S1 E22 - How The Aerial Brand Grew

Welcome to the Broke to Woke podcast. Our mission for this podcast is to help each and every person out there in the world not only become a force for good, but also uncover those micro magical mental moments that help you become an absolute cerebral pyromaniac. We're having so much fun. My friends on this podcast, thank you for listening and watching. This is honestly an exciting time for me. I've always wanted to do this, and being a part of this with Brittany is incredible. In the last episode, we were talking about how she is revitalizing communities globally. Big, big picture. And how she's taking this information, her mind, her visions, her creativity, and creating it. But what you did is you figured out a way to get the message out. The term I like to use is you meteorized it. Now, right now you have a lot of companies under the Ariel brand, But this time, when did you start morphing from that one into more? Tell me about that.

I kind of had two morph off at the same time. Talk about the first one. What I realized was our vision was to elevate people, places, revitalize these areas. And I would be the agent on a few of our houses just to test feedback and hear what people are saying.

When you say the agent, you mean like the.

The real estate agent? So sometimes I'd like. It's kind of. Kind of like Undercover Boss.

Yeah.

I would listen in on. Okay. All right.

Yeah.

What are you saying about these houses that we're building? Why are they selling? Why are they not selling? And smart. It's really important because you're gonna die in the water if you don't know, especially if you're pioneering. And so a lot of people wouldn't even show houses. I know it's illegal. It's called steering. They did it anyway. They wouldn't even show houses in the neighborhoods I was developing in. So the neighborhood itself, for example, was decent.

They can do that.

But the areas I was in was not known for decent. Yeah, they did that all the time. Oh, it's south of Shelby. We're not showing it. Oh, I didn't know it was on that side. Oh, I didn't know it was on that side. Over and over again. And I was like, what the hell they call it south of Shelby? Oh, no, no. South of Shelby. No, don't go there. It's one neighborhood of the many that they would do this in. And I realized that this is a great area. I personally parked myself in that neighborhood. It was. I was the first new construction in that neighborhood. And People didn't understand why it was worth believing in. So media is very, very powerful. It's the most powerful tool I think we have available to us in this world to share messages and the news. I am super against the news. I can't stand how steering it can be, how it is a business and it just works and lives to excite people and scare them, make you an emotional wreck. I think the news destroys people's lives. I think it's probably important to have but God, it's ridiculous the way they do it. So if the news is in an area, they're only gonna talk about what's bad. Why to scare you and get clicks so that they can get paid.

It's easier to self hear.

It's not okay to do that cause you're literally cursing that spot from ever having potential because people are afraid. And so I didn't lie, we didn't manipulate, we didn't anything. But we would create hashtags, websites, Instagram channels, little mini YouTube videos, little mini documentary type things about an area and why it's worth believing in. And so instead of like the crack house and the crime and the shooting and all that stuff that's dominating the news for that section, we'd say this is a beautiful place to live. Look how close you are to downtown. Look at the river, look at the park, look at this, look at the pond, the ducks, the fishing. We would just talk about what's working other areas of town, the jazz club, the, you know, bike trails, that whatever it is that makes an area nice to live in that anybody would ever want to live there, we, we elevate that. So instead of continuing to talk about the issues, this is like my stance on a lot of things in life. If you only talk about the issues, the issues are going to get all your energy right and nothing's and it's going to expand. But if you talk about what is working and put more energy there, that will expand. And so we started doing that and I ended up creating my own media production company in order to do it. And it was, I had to because everybody I'd ever engaged with had no idea they'd just slap things together picture. I don't know, they just were terrible at actually sharing the essence of what made something great and why people should believe in it.

So to clarify, so you were working with some people initially? Yeah, to help show the images, show the branding, show the feel the community. No one got it and no one's getting it.

No one got it.

So when did the click happen. We were like, I'm just gonna do it myself. There had to be a moment.

The click was my irritation that nobody understood this whatsoever. And I don't have a background in this except for being homeschooled and having to create my own tv. Yeah, that's my resume in this. And having a lot of common sense on just saying this is why it should work. This is great. So what's interesting is my. I can walk in any area, be it a house or a city or a neighborhood, whatever, it doesn't matter. I can walk in there and I can see its highest and best. I can see it. Even with people, I can see what they can be. I did not know this wasn't normal for everybody else. A lot of people just see what is, not what can be. Now, this is an amazing gift that can get you in a lot of trouble because a lot of people don't want to be what they can be. And so you end up believing and investing in people or things that don't necessarily always pan out. But with real estate, I could take these pictures in my head and I could share them.

Powerfully. Because honestly, it started with everybody looking at me as this 21 year old girl that was Miss North Carolina at one point. And we're like, no, sweetie, you are never gonna make it in this. I'm sorry. And so I'd have to overcompensate by taking these pictures out of my head and creating presentations. Da, da, da. And then we ended up making websites out of them. So visually being able to find a way to get the vision out of your head is what will get you paid. Because most people don't have vision.

Yeah. So let me. I'm gonna back that up for a second. Okay. This podcast is called From Broke to Woke. So my friends, this is that bridge. You want a bridge to go from broke to woke? What Brittany just said, rewind that. Listen again. Cause that's doesn't matter how you get it out. It can be words I've heard musicians can make some money. I've heard rappers can make a lot of money. Okay. I've heard artists, people who write, be authors, books. Right. Harry Potter. Okay. If you can get this out some way. Most people just have this fear of it's not gonna be good enough. I'm not good at it. I don't have any experience doing it. Doesn't matter. So for me, it was just using my energy. Because again, everyone in my experience who was teaching people the stock market was boring.

So boring.

It was boring.

So lame.

Boring. And they all had suits, and it was boring. And I love suits, by the way. I'll make sure everyone knows this. I suits, but I don't wear suits because, you know, when I'm doing a stock market presentation, because it's like if you're trading, you're most likely are just wearing normal clothes on the couch, doing your thing, and you go out and you do your work. So in that situation where you just mentioned is so vitally important to really focus in on how to get that out. And for you, this was kind of that direction. So you said you mentioned two companies. That was one.

Yeah. And the other crazy thing was, remember I said I wanted to buy an apartment complex before I turned 26?

Yeah.

Two days before my 26th birthday. And I didn't plan it that way. I didn't plan it that way at all. So I now have a whole multi family company that we have properties all throughout the southeast, and we are revitalizing. It's so cool because we use the same elements of shifting a neighborhood with these developments, but anytime you own more of it, it's easier. Oh, my gosh, it's so much easier to create change because you own it all. It's like the bigger developments, boom. You own the whole apartment complex versus one house. One house, one house, one house. You still have the drug dealers, and it's so much easier. So we took our visions and skills of creating a completely different environment and creating opportunity through that and applied it to what only slumlords were owning. And oh, my gosh, shifted so many people's lives, changed everything. Created millions and millions and millions of dollars of value. And everybody's like, don't do it. Put in the minimum. Ba, ba ba ba ba. You're spending too much. I'm always made fun of. And so now it's like, if I'm not being made fun of or called stupid, we missed it.

So now you're just like, we're just gonna keep doing this.

You have to take all the negative things and make it a fun thing for yourself, or you get knocked out. And so it's like, if they don't call me stupid or crazy, we are too late.

Have I gotten a voicemail and calling me stupid today? No. All right, let me keep doing this. Let me keep making it.

We need to be more innovative people. Push the limit. So we really crushed it in that field, but always looked like we were doing too much. Always looked like we cared too much. And so I think the Point I'm trying to stress is.

How do you make something the best or the most excellent even when no one else around you is doing it? When everybody's telling you you're an idiot because it's who you are. Did I put gold plated, you know, refrigerators in these apartments? No. But did I raise the heck out of the standard of living and give my tenants more than anybody else ever has? Yeah. And guess what kind of people live and thrive there now and love it and take care of the place? A lot of the same original tenants, but they have a whole new standard of life. So it's interesting how environment shapes so much, but having the courage to go against what everybody else is doing is key if you're ever going to do something new and make it really far. And it's always financially worked out for me.

Right.

It's always been hard, but it's always worked out.

Yeah. Let me. Let's go back to those companies. Is it all Ariel? So, Ariel, Brandon, what's the name of these companies?

Well, I'm hanging out with Branson now.

Yeah.

So at 24.

Okay.

I told my family, well, first of all, I grew up without tv.

Yep.

So I've never cared about celebrities because I don't know who any of them are.

Right.

But there's one person that when I was having all this internal turmoil about making money and becoming wealthy, I never met somebody I wanted to be like, that was wealthy.

Okay.

And then I see this crazy guy named Richard Branson who is never wearing shoes, cutting ties off of people. He's not stuffy. He's just fun and an entrepreneur and a billionaire. And so I was like, there's one person on earth that I'd want to meet. And so I started telling my family this. And this is before they learned to trust me. I said, someday I'm going to be friends with Richard Branson, not just meet him at a conference. We're going to meet and we're going to be friends. Right. Whatever. Within three months, I get a Facebook message from one of my survival team leaders. The same one that forced me to buy a house.

Yeah.

Hadn't talked to her in seven years. Not one time.

Right.

She said, how much revenue is your company doing and hope you're doing well, blah, blah, blah. I was like, it's a weird question. It was weird. And she said, I want to know because I've got something I want to invite you to, but you need to make over a million in revenue to be able to be invited to this thing. And you're like, she didn't tell me what it was at all. I was at 10 million. I think I was 24 years old. I was at 10 million in revenue or something like that. And she was like, what? Oh, my gosh, I'm so proud of you. She said, don't know if you know who Richard Branson is. And I was like, no way.

Yeah.

She said, I weirdly met him through his wife. Didn't know I was talking to his wife, weirdly met him, got invited over to his island, and now have been given the opportunity to bring 30 entrepreneurs to come hang out with him for a week. Would you like to come? And I was like, this has got to be a joke. So that's when I started hanging out with Richard Branson. First time, I was 24 years old on Necker island in the British Virgin Islands, and we spent so much time together. I told him my vision, I told him all this stuff. And he's like, brittany, if you really want to change the world, take all your values and incorporate them into your brand and then make your brand worth so much that other people will want to work with your brand and. Or put your brand on top their company, because then they have to abide by your rules in order to even have your name. I was like, interesting. And so he has, you know, Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Galactic, Virgin Trains. He has over 300 different Virgin companies. And so I took that model brand architecture, and we've got Aerial Group, Aerial Properties, Aerial Development Group, Ariel produced Ariel. You know, we've got a ton of different aerial names now, and I own over 300 different aerial domains.

Yes.

So it's. Yes, it's a lot, but it's fun. It's different. You know, his is taking boring businesses and making them fun, and mine is being a force for good. How can this industry be a force for good in its world? Be it media production, we're utilizing media to promote great people, causes and ideas.

It's incredible.

Yeah. So it's been really fun, but I am hijacking this entire episode. I wanna hear more from you.

We will. We will. But here's the interesting part of that. So I wanna go back just for a moment. I wanna do this.

Okay.

Because in the first episode, you mentioned something about creating a plan and a vision and then just releasing it and not really worrying about where it happens, not really worrying about how it comes to fruition.

The how? Yeah.

A lot of people, especially people like me, control freaks, we have to figure out that How? It's like I need to know how it's going to happen.

Yeah.

You mentioned a few different situations where you come up with this vision, this idea, this belief, this thing that you want to do. You want to meet Richard Branson, you tell your family you want to own an apartment before you're 26. Right. Just name two of the ones that are most recent and you say them, you start talking about them, you tell other people, write them down potentially, but you dream about them, you make sure that other people know that you want them to happen. And then you don't specifically stress that they're going to happen. You don't really worry about the how. And then what happened, Britt?

Well, I think there's kind of a two parter answer to that question. There's two parts because I wouldn't say I'm a control freak, but I think we all are.

Yeah.

Because it's a survival instinct to need to know. And so my two part answer to that is one, you come up with it and you surrender that it will happen. So you have an inner peace that the timing will be perfect when it comes.

Right.

Got that. So that's huge and very difficult. And then part two is, is run with that inner control freak and you say, all right, if it were gonna happen, what would need to be in place, at least broad stroke. And then fine tune it down to the details as much as possible. So I actually wrote my eulogy, I turned it into a five year plan in different categories. If that's gonna be true at the end of my life, what has to be true in the next five years in my relationships, in my achievements, in my lifestyle, in my wealth. All right, then what do I have to do for the next one year to be on track for the five years? What do I have to start doing in the next 90 days to be on track for one year?

Yeah.

What do I have to stop doing in the next 90 days that would sabotage the whole thing? For example, I want to be married to an incredible human being. And this is what I want our life to look like by the end of my life? Well, I got to stop being a jerk to any male around me based on some past pain.

Yeah.

So there's habits that we can start eliminating because they're going to sabotage everything we ever wanted. And so I have the faith and I have the trust to know it'll work. But I also give it my all and recognize where are the pitfalls and obvious things that could be blocking me.

Got it. Got it. So again, folks, for those who are listening, this is a massive element, really big key part in becoming that awakened soul of yourself, that inner soul that needs to come out, that person that needs to shine your light bright. So in the next episode, we'll talk a little bit more kind of about my journey. You're bringing it up, but I know we're getting short on time, so thank you for sharing that with me. I know a lot of people are always trying to figure out, like, when did the whole Branson thing happen? And so you kind of shared that. So thank you.

24.

Yeah. So let's get into more stuff on the next episode, but for those tuning in, you guys are rock.

Thank you for listening to the Broke to Woke podcast. You can learn more at geforcemastermind.com or by following us on Instagram @geForceMasterMind. Like the broke to Woke podcast. Click the link in our description to join a mastermind with other force for good entrepreneurs just like you who are taking their life and their businesses to the next level.