No don't go in there, Daddy's working.
Jonathan: Yeah, yeah, I know you got spoiled. I know that you were loving those episodes where I was just all up in your ear and it was just me and you together, but I'm not selfish. I want to share this platform, I want to bring you other daddies, because I'm not the only daddy, there are other daddies out there doing great things, and today I've got a special guest, he's a friend, he's a client and he's on the Podcast Factory network. Most people would know him from Grandma's Wealth Wisdom, but it's weird that he's a he and the show is Grandma's Wealth Wisdom. How does that even work, Brandon? By the way, welcome to the show, of course. Why grandma? [0:01:02.0]
Brandon: So you got to think grandma is kind of like the Big Bang Theory, you know how you never saw Howard's mom? She was in the show always yelling. She was always yelling, she was there and you knew her presence was there, but you never actually saw her? Well that's kind of how Grandma's Wealth Wisdom was built and our thoughts are we want her to be there in part of our lives, she is still around even if she's passed away in our lives, and grandma looks different for people, but her wisdom lives on. We wanted to just kind of teach that wisdom to a new generation.
Jonathan: I didn't know you had that vision set up, I like that you tied it into the Big Bang Theory, well done, friend. Good stuff, you're really owning that brand. I love it, man. So Brandon, for the listeners at home, I think we'd have a total of three listeners, you, me and Cupcake, can you just tell the folks like your quick elevator pitch who you are, what you're about? [0:02:01.7]
Brandon: Yeah, so I am an entrepreneur myself. I have been doing entrepreneurship kind of business for over a decade, well over a decade, maybe almost 20 years, getting old. I'm a father of a one year old, but I felt like I was a parent before I had children with our old business, having all these little staffs and things like that. Mainly teenagers. So having a baby is easier almost than having a bunch of seven teenagers as a coffee shop owner. So anyway. Yeah, so now I've taken what I've learned in that world and in my previous lives and moved it into the financial world and saying, hey there's a lot of challenges out there. We've learned a lot, we've overcome a lot, we see a lot of challenges that people are in and how do we move that towards a financial sector and helping people not hit those problems. So that's a little meat of what I do now. [0:03:09.0]
Jonathan: So you are a daddy. How old is your child?
Brandon: 15 months, it's April 30th, so that would be 15 months, right?
Jonathan: Don't ask me, he's your kid.
Brandon: Yeah, April 30th. I don't even understand when people say they're 15 months, they're 16 months, I'm like I can't even keep track of the months right now. He's a little over a year, and almost a year and a half.
Jonathan: How has life changed, man, since you've had this little new addition to the family?
Brandon: Well, one, it's not about. Like whenever we're running our business or any of that kind of stuff, priorities change when you have a child, and I still think it's kind of like when you first launch a business. I mean, and again, I had to change his diapers all the time, and still have to do that. So as it's progressed, I've seen that parallel to a small business and a startup business of where I'm like, "Man, I got to do a lot of crap work, got to do all this other stuff." [0:04:10.3]
And now he's like walking around very entitled I feel like and saying, "I want to do this, I want to feed myself now." Yeah, you're going to feed yourself and it's going to be all over the place, but it is fun. I love it, I love being a dad. We go to the park every day, he loves baseball, first word, he doesn't talk yet but he knows how to say "ball", still getting him to say "papa". He'll get there. Yeah, "ball", and he's starting to run.
Jonathan: Oh no, now you're going to have to keep up with that kid.
Brandon: Luckily I take care of my mother-in-law, so she takes care of him, so it's a big happy family, so we take care of her, but she's in a good enough place that she can take care of him, so we can take care of our customers and our business.
Jonathan: That's awesome, man, that is awesome. [0:05:01.5]
So let's see which route we want to go on. You have a kid. How do you balance this? So you have help, you have help with mom-in-law helping out. How do you guys, because it's you and Amanda in the business, and so how do you guys get harmony between that family time, because you said you take him to the park every day, and taking care of clients, because you've got to put food on the table and roof over the head.
Brandon: So I want to go back a little bit to just explain how I kind of got to this place, because I think there's that story of things and understanding like it didn't just happen that we figured out this balance, whatever the balance means for us and at this time, and priorities. I have learned a lot over the course of my life. Just to let you know, I was raised by a single parent, my mom raised me and my sister, and my mom got married six times. So I had six dads, and my dad wasn't actually in the picture, and I felt like that was until 18 or so, he showed up, or I showed up on... [0:06:12.2]
Long story. But I had six fathers, he was trying to figure out how to take care of us, but also I think in order to take care of us, her fix was, "Let me get married and that will solve my financial problems." I guess, I don't know. That really affected me in a whole lot of ways. Also, I had some health problems and some other things growing up. Those things really made me seem like I was destined to fail. Like my health was bad, my mom married multiple times, so that means apparently if I'm going to just be like her, or like most people, they end up like their parents and you just follow the same patterns, I learned that I don't want to be in the same patterns, and I had mentors and guides. [0:07:03.8]
Jonathan: How did you figure that out, though? Well how did you figure out that this is a pattern not to be followed and I have a choice to create a whole new pattern or a new path? How did you figure that out?
Brandon: I think part was... So I was born sick, really, really sick and they said, the doctor said, "You're not going to live very long or be able to do the things." So what I did was, I'm a stubborn person and you have to be as an entrepreneur, both my wife and I are stubborn and that's also going to be a challenging as a parent, because he inherits those things. But what I learned is they had said what you can do and what's possible and I said, "Well I don't agree with that." So I joined the Marine Corps. I joined the Marine Corps at age 20, because they said, "You're not going to be able to accomplish, you won't be able to do that." and so I did it. I did my time in the Marines, I learned that I'm not very good at following orders. [0:08:02.2]
I did my four years. And I also learned that I can do a lot more than I think I can, and I can accomplish a lot more than I think I can. I had, again in the Marine Corps, you had people pushing you. They're called Drill Instructors, and those are coaches and guides if you think about it, except a little mean. And you realize, hey, I can actually do a lot.
Jonathan: So was it more for you then when you're saying I can do a lot, was that physical thing, was that a mental thing, was it both?
Brandon: Both. I mean in the Marine Corps you're like mentally you're tired, but you keep going and then you realize physically I'm tired, but then your muscles grow too. I went into the Marine Corps weighing 135 pounds and I came out...
Jonathan: No.
Brandon: Yeah. Three months later I was 155.
Jonathan: [laughter]
Brandon: Yeah. And it took me with health..., I kind of lied a little bit to get in, but yeah, so I did that. [0:09:04.7]
That really led some things, and then later I got out of the military and I wanted to, still had this idea of making a difference, changing the world, that was part of why I'm even in the finance world, is making a difference. Military makes a difference. I joined the music industry. I don't know anything about music, I don't know how to play a piano, I failed a piano class, but I was like, "Hey, music changes people, I want to get into the music industry. How do I do that?" So I called a recording studio and I asked them how do I work there. They said, "Well become an intern." So I interned and I worked with some of the biggest celebrities out there and saw a lot of crazy stuff. I had designed non-disclosures, but I saw things that you would not believe. I don't know if anybody has heard of the band Ministry, hard core industrial band. He was one of my employers and R Kelly was one of my employers. [0:10:10.0]
Jonathan: Nice.
Brandon: But I went in because I wanted to change the world, and that impacted us, and I did it.
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Jonathan: [0:11:13.5] What's that mean to you, man, change the world? A lot of people say they want to change, I mean I hear it all the time, "I want to change the world, I want to make a difference." What's that mean to you, what are you doing to make that happen?
Brandon: Well I think some is like I don't want to be like my parents, part of it as like hey, there's a lot of negativity out there, how do we make a difference, and also how do I change it for my own self. And so in the beginning stages when I was younger it was more about me saying...
Jonathan: "I'm going to change my world." Right?
Brandon: Yeah. I want to prove my doctors wrong. The doctors that said I wouldn't be able to do it. In the Marine Corps I wonder prove people wrong, I think it that's again me, about me. Stubborn.
Jonathan: AF.
Brandon: Definitely. I mean it's going to bite me when he's a teenager, I think. I know, I know for a fact. Then it really moved into our brick and mortar business, because we decided we're also idealistic people thinking we can change the world, thinking we can make a difference, and I think that's important as entrepreneurs that you have to have that degree of idealism before you go into something, but then after three or four years your realism sets in and you're like, "Man, this sucks." [0:12:32.3]
Jonathan: "Didn't sign up for this."
Brandon: Yeah. But if you knew what you knew, you probably wouldn't launch into certain things, but that's I guess how God kind of does that where he doesn't allow you to see a certain length, and so we're idealistic. I also learned through this is finding mentors, guides and learning that really you can give what you've not received, what you have not received when it comes to family. I feel like so many people, they cop out on things, they say, "Well my parents sucked, so therefore I'm not going to be a good parent." Or you know, whatever, I don't know. "I had bad role models, so therefore I'm not going to amount to anything." [0:13:16.3]
Jonathan: Why do you think that is? Why do people limit themselves that way?
Brandon: I think the surrounding, you know that idea the five people you spend the most time around or whatever it's called, that there's other people that say, "Well this is what you can expect, this is the way life will be for you." and so therefore they end up just staying at that, they don't want to challenge themselves, they don't join the Marine Corps or whatever and say, well I disagree.
Jonathan: Is that really what you said or did you say F you? Come on.
Brandon: I probably said a lot of those. I literally did cry a couple times while I was in Boot Camp, I will admit it.
Jonathan: I can imagine, man. That's very studly of you, I did not know that about you, man. So you changed the world inside, and then you can change the world outside. So what were you guys doing? Like give us some examples of what some of those idealistic things you were doing at the coffee shop? [0:14:12.0]
Brandon: Well with our coffee shop, it's called Overflow, and the whole idea in it was really about faith, is this idea of this fountain. Right? So as this fountain, it's connected to God or connected to a higher power, as it's flowing it will impact your immediate family, your family, your friends, you know, those types. And then it's going to flow into your community and then it's going to flow into the world, and then it's going to go back around. That was kind of our idea with Overflow. And it's in the Bible if you look up "overflow" there's so much stuff about that, about out of the mouth of things overflow or whatever. I'm not very good at it.
Jonathan: You know what I like about that, dud? No, it's cool, but I want everybody listening to maybe rewind this thing, hit it back 30 seconds and listen to the way Brandon described it, because it was beautiful. [0:15:10.9]
First you fill your cup, then it overflows to your family, then it overflows to your community and overflows the world. But why is it that so many people don't even want to fill up their cup? I mean what do you think?
Brandon: I think they are... Some is their employer mindset, they think, "Oh, this is going to be filled this way. The world tells me otherwise." They're selfish, I think about this all the time when it comes to driving. Letting somebody in, we want to get ahead, but yet we don't let somebody get into our lane because we want to get ahead. And guess what happens? Traffic stalls because everybody's trying to get ahead. And traffic sucks because all these people, and then there's a car wreck because somebody is looking at their phone instead of paying attention or being nicer, I don't know. [0:16:02.3]
I think we all are trying to get ahead and that's hurting everybody, whereas if we like actually think about each other, think about our family, think about the impact that we have, it's not just about the business, it's about the people that I'm closest to in my community. If we have that idea, we would actually make a difference in the world, I think this.
Jonathan: This is what I like. Well you know what, I'm going to retrace a little bit, because this is a thing I liked when I met both you and Amanda that you do have, like you're genuine about wanting to give back, you're genuine. Or give, not even give back, you're genuine wanting to give, but you guys are also business people. Like you're capitalists underneath there. It's not all outflow. We need some inflow too, man. So what are some of the big lessons that you learned running that brick and mortar coffee shop? What are the biggest lessons? Give me the biggest one that you're like, "Holy crap. Couldn't live without this." [0:17:00.1]
Brandon: I think that whole idea of taking care of yourself, and I feel like this is part of the Profit First idea, this is part of fitness, this is part of all these other areas. I felt like there's a point four years in, five years in, it was a couple of times, where we were giving, we were trying to do what we could, and the second year, man, we had everything happen to us. Like my cat died, I had my appendix burst, I was in the hospital, my mother-in-law I think had a stroke in that year, father-in-law had cancer, my wife had a miscarriage, and the sales of the business were hard the second year. I had a guide, my mentor at the time saying, "Life sucks. How do we overcome this?" And we had to take a step back and make sure that the marriage was strong, because the business can fail. I didn't care, the business, it's an overflow, I guess you could say. [0:18:05.4]
Jonathan: A little.
Brandon: Of everything, but if we are dead or broken then it's not going to happen, and that was kind of attacking our marriage at that point, and so having a mentor at that point, helping us slowing down was very helpful. Then a few years later I had some staffing issues, and I remember literally feeling like I was going to die. My blood pressure was really high, I'm drinking a lot of coffee because some of my staff weren't showing up to work. I think that staff person's grandmother died like four times or something. If you have staff, you know what I'm talking about. Especially those who are challenging. And then they have kids and so I felt guilty and I'm like, "I want to overflow and help my community and my staff." but I remember going and telling my wife that I think this place is killing me. And went to the hospital, emergency room and they said, "You're going to have a heart attack if you don't change." and this is only, like I'm not that old right, and they said, "You need to take some life changes, do some things." [0:19:16.4]
So I lowered my coffee intake, being a coffee shop owner, I think that's a hard thing to do, and I realized I need to take care of myself. Fitness is important above even staff. Did some anxiety meds for a little bit to get under control, fired my staff, this person, fired them. Which is again, hard to fire somebody. Fired her, and my anxiety went away. My blood pressure went back to normal. So what I would say is your business, I don't care what business it is, you only have one life, you only have one family really, and you can't help people if you're dead. You can't do anything if you're six feet under or your health is bad. [0:20:05.2]
So my one piece of advice is take care of yourself, both emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, fitness, financially. If you don't do that, no one's going to do it for you. Does that make sense?
Jonathan: Yes, sir. Man, oh man. I didn't know you were coming loaded with stories, Brandon. I love it. I want to shift gears a little bit, because I hear you using this word a lot. I'm sure the daddies working, the daddies out there understand it, but you keep talking about mentors. So what it was mentorship and how do you find good mentors?
Jonathan: Guess what? Time is up for this week. I know you were just getting into that, and I don't blame you because it was just getting good, but we're trying to keep these episodes under half hour so we split it up into two. We'll be back next week with part two of this interview. Make sure you tune in then, and if you love what you're hearing, why not share this episode with someone who will also love it? Thank you. Daddy's out. .
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