[00:00:00] Mike: Hey everybody. Good afternoon. It’s Mike it’s Tuesday afternoon and this is Insider Secrets. I am joined today by my guest, Brian Trippe. Hey Brian, would you say hi and tell the listeners a couple of things that we’re going to talk about on today’s episode?

Brian: Hey Mike, what’s going on everybody. I think that today is going to be, first of all, it’s going to be an incredible show.

And the main thing that we’re going to get across today is we’ve all heard the saying “Your network is your net-worth”. How do we define that? How do we actually put that into action? And that is what we’re going to be discussing for the majority of our show today.

Mike: Hey everybody, you’re going to have to listen in. See you inside.

[00:01:00] Kristen: Welcome to this week’s edition of Insider Secrets. The show that turns multifamily investing into reality. Each show, we interview guests who are seasoned professionals, actively closing and managing real estate deals. Your host Mike Morawski has more than 30 years of multifamily, real estate investing and property management experience.

Mike is the founder of my core intentions. And he’s been involved in over $285 million of transactions. Focuses on helping you create short term cashflow and long-term wealth. Here’s your host, Mike.

Mike: Hey, good afternoon, and welcome back everybody. It’s another episode of Insider Secrets. I’m Mike, your host and Insider Secrets is brought to you by My Core Intentions. I am really excited about today’s show. I am joined by Brian Trippe. Brian, would you say hi real quick?

Brian: What’s going on everybody. Glad to be here, Mike.

[00:02:00] Mike: Hey, Brian, I’m really glad that you’re here. Hey everybody, listen, Brian Trippe is a real estate entrepreneur. He’s from Birmingham, Alabama. He’s done over 500 transactions since he began his investing career back in 2012. He specialized in wholesaling and creative financing.

And you guys know me, I love creative financing. We’re working on a big deal right now. So we’ll talk a little bit about that. In 2017, Brian started a real estate investors association in his hometown of Birmingham, which quickly grew to be one of the largest in the country. That’s “The Real Estate Investing Live Meetup Brain”.

He’s expanded well beyond Birmingham and is currently in multiple locations throughout the country. Hey, in addition to running all that in Alabama, Brian has a book out called “Nothing for Sale” that talks about how to dominate your local real estate market. And his second book, “ROI of Life” comes out later this year in 2021.

[00:03:00] And he’s going to focus on how to build a network that will produce cashflow for a lifetime. You know what? I had the opportunity to meet Brian out on clubhouse. And you guys, if you haven’t been to clubhouse yet that thing’s off the chains, but had great opportunity to meet a bunch of different people.

So we’re really going to dive into this today and get to know Brian really well, and just learn about his world. Hey Brian, in one word, would you describe for us what best describes you personally and professionally?

Brian: Connector?

Mike: Connector.

Brian: Yeah, I’m the connector.

Mike: So you’re a big networker, right?

[00:04:00] Brian: I set a mission for my set out on a mission to put a definition to the age old phrase, “Your network is your net-worth”. I wanted to define that. What does that actually mean? How do we truly do that? And I just set out on this mission and that’s what that you mentioned the “ROI of Life”, the book, it’s pretty much done, I just got to button it up and get it shipped out. But the ROI of life is my next book and it’s how to produce relationships that will cash flow for a lifetime. And this business real estate, just like probably many other businesses, it’s all about who knows you, but it’s all about building true relationships, not just surface level.

Hey, I’m getting to know you, Mike. I know a little bit of your story, a little bit of my story, that’s cool. I’m talking about actually like digging deep and really learning who we are as people, because people do business with those they know and trust. And they can’t trust you, they can’t get to that last part, the trust part, without truly building a real relationship. And that is what I’ve spent the majority of my real estate career doing is building relationships with people strategically, who I knew, who can help me get to the next level and vice versa, who I could help them get to the next level as well.

And it’s just served me in my career. I’m not the smartest, I’m not the best, I’m not the brightest, but what I am good is building relationships with people that will carry me on through my real estate career. And it’s strategic, and that’s the most important thing to know is you need to be building these relationships with people who can really [00:05:00] help you.

Mike: Brian, I couldn’t have said it better. That’s for sure. And one thing I know is the business that we’re in this real estate space. And I don’t really care if you’re selling real estate as an agent. If you’re an investor trying to buy an off-market deal. If you’re dealing with a broker, it’s about relationships, and not even so much who, but how do we take care of other people?

Because there’s that relationship that we make with people when we first meet them and we build, and we’ve got that short window to grow that. Did you ever read the book by Dale Carnegie, “How to win friends and influence People”?

Brian: Absolutely. If I reached just a little bit, I could grab it. It’s right here.

[00:06:00] Mike: It’s like one of the greatest books, but it really teaches you those philosophies and those principles. And speaking of books, being that you’re on your second book, I have a lot of respect for you. I’ve written a couple books and it’s not an easy task and it takes some time in the editing and everything else.

You really expand your mind and grow as a result of writing your own deal. Hey, let me ask you this. Brian, could you talk about your backstory a little bit? I went through some highlights in your bio, but tell us a little bit more about you.

Brian: Yeah, sure. I started my adult life at 30 years old. Until then, I don’t know what I was doing. I was just kind of flap it around in the wind. Not really knowing what I wanted to do or who I wanted to be. The fact that society makes you choose what you want to do for the rest of your life at 18 years old is a little weird and corrupt, but it took me till I was 30 to start to figure things out.

I went to college, went to the university of Alabama roll tide, and spent six years in Tuscaloosa because I just didn’t know what I was doing, I had no direction. I had no direction or no purpose. So I got married at 30, and I always knew I wanted to teach and coach, and I’d been coaching basketball for a long time.

[00:07:00] And I went back to school to get my master’s degree and became a graduate assistant and really launched my college coaching career at 30. But I was the kid up until 29 years old living in my dad’s basement, playing video games till 4:00 AM. I was the laziest person that you would ever know.

I’m not driven, literally no purpose, have no idea what I’m doing or why I’m doing it. And ended up going back to school, developed a little bit of purpose then, and ended up getting on this basketball team. Where I was a graduate assistant at UAB, the university of Alabama at Birmingham. And there was a coach there, the head coach there was Mike Davis ,and it’s the first time in my life, I learned what work ethic was. It was the first time in my life, I had a kind of like a father figure to look up to, didn’t really have a father growing up. And it’s the first time in my life, I really understood how to actually be somebody and be something. And I took that and I ended up coaching division one college basketball for a couple of years.

[00:08:00] And I found real estate in 2012 recently, I got my master’s degree, but I ended up stopping teaching. I was teaching at the college level, end up stopping all that because I made more on my first deal in real estate than I did an entire year of teaching and coaching. So it was just like, you know what?

This college basketball thing is cool. It’s really awesome to sit on a division one college bench. That’s pretty awesome. But the end of the day, it’s a very long to make any kind of money. So I’m just going to chase this real estate thing. And I’m glad I did because it worked out financially for sure and I loved it.

And then what ended up happening in 2016 is I got pretty good at this real estate thing and I decided I wanted to start teaching it. So I’ve got this master’s degree in education. I used to be a college basketball coach, I love to teach and coach. But it was like, I need to make money at real estate, and I became pretty good at real estate.

[00:09:00] So I ended up marrying two things that I was really good at. One that I was really passionate about, and one that was really good at. I ended up marrying these two things. And ever since 2016, I’ve been training and educating people in how to get started in real estate and it’s something I truly love to do.

I don’t love real estate, but I love the teaching aspect of it. So that’s my origin story. I hope that shed some light a little bit on who I am.

Mike: Yeah. You said one key thing and this probably helps our relationship a little bit, but work ethic. I feel fortunate. I grew up, my dad had a great work ethic.

He taught me a great work ethic. And I learned, because people have asked me, man, why do you work as hard as you do? And I say, it’s work ethic. We make commitments and we make that dedication and that’s what we need to do. What do you consider to be really exceptional for yourself today?

How would you consider living your life at the fullest? What would be exceptional for you today?

Brian: Right now it’s time. I think when we first get started in real estate, we do it because we want freedom. But what ends up actually happening is we end up creating.

[00:10:00] I ended up creating this ridiculous business where I was literally working 80, 90, even a hundred hours a week. I wore that as a badge of honor, and it ended up costing me my marriage. And I think that really since then, I’ve really re-evaluated who I am as a person. I was living somebody else’s dream.

I was living somebody else’s life that I thought I wanted, but it wasn’t really what I wanted. And when I really stepped back about a year and a half ago and tried to reevaluate who I was and what it was I was trying to accomplish, I don’t need to be bigger. I don’t need to grow this gigantic thing.

I would literally work two days a week right now, Mike. I work two days a week, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and Wednesdays are my podcast days. So you can call that work if you want to call it work. And Thursdays, I’m actually trying to do a little bit of real estate as well. So I don’t work that much.

[00:11:00] I don’t need to work that much. I live very simply, I live a simple life. I don’t have crazy expenses, I don’t do crazy things, I travel a lot. So for me to answer your question is time. Like right now, I get the most fulfillment and I get the most joy and I get the most peace when I am running, hiking and just out in nature and just out and just moving and moving my body, getting movement going.

My mind goes a million miles an hour. So I want to quiet that down and it takes hours. I did a 15 mile hike yesterday and it took me three and a half hours to do that. It wasn’t until our number two, who I’m really starting to get peace and really starting to quiet all these voices down to where I can really almost meditate really, and really understand who I am as a person?

What do I want, what do I need? What’s most important to me? Right now, it’s my children. I have a six-year-old and a four-year-old, and it’s just me and it’s my mental state. I want as much mental clarity as possible. And the only way I have found to achieve that is just to shut off all the noises and just be calm and be peaceful. That’s where I’ve found the most joy I’ve ever had in my life.

[00:12:00] Mike: Boy. That’s awesome. I like that what your comment about podcasts not really being work. Because I don’t believe building a relationship with somebody is work. I look at these podcasts today and the zoom calls is like, we used to go to lunch with people or we’d go for coffee to build that relationship. And now today that the whole world is shifted.

Brian: Mike, what I mean by work though is it’s the only time in my entire week where I actually have a calendar where it tells me what to do.

Mike: Yeah.

Brian: The other five days of the week, I don’t have an alarm clock or a calendar telling me what to do unless I schedule a hike or go out of town. Unless I schedule something I don’t have a boss obviously, but I have a calendar on Wednesdays and Thursdays that tells me what to do. That’s what I meant by work.

Mike: Yeah. When you went for that hike yesterday, where did you go? Out in the woods or up the mountain?

[00:13:00] Brian: So I live in Birmingham. I go to our local state park. That’s here, it’s the largest state park in the state of Alabama called Oak mountain state park. I’m there about three times a week. And so I run, I hike, I swim, I bike. I’m a triathlete. And so I do a lot of the training. I’m training for a couple of races that are coming up and I just, that’s what I do.

Mike: Nice. So where’s your next race coming up at?

Brian: The next thing I’m doing is in May 14th. I am running slash hiking rim to rim at the grand Canyon. Starting on one side, go into the other side and then coming back, and it’s 44 miles, about 13,000 feet of elevation gain and do that in about 16 to 18 hours.

Mike: Wow. That’s crazy. Good for you, man.

Brian: That’s been on my bucket list. I went to the grand Canyon for the first time last year, and it was just one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. And I wanted to really experience it in an extreme way. And I’ve been training for this for about a year.

Mike: Wow. Awesome. So are you doing any real estate deals right now or are you involved in any real estate that’s going on right now?

Brian: Yes. I did 21 wholesale deals last year in 2020. And I would tell you that I didn’t even work last year. I took almost all of 2020 off. I basically didn’t do anything, but I still did 21 wholesale deals.

[00:14:00] And I was able to do that because of the, going back to the very first thing that we talked about, Mike. I was able to do that because I built my network. So the first book I wrote was called “Nothing’s for Sale”, is how to become the real estate authority in your local market. How to become the authority figure.

By the way, you don’t have to have any or much experience to be the authority figure in your local area. So in 2016, I started a podcast. I started a meetup group. I just made myself visible, even though I was doing a lot of real estate at the time. I made myself visible and I became an authority figure just because I’m the person at the front of the room, and that’s it.

Doesn’t take anything more than that, just because I’m the person leading the podcast, hosting the podcast. And I might not even be the subject matter expert because my guests, I typically prop up and make them the subject matter experts. I’m just the one asking the questions, but I get a sense of authority.

[00:15:00] I get a lot of that authority by proxy just by being close to them. I used all these different things and put out content just to become an authority figure in my local marketplace. Guess what? It doesn’t happen overnight, but over time, I am the person that everyone goes to if they have a deal and they can’t sell it, or if they’ve got a buyer and they need a deal.

Hey, I’m getting these emails like crazy. And so I just put deals together through text messaging and through emails. I don’t go to a closings typically. I don’t go to properties, I don’t meet with sellers, I don’t do anything. I’m literally doing deals from my phone and you can call that work if you want to.

But this is like literally spending maybe 15 or 20 minutes per deal total, to make anywhere between five and $20,000 per deal. So yes, I’m still doing real estate today. I’ve got a lot of rentals still that we work on. I live passively off of that. I’m doing wholesale deals as they come.

[00:16:00] I’m doing joint ventures as they come, but I don’t do any direct to seller marketing anymore. I don’t spend a dime on marketing anymore. And you can do that when you’ve built this incredible network. And this is how you actually put a definition to that phrase.

This is literally how you put a definition to the phrase, “My network is now My net-worth”, because my network is actually building this income for me, just by building relationships with them over time.

Mike: So I want you to talk about that a little bit more, but my first question is wholesale. When you’re wholesaling deals, are they residential or are they multifamily? What spaces are those wholesale deals in?

Brian: Yeah, almost strictly a single family. I’ve always been in the single family industry. I know you do a lot of multi-family stuff, Mike. I’ve just barely dabbled in it. I’m not really a multi-family person at all. I’m just a big fan of the single family.

I think it’s a lot easier, there’s just a lot more of them. It’s a lot easier to find those deals and get those deals. So there’s the buyer pool is enormous, the seller pools enormous. It’s just easier in my opinion.

[00:17:00] Mike: Yeah, for sure. Okay. So let’s talk about networking. So you’ve got some big meetup groups. You’ve got REI live. You’ve got a pretty big network. And tell somebody who’s maybe just coming into the business, Hey, listen, this shows Insider Secrets, right? So let’s dive in and talk about how somebody coming into the business should be networking? And what that looks like for somebody new?

Brian: And by the way, Mike that’s a great question. And it’s one of the most daunting things for someone who’s new, because I think a lot of people define networking as that means I have to go up to somebody and start talking to them.

Mike: Yeah.

[00:18:00] Brian:  And that’s uncomfortable for a lot of people, for at least 50% of the people out there if not more. If you’re brand new and that’s a daunting task for me to do something like that. In the beginning, you’re not going to sit here and quote, unquote network that maybe the traditional way. Some people will define networking is what’s called network, not net sit. So you’ve got to actually get out there and work and do it and move forward.

 In the beginning, you just don’t know anything. In the beginning, you just don’t know what you don’t know. So if you are going to meet up groups, which I highly encourage you to do, I encourage you to do that. I encourage you to go to all of them. So you can literally go to a website called meetup.com and just search for different real estate groups in your community.

And as we come, I don’t know when this episode is coming out, but it seems like we’re coming out of the pandemic. It seems like a lot of things are opening up. I want to encourage people to get back out there and start meeting people. Yeah, there’s a lot of virtual things, but the biggest thing that took a gigantic hit in the real estate industry during the pandemic, as far as these meetup groups go, is you’re not able to actually network. You can’t, you can a little bit, but nothing can, and nothing ever will take the place of a live event. So we are real estate investing live. That’s the name of my company, live.

[00:19:00] Real estate is two things. It’s local, but it’s live. You have to do it in person. Yeah, you can get away with watching YouTube videos. You got a great podcast, a lot of great podcasts out there. You can absorb information, but until you get out there and look people in the eye, belly to belly, shake their hand, really get to know them as individuals.

Mike: Yeah.

Brian: It’s just not going to work. But, so to answer your actual question, in the beginning, if you just meet one person and just get to know them as a person, forget about real estate, don’t even think about real estate. Just start to get to know them as a person, and then come back the next week or the next month and the next meetup that you go to and get to know one person as an individual. You’re going to be listening to speakers, you’re going to be absorbing real estate information. Listen to podcasts, YouTube videos, all those are good for absorbing information. Clubhouse, you mentioned earlier, Mike, all those are good ways and good resources for you.

[00:20:00] Because in the beginning, you don’t even know what questions to ask. I don’t even know what question to ask. The most typical question is how do you get started? And that’s a really hard question for anyone to answer by the way. So you want to be educated a little bit and just little by little. Networking does not happen in a snap of a finger.

It’s something that takes place over a lot of time and repetition. But once you do that, here’s the key, once you actually do that and you start to become known, you start to develop friendships and alliances at some of these meetup groups. Now you can start to, cause this is what networking is to me.

And this is how you actually define networking. Once you get to know someone, you can identify what it is that they need, what it is that they are looking for. One of the worst questions that you could, or one of the worst things that you could ever say to somebody is, if there’s ever anything I can do for you, let me know.

[00:21:00] That is one of the absolute worst things that anyone can ever say to you, or you could ever say to someone else. Because that shows me that you have taken zero effort to get to know me as a person. And it’s just a scapegoat, it’s an excuse. It’s like one of those things, like, how are you doing? Fine.

It’s just a thing that we say, a phrase that we say. It’s empty, it’s hollow, it doesn’t do anybody any good. So what you can do instead is get to know somebody truly and identify what it is that they are looking for. What is going to move the needle for them? Where are their weaknesses?

What are their challenges? Here’s two steps now, once you’ve identified that you are either the person that can solve that problem or offer a solution, or you can connect them with someone who has the solution. So that is how you network. And now once you’ve done something like that, Mike, the most incredible law of nature.

[00:22:00] That one of my favorite laws of nature comes to work in your play. And it’s called the law of reciprocity. The law of reciprocity is just another way of saying you’ve just guilted someone into doing something for you. That’s all it is. The law of reciprocity means I did something for you, now I’m going to feel guilty. Once I’ve done something for you, you’re going to feel guilty and you’re going to feel like you have to do something in return for me. It’s a natural phenomenon that happens inside of us. I don’t know, you’ve been to a restaurant where someone opens a door for you and you walk in and then there’s another set of double doors, now you open the door for them cause you felt guilty.

[00:23:00] You felt guilty that they opened the door for you. That’s the only reason you opened that, you don’t know this person you’re going to open the door for them necessarily. The only reason that you’re going to open the door back for them is because you felt guilty. This law, this phenomenon, and here’s what happens and there’s two great books that talk about this one is “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi. And the other is Adam Grant “Give And Take”, I think is where they talk about the law of reciprocity, where if you do something for someone, not only are they going to want to do something back in return for you, but it’s magnified now. Studies have shown actual studies have shown that when they do something back in return for you, they go above and beyond. They don’t repay equal for equal. They repay, they go above and beyond and repay more than what you offered in the beginning.

 And that is a study, that is like an absolute fact of life. And this law of reciprocity is how I built my real estate career. And it’s how anyone and I talk about this in my book, Nothing’s For Sale”. I talk about this and I talk about the phenomenon that can happen and how you can apply it to real estate and really start to do these deals, real estate deals by sitting there at your computer or sitting on your cell phone.

[00:24:00] Mike: Yeah. I think some of the best people I’ve met, Brian are people who are connectors. Because if I come across someone like yourself and realize that you need something, I can call somebody else. If I don’t know somebody and go, Hey, who do you know who does this? And connect you through somebody else. So some of the closest people that I have around me are our other connectors. I think it’s a phenomenon and you’re right. I’m just been like that for years. That’s how I grew my business. And that’s exactly what you’re saying too so.

Brian: Mike, all the successful people that you see out there, that’s how they grew their business. Because in the beginning, no one knows you, nobody knows who you are. You’re a nobody, you’re unknown is what I mean, you’re unknown. So the way you get known and the way you get on important people’s radar is to give.

And the best way to give is to do your own research and identify what it is that people need. Can I tell a quick story, Mike?

Mike: Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.

Brian: So I’ll keep this brief. There’s a guy in our local area in Birmingham is the biggest house flipper probably in America, to be honest, but he’s the biggest house flipper here in town.

[00:25:00] I wanted to start to understand how to flip houses. And I identified a need that he had, he didn’t even know he had this need, but I identified a need that he had. And it’s he’s doing all this incredible stuff, but no one’s ever heard of him. He’s a complete unknown except in the real estate circles.

So I asked him one time, Hey, can I ride around with you? Understand your business a little bit and I’ll bring my camera with me and I’ll record you. And we’ll put some content out for you, I’ll do it for free. Because I had a video editing background and I did a lot of video work. I took my talent.

This goes back to your original question, Mike, how can someone who’s brand new start to network with people? Once you identify what people need. You offer your service for free and it can have nothing to do with real estate. Video work really doesn’t have anything to do with real estate, making money in real estate. But it can, if you connect those dots.

So I followed him around for a day. I edited some video. I put together a seven part series on this guy, just from riding around for one day. And that series, he literally doubled his business that year, that next year. He went from doing 30 deals a year to 65, 70 deals a year in one year.

[00:26:00] And he credits it all to me, putting this series out on him, where he literally doubled his volume. And doubled his business because of a service that I provided to him for free. Guess what? Now look at what has happened. I just did this for him, doubled someone’s business. And now what? Now he loves me.

He’s brought me into his circle and we’ve become really good friends. And I think one of the key things that you need to do, I think this is Jim Rowan, who said this, that you are a product of the five people that you spend the most time with. If the five people who you’re spending the most time with are all multi-millionaires and you’re not one.

Guess what that’s going to do for you automatically, it’s going to raise your game to the next level. Because you’re now around people who think completely different than you. And these people, they’re thinking on wavelengths that you have never even imagined before, and it’s going to up your game and it’s going to force you to be better.

[00:27:00] And it all started Mike by me offering a service and offering a skill I already had, already possessed that had nothing to do with real estate, offered it for free to one of the biggest folks in America when it comes to real estate investing.

Mike: You know, that’s the power of the mastermind, right? Jim Rowan did say that. But if you go back and you read in “Think and Grow Rich”, Napoleon Hill says, the power of the mastermind is when you get people together. I always try to hang out with guys that do more than me, some of my best friends have airplanes and helicopters.

Not that’s necessarily what I strive for, but boy, it makes your mind stretch and it makes you think differently. And you’re so correct about that. Where’s your passion come from Brian? You’re really passionate about this and I love that about you and where’s that come from?

[00:28:00] Brian: I think it comes from doing something you enjoy and doing something you’re good at. And when you start to marry those things, something that you’re good at and something you enjoy doing, I think someone said that you’ll never work another day in your life.

There’s so many people out there who work in a nine to five, they’re doing something they don’t want to do. They are doing something that they never envisioned. This is not my life. I was doing that from age 24 to age 30. I worked probably six jobs in that six year period of time. Cause I couldn’t figure out what it was I wanted to do.

I was miserable. I was miserable, deep down inside. I was living in my dad’s basement. I think when you can find something you love, you truly love to do, and you’re helping people too. That’s another thing we haven’t even touched on Mike. You’re helping people genuinely. I can’t even tell you how many people have quit their jobs and are full-time in real estate, literally because of me.

And that kind of stuff fires me up. It fuels me, it gives me fulfillment. It gives me purpose. And when you find what you’re operating inside of your purpose, you’re going to be passionate. And Mike, show me someone who’s super successful who’s not passionate about what they do.

[00:29:00] Mike: Absolutely.

Brian: It doesn’t exist.

Mike: It can’t exist. And I think the two are just they’re polar opposites. Talk about that a little bit more though about that passion and where that comes from. How do you tap into that? It used to be that I was passionate about, I wanted to make a million dollars a year.

I made millions of dollars and I lost it all, right. And today growing it back it’s not about the money, it’s about how many people I can give back to, how my story can affect somebody else, how I can help somebody else to not make maybe a mistake that I made. How does somebody who doesn’t get that yet tap into that, Brian?

Brian: Mike, I don’t know. I don’t have those answers. I think that’s a kind of a psychology type of question. All I know is this, in 2012, in the summer of 2012, I went to a seminar on real estate. Never heard of real estate before didn’t know anything about it.

[00:30:00] Went to a seminar, and someone gave me a book and it’s on my shelf up here. It’s called something like something about, think it, grow it, profit, something like that. And it’s just a real estate book and it was probably about 150 pages, textbook style is really big. Big words, big prints I should say.

I sat down, came home from that seminar, sat down on my couch, laid down on my couch and at five o’clock in the afternoon until about midnight, I read that book from cover to cover. I couldn’t get enough of it. It was firing me up. I’d never seen that kind of passion out of me before when it comes to doing something work-related.

And I think if you don’t feel that way about real estate, when you’re first learning about it, you don’t have this thirst for knowledge this passion. If you don’t have that, I don’t know how successful you can be at it. It may not be for you. There’s nothing wrong with you for that. It just may not be your thing.

[00:31:00Cause I’m just a big believer. I’ve coached hundreds and hundreds of students, and the one thing I see in common with all the people] who end up making it. Because look by the way sidebar, way more people fail at real estate than actually succeed at it, way more. It’s tipped very heavily in the side of failure.

But what I’ve seen out of my students, what the commonality is they’re passionate, they’re fired up. If they make a mistake and they fall flat on their face, which you’re going to do by the way, they’re eager to get back up and they’re eager to learn, what did I do wrong and how can I fix it for next time?

And I don’t know if that’s something that comes from your upbringing. I don’t know if that’s something that comes from I think it might be more psychology, more psychological maybe like breaking down barriers, psychological barriers that you may have in your mind. I don’t know. I’m not a psychologist, even though I like to read a lot of those types of books.

I don’t know. I don’t know where it comes from. I don’t know how you can get it, but all I know is when I started reading these books, it was firing me up. Nothing I’d ever felt before.

[00:32:00] Mike: Yeah. There’s a message that comes through that what you’re just talking about, because I think that we can tap our inner self by tapping into some of these external things, whether they’re books or seminars and that’s where we can start to catch fire.

 Hey, Brian, as we’re getting down to the end here, can you give one piece of advice for a brand new investor coming into the business today?

Brian: There’s lots of it. And we’ve already mentioned really a lot of it Mike. You need to get around as many people who are successful as you can, you really do need to go to live meetup groups.

I’m a big proponent of that. I think that’s where it all starts. You start to get to know the lay of the land. The first few you go to, you’re going to be scared. You’re not going to know anyone. No one’s going to know you, and you may sit there quietly and you may not say anything to anybody and someone may not say anything to you, but keep coming back. Keep coming back.

[00:33:00] This real estate is a get rich slow game. If you want to get rich quick, find something else. Because to really do this the right way, there are ways that you can fast forward and bypass them some learning curves and things like that. But to really do it the right way to lay the right foundation, it’s get rich slow.

Take your time, little bit at a time. Go slow, find people who are already doing it, that you look up to and try to emulate what it is that they’re doing. Try to listen to as many of Mike’s podcasts as you can. Watch as many YouTube videos as you can. I think we’ve got a pretty incredible library at our REI live YouTube channel.

You can jump on clubhouse and just start listening and start absorbing information. And pretty soon things are going to become clear. What it is you do want to do within real estate and what it is you just absolutely don’t want to do within real estate. And start seeking out the things that you really do want to do.

Mike: Yup. Awesome. Hey, Brian, on a lighter note, a couple of questions I always like to ask all my guests are, and you’re from Birmingham, right? Favorite tourist attraction and not the state park?

Brian: In Birmingham, the favorite tourist attraction.

Mike: Yeah.

[00:34:00] Brian: Oh my gosh. That’s a hard one. Birmingham is not really a tourist destination for sure.

We’re two hours from Atlanta. We’re three hours from Nashville. Those are like the places that we send people to .Tourist destination, we’ve got some the civil rights museum is here. Where Dr. King spent time in jail. That’s here the 16th street Baptist church that got bombed is here in Birmingham.

A lot of people, if they do come to Birmingham, they want to see that history.  Birmingham used to be nicknamed Bombingham, because of that, and there’s a lot of history here as far as like the civil rights movement goes, those are probably the biggest things.

If you want to take a 45 minute trip south, what would that be? That would be Southwest from Birmingham. You can visit Tuscaloosa, where the university of Alabama is. And if you’re looking to go see the number one college football team in the land, that’s not a far place.

I’m a huge Alabama fan, obviously go in there and spend a lot of time there, the reigning national champions, by the way. So those are the kinds of things that I think that most people probably come here for.

[00:35:00] Mike: Love Alabama. How about the best book you’ve ever read?

Brian: Oh, my goodness. So you can see a bookshelf behind me. I’m a huge book reader, the best book I’ve ever read. My favorite book is not a real estate book at all. My favorite book of all time is “The Catcher in The Rye” by Mr. Holden Caulfield and catching their eye JD Salinger wrote that. I have a literature degree.

I have a master’s in English, master’s in education. I have a journalism degree as well. I’m a big kind of like reader and English type of person. But as far as business goes, I really like the book, even though it’s a little dry, the principles in there are timeless, the book called Influence by Robert Cialdini.

Mike: Yeah, I read that.

[00:36:00] Brian: Yeah. It’s probably the best sales book that you could possibly buy, even though it’s not really a sales book per se, but it really talks a lot about the psychology of how people and why people think and why they buy and how they would buy. And it’s really a book on social experiments. So it’s a little dry in that regard, but it’s like experiment after experiment really nailing down, like why people do what they do.

And it’s just really eye opening if you’ve never read that before. So that’s probably my favorite book.

Mike: I find that interesting, your literature degree and real estate, that’s like an engineer and real estate. It’s ironic how this happens to us. And then last question, famous favorite restaurant?

Brian: Favorite restaurant, my kids are six and four and we spend a lot of time at Cracker barrel. So I would just say right now, the season of life that I’m in, Cracker barrel seems to be a favorite of our family for sure.

Mike: Love cracker barrel. There’s one right off the expressway by my house.

Brian: Right.

Mike: Great breakfast.

Brian: Absolutely. Great breakfast anytime of day.

Mike: That’s right. And then a little rocking chair action on the front porch.

Brian: Then the checkers and the toys and everything. Absolutely.

[00:37:00] Mike: Brian it’s been great having you on today. Could you please tell the listeners if they want to get ahold of you, how they find you?

Brian: Absolutely. Mike, thank you so much for having me, by the way. Guys reach out to me on social media, that’s the best way. Those are all my DMS, whether you find me on Facebook, just search for Brian Trippe, I’m the only one. There’s a couple of us, but I’m the only one doing real estate. On Instagram. It’s Brian J Trippe.

I’m sure you’ll link all that up. But just DM me. I have a personal rule, if it takes me less than five minutes to do something for you, I’ll do it every single time. So shoot me a DM. I answer all my own DMS.

Mike: Yeah. And for people to know too, I found Brian on Clubhouse. Listen, follow him on social media, connect with him. Cause he’s a wealth of knowledge. And one thing that Brian can do is help teach us all how to network better and maybe be a little bit more efficient at it. Brian, thanks again for being here. And my listeners. Thanks for being here again.

We’ll see everybody next Tuesday. 

[00:38:00] Kristen: Thank you, Mike, and thank you for joining us for another great episode of Insider Secrets. As always, Insider Secrets is brought to you by My Core Intentions. Join us on social media and visit mycoreintentions.com where you can get expert coaching on all things, multifamily investing in property management.

We’re looking forward to having you back again next week for more Insider Secrets.