EP 256 Want More? Finding your path to financial freedom with guest Chris Brown
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Sara Mayer: [00:00:00] Welcome to the bold goal crusher podcast for anyone looking to stop letting life get in the way and start crushing bold goals. I'm your host, Sara Mayer, and I'm thrilled to navigate this journey with you because it's time to start boldly achieving without working double time. So let's dive in.
Sara Mayer: Hello, bold goal crushers. I'm super excited about this episode today. I think you're in for a real treat. I know many of you are looking for something different and I think this guest will open your eyes to some new possibilities. So let me introduce Chris. Chris had a passion for becoming financially free and helping others achieve the same and in 2004, [00:01:00] he authored a book called the debt free diet, guiding people to financial health.
Sara Mayer: He made his first real estate investment in 2004 at 24 years old and has personally bought and sold multi million dollars. Dollars worth of investment properties. Currently he owns a portfolio of billboards and yes, you heard that correctly and is teaching others how to generate passive income doing the same.
Sara Mayer: He is passionate about helping others achieve financial freedom and loves guiding people on their transformational journey. Chris, I'm so excited to have you on the show.
Chris Brown: Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. So I always love a good backstory. So I just want to know right off the bat, like billboards, how did you even get into that?
Chris Brown: Billboard piece was because I was looking for passive income. I was investing in real estate, but I was driving underneath this billboard. Week in and week out and realize it had [00:02:00] been run down for probably a year and no one was changing, nothing was changing on it. And so I finally just called the person.
Chris Brown: So it was a very uneventful entry into it, but it was one of those. I think I was looking for the opportunities of investments and more passive income alongside my other rental properties and that kind of stuff. And so that was one of those that came about just by happenstance of driving under one.
Chris Brown: But then once I got into it, started developing and growing that portfolio.
Sara Mayer: Oh, wow. So you started this journey in 2004. What really prompted you to write your book? Like, how did that get started?
Chris Brown: Yeah, let me actually take a step a little bit before that because I'll tell you the more of the backstory.
Chris Brown: So I got married the same day I graduated college and had a wife, no job. And then loaded up on debt, like everybody else, we had two cars, one of which I had to get in through the passenger side car. The other had a leak in the roof when it rained, the backseat filled up with water. So I live [00:03:00] in the South in Arkansas.
Chris Brown: You can only imagine how that smelled once the hot summers came about, right? Really warm. Traded those in and got married, did. What everybody does, you have a job, you, I made a whopping 8 an hour and started piling on debt. We bought a house, a new car. We traded in our two for one, but that's how poor we were that we had no way to get around.
Chris Brown: Nothing like that. Started building the debt up, even joined a country club, right? Like everybody else. And, but realize, wait a minute, something's not right here. This isn't going to work. And one of my first jobs. Was actually in the sales industry and a pharmaceuticals and every year they did layoffs.
Chris Brown: And so what they would do is tell us to go sit by the phone and wait and you would get this call. And if you got the call, you got to keep your job. If you didn't, you were going to get an email saying you had been laid off. That was a scary place to be as a young married person that was trying to figure out their way in the world, [00:04:00] building up this debt.
Chris Brown: And so I decided at that point, I didn't want that to ever happen in my future again, where I had to feel that way that I couldn't provide. And so I started studying how to build wealth, how to get out of debt, how to create that financial freedom. So that's what actually led me to starting that. So I started this journey of discovery and learning about that process because I didn't grow up that way.
Chris Brown: My parents weren't doing that. No one in my circles were doing that. I actually discovered it by a tape series, the good old fashioned tapes for those that don't know you put into the car and you had to fast forward to rewind it and turn it to the other side and started studying that and became interested and intrigued by that financial freedom journey.
Chris Brown: That's how I started that, which then led me once I started that myself, I wanted to share that with others because it was so powerful. The freedom that it brought, the first eliminating the debt, getting your finances in order, and then being able to start to build that financial freedom.
Sara Mayer: Yeah.
Sara Mayer: I, many listeners know [00:05:00] I worked in corporate America and I went through a very interesting transition where the company was positioned to soul to be sold. So they downsized to make it more financially attractive and then it was sold and then they did this brief sprint of growth and then.
Sara Mayer: They went bankrupt, which is very interesting, but we had the same thing. Like when we knew that the company was on its way to be sold, they put us in two separate rooms. It was like, everybody's whatever room you're assigned and you didn't know which room was the one with all the boxes. And then which room was the one where you got to keep your position.
Sara Mayer: And it was just so stressful. But at that company, because then they did like slow roll layoffs, it was like every week we were saying goodbye to someone. And I, like you, was like, I don't ever want to work in this environment again. Yeah,
Chris Brown: absolutely. That's where, one of my passions [00:06:00] is I believe everyone deserves to control their financial future, not to let that be in someone else's hands.
Chris Brown: I'm not opposed to people having W2 jobs. I'm not one of those, but I think though. You have to have a backup plan or at least be able to have control over your financial future, which is in your hands. So it's not in somebody else's.
Sara Mayer: And one of the things that you brought up is that you didn't grow up.
Sara Mayer: This way with the entrepreneur or wealth building education or knowledge. And I think many of us are that way. Our parents grew up where they wanted to get the watch at 30 years and the diamond ring or whatever at 50. And they retired from some people retire from the. Their very first position.
Sara Mayer: I know my dad was that way. The first job that's the company he retired from. So how do you help people get that knowledge? Because it's not something that maybe is ingrained in their family.
Chris Brown: Yeah. I think that's one of those things that one, everybody's out there [00:07:00] is open to something different and some change.
Chris Brown: Sometimes they just had to be presented that opportunity. Sometimes it's through problems or pain. Like we both had that go into the room, sit at the phone. Sometimes it's somebody introduces it to them and just shares, there's a different way. And so a lot of times it's a matter of just sharing those opportunities and just talking about a different way where you don't have to do it like everyone else is doing.
Chris Brown: You've got the big gurus out there, like a Dave Ramsey saying, that the debt is dumb and that kind of stuff. And that others are saying that you've got to build the wealth and leave your job and be an entrepreneur. But. I think it's a bit of a mix of those things. It's more about what's the best for you and your family and what your personality style is.
Chris Brown: And there's no right or wrong way. I think that's what's awesome about entrepreneurship. I think that's also what's awesome about the path to financial freedom. Financial freedom just means you are in control of what you do, when you do, and how you do it. And that's what I want people to get is that ability.
Chris Brown: So if you want to go work, then go work, you love your job, stay there, but [00:08:00] it doesn't own you. You're able to be in control of that in the future.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. So what would you say is the first step for somebody who's sitting there? They may be sitting in their cubicle Oh, I can't be here anymore.
Sara Mayer: Or they may be sitting in their corner office saying, is this what I work so hard for? What would you say is the first step of really dreaming something up? That's different.
Chris Brown: Yeah, I think the very first step and I tell this to everybody is it's a mindset thing and I was the one 20 years ago when I started studying building wealth, I skipped the mindset chapters.
Chris Brown: I went straight to the tactics. I didn't want to know about the mindset. I wanted to go straight to the how to show me the investments. Show me the moves to make. But that is not the actual way. So the mindset is important to become or to be that person that you want to be in the future. So how do we generate that in our head and our mind and our heart that we want to be financially free?
Chris Brown: We want to be wealthy, that we want to have freedom, whatever that is. Because that's who we will become. So I think you have to [00:09:00] start first by just deciding that you have to cut off those other things. That means you're going to maybe give up for a minute or two. Some luxuries that you have as you take that path forward, that you may be and do things different than everybody around you when everybody else is going to happy hour or five nights a week or doing something different that may not be, but that's who you've decided to become.
Chris Brown: Which means you'll take the actions. So that's the first thing I think. I think that mindset is huge. You have to decide that first, then I would move into the, some of the more tactical things, which could be my first step is always to one, take inventory. Where am I have to know where I am before, wherever I'm going to go.
Chris Brown: I think that's a very important thing. First, you have to have that vision, you then take the inventory and then you can get a plan, but what we do. So I call that the VIP. What I always tell people is this. I always start with the baby steps. So what's that inventory look like? Be real.
Chris Brown: A lot of times people just are lying to themselves. They're way in over their head. They've got a lot of debt. They have a lot of things that are holding them back that actually they could just cut out a few [00:10:00] things and their life would drastically change. Their stress levels would come down and that would change their future.
Chris Brown: But some of that is just getting out of debt. Some of that's having a budget, an old B word or a spending plan. It's so simple, but a lot of this is psychology. Actually, most of it is the math piece of getting out of debt, of building wealth is not the hard part. It's 80 percent psychology, 20 percent actually execution.
Chris Brown: When you realize that, then it becomes a fun game because everybody has the opportunity to win the game. It's just the ones that don't get the mindset of saying, all right, I'm going to do this. This is who I'm going to become and do that for a long period of time. It makes a big difference.
Chris Brown: Once you start to realize that.
Sara Mayer: That's really interesting because I work with a lot of people who are setting what I call bold goals and, people set goals all the time. And many times they're like, Oh, I'll do this by February or whatever. And those things are great. And that's a great way to keep you motivated to keep you [00:11:00] going.
Sara Mayer: But truly, when you're setting out to accomplish those big, bold goals, those things that are really important, they take time. Sometimes more than a year, but I hear a lot from people. Once I get this, it could be whatever. Once I get out of debt, then I'll go pursue my dreams. Or I've even heard somebody say, I just hope I win the lottery so I can live my dream life.
Sara Mayer: And when you do the math on that, the math is not really great. Cause they pull that twice a week. It's like 104 possible people and not everybody wins every single week. So it's not a really good math equation to wait on that. But I hear that a lot. Once I do this, then I'll do that. Once I quit my job, then I'll live the life of my dreams.
Sara Mayer: And I think you and I both know that Sometimes you have to start small and start working towards that in order to get that big, bold goal. But if you don't make any of the moves, years will go by before you do anything. [00:12:00]
Chris Brown: Oh, absolutely. And it's funny that you mentioned the lottery, right? This is part of that, who you become.
Chris Brown: So it's a stat out there. They're about 70 percent of all people that win lottery end up bankrupt or broke after. So even though they win it, it's because they don't have the foundation inside them to live with the money or the means that they've made. And that's what you have to build. You have to build the foundation.
Chris Brown: You have to understand what that looks like. How does money work so that you can continue to grow it, make it, invest it, and it'll come to you and that's one of those things, but it's a hard thing to get to understand that mindset and to make that change.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. What are some of the mindset blocks or changes that you think trip people up or are the first couple to work on?
Chris Brown: I think for a lot of people, they say I don't have money, right? Or to your point, I'll wait till I get it. And it's one of those, you're too, what you were just saying, you have to start. So everybody is actually capable of making money, investing money, building wealth, getting [00:13:00] out of debt. It doesn't matter.
Chris Brown: The debt system, the banks and everything actually do it based on a debt to income score. So most people don't realize you can actually pay off your house in eight years. Most people don't even realize that's possible because it's an income to debt ratio that happens. And you can dig yourselves into big holes, which make it really hard.
Chris Brown: But the banks have done this, the studies and the math, and they actually make it where you could pay that off. That quickly, but you have to start to say, all right, I can do this. I am able to do this. And why do you want it? It's not just to be rich and not to just have money. And a lot of people have mindsets that say rich people are bad.
Chris Brown: And that's not the case, right? Even everybody quotes, the Bible says the root of all evil is money. And it's not that it's actually the love of money. And so what I like to do is to have money to love people. And so one of my favorite things about having wealth and having money is being able to bless others and to give in generosity.
Chris Brown: So that same mindset of I'll do it [00:14:00] when I tell people this, you have to start giving. Early, you can't wait until you have money to give you give money so that you become a giver that no matter what amount of money is, that's what and who you are. So a lot of this is transformational inside is I am a giver.
Chris Brown: I love to be generous. I love to give by, by people's stuff, give people stuff, take care of those in need. And I think that's important. So you have to become that. So I think the changing of those mindsets inside of us, whether I'm poor or my family was poor, or my mindset is, I'm going to always have a job.
Chris Brown: My mom's always said, I'm going to have a car payment. That drives me crazy. Like you don't have to always have a car payment. That's not accurate. Those are little things that we say to ourselves that we plant the seeds of, and then we try to fulfill those. Some of those are just protection mechanisms.
Chris Brown: Some of those is because we don't want to be accountable. But a lot of those are just things that we've thrown out there that [00:15:00] rich people are bad or people that have a wealth have done it evil, right? They've done evil to get that or we're going to put down or leave where we came from. But that's not true.
Chris Brown: Like again, you're developing a foundation. And in becoming something more. And so their heart has to develop with that at the same time. And that's where I think the foundation of growing takes time. A lot of people can't handle their character actually can't handle the wealth if they got it all at once.
Chris Brown: And so they become more of a bad thing of who they are. We're all, we all have our own issues. We're not, none of us are perfect. And so you start throwing other things on top of that. But I think that's the fun part of the process of building that over time is to be able to build the character and become the person you want to become while you're earning and making the money and building the wealth.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And what a strong why, you talked about how you want to be a giver, like that's why you're building wealth, and whether that's your motivation or not, if you're listening, but that's such a strong why I want to be able to do this for other people.
Chris Brown: [00:16:00] Yeah. No, it's so good. I love that.
Chris Brown: Why? And it can be anything. It can be even just to take care of your own family. It can be to break generational verses and things within your own family that you've had where we've lived this way for so long and I'm not going to be the next one to continue to live that way. I'm going to break the cycle of poverty.
Chris Brown: And I was the first in my family to graduate with a degree. My dad had an eighth grade education at one point. But went back to college, finished it later on and like you said, he was one of those that worked 30 years at the job that he had very good worker, a lot of work ethic and showed me and taught me that.
Chris Brown: So I'm very grateful for that. But I think. It's one of the things that we have to be in to have a good why taking care of our family breaking some of those things that we've had in the past that kept us down. Who you hang out with is also on those, right? You have to be able to surround yourself with people that can help you and believe in that.
Chris Brown: They won't say, no, you shouldn't do that. That's crazy.
Sara Mayer: Yeah,
Chris Brown: because it looks a little, it looks different. Yeah. Broke looks normal. [00:17:00] Freedom does not look normal right now.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And we hear this a lot, somebody will share their dreams and then someone will say, my uncle in 1922 tried to do that and didn't work out for him.
Sara Mayer: And what is your advice on sharing? If somebody has this goal to live different and have that freedom, what is your advice on sharing that with others?
Chris Brown: I think you do have to, I think it's important to share, I think, but having a trusted core group of people that are your supporters and believers is important.
Chris Brown: Now, accountability, a coach like yourself and others that are doing that, like that's important as well. So have people there to hold you accountable. But I think it's important to share those with others that are in your trusted circle. You don't have to share it with everybody. But you are passionate about this.
Chris Brown: This is your thing. It doesn't affect them if you share it with them now if you're bragging you're doing something like that's different But if you're sharing because you love it and you want to help them then that's a different thing And I think that's important. So having the goal Becoming is more [00:18:00] important.
Chris Brown: I used to be very goal oriented and I say that meaning I was more about the outcome versus the process of and now as i've aged in my Years, I'm starting to realize it's the becoming part, that journey that we hear about, that's actually where the growth happens. It's not about achieving a specific outcome because you're going to reach your first million, your second million, your 10 million, whatever it is, your passive income number, and you're still going to need to do more and you're going to feel that.
Chris Brown: So it's actually about who you're becoming along that process that makes the most difference in, in how you live out your life.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. I think that's so critical too, because you mentioned this, that if you were to become an overnight millionaire tonight, today, I don't know when they pull the lottery, but, or however you do it don't rob a bank or anything, but You may not be ready for that.
Sara Mayer: Your current self may not be ready for that. And so that's the process of becoming ready for that. And it may [00:19:00] need to be small. It may be bigger leaps, depending on what you're doing, but it's really that transformation.
Chris Brown: Exactly. All this is a transformation and wealth is one of those that's defined differently, or some people define it as a set amount of money.
Chris Brown: Some develop it or define it as different things and net worth. I develop or define it as time. How much freedom do I have in time? So if I stopped working today, which I stopped, I don't know if I shared this, but I retired three years ago, almost at 42. How long can you go without working and still cover your cost of living and your normal expenses?
Chris Brown: That's what wealth is to me is a time thing, not an amount. So if you have assets coming in, so real estate billboards, bringing in passive income that I don't have to go actively work for every day. I can live indefinitely from here on out and not have to ever go to work again. And that's a different thing versus just the amount of wealth of a net worth or a set amount of cash or whatever it may be.
Chris Brown: So I [00:20:00] think, having defined having those things are important and making sure that we understand those definitions is something that gets you there as well.
Sara Mayer: That's awesome. So you talk a lot about passive income. What are some ways that people may build that? Or what are some things that people might explore?
Chris Brown: Passive income is fun. There's a lot of different ways and there's no right or wrong way. I think everybody figures out what they are. So I started out actually buying my first real estate property in 2024 or 2004 over 20 years ago. And that was my neighbor's house. I bought and fixed and flips that wasn't passive, but that was my first real estate investment.
Chris Brown: But basically passive is anything that you can buy more income. So use your current income to do that. So that can be single family rentals. That can be multifamilies that can be businesses and owning businesses. What I've done and made a mark in is actually doing billboards. So I own billboards. Which are just good old fashioned side of the road on the highway, billboards, some digital, some static or old fashioned, and people pay [00:21:00] me every month to put their ad up there.
Chris Brown: And that money comes in every single month, whether I go do anything or not, as long as they're full. And so I built out a team and that's a way we can do that is have a team to do that along with what I'm putting into it, a couple hours a month.
Sara Mayer: Wow. It's interesting cause I actually just drove down to the Kentucky Derby from Illinois and there were like four billboards that we're still talking about.
Sara Mayer: We still make jokes about, we're like, Oh, and when you think about it, you have nothing else to look at when you're driving through cornfields. But those billboards made an impression. I'm obviously not. Doing their business. They were funny ones, but
Chris Brown: yeah,
Sara Mayer: they definitely stood out.
Chris Brown: That's what I love about that business is it's a different, you can't turn it. There's not a thousand channels. You think about the other forms of media out there right now. You have all of the social media, your Tik TOK, Facebook, Instagram, snap, whatever it may be. So when you're buying media as a advertiser, there's lots of [00:22:00] places and I can change any of those.
Chris Brown: The television now direct TV, Netflix, Hulu. All the different things along with your regular cable channels and local channels. So if I'm an advertiser, so many choices and options, the radio, XM, podcast, all these different things, billboards, you can't change. People will drive by those, no matter what, if they're driving and people are still driving.
Chris Brown: We haven't got the flying cars yet, but as a whole that those are still things you drive by and you can't change. And so it's a great way to get the message out for small businesses. And it's a great way to run a business or have a business that people still see as a legitimate business out there so that they would work with me and partner with me on those.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And
Chris Brown: then like my company is actually called signs of good. So what's really fun about it. It's the signs of good is our advertisers advertise. But what we then do is turn around and help out local nonprofits. So we help break the cycle of poverty in our local market. And we do that through helping with single moms.
Chris Brown: We help feed the hungry. We take care of foster care, adoption, [00:23:00] those kinds of things. So we actually take the advertiser's dollars in and then turn around and give a back out portion of that out into the community that we live in and work in. It's a lot of fun though. So the signs are actually doing good here in the community.
Sara Mayer: That's awesome. That's a great way to tie back to your why to
Chris Brown: it is. No, that's what I love to help people. I think that's what's so fun. And, as I continue to grow and said this next phase of life for me probably looks different. And so one of my passions is actually helping other people achieve this Sorry about that achieve this as as well.
Chris Brown: And so I'm actually starting to teach people that how I've decided I'm going to start to teach some people how to do the same process of creating passive income, building wealth, getting out of debt, and even doing that through billboards. So that's one of the things upcoming for me over the next few months.
Sara Mayer: That's great. So I want to go back to that first billboard. You drove under it. You're like this thing hasn't changed. What's going on with that first billboard? Did you buy that one? Was that your start?
Chris Brown: Yeah, so I [00:24:00] actually did, I drove by that one and I called the guy that owned it and he was actually, this was in 2011 and obviously the great financial crash had just happened and was, he was going bankrupt.
Chris Brown: He was a developer and owned all kinds of land. He actually had built that billboard for to advertise his neighborhood that he had built in some other properties. He was going bankrupt and he said, you can have it for what? I paid for it, which was unheard of. And so I was able to share that say yes, I would buy that and got that from him.
Chris Brown: He actually sold that to me and started owning that in 2011 and I still own it to this day. And so it was a great thing, but I had to go find who it was. Reach out to him and negotiate that deal so that I could purchase that. What's great about billboards. So it was a single pole that had four signs on it, which are four faces.
Chris Brown: So I make that equivalent to doors if you're buying real estate. So it's similar to buying a fourplex. And each one of those were at that time, 650 a month, [00:25:00] so almost 2, 400 a month coming in from that on a 75, 000 purchase.
Sara Mayer: It's a
Chris Brown: really good deal for that one back then. So what's great is those are just passive income that come in.
Chris Brown: And most billboard contracts are somewhere around 12 months. And so people say, I'm just like, they do leases on houses and that kind of stuff. So it's really a great way to do that. So I love the billboard business. That's what got me into it. My first one was that. And I still own it to this day.
Sara Mayer: Wow. Now. Real quick, before we close, what's your favorite billboard that you've ever what's your favorite advertisement that you've ever put up on a board for someone? Favorite
Chris Brown: advertisement. So we had one in our local market that was actually a contest that a local realtor ran. And they, Ran this contest and people said kids submitted their artwork and the kids artwork was then judged and the winner of the votes were then put up on, we actually printed it out and made it a billboard and put it up on the billboard.
Chris Brown: So it was a kid's art project [00:26:00] up on the billboard and everybody could go see it. So that was a lot of fun to know that somebody got to see that because it's really fun to be able to do that, be able to surprise people or to put Things up like that. And so I think that's a really cool thing.
Sara Mayer: Oh, that's awesome. Now, if somebody was interested, you said you've started teaching people how to live a debt free life or find financial freedom. Somebody was interested in that. How might they connect with you? What might they expect? Yeah.
Chris Brown: Yeah, so the best way right now is to go to wantmore. org and that's where you can reach out to me right now.
Chris Brown: I have a free resource, actually a guide to passive income via billboards, if they'd like to grab that. And basically that just shows them the ins and outs of that, if they wanted to get into that. So it's a really fun thing, really easy to do, but wantmore. org is a great way to follow me. And able to give them that information from that.
Sara Mayer: Great. That's a great billboard to want more
Chris Brown: QR
Sara Mayer: code.
Chris Brown: Yeah, that's my [00:27:00] website that I've had for since 2004 of, I've really wanted to help people again. I want people to get more out of life and it's one of those things and that I think everybody has that opportunity. And I think it's important to learn.
Chris Brown: And I was, it's actually funny. A story I tell is I was in my bar and just the other day. Working out and I have a kind of a CrossFit barn. I'm wearing that is really hot and this little hummingbird flew in. So I have two garage doors on each end and it flew in. It went up into the rafters of the barn and was flying back and forth and there's no way to get out up in the rafters.
Chris Brown: And it was stuck. And I was like, Oh my gosh. This thing's going to die. It's so hot in here. It's just wearing us. If you've seen hummingbirds, they're just flying. They're fluttering 90 miles an hour. And I watched it and I'm like, man, how am I going to get this thing down? Is it going to come out?
Chris Brown: It did not come down. It was stuck up there. I finally went and got my wife's hummingbird feeder. Brought that over and started putting it lower and lower. And I put it on the rafters. It finally found it, got a drink, and then [00:28:00] I lowered it down onto the top of the ladder. And it came down to that, but it came down and it turned around and went right back up.
Chris Brown: I did this three or four times. And I was sitting there and this was a long, it's probably 30 minutes. I was invested in this little bird and watching it go up and down, back and forth, just beat its head. Came down lower, like it could see clearly out either side. It could have flown out, but it turned around and went right back up.
Chris Brown: I did it again. He finally came down and he got out and I was like, oh my gosh, how many times am I that hummingbird that I'm beating my head flying back and forth, and sometimes I just need somebody to come in and show me the path to get out, it could be going down, it could be going left, it could be going right.
Chris Brown: And all I did was I never touched the bird. I never had to say anything to the bird, but I showed it a path, gave it a way out. And it was sometimes that we can't see our own way out. So this is where a coach, a consultant, somebody can come in and actually help you see [00:29:00] things around the corners, up and down, get you out of situations to help you move forward faster and without beating yourself up so much.
Chris Brown: As I was in there, I'm like, man, how many times has that been me that I'm just in there back and forth in the rafters and hitting that wall when I could have just come down, but I needed someone, or I need someone to come show me a new path, a new way. And that's what you do.
Chris Brown: That's what I do, right? That we help people see those paths so often of stepping down. Maybe it's just a new perspective. Maybe it's a new route. Maybe this is something they never thought about of, you I do this? What would my financial future look like and what would my family tree look like if I change this by getting out of debt, starting to build wealth, starting to build passive income?
Chris Brown: How much time could I spend with my kids? Could my spouse be retired, not work, stay home if they wanted to? Could I stay home if I wanted to and spend the time with them or take my parents on vacations or be able to move to the new house or to a new [00:30:00] location. So the school district is different. And sometimes that takes 1 thing, somebody coming in and moving that hummingbird feeder for you so that you can come down out of the rafters and get a different view and get back to freedom.
Chris Brown: He was free before, but he didn't know that he got up there, got stuck. And he could have died truly. If I wouldn't have seen him one, he would have been just hot one themselves out and they just fly so fast.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. Came
Chris Brown: down and saw that. So if I can help somebody help you get out of that stuck place, if you're flying back and forth and you're wearing yourself out, you feel exhausted.
Chris Brown: You're tired of trying it. And you feel like I've tried this thing. I've tried this thing. I've tried this thing. Some of them is not a get rich quick scheme, right? I don't believe in those. That's not how it works. You've got to first become, then you start to do, and then you can have the things, and that's the path that I live as the being doing, and then you get to have, but they're in that order.
Chris Brown: You cannot do them in any other order. And we all want to try to do the have first, but we have to become so that we can do so that then we can have.
Sara Mayer: Oh, I love [00:31:00] that. I think so many times we skip those steps or we're not even taking the steps because we think we need to have something in order to do it or before we can even get started.
Chris Brown: Absolutely. That's where the becoming, right? That's that mindset. It's who am I? I have to see myself as this, I have to believe that and I have to do the things to become that person. And when I start doing the things to become that person. Lo and behold, I start to have the things that person did because I was became that person.
Chris Brown: I started doing the things of that person. And then I get to have the things of that person, but you cannot do them in a different order. You have to do the B do half.
Sara Mayer: And I really think of this. I love this hummingbird story. I actually had a hummingbird experience similar where it was stuck in the, in Sun roof thing.
Sara Mayer: That was the whole process. But I, it's really equivalent to like corporate, like when I left corporate, they set the goals for me, I achieved the goals, I did these things. And then I was a high achiever, so it worked out. And when I was on my own, [00:32:00] I realized that I had a lot of skills and knowledge that was transferable, but.
Sara Mayer: The path, like you said, the Hummingbird going up had worked for me in corporate America, and it did not work for me when I was on my own. And so I had to strip away some of those things and realize that just because I was doing all these things in my business doesn't mean I was doing the right things.
Chris Brown: Exactly. Yep. That's exactly right. So see, that's a, that's you recognizing. So that's the inventory. That's the realizing where I need to do changing who you become. So I'm going to not, I want to go be my own person, not a corporate person anymore. It looks different. And then you started doing the things that entrepreneur does differently.
Chris Brown: And that's I have to eat, not just be busy.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And
Chris Brown: so I have to do things a little different. I need results, not just time and chair. And then you started to have, which is a successful business that you now have. And so that's the way it works. So it's like a lot of those things can be attributed to that.[00:33:00]
Chris Brown: We just realized that's how it works.
Sara Mayer: Awesome. I could talk to you all day. So remind everyone where to find you.
Chris Brown: Yeah. So want more. org. So like you want more money, but want more. org is the best way to find me right now. And again, that's where you can pick up that free guide to passive income. And that'll get you started and looking at those.
Chris Brown: And if I can help you in any way, then reach out to do that as well.
Sara Mayer: All right. Sounds good. Thank you so much for being on the show. I again, could talk to you all day. Great conversation. Let's do it. All right. Bold goal crushers. It's time to get out there and crush your goals and everything that gets in the way.
Sara Mayer: So you do not need to work double time. So let's get to it.
