KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Brandon T. Adams

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

What's going on, everyone? It's Holly here, and I'm super excited about today's guest. I have actually recently met you at an event, and it was one of those, like, you know, speaking at an event, you always pay attention to the other speakers, but you really caught all my attention. So I'm super excited, everyone. Welcome Brandon T. Adams to unleash your inner legend. Hey, Holly. Thank you for having me on the show. So I'm super excited and I'm curious to know more about your story because I've been following you since you spoke at HSRA. And what I say that got my attention, of course being in branding and marketing and, you know, all those authority pieces, like you really nailed it on your intro. And I was like, wait, who is this guy? I got to like know more.

So I would love to kick off this episode for you just going to share your story and how you got into. content creation, how you got into video. And then, of course, like, you're an Emmy Award winner. So congratulations on all of that. I would just love to hear your story. Yeah, it's quite the journey. I'm recording, by the way, in Vegas. I'm looking over a great view here, the city of where all the magic happens for events. But, you know, I started back in Iowa. I have a very unique story because you probably will never meet a person again that's produced TV shows and won Emmy Awards, but also at one time, to sell ice for a living.

So high sold packaged ice with my father. I grew up in Iowa. We were a wholesale distributor literally since I was a kid. Ryan around with him, I remember when I got paid like five bucks a day, 10 bucks a day, and then it was like $5 an hour. And I really got my start as an entrepreneur doing manual labor and just really getting my just kind of feet wet in entrepreneurship. But I got to see from my father at a young age, he built the business.

but also the ups and downs. I mean, I didn't really understand at the time, but looking back on it, understood it now as an entrepreneur, like when he was going through tough times in business, where he had lost the business and really ingrained in me what business was. And one thing he really taught me as a power of customer relationships and going above and beyond for your customers. In that case, it was mom and pop stores. Now today, it's me working with public companies. It's working with people at events and just going above and beyond. for them. So start a nice business, went to Iowa State University. By the way, I don't say I went to

college, say, hey, you need to go to college. I don't think it's necessary if you're an entrepreneur, but it's something I went on because I was still trying to figure out my path. My first semester, got a 1.68 GPA. I got kicked out of the dorms. I almost dropped out of college. I just say the whole drugs, alcohol, all that kind of just hit me hard. I made a turnaround and where I It really got my, I don't know, a pivotal moment in my life is a guy by the name of Cactus Jack Barringer led me to this book called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I read the book and it really changed how I thought. It made me realize like I, it doesn't matter.

I'm from a small town. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that I'm not the smartest person. What matters is if I really want something in life, if I surround myself with the right people, have a burning desire for it, I can achieve it. And so that book really changed my life. I read that a little over a decade ago. And so it completely got my mind thinking of what was possible. And so where I got my first opportunity to think bigger is, while in the ice business, I had invented a product called Arctic Stick that I had taken to market, spent over 100 grand, got some patent, stray marks on it. I learned

distribution. I learned marketing, everything else. That product didn't become a big success. But what it did lead me to is it led me to this thing called crowdfunding. So you're raising money for an audience. There's Kickstarter, Indiegogo. That's reward-based crowdfunding. But also now there's reg A, Reg D. There's crowdfunding where you can raise money from unaccredited investors for your company. And so I got into crowdfunding. I realized there was an opportunity to become the expert and build a really a business around it. I built a brand around crowdfunding. I mean, so much is so that people still know me to this day for that. And so, and you'll relate with this, Holly.

I mean, in 2015, I was going on TV around the country. I went on probably 50 morning shows that year and traveling the cities, going on local morning shows, building my brand as a crowdfunding expert, wrote a book on crowdfunding. I did a podcast, went on for six years. And so just kept really building this brand around crowdfunding. Now, how did that lead me to video production, Emmy Awards, and TV shows? Let me tell you this.

The most powerful thing we have is storytelling. Telling a great and compelling story. Now, if you can tell a compelling story to the right audience, you can get them to donate, invest, get a part of your cost. The most powerful way to tell a story is through a high-quality video or a video that really gets the point across. And so we were producing the videos for clients. And then I saw like, that works.

I mean, one of our big successes that kind of got me out there was I helped the guy named John Lee Dumas from Onchamers on fire raised $453,000 in 33 days for the Freedom Journal. And so that led to the attention of other people that want to work with me, mainly people that were influencers. And so I did that. I realized I liked being in front of the camera. I was actually in some of these videos. And then I started my first opening into the TV space was a guy came to me named Greg Rolette. said, hey, can you help me create this TV show? If you help me crowdfund it, I'll make you my host.

I said yes. When produced a show called Invest Adventures, got it, did a deal with Entrepreneur Network. We got it out there on Amazon, got an Emmy nomination. We didn't get Emmy Award, Stanley. And then that was my beginning. And that led to me doing three TV shows. I've now produced a movie based on the book Thinking to Rich called Think of Rich Legacy as one of the people behind that. And that's what got me into this space.

And it started from selling ice to an inventor to raising money, which led to the production side. But really, I'll go share this today is how building a brand and building a story around you and what you're doing can be so impactful for your business, which allow you to make more money, have more influence, and get you opportunities you normally couldn't get. Wow. Like I would have never guessed that at all just because like I, like you said, it's, it is a journey that you've gone through. And what I love hearing is, you know, the book that impacted your life the most and really opened your mindset and kind of like you started to understand. And this is what's cool too. I feel like we've got a lot in common when it comes to coming from a small town, you know, not a wealthy family. And I just love hearing that, you know, you know, you read this book, you know, and thinking, like, oh, my gosh, my mind is open. And, you know, I'm not these things.

I actually need to do whatever I want to do. But then you turn around and later in life produce our part of the production of Think Girl Rich Legacy. Like, how did that feel? I got to say, so I read the book when I was 20. I was a producer and in the movie. So we premiered that in 2017. So seven years later, I'm the youngest guy in the movie, some of the main people in the movie, Barbara Corkin from Shark Tank, Grant Cronow and Lewis House, Tim Story, Bob Proctor.

And I'll tell you where the real moment for me was, because I help, when you're a producer, you basically help you raise money for something. But I was on set when we filmed for this movie. I was doing a lot of logistical things. We did a crowdfunding campaign. We raised 385,000. It was at the time the largest crowdfunding campaign in history for a docket drama. And so the fact that we helped raise money for it, I was in the movie. And on the red carpet of this was 2017, and the red carpet that night were in LA live, we filled the whole theater. We had 750 people there.

And when I was on the red carpet with all these grades, and I was just, and then my mentor who led me to the book, book, Jack Schenacher, actually came to the premiere. That was a moment for me of a went full circle because I helped create that. My whole film crew was there that night too. It was just amazing to see like, holy shit. I saw myself in the big screen. Just like the book, I put myself in the mindset of what I wanted. I created that reality.

And it's now went on. I mean, that movie has been seen by millions of people. It's in three languages, Spanish, English, Czech Republic. You probably see ads everywhere. It's a huge success. We're just getting started. It was probably one of the life accomplishments. There's three things in my life that have been really powerful.

One, the day I married my wife, that was a huge accomplishment for me. Two, think and grow rich, the legacy being able to create that. And three, the night that we won every awards. It wasn't about the award. It was about when you can show that you're the best. in something in a space, it's very emotional because the amount of work and shit you have to do to get to that point. I mean, the night when we won Emmys, I'd set to my truck. I've been close to bankruptcy.

I've put in over a million dollars in video marketing. I've literally put my life dedicated to something where when you become obsessed with something and a goal, not everybody will understand you and you will lose friends or so-called friends. and when you do get that accomplishment, it's unlike anything else. It really is. And I'm very grateful for it. And I'm happy to be sharing it with you. Oh, my gosh.

That's absolutely amazing. And, you know, one thing that, too, that caught me like, I was like, well, what? The JLD thing. So you had done the Freedom Journal. And it's so funny because I personally was part of that $450. in four, like crowdfunding. Like that, I bought like two of them or three of them.

I can't remember. I got some guests for them. But like you had said that on, I about fell out of my chair. I was like, oh my gosh, I had no idea. I mean,

like that's crazy. So when it comes to crowdfunding, I think that's something that a lot of people are interested and intrigued about just because, you know, especially being an entrepreneur and being in business, that's obviously more capital, more opportunity to collapse time.

what are some tips that you can give to listeners when it comes to crowdfunding the dues and don't yeah don't just put up a campaign and think people are going to give you money that's it it's it is a job crowdfunding is a lot of work it's just like traditional fundraise in a way but you're allowing the crowd get involved which i think there are many benefits because then your small investors become your great ambassadors which spread the way word and can lead to your big investors. And so it's not for everybody. They're crowdfunding. I'll just give you, this is a quick formula. I wrote a book on this a long time ago, which is outdated, but it was called Keys to the Crowd of How to Unlock the Power of Crowdfunding. It's the fund

formula, acronym F is forethought, U is utilized marketing plan, N is Narrative, and B is Delivered Value. So the forethought is the preparation prior. When we're doing campaigns, or when I did a lot of campaigns or even when I launched events and things. I applied this, by the way, in all areas of my life. You have to prepare for it. You have to put two, three, four months of preparation into this campaign. You need to prepare who's going to back it. You need to put up the page, a video.

You need to put all the work in ahead of time, build a team around this. That's the biggest thing. Most people don't prepare. They put it up. They think it'll just come to them. It will not. You will fall flat in your face. you will fail. So preparation. Next part, utilizing your marketing plan. This could be doing digital

ads, having an ad spend, having a budget for your campaign. It could be going on podcast shows. It could be going, putting on your art events for this. There's so many things you can do to build awareness around this. I think the coolest thing we came up with for the John Lee Dunas campaign was doing a podcast. He did a daily podcast, obviously. Back. then and so 33-day campaign one of the things we did is JLD had 33 of his past guests on the show me being one of them I think I'm the only person I've been on John's show four times by the way it's it's a great return if you ever get the chance to be on the show like there's a lot of listeners so each guess each guess the focus of it was setting and accomplishing goals and the

power of goal setting the book as you know, the Freedom Journal is about setting, accomplishing your goals. And so each guest is basically endorsing the whole concept around the Freedom Journal. At the end, he promoted the Freedom Journal. That was a huge marketing like strategy that became a huge success for that launch. So utilizing your marketing plan, the last two, and his narrative, which is what I really kind of went into that route more. So is I went into storytelling through film and TV shows and video. And so being able to tell a compelling story that lets people know why they should give you money.

Why is it important? How does it impact them? How can they get involved? And doing that specifically through the video that you create. And then the last one is delivering value. If you don't give value to your donors, your backers, they're not going to invest in you. And so in the reward base, it's pre-selling your product, but giving them. them experience along the way, even if you're raising money for like a charity. The best charities

creating experience for people. I'll give you an example. I'm a part of a world youth horizons. It is a nonprofit. My business partner is Jeff Hoffman, who co-createdpricelyne.com had created. And he did it just to give back. He never asked for any money at all. He never asked for money. he put his own money in to give to this orphanage in Uganda. And so he was basically the only one funding it because he wanted support of these orphans. I found out what he was doing. And I started giving some money towards it because he's my business partner. I believe in it.

And then what he did is he had them create a video. Imagine this. 50 orphans, kids literally living on dirt floors in a third world country, sending a video with the sign that says, thank you so much, Brandon. Brother Brandon, we love you. Goodbye. And I was hooked.

I'm like, oh, my God. I've given money every month to them. We're in the process of building a home for them right now. Just purchased land. And so that was emotional connection. And what did they create experience? I saw the person behind the dollars I was giving. And so when you can create that,

that value to the donor and that value is emotional connection, they will give. Now, an investor standpoint, I get pitched all the time. I invest in companies, if you can tell a compelling story with why your opportunity is great, but also what's the upside? So what's a huge opportunity for the 10x, 100x on my money? And then beyond the investment of the equity I get for the money I give, what else are you going to provide for experiences for me? Some people invest, even like you look in the film space, people invest in films because they want to be accessible to all these high-level actors.

And they want to have that cool little title of I'm a producer. And so it comes down to the last part of the crowdfunding is giving value to the people that give you money. There's all saying my dad said, this one, I can't believe I'm saying this. But my dad always told my son, you get nothing for nothing, Santa Claus. is dead. And it basically means like there's no free lunch. Like you have to give value in order to get something in life. It's not going to fall in your lab. And so when you're raising money, make sure you're giving value to your donors. Oh, that's so awesome. And you know, like I will say like I've never I've never hosted or, you know, launched a crowdfunding. But I've

all I have been on the backside of the consumer as somebody who, you know, contributed. And I, there's a couple of ones that I'm like, oh my gosh, this product is super cool or whatever. And then you get it and you're like, oh my gosh, this is trash. Like this is like the worst product ever. But I will say for anyone who is interested in, you know, launching or learning more, I really think, like, I don't think. I know the Freedom Journal, that campaign was one of the most successful ones as a consumer that I really enjoyed. because you guys did such a great job before the journal was launched.

There's a lot of storytelling. There's a lot. I just remember feeling really a part of the community. And it wasn't that much money. I mean, I can't remember how much it was, but it was not like. 40 bucks.

As I said, I knew it was less than $50. But you guys did a great way of making people feel like they were alongside with you guys on that journey and like the launch and the excitement of it. So I will say for those listening in, highly recommend going through there and dissecting that campaign. I'm sure there's videos on it. I'm sure there's, you know, information out there on it because it was such a successful

as a consumer. And like I said, I've had bad experiences too where you just pay and then you get no updates or nothing and then you get this random box shipped to you. And you're like, what is this? You almost forget about it. And it ends up being like a terrible product or something. It's just a bad experience. It was a fifth largest.

It is. It is. It was a fifth largest crowdfunding campaign in history for a book. Before we did that, I studied Seth Godin's launch. He had done. I studied the other, there's other like five minute journals and stuff. I studied that. And that was like a great.

I mean, we went on and did the mastery journal, which did about $300,000. It didn't do what the Freedom Journal did. But the Freedom Journal was so powerful. And another cool thing we did, which everything I do has to have around giving back, we had raised, we built three schools for pencils of promise. So based on a milestone, we build a school for Pences of Promise. So that is really cool. One of the key components, like, we just, we gave back, too.

Like, you're buying a Freedom Journal, but you're also helping build a school for Pounces of promise. So what's a contribution that you can have that's tied into the campaign? I love that. I love that. Okay. So in the last 20 minutes, you have literally spilled so much. much on your accomplishments. You've added so much value of what you have done. I would love to talk

about now. What is Brandon T. Adams working on and what can we look forward to seeing for me? Because I know you're actually about to have a fantastic video event. So can we talk about that a little bit and kind of let people know what's going on with it? Yeah. So I've been putting on events now for about seven years and speaker events, masterminds, theater premieres. And during COVID, I was like, I'm each to have my next event. And I built different brands around events. And I'm huge on video and the power of storytelling. So we wanted to come up with an event that's all around video marketing.

And that's where a rise and record is born. So rise and record just like it sounds, you rise up and you become a better person, but also you record content, content around you, your story, how you help people and publish it to the world. So we are launching October, it's October 19th through the 21st. in St. Pete, Florida, Rise and Record first ever event. This will be an annual event. We got between our speakers, they've done billions of dollars through video marketing. Jeff Hoffman frompricelyn.com, Hollywood producer.

We got Kevin Harrington, there's a shark tank and commercial guide. We have so many just a great group of people. So speakers, mastermind, all that. So that's the event we're working on, which I'm really excited about. Check it out at rison and record.com. And then our show. So I talked about earlier success in your city. It's a project my wife and I co-hosted put together.

We produced. We won Emmy Awards for. And that was all around the question, what is success? So in 2018, we traveled the country on a mission to really figure out what success was. We want to learn from other people. In the process, we sold our house. We sold 99% of our things. I sold two businesses.

we went all in. And so we created this show, a five-part series around success. And so we had originally launched. We did a theater premiere in 2019. We launched an Amazon Prime, but now we just did a partnership with Beespoke TV. So it's pretty cool.

Our show on September 23rd will be relaunching on DirecTV. It'll be through Beespoke. It'll be on cable outlets. You'll see it in different cable outlets. around the country. And so our show finally made it to the audience I wanted to. It was an idea, Holly, literally sitting on a beach in Puerto Rico. We said we wanted to create this show.

We're going to travel the country. This was my third show. And I was kind of upset because the recent show I'd done, we had got an Emmy nomination. We didn't win and nothing hurts more when your baby doesn't go to where you wanted to go. And so we literally created a show from nothing, complete scratch. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. And we turn it into an Emmy Award winning show that now is going to be releasing to the masses again. So really excited for that.

And I'd love for everybody watching, listening to check it out. Again, you can go to BespokeTV.com or SuccessIn Your City.com is where you can learn more about our show, our book, and everything else. I absolutely love that. And congratulations on all of your past successes as well as your future ones. And I, you know, one thing that I see with entrepreneurs, it's like, you don't just stop. Like, you don't just stop me. You're like, oh, my gosh, I was a part of this incredible, you know, movie and this is legacy. I'm good now.

No, then you keep going. Then you're the, you know, then you go to JLD, the crowd. You do all these things. You keep going. How important is it as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, for you to make sure you obviously have goals. Once you hit them, you make sure the next goal is set in place. You have to be humble and grateful for the opportunities, but you can't ever let your ego get involved because people like that, they're fucked.

I mean, you let your ego get involved and you start thinking you're the big shit and let everybody that tells you, hey, you're great and everything's great. Like, you let that get to your head, you're no longer the underdog. I always want to be the underdog. I always want to be hungry because I, until the day I die, I'll just always keep going. I always want to become, as long as I'm becoming a better version of myself. And again, look at success. Some people say, like, you look at success, you got to have the money, you got to go do this, that. Like, everybody points and looks everybody else.

They're successful. Success is what you determine for yourself. So for me, I determined that I wanted, yes, go make a lot of money, but I wanted to tell great stories. I wanted to become very good in the video space. I wanted to become the person that impacted people's lives. And I wanted to make the biggest impact on earth and empowering people, inspiring them, motivating them. And I knew the most powerful way I could do it. Yes, I can do it through speaking on stages and all that.

But I knew the most powerful way I could do it was by creating films or shows projects. I told stories that impacted people's lives in a powerful way. I'll give it an example. Probably one of the beyond thinking of original legacy. My wife has a very powerful story, recovering drug addict and also left an abusive relationship. And her story is like you would see in a movie. We created a documentary on her story. And we're premiering it at, we're premiering at Rise and Record.

And it's going to be a project that is going to help women all over the world. and for me, that's what it's about. Because her story will resonate with the one in four people. Is it one and four women that deal with domestic violence, which is sad? The people that deal with drug addiction, her story is going to help so many people. Now, the fact that I was just a small part of helping that come together is fulfillment to me. And so that's my success.

And the more I can do that with other great stories, that's what drives me. No money can buy that. That is literally my success. And so that's why I do what I do. And I think everybody needs to figure out what that thing is for them that gives them that light and gives them that fire to want to go do that. And let that be your thing. It doesn't have to be what everybody else is.

What is your thing that lights you up? That is so powerful. I mean, first off, like, I love how you and your wife are heavily involved together. and doing things like that and changing and impacting lives. And you're so spot on to when it comes to ego because if you are like, oh, I'm this and that, you wouldn't be showcasing other people like her story. You would be all about, you know, turning it on you, me, me, me. And I think that's where a lot of people get confused because they really don't understand,

you know, what really is success to them. And I think, you know, we live it a day where everything's instant. You know, you have Amazon Prime. you have all these things coming at you all the time and you just need that instant instant instant. But instead of, you know, thinking truly like what is success for me? You see it on Instagram. You see it on wherever. And you're like, oh, that person has a nice car or that person's going on vacation.

That's success. But is it really, though? That might be success to them. But is it truly success to you? So I just absolutely loved all that you just shared. and I hope everyone listening in and watching took a lot of notes. Brandon, you are incredible. I'm super excited to watch you continue this journey of your own success in impacting others.

Other than Rise and Record, I'm sorry, yeah, Rise and Record and Success in Your City, what else can people look forward to and how can people follow you? Yeah, I mean, I'm on all social media at Brandon T. Adams. I like to try to bring people into my life as I travel and get cool experiences that I just want to bring people into it. Hey, here's what's happening. Let them learn from my mentors. But yeah, follow me at Brennan T. Adams. And I would just say, if you're listening to this, if you got value of this, share it with your friends.

And hopefully it'll make them look differently at what success is and what it isn't. And I really point out the whole ego thing, don't let ego get to you. I mean, there's a difference, too, between confidence, ego, and you got to have confidence. That's one thing a lot of people lack. If you have confidence in yourself, conviction, what you're doing, people will attract you and want to help you. I mean, I think that's been my superpower, confidence in what my abilities are and actually executing on them. But there's a fine line.

And I used to be that guy that had the ego. And I'd even realize it until people let me know it. And once I was able to take the ego away, be humble and be like, hey, this is what I'm doing. It really changed the kind of trajectory of what I was doing and how I was showing up in life. So maybe everybody listening should check. Do you need an ego check? And just know, there's always somebody else out there working harder. And if you think you're the best, check again.

there's somebody else out there probably working harder than you and I think about that every day. I love it. Well, Brandon, thank you so much for being on the show. Appreciate it. And I'm looking forward to watching everything, watching your show and as well as your event. I appreciate it. Everyone listening in, make sure you guys go follow Brandon T. Adams at Brandon T. Adams. Appreciate it. Thank you so much again.