The Power of Social Media | Ryan Pineda

Today I sit down with Ryan Pineda as he shares his journey from professional athlete to becoming a leading real estate investor and influential entrepreneur. Broadcasting from his office, Ryan discusses his initial ventures in couch flipping, his transition to real estate, and how he scaled his businesses to achieve multimillion-dollar revenues. He emphasizes the critical role of social media in business growth and introduces his passion project, Wealthy Way, which aims to teach entrepreneurs how to achieve financial success without compromising their quality of life. Through his experiences, Ryan provides valuable advice on mentorship, the importance of documenting entrepreneurial journeys on social media, and the potential of new technologies like NFTs and blockchain in real estate.

What’s up everybody. Welcome back to entrepreneur DNA podcast. I am with a friend of mine, someone who is absolutely the epitome of what the show is about. Mr. Ryan Pineda is here, and in fact, I’m at his office right now as you’re probably watching this. What’s up, brother?

Ryan: Good to see you, man,

Justin: Dude. Thank you for allowing us to rock this podcast in your office for the Wealthy Way.

Ryan: I know we should probably switch seats, but it’s all good.

Justin: Dude. It is totally all good. So let’s have the question that I ask all of our guests here, which would be for someone who’s either an aspiring entrepreneur or maybe just became an entrepreneur, what would be your one first piece of advice to that entrepreneur?

Ryan: I’m sure this is the generic advice. So, I’ll give you the generic advice, and then I’ll give you the non-generic so generic advice would be okay, whatever it is you’re doing, go get the mentor. Go get the coaching and whatever it is, right? You’re going in real estate. Go get a real estate coach. You’re in selling shoes. Go get somebody who sold shoes and learn from them, like trying to figure it out on your own. It’s just, it’s gonna take forever. It’s not worth it. That’s number one, the non-generic advice from me. Anyways, from what I have learned as an entrepreneur is document the journey on social media right now. You know, a lot of entrepreneurs are thinking, Well, man, I’m busy. I’m starting my business, and I haven’t done anything. I’ve improved. I’m like, I don’t care. Just start putting it out there on social media what you’re doing, because it’s going to be worth it.

Justin: Yeah, I agree you and I have a fun story about that that we were able to even talk about on your podcast about social media. But I firmly believe social media is not just the way of the future, but it has to be a must in your business. As anyone, I have a friend that is a surgeon, and he blew up his TikTok that now he is able. He’s a plastic surgeon, (Right) He’s able to charge more than anyone else in Scottsdale by a figure of 3x and he gets it. And the reason being very similar to you. He took advantage of the infancy of TikTok here in the States. He believed in it. He knew it was gonna work. Crushed it. He has four point something million people now who follow him (Wow). And he’s a plastic surgeon, not necessarily an influencer. (That’s cool), but it drives now. He can 3x what he charges, whatever the numbers is. He’s like, Dude, you look at my competition, they’re literally three times less than what I charge, and I’m booked. He’s solid. (He’s a celebrity surgeon now), which is great, right? But that’s the power of whether it’s TikTok, Instagram or YouTube or whatever (Right). Now listen, I wanted you on here badly because you have a huge history in the real estate space. You are one of the leading influencers and investors across the nation, so that is incredible. But not only that, you have so many other different businesses that I want to kind of dive into, and I really want to highlight Wealthy Way for you, because I know it is just such a passion project for you, and I want to make sure that our audience knows about it, knows what it is. So we are going to get to the wealthy way. All right, cool, before we get to the Wealthy Way, talk to us a little bit about the journey, about you know, obviously, if no one knows who Ryan is, he did start out as an athlete, and we don’t have to go through your whole story. But you definitely, from what I’m aware of, you started out in the real estate space, and from there, you have now developed multiple streams of income. What’s been your success to doing something like that, where you take one vertical and then have expanded in totally different verticals, right? How did you make those jumps?

Ryan: You know? I tell entrepreneurs this all the time, that you have to keep going through the ladder of the next big opportunity, right? Because at some point the current industry or market you’re in becomes capped. And so my journey as an entrepreneur has kind of been jumping to the next step. So when I got started, okay, not talking about my baseball career, I was a pro baseball player for many years, but that didn’t make me money, because I was just making 1200 bucks as a minor leaguer. Okay, I had to do things on the side. So the first real successful entrepreneur journey I had was flipping couches. And so, you know, I start flipping couches, and you know, it goes from 1,000 a month to 2,000 a month to 4,000, 6,000 I got, it’s up to 8,000 a month. (That’s real income). Yeah, that’s real money, (Yeah). And I was like, This is great. I’m killing it. Well after about a year of doing that, I realized, man, this is kind of it. This is how much I can make doing this. Now, granted, other people, since I’ve talked about couch flipping and kind of made it famous. They figured out how to make 20-30 grand a month, but still, like, there’s a cap it is. That is what it is. And so I started to look at other opportunities, and I fell into house flipping. And I said, Well, house flipping something that, man, if I could just flip one a month and make 20 grand, I’ll be making a quarter million dollars a year. That’s amazing. And so, you know, by year two, I got to making over 200 grand. And then I said, Dude, this house living thing could get even bigger. I could make over a million dollars. And so, you know, year three, I made 750 and then year four, made $2 million and I was like, wow, this is great. And you know, over the years, I’ve scaled it, and you know, we’ve been anywhere two to 4 million. In and this year, you know, we’re, I think we’re somewhere above 4 million. But, you know, at the end of the day, I realized house living even had a cap of, like, Man, this is kind of it. (Yeah). There are guys I see doing 10 to 20 million. And, you know, there’s the hedge funds and Zillow that are doing way, but they lose money, right? (Totally). So, you know, I’m like, this is kind of it, and I don’t really want to go expand this to other markets and everything else. So what’s the next stepping stone? Well, on my entrepreneurial journey, I start getting into social media. You know, this was about two and a half years ago, and I said, I think this is the next frontier to not only itself make money as an influencer, but to draw all the traffic to all the other businesses, right? And so, you know, I go down this journey, you know? And let me, let me also add this. Each time you go to a new step, you always have to sacrifice something from the previous step. And so when I went from couch flipping to house flipping, I had to completely give up couch flipping. Even those making eight grand a month is a great business. Right? When I went from house flipping to social media, I didn’t give it up, but there was a transition where we definitely made less money because I wasn’t the one closing deals. I wasn’t involved as much, and so I was willing to accept that transition period until I trained up my replacements so that I could pursue the social media thing, which, at the time, wasn’t making any money, right? (Right), Right. Anyways, it ends up working out the way I thought it would, you know. And it allowed me to start building these other businesses that are much more scalable, more profitable, better cash cycles and everything, you know. So, I get into the education business. And, you know, education, you know, now makes anywhere from one to 2 million a month. And, you know, I start building different verticals in education, and I still believe I haven’t even come close to hitting the education cap. I think that we could definitely get education to three to 5 million a month, right? And so, we still got a long way to go with that before I’m like, Okay, now, what? (Yep), right? But even then, even though I’m still growing those types of businesses, I have other businesses as well. I’m looking at, okay, what’s the next step above that, right? How do you get to a hundred million? How do you get to a billion? And you start to see these different verticals. And for me, it all leads back to tech. You look at all the richest people in the world as basically tech. There are some, you know, I think there’s only one guy who’s not like tech, and it’s the Louis Vuitton owner. I always butcher his name, Bernard Arnault, I think is his name. And it’s like, well, he’s basically tech, because this t shirt costs 10 bucks and he charges 3000 for it. So no doubt his margins are tech margins. (Yeah, no doubt). So, you know, I’m thinking about it. I’m like, Well, I do believe that crypto and real estate are going to merge. I think that this blockchain thing is going to be massive. And so, you know, I create my NFT types, and you know, it’s the number one NFT. (I was just going to say, congratulations making the number one. NFT). Yep, number one. NFT, in the world at launch. And you know, it’s been ultra, ultra successful, despite everything going on in the market, sure. Um, so, you know, I’m looking at that and I’m saying, Man, these are literal nine figure, billion dollar opportunities, if I execute correctly. And so, you know, that’s kind of the next stepping stone for me, is like, I’m in the tech space and doing that stuff. But here’s the thing, everything that I have is is always going up to the next stepping stone. So, you know, for an entrepreneur, listening to this, I just would say, don’t try to jump to step four. Like, hey, yeah, let’s get to eight grand, 10 grand a month. Okay, now let’s figure out how to get to 20, 30 grand a month, and then 100 grand a month, and then maybe you get to a million a month. Like, you know, most people that would be very happy to make 20 grand a month, (A 100%) 100 grand a month.

Justin: Like most people, like 99% of world would be excited to make 20 grand a month,

Ryan: But I just kind of get bored being at a cap. I’m like, What am I going to do next? And it’s not that I want to take over the world or be the biggest and baddest. I’m just like, literally, I want to see what I’m capable of.

Justin: You’re a classic entrepreneur. (Yeah) There’s always something else that you can go out and conquer, and you believe you can conquer it, so you go attempt and try. And I’m sure there’s been failures on your part. I know there’s been failures on my part. Doesn’t mean we stop or quit. I think you highlighted something that we were just briefly talking about. Like people want step four. They want to be Ryan Pineda on step four. (Yeah). Right? But they’re not willing to be Ryan Pineda on house couch flipping. My point being is they want the 10 years Ryan Pineda, where you’re making the money, Ryan opinion is making now, they’re not willing to go through the journey to get there. They don’t want to take step one. They want to go to straight step four. That’s the frustration I see in the entrepreneurship world. No, everyone wants to arrive. They just don’t want to have to take the journey to arrive.

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Ryan: But you know, here’s the thing, I will say, You definitely do have to put in the hard work and learn the hard lessons. And you know, you’re gonna go through ups and downs and failures and everything else. I’ve failed many, many times, but I will say, if somebody watches me today and they know my story, they know everything I’m saying, they should be able to do it way quicker than 10 years, you know. So maybe they can get to step four really fast. Maybe step one only takes them a couple of months, where it took me a couple of years. Then, you know, step two takes them, instead of six years, it takes them two and then, etc.

Justin: And that’s the function of learning from someone like yourself, you get to cut to the front of line, right? I mean, that’s the reality. Is you, you’ve done it. So you can say, here’s the mistakes I made. Don’t do that. Do this instead, right? So talk to me about the different ventures that you have done and why you choose the different ventures, right? As I said, you’re a leader in the real estate space. If everyone doesn’t know that, obviously you can go follow Ryan anywhere, and you’ll learn very quickly. But there are ventures that are way outside of real estate. We just talked about tykes, for example, which is NFT. There is a connectivity there, because you do believe some of this crypto and some of this stuff is going to connect to real estate, but we can go into the Wealthy Way you have the education we just talked about. And so what makes you go down these paths and choose them as a way to a make income, but also as a venture that you really believe in and want to go down?

Ryan: You know, I was actually thinking about this the other day, so I just created a website for our, like, parent company. And so, you know, our parent company is just called the Pineda Company, right? And so you could just go to pineda.co and that just shows all of our businesses. And it’s actually more so of a recruiting website for anyone looking for a career, because we’re just hiring so frequently. But as I was like, developing the mission statement for that website, I’m like, what is the central theme to all these different businesses, like you mentioned, we got a ton of them, got a CPA firm, like, we got E commerce stuff. I’ve got a women’s mastermind. You’re like, how does this guy have a woman’s mastermind? Like, he’s a dude, you know? So, like, I started to think, like, what is the central theme of everything I’m doing? And the reality is, all the businesses have basically been around helping people make more money in one way or another and live more fulfilling lives. And the Wealthy Ways about that, the masterminds are all about that. You know, at the end of the day, if I can help people make more money through these different ways, and then I can also teach them to do it in a way that is fulfilling and not just work, work, work, go, grind, grind, grind. Then that kind of resonates with me, because I that’s what I’ve done. I’ve just figured out how to make money in lots of different ways while still maintaining balance and having fun. You know, I golf this morning. I’m golfing Friday. Golfed on Monday. You know?

Justin: I hope you’re getting good, bro, you golf more than anyone. I know that’s not retired.

Ryan: I’m basically retired now. But, you know, no, I think, like, even golf, golf is a thing where I made it a business. I was posting the other day, you know, I have this thing called golf with Ryan, the stupid entrepreneur thing, where I’m like, I don’t know, people might just pay to golf with me. I don’t know. Like, let’s test it out. And in the last year, golf with Ryan has made almost. 300 grand. And I’m like, man, you know, this is a pretty like, at this point, (That pays your membership, your club, right?) Yeah, at this point I am a pro golfer. Yeah, you know, (You’re getting paid). That’s the definition of pro, but speaking wise, skill wise, I do think I could also, at some point play professionally too, like, and that’s not just like, some random thing, like, I know what it takes to be a athlete, (Yeah), so I don’t know. I just like challenges, man. But why would I get in these other verticals? I think I just enjoy, like, helping people make money. I enjoy the challenge.

Justin: Is there anything wrong with just going for a money grab as an entrepreneur, where it may not be connected in your place?

Ryan: I think for me, that was couch flipping. (Okay). Like, couch flipping was a 100% that I’m like, This is literally just about making money, (Yeah), you know. And I think even house flipping was that way. I’m like, real estate didn’t interest me in the way that I know a lot of people are very passionate about it. I was not. I’m like, I’ll flip houses. Can that make money? Cool, let me do this.

Justin: It’s self-serving in not a malicious way. But flipping houses makes Ryan Pineda, Justin Colby a lot of money doing it. There’s not necessarily the altruistic. I’m helping others by doing it. I guess you could paint a picture. We’re making neighborhoods better and cleaner. (Yeah). You could paint the picture, of course.

Ryan: Right. But what I will say is, yes, these, this was kind of the path that everyone has to start on, starting out right. Now, if you’re fortunate enough where you can build a business that, not only like is really, truly evolved, revolved around helping people and making money, great. But you know, couch flipping? Sure, every business exists because they solve a problem, they help people health. House flipping does do that. But, you know, for me, after I got through that, I started to realize, man, there are other businesses that are a lot more fulfilling and make a lot more money, just kind of like what I talked about on the ladder. Like, I would much rather teach all these people to flip houses, because it’s way more fulfilling, plus it makes way more money. So why would I not do that?

Justin: So, wouldn’t you agree that? That is a not going to say the right word, but like, there’s a transition right when you first get into entrepreneurship? I know I did because I was broke. Broker in a joke. I know you came from starting to make some money, but you become an entrepreneur and you’re like, I need to make a lot of money. Now that’s kind of the motivator. But as you start to make a lot of money, you can transition into, well, that’s not nearly as fulfilling is helping. Because I know that that’s happened to me where I got into real estate in 2007 I didn’t become an educator until 2014 because I was about like, I want to serve me, which is making the money, yeah, but then it became to your point where you’re like, Okay, that’s it’s cool, but I want something else that is more fulfilling and that that happens when it happens. And that’s why you’ve gone into education. We want to start talking about Wealthy Way. But that’s at least for me, isn’t there some level of like, I would make the argument it’s okay to come out and spend the first year, 2, 3, 4, 5 just let’s go make a lot of money. Because if you know, if your cup is full, right, that’s how you’re able to give the others. But if your cup is not full, very challenging to be able to give to others. (Yeah, a 100%) So let’s get into the Wealthy Way. I know it’s one of your newer ventures. I know it’s definitely, probably the most passionate you are about, probably all your projects, maybe, maybe not. But let’s, let’s talk about the Wealthy Way a little bit. Tell us a little bit about it right now.

Ryan: Yeah, you know, the the mission of the wealthy way is to, you know, help people not go broke trying to get rich. Because, like that. I just see it all the time, man, like in the pursuit of getting rich, as entrepreneurs, we go broke in other areas of life. We give up on our health, we get out of shape, we stop going to church. We have no faith. We you know, neglect our wives, our husbands, whoever our kids. And you know, you just kind of put all these things to the side in the pursuit of money. And it’s a very easy trap to fall into. And I’ve seen it time and time again, and so the more I saw it, and the more that people kept asking me. They were like, Ryan, how the heck do you run all these businesses and then you golf this morning, and you did it again, and you’re still, you know, I see you holding Bible study every Wednesday, and you’re doing, like, how? How’s that even possible? And I was like, Well, I’ve been asked this a million times. When I get asked a million times, I just create something that gives the answer the solution. But instead of charging for it, like a lot of my other education, I was like, You know what? This one’s like, actually super important that everyone gets, so I’m gonna just create everything for free. And so, you know, I created the Wealthy Way, which is kind of this brand, and I’m building everything around it, essentially with what I do, because I want people to know this, because nobody’s really known for this. Most entrepreneurs on social media are really a part of the grind culture. And you know, hey, in order for you to get ahead, these are the things you have to do. And I’m like, I don’t know. I’m passing a lot of people really fast, doing it my way. So I’m going to teach people a different way, the wealthy way, right? And, you know, the way it started was last year I created this course. I also spent six figures developing software for a morning planner so that people could be accountable and create goals, and the goals and everything the way you use the planners based on the course, so that you know exactly why it works and how it works. And I use the planner every day. It’s what keeps me accountable. It’s a planner I’ve actually created for years, and I’ve used myself because I didn’t like any of them, but it started out on a Google Sheet, and that was how I tracked everything. And I did that for years, and then my tech team created it into software, and now we’re building it into a mobile app and other things. But, you know, along with that, I created another course, which we’re releasing free. I rebranded my podcast to the wealthy way. And you know, I got a book coming out December 13 for the wealthy way that I’m super excited about. And you know, the whole mission is, like, literally, everything I do within the Wealthy Way is free, yeah? And I tell people this all the time, like, there’s no upsells or anything, like, I haven’t I have no problem selling you on anything. I will sell you, and I will tell you it cost a lot of money to work with me in whatever fashion. But the Wealthy Way truly is no upsell.

Justin: Yeah. Well, I think that’s the altruistic thing that I think is needed in our space. We just were talking like there’s a lack of it, because everyone is trying to get money. Essentially, that’s what most entrepreneurs is the grind go make a bunch of money. So I applaud you for coming out with something like this, I think it’s needed for all entrepreneurs. Doesn’t matter your vertical real estate or otherwise. If you could give advice to an entrepreneur who may have that dream but may not see the financial future for it, right, Wealthy Way would be a great point, right? Where it’s a passion, it may not create as much money. Would you what advice would you give to that person? Do you follow the passion? Do you try to make money first so you can give to that passion? Where do you go? Like, what’s the right starting point for someone?

Ryan: You know, I think there’s something called the hedgehog concept in a book called “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. That’s really good, and it just basically takes these three circles, and this is how you determine whether or not what you’re doing is, you know, basically going to be your maximum opportunity for you, right? So the first circle says, you know, are you passionate about this? The second circle says, Can this be an economic driver for you? Third circle says, Can you be world class at this? Okay? So if there is any activity that you do that fits all three of those circles, it’s right in the middle where they all intersect, then you’re going to be extremely happy doing it. You’re going to crush it, and you’re going to just love everything about it, right? So it’s like, for me, we were talking about education, right? Am I passionate about educating people? Yeah, that’s why I make content all day. I love it. Okay? Am I really good at it? Yeah, like to think I’m pretty dang good at it, right? There’s that. Can it make me a lot of money and drive my economic engine? Yes, it can. Boom. So education fits all three boxes. Therefore, it’s something I should definitely be focusing on doing heavily. You know, house flipping was that way. I was good at it. I like it. You know, it can definitely make a lot of money, but for most people, they’re stuck in a career that maybe only fits one of those, right? It makes them money, but they don’t like it, and they’re not even that good at it. They just, they work the job. Or maybe they’re passionate about something, maybe it’s music, and their dream was to always be an artist, and yet they don’t do it, because they just can’t make money doing it right. And so my point is, if you’re starting out, if you can find something that hits all three boxes, you’re gold, but the odds are you’re probably not, at least initially, and you’re going to find yourself over time. And so if you work a job right now that you’re pretty good at, maybe you’re not super passionate about it, but it makes you money, you can keep doing that while you pursue these different hobbies and things that you know you’re calling, you know. For years, you know? When even when I was flipping couches, I wasn’t making, I mean, I mean, I was making pretty good money, but it’s not like I loved that, you know, it was just kind of a job. I was serving. I was doing mission trips, you know, we were my wife, and I used to do Sunday school. We did that for years for kids, and it’s just like that stuff was where I got my fulfillment when couch slipping wasn’t fulfilling me. So I think that you can still get your fulfillment and other things outside of your work.

Justin: I agree emphatically, and I probably take the argument that if you follow something that you really enjoy, you can find a way to drive the economic right? To the point of social media. Social media pays now, (Yeah). So, if you’re a great artist, musician whatever it may be, maybe it may not make you money out of the gate, but you can find ways to drive the economic engine because of how society is these days, right? And you can find a way to drive money. YouTube is a great example, right? YouTube pays great content providers for great videos. So well, let’s wrap it up with just the simple question of the best piece of advice you’ve been given that has changed your entrepreneur direction?

Hmm, you know, I’ve had a lot of good advice recently. What has changed my direction is a good question. You know, Cardone told me something a couple of months back that stuck out, and it was something I kind of knew but needed to be reinforced. You know, a lot of times we need to hear something over and over again before we take it serious. And, you know, he basically just said that, like, dude, marketing is it supersedes everything, unbelievably. And I was like, okay, like, explain. And so he started to explain how his number one job is to market like crazy, get on social media, talk, promote his events, raise capital, all these things. And I started thinking about, I’m like, yeah, that that really is the biggest thing. When I look at all my businesses and their success, it’s because of the amount of marketing I’ve done through content and everything else. And you know, if I really want to impact people and reach more people and grow my businesses and get more opportunities, it can be simply summed up into, how do I become a better marketer? How do I create more content, give more value? And if I just do that. Everything else falls into place. I don’t even need to think about the rest.

Justin: Love it. Love it. Well, dude, thank you so much for gracing the podcast. This is gonna be incredible for all entrepreneurs. Doesn’t matter of the vertical, if you don’t know Ryan Pineda, make sure you are following him. And most importantly, I think you want them to go to the wealthy ways  at https://wealthyway.com/ .

Ryan: Yep. We can get all of our https://wealthyway.com/

Justin: Right on Brother appreciate you being on.

Ryan: Cool. Appreciate you, man.

Justin: Peace.