Unblocking Energy Flow: Money Insights from Ryan Roi, Tattoo Artist Turned Financial Advisor

Episode Transcript:

[00:00:00] Lauryn: Welcome, welcome, welcome. We have Ryan Roy here today. Ryan is a tattoo artist turned financial coach and he really helps our freelancers and really anyone who doesn't wanna talk to the about money with some bro in a blazer, transform their relationship with money.

[00:00:28] Lauryn: So thank you Ryan, for being here today.

[00:00:32] Ryan: Yeah, thanks for having me.

[00:00:34] Lauryn: Yeah. So the first thing that I wanted to ask you about is the idea of having a relationship with money.

[00:00:42] Lauryn: So, you know, you, you say that you transform, you help people transform their relationship with money. So what does that mean to you as far as like having a relationship with money?

[00:00:54] Ryan: Um, I usually will ask people, uh, like I do these free consultations and I'll ask 'em, like, if you and money pretend you were in an intimate relationship with money, how would you describe that relationship? Pretend money's a person. What does that look like? Or do you, are you paying attention to your partner?

[00:01:14] Ryan: Are you loving your partner? Are you comfortable? Are you at ease? are you like, kind of tense? Are you avoidant? Are you, you know, like what does that look like? If you pretended that money was a person, um, how would you describe that relationship that you're in? you know, are you angry with money? Are you resentful?

[00:01:35] Ryan: Um, I. Because then you can sort of see like, that reflects your entire, uh, you know, experience of money. So if, if you and mine don't have a really good relationship, money probably doesn't wanna stay in your life as much as you, you know, if that was a person they wouldn't wanna hang around you very much, you know?

[00:01:54] Ryan: So that's kind of how I start that conversation. And then just really looking, diving deeper into, um, the inherited ways of being belief systems around money that we, you know, got downloaded from our parents or mentors or, or just, you know, society in general. Um, it's pretty clear that society has a pretty unhealthy relationship with money as a whole, and we just naturally, um, inherit that.

[00:02:22] Ryan: It's not like, um, We didn't choose the relationship we have with money. We really didn't inherit it. And so a lot of the work I do is about what, what relationship would you choose to have with money? If you could have any relationship with all? And then let's start to cultivate that. And yeah, that's, that's how I go about it.

[00:02:41] Lauryn: I love that. And just even thinking about like, okay, what if I was like more of like a motherly figure in my relationship with money and like, you know, how would I want to have a relationship with my children, you know, and, and allow them to grow And like, you know, just that concept has changed, has like, opened up so much for me and seeing that like, oh, there is a way that I'm being here

[00:03:08] Lauryn: and

[00:03:08] Lauryn: like, how can I shift that to shift, you know, the, the balance or healthiness within that area.

[00:03:17] Lauryn: Um, I, I really love that

[00:03:20] Lauryn: and so

[00:03:20] Ryan: to think of myself and my relationship with money as, uh, like I'm an artist with money. am using money. It's the medium that I can use to paint and create the life that I wanna live. And, um, when. Like any artist, like I have times where I'm like in flow, in that flow state and I have times where I have like creative block and like that energy feels blocked and that it's a part of being an artist.

[00:03:48] Ryan: It's not like artists aren't people that are infinitely creative all the time without any problems or blockages, but kind of, you know, at least in my creative life and and profession, When I run into those blocks or those things, I often try to bring play or looseness or lightness or I go for a walk.

[00:04:12] Ryan: And sometimes that's also how I deal with money when I feel like I'm stressed out or, cause I get stressed about money too, even as a financial coach. Um, but it's the way I deal with it when those things arise.

[00:04:26] Lauryn: sometimes I think about that too because, you know, being an artist and like feeling blocked sometimes, like how can you tap into that flow again? And I've, I haven't really, you know, thought about that idea of using the same tools that I use for like, creativity to unblock my money flow too, you know, which is leaning into joy and play and like curiosity.

[00:04:53] Lauryn: And, and bringing that lightness to it really, that you're, you're speaking

[00:04:57] Lauryn: about. Yeah.

[00:04:58] Ryan: Yeah. It's funny, I, uh, are you familiar with the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron?

[00:05:04] Lauryn: Yeah. So,

[00:05:05] Lauryn: good.

[00:05:05] Ryan: so much of that book is about becoming unblocked creatively and, and, you know, being playful, inviting in that lightness because that, that space is an open channel for anything to manifest, right? It's when we're tight and we're to force something or control something, um, the, the unmanifested cannot manifest we're too busy trying to control it.

[00:05:29] Ryan: And I often give my clients like the same advice. Like if they're like, oh yeah, you know, I've been marketing wise. Cause we do some marketing coaching and some money management coaching and um, you know, they're, they're, they're doing all the things and they're really just in it and it's tight. And I say, when's the last time you did something just for the fun of it?

[00:05:47] Ryan: They're like, I don't know. I'm like, you know, write down a list of 20 things that are fun that you enjoy doing, go do one of those things this week. And that's the business coaching I give them. And it, it, it works. It really, really works really well. And then I was meeting, I work with a manifestation coach.

[00:06:06] Ryan: Um, That guides me in my meditative practice, my journaling practice. Um, and, and we were dealing with some financial stuff in my company. Uh, we, you know, just moving money around and investing and things, and we're trying to solve some problems. And, uh, and he said, when's the last time you went around and just like, had a good time?

[00:06:26] Ryan: And I was like, oh, right. That's the same coaching I give people, but that's why I like working with coaches, cuz even as a coach, we need to have, like, we all have a blind spot, every one of us, right? And it's working with that coach that helps us see our blind spot when we ourselves cannot see it.

[00:06:44] Lauryn: Yeah, especially as you keep up leveling too, it's like you get to a point where you're like, you're so in it again, and you, you forget the things that you learned at the last level, almost. Because there's been so much success, and then

[00:07:00] Lauryn: you have to, like, you're, you're confronted with these new issues and then you have to relearn, like, remember the tools again.

[00:07:08] Ryan: absolutely.

[00:07:09] Lauryn: Yeah. Yeah. So can you talk a little bit about how you've transformed your own relationship with money and like what that used to look like to what it looks like now?

[00:07:21] Ryan: Yeah. Um, well, I used to be one of those people that barely ever checks their bank account. I just didn't wanna look at it and, and I just kind of thought that money was, Evil. It was evil capitalism. Um, and I, you know, uh, either I, I mostly just wanted to avoid it altogether, but I also like, wanted more of it to be happy.

[00:07:44] Ryan: I wanted to be able to buy a house. I wanted to be able to like retire one day and, and, you know, not feel stressed around money. But I was in that kind of like, hating money. Avoiding money, um, relationship and it, and it wasn't working for me. And, and I was actually in a coaching program years ago and the, the coach said, How's that working for you?

[00:08:02] Ryan: That money is the root of all evil and, uh, you need more of it to be happy. And I said, it sucks. It's not a fun relationship to have with money. said, well, you know, let's create something new. And um, I, that's when I started to look at money as just a flow of energy, right? And, and energy isn't good or bad, it just is.

[00:08:21] Ryan: It's just energy. So I, I didn't, I could no longer project my judgment. On money cuz money's just a flow of energy, right? And so if money's just a flow of energy and it's flowing around us and it flows to me and it flows away from me, then my only job is not to make, I'm not, my job is not to make money or create money, right?

[00:08:42] Ryan: Energy cannot be created nor destroyed. My job is not to make money, create money. I don't need to find money, none of that. My only job to not block the flow and to. my channel and allow money to flow into and through my life. And when I'm approaching money from that perspective, it is a completely different playing field than the playing field I was on.

[00:09:07] Ryan: And all of a sudden I could be with money. I didn't have to be afraid to look at my accounts. It sort of became like a game. It was like, okay, well let's if, if this flow. If I want to get it to flow right, uh, let me pay attention to it rather than resist it. Anything you resist, you know, is gonna be stuck and stagnant.

[00:09:29] Ryan: And, um, dad said, anything you resist persists. So if I, you know, resist money problems, if I resist, uh, you know, connecting with money, uh, then I will continue to have, uh, an unhealthy unconnected relationship with money. So that was kind of like the start of it. Um, I definitely read some books that were really helpful.

[00:09:50] Ryan: Um, the Richest Man in Babylon was probably the first book on money that I ever read. Um, it did, that book did not age well. I will say like in 2023, like it was written over a hundred years ago, probably needs an update. Um, but the, the fundamentals of like what it has to teach are really, really good. And um, you know, from there I just sort of, I, you know, I, I started a business, a very small private tattoo studio, and I just realized like I need to get on top of like, taxes and saving for retirement.

[00:10:24] Ryan: And all I wanted to do was tattoos. I didn't really wanna think about the money stuff that much. Um, but I'd already been kind of on this money journey and so I said, well, let me just get good at it. And that's when I started building automated systems for managing money for me. Cause I was like, if I don't wanna deal with it, Ultimately, I'm not even the greatest person to be managing my own money, right?

[00:10:46] Ryan: I'm an artist, I'm a creative, I'm busy now, I have a family, now I have multiple businesses, like need automated systems that manage most of my money for me. And that was a really big game changer when I started to automate, you know, 20%, 30%, 50%, 70% of every dollar that comes into my life gets told what to do by my automated system.

[00:11:10] Ryan: So that I don't, I'm not in charge of telling it what to do, and I found that to be, um, like the best way for, especially for creative people or anyone that doesn't wanna like, be, you know, in the nitty gritty spreadsheets all the time. Cause I, I don't wanna live my life inside a spreadsheet, you know? I wanna live my life and have my money support the life that I wanna live.

[00:11:34] Lauryn: Yeah. And can you talk a little bit more about that automated system, like the specifics of what that looks like? You know, is it something that. You have, you know that you have a certain amount of money coming in per month, and then on this date and this date, you do something with it and like tell us a little bit more about what

[00:11:55] Lauryn: that.

[00:11:56] Ryan: so there's no like special software or anything. We, we are looking at working with some. Softwares that, um, could help sort of create a better, a visual picture of, of how money's being managed. But, uh, right now there's no special software that we use. It's, it's just your actual bank account can transfer money within it.

[00:12:16] Ryan: And so, um, I open up multiple bank accounts. I even use multiple banks, uh, to, know, some bank accounts. Each bank account has a very particular purpose. Uh, some of them are for using. And spending money. And some of them are for storing money, some of them are for, some of them are not bank accounts, they're investment accounts.

[00:12:36] Ryan: And so I kind of lay out like, okay, these are the accounts, these are the areas of my life that I want to prioritize. And then, you know, being a freelancer, I don't know how much money I'm gonna make every month, but I have an idea, I have an average. And I've actually found that because you can't. the most part, there's some, for the most part, you can't really automate, like by percentage.

[00:12:58] Ryan: You can, uh, I think with like one AC account. Anyway, I, I never really did it that way and I found that I found an average and I started, um, basing my automatic transfers for living expenses. So like things like living expenses, for instance, you, it doesn't even matter how much money you make. You're gonna pay your rent and your bills, you're probably gonna subscribe to Netflix or whatever you subscribe to, right?

[00:13:20] Ryan: Those are like the base things. So I have a whole separate account that just deals with that. and by slowly, I. these automations. I don't do it all at once. If I did it all at once, it wouldn't have worked. And, and when I teach it to people, we don't have them set everything into motion all at once.

[00:13:37] Ryan: We have them do one part of the system, get comfortable with that, do the next part of the system, the next part of the system, and then, uh, you kind of grow into automating a larger portion of your income. So no one should try to go from 0% automation to 70%. It's more of a gradual type of thing. Um,

[00:13:57] Lauryn: Yeah.

[00:13:57] Ryan: that explanation helps.

[00:13:58] Ryan: I mean, it, it is something that, you know, usually takes people somewhere between like four and eight weeks with a lot of handholding and guidance from me and my team to fully implement. But I, I'm trying to do my best to explain it in a way that, um, that's helpful. Yeah.

[00:14:14] Lauryn: Yeah, and I, it's funny because before I was, I had learned more about. Finances. I was really afraid to open multiple bank accounts cuz I was like, oh, you know, is this, this is just gonna confuse things like this is, I'm gonna end up spending more. Or like, can you even have multiple ca bank accounts? Like I just, I had such a fear around it cuz I didn't know, like I didn't know you could use it to your benefit and

[00:14:42] Lauryn: like,

[00:14:42] Ryan: people don't know that and no one teaches us this stuff. I mean, I was never taught this stuff. I had to like dig and out of frustration like sort of create my own system. I actually like feel like I kind of jimmy rigged. I. Two different systems that I've read about together into what I call the money, the Waterfall Money system.

[00:15:01] Ryan: And it's, it's really about prioritizing money. And I, I find that this particular system works really well for people on an irregular income, whereas other systems might work better, uh, for people that have just like straight salary. Um, know, but at the end of the day, it, every person's a little bit unique in general, so you're always gonna even adapt my system to your unique situation.

[00:15:23] Lauryn: Yeah. So how many bank accounts do you have? Do you know?

[00:15:27] Ryan: Um, I have, I have some accounts that I opened that I used for a period of time, and then I stopped using so that they're, they're there and maybe there's some money in 'em. I'll just like, kind of let it go, grow interest. Um, but I probably have, like, I could look at my app. I probably have like five or six active savings accounts for various areas of my life.

[00:15:52] Ryan: Emergency savings is one of 'em. travel, um, buying a house, you know, I, and I separate that. I have, I have one for taxes. and then I have a business account. Actually I have two business, actually, I have three business accounts. I have two businesses and three accounts. And that third account just helps hold money, uh, that will eventually be dispersed either through payroll or, um, you know, paying myself.

[00:16:18] Ryan: Um, and then I have. Two personal accounts and it, I know it sounds like really complicated, but I only need to look at three of those accounts because two of the business accounts kind of just do their own thing automatically. They take care of bills, they separate money. One of the accounts I deal with regularly, and then I have the two personal accounts, and those are the only three accounts that I actually need to focus on.

[00:16:45] Ryan: The rest of the accounts just do their own thing, and I don't need to like be looking at them all the time. So I, I, I hope that like makes sense as to like, it could seem complicated, but once you actually realize that I'm not actively dealing with all these accounts on a regular basis, it's not, it's not that bad.

[00:17:02] Lauryn: Yeah, and it sounds like you know specifically what they're for. And so because of that, it's just, it creates more ease, like it's more of like a labeling system too.

[00:17:13] Ryan: Yeah, and, and ultimately it really helps me understand how can spend. Um, if all my money was just sitting in one account, I would have no idea what portion of that is supposed to be for this area or that area. Um, and so by separating it, and I, I've talked to people that they're like, I don't even make enough money to separate my money.

[00:17:35] Ryan: And I would argue that you do. Um, I don't care if you have $20. Not all of those dollars have the same job in your life. And, um, just giving them a specific purpose and slowly getting used to it in that way. Because when I started this, I, I was probably, you know, netting maybe 50 K a year, um, after business expenses and everything like that.

[00:17:59] Ryan: Um, and. It, it helped me save money. It helped me grow, you know, grow my savings, you know, pretty steadily. And I didn't, I didn't know that I was gonna be able to do, I didn't, I wasn't doing it aggressively in the beginning. I was just like slowly implementing it. But I find it's that slow and steady approach that always wins the race.

[00:18:20] Ryan: The problem I kept running into was that I would try to save too much money at once, and then I would feel constrained and then I would dip back into the honey pot and it would, there was no clear separation as to what was savings when I could touch my savings. And, uh, I, I call that kind of like binge saving.

[00:18:38] Ryan: And it's binge saving works as well as binge diving, put it that way, which is not very well.

[00:18:46] Lauryn: Very true.

[00:18:47] Lauryn: Gotta give yourself some, some fun every once in a while.

[00:18:51] Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. And just like dieting, like I lost some weight recently. I lost like almost 20 pounds in the past couple months, and it wasn't because I like did some extreme strong diet. It was like lots of small little changes that I implemented into my life that built a more sustainable way of dealing with food.

[00:19:08] Ryan: the same thing with money.

[00:19:10] Lauryn: Yeah. So I've been learning about the Profit First Method recently, which is like you pay yourself first,

[00:19:16] Lauryn: you keep your expenses. Like low, like making sure that you can pay yourself first, so, so that you can grow your profit. So is that something that you kind of you know, use in.

[00:19:28] Ryan: that's a, a big part of the system, um, is, and, and you need to clarify what you mean by pay yourself first, right? Because if you have a ba, a business bank account, And then you put money from business into personal, that's not paying yourself first, right? The the Profit First system is basically saying that when money comes into your checking account, right?

[00:19:50] Ryan: Some of that money's for rent, some of that money's for groceries, some of it's for utilities and clothes and all this stuff. And so you've paid your landlord and the grocery store, and the clothing store and the subscriptions you've paid Everyone else. what portion of that money are you actually keeping for you, for yourself, for the future?

[00:20:10] Ryan: And so you can't look at, uh, so like for freelance, you know, self-employed people, small business owners, money that comes into your bank account, that's not your money. Money that comes in into your personal checking account, that is also not your money. That's. Money that's going to leave your life, it's going to go somewhere else.

[00:20:29] Ryan: The only money that is your money that in the pay yourself first method or model looks at as your money is money that you put into the savings account and you leave there and you don't touch, or you put into the investment account and you leave there or the retirement account and you leave there and you don't touch that portion.

[00:20:47] Ryan: So the the one number that I find pretty much every single person and I've met with. Over a thousand artists I've had consultations with in the past couple years. Not one of them knew the percentage of their income that they're actually saving and accumulating for the future. And I helped them figure that out on the consultation, get a rough idea.

[00:21:11] Ryan: Um, but that number. Everyone's like, where do I invest my money? How do I see a higher return? Da, da da da, da. And it's like, I don't care because all I care about is what percentage of your money are you actually keeping, saving and accumulating for the future? Because then you could channel that money into an investment account.

[00:21:30] Ryan: But if you, you know, if an average investment account sees an eight to 10% return, right? you can only save 2% of your income. That doesn't really help you. I don't care if the retire, if the account sees a 20% return, if you're only saving 2% of your income. But if you're saving 20% or 30% of your income and you're only seeing an eight to 10% return, well that's great.

[00:21:51] Ryan: You know, that's, it doesn't matter. You don't need to go for those riskier returns. You can go for the, uh, the steady Eddie approach to investing, and it's a safer, more long-term perspective.

[00:22:02] Lauryn: Yeah, so good. And how do you, like, how do you personally use credit cards versus debit or cash?

[00:22:11] Ryan: Yeah. Um, I know there's a lot of schools of thought in financial coaching and, and there's probably people that this is like totally appropriate for, uh, to avoid credit cards altogether. That was never my approach. I didn't really have a credit card until I was like in my mid twenties. Um, around the time I started getting interested in money and realizing that like, I don't have bad credit, I just have no credit, and I probably should start to build that credit.

[00:22:39] Ryan: Um, that's when I got a credit card. I think my parents built a healthy fear of credit cards in me, um, just, just because they told me like, don't, don't, don't get into debt. You know, that was like a really, um, thing, the only, the only financial lesson they instilled in me. So I was really grateful for that.

[00:22:57] Ryan: But, um, I. What was I gonna say? Oh, that I, I, I view debt as a power tool. I, I view its leverage, right? Uh, you know, Archimedes said if you give me a, a, a lever long enough and a place to stand, I can move the world. That's what leverage is. So you can leverage debt, you can basically get tax-free dollars and then invest it into your business, grow your business, increase your income, and then pay back the debt.

[00:23:25] Ryan: So that's, in my opinion, the only way that debt should be used besides like using debt to buy an asset, like a house or something like that. But, um, so I, I use debt to invest in my business. Beyond that, I use a credit card for personal, uh, purchases, just for the points, but I pay it off in full every month.

[00:23:43] Ryan: I don't, I don't let that incur any interest. Um, I only, I, I've been using debt for years for my business, but I only recently Started to allow some of the debt that we, uh, take on to incur interest because the interest we were incurring is lower than the return on investing in the business. a period of time, and so the only, when I've gotten to that point where I could really clearly see like, okay, if we're paying four or $500 a month in interest on tens of thousands of dollars of business debt, but the business debt is allowing us to grow our business, you know, by tens of thousands of dollars every month, then it's essentially worth the few hundred bucks that we pay in interest.

[00:24:29] Lauryn: Yeah. And I heard you talk about on another podcast that you'd recently like, Looked at how much you've invested into coaching. Do you know that number?

[00:24:41] Ryan: Yeah, I mean in, um, in 2022, it was like $73,000 that I

[00:24:46] Lauryn: Wow.

[00:24:48] Ryan: and it's a tax write off, you know, it's continuing education, so I don't pay taxes on that $73,000, which is great. That's what I love about in investing in yourself is if you, if you invest in the stock market, you still have to pay taxes on the money that you put in, unless you put it in like, um, a traditional ira, in which case you'll pay taxes on it later, right?

[00:25:06] Ryan: But if you invest in yourself and you invest in education programs, business coaching, life coaching, um, you can write that off as a business expense and then you don't ever have to pay taxes on that money, and then you see a return on that investment. By growing your business. Um, obviously there's, I'm sure there's a lot of programs that are, that are not worth the juice, ain't worth the squeeze, you know?

[00:25:30] Ryan: Uh, so you do have to be knowledgeable about the people that you choose to invest your money. And you, you're always taking a risk, always when you invest. But you, you, you need to take a risk in order to see that reward. And I think something that people don't consider is that by not investing in yourself and not investing in your business, you're also taking a risk.

[00:25:53] Ryan: And it's the, the opportunity risk of only relying on yourself and your own knowledge to grow your business, in my opinion, is far riskier. Then paying someone that has a proven track record of how to grow businesses and, um, you know, build, you know, better financial models or whatever it is. If I'm looking for investing advice or, um, financial advice, um, uh, it, it's far riskier, in my opinion, to not hire someone than to try, you know, to, to, to do it all on your own.

[00:26:25] Lauryn: Yeah, I totally agree with that. Um, it's the same thing that goes for, I saw that, uh, congratulations 10 years sobriety.

[00:26:35] Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. This past week was 10 years of sobriety.

[00:26:37] Lauryn: So good. I'm at nine years, so I'm, I'm almost there with you.

[00:26:42] Lauryn: And, uh, yeah. Um, but the same thing goes there too. You know, the support. Like you can't, the, it's like so often I think we can, we need to do things on our own. We need to do, we need to

[00:26:55] Lauryn: figure this out. And it's like, if. That was such a life changing moment for me, of real realizing that I needed to get help with something that I didn't, I couldn't understand, I couldn't

[00:27:08] Lauryn: figure out.

[00:27:09] Lauryn: And I feel that like that comes with so many other places in your life too. Whether it comes to like wanting to lose weight or wanting to get healthier with food or like wanting to. Get more muscular or wanting to become better at a skill or with your finances, you know, and it's so many different things.

[00:27:27] Lauryn: It's like there's so much help out there and it, you know, it, it just, it does sometimes take an investment, takes an investment in time, and, uh, a lot of times money too. But like, you know, what's the trade off you spend your money on, like new clothes that. You know, make you feel good for like the first couple of times you wear them and then it's over.

[00:27:50] Ryan: At the end of day, all growth, all growth. That you seek in your life requires that you invest either time, money, energy, or all three. And often you can trade one for the other. So if you don't want to invest the money, then you're gonna invest the time and the energy, Or if you don't wanna invest the energy, you're definitely gonna have to invest a lot more time.

[00:28:15] Ryan: Sorry, and a lot, a lot more money. usually if you wanna reduce the amount of energy you invest in something, it's gonna pay, you're gonna pay a premium to do that. Right. Um, so I find the, the best way to, you know, in invest is, you know, what are the things that are gonna involve some of my time and energy, but that I could pay to, uh, maximize the output of time and energy that I put into whatever the endeavor is.

[00:28:41] Ryan: So that's, that's usually, you know, you, you either, but at the end of the day, you're either gonna pay in time and mistakes, right? Making your own mistakes, taking more time to do it, learning from those mistakes. Or you're gonna pay in money, pay someone who's already made the mistakes, already spent the time and the energy and, know, I, I can help clients build a money system in four to eight weeks.

[00:29:00] Ryan: That took me about six years to figure out on my own. So it costs me, you know, tens of thousands of dollars of trial and error and mistakes and lost energy, mismanaged money over many years to figure this out. And for a few thousand bucks, you know, we can work together and help you build those systems that will consistently save you money for the rest of your life.

[00:29:22] Lauryn: Yeah, and tell people where they can find you, where they can find that program.

[00:29:27] Ryan: Um, the best way to get in touch with me is really on Instagram. I'm really active, uh, through there. I've just tried to make it super easy for people to contact and speak with me. So if you message me, I'm very active on there. I will respond back to you. Um, if you have questions or anything like that, we can just chat on there.

[00:29:44] Ryan: If it seems appropriate, you wanna hop on a call with either myself or someone on my team. Um, we do, I don't know, somewhere about like 20 to 30 calls a week, so I can't take all those calls, but I have an incredible staff, uh, who are more than happy to hop on it. And, uh, we do like a strategy session and really look at like, what is a game plan that's gonna get you where you wanna go financially.

[00:30:06] Ryan: From wherever you are to wherever you wanna be, and we'll actually build out a bit of that plan on the call, and then if we can help you with that, great. We can talk about what it looks like to work together if we can't help you. you're hopeless. No, I'm joking. If we can't help you, uh, we will always point you in the right direction.

[00:30:23] Ryan: So, um, either way, it, it's a free call. You're gonna get clarity and a strategy around what you need to accomplish your financial goals. If we can help you do it faster and cheaper than it would be to do on your own, great. Let's work together. If we can't, we're just gonna point you in the right direction and, and make sure you get what you need.

[00:30:39] Ryan: So, either way, um, it's, it's a super valuable call and we've had tons of people that we ended up not working with that said they got a ton of value out of it. Um, and you know, that's really what it's there for.

[00:30:51] Lauryn: So good. And your Instagram is Ryan Roy, right?

[00:30:55] Ryan: Ryan Roy, r o I

[00:30:57] Lauryn: Rro I,

[00:30:59] Ryan: Uh, Ryan Roy, tattoo. Um, and that everyone asks, that is my actual last name I was born with. Um, and I just, the stars I guess aligned on that one. Um,

[00:31:07] Lauryn: yeah. Did you ever, Did you ever, see yourself becoming a financial coach? Is that

[00:31:13] Lauryn: something you saw as.

[00:31:15] Ryan: million years. Uhuh Uhuh. I was terrible with money. I was, I was just like, I, mind I was like, oh, I can buy this shiny thing cuz I'll probably make that money back next week. So I was like spending money that I didn't make yet, you know? And I, I was never, I was never excited about saving money that.

[00:31:35] Ryan: Came through shifting my mindset, which is another huge part of the work that I do. So along with helping people put these systems together, we, uh, have whole days, uh, that are dedicated, the, the whole session's dedicated to changing your perception of money, changing your whole relationship, the conversations you're having, the thoughts you're having, and the perception and the beliefs that you have around money.

[00:31:57] Ryan: And you can look at it like, you know, the, the beliefs that you have or have had around money in your late teens and early twenties. Probably worked fine for you at that point in your life, but they certainly will not serve you in your thirties or forties or fifties. And so just in the same way that you upgrade your computer software, right?

[00:32:16] Ryan: You update your operating systems, you update your phone pretty regularly so that it can run optimally. You need to update your, your internal software around money, the way you think around money. Um, and so that's really what that conversation is about. So if you've been having conversations about money, With friends or coworkers, and it's not really, um, nurturing you.

[00:32:37] Ryan: It's not upgrading. It's just more of the same. Then that's kind of the purpose of these particular calls is to have new kinds of conversations about money and in our, we get a ton of testimonials and case studies of clients that we've worked with. That's what probably the number one thing that I hear the most from people.

[00:32:55] Ryan: They're like, the systems are great. I'm saving more money. Um, but the mindset shift left me with less stress around money and feeling more at ease because the end of the day, uh, you know, like the famous philosopher and poet, the notorious b i g said, more money, more problems, right? You don't, more money doesn't solve problems.

[00:33:17] Ryan: You just get bigger, newer, more exciting money problems. And, uh, having a, a healthier mindset around how to approach those problems is gonna serve you. For the rest of your life.

[00:33:28] Lauryn: I'm obsessed. Like I think the work that you're doing is so important and I worked with so many creatives who struggle in these areas and, um, I just know that like, you know, as artists and creatives, if we can be good at our craft, you know, what else can we, we be good at?

[00:33:49] Lauryn: You know, if we can sit for hours and like, do. This creative work, like we can apply the same kind of energy and an enthusiasm to other spaces in our lives, and it's, it's just knowing that, yeah, it might be a little scary at first, but like, that's okay. And

[00:34:10] Ryan: The first time I picked up a tattoo machine, it was a little bit scary, you

[00:34:12] Lauryn: Yeah, exactly.

[00:34:14] Ryan: had someone say that, uh, a really amazing tattooer who I, I admire. This guy, Michael J. Kelly, uh, completed our course and he said, he's like, I feel like my whole life I've, I've poured everything into my craft, but I didn't pour anything into my relationship with money.

[00:34:29] Ryan: And so, you know, the three month course that we offer is a time to have guided intentional. Pouring of your energy into your relationship with money and, um, you know, we really plant some seeds. I, I've had people tell me that they, like months after the course, they like still hear my voice in their head, you know, guiding them.

[00:34:48] Ryan: So we, we bury some seeds pretty deep in your psyche and, um, I'm, I'm sure that that serves you well. So,

[00:34:55] Lauryn: Yeah. Yeah. And there's, there's plenty of other like YouTube videos that I listen to of you and podcasts. So if you guys wanna like, hear more

[00:35:04] Lauryn: of Ryan's

[00:35:05] Lauryn: story.

[00:35:06] Ryan: a podcast recently. I absolutely should plug it.

[00:35:08] Lauryn: Oh yeah,

[00:35:08] Ryan: if you just search the Artful dollar, we're on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube. Um, we we're doing a weekly episode right now, so. We just launched the first five and then another one launched this week, and then we got another one coming out next week.

[00:35:23] Ryan: A really amazing interview with, um, an incredible tattooer that actually went bankrupt at some point and then built a huge seven figure real estate business. And, um, you know, I just love those kinds of stories and that's really what I want to do with the Artful Dollar podcast is have. Conversations around money with people that you normally wouldn't talk to about money artists, creatives.

[00:35:46] Ryan: You know, I have a, a, a friend of mine, a mentor who used to live as a Buddhist monk and is now a Buddhist meditation teacher, come and talk about a Buddhist perspective on money. So I'm trying to shake up the money conversation. We need new. New words being talked about, money, new, fresh perspectives. Um, and so that's, that's really the purpose of the, the podcast to educate, but also, um, just shift your, your whole mindset around money.