From Broke Farm Kid To Coaching Millionaires

From Broke Farm Kid To Coaching Millionaires | Disruptors Podcast

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Brett Tanner: Hey. I'm I'll be here six months. I'm gonna find something else I'm gonna do. I don't think real estate's my thing. I'm 28 years old.

My worst year economically, and my son's born. Yeah. The real estate I bought all had problems. I bought a model home in there for 1,200,000.0, put 20% down there. They were leasing it for $10 a month.

Mhmm. I'd never heard this. They they just emailed me, and the agreement was, right, the real lease is, like, a year, and then it goes month to month until they're done. And they've never out of these. They came to me and go, no.

We're just gonna move the fence over one and cut out the third model. I was like, wait a minute, but that's mine. Like, that would be a disaster. So I tried to move in there to make it work. And ultimately, I had some short sales.

I had to work through some things. It was impactful. And the way I'd won in life previously was throwing in hours in. I just worked harder than everybody. And now I realize if I apply that same skill, I'm I'm never gonna see my kid.

Steve Trang: Welcome. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of disruptors where millionaires are made. Today, we have Brett Tanner with Be Wealthy. Brett lives here in the Phoenix area also, and he's here to talk about how he went from broke farm kid to now coaching millionaires. Now guys on the mission to create a 100 millionaires myself, the information on the show alone is enough to help you become a millionaire in the next five to seven years.

You'll take consistent action. You'll become one. And, guys, if you're already a millionaire, we wanna recognize you here. So scan that QR code so we can highlight you here on the show. And if you're not a millionaire yet and you want some help, you can also scan that same QR code.

Before we jump in, if you're here to learn how real entrepreneurs are building real empires, make sure you hit that subscribe button because every week, we're bringing lessons here that can create your first or your next million. And, guys, our AI lead manager is now up and running. If you wanna hear what it sounds like, text AI caller to the phone number 33777. Again, that's AI caller 33777. You ready?

Brett: I'm ready. Let's do it.

Steve: Alright. I think, officially, going back to the records, you were the longest awaited guest to be on the show.

Brett: I, you did reach out quite a while ago, and I, at that time, I wasn't doing any other podcast. I've actually done a handful, so I reached back out to you as soon as I was gonna do, some podcasts. Yeah. I wanna do yours first out of, for our relationship, and you were one of the first to reach out. So Yeah.

I appreciate the opportunity. I'm excited to be here.

Steve: Well, I'm excited to see what we're gonna be talking about today because, you have a different, journey. And we've I look back to all the people I've connected with in the Phoenix area, people that have been on the show. I think I'm looking back. You're probably the one the earliest everyone I've connected with kinda, as we've gone through this journey. So, but before we get get into that, let's talk about what was your life like before you got into real estate?

Brett: So I, I grew up in the middle of nowhere, Colorado. Dove Creek, Colorado. Penobean capital of the world, and I like to brag.

Steve: Penobean. Penobean.

Brett: That's what my parents do. They're farmers.

Steve: Okay.

Brett: Where I grew up, it was 17 people in my high school graduating class. You have to, like, think about 100 people in the high school. And in that group, I wasn't competitive. Like, in the top I wasn't in the top five of 17, which tells you the level of genius, I brought to the table at that moment. But so I grew in the middle of nowhere and then had learned a lot of lessons on the farm.

Right? I I did many things that were entrepreneurial. Mostly worked in my dad's factory a lot. And so, the bean, it's it's called an elevator for whatever reason. So worked there, spent a lot of time, and learned the value of just brutal hard work.

Steve: Makes sense.

Brett: And so, you know, when I got the business arena, my joke is I I brought a farmer's work ethic to the business arena. Yeah. Had a lot of experiences there from raising pigs. We at one time, we had, the shed. It's where we keep all the grain.

It leaked. So there's about 50,000 pounds of grain that my dad said we gotta throw away. Right? Dig a dig a take the bobcat out, bury it. And I'm like, well, what can I do with a little bit of wet grain?

Mhmm. Pigs eat grain. So I had this genius idea as a I think it was a junior in high school to go get a bunch of pigs. Because if I have buy the pigs, I have free food. Mhmm.

You have to be able to make some money. I made money, but if I figured my time at, like, 10¢ an hour, I don't think I would have made money. And I got to the end of that experience, and it will first you know, when you start building these fences when the pigs are little, it's not a big deal. Mhmm. As they get big, they'll just lift the whole fence up.

So every day before school, I'm, like, wrangling 200 pound pigs, trying to get them back in there. And I ultimately sold them, and I made a little bit of money. And my dad's like, oh, how'd it work? And I'm like, this is a total failure. It was like so much effort.

I didn't get paid. He goes, oh, yeah. I did this thirty years ago as a disaster, but I wanted you to have the experience.

Steve: I was like, woah. There's a

Brett: lot of ways I could've got that experience that you're doing that. And his his he said something. He's like, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Mhmm. And that's the way he really impressed.

Like, you could have everything. We didn't have money growing up. Mhmm. But he was a super abundant thinker.

Steve: Right.

Brett: And so while we didn't yet have the money we wanted, it was out there. We just had to figure out we're gonna get it. So I think he just really impressed upon me in that early part. Make it happen. Nothing ventured.

Nothing gained.

Steve: Yeah. Got it. And how do you get from that to Arizona?

Brett: So go to college, ASU.

Steve: Okay.

Brett: Again, not a genius academic. And so I realized that I wanna get through school as quickly as possible. Mhmm. So I took the max load I could at ASU. I took college credits at the community college just trying to get it done in three years.

I wanted to get out of school and do anything but school. I actually, quote, graduated. You know, you can walk with a diploma and still be six credits short of your degree. Oh. And I never and you have to go to summer school is the intention.

I never went back. I became an entrepreneur, and I was gonna get my intention was to get a degree in pre law. Mhmm. I interned with this great attorney, and I realized I wanted nothing to do with that career at that time. And the eye opening part was actually I the guy was a name partner in the firm.

Mhmm. And I was interning, and I said, hey, man. Can I pick you up for court tomorrow? And what I really wanted to see is the life he had. And I got to see it, and and it had a huge impression on me.

And I saw that he didn't have anything in the life I want is just the relationship with his family was terrible, with his wife was terrible. He had a reasonable house. He's working all the time in the world. And I was like, I I don't wanna become him. Mhmm.

And so I immediately decided to go a different direction.

Steve: Had that presence of mind to see, like, oh, that's actually not what I want very quickly. And that's something we talked about, like, on the show a few different times. It was just basically if you want to do something, the best way to make sure that's actually what you want is to go actually, like, observe it. Because we have these ideas, like, this is what I'm gonna go do. But then you get there, like, oh, that's actually not what I wanted to do.

Right? That was for me, that was engineering.

Brett: Yeah. Totally. For

Steve: you, it was, a law it was law. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So then you quickly pivoted.

Brett: Quickly, I realized that I was gonna be an entrepreneur. So while I'm in college, I was actually you know, I have $20 dating this girl, who's my wife today. And I was the bookstore came out. You gotta remember, we get in the mindset of it. This is $992,000.

So Amazon exists. Internet's out there. But email, like in college, you you could submit your paper via email, but the professor wouldn't accept it. Yeah. Right.

They were physical paper. I mean, it's for the listener to get, like feels like I'm a dinosaur explaining it like this. But, so I took $20, bought these books, and went online and sold them for, like, $200. So I turned $20 into 200 in five days. Mhmm.

And my girl was like, what are you gonna do now? I'm like, woman to buy 200 books.

Steve: Of course.

Brett: Right. This is the this is how you scale things. I don't even know what that means back then. Pretty quickly, we got up to we had a 100,000, 200,000 books.

Steve: Oh, really?

Brett: I mean, it started, you know, just because you're five x ing everything. So I went to ASU, and they would at the end of the year, ASU would sell the brand new books, like, you know, first edition for, like, a dollar, even though the book was $80. Mhmm. But if you looked at a community college in Oklahoma, they would happily use that second edition book. And instead of 70, they might buy it for 35.

So you buy a book for a dollar, you sell it for 35. The margin's pretty good. Right? I would

Steve: charge

Brett: you can make it and then you charge a dollar for shipping. So now I've I've neutralized the book costs. So it's all air.

Steve: Yeah.

Brett: And so I was probably at 19, 20 years old making, like, $300 flipping books online. Wow. And I have no idea what a p and l is. Right? I mean, I'm just a I'm a hustler.

Mhmm. And so, you know, I had some good mentoring. My I reached out to a CPA. Like, I they tell me I need to file taxes, and I have a p and l, and I don't know what that means. So sort of that part of and I was lucky enough to have a mentor.

Called a bunch of CPAs, and I got this southern guy. He he's passed away. He's my mentor. I gave a speech at his funeral. And calling all these people, he said, hey.

Come in. I'm gonna help you, kid. He's like, you're you're lost out there. You need to get in here, and I'm a wrangle you a little. I was like, thanks, man.

So I spent that journey kinda helped me professionalize some of my skills. Mhmm. Went on, and, that kinda led to my first real failure. Right? I had you get 19 or 20 years old and you get $300,000.

That's in those aren't inflation adjusted dollars. That'd be whatever that is today. 800,000. Mhmm. So you do all the things a 19 year old or 20 year old would do.

Right? You're gonna buy the boats and jet skis and stuff and crap. I mean, I was still buying investments, but, you know, my mind wasn't it wasn't as well thought out maybe as today. Yeah. So restaurant ultimately became a disaster.

I bought a business, my first real business lesson where I learned that people lie in business. Yeah. So the financials he gave me, they're in the restaurants doing 800 or $1,000 a day in revenue. Mhmm. Right?

So he's got a on his earn out, he's gotta teach me the business. Well, the first day, we do $200. Like, wait a minute. You had a three year average of a thousand $800,000. And the first day we do 200 is is bad day.

Well, the next day is 200. The next day is 200. So I realized I bought You

Steve: actually bought and closed.

Brett: Oh, I bought and closed. Oh, yeah. You only get this. The financials were all just Pro form a. The the all just lies.

I mean, just they're literal lies.

Steve: So walk me through. So you bought a restaurant?

Brett: Oh, yeah.

Steve: Like, was this, like, BizBuy's I mean, was BizBuy's all even a thing yet?

Brett: Kinda it was a broker. Back then, you worked as a business broker. So he

Steve: was a broker.

Brett: Yeah. And who were kind of like the low typically, like, the lowliest, of of folks. Right? They're just not the most integrity folks. I don't wanna make a generalized statement, but it's it's not a great industry.

Sure.

Steve: Yeah. So they see this kid with a lot of money. Yeah. I got this restaurant I need to sell. Yeah.

Hey, kid. Buy this restaurant.

Brett: Dude, how cool is it gonna be if you have your own restaurant? Right? It's cool. The coolest thing ever. It's actually not cool at all.

So you get in there and you realize, man, I'm gonna lose this book business is making all this money. Mhmm. And now I'm just gonna start chewing it up Mhmm. In this other business that makes nothing. Yeah.

And I had this idea to where I've gotta create mass amounts of revenue. Like, I can't sell an extra sandwich isn't my problem. And so there was a charter school around the corner in Ahwatukee. The restaurant was at 44th And Chandler Boulevard, Brewcheeks, by the the way. Mhmm.

Great franchise or cool cool the corporate company's cool. We were franchisee through. Just the guy that sold it to me was, you know, a dirtbag.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brett: So I go to the school, and I said, hey. I would like to volunteer my time because I know that Pizza Hut delivers pizza here to the kids at school. Mhmm. And I'd love to just deliver them. Yeah.

They're like, oh, gosh. We're great for volunteers. What I was trying to figure out is how they did it. Yeah. You know, because I have ovens.

I can make sand it was a sandwich shop.

Steve: I was

Brett: like, well, if I can make bread, I can make pizza. I mean, how hard can it be? So I watch how they do it. I go to the school, the k through 12, and I pitched that I could run the k through 12 mill program Mhmm. And deliver the meals.

And I land the contract. So I'm like, at this point, I'm probably 21 or 22 years old, and I land the contract for the whole school. Come home to my fiance now, and I'm like, good news. You know, we we got 500 meals a day that we gotta pump out by, like, eleven. Mhmm.

So now it starts that we're, like, three or four in the morning getting her and I are the workers in the shop. Yeah. And so now I've just created endless work. And now we're profitable because of this contract, but just wasn't going. So, ultimately, I I got out of that business.

I shut it down, and it was a great lesson in

Steve: I was selling pizzas for a franchise that was a sandwich shop.

Brett: Well, you didn't tell the franchise. You're just kinda doing pizzas. Those are kind of those are early opening activities. And, Steve, if you've never had the experience of having a bag, like, I can take those, you know, the brown bags you put a sandwich in. I can take one and pop it with one hand, chips, sandwich, cookie, one.

Mhmm. Right? And you get 500 times. I mean, you the skills you develop,

Steve: are repetitive motion.

Brett: Lot of repetitive motion. I mean, I can do like, I can pop a bag. It's an incredible skill. I'll never forget.

Steve: Gotcha. Alright. So hustle. You can hustle your way out of a problem. Mhmm.

And you got rid of that. You shut it down. You sold it or you just shut

Brett: it down? I shut it down. I just let's get out of this thing. We're done. Get out of here.

Steve: Yeah. Alright. So then what was your next move?

Brett: Next move, I'd always been fascinated by real estate. Mhmm. So I read the Rich Dad Poor Dad. That was the unlock for me. Yeah.

You know, reading that realizing okay. And it kind of tied out to my earlier beliefs, which were having a high income may not lead you to be wealthy. I'm kind of figuring that out now. Then you read, like, the rich dad and the poor dad, and you realize, oh, the rich people, the and I think there's a big difference in rich and wealthy, which we'll probably get to. Yeah.

But realizing that is, I think was was a big thing for me and realized that real estate was likely going to be my path. Mhmm. And so from there, I really started, I got started flipping homes. No license. I realized this is gonna be something I could do.

Steve: When was this?

Brett: This is, like, 2003. Okay. 02/03. Did my first couple and did, you know, like, okay. Right?

You're you're learning, bumping through it. Mhmm. Now I, about that time, you you know, that we're leading into o four. The world's starting like it's heating up. Mhmm.

And so back then, I don't know if you've if anyone of your guests have ever done this, I'm curious. You could basically give a thousand dollars to a builder Mhmm. And they would start building your home. Yes. It would appreciate so much over those nine months Mhmm.

That you might just close on it and sell it, and you can make, like, $40.50, $60.

Steve: Right.

Brett: Now they started having lotteries. Mhmm. Well, there were kind of legal ways to rig those lotteries. I just have all my friends go. Mhmm.

Some is gonna get pulled, and they're gonna choose to give me their ticket, and then I'm gonna go, shocker. Here's a thousand bucks. Right.

Steve: So I'd

Brett: have a lot of new build homes being built, and the ones that hit the certain, you know, margin, you'd sell them. Mhmm. And it would and I think I'm the smartest flipper of our time even though I mean, because it's nothing that I'm doing. Right? It's all market driven forces beyond me.

The market's just lifting it, and I'm making the money. But it was, that was a wild ride.

Steve: Well, another thing too, if everyone is listening, like, the greatest thing about this bet was that was a thousand bucks, and if it paid off, you made $30.40, 50 k. If it didn't, you lost your thousand bucks. Right?

Brett: Mhmm.

Steve: Like, that is one of the best bets you can make. You can make that bet all day every day. I didn't know anyone that was, actively putting people in the in the lottery, which is genius. But, yeah, I did I did know people that are like, yeah. Like, I've got I've got this part this community, this community, that community, and they're basically they they got lottery tickets in every community.

That's awesome.

Brett: Yeah. I had to I had to I wasn't able to buy enough. And so I was like, I wouldn't win every lottery, and I'm like, oh, there's a way to win all of them. Mhmm. And the builders didn't really care.

They just wanted the lottery to feel like, you know, it was a little more real. So, yeah, we did. I mean, that was and so then let's go to 2005. I buy this home in Scottsdale. Mhmm.

56 in Thunderbird. My neighbor, about six months since, says, hey. I heard you love houses. I'm like and I'm one of those people where I don't really engage with my neighbors, not because they're good, bad, or indifferent. You know, you're out all day.

I don't know about you. I'm out all day. I'm dealing with the public. I'm dealing helping people. And when I go home, I kind of just wanna have it be my sanctuary.

I just wanna turn off. Right? I don't want it's not that I wouldn't give you a cup of sugar. It's just I kinda wanna unhook, and I need a place that's my sanctuary. So he comes over.

I heard you flip houses. I'm like, oh, man. How does that how does that get over there? But and he goes, I'm actually, in a bind. I need to sell my house.

And so I bought my home at that point in time for, let's call it, $2.75, and it probably it was worth $3.50 ish. Mhmm. He's like, I would sell my home. I'm like, what would you sell it for? And he throws out a number.

It was the first time I had my heart like, oh, that's an insane deal. There's at least a $100 in equity in that deal. Mhmm. So I flip it, and I make $200. And this is my first time.

Like, I I did a little wax along the line. You know, I'm making 30 here, 50 there. But it's the first time you go, wow. Right. I'm a real great now, by the way, it's nothing that I'm doing this genius.

But I you know, my brain doesn't know that yet.

Steve: Yeah.

Brett: So it's

Steve: not that different than what we had in the last few years.

Brett: It's not that different. It felt just like '21, '22. Right? Identical. The next thing I realized, the moment I sold that home, my home had doubled in value.

Mhmm. So I sold it. I actually moved to Chandler at that point. Got a much bigger home in Chandler that I was getting in Scottsdale, just like the country area because that's kinda where I grew up. Got my license as a result of all of this.

I was flipping homes and using a realtor. Mhmm. And she was incredible. Taylor Leduc, by the way, she's still out there listening. I she helped me a ton, and I got my license just to do my own deals.

I had no intention of representing clients just to do my own transactions. Yeah. But, you know, I did. You have a buddy who wants to buy or sell, and you're like, I'll do it. I'll do it.

Yeah. And and I fell in love with the real estate business. And I came into it from the investor side, and I realized I was in two businesses. I had a real estate sales business, and I had this investment company. And they were totally different Yeah.

But they had synergies together. And, you know, from 2000, say, '5, by the end of 2011, I was the number nine agent in the country.

Steve: Well, it's interesting because it's mostly, like, I see you know, we kinda make this joke, like, go to the come to the dark side. Right? Like, we're taking realtors and turning them into wholesalers and flippers.

Brett: Mhmm.

Steve: But you were on the flip side, and you actually enjoyed the realtor side.

Brett: Mhmm.

Steve: So alright. So you became the the the number nine, in in the country. And there's a couple of things that happened along the way there.

Brett: Oh, yeah.

Steve: Right? So, you wanna

Brett: you wanna hit a couple

Steve: of those highlights, things that happened along the way to become number nine? Hey. My name is Brian. I'm a real estate investor. Ian's sales training has helped me buy more houses at a deeper discount.

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Brett: Yeah. Sure. So get licensed in o five, and it's just running really hard. My first year, I think I I did, like, 900,000 in commission income my first year. Mhmm.

Largely selling the model homes for the builders.

Steve: Oh, okay.

Brett: So I went to the builders, and they usually would sell them through their people, or list them. And I said, hey. If I wanna list all of them, they don't wanna list them with me. Right? And I said, I'll tell you what I'll do.

I'll put up artist money. $5,000 per home I don't sell. But if I do sell them, you're gonna pay me a 6% commission Mhmm. And I'll sell. And so I got the right side.

They gave me a time frame. So now I've gotta go. But if I hit this, I mean, it's it's it was massive amounts of money. So that worked really, really well. And then things are great.

02/1967 gets harder. Harder. In 2008, I looked at leaving the business. Yeah. All the smart money was going to real estate.

They're doing bank owned properties, and that was really intelligent. I looked at short sales. I think this is a thing, but I hung my license at Keller Williams. I was the small broker before that. Mhmm.

And I literally told them when I joined, I said, hey. I'll be here six months. I'm gonna find something else I'm gonna do. Yeah. I I don't think real estate's my thing.

Right? Again, at this point in time, I'm 28 years old. My son's being born the same year. So my I've had all this success. My worst year economically, and my son's born.

Steve: What does that mean? Worst year economic?

Brett: I probably went for, you know, that if you're doing 900 commission, I really have any expenses. So you make it $700,000 And I rode that train down to 150 to 200,000, which is still great money. But when you've just, you know, your 28 year old brain when you're making 7 or 800

Steve: Become accustomed to a certain lifestyle.

Brett: $1.50 just I I didn't have crazy expenses. I didn't have those problems.

Steve: Sure.

Brett: It's just I think mentally, you're going this isn't what success feels like. Right? So I was in that place of it was just hard. Mhmm. And I think it was the the it was the restaurant not working was hard.

That was the first one. This was the second time where and it's hard. It's really the real estate I bought, all had problems. And I bought the things, and, you know, those people are putting no money down. I went the other way.

I was putting huge down payments. Wow. Like the TW Lewis community, San Sebastian, you probably know it at, what was it, Chandler Heights in Del Vista? I bought a model home in there for 1,200,000.0, put 20% down there. They were leasing it for $10 a month.

Mhmm. And then I'd never heard this. They they just emailed me, and the agreement was we're gonna lease the model Yeah. As long as the community's here. Right.

But that's like a verbal thing. Right? The real lease is, like, a year, and then it goes month to month until they're done. And they'd never backed out of these. They came to me and go, no.

We're just gonna move the fence over one and cut out the third model. I was like, wait a minute. But that's mine. Like, that would be a disaster. Yeah.

So I tried to move in there to make it work. And, ultimately, I I had some short sales. I had to work through some things. And I had like like I said, I put huge amounts of capital on all these. Bought a place of a Chaparral Pines from the developer.

Again, model leaseback. He's gonna lease back. So I learned at that point point, I have my low moment. My income's down. Real estate, my investments are are garbage.

Well, the income

Steve: going down is one thing, but the real estate thing is really damaging.

Brett: I mean I mean, you got a $10,000 a month. You know, you're getting in rent. Your pay my payment on that was probably 7,000, and market rents $5. Yeah. You know, I hadn't considered what are the other exit strategies?

Should this not work perfectly? Right? Like, all the the sophistication of today. And so it was impactful. Right?

I mean, you've got a newborn. You're looking at your wife. And the way I'd won in life previously was throwing in hours in. I just worked harder than everybody. And now I realize if I apply that same skill, I'm I'm never gonna see my kid.

And so I've gotta learn I got to number one, find the industry that works. Number two, I've gotta find a way to win that doesn't involve Brett's time and endless amounts of it. Right? I gotta learn to lead through others, which that's hard. Yeah.

And it's about that time, I made the decision I'm gonna stay in real estate. I think this short sale thing is everyone's running away from it. It's scary. They they don't close. I run up this whole business plan, and I'm gonna go get all the short sales in the world.

Yeah. And I I thought they would take six to eight months to close, so I budgeted for that. And, I I'm good. In the beginning, actually, none of mine did.

Steve: I was thinking eventually something.

Brett: Oh, eventually, it's great. Yeah. So the misunderstanding I had is it took about fourteen months for the average one to close. And the this is, like, minute zero. So now, I've got 200 plus listings on the MLS, and I have endless problems.

Right? Like, I don't have any money. I'm paying my staff to negotiate these. I'm trying to get more of them. And, like, you need to buy 200 lock boxes.

Well, we all know they're a 100 but there's $20,000. Well, I could do a few of those, but I couldn't I can't spend $20 every single day. I don't have it.

Steve: Yeah.

Brett: So, I created the Arizona lockbox exchange. Like, what Super does now Mhmm. Was my idea. So I just sort of blasted. And so at my office, you would see all the people that are getting out of the business because, you know, agents were just leaving the business.

Steve: How are those days?

Brett: There was all my favorite day ever is there was a line out the door. Sabrina, who's been with me seventeen years as of Monday, has a rack of cash, and agents are lining up, and we're signing transfer forms and buying lock boxes for $25 instead of paying a 100. Because I need to save that 75%.

Steve: Fine everything at really cheap prices.

Brett: Well, the best part of the deal is the REO agents would come around and say, can I buy the boxes? And I go, sure. $50. Mhmm. So we would just sign a transfer form

Steve: Just flipping all day.

Brett: Made my box free. I just needed to get free boxes. Mhmm. So then it's like, well, I need 200 signs. I can't afford 200 signs, so I bought a failed sign company.

And then I have my friend sticking the signs and post up. I mean, it was like it was and I I my belief was if they ever change these laws and they make the timeline short enough Mhmm. I mean, mean, I got 200 plus listings. I was the biggest lockbox holder in those times in Arizona, and they changed. And then my ship came in.

Right? And so in 02/2010, we're starting there was months we're closing a 100 deals a month. And back then, a team this isn't independent people that aren't really affiliated. This is my own group, you know, selling a 100 homes plus in a month. Yeah.

And so we went from, you know, leaving the business in o eight Mhmm. To I think in 2010, we did, like, three hundred, three hundred fifty deals. Mhmm. And in 2011, it was, like, six seventy five Yeah. Which puts, you know, a nine in the country.

And it was just wild to go from leaving Mhmm. The business to, to achieving in in a in a short period of time?

Steve: So I think when you and I connected was right after you created that business plan. Because I don't remember who the team leader was at Keller Williams. But, you know, she reached out because, like, you got Michelle Lynn. Right? She's writing articles about, like, hey, realtors.

There's this thing called short sales. You need to learn about it because this is the direction the industry is going. Like, you're you're if nothing else, you're a legal liability if you don't understand what a short sale is. Right? Which, again, kinda sounds like today.

Brett: Yeah. And But exactly like today, by the way. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. And I remember, again, I can't remember who the team leader was, but she had reached out and said, hey, we have a we have this guy. He's teaching short sales. Thought you'd be helpful for you to come and check it out. So I came.

I came with you the whole pitch. Right? But I remember watching you, and there's two things I noticed. A, you knew what the hell you were talking about, but you're all you're also nervous as heck. Like, you're like it was it was I was trying to kinda get a feel like this guy knows what he's talking about very well, but he also seems, like, not very confident in himself.

Yeah. As it was, like, a really interesting dynamic. Yeah. Right? It's like but, I mean, again, like, I could tell, like, you you it it was again, I just I just said this.

Right? Like, this guy knows exactly what he's talking about. But for whatever reason, he sounds unsure about himself. And we talk about this whole economic thing that kinda like

Brett: Yeah. I was getting my brains beat. I was just I'm recently getting my brains beat in. Right?

Steve: And I

Brett: knew how to do short sales, but the rest of it was kinda figuring out as I went.

Steve: Yeah. So then hundred some months, a 100 deals

Brett: Yeah. Closing. No. 2,010 or 11. The other months, we closed a hundred, hundred and eight.

And we got into the bank, and then we went to REO. We did the smart you know, we got smarter. Mind you, I still got this wonderful investment company running along the side, right, that I started before. So it's still doing its thing. Mhmm.

It's working. I have a guy come to me and says, I wanna invest money with you. Yeah. This is, like, now right around $2,011.12. So comes to me and says, hey.

I've got capital. One of my employees introduced me. Mhmm. And I always kept when I did my flips, and I would encourage everyone to do this. By the way, keep your initial settlement statement, your closing settlement statement before photos, after photos, and create a little summary of what happened.

Right? I invested x dollars and made y return and then annualize the return. Right? Is it more to annualize it? Like, the return on the asset's cool, but how quickly are you actually moving the dollars?

Yeah. Right? Because if you can collapse time. So I I slide the the the book across the table to this guy, and he's like, you're crushing it.

Steve: I'm like, oh, I don't

Brett: know about crushing it, but, yeah, I'm doing okay. Yeah. And he goes, I'd love to invest money. I said, I would never take your money, and I have no interest in an investor. Mhmm.

And he said, why? I go, well, because I wake up every day, and I serve customers, buyers, and sellers. But when I flip homes, I get to make my own decision. Right? I get to blow that wall out or I get to, you know, I get to make and if I'm right, I get paid.

Mhmm. If I'm wrong, I get punished, and and my behavior works well in that environment. Right? I just I don't wanna you're gonna if you invest money, you're gonna say, I want the paint color to be this, or I want the floors to be that. And that that conversation, I'm not I don't wanna have ever.

And he says, I don't think you understand. I'll invest the money, and I want no involvement. Okay. Here's my terms. I take 50% of the profit.

I take zero risk. If you shut it down and we have a loss, you eat it all. Mhmm. As long as you're willing to do another one, if we lose money, we'll make it back on the next one. Like, I'm willing to earn it out, but I can't control if you shut it down.

So we start with about $400,000, simple operating agreement, no fund, just an operating agreement. Wires me the 400. We so we do a deal, and we make 50, and here's your 25, and here's mine. And do you wanna do it again? Yeah.

So that goes for a little bit, and he goes, hey. Check your account. Wires another 400. About nine days later, check your account. Check your account.

So it's probably 4 or $5,000,000 that we were flipping with for a while, and it was awesome. I mean, I made him millions. I made millions.

Steve: Yeah.

Brett: And then when I called him and I said, hey, dude. Check your account. He said, looks like all of the money came back. I said, yeah. I I'm gonna sell fund now.

I mean, I have the resources. And so I helped him place it in hard money for a little bit and still a friend to this day. But that was my my lift was I had an opportunity and a great partner that trusted me and didn't force me to follow his way or wasn't overly involved. And, you know, it was a beautiful partnership for both of us.

Steve: Yeah. And I love that you shared this because this is something, again, like, we've talked about on the show. Like, there are guys that are, you know, wholesaling that need transition flipping whatever, especially right now, wholesaling getting kinda interesting. A fifty fifty partner is a great place to start. Right?

And then you can eventually, you know, shift to the seventy thirty, eighty twenty, whatever. But fifty fifty is a great place to start when you have no money and you need to start taking property down. Property's down.

Brett: Even if you have some money, it's not a bad deal. Right? There's something I mean, look. I mean, I didn't have juice being paid every month. Right?

Like, you know, some people, like, are, you know, leveraging hard money. I lend hard money. I've got my banker's license. With that fifty fifty partnership, I didn't have a check due every month. I didn't have to pay 20,000 interest this month or whatever it was.

Mhmm. Now I paid 50% of the profit, which could have been more than

Steve: that. Sure.

Brett: But my mindset, though, I didn't I didn't have pressure. Yeah. Right. I was able to do great work. And so our goal because when you're managing capital, you're really clear that, like, timelines matter.

Mhmm. Right? If I can be money and money out ninety days Right. I could turn the capital four times per year. If I could do it a 120, it's only turning three times.

Well, it's radically different outcomes. And so we got really good at figuring out if we could make 25% on the asset in ninety days, it's a 100% annualized returns. Yeah. I mean, where can you go on something you know? Right?

You can largely control. I mean, it's insane. Like, the opportunity that we all have in real estate, we get it. Right? Like, the fact that we can take a sheet of paper Mhmm.

And sell it to someone and turn it into 30 or $50,000 is unbelievable. Like, it's a wild and I and people are, oh, it's only 30. I'm like, are you crazy? I mean, I would shovel I was literally throwing beanbags onto a truck for twelve hours a day. That's hard work.

Yeah. Calling people with a headset on Mhmm. Is not that hard. It's just it's just not.

Steve: Yeah. And, again, like, that fifty fifty, like, that's the way I started. Right? And I remember there was never any pressure. Right?

Because, like, there was no monthly nut that had to cover. There was no 1% every single month or whatever the terms you get with your hard money, private money people. The fact that I it wasn't that I was, like, taking it easy, but I was controlling the timelines. I could decide what we're gonna do. I never had to, like, drop the pipe price drastically because I had to pay somebody.

You can operate and negotiate very differently without that pressure, on your back. So, yeah, that's huge. And then another thing that I wanna touch on was, like, in coming, to your event, again, I think it was, like, around o nine, was they gave me this red book

Brett: Mhmm.

Steve: Which, I've said this before and I still stand by it. The single greatest lead magnet of all time, the millionaire real estate agent. I don't know how many millions or billions is created for Gary Keller, but the most brilliant lead magnet you talk about marketing. Right? Like, you know, you see these guys with, like, free plus shipping or it's, like, you know, is, click this link.

What even we even we do. Right? Like, text 33777, right, to get this thing. But that red book, it's gotta be the greatest lead magnet of all time.

Brett: No doubt. Right? That was in I mean, but true genius to Gary Keller. I mean, there's I I don't know that there's been someone that's done more for our industry than him. You know, I'm I'm biased.

He's my fan. I tell you he's my he's my personal coach. We become extremely close, and we Yeah. We text all the time. But that was his back then, he's like, I wanna do something for the industry.

Mhmm. I wanna analyze the data and actually put together, like, the model of everyone. So does it work perfect? No. It was never designed to do that because you were taking all the top agents in the country Mhmm.

And trying to build an economic model and a playbook. Yeah. But the idea there, was genius. Number one, write something that everyone wants. Mhmm.

Then have team leaders give that away to have a different conversation. Mhmm. Right? Because when you're recruiting people to your world, the easiest thing is is education. Yeah.

Right. Like, I always I don't sell anything. I teach. I train. Right?

Today, I spend my days as a teacher. I I talk to real estate agents, real estate investors, and my coaching clients about improve their lives through money and get what they actually want. Yeah. That's how I spend my days. Mhmm.

And that's really who Gary is as a teacher. So all that that book you saw came out of him teaching and putting people in the room. I mean, he took and that was all brands. I mean, if you look at, like, Russell Shaw, who another mentor of mine who I know that you know, I mean, you spend a lot of time with Russ. But Russ was a huge contributor to that book.

Mhmm. So it wasn't just Keller Williams people reflecting that book. I mean, it was I mean, think about back then. I mean, think about today to take all the top people from all industries and consolidate that under a book. Like, that would never happen today.

No. But, I mean, an incredible getting the millionaire real estate investor, another just incredible book to help understand money. I mean

Steve: And I saw where the the biggest thing I took away from that book was, again, in o eight, o nine, whenever when I picked it up, the idea that you can get to seventh level. Right? You can have buyer's agents, showing agents, transaction coordinators, everyone doing all the work. And all you had to do was just kinda oversee. And at some point, you don't even have to oversee.

You just have one person who oversees, and that person just reports to you. Yeah. That was never never an idea, a concept in my mind because I was still a hustler. Right? Like, I was still making my websites, calling the buyers, calling the sellers.

At that time, there was no list of pros or list of sister. Right? Putting lock boxes on properties. I still have I I think a realtor understood what it was like to deal with, like, pliers and signs on a windy day. Right?

Yeah. Or even, like, the the worst I would say the absolute worst. I would say probably the lowest point was selling a condo for $30,000. Right? Because the commission on 30,000 is not very much.

But for it to close, I had to install a lockbox a mailbox lock so the buyer would be willing to sign on closing day. Right? Like, well, things we had to do. Seventh level was so far.

Brett: That's that's a million miles from there.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So that was the thing that was the the the biggest eye opener for me from the book.

Brett: Well, it so you talk about, like, the changes in the industry. Like, I mean, you talk about how hard it was. I was selling REOs for 20 in Maryville. Mhmm. Those homes in Maryville Terrace were sold as commodities.

Right? There were 25,000 in Metair. It was 1,200 square feet, $1,825. Right? People are stealing the copper.

Remember that era? I I will tell you this. When when DocuSign came out Mhmm. That was the biggest game changer in my real estate career because you're always missing one. Remember the days you're missing one signature?

Mhmm. Right? You're missing just one. Yeah. So now you're driving.

How many times did you drive across town to get a signature so you could get a check?

Steve: Way way more than I want to.

Brett: Yeah. I mean, I did it constantly because I wasn't that good of a realtor. I was really good at getting a good deal for my client. I was good at representing them. I wasn't perfect with missing, like, you know, oh, the buyer I'm missing a signature on page six of the

Steve: Yeah.

Brett: The, you know, of, like, the some advisory that's irrelevant. Right. So I would drive across town. Mhmm. I mean, today, I couldn't even imagine right even considering that as an idea.

But Yeah. You gotta do but I think what's important for people to listen to in here is it you gotta do what you gotta

Steve: do. Right.

Brett: Like, you and I were hustlers who figured out how to scale businesses. Mhmm. And I don't know if but, yeah, I learned that hustle doesn't scale. No. It just doesn't.

There's only so many hours. Mhmm. And you can only run so hard. And the old the more I think all my white hair that I have now came from driving across town to do something that was I was wondering the whole time, what am I doing?

Steve: Yeah. What was the lowest priced property you sold?

Brett: It's gotta be, though. I I would say somewhere around that. Well, luckily, the banks, when you work for Fannie Mae Bank of America, they have a thousand dollar commission minimum.

Steve: Yeah. I remember those.

Brett: So I had many properties that would never come close to the minimum at 3%. Yeah. So I I would probably around 17,000, $20,000.

Steve: I have because I remember there is one on Thomas. It was a condo for $10.05. Double ended that one, so I got 2,000.

Brett: Right? Boom. Nice.

Steve: And then there were three in, off of, Roser And 10th. Right? There are three of them. And also between 20 and 25,000. And every single one missing copper.

Right? Like, you walk in, you see, like, all the insulation you walk in and all the insulation's on the ground. You know exactly what happened. So

Brett: I got so I have two funny stories there. So so back then, the lowest price I sold was 17. I bought a house for 10,000. Mhmm. K.

In Phoenix, down by the state of downtown. Now it looks more like I'd call it more of a woodshed than a house, but it's habitable. People are living there. So I bought it for $10, and I told my wife, I said, you know what I wanna do? I wanna try to create a payment stream out of nothing.

Like, what do you mean? I was like, I'm gonna I wanna sell or finance this thing. I I was on the side because I'm an entrepreneur. I'm flipping storage units. So the book thing goes on.

I start buying storage units and flipping the contents, and I I come across a Carlton Sheets, training. Mhmm. Carleton no money down, real estate, all that. But lot of it was based on seller financing. Mhmm.

And so I thought, what if I bought this house for $10,000? It was a great deal off market. What if I put it on the MLS and sold it for 30,000 and took $10,000 as a down payment? Mhmm. My goal is to be out $0, and I just wanna see if I can create a payment stream that lasts five or six years.

Mhmm. Like, what would that look like? So I do it, and I'm getting 5 or $600 a month on air. Right? I mean, I have no money, and and that's when, like, I realized this whole idea of the banks are the greatest businesses on Earth.

Yeah. One of my favorite books of all time, The Banker's Code, George Anton. And and I read that book, and ironically, now I hire him to come speak to my audience. It's so cool to see, like, your your idols in these books. Yeah.

You get to go back and show, guys, this is something transformative that I read. But that really changed how I thought about money, which was, oh, there's two ways to do it. There's owning the asset Mhmm. And there's lending money to others. And so, you know, that led me to go on and get my banking license and be a lender and done over a 100 plus million loans and all that stuff.

But it all started with I was figuring out, I think, back in the you know, the you can only connect those dots looking backwards. You know, the old Steve Jobs quote. I was just figuring stuff out. I was really like, well, okay. How could I have no money in the deal?

How could I think differently about this? What's everyone saying? Okay. I don't wanna do that. How can I be just different in my approach?

Steve: Yeah. Well, so Eddie Speed has been in here twice.

Brett: Yeah. I know Eddie Eddie and I are really good buddies.

Steve: Yeah. And he always says, like he always brings out, like, like, the best person that ever comes to my program. Like, the most successful, the one that does what he's supposed to do is Brett. Oh, very kind. Alright.

He's a great dude. Yeah. So it makes sense. Like, because I could see right here the way your brain even works around money. Like, you're you're you're flipping books and flipping lock boxes.

Like, it makes sense. Like, you're you're you're so tuned in on the way money works. Like, the very nature of money, you just have a different perception of it. So maybe this is a good transition about the difference between being rich and being wealthy.

Brett: Yeah. It's, it's a really interesting question. Right? I think we see today, and, you know, you go online. It doesn't take you very long to scroll and realize, I know that person.

Mhmm. I know what's going on in their life privately, and the story I'm getting online Mhmm. Isn't real. Right?

Steve: Yes. I got Slight mismatch.

Brett: Slight mismatch. Right? Yeah. And so, like, you know, sometimes when I tell people things, it's like, man, I feel like I'm a truth teller in a fake world. Mhmm.

You know what I mean? It's just Yeah. It's all, like, get rich quick, take unlimited risk, leverage the leverage of the leverage. I'm like, that's just not how it works. That's how you get crushed.

And so rich as you can buy it. Mhmm. Wealthy is maybe you don't even need it, but it's irrelevant if you do. It's kinda what I think about. Rich is just I can afford the payments.

Mhmm. Wealthy is I don't have the payments. Yeah. And, you know, my definition of wealth is whatever your true purpose is. But, you know, that whole idea, if your passive income exceeds your expenses, you can go forever.

You know? And and we achieved that in my life quite a while back. Mhmm. And so then you play a different game. Right?

The stress isn't there. But there's this whole myth. I think riches, shiny, glittery, loud Mhmm. And wealth is all the stuff you don't

Steve: see. It's,

Brett: Peace of mind.

Steve: It's the the guy that's quiet, has nothing to prove. Doesn't need to prove anything to anybody. Right? It's the guy that shows up in, like, flip flops and shorts and buying whatever he wants, really, in the store. The it's for me then, the distinction is kinda like, poor and broke.

Right? One is a measurement and one's a state of mind. Totally.

Brett: Yeah. I there's this example they say, like, you know, you take a piggy bank. Right? Imagine, like, the piggy banks we had as kids. Mhmm.

You shove two nickels in it and you shake it right loud. Okay. You fill that thing entirely where it's there's not one more coin code when you shake it. Mhmm. It doesn't make that much noise.

Yeah. I think that's the that's the difference in rich and wealthy. Right? It's the it's a loud piggy bank shaking, rattling. Yeah.

So a lot of dealers are the loudest. Mhmm. There might be a reason why.

Steve: Man, there's, there's something really profound in that image.

Brett: You come up with that? I I heard it somewhere else.

Steve: Yeah. It's very, very profound. So alright. So, you're doing really well on the realtor world. Right?

We're talking about this, like, around 2011, and '12 and so on. Yeah. And then where do you go from there?

Brett: So I had a buddy here locally, worked at title. Mhmm. And he got promoted. You know him? Steve LaViaga.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So Fidelity title. He was one of my really good friends. Mhmm.

And at that time, he got promoted as national sales manager role, and he's like, hey. Would you do some speaking? Yes. So you caught me there when I was just a nervous speaker because I'd never given present. I'd never done a class or, you know, I I know the technical.

I just am not a trained speaker, and I've never done, public speaking training. Mhmm. I just have got very comfortable being who I am, and so it's it's different today. So I've done some classes for him and said, hey. Would you come do do some speaking on the road?

I'm like, what does that even mean? I I don't really wanna go. He said, it would be a favor to me. It would help me. I said, sure.

I'll do any of my friends. So I go out to San Diego, and he said, it's a little presentation. It's no big deal. Whatever. I show up to this building, and it's like the Scottish Rite Center or whatever it's called out there.

There's 600 people in the crowd. And I walk in. I go, what are they doing? What are they here for? Like, are they here for the other thing?

Or and he's like, oh, no. No. This is your presentation. I go, bro, you gotta get better at communicating. Like, this is stressful.

So I go up there. I mean, I have a presentation, but, you know, it's not it's not worthy of 600 people. So I give that presentation. It goes well, and it's just teaching agents how to be better agents of things I'm thinking about, things we're doing in our business. And at the end, this is kinda where I found coaching was a guy walked up to me and says, I want you to be my coach.

And I said, absolutely not. No. Thank you. Mhmm. And he's like, I'm I don't think you understand.

I'll pay you anything. So what is your problem? Like, what's the problem you actually need to solve? I I need a really specific problem. Mhmm.

And I said, well, I can solve that. And this is what we charge. And so we agreed, and I fixed it. And it made this massive impact in his life. Mhmm.

And I got to watch them. I was like, well, that was kinda cool. Yeah. Right. The money was cool, but that wasn't what drove it.

It was the money had to just compensate me for my time that it could have just the opportunity cost that could have done something else with. But watching him, like, as a result of that double the business. Mhmm. So, you know, at that moment, I kind of entertained some private clients, and I've been a coach ever since. That's really from 2011 or '12 to now.

I've had a handful of private coaching clients. One point three years ago, I looked in the top 10 realtors in the country. I was coaching four of them. Mhmm. Huge.

Pretty pretty cool. Right? Not really on growing your sales business or things of scale, but more on the money side. Mhmm. Right.

So you've got in you've got these resources. Are you thinking about money? What are you doing? Because there's a whole language of the wealthy. Yeah.

And, so that was that moment. 2,000, I realized, like, the coaching was cool. There was other impacts there. And and that was kind of the time where we started looking at, okay, we're successful. We've got money.

I've got my wealth plan figured out. I went back and revisited all of my failures prior. You know, why did I why did the homes that I have to short sell some homes in 2008? I had to really figure that out. Like, what was my thesis or what was my idea around buying real estate?

And what were the or my cash on cash returns? What were my debt loads? And what should they have been? And I kinda went back through my portfolio and kinda just did a I got the opportunity to be non emotional. Mhmm.

Like, that property would have worked great. That would have worked great. Well, this was stupid. Yeah. But, you know, these got hit because of these other things.

And so I really came up with a better model that involved much less risk Mhmm. Much larger down payments, incredibly deep reserves, all the things that intelligent business people do. Yeah. And so I I started going after rentals, and I was like, I'm gonna buy a thousand single family rentals, and I'm gonna win the game. I mean, that's just that's that's my path.

I sell homes. The bigger this business gets, the more access I get, the bigger my investment company gets, the more I can buy. And so I get on that journey, of just buying lots and lots of homes. Mhmm. You

Steve: were good at a thousand?

Brett: No. I got to a 125 ish. Mhmm. And I realized I did not wanna have a thousand. K?

Because a single family home's well awesome. Yes. A lot changed post COVID. So, I'll I'll I'll kinda give a little story in between there. So I'm I'm I'm buying I'm on my journey to the thousand.

And I don't know if you're familiar with boardroom, Kent Clovier.

Steve: Of course.

Brett: Great. I mean, Kent's the coolest dude ever. One of my really good friends. So I would go do some of their training there, and I would just speak on stage talking to his audience because Kent wanted me to, and I love Kent. So I give this presentation.

I'm down in the hot tub after his event, and this husband and wife are there. They're like, hey. Thanks for your talk today. Super impactful. Whatever.

And I'm like, oh, give me your story. And they said, oh, we're just moving back from Greenville, in the Carolinas back to San Diego. BMW went in there, and I bought all the homes around the factory. The factory was announced. You know, they're gonna put BMW in there.

The jobs are gonna pay x. It's a certain amount of jobs. And he goes, I just figured out what the job was gonna pay. Based on that, I ran the debt to income ratios and figured out what houses those people are gonna buy. You know, demand's about to skyrocket.

I'll just buy all the homes. Factory goes in. Homes will double. I sold them all. I was like, well, how'd it work out?

And he's like, I mean, $16,000,000. Yeah. And I go, dude, we gotta stop for a minute. Mhmm. Like, server, we're gonna need just keep the drinks coming.

I go, I have a thousand questions for you. Yeah. So I go into the model, like, what made it work? And I get I mean, I'm just a thousand questions. What are the five markets you're looking at next year?

So he's got Racine, Wisconsin, Foxconn that makes the Apple batteries, what's going in there. Huntsville, Alabama was Mazda Toyota. So I'm like, alright. Huntsville is my game. Mhmm.

And I learned that you have to wait till the pads go in because Foxconn bailed. Mhmm. They made the announcement. They didn't actually build it. So some of these huge companies can announce Amazon's going over here.

Well, you wanna wait till they put the actual pads in. Mhmm. So I see that I fly out to Huntsville. Pads are going in. I do the same thing.

Like, I apply for a job to be, you know, at Mazda, and I'm like, okay. This is what it's gonna pay. So I drive the neighborhoods, and I'm like and, you know, then you're just using your your realtor experience. Like, well, I wouldn't live there Mhmm. If I could live there.

That's the neighbor. So I bought 45 homes and hoping that they would double. Mhmm. And this is, like, 2018. You know, COVID hits, all the things go right.

They move the space command there. What I didn't know about jobs back then is you announced let's say, Mazda says we're gonna bring in 5,000 jobs. Every part supplier now comes in.

Steve: Right.

Brett: All your competitors come in because they wanna take your talent. Mhmm. So the 5,000 job, it's more like 25,000. So it's if there's a huge announcement and it goes, it's it's it's really meaningful in a smaller market. So the homes didn't double.

They're like three to four x.

Steve: Wow.

Brett: And I to this day, that guy, I saw him five years ago. I was like, dude, did you make the the Huntsville trade? Mhmm. I did it. And he's like, no.

I'm like, bro, you were that hot tub changed my life. So I never got to the answer long winded answer. I never got to the thousand. I got to about a 125, and I realized that single family rentals are hard to manage at scale, especially in multiple markets.

Steve: Yeah.

Brett: At some point, you've got property managers. You've got managers on your team managing you got managers managing the managers of the management, and it kind of reduces your there's not a lot of juice left over.

Steve: Oh, there's not. Well, that's the reason I was asking because, like, when someone says I wanna do a thou I wanna have a thousand properties or I mean, a thousand, like, a couple 100 properties. Like, there's information that you learn along the way that generally changes that perspective. And so one is the just like everything else. Right?

It just it doesn't scale as profitably. You hit diminished returns, but the other thing too is, like, you've got tremendous opportunities. You got this relationship. You talked about, Ken Clougherty. You're talking about Gary Keller.

Like, you're in the right rooms. You're not having the right conversations. The opportunities to come across your desk just in sitting in a hot tub is different than what most people run into. The other thing I wanna hit on too is the fulfillment part. The the I share, you know, because I did I'd read Rich Dad Poor Dad.

Right? No. Like, hey. This is not gonna be like, there's definitely two things not for me. I'm gonna do my own thing.

But when I started my brokerage, right, Stunning Homes Realty, when I started it, it was purely out of greed. It had nothing to do with helping people, like, helping, like, homeowners, helping buyers and sellers. It had nothing to do with, like, helping realtors. Yeah. Right?

It was just like, I'm gonna build a team kinda like what Curtis Johnson did. Right? I'm just gonna build my team and, like, everyone leave me alone.

Brett: Yeah.

Steve: I don't have that broker I have to run advertising through. I don't know about splits, none of that stuff. But I had realtors coming along like, hey. Like, I like what you're doing. Can I be your broker?

Blah blah blah. And every time I helped a realtor go from making 30,000 to 300,000, like, that's freaking cool. I can do that over and over again. Now what I realized that you actually can't because that doesn't scale. Running a brokerage doesn't scale.

But the the the emotional deposits of watching someone 10 x their their their annual income over and over again. It's you can't you can't the the feeling nowhere near matches the financial divide.

Brett: Isn't it so cool? I I think there's three levels of understanding the way I think about it, which is one is early in your career when you're trying to find your first success Yeah. You're just trying to prove to yourself that you could do it. Right? Can my hustle equal an outcome?

The second level of that journey is you're proving it to other people. Right. Right. Look how great I am. It wouldn't have been in February 06/2007 if you found me.

It wouldn't have been taking you very long to figure out I was gonna tell you how great I was. Right? I mean, I I spent a lot of time for fake awards and Mhmm. You know, even that award, like, the high point of my career was winning that award with our company, three in the firm, nine in the country. That was the high point.

The low point was sixty seconds later realizing that's it.

Steve: Yeah.

Brett: I'm nine in the and no one cares. No one. Years later, I had all these awards in a box, and my son, I gave him he's wearing them around, and the lawnmower hit one. And he's like, dad, what did that what did you do to get that? I was like, I was one of the top real estate in the entire country, and it's meaningless to me.

And the third level, right, of of this game is you spend your time helping others believe it's possible for them. And I think that's where you and I sit today is just how can we because that spark to me, we're not doing it for free. But I could do a lot of other things I do outside of my training business to make more money. Right. But the impact that you get to see when someone's life to go from 30 to 300 in your example, what that does to their family, their opportunities, their experiences, because that's the good stuff in life is doing epic things Yeah.

With people you care about. And that's the good stuff.

Steve: And it's funny you talk about, like, the the boxer awards because, like, I've been in multiple real estate masterminds. And then you were in these rooms. You just kinda talk about truth teller in a fake world. It's like, they've got all these awards. They got all these plaques.

Man, like, you're supposed to be vulnerable in these masterminds, which is good, but it's, like, the disconnect from the award in in front of some nice banner, whatever you call it. The claps. Yeah. Versus, like, I don't know if I'm gonna make payroll next month. Right?

It's like, how

Brett: Isn't it wild to watch? Someone's doing 5,000,000 in commissions Mhmm. And they're about to go broke. Yeah. And you're like, dude, it's ego.

Right? It's all ego driven. That's the wildest thing to watch. And and I think that was another all high hat. I was in this the mastermind here locally with all the names.

You would know every single one of them. And when I'm in one of those masterminds, you have the question I always look or I look around the room, and I go, whose life in here do I want? Yeah. Whose life? But and and my definition is a little different.

I want the success, but I want the success in all things. Like, if you traded your marriage for all the success in the world, there's no judgment in that comment. I just that's gonna that's different to me because you traded something. I want the person who's got greatest marriage ever. I want the person that's kids love them.

I want the person who got the business success. I want their helping other people, their chair like, all of those things. And as I got you know, as you go down this journey, I think that's why I'm so passionate about Gary and the relationship I have with him. He's the real deal. And I was always worried.

You know, they say, don't meet your mentor. Don't get too close because you find out, you know, I wish I wouldn't have saw that. You know, I mean, like, I've been to Disneyland with Gary and his family. I mean, I've I've been I've done all, like, I mean, I if my phone ever got exposed, then I got a picture of me and him and the man or, like, you know, I'm like, this is amazing. And, he's better privately than his call.

He's that good. Like, this guy just does good for humans, and it's the coolest thing to see. You know, he's now a multibillionaire and is so giving of his time, his effort, and that's all he wants to do is help people. Like, he's a it's a it's a calling to him. I think it's just so cool to see that you've just got totally you've got someone who's quiet about the wealth.

Again, back to the shaking the piggy bank. Right? Here's a guy with totally quiet online, you know, has all the money in the world just doing good, and then you got the people that are fake rich, you know, in those rooms. And it's just a wild so you realize it's not actually, income doesn't determine wealth. Yeah.

Not entirely.

Steve: No. It definitely does not. And another thing you talked about, and we kinda touched on it, but, like, the language of the wealthy. You mentioned what's what's the language of the wealthy? Is there anything you wanna

Brett: Yeah. I think that so I I think about a couple of things. Right? So you've got two ways you think about money. You you go work for money.

Right? Everyone listen to this. They got a day job. They do something that creates cash. Ideally, they have their investments that also create cash, passive income, hopefully.

So that comes in and you've got additional capital. Now you've got a decision to make. You know, I could spend it. I could donate it. I could save it.

I can invest it. And then I think getting really clear on is every dollar comes into your life. Are you monetizing the dollar in real time? Super easy example would be, you know, I make a deposit for my business today. Instantly, that money, there's a sweep account in my bank that takes those dollars from my business account and automatically sweeps it over.

And I'm today, I'm making, like, 3.4%. Not a crazy, but it's on the dollar that got deposited today. Right? That all gets swept up to a holding company. And at that level, I'm looking to deploy that money into one of two things.

Stuff I own, I lend money to others. And so I think there's just language that gets lost, that number one, what do I do with money? But before all of that, the exercise I I walk people through is just, you know, Steve, at the end of your days, if we project out thirty years from the day, let's find out what your ideal life is. And I think and I walk them through an exercise. Think of it like a movie.

You wake up in the morning. Is it your same home? Is it the mountain breeze? Is it the beach? Do you have a second home?

Did you send your kids to college? What kind Do you have what charitable causes do you care about? And really figure out this life and get, like like, a movie. Now let's figure out what it costs. K.

Thirty years. Now run it back to today. And and the biggest thing I did, for my net worth and talking about the connectivity of money was taking going thirty years out. How can I tell if I'm on or off track? And I found that folks don't miss goals because they didn't have great goals.

They wrote them all down, and they didn't have a check-in point. And then they got to the end of the year and went, oh, I missed the goal. Like, you know, if I'm gonna lose weight, I gotta look at, you know, okay, my calorie intake and how much I move. Right? It's not very hard to figure out the formula.

But if I don't ever step on the scale and check-in, how will I know that the things I'm doing are working? And so I plotted what I wanted my net worth to be, pick the biggest number I could think about, and then I work backwards. Well, where do I need to be next month to be on track for January 2026, to be on track for January 2055, to get what I wanted. And as soon as I did that, right, the competitor comes out because you're like, woah, thirty years. What if I do it in ten?

So how far can I get ahead? And so I created this check-in point. So now I took an external game that was money and FOMO and all that, and you make it an internal game of just something. I I can win and they can win. We're not competing against each other.

And so for me, that connectivity, the wealthy, they've got a scoreboard that's clear. They know the exact life they want. They know the outcome, and they've got different check-in points. Then as you look at that or what are the vehicles, what are the assets I'm gonna stack inside of that that make the most sense from in all the base level, right, there's levels to this game. Of course.

But I think for people to figure out what they want, the biggest mistake out there that I see folks today, they have no idea what they want, and they're unhappy with what they have. And that's that's my personal definition of hell. Just I don't know what I want. I'm gonna have that guy. Well, that no decision you make is gonna matter until you figure that out.

Steve: I wanna talk about that in a moment before we do that. Okay. Guys, big thanks to our sponsor, Beck CFO. Most business owners see taxes as their biggest expense, and for real estate entrepreneur entrepreneurs, it's usually 6 figures or more. Beck CFO helps clients cut their tax bill, keep more of their profits, and scale with confidence.

You want a proactive plan instead of just filling out paperwork. Visit beckcfo.com, beccfo.com, and connect with my tax guys over at Beck CFO today. So what you just talked about there is, I think, one of the most, that's what I'm looking for. It's it's it's not talked about a lot, but it is one of the greatest inhibitors to success. Not knowing what they want and then not having a plan.

So I think a lot of, we get to a point of, you know, approaching significance where we have more clarity. Here's what we wanna do. But, you know, like, early, majority of my career, I I operate with just hustle. I'm gonna grind my way through, and I'm just gonna outwork the other guy. Right?

But I didn't know, like, where I wanted to be. And without knowing where I wanted to go, it was what was it? It doesn't matter how fast you're going if you don't know where you're going.

Brett: Yeah. So true.

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Brett: So you'll ask someone, give me, you know, a coaching client. Give me the granularly what the life's like. And sometimes they'll say, like, your point, I don't know. Mhmm. Great.

Let's go the opposite way. What do you not want? And you will find that when you ask them what they don't want, everyone knows exactly what they don't want. Yeah. Right.

I'll hear if you're here realtor. I don't wanna be in a living room at 70 years old taking a listing. Okay. Great. That's gonna be we're gonna have to have some leadership then.

Okay. Let's put that on. So pretty quickly, we're gonna get well, do you wanna live in your current home? Well, no. Okay.

Mhmm. Do you not wanna have a second home? No. I do want a second home. Okay.

Well, where is it? Right? So pretty quickly, you can go, what do I not want? I could tell you that I did not wanna be in a living room at 70. I wanted to have passive income.

I knew the exact second home I wanted. I mean, I had a pictures of it. It's up in Pinetop, and I was driving there, and I started dating my wife in 2000. So we've been married for twenty years, together for twenty five. And I could tell you that our relationship's better today than it was twenty five years ago.

Like, you know, you we go out with friends of ours and you hear them complain about their wives. I'm sure you've heard people go, oh, you know how it is. And I go, I actually don't, man. My wife's my best friend. I'm more madly in love with her today than I was twenty five years ago.

And so in the year 2000, we're driving up there, and there's this home on the golf course, gate, one home, gate, seven lots. I was like, honey, who has enough money, you know, because we're 20 years old, to have the other own gate on their own for one house? Like, this is just mind bending to me. And you fast forward twenty five years later, I'm that guy. Right?

I own that home. But it's putting it out there. Like, I saw that, and I was like, I want that. I had no clue how it would occur. The guy went to prison for embezzling cigarette sales online, like, craziest story ever.

Like, the baseball player, Maddox, was his it's crazy story. Mhmm. But I went through and got that asset. And, like, it's a leg like, I I'm so passionate about my family's so passionate about me. It's got life insurance around it, so it will live forever.

It's designed for the generations of the Tanners will be in that property through the end of time, and there's tools to do that. Right? I just simple life insurance policy on me. Something happens to me. Boom.

That trust is funded indefinitely. The returns, the money will generate will pay all the expenses and allow them to build other cabins or whatever. Yeah. But, like, that's an example of a tool of the wealthy that just thinking differently. But having that vision, I knew what I wanted.

Steve: Yeah. I

Brett: knew what I wanted my relationship. I knew what I wanted my relationship, my kids. And I think it was just asking those questions. Like, what do I not like? I didn't want that attorney's lifestyle.

You know, I didn't, I realized that just because I had a lot of money or I was a successful realtor, that wouldn't make me wealthy. Yeah. Because the wealthy the most successful agents actually weren't the wealthiest. Crazy to see. Right?

The the $3,000,000 in commission. So I think it if you can Warren Buffett talks about this internal and external scorecard. Yeah. And, you know, when I talk to my kids, I was like, let me ask you a question. If everyone in your school thinks you're the greatest, is that true?

They're like, well, no. Alright. If they all think you're awful, is that true? No. Then what matters?

Actually, matter what you think. Mhmm. Like, your internal score are you a good person? Are you doing the right things? Those are the things that matter.

And when you quit playing for the applause and you just play for being a good person and creating outcomes for the people that you truly love, the game becomes totally different. It's a totally different game.

Steve: I don't know. That's powerful. Very powerful. Anytime about the things you don't want, I I did tell all my, colleagues not really with me anymore. But, you know, back at the old brokerage, what I said was, if you ever find me at a continuing education class of 65, you have full permission to just take me out back and just shoot me.

Mhmm. Just shoot me. Because I'm clearly miserable. Right? I did not figure it out.

I failed. Totally.

Brett: A a 100. A 100%.

Steve: Yeah. So a couple things I've I've, seen you write down or talk about. Turning stress into strategy, scarcity and sovereignty, what what does that mean?

Brett: You know, I would say this. I think people are when you're in a stressful situation, okay, and you're stressed and maybe it's money pressure or it's family pressure, whatever it's caused. Let's use money pressure. I think people are looking at things as, like, one way to solve the problem. Right?

Like, I've gotta go. I'm a realtor. I'm a wholesaler. I'm gonna get another commission, get another deal. Right?

Instead of taking a step back and going, there's a thousand options here. Mhmm. Like, when people bring me a problem, like, well, you've got one option. I love it. Why don't we come up with 40 options?

Even dumb. Like, we're gonna come up with some dumb ideas. Mhmm. But then let's look at let's really think about it differently. So, you know, I think breakthroughs come from different strategy, different approach.

Mhmm. I'll give you an example. So, you know, we're doing lots of wholesale. We do flipping. But what's the untapped opportunity in your market?

So for a long time here, I've been I flipped mobiles homes over the entire state of Arizona. Okay. And people go, oh, mobile's gross, disgusting. Don't do it. I'm like, yeah.

Keep saying that. Everyone like that. Let's not have anyone do it. And I make a couple million bucks a year doing this. Yeah.

And no one wants to do it because it's gross. And it by the way, it's not any gross or anything. I mean, it's it's not gross. Actually, the new ones, I joke. Like, I I so now we buy land.

I have a dealer license, and I put them on there, and we play that game too. These kitchens, like, I have a really nice home. Like, if I showed you the mobile home kitchen on somebody's new one, like, they're incredibly nice out. Like It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous.

It's nicer than my kitchen, and I've been my home's multiple millions of dollars. It's it's it's wild to watch. And so that's just an example of, like, people are saying this is gross, or I don't know what it is in every market in the country, but you go to them. Like, I told you this deal. I'm closing this relatively large deal.

It's just looking for opportunities that others aren't seeing. Yeah. So I think when you take if you're in a stressful situation, you're lacking a strategy, you're lacking a relationship. Like, I'll say that like a relationship, it could be appear. It's on the same journey as you that you're just you're kind of, quote, coaching each other as peers.

Yeah. Hey, Steve, what are you going to do this week? What am I going to do? We're going to meet up next week. And whoever doesn't have their action items done by dinner.

Right. That's just a pure coaching relationship. It costs nothing. Mhmm. Two people on the same journey.

Then it could be coaching in your program or reaching out to a coach or whatever. Like, find the person who's already been there and done that. Mhmm. Because what they can do is compress your time. You know, if I had to go figure all these things out, it it would it would have taken me nine lifetimes to probably do some of the things I've done.

Instead, I can go to really smart people. You know, I've got really good friends that I built relationships with by being in the right rooms. You know, Ken's a friend. Gary's a but, you know, when you when you take a problem to a billionaire, it's crazy the answer. Mhmm.

Because I'm saying it's gotta be this. He's like, okay. Well, now it's not. Yeah. There's an and and and it's the most eloquent simple answer.

It's just it's genius. So I just think people realize more options you have. You could be anywhere in five years. Right? Absolutely.

Like, I got licensed in 2005, almost left the industry in 2008. 2011, I'm the number nine agent in the country. I would have never predicted that. Yeah. But you gotta put yourself in there and do the work.

And so I think stress comes from just stress and burnout. Burnout comes from a different place. Everybody like, the word burnout, I don't actually know what that means. Mhmm. Because I'm burnout.

Burnout is different. Burnout is actually just you're putting in so much work, and the result you're getting doesn't equal the effort you're putting in. That's all burnout is. Right. Because someone someone would come to my team member will go, oh, I'm not just burnout.

I go, can I ask you one question? If your results were 10 times what they are today, are you burnout? Right. Like, if they made $10 this month, if you made a $100 last month, where we had a burnout, they go, I'm not burning at all. Well, Sabrina's not real.

Yeah. It's you're just you're putting in the effort. You're not achieving the results. So that's a strategy or person problem. Yeah.

I think just getting clear on that matters.

Steve: Oh, that makes a lot of sense. One of the things we were talking about before the show is you're working on the biggest deal in your career. Yeah. So, I mean, you've done a lot of really cool things. That's a pretty big

Brett: I and and two yeah. Actually, two simultaneously that are the two biggest deals, one and two. But so I'm looking for weird opportunity. Right? You know, as as we're recording this, it's the 2025, and the world's starting to crack a little right out there.

No one's talking about it. You dig into what's going on and what's gonna drive this next default. We can go to talk about that a minute. I've got my theories. Sure.

So I'm looking at just things are different. I and I see it as a lender, right, where where pain shows up to me. You lend tens of millions of dollars to people. When they don't start paying, you start I'm the first you know, people are thirty days late, and they're sixty days late. It's like, okay.

Well

Steve: You get real time data.

Brett: You get I get real like, I could tell you how many were thirty days late today versus two years ago. Yeah. Totally different numbers. And so this deal is actually a time share. So you think about the time share world.

Right? Like, time shares are kind of a little you're in my generation a little older. We were popular, but, really, our parents. Right? That was that but if you go to someone in their thirties today who inherits a time share, they go, ugh.

Mhmm. Well, I don't want this thing. Like, my dad loved going to Myrtle Beach or whatever, but it's not my thing. Mhmm. So this time share was a fifty year time share.

It's at the end of its fifty year, started in 1975. It's near it's up in Northern Arizona, and it's the end of it. So it goes End

Steve: of it as in, like, everyone that owns a time share, it's everyone's out.

Brett: All whatever. 6,000 of them, you know, the bottle, the little increments of time. All of them said they signed a document. We're gonna sell this thing. So you gotta wind it down.

That's

Steve: I didn't know that was a thing.

Brett: It's I didn't either. So now it's over. And so now what do you do with it? So you've got essentially, you've got a resort. Mhmm.

Right? I've got an indoor pool. I've got indoor pickleball. I got racquetball. I mean, it's 60,000 square feet of buildings and apartments and so all these units have kitchens.

Mhmm. So I looked at it. You know, there's a workforce housing play. I'm a member of a couple country clubs up there. So my club needs some rooms.

The other club needs some rooms. Local housing needs rooms. There all this came out later as a minute. So it's an auction. This is on an auction platform online, Crexi.

Mhmm. So you go on there, and there's this auction. And so I do you have to do all of your due diligence in advance.

Steve: Yeah. K. You guys spend the money. Didn't do the doing the due diligence before you make your offer.

Brett: Before you make a bid, which is kinda hard, like, the time and the money commitment is kinda annoying. It's substantial. It's I spent over a hundred hours personally on this Mhmm. To not get it at the at the auction. Yeah.

So my wife's like, how did you you know, how are you taking that? I was like, I mean, am I frustrated? When was the last time you burned a hundred hours on something that went nowhere? Yeah. Super frustrating.

So it gets bit up to, 6 and a half million dollars. I'm blown away by that because I've ran every economic scenario on Earth, and there's no economics that support the 6 and a half million dollar purchase price. So I reach out, told the agents there's no way this person will close. It's impossible. Yeah.

Thirty days later, stop traffic. He doesn't close. So they come back, and they said, we'd love to take 5 and a half.

Steve: Mhmm. That's

Brett: that's awesome. That doesn't work either. I'm I'm a math guy. Right? So I'm Yeah.

We have performance built. I'm just telling you it doesn't work. The number is four. Mhmm. Thirty days later, they go, you know, mister Tanner, we'd love to take your your four.

Yeah. So as it sits today, in theory, I closed tomorrow. Now there's some few things they have to do on their end to provide clear title. Been shutting down the time shirts, like, infinitely complicated. Yeah.

But it's really on their side. So barring that happens, I will drive up there Friday and get in the lobby of a resort and start I'm in the resort business and, get to see what happens, you know, day one. And just have a learning experience.

Steve: What's the vision of that?

Brett: So we're gonna again, I I actually come into this where I don't know the right answer, so I'm gonna do everything. So we create a marketing plan. There's, like, 57 sites you can place an apartment unit online, workforce housing, furnished finder. Can we get traveling nurses? Can we get corporate exec like, all that stuff?

We'll do some long term, and then we're gonna run you know, we're gonna do some short term, and we're gonna see, you know, what performs the best. Right?

Steve: Are these, like, effectively condos?

Brett: I would yeah. I would say, like, they're you got everything from a studio to a one bedroom to a two bedroom, but they're condos. I mean, you've got everything you need in the condo.

Steve: So these would be, like, short term rentals, mid mid term rentals kinda deal.

Brett: Totally. Or or it might be long term. I don't I don't know. I'm historically, I've been the most anti outspoken Airbnb person ever. And it's not because I'm anti Airbnb.

I'm just pro math. Mhmm. Which I see people like you're the only reason your Airbnb works is because you value your time at nothing. Yeah. If you put your time back in at $35 or $40 an hour, all the time they spend on it, there's no returns.

Mhmm. So if you're creating a job through that, super cool, but it won't scale and grow.

Steve: Minus seven eleven.

Brett: I mean, it's it it doesn't it doesn't work if you're doing it. Yeah. And so yeah. So we'll do that. And then the last part of it became interesting is there's a $650,000,000 hospital going in not far away.

Mhmm. And my assistant GM, who we're retaining, her husband's working on that project, said I could likely get you the government contract to provide the housing. Now this isn't we're not we didn't underwrite this. If that happens, it it's that that's game over. It'll be the greatest investment I've ever had.

Yeah. But I think, like, within a year, I should be able to move this to, like, a 14 to 15% cap rate Mhmm. Off my purchase price, which is, you know, investments don't work like that today. But No. That was digging through.

So the way I got here, I if you went back five years ago, I owned one commercial building. Mhmm. I got to a 120 single family rentals, and it was too noisy. They all didn't and I bought them 2,011 on. So they're mass equity, noisy.

It's annoying. Mhmm. I went in the process, so I spent the last two years selling all of them. I'm down to my last 20 and rolling them all up to triple net commercial. So taking loud noisy things to improving the cash flow, better returns, no noise.

Mhmm. You know, examples being I own a Starbucks in North Of Atlanta. I own AT and T building in Huntsville with a cell tower and a billboard and all that stuff. I'm an escrow. I own the Denny's, down in Casa Grande.

Steve: Oh, you do?

Brett: Yeah. Not the business. Just the real

Steve: Location. Yeah.

Brett: What else we got? We got I'm in escrow on a Starbucks right now in the West Valley, brand new. And then I've got and that's the second biggest deal Mhmm. Which will close at the end of this month. And then I've got that deal up there.

And so it's just taking loud noisy assets to better cash flow, high credit tenant stuff.

Steve: So one of my things on my wife's bucket list is owning a Starbucks location. So, selfishly, what is involved in getting into a Starbucks location?

Brett: So not it's any different than buying a house, right, from the mechanical standpoint. Right? You've got income and a lease. You've got term. You got credit.

The beauty of the beauty of owning triple that commercial is you're betting on the strength of the business. Mhmm. So Starbucks, it's guaranteed. I mean, they gotta go out of business Yeah. For me to lose.

The the usually, the brand new ones on the ten year initial term. Mhmm. Five every five years, your rent goes up 10%. You know, 5% rent bump bumps. The one I'm doing is fully triple netted minus the roof.

But it's a brand new building with a twenty year warranty. So, like, I have to cover the roof, but It's warranted. It's warranted. So it's, like, I'm not really covering it. So there's really nothing to it other than picking your area.

Mhmm. And like all things real estate, location matters more than anything. Yeah.

Steve: You're just going on cracksy, Got a broker.

Brett: So what I did in the beginning, I took all my social media apps and deleted them on my phone. Mhmm. And I moved the Crexi app two years ago to where my Facebook app was. Mhmm. So now when I'm sitting in line or I'm sitting somewhere, your thumb automatically goes to where it was, and I just started underwriting deals.

Mhmm. And so I could tell you I started by, like, I'm just gonna underwrite every Starbucks in the country. So you start learning like, well, why is the cap rate 50 basis points higher in the Northeast or the Southwest? And if you start just building a model around pretty quickly. I was like, okay.

I know what Starbucks trade at. Yeah. Then you start valuing just random things from gas stations to car washes. So I just became obsessed. And so I had a realtor help me my first deal, and now I represent myself anywhere in the country, and I'll just reduce the price by the commission.

Yeah. And it's I'm the biggest proponent of triple that commercial. And I think to your point, they're like, we wouldn't have started there. Right? I don't think you and I would have started our careers buying a $3,000,000 Starbucks.

Steve: No. That's that's like, one day I'm gonna buy commercial. It's kinda when we start. One day.

Brett: One day. But then you gotta what are the assets? I gotta line up to do that. And the best thing ever is just to roll up. What you learn is the really wealthy people take their assets, so they roll them up to better, quieter, more efficient assets, and they keep doing it over.

And there's just levels. Right? So I'm assuming at some point, I'll have five or six Starbucks for all these and I'll roll these up to the next best thing that's quieter, better, easier to manage. Right? It's just what we do.

The entrepreneur finds a better way to create a return.

Steve: So one thing that's unique, like I said earlier, you know, like, I think of all the people that have found the show, as far as relations go, I think I've known you the longest. We haven't connected as much, but I've known you the longest. So we've been through some things, been through some stuff. Right? Like, you did Shore Sales.

I learned Shore Sales from you initially. You did REO, foreclosure properties. Yeah. I did foreclosure properties. There are some things today that feel very similar to o eight.

Brett: Oh, I I think, like, so close. It's scary. Right.

Steve: Which is, like, two years ago, like, they'll it'll never happen. It's impossible. The way things are going, the number of houses, this and that, it'll never happen. But you're feeling like it's even more close, so I'd love to get your perspective on this.

Brett: So I just have my mastermind for my audience for d wealthy. We have this mastermind, meet three times a year. And so I went over usually, there'll be a section where I open with economic data. Mhmm. So three years ago or two years ago, I was like, guys, there's nothing to talk about.

The world's on fire. Keep going. You know, push harder. Go. Today, I was like, the distress is there.

And I'll I'll tell you what it is. It's not gonna be real estate led this time. Right? So 02/2010, and you and I met, what drove that crash? People giving mortgages to people with no jobs, no income, no ability to repay.

Right? The ninja loans. No income, no job. You got it. Yeah.

Today, it's Hang on. So let's just

Steve: say that again because I think it's a joke that we know, but ninja loans.

Brett: Yeah. No income, no job, you get a loan.

Steve: And no income, no job or assets, sign them off.

Brett: Boom. Let's get let's get this guy let's get him a house.

Steve: It's the big short where the strippers give you advice.

Brett: It's literally that you and I live that movie.

Steve: I mean,

Brett: it I saw people my father-in-law said something in 02/2010 that like, right in the middle of the crisis. And he said, Brett, whenever I know people that have been losers their entire life, and now they're buying millions of dollars with real estate. He goes, get out. He goes, when the people that are so dumb are winning, be careful. And it was looking back at that, I was like, that was really timely because it and then it started melting down.

Mhmm. So today, it's not gonna be real estate. Like, the mortgages we're doing today Mhmm. Are incredible. Right?

Getting a loan's hard.

Steve: Yeah. So

Brett: the loans are you look what is it? Credit cards and auto loans. Mhmm. So Federal Bank of New York puts out this study. They did it as a result of 2008.

Mhmm. And it was designed to be a warning signal to tell people pain's coming. Mhmm. Now it's a quarter delayed, so you just now got the q two report Mhmm. Which by the time you get it, it's already outdated.

But it kinda tells you the trend. Mhmm. Credit card defaults, if we go back to 02/2010, the peak, they're like 13.58%. Today, we're just we're just under 13. Credit card defaults.

Yeah. You can see it by age group. Never has it been easier in the history of Earth to get a credit card than today. Mhmm. So you've got all these consumers.

You've got social media's got a much larger impact on FOMO and feelings. Mhmm. So what are people doing? They're overextending themselves. They're on payment.

So that that's the first thing. Second thing's auto loans. You know, if you say what how much did a Chevy Silverado cost ten years ago? $30,000. I don't know.

What's it cost today? 80,000. What were the interest rates then? What do you think? More or less?

Steve: 100? More today.

Brett: Okay. 100. Whatever it is. So 30 to a 100, if it makes it better. Interest rates are fourish then six or seven now.

But the car has tripled. Interest rates have doubled, and the requirements to get the car have gone down 40. Like, if you've got a 500 FICO and no job, upload you up with a $1,700 car payment. Let's do it. That doesn't make any sense.

Yeah. So automotive defaults are like and the last one, which is the kicker. So those are the two that are gonna lead this crash. The kicker is student loans. If you look what's happening, so they just started having to repay about sixty days ago.

Yeah. The default rates, it's a line that literally on a spreadsheet goes like this. Well, because

Steve: you don't have to pay.

Brett: But now but those are the one that you do have to pay. Like, it chases you down.

Steve: Like, I'm saying, like, it was it looks like this because you couldn't default because it wasn't required. Right. That's required. You didn't that wasn't in your budget. You already maxed out prior to the student loans.

And then they required again.

Brett: So if you think about so then the default cycle goes like this. People get behind. Mhmm. K? There's pain.

First thing is you got pain, you're behind. Then you quit you spend less money at the store. Right? Because you're like, hey. I'm missing payments.

Yeah. I've over leveraged. K. So missed payments. I start spending less money.

So Christmas will be interesting this year to see is it better than last year or less. It might still be better because the pain's not there yet. But in time, consumers, the more pain they have, they spend less money. They spend less money at the store. Stores have to lay off employees.

Boys get laid off. They have to sell their house. They can't afford them more. Like, that's the cycle. Mhmm.

So I think it will be, credit card auto debt. The last data point I would share, you go to the you can go to the St. Louis Fed Mhmm. And you there's an overlay of consumer debt as a total, Consumer savings as a percentage.

Steve: And that chart looks awful.

Brett: And that line, like, it can't get much further apart because, like, the savings is so low. It's, like, zero. So it's, like, pegged. But the debt's, like and so you're going the machine does break at some point. Yeah.

And and you can feel it. Right? What what's being pumped out on the news and everything doesn't, reconcile with when I talk to people on the street who are in pain. And so, that's what's gonna cause it at this time, I believe.

Steve: So what does that do to to real estate? Because, obviously, it's a stress and it's gonna cause motivation. People need to sell. But, I mean, we saw, like, 50% corrections in Phoenix.

Brett: Yeah. Right? 50% or more.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Or more. The rest of the country wasn't as bad. Phoenix, California, Florida decimated.

But, you know, Midwest and whatever, they're less bad. Yeah. Do you think we're gonna have something like an o eight zero nine, or do you think it's gonna be more like it's gonna be bad, but it's nowhere as catastrophic?

Brett: I think the potential is there for it to be as bad. Mhmm. I think the potential's there. I I mean, I think that consumers have taken on if you were to compare the debt to the last time, like, the consumer debt, like, what did people have the average person as a percentage of their income in car debt? Relative today, it's the radic it's the debt's way more.

Yeah. I think that there's lots of ways they can pull the pull the levers to make things soften. Mhmm. One way being if rates come down dramatically, real estate will get on fire again. Mhmm.

And if you look at how actually that debt has gotten swallowed up historically, home prices, you know, homes appreciate radically. And then what do people do? They take all their bad decisions, and they refinance that back into their home. Yeah. And that's what saves people from the nineteen, twenty nine percent default rates.

They tuck it in a mortgage at 6%.

Steve: Yeah. That's what, I was talking to someone. So Matthew Potter, you know, we talk every single week. And one of the things he was saying that there are so many loans going right now, you you know, in in in the mortgage. It's like the way the mortgage people are doing okay now is doing the refinance.

They're refinancing out of 3% interest rates and into six plus.

Brett: With all the debt.

Steve: With all the debt, but they're moving away from their bad credit card choices. Right? Which is kinda good because we're reducing their monthly. But if they don't have the discipline to keep their credit cards low, they kind of went back in the same spot again. Exactly.

Yeah. So, yeah, we'll we'll see what happens, how this all plays out.

Brett: It would not shock me if you and I come back and did a podcast three years from today, and you when you said values went down 20 or 30%, 20%. Mhmm. I would go, no. That that would not surprise me.

Steve: Yeah. They would not Well, I think we've already seen it, right now. Like, the the houses that are selling today, you need to sell if you're selling today. Right? You're not really like, you know, I'm thinking about I'm thinking about upgrading right now.

I'm thinking about downsizing right now. Right? Like, sounds gonna load too. I'm gonna downsize. Like, no.

Like, you're selling today. Like, there's a very strong reason why you're selling.

Brett: Totally. Well, if you look at then I mean, trend and then you if you look at okay. Well, then what are the wealthy doing right now? It's interesting. I have a sample data of, like, the largest probably sample data of high net worth individuals in the country.

It's it's out there publicly. The average interest rate, like, the majority of the folks, high net worth individuals, minimum $2,000,000 in investable capital. K. It could be worth 250,000,000 or whatever, 15,000,000. Three to 4%, I believe, was 65% of them.

Mhmm. So and so and I saw people had, like, 2.5% or probably fifteen year mortgages, whatever. They refinance the bottom, but a lot of wealthy people have super cheap debt. Mhmm. They're not gonna get rid of that.

Steve: No. They're like They're not.

Brett: Are you crazy? Like, why would you ever I mean, mortgage on my house is low threes. You know, like, there was no like, I see people moving into my neighborhood, and I'm fascinated. Yeah. Like, man, this guy's gonna buy this guy's gonna have a $22,000 a month mortgage.

Good for him. That's awesome. Yeah. I can afford that. I have no desire to.

Steve: Right.

Brett: Just not a game I wanna play.

Steve: Yeah. So okay. Potentially, 20% correction. I think

Brett: you could see you could see a correction. I think it's gonna happen.

Steve: Yeah. And then one thing I saw also, I was looking at your bio beforehand, and it says strategic alchemist. What does that mean?

Brett: You know, it's just I I think where I shine the most is helping people figure out and, like, the analogy I use is most people have a financial junk drawer. Not that this stuff is junk. Right? If I went home and we looked pulled out your junk drawer, it's not crap. Mhmm.

Right? There's a tape measure and there's scissors and a flashlight and the thing that lights your file. Like, there's all that stuff in there. I think people's financial worlds are the same. Here's what I mean by that.

Someone told you to get a life insurance policy. Oh, I gotta get that. Put in the drawer. Mhmm. I gotta get an umbrella policy.

Okay. Put it in there. Mhmm. And I gotta get a disability policy. I gotta get whatever these thing these tools.

Mhmm. And so, financially, our lives become these junk drawers. But when was the last time someone actually went through the junk drawer and organized it and said, hey, Steve. You've got these insurance policies. You're paying three times for the same coverage.

Mhmm. You actually don't need that. Right? So, you know, when I think about the things we do in our communities, we help people figure that stuff out. Yeah.

Right? What are the tools that you need for the level that you're at? You know, like, one of the just a weird example. I I believe that everyone should have a self directed retirement account, specifically a Roth account. Yeah.

Figure out how to get there, and then people say, I don't I make too much money. I can't do it. Well, there's a backdoor option. There's tons of ways to do it. Yeah.

But having the self directed retirement, especially if you're a real estate investor agent to invest the money, why would you not wanna put it into real estate or deals that you know better than anybody? Mhmm. Like, when I coach an agent, I'm like, what do you invest your money in? They're like, the stock market. I'm like, okay.

Well, what do you know about the stock market? How much time are you spending on that? Zero. None. Cool.

What do you know about the house at 123 Main Street right over there? Who do you think knows more than you about that call you just got? You actually know more than anyone in the world about that deal right now. Seller just told you what they'd sell it for. You know what they'll sell for on the open market.

You know the repairs required. So it's just math. You actually are the only person who's the exact profit that can be made on that deal right now. Yeah. And yet, you're not putting you're gonna bring that deal to a like, the average realtor takes that deal and brings it to a client to do, and then they make a 3% commission.

And I'm like, I don't understand what you're even doing at

Steve: all. Right.

Brett: Like, you should be a principal. Usually, go do that. You can legally use your self directed retirement to go flip that home Mhmm. And make great money, and they would all be tax free. Mhmm.

Right? That's just an example of, like, I just think people aren't they're not lining up their tools and investing in the thing they know better than anyone, which is typically what they're doing for a living. But I would whether like, even if there's a dentist watching, right, there's a way a dentist could take his capital, like like those dental machines. When you go and I just had a tooth done, those machines are, like, $800,000 that can make, like, the crown, like, on-site or or even more. Well, they're largely leased.

So what if you didn't lease the machine? You know? So you might you couldn't use your self direct retirement for yours, but your buddy that's a dentist, you could use it for his machine. Mhmm. So, like, why wouldn't you invest in a thing that you know better than anyone and put your money in just a vehicle where you've you've got an unfair advantage to play legally?

And I still think people are thinking through their money that way. Most people are crazy successful. And you and I were talking before we started today, which was the gap between making a lot of money and managing a lot of money. Those skills are they have nothing to do with each other. Right.

Right? Like, the skill to make a lot of money is leadership, strategy, economics, plan, all those things matter. Mhmm. And money is so simple, but it's it's just a different skill, different language. And you gotta go to the process of learning the tools for where you're at and what do you want and which risk do you wanna take and which debt should be in your profile and

Steve: Right.

Brett: Bunch of questions that, you know, you gotta go unlock. And so helping people figure that out, I think, is the stuff that gets them where they wanna go.

Steve: Well, I think that's goes back to, the the ability to zoom out. I think that, you know, you were saying that, the step one of, you think you have one solution, which is great. One option, which is great, but let's look at all the other options. The we do this all the time when we're trying to solve problems, but you're saying even, like, for someone who's making money is, like, zoom out to see, like, what are the where do you wanna be, and then how do you get there, and what are your different options? But step one is just zooming out.

Yeah. It's just taking the time to actually slow down and think. One one of my favorite books, to read it more often, is The Road Less Stupid.

Brett: Oh, so good. Keith Right.

Steve: Keith Cunningham.

Brett: Which is which was rich Robert Kiyosaki's rich dad.

Steve: Oh, was he? You

Brett: knew that. Right?

Steve: I didn't know that.

Brett: Keith Cunningham is was Robert in the book. The rich dad Mhmm. Is Keith. Yeah. So it's not like it's not shocking that the greatest book.

I mean, that book's incredible.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So just taking the time to actually sit down, analyze, review, and with the financial junk drawer, just sit down and review your junk drawer. And how is this junk drawer right now serving where you wanna go? Well, first, slow down, figure out where you wanna go, and those analyze the junk drawer.

Brett: No. A 100 I mean, it starts there. Right? Then you can formulate a plan, a system, a process based on the tool. A minute ago, you talked about taxes.

Right? You were you're saying you're a CPA. I don't think people realize that's pro like, one of the areas we start because it's quick wins. Right? I mean, when you have a new client or someone new to our our coaching programs, taxes are where we start.

Yeah. Because every dollar we can help someone get back, right, it's a real savings. Mhmm. And it can go right back into your business to create more wealth. But people don't like, there's there's so much opportunity.

And I would tell you this, you know, for those that are watching and you go like, Brett, taxes are hard. I don't get it. Fifteen years ago, I didn't know anything about tech. I can tell you no zero. Now because of the things I do for a living, I've read every book that exists on taxes.

Like, I'm a nerd. Right? I've read every single one. And you you realize, man, there's just a framework out there. Mhmm.

You know? But from, you know, the one big beautiful bill just got passed. Right? So do people know the changes that actually impact them? You You know, bonus depreciation went back to a 100%.

Do you understand how cost segregation work? I still see here people that they're not doing cost segregations on single family rentals. And so people that aren't aware, instead of taking a single family rental and depreciating it over twenty seven and a half years equally Mhmm. You can basically take all that a lot of that and do it in the first year, and it saves you money on your earned incomes. You pay less tax today.

Mhmm. Now you're gonna pay the depreciation. You're not gonna get as much in the future, but when would you rather have a dollar today or thirty years from now? Yeah. Well, today.

But people don't realize those things or or the qualified business income deductions, 20% of your net income, but you have to meet certain payroll thresholds. And not to get nerdy in the weeds, but, like, I would give you, like, four examples of there's a whole language out there that's gotta be learned. So get with the tax professional Yeah. And ask them, like, hey. How can I save that?

What else can I be doing? Should I set up a should I set up a defined benefit plan for my company, or how should I think about these different things? Because you can really control your tax bill in large part Yeah. By the decisions you make, but you gotta go revisit the junk drawer and have conversations, get great professionals Mhmm. Which really leads you to, like, who's your wealth team?

Like, who's with you on this journey? And you need really specific people in your world if you wanna have a really big life.

Steve: Yeah. Well, you talk about the the language of wealth. I mean, I I think this is the first time we were asked actually used the words in combine, who's your wealth team? But that's a fantastic question. Yeah.

Right? Because if you don't have a wealth team It's hard

Brett: to not be wealthy. I mean, I I I don't know that I I can't think of a single person who has massive wealth that doesn't have an incredible team.

Steve: Yeah. But, like, if you look at the correlation. Right? If they have a wealth team, the likelihood of them being wealthy not having a wealth team, the likelihood pretty stark. Right?

It's like one of the one of the things I remember reading was, like, the difference between, like, millionaires and value. Like, one of the strongest correlations is do they have a library?

Brett: Right? That's Jim Rohn, I believe. Yeah. Could be.

Steve: Yeah. But yeah. But I would say another one, maybe a stronger correlation is, like, you have a wealth team.

Brett: It's a good one. But let's talk about who's on it. Right? Let's here's a so for on your wealth team, number one, your CPA. So could be your CPA, could be your tax strategist.

They may or may not be the same person. Right. So really wealthy people have a tax strategist, and that can be called, a tax attorney, might be the way they name it. But it's someone who they're not just dropping the numbers in the boxes. They're designing strategy around Right.

Where you're trying to land. Your insurance broker. Mhmm. And when you're wealthy, you have tons of insurance, Paul. I mean, from all things, from life to medical, to property, casualty, to general liability, to umbrellas, to I mean, insurance broker.

You're a banker. People underestimate the power of banking. I didn't understand how banking worked. Mhmm. Today, I'm operating in the private banking world.

Mhmm. And I didn't know what private bank private banking, basically, it's all portfolio with the bank. Mhmm. They get to know you and like you, and they're making credit decisions like one person just deciding. Mhmm.

I do loans like this big deal. I did the loan via text with my banker. Hey, dude. I'm buying this. Cool.

Here's what I could do. Got it. We're done. Mhmm. Now a few documents go over, but it's minimal.

It's nothing like a residential mortgage. Right? But, like, with the I also your banker, though, people think, okay. They're just doing my financing. I actually bring them due diligence on other deals.

I'm like, how would you guys think about this deal? Because banks are the smartest businesses out there. Oh, yeah. So I leverage their expertise. Like, hey.

How would you guys underwrite this deal? Fantastic question. Right? Like, you're really they they're the biggest private bank in the country. I can learn a lot from them.

How about your estate attorney? Someone that's gonna leave your legacy. You need a trust. If you're gonna be wealthy, you're gonna have a trust. Now there's all levels of that conversation, but, you know, you gotta avoid state taxes.

And does your legacy pass the way you want to others? And who are your trustees? And who are your successor trustees? So this whole wealth team, I think those are the five people I'd start with. And as you grow, your team may not grow with you.

Right? So I've had to you know, some of my is is things have happened in my life where we've raised to a different, you know, economic status. Some people aren't there for the whole journey. Right? Like Yeah.

That CPA that's great when you make a $150,000 a year may not be as great when you're making 5,000,000. You might need different advice. But I think to your point, people don't have the conversation on who's even in my wealth team

Steve: Right.

Brett: And get clear on who it is.

Steve: Yeah. That's huge, huge. I think, the conversation I'm thinking about, you know, as we're having this conversation, like, I'm having this conversation with my wife. Right? Like, hey.

Who's on our wealth team? But the other thing too is we're gonna start looking at Crexi. Yeah. And and underwriting Starbucks all day every day.

Brett: Go to the auctions on Crexi. Click auctions. Yeah. And look at the it's fascinating. I mean, go to the buy and go look at you can just pop Starbucks in there.

I mean, it just start looking at tenant credit. Look for the best tenant credit you can get. Yeah. And it's fascinating. It's it's like my favorite my favorite thing to do is mess around in crack.

So if I got twenty minutes, I'm just I'm on there hunting down deals.

Steve: That's that's phenomenal. So, we've talked a lot. If someone wanted to reach out and connect with you or your company, what is the best way for them to do that?

Brett: Yeah. Either check out our podcast, Be Wealthy, or bewealthy.com. And our our mission is very simple. It's and we share the same one, which is we just wanna help people get what they want out of life. So, typically, our our audience is either business owners, but largely real estate investors, real estate agents, that maybe wanna find a better way or think difficult about their money specifically.

Yeah. So check that out. But my goal here today was just talk to you. You were the first one to ask, and I wanted to add as much value as I as I could your audience. Well, I

Steve: think you had a tremendous amount of value. So I really appreciate you coming out. Jumping on. Thank you so much.

Brett: Thanks, dude. Thank you

Steve: guys for watching. See you

Brett: guys next. Out to Steve train. Jump on the Steve train. Disrupt us.

From Broke Farm Kid To Coaching Millionaires

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From Massive Debt To A Billion-Dollar Company

From Broke Farm Kid To Coaching Millionaires

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