Ex-Gang Member Reveals How He Avoided Prison and Built a $792 Million Business

➡ The text is about a man named Ryan Blair who had a tough upbringing, involving crime and poverty, but managed to turn his life around. He was involved in a gang and faced prison time, but a judge showed him mercy. Ryan then changed his life, becoming a successful businessman and author. He now runs a coaching company, helping others to improve their lives.
➡ The speaker shares his journey from being a high school dropout and criminal to becoming a successful entrepreneur. He credits his transformation to his time in solitary confinement where he read the Bible and had a vision of becoming a preacher. He wrote a letter to the judge promising to change, and was granted leniency. He then met a mentor who was a real estate entrepreneur, and learned the value of legal entrepreneurship over illegal activities.
➡ The speaker emphasizes the importance of having a written plan for success, which he applied to his own life. He started with illegal activities involving computers, but used his skills to start a legitimate computer repair business. He then expanded into network infrastructure, selling his company for 25 million at age 24. Despite a tough upbringing, he was motivated by money from a young age and learned to surround himself with the right people and hold himself accountable.
➡ The speaker shares his journey from a tough neighborhood to becoming a successful entrepreneur, thanks to a mentor who taught him about setting goals and self-improvement. He became obsessed with learning and improving his vocabulary and understanding of business. However, after achieving success, he stopped learning and fell into a destructive lifestyle. After hitting rock bottom, he experienced a spiritual awakening, committed to change, and began mentoring others, helping them overcome their struggles.
➡ The speaker shares his journey from being a successful businessman to hitting rock bottom, facing betrayal, lawsuits, and personal struggles. He credits his recovery and transformation to turning to God in his darkest times. He also shares miraculous experiences, such as his mother waking up from a coma and his son’s autism being healed, attributing these to divine intervention. The speaker emphasizes that seeking God earnestly led to these life-changing experiences and encourages others to do the same.
➡ The speaker shares his journey of faith and healing, emphasizing the importance of a deep relationship with God. He recounts how his son was healed from autism, attributing this miracle to his faith and dedication to God. He also discusses his role as a mentor to entrepreneurs, helping them build successful businesses while maintaining their spiritual values. The speaker encourages others to prioritize their relationship with God, expressing gratitude and prayer as essential daily practices.
➡ The text emphasizes the importance of prioritizing faith, family, and personal well-being over business success. It suggests that even if a business is thriving, if it’s not fulfilling or if it’s causing stress and unhappiness, it’s not truly successful. The text encourages people to use their unique gifts to serve God and others, and to remember that success isn’t just about money or societal standards. It also highlights the power of change and the importance of not letting past mistakes define you.
➡ The speaker admires the humility and success of a person named Ryan, who has overcome significant challenges in his life. Despite his success, Ryan credits his achievements to God, which the speaker finds admirable and inspiring. The speaker hopes to form a lasting relationship with Ryan and possibly collaborate on future projects to help others. The speaker also encourages listeners to subscribe and comment on his content, and ends by wishing everyone safety, health, and blessings.

So I knew that had I gone to prison at a very young age, that might be it for me. Probably would have been, yeah. The judge granted me leniency when I was looking at four years for armed robbery. And I knew, you know, the moment I got into prison, with my mindset, my attitude, affiliations, it would have been game over. People might say, you know, you’re an intelligent guy, at some point you figured it out or things just broke your way. You didn’t need God to help you. You did it yourself. I’m not that smart. I was up against real enemies.

Lawyered up billionaires that wanted to end me. I was up against vices that are unshakable, addiction that just was pulled off of my heart. I was up against stuff that it wasn’t me. And I finally got permission to take her off life support. I went in and I told her, I said, mom, I’m gonna end your life. And if you want me to end your life, it’s my honor, not something I want to do. And if you want to live, you gotta wake up. I took him through a baptism process and I watched autism. He had it, no longer has it.

Really? When you say your, your son was diagnosed as autistic, he’s no longer autistic. How did that happen? Hey everyone, welcome to another sit down with Michael Francis. Hope everybody is doing well. All is very good, very blessed on this end. And as always, my friends, I give all the praise, honor, glory and thanksgiving to our God for that. Well, you know, every once in a while you meet somebody out of the blue that has an impact on your life in a certain way. And something happened to me recently. You know, one of the things that I consider a strong point in my life has been my ability to network, to meet people, to make relationships.

You just never know, you know, when these relationships are going to be mutually beneficial in some way to both parties. And so I’ve been doing that most of my life, and it’s worked out well for me. You know, I have to say that it’s one of the things that I really advocate for people that want to be successful in life. Making friends, networking, meeting people, you never know. And about two months ago, I had another instance of that, and I’ve had many along the way. But I was speaking in Vegas at a big conference, a two day conference, and I was a keynote speaker.

At the end of the two days, I was the last one to speak. Well, a gentleman went up and spoke before me by the name of Ryan Blair. Now, I didn’t hear him because I was out in the lobby and I was talking to people, what I normally do. He went and did his thing and then he had to rush out of there. He had to leave because he had to see his son’s soccer game. So I never really got a chance to meet him. However, one of his team members in the management capacity heard me speak and was actually a follower of mine.

And he and I got to talk afterwards and he talked to me all about Ryan. A tremendous story Ryan has. And you know, we kind of hit it off from that point. Later he contacted my team and said, we really think that, you know, Ryan would be a good guest for Michael. And so that occurred and Ryan is now a guest on this show. You’re going to meet him very shortly. And what a tremendous story. I, I really mean that and I’m very anxious to talk with him. Success story, but really where he came from. And you know, I really try to, you know, among all the other things I do, we tell some mob stories.

We get involved in a few things. Saturday morning you hear me rant on a live. You say it’s about politics, I say no, I say it’s about issues that impact our lives in the halls of Washington D.C. or in the state senate or wherever. That’s politics. But for us, the decisions they make, the policies and agendas they have, they affect our lives. They’re not politics to us. It’s issues to us. And so I talk about them and I’m very passionate about them, especially when I believe that our government is not acting on our behalf, which is quite often.

But anyway, I like to be an encouragement to you also. So I want you to hear a story from Ryan that I think is fascinating. Ryan is a billionaire, wants you to know that. But he started out very, very rough situation and I’m interested in hearing it. You’re going to be interested in hearing it. Let me give you a little bit about his background so you understand what he’s all about. Let me read it. I want to get it right. But very interesting. He’s a former gang member who turned his life around after hitting rock bottom.

And he’ll explain that he built and sold his company Visalis for $792.4 million. He’s a new York Times best selling author of the title of the book is Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain. And also another book, Rock Bottom to Rock Star. Two great books. He’s the founder now of Alter Call, a leadership and spiritual coaching company helping high level entrepr scale their businesses up. He’s deeply faith driven. He’s transparent and passionate about legacy and helping others to rise up. Somebody that you want to listen to. You know what? You’re never too old and certainly never too young to learn from somebody that’s come up the hard way or any way, but has managed to, to come out of a tough situation and make a success of himself.

And let me tell you something, people, success is not always, and it shouldn’t be measured in terms of dollars and cents. It’s your lifestyle, how you’ve emerged out tough situation, how you’re living now. Not all about the money. It’s about how you’re living your life now. And we’re going to find that out from Ryan. And with no further delay, my special guest, Ryan Blair. So, Ryan, I’ve been waiting for this interview for quite some time. Sit down. We don’t call it an interview. It’s a sit down. I missed you. When we were at Ryan Panetta’s deal, you had spoken and you had to run for a good reason.

You had to see your son play soccer. So I totally respect that. I get it. But I was looking forward to this. I looked into your background and you got an incredible story. Thank you. Really incredible story. And you have certainly made it business wise. But I want to go back because you didn’t come up an easy way and I can relate to that. Obviously we come up differently, but we both had our struggles and challenges. But there’s something inside of you that caused you to be as successful as you are, to come up through all the difficulties that you had.

So I want to start from the beginning. Okay, tell us where you, where you grew up. So I started out in the middle class. My, my dad was an engineer, but he was a criminally minded individual. We, we grew marijuana growing up. We were in the drug trades. Brothers and sisters all got caught up in crime. And my dad eventually got addicted to drugs and that was the end of our middle class family. He disappeared on us when I was about 13. Was that in LA area? Yeah. And then my mom and I were forced to go from middle class suburbs to living in poverty.

And so I, I was raised in the middle class. Poverty was a big change. I was in a heavily Latin neighborhood, so I was getting jumped every day, getting confronted. There were drive by shootings in the neighborhood. Lots of, you know, I was in fear of survival in that neighborhood. So I got forced into a gang at a young age. When I was 13 years old, I got recruited by the Older guys in the neighborhood. My sister’s best friend was murdered in a drive by shooting. And so I was recruited to retaliate against the gang that killed her.

And then I got caught up in a gang for several years, went to juvenile a bunch of times, got arrested a bunch of times, and I. I was heading toward a life of a prison in California. As you know, when you go to prison as a Caucasian male, you immediately get caught up in, you know, the way the prison system’s organized here. So I knew that had I gone to prison at a very young age, that might be it for me. You know, that might be. Probably would have been, yeah. And so I had to make a choice as to whether or not I was going to change my life.

And a judge granted me leniency when I was looking at four years for armed robbery. And from there, my life changed. How old were you then? 16. So the four years would have aged me out of juvenile system into prison. And I knew, you know, the moment I got into prison with my mindset, my attitude and affiliations, it would have been game over, most likely. Yeah. No, I believe me, having experience in the system, it would have been very rough. Yeah, very rough. All right, quick interruption. If you really want to get some insight into me, and I mean insight.

Zoom calls Q&As, behind the scenes information stories I’ve never told before. You want to become part of the elite, then join the family. We have over a thousand members already. Michaelfrancis.com family. It’s an offer that you shouldn’t refuse. Now let’s get back to the show. So now you get a break. What happens from there? Well, so I was in solitary confinement because I know you have some experience there too, but I didn’t do nearly the amount of time that you did. But I had about 30 days in there, and the only thing I had in that room was a Bible.

And I was reading the Bible out loud. I couldn’t read very well. I was a high school dropout, but I was just reading it out loud because I was bored. You know, between doing push ups, I’d read the Bible basically, and I had a vision that I’d be a preacher. I’d be doing something one day, preaching. And I thought, this is crazy. Like, there’s no way a criminal like me is ever going to become a pastor or a preacher by any means. And I was inspired in that moment to write the judge a letter. And I committed to him that he wouldn’t see me again if he granted me Leniency.

And that day in court, the judge was just sending people away. And I remember seeing him, you know, give this guy the book. Max sentence this person, Max sentence that person. And when I showed up for my sentencing was like an angel took him over, and he said, you should be writing in college, not in prison. In that moment, I thought to myself, maybe I’m supposed to be a writer. And I started writing, you know, write my way out of juvenile hall and write my way into business and write my way into the rest of my life from that point forward.

Let me ask you this, because obviously I can relate to getting a Bible in solitary confinement, because that’s when it happened to me. If you can remember, what was it that really caught your attention? Old Testament, New Testament? What was it that really had an impact on you? It was saying the words out loud. It was reading the Bible out loud. And I don’t recall exactly what verses it was. I was reading from both, but it was saying the Bible out loud. That. And I still do it to this day. You know, I. I read out loud.

And that process, I guess, helped me hear the words and connect to them in a way that I. I wasn’t able to do. I’m not much. I wasn’t much of a reader at that time. Well, you know, the reason I asked that is because when I started reading the Bible, the first book that I read in there was a book of Proverbs. Yeah. And I was reading it, and I was inspired by the brilliance of Solomon. Wow, this guy is smart. As a matter of fact, he said things to me, Ryan, that my father had said to me, you know, be careful how you speak.

You know, speak only when spoken to. Be a good listener. Don’t condemn people right away. So I’m saying, man, my dad taught me a lot of these things. And then I came to a verse that really. I believe the Holy Spirit spoke to me. Proverbs 16:7 says, When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, even his enemies are at peace with him. And at that moment, I didn’t understand it, but I felt that I was confronted with myself. You know, I had walked away from the life, but I didn’t do it for me. I didn’t do.

I did it because I wanted. I wanted this girl in my life. I didn’t do it for God for sure. And it caused me to face my demons. So the reason I asked that, it’s very. You know, I think there’s a point in time. We’re reading the Bible that the Holy Spirit does really. We may not realize it, but. But it is the Holy Spirit that’s speaking to us. And, you know, a lot of people say, come on, you know, Michael, this is your imagination. It’s really not. No, I. It was a spiritual moment. I can.

I didn’t put the pieces of it together right. I had that moment. I got leniency. A mentor came into my life shortly after. I, you know, I was. I was a young, young street kid, so I didn’t put it all together at the time, but now looking back, I can see God’s hand every step of the way. Yeah, yeah. And what happened is he had a different plan and a purpose for you in your life. And it really started at that moment myself, too, even though I didn’t realize it, and neither do you, probably till later on, but that’s how it works at times.

Yeah. Okay, so now you get. You get a break. Yeah, I got a break. And then a mentor showed up into my life, and he started dating my mother. And he was a real estate entrepreneur. And at first I was going to rob him. You know, truthfully, that was my mindset. I was like, this guy’s, you know, an easy mark, but he loved my mom. And prayer. I thought. I prayed. I said, God, if this is my way out of the neighborhood I live in, if this is my mother’s Cinderella story, I won’t abuse this guy.

I won’t, you know, I won’t ruin this situation. And he trusted me, and he used to have me. I was an enforcer in the gang, so he would have me do enforcement for the properties that he owned. I would kick people out if they didn’t pay their rent. I’d help. Help further them out of the house quicker than a traditional eviction process. You do that gangway or, you know, I would. I would show up there and I would let them know that, you know, I was not going to tolerate them stealing from my mentor. And, you know, sometimes a good day when we control the streets, we were pretty definite and, hey, get out of here.

Yeah, it’s okay. There’s a couple people that I got out of the house much quicker than the traditional process would. Got it. Okay. So I started doing that for him. And I watched him buying and selling houses. I watched him doing the same stuff we did on the street. We didn’t have to worry about getting shot. You didn’t have to worry about a drive by or, you know, someone ratting him out or, you know, you know, some rival organization coming after him like, so he was a legal entrepreneur. And I thought to myself, this is much easier than illegal entrepreneurship.

Illegal entrepreneurship is hard. You know, there’s some high profitability and some high margins in the game. But you’re, you know, you’re dealing with a lot of stress and a lot of survival related issues as you know better than anybody. So I just thought to myself, I’m going to. Most people are coming after you for it, so you got to watch it. Yeah, yeah, you’re, you’re worried about undercovers. You’re worried about, you know, people that are betraying you non stop, whether they’re working with law enforcement or they’re just trying to betray you because they want what you got.

And so, you know, being an illegal entrepreneur was much more difficult than being an illegal entrepreneur. My friends, you may not have heard, but now there is a Franz east wine wine branded in my name. It comes from the world’s first vineyards over in Armenia. Terrific wine and it’s selling out fast, I got to tell you. So if you want to enjoy it, go to franz easewine.com enjoy it, tell all your friends about it. I guarantee you’re going to love this wine again. I’m very proud to put my name on this. It’s part of my legacy.

I, Franz easwine.com don’t miss out. You know, I remember I was in juvenile hall and I saw these guys are writing up a business plan for importing and exporting and they had, you know, their distribution network and they had everything mapped out. And I thought to myself, you know, when I get out of here, I’m writing up a business plan and I wrote up a legal business plan basically and I started work on that. Let me ask you this because I’ve said this many times and I’m so glad you hit upon this. When I was back in that life, people used to come to me and propose deals to me all the time.

And the first thing I would ask them is, what is your plan? And they’d say, well, I’m going to open up this restaurant. I said, okay, what are you going to do? What’s the plan? Well, I’m going to serve good food. Well, I would hope so, right? Well, what else? I’m going to have good employees. I said, but what is your plan? What is your long term plan? What is your vision? How are you going to construct? What’s your location? And I would tell everybody, you need to have a plan, a written plan that you’re going to follow.

You might deviate from it. Market changes, things happen, you deviate. But it’s so good to have a written plan that you can follow at least, so you have a guide to what you’re going to do. So you just, you, you know, obviously you’re very successful. And for you, it all started with a written plan? Yeah, it started with a written plan and then soon it turned into a mathematical plan. So I was always a numbers person. And you know, when, even when I was doing stuff illegally, I was always, you know, counting money and I was successful at that.

So it was a mathematical plan. Pretty quickly it became a business model. And in fact, you know, I write out the plan and then I do the math behind it, and then I really stick to the model that I’m operating with now. So, you know, I’ve done this many times over in many different industries and businesses, but it became a math, A math equation I was trying to solve for. Interesting, interesting. So now you’re out on your own. You got a plan. What was the plan? Where did it ultimately lead to? So my first business was simple and my racket on the streets was computers.

So I had a gift for computer programming and for computer repair. And I’d go in and steal computer books and I’d go steal computers. So I had what looked like a circuit city at my house, basically repairing computers, reprogramming them, and then selling them. And this was in the early 90s when, you know, computers started becoming common in the household and everybody needed to learn computers. And then computer engineering and computer programming was a highly sought after skill. And I had obtained it in, you know, from the streets, basically doing hacking computing, you know, that type of stuff.

As you basically teach yourself. Yeah, well, I go into egghead software, which is an old software store, if you recall. Yeah, I’d steal books I had, I’d put them underneath my shirt and I’d come home and read the books and I’d go repair the computers because I had to file the serial numbers off of them in order to fence, you know, to sell them as, you know. Because if, if it got back that, you know, that this came from this location and I was somehow traced to it, that’d be a problem. So I had to learn how to wipe them clean, repair them, and, you know, get them out there.

Ryan, that’s a gift. Because I could tell. I could read all the computer gifts, books I want, but I wouldn’t be able to do that. I just, I don’t have the head for it. Yeah, it was, you know, I I struggled with the stuff that I did on the streets later on in life. And a mentor told me, ryan, you know, you liberated those computers. You were called to learn that gift, and that was the only way you could learn it. And so it was a calling, even though it was criminal. And I’ve since repented. And, you know, I’ve.

I’ve donated lots of computers to different organizations. It was something I was called to learn. Well, you know what? It’s just re emphasizes that what the enemy meant for bad God will turn around and use for his glory. And that’s what he’s done in your case. Oh, and more times than once. Yeah. Yeah. So I. I learned computers. So my first business was called 247 Tech. The idea was simple. You could page me 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and I’d come fix your computer. And in the event that I couldn’t get there, I dispatched someone else, and I started recruiting engineers and then dispatching them to repair computers.

So that was step one. And this was in the 90s when venture capital started becoming very prominent. Elon Musk just hit the scene, and a few others. And I saw these young guys that were college dropouts that were making hundreds of millions of dollars by way of Internet businesses. And so then I started talking to venture capitalists and learning about how to scale a company, and I realized my computer repair shop wasn’t scalable. So I then started a broadband wireless company that started building network infrastructure across the state of California. And I built that very rapidly and then sold that when I was about 24.

24 years old. And you sold that for 25 million. Wow. And was it a venture capitalist that. So venture capitalist showed up to my life. God. God started sending mentor after mentor after mentor to teach me the skills that I needed in order to, you know, do the work that I’m called to do, basically. Well, let me ask you this. Very interesting, because you grew up in a tough way. What was it inside of you? What was the difference that kind of motivated you to succeed? Let me ask you this. When I was a kid, I could not exist if I didn’t have money in my pocket.

It would drive me crazy. Yeah. I think you had to be the same. I had two paper routes. I was carrying same sixth grade. I had hundreds of dollars in my pocket in the 6 6th grade. You know, definitely money motivated, individual. And. And I had a capacity to earn money very early on. So there was something innate in you. Still is. Yeah. Still is. That determination. Yeah. And. And it kind of sets you apart from everybody else. And no matter where you come from, that motivation is in there. It’s just, how do you direct it? Yeah, you know, well, my.

You know, I was rewarded before my dad disappeared, which is no longer with us. So I have full of reverence for him. I love him. I’m grateful for what he did teach me. But before he left and when. It was a gift that he left. Now I realize that now. For many years, I had lots of anger around that subject, but I realized that, you know, it was a good thing that he left. But before he left, he’d motivate me with money. So if I got a base hit, he’d give me $20 or buy me a new glove for my batting glover.

He would give me money to clean up the weeds in the backyard, basically. And so I was always money motivated as. And driven by that early on. And so it was very natural for me to start earning money very quickly. And. And I broke through a lot of paradigms very fast. I remember thinking, you know, I. It was real simple for me to say, well, if I went from making $6 an hour to making 15 to making 50, to making 100, to making 500, well, why not make 10,000 an hour, 20,000 an hour? And so it was real easy for me to start jumping because I didn’t really have an attachment to the money.

It was just a game. Yeah. Let me ask you a question. How important was it for you to surround yourself with the right people? Well, you know, so it was real easy for me to walk away from everyone because I was abandoned. So it was really easy for me to abandon others. The moment I realized that, you know, certain friends were not going to get me to where I needed to go, I was able to cut them loose pretty quickly, and I didn’t look back at all. And I was also able to reinvent myself. You know, when I went from being a street kid to being mentored by, who later became my stepfather, a multimillionaire real estate entrepreneur, I moved from one side of the tracks to the other, tattoos all over me.

I had to cover myself up and pretend that I was one of these rich kids in this rich kid neighborhood and, you know, reinvent myself. Basically. I was no longer Ryan the felon gang member. I was, you know, Ryan the stepson of Mr. Robert Hunt, you know, successful real estate entrepreneur. Right. So I put on that new identity pretty quickly and lost the old one very fast. You know, I tell a lot of these young people because I. I Go into juvenile halls and I speak to a lot of these gang bangers and I told them two things that are very important in life.

You give yourself a good shot to succeed. Number one, you are who you hang out with. Surround yourself with the right people, you got a good shot. And second of all, who you are accountable to in life is going to direct the path that your life goes down. What do you feel about accountability especially? Well, your environment is everything. And so the first thing I did to get out of the environment, not only did I have a mentor, but that wasn’t going to get me out because they were like, let’s rob the guy. And they’re pulling me back in even though I was being offered a handout.

So I had to get a full time job and I worked two shifts so I never saw anyone. And I had an excuse because I had to pay off restitution. So it was kind of permittable for me to go to work and to work two shifts and obsess with work and, you know, and I had to pay off the restitution. So I kind of got a pass at that time. And then from there I got out of the neighborhood and out of the environment. That’s right. And, and accountability to now if you had to say. The first personal thing I’m accountable to in life right now is that mentor.

The mentor that came in, he, he sat me down and asked me to write out my goals. He gave me audiobooks that I never had heard of. Like one was called Lead the Field, the other was I How to Win Friends and Influence People. Tony Robbins. These were things that I’d hear these guys talk and I’d say, these teachers never told me about the truth of reality. The teachers that I was taught by, they taught me the American dream was to own a house. And here these guys are saying you can own 100 homes. And so I realized that there was a truth out there that I hadn’t been told in the middle class environment that my dad lived in that I thought was the best you could do that was a facade that could be ripped away from you.

And then there’s these wealthy people that own hundreds of homes and are doing life differently. And so I made it my commitment that I was going to learn the way they were doing life and I would close the gap. I got really obsessed with learning a new vocabulary. I went and bought vocabulary audio tapes from the audio tapes off the store that they used to have and I would just play audio tapes about business vocabulary. And I retrained the way I spoke and retrained the way I talked, because I knew that there were these gaps in the way I communicated my vocabulary, my understanding of business and economics.

And so I just became very hungry to close the gap as fast as I could. And I did it nonstop. Very driven. Yeah, yeah. If I. But it was interesting because if I met a person that I realized that they were no stronger than me, they were no smarter than me, but they. They were operating at a level that I wasn’t. I was very competitive to figure out what it was that they were doing that I needed to learn. So I’d size them up, as we all do, right. And I’d realize there’s. There’s no reason why I can’t be playing, you know, at the level that they’re playing at or beyond.

And I would just try to figure out everything I could to reverse engineer their system. What do they know that I don’t? And I would be humble. I’d say, teach me everything you know, and I’d have hundreds of questions, and I tried to extract everything that I could from them. And that’s how I went from mentor to mentor. And I. I learned from some pretty incredible billionaires and people that. That, you know, are remarkable. Human beings have done great works in the world by way of having that mindset. So you think even at this point in your life, you never too old, too young to learn? So.

No, but I made the mistake after I got to, you know, I want. I had this dream to be a rock star. I got there, I was selling out stadiums. You know, I have this. What do you mean, a rock star? Yeah. So, you know, I couldn’t sing, couldn’t dance, but I could become a business rock star. And so I started a company in the direct selling space. I built it. I had a field organization of over 100,000 people I paid checks to on a monthly basis. And, you know, it was like a big gang, basically, that I was leading.

And we were selling weight loss products. So, you know, we were distributing products all around the world. And, you know, we were filling up stadiums, private jet, living life like a rock star. And I quit learning. I thought I got it all figured out, and my ego got the best of me. And there was a period of time where I thought, I don’t have anything else to learn. I figured it all out. I’ve cracked the business code. And then I got lost. I started chasing all the vices that you would suspect. A young man that came from poverty would chase.

I had more money than brains and made a lot of mistakes along the way. And you know, my, I felt pretty hard as a result of that lifestyle and living that rock star way. So that was a big learning lesson. So I got to the top of the mountain and then, you know, came crashing down it pretty fast, pretty hard, which is something that happens to most people. I had a gentleman here by name of Paul Hutchinson. Do you know Paul? I know the name, yeah. Paul was the. One of the driving forces financially behind the movie Sound of Freedom.

Very wealthy guy. And it was actually. Did you see the movie? I’m familiar with it, yes. In the movie there was a person there that went and rescued 50 or 51 children that were being human trafficked. And he was actually that person. And for the last 10 years he’s devoted his life to helping these young kids that were human trafficked. But same story, he said he had it all made. You know, a billionaire and his ego, everything got to him and then boom, he just crashed and got to a realization. I think that happens to all of us.

Yeah. You know, it’s interesting because a lot of people can’t shake the shame. And you know, it’s not easy. You have to, you have to go through, in my case, a full awakening. You know, my real spiritual awakening came after I crashed. My mom had passed away. She was in a coma for two years. She fell down a flight of stairs. By the grace of God, she woke up. She lived another four years after that, but for about seven years every day I thought it would be the last day of my mother’s life. And so I was really close to her, but we had unfinished business.

And that seven years I went into that rock star life. I was avoiding the pain. I was self medicating, chasing, you know, pleasure all day long basically. And I had a lot of money and a lot of, of notoriety and things like that that, you know, that were facilitating this, this lifestyle. And when she passed away, I made a commitment to her on her deathbed. I said that on the other side you will see who your son really is. You’ll see that I’m not who you think I am. And I’m doing. And I repented to her and I told her I’m doing some shameful things and, and you’re going to see it all.

And on the other side, I’m gonna need your help, you know, becoming the man that you know that I’m capable of becoming, the leader that you know that I’m capable of becoming. I made a deal with God. I prayed with her, and I said goodbye to her. And when she passed away, my life changed. And it’s never been the same since. And it changed in a good way. And the most. First, it was a total deconstruction of everything about who I am. You know, I. I felt so hard. I couldn’t. Mentally, physically, I couldn’t do anything.

For two years, I was in complete isolation, meditating, praying, getting right with God, repenting, healing, going through terrible transformational period. It was, you know, healing is painful. And it was painful healing. And then I got to this point where all of a sudden I said, God, what do I do? I’ve, you know, I have no friends. I was in a terrible custody battle with. With my son’s mother. There were some things said about me that, that weren’t true, but it was. It was terrible. My reputation was destroyed. My money was running out very quick. My. I.

I wasn’t as cognitively capable as I was. I wasn’t physically as capable. I thought it was over. And. And I just, I was. I got a vision that I would mentor people. And I didn’t know who or how, or I was like, mentor. How am I going to do that? I need to make money. I need to, you know, I had a lot of operating expenses to keep multiple houses going. And, you know, and, and, you know, a couple guys showed up to my house that were young kids who had drug. Drug addiction going on, and they wanted my help.

And so I said, all right, I’ll start mentoring people. And more people started showing up, and more people started showing up. And now I’m, you know, proudly, I can tell you, I mentor thousands of people. And God has called me to mentor more successful and more successful people as I’ve become skilled as a mentor myself. And what, when you say at that point, this just click with me. You had no friends. You must have had a lot of friends at one point, because money brings people. Yeah. They may not be real friends, but they pretend to be.

Yeah, they’re not real friends. You know, they pretend to be. And you felt you had none. No real friends. Yeah. So the good news. So everyone was turned against me because when you have an ego like I did and you’re on the top of a mountain, that’s, you know, I went from making, you know, 5, 600,000amonth, making 65 million a month. Right. So, you know, I was. I was making 600 million plus a year, 100 million in profit in my company. And when you go from, you know, from the bottom all the way up to that top of that mountain there.

You pick up a lot of people along the way, and there’s a lot of people that would love to see you fall, that are in your circle. A lot of jealousy and, and you attract the evil eye spiritually because you’re flaunting stuff. You’re, you’re abusing people. You’re, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re calling it in. You’re responsible for, you know, who you surround yourself with, as we both know. And so as I crashed, you know, people took a pound of flesh out. People embezzled from me. People betrayed me. People lined up and thank God they did because that then turned me to God because there was no one else to turn to.

And in that turning to God and turning my life over to God, that’s when I started to heal and go through the transformation I needed to. Now some of those people have come back into my life, and I love them, I forgive them. I’m grateful that they, they kicked me when I was down because I needed that kick in order to get close to God. And some of them, I’m happy to not talk to them anymore. Understood. Right. Let me ask you this. Why? Because I know a lot of people out there, they hear this and they say, come on, you know, what makes you think there really is a God? Why do you think there is a God? You’re an intelligent guy.

Yeah. Obviously, you’re an analytical guy. Yeah. You’re a numbers guy, which is very significant. What makes you really believe that there is a God? The times that I have called upon him, you know, I get emotional just saying that. When, when you’ve been in a place where it’s life or death and you’re ready to, you know, pull the trigger on yourself or go to the dark side. You know, you, you, you got a crossroads. And you call upon God. He will. He will show up to his children. And he showed up for me in times that, you know, I was in the greatest despair you could imagine.

And the only way to get out of that hole that I was in was through him. And he got me out. I was facing a billion in lawsuits. I was facing a custody battle that was just terrible. I was accused of being abusive and, and, and that’s not who I am. And where I was raised, you never abused a woman. You never abused a child. And if you did that, you know, there’s hell to pay inside. Right. So, like, my code of conduct forbid that behavior, and yet I was being accused of it. And he Pulled me out of that situation.

Well, let me ask you this. Some people might say, and I’m really driving this point in there really had nothing to do with God. You’re an intelligent guy. At some point you figured it out, or things just broke your way and you didn’t need God to help you. You did it yourself. I’m not that smart. I was up against real enemies, lawyered up billionaires that wanted to, you know, end me. I was up against vices that are unshakable, addiction that, you know, that just was pulled off of my heart when I begged to have it removed from me.

I was up against stuff that, you know, that. That it wasn’t me that got it off by any means, got out of it. And then, you know, there are times that I’ve just witnessed miracles, you know, and I’ll share with you. I. My mom was in a coma for two years after falling down a flight of stairs as a result of alcoholism. How long. How long was that? How long ago was that? Yeah, that was. She fell down in March of 2010, and she was in a coma until November of 2012. Wow. And half her skulls removed.

I’m fighting with the courts, my family is to get her off life support because her wishes were not to be a vegetable. The most difficult thing to see your mother, who you love, who is beautiful, half her skull removed, tracheotomy tubes all over her, having her lungs pumped multiple times a day, sweating and just agony. And she doesn’t know you’re there. And you’re going to pay your. Your mins to her. And every day it’s more painful for you than it is for her. Yeah. Yeah. And she never wanted to be in that position, and. And I wanted to get her out of it.

And I finally got permission to take her off life support. I went in and I told her, I said, mom, I’m gonna end your life. And if you want me to end your life, it’s my honor, not something I want to do. I could see. And if you want to live, you got to wake up, because I don’t want to take your life if you want to live, because that would be on my soul forever. And she woke up right in front of me, man. Her eyes came to said, you know who I am. She whispered my name and she woke up.

And so. And that was through prayer. So when you. When you’ve seen people wake up from comas, when you’ve seen people, when you know, when your life has gone through transformation, when you’ve seen God’s work, it’s undeniable. And I felt his presence in my life. And I’ve witnessed miracles. I’ve witnessed addiction be pulled out of people’s hearts. I’ve witnessed people’s ears healing when they couldn’t hear. So not only have I experienced the presence of God and heard the voice of God personally, but I’ve witnessed it in countless situations. So I’m a believer. And the point I want to make is, like me, God showed up in your life because you.

You were seeking him. Yeah. And for those who look for the Lord, he shows up. And so for anybody out there that believes that, you know, here’s a very intelligent, very successful guy who’s been up and down and everywhere in between, but he. He looked for God, he prayed for God, and God showed up. And I can witness or be a witness to the same in my life. God shows up. This isn’t something we just think about or we. We like to just tell people because it sounds good, really happens, and I love hearing that. Mario, I’m sorry I put you through that.

I didn’t mean to. No, thank you, but thank you. I want to say it’s not a sad story. You know, I was at that rock bottom. After my mom passed away, my son was suffering from autism. I took him through a baptism process and I watched autism. He had it. No longer has it really been through a baptism. Let me tell you why this, me, my little grandson, who we love, is autistic. So I love hearing anything about this. Yeah. So I was struggling with that with my mother in a coma with my own vices and addictions.

And I made a commitment to God that I would, I would, you know, if he heals me, I would help as many people heal as I possibly could. With my remaining days. He healed me, healed my son, healed my relationship with my son’s mother. He healed everything, healed my finances. I’ve been restored tenfold in every, every facet of life, and only God can do that. Let me ask you this, Ryan. When you say your. Your son was diagnosed with. As autistic but is no longer autistic, how did that happen? God? Really? Yeah. You just came out of it.

Yeah. The. The. As I was healing and I was going deeper into my relationship with God, and I took this like a full time job. You know, I’m. I’m intense, as you can tell. Yes. So I was like, all right, if this, if this God thing is real, then I’m going to learn to shine as much light and embody the fruits of the spirit in a way that no one else ever has. Right? And now, I was naive and ignorant to say that, but I was like, I will do the work. I will. I will work 12, 14, 16 hours a day on my character.

I will meditate, I will pray. I will read the word. I will blow a shofar. I will do whatever God calls me to do to figure out how to heal so that I could heal my son, heal the relationship with my son’s mother, and then, you know, and put this body to use and put this mind to you somehow. And so that was a deal I made with God, and he healed my son. And my son is no longer suffering from autism whatsoever. How old is he? He’s 16 now. Wow. And it was at nine years old, when I watched his eyes change right before my eyes.

When he came out of the water of his baptism, I just saw his eyes had changed. Like, just like when my mom woke up, I saw her eyes had changed. When my son was pulled out of autism, I saw his eyes change. Amazing. Yeah. He would never make eye contact, ever. No. And then all of a sudden, there he is. Really. And this was right after he was baptized. The second. He’s still wet. I’m getting the chills thinking of that. Amazing. Yeah. And people ask me often, well, what’s the formula for all of us that. Just get as deep into your relationship with God as possible.

If your son is called to heal, or your grandchild or. Or whoever it is, they will. You know, you can. As you heal, they will heal, too. Now, it doesn’t always work. It’s not. You know, sometimes God has a plan for them that we don’t know about. And we just got to do our best to heal as fast as we can, do the work, because healing is hard work. It is not easy stuff. Yes. And you got to be serious about it. And so, you know, when you talked about the Bible, you know, I was recalling.

I was reading psalms. I was reading about this guy David, and how he was in a cave, and I was in a cave in solitary confinement, and he prayed a certain way, and it got God’s attention. And so that was how I was praying inside my cave. And when I hit rock bottom as an adult and went back into the cave for a couple of years, I was praying like King David was, you know, And I want to make a point here for everybody. Here is Ryan, who is a very successful guy, very intelligent, gu, who doesn’t have to give any credit to God.

He can turn around and say, listen, I got myself in a hole. I’m smart enough to pull myself out. I did what I had to do. He’s got no ulterior motive. He’s not trying to become a holy roller, so to speak. He’s given the credit where he knows the credit is due, and that is to God. This is really important for you to understand people because a lot of people, oh, we have God for a particular reason. Or maybe it sounds good, or, you know, you’re in prison, you find God born again until you’re out again.

We’ve heard all of these things. Orion is living proof. He’s a very successful, very intelligent guy that doesn’t have to give any credit to the Lord. But God showed up in his life and he realizes it and he knows it. And it’s, I just love hearing this and being able to let my viewers hear this. Thank you. It’s so important, you know, I will tell you that, you know, Matthew in the Bible, he who humbles himself will be praised and he who praises himself will be humbled. Right? So that’s, that’s how I roll now. Any, you know, I, I gotta lean on myself to get out of bed in the morning and fight the good fight and overcome, you know, all the obstacles we all have to overcome.

And, and I gotta give all the glory and credit to God. So I gotta muster up my own personal might to get out of bed and to, you know, to face what I need to face on a daily basis. And I turn it over to God. And there’s a great quote by John Adams. John Quincy Adams says, duty is ours, results are God’s. And so I just live by that code. My duty is mine, results are God. And that has taken me much further than the mountaintop that I was on when I was trying to be a rock star.

Now I’m on a whole different mountaintop. And every day I just wake up and I, you know, I do my, my, my duty and God generates the results. That’s amazing. And let me ask you a question now because you, you mentor, is it mostly men, women, young people? It’s, it’s mostly entrepreneurs, founders, men and women that are running decent sized companies. Because I’ve got a lot of experience in building companies, buying them, selling them, scaling them. And I’ve got a lot of principles around leadership and best practices and software and systems and the math behind how to orchestrate an organization that scales.

So I tend to work with people that are wanting to put a system together to scale. Well, I’m going to put you together with my partner. I’m in the wine and the pizza business, and that’s exactly what we’re doing, scaling to in one day. You know, I’m 74 years old. I want to work forever. Aside from that, what do you. I talk to a lot of men who have made it in the business world successful, but so many of them, Ryan say, you know what, I’m struggling at home, I’m struggling with my, my personal life, with my, my, my wife, you know, my children.

And you know, again, it’s all about purpose in life. And I know our purpose is to, you know, obviously to get ourselves comfortable first. I always ascribe to when you’re in a plane and an oxygen mask come down, put it on yourself first so you can help everybody else. So you have to make yourself in the right position to be a benefit to people. But when did you discover your real purpose in life? Well, I think we all have a similar purpose. I think we all have a purpose to transform into who God has called us to be.

And how that happens is different for each of us. But the actual process that we’re all going through of transformation, of having our character and our competency, you know, hand hand picked and carved into us so that way we can be of service and so we can make the world better than we found it. I think we all are here to do that in our own unique ways. Yes. You know, and so I’m just here to make the world better than I found it and to put any gift that God has given me to its highest and best use and to overcome the temptations, the, the vices, the negative attributes and the sinning attributes that I have within me.

And every day I got to try to transform that dark into light. And the more that I do that, the more that I obtain character, I obtain competency, I expand my capacity, I increase my desire, and I can fulfill, you know, my, my purpose more so. So, you know, the vocations that we do and the callings that we have, that’s how we make the world a better place. And the businesses that we create or the products we create or the companies that we, we serve or the customers we serve, that’s the vocation part of this. That’s the calling part of this.

So there’s a piece of theory in Christianity around the Seven Mountains you may have heard of, you know, and for the audience, you have religion, you have family, you have education, you have government, you have media, you have entertainment, and you have business right I’m called to the seventh mountain, and I’m. I’m here to help people build in that seventh mountain and build companies that embody the values of the kingdom of God and build companies that treat their team members as sacred and treat them with dignity, but also get results and to advance and further the seventh mountain.

So I’m called to that mountain. I’m building that mountain, and I’m helping as many people as I possibly can build on that mountain. And I’m blessed to now be working with billionaires and people that are running very large companies, helping them build their companies in such a way that it honors the kingdom of God and advances their personal purpose as well. That’s great. Let me ask you, is there a common issue or struggle or challenge that you’ve noticed in people that you’re mentoring? Yes. Number one, we have to prioritize God first. That’s first and foremost. That means, what does that look like how you wake up in the morning? You know, the first thing you should do is.

Is pray and have gratitude. My. I sing God’s praises every morning. I’m not a great singer, but I. I do it and, and actually sing. Oh, I’m learning. I’m learning every morning in the shower, every. Everywhere. I can. I can. I was called to this, though. It was the least developed part of me and the most embarrassing part of me. But I was called to learn to sing hallelujah and to sing God’s praises to start my day. And every morning, I start my day that way. And so your practices are really how you. You serve God and how you have an intimate relationship with our Creator.

The mistake that we make is we think our business is how we serve God. And even if we’re running a business that’s doing great good in the world, God doesn’t need your business. He wants your heart. And so if you’re focused on that business all day long and you’re not intimately connected to God, you will suffer and your family will suffer and your children will suffer, even though you might be doing great works in the world. And I mentor pastors in this because oftentimes they think that their job is to build this church and that’s how they honor God.

No, your job is to have an intimate relationship with God. And the church is the vocation. That’s the calling. That’s the mountain that you’re working on. But so I see a lot of people that don’t have strong priorities, they don’t have strong practices, they don’t put their Faith and their family is their highest priority. And as a result, they underperform in all aspects of their life according to what they’re capable of. And they may even have great businesses, hundreds of millions of dollars, and then they give up and they say, why should I build a $200 million business? Why should I.

Why should I build something more? Because they’re suffering through stress, their family’s not happy, they’re not healthy, you know, because they’re not prioritizing, and they’re not actually doing life in a way that allows them to grow at the fastest pace possible and build something remarkable. Very interesting. Let me ask you this. I’ve often seen and said that your business life is a reflection of your personal life. And even though you may have a successful business, but when your personal life isn’t in order, your family life is in order, you’re reading the success the wrong way. Yeah.

You know, well, so there’s many ways to measure success, but do you have a business environment that gives you life? I know people with very successful businesses by societal standards, making hundreds of millions of dollars, but their business drains them. Right, Right. And they’re burnt out. They despise it. They don’t even like going to the very company that they built. And you can change that. You can change the culture. You can change the way you attach to it. You know, you, You. You don’t have to give up. And a lot of people come to me and they think they need to leave the business that they started and go pursue something else.

And it’s because they’ve architected it and engineered it in such a way that it drains the life from them as opposed to brings life to them. And so you can design a business in a way that fills your cup, and you can do business in a way that fills your cup. Excellent advice. You know, so do you. You’re going to continue in what you’re doing now? Do you have any other aspirations, anything you want to create, build, start, or you’re just going to continue in this mentorship? Because I think that’s your focus now. Correct? Yeah, I, you know, I’m privileged to have helped many entrepreneurs exit and do remarkable works in the world.

And, you know, going from rock bottom, zero friends, zero people. I now have this network that is. That is remarkable. And so I’m here to serve them. I’m here to help them build their businesses, grow, scale in any way I possibly can. And I just, I. I’m preparing myself for my next assignment, but I have no idea what that is because God doesn’t show me, because if he told me what the assignment would be, I’d mess it up. So he shines a light 3ft in front of me and I just try to find the courage and the faith to take those steps and prepare for that bigger assignment.

And whatever God calls me to, I do. God, you know, we’re so similar in that regard. I’m not looking ahead, but somehow God will just put something there and say, okay, this sounds right, you know, and then you pray about it, you ask for guidance and, and you move in that direction. You know, this entire sit down has been mentorship to people out there. No doubt. I hope everybody’s paying close attention to this. It’s an incredible story. It’s, it’s a God given story, no doubt. But what, any lasting advice or anything that you want to tell people that are listening, what, what do you want them to learn from you? You can change.

And I, you know, I think it’s an honor to just be sitting in your presence and to witness your transformation and the, you know, the depth of darkness that you were in and involved in to the amount of light that you’re bringing to the world now. You are a testament to God’s grace, to God’s mercy, and to, you know, what a person can do if they turn their life over to God. And, and I think that the two of us together can be that beacon of hope that you can change. You, you can. And society should forgive those people that have trespassed and sinned.

And we should not try to label them and mark them. We should, we should support them. It’s a badge of honor. If you fought a battle and won, we should, we should be decorating. Two of us should have decorations like the generals do because we have fought the spiritual warfare in the trenches in ways that no one understands. And, and I want people out there listening to know that you can change. Don’t ever let anybody label you. And you may not have done the stuff that you, I haven’t done the stuff that you were involved in or people might not have done stuff that I’ve been involved in, but maybe, you know, maybe you’ve, you’ve, you know, you’ve fallen to temptation.

You can change. Maybe you fell to procrastination. You can change. Maybe you fell to laziness, maybe you fell to ego. You can change. You can change anything about you. If you turn your life over to God, you can change addiction. You can change. That’s my message. You know, it’s so important. And, and I want to ask you this, Ryan, because it may not be everybody’s place in life to be as successful as you are financially, you know, but that shouldn’t let anybody believe that your place in life, you might be a greatest employee in a company in the world.

There’s nothing wrong with that. You don’t have to reach the levels that, that Ryan has reached right now. He’s gifted in that regard. He’s worked hard and he, and he’s, he’s got something to show for it, but you don’t have to reach that, you know, in order to be successful. You know, you can change and you can succeed in whatever area that God wants you to succeed. And I think it’s, it’s important to realize that because sometimes, you know, the only thought is, well, God, how could I become that successful? You may not be, but that’s okay.

Yeah, you know, we, we all have a role and we want to make sure that we do that role and we want to serve God with excellence. And you know, there’s times where I’m doing stuff that isn’t as glorious as, you know, I shared some of the fun stuff like I’m cleaning up the bathroom and you know, I’m driving my son to school and I’m going to soccer with them and I’m dealing with a 16 year old son. I mean, you know, we just got to serve the Lord with, with joy and excellence no matter what the role is that we take on.

And there’s plenty of roles that I, that I hold that aren’t as glorious as the other ones. And, and you’re absolutely right though. I want to tell you that it’s not about, it’s not about money. It’s about maximizing the gifts that God has given you. And you know, I have a gift for numbers and a gift for leadership and building businesses. So I want to maximize that gift. But if you have a gift to run the HR department in a great company or you have a gift to be a great engineer, put that gift to its highest and best use.

That’s the, that’s the job. Yeah, yeah. So true. And you know, Ryan, one thing that got me, when I was on the street, I saw guys that were powerful, had the power of life and death in their hands, literally in their hands. And you know, at a little later date, they were walking around in a prison jumpsuit listening to some 26 year old guy tell them what to do. And it really, it humbled me in a way to say, who do we really? Life is so precious, and it’s so. We’re so vulnerable that any moment in time, it could be taken away from us or things can change, you know, horribly.

What happened to your mom, we just never know. Yeah. And to become so full of ourselves that we think, hey, it’s all about us. You know, we can be humbled very, very quickly. And I tell you this, I love confidence in people. I love to see it. It’s a great quality. I hate arrogance. I just don’t like it because I said, you know, who do you think you are? You don’t realize how vulnerable you could be. And I love. I love what I’m seeing in you. And I really mean this. I love the humility and somebody that’s been so successful because it’s probably the most admirable quality that anybody can have.

Thank you. And I really mean, I’m really turned on in a way by it, because I said, wow, guy like this, you know, who got the world in the palm of his hands at some point, but yet you have such a. Such a humble way about you, and it’s wonderful, you know, you as well, and I’ve admired that about you and watching your podcast and reading about your work and the good that you’re doing in the world. So you’re a role model to all of us. And for those of us a little younger coming up, we looked up to you.

I’ve been looking up to you for many years now. So thank you. Thank you for the work that you’re doing. I appreciate. You know what gets me whenever you say that. When I was on the street, I was always the youngest guy. Yeah. Now I’m the senior citizen. To everybody, I’m saying, ah, well, I guess it’s good, you know. You know, people say you’re getting old, and I swell. It’s better than the alternative, not getting old. So, you know, fortunately, we got. I got some good genes in our family, so we’re okay with that. But, hey, this has been an incredible.

Sit down. More than what I expected. I really mean that. I appreciate. I hope this is the start of a relationship. I really mean that. I would like that. And I’d like to find ways that we could serve together if there’s people that we can help. Count me in. Absolutely. And. And same here. You know, I’d be happy to support you in any which way. Thank you, Ryan. God bless. Thank you. Thank you, too. Thank you. Well, there you have it. I don’t know about any of you, but I’m fascinated by the story. You know, when you hit rock bottom like that, and I know what that feels like.

I hit it at a later age, even though I had, you know, some rough upbringings also. It’s tough sometimes to come out of it. You got to have determination, pretty much a strong constitution. You can’t give up. You can’t just say, hey, I’m done. You know, you got to be able to move forward. And Ryan fortunately was blessed with that ability. And look what came out of it. You know, it’s, it’s unbelievable. I did bring him to tears when he talked about his mom. I don’t know how you felt about it, but it was a pretty emotional, you know, feeling for me.

But just the way he described everything, you know. And listen, I have to say this. You know, he talked about God. Here’s a guy that’s successful probably if he stays on the right track and I’m sure he will never has to worry about a penny again in his life. Who knows? I don’t think so. Self made multi millionaire and yet he’s given the credit to God. He doesn’t need it. He doesn’t have to. He’s not trying to prove anything. He’s trying to, trying to make himself out to be a good guy or a holy roller, whatever you want to say.

That’s just what he believes based upon his experience and his knowledge. So that’s, that should be quite telling to many of you. Here’s a guy that doesn’t need, if you, in human terms terms, you could look and say, well, he doesn’t need God. He’s done it all on his own. He’s got everything. And yet he gives the credit to God. Why doesn’t have a church? He’s not looking for followers in that regard. He doesn’t need anything. But he’s telling the truth from his experience and, and what he believes to be true. So that means something. People, you know, look, I’m always trying to point you in the right direction.

Not for anything that I’m going to gain other than I feel I have a responsibility and an obligation to do that. As a Christian, we are obligated to share, not impose, but share our faith. What you do with it, what God does it with it from that point is up to him and up to you. So it’s a fascinating story. I really mean it. I hope that we form a relationship. You know, we talked a lot both before and after the sit down and he’s just an impressive young man. And I say young because he’s younger than me.

Anybody that’s younger than me is a young man. But really impressive what he’s been able to accomplish. So that’s it. We always try to give you the best of everything that we possibly can give you in content. Do me a favor, hit the subscribe button. If you like what we’re doing, let us know it. You let us know it by hitting the subscribe button and becoming a follower. And also from your comments. We try to get through as many comments as we can. I don’t look at them all. My team does. If something is really, you know, they think should be brought to my attention, they’ll do that.

But we appreciate the comments. We like you to weigh in. So subscribe, comment. We appreciate it. Saturday mornings, we do the lives. We try to bring you the best we possibly can. By the way, Ryan has, I think 375,000 followers on Instagram. So if you want to look them up there, you can look them up there. And that’s it. So, my friends, that’s it for today. How do I always leave you? Same way. Not going to change. Be safe, be healthy. God bless each and every one of you, families, neighborhoods, communities, and yes, God bless this great country that we live in.

I’ll see you next time. Stay tuned.
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