Ryan Van Ornum with Cynergists

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. And this is Beyond the Uniform series. I’m thrilled to have Ryan Van Ornum on the show today. He is the CEO for Cynergists. And by the way, he does a whole lot of other things that we may get into today or we may not. So you may have to connect to him. Connect with him one on one. Ryan, welcome to the show.

Ryan Van Ornum : Uh, thank you for having me. Really appreciate your. I really appreciate the time. Thanks.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And I can’t remember exactly how we got connected, but we’re both veterans, so we found each other somehow, right?

Ryan Van Ornum : Absolutely. Yeah, that’s the way it went.

Trisha Stetzel: All right, so, Ryan, tell me more about who you are, and then let’s dive into Cynergists.

Ryan Van Ornum : Sure. First and foremost, I’m a single father with full custody of all three of my kids, and, uh, I, I will do anything to take care of them. Uh, I’m building them a legacy. That’s my goal, is to take care of them at the best possible way I can. And we build that out with synergies and my other businesses because of those factors, like, um, I grew up, I didn’t have a lot of money growing up with single mother. So like, I, I it just hits me in my heart that like, I’m gonna, I’m going to leave that legacy for my kids, that they have the ability to do what they choose to do, follow their dreams because of what the hard work and determination that I put in for them.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Dad, dad, I love that father. First. I think that’s fantastic. So you have multiple businesses. We were talking a little bit about one that I didn’t know about before we started recording, and maybe we’ll go there, but let’s focus on Synergists. So tell me more about that business and how you’re serving your clients.

Ryan Van Ornum : Yeah, Synergist is a scalable operations company. We run like in like three different verticals. You can look at it through like, uh, like global talent, uh, workforce, you know, being able to help people at a exponentially, uh, lower rate than you would in typical American type of hiring. Uh, we also have, uh, artificial intelligence platforms that we can utilize. So, you know, inbound outbound calls, texting, uh, web chat, uh, it’s all machine learning. It’s really phenomenal stuff that we’re able to build out on, um, each of our clients platforms for that stuff. And then on top of that, we do like the digital marketing aspect of it. So, uh, we have about 80 different services, all on an e-commerce site, so it’s fully transparent. All of them are between 20 and 45% of, uh, typically what you would expect to pay, uh, here in, in, in, uh, stateside. So it’s, it’s, uh, what we what we’re able to do is help people take their business from, uh, you know, instead of hiring one admin person at 50, 60, $70,000 a year, uh, that they get a whole team of people, uh, 10 to 15 people working for them all in that they have all of their standard, standard operating procedures, and everything is done to a T, and it’s a plug and play type of business.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. That’s fantastic. So, Ryan, tell me who your best clients are.

Ryan Van Ornum : Uh, our best clients are are, honestly, they’re people, business owners that are, like, between 2 and 20, uh, employees that are looking to grow, that are, uh, you know, open to the next evolution of what, uh, work looks like, uh, the automation side, uh, being able to, uh, you know, take those operational tasks and really streamline their business. That’s the people that we’re looking for. Uh, it would be probably anywhere from 300,000 a year, uh, up to, you know, 25 million. Okay. Those those are the that’s the level of, uh, clientele that we service. The best.

Trisha Stetzel: Fantastic. Any particular industry that you see bubbling up more as clients or other?

Ryan Van Ornum : Yeah, we we see a lot in the trades. Uh, that’s where we see a lot. Um, we’re actually getting we have 3 or 4 professional athletes as well. Uh, just because their schedules are so busy, uh, that we’re able to help facilitate, uh, in those those, uh, realms as well.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Wow, that’s fun and interesting. I’d have to. You may have to come back on the show and talk about. I’m just kidding.

Ryan Van Ornum : We’re always open.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. So I mentioned earlier that you’re a veteran. Um, thank you for your service. I’m glad to have you on the show. So my question for you around that particular, um, asset is how did being in the military or your military service prepare you for the work that you do now as a serial entrepreneur?

Ryan Van Ornum : First of all, I want to tell you, thank you for your service as well, because you served as well, correct?

Trisha Stetzel: I did.

Ryan Van Ornum : Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. We could not, uh, live in a society that we live in right now without you doing everything you did to serve our country. And it’s not just not just what I did. I was an honor and a privilege to serve. And, uh, I’m. I’m very appreciative of that time. I’ve served in the Air Force. Um, I was combat communications, and the biggest thing that it taught me was like my number one skill set. I’ll tell people this til the day I die. Like, I, I, I played college volleyball, I, I went in, I was in the military. I did really well on the PT testing, but like there was always someone faster. There was always someone stronger. There was like, I got a 93 on my Asvab. I’m a smart guy, but there’s always someone smarter, like, I don’t want to be the smartest person I want to. I, I want to circle myself in the with the best people possible. But the thing that military taught me, and I take it to this day, is you cannot have more resilience than me. I can get my tail kicked and I will tie up my bootstraps, and I will come back at you ten times harder every single time. You can’t stop me. And when you have somebody that has that type of resiliency, there’s, there’s there’s nowhere up but up. Your trajectory may go down a step, but you’re going to bounce back three times faster. And you learn. You learn from those failures instead of like, you know, like if you if you’ve never had a setback, you you really are going to plateau faster. So that’s what that determination and resiliency. You I can’t be stopped.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Can’t replace that. And you probably make your bed every day. I’m just saying. Yep.

Ryan Van Ornum : Yep.

Trisha Stetzel: Right. Uh I accomplished that.

Ryan Van Ornum : So that’s good.

Trisha Stetzel: Uh, all right. So you did communications in the military. Do you feel like that’s what led you to the work that you’re doing or the business, um, that you have with Synergists?

Ryan Van Ornum : It’s funny because, uh, when I was in the military, I did computers, satellites, phone, internet, all of that stuff. And at that time, like, I could have gotten out of the military and, you know, stepped into a job at Microsoft making $150,000 in 2005. Like that job’s is probably a quarter million now, but I just didn’t have the passion for it. When I stepped away like I was, I was kind of burned out of that situation. And then what I’ve what I’ve came to kind of come to realization is I came full circle back to understanding like that technology is is an always improving asset that, you know, you’re you’re always wanting to, uh, streamline and, and, and take next steps in your business. And I had to embrace that. And I’ve always I’ve always enjoyed it. But now I have that passion, uh, for, for helping people through the use of technology, which is really cool.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. That’s fantastic. So just for those who didn’t catch what Synergist is all about, because you guys do so many different things, it’s like a virtual assistant service, only better because you have so many tools and things that you’re pouring into that business. What would you say, um, helps you stand apart from all of the other VA services that are out there?

Ryan Van Ornum : Well, and that’s one thing that I love about what we do, because we’re a team and that comes from the military too. Like I when we I, we can offer hourly virtual assistant services, global talent. We can offer that. But what I’ve found is, I mean, you serve too. So you know this like the when when you’re part of a team and everybody has their role that you can’t be beat. So like when you’re trying to be let’s just be honest. If you’re trying to hire somebody cheap to do everything at a certain price point, you’re going to get what you pay for. So, um, what we have found is everybody has a role. You’re still gonna you’re still going to be far, far less expensive with synergist, uh, than it than any other place. But you’re going to have elite level talent across the whole spectrum of your operational business. Like we have somebody that does nothing but website design, nothing but sales funnels, nothing but automations, nothing but the, um, client care piece of it for you like nothing but bookkeeping. Like, why would you try to have somebody try to do all of those roles for a certain amount of money and then just get crap service, and then it’s never the business owner’s fault. It’s it’s always everybody else’s fault. Right? So like, that’s that’s what we found is like, okay, we’ll just build a team for you and then let’s just let us go kick tail for you. Let’s go. You know, let let us handle everything and we’ll we’ll get after it and we’ll get, get it done at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time. Like, one of the aspects I can tell you is we had a customer, they were quoted, I think 12,000 or $15,000 for an eight eight page website. And they were they were quoted three months. Uh, we got it done in two and a half weeks, uh, for like $2,700.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow.

Ryan Van Ornum : So and that’s because we have a team working on every aspect of it. When you don’t have one person trying to do all the SEO or all the all the website design or all the automations, it makes it so much faster and smoother that we can handle it all.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s fantastic. So you get access to 15 plus experts in their space for the price of one full time person, right? Correct. Correct. Yeah. I think that’s that’s just fantastic, Ryan. Um, so can we talk a little bit about beyond Synergists? Would that be okay?

Ryan Van Ornum : Because I know you’re doing it on other things.

Trisha Stetzel: Uh, I just I want to show how diverse you are and why I called you a serial entrepreneur in the first place. So tell me about the other things that you’re doing beyond synergists.

Ryan Van Ornum : Yeah. So I have a real estate team in Colorado. I’ve, um. I’ve been in real estate for nine years. It’s Wolf Pack property group, and that’s actually what stimulated me to build Synergist was, uh, I have I have, uh, six agents right now, and then I have my team of synergist working on the back side for all the operations because as as a realtor, you your goal is to get out and talk to more people and open more doors and close more deals. The best way to do that is to help facilitate the operational side, which most realtors suck at anyway. So I want to make sure that I take care of my my, my team as best as possible. So that that’s one endeavor that I have. Um, another endeavor that I have is, uh, above the Net volleyball club in Sacramento, California. Uh, we have, um, we have four teams, uh, of Junior Olympics, uh, female volleyball players. Uh, I actually coached in college and, uh, and played in college with some of my best friends, uh, and, uh, one of the, one of the aspects of building that club out the last couple of years was, um, my best friend Kalani told me, hey, uh, when he. His dad died. He’s the closest thing that I had to a father at the time. He said, hey, pops. Pops is passing away. You know, we we need you to come. Let’s. Let’s build this club together. I said I got your back. So I built out all the operations, all the budgets, all of the, you know, the LLC, everything like that on the backside to make sure that it was operational and set up for his success. And then I’m just so, so proud of what we’ve built out there on the volleyball side of stuff.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s fantastic. I love your passion for everything that you pour yourself into. And did I hear you correctly that your synergist business supports your real estate business? So you’re you’re. I like to say my husband always says eat your own dog food. So you’re totally doing that. Only it’s not dog food.

Ryan Van Ornum : Oh, the The volleyball club is supported by synergies too.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s amazing. Yeah. Is that okay? So if folks want to get in touch with you and have a more in-depth conversation, they’re really curious about the services that you offer through synergies. How can they find you?

Ryan Van Ornum : You can go on our website w-w-w. So it’s c e r s.com.

Trisha Stetzel: Fantastic. I’m going to have that in the show notes as well. So for those of you at your computer listening or watching us today, you can just point and click and it will take you directly where you want to go. I think I found Ryan through LinkedIn, so I know he’s got a profile out there as well. And it’s Ryan Van v a n space m o r n u m is how you can find him on LinkedIn. Good. Okay. So all the business, all the things, all the things that you’re doing. Ryan, how is it that you can pull all of this off and still be such an amazing father to your kiddos?

Ryan Van Ornum : Uh, it’s leverage when when you’re able to leverage your time. I’m not working 80 hours a week. Um, I, I specifically set up my calendar, and, uh, I don’t want to have to show you my calendar, but it’s color coordinated. Um, and everything I do, my kids come first, so their schedule comes. Yesterday, I was at my my ten year old daughter’s play, a midsummer Night’s Dream at 1:00 in the afternoon. I was going to be there no matter what. I set up my schedule to take care of my kids first. Uh, if they have football games, if they have activities, uh, and then secondly, everything is leveraged, uh, with, with people that are better than me because I suck at certain aspects of my business, and I would be an overpaid assistant and I would be horrible at those things. So that’s that’s what I do. I make sure that I run my calendar if I’m as productive as I possibly can. It’s down to the half an hour on my calendar every single day. That’s that’s my biggest thing. And then what that allows me to do is be more present with my kids.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, that sounds like a really great piece of advice and why you would even want to think about having a virtual assistant, right? So that as the business owner, you can go and do the things you’re amazing at, and you can allow others who are amazing at the other things that you don’t want to do to do their things. Right.

Ryan Van Ornum : Right. Most, most weeks, because, uh, I, I have to drop off my kids to school at 830. I pick them up at 230. I have six hours a day. Uh, there’s there’s times that I’m working a little bit more in the evenings when, when I have time. But mostly, uh, I work between 30 and 35 hours a week, and I have three businesses to be able to handle it. So that’s that’s how you do it. You just got to be very productive with your time and leverage out the the, the stuff that you’re not good at to people that are better than you at.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So from I know a lot of business owners who are they think about you know gosh could I use a VA. It sounds like a really good idea, but I’m worried one about letting go of the control. And two, I don’t know if I have enough work for them. What would you say to those business owners?

Ryan Van Ornum : Watch what happens when you when you do let go. Because when you rewrite your job description and you get better at what you actually focus on, it’s what you what you focus on. What um, what you focus on expands. Okay, so that little quote has resonated with me a lot. If I’m, if I, I put it on my vision board, I want to have like a new if I wanted a new boat, a new house, you know, I wanted a vacation or whatever it is, I’m gonna put it on that vision board and I’m going to see it every damn day. I’m gonna I’m gonna focus on that, and it’s going to happen. But if if you focus on the fear because that’s what you’re focusing on is the fear of the negativity side of it. You’re you’re always going to stay like complacent. And complacency is the destroyer of most businesses.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, allowing ourselves to do what we’re really good at, I think is really the key. And, you know, if you’re if you want to pay someone to change the trash liner in your office for $500 an hour, that doesn’t sound like a very good idea, right? Uh, and so from a virtual perspective, what what kinds of things can a VA take over from you that you’re overpaying your that you would be overpaying yourself to do. Right? Uh, or someone else for that matter? Um, what is the number one thing that your clients come to you with? Like, what is the what is the problem? The number one problem that you solve for most of your business owners.

Ryan Van Ornum : Most most of the people that we we put together a package and we have several different packages, but it usually starts with like our their website is either non-existent or it doesn’t have any call to action. It doesn’t produce them any money. They don’t know how to do it organically. They try to pay for leads and it doesn’t work because, um, they, they may not have any automations behind the scenes. So then, uh, there’s if their CRM is not working for them, if it’s not sending out, you know, emails for them, it’s not checking in with their customers for them. All of those things like, if you’re not, if your business is not working for you while you sleep, that’s what we we do. We solve that problem. We we automate. We take care of those pieces behind the scenes that most business owners don’t really have the, the, the capabilities because there’s go do what you’re good at. If you’re a plumber, go, go plumb. Go plumb the the lines. If you’re an electrician, you know, go run those run those electricity, you know those those lines to make sure that, you know, those houses are getting the the right polarities. You know, like don’t worry about the, the website and the automations and your texting and all of that stuff. Handle handle what you can do because you’re going to make $300 an hour doing that stuff. Why are you why are you causing yourself even more frustrations? You know, if you’re a massage therapist and you have 85 sticky notes all on your desk because you can’t keep anything straight? Look at that. So that’s that’s the kind of stuff that we really focus on. We streamline people’s businesses.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I love that. Okay. So if you’re a business owner listening to this and you have no idea what Ryan was talking about when he said CRMs and SEOs and all of the other acronyms, then you need to talk to Ryan, because that is what runs your business. That is how you’re going to get the prospects in the door and start to fill the funnel. And Ryan’s team can help you with that. So if you’re not nurturing the people that you’ve been meeting over the last year or six months, maybe even three years, you have a stack of business cards like a mile high. You need to go nurture those because you spent the time to build those relationships and have those conversations. Ryan and Ryan’s team can help you get caught up with all of that, and set the automation so that you’re nurturing those prospects all the time while you sleep. That’s what I.

Ryan Van Ornum : Heard. Exactly, exactly. Better yet, if you have, who doesn’t have an Alexa or Siri or a Google in their house anymore, uh, that that you can talk to that that is not SEO anymore. Uh, ChatGPT is taking over the search engine side from Google and Microsoft. So a lot of it’s called Geo now. Uh, it’s Generative optimization. So generative engine optimization. So when you get start showing up like who’s the best plumber in Houston. Who is who is the best solar company in Houston. And we have the ability to get you onto those platforms that you are now making that connection for people on on your on your home devices.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow, GE, I learned something new today, Ryan. That’s very exciting. I had no idea. I suspected, uh, because everyone’s using chat tools way more often than they are just search engines, right? Um, right. To find information or to get information because it seems so much more robust when we’re doing it, uh, tool like that. Okay. We’re getting to the back end of our conversation. I know time flies, but I would love for you to share your favorite story. Something either about yourself or one of your clients.

Ryan Van Ornum : Favorite story that I got is, um, that we we have a we have a retired NFL player. That’s one of our clients that’s, uh, a business coach. And he came to me, uh, he’s like, man, I, I see what you guys are doing, and I and I’m just not sure about how we’re how we’re going to implement. So he’s like, I’ll give it a shot. And then what we found was we had certain marketing pieces, certain automation pieces, and then it’s like just we just chunked it down. Okay. We took little pieces every week. We just started building up, building up, building up. And, uh, it’s it’s it’s he sent me a video because I was like, hey, hey, bro, can you just send me a testimonial? And he sent me like the like it almost brought tears to my eyes, like, and you don’t know how much you impact somebody’s business until they tell you. Because all like when we’re, we’re, we’re in the trenches trying to take care of our people. That’s the kind of stuff that’s so rewarding is when you have that that gratitude coming back to you and, uh, gosh darn it, it’s it’s just so rewarding when you get those type of testimonials and, and, you know, like the, the people, you run through a wall for your people and they, they reciprocate. I, I can’t, I can’t, um, measure how how gratifying that is.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. That’s awesome. For those of you who are just listening and not watching, I could see Ryan’s body language shift when he talked about the testimonial that this gentleman sent over. So it was so meaningful. Right. It makes us feel really good that we’re able to give time back to these people who were struggling in the first place. So congratulations. That’s fantastic.

Ryan Van Ornum : Well, and he’s a single dad too, so it means a lot to me to be able that he can go out and like watch his his daughter play softball like that means that means the world to me. He’s traveling all over the country and the world doing professional speaking and business coaching and stuff like that, and just that, that we’re able to help him get his time back. Gosh darn it. That’s that’s that hits me right in the feels.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. That’s fantastic. I thank you for being on with me today. This has been such a great conversation. I love who you are as a human being. You’re running some amazing businesses and doing some really cool stuff in the background and changing people’s lives. So thank you for being with me today.

Ryan Van Ornum : No, thank you for the time. It’s been an honor and privilege to be on the show. Thank you so much.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you Ryan. That’s all the time we have for today’s show. Join us next time for another amazing episode of Houston Business Radio. Until then, stay tuned, stay inspired, and keep thriving in the Houston business community.