July 1, 2022 • 33 mins
Brandon Brown is a working actor who has starred in Power Book II, 13 Reasons Why, and over 100 commercials. However, he is more than an actor; he is also a trained oil painter and subleases a chain of Airbnb properties.
Guest IG: @brandonbrownb
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, I'm your host, Tanya Sam and welcome
back to another episode of Money Moves, the daily podcast
powered by Greenwood, determined to give you the Greece to
the Kingdom of financial stability to welcome funds. Our next
(00:23):
guest is an up and coming actor from Buffalo, New York.
He's following his dreams of becoming an actor in Los Angeles.
He's been seen in Power Book to Thirteen Reasons Why,
and over one hundred commercials. However, he's more than just
a pretty face and actor. He's also a classically trained
oil painter and creates multiple streams of income a k a.
(00:45):
Making Money Moves as he is the owner of several
chains of air B and B properties. Money Movers, Please
welcome to the podcast, Young Multi Money Moving Brandon Brown. Brandon,
Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me, Thanks
having me. Well, we're really glad to have you here.
Thanks for tuning in bright and early from Los Angeles,
(01:05):
the City of Dreams. We want to start off today
by tell our audience a little bit about you. You know,
we heard that you're an actor, You've got multiple streams
of income, and you're living out your dreams. Now in
Los Angeles from Buffalo. So when did you really decide
you were going to follow this pathway of acting? Um?
So I think like my whole life, I was like
doing some form of entertainment like making friends, live, Uh,
(01:30):
just just just being the life of every environment that
I was in. I always know I wanted to be
on TV. I didn't know specifically it was going to
be acting. But as I got older, Um, you know,
I went to college Buffalo State University, had a bachelor's
degree in criminal justice, and I wanted to be a
police officer. But then I'm like, that's not really my passion.
I was just looking for safe things and I just
(01:51):
knew like I wanted to be on TV. Somehow I
was inspired by, you know, everything that I was seeing
on TV from Buffalo. So I was like Los Angeles,
where they make movies, That's where I gotta be. So
I just came out here and just kind of hit
the ground running. Wow. Okay, so let's talk about a
lot of people in our audience like have dreams of
being an actor TV personality. Um, how hard was it
(02:12):
to crack into the acting scene? Everybody talks about, you know,
there's no such thing as an overnight sensation. So touchdown,
you move from Buffalo to Los Angeles. How did you
break them? Break the mold? I mean it was difficult.
That was and two now, but it's uh, it's definitely difficult.
You gotta hit the ground running. Um, it's no, it's
(02:33):
no real blueprint, Like nobody taught me anything. I didn't
know a single person in Los Angeles when I moved here. Well,
I just kind of googled everything and then started just networking.
And I used to be really conservative, but I started
talking to people, and that's when I got more information. Uh.
So you know, it's always somebody that knows something that
you don't know. So, you know, I would ask people
questions or where do you find an agent? Or where
(02:54):
do you find auditions? And after I started doing that,
I started getting all the you know, answers to my questions.
So it's difficult at first until you figure out just
the you know, the basics of our what you need.
I need headshots. I just moved here. Okay, now I
need to create some form of like acting real. Now
I need to submit to agents. Uh you know, now
I need to go to acting class. It's like all
this you know, just a series of things. You know,
(03:16):
it's a small investment in yourself. I love that because,
you know, I think oftentimes people just assume, oh yeah,
you show up in l A. And like maybe if
you're waiting table, someone's gonna recognize you and cast you
in the next hit film. Like yeah, I swear I
was like, I'm gonna coming to l A. I'm gonna
walk down the streets like I want him in my
next like that. Alright, So yeah, we're back to real
(03:38):
life here. So and I mean, you know what also
so interesting to me people underestimate just google how to
be an actor, create a real, Um, take those low
paying jobs. So let's talk about even creating your real
How did you find content to add to your real
Like what is the bottom of the barrel entry point
for an up and coming actor? Right now? Got you?
(03:58):
So when you first come here, I think the hardest
thing people are, like they're trying to create a real
some form of them acting less than a minute video
of either comedy or drama or both. Um, you don't
really have footage because you haven't been in anything. So
they have luckily now they have so many services. It's
uh on Instagram or something called damn Good Reels and
you know, write it sound folks. We are giving you
(04:19):
the tips and tricks. Just it's a damn good reel. Wow,
damn good reels. And they literally have high quality cameras.
They'll shoot a whole scene for you, and it looks
like just the cameras that they used to shoot these shows.
And they'll shoot the whole scene for you, have the
actor all that you pay them for the service, and
they'll create that for you if you haven't really done anything.
(04:40):
And then after you do a certain amount of work,
when you actually getting book for jobs, you'll have little
clips that you can just combine and make a whole
real Wow. Okay, that is so interesting to me. And
also like the power of social media and just what
we can do with video editing now so you can
get someone to like insert you into a whole little
mini production. Because that's interesting. A lot of people always say,
(05:00):
you know, it's like getting your first job. Well, you
don't have any experience on how are we gonna book you?
But you know there are ways around that. That's great,
Thank you so much. The problem Okay, so let's talk
about now commercials. I think This is also a really
interesting way to make money and break into the business.
You've been in a lot of commercials, over a hundred
if I'm right, I want to talk about the first
commercial you landed and some of your favorites as well. Alright, cool, Um,
(05:23):
so commercials have changed my life. I would say, I
see people on commercials and the people on TV shows.
The people and commercials are making way more money unless
that person on the TV show is the lead, is
the head series. Regular commercials is where the bread and
butter and the TV is fame, and the commercial is
nobody may know you, but you're getting a lot more money. Um.
(05:44):
My first big commercial that I booked, what it was
a Nike commercial where I was playing like a young
version of Lebron James and yeah, it's called come Out
of Nowhere and that's on YouTube on a Nike uh page.
But that was like my first big commercial in terms
of you know, just being a national all over to
TV and people calling and texting me. And then in
(06:05):
terms of money I did that commercial, I was on
set for like maybe four hours. I paid like twelve
tho dollars. I'd never you know, check time, you know,
and then That's how I really realized the value of
my time. I was like, wait, I used to have
to work like months to make this. Now it's like, okay,
I can get this. And then from there on I
(06:26):
started booking different commercial I did ah Taco Bill commercial.
I got like thirty thousand dollars. I did a Domino's commercial.
I got like sixty thou dollars. That was you know,
it was crazy. And the beauty of that is every
time it airs, you get a residual check. Uh if
it's a national commercial, and so you know, I remember
one day I was just like I just like every
(06:48):
other day. I opened my middle box, it was like
a different check, two dollars, three thousand and fourth dollars,
and it was just like just kept rolling in. And
so that's I love commercials. Stuff that I did years ago,
they'll still like renew surprise you. So it's that's actually
really great. People always talk about like how you can
attract money. That would be every time you open your mail,
luck you're like, oh, what's in here? What's in here? Yeah,
(07:10):
So I definitely love commercials. It's granted to be like
that residual income when you least expected and then you
really it really shows everyone, like, yo, these corporations are
making millions and billions off the people, and you know,
you know, you see, you know what you could be
making and what you could be earning or what you know,
the value of your time is. And it's very important
for people to realize that. And so that's when I realized,
(07:31):
you know, all right, this is this is where I
need to be. This is where it's at. Commercials um
and yeah, that's where I started at. Okay, So now
that you've got everyone super excited about this, how do
a brand new actor landed commercial? You talked about the reels,
and you also mentioned an agent. So what came first?
The reals, the agents? Let's talk about the process. So
there's definitely an order that these things need to be done.
(07:53):
I would say this, I always tay people. The first
thing you need to do. Move to a major city Atlanta,
Los Angele this, New York, Texas. Go where like l
A is the film capital of the world, Atlanta is
boom in New York like, you need to be in
these cities, Chicago because that's where all the work is.
So if you don't live in these cities, you need
to migrate there. That's the first thing. Second thing, you
need to get head shots. You need to determine that
(08:15):
you're gonna do commercial acting or theatrical acting TV and
movies because there's two different there are two different types
of Commercials would be more smiling, bright and colorful. Uh,
theatrical will be more serious, more character types. Um. And
I would say, you know, shoot, everyone's like, oh, I
got a friend with the camera, Like like unless your friend,
(08:36):
your friend has a professional like you know instackground. Yeah,
like I said it yourself. It's like investing yourself. This
isn't like, yeah, my boy is gonna shoot me a
picture from Instagram, Like invest in yourself, right, don't don't
try to don't try to like shortcut it, because I
would say head shots are like one of the most
probably the top like most important thing for you to
(08:56):
actually get an audition, because there's websites you need to
put on, you need to add, and you need to
put these head shots on the websites and you get
that you get jobs or auditions based off your your
head shot. You get jobs weren't even auditions and sometimes
just based off your head shot. So I would say
head shots after you move to the city, then, um,
acting classes. You know a lot of people come out
(09:17):
here and they're like, I don't need acting classes. I'm
a natural. I just think that way too. I was like, now,
I was ming need acting classes if you never if
you don't have a background experience, I mean the background
background acting theater classes. But I didn't. I didn't come
out here, uh you know with the background in that.
But you can always learn. That's the beauty of it.
(09:37):
They like, you see all these rappers, like you see
tupac ice Cube, like they got transformed into actors. But
from taking coaching, like anybody really can be transformed. You
can take acting classes at any ages out here. They
have a ton of them. Come out here and take
acting classes. After you get those head shots, then you
want to create some form of a real uh, like
less than about a minute long. You can do a
(09:58):
comedy scene or drama. See, um, you know, just have
some form of footage. And this is mostly for theatrical acting.
If you're trying to get an agent for commercials, you
don't really need a real They don't ever actually for
a real for commercial it's mostly about your head shots.
They just want you to eat people exactly. And then
after that you want to submit to agencies. So you
want to have these things done. You want to have
the head shot, you know, the real and stuff before
(10:21):
you submit to with agency, because you're you wanna when
you meet somebody, the first impression is important and you
don't want to you don't want to be unprepared, and
so they're not gonna even if you meet with them
and you don't have it, like, they're gonna tell you
to get that anyway. So you just want to have
that already so that you can be like, yeah, I'm ready,
this is what I have, email them and you can
find agents, you know, literally, there's a whole directory of
like Los Angeles agents on sites like l A Casting.
(10:45):
It's a site called LA Casting, the Casting Networks. That's
where you find all the commercial auditions in l A
pretty much most of the commercial you see on TV
in general LA Casting, and then if you want to
get int the TV and film, it's a site called
Actors Access. I hope you guys are writing the down
because I feel like I'm taking mental notes myself. Yeah, yeah,
So you need to be on l A Casting and
Actors Access or Casting networks in general. If you're in
(11:07):
those other cities, it'll it'll have a region. If you
live in Atlanta, it's all the one database and they'll
let you pick your region to find auditions and stuff
like that. UM. And so after that, you submit to agencies.
You look up the agencies, go on Instagram search whatever
your favorite actors that becoming. You see their their agency
and their bio. I used to just like look up
their agency and d MM email them. I would email
(11:28):
all of them. You know, hey, my name is such
and such. I've attached my head shot resume in real
for consideration. Uh. And you know, and then the more
you do that, as long as you have a good look,
those head shots are probably the best most important. That's
incredible your look and be like, all right, I can
make some money with this person. Then you know, they'll
they invite you into the auditions and that's it. This
(11:49):
is great, all right. So now you've given us all
sort of the ways to get into the market. And
how do you keep yourself like current and engage You've
been there for years a couple of years right now?
Is it the networking or is it the body of
work that you have? UM, so I keep So I've
been here for eight years. Um, I think that I'm
(12:12):
I just consistency has kept me engaged. Like I'm a
full time actor. Not many people can say that. And
I'm not a famous actor. I'm a working actor. So
what that means. I like it. I've worked. I've made
a living off of this for eight years now and
I haven't had to work a job. And not many
people can say that because a lot of people they
had they may have to wait a table or do
(12:33):
some others type of side gigs on top of acting.
But I think just the consistency. So these websites I
told you la casting actors access, you can submit yourself.
You don't necessarily need an agent if you want big auditions.
Uh most of the time, casting directors will want an agent,
you know, so that they can deal with not a person.
But you can also get your own job. I've probably
(12:53):
got like seventy percent of my own job since I've
been on Yeah, so you can set yourself on those
websites as long as you have headshots. You can get
your own auditions, you can get your own book ins,
like I gave my own all the time. And I
think that's just not really relying on those because they
got a hundred people that they got to take care of.
But you know, once you've got the grit, you're grinding
(13:15):
yourself like that's really where the magic happens. I only
get ten, so that's the that's the amount of work
they do. Yeah, Oh, you gotta really go higher for
yourself and just always be working. Just consistency, as you know,
kept me like maintained another. So Brandon, you know you've
been doing a lot. You've talked about being a working
(13:36):
actor and being able to support yourself that way, but
like the incredible entrepreneur you are, you also have multiple
streams of income. Number one are these beautiful paintings in
the background, And two you've talked about being sort of
having a little multi empire in the airbnb space where
you've got multiple homes. Let's talk about the painting first,
because my eyes are immediately drawn to these incredible oil
(13:57):
paintings behind you. When did you start painting? Thank you?
Um so I actually started painting three years ago. Um
I never painted in my life. I never draw and
drawing in my life. I don't have any childhood pictures
of me. Uh with some type of fantastic masterpiece. Um.
Actually I always collected art, uh, like since I was
(14:19):
like eighteen. I would go to exhibitions and by people's art,
and I just loved art so much. I remember walking
around about three and a half years ago. I remember walking,
uh somewhere in like near Beverly Hills, and I've seen
these classical oil paintings and like a window shop and
I went in there and I spoke with this woman.
Her name is get Art is her her gallery, and
(14:41):
you know, we started talking. We shared the same birthday,
which is crazy. Um. And she told me she was
gonna teach me how to paint oil paint and she
taught me how to paint for like just like that
you walked in look at an oil paintings tracula a
conversation with a gallery owner and she was like, oh,
I'm gonna teach you how to paint exactly. She's like
an Iranian woman, and it's just like the chemistry was there.
(15:01):
And I was like, I don't know how it happened.
I was like, when's your birthday and she's like June nineteenth.
I was going on juneteenth, that's my birthday. I was
like whoa, that's crazy. So just like that was it.
And she's such a you know, kind woman, and I
think that that natural you know, connection was there. And honestly,
like she didn't have any black students. And I'm not
saying she you know, I just was like, I think
(15:21):
it was like a culture shock. I going there to
all these Iranian people and that's you know, that's normally
their craft because it's expensive to take you know, acting,
I mean our classes in general. And so I think
it was just like I kind of everybody was very
welcome and but you know, I just kind of stood
out and it was just like, oh, this is like
you know, I think they were just happy for me,
you know, somebody else to be you know, exposed to
(15:43):
you know, what they do. And so I just learned,
you know, I just I just work paint like this,
this is incredible. Yeah. Yeah, it was like she taught
me everything. Like she was like drawing. She was like,
have a picture and she would be like, draw this.
I just want to see how what your eye sees.
And then I draw it like crap, and it should
be like don't draw what you think is in your head.
Draw was actually there? If the shape is actually like
(16:05):
this draw like that. Don't most people they'll have they
just think they like they'll think like what an eye
looks like, or you're rather looking at a picture and
trying to draw the shape exactly. And once she did that,
like it was night and date from like what I
originally drawn to like write the next thirty minutes of
you know with the notes. Wow, that's an incredible talent
(16:27):
you just discovered about yourself. Thank you. And I don't
know if it's like something that was always in me
or anybody, if any because I don't think it's like this,
you know, this esoteric like I don't think like like
being like able to it's like this. It's like this
thing that only exists in like a few people. I
think like everybody could be capable. It's just I don't know.
I mean what's interesting is like the difference that she
(16:51):
gave you in the instruction that she gave you says,
don't draw what you think you see, to draw what
you see, and it dramatically changed your perception of like
how to create art. Like I would turn your beautiful
drawing back there into like an emoji, it would be
the same I said the same thing. I don't have
any art experience. I don't like, no background priority the
(17:14):
thing like I took our classes growing up. I would
literally scribble like it was terrible. I never even thought
I thought this decided like singing, like you had to
be born with it. But you know, I just worked
hard at it. And essentially, you know, I just wanted
to learn how to do that most specifically cause I
love art, and then I wanted to I wanted another
stream of income. So well, you're saying all the things
(17:34):
that I love are we are listeners to here You
worked hard at it and it happened. I wanted another
stream of income, and here it is, you know, and
I mean you're young to this day. So just I
really love to see that because oftentimes it's like, yeah,
if you work hard at something, it can transform into
what do you want it? Whether you're making beautiful art,
you're making money from it, all of it with some
(17:54):
great stuff exactly. And and just to summarize that, like, um,
you know you could. Uh. I wanted to another stream
income and I was like, okay, that's why I wanted
to get good at it. Some people take classes there
they just they may be working on the same paint
beautifully for like a year, but they don't have and
they don't want to sell art, they just want to
create it. So yeah, it's right. But my ambition was
(18:15):
I want to sell this art, so I need to
get really good at this. And then basically the return
on a painting is phenomenal. I mean, of course, your
time is like, it's very valuable. So I was like,
that's that's why paint is cost a lot. I may
take three or four weeks to finish a painting sometimes. Wow, okay,
so wait, I gotta ask you a question there, Yeah,
how long does it take to do a painting? You know,
sometimes in my head I'm picturing like Keith Heron or
(18:37):
Basketyat and it's like, oh, it takes months for their
work to be released. But you're, let's call it a
working artist that is creating art to sell as well, right,
And I think there's a distinction there. Some people, like
you said, just want to sit it in their basement,
and it's like therapy. You had a different mindset when
you went into art. So the works behind you, for example,
like how long would each of those have taken you
(18:58):
to paint? Well, it's crazy. Um, this one probably took
h three or four weeks and this one took three days.
Oh um. The difference is the more you do it,
the faster you'll get at it. Um, it's just taking
me like a month. Well my teeth. When I started
training my teacher, she paints and layers, so I'm a
classically trying oil painter. So it's like painting the pace
(19:20):
one time, then painting again. They're painting everything all over,
like like if you see the Mona Lisa, it has
forty eight I think it has like forty eight layers
on it. That's and fascinating. That means a person I
artist kept painting it over and over and over again,
so that's more detailed, more defined. That's how they used
to do back in the day. You don't need to
do that. That means times now. But my teacher should
(19:42):
still have an old way of doing that. But a
lot of newer artists they only painting like one or
two layers, and so that's where you know, you can
really get a good detail. Payer you know, it was
just for me, like I would have to paint a
rough version of it first and then I'll paint on
top of it. So at least two layers. But the
more that I do it, the more I look up
for different style house and you know, ways to I
don't have to do any as much layers to get
(20:04):
in more detailed. And it's just like the time you have,
Like if I'm busy working and trying to do painting
in between other stuff, it may take longer. That's what
I was impressive, moving and doing other stuff and then this,
and then also the size of your campus. This is
a bigger canvas than this one, right, yeah, Will from
the bell Air series. Oh I knew that's who it was.
Like I was kept going, okay, why do I know
that face? I just watched that, so that makes sense. Yeah,
(20:25):
it's a smaller canvas and I just kind of like
locked in on it. And everything just varies. Like if
you're painting like you know, like a shorter crap in
profile takes less time. You're trying to paint a full body,
they will take way more time hands all of that stuff,
multiple details. But yeah, that's just the time. So I
could take anywhere between like uh, like I would say
like a week, four weeks. Some artists work if they
(20:48):
have giant campuses that might take them like three or
four or five months to you know complete, but the
return on investment and talking, you know, you can buy
a paint it for you can buy a campas for
like a hundred dollars and end up selling it for
like thousands. You know, you just gotta put your time
in to create that beautiful art. So, um, let's talk
about the business of art, and then I definitely want
(21:09):
to touch on on Airbnb as well. So you entered
into this being like, hey, you know, you're obviously very talented.
How do you go about selling your work and creating
sort of demand for these um paintings? Right? Great question. Um,
So the traditional way of people thinking that they are
people doing that is too honestly, now we have the
(21:30):
platform of social media. You don't It used to be
like you have to have a gallery owner, you have
to be like like Blascia, you have to be friends
with like you know, Andy Warhol or somebody like. It's
not like that now that still very much exists if
you want those big numbers like hundreds of thousands or millions.
But I would tell you social media is your best friend.
Like if you can create TikTok's of you of you
(21:53):
just documenting your painting process, whether that be a time
lapse or just like a bunch of chopped up clips
of the before after. Uh. People love that. People will
buy it works strictly off of that. You can cut
out the gallery owner. I'm all about cutting out the middleman.
A lot of gallery owner they take a lot of people.
Don't notice. They take fifty percent of people's money. Uh,
the artist's money. And that's crazy. I mean never, I
(22:15):
never pay my agent more than ten percent. I never
pay my manager more than that. So it's like why why?
And you work harder at painting acting sometimes you might
be on set, say a line or two. They pay
you thousand of dollars. It's less work and they take
a small percentage. This is something that you actually, you know,
working at hours and hours or a time is valuable.
And these people, these gallery owners of your money. And
(22:38):
it's really it's really robbery. You know, a lot of
artists they like, you know, they need that, they feel
like they need the exposure to do that. But really
the gallery owner, they'll exhibit your working a dozen other
people at the same time, and you know, they take
of whatever it sales. That and I think that's unfair.
So you can cut them out. You can cut them
out by just having your work posted on Instagram, take talk, like,
(23:01):
constantly document your journeys people to see it. The more
you do it, the more people will be attracted to it.
Just think of a way to stand out and just
to summarize that. Um, sometimes I'll paint people. I'll paint people.
I'll paint pictures of ports of uh, you know, public
figures that people uh, and they'll buy my work. And
(23:21):
that's like a technique I do. I'm like, I'm gonna
paint this. Yeah, that's worked for me. Yeah. So I
painted one of this guy nineteen keys and you've been
a guest on our podcast. Yeah. Yeah, he actually bought it,
like I dropped it off to him like a couple
of days ago. Wow, congrats, thank you. That was the
highest I ever was, Like, so they're painting for yeah, congratulations.
(23:41):
But like, I mean, this is great stuff to share
and we really appreciate it because you know, I think
what your story really epitomizes to our listeners is hustle.
Like it's really hustle, Like nobody gives you anything for free.
You know those days where you walk down l A
and someone's like, hey, would you like ten million dollars
to be in this blockbuster? You know, it's like, no
one is an overnight sensation. So we appreciate that. One
(24:04):
last question before we go out. Um, you've also talked
about being um getting successful streams of income from Airbnb. Right,
how did you start on that track? Right? So Airbnb?
So I remember my first Airbnb. I used to live
on Vince Scully. It's the street where the Dodgers stay
Baseball Stadium. Is this the exact street? And I remember
(24:25):
they used to have the World Series and I was like,
this is years ago, and I was like, man, I
wonder if I could just rent out, just leave for
the day, I mean leave for like the weekends of
the series and just rent this out. And I did that,
and I just put up some high marked up number.
I think it's a couple of hundred dollars a night
or something like that. And so just real talk you Airbnb,
(24:46):
your Airbnb. Yeah, oh no, no, no, this is no no, no,
this is where I was living. Okay, okay, okay. I
was like that yeah yeah, no, no, no no, I was
I was. I'm I'm telling you about how I first
got introduced. This is, yeah, I had my apartment I
got you know, I used to rent airbnbs when I travel.
(25:09):
Um basically, uh, that's where I got started. With the
World Series. I happened. I had an actual apartment that
I was living in, but it was the World Series
and my my my apartment is on the same treat
as the Dodger Stadium. But anyways, I rented it out
to some people and I was like, oh shoot, and
they booked it the whole you know week and just
to go to the walk up to the street to
the baseball game. And so I was like, Okay, That's
what I first got introduced, and I was like, all right,
(25:30):
this is another stream of income. Fast four years later,
pandemic hits all the properties in l A. They like
not the houses, but all the apartments. They did so
much building. They kind of like they needed people to
move in. People weren't moving, people weren't paying rent. It
was like rent special, to rent special, three months off
all of this stuff. So I went and got like
(25:52):
I went at least like almost ten apartments, you know.
Uh not at the same time, it was like like
I would do a couple of months and literally like
I would take advantage of those moving specials like okay,
you're gonna give me two months off. I moved in
boom boom. I took it. At least them all out.
I have scorporate all that. Um at least in my
ole time is gonna be working space. And literally I
(26:14):
just started like fit like investing in money, getting furniture
off or offer up. Um my god friend, and this
is a whole This is great because this is during
the pandemic. So at this point, I mean I would
if I were you. I'm sure you were worried because
everyone was debating is Hollywood shutting down? What's happening? Are
we gonna go back to production? So you're like, okay,
I gotta eat right right right. I've learned a lot
(26:37):
of things about Warren Buffet has a quote, and it says,
be greeting when people are fearful, and be fearful when
people are greeding. So when you have it correlates in
every single market, whether it be housing, stock market anything.
It's like when people are panicking, that's when you need
to take advantage of things. When stuff crashes and people
are scared run away, you need to put your money
(26:57):
in it when everybody's talking about it. AMC to the moon,
n F T this right, that's that's probably the top
that somebody's gonna be selling that because they've been in
it for a while. And that's when people always put
their money and when everybody else is talking about it,
and then they start losing money and wonder why. You know,
it's literally a repeated cycle. So I just try to
take advantage of like with the knowledge, the knowledge I
(27:19):
knew on that like this is Los Angeles, film capital
of the world, that people are not gonna start traveling
stop traveling here. People all need a place to live. Um,
And so I just started, you know, taking advantage of that.
And you know, basically I'm the middleman to this, like
you know, at least at least how to uh, at
least how these departments luxury lost anything one bedrooms, um,
(27:40):
and I'll I'll probably get it. I'll get a good
rate for what I'll try to offer. I'll try to
ask some sort of sort of incentive. I'm moving special
two weeks a month anything and the right that's great
because yeah, they couldn't offload these apartments, but people wanted
temporary living. Yeah, exactly. And that's the thing. Los Angeles
a perfect place of that, because the requirements to get
(28:01):
an apartment in Los Angeles is absurd. It's absurd, like
even during this pandemic. I'll tell you this, These people
want you to have. These people want you to have
three three times the income. They want you to have
every and everything is like two thousand, three thousand to
live out here. Stuff they want you to have. I
gotta prove for a promise out here. And they was like, oh,
(28:22):
you gotta prove. We just need the first three months
a rent. That's a lot to ask for people who
are trying to move to l A follow their dreams,
Like months in print up front. It's like it's it's absurd,
Like they want you to have a seven like it's
it's bizarre. So you know the fact that I actually,
you know, meet these requirements is like let me everybody,
(28:43):
like everybnb doesn't ask for nothing, none of that. They
don't need to credit check, they don't need their bank statements,
they don't care about none of that. What you pay,
you can, if you can afford to pay for the
space for every amount of time, then that's you know,
that's so what I am is just like you know,
you know, in a way like helping a lot of
people of traveling nurses, like they are like the main people,
(29:04):
like they always here on assignment, they're not here for long,
so they don't want to get a one year least. Yeah,
they just want three months get in. And you know,
I used to be a traveling nurse, so I completely
get it. And the key to travel nursing is you'd
get either room and board or a big travel stipend,
so you can take that big travel stipend and find
way cheaper housing and sort of pocket the difference. I
(29:25):
know that game very very well. Yeah, exactly. So most
of the people that rent from me are was it
furnished finder? Like, oh, most of people that rent from me,
they're they're actually traveling nurses. And that's literally by coincidence
because well that's also because California pays their nurses a
whole lot of money. So if you were in the
nursing game, get to California, do a little travel contract.
Yeah yeah, that should Airbnb. Like the it's been like crazy,
(29:50):
like I've never you know, I've considered different things. Oh
what if it didn't get rented out? What if you
know this and this? Like I literally just made an
Airbnb course. It's in my bio all my too. I
literally will I have a video I walk It's like
forty five minutes. I welcome through my profiles. I literally
show them how to do every single thing from running out,
(30:12):
Like all right, this is how you find apartments? Is
with your credit score? Should look like do it with
the business partner. A lot of people want to do
this by themselves. You don't have to. I usually be
at this. I want to keep all the money. I
want to do all of that. Then I realized, nah,
I found one trust really person. You want somebody feel
close to me. I was like, I'm gonna have a
business partner because like, if things go bad, you got
(30:32):
to balance. You're a working actor, You've got all these
different things, and I think this is this is what
people need to understand as you start to grow in
your business endeavors, like you can't do it all yourself,
and the idea that like you want to keep all
the you know, pot of money to yourself and like
keep all the reward. It's fine, but at some point
you need to sacrifice a little bit of that for
scale exactly exactly. Yeah, but yeah, you know, in order
(30:55):
to really get to where you want to be, which
is a scalable business, you do need to in some help.
No matter what the business is, man, Brandon, you have
you know, this is in such an interesting conversation, wishing
you the best on acting. Um, I want to start,
I want to close out now and I want to ask, like,
what are some great projects that you have coming up
that we can turn on our TVs or streaming networks
(31:15):
and see you on Yeah. Um, so you know, Hollywood work,
everything is like confidential, everything is like all of that stuff. Honestly,
I'm just constantly auditioning and working at it. I have
an exhibition from my art coming up Juneteenth, which is
June nineteenth, my birthday. I'll be exhibiting like a bunch
of work out here in Los Angeles. Follow me on Instagram,
Brandon Brown B That's where I'll you know, you'll see
(31:38):
flowers and all of that stuff. In terms of acting,
I'm always auditioning for stuff. I'm always filming stuff. I
just shouted an Intel commercial that's out now. Yeah, and
so it's just like a consistent, like I'm always doing
something and working at it and um, yeah that's that's
just some things that I'm going on right now. Uh.
Airbnb is flourishing and you know, just always looking for
(32:01):
new ways to make you know, some more bread and
uh and increase my income. That's right. Well, we love it,
Brandon Frand, and thank you so much for coming on
Money Moves. I'm really fascinating to see your story and
we wish you the best before we close out, Remind
everybody where they can find you on social media all Uh,
if you want to stock related things, um, follow me
(32:22):
on Twitter, read underscore bullish. Um. If you want art
my life, uh, following me on Instagram. Brandon Brown be
all one word TikTok is like chlora fella and yeah
that's it awesome or all right, money Movers, that's all
the time we have for today, but make sure to
follow Brandon on all his social media handles, not only
(32:44):
for some Money Moves tips, but from acting advice, painting
all sorts of things, or if you need a place
to crash in l a. Brandon, thanks again for your
time and Money Movers. If we have helped you make
your money move, please make sure to let us know
by sending us a like, sharing the knowledge on your
social media, and or leave us a review on Apple podcast.
Make sure to tune in Monday through Friday and subscribe
(33:04):
to the Money Moves Podcast powered by Greenwoods, so that
you two can have the keys to financial freedom you
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Money Moves audience. If you want more or a recap
of this episode, please go to the bank Greenwood dot
com and check out the Money Moves podcast blog. Money
(33:25):
Moves is an I Heart Radio podcast powered by Greenwood
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or wherever you get your podcasts from
Hey, Money Movers, I'm your host, Tanya Sam and welcome
back to another episode of Money Moves, the daily podcast
powered by Greenwood, determined to give you the Greece to
the Kingdom of financial stability to welcome funds. Our next
(00:23):
guest is an up and coming actor from Buffalo, New York.
He's following his dreams of becoming an actor in Los Angeles.
He's been seen in Power Book to Thirteen Reasons Why,
and over one hundred commercials. However, he's more than just
a pretty face and actor. He's also a classically trained
oil painter and creates multiple streams of income a k a.
(00:45):
Making Money Moves as he is the owner of several
chains of air B and B properties. Money Movers, Please
welcome to the podcast, Young Multi Money Moving Brandon Brown. Brandon,
Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me, Thanks
having me. Well, we're really glad to have you here.
Thanks for tuning in bright and early from Los Angeles,
(01:05):
the City of Dreams. We want to start off today
by tell our audience a little bit about you. You know,
we heard that you're an actor, You've got multiple streams
of income, and you're living out your dreams. Now in
Los Angeles from Buffalo. So when did you really decide
you were going to follow this pathway of acting? Um?
So I think like my whole life, I was like
doing some form of entertainment like making friends, live, Uh,
(01:30):
just just just being the life of every environment that
I was in. I always know I wanted to be
on TV. I didn't know specifically it was going to
be acting. But as I got older, Um, you know,
I went to college Buffalo State University, had a bachelor's
degree in criminal justice, and I wanted to be a
police officer. But then I'm like, that's not really my passion.
I was just looking for safe things and I just
(01:51):
knew like I wanted to be on TV. Somehow I
was inspired by, you know, everything that I was seeing
on TV from Buffalo. So I was like Los Angeles,
where they make movies, That's where I gotta be. So
I just came out here and just kind of hit
the ground running. Wow. Okay, so let's talk about a
lot of people in our audience like have dreams of
being an actor TV personality. Um, how hard was it
(02:12):
to crack into the acting scene? Everybody talks about, you know,
there's no such thing as an overnight sensation. So touchdown,
you move from Buffalo to Los Angeles. How did you
break them? Break the mold? I mean it was difficult.
That was and two now, but it's uh, it's definitely difficult.
You gotta hit the ground running. Um, it's no, it's
(02:33):
no real blueprint, Like nobody taught me anything. I didn't
know a single person in Los Angeles when I moved here. Well,
I just kind of googled everything and then started just networking.
And I used to be really conservative, but I started
talking to people, and that's when I got more information. Uh.
So you know, it's always somebody that knows something that
you don't know. So, you know, I would ask people
questions or where do you find an agent? Or where
(02:54):
do you find auditions? And after I started doing that,
I started getting all the you know, answers to my questions.
So it's difficult at first until you figure out just
the you know, the basics of our what you need.
I need headshots. I just moved here. Okay, now I
need to create some form of like acting real. Now
I need to submit to agents. Uh you know, now
I need to go to acting class. It's like all
this you know, just a series of things. You know,
(03:16):
it's a small investment in yourself. I love that because,
you know, I think oftentimes people just assume, oh yeah,
you show up in l A. And like maybe if
you're waiting table, someone's gonna recognize you and cast you
in the next hit film. Like yeah, I swear I
was like, I'm gonna coming to l A. I'm gonna
walk down the streets like I want him in my
next like that. Alright, So yeah, we're back to real
(03:38):
life here. So and I mean, you know what also
so interesting to me people underestimate just google how to
be an actor, create a real, Um, take those low
paying jobs. So let's talk about even creating your real
How did you find content to add to your real
Like what is the bottom of the barrel entry point
for an up and coming actor? Right now? Got you?
(03:58):
So when you first come here, I think the hardest
thing people are, like they're trying to create a real
some form of them acting less than a minute video
of either comedy or drama or both. Um, you don't
really have footage because you haven't been in anything. So
they have luckily now they have so many services. It's
uh on Instagram or something called damn Good Reels and
you know, write it sound folks. We are giving you
(04:19):
the tips and tricks. Just it's a damn good reel. Wow,
damn good reels. And they literally have high quality cameras.
They'll shoot a whole scene for you, and it looks
like just the cameras that they used to shoot these shows.
And they'll shoot the whole scene for you, have the
actor all that you pay them for the service, and
they'll create that for you if you haven't really done anything.
(04:40):
And then after you do a certain amount of work,
when you actually getting book for jobs, you'll have little
clips that you can just combine and make a whole
real Wow. Okay, that is so interesting to me. And
also like the power of social media and just what
we can do with video editing now so you can
get someone to like insert you into a whole little
mini production. Because that's interesting. A lot of people always say,
(05:00):
you know, it's like getting your first job. Well, you
don't have any experience on how are we gonna book you?
But you know there are ways around that. That's great,
Thank you so much. The problem Okay, so let's talk
about now commercials. I think This is also a really
interesting way to make money and break into the business.
You've been in a lot of commercials, over a hundred
if I'm right, I want to talk about the first
commercial you landed and some of your favorites as well. Alright, cool, Um,
(05:23):
so commercials have changed my life. I would say, I
see people on commercials and the people on TV shows.
The people and commercials are making way more money unless
that person on the TV show is the lead, is
the head series. Regular commercials is where the bread and
butter and the TV is fame, and the commercial is
nobody may know you, but you're getting a lot more money. Um.
(05:44):
My first big commercial that I booked, what it was
a Nike commercial where I was playing like a young
version of Lebron James and yeah, it's called come Out
of Nowhere and that's on YouTube on a Nike uh page.
But that was like my first big commercial in terms
of you know, just being a national all over to
TV and people calling and texting me. And then in
(06:05):
terms of money I did that commercial, I was on
set for like maybe four hours. I paid like twelve
tho dollars. I'd never you know, check time, you know,
and then That's how I really realized the value of
my time. I was like, wait, I used to have
to work like months to make this. Now it's like, okay,
I can get this. And then from there on I
(06:26):
started booking different commercial I did ah Taco Bill commercial.
I got like thirty thousand dollars. I did a Domino's commercial.
I got like sixty thou dollars. That was you know,
it was crazy. And the beauty of that is every
time it airs, you get a residual check. Uh if
it's a national commercial, and so you know, I remember
one day I was just like I just like every
(06:48):
other day. I opened my middle box, it was like
a different check, two dollars, three thousand and fourth dollars,
and it was just like just kept rolling in. And
so that's I love commercials. Stuff that I did years ago,
they'll still like renew surprise you. So it's that's actually
really great. People always talk about like how you can
attract money. That would be every time you open your mail,
luck you're like, oh, what's in here? What's in here? Yeah,
(07:10):
So I definitely love commercials. It's granted to be like
that residual income when you least expected and then you
really it really shows everyone, like, yo, these corporations are
making millions and billions off the people, and you know,
you know, you see, you know what you could be
making and what you could be earning or what you know,
the value of your time is. And it's very important
for people to realize that. And so that's when I realized,
(07:31):
you know, all right, this is this is where I
need to be. This is where it's at. Commercials um
and yeah, that's where I started at. Okay, So now
that you've got everyone super excited about this, how do
a brand new actor landed commercial? You talked about the reels,
and you also mentioned an agent. So what came first?
The reals, the agents? Let's talk about the process. So
there's definitely an order that these things need to be done.
(07:53):
I would say this, I always tay people. The first
thing you need to do. Move to a major city Atlanta,
Los Angele this, New York, Texas. Go where like l
A is the film capital of the world, Atlanta is
boom in New York like, you need to be in
these cities, Chicago because that's where all the work is.
So if you don't live in these cities, you need
to migrate there. That's the first thing. Second thing, you
need to get head shots. You need to determine that
(08:15):
you're gonna do commercial acting or theatrical acting TV and
movies because there's two different there are two different types
of Commercials would be more smiling, bright and colorful. Uh,
theatrical will be more serious, more character types. Um. And
I would say, you know, shoot, everyone's like, oh, I
got a friend with the camera, Like like unless your friend,
(08:36):
your friend has a professional like you know instackground. Yeah,
like I said it yourself. It's like investing yourself. This
isn't like, yeah, my boy is gonna shoot me a
picture from Instagram, Like invest in yourself, right, don't don't
try to don't try to like shortcut it, because I
would say head shots are like one of the most
probably the top like most important thing for you to
(08:56):
actually get an audition, because there's websites you need to
put on, you need to add, and you need to
put these head shots on the websites and you get
that you get jobs or auditions based off your your
head shot. You get jobs weren't even auditions and sometimes
just based off your head shot. So I would say
head shots after you move to the city, then, um,
acting classes. You know a lot of people come out
(09:17):
here and they're like, I don't need acting classes. I'm
a natural. I just think that way too. I was like, now,
I was ming need acting classes if you never if
you don't have a background experience, I mean the background
background acting theater classes. But I didn't. I didn't come
out here, uh you know with the background in that.
But you can always learn. That's the beauty of it.
(09:37):
They like, you see all these rappers, like you see
tupac ice Cube, like they got transformed into actors. But
from taking coaching, like anybody really can be transformed. You
can take acting classes at any ages out here. They
have a ton of them. Come out here and take
acting classes. After you get those head shots, then you
want to create some form of a real uh, like
less than about a minute long. You can do a
(09:58):
comedy scene or drama. See, um, you know, just have
some form of footage. And this is mostly for theatrical acting.
If you're trying to get an agent for commercials, you
don't really need a real They don't ever actually for
a real for commercial it's mostly about your head shots.
They just want you to eat people exactly. And then
after that you want to submit to agencies. So you
want to have these things done. You want to have
the head shot, you know, the real and stuff before
(10:21):
you submit to with agency, because you're you wanna when
you meet somebody, the first impression is important and you
don't want to you don't want to be unprepared, and
so they're not gonna even if you meet with them
and you don't have it, like, they're gonna tell you
to get that anyway. So you just want to have
that already so that you can be like, yeah, I'm ready,
this is what I have, email them and you can
find agents, you know, literally, there's a whole directory of
like Los Angeles agents on sites like l A Casting.
(10:45):
It's a site called LA Casting, the Casting Networks. That's
where you find all the commercial auditions in l A
pretty much most of the commercial you see on TV
in general LA Casting, and then if you want to
get int the TV and film, it's a site called
Actors Access. I hope you guys are writing the down
because I feel like I'm taking mental notes myself. Yeah, yeah,
So you need to be on l A Casting and
Actors Access or Casting networks in general. If you're in
(11:07):
those other cities, it'll it'll have a region. If you
live in Atlanta, it's all the one database and they'll
let you pick your region to find auditions and stuff
like that. UM. And so after that, you submit to agencies.
You look up the agencies, go on Instagram search whatever
your favorite actors that becoming. You see their their agency
and their bio. I used to just like look up
their agency and d MM email them. I would email
(11:28):
all of them. You know, hey, my name is such
and such. I've attached my head shot resume in real
for consideration. Uh. And you know, and then the more
you do that, as long as you have a good look,
those head shots are probably the best most important. That's
incredible your look and be like, all right, I can
make some money with this person. Then you know, they'll
they invite you into the auditions and that's it. This
(11:49):
is great, all right. So now you've given us all
sort of the ways to get into the market. And
how do you keep yourself like current and engage You've
been there for years a couple of years right now?
Is it the networking or is it the body of
work that you have? UM, so I keep So I've
been here for eight years. Um, I think that I'm
(12:12):
I just consistency has kept me engaged. Like I'm a
full time actor. Not many people can say that. And
I'm not a famous actor. I'm a working actor. So
what that means. I like it. I've worked. I've made
a living off of this for eight years now and
I haven't had to work a job. And not many
people can say that because a lot of people they
had they may have to wait a table or do
(12:33):
some others type of side gigs on top of acting.
But I think just the consistency. So these websites I
told you la casting actors access, you can submit yourself.
You don't necessarily need an agent if you want big auditions.
Uh most of the time, casting directors will want an agent,
you know, so that they can deal with not a person.
But you can also get your own job. I've probably
(12:53):
got like seventy percent of my own job since I've
been on Yeah, so you can set yourself on those
websites as long as you have headshots. You can get
your own auditions, you can get your own book ins,
like I gave my own all the time. And I
think that's just not really relying on those because they
got a hundred people that they got to take care of.
But you know, once you've got the grit, you're grinding
(13:15):
yourself like that's really where the magic happens. I only
get ten, so that's the that's the amount of work
they do. Yeah, Oh, you gotta really go higher for
yourself and just always be working. Just consistency, as you know,
kept me like maintained another. So Brandon, you know you've
been doing a lot. You've talked about being a working
(13:36):
actor and being able to support yourself that way, but
like the incredible entrepreneur you are, you also have multiple
streams of income. Number one are these beautiful paintings in
the background, And two you've talked about being sort of
having a little multi empire in the airbnb space where
you've got multiple homes. Let's talk about the painting first,
because my eyes are immediately drawn to these incredible oil
(13:57):
paintings behind you. When did you start painting? Thank you?
Um so I actually started painting three years ago. Um
I never painted in my life. I never draw and
drawing in my life. I don't have any childhood pictures
of me. Uh with some type of fantastic masterpiece. Um.
Actually I always collected art, uh, like since I was
(14:19):
like eighteen. I would go to exhibitions and by people's art,
and I just loved art so much. I remember walking
around about three and a half years ago. I remember walking,
uh somewhere in like near Beverly Hills, and I've seen
these classical oil paintings and like a window shop and
I went in there and I spoke with this woman.
Her name is get Art is her her gallery, and
(14:41):
you know, we started talking. We shared the same birthday,
which is crazy. Um. And she told me she was
gonna teach me how to paint oil paint and she
taught me how to paint for like just like that
you walked in look at an oil paintings tracula a
conversation with a gallery owner and she was like, oh,
I'm gonna teach you how to paint exactly. She's like
an Iranian woman, and it's just like the chemistry was there.
(15:01):
And I was like, I don't know how it happened.
I was like, when's your birthday and she's like June nineteenth.
I was going on juneteenth, that's my birthday. I was
like whoa, that's crazy. So just like that was it.
And she's such a you know, kind woman, and I
think that that natural you know, connection was there. And honestly,
like she didn't have any black students. And I'm not
saying she you know, I just was like, I think
(15:21):
it was like a culture shock. I going there to
all these Iranian people and that's you know, that's normally
their craft because it's expensive to take you know, acting,
I mean our classes in general. And so I think
it was just like I kind of everybody was very
welcome and but you know, I just kind of stood
out and it was just like, oh, this is like
you know, I think they were just happy for me,
you know, somebody else to be you know, exposed to
(15:43):
you know, what they do. And so I just learned,
you know, I just I just work paint like this,
this is incredible. Yeah. Yeah, it was like she taught
me everything. Like she was like drawing. She was like,
have a picture and she would be like, draw this.
I just want to see how what your eye sees.
And then I draw it like crap, and it should
be like don't draw what you think is in your head.
Draw was actually there? If the shape is actually like
(16:05):
this draw like that. Don't most people they'll have they
just think they like they'll think like what an eye
looks like, or you're rather looking at a picture and
trying to draw the shape exactly. And once she did that,
like it was night and date from like what I
originally drawn to like write the next thirty minutes of
you know with the notes. Wow, that's an incredible talent
(16:27):
you just discovered about yourself. Thank you. And I don't
know if it's like something that was always in me
or anybody, if any because I don't think it's like this,
you know, this esoteric like I don't think like like
being like able to it's like this. It's like this
thing that only exists in like a few people. I
think like everybody could be capable. It's just I don't know.
I mean what's interesting is like the difference that she
(16:51):
gave you in the instruction that she gave you says,
don't draw what you think you see, to draw what
you see, and it dramatically changed your perception of like
how to create art. Like I would turn your beautiful
drawing back there into like an emoji, it would be
the same I said the same thing. I don't have
any art experience. I don't like, no background priority the
(17:14):
thing like I took our classes growing up. I would
literally scribble like it was terrible. I never even thought
I thought this decided like singing, like you had to
be born with it. But you know, I just worked
hard at it. And essentially, you know, I just wanted
to learn how to do that most specifically cause I
love art, and then I wanted to I wanted another
stream of income. So well, you're saying all the things
(17:34):
that I love are we are listeners to here You
worked hard at it and it happened. I wanted another
stream of income, and here it is, you know, and
I mean you're young to this day. So just I
really love to see that because oftentimes it's like, yeah,
if you work hard at something, it can transform into
what do you want it? Whether you're making beautiful art,
you're making money from it, all of it with some
(17:54):
great stuff exactly. And and just to summarize that, like, um,
you know you could. Uh. I wanted to another stream
income and I was like, okay, that's why I wanted
to get good at it. Some people take classes there
they just they may be working on the same paint
beautifully for like a year, but they don't have and
they don't want to sell art, they just want to
create it. So yeah, it's right. But my ambition was
(18:15):
I want to sell this art, so I need to
get really good at this. And then basically the return
on a painting is phenomenal. I mean, of course, your
time is like, it's very valuable. So I was like,
that's that's why paint is cost a lot. I may
take three or four weeks to finish a painting sometimes. Wow, okay,
so wait, I gotta ask you a question there, Yeah,
how long does it take to do a painting? You know,
sometimes in my head I'm picturing like Keith Heron or
(18:37):
Basketyat and it's like, oh, it takes months for their
work to be released. But you're, let's call it a
working artist that is creating art to sell as well, right,
And I think there's a distinction there. Some people, like
you said, just want to sit it in their basement,
and it's like therapy. You had a different mindset when
you went into art. So the works behind you, for example,
like how long would each of those have taken you
(18:58):
to paint? Well, it's crazy. Um, this one probably took
h three or four weeks and this one took three days.
Oh um. The difference is the more you do it,
the faster you'll get at it. Um, it's just taking
me like a month. Well my teeth. When I started
training my teacher, she paints and layers, so I'm a
classically trying oil painter. So it's like painting the pace
(19:20):
one time, then painting again. They're painting everything all over,
like like if you see the Mona Lisa, it has
forty eight I think it has like forty eight layers
on it. That's and fascinating. That means a person I
artist kept painting it over and over and over again,
so that's more detailed, more defined. That's how they used
to do back in the day. You don't need to
do that. That means times now. But my teacher should
(19:42):
still have an old way of doing that. But a
lot of newer artists they only painting like one or
two layers, and so that's where you know, you can
really get a good detail. Payer you know, it was
just for me, like I would have to paint a
rough version of it first and then I'll paint on
top of it. So at least two layers. But the
more that I do it, the more I look up
for different style house and you know, ways to I
don't have to do any as much layers to get
(20:04):
in more detailed. And it's just like the time you have,
Like if I'm busy working and trying to do painting
in between other stuff, it may take longer. That's what
I was impressive, moving and doing other stuff and then this,
and then also the size of your campus. This is
a bigger canvas than this one, right, yeah, Will from
the bell Air series. Oh I knew that's who it was.
Like I was kept going, okay, why do I know
that face? I just watched that, so that makes sense. Yeah,
(20:25):
it's a smaller canvas and I just kind of like
locked in on it. And everything just varies. Like if
you're painting like you know, like a shorter crap in
profile takes less time. You're trying to paint a full body,
they will take way more time hands all of that stuff,
multiple details. But yeah, that's just the time. So I
could take anywhere between like uh, like I would say
like a week, four weeks. Some artists work if they
(20:48):
have giant campuses that might take them like three or
four or five months to you know complete, but the
return on investment and talking, you know, you can buy
a paint it for you can buy a campas for
like a hundred dollars and end up selling it for
like thousands. You know, you just gotta put your time
in to create that beautiful art. So, um, let's talk
about the business of art, and then I definitely want
(21:09):
to touch on on Airbnb as well. So you entered
into this being like, hey, you know, you're obviously very talented.
How do you go about selling your work and creating
sort of demand for these um paintings? Right? Great question. Um,
So the traditional way of people thinking that they are
people doing that is too honestly, now we have the
(21:30):
platform of social media. You don't It used to be
like you have to have a gallery owner, you have
to be like like Blascia, you have to be friends
with like you know, Andy Warhol or somebody like. It's
not like that now that still very much exists if
you want those big numbers like hundreds of thousands or millions.
But I would tell you social media is your best friend.
Like if you can create TikTok's of you of you
(21:53):
just documenting your painting process, whether that be a time
lapse or just like a bunch of chopped up clips
of the before after. Uh. People love that. People will
buy it works strictly off of that. You can cut
out the gallery owner. I'm all about cutting out the middleman.
A lot of gallery owner they take a lot of people.
Don't notice. They take fifty percent of people's money. Uh,
the artist's money. And that's crazy. I mean never, I
(22:15):
never pay my agent more than ten percent. I never
pay my manager more than that. So it's like why why?
And you work harder at painting acting sometimes you might
be on set, say a line or two. They pay
you thousand of dollars. It's less work and they take
a small percentage. This is something that you actually, you know,
working at hours and hours or a time is valuable.
And these people, these gallery owners of your money. And
(22:38):
it's really it's really robbery. You know, a lot of
artists they like, you know, they need that, they feel
like they need the exposure to do that. But really
the gallery owner, they'll exhibit your working a dozen other
people at the same time, and you know, they take
of whatever it sales. That and I think that's unfair.
So you can cut them out. You can cut them
out by just having your work posted on Instagram, take talk, like,
(23:01):
constantly document your journeys people to see it. The more
you do it, the more people will be attracted to it.
Just think of a way to stand out and just
to summarize that. Um, sometimes I'll paint people. I'll paint people.
I'll paint pictures of ports of uh, you know, public
figures that people uh, and they'll buy my work. And
(23:21):
that's like a technique I do. I'm like, I'm gonna
paint this. Yeah, that's worked for me. Yeah. So I
painted one of this guy nineteen keys and you've been
a guest on our podcast. Yeah. Yeah, he actually bought it,
like I dropped it off to him like a couple
of days ago. Wow, congrats, thank you. That was the
highest I ever was, Like, so they're painting for yeah, congratulations.
(23:41):
But like, I mean, this is great stuff to share
and we really appreciate it because you know, I think
what your story really epitomizes to our listeners is hustle.
Like it's really hustle, Like nobody gives you anything for free.
You know those days where you walk down l A
and someone's like, hey, would you like ten million dollars
to be in this blockbuster? You know, it's like, no
one is an overnight sensation. So we appreciate that. One
(24:04):
last question before we go out. Um, you've also talked
about being um getting successful streams of income from Airbnb. Right,
how did you start on that track? Right? So Airbnb?
So I remember my first Airbnb. I used to live
on Vince Scully. It's the street where the Dodgers stay
Baseball Stadium. Is this the exact street? And I remember
(24:25):
they used to have the World Series and I was like,
this is years ago, and I was like, man, I
wonder if I could just rent out, just leave for
the day, I mean leave for like the weekends of
the series and just rent this out. And I did that,
and I just put up some high marked up number.
I think it's a couple of hundred dollars a night
or something like that. And so just real talk you Airbnb,
(24:46):
your Airbnb. Yeah, oh no, no, no, this is no no, no,
this is where I was living. Okay, okay, okay. I
was like that yeah yeah, no, no, no no, I was
I was. I'm I'm telling you about how I first
got introduced. This is, yeah, I had my apartment I
got you know, I used to rent airbnbs when I travel.
(25:09):
Um basically, uh, that's where I got started. With the
World Series. I happened. I had an actual apartment that
I was living in, but it was the World Series
and my my my apartment is on the same treat
as the Dodger Stadium. But anyways, I rented it out
to some people and I was like, oh shoot, and
they booked it the whole you know week and just
to go to the walk up to the street to
the baseball game. And so I was like, Okay, That's
what I first got introduced, and I was like, all right,
(25:30):
this is another stream of income. Fast four years later,
pandemic hits all the properties in l A. They like
not the houses, but all the apartments. They did so
much building. They kind of like they needed people to
move in. People weren't moving, people weren't paying rent. It
was like rent special, to rent special, three months off
all of this stuff. So I went and got like
(25:52):
I went at least like almost ten apartments, you know.
Uh not at the same time, it was like like
I would do a couple of months and literally like
I would take advantage of those moving specials like okay,
you're gonna give me two months off. I moved in
boom boom. I took it. At least them all out.
I have scorporate all that. Um at least in my
ole time is gonna be working space. And literally I
(26:14):
just started like fit like investing in money, getting furniture
off or offer up. Um my god friend, and this
is a whole This is great because this is during
the pandemic. So at this point, I mean I would
if I were you. I'm sure you were worried because
everyone was debating is Hollywood shutting down? What's happening? Are
we gonna go back to production? So you're like, okay,
I gotta eat right right right. I've learned a lot
(26:37):
of things about Warren Buffet has a quote, and it says,
be greeting when people are fearful, and be fearful when
people are greeding. So when you have it correlates in
every single market, whether it be housing, stock market anything.
It's like when people are panicking, that's when you need
to take advantage of things. When stuff crashes and people
are scared run away, you need to put your money
(26:57):
in it when everybody's talking about it. AMC to the moon,
n F T this right, that's that's probably the top
that somebody's gonna be selling that because they've been in
it for a while. And that's when people always put
their money and when everybody else is talking about it,
and then they start losing money and wonder why. You know,
it's literally a repeated cycle. So I just try to
take advantage of like with the knowledge, the knowledge I
(27:19):
knew on that like this is Los Angeles, film capital
of the world, that people are not gonna start traveling
stop traveling here. People all need a place to live. Um,
And so I just started, you know, taking advantage of that.
And you know, basically I'm the middleman to this, like
you know, at least at least how to uh, at
least how these departments luxury lost anything one bedrooms, um,
(27:40):
and I'll I'll probably get it. I'll get a good
rate for what I'll try to offer. I'll try to
ask some sort of sort of incentive. I'm moving special
two weeks a month anything and the right that's great
because yeah, they couldn't offload these apartments, but people wanted
temporary living. Yeah, exactly. And that's the thing. Los Angeles
a perfect place of that, because the requirements to get
(28:01):
an apartment in Los Angeles is absurd. It's absurd, like
even during this pandemic. I'll tell you this, These people
want you to have. These people want you to have
three three times the income. They want you to have
every and everything is like two thousand, three thousand to
live out here. Stuff they want you to have. I
gotta prove for a promise out here. And they was like, oh,
(28:22):
you gotta prove. We just need the first three months
a rent. That's a lot to ask for people who
are trying to move to l A follow their dreams,
Like months in print up front. It's like it's it's absurd,
Like they want you to have a seven like it's
it's bizarre. So you know the fact that I actually,
you know, meet these requirements is like let me everybody,
(28:43):
like everybnb doesn't ask for nothing, none of that. They
don't need to credit check, they don't need their bank statements,
they don't care about none of that. What you pay,
you can, if you can afford to pay for the
space for every amount of time, then that's you know,
that's so what I am is just like you know,
you know, in a way like helping a lot of
people of traveling nurses, like they are like the main people,
(29:04):
like they always here on assignment, they're not here for long,
so they don't want to get a one year least. Yeah,
they just want three months get in. And you know,
I used to be a traveling nurse, so I completely
get it. And the key to travel nursing is you'd
get either room and board or a big travel stipend,
so you can take that big travel stipend and find
way cheaper housing and sort of pocket the difference. I
(29:25):
know that game very very well. Yeah, exactly. So most
of the people that rent from me are was it
furnished finder? Like, oh, most of people that rent from me,
they're they're actually traveling nurses. And that's literally by coincidence
because well that's also because California pays their nurses a
whole lot of money. So if you were in the
nursing game, get to California, do a little travel contract.
Yeah yeah, that should Airbnb. Like the it's been like crazy,
(29:50):
like I've never you know, I've considered different things. Oh
what if it didn't get rented out? What if you
know this and this? Like I literally just made an
Airbnb course. It's in my bio all my too. I
literally will I have a video I walk It's like
forty five minutes. I welcome through my profiles. I literally
show them how to do every single thing from running out,
(30:12):
Like all right, this is how you find apartments? Is
with your credit score? Should look like do it with
the business partner. A lot of people want to do
this by themselves. You don't have to. I usually be
at this. I want to keep all the money. I
want to do all of that. Then I realized, nah,
I found one trust really person. You want somebody feel
close to me. I was like, I'm gonna have a
business partner because like, if things go bad, you got
(30:32):
to balance. You're a working actor, You've got all these
different things, and I think this is this is what
people need to understand as you start to grow in
your business endeavors, like you can't do it all yourself,
and the idea that like you want to keep all
the you know, pot of money to yourself and like
keep all the reward. It's fine, but at some point
you need to sacrifice a little bit of that for
scale exactly exactly. Yeah, but yeah, you know, in order
(30:55):
to really get to where you want to be, which
is a scalable business, you do need to in some help.
No matter what the business is, man, Brandon, you have
you know, this is in such an interesting conversation, wishing
you the best on acting. Um, I want to start,
I want to close out now and I want to ask, like,
what are some great projects that you have coming up
that we can turn on our TVs or streaming networks
(31:15):
and see you on Yeah. Um, so you know, Hollywood work,
everything is like confidential, everything is like all of that stuff. Honestly,
I'm just constantly auditioning and working at it. I have
an exhibition from my art coming up Juneteenth, which is
June nineteenth, my birthday. I'll be exhibiting like a bunch
of work out here in Los Angeles. Follow me on Instagram,
Brandon Brown B That's where I'll you know, you'll see
(31:38):
flowers and all of that stuff. In terms of acting,
I'm always auditioning for stuff. I'm always filming stuff. I
just shouted an Intel commercial that's out now. Yeah, and
so it's just like a consistent, like I'm always doing
something and working at it and um, yeah that's that's
just some things that I'm going on right now. Uh.
Airbnb is flourishing and you know, just always looking for
(32:01):
new ways to make you know, some more bread and
uh and increase my income. That's right. Well, we love it,
Brandon Frand, and thank you so much for coming on
Money Moves. I'm really fascinating to see your story and
we wish you the best before we close out, Remind
everybody where they can find you on social media all Uh,
if you want to stock related things, um, follow me
(32:22):
on Twitter, read underscore bullish. Um. If you want art
my life, uh, following me on Instagram. Brandon Brown be
all one word TikTok is like chlora fella and yeah
that's it awesome or all right, money Movers, that's all
the time we have for today, but make sure to
follow Brandon on all his social media handles, not only
(32:44):
for some Money Moves tips, but from acting advice, painting
all sorts of things, or if you need a place
to crash in l a. Brandon, thanks again for your
time and Money Movers. If we have helped you make
your money move, please make sure to let us know
by sending us a like, sharing the knowledge on your
social media, and or leave us a review on Apple podcast.
Make sure to tune in Monday through Friday and subscribe
(33:04):
to the Money Moves Podcast powered by Greenwoods, so that
you two can have the keys to financial freedom you
so rightly deserve. Thank you so much for tuning in
Money Moves audience. If you want more or a recap
of this episode, please go to the bank Greenwood dot
com and check out the Money Moves podcast blog. Money
(33:25):
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