#1: Dan Brisse, Co-founder of Granite Towers Equity Group - Life as an X Games gold medalist, how desire is the foundation for all accomplishments, and how one book changed the direction of his life.

So we created these waiver release forms. They were, they were fake, but these waiver release forms, we'd show up with them and we'd, we'd sign these waiver release forms saying we will not sue under any circumstances. And a lot of times we'd get permission. And the bigger you got in snowboarding and the more well known you became, you'd start to go to these cities and people would sometimes recognize you. Like we were in North Dakota. Bismarck, North Dakota, 2am filming at a college. And the cops. Yeah, 2am yeah, because we couldn't be there during the day because we would get busted. You know, people would be at these spots. We couldn't be jumping off buildings when people were standing there. So we do it at night. We, we come in with huge lights and it would be a huge production. But the cop pulls in at 2am and he gets out of the car and he yells, is that Breezy? Breezy, is that you? Foreign.

Welcome to Heading West, a not so serious podcast where we talk about life, business, real estate and our personal journeys as we head west. On today's episode, we have Dan Breezy, co founder of Granite Towers Equity group and former 2 Time X Games gold medalist. Steve, how did. I don't even know how we get X Games gold medalist on this show.

Jake. That was one of the greatest shows I've listened to and been a part of. I heard about 2am snowboarding and video recording in cities. I heard about fishing, I heard about books, I heard about his dreams. And I heard about someone who got him moving in the direction he wanted to go. Folks, you've got to get your seatbelt on for this one.

Yeah, yeah. I don't want to tease this one out at all, so let's just head west.

It'll be a great show.

Well, stay tuned as we discuss life as an X Games gold medalist. How desire is the foundation for success and how one book changed the direction of his life. With our guest, Dan Breezy. I was telling Steve before you got on here, I grew up watching X Games. My family's in Colorado. I grew up in California. You know, we used to ski Mammoth and Big Bear and whatnot. So I grew up watching X Games. I'd love to hear, how did you, how did you go from a small town kid in Minnesota who picks up snowboarding and ends up a two time X Games gold medalist, undoubtedly one of the best snowboards in the world at the time. What's that journey like? I started at 15. Snowboarding. I'm nowhere. Even remotely close to where you are in talent. So kind of explain that story.

Yeah, yeah. I was, I was always very, very into sports, very into athletics. And I came across snowboarding. For my cousin at the time, snowboarding was a young sport. It wasn't super popular yet. And his friend from California brought a snowboard. California was kind of the place where snowboarding really got going. And we ended up riding in his backyard. I was 11 or 12 years old. And just, for some reason, it was just so fun, you know, it was, it was, it was, it was just my perfect sport, I guess. You know, I wasn't always that great of a team player, I guess when it came to football and soccer when I was younger, I, I, I don't know why, but snowboarding was something you could do on your own and it wasn't dependent on anybody else. And you could go fast, you could hit jumps, and it just, it just was that perfect thing. And so I, I started just riding as much as I could. And I, I got a snowboard from working all summer. I would, I spent the summer. I decided that year I was like, I'm going to spend all summer working to buy my own snowboard and a season pass. And, and I ended up doing that for a summer, bought a season pass the next year and just started riding with my friends. And I didn't really have the goal of trying to be a pro snowboarder at the time. It was just something we love to do. And, you know, after three, four years of doing that and just being a kid in Minnesota, I started to get a little bit better than everybody and I started to get better than my brother. And that was kind of a moment where I was like, holy shit, I just got better than my brother. He's older. And yeah. So once that happened and I started getting better than my friends and his friends and, you know, I could see, I was like, man, this is, it's coming naturally. And it was just in my element. It was just, it was so much fun. My parents would drop me off at 9am and they'd come back and pick me up at 9pm and the time would, like, fly by. And I was like, dang, I'm not ready to be done. And it's 12 hours of snowboarding.

Yeah.

And that happened for, yeah, two or three years. And finally I started to see snowboarding videos and got the idea that there's other guys who grew up in Minnesota who moved out west and became pro snowboarders that were a little older than me. And the idea Just started to permeate that, hey, maybe it's possible. And so from, you know, 11 to 15, it was just snowboarding with my friends, but kind of at 14, 15 year old range, it kind of something flipped or I'm like, I'm doing this, this is what I'm gonna do. This is my focus, this is my passion and I'm gonna just chase this dream and I know that others have done it, so I'm gonna try to follow it too. So that was kind of the beginning of like never hearing of snowboarding. No idea what the hell it is to this. This is what I want to do and I'm going to go all out at it. So that, that first three, four years was, was really just about fun and then it turned into more of like a, it was still fun, but it was more of like there's a very clear goal and it's very, it's very serious. You know, I, I ended up really, really liking a girl in ninth grade. First girl I really liked. And I liked her so much that it scared me that I wasn't going to be willing to commit to my snowboarding career that I was focused on. So I broke up with her, you know, after being with her for a year because I knew I was going to move out west and I knew that where I was headed. And you know, thinking back, like, that's kind of a unique move. You're, you're young and your first girlfriend you really like and you're that committed at that age to, you know, chase this, this snowboarding career. So. But yeah, 15, 16, 17, snowboarded a bunch more. My, my senior year of high school, I moved out to Vail, Colorado. There's a family that I knew in Minnesota, they allowed me to live with them. And I finished school part time there, came back, I graduated with my high school class, worked all summer, the next winter, moved to Salt Lake City and I went to Salt Lake City, Utah, which is if you want to be a pro snowboarder, you move to Salt Lake City. It's kind of like if you want to be an actor, you go to Hollywood.

Sure.

You want to be a snowboarder, you go to Salt Lake City. And I spent a good four or five years there just grinding, working at night, snowboarding every day. And after being there for three or four years, I could kind of get the sense that I'm at a position where I could win at some of these contests. I knew what everybody was doing. I could see all the top riders, I'd Watch all the contests on tv. And what actually ended up happening is after X Games, is it has X Games plays out every year in Aspen, Colorado. And after X Games is done, they have the Aspen Open, which allows anyone, just like the US Open and golf, anyone in the country can just show up, pay 250 bucks, and can compete. And at the time, I was so broke, I couldn't get there. But my friend who was in Salt Lake City with me, his name's Mike Pettit. The gentleman was with me. He says, dan, you're good enough. You got to compete. I'm like, I would love to do, but I don't got the money to drive there. I'm not gonna get a hotel. I'm not gonna pay the entry fee. And he'd paid for it all. He threw me in his car. We drove overnight to Aspen, Colorado. He put me up in a room. He put me in the contest, and I ended up making finals. You had to first compete just to get. Yeah. Which was 30 people. There are 275 riders from all over the country, and 30 of the dudes get to go to the finals. And I made it to the finals. And in the finals, I won. I won the contest. And that was the beginning.

Amazing.

Yeah, it was. That was the beginning of my career. And I remember just thinking back, I won 2500 bucks. It was a lot of money. It really was. But at the time, I would work all summer, and I'd make, like four or five grand, and I'd work for my dad, and I'd work, you know, these odd jobs. So I was like, that was. Yeah, that was really. That was amazing. It was kind of the launch, and that was when brand, like other brands started to take note. Because as you're coming up, when you're young, if you win in a contest like that, you. You'll get more recognition from the brands that you're riding for. So that's when I started to get more phone calls and more help from companies to fly all over the country and start getting in front of, like, professional shoots. So that was really. That was really it. I mean, from nothing to. To that. That was the. That was the progression.

And so from that. That first event where you. You took the finals, did you. Were you able to then to dedicate all of your time to. To honing your craft, or did you still have to continue to work in order to make ends meet in order to, you know.

Yeah, there was. Snowboarding is not like football, basketball, baseball. You're not making tens of millions of dollars. And if you're lucky, you'll clear a million bucks if you're doing very good at the peak of your career. So for the first probably year, year and a half, I still had some part time jobs. I. Maybe not quite that long, but after, after that year I was, I was fully focused on snowboarding and there was no part time work. It was, it was 100. A career.

Yeah. What were you based out of? Did you stay in Salt Lake and ski Park City? Okay.

Yep. Yeah, I stayed in Salt Lake City. I'd ride Park City, Snowbird. All, all of those resorts were so great for what we were doing in snowboarding. And there was a lot of other athletes that were in that local market that were trying to come up and there were a lot of filmers and photographers. So a big part of what we did was, was filming video parts actually was the main portion of my career. And when you were saying how did you get to X Games? Year after year you'd be making these video parts and these videos would be like filmed videos. Like a lot of probably listeners would be Warren Miller style. But these snowboard videos would be created year after year and they'd be, you know, sold all over the country and all over the world in snowboarding and skateboarding shops. And we would film these videos and after three, four, five years you started to be kind of known in the sport for what you were kind of specialty good at. And growing up in Minnesota, we had a lot of urban riding and that's what we spent most of our time on. So I kind of had this, this niche in urban riding and I had this ability of kind of going big. If you look at footage of what we did, we hit the biggest features and it was the gnarliest stuff. And I kind of got the reputation of being the dude who's the gnarliest. It's great stuff, which is true. I love going big. I'm not gonna lie. It was kind of what got me excited. And so X Games comes out with these, this new event called Real. It's a real series. Real street for skateboarding, real dirt, real moto for dirt biking, real snow for snowboarding, and then real wake for wakeboarding. And I was obviously a snowboarder at the time and urban was what they brought in first. So I was one of the first set of guys to be invited to go into real snow, which was in 2000, I think 11, 2012, which was right at the peak of where I was hitting the biggest stuff and just kind of on my game. So that was, that's how I got invited to that and ended up winning two back to back gold medals and then two silver medals after that. So it was a great run.

That's incredible. So with real snow, is it your skiing or boarding urban, Finding the most gnarly, whatever buildings to transfer onto a rail, whatever, and then you're recording it and putting the best film reel together.

Yeah, exactly right. You go out with a filmer and photographer and you're basically driving around the country, go anywhere you want in the world and you show up and you start to film on urban features that are enticing to you as the rider. The rider's really picking it out. You're never having anybody decide what you're doing. It was always my decision of what we were hitting just because it was risky, it was very dangerous. If you have any video, you could show it along with this, what we're talking about. But YouTube, if you go to YouTube X Games, you'll be able to find some updated some video. But yeah, it was, it was just us cruising around and you know, the budget was paid for by our brands and it was just go and make a video part. It was a unique time. A lot of times, a lot of times we'd go to these spots and they were, you know, you couldn't just show up and snowboard on these businesses, right? These guys are like, get out of here, you're going to kill yourself and sue me. So we created these waiver release forms. They were, they were fake, but these waiver release forms, we'd show up with them and we'd, we'd sign these waiver release forms saying we will not sue under any circumstances. And a lot of times we get permission and the bigger you got in snowboarding and the more well known you became, you'd start to go to these cities and people would sometimes recognize you. Like we were in North Dakota, Bismarck, North Dakota, 2am filming at a college. And the cops. Yeah, 2am yeah, because we couldn't be there during the day because we would get busted. You know, people would be at these spots. We couldn't be jumping off buildings when people were standing there. So we do it at night. We, we come in with huge lights and it would be a huge production. But the cop pulls in at 2am and he gets out of the car and he yells that breezy, breezy, is that you? And I'm like, dude, are these guys looking for me? And he's like, oh my God, I can't Believe you're here.

Yeah.

So that, that didn't happen a lot, but it happened more and more as we would get further along that these guys would actually. You'd go to cities and they would know who you were, they'd look you up online and they would be excited you were there. So it got easier as you got a little tiger.

They start roping, they start, the police start roping off an area for you instead of, instead of putting you back in their car.

Right? That's right. I mean, I never got ticketed, I never got cuffed, but none of that. But yeah, there were plenty of times where they were like, you guys got to get out of here. This is not gonna fly.

Yeah, that's how you know you've made it when 2am Someone recognized you in the middle of nowhere.

Yeah, it was great. That was a good story.

Yeah, I think the last, I think the last stunt or a trick I saw of yours was off the top of a church steeple onto a. It looked like it's a little lip of a, of a snow. I'll call it a bump. It wouldn't even look like a place to land, but off the top of the steeple into the, the snow. And I cannot believe even attempted that.

Yeah, I, I look back now at some of the stuff we did and I just wouldn't ever do those things anymore. And you know, I was just in a different place. It's a different time in my life as before I had kids. Even when I had Zealand once my 9 year old was born. He's 9 now, but when he was born, I still remember we were up in Fairbanks, Alaska, filming for my last real snow part for X Games 2018. And I was pulling the rope back. It was again two in the morning, you know, dark. We're out there at the Bobcat. Everything's set up, lights are going. Filmers, photographers all flew in from the U.S. i mean from down here in the States and we're shooting. It's just me. I mean, when you're doing real snow, you're not always riding with a bunch of people. So the pressure is kind of, it's really on you. They're just staring like, are you gonna hit this? What do you want to do next? Yeah, it's a little bit intense, but I was pulling the rope back after hitting the spot, probably like the 50th try, which we can talk a little bit about that too. Just the amount of failure and amount of get up you have to have to snowboarder. But I'm pulling the rope back, and I'm just thinking in my head, I'm like, this just isn't for me anymore. And it was a moment where I still remember where I was. And at that time, I was already committed to my part for 2018. So I'm not going to quit. I'm not going to just be like, I'm done. So I finished that part, and that was really the beginning of the end. It was just a couple. I had a couple moments where I fell, and it could have been really nasty. And I was just thinking, it's just not worth it anymore. It's been fun, and it's been great, but things have changed.

That's. And Dan.

Dan, how old were you when you. When that. That thought came to. You know what? This. Maybe it's time for me to hang up the snowboard, as they say.

Yeah. Yeah. 31. 32 years old.

Yeah. Wow, that's really interesting. You say it just. It sort of flipped. Like, there was a moment where you said, this is not for me anymore. How did you distinguish between a fleeting emotion? Like, you did it 50 times. You said you could have easily, like, all right, I'm done for the day. I'm exhausted. This thing hasn't worked out. I'm just not feeling it. How did you distinguish that feeling with. I'm just done with this overall, because I think that's difficult for people to know the difference between the two, and they end up making bad decisions because they can't.

Yep. Great question. I could feel it. My heart. I could just tell that there just was a change and it was deep. It wasn't like a, dang, this is frustrating. This isn't working out. This is. I'm gonna call it for the day. It was a. It was a much more like, core feeling of like, damn, what if I had something go south here? Because it happens sometimes. You know, a lot of snowboarders go to. Up to Alaska. They get buried in avalanche and they die. Or you have something dramatic happen where you're in a wheelchair and, you know, things. Things can change quickly. And so I could just. I don't know. It was just a deep feeling. And I would say it started. I started to have creeping thoughts of it, but it was that specific session where I slipped out on the jump, and it was. I was going up a kicker, and I was landing on a rail that was really high, and I almost slipped out and would have slammed right into it, and my back would have gotten messed up. And so, yeah, something just Something just changed and I could just tell, I could just tell it wasn't what it used to be.

Yeah. Did you have a sense of what you wanted to do when that time came after?

Yeah, that's the best. I, if there's any athlete that's listening, if anyone's listened, that's an athlete. I, I wish I could speak to more of them that are in the middle of their career to let them know that it's going to come to an end. And unless you're LeBron James or Michael Jordan, where you're gonna have a brand or you're, you know, so wealthy you, you just can make any decisions afterward. The majority of athletes aren't in a position where they're going to retire at 30 and just have plenty of money for the rest of their life or have anything that they're interested. I mean, the boredom that's going to set in from 30 to 70. I mean I, I would be so bummed if I didn't have some, something. So yeah, there was, there was a five year period while my career was winding down that I started to get into real estate. Just investing the money that I was making, you know, on my own, on my own time, on my own dollar and just putting it into cash flowing real estate. I was, I was, everyone's read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Cash flow quadrant. But after reading those books, I realized that the money I was making was in the S quadrant. I was self employed and my tax bill was the highest out of anyone. And if I stopped writing, I stopped getting paid and it was 100% on my income and my income alone. And it kind of, after reading those books, that would be another thing that started to make me wonder why am I snowboarding so heavily? As much as I loved it and the passion was there. Once the passion wasn't there and it was for the money, it wasn't as exciting, it wasn't as critical. So yeah, I started investing and that was kind of the exit for me was I knew that when it wound down I was going to move into full time real estate investing.

Dan, when you moved into full time real estate investing, did you buy single family homes? Was that your first approach? Can you tell us about that and.

How that works out for you? Yeah, yeah, definitely. No, I ended up, I knew I wanted to try to buy multifamily deals in the sense that my goal was passive income. And there were a couple things that stood out was just having more than one tenant paying was, was huge. So I bought a nine unit deal, a small nine unit deal up here in Chehalis, Washington for 260 grand. And I put all the money down and the deal did incredibly well. And it was an awesome little deal. But that was the moment where I was like, gosh, you can have, you can put 75, 100 grand, a little bit of money in these deals and they can start, start to pay you monthly. You have this loan pay down for that. There was no, you know, interest only. It was being paid off slowly by the tenant. You know, the value is going up because the dollars continue to be destroyed. There's some basic fundamentals that I, you know, think I understood and I think a lot of people are understanding with the dollar. And, and so it was just a nine unit deal and it was, I hired a third party management company that I talked to, you know, every few days on my own during my career. And it was, and then, then I bought a duplex after that and then I bought a 24 unit deal after that. And those three deals were the foundation of kind of, I guess diving in and had I, if I could go back, if I could do it again, I would have got much deeper training at a higher level before buying the deals. But luckily I bought at a time where you couldn't really have screwed it up. It was 2012, we were just coming out of the Great Recession and if you were in any markets that had any sort of Runway, you did well. So I got really lucky with that piece.

Yeah.

Where did you get that training for you?

Initially, for me it was just all self education. I started reading every book I could find. I started listening to every podcast I could get on. I started, I went to Michael Blanc's website and got down his analyzer and just started analyzing deals on my own and putting it together on my own. And yeah, just, just self education. I was flying all over the country looking for seminars. I would, you know, go to three four day seminars that were all really great seminars, but they weren't in depth enough to really be raising capital professionally.

Hey Dan, when you, when you started off, normally you see people when they jump into, into real estate, their first thing is a single family home. They don't buy a duplex, they don't buy a quadplex or a fourplex. They buy a single family home. Why didn't you go that route?

Yeah, yeah, it was, it was the multiple tenants. It was having more doors and more income from multiple people and I thought it would give me more passive income quicker. My goal, and still my goal and really my only goal is to increase my passive income. I have on my phone here mpi, Right. Radio me so I can show it to you. I don't know if it'll show or not. Mpi, which stands for massive Passive income. And I, I love passive income in the sense that it just creates this freedom, you know, you're able to do what you want to do. And the mpi, it's pretty love that. Very, very artistic as you can see. But yeah, just, just passive income allows you to be free. And I think that's really the goal is, is to be able to get up and just live life on your own terms, you know, and to be able to do what I want to do while I'm here. And, and I think it's, you can do a lot to help people along the way too. For example, my parents, now that we're raising capital and bringing investors along with us, a lot of times I have really good friends and family that are investing with us and I just feel so grateful and so proud and good when we send them these cash flow checks.

Yeah, yeah. Being able to help out, help them find freedom, whatever their freedom looks like.

That's it. That's it. Yeah. My dad was like, gosh, I've invested in these investments for so many years or 70, late 70s now and they're starting to get these cash flow checks and they're just like, gosh, where was this 20 years ago?

So, yeah, yeah, you should have had me earlier. I would have told you earlier. What was it about the Rich Dad Poor dad book? Because it's, I find it so interesting that there's usually two books that people refer to in business that flip it for him. And that's thinking grow Rich and Rich dad, Poor Dad. What was it about Rich dad that, that did it for you?

Yeah, it was the, the, some simplicity. It was so simple to understand. It wasn't this complex, you know, idea of how you get wealthy. It was very simple. And I like things simple. I'm, I'm a very C student, I guess you could say. And when it gets complicated, I just get, I'm just, I started, it's over my head, I'm tuned out. Where when he talked and he's like, I'm a C student. I'm like, I can relate to that guy. Yeah. About Ken McElroy being a C student on his Ferrari. He has C student. I'm like, I can relate to that guy. And I just, you know, between Ken McElroy and Robert Kiyosaki, they became kind of my new heroes. You know, snowboarding. I had these idols, and now I've got these guys. And, you know, Robert's kind of. He's a little bit extreme now, but, you know, Ken McElroy is still someone who I really, really look up to and admire, and I love listening to all his content.

That's awesome.

Did you have a. Go ahead, Steve?

No, Dan.

And.

And currently with you with Kiyosaki and McElroy, and there's a lot of people out there that they can get information from, and some are new, some are older. Do you have any advice for people when they're thinking about jumping into real estate? Would you say those two guys or who else would you be thinking about to get involved with?

That's a great question. I think that's a question of who do you listen to these days? And that's a very, very, very serious question to take into consideration, because information that's not going to get you the results is. Is devastating. And I think the biggest thing that I did for my snowboarding career and now I'm doing with my real estate investing career, is finding people who already have the results, who have already done it and ideally have done it over a long period of time. I know Ken McElroy has been around for years, so when he talks, I listen. I've been part of Brad Somerock's group out of Dallas. I think he's got really great information, and he's been super helpful to understand the business at a deeper level. He's got a longer track record. He's been almost two decades there. You know, for me, it's just, is. Does the person have the results? I really like Charlie Young out of Madera. I've been closer with him, and it's a smaller group than it used to be. It used to be a variety of a ton of podcasts and a ton of different books and a ton of different seminars. Now there's three, four people that I really kind of stick to and just stay very associated with other people who are in the middle of doing it now and have been doing it for a long period of time that I have a lot of respect for.

It's amazing. Yeah, let me. Let me real quick here. It's amazing. What Dan is saying, folks, is that if you want to get somewhere, look to where you want to be. Who's doing, who's ahead of you, who can you emulate going forward? Dan, when you look for somebody, how far out did you want that person to be? In their career compared to where you wanted to go, how far did you look out for that person?

Yep, I looked that. That's such a good question, too. I looked at the. Where I wanted to be the end goal of solo. When I was looking at pro snowboarding, I was looking at the top guys. I was watching the top, top dudes, and I was seeing, where are they? Where. What are they doing now? And where will they be in five years? So you have to kind of see where they're at and start to. As you go further into the business or into your career, you'll start to get more information and be able to see the future, actually, because you have a lot of information put together. So really it's. It's seeing the guys that you got to have a goal, I think, of where you'd like to go. What is your end goal, or at least your end goal for now look like? Because that may always change. At least it always has for me. But what. What does that end goal look like and who has it? And then associate with them, you know? And I think a really great book that anyone could read, because a lot of times people are like, well, how do you associate with these people? I don't know them. I don't have any, you know, connections. There's a really great book out called. I'm drawing a blank on it right now. Hold on. How to Win Friends and Influence People. And this book is so great in the sense that it can help you build a personality that people really love to be around. And one thing I've noticed for sure is if I'm around somebody who I enjoy being around and is a delight to be with, I'm much more eager to help and want to assist. And there's been a lot of snowboarders who, you know, during my career, I luckily was able to be one of the top dudes. I had a lot of younger kids who wanted to come up the ranks, and there were very few where I was like, I really like this kid enough where I'm eager and willing to spend some time with them. So I think a big part of anything is. Is creative personality. People enjoy being around. And if you can do that, you've got so much more wind at your back. As you start to associate with the people that you need to be associating with.

Where do you want to end up? You talked about you, you. To Steve's question, you looked to people who are at the end of their road. What was the path they took? I want to be there what does that look like for you?

You know, I, it's a tough question right now. It's a passive income goal per month of, of income. That, that number. I, I don't know if it'll change or not. You know, I, and, and what, what to do with the money. Exactly. I think it'll change as well as I get older. I think it'll be more about philanthropy. You about that a lot and I admire that a lot and I think that that's where the direction it'll definitely go. Because at some point, I mean, do you need another house? Do you need another car? Really? I, I don't think that'll be that what will excite you or really motivate you. So for me it's a passive income goal first and foremost. And then, and then from there we'll see. You know, really a big part of it too. And this is, this is a big thing. Steve's actually you, you mentioned is I love the process. I'm curious to see how far we can go, you know. And yeah, there's going to be some heading west issues and we're dealing with them here and there and they come up. But we have a good 20, 25 year run. My business partner, I, Mike, and I'm curious is just to see what we can do with it and you know, where that ends up. I guess we'll see. It's just year by year we take what we. What's coming and adjust as, as needed.

Oh, that's brilliant. I want to, I want to circle back on one thing before we wrap up. When we were chatting previously, you had said something that caught my attention. You were saying that desire is the foundation for all accomplishment. Can you expand on that? Can you kind of break that down?

Yeah, I'd say I think the, the one thing, if there was one thing you read Think and Grow Rich and they talk about desire is the number one thing. Because Napoleon Hill studied the 500 wealthiest people for a 25 year period and wrote this book. And so that book has a lot of weight in my mind of how people have become successful. And I think that book could be Think and grow to be an athlete. Think and grow, become a golfer, Think and grow, become a real estate investor. I think it could be anything because these principles that he talks about are really the foundation, I think of making anything happen for you. But the number one piece that stood out to me and I read that book was desire. Because when I first found my snowboarding career, it wasn't like one day I found snowboarding the next day. I had a burning desire to be a pro snowboarder. You know, that was built over a period of time, over months and years of thinking a certain way and taking certain actions. And I didn't know what I was doing then, but I accidentally built a burning desire. And you know, you'll have a burning desire when you're willing to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes, and that's only the only thing you care about. So I think if you can build that desire, which can happen over a period of time by doing selective things, Some things that help you build a desire is pick a clear goal of something that you'd like, and you don't have to ask, how is this going to work? That's the other question I got all the time when I was younger. Oh, how are you going to do that, Dan? How are you going to be a pro snowboarder? Growing up in Minnesota? And I was like, I don't know how, but what I can tell you is I'm going to go this direction and I'm going to figure it out kind of like heading west. So, you know, for. For. If you have a goal of something you want to do, just start to take steps that direction and start going that direction. And as you do it, your desire, if you're having a really great time and it's your thing, your desire will slowly increase through repetition of thought and repetition of action. And as you ramp that up, you will change. And because when I was younger, I didn't know what I was willing to do to become a pro snowboarder, and I didn't know what that would feel like until I started to get there. But once you're there, it's this, like, burning feeling of focus and energy, and you'll have this emulation of energy that people will feel, and you will attract people to what you're doing just based off of how you feel. So I think that's the foundation of any major accomplishment, is first you have to have that desire, that motivation, that. That focus. And over a long period of time, it can be built by daily action towards it and in daily repetition of specific thoughts.

Hey, Dan. Dan. When you decided to get out of snowboarding and you were at the pinnacle of your snowboarding career, if you turned around and looked at the Dan Breezy who was just starting out and you saw him from afar, what would you tell him?

I'd be like, dude, you better want it bad. You better be ready to go all in and it is going to be tough just, Just telling you right now, get ready, strap up. It's not going to be easy. You're gonna go through some serious setback, man. I, I think when you say that, Steve, I, I was on my way up in my career, and at 21, I was still not making it. I moved to Salt Lake City. I. I fell and I dislocated my kneecap and I broke my kneecap and I tore my cartilage. And that was the point where if I wasn't 100 committed, I would have went back to Minnesota and I probably would have gone to college or I would have started a new career. But I was you. You know, you're committed. When something like that happens and you're just focused on getting back to where you're going, you never. You never lose the focus. And I moved to California that year with my brother because I didn't want to go back to Minnesota and get a bunch of feedback from all of the people who said, hi, I told you so. You're 21. You just broke your knee for a whole year. You had knee surgery, a major injury, before my career even took off and ended up, you know, going through a major, major reconstruction surgery and had a year of biking and then came back and my, My career took off. But just. Just be ready to put in the work and, and it should be fun. It should be. You should enjoy the process. That's. That's the other piece. And I think if you're in your, you know, following your passion and you're following your strength zone, you will. You'll know. You'll know, you'll feel it.

Are you a changed person from being on that journey from way back when, when you started?

Yeah, I think. I think the. The Dan I was before I was a snowboarder, didn't understand pushing myself or having a focus to the level of. Of becoming a top athlete at a specific craft or whatever. Whatever that sport is. So, yeah, definitely, you're. You totally change. And I think that some of those habits of success can come along with you into your next and your next and your next all through life. And I, I'm sure, Steve, you can relate to that. Being an iron man guy in golf now and just the stuff you've done, you'll have to have a level of focus and, And. And some of some habits that will go with you to, to, you know, achieve these goals.

That's awesome. Thanks, Dan.

I think it's super interesting that, that it took. It didn't take but it was on the heels of you hurting your knee, that breakthrough came. And it's. It's funny, we've been talking about. About Napoleon Hill, because if I remember correctly, in part of that book, he talks about a. A gold miner. Keeps going, keeps going, keeps going. I think he dies or he gives up. I can't remember. But it was only. It was only just after he gave up or couldn't keep doing it that gold was found.

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree. And the other thing that just. I don't know, I came to mind. But if you're a parent, be so cautious with your kids about telling them what they can and can't do. I had the best parents ever who had just said, you can do it, Go for it. You know, if it doesn't work out, you're young, Try something else. And that. That was huge, too, because if I didn't have my parents support and they didn't have them behind me, I. I think I would have probably quit early, too. I wouldn't have had. And my parents did tell me my whole life growing up, daniel, just do what you love. We didn't. My dad wanted to be a football player so bad. He was high school football. He was the best. He wanted to go to college for it. He had this huge opportunity, and he just didn't do it. And so growing up, I always heard it, do what you love, do what you love. Just whatever you do, just do what you love. And, man, it just. It just drilled into my brain and, you know, the idea of, is it possible? Wasn't really there. It was. It just. It's just, are you going to go all the way or are you not? It's more of a decision of how bad you want it again, back to your desire.

It sounds like some fishing rods are going to replace some snowboards.

Let's go.

Are we gonna see your son in the Bassmasters tournaments coming up in the Ozarks, or what?

Hey, what. Whatever makes him happy. I. I'm trying to figure out how to parent as well as my parents parented me. I feel like I had the best parents, and I'm just like, am I doing the right thing? Saying the right thing? Am I pushing them too hard? So I. I'm gonna just stay connected with my parents and other people who've raised great kids. That comes back to, hey, who. Who's raised great kids and associate with them and communicate with them and ask them, how do they do it? Sometimes you need that help.

Yeah, I had a. I had a Mentor once say, when we had kids, he told us, he goes, the only advice I'll ever give you is lots of love, lots of discipline, but consistency throughout. And, and you know, that's, that's easier said than done. But I look at his kids and they are model teenagers. They just went off to college and they are, I mean they're, they're what you want as a parent. So I've always tried to hold that to be true. So much love, so much discipline, but consistency throughout.

I love it. I love that. I appreciate that.

And raising kids are a journey. It's ups and downs and we can all laugh and cry about that. It's not easy being a parent.

Yeah, that's for sure.

Well, Dan, we, we typically end our time together with a speed round of questions. Just seven questions. They're super simple, so I'm just going to speed through them for you. It's a way for everybody listening to get to know you a little bit better. So number one, do you have any daily rituals that you swear by?

I have had some that have come and gone so I can't say no, I, or yes to that. I'd say the one that I am most interested in is just daily exercise, just getting some sort of exercise and if I don't do that, I end up having difficulty throughout the day. It feels like.

Yeah, that's good. What's one item you could not live without?

Gosh, item I couldn't live without. These are tough questions.

I'm sorry.

No, that's all right. I couldn't live without an item. Like a thing.

A thing, yeah. Your family goes without saying.

So I mean, it sounds bad, but my phone, because the business is so connected to it.

There you go. Yeah. You need to be reminded of MPI every time, every time you pick it up.

That's it.

What's one business you wish you could go back and start? Or invest in?

Bitcoin.

Amen. Boy, did I miss that train. What's one piece of real estate advice you'd give to others?

Get educated by somebody who has the results and who has done it for a long period of time.

What's one thing in life, business or real estate that you're really excited about?

Just the potential of how far you can go. There's no limit.

Absolutely. All right. In what situations you find your most happy or fulfilled?

Just having the freedom to get up and make decisions of what we want to do with our day to day basis and, and have the freedom of time.

All right, last but not least, as you head west, Dan, where do you hope to end up?

I hope to end up at a place when things wind down that I feel like I did what I needed to do. Love it. All right. Instead of what I needed to say.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry. And I ironically jumped right in the middle of. Of that sentence. And then you followed up with say what I need to say.

I don't know why choked me up, but yes.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I imagine. I mean, when I. When. When I think about this question, I think about my kids, I think about the impact I'm making, and so you think about your wife, and there's just so many things go through your head.

Yeah.

Where you want to end up in life.

If you guys get time, you should check out the show Life After After Death on Netflix. It's about this gentleman who can connect with people in the afterlife. It's been incredible to watch. Unless.

Okay.

Some people will be like, oh, that sounds crazy, but, man, it is. It is so intriguing. My mom's all about that stuff, so I kind of bit it. But it is really, really interesting.

Okay, I'll check it out. Yeah, we've got a long flight coming up here soon, so I'll. I'll just binge it.

I love it.

All right, Dan, last but not least, where can people find you? What do you want to leave them with?

Yeah, you guys can reach out to us at Granite Towers Equity group dot com. Contact us, and we can hop on a call or, you know, connect via email.

Yeah. And you got a podcast.

Yeah, you can all tune in. Yeah. Keeping it real estate on Apple, itunes. Keeping it real estate. Mike and I have a podcast where we talk all things real estate. So if you're looking for some education, we. We. We have it all there. So, yeah, tune in there or again www.granitetower equity group.com. contact us.

Love it. Well, Dan, thank you so much. It was. It was a pleasure getting to chat with you, and this was time well spent.

Thanks for having me. I appreciate you guys.

Dan, it's been a blast, and good job heading west.

Thanks, Navity.