Breaking Free from the Corporate Rat Race: Unlocking Creative Real Estate Opportunities with Brian O'Neill

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This is the no Closer show where you get the latest developments in distressed note investing and learn the secrets of how you can control millions of dollars worth of property for panties on the dollar. Get educated and entertained by someone who has closed thousands of deals and lives to support you in achieving the same. Now here's your host CEO of We Close Nodes, Scott Carson. Hey everybody, Scott Carson here. Just want to say thank you again for listening to the podcast. If you've been listening for a while, you're subscribed to the podcast. First of all, thank you. Second of all, hey, you know, if you're you're not one of our coaching students or you haven't signed up for one of our three day workshops, here's an opportunity for you. You want to check out our WCN membership. This is the biggest bang for the buck of the notice street. Besides our one on one coaching, this is our monthly membership for 97amonth that gives you access to all of our online training, our virtual workshops, our note weekends, our special one day master classes that we've taught in the past, anything that we have going in the future, as long as you're a live member, if I can't make you or save you $97 a month, I'm doing something wrong. But save you paying 997 or 99 bucks or 399 here or anything like that. We make it affordable at $97 a month and like I said, it gives you access to all of our past replays, our upcoming classes, our access to our special classes. We also do weekly coaching calls with our WC members and also our WC members also get first crack at tapes and lists of notes that we get in after our one on one coach to take a look at them. But it's a great way for you to go. You can also schedule call with me anytime to go through deals that you're working on marketing things, questions you got going on about a deal. We're here to help you. So how do you get signed up for that? Really easy. Just go to noteumbrella.com that's noteumbrella.com get signed up there for you 97amonth guys. Like I said, biggest bang for the buck of the nursery and we want seeds of the family. So let's get you signed up today. That's knownumbrella.com welcome to the no family everybody and thank you for always for listening. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening everybody. Welcome to this episode of the Note Closure Show. As always, Scott Carson jacked up with you today. Today we're going to talk about how I know many of you are working, looking forward to hopefully leaving your job at some day. And we'll talk with our guest has done that successfully, helping other people do that. We'll talk a little bit about creative financing subject to deals and how this stud, this rock star is kicking ass and taking names and really leveraging, you know that, you know that social media account where everybody's known for dancing. Not really how this guy's leveraging TikTok to not only get his word out but create a movement on there. And so we're honored to have our buddy Brian o' Neill join us on here today. What is going on? Brian, how are you doing today?

God, man, so happy to be on the show. Is great seeing you last week and you know, I haven't done any dances yet, but hey, you know, you never know. It's still early in the game.

Well, I think you're doing pretty good dancing around some of those stupid questions you're getting from people from time to time that we all get about why you can't do that illegal. You know what I mean?

Yeah, exactly. They're going to continue. I'm ready for it.

Exactly. So for our listeners out there, tell us a little about you, kind of your journey to where you're at today and a little bit your background, if you don't mind.

Yeah, 100%. So I was in corporate sales for 25 years. So the majority of my of my life, I'm going to be 50 this year. So you know, half my life I, I was in a W2 and you know, I was fed the same download that most of us were fed which was, you know, go to school, get a job, get and you know, work there for a long time and hopefully by the time you're 65, you got enough money to retire. Right. And I started to question that. I knew that that wasn't the path. Probably in my 30s, I started to think about, well, there's more for me, I'm capable of a lot more. And, and you know, I can, I can, I can really break the mold if you will, because I saw my father and my grandfather do it and it wasn't, I was stuck. I just didn't know what to do. I didn't have a lot of self confidence and self belief and I just didn't take the action that was really required to get there. And then really the moment for me that got me over the hump was when I had a son. I got Married, I had a family and I was away from him. I was missing him grow up. I was flying a hundred thousand miles a year instead w2 job and I was missing his life. And I said to myself, I got one chance to watch this kid grow up and I'll be damned if I'm going to miss it. And fast forward. I've, I've, I've since left that job. It's been three years this month actually. And it was just, it was just a matter of, you know, getting really, really clear on my why, having having the right people in my corner and then ultimately deciding and taking action for myself. So I'm, I'm, I'm, I have a real estate business and I have a podcast and you know, I get to talk to cool people like you, definitely.

Well, let's talk about that Runway, you know, because I think a lot of folks out there don't have patience. And I think that's one of the things. You see people, they get into investing or wanting to be a real estate investor. They want, they do it because they a want to make income or have a better quality of life, see their kids grow up, you know, do some things, but they don't understand that it's, it's not going to be a get rich quick overnight success. It takes time and putting things together. Can you talk a little about kind of how you, you set up out that to leave your job and the Runway you put in place.

You used a good word there, patience. And the other word I would use is distractions too, because we're easily distracted as human beings. Well, it's been three months and have any results? I gotta, I gotta move on to the next thing, right? The next shiny objects that's in front of me. So that's a big problem too. That was for me for a long time. But you know, once I, once I hired my coach, that was the first thing and I joined a mastermind and you know, we're mutual friends. Chris Prefontaine, Wicked smart. We. The first thing that they talk about is realistic timeline. Okay, hey, look, this isn't, and we're not trying this out, okay? This is your, this is your life. We're going to build a business where I teach you how to build a business. This is not just about doing real estate deals. I want to give you, I want you to give yourself a three, three years, a three year commitment. And I was ready for that. I said, look, I had been, you know, trying for 10 to 15 years to leave my job unsuccessfully by myself. I said I'm all in three years. And listen, I've been, I've been at this just in real estate for four years. I'm still learning how to be a business owner. Like I forget who the guy is. I think it might be Brian Tracy where he says at year seven is when you start really figuring out business. So for me it was just giving myself a realistic timeline. Really, really honing in and getting focused on one thing which we'll talk about today, which is creative financing. You know, doing these subject to deals and, and staying the course and not. And trying to limit the distractions. Like sure. Am I distracted by doing other stuff? Yes, but I limit those.

Yeah, that's, that's one of the big things I always talk about. I mean it's first you got to get outside and start network working with like minded individuals, masterminding with people who want to say the same things to get rid of the distraction sometimes is limiting your, you know, influence from friends or family members that may not have that same type of goal or mindset for you to go. And then it's, then it's all about finding the right path. And so many investors, they try to do it be a jack of all trades and a master of none and ended up leading into that aspect. And that's the thing I, you know, networking, meetup groups, real estate clubs are great, but the whole, every week or every month you got a new shiny object thrown in front of you. It's a lot of distractions, a lot of cases. You know, how many squirrels did you have to shoot or shiny objects did you have to get rid of before you settled on the subject to creative financing side of the business?

Scott, it was so many, I can't even give you a number. I mean you think of a business opportunity. I tried it, right. If it came across my feed, I was at least going a little bit down the rabbit hole. Sometimes I went all the way down the rabbit and it was just because I was distract. Looking back in hindsight on that, I was just distracting myself from my, from my life that I didn't like my job. The fact that I was away from my kid and I just, I wasn't ready to face it. I've had a lot of help with that. I think a lot of people do that. You know, it's like, oh, we'll try stocks for a few, maybe a few months or we'll. I looked at franchises, I looked at, I looked at a variety of real estate. You said jack of all trades. That's, that's a mistake. When you get into real estate, you need to be laser focused on one niche. There's a bunch of different ways to become wealthy in real estate. Now, I wouldn't come in and be like, well, I'm gonna do a little bit of wholesaling, but I might fix and flip. I might do some note. I might, I might buy some notes. I might. No, you're, you're gonna do nothing. So you gotta focus. You gotta stay singularly focused. Super important.

Yeah. Now I love, love, love that you said they got to be focused. One thing, you got to give all your attention, that one thing and make sure it's the one thing that's working in your market in your times. Well, no, there's plenty of folks doing, oh, hey, do this, this works in every market. We know that. It doesn't. Things don't always work in every market. I mean, Austin's a competitive market. You're in Chicago, the Windy City up there. Not, not one of my favorite counties to buy notes in. So you're gushing. But, but what, what you're doing now, you're, Are you doing a lot of your subject to deals up there in Chicago, Illinois area or all over the place?

We do them all over. I mean, as you know, I, you know, I have my own business here, so we do sub 2 deals here. But then the group that I'm, that, that helped me get out of my job, the mastermind, I coach for them now, didn't even think that that was going to be a possibility. And look, I'll say this too, while I'm. Well, I'm. We'll go a little bit off tangent here while you're asking this question is I just. Four years, three years ago, when I, four years ago, when I joined the mastermind, I just wanted to do enough deals to leave my job. All right? Now I'm coaching other people. I have my own show. I'm on your show. I've been introduced to people I didn't even think was imaginable. And it was just because I made this commitment and this decision to change my life. I took the first step. Then all these other doors started to open as a result of me getting around the right people. So I just, for those of you listening, like, the possibilities are really endless when you make a bet on yourself and continue to take consistent action. I mean, four years has gone by like that. I mean, we know, we all know how fast time. Time feels and a lot can happen. I'm excited for the next 10 years of my. For the next 10 years of my life and beyond.

Yeah, that's the thing. Years fly by and it seems they get faster and faster the older we get. Definitely. Because we start to recognize the biggest asset that we have. And it's all. There's nothing we can do to increase our time. We are given the same amount of time as how effective and how productive we are with our day in, day out activities and what we're doing and what we're delegating. And you know, one of my mentors said the really successful people in life are the ones that are making the most impact and doing the most productive thing at any given moment.

Yeah, it's interesting that you talk about time too, because I'm actually going through an exercise right right now, which is painful, it's grueling, but I've done it a few times where I'm logging my, my time. So every 15 minutes I'm writing down everything that I'm doing because like you said, hey, we all got the same time. But why is it that some people are successful with the same 24 hours in a day? Yeah, they got, they got kids too. They got stuff to do. Right. They got, they got commitments and everyone else is, well, I don't have enough time for that. I don't have time. I can't do that. When I hear people say I don't have time, that screams to me, it's not important to me. That's what that means. Because you do have the time. You're choosing to do something different. So I'm doing this time audit and it's going to tell me like, hey, Brian, you probably shouldn't be doing this. Or it's going to, or it's going to say, hey, do more of that. Right? Do a time audit. It's painful, but it definitely will give you a clear picture. All my coaching students, when I work with them, we put them through this exercise, guys. I'm surprised they don't fire me on the spot. But you know, it really is enlightening and helpful to make them understand, like, hey, I'm doing all this stuff that doesn't move the needle in my life. Most of us are doing stuff that doesn't matter.

Well, and that's the thing is most people are used to that 40, 50 hour work week. They think they've got to put another 40, 50 hour work week in a lot of times to find success. And you and I both know it starts with small increment changes. It's that 15, 30 minute commitment to starting something and adding to that on a day in, day out basis and just finding the time. We all have the time as a matter of just finding it and decide, hey, I'm going to get off my ass to go make phone calls or pull leads or jump on LinkedIn or record a video, whatever it might be. Right?

That's right. That's right.

I love it. Well, let's, let's, let's, let's dive in. Let's talk about the podcast a little bit here because you've got an amazing podcast. Tell folks about it. Because if you're listening to my podcast, you're going to definitely want to check out Brian's podcast as well.

Yeah. What you're on and you're coming out soon. The W2 Prison Break show is, is the name of my podcast and the show is dedicated really to inspiring and educating people who are in jobs that they don't like and they want to get out and do their own thing. Kind of like the younger version of Brian that I just described. Right. You don't have to go through what I went through and wait 10 to 15 years. I've learned a lot. I've hired a lot of coaches and mentors and I've done a lot of self development work and the pathway can be much faster. So if that's something that is of interest to you, I would definitely check out, check out the show. I mean, obviously, just because you, I mean, you're, I'm excited for your episode to come on because what you're doing with notes, I mean, I was first time I heard about, like, this isn't real. This, this can't possibly, this is, this doesn't exist. And then, you know, and unfortunately me for, at the time, it was a shiny object. I'm like, no, like, I want to do it, I'm gonna get it there, but I have to focus on this at this point. But man, I, I just think it's such a cool niche that you're in. And again, perfect example of being laser focused and sticking to one thing. Like you're not messing around with all this other stuff, man, you're, I mean, everything you, everything about you is notes.

Yeah, well, that's, that's, that's the thing is I figured out I was like many folks, you know, I'd been a struggling entrepreneur for a few years and I was doing a variety of different things and I had to sit down and have it come to Jesus means like, what's going to make Me the most amount of money with the amount of time that I'm putting in. Is it, is it A, B, C, D, E, F, G? No, I need to focus on A or C at the time. And that's what I did. I said, okay, I got to stop doing all this other stuff and, and focus. And got very consistent in blocking my time and tracking my time down to the phone call, you know, to say, okay, I'm. Did I get something done today? Yes, I did. Did I get further along on my path to where I want to be? Yes, I did, or no, I didn't. I really wasted a lot of time today, doggone it, beat myself up for an hour. But get back on that horse and start riding that wagon again, you know, the next day and move on. Get beyond that beating up. You know, I think so many investors out there want entrepreneurs. You know, we. They get in that downward spiral. I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. I don't have the time. I'm not going to do it. And they just, it's just this rabbit hole they go into and it's so difficult to get pull folks out of that nosedive. And a lot of it is just that negative programming that comes from society, a lot of things. And I'm like, you know, no, no, there is opportunities out there right now or to invest. And with your podcast and especially with a lot of stuff you're seeing online, I see you answering a lot of those limiting questions. You know what I mean? You can't do that. It's illegal. You know, how do you do that? You know, let's talk a little about that, huh, Brian?

Yeah, so you're referring to my TikTok account, which I'm having a lot of fun with, right? And I never thought I would be a late 40s, soon to be 50 guy who's on TikTok, but I'm having a great time and I, and I'll, I'll tell you just, I'll just give a piece of advice here regarding that app, is if you have a business or any type of side hustle, if you are not on that app, you are missing out big time because it is a great way to gain exposure for, for your, for your business. Even if you're trying to build your personal brand, get on the app right, Use it the right way. Don't just scroll feeds all day long, unless it's mine or yours, of course, but, you know, you want to make sure you're utilizing it correctly. But I do see A lot of. And the other great thing about it as a business owner is I get a lot of ideas like I get a lot of content ideas like these are things that people are asking me for help on. So I just create more content based on what they're asking me. Right. And yeah, the sub 2 thing inevitably and I normally queue it up in videos is like hey, you can't do that's illegal. And let me just clarify for everyone who's listening and, and wanting to know about Subject 2 that there's nothing illegal about it. Okay. The due on sale clause is a contractual situation. Contractual situation between the holder of the mortgage, the bank and the owner of the house, the seller. Who's someone I would call to now are you. There is no due on sale clause. Prison. You're not going to jail, you're not committing a crime. The loan can get called if they choose to do it. So I would guarantee you that all of those folks who say you can't do it, it's illegal, the bank's going to call a loan due like I could say 100% without question. It would not happen. They would find another reason to block themselves. It's all fear. It's all fear based and they're just trying to. They have this self limiting belief and most people do this. They have the self limiting belief I can't do that, you can't do it. And then they go out and they look for people or things to validate their belief.

Well I totally agree with that but that's one of the great things that I love about subject to yeah is it really does eliminate to the biggest fears in A I've got, I don't have money to invest or I can't or B I can't get bank financing on these deals. And when you take those out it eliminates a lot of the. I can't, I can. Well you can if you start marketing to these individuals. You know, whether it's a expired listing or withdrawn listing or for sale by owner or for rent by owner or pre foreclosure list, you know, something like that. You know you'll see a lot of those things. And I, I only bring that up because I think you know I attended the, the recent event there up in Newport, Rhode island with you, stuff like that, going through those leads and that's, I mean I've been doing something to deals I don't go back since 2006 and stuff like that. It become, become much more profitable now. The low interest rates from the last Few years on phenomenal deals. But, you know, you want to talk a little about kind of how, you know, when you're talking to somebody new, you know, the fact that they don't have to have a ton of money in the bank to invest to start doing these deals is a positive.

Yeah. That's the beauty of creative financing. We're not just limited to subject to here. We could do owner financing if there's no debt right. On the house, if there's free and clear. By the way, almost 40% of all homes in the United States are owned without debt. That's about 30 million. For doing some quick math, you think you could get a handful of those if you really tried and change your life. Yeah. You could lease options, right? So anyone who's, who's nervous about Subject 2, and I was when I first came in, because you do have to pay closing costs and you know, there are, there are some transfer taxes. You know, it's going to cost you some money. There's no, it's not. No money down. You're doing sub 2 because you have to pay closing costs. But I did lease options, right. And then the deed doesn't transfer. And then once I built up enough deals and money, I started focusing on subject two. So look, here's, here's the situation with creative financing. Regardless of what you hear on the news or social media or anywhere else, or for listening to realtors and loan officers talk all day long, not every house sells. And in any market, and you know this to be true, in any market, you're always going to have situations like this that the conventional market cannot solve. Death, divorce, job loss, job relocation, tired landlords, people who can't sell because their house is on a corner lot or that needs work. I mean, I could go on and on. People who don't pay their mortgages, pre foreclosures. I mean, these lists are real. Real. They exist. Not every house sells conventionally for top price with a realtor. And if you're looking, if you're out there looking and finding these individuals and you're, and you're coming at it from a place of, hey, I'm looking to help you solve your problem, right? Because nobody wakes up tomorrow and puts their house up for sale and be like, I can't wait for that guy to call me and talk to me about lease options and seller financing. Right? We're looking for people who have problems. And then once we uncover that, we say, hey, look, I can help you with that. Here's how I'm going to do it. And that's how we get deals.

And helping people, that's one of the biggest things when you have a, a servant mindset. In a lot of cases, yes, you'll find opportunities, you'll see something I think so many folks get so well, how am I helping myself first? How am I going to make the most amount of money? That's where you end up flaking from one thing to another. You don't understand that you're solving a situation. If you can solve, be a problem solver or a deal engineer. And how to solve those unconventional non conventional buy sell transactions. I mean there's so many of them out there, it's literally like, hey, I'm go shopping for a red Land Rover now. You start seeing red Land Rovers everywhere. You know what I mean? You start seeing the opportunities.

That's right, that's right. Yeah. Always come. Real estate's about solving problems. Right. On most calls that I deal with sellers, especially in the initial, I'm focused on what they're trying to get done, not their math equation of pricing and all that good stuff that'll come. I want to know what they're trying to get done and whether or not I can help them do it.

Yeah, exactly. And it's just about asking questions and listing more so than having a sales pitch down for sure.

Yeah. Which is difficult for most human beings to do.

Well, I loved it that you're sharing with the audience about the three questions when you're talking to a distressed seller or something like that. Where, when and why, you know, what do you, why are you trying to sell? Where are you trying to go? Or why are you trying to sell? What's going on with the situation? What's the, what's the, what's the thing you're trying to accomplish in the next 30 or 90 days or have not been able to accomplish with what you've tried in the past.

Yeah, absolutely. We were just talking about this, you know, a couple weeks ago in, in Rhode island and, and you know, people who are brand new investors who are talking to sellers, they just lock up. Right. They just get nervous because they don't know what to say and they do all this projecting and I've just always tried to present the situation and I said this, you know, in, in Rhode Island, I said, hey look, what would you do if your neighbor put a for sale sign in the yard? What would you, how would you, how would you talk to them and what would you say? And you would ask those questions, hey, why where, when, why are you selling? Where are you going? When do you need to be there by, you know, and then the most important question is, what are you going to do if you don't get that result? Are you going to stay in the house? Like, I want a seller to tell me that there is no option for me to stay in this home. I'm going no matter what. So then I know that if they don't sell under with their plan, which I'm not going to try to alter that plan. If you want to sell with a realtor or you're looking for a cash buyer, cool. But if that, for some reason that doesn't happen, call me. And I'm calling it back anyways because follow up is everything. But then when they, when they get, you know, because I always look at the motivation scale. I don't know if you put this on, on YouTube or not, but I look, I would look at as like a rope. Right. So when you call a seller and they just listed it for sale by owner, they might be like a, like the top of the rope. One or two on the motivation scale. You're not buying their house on seller financing. No way. But three, four, five months go by, six months and they're at the bottom of the rope and they're like at 8 or a 9 or a 10 on the motivation scale. That conversation is way different. And most of the, and a lot of those sellers you're going to get, you're going to get the house under agreement because they got to go and they can't sell their house. So you got to remove that situation from their life. That's what, that's how you solve the problem. Yeah.

Especially if somebody's gone six months and they're making a mortgage payment on a house they're not getting any rent from or sitting vacant like many of them are, or it's been off the market or they're out of that market now. I had a conversation with a lady who is, you know, has a house in Colleen up by Fort Hood or Fort Comanche, whatever it's called now, but she's back in Virginia. And I'm, I'm like, oh, it's, you know, it's been on the market for six months. You withdrew it or you, oh, you know, I'm like, you, well, that's not the route I want to go, so I'll follow up with you later on. And that motivation, it's the same thing in the note business. We see sellers, banks, hedge funds that want one price or one solution, like, yeah, I'm not going to pay that. And you follow up with them every 30 days. Their motivation. Their motivation multiplies the longer they're on the hook for that deal. It's the same way with borrowers.

I love that. Multiplies. Motivation multiplies. Yep, Totally true.

Give me credit for three times and then you can use it. All right, go.

I will. All right, we'll do that. I noted that.

So one of the things I think that's. I think it's been so valuable for you and what we've seen is I'm. I don't have near the TikTok following you have, but we've seen it work from doing videos on a regular basis and just being consistent with it. And if you guys are looking Brian's Tick tock is at coach Brian O' Neill out there, and you've got 30.7 thousand followers, which is phenomenal. I'm at 450, I think. Okay, tell me, how'd you go? First of all, you go live. There's a couple things you do. I think you go live like every Saturday morning too. Like, Right. Is one of the things you do on a regular basis or kind of talk.

I go live every day. I go live every single day. Yep, yep. 60. I used to go 60 to 90 minutes. I've since trimmed that. But I go. I'm live on that app every day.

So how did you get to your first thousand followers that you have availability to go live?

Yeah, so I've probably been on the app, I'd say, for about 18 months. I have to go back maybe closer to two years. I mean, again, it's a, it's a commitment. And, and it's also, it's also a learning process, right? Like sometimes. Sometimes stuff just works. And sometimes, like, I have shot videos where I'm like, I'm getting a million on this, no question. And it gets like 300, right? And you know, that's just the, that's just the game, right? So the key. How did I get to. I got to a thousand. It didn't take me long. New accounts, typically, you know, if you're consistent in your posting, you'll get. You'll get views. And then once I got to a thousand, I started going live, right? I started going live a little bit more. And that was a little frightening at first. Now I just do it all the time. But really, what. Like when I got to 10,000 followers, I kind of hit a wall, right? And I got to that. I was stuck there for a while, and I got, I was getting frustrated and I was still pumping videos out, and it just wasn't, just wasn't working for me. Right. And then all of a sudden, I hit a video or two. I did something about Airbnb and I talked about how you should be ready, hey, if this happens, be ready for seller financing. And I think I got like 7,000 7, 500 followers off one video. One video. And that fed to my coaching business, that fed my podcast. And, you know, I've, I've since had a couple of, had several other videos that have done really well. But again, it's the consistency. I post four times a day. I know a guy posts ten times a day, but I post four times a day minimum. I, I answer questions. So when people ask me a question, I answer it in the form of a video on most cases. And I just don't have the expectation that this is going to necessarily be the one that's going to change my life. Right. Because that will come if you give yourself, again, focus, realistic timeline. We're not just trying this out. And then you'll get that video or 2 or 10. That'll really, really kind of change your business and give you that, give you those eyeballs, if you will. I hope that answers your question. I said a lot there.

No, it totally does. You're posting four times a day. One of those postings, I take it, is the live 30 minutes plus live stream then. Is that correct?

Yeah, like, I'll go live. I typically go during the day. Tonight, I'll go live probably, you know, later, later in the evening. And I do, you know, I, I do my live strategy is just to do Q and A. Like, people want to talk about real estate. People, some people want to talk about finances. You know, I, I, I, I, you can ask me anything. But most people want to talk about real estate. And then I just try to serve. My mentality is, okay, I'm gonna get a lot of stuff in the comments, right? They're ideas for me. Okay? I can make a video about that. I can make a YouTube video about that. I can do an entire podcast episode on what this person just asked me. And then, you know, I'll, that I'll, I, I, I'll category. I'll, you know, have a cat catalog. This is all the stuff that I can. I tell them too. I'm like, guys, this is how I come up with content. And then I teach that because I teach people how in my coaching business, in my group coaching Business. I teach people how to come up with ideas to start a business based on stuff that they already know and based on stuff that they're. That, that they like to do. Well, I say if you were on TikTok, like guys, you don't understand how many business ideas I'm coming up with just by listening to you, just by talking to you. And they don't, they don't understand that. So I tried to also teach them like this is how you can do it. Right. So yeah, the live thing's been really helpful. I got that from a guru on there. He's like, you will see big time engagement when you start going live. TikTok likes that.

Yeah, it's definitely. But it's also great because you can save that content as YouTube shorts. You can upload it to Instagram, you can upload it to LinkedIn, you can. That I'm a big proponent of. I call it the marketing octagon. Taking one piece of content and sharing it or repurposing across different places. So that's, that's phenomenal. I love that straight. That's a highlight. That's a nugget for me right there on a couple things. I like the, the asking questions stuff. So that leads to content for sure. But I like the. You're going four times and to your.

Point on clipping too because I just did this like I only did one to one coaching. But every. Yeah again, every. Hey, do you offer group coaching? Do you offer group coaching? How would I know that people wanted that unless I was on. They asked me. So I said, okay, I'm going to launch this group coaching program. I was on a live and I highlighted exactly what they would be getting. I clipped it. I sent the email out to my list and that video was there. It's about, it was about 20 minutes and it gave them everything that we'd be getting. So I didn't have to like type it out or repurpose it. It was just right there. And I said in the email, hey, this is a TikTok live. This is exactly what you're going to get. And people watched it, they signed up.

How many people, if you don't mind me asking me, Group coaching?

Yeah. So I'm only taking 20 in this group. That's about all that I have the bandwidth for. So I'll have groups of three to five. So it'll be somewhere around four, four groups. And you know, so far I've got like almost half the. I just did it Friday and I almost got Almost half the slots filled. That's phenomenal, man.

Congratulations.

Thank you. Thank you.

We've, we've acquired a couple one on one coaching students and some folks for our monthly membership as well. From just sharing on a regular basis. Limited, much less than you, but it's that aspect of sharing because I think it's. With more than anything else, we have to be repetitive learners, I guess you could say, you know, somebody can't tell us once, we've got to see it three, four, five, six times. So it really sinks in. And the same thing comes from if I'm watching somebody or listening to somebody, it takes a while of listening that person to watch that person says, okay, I like this guy or gal. I trust this guy or gal. Let me take it to the next step. Let me take it to a next level. Whether it's to invest or hey, sign up for a class or sign up for or coaching or actually just pick up the phone and give that person a call to pick the brain of some things. And that's, that's the beauty about what you're doing is it's that repetitiveness of it just shows that you're, you've got a giving nature. You really are serving your audience and serving those investors or those wannabe investors out there to take action.

Yeah, totally. It's been, it's been kind of a blessing really. Scott. I mean, I, I just didn't, I didn't expect that, that this would be. Again, I just want to, again, I went back, I just want to do enough jobs to do enough deals. I don't have to fly on airplanes. And Now I got 30,000 followers on TikTok. You know, you know, whether you think that's a lot or not, whatever, I, I'm looking to get the right ones too. But it also, while I'm serving, I'm also getting better. Like, I want to speak on stages, I want to be a speaker. And every time I go live, I get a rep. Like it's reps, reps, reps. And I'm getting better and better and better. That helps me with my podcast, that gives me ideas, and it just allows me to serve my audience better. And then with my real estate mastermind, it gives me, you know, that much more value to bring to them as well, because I'm taking these real problems from, from the real world TikTok, and I'm able to solve them and think about, well, how would I answer this question? How would I solve this problem? And I can bring it to my real estate group because we're all going through the same stuff, myself included. Right. Like, I still have fears, I still have doubts, but I think I'm just a little bit more equipped to handle them the right way than a lot of people who haven't gone through the journey that I've gone through or that you've gone through.

Well, I think those that are most successful, the ones have been told know the most or overcome the most hurdles along the way, you know.

Exactly. I mean, and that's how we learn. Like that's what, that's what we want, you know, as, as human beings, if we're looking for growth, we have to embrace the fact that we are going to get punched right in the a lot. And it's how we come out of that that's really going to determine, you know, whether or not as you, you had mentioned, like the path that we're on. Right. If we're going to stay on that path. Right. We've charted this. We, we know the destination, we know the course. But are we going to stay on the course? Because as soon as we get like knocked, you know, it's like, ah, we get fell off the road. Well, do we want to get back on or not? Is, is really what differentiates the successful people from the people who are, you know, maybe feeling like they were a little bit short at the end of their life.

Well, that's the thing is one of the biggest things that people want to do, biggest regrets is they want to be business owners. And the big one of the biggest regrets is, is not that they worked at that job for 40, 50 years. It's that they didn't get out on their own and take that action and do the things that they wish they had done. You know, that's the biggest regret people have, you know, is, is not carving their own path. That's why one of my favorite quotes out there is by Ralph Waldo Emerson, don't go where the path may lead. Say, go where there's no path. No path. And leave a path for others to go. So, you know, that's not quite word for word, but you get the logist of it. You know what I mean?

I love that one.

You know, it's, it's, that's the thing being around, being entrepreneur for over 20 years now and an investor and just focus on the notebooks for last 16. You see, you see those that succeed are the ones that are okay taking no. Or pivoting, tweaking their journey because it's not a straight narrow path. It's full of lines, twists, turns, starts, stops and you know, forward and two steps back to go forward some. And people don't realize that it's not as easy. It's not some h. It's not some HGTV or reality show where everything's fuzzy and shiny. It is a lot of getting dirty and scabs and mud and picking yourself back up out of the dirt.

It is definitely not that. And while we're on this topic, I heard a pretty cool quote this morning in one of my, one of our coaching groups. And, and the gentleman said, in the group, one of the students, he said, people who avoid failure also avoid success.

Oh, that's good.

Yeah, that's deep. I wrote it down and now I get to. This happened like two hours ago and now I get to share it with it with the audience because that is absolutely true.

Have you done a tick tock on that one yet? Because that's a good one.

Yeah, I probably will share it on, on my live. I did, I did write it down. But, but, but yeah, I mean that's, it's, it's important that you know to understand that like stating staying on the straight and narrow is boring. Yeah, that's boring. You know, is it going to keep you safe and maybe keep you from having some catastrophes? Maybe, Maybe. But you're sure not going to get what you want out of this life. And you're going to be out. You know, we're talking about sound crypto topic in Rhode Island. It's like what are the people, what are the regrets that people have on their deathbed? You know, I wish I would have done this. I wish I would have done this. Like think about what you would say when it's your time and what, and what the words that you want to come out of your mouth and you certainly don't want it to be a bunch of regrets.

Yeah, it's the truth. Amen to that, brother. Amen to that. Well, you know, you talked about straight narrow and the real estate. We'll pivot back a little bit more real estate for audience now. But for the last couple years, the real estate traditionalist, it's been pretty easy. Buy a house, let the appreciate sell it. You know, great interest rates. There's been a buyer's, you know, definitely a seller's market. I heard this disturbing fact that over 70,000 realtors have left the industry. That's not a surprise. We saw the same thing happen back in 2008. Nine and ten rats leaving a sinking ship that don't know how to market. They don't know how to get creative.

That's right.

Don't know how to market. And that's the thing that I like so much about what we're in a downturn like this or a tough time. Those that know how to market, those that know how to get creative are the ones that are going to make, I don't say bank, but they're going to prosper because they're, they're providing solutions like we talked about beforehand.

Yeah, I mean, I, we could have a whole podcast on what you just said, about 70,000 realtors leaving the market because, you know, number one, there were too many of them to begin with. So the good realtors, the ones who are selling 50, 100 homes a year, those are the ones that stuck around. Right. The ones who are onesies and twosies. Well, I'll just, I'll just do what everybody else is doing. Get rich. They did. They sold like two or three houses. They're out now. Right. So, you know, I don't ever predict what's going to happen in the market. That's not the business I'm in. I'm just about being consistent because again, I said at the beginning of the episode, the conditions that exist in every market, whether it's up, down, left, right, whatever, that's who I'm looking for. Doesn't make any difference to me what the interest rates are. I don't care what the prices are. Okay. I'm looking for the people that need my help. And I don't have to do a ton of these deals a year to be financially free. I just don't.

Yep, Amen to that. It's just the so many folks out there, and it's the same thing. We've seen that in the loan officer, the mortgage business side of things, the origination title, it's a tightening of the market, which means a lot of opera because there's still a ton of houses for sale. People still need to sell their houses. They just can't do it. The inside the box thing that they teach in real estate school, stuff like that, I, I remember a funny story. I was talking with Stephanie and we went to this networking event at the local real estate school and some guy gets up there, he's been in real estate for 20 years. I said, well, how much are you doing? Like notes? He goes, what do you mean notes? Owner, finance. I was like, no, no, like, you know, buying notion. Oh, that's, that's the Mafia. Like, never mind, I'm Going to get up and leave now. That's come from the instructor that I'm like, you're inside the box aspect of things. Well, that's great. You can make money inside the box, but there's a whole lot more outside the box when you do get creative. You understand the tactics of Brian's teaching. We teach, you know, you look inside the box, you understand the opportunities, the market versus looking at the reasons why you shouldn't succeed. And I think that's the biggest thing. What's, what's the, you know, we've talked about a couple of things here, but what's maybe your number one, number two or number three. Ps you hear from people besides saying that they don't have time to, to achieve success or start investing? Brian?

Yeah, we're talking specifically about real estate. It's like that won't work in my market. Like, I get that a lot, which is nonsense because I could, me personally, I could, I could close up shop in Illinois and do deals in any state in this country tomorrow. I don't care how many people are there, it doesn't make any difference. I control what I do. I'm not worri about what everybody else is doing, right? Because most people are doing that. They're talking about why they can't and they don't do anything. But it is, there's a lack of funds, there's a lack of time, there's a lack of funds. Like I don't have enough money for that. And then I would be like, well, let's talk about the last $20,000 you spent where that went, okay? And then there's a lack of, it's, and that's really just fear coming out in different ways. All right? So I don't believe in myself is what I hear. I don't have enough time, I don't have enough money. I'm just hearing I don't believe in me. And once we get over that, which isn't easy, then we can start to take these small action steps because they don't have to be big. You know this. Scott, what can I do today that gets me closer, right? Can I, can I call five sellers? Can I try to call 10 tomorrow? Can I call 15 the next day? We don't have to jump off a hundred foot, 100 story buildings on the first day. We just got to make a decision, number one, that we're no longer going to tolerate our lives. We want something different. Let's get around the right people, okay? Let's just take Some action and just continue and give yourself a realistic timeline. Don't think you got to do a deal in three months or four months. Are you doing this for four months? Are you doing this for the rest of your life?

That's the biggest thing. I love that. That's what I always tell folks. You're doing this for a month, a year, or units for your lifetime. I don't know any real estate investor that does it for just a year or two. They're in it for the lifetime. It's a continuous learning, continuous honing their craft, getting better at the trade cafe. Because you're right, it does take a few years to get good at your trade craft. If you do it repetitive, repetitive, repetitive.

It sure does. And then if you know, after four or five years you do a bunch of deals and you decide it's not for you, then you could quit. But at least you would know that you tried, right? But don't quit before you even get there.

Amen to that. Now, I got a question here. You've talked about going from that mindset earlier. I want. Trying to succeed. So is there a book? Is there something that is when you go back to that switch in your brain that helped you overcome that fearful mindset or helped you get onto it, there. There's something that comes to mind. It's like a resource, a tape series. Some people listen to this, like, what's a tape? You know what I mean? They may not have been around for cassette. Takes me back in our day. But anything that you really like to go back to or maybe something you're reading out your man. I wish I read this five, ten years ago.

Yeah, I think I would because I could answer. It's interesting to you how this, how the world works. I just did a YouTube video on the seven books that would let that help me leave my job in nine months, right? Hasn't come out yet. But one of them was obviously Rich Dad, Poor dad by Kiyosaki. I mean, that really opened up my eyes. I wish I would have read that one in my 20s, right? But I'm reading a book, right? I've read. I'm reading a book right now, which because we all go through this, even as successful entrepreneurs. And it's called the Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. Easy read. It's 200 pages. I've read it twice. I'm listening to on Audible now. And the gist of the book is that we all have what's referred to as upper limit problems. Okay. We get to a think about this in your own life. We get to a certain level of success in our life and all of a sudden for some reason we drop down a couple levels, right. Subconsciously this happens or you know, we're feeling really, really good and then all of a sudden we get into a fight with our spouse. Like, why does this stuff happen? Right. So that's what's referred to as our upper limit problem. And he does a spectacular job of explaining this and getting you to think about, hey, why am I blocked right here and not living in my zone of genius, going above that. So really good book that's helped me today now as an entrepreneur who gets to that level. And it's like I just went down a couple notches of trying to, trying to bust through and get to the next level.

I love the big leap. Definitely. And that's, that's true. We as we can do so much as individuals and you go to a level and then you got to evolve your brain, you're thinking to do higher level activities. Because we do hit those glass ceilings or the ceilings and levels and we get frustrated because like we, well, we saw this growth. How come I'm not continuing to grow? We always to keep investing our mind in processes and strategies and systematine. And when you're making 250, 000, you're making a whole lot different decisions than when you're making 50 grand.

Totally. Yep.

I love it. Love it. What's been the biggest surprise? You talked about speaking on stages, looking to do more of that. But what's been the biggest surprise from being the host of the W2 Prison Break podcast? Anything that's come about that's just kind of you're like, wow, I never expected this from a podcast.

Yeah. So I think just the. There's a couple things when I say the thing that jumps out to me right now when you ask that question is just the feedback that I've received from individuals who have. Because I get my email out on the show, like email me. And most people don't email me, which I mean, hey, you can email me. I leave it on almost every episode. And just saying like, hey, that thing you said about your son or that experience that you shared about real estate not being roses and rainbows all the time, like, hey, I'm going through that right now. Thanks for that. So it's those little things from people who are, who are. Because I mean, you know how it is Scott. You go on social media and it's like everybody's happy and singing. You know, it's, it's, it's wonderful all the time. And we both know that it isn't. Okay. I've wanted to quit this business many times. Many times. But because of my support system and my. Why my son and my family, it's like I get over that pity party because that's all it is, right? It's temporary. So that's really what stands out to me, are people resonating with me, being authentic.

That's such a cool thing. And I would have to say that, too. You hear the stories or you see the comments from people, man, thank you so much. Or stuff like that. It's not the, the big name guest. It's the average Joe out there who's having a rough day and you're able to highlight that or help them overcome that hurdle or that mind block or just have. Give them a bit of motivation to get through to the next day is. Is what's so rewarding.

Yep, that's what matters. And notice I didn't say anything about money too, because, you know, being a business owner is great financially, but it's that type of stuff that really starts to give you purpose. Like, I'm drawn to this mission of me trying to help a million people. Like, that's my mission is to help a million people leave their job and start the business. Their dreams. I can't do that by myself.

No. You've got to build a team and you've got to build a crowd and a movement. It starts with one person, but that person's got to be you showing up on a daily basis when other. And once again, everybody, that podcast is the W2 Prison Break podcast there. You definitely want to check it out anywhere that you listen to podcasts. You've also got a great YouTube channel and it says Coach Brian O' Neill on tick Tock. We'll put all those links in the. The show notes in the description below there for you as well. For you, Brian, what's the, the best way for folks out there listening to this episode today, if they've got questions or checking some stuff, what's the best way for folks to connect with you?

Yeah, the best way is to go to my website, w2prisonbreak.com and there's a bunch of content on there. There's stuff you can grab for free. And then again, if you want to speak to me, all my contact information's on there as well. So that's the, that's the best way.

He is not secretive, ladies and gentlemen. Trust me. And like me where it's if you want to talk with me, it's all about going to talkwithgotcarson.com we want to hear from you. We love hearing from you. It's a little things we as podcasters, educators, entrepreneurs, we want to help you. We want to help you succeed. And I've always found those that are most successful are the most giving of their time because they want you to avoid the same mistakes that we've made along the way. And I know Brian's exactly the same way. He's a caring guy, big heart, want you to overcome those obstacles and help you leave that prison break out there. So, Brian, thanks again so much for coming on the Note closed show today. We look forward to spending some more time with you here in the near future.

Awesome, Scott, thanks. Good, good catching up with you, man.

Thanks, bud. You too.