Bryant Dawson’s journey began as a grocery store bag boy earning $5.15 an hour while balancing young fatherhood in high school. Shortly after graduating, he pursued a welding job in the oil and gas industry, while his girlfriend, now his wife Tammy, stayed in school. Despite a background shaped by a limited mindset, Bryant dreamed of real estate. At 19, inspired by a colleague’s advice, he bought his first investment property. Working grueling 84-hour weeks to fund his investments, he eventually found success in house flipping. Today, Bryant has flipped over 2,000 units, built a portfolio of rental properties, and achieved financial freedom for himself and others, proving that resilience and vision can lead to remarkable success.
Here’s some of the topics we covered:
- Bryant’s First Investment as a Teen
- From Fix & Flips to Multifamily Mastery
- Mobile Home Infrastructure Secrets You Need to Know
- America’s Housing Crisis
- Real Estate Market Predictions
- Why Getting a Mentor Early Is Your Shortcut to Success
- The Power Players You NEED to Partner With in Multifamily
- Bryant’s Must-Read Book Recommendations
- Essential Business Books That Will Supercharge Your Growth
To find out more about partnering or investing in a multifamily deal: Text Partner to 72345 or email Partner@RodKhleif.com
Full Transcript Below
00:00:00:00 – 00:00:21:11
Rod
Welcome to another edition of Life Time Cash Flow through real estate investing. I’m Rod Khleif, and I am thrilled that you’re here. You’re really going to enjoy today’s, interview, with a gentleman named Brian Dawson. Bryant, has a very interesting story. He’s in multiple asset classes. Yes, out of the Kansas City market. And, yeah, really looking forward to getting into the different asset classes with him.
00:00:21:11 – 00:00:33:16
Rod
And really, we’re going to talk about the election that’s coming right up. We’re going to talk about economic uncertainty, what’s happening there, bridge and some other things where we feel real estate’s headed. So you don’t want to tune this one out. Welcome to the show, brother man.
00:00:33:16 – 00:00:35:06
Bryant
Thanks for having me.
00:00:35:08 – 00:00:45:17
Rod
I appreciate you coming in for this. And, I’m honored. So why don’t we start by having you tell a little bit about your story? You know where you came from. I know you were a bag boy for five bucks an hour.
00:00:45:17 – 00:00:46:05
Bryant
Five bucks.
00:00:46:05 – 00:00:47:19
Rod
An hour? Yeah.
00:00:47:21 – 00:01:03:00
Bryant
So I I’ve got a little bit of an interesting background. I come from a little town in southeast Missouri. I think the average wage still there today is like 35,000 bucks a year. Wow. And, me and my wife had both of our. My wife now was my girlfriend, then had both of our kids in high school.
00:01:03:00 – 00:01:20:21
Bryant
So I had to learn work ethic pretty young, started out as a bag boy at a grocery store, $5.15 an hour and, started an oil and gas just shortly after that. And everybody told me to get into real estate. And, you know, I bought my first investment property at 19. And then it was, you know, how old are you now?
00:01:20:23 – 00:01:21:23
Bryant
35. Okay.
00:01:21:23 – 00:01:33:14
Rod
Yep. First one at 19. I buy mine at 18, but just barely beat you. That’s awesome. Oh, yeah. But please continue and then remind me to tell you about my first one, because it was a real joke of a shit show. But yeah. Please continue.
00:01:33:16 – 00:01:47:11
Bryant
So I worked in oil and gas for quite some time. Doing what? I, I started out as a welder, initially, and then, you know, 2008 came, and that was not a great time for oil and gas workers. And I figured out that.
00:01:47:12 – 00:01:49:06
Rod
No, that so that got impacted by the crash.
00:01:49:07 – 00:02:03:18
Bryant
Oh, yeah. Pretty, pretty heavily. You know, anytime oil starts to drop below $50 a barrel, it’s it’s rough. And I realized that I couldn’t just rely on being a welder, so I learned how to, pipe that, that way I had two skills.
00:02:03:20 – 00:02:05:13
Rod
Those are pretty high paying skills from what I hear.
00:02:05:18 – 00:02:31:07
Bryant
There are, you know, I mean, 120 to 150,000 a year. Yeah. So I came out of high school essentially making six figures, which was which was really important to the real estate bill. Sure. And I was just in the right place at the right time, honestly, in that. But, worked my way up through management in that, you know, consistently trading my active income for this thing that I was after was passive income.
00:02:31:09 – 00:02:34:21
Bryant
But it was pretty much just two active income streams because I would.
00:02:34:23 – 00:02:36:03
Rod
Because you’re managing yourself.
00:02:36:03 – 00:02:41:17
Bryant
I manage it myself. I can’t pay anybody else to do it. Right. So that’s that’s kind of what’s led me to.
00:02:41:17 – 00:02:43:22
Rod
Well. I said that was it.
00:02:44:00 – 00:02:45:12
Bryant
Yeah, that was it. I mean.
00:02:45:14 – 00:02:54:01
Rod
So what got you to get into real estate? I mean, what was the what was the epiphany or the you know, the the the moment that you realized, okay, man, I got to do this.
00:02:54:01 – 00:03:03:12
Bryant
Yeah. I mean, a couple things. So my, my grandparents or my grandpa especially told me from a young age, son, they’re not making any more real estate.
00:03:03:14 – 00:03:04:09
Rod
I like it.
00:03:04:11 – 00:03:31:10
Bryant
And, and so that stuck with me, and I really didn’t know what the hell that meant, honestly. And, whenever I turned 16, he passed away and willed me a piece of property. And so I have this piece of property now, but I have no idea what to do with it. And and then my CPA later on, after I make my first $100,000, he’s like, hey, you, you should probably think about doing some investing.
00:03:31:11 – 00:03:32:07
Bryant
And this is, I mean, to.
00:03:32:07 – 00:03:33:10
Rod
Mitigate your tax liability.
00:03:33:10 – 00:03:51:02
Bryant
To mitigate my tax liability. I have no idea what he means at this time. I’m 18 years old in the. He says you should invest in real estate. Well, he was a farming, CPA, so he’s like, land is not going anywhere, right? Well, I associate that immediately with my. What my grandpa told me.
00:03:51:02 – 00:03:54:00
Rod
So that you don’t get write offs on the land.
00:03:54:02 – 00:03:54:15
Bryant
You don’t.
00:03:54:15 – 00:03:56:04
Rod
Know. Okay.
00:03:56:06 – 00:03:58:09
Bryant
But but I didn’t know that at the time. Right.
00:03:58:09 – 00:03:58:16
Rod
Okay.
00:03:58:16 – 00:04:08:06
Bryant
Right. So the first piece of investment property that I buy is a piece of land. A piece of land in a coming up development. Okay, area. And then I start buying rentals shortly after that.
00:04:08:06 – 00:04:11:03
Rod
Okay. And this is in the Kansas City general area. This is.
00:04:11:03 – 00:04:12:01
Bryant
In southeast.
00:04:12:01 – 00:04:30:02
Rod
Missouri. Oh, in Missouri. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And, and so I know you’ve you’ve had like 900 units of multifamily and mobile home parks, so far. When, when did you move into mobile home parks and what, what prompted that?
00:04:30:08 – 00:04:50:19
Bryant
Well, you know, I mean, I think a big part that that a lot of people miss is that I was I was really a flipper to start off with. Okay. Because I was making good money in oil and gas, and, and I, I wasn’t, I wasn’t, you know, as, as you start getting into those golden handcuffs, you know, you make more money and you want a bigger truck and you’re buying a bigger house and all these things.
00:04:50:21 – 00:05:16:13
Bryant
And I pretty much stayed away from those. But I did understand that I couldn’t massively scale my portfolio with the salary that I was making. So I took some of that and traded it for for fix and flips. And I did a whole bunch of fixing flips for really too long. And then it wasn’t till many years later that I actually got into multifamily, and the mobile home parks, which is kind of my, my main focus.
00:05:16:13 – 00:05:20:13
Rod
Do you regret any of those flips? Do you regret not holding on to any of them?
00:05:20:16 – 00:05:24:18
Bryant
I mean, you know, obviously everybody I think regrets selling a piece of real estate.
00:05:24:18 – 00:05:41:10
Rod
Okay. Well, I just did. I’d like them to hear it. Okay. Because there’s a lot of fix and flippers and listen to my show. And you’re only as good as the last deal. Yeah. You know, and if you hold on to them, you rent them out at some point. Your, your passive income is going to. It wasn’t passive is a relative term, but your income’s going to exceed your your W2 even paying W2.
00:05:41:10 – 00:06:04:08
Bryant
Which is what happened to me, I kind of got into a cycle where where I was buying portfolios of houses, you know, ten, 20, 30 at a time, mostly single family, some duplex, four plex is in there. And then the ones that I couldn’t sell, I would just rent out. And then I realized I had, about 108 single families at one time, and it was just so heavily loaded.
00:06:04:11 – 00:06:11:20
Bryant
It’s like, hey, if I just replace all 108 with 108, single apartment building, this is going to be way easier to manage.
00:06:12:02 – 00:06:30:18
Rod
Well, it took me 2000 to get that memo. Okay. I’ve had 2000 houses I rented long term, and I’m a slow learner, but, But, yeah, back to my first house that I bought, by the way. Just because it’s funny, I bought this this, it was like, built in. It’s 100 year old house. Like it was an 18 something flat roof shotgun kind of house.
00:06:30:18 – 00:06:48:17
Rod
Real old crappy house in Denver. And I think I paid 18,000 for it, if I recall, or 17 something. And the woman had cats that pissed all in the crawlspace. And I just it was the worst smell ever, I remember kills in all the walls. And going into the into that crawlspace with Leech and, and trying to kill the smell.
00:06:48:17 – 00:06:55:02
Rod
Okay. And thankfully, that didn’t sour me on real estate in general, but, yeah, that was my first one. I was 18.
00:06:55:04 – 00:06:56:06
Bryant
You did that one yourself.
00:06:56:08 – 00:07:11:12
Rod
Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah I did. I did pretty much all my houses myself. I did some with my brothers and things like that. Yeah. No I, I bought, I don’t know, five, 600 houses in Denver and then a couple hundred in Memphis and like 13, 1400 here in Florida. So you were fixing flipper.
00:07:11:14 – 00:07:18:02
Rod
Okay. So you came across mobile home park stuff as well or. Yeah. So these are some small parks or do you do some. Yeah.
00:07:18:02 – 00:07:20:08
Bryant
Like no 5050 unit parks.
00:07:20:08 – 00:07:37:07
Rod
It’s about the smallest you’d want probably because with 50 you can have an on site manager. But less than that. You’re managing it yourself. And it’s tough. That is about the lowest demographic there is. You know, you mess with me. You mess with the whole trailer park, right? But set right. Yeah. But, have those been profitable for you?
00:07:37:07 – 00:07:37:17
Rod
The mobile home.
00:07:37:19 – 00:07:40:22
Bryant
Mean mobile home parks are definitely profitable. Yeah. You know, so what?
00:07:41:02 – 00:07:47:21
Rod
What do you watch out for when you buy a mobile home park? I mean, I know the answer, but I want my listeners to hear it. So tell me what you look for, what sorts of things you’ve encountered.
00:07:47:21 – 00:07:56:19
Bryant
Well, the the biggest shit show that you can possibly get into is that all the park, all the owned, the homes are park owned. Right? That’s the biggest shit show you could ever imagine.
00:07:56:19 – 00:08:14:05
Rod
And and you flip them when you do that. Yeah. You flip it. Yes. So when you buy a park, guys, a lot of times the park will own some of the homes or even all the homes. And that’s the worst thing in the world because they’re horrible quality. And so the maintenance will kill you. And so what you want to do is you want to sell the parks to, I’m sorry, sell the homes to the residents.
00:08:14:09 – 00:08:32:17
Rod
You can finance those payments plus some lot rent. And then they’re responsible for the maintenance. Right. And so you know that now did you encounter any another thing with mobile home parks you have to be careful of is the infrastructure. Did you encounter what sort of sewage arrangements or water sewage arrangements that you you’re smiling. Did you come up with.
00:08:32:17 – 00:08:57:15
Rod
So what did you see? We’re going to take a break from this great episode for word from our sponsor, which is the multifamily bootcamp. You know, real estate is the vehicle for you. You’re crazy not to spend a couple days with me at one of my bootcamps. I’ve always got one right around the corner. Thousands and thousands of people have taken action on their journeys to creating generational cash flow for themselves and their families from attending my events, I don’t sell anything at this event, so it’s basically 16 to 18 hours of training with nothing being sold.
00:08:57:15 – 00:09:12:19
Rod
Kind of a no brainer if you’re serious about this. To check it out, text the word links to 72345 or go to Rod’s links.com. Again. Text links to 72345 or go to Rod’s links.com. I promise you’ll be glad you came. Let’s get back to it.
00:09:12:23 – 00:09:24:00
Bryant
I had a mobile home park that I managed, okay. And and it was a small park and I really managed it strategically because I owned the city block next door. Oh, and I was really trying to buy the park and destroy the park and.
00:09:24:01 – 00:09:27:20
Rod
Oh sure, nobody wants a freaking mobile home park. That’s why they don’t get built right now.
00:09:27:22 – 00:09:50:12
Bryant
But yeah, right. And it’s and it’s just outside the city limits, you know, my, my line is on the city limits, so the city can’t do anything about it. It’s in the county. So it’s, it’s a it’s a major eyesore in this new housing development going all around it. So I decided to manage this thing. And then I get a call one day from DNR and DNR says, hey, we got a big problem and you’re about to have a big problem too.
00:09:50:14 – 00:10:08:18
Bryant
I was like, oh, what, what’s the issue like? Well, the sewage is just raw sewage running right out on the ground. I’m like, okay. So I go out there and I look at it and meet the DNR guy out there. He’s like, you have 30 days to in this management contract with these people because we’ve been on their ass for five years.
00:10:08:20 – 00:10:09:04
Rod
Wow.
00:10:09:09 – 00:10:10:15
Bryant
And of course, the.
00:10:10:17 – 00:10:13:14
Rod
What was the sewage solution there? What did they they have septic.
00:10:13:16 – 00:10:17:17
Bryant
So they didn’t have septic. It was actually hooked up to city. Oh, city.
00:10:17:17 – 00:10:19:10
Rod
Sewer just broke. The sewer line broke.
00:10:19:10 – 00:10:32:15
Bryant
Yeah. The infrastructure inside the park was just super dated. It needed to be replaced. We offered a couple solutions. You know, we had some plumbers come out and look at it, but, you know, the owner didn’t want to spend the money ultimately.
00:10:32:15 – 00:10:34:12
Rod
And did they have a choice?
00:10:34:14 – 00:10:37:17
Bryant
Not by my watch. But, you know, I don’t know whatever.
00:10:37:20 – 00:10:58:04
Rod
Well, the reason I bring this up is there are mobile home parks that have literally have sewage ponds. Yeah, they call them, lagoons. They have they have mobile home parks that have sewage plants that if they break down, they can be 50, 100 and $200,000. Yeah. And and if a, if a mobile home park and this is the thing, guys, if you’re thinking of investing in mobile home parks, this is the biggest thing you want to look at it.
00:10:58:04 – 00:11:15:18
Rod
Let’s say it’s on well and septic. You better have another solution in case the well goes out because of the well goes out or the well gets contaminated, you’re done. You’re out of business. So you better have you better figure out what it would take to get into the city water solution if you have to, and if it’s on septic, by God, you better look at that as well.
00:11:15:19 – 00:11:36:09
Rod
Yeah, you’ve got one huge septic system. So this the infrastructure is the biggest a red flag, a cautionary red flag with a mobile home park. And then, of course, you got to convert park owned homes to resident homes. Well, so and again, don’t do less than 45, 50 spaces because if you do, you’re going to be managing it.
00:11:36:09 – 00:11:40:05
Rod
And you do not want to be managing it. You want to have the ability to have an onsite manager. You agree with.
00:11:40:05 – 00:11:44:03
Bryant
That? 100%. Yeah. And I think I think 50 is really good.
00:11:44:05 – 00:11:46:20
Rod
At pushing it is. Yeah. You should be more than that, honestly. Yeah.
00:11:46:20 – 00:11:49:23
Bryant
You really should be looking at, you know, at near 100, you’re 100.
00:11:49:23 – 00:12:03:18
Rod
Okay. Yeah. Okay. Fair enough, fair enough. You know, back when I was going to get into mobile home parks, I went to Frank and Dave’s course. You know those guys? Yeah, right. Ralf, I think, and, did that a couple of times. I was really seriously going to get into him. My brother’s done a ton of them.
00:12:03:18 – 00:12:16:00
Rod
One of my best friends. You know, Kevin Buff. I don’t think so now. Okay, well, he’s got thousands of doors. But anyway, I digress. So what about self storage do you do? You just got some self storage as part of your deals I think you told.
00:12:16:00 – 00:12:34:02
Bryant
Yeah okay. I’m not a big self storage guy. I like it okay I like the asset. But honestly you know where we’re at in the Kansas City metro market and markets around there. You know self storage is a is a huge need, especially around Lake of the Ozarks. Nobody wants to pull their boat from, you know, from Kansas City or Saint Louis or wherever it is.
00:12:34:02 – 00:12:45:21
Bryant
And they store those. But that stuff sells on just ridiculous multiples doesn’t and I just ended up with, with some, you know, in some different transactions that I’ve done and it’s, it’s, I like just.
00:12:45:21 – 00:12:48:21
Rod
Ended up with some garages on a, on a, on a lot that you bought or something. Yeah.
00:12:49:00 – 00:12:56:06
Bryant
Well I bought a, I bought a 46 unit apartment building and, and adjoined to that was 26 units of self-storage.
00:12:56:06 – 00:12:57:00
Rod
Oh it’s beautiful.
00:12:57:00 – 00:13:11:05
Bryant
And I was like, that’s a gift. I was like, hey, what’s what are you doing with that? And it had, 26 units there and then seven units of, of just parking bays. And I said, what are you guys doing with that? And they said, oh, we’re going to include it in the sell if you want it. Oh yeah.
00:13:11:05 – 00:13:13:02
Bryant
I was like, well, yeah, I’ll leave it.
00:13:13:02 – 00:13:36:18
Rod
Wow, that’s awesome man. That’s awesome. Well, let’s shift gears. Let’s talk about current events. Right now. We’re heading into an election. I think probably one of the most important elections this country has ever had, I agree. Would you agree? You agree. So let’s talk about what the different candidates are promoting. Kamala is talking about a $25,000 down payment assistance program.
00:13:36:18 – 00:13:38:00
Rod
How do you feel about that?
00:13:38:02 – 00:13:52:04
Bryant
You know, I mean, here’s the thing. My daughter just turned 18 years old. My daughter is is, under contract right now to buy a duplex, which is very exciting. Wow. And she’s going through, FHA, first time homebuyers.
00:13:52:04 – 00:13:54:13
Rod
Nice. And she’s going to move in to get the 3% debt.
00:13:54:13 – 00:14:13:04
Bryant
Right. So it’s it’s it’s a very I think, you know, she’s she’s spending seven grand or something like that now to, to buy this, you know, it’s $150,000 unit or sort of like that. And, and it needs a little CapEx and things. But you know, I don’t understand where the money’s going to come from, first of all.
00:14:13:06 – 00:14:15:15
Rod
Like, well, that’s the whole rub. Who’s paying for it?
00:14:15:15 – 00:14:18:01
Bryant
Who’s going to pay for it? You and I are.
00:14:18:03 – 00:14:34:14
Rod
Yeah. Don’t get me started. It just that makes me absolutely nuts. And we, you know, and then you’ve got, you know, we’ve got a housing crisis in this country already. We were 5 million housing units short. In the we’re showing short for 25. That doesn’t even account for the what is it, 20 million illegal immigrants that have come to this country?
00:14:34:14 – 00:14:45:19
Rod
Yeah. I just, you know, I just saw an article that kind of freaked me out. We’ve got some assets in San Antonio, and a Venezuelan gang has taken over three apartments there, and and, apartment complexes.
00:14:45:19 – 00:14:46:08
Bryant
Holy cow.
00:14:46:08 – 00:15:13:21
Rod
Yeah. And they’re doing they’re doing child prostitution. They’re doing prostitution. They’re doing drugs and scared the hell out of me. And so we’re we’re doing all sorts of proactive measures to make sure it doesn’t happen to one of our, one of my, one of my two, possibly three assets there. I may be dumping one of them, but, but, yeah, I mean, and this is because we’ve had these open frickin borders and then and then the other thing that, that camp is promoting is this is this tax on unrealized gains.
00:15:13:21 – 00:15:15:12
Rod
And. Yeah, how does that.
00:15:15:14 – 00:15:33:00
Bryant
How do we how do we end? Like, I don’t even understand where to begin. Like, you know, I mean, underwriting a multifamily deal is hard enough. Getting your taxes done is hard enough, you know, and and to to to try to get the government to tell us what our unrealized gains are on a property. That’s.
00:15:33:02 – 00:15:52:05
Rod
Yeah. Come on. And then they want to, they want to, eliminate tax benefits for anybody that owns more than 50 houses. Yeah. If you saw that, God help me. Anyway, we’ll leave it at that, guys. I mean, please, please go vote. And please think about all these things when you do. So, you know, I don’t know how much.
00:15:52:08 – 00:15:55:02
Rod
How much do you know about the US debt? You look at that at all.
00:15:55:02 – 00:15:59:18
Bryant
I mean, I do some. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s I know it’s running rampant. You know, it’s like.
00:15:59:18 – 00:16:02:08
Rod
It’s going up a trillion every hundred days right now.
00:16:02:08 – 00:16:03:00
Bryant
That’s insane.
00:16:03:00 – 00:16:14:02
Rod
It’s and and you know and and I don’t know if you know this you can use this quote. I had someone else sitting in your seat there told me about this, that really that 80% of the U.S currency has been created in the last four years.
00:16:14:02 – 00:16:14:17
Bryant
Oh, I believe that.
00:16:14:17 – 00:16:34:21
Rod
Yeah, it’s only up to 2020. Only 20% of the existing currency was in play. Now another 80% has come about in in the last four years. And and so we wonder why there’s inflation. I mean, hello, we’re just printing this friggin money and I think they’re BBS and the inflation numbers, I really do, but they have to because we’ve got to lower the interest rates are we are in.
00:16:34:21 – 00:16:36:04
Bryant
Oh, we’re in trouble.
00:16:36:06 – 00:16:51:04
Rod
Than we already are, you know. And so, you know, I, so what is your prediction for the real estate market? I’d love to hear your opinion. Now, you’re in the Midwest, which is fairly stable, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on that.
00:16:51:05 – 00:17:07:01
Bryant
Yeah, the Midwest is is fairly stable, but even though, you know, we still get affected just like everybody else does, you know, I think it I think it hinges 100% on the election. I think there’s two ways it goes, you know, honestly, you know, if if Trump gets reelected, you know, I think.
00:17:07:01 – 00:17:32:07
Rod
He’s bringing on Elon Musk to deal with because it’s like fiscal where he’s going to monitor government spending. Yeah. Who better to do it than fucking him? Hello. He got Twitter. Well hello. Like 80%. And and they’re more effective and running better than they were before. So who better to do that than that? But, you know, the only saving grace is if, God forbid, it gets stolen or Kamala wins on on a lark here.
00:17:32:09 – 00:17:37:11
Rod
If they if if they get both houses, then we’re done. Yeah. I mean, forget, I think this country is going to go down the tubes, frankly.
00:17:37:11 – 00:17:51:17
Bryant
Yeah. I mean, there’s their policy. They don’t have a policy. Their policy is bullshit, right? Yeah. Right. Right. But at the end of the day, you know, I don’t know what that prediction could even possibly look like. Yeah. You know, no, it’s not, it’s scary.
00:17:51:18 – 00:17:57:23
Rod
It’s scary. Tell me about some seminars. I call them seminars instead of failures or, you know, talk a bit. Talk about a doozy.
00:17:58:01 – 00:18:16:14
Bryant
Yeah. I mean, I think I think one of the, one of the biggest ones that comes to mind is, buying outside of my buy box. Like, I honed in on a buy box. You know, I’m flipping a ton of houses. I’ve done over 2000 turns. Have you really? Well, yeah. Good for you. And and, you know, so I’ve got a honed in by box.
00:18:16:14 – 00:18:24:02
Bryant
We’ve got, you know, this thing down to an art and, whenever you, whenever you go outside that that’s the problem.
00:18:24:02 – 00:18:26:04
Rod
That’s when you get spanked. Oh you do. Yeah.
00:18:26:06 – 00:18:39:18
Bryant
And I’ve got one right now. Right now, today that I bought in a portfolio. I knew it was not a good deal. I should have just dozed the thing down, but I wanted to save it. And I’m going to lose my ass on this property. Yeah, I guarantee it I would.
00:18:39:18 – 00:18:56:01
Rod
I would tell you the same thing about me. Every time I’ve gotten out of real estate, I’ve had my ass handed to me. I’ve built 29 businesses so far in my career. Several were tens of millions of dollars, but most three right now. Our most respected flaming seminars. Right? Yeah. You know, we fail our way to success. But let me ask you this.
00:18:56:01 – 00:19:10:16
Rod
You know, I get a lot of listeners on the show that know they want to do something. They’re in a W-2 job, or they’re in the rat race, or, you know, maybe they’re comfortable, but they’re really not happy. They know they want deserve more. Their family deserves more. Speak to them. Give them some some coaching.
00:19:10:22 – 00:19:30:09
Bryant
Yeah. The biggest the biggest thing that I can say is get a mentor. Yeah. You know, get out there. Talk about what it is that you want to do. Start understanding that and get a mentor as soon as possible. I mean, there’s just so much, you know, like there’s so many mentors out there, right. And and whenever you start really honing in, you’re going to find one that works.
00:19:30:10 – 00:19:47:09
Bryant
Yeah. You know, I coach people, you coach people like, you know, and not everybody’s, strategy or personalities fit. But you’re going to find one that does. Yeah. And the what that’s going to do is that’s going to shave off ten, 15, 20 years of your of your seminars, paying for speed.
00:19:47:14 – 00:19:49:21
Rod
So have you had mentors in your career?
00:19:49:23 – 00:20:06:00
Bryant
Yeah, I’ve had many mentors. I mean, I have mentors now. I think, you know, I think that’s probably that’s the golden key to a lot of success in life is, is the mentors and coaches, you know, it’s invaluable.
00:20:06:02 – 00:20:24:03
Rod
So let me ask you this. You know, I’m known for mindset psychology. I spent 20 years with Tony Robbins. I love talk and anything mindset and psychology. And, I know that, you know, that’s something that, that, that you like as well. Where do you get your drive from? What what what’s what’s your why what’s your motivation?
00:20:24:03 – 00:20:24:10
Rod
Yeah.
00:20:24:10 – 00:20:43:05
Bryant
So, I mean, obviously in the beginning of this, we talked about, you know, where I come from and and you know that that was a mindset shift that I had to make, because the place where I come from, people just don’t. They don’t talk about money. They don’t talk about you know, what’s next? They don’t talk about a lot of those things.
00:20:43:07 – 00:21:17:12
Bryant
And, you know, I always knew that I wanted to do something different. And at the end of the day, whenever I really got out and I got into reflection of of where I, where I was, in the, in the past, it was all a mindset shift. Everything that I wanted to do was a mindset shift, you know, from a new job that I wanted to a promotion that I wanted to an apartment complex that I wanted to whatever it was that I want, all’s I had to do was want it bad enough and make that mindset shift and really, truly drive to that.
00:21:17:14 – 00:21:20:07
Bryant
You know, it’s it’s 100% mindset. Yeah.
00:21:20:11 – 00:21:24:02
Rod
Do you have a team? Is it just you do you have employees talk about that a little bit.
00:21:24:05 – 00:21:34:13
Bryant
Yeah. So I’ve I’ve got a team I’ve got an underwriting team that works for my well I guess we’ll back up just a little bit. I own a lot of the ancillary businesses that operate my stuff.
00:21:34:13 – 00:21:35:06
Rod
For example.
00:21:35:12 – 00:21:37:04
Bryant
I own a construction company.
00:21:37:06 – 00:21:37:13
Rod
Are you a.
00:21:37:13 – 00:21:38:20
Bryant
GC? I’m a GC.
00:21:38:20 – 00:21:39:12
Rod
Oh, fantastic.
00:21:39:17 – 00:21:42:09
Bryant
I own a property management company. Right. Oh, sorry.
00:21:42:09 – 00:21:44:19
Rod
To hear that. Yeah.
00:21:44:21 – 00:21:53:10
Bryant
It’s it’s not my favorite, but I only work in it maybe one hour a month or something like that, so it’s pretty good. And then, brokerage.
00:21:53:10 – 00:21:55:22
Rod
And then you got a brokerage, too. So you licensed a broker?
00:21:55:22 – 00:21:56:14
Bryant
Yeah, yeah.
00:21:56:16 – 00:21:57:05
Rod
Holy cow.
00:21:57:05 – 00:22:02:08
Bryant
Dude. Licensed in Missouri? I’m not a good seller. I buy stuff, my wife does a lot of that. It’s good to.
00:22:02:08 – 00:22:05:06
Rod
Have access to the MLS and and get commissions and so on.
00:22:05:06 – 00:22:06:10
Bryant
And so, yeah, it’s kind of not.
00:22:06:10 – 00:22:08:03
Rod
In the in the single family space for sure.
00:22:08:07 – 00:22:14:10
Bryant
Yeah. And then my, my day to day is, is I run and operate a couple small funds so.
00:22:14:10 – 00:22:23:22
Rod
Oh you do. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And use these funds to acquire assets. Yeah okay. Got it. Okay. So, what’s next for you?
00:22:24:00 – 00:22:40:05
Bryant
Yeah, I don’t know. Yeah. That’s a that’s a great, great question. I’m working on a project right now that that I call crafting my life. So. Oh, yeah, I’m kind of taking my retirement. You know, I’m 35 years old now, and my wife and I is going.
00:22:40:05 – 00:22:45:20
Rod
And I’ve got stocks that have two decades on you. But you’re right anyway. You’re right. I’m sorry. Your wife and your goal.
00:22:46:00 – 00:23:06:12
Bryant
With my my wife, my goal is to retire at 40 or just, you know, I mean, we’re pretty well there now. But but we’re, we’re looking at. Okay, from 40 till the end of our life. That’s a long time. So we’re kind of trying to plan that time out and reverse engineer that backwards. Kind of like I would do a flip and then come to the result now.
00:23:06:12 – 00:23:09:08
Bryant
Okay, here’s the steps that we need to take to to make that happen.
00:23:09:12 – 00:23:26:12
Rod
So come up with the numbers. What the hell are you going to do retiring at 40. You’re going to be screwed by more. And also, I know you’re not going to retire. Who you kidding? Yeah, I may slow down a little bit, but, so let me. What’s your favorite part of of the work that you do? What do you enjoy the most?
00:23:26:12 – 00:23:28:04
Rod
And then what do you enjoy the least?
00:23:28:06 – 00:23:43:12
Bryant
Honestly, my favorite, my most enjoyable part is this is this I just I enjoy talking to people. Get out meeting people. Yeah, it’s it’s always been my favorite part about about this. Yeah. Me too. My least favorite part. Yeah. I mean property management. Yeah.
00:23:43:13 – 00:24:03:09
Rod
For sure. Yeah, yeah. So as you get into this business and learn this business, what would you tell my listeners? Who are the best people to align yourself with as you move forward in this to be a success in this business? Besides, you said mentors, but I mean, any thoughts? You know, for somebody that’s listening, they’re in a town here in the United States.
00:24:03:09 – 00:24:08:05
Rod
They they need to go do something, maybe give them a little bit of an action plan.
00:24:08:07 – 00:24:21:23
Bryant
Yeah. So there’s you need to get around people that are that have the right mindset, that have the same goals and visions or generally as you do. And and those exist in every town, every city, every state.
00:24:21:23 – 00:24:24:16
Rod
Real estate, investor, club meetings, meetup groups.
00:24:24:16 – 00:24:32:12
Bryant
Rallies, whatever, whatever it is, you know, and that is the number one place. And they’re not expensive and times are free.
00:24:32:16 – 00:24:35:11
Rod
Very often they’re free or they’re 20 bucks or something. It’s nothing.
00:24:35:11 – 00:24:36:05
Bryant
Yeah, yeah.
00:24:36:07 – 00:24:54:15
Rod
Yeah, I spoke to one last, last month and before I left the country. So, you know, you’ve built some teams, you’ve got construction, you’ve got a brokerage. By the way. I got my broker’s license right when I turned 18, in Denver. Oh, a broker. Well no no, no commiserate really. But but I, you could do it back then with education.
00:24:54:15 – 00:25:11:02
Rod
Now you need some experience. They got smart. But I was a broker. I when I turned 18 to a story anyway. And I’ve let it all go. But but you’ve got these teams. You got you got the brokerage, you got the construction, you’ve got the property management. You know, as a leader, what you know, what do you look for in your team members and, and, and how do you lead.
00:25:11:02 – 00:25:12:18
Rod
Let me ask that those two questions.
00:25:12:18 – 00:25:18:04
Bryant
So one thing that we’ve just recently implemented is, some desk analysis type stuff.
00:25:18:04 – 00:25:39:06
Rod
Beautiful for, for personnel. This is disk, by the way. Guys is a profile, a personality profile. And Tony Robbins has a free version of this on on. If you put in Tony Robbins disc profile dominant influential, steady and compliant is and it’s a personality profile that is extremely accurate. Okay. And that’s a great way to screen people.
00:25:39:06 – 00:25:47:15
Rod
Yeah. Okay. Do you let me ask you this. Well, keep keep going. I’m sorry. I don’t want to interrupt you. So you use the disc profile to to to determine if somebody is a good fit.
00:25:47:15 – 00:25:48:23
Bryant
Yeah. And and then.
00:25:48:23 – 00:25:49:20
Rod
Communicate with them.
00:25:49:23 – 00:26:10:08
Bryant
How to communicate with them. And then one of the next things that I’ve been doing for a long time, I did this in oil and gas whenever I was a senior PM and, and I would, I would give a sheet as really simple, but it’s, it’s got about 20 qualifying questions on there and it’s really about their future, where it is that they want to go where they see themselves in three years, five years, ten years.
00:26:10:10 – 00:26:19:22
Bryant
And that’s going to allow us to understand that they either align with our vision or they don’t align with our vision, or maybe they’re not educated enough to align. So.
00:26:20:00 – 00:26:38:10
Rod
I like that. I like that a lot, you know? I like that a lot. Do you use any, any business? Operating systems. There’s a book called traction. You’ve heard of that? Yeah. Okay. It’s got the iOS, the, entrepreneur operating system. That’s what I’m talking about, because we’ve implemented that in my businesses. I don’t know if you’ve done anything like.
00:26:38:10 – 00:26:41:10
Bryant
I haven’t, but I should, I should you will love it. Yeah.
00:26:41:10 – 00:26:57:10
Rod
Okay. I’m just going to tell you right now, guys, if you have a business that you’re in that you own really read that book traction. And I will tell you, it’s it’s been a game changer for us because it’s a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a way to systemize your business. So you’re only focused it primarily 90 days in advance.
00:26:57:10 – 00:27:17:12
Rod
You do 90 day chunks and you come up with goals that you’re going to do and not too many. And, and there’s some a great strategy in there. Instead of having an organizational chart, you have an accountability chart which looks like an org chart, but it’s for accountability. It’s it’s some really groundbreaking, very, very valuable. It’s a very valuable tool that we use in all my businesses now.
00:27:17:12 – 00:27:28:11
Rod
And it works very, very well. So when you were first starting out, how did you finance your deals you have never fund when you started, how did you finance, use your own money, but after you ran out of your own money, let me ask it that way.
00:27:28:13 – 00:27:39:22
Bryant
So for the longest time, I just used my own money, you know, you know, I was working oil and gas, so I started off making 100, 100 plus thousand dollars a year when I was 18, 19.
00:27:39:22 – 00:27:42:16
Rod
And you’re flipping, so you make it a little extra money. You make your extra money when.
00:27:42:17 – 00:27:59:14
Bryant
You’re buying a couple and flipping a couple and you’re making, you know, $23,000 a turn. So you’re increasing that. And then, you know, whenever I left oil and gas, I was making just over half $1 million a year, so. Oh, good for you. I had a really good active income plus my my second year and hard.
00:27:59:14 – 00:28:00:13
Rod
To leave.
00:28:00:15 – 00:28:16:09
Bryant
It was. But but my my my rental income started surpassing my active income. Well, and that’s the point. Whenever I realized because I started this only, I only wanted ten rental houses. That’s that was my whole goal on ten rental houses because I’m like, you.
00:28:16:09 – 00:28:18:23
Rod
Funny how your goals change over time. And yeah.
00:28:19:01 – 00:28:38:13
Bryant
I was like, just in case I get hurt, I’ll have these ten rental houses that they can still feed my kids. And and you know, as, as that started kind of moving along and I realized that my passive income was, was surpassing my active income. And I’m like, I don’t have to be here. And I’m working 84 hours a week, seven days a week.
00:28:38:18 – 00:28:46:22
Bryant
Yeah. Seven or, you know, 12 to 16 hour days. Yeah. And and they, they’re sending me all over the country.
00:28:47:00 – 00:28:49:12
Rod
Or. That’s no fun being away from the family. No, it’s.
00:28:49:14 – 00:28:51:23
Bryant
40 states, nine countries. I travel doing that.
00:28:51:23 – 00:28:53:13
Rod
So no, no, no.
00:28:53:15 – 00:28:58:21
Bryant
You know, and it’s like, I don’t have to be here. And that’s really, really liberating. Whenever you realize that, you don’t have to. It’s.
00:28:58:21 – 00:29:02:15
Rod
What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
00:29:02:17 – 00:29:04:19
Bryant
I just had this conversation last night.
00:29:04:19 – 00:29:05:11
Rod
Wow.
00:29:05:13 – 00:29:17:23
Bryant
So the best advice that I ever got was, I had, oil and gas. Boss of mine tell me, the day that I stop worrying about money is the day I’ll stop having to worry about money.
00:29:18:01 – 00:29:22:18
Rod
Oh, I like that. Oh, I like that a lot. Wow.
00:29:22:20 – 00:29:23:09
Bryant
And.
00:29:23:11 – 00:29:24:07
Rod
Hello.
00:29:24:09 – 00:29:50:14
Bryant
Yeah, I was pissed off when I reset that at first. And, you know, it was like. I didn’t really understand what that meant until about 2 or 3 days later and I started realize I’m like, you know, I am like my job as a project manager was to make sure that things were always on budget or sure. And and although that’s important, it puts this limitation on you.
00:29:50:16 – 00:29:52:21
Bryant
A little bit because, you know, you’re not you’re.
00:29:52:21 – 00:29:54:06
Rod
You know, it puts stress on you as well.
00:29:54:06 – 00:30:05:00
Bryant
And stress. Yeah. And you’re, you’re, you’re stressed to the max. And then it’s like, oh I can’t afford to go out and buy eight unit or a ten unit or 50 unit or not even thinking about 100 unit.
00:30:05:01 – 00:30:05:10
Rod
Right.
00:30:05:11 – 00:30:11:14
Bryant
You know, you see a $20 million price tag or something like that. You’re it’s way out there in left field, right?
00:30:11:14 – 00:30:33:23
Rod
Wow. Well, I love it. You know, you get people that hit you up for, you know, they see your success and they want to talk to you. Is there a book that you gift more than another? So I remember back in the day, I would gift a CD set to anybody that asked me about the business, and I just copied them and give them CD set from somebody else that was, you know, talking about flipping or residential.
00:30:33:23 – 00:30:42:12
Rod
I mean, but it, you know, is this is pre rich dad, poor dad, you know. But is there a book that, that you gift.
00:30:42:14 – 00:30:43:18
Bryant
It depends on the person.
00:30:43:18 – 00:30:45:03
Rod
Okay. Good. Good answer.
00:30:45:03 – 00:31:06:09
Bryant
Yeah. And, and I will ask a few qualifying questions. Typically if it’s somebody that’s just getting started, I’m obviously going to give them rich dad, poor dad to kind of start them out. Of course. If it’s somebody that’s already started and already kind of going, I’m, I’m really fond of and it’s changing a lot of, a lot of folks mindset on some things is, is buy your time back.
00:31:06:09 – 00:31:10:00
Rod
Buy your time back. Yeah. I don’t even know that book. Wow. It’s okay.
00:31:10:00 – 00:31:11:15
Bryant
I would highly recommend okay.
00:31:11:15 – 00:31:15:17
Rod
I love it. So did you have any fear when you first got started?
00:31:15:19 – 00:31:16:16
Bryant
Hi. If you’re every day.
00:31:16:20 – 00:31:24:03
Rod
Okay, well, how did you get over this fear when you first got started? Because that’s a big question that, you know, I’ve got a lot of people that listen that that’s what they struggle with.
00:31:24:08 – 00:31:33:05
Bryant
Yeah. The biggest thing is that that I think fear, you know, from a psychology standpoint, we worry a lot about things.
00:31:33:07 – 00:31:34:03
Rod
That never have that.
00:31:34:03 – 00:31:35:08
Bryant
Don’t ever happen. Yeah.
00:31:35:10 – 00:31:40:07
Rod
So what is fear for everything. And run. Yeah. Base everything and rise.
00:31:40:09 – 00:31:40:12
Bryant
I.
00:31:40:12 – 00:31:42:15
Rod
Mean false evidence appearing real.
00:31:42:17 – 00:31:54:03
Bryant
I think it’s all those things, right? You know, you just you just have to. Yeah, I was, I was in a in a, in a dangerous industry, you know, and, and you walk into an oil refinery every day not knowing.
00:31:54:05 – 00:31:54:18
Rod
If it could be.
00:31:54:19 – 00:32:14:07
Bryant
If it could blow up or anything like that. So you’re trained for those type of things. But, you know, I think that helped a lot with my fear on stuff. But at the same time, whenever you start dealing with your own money, it’s different. But, I think through a couple different things good education, good mentorships and, and really, really, really understanding your numbers.
00:32:14:09 – 00:32:23:08
Bryant
Yeah. Going into your first couple deals is really important. Or even partnerships on your first couple deals with with somebody that’s done, done several.
00:32:23:11 – 00:32:39:06
Rod
Tours. And if you’re going to get into partnerships, guys please go to Rod’s links.com and download my partnership question book. Questions you should ask before you get in the partnership of each other. Because like partnerships, like a marriage are very easy to get into and very hard to get out of. That’s exactly. Have you had any bad partnerships?
00:32:39:06 – 00:32:39:23
Bryant
I’ve had tons.
00:32:39:23 – 00:32:55:04
Rod
Yeah. So there you go. And so you need to ask all the hard questions upfront. So go to Rod’s links.com and there’s a bunch of free books there. My boot camp site is there. And, but the one of the books is, is the question just before you get in a partnership, what are some of your favorite books?
00:32:55:06 – 00:32:57:09
Bryant
Yeah, I’m a I’m a huge business book reader.
00:32:57:10 – 00:32:57:18
Rod
Okay.
00:32:57:18 – 00:32:58:12
Bryant
Well I just.
00:32:58:12 – 00:33:01:02
Rod
Awesome throw start throw some good ones out.
00:33:01:02 – 00:33:04:02
Bryant
Please I love I love the E-Myth.
00:33:04:03 – 00:33:10:11
Rod
Oh yeah. Michael Gerber I love you too. I mean and you implement that. And by the way, guys, we’ll talk about what it is. I don’t need to steal your thunder.
00:33:10:13 – 00:33:21:16
Bryant
Yeah, I mean it’s it’s the reason most small businesses don’t work and what to do about it, that’s like, that’s the extended version of the title. And, and it does a really, really good job of, of clearing that air.
00:33:21:18 – 00:33:55:18
Rod
Well, what it is, I mean, it in a nutshell is, is that you basically McDonnell your business. Yeah. So so, you know, you set up every business is nothing but people and systems. And this is the systems piece. Yeah. You know and and Michael Gerber is the author and he’s got e-myth for attorneys, e-myth for realtors and, and basically you’re just going to go in and document your entire business system and literally to the micro level of here’s the screenshot of what you do here, to here, to here, and all of your operating procedures, so that if somebody gets hit by a truck, you could literally pull somebody from McDonald’s to step in and do
00:33:55:18 – 00:33:56:03
Rod
the business.
00:33:56:03 – 00:33:56:16
Bryant
Exactly.
00:33:56:16 – 00:33:58:10
Rod
Yeah, yeah, that’s a great book. What else.
00:33:58:15 – 00:34:01:01
Bryant
So never split the difference. Oh, Chris Voss.
00:34:01:01 – 00:34:08:21
Rod
Chris Voss I’ve had him on the show. He’s awesome. Yeah, actually, I had him speak to my mastermind as well that he’s he’s like FBI negotiator. Yeah, right.
00:34:08:21 – 00:34:28:13
Bryant
Yeah. Just a really, really I mean awesome, awesome book. And there’s, there’s I mean, I think any time you read a book, right, it doesn’t matter what book it is in business, I think there’s there’s gold nuggets in all of them. Sure. And it’s, it’s one of the cheapest ways you, you know, if you don’t have the money to buy the book or whatever, you go down to the library and get a get rent one or whatever.
00:34:28:13 – 00:34:32:17
Bryant
Right. And, and it is the cheapest education that you can possibly get.
00:34:32:19 – 00:34:40:23
Rod
Now he’s amazing. He’s added a ton of value to me and my clients and and, students. Yeah. Love it. What else?
00:34:41:01 – 00:34:42:16
Bryant
The next rule is, is another.
00:34:42:16 – 00:34:49:19
Rod
Oh, of course. Grant. Yeah. Grant. Grant was on my live a couple days ago and he spoke at the Trump rally. I don’t know if you saw it.
00:34:49:20 – 00:34:51:14
Bryant
Yeah, that surprised me.
00:34:51:14 – 00:35:03:07
Rod
I was and he goes bigger, goes home. I went, well listen brother I really appreciate you coming on the show and coming down here and I hope you enjoy your time here. I hope you, you, you get to enjoy it a little bit. But, thanks for thanks for coming in, man.
00:35:03:07 – 00:35:04:07
Bryant
I appreciate you having me.
00:35:04:07 – 00:35:05:01
Rod
I absolutely.
