{"id":8150,"date":"2023-07-04T22:49:30","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T22:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/?p=8150"},"modified":"2023-07-04T22:49:30","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T22:49:30","slug":"5-all-time-favorite-tips-for-financial-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/04\/5-all-time-favorite-tips-for-financial-independence\/","title":{"rendered":"5 All-Time Favorite Tips For Financial Independence"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

Brandon Turner achieved <\/strong>financial independence<\/strong><\/a> in his late 20s.<\/strong> For most people, this would be the end of working, investing, or trying to better themselves. But for Brandon, this was only the start. Now a decade later, Brandon is managing close to one billion dollars in real estate<\/strong>, running numerous companies, and dedicating his efforts to eradicating human trafficking<\/strong> while simultaneously setting millions of Americans financially free. Brandon has, in almost every way, won the game of life, and he has five crucial tips to share<\/strong> with us today.<\/p>\n

Back in the Sea Shed are long-time co-hosts Brandon and David as they travel back in time and revisit the five most important lessons <\/strong>learned on this podcast. These lessons aren\u2019t just crucial in achieving financial independence<\/strong>. When taken to heart and implemented correctly, they will allow you to level up your life, relationships, friendships, and businesses<\/strong>. They will also set you apart from <\/strong>the 99% of people<\/strong> who want success but refuse to go out and get it.<\/p>\n

From lessons about spilled sewage to podcast recordings gone wrong<\/strong>, designing the life you want to live, and taking ownership <\/strong>when everything starts falling apart, this is an episode you cannot afford to miss. If you want to achieve <\/strong>financial freedom<\/strong><\/a>, start living your dream life, and live a life like Brandon, you\u2019ll have to tune in<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

David:
This is the BiggerPockets Podcast. Show 787.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
There\u2019s a quote Gary Keller uses in The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, and it says that financial freedom is the unearned income to finance your life\u2019s mission without having to work. I\u2019m a big fan of that idea. I often say financial freedom is doing what you want, where you want, when you want, how you want it with whoever you-<\/p>\n

David:
But that can lead to slavery.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
That can lead to slavery. But instead, the idea of the unearned income, meaning money\u2019s coming in despite the hours you work to finance your life mission without having to work. If you don\u2019t have a life mission, maybe that\u2019s a good place to start. Why are you here? What are you doing this for? Otherwise, you end up making a lot of money and not having any freedom.<\/p>\n

David:
What\u2019s going on, everyone? It\u2019s David Greene, your host of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast, here today with another episode with Brandon Turner. Today\u2019s show, we talk about the five podcasts that had the biggest impact on both of us: the lessons that we learned, how they helped them with our business, and how they shaped our views on life. This is a wild ride full of tons of information. If you\u2019ve never heard Brandon talk, you want to buckle your seatbelt because the guy goes a million miles an hour. I\u2019ve been told that I can do the same thing.
We\u2019ll be coming to you live from Hawaii, where we had this conversation that ranged from Jocko Willink to artificial intelligence to holding toilets full of feces on purpose to save a couple of bucks in real estate. It\u2019s a blast. I\u2019m sure you\u2019re going to love it. If you are struggling with this very tough real estate market and you\u2019re thinking about giving up, don\u2019t. We\u2019ve been through changes like this before. There\u2019s an adjusting period. What worked yesterday isn\u2019t working today as rates have gone up, but prices have not come down. But that is okay. There\u2019s still ways to win in today\u2019s market. In today\u2019s show, we are trying to mold your mind so you can see some of the same angles that Brandon and I see that help us succeed in life, in business, and with finances. All right. Let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
I know Eric, who\u2019s a wonderful, amazing, good-looking producer for the show. Hi, Eric. He pitched me on this idea of the five things because they\u2019re all revolving around this idea of financial freedom. Being that this episode\u2019s coming out on the 4th of July, I think all five lessons should be somewhere in the vicinity of freedom. What do you think?<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah. Well, that\u2019s what we do. It\u2019s all for some form of freedom, whether it\u2019s freedom from things that enslave you, freedom from poverty, freedom from not hitting your potential in life, freedom from bad relationships, freedom from not hitting your potential. I mean, all knowledge, when used correctly, should be for the purpose of some type of freedom. Wouldn\u2019t you agree?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
I would. I would love to know\u2026 I\u2019m going to take over the host seat and ask you a question. How do you define financial freedom?<\/p>\n

David:
We made it about three minutes into this thing before we got there, didn\u2019t we?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
How do you define financial freedom, man?<\/p>\n

David:
To me, financial freedom is not having to sell out your values in order to pay the bills.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Ooh. Not having to sell your values in order to pay your bills.<\/p>\n

David:
If you\u2019re working at a company that you don\u2019t feel good about working, or you don\u2019t like the things that they\u2019re doing, but you have to, to make the bills\u2026 There\u2019s people that can\u2019t get around that. I don\u2019t criticize someone like that. In fact, most of the time the world\u2019s been spinning, that\u2019s where human beings found themselves. Survival is much more difficult for most of the time the world\u2019s been around than what it is for us. We\u2019re very, very privileged to live in a time where we don\u2019t spend very much time worrying about surviving. I mean, we spend more time, at least me, worrying about not eating too much versus not having enough to eat, which is a very unusual thing for a human being.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
A strange thing.<\/p>\n

David:
We have food everywhere that\u2019s screaming, \u201cCome eat me,\u201d where, for most of the time-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Eat me.<\/p>\n

David:
\u2026the world\u2019s been around, it\u2019s been, \u201cWhat am I going to eat?\u201d That\u2019s all you could think about. Financial freedom wasn\u2019t a thing. The ability to-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Here\u2019s a deep thought.<\/p>\n

David:
Okay.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
This is going to sound dumb. But interesting enough, we have the freedom to eat whatever we want, and then we get overweight and unhealthy. We end up dying earlier.<\/p>\n

David:
You\u2019re a slave.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. Freedom actually leads to slavery at a certain point. There\u2019s an interesting dichotomy there between freedom and slavery or misery that-<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s exactly right, speaking of the word dichotomy, which is a Jocko Willink word. He actually has a concept of discipline equals freedom. If you are not disciplined enough to handle the freedom that you get, it will absolutely lead to enslavement.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
There\u2019s a quote Gary Keller uses in The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, and it says that financial freedom is the unearned income to finance your life\u2019s mission without having to work. I\u2019m a big fan of that idea. I often say financial freedom is doing what you want, where you want, when you want, how you want with whoever you want.<\/p>\n

David:
But that can lead to slavery.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
That can lead to slavery. But instead, the idea of the unearned income, meaning money\u2019s coming in despite the hours you work to finance your life mission without having to work. If you don\u2019t have a life mission, maybe that\u2019s a good place to start. Why are you here? What are you doing this for? Otherwise, you end up making a lot of money and not having any freedom.<\/p>\n

David:
Which is how you end up in slavery.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Which is how you end up in slavery.<\/p>\n

David:
Because you start looking through things like food for comfort or, I mean, gratuitous, hedonism for comfort. There\u2019s a lot of things out there when you don\u2019t have a purpose and you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re going for\/what you\u2019re going to. That\u2019s when the billboards on the side of the freeway that say, \u201cPull over here,\u201d become much more enticing if you don\u2019t have the end destination in mind.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Ooh, look at that. That was an analogy. That was good, man.<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah. Thank you.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Do you still do those?<\/p>\n

David:
Every once in a while, we do them. I mean, I don\u2019t like to go overboard with it. I like to be known for more than just analogies. Unfortunately, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve been able to pull that off. Not like you, who\u2019s known for many, many, many things.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
No, I\u2019m known for one thing, acronyms.<\/p>\n

David:
Making me look\u2026 You are good with acronyms. You are great. In fact, my entire BRRRR book, and the salary that\u2019s provided me, thank you for coming up with that acronym.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
People like acronyms, man. There\u2019s this idea of life mission like, \u201cWhat are you doing it for?\u201d What\u2019s cool about that also is it keeps you motivated along the journey to financial freedom. I mean, we ask people all the time, \u201cWhy are you doing what you\u2019re doing? Why are you pursuing real estate investing?\u201d They\u2019re like, \u201cFor financial freedom.\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cOkay. Well, why?\u201d \u201cFor freedom?\u201d You\u2019re like, \u201cOkay, well, why?\u201d \u201cWell, for freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

David:
It\u2019s all right. You\u2019re so true.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Then, some people will go into, \u201cI want to spend more time with my family.\u201d That was my mission for years, more time with my family. Then, I did it. When I left the BiggerPockets Podcast to go spend time with my family and build Open Door Capital, I went and traveled the country for four and a half\/five months. Went around, went to Europe, went around the country, did all this amazing stuff with my family. I was with them 24\/7. Then, I realized that freedom doesn\u2019t necessarily mean spending 24\/7 with my family either. It was like I needed something more than that. That\u2019s a huge piece of it, was being able to choose to spend time with my family. But that just alone, spending time with my family, was not my life\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n

David:
Do you know why that happens?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Why is that?<\/p>\n

David:
Because most of us only look at one step ahead of where we are. We know, \u201cI don\u2019t want to be here.\u201d \u201cWhat do you want?\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d Ever ask someone, \u201cWhat do you want to eat for dinner tonight?\u201d They always don\u2019t know. But when you propose something, what do they say?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Okay.<\/p>\n

David:
\u201cI don\u2019t want that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I don\u2019t want that.<\/p>\n

David:
They don\u2019t say okay. I wish it was that easy. People know what they don\u2019t want. But they don\u2019t know what they want. Sometimes you have to start with eliminating what you don\u2019t want and moving forward. As you take that journey, what you want becomes clear, and you get a better understanding. Now, you also have tools like the Vivid Vision that you come up with that force your brain to figure out, \u201cWhat do I really want?\u201d But it\u2019s much easier to know what you don\u2019t want. You knew that I don\u2019t want to miss out on my kids\u2019 childhood. I don\u2019t want to miss out on my family, so you made choices. But then you get there, and you\u2019re like, \u201cWell, this is great. But I know there\u2019s other people in the world other than my family that need help.\u201d The human trafficking thing, which we can get into later, is something that you\u2019ve become really passionate about. But you probably wouldn\u2019t have been exposed to that if you didn\u2019t start the journey somewhere else, not knowing where you were going to be heading.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Oh, man. That\u2019s so good. It leads into the idea that\u2019s been\u2026 I\u2019ve been talking about it a lot lately. In fact, just the speech I gave at the Real Estate BetterLife thing the other day. I talked about how when your mind\u2026 Your mind is actually a piece of real estate. I love this concept. Your mind is a piece of real estate. It is a finite piece of real estate. There\u2019s only so much land in there that can be used. When 70% of your mind\/80% of your mind\/90% of your mind is consumed with survival, which is what most of the world is, you do not have the land needed to cultivate the better crops. It\u2019s just consumed with paying the bills.
When I say survival mode, I\u2019m not talking about where\u2019s the food. But in a way, it is. That\u2019s what our cave manny brains are like. \u201cWe got to get money so we can pay the bills.\u201d Once you take that off the table, once you are set for life, to quote Scott Trench\u2019s amazing book, now you can actually plant better crops. But people are in survival mode 24\/7. They can\u2019t think the next step.
I\u2019ll give a very tangible example of that. When I was 21, I got into real estate. A lot of people have heard my story. If not, I think it was episode 92, maybe, somewhere around there, my original episode, which would\u2019ve been 10 years ago, nine years ago. But when I got into real estate, the first six\/seven years was like, \u201cBuild real estate. Build rentals. Build cashflow. I need it, need it, need it, need it.\u201d But when I hit 27, I had enough cash flow. I had $3,000 to $4,000 a month coming in. I lived in a cheap area with a cheap house. I could do this. I quit my job. All of a sudden, I had level one financial freedom.
Now, did that make me super happy all the time? No, not really. I mean, it was fine. But it was nice not having that crappy job I had. But what it did is it gave me the opportunity to start volunteering my time for this little blog that existed back then, a little blog and forum. I started just volunteering my time editing blog posts and writing blog posts. It was run by this guy, Josh Dorkin. It was a weird named blog called BiggerPockets. I started just writing for him because I had free time to do that.
Josh and I started talking more. It was like, \u201cHey, why don\u2019t we start a podcast?\u201d I had the ability to do that. I was able to plant those better crops. I was able to take advantage of incredible opportunities because I was no longer in survival mode. That is, right there, a picture. Now, I\u2019m not saying everyone has to go to start a podcast. But you will likely not see the opportunities that are in the world if you are consumed with the thought of, \u201cHow do I survive?\u201d You cannot live a better life.<\/p>\n

David:
Because you have to figure out, \u201cWhat do I don\u2019t want? I don\u2019t want to be hungry. I have to go work for food.\u201d That\u2019s the idea of Maslow\u2019s hierarchy of needs. You don\u2019t hit the self-actualization-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
It\u2019s all [inaudible 00:09:47].<\/p>\n

David:
\u2026until you know your immediate needs are going to be met.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. This goes back to the very beginning, and then I\u2019ll shut up, but this idea of once you have a life\u2019s mission, and you take care of the bottom levels of the pyramid\u2026 You have financial freedom. You don\u2019t worry about survival mode. You have a mission in life. Now, all of a sudden, you can move.
My mission back then, a large piece of it, was also to educate people in real estate. I had the basic bills paid for, and I wanted to educate. I could put a lot of time and effort and money and intention into that. That\u2019s one of the reasons why BiggerPockets blew up because I was putting in 100 hours a week doing something I loved, so was Josh, and so were you when you get in.
Financial freedom\u2026 If you\u2019re not sure why you want it, maybe just think about it that way, is you have a life\u2019s mission. There\u2019s something you want. Let\u2019s solve the financial freedom level one. Let\u2019s get you financial freedom on this episode. I want every person by the time we\u2019re done talking today to go, \u201cI know why I want it, how I want it, and I\u2019m working towards it.\u201d Five years from now, if you\u2019re not financial free, then we didn\u2019t do our job today.<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah. Because money can solve a lot of those immediate problems. I need something to eat. Well, if I have money, that\u2019s going to be solved. I need somewhere to live. If I have money, that\u2019s going to be solved. I need to have a little bit of money left in the bank, or I need to have less pressure on me so I can think about other people in my life.
We\u2019ve all heard that example of the drowning man in the ocean that can\u2019t save anybody else if he\u2019s drowning. If you\u2019re in that point of, \u201cI have to solve this problem,\u201d there\u2019s nothing left over, like you said. I don\u2019t think a lot of people realize that when they get those immediate problems solved, they think that was the goal of life. That was just the goal of what they could see from that position.
It gets more complicated. It gets more difficult. You start to feel pressure and responsibility. You start to realize you have influence, and people are watching what you do. You can easily lead other people into the same vices that you\u2019re in when you\u2019re in a bigger influential position. I\u2019d like to talk about that with you more because you\u2019ve got more influence now than ever before. But before we do, on our harrowing path of financial freedom, we wanted to share some of the most impactful moments or lessons that helped us along the way and will help you move along your path as well as you listen to this, a couple of stories from the podcast that were particularly impactful that you and I went through. The first one is my favorite one.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Particularly impactful.<\/p>\n

David:
Particularly impactful.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
That\u2019s the name of a book right there, Particularly Impactful by David Greene, coming out in 2025.<\/p>\n

David:
Is that what you think of when you think of me, particularly impactful? I don\u2019t know that anyone else would.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Particularly. I feel like you should do that with a British accent.<\/p>\n

David:
I\u2019ve got different accents. I\u2019ve got a Scottish one if you like to hear it.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Oh, I like that one. That\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

David:
All right. The first story\u2026 This is one of my favorite ones. We call this the toilet story.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Oh, geez.<\/p>\n

David:
Can you share the abridged version and how that impacted assigning value to your time?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Geez. Okay. It starts with four friends of mine\u2026 Well, one friend of mine and three of his buddies. Young 20s, living in my apartment complex back in Grace Harbor. I was 25 years old-ish. They texted me and said, \u201cHey.\u201d One of my buddies texted me and said, \u201cHey, the toilet\u2019s not working.\u201d I said, \u201cOkay, I\u2019ll take care of it.\u201d Then, I just forgot because it wasn\u2019t in my system. I had a system for calling for repairs. It wasn\u2019t texting me. But he texted me and said, \u201cIt wasn\u2019t working.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll take care of it.\u201d What I should have said is, \u201cSure, can you call my maintenance person?\u201d or whatever. I didn\u2019t. \u201cI\u2019ll take care of it.\u201d I forgot. A week later, he texted me back and said, \u201cHey, man, it\u2019s getting real bad. It\u2019s about to overflow.\u201d<\/p>\n

David:
It\u2019s really crappy.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. It\u2019s really crappy. He\u2019s like, \u201cIt\u2019s getting real bad. You really should come take care of this,\u201d because they had continued to use the toilet for a solid week-<\/p>\n

David:
Of course. Of course.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
\u2026because they\u2019re 21-year-old kids. That\u2019s what they do. They continued to use the toilet. They had all had the flu during that period. The toilet was completely full. I go there. This is the era of how-not-who. Not who-not-how. I said, \u201cHow am I going to fix this? I\u2019m not going to call a plumber. Plumbers are $50 an hour.\u201d Of course, today, they\u2019re much more. I\u2019m not going to pay $50 an hour. I try to plunge it. It doesn\u2019t work. I try to snake it with one of those little hand snakes. It doesn\u2019t work. I try plunging again. It doesn\u2019t work. I get the brilliant idea. I\u2019m going to unbolt it from the floor, and so I unbolt it from the floor. I pick it up. I\u2019m doing a squat. I\u2019m carrying it across the bathroom. I heave it up into the bathtub, and it covers me in everything that was in the toilet.<\/p>\n

David:
Were you trying to put it in the bathtub? [inaudible 00:13:51].<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. I was trying to get it in the bathtub.<\/p>\n

David:
You\u2019re hoping it would just go down the drain.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. Because I wanted to flip it upside down to figure out what was blocking it.<\/p>\n

David:
Okay. You needed a place to put.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
I dumped it upside down in the toilet or in the bathtub in the meantime. It covers me. I found a little contact lens solution bottle thing in the bottom of the toilet. I fixed it. But then, I got dreadfully sick the next week. That was the last time really that I did any plumbing on any real estate property I ever did.<\/p>\n

David:
Did any of it hit that one area of your back that you can\u2019t get?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
It\u2019s still there, man. It\u2019s still there. Here\u2019s the lesson, It took that to get me to go, \u201cA plumber would\u2019ve been $100.\u201d A plumber would\u2019ve had a powered router\u2026 rooter that they would\u2019ve\u2026 Yeah, rooter. Router is what you make wood out of or make cool designs. A rooter to router it out. It would\u2019ve been done in 20 minutes, would\u2019ve cost me a couple of hundred bucks probably. I wouldn\u2019t have had that problem. I would\u2019ve gotten sick.
But I value that lesson because it taught me the who not\u2026 Sometimes I would be much better off. In fact, this is a much broader topic. If you want financial freedom, the lesson here is a who-not-how lesson. But it\u2019s not a how entirely. It\u2019s not sit-on-the-beach-and-do-nothing. It is everything you do has a dollar per hour attached to it. If you want to hear a great podcast about this, we interviewed Perry Marshall, the guy who wrote the book 80\/20 Sales and Marketing. He talked a lot about everything you do has a dollar per hour attached to it. If you\u2019re mowing the lawn, you could attach a $20 an hour to that \u2019cause you could find somebody to mow your lawn for $20 an hour. If you are changing the oil in your car, that\u2019s probably a $40-an-hour task. Everything you do has a dollar per hour attached to it.<\/p>\n

Perry Marshall:
80\/20 is driven by power laws. It says that everything is exponential. It\u2019s not addition. It\u2019s multiplication. The value of your time is not $10\/20\/30\/40 an hour. It\u2019s 10\/100\/1,000\/10,000.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
The fact is, if you\u2019re negotiating a real estate deal, if you are sending out direct mail letters, that is likely more like $1,000-per-hour task. If you work 10 hours at lead generation in your business and you land a deal that ends up netting you $30,000, how much money per hour did you just make? A lot.
What I was doing\u2026 and I was trying to do everything. I was sacrificing the great for the good. I was stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. That\u2019s really what I\u2019ve learned in this who-not-how idea: is find my value. What is the most valuable thing I can possibly do? I\u2019m going to do as much of that as humanly possible.
Now, in the beginning, you have no money, fine. You might have to do more. But as fast as you can. Even the idea of like, \u201cOkay, let\u2019s bring back ChatGPT.\u201d If there\u2019s things that ChatGPT can help you do that\u2019s a dollar an hour, great. You start doing the $2-an-hour stuff. Then, as soon as you\u2019re going to afford the $2-an-hour or $5-an-hour VA, hire them to do some of the $5-an-hour stuff. Stop mowing your lawn. Hire the kid next door to do that. There are things you can afford. In fact, I would say sell your car, downgrade your house, house tag. Do whatever you can to free up as much money as possible and then use that money to buy back your time so you can dedicate your time to doing the higher dollar-per-hour tasks. If you don\u2019t know what those higher dollar-per-hour tasks are, listen to any podcast episode of BiggerPockets, and you\u2019ll hear people talking about what those things are.<\/p>\n

David:
Just like you didn\u2019t walk into the first jiu-jitsu gym and immediately start training. The first VA you hire-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
It\u2019s going to be terrible.<\/p>\n

David:
The first assistant may not be the one that you run with for the entire time. It is okay if it takes a couple of tries to get that right.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
My first assistant I hired\u2026 \u2019cause I needed an assistant to help me with digital stuff like BiggerPockets stuff and show notes and all that good stuff, my email and all that. She\u2019s going to be my digital assistant. Maybe edit some blog posts, maybe edit photos, upload the social media, all that. I hired this woman that I know \u2019cause she applied. That was the only criteria: a woman I know, and she applied.<\/p>\n

David:
Applied.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
It was such terrible criteria. But I hired her. First day, I buy her a brand new Mac computer. I rent her an office. I go, and I set her up in the office. I\u2019m like, \u201cOkay, I\u2019m going to train you today on how to do this stuff that I need you to do. I sat down. I\u2019m like, \u201cOkay, so go to your desktop.\u201d She said the words, \u201cWhat\u2019s the desktop?\u201d I was like, \u201cIt\u2019s the screen. It\u2019s everything. That\u2019s your desktop.\u201d I was like, \u201cSo click on my computer,\u201d or whatever it was. She goes, \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d I was like, \u201cOh, geez.\u201d Then, I asked the question that I maybe should\u2019ve asked earlier, \u201cHave you ever used a computer before?\u201d The answer was, \u201cWell, I have a phone. I realized that day I hired a digital assistant who had never used a computer in her life.\u201d You know what? I learned that I was sitting on the bench. I was sitting on the little kid bench that day.<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s so good.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
I found a new spot for her. She was amazing in that new role. It worked out. The next assistant\u2026 little better.<\/p>\n

David:
Little bit better.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Little better.<\/p>\n

David:
Next one? Little bit better.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Little better.<\/p>\n

David:
They\u2019re still getting a little bit better.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
They\u2019re still getting\u2026 My assistant right now, Kat, is the best assistant I ever had. It\u2019s just taken me 10 years. They\u2019ve been getting better every time.<\/p>\n

David:
Even Brandon Turner has failed and failed and failed and failed. I think the difference is you just keep going. See, when we don\u2019t share this, people hire an assistant maybe, too, it doesn\u2019t work. \u201cI just must not be good at this.\u201d I just suck at jiu-jitsu. It\u2019s not for me. Let me go find something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Oh, dude. Anytime people say, \u201cI tried that. It didn\u2019t work,\u201d that drives me nuts. I\u2019m like, \u201cNo, you didn\u2019t try every way to do that thing.\u201d \u201cOh, yeah. I tried sending direct mail. It didn\u2019t work.\u201d \u201cHow many did you send?\u201d \u201cA couple of hundred.\u201d \u201cA couple of hundred a day? A couple of hundred a week?\u201d \u201cNo, a couple of hundred.\u201d \u201cWhy would that work?\u201d<\/p>\n

David:
I tried exercising. It didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we don\u2019t go, \u201cI went to the gym today.\u201d I actually left the gym the other day. I made a video, and then it didn\u2019t turn out well, so I didn\u2019t post it. But maybe I still will. \u201cDavid, gyms are scams. Completely scams. They don\u2019t work. I went to the gym the other day. I went in there. I worked out for almost an hour. I walked out, and I\u2019m still fat. They\u2019re completely scams. They say if you go to the gym, you\u2019re going to lose weight.<\/p>\n

David:
\u201cI did everything they said to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon:
\u201cI did everything they said. I even did the ab machine for 20 minutes. I went on the elliptical machine. I didn\u2019t lose weight that day. I am never going back to a gym again.\u201d Complete ridiculous.<\/p>\n

David:
\u201cEverywhere I go, I\u2019m going to tell everybody else that gyms don\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon:
\u201cYeah, I\u2019m going to go tell everyone that the gyms don\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

David:
\u201cI\u2019m going to go on Reddit and start a forum just to bring up this topic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon:
That\u2019s it. Oh, geez. It\u2019s-<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s a great point. I mean, that is a great point. What\u2019s funny is that in certain areas of life, we understand you are not going to get into your first relationship and crush it right away. You\u2019re not going to go on a diet for a day and crush it. You\u2019re not going to go in the gym and crush it. You\u2019re not going to ride a bike the first time. You\u2019re not going to snowboard. You\u2019re not going to surf. None of that\u2019s going to happen the first couple of times you do it. Yet, with money, we have this completely different expectation for how it\u2019s supposed to work.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. I met Heather in college. I fell just head over heels in love with her. One day, I took her out for a walk. I said, \u201cCan we go for a walk?\u201d I went out there, and I poured my heart out. I\u2019m like, \u201cI really like you a lot. I can\u2019t stop. I really like you. I want to get closer to you.\u201d She said, \u201cOh, that\u2019s nice.\u201d That\u2019s nice.<\/p>\n

David:
Oh my god.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Oh, I\u2019m like, \u201cOh!\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cI like you too. You\u2019re a good friend.\u201d Oh!<\/p>\n

David:
Gives you a little back pat, buddy.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. But you know what I did a week later? I took her out again. I was like, \u201cNo, you don\u2019t understand. I really like you, and I need this. I need more.\u201d<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s good, man. How many people have reached out to a mentor, shot their shot, poured their heart out, got rejected, and just said, \u201cI can\u2019t ever do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yep. So many.<\/p>\n

David:
Do you think there\u2019s a correlation between how much rejection a person is willing to go through and how successful they\u2019re going to be?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yep. Very much. That\u2019s why the best salespeople are just the best at taking rejection. The best door-to-door salespeople\u2026 I know some really great salespeople. The best ones are the ones that it doesn\u2019t phase them to get rejected. It took me four tries to ask Heather out before she finally said yes. I basically had to give her an ultimatum. I was like, \u201cI can\u2019t be your friend anymore.\u201d I was like, \u201cI love you too much.\u201d I don\u2019t think I said the love, but I was like, \u201cI am so obsessed with you. It hurts every second of every day.\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cWell, then\u2026\u201d I was like, \u201cI can\u2019t be friends. I\u2019m done. I\u2019m breaking this up. I\u2019m no longer a friend.\u201d She goes\u2026 I think her words were, \u201cFine. Ask me out like a real man,\u201d or something like that \u2019cause she\u2019s like, \u201cYou never actually asked me out. You did it in this round-<\/p>\n

David:
You\u2019re like, \u201cThis whole time-\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. She like\u2026<\/p>\n

David:
\u201c\u2026pain and personal anguish for nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yep. She\u2019s like, \u201cYou didn\u2019t ever ask me out.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cOf course, I did. I did it four times.\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cNo, you didn\u2019t.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cYes, I did.\u201d I said, \u201cI really like you. I don\u2019t know what to do with this.\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cThat\u2019s not asking me out.\u201d<\/p>\n

David:
It\u2019s funny. I know exactly what that means. That person doesn\u2019t hear it at all.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah, yeah. She was just like, \u201cYou were just telling me you liked me.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cOh!\u201d<\/p>\n

David:
Bro, my first experience telling a girl I liked her was almost the exact same thing. It was the hardest thing, at that time, I\u2019d ever done in my life. I think this was before cell phones. I remember taking the phone off of the receiver and calling her. It was that same feeling of I have this ache in my soul that\u2019s making me sick. I did not want to tell them how I felt. I did not want the rejection. I was pretty sure she didn\u2019t feel the same way. But it was killing me. I finally did. I think I said it along the lines of, \u201cI just think you\u2019re really, really special, more special than I\u2019ve ever seen in another person. I like being around you all the time. I think about everything I do. I want you there.\u201d She started crying.
She still didn\u2019t understand. I was saying I like her, bro. She cried on the phone and was like, \u201cThat\u2019s the nicest thing anyone-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
[inaudible 00:23:10].<\/p>\n

David:
\u201c\u2026said this thing.\u201d Yes. Thank you so much. Then, I was like, \u201cWell, how do you feel?\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cI don\u2019t know. I need to think about it.\u201d I thought, \u201cOh god. I don\u2019t want to push her. This was the hardest thing I\u2019ve ever done. She\u2019s probably feeling the same thing. Let me give her time.\u201d I said, \u201cOkay. Well, why don\u2019t you think about it and call me back?\u201d She goes, \u201cOkay.\u201d I\u2019m holding my breath the\u2026 I\u2019m expecting in the next five minutes\/the next morning\/the next day. Five days go by. She forgot about it.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Oh, geez.<\/p>\n

David:
All day long, dude, this is all I\u2019m thinking about the entire time. She forgets we had the conversation. She gets in a car accident. I\u2019m like, \u201cI want to call to check on her,\u201d but I\u2019m afraid at the time\u2026 I know women listening to this probably\u2026 They just think we\u2019re stupid, and we are. We don\u2019t understand. I was thinking it would be taken advantage of her vulnerability now that she\u2019s been in an accident to go and ask this question or go talk to her when she hasn\u2019t had time to come back to me.
Finally, I just called to check on her. At the end of it, when I realized she\u2019s okay, I was like, \u201cSo what do you think about what we talked?\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cOh, yeah. I forgot all about that.\u201d It\u2019s so weird how that can happen. I just wonder how many people who have a goal, whether it\u2019s real estate investing or anything, that are trying to make connections, trying to make mentors, they want to sell more houses. They want to connect with the broker, whatever it is, that are in there in their own head beating themselves up, having no idea the other person doesn\u2019t even realize it\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. The question is for people to think, where are you being too vague? Where are you not being direct enough in your life? Are you actually asking to buy that person\u2019s house? Or are you beating around the bush?<\/p>\n

David:
I love this house.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. It\u2019s great.<\/p>\n

David:
I wish I could own one just like this someday.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Right. Same with business partners. \u201cOh, man. We\u2019d be great together. It\u2019d be great,\u201d instead of, \u201cWhat do you want?\u201d This is like\u2026 Is it Jerry McGuire? Is that the one where he\u2019s like, \u201cWhat do you\u2026\u201d No, this is Ryan Gosling on the Notebook. He\u2019s screaming at Rachel McAdams. \u201cWhat do you want? What do you want?\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cWhat do you want?\u201d That\u2019s what I\u2019m asking people right now. I was like, \u201cWhat do you want? You want to buy that house? You want to work with that partner. You want to borrow that money. You want to raise that capital.\u201d Go ask for what you want. You get what you ask for not what you implied.<\/p>\n

David:
But what stops us from doing it is the rejection.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
The rejection\/the fear.<\/p>\n

David:
We don\u2019t want the rejection.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
I\u2019m afraid to.<\/p>\n

David:
It\u2019s not worth it.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yep.<\/p>\n

David:
There\u2019s a scene in Rocky Balboa where he is talking to his son, and his son\u2019s lost his path in life. You know that scene I\u2019m talking about?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah.<\/p>\n

David:
Sylvester Stallone\u2019s character, Rocky, is telling him, \u201cYou need to go after what you want. You\u2019re making excuses. Winners don\u2019t do that. You\u2019re better than that.\u201d He says, \u201cIn life, it\u2019s not about how hard you hit. It\u2019s about how many times you can get hit and keep going.\u201d I get tingles every time I think about that. I wonder if you could measure someone\u2019s resilience with rejection if there\u2019s a clear connection between how successful they are. How many times can life punch you? Can you stand in there and get punched over and over and over to learn the pattern of what punches look like before you start slipping them? Then, eventually, the other person gets tired, and you can knock them out pretty easy. We have this fantasy that we want to walk in there. \u201cI hit so hard in one punch. It\u2019s easy. I never break a sweat. I\u2019m amazing.\u201d That\u2019s the person that we\u2019re trying to model ourselves after. When it doesn\u2019t work out like that, we go, \u201cOh, I guess I just wasn\u2019t good at it. I tried it, and it didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Not true.<\/p>\n

David:
There\u2019s people that do jiu-jitsu that are incredibly good at it, that are walking around complete nerds. You would never know. But I think it\u2019s the other thing. There\u2019s some kids in the class I go to that started when they were five. They\u2019re teenagers, and they\u2019re just assassins. But nothing else in life they like that they\u2019ve just done it so many times. Their brain has seen the patterns. They know the movements. They see angles that someone like me, that thinks about it all the time, I don\u2019t even pick up on. If you commit to real estate investing like that, anything like that, you\u2019re going to be successful. Thank you for sharing that story.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Could I throw one more piece in there in a related way? I don\u2019t know how this connects to the actual toilet story that we started this conversation with. But I will say this. When it talks about asking for what you want and being direct, that means you need to get clarity on what it is you want in real estate. Let\u2019s talk real estate specifically here. There\u2019s something in Multifamily Millionaire, Volume I, that I talked about. I call it the crystal clear criteria. Oftentimes, in commercial real estate, we call it the buy box. But crystal clear criteria is what exactly do you want to buy next?
If you\u2019re listening to the show right now, grab a pen and paper. Write these five words down or five phrases down. Number one: location. Where do you want to invest? Be specific. You can have multiple locations if you want, but just where do you want to invest? Know exactly where you want to invest. Number two: property type. What type of property do you want to buy? Number three: price range. Where do you want to buy in? What\u2019s your max? What\u2019s your min? Number four is condition. Condition. Do you want ugly, nasty, gross, tear down? You want just land you want to build on? You want a nice property that\u2019s A class. What do you want? Condition? The last one would be what I call profitability. What makes it a good deal?
Once you know that, it\u2019s like, \u201cHey, David, I\u2019m looking for some real estate. Can you help me find some?\u201d You\u2019re like, \u201cYeah, whatever.\u201d Imagine me as a client of-<\/p>\n

David:
I want a good deal?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah, I want a good deal. Yeah. No. \u201cDavid, what I\u2019m looking for is I want something in the Bay Area, preferably the East Bay Area. I want something between 400,000 and $800,000. I\u2019d love it to have an extra unit. I want it to be something a little bit of a fixer-upper because I really like that idea. Again, a house with an extra unit somewhere or the ability to add an extra unit. I just need this thing to break even on cash flow. That\u2019s what I\u2019m looking for.\u201d Are you going to take me more seriously now?<\/p>\n

David:
Oh, yeah. Of course.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
100%.<\/p>\n

David:
You know why people don\u2019t do that?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Why?<\/p>\n

David:
They are subconsciously putting the burden of solving the problem on the person they\u2019re talking to.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Ooh!<\/p>\n

David:
What you had done with Heather was you, by saying, \u201cI\u2019m a good friend. I like you. I like to be around you,\u201d but you never asked her out is you wanted her to figure out-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
I wanted her to say. Yep.<\/p>\n

David:
\u201cWell, then we should go out sometime,\u201d so you didn\u2019t have to fill that rejection. I\u2019m not criticizing you for that because I think I do it all the time. I think a lot of people do it all the time. But that\u2019s where that comes from.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Oh, dude. I\u2019m going to take this to a PG-13 level real quick. If you got kids listening to this, maybe skip the next 30 seconds. But men do this all the time in regards to sex with their wives or their girls. They imply what they want. They would love to have more sex. They\u2019re like, \u201cOh, what a great night tonight. We got some time. The kids are in bed. I wonder what we should do tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

David:
She\u2019s like, \u201cWe could have strawberries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah, exactly.<\/p>\n

David:
We could get caught up on The Bachelor.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. Yeah. It\u2019s like what if I was just more direct? I don\u2019t mean that in a mean way. Just saying, \u201cI would like to do this tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah, I bet you they would love that.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Oh, I bet you they would love it because people want to be-<\/p>\n

David:
The more direct and the more descriptive, probably the more they would like that.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Think a lot of people would love that. I\u2019m committing to that in all areas of my life, just being a little more direct. I\u2019m going to have everyone do me a favor right now. We\u2019re going to do a little practice here. I want everyone to pause this podcast who\u2019s listening to it. Pause it right now. I want you to text one person in your world what you want. Now, not talking about the bedroom but real estate-wise. Text someone-<\/p>\n

David:
Unless you\u2019re married, and that is what you want.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Unless that\u2019s what you want, that\u2019s fine. Right now, pause it and go text somebody what you want. Then, I want you to do that again tomorrow and then the next day. I want you to get crystal clear on what it is you want. If you don\u2019t know what you want, make it up. I don\u2019t care. It\u2019s more important that you decide than what you decide.<\/p>\n

David:
Good stuff. All right. Moving on to number two. You and I interviewed Steven Pressfield, the author of The War of Art, one of your favorite books. Stephen has a very no-nonsense approach to winning in life. He often talks about you have to treat your goals like a business. You want to buy another property, but we get stuck in analysis paralysis. Or you get scared off by some new type of financing. Or you say, \u201cI\u2019m not in the mood to take on another rehab. I don\u2019t feel like it right now.\u201d Professionals don\u2019t let their environment or their own mind tell them what they should or shouldn\u2019t do. They don\u2019t follow their feelings. Professionals do what has to be done. How did that show change your life?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Dude, Steven Pressfield\u2019s one of my favorite people on the planet. The War of Art is one\u2026 I mean, literally, we send a copy of the War of Art to every single person who joins the BetterLife Tribe. Every person gets that book. Somebody asked me yesterday, \u201cWhy that book? Why\u2019d you choose that?\u201d I said, \u201cIf you can master that concept in The War of Art, you can master anything.\u201d That\u2019s the idea is that there are amateurs, and there are professionals. Amateurs do things when they want to. Professionals do things because they need to get done. A great quote from that book\u2026 He\u2019s actually in that book quoting somebody else. But I love this line. I love it so much I might tattoo it on my body someday. The idea is this.<\/p>\n

Steven Pressfield:
The Creative Habit is the name of the book. She just talks about how there\u2019s a famous story in\u2026 I cite this in the War of Art where somebody asked the great writer Somerset Maugham if he wrote when inspiration struck him or if he wrote on a schedule. He said, \u201cI write only when inspiration strikes me.\u201d He says, \u201cFortunately, it strikes me every morning at 9:30 sharp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon:
The idea being I show up, and the magic happens. The muse is what he called it. It\u2019s a metaphor for this magic, this action, the results that result from you showing up and doing the work. That\u2019s why it\u2019s called the War of Art. People might have misheard that and thought we were talking about the Art of War. We\u2019re not talking about the Chinese Sun Tzu, whatever. War of Art. Art of War.<\/p>\n

David:
Art of war.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
We\u2019re talking about the war inside you. This idea of resistance. Resistance is a force of nature like gravity, like anything else. Pressfield nails this. He says resistance is what causes us to lie in bed and scroll TikTok instead of analyzing that deal. It\u2019s the thing that makes us lie in bed watching TV instead of wooing our wife. It\u2019s the thing that stops us from doing the things we actually want to do. It holds us back. It\u2019s like a self-limiting belief, in a way. But it\u2019s a real force. It\u2019s very powerful.<\/p>\n

David:
The Bible talks a lot about how broad is the wrong road, and many people take it. But narrow is the righteous road, and few people take it. There is never a point in the journey of success where you don\u2019t feel that resistance. There is always the temptation to scroll through social media or sleep in a little bit longer. Jocko takes this on when he wakes up every single day at 4:30.
I\u2019ve noticed that the more I eat of certain foods, the more I want to eat those foods. If I eat more vegetables and steak, the more I want that. If I eat more noodles and carbs, the more I want it. Our brain and our body is programmed to do more of what we already did. Oftentimes, when you wake up and you get yourself to the keyboard at 9:00 AM, it\u2019s much easier to write when you\u2019ve been writing. It can go the opposite. You and I are going to go lift weights when we get done with this. The more you lift weights, the more your body starts to want to lift weights, the more you start to feel wrong if you don\u2019t exercise, the more momentum you get. When you\u2019re not doing it, you never feel like doing it.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. Yeah. It\u2019s so true. There\u2019s an identity component to this as well. You are somebody who works out. I\u2019m not right now. I\u2019ve been going to the gym, I\u2019ve gone to the gym quite a bit in the last few months. But I still don\u2019t have the identity yet of a gym rat.<\/p>\n

David:
Of a weightlifter.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Of weightlifter. Now, I definitely-<\/p>\n

David:
You like to run. You like to swim. You like to surf.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
I like to do that stuff. Yeah. I have that identity somewhat. I\u2019ve lost it with running and jiu-jitsu lately and surfing \u2019cause I haven\u2019t done as much of it. I\u2019m actually trying to change my identity to be somebody who goes to the gym. How do you do that? How does that become just who I am? At some level, it\u2019s a chicken or the egg problem. My identity doesn\u2019t say go, \u201cI go to the gym every day,\u201d yet. I have to force myself manually to do it. But if you force yourself manually to do something long enough, it becomes habit\/becomes routine. Habit turns into routine. Routine turns into identity.
What I\u2019m trying to do is I\u2019m trying to craft my identity. I call it identity theft. I\u2019m trying to steal an identity that I want. I don\u2019t have that. I want that identity because I know with that identity comes a better life, the life that I want. What do I have to do in order to get that identity over the long haul? How do we stick with something, though, for the long haul? How do I stick with the gym?
Let me show you exactly what I\u2019m doing. I even brought this in the room \u2019cause I carry this with me almost everywhere. I actually track this. If you have the Intention Journal from BiggerPockets, you can do it right inside there. Intention Journal. We have a section in there called the habit tracker. Inside the habit tracker. I also have this inside the BetterLife Tribe and make everybody do this. This is literally what we do in the tribe is we report back every week on this thing. But I\u2019ve got this habit tracker.
Here\u2019s what my habits that I\u2019m currently tracking. These are things that don\u2019t come naturally to me that I have to force myself to do on a regular basis so that I can create a new identity. Number one, screen time under two and a half hours. Did I do it or not? I check it off every morning. Did I do that yesterday or not? 10,000 steps. Did I get it? In fact, today I\u2019m already got it \u2019cause I went for a long walk earlier. Did I enter in a win as my food? There\u2019s an app called My Body Tutor. It\u2019s a few hundred bucks a month. I\u2019ve got a one-on-one coach that checks my food every single day. Did I enter my food in, and can I call it a win? If I can, I give it a check mark.
Did I pray with Heather before going to bed? Did I have a date or some no-kid time with Heather? Did I do morning reading devotions, Bible, whatever with the kids? Did I have dinner at the table? There\u2019s these amazing studies that show when you have dinner at the table with your family, it solves almost every problem that a kid has. It\u2019s probably the number one predictor of a good kid is the amount of dinner you have at the table with them.
Then, the next one, this is why I bring it up, gym session. Did I get to the gym? It\u2019s not natural for me right now. I have to force myself to do it. But by tracking it, I\u2019m instantly better. Check this out. This is my week right now. I know you guys can\u2019t see this. But gym session\u2026 My goal is three times this week. Nope, nope, nope, nope. I only have three days left in the week. But I\u2019m going to report back to my pod, my accountability group, on Tuesday. I\u2019m going to have to tell them that either I didn\u2019t or I didn\u2019t do it. Guess what we\u2019re doing after this podcast recording?<\/p>\n

David:
We\u2019re lifting weights.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
We\u2019re lifting weights. Guess what we\u2019re doing tomorrow? We\u2019re lifting weights because we\u2019re doing Saturday. I only got three days left. I\u2019m going to get it. I am forcing myself through a combination of habit tracking and accountability to get the habit so I can turn it into a routine so I can change my identity so I can change my life. That\u2019s what you have to do if you want your life to change. That is what a professional does. That is why the War of Art changed my life.<\/p>\n

David:
It\u2019s a good thing I came to Hawaii.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
It\u2019s a good thing.<\/p>\n

David:
Helping change your identity.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Changing my identity.<\/p>\n

David:
You wouldn\u2019t be a weightlifter it wasn\u2019t for me.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
You have the identity of a guy who lifts weights. I\u2019m trying to [inaudible 00:37:06]-<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah. When I don\u2019t do it, I don\u2019t like how I feel. I have this natural thing that makes it easier to go to the gym because if I\u2019m not going, I feel bad. Versus when it\u2019s not natural for you\/it\u2019s not your identity, you can skip it. It doesn\u2019t bother you.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
For those who are not understanding the connection to real estate here, there\u2019s a lot of things you have to do in real estate on a regular basis: analyzing deals, getting leads, somehow, maybe calling brokers, making an offer. There\u2019s actions you can do on a regular basis. If that is not natural for you right now-<\/p>\n

David:
Track them.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
\u2026define what those are, track them, get accountability on them, and do them. Let me add one more point, and then we\u2019ll move on. Why did I suddenly start going to the gym again? Why did I add that as a habit on here? I, one, identified what it was, but, two, Alex Felice. Alex Felice is a buddy of mine. He\u2019s been around the BiggerPockets forever. He just came on full-time to be the creative director of the whole BetterLife Movement\/Tribe, whatever. He is\u2026 Video. He\u2019s the one that set up all our cameras here. He\u2019s doing all that stuff. Alex is a gym rat. He loves it. goes every single day. You can tell by looking at him. He\u2019s a gym guy. You know how much easier it is for me right now to go to the gym. If Alex goes there-<\/p>\n

David:
\u2018Cause you\u2019re in a community people that are doing it.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
A community of people who go to the gym. Every day, Alex is like, \u201cHey, I\u2019m going to the gym.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cYeah, let\u2019s go.\u201d It\u2019s a whole lot easier to get to the gym because of Alex. Who is Alex in your life that will drag you with? Alex didn\u2019t even have to do it. Just by him going\/by osmosis, I am more of a gym person because of Alex. Who is that Alex in your life that you need to get around? You will naturally become a better real estate investor or a better husband or a better father or a better mother, kid, wife, whatever it is, role you play. If you get around somebody who has that identity right now, you will start to steal their identity. It\u2019ll change your life.<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s great. Number three episode had to do with Cameron Herold and the Vivid Vision. That was episode 447. I don\u2019t even know we need to cover this because I think you already covered it in previous ones. We talking-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
We talked about it.<\/p>\n

David:
\u2026about crystal clear criteria. Deciding is more important than what you decide. You mentioned that. We\u2019ve already gone into the importance of having clarity. But what else was in your vision when you got clarity that made a big difference in where you are now?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah, let me tell the quick story. I went to Best Ever Conference. It\u2019s a real estate conference put on by Joe Fairless in Denver. This is like five years ago. I was on stage, and I was like, \u201cMan, I don\u2019t deserve to be here.\u201d I had 30 rental units, and these guys have hundreds, sometimes thousands. There\u2019s some people in that room that had 1,000 more or more units, 2000\/3000. They\u2019re big syndicators and whatever. I was like, \u201cThe only reason I\u2019m here is because I have a big mouth, and I can sell tickets.\u201d I don\u2019t want to be that guy that\u2019s on stage, and I don\u2019t deserve it. I want to earn my spot here. I left there, and I read a book. I read it then. I was like, \u201cOh my gosh. This is so good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameron Herold:
The Vivid Vision is a description of what it looks like in the future. The team then figures out the plan to make that come true.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
I had such a clear picture of where I wanted to go in life. The idea is very simple. Don\u2019t just write out a basic premise of\u2026 I want this many units and this much money. But craft that into a vision, a story, or a picture, something that\u2019s a little bit maybe artistic. What I did\u2026 It\u2019s actually on the wall right behind you. I know it\u2019s all probably out of focus in the video. But it\u2019s called The $50 million Surfers. It\u2019s a four-foot poster from My Wall. It\u2019s a newspaper article written three years in the future; how a small team of adventure seekers built a real estate empire, helped millions achieve financial independence, and kept their humanity intact.
It begins, \u201cDecember 31st, 2021, Maui, Hawaii. Open Door Capital, a Maui-based investment firm is an investment firm unlike anything you\u2019ve seen. Instead of suits and ties, you\u2019ll find the small team wearing board shorts and flip-flops.\u201d It goes on from there. In fact, I read the entire Vivid Vision at the end of that episode if you want to go back and listen to it. I think I did, anyway. I think the whole thing I read. You can hear what my vision was.
Now, have I hit every one of those perfectly? Not perfectly. But I said we bought 50 million of real estate. On December 31st, 2021, we had closed over 300 million of real estate. That is powerful in itself: is having a vision for where you\u2019re headed. It\u2019s equally powerful, if not more, for getting people on your side.
Remember we talked about clarity? Oh, there\u2019s so much that this ties in. When you have clarity\u2026 Like I said earlier, if I were to tell you I want a house in East Bay that\u2019s a duplex, blah, blah, blah, I now have clarity. People want leadership. People want clarity. People around you want somebody who knows where they\u2019re going and what they\u2019re doing. As soon as I made that, all of a sudden, everyone\u2019s like, \u201cYeah, let\u2019s do it. That sounds good.\u201d Everyone followed me. I was like, \u201cI don\u2019t really know what I\u2019m doing here, but this is great.\u201d I just made up a vision for my future.
A buddy of mine, Chris Wood, the other day, sent me a message that said, \u201cHey, I got a really cool idea. You can use ChatGPT to create your Vivid Vision.\u201d I was like, \u201cOh, no way. That\u2019s a good idea.\u201d He was showing me. You just write a couple of the points that you want. I want this. I want this. I want this and say, \u201cWrite that in a newspaper article three years in the future, and it\u2019ll write it.\u201d It\u2019s amazing. If you\u2019re not an artistic writer, you can still create a Vivid Vision off of that. Where are you headed, realistically? But also make it a little bit of a challenge, and then show that to everybody. Tell everybody.
In fact, I took that vision, and I showed Ryan Murdoch. I said, \u201cThis is what I want.\u201d He said, \u201cLet\u2019s go.\u201d Ryan led the charge to get there until we brought in Walker, who now runs the company. Now, like I said, we\u2019re closing up not 50 million. We\u2019re closing on billion dollars of real estate. In the next 10 years, we\u2019re going to buy 10 billion of real estate. We\u2019re going to give away a billion dollars.
In fact, let me tell you the mission of the BetterLife Tribe. It\u2019s very clear. We\u2019re going to have 10,000 members paying an average of $500 a month in the next three years. For that, they\u2019re all going to change their lives. But that\u2019s going to produce 50 million a year. We\u2019re going to give 100% of that profit away to fight human trafficking. That\u2019s a mission people can get behind. Not only are you making your life better and getting financial freedom yourself. We are going to make sure everybody in there gets financial freedom. We\u2019re going to free millions of people from the horrors of slavery. That\u2019s a mission people can get behind. That\u2019s why people are following me and volunteering and helping. We\u2019re getting celebrities on board. We\u2019re getting all this cool stuff because I have a vision. People crave vision. That\u2019s the lesson there: is get a compelling vision for your life.<\/p>\n

David:
Get clarity. It\u2019s okay if what you pick adjusts and shifts.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Adjust. Yeah, sure.<\/p>\n

David:
I think a lot of people are afraid to put that down \u2019cause I don\u2019t know for sure. Well, is it more clear than where you were before? You\u2019re moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. Positive direction. Just every step forward gives you a better life.<\/p>\n

David:
Yes. That\u2019s good. Number four episode was number 365, where we interviewed Jocko Willink. We also touched on this one a little bit already because we can\u2019t help ourselves but just share information and dump value every single chance that we get. We\u2019ve already described how that led to jiu-jitsu and extreme ownerships, but for people who haven\u2019t heard of the concept of extreme ownership, can you just share briefly what that is?<\/p>\n

Jocko Willink:
It\u2019s really straightforward. Mistakes are going to happen. Your life is going to happen. Your life is going to unfold. The longer you sit around and blame other people, other things, other circumstances for the situation that you\u2019re in, the longer you\u2019re going to be in that bad situation. The minute that you say, \u201cOkay, this is what\u2019s going on. This is on me, and I\u2019m going to do what it takes to get it fixed\u2026\u201d If you take that attitude, I\u2019m telling you right now, that will turn your life around.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. It means that everything in my life is my wife\u2019s fault. Moving on. I\u2019m just kidding. But that\u2019s how people react. It\u2019s like, \u201cOh, I didn\u2019t get laid, so it must be my wife\u2019s fault. I didn\u2019t get that real estate deal. It must be my agent\u2019s fault. I didn\u2019t get in shape. Must be the gym\u2019s fault. Extreme ownership says, \u201cNo, it\u2019s yours. Everything is your fault. Everything\u2019s your fault. Everything\u2019s your responsibility. Everything is your ability to change.\u201d You get to control your life. Now, it\u2019s true. There are bad things that happen to people. It\u2019s not saying, \u201cHey, that person that was mean to you, it\u2019s not your fault that they\u2019re mean to you. But you chose to be in that setting oftentimes.<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah. That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Again, not always. I don\u2019t want to make it sound like\u2026 especially people who\u2019ve had traumatic experiences.<\/p>\n

David:
You chose to be the kind of person they\u2019d be comfortable being mean to.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Maybe.<\/p>\n

David:
In some way.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Maybe.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yep. Even in the random case where it is completely\u2026 an asteroid from space comes down and annihilates your house, you still buy your house. It\u2019s still your responsibility.<\/p>\n

David:
Did you have a plan in place for what you\u2019re going to do if an asteroid-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. What are you going to do if an asteroid hits your house? What are you going to do-<\/p>\n

David:
Did you have enough insurance to cover you?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yes. It\u2019s a mindset shift that says, \u201cI take 100% ownership of all things in my life. Because of that mindset, I will never play the victim. I will never play this idea of I\u2019m just waiting on another person. No. I will direct everything. I will control where my life goes. As the world hits it and it moves, I\u2019m just going to move it right back because I know where I\u2019m going \u2019cause I take ownership of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

David:
Can I share what I love about this approach to life-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Please.<\/p>\n

David:
\u2026with you? When there is a problem, whoever takes ownership of the problem has the bigger burden. Is that fair? That\u2019s why most of us don\u2019t like ownership. We don\u2019t really naturally like responsibility. People want leadership because they see the perks of it. They don\u2019t understand the responsibility that comes with it. This is why there\u2019s not as many leaders. People don\u2019t even want to take responsibility for getting clarity of what they want in their own life. It is not natural to be responsible because we don\u2019t want the burden. When your mindset in life is, how do I avoid burden? How do I make it as easy on myself as possible? It\u2019s not natural. Let\u2019s equate a burden to lifting the weight, picking up the 20-pound rock, and moving it. If you are consistently the person in every scenario that takes responsibility for the outcome and you are the one consistently moving the rock, do you get stronger, or do the people get stronger who shirk the responsibility?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
That\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

David:
If you take a lifestyle of every time you walk by that rock pile, every time there\u2019s any problem, you lift the weight, you lift the weight, you lift the weight-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
You get stronger and better.<\/p>\n

David:
When you get stronger and better, things just happen to work for you better in life. Opportunities come along that you can take down that somebody else can\u2019t take down. The people who are not stronger don\u2019t understand it\u2019s because you\u2019ve been taking responsibility your whole life. That\u2019s where you get the must be nice to be strong. Must be nice to be big enough to move that rock.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Here in Hawaii, we love to do what we call whale hunting. It\u2019s actually just get on paddleboards and paddle out into the middle of the ocean. Try to find whales. What we\u2019ll do is we\u2019ll wake up early. It\u2019ll be 6:00 AM. We\u2019ll walk outside. I\u2019ll look on my porch, and I\u2019m looking out\u2026 or my lanai, and we\u2019ll look out on the ocean. We\u2019ll look for the spouts of the whale.<\/p>\n

David:
You ever say, \u201cThere she blows\u201d?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
We do every time. You look for the mist \u2019cause the whale\u2019s out there. We like, \u201cOkay, there\u2019s whales out there. Let\u2019s go.\u201d We load up our boards. We drive down the beach. We run down the beach. We put our boards in the water, and then we paddle out. The whole time we\u2019re looking. Where are the spouts? Where are they at? Where are they at? We see them in the very distance. But we don\u2019t paddle to them because you\u2019ll miss them. They\u2019re moving. We paddle in front of them. We paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle.
Then, the whale dives down when we\u2019re halfway there. We paddled for an hour. We\u2019re tired. We\u2019re miserable \u2019cause it\u2019s just paddle, paddle against the waves and the wind. Get out there, and we dive down, and he\u2019s gone. We\u2019re like, \u201cWe don\u2019t see it anymore.\u201d We\u2019re sitting there looking for 20 minutes. The whale\u2019s just gone. But then, on the horizon, we see another one. Smoke goes up. The mist goes up. We paddle over that way. Then, the whale goes down, and we lose it. Then, all of a sudden, we see one that\u2019s a hundred feet away right next to us. I mean, just\u2026 of the water. It\u2019s like, \u201cWhoa!\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cThere\u2019s a whale right there.\u201d In fact, the last time I went out with Alex. Me and Alex went out together. We were out there for an hour\/hour and a half. Saw nothing. I turned to Alex, and I go, \u201cYeah, dude. It\u2019s just a dud today. We\u2019re not going to see\u2026\u201d And as I said, we\u2019re not going to see one, not 10 feet away a gigantic whale is when\u2026 right next to us. I mean, what are the odds of that?
Now, nine times out of 10 when I go whale hunting, when I go out there in the water, we get a hundred yards from a whale. If not, sometimes they pop up right next to us. It\u2019s nine times out of 10. Is that luck? Is that luck? No. I mean, yes. Completely lucky. But I got up at 6:00. I watched the water. I went down to the water. I paddled for an hour. I paddled for another hour. I went around, and then I got lucky. But what do the people on the beach say? Lucky. Must be nice to have the whale pop up right next to you. They don\u2019t see that.
Extreme ownership is saying, \u201cI\u2019m going to paddle until I get what I want.\u201d It\u2019s saying, \u201cI\u2019m going to get the best board I can.\u201d It\u2019s saying, \u201cI\u2019m going to wake up early. I\u2019m going to watch the horizon.\u201d When you do those things and you take ownership of the little things, you get the results of the big things.<\/p>\n

David:
There\u2019s a belief of people that are usually not successful at something that the thing just happens or it doesn\u2019t happen. The whale just showed up, or it didn\u2019t show up. The people that become successful start to recognize that it was actually incredibly predictable that it would happen for that person. You could either look at life, looking forward, saying, \u201cI\u2019m going to take that journey. I hope that on that journey success finds me.\u201d Or you can look from the end, looking backwards, and say, \u201cLife wants to give me an opportunity. Responsibility needs to find a home.\u201d There is a lack of leadership. There is a huge void where, like you said, people want to follow leaders. They can\u2019t find anyone to find. If I become that, there will be an abundance of opportunity. I\u2019ll get to pick whichever one I want.
If I become able and capable of bearing the weight of that responsibility, if I am strong enough to carry that weight, there\u2019s probably 100 people out there like, \u201cOh my god. We have a strong person. Give them an opportunity. Give them a raise. Give them a job. Give them a position.\u201d When you have the skills, the stuff finds you. At this point in your life, you don\u2019t have to go out there hunting for opportunity. There is opportunity everywhere because you have skills that can capitalize on it.
The people without the skills don\u2019t focus on becoming who they need to be to get what they want. They wait until the thing happens and say, \u201cCan I do it or not? Am I ready or not? Can I do that job or not?\u201d not \u201cWho do I have to become to have that job?\u201d I\u2019m only saying this because once you get there and you look back, you realize it was very predictable that I would be in this position. There\u2019s a lack of good real estate agents, a lack of good brokers, a lack of good podcast hosts, a lack of people that can articulate themselves, a lack of trustworthy people that give financial advice that aren\u2019t just trying to steal your money and get rich off of your nativity. Do you agree, in general, that if you focus on getting stronger, the opportunities will find you?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
100%. If you look at my real estate business, who runs the whole thing? COO Walker Meadows. Walker was a freaking intern. He was an intern.<\/p>\n

David:
You were raving about that guy from the minute you met him. Yeah.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Because he took ownership. He came in as an intern. He was like, \u201cHey, you guys, the spreadsheet sucks. Let me redo this.\u201d Our underwriting model-<\/p>\n

David:
Oh, he didn\u2019t just sit there and criticize.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
I know. Yeah.<\/p>\n

David:
The spreadsheet sucks. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t have the work-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
I don\u2019t have-<\/p>\n

David:
\u2026because you gave me a bad spreadsheet.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. He was like, \u201cI\u2019m going to redo this whole thing.\u201d He took ownership of everything. Over time, he went from intern to acquisitions to VP of acquisitions to COO over a two-year period. You know what? The BetterLife Tribe, which is arguably a $50 million company in the last six months in terms of valuation\u2026 I mean, it\u2019s a nonprofit. We\u2019re not going to sell it. It\u2019s a massively successful operation run by Matt Buck. Who\u2019s Matt Buck? My intern. My two companies that are insanely profitable and successful are both run by interns. Why did I put Matt Buck in charge? \u2018Cause he took ownership.
You know what? I mentioned Alex Felice, who runs the whole creative side of everything we do with the BetterLife Tribe. He came in the first day and was like, \u201cYou\u2019re an idiot, Brandon. That video\u2026 Let me just take over this for you.\u201d I mean, he\u2019s fairly nice about it. But if you know Alex, that\u2019s his personality. He\u2019s like, \u201cNo, let me take over.\u201d He just takes ownership of it. Guess what? He\u2019s in charge of a whole lot of stuff today. There is a disease of mediocrity in America today.<\/p>\n

David:
There you go.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Of people saying, \u201cI\u2019m going to do just enough to not get fired,\u201d versus I\u2019m going to be the best and take ownership of it. I don\u2019t care if you\u2019re trying to build a real estate business, trying to build your own business, or you work a W-2 job, take ownership, and opportunities will explode.<\/p>\n

David:
It\u2019s because extreme ownership is so rare.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
So rare.<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s where mediocrity comes from. When you show up at a job and you don\u2019t give your best, what you\u2019re really saying is it\u2019s someone else\u2019s responsibility to fix that problem. I wonder if you looked at Matt and Alex, and Walker\u2026 I\u2019m almost positive you would find a pattern or a common theme of areas where they showed up for you. They took responsibility. They fixed other problems, and they did that enough times that you felt comfortable putting them in the COO-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yes, 100%.<\/p>\n

David:
But what everyone does is they say, \u201cI want to be the COO BetterLife. Just put me in there. If you\u2019re not going to put me in there, why am I going to try?\u201d You\u2019re actually putting the responsibility on somebody else to give you the opportunity that you say that you want.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. This also goes back to when people always ask, \u201cHey, I want to provide value. How can I provide value for you?\u201d Matt Buck never asked me, \u201cHow can I provide value for you?\u201d Alex never asked, \u201cHow can I provide value?\u201d They got in there and provided value. They just did it. They solved problems. They took ownership of little things. I gave him more. It\u2019s like the biblical thing. What is it? Who\u2019s faithful is a little-<\/p>\n

David:
Will be given more.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Will be given more. Alex, in the beginning, was faithful. Well, actually, literally, what I did is Alex was a photographer. He worked very hard for three\/four years at every BiggerPockets conference. He\u2019d be there filming, taking video, making good content. He made a bunch of video series for BiggerPockets. He did an amazing job. He worked, worked, worked, worked, worked. He had to push his way in to get those videos on BiggerPockets. He wasn\u2019t an employee. He just was like, \u201cI\u2019m going to make you videos. You\u2019re going to use them.\u201d We\u2019re like, \u201cOkay, I guess we\u2019ll use them.\u201d<\/p>\n

David:
It makes me think of the woman who complains about the guy who says, \u201cYou want to go out?\u201d \u201cYeah.\u201d He says, \u201cWhere do you want to go?\u201d It drives him nuts. Plan a date. Take me there. I want to see what you\u2019re like. I want to see what a leader you are. When you show up to the mentor, and you\u2019re like, \u201cI want to be in your world. Tell me what I can do to get there,\u201d it\u2019s that same feeling.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. Ryan Murdoch did the same thing. I showed him my Vivid Vision for where we\u2019re going in the company. He was like, \u201cAll right. Let\u2019s go.\u201d Then, he went and worked on it. He just built the thing until he gets to the point where he\u2019d hand it off to the rest of the team. Really had a whole bunch of VPs, like Walker and the others. Now, Ryan\u2019s still around. He\u2019s on the board of directors. We have me, Brian Murray, Ryan, and Walker sitting on the board. Things move because that\u2019s ownership. Take ownership of everything in your life.<\/p>\n

David:
Be grateful for the fact that no one else is because that\u2019s when I saw the opportunities out there.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. It\u2019s shocking.<\/p>\n

David:
No one wants to touch the weights, bro.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yep. That\u2019s true, man.<\/p>\n

David:
But when you\u2019re the strong person, there\u2019s a huge need for you. Look for those barriers to entry. All right.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Well, dude, yeah.<\/p>\n

David:
Number five, episode 457, where you and I interviewed Patrick Bet-David here in this very sea shed. I remember that episode.<\/p>\n

Patrick Bet-David:
Everything in life, to me, is about your next five moves. I came up with the title originally, 15 Moves, because I was watching a documentary by Magnus Carlson. They were talking about how the Grand Master knows 10 or 15 moves. Masters know five to 10 moves. Pros know three to five moves. The amateur-only knows his next move when he plays chess.<\/p>\n

David:
What are your thoughts when it comes to strategically planning the direction that you want your life to take?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
That\u2019s a great question. Let me start it in a story. I think it\u2019s called a cook tree. C-O-O-K. Have you heard of that? A cook tree?<\/p>\n

David:
No.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
It\u2019s the thing here in Hawaii. There\u2019s these really, really tall pine trees, very straight tall pine trees. The reason they\u2019re called cook trees is because when\u2026 Was it Captain Cook? The guy who came and discovered the\u2026 not discovered but came to the Hawaiian Islands. They used to plant these trees back then. They would plant them as soon as they landed on any island around the world, really. But I hear it here in Hawaii. They plant these trees. We have them all over the island now. These really tall, big wooden pine trees because they planted them knowing that it would take 50 to 70 years to grow to the size that they could use for a mast. What the empires did back in the day is they\u2019d go around. They\u2019d plant these trees all over the world-<\/p>\n

David:
Wow.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
\u2026on all the islands they went to. They\u2019d keep the little seedlings in their boat. They\u2019d plant them so that 50 to 75 years in the future-<\/p>\n

David:
Talk about delayed gratification.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
\u2026They would have a mast that they could use if one broke \u2019cause if you have a mast that broke and there\u2019s no trees around, you are stranded there for life. The forward-thinking there. The question is, in your business, where are you planting some cooked trees that your family\u2019s going to take advantage of? That\u2019s the delayed gratification that gets you financial freedom.
Now, yes, you can get it earlier than that. But what Patrick was talking about there was this idea of thinking way ahead, thinking five moves ahead, 10 moves ahead. I\u2019m not just trying to get into survival mode. Masters think way, way, way ahead. They plan for generations. That was the idea with Rosie\u2019s fourplex.
Let me explain that story for those who haven\u2019t heard it. A very simple process or a very simple piece of real estate\u2026 I bought a four-unit property. The price doesn\u2019t really matter. But I bought it really cheap. It was a nasty, nasty property. I spent one year fixing it up. But I bought it the week she was born. It was actually the first outing Rosie had the week she was born. By the time we were all done with it, it was about\u2026 call it $150,000 into it, meaning the loan and everything, about 150 grand. We put it on an 18-year mortgage. It\u2019s actually a 30-year mortgage that has set up the payment plan to pay off in 18 years. Because 18 years after Rosie was born, she\u2019s going to be going off to college.
You can even go back and listen because, I mean, I was doing the podcast around the time that this happened, that I bought it. But at the time, I said that in 15 years from now\/18 years from now, the property should be worth between two and $300,000. I thought it might double over the next 18 years. The property today is worth closer to a half a million dollars. We still owe about a hundred grand on it. Maybe a little bit more than a hundred grand on it. But already, Rosie\u2019s entire college is paid for. Now, I\u2019ve been making cash flow on the-<\/p>\n

David:
Probably more than her college. Probably worth a car.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
College, car\u2026<\/p>\n

David:
Down payment on her first house.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Correct. All from one deal that I BRRRRed. I did the BRRRR strategy so I don\u2019t have to use a lot of cash. I get cash flow. But imagine this. Even more simple. Imagine you buy any house in America that breaks\u2026 let\u2019s call it a break even if you don\u2019t want to lose money. Let\u2019s say you make no cash flow on that property whatsoever. You just break even. Let\u2019s say you get no tax benefits, even though you would. But you\u2019re not going to any tax benefits at all. All you did was bought a property anywhere in the US and put it on a 15-year mortgage. You broke even on that strategy. At the end of 15 years, even if the property never went up in value\/didn\u2019t go up a dime, you\u2019ve still paid off the mortgage from let\u2019s say $300,000 house you bought. It\u2019s now paid off the zero. Worst case, you have a $300,000 house. You owe nothing on it. Boom. Kids\u2019 college education paid for. That\u2019s with Rosie.
Now with Wilder, I did something different. Wilder\u2026 I took $50,000. I said, \u201cThis is your college education.\u201d I put it into open door capital. I just put it into my own fund \u2019cause what I wanted was-<\/p>\n

David:
How mad\u2019s Rosie going to be if that ends up being worth 300 million bucks?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
I know. It probably already is. I ran the numbers, and it was pretty similar. When I extrapolated out a 15% per year average annual return of $50,000, it ends up being like\u2026 I don\u2019t know, like 250 grand\/300 grand, something like that. Again, I don\u2019t care about the money. I care about the lesson. I want Rosie and Wilder to see that I planted trees for them 20 years ago that changed their life when they\u2019re 18. That lesson will stick with them forever. I wanted to show them in two ways. I wanted to show them how to do it on a passive way. I wanted to know how to do it in an active way.
The BRRRR strategy\u2026 It was a hell of a year. It was hard work. We had squatters. We had city problems. It was a mess to renovate that property. Rosie can see the hard work and hear that story. They could also hear what it\u2019s like when you just passively invest. You get the same result at the end of the day. Either way, college is paid for. That\u2019s the thinking a little bit ahead.<\/p>\n

David:
Where do I go to find a house for $200,000 that\u2019s now worth $500,000?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
We\u2019ll go back to the conversation earlier. Everywhere in terms of every property today is likely going to be worth double or triple 20 years from now.<\/p>\n

David:
How much you paid before.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
How much you paid before.<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah. But when people hear the strategy, they don\u2019t like the thought of\u2026 Well, in the future, it\u2019s going to be worth more. But it\u2019s not guaranteed. I don\u2019t know that it\u2019s going to be worth more.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. Okay, fine. Take out the not worth more. Take out the taxes. Take out the cash flow. All you get is a loan paydown.<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s a good point.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
If all you got-<\/p>\n

David:
That is something you can guarantee. You don\u2019t have to worry about\u2026 Well, what if the loan doesn\u2019t pay down?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
You can guarantee the loan pay down. Yeah, exactly. You can mathematically see that. If you buy a property and put it on a mortgage and you pay it off over time, that is real wealth that you are building. It\u2019s shocking how simple real estate is.<\/p>\n

David:
I had this thought. I\u2019ve never shared this. In 2008 or so, I\u2019d been saving to buy a house, and the market was just exploding. It was getting away. I was talking to some real estate agent on the phone. This is before I ever bought a home and said, \u201cI want to buy a property that\u2019s going to make a little bit of money.\u201d I didn\u2019t know what cash flow was called. I didn\u2019t understand a formula for ROI at the time. I just thought, \u201cI want to buy something that makes a little bit more than the mortgage.\u201d In my head, that was a safety net. I\u2019ll just put a lot of money down. She\u2019s like, \u201cWell, you better put a lot of money down if you\u2019re going to buy something.\u201d
I was thinking, \u201cWell, she\u2019s discouraging me from doing this.\u201d But I thought about it. I thought, \u201cWell, it\u2019s going to get paid off over 30 years. If I wait long enough, it\u2019s a no-brainer. This is a great deal. Then, I probably don\u2019t have to wait the whole 30 years before it would cash flow. I bet you. Five or six years into it, it would probably start to cashflow from the rents going up.\u201d Then, I thought, \u201cWell, if I had to wait five years, but I owned it for 30, 25 of those years, it\u2019s cash flowing. It exponentially increases every year so that the cash flow in year 20\/25\/27 is so much that any money that I lost in years one through five is probably not significant.\u201d
When you look at the big picture, there is nothing better to do with your money than buy real estate. It\u2019s incredibly simple. It\u2019s that we always front-load the process. We look at right now what is the cash flow in year one when I first buy it. What\u2019s it going to be like? We just get zoomed in on that. Versus with Rosie and Wilder, you\u2019re saying they\u2019re going to get this in 18 years. What\u2019s the best place to stick money for the next 18 years? Now, what do you know? The properties have appreciated a ton. They have a ton of equity. This is-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah, I got lucky. The well popped up right next-<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
\u2026to me. The well popped up right next to you. We got lucky.<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Everyone\u2019s like, \u201cOh, yeah. Must be nice to you, Brandon and David. They got in at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s a great point. Now, are we going to get lucky again in the next 20\/30 years? Does anyone really believe that we\u2019re going to default on our debt payments, that we\u2019re just not going to print more money to get us out of this, that we\u2019re not going to have even more inflation? I can\u2019t tell you for sure. People that want that certainty\u2026 I can\u2019t guarantee it. But I would say, odds are the whales are going to be over there. If you\u2019re out there paddling when they come by, you\u2019re going to become a millionaire putting your money in real estate. Now, you and I have talked a little bit. We won\u2019t get into it too much. My concern is much more that being a millionaire isn\u2019t going to mean anything.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yes. That\u2019s another issue.<\/p>\n

David:
It\u2019s not you\u2019re investing in real estate to build huge wealth. You are investing in real estate to prevent yourself from losing the wealth that you\u2019ve already created. That\u2019s a really sad thing for people that are working hard and saving money and investing so much of their time into something that they don\u2019t want to do, and then they\u2019re losing the value of it as their money becomes worth nothing. You almost have to put it in real estate just to break even. Then, you have to put it in good deals if you want to get ahead. But even if that\u2019s all you did was just put it in real estate to break even, you\u2019re still better off than the people that did nothing.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. That\u2019s very true, man.<\/p>\n

David:
All right. Last question. What was the biggest mistake that you have made on a podcast?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Oh, geez. Should I even talk about this?<\/p>\n

David:
What was the most fun show you\u2019ve done? We made a pretty big one here in this sea shed at one point.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Did we? What\u2019s that one?<\/p>\n

David:
Jim Kwik.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Oh, geez. Yeah. Oh, geez. Oh, geez. Jim Kwik. I\u2019ll tell the story real quick. But real quick, Jim Kwik is a phenomenal author, speaker, writer, very cool guy, one of the more high-level, biggest, most famous guests we\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah. He does the biggest podcast. He could have been on Oprah if he wanted you to.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. Yeah. Very smart brain guy. Brain guy on memory and using your brain and intelligence. That\u2019s what he teaches on. He gets on the podcast. He said some compliment, like, \u201cYeah, you guys\u2019 systems are really good. It was really nice getting on the show,\u201d at the beginning. I go, \u201cYeah, man. We got so many good systems here. We have this podcast dialed.\u201d I said the words, \u201cI\u2019m so terrified of losing a recording that we have backups of backups of backups.\u201d I said the words \u201cbackups of backups of backups\u201d because we do unless somebody forgets to hit the record button, in which case we have no backups of backups of backups. About 45 minutes into that show, I\u2019m sitting there chatting, having a great conversation. I look down, and I see that we never hit record. I just turned-<\/p>\n

David:
The looks you gave me.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Uh-huh. Like, \u201cOh, no.\u201d We start texting.<\/p>\n

David:
It was so dramatic, Brandon. I thought you were messing with me. I thought you were trying to trick me.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Oh, geez. That was so bad.<\/p>\n

David:
Well, this is after you\u2019d specifically said to Jim-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah, it would\u2019ve been different if I wouldn\u2019t have been so arrogant about it. We\u2019re so good at this. We\u2019re amazing. 45 minutes in, I\u2019m like, \u201cDo we just pretend that never happened, and we just never air this episode?\u201d Part of me wanted to avoid humiliation: was to torpedo a great show and just-<\/p>\n

David:
To not have to take extreme ownership.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Not take ownership of my mistake. Ooh, there\u2019s a lesson in there. Instead, I said, \u201cJim, I am so sorry, man. We screwed this up.\u201d He was so gracious and was like, \u201cHey, no problem. Let\u2019s just start back over.\u201d We started back over, and we did a great show. It was humiliating.<\/p>\n

David:
He said no problem with his words. His eyes said a little\u2026 I remember there was some frustration that he was gracious enough to keep in.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
He was gracious.<\/p>\n

David:
I don\u2019t know that we ever spoke to him after that.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. The lesson there: don\u2019t be arrogant. Don\u2019t forget to hit record.<\/p>\n

David:
But it led to a lot of improvements. We use a different platform now when we\u2019re recording that we never used before.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Correct.<\/p>\n

David:
The platform itself records. We don\u2019t have to worry about remembering to hit the buttons on all of the hardware that you had set up.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
You know what? There\u2019s one other lesson here to pull out. That episode with Jim Kwik\u2026 That was such a big deal at the time. It was a monster big deal because Jim Kwik was coming on the show. This was going to change our podcast forever. Today, Jim Kwik was one episode out of 600. Most people listening to this right now, listening to you and me, never heard that episode. It made no difference. We could have scrapped the episode. We could have played the episode. It was one rock.<\/p>\n

David:
But the emotions in the moment made it seem like it was the end of the world.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
The emotions made it feel like it was the end of the world. It\u2019s one rock in the wall. We\u2019ve been moving rocks for 10 years straight on this podcast. One rock got dropped in the middle of a thing. It wouldn\u2019t have mattered. We could have screwed it up anyway. It would\u2019ve been fine.
Remember that in life, when it comes to real estate, too, is like it\u2019s just a deal. It\u2019s just one deal. It\u2019s just one rock. If something goes wrong, okay. You lose some money. Okay. It\u2019s just a rock. What matters is the wall. At the end of the day, what matters is the journey, first of all, that you enjoy the journey. That\u2019s number one. Enjoy the walk across the field, moving rocks from one side to another, and then build a good wall. If you stick with that and just keep walking, keep caring. you\u2019re getting stronger. Maybe you\u2019re moving some bigger rocks. You\u2019re building a great wall on the other side of that thing. At the end of your life, you look back and be like, \u201cDang. Who cares about the couple of rocks that I dropped here and there because I built something that\u2019s going to last.\u201d<\/p>\n

David:
What was the most fun show that you ever did?<\/p>\n

Brandon:
This one\u2019s been pretty fun.<\/p>\n

David:
It\u2019s been a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Maybe the one when I first interviewed you, and you made fun of me incessantly for an hour.<\/p>\n

David:
That was a lot of fun for me and Josh.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. That was a lot of fun for you guys.<\/p>\n

David:
I mean, there is that argument to be made that humor plays a role in being-<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Huge.<\/p>\n

David:
\u2026successful. It releases tension. It keeps attention. Sorry. It releases tension. It keeps attention in a lot of ways. I mean, people can just come up. They can just give you the pure vitamins, but no one wants to listen to it. I mean, you have speakers that are very smart, but your mind wanders when they\u2019re talking.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Sure. For sure. Yeah. Yeah, the more fun shows are usually the funnier shows. It\u2019s entertainment. I think that\u2019s actually one of the reasons the BiggerPockets did so well. It\u2019s been an entertaining show for 10 years. People like to be entertained. I like to be entertained. That\u2019s why we like Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan\u2019s an entertaining guy, even though he\u2019s not always funny. He\u2019s entertaining.<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s a good point. They\u2019re different. Maybe you could define entertainment as the ability to hold attention.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah, that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

David:
It\u2019s hard to do for people that think that you\u2019re just sharing information. I look at information like nutrients, and I look at entertainment like taste. No one wants to eat food that doesn\u2019t taste good, even if you know you\u2019re supposed to. You are a very entertaining man. You are very easy to talk to. You made this whole interview, which was pretty long, feel like it was very short. You\u2019ve kept my attention the whole time. You\u2019ve captivated our audience.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
I\u2019m a captivator.<\/p>\n

David:
You\u2019re a very charismatic, honorable man. Yeah. I\u2019m glad that we\u2019re further apart from each other than we normally are because it\u2019s easier for me to focus when you\u2019re not right in front of my face.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Yeah. We turn the desk sideways.<\/p>\n

David:
With that tractor beam with blue eyes. Suck me right in.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
That\u2019s what I do.<\/p>\n

David:
Some of the solo shows we did, I thought were a lot of fun. I always enjoyed doing solo shows with you. Mostly because we could play off of each other more. We didn\u2019t have as much of having to worry about the guest.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Agreed. Agreed, man. Well, thanks for doing this.<\/p>\n

David:
Thanks for being here. Thanks for coming back again, giving the old guests some nostalgia. At your BetterLife Conference, we actually recorded a podcast for you. People should go check that out. They want to hear what it\u2019s like to see Brandon and I. We got the band back together.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Thanks, man.<\/p>\n

David:
Tell us where people can find out more about you.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
I am an Instagram nerd, so BeardyBrandon. Beard with a Y. Beardy. I used to say BeardyBrandon. Beard with a Y. People like, \u201cOkay, that\u2019s B-Y-R.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cBeard-Y.\u201d Think Spanish, like Beardy Brandon. It\u2019s like Beard and Brandon. Beardy Brandon on Instagram, TikTok, all that stuff. The podcast is A Better Life with Brandon Turner. We hit number 40 of all podcasts in the world when we launch.<\/p>\n

David:
Nice, man.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
That was awesome. It\u2019s not there now, but it was. We have a traveling podcast. I travel around the country, and I record people. That\u2019s been a wild adventure to do that. We\u2019ll fly into a city and record seven podcasts at one time over a three-day period with no sleep. We go out with the guests afterwards. It\u2019s been an adventure. But man, it\u2019s been fun.
That\u2019s it. A Better Life with Brandon, go to listen to the podcast. You were on it. Go listen to that episode, everyone. I heard multiple people say that when you and I were chatting on\u2026 We did a live podcast recording. Then, we followed it up with a little interview after. But when we did the live one, almost everybody I talked to said that was the best part of the entire conference that I held and that it was the best thing that you and I have done together. People thought it was one of the best things you and I\u2026 Now, I think this interview was pretty darn awesome. But go listen.<\/p>\n

David:
All right. You got a lot going on, man. You\u2019ve not been resting on your laurels. That\u2019s for sure. Very cool to see this and cool to see that the vision is still firing even faster than it was.<\/p>\n

Brandon:
Pew, pew.<\/p>\n

David:
When we are doing our stuff together. That\u2019s right. Thanks for joining us, everybody. Please go check out Brandon all over the place. Send him a message. Let him know what you thought about this show. Let you get out of here \u2019cause you\u2019ve been sitting down for a long time. This is David Greene for Beardy \u201cPew, Pew\u201d Brandon. Signing off.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Note By BiggerPockets:<\/b> These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.<\/p>\n


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Brandon Turner achieved financial independence in his late 20s. For most people, this would be the end of working, investing, or trying to better themselves. But for Brandon, this was only the start. Now a decade later, Brandon is managing close to one billion dollars in real estate, running numerous companies, and dedicating his efforts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/REP_787_WEB.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8152,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8150\/revisions\/8152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}