[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to from caving in to crushing it, the podcast for those who find themselves immersed in adversity and choose to write their story instead of having others write it for them. I'm Drew Deraney, and I'm your host. Hey, Steve. It's so good to see you, man. Thanks for so much for coming, coming on, Drew.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: It's a pleasure. I'm excited to be know.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: We were just talking about how we were both up early waiting to get on to talk with each just. I don't know. For me, I just love getting a chance to speak to good human beings who have their heart in the right place. And you certainly are one of know when we spoke the first time. And again, I have to thank two people for this introduction. Jack Gillet said I had to meet Steve Ramona, and so did Bill Haasi. So, Jack, Bill, thank you.
Whenever you guys introduce me to somebody, I know it's going to be gold. And today, the gold is in the guest folks you're going to love hearing from.
So, you know, I bring people on who I know have gone through things in life and made a decision not to retreat from.
You know, we're taught our entire life that life is linear. If you do ABC and D, then e is going to happen. And they neglect to tell us that there's going to be some barriers that get in the way in between those letters, and life is not linear.
I know you've been through some stuff, reach back as far as you feel and find that one deciding that defining moment, that defining moment that hit you upside the head, because most of the time, men need to be hit upside the head with a two x four and something that you finally said to yourself, God, Steve, there's a better way to live. And you changed the trajectory of your life. I'd love you to share that 2017.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: My dad passed away at the end of 2017.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: I'm sorry.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Lived a beautiful life. Died in his sleep like he wanted to. But he was my best friend. Like a brother. He was with me all my life. But the last ten years, he'd come to my office.
He would go to weddings with me, birthday parties. We'd spend a lot of time together. And when I was growing up, he was an entrepreneur, a contractor.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:24] Speaker B: He ran his own business. So he's the first one to teach me the power of schedule and be able to have that free time. He'd come to my baseball game at 330, go back to work. But he made it to every game because he set being an entrepreneur, he was able to do that. He didn't have to work eight to five. And Steve, I'm going to miss your game. So he taught me a lot about family and about how entrepreneurship can be very powerful. So when he died, it was a jolt for me. And a lot of other major obstacles happened when that happened that I had to deal with. And it's interesting because when I went through his house, I found his Bible. One never knew he read the Bible. We never talked about it my whole life. We went to Catholic Church, went to Jesuit school, but we never really talked about the Bible and Jesus and God. But in his Bible, he wrote notes about his siblings. Do better here. I love him here. And I went, oh, my God. I started losing. I started crying. Wow. Put the Bible down on the bed and looked up and said, dad, God, I got your message.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: I need to dive into the church, dive into Christianity to be better.
And once I did that, things started changing in my life. And the biggest rise up, as you say in your podcast, which I love, was this podcast doing business with a servant's heart. My dad showed me that in my young age, and it reminded me when I started doing the podcast, that's what I've been doing. And there's many people like you drew out there doing that.
The last eight months since my podcast launched, my life has completely changed. More abundance. People like you and my network, I can share that network with my network. I can serve people. And I'm a business. I need to make money. I'm making more money I've ever made. And I say that because now I can serve more people, which I'm doing.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: I love that.
And I would give a lot of credit to your dad for that.
When a young boy has a male mentor, especially that male mentor is his father. And I've had guests on where they've lost their father young and their grandfather was their mentor. But the point being, steve is a mentor like your father, who realized the importance of having a mentor. And, boy, he didn't waste any moments with you.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: No, I think he came to my office because he'd go work out. My dad worked out though. A week before he died, he was working out.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: God bless.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: So health and fitness was a big thing. And that's another thing he taught me. But he'd come into my office and hang out, but he would teach me because I was the owner of the business, right? He would give me tips. I did this, and then we'd laugh and then he'd leave. And it was so special, even more now as I think about it than then, because when you're amongst it, you don't really think about it. But today, now that I'm talking about it, I was blessed every time he walked in the door. We're both italian. We had our arguments and some things that were blow ups, but we would recover, make up, hug each other.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: I'm syrian and lebanese, so just like the Italians. It's like talk with your hands, hugs and food, right?
And you're right. The arguments don't last. Get them out of the way, and they're done. And there's no ill harbor or ill will. Harbored. Did it surprise you when you picked up that Bible and saw him, the notes stuff? Did it surprise you that you were not aware?
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it did. Oh, my God.
And again, 2016, which I should add to the story, is my brother invited me to the church, okay. To this church. And it was great because he had a daughter, loved his daughter. We'd be going to church every Sunday and hanging out for lunch and then not knowing, because he died really quickly, but not knowing this and then seeing that Bible and thinking back, hey, in October, I started going to church, kind of figuring this thing out, and then this happens.
When you get a message like that, you've got to look in the mirror.
[00:06:43] Speaker A: Absolutely.
And of course, I'm sure it doesn't surprise you, the type of person your dad was, the fact that he was a God fearing man who followed the Bible. So God always has a plan for us, Steve, I'm telling you. And it's interesting, I used to fall to that, don't talk about God in know, because that was the whole narrative. Lately, so many of us are waking up, Steve, and it's beautiful to see people like you and me. No, this is not one of those taboo topics. Thank you very much.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah. And if you go to my podcast doing business with servants heart, I've got multiple, including our friend RJ, where Christianity has literally changed their lives dramatically.
Mine was big for me, but some of these stories are bigger than we talked about before. The show that people can look and we need right now, Drew, is hope.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: That's what faith gives us.
What you're going.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: It does, absolutely. I believe that if you have something to look forward to in the future, which is that desire for something, and you have faith that it's going to happen because you're following God's will.
A lot of us, especially men, we think we can control our lives, right? So we may point ourselves in the right direction and if the results aren't happening quick enough, we step in the way and ruin the whole thing. Step out of the way. God will take care of the results, Steve.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: So after dad passed and you got through that and the other hardships, why didn't you retreat? What made you move forward and do what you're doing?
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Easy answer. Family and friends.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: Okay, good. You didn't shun that support like a lot of us do. Okay, good for you.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: They came to me hard, beautiful.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: Good for them.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: Here's what you're dealing with. We're here for you. My best friend. My best friend Mike, he was there supporting me, telling me things I need to.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: And I listened. So that was powerful. I was able to listen. Good for you. That's one of the skills we need all learn better, is to listen. But family and support was the incredible support for me.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Right. Well, like you said, though, if you weren't ready to listen, you wouldn't have. We have to be both willing and able to have a paradigm shift. And you were able. If you weren't willing, man, it wouldn't have happened. So you were willing. So what were you doing professionally at that time? And did it change after all of this, what you were doing professionally?
[00:09:25] Speaker B: It did. And another shout out to my then girlfriend, now wife, supporting me, too, that you can't go down this path.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: Wonderful.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: You've got to get better. Good for. We're going to have a future, and great women will do that for us. Men is show us the path. We just got to make sure we jump on it.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: Beautiful.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: And I did, and I thank her and love her every day because of it. That's right. And I need to tell her that more, and I will. But, yeah, I was doing network marketing some stuff and kind of figuring myself out, and then I became. What was I doing next? Oh, I became. Now I'm part owner of Infone, a technology digital business card that I showed you.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Yeah, you're right.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: And it did really well with that. I became the top sales guy with them, and I'm still with them today.
[00:10:12] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: But what I learned was building a network. So an audience listening to this, this is a great tip that helped me grow tremendously. It's about January of 2020. I decided to start selling the product, and I got introduced to a networking group, and it was free. They had like 60 meetings a week. And so I looked at the calendar on Monday. I remember it was the second week of January. I said, okay, I'm going to do 20 or 30 meetings a week or more and just meet people. Not sell anything, but meet.
Do one on ones, meet, do one on ones, meet the same people. Hey, how are you doing? Build that relationship, which should be first and foremost.
End of six weeks, I had 500 new people in my network with a bunch of sales.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Beautiful.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Either referrals or them purchasing the product themselves. And that just compounded to today, I've got thousands of people in my network. As you know, people call me the connector. I'm a big fan of that. But I love connecting people because drop your wall. It may not benefit you when I refer you to somebody. It's going to benefit both of you. But the universe will talk to you.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: It'll come back around as a boomerang as the Australians Aussies would say. It would come back around. We don't know how, we don't know when, we don't know why.
And that boomerang has come back to me to really bless my life. Because in October or September of 2022, I was introduced to Pantheon, the group we've talked about. Right? And when I met with Kyle, the first thing he says, we're looking for 1000 of the top leaders that want to change the world. I'm like, I'm all in. That's been my mantra for 20 years. I just hadn't found the right vehicle for me.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: Right?
[00:12:00] Speaker B: And then I started doing my podcast and I started getting incredible guests, incredible people coming and then getting referrals for incredible people.
And now I'm a mastermind coach for Pantheon. We have a program called alliance where we help business owners do business together, right?
And I podcast coach. So I help people with their podcast and still sell the info product.
But being blessed and be able to bless others like you, Drew, I could put my head on the pill every night and go, you've done everything you can because we're going to have this type of thing in our life. You said earlier, but if you get that strong support, family, friends, the faith, people like you, that I call you a good friend because I could call you, text you, email, hey, I got this problem. What do you think?
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Time.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Oh, I would do this, this and this.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: That is so powerful because being alone, we can't do anything.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: No, you're right. When I first started out entrepreneur, I did try to do this stuff alone. And so the point you just made, when you made the up and down, yes, it goes up and down. If you have a strong support system and you take them up on allowing you to lean on them, it makes those valleys feel a lot less deep, doesn't it?
It really does.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: A graph.
You see a financial graph, s and p r. And I think it was for 20 years.
I'm a finance guy, but I don't know the numbers. But you see a look, it's a little dip it up, a little dip it up. And that's what we want to do in life, right? The higher level we go, it comes back to serving.
More money, more powerful people, more high level people.
I can bless so many people below me. I think the world needs to hear that more.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: You're right. And there are people out there looking for that magic pill in life, and there really isn't a magic pill. If there was, it would be do things in kindness for service would be the magic pill, I believe if we all did what we do for service in kindness, the money follows.
Don't go out expecting it. It follows, though, because there is something powerful about giving back.
Giving and then giving back and being open to receiving.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: You're close to receiving, you're in trouble, because then your bucket empties and you get resentful. So it's okay to be open to receive, but give, give, give.
[00:14:39] Speaker B: Here's some value I want to give your audience as well.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: I tell everybody I talk to, how do you do it?
You come up with all these connections and resources. Because I practice it every day. Yeah. Every time I meet somebody, say, we met, I'm thinking of ways I can help you. And one being a great guest on your podcast that's serving you.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: So audience go out there on Monday. I always like to start the first of the week. Every person you run into, virtually or in person, it doesn't matter if it's professional, personal, whoever you run into, the admin of the doctor's office, bring them value.
You figure out what that value is. Write it down if you can, journal it. If not, on Friday afternoon, I want you to stop. Take 15 minutes, write down how you feel, how the people felt when you served them, and how's your week end?
You're going to grow.
The people you met are going to grow.
And when we grow and go up, we're all happy.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Wow, that's great advice, Steve, because it is empowering.
You actually get a visceral feeling in your chest when you do some good for somebody and you see that look in their eye when they smile. You know how they're feeling. It does. It feels good. And there's science behind it. You got the dopamine and the serotonin and all the good stuff coming. So that's great advice, Steve. So tell me the focus of your podcast and what type of guests you bring on and how that positively impacts the audience.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: Three words. Motivation, inspiration, education.
I'm looking for guests that can hit all three points, even if you hit one or two. If somebody gets inspired from the podcast, it's a win. If somebody got motivated from the podcast, it's a win. They learned something. It's a win. But then you add all three together, two of the common. Combine, two of them together, the listeners are getting something from it. My goal is great stories and why they keep serving and how they serve.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: Wow.
Motivation, inspiration, education.
Three huge components. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So tell me about your role in Pantheon. What do you do with the master class? What does that entail?
[00:17:04] Speaker B: So what we do is, I'm one of the coaches. I work with Josh. We're partner up. We have successful millionaire business owners, founders that come together. I love networking. I run six networking groups as we speak. I think it's a great tool, but there's another level, and that's networking groups. Talk business. Hey, Drew does this, Steve does this, Tony does this. Here's how I try to help. So we talk business.
We take it to the do business level. How can we combine partnerships and build an offer?
Steve and Drew come together for 5000 for a month.
We're going to do this, this, and this, and we start sharing our offer to our networks.
So combining partnerships, joint ventures with our networks of large networks that these people have, the sky's the limit because they've made a lot of money. They may want to make more, but they also want to make an impact on the world or help people.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: So you could do an offer, $47 offer for whatever that is, put it out to a million people. And if that offer is helping people and they can afford it, we're going to make money because we have a million people. That's $47 million. Just use round numbers. But we have a million people that we're helping. Everybody wins.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: So it's just not building a business to take from people. In other words, be greedy. That type of is a. We're building win win win partnerships.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: The fact that you do things for service, Steve, I think anything you touch turns to gold. So you might not just be the connector, you might be the gold maker or something like that. I don't know.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: I love that. I'm writing that down right now.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: No, he's the gold maker, Steve. Ramona, the gold maker. So, Steve, I could talk to you all day. I do have two final questions before I let the audience know how to find you. So, Steve, you have the opportunity of sitting down with young seven to ten year old Steve, and you want to give him advice about life. What are you going to tell him?
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Easy. It's a great question. The answer is shut up and listen.
All right. If I did it back then, and if I listened to myself, I would have been a multimillionaire by the time I was 30.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: Wow. Listen, we have two ears and one mouth for a reason, right? We're supposed to listen twice as much as we speak. Beautiful advice. Okay, so switch hats. Now you're sitting down with young Steve, the young businessman entrepreneur, ready to go into business for himself, and you desperately want to give him some business advice to help him succeed. What are you going to tell him?
[00:19:52] Speaker B: That's another great question because I'm 62, so I've gone past that.
The one thing I would teach myself, get better 1% every day. January 1, 2022 or 2024.
365 days in a year. You get better 1%, including Saturday and Sunday. And it doesn't mean doing business, but just you grow as a person 1% every day you've gone. Increased your strength, your power, your personal growth. 365% audience, I want you to think about that. Are you going to grow and be better? Are you going to be worse off?
Start today, September 1, almost, we'll say is the first. That's three months. So that's 90 days.
90% starting today. If you listen today or start whenever you start, if you improve 90% this year, are your fears going to go away? Is your income going to increase? Are you going to be able to serve more, give abundance? And finally, is your family going to be taken care of?
[00:21:00] Speaker A: You know, the know, Steve gives awesome advice there. And think about it. We make goals and we make them sometimes so big it overwhelms and scares the hell out of us. Steve made a great suggestion. You can have that same huge goal, but break it down into chunks. Improve 1% each day for x amount of days, you'll get to that big goal, but it's not in your head. You're thinking that small win of improving 1% and you can improve 1% each day. So that's great advice, Steve. Most of us don't break down our big goals into chunks and take them win by win.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: I know we're running out of time, but I want to add this. I learned a few weeks ago from a guest I share with everybody, goals are important. I like goals. But he said, jason Hewlett is his name. He talks about promise goals. We didn't hit our goal, Drew, for our company. We'll redo our goals next month. When you break a promise, you're cutting ties with whatever promise that you made. Like, if I promised, I'd be on this show today and I didn't make it and didn't show up. I just broke my promise. I don't care who you are. We're human. You break a promise, it hits hard.
So when you do that 1%, make a promise to yourself that you're going to get better 1% every day. And maybe it's a half a percent tomorrow, but the next day you do a percent and a half. You don't need to track it. But the goal, using a number, is growing. So make a promise to yourself. You're going to grow 1% every day.
Big things will happen.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: And then don't break your promise to yourself. And then you'll see.
[00:22:37] Speaker B: That's why we're partnered. I mean, I love talking to you because I forgot about that. That's the most important thing.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Most important piece, right? That's awesome. All right, so, audience, you have certainly gotten to understand the essence of Steve Ramona, and you're going to want to get more of him. So here's how you can, and I love this.
The first three people who reach out to Steve, and I'll give you how. The first three people to reach out to Steve will get a free consultation on how to start a podcast. All right, so reach out to Steve at LinkedIn. It's Steve Ramona. So go to LinkedIn. And on his digital card, infone that's inphonecbsr one, on his digital card. First three people reach out and you get a free consultation on how to start a podcast. It's a great offer, and I'm going.
[00:23:35] Speaker B: To add something to this.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:23:37] Speaker B: This is my servant heart. Those three people that reach out that mention this podcast, I'm going to send you a $20 Amazon gift card to help support your podcast. So I'm going to do that for you. Wow.
[00:23:48] Speaker A: Thank you, Steve. Well, Steve, I have to thank you for coming into my life. I am grateful that we're friends and we've connected. There's a reason. And you're an awesome human being. Please keep doing what you're doing because you're doing great things for others and don't change, my friend. You're good, man.
[00:24:04] Speaker B: Thank you. It was a great show.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: Be well everybody, thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and give us a review to help others find it. If you find yourself immersed in adversity and would like to find support from other men in times of struggle, please become a member of my men's supporting men collaboration Tribe by emailing me at
[email protected] expressing your interest and I'll get in touch with you. Speak to you soon.
