Welcome to the Raising Private Money Podcast, where we explore the nexus of real estate, personal growth, and finding your purpose.
Today we have a truly insightful episode lined up for you. We’re joined by a special guest, Brett Snodgrass, CEO and founder of Simple Wholesaling in Indianapolis.
Brett is not only an expert in wholesaling and creative financing with an impressive track record of over 300 deals last year, but he’s also a man driven by his faith, committed to his family, and passionate about helping others achieve their goals while honoring the kingdom of God.
Real Estate Wholesaling: The Quick Nickel Strategy
Brett Snodgrass, the CEO and founder of Simple Wholesaling in Indianapolis, emphasizes the appeal of wholesaling, which allows for quick and repeated transactions. Unlike traditional real estate processes, wholesalers get properties under contract and then assign or sell that contract to investors. It’s about the pursuit of quick, efficient deals, without the heavy lifting of extensive renovations, a strategy that aligns with Brett’s preference for the ‘quick nickel rather than the slow dime.’
Achieving High-Volume Success
Brett’s transition to wholesaling 5-6 years ago led to the formation of a successful team, which completed over 300 deals last year, yielding a gross of $23 million. Their approach leverages multiple exit strategies, from assigning contracts to selling properties directly to end-users with minimal rehabilitation. By gauging market conditions and buyer availability, Brett’s team maximizes their opportunities, even in a tight real estate market.
The Importance of Market Adaptation
One key to sustained success in real estate is adaptability. Brett underscores the necessity of being conservative and vigilant, as market conditions are dynamic. His team’s strategic decisions are grounded in a comprehensive understanding that it’s crucial to prepare for potential downturns by staying cognizant of the need to pivot when the market dictates.
Family and Faith Over Fortune
Beyond financial achievements, Brett stresses the importance of balancing personal life with professional demands. Prioritizing family, marriage, and faith, he advocates for moments of reflection where entrepreneurs assess their sacrifices. It’s not just about building financial wealth but creating a life that’s rich in relationships and meaningful experiences.
Staying Present: The Precious Present
In conversation with host Jay Conner, Brett Snodgrass and Jay agree on the difficulty of maintaining presence amidst life’s distractions. They both endorse the concept of ‘precious present,’ a mindset that cherishes being fully engaged and present at the moment. As shared during the podcast, this philosophy is encapsulated in the book ‘The Precious Present,’ advocating a focused presence as the ultimate gift one can offer.
In conclusion, success in real estate with Brett Snodgrass isn’t just measured by the number of deals or dollars but by the ability to maintain a fulfilling personal life alongside a thriving business. This holistic approach to success encompasses wealth-building, adaptability, and steadfast attention to what truly matters – faith, family, and being fully present in each moment.
“ I am passionate about successful people who give more importance to significance than success” – Brett Snodgrass
Ten Lessons Learned from this Episode:
- “Private Funding”:
Jay Conner’s book offers insights on securing non-traditional real estate deal funding.
- “Teamwork Triumph”:
Brett Snodgrass highlights the success of building a team in real estate to increase deal flow.
- “Faith Foundation”:
Brett emphasizes integrating faith and business, influencing entrepreneurship with spiritual values.
- “Entrepreneurial Evolution”:
Brett discusses his 14-year journey in real estate, adapting and focusing on wholesaling.
- “Seller Searching”:
Identifying out-of-state owners of distressed properties can unlock potential real estate investments.
- “Strategic Flexibility”:
Brett’s team employs diverse exit strategies like contract assignments and minimal-rehab sales.
- “Market Adaptation”:
Climate fluctuations demand conservative investment strategies and preparedness for downturns.
- “Significant Success”:
The podcast prioritizes purpose and significance beyond mere financial achievement.
- “Family Balance”:
Brett provides insights on managing business success while maintaining strong family bonds.
- “Being Present”:
The importance of full engagement and presence in personal and professional situations is stressed.
Timestamps:
0:01 – Raising Private Money Without Asking For It
0:29 – Jay’s New Book: “Where To Get The Money Now” – https://www.JayConner.com/Book
2:09 – Today’s guest: Brett Snodgrass
6:38 – Brett, Real Estate & Simple Wholesaling
9:12 – Wholesaling vs. Wholetaling
11:42 – How do you find deals?
13:18 – Driving For Dollars
15:57 – Jay Conner’s Bird Dog
17:38 – What is your best exit strategy?
20:13 – Formula for the maximum amount to put a house under contract.
22:56 – Connect with Brett Snodgrass: https://www.SimpleWholesaling.com
23:28 – Brett Snodgrass’ Podcast
24:25 – Balancing Family, Life and Business
30:10 – Best piece of advice from Brett Snodgrass
32:10 – “The Precious Present”
Connect With Jay Conner:
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Have you read Jay’s new book: Where to Get The Money Now?
It is available FREE (all you pay is the shipping and handling) at https://www.JayConner.com/Book
What is Private Money? Real Estate Investing with Jay Conner
http://www.JayConner.com/MoneyPodcast
Jay Conner is a proven real estate investment leader. Without using his own money or credit, Jay maximizes creative methods to buy and sell properties with profits averaging $67,000 per deal.
#RealEstate #PrivateMoney #FlipYourHouse #RealEstateInvestor
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Navigating Faith, Family, and Finance in Wholesaling with Brett Snodgrass and Jay Conner
Jay Conner (00:00:01)
Well, hello, and welcome to another episode of real estate investing with Jay Conner. I’m Jay Conner known as the Private Money authority. Also the host here on the show with you. And since we launched real estate investing with J con, I’ve had just some amazing guests come here on the show, talking about all facets of real estate investing. Today is no exception, but before I introduce my special guest and very good friend, I wanna tell you about my brand new book that I just released you get the book for free. And here it is J Conner wrote Where to get the money now, subtitle, how and where to get money for your real estate deals without relying on traditional or hard money lenders. This book will show you step by step, how to get all the Private Money. I’m not talking hard money or institutional money, but all the Private Money that you would want for your deals.
Jay Conner (00:00:59):
Now, the reason that I’m qualified to write this book and to ship this book to you for free is because back from 2003 to 2009, we funded our deals here in Eastern North Carolina, with institutional money, relying on local banks and mortgage companies. Then we lost our lines of credit. Well, I discovered this world of Private Money and since 2009, have not missed out on a deal for not having the funding. So you may be a wholesaler, that’s done one or two deals, or you may be a wholesaler. That’s done hundreds of deals, but you may have missed out on the opportunity to stay in some of those deals that you wanted to and make the big profits like I do of 60 to $70,000 per deal. So I’m gonna save you 20 bucks. You can go to Amazon or you can just let me give you the book for free.
Jay Conner (00:01:48):
If you’ll just cover a couple of bucks for delivery and shipping, I’ll ship it right out to you. www.JayConner.com/Book and will rush the book right out to you. Well, my guest today, wow. What an amazing individual and dear friend, this guy’s foundational principles are based on faith, family, and God coming first. Therefore he and I have a lot in common. As far as the business world goes, he is the CEO and founder of a company called Simple Wholesaling. That’s up in the Indianapolis area. He’s been a full-time real estate investor for over 10 years now. And he’s done all kinds of real estate, but he specializes in wholesaling whole tailing. If you don’t know what whole tailing is, he can tell you all about that creative financing.
Jay Conner (00:02:53):
In other words, how can you buy or fund these deals creatively or sell ’em? And then even more importantly, how he has learned how to scale a business from just being a one-man show to an amazing full team. That’s, you know, doing hundreds and hundreds of deals per year and all that has happened just within the past five years. Well, my friends and experts have extensive knowledge and firsthand experience in many facets of real estate investing. He’s an investor, as I said in the Indianapolis area. He works with investors all over the country who want to invest in one of the top-rated cash-flowing markets in the nation. And of course, he’s talking about indie, right? Well, his team is amazing team buys and sells over 300 properties a year now and builds passive strings of income by creating over 50 creative financing deals per year.
Jay Conner (00:03:55):
Now in this short five-year time span, he’s gone from, as I said, just a one-person outfit. That’s what my granddaddy would say to a full-time over 10 plus team members. And because of that, he’s been able to triple his deal flow. As I said, my guest and friend is a man of faith and a real estate investor. And what’s interesting. He’s been able to do something that many entrepreneurs have not been able to do. And that is to combine both, to bring in opportunities to everyone he encounters while at the same time spreading what he believes in and is his passion. And that’s the kingdom of God. You see his, his mission. He’s got a mission trip coming up here in the next, just a few weeks, to Guatemala on a mission trip and the purpose of his company, simple wholesaling is that mission that I just said, he’s got a passion as I do for helping others in business and personal growth. As I mentioned, his family is very, very important to him. His wife is Karen. He’s got four young children and he’s figured out how to balance family and running a very, very successful, large real estate investing business. And of course, he serves others to his faith. It’s my pleasure to bring on the show right here, my friend and expert Brett Snodgrass, Brett, welcome to the show again. It’s great to have you back.
Brett Snodgrass (00:05:28):
Thanks, Jay. It is a pleasure to be on your show. I’ve talked to you many times. You were on my podcast, the Breast Negras podcast. And here we are, again, I just love chat chatting with you, man.
Jay Conner (00:05:39):
I know it’s always great, but you know, one thing that sort of helps us chat about whatever it is we’re gonna chat about real estate investing, et cetera, is, you know, birds are the same feather flock together, right?
Brett Snodgrass (00:05:53):
That is, that is very, very true. I know we have very similar minds with faith, family, business, entrepreneurship, and real estate. And I like your accent. I just, you know, you make me feel very comfortable. So
Jay Conner (00:06:06):
Well, you know, down here in the south, I mean, we talk slow for a reason that’s because most of us think slow, right? So that’s just sort of the way it comes out. So we just want, we don’t, we don’t, but actually, we have a servant’s heart. We don’t want to leave anybody behind. Right. That’s so we make it nice. So, now in the introduction of you, Brett, I mean, you’ve built this, you know, fantastic wholesaling business up there in the Indianapolis area. You know, you mentioned that you work with people all over the nation. What do you primarily do Brett, outside of your own business? Do you work with other people across the nation, helping them passively be involved in real estate and get high returns? Or do you coach other people who wanna learn about wholesaling?
Brett Snodgrass (00:06:57):
Yeah, that’s a great question, Jay. So as you mentioned, I’ve been doing real estate for more than 10 years. It’s coming up in 14 years now and I’ve done a lot of different things with real estate. As you mentioned, I’ve done wholesaling, I’ve done fix, and flipping properties. We’ve done some creative or seller financing is what you’ve mentioned. I have some rental properties I’ve done that. We’ve done some property management. So I’ve done all sorts of things with real estate, about five or six years ago. What I realized is I love wholesaling and chasing deals. I like the quick nickel rather than the slow dime that that sort of business. So that’s really where simple wholesaling was born. And that’s when I, I wanted a very simple business back in 2014, actually I said, I wanna a simple business. I wanna go back into wholesaling and, and just doing a very fast-paced business.
Brett Snodgrass (00:07:52):
I wanna build a team and scale it from this one-man band to a team where I could have more freedom. Right. I mean, that’s, that’s really why we all start this business to have some freedom of money and freedom of time. And I didn’t have any of that about seven years ago. So, that’s when simple wholesaling was born and yeah, we’ve been, we’ve been doing amazing. So fast forward to today. I think last year we did a little over 300 deals. You know, we do two between two and $3 million of type, you know, gross a year. And I have a team right now, I think of about, let’s see it always, it’s always growing a little bit, 13, 14 people. We work with virtual assistance as well. And, we mostly do wholesaling honestly. And then we also do some creative financing where that’s where that passive income comes into play because you know, the whole selling business, you have to keep doing it over and over and over again every single month. So I realized, you know, I can’t do that forever, so I need to build some passive income. So that’s when we started to seller finance, some of these properties, we where we are the bank and then we finance the properties and, and we do, you know, like I said, 40 50 of those a year. And that’s where that passive income comes in. And then, and then we also do some rentals here and there to save on taxes.
Jay Conner (00:09:12):
So you do wholesaling and whole tailing. What’s the difference between wholesaling and whole tailing?
Brett Snodgrass (00:09:19):
Yeah. So, wholesaling is, if you’re you meet with sellers, you get the properties under contract, and then typically you’re going to sell that contract or assign that contract to an investor for a fee. So, you possibly, will not buy the property. You don’t have to close on the property, truly just find deals and then sell that contract to an investor. That’s wholesaling. Wholesaling is where you buy the property. You do close on the property, and then you do a little bit to the property. So maybe you clean out the property. Maybe you do some things to look at, not to make the property look a little bit better, but you don’t do a full rehab, right? You’re not tearing out drywall putting in kitchen cabinets, putting on new roofs. You’re not doing the full rehab. You’re just doing a little bit to the property and then selling that to an investor. So, instead of signing the contract, you close it, do a little bit to it and then, and then sell it to an investor on the back end.
Jay Conner (01:10:20):
So whole tailing is it’s flipping, but you’re not doing a major rehab.
Brett Snodgrass (01:10:26):
Yeah, yeah. Basically. And, and I use that. I use that word lightly, cuz honestly when we hold the tail, it’s we close on the property, and then, and then we clean it out. You know, a lot of these properties are filled with junk trash or personal belongings. So it looks terrible. So if someone were to walk into it, they’re like, wow, this looks bad, cuz there’s so much junk in it. So we’ll send a crew in, we’ll just clean it out, and then sell it. That deal. We call it whole tailing.
Jay Conner (01:10:56):
There you go. There you go. Now you said something a moment ago. You said you just love chasing the deals or finding the deals. Well, we’re in a very, very interesting time. We’ve got some very interesting things going on in our economy to where I mean, I’ve been investing in real estate with my wife, Carol Joy now in our 18th year, full-time here in Eastern North Carolina. And I’ve never seen a time in 18 years where there’s just nothing in the multiple listing service to buy. I mean, nothing. I mean, if you’re gonna find it, you got to rely on off-market houses, at least you’re in Eastern North Carolina. So, I hear that story all over the nation. So with that being the case, what is your and your team’s secret sauce? Come on, pull the curtain back. What’s your secret sauce right now in our economy for finding deals?
Brett Snodgrass (01:11:58):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like you said, you have to find them off-market. We call ’em off-market deals. So we spend a lot of money and time on, you know, working with private sellers and in our marketing and following up. So you asked, I don’t, I don’t ever think there’s any type of secret sauce, but I will tell you right now, if you can find a deal right now, it doesn’t have to be a great deal. It doesn’t have to be a deep-discounted deal. It just has to be any type of deal that deal will sell. So right now it’s not hard to sell properties. Our inventory is very, very low. It’s the lowest it’s been in years. So, we’re constantly still finding deals. And we do that through different marketing channels. So we do TV ads. That’s a big, big marketing channel for us. We still do direct mail. So we’re sending out letters and postcards. We’re cold-calling sellers. So we get lists of sellers and we’re calling ’em up on the phone. We’re still doing a little bit of texting here and there. We’re driving for dollars. So honestly we’re doing any type of off-market marketing that we can do right now to find any deals. And, if we can find a deal, we know that we can sell it with the market that we have for sure.
Jay Conner (01:13:19):
So you mentioned one of your methods of finding a and to make sure everybody knows an off-market deal just means it would be for sale by an owner that does not have their house listed with a real estate agent in the multiple listing service. And of course, what we’ve discovered Brett, as you have over the years, a lot of these houses we buy the owners are not even marketing their houses. They don’t have a for sale by owner sign in their front yard. One of the channels or strategies you just mentioned for finding deals today is driving for dollars. Tell everybody what you mean by driving for dollars. And how do you find people to drive for dollars?
Brett Snodgrass (01:14:00):
Now that’s a great, that’s a great thing. So driving for dollars, basically what it means is you just get into your car and you drive and you’re looking for homes that you feel like the sellers might be motivated to sell. So you’re looking for signs, right? You’re looking for tall grass that the yard hasn’t been mowed in a month. Maybe the mailbox is full of mail because no one’s picking up that mail it’s a vacant property. So it’s more susceptible to Vance coming in and tearing, tearing up the property, boarded up homes, right? So these are the signs that we’re looking for. So whenever we find a property that looks like, Hey, this, this owner maybe is motivated to sell this property. And then we can either send him a letter. We can skip, trace them, and call them and just tell ’em, Hey, we’re investors.
Brett Snodgrass (01:14:55):
We were driving through your neighborhood. And we found this property and thought, Hey, you know, this is what it looks like, and you might be interested in selling it. And that’s basically what driving for dollars is. And we drive for dollars ourselves. So people on our team drive for dollars. So we always train our acquisitions guys. These are the guys out in the field. They’re looking at properties, and meeting with sellers, but they also, have their phones on them. We use an app called Deal Machine, which is a great driving-for-dollar app. I would check that out. And, if they see a property, when they’re driving for these ha through these neighborhoods, they’ll, they’ll use their deal machine app and skip, trace them, and call up that seller. We also can find other people that we’ve done in the past. We hire them to drive for dollars too, and you can pay them, you know, however, you want per house or deal or whatever, but it’s not hard right now to find people looking for freelance work, I guess, is what I would call it.
Jay Conner (01:15:56):
Yeah, I love the reason I ask you about that is of course, here in our small area, Carol Joy and I, our total investing population is that population’s only 40,000 people. So we use, you know, many, many, you know, different ways of finding motivated sellers. And so we just brought on a new field agent, also known as a bird dog. That is then the military. And he was vow in California and knocked on our door and said, Hey, I want to drive for dollars for you. I said, okay. So last weekend he went out and he just touched the hem of the garment. If you will. And sent us pictures of 33 houses that are vacant and we skip trace those people and over half of them are living outta state. So when you got a vacant house and it’s distressed or nobody is living in and it hasn’t for a while and the owners, according to the tax records live outta state, that’s probably going to be a pretty good sign of a motivated seller. Wouldn’t you say? So Brett.
Brett Snodgrass (01:17:03):
Yeah, I would say, and you’ll be surprised that people say, why don’t these people market their properties, listen on the MLS, or whatever? And honestly, just a lot of people, they kind of forget about it, right? It’s like, if you have this random house in another city and you have your day job and you have your family and you have your kids and you’re busy and you’re doing all this stuff, you kind of just put the house on a back burner and you’re like, oh, I’ll get to it one of these days. And that day never comes. So when Jay Conner calls you up and reminds you that that house is still sitting there, yeah. Perks your interest. So
Jay Conner (01:17:38):
Exactly now Brett, you and your team, you’ve got multiple exit strategies. You have multiple exit strategies, meaning you’re controlling a house, meaning you’ve done marketing, and you and the team have found a house. Now you gotta under contract to purchase multiple ed exit strategies. You could do what we call, stay in the deal. You could do what we call, take it down. In other words, you close on your contract that you’ve got under the purchase. So you can stay in the deal. Or as you said in wholesaling, you can assign that contract to another real estate investor. And you’re going to collect an assignment fee. You’re gonna sell that contract. Now they’re gonna take it down. You can, or you can stay in the deal two different ways. You can stay in it on whole tailing where you just clean it up. As you said, sell it to an end user, or you do a major rehab. Watch your criteria for deciding what is your exit strategy from those choices.
Brett Snodgrass (01:18:41):
Yeah. Yeah., I think it’s just whatever season that you’re in. Like I said, I like the quick nickel. So our first strategy is if we get a house on our contract and we can assign the property we’ll we won’t market it, but we’ll send it out to some buyers. Like we know our buyers pretty well. So we’ll send it out to a few of ’em that think that would be interested. And if they’re interested, then we’ll just assign the contract. If they’re not interested, or if it’s a deal that we don’t know if you know, a buyer for that, then we’ll go ahead and, and close on it, clean it out. And then we’ll, and then we’ll list it. We don’t do a lot of major rehabs right now just because just the season that we’re in and the market that we’re in, it’s, it’s almost like we don’t have to do that just because there’s buyers out there.
Brett Snodgrass (01:19:29):
The inventory’s low. So we feel like we can make maybe not as much money, but we can make close to as much money as if we just cleaned it up and sold it to an investor. And we didn’t have to spend that four to six months and the headaches and the stress of fixing up that property. Sometimes we do seller finance it, but honestly, those just come. It’s not like we market it that way, but we just, have a couple of agents and a couple of buyers that buy that way. And then that just kind of comes here and there. So, we don’t do a lot of full rehab just because of the season that we’re in, but this is the market change. I mean, who knows two years, we might be doing all four rehabs. I don’t know. We’ll see.
Jay Conner (02:20:11):
Yeah, it does change from year to year. So since the market is so tight and inventory is, I mean, so tight is hardly anything in the mobile listing service to buy. Has that changed your formula for figuring what is the maximum amount that you will put a house under contract? And if so, what is your current formula for deciding, okay, this is the most I’m gonna offer to get under contract.
Brett Snodgrass (02:20:36):
Yeah, well that’s a great question, Jay I’ve, this is probably a weird answer, but I, I stepped a lot out of the business about a year ago, Brian, Snyder’s our CEO of the simple wholesaling team now. And they’re the ones that kind of come up, been coming up with the formulas lately. I mean, our, our formula’s always kind of been, we might pay like 70% of, of the ARV or the, you know, or of the comparison price value or whatever, the brokers’ price opinion, that was kind of our formula before. But, I will tell you, has it gone up? Yes. I mean, it’s, it’s almost sometimes the prices that, you know, we’re putting on properties. I look at it and I’m like, ah, I, I don’t know because of history, right? I mean, I’m still stuck in, in two years ago, three years ago where I was buying that house for what, $30,000 cheaper, 40,000, $50,000 cheaper.
Brett Snodgrass (02:21:34):
So, it is a weird time, right? And I think that I’m, we as investors, we always have to be pivoting and just be watching right now. I’m very conservative and I’m always having that conversation on, Hey, what happens if the government does something crazy or the market or the stock market starts to tank? And the real estate market starts to tank. And I’m like, Hey, when, when that happens, like we have to always be watching because I think if you’re like me, Jay, I mean, aren’t you guys still asking those, those questions and always watching and trying to figure out when you’re gonna have to pivot. Cause I think we’re all gonna have to pivot sooner or later. I mean, right now, we can’t keep doing this for it’s like, Hey, eating is good right now. And the market’s the market’s hot, but I’m like, it’s going to change. And when it does, we have to be ready.
Jay Conner (02:22:29):
Exactly, exactly. So, as we mentioned, when we started the show, Brett’s faith, family, God, and family are very, very important to you as it is to me. But before I ask you the next couple of questions, as we start to get towards the end of the show, I wanna make sure everybody knows how to follow you and stay connected. And so let’s give out your website and also your podcast.
Brett Snodgrass (02:22:55):
Yeah, definitely. So like I said, our company is called simple wholesaling. So you can check us out on simple wholesaling.com. We have a lot of videos and blogs and we do a lot of education on there as well. If people are interested in wholesaling, we’re always just trying to give out free content. So check us out on simple wholes selling.com. And I have a YouTube channel and it’s called the Brett Snodgrass channel where I do my podcast, which is the Brett Snodgrass podcast. And we also do videos, teaching videos, and things like that on there as well.
Jay Conner (02:23:28):
Yeah. Well, your podcast is sort of different. Tell everybody how your podcast is different as far as your line of questioning when you’re interviewing guests.
Brett Snodgrass (02:23:37):
Yeah. Well, I had Jay on the podcast and I’m, I’m just passionate about successful people, but they have a significant element to them. Like, you know, significance is a lot more important to them than success. So I talk to people about significance, about purpose. I go a little bit deeper on the show and we, you know, we kind of dig into, so we talk about family and marriage, kids and balance, and just things like that. We talk about real life rather than just saying, Hey, how do you make your next million?
Jay Conner (02:24:15):
Exactly. Well, speaking of that from your experience, I mean, you have figured it out, but you may not have it figured out all the time in the past, but what is the key to balancing, you know, you know, family and business? I mean, how do you balance the chaos of having four, you know, kids running around and you know, your relationship with your wife and running a crazy business?
Brett Snodgrass (02:24:44):
Yeah. I’ll tell you, Jay. It is, it’s hard. I mean, any entrepreneur will tell you that balancing family and, your business is very, very hard and I have not done it super well, especially when I was scaling and building a business in the early years now I’m in a stage and a season where, where I can step out a little bit and, and just look at my priorities sometimes when you’re just in it. And you’re grinding out every single day and you can’t hardly breathe because you’re just constantly in the middle of it all and all the minutiae and, and, and you can’t be present with your family. Can’t be present with your kids. I mean, I see that all the time with entrepreneurs and that’s what I talk about on the podcast. And people don’t talk about that much because they’re always talking about their business success, but people don’t talk a lot about their family success or their marriage success or their, what, you know, what they’re doing in there, in their faith.
Brett Snodgrass (02:25:40):
Right. So that’s what I love, love to talk about. So how do you balance it? I think is just taking a step back and, trying to do a priority board, right? Just start listing, like what’s important to you. And when I took a step back, I started to ask myself some really hard questions and right. I’m like, you know, because whatever decision that you make, you’re gonna have to sacrifice something. And, and I’m sure all the listeners, a lot of listeners out there, they know like when you’re scaling and building a business, you can say, and give a little bit of lip service to, this is to say, Hey, I’m doing this. So that one day I can spend time with my family and I’m trying to give them the things that I never had. And, and, and you can say all of that, but during, during it all, I think that you’re sacrificing a lot of those special moments, those magic moments with your family.
Brett Snodgrass (02:26:35):
So, you know, when I took a step back a year ago outta my business, I said, okay, I can maybe build another business. I can do all of that, but is it gonna help my family to make another X amount of dollars? Let’s say a million dollars is easy, would, it help my family to make that? Or would it help them more? If I was here and I was available and I got to spend the magic moments with them, and I got to pour, pour into them rather than trying, to juggle at a hundred miles an hour all the time. So that’s the season that I’m in. And I would just encourage every entrepreneur out there to start asking themselves, those hard questions and start to put their priorities in check. And I was talking to one entrepreneur one time, and this stuck with me because he was pretty successful.
Brett Snodgrass (02:27:27):
And he also, I saw him interact with his family and I was like, you know, how do you do that? How are you, how are you pretty successful? And then you have this amazing family over here too. Like, how do you do that? And he said, well, you know, I could always be more successful in business, but I will not sacrifice my family, to do that. And that stuck with me. And so I had asked to tell myself that, like I could, I could do all these things and I, and I would like to do all these things. And, and this is one of the things I tell entrepreneurs all the time. Like I would love to speak and travel and do all these crazy things and to build businesses and, and, and do it all and be an amazing dad too, and be an amazing husband. But I will tell you, I, I can’t right? I have to pick, and I have to choose depending on the season that I’m in. And, right now I’m choosing my family right during this season.
Jay Conner (02:28:22):
So what it comes down to is asking yourself, what’s the most important, right? So for example, if you got that kid, that’s at the sports game where you got that kid, that’s got the recital, or you got that kid doing whatever in the world, it is that’s important to them. Is it important to you to be there, to support them with whatever they have going on? When it comes to your wife, your wife’s got something going on. That’s important to her, where do you choose to be? And how do you choose to support what’s going on in, her life, right?
Brett Snodgrass (02:28:53):
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I think that we just get caught in that trap, you know, with the media, with, you know, if you type in business success on YouTube, all these messages are coming back at you and, and it looks great. It looks sexy. It’s, it’s exotic. And you’re driving the fancy cars and the mansion and doing these exotic things and it looks amazing. And then they make the family, right? Oh, my wife wants to go and spend a night with her friends. So I have to be home with the kids. That’s that looks boring because there, you know, right. And then, so you, but it’s not right. You get this. If you don’t do all that, you miss out, I believe on so, so much. And that’s where the purpose comes in. That’s where, where their fulfillment comes in. I don’t know. So I guess you have to ask yourself, will I regret it? And that was one question I asked, will I regret not traveling around speaking all that? Or, will I regret not being present with my kids? I don’t know. So those are the questions you gotta ask yourself sometimes. And that’s what I did.
Jay Conner (03:30:00):
Yeah. Very wise. Very wise questions. One last question for you, Brett. I didn’t prep you for it. So put your seatbelt on here. It, the question is, are you nervous yet? I know you’re not. If were visiting with your best friend and they did not judge you on the answer, how would you answer the question? I can only give you one piece of advice, man. And I only got 30 seconds to do it. What is it?
Brett Snodgrass (03:30:38):
Oh, my best friend. That’s, that’s a that’s tough, you didn’t prep me with that. For that one, Jay. I would just say, I think just to go after, I would just say purpose and, and, and present, you know, I, I’m a big guy on go after, like, you know, figure out what, what you’re made to do. How are you wired? How did God wire you and, what makes you come alive? What makes your heart come alive? What are you passionate about? I see guys get in this trap all the time and, and, and they don’t know how to get out of it, and they’re not living like through their full purpose. Right. So I say, you know, try to figure that out, spend some time, take a step back, figure it out and, and, and, you know, live out your purpose. And I would just say, be present, right?
Brett Snodgrass (03:31:31):
I mean, I think that’s just the biggest thing. I see so many people, especially today, who can’t, who can’t be present, and we have to work so hard to be present, but that’s where all the magic happens. It’s like if you can just get caught up in the moment in the magic of your family or whoever you’re with and to be present. And that’s just what I’m, I’m working for. So I’m with my wife. I be, I wanna be present when I’m with my kids. I wanna be extremely present if I’m with you, Jay Conner on this podcast, like, I don’t wanna be thinking about something else. So go after your purpose. Number one, figure out what that is go after that, and work on being present.
Jay Conner (03:32:10):
I love it. Your answer reminds me of a book. It may be outta print for all I know, but my dad very successful entrepreneur. Family is very important to him. And oh, for many, many years, he kept a supply of this book in his office. And whenever someone would come to visit with him, he always gave him this gift. And the name of the book was, and hopefully, it’s still out there. I don’t know the precious present. And have you ever heard of that book,
Brett Snodgrass (03:32:42):
Brett? No. I’m gonna get it.
Jay Conner (03:32:43):
Yeah. The precious present. And it’s a, it’s a parable. It’s a story. And I’m not going to spill the beans on the story, but it’s a play on the word, present, the precious present. And the gift is what you just said, being present for whoever you’re with. That’s the best precious present you could give anybody. But the story’s fantastic. So if the book’s still out there, get the book, the precious present,
Brett Snodgrass (03:33:14):
Love it. I love it. I’m gonna check that out. And, I agree, Jay. That’s just, and, and it’s so hard to do, right? I mean, everything is fighting for our attention. Everything is so
Jay Conner (03:33:27):
Absolutely Brett. I love you, brother. Thank you so much for taking the time to join me on the show.
Brett Snodgrass (03:33:32):
Thanks, Jay. Appreciate it.
Jay Conner (03:33:34):
All right, God bless you. There. You have it folks. Another amazing episode of real estate investing with Jay Conner and this episode is amazing because I have amazing guests on the show, just like Brett Snodgrass here’s to taking your real estate investing to the next level. I’m Jay Conner, the Private Money authority. And we’ll see you right here on the next real estate investing with Jay Conner.
