How The Street Art Scene Changed My Life w/ Ricky Leyva

Gordon Wat (00:00):

All right. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome guys. Hi everyone. And welcome to real talk, real stories, real change and today’s interview that is actually sponsored. And I got, I got pixelgraffiti.com where Mr. Ricky Leyv helping entrepreneurs to succeed using the talents they already have. Haven’t been blessed with, or even grinding with on some important topics about using those gifts to move forward in their life, whatever they got going on. You know, if you, if you want to look at anything else, go to a pixelgraffiti.com and talk to my man Ricky label. So today’s interview is how to take what already exists and unleash it to the world. And my, guy right here, he knows from the bottom up between everything else going, going on, that you can do this, right. Hi, my name is Gordon Wat. I’ll be your host today, and I’ll be talking to mr.

Gordon Wat (00:54):

Ricky Leyva with using his gifts for graphics. And he’s an expert also about what critical skills every entrepreneur needs to be successful in using the power of what they have going forward into everything else that they’re going on. Ricky Leyva is a hands on expert expert in the subject of basically using his talents from the streets and has graciously consented to this interview to share with some of the skills. And hopefully we can get them back on our show one day, but I just want to have that open loop right there and it must be, and you must be able to develop in order to succeed in this industry. Right. Ricky Leyva. Thank you again for joining us on this live interview. Let’s just jump right in and figure out where we can start this conversation. Right. Introduce yourself and give us a little bit of your background.

Ricky Leyva (01:44):

I mean, I think, I think he did a great job of introducing me already, so I don’t think I have much left to left to say so. Um, I’m glad, I’m glad everybody’s here watching. Um, I hope what we’re sharing with you guys, uh, helps you as much as we think it should help you. Um, and let’s just get on with it.

Gordon Wat (02:01):

All right. All right. Let me ask you this, mr. Um, give us a brief story of a how since the title is, um, what did I name this? I, I named this, uh, how to take what already, already exists unleashed to the world. Where did it all start from with you being on the streets, being from a artistic background that I know used to tag on the walls, because you talked about, uh, being the battle days, right?

Ricky Leyva (02:26):

So men, so there’s, there’s two, there’s always been like two types of graffiti. You have like your tagging where you’re going out and destroying other people’s property. Unfortunately, that’s, that’s what it is. Um, and then you have people that do murals and stuff like that. I’ve always liked both aspects of it. I’m talking to I’m 38 years old. Now I’m talking about back when I was 15, 16 years old is when I started and man, I got into a lot of trouble back then. Um, a lot of trouble. My, my, probably my biggest, the biggest trouble I got into was in my high school. Um, so we had all these books that everybody shared. So you’d leave the books under the chairs, right. Um, and I tagged probably over 700 different books and they found out it was me. They threatened to kick me out of the school.

Ricky Leyva (03:08):

Um, I was friends notice. I was friends with the janitor at the time because I was in trouble so many times that I always did work detail. So I became good friends with the janitors and all those people. And they actually got me out of trouble and told the principal like, Hey, don’t worry, we’ll grab Ricky. We’ll set him straight. And he won’t be doing this stuff anymore. So long story short, that was probably the last time I probably destroyed anything. Um, which was funny enough or on the time where I started coming into finding a Photoshop. Um, and the reason I found Photoshop is a me and my friend, Robert at the time, uh, we were looking to make t-shirts. Um, and we were, we had this idea of getting a hundred dollar bills and putting our tag in the middle of a hundred dollar bill and getting that printed on a shirt, or there was like the big, hello.

Ricky Leyva (03:48):

My name is, and you put your tag on there, those stickers that people would wear, like for meetings and stuff like that. So it’s a big thing to put your tag on that. And we want it to make shirts out of that. So, um, obviously needed some type of software to do that. Uh, so I found Photoshop and I say, wow, like I have a, basically a canvas unlimited canvas. I don’t have to buy paint. I don’t got to be on the street doing illegal stuff. Um, and I just, I started playing with Photoshop, man. Um, I started making all types of stuff and making, uh, I was really big into abstract art. It just didn’t have any rhyme or reason of what it was. I was just, I was tagging, I was tagging on my computer screen and I was saving those files and I, I still have those files in it.

Ricky Leyva (04:27):

I should probably put those on my side just to show people, but cause they look pretty cool. Um, but yeah, that’s what led me into this. And that’s what led me into finding, uh, basically like web design and graphic design and actually doing stuff for people and making, making money from it. I probably around 18, I would say it was my first web design client. I was working on my dad’s office at the time. He’s an insurance salesman. Uh, he had an agency, I did all their computer work. I was a computer tech at the time. Um, and when I got my first web design client and I saw that first check, I said Dad, sorry, but I can’t work for you anymore. Like I’m getting paid. I just got paid from one project. What I would get paid from you in a month. So, uh, I think it’s time for me to move on and start doing my own thing. And that’s kinda how I’ve been. I’ve been going ever since then.

Gordon Wat (05:10):

Yeah. I mean, you gotta understand where, um, Ricky started. He took something that got him in trouble, something what he’s passionate about and to tell you to truth he’s one of the most sought after funnel makers right now, just with his graphics. Because if you, if you looked at the ClickFunnels community, if you looked at the marketing community, he’s just like me, he likes to stay in the background and he likes to, he likes to show off his work in a, in a different way, because you know, this is something that, you know, that’s, this is why we, we kind of connected in a way, if he’s, he’s worked with people like the biggest names in the industries, he’s in the, if you’ve seen, if you’ve seen the funnel scripts or something, his templates are the ones they share. And they’re fricking awesome. When I say clean and I already knew that this man right here had something in the back that I just wanted to know, because I always like to hear stories about redemption and stuff. So the formal training that you had, how did that apply to where you became this digital powerhouse now?

Ricky Leyva (06:20):

Um, man, so like I said, so from where I left off, I went from there. I probably did. So I did, I started around 17, 18, messing with Photoshop, did my own thing until about 20, 19, 20. And at that point I said, because we’re, we’re taught this that you need a degree to get anywhere in life, right? You need a degree, but I didn’t know at that time I was young. I thought, man, I needed a degree because I need, I need this piece of paper to get me into, uh, into an agency and be able to be a graphic designer for this agency. So, uh, at that time I looked at, which was the best school. And I still think is one of the best schools right now to go for that. It’s full sail in Orlando, um, super expensive. It was a, it’s a vocational type of school, but they specialize in different things as they did like music, uh, graphic design, web design, stuff like that.

Ricky Leyva (07:07):

Um, so with that being said, I went to full sail. Uh, I probably went, I was in a two year program. I only made it 11 months at my 11th month. I was having really bad anxiety, really bad panic attacks. I couldn’t too much. It was too much school. Like I was, it was four hours of lecture and four hours of lab, uh, six days a week. And my schedule started at midnight. So I was doing the overnight session. Cause they’re kind of getting you prepped for what the real and it’s true. That’s, that’s the real life there. I have projects where I spend a whole night working on it to make sure I get it to my client in the morning on time. So they prepped me for that, but it wasn’t for me. So that’s cool. Um, I also, while I was in school, I realized I know a lot more than a lot of these teachers.

Ricky Leyva (07:46):

Like a lot of the stuff that I self taught myself, I felt like I was going to go there and learn more. And I didn’t, those teachers were been like, not to sound like I’m full of myself or anything, but those teachers were being mean to me in the sense of that. I had more skill than them. I knew more than they did. So I would kind of just chill in the back of the class with my feet up. I had an Afro at that time, curly hair, I had corn rules, like the whole, the whole nine yards. Um, and they were looking at me like, who is this kid? Like, you’re not doing anything, but when testing time came around, I would ACE every single test every single time. And I’ll, I’m like, you’re not teaching me anything. So I’m sitting here bored, like I’m bored.

Ricky Leyva (08:20):

There’s nothing to do. I’m like, you’re going to give me a test. They’re like, it’s to the point when I would do my final projects, they would check them three times. He goes, they thought that I was cheating somehow copying, plagiarizing something. They just, they were like, they couldn’t believe that I was, that I was doing this stuff. So I realized, man, this is not like this isn’t for me. I’m like, I don’t need this anymore. So that’s, that’s where I kind of took off and started doing my own thing at that point. And I found the warrior forum. I do, you know, I started on the warrior forum. That’s all my online, my online career started. I found the warrior for hire thread. I posted my portfolio and I started getting bombarded with, with messages of people hitting me up. But I was doing work for like 25 bucks, 50 bucks, a hundred bucks, like all these little projects, but I was loving it, man. I was 22 at the time. Yeah. I was loving… Man. This is great. I’m working at home. I’m not doing anything. I’m making, I’m making good money for what it was at the time. I didn’t have any bills at the time like I do now. So it’s very different. But that’s how that’s basically where my journey started.

Gordon Wat (09:22):

It’s so interesting because it’s just like, like you, I mean, I used to do math in my head a long time ago. Same like you and I got kicked out of like my high school classroom because they couldn’t figure out how I could get the answers without explaining it. Right. In fact, because I was, I was a messed up kid. Also. I had anger issues for myself. Like my back in the days you could get, you could get hit by the teacher privately. Right. Because they put them. So it was like, I got what they call a indefinite detention because I couldn’t figure out, they couldn’t figure out how, how I could pass the tests. Same like three times I take the same test at the same answers all in my head, everything. But one thing I lost that gift. I lost that gift because I didn’t want to be like, I want it to be like the rest of the people, you know, you own jackass is one of me.

Ricky Leyva (10:17):

So do you want to be part of the gang? You want to be part of the group. Yeah.

Gordon Wat (10:21):

I know exactly how you, I can relate to that because like when they look at, when they they’re actually the way I see it, they’re afraid, you know, and fear gets part of that when, especially when somebody has gotten more talent than you more drive than you. Exactly. You, you just don’t know it. Yeah. And it’s really, really interesting because it’s like, you know, there was, there was, there was one of your posts, Ricky, that really, really hit me hard when I seen one of your posts is if you, I think so your, your code was something. You see everything in layers. Yeah. I see everything in layers from editing through whatever small graphics I have to playing, paying cards. Everything is layers, everything, stacks and explain that so that some of my artists, cause when I try to explain it, maybe I can get some points from you. Because when I seen that, I was like, this motherfucker ready? He knows it. Right. And I was like, yes, not, but there’s not too many people that know that.

Ricky Leyva (11:22):

I think I’ve always had that mindset just because that’s how, that’s how Photoshop works. Um, Photoshop, uh, anything web design, like you always start with the base and your base layer and click funnels as layers. Uh, you start with your sections, you go to your columns and you go to your elements so that it just, it all stacks. So you always want to start from the base up and you can apply that in life as well. You always want to start from the base and work and start stacking up. Like you never wanna start from the top and start working down because you don’t know what’s going to support that on top. You need to, you need to have a strong foundation to be able to on that. And I always try to tell people when I’m, especially when I’m teaching them how to design them and teaching them how to work stuff like ClickFunnels always think of this in layers.

Ricky Leyva (12:01):

Like think of things stacking. So grab three papers for example, and you have the three papers and you stack them on top of each other. Um, you always want to work from the, from the base up and you can’t put the Mo you can’t put the top layer. So you put the middle layer, like always gotta, gotta do it in that order. And I hope that that sounds a little confusing, but it’s the best way that I, that I can explain it. It’s it’s, again, it comes from my, my long background in Photoshop. And that’s how it works. When I’m designing. I have designs in Photoshop that are three, 400 layers deep. And I’m not exaggerating. Like it gets.

Gordon Wat (12:32):

Yes. Yeah. I, I can, I can kind of, I can kind of imagine that because when you see, so like your graphic design, your you’re a damn good one. I know that. Thank you. When you see his, his stuff, his funnels, his graphics, you can see the detailed work on where he layered if you’re really good at it. Right. Great. And then when I look at his stuff, I’m like, Oh, this dude layer this. And I’m like, Oh, they say, Oh, this is where it’s at. No, I’m the same, same way. Like I’m Jim, when Jim and Dean’s vote, they explain it in a certain way where it’s all layering everything on top of each other for certain outcome.

Ricky Leyva (13:09):

Right. But it’s how you build a house, right? You start off with, it’s how you start with the, with the, with the frame, you start with the shell, not even, you start with the, with the concrete base on the floor. You have that. If you’re lucky, if you don’t have that, you’re not building a house. So kind of the same kind of the same thing, going back to your math thing, you, you brought up something that reminded me. So when I was in high school, I had this math teacher. And so I had, we had black books and these black books where we did our graffiti and these black books. And we would kind of trade them off where those are graffiti artists. So we can each time each other’s book. And that’s where we had all our stuff. So in school, I didn’t pay attention to school.

Ricky Leyva (13:43):

I’m a high school dropout. I had F’s and zeros all the way through. If you can believe it. I had a 0.0 GPA, the entire high school, my entire high school. I went to 11th grade and I dropped out at that point. Um, but that math teacher and I was really good at math also. But I remember that math teacher specifically telling me like, you have demons around on you. All you do is sit in that book. And that book is full of demons. And this thing is like, I wish I could look at that guy right now and tell him, like, you realize that those demons got me to where I’m at right now. Like, if that’s really what you’re and it goes back to what you’re saying, I think like, was it a jealousy thing? Do you think that’s what it was like?

Gordon Wat (14:16):

I honestly, I honestly see… It’s it’s when you see true potential in other people I look at, when I work with somebody right now, I got to see true potential, especially when I’m, especially like, for me, I’m on this hiatus where I’m kinda like serving other people right now. Right. If I see true potential and I can guide them with the same foundation work, like you have the layering into building these things up for them. And some of my clients are getting like unreal results, you know? And personally, I love changing people’s lives for the better using their own creativity using what’s already inside of them because, because they don’t even know that they have it. Exactly. And yeah, guys like, like yourself, see that in other people. And you know, it’s, let me ask, let me ask you this. How does it feel when you know that you can help them guide them so they can go off and do their own thing?

Ricky Leyva (15:13):

I think it feels amazing just because you’re, you’re kind of, I feel like they’re trapped in this box and you’re showing them, Hey, there’s a window here. And there’s a light that’s coming in that window and you can make it out and you can do your own thing.

Gordon Wat (15:25):

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s, it goes to show that, you know, from a person like me and you is just, this is raw on cut guys. Ricky, did they know? I was going to say that. I didn’t know if he’s going to sell it.

Ricky Leyva (15:37):

I’m nervous. I’m nervous to be on. I don’t anymore. I’m cool now. But before we jumped on, I’ll be honest. I was a little nervous going live. I didn’t know you were going to ask, but it’s all good.

Gordon Wat (15:45):

Well, like I, like I said, prior to this guys, we wanted to know like, okay, is it for Ricky? Was kind of nervous. I’m kind of nervous, right? Because this is mr. Ricky Leyva but he’s looking at me [inaudible] and he was like, whatever’s right. But I just told him we’re going to make a little fun because this is how to me interviews real. This is real. This is why I talk. I keep it as real talk real stories is true. Redemption. Let me, let me know. What would you see to that art teacher? Do you know that

Ricky Leyva (16:13):

To the math teacher? I don’t, I don’t know what I would tell them right now, but I, I know that in the last two months, I’ve probably made more than he’d made in that last year when he told me that. And it’s not about the money. It’s just like, like if you saw that talent in, in this kid at the time, why not, man? Why didn’t you grab me and say, Hey, or were telling me, Hey, you know, an art teacher. So go, maybe push me to that art class and, and further push them along. You shouldn’t hold anybody back because you feel like, like they have a talent that’s beyond what your understanding says to me. So yeah,

Gordon Wat (16:45):

That’s, that’s gonna, that’s, that’s one it’s to me when I meet people like that and I get kind of like disgusted in a certain way,

Ricky Leyva (16:54):

Gordon I’ve ran into that with clients. I run into that with clients where they like they, and I’m not going to name any names for various reasons. But anyway, clients say they want to hold you back because they almost want to keep it for themselves. And they don’t want to show anybody. Um, and they kind of want to take a part of your success and that’s wrong. Like really wrong. You should not do that to anybody. You should always, if, if right now me and you become best friends and I see that you have this amazing skill, that’s going to push you 10 miles further than, than I’ve been able to push myself. I’m going to push you up there. Why would I, why wouldn’t I, why would that make any sense to me? That’s a major jealousy thing. And it’s a major problem in this industry to be honest with.

Gordon Wat (17:33):

Yeah. I’ve been, I’ve been, I’ve been working with jealousy since I was six years old. Right. You mean, because I see certain things, I do certain things. I have a certain type of primal instinct drive. Right. And I’ve learned to tone down dish to navigate in certain things for certain reasons. Yeah.

Ricky Leyva (17:52):

You mastered it. Basically.

Gordon Wat (17:54):

I tried to, I mean, I must still student of life, the game, the industry, everything, because I always got to keep learning, seemed like yourself, right? I mean, let me ask you this, this question, Ricky, how’s that foundation work. You being from having D’S propelled you into becoming one of the most sought after people in with your designs in the industry. How does that help? How does it help,

Ricky Leyva (18:20):

Man? I’m a really competitive person. I have my core. So whenever I put a design out or when I do a design for a client, I always strive to make it look better than the last. And it gets a little funny when like right now I have a particular client that he’s referred me to two of his buddies and he’s told me, he’s like, Ricky’s I want to refer you to these guys. Amazing guy. He’s been great to me. He’s referred me to people and everything, but I told him, I’m like, don’t get mad when their design looks better than yours, because I don’t, I don’t stop learning. I’m learning every day. So, so I always strive for my next design to look better than my last always. I don’t like to, I’m not gonna grab a template and replicate it 20 times and sell them all for 77 bucks. I’m not going to do that. I’m always going to strive to do something better than my last one. Why? Because we got to keep learning evolution type of thing. So,

Gordon Wat (19:07):

Yeah. I mean, because you have that in you to do become better. Like when I see something I know in my heart, in my head and my, to the pit of my stomach, I can make it better. Right. It’s the same because it’s like, Oh, you, you, you have to do this. You have to put this in this place. You have to kind of like verbalize this. You have to put this message. You gotta, yeah. I mean, that’s just how we’re built in, but it comes, it comes from grinding.

Ricky Leyva (19:34):

Yeah. A hundred percent grinding. Yup. Yeah.

Gordon Wat (19:37):

He comes from, you know, spending four hours, not making, making anything for that first, just to prep work. It takes, it takes eight hours. It’s it takes spending your own money when you didn’t have the money to learn where you, where you are right now. But all things come back in, in, in full circle and it comes back a hundred fold in a hundred fold limit. This is going to be a real tough question. I mean, I just did a, I just, I do private webinars and stuff like that. And around private coaching in a sense where it’s free. Right. Because I like, I like to segregate people, not segregate people. Look that’s my, my prison term coming out. I’d like to get a kind of like a move people around to see where people’s potential is. Right, right. How are you seeing our industry

Ricky Leyva (20:23):

With people? Right?

Gordon Wat (20:25):

Because we’re in the digital industry, the marketing, how are people being coached right now that you would like to just let it all out? Since it’s real talk real stories real change,

Ricky Leyva (20:35):

We had a little talk about this before one line. Um, it’s scary to be honest with you. Um, it’s scary. There’s a lot. And it’s because there’s a lot of people that are coming into the marketing digital world right now that don’t, they don’t know any better. So they’re following the person that stands out the most. And that’s not the person you need to be following. You need to be following the people that don’t stand out. The, and I’m not telling you to follow me. I’m not telling you to follow Gordon. I’m telling you to follow my screen over here. And I got my camera there. So I’m trying to like, look so, yeah. Um, so yeah. I’m not telling you to follow. I’m not telling you to follow me. I’m not telling you to follow a Gordon, but I am telling you like the guy that’s standing out, that’s waving a shiny object that you and your face, and it’s always in your face.

Ricky Leyva (21:19):

Don’t follow that guy. Don’t follow that guy. He’s getting in your face so much because he’s a damn good marketer and he’s trying to sell you. And that’s exactly what you’re doing while you’re getting done. You’re being sold. That’s all at the end of the day, you’re going to spend your money, your hard earned money. Because I know a lot of people I’ve had many clients that have hit me up. Rick, I don’t have another dime because I just, I just lost. I got robbed. This guy stole from me all these, these nasty words about certain individuals that it’s like, don’t follow that person anymore. You need to kind of look for the look for the real people, but it’s hard to do because the real people don’t Market like the fake guys do. Right. So it’s good that you’re doing this. Yeah. It’s good that you’re doing this show because it kind of puts people like me and you out in the open, which we’re not normally out in the open in everybody’s face trying to sell them hopes and dreams that aren’t going to happen. I’m going to tell you how it is. If you’re not going to make it, I’m going to tell you you’re not going to make it.

Gordon Wat (22:10):

Right. Right, right, right. Right. Because it’s, you know, I’m like you and me been both in rooms.

Ricky Leyva (22:17):

Yup. Top guys. Yeah.

Gordon Wat (22:18):

Masterminding just strategizing doing things that, that this is going to work. And in for Ricky’s like the color’s not going to work. That placement is not going to work that graphic. That that video is not going to work. And I, we see it left and right. So what’s happening with now with, with this, with these people that says coming out, like, I, I know a bunch of that’s coming out right now that I already know they’re going to fade away in about five, six months.

Ricky Leyva (22:45):

It’s funny you say that because I tell my, I don’t tell anybody else, but I tell myself the same thing when I’m seeing those things. I’m like, man, I’m going to be, I’m going to forget about you because in six months, I’m not, I’m not going to see you anymore. It’s like, it’s, it’s a flight. But like, they fly by, like, they’re just, they’re hitting it really hard. They’re seeing if they can get anything out of it. And if they can’t, they’re gone, poof disappeared.

Gordon Wat (23:04):

Yeah. And then, um, a lot of times they, they, I call it a smash and grab, cause I I’ve worked. I worked, I worked with people that do that. They pump it up, they spend a hundred thousand dollars on advertising. They spend the best thing on the market. They kind of like model what’s going on out there. In fact, they pay the agencies, do it 25, 75, 50,000 to run $30,000 in ads, snatch and grab, they’re going to make their money. Definitely.

Ricky Leyva (23:29):

And, and, and they’re gonna make their money tenfold. They’re going to make them money, but you’re going to make their money that their state they’re taking it from. They’re stealing it from people. Because in fact they’re stealing it from people you’re giving these empty hopes and dreams to people. So you’re crushing them emotionally as well. You’re not just taking their funds. You’re also crushing them mentally, emotionally.

Gordon Wat (23:49):

Right, exactly. Because I’m sure, I mean, there’s on one of my other groups that’s going on right now. I, and it’s like, they’re, they’re a perfect basically avatar for this type of scenario where I get to talk to leaders like mr. Mr. Leyva Because when we talk about things like this, we’ve been there, done that. We’ve seen these guys come. There’s just, if you don’t get me wrong, the industry, the industry and the, some of the people are like to where I met some really good people, like, like me, really, really good people. But I had always scares me because when somebody comes on new or something, that that is just, I already know what’s going to happen and I get the fall off. So what I’m doing right now, I’m doing, I do things on the side for minimum real, real minimum. And I teach them foundational work layer work, same like you where, you know, I want to build people up.

Gordon Wat (24:40):

And just the fact that this, this show right here is based on just keeping it real with people. I mean, it’s not like I tell my other groups, I can charge you five, eight, 15, $12,000 for it. I should, of course, but I rather to take slow. So you understand it. And you can move forward within your own business, in your own creative juices. And people are liking that type of teaching because nobody wants to stash the smash and grabbing anymore. It kind of like making us look bad, especially when we want to try and come back out.

Ricky Leyva (25:13):

It may. It does. It makes it very difficult when you’re talking to a client or something because they already have that red flag up because they already got burned. They got burned prior. You don’t know, probably 95% of my clients will come to me and tell me, Ricky, I’m coming to you. Because the last two other designers that I hired basically left me out to dry. They don’t reply to me. They didn’t finish the page or they did the page. And they said they were going to give me something completely different. And this is what they gave me. And it’s horrible. They’re basically selling them something. That’s not, that’s not real. It’s not going to happen. Um, and I tried to explain to them and comfort is the best way. I’m like, I can’t do it for free, but I can guarantee you that you’re not going to have the same experience working with me as you, as you did with them.

Ricky Leyva (25:48):

Um, Gordon, I’ve never ran an ad for my business. Not as something that I haven’t read a single ad in the last 20 years, I’ve never, I don’t even have a Facebook ad account. The only ads I ever run on Facebook were for when Teespring was the thing for about a year. Yeah. I made, I made some shirts and I made a killing with the shirts. That was the only time I got into Facebook ads. Other than that, for my own business, it’s all word of mouth. I do a good job for you. You’re going to tell your 10 buddies, I’m going to do good jobs for them. They’re going to tell their 10 buddies. And it’s been, that’s how it’s been.

Gordon Wat (26:18):

[inaudible] here’s my theory behind this. Right. I’ve seen Russell do lists for like prior to ClickFunnels. He changed my life. When I, when I, my first event I ever came out to, I had my ankle braces and I interviewed him. Okay. You changed my life from that point on. And I met some amazing people.

Ricky Leyva (26:35):

He is one of the realist, right? He’s probably one of the realest marketers in the industry right now.

Gordon Wat (26:40):

And he was crushing crushing before. And you know, he told me before this clickfunnels was born, I’ll tell you the truth. So I’m going to like your, I like your energy. I like your passion. I like everything about you. And like I said, cause I got to S I, I volunteered. And I spend time with him for three days. Even with, with his friend Daegan Smith this back, back in the day. Right. So I don’t, I’m new at this. I didn’t have a cent to my name. Right. I came out with a backpack full of clothes. I was still, and I told him, I’m going to see him one day again. Right. So I had, but I had to learn the foundation work. Like you said, the layer for everything that I’ve built myself up to on to this day right now where, you know, when I layer people’s businesses now, or did they ask me for advice?

Gordon Wat (27:28):

And these are, I mean, some people always see some of the industry, people call me up and he said, what do you think about this? Right? Like, no, just you have your, your, this is wrong. This foundation is wrong. Right. And you know, I keep learning like you, because like you got to stay three steps ahead, five steps ahead. And then you start, you start doing things for yourself. And, you know, granted, I met this stage in my, my life with my, my new son and everything where it’s like, okay, let me step back and enjoy this. Right. I’m going to come back out with foundation work first. So I can build a culture like how the, the people with the best integrity have. Right. And I’m sure you kind of like reassure that also because we see too much. Right? I mean, how is the, how has the, let me ask you this, if you was to say to a beginner, what would be the number one thing you could tell them before they get into this industry? Right?

Ricky Leyva (28:29):

Uh, be careful. No, um, uh, not, not to scare anybody, but just keep your eyes open. Um, if something feels your gut feeling, everybody has a good feeling and everybody’s got a feeling it’s usually right. The difference is that some people follow their gut and some people don’t that’s what changes if they feel that it’s right or not. So I feel that your gut is pretty on it a lot of the times. So if you have a weird feeling in your stomach about something, you saw someone, you met someone that there’s just something, not right. Take that red flag and do some further research before, before you continue on that path that you’re going. Um, I promise you, there’s more people like me and Gordon in this space, but you have a lot of sharks too, that that’ll basically ruin you and you think they’re going to help you. And they’re not.

Gordon Wat (29:18):

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, give me, give, give us an example of what kind of horror stories you had that not to scare people, just to make people aware of it. Give me, there’s always one that stands out.

Ricky Leyva (29:30):

I don’t, I have a lot is a thing. I don’t have a particular one that stands out, but I’ve had many people that’ll hit me up and tell me that they’ve drained their savings account to pay a coach or something. Because that coach promised them that they were going to get to X amount of dollars per year. And you can’t make that promise to anybody because it’s on you. It’s not on me to get you there. I can guide you all the time. Gordon could guide you. You can watch your show and you can be guided all the whole way. But if you don’t have it in you, if you don’t take the plunge yourself and take that first step yourself, you’re not going to get anywhere. You don’t need to pay anybody to do that. It’s no different than if you pay a personal trainer to lose some weight and you don’t follow up with him to go to the gym. You’re not going to lose the weight because you paid them the money. It’s the same thing.

Gordon Wat (30:07):

It’s this goes through to them. I went, I went before the show started, guys. I gotta tell you. I told, I told I, cause I seen Ricky on stage before on, on the big screens before. Right. But I was like, I didn’t recognize his picture, his Facebook profile and his same, same like the situation where he’s lost all and gain it back. And it’s like riding a bicycle and it’s same thing. It’s same for anybody else in that learn what you can do. You can go, you can fluctuate up and down, do your thing. But at the same time, it’s always going to be in you like, even for my logo, my logo is, is a key with my name. Because until you find that, that, that you are the keys to everything I… You are the keys to your future, your destiny, your everything else that you have going for, um, in you, you just got to go work at it. Yeah.

Ricky Leyva (31:02):

You don’t need anybody else to do it for you. Like you gotta do it yourself. Obviously you’ll have people that you work with and partners and, and acquaintances and stuff like that. But, uh, it’s all, it all starts with you. You, you need to make that decision and you need to buckle down and do it yourself. Doesn’t matter how much money you spend or out of the best coach you can buy the best coach right now. And it doesn’t matter if you don’t take the action yourself, it doesn’t matter. And the funny thing is that that coach going to grab your money and run the other way while you’re left in the dust, because they’re not going to be holding you the whole way through no different than a personal trainer. That personal trainer is not going to come to your house and knock on your door to pull you out of bed. You need to get out of bed and go to his facility to get worked out. Perfect. Perfect. Exactly. Because let me ask you this. This is a, this is a personal question.

Gordon Wat (31:44):

How has working with your skillset from the streets, right? Change your life in a way that, that, if I was, if you, if I was, if say I was a Oprah, whatever, right. Ricky, how did that passion change your life to the moment you are right now at this show?

Ricky Leyva (32:07):

Man, I feel like it gave me the part of like the, we spoke about grinding. I feel like gave me the power to grind. Like I can, uh, not to be full of myself, but I can outwork work. A lot of people. I can sit on my computer for 14 hours a day, seven days a week. Am I going to feel burnt out at the end of it? Yeah, of course I’m human. Everybody would. Um, but I have the drive to do it and I could push through it and I’ve always been able to do it. No problem. I don’t drink coffee. I drink, I don’t drink coffee at all. I don’t I’m I’m like a hundred percent on water. Like that’s it. I can’t do caffeine because caffeine affects me. It messes up with my anxiety. So I don’t mess with caffeine at all. So when I tell people that I’m like, man, I’ve been on the computer since 9:00 AM.

Ricky Leyva (32:44):

It’s like 11:00 PM. They’re like, I’m Rick, you’re on the energy drinks. I’m like, no, no, no, I get it. So I don’t know. I don’t know what it is. I guess it must be my passion for what I’m doing. That keeps me going because I am, I am a perfectionist when it comes to my designs and stuff like that. And I’m not like I’m very, uh, I’m not OCD in life, but I’m very OCD of in my graphics. Um, so I’m very picky about like alignment and spacing and it needs to be like, if it’s not on point for my eyes, I’m not sending it to my client. So

Gordon Wat (33:13):

Yeah. I can tell when I, when I see some of your stuff that the templates I’m like, you can tell a person’s style, right? You can completely tell per person style from the things that they’ve put out. Right. Then when you compare it, when you compare it with somebody, else’s like, like you said, one of your posts is like, yeah, you’re going to charge a little money. But these guys are going to charge you $250 for something they could make and say what the elements is, the border of the picture. And then what’s going to happen is the words only be matched to graphics, right? It’s like it’s Sachs, right? But that’s the difference when you get to a different, when you get to that level where you’re so, um, a minute on details, things get little different. Let me ask you this. If you was to tell us, telling somebody that’s an entrepreneur, getting into the click funnels space, getting into the funnel, script space, getting into any type of industry, where would you have them start,

Ricky Leyva (34:12):

Man, if you’re going to be starting. And I got to go to ClickFunnels because ClickFunnels is my that’s my bread and butter. I’ve known Russell since before ClickFunnels was a thing. He was my client. I met him through the warrior forum and that’s how I connected with Russell before ClickFunnels became a thing. Um, I would say they have the, the one funnel away challenge. That that’s huge because if you have an idea, but you don’t know how to start, that takes you from a to Z on what you need to do to get that idea off the ground. Um, I feel like you may need to go a little further after that course, uh, depending on which route you’re going, but as a foundation, as your first layer, if we’re talking about layers, um, I would definitely look at the one funnel away challenge. As far as that goes.

Gordon Wat (34:55):

What about, what about something that you would say relatable to the inner workings of somebody and what would you tell them? Where do you, where do you dig? Let me ask you, where do you dig to get that thing done? Cause like, I’ll use, like you said, I’m up three 30, four o’clock in the morning. I’m on my computer. Right? Right. Okay. I’m I’m either watching a video, watching a training, creating a training.

Ricky Leyva (35:18):

Right. You’re doing something that’s relevant to your business, but it probably isn’t, it doesn’t feel like work to me, Gordon. No, I get it. It’s fun. It’s fun. Like, I like this, my space is like, this is like my, this is like my little man cave type of thing. Like this is my area. Like this is my creative space and I just have fun coming here and sitting and yeah, it is a work. Yeah, of course it is a taxing on me. Yeah. There’s a lot of projects that I’m like, man, I like, I really have to get into this one and work on it. Um, but at the end of the day I still get up the next morning and I do it again. So I must, I must love it and I can pull those 12, 14 hour days because I love it.

Ricky Leyva (35:54):

So I think for somebody, um, and I was telling you before we jumped on, uh, I have some friends that are stuck in his nine to five grind and I try to help them all the time to get out of that. Um, and I hope they’re watching this cause I’m going to tell them again. Um, they have, because they do have skills to do stuff on their own, but they’re scared they’re they are scared. And I’m going to point out to specific people. My two best friends, angel and Chris, and I’m calling them all. And none of my marketing community friends. No, no. Any of them like these are my, my friends from, from childhood. Uh, one is a damn good cook, a damn good cook. So good that I paid him three times a week to come to my house, to cook for me and my wife.

Ricky Leyva (36:31):

Uh that’s how good of a cook was. I wanted him, man. I’m like angel, if you’re doing this for me, you can be doing this for other people. I’m like, you’re getting paid 15 bucks an hour right now you could be charging a thousand bucks a week to be cooking for somebody. It’s a major, major difference. And you’re doing your own thing. Like in your hours, you’re not getting up at 5:00 AM every day anymore. Like now you’re kind of doing your own thing, but what’s the number one thing they tell me. But Ricky, when is the next check going to come in? What am I going to do in two weeks when I’m supposed to get paid?

Gordon Wat (36:58):

Okay. What happens when my check, my direct deposit

Ricky Leyva (37:01):

Pause it. Doesn’t get there. What am I supposed to do? I’m like, I didn’t know. I don’t, I haven’t had a direct deposit in 20 years. I don’t know what my next check is coming in. Okay. Let me give you a, I’m going to, uh,

Gordon Wat (37:11):

Ricky’s friend is watching. I’m gonna give you a perfect example. So I come up, I come out 2012, right? If I’m doing a 14, a 12 year sin, a 14 year sentence, 12 years I did in federal prison. I have restitution. I have back child support. I don’t have a check. Right, right. So what do I have to do? I got to find a job to keep PO’s off my butt, right? The court system off my butt. But in between that I find me a job. I got a pay restitution. I’m bringing home $300 every two weeks. Cause I got to take care of my crap. Right, right. What do I do? I do something on the side to supplement things, learn things inside. Knowing that one day could be tomorrow could be five years coming up in three months that I could transition into certain things like this, where I don’t have to worry about that paycheck. And I’m doing, I’m currently doing it right now because you know, why not spend a little extra time to propel you into something that can actually suffice later on in the future. If, if you’re, if you’re a cook and you can do parties on the side to make extra money and feel that passion is where you can do something. If you’re a marketer on the side that you like to coach people, why not get all these things, your ducks in order so that you can move forward where perfect example, Covid hit…covid

Ricky Leyva (38:33):

Colby, man. This was like the perfect. And, and I’m, I’m saying this, I was already doing it because I’ve been working for myself. But the amount of money, more money that I’ve made because of COVID just because it’s kept me in my house grinding. Like it’s ridiculous. So this was the perfect opportunity for anybody that wasn’t doing this, you have all this time. A lot of people weren’t working, you’re home all the time. So don’t tell me that you don’t have time, especially right now, like the time to say that you didn’t have time to do it. You were just to get a too lazy or scared to do it. One of the two.

Gordon Wat (39:05):

Oh man. It’s like, especially when, when he’s building his business, his funnels is what is, he’s doing it for funnel scripts. It’s like, he’s prepared himself for this exact situation that just happened. Right? Right. I had a call. One of my partners call it brother. I need help. All right, we’re going to do it the correct way. And she took off, right? SHe took off in between this, my nonprofit, we have to go virtual. I was prepared, was ready from messaging. Not, not even the funnel because they didn’t have the funnel. That website went up. The podcast went up. My interviews went up, everything went up and you know, it goes to show that I’ve been preparing all these years for this exact moment. When I make a lot of money, I don’t care. Really. Like I really care about me. It’s more of changing the lives like we’re doing here right now.

Gordon Wat (39:58):

Switching them in the right direction so that they can move forward. And if you know, but then I come to the conclusion and even like the guys I work with because I worked, I choose to go to work. In fact, I pick my schedule basically for my insurance. It’s like, they’re stuck in their ways. But then at the same time, they don’t want to take that extra step to do something a little bit more like, you know, what, what, what do you guys say? It’s one design away. It’s one funnel way. It’s one video. It’s what can be one mentor way could be one plate away, right from you moving towards that, that goal of yours,

Ricky Leyva (40:34):

Taking that step and not being scared to do it. And you know what, if it fails, you learn from what you failed. You tried to do it again and you fail again. You learn again and you keep that. That’s part of the fun, trying it failing and fixing it.

Gordon Wat (40:47):

It’s the process. I always tell people, it’s the process I tell. I tell a lot of people in RNC, you’re going Frick up. You’re going to screw it up. And if you think it’s going to be perfect, I said, all of these gurus out here, they started from scratch from the bottom up. And what they, what would I tell this other group that I’m coaching is like, when they do webinars, when they do lives, when they do things, guess what they’re doing to you guys. You giving him the answers to the content. They’re going to give you. And guys like us, take that. Right? I take that. I put it on a headline. I do something. We hand it over to Ricky. Ricky makes 200% graphics. That’s going to draw you in.

Ricky Leyva (41:28):

They don’t. And they don’t even really, but they were the source of this, the initial idea of the thing. They don’t even realize it.

Gordon Wat (41:35):

It is. It’s like when you see, when you see that, I’m like, and I see people do this, but I’m like, what the, but Hey, that could be another,

Speaker 3 (41:45):

Another show for us for next time.

Gordon Wat (41:47):

But I, I completely understand where they’re coming from because that’s, I don’t say it’s it’s in, in or not in them. It’s just, they have different priorities

Ricky Leyva (42:02):

That, and Gordon, I feel like everybody, we were wired a certain way, growing up. Some people, some people made it out, whether by choice or by force or whether whatever the case may be. And some people just stayed in that, Hey, there’s people that are built to work a nine to five and that’s, and they made great money and they’re doing great. But don’t, don’t complain about it. Then don’t tell me, man, I wish I’m broke. How am I going to pay my next bill? I’m like, okay. So then do something about it. Like don’t tell him you’re getting out of work at three o’clock when you’re telling me you don’t got time. No, I don’t got time. I don’t got time for that for free. At 3:00 PM. Like you still got like my day that’s half that’s at the half point of my day. What do you mean? 3:00 PM.

Gordon Wat (42:43):

Let me add, let me ask you a personal question, but tell me what time you get up in the mornings. Let me ask you, do you stay up late

Ricky Leyva (42:50):

Up til probably one, 2:00 AM. And I’m up by seven.

Gordon Wat (42:53):

Okay. Yeah. Like if I have people ask me Gordon, what time you wake up? I said, I’m up three 30, four o’clock in the morning. I get more shit done.

Ricky Leyva (43:03):

The later it gets for me, the more productive I get. I dunno, reverse. I’m reverse the lead that the semester’s going done. That’s when I start, uh, start getting more creative

Gordon Wat (43:13):

Mine’s mine’s is my creative juices start out at because when I go to sleep, my head is thinking, right. I get up. I put it down. Boom, boom, boom. Like today I went to the gym. I did legs. I came back, got ready for the show. This and that. Amy is just, I have to be more on the move. Whether it’s, if I’m in my head or T that’s the first time I seen, I heard somebody work. I know some people that work late night. They’re creative.

Ricky Leyva (43:40):

I love the, I love working. And that’s just, and it’s just, it’s natural. Like I’ll try to do some burn a day, but I’ll, I’ll, I’ll catch myself just kind of procrastinating, procrastinate, procrastinating as soon as like four or five o’clock starts rolling around, man. I’m like, I start knocking stuff out, like boom, boom, boom. Like, no problem. Oh yeah.

Gordon Wat (43:58):

I guess it’s different for me right now because I got a baby and stuff. Right, right.

Ricky Leyva (44:02):

I think forces you a certain schedule where I’m

Gordon Wat (44:06):

Yeah. I’m kind of still figuring that one out. I mean, is all the time. Right? So let me that, that, since let’s imagine this that’s 45 minutes flew by.

Ricky Leyva (44:17):

I didn’t even realize that I was trying to look at the time and I didn’t want to like look off, but yeah, I can.

Gordon Wat (44:22):

No, you’re good. I mean, this is enjoyable. Let me ask now any, any closing remarks, maybe we’re going to leave this on an open loop that you want to see it to your friends. My, my clients, people that’s going to be watching this on YouTube later. Cause a lot of people rely on replays, right? What do you got to?

Ricky Leyva (44:42):

So some of them to people in the group of, like I say, like my two friends, because they’re not even looking at the digital marketing world right now. So they’re even a step further behind probably Most most people that are looking at this show, um, for people in that position where you haven’t even found an out or thought of an idea, or even know that you have a skill that you can do something with, don’t be scared of, of that, of not having a check at the end of the two weeks. If the check doesn’t come in the two weeks it’s going to come. Like you just, you need to put that effort no different than the effort you put. When you went out and found your job, you did the interview, you got the job and now you’re getting that check. So same thing, it’s the same thing.

Ricky Leyva (45:19):

There’s nothing different. So that’s what I would say to those people is don’t be scared to cut or do it the way Gordon’s doing. Do it. Do it a little bit at a time. You did first half of your day, you do your regular job. Second half of your day, work on your own stuff and try to transition out and do your own thing and become your own boss. That’s what I would say to those people. People that are coming into the marketing world that already have a little bit of an idea of who Russell Brunson is, who all these other big marketers are. Um, and I don’t want to name the battle ones because I just don’t want to name, drop or get into trouble. I want to get out and I want to get into no trouble. Um, because they anyway…they will go legal very quickly.

Ricky Leyva (46:01):

Um, just be careful. Uh, there’s a lot of guys selling smoke out there and they’re going to act like they want to help you and they’re not going to help you. Um, I’m gonna, um, I know we’re closing, but so my dad always tells me, Rick, you’re doing all these pages for all these big marketers. And why don’t you just do your own thing? And it’s because I have integrity and I cannot sell lies to people. I won’t be able to sleep. I’m not going to steal somebody’s money. Right? My business is very different. You pay me $5,000 for a funnel. You’re going to get a funnel for 10,000, whatever it’s worth. You’re going to get something out of it. When you’re paying a coach, what are they getting a talk, a training it’s it’s so just be careful, be careful who you’re giving your money to and what they’re promising you. Um, just again, the marketing space is very dangerous. It’s like the wild West right now. Like anybody can kind of come up and be, pretend they’re this guru, this master marketer and show you a few things on camera and make a cool little setup like this. Um, just be careful. That’s all

Gordon Wat (47:04):

It’s, it’s so funny because there’s a lot of behind the scenes. People like me and Ricky that do a lot of things for different people that they don’t see, but it’s like my, my business model I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m formulating something right now that somebody is going to, it’s going to change the way it works based on foundation and integrity. Right? This is where this is where I’m going to try something different. And it’s, it’s in the it’s I’m thinking about it right now and I’m going to draw it on my whiteboard back there. And I’m going to, I’m going to lay down with my speaker, but no, we gotta do this again, Ricky. All right. Thank you, Ricky, for this great interview, I’m sure all the intrepreneurs anybody moving in forward in our audience have a much better understanding of all the, some of the topics that we talked about, especially getting it from the inside with integrity and foundation work and skills, and have the necessary skills to succeed with using their gifts, right? Me and him are both on using your own gifts for your own

Ricky Leyva (48:02):

A hundred percent. Why wouldn’t you take the skill that you have already again and yeah.

Gordon Wat (48:07):

Exploited to the world. And we take a chance fail, who cares, right? You want to feel right. And if you thank you for laying me on everything, being part of this and missile, thank you very much for sharing your expertise. We bring more expertise and experience so graciously and, um, let’s see. Can you tell us a little bit more? If somebody is watching this one day in the future, it might be tomorrow might be five months from now. We can reach you at,

Ricky Leyva (48:32):

Uh, go to my website or Facebook. So pixel graffitis.com. Um, the only contact I have on there is you could submit a proposal request and that comes directly to me. Um, I have a very, very small team. Uh, my wife works with me and then I have a few other people that work with me. But, uh, I speak to all my clients personally, on the phone message. If you have a question, if you have anything, I am an open book. You can message me and you’ll get a reply from me. I’m not like these gurus that you message for three days. And they’re so busy doing, I don’t know what that they can’t even take a second to reply to you. Um, I’m not like that. If you message me, I’m pretty done. Earth Gordon knows this. Uh, I always reply. I always try to talk to everybody that hits me up.

Gordon Wat (49:11):

Yeah. He’s going to be like, are you going to wait on a user Zendesk to get to the age?

Ricky Leyva (49:15):

Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. That’s not. I don’t have a support desk. I don’t have that. You’re not going to talk to my assistant. If we do make a deal and you’re working with me, you stay working with me. You’re not, I’m not going to disappear now. Now you’re going to hear from me, know you work with me one on one. Always. I always have time. It doesn’t matter if I’m at the, what I tell my clients is, if you’re working with me, if I’m awake, you can contact me. I don’t care if it’s Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, I don’t care what day it is. If I’m awake, you’ll get a response from me. If I’m busy, I’ll you’ll still get a response that says, Hey, give me a moment an hour or two hour, but you’ll get something from me. It’s not going to be crickets.

Gordon Wat (49:46):

Yeah. It’s just because you have integrity. You’re any unit to help people move forward with your life. What skills you have right now. That’s a whole different story. We’ll talk about that on another. I’d like to invite you guys to check out Ricky Levyva’s, page pixel graffiti.com. If you’re watching this on YouTube, give us a, like a thumbs up. If you’re going to be watching us on Instagram or listening to this on the podcast, please leave us a comment as to some questions. We’ll jump on here. Answer them as much as we can and bring you some more clean content. Mr. Leyva. It’s been a pleasure brother. Yeah, man. It was fun. Yeah. All right, let me go. Usually I write the NGO, but this is too cool to do. Just leave it. We cut this way.