How To Build Your Empire with Brent Wright - 101 - Not Most People

Episode Transcript
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Bradley Roth (00:32):
Hey everyone.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Not Most People podcast.
This is your host, Bradley, andthis is the show for those
allergic to mediocrity groupthink and following the status
quo.
And whether you have been alongtime listener or you're
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(00:53):
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(01:14):
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value, don't leave one.
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I don't run ads on this show,and uh, I will continue to keep
it that way as long as you guyskeep helping me grow the show

(01:35):
and doing your part.
So that's my one ask.
Otherwise for not most people,we just had the first, not most
people summit depending on whenyou're listening to this.
Uh, so that was kind of a, a bigstep forward for not most
people.
We, uh, posted about that if youmissed it on all of our socials
and stuff like that.
So make sure you check it out.
You're not gonna wanna miss nextyear.
So, uh, keep an eye out forthat.

(01:57):
And we got a whole bunch ofother stuff going on with not
most people.
We have the Alliance, which isour community, our mastermind.
So if you want to get aroundmore people who are not, most
people who kind of thinkdifferent, who want more outta
life, that's the place to do it.
And you can find all of thoselinks for everything, not most
people in the show notes.
So that's it for housekeeping.
Without further ado, we're gonnaget into today's full length

(02:19):
guest episode.
With special guest Brent Wright.
Brent, welcome to the show.
Thank you.
Appreciate it, Brad.
Yeah, so I'm gonna, I'll try andcondense his, uh, his bio, all
his different titles.
It's, he, he's kind of one ofthose people that.
Like in the social media spaceis a relative unknown compared

(02:39):
to a lot of guests I've had onhere, but I know that's gonna be
changing here very soon.
Brent, a little bit ofbackground.
He was a multimillionaire by 25,homeless at 27, started a house
in animal watching businesswhile homeless, so he had a
place to live.
And restarted in 1986 with aMazda 6 26, which he sold and

(03:01):
traded over four times andcreated over 10 K in profit from
that.
So I'm, I'm curious to ask aboutthat now.
He has nine businesses, aworking cattle ranch six year
old and nine year old, and awife half his age, and he's the
board president of a privateChristian school.
They help pull out of kind of,you know, Bordering failure

(03:23):
three and a half years ago andhelped to make it successful.
So he's kind of built this, thisempire and, uh, we're gonna talk
about, you know, learn how hedid that.
So, I mean, we kind of touchedon a couple of those key points,
but in your own words, what wasthat, you know, how did you
become a multimillionaire by 25?
How'd you end up homeless at 27?
Kind of, can you give us some ofthose, like highlight points?

(03:45):
Yeah,

Brent Wright (03:45):
yeah, for sure.
So, I was a.
Certified painter, car painter.
And, uh, I was one of the top 10paid painters in the state of
Oregon for a number of years ata very young age.
I was making excess of a hundredK a year in high school.
Oh, wow.
And, and, uh, so parlay thatinto real estate.

(04:07):
Uh, owned a number of homes,rental homes commercial
properties, et cetera, uh, withmy ex-wife.
And, uh, as you, as you canprobably imagine the next step,
uh, ex-wife.
Ex-wife.
Right.
So, uh, yeah.
Lost everything.
Uh, during the divorce, uh, thelawyers took, uh, You know what,
what She didn't take out of themiddle.

(04:28):
The lawyers took the rest, so.
Gotcha.
Um, that's how I ended uphomeless and living in my truck.
And so, correction the, it justall didn't happen in 1986.
I'm not that old.
Um, the, uh, the, the Mazda 6 26was a 1986 and it was brown.
Oh, okay.
Brown, on brown with a browninterior.
So, uh, it was a, it was a nice$600 car that, uh, got, got me

(04:52):
to the next step, so.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it, uh, divorce, uh,divorce happens and that's what
happened to me and, uh, Ishouldn't say happened to me.
It happened for me as Ed, mylast des right.
So, yep.
Uh, it definitely propelled meto a place of humbleness.
And, uh, you know, when you gofrom being broke to To building

(05:15):
things, you can appreciate itmore, so.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, I, I can tell you that Itruly might not have appreciated
all I had prior, and, uh,probably was a little cocky
being 20 some years old andhaving access to, uh, hundreds
of thousands of dollars in thebank at a time, and millions of
dollars in assets, so,

mm-hmm.
So when that happened, when youhad that divorce, were you,
Because you can kind of go twoways with it.
You can either be like, you knowwhat, screw it, I'm just gonna
build it right back.
Or were you kind of like down onyourself for a while?
Kind of like, you know, like yousaid, and now it's, you know, it
happened for me, but were youkind of like, man, this is all

(05:53):
happening to me.
What was your mindset?
Oh yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah.
I definitely played the victimcard.
And what I, what I had left, Isold and, uh, in, in a fire sale
and.
Put it all, uh, into uh, andbought a Harley and, uh, pretty
much rode that.
That was what I owned.
I owned a Harley and a truck andthat was it.
So ironically, when I washomeless, I didn't have a place
to park my Harley, but.

(06:18):
You know, I would, uh, I wouldborrow, beg, borrow or steal
places to keep it inside.
Um, but yeah, just kind ofchecked out a life and rode and
whenever I could afford gas, Iwould ride.
And that was, that was myescape.
And I tried every other form ofescapism you know, beer
partying.
Mm-hmm.
Hanging out at friends places,whatever I could to try to just

(06:40):
escape.
The process.
Yeah.
And you know, they say that'swhere the magic happens is in
the process, and I was justtrying to escape it.
Mm-hmm.

So how long did that phase kind of last before
you started to try and move outof that?

Yeah, that was about a two or two or three
years, I would say.
Mm-hmm.
Um, really felt down and out inBeverly Hills and, uh, was
depressed and, and reallydidn't, uh, try very hard to
participate in life, uh, andengage and really make a
difference or anything likethat.
And then, uh, got kind of calledout by a boss.
He's like, Uh, you know, do youenjoy being homeless?

(07:16):
You know, you're, you're on aLear jet during the week, like,
and then you come home and sleepin your truck.
Are you, uh, you know, are you,do you want to be the victim
forever?
Or what are you gonna do?
So,

Hmm.
What were you doing on the LearJet, or what was your job?

So I managed, uh, a large conglomerate, uh, two
locations of the seven location,uh, body shop, uh, conglomerate.
And they would fly me all overthe country looking to buy other
places, guiding and coachingother body shop owners.
We had a.

Uh oh, so this, this was while you were
homeless?
Yeah.
Yeah.

Wow.
Yeah, it's crazy.
So I, I told this story on our,on our other podcast, uh, that I
was on this morning.
I would literally get off thecompany Lear Jet and take a a
Lincoln town car to the shop andthey would drop me off at the
shop and I would get in my truckand I would drive to where I
parked every night to sleep.

(08:13):
Wow, so is a, is a weirddichotomy.
Yeah.
Uh, to be in and to, to visuallysee that there is a better life
and then to, you know, play thevictim card and go live in my
truck just cuz it was easy andsimple and I wanted to check
out.

So even though you were, you had this kind of like
solid, successful job, you werestill like, part of your mind
was in this like victim like,I'm gonna be homeless.

Yeah.
Scarcity victim didn't wanna,you know, didn't want to invest
in myself, didn't want to investin trying to figure out a way to
get a house or, You know, do anyof those types of things.
And so, you know, it, it was alittle bit of a debilitating.
So, uh, probably about everythree or four months, my ex-wife
would try to take me to courtfor something.
And so mm-hmm.

(09:01):
I was like, well, if I didn'thave anything, she can't take
anything.
Right.
And so, right.

I mean, that part almost makes a little more
sense, but Yeah.
It, it's still, it's interestingwhat you said before, how you
were living that and then youhad your, your boss or your
manager call you out and belike, man, what are you doing?
And I think.
There's so many people who gothrough life who don't have that
person.
Yeah, right.
Like, what?
What if that guy never saidanything to you?
You know, like, how long wouldit have been before you woke up

(09:31):
one day and decided to change,or someone else you know, said
something or gave you that toughlove that you needed?
So I'm guessing, You, have youbeen that person for a lot of
other people in their lives?
I have, yeah.
I have.

Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Ironically, I still have thetruck.
I drive past it every morning onthe way out of the ranch, and
uh, it reminds me wow, to behumble and to also help.
Uh, help others, uh, get ontheir feet and, uh, and hold
them accountable to their ownactions and stop playing the
victim.
So, Hmm, I, I did it, I did areally good job at it.
So you can speak fromexperience, I can definitely

(10:06):
speak from experience.
Yeah.
Yeah.

So you said you, you took that that Mazda 6 26
and you traded it, sold itseveral times.
Yeah.
So,

I, I bought it for $600.
I cleaned it up and, uh,detailed it and drove it.
And, uh, that same boss said,you're gonna have to park that
somewhere else.
You can't park that in front ofour business anymore.
It's just ugly.
You gotta do something with it.
And so I found somebody thatneeded a car and, uh, kind of
wanted to help them as well, andthey didn't have any way to

(10:35):
finance it or to purchase it.
So I took everything that I hadput into it and, uh, added about
20% to it.
And then, They put some moneydown and I took payments on it,
and so about 12 months inthey're like, Hey, I need
another car.
Well, I took that money andbought another car and then sold
it to them again on time, andthen took that Mazda in on trade

(10:58):
and I sold it to somebody elseon time, and I did that at least
four or five times with thatsame car, and it kind of pared
into this.
Loan dealership type thing, youknow?
Um mm-hmm.
That, you know, obviously Iwasn't licensed or doing any of
those things, uh, properlyagain, you know, playing the
victim and, uh, just doing myown thing.

(11:19):
Mm-hmm.
But yeah, that was, uh, that wassomething that kind of propelled
me.
And then being homeless,definitely.
You know, being called out, I, Ican remember the guy's name.
I can remember his face.
I can remember the meeting.
His name was Jeff Smith.
I'll remember it until the day Idie.
Uh mm-hmm.
But he called me out and he'slike, I don't understand.
You could be living in a houseon the hill.

(11:41):
Like, why are you living in yourtruck?
And that got me thinking, well,these people need.
To have somebody watch theirhouses when they're gone and
stuff.
And so he had a bunch of friendsthat were wealthy and lived on
the hill.
And so I started working withthose folks and I became
licensed and bonded and insured.
Mm-hmm.
And I started watching theirhouse and taking care of their

(12:02):
dogs and their animals, and theywere very generous.
Drive my car.
There's food in the fridge, youknow, stay here as long as you
need to.
We'll be gone for three months.
You know, those types of things.
And so, Kind of changed mytrajectory and being around
those people and being around aworld of excess.
When you're trying to have ascarcity mindset, you can't have

(12:23):
a scarcity mindset or play thevictim for long around these
people that are calling you out.
Right.
And helping.
And then helping you too, so,mm-hmm.

Wow.
So it was almost like, um, Like,was house sitting a thing back
then, or you just kind of cameup with this?
I

just kind of came up with it cuz I, you know, Jeff
was saying, Hey, um, you know,I'm getting married next month
and we're gonna be gone for 30days on vacation.
Can you watch my house?
You know, and I'm like, well,yeah, sure, yeah.
I, I could park my truck andstay in my truck.
He's like, no, no, you're gonnastay in the house,

uhhuh.

So I did and that kind of propelled me.
I was sitting there sleeping inhis nice bed and, You know, not
watching my little TV VCR comboplugged into my 12 volts into my
truck.
Uh, I had a, a, the Top Gunmovie.
It was a recorded movie, so itwasn't like high quality.
Yeah.
And, and so I would watch thatuntil the battery would go dead

(13:19):
in the little TV VCR combo everynight.
So I watched Top Gun probablylike 987 times over the course
of two or three years.
Yeah.
It never got old.
Well, it gets old, but that'swhat you have, right?
Yeah.
So, yeah.

So what'd you think of the new one?
The new tap gun?

Uh, a little overdone.
But, but okay.
You know, the storyline kind offollowed and mm-hmm.
You know, the effects weregreat, but mm-hmm.
You know, the storyline kind ofleft a little bit to be desired.
Yeah,

I agree with that.
That's a, a fair assessment.
But, uh, man, so that was kindof, Was that, was that the
turning point, like staying inthese houses and like not being
able to have that scarcitymindset and starting to think
bigger and you were already, itsounded like you had momentum
and you were good at what youdid and Yeah.
You know, you've always been, itsounds like a big, big car guy

(14:07):
and never really left thatspace.
So was that since then, it'sjust been like a semi study
upward trajectory or were thereany other like major.
Setbacks after the divorce andthat sort of thing.
Yeah.

So, um, I kind of checked out a life a little bit
e even after that.
Mm-hmm.
Um, I started working forinsurance companies and just did
the corporate thing.
Mm-hmm.
And, you know, made my 60 k ayear and, and, uh, you know,
took six weeks off and rode myHarley across the United States
a few times, uh, with friendsand that was all good.
And well, I, I, I'm not a goodI, I want, I don't know what to

(14:43):
say the, the word, but I, Idon't do, um, I, I need
something stable, ironically,as, as in unstable or unstable
as a homeless person.
Could usually be, I neededstability in my life.
My job was my stability andthings like that.
And so, I didn't trek across theUnited States really well three
times.

(15:03):
Mm-hmm.
Every time I kind of longed forhome and wanted to back and, uh,
I just, I don't do the vagabondthing really well.
Hmm.
And that's the word I waslooking for was the Yeah, I
know.
And so, um, At that point, Idecided to stop working for
insurance companies and me and afriend of mine, we started a
body shop and we built it to avery successful business.

(15:27):
And then I ended up, uh, beingforcibly Uh, coerced into
selling to him to get away fromhim in a, in a very not so fun
situation.
And, uh, and then it, thatstarted me on my trajectory to
build my own empire for myselfwithout partners.
So, I would tell you partners,uh, partners don't work for me.

(15:47):
They work for other people, andthat's good, but not for me.

Well, at least you've identified that, right?
Or I mean, you learned the hardway.
So how old were you when thathappened?

I was 35 when that happens.
Gotcha.
So yeah.

Okay.
So since then from 35 it's kindof been, you've been running the
show.
Yeah,

yeah.
Straight up as fast and as hardas I want to create it, I've
created it.
Mm-hmm.

So you said you're someone who craves stability.
Are you still like that?
Like were you, are you kind ofthe, cuz a lot of entrepreneurs
are kind of skewed towards therisk taking side of things,
right?
And yeah, it sounds like youkind of went like the.
Like you did your own things,but you also had like that
steady job in place or to fallback on.
Yeah.
So do you still kind of operatethat way?

(16:35):
How you do it.
So

I create stability for myself.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
And so, like, I do the samethings every day, eat the same
meals every day.
I do the same exercise programevery day until I need to change
it and adjust.
Mm-hmm.
And accordingly, I get in theice bath every morning at five
30 with my wife.
I mean, we've been doing thatfor a couple of years now.
Um, uh, year and a half-ish,something like that.
Um, yeah.

(16:57):
Yeah.
I, I crave stability and Icreate stability, but in a
business sense I'm a risk taker.
Hmm.
I, I, they're calculated risks,right?
Yeah.
And so, you know, there's beentime when I've written my last
check and it's like, this is it.
This is all I got.
Yeah.
I'm going all in.
I got no backstop, right?
Mm-hmm.
And it, and it has worked andI've been very blessed and I can

(17:20):
tell you that, uh, that, youknow, God is a big part of my
life and, uh, I, I pray when I'mdown and I pray when I'm up.
Right?
So, yep.

That's inter so your per in your personal life,
Stability in yourentrepreneurial life, a little
bit more of that risk taking.
So you, you, is it almost, Idon't know you, do you feel like
you compartmentalize that alittle bit or That I do.

Yeah.
Yeah.
I totally do.
I, I, um, I.
I definitely compartmentalizeall of that.
I time block my personal life, Itime block my professional life,
and then I compartmentalize and,and segregate my personal
finances and business finances.
No co-mingling, none of thosethings.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and if I'm, if I'm reallywinning over here, I still take

(18:11):
the same paycheck.
Doesn't matter.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it's, it's, I have to, I,I live at a certain level and
I'm gonna stay at the certainlevel, but I really wanna win
over here, so.
Hmm.

Gotcha.
So now, like I said, you've beenkind of this, you're built,
you've built this empire where,you know, you have nine
businesses, you got the ranch,kind of like a whole lot going
on.
Yeah.
And now it sounds like you'rekind of shifting gears to like
wanting to start getting like,Telling your story, telling

(18:45):
other people kind of how, how todo it and that sort of thing.
Yeah.
What tr what like, was it justkind of like, okay, like I feel
like I have this handled and Ineed something new.
Or like you just had a lot ofpeople kind of asking you for
help.
What, what spurred that nexttransition to where you are now?
Where you're kind of likebecoming the, I don't know, the
mentor or the.

(19:06):
Yeah.
Yeah.

So I think it's a natural progression.
Mm-hmm.
My wife has played a huge rolein that.
She's like, look, you got a bigstory, right?
Mm-hmm.
You've done a lot of things, youcan help a lot of people.
Mm-hmm.
And you keep saying you want tohelp a lot of people, we'll do
it.
Mm-hmm.
And she gave me that push.
No different than, than, uh,working with the private
Christian school.
Uh, we were sitting in a meetingP t O meeting and I looked at

(19:31):
their financial statement andI'm like, they're broke and
like, A month or less.
Yeah.
She goes, fix it.
Mm-hmm.
Our kids are gonna go to schoolhere, fix it.
And so I can't tell you, it'sall because of me.
I've had a lot of great peoplethat have helped mm-hmm.
Uh, through the process.
Um, a lot of people that havesacrificed time and effort and
energy and money.

(19:51):
I've had a lot of good peoplethat have pushed me to stay
there.
I've, I've, uh, thought aboutresigning several times and I,
in fact mm-hmm.
I've offered that and threw itout at the board and said, look,
anybody wants to take thisposition, you can definitely do
that.
Yeah.
And, uh, And I've prayed aboutit and it's still me.
I still have to do it, and Iwant to impact as many people as

(20:12):
I can.
Mm-hmm.
Um, but you know, getting mystory out there I think will
help people to realize, look,social media pushes win, win,
win.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
And, and that's the big.
E phrase, key word, cool thingto do is just win.
Yeah.
Well, I wanna share my losses sothat way other people don't have

(20:33):
to lose like I lost.
Yep.
Right?
Yeah.
And, and so even if I'm, even ifwhat I'm not considered by them
a winner at, at least considerme a loser who adapted and, and
then take that and adapt it toyour life, however you can apply
it.
Yeah.
I wanna, I want to impact asmany folks as possible.

(20:54):
This coming up school year,we're gonna be impacting over
200 kids and 150 plus familiesat our private Christian
Academy.
Mm-hmm.
And that is super rewarding.
Like if you were to go see abunch of first through third
graders or preschool throughthird graders saying the Pledge

(21:15):
of Allegiance, saying the Lord'sPrayer Prayer saying the
Christian prayer, and then.
Praying with you and for youduring a, during a chapel.
Mm-hmm.
I don't know how that wouldn'timpact you in some way.
Yeah.
And you know, whenever I feellike burning it all to the
ground, I'll go to chapel and,and spend time with those kids

(21:36):
and it's a huge benefit to

me.
Yeah.
So how much you said?
Yeah, for sure.
So you said like 150 to 200.
Kids right now.
How many, what was the size likewhen you kind of stepped in a
few years ago?

So we went down all the way to somewhere near
like 74 or 76, just shy of 80.
Hmm.
And that was three and a halfyears ago.
And then we were impacted withthe whole Covid shutdowns and
protocols, and we did our bestto Participate at the minimal
level.
Let's just put it down.

(22:11):
Yep.

That's a good way to put it.
Yeah.

You know, we, we definitely tried to keep the
kids engaged and entertained andlearning and growing and
prospering, and it's paid out inspades with my kids.
Um, they're hugely diverse in,in their, um, education and it's
because of this place, so.

Hmm.
That's awesome.
I mean, I, I went to, I washomeschooled when I was younger,
and then I went to a smallprivate middle school eighth
grade, and I went to privatehigh school.
And so like, and then my mom hasbeen involved with a lot of kind
of organizations like that, andit is, I feel like a very common
thing for those types of schoolsor institutions to really

(22:54):
struggle and Yeah.
You know, enroll without publicfunding and all that kind of
stuff.
So, um, I'm sure there's notjust that school, but other ones
surrounding who have kind ofseen what they've done and maybe
modeled it or reached out toyou, who knows?
But, yep.
Um, yeah, no, I think, I thinkthat's important cuz again, like
people who want to go start aschool usually, or especially

(23:18):
like a, you know, Christian andsomething that really stands for
something like they're notusually business people.
Yeah, right.
But everything that you want todo, On a high level at some
point is gonna come back to kindof understanding some of those
basics and principles.
So, you know, that that examplesof school could be any sort of
business.

(23:38):
What were a couple of thingsthat you went in and said, like,
all right, like, we're gonna dolike 1, 2, 3, a kind of action
steps, turn things around.

We had to get participation up, families
participating Not just dumpingtheir kids off at a, at a.
Daycare like facility.
I mean it, yeah.
You're paying$7,000 a month, soyou're like, I am gonna wash my
hands of it and they're gonnatake over.
Right.
But, uh, you know, parentparticipation is huge and it has
to be huge.
Community participation is thebiggest thing.

(24:09):
And then quite frankly, wealigned with a new church.
We were, we, we were disbanded,forcibly disbanded from the
church that we were alignedwith, and they kicked us out and
we had to find a new place togo.
And in doing that, we aligned,um, with City First church of
the Nazarene, and it changed ourtrajectory.
They, we signed a hundred yearcollaboration agreement with

(24:31):
them, and they give us freerent.
So it was, it saved us$26,000 amonth.
Wow.
And.
Ryan, pastor Ryan Green and his,uh, his group, uh, are very
giving and very caring, and theyare very supportive.
I mean, Ryan's kids go theretoo.
So again, he had a little vestedinterest in the situation.
But, but the, the whole churchas a whole is very supportive of

(24:56):
all of us and we couldn't do itwithout'em.

Hmm.
So, I, I.
Kind of two things stood outthere.
One was collaboration.
Yep.
Which I think so many, I mean,it, you almost see like forced
collaboration when a business isstruggling.
Like, oh, we gotta merge.
Or someone will, you know, buyus or something like that.
Right.
Kind of this, like, you don'twant to be in that position.
But then collaborations like allthe, all the biggest, all the

(25:20):
best businesses that are, that Isee these days that are growing
the fastest.
Like they're all aboutcollaboration.
Whereas it's kind of thiscounterintuitive where like mo
most businesses that you see,Are kind of like, oh, th they're
our competitors, or they're kindof overlapping with us.
We don't want to talk to them.
We don't want them to know whatwe're doing.
Like we don't wanna sharecustomers, whatever it might be.

(25:42):
Yeah.
And I think, you know, in somecases, depending on what you're
doing, that might be necessary,but I think in more cases than
not, like collaboration ishugely underrated and something
that like people, like peoplewanna support each other.
They want to help each other.
Yeah.
But like we kind of have theselike walls up.
We're like, oh, you know, likeI, we can't reach out to them.

(26:04):
Like they're, they're doing kindof similar things, but people
wanna help people.
And when you can combine forces,it's.
I mean, have you done a lot ofcollaboration, like in your
businesses, like your carbusinesses and partnerships and
that kind of stuff?

Yeah.
Yeah.
So I've created, in fact, wheremy car business is, I've created
an area where there are otherbusinesses that self-support
each other.
Mm-hmm.
So, instead of my detailbusiness doing p p f and
ceramic, we, I, I rent a spacenext door to a PPF and ceramic
guy.
Hmm.
So instead of trying to createthat, Collaboration with

(26:42):
internally.
Yeah.
I added it.
And he's got a, a group of folksthat come to see him that need
my other services for my bodyshop and my detail shop.
And it's hugely collaborative.
Mm-hmm.
And both of us benefit from itinstead of me doing those
services and making this.
Right.
He does those services and Ihave an opportunity to make

(27:02):
this.
Yep.
And so I, I think a lot ofbusiness people are shortsighted
and don't.
Mm-hmm.

It's a scarcity mindset in a sense.
It is.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.

Exactly.
Mm-hmm.
You're right about that.
I, I think that they look at itas a com, uh, competition and I
gotta win at all cost.
Mm-hmm.
And I look at my competitors aslike, man, what are they doing
right?
And what am I doing wrong andwhat am I doing right?
What are they doing wrong?
Right.
And we can help each other.
Mm-hmm.
And there's, so, you know,there's probably a hundred body
shops in Lane County where Ilive, and if we all just.

(27:39):
Talked to each other and helpedeach other.
There is enough work here foreverybody, but everybody has
this real super scarcitymindset.
Mm-hmm.
And you get all these people inthe room at a training for ICAR
or something like that, and theydon't want to talk to each other
and they don't want to, youknow, mesh.
Yeah.
And.
I really enjoy that.
I ask them, Hey, you guys beenbusy?

(28:00):
What's going on?
You been slow?
Like, can we load level and helpeach other out?
You know?
Mm-hmm.
This isn't my niche customer.
We will help them, but it's notmy niche customer.
Is this your niche customer?
And if so, I can refer to you.
Right, right.
So, yep.
And they don't know how to takethat.
It's a weird vibe.
Mm-hmm.
When you're interacting withthose folks and Yeah.
So from the school perspective,the collaboration is the only

(28:21):
reason we're alive.
Mm-hmm.
We'd have been out of businesswithout it.
Yeah.
Because the county where we livedoes not want to have churches
and schools and in, in any typeof zoning.
And there's no zoning that'sapproved for it, and you have to
get conditional use.
And so it's a bit of a struggleand a bit of a fight.
Mm-hmm.
And the church had conditionaluse.

(28:44):
Zoning.
And so it was an actual fit forus to slide in there.
Yeah.
And then they took over anotherchurch that had been previously
used for a school and they hadno use for a school without us.
Yeah.
And we had no use for a buildingor we couldn't get a building
without them.
Mm-hmm.
So, yeah, huge.
Hugely beneficial.
And we've impacted the localcommunity.

(29:06):
I mean, we had.
Like 1400 people, uh, softcount, not a hard count, but
like 1400 people show up to ourHalloween celebration and our
trunk or treat.
And that was a group, a largegroup of them weren't from the
church community or the schoolcommunity.
They were just from thesurrounding community that only

(29:27):
knew about it because of oursignage and our advertising.

Yeah, no, I love that.
I think, um, and like sometimesyou'll talk to people and.
A lot of'em, again, in thescarcity mindset will try and
take every customer or clientthat they can kind of service.
But the really, really good oneswill say, Hey, like, you know
what?
I could probably help you, butthis person can help you better.

(29:50):
Yeah.
Right.
And that's like another form ofkind of collaboration and
people, people respect the heckout of that too, when you're
able to say that.
Cuz now they know that you'retruly acting in their best
interest.

Yeah.
And, and we, we, we call it notour people.
Mm-hmm.
So not, not the playoff, notmost people.
Right.
We call, we call that customer.
They're just not our people.
Mm-hmm.
We can't serve them properly.
Let's get them to somebody whocan, right.

Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
And then the other thing youmentioned there that kind of
stood out was the communityinvolvement.
Which like from a businessstandpoint could be, you know,
like I feel like every greatmovement or like, you know, we,
we all know first form, right?
And Andy and what they're doing,like the community aspect of it.
Cuz when you tie in thecommunity, you know, people buy

(30:35):
in, like they're a part of itnow, right?
Whereas.
Without that community, it'sjust kind of like, okay, here's,
here's like our job description,here's what we do.
And then like, that's kind ofit.
But if you get people involvedand like, cuz I've always been
like a CrossFit guy in thefitness space.
And the one thing that's alwaysdifferent about CrossFit gyms
compared to these other gyms andwhy people are so loyal and
they'll stay forever is thecommunity aspect.

(30:57):
Like it's a, it's social.
You're not going there liftingwith your headphones in and not
talking to anyone and everyone'skinda like judging each other
like your typical gym, you know?
And.
Like CrossFit, they do, likethis has been, I've gone to so
many different CrossFit gymsevery time I've moved all
different parts of the country,east coast, west coast, you
know, the south, the Northeast,and every single one has that

(31:21):
community aspect.
Like people hang out beyond justthe workout.
They have organized things andtime before and after class, and
it's just, It creates such aloyalty that you don't see in
like all these other gyms.
Like there's turnover, turnover,turnover, and like you still see
that?
Yes.
But yeah, when you can like getpeople involved kind of beyond
like, like they go there to workout and get fit, right?

(31:43):
But then they stay for the otherpeople in the community, right?
And so I think whatever businessyou're in, if you can integrate
some of that, you know, that's agame changer.
So, I don't know, is, is thatsomething that you.
Consciously do with, I mean likethe car business, I think you,
you mentioned before actuallythat you have kind of like a car

(32:03):
club.
You guys get get together.
Yeah.
And drive club like.
So that's an example,

right?
Yeah.
So we do, uh, we're, we startedit last summer, um, kind of like
the off of the, the a hundreddollars tip club or the thousand
dollars tip club.
Mm-hmm.
Um, where we get a number offolks together and everybody
decides on a place we're goingand a, a venue that we want to
support and we drive.
Old cars and, uh, if somebodywants to go but doesn't have an

(32:30):
old car, there's a number of usthat have extra old cars.
So, um, it's kind of, myaddiction is old cars.
So I, so we do that and then weimpact the, not just the, the
community.
So, You get somebody who doesn'thave an old car that wants to
participate and, and then theyend up liking it and they end up
wanting to buy an old car, andthen they're gonna need a place

(32:51):
to fix it.
And then they're gonna need aplace to clean it, and then
they're gonna need a place tostore it.
And then it's on and on, right?
Yeah.
And then, and then you get theminvolved with the hundred
dollars or a thousand dollarstip club, and then they see
that.
That you are a person trying toimpact the community in a
positive way, and they wanna bea part of that.
Mm-hmm.
And they wanna participate.
So they participate in thataspect of it.

(33:12):
And then that really speaks tothem like, what am I doing to
make a difference?
Yeah.
I got invited to this thing.
They let me drive one of theirold cars.
These are expensive, right?
Mm-hmm.
And then all they wanted to dowas help other people when they
went to this place.
Like, I wanna most people,that's, that's a highly
addictive to people mm-hmm.
Who wanna participate and wantto help.

(33:33):
I, I think, yeah.

So, yeah.
Yeah.
So I think those kind of, tosum, sum that up, for those of
you listening who are, you know,whether you have a business or
you're, anything you're tryingto do, really, whether it's
within your family or community,like create collaboration and
then the community aspect, whichthey're almost kind of one and
the same in some ways, right?
If you think about it.
But, uh, two huge principlesthere.

(33:56):
And then one thing that youmentioned also is that you're
building, you're building yourempire, but you said you're
taking 12 families along withyou for the ride.

Yeah.
So in talking with John Wagnerwho spoke at your summit Yep.
Him and I have a, what we callour legacy meeting every, uh,
every other Thursday, and wemeet for an hour, hour and a
half, and we talk about it.
John's been instrumental inhelping me get.
My insurance l l c off theground and, uh, and that product
and, and building a, a vehicleto take my family to the next

(34:29):
level, right?
And so I, I've created a 500year plan, a legacy plan for my
family, and John's been hugelyinstrumental in getting that off
the ground.
And we were sitting theretalking one day and I said,
wouldn't it be cool if we couldbe more like Jesus?
And I, and we could take 12families along with us, right?

(34:49):
Mm-hmm.
I said, I'm not trying tocompare myself to Jesus.
I'm just saying as an exampleand how to lead, right?
Yeah.
Wouldn't it be cool if I coulddo that?
And so that's what we'rebuilding out right now is uh, we
call it our advisory council.
And, uh, in our new socialplatform that I'm, uh,
implementing next month we'regonna have 12 people, 12

(35:11):
families that will have accessand be called to the advisory
council.
Not just in the social platform,but in, in other ways.
And I'm gonna try to help themget to a spot where they can
impact their family for 500years or whatever they choose.

Wow.
Have those people been chosenalready?
We have four

so far.
Gotcha.

Very cool.
Yeah, that's, I mean, yeah, mostpeople can't even think out more
than like a week or two.
So to think out 500, 500 years,like, I don't, I don't even, I
can't even begin to think aboutwhat that might look like.
I'm sure we could talk a wholenother episode about that, but,
oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Well, that's pretty wild.
Yeah.
And then another, another thingthat you talked about was having

(35:54):
empathy.
While not being empathetic.
Yeah.
And so that it's like a paradoxalmost.
Like can you, can you talk about

that?
Yeah.
So John actually brought this upon, on a call that I had with
him this week.
Uh, John is, he's kind of like areverse mentor for me, right?
So he wants me to help him andguide him and coach him, right?
Mm-hmm.
Cause he wants to get to abetter place, but, The guy's

(36:21):
just a bloody genius when itcomes to the written word and
the spoken word when it comes toarticulating his thoughts and,
and, uh, and being at a, just anext level.
And so for me, it's this reversething.
He mentors me, I mentor him.
Mm-hmm.
And he said that one thing thatstuck out when we first met in
our, one of our firstinteractions was that I told him

(36:43):
that I, I don't have anyempathy.
And he says, and, and he goes,but you say that, but then you
are the most empathetic personand are willing to help anybody.
He's like, you'd take the shirtoff your back, throw it down on
the ground, and, and let peoplewalk over it, or walk over you
to help them.
Hmm.

(37:04):
But yet you say that you don'thave any empathy.
And I think a lot of that it.
It comes from business andmaking decisions, you have to
make decisions in an unemotionalway.
Mm-hmm.
And so I tend to let some ofthat bleed over into my personal
life.
And I make decisions in anon-emotional way, but yet in

(37:24):
the personal aspects of life,you have to be emotional and you
have to care about other peopleand their emotions.
And so it, it is a dichotomy.
You know, like when somebody'sdog dies, I'm like, okay, their
dog.
Your dog died.
Yeah, but did you die?
Right?
Right.
So that's that non-empatheticpart of it, you know, is do the

(37:46):
logic part first and then, youknow, if you need to cry on my
shoulder, just tell me you needto cry on my shoulder and we'll,
and we'll cry together, right?
Mm-hmm.
But, I don't know any thoughtson that because I'm, I'm kind of
at the end of that for me.

Yeah, no, I mean, it's, it's an interesting
thought, like, cuz I thinkempathy or people who say like,
oh, I'm an empath and I feeleveryone's feelings and that
kind of thing.
Like, I think there's empathywhere like you're, I don't know,
commiserating with people, butthen like you have empathy where
you're helping them actuallysolve their problems.
So there's kind of like two.

(38:20):
Right, right.
Two parts to that.
Like empathy can be purelyemotional in a sense, and it can
be, you know, like you said, youkind of hit hit with the logic
first.
Yeah.
Which is almost kind of thisreverse approach.
So you're like solution focusedempathy.
I don't know if that makessense, but It could.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But some people would take thatas a bad way, right?
Mm.
And John was like, So that'skind of interesting.
And then, and then we've, youknow, as we, as our relationship
grew, he, he kind of fleshedthat out a little bit and, and
he got to know, you know, thetype of person that I am.

(38:58):
But I am very direct mm-hmm.
And very emotionless when itcomes to business.
And if you're gonna besuccessful, you have to be, you
have to be able to make quickand, and, you know, Emotionless
decisions to be able to besuccessful sometimes.
And I think sometimes though,you have to have emotion, right?
Cuz you wanna be emotional withyour people, right?

(39:19):
You wanna be cautious aboutbeing too direct with your
people and not taking intoconsideration their feelings.
And so it is a dichotomy thatI'm, uh, working on and
struggling with everything.
Yeah,

no, it, it's tough cuz yeah.
When you're making bigdecisions, That affect multiple
people and your business andthat kind of thing.
It is.
It's one of those things that'slike much easier said than done
in most cases, to remove youremotion from it.
But then you do.
You can't just be like anemotionless robot either.
So I think it's kind of knowingwhen, is it mainly knowing when

(39:53):
to flip that switch on and off?
Like

as I've grown older, it's more of a permissive
use, right?
So you ask permission, you feelout the situation.
And, and you talk to them andget, get where they're at, and
you ask the, okay, you know, I'ma solution oriented person.
Are you ready for the solution?
Mm-hmm.
Or can we cry?
Can we cry together for a littlebit?

(40:17):
You know, what do you need?
Yeah.
What do you need from me?
Right.
Yeah.
And in the past it was probably,which could have been why I
ended up divorced, is because Iwas more solution oriented
person.
Mm-hmm.
Instead of.
Empathetic, right?
Yeah.

Yeah.
No, I think that's something asa guy, like you're, you know,
masculine energy, like, you'relike, all right, let's fix the
problem, right?
Your wife, your girlfriend,whoever comes to you and you
know, is venting or talkingabout something, and like your
mind immediately goes to likesolution, right?
Yeah.
But they may be, they probablydon't want the solution.
In a lot of cases, they justwanna be heard.
Yep.
And that's something that.

(40:53):
Until it's told to you, you'reprobably like, most guys aren't
gonna figure that out on theirown, so, no, I know.
Yeah.
So I know for me, once we kindof learned that several years in
now, it became to like, okay,you know, do you want me to just
listen or do you want, like, areyou looking for a solution?
Right?
Yeah.
And then they can tell you andthey kind of go from there,

(41:15):
right?
Yeah.
And sometimes even as the guy,sometimes, you know, A lot of
times we, we want the solution,but we also sometimes just need
to be listened to as well.
Right?
Like get it out and talk it out.
So it goes both ways, but thatlove that awareness to, to.
Say that and to ask, you know,which is it that you need right

(41:35):
now?
And that kind of thing.
Yeah.
Is really important.
Right.
So,

well, we're just caveman.
I mean, it just, you know, if

Yeah.
Caveman, some technology andYeah, yeah, yeah.

Opposable thumb.
So we can run a cell phone now.
Right.
So, yeah.
But, but just rudimentary, youknow, we, we are not as men,
we've just started.
High, you know, becoming highlyevolved.
Mm-hmm.
I would say in the last 50 yearsbefore that, it was survival of
the fittest survival at allcosts.

(42:07):
Right?
Yeah.
And if you grew up in thatmindset around those people,
that's all you knew.
Mm-hmm.
So, like I grew up, it was themen as the provider.
Right.
And he's, and he's usuallyemotionless because as soon as
he shows emotion, he's viewed asweak and mm-hmm.
And all of those things.
And you know what I'm, what I'mchanging with that, with my son

(42:28):
is, you know, it's okay to cry,right.
But it's also okay not to cry.
Right.
And it's whatever you need toget, get you through this.
Let's, let's go down that road,right?
Yeah.
Uh, and, uh, you know, I, Ithink we're just.
You know, slowly evolving intomore fine tuned beasts, but

(42:50):
we're still beats, right?

Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think that's an importantpart not to lose either, right?
Which, yes.
You know, I think there's a lotof guys who need to exercise
that side of, like, thatmasculine compete, you know,
challenge, like that whole sideof things that can get lost in
modern society.
So it's always this weird.
Weird balancing act, right?
We have more, more informationthan we ever have when it comes

(43:14):
to these like subtleties and,and like you said, evolving in a
sense.
But then we also, you know, wedon't need to, to fight or to
hunt anymore.
Like things are, you know, forthe most part, protected and
provided for us and that kind ofstuff.
So it's this like, And then yousee that that whole side of

(43:34):
things when it doesn't getexercise can come out in
unhealthy ways too.
And I mean, we, that's like awhole nother rabbit hole.
We could go down and Oh, yeah.
Talk about, but,

well, like Jordan Peterson talks about it the
best, you know?
Mm-hmm.
And his, one of his talks aboutbeing a dangerous man that's
controlled, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I want to be around dangerouspeople who know how to control
it.
Mm-hmm.
Instead of controlled peoplethat become dangerous.
Yeah.

Yeah.
People who have the potential tobe dangerous, but Right.
Generally choose not to.
Yeah.
So, okay.
Yep.
I love that.
I mean, is there, is there anyother kind of business
principles or things that you'velearned on your, kind of like,
you know, from, from being 25and homeless to now running all
these things that you thinkpeople need to know about or

(44:20):
that maybe doesn't getmentioned?

So I made a decision when I moved to Eugene,
uh, and was homeless that I'malways gonna do the right thing.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
The, and not just the rightthing for me, but the right
thing.
Period.
Right?
Yeah.
Get everybody's take on it anddo the right thing.
Try not to step on any heads toget across the pond, right?

(44:43):
Mm-hmm.
And so I, I think if you go atlife with that core value of do
the right thing mm-hmm.
And then ask the question, whatis the right thing for each
person in the situation?
Yeah.
Right, and then, and then workon that.
Mm-hmm.
I think if you just try to workon that, like if you just say,
do the right thing and itbecomes, it's just the right

(45:04):
thing to you, then you're notserving anybody, right?
Mm-hmm.
And so do the right thing is a,is a very simple statement, but
with a very broad applicationor, exactly.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Hmm.
Yeah.
But that's the one thing thatserved me is I have to ask, am I
doing the right thing for thiscustomer?
Am I doing the right thing forthis employee?
Am I doing the right thing forthe community?

Yeah.
Yeah.
I think it's one of those thingsthat's kind of fundamental or
like a base level.
You can, you can be goingthrough all kinds of different
things, but if you feel likeyou'll, you're doing the right
thing, you'll be able to livewith yourself and sleep at night
and Yep.
You know, have a little bit ofpeace.
Right.

Yep.
Because that's what we all is,peace.

So, yeah.
On, on a deep level in a sense.
Yeah.
So yeah.
Yeah.
Sun, sun

Sue the warrior in the garden, right?
So.
Yep.

Exactly.
So I know I could probably.
I could ask you businessquestions for the next three
hours, but um, you know, I thinkthat's been all super valuable.
And it's funny cuz I've had somany people on this podcast,
your episode 101 Oh nice.
That have, you know, andprobably 80 or so guests that

(46:12):
majority of them are successfulin business and.
Every time I ask about stuff,it's never like specific
tactics, right?
It's always like, just theseprinciples that I'm sure
listeners are like, oh man, I'veheard this a hundred times.
And it's like, but did, did youreally hear it?
Yeah.
You know, because until you,it's really drilled in to the
point where you really get itand apply it, you know, all the

(46:34):
tactics in the world aren'tgonna matter.
Yeah.
If you're not doing the rightthing, if you're not, you know,
exercising your empathy or, youknow, Removing your emotions
when you need to.
Like, if you're not doing kindathese basic things, you know,
you can know all the things inthe world about Facebook ads or
like, you know, what to say inthis situation or whatever, but

(46:55):
it always comes back to theprinciples, right?
Yeah.
So,

well, one principle, uh, to follow up with
that is a tactic in a businesstactic of mine was I made a
decision long ago that I wasgoing to pay all my bills by the
end of the day.
Any bill that I could, I wouldpay.
And so it, it's a struggle, butyeah, at the end of the day, I
lay my head on the pillow and Iknow that all my bills are paid

(47:21):
and I don't owe a soul if Idon't wake up, right?
Mm-hmm.
And so I, from a risk rewardstandpoint, only risk what
you're willing to lose, right?
Mm-hmm.
But also only risk what you havethe ability to pay for today.
Hmm.
And so I wouldn't risk somethingearly on if I couldn't pay for
it.
So I would never take somethingon credit that I couldn't write

(47:43):
a check for.
Gotcha.
Super, super important.
Especially in lean times, right?
2008, 2009, 2010, I prosperedand grew 500 x because I had
taken that approach to onlybuying what I had money for and
cash.
Wow.

(48:03):
So like I just started doing 30day accounts a couple years ago
with some of my vendors and, andit's funny because the delivery
people will be like, yeah, Ineed to get a check for this.
You're on C O D, and I'm like,I'm on c O D because I have a
cho.
I made a choice to pay you guysevery day and I took on a job
and I'm in business and I'mwriting the checks that matter.

(48:26):
So that way I don't owe you atthe end of the month.
Right.
And so, yeah, I think if you arestarting out in business,
starting from a, a low place ofcash flow, I would tell you to
only take risks that you canafford to write checks for.
Hmm.
That served me really well.
So

even later on, like more recently, will you
finance like a building or likebigger projects like that?
Or you try to do everything?
Cash.

Both.
Both.
So I will, uh, I typically tryto only owe about 40% of what
something is worth.
Hmm.
And, uh, the rest of it I try towrite checks for.
And, uh, tactically speaking,if, if you own 60% of something
and the bank owns 40% of it,they're gonna, they're probably
not gonna try to take it awayfrom you in lean times.

(49:15):
Right.
They'll be, they've been morewilling to work with you.
Hmm.

Yeah.
That's.
It's interesting.
I mean, like, obviously peoplesay avoid debt when you can, but
I've never heard of philosophyquite like that, so that's an
interesting one to kind of,

so I don't things up with myself.
I don't pay myself first.
I'm the last person at the tableto eat, so I'm leading from a
servant's heart.
I'm being a true leader.
Mm-hmm.
No different than the captain onthe boat that goes down with the
ship.
Right.
So, yeah, I, I, I eat last at mytable.
I eat last all my guests first.

Yeah.
Well that's, that's the book,right?
Leaders Eat Last, is that whatit's

exactly?
Yep, yep.
And I haven't read the book.
I just lived that life, so Ihave to read that one.

Yeah, definitely.
Awesome.
Well man, thank you for that.
I feel like that's gonna havepeople like really kind of
rethinking like.
You know, cuz a lot of people,especially early on, will take
on loans and, and credit andthat kind of stuff.
I have personally myself, so.
Yep.
Um, you know, makes, makes youstop and think a little bit.
So that's always good.

(50:15):
That's always good on thispodcast, so.
Yep.
Uh, I have one question thoughthat I ask everyone who comes on
the show, and that is, what isyour definition of not most
people?

That is a tough one.
I noticed that one wasn't on thequestionnaire.
Nope.
So, I would say the definitionfor me of not most people is
challenging the status quo everyday and trying to make a
difference where other peopleare not.
Hmm.
Or if you're gonna make adifference where other people

(50:46):
are making a difference, make abigger splash.
Right.
Yeah.
So like I'm the kid on thediving board that's trying to
get everybody and the wholearound the whole edge of the
pool wet, so love it.

Yeah.
Oh, that's a great answer.
It's, it's amazing.
Like, again, like I've said,I've had 80, 90 guests on this
show now, and to still get likea totally unique new answer is
always great.
So I like that one.
So thank you.
And then, uh, you know, I knowyou're starting to.
Kind of build out your personalbrand and all that kind of
stuff.
So where can people find youwhen it comes to that?

(51:17):
Social media or websites and allthat?

Yeah, so Link Tree, uh, Brent Wright, pretty
simple.
And then all of my stuff'sthere.
Everything I'm participating inis there.
The school's there LinkedIn,Facebook, Instagram, all of that
stuff.
All my websites, all mybusinesses.
It's all right there.

Awesome.
Well yeah guys, I will havethose links in the show notes,
so make sure you go check outeverything else Brent has going
on, uh, and I'm sure he's gonnabe having a lot more for you to
check out here in the nearfuture as well.
So, man, thank you for comingon.
Uh, this is one that.
You know, we had to reschedule acouple times, but we ended up

(51:54):
making it happen and I'm glad wedid.
So thank you.
Yeah,

likewise.
Well worth it.
I appreciate you having me on.
Of course.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
And thank you guys for tuningin.
Once again, like I said at thebeginning of the show, I wanna
ask, if you learn somethingoutta this episode, which I know
you did, if you're still here,here listening, please share it
with a friend.
Share it on social media andleave a rating or review if you
haven't.
That's my.
My one ask.
And for everything else, makesure you check out those show
notes.

(52:20):
We'll see you in the next one.
And always remember, don't bemost people.

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How To Build Your Empire with Brent Wright - 101

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}How To Build Your Empire with Brent Wright - 101