you're not going to take action unless you're inspired and motivated and you believe that you can achieve it. Your master welcome back to uh episode eight of how to invest in commercial real estate. My name is Brandon with the criterion fund and I'm joined by brian duck and Joel Thompson. Thanks for coming back guys, what's up? What's up? What's up? Um Today I just wanted to dive in a little deeper, a little more emotional about um you know, discovering your y staying motivated, staying deep rooted in the game and and just being purposeful about what you're doing now. That's good. I'm happy to actually share some of my why and what I went through and getting on my journey of commercial real estate and so maybe someone can relate to this, that's listening. But you know, when I first came across commercial real estate as the vehicle I've been working about a year, um you know, I was real energetic, um I was competitive and uh it was doing all this stuff in college and then I get my 9-5 job and every single day uh at a company here in town, I would go and I would sit behind that desk for nine hours a day.

And I just remember my wife and I were engaged in, I just remember thinking, you know, this can't be the 40 years, This can't be the next 40 years now, obviously I didn't quit that day job and it got better, but but I was super discouraged having gone from so much activity and freedom, to you know a desk job for nine hours a day. And I was discouraged that, uh, you know, some of my friends were going to med school, they were going to be making all this money. Attorney's gonna be making this money. And I, at the time, I just didn't see the path. Uh, as an engineer. My first race, I think, really Shocked me. I think my first race, I worked all year and it was like 1.2% or something. Oh my gosh. And uh, so I started doing the math on that and I'm like, I'm not gonna ever get ahead of inflation. Yeah, you're going backwards at that point. Um, you know, I had a couple of, of uncles that, that were successful and, and the difference between them and others as they own their own businesses. So, my brother and I always used to talk about, we gotta find a way to start a business, you know, that that's how to get more money, which is true.

But man, I didn't have, I didn't know how to start a business, I didn't know, uh, even what business I would start. And it just seems so far off. And so, Uh, for me, the why, um, was finding a way to, to take back that 40 years to give myself more control over my future, uh, you know, more time, freedom, more financial freedom. And uh, and so that was the driver for me and luckily around that time I, I got ahold of some rich dad, poor dad, uh, information robert, Kiyosaki. And because I had that why just just driving me looking for something when that came along. I was, I was so motivated because now I had, I had an avenue, uh, to accomplish the, why I didn't have anatomy before that I had, I had a wine, I had these dreams, but I didn't have a vehicle to get there and in real estate for me, I was inspired just listening to him talk differently than anyone that I had ever heard before.

Uh, and he talked about financial freedom. He talked about retiring early. He talked about, you know, making passive income. I had never even heard that term before. Uh, that, oh, you can make money on the side, think things can be making money for you even when I'm at my day job. Uh, so I kind of open it up for you guys. That, that was the start of discovering uh, both my why and how I was going to accomplish that. Yeah. I think one big thing that you said there for me was, you couldn't see the path and then you, you didn't have the vehicle and you just didn't know how to get where you want it. It seemed like you wanted, you wanted something, you wanted something bigger, Maybe you wanted more freedom, You wanted more flexibility, whatever you wanted, but you didn't know the avenue to get there. And I think that's one of the main reasons we're starting the show is because the three of us were so deep rooted and you know, I don't wanna speak for brian, I'll give you a chance to go through years. But the three of us generally speaking, I think we're deep rooted in knowledge and trying to figure out that path to go from where we were to where we wanted to go.

And and you know, for me it was just education and and not like college. I didn't go to college, I didn't go get some degree, but it was just finding things I was interested in in finding mentors in them that were motivating and inspiring and and got me juiced up and said things I didn't know about the topic I was interested in and finding, you know, a self help book. I read a lot of self help books, I don't read fiction or nonfiction or a lot of biographies, but self help books really get me going because it just it's all of the biggest problems in that person's life and and how they overcome them and being able to identify that you have somewhere to go. But just break it, break it down. I mean, being able to to put a quantifiable plan, a measurable path and saying, well here's here's what these guys are doing to get to get to that path. I need to do some of these things, I need to write these down. I need to be more intentional about reading or I need to watch less netflix or I, I need to go to bed earlier so I can wake up earlier so I can dominate the day better or or just staying rooted in your goal.

Yeah, I think what people would find a lot of people have those same desires. I think I had the same desires. Like joe was saying retire early, make more money, you know, the 1.2% or I don't care if you get a raise of, of, you know, in my industry engineering, it was, you know, maybe it was four or 5% but I looked at that and I thought That's not gonna change my life, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna be for the next 40 years, I'm gonna be at this income level basically and and I need to make a jump, I need to make a drastic jump in my income level and I didn't see it for a long time and frankly I didn't see it until Joel introduced me to commercial real estate 10 years ago. Um and uh the other thing like you were saying, I think people, they, they have these desires but they just don't know what to do and they end up really not doing much about it and like you said, they watch netflix and said, but I think if they would start somewhere, whether it's reading books, uh listening to podcasts and they start to get motivated, I think they'll find that they get really interested in it, and after a while, if they're motivated enough, they'll they'll spend all their spare time doing those things now, it's a good point.

I want to just just comment on that because how many, how many people read rich dad, poor dad, or millions of millions of people. In fact, I was told about that book from a friend of mine, and uh but but most people, they don't have a big enough why, and and they're not spending enough time being inspired by by mentors and self help, and so they don't they don't take the action. Uh it's just a piece of information for them, but for me, you know, having focused on that y and being determined to change and then having that come along, but that even wasn't enough because uh like Brain said, you have to then go after the knowledge and and read the the self help books, and self help has a kind of a negative connotation, but no, being daily inspired by successful people that gives you the motivation and you're not going to take action unless you're inspired and motivated and you believe that you can achieve it, and that's what the mentors do, and that's what the the self help books do and the cds and things that you listen to is they used to be so excited uh to get in my car around this time because man I felt myself changing, driving around in that car.

I was being motivated before work. I was being motivated at lunch. Were you listening to audio books, audio books, audiobooks and. Well yeah I was you know I even had some audio cassettes way back then. They had some cassettes but also C. D. S. Um uh they weren't podcast at the time but I want to encourage people listening that uh take time to not don't listen to the radio turn your car into a into a learning facility. Uh you know university of sorts because you'd be amazed how much driving you actually do and what also would get my mind turning as I'm driving I'm getting I'm getting inspired, gets you thinking gets me thinking gets me and I'm learning at the time and I just remember that was a period in my life where I couldn't get enough and the more the more knowledge you get that's the foundation that you're building for whatever it is you're going to pursue? I mean you could be commercial real estate or business buying or whatever it is but is getting motivated by those people is really important. Yeah I mean how often do you drive to the grocery store and then just kind of like wake up you know you just kind of like come to and then you're like wow I've been driving for the past seven miles, I have no recollection of anything, you just completely zone out, you go into autopilot, you know, I moved, um I drove to the wrong house several times.

I mean you guys ever just completely driving the wrong spot, your autopilot takes over, your brain is literally going to sleep, it's, it's doing the same stupid thing and it's not being entertained, you're not challenging, it's literally putting itself sleeping going on autopilot and not, and or you could be uh you know, thinking about something, you could be listening to an audiobook or podcast or trying to solve some problem or thinking about your, the day tomorrow or how you're going to dominate next week or how you can accomplish that first big goal on your list, that that needs to be constantly at the forefront of your mind. And I think for me anyway, it was, reading was inspiring, but it also practically helped, it practically helped solve solve problems. I had, you know, I would find, I wouldn't find a problem, I would come across problems, I would come across topics and I would be interested in them. Real estate was one, I went and got my real estate license, I didn't know enough about real estate, real estate is big, you don't need a real estate license to do deals.

I mean most of the real estate licenses, how to sell a house, uh there's practically nothing on a real estate license about commercial deals, but it's just the fact that I was so interested in it, I needed, I needed to go get that license, I needed to study in it. Yeah. Um one of the mentors I've plugged before but robert down when I was reading uh he made the comment, whatever you focus on expands and so I want to kind of give an example. Uh there I was in an engineer by trade, not necessarily good engineer, but um I worked with people and and they spend a lot of time thinking about how to be a good engineer. That was what they thought about their thinking and so you know, your mind's going to work on solving that problem how to be a good engineer, how to be a good engineer. Well uh by listening to mentors and educating myself on real estate and money, you know, I want to tell everybody out there, you're not working to be necessarily good at your job, um you're there because it's earning you a paycheck. And so for me, I always thought well I'm working uh for money because money gives me what I want out of life. Either time or uh you know, things or whatever.

So I'm working for money, I want to be an expert in making money and so I'm I'm reading books about money about returns about businesses because being an engineer, a good engineer, I was fine at it. Okay, I made a living, but man, I I your mind is going to work on something and so what you have to do in order to become, you know, uh a millionaire, maybe let's say, or a big business owner is you you've got to change your thinking and so you have to change what you think about uh you know, you change your ideas and only then you can change. And so for me that was what the mentors did is they got me thinking about how do I approach money, how do I approach investing? How do I approach uh saving and risk uh and looking for deals? Because I didn't even know what we're out there. And so my mind kept going on those and I want to encourage everybody that part of this podcast is figuring out your why and then getting yourself motivated to take action on that.

Yeah, I agree with that. What you, what you said is exactly what happened to me for a long time in my career. I was I wasn't thinking about these things, I just I did my job and I thought that's what I'm gonna need to do and I still remember a moment when I decided and I want to do something different. I remember the event, I won't go into it. Um but I remember the event and then I started becoming open to opportunities and all of a sudden opportunities were coming around all the time. It was a complete different mindset. If I'd had that mindset before, I think those opportunities were there. I know they were I just wasn't thinking about turning situations into opportunities and and the moment that I decided I was going to do something different, I didn't have an opportunity right away. But they started they started becoming a parent really quickly and it's because it was a mindset, it wasn't a situation difference at all, it was just a mindset that I wanted to do something different. What's that reminds me of this book I read by Malcolm Gladwell and now I can't think of the name of it what I mean?

So that's okay. Uh just I mean anyway this book it talks about the rule of 10,000 hours and how if you want to be a professional on something like a professional basketball player, football player, violinist, hockey player or whatever. They use a lot of examples, But if you want to be a professional at it you've got to do it for 10,000 hours. Yeah. So it immediately got me thinking, oh well I've just got to do it more than the other guy. I've got to read more books, I've got to do, I've got to look at more deals and you know trying to bring it back to real estate of touch. But that was what I was focused on. So I was just thinking man if I underwrite more deals if I offer on more deals, if I read more books on how to structure deals and and give better returns and how to manipulate, you know, the net operating income and all of these things. If I can do it more than other people, there's no doubt that I'll learn it faster because by doing it more, you're you're going to be better at it than other people. And that applies to people's day jobs. I don't want to take a knock on on the day job. I I had that day job for 15, 16 years Okay.

And I worked hard to be successful at that. And I know people are working hard at their job, trying to be successful. This concept can work for them. You know, anybody that that spends time reading in their field hours and hours a day or a week, they're gonna become an expert and that will help their earning power in that field. And I don't want to discourage anyone from doing that. Um some people have jobs they absolutely love and you can do both. Um if you, if you want to read in your industry and work hard to become an expert at your job and and grow your income that way and be successful there. And then also spend time on on a side hustle or passive income. I don't want to discourage, you know, the day job thing. We're just trying to inspire people that they can have exactly what they want out of life, not instantly, uh, you know, but but over time they can move toward the goals they want. And if it's uh, if it's something different than they're doing during the day, like it was for me, that's what we're here to motivate them to do. Yeah. And let's just take an example from from a job. You know what I mean? If you don't want that 1 1.5% race, you know, you want something more, take on more responsibility, go home and get some new certification for your job, spend more time on it.

Research, show up early, stay later. Ask what you can do to help take on more responsibility for the same amount of pay, do do the job you want to get paid for before you get paid for it. That was, I think vic told me that um it was just the sense of you've got to be doing, you've got to have the mentality of what you you want to do before before you get the opportunity to do it. That's right. That's a good point. I Love that because I was in the corporate world for 40 years. And when I saw people doing that, those are the those are the people that work for me that I paid attention to you. You invested back in them. Yeah, exactly. And the people that said, oh that's not my job. Those are the people that went to the bottom of the list. Another mentor, mind brian Tracy who's fantastic by the way. He's, his stuff is a little older, but he talked about, you know, being a rabbit dog, you know, you go to your manager, you know, give me more, give me more, you know, and you go and you finished and you come back, give me more, I want more. And he also talked about going the extra mile and uh, he said the great thing about the extra mile is there's no traffic jams and I want to just think about that for a minute.

You know, go the extra mile because on the extra mile there's no traffic jams, there's nobody there. You're gonna be the guy or the girl uh going the regular mile is jam packed full of, of average people. So anyway, that was cool. It stuck out to me. That's good. Um 11 recent thing that stuck out to me and then maybe we can wrap it up. Um, I follow a guy named Jesse Itzler and he's really big on building your life resume and he was doing this thing where it was 100 mile relay race. So it's three or four guys and somebody had to be running at all times and you had to do 100 miles in 24 hours. It was nuts. David Goggins was there, It was this race. Well anyway, he paid this guy to come and live with him. He was super wealthy. So money wasn't an issue. He paid this guy to come and live with him. And his only job was to ride a bike with him when he wanted to go run. Hey, it's two. Am I need to go knock out five miles, you're riding back with me to come run. And he said something that was so powerful and it was right along those lines about no traffic on the last mile. And he said, dude, it's three a.m. It's 30 degrees. He said the like half the world is asleep right now. He said, nobody's out here running and putting the work in like we are.

And it's, it's that sense of just, you know, when everyone else is, you know, doing nothing or watching netflix or you know, taking too much time off for not focusing on their goals and not paying attention or not being that rabid dog at their job, asking their manager for more work, Somebody else is going to step up and do that. Mm That's good. Yeah. Well, I, I think that's awesome. Um, we just need to keep ourselves educated, keep ourselves motivated to keep ourselves um networked in and I think, you know, all that helps. Yeah, hopefully it was a little inspiring to, uh, to listen to that. Well, make sure to check us out on the web. It is how to invest in sierra dot com. We are on Youtube, Spotify, Apple podcasts. Make sure like and subscribe. And we will be back in a few more days. All right. Thanks guys. Thanks for coming.