RTBL 09 | Life's Best Moments Are Earned Not Given with Celina Eklund

Title: Life's Best Moments Are Earned Not Given with Celina Eklund Summary:

Seth Bradley shares his unique journey from being adopted and raised in a blue-collar family in West Virginia to pivoting through medical school, business school, and law school before discovering his true calling in entrepreneurship and real estate investing. He explains how a mindset shift, exposure to high-level deals as a big law attorney, and a relentless work ethic led him to launch multiple businesses and build true freedom. The episode explores his beliefs around grit, personal development, hiring values-based teams, and designing a life around ownership instead of employment. Links to Watch and Subscribe: https://youtu.be/2Gcx4Ix8-zo

Bullet Point Highlights:

• Adopted from Korea, raised in West Virginia by a coal miner and teacher.
• Went from med school to law school before finding alignment in entrepreneurship.
• Realized in big law he wanted to be the dealmaker, not just the attorney.
• Now runs 7+ businesses including RaiseLaw, gyms, and startups.
• Works 12-hour days by choice — building freedom, not trading time for money.
• Core values: Accountability, Resilience, Transparency, Intelligence, Consistency, Awareness (ARTICA).
• Married to Allison — also from WV, they now run gyms together in SoCal.
• Major mindset shift came from Rich Dad Poor Dad in 2013.
• Believes most avoid hard things because they’ve never seen the reward on the other side.
• Emphasizes hiring based on culture and values over just skills.
• Stays grounded through personal development and emotional regulation.
• Focused on building legacy, not just income — ownership > employment.

Transcript:

Seth Bradley (00:00.462)

Welcome back to Revenue from Retention, the show where we dive into the stories behind success, the mindset, the pivots, and the purpose-driven decisions that create powerful transformations. Today's guest has a story that is inspiring, as it is also uncommon. Seth Bradley was born in West Virginia and adopted at birth and has been defying the odds ever since. He walked the path from medical school to law school only to realize that neither were truly aligned with his purpose.

 

After years of grinding, Seth made a bold leap into real estate entrepreneurship and never look back. Today, he's a thriving investor and a sought out after mentor, also soon to be father and the host of Passive Income Attorney Podcasts, where he teaches other high achievers how to break free from the golden handcuffs and build true freedom through passive income. This episode, we're going to dive into reinvention, identity and finding courage to live life on your own terms. So welcome to the show, Seth. So good to have you.

 

Oh, so good to be here, Selena. Thank you so much for having me on. Really appreciate it.

 

I love people with, I don't know if I've ever interviewed anybody that has like medical and law background per se. So it's neat to be able to like have, I love people that have so many, so much on their resume and it's like so colorful because you have so many experiences. So glad to have you here, but I ask everybody the same question before we dive into the podcast and I'm going to ask you the same. Why do feel like people should listen to your story? There's millions of podcasts out there. Why do you feel like people should listen to you?

 

Sure. You know, I believe that my story resonates with a lot of people. I like to frame it and I like to call it the blue-collar mindset. know, trading time for money, right? We've all heard that. We've all kind of been through that at some point in our lives, at least most of us. You know, getting caught up in comfort and lacking, you know, just lacking that knowledge of what's possible and like what's out there. And that's kind of how I grew up. Just a small twig, I was actually born in Korea.

 

Celina Eklund (01:56.652)

And then I got adopted in West Virginia. So I was there for about three months and maybe I made my way over to West Virginia via plane when I was three months old. But growing up in West Virginia, great place, beautiful place, not a lot of diversity, but also growing up with my parents who are incredible people, I love them so much and they were instrumental in making me who that I am today.

 

But that being said, they're just, you know, I was never exposed to entrepreneurship and real estate and just the, you know, these bigger c