Want To Change Your Life? Tune In!
What happens when you step away from a conventional career and venture into the unpredictable world of real estate investing?
Welcome back to episode 75 of “Inspired To Invest”. Watch now.
Join us as Brady McDonald shares his riveting journey from small-town Ontario to becoming a prominent real estate investor with projects spanning Canada and the U.S.
Brady’s story is one of ambition and resilience, where a pivotal decision in 2015 to leave a stable job at Hydro One initiated the launch of BK Real Estate Investing with his wife.
Discover how they transformed single-family homes into profitable duplexes and expanded into land development, proving that self-belief and actionable steps can lead to extraordinary success.
Real estate investing isn’t just about buying and selling properties. Brady unpacks the critical elements that separate winners from those who falter, warning against the dangers of rapid growth and mismanagement.
He offers insights on leveraging equity and joint ventures over excessive debt, and the transformative power of technology in managing investments. With a keen eye on the Canadian market’s unique hurdles, Brady also explains how adopting strategies from the U.S. market can yield significant advantages, urging investors to maintain strong operational foundations and surround themselves with high-caliber individuals.
Adverse conditions like rising interest rates and natural disasters can shake even the most seasoned investor. Brady reveals how he navigated these challenges after relocating to the U.S., highlighting the importance of having a supportive network, including his business partner Kent Clothier.
His journey towards building an institutional-grade self-storage company underscores the value of setting clear goals and taking decisive action.
Tune in to learn about the 0 to 100-day challenge, a holistic approach to aligning personal growth with professional achievements, and how you can connect with Brady for further insights on transforming your real estate ventures.
To connect with Brady, go to @brady.mcdonald84 or https://zeroto100.com/ on line.
Thank you to Milena Cardinal from Cardinal Law for supporting this month’s episodes. To find out more about how her legal services can help you build your business and protect your assets, go to https://cardinallaw.ca.
“Inspired to Invest” is proud to support the Beyond Success Program, a not-for-profit financial literacy program for students, launched by More To Give & MAK Investments. Find out more at @more2give.ca.
Join us again on Dec. 4 to learn how to build a business and protect your assets with real estate law and structures!
Thank you for tuning into “Inspired To Invest”, hosted by @serenaholmesrealtor & remember, “when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit!”
Thank you for tuning into “Inspired To Invest”, hosted by @serenaholmesrealtor & remember, “when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit!”
And, for everything related to real estate and real estate investing, please make sure you’ve subscribed to @serenaholmesrealtor on YouTube & other platforms. We also have a page dedicated to this podcast on Instagram and Facebook @inspiredtoinvestpodcast where we preview guests each week, highlight their episodes, top takeaways, tips, quotes and more.
Real Estate Investing Podcast Transcript
Serena HolmesHost
00:02
Welcome to the Inspire to Invest podcast, where we’re sharing stories from real estate investors and how investing has changed their lives. This episode of Inspire to Invest has been brought to you by Cardinal Law. Hey, everybody, welcome to Inspire to Invest. I’ve got Brady McDonald here with me today, and he’s joining us from sunny Cape Coral, florida, but he’s initially from Barrie. He stands at the helm of a multi-million dollar business spanning the United States and Canada. His portfolio extends beyond this single success, encompassing ventures into developing self-storage facilities and even renovations. His path is marked by the battle scars of an entrepreneur, a testament to his business acumen and unwavering spirit, and I had the privilege of seeing him speak about a year ago in Collingwood, so I’ve been able to see and witness his story firsthand, but I’m very proud to have him here today. So how are you?
Brady McDonaldGuest
00:55
I’m doing great, Serena. How are you?
Serena HolmesHost
00:57
Awesome. So obviously you’ve done quite a bit and obviously I’ve got a little bit of a backstory, since I have heard you speak for someone that may not be familiar with you. Can you go back to the beginning and where real estate came into the picture for you, because I know it wasn’t something that was maybe on your radar early on.
Brady McDonaldGuest
01:13
Yeah, sure. So yeah, I grew up in like small town Ontario. Ended up losing my license for drinking and driving. My parents kicked.
01:21
This is going gonna be the very short version my parents are like, go to college, went to college for forestry, of all things, because the most successful people this is just perspective the most successful people my family knew, yeah, um were forest firefighters. So they’re like hey, go down this path. And this is, like, you know, this is where freedom looks like. So that’s what I did, um, in first year college I learned that, hey, my buddy’s friend worked for this company called hydro one. He had a brand new truck and a full case of beer, I’m like, and he made it 100 grand a year. I’m like that is that’s like. This is it right?
01:53
It’s not the dream job and it was, I mean, for a guy that I was 17 years old at the time 18 and so I did everything possible to get that job and I got it. You know, it took, like you know, four months. I, I um, got got that job and and I got it. You know it took, like you know, four months. I got got that job. And because that’s just the truth in life, I mean I just like, if you want something, you want to have to know it’s possible. Yeah, right. Number two is believe in yourself, take massive action and never quit. You can get it, it’s and that’s everything. So that’s what I did, so I had this dream job. We were like 10 years into the career. I was running a training center for for for hydro one.
02:27
Yeah you know training, you know thousands of people and running an apprentice program. They’re teaching men and women how to climb trees around the hydro lines and not kill themselves, essentially. And you know, we were just like, you know, like we had limited time free freedom, limited, you know, like your cap, financially, the union controlling how much work and effort you put into things and we’re just like what’s next? There’s got to be more to this. And we started talking to people. We started looking at buying storage and developing storage because we heard, hey, no tenants, no toilets, but realize we don’t have the money to do that. You know.
03:00
Then we met, then we were looking at network marketing and all these different things, buying franchises, you name it and met a guy who was a full-time real estate investor and he had 87 doors at that time and he bought 16 of them that year and it was already, it was only June, so halfway through the year he bought 16 doors or you know, a bunch of duplexes, eight duplexes, and I thought, hey, if he can do it, I can do it.
03:22
Right. And which is to go back to the truth, like, if you know it’s possible, believe in yourself, take action, never quit, you’ll get it. So we did we, you know, in 2015, we started our company called BK Real Estate Investing and we focused on converting single family homes to duplexes. And so it was my wife and I. We refinanced our primary residence. We came up with 150,000 and, you know, just went all in and I did all the renovations myself. For the first couple of projects, we refinanced them. It worked and that proved the strategy. And then it was like, hey, how do we actually create a business out of this? So then we realized that we need to control our costs, and so we started building, started the construction company, and then we got in property management company and we, you know, within the first year we did seven or eight properties. The next year, you know, it was about 20 um.
04:08
After that it was 35 to 25 every year for the years going forward and and so we ended up doing land development and, um, anywhere from like three to 10 unit buildings, uh, in properties and a lot of ground up. We did a lot of detached accessory dwelling units, um, and then, you know, eventually we you know which we can probably talk a little bit about later we eventually came down in the united states and stuff. But yeah, that’s kind of how it all happened, right, it just uh so how did you say it took three to make that transition?
Serena HolmesHost
04:39
like, did you just rip off the band-aid and quit what you were doing and then go into this, or did you do it kind of over a period of time to preserve that active income while you’re getting off the ground?
Brady McDonaldGuest
04:48
yeah, yeah, that’s a really good question. And and so, yeah, it took us. So we started essentially in 2050, april in 2015, and we, I didn’t quit. I took a leave of absence, um in um, in 2017, yeah, and I was about three months into that leave of absence where I’m like there’s no way I’m going back Right, like we were already making a taste of the good life six, seven figures.
05:12
It’s like why would I, you know we were already making, you know, you know life a couple hundred grand a year, easy, um, replace the income already just by you know doing these uh projects. And so we always did like, um, you know doing these projects. And so we always did, like you know, a bunch of buy and holds or like we would refinance and hold them, and then 25% we were flipping right. So we replaced the act, the income, which is a big thing for everybody to realize, like you’re not going to retire or do this on rental income.
Serena HolmesHost
05:39
Yeah.
Brady McDonaldGuest
05:40
It rich dad, poor dad, great book, great theory. You know good, you know back Rich dad, poor dad, great book, great theory, you know good. You know back in you know 20 years ago when it was written. But it’s like next to impossible now.
Serena HolmesHost
05:48
Yeah, and I think you need to consider that there’s got to be balance right. Like I have found and and you may be aware of some of the challenges that have happened in the community in the last year is that liquidity has become a really big problem, especially maybe for people tackling land development stuff, and part of the challenge is also they don’t have that balance of the active income coming in right. So I think that’s really wise feedback like, for one, taking that leave of absence just in case there’s any possible uncertainty, that you’re not just burning your bridges but then also just making sure that you are covered off so that you’ve got some of that income coming in, Because, as we’ve seen, like interest rates are going up, housing price price going down, like there’s all these challenges that people have had right.
Brady McDonaldGuest
06:27
So I think balance is incredibly important yeah, and I would say, like, looking back, the one thing that we probably did wrong or like maybe maybe could have been a little bit more strategic on, is like staying keeping that leave of absence as long as possible, because it would essentially still get me more mortgages because once you become, self-employed.
06:45
That is a new challenge it’s like oh yeah, I could have got a lot more mortgages if I stayed employed. Yeah, then I was, uh, at least a lot easier, right then, you know, that’s that was one other thing. But we went through a bloodbath, just you know, like a lot of other people. I mean we survived because we had a big portfolio and took a lot of action, but you know, there was months that we were bleeding insane amounts of money, and so my big takeaway from the last two years is to have multiple streams of income. And so you know like, and so that’s kind of where you know we can talk about our land development and what we’re doing now to generate that cashflow. Because you can’t, you know we were relying on selling properties. But until you can’t sell a property, like, you’re like wow, what do I do now If you don’t have access to equity? What do you do now If you can’t refinance? What do you do now?
07:36
Yeah, and so that is the big you need to like create. If you need a hundred grand to live, you should always have some other way to make a hundred grand outside of real estate, Maybe still be tied to real estate. That’s why I think like, even if you sell a few houses or I don’t know, there has to be a strategic move that way, Cause it brings a lot of people.
Serena HolmesHost
07:55
Yeah, no, I mean, I feel like that’s been like it’s actually amazing to me how quickly everything has changed and how many people have been impacted, like in a way that I think everyone’s heads kind of spinning after this last year, right, but I guess when you look at you know I guess that’s been nine years since you kind of got into this. What would you say is something that you feel like is your biggest success and something that you’re most proud of.
Brady McDonaldGuest
08:19
Yeah, I mean we, we built, like we’ve done, a hundreds of properties and built this big portfolio, all like most of it through joint venture partnerships. And, to be honest, like I remember, like looking at some of these other investors that they’re all done now because they, you know, went bankrupt or fucked everybody Sorry for the F word but yeah, like I see, I always thought, oh, it’s like it looks so much, it looked like why, what am I doing wrong? Like I’m only able to do 25 to 35 deals a year and I’m giving up 50% of my equity. But you know what the proudest thing that we ever did is? We’re operators at heart. You know we had a team of 20. There was not one other investor that I personally know had that team.
08:54
But, like we are one of the last ones to be surviving.
Serena HolmesHost
08:58
Yeah, right and to your point. That’s exactly where you pinpointed it. The mistake other people have made that they weren’t joint venturing and they weren’t using equity. They’re using debt and it wasn’t sustainable. So for some of the people that I’ve been exposed to that scaled really fast like hundreds, like 600 properties in six years. They raised all the down payments, misrepresented that it was for down payments and they raised so much debt and it just wasn’t sustainable. And then they crashed and burned. There was properties that weren’t renovated, there was 30% vacancies, there’s all these issues and stuff like that, and now, as a result, they’re losing everything, they’re going to be forced into personal bankruptcy and there’s going to be hundreds of investors also taken advantage of in that sense. So I think you did it the right way, like it might’ve taken a little bit longer, but I think scaling appropriately with equity and JVs is the right way to do it. Even if it takes a bit more time, at least you’ll have something at the end of it.
Brady McDonaldGuest
09:50
Oh, yeah, for sure, and I think the important part is, like, obviously there’s the way that you get the money and the way that you divide your equity, but the important part that most people forget about and Canadians especially and this is like like we’re like 10-15 years behind the Americans, like with regards to operations and systems and processes and people and scale and using VAs, instead of Canadians, like it’s no wonder you, like everybody, tried to do it themselves and because they can’t afford to have assistance and these other people to properly run a company. We did it all. We ran. We had a, like a property management company, we had a construction company, we had all accounting and bookkeeping in-house.
10:28
There’s no, I don’t know very many other people that did, and I think that is what everybody forgets is like this is a business and, yes, you can get the money, you can get the debt, you can split it all. You have to do the thing very well, yeah, and you have to be able to, you know, like, keep your costs down, be able to keep your costs down, be able to report properly, communicate effectively to your joint venture partners, be able to split profits fast and easy. And this is a business. And so most people were solo entrepreneurs, still with a pile of units or a pile of properties, and they just suck at it. It’s easy to look good when times are good. Yeah, you can just see. It’s not. We don’t. We don’t need to like necessarily highlight the big players that went down.
11:12
It’s there’s a bit more small players that went down yeah because and it’s purely because they suck at operations, because they weren’t treating it like a business yeah and so I think we need to read like get that message back out is like this needs to be operated like a true business, and if you’re not using crm, if you’re not using some softwares, a a suite of softwares, and using virtual assistants, then you’re doing it wrong.
Serena HolmesHost
11:35
Yeah. And there’s obviously just a lot of tools and things available to us now that might not have been there 10 years ago, right, but now that you have gone through some different cycles maybe not as extreme as like 2008 or something like that, but obviously some ups and downs what would you say are some of the biggest challenges and obstacles that you’ve faced?
Brady McDonaldGuest
11:53
Yeah, it depends on where you are. I guess In Canada, the biggest challenge is just the access to equity or just the access to banking. So, and the influence that the government has and the banking rules have on your portfolio, and so that is kind of what we saw in 2017, where the prices were going skyrocketing and then they flattened, and in 2017, where the you know, the prices were going skyrocketing and then they flattened, and in that, you know, when the prices go up so fast often and they drop, it’s like your strategy has to change, because what worked for the last two years isn’t what works today anymore, and that’s kind of what we’re seeing today compared to two years ago. And so that that’s the struggle in the Canadian market is that the one thing that works today isn’t probably going to work in two years, because there’s so much influence, there’s so much, you know, things going on in the market, where the nice thing in the markets are relatively small. That’s the challenge.
12:42
So you know now, looking back on this, we struggled on it. It was painful because we would crush it one year and we’d have to reinvent. We’d all of a sudden have to build coach houses, learn how to do t-detach accessory dwellings and that only worked for two years. Then we had to build ground up because, like, nothing else was penciling. So, um, that, that whole reinventing, I didn’t. I don’t love that. I do love the fact that in the united states there’s enough markets and although, yes, you have to change and you have to pivot and you have to reinvent yourself, yeah, it’s that like, there is so much opportunity here that if you can figure out how to do this somewhat virtually, um, you, you don’t have to reinvent yourself all the time. Yeah, you know that that was the hard part in in business. And then the other hard part, looking back on it, is not coming down here sooner to get around the right people that like that, that are aggressively trying to become better, like no offense to canadians, but we are, you know, in.
13:37
The canadians will say americans are like you know, they’re outspoken and they’re assholes and all this shit.
13:42
And it’s like, yeah, if you go to you know the all-inclusive, uh, you know the resorts and you’re drunk, right, and they’re drunk and like, yeah, you’re all a bunch of drunk assholes, but when you come down with intention to put your ass in the right room, these, and you get around the right people, like there’s so much opportunity.
13:58
They are so much better at business than we are so much Right Because they can, they can do, you know, because of their market in the opportunity, like because the opportunity in this country, they can do what would takes us 10 years, they can do it three years. They just get in like and so that’s no fault of our own, but it is an opportunity of our own. Like we’re not, we’re born in Canada. That doesn’t mean we have to do business together. That doesn’t mean that we can only network in Canada. We should be down where the best are in the country and if you do, all you got to do is cross the border, get on a $500 flight to be around the best entrepreneurs in North America. That’s what the Canadians should do.
Serena HolmesHost
14:36
Yeah, and things have changed. I mean, I bought my first rental property in Florida in 2013. And back then I couldn’t finance in either country, and obviously that has changed now, right? So I think, with access to information and now with some of the resources that are available, it’s not like you can blame that on a limitation, right? But we’re going to just take a really brief break for a word from our sponsors and we’ll be right back.
14:56
I value transparency, integrity and trust. If you choose to work with me, you can be assured that business will be conducted honestly and openly. Time is of the essence in this industry, so you can expect nothing short of quick, clear communication from me. I’ll keep you informed every step of the, so you can expect nothing short of quick, clear communication from me. I’ll keep you informed every step of the way so you feel comfortable throughout this entire process. Our homes are where we eat, sleep, relax and play. My clients’ best interests are at the heart of everything I do and, with this said, my service to you doesn’t end when the transaction does. As your realtor, I’ll not only help you buy and sell your property, I’ll also educate and support you along the way. I want to help you fulfill your goal of homeownership and become your trusted real estate resource for life. I can’t wait to share my passion for real estate with you. More importantly, find you the perfect house to turn into your home? Looking to buy, sell or invest in Durham Region or Toronto? Let’s chat Is a real estate investment you’re considering a goldmine or a landmine? Introducing PropertyCastio, the black magic of real estate investment analysis, use PropertyCastio to analyze and underwrite real estate investment opportunities, unlock the potential of a property and share professional reports. Jordan McGregor is a commercial realtor and founder of PropertyCastio. He identified the need to simplify and streamline how properties are underwritten to help investors make better decisions and sound investments. Propertycastio is a best-in-class, purpose-built tool for real estate investment analysis. To find out more, go to propertycastio and to sign up, click the link in the show notes.
16:42
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17:30
Hey everybody, welcome back to Inspired to Invest. I’ve got Bradyald joining me from cape coral, florida, today, but he’s initially from barry and before the break we were talking about how he scaled his portfolio and then eventually was attracted into the united states based on some of the resources and opportunity that we just don’t seem to have here in canada. Uh, one of the things that I always like to ask people is what’s one of the craziest things that’s ever happened to you as a real estate investor?
Brady McDonaldGuest
17:53
Oh man, yeah, the craziest thing was. I mean, what happened in 2022, 23?
18:00
Yeah, so, when the interest rates so okay. So we came down to the United States and you know, we just I literally had no plan right. We kind of came down, went to a mastermind. I knew that I needed to get around the people that were already doing it and really ultimately figure out the strategy that worked out here. So we decided, okay, no tenants, no toilets, but in the meantime, while we figure out self-storage, let’s force ourselves to get into the market. So we bought six houses, relatively short order of time, and this is all like just before the peak. Okay, short order of time. Um, and this is all like just before the peak. Okay, so 2022, I guess, is when we came down.
18:34
2023, you know, and you know it was kind of. You know, we’re kind of getting early 2023, we’re starting to get into the peak, and then, um, yeah, the interest rates started to increase and we got smoked by a hurricane down here. We’re about to get hit by another hurricane tomorrow actually, but yeah, we got smoked by a Cat 5 hurricane. And so, you know, now we’ve got this portfolio in Canada that’s gone from like sub 1% or just over 1% to 7% and the portfolio is bleeding like crazy. We had a whole bunch of. We had $15 million in development that we had self-funded up there, that prices were coming down while the banks were like redoing the appraisals. They were coming in lower. So they’re actually cutting funding on the finishing ends of the development projects.
19:27
And then you could get a hurricane. So the hurricane you have all these roofs blasted right off, I mean all the shingles, all the tiles, all the pool cages gone, and these are flips. So now we have. You can’t run all that, any of that, through insurance, because you can’t sell a house with an open insurance claim, so they cost us another like hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was just like you know. It was just one thing after another. Um that you know that was the craziest thing. It’s just like the compounding of not just one but all the things happening.
Serena HolmesHost
19:56
So how did you overcome?
Brady McDonaldGuest
19:58
that then. So what? What happened was, like I lived in fear for like eight months. We were trying to sell things and, um, you know, but what, we were taking the same approaches to what we’d always take, like, if we thought it was worth 500 grand, we would list it at 515, but in a declining market, or even a market like today, which really isn’t going up, you can’t do that. I mean. So we, we, I got good advice. I actually what happened was we were, I was just like at my tipping edge and I was using alcohol to, you know, to deal with the fear.
20:27
And I was using, you know, like a lot of us use alcohol to like have fun and to socialize and to relax and to deal with fear and all these things. And I, I, I was dealing with it. Like I was, you know, drinking at the end of every day just to make, just to calm down and like try to go to sleep, cause I didn’t know what to do, to be honest. And so I made, we were in the Exumas on our 53 foot boat and I just said to my wife like tomorrow’s the last day I’m going to drink. Of course I didn’t just have one beer, I had a whole bunch.
20:53
But then I left there and I went to see my now business partner, kent Clothier, and I told him all the news, the bad stuff, like I just poured into it, like, just like, got vulnerable and just said this is all of the crap that you got. To get around the right people, like if you’ve got a real problem, just tell the right person the real problem, get vulnerable, because that is the moment when you actually can get help. And so I did and thankfully he said he gave me three goals. When I walked out of there he said I want you to put a million dollars in the bank. I want you to generate, turn this one company into a couple hundred thousand dollars a month and to sell all the red properties and so and we can’t have a plan to do it all.
21:34
And so I just went to work, I got focused and I had cut all the booze out of my life and I focused on fitness instead of and fitness, family fitness, relationships and business. At that moment I said if it doesn’t add value to one of those four, I’m not doing it. So you can all of a sudden create a lot of momentum and solve a lot of problems when you stop doing all the stupid shit in life, when you stop socializing on, whether it’s TV or social media, or drinking and hanging out with your friends and buddies. They’re not adding value to your life, they’re entertaining you.
22:05
They’re distracting you actually. And so at the end of the day, I put $3.8 million in the bank. And how did I do that? I just sold the thing, I got unemotional, I got detached myself from the actual properties and solved the problem, and so we were able to. Kind of that helped right, and then I had bandwidth back, because when you are in the weeds, when you’re in the crap, you can’t solve your own problem. Often you can’t think properly. So you have to, like, figure out how to get rid of that as fast as possible. Get, figure out how to get rid of that as fast as possible, get around the right people, solve the problem so you can free up bandwidth. Then I can start focusing on.
22:37
Okay, what’s the next six months? Look like, how can we, you know, not only solve and clean up the rest of the mess, but, like what is? How can we, you know, re-strategize, figure out what this next thing is that we’re going to do? And that’s ultimately what happened. Like it was a combination of cutting out alcohol, doing only the things that mattered, getting around the right people, being vulnerable and taking massive action.
Serena HolmesHost
22:59
Yeah.
Brady McDonaldGuest
22:59
Right.
Serena HolmesHost
23:00
Well, that kind of covers probably my next question, which was what’s the best advice that you’ve ever received, but maybe there’s something that you want to add that could be a little bit different.
Brady McDonaldGuest
23:07
Yeah, I mean, it wasn’t necessarily. Well, okay, this is the best thing that ever changed my life. It was like I was on a jet. So I flew on a private jet with mark evans and and, um, he said, and so we were at this event and if you don’t know, mark evans is, he’s a super great guy, super successful entrepreneur down here in the us and he wasn’t drinking. And you know, we were socializing and drinking, and, you know, at a restaurant whatever. And I’m like, oh, mark, you don’t drink. And uh, you know, at a restaurant whatever. And I’m like, oh, mark, you don’t drink. And uh, you know, cause, like most places most in Ontario, canada, united States, doesn’t matter Everybody drinks. And it’s like this. It’s like, you know, it doesn’t. It’s the social thing to do, right, it’s the accepted thing to do. But and he’s just like his answer, I’m like why don’t you? And he’s like I just decided it wasn’t serving me. I’m like, darn, and that stuck with me for the next year. Yeah, right, and I’m like it just doesn’t serve me.
24:00
So, if you have a decision to make, right, that’s where I said hey if it doesn’t serve my family, my fitness, my relationships with my business, I’m not doing it. And that’s. Alcohol does not serve any of that. You know you can convince yourself that it serves that stuff, but it actually hinders all of it. And there’s going to be a lot of people hate me for this. They’re going to probably end the podcast. But I challenge everybody to seriously look inside yourself. If this is pissing you off, then ask yourself why. And it’s pure, it’s not. It’s got nothing to do with what I’m saying. It’s your relationship with alcohol and it’s not your fault. I’m. This is the exact same way, but when I cut that out of my life, everything got better.
Serena HolmesHost
24:39
Yeah.
Brady McDonaldGuest
24:39
You know, I, I had to fill the void. I had to learn how to do that Right. I had to fill that void. I had to be super strategic in that. But then, you know, my, I, I showed up bigger, in a better way. My business partners became guys that are doing thousands of deals a year. Yeah right, my, like my, my, I started running the 50 mile run and came third place. I ran 100 mile or ultraman, like doing things that you know, point zero, zero, zero. One percent of the humans on earth can do. Yeah, and that is purely because I don’t drink and I and I made that conscious decision. Yeah, right, and I’m not the only one. My, my, one of my buddies just sold his company for $218 million. He quit drinking two and a half years ago. One of my other buddies just sold to EXP. He also doesn’t drink. This is, this is just what successful people do. This is the thing that moves the needle the most.
Serena HolmesHost
25:29
Yeah.
Brady McDonaldGuest
25:30
Right, yeah, and so that that’s kind of the best tip that I ever got is like, hey, if it doesn’t serve, you don’t do it.
Serena HolmesHost
25:35
Yeah, no, I think that that’s huge and for some people, like they can have the one drink, but there’s also people that can’t and they continue on to like five and ten and obviously that has such an impact on on everything. Right, you know, to get up in the morning being focused, just all of those things. Now, obviously you talked about kind of where things were and how things have changed, but in your mind, like what’s next for you? Like what?
Brady McDonaldGuest
25:58
are you working towards at the moment? Yeah, so we are building a company called Barefoot Land Co and we focus on developing land for self-storage. So we source land off market. We have currently have 18 people. We started with myself and my brother back in October, november last year, and so now we have 18 people and we’re really focused on so we’re essentially sourcing land, doing all this intensive underwriting, doing the entitlements on the land and then site plan approvals and then essentially selling the dirt to a self-storage developer that will end up building ground up construction, and so these sites generate a pile of revenue per site.
26:35
You know it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, per site, and so that I’m just really focused on, you know, building out that company.
26:44
And again it goes really back to like what we did well, but we could have done way better is being operators and really running a company, and like we did a pretty good okay, okay, I would say in Canada and their last company, but I’m really focused on building an institutionally graded company that can scale, yeah, and so, yeah, that’s really what I’m focused on. You know, like I literally sit here and, you know, wake up at 430 in the morning, get after this. You know I got 100 miler coming up in two and a half weeks. So I’m training for that, like you know, doing a lot of stuff with the kids we travel like that’s the, that’s the next big thing is the company. You know I got a vision board over here that has a $500 million check, right, and that’s not going to happen overnight. But it’s not going to happen if I just get shiny object syndrome and chase the money and chase the opportunity. Yeah, the money and chase the opportunity.
27:32
It starts with like focusing on operations. Focus on the foundation right, so we can build a huge thing.
Serena HolmesHost
27:40
Now for someone that may not be familiar with it. I’ve seen just so many people that are really passionate about self-storage and I’ve seen people going really big into this and it’s something that I think a lot of people look at it like it’s really that kind of a demand for self-storage, like who are putting all their things into all these massive storage units. So maybe you can talk a little bit more about you know the economics behind that, the demographics and why there has been this big uptick when it comes to self-storage maybe in the last five to 10 years.
Brady McDonaldGuest
28:05
Yeah, it’s been getting like, I mean it’s getting more recognition in the last five. It’s been big from like a private equity standpoint for the last 10. And so, right, you can just kind of see like where the private equity goes, is kind of like where the next big thing is going to be. But yeah, so the reason why is because it is super stable during corrections. I mean, you know we’ve we’ve seen a decline since COVID and rental rates, but COVID was kind of like artificially created some of that craziness, but it’s just super consistent. I mean it’s one of the asset only asset classes best performing asset class in history through, you know, like 2008 and like crises, like recessions, like that. So, yeah, that’s why it’s super.
28:49
You know in it you don’t have all the people and you don’t have the tenants, you don’t have the toilets, and then there’s a lot of assets, obviously across the country that have mom pops that have been operating it, where there’s a big opportunity for those. Those. You know where you can do value add. You just like step it like, you know, paint new doors, gates, fences, that kind of stuff and operate it properly, drive your. It’s a business. So if you drive your net operating income up, you know, and you’re going to drive the value up. So it’s kind of like multifamily, though without all the people.
Serena HolmesHost
29:21
Yeah, now, for anyone that’s watching, that might be just starting out. Is there anything in particular that you’d want to instill in them, just to put them on that right path to success?
Brady McDonaldGuest
29:31
Yeah, so losers educate and winners implement. That is the biggest takeaway that you can like, honestly. You can listen to all the podcasts, you can read the books you can do, you can educate yourself to the nines. You will be stuck in the loser pool, I can guarantee you. The only reason I won, the only reason anybody else wins, is because they implement. They actually do the thing.
Serena HolmesHost
29:55
Yeah, right Take action.
Brady McDonaldGuest
29:56
Yeah, you have to take action. And so just remember that losers educate, winners implement. Yeah, right, that is the biggest thing. And I mean I think you need to educate yourself, ask the right questions, get around the right people so you understand the landscape of the thing that you’re doing. But then you have to literally take that big goal or that big thing whether it’s buying your first property and break it down into different steps and figure it out. Hey, if the first step is to learn how to underwrite, well then, that’s all I need to do. Let’s not worry about how to make an offer and negotiate, let’s not worry about having to renovate or do the conversion. Let’s just figure out how to underwrite, right, once you get that figured out in your head, okay, the next thing is to make an offer. Let’s go and do make 50 offers, yeah, and then I don’t care if it’s storage, buying your first house, it all works the exact same way.
Serena HolmesHost
30:43
Yeah, Awesome. Now for anyone that wants to get in touch with you or learn more about your opportunities. What’s the best place for them to find you?
Brady McDonaldGuest
30:49
Yeah, you can go to Instagram or Facebook, brady McDonald84. We also have a website at 0to100.com. So we do this thing. It’s a 0 to 100 day challenge. You know, it’s completely free, just really helping people. It’s kind of like the 75 day hard, but it’s way more realistic. Because the one thing that most people forget they think that making more money is going to get them to the life that they want. Right, but a lot of times it’s actually the opposite. Once you, if you start working on your body, you get your body right, you get your mindset set right, opportunities, relationships, all that stuff actually becomes possible. But if you’re not the person that you need to become to accomplish those goals, you’re not gonna. It’s just good, you’re gonna do it the hard way. Been there, done that right. Work on work on number one. So that’s what the zero to 100.com is all about, but you can hit me up there on social media.
Serena HolmesHost
31:35
Awesome. Well, thank you for your time today. I know that you’re a busy guy, of course. For anyone that is watching, thanks for your time as well. If you have enjoyed watching this episode, make sure that you like, comment and subscribe on YouTube. You can also follow along with us at Inspired to Invest podcast on social. And remember, when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit. Thanks again. Thanks again to Cardinal Law for bringing you this episode of Inspired to Invest. The views represented on this podcast are for general information only and does not constitute investment or other professional advice or an offering of securities. The host and guests featured on Inspired to Invest make no representations as to the performance of any particular investment. Should you decide to make an investment, you are responsible for conducting your own review and analysis. It is recommended that you obtain independent legal, accounting and tax advice from licensed professionals.