'm like, I've kind of just always been this way.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

You know, now I want to play pro golf and other things. Like, I'm just a naturally, like, curious person.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

Interesting. Did. Do you think that came from your parents at all, or what did your parents do? Did you grow up with money? Did they help you out? Did they not help you out?

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah. So my. It's funny now because they did what I do now. So my mom was a realtor.

[James Faucet]

Okay.

[Ryan Pineda]

So she's been a realtor for, like, 40 years. But once again, I didn't ever care about it. I literally didn't even realize what she Did.

[James Faucet]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

My dad was an entrepreneur. He owned a convenience store, so he owned a couple, like little gas stations, and they both lost it all in 08, so they literally lost everything. He lost his stores. She couldn't sell real estate. Nobody was buying. They lost the home that I grew up in. You know, we were middle class. They just literally lost everything.

[Interviewer 1]

Wow.

[Ryan Pineda]

And so by the time I got drafted in 2010, I came back to a totally different environment. Like, I was off to college for three years during the recession, and I came back and it was just like night and day.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

So really the thing I learned from that was that I was going to have to do everything myself. Like, they weren't going to be able to provide for me. So, yeah, that's what led me into getting into real estate because it was the only thing I could think of I could do in the off season because I couldn't get like a 9 to 5. I had to practice, I had to train, and nobody was going to go hire me and let me leave for six months. Months.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

So I was literally forced into being an entrepreneur.

[Interviewer 1]

Love it.

[James Faucet]

No, that's awesome. Backs against the wall and. And how to do something. I think that's. So you started actually dipping your toes into real estate while you're playing baseball?

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah. Yep. So my 20. Well, 2010, I became a realtor right when I got drafted. So I did that for a couple years while I was playing. And then I quit being a realtor because I hated it and hate it, bro. Frickin. Driving clients around is the worst thing on earth. Like, I don't. I don't know how realtors do it. I just was like, dude, this sucks.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

But you know, it sucked for me because I was always good at finding deals and it would piss me off that they wouldn't buy them. And I was like, dude, this is such a good deal. I've. I was always good at hustling and selling and they wouldn't buy it. I'm like, dude, this is the worst career ever. And so I quit and I started just flipping couches and other things. 2015 comes around. I actually read our friend Brandon Turner's book, How to Buy Houses with Loan, no Money Down. I was like, oh, crap, I don't even need these guys. I could buy the houses.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And that set me on the journey of house flipping. And so 2015, I started flipping houses and, you know, the rest is history. But I retired in 2017, so I flipped probably about 50 to 60 houses while I was playing oh, wow.

[James Faucet]

Okay.

[Interviewer 1]

So.

[James Faucet]

So you started to see, like, okay, I'm. I'm. I'm making money doing this.

[Ryan Pineda]

I already knew, like, by the end of my baseball career, like, what I was doing.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Like, I was. I was like, super. I was rich for the minor league.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

You know, my. The guys were like, bro, you just made 20 grand. I was like, yeah, dude. I mean, that was three times they make in a year or three. Over three years more than they make in three years.

[James Faucet]

That's crazy.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Faucet]

That's insane. Oh, man. So was it hard to stay focused on baseball when you Knew?

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah, yeah. 2017 was my worst year because I was literally managing like 20 flips at once.

[Interviewer 1]

I was.

[Ryan Pineda]

I had escrows, I had rehabs on markets and I was listing them and like, it was. It was chaos, dude. I'd be in the dugout just thinking about deals, and I'd come back after the game after, like, like striking out and, you know, all the emotions of playing a game. And I'd look in my phone, there's 20 million text and emails, and I was like, yeah, I guess it's kind of reached that point. This. This probably coming to an end here.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Faucet]

Well, okay. So that probably helped with the transition, at least not making it the big.

[Ryan Pineda]

Oh, yeah, bro.

[Interviewer 2]

I.

[Ryan Pineda]

At that point I was like, okay, I understand. Like, I'm going to do something even bigger.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

So then you went on, how many more years did you do that before you started transitioning? Even more so. And then how did you transition kind of out of that day to day flip? Because I. I think I initially heard you.

[Interviewer 1]

I don't know.

[James Faucet]

What was the first time you're on BiggerPockets?

[Ryan Pineda]

I was in 2018. 2018.

[James Faucet]

2018, dude. Yeah. So I remember listening to that and I'm like, oh, this guy's interesting. Young dude, like baseball athlete. And then I think you're on there again a few years later or something like that.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Interviewer 2]

Y.

[James Faucet]

It's funny, I have this memory of like, you getting a Model X. It was like your dream car. Some post about it anyhow, just random. I don't know how many.

[Ryan Pineda]

I bought three Model X's since then, dude. I don't listen to me buying cars, but I bought a Model X, got rid of it, bought something else, then bought a Model X again because I realized I made a mistake, totaled the Model X, got scared and said, I need the biggest, most safe car. So I bought a Hummer. And then I hated the Hummer. And now I Have a Model X again.

[James Faucet]

Oh, so you're rocking right now.

[Ryan Pineda]

I love the Model X.

[James Faucet]

Is the plaid now or.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Faucet]

Cool. You like? I. I saw you. Did you pick up a cyber truck?

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah, I flipped that, though.

[James Faucet]

Wasn't a fan or just wanted to make some money?

[Ryan Pineda]

Both.

[James Faucet]

Both, yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah. Both. Yeah. The cyber truck's okay. It's. I mean, the. The. The Model X is just so much better.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Faucet]

You know what's funny? We have Model X and in Maui, everywhere we go, nobody's seen the doors. They freak out.

[Ryan Pineda]

They think it's the coolest thing.

[James Faucet]

100%. Like, I mean, that was what, five years ago? Everywhere we go, at least one comment of, whoa, that.

[Ryan Pineda]

Imagine if they saw a Cybertruck, then that.

[James Faucet]

100%. Well, I have one. I just got my allocation for it, and that's like, one of the reasons why I wanted to get it. Just because it's.

[Ryan Pineda]

Everyone in Maui is going to think you're an alien one.

[James Faucet]

100%. 100%.

[Ryan Pineda]

Which.

[James Faucet]

Which I don't know how it's going to go over. Either it's going to go over well or like, hey, what are you doing on our island with that thing? So we'll see. That's funny, but awesome. So you. You went from that to from there. I obviously you said you retired 2017.

[Interviewer 2]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

But where did this transition come? Like, hey, I'm an entrepreneur. I. I like business. Have you always been kind of had these side hustles while you're flipping homes and like, part of that process? I'm sure you scaled and learned a lot about scaling your flipping business during that time.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah. So, you know, 20. End of 2017, I retired. 2018 was my first floor full year in business. And I was like, well, I literally have double or even triple the time I used to have, because I dedicated my whole entire life to baseball up to that point.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And so you think about that, and I was already, like, doing really good part time, and I was like, wow, what am I going to do with myself? And so I was like, I guess I'll get an office. So I got an office. I was like, I guess I'll hire people. That's like what business people do.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

So I started hiring sales guys and cold callers and other stuff.

[James Faucet]

Who was your first hire at as like, Active Flipper?

[Ryan Pineda]

Well, while I was playing, my first hire was a project manager. So, you know, when I was playing, I did those 50 deals. All I had was one guy, and so he was project managing. Cause I wasn't there. And that was actually the first thing that I learned about building a business and delegating was during that time, because I had two choices. Choice number one, quit house flipping and just do baseball. Choice number two, quit baseball and just go all in on house flipping or create this third choice that most people would never do and find a way to do both. And so I was like, well, I don't want to quit baseball yet. I love the game, but I don't want to be broke either, so how can I do both? And I learned, like, oh, well, I could just hire somebody to go do this while I'm playing baseball. And it worked. And I think that. That during those three years, I learned to develop trust in people and realize that I didn't have to do everything. And I think most entrepreneurs miss that part. You know, they. They just don't even make it to that part. And I was forced into it, so I'm grateful for that. So by the time I got into 2018, I started hiring people, I was already, like, used to it. I'm like, okay, so I'm gonna hire this guy, this guy, this guy. And, you know, we ended up doing 150 deals that year. And I started to find a way to get me out of it, you know? So, like, I hired appointment guys. I hired more contractors. I had multiple project managers at that point. And, you know, my only thing at that point was just being a relationship guy, meeting wholesalers, meeting realtors, raising more money. And I started to now understand the. The value of, like, social media.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

You know, this was during.

[James Faucet]

While you were flipping, you started?

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah. In 2018. Yeah. Like, when I was on Bigger Pockets. I've. I've met a lot of people who. That was the first time they started following me in 2018. Dude, I had, like, a couple thousand followers, but, like, I could see I was getting deals and raising money from social media with small following. And then 2019 comes around, and Brandon invites me to Maui, and I do this mastermind with them, and I meet this girl investor girl, Brit, and she's like, you really should, like, take social media seriously. And that was planting the seed in my mind of, like, okay, maybe I'm not, like, putting all my effort into this, because I was still just busy running the business and flipping houses.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

You know, at that point, too, I started a real estate brokerage. The end of that year, I started my tax firm. What else did I start? Oh, I started education, too, that year.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

But I was a terrible guru. I didn't want to be one. My people don't realize this. My first two years in education, I sold about 10 courses. Like, I literally couldn't sell anything because I did not.

[James Faucet]

10 different courses.

[Ryan Pineda]

Like, no, I sold 10 units of courses, and I held two events that, like, I held one event each year, and that was the only money I made. Really. Like, you know, I said I held an event in 2018, 10 people, three grand. It sold out instantly. I was like, dang, that was like the easiest 30 grand ever.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And then the next year, I held an event, ten people, five grand. It was up in Big Bear. And so I gave them my Airbnb. They got to stay there. We spent like three days, like, hanging out, hiking, learning. It was a super cool experience.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And, you know, I made 50 grand. So, like, all in all, that was literally my first two years in education.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

But still do stuff like that. Like. Like more of that.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

Group, intimate setting.

[Ryan Pineda]

We're actually getting back to it. I've gotten away from that, but I'm getting back to it. Later this year, we're gonna have a trip to Cabo. Or not Cabo, Cancun. So that'll be fun.

[Interviewer 1]

Cool.

[Ryan Pineda]

But, yeah, I think, you know, going into 2020, the idea of doing social media was in my mind and then covet, hit, and it just kind of like lit it on fire.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And it gave me the time to actually step back and look at the landscape.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

You know, I also had 50 flips going on, so I was like, I don't even know what's gonna happen with these.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

You know.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I studied tick tock, I studied YouTube and just, you know, started making content. And then by focusing solely on that, it allowed everything else to explode. You know, the education exploded, the tax firm exploded, the brokerage exploded. You know, we grew to, you know, multimillion dollar tax firm. We grew to 200 agents at the brokerage.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

We grew to a seven and eight figure education company. And the house living business kept just turning along, along the way.

[James Faucet]

Yeah, dude, this is good stuff. Like, so, so fun. I mean, there's so much to dive into here. But shout out to Brit for sure. Like, that's cool. I didn't know that she was the one that kind of initially pushed you along. You've seen what social media has done for her and even. And when she's made that transition from like just DIY to what she's doing now.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

It's completely, you know, 100 extra stuff she has going on. But you Said earlier, you said that most entrepreneurs, they struggle with hiring people. And you said you were kind of forced into it during baseball because if you want to do both, the only way to do it was to hire somebody else. What. Why do you think they struggle with that so much?

[Ryan Pineda]

Two reasons. One would be cash flow. They, they just can't really afford to hire people. And then even if they start making money, they mismanage their cash, and so they still don't budget enough to hire people.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

So I think cash is a reason. And the other reason would just be pride. I mean, they just think that people aren't going to do it as good. And, you know, in a lot of cases, that's true.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

But, you know, even if somebody does something 80 as good as me and there's 10 of them.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

We're gonna do way better than just me by myself.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Like, you got to learn to accept that people are gonna screw up.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

100.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

No, I feel that. I, I, it's almost like this scarcity mindset versus an abundance mindset.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[James Faucet]

Of like, I can't give up this extra cash flow. It's, it's wasting money or spending versus investing money. Another thing along with that that I wanted to ask you is what would you do? Let's say you have this certain budget of cash flow, and you can hire one employee that's, you know, whatever their role may be, but they're an expert and they have the experience and the skill set. Or you can spread out that budget and hire, let's say, two or three other employees that can basically take on different roles, but they don't have as much of the experience and the skill set. What are you going to do?

[Ryan Pineda]

I think that when you're first hiring your, let's say, your first or second employee, you're definitely not getting an expert. You're getting what we would call a generalist. And that person's going to be a jackknife. And in most cases, you can't even afford the expert. The expert's going to cost multiple six figures if they're truly an expert.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

So in most cases. Well, in almost all cases, you're hiring some jackknife. And that's okay, because when you look at an org chart for any company, whether it's a house flipping or an education company or a media company is like, I have an org chart for our media side. There's a lot of roles to fill, right?

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And like, is, is he the only guy film filling all the roles? Right now.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

So he's got to be the editor, the videographer, the content poster, the, the idea guy, the researcher, the description writer. Dude, I could name off all the positions.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

And way more than that, which is crazy.

[Ryan Pineda]

And he is not an expert on all those.

[Interviewer 1]

No.

[Ryan Pineda]

So, you know, everyone's going to be a generalist to start.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

[James Faucet]

We actually had a conversation yesterday about hiring an assistant for him to kind of help come in because it's like.

[Ryan Pineda]

And there's the point. Right now you're hiring another generalist and still there's nothing wrong with that. You don't start to get experts until you truly can afford it.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Faucet]

And that's my question for you is like, because I feel like in my business it's, you know, I have a few different roles that are generalist because yeah, I, I don't want to fork out paying a bunch of different people to fulfill every single role. Right. And then on top of that, like.

[Ryan Pineda]

The business has to earn its way there to get the right to do that.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[James Faucet]

Do you feel like that, do you feel like that leap is always going to be painful?

[Ryan Pineda]

Oh yeah, dude. I do this training at our workshops and I show them what growth actually looks like. So I'll try to do it without a whiteboard, but okay. Most people think, I'll talk to this camera. Most people think growth looks like this.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

But in reality what growth really looks like is you go up a little bit and then you plateau. Right now you have a choice at the plateau. You can either take the pain that's gonna lead to the next stage of growth or you keep doing the same thing because you're hard headed and you don't want to take a risk and whatever else. Well, when you plateau that you're basically going to stay plateaued, best case. Or you're going to start to decline. And we were talking about this pre show. I believe most people are going to decline because they're not going to bite the bullet and do what's necessary. So that's. Most people, they grow a little bit, they plateau, they kind of stay where they're at. You see this with realtors all the time. You're like, why do you keep making the same every year? Don't you want to grow? Oh, well, freaking. I'm not going to invest in marketing, I'm not going to invest in, I'm not going to pay another agent to show houses. It's like, yep, you're an idiot. So, you know, whatever. That's their choice. But if you want to grow, it looks like this. You grow, you plateau, you then take a step back. Almost always financially, because you're going to invest in something new. You're either investing in more marketing, more talent, a new method. You know, you're invested, like, financially, you're going to invest, maybe you're putting R and D into a new product. There's just going to be some kind of investment that's going to force you downwards, at least financially. And then here's the thing. During the downswing, you don't really know how long it's going to take. And that's why most people stop, because they feel a little bit of pain and they retreat back to the plateau. They retreat back to what they know. Like, that didn't work. I knew it didn't work. And they stay there. But what good entrepreneurs do is they understand they're going to take that bullet and their first idea may not even be right. They might hire the wrong person, the marketing might not hit, the offer may not stick, but they're inevitably, they're going to figure it out. And that's going to lead to the next level.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And then guess what? At the next level, you're going to plateau again. And then you have to make that choice again. All right, you know what? I'm going to fricking take the financial pain, deal with it, figure out the next move, and then that's going to lead to growth.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

How do you keep that mindset? Because it is so easy to become complacent. Especially as, I mean, I think most entrepreneurs end up being solopreneurs. Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

Like, oh, thousand percent.

[James Faucet]

It's a lonely road. The path of leadership is lonely, especially if you own the business, you're operating it. Even if you have employees in the day, like, nobody feels the pressure and the stresses like you do. So how do you keep this mindset of, like, oh, I'm crushing it compared to all my friends, Like, I'm, I'm good, I have everything I need. Versus constantly pushing the envelope and being willing to make those sacrifices to continue to grow.

[Ryan Pineda]

Because, well, one, you got to decide what's important to me or to you. Like, so what is, like, fueling you to keep going?

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

So I think when you're first starting as an entrepreneur, and this is the case for me, you first have to provide for yourself.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

Great. Now if you have any kind of selflessness, the next step is you want to provide for those around you. So you're like, all right, let Me, provide for my parents, my family, those around me. You know, for me, that was great. You know, in 2019, I retired my parents. I bought them a house, paid all their cars. They don't have a bill. They haven't had a bill since then.

[James Faucet]

It's amazing.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And real estate's the only reason I was able to do that. Then. Okay, once your initial circle is taken care of, what happens next? And, you know, for me, I wanted to impact lots of people. People who don't even. I don't even know. And specifically now, you know, I want to bring people to Jesus. Like, that's literally what I'm using my money, my platform, and everything for. And, dude, I need a lot of money, and I need a lot of attention. I need a lot of everything to go get people saved. And so it just is so much bigger than just me. I was taken care of long ago. So you got to have, like, a very big purpose that's going to drive you. And the reason most people become complacent is because they're selfish. Their needs are taken care of, and therefore they don't feel the need to work.

[Interviewer 1]

Wow. Yeah, that's deep.

[James Faucet]

For sure. But that's deep.

[Ryan Pineda]

It is what it is. People don't want to hear it. But if you're. If you're listening to this and you're like, no, I'm good. I would say, yeah, you're selfish.

[James Faucet]

Yeah, that's so good, dude. That's so good. I think, too, like, we're fulfilled when we're growing. And I really do believe, like, this is inherently from God.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[James Faucet]

Like, we're. We're put here to maximize our potential. And if we stop doing that and we don't reach who we're supposed to become by default, like, we get depressed, and it's really easy to not love life. But it's when we're pushing and growing and ultimately, like, are you. It doesn't matter how slow you're going, but are you working towards becoming the best version of you? And I think that it's interesting that when we do that and as we're doing that, that's when we typically feel our best.

[Ryan Pineda]

Well, you know, in the Bible, they. They talk about a process of sanctification, and for those who don't know, it's essentially becoming more like Jesus every day.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

You know, there's. There's a non biblical term called kaizen, which is, you know, the. The belief of improving every single day. That's the pursuit. Yeah.

[James Faucet]

Speak Japanese.

[Interviewer 1]

So.

[Ryan Pineda]

Oh, There you go.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

It's the. The pursuit of just growing every day.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

Um, but as a Christian, we even take it a step further and we call it sanctification. And it's the pursuit of growing to become more like Jesus every day.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

Because you can pursue growing the wrong thing.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

But if I'm becoming more like Jesus every day, that's. That's the pursuit and that never ends.

[James Faucet]

Yeah, yeah, that's such a good distinction in general, I think that's why we. We see people that chase the wrong things ultimately become unhappy.

[Ryan Pineda]

That's why I'm not a believer in kaizen. I'm a believer in sanctification.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah, I love that.

[James Faucet]

Love that distinction. So kind of like reverting back to the employee stuff, and then we can move on from there. How do you find this balance? Because especially when you're. You're hiring, you know, non experts, so to speak.

[Interviewer 1]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

Which.

[James Faucet]

Which can be amazing. You can get the most loyal people and they can grow to become experts.

[Ryan Pineda]

I really believe that I built my whole marketing department that way.

[Interviewer 1]

So.

[James Faucet]

So part of that process, like, obviously people aren't doing things the way you do them. How. How do you know when that line is like, okay, you're not living up to the standard? Like, this is the standard. You're not meeting it versus, like, hey, I understand you're not going to do everything exactly the way that I do it, and I'm okay with that. I don't know if that question makes sense, but I find myself, like, constantly battling to like, all right, am I being too nitpicky? Or to like, is this. Is this a time for, like, correction and to make sure, okay, this is the way it needs to be done?

[Ryan Pineda]

Versus I would err on the side of being nitpicky versus not okay.

[Interviewer 1]

Why?

[Ryan Pineda]

Because that's the only way to hold standards. If you let people get away with things. Like, I don't. I don't nitpick people to say, did you do your job today? Did you do this? But we do have managers who do that. Yeah, so the managers every, every day, I want to see your KPIs. How many dials did you make? You know, that's holding people accountable. But I'm nitpicky on very simple things. You know, for example, it didn't show on my calendar that you were coming in today.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

That's an error on my assistant. She should have put that in the calendar because then he was unprepared.

[James Faucet]

We decided to show up today.

[Ryan Pineda]

Exactly. But had it been in the calendar, this would already been set up. It would have been ready. We would have been gone to go at 9 o', clock, and all of a sudden we wasted 30 minutes. I don't like that.

[James Faucet]

So will you. So this is a good example. Will you take this?

[Ryan Pineda]

I already told them, I said, okay, put in my calendar every single podcast we have, whose show they're on, whether I'm on their show or they're on my show, where the location is, and that way everybody's clear.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And it's all set up.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

So when do you make that correction? Aside from now publicly, I already told.

[Ryan Pineda]

Them the correction before we even started the moment it happened. Because I don't want to forget.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Because by the end of this, I might forget about it and it's going to happen again.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Faucet]

Because that's how I feel sometimes. But then I feel like, am I always just constantly like, dude, why didn't you do this? Or do you should have done this? Or, hey, we talked about this?

[Ryan Pineda]

Or why it's got to be. There ain't no other way around it.

[James Faucet]

And if they can't hang, they can't hang.

[Ryan Pineda]

They don't need to work here. Yeah, it's okay.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

There's 8 billion people in the world.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah. Cool.

[James Faucet]

I like that. It's interesting. I was talking to Chris, Chris Crone, and I kind of asked him something similar, like, hey, you seem like this high energy, like, good attitude. Like, hey, it's okay. We're all loving guy. How do you handle situations like that? And he's like. He's like, we. We don't have, like, the standards. 10 out of 10. If you're a 9, like, you don't.

[Ryan Pineda]

You're.

[James Faucet]

You're done.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

And it was just interesting. I think it's good hearing that from you is good hearing that from him. And just the way to operate is you have to have that standard at some point and just not let go of it.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah. There's always standards. How many calls you got to make, how many deals we got to get, how much revenue we got to bring in, the, you know, views we're trying to get. If you don't have standards, like, everybody is unclear of what to end. Dude, I have to constantly reinforce standards, too. You don't just set them once. You literally have to tell them it every day.

[James Faucet]

Yeah, no, I feel that.

[Ryan Pineda]

I feel that.

[James Faucet]

Is that exhausting?

[Ryan Pineda]

I mean, if you're the one doing it. Yeah. But I mean, I have managers, thankfully. But if you're, you know, solo. Yeah. You gotta, like, tell them every day.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Like, you know, like, little things. I always say, how you do anything's how you do everything. And so something. Let's just take this podcast, for example. You know, I would already want to know when this podcast is coming out, what day it's happening, you know, when you're going to have the first draft done by, like, I want all those things situated because, like, one thing that they screw up on all the time is being last minute. I'm like, why are you last minute? We filmed this podcast weeks ago. What's the deal?

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

There's no excuse. Oh, well, you know. No, just do your job. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, I did my part. I filmed.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

I got a lot of stuff going on, too.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

So, you know, it's just. It's just creating standards and not having a culture of excuses.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Faucet]

I like that personally. What? What?

[Ryan Pineda]

But other people like that too, by the way. You can hire people who like that.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

They like when others are that way, too. And then they get pissed when there's somebody who's not that way.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And that person who's not that way will be out.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

It's a culture of accountability. When you have a lot of people like you. We'll like, hanging out, right?

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And then we'll attract other people who like thinking like us, too. And guess what? If there's someone who's soft and they're like, you guys are too hard on them, we're gonna be like, bro, you are not invited for drinks.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Faucet]

100%. So how do you balance? I heard you say this a while ago. I don't know if this is still the case or whatnot, but, like, some long lines of. You're like, hey, I'm. I'm taking over all my marketing right now. Like, I'm getting involved. I'm doing it. And I don't know if that's still the case or the reason behind. Okay. So I want to dive into that. But also, I think it relates to this point that we're talking about, of you're hiring somebody. Essentially. No one's going to do it as good as you, for the most part at least. Like, thinking the way that.

[Ryan Pineda]

By the way, even that's like, it's an initial thought, but it's also not true. There are lots of people who do things way better than me.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

I can't edit. I can't film. You know, I can't hold these students accountable.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

I'm not making calls to sellers all day. They're all way better than me.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah, cool, cool.

[Ryan Pineda]

But, but if I, if, you know, if we go mono, a mono and we both talk to the seller, then yeah, I'll probably beat them.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

But in the terms of nine hours a day to get to that point, they're going to beat me.

[James Faucet]

Yeah, yeah, 100%. And that's actually the point that I'm trying to make is like, yeah, if you were doing on the phone with everyone, you're to close more. If you are over all the pieces of marketing and like the creative and like you're going to probably create better stuff and you might not edit it.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

With that skill set necessarily. But like how do you essentially that becomes like working in the business versus working on the business. And obviously as a leader, as an entrepreneur, you have this responsibility to like oversee the entire business and to network and to grow and to do stuff like this and to get out there. But then to also pause that. Not even pause it, but then dive into. I'm taking over the marketing because of a certain reason. Talk about that.

[Ryan Pineda]

Well, I think the first thing you're, you're talking about and I, I describe this as you're always going to have a balance of long term and short term. And so you're either working on things that are not going to pay you today but will pay you dividends in the future, which would be long term and then short term would be things that are day to day that must be done. Okay. So like if I was to look at, well actually let me say this. When you are just starting out, you're always short term. You're like, dude, I gotta get the next deal, I gotta talk to the next seller, I gotta do this.

[Interviewer 1]

Yep.

[Ryan Pineda]

At some point you can start thinking some long term and start planning for the future. So like this podcast, when you first started it and even today you might still consider it a long term thing, it may not pay dividends that much yet, but we know that if you stay with it for the next five years, it's going to pay massive dividends. And so for me, I knew that when I started social media during COVID I was like, I am losing money by doing this because I could be out closing deals, but I'm choosing to trade that time for this time. So I'm going to invest in my long term and sacrifice my short term. This is the same thing that I say happens with growth. They're very correlated because you're going to have to make an investment in the long term and it's going to cost you financially.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

And that investment could be, like I said, a whole new endeavor that's going to pay you long term. It could be, you know, new marketing, new offer, but in most cases, honestly, what it is is consulting. And so, you know, you're going to paint a fat chunk to some guy to teach you how to do the next level, whatever the case is.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

And so I've paid my fair share of, you know, big chunks to learn things, you know. So anyways, the reason I'm bringing this up is because when it comes to marketing, I understood that this was a long term thing for me. Like if I could build my own in house marketing and not rely on agencies, it's going to pay me a lot of money long term. Right now, short term will take a hit to some degree depending on how quick we can get up to speed. And I didn't think our short term hit would be that big because I was already pretty well versed. It was more so getting my team up to speed because I took them out of positions in my other companies.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I was like, hey, you're going to do this now? You're going to do this now, you're going to do this now. They had no experience, so I had to spend a lot of time training them while paying them.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

You know, and doing their job for them, basically.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I had to pay consultants to come in and help us out. I had to, you know, do all these things and then I had to test different marketing and all this stuff. So, you know, basically cost myself, let's just say hundreds and hundreds of thousands and just trial and error and yeah, all this stuff. But I just knew it was going to be worth it in the long haul. And yeah, I made that choice, I want to say, around Thanksgiving of last year because I had just gotten fed up with agencies. And I just noticed during that quarter that cost per lead was just going through the roof. Nothing these agencies were promising was working. I noticed on the house living side, like I said, conversions and cost per lead were getting worse. And I'm like, well, it all starts with marketing. And so at the end of the day, if we're trending in the wrong direction on all fronts of marketing and none of these agencies know what to do because they're not smart enough. And I'm certain that all their other clients are feeling the same thing because I'm talking to all my friends too. I'M gonna have to fix it. And that's what I did. I just fired them all and brought it all in house. And then I said, you know, I said it on my podcast and this is, I think what you're referring to. But you know, I was like, my goal in the next year is to devote myself fully to, to just digital marketing and I want to become the best in the world. And it was like a bold proclamation.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

But I was like, I legitimately think I can do it, you know, in a year. And I'm not the best in the world, but one of the best. And the reason I felt that is because I already knew the organic side of marketing and creating content. And they're very like, that's actually way harder than the paid side.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I knew I just had the entire Rolodex of the best in the world at my fingertips.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

I could call Russell Brunson, I could call Neil Patel, I could call Hormozi, I could call Cardone and like, get pick these guys brains who are savages at this and figure out what my next move was going to be.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[James Faucet]

I mean, I think that's great. Yeah. I mean, you talk about like. And I've seen it too. Just I did door to our sales for like eight years. Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

There you go.

[James Faucet]

And so to me, it's like that skill set of like interacting with people, understanding their objections, bringing up their objections before they bring them up, and like learning on that door and then changing a little tweak in your pitch and going on to the next door and just constantly getting those like, reps in again and again and again. I feel like it was just real time and understanding. Exactly. And paying attention to how every single customer interacts and like, what they're thinking and what's going on and.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

And just that skill set alone. I tell all the door to guys this. I'm like, if you can take that piece and now transform that into the digital space.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

And that correlates really directly with digital.

[Ryan Pineda]

Marketing or dude, the first thing you have to do is understand and listen to your potential customers. That's how you create great marketing and great offers. To give an example, you know, my newest company is called Lead Kitchen and we generate leads for wholesalers and flippers.

[James Faucet]

Which is legit, by the way. It's.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah, yeah. So we, you know, I went down this path, like I said, starting Thanksgiving, taking over all my marketing for every company. And so I started running Facebook ads to sellers for my house flipping company. And I. I didn't ever do it before because I'd always heard Facebook ads sucked and stuff. And so I was like, whatever. And I was doing fine with TV and other things. Things. But I was like, you know what? I think they suck because people suck. I just think that, like, you know, people say, oh, it's hard to make do a podcast. It's dead. It's like, no, you just suck. Like, it's not hard. Well, it is hard. I take that back. It is hard.

[James Faucet]

But how much effort did you really put into it?

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah, I'm like, you just. You didn't see it through.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

So I was like, you know what? I'm going to do it myself. I'm going to make ads the same way I've been making ads for years for education and other services, because I've spent millions on Facebook marketing for other stuff.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

So I was like, let me do it over here. And then, sure enough, freaking smacked. And I was like, oh, my gosh, it doesn't suck. Everyone else sucks. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. So I started doing it for myself. Then I offer it to my students as a beta test, because once again. Right, okay, it works for you. Yeah, let's test it on them. Yeah, works for them too. So then, you know, we go through the process, launched the company. Now we got a bunch of clients. But even right now, today, this very moment, I am taking sales calls for that company now only qualified people. Like, I'm having people, you know, call the leads and everything else. Call the leads for potential clients, not sellers, Right? And they're like, hey, this guy's qualified. He'd be great for it. I'm like, all right, cool. Book me a call. So I'm hopping on calls with people now, and they're like, dude, I can't believe you're taking a sales call. And I'm like, bro, I'm freaking entrepreneur. I'm a sales. Like, I like doing these sometimes. I don't want to do this forever, but in the early stages, I. I want to do this not only because I'm gonna close you and, like, you're gonna become a client, but more importantly, I want to understand your problems.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I'm just hearing the same problem. Sales call after sales call, cost per leads too high. I'm not getting a return doing this. This is happening. And then I'm asking about their sales team, and I'm realizing their sales team sucks, and I have to, like, literally start coaching them. On the call, I'm like, okay, look, dude, yes, I understand. Your cost per lead's insane with these methods, right? You know, like for example, in Vegas, PPC is like 800 bucks for one lead, right? And dude, Daniel Kong, who's one of my one on ones, he's in Hawaii too. His PPC was like 1500 for one lead in Hawaii. We started running ads for him and for me and all of a sudden we're getting leads for 250 and you know, so you're going from 1500 to 250 and no competition. It's crazy. And like the, the crazier part is that still though Daniel and others that I've talked to still have a sales team problem. So I done, I identified two problems that's going on in the industry. One is cost per lead super high. And then two is their sales team sucks.

[James Faucet]

So I mean, the reason cost per lead, super high is that just for horrible ads and lack of creative or.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah, I'll tell you why they're super high. But like, basically what I learned from the sales calls is that number one, even if we get them leads way cheaper, we solve problem number one. And they're inbound leads, but they will still get zero return and complain because their sales team still the problem. So then I had to create the solution for two, which is full on sales training with my team teaching them sales. So now it's a hybrid of coaching and services and now people are getting results. Like, it was crazy. Like we'd have people who didn't get any deals in the first month during my beta and I'm like, dude, your cost per lead solo, like, give me the results. How many people were interested on the, you know, 60% are interested. I'm like, how'd you not close any? Yeah, well, they want market value. I'm like, bro, everyone wants market value. You think they're stupid? Like, everyone has Zillow. What do you do when they want market value? They're like, we just don't, you know, know, we don't even go on the appointment. Like, oh my gosh. And so like, I had to like, re. I was like, dude, this is going to be a massive problem because we're going to lose every client because they suck. And now we're solving two problems. And that's what all these other lead generation companies don't solve. They don't have any coaching. They don't know how.

[Interviewer 1]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

Also too, all these other Legion companies aren't even investors. They're just, they're marketers 100%. So very few. Like, you know, once again, anyways, nobody has the knowledge I have in that space because I'm actively closing 10, 20 deals a month.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

I've spent millions already doing, you know, marketing and other stuff for years. I have organic content. We've like, I just know how it all needs to flow to work. But you know, you asked why are cost per lead so high? I mean, this is a problem in every industry. This is not just real estate. Wholesaling and flipping and education. The cost per leads going through the roof, services, you know, sellers, it's all the same problem. And I'll tell you, in the real estate space, anyways, the reason cost per lead's so high is because everyone uses the same methods and they require no creativity. So what I mean by that is everybody sends mailers, right? Everyone's mailer is the same. You're sending some Google postcard, some fake handwritten letter like you, your. We have no ip, we have no differentiation. It simply just becomes a volume game.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Can I just spend more and hit the guy more?

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

Cold calling. There's no differentiation. We're all just calling the same people. And whoever calls more wins. And whoever's better at sales, wins. Texting. Same thing. Ppc. Same thing. Everybody's bidding on the same keywords and they're bidding more for the keywords that convert. People ain't dumb. So. So, you know, PPC is going through the roof because of that.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And you know, nobody's figured out social media for one very good reason. Because it actually takes creativity and talent.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Like I have to film ads every week.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

To keep the ad costs low. I have a copywriter. We gotta write new ads every week. We gotta write new copy on the ads. We have to test new things. And we test it on myself first before we launch it to clients. Like for now, like right now, this week. We're, we're. We're now launching Tick Tock for myself. We're gonna have to spend money and do R D. I'll have to take a financial hit to learn how TikTok's gonna go down before I'm willing to offer it to my clients. But I will test it on myself first and I'll know exactly if it works or not.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Faucet]

So cool. And just. And you're actually right. It's actually you. The ads are you. Right?

[Ryan Pineda]

They're me.

[James Faucet]

You're running in the their market.

[Ryan Pineda]

We literally do everything. If you wanted to get leads in Maui, you would Sign up. We would onboard you. You start getting leads tomorrow. You don't need to film, you don't need to manage them. You don't need to do anything. We will literally, like, run my proven ads, my copy everything in your market. We'll manage the spend. We do it all. Your face, my face, everything.

[James Faucet]

Yeah, it's rad. People want to know more about that.

[Interviewer 1]

Where.

[James Faucet]

Where can they get that? Because I know.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah. Bleed kitchen dot com. I'm sure you'll have a link down below, so click the link below too.

[Interviewer 1]

Cool.

[James Faucet]

Yeah, we'll throw a link in there. Yeah. Dude, no, this is. It's so good. Just kind of touching on that stuff and diving into it. Is there. And maybe there's no, like, no real answer, no secret sauce. But, like, you mentioned it, I want to be the best when it comes to digital marketing. You mentioned it earlier. I want to be a professional golfer. Like, you've been a professional baseball player. You've flown, flipped hundreds of houses and have all these different things that seem to be going your way. How do you be the best in every category?

[Ryan Pineda]

In a sense. Yeah.

[James Faucet]

And I'm not saying you're the best in every category, but. But, like, essentially, how do you want to be the best in every category? And then on top of that, like, you know, we hear it's better to go an inch wide and a mile deep sometimes. I know you got alignment with wealthy way, which is legit. I think everything's branded.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

Yeah. Amazing. But do you feel like sometimes, oh, I'm an inch deep and a mile wide and it's, like, bouncing around?

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah. You know, I've had to learn my lessons the hard way. So let me start by saying, where does the attitude of wanting to be the best come from? I mean, it. It literally was what I've always been growing up. It's like, dude, I'm playing baseball, I'm playing sports. Like, I want to be the best on my team.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

I want to win the championship, you know, like, so being the best was just, you're either the best or you're nothing. It's like Ricky Bobby, you know? Like, that's just literally how I've always thought. There's winner, there's the winner, and there's the loser.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

There's nothing else. So, you know, like, it's a. It's a cold world out there, man.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

So anyways, my goal was always like, I want to be the best player on my team. I want to be the best player in the city. I Want to be the best player in the state. I want to be the best player in the conference, you know, and so that was always my goal.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

And no, I didn't. I didn't always hit it. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn't. Sometimes there's guys that are just so freaking good. You're just like, dang, I cannot believe a human can do that.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[James Faucet]

But if you're playing three different sports in high school, it's a lot harder to do that with baseball.

[Ryan Pineda]

100.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

Well, I wasn't. I only stuck to baseball in high school, but. Yeah. But just watching people, it's crazy, right? But I always. Whenever I wanted to do something, I solely devoted myself to that thing for a period of time until I felt like I had achieved my goal.

[James Faucet]

Got you.

[Ryan Pineda]

So for baseball, the first 28 years of my life, that's all I did think about that 28 years. Making no money to do it. People quit after a month of trying to be good at something. It's pathetic. You know, I get into house flipping, and it starts off as a side hustle, just a way to make money. I start getting good at it. I'm like, dude, I want to be the best flipper in Vegas.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I felt like I accomplished that, you know, in my mind, my version of the best in terms of, like, I don't even know how I would define the best, because it's subjective. But I think in my mind, the best was I walk, basically. I think the easiest way to sum it up for how I think about the best is dollars made per hour. Because there were people flipping more houses, but they had partners, they had this, they had that. They're working crazy hours. I'm like, I wouldn't trade with you, you know? So, like, dollars per hour would probably have been my measure at that point in time.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Then when I got on social media, I was like, I want to be the most known house slipper on social media. That's my goal. And so I set out to create all my content around that goal.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And then after a couple years, I felt like I had accomplished that goal.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Like I said, there's other people on social media. It's. It's debatable.

[James Faucet]

Was it hard not to get, like, shiny object syndrome during that time? Like, obviously, that's your goal, and you're focused on that, and you're like, oh, I'm not quite there yet, but there's this other business or this other opportunity that's kind of come up. Was it hard to just stay like, no, I'm going to stay at this until I become the best.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah, it's always hard. 1,000%, it's always hard. But I always stayed focused on that goal. And until that goal was reached, I didn't want to do anything else.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

And once I felt like I reached that go, I said, okay, let me expand out and talk more entrepreneurial stuff. Let me do a podcast. Let me do, you know, other stuff.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

Then what was my next goal? I wanted to, you know, basically build my education company. And I think we're one of the best. I think that we have the best events, hands down. So I do think that we can claim that for sure because nobody's been able to throw a thousand plus person event every quarter for the last, you know, two years. That's awesome. So I think we could claim that title. And I put a lot of effort into making the event experience great.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

You know, so we did that. And then, you know, other things along the way, like if I wanted to learn to play golf, it was just like, all right, well, do you want to play golf or do you want to, like, actually be legit?

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I was like, you know, if I'm going to do this, I might as well just be really good. And so for me, my goal with golf was always I want to be, I say pro. Technically I'm a pro because I've been paid to play golf. But nonetheless, like, it's funny because, like, I just, I mess around with golf, but like, I got a Titleist sponsorship. You know, I've made hundreds of thousands playing golf. People pay me, though, for consulting and other stuff on the course. But my, my actual goal with, with golf is that I want to compete in tournaments and like these celebrity tournaments and I want to win.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Like, I want to beat Steph Curry. I want to beat Tony Romo and those guys. And that means I have to do two things. I have to get more famous and I have to get better at golf. So it's like a double edged goal, but it's totally within reach.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

So, you know, that's like a fun goal. That goal literally has no purpose other.

[James Faucet]

Than just how do you get more famous?

[Ryan Pineda]

Just freaking get better at content. That's it. I just got to get better content also, too. Part of that, I'm starting a golf channel. Talk about shiny object syndrome. But like, just because, like, I golf all the time with cool people.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I just have to film it.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

So anyways, that's a side note. But, yeah, this last year, my whole focus has been digital marketing.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And that led to Lead Kitchen. Like, Lead Kitchen wasn't even on my radar as, like, a business I wanted to start. It was a. It was an opportunity because I had chosen to try and become great at digital marketing. And it was a byproduct of people saying, can you do this for me? Can you do it for me? And I'm like, well, I guess, like, we'd run my ads. I'm like, I'm not making ads for you. That's a headache.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

They're like, no, dude, like, just run your ads. It's going to be better than mine.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

I was like, okay, what's it worth to you?

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And then you start getting feedback. And I was like, you know what? Just give me 20% of the deals it brings. And they're like, deal? I was like, wow, like, nobody's saying no to this.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

No, I love that. Do you find that it's hard to manage all of those things now that they're up and running, or what's the kind of the secret to that? You appoint, like, hey, I have this manager, and they're over all of this.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

Their department or how involved do you get?

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah. Every department in my company has somebody who's. That's their sole focus. So Justin, my producer, all he's focused on is my social media, you know. You know, with wealthy investor, you know, we got Brian and Javi. That's all they focus on. With Home Run Offer, we got money. That's all they focus on. With Lead Kitchen, I'm actually the guy right now because it's not at the point where I'm ready. I'm not even close to handing it off. Like, I'm just involved in it every single day because I understand how big the opportunity is.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

You find that, like, okay, you've appointed that you have your guy that's over that thing, and then, like, something slips or it's like, oh, all the time to grow this thing every freaking day. Lead Kitchen. But then I'm back here trying to fix this. Then I'm back here trying to fix this one. And, like, every day, I'm saying every day. So that's normal.

[Ryan Pineda]

Every day. Like, I just told you, they can't even set the podcast up correctly, you know, so I have to fix that. And then, you know that at Home Run Offer, we looked at their stats. Their appointment rate was terrible. You know, they're supposed to be closing one out of every five appointments minimum. They were like one in eight. I'm like, this is terrible.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Let's go over your pitch.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

What are we doing here?

[James Faucet]

So how do you find time to do all that? Like, not even just find time. And maybe this goes into, like, kind of your weekly schedule and how you set that up. Do you have certain days?

[Ryan Pineda]

My schedule honestly, is, like, not what you would think.

[Interviewer 1]

Okay.

[James Faucet]

Okay.

[Ryan Pineda]

Tiffany, my assistant would tell you, like, it's basically all open.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Like, if you were to look at my calendar, it's all open.

[James Faucet]

Okay.

[Ryan Pineda]

And purposely, because it just gets filled every, like, it ends up getting done, like, filled for sure. But every week, you know, like, how long ago did she talk to you about this? And when were you here? I don't know, like, a week ago.

[James Faucet]

Yeah.

[Interviewer 1]

Pretty.

[James Faucet]

It's pretty quick.

[Ryan Pineda]

So Thursday.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

And then I had time for you on a Tuesday. If I was so jam packed, it would have been impossible to fit you in. I would have had too much going on. But clearly you guys are here. So I. I purposely keep my schedule super open for a couple of reasons. One, I want to be able to do. I want. First off, I like freedom. That's why I became an entrepreneur in the first place. Yeah, I freaking could never. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. This is your schedule, Ryan, for the next month. Yeah, no, I ain't doing that. So. One, I like the freedom. Two, I. I'm opportunistic, so I always want to have.

[James Faucet]

I could see that my.

[Ryan Pineda]

My schedule available to me if the right opportunity presents itself. So, you know, for example, we were talking about Cardone. He had hit me up, I don't know, a few months ago. He's like, hey, I'm going to be in town tomorrow. If I'm so busy, what am I going to do?

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I'm like, oh, dead freaking. Let's go, let's run it. So I'm opportunistic in that way because people are always coming in and out of Vegas and so I just never know who's going to text me.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

You know, I had a. I don't know if you watch these guys, fresh and fit, they're like really big podcasters and people, they just text me yesterday like, hey, we're going to be in town Thursday. You want to run a show? And I'm like, yeah, let's do it. And so, like, it's just. That's kind of my week all the time.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

Do you feel like that, that. Because obviously that stuff is probably your highest and best use of time. To be honest. Right. Marketing, reach and everything.

[Ryan Pineda]

Marketing is 1000% the best use of my time.

[James Faucet]

Do you feel like you're like, oh, this business piece over here, like, this is getting done wrong, Like I need to fix this or I need to be involved in this, but you don't get time to do it because it's not scheduled or set aside to where other things come up and you don't get to it.

[Ryan Pineda]

So what I do is I have an Apple reminder. So Look, I have 25 texts since we started talking. So like, you know, people always text me, but I have an apple reminder of everything I need to do right this moment and that's it. Like, I just literally have my most important things that only I can do. And then as things come up, I just text them right there on the spot. I'm like, fix this, fix this, fix this. So that's how I do it. And then other people's jobs are to fix those things. And then I know the things only I can do.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And so what I do is every time I have a free moment, I work on knocking out that task list.

[James Faucet]

Got it.

[Ryan Pineda]

And whatever gets done, gets done. Whatever doesn't get done, doesn't get done. And I just kind of intuitively know.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

What are the higher priority things?

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Faucet]

Cool. I like it with that. Like, I know, for example, like your weekend schedule, you. You save that for family. You try not to work at all as well as I'm assuming you're. You're home at a semi decent hour every day and same time, probably your wife's expecting you type thing.

[Interviewer 1]

Yep.

[James Faucet]

How, how difficult is it to stick to that? For one, when things get busy and crazy and then also mentally, is it tough to go from like marketer brain to like dad brain, like business brain to. You know what I'm saying?

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah. I think all those things are true all the time for everyone. It's just the. To the degree at which you let it affect you.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

And so for me, yeah, okay. Like, if I was to tell you everything going on right now in each one, let me say so with Wealthy Kingdom, our non profit, I'm busy trying to go raise a bunch of money so that we can go do way more cool things for the Kingdom with wealthy investor. We got Wealthcon coming up here in a couple of weeks. They need to sell a boatload more tickets, you know, get us where we want to go with home run offer. They're trying to close out this quarter. They got multiple deals that need to close this Week we have a luxury flip that could make a million dollars that's been like delayed hitting the market for weeks. I don't know why, but they need to figure it out. Here on the content team, I push that. I'm going to be on other people's shows. That's why we're doing this. I haven't been on other people's shows for like the last year. I've just only been focused on my show, which once again was by design. Like, I just wanted to make my show great. Now since we got lead Kitchen and other things, I want to talk about it on other people's shows. And also too, I'm going to repost all these episodes on my own channel because I think it's good for people to hear me getting interviewed as well. And then it gets guys like you and others more exposure. So, like, that's an initiative.

[James Faucet]

Did that come from. This is random. But because Grant reached out to us as well, just via Instagram and is like, hey, I'm trying to get on more shows.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

Is that, did that come from him or is just like. You're like, yeah. I want to get more exposure this way in different angles.

[Ryan Pineda]

I think all the big guys do it. So, like, for example, I had Tony Robbins reach out to, to be on my show and that was because he had a book coming out. And so, yeah, most guys do it when they have a launch or something like that. I just personally haven't launched anything in a really long time.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

You know, I've just been kind of like status quo in it. But Lee Kitchen's the first thing I've launched in quite a while.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

So, yeah, it makes sense. But yeah, I mean, like, just across those things, there's so many, just different things that we have going. I know, I'm aware of everything.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

That needs to get fixed.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I know when they need my mind to help fix them.

[Interviewer 1]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I know when their little thing like, okay, I didn't mention all the little problems. Those are the problems I know I have to like help them fix. But like, okay, freaking title. There's all these closings that are delayed and sellers trying to back out and all this bull crap. There's, you know, clients worried that their cost per lead went up in one day. And I'm like, gosh, we need to do a better job of setting expectations because like, that's just, that's every day.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

But over a 30 day period, you're going to be just fine.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And so I Knew that. Okay, we have to do a better job when we onboard clients to let them know, hey, by the way, you're going to have random days where it spikes a ton. Don't trip.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

So is that like a, is that like a mental note that you're going to make to yourself or is that.

[Ryan Pineda]

Like, nope, I already created that. Or literally what I would do is I would create a task on my app and then I know that I need to go back and create, you know, a process for that. So like to give an example with that issue with lead kitchen, what I created was a lead kitchen onboarding guide. And so I went over every problem that I've encountered up to this point to make sure that people understand. Okay, hey, here's our standard KPIs for all leads. 5% of leads you get should result in a contract. So if you get a hundred leads, you should get five deals overall. You know, 20% are going to result in a follow up. 25% are never even going to answer the phone because you get new people who are like, bro, they didn't even answer.

[James Faucet]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

It's like, well, yeah, dude, not everybody.

[James Faucet]

Yeah, that's why.

[Ryan Pineda]

But they don't know.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And so I made a note of everything they need to know there and then like sales process. Okay, speed delete, five minutes or less. Hey, do you have a seven day text automation? Oh, you don't? Well, we have a CRM. We can just already pre do it for you. Have you called 10 times within the first seven days. If you can't get a hold of them, you know, when you get out of market leads, you can send them to us and we'll close them and we'll do a split ad spend. Teaching them about ad spend and how it works. Like, I've already written down every problem and they're not even problems, they're just things that will happen.

[James Faucet]

Right?

[Interviewer 1]

Yep.

[Ryan Pineda]

You know, and then just if we can create the expectation from the get go, they're not even a problem later, Right. They're just, oh yeah, that's part of this.

[Interviewer 1]

Right, Right.

[James Faucet]

Which is cool. Which is another reason why you're probably as involved as you are right now.

[Ryan Pineda]

100. I want to know every problem right now before we scale it.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Faucet]

I think it's such a cool, such a cool business because it solves a need of. Not all real estate investors know how to market. In fact, most don't.

[Ryan Pineda]

Right. Have no idea.

[James Faucet]

And that's usually their biggest issue is what does everyone say right now? Deals, Deals, Leads. Leads. Like, that's the number one thing. If you ask most real estate investors, that's what they'll say.

[Ryan Pineda]

1,000%. And, like, you know, for me, we. We're talking about all the great things I do. Like, I've made so many mistakes along the way. Because you're like, dude, what about, like, going deep versus going wide? Yeah, 100%. I've gone wide, too. I've had other businesses that have failed, that freaking hurt my reputation, that cost me money, and did all this crap that were not aligned with the other stuff.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

Because if I have lead kitchen, that's clearly aligned with home run offer, because I need to generate leads for myself anyway.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

And it's clearly aligned with my coaching because they need leads.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

So, like, it's going to have, like, a triple effect. And so I'm already doing this regardless, so it doesn't even matter.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Versus other things that are completely not even aligned at all. Require so much mental bandwidth. I got to learn a new industry, a new thing. It's just a big old headache. And so I made those mistakes over the years because, you know, I was talented enough to get it launched and to do it.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

But it distracted me from everything else.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And, you know, at the end of the day, Neil Patel told me this. So for those who don't know, Neil Patel is. He's almost. He's not even 40 yet, but he might be a billionaire, and he's one of the best digital marketers in the world. He manages ad spend for Coca Cola for freaking Apple, and these guys manages billions in ad spend. So this guy knows what he's talking about. He used to live here in Vegas, and so him and I are buddies. And he's like, ryan, you should just focus on real estate, man. And I was like, I know, but I love doing this, this. And then he told me this over a year ago on the show. He's like, yeah, but you would make way more money if you focused on real estate. And I was like, yeah, but, you know, I like doing stuff. He's like, all right, whatever. And then he spoke at wealthcon at our last one in April, and we did a podcast again, and he literally said the same thing again. But at this point, I had now more experience to understand what he was saying and to see, you know, other things fall to the wayside. And I'm like, you're right. Like, real estate is my core competency. It always will be.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And he was like, look, you can make content about Other stuff, but, like, at the end of the day, it's not going to make you as much money if you only made real estate content?

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And he goes, you know, you won't get as many views and everything, but, like, you will make more money.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I was like, yeah. But he goes, you know what's funny is I like your content. That's not real estate better. And I was like, exactly like, you and I wouldn't know each other.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I told him that because he's not a real estate guy. But at the end of the day, it's a balance. Like, you got to do a balance between what. What are you truly optimizing for? Are you optimizing to make the most money? Which in his case, he is.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

He's like, that's literally all I care about.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Are you optimizing to reach the most people and make the most impact? Are you optimizing to have fun and do what you just like doing?

[James Faucet]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

And so I think it's a blend of all those things. But what I'm finding myself now doing is going deeper and deeper into real estate.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Because at the end of the day, I have new skills now that I didn't have in real estate when I first started.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I can help the industry in ways that really not a lot of people can.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Faucet]

That's cool. It's. It's a. Brandon. I had kind of that conversation, too. If you notice his podcast, it was kind of like, oh, yeah, he asked.

[Ryan Pineda]

Me about it last year. He. We were just. Last year, him and I were rooming together and. Was it last year? Yeah, it was last year, we rooming together in Jacksonville, and we're at Tim Tebow's event, and he was just running the idea by me. He's like, what do you think about, you know, my podcast? And he's like, I'm not getting any views. And he's like, all my. My ones outside of real estate flop. I'm thinking about going back to all real estate. And I was like, dude, I mean, like, you're freaking like, the Godfather of Real estate podcast. Like, if I was the Godfather of Real estate podcast, I'd be only making real estate podcasts personally. And I was like, you'll. You'll get way more views, too.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Faucet]

And he has, like, that's.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

It's been interesting to see that kind of transition, but it's probably tough, too, in ways where you're like, ah, I like talking about this thing. And I even Think of, like, your podcast. And this is, like, you know, I'd be curious on. Because, I mean, today. Today's episode that dropped right on, like, social media, how to grow in 2024.

[Ryan Pineda]

Right.

[James Faucet]

And you talk a lot about that and business and entrepreneurship and real estate.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

Have you found. Because, like, some of that stuff is you're going to attract an entrepreneur or a business owner that's not maybe necessarily an investor. So are you targeting those people that they eventually become more interested in real estate, or are you somehow, with that content, attracting existing real estate investors? Does that make sense?

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah, this is a deep topic.

[James Faucet]

Cause I would kind of like, I guess preface it a little more. I love that. Right. Like, for me, I like that. Like, this is. This is the Real Estate Investing School podcast. I host, like, half the episodes, but we have another host that, like, if I had my show, like, exactly what I wanted to do, it'd be more of a lifestyle thing.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[James Faucet]

We talk business, we talk social media, personal brand, all of these things. And real estate. Cause that's a big part of my lifestyle, but it doesn't limit me to one thing. Now, with that being said, I also. This is how I make money. This is what I do every day. Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

So it's a deep question for a few reasons. The best way to put this is similar to what Neil told me, that if you just made real estate content for your real estate business, you would make the most amount of money. You would reach less people, but you'd reach all the right people. That being said, you know, for me, and this what I told Brandon, I wouldn't have fun only doing a real estate podcast. I'd actually, like, kill myself.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

So, you know, and I asked Brandon, I go, could you only talk about real estate? I mean, you clearly did it for, like, 10 years. He's like, oh, yeah, I got no problem doing that. I go, then you should do it, because it's the smart choice. I go, for me, I can't do it because I interview pastors, I interview digital marketers, I interview real estate investors.

[James Faucet]

Does that help or hurt you?

[Ryan Pineda]

Well, it depends what you define. This is where your KPIs come into play of, like, what are you optimizing for? And so if I was optimizing to make the most amount of money, I would say it hurts me. But what it's done for me is a couple of things. One is it's opened the door relationally to almost everyone. Mm. So if I only talked about real estate, as you probably know, real Estate people only know real estate people.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

So I'd be stuck in that bubble and I would only know real estate things.

[Interviewer 1]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

But because I expanded out, I now know almost everyone you see on social media.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

I now know golfers, pro golfers. You know, like, I'm gonna go play with DeChambeau.

[James Faucet]

Oh, cool.

[Ryan Pineda]

You know, because I put out golf content.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Like, you know, all the good, good guys, they've reached out. Like, you know, I had Eric reach out. I was like, dang, this guy's. Eric's like, watching my stuff. What the heck's going on here? You know, like, it's just these ran. Then on the Christian side of things, I've, you know, got to meet almost all the big pastors and all these other influencers and guys. So, like, now I'm in all these spaces. It's like, I'm in the golf world, I'm in the business world, I'm in the Christian world, I'm in the real estate world, you know, and so it's just interesting because, like, I value those relationships way more.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Than what? The money. And, you know, it's like, Russell Brunson, he's not a real estate guy, but, like, the fact is, I'm gonna make so much money because of what I've learned from Russell and is because of what I did with the podcast. Like, Russell came to us and he was like, hey, I want to spend a day with you guys. Like, understanding how you guys operate. And I was like, you want to spend a day with me? All right, Tight. Like, I want to spend a day with you.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

But I'm gonna ask you way more than you ask me.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And he's like, dude, whatever, let's do it. And so, like, we did the podcast and we literally sat in my conference room for like, four hours and just mastermind. And he taught me so many things. And I'm like, that's cool. That was literally worth millions. Yeah, it's not worth millions today. It's not like a million deposited into my account.

[James Faucet]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

But, like, so I. I look at the long term relationships and benefit of it.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And I'm like, okay, long term, I think it's actually gonna help me a lot.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Short term, it's back to that equation of long term or short term.

[James Faucet]

Right. Couple rapid fire questions for you, and we'll finish this thing up. But first one is your go to kind of real estate strategy. If you were to kind of sum it up, what would you say?

[Ryan Pineda]

I'm a believer in that you gotta learn how to flip houses. I mean, obviously it's how I started, but I just, I have a hard time anyone telling me anything is better to learn. Because when you think about flipping a house, number one, you got to get good at finding deals. So, I mean, that's the core principle of any real estate strategy. Get good at finding deals. It just so happens people who buy rentals and everything don't necessarily find good deals. Like, they're not good at getting them super undervalued or under market. They're just simply usually looking at cash flow. Oh, does it make cash flow? Okay, cool. Then, like, this is a good deal. I think a good deal is anything that's like way under what it's worth.

[Interviewer 1]

Okay.

[Ryan Pineda]

Second thing is construction. I mean, you got to learn construction when you're flipping houses. I mean, you want to do rentals, you want to do anything, you got to know construction. The third is money. You got to raise money. So if I'm buying the flip, I got to raise money. If you want to buy rentals, you got to raise money. You want to buy apartments, you got to start a fund, you got to raise money. And so flipping teaches you all the competencies of becoming a great real estate investor. And then you could do whatever you want. Like, if you want to keep the deal, keep it, Just don't sell it. Yeah, Refi. Yeah, you know, you want to wholesale it. Just now you don't even got to worry about the construction or the money. Just go find the buyer and sell it. So, like, it still gives you the ability to do everything else.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

[James Faucet]

So along with that, like, when is that transition from like, to passive income, essentially, like, let's say, because essentially it's an active income producing job. If you're just flipping houses. Flipping houses, eventually going to spend that money, it's going to disappear unless you flip another house. Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

Well, so I'm kind of a believer because I've had a lot of rentals. You know, we manage 600 plus between our fund and my own personal rentals and everything. I've never looked at any of it as passive. I think passive income's like a myth to a degree, because it's just. How passive is it?

[Interviewer 2]

Right, right.

[Ryan Pineda]

Like, there's always some level of work.

[James Faucet]

100%, but a lot less work than flipping a house.

[Ryan Pineda]

It depends. I only spend an hour a week in my flipping business. So would you rather have a couple of rentals that make you, you know, a couple hundred bucks or even if you were Making a couple thousand bucks that. Yeah, you spend an hour a month doing it, or an hour, like, whatever.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

Or would you build a business that maybe other people are doing it and maybe they're doing a few deals a month and you're making 30k, 40k a month? Like, it's far. This is what I've learned being an entrepreneur as a whole. It's far easier to build passive income through building a business than it is through building a portfolio. I think that a portfolio, I mean, clearly I have one. What I have used a portfolio for is not to live off of, but to just store wealth.

[Interviewer 1]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

And thankfully, you know, during the last couple of years, I lost a lot of money on flips that went bad. So, I mean, that's the other side of flipping. Yeah, you could lose a bunch of money.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

But you could also lose money, know, and rentals and whatever else too. But I. Because I built up this portfolio, I was able to sell off rentals and those piggy banks had doubled or tripled in value. And so that offset a lot of my flipping losses. And so, like, these little piggy banks that I was building.

[James Faucet]

Gotcha.

[Ryan Pineda]

Helped me out a ton.

[James Faucet]

Gotcha.

[Ryan Pineda]

But like today, you know, it's like, we'll do 200 grand this month and the flip or the wholesale slash flipping business. And it's like, okay, I spent a couple hours this month on the business and yeah, we spent 40 grand on marketing. And, you know, yeah, there's salaries and there's commissions, but I'm gonna net a good chunk of change.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

There's no way I can net 100 grand in rentals.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Like, anytime soon. But that flipping business, that wholesaling business, or any business for that matter.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Like, if you can build it, you can build passive businesses.

[Interviewer 1]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

It's just a lot harder. But the thing is, too, if you build a passive business as well, it's worth a lot of money.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Faucet]

No, for sure.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

I think it's interesting just getting all the different takes on real estate because that's. That's the thing. There's so many different ways.

[Ryan Pineda]

What I would say for probably for most of your listeners is that they're not going to build a passive, like, wholesale flip operation. Very few have been able to do that. It's a lot easier to build a portfolio of rentals and everything else and then do cool things like, you know, student housing or Airbnb or, you know, whatever you want to do to, like, get some income out of it. Because clearly, right now, in most areas, you're not going to cash flow traditionally. So I do think that for the normal everyday person, buying rentals is like the best business.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

But if you're a savvy, entrepreneurial type person, building a business that makes cash flow is quicker.

[James Faucet]

Yeah, 100. Yeah, definitely agree with that. And I think that that's, that's where, like, to me, real estate's a safety net.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[James Faucet]

It's like, it's building that up, but like, going all in on the best and highest use to go make active income, whether that is a flipping business, whether that is any business for that.

[Ryan Pineda]

Matter, like your consultant, your W2 person. I tell people that all the time. I'm like, dude, I'm not like, saying everyone should quit their job. And like, if that was the case, all my employees would quit and go do it.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

So, like, ton of my employees, they make good money and they buy rentals. They literally, you know, follow that process. They'll buy a flip here or there. They'll even buy from us. They'll buy our flips and go flip it themselves and have their own little side hustle, and it's great.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

You know, so everybody's path is going to be different.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

Last kind of question for you. Obviously, we've touched on faith a little bit already just because it's naturally come up, which I, which I love. Right. I love that just in general about you and what you're doing in that regard and not being shy in that department. Like, a lot of people are not talking about. It has ever been a time where you've, like, questioned your faith throughout your life and kind of what. I mean, I guess that's the first question.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah. I think once again, the, the thing of questioning faith is very much like the other stuff of, well, there's problems every day.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

It's just degree at which you let them affect you. Passive income is not really a thing. It's just how passive is it? And so faith is, you know, at that same regard.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

I mean, I think when you first give your life to Christ, you know, you're, you're taking that first step into faith, and odds are that's going to be the weak. If things are going good, that should be the weakest, you know, moment of your faith. Like you're making the decision, but clearly, like, your faith hasn't even played out yet for how it's going to impact the rest of your life, like, now that you've got Jesus. All right, cool. Like, let's see what living in faith is really like. And to me, faith is like a muscle. As, you know, you keep trusting and he keeps providing, your faith keeps increasing. And so if I was to look at my life today, I would say my faith is definitely significantly stronger today than it was 10 years ago or 20 years ago. You know, I grew up in the church, so, like, I was always surrounded by believers, and it just like, came second nature to me because my parents and my grandparents and everyone else were believers. And it's just like, yeah, like, God's real Jesus is the son of God. This is what you have to do to believe. And I'm like, okay, you know, like, you just. You do it. But then, you know, obviously there are people that grow up in church and they have different experience. They fall away. They go do their own thing. And, you know, at the end of the day, for me, I would say that where I'm at today is very different than where I was at 10 years ago. You know, I remember when I first got released by the Oakland A's, that was probably the hardest moment in my faith. You know, I was 23 years old, had spent three years with them, and I'm like, in my mind, I was like, all right, God put me on this earth to play baseball, and I'm going to make an impact for him by getting to the big leagues and being bold and, you know, giving to causes and, like, that was always part of, like, what my heart wanted to do. And then I got released by the A's, and literally I was like, what am I supposed to do?

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

Because my situation at that point in time was I just got released by the A's. My career could be over. My career that I've dreamed about my whole entire life. I'm engaged. My wife thought I was going to get to the big leagues, too, or my fiance, and that's not looking good. I failed as a realtor at this point already. I had already given up, so I literally had, like, no direction period. Yeah, I was like, am I going to get a job? Like, how am I going to provide for my. My soon to be wife? What's going to be my career path? I literally have not succeeded in anything, you know, and so that was probably the biggest, like, lowest point in my faith where I'm like, God, I thought this is what I was supposed to do. Clearly, it's not, and I have no direction. You're going to have to show me a direction, because I don't know what to do, man. Like, this is just this isn't it. And it's not. I don't want to say, like, I doubted God's existence or anything like that. I've never really been that kind of guy.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

It was more so, like. Like, are you really actually with me? Like, yeah. Every step of the way, I felt like you were there with me. And like, these things are going the way that, you know, I want my plan to go.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Interviewer 2]

Right.

[Ryan Pineda]

But then it. My plan was all through the trash. And then now, obviously, clearly, 10 years later, you could see God had a much different plan for me.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

That all the baseball stuff wasn't for baseball. It was to prepare me mentally and everything else to handle adversity, to handle people hating on you, to handle competition, to handle hard, hard things. And to prepare me for this next world where clearly, you know, he has a plan. And so I would say for anybody who's struggling with faith, it's not uncommon. I think that if you truly believe what the Bible says, you know, that, you know, in all circumstances, God works for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose. And so that just means that in all circumstances, good or bad, as long as you love God, everything is for your good. The tough times, the good times, everything's for your good. And I truly believe that now. You know, when I was losing all these money is on flips. I'm like, God's refining me some way somehow. I don't know where this leads, but I know I'm being refined.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Ryan Pineda]

And then here we are 18 months later, and you start to see the plan.

[Interviewer 1]

Yep. Yeah.

[James Faucet]

Slowly being sanctified.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah.

[James Faucet]

Yeah. It's. I mean, we talk about real estate being, like, very forgiving in the long term, you know, the short term, not so much. You don't know what's going to happen up and down, but, like, long term, you know, it's going to continue to go up. Right. And it's interesting and kind of putting it that way, I think the same thing is with God. Right? Like, in the moment, you might be at the bottom of the valley. Like, you. You can't see it in the short term, but long term, it's always there. You can always see the big picture. And I think it's always going to come full circle. Even if you're going through a tough time right now and you can't quite understand, long term, you'll be able to understand.

[Ryan Pineda]

Understand. Amen.

[James Faucet]

But I think it's a good place to end, brother. Appreciate you. So fun jamming all over the place today, but I think a lot of people got a ton of value.

[Ryan Pineda]

Yeah. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for coming out to the office, man.

[James Faucet]

Absolutely, brother.

[Ryan Pineda]

Cool.

[James Faucet]

Next time.

[Ryan Pineda]

Thank you.