Cosmos

Welcome back to the show, my fellow starring Americans. For today’s guest, we have Brigham Blackham. Brigham is a personal brand success story strategist, speaker, author, and trainer. With a diverse background in education, he empowers top leaders through the art of storytelling. With a background in teaching Mandarin and theater, he combines his expertise in communication and leadership to help entrepreneurs elevate their stories and drive impact through personal and professional development. 

As the Leveling Up podcast host, Brigham focuses on building relationships that foster collaborative capitalism, unlocking and growth through meaningful connections and shared success. He’s a master connector to help you identify the resources to take your life and business to the next level. He’s an extraordinary American, and I’m glad to have him on the show. Brigham, are you there?

Brigham

Yes, I’m here. Thank you so much, Cosmos, for having me on the show. What a pleasure. I’m so glad to be here. Thank you so much.

Cosmos

And I’m so glad you took the time to do this podcast.

So, Brigham, can you tell the audience and me more about yourself, your background, and how you got started?

Brigham

Thank you so much—my background. I will start with theater because it drives my storytelling and my passion for it. As a young kid, I participated in many plays and things that allowed me to see what a great story can do to help somebody else. It allows them to purge their emotions and connect. I realized that I love telling great stories and helping people see what’s possible because of those stories. 

So when I was young, I. I wanted to be on stage as an actor. I thought that the only way that you could share stories was as an actor. So, I dedicated myself. I was in so many different plays. I played in high school and college as a professional actor. And then I realized something as a professional actor. 

There was a time when I was for seven months, M.4 plus hours, every day. I was living my dream. But at the end of the run, I only made two grand. I was like, oh, that barely covered my gas. And I was like, shoot. I guess theater is not going to be able to be the only thing that I do, but I still want to tell great stories. So I went back to school because that’s what you do when you’re younger. You’re like, well, I guess school has the answers. 

So I went. As I went through school, I thought, what? What can I do? To still live my dream of sharing great stories and connecting with people but making a little more of a living. And I went back to being a teacher, which, looking back now, I was like, as far as a financial choice, it’s probably not the best financial choice. But man, it was so important for my development as a human being because I love seeing those kids’ eyes light up. For seven years, I dedicated myself to teaching in that profession to help students connect with Mandarin Chinese because I spoke Mandarin as a missionary for my church in Taiwan. I love the language; I love helping people through storytelling to acquire that language and then also helping utilize improvisational theater and those types of techniques to help students become more confident and competent in what they are doing. 

So, all of this experience in theater and Mandarin came together when I discovered a group that let me see that you don’t necessarily have to have a job. You have to do a job to be able to make money. As you’re doing those jobs, you must think, am I providing value? Am I gaining profits? And m, am I of service? And the idea was, if you’ve ever heard of the cash flow quadrant, I was focused so hard on the employee quadrant that I was like, well, all of my money is coming in and then going to expenses. 

And then I look at my month. At the end of the money, I was like, there’s still quite a month left. What’s going on? I realized there are multiple ways to make money. It’s not just as an employee. There’s also self-employed. Right? That’s where you’re trading your time for dollars. And I decided, well, being a business owner, I can start getting some of those benefits of being a business owner even if I still need a perfect system.

 So, I started doing short-term rentals. I got educated first, and then I applied myself to do that. I did a fix and flip, and I was like, I made 22,500 bucks on that. That was awesome. But I was very much self-employed. 

But I had a little bit of leverage because I didn’t have to be the one fixing up everything. And I thought, well, man, this business idea is attractive. It’s something that I want to learn skills in. But I should have been taught in school how to make money. I was taught how to spend money and how to do a job. I wasn’t taught how to do a job where I could create for somebody else, run a business, or save money. On taxes, I learned how to connect what I’ve learned so that somebody else could purchase it and then find value. So fast forward a few years. I’ve been doing short-term rentals for a little over five years now. 

2019 was when I got my first short-term rental. And it took a couple of years to go from that self-employed section into a business. The biggest difference was that it was different from how many properties I had; it was the system and the amount of leverage. 

So now I don’t have any in Colorado. All my properties, including nine right now, are in Utah. If I didn’t have a system, there is no way that I would be able to do that because I would have to show up, I would have to clean, I would have to fix everything. But now that I can leverage other people’s skill sets, tool sets, and mindset, I can connect those jobs I’ve created to the business. And since I’ve got a system, it’s made it so I can start that next phase of my business. How do I increase my value and increase my skill set?

One of those things is that as a storyteller, I love telling stories, and I want to be on more stages, booking podcast interviews. These are things that just make me so happy, so cosmos. I’m just so stoked to be here. But coming into my story, it was about a year ago when I wanted to book my first big stage. I went through a group called the Final Percent Network. They had a class that was all based on how to monetize your message. It was called the Power of a Conversation. The concept is that all wealth is created through conversations. It’s more than just the idea of here’s a speech because that might have worked in 1995, you know, here in Zig Ziglar and all those amazing people. Here’s my speech. Now pay me money. It’s so much deeper than that. You have to have great, impactful conversations. 

And those conversations lead to conversions in your life and your business. And once you’ve connected with people and built those relationships through a conversation, you can sell them something. And you can only really serve them once you sell them. But you have to build those relationships. 

So, I realized I needed to understand how to have better conversations. Conversations are so important. So, I dedicated myself the last year and a half to understanding. What does it take to tell a great story? What does it take to compress decades of experience into days or moments? As I’ve done that, I was able to perform on my first national stage earlier this year. 

And I loved being on the Renatus national stage. So that was one of the groups from which I learned how to do short-term rentals. It’s like, this is awesome. What’s next? Now, I’m part of the Final Percent network. I’ve also spoken in Seattle and Detroit, and now I’m starting to expand my reach more and more. But even though I’m at the beginning of my speaking career, I want everyone to know this. If you want to be a speaker, it’s more than just speaking. That’s just a small little tip of the iceberg. 

The idea is, what is the business behind the speaking? That’s what I’m currently in the process of discovering. That’s what I’m currently in the process of figuring out. How do I articulate and codify what I know so my audience can see what’s possible? And I’m still in this mess, trying to figure it out. And here’s the thing that’s exciting when you tell your story from the middle because I’m still going, everyone. I’m not Zig Ziglar yet. I’m not, you know, Tony Robbins, but I’m on my way to being the best speaker possible and a world-class speaker. And you do that by getting in the trenches and doing the work, just like we’re doing now. This is doing the work of the cosmos. You are putting yourself out there as a podcast host. This is you doing the work, connecting people with ideas and ideas to those new ideas, and bringing out what’s possible because of these conversations. 

So, I appreciate you building this platform, giving your audience a gift, and having me share some insights and experiences that I’ve had. I believe that when you have a story that is impactful to you, it can impact others if you share it. But if you keep it inside, you lock it up; you hoard that story; it doesn’t do anybody any good except for you. I think that’s kind of selfish. So, today, I want to be as unselfish as possible. Ask me any questions that you have. And the permission I give you is, let’s go there. Whatever is on your mind, I’m happy to go there. I want to provide as much value to your audience as possible.

Cosmos

I appreciate your kind words. And, yes, it is really important to share our stories because life is like a story.

But I wanted to ask you as part of the next question: What are the elements of a successful story, and how do we connect them to our brand? The audience would want to know how I get my story out in this. You know, they have this thing called the hero’s Journey. Different people say they have different ways of telling a story. Some are more impactful than others. 

So, from your perspective, to have, like, a successful personal brand, how would you? What elements should be there in a story for that?

Brigham

let’s first start here. Many people think they have a personal brand, but what would happen if you Googled your name right now? Do people know who you are? Or are you just blending into the ether of the Internet? Remember, the best place to hide a dead body is on the second page of Google. 

My friend Ev, Curtis McCoy, told me that on a podcast. I was like, “That’s so true.” If you have yet to articulate your vision clearly—what you want to do, why you’re doing it, and what you’re doing—people first buy why you do what you do. They buy your mission before they buy any product or service from you. 

So, your brand starts with communicating your values to the audience. I want to influence, positively impact, and inspire top leaders to live in purpose, on purpose. If I can inspire a leader to improve, I can look inward and figure out how to get out of the box. Here’s one of my ideas here. This is from the Arbinger Institute. I love, love their stuff. I’m reading in the box. It’s this idea that if you are closed off from opportunity, you always think about how others are wrong. Then, being in that box stops you from being able to progress. But as soon as you can break out of that box and see people for who they are, you are no longer a prisoner to your thoughts. And how you share your brand with others can show up. So, first, make sure you know why you’re sharing what you’re sharing. That is huge. 

And go live on Facebook, Twitter, or whatever platform your customers are on so they can see what you do and why you do it. If they don’t know how to buy from you, then they won’t buy from you. If they have no idea who you are, why you are, and that you are just a blank slate, you might seem like someone who isn’t real. But the more content you create, the easier for people to see who you are. 

So, the first thing is to be consistent in sharing valuable insights. Here’s a way that if someone has never started a personal brand and doesn’t know what to do, they could start this. Go figure out the five things I care about in my brand, what I want to be known for, and what I care about the most, and consistently produce content about those five things. If you’re like five is too much, choose two or maybe one thing and get consistent at sharing that one thing. Maybe it’s a frequently asked question. Maybe it is going live for three minutes and saying, hey, this is something I just learned that would be helpful for you guys. Check it out if that’s for you. 

Anytime you create that type of content, you are elevating your brand because people have to know who you are, like you, and trust you to ever buy from you. My friend and business coach, Dr. Greg Kimball, taught this, and I think it is valuable in any business context. People only really need to know two things from you. Are you who you say you are, and do you do what you’ll say you’ll do? If you are who you are and your brand, and you do what you say you’ll do, all these testimonials, all these third party things, all the different things that are data saying, yes, I serve my customers. This is not a scam because here’s all the value that I create. Here are my 500 plus five-star reviews on Airbnb VRBO and booking.com; all these different experiences are little proof that you are who you say you are and do what you say you’ll do. If you have both elements, you are building your personal brand. 

And it gets stronger as far as your reputation goes the longer you do it. If you wait too long to build your brand, other people will start saying things about you. Even if they’re not negative, if they are not directing your audience to you, helping you further your mission and purpose, and getting your message out there, you are hindering your progress. And I think it’s selfish. If you have a product that serves somebody, you have a service that serves somebody in a great way. You have something valuable; it’s your vision not only to know how to sell it but to give people the opportunity and the option to purchase it from you.

It is your obligation. And if you keep those things to yourself, it is selfish.

Cosmos: 

Giving away valuable products can boost sales

Brigham

Is it okay if I share a quick story? Ready for this?

Cosmos

Yes, totally.

Brigham

So, the other day, I watched TikTok and sometimes found these endless scrolls that inspired me. I watched this guy; he had a piece of gold he handed out to people worth over $1,000. And as people approached him, would you like this piece of gold? And they’re like, or would you like this? He didn’t say it was gold, would you like this? Some people said no thanks, just giving it away. And his demeanor was totally fine. He was happier when they said no thank you. And then some people would say, “Oh my gosh, thank you, that’s so generous. I’m so appreciative if your product is valuable and you 100% know that what you’re giving is worth more than a thousand dollars is worth way more than they purchase for it. That’s the type of posturing that you have.

 So, for me, I’m an affiliate marketer with multiple companies. I help people get connected to online, on-demand real estate education. I also help people get connected to online personal coaching. And because I’m convicted, I know that these are extremely valuable. Way more than the sticker price. I have that same type of posture. If they say no, I’m like, wow, that’s your loss. I’m sorry that you don’t see the value in this.

Cosmos

Who says no to gold?

Brigham

Who says no to gold? Right? Well, no, I don’t know who says no to gold. Cosmos. It makes no sense. You think about selling anything in your business; if that person needs it and needs help seeing the value, they self-select that they will be something other than your customer. It might be; I think it might be how you usually show up. But if you have that posture of I know I have something gold and you give them that opportunity, you say, would you like that? Here it is, the gold bar’s Thousands of dollars worth of value. You get it for 500 bucks. Who wouldn’t if they knew the value of that gold? That thing you’re giving is worth a thousand plus dollars, and you only pay 500. You’re like, this is a no-brainer. That’s one of the ways that your story can start to impact others. 

And sales become easier because it’s about something other than service. Ask them what it is that you want. What are you looking to do? As soon as you know what they want to do, say well, here are some potential things which make the most sense to you. You just go through it until you figure out what they want and then ask for the order. Sometimes we overcomplicate the crap out of business. Business is relatively simple. On the surface, people are not simple, but business is pretty simple.

Cosmos

So, Brian, one thing I agree with is that we have to tell our story. But many people are afraid of telling their stories to the public. Even when speaking at events, they’re afraid of telling it to a large group of people, or they just don’t want their story out or have some sort of mental block around selling or revealing this story. So, for these people, what would be your advice regarding helping get the story out for their brand?

Brigham

One of the biggest reasons people are scared is because they’re thinking of themselves. This is something I taught my theater students for seven years. Whenever you need more confidence in what you say, it usually comes down to one. I may need to be more competent. I don’t know what I’m saying that that is. Read more books, talk to more mentors, connect with coaching, and do what you must to ensure your competency level is high enough. 

But if it is sharing something you already know, like your story, you know it better than anybody else, period. Nobody knows your story better than you, period. It’s sharing something you are 100% competent in more than anybody else. It comes down to whether you think only of yourself or your audience. If the only reason you’re sharing it is to elevate yourself, it’s, it’s going to fall flat, it’s going to feel stilted, and you will be nervous because if you don’t articulate it exactly the way that it sounds good to you, then you’re going to be frustrated. 

As soon as you shift your arrows from being towards yourself to arrows out saying I’m going to serve these people. I’m going to do my very best to communicate what I can. I share the values that I feel, that gold that I know I have inside, with them. Because as soon as it’s about the audience and not about what you say, it’s. Was that clear to you? Oh, it wasn’t. Let me rephrase it. Oh, is this something that makes sense?

Cosmos

No.

Brigham

Okay, let me make sure that I tweak this to get it. You do these engagement questions and work on that negotiation of meaning until your message comes from your mind, your heart, and through you to the audience. My friend Daniel Hess said it this way. He’s a professional actor. I love this guy. He said, give a gift to your audience. Anytime you share your story, you give your audience a gift. You’re giving them a transference of belief, of conviction of why you’re doing what you’re doing. If all they know is what you do, hundreds, if not thousands, of people also do what you do. People rarely buy what you do. They buy why you do what you do. They buy you first. 

So, if your brand still needs clarification, you must do the work. You have to identify the work. You have to do the work. That’s something my friend Greg Kimball says all the time, too. You’ll hear many quotes from me with him. One of the things I’ve learned about mentors is that when you have one, you appreciate and love and connect with them, go deep with them. It’s less helpful if you have a thousand different mentors. It’s way better to have a few that you go deep on, trust, and want to make sure you understand all their ideologies and philosophies, and then you can branch off. It would be best if you went deep first to get many insights. So, did that answer your question? Cosmos? I hope I hope that did.

Cosmos

No. Yeah. One thing I want to add is that I mentioned this in previous podcasts with previous guests. One of the themes that comes out is time compression regarding mentorship and having groups of like-minded people. So, let’s say you have a group of like-minded people and a really good mentor. Your level of success will be, and the time for you to succeed will reduce drastically from years to maybe six months to a year, even less. You know, so mentorship. Yeah.

One of the things that I want to ask you about is that many people are in your shoes, right? Where they’re stuck in the employee. They were. They’re still stuck in the employee box of the quadrant, but they want to be like you. Like, they want to do real estate investing, or they want to start a business. But they need to understand how to go about doing that. So, from your perspective, can you tell us a little about your process, how you did it, and what advice you give to somebody who likes it? Who wants to follow in your footsteps?

Brigham

Excellent. Here’s what I did. But the more important thing is why I did it. Can I touch on that first?

Cosmos

Oh, yeah.

Brigham

Okay. I did what I did because I wanted to have financial flexibility. I chose a vehicle that would allow me to be more dynamic in my schedule to build my dream. For some people, financial flexibility and freedom look very different. I wanted to be able to be with my kids. I have four kids. I want to figure out how to be at home with them as much as possible. I built a business that allowed me to be more dynamic and free with my time, and I also could go and take speaking engagements across the country. That was important to me. That’s how I want to grow my brand. So that’s why I did what I did. So how I did what I did is this. I found a group that taught me what I needed regarding a skill. I did what they said, and I got results. 

So many different groups talk about it, but they must implement it and do something with that knowledge. I felt like I was successful with Renatus, which I will attribute to the fact that I needed more than just the information. You can get the information anywhere. There are. There are bigger pockets. That’s the cheapest version. That’s a paid version. There’s, you know, rich dad, poor dad. All the grants are from Cardone’s University. I felt like Renatus was the best choice because there was a community surrounded by it. Other people were doing the work, and I had people who were successful short-term rental hosts. I wanted to do that asset class and learn it as best. So, I went through the classes and interacted as best I could. I like to show up to them physically. You also have them online, but you physically did that. 

And then I was curious. This is something that whenever you’re learning, if you aren’t curious and if you’re just like, I get this information, I’m going to do it. Sometimes, you miss stuff. You have to engage in your questioning and say, how do I apply that? Where does this apply here? Where does this not apply? And the deeper you go with your thought process and the more implementation you get into, the easier it is to make those things work. 

So, going back to it, I found a group I was passionate about. The first thing to do is to acquire the skills. If you don’t have the skills, find someone with those skills, such as a practitioner instructor, and do what they say and do it consistently until you get results. When you have roadblocks that come up, go back to them and ask. Get a business coach, get a mentor. I did that with a group called Renatus. I love this group. They have 90-plus courses that are phenomenal—all aspects of real estate investing. There were things I needed to learn that were considered real estate investing. After I joined the group, I was like, oh, that’s what this is. So, find a group you resonate with that teaches and implements the skills. It’s different from just reading a book.

Surround yourself with those people and do it not just in that group. Here’s another helpful thing: I surrounded myself with the right people, and then I searched for other mentors in other facets as well. Who else is killing it in this industry? Who is great at that? I joined another group called Vodacy. I love that group. And that’s only short-term rentals. So I got my general knowledge from Renatus, and then I got my very specific knowledge from Vodacy, and I and I tag team. I love both of these groups. They’re phenomenal. If you’re a short-term rental host, you will need both. If you’re going to be a professional, find a mentor, find a group you resonate with, and never stop getting better. There’s an expression in Chinese, but jinzui. If you’re not progressing, you’re digressing. And anytime you look at the opportunity to progress, if you don’t take those opportunities, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. I think that it’s Wayne Gretzky. He says you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. 

So I know that was a roundabout way to say it, but find the right people, surround yourself with them, and be curious. Everything works in business. Nothing doesn’t. It’s just some work, really, a lot more effectively. You find people who have been there and done that. We’re talking about compressing timeframes. If you find a practitioner instructor who does that full time and has made the mistakes for you, you say, oh, I’m going not to do what that mistake is. That saved me a year. I will avoid that issue now that I have more cash flow. Oh, I’m going to improve this. Now, I have a little bit more of a cushion because I know how to leverage debt. All these different skills compress your timeframe to success. Everything is learnable in business, period. You have to be willing to do the work. Yeah, go ahead, Cosmos.

Cosmos

No, I agree, and I would want to vouch for it, as you mentioned, Renaris.

Like, I had taken one of their courses called Velocity Banking, which completely revolutionized and transformed how I looked at finance and everything like that. Imagine having money in your checking account, and instead, you just use it for your credit. It’s like for the hug or a line of credit instead. It’s just amazing. However, one of the things I learned during my time, including different groups, is mentorship and having groups. Wealth is created by systems and not by people, right? So, ultimately, you need a system and something to leverage. 

So from your perspective, how, like, from. For somebody that’s, like, new to this and they want to understand, like, how do I go about creating a system or, like, getting the leverage to. To create wealth, what would be your advice to them?

Brigham

A lot of these systems have already been created. That’s me—my two cents. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. I didn’t have to create Airbnb or VRBO or booking dot com. I leverage their system to learn how to run my business. And then I went and took it and built my booking website. It doesn’t have to be crazy difficult. You can see what is the vehicle that’s already working for some of these people. Oh, that one is something that resonates with me. I want to understand that model and mimic it. I learned this from Darren Kidd. He gave a great presentation a few years ago that I was privileged to participate in. He talked about you. You want to do things until you have it down pat, figure it out, and then work on it. You do whatever you need to ensure that the skill is something you have acquired until it is second nature. 

That word until is huge. Anytime you are learning a new subject, you have a certain determination to have a certain amount of grit. But you have to have fun while you’re doing it, too. It’s not just about, you know, I need to figure this out. Open your hands up, be willing to take on new opportunities, and realize that most of the time, if you don’t build a system that works, it’s on you. Here’s all that a business system is. It is writing down what you did that worked. When something needs to be tweaked because it didn’t work perfectly, you add another note to your standard operating procedure. 

Hey, when you are turning the key, it sometimes needs to be jiggled so the door opens. Usually, just put in the key, which turns when you’re like, oh. And because of this, you sometimes have to pick up the lock and pull it towards you. You make that little note. Every time you make those iterations to your standing up standard operating procedures, your business systems get clearer and with clarity that makes it more duplicate and duplicatable. You need to duplicate your system to have a system. You have you. And that’s the difference between a self-employed individual and a business owner, which is the system. Can somebody else who doesn’t know you, don’t have the experience, come in, read your standard operating procedures, draw on their previous skills, and say, oh, I can open that door, I can press this button, I can send this message. If they can’t, how can you simplify it so that anybody can understand and build on top of it? 

What’s the next skill set layer? What’s the next skill set layer? All that you do in business is figure out how to simplify this to its lowest possible, simplest possible form. If you can do that and clearly articulate it, whether in a video or on a document, your training process gets much smoother. Suppose you can’t articulate what that job is. In that case, their chances of doing that job efficiently will go down significantly because your expectations haven’t been clarified enough.

Cosmos

So, I mean, when it comes to simplicity, many people try to make things complex, but you have to make it simple so that somebody else can take over. Because you don’t want to like it, you want to avoid being stuck in your business forever. You know, you must have an exit strategy and operating procedure. Then you have to like many people. They think they’re doing a business, but it’s ultimately self-employed. They become a prisoner of their work like they’re stuck in there.

Brigham

You know, I think that’s so true. My friend Eric counts. He’s, he does. Our automation class in Renata is phenomenal. But he said, if you don’t want to be tied to your desk, find someone that wants to be. Some people love being intrapreneurs. They’re like, you know what? I just want to come to work. I want to do my job and go home to my family. There’s nothing wrong with that. I think that’s amazing. We need great employees. But make sure that they feel confident in what they’re doing. They know what their job is, and when they do it, they get that checkbox and know what the expectation is. If you can’t clarify the expectations, people aren’t going to be able to be successful because there are always cross expectations. When you cross expectations, that’s, oh, frustrating. And that’s where the anxiety and the frustration come from in business. 

That’s where that dissonance is. The easier it is, the easier it is for you to communicate what their job is and their role and your role. It is easier to say, oh, that’s under your role. This is under my role. And you can say who’s responsible for what things? Ultimately, as a business owner, you are responsible for everything. And if a role doesn’t get covered, you look back at yourself and say, oh, where did I communicate that well? Ah, that, that’s where it was. 

Okay, perfect. I will change that in my standard operating procedures and communicate that to whoever is now in charge of that new role. And maybe they had that on their role, but you needed to let them know more clearly. And maybe they just belligerently forgot, or they belligerently didn’t do it. And that’s okay. You can deal with those things. If you know it comes back to you as the business owner, it’s your fault. And if you are not okay with that, just realize it’s one of the burdens of being a business owner; it’s not all, you know, cakes and rainbows.

Cosmos

No.

Brigham

You have to take full responsibility; it’s your fault if something’s not working. And if you take full responsibility, you can do something about it.

Cosmos

So Brigham, as a continuation of everything we talked about, American identity is about freedom, but on the financial front, many Americans still need to find themselves free. There’s, they’re stuck in the E and S quadrant. Right? Ah. Instead of being in the B and the I quadrant. So, from your perspective, how should Americans attain the American dream and financial freedom?

Brigham

I’m going to say it this way. Find the engine that you want to build and figure out how to get that engine to run without you being the gas all the time. Let me explain why. There are tons of different types of businesses. Any type of service or product-based is a type of business. You could be a window-washing business. As long as you can source customers, find contracts that work, and get people who want to wash windows and have a system, they know how to do it. You keep your quality control, and you can build that engine. That is a business that you can step away from, and it can still run without you being there. 

But if you’re always the gas, having to be like, oh, you missed that, you missed this. It would be best if you learned how to do it. You’re always training them and must be on-site to ensure quality. You don’t have a business; you have a job. So, the more systemized it is, the easier it is for that engine to run efficiently. I hope that at least gave you the 30,000-foot overview—a simple version. Build your engine, and find the engine that works. Sometimes, you can go and buy an engine. You could find a business that’s already working. Maybe someone’s a little tired of running the laundromat in town and just wants to be done. You say you got into this business to make some residual income. You didn’t want to be tied to this. Is that true? 

And you’re like, yeah, what if I could come in and help you still make some residual income, but you don’t have to do the business at all anymore? They might be like, oh, that sounds awesome. They are now moving from the business owner to the investor quadrant. You say, maybe we’ll give you 10% of the business over the next five years until we’ve paid off, you know, half a million or whatever the purchase contract is. You just did a subject to deal with them. You could bring up a little money upfront. You get 90% of the revenue; you pay them 10%. And now you have a business that is paying for itself. What’s that return if you put $0 into it?

Cosmos

Totally.

Brigham

That’s awesome. There are many different ways you can do that, but you need to figure out what engine you are most passionate about, what you are skilled at, and the things you feel will be able to get you to that next level. You know, I’m building the speaking engine right now, and it’s definitely in the self-employed quadrant. As soon as I get the engine built, I can go and systemize it to have courses or mastermind groups that can function without me being the one that is the gas. But right now, I want to be the gas because I enjoy doing this stuff. It’s so much fun. And to an extent, I learned this from Sharon Lecter. She’s like, she is in all four quadrants simultaneously, and she is self-employed because she goes and speaks across the country. And then she has all these different digital assets that she’s created. She has physical books. So, I have her on my podcast. I’m reading this book again. It’s called Outwitting the Devil. I love that book. It’s my second time going through it with Sharon Lecter, and she talks about Napoleon Hill, and then she’s also an investor. So she runs all these different properties and businesses.

Anytime you want to get into that type of freedom, it comes down to whether you want to avoid being tied to the desk, tie somebody else to it, build the engine, and ensure that it can run efficiently. You have a mechanic there who can ensure that things get fixed when they are broken. And you have the right fuel for that engine because sometimes you put water in a gas tank, and suddenly your engine fizzles out and dies even though there’s nothing wrong with it. No. That’s huge.

Cosmos

Totally. You have to prioritize that and look at things from the 30,000-foot perspective. Yeah.

So, Brigham, can you tell the audience a bit more about Renatus and what it does so they can have an idea? I know you talked about Renault in the podcast.

Brigham

Well, one of the things I love to do is have something called a test drive. And it’s one week when you can experience our lowest-level package. The lowest level package is all about financial education. Because if you can’t take your finances in your control, then the chances of you making money anywhere else and having it be successful are pretty low. So you have to figure out how to plug those holes. That’s what these essentials are all about. So that is called our essentials. And for 50 bucks, you can experience it for a whole week. 

So I’ll make sure you can go and experience that in my link tree that you have. Okay. You go in there, tap the shop side on my link tree, and then you’ll be able to find that affiliate marketing link. I think it’s extremely valuable. And that’s how you can decide whether or not this group is right for you. There are other groups if you don’t feel that information is valuable. That’s just the one that I have used for the last five-plus years. I find they’re legal, they’re ethical, they’re moral in everything they do. I love their leadership and have found extreme amounts of value in what they share. It’s a high-ticket education. But you think about it: education never costs; it pays. 

Here’s an example. One of the classes I’ve had is 90 plus classes in this education. One of the classes that saved thousands of dollars for me was velocity banking. You mentioned it earlier. Imagine you buying a house and not knowing that if you paid off half of your mortgage before year 20, you cut the entire interest you paid in half. If you didn’t know that, it’s front-loaded with interest; oh my goodness. Like you give the bank so much that interest rates are different.

For instance, a simple interest rate on a credit card, which is pretty astronomical at 30% interest, is simple. Okay, you pay 30% on 100 bucks. You’re like, that’s 30 bucks. That’s quite a bit of money. You divide that by 12 over the course of the month, over the course of the year; that’s a couple of bucks you’re paying. That’s tough, and it has a high interest rate. But when you look at a mortgage, it’s front-loaded with interest. Sometimes you’re paying time and a half, that’s 120, 150% interest the first couple of years of your mortgage. 

So in a ratio, you’re getting, you know, two hundred dollars towards principal and maybe one thousand or eight hundred dollars going towards Prince, towards interest. And that right there, if you can understand interest, it will change your financial structure. It sounds like the cosmos. That was something that changed your financial flexibility. Is that fair to say?

Cosmos

Yeah, like velocity banking, that was something that I took and that, just outside, revolutionized how I looked at finance in general. You’re saving time and money on interest, and that is super important in today’s world. Just understand how the financial structure works because it’s the world designed to make the banks win. But you must know how to play the game and the system.

Brigham

Yeah. And here’s the other thing: the banks want you to learn how to do that. They do because they’re both their products. And if it benefits you and the bank, why not?

Cosmos

Totally.

Brigham

If you learn it, the bank will win. If you learn it, you can win, and the bank can win because it’s different from what you’re learning a new product. You have credit cards already; you have lines of credit, HELOCs, or home equity lines of credit. All these different financial vehicles can help you, but if you need to learn how to use them, it’s like putting a toddler in a truck and saying, hey, this is a stick shift truck; go ahead and drive it. I don’t know how to use this, and I don’t know how to drive it. You have to grow up a little bit. You have to learn some skill sets; you have to learn how to shift and use your clutch. But if you learn about those financial vehicles, your chances of successfully driving them are low. So, learning how to interact with a mortgage can help you understand how to create value for people immediately—people who invest in real estate rarely become millionaires by selling houses.

It takes a long time. If you’re saying an average flip is, you know, 15 to $30,000 profit, that’s how many fixes and flips you have to do. And that’s a time. Maybe that’s six months per fix and flip. Yeah. Okay. Even if you average that 20,000, $20,000, you do 10 of those. There’s 200,000, man; you must do 50 to get to a million bucks. But what if you could create value so much for the seller that they were willing to walk away from some of their equity for peace of mind? That’s the power of understanding real estate investing. That’s the power of what I learned from the Renatus education and what I’m also learning from the Final Percent network, a great group of entrepreneurs and business owners who get to that next level in your coaching and your mentality. It’s important who you associate with because if you’re always associating with people who don’t have a good mindset about money, they’re clutching it like it will never come back. Money will run away from you. 

But money follows value if you are willing to provide services and value. It’s a currency. It follows more than just time. Time and money are different. Many times as an employee, if you’re stuck in that employee mindset, it’s oh, I put in this much time; I deserve this much money. As a business owner, you can put in work hours and not have any money. You can also put in almost no work and have lots of money. Yeah, it’s still being determined whether you put time into it. It is determined by how much value you created for the market, how useful your service was, how many people used it, and how many people came and stayed in the short-term rental. For instance, during the summer, I feel like I almost have no work because people are staying in my short-term rentals. It’s easy to make money. And then, during the winter, I’m walking. I’m trying to find people interested in staying because it’s not a high-travel season, and you are in Utah. 

So I put in extra hours worth of work and have significantly less pay, and that’s just part of the market. But that’s one of the reasons why you want multiple streams of income. Right now, my streams of income are my short-term rentals. I’m building my speaking business. Those are two separate income streams as I purchase different rental properties or different things. I will have multiple income streams anytime you look at your financial future if you can create assets.

So, for instance, I’m going to pull up this book again because I like it. Books like this that you write, you take your intellectual property. This is where most of the Value in many businesses lies in the intellectual property. What are your systems? You can sell systems, you can franchise your business, and you can build an amazing engine. And someone else says, I want to put that engine in front of my vehicle and have that drive my car. That is the power of understanding business. 

Like, I was at an event with Dan Fleishman. He’s an awesome entrepreneur. He’s just barely on some amazing stages. He does the Aspire tour if you’re familiar with that. He just booked Madison Square Garden. He’s awesome. He brought up the idea that you want to be able to see the matrix when you are in business. He said the only way you do that is by pulling it apart, looking at it, asking questions, and figuring out what things are working that need to be fixed. The more inquisitive you are and the more data you have to go from all the different businesses that you’re experiencing, the easier it is to see the matrix. You see the matrix by stepping back and saying, “Oh, this is how that business vehicle functions. Okay. This is how this business vehicle functions. You think about it any time you are learning something. If you only knew that I pushed the microwave, and it started. If something breaks on the inside, the chances of you being able to fix it are low. But if you know how to take it apart, you’ve analyzed every single part of it, you’ve asked questions, you know where everything goes. You can do a diagnostic test and, like a doctor, be able to pinpoint what’s wrong with it, switch out the parts, and if all the parts are functioning, you know which part is broken. In a business, it works the same way you look at your systems.

Okay, how am I gaining customers? What are my customers experiencing? Where is my attrition? Is there an email, or is something making them create some dissonance with what I’m selling or doing for them? Are they falling off anywhere? How do they feel along this whole process? All of those are part of that customer journey. And after I’ve had them purchase for me, do they return and buy something else? If they don’t, why not? Are you providing a nurturing sequence that allows them to feel connected and heard and build relationships? Or after they buy something, you’re just like, okay, thanks, have a good one. All of these things are something that you can control as a business owner. You can control whether or not a customer feels important by how you treat them, the language you use, and how you train your employees. 

And there are so many things in your control that you don’t need to worry about things outside your control. Sometimes, you figure out if I am adding value. Am I creating a system that allows those people to feel connected like they are important if they don’t feel important? When they buy your product, you make them feel bad about buying it, and the chance of them buying it again from you is almost zero.

Cosmos

Totally.

Brigham

 So I’ve got more ideas, but I’m happy to go wherever you want.

Cosmos

I mean, Brigham

I have so many questions, but unfortunately, the hour is coming to a close.

Brigham

Man, that flew by. Yeah, Cosmos, you know how to do this thing called podcasting. You’re the man.

Cosmos

So, how can the audience connect with you to learn more about you, your work, your podcast, and everything you do?

Brigham

Excellent. The easiest way for people to find me is to go to the Show Notes and look up my website. Right. I would love for you guys to come and connect with me. My link tree is going to be in here as well. Then you can go and find that Velocity Banking link. I’m currently having my website under construction, but it’s called Brigham B as in blackham.com so that brighamb.com will be in the Show Notes as well. It’s important to connect with you guys.  If there’s anything I can do of value for you, it will be this. Follow the podcast. I often offer different things there. I’m writing two books right now. You’ll see them on the podcast as soon as those come out. 

So follow the Leveling Up Podcast, connect with me, and reach out. I’m more than happy anytime you buy one of my books. I’m doing this on Amazon, but I will do it on the different platforms where I market it. When you buy my book, you’ll get a 15-minute interview with me, like a consultation, to see how to apply it. That’s a valuable way to give back to the people who poured into me.

Cosmos

What is your name? What is the name of your book?

Brigham

Once again, it’s a working title and a storytelling framework. So, I’m working on Leveling Up Your Story right now, but I am still determining the final title. 

So check out the podcast, and when it’s ready, I will have that for you. It’ll also be on my website, brighamb.com, where you can find it. But is it all right if I leave you guys with a story?

Cosmos

Sure.

Brigham

I shared this story with Toastmasters last weekend. I won a competition using this story. But I think it has value in business, and it’s something that I hope that you take the principle and apply it. When I was a missionary in Taiwan, I’d go like that. You see a little Taiwan flag right there. As missionaries, we went on almost every Preparation Day on an adventure. And one of my very first adventures was called Pineapple Mountain. I was in Wu Fung, where Wu is misty, and Fung is the peak. 

So, I was in the misty peaks of these Pineapple Mountains. And my companion, Elder Wise, was like, hey, I heard there are pineapple farms at the top of this mountain. We should go check that out on P-Day. P-Day means preparation day. But this P-Day was Pineapple Day because I wanted to check these out. 

So we woke up early. It was like 6:00 in the morning. We’re like, oh man. Woke up. We got everything packed. We got on our spray-painted bikes because, in Taiwan, we wanted to paint them even though we rode beautiful, nice vehicles and nice bikes. So that was a deterrent for people. As we started towards this, we had other people in our district come. We had another set of missionaries. And then our bishop, our ecclesiastical leader, and one of his boys came. 

So we had six amazing people with whom we were making this trek. We were not alone. There were switchbacks as we were focused on figuring out how to get up this side of the mountain. A switchback is where you go, and you make a climb. But it’s not like straight or vertical. It’s going across the ridges and back and forth. And we pedaled as hard as we could. And it was difficult, and it was hard. But when we came across different things like, like ditches or sometimes we had little creeks, we carried the bikes, and by the time we got to the top of this mountain, we had had, had my bishop, his name was Phil Lean, he had his tire pop. And he’s like, oh, shoot, this is not going to be able to work. I am curious if I can keep going. But we asked him, ” Is it easier for you to stay here? And we just go back down and get someone? And he’s like, no, I’m going to come to the top with you guys. 

So he walked next to his bike sometimes and carried his bike with us for the last, you know, half an hour of the trek. I thought that was a little odd because, you think about it, if you carry your bike up, it’s going to be hard to carry it back down. I might as well leave it. But he said, no, I’m going to bring it up. You’ll find out why later. And once we got to the top, that vista, oh, my gosh, it was so beautiful. It’s a little misty. You could see these pineapple fields. 

And I was thinking, where are the pineapple trees? I was like, I don’t see any pineapple trees. What the heck? And my companion turns to me. He’s like, pineapple trees? I never said there were pineapple trees. I said pineapple farm. And, you look around, and what they did is they had these plants tied together like cabbages. And they had a little ponytail at the top, natural pesticide. Inside, they had these pineapples in the middle. And the smell there was so amazing. It was like this musty, earthy smell with a sweet pineapple smell. So unique. I’ve never had that anywhere else because there are just tens of thousands of pineapples everywhere. It’s like you. He went and just had this wafting, sweet aroma. But the lesson came on our way down because I was about to go back down the switchbacks when my companion said, oh, we’re going to go around this bend here. And there was an asphalt road at the top of the mountain. That’s where the bishop is.

He could call and have someone drive their car up and pick him up. So I was like, awesome. So he, he was safe. His. His bike was fine. But we took our vehicles and little bikes and zipped down this asphalt-wide road. And then it hit me because all of these mirrors made it so we could get down the road in three or four minutes. What took us two-plus hours to get to the top was over in an instant. And I thought, this is, this is what Pineapple Mountain is. Anytime you want to summit a peak, you want to go somewhere challenging. It will take you—everything to get there.

But if you want to go down, whether in business and life, in your personal life, community, or wherever it is, if you want to go downhill and not progress, that is a paved road. Sure, you have to dodge pineapple farmers on their trikes. You have to dodge barrels selling all of these different, you know, tudo. How do you say that in English? The sweet potatoes. You have to dodge some people on your way down. But it is a paved road. It’s slick. And if you aren’t conscientious about your choices, that road down is cascading catastrophically to mediocrity. It’s so important to take the time to pedal towards your next pineapple mountain. And for me, that has become one of the things I like most. The symbols of my. My mission and also my life. Every time you have a pineapple farm, you want to see that goal, that worthy ideal. I think of the way that Earl Nightingale talks about it. Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. 

Wow. 

What is your worthy ideal? What is that pineapple farm that you want to go after? Are you willing to do the work, pedal day in and day out, do what you need to, and carry your bike through the? The travails and the trials? Because it is worth it. That Vista is worth it. That aroma of the pineapples is worth it. But it will take work, and it’ll take everything you’ve got. And it’s something that I think every single person can benefit from. So, summit your next Pineapple Mountain.

Cosmos

Thanks, Brigham. I appreciate you telling us this story. It’s so inspirational. I am so glad you took the time to come to this podcast and share your invaluable wisdom because this is important, you know, that we have to be successful in business and have to. We have to peak that summit and attain financial freedom. And I do hope that you come back to the show at a later time.

Brigham

Absolutely. Well, I appreciate you, Cosmos. It was a pleasure. If there’s anything I can do to add value to you and your community, feel free to reach out. I hope to see you on the Leveling Up podcast soon. And God bless everyone.

Cosmos

Yeah. And I want to conclude this episode by letting my fellow extraordinary Americans know that, hey, look, there’s an extraordinary within every one of us. We must awaken it and unleash it. Until next time. Bye for now.