Welcome to Action Solves Everything, the show for those who want to stop overthinking and start producing. I'm your host, Alex Montagno, broker, leader, and founder of Lockstep Realty. Around here, we believe movement creates momentum, clarity comes from doing, and the agents who take action are the ones who win. Every episode is built to help you grow your skills, your confidence, and your career. Now let's get to work. Awesome. Welcome today, guys. We've got Ryan Rominger on the podcast. Ryan runs a multitude of businesses. One is Intrigue Property Management, in which they've got somewhere in the ballpark of 400 doors under roof. Also Intrigue Real Estate with Trueblood and around the Indianapolis market where they're doing north of $10 million of business a year as a team. And then Ryan's also recently launched the Circle Investor Podcast that I was fortunate enough to be a guest on. He's got a million things going on. Ryan, what are you excited about? What are you working on today? Thanks for joining us. Take it from here, brother. Yeah, man. Thank you for that introduction. You covered all the bases. Yeah. So obviously, I've got my hands in a lot of pots and it keeps me busy. But yeah, today, the newest addition to that list is definitely the Circle Investor Podcast. So like you, I'm in the podcast launch mode right now. You know, just trial by fire, learning everything there is to learn about, you know, what goes into creating a podcast. And, you know, some things are almost like easier than you'd expect. And then, you know, a lot of things are— it's like, wow, I didn't realize there's so much that happens behind the scenes to get a podcast, you know, produced. And so learning a lot with that. And but it's been really fun. And You know, obviously we got to have, have the pleasure of having you on and, um, you know, that was really a, you know, a great episode, which I think actually that probably, I think that's dropping next week. So that's awesome, man. I can't wait to see it. Um, so as somebody with your hands in a lot of stuff, like, I think it's really cool, like, what made you one, like, Because you're not even from Indianapolis. So, I know you're a California transplant. And so, what I recognize and I appreciate so much about our relationship is that you're always somebody that continues to evolve with what you're doing and you're not afraid to try your hand at different things. So, what made you get into the podcasting space? But also, I want to spend some time today just discussing how you've grown the investor sphere that you have to the 400 doors and what that all looks like. Yeah. So I guess we can start with the fact that I'm not from Indianapolis originally. You know, kind of a native Californian, born and raised. This is sort of my, my tongue-in-cheek joke with that is I'm, you know, I'm from the Midwest of California. So I'm sort of, I'm not like an LA or San Francisco guy, the part of California I'm from You know, we don't like those guys either. So just going— I'm just kidding. But yeah, I'm, I'm from kind of the area near Fresno. So it's a little town called Visalia is where I'm from. And, you know, it's all farmland out there. So Indianapolis is actually the biggest city I've ever lived in. So I— but, you know, I grew up kind of driving to LA and San Francisco and all of that. But yeah, my wife's originally from Greenwood. So that was sort of the context that, that brought us out here and I knew I wanted to get into real estate after living here a few years. I was working in logistics for a few years. That was my, my first kind of job out of college, you know, trying to apply my economics degree. And, and, you know, I was always really passionate about sort of the operations side of things. I'm, I'm sort of an SOP nerd. I love just like figuring out the most efficient way to, and effective way to do a process. So, you know, kind of cut my teeth in logistics, but I was really just drawn to the Indianapolis real estate market because, you know, we actually bought our first house in Indy for, in 2016 for $85,000. And believe it, believe it or not, it was move-in ready. Like that was a turnkey house at 19th and Emerson. And we, you know, we moved into that house and It was— I was like, this is crazy that this is what— and, you know, I'm hearing from my family in California and friends out there that like what they're dealing with. And I'm like, this is an incredible market. I'm driving around neighborhoods seeing like, you know, half of the houses have a dumpster out front because they're being renovated by an investor. So I'm like, I need to be a part of this. So I got my real estate license in 2018 and I think that was kind of the start of me being involved in a lot of different businesses because I knew I didn't have a— like something you'll— the advice you'll get from a lot of agents is like, okay, think about who your sphere is. Like, who's your— you know, where is your base of clients going to come from to help people buy and sell properties? I knew I wanted to work on the investor side and I knew I kind of had this operations mindset. So I'm like putting this all together and I'm like, I think I should offer property management services because I want to focus on working with investors. And property management, in the start, honestly, it was just a thing to help me pay the bills while I built up my real estate business. But then I learned over the years, these two businesses just go, they go hand in hand. To be able to work with the same client and help them buy a property, lease it out, continue to manage it, And then years down the road, the point I'm at in my career now, I'm helping clients sort of on their exit from owning those properties after they've appreciated more than 100% since they bought them. So it's pretty cool to get to see that life cycle and be a part of all of it. Do you still have that property at 19th and Emerson? I don't, unfortunately. Honestly, thanks for bringing that up, Alex. That's probably I always, I do kind of point to that as like, that's one of my biggest regrets in real estate is, you know, I actually, we sold that property before I, before I got licensed. We actually, so we bought it 2016 and end of 2017, my kind of logistics life, I got an opportunity to go work with a company out west. And so I took it. We actually moved our whole life out to Southern California. For, and I really only ended up staying with that company for a few months, because it was not— it turned out to not be a great, great environment. But that's a story for another, another podcast. But we, so we, luckily, we kept it during that time, we turned it into an Airbnb, we actually were one of the first like short-term rentals in Indianapolis for for that time. I think there were only like 15 other Airbnbs on the market at the time, which is crazy. But we ended up kind of— we were moving back. And at the same time, our guest in the Airbnb, I think it was a guy who was going through a divorce, and he had booked it for a couple of months. He made us an offer for the property because he just liked living there. And he was like,"I'll give you $110,000 for it." And we had barely owned it 2 years. And I was like, I thought I was a genius. I was like, "This is crazy. I didn't do anything to this property. I'm making $25K here." In addition to, I leased this out on Airbnb. And then hindsight's 20/20. It's probably worth more than $250K now. So it's like, I think looking back, like, "Oh, maybe I would've held onto it." But But at the same time, I think getting that, the proceeds, it kind of helped us have a down payment for what we really wanted to do. Because the next thing we did was we bought a single family in Mapleton Fall Creek that was like a distressed property that we were able to like add value to. We did an FHA 203k loan to like do a renovation and we still own that. And we lived in that property for like 3.5 years, and that became our first rental when we moved up to Fishers. That's incredible. So look, I think in talking to so many people like yourself and high producers in the room, it's easy to go back. Like you said, hindsight's 20/20. I wish I still had it. But look, I think the trade in all of that is the education that you get to give today's investors that you work with the risk or the value in selling properties. So for you, it's like if you could go back and tell yourself, however many years ago that was, almost 10 years ago, "Hey, look, if you sell it, here's the risk, but also here's the reward of what you get to do, and here's the opportunity that gets created from it." And I think recognizing that and then hearing like,"Hey, we were able to buy this place." I mean, Mapleton Fall Creek crushes. And so you not only have been able to ride the market appreciation there, but also the cash flow from the rental. So kudos to you on that winner. Yeah. I'd love to hit on, so you're not from here and you move here, you tap into the investor sphere. And I think something that I find most impressive about you is one, you have this insane passion for Indiana. Your social media eats, sleeps, and breathes it. It's so cool. I love it. You have north of 20,000 followers and you're managing north of 400 units on your property management side. So how does somebody who's never lived here all of a sudden grow to this over such a short window of time? Yeah. Well, I mean, social media is kind of a crazy animal. The things that get you followers on there, are not the things you'd expect, right? Like, it's— I sometimes, like, I'll spend hours working on a video and I'm like, man, I'm gonna change hearts and minds with this. This is gonna be such a high impact. And like, you know, the hook wasn't good enough, so it gets like 1,000 views. And, you know, like, nobody shares it. And it's like, it's almost like this secret video that's just out there. Um, and then I'll, I'll spend, you know, 5 minutes throwing something together like, oh yeah, people might want to hear about this. And then that's the, that's the one that blows up and gets a million views. So everybody at this point has probably heard creators talk about that. And I, I'm kind of of the mindset that I think social media is at a point where you sort of have like your, your followers that just follow you because they have some random thing that they got it. And then, and then you have like your core followers, like the people that just really actually want to get to know you and are passionate about the same things you're passionate about. And I'm, I'm like, I'm making content for those people now. Like, I kind of like, I almost like don't care if a video goes viral as much as I'm like, hey, I just, I'm like you mentioned, I'm passionate about real estate investment. Even if you don't want to own a portfolio of real estate, like, like, I think everybody should be a homeowner. Everybody should own a slice of, you know, our, our country. If they can. So I'm trying to kind of encourage that and then speak to, you know, just the nuance, like you said, the experiences I've had, just trying to share that, you know, as if like I'm talking to my two best friends, like, you know, it's like, what do I want them to know about real estate? That's, that's what I'm trying to, you know, kind of put out on there. But Yeah, it's— I had one of my videos that kind of got some legs in the beginning was it had a hook. Again, back to like the hook is important for getting engagement. It said like, you know, part one of proving that Indiana is cooler than where you live. Which I think it's just, you know, it kind of scratches that itch is like, for locals is like, yeah, you know, like we've got something that, you know, the we want the— we've got something to offer the rest of the country. And for the rest of the country, you know, it's like, wait, what? Like, what is he— is that, you know, we— because we're in a place where, you know, like, for decades, like, people know it as, as like, it's the flyover states, right? So you've got your, your New York and LA, and people that live in those places, the massive populations that live on you know, the two coasts, they kind of, they view the middle as like, that's just, that's sort of the remainder of the country. And it's just having lived on one of those coasts, and, you know, I've been to New York plenty of times, like, Indiana, Indianapolis is more than the remainder. And, and I think having had the privilege of getting to travel around the country to, you know, pretty, uh, good degree. Uh, I, I think I could speak with some authority to say that like Indianapolis is cooler than people think it is. Yeah. So I, um, my brother and my best friend, we have a group text and they're both from, they both live in Michigan and they tell me all the time why Indiana sucks. And so when you dropped that video. I was like, here's another reason guys, why Indy is on fire. And so like, I used your stuff for that. So thank you for letting me do that. No, absolutely. And that was exactly the intention. I feel like, you know, that's, that's something we— because everybody knows about, you know, like kind of the culture of maybe the Midwest in general, but I think especially Indiana, you know, we have Hoosier hospitality. So, you know, everybody here is so, so nice and so, so polite and You know, I'm— it's almost like, what is it, the metaphor of like the wolf, the lion and the lamb? Like, it's like I'm trying to be the lion for Indy a little bit, like, and take on the wolves. I know, you know, out on the coast, like, you know. Yeah, that's so good. So like, You've got your 400 doors. What else are you doing on the real estate side of things? Because I think I've seen some of the flipping that you and your wife have done as well. You want to talk a little bit about that? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I used to, when I, when we, I mentioned I kind of built that first single family we got in Mapleton, Fall Creek became our first rental. That was when I sort of— I mean, you know, I had done— I'd owned a couple different properties, you know, done Airbnb. So I sort of was already of an investor mindset at that point. Intrigue was probably already up to 150 doors that we were managing for others. But really, once I owned my first long-term rental, that's when I kind of felt like, okay, now I'm a real estate investor myself. And I think I sort of joked for a number of years, like, okay, I'm just trying to trying to keep up with my clients. And I knew that from the start when I started a management company, when I prioritized working with investors, I was like, this is a really good strategy for my own real estate investment journey because I get to like have a front row seat to, you know, hundreds of real estate transactions. I'm seeing what works best and what I'm learning from, my, my clients, and I'm actually able to like, sort of like, it's like, okay, I learned a lesson from, you know, some clients will be like, really insistent on working on it with a certain strategy. And, you know, it's like, maybe I've seen that strategy play out before, and I can advise like, well, here's, here's the pros and cons. So not only does it help you kind of advise clients what, what you're sort of learning from all the transactions, but you're making all these mental notes, like, Okay, for my own investments, like, this is— so I think that really helped set me up to kind of start building a portfolio. And yeah, like you said, we've done a few flips now. And that's, that's a big one. Like, I've seen sort of the traps people get caught in trying to do value-add on, on properties and, you know, how to manage contractors. You just, you see it all when you work with enough investors, you're, you're eventually, you're going to see every type type of problem you could run into? I was fortunate enough when I got in the business in 2012, I didn't have any clients. And I remember I was driving home from the office one day and I drove by a FSBO and I called the for sale by owner and it was an investor. And she was like, "Hey, are you at the house?" And I was like, "Yeah. I mean, I just drove by. That's how I got your number." She's like, "Can you check if the contractor's there?". And I was like, "Sure." I was just going to say she asked you to do some property management for her. So I drive by. I'm like,"Nah, he's not. Here.". So what I started doing is when I kept checking in on the project, like the process of that deal, I'd be like, "Hey, I just drove by. The contractor's not here, but it looks like when I peek through the windows, it looks like some cabinets went in or it looked like some drywall work was done." So when we got all the way to the end, she was like, "Why don't you just list this thing for me?" And so at that point, I started learning how to buy, what costs were associated with remodeling a house, which is hysterical. You used to be able to do Full renovations on a Broad Ripple bungalow for like 60 Gs and then flip them and make a bunch of money. And now it feels like you can't get out of anything for south of $125,000. But it was spending time with those folks. But I really appreciate the idea of you're taking your own lumps on the chin too, to share those with your investor clients or others trying to cut their teeth in the industry. And look, I think So much of the investor space gets tainted a bit by like these folks on Instagram that jump on there and it's like, buy this, do this, and get rich quick on 2 rentals. And there are not a lot of guys that are out there telling the truth about the risk associated with the process or what things come along the journey. And to be somebody that's like passionate about the city, truly a boots on the ground, but also like helping through the process, I think really makes what you do special. And it helps differentiate you from so many others. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I can definitely say, having created so much short-form content for Instagram myself, I can see exactly how the way this medium is set up— I'm not even going to blame the algorithm, I'm just going to blame this is what we do now, we scroll and we, we catch videos a minute, a minute and a half at a time. And it's like, this is what the average sort of consumer wants from their media, and they don't have the attention span to, to hear all the caveats, right? And creators know— creators in the real estate space know this. And then so they keep everything high level. They keep it HGTV fixer-upper, like, here's the simple math, like, I bought this for$50K It was seller financing, so it was free. The seller actually gave me money at closing, and then I put $50K in and I sold it for 100% margin, cash-on-cash return. And there's nuggets of truth throughout it, and on a high level, it's like, yeah, maybe that worked, but they're not really telling— it's like an iceberg. There's so much underneath that you're not hearing about. Not to mention the fact that that deal that gets shared on social media, that person probably, if it's somebody who has a big following and they are out there making, they do enough volume of real estate that they have the privilege of being able to make content about it. I'll put you and I in that category, but there's just people out there that are just making content about real estate and it's like they might do 100 deals. They're telling you about the top 2%. Yeah, they're not telling you about all the ones like, here's a deal I lost money on. Well, yeah, I think like tying in the social media to all this, like any messaging, like nobody's getting on here and going, hey, here's me shirtless after Christmas. Between Thanksgiving or between Halloween and Christmas, I gained 20 pounds of fluff because I eat candy and cookies every day. No, like I'm guilty of it. Like, hey, look at me, I just cold plunged again, or here's my workout or whatever. And it's like, We romanticize all the things we do. And look, this is the same stuff with deals in the business. It's like everybody tells the great story about what you did for somebody else. But I think true vulnerability and honesty is like, I think this is a really good example. I was talking to a buddy of mine who's an investor recently and he's got a client and the client's having a hard time stomaching reducing price on a flip. And I was like, dude, you have a flip on the market right now that you're experiencing the exact same thing. Here are her limitations, here are your limitations. Lead from the front. You want her to reduce price, you go reduce price. And he's like, I am. And I'm like, good. That makes you and her in the same boat so you can bore through this together. And I think so often, look, Somebody like you who owns 400 doors, there will be somebody that looks at that and go, I could never do that. Ryan's unrelatable. But the reality is, is like the accumulation of 400 doors is one door over and over and over at a time. And here are the bumps along the way that make you real. And I think they get so lost in this of like comparing someone's journey to your journey and going, well, I could never get there. That's not real. Or I don't want to do that. And it's like, Well, no, I'm actually no different than you. I just have run this race a little bit longer. And here's where I've hit fortune along the way. But also, here's all the trophies of nonsense where I've lost in the education that I paid for. And look, the best way that you can share that is through sharing those stories, whether it's on social or with your clients to help them prevent those bumps and bruises along the way too. Yeah, absolutely. And real quick, point of clarity, I'm not, I'm not going to let you let people think I'm that successful. I, I, we manage a little over 400 doors, but my portfolio, I've got a little over 10. Yeah. So, but, but yeah, I mean, you know, everybody's kind of somewhere on that, that journey. And something I do want to say, uh, you know, As you, as you were saying that, I was kind of thinking like that sort of leading from the front. I, I think every— any agent that's kind of done enough transactions has maybe learned the lesson that, you know, the best thing you can do in a situation when your client's dealing with a really hard decision, you know, they're kind of— they're— they might be up against it or between a rock and a hard place. Is, is to say like, well, here's what I would do in this situation. Uh, and I'd say like, if, if you're working with an agent who's, um, you know, still gaining some experience, that agent, hopefully they just have the ability to try to like put themselves in your shoes and, and empathize. But what, what becomes even better, and it's why I, if I'm ever talking to an agent, I'm like, you get, why are you not investing yourself? Yeah, especially if I, if I meet an agent who's like doing more than $5 million a year in transactions and like they're renting, I'm like, what are you doing? Like, get, get into this, get your hands dirty. Because even if, even if you somehow make the worst investment in, in the market and you're like breakeven on it, it's still kind of better than renting. But you're, you're also getting this huge benefit of like you're putting yourself in your client's shoes. So you're going to be able to, when, when those complicated situations come around, like be like, like, yeah, I dealt with something similar once and here's what I did, you know, and here's how I weighed the pros and cons. And that is— that always goes way farther with a client than just saying like, yeah, that's a tough one, um, I think I would do like this. Well, yeah, I mean, I remember when I got in the business and I worked at Century 21, our sales manager, he had never been a realtor, so like he was trying to coach us and I always had a hard time with that because it's like, yes, here are the scripts and the books and the playbooks and all that stuff. But unless you've ever put the, put the helmet or put the gear on, like it becomes a little bit more challenging to get behind that messaging. So like, and I love this, I love the idea of like, if you do this job, like if this is a career path that you choose, you are selling not only yourself short, but all your clients short by preventing, by like not dabbling in like diving into the business. Of investing as well. And look, I. Think to an outsider and so many folks, investing in real estate is this fun, sexy thing. BiggerPockets podcast, Instagram, TikTok, there's every single place you could find out how to do all this and avoid paying taxes, whatever it may be. But I think you mitigate a ton of risk that is truly associated with it by simply being a pro where you're a pro. And so I remember buying some of the first investment properties I still own today, and it was like I bought them where I currently lived. So I'm moving around the corner, so I understand what rent is because I was paying the rent. And then I buy the house down the street and I buy the one around the corner, all while seeing 20, 30, 50 inspections a year as an agent. The risks that were associated with doing this became so mitigated. So I love the concept of, hey, I do the job and I also invest to create long-term wealth for not only me, but my future family. Yeah. Yeah. I will say, that's funny. We just recorded a training on choosing a location for an investment. Yeah. And I think in both the context of of being an investor, choosing a location, and then also being an agent, a real estate professional, there is so much to be said for concentration, like being hyper-focused on like this one, one area. Because yeah, if you do that as an agent, you could be such a great resource for your clients if you really know one particular area. And as an investor, you have the ability to actually really affect change on the market if you just get to even a small amount of scale. If you take somebody who owns 10 properties, if they're scattered all over the city, sure, they have one good rental, but they're not really making an impact in each of those neighborhoods. But if you own 10 rentals on the same street, I mean, you just impacted that street for better or for worse. If you're a good landlord, then you're making a positive impact on that market. I think yes on that. I think the perception behind so many investors is the concept of a slumlord, the negative impact that an investor makes. But look, I think it's important to recognize, and you and I have talked about this before, as an investor, If someone's renting your property, that's their home. So while they may not be able to own something, they get to live in a property that you get to provide for them. And I think that should be seen as a privilege and it should be seen as an opportunity to do right by folks. And our rental portfolio, we have north of 20 doors in it. And the one thing I've always been so proud of is being able to take care of the people that live in the house. So it's like speed to service. Hey, there's a leak, this is broke, this doesn't work. That's one thing because it's like, how many folks have you met in the market that are trying to get out of renting that are like, my landlord did this and this is how it was? And that, like, that for me makes zero sense. You own an asset, you don't take care of it, the person that lives in it can damage, beat it up, do whatever because you don't care about it. Why even own it in the first place? And when we're sitting here today, a huge part of the conversation is how do we increase housing affordability? Well, it's by having more houses. And how many houses in Indianapolis, just for example, sit vacant? And it's like if these houses were positioned better to rent to other folks, those are great opportunities for people to live and then ultimately scale and grow and buy down the road. So I think it's such a neglected opportunity to be done correctly. But I also look, I think that's probably what makes you a great landlord and a great investor. It's something we pride ourselves on as well. And it's a differentiator between a slumlord and somebody does a great job behind. It. Yeah, yeah. Some— something I'm really big on, and I try to— everybody on our team, like, you know, we work with over like 150 different owners that we manage properties for, and we, we work with some that are really great. I'd say the vast majority of who we work with are really great, but we always get that percentage coming through where like We have to really try to coach them. And then if it becomes— if it just proves that they are not teachable, it's like we've had to let clients go in the past. For you, we can't— we can't be a part of what— yeah, I mean, early on, I really pride myself when I, when I had less than— I think I was at about 50 units. One of my first clients who was really at the time growing a portfolio in Indianapolis, he was up to like 14 units. He was just proving more and more to be, to be a slumlord, basically. Like, we had a situation where he, despite our advice to get sewer line coverage, you know, he had a sewer line collapse and it was a$10K repair. We got 3 different quotes. It was all give or take$10K. And he was just like, I need you guys to go over there and find something that I could, you know, that I can blame this on the tenants for. And I'm like, we're pulling roots and mud out of this. Like, it's clearly like it was a clay tile sewer line. That collapsed. Like, this isn't, this isn't on the tenants. And, and also, like, we need to get this repaired because right now the tenant cannot use this property. Like, can't use the sinks or the showers or anything. And he was just dragging his feet, like, refusing to do anything about it and refusing to kind of make any arrangements for the tenants, right? Like, while, while we were dealing with this issue. And, and at that point, it's like, we, we weren't a big management company. It represented probably about 20% of our business, but we're like, we have to cut guys, we can't, we can't be part of this. And, um, yeah, I share that to say, like, I'm really big on saying to clients nowadays, like, you're, you're— treat your tenants like they're your clients. Don't treat them like they're your subjects. Like, that is, that's the, the difference. And I honestly, I even kind of, I almost try to shy away from using the word landlord. Um, like, it just, like, don't think of yourself— I mean, I don't think anybody Even though people who like are sort of slumlords like don't think of themselves as like a feudal lord, like, but, but honestly, it's like, that's what— when you are a slumlord and you're just like treating people like they're not people and they're just, they're just something on a spreadsheet for you to make you money, like they're just part of your retirement plan, um, you're a feudal lord. Like, you're being, you're, you're being that thing that, you know, we are trying to do away with, like You, you know, it might not be a service business to the extent that like short-term rental or owning a hotel is, but, but owning a long-term rental, like you're still in a service, you are providing a service, you know, and that is you're providing a space, you're, you know, hold up your end of the bargain. How— I want to pivot a little bit here, like What has been like some pivotal things in your journey from like you started at one day with zero doors and now you're managing north of 400? Like, how do you do that? And so like for the listeners who are looking to grow anything, like what things have you done? Like what are critical things that make Ryan Ryan that has allowed him to do what he's doing today? Oh man. Yeah, we'll talk about the ones that people should emulate that make Ryan Ryan. Man, well, one is I try to just— I— when you list everything out like that, I mean, I even hear it and I'm like, man, that's overwhelming. Like, who would want to take all that on? But I've always been big on like, it's that you take everything one thing at a time, you know, and you have to have a— I was taught by, I think one of the biggest things I learned in college, a business professor taught me like, you have to understand the difference between urgent and important when it comes to tasks. And that has shaped like how I approach every day of my life. You know, when somebody— it's— I think. It'S kind of funny when people do. This thing when they're like, hey, if it's urgent, just text me. Like, that's a phrase that always— it's almost like a pet peeve of mine because I'm like, that doesn't make— just because it's a text doesn't make it urgent. Whether it's urgent or not makes it urgent. And so I treat my email and my texts and missed calls, voicemails, I treat it all the same. It's all my inbox. And I have an organization system for this is top priority, this is second, this is third. And I work my, it's almost like a stoicism kind of thing. It's like, I'm one person with two hands and one brain sometimes. I can only work through true. Like, I can only do so much at once. So I have to— the biggest, the top priority is prioritization, right? Like, I always just have to have my list of priorities and just, just work through one thing at a time. And, and then you can measure, hey, am I constantly not being able to get to things that I still view as— maybe they're not urgent, but I view them as important. Then, then it becomes like, once you get to a certain scale, you have the privilege of saying like, well, I need to hire somebody and I need to train them. To, to take this off my plate. You've seen the Eisenhower Matrix? No, I don't think so. So the Eisenhower Matrix is like one axis is important, one is urgent. And so there's 4 boxes in that. Boom, boom. And then you want to live in the things that are urgent and important. Otherwise you start delegating those things out. So basically For a business owner, it tells you like what things you should never be touching. So not urgent, not important are things you shouldn't be touching. Urgent, important are things that Ryan should be doing. Not urgent but important are things you should be monitoring or potentially like delegating out. And then urgent but not important would be another form of delegation that you're pushing things out. So like if it's somebody that consistently brings you things that are urgent but not important, Those are determining factors of people that are disrespectful of your time or somebody you don't want to work with. But I'll send you a chart just so you can see it. That's a good— I actually do think I've seen that chart. I just don't think I've heard it. I didn't know it was called the Eisenhower Matrix, but that's great. I got a real estate coach. He talks about it all the time. I'll show you a diagram of it. But this has been fantastic. Where are you headed? What does your 2026 look like? What is next for. You? Yeah, next for me, I mean, we are, we're growing our team on the real estate side, so just trying to follow in the, in the very, very big footsteps that you've left in building Lockstep. But yeah, we, we have a goal of doing over $20 million in 2026. Love that. And we're, we're off to, I think, a great start with— I've got to write an offer right after this, actually. So we've got a lot of, a lot of people that are hungry to, you know, I think there's a lot of almost like pent-up market energy from 2025, like a lot of people that have been in a holding pattern that just are— that just don't want to be anymore in 2026 and they want to make moves. I would agree, but I feel the same thing. I feel like some of that demand's kind of started breaking free after Thanksgiving, and minus a couple pauses around Christmas. We had an agent, I think he wrote an offer on Christmas Day or something. He was texting me about it. But yeah, I would agree with you on that. Well, $20 million, I have no doubt you guys will blow that out of the water. For the audience listening, When you're stuck or if somebody's stuck, what are some things that you use to really create action behind you to get moving forward towards goals that you've set? So how do you overcome some of those mental hurdles or blocks that prevent typical people from taking. Action? Yeah. So I think a two-part answer to that. I actually just, just sort of recorded a video in the car talking about this earlier today. And honestly, a part of it is like, go to the gym. Like everybody. Yeah. Like, I don't care if you're a, you know, a big meathead or lifter or like, or you're whatever the exercise is like, you— everybody should have some sort of exercise regimen, even if like you don't think you have any sort of physical goals to hit, but It's such a mental thing for me. Like, I have to— I'll start some days where it's like I'm not feeling motivated at all, like I'm dragging. And it's like, if I can just force myself to go to the gym and push through that, you know, break a sweat, the day is completely different after that. So that's kind of part of the answer for me. And then I guess the second part kind of goes with this, which is like, it goes back to that, like kind of one thing at a time tasks. Like occasionally if I'm just feeling a real lack of motivation or maybe the next task that is, is a top priority, but it's just, it's like one of those big hairy, like that's gonna, like, you know, that's gonna be a lot to get into. I sort of have like this ADD brain too, where I'm not officially diagnosed, but like, I feel like sometimes I'm like, I just can't get into it. So one thing that really helps me overcome is, hey, just pick like 5 small things that are easy and just do them. And just like, so maybe that's, you know, just going through and sometimes it's like organizing my tools at home or like, you know, just doing like, or, you know, cleaning your room, like making your— it's making your bed, you know, it's like, yeah, talk about that. Honestly, for me, and I think probably most people, that kind of stuff is super effective. Just like our— your mind is honestly your, your biggest tool. And when you're— when your mind's not working the way that it, that it needs to, I think a lot of people underestimate how much that's holding them back. Yeah, so get your mind right. Get your mind right and get in the gym. I love that. You're not the first person that that has said that. I think of the handful of people that we talked to, it's come from a majority of people. So I love that. But dude, this was awesome. Thanks so much for everything that you shared today. Congrats on all your success. How can folks find you online? Yeah, so probably the best place you can go follow me on Instagram, realtor.ryan. So Realtor Ryan on Instagram. Um, you can follow our pages, Intrigue for Sale and Intrigue PM. Um, we're, we're out there. Um, I'm on TikTok too. Don't— I'm not as active on TikTok, but you know, it's, it— that's there if that's your preferred platform. Um, but yeah, Ryan Rominger, just Google me, you know. Awesome. Well, very, very good, man. Thank you so much, Ryan. Congratulations on all your success, and we'll see you out there, brother. All right, thanks, Alex. Peace. Thanks for listening to Action Solves Everything. If today's episode pushed you, challenged you, or helped you even take one step forward, send it to someone else who needs that same nudge. We all get better when we grow together. And if you're looking for a partnership that actually believes in coaching, collaboration, accountability, and actually becoming the best version of yourself shoot me a message online at all social handles@AlexMontagano. That's Alex. Montagano. Remember, success rewards the ones who move. Take action, and I'll see you on the next episode.