Have you ever wondered if the family you're born into is the only one that can shape your life? Brittian Rivington Blackman joins us to share his heartwarming journey through the twists and turns of being part of a blended, military family, and how this experience grounded him. Growing up in the small town of Snowflake, Arizona, Brittian's life was anything but static, with frequent relocations painting a vivid backdrop to his childhood. His stepfather, emerges as a central figure, offering emotional adoption and a sense of unwavering stability that fosters resilience. Our conversation stretches beyond family bonds to how the routines and relationships within them can serve as a cornerstone for personal growth and well-being.
Navigating the currents of life's expectations versus our dreams can be tough, but Brittiann exemplifies the courage it takes to chart a unique course. This episode is a tribute to independent thinking, the guts to chase your dreams, and the transformative experience Brittiann had when he switched gears from merely saving money to crafting a financial plan that underpins his aspirations. Brittiann shares tales of taking calculated risks, the kind that propels us to pursue what we truly want in life.
We wrap up with a look at the importance of a mindset geared toward success and the practical steps to build a sound financial future. Brittian's story doesn't shy away from the realities of chronic illness or other barriers that hinder our financial goals, but instead offers a beacon of hope through different strategies. Join us as we explore the power of opportunity, the significance of goal-setting, and how each of us can embrace the abundance of possibilities awaiting our action. This episode is an invitation to rise, participate, and discover the life you're meant to lead.
More about Brittian:
Instagram: @brittianrivington
Website: https://wealthwave.com/
Information on where you can find us.
Follow us on Instagram: @hopeologypodcast and the host @writerchristinamckelvy
To support the show, go to: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/hopeologypodcast
Disclaimer: The views reflected by any of the guests may not reflect the views of the podcast host. Some topics may be difficult for some viewers, so proceed at your own risk. This podcast does not replace psychotherapy or advice and is for entertainment purposes only.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Christina McKelvy (00:00):
Welcome to Apology.
Stories of Hope, Healing andResilience.
I'm your host, ChristinaMcKelvie.
Today we're speaking withBritton Ripitin Blackman.
Welcome, Britton, how are you?
Brittian Rivington (00:09):
Good, good, I'm awesome.
This is really really fun to beon here.
Christina McKelvy (00:12):
Thank you, Thank you, yes, I appreciate you
coming onto the podcast, sotell me a little bit about or me
the listeners a little bitabout yourself.
Brittian Rivington (00:21):
Sure, sure.
So I'm born in Sholo, arizona.
I'm from a small town calledSnowflake.
We have a long history there asfar as our family goes, for my
grandma and even further back.
So yeah, we grew up there.
When I was about four years oldwe came down to the valley and
we were living in Litchfield onthe west side, and it was myself
(00:43):
, my mom, and she was a singlemom at the time and then I had
two brothers, one older one andone younger one.
So yeah, we were all living downhere.
And then, after some time ofbeing down here, my mom
eventually found a pen pal whowas in the military and they got
together and basically builtthis blended family where it was
(01:07):
my two brothers and then he hada son as well.
So just four boys just alllaunched into a family at the
same time and then we juststarted to rock from there.
Now, with him being in themilitary, we eventually just
started moving all over theplace.
I mean, we went to Germany, wewere in California in the middle
of the Mojave Desert, then wewent to Fort Bliss, then back to
Germany, then back toCalifornia.
(01:28):
So a lot of just moving around,living that military brat style
kind of life.
I have a total of four siblingsand along the way as the family
started to develop, my mom andmy dad eventually added in the
blood tie which is my littlesister.
So four older brothers and onelittle girl.
As far as the final piece tothe puzzle.
Christina McKelvy (01:49):
That's a big family Must have had a lot of
memory stories.
Brittian Rivington (01:55):
Yeah, it was pretty hectic.
At times I wondered how my momdefinitely when it was just her
alone how she dealt with threeboys.
So it was nice to finally getsome firm hands around us and
start to kind of develop us asmen.
Christina McKelvy (02:07):
Yeah, yeah.
And having you said, your momfound him as a pen pal, so I was
just wondering likepre-internet days then?
Brittian Rivington (02:17):
Yeah, it must have been pre-internet days
.
I don't know if they were doingemail or exactly how the pen
pal worked, but that's how itmet.
And as soon as he came back hewas deployed, and I don't really
know the dates because I wassuch a young kid at the time.
Christina McKelvy (02:29):
Yeah.
Brittian Rivington (02:30):
He was in Iraq in the early 2000s, okay,
and when he came back it wasjust immediate.
I mean, they started gettingtheir wedding planned and it was
pretty interesting.
And then the other interestingfactor to this is a lot of
people don't know is he is a bigblack man.
So it was pretty interestingbeing, okay, this is your dad
now, yeah, and rolling rightinto that.
(02:51):
So that's where the blendedfamily came from.
So we're just a mixture ofwhite and black people that got
together and I love it.
I wouldn't trade it for theworld.
Christina McKelvy (03:00):
So the two different cultures.
Brittian Rivington (03:02):
Oh yeah.
Christina McKelvy (03:03):
Yeah, Blended families, Like because in
society we think of like theBrady Bunch or stuff like that.
But it's pretty typicalnowadays to have those blended
families.
And I'm curious, like whatlessons you learned, you know,
by having growing up in ablended family that you still
carry with you today?
Brittian Rivington (03:19):
Well, of course.
Well, I think it was kind offate Got us together for sure,
because we had not only myselfand my two brothers, and we all
had different dads at the sameat the time.
However, it was all the samestoryline.
My dad left me and walked outof me, my biological dad, he
walked out my older brother, hisdad we didn't even know.
And then same with my youngestbrother.
(03:40):
His father was not in thepicture.
So then we get this man that'ssuch a great man that came in
and his name is Walter.
He came in family.
He adopted us basically rightoff the bat, not legally, but
emotionally.
He had his son and his son'smom walked out on him.
So we had this really greatbond, as far as us coming in,
that we didn't even get a chanceto even focus on people walking
(04:03):
out on us, because all of ushad the same story.
And now we have two parentsthat came together and brought
that story, and then, all of asudden, the narrative just
changed.
It went from us having parentsthat walked out on us to having
a single parent, to where now wehad a family that was just
completely combined together.
Christina McKelvy (04:19):
Yeah, that stability.
Brittian Rivington (04:20):
Yeah, very definitely a lot of stability,
so.
Christina McKelvy (04:24):
I'm curious what the role of stability like,
how else that shows up in yourlife, because I know that
interviewing a lot of individual.
Stability means safety, andsafety is really important to
many individuals, many people,and so I'm just curious how that
theme of stability might showup in your life besides family.
Brittian Rivington (04:40):
Well, a lot of it is based around family,
but I think a lot of stabilityjust deals with a lot of actions
that I guess you take, becauseI think that a lot of the
actions that you take now arewhat actually develop you, and
that's just more so in your dayto day.
What are you eating, what areyou going to the gym, who are
you associating with All ofthese different things?
(05:01):
But that's where a lot ofstability comes from is is your
day predictable of who you'regoing to be around, what kind of
conversations you're going tobe having, all of these
different things.
But I think that's where a lotof my stability comes from is
actually who I'm associated withand who I'm doing my daily
needs with.
I should say so, but yeah, a lotof it comes from just family
based.
I mean, we were just told rightoff the bat you know, this is
(05:24):
us, this is what we do.
You guys all had the same storybackground and then we started
to develop that stability.
As far as with siblings, right,like all of my siblings and I
are really close, even though weare in different areas of the
state.
We're all doing differentthings.
We all kind of stick togetherand, when times get rough, where
it goes right back to that,that basic stability that we
give each other.
Christina McKelvy (05:45):
It's important to have those
individuals that you can go backto, you know continuously
throughout your life that sameindividual.
Yeah, and so Britain.
I'm curious about how, goingfrom the mountain because I've
been out to show though it's sobeautiful out in Eastern Arizona
(06:05):
, I feel like a lot of peopledon't even know it exists, it's
green, it's nose, it's gorgeousto Phoenix you know which is
different.
Brittian Rivington (06:16):
No, it was very different.
I think my mom during the timeand this is where before, even
everything developed as far asour family stability my mom had
moved down here and we of coursemoved.
Now Snowflake is not like Sholawhere you have the nice pine
trees and everything.
It's 15, 20 minutes from Sholaand it's I don't know what
(06:37):
happens to the weather or thegeography of it, but you go into
this flat kind of land withhigh winds that have little
brushes every now and again.
But it was something that was abig change.
Coming to Lichfield, my mom wasactually working, I think, down
in Mexico at the time, so shewas going down there and I was
just out here and I think I hadmy little brother's biological
(07:00):
grandma kind of with us at thetime and she was kind of raising
us until he came.
But coming down from that smalltown up there, I mean we were
like in a double-wide trailer atthe time up north and coming
from that my mom gave us a nicelittle home down here in
Lichfield and I think it was agood change.
But the biggest change wasgoing from that of being a small
town person and being aroundLichfield and kind of knowing
(07:22):
Arizona to all of a sudden, nowyou're getting on a plane and
you're going all the way out toGermany.
As a young oh yeah.
Then you get there, you're realtired, you don't know what's
going on with the time.
You're wide awake, it'smidnight, now it's during the
day and you're tired because ofthe time change and now you're
barely understanding any of theculture.
But it was such a good cultureshock for me that I believe that
(07:43):
that has so much to do with howI operate today, if I should
say, just being around so manydifferent cultures, being around
there, having to learn maybe alittle bit of a different
language, having to see thedifference in body language, how
you talk, how all of that stuffworks, I think it's kind of
giving me a little bit of edge,even coming back to the States
and we've been there twice,right, coming back to the States
(08:05):
and actually being able tooperate here.
Christina McKelvy (08:09):
Provide some more examples of how that
experience has influenced youtoday.
Brittian Rivington (08:14):
Oh for sure, like I'll give you one.
That was actually the secondtime we were in Germany and it
actually opened me up and thisis how it was kind of raised
right, like your word iseverything your reputation.
I care of yourself.
Are you doing what you'resaying you're gonna do?
And one of those things I sawwas we were living on the
Germany economy, so we were onthe actual military base and
(08:36):
when my parents went and madeany type of business deal with
our landlord they were thestraight old German people.
I mean, they didn't speak alick of English.
I don't even know how theynegotiated, how much they were
gonna pay and all that stuff,but I remember them just shaking
hands and that was a done dealfor three years.
They knew we were gonna livethere, they knew we were gonna
buy wood from them, they knew wewere gonna buy the oil for the
(08:57):
furnace in our house.
And just seeing like actualinteractions like that with
people started making me thinkthat that's how it should be all
the time.
When you say you're gonna dosomething, when you're gonna go
and do something, you actuallyfully execute it and it's off.
Just a lot of verbal Nowadays, alot of things are contracts,
you gotta make sure everythingyou know the eyes are gotta
tease across.
But a lot of that, and I thinkthat a lot of the spirit there
(09:20):
too, whenever I was in Europe,was, I mean, the holiday season.
Man, it is insane to see theholiday season here the
Christmas markets, the food, thesmells, it's freezing, cold but
everyone's still out having agood time.
You know the October Fest.
There's just so many differentthings.
But those examples of seeing adifferent culture and then
actually coming back us movingevery three years like that and
(09:41):
reestablishing ourselves, itmade a.
I had to adapt to the situation.
So it wasn't just something youcan go on and be the same
person.
You had to kind of change maybea little bit of what you did,
maybe wrong and right, in thatbase, and now it's time to go to
a new place and you get to kindof redefine yourself.
So I think that that constantevery three years of changing
forced me into the person I amtoday and it keeps me from being
(10:03):
stagnant in my own life, rightLike I never want to be the same
person over and over and over.
I want to have the basics ofbeing the same person, but I
also want to know that there's abetter version of me out there.
There's not always going to bethis same version and my
happiness is not going to be thesame as it is today, as maybe
as it is tomorrow and it couldbe even better tomorrow as far
as actually looking at it.
So just those actualinteractions of being a military
(10:25):
brat and being around a lot ofother families, right Like while
you're in the military, there'sso many different stories.
I mean you will know so manydifferent stories.
I mean at one point I think mydad's platoonity was with, I
mean we had Dominican people, wehad Puerto Rican people.
I mean it was just alldifferent races and we never
even saw it like that.
We just saw it.
As you know, our communitythat's what our community was.
(10:46):
It was a big blended community.
So I think that transition fromone being a blended family now
going into the military andbeing around a bunch of other
blended people and never crossedanybody's minds of, okay,
that's weird, there's threewhite kids and there's two black
kids and then there's one blackgirl, you know what I mean.
So it was never like that.
It was like it was just sonormal for us.
But a lot of those experiencesof being a military brat
(11:10):
definitely, definitely definedwho we are and just seeing the
interactions and seeing thedifferent cultures, seeing my
dad speak a little bit of Germanand I know he did- something
like that so.
Christina McKelvy (11:20):
Yeah yeah.
Exposure to a lot of differentlike you mentioned the different
cultures within the militarybase and also just the culture
of Germany.
Going from Sholo to Phoenix or,excuse me, Snowflake to Phoenix
, to Germany, as a little kiddefinitely could be a little
jolting, but at the same time ithelped you learn to adapt.
(11:42):
And so you mentioned that youwanna continue to grow, and I
agree that as individuals weshould be able to be willing to
grow and change every point orperspectives, and we're never
the same as we were five yearsago, and so I think that's a
really cool skill that you wereable to learn how to adapt there
and just continue to take thatthroughout your life.
Brittian Rivington (12:05):
Right, yeah, I know and I agree, and I think
a lot of it had to deal withonce.
I started seeing that and atfirst it was horrible.
Right, like you know, you'removing, you're about to leave,
you have all your friends, youhave everything there.
You just got maybe established.
Just after a year and a halfyou started building your little
entourage of who you're hangingaround with and now it's time
to go move again.
Well, now it's like I didn'trealize it when I was younger,
(12:29):
but now that I'm starting to getolder, I'm like I can be around
anybody.
I can be around in anysituation, any type of belief,
and it doesn't shake or affectme personally and I can listen
to anybody say anything and itjust allows me to just process
it, take my own opinion of itand then actually apply it to
how I wanna move forward, basedoff of whatever information I'm
taking in.
Christina McKelvy (12:49):
We're getting so much information nowadays,
you know, oh yeah, social media,tv, friends, family and it's
really hard to be able to sortthrough what we wanna take or
what we should take, becausethere might be some things I
know where I'm like.
Oh, I guess I should learn alittle more about that.
Brittian Rivington (13:08):
Yes, yeah, a lot of people do that.
They'll take and I've beenguilty of it myself too right,
it's everybody that's out there,everyone's been guilty of it
where they'll hear something andthen repeat it before actually
even knowing what's going on orjust deciding what the majority
of what people are actuallysaying is true.
So I'm a big believer in and Ithink that that's what's molded
(13:29):
as we went through the militarycareer, right?
Christina McKelvy (13:31):
Yeah.
Brittian Rivington (13:33):
My dad, the last duty station was Fort Irwin
, which is probably the worstspace to go and live on.
I mean, it's four miles intothe Mojave Desert.
It's hot, hot, hot.
We had high school, or our highschool was 45 minutes outside
the base, so it was a 45 minutedrive there and a 45 minute
drive back.
But as we started to, Igraduated and moved and then
(13:54):
came to Arizona in 2015,.
I was going to ASU and workingat the dealership and the
dealership has a huge impact onour family as far as cars and
stuff like that, because mygrandpa that's where he started
his main career after hetransitioned from England to
Canada so immediately jumpedright into the dealership world
(14:17):
and started out at a corporatekind of area and I won't name
who they are, but I started outin the kind of the corporate
area and then I've been workingfor the Coulter family for the
last nine years after that andthat's before I actually went
into the entrepreneurship, whichgoes into a lot of, why I
believe that you should go andstart to think for yourself.
(14:39):
Start to think what are thepossibilities, imagine if,
imagine if, imagine, if, imagine, if kind of mentality all the
time.
Christina McKelvy (14:45):
So yeah, thinking for yourself, and that
can be really difficult, againwhen we're so inundated with
different ideologies.
Is there anything where, if youwant to answer, like where
you're like yeah, I definitelydiffer from my family on these
thoughts or my close friends,that has been something that
stood out for you, that hashelped you move forward, I guess
(15:05):
Mom.
Brittian Rivington (15:07):
I've been trying to think I would probably
say that taking risk.
I've always been kind of abigger risk taker.
A lot of the times I was toldcollege is kind of the way to go
.
You start with college, thenorm that everybody gets.
But college just didn't workout for me.
It was not something.
(15:27):
So then I decided to go fulltime into the dealership I just
wanted.
Maybe I wasn't disciplinedenough or I wasn't being coached
well enough through the processof it and had a good enough
support staff around me as faras in my immediate range of it.
But as far as something Idiffer is I'm definitely a risk
taker.
I'll go.
If I see something that there'sa good reward, I'll take a big
(15:49):
risk on it.
So that's probably one of thebiggest things.
Christina McKelvy (15:53):
And I think risk taking kind of leads into.
When I asked you kind of whatyou wanted to talk about a
little bit, you know, that emailthat I sent you mentioned how
anyone can reach their dreams orhow you want to inspire people
to reach their dreams.
So I'm curious what theconnection of risk picking and
being able to reach your dreamis.
Brittian Rivington (16:12):
Sure, and I love this conversation.
This is it's actually myfavorite thing to talk about
whenever.
So in my mentality it wasn'talways this way.
It's funny how we have tochange, you have to change.
So, going on mine, it's goingto be my ninth year here at the
dealership.
Two years ago, I met with one ofthe most beautiful human beings
on the planet and he reallyinspired me.
(16:34):
His name is Kenna McCrae.
He sat down with me and it wasoriginally just to actually sit
down in our entrepreneurship asfar as in the financial market.
So I was just trying to lookhow to be smart with my finances
.
You know, covid was going on.
There were so many differentthings.
The stock market was crashing,who know how things were going
to be and I wanted to startsetting my family up for the
future and start planning forthat stuff.
So we kind of sat down, westarted going through the
(16:57):
process of it and I really likedit.
He shared such valuableinformation, but a lot of it
didn't even deal with finances.
To begin with Was I thought itwas kind of weird.
He was asking me what I want,where are your dreams, what are
your goals, things, and, likedude, I didn't ask for that.
I asked for us to sit down andyou show me how to stash my
money safely, so me and myfamily are protected in the
future.
Christina McKelvy (17:18):
Yeah.
Brittian Rivington (17:18):
My whole mind and he said Brit, it
doesn't matter how much interest, how much any of this I show
you If you don't have an endgoal.
What are your goals?
What are your dreams?
And then I did something mywife and I had never done.
We sat down and actuallystarted writing these dreams out
.
You know, he challenged me.
He said write down your top 25dreams and how vivid you can
start getting on these.
(17:39):
What dates can you put on them?
How are they going to look?
So we started just getting intothat mentality of, okay, we go
from kids where people encourageus to go and walk and get up
and everyone claps and when youfall down they say it's okay,
it's okay, Get back up, right.
And then we fast forward intoadults and then we don't really
do that to each other anymore.
We don't encourage adults like,hey, go chase that dream, Go
(18:01):
make that happen, and you canmake it happen, right.
The kind of things that we gointo the opposite like, oh,
you'll never have that happen,you can.
We just wanted to change thatwhole dialogue and we want to
continue to do it for somebodythat has done it to us.
It just passed that forward.
So as we sat down and hestarted showing me this stuff.
He's like hey, man, I knowyou're really attached to the
(18:22):
dealership, I know you love thecultures, I know you love that
whole family, but would you bewilling to look at something
where you can go and make a hugeimpact into the world?
Christina McKelvy (18:31):
And I knew.
Brittian Rivington (18:31):
That's just more important.
I knew it was important toteach.
However, I didn't realize howmuch it was actually tied to the
actual dream selling of thingsand in dreams can be.
You know, like my wife and Imine of course already knows
what mine is I want to be sosuccessful and take as many
people with me as possible, butthen I look at my wife's and we
just want to go open up a littlecoffee truck together.
Christina McKelvy (18:50):
Oh, that sounds nice.
Brittian Rivington (18:51):
Yes, it does , and that's that's our goal
right To be able to supportourselves and be able to go do
some of these things that maybearen't the biggest things in the
world but they're so importantto us and it's such a, such a
huge dream of ours to actuallygo and accomplish.
So now that we've gotten thatdown, we're starting to go and
it's crazy if you fast forwardtwo years, I never was one to
write down my dreams, write downmy goals, start to plan and
(19:13):
start to do any of that.
Now we have to go back and nowwe have to add to our top 25
dreams If our wedding's done,all of these things are starting
to get accomplished that we hadon that Dreams list traveling a
little bit more.
We've been able to travel somuch this year and it just
really stuck with me like man,if a lot of people, if I wasn't
doing this, how many otherpeople are not out there doing
(19:35):
this?
How many other people have gone, dream dead and are not
actually going out andremembering that excitement that
they had at one point, thatthey knew this was going to
happen for them, but then theygot a little bit of turbulence,
maybe a little bit of big wavesand then they got scared and
backed off of it.
So Hmm.
But yeah, it's one of my biggestbiggest, I guess life missions
(19:59):
right now is to just get aroundas many people, find out what
their dreams and goals are andthen start to convince them that
it can come possible.
Christina McKelvy (20:06):
Yeah, you used a term called dream dead.
What does that mean?
Brittian Rivington (20:11):
Dream dead.
Dream dead means you getcomplacent.
That means that maybe you'vereached a point in your life or
maybe you've accomplished a fewthings that you set out to do,
and it can happen without youeven trying to do it.
It could be you just wrapped up, maybe, in something that is
not as inspiring to you, ormaybe, as there's a ceiling
above your roof, you've reachedyour peak.
There's nowhere left to go, soyou just kind of sit at that
(20:34):
little mountain, but you forgetto remember that there's so many
other mountaintops out therethat you need to go and climb
and make happen.
So that dream dead is like therehas to be something that you're
continuously searching for, issomething that you know is going
to happen, that is going togive you huge happiness, like,
for instance, mine.
Mine is just going and actuallydoing what this generation
(20:55):
before has not done for me, andthat's just developing a nice
tight niche one and done family.
You know none of this heartachethat we had in the beginning,
and then my parents eventuallygot it together.
They were able to put togetherthe pieces and make a good
outcome of it, and then alsojust going in and trying to
travel and see the world and allthese different things.
(21:15):
And can my current position getme there?
Or am I just being complacentand waiting for it to actually
come back to me?
So dream dead is actually likegetting up and being excited
about the day.
You're excited because you knowsomething good is going to come
.
You're not having a dream andyou're just like oh man, it's
Monday, I have to get up on aMonday.
No, I like to change myverbiage a little bit.
(21:38):
I like to say I get to get upon Monday, I get to do this, I
get to do these things.
So that's where the dream deadcomes from.
And dreams can be the same way.
They can die very fast, theycan be read just as fast.
You just got to be around theproper people to actually
reunite that.
Christina McKelvy (21:54):
Yeah, that's that circle of influence.
Yes, it's connected to thosethat can help with your dreams
and help provide that stabilityand safety.
Brittian Rivington (22:02):
Exactly yeah .
Christina McKelvy (22:04):
And it's interesting.
You know, you mentioned likeyou wanted to basically change
your family trade.
That was the quote that came inmind and I always found that
really powerful, because we lookback at like you know how we
grew up, or you know how ourparents grew up or grandparents
grew up, and there's patternsthat happen and it sounds like
you're like yeah, if I couldreach my dreams and go this
(22:27):
direction, then I can have thatstability that I didn't have
until you were actually don'tknow what your parents met?
Brittian Rivington (22:33):
No, they met at four and it's crazy because
I didn't go back into that.
When they met, it got so muchmore stable than it was before.
Christina McKelvy (22:40):
Yeah.
Brittian Rivington (22:41):
And it was hectic the time before.
I mean it was.
It was probably one of thehardest points and my mom was
trying to be a good mom.
She was a young mom and she wastrying to figure it out and I
hold no ill towards any of thosescenarios we're in as far as
her not having somebody in thehousehold, she was trying to
work and support us in theattention as a kid right that
you need as far as workingthrough emotions, working
(23:03):
through the understanding of theworld, all these different
things.
But even then still, when myparents first met, they were
still fighting their own gapsinside the family tree as far as
what they were dealing with andtrying to start to build a new
family tree, right.
So this stability hit.
But then I didn't realize howmuch they actually went through
and how much financially, theydidn't get the proper guidance
(23:27):
to support five kids, right?
No one told them hey, this isfive kids, this is how you
support it, this is how a budgetlooks, this is how you dream
while you have five kids.
Right, because that's timeconsuming.
But it just got better andbetter and better over time, but
it wasn't something that wasjust instant.
Okay, we're stable.
Now we got a man here, that'sright, terry was something that
we definitely had to developover time, and they didn't.
(23:50):
You know, they're veryreligious as well, which I think
contributes a lot to how theywere able to stay sane with five
kids running around and alltypes of these and stuff.
So yeah are you religious?
I am not practicing religiousanymore.
I did grow up Mormon and I lovethe Mormons.
I think that they're greatpeople, I think that they have
great lifestyles, and a lot ofmy business partners and a lot
(24:11):
of my friends are still LDS.
But I think that it kind ofmade me develop my own kind of
why of what I think you know.
I say my own prayers.
I have all of that connectionthere.
It's just not something that Igo and I guess I share with a
lot of people.
Christina McKelvy (24:25):
Mm.
Hmm, similar for me.
I grew up, I say evangelical,though I think some of my
friends that grew up in thechurch won't consider themselves
evangelical, they just saynon-denominational.
You know big church.
So now I'm looking at you knowother perspectives.
You know, especially like withfinancial literacy.
I and I know there's otherviewpoints regarding financial
literacy looking at that and Iknow that financial literacy can
(24:48):
help reaching your dreams andthere's just probably various
paths to that and that's kind ofwhat I'm realizing, especially
now with, like, our generationconsidering you know it's hard
by house and different thingslike that.
Brittian Rivington (25:00):
Oh yeah, yeah, I know I agree, and that's
that's actually with financialliteracy.
I mean, it took me a little bit.
I had to get myself at leastpointed in the right direction
before I started to go and kindof teach you, and it took me a
little bit to get comfortablewith it, right Like a four year
old kid that just went and gothelp.
How is he going to go and helppeople?
Christina McKelvy (25:17):
Well, I'll tell you how.
Oh my goodness.
Brittian Rivington (25:20):
I know, I know I get that all the time.
Christina McKelvy (25:24):
Okay, and I love it.
Brittian Rivington (25:26):
That's another reason.
With, that's a benefit, withthe military, I feel like I'm
sometimes.
I'm walking around and I'm likeman am I like 40 years old or
the way I've actually, you know,and it's, it's.
I got to remember that I got togo be a kid sometimes too.
But it's going back to thefinancial literacy.
It's just so so important,right, and even if you're
(25:46):
getting it from somebody,there's so many sources out
there that you can get it from.
I mean, you can literally goand Google it and you're going
to be there for hours.
It's a.
It's a.
It's a dark hole if you don'tgo and actually focus it on what
you want to do.
And that's one of the thingsthat I've loved about our
company going into it, which isthrough World Financial Group,
is not only did they give me afinancial education, but they
(26:07):
actually brought me in and letme test drive the world.
The highest powered industry inthe world right, which is the
financial institution.
Christina McKelvy (26:15):
And while I got a test drive this.
Brittian Rivington (26:17):
They were right there in the passenger
seat show me how to test driveit until I eventually got to the
point where I'm kind of doingit on my own.
But yeah, financial literacy isnot being taught and I think
that that is what correlates toa lot of these dysfunctional
families, a lot of thesemarriages that don't last, a lot
of these kids that grow upmaybe not getting the right
example, and it all stems fromjust not having that
(26:37):
understanding.
And when I was looking at that,when I first sat down and I was
there for 30, 40 minuteslistening to Kendall speak was I
learned more in that 30 to 40minutes than I had ever learned
through high school or myeducation at ASU.
I learned that 30 minutes and45 minutes and I felt super
excited about the information Ihad learned right Versus.
(26:59):
Now, when you go to school, alot of people maybe don't get
excited unless they're superinto it, but I know that this is
their destiny call.
People are just showing up todo their homework and that's
pretty much it right.
So as we sat down and we gotreal vivid on it, we started
setting our dreams.
We got our wedding done thatCOVID delayed for years.
I mean we could not put ittogether, I mean it just would
(27:22):
not work.
But then, as soon as we onlygot the understanding of a
little bit of financial literacy, we got the understanding of
how your actual projection ofwriting, bringing it into this
world, not just thinking it, notjust talking about it, putting
it on pen and paper, all the oldschool stuff right.
That's when things reallystarted to formulate and come
together.
Christina McKelvy (27:41):
Hmm, yeah, having having your dreams
written down, having those goalswritten down.
Now I'm curious what yourperspective is on those like
maybe external barriers to beingable to be financially stable
or meeting your dreams, thingsthat maybe people can't control,
(28:01):
like healthcare or education.
Well, for some people,education or maybe just living
in the wrong town or justdifferent things like that how
can people still reach theirdreams when they're having
external barriers that theycan't control?
Brittian Rivington (28:16):
That is an excellent question, and it's
actually a question I thought ofmyself too when I look back at
it.
So in the dealership you canmake a pretty good living, but
it's not something that's goingto give you that whatever life
you want living if it makessense.
So I think that a lot of peoplethey need to start going out and
trying new things Like that'swhere the complacency and the
(28:36):
dream debt comes from.
If you don't go out and try newthings or try to look for
something that's going to giveyou a better life, then it's not
going to happen right, andthat's what World Financial
Group has kind of given for meit is.
I mean, I went from just myselftrying to learn financial
literacy, so now we have nineagents underneath us and we're
just building and building andbuilding.
And the reason why I've broughtthose people with me is because
of the opportunity, right, theopportunity of actually going
(28:59):
out, working and trying toaccomplish that life and create
a good income and cash flow andthose types of deals.
Now, one of the things that alot of people have to do is when
they go and they start to lookat their dreams and they
remember all of those pastexperiences, like, as far as hey
, why come from very poor wealth, not a very good childhood, not
(29:19):
a very good family setting, allthose things.
That's where you have to learnto start to snap your brain out
of it, because if you continueto focus on those, that's all
that's going to start to keepcoming your way.
Right, you have to startworrying about, okay, where am I
at today and where do I want tobe, and do I have the hope and
belief that that is going tocome true?
And do I have the actualvehicle like me being able to
(29:44):
test drive this, the world'spowerful vehicle in the
background?
Right, do I have somethingthat's going to give me the
opportunity to go and do that?
So you have to continue to lookfor opportunities.
You can't just sit in the samespot doing the same thing you're
going to do.
I mean, it's one of my favoritequotes, right?
The definition of insanity istrying the same thing over and
over, right?
And expecting different results.
It's not going to happen thatway, and that's why you have to
(30:05):
learn how to becomeuncomfortable, put yourself out
there, learn to take the word noand just process it and
continue to go for those dreams,because patience is going to
have to be one of the biggestthings you're going to have to
learn, right?
If you can't learn patience,then it won't work, because you
don't know when it's going tocome.
It's just the hope of knowingit is going to come if you do X,
y and Z.
If you can do X, y and Z, itwill happen for you one day.
(30:28):
But you have to just believe,because you can go do X, y and Z
, but if you don't believe it'sgoing to happen, it's not going
to happen.
You have to believe and go intothe action of it.
So I think that a lot of peoplethat are in situations you're
not.
It's not your fault, you're inthat situation, right, or maybe
it is.
Who knows right?
Maybe it's your fault you're inthat situation, but it is your
responsibility to go and getyourself out of that situation.
(30:51):
And that's one of the thingsthat I've loved being around
this entrepreneurship group andbeing a part of World Financial
and being a part of WealthWave,and going out and teaching
family literacy and leaving nofamily left behind so they can
learn this information, becauseit had such a big impact in my
life.
And I come from that.
I come from a disorientedfamily in the beginning.
I come from a double Y trailer.
We were double tank tops in thewinter, you know double tank
(31:13):
tops.
Double tank tops in the winter,that type of environment.
But, to be honest with you,it's all about the mentality of
it and kind of the opportunity Igot is, I don't really ever
think about any of those badthings Now because I don't think
about them.
It didn't reflect a lot of myaction, though, because my
(31:33):
action was those of those thatwere doing it before me.
It was what I had saw going up,so I had to go actually go and
change who I was around, who Iwas watching, and that's where
just I mean it's names on namesJR Heward, kendall McCrae, matt
Heward.
I've been around a lot of greatpeople that have installed a lot
of belief in me and, mostimportantly, I found the love of
(31:54):
my life early on.
That's dumped a lot of beliefin me.
So you just got to control thatwho you're around.
Maybe look at the vehicleyou're in, whatever vehicle you
have as far as cash flow goes,and is there something out there
that maybe you'll enjoy alittle bit better?
They could have a higher upside, but maybe he's not going to
pay out right away.
Right, like that's a lot ofwhat people look at is okay, how
(32:15):
much is the pay?
I've got to look at thatanymore.
I try to look at okay, is itworth it?
Is it worth it to go and begoing to do, is it worth it
Because-.
Christina McKelvy (32:26):
Is it worth it as opposed to the amount
you're going to get paid?
Brittian Rivington (32:29):
Exactly the stability, the complacency.
You can go and you know thatyou're going to be okay because
you have that check coming inevery two weeks, every week or
every month, depending onwhatever you're doing, right,
but it's more so, okay, I reallyenjoy what I'm doing.
I know that I'm going to beable to go all in because I
enjoy what I'm doing, but doesit have the upside potential to
(32:49):
be able to start giving me someof that extra cash flow?
Another part of it, too, is aswe go and sit down with people
and we talk to them.
You'll be surprised that and Iwas, at least, for myself too is
, man, you overspend in so manyareas you don't really need to
overspend it.
So when people talk to themabout these things and they see
these things and they see thatthey're overspending maybe it's
(33:12):
in Uber Eats, maybe it's ingoing out and eating, maybe it's
in a lot of those differentrealms, right, they start to
maybe cut back on some of that,which starts to increase their
cash flow, and then I think thatlaw of attraction starts to
come in.
As you start to cut back andstart to save and start to do
some of those things you'regoing to be now responsible with
that little bit that you'vesaved up.
So what's going to happen isthe world is going to start to
(33:33):
dump more into your bin becauseyou're responsible, which means
you need to be responsible formore.
So I really believe, as we sitdown with that and maybe
someone's completely broke,maybe they have nothing in their
life right, maybe they don'thave any money, maybe they're
completely broke I think thateven just coming down and seeing
the information and getting alittle bit of hope and being
around people with hope, thatsparks people and it starts to
(33:54):
get their mindset in that frameof okay, I need to work towards
this, I need to work towardsthis, and then they work towards
it and then they're able toactually start to free, open and
get a little bit of wiggle roomto start actually building
something for themselves.
Christina McKelvy (34:07):
Hmm, having that hope, being surrounded by
people that have that hope tomove forward, believing that you
can.
Brittian Rivington (34:16):
Oh yeah.
Christina McKelvy (34:17):
Yeah, so okay .
Brittian Rivington (34:19):
The financial side of it.
I love it right.
We can go and we put it on apaper.
This is how much like a robot,right?
Christina McKelvy (34:25):
Yeah.
Brittian Rivington (34:26):
Unbound interest will give you this.
No, this is your home.
This is your trip to Hawaii.
This is your family's ranch.
This is your boat that you want.
This is maybe just a house topay off.
You know all these differentthings.
This is on this date.
Look how much you could havehere.
And that's where we start toincorporate in it.
And then you start to go in.
Okay, if you look at yourindustry because that's the
(34:48):
biggest one, right, we want toteach people how cash flow
really should work you shouldstart trying to get some type of
extra cash flow, because rightnow, I mean I don't know about
anybody else, but inflation isjust killing everybody.
I mean it's absolutely throwingeverybody.
And then what I think happensis is that starts to happen.
It starts to diminish the hope,it starts diminishing the
belief and it starts putting outthose dreams, causing people to
(35:10):
go dream dead.
So then they're just stuck inthis rut.
So that's why I'm so passionateabout this career, because as
we start to go in, man, it'slike they really start to get so
excited about it.
They start to get so excited.
Okay, maybe it's not the end.
Maybe I'm not stuck in this,this, this trap box.
Maybe I can get out of it.
You know things.
Christina McKelvy (35:31):
Curious, like you know some things that maybe
you know with beyond someone'scontrol, like if they have, like
, a chronic illness and theirmedical expenses are super high
cause you know healthcare caresucks.
But also maybe yeah maybe theywant to buy a house or something
like that.
I keep going to the house thingmust be one of my goals, it's
(35:52):
number one.
Brittian Rivington (35:53):
It's people's number one goal.
So, and then, to go into thistoo, right, because you I've
heard you mentioned this twice,which I think is so important
right, being chronically ill?
Yes, yeah, it's one of thebiggest things I is my agency is
we market and distribute forpeople.
That is one of the biggestthings we help with, right, okay
, okay, when we don't set up alife insurance policy for
(36:13):
somebody, right, and they don'teven understand how life
insurance works, other than whenyou die, you get paid.
Christina McKelvy (36:18):
And I did not know that.
So that was just happy, happystance that I mentioned it twice
.
Brittian Rivington (36:22):
Oh nice, yeah well, it's super important
because it's actually one of thebiggest things that I tell
people that it's so important toprotect yourself for right,
because you never know when it'sgonna happen.
You don't have any control overthat.
If you get chronically ill orsomething happens to you, you
become disabled and now youcan't go work.
But I can tell you this I needto grow this agency so we can go
and help more people with that,because part of our policies as
(36:44):
far as going and setting thatup, it's helped to protect
people against that.
It's helped to give them anincome if something else happens
like that.
Now the Medicare or the medicalsystem sucks right.
It maybe doesn't take care ofpeople like it should.
However, there are options andpeople don't know the options
are out there for them that theycould actually go and protect
themselves in a really good area, like the products we do so,
(37:05):
like, for instance, the lifeinsurance.
If somebody's chronically illand they can't go and support
themselves, we're able toactually go build something,
give them a source of income offthat death benefit from the
life insurance policy.
To where?
Now, if they know they're gonnapass man, imagine the memories
and how many trips they canactually go and do with, maybe
their loved ones, while they'reactually going through that.
(37:26):
So that actually ties in sowell to our business model,
because you never know when it'sgonna happen to you, but it's
eventually going to happen toyou, whether it be way farther
down the road or maybe ithappens in your early 20s, and
that is so important for us toactually go out there and help
people with that.
On that side of it.
Maybe they can't go and buildtheir dreams or any of that,
(37:46):
right, but the more people wecan affect, maybe we can affect
someone that's next, that'sclose to them, and get them to
start building their dreamsMaybe their dreams to help them.
So it sucks whenever thechronicle ill and all that stuff
comes in, but man, our companyreally goes and helps out with a
lot of that.
As far as getting some of thatstuff set up, they can access it
.
I mean we just hear story afterstory after story inside our
(38:08):
company as far as, hey, thislittle girl, she got cancer.
Guess what?
They were able to access thatdeath benefit, start to get
income and take them on a tripas a family and actually go and
live the life that they want,versus actually staying working
that job, not being able to gospend the time that they would
like with those people.
It's so important.
Christina McKelvy (38:27):
Yeah, yeah, and it's always a hard
conversation and I brought up acouple of times just because I'm
a therapist, you know mentaltherapist so I have clients who
have that chronic mental illnessor chronic physical illness or
both, you know, and they'retrying to get out of it, but
there's just these externalbarriers.
(38:48):
That just makes it reallydifficult to do it, and so it's
always good to like think aboutagain that hope.
You know what it gives them,that hope to move them forward.
You know as much as they'reable to.
Brittian Rivington (39:02):
Yeah, and I agree.
And then it goes into this too,like with people with like the
mental illness right, like whenthey handle that.
I think that it's so importantis us, as licensed professionals
me being in the financialmarket, you being in the mental
market is we need more peoplegoing out there and helping
those people.
Christina McKelvy (39:19):
Yeah.
Brittian Rivington (39:20):
That's where a lot of it goes.
And then helping them developthose relationships with people
that actually can shower andthrow hope onto them, Because if
you just go and talk to yourlike, for instance, you, if they
were just to come talk to youand then they go back to nothing
, it's not helpful for them.
They have to be around thatenvironment, right.
And I think that as you canstart to get around a good
environment, it starts to helpit out.
(39:42):
So so much.
And a lot of people gettingthat complacency were okay, well
, I'm not gonna go and change myenvironment.
You have to.
You have to get really dramaticabout it too.
You can't just say go, getdramatic, maybe change
whatever's not helping with you,get up, move the state, do
whatever you gotta do and justcontinue to grow in that area.
And it's so much easier saidthan done.
Christina McKelvy (40:01):
Right Like sitting here and saying well,
that's what you did, almost Likeyou said.
You left like like you're notMormon anymore.
You moved towns.
Brittian Rivington (40:10):
Yeah, so uncomfortable, so uncomfortable,
right, and it gave me a lot ofanxiety, a lot of depression and
a lot of stuff like that.
It's something that I had tojust continuously battle through
and continuously, and sometimesit was better than others.
Sometimes I was around theright crowd.
Sometimes there was aroundpeople that believed in me.
Sometimes I was around thewrong crowd and that's where I
felt my lowest right.
I wasn't hanging around theright people.
(40:31):
I wasn't hanging around peoplethat had the same views.
Christina McKelvy (40:33):
Is that depression and anxiety?
Brittian Rivington (40:35):
Oh yeah, for sure, for sure, and I think
that everyone deals with alittle bit of depression and
anxiety all the way around.
I don't think that any humanbeing doesn't have it.
I just think that there'sdifferent levels and tiers to it
, based off of your situations,what you've been through, and
some of it is super severe, butsome of it can be self-inflicted
.
As far as the side of okay, howdo I go and make a change?
(40:55):
I have to make a change.
I'm not happy, I can feel it.
I need to start getting thatdream going.
I need to start getting intothat area and start to really
push myself into that, you know,and go be uncomfortable and be
uncomfortable with somethingthat you want, to be
uncomfortable with somethingthat you've always dreamed about
.
You know, if I'm not saying gobe uncomfortable in an area
where you know you're not goingto be happy, you've got to
(41:16):
search for something that'sgoing to make you happy and that
should be your life mission iscontinually search for something
that is going to make you happy, because if you're not looking
for that, that's the quickestway to be unhappy.
If you're not consistentlysearching, shoot.
You can be happy just lookingfor happiness.
That is such great hope rightthere.
Right, you're looking forhappiness, and the best way to
look for happiness is try to behappy, and that's just something
(41:39):
that can actually continue tohelp people.
But it's definitely somethingthat's helped me.
Right, it's just, it's allabout your environment, where
you're around.
It's not where you've come fromas far as the environment, but
it comes to who are you aroundnow, right, if you're around
four bums, you're probably goingto be the fourth.
Or if you're around four bums,you're probably going to be the
fifth.
If you're around five great,honest, loving, understanding
(42:01):
people that do nothing butpositive thinking, you're
probably going to be the fifth.
So it's something that I'vealways kept in my mentality and
I continue to work with, as faras me, even being a little bit
depressed or oh man, thingsaren't going as fast as I would
like, things are not working outfor me, things are not going in
my favor, they're not this,then I have to go and snap
myself out of it.
Okay, what's good about yourlife?
(42:22):
Well, I have a loving wife.
I have two great parents.
I have a great side of thefamily on my mom's side.
I have great mentors All ofthese great things that are not
maybe monetary things, butthey're all things that are such
great cornerstones to actuallymy happiness and how I build it
up.
So I think that a lot of thatgoes from there.
If you can think one negativethought and then backtrace and
(42:46):
just start to flood your mindwith positivity, it's weird.
Sometimes you'll start thinkingpositive and you feel so weird
about it.
You're like why am I thinkinglike this?
Why am I in a good mood?
Christina McKelvy (42:54):
It becomes natural.
Brittian Rivington (42:55):
Yeah, exactly.
Christina McKelvy (42:58):
Well, that leads me to my final question,
because we are getting close totime, which went by really quick
.
I asked this to all my guestsbecause it's the title of my
show, hopology.
But what brings you hope orwhat gives you hope?
Brittian Rivington (43:14):
What gives me hope is that there's more
opportunity out there in theworld than ever, and I think
that times have changed and theyare gonna continue to change.
All that you have to do is youhave to get into the game.
If you can get into the gameand start playing whether it's
playing small or playing big asyou start to go, there are so
many opportunities out there.
There's enough opportunitiesfor everybody out there, and I
(43:36):
just think that people have tostart playing the game.
You're not gonna getopportunities if you don't play
the game, and it's just veryrecently in the last year or two
, I've started playing the gameand it's been so much better as
far as getting into something,getting licensed, start building
something that you can be proudof, that your family's gonna be
proud of, that your friends aregonna be proud of, and all
these different things.
You just have to get in thegame.
(43:57):
You have to start searching foropportunity and, yeah, that's
what really gives me hope isthat there's just so much
opportunity out there and thatit's available to everybody.
You just gotta startpositioning yourself and looking
for it.
Christina McKelvy (44:09):
Hmm, opportunity for all.
Brittian Rivington (44:11):
Opportunity for all.
Christina McKelvy (44:13):
Awesome.
Well, Bretton, it was apleasure having you.
Thank you so much for agreeingto come on and I'm looking
forward to, yeah, seeing you gothrough your 25 lists and I
think I'm gonna definitely dothat with my husband and go
through our 25 goals and weprobably knocked out a couple of
them, but still.
Brittian Rivington (44:32):
It's okay.
There's always room for more.
Once you finish up a couple,add some more on.
Christina McKelvy (44:35):
Yes, Exactly Well.
Thank you so much again.
Brittian Rivington (44:40):
Yeah, thank you.
Welcome to Apology.
Stories of Hope, Healing andResilience.
I'm your host, ChristinaMcKelvie.
Today we're speaking withBritton Ripitin Blackman.
Welcome, Britton, how are you?
Brittian Rivington (00:09):
Good, good, I'm awesome.
This is really really fun to beon here.
Christina McKelvy (00:12):
Thank you, Thank you, yes, I appreciate you
coming onto the podcast, sotell me a little bit about or me
the listeners a little bitabout yourself.
Brittian Rivington (00:21):
Sure, sure.
So I'm born in Sholo, arizona.
I'm from a small town calledSnowflake.
We have a long history there asfar as our family goes, for my
grandma and even further back.
So yeah, we grew up there.
When I was about four years oldwe came down to the valley and
we were living in Litchfield onthe west side, and it was myself
(00:43):
, my mom, and she was a singlemom at the time and then I had
two brothers, one older one andone younger one.
So yeah, we were all living downhere.
And then, after some time ofbeing down here, my mom
eventually found a pen pal whowas in the military and they got
together and basically builtthis blended family where it was
(01:07):
my two brothers and then he hada son as well.
So just four boys just alllaunched into a family at the
same time and then we juststarted to rock from there.
Now, with him being in themilitary, we eventually just
started moving all over theplace.
I mean, we went to Germany, wewere in California in the middle
of the Mojave Desert, then wewent to Fort Bliss, then back to
Germany, then back toCalifornia.
(01:28):
So a lot of just moving around,living that military brat style
kind of life.
I have a total of four siblingsand along the way as the family
started to develop, my mom andmy dad eventually added in the
blood tie which is my littlesister.
So four older brothers and onelittle girl.
As far as the final piece tothe puzzle.
Christina McKelvy (01:49):
That's a big family Must have had a lot of
memory stories.
Brittian Rivington (01:55):
Yeah, it was pretty hectic.
At times I wondered how my momdefinitely when it was just her
alone how she dealt with threeboys.
So it was nice to finally getsome firm hands around us and
start to kind of develop us asmen.
Christina McKelvy (02:07):
Yeah, yeah.
And having you said, your momfound him as a pen pal, so I was
just wondering likepre-internet days then?
Brittian Rivington (02:17):
Yeah, it must have been pre-internet days
.
I don't know if they were doingemail or exactly how the pen
pal worked, but that's how itmet.
And as soon as he came back hewas deployed, and I don't really
know the dates because I wassuch a young kid at the time.
Christina McKelvy (02:29):
Yeah.
Brittian Rivington (02:30):
He was in Iraq in the early 2000s, okay,
and when he came back it wasjust immediate.
I mean, they started gettingtheir wedding planned and it was
pretty interesting.
And then the other interestingfactor to this is a lot of
people don't know is he is a bigblack man.
So it was pretty interestingbeing, okay, this is your dad
now, yeah, and rolling rightinto that.
(02:51):
So that's where the blendedfamily came from.
So we're just a mixture ofwhite and black people that got
together and I love it.
I wouldn't trade it for theworld.
Christina McKelvy (03:00):
So the two different cultures.
Brittian Rivington (03:02):
Oh yeah.
Christina McKelvy (03:03):
Yeah, Blended families, Like because in
society we think of like theBrady Bunch or stuff like that.
But it's pretty typicalnowadays to have those blended
families.
And I'm curious, like whatlessons you learned, you know,
by having growing up in ablended family that you still
carry with you today?
Brittian Rivington (03:19):
Well, of course.
Well, I think it was kind offate Got us together for sure,
because we had not only myselfand my two brothers, and we all
had different dads at the sameat the time.
However, it was all the samestoryline.
My dad left me and walked outof me, my biological dad, he
walked out my older brother, hisdad we didn't even know.
And then same with my youngestbrother.
(03:40):
His father was not in thepicture.
So then we get this man that'ssuch a great man that came in
and his name is Walter.
He came in family.
He adopted us basically rightoff the bat, not legally, but
emotionally.
He had his son and his son'smom walked out on him.
So we had this really greatbond, as far as us coming in,
that we didn't even get a chanceto even focus on people walking
(04:03):
out on us, because all of ushad the same story.
And now we have two parentsthat came together and brought
that story, and then, all of asudden, the narrative just
changed.
It went from us having parentsthat walked out on us to having
a single parent, to where now wehad a family that was just
completely combined together.
Christina McKelvy (04:19):
Yeah, that stability.
Brittian Rivington (04:20):
Yeah, very definitely a lot of stability,
so.
Christina McKelvy (04:24):
I'm curious what the role of stability like,
how else that shows up in yourlife, because I know that
interviewing a lot of individual.
Stability means safety, andsafety is really important to
many individuals, many people,and so I'm just curious how that
theme of stability might showup in your life besides family.
Brittian Rivington (04:40):
Well, a lot of it is based around family,
but I think a lot of stabilityjust deals with a lot of actions
that I guess you take, becauseI think that a lot of the
actions that you take now arewhat actually develop you, and
that's just more so in your dayto day.
What are you eating, what areyou going to the gym, who are
you associating with All ofthese different things?
(05:01):
But that's where a lot ofstability comes from is is your
day predictable of who you'regoing to be around, what kind of
conversations you're going tobe having, all of these
different things.
But I think that's where a lotof my stability comes from is
actually who I'm associated withand who I'm doing my daily
needs with.
I should say so, but yeah, a lotof it comes from just family
based.
I mean, we were just told rightoff the bat you know, this is
(05:24):
us, this is what we do.
You guys all had the same storybackground and then we started
to develop that stability.
As far as with siblings, right,like all of my siblings and I
are really close, even though weare in different areas of the
state.
We're all doing differentthings.
We all kind of stick togetherand, when times get rough, where
it goes right back to that,that basic stability that we
give each other.
Christina McKelvy (05:45):
It's important to have those
individuals that you can go backto, you know continuously
throughout your life that sameindividual.
Yeah, and so Britain.
I'm curious about how, goingfrom the mountain because I've
been out to show though it's sobeautiful out in Eastern Arizona
(06:05):
, I feel like a lot of peopledon't even know it exists, it's
green, it's nose, it's gorgeousto Phoenix you know which is
different.
Brittian Rivington (06:16):
No, it was very different.
I think my mom during the timeand this is where before, even
everything developed as far asour family stability my mom had
moved down here and we of coursemoved.
Now Snowflake is not like Sholawhere you have the nice pine
trees and everything.
It's 15, 20 minutes from Sholaand it's I don't know what
(06:37):
happens to the weather or thegeography of it, but you go into
this flat kind of land withhigh winds that have little
brushes every now and again.
But it was something that was abig change.
Coming to Lichfield, my mom wasactually working, I think, down
in Mexico at the time, so shewas going down there and I was
just out here and I think I hadmy little brother's biological
(07:00):
grandma kind of with us at thetime and she was kind of raising
us until he came.
But coming down from that smalltown up there, I mean we were
like in a double-wide trailer atthe time up north and coming
from that my mom gave us a nicelittle home down here in
Lichfield and I think it was agood change.
But the biggest change wasgoing from that of being a small
town person and being aroundLichfield and kind of knowing
(07:22):
Arizona to all of a sudden, nowyou're getting on a plane and
you're going all the way out toGermany.
As a young oh yeah.
Then you get there, you're realtired, you don't know what's
going on with the time.
You're wide awake, it'smidnight, now it's during the
day and you're tired because ofthe time change and now you're
barely understanding any of theculture.
But it was such a good cultureshock for me that I believe that
(07:43):
that has so much to do with howI operate today, if I should
say, just being around so manydifferent cultures, being around
there, having to learn maybe alittle bit of a different
language, having to see thedifference in body language, how
you talk, how all of that stuffworks, I think it's kind of
giving me a little bit of edge,even coming back to the States
and we've been there twice,right, coming back to the States
(08:05):
and actually being able tooperate here.
Christina McKelvy (08:09):
Provide some more examples of how that
experience has influenced youtoday.
Brittian Rivington (08:14):
Oh for sure, like I'll give you one.
That was actually the secondtime we were in Germany and it
actually opened me up and thisis how it was kind of raised
right, like your word iseverything your reputation.
I care of yourself.
Are you doing what you'resaying you're gonna do?
And one of those things I sawwas we were living on the
Germany economy, so we were onthe actual military base and
(08:36):
when my parents went and madeany type of business deal with
our landlord they were thestraight old German people.
I mean, they didn't speak alick of English.
I don't even know how theynegotiated, how much they were
gonna pay and all that stuff,but I remember them just shaking
hands and that was a done dealfor three years.
They knew we were gonna livethere, they knew we were gonna
buy wood from them, they knew wewere gonna buy the oil for the
(08:57):
furnace in our house.
And just seeing like actualinteractions like that with
people started making me thinkthat that's how it should be all
the time.
When you say you're gonna dosomething, when you're gonna go
and do something, you actuallyfully execute it and it's off.
Just a lot of verbal Nowadays, alot of things are contracts,
you gotta make sure everythingyou know the eyes are gotta
tease across.
But a lot of that, and I thinkthat a lot of the spirit there
(09:20):
too, whenever I was in Europe,was, I mean, the holiday season.
Man, it is insane to see theholiday season here the
Christmas markets, the food, thesmells, it's freezing, cold but
everyone's still out having agood time.
You know the October Fest.
There's just so many differentthings.
But those examples of seeing adifferent culture and then
actually coming back us movingevery three years like that and
(09:41):
reestablishing ourselves, itmade a.
I had to adapt to the situation.
So it wasn't just something youcan go on and be the same
person.
You had to kind of change maybea little bit of what you did,
maybe wrong and right, in thatbase, and now it's time to go to
a new place and you get to kindof redefine yourself.
So I think that that constantevery three years of changing
forced me into the person I amtoday and it keeps me from being
(10:03):
stagnant in my own life, rightLike I never want to be the same
person over and over and over.
I want to have the basics ofbeing the same person, but I
also want to know that there's abetter version of me out there.
There's not always going to bethis same version and my
happiness is not going to be thesame as it is today, as maybe
as it is tomorrow and it couldbe even better tomorrow as far
as actually looking at it.
So just those actualinteractions of being a military
(10:25):
brat and being around a lot ofother families, right Like while
you're in the military, there'sso many different stories.
I mean you will know so manydifferent stories.
I mean at one point I think mydad's platoonity was with, I
mean we had Dominican people, wehad Puerto Rican people.
I mean it was just alldifferent races and we never
even saw it like that.
We just saw it.
As you know, our communitythat's what our community was.
(10:46):
It was a big blended community.
So I think that transition fromone being a blended family now
going into the military andbeing around a bunch of other
blended people and never crossedanybody's minds of, okay,
that's weird, there's threewhite kids and there's two black
kids and then there's one blackgirl, you know what I mean.
So it was never like that.
It was like it was just sonormal for us.
But a lot of those experiencesof being a military brat
(11:10):
definitely, definitely definedwho we are and just seeing the
interactions and seeing thedifferent cultures, seeing my
dad speak a little bit of Germanand I know he did- something
like that so.
Christina McKelvy (11:20):
Yeah yeah.
Exposure to a lot of differentlike you mentioned the different
cultures within the militarybase and also just the culture
of Germany.
Going from Sholo to Phoenix or,excuse me, Snowflake to Phoenix
, to Germany, as a little kiddefinitely could be a little
jolting, but at the same time ithelped you learn to adapt.
(11:42):
And so you mentioned that youwanna continue to grow, and I
agree that as individuals weshould be able to be willing to
grow and change every point orperspectives, and we're never
the same as we were five yearsago, and so I think that's a
really cool skill that you wereable to learn how to adapt there
and just continue to take thatthroughout your life.
Brittian Rivington (12:05):
Right, yeah, I know and I agree, and I think
a lot of it had to deal withonce.
I started seeing that and atfirst it was horrible.
Right, like you know, you'removing, you're about to leave,
you have all your friends, youhave everything there.
You just got maybe established.
Just after a year and a halfyou started building your little
entourage of who you're hangingaround with and now it's time
to go move again.
Well, now it's like I didn'trealize it when I was younger,
(12:29):
but now that I'm starting to getolder, I'm like I can be around
anybody.
I can be around in anysituation, any type of belief,
and it doesn't shake or affectme personally and I can listen
to anybody say anything and itjust allows me to just process
it, take my own opinion of itand then actually apply it to
how I wanna move forward, basedoff of whatever information I'm
taking in.
Christina McKelvy (12:49):
We're getting so much information nowadays,
you know, oh yeah, social media,tv, friends, family and it's
really hard to be able to sortthrough what we wanna take or
what we should take, becausethere might be some things I
know where I'm like.
Oh, I guess I should learn alittle more about that.
Brittian Rivington (13:08):
Yes, yeah, a lot of people do that.
They'll take and I've beenguilty of it myself too right,
it's everybody that's out there,everyone's been guilty of it
where they'll hear something andthen repeat it before actually
even knowing what's going on orjust deciding what the majority
of what people are actuallysaying is true.
So I'm a big believer in and Ithink that that's what's molded
(13:29):
as we went through the militarycareer, right?
Christina McKelvy (13:31):
Yeah.
Brittian Rivington (13:33):
My dad, the last duty station was Fort Irwin
, which is probably the worstspace to go and live on.
I mean, it's four miles intothe Mojave Desert.
It's hot, hot, hot.
We had high school, or our highschool was 45 minutes outside
the base, so it was a 45 minutedrive there and a 45 minute
drive back.
But as we started to, Igraduated and moved and then
(13:54):
came to Arizona in 2015,.
I was going to ASU and workingat the dealership and the
dealership has a huge impact onour family as far as cars and
stuff like that, because mygrandpa that's where he started
his main career after hetransitioned from England to
Canada so immediately jumpedright into the dealership world
(14:17):
and started out at a corporatekind of area and I won't name
who they are, but I started outin the kind of the corporate
area and then I've been workingfor the Coulter family for the
last nine years after that andthat's before I actually went
into the entrepreneurship, whichgoes into a lot of, why I
believe that you should go andstart to think for yourself.
(14:39):
Start to think what are thepossibilities, imagine if,
imagine if, imagine, if, imagine, if kind of mentality all the
time.
Christina McKelvy (14:45):
So yeah, thinking for yourself, and that
can be really difficult, againwhen we're so inundated with
different ideologies.
Is there anything where, if youwant to answer, like where
you're like yeah, I definitelydiffer from my family on these
thoughts or my close friends,that has been something that
stood out for you, that hashelped you move forward, I guess
(15:05):
Mom.
Brittian Rivington (15:07):
I've been trying to think I would probably
say that taking risk.
I've always been kind of abigger risk taker.
A lot of the times I was toldcollege is kind of the way to go
.
You start with college, thenorm that everybody gets.
But college just didn't workout for me.
It was not something.
(15:27):
So then I decided to go fulltime into the dealership I just
wanted.
Maybe I wasn't disciplinedenough or I wasn't being coached
well enough through the processof it and had a good enough
support staff around me as faras in my immediate range of it.
But as far as something Idiffer is I'm definitely a risk
taker.
I'll go.
If I see something that there'sa good reward, I'll take a big
(15:49):
risk on it.
So that's probably one of thebiggest things.
Christina McKelvy (15:53):
And I think risk taking kind of leads into.
When I asked you kind of whatyou wanted to talk about a
little bit, you know, that emailthat I sent you mentioned how
anyone can reach their dreams orhow you want to inspire people
to reach their dreams.
So I'm curious what theconnection of risk picking and
being able to reach your dreamis.
Brittian Rivington (16:12):
Sure, and I love this conversation.
This is it's actually myfavorite thing to talk about
whenever.
So in my mentality it wasn'talways this way.
It's funny how we have tochange, you have to change.
So, going on mine, it's goingto be my ninth year here at the
dealership.
Two years ago, I met with one ofthe most beautiful human beings
on the planet and he reallyinspired me.
(16:34):
His name is Kenna McCrae.
He sat down with me and it wasoriginally just to actually sit
down in our entrepreneurship asfar as in the financial market.
So I was just trying to lookhow to be smart with my finances
.
You know, covid was going on.
There were so many differentthings.
The stock market was crashing,who know how things were going
to be and I wanted to startsetting my family up for the
future and start planning forthat stuff.
So we kind of sat down, westarted going through the
(16:57):
process of it and I really likedit.
He shared such valuableinformation, but a lot of it
didn't even deal with finances.
To begin with Was I thought itwas kind of weird.
He was asking me what I want,where are your dreams, what are
your goals, things, and, likedude, I didn't ask for that.
I asked for us to sit down andyou show me how to stash my
money safely, so me and myfamily are protected in the
future.
Christina McKelvy (17:18):
Yeah.
Brittian Rivington (17:18):
My whole mind and he said Brit, it
doesn't matter how much interest, how much any of this I show
you If you don't have an endgoal.
What are your goals?
What are your dreams?
And then I did something mywife and I had never done.
We sat down and actuallystarted writing these dreams out
.
You know, he challenged me.
He said write down your top 25dreams and how vivid you can
start getting on these.
(17:39):
What dates can you put on them?
How are they going to look?
So we started just getting intothat mentality of, okay, we go
from kids where people encourageus to go and walk and get up
and everyone claps and when youfall down they say it's okay,
it's okay, Get back up, right.
And then we fast forward intoadults and then we don't really
do that to each other anymore.
We don't encourage adults like,hey, go chase that dream, Go
(18:01):
make that happen, and you canmake it happen, right.
The kind of things that we gointo the opposite like, oh,
you'll never have that happen,you can.
We just wanted to change thatwhole dialogue and we want to
continue to do it for somebodythat has done it to us.
It just passed that forward.
So as we sat down and hestarted showing me this stuff.
He's like hey, man, I knowyou're really attached to the
(18:22):
dealership, I know you love thecultures, I know you love that
whole family, but would you bewilling to look at something
where you can go and make a hugeimpact into the world?
Christina McKelvy (18:31):
And I knew.
Brittian Rivington (18:31):
That's just more important.
I knew it was important toteach.
However, I didn't realize howmuch it was actually tied to the
actual dream selling of thingsand in dreams can be.
You know, like my wife and Imine of course already knows
what mine is I want to be sosuccessful and take as many
people with me as possible, butthen I look at my wife's and we
just want to go open up a littlecoffee truck together.
Christina McKelvy (18:50):
Oh, that sounds nice.
Brittian Rivington (18:51):
Yes, it does , and that's that's our goal
right To be able to supportourselves and be able to go do
some of these things that maybearen't the biggest things in the
world but they're so importantto us and it's such a, such a
huge dream of ours to actuallygo and accomplish.
So now that we've gotten thatdown, we're starting to go and
it's crazy if you fast forwardtwo years, I never was one to
write down my dreams, write downmy goals, start to plan and
(19:13):
start to do any of that.
Now we have to go back and nowwe have to add to our top 25
dreams If our wedding's done,all of these things are starting
to get accomplished that we hadon that Dreams list traveling a
little bit more.
We've been able to travel somuch this year and it just
really stuck with me like man,if a lot of people, if I wasn't
doing this, how many otherpeople are not out there doing
(19:35):
this?
How many other people have gone, dream dead and are not
actually going out andremembering that excitement that
they had at one point, thatthey knew this was going to
happen for them, but then theygot a little bit of turbulence,
maybe a little bit of big wavesand then they got scared and
backed off of it.
So Hmm.
But yeah, it's one of my biggestbiggest, I guess life missions
(19:59):
right now is to just get aroundas many people, find out what
their dreams and goals are andthen start to convince them that
it can come possible.
Christina McKelvy (20:06):
Yeah, you used a term called dream dead.
What does that mean?
Brittian Rivington (20:11):
Dream dead.
Dream dead means you getcomplacent.
That means that maybe you'vereached a point in your life or
maybe you've accomplished a fewthings that you set out to do,
and it can happen without youeven trying to do it.
It could be you just wrapped up, maybe, in something that is
not as inspiring to you, ormaybe, as there's a ceiling
above your roof, you've reachedyour peak.
There's nowhere left to go, soyou just kind of sit at that
(20:34):
little mountain, but you forgetto remember that there's so many
other mountaintops out therethat you need to go and climb
and make happen.
So that dream dead is like therehas to be something that you're
continuously searching for, issomething that you know is going
to happen, that is going togive you huge happiness, like,
for instance, mine.
Mine is just going and actuallydoing what this generation
(20:55):
before has not done for me, andthat's just developing a nice
tight niche one and done family.
You know none of this heartachethat we had in the beginning,
and then my parents eventuallygot it together.
They were able to put togetherthe pieces and make a good
outcome of it, and then alsojust going in and trying to
travel and see the world and allthese different things.
(21:15):
And can my current position getme there?
Or am I just being complacentand waiting for it to actually
come back to me?
So dream dead is actually likegetting up and being excited
about the day.
You're excited because you knowsomething good is going to come
.
You're not having a dream andyou're just like oh man, it's
Monday, I have to get up on aMonday.
No, I like to change myverbiage a little bit.
(21:38):
I like to say I get to get upon Monday, I get to do this, I
get to do these things.
So that's where the dream deadcomes from.
And dreams can be the same way.
They can die very fast, theycan be read just as fast.
You just got to be around theproper people to actually
reunite that.
Christina McKelvy (21:54):
Yeah, that's that circle of influence.
Yes, it's connected to thosethat can help with your dreams
and help provide that stabilityand safety.
Brittian Rivington (22:02):
Exactly yeah .
Christina McKelvy (22:04):
And it's interesting.
You know, you mentioned likeyou wanted to basically change
your family trade.
That was the quote that came inmind and I always found that
really powerful, because we lookback at like you know how we
grew up, or you know how ourparents grew up or grandparents
grew up, and there's patternsthat happen and it sounds like
you're like yeah, if I couldreach my dreams and go this
(22:27):
direction, then I can have thatstability that I didn't have
until you were actually don'tknow what your parents met?
Brittian Rivington (22:33):
No, they met at four and it's crazy because
I didn't go back into that.
When they met, it got so muchmore stable than it was before.
Christina McKelvy (22:40):
Yeah.
Brittian Rivington (22:41):
And it was hectic the time before.
I mean it was.
It was probably one of thehardest points and my mom was
trying to be a good mom.
She was a young mom and she wastrying to figure it out and I
hold no ill towards any of thosescenarios we're in as far as
her not having somebody in thehousehold, she was trying to
work and support us in theattention as a kid right that
you need as far as workingthrough emotions, working
(23:03):
through the understanding of theworld, all these different
things.
But even then still, when myparents first met, they were
still fighting their own gapsinside the family tree as far as
what they were dealing with andtrying to start to build a new
family tree, right.
So this stability hit.
But then I didn't realize howmuch they actually went through
and how much financially, theydidn't get the proper guidance
(23:27):
to support five kids, right?
No one told them hey, this isfive kids, this is how you
support it, this is how a budgetlooks, this is how you dream
while you have five kids.
Right, because that's timeconsuming.
But it just got better andbetter and better over time, but
it wasn't something that wasjust instant.
Okay, we're stable.
Now we got a man here, that'sright, terry was something that
we definitely had to developover time, and they didn't.
(23:50):
You know, they're veryreligious as well, which I think
contributes a lot to how theywere able to stay sane with five
kids running around and alltypes of these and stuff.
So yeah are you religious?
I am not practicing religiousanymore.
I did grow up Mormon and I lovethe Mormons.
I think that they're greatpeople, I think that they have
great lifestyles, and a lot ofmy business partners and a lot
(24:11):
of my friends are still LDS.
But I think that it kind ofmade me develop my own kind of
why of what I think you know.
I say my own prayers.
I have all of that connectionthere.
It's just not something that Igo and I guess I share with a
lot of people.
Christina McKelvy (24:25):
Mm.
Hmm, similar for me.
I grew up, I say evangelical,though I think some of my
friends that grew up in thechurch won't consider themselves
evangelical, they just saynon-denominational.
You know big church.
So now I'm looking at you knowother perspectives.
You know, especially like withfinancial literacy.
I and I know there's otherviewpoints regarding financial
literacy looking at that and Iknow that financial literacy can
(24:48):
help reaching your dreams andthere's just probably various
paths to that and that's kind ofwhat I'm realizing, especially
now with, like, our generationconsidering you know it's hard
by house and different thingslike that.
Brittian Rivington (25:00):
Oh yeah, yeah, I know I agree, and that's
that's actually with financialliteracy.
I mean, it took me a little bit.
I had to get myself at leastpointed in the right direction
before I started to go and kindof teach you, and it took me a
little bit to get comfortablewith it, right Like a four year
old kid that just went and gothelp.
How is he going to go and helppeople?
Christina McKelvy (25:17):
Well, I'll tell you how.
Oh my goodness.
Brittian Rivington (25:20):
I know, I know I get that all the time.
Christina McKelvy (25:24):
Okay, and I love it.
Brittian Rivington (25:26):
That's another reason.
With, that's a benefit, withthe military, I feel like I'm
sometimes.
I'm walking around and I'm likeman am I like 40 years old or
the way I've actually, you know,and it's, it's.
I got to remember that I got togo be a kid sometimes too.
But it's going back to thefinancial literacy.
It's just so so important,right, and even if you're
(25:46):
getting it from somebody,there's so many sources out
there that you can get it from.
I mean, you can literally goand Google it and you're going
to be there for hours.
It's a.
It's a.
It's a dark hole if you don'tgo and actually focus it on what
you want to do.
And that's one of the thingsthat I've loved about our
company going into it, which isthrough World Financial Group,
is not only did they give me afinancial education, but they
(26:07):
actually brought me in and letme test drive the world.
The highest powered industry inthe world right, which is the
financial institution.
Christina McKelvy (26:15):
And while I got a test drive this.
Brittian Rivington (26:17):
They were right there in the passenger
seat show me how to test driveit until I eventually got to the
point where I'm kind of doingit on my own.
But yeah, financial literacy isnot being taught and I think
that that is what correlates toa lot of these dysfunctional
families, a lot of thesemarriages that don't last, a lot
of these kids that grow upmaybe not getting the right
example, and it all stems fromjust not having that
(26:37):
understanding.
And when I was looking at that,when I first sat down and I was
there for 30, 40 minuteslistening to Kendall speak was I
learned more in that 30 to 40minutes than I had ever learned
through high school or myeducation at ASU.
I learned that 30 minutes and45 minutes and I felt super
excited about the information Ihad learned right Versus.
(26:59):
Now, when you go to school, alot of people maybe don't get
excited unless they're superinto it, but I know that this is
their destiny call.
People are just showing up todo their homework and that's
pretty much it right.
So as we sat down and we gotreal vivid on it, we started
setting our dreams.
We got our wedding done thatCOVID delayed for years.
I mean we could not put ittogether, I mean it just would
(27:22):
not work.
But then, as soon as we onlygot the understanding of a
little bit of financial literacy, we got the understanding of
how your actual projection ofwriting, bringing it into this
world, not just thinking it, notjust talking about it, putting
it on pen and paper, all the oldschool stuff right.
That's when things reallystarted to formulate and come
together.
Christina McKelvy (27:41):
Hmm, yeah, having having your dreams
written down, having those goalswritten down.
Now I'm curious what yourperspective is on those like
maybe external barriers to beingable to be financially stable
or meeting your dreams, thingsthat maybe people can't control,
(28:01):
like healthcare or education.
Well, for some people,education or maybe just living
in the wrong town or justdifferent things like that how
can people still reach theirdreams when they're having
external barriers that theycan't control?
Brittian Rivington (28:16):
That is an excellent question, and it's
actually a question I thought ofmyself too when I look back at
it.
So in the dealership you canmake a pretty good living, but
it's not something that's goingto give you that whatever life
you want living if it makessense.
So I think that a lot of peoplethey need to start going out and
trying new things Like that'swhere the complacency and the
(28:36):
dream debt comes from.
If you don't go out and try newthings or try to look for
something that's going to giveyou a better life, then it's not
going to happen right, andthat's what World Financial
Group has kind of given for meit is.
I mean, I went from just myselftrying to learn financial
literacy, so now we have nineagents underneath us and we're
just building and building andbuilding.
And the reason why I've broughtthose people with me is because
of the opportunity, right, theopportunity of actually going
(28:59):
out, working and trying toaccomplish that life and create
a good income and cash flow andthose types of deals.
Now, one of the things that alot of people have to do is when
they go and they start to lookat their dreams and they
remember all of those pastexperiences, like, as far as hey
, why come from very poor wealth, not a very good childhood, not
(29:19):
a very good family setting, allthose things.
That's where you have to learnto start to snap your brain out
of it, because if you continueto focus on those, that's all
that's going to start to keepcoming your way.
Right, you have to startworrying about, okay, where am I
at today and where do I want tobe, and do I have the hope and
belief that that is going tocome true?
And do I have the actualvehicle like me being able to
(29:44):
test drive this, the world'spowerful vehicle in the
background?
Right, do I have somethingthat's going to give me the
opportunity to go and do that?
So you have to continue to lookfor opportunities.
You can't just sit in the samespot doing the same thing you're
going to do.
I mean, it's one of my favoritequotes, right?
The definition of insanity istrying the same thing over and
over, right?
And expecting different results.
It's not going to happen thatway, and that's why you have to
(30:05):
learn how to becomeuncomfortable, put yourself out
there, learn to take the word noand just process it and
continue to go for those dreams,because patience is going to
have to be one of the biggestthings you're going to have to
learn, right?
If you can't learn patience,then it won't work, because you
don't know when it's going tocome.
It's just the hope of knowingit is going to come if you do X,
y and Z.
If you can do X, y and Z, itwill happen for you one day.
(30:28):
But you have to just believe,because you can go do X, y and Z
, but if you don't believe it'sgoing to happen, it's not going
to happen.
You have to believe and go intothe action of it.
So I think that a lot of peoplethat are in situations you're
not.
It's not your fault, you're inthat situation, right, or maybe
it is.
Who knows right?
Maybe it's your fault you're inthat situation, but it is your
responsibility to go and getyourself out of that situation.
(30:51):
And that's one of the thingsthat I've loved being around
this entrepreneurship group andbeing a part of World Financial
and being a part of WealthWave,and going out and teaching
family literacy and leaving nofamily left behind so they can
learn this information, becauseit had such a big impact in my
life.
And I come from that.
I come from a disorientedfamily in the beginning.
I come from a double Y trailer.
We were double tank tops in thewinter, you know double tank
(31:13):
tops.
Double tank tops in the winter,that type of environment.
But, to be honest with you,it's all about the mentality of
it and kind of the opportunity Igot is, I don't really ever
think about any of those badthings Now because I don't think
about them.
It didn't reflect a lot of myaction, though, because my
(31:33):
action was those of those thatwere doing it before me.
It was what I had saw going up,so I had to go actually go and
change who I was around, who Iwas watching, and that's where
just I mean it's names on namesJR Heward, kendall McCrae, matt
Heward.
I've been around a lot of greatpeople that have installed a lot
of belief in me and, mostimportantly, I found the love of
(31:54):
my life early on.
That's dumped a lot of beliefin me.
So you just got to control thatwho you're around.
Maybe look at the vehicleyou're in, whatever vehicle you
have as far as cash flow goes,and is there something out there
that maybe you'll enjoy alittle bit better?
They could have a higher upside, but maybe he's not going to
pay out right away.
Right, like that's a lot ofwhat people look at is okay, how
(32:15):
much is the pay?
I've got to look at thatanymore.
I try to look at okay, is itworth it?
Is it worth it to go and begoing to do, is it worth it
Because-.
Christina McKelvy (32:26):
Is it worth it as opposed to the amount
you're going to get paid?
Brittian Rivington (32:29):
Exactly the stability, the complacency.
You can go and you know thatyou're going to be okay because
you have that check coming inevery two weeks, every week or
every month, depending onwhatever you're doing, right,
but it's more so, okay, I reallyenjoy what I'm doing.
I know that I'm going to beable to go all in because I
enjoy what I'm doing, but doesit have the upside potential to
(32:49):
be able to start giving me someof that extra cash flow?
Another part of it, too, is aswe go and sit down with people
and we talk to them.
You'll be surprised that and Iwas, at least, for myself too is
, man, you overspend in so manyareas you don't really need to
overspend it.
So when people talk to themabout these things and they see
these things and they see thatthey're overspending maybe it's
(33:12):
in Uber Eats, maybe it's ingoing out and eating, maybe it's
in a lot of those differentrealms, right, they start to
maybe cut back on some of that,which starts to increase their
cash flow, and then I think thatlaw of attraction starts to
come in.
As you start to cut back andstart to save and start to do
some of those things you'regoing to be now responsible with
that little bit that you'vesaved up.
So what's going to happen isthe world is going to start to
(33:33):
dump more into your bin becauseyou're responsible, which means
you need to be responsible formore.
So I really believe, as we sitdown with that and maybe
someone's completely broke,maybe they have nothing in their
life right, maybe they don'thave any money, maybe they're
completely broke I think thateven just coming down and seeing
the information and getting alittle bit of hope and being
around people with hope, thatsparks people and it starts to
(33:54):
get their mindset in that frameof okay, I need to work towards
this, I need to work towardsthis, and then they work towards
it and then they're able toactually start to free, open and
get a little bit of wiggle roomto start actually building
something for themselves.
Christina McKelvy (34:07):
Hmm, having that hope, being surrounded by
people that have that hope tomove forward, believing that you
can.
Brittian Rivington (34:16):
Oh yeah.
Christina McKelvy (34:17):
Yeah, so okay .
Brittian Rivington (34:19):
The financial side of it.
I love it right.
We can go and we put it on apaper.
This is how much like a robot,right?
Christina McKelvy (34:25):
Yeah.
Brittian Rivington (34:26):
Unbound interest will give you this.
No, this is your home.
This is your trip to Hawaii.
This is your family's ranch.
This is your boat that you want.
This is maybe just a house topay off.
You know all these differentthings.
This is on this date.
Look how much you could havehere.
And that's where we start toincorporate in it.
And then you start to go in.
Okay, if you look at yourindustry because that's the
(34:48):
biggest one, right, we want toteach people how cash flow
really should work you shouldstart trying to get some type of
extra cash flow, because rightnow, I mean I don't know about
anybody else, but inflation isjust killing everybody.
I mean it's absolutely throwingeverybody.
And then what I think happensis is that starts to happen.
It starts to diminish the hope,it starts diminishing the
belief and it starts putting outthose dreams, causing people to
(35:10):
go dream dead.
So then they're just stuck inthis rut.
So that's why I'm so passionateabout this career, because as
we start to go in, man, it'slike they really start to get so
excited about it.
They start to get so excited.
Okay, maybe it's not the end.
Maybe I'm not stuck in this,this, this trap box.
Maybe I can get out of it.
You know things.
Christina McKelvy (35:31):
Curious, like you know some things that maybe
you know with beyond someone'scontrol, like if they have, like
, a chronic illness and theirmedical expenses are super high
cause you know healthcare caresucks.
But also maybe yeah maybe theywant to buy a house or something
like that.
I keep going to the house thingmust be one of my goals, it's
(35:52):
number one.
Brittian Rivington (35:53):
It's people's number one goal.
So, and then, to go into thistoo, right, because you I've
heard you mentioned this twice,which I think is so important
right, being chronically ill?
Yes, yeah, it's one of thebiggest things I is my agency is
we market and distribute forpeople.
That is one of the biggestthings we help with, right, okay
, okay, when we don't set up alife insurance policy for
(36:13):
somebody, right, and they don'teven understand how life
insurance works, other than whenyou die, you get paid.
Christina McKelvy (36:18):
And I did not know that.
So that was just happy, happystance that I mentioned it twice
.
Brittian Rivington (36:22):
Oh nice, yeah well, it's super important
because it's actually one of thebiggest things that I tell
people that it's so important toprotect yourself for right,
because you never know when it'sgonna happen.
You don't have any control overthat.
If you get chronically ill orsomething happens to you, you
become disabled and now youcan't go work.
But I can tell you this I needto grow this agency so we can go
and help more people with that,because part of our policies as
(36:44):
far as going and setting thatup, it's helped to protect
people against that.
It's helped to give them anincome if something else happens
like that.
Now the Medicare or the medicalsystem sucks right.
It maybe doesn't take care ofpeople like it should.
However, there are options andpeople don't know the options
are out there for them that theycould actually go and protect
themselves in a really good area, like the products we do so,
(37:05):
like, for instance, the lifeinsurance.
If somebody's chronically illand they can't go and support
themselves, we're able toactually go build something,
give them a source of income offthat death benefit from the
life insurance policy.
To where?
Now, if they know they're gonnapass man, imagine the memories
and how many trips they canactually go and do with, maybe
their loved ones, while they'reactually going through that.
(37:26):
So that actually ties in sowell to our business model,
because you never know when it'sgonna happen to you, but it's
eventually going to happen toyou, whether it be way farther
down the road or maybe ithappens in your early 20s, and
that is so important for us toactually go out there and help
people with that.
On that side of it.
Maybe they can't go and buildtheir dreams or any of that,
(37:46):
right, but the more people wecan affect, maybe we can affect
someone that's next, that'sclose to them, and get them to
start building their dreamsMaybe their dreams to help them.
So it sucks whenever thechronicle ill and all that stuff
comes in, but man, our companyreally goes and helps out with a
lot of that.
As far as getting some of thatstuff set up, they can access it
.
I mean we just hear story afterstory after story inside our
(38:08):
company as far as, hey, thislittle girl, she got cancer.
Guess what?
They were able to access thatdeath benefit, start to get
income and take them on a tripas a family and actually go and
live the life that they want,versus actually staying working
that job, not being able to gospend the time that they would
like with those people.
It's so important.
Christina McKelvy (38:27):
Yeah, yeah, and it's always a hard
conversation and I brought up acouple of times just because I'm
a therapist, you know mentaltherapist so I have clients who
have that chronic mental illnessor chronic physical illness or
both, you know, and they'retrying to get out of it, but
there's just these externalbarriers.
(38:48):
That just makes it reallydifficult to do it, and so it's
always good to like think aboutagain that hope.
You know what it gives them,that hope to move them forward.
You know as much as they'reable to.
Brittian Rivington (39:02):
Yeah, and I agree.
And then it goes into this too,like with people with like the
mental illness right, like whenthey handle that.
I think that it's so importantis us, as licensed professionals
me being in the financialmarket, you being in the mental
market is we need more peoplegoing out there and helping
those people.
Christina McKelvy (39:19):
Yeah.
Brittian Rivington (39:20):
That's where a lot of it goes.
And then helping them developthose relationships with people
that actually can shower andthrow hope onto them, Because if
you just go and talk to yourlike, for instance, you, if they
were just to come talk to youand then they go back to nothing
, it's not helpful for them.
They have to be around thatenvironment, right.
And I think that as you canstart to get around a good
environment, it starts to helpit out.
(39:42):
So so much.
And a lot of people gettingthat complacency were okay, well
, I'm not gonna go and change myenvironment.
You have to.
You have to get really dramaticabout it too.
You can't just say go, getdramatic, maybe change
whatever's not helping with you,get up, move the state, do
whatever you gotta do and justcontinue to grow in that area.
And it's so much easier saidthan done.
Christina McKelvy (40:01):
Right Like sitting here and saying well,
that's what you did, almost Likeyou said.
You left like like you're notMormon anymore.
You moved towns.
Brittian Rivington (40:10):
Yeah, so uncomfortable, so uncomfortable,
right, and it gave me a lot ofanxiety, a lot of depression and
a lot of stuff like that.
It's something that I had tojust continuously battle through
and continuously, and sometimesit was better than others.
Sometimes I was around theright crowd.
Sometimes there was aroundpeople that believed in me.
Sometimes I was around thewrong crowd and that's where I
felt my lowest right.
I wasn't hanging around theright people.
(40:31):
I wasn't hanging around peoplethat had the same views.
Christina McKelvy (40:33):
Is that depression and anxiety?
Brittian Rivington (40:35):
Oh yeah, for sure, for sure, and I think
that everyone deals with alittle bit of depression and
anxiety all the way around.
I don't think that any humanbeing doesn't have it.
I just think that there'sdifferent levels and tiers to it
, based off of your situations,what you've been through, and
some of it is super severe, butsome of it can be self-inflicted
.
As far as the side of okay, howdo I go and make a change?
(40:55):
I have to make a change.
I'm not happy, I can feel it.
I need to start getting thatdream going.
I need to start getting intothat area and start to really
push myself into that, you know,and go be uncomfortable and be
uncomfortable with somethingthat you want, to be
uncomfortable with somethingthat you've always dreamed about
.
You know, if I'm not saying gobe uncomfortable in an area
where you know you're not goingto be happy, you've got to
(41:16):
search for something that'sgoing to make you happy and that
should be your life mission iscontinually search for something
that is going to make you happy, because if you're not looking
for that, that's the quickestway to be unhappy.
If you're not consistentlysearching, shoot.
You can be happy just lookingfor happiness.
That is such great hope rightthere.
Right, you're looking forhappiness, and the best way to
look for happiness is try to behappy, and that's just something
(41:39):
that can actually continue tohelp people.
But it's definitely somethingthat's helped me.
Right, it's just, it's allabout your environment, where
you're around.
It's not where you've come fromas far as the environment, but
it comes to who are you aroundnow, right, if you're around
four bums, you're probably goingto be the fourth.
Or if you're around four bums,you're probably going to be the
fifth.
If you're around five great,honest, loving, understanding
(42:01):
people that do nothing butpositive thinking, you're
probably going to be the fifth.
So it's something that I'vealways kept in my mentality and
I continue to work with, as faras me, even being a little bit
depressed or oh man, thingsaren't going as fast as I would
like, things are not working outfor me, things are not going in
my favor, they're not this,then I have to go and snap
myself out of it.
Okay, what's good about yourlife?
(42:22):
Well, I have a loving wife.
I have two great parents.
I have a great side of thefamily on my mom's side.
I have great mentors All ofthese great things that are not
maybe monetary things, butthey're all things that are such
great cornerstones to actuallymy happiness and how I build it
up.
So I think that a lot of thatgoes from there.
If you can think one negativethought and then backtrace and
(42:46):
just start to flood your mindwith positivity, it's weird.
Sometimes you'll start thinkingpositive and you feel so weird
about it.
You're like why am I thinkinglike this?
Why am I in a good mood?
Christina McKelvy (42:54):
It becomes natural.
Brittian Rivington (42:55):
Yeah, exactly.
Christina McKelvy (42:58):
Well, that leads me to my final question,
because we are getting close totime, which went by really quick
.
I asked this to all my guestsbecause it's the title of my
show, hopology.
But what brings you hope orwhat gives you hope?
Brittian Rivington (43:14):
What gives me hope is that there's more
opportunity out there in theworld than ever, and I think
that times have changed and theyare gonna continue to change.
All that you have to do is youhave to get into the game.
If you can get into the gameand start playing whether it's
playing small or playing big asyou start to go, there are so
many opportunities out there.
There's enough opportunitiesfor everybody out there, and I
(43:36):
just think that people have tostart playing the game.
You're not gonna getopportunities if you don't play
the game, and it's just veryrecently in the last year or two
, I've started playing the gameand it's been so much better as
far as getting into something,getting licensed, start building
something that you can be proudof, that your family's gonna be
proud of, that your friends aregonna be proud of, and all
these different things.
You just have to get in thegame.
(43:57):
You have to start searching foropportunity and, yeah, that's
what really gives me hope isthat there's just so much
opportunity out there and thatit's available to everybody.
You just gotta startpositioning yourself and looking
for it.
Christina McKelvy (44:09):
Hmm, opportunity for all.
Brittian Rivington (44:11):
Opportunity for all.
Christina McKelvy (44:13):
Awesome.
Well, Bretton, it was apleasure having you.
Thank you so much for agreeingto come on and I'm looking
forward to, yeah, seeing you gothrough your 25 lists and I
think I'm gonna definitely dothat with my husband and go
through our 25 goals and weprobably knocked out a couple of
them, but still.
Brittian Rivington (44:32):
It's okay.
There's always room for more.
Once you finish up a couple,add some more on.
Christina McKelvy (44:35):
Yes, Exactly Well.
Thank you so much again.
Brittian Rivington (44:40):
Yeah, thank you.
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