Empower Your Brand: The Key to Podcasting for Real Estate Success

Stephen Schmidt (00:02.261)
Welcome back to the show where we interview the nation’s leading real estate entrepreneurs and happenstantially today real estate service providers. So I’ve got a treat for you guys today. Someone that you’ve probably not heard of in the real estate community quite yet, although you will. And somebody that is an absolute phenom, someone that we haven’t had anybody like on this show before. I got Ryan Sullivan in the studio.

Ryan makes music and podcasts. He’s actually a rapper and I think he might spit some bars for us here on the show, but we’ll find out. We’ll go right into it. His music career started gaining traction in 2019 and then he’s pivoted into helping real estate investors start their own podcasts after finding a need for that. Cause at the end of the day, you’re out doing real estate and you need somebody on the backend that knows what they’re doing to help your marketing just exponentially grow. He’s actually launched over two.

hundred podcasts for his clients has no intentions of stopping. So we’re going to get right into it. We’re going to go all over the place today. But remember, before we do it, Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs do to 5x their businesses to allow them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted in order to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. That being said, Ryan, welcome to the show today.

Ryan R. Sullivan (01:13.638)
man, thank you so much for having me. I’m so glad I randomly found this ad and it popped up three to five times and I said, that’s fate. Gotta be on this show. Let’s see what Steve’s all about. yeah, man, haven’t disappointed yet. Love the energy, excited for this.

Stephen Schmidt (01:26.925)
man, I’m glad to have you here. It’s cool, I was telling Ryan before the show something that y’all probably don’t know about me either because I don’t really talk about it is actually wrapped when I was in high school, put out four albums. And so this is like talking to a kindred spirit for me. So Ryan, tell us just a little bit about how you got started and how you got to where you’re at today with everything you’re doing.

Ryan R. Sullivan (01:47.01)
Yeah, so I mean I’m from a small town in New Jersey, ironically enough. Yes, there are small, lots of small towns there in North Jersey on the border of Pennsylvania. And I’m a country boy, man. That’s how I grew up. Horse, chickens, you know, my neighbor, I can see my neighbor’s cow from my window, all that stuff. And really enjoyed it. Love living like that. Fast forward to high school, got a job as a mechanic. At the same time, I was making music, just like you. I was making raps, recording an EP.

in 2018 and that and I kind of that was my like first foray into into music myself, but Fast forward a little bit more I go throughout figure myself out in college. What am I gonna do found this guy? This podcast called Joe Rogan. So started listen to him He had a guy on called Tim Ferriss who has a book called the four-hour work week So I bought that book and there’s another guy who he had on named Sam Harris So I bought his book called waking up

So these were kind of my like digital mentors along the way. Then it became Gary Vee. Then I went on to meet Gary Vee. Then I had Rob Dyrdek on my podcast as well and he became a mentor. throughout the years, man, whether it was music, podcast, business, I’m a creative. So that’s how I got into this to tell the real truth. But worked for a terrible marketing agency in 2019, 2020ish and just saw the writing on the wall, quit.

started my own business. So that was in 2020 when I started this.

Stephen Schmidt (03:15.381)
That’s amazing. You know, we’ve got very similar backgrounds, you know, actually what’s very interesting is when I was looking at really pursuing music or what path to go down, I chose not to go to college and I chose to get a real job because I was engaged at the time. That didn’t work out, but I was engaged. was like, man, I got to go get a real, a big boy job. And so my entire goal was to go and make enough money to then be able to do what I actually wanted to do and was passionate about.

And, you know, unfortunately life changed. I ended up did getting married and got a bunch of kids now. And, you know, I’m really happy with where I’m at, but there was almost a reinvention that I had to have of like, Oh, realizing I’m not going to be a rapper someday. It’s probably not a positive lifestyle to bring a family into. know Snoop Dogg is doing pretty decent at it, but what was it for you when you were in that process of working that allowed you to continue pursuing that dream and then realizing if I’m going to be doing this on the side, I’ve obviously got to figure out how to live.

and music takes a while to actually gain traction. So what was that like for you?

Ryan R. Sullivan (04:14.059)
Yeah, so I mean it was a combination of things, but I think the timing was pandemic 2020 because even if I wanted to go out and perform, couldn’t. Sure, I can make music. I made a lot of music in that time, but yeah, it’s not like I could make a song and then sell a song and then make money, right? So what I could do though is I already had a podcast, so I kept interviewing people. Every single person I had on gave me a new idea for what I could do, right? And I had somebody on who did freelancing.

Stephen Schmidt (04:30.596)
Right.

Stephen Schmidt (04:41.785)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan R. Sullivan (04:43.905)
So I was like, okay, maybe I’ll try freelancing, right? And so the podcast kept me going with ideas. The music I continued to create as I went when we were all locked down and we couldn’t perform. And then, yeah, at that same time, or fast forward a little bit, I get a client, still 2020, but I get a client, $5,000 contract to produce their podcast. And Gary Busey was a guest, like CEO of Wounded Warrior, know, CEO of…

The USO like all these like high level super high level people chefs, know Robert Irvine from the food channel Like these are all guests on the second podcast I ever produced so I totally I was like, my god, I’m moving in podcasting I’m moving like a hundred times faster than I was moving, you know with music, right? So I just leaned in man, you know, and that’s that’s I just leaned in and kind of let it go but now Now, you know even not now just always it all forms together

Stephen Schmidt (05:26.605)
Yeah.

Ryan R. Sullivan (05:41.453)
But now I have a little bit clearer of a picture of how that actually works.

Stephen Schmidt (05:46.221)
Sure. So I’m not sure how much business you’ve, at least personal development in an actual business sense or sales that you’ve done. But like in business, we would call that like being vertically integrated, which in the creative arts, like essentially what you did is you’ve been able to vertically integrate everything you’re doing to where you’re spending time on multiple things, but it all relates to the main overall thing.

Ryan R. Sullivan (06:08.863)
Yes, and the perfect example, I do a show on Friday and it’s at this place that used to be an Amazon fulfillment center. then they ended up, Amazon ended up selling it and they, somebody bought it and ended up subletting some of it or renting it out. They rent out this corner of it and that corner is where the show is. Like this big room, maybe 30 by 60 room. know, real estate storage guys love it. They would have been all over it, but.

they rent this out and they have the show there and I asked the owner, I’m like, so what are your goals with this space? And they’re like, well, we’re actually really looking to sublet it. We’re looking to have other businesses and creatives be a part of it, right? So that’s an instance where I came in for the music. I’m performing because of a promoter that I know from music and DJing. But at the same time, I can also make a deal with this person who owns this studio space to maybe have my…

podcast business in there, right? So yeah, it truly does all come together whether we even know it or not.

Stephen Schmidt (07:14.051)
Now, so with the clients, when you landed that first deal, you talk about you landed your first $5,000 contract to produce this show. Was that just like a one-time deal? This is going to be a two-part question, but short question more so for my context. Was that like a one-time contract of like produce the show and then it’s done or was that like a monthly retainer as well on top of that or?

Ryan R. Sullivan (07:34.049)
Yeah, so that first one was a 10 episode, I believe,

Stephen Schmidt (07:37.879)
Okay, okay. So so that’s great context. So five grand for 10 episodes, basically 500 bucks per episode, obviously all this setup, everything that goes into it. But how did that happen? Like you just had your show and someone reached out to you and said, Hey, let me do this for me. How did how did that happen?

Ryan R. Sullivan (07:55.694)
I will start that answer with I’m becoming…

more of a faith based believer as my life goes on, which happens a lot. But I’m, I’m really, right? And I’m not to say I’m not, I’m just not maybe where you are. I’m not all the way there, right? It’s a spectrum. But funny enough, I don’t know. We still don’t know how that client found me. They just found, they had my phone number, they called me and they said, hey, are you the podcast guy? And I said, yes. Right. And I leaned in and I said, yes, I wasn’t, I wasn’t, but I was to them.

Stephen Schmidt (08:06.017)
Mm, sure. Yeah, for sure.

Stephen Schmidt (08:29.731)
Yeah. Right.

Ryan R. Sullivan (08:31.201)
Context right so he still doesn’t know how he found my number now Let’s think logically. I was posting on up work, right? I don’t know if I applied for their thing on up work or not I also had my LinkedIn like who knows like maybe he searched and found me maybe we don’t really know right so the answer is I don’t know but Most likely from putting something out there, you know at least on the internet

Stephen Schmidt (08:58.351)
Mm hmm. Man, that’s really good. You know, I love what you said there too, as far as like, you know, becoming more faith based and making that real for yourself. You know, I was raised in it, walked away from it. And even coming from that background, it’s one of those things like as an adult, I’ve seen the way that the universe was created and the principles that are in the universe and how things work together and how I’ve been in situations that I look back on and just thought it was normal. And then I tell the story of people and they’re like,

How the shit did you do that? Like, I really have no clue. To where it would almost be stupid for me to not believe in something that’s greater than myself, you know? So I love how you put it like that. And you know, sometimes those things will always remain a mystery, but when did you get that client and then realized, this could actually be a thing to where you’ve now produced over 200 shows? Like, when was that realization for you?

Ryan R. Sullivan (09:53.71)
So before I got that client, I worked for a marketing agency and I was brought on to, well, I thought I was brought on to edit the podcast. let’s, we’ll reverse back to 2019. You can put a sound effect there. And we’re in 2019, I’m in college. So in university paying for college. And I apply, the guy who I had on my podcast, his name’s Tory Grant, shout out to Tory, very incredible skateboarder.

Also does social media management. I don’t know if he still does that, but he was like the 25 year old cool entrepreneur guy who I got introduced to from my friend, right? He comes to my show. I’m making six figures doing this, you know. So anyway, he is like, yeah, you can use Upwork and you can apply for jobs and that’s how you can get gigs, right? And I was like, okay. So I apply for social media management. Don’t get it. I applied to do a voiceover. I got it. 80 bucks. Took me three months, right?

Then I’m like, I have a podcast. I edit my own podcast. Let me try to edit podcasts, right? So I’m on there. I get to the end of it. I’m like, no credits left. I’m like gonna have to buy more credits. And so there’s a company who needs a podcast producer. call, I book a call on their website, right? I don’t know why they put the website name. I book a call with the founder. He was like, I like how you did this. I like how you weren’t supposed to book a call, but you said that you were a company just so you can talk to me. And he’s like, I like that. So why don’t you come in the city into New York.

and do an interview. I said okay. I’m walking to the interview, this is a two hour commute to get to this interview, and I’m like, why am I doing an interview to edit a podcast? Right? This is not an in person job. So I realized I didn’t even know what I was interviewing for. Turns out he wants me to produce the podcast, edit the podcast, book the guests, schedule the episodes, distribute, market, end to end everything with the podcast, right?

So that was my first client who then became a part-time job. That was the marketing company who failed and went bankrupt, so I left. Then I got the job with, it was called Signal Relief, which was the product they were promoting. Now it was the $5,000 contract, right? So I went from freelancing with one company to contracting with the next. And then I got a gig editing audio for a guy named Mo Ali.

Ryan R. Sullivan (12:12.939)
His name’s actually Muhammad Ali, but he goes by Mo Ali. He’s a very well-known soccer influencer. If you look up Mo Ali Soccer, you’ll see him. So I was editing his. And then I did one with a guy named Jesse Fuchsia who was called Wealth Science, which was all about real estate investing. Then I did one with a guy’s, one called Wealth Warehouse, which was called, which was about this thing called the infinite banking concept. And so it was just one at a time.

Stephen Schmidt (12:38.639)
.

Ryan R. Sullivan (12:41.953)
It was just waiting, just waiting for the next client. Once I got the $5,000 contract, I was like, this is at least a part-time job, right? My dad’s still saying, like, you’re in college, don’t worry, this is gonna be a thing that you do, and then you’ll have to get a real job. Then I get another client, you’ll have to get a real job. Then I go full-time. Well, do you have benefits? Yeah, I just bought benefits. okay, but you don’t have these benefits, you know. So that was always the recurring, I think now he gets it, but like, it’s been a long journey.

But yeah, man, there was never a time when I was like, yup, now this is what I do. I was a mechanic throughout all of this until I left my last job, my last mechanic job in 2022, I left my last part-time job as a DJ in 2023.

Stephen Schmidt (13:30.475)
Mechanic as in like literally working on cars.

Ryan R. Sullivan (13:33.815)
Working on cart was an NSX behind you or.

Stephen Schmidt (13:36.943)
It’s a coin to say, Jemera.

Ryan R. Sullivan (13:39.242)
Okay, kind of like, yeah, see my exotic car game is not that good. Yeah, so I was working on civics, tahos, you know, I was, I was doing R R man, remove and replace, you know, and I worked at a small mom and pop shop. mean, like that, that, that job is the best job I ever had in my entire life, you know, probably still will be forever. And, and, I still go back there all the time and really good friends with the family is family owned business. Yeah, man. I still miss that job. It was really fun.

Stephen Schmidt (14:08.961)
Absolutely. Yeah, a little note on this car. You’re actually the first person that’s commented on it. Literally. I’ve had it up all year and first person that’s asked what it was. My wife actually bought it for me as a Christmas gift a year and a half ago and it wouldn’t show up in time. So she had to cancel the order and finally reordered it for this last Christmas for me and we got it and I thought it was a McLaren 720 S, which is one of the cars that I really like. I just like the styling and the performance of it and

When I got it, I actually didn’t, I had never even heard of it. But apparently her and I had this obscure conversation one time where she goes, Hey, I know you like McLaren’s, but like, what’s like the real dream car? Like if you could have any car, like what would make you feel like you’ve made it? And I’m like, you know, if I, if I was really going to get something that’s like, I’ve made it, it’s gotta be in the millions and that would probably end up being a coinus egg. And so apparently she went and did research and then bought this.

metal framed coiniseg jamero. But because for me, like in my head, I’m like, if I’m gonna buy a $3 million car, I’ve got like, a few money at that point.

Ryan R. Sullivan (15:15.807)
And for anybody listening on the audio, it looks just like a Volkswagen Beetle.

Stephen Schmidt (15:20.335)
100%, it does, for sure. That I could get for 15 grand used.

Ryan R. Sullivan (15:21.869)
We’ll leave you hanging with that. I love it It’s the GT3 for me or I guess GT4 they have now the 911 So I had a guy my podcast who had one, you know, cuz I’m like how hard is it to attain this car? Right and so I’m with you man, whether it’s having somebody on the podcast who has that or putting it on the wall You know one of my friends early early first podcast guest ever Dan Volante, he has a Porsche now, but I think he has like the

Stephen Schmidt (15:31.438)
Yeah.

Stephen Schmidt (15:38.137)
Right.

Ryan R. Sullivan (15:50.188)
SUV version, so sorry Dan, not as impressive, but he had a 370Z on his wall and when I met him, he had the 370Z, like he did it, you know, so, and then who knows what’s on his wall now, but I actually love the strategy.

Stephen Schmidt (15:59.435)
Love it. Have you heard of a have you heard of Dan Martell?

Ryan R. Sullivan (16:05.643)
Have heard of Dan Martell.

Stephen Schmidt (16:07.235)
Okay, so Dan Martell, if you’re familiar, just for some context for you, hopefully our listeners will get this as well, but you mentioned a thing in there about how your dad was talking to you throughout the college process and being like, well, you don’t have the benefits, what about this, what about that? And you were finding all those solutions. I saw this really incredible clip from Dan where he was talking about his relationship with his dad. And when he got really rich, really rich.

he screenshot all his bank account info and he sent it to his dad and his dad texted back and goes, my God, who’s managing that for you? Because to his dad, he’s always gonna be the kid that ended up in jail twice before he was 20 years old, right? And so he said he reframes that to his dad saying, I love you and I’m proud of you. Would you say that the relationship with your dad now, now that you’ve had a lot of success with what you’re doing has changed or how has that evolved over time with him seeing like,

Maybe there is something to this podcasting thing that Ryan’s do.

Ryan R. Sullivan (17:06.061)
Wow, great question. Yeah, I don’t think anybody’s ever asked that. Yeah, you know, he’s been proud of me along the way, but I think now it’s more like, well, I’ll say it like this. So he’s a union organizer. his job is to not only get people into his particular union, but to also spread the word about what it’s like being in the trades and in this particular trades pipe insulation. Now it’s at the point where

He wants to connect with my connections in the skilled trades, right? And he goes, maybe you can help us, right? And I DJ their company picnics and stuff like that too. But like, yeah, now it’s like, how can Ryan help? So that’s the conversation change of like, how are you gonna even pay rent? Or like, you guys will last a year in an, the first year in the apartment, we’ll see. Like all those kind of comments are.

Stephen Schmidt (18:00.643)
you

Ryan R. Sullivan (18:05.429)
Or listen, I’m still 26. It’s not like I have a lot of time here to keep going, hopefully. But that conversation has changed to like, okay, yeah, Ryan’s definitely good at least this podcast stuff.

Stephen Schmidt (18:19.437)
all that so he recognizes it.

Ryan R. Sullivan (18:21.797)
yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure, yeah, he gets it. And on the opposite side, my sister is the opposite. Like she’s summa cum laude, just graduated 3.99 GPA, broke multiple records in track and field, Penn Relays, gonna go run D1 next year. Like she’s that. Like she’s like book smart, all the accolades, I’m the rebel. You used tell me to do something, I’d do the opposite, you know? And so he has both of those children, so he’s got a little bit of balance.

Stephen Schmidt (18:49.909)
Right. Man, I swear, seriously, I’m talking to like my life doppelganger right now. My sister is the same exact way, dude. Graduated, she’s a doctor physical therapy, 4.0 GPA through college and physical therapy school. Like, that’s wild. So crazy. I know, I’m telling you what. So let’s switch gears just a little bit and talk about

Ryan R. Sullivan (19:03.797)
Yeah man, see we’re meant to be here on this podcast, that’s for sure.

Stephen Schmidt (19:13.773)
what you’re doing for people in the real estate investing space, which is most of what our audience is, people that are established real estate investors or people that are wanting to get into it. This is a marketing channel for us to build more relationships with people and ultimately also support the groups that we have with InvestorFuel. So what are you doing in that space that’s pretty unique?

Ryan R. Sullivan (19:34.84)
Sure, so we help businesses use a tailored podcast strategy to achieve what they want. So what that really means is, let’s find the combination of who you are, what you want to do, and the people you want to reach. And so for people that this works for, podcast medium, it works insanely well. So to answer the question specifically, what do we do for real estate investors?

It’s what they would like to do. That’s what we help with, So they come in, for example, Mustafa, his name’s Mustafa Lada. He would be great for the show. He’s mastermind in real estate. If you wanna look him up, I think it’s L-A-D-H-A. He’s a client of ours. He won’t mind me saying this. He’s about to launch his. And he’s really doing it for content, for personal brand, right, to grow the name.

Stephen Schmidt (20:07.023)
Hmm.

Ryan R. Sullivan (20:30.795)
And also essentially why you guys are doing this, right? Business development, generate connections, right? Now if he got on his first podcast as a guest and absolutely hated it and wished he could just go and write instead, then he would never do a podcast, right? So podcasting is not for anybody who doesn’t like podcasting, right? So for the real estate investor side, you can have, there’s many different ways that we can take it. There’s many different podcast strategies we can run. This podcast we’re on being one of them.

But in terms of what we do for them, it’s to help them do what they want to do with their content. And typically that means a combination of not having to rely on an algorithm, wanting to be kind of like a person on a microphone that people listen to. And then number three, are we also getting deals out of this too?

Stephen Schmidt (21:15.439)
All of that. 100%. So with your process, tell me a little bit about your process when you onboard a client and really is it just literally done for you and all they have to do is show up and record? Or is it more of a done with you process? How does that work for you guys?

Ryan R. Sullivan (21:36.686)
Yeah, so the consulting is done with you. The production is done for you. So that’s just a real simple explanation. There’s a mix of both, obviously, that do occur, but I’ll just make it nice and simple as we’re here now. We start without, we don’t start with the podcast. When I work with a client, if they already have a podcast, I’m probably not gonna mention it for the first month. If they don’t have a podcast yet, I’m not going to send them to my podcast strategist to work with.

until they work with me for a month, right? Because there’s no point in building and running all of this if we don’t know why we’re doing it and who we’re doing it for. A lot of people start with the what. The what is the podcast. The what is what we do, right? So that’s okay. That’s a great way to start, but that’s not a good way to grow, right?

Stephen Schmidt (22:08.467)
Hmm.

Stephen Schmidt (22:33.924)
Mm.

Ryan R. Sullivan (22:34.633)
Ask Simon Sinek how to launch a podcast. You know what he’s about to tell you. So that’s what we start with, right? We start with why a podcast? Are you even good for this? Most people might not vibe with podcasting. Cool. It’s changed my life. Wouldn’t be able live without it, right? It’s changed your life. You wouldn’t be able to live without it now. But that’s not the same for everybody. So let’s start there. Cool. You figure it out. This is for me. I’ve done a few episodes. I’ve been a guest. I get it. I do want to do this. Awesome.

buyer journey, what is the journey that a prospect takes to take them from, don’t know who the hell you are, to here’s my money or here’s my capital. Or I, it’s not a matter of if I’m gonna be a part of your real estate syndication, it’s just how much is the most amount that I can contribute, right? So that journey in between there, right, is what we focus on and that’s what we build the podcast off of.

Stephen Schmidt (23:35.871)
Mmm. Love that start with why shout out to Simon Sitton Love that man. I’ve got this thing I do on the podcast sometimes and you get one of those soundboards so I can have those Sound effects and stuff, but I do this thing with certain people that I vibe with really well, which is a speed round of questions It’s a it’s a fun little game you want to Well, let’s do it so I got six questions teed up that I wrote while you were talking here and

Ryan R. Sullivan (23:58.081)
I’m happy to,

Stephen Schmidt (24:05.303)
The last one’s a thinker. So the first five are supposed to be just like as fast as possible. Just clip it off. And then the sixth one is a little bit more of a thinker. You can take as much time as you want to answer it. So when you’re ready, I’ll get it going. I need like a drum roll sound effect now.

Ryan R. Sullivan (24:19.937)
Yeah, man, you need, what is it, a road caster pro? The board that, have them send you one, man. Whoever you’re working for, tell them it’s mandatory. Tell them I said to. The podcast guy said to.

Stephen Schmidt (24:22.723)
I know.

Stephen Schmidt (24:30.027)
I’d probably just buy it myself. My problem is, I am an expert. You want to know what I’m an expert at, I’m an absolute expert at out kicking my coverage on buying stuff that takes years to learn how to use the proper way. And I find out how to use it in like 30 minutes and then never change. I have no idea. I did that with Ableton lot. Yeah. Guitar. Like the only thing that I’ve done for a long period of time that I stuck with was piano, but I was forced to.

Ryan R. Sullivan (24:49.825)
Fill you bro.

Ryan R. Sullivan (24:57.805)
No, gotta say, yeah, for me it has been guitar, but it’s been on and off, right? So, but anyway, I’m ready when you’re ready.

Stephen Schmidt (25:02.211)
Yeah. All right, let’s get it going. Okay. Obviously we know this about you so far. You’re a mountain, you’re rapper. So what’s the Mount Rushmore of rap artists you’ve drawn inspiration from?

Ryan R. Sullivan (25:15.999)
Action Bronson, Joey Badass, J. Cole.

Stephen Schmidt (25:21.219)
Love it. Dream client for you to work with.

Ryan R. Sullivan (25:24.429)
Joe Rogan.

Stephen Schmidt (25:25.865)
live video, podcast, or audio only.

Ryan R. Sullivan (25:30.281)
live video.

Stephen Schmidt (25:31.737)
favorite show you’ve ever produced.

Ryan R. Sullivan (25:35.725)
Bobcast

Stephen Schmidt (25:37.709)
If you weren’t doing music or podcasts, what else would you do?

Ryan R. Sullivan (25:43.047)
DJ.

Stephen Schmidt (25:45.613)
If you had to go back to 2019, and this is the thinker, you had to go back to when it all started. What would you do different and what would you do the same knowing what you know today?

Ryan R. Sullivan (25:55.374)
What I would do different, make more art. What I would do the same, everything that I did, but just make more art on top.

Stephen Schmidt (26:03.469)
apparently that sixth thing was a quick answer too folks. Well that’s awesome. I love it. What else do you want to get out here? What’s something we haven’t uncovered yet that you really want to share about?

Ryan R. Sullivan (26:06.893)
Nice and easy, brother. I love it so much fun

Ryan R. Sullivan (26:17.237)
wow, yeah, so I mean, there’s so many ways to go with it. I would say this, a lot of times, here’s a podcast thing, that I think applies more to it, to life too. The more successful you are, the bigger you think your audience should be, right? So you see this real estate a lot.

Stephen Schmidt (26:39.331)
Mmm.

Ryan R. Sullivan (26:44.543)
syndication, maybe real estate investor, maybe it’s self storage, maybe it’s multifamily, Who knows, right? You get an investor and they’ve done it, right? They’ve nailed it. They figured it out. They’re on paper millionaires. Thus, I should have a million followers, or I should have 100,000 followers, right? So this is something that is like especially for the people that are new in the game. Don’t worry about personal branding. Don’t worry about followers.

Don’t worry about starting a podcast. Figure out what you need to do next, right? Now that, for me, that meant personal brand. That meant going on LinkedIn. I get 50 % of my business from posting on LinkedIn, right? I get the other 50 % by doing podcasts like this, webinars, referrals, right? But that’s what I had to do. I didn’t have money, no money. So I had to go and market for free and sell for free.

Right? And coach for free and produce for free and edit for free. So that’s what I chose to do. But just I want people are going to see, listen, I know Josh Dorkin from BiggerPockets. Like I’ve talked to him on LinkedIn. Uh, don’t know him personally, but like I know the story. I know BiggerPockets. Like I understand I’ve worked with some of the biggest real estate investors that there is, you know, I’ve been around them. I’ve been to meetups. I have friends who are multifamily fiends. I’m talking, they quit their job. They’re 29 years old.

and they’re making more money than both of our parents combined in real estate, right? Just, it’s not about followers though, right? It’s about the skill set of the game. And if you focus on that, then you’ll be good. So that’s the one thing that when you see, you’re gonna see, especially in real estate, better drone footage, 6K, 8K, better videographer, right? Better, bigger LinkedIn following. We need more followers. We need more email subs. We need more YouTube views, blah, blah, blah,

It’s all good, it’s awesome. I’m with that, I’m a marketer myself, this is what I do. But that’s just one thing that in this current landscape, you don’t need followers, you need the right followers. You need the right people, and as long as you have the right people, you’ll be fine. The concept of a thousand true fans still works today. But it might be 10,000 for you, or it might be 100,000, but whatever it is for you.

Stephen Schmidt (29:05.039)
Right. Man, that is so good. I don’t think I’ve had anybody share that specifically on the show before. Really, I don’t think I’ve had even a conversation with anybody, friend or new friend, that has brought that up. But to your point, you’re 100 % right. Something even in my own life I’ve been really dialing in and focusing on is it’s like, even if you build a personal brand, if you don’t have that baseline skillset, you don’t have that baseline

credibility of doing something that you’re the absolute expert at. Building a personal brand doesn’t matter in the first place because if you jump ship six months later, then people are confused as to what you do.

Ryan R. Sullivan (29:47.052)
Yeah, and I wouldn’t have said this two years ago, right? I’m saying it now, but I’ve also worked with branding experts, right? Any branding expert, their first piece of advice is never gonna be about personal brand, right? Because in your lifetime, what’s gonna make more money, your business or you?

Stephen Schmidt (29:50.285)
Right.

Stephen Schmidt (29:53.903)
Sure.

Stephen Schmidt (30:11.114)
realistically you.

Ryan R. Sullivan (30:14.585)
Well, it depends, I guess, how you look at business, right? How I look at it.

Stephen Schmidt (30:17.335)
Right, depends on how many businesses you have. guess that’s where I was going with that. But your business, let’s say you’re removed from it, your business for sure.

Ryan R. Sullivan (30:23.127)
Whoa.

The more businesses you have, the less growth you have in any given business. What I’m saying is you are always one person. You’re always only gonna need as much as you and your immediate family needs, right? Your business is 20, 30, 40, 50, 100, thousands of people. Your business is always gonna make more money than you’re ever gonna make, right? Brand your business, right? So.

Stephen Schmidt (30:53.295)
All right.

Ryan R. Sullivan (30:54.737)
Meaning do both, The business is the asset. A podcast is an asset. A YouTube video is an asset. How do we define an asset? These are all real estate people who are listening to this. How do we define an asset? Something that appreciates over time. A social media post by default depreciates over time.

It gets less value, less views, less engagement. It’s gone tomorrow. That’s not even a joke. So when it comes to this, the reason why I say focus not on the personal brand but what you need to do, you probably need to grow your business, right? I’m not a fucking business guy. Like I’m not an expert in business. I have a couple businesses. I hire people to help me grow it. That’s not my expertise, right? But.

When I die, my family will get a life insurance and then there will be a whole entire business there, right? That is an asset, right? So when you’re an employee, you make the boss more money, that’s how you make more money, right? When you’re a business, you make the business more money. You work for the people within the business, then they work harder for you and the business makes more money and then you make more money, right? So it’s all about that evolving loop. It sounds, this isn’t what,

you would think as like the podcast guy, I’m like supposed to say this, this is the people who I work with all believe in this. That’s why they don’t come to me with a follower number. They come to me with a revenue goal. Right? And that’s who I work with.

Stephen Schmidt (32:31.631)
Hmm.

Stephen Schmidt (32:38.671)
Brad are dropping bombs today. I feel like I’m on Brad Lee’s show. Seriously, I’m telling you what, Brad’s a cool dude. I’ve met him a couple times too. He’s a good dude. Man, where can these people come connect with you, see what you’re working on, if they wanna connect for more, learn what you’re all about, even more so than today?

Ryan R. Sullivan (32:40.951)
Brad Lee, bro.

Ryan R. Sullivan (32:58.679)
So I’m actually on a 15 year journey of trying to be on the first page of Google for the name of Ryan Sullivan. I’m on page two right now. So if you go to page two, you’ll find me. If you want to find me anywhere, Ryan R. Sullivan, you can just Google that. Everything’s going to come up when you put the R in the middle there. And then if you want to, if you type in S-U-L-L-Y-B-O-P, Sully Bop, then you might see some videos of me.

Stephen Schmidt (33:09.134)
thoughts.

Stephen Schmidt (33:29.052)
There you go folks. We’ll go connect to them, show them some love from the Investor Fuel family and the Real Estate Pros family. We appreciate you being here Ryan. I’m sure these guys got as much value out of it today as I did. We’ll see y’all on the next episode. Thanks again Ryan.

Ryan R. Sullivan (33:42.594)
Thanks, Steve. Appreciate it,