Brian Hennessy | Essential Tips To Thrive In The New Economy

Brian Hennessey has been in the commercial real estate industry for over 30 years as: a commercial broker; a Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Dispositions and ran his own real estate syndication/asset management company. He has represented a number of Fortune 500 Tenants including Bank of America, The Walt Disney Company and Baxter Healthcare.

With over 12 million square feet of sale and lease transactions; a wealth of experience was accumulated.

Having and adhering to a proven system keeps you from missing something and allows you to do it faster, easier and more efficiently.

“The Due Diligence Handbook for Commercial Real Estate” was written originally as a personal reference tool/checklist because of the many facets and volume of information that is needed to be remembered for each transaction. It is filled with information that is useful in any commercial real estate investment purchase; an apartment building, retail, industrial, office or residential property, from the smallest to the largest. The fundamentals remain the same, no matter what the property type.

Much value can be added to an investment by being aware of the potential of each opportunity’s strengths and weaknesses and using them to your optimal advantage. This handbook will help you to uncover those so that you may make informed and intelligent decisions while analyzing commercial real estate investments.

Don’t just survive …THRIVE in the new economy!

Feeling stuck or in need of a leg up? These tips, strategies, and resources can shorten your learning curve dramatically and get you on a new path for moving forward.

Inside the book you’ll discover:

• Essential steps to get out of your own way and create the right mindset for optimal achievement
• 47 proven tips to jump-start your own journey
• Effective strategies critical to fast-track your personal and professional objectives
• Web-based businesses that can start you earning quickly
• Books, audiobooks, websites, and video course resources to help you acquire the skills to reach your goals

The goal of Too Old to Hire, Too Young to Retire is to help as many people as possible. Now more than ever, we need to be proactive. By adding these skills to your toolkit, you’ll have a leg up in the new economy to enjoy life with less stress.

The publishing for profit podcast is brought to you by ghostwritersandco.com Earn more money by publishing better content and learn how do we increase your thought leadership. So you can build your brand head over to ghostwritersandcod.com for more information that’s ghostwritersandco.com.

And now your host, Joel, Mark Harris.

Joel: Hello, and welcome to the publishing for profit podcast. This is your host, Joel Mark Harris. Today we are interviewing Brian Hennessy, who is the author of a new book called tube all to hire too young to retire. And although it’s a book that is aimed at baby boomers, it really is applicable to anybody in any age generation.

And it’s really some great life lessons that Brian has learned through his extensive, career as a commercial. Real estate agent. so we talk a lot about, age-ism we talk about retirement, but we talk about what he’s learned throughout his life that can help people navigate, their career, their family, whatever problems that they come up with.

And we talk obviously a lot about marketing and sales and how those, specifically can help you in your career today. So, great conversation, very wide ranging. Brian is just full of great knowledge, and I know you’ll enjoy this conversation. Brian, how are you today?

Brian: Great, Joel. Thanks for having me on today.

Joel: You’re very welcome. So I want to talk to you about your guide, a new book out it’s called too old to hire too young to retire. What prompted you to write this book?

Brian: There’s a book that has been on my mind for literally the first time I heard it was in 2015, when I heard the term in a seminar I was attending, but it hit me like a ton of bricks and the seminar leader that was speaking, said something to the effect that there’s a lot of you in the audience here that are too old to hire and too young to retire.

And I thought, wow, I know I could write a book on that. And I know exactly what I want to say. And I just kind of put that in the back of my mind because up to that point, I had only written one book and was working on my second and it all had to do with my commercial real estate career. And it was, I was gonna write a series of books, which I’ve written three books in that series.

I’m not sure if I’m going to write any more in that series, but as for right now, I’ve got three out. And, but that this book, I started writing in 2018, but I was still working on my third book. And I said, I, I just have to finish that first. And then when I get that done, I’ll work on the tool to hire to retire.

But, as life would have it, you know, things get busy and you keep saying, I’m going to get to that. I’m going to get to that. And then the pandemic hit. And that’s what all of a sudden had a lot more time on my hands to think about these things. And I started writing the book and it really was quite an experience because it was really the first book I’d ever written that I really didn’t.

Have a fixed subject per se. and it was basically taking all of the tips and strategies and lessons I had learned over the last 25, 30 years and compiling them into a succinct, just roadmap, so to speak of what has helped me and what I known to have helped others. And I thought this is really the perfect time for this book to come out when people really are going to need to help, especially during this economic tsunami that we have experienced and are continuing to experience.

So, and the reason I, I really think the information in the book could be useful too, even millennials, we’re looking to get a foothold on starting careers, et cetera. But I, I really felt like the brunt of this tsunami is going to be felt by the boomers, like people in my generation and even some of the gen X-ers, that are, out there now and starting to experience it’s the, the age glass wall, if you will, right.

Where, it’s starting to, it starting to be more pervasive and for, for many more reasons than we ever had before.

Joel: So in the introduction, you talk about how you were passed over for a promotion because basically they said that you, they were looking for somebody younger. That kind of surprises me because you’re obviously super successful.

You’re really good at what you do. And like you have all the qualifications for somebody that, you know, you would, I would assume that you’d be perfect for the job. So why do you think it is that people are looking for, you know, maybe a younger candidate?

Brian: Well, that’s, that’s a great question, but I think it really encompasses whatever, Industry that you’re in for the particular industry that I was in, I was actually seeking a job position. And when I was told that we’re looking for somebody younger and, that was probably similar, let’s say 2011 or something like that.

So, but it was the first time I really had heard that. And it was kind of a, just an epiphany that came about saying, Hey, this is, this is the real deal. This is what’s going on out there. And really made me make the decision that, Hey, you know what, you really better off. continue to be an independent contractor and going out there, you probably going to have more security.

Right. And, but I had two kids, one that was going into college that was, that wasn’t college when that was going into college. And I was like trying to create, you know, a regular income stream, during a time when the country was climbing out of its economic hole of, you know, the great recession, which I think, pales in some respects, well, we’ve gone through or going through currently. So, but, it was an eye-opener for me.

Joel: Gotcha. And so you’ve written books in commercial real estate before how, like I imagine it was a very different process where, you know what, the commercial real estate, you, you have all the information at your fingertips, you know, the, you know, the industry inside and out, was this a different book to write?

Brian: It was very, introspective and it was, it actually evolved because what happened was I started out, I was gonna write it like a typical book with just a bunch of chapters and expound on different things. And I thought to myself, well, wait a second, things are changing so rapidly. Maybe I should just make it so, giving bite-size bits of information and if, and then give them some resources if they want to delve deeper into that particular aspect of it. So by the time the reader gets through the, that book, they will have a 30,000-foot view of everything that’s available to them. And then go back and pick the ones that they want to, dwell moron and feel more, that, resonates with with them.

And so, it was a process and it was an interesting process because there was many times when I sat down to write and it was like, what do I say about this? Or what, you know, how do I approach this subject? Or how do I, you know, that type of thing and then partway through it? Yeah, I thought, well, maybe what I should do is give them some ideas.

Of how they can get unstuck, at least get the wheels turning and so they can start thinking about it. And so I started taking that direction with it. And then at the back of the book, I, I put a bunch of resources that people could access and look into after having a bunch of people read it and give me their feedback back, ended up making some revisions based on some of the, ideas that they had.

Yeah. And, I’m actually quite satisfied with the end result and, I’m happy that I went through the effort. And like I say, in the book, if it helps one person, I, it wouldn’t have been worth all of my effort, but I think there’s a number of ideas in there that can help people though.

Joel: Can you tell us a little bit about your background in commercial real estate?

Brian: I’ve been doing it for a long time, over 35 years. So, I’ve seen it evolve like many other industries out there and yeah, it’s been a great industry. It’s it’s, it’s everywhere. Everywhere you look, there’s commercial real estate. Right. I had the great pleasure of working with some really, really good people.

I’m in a pretty good dynamic market, which is the Los Angeles market that I work in. And, so I’ve been very, blessed and fortunate, been in, it was at the time that I was when I got into it. And so I felt like, and then I, and I ended up working in different facets of it too. I was acquisition disposition executive for a major investor in his investors.

And then I had my own syndication company that brokerage and then just asset management, a lot of different aspects of it. So, I’ve have a different field and people that have been in the industry because a lot of them stay in one lane from that aspect. I’ve been very fortunate. And, the first book that I wrote was really not even meant to be a book for public consumption.

It was a reference manual that I wrote for myself because when I became an, Acquisition executive. I was overwhelmed by the amount of information that I had to review. So after the first couple of transactions that I, got taken to school on, I decided to not reinvent the wheel each time and wrote a manual for myself reference manual, which I added to, throughout, about a six-year period, six or seven years.

And, anyway, I ended up putting it on Amazon because when it went back into brokerage, I didn’t know how to differentiate myself. I had been out of the industry for that amount of time. And so, it was like, how do I do what I was doing before it’s changed? Nobody seems to be all that interested in.

You know, wanting to talk to me when I went to go see him because they had their fingertips on the internet. So they figure it out. We’ve got all the information right here. Yeah. But, when I did that, I found out that people find the information interesting. And I was only gonna use it as a marketing piece.

I never thought it was going to sell one copy. I didn’t even bother paying somebody 150 bucks at the time to create a cover for me or anything. Right. And it ended up taking off. So, it’s still the top stolen commercial real estate books on Amazon. And I’m happy that I’ve was able to help a lot of people with it.

I that’s really what turned me on to writing was when I started getting the emails and phone calls from people saying, thank you so much for sharing your information. It’s really helped me a lot. And it was like, Wow. After the first one you kind of think is fluky, right? And then the second one is like, wait a second.

Somebody else thought it was, you know, and then the third one was like, wait a minute, people are starting to tell you, is there a pattern here? Somebody people are thinking, this is helpful. I, you know, I, this is what keeps me going here, you know? So, so I would say that’s probably the impetus of the last book that I read wrote.

And am I going to write another book? A lot of people ask me, I, I don’t know if I will, I will say this: I won’t write it unless I have something to say.  It’s different if you’re a novelist, right? Because your eye mind is working on different novels all the time and what have you. They, that would be a great novel or whatever.

Right. But when you’re sharing information, non-fiction business type self-help however you want to categorize it. You know, that’s, that’s different, you know, it’s a different genre. So

Joel: I know this might be a little bit difficult, but if you could distill your book into like three, like the three most important points that would help somebody who’s trying to transition later in life, what would those be?

Brian: It’s a really good question. Not a simple question is, well, I’ll try to break it down because there’s the, there’s the mental part where we have a tendency to get in our own way. Right. But the mind chatter and all the nonsense that self-imposed limitations that we put upon ourselves. And, through, myriad of factors that could have happened in our childhood or whatever the case may be.

Right. And you have to allow yourself to put that aside and be open-minded and even embrace a paradigm shift that you might come across that says, wait a second. That sounds really, really interesting. I think I could do that and ignore the mind chatter. This says, no, you can’t do that. You’ve been a whatever for the last 25 years or whatever the case may be.

Right then there’s the, the physical part that a lot of people, tend to treat secondarily and I would say. Especially, as you get older, it’s more important because really, if you want to change your life around and you don’t have the energy to do it, or if you’ve got physical ailments or things like that, you have to deal with, it makes it really, really difficult to do.

And without sounding too trite, you know, if you have no time to pay attention to exercise and you will pay for it later, right? It’s not if this is going to happen is when it’s going to happen. So I always tell people, don’t take it for granted, just make it part of your daily and starts changing things up, you know, that, which challenges us changes us. Right? So. You know, you have the ability to change yourself because as it starts up here in your consciousness, right?

And once you make that decision, that’s the first step. And then it’s a matter of, you have to keep making those steps until it becomes a habit. But, and then finally, but not lastly, because, I make it first is your spiritual life because, if you’re not paying attention to that aspect of your life, then you’re really out of balance.

It’s kind of like you keep writing checks without putting money in the account. Right? What happens? You run out of money and you start running a big deficit, right? So it’s the same with your spiritual life. You have to have some kind of daily routine where you. pay attention to whether you call it God or the universe or infinite intelligence or whatever you want to call it, that works for you.

You have to tap into that source and allow yourself to center yourself and allow that peace to saturate you. So you’re able to handle the vicissitudes and the crazy stuff that life throws at you on a regular basis. And I really call it exercising your faith and courage muscles in your, you know, you’re your spiritual muscles, really?

Because if you don’t have that and you get blindsided by something in life, Turning into a basket case because you’ve got nothing to turn to. Right. You’re if you’re in the middle of a dark desert and you don’t know which way to turn, right. So by making that part of your regular routine, what happens is you’re prepared when this stuff hits you.

You’ve got that place that I have the storm to go to where you’re centered and you’re clear. And you can think clearly, and you can handle things clearly.

Joel: Sounds like these are shifts that you should probably make sooner rather than later, because a lot of people, I, I assume they like to think or tend to put them off.

So when should somebody think about a career after their career, so to speak

Brian: Let’s just say they’re at a company right now that they’re seeing red flags popping up or yellow flags, whatever you want to call them. Right. And they’re downsizing and they’re resizing and they’re shifting, responsibilities and, you know, re doing, you know, certain aspects of the company and outsourcing it.

And what have you? Well, if I were in a company and I was watching that going on, I would say, Hey, I need to be figuring out some other avenue in case they come to me tomorrow and say, Hey, You’ve been a great employee, but some things have changed here and we’re not going to be needing this department anymore or whatever the case may be.

Yeah. They have a million euphemisms for them. So, you know, you don’t want to wait until then I would say, start working on it now because it could happen tomorrow. It could happen next year. It could happen three years from now, but it could, it happened. Right. And the fact of the matter is if you’re doing that, you may find that that is something there gives you more satisfaction and, and gives you, you know, more enthusiasm for getting up in the morning and, and getting going.

And, you could be embracing a whole new world. You didn’t even know that you were excited about it. And that’s what I tell people. Give yourself a chance. Don’t take the blame. And there’s off take to, you know, you know, get don’t, don’t be a, a warrior, be a warrior, go out there and say, Hey, what’s out there.

What can I start working on? What’s what’s interesting. Start making yourself, basically start paying attention to those things because you don’t want to get blindsided with that. It’s, it’s just, it’s a tough way to go, you know, and even if it’s just making a transition, maybe say, Hey, I have no nothing.

I feel like I want to do independently right now, but I, you know, maybe I should look for a new position somewhere or a new company, a startup or something where I can add some value and not be worried about these folks I’ve been working in for, for the last 15, 20, 25 years. And they’re thinking about their bottom line now, big your bonus B, and they’re free.

They’re figuring out ways to make that happen. Right. And some of it means getting rid of people because it goes right to the bottom line. Right? So, especially now, you know, I, I, when I talk about this stuff, I, I tell people what don’t, don’t take it the wrong way, but don’t bury your head in the sand either.

I mean, with artificial intelligence and blockchain, all this stuff is, is coming down the tracks so fast that by the time it gets here, you will be blown away. What it’s, the changes that are being made. And you just can’t take it for granted that you’re going to be able to hang in there until, you know, you can retire or whatever the case may be the other dangerous, Hey, your pension fund might not be there when the time comes or whatever.

It’s not that it hasn’t happened before. Cause it has, you know, so it’s just a smart thing to do. It’s a proven thing to do. And there’s not, it doesn’t mean everybody’s got to deal with that. Right. But, those who do will look back and say, man, I’m glad I had the foresight to, be thinking in those terms when that happens.

so, and I wouldn’t have been in the place where I’m enjoying myself so much or making more money or whatever the case may be, maybe living in a different country who knows, but it’s just a, it be a game-changer.

Joel: I think future-proofing yourself as something, not just for the old degeneration, but for everybody.

And I think it’s something that everybody should worry about. What are there some skills that you can learn to help, you know, prevent technology? Cause even like in my profession, you know, as a creative writer, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m not going to be taken over by AI one of these days. So is there, are there skills somebody can learn that will help future-proof them and hopefully prevent them from being obsolete in the future?

Brian: Yes, I think there is. And in the book I go over, so some of these things and I’ll, I’ll go over, like some of the basics, one that’s probably close to your heart is copywriting. And marketing because I don’t care what business you’re in. You gotta get people to pay attention to you. I always say that the internet and these are obviously for people, my age were around working before the internet, but when the internet, it was like, it was such a game-changer.

When I saw it, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is mind-blowing. You know, with this, this is doing, it’s kind of like the, probably like the printing press was when you know, the Gutenberg right on steroids, major stories. So, you know, the great thing was it really leveled the playing field for a lot of industry.

And a lot of people, the bad news is there’s a lot more people out there going, Hey, pick me, pick me, pick me. Which means that you need to learn how to differentiate yourself. And cogently and elegantly explain, this is why you need to be talking to me. This is what I do differently than the masters out there.

Now, if you can’t do that, you’re just going to be not ahead of the curve. You will be running with the crowd or around the curve and worse yet. If you don’t do any of it, you’ll be running behind saying what just happened. Right? So, I tell people, learn how to market. Everything you do is marketing everything.

I don’t care if it’s telling your significant other, selling them on going to a restaurant or out of a vacation spot, it can be whatever, just whatever you need to convince somebody to do, go in your direction. That’s marketing. Right. And it’s most basic terms right now. I will tell you that there’s so many great markety in, courses and materials and things to learn it, that it’s silly not to take advantage of it.

So I would say if you’re going to say, Nope, I’m only going to pick one skill, Brian, you just tell me which one it is because I refused to learn any of the other ones marketing. Okay. But you can enhance those. And the other one is speaking because they go hand in hand, especially in today’s world, you are talking on YouTube or videos or whatever.

People watch a video for the REIT. Okay. Especially if they’re commuting and looking on their phone, right. They’ll watch a quick two, three minute, maybe longer video. Right. So learning how to speak. And, make making it cogent and enticing and making them want to take the next steps. that’s like super powerful.

And how do you do that? I tell everybody there’s one place. I tell everybody to go if that’s what they want to learn, how to do. Right. And do it learn as fast as possible. That’s Toastmasters Toastmasters. When I got turned on to Toastmasters, I was in my early thirties and I had, her experience, my worst nightmare or speaking in front of a group of people at a college class I took, and it was the most harrowing experience.

I, when I left that night, I was like, Oh my gosh, I’ll never put myself through that again. That was the most nervous looking at my history. And so I did. And little did I know that was going to be a major game-changer for me. And it not only helped me in my professional life, but also helped me in my person and it, and it spills into so many other areas in your life.

If you have any real, you know, it gives you so much more self-confidence I was, there was the transformations of personalities. So that’s what usually ice water runs through most people’s veins. Oh no, I could never do that. Yes, you can’t. And you’re not going to be nervous when you talk to people, you just stayed, stay in Toastmasters, those butters, the flies in your stomach, you learned to make them fly.

So you use that energy for your benefit. So, so what did I say? His writings, the other one. You think, Oh, what I don’t write. I don’t want to write a book or anything. Yeah. Do you write emails? Do you write texts? Do you write business letters? Do you write, you know, summaries, executive summaries or anything like that?

Brochures, marketing materials. Yes. You need to learn, right. It’s really, really important. And if you don’t well, okay. Can you still, yeah, probably not. As well as you probably would, if you would have taken the time and energy to, to focus in on it and learn the fundamentals and, and start getting good at it.

And it’s like, anything else in life? Some people say, ah, I wasn’t born to be around. No, nobody’s born out here. You get out. Right. So, and then, the fourth basic one, I tell people is learn sales, how to sell you mean Brian? I don’t want to, I’m not into selling. I hate salespeople selling and sales has changed dramatically in the last even.

10 20 years. It’s not selling, you know, something to somebody that they don’t want. Right. That’s not saying that that to me is just being a snake oil salesperson. That’s not a real Salisbury, serial salesperson today is more of a consultant. And, I read somewhere to paraphrase them that if you explain the problem that the prospect has, that they may not even know they have yet, then you’ve automatically, in a, you should explain it cogently and elegantly.

You automatically have the ability to show them what you, you have to sell them what they need. Right. you know, if it’s going against your conscience, you know, then you’re probably not selling something that. You were that they really need or want or whatever you’re trying to convince yourself. And so I, if I, I recommend people, if you’re doing that, get into some other things and, and you, you know, that you would, sell to your grandma or grandpa or your mother or something, you know?

So, so with those four things, you can really be a powerhouse in it, right. Industry that you go into and be a real asset. And if it’s your own business, you’ve got a major headstart. Then the vast majority of the folks out there starting a business.

Joel: Yeah, that’s definitely music to my ears, for sure. I think you hit on all the right notes for sure.

And especially like, I’ve never heard the expression, butterflies flying in formation. So I think that’s a great analogy that I’m going to use in the future. So thank you for that. I want to talk to you. I want to talk about mindset and go back. We’re going back a little bit, but there’s also talk about Toastmasters because it’s the fear that comes up with learning new skills.

But like, I’ll give you an example of my mother. You know, she got divorced when, you know, I was an adult, so, and she’d been out of the workforce for 25 years, but all of a sudden she has no money now and she’s, he was forced to try and learn new skills and, you know, you know, life changes. And when you’ve been doing one thing for so long, it’s really hard to kind of shift your mindset and get over that fear.

So what tactics can you use to get through the fear part and, you know, get out there.

Brian: Okay. Spell it question. and that is what holds most people back. And, we all have had it and have it and deal with it in different forms and what have you. But, one of my favorite sayings is look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you, right? So what I get out of that is your, imagination, your anticipation, your, conjuring of, you know, the worst case scenario is, is always coming up and, you’ve got to it.

They’ve actually proven scientifically that you can D steps to ties yourself to fear. So once you. First time for, and you do it and you’d go, wow, that wasn’t so bad. He do it again. And he gets a little less the less, and you’re, you’re a little less sensitive. It’s in Toastmasters. I remember the first talk I gave when I, I should say, I think I remember cause I was so fearful and terror struck that I, I, I remember people saying to me, Hey, you did it.

Great job. Good job. I was like, I don’t even remember what I said. I was so nervous, you know, but as you do and on a regular basis, especially in a setting like that, where people are actually supportive and all there for the same reason is to get better at it. But yeah, even just taking on small things, micro wins, like I was saying before, you know, if you’re fearful of whatever, I mean, pick-up.

Pick a, your favourite thing that you think, talking to a certain person or who would be, putting yourself out there doing something that takes some courage to, get yourself to do it? Well, it gets back to what we were talking about earlier about exercising, your courage muscles. Okay. When you’re exercising your muscles, what happens?

It gets stronger and stronger, right? So, when you see an opportunity that is fearful, just do it, just take, I’m going to do that. I’m going to go talk to that person. I’m going to go, you know, introduce myself to that person over there. I’m going to ask the boss for a raise. I’m going to go do whatever, whatever the case may be.

What’s the worst can happen? They say no to you. Okay. Well, you still survive. You’re not going to die. Right. But it’s like, I like to tell people, if you don’t ask the answer’s always no. Right. So go ask you never know what’s going to happen. Something better than what you thought was going to happen, might happen.

So it’s just getting yourself out of that mind frame that you allow fierce to start crowding in on you. And you just gotta say, Hey, every time I do one of these, I’m going to, make myself do it. I’m just going to go ahead and push myself out. And what you’ll find is every time you do it, you get a little better and a little stronger and a little more courageous.

And until you’re willing to do some crazy stuff, there was a story I read about this guy. I think he actually wrote a book about it. And, he was this fearful guy that was, went into sales and he couldn’t sell anything. And he ended up getting fired. And, he said in his, his boss asked him, why couldn’t you sell anything?

And he said, I just get fearful when I. Get in front of people and I have to ask him for the sale and he goes, you need to get over that. You go figure out how to do that. Right. And he just kinda wished him all the best in the door. And he said, you know what, I’m going to start desensitizing myself to fear.

And he started like knocking on doors and saying, Hey, can I, kick my soccer ball around in your backyard? Because I know you’d, these lots are bigger. And some people said, get outta here, but then he’d find somebody to say, sure, go ahead, go back there. Right. So he’d have them take it a picture on his phone of him playing soccer.

So he had all these, I guess, what do you wanna call him momentos? Right? Pictures of him overcoming all these fears until he started feeling invincible, he was asking crazy stuff. And what he found is if he has enough people, he get to do it. Right. So it was kind of an interesting study because what he was actually doing himself as desensitizing himself.

Right. So that’s really, it’s not a, you know, I wish there was some magic phrase or something that you could do, but the fact of the matter is, is courage is not absence of fear. It’s working, doing it, in spite of it, right. You’re doing it in spite of the fear. And that’s why I was like that title way.

what’s her name? Susan Jeffers wrote the book, You know, what’s the name of it? I can’t remember.

Joel:  I know the one you mean though.

Brian: I’ll think about that in a second, but it’s basically in the show notes, do face what you’re afraid of and do it anyway or something like that or something like that.

So, anyway, it is a biggie, but, you have to remember something, one of the big things, especially when you’re younger in a saying, somebody told me this, when I was in my late twenties, I went to work at this place. And, there was an older guy who was retired there, semi-retired and he was still working.

Beause he said if I went home and spent all my time at home, my wife would divorce me. So I went out to lunch with him one Monday and I was eliminating tool about how somebody in the office. Heard from somebody about something I did or said or something that was a wrong thing. And I felt really bad about it.

It wasn’t a really egregious or anything, but it was bothered me. Right. He says, let me tell you something. He says in your twenties, you worry about what people are thinking about you and your thirties. You don’t care what people are thinking about you and your forties. You realize people aren’t even thinking about you.

And it’s true people aren’t thinking about you, they’re thinking about themselves, you know, and if you just kind of get over that, it’s like, Oh, okay. I got nothing to worry about. Worrying about, you know, what do you carry? I always say, it’s not a, it’s none of my business with people thinking of me really.

Isn’t, they’re entitled to their opinion, you know? So, you can’t take it personally, I guess, is what I’m trying to say here.

Joel: I want to talk about Greek philosophers because that seems to be a theme in your book. And it seems like I get the connection by, it could also be a little bit strange because you know, what can Greek philosophers toss about a problem that they probably never will.

I know that they never faced, from, you know, 2000 years ago, 2000 odd years ago, more a lot of times. and why do you draw inspiration from, from the Creek? Okay.

Brian: More of the stoicism, those things that you see. If I have some quotes in there that I quote, those are what I call eternal truths, universal laws, you know, you don’t have to. I believe in, I am as a prerequisite for them to work. You, you just, that work regardless, like gravity, jump off a building, you’re going to hit every time.

Doesn’t matter if you believe in it or not. Right. And so that’s like, I kind of always gravitated to it, those types of, aphorisms and what have you, because it kind of resonates with me. It’s kind of like, Oh yeah. And, like, yeah, I could always, I always knew that or that’s a great thing to great handle the, to grab onto and use or tool or whatever the case may be.

But one of the things I talk about it in year two, is, you know, they were great believers, strong body, strong mind, and I try to emphasize, it’s like if you have a strong body if you’re focusing and making your physical being strong, your mind, there is a direct correlation to that.

Okay. So I’m not saying you have to be some, Olympic athlete or superstar or anything I’m talking about just taking care of your physical, built, being what you’re putting into it, how you move your body. It’s very important to move your body. and so, and it gets more and more important as you get older and you don’t realize it, but it starts, you know, when you do start getting older, you start realizing, Whoa, I better keep moving and keep an action here.

Cause my father is 88. He still exercises every day, walks two miles every day. And he says, if there is a fountain of youth it’s to stay moving, stay in action, keep your body moving. And it’s true. It really does because there’s a direct correlation to energy out to energy in. Right. So, I think that answers your.

Joel: Shifting a little bit. I want to talk about mandatory age retirement and what your thoughts around that. Is that something that’s still necessary because I’ll, I’ll tell you another story that my, my aunt was working for Deloitte and her for her mandatory retirement at 65. And she still has, you know, she still could be working and still contributing to the company in ways.

I think, you know, a younger person, cannot because she has all the experience and all that knowledge. So is that something that as a society we need to look at and think differently about?

Brian:  Absolutely. First of all, the whole age thing is really kind of morphing because. People are still living a lot longer.

They’re taking better care of themselves. Health, care is, in nutritional, qualities. And what have you are, there’s a lot more knowledge about it now, and people are living more, productive, long lives. And, so to say, you need to retire at 65 is kind of an outdated, antiquated rules that were put into place.

And the other thing that I think a lot of companies are starting to figure out, not all of them though, but, that, there’s no replacement for experience. Okay. You cannot. AI that you cannot, read a book about it. You cannot pretend, right? Because this computer appears that you’ve been running for the past, whatever 25, 30, 35 years.

And your industry has collected a lot of data. All right. My Newt amounts of data that will tell you what you may even consider intuitively were reading, but it could be all those synopses that connect in and say, this, this isn’t feeling right. Or look, and right. Or something’s wrong here, or this looks more like this issue, right?

You don’t get that without experience. That’s where, and then there’s life, then there’s the other aspect of it, which is the life experience, life experience. It’s all you can’t just say, you know, Oh, you just learn this and that’s all you need to learn. And you’re great. Now people are people they’re complicated mechanisms.

So to speak it out to you got you, you have to, you’re still dealing with people, right? And you’re still people by people, right. At people like, you know, and trust you, then you can help them make decisions. And because you’ve, you’ve gained, they’ve gained a comfort level with you. Right. And I don’t care what business you’re in.

I’ve taken on probably four or five. interns, they call them runners in our business. Right. But it’s kind of an antiquated, but because they do the legwork a lot of the times. Right. But I always took it very seriously because I always, would say that you’re not just learning about, the real estate business.

You’re this is a people business. I don’t care what business you go into. This is about people. Yes. The commodity happens to be real estate commercial real estate in my case. But, but there’s a whole bunch of other factors that come into play that you need to learn and know. Right. And, that’s why I was always hesitant.

When people came up and said, Hey, we’re always wanting to get into the business. Could you train me? And you know, it’s like, no, because I have to be really convinced that that’s what they want because there’s so much that goes into it and I take it very seriously. I didn’t. Yeah.

I’m usually there with me for three to four or five years, you know, working with me. So, at any rate, getting back to that original question, it’s, it’s kinda silly into these worlds. It’s age-ism is kind of like, are you kidding me? You know, this is like, let me tell you something dope. There’ll be a point in time where, you know, if you’re in your twenties and you’re really good at it, they may still replace you because they’ve got an AI, that can take your place.

Right? So that’s why I tell you we’re smart. When you pointed out, Hey, everybody should have a second choice or second alternative in case their first alternative runs out on them or goes by the wayside or it gets outsourced or whatever the case may be. Right.

Joel: Can you talk a little bit about, more about the people side of things?

Cause I think that is super important. and something that is not taught in a job setting. So that’s potentially something that people need to learn by themselves. And so if people and we’ve established people skills are important. How does one go about learning those skills?

Brian: Well, I think obviously it’s certain industries lend themselves to being able to do that. I’ve always taught people that look, if you want to be a, a business person. Right. And you want to be really good at that in a certain industry, then find somebody as a mentor that you really resonate with, that you can add value to and say, how can I, I really want to learn this industry and I really admire what you’ve done.

And is there any way anything that I can do that can help you or even better is here’s what I can do to help you. Can you teach me about the industry and, and, and you really want to vet them out and make sure it’s somebody you want to learn from, right? You don’t want to learn from a crook or some shady characters, and you want to learn from somebody that’s really good at what they do and are good, have good people skills, right.

And are sincere and wanting to help others. Right? Those are the ones that are the most valuable when you hang around, people like that, and you watching them. And you’re observing them and the scenarios in your business, then you by osmosis will start picking up these nuances. Right. And then you’ll be able to produce similar results with your, with your efforts.

Right. And I was very fortunate to be around some very, really, really good smart people. And I watched them very carefully. And I was also aware of the fact that some of the ones that I was working around, I wanted to make sure I didn’t conduct my business like now. Right. So, you know, you can learn from everybody.

I always say, look, you can learn from it. It could be maybe things that you don’t want to do. These are the ways you don’t want to do business with. Right. But, I always say if you want to be an artist or whatever it is, A musician, a business perch and hang around those that you admire and, pick up their habits and skills and, and all their little video whenever you want to go on secrecy, you know, don’t pick up the radio securities, but pick up, pick up those, those skillsets, that, and nuances that really, that you notice differentiates them and makes them better at what they do.

And it’s, here’s the interesting thing about it is when you run into people that do that through, through huge, deep open to wanting to share those with you. Not everybody wants to accept you as. You know, their apprentice or whatever, or be their mentor, but, but you can explain it in such a way that, Hey, I’m not saying I need to hang out with me eight hours a day.

If I could call you once a week or every two weeks for a half-hour or whatever, and run some things by her by email or by phone, however, whatever you’re most comfortable with I’d really, really appreciate it. And then I’d like to buy you lunch once a month to sit down and go over the stuff that you told me I should be doing.

And so you could kind of, you know, further coach me on, you know, how to, to, to improve. And you’ll be surprised. There’s a lot of people that would say yes to that. You know,

Joel: new book at the latter, half of your book, you talk about different. Jobs that could be potential possibilities. I think you talk about podcasts and you talk about writing, talk about affiliate, marketing, digital marketing.

And the first thing that I thought about when I read them, I was like, these are very young, like quotes, I guess it’s my bias is that there are young people jobs. Why, what made you recommend those jobs in your book?

Brian: Well, first of all, those are relevant jobs. Now. They may not be five years from now or whatever, but really the idea was to get people to say, well, I don’t know.

I don’t, all I’ve ever done was sell insurance or all I ever did was, you know, accounting or this, that, or the other. Right. And it’s like, Hey, here’s some things you might want to look at. Okay. Does that mean you’re going to embrace it? No, but the idea was to. Get people’s wheels turning and saying, ah, well, that doesn’t sound too bad.

I wonder what that’s about. Like I said, the book has many chapters, 48 of them, and then action items at the end of each, chapter, if you will want to delve into it, some ideas, you know, to delve into it further, if you like either books to read or Google this, or to look, check this website out or whatever the case may be, call these, this type of person up and ask them or whatever.

There’s not that many, I think there’s maybe 14 or 16, types of jobs that I put back there. But you know, any of wish people could start working on if they actually resonated with him. Right. But, I think, you know, the big issue for a lot of people and will be is they get stuck. This is all I’ve ever done.

I don’t know what else to do. I can’t figure out well, it’s not, you’re not stuck. Okay. First of all, let’s change that term because you’re not physically stuck someplace. Mentally might be a little tricky, but I’m giving you some ideas in the book of how to unstick your brain and start thinking of different directions.

Okay. And, first of all, first and foremost, you’ve got to be willing and desirous of doing that, right. If you’re not, is there’s the bad news is there’s no easy buttons to push. Okay. You’ve actually got to do some work and do some thinking and thinking, I always say thinking is some of the hardest work that we can do.

Right. But, it also is our way out. If you start using your willpower with it, your initiative. And started figuring out a way to change things around for yourself because what happens is some people just get in these endless loops of in their brain. This is all I can do. Therefore, I can’t do anything else.

Therefore there’s no use in looking there for, I might as well just sit here and watch another Netflix binge of such and such here, you know? So it’s like, you’ve got to break yourself out of that pattern. And, and if you do, you probably even amaze yourself because that’s all it really takes to start going, but you got to continue.

You got to build that momentum. And how do you build momentum one small step at a time, a little micro wins, but as you start building on those become very powerful, very powerful. I’ve seen people. Don’t like, man, how the heck did they change so rapidly in it. But if you talk to them, they’ll tell you, I decided that I watched a documentary or read a book or to me it was looking, you know, whatever the case may be.

Joel: I think that’s a great place to wrap it up. I’m going to have I’m going to give you one last question. and this is when I ask all my guests and that is what do you have a favourite book or one that you like to gift a lot?

Brian: Yes, there is one that dramatically changed. And when it was given to me by a friend of the families, I was like, This is not something I’m ready to read, you know, but thank you though. I was, you know, ratios, thank you so much. Well, he ended up giving me a job across the country. And when I landed at the airport, I went from Los Angeles to Miami, where he was, and I got jumped in his car.

He said, do you ever read that book? Did I give you? And I said I started, I just couldn’t get into any reach in his back seat and he pulled out a copy and he gave it to me and he said, here’s another copy. I’m not going to see you for a couple of weeks. But when I come back, I want you to read a chapter a night.

When I come back, I’m going to have questions for you. I want you to have some answers for him. And that’s when I said, okay, well, he’s trying to help me out my better at least do that for him. Right. And amazingly what happened was I got into it. And as it was the hardest physical job I ever had in my life, I mean, I was get up at six in the morning, go to work.

I’d come back at six at night, I was doing hard physical labour. So the last thing I really wanted to do was read at night, but I’d come home, take a shower, eat dinner, and then I’d go right to my room and in lead a chapter. And what I found is, as I was reading the book, it was drawing me in and it was like little Epiphanes kept coming up and saying, Oh, I always knew that.

I always thought that was the case. And it’s like a little tuning fork going off in it. Right. And by the time I got to the end of it, I was like, Whoa, this is, I’ve gotta look into this more in the name of the book, his autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. And that book is a spiritual classic.

It has been, was credited as the top 100 books of, the last century, Steve jobs when he passed away, left a copy of it underneath everybody’s chair at his Memorial service was the only book he ever had on his iPad. And he read it every year and I’ve read mine every year. And I also listen to the audiobook, which Ben Kingsley did, but George Harrison of the Beatles was friends with Ben Kingsley and asked him to create the audiobook for him.

He didn’t master it with John, but it was just such an eye-opener for me and mind opener. And the reason you read it every year is because you evolve as a person. So you read things that you may have read dozens of times, but all of a sudden bang, it hits you like. A lightning bolt you go, wow. Now I get it.

Right? Yeah. So, that’s one book I carry with me. I’ve turned dozens of people onto that. I’ve never had anybody say that was a horrible look. I mean, it was just it’s it’s just, a wonderful, wonderful book that I just can’t say enough. Great things about autobiography of a Yogi by paramount as Yogananda, and, do yourself a favor and get yourself a copy if you haven’t read it already. And you’ll be glad you did.

Joel: I know I said that was going to be the last question, but what’s a one or two things. Did you get from that book? If you can then consolidate them?

Brian: There’s so many things it’s hard to really just say one or two, but really the main issue is that there’s only one God. And, and like I said, at the beginning, call it infinite intelligence, call it the universe, call it whatever you want and I should call it God. Right.

But, he is the source. She is the source. However, you want to characterize it. And, when you tap into that, you’re tapping into the universe is knowledge, right? So all the answers are there. I mean, we come into this world and you get to a point where say, why are we here? It’s not just to live, have a family or go about our business and get old and die and go away and never, you know, that’s that, can’t be it.

Okay. And you, and you, you get to the point where I really want to know what it is. Well, what is it that we’re seeking? What we’re seeking joy and happiness, right? We’re not seeking out little colorful pieces of paper with dead individuals on them or something like that. Right. We’re trying to get what the end result is.

Right. And that’s what it buys, but you can’t buy happiness. That’s, that’s the irony of it. Right? Happiness is an elusive thing. You get it by you say, you want to get happy, go help. Others become happy. It’s a, it’s a, it’s an aftereffect. Right. But I digressed there really the source is God. And we will never be happy until we get back to that source.

And if you only. Look around you find the people that are going after their first million, 50 million, a hundred million billion, 5 billion is never enough. When I get that yacht that I’ve always wanted. When I get that house, I always, when I, when I get that person, I always want it. When I get that bank balance though, is one when it, well, what happens when they get it?

They’re happy for a little while and it dies out right then. Gee why aren’t I happy? Why? Because this world is designed to point us back to God, so to say, Oh, it’s my religion. It gets us there. No, it’s like Yogananda says like a mountain and the mountain has different paths to go up to the top, which is where God as right.

So none of that doesn’t make it wrong. Cause one’s exams and one goes into school and it goes up straight, you know, whatever. But it’s all, we’re all trying to get to the same place. So to, to say to somebody, no, you’re wrong because your religion doesn’t. Believe what my religion is or whatever, and it’s silly, right?

So if you learn the universality of it and you learn to meditate, that’s what I learned from the book, not to meditate, but I, that was my introduction to it. And then I started following and took the lessons and then I started meditating and that was a major game-changer in my life. It really changed the way I approach life and, look at it and feel about it.

And you just, you get so much more out of it and people say, well, explain meditation to me. I say, okay, you have to sit down and you have to still the body still the mind. But imagine I have a glass of water here and I take two scoops of dirt. And I stir it all up and I hold the glass up. Did you see it?

It’s all muddy water in here, but if I set it down and I let it sit still for five or 10 minutes, what happens? All the dirt settles down to the bottom of have clear water again. Right? Well, that’s what happens with your mind when you learn to still the body instill your thoughts and you’re calm, you think much more clearly.

And you’re able to come up with solutions to your life problems and issues and things out there, and you’re tapping, tapping into the shore. And we do, you talked about your faith and your courage muscles. What have you, that’s enough they’re muscle that you’re using your mind-muscle, right? That when you first started doing, I remember the first time somebody sat me down and tried to get me to meditate for three minutes later, I was wiggling and around.

And how can you do this? And now I’m up to it. Yeah. An hour in the morning and an hour at night, you know? And I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world because I end my day and I start my day. Totally calm. Total peace. And it’s that port in a storm, you are able to go to when life starts hitting you from all different angles.

It doesn’t mean your life becomes, you know, simple and easy and you know, nothing never is going to happen again. It just teaches you a way to be able to handle whatever’s thrown at you, which is a beautiful thing. Let me tell you, so I can’t say enough about learning how to do that. That’s just something that if you’re not doing it, you’re giving yourself a big handicap to go through life with?

Joel: I’m glad I asked that last question for sure. So much great insights, so much. Great advice. Brian, thank you so much for being on the show today and for sharing your knowledge, your wisdom, congrats again on your book, for people who want to reach out to find you, where’s the best place to look.

Brian: You can. My email is Brian B or com and, I invite people to call me all the time. So my number is two (818) 371-0311. And, I love getting calls from people and helping people. I mean, if I can just part with one last thing, it’s about, we’re here to love and serve. Okay. And if we’re serving God by serving others and you’re giving love instead of hate and just negative spewing, negative stuff that’s only gonna attract more of that.

That’s what we were talking about earlier. The universal laws, right? Well, you here to love and serve. If you make that part of your Pollstar your life and your daily routine, there’s no way you’re going to. Lose out you’re gonna, you’re gonna attract a lot of beautiful things. And so that’s what I’ll leave you with.

And, I appreciate you having me on and, and, we’d love to be a guest anytime on your show. You’re a master in what you do here. So thank you. Appreciate that. Bye for now.

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