Ricky Carruth lives on the Gulf Coast of Alabama, where he started selling real estate in 2002.
By 2014, he was named the #1 RE/MAX agent in his State, selling over 100 properties each year since recovering from real estate disasters in his coastal region (two major hurricanes and the related insurance crisis, and the BP oil spill).
Having grown up with parents who taught him the value of hard physical labor and strong ethics, he never takes his success for granted and lives each day to do his personal best with the ultimate goal of helping others.
Ricky is a perfect example of someone who respects the grind!
Podcast Transcribtion:
Stefan: Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the show, Respect the Grind, with Stefan Aarnio. This is the show where we interview people who achieve mastery and freedom through discipline. We interview entrepreneurs, athletes, artists, real estate investors, anyone who’s achieved mastery and examine what it took to get there. Today on the show, we have a friend of mine, Ricky Carruth. He’s hailing from Alabama in the USA. He’s a real estate investor. He’s a realtor. He’s a real estate coach and he’s written a great book called, List to Last which is about surviving through recessions. Ricky, thank you so much for being on the show, Respect the Grind, my friend.
Ricky: Oh absolutely guys. Thanks for having me.
Stefan: Yeah, let’s … I love your positioning. I gotta say Ricky, you know, List to Last, surviving through recessions. We’re up here in Canada with our show and 2008 was a huge year for the world. You had the banks fail in the United States. You guys have 4,000 banks in the United States. Canada we have five banks. We have a different banking system and that recession was so massive, it was so huge. Obama printed money with quantitative easing. The housing market collapsed. Tell me a bit about you Ricky and I wanna hear about how you List to Last and how you survived through that recession. I wanna hear your story. How did it start?
Ricky: Well you’re gonna like this man. I got a pretty cool story. I started roofing houses with my father, right, as a teenager. Got in real estate when I’m 20 in 2002. That was right before the market really blew up with the, like you said, the banking system failed. Well, the reason it failed is because it went so far backwards the other way just giving money away, no dock loans and so forth so … interest only and all that stuff. It made prices in my area double over about a two to three year period. I mean the market really-
Stefan: Wow.
Ricky: … exploded. Anybody could make money during that time as a real estate agent. By the time I’m 23 because of that surge in the market I become a millionaire, right. So I go from this just roofing background, my dad’s a roofer, mom was a hairdresser, to overnight millionaire in real estate. Okay? So I’m sitting here thinking I’m on top of the world. Nothing can bring me down. So I start buying properties. Bought a lot of properties. Borrowed a lot of money. Kinda took in that … you know that no interest only no dock loans situations to try to flip some properties and buy some properties. I thought that was the way to go because I never had money. I didn’t know how to manage. I didn’t know what to do with it. Right?
Ricky: I was just doing what I thought was best. Which ended up being the worst thing that happened to me and the best thing that happened to me all at the same time. ‘Cause when the market crashed, okay, 2005 is when real estate started to go down. The market didn’t crash, the stock market, the banks until ’08. Right? But real estate started dwindling in ’05. That’s when the market halted and started going in a different direction and that’s when my life completely spun out of control, slowly lost everything, went bankrupt and had to get out of real estate eventually, went back to roofing houses, okay, and I worked on a oil rig for a year, 2007, the whole year from January to.
Stefan: Where was the oil rig? Where’s the oil rig? So you have to go out of the country or are you on the ocean doing oil? Where was that?
Ricky: It was in Mississippi, dude. It was literally like six hours away. I would drive there.
Stefan: Wow.
Ricky: I would live there for a week. I would drive home for a week, go back and forth every other week for 52 weeks. So it was wild, man. It was really wild, but that’s a whole ‘nother story, but it was when that market crashed on me I lost everything and I’m sitting there broke, had nothing. Slept in my car a couple nights. Slept on friends couches. Like that’s how bad it was. And I’m sitting here literally just as happy as I am right now as I was when I was a millionaire at 23, as I was when I was a teenager roofing houses because like I knew from an early age that I’m gonna grind my whole life. It really doesn’t’ matter where I’m at or what I’m doing, my day is to get up and use whatever that passion is I have at the time to push me through, right.
Ricky: Grinding and the process and just making it happen and going to the next level and having goals is what it’s all about. It doesn’t matter to me that I lost everything. To me that was an incentive to say, “Okay, I gotta figure out why did I lose everything? What decisions did I make? What led me to this place in my life and how can I not only build it back,” ’cause I know I can build it back ’cause I built it the first time, so I know I can build it the second time, but I wanted to build it back where it was never gonna leave me again. You know I want it to be real this time. Real, real. So you know, a lot of the greats, man a lot of the billionaires, a lot of the great wealthy people, they all went bankrupt at some point. They all had major setbacks. They all …
Ricky: I mean, you look at all, a lot of the success stories and stuff and everybody at some point was broke. Everybody at some point was bankrupt. You know, made huge mistakes and those mistakes are what they learned from. Those mistakes are what actually made them who they are because they learned that lesson. So the people that actually … See I’m the kinda person, you teach me something one time and that’s it. Right? I got it. You know like roofing houses. My dad taught me how to lay shingle. Boom. Okay I can lay shingles now. You don’t have to tell me over and over and over again. Same thing when the market crashed.
Ricky: When it crashed … so this is where it went wrong man, like in the beginning of my career, in that 2002 to that 2005, even all the way to 2008 when I got back from real estate everything was about the deal. Everything was about the transaction. Everything was about the money and that’s all I cared about. I got in real estate ’cause I wanted to help people and I cared about people, but once I got in there and got a little taste of some money, then it was just all about money and that’s what brought me down. That’s what brought me down because it’s, to be super successful, and to have a career that will last through a market crash and any kind of twists and turns that the market gives you, it’s about relationships.
Stefan: Okay, so hold on Ricky. Let’s talk about that bro. Let’s talk about that. Like I’m hearing some spiritual stuff in this. There’s some spiritual undertones here because one thing you said is when you lose everything you really find yourself. You find the real value. You know a lot of rich people, they go broke, they go bust, it gets darkest before dawn. First of all I wanna hear about … tell me about what did it feel like and how dark was it when you were bankrupt in that darkest time? Tell me about that.
Ricky: Yeah, I will be completely honest with you bro. I was happy as shit.
Stefan: Wow. Okay. Now this … bro, I’m giving you a gong. Now that’s a gong right there brother ’cause this is like people at home listening to this, they’re like, “Man, how do I get money? How do i hustle? I wanna get money and cars and chicks and I wanna be Ty Lopez with a Lamborghini and all this bullshit.” But you just said the most profound thing. To tell me you’re in the darkest time, you’re bankrupt, you got nothing and you’re happy as shit. Now this is a book unto itself. I gotta hear this.
Ricky: Okay, because you know what? You know what makes me happy dude is not the money. It’s the work. It’s the fact that I’m putting the work in today.
Stefan: Two gongs! Two gongs Ricky.
Ricky: When I was doing the roofing I loved it bro. Roofing was my thing. Everything that I do, everything that I get into, I wanna be the best. I wanna be the best in the world. Not just in my area. Not just in my state. I wanna be the best in the world. So I’m giving it everything I got dude, I’m fully committed. I’m not holding anything back. I’m focused on my work. I’ll work 25 hours a day. I’ll do whatever I gotta do to make it happen. So-
Stefan: Now Ricky, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Sorry to interrupt man. A famous quote, I was watching President Donald Trump on TV once and he said, “My father, Fred Trump, was a great mentor to me.” That’s what he said. “Fred Trump was a great mentor to me and what I learned from my father was work makes you happy.” Why do you think roofing or working … Why does work make ya happy?
Ricky: I think I’m wired in a fashion that endorphins release in my brain whenever I put forth that effort. It just makes me happy to know that I’m pushing through this … the pain that you go through when you’re on a hot roof and you’re pushing through eight hours in the hot sun and your muscles hurt because you’ve been doing it for it for 11 days straight. To go through that it just makes me feel good physically, mentally, spiritually, everything. It just puts me on another level whenever I’m pushing through something. It’s like now I’ve been doing real estate awhile. I really have got to where the way that I do real estate I’ve mastered my style and I start speaking. Okay. I got that.
Ricky: Now there’s no real fulfillment from there is now continuing to help people buy and sell. That’s a high in itself, but now where’s the challenge because I’ve already made all my milestones. A million a year. A hundred deals a year. I’ve already hit all those, so now what? Well, I’m gonna be the number one coach in the world ’cause I’m coaching real estate agents for free, but I’m pushing through pain because public speaking, I mean nobody likes to do that. It’s just like cold call when you’re a real estate agent. You first get in there. Pushing through those fears. Pushing through that pain man is like, that’s what makes me happy is knowing that there’s a challenge in front of me that nobody thinks that I can accomplish and I just blow right through it and past everybody.
Stefan: I love what you’re laying down Ricky. The church of the grind is in session right now. I’m worshiping what you’re saying. It’s gospel, bro. Let me ask you this. You said something earlier that I really liked and I think I gave you a gong for it was in my own words, “chasing money doesn’t work.” Tell me why chasing money doesn’t work and how does somebody actually attract money versus chasing it. Tell me about that ’cause like I think some of the lessons you’re telling today to the young kids at home, people at home that wanna get out of their jobs, the people that wish they could be Ricky or wish they could be Stefan. These are some of the things that people need to hear. They don’t need another ebook. They don’t need another online course. They don’t need another shiny widget or get into bitcoin or something like that. They need to hear exactly what you’re saying. So why doesn’t chasing money work?
Ricky: Dude ,this is such an interesting concept, and I wish, I wish that somebody would’ve told me this when I first started because it would’ve made my life so much easier, man. I would be so much further ahead of where I am right now, somebody would’ve told me this at 20 years old, at 18 years old, at 22 years old and if somebody listening right now that’s 18, 20, 22, 25, 30, 16, I’m telling you, listen to what I’m fixing to say. It’s gonna make you not only wealthy, right, but it’s gonna put you in a position where you have so much gratitude because you’re actually helping people, as opposed to just using people to make money, right.
Ricky: What kind of fulfillment comes from that? Right. You’ve gotta be kind of a sick individual to just use people for money. That’s all you want ’em for and nothing else when in reality you could do way better, be far more successful if you actually care about the people. This is where it’s really funny because to make money, to do deals, right, you gotta not go after the money and not go after the deals. That’s the part-
Stefan: Oh. Oh bro. Boom! Oh my god. A three gong show already. I want you to say that again for the people at home. They gotta hear it again. Church is in session kids, let’s listen.
Ricky: To get the deals. To get the money you have to not go after the deals and the money.
Stefan: Wow.
Ricky: That is the thing that really trips people up because they can’t … especially when you’re younger, you can’t visualize this. It’s like, “I need money now. I got bills I gotta pay.” Well, but the quickest way, not only the way to make more money and more deals, but the quickest way to the first deal is by not going after the deal but actually showing up to see what you can do to help somebody right?
Stefan: Okay Ricky, I got a story to you to add to this. I saw a post, I think it was on Instagram, and it’s gonna add to exactly what you’re saying. I want you to agree with it or disagree if you disagree. But if you wanna catch a category, you don’t chase the cat. If you chase the cat, the cat’s gonna run. But if you have something the cat wants, the cat’s gonna come to you. How does that apply to deals?
Ricky: I think it applies to deals in terms of your intent, like if you’re the kind of person that really cares about people, that’s what people want. That’s the cheese or that’s the whatever the category was coming after, the bait for the deals and the money is your intent that you’re there to help people and that you actually care about the people. The thing is man, is like is you actually have to be so concerned about your prospects, your clients, you know, whoever your customers are to a point that you do not care at all whatsoever if they actually do a transaction with you or not. That’s to the level that you have to actually care about them. Okay?
Stefan: Let’s give you a gong for that bro. The kids at home gotta hear that one again.
Ricky: Seriously man like-
Stefan: You’ve got diamonds here.
Ricky: You have to care about them so much on such a level that you do not 110% do care if they do a deal with you.
Stefan: Preach.
Ricky: Period. That’s how you do business man. That is a reality of a uber successful salesperson versus an average salesperson or a low producer or someone who has to get out of the business ’cause they didn’t sell anything. Why? Because they’re running around town saying, “Have you thought about buying? Have you thought about selling? Would you be interested in this? Would you be interested in that?” No. It’s “look, I don’t wanna take up too much of your time today, but is there anything in the world that I can do for you?”
Stefan: Man, Ricky, I’m in with you man. Everything you’re saying. I was giving this exact talk to my sales guys yesterday but I was swearing at them. I wasn’t doing as eloquently as you are man. You gotta care deeply about the customer. I love what Henry Ford says. I got this quote on my wall right above the computer. You can’t see it. It says, “A business absolutely devoted to service will only have one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.” Henry Ford, the richest man in the world 100 years ago. He was a billionaire when it was a big deal to be a millionaire. Most powerful man in the world. What do you think of that quote?
Ricky: I think it is right on time. And here’s the thing man, people see quotes like that and it just kinda goes in one ear and out the other, ’cause it’s just this cliché quote that people see and they don’t really think about the fact that a multi-billionaire is saying it and that it holds more merit than they can even imagine.
Stefan: Yeah, and you know what I love too man. I went and saw Russell Brunson speak on the weekend. You ever see Russell Brunson? You know who he is?
Ricky: Yeah, I know who he is.
Stefan: Yeah ClickFunnels, a hundred million dollars. And it was interesting because he was talking about offers, you know making an offer to a customer and he was saying, “Look, you can go offer let’s say like an iPhone.” So I could like you know, “Hey Ricky I wanna sell you my iPhone,” and you might be like, “Well, it’s used. I’ll pay you $800 bucks for it.” Right? But let’s say I had that same iPhone and I was like, “Hey man, I got this iPhone. I’ve got Tony Robbins’ phone number on it. I got Tony Robbins’ email. I got President Trump’s phone number. I’ve got Oprah’s phone number. I got Richard Branson’s phone number. And I’m also gonna give you warm connections to those people,” and he goes on and on with all this great stuff, and then he’s like “You know I’ve got all the books I’ve ever read on here and I’ve got all the courses. There’s $700,000 in courses on here.”
Stefan: And he takes this same iPhone and he’s like, “Look at all this massive value that’s on the phone and then he said, “Okay, let’s do an auction to the audience,” and they didn’t sell the phone for $1,000. There was a guy willing to pay a quarter million for that same phone. Because the offer had things, extra things to help the person with it. It was the intangible help and the intangible extras that gave that iPhone a quarter million dollars of value versus $800 as a used iPhone. What do you think of that concept?
Ricky: You know, I think it’s good. I think added value is great. I think Russell has an interesting situation. There’s no doubt. He’s definitely figured some things out and nothing but respect for that guy, but it just depends on … to me, more than … I’m telling you man that like this is what I wanna drill into people’s heads is more than the offer, more than whatever your offer values them, where is your intent? Is your intent to sell a phone for a quarter million dollars so that you can put that quarter million in your pocket, right? Did you put the phone numbers on there just to make it worth more to where you can make more money? Right? Or why don’t you just give the phone away for free if you really care about people that much. Right? I think that intent trumps everything.
Stefan: Okay, so let’s get into an interesting realm now. So this is super interesting ’cause we’ve got the spiritual intent and then we’ve got the practicality of the real world. Those two things hitting. So give it away for free. You know there’s lots of things you can give away for free that’s a great business model nowadays. It’s great in so many ways because people get free stuff. They get to try you out. They get to build a relationship. You get to give, give, give, give, give. We’re in the economy now where you give, give, give. Obviously you can’t give an iPhone away to everybody, I mean that’s $1,000 a guy. You’ll go broke fast. What are some things that Ricky you give away that maybe don’t cost you much that add a lot of value to people and build that relationship?
Ricky: Everything. Everything dude. I’ve sold 100 properties a year for five years straight. Last 129. This year 112. I’ve done over a million dollars GCI last year and this year, single agent, one assistant in South Alabama. Right? Five years 100 deals in a row. I’ve been the number one Re/Max agent in the state of Alabama twice and I lay out my entire game plan, every single piece of it. I lay it out on a course. I have two books. I do live trainings twice a month for 100% free. Been doing it for two years, and I send emails out to every single agent in my local market. All 2,000 of ’em. For two years. Tell ’em exactly what I do everyday, how I’m doing it, what I’m saying, phone scripts, emails, how I’m selling 100 properties a year, giving it all away for nothing.
Stefan: So okay, this is fire. This is hot. I’m giving you a gong for that. And I’m just giving you like, that’s just like a spiritual gong there man in spirit because Gordon Ramsey is the number one chef in the world. Last time I looked he was making $35 million a year. Gordon Ramsey. And it’s probably more now. Like that was several years ago, maybe like four years ago, so he’s probably making way more money. Gordon Ramsey, he’s a great chef and he’s got Hell’s Kitchen and all these restaurants. He’s on TV. He’s like you, he’s got books and stuff. Gordon Ramsey puts all his recipes out in cookbooks and he sells them, and Ricky, let me ask you this. Why does Gordon Ramsey do that, give away all his secrets for free or for like maybe $20 bucks in a book where wouldn’t he be worried that somebody would come and take his recipes and then they would dethrone Gordon Ramsey?
Ricky: They’re not Gordon Ramsey. Like, it doesn’t matter.
Stefan: Dude, that’s the … He told me the gong was gonna fall off. I’m gonging the crap out of that. Okay. Dude we’re getting deep. Now, Gordon Ramsey, who is he being versus Joe Blow buys Gordon Ramsey’s cookbook. There’s a big difference. What’s the difference man?
Ricky: People know … you can’t … it’s a footprint … it’s his fingerprint, bro. Everybody’s different son. Like nobody is the same man, so if everybody’s gonna perceive everybody differently because they are differently. Nobody’s the same person, right. So if somebody takes my exact system and goes into my market and tries to duplicate it, then it’s not going to come across to the general public the same and they’re gonna have different results, right? Period. So if you know like okay I’m giving away all my coaching stuff for free. Let’s say another coach comes along. Some wannabe coach, which actually there have been many of those that have already come along and tried to duplicate what I’m doing and fail because they’re intent’s wrong. All right? They’re trying to do it for money. They’re taking my scripts and trying to sell it in a coaching program and they have fail. They’ve come and went already. I’m not … dude, I’m not even getting started this coaching thing yet.
Ricky: I’m this close to going viral in the real estate industry and I’m barely on the cusp here and I’m already have people trying to knock me off, right. To only fail, why? Because it’s not the script. It’s not the systems. It’s me. I’m the one selling 100 properties a year. I’m the one that’s passionate about it. I’m the one with the right intent that’s actually trying to help people. Why? Why do I give it all for free? ‘Cause I have a bigger reason and this gets me up in the morning. This makes me hop up at 4:30 and start busting my ass ’till I go to sleep at 9:00 and that is because I’m on a mission to reduce the failure rate in the real estate industry. It’s gonna take the rest of my life to do it!
Stefan: Oh damn bro. I’m giving you another gong. I lost track of the gongs. We did a multi-gong. You know. We had the first multi-gong ever on Respect the Grind and the church of the grind is in session, ladies and gentlemen. You gotta hear the word. So yeah, that’s … dude, that’s incredible man. I love what you say about competitors out there. It’s like Coca-cola. There’s only one Coca-cola. Pepsi’s not even close.
Ricky: RC Cola tried to knock ’em off, right? RC Cola?
Stefan: Richard Branson. Richard Branson tried to be Virgin Cola. He got destroyed. Coca-Cola destroyed him. They wouldn’t even … they bought all the shelf space. He couldn’t even get on the shelf. And you know, I love it Ricky. Now, let’s shift gears a little bit. Your book, your book man, List to Last. You … I loved your story man. By the way you’re like a Respect the Grind story. You’re like right on the show, respecting it right through the darkness. Your book, tell us a little bit about … you said it’s about relationships and having those relationships through the recession. Let’s talk about some practical stuff now about how can somebody if they’re going through a bad economy, bad time, whatever, how can we do some practical things here?
Ricky: Dude, it is so simple man. Like it is so simple bro. I’m gonna break it down for you right quick. I don’t care if you’re brand new the day the market crashes or if you’ve been in the business for a long time, right? I don’t care if you have zero relationships. You start the market crashes or right in the middle of the crash. Everything’s been crashed for several months, right? Whatever. Doesn’t matter. The strategy is the same, okay? When the market goes down the buyers wanna buy. Right now while it’s down before it goes up and the sellers, the sellers gotta sell ’cause they’re in trouble. The market crashed. There’s so much urgency. There’s so much more urgency in the market when the market goes down than there is right now, right? And all the agents get out of the business ’cause they don’t understand this. Right. They’re scared. They’re in a scarcity mindset.
Ricky: They don’t realize business is 100% unlimited forever and closings happen every day regardless of market conditions. That’s what I learned through the market crash and so I break it down in the book. I tell my story. I tell how I realized this and I give you the exact strategy to follow to build your business up to the crash and really it’s the same strategy man. You’re calling people to see what in the world you can do to help them. You figure out why they wanna do certain things and you build off of that. See, people don’t wanna buy a house or sell a house just to do it. They’re doing it for a reason, man, like their mom died, their kids went to college, they got a new job, somebody died, somebody was born, and they’re doing this for a life. There’s some bigger reason here and when you can dig into what that reason it and focus everything on that reason, okay, that’s where you go deep with relationships. That’s where you win clients alive. That’s where every single prospect that you do this, they actually represent 10 to 20 deals to you over the life of your career through repeat business, referrals and referrals of referrals.
Ricky: Every single person that you create a life long relationship with in your market is potentially worth 10 to 20 deals to you over the life of your career, so if you’re cold calling property owners, which is what I do, you don’t sell a property, you just get some email addresses and some people that say, “Yeah, we’ll call you when we get ready.” Start sending a weekly email every single week on the same day for the week forever. What do you have? You have … you have three of ’em. You just did 30 to 60 deals off some people that said they’re not ready to do it. You know I’ve built my whole business on people that aren’t ready to do anything.
Stefan: Oh! That’s the gong of the show right there bro. I wanna … we gotta drop the highlights reel on this one Luke, we’re gonna drop the highlight’s reel. Okay. Say it again, Ricky. I want my sales guys next door to hear this. I want them to hear this. I’m gonna drag them all in here and say, “Listen to what Ricky’s gotta say at the church of the grind today.”
Ricky: Dude, I built my entire business on prospects that didn’t wanna do anything. My entire business. All my deals that I’m doing right now are from people that told me they weren’t ready five years ago.
Stefan: Wow.
Ricky: And you know how many buyers I’ve sold property to that never bought but I cared about them so much I didn’t care if they bought? They referred three people to me in five years, and then ended up buying in that fifth year and now they’re reselling that to upgrade to something else. Now I’m at 10 to 20 deals in the life of my career off of a buyer that didn’t buy anything. I’m sick of agents saying, “You’ve gotta get ’em pre-qualified. You’ve gotta get ’em to sign a buyer agency agreement.” That’s gonna turn ’em away because it shows that you’re just worried about the deal, not them as a person and what they’ve got going on. It’s not gonna help them … maybe they’re not ready to buy a house. Let’s show ’em a couple houses. The more time I waste on people, the more money I make.
Stefan: Wow bro. You know what Luke? We gotta cut this up and we gotta get it to the sales guys next door and say “you guys gotta hear the gospel,” ’cause that is 100% right. You know, I can tell you the real deal Ricky, ’cause all the stuff you’re saying is .. it really is a spiritual game. Money is so spiritual and I have it in my book on selling. It’s called The Close: 7 Level Selling. There’s a pyramid of things and the bottom is ethics and ethics is do what’s right for the customer, and if you do what’s right for him you’re gonna be in business forever. If you just do what’s right for him or her, whoever that is, you’re always gonna be in business. When you violate the ethics or you start doing stuff that’s not good for them, like you’re talking about the buyer agreement. I think that’s the stupidest thing in the world.
Stefan: I’m just a pure investor. I’ve never been an agent. I bought the agent course three times, but whenever an agent’s trying to get me to do an exclusivity thing, I’m like, “Bro, you know what? I’m buying like 50 houses a year. If you want me to be exclusive with you, you can be exclusive with me and only work for me.” And they’re like, “Well, that doesn’t work for me.” I’m like, “Yeah, one way exclusivity doesn’t’ work. Sorry dude.” And then they’re like, “Okay, fine.” And we throw the buyer agreement out ’cause it’s .
Ricky: Why would you even bring it up, dude? Why would you even bring it up, man. Man don’t get me started on the mainstream coaching, the mainstream training of the real estate industry. It’s backwards as hell.
Stefan: Yeah, well you know what? I wanna add to that dude. I think selling in general, lik the ’50s had a style of selling. The ’60s had a style. ’70s had a style. ’80s had a style. The ’90s had a style. The early 2000s had a style and the style is always changing ’cause the buyers get smarter. Right the general public, like in the ’50s you’d do some techniques and some bullshit, and people would buy ’cause they were all isolated and ignorant, and we’ve moved from like a buyer beware in the ’50s. Today it’s seller beware. You’ve got more on the line, Ricky, selling to people ’cause of your social media, your reputation. You have more on the line than they do. Can you speak a little bit about that, how your reputation’s more important than the thing you’re selling?
Ricky: No, it’s everything, right, like people are with everything, with the internet, people are going there to see what’s going on with you. I mean they’ll Google you, they’ll look you up on Facebook, Instagram, wherever. They’ll see … they wanna see what … See, and that, like it represents who you are as a person because if you post once every three days, they’re thinking, “That’s a slacker.” If you post every day. If you post-
Stefan: Bro, like, I love you man. I just wanna say I love you. I’m sorry to interrupt you, like keep going dude. This is … from Alabama, this is great stuff.
Ricky: You know if you’re posting three times a day on Instagram, twice a day. If you’re posting once a day on your business page on Facebook, and they see that consistency, that represents who you are. If they see that consistency, they’re gonna think you’re consistent and you’re dependable, and you’re hardworking and you’re professional and you’re knowledgeable. Same thing with my weekly email. This went out every single Wednesday since 2007 to all my real estate clients. Never missed a Wednesday in almost 12 years. Never missed through vacations, weird times in my life, market’s crashing, changing companies, doesn’t matter. That’s the most important thing. That’s the foundation of my business, keeps everybody in tune and that shows ’em how consistent, hardworking and dependable, all that stuff that I am, it represents you. Right?
Ricky: So you can actually, like online is an extension of who you are and if you’re posting once a week, they’re thinking, “This might not be the guy for me.” It’s like the frequency shows the hard work, and the consistency, the dependability, you know what I mean? Reputation online goes a long way these days and it’s getting worse and worse and two, you’re not gonna make everybody happy. You’re gonna have haters. You’re gonna have some one star reviews. You’re gonna have some things. Don’t let that bother you. You’re not gonna make everybody happy, right? So just do the best you can do. If somebody doesn’t realize the value that you provide or what your intent really is, ’cause not everybody will see it. Even though you have it, not everybody’s gonna realize it or see it. They’re gonna give you a bad review, that’s good. You know what? It makes you look human. When you got nothing buy five star reviews it looks fake.
Stefan: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Mm-hmm (affirmative). I heard an interesting thing. I was at a conference on the weekend and it was some high level stuff, you know, online we got comments, we got reviews. I’ve had people, dude I got haters everyday ’cause I got some big funnels going. And everyday there’s haters and all sorts of stuff, and what I did on Instagram is I started doing hater beat downs. So like a hater would say something and then I’d give ’em a rebuttal and I’d send it out to everybody and it was just like a comedy show, ’cause it was all these rebuttals and so it was like, it was a little bit of … ’cause you can fight your haters, you can get out there and just fight them or you can make it a bit of a show and you can play with a little bit. I had a guy on the weekend at an internet marketing conference who is making funnels now. So the funnel is, “Hey man this is what my haters say about me right up front.” And that’s the new way to approach people with his funnel. I thought, “Man, that’s some pretty high level stuff.” What do you think about putting the haters right out front and just being like, “Here’s the haters.”
Ricky: I love it. I love it. I think, I mean, if you don’t have haters bro you’re not doing anything. You are sitting at the house, the door’s closed, the lights are off, the TV is on. You’ve gotta bowl full of ice cream. [crosstalk 00:33:33] dude. Like if you don’t have haters bro, you are not doing nothing!
Stefan: Yeah man, well you’re just like eating cake.
Ricky: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Stefan: cake, getting in.
Ricky: You’re just chilling dude. Every day’s your birthday man. You
Stefan: Oh, every day’s your birthday man. You know what I’m gonna say.
Ricky: Every day’s your birthday man. You’re just like snuggled up on the couch under your Snuggie, eating birthday cake and just blowing candles.
Stefan: Oh bro. The love handles. The muffin top’s coming out. I’m into … I’ve gotta get this show to my brother now. I’m gonna be preaching the words of Ricky over here on the podcast. Wow.
Ricky: Have to do something man. I’ve realized through all this, ’cause I used to really judge people like that because I’m so like high energy, work all day, produce, produce, produce. Through getting to the top and then now coaching and trying to climb this big coaching mountain and really get my hands on some different types of people and stuff, I’ve really calmed down on the judging of people ’cause what I’ve realized man is that everybody’s not built the same. And if you … I mean, very few people are gonna do what I do. Like get this man, single agent, right. Single agent, one assistant, doing 100 deals a year for five years straight. On top of I wrote two books. I speak nationally. I do coaching sessions twice a month. I post coaching stuff. I film and edit four YouTube videos a week.
Stefan: Whoa.
Ricky: By myself. Okay? While I’m selling all this property.
Stefan: That’s 1,000 hours a week of work.
Ricky: It is! Everybody doesn’t have the same ambitions. Everybody doesn’t want the same stuff. Like here’s something. People that are working hard, they get in real estate or they get in some business or they start a podcast or whatever their idea is to put in all this work so that later they don’t have to put in as much work because they built this thing and now they have this thing running on automatic and they’re making all this money, they don’t have to work as hard. Horrible strategy! Grinding ’till I die. I mean, like, grinding ’till I die.
Stefan: That’s a book, Grind ’till You Die. Boom. That’s a book title there Luke, you gotta write that down. Grind ’till I Die.
Ricky: Grind ’till You Die.
Stefan: Grind ’till You Die. I like that. The Jewish faith, there’s a book called Thou Shall Prosper by Daniel Lapin, Dr. Daniel Lapin. He says, “The Jewish faith … the Jewish people are, I think it’s like 0.4% of the world’s population, but they’re 25% of the world’s richest people,” and one of the things the things of the Jewish faith is they don’t retire. Jewish people, like old Jewish doctor, the old Jewish lawyer, they just keep going bro ’cause you’re 80. Keep being a doctor. You’re 90. Keep being a lawyer. Whatever man. And that’s part of why they’re rich.
Stefan: I got a question for yeah, Ricky. Some of the people at home are gonna say, “Oh Ricky, you’re the number one Re/Max guy in Alabama and you’re the coach and you’re the book and national speaking and all this stuff. Big deal.” Like there’s always gonna be a hater out there who says, “Big deal. So what.” Are you a man that believes you’re gonna do all that and you’re gonna sacrifice other parts of your life or are you a man that believes that you’re gonna balance with other things, you know your relationships, your body, do you balance it all out or are you a sacrifice guy?
Ricky: Dude it is balanced, bro. What is work? Right? People classify work as something different. I classify it as life. Right?
Stefan: Oh. Dude I think we are 20 gong show. He’s like, “Bro it’s gonna be a 20 gong show.” I’m like, “No way man.”
Ricky: Listen to me bro, the life thing, and the work thing is BS man. It’s all the same stuff dude. When you wake up in the morning, do you breathe air?
Stefan: Right now.
Ricky: Yeah. You breathe air ever couple seconds. You eat food. You brush you teeth. You take a shower. You work. Like it’s all the same stuff dude. It is part of who I am. Getting up at 4:30 in the morning and going to the gym? Okay? That’s my time. That’s me. The phone isn’t ringing. That’s me. That’s an hour and a half. That’s cardio. That’s power lifting. That’s me. That’s meditation. That’s stretching. That’s my health. Right? And then work. Work. Work. Work. Right? And then the wife. Time with the wife. It’s all the same stuff man. Like when I … This year I’m gonna be traveling a lot speaking. It’s gonna be different, right? So but we’re gonna work that out. I mean, it is what it is, but absolutely man, like balance is everything. If you’re just “working” and you’re not going to the gym, that’s a recipe for disaster. If you’re just working and you’re not focused on your relationship at all, recipe for disaster. If you’re only focused on your relationship and not your work, receipt for disaster, so health, wealth and love.
Stefan: I love that man. You know it’s get laid, get paid, live forever. That’s what we all want.
Ricky: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Stefan: Health, wealth, relationship that turns into happiness. Ricky man, it’s been … it’s an absolute pleasure. We gotta wrap up the show here pretty soon. Now, a couple questions I ask everybody. I gotta flip my paper over. We’ve just been going organic, which makes it the best show. Here’s a couple fun ones. We’ll do ’em quick. If you can go back to the beginning, 15 year old Ricky, so you’re going time travel back to when you were 15, 16 years old. What’s a piece of advice you’d give yourself?
Ricky: To be honest? If I wanted to put my 15 year old self in a position to crush it harder, to make more money, to help more people you know before the age that I am now, I would go back and tell ’em all the stuff we talked about on the show. A relationships over transactions, closings happen every day, losing deals are the best thing that could ever happen to you because you learn something, and you get future time back but you don’t have to spend all that deal anymore. You know you get five more deals. All the negative things out there that’s bringing people down: fear, all the stuff, and the fear of the market crashing, fear of the phones, fear of not knowing, fear of questions you might get you don’t know the answer to, all that stuff is just such BS and holding so many people back and it doesn’t even matter. Like if I could go back and tell my younger self all that stuff, you know, cool, whatever. But to be really just straight up, I would rather not tell my 15 year old self anything because-
Stefan: Oh!
Ricky: … the fact is man all of the stuff I went through to get where I’m at, I actually wouldn’t trade any of that for anything in the world.
Stefan: Bro, you’re the real deal. Ricky? Luke, I don’t throw down real deals very often, do I? No bro, I’m not throwing that down very often. We got some really successful dudes on this show. You’re the real deal. Ricky, top three books that changed your life man.
Ricky: Let’s see when the market crashed, I actually read over 100 books during that time. That was the most reading that I’ve ever done and I … whenever I got back into real estate I continued reading, but less and less over time. I don’t do a whole lot of reading now because there’s so much content on YouTube and podcasts and stuff and it’s easier to take the content in that way, audiobooks and stuff like that, but there were a few man there when the market crashed and my favorite was, I guess the one that really … there were two that were really kinda neck and neck. One is Slight Edge. Jeff Olson.
Stefan: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ricky: It’s really similar to Darren Hardy’s The Compound Effect, but ten times better.The way he lays it out is really … it’s really a game changer. And the other one’s a 10X Rule … Grant. Although I’m not a big Grant fan of the new Grant, you know, since he’s got where he’s at because I mean let’s face it man, no offense to him or if he hears this or whatever, but he’s all about the deal. I mean he’s about the deal at this point in his life, and to be honest with you, with his 700,000 YouTube subscriber, that should be three million for what he’s done in the industry.
Stefan: Luke, you listening to this? This is money. Are you hearing this guy? Oh man I gotta get Luke … Dude, I gotta get this … I gotta get this talk to my sales guys. I gotta get this talk out to the young people. I gotta get this talk out to 15 year old Ricky. Luke, you gotta hear this talk bro. I’m sad that you’re not in this call. He is transactional man. I agree. He’s too transactional.
Ricky: This backs up what I’m saying because if he was relational he would have that three million but because he’s transactional he lost. He’s losing big time. He’s losing people left and right that would be fans for life that would buy all of his products for the rest of his life, rest of their life, but because he’s just trying to sell, sell, sell, he’s losing, losing, losing. He could just be so much further along, so I’m not trying to judge him, and if he hears this, whatever, I love Grant. He really helped me through a low point in my life, get my life back together with the 10X Rule and mad props. He’s a hustler and all that stuff, but on the flip side, as far as constructive criticism goes, man he could be so much further along.
Stefan: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah I got mad respect for him. I went to 10X Growth Con in Vegas last year [inaudible 00:43:02]. I got mad respect for him but he goes for the close right away. Third book Ricky and then we’re gonna wrap up the show. Bro, what’s the third book you recommend to people?
Ricky: I love Tim Ferriss’s The Four Hour Work Week.
Stefan: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ricky: That one … you ever read it?
Stefan: Love it. I think I’ve read it three times. I’m a lover and hater of it ’cause I love the ideas in it but I hate how it makes people think they can be lazy with four hours. Tim Ferriss works like 100 hours a week, not four hours.
Ricky: Right, well see here’s the thing about that is is I didn’t read that book for a long time because the title made me think it was some kinda get rich quick, you only have to work four hours a week type thing and it kinda gave the wrong upfront impression, but then I heard somebody talking about it I really respected and so I was like, you know I’m gonna give it a try and then man, it really opened up my eyes to the little things that you do on a daily basis that you don’t have to do so much, like check your email too many times a day and stuff like that, that you could really put that time to much better use that compounds to such bigger things over time and so yeah absolutely man. The 10X Rule, Slight Edge and Four Hour Work Week are probably my top three.
Stefan: Awesome man. Those are mega-books. So I got two more questions for you Ricky. Super quick. What’s the one thing that young people need to succeed these days?
Ricky: What do they need?
Stefan: Yeah, what do they need? You people. You know if you’re 18 years old, let’s say and let’s say you’re finishing high school, maybe going into university or college or whatever, what should a guy who’s like 18 do? What does he need to hear to succeed?
Ricky: I think that they need to develop their skills of making people feel comfortable with them.
Stefan: This is … dude, you’re next level man. We gotta have … I think we should have Ricky back on the show. I think we’re gonna have to get you back here bro. I love you man. I love you in a brotherly way. It’s amazing. Yeah, we gotta get him back. Okay Ricky? How can people get in touch if they wanna know more. How can they pick up a copy of your book that I’m sure is nothing but diamonds?
Ricky: Really everything that I have is at ZerotoDiamond.com.
Stefan: No, bro, are we psychic? ZerotoDiamond.com?
Ricky: ZerotoDiamond.com is my free coaching program for agents, all my books. You can find my YouTube, Instagram, you know everything. Everything and anything. You wanna email me? And here’s the thing. This might trip you out a little bit. I answer every single DM, email, text message, phone call, voicemail, Facebook message, comment, YouTube comment, every single comment message, anything. I answer every single one of them. Questions, you know concerns. Here’s something for the people listening that wanna reach out to me or something: take advantage of that opportunity while it lasts ’cause I have a feeling’ as much I’m growing it won’t last long. Squeeze me for every little drop that you can.
Stefan: Wow. What an incredible offer. You know Ricky it’s been an absolute honor and a pleasure having you on the show man, I really appreciate
you. Any final words before we wrap up?
Ricky: Just respect the grind guys.
Stefan: Respect the grind brother! Thanks so much for being on the show Ricky!
Ricky: Yeah man.
Get Connected with Ricky:
Website – http://www. ZerotoDiamond.com/
