Escaping the Drift with John Gafford - Brady McDonald's Journey: From Real Estate Challenges to Ultra-Marathon Resilience

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

Brady McDonald, a figure of remarkable resilience, joins us to share the compelling narrative of his transformation from small-town Ontario native to an ultra-marathon runner and real estate investor. Brady's story is a powerful testament to the strength of the human spirit, underscoring the idea that mental toughness can be cultivated through perseverance and grit. From navigating personal challenges, like his parents' divorce and early career setbacks, to making strategic pivots in the real estate market, Brady offers a wealth of insights into the relentless pursuit of success.   Our conversation takes us through Brady's strategic maneuvers in the real estate industry, both in Canada and the U.S., where he faced financial adversity and natural disasters. Each setback became a stepping stone, thanks to guidance from mentors and a focus on shedding underperforming assets. Brady shares valuable lessons on adaptability, emphasizing the importance of consistent effort and networking in overcoming obstacles and achieving financial stability.   In a fascinating shift from business to personal growth, Brady discusses how ultra-distance running became his path to mental clarity and resilience. Inspired by the likes of Jesse Itzler, he embraced discipline and endurance, quitting alcohol and setting ambitious goals that spurred profound personal transformation. Brady's candid tales of pushing through physical pain and mental barriers provide inspiration for anyone looking to harness the power of resilience to conquer life's challenges. Whether you're an aspiring runner or seeking motivation to push past your limits, Brady's journey offers a roadmap to mastering mental toughness   CHAPTERS    (00:00) - Mental Toughness and Achievement Journeys (02:26) - The Path to Career Success (12:16) - Real Estate Investing Strategies and Challenges (15:48) - Navigating Real Estate Development Challenges (25:12) - Transformation Through Running Ultra Distances (37:24) - Challenges of Ultra-Distance Running (42:38) - Journey to Mental Toughness and Success   💬 Did you enjoy this podcast episode? Tell us all about it in the comment section below!    ☑️  If you liked this video, consider subscribing to Escaping The Drift with John Gafford  ************* 💯 About John Gafford: After appearing on NBC's "The Apprentice", John relocated to the Las Vegas Valley and founded several successful companies in the real estate space.   ➡️ The Gafford Group at Simply Vegas, top 1% of all REALTORS nationwide in terms of production. Simply Vegas, a 500 agent brokerage with billions in annual sales Clear Title, a 7-figure full-service title and escrow company.   ➡️ Streamline Home Loans - An independent mortgage bank with more than 100 loan officers. The Simply Group, A national expansion vehicle partnering with large brokers across the country to vertically integrate their real estate brokerages.   *************   ✅ Follow John Gafford on social media:   Instagram ▶️ / thejohngafford   Facebook ▶️ / gafford2   🎧 Stream The Escaping The Drift Podcast with John Gafford Episode here: Listen On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cWN80gtZ4m4wl3DqQoJmK?si=2d60fd72329d44a9 Listen On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/escaping-the-drift-with-john-gafford/id1582927283    *************   #escapingthedrift #bradymcdonald #mentaltoughness #resilience #ultramarathonrunner #realestateinvestor #personalchallenges #strategicpivots #financialadversity #networking #adaptability #consistenteffort #ultradistancerunning #mentalclarity #discipline #endurance #alcohol #personaltransformation #physicalpain #mentalbarriers #running #selfimprovement #fitness

and you're a younger kid, right? And you want to impress somebody that's much older than you? Just be tenacious in the pursuit of whatever you're trying to get with them. Yeah, just put in the fucking work. That's how they, that's what most people won't do it. Well, that's how you show your serious showing up every day. Yeah, just it's just, it's just proving them.

And now escaping the drift, the show designed to get you from where you are to where you want to be I'm john gafford and iven knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you want to pad the greatness So stop drifting along escape the drift and it's time to start right now Welcome back to the program everybody like it says in the opening man the show that gets you from where you are to where you Want to be and today in studio? Man, you think doing things is hard. If you think, you think if you're a person that can't quite finish things, you can't push through, you find you have some mental weakness.

Now this dude, and I always like to say, when people come through, I'm like, there's a friend of mine. This dude legitimately is a friend of mine. Like I've known this guy for a couple of years now and I just never marvel at the things that he done, the feats that he finishes. He is not only a massive dude in the self storage industry and we'll talk about some of that,

but this is a guy that just says, you know what I wanna do today? I think I'm gonna run a hundred miles at once at the same time in the same direction. Oh, I'm a dude that wants to run a ultra marathon, just because I want to do it. I mean, the stuff that he does to himself, and just has this mental strength to him. We got to learn some today. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to studio. This is Brady McDonald. Brady,

what's up, dude? I'm so glad you're I. I'm so glad you're here. Much like so many of my friends, I see a random Instagram post. They're like, I'm late over on my way to Vegas. I'm like Vegas, come to the office. See you in what? When can you be as it works out as it does that but dude, your level of mental toughness is unbelievable to me. This is the stuff you're able to push yourself through and the transformation you made in your body

and your mindset and all of that stuff is amazing. So let's back up because I wanna get through all of this because this is one of those definitely is the hero made or is the hero born? You know what I'm saying? Cause you got some mental toughness this next level. So tell me, let's tell them, well, I'm gonna interview you like I'm saying because you got some you got some mental toughness this next level so tell me let's tell them I'm gonna interview you like I know nothing about you okay sometimes it's harder than it is yeah because you know nothing worse than a podcast with enough full of inside jokes but tell me about

the upcoming where'd you grow up talking about that yeah I grew up in Owen Sound Ontario Canada so small-town Canada 20,000 people. You know, the family was divorced at 11 years old. Lost my license for drinking and driving at 16. I was pretty good at drinking started it when I was 14. Actually, I was pretty bad at it, I guess. Yeah, drinking. Lost my license at 16. My kid, my parents said, kid, you got to grow up. So you're going to college. So pick what you want to do. And at that point, I

thought the most well, the most successful people we knew in our like world were these guys Uncles that were forest firefighters. So they said, okay. Well, why don't you go to school for forestry? That's what I did at 17 years old and but I met a guy who was one of my buddy's friends Where did you go to school for forestry like in some shithole town in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada? Okay, I was gonna say cuz yeah, I'm from a shithole town in North Florida where they have a forestry school. Yeah, like so exactly. So you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, okay. I was like, wait a second. So, you know, there's like five girls there.

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So that was, I was there for a year, figured it out. Hey, there was this, you know, dream job working for this big corporate company that was a big power company across all of Ontario. And I realized the guy had a brand new truck all the time, full case of beer. I'm like, Hey, I'm going to go get that job. And that's what I did. So that kind of, you know, that was the first testament that if you just do something and be relentless, I just faxed my resume to them every single week for until they wanted to,

until they, well, they had, until they had to, cause they're like, this guy is not going to quit, but that started a good career. I had to hunt me, you know, make it $120,000. Let's talk about that for a minute. Right. Cause okay. Cause that's already telling me that you're just determined and can do what you

want. I was when I was a 17, 18. I know, but I was okay. But back again, what do you think about the way you grew up, made you that way? Yeah. You know what? I think it was a necessity. Like I had to paint, I had to cut grass and shovel snow at five a.m. before school.

It sounds like an old dad's story, but like legitimately to pay for my hockey gear. Yeah. Right, because my parents were like, money doesn't grow in trees, there was no extra money. And then when the parents got divorced, there was really no extra money because nobody's paying for shit.

Yeah. Right, so it was a necessity. And if you want it, you got to go get it. See, I found it very, when my parents got divorced at an early age, I figured the hustle out or if I needed something, I would go ask both of them for it and get the money. Yeah. I didn't know what the money to buy it from one of them. And then the money from my pocket for the other one. And he, both of them thought they bought it because they weren't talking to each

other. Yeah. Yeah. Well, neither of them had a pot to piss. So that was probably part of the problem there. But yeah. So I mean, it was a good thing. I mean, I think there's, I mean, that's where I got the hustle. So at 11. So, okay. So you're hustling and doing that, which is great. You go off to forestry school at 17 and you're doing that and you go to the facts, the resume thing over and over and over, you know, so let's go back to that moment. The first time you fax it to him, just nobody calls? Yeah, nobody calls. I mean, for months, bro.

And you just kept faxing to him every week. I just kept faxing to him. And then eventually I was spraying pesticides in the summer. So in between first year and second year, I was spraying pesticides about four hours away from my hometown, driving four hours every single night back to play Junior B lacrosse practices and Junior B tournaments and stuff. And eventually I just met a guy who worked for a power company and he took me in because I was staying at the college dorm, cooking, barbecuing out of the back of the pesticide truck. Maybe that's what's wrong with you. That's what's wrong with you.

Yeah, that's gonna do it. But I met this guy and he, you know, I was at that point I was 17 or 18, just turned 18. And I told him, you know, my goal to work for this power company, cause he worked for a power company. He's like, well, why don't you come and meet my family and have dinner with us.

And so he literally invited me that night, had dinner at his house and he has two kids and he took my resume, faxed, sent it to everybody he knew and they all made the connection and within two weeks I got the job. Oh, it's awesome. After that, yeah.

You know, it's funny, one of the best agents that I ever hired here at the company was somebody, this person came to the office and said, I wanna work for you, brand new agent. I said, I hire brand new agents. It's not what I do. You gotta be experienced, come here. Okay, thank you very much. Came back the next day. Hey, I said, I wanna work for you. I'm, I hire brand new agents. That's not what I do. You gotta be experienced. Come here. Okay, thank you very much.

Came back the next day. Hey, I said I wanna work for you. I'm gonna come here every day till you hire me. And literally after like three days, I was like, dude, if this chick is, if she's gonna come here like this every day, she's gonna be successful. And to this day now, probably 10 years later, since that day, she crushes, man.

She's still here. She does great. Yeah, it's just consistency. And I mean, it took me a long time to actually pull this lesson out. But I think too though, man, is because I think our generation, right? That you look at kids, you're like,

oh, you're entitled to this and that, blah, blah, blah. So if you wanna prove something, if you're listening to this and you're a younger kid, right? And you wanna impress somebody that's much older than you, just be tenacious in the pursuit of whatever you're trying to get with them. Yeah, just put in the fucking work. That's how they, that's how you show your seriousness. Just do what most people won't do it. Well, that's how older than you, just be tenacious in the pursuit of whatever you're trying to get with them. Yeah, just put in the fucking work. That's how they, that's how you show your serious.

Just do what most people won't do it. Well, that's how you show your serious. 100%. Showing up every day. Yeah, just prove, it's just, it's just proving them. Well, like Ari Rastegard was on the podcast once, it said that his, one of his best mentors in his life, the only thing he asked him was,

can I walk you to and from work every day? Just talk to you. Yeah. Like I was like, you want to show up? He goes, I never asked him if he was going to be here the next day, I never knew there were long periods of time where he wouldn't show up because he was gone or on vacation or traveling and whatever, blah, blah,

but when he would come back, I'm standing in his stoop waiting on him to walk him around every day. And how many people are willing to do that anymore? They're just not willing to do that. It's wild. So you're working for the power No. It's wild. Yeah. So you're working for the power company. Yeah.

That's going. So yeah, so that was a four year apprenticeship, climbing trees, roping trees down around the hydro lines. And so got through the four year apprenticeship. And then I had an opportunity to start climbing and teaching the men and women that were moving through the apprenticeship, how to do that. And I saw an opportunity in there

because they were teaching people on forestry practices like SOPs and shit like that that we would have in our business, but they were quizzing them on it. So I just I volunteered to do that. So just going above and beyond and said, Hey, I'll create all this content in this course, you know, content to actually test everybody to make sure that they're actually retaining it. And so they gave me that job that led into being a full time instructor at 23. So then I was one of the six instructors that trained 1500 staff around the

province and then ended up opening a training center in my hometown. So that's, that's what I ended up doing for 12 years is running this training center and just teaching men and women around that. And that was not safe work too. That's, that's a little bit. Yeah. You're basically teaching them how not to kill themselves. Right. And before that, like I did fall, I almost fell out of a tree. And, and so it's, it's dangerous work in it. And, but it was, you know, it took, it probably is 10 years into that career. I just felt like I had, I did have a lot of freedom because I did all my boss's

job, right? Like, again, that's just, you know, you want freedom, you all your boss job. He doesn't show up. And so I mean, he was two hours in a different town. I did all his job, all of my job. I ran the trainer center, training center. He never showed up. And, you know, I was making good money, like I get 120 grand a year

and I'd be banking over time and not having to put it in, which is good. But eventually I just realized, holy shit, like I've got limited freedom, really. I've got limited income potential. I've limited personal development potential. You still have to put in for vacation. You still corporate. Yeah, you gotta put in for vacation. Yeah, and I'm like, what am I doing?

And actually I'll go to, I'll tell you this story. This is actually the thing that got me out of it. All right. So we've got this apprentice that kind of sucks, right? So they gotta come to trade school and we got to push them, put them through these 15 steps. They got to go up these trees and teach, you know, and do this move and do that move and cut limbs off safely.

And we got to see them do it. Otherwise they don't move on to the next year. Well, this one kid was struggling and he was clearly scared. Right. He wasn't a kid. He was older than me at the time. He was probably like 35. And anyway, so he's I'm like, dude, you just got to do you got to do this.

And he's like, you know, you could tell he's nervous. I'm like, he's like, dude, he's like, dude, I got to come down and take a shit. I'm like, just just do this move and then you can come down. Yeah. Right. And he's like, no, I'm coming down to take shit now. So he comes down and I'm like, all right. Like, and there's a whole bunch of people around, like there's apprentices everywhere. And in trainers, I'm like, all right, dude. He's like, no, I'm going to town and take a shit.

I'm like, dude, just take a shit in the bush. Like my wife would. And I say that to him. Anyway, that went like, then he, he wrote a complaint to the union. And then I was investigated for the next three months. And, you know, like at that point is all I knew, right? Cause I started there at 18. So that, but that was the icing on the cake cake.

I'm glad it happened. Cause it wasn't even true. Like, I mean, I said that, but that was the icing on the cake. I'm glad it happened because it wasn't even true. Like, I mean, I said that, but what his allegations were, weren't true. He later apologized for it, but that was getting hazed and it just, yeah. Well, the union just comes after you and tries to fire you. Right. That's just what they do. Oh my God.

Yeah. So, um, that we started to look at what was next. You know, we're just, we are, we're pregnant with our baby girl. And so we, we eventually met a guy who's a full time real estate investor. And it was kind of like that guy with the truck with the full case of beer and brand new truck. I'm like, realized, hey, if he could have this great job and I can too. Well, I met the real estate investor and it was the same thing. The curse of the entrepreneur. That's, that's my current like, dude,

dude, I met this guy and he does this thing and he's got all this money and he's not that smart. I swear I can totally do this. I can do it. The curse of the entrepreneur right there. I can do it too. I know I can do this. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So that's exactly what it was. I mean, like I read the red or like, I talked to him and I learned what he was doing. He was buying like, you know, in Canada, this is a lot, not nothing like it is in the U S but he bought like 16 properties that year and it was just June.

I'm like doing the math. I'm like, bro, this guy's making a million bucks a year. I'm like, if I can do it, if he can do it, I can do it. And so we read a book. What book? It's a real estate investing in Canada by Dawn Campbell. Okay. So it's just, you know, it just, it's like the 30,000 foot view of, you know,

is it different in Canada? That's not really, but it's just like, that he just niche down to sell the more books years later. Okay. There we go. Yeah. So like niche and down your filing systems are

still paper. We're here. They had the internet, you know, you know, you know, the difference. He references everything in the metric system. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The referencing igloos for houses is not, not actual houses.

Fair. There's a French translation. That's the book of Canada. So you read the book. So I read the book and I figured it out. And so we bought a house, did the birth strategy on it. We refinanced two of our properties. What year was this? 2015. Okay. 2015. And then, so that worked. We proved the strategy and then immediately hired, like started a construction company, property management company.

We ended up doing seven properties that year with all of our own money and then started doing joint venture partnerships, which, and we burned everything. We were converting all single family homes to duplexes and triplexes and then did a lot of accessory dwelling units in a few years later and then a lot of new construction doing. Yeah.

So, um, yeah, we ended up doing a few hundred properties up there. And, um, yeah, it was, it was good. It's just really slow compared to here. So like, you know, from a perspective you can get most, you can get as 10 mortgages there with a really high income. It's just a rule. It's just how it is. It's just the way it is. Yeah. You know, you come down here and it's guys unlimited. Yeah. So how are you getting multiple mortgages? What are you doing? So I was, I was tapped out at 10, my wife had 10. And then what we had to do was go and go get joint venture partners.

They would put up all the money and qualify for the mortgage. And you would have to give 50% of the equity. So we did that. I mean, you know, it's still worked, thankfully, but just not to the scale of what if here and we did very well. I mean, um, you know, but, you know, when we came here and it was 2022, we came down here and we weren't really looking at things or the numbers up there. He's generalizing down here with the United States. Yeah. United States. Florida is where you Florida.

So we came down the U S and then yeah, that's where interest rates in Canada. I wasn't really paying attention to everything. And I, you know, we were variable mortgages on over a hundred properties and they went from sub like 1% to seven and a half percent in six months. Yeah. Did anything you have cashflow at that point? No, bro. We were bleeding. Yeah. Did anything you have cashflow at that point? No, bro. We were bleeding. Okay, so on top of that, Hurricane Ian smoked us, but we had big developments finishing.

They were yanking mortgages out from under us, dropping the values. We were trying to pull out three, we're losing 300 to 800 a month for like a lot of months, bro. It was terrifying. What year was this? This was in 2023. Oh, so this just happened?

Just fucking, yeah. Oh my God. This was like right before I went to Kent. Oh wow. Yeah, like and thankfully I had Kent around me and he, cause he, you know, you just get stuck in it. You're like, you can't see the forest for the trees. What did Kent tell you?

He's just like, well, thankfully I, like I had these big problems, but I had a big portfolio. Did he call you names? You just said, don't be a little bitch. What he said, it was just simple. I'm like, why didn't I think of this? He just likes to just sell the fucking red. He's like, if you just, the sooner you get into that red, the sooner

you'll have bandwidth back and then you can actually solve your problem. You know, and I'm trying to start masterminds and we started mastermind cashflow 300 grand. We thought we were like figuring this out. All we were doing is creating more chaos, more distractions. And you know, and the problem's getting worse, not better. And so, you know, that'll happen at the same time is when I quit drinking too.

I think that was, you know, we can go into that too. But like for me, that was the moment where I actually said, OK, I need to take control of this shit because it's it's like, no, this is going to end up really fucking bad if I keep drinking it away. Yeah. And I think it's so funny, man.

How many people chase those bad investments like that? Like I'll just oh, dude, I just got to make it this month and then we'll make it next month. Next month. It's like, bro, sometimes just cut bait. Yeah, dude. I there was the best advice I could have ever got He's like he said to me actually so I went to his office told him all this shit showed him all the books And he's like, okay, we got to sell the red sell the red as fast as you can

That's pro property number two project number one. He's like have you ever ever had a million dollars in the bank? I'm like fuck. No, I'm a real estate investor. It's either feast or famine. It's like, I want you to put a million bucks back in your bank for the first time. And the next one was, we had another business. He's like, I want you to get that to 200 grand a month, which, so we sold the properties and he's like, you have 90 days to get this done.

He's like, you'll have bandwidth back. You'll be able, you'll be good. Your head space becomes clear. Yeah, dude. And I'm like, all right, able, you'll be, you'll be good. Your head, your head space becomes clear. Yeah, dude. And I'm like, all right, well, I'll go to work. And we ended up putting 3.8 million in the bank. And you know, and everything was all good, but. Cause you went from, you went from hemorrhaging money

to all of a sudden I've got no more debt and I just got, I'm sitting on this cash and now I can breathe. Yeah, I can breathe. Yeah, now we can like, okay, we can slow down. We can sell the properties in a controlled manner and whatnot, but yeah, it was, you know, you look back and you're like, fuck, I wouldn't wish that on my enemy.

But I am glad it happened. You learn lessons. Like the one of the biggest lessons there is that you can't eat your equity. And that was one of the big things. We were only in real estate, so we didn't have any cash flowing, like real business. You know, the property's cash flow, like two or 300 bucks a month. And you got Jack asses up in Ontario, like the, the landlord laws are up there, like probably like New York or California,

I would think, but, um, you know, you'd lose that cashflow, you know, all the time, very quickly, you know? And so, but you can't eat that equity when she hits the fan. And so I'll never do that again. Um, you know, so we're doing it differently now, which is good. Are you, cause like I know that there's now you could potentially cross collateralize that entire portfolio.

You can't really do that here. Can't? Up there you can't find one big buyer like that. You could, down here you'd sell your portfolio. You can't do that up there. No, but I'm saying you could pull a line against it by cross collateralizing the entire portfolio. Yeah, if do that up there. No, but I'm saying you could pull a line against it by cross-collateralizing the entire portfolio. Yeah, if the bank was giving out loans, right? Like that was the other big problem. It's just

everything tightened up, the rules. So you couldn't, that was our option was to sell, but you know, the blessing in disguise was that we've had the portfolio for a while, then we were buying right and renovating right. So we had lots of equity. Did you become infinitely more bankable by doing that? Um, not necessarily because again, you max out at 10 mortgages anyway. It doesn't fucking matter how bankable you are. That's a different play. Yeah.

So what our strategy is just to liquidate. We've only got 17 properties left and then we're being a U and then we're going to become a U S tax citizen down here. And you're done. So now, but, but you shifted, you shifted asset class now. Yeah. So now you're just buying storage. Yeah. Yeah. So just so we,

so when we came down, we got two big storage developments in Houston and then debt got challenging at 20 and 20, 20, same, same moment in time. Right. So I syndicated these two big deals and that got hard. So we ended up focusing on

sourcing the land, doing all the entitlements for self-stores specifically, and then selling the dirt to other developers. Yeah. Because you, because you, I think you told me at one point you were, you were clearing like seven figure wins on that. Yeah. And we are still, that's a huge, yeah, it's a huge play. Yeah. So they could be any anywhere from like 600 to a million in, in, um, you know, value increase by doing the entitlements. Let's talk about that. So, cause obviously every market is different for how I get to

work with the city and the county and whatever else to get things entitled. Uh, for those of you who listen, don't know, we're talking about, you know, when you buy a piece of dirt, you don't just get to automatically build whatever you want on it. The city has a little say so in that. And then you've got to kind of get your plans together and you put them through city council and zoning and planning and all of these things. And then eventually they stamp off and say, yes, you can do that. And you can take a piece of land that might be zoned for, let's just say light residential or, or, or light density,

or there's not a lot of housing people. If you can get the zoning on that flipped to commercial or industrial or something else, multifamily, it makes that land infinitely more valuable. So you kind of can create incredible value in land for people just by understanding how to deal with political red tape. That and just highest and best use. Yeah.

So how, so is all of this stuff you're doing in the same market? No, they're all over the US. They're all over the US. All in different. So how in the world are you figuring out how to navigate? Yeah, all of that. Yeah. So we cut our teeth in, in Ontario and understood like in Canada. And so I did all the entitlement stuff myself. And so I just acted as if I was the planning guy. Right. And I went through rezones and did,

did it all. So I understood it. And, um, so down here, like some municipalities are great. Some are super political and we, we, we just learned by doing, right. I think that is really the only way, like there's no fucking blueprint to be a developer. Yeah. Right. I mean, um, if there was, we'd all be super rich. Yeah.

Right. Um, but you just go in and you just have to know what the right questions is. And at the end of the day, you have to trust but verify. And that's the biggest thing, I think. You just, like the processes aren't overly complicated, but there's nuance between every municipality. And the big things that can catch you up is the political. The relationships. The relationships, sometimes like some municipalities are just straight by the book. They'll just, you know, this is the way it is, but some of the other ones are like, if you don't get approval by this council person

or this person, don't even submit the paperwork. I'm like, wow, right? So we went to a couple of these states, a couple of these places in North Carolina, or sorry, in Virginia, and it's like, it's not happening. It's not happening, it's not happening. So, but other municipalities, you have good conversations and the one big thing is like, people want to know what

you are building and make it look nice. Yeah. And storage has a horrible route, right? To, you know, people hate storage for the most part because they look like the garage doors. So we're showing them nice class A, modern apartment looking facilities, whether they're single storey or story or multi story, you can make them look nice and we get approvals. So the question is when you're doing this, you're not closing on the land. You're doing long escrows contingent on the entitlements.

Correct, yeah. We will actually close on the land. We close and then basically our buyer closes the same day. So it's essentially, yeah, we have transactional funding. So we'll, we'll get it under contract and have like 150 days, due diligence time, and then 120 days entitlement period. So we're not, you know, we're 150 days. And as long as our buyers know we're moving forward with entitlements,

because we are, we're actually showing them and we're communicating to them like over going above and beyond, then they give you more time. Yeah. Right. Because I think that's the half of the battle with almost anything is just whether it's investor relationships, dealing with municipalities, dealing with, you know, contracts, it's communication. Yeah. People just want to know what's up. Yeah. It's just such an interesting way that to make money in real estate, everybody, everybody thinks, you know, real estate multi-family or buying houses. They don't realize that you can literally, if you're just good at dealing with the city, you can have a serious real estate career and make some serious money.

You can do it in any asset class. It doesn't have to be storage. We started by just finding big lots in a town. And if you just know that an R1 lot is this frontage in this lot size, well then just go find a lot that's twice as big. Yeah, it's just- And you sever the thing in the middle. Well, it just, you're such a savage in the fact that you just, you do this in all these different municipalities because if you think about it, even like here, right? Like if you

drive around in Vegas and you look at a lot of the shopping centers and stuff, there's the same name on them. And I play golf with that dude. Yeah. Right? Like, I mean, and I know that that guy can get anything entitled in Vegas because he's been doing it here for like 50 years. Right. So he just he can get anything done.

But to think that you can just roll in as an outsider and just pull these projects off is just is wild to me. Well, one of the things that to helps is just using local civil engineers and relying on local planning consultants. And that is part of it too. Because they can navigate a little better. Exactly, they know who to talk to. And like, I'm saying this in the same sense

that I don't know that it's actually that important, but they just know the nuance that we don't, that would probably make it take us three to four months later, because we'd screw up a few things. Yeah, dude, for sure. So which, and that is a lot of money that you could be deferring down the line, so. Well, that's wild, but okay, listen.

That's the how Brady got rich, flipping real estate part of the story, but I wanna get to the real stuff, because this is the stuff that just makes my frickin' mind explode. When you're like, oh yeah, I'm gonna run an ultramarathon, I'm like to get, I want to get to the real stuff. Cause this is the stuff that just makes my fricking mind explode. When you're like, I haven't run an ultra marathon. I'm like, Oh, what's that? You're like, I mean, I won't let you talk about what this, some of the stuff is. So let's talk about your journey from fat, drunk, and stupid.

I threw this. Oh, that's totally true. Yeah. Just to be fun. I'll throw the stupid in there. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, not really stupid, but I think it's funny. So I'd be stupid, especially when I was drunk. All right. Let's go. Let's go from, let's go from fat drunk and stupid to a dude that can run a hundred miles at

one time. Yeah. Yeah. I wasn't like, I mean, it was literally John, like it's not even may. So it hasn't been two years. Um, yeah. Well, when I quit drinking, okay, so before this, you know, like I realized it was in 2021, I did the 75 day hard. And so again, a professional drinker, right? We had the big boat at home and that's what we lived on. And so it was like Thursday to Monday drinking every day. And I was just tired and I saw one of my buddies do the 75 day hard and I'm like, what's that? And he tells me, tells me the rules. I repeat the rules to my wife. One is not drinking and she laughed her ass off.

She's like, there is no way in hell. Like I've been drinking since I was 14 and I'm like, I know I'm scared too. Right. But I was just like, I was just done. And the people that I was hanging around was just like, just limiting me. And I just knew it. I'm like the conversations are the same, right? We're not, you know, they're not doing anything near what I'm doing. You know, I'm the top of the poll here.

And so I went and did this thing and I changed my mindset. I changed my body. I became a better dad, blah, blah, blah, all those things, right? And took the family to Costa Rica, had the courage to do that. So I just had this clarity and stuff. And then, so when we got back from Costa Rica, back into Canada in 2021, they locked us back down. And that's what really triggered us to come to the US.

Cause I said to my wife, like, next winter, we're going away, but we're going to the US and we're gonna scale life and business there. And so went back and hung around the same people, start drinking again, just like I was, everything kind of went back to normal around the same people, started drinking again just like I was, everything kind of went back to the normal, same old thing, right? Well then I said, okay, well I'm gonna get back

into fitness, because the 75 heart was the thing that kept me clean and sober, and I wasn't a raging alcoholic, I was just like everybody else, right? And so I did a couple of half Ironmans, and that worked, I'm like perfect, I'm focused on that, I'm not drinking as much, more focused on business,

being a better dad, better communicator. Well, then all that stuff I just told you happened with the bleeding of the money, the company, the interest rates going through the roof. And eventually I just came to my wit's end. And I just my dad also died at 73 just not too long ago, like a year before. And he started drinking at 50 years old and did all that damage by time he was like 65 right just like heavy drinking right and I just realized like I just looked inside myself and I saw my daughters like they're gonna follow whatever I do yeah I was literally sitting on my boat we have a

53 foot boat in the Exumas looking out the back and I'm bleeding the business is bleeding to death and I just like I just said tomorrow's the back and I'm bleeding. The business is bleeding to death. And I just like, I just said tomorrow's the last day I'm drinking. Right. And I told my wife that, and that was the decision I made it. And it wasn't harder than that. And then from there, I went to Kent's office and I also started training for a 50 mile run. Right.

So it was all the, you know, I think the re running that we'll get into here in a second was the thing that replaced the booze, right. And it gave me that thing to focus on. It, it, it's kind of silenced the mind. Cause you, okay. So here's my question, dude, but cause you was what, how much more did you weigh at that time? Um, see, I probably weighed about as much as I do now, like two Oh five, but I was just like the wrong two and five. Yeah. The wrong two of five. I was just poofy. Right. Yeah. I'm sick.

I thought you were much bigger like I never understood how you went from being like kind of overweight. Yeah. Because I was just going to bad knees. How like because my knees are garbage. That's why I'm so jealous. Yeah, I trained. So, yeah, I guess I have never had injuries like as good for you. You know, I was lucky.

Maybe I didn't play enough football or something. But yeah, so what happened was I actually saw Jesse Itzler, you know, I was lucky. Maybe I didn't play enough football or something, but, yeah, so what happened was I actually saw Jesse Itzler, you know, Jesse, is here. So I saw him right around the same time. He did Ultraman, which is a 6.2 mile swim, 90 mile bike on the one day. And Jesse Itzler, like, if you go look at him, like you look at him and you don't think

he's an ultra athlete. He looks broken down. He's sold, he's sold multiple companies for hundreds of millions You know, he's super successful and I saw him do this six point two miles to him 90 mile bike I got his big ass calendar miles. Yes, Jesse, right? Yeah, and then he did so the next day is 170 mile bike and the next day after that is 52 mile run and I'm like he does this I'm like There's something more to this guy then just business. Yeah, I just, so I got super intentional. I got close to Jesse. I became friends and then I hired his coach because I'm like, whoever did that got Jesse to do that is who I'm

going to, is who's going to help me do it. And, and then, so that's when I quit drinking. And then we started training for a 50 mile run that we did in the Keys. And so trained for three months, right? Quit drinking three months later, ran 50 miles from Marathon, Florida down to Key West. And it was 119 degrees Fahrenheit with humidity. Yeah. Like you could eat the air. Yeah.

And we started at nine o'clock in the morning. It was insanely hot. And so the first 12 miles, it was just, I was like, so frustrated because you couldn't cool your body down. It's like sitting in the sauna. Yeah. That's 200 degrees. You can't get out. You can't get out. The door's locked. Right. And I'm just like, what am I going to do? And I put this towel on. Anyway, I figured it out. I got into this, this, this routine where I had a bag of ice I would take it I'd run for four minutes. I'd have it on my neck. I'd walk for one minute

I'd run for four walk for one and I take the bag of ice. I would stick it my growing You know for the one-minute walk and I dumped the ice all over my head and I did this 50 miles You know the 30 the other 36 miles well, I get finished at, you know, like 10 hours and 40 minutes later in that excruciating heat. And they didn't know what place I was in. And I didn't even know where I was, to be honest. I got lost before I got to the end. And so we waited around there for a few hours waiting and there eventually they said, congratulations, you're in third place. And they're eventually they said congratulations you in third place. So that's great. So two hours later, we I didn't drink anything I didn't re eat anything like I didn't even know what I was doing I mean just my wife was crewing me with my daughters, right?

So there were six and just handing the granola bar and slapping on the back There was not even like you should rehydrate yourself. You should like reelectrolyte your body like Anyway, so got back to where our rental. I started puking my brains up. My wife throws me in back in the car. She's like, we're going to the hospital. I'm just like, ehh. And she's now cruising back to Marathon, Florida. Sees an ambulance, right?

And she pulls over and the ambulance driver's like, ma'am, you can't stop here. You gotta keep going. She's like, you gotta look at this dude in my car. That's exactly what she said. And the ambulance people. And I kind of remember them like, like opening the door or opening the, the expedition door.

And they looked at me and they just like grab the stretcher and they literally yanked me out, put me in the stretcher and rushed me to the hospital. And then from there it was three days. They thought they didn't know what was going on. Like they were like, where, where did you run? And I got in Canada. They're like, what's your daughter's name? So I'm, and I had no clue. No fucking clue. And so everybody thought it was dying, including them. They rushed me. So they did brain scans, heart scans, the whole body, then rushed me. They didn't know what was going on. Rushed me to Miami,

you know, more tests and thankfully survived. Right. But, um, yeah, I ended up with rhabdo my rhabdo and which could kill you a hundred percent and then severe dehydration. But, you know, at that point, I was just like, I think I'm on the path, which is stupid to think. So you're sitting in the hospital, almost killed yourself. I looked back and there's a picture and it says, not human. It's like an Ironman shirt. I'm like, what a stupid shirt to wear in here. You idiot. So, but the doctors, they found this heart abnormality in there, accidental.

And they said, you can't do any of this ever again until you get that heart fixed. So they said I had a leaky heart and I'm like, damn, I'm just getting good. Like this is putting me on the path I need to be on. And, you know, long story short, it took me about two weeks, I got clearance. And then I did 29029, which is Mount Everesting with Jesse. Yep, it's awesome.

Like three weeks later than that. And then my coach, Chris. Real quick, real quick, want to talk about that real Yeah, what's harder was the 50 mile or harder than 20 or two because the 20-2 is serious mind For the people that I know that have done it and said it's just because it's so slow Yeah, the 50 mile or was for sure harder. Yeah that yeah for that just because Probably the heat but then running for 50 mile running is different than also hiking, hiking's way long.

Like it was a way longer event. It's a more, way more mental, like slow. Yeah. And I think I had the four, I had like, I built some mental fortitude by riding that 50 miles and built some trust. You built a lot of mental fortitude. I built some trust in myself, right? So when you go into these things, I mean,

I think that's the secret to, to, you know, we're going to talk about some way crazier things in a second, I'm sure. But when you, it's like, if you don't believe you can run 5k, which a lot of people don't believe, but if you can go and run 1k, which everybody can, you will start to believe that chances are you could run 1.5 K because you're like, Oh yeah, I wasn't dead. I wasn't done. You know, I could probably do another half a K.

Right. So then you go out and do 1.5 K and then you're like, yeah, I wasn't dead. I wasn't done. You know, I could probably do another half a K. Right. So then you go out and do 1.5 K and then you're like, yeah, I think I could do two, you know, and you do that over and over again, that's how you create this trust and belief system in yourself, right? Doesn't happen by you, but you have to do the one K. Yeah. Right.

And that's when you start to do like two nine Oh two nine after that experience, it's like, okay, this is actually not that bad. It's although it's longer, it's, you know, it's like, okay, this is actually not that bad. Although it's longer, it's more manageable. But, you know, hard is, you know, everybody has different hard. And so that's the big thing that people maybe get a little, you know, when we start telling these stories, it's like, I can't even relate to this motherfucker, right?

But like, my wife would never even walk 5k, but you know, not too long ago, she just hiked 20k or 20 miles. Sorry, 20 miles and she's doing two nine Oh two nine. And it's again, because it started small, right? Yeah. And, um, well, and plus the proximity she is to you doing this crazy stuff. Yeah. She's like, look, she's seen you, which you're worse. She's like, if this jerk does, can do it. Yeah. The other day was so cool. So we're, uh, before the clear water marathon,

my, I have a four year old daughter, she ran a five K 14 minute miles. She's this big. That's awesome. Yeah. And it's just proximity. Yeah. It's cause this is just what we do. It's normal. Just who we are. Yeah. It's what we do. So what's the craziest thing you can do that. So what was harder, the ultra-mile or the a hundred, the a hundred miler or so that. do. So what's the craziest thing you did it? So what was harder the ultra-mile or the hundred the hundred-mile or so that? Yeah, so the next thing we did was the hundred-mile er my coach said what do you want to do next? I said well, I think I want to run a hundred miles and raise a hundred thousand dollars for charity I think you don't need money for that. Thanks again, John And we were yeah, we ended up raising eighty five thousand for charity for that for for that run

So we ran the hundred miles and that was hard dude Like like you're in a pain hole Like you've never experienced like next to giving birth like if I was to give birth or you know if I knew what that was like this would be like giving birth but for like 18 hours straight But I have a friend of my name Tony Grappo those here in town and Tony's like Tony did this when he was like 65 yeah, I think he did a hundred miler. And I asked him, I said, bro, you know, what does it, he goes, well, your toenails come off.

And he goes, he goes, he goes, it gets to a point where it's not, it doesn't hurt anymore. There's no more hurt. It's just the same hurt. And if you can just get to that place where you hit the same hurt and you just understand this is just what it's gonna be be and accept that you can do it. Yeah. I got the same advice. Actually. Like somebody said to me, he's like,

Brady, this is the best piece of advice I can give you. It's going to get bad, but just know that it's not going to get any worse. Like, all right. So I, and it gets bad. Well, let's talk. So let's walk through that man. So as you start running, where was this? This was, this was as was at Jesse answers festival. It was a one mile track around a track. So similar to the a hundred miles that were money's running tomorrow is one mile track.

That's what it, yeah. So first 32 miles I ran it and we started at 4. So I started running and you know, circles essentially, and I, I started doing a run walk at about 32 miles in and then all night long pitch black You know you're looking through a headlight and all you see is foggy as shit So all you're seeing is this tiny little beam? You know you're starting to get a little wheezy and like delirious and start You know I don't think I hallucinated this this particular one, but I did the last one

Yeah, dude. You just go into this pain hole. That's like it rips you to your core. Like if you think you're fucking awesome, you're not anymore. Like you have zero ego. Like your ego is gone. And it's like the closest part to death. I honestly think that you can get. How do you fight the because you got to have a voice in you saying quit, quit, go sit down, go sit.

Like what is that voice in your head saying to you? And what are you saying back? Yeah, like I think, well, for me, I just, you just have to, like for me, I'll, I'll, I'll run four minutes and walk one. And it's all about just getting to that end of the four minutes and then walking the one. And so you, you really go into robot mode and initially you start, you want to talk you with your crew. But after that, dude, like you can't listen to music.

You can't listen to any, anybody talk. Like it's just so, you know, when you can't listen to music. You can't listen to any anybody talk. Like it's just so what the you know, when you run or exercise and the worst song comes on, you're like, fuck, change it, change it. Well, that's what it's like, you know, for 18 hours, whenever anybody talks to you. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. You know, and like you said, like the pain is just is overwhelming. But you just have to you just again, you just keep moving. Right. And I think that's the secret is just is overwhelming, but you just have to, you just, again, you just keep moving.

Right. And I think that's the secret is just don't stop. So how do you, I mean, how do you, cause obviously you got to do something to protect your feet while this is going on. How do you protect? Is there any way to protect your feet or they just, I just, I just, they just keep going. Yeah. But the, on the, on that one hundred, I think I only had a couple little blisters. It wasn't too bad.

The next one, yeah, well, the next 100-miler was just in October. That was through the mountains, 13,000 feet of elevation. And so that was a little harder. And that one I actually hallucinated. Is that the one where Ken's wife came out to crew you? Yeah, she was crewing, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, I was hallucinating seeing cows cows and, and, and like horses and

shit that weren't there. And, um, yeah, that was the, we were pretty good there too, but just dude doing that in the mountains was like, I was never fucking do this again. Yeah. Yeah. But then, now you're like, well, I could do that again. Yeah. So then, yeah, so I'm going, I am doing another hundred mile or, um, in April Zion, 100. But okay. So then I kind of like, okay, well what's next? So I thought, okay, there's this new 200 mile or coming out in mammoth California.

I'll sign up for that. And because I did put my name in for the Moab two 40. So I don't know if anybody's listened, probably, you know, to David Goggins. Yeah. Sure. Goggins ran the Moab two 40 So I don't know if anybody's listened probably, you know, David Goggins. Yeah, Goggins ran the Moab 240 This is a famous race very hard to get into 240 miles straight and I'm like, ah, you know what? I'm just gonna put this in I'm not gonna tell my wife cuz she'll fucking kill me and So I put my name in well funny and this this other guy that I'd met did an Introduction to the the race director at some point because I was trying to get it into this other guy that I'd met did an introduction to the race director at some point because I was

trying to get into this other race. Well, sure enough was my name not one of the very first ones to get picked. And so, but my credit card didn't run through. Oh no. Perfect. Oh, I'm like, I have an out. Yeah. I don't have to do this. Like darn. Because I was actually pretty scared. I was with gear hearted. We were in a terrifying, it is terrifying bro. And, but then, you know, it's funny if we're, we're driving one day with my wife's over there. My buddy calls me. He's like, Hey, congrats on getting into Moab. She looks at me like you signed up for Moab. Yeah, we didn't talk about that. Yeah. So I did, I did pay for it. When does that race?

October. Yeah, so 240 miles. I think you have like 130 hours, five days to get it done. How many people do this? I think there's like 250 or 300 people. How many finish on average? Probably like, I'm guessing here, okay. So like, I'm going to guess like around,

if 250 started, probably like 180, finish it. All right, okay. Yeah. I like your odds. Yeah, yeah, I'll finish it. I'm going to guess like around if 250 started probably like 180 finishing. All right. Okay. Yeah. I like your odds. Yeah. Yeah. I'll finish it.

So five people come up. I'm going to race it. Oh, you're like, I want to win. I'm going to do good. It's my goal. I don't know if I'm going to do good. I might not make it. I might not finish it.

There's a chance. I told her 40 miles is like a lot three and a half days straight is my goal would probably be my goal. Maybe three days. That's like you running from right here is my goal would probably be my goal. Maybe three days. That's like you running from right here to my house in Orange County. Yeah. I think it's 240 miles from here to my house in Orange County. So that when you're starting to deal with like the, and, and so one of my bigger problems that I do end up getting is swimmer induced

pulmonary edema. My lungs fill up with fluid. Um, and I got that when I did that Ultraman, Ironman, Ultraman race. Yeah, so that's the, that's kind of the big fear that I've got is like, if my lungs just. What, what is your, since you started doing this, if you had to compare your general stress levels or how you dealt with stress before and after

like these experiences, how would you compare those? Do you think? Yeah, I think well, before I drank and I was just like, that's how I dealt with stress before, right? But, and now, and I had a lot of chaos in my life because I mean, it's just, you know, I wasn't just as focused. Now because I can like when I run and I train like I get clarity and confident I'm just I

literally you know go to bed at 830 wake up at 430 like my life is very like dude did you and we travel a lot and have lots of adventures and stuff but it's very just like super basic super focused on business and so the the running does de-stress very well. I mean, now my cortisol levels are probably through the roof and I had to go on testosterone and a whole bunch of other shit, but I'm handling it better now than I ever have.

Well, I was gonna say, cause when you put your body through so much stress like that and you stretch what is possible for you to do, I mean, I gotta believe what used to really bother you maybe five years ago, it's just like, what? It's not even, yeah. Doesn't even blip on the radar now. Yeah, totally.

Well, when you think about the times that you grow the most in your life, it's like when really bad things happen. There's death, the financial issues, divorce, like those things change you. And so you can actually do that intentionally and it doesn't have to be a hundred miles. It could be a half marathon.

Like that is intense and that is the same type of, you know, fortitude and mental, you know, whatever that word is to get you through that. And it's good practice for when things go upside down in life. For when they happen. Yeah, and you build the same muscles. Right. And so, you know, when, you know, this year still, you know,

we're on the path to having a massively successful year, but nonetheless, like lots of reinvestments, a lot of risk and a lot of fear. But even your ability to deal with risk must be much. And be able to think through it. Yeah. Like methodically and with confidence, But, but even your ability to deal with risk must be much, you know, you're risk. And be able to think through it. Yeah. Like methodically and with confidence, make the right calls. Also gotten really good at just knowing that I don't know the answer

and who to call next and be okay with that. Yeah. You know, being more vulnerable is another thing I think too, is just being real with myself on, I, listen, I don't need to be perfect. I don't need to know all the answers. If I'm wrong, I'm fucking wrong and I fuck up a lot. And whether it's with my team or with my kids or with my wife or just even with, you know what,

if I go off side because I'm sometimes around a little hot and that, right? But I'm okay with saying I fucked up. And just being, hey, listen, I'll put in the work. I'll fix it. Well, I know that now you've taken your passion for this stuff and you did you you're all in bro There's no question You're all in and you want to share it with other people so you did this and this is no

This is not where this turns into infomercial. I know what you're thinking that way. This is good stuff So tell me about zero to 100 broke because obviously you're telling everybody it's all over you like Yeah, so about zero to 100, bro, because obviously you're telling everybody it's all over you like a damn billboard. It's a way of life. Don't ask me what it is. It's a way of learning. Yeah, so before I ran the 100 mile run, I was with a buddy in Puerto Rico, and we were working on a whole bunch of other things that turned into this zero to 100,

because he's like, bro, everything you do is zero to 100. And that was just like a way to connect a life philosophy on how I do everything. So it's an easy way for people to understand a message, right, which is like move fast, you know, play all out, you know, just commit fully, like you're on this path, this journey. And then we, you know, we did the zero to 100 miles,

raise 100 grand for charity. And then I'm just like, every time I would hit a stage, I would get, I would tell the story that, hey, the thing that got me on this good path into, you know, cause the path that I'm on created some massive relationships, right? And then that spins into more money and more revenue and everything, right?

So it all, but it all started with doing the 75 hard. And I would talk every, you know, I would get probably like 50 to 60% of the room would sign up to the 75 hard the next day. And within that week, 90% of them have would sign up to the 75 hard the next day. And within that week, 90% of them have dropped out because it's hard. Yeah.

Right. And I'm like, okay, there's gotta be a better way. So we started the zero to 100 day challenge, which is 45 minutes of exercise a day, eating healthy, no booze, right? And it's just the life that I live, right? Yeah. Really. So it's sustainable. If you miss a day, you just double up another day.

And so we just, that's what part of that is, is just a given them people an opportunity to have the same, you know, chance of getting in healthy and getting clarity, encouraging confidence through fitness that I had. Right. And so we, it's free, you know, they go to zero to 100.com and we have the accountability huddles. We have guest speakers that come on all the time and just pour into people and help them get through that hundred days. Cause yeah, that's where it starts.

It's like, this would come to our habits. It's kind of like the, uh, it's funny as you, as you're sitting here describing that, I like to think about was a average Joe's gym versus like the good, the purple cobras and dodge ball. You're like, Hey man, you miss a day. It's okay. Come back tomorrow and double up. You'll be like, you're going to down a little bit, and that's okay.

I'm not kicking you to the woods because you didn't get that 45 minute run at three o'clock in the morning this today. I get it. It has to be realistic too. I mean life is, shit happens, right? Every day. Pretty much every day, yeah.

Multiple times. Every day it does. Well dude, I love it, man. You are literally one of the strongest mentally people I know that can push yourself with this stuff. I'm rooting for you, this Moab thing. I think that is insanity. And dude, you're one of my craziest friends

for the best possible reason. I love that. I just hope I survive. If they want to find you, man, how do they find you? Yeah, Instagram, Brady.McDonald84, Facebook, same. Yeah, and then they can go to zero to 100 if they want to check out the challenge. I love it. Well dude,, Facebook, same. Yeah, and then they can go to zero to 100 if they wanna check out the challenge. I love it.

Well, dude, if you listen to that today, and listen, push yourself, do hard things, because the harder the things that you do, the easier everything else in your life will be. We'll see you next week. What's up, everybody? Thanks for joining us for another episode of Escaping the Drift. Hope you got a bunch out of it, or at least as much as I did out of it.

Anyway, if you want to learn more about the show, you can always go over to escapingthedrift.com, you can join our mailing list, but do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind, throw up that five star review, give us a share, do something, man. We're here for you, hopefully you'll be here for us. But anyway, in the meantime, we will see you at the next episode.