Wake Up to Wealth - Choosing Generational Wealth, Entrepreneurship, Core Focus, A Winning Mentality & Leadership Excellence with Tiffany and Josh High

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

In the previous episode of the “Wake Up to Wealth” podcast, hosted by Brandon Brittingham, his guests, Tiffany and Josh High, discussed their personal journeys in entrepreneurship and leadership.��As the conversation gets more interesting, they dig deeper into their childhood experiences, the impact of their upbringing on their mindset, and the lessons they learned along the way. This highlights the importance of having a solid support system that instilled the belief that they could achieve anything they set their minds to.Tune in with Brandon Brittingham to gain insights about Tiffany and Josh High’s journey to early life experiences in shaping one's approach to wealth on this episode of the Wake Up To Wealth podcast.Connect with Brandon Brittingham·        Facebook·        Website Connect with Tiffany and Josh High·        Website

this is wake up to wealth a podcast dedicated to helping you change the way you think about wealth and now here's your host brandon brittingham nope all right so i'm gonna jump into this um one, I'm always interested to know someone's real history because, you know, what happened to me between zero years old to or one month old to five years old is what kind of defined what I became. Sure. So talk to me about like your childhood and did it have a play on who you are today? Absolutely. So I grew up pretty poor and like't know it at first, right? So my grandparents raised me for most of my childhood, most of my life.

And the house that my grandparents lived in, I remember as a kid, they had gas heaters on the wall. And for a lot of years, we were so poor that they could only turn gas on in one room. So we would have to be in one room. But my grandparents never let me go without. So I didn't understand that we didn't have money until I did. Do you know what I mean? And then when I did understand it and like I understood the

lineage of my family, like I understood that we had been poor and we'd been poor for a really long time. So, you know, for me, like super young, I knew like I'm the only one that can change it. And I knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur because that, and I didn't, you know, I didn't know what the fuck that meant. Right. I just knew that I wanted to make money because I wanted to break the curse of, you know, the shit that we went through. And then my dad later on in life became successful. But when we were younger, you know, as we got older and people could have an adult conversation with me, a lot of people used to ask me, is your dad still alive? Right. Cause he was fucking wild shit. So he didn't become successful until later in life. Right. And at that point I had already been on my financial journey as an entrepreneur because like we were fucking poor and you know, I didn't know what else to do. So it was kind of like one of those things where at a real, real early age, I knew that I was going to be the only one that had the chance to break it. So a lot of times, you know, the first seven, eight years of a child's life, it programs their mind to who they become. And then obviously, as we grow older, we realize we've got to reprogram some things.

So everyone, in my opinion, has a couple of things that, you know, as zero to 18, like created this in them that it triggers them. So is there things that trigger you in business and as being a leader that you're working on today that you feel like came because of how you were programmed as a child? You know, that's a good question. So I think because when I knew young, we were poor, I think it made me so fucking competitive. Do you know what I mean? Almost like a negative competitive. Like I have a competitive problem. I have a competitive issue around anything and everything. Good, bad, or indifferent. Right. And then I think the other thing is I was, I was super close with my grandfather and my grandfather was a very competitive man.

And I think he instilled that in me and my dad was very competitive too. And you know, I think that got instilled in me, you know, really, really early. And for the longest time since I was a kid, you know, we were just having a conversation about purpose. You know, my purpose in life when I understood it was simply to financially take care of my grandparents. That was it. They lived in a house that was falling down. They lived in the same house for 30 plus years. You know, house was falling down. They had old gas heaters in there. They didn't have central AC, you know, all that kind of shit. So I think that it was at a very early age, I was just focused and almost in a negative way of I got to climb this mountain to take care of them. And I think it was it was such an obsession, like it damaged relationships, it damaged a lot of shit in my life because I didn't give a shit because it was just like I got to hit the target and that's the target.

When do you feel like I feel like you're always so patient and loving, like what happened in your childhood? Well, so I would say it's very similar, actually. So when I was growing up, I had there was this family of like seven boys that lived three doors down. And I grew up. I had one sibling sister. And, you know, at that age, I'm not playing with my sister. I'm going to go hang out with the guys.

Right. And the one thing about that family was whenever we played any sports, whoever lost got made fun of so bad. Like you were picked on so much and it, it like ingrained this mentality of, I will not fucking lose because I don't want to get made fun of. But then that rolled over into the classroom, math class, who's got the better grade. Then that rolled over into all sports, all games, card games, board games, the better grade. Then that rolled over into all sports, all games, card games, board games, didn't matter. Like we had to win, but that rolled into me becoming very interested in athletics. If I wasn't playing outside, you know, I could have

very easily chose to sit inside and play PlayStation 2 all day, but that's not what drove me, right? It was being with the guys. It was having that competitive nature. And man, that feeling when you win, I don't know, it's something else, man. It's an all-time high. I mean, that's probably why you're so good at sales. You still get that dopamine hit, right? 100%. It's no different.

100%. But I would say if I were looking early on, it was that coupled with my parents always told me that I could do anything I wanted. Grandfather was the same way since I was a kid. And it's unfortunate for people who don't get told that at an early age. Because if you have a parent that says, no, you can't do that. This is the way things are. You're already programmed.

Your programming is against you at that point. Yeah. So one thing I want you guys to notice is you with your grandpa, you with your dad, who always told you or in your mom that you could be whatever you wanted to be. My father was the same. And so like, we've all had this mission. We've retired our parents. And I know you bought your grandparents a house. You told me that before. Yeah. And I think ultimately the reason why I like going down this path a little bit is because how we were raised programmed us in a certain way, both positive and negative. And typically almost every entrepreneur has a story when they were a kid that defined who they became. And then once we become the entrepreneur, it's actually our like worst trait sometimes that we have to go fix.

But what was the like what led you in down to entrepreneur? How old were you and what was your first company you ever opened? So, dude, I mean, like shit. When I was probably 15 or 16, like I was an entrepreneur. I was, you know, I mean, as early as I can remember, I was always trying to sell something. Unfortunately, when I was really young, I sold illegal shit and got arrested a few times. Thankfully, before I was 17, I was only selling weed. I was just I was ahead of my time.

Right. So, you know, I got arrested a couple of times and thankfully before I was an adult. And then I was actually in the fashion industry first. And I was always had an interest in real estate, but I built a company when I was really young and I sold it when I was really young. And then, you know, I was probably 22 when I sold my first company. And then I took the money and started investing directly, like right into real estate. So that's really what got me into real estate was, you know, I had some liquid capital from a company that I sold when I was young. And then I started just buying real estate and starting investing in properties.

Have you opened a company that just miserably failed? Oh, yeah. Yeah, multiple. Shit, So many. I've back to what we were talking about earlier, you know, so good and bad to what you just said. I had somebody that told me I can do anything. So I was convinced in my mind I could do anything. And one of the things that Kent says to me all the time is just cause you can doesn't mean you should. And so there's so many things that I did where I was like, well, I'm just going to be good at anything I do. So I'll just fucking do it. One of the companies that I opened, it didn't fail miserably, but to build it and scale it, I just didn't want to go there.

I owned a moving company for a while. And it's just a tough business to go there. I owned a moving company for a while. And, uh, man, it was a, it's just a tough business to be in. No one wakes up in the morning and says, I want to fucking move furniture. And then like when OSHA signs, uh, shows up or, you know, any of that from a liability standpoint, uh, you're, you're basically insured for a fatal accident. Cause typically when a moving truck hits somebody, they kill somebody. And, uh And again, you know, it's like kind of back to the conversation of what do you want to do with your life? Who do you want to hang out with? Who do you want to be around? Listen, not knocking anybody's hustle for what you do for a

living. But in my experience, the people we were hiring to move furniture weren't the best people. And it was either they failed at everything else in life, and this was the only thing they could do, or they were young college kids. They made money. It was like lifting weights for them. But then they were unreliable because they fucking drank the night before or whatever the case was. So that was one thing that didn't work out. And I've tried a couple of things that didn't work out.

And my biggest lesson from all that is when you get away from the core of what you do, you're going to fucking lose. And then it just, it's funny. I was literally having a coaching session with somebody today that he's going to fucking be a killer. And he's already successful, but he's doing a hundred different things. And I'm like, dude, this is where you're struggling because he's like, yeah, but this is easy. And it's like, you don't even understand subconsciously what it's taking away from you. Even though it seems easy, the brain power and the energy it's sucking from you, you don't even get it. And I'm like, dude, if you focus on this one thing, you're going to fucking crush it. And so I think that was one of the biggest lessons that I've learned is through failure,

I've learned singular focus is the way to win. Yeah, I actually, this was what we spent the majority of our day on today because we had one of our consultants come in the last two days and he spelled out this big ass vision, right? I'm not going to say any names. They own like 20 companies. They failed 40, right? They might own more than that. I don't know, but either way. And they wanted me to go down that path of like all these companies. And I said, it sounds sexy, but it's, I'm not ready for it.

Right. And the reality is all of those get built around the one fucking thing. I'm good at your core business. My core business is real estate and education. We're really, really good at teaching in a way that resonates to get people results. And I enjoy it. I feel like that was what I was called to do. And so ultimately, in that model, I'm the one that produces the lead. So if I can go out and 10x the amount of leads I

get, those opportunities, I'm not going to chase them today because they become 10x bigger if I just wait for the right time. And so like even to this day, no matter how big you get, every opportunities just get bigger. Yeah. And it gets harder to turn them down. And no doubt. So it's just always good to have various mentors in your life because without them, you're going to make some costly mistakes. Yeah. And back to what you said is one of the things you said about your childhood, it just came to me about what triggers you. So I never learned patience. I only knew speed. That's how I am. So, you know, because my grandfather, since I was a kid, was sick. So I literally didn't know how much time I had. So I was so like obsessed with, you know, getting them a new house, retiring them. My grandfather, he couldn't work, but you know, financially being able to take care of my

grandmother. And so I only learned one speed and that has helped me more times than it's not, but it's hurt me a few times too, because I run so so fast I break shit. Yeah. And then as you get bigger and you build bigger companies, when you break shit, it's. Trickle effect. Yeah. I'm going through that right now. You're not. You're not. It's not like when you first start, you're getting a speeding ticket.

It's like you break shit, you wreck the car. Do you know what I mean? And it's a Ferrari. You know what I mean? So it's a different number. So that was one thing that, you know, the thing. How do you think that's impacted you in leading people? I've learned how to, it's hard to explain this, but I've learned how to balance speed and patience

at the same time, which is, sounds counterintuitive. That makes sense. I mean, think about going back to just the way ultra successful people think. The emotional intelligence that some of the most successful people think. The emotional intelligence that some of the most successful people have is top-notch. Sure. They know how they're going to react before they even react.

And then they've already planned how to overcompensate their natural reaction. It's insane. Yeah. I'm working on that right now. I'm just like you. I don't have no patience. I run a hundred miles an hour.

And the things that it's impacted for me in the business life is, for example, I write very direct emails. Like for me at this level, I'm like, I don't got time to write these emails. Dude, I have this conversation with my girlfriend all the time. I'm like, dude, you can't say that. Well, she's like, but that, and I'm like, but you gotta understand how that sounds in an email. Like, I get that's how you are and you're direct like that. But somebody you're going to come off as an asshole. So I'll never forget.

I was like 23. I'm still working on it. But my boss pulls me in and he's like, I got to give you one piece of advice. He's like, your emails piss people off. Yeah. I got told a month ago that I'm still pissing people off emails. But yeah, I mean, I think that one thing, because I like talking about the childhood

and comparing it to where you got, because I think some people think, well, why can't, why haven't I become this entrepreneur? What is it that separates us? And I think it's like some crazy stat, like 90 or 95% of entrepreneurs when they were a child,

typically lived in some form of chaos. So it didn't mean they had to be in poverty, but maybe they had rich parents that were never around and they always had to go figure out how to get to practice. How do I do this? My parents aren't around. Maybe they were poor and they had no choice. They had to develop money at an early age. And so I don't know about you, but like, because I went through that, whenever we're actually just even keel at work and there's like you should ask him I'm actually pretty crazy like if I don't see massive progress every single day I come home and I don't sleep and he's like why can't you fucking sleep I'm like how can anyone sleep like I'm 100 miles an hour I have no patience how the fuck do people sleep when let's

till we conquered this goal? And so it's hurt me personally, not just as like a leader, cause I moved too fast sometimes. Um, but I feel like I put myself through a lot of stress when I need to start learning how to like, choose to control that down. A hundred percent. I kid you not. She will go whole nights with no sleep, wake up the next day and rattling shit off again. First thing, I'm like, how in the hell do you do this? I mean, so what I've had to learn with that was I've just had to learn how to control emotion to be calm because also from a leadership standpoint, where I failed miserably when I first started leading other people is like, I just didn't understand why they wouldn't do it the way that I would do it.

And then I would just get frustrated and I get emotional and I'd fucking yell and be like, you're a fucking dipshit. And, you know, I just learned that, you know, it's just not going to work. Right. So, you know, the thing that I had to learn, which now in my organization, what's kind of cool is like everybody knows that like I'm very calm under pressure but if I get pissed off like they know I'm really pissed off right and um unfortunately sometimes you got to have those tough conversations but when I when they see me get pissed off the needle moves pretty quick because they're like, fuck, you know, we pissed dad off.

Like, what the fuck? But what I've had to learn is leadership, accountability with other people is all self-discovery. And a book you should read if you've never read it, it's Change or Die. It is a book that taught me a lot about accountability. And one of the premises of that book is you think you can tell somebody to do something that's going to change their behavior. It won't because someone can go to the doctor and be told, if you don't change the way you live, you're going to die and they die, right?

And what that book does is it walks you through the art of accountability of how you change another human's behavior. And what that is, is all self-discovery. It is putting them in the position and making them understand that they're not doing what they're doing because of them and not you. And that was, and I hired a coach to teach me how to do this. He still coaches me to this day, John Shetblak. And he taught me a lot about leading other people through accountability. And in order to do that, I had to learn how to control emotion.

And that was probably one of the hardest things for me to do, because I think as an entrepreneur, one of the things that helps you is your passion and your raw emotion. Being able to channel that into something positive is what helps you scale companies. However, when you channel it negative and you fucking yell at people, right? You guys have kids. Like I remember as a kid, like when my dad would yell at me, I would not fucking do whatever he said. In fact, I do the opposite. And that was kind of the other thing is one of the biggest things that I learned of leading people is you got to keep them in competitive tension. You can't put them in stress. If you put them in stress, you shut them down. If you put them in competitive tension,

the right people will rise to the occasion. If you put them in stress, that's yelling at them. Like, here's another thing that I learned through the accountability process of managing emotion. When somebody doesn't do something they're supposed to do, I don't ask why, because why is a word of judgment and it shuts people down. Do you know what I mean? Favorite thing to say is what got in the way, right? What do you think they say? What got in the way right what do you think they say what got in the way i just didn't fucking do it versus why i say why to you're automatically going to get defensive well the fucking lead person that person yeah the lead sucked this to that the phones of this or that hey let me ask you a question what got in the way fuck i just didn't do it. You know what I mean? And then, so like learning that was very, very difficult,

but for me, it gave me the ability to lead other people so much better. And I still have days when I, I still have days when I just want to go off the fucking deep end and flip out. And to earlier, I didn't say this, but you put it in my head when we were talking. It's like, if you're an entrepreneur

and at least twice a week, you don't want to burn it down and work at McDonald's. Like, you're not doing it right. Oh, yeah. I'm like a daily thing for me. That's what I'm saying. You know what I mean? But it's learning to control and manage that emotion because you are the heartbeat of your

organization. And I'm a big energy person. I mean, people can sense it on you and they can feel it on you. And, you know, I've just learned to be able to try to compartmentalize that so that I'm not stressing other fucking people out. Yeah, I'm going to read that book. I think that's a great idea. I feel like now that you say that, I feel like I do catch myself asking that why question. I can see how it shuts people down. Because we're wired that way.

Yeah. You know, you're wired that day. And then what it creates is it creates a feedback loop of, of fear and anxiety and all that between you and the other person and the whole thing. And, um, you know, a couple of weeks ago, one of my top producers was, was in a rut and, uh, you know, he was just saying some off the wall shit. And, and, you know, I was like, well, let me ask you a question. How many calls you making? You know, what's this? What's that? You know, what's your gym routine? What are you doing outside of? And then the end of the conversation, he's like, man, you're right. I just need to have this conversation with you. But I wasn't defensive. Do you know what I mean? I was like, why aren't you doing this? Why aren't you doing that? Right. I was like, all right, so let's look at it from both sides. Let's look at what's your daily activities. Why are you off? Do you know what I mean? Because you're usually on. So, and this isn't the first time you and I've had this, had to have this conversation. So why are you off? And then, and you know, it was like, well, this or that. And I was like, well, I can take that

responsibility off you. I'll take it off you. You've earned the right. Do you want me to take it off you? Well, no, I don't really. And then then so we got to the look man i'm just not doing i'm supposed to be doing it's my fault do you know i mean versus you know back in the day those conversations used to be very different it's like motherfucker you're lazy motherfucker ain't you doing it yeah oh man i thought you were fucking this and you're that you're producer. Now you're bitching at me. So it was, I think, also like learning empathy and learning, because I used to just be such a hard motherfucker and just to be like, you're a bitch.

Like, you know, like, don't be a little bitch. Like, you know, grab yourself by the bootstraps, fucking get it done. And I just realized not everybody's built like that. And you got to have empathy for people. And ultimately, if we are truly king and queen makers, I have to find out the shit inside of you that's going to make you tick and that's going to make you move the needle. And for you and you might be different than it is for me or him or whatever.

And so that's another thing that I've had to learn in leadership is that there's different versions of how you have to coach and lead people. And that also is a challenge because some people want to be coached hard. I want to be coached hard. But some people are like, I got to put my arm around you because I can't coach you as hard because I'm going to fucking break you if I do. So learning that dynamic too is so well. You should talk about above the line

and how we built our culture building playbook because it goes in line with that. And it also like if there is a component, though, where you want people to compete, you want them to have a healthy level of tension. And you exactly. Yeah. When you said that, I was like, I love that. Yeah. But we follow Urban Meyer's culture building playbook above the line. Yeah. But we follow Urban Meyer's culture building playbook above the line. Yeah.

And so one of the big things we teach in our workshop is like you have to create a theme for your environment. Yeah. So that everyone knows like the standard and the theme that we operate by. And ours, I don't know if you're wearing it. Ours is called 1% Better Every Day. And in Urban Meyer's book, he doesn't believe in BCD and all that bitching, complaining, defending. And when he coached football, he painted a red line on the football field. And when you stepped over that line, like you had to leave everything in your personal life behind. And if he heard anything, he'd make you go back over the line and until you decided to change it, you could come back so when you walk into our office we have a red tape on the door and so when you walk across the tape it's hey this is your moment leave whatever shit you have going on at home at home because we all got it we all have death disease cancers everything's happening but when

you step foot in here it's time to win yeah and so um because we keep this such open environment of like guys we're here for a reason. We're a family. We're a unit. We're here to love you for you and all that. But when you come in here, like leave that shit at the door because it impacts everyone in this environment. Yeah.

So because we've put it out there as like a part of our culture, like especially sales guys, right? They're talking to distress people all the time. So when they go through a rut or whatever or they bitch about something they get off the phone and complain because of the culture building playbook we built they can say hey man pull them by the shirt red tape go cross the line yeah and it's just like a fun reminder of like bro get out the door and decide when you want to come back because we don't accept bitching in here. I like that. But it makes it like fun. Yeah, no, it does.

And so... And an opportunity to police each other too. Yeah, so like then they get to hold each other accountable in a fun way. Yeah. We are careful with like us saying go back out the door, but we encourage like our team leads to take that role. Of course.

So that they can be the backup, we come and be the mayor or whatever, but... No, that's awesome. I mean, so one of the things we come and be the mayor or whatever but um no i like that's that's awesome i mean uh so one of the things we do from a game of gamification is we give away wwe belts yeah yeah and so i mean they love that like that's a big deal and then the thing that's exciting to me is when someone gets it they never got it before oh yeah you know that's another thing and another thing that we do, every sales meeting, every meeting we get together, it's the first thing is recite core values.

And everybody's got to go around the room. And one of our core values that it's a big one for us is represent what winning looks like at all times. So that means, to your point, not just in this office, when you leave here, you still represent us and you still represent what winning looks like at all times. So a lot of that, to your point, the core values polices the shit. And so if we get somebody new in, like I always say, if you guys, you want to get rid of somebody, come talk to me, tell me what core values they violated. And I can tell you, like, as our culture has gotten better, them policing it, it happens so much faster. Yeah. It's like a weekend. They're like, no, it's not going to work.

It's like, well, why? It's like, well, they violate FYE, which fuck your excuses. Do you know what I mean? So they don't represent what winning looks like. You know, whatever it is, they're coming to us right away and telling us. Yeah. While we're on the core value topic, it's been mind blowing to me at our two day workshops. We cover recruiting, onboarding on the second day and we talk about core values. And so the first question I'll ask is, hey, who in here just thinks core values is a fluffy thing?

And you'd be blown away. I was going to say everybody. And so most people, they don't get it. I was going to say everybody. Most people, they don't get it. I'm like, wait a second. So what standard do you hold people by? Exactly. Your core values drive your culture and culture is what's going to drive results for the company. A hundred percent. And so by the time we get done with the exercise, we teach them, everyone's like, oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. I got to do this. And so one thing that we teach them to do is to open their mind to like, let's just say I have, so we have our community has core values, right?

So I say, hey, I'm only going to point out a few, but let's just say everyone in this room, say someone gets up, stands up, keeps going out to the hall, coming back in, coming back in, because one of them's respect. And do you think that's respectful? No, but if I didn't have that up

on the core value banner, I wouldn't have a standard to hold him to. But don't you guys all want me to hold that person to a standard yeah that's a core value 100 um if i am on a zoom session and all and any of you guys decide to join our six-month program and we're on a zoom and someone is fucking off or not being respectful or hell they get on and they tell a story and they just and they tell the same damn struggle the week that next week. And then the week after and everyone's like, dude, you take action or get out. Just waste the 10 minutes of this.

So we have a, we have a core value in the community. Excellence. It's 11 out of 10 mentality. And if you don't have a mentality, you're fucking getting kicked out. Right. So I give these examples before they decide to join the community and say, here's the core values and here is examples of what we will tolerate and what we won't. And if you ever break any of these, we will kick you out.

And we do. And so I think when we do that, it also sets the standard that we're serious. So in the interview process, when hiring an employee, you can do an exercise where, you know, some people we used to say, hey, what's your number three core values and why? And that's, you know, they'll make shit up. But if you say, hey, on the whiteboard right now, I'm going to draw up who's the three people you have to know them. They have to know you. So you can't say Michael Jordan. He doesn't know you. So who is in your life? I'm going to name him up. I want five traits under them of why you look up to them. So, you know, they're like caught off guard. And so they're, you know, it's normally like moms, wives, whatever. And we go through the

thing and what you'll see is amongst the five. So there's 15, you'll see a common trend and I'll circle them and I'll say, okay, based on what you said, these are probably the two to three that align with all of them. Do you agree that that is a core value to you? And they'll be like, yeah, I guess it is. Okay, great. Because it either aligns with me or it doesn't. And here's our core values. And we go over those afterwards. And so it's just another exercise to really get to know someone at a deeper level and make them truly think, like, what do I stand for? And we do that exercise at the event. So we'll call someone out, bring them up, do that. And I think that we always call someone up

that doesn't believe in core values. And then by the end of it, they're like, yeah, yeah, I do have standards. And I'm like, yeah. And you got to figure out how to put that in the workplace because if right now

you're operating without them, you're probably losing people and you don't even know it yet. It's just a matter of time. Well, it's unfortunate. I think the stigma comes from people who were in corporate where it was just words on paper.

Yeah. It wasn't even on the wall. Nothing. It didn't mean anything. It was empty words. Yeah. Yeah. And having core values makes it easier to fire people.

I mean, it does. If you don't have core values, you're probably not firing people through the same process and system. You're just winging it. Yep. Yeah. I mean, like you said, they fire themselves at that point. 100%. Because if you bring them in the room and you hold them truly, you love someone so deeply and you truly care to get them where they want to go and they just can't, they don't have the skill set, they'll tell you. And if they're not living to a core value standard, they'll tell you because

they're going to look up at the thing and know that we talk about core values in every meeting, every day. So if you aren't living to that standard, you're going to just come to me without me having to come fire you. Well, and most human beings, unless you're really fucked up, if you're in an environment

of accountability and core values and you can't live up to that standard or you're not going to participate, you'll tap out. I mean, you will. Do you know what I mean? Eventually you will because you can't hold yourself to the standard and you're living a lie every day and no one wants to do that. It's only a matter of time. So a couple of quick questions. So when you, you know, you failed a few companies, you got into real estate, you're moving 100 miles an hour. At what point did you say,

I'm going all in on something? And you blew it up. What was the first thing that you blew up? And then one thing that I personally went through was, I grew, for example, education so big now. All these opportunities are coming at me. And it's not even like saying no to them. It's like, I don't even know how to structure them. i've never done this yeah how do i learn i feel stupid asking my mentors sometimes so like how did you go to that next level um one going all in on something and

then two once you grew it so big how did you know how to get to the next stage? So, you know, the first thing was, you know, I bought a couple of, so, you know, I owned a couple of different companies in the fashion world. One of the companies that I owned was, you know, if you're a man, you come into my store, we would tailor a suit. I'd send your measurements to Italy. I'd have it made. It was very intimate. We knew our customers. It was a high level customer service. And then I also had a bunch of celebrity clients because I was good friends with a guy in New York who was one of the only people in the world that could get a 6X Louis Vuitton or a Gucci or whatever. He's actually to this day, he's a guy named Dapper Dan. He's the only person ever that Gucci is allowed to have a store that wasn't a Gucci store. He has a Gucci store in Harlem. You can go get tailored and he'll make you a Gucci outfit from Gucci.

And so like I had this high level of service, customer service that I learned. And then I go to go buy my first investment property. And I was like, what the fuck is this? Like the experience I had with the real estate agent, I was like, holy shit, I did their entire job. They didn't know fucking shit about Dick. And it was a horrible experience. So then I was like, I went and got my real estate license and I only got my real estate license because I wanted to invest in and control my own deals. And like the third week I was in there, you know, I'm not going to catch shit from my industry from saying this, but it's the fucking truth. I was like, holy shit, dude, if this is what is considered good, then I can be great. And so I was like, I just want to be the number one agent and opportunities will come out of that, which did. The investment side grew in tandem with it. And then kind of the purpose, I started to grow and it was like, this is cool I mean? I was felt lonely and you know, I felt like, and also I was coming

in the office and I was kicking everybody's ass so bad that it was like, I was the only positive in a negative environment. And it was just not a good, it wasn't a good feeling. So I was like, I got to build my own shit. I got to get out of this building. And then to your point, I was sitting in the office and I'd watch a new agent come in and I'd be like, they ain't gonna make it. You know what I mean? They ain't gonna make it. They ain't gonna make it. They ain't gonna make it. And so then it was kind of almost like at the same time, you know, I got that calling of like, I know I can help other people and I know I can help them, you know, cause like when I started, like there wasn't these big like coaches or

trainers or any of this shit. It was like the training was, yo, figure it out, figure it out, kid, good luck. And so I was like, I think I could build a team, you know, and I think I'd be really, really good at it. And so this is kind of like, I believe in speaking shit into existence and positive visualization. So I had this huge brand, Brandon Brittingham, where I am, easy name to recognize. Brittingham is an old English family from where I'm from. We got a lineage back to the 1700s. I got about 300 fucking people I'm related to where I live at. So it was kind of like I'd built this big brand off my name and I switched it to

the Maryland, the Maryland group of law and foster. And everybody told me I was crazy. And the day I did it, I said, it's because we're going to be number one in the state. And I want the consumer to recognize us as the representative of this state. So that's why I'm going to change the name to that. So it was three years from the day I made the name change, we became number one in the state. Because in my head, it was I'm projecting where I want to be, right? So I went all in on the agent first, and then I went all in on the team. Simultaneously, I'm building the investment side. So a lot of people look at it and they're like, man, you do all this shit.

I want to do it all. And it's like, dude, it took me 15 years. Do you know what I mean? I started young. My first five years, I had to learn how to be a really, really good agent. I had to master sales. My second five years, I had to master marketing, growing a brand. My third five years, I had to master leadership. If I didn't master those three skills, none of it fucking matters. I can't build any company on any foundation without doing those three, right? So a lot of times people look at me and they're like, oh, it looks easy. It's this, it's that. And it's like, no, you don't understand. I did a lot of shit before all this stuff made sense. And kind of to your point, what you said earlier, it all came out foundationally of being really

good at real estate sales. Then I can bolt all the other shit onto it. The investment side, everything came out of it. So, you know, that's kind of what happened. And anytime I fucked up, it's when I went outside of that core principle. Like that's where I lost money or got distracted or whatever. So now it's kind of like, I kind of got three things that I'm just really focused on and working on every day. And it's like, if it's not part of those three,

no, just, I'm going to say no to it. Do you know what I mean? And like, I get DMs from people all the time, like, Oh, this, I just know it's a complete sentence. I don't need you to fucking explain anything to you. It's just no. That's funny. That's funny. So how many employees do you have now across all your companies? We'll call it team members. It's like an estimate. It's probably, I mean, through everybody we employ and all the different things, it's probably close to 100. Yeah. So what's something right now that you feel you, because at every level, right, in order to become the next, we got to become who it takes to achieve it. So like, what are you trying to become right now? Well, let me answer that question a different way.

I'll tell you what I'm really struggling with. And what I'm really struggling with is I am so addicted to the sale. We are too. Just a sale in general. Whatever it is, I don't give a shit. Yeah. And man, I am struggling big time with leveling up. I am the CEO of all the companies.

And I'm struggling with not being in the sale every day. Do you know what I mean? And I'm really struggling with that. And so a couple of my coaches, this is not advice to anybody that's listening, by the way. This is just, I think I'm a unicorn when it comes to this. Two of my mentor coaches made a compromise and they're like, all right, we're going to cut your sales down to like 20% of what you're doing. Because if we feel, if we take you down to zero, you won't feel fulfilled and you'll just stop. Right. Which, which happened to me last year. I tried to completely transition into the CEO role and I could, I hated it. Right. I hated it because I wasn't getting

the dopamine hit. I wasn't having the interaction with other human beings. You know what I mean? It's kind of like, you know, even though Michael Jordan just sold the Hornets for a billion dollars, when he first became a team owner, he wasn't very good. One of the things that Michael Jordan says, if you ever hear him interview it, he's like on the court, I could control the outcome of the game. When I became an owner, I could no longer control the outcome, but so much because I was dependent on my players, right? So one of the things for me, I think that I struggled with, and to this day, I still struggle with is, yes, I do sit in the CEO role, but man, I've got to have that. It's like crack to me, dude. Like I gotta have that dopamine hit. And I've got to, and I, and, and, and the thing is, is that, um, you know, John Chet Black,

one of my coaches, he's like, you're probably one of a handful of rare examples where I'd say it's okay. Do you know what I mean? He's like, yeah, obviously you can't go do five, 600 sales a year, but he's like, if that's what your fulfillment is and that's what makes you happy. And you know, what's kind of funny is, I don't know if you guys remember this or not, but at the boardroom we were at, Kent's brother talked about that and he talked about, he transitioned into it and he hated it. And even though he's an executive role, he's still involved in some of the sales shit. And then after that, him and I, I had a long conversation with him about it. And he's like, bro, just because everybody tells you that, it doesn't mean that it's right for you.

So I think that it's one of those things where, again, I'm not telling anybody this is advice that you should do i think i can walk a hybrid of it and it makes me happy yeah i was just gonna say look i think one thing i've learned along like this path is money's money and like we are the same we can't get away from i was just literally we, we're talking about it this morning. I'm like, Josh, dude, you're still involved with every damn deal. And he's like, I love it. Yeah. You know?

And right as we were talking, I just looked at him and I said, man, I think I have an idea. Because I'm the same. Like, I love being involved. And one of our mentors this week flew to our office and he was like, you've got to remove yourself from this, this, this, and this. And I'm like, but wait, I love doing that. So does Josh. So, and when we do it, especially like, for example, he's like, you need to replace yourself on stage, get other people. And I'm like, I agree to some degree, but we love stage. Yeah. And me too.

And then when we get on stage, we have a conversion rate, by the way, when no one can match us in the industry when it comes to converting to our high ticket. Our last event, we converted 67% of the room and the only reason

why we didn't convert the rest was because we didn't want them to convert. Right. And, and like, we love it. It's our dopamine hit.

We feel fulfilled. We're changing lives. And so I said, why don't, instead of replacing me on stage because I love it, why don't I replace myself as the CEO? Yeah. And why do I got to be the head seat? Why can't I hire that person? I don't need all the money. Why don't I make someone else wealthy? Let them go build the

damn thing with me and put me on stage doing the things that I love to do and watch how much more money we make. Yeah, exactly. I agree with you a hundred percent on that. So I think maybe you should challenge yourself to say like, if that's what you love doing and it makes drives the company, why don't you replace yourself in the CEO seat? Well, I think the most important piece is, is like you almost move yourself into, you do move yourself into the owner's box at that point, but you're also sitting in another seat at the same. I mean, it's almost like I got to sit as a sales manager too, you know, and be in sales and like be in the pit of sale. Like I do, like I just, and I got to go out and still hunt like 10 or 15 deals a month.

If not, I just don't feel right. And it's not the money, man. It's not. That's what I was going to ask. It's not. What is it about like the sale that, that you love and need so much? It's purpose. It is purpose.

It's competitive. It's purpose. It is purpose. It's competitive. It's purpose. It's, you know, like, I don't, you know, not that I should even care anymore, but like, I don't know, man. But what if you helped, I mean, obviously you've done this, you've coached plenty of people on your team.

You don't get that same high from coaching someone else to compete at that level and win at that level? I do. And I don't want to say this and sound like I have too big of an ego, but I was on average selling 300 to 400 houses a year. I mean, myself. It's over a house a day. Yeah. I mean, you have companies that have 50, 60 agents that don't sell that. I was doing that shit on my own and I was doing it with my eyes closed on top of running multiple other companies. Do you know what I mean?

So it was kind of like, you know, not that I lost my purpose, but it was like that was the driving force of like so many different things. And it was the thing that made me get up every day and want to solve all these challenges and deal with all this. And at the end of the day, I was helping people and I knew I was good at it. So I was probably the best one to serve them to do it. And so I just, I was able to build it to a point though where my right hand can handle a lot. And that's another thing that changed is I hired the right person that could help me handle three or 400 deals a year, right. And not get burned out and still do a bunch of other shit. But I still love to be in the negotiation. Shit's going wrong. Let me deal with it. You know what I mean? Like that side of it, like I just, I can't remove myself from it,

you know? And what's actually kind of crazy is talking relationship. You know, we were, I was sitting at home one night eating dinner, my girlfriend, and she's like, she's like, dude, something's off. She's like, you're sitting in the CEO. She's like, she's like, what is revenue down? Like what's wrong? And I was like, no, I mean, shit's going, they're fucking printing money. Like it's, and she's like, well, what, why are you not happy? And I'm like, cause I'm removed's going they're fucking printing money like it's and she's like well what why are you not happy and I'm like because I'm removed from the sale and she's like yeah dude she's like I don't know you can't be out of the sale like she's like I've known you your whole life you just can't be do you know what I mean like so that was again that was the compromise that is like I got to be involved in to some level. Yep. We're the same. We're

struggling with the same thing right now. Tips like that with marketing. I'm very similar. I'm getting pissed off because my, even my like COO is like, get out of the way. Let me do my job. You're getting, you keep stepping in, stepping in. I'm like, no, if I'm not involved, I don't even want to do this. Yeah. Like I love, like people think I'm crazy. I'll wake up, I'll stare at all these spreadsheets. I'll create all this stuff. And I'll be like, every time a sale comes in from what I create, I'm like, fuck yes, fuck yes, fuck yes.

And people don't get it. They think I'm crazy. I'm like, but it's, I love selling. I love being in the grind. I love feeling that level of connection to something that got me to where I'm at. Well, you love building too. I love building. And love being in the grind. I love feeling that level of connection to something that got me to where I'm at. Well, you love building too. I love building. And that's part of it. And that, and see, that's the other thing too, is I felt ironically, I felt when I was out of the sale, I felt like I wasn't building anymore. So, you know, I think that was a challenge as

well. It's harder to see the progress and the CEO seat. It is. of an organization of that size yeah yeah 100 on a daily basis and that could be a big part of it too because i mean think about like you have to see the needle moving i mean you talked about how you only you only knew one speed growing up and that's how you built these businesses and if you ever get the inkling whatsoever that it ain't moving at that speed you start to get a little anxious. I want to go break shit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I always get,

I'm like always insane when I, you know, when I see people at the office and I don't want to say like clock in, clock out, but like I will watch them walk out at, you know, five,

six o'clock and I'm like, man, if I were you and you really think you want to hit this income, like I would be fucking here until nine, 10, and this is what I would be hit this income, like I would be fucking here until 9, 10, and this is what I would be doing. Yeah.

But, you know, that's why we sit in the owner's box, I guess. No question. Yeah, man. So what do you think is next? So, you know, we were kind of talking about the acquisition company. You know, we want to scale that to a million dollars in revenue. Then we want to do about $100 acquisition company, you know, we want to scale that to a million dollars in revenue. Then we want to do about a hundred million and, you know, on the multifamily side, you know, raise the money and build that out. And then, you know, so I was going on, on the speaker's journey that I was on and, you know, 16 months ago, I wrote down all the stages I wanted to speak on and I've spoken on all of them.

So, you know, I want to continue speaking, but I climbed that mountain pretty quick. And so now I just got to redo that fucking list, you know, and I love that. I do enjoy getting on stage and speaking. So, you know, I want to continue doing that and just continue building, building companies that are, are focused on the core business that we do. And then, you know, the other thing that I think we're super aligned on is I get a ton of fulfillment out of bringing people in my organization and then financially changing their lives. I don't know if you guys know this, uh, in April i brought my uh right hand charlene on on stage she didn't know and i surprised her and i paid her house off on stage so shit like that is cool and like you know i took this woman she's making 60 grand a year when she met me she's got a special

needs uh child that is expensive for the shit she's got to deal with. And she's a single mom with two kids. And she had a fuck ton of talent. And she was working for somebody that didn't appreciate her and underpaid her. And what's wild about speaking things into existence and energy and all this kind of shit that, and this, I believe it is when I went to hire for that position, I wrote a job description based on her in real life. Right. So I wrote the job description based on her. She worked for a competitor and I put it out there and she applied, she called me, she called me and she's like, man,

this ad sounds like me. Why didn't you call me? And I said, well, I didn't think I could hire you. You know what I mean? I obviously did not know the – because you just don't know what you don't know. I thought who she was with, she was being taken care of, whatever the case is. And we had a conversation and she's like, dude, I'll come with you two weeks from now. And she was like, I only need to make this amount of money and I'll be good. And like, dude, she's fucking surpassed that, you know, car paid for, house paid for. Financially, regardless of wherever she ends up the rest of her life, I think she were fucking soulmates.

But her house, you know, she'll never have to worry about house payment the rest of her fucking life. And, you know, I bought her a car, paid it off, you know, same thing. So, um, you know, shit like that. And then bring in, you know, people into my organization time after time, people told them they wouldn't be shit. They're not going to, you know, whatever the case is, they come from poverty or they come from a poor family or whatever, that grit background, that obstacle background. And then, you know, we had a quarterly meeting the other week, and I have got an immigrant agent who's just fucking absolutely crushing it. And, dude, like she cried in our quarterly meeting.

Like, dude, this shit has changed my life. Do you know what I mean? And she's like, I've never had mentors and people support me like you guys. So I think just continue doing that. It's cool to measure where you're at on how many lives you're impacting. I think that's the dopamine hit too. Do you know what I mean? But it's kind of like, we just need it nonstop. So I think that all plays into the mission of impacting as many people as you can, getting on stages, bringing more people in, building them up, teaching them how to invest in real estate because I know it's going to change their financial future. All those kinds of things are what's fulfilling, and I think that's part of the core mission. Just continue, make as many kings and queens as I can.

I think that's another thing that I'm obsessed with. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of Wake Up To Wealth. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts.

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