As an entrepreneur, you likely are seeking for Financial Freedom.....but how do you get there? Listen up to this interview with Ryan Lee from Cashflow Tactics and Altitude Life as he explains how you can be smarter with your business so that you can have more of that freedom you desire without risky investments, staring at numbers all day, or looking for loop-holes. Buckle up --- this episode is GOLD!!
As an entrepreneur, you likely are seeking for Financial Freedom.....but how do you get there? Listen up to this interview with Ryan Lee from Cash Flow Tactics and Altitude Life as he explains how you can be smarter with your business so that you can have more of that freedom you desire without risky investments, staring at numbers all day, or looking for loop-holes. Buckle up --- this episode is GOLD!!
Want to learn more from Ryan? GO HERE
Follow Ryan on IG: @theryanlee
Hey You! I'm Sarah Allred, CEO, Victress Global - Business Coach and Marketing Strategist.
This episode came from a LIVE training in my FREE V2 Marketing FB Group . I would love for you to be a part of it!
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✅ Have an “ideal client” who is a woman.
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✅ Are willing to consider that you can have it all: family, faith, profitability, and Fridays off.
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Sarah: [00:00:00]
So welcome the Ryan Lee. We have to start with calling him V Ryan Lee.
Ryan: [00:01:00] I don't know about that. You
Sarah: knew it was coming. So I just, I knew I had to call him the Ryan Lee because there was a lot of people we could bring into this.
To serve this group of specifically women in entrepreneurship. And I know you're married to a fabulous female entrepreneur. I love her own her stuff. And the reality is, is I'm a little bit protective on the guys I bring in here because they just absolutely have to understand. What it's like to work at entrepreneurship as a woman, and also really, really encourage women to reach their highest Heights.
And you were such an interesting prospect to look at Ryan. Um, I originally really fell in love with what you and your business partner Brad do. When I learned that you went against the grain, as far as most things that we are taught about finding. I think the first time I saw you, you were talking something about like, why we don't do 401ks or something like that.
And I'm like, who is this [00:02:00] crazy dude? Who is this crazy dude? Right.
Ryan: I love that. And that a hundred percent that's, you know what, here's the thing, Sarah, um, we've been trained on educated from a very young age and oftentimes, you know, like I've thought about this so much. I don't think our parents or our school teachers or society in general are trying to lead us astray.
We're just caught in a group three group, think, you know, kind of trap. Now there might be at the very top or behind the closed doors, some nefarious people that are pushing this agenda, but at the end of the day, I think we can all acknowledge that there is a personal financial problem. There is a retirement crisis.
People are stuck financially and they're either avoiding it or they're sedating themselves, you know, by using credit cards and trying to live life right now, hoping that one day, one day, one days, everything is going to work out. And so our objective is to help shine light on the darkness to end. Help people understand what it is.[00:03:00]
So they're not so afraid of it. And then rather than trying to do average things better, helping people walk away from what we call the cult of the average and do things radically different because that's really at the end of the day, any successful person or individual or company, it's not that they were doing average things better than the average individual.
They did the exact opposite. And so that's, that's what we talk about is that. And I
Sarah: just die at that phrase, radically different, like hello might be to marketers. I hope that that phrase rings really, really true for you because we really declare here that we are determined to do business differently.
We're determined to keep our faith intact. Our marriage is not only intact, but thriving. We want to be there on Saturdays for soccer. I know that as the kind of marriage and world you are also living in, and that's a huge part of why you're also here. And so I guess my. I'm not going to waste a second of anybody's time here.
Cause I want to dive into Ryan sprain, um, because it is, it is such a wealth of information. So the, the first thing that comes to my mind, [00:04:00] when you say do things radically different is Ooh, that's right. Yeah, that's risky. Like what about tried and true? And what about like, we, we are females, right. And we want to be risk-free and a lot of ways, like, how do you even talk about doing things radically different when we're trying to be.
Ryan: Yeah, I love that. And first off before I answer that question, Sarah, let me just first acknowledge you and just thank you for inviting me into your inner circle of, of female entrepreneurs. And I want you to know I was raised by, uh, trend-setting our trend breaking female entrepreneur from a very young age.
Yeah, dude, my mom. So my very first online business, man, it was inspired and launched with my mother. And my mother is a pioneer in the, in the space of what is called a play therapy for children and, and primarily women who suffered from abuse. Um, but she is leading the charge or was leading the charge of female entrepreneurs and business owners back when that wasn't a thing, [00:05:00] especially as it relates to being an, a latter day Saint woman, you know, she was a full-time working mother and amazing mother.
She balanced both sides of those Teeter totters. A man, she opened up a world of possibility for me that I could not show. Oh,
Sarah: my word, like, how did I not know this about you? We will. Is she still living? That's a sensitive question to
Ryan: ask. She is still living. She here's the crazy part. And I love that we're talking to, you know, latter day Saint women here because so she retired quote unquote, retired.
Uh, two years ago and she is serving 180 hours a week right now full-time missionary. Um, but she does it from her home, but she has built an entire therapeutic organization in the mission field to help these missionaries out in the world because of all the craziness of that happened during COVID. So she recruits trains and helps the therapist on the ground level, teaching the, uh, or working with the elders and sisters.
But she doesn't hear from.
Sarah: Well, this is like the perfect actual segue because w [00:06:00] I imagine when I hear this, or when my amazing marketers hear this, they hear we're going to do things significantly differently. Um, and then they, they watch your, your mother who did things significantly differently. Um, there is this fear of like, How do I not totally mess up my family because when, when I hear how you talk about your mom, the word legacy comes to mind for me that she has established a Le I mean, right behind you, if you guys are watching this on YouTube or in the group, rise up, live free, like she has instilled freedom to you and impacting the world and having a family and doing all those things.
Like how does. How do we coexist, like doing things really, really differently with our fear of risk and leaving a legacy like loaded question, Ryan.
Ryan: Well, here we go. Let's dive into that. And let's kind of break it down, you know, one piece at a time, because I remember there was an analogy. It might have been by Stephen Covey in the seven habits of [00:07:00] highly effective people.
But I remember, do you remember that analogy where he talked about you have a glass jar, you have big rocks, you have small rocks and you have little, teeny bit. And it's the order of operations. If you try to put the little pebbles in first, then the next size up rocks, and then the big rocks, the jar is going to overflow with rocks.
But if you put in the big rocks first, then the little pebbles, the little pebbles kind of filter in, in the, in the void spaces that the big rocks don't take up. And then if you put in the small grains of sand, then they fill in the void that the little rocks don't take up. And I think that's a principle for life.
Obviously it was written in highly effective people, but that should apply to business. For spirituality and it should apply to our money. Like there are a few needle moving things that we can and should do in every aspect of our life. And we just, if we do those things, those 80% solution things, then everything else becomes easier.
Or in many cases unnecessary. So first and foremost, when it comes to balancing life, I think that's really the cult. The goal is [00:08:00] what are your key? Non-negotiables and make sure, because as an entrepreneur, we just build, we build, we build, we built and oftentimes, yeah, it's never done. And oftentimes we let all that pressure come on and, and take away.
And we tell ourselves the most dangerous thing we can tell ourselves. I'll figure out how to balance my life out when. And if we're not careful when it turns into never. And when you finally wake up to never will never happen, you re you turn around and you realize I might have lost everything I cared about in the process of one day.
So that's the danger of it. But if we can just get in the habit of routine of establishing priorities, then everything else should filter around that. And nothing. Another LDS quote yet no failure outs or no success outside of the home will ever compensate for failure. So it's establishing your business around what you care about most.
And I, that's easy to say on a, on a live that's hard to apply in real life.
Sarah: Yeah, and I love, I'm kind of dying that [00:09:00] you're relating to Stephen Covey, sand and the pebbles and the rock thing. Um, I think most women in here will understand that spiritually and like, gosh, if I get on my Peloton and I read my scriptures and I meditate, I'm a way better mom, the rest of the day.
Right. That's what that looks like for me. Um, you started to say that that applies financially and I go. Yeah. What, like you, you said a couple of things, you were like 80% solutions and you said like, there are some key kind of triggers or elements that we can put into place that really are those big rocks financially.
And I'm like,
Ryan: what are those? Yeah. So here are a couple of things then with that, um, you know, number one, uh, speaking to entrepreneurs and business owners. Um, my biggest, my biggest objective when I'm talking to an entrepreneur is to give them. Because here's the crazy part. Everyone knows that I'm in the world of investing and, and, you know, everyone wants to come to me and ask me, Hey, should I put my money in option a or option B, which one's going to be better.
Right. And that question is inherently flawed [00:10:00] because we're asking if I take my money external to myself and put it over here over there, what's going to be better than that. That's like asking someone to predict the future. And let's be honest.
Sarah: That's what.
Ryan: Well, and that's what most, cause that's what we're trained and educated to do works.
We're told to work really, really hard, create a lot of value, suffer a lot, sacrifice a lot to work in our businesses only to have a dollar of profit. And then we're told to take that dollar profit again. Because we're not smart enough. We're not capable enough. Someone else vicariously is going to care more about our future.
Then we're going to then, then, then we will. And we all know when we look at it from that angle, that's wrong. No, one's going to care more about our life, our future, our goals than we will, but we're told to give our money elsewhere because they know, and they could be anything from mutual funds to financial advisors to, you know, fill in the blank.
They know better than we do. So my. Too, when I first stopped on entrepreneurs to help them have permission that their best investments [00:11:00] might actually be the thing that's sitting right in front of them. It is their business, because look, here's the crazy part. Like you could give a dollar to me and I can say, Hey, guess what I do real estate.
And in real estate, I have a, you know, after having done hundreds of transactions personally and thousands with my community, I know the rate of return that you're going to are roughly, you know, between you kind of arrange that rate of return is 15 to 25%. That's awesome. But oh my God. Yeah, that's crazy.
But look, here's the crazy part. You could put a dollar back into your business and turn it into two, not in years, but in months you could put a dollar back into your business and turn it into three, not in decades, but in, in quarters. And like there is, if I came to you and said, I'm going to show you a rate of return, that's a hundred percent multiple.
Like you would put me in handcuffs and say, Hey, that's a Ponzi scheme that does, that doesn't exist. But we discount what our business can produce. And we see. Refuge elsewhere. We seek refuge from other investments where we don't have any control and we hope that that's going to balance the chaos that we [00:12:00] feel in our business.
Sarah: Okay. Okay. Let me break this down for a hot second. This is amazing. And a little bit mind blowing for me. So let's break this down because the reality is, is, um, my husband loves to barbecue. Okay. He's like a griller and a smoker. Well, not like a smoke smoker,
Ryan: but a smoker for smoking as a trigger guy. Yes.
I just got a trigger.
Sarah: So, uh, one of the things that he has laughed at me about is I have never learned how to even turn on his grill. And you guys, I'm a pretty like independent woman. I was alone for 12 years while he did medic medical school, all those things, like I'm pretty independent, but I was like, not gonna even learn how to touch the grill or turn it on.
And one day he was like, why not? And I'm like, but they don't be accountable to know. And then I'll have to like grill the chicken. Yeah. Well, like two years ago learned how to turn on the grill and yes, all has turned out well, but it is, it is this moment where it's sort of like, I kind of don't want to learn it because then I'm accountable for [00:13:00] the failures, right.
We're accountable for the chicken being dry or the Beamer. And I know that sounds really basic, but I think largely, especially in this circle, when, when we're in our first six figures of business, that we kind of throw our hands up and we just say, well, this is. Told to do, and I don't have time to learn it or get a degree.
And I know your business partners, like a certified CPA, I'm like right on all this
Ryan: stuff, the certified, anything, he, I mean, anything that does with numbers and spreadsheets, that's what he's certified. And, and we make a really interesting partnership because I'm a high school drop. Oh, I love it. I love this every degree that you could possibly have, and we kind of balance each other out.
And I went back to school eventually. But look, the reality of it is your rights. Um, if you will not take responsibility and again, we, we get so weird when we talk about money. For most people, we have so much baggage that that's associated with money that we can't talk about it rationally. So let's just re let's remove the, the topic of money and let's examine any area of your life.
Let's say spirit. [00:14:00] You're unwilling to take responsibility for your own testimony. Oh, dumpster fire, dumpster fire. Let's say physically you're unwilling to take responsibility for your personal health.
Sarah: Gonna miss out on grandkids and, and park days and skiing. Yeah. Um,
Ryan: everything we want is on the other side of taking responsibility.
Everything we want is on the other side of facing our fears. And whenever we do that, we first realized, oh, It's not as bad as I thought it was, but the fact that we're unwilling to look at it and we kind of treat it like this shadow in the corner, we build up these big stories in our mind. And we, we, we tell ourselves it's so scary.
It's so hard. I can't do it. There's no possible way. And the easy solution is someone else will care more about it than me. And we take that easy solution. We push that button over and over. And the biggest risk that we're facing is the risk of disappointment and the risk of ultimately being a victim to our own finance.
Because at the end of the day, right now, the market. Dying it's it's like slowly going off the edge of a cliff. And if you ask [00:15:00] anyone, what are we told to do? Wait. Wait, that's what I've been told to. Wait, wait, because the market's always up. Well, what if, what if you wanted to retire in 2022, do you wait?
What if you, like, what if you want to retire five years from now? Because when a market takes a tank, like it is right now in 2008, when it went down 40% X, Y you know, plus or minus, it took people a decade to recover from that, just to get back to where they started pre 2008. So how long. Do you are, you told to wait and that, that's why we talk about this idea of the average solution.
If you're willing to accept average advice, then your expectation has to be average results. If however you want extraordinary results, which is by default, what your community is doing, they are defying the odds in every area. We do not say average here. We do not. Y. And so we'll get to the other side of this equation because taking control of your money is not as hard and as not as scary as you might think it is, but it does require you to look at the shadow, to [00:16:00] look at the darkness, to look at the thing you're afraid of and say, I got.
Sarah: Okay. So these are women in here who I think are really, really good at facing demons, right? The fact that they are in entrepreneurship as mothers and latter day saints is also, is already going against the grain a little bit. They are doing things differently. Um, I often think one of the struggles with this kind of thing, like, I want to build a legacy.
I want to face and take control of my money. I want to actually double it instead of just defaulting it and doing all this stuff, it kind of feels like a man. Ryan, we kind of feels like, well, isn't that like my husband's nine to five job. And so I'm going to ask you a really personal question. Okay. Just cause I know your wife.
Okay. Um, and she's a powerhouse, right? She's an author. We'll link to her book. It's amazing. My daughters read it. And, and what role does a marriage play in facing responsibility for the darkness? Shiny light on the darkness of whatever is going on. Finance.
Ryan: Um, [00:17:00] so here's, this is going to be a very, uh, interesting answer to that, uh, to that question because here is the most powerful thing you can do as a, as a, as a married couple talk about.
But don't talk about money in the sense of how much do we have in our checking account? Because again, that's where things get wonky, right? Your spouse is going to have a different belief system more than likely around money. You, then you do, you know, there might be a spender. There might be a saver.
There might be someone who's a planner. There might be someone who's free, spirit, whatever it is. And so when you talk about money, you're usually talking about your belief systems and your values, but you're mixing it up. So put money to the side, then step back and talk about what you really want. That opens up a whole world of possibility and conversations.
Because when you are clear about what you want and about what your spouse wants and about what your core values are, then it's easy to go back to the topic of money and say, okay, money. All it is it's. That's all money is. It's a tool for us collectively to get what we [00:18:00] want both now and in the future.
And if we can look at money as a tool, we remove some of this wonky, you know, belief system that we put on some money and we can truly start to understand my wife or my husband. XYZ. This is what he or she wants. And how now do we use money as a tool to get that? And when my wife and I started doing this, it was a really Rocky road to start off with, to be honest with you, because we talked about money, but we weren't talking about money and how I came in with this.
Hey, this is what we're going to. Like, we're going to plan for retirement. We're going to save every single dollar that we have. And she's like, you know what, Ryan life isn't when we're 65, your kids are growing up right here in front of your face and you're missing it. And when we can remove the topic of money and get clear on what we wanted and I gave her permission to want what she wanted and she gave me permission to want what I want.
And then we gave each other permission to want what we want together. Ah, dude, it radically altered the conversation on money and now having conversations around money are one of the funniest [00:19:00] things that we, that we do because money is a tool to fulfill future and current dreams that we have period.
And that focuses your spending. It focuses your conversation focuses how you think about money, how you use money and ultimately what you're going to do to get. And
Sarah: I love that you have gone through the tough conversation. Like you're talking about being told, like you're missing this, you are missing.
You're like, my heart is
like,
Ryan: Ooh. Yeah, it hurts so bad because she was right. She was like,
Sarah: oh my gosh, what a brave soul to admit that she was right in that, in that moment. And I, and I think that that's a really important to shed light on that, that like these conversations are often not pretty.
Especially at the beginning. Right. Especially the beginning as you're getting into kind of a routine of this. So, so as you guys have kind of built this together, um, are you ready to become a therapist for a minute? What am I amazing group members? Because she asked something that I think is really, really good.
She said something about her [00:20:00] husband has a nine to five that pays really well. That has all the benefits that has the retirement that has all this kind of stuff. And she has an entrepreneurship bug and her dream is to really, really build something big and impactful and all those kinds of things. And she just feels like she will never be able.
To replace his nine to five income. And so Ryan, how do you talk to people that believe in what you're saying that want to rise up and live free and the cashflow can't even touch. The, the standard nine to five. We're not talking to million dollar entrepreneurs in here and that's okay. They're on their road.
What did you do early on? How do you approach
Ryan: it? Okay, so here is here's the solution to that, right? I mean, I think money is two parts, mental, one part tactical, and we have to fix what's going on up here. First. Number one, it's a game of. Number one, it's a game of permission. If that's what you want, declare what you want and get clear on what that life looks like.
I mean, I would invite that individual to step into that [00:21:00] world mentally, because here's the crazy part. Your subconscious mind doesn't know the difference between tomorrow and today. It doesn't know the difference between imagination and reality. It doesn't know that. So step into that subconscious place, like allow yourself your imagination to step into the world.
What would your life look like? Feel like, and be like, if you had the business that you want, then once you can see that dream, then you now know what, like, what is on the horizon. That's kind of your north star, but now you step back into the present moment and this is the scariest and the hardest place to look at.
What are you working with right now? Because the only difference between. Perceived reality, the desired route in the future. And the present reality is the person necessary to make that desired reality or reality doesn't yet exist. You have to become that person. And that's the journey of an entrepreneur.
The journey of an entrepreneur is constantly facing problems and solving problems and elevating and growing individually. And here's the crazy part dollars follow. Period. So if you don't have the dollars [00:22:00] that will justify the dream that you want to have and how much, you know, the impact that you want to have, then you have to, again, take that personal responsibility.
Maybe you're not creating enough value yet. Maybe you are creating enough value and you're not creating enough value for enough people, or maybe your prices aren't high enough for the value that you're creating. But look, here's the. If dollars follow value, why would you not want to create as much value as you possibly can?
And if the next principle below that is exchange creates wealth, because the reality of it is if I come to, let's say, we're in the desert, you and I meet in the desert, Sarah, and I've got a dollar bill and you've got a whole bucket full of. Right or let's water bottles. Let's say, I want your water more than I want my dollar.
And you want my dollar more than you want the water because you have a whole bunch of them. W if we exchange, like, if I give you my dollar and you give me the water, we both walk away wealthier. You got what you wanted. I got what I wanted. Exchange creates wealth. So dollars follow value exchange creates wealth and profit.
And this is for the business owner. Profit is a tool of validation. [00:23:00] So this gets now into the principles of how do we go from our businesses, our best investment to how do we validate it, your profits, if you don't know what your profit is, then you're not validating the work that you're doing. If you're not validating the work that you're doing, your business feels like it's not making a difference.
And you feel like you're a failure as an entrepreneur. And then you look with the money that you have for solutions outside of yourself. So exchange dollars, follow value. Exchange creates wealth and profit as a tool of validation that for a business owner, you have to understand your profits and you have to take your profit out of your business.
And as you take your profit out of your business, you'll reward and justify the work, the sacrifice, the effort that the ridicule, sometimes that you put in, and that profit is a tool of validation that, yes, my friend, you are. Yes, my friend, it might be a small amount of profit, but all my gosh, look what you did.
And once you've done that a few times, you get to go back to your business and say, okay, I now know what I want. I want to take my family on vacation. I want to stop being so stressed out about money. I want to put, I want to put my kids through college. I want to sit them on a mission, whatever that is.
You now have a [00:24:00] target that, that target then comes back to the business and you get to come to your business and say, what do I have to create to then create enough profits to make that desired reality, a current reality.
Sarah: Well, you're like ultra prepared today. Ryan, you are absolutely on fire.
Ryan: I love this topic.
I mean, I love like entrepreneurs, man. Here's the thing. Entrepreneurs are literally the solution to the world's problems. I mean, we can look out our windows right now and it feels like the world is burning. It feels like it's falling apart. And I believe the reason that. Is each one of us. We have these unique God-given talents inside of us.
And for whatever reason, we tell ourselves stories and we're afraid to share them. And we hide them underneath that bushel. And then we look external to ourselves for someone else to solve the problems. That's why government is so big today. That's why there are major conglomerate corporations because we collectively, as human beings say, Hey, you're smarter.
You're better you of. Right friends, the more we don't share our lights, the bigger the problems get. So I want to empower as many entrepreneurs as I can to live their best lives, solve the best amount of problems, [00:25:00] because the more we do that, the better the world gets.
Sarah: Oh, amen. Amen. It's like the coolest exercise.
If you ever feel like entrepreneurship is lonely, like look around where you're working and just look at the amount of people that are supporting your life that are. Right with all with what you are surrounded by. So I am fascinated by this third step that you talked about, about profit, um, equals validation.
I think that's how you said it to, okay. He's pumped. He's talking about, because another one of the questions that kept coming in is like Ryan not making a million Ryan, I'm not making a hundred K Ryan I'm in my first 20, 30, $40,000. And I have never. Experienced a dollar of it haven't even like upgraded my Chick-fil-A for us with lemonade.
Right. They have not experienced that. So I want to like first lead with that and then ask the question. What are the mistakes entrepreneurs are making when it comes to [00:26:00] profit equal, equally invalidation? What does it look like?
Ryan: Okay. So I'm going to lead that answer with a story and then I'll come back in and get tactical.
So I told you my very first business that I launched was with my mom. So I, I told you I'm a high school dropout. Let me give you a little bit more context. I am, my dad calls called me and knucklehead. Like I'm a very stubborn individual and my dad's a very stubborn individual. And we had the battle of the stubborns as a teenager.
And I chose to, you know, show it, prove him wrong, and now he proved me wrong, but I chose a broom wrong. It'd be a little bit of time, but once I got my life figured out, All of the social conditioning kicked in for me. Like I grew up with an entrepreneur mom. Um, I saw the world as an entrepreneurial, but as soon as I got my life figured out and I've said, okay, I need to be a responsible human being social conditioning was go to school, get a job, do the things.
Right. I went and did all the things. And I found myself miserable. I had this burning desire in the back of my head to be more, to accomplish more, to do more, but yet I was told fit in this box and do it this way. Um, and so eventually I got out of that game and [00:27:00] eventually I launched the business that I'm now in today.
And I'm super grateful for. The very first thing I did, why I still had a nine to five job after college was I decided to exercise that entrepreneurial muscle again. And I was struggling a lot with anxiety, a lot with anxiety and, um, my mom amazing individual that she is. She helped walk me through this and work me through this.
I mean, to a level of. Panic attacks. It was really hard and I didn't know what to do. And she walked me through a lot of different holistic exercises. Cause I was very resistant to getting on medication for previous, you know, experiences as a, as a teenager, I didn't want to do that. I wanted to have a holistic solution to it.
And so she walked me through a lot of cool things. I then ended up launching a business called empowered life solutions, where I was helping corporate executives who struggle with anxiety, depression, move to a space of happiness and healthy living. And it took a lot of work and a lot of effort, but it.
Passion project for me, it was more therapeutic for me than anything else. Sure. But after about six to eight months, I had money. So. And after about two [00:28:00] years, I was making more money doing that than I was a full-time corporate job with corporate degrees or college degrees and all that other stuff. And the interesting part was I had all this money in the accounts and I was now working essentially two jobs.
I had a side hustle that was taking a lot of my time, effort and attention. I had a full-time corporate job, and I was trying to balance these two worlds. And I had all these, all this money in a business bank accounts, and I was afraid of. I was afraid of that money in a business bank account because I didn't really know how profitable the business was.
I didn't really know what my marketing expenses were going to be. And I didn't really know. The biggest fear I had was how much of that money was actually mine. And I felt if I just left it in the business banking, Maybe no one will look at it. Maybe don't have to pay any taxes on it. I went for a year and a half building up tax liabilities saying, what the heck am I going to do?
Um, but here's the reality. That's why most businesses struggle is most businesses never validate. It's not just profit in a business bank account. You have to take the money out as profit to the [00:29:00] owner and you do it in two. You do it in two ways, your business, as soon as possible needs to start paying you a salary.
I don't care if that's $500 a month, you are an employee of your business. First and foremost. Now over time, you might hire other employees to do some of the jobs that you're doing, but you're an employee. And if your business isn't paying you, then you never received that validation. And eventually the thing that you love, you begin to resent because you never get validated.
I mean, you would never sh. If, if w we talked about husbands, like if your husband is going to work at his nine to five job, and he never got a paycheck, how long would he go to the job that would stop immediately? Right. So. You have to treat your business the same way. Number one, you pay yourself a salary and the salary should be minimum because the more you pay yourself on a salary, the more you're going to pay in taxes, then your profits.
And this is, ah, man, I don't know if we want to get into structures or anything like that, but this is what we help entrepreneurs do is structure the way they claim their money. So they reduce their tax [00:30:00] bill because all of those taxes that I had in that business bank account back in the day, I went to all these CPAs and like, oh Ryan, yeah, you owe a lot of taxes.
And I kept telling him, I keep hearing these things, that business owners have tax deductions. How do I get some of those tax deductions? And they kept telling me you don't get tax deductions, you can't do it. And it all came down to structure. How do we structure our business in a way that we can tell the IRS, Hey, I'm a business owner.
And as a business owner, this is how I claim my income. And if I claim my income in this way, I get to pay less in taxes. The tax code is literally. I mean, think about it this way. There are thousands of pages in the tax code. The very first statement in the tax code is everything you make is taxable the rest of the thousand pages.
It's a treasure map written for business owners. It's literally telling you how you need to structure your business and your income to take advantage of the tax deductions because the IRS they're using the tax code. To incentivize business owners, to incentivize individuals to go out and create value, to create [00:31:00] jobs, to solve problems.
And they use the tax code as a way to drive that behavior. But most tax professionals serve employees. 97% of the workforce are employees. And so most tax professionals serve employees. And if you're an employee, guess what? You only afford deductions charitable contributions, get married, have some kids buy a house, put money in a 401k.
There's nothing else available to you. So the thousands of pages aren't written for employees, but if you're a business owner, even if it's just a business, The entire tax code is your playbook. Okay.
Sarah: Okay. So I hope my people are so listening live because the energy is like exploding because do you see by Ryan Lee is here.
Okay. Because it is so tempting to just be surrounded by oh, small businesses. Get hit. Right. I'll make sure you're setting apart 37. I was told set apart 37% of what your business brings in to pay Texas 37%. So all of a sudden, a hundred [00:32:00] thousand dollars doesn't look so sexy anymore. Right? Just totally made my heart just hurt.
Anyway, I am so grateful that you are bringing this abundant approach to say, look, it's kind of like, Sarah's grill. Like it's there for your benefit and your favor. You gotta learn how to turn the stupid gorilla. Right. So you said, should we get into structure? Yes. Yes. Like how do they start today? And I can already tell Ryan, I'm going to have to bring you back.
Cause they're kind of exploding with wanting you back so we will bring you
Ryan: back. Awesome. Thank you. All the individuals. I'm so excited to be here,
Sarah: but this, this is such a, oh my gosh. My business is real. How do I actually start treating it financially? Real. So as you start talking about, I don't care if it's $500 a month, you start talking about structures.
Can you get them started on the right.
Ryan: Yeah. So, number one, you need to be structured as an so without, I'm not going to give anyone specific tax advice on this. And I will, I will say that, look, you [00:33:00] need to have a tax strategy. We do a lot of that, but there are a couple of principles having a business isn't as co like you I'm in my basement, right?
Okay. Let's just make it that simple. I'm in my basement right now, but yet I am a business and all I had to do was set up an LLC designate that LLC, as a corporate entity, we recommend for all the reasons I won't get into here, designate that, designate that as an S Corp and then the money that you have, you're going to take it out of your business in two ways.
Okay. Are you going to take your money out as a salary, as a business, you have to have employees and you're going to claim income. You have to take it out, take out some of your money as a salary. Now, if you take out all of your money as a salary, if you have a hundred thousand dollars, then guess what?
You fall victim to the exact same tax code that employees have to face. Okay. And what that, what does that mean? The more money you. The more money you pay in taxes. Like I could bring up a tax chart right here and it shows you the first X dollars that you make, you pay this much in taxes, the next, the next, the next.
And you just constantly rise up the tax bracket. Okay. So if you're going to take all of your money out as a [00:34:00] salary, or you might as well go get a job now I'm not saying, go get a job, but like you have the entire tax code that was written for you. You're not using. And if you go talk to a CPA and they say, yeah, take it all out as a salary that CPA serves employees, not entrepreneurs.
Okay. So if you have a hundred thousand dollars, what we recommend. 70 30 approach. 30% of your money should go as a salary. So you cap your tax liability. Now you're only taking 30% of the profit that your business is generated out as salary. The rest of it should come out as a dividend or a distribution.
And the cool thing about that, that tax rates kept. So rather than climbing the tax brackets, you like if I make a hundred thousand dollars or half a million dollars or a million dollars in profit, if the majority of my money is coming out as profit, then I don't climb the tax. Excuse me, the tax brackets, my tax rate is kept.
So with that in place, you should never be surprised or afraid of the tax code. I mean, I literally now I don't get geek out about it as much as Brad does. Brad literally loves to read the tax code and that's my business partner. And I love that about Brad, because why [00:35:00] he's reading the tax code. I'm out mountain biking.
It's a really good partnership that way. Um, I love, um, I'm not even joking about that. We went on vacation. Well, we went on a business, you know, conference down in Mexico a couple months ago and Brad, I was out scuba diving and I was like, Hey, Brad, you going to come to the water? He's like, I don't like the water.
I'm going to stay back here. They just barely updated the tax code. And he was literally reading the tax code because he finally got away from his six kids and he had some free time to do what he loves to do. And he read the tax code. That's a weird dude, need a brand.
Sarah: We all need a better brand. Love him.
That is.
Ryan: Number one is all, all it takes is it. You have to raise your hand and say, Hey, I'm a business owner. That's all you have to do. And the way you raise your hand and say, I'm a business owner is you set up the entities that the IRS has structured and designated. And you claim your money as a business owner, not as a sole proprietor, not as a self-employed individual, if you're a sole proprietor, that's why your tax rate is 37% because now some of the taxes that your company or an employer, but would be willing to pay on your behalf.
You're not paying all on your own. [00:36:00] All you got to do is cross like check a box and have a strategy set up for an entrepreneur. It's like, now I'm over simplifying it, but that is as simple as it needs to be to start off and
Sarah: let me kind of like bear my testimony for a hot second on what,
Ryan: right. That we're in this community.
This is so good.
Sarah: It's the real deal. It's the real deal. Right? So the reality is, is number one, there is a lot of slack. When it comes to loopholes and, you know, breaking rules and you probably won't get audited and everything like that. And I want my people to know this is not what Ryan is teaching. Okay.
Ryan: Um, he's kind of, and just say one thing on that really quick, Sarah. So here's our core difference. Okay. The core difference is structures versus loopholes. If you're chasing loopholes, you're never empowered with money. You're waiting to see what the next little black hole is going to be. You're trying to find the person that can do the thing in the gray area at the 12th hour to eliminate the taxes.
And you're hoping the IRS doesn't catch you. Like that's not freedom. [00:37:00] That's trying to stay one step ahead of someone who's hunting you down. The IRS is going to get paid. And the longer you fight that the longer you're going to be in a pain, like a position of like pain and resistance. But when you accept the idea that active income requires taxes, your objective is to lower your tax rate acceptably to a level that's acceptable for business owners.
We are targets 20% on your active income. You should pay no more than 20% of your total income. So, if you're going to make a hundred thousand, you're gonna make 500,000, or if you're gonna make a million or more, you now go into the year saying, okay, X dollars is going to go to taxes. Then after that, rather than do you know all the things that you do after that, you should never pay taxes.
Okay, never pay taxes again. You don't defer your taxes in a 401k. You don't hope that tax rates are going to go down in the future. You don't invest in a way that's going to cause you to pay more taxes down the road. You pay taxes once, and then you eliminate taxes, ongoing. It's as simple as that.
Sarah: Yeah, this is so [00:38:00] good.
This is so good. And, and really to add on with personal experience on what he is talking about. Um, I went to a really, really reputable CPA that works largely with physicians because my husband is a physician. Right. But my husband isn't. Right. Like you said, like 70% of the workforce employees. So he had been doing everything.
And then I start to learn these significant differences that Ryan and Brad teach at altitude life and at cashflow tactics. And I started to hear little words, right? Like an S-corps. Don't be a sole proprietor. And then probably the biggest word that changed my life was the word distribution. Okay. So those of you who are like I'm brand new to this, I haven't, I haven't yet made my first 10 K in business.
I want you to know that these little words, seemingly little new words that you are hearing from Ryan are game-changers the word distribution alone in my taxes. The past couple of years from learning from these [00:39:00] guys has literally. Multiple five figures, tens of thousands of dollars in taxes because of the word distribution.
Ryan: Okay. You know the cool part about that too. It's structurally acceptable. You're not chasing a loophole. So not only are you like saying. Yeah, man. It's it's no one's patriotic duty to have to pay more on taxes. Then the IRS tells them they have to pay. So get to that limit and then follow the structure. I mean, that's why the tax code was written as to tell you how to be structured, but then once you're there you're you don't have anxiety.
Well, what if the IRS sends me down? What if that little loop hole closes? What if something, what if I did something nefarious? Like you're not second guessing yourself. You're paying required what you need to pay as a business owner in taxes, and then you get to keep the rest of your money and you throw out a hundred thousand dollars.
How different would your life be? If you went from 37% in taxes to 20%, that's $17,000. And here's the cool thing that happens. Every single year. [00:40:00] I mean, like, do you think your financial plan could radically take a step forward if you started keeping more of the money that you make? And this kind of goes back to where we started the conversation.
Sarah, if your business is your best investors, Which it is then your objective should be to impact as many lives as possible and make as much money as you can because dollars follow value and take as much profit because that's the validation that you need. Now that doesn't mean you take the money and go blow it.
So there's a strategy for that as well, but your profits is the validation for what you've done. And when you, when you realize that you want to double down in your business more and more and more than the best strategy, number one, investment is your business. The number one strategy, just keep watching.
Like, if you can just balance that out and making money and keeping money for an entrepreneur, that's 80% of the game, then investing becomes crazy easy. 80% of the game is just making and keeping money. Oh,
Sarah: and, and I, I want to introduce our listeners to really the fact that you are part of two. Two [00:41:00] opportunities really for them.
Right. Um, and that is that you're you originally started with cashflow tactics and it's like, let's, let's help people kind of wake up to how they're, you know, rise up, look free, all the things I've got, my, my own t-shirt and everything. Um, and then you started to really see this crazy group of people called entrepren.
Yeah, in which it just was so significantly different. And so that's where you've really created. You've created an altitude life, which is geared specifically towards entrepreneurs. And I really want to follow up with you about altitude life because entrepreneurship. In, I was raised by a mother who, who was a desert book author.
Right. So I grew up with the idea of my mom worked and produced and, you know, did all those kinds of things. I never had really any, any entrepreneurs in my family. Um, but one of the things that was such a heartbreak for me is that entrepreneurship is just so. [00:42:00] Risky. And so you start to say your business is your best investment.
And I start to look. At certain things like, well, my first year I had a launch in April and made 10 grand and then I had a launch in October and made 14 grand and it's like, yeah, that's how do I like, how do I even this out? Or how do I, it seems so incredibly risky because you can't predict on the salary and you can't predict on the growth.
So when you come in and because I trust you so much and you say I've got a dollar and I can help you make it to. That feels so far
Ryan: away to me. Yeah. And that is, um, you know, here's the reality of it though. Um, I really feel for an entrepreneur, for someone that's got that call in their hearts, the biggest risk that you can take is denying.
And the biggest, the biggest detriment you can do to humans is not facing that risk, facing that challenge and conquering it because Sarah, here's the, here's the reality. And you know this, and I think as entrepreneurs, we have to [00:43:00] constantly be reminded of it. But I told you before I came on this podcast or be, excuse me, before I came on this, uh, live with you, I was listening to your podcast and your word that you spoke not to me, but collectively to your world, they resonated so powerfully with me that I shared with them.
Sarah, your voice matters. Your service matters your solutions, what you do for the world. Only you can do, like, there are people that will listen to you that will not get the same spark as from anyone else. Like there are people waiting for. And every entrepreneur inside of your community, that's the same way.
There are people that your solutions, your talents, your God, given gifts, skills, talents, and abilities, you're here to drive and to serve other people. Because here's the crazy part. I really believe that a life of fulfillment is pretty. Okay. Now it's simple to say it's hard to live, but life of fulfillment is really simple in the sense that we get fulfillment as human beings when we are in the service of other people.
And when we can find and align our lives with [00:44:00] our God-given gifts, skills, talents, and abilities we get in this flow state. So that doesn't mean it's easy. It's hard to be in that flow state. It's hard to exercise your talents. It's hard to become an expert in what you're good at. But the reality of it is when we find what we're good at and we put it into service of other people, we feel good like that validates us.
And oftentimes in a business setting that is tied to dollars, it's tied to profit because dollars are the way we transact. It's easier to trade dollars than it is for me to come to the table with sheeps. And you come to the table with, you know, marketing services. That's just hard to transact that way.
So the reality of it is you'll find more fulfillments when you align with your God-given gifts, skills, talents, and abilities, and put them in the service of other people. If that is true, then it is your responsibility as a business owner, to understand how to structure and organize your business from a financial perspective so that you thrive, because here's the reality.
If you look at it over a 10 year period of time, Sarah, the statistics are clear 85% of businesses with. In tenure in a ten-year period of time. Now, [00:45:00] most people want to look at that from the outside in and say businesses risk. And a lot of times as entrepreneurs, we look at it the same way and say, it's risky.
What I'm doing is risky. But the other side of the equation is the 85% of businesses that fail, that opens up a massive space for the 15%, the 15% that are willing to do the work that are willing to grind it out that are willing to become the person necessary to make it through those first 10 years.
The opportunity is so crazy, man. And it's so needed. And so my challenge to each one of you. So we, we run an entire program where we talk about CEO metrics. You need to understand mathematically your business from the numbers perspective, you need to understand what your margins are. You need to be able to make decisions that drive profit in your business, because that is how you thrive.
And if you don't thrive, you're out of business. If you go out of business, my friends, guess what? There are people that you could have served that were waiting for you, that you let. Don't do it become the person. It is
Sarah: just so it is so, so tender to a crowd like this, that [00:46:00] is like, oh my goodness. I have already so much that I'm doing, I have a church, Colleen, I have kids, I have a spouse, I put her school, who's got the stable job and all those things that it's really kind of a God moment when you're.
Wait, why do you want me to do like, are you serious? Like, why do I have this fire? I remember sitting with a dear friend olive garden and we were like, why are we like this? Why are we like this in this crazy sense? And I guess what I would add to that is, um, you could go on YouTube right now and you could try and figure out how to structure your business.
With whoever. And I really wanted to Clare this strongly at the end of our interview here. And then you guys, I promise, um, Ryan, will you come back in the fall?
Ryan: Awesome. Love it, Sarah. I love serving your community. I mean, I told you where I started female entrepreneurs that I just have such a tender play, pay place in my heart because I was blessed by a female entrepreneur.
Like when I was stuck in the corporate world with my mom, my mom [00:47:00] who gave me the permission to embrace who I was. And to do something about it. And I'm so grateful for that because had I not done that? Um, you know, I, I really feel like I was on a path where I was losing so much and I kept telling myself that dangerous little lie when I have it all figured out when I'm making enough money.
When my kids are raised, when the mortgage is whatever right. Then I'll go back and figure my life out. And I'm not saying walking away from the corporate world was an easy thing to do. What's been the greatest challenge of my entire life to take the responsibility of being a producer and entrepreneur on my back, but it's been the greatest joy and the greatest blessing of my life.
I've experienced so much personal growth and expansion that I never would have experienced otherwise. And I'm grateful for my mother who gave me the courage and permission to do that. Oh,
Sarah: and, and Ryan, there is no denying that people can see. Right. That people that follow you and are part of your world, it's like, gosh, there is something about what they've produced as a family.
There is something about what they are working towards. [00:48:00] And so that, that kind of ripple effect happens. And while we're talking about business structures, that is part of you as entrepreneurs, as entrepreneurs, listening to this and watching this, that is part of your ripple effect is to get crazy, crazy, smart, and learn from crazy, crazy smart people.
That are actually experiencing the results that you want. Ryan is the perfect person to be here because he's married and he has kids and he understands your faith and he understands the idea of legacy and he understands the different of the importance of, okay, I'm going to do things a little bit different and that there's power in that.
He's really the perfect mold for you guys, um, to really, really latch onto. And so let me give you a couple of as listeners as we end this interview on how you can, um, be, be around Ryan's world more. So they, they really own a couple of companies, Tasha tactics for sure. And altitude life. And so I'm going to be sending you guys.
A link to him. If you will find me on Instagram and [00:49:00] say, um, like introduce me to Ryan, I will send you the link to where you can dive in and become part of his world. And if you want to like binge on content, the minute this training is over, go to the, the rise up and live free podcast, and you can just start immersing yourself.
In the genius of what, of what they have created as part of their movement. So Ryan, I'm so grateful for you beyond grateful.
What are your parting words for our female entrepreneurs?
Ryan: That was the fastest hour of my entire life. Sarah and I in the fall there. I just want to let you know how much I appreciate you. Uh, you are a voice of inspiration to so many people, and I'm grateful that you gave me the space and the opportunity to come into your community today.
Um, I hope today what I shared with you and with your community helped make an impact because at the end of the day, Yeah. Like when we can remove the constraint of money, which it's difficult to do in the beginning because we have to rewire our brain a little bit, but when we can remove the constraint of money, no one at the end of the day wants money.
[00:50:00] They do. We get distracted by money, but what we want is what money can be exchanged for and that's that the idea of legacy. And so if you can build a business and do enough work to raise your financial intelligence around what money is, what it represents and how it works, then money starts to become easy.
It just becomes easier for you. And when you can do that, you remove that constraint and a whole world of opens up to where, what might actually be possible. If you could build and live a life that matters not one day, retirement's not a destination. It's not this thing that happens out there. What if you could build and live a life that matters right now?
I hope that's really what, what we opened up today as a window of possibility into that reality.
Sarah: I love it, Ryan, thank you so much for being such a vehicle of inspiration and goodness in, in trying to create that legacy and live the life that we have always dreamed of right now. And we'll look forward to having you back in the fall.
Thanks so
Ryan:
much. Thanks. So.