How a Single Mother Conquered Financial Hardships and Became a Broker

Stephen Schmidt (00:03.19)
Welcome to the show where we interview the nation’s leading real estate entrepreneurs. I got a legend in the studio with me here today I got Bethany Brokaw in the house Bethany has been in the real estate sector for over 22 years Has a rap sheet too long to even go through but she is the broker owner of two brokerages. She’s an investor She’s one of the top agents in the country

Bethany Brokaw (00:15.068)
Thank you.

Stephen Schmidt (00:26.376)
even running those brokerages, she still sells in the eight figures of real estate on a yearly basis. She’s done over 1,300 homes since 2005, sought after speaker. And if I keep going, I might break my tongue. But just remember, before we get started on our conversation today at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investor service providers and real estate entrepreneurs, to five X their businesses so they can build the businesses they’ve always wanted.

Bethany Brokaw (00:48.43)
Thank

Stephen Schmidt (00:49.878)
in order to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. And we’re going to be talking about a real rags to riches story here and somebody that has built that dream and never settles for less. So if you’re joining us, thanks again. If you’re coming back, appreciate you. And if it’s your first time, we know you’re going to come back for more. So with that being said, Bethany, welcome to the show today.

Bethany Brokaw (01:06.446)
Hi there, I’m so excited to be here and honored and thrilled to speak with you today, Stephen, and talk to everyone about my journey.

Stephen Schmidt (01:18.334)
I’m honored to have you. So before we kind of get started, maybe on some niche specific topics or anything like that in real estate, can you give us just a little bit of a background as to what got you into the business originally, maybe some of the evolution of how you got to where you’re at today and then what you’re really excited about going forward into the future.

Bethany Brokaw (01:38.036)
Yeah, I’m 100 % an accidental broker and real estate investor. It was not my plan. It was God’s plan. So a long, long time ago, graduated high school, went to college because that’s what they say to do, go to college. I was pre-law because I was supposed to be either the next Johnny Cochran or a lobbyist because as I got smarter, I realized that lobbyists control the government more than be running for office. So I was pre-law.

Stephen Schmidt (02:03.989)
Right.

Bethany Brokaw (02:05.581)
found out that I was pregnant at the age of 24, changed everything very quickly. The biological sperm donor, as I like to call him, was just supposed to be a summer fling, and it was supposed to be fun. He wanted to get married. I nicely told him, I’m already having one kid, I don’t want two kids. And so I knew that right away that was not going to be good because I was, you know, I have a kid, I got to right now man up, decide what I’m going to do.

Stephen Schmidt (02:12.544)
Hmm.

Stephen Schmidt (02:24.246)
Hmm.

Bethany Brokaw (02:33.207)
quit college, got a job immediately with health insurance, everything like that. And so I had my baby, biological sperm donor, had chose to move to Florida. So here I was on my own in Michigan. And I was financially and physically on my own when I say single mother, I mean, no child support, no one helping me with the baby, nothing like that. I had a gentleman I went to high school with and he had been telling me forever, he was a realtor, if you want a job, you can come work for me. Come work for me, come work for me. So.

Stephen Schmidt (02:37.302)
Hmm.

Bethany Brokaw (03:01.165)
I call him one day out of desperation. Okay, I’ll come work for you, but can I please bring my baby? I gotta bring my baby. I can’t afford daycare right now. And he said, yeah, you can bring the baby. And so my now 21 year old was potty trained in a real estate office when she was little. And I started out as an assistant to an assistant and I would get paid to put signs in the yard and call and follow up and put people in databases. And I was good at it. However, I did think that was going to be my future.

It was just supposed to be biding time, keeping a roof over her head. I was a homeowner. so fast forward six years later, at this point, I’m a senior in college. I’ve put myself through college. I’m on the president’s list. I changed my major to secondary education Spanish because I just wanted to get a job with good benefits and some resolve from my kids. It wasn’t so much that I was passionate. I was just trying to be realistic and law school wasn’t in the cards for me anymore. At this point, I moved up to office.

manager, recruiter, trainer, things like that. Still didn’t have my real estate license. And my oldest daughter made an account for me on a place called Plenty of Fish. And her and my mother decided it was time for me to date again. And so they picked somebody out. At the time I was very deep into the Bible and the forgiveness sections. And so started dating this gentleman. The typical me would have said goodbye pretty quickly. The newfound biblical filled me at the time.

Stephen Schmidt (04:18.55)
Hmm.

Bethany Brokaw (04:26.893)
said, oh, I got to forgive and I got to forgive. And so here I am now, seven years later, pregnant again. And this is the awesome part because when I mess up, I mess up like amazingly. So he’s actually on the FBI’s most wanted list for professional con artists. So now I have a baby and a six year old on my own again, financially and physically, I had negative $3,750 in my bank account in 2011.

because he had, you I was already pretty decently poverty ridden. I lived on a very strict budget. And I mean, I was a homeowner. My daughters never wanted for anything. I would apply for scholarships. I would drive them to the city, to the places that had the scholarships. So these were still able to do everything, but I lived on a strict, strict budget. And so instead of me just being my typical poor, now I’m negative because I had been robbed. My credit had been wrecked and ruined.

Stephen Schmidt (05:02.87)
Yeah.

Bethany Brokaw (05:22.219)
I could literally do two podcasts just about what a good con artist he was, because I’m a pretty sharp cookie, I like to think. Anyhow, so here it is. Now I have both of them. And she went to the office too and was potty turned there. And at this point, my boss says to me, you got to your real estate license. Like you just got to get a real estate license. You’re so good. And I remember thinking, I’m not selling. Like I have kids and I need something constant and safe. I need something safe. And my best friend who always gives me words of wisdom said,

Stephen Schmidt (05:47.83)
Hmm.

Bethany Brokaw (05:51.918)
Beth, even if you just sell one house this year, one house that’s extra money for you and the babies. I thought, you know what? She’s right. She’s right. So I got my real estate license. First house I showed my first week I sold. I sold 47 houses my first year in real estate. I quit college seven months later when I realized and when I calculated, I was going to potentially make more than my college professor that I’m taking classes from. So I quit college senior year.

I went from being on a team to having my own team within the span of three years and then opened my own brokerage within three years after that. So now we’ve been, I’ve had a LLC now for a decade, which I’m happy to say, and we opened a second office last year in a commercial division. So now we have two brokerages and two offices that span. And we have 23 or 24 people and my life is radically different. And so.

Real estate was always God’s plan, but I didn’t know it was my plan. But the second I got my license and actually started doing it, I was shocked to find out how rewarding it was. I don’t even technically sell houses. I help people. But that said, I could sling some houses. Like I’m a strong negotiator. I’ll take anyone on at any time. I’m obsessed with what I do. So I’m constantly learning, constantly wanting to be better. I’m someone that can take constructive criticism.

Stephen Schmidt (06:55.189)
Mm.

Bethany Brokaw (07:12.309)
I’m very good at roting, ripping off and duplicating. I’m very good at paying attention to people way above my level and doing what they want. I’m not afraid to be afraid. People all the time don’t live their unreal lives because they’re scared. They’re always so scared. And I think that because of all the trauma I went through for about a decade, I call it my black period that I was depressed every day, but I kept doing the right thing. I kept my head down.

I did what I should do. When you have nothing, you’re not afraid. You know, you’re just not afraid anymore because you’ve been from nothing. so now fast forward all these years later and I have an Airbnb in Florida. I own both my office buildings. Actually I do. I have an assisted living home open up soon. My life is radically different. I live on the lake. That was my dream lake that I wanted to live on my whole life as a kid. And I got to do it on my own with my two daughters.

Stephen Schmidt (07:50.006)
Hmm.

Bethany Brokaw (08:11.229)
I did everything in reverse. So I had the kids, then I got the career, and then I got the husband. So I’ll be married five years this year, but I didn’t get married till I was 41. And he was worth waiting for, that’s for sure. He had to beat me over the head for a couple of years to pay attention. But he’s a wonderful man. And so that in a nutshell is, you know, a little bit of my story. And I went from being the person back in 2013, that if I was speaking to 20 people, would be shaking and nervous to now.

I’ve had the opportunity to speak all over the nation. know, California, I was in DC two weeks ago and got to speak for a lot of people. And I’m just so thankful that God knew this was my plan the whole time. In real estate, a lot of times correlated the law too. So even my pre-law background had helped. And it was about four or five years ago. Yeah, about four or five years ago, I started to realize that you’re not poor anymore.

Stephen Schmidt (08:53.6)
Hmm.

Bethany Brokaw (09:06.763)
You know, you’re not poor anymore. So it’s great that you’re saving all this money. You can pay your bills. But now it’s time to get out of that poverty mindset and get into that growth mindset. And that’s when I flipped the switch and I became a real estate investor. And it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. And don’t get me wrong, now and then I’ll even get a little fearful because right now I have two new businesses opening at once, which is not for the faint of heart. However, the numbers make sense. And something that I say to other people that I say to myself is what I bet on myself.

Stephen Schmidt (09:15.831)
Mm.

Bethany Brokaw (09:36.622)
Yeah, I’d bet on myself. I’ll still work a 12 hour day now. I’ll still work a 15 hour day now. Like I will bet on myself. So why am I afraid? And the other thing is what is the worst that could happen? The worst that could happen is I just sell something. You know what? I’m not going to be homeless. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? And so that’s really, in my opinion, allowed me the ability to really change my trajectory and have a lot more growth the past few years than I ever had in the past because now I’m not afraid.

of having a little bit of debt. I’m not afraid of doing these things anymore because I know who I am and I know how hard I work and why, and I also am good at, right now I keep telling myself, I just have to get to October, November. Things might hurt a little bit right now. I might be in the red a little bit, but once I October, November, I’m gonna be in the yellow and the green. This is only temporary. Let’s go. And so that would be it in nutshell.

Stephen Schmidt (10:26.518)
Hmm.

Stephen Schmidt (10:33.003)
Wow, that is an incredible story. you, when you reflect and look back on your history, do you sometimes maybe think that if you hadn’t gone through those challenges that you wouldn’t have the holistic success that you’ve been able to achieve today?

Bethany Brokaw (10:55.073)
That’s an amazing question. And it’s funny you say that because yes, in more so the past few years, I’ve been able to really truly say, I understand the pain now. I understand why I lived in that Valley for so long because I believe the Valley’s prepares for the mountains. And I understand that I can handle a lot more than maybe some others.

Stephen Schmidt (11:14.006)
Hmm.

Hmm.

Bethany Brokaw (11:23.105)
due to the fact of what I had to handle before. So I feel much more equipped. And it’s actually made my connection with the Lord even stronger because I always remind myself there’s this beautiful tapestry and we as humans only see the backside of it. So we see the mess. We see like, you know, the gross, but he sees the beautiful picture on the other side. And so now when I’m in valleys, cause everyone will still have valleys. I’m in valleys on and off all the time. There are different types of valleys than my valleys before.

but there’s still valleys. I remind myself he has gotten me out of valleys every time, every time. And every time I’ve been in a valley, the thing that’s coming next has been above and beyond my dreams. And because his plans are way bigger than your plans, always. And so exactly what you said, yes. to attest to that too, you know, I have some friends and colleagues and things like that that’ll oftentimes say, I don’t know how you can do this or.

Or they’ll say, I want this too. Like, I want what you have. I want to do this. However, they’re not willing to do whatever it takes. You have to do whatever it takes. And I think my mindset is different because of my beginnings. And oftentimes, if you don’t know how to fight for everything you have, you don’t know how to fight for everything you have. You just don’t. And I also think sometimes you can’t teach hunger. Like, some people are just constantly hungry. And by hunger, I don’t even mean

for money, but for more. Because to me, the hunger is more for making heaven crowded, having freedom, traveling, getting to speak and write books one day and not maybe sell as many houses. Like there’s all kinds of things you can be hungry for in life and you can be hungry, but are you willing to do it? I definitely think that all my hardships have made me tougher. I have a lot thicker skin. Things that may give others panic attacks would not be anything to me due to my beginnings.

Stephen Schmidt (12:52.886)
Mm.

Bethany Brokaw (13:20.405)
because I’m not gonna get scared or nervous about that because I can pay my bills. I mean, I used to have to rotate paying my utilities late every other month so they wouldn’t shut off the electricity so I’d pay the water late and they wouldn’t shut off the water because I was $100 short every month working a full-time job and working part-time jobs on the side. I’ve detailed cars, I’ve painted bump shops, I’ve changed trash, I’ve scrubbed toilets, I’ve done, I’ve sold perfume out of my trunk, I’ve done focus groups.

Stephen Schmidt (13:20.961)
Right.

Bethany Brokaw (13:48.702)
I did whatever I had to to keep a rope over my head and support my daughters and I. And I don’t know if everyone always had, I wish that everyone had that, you know, gumption and that, but yeah, I’m actually now, and again, hindsight’s 2020. Now I’m thankful for the journey and I understand the journey. In the past though, no, at the time when I was in it, mad, upset, sad, everything.

Stephen Schmidt (13:53.451)
Mm.

Stephen Schmidt (14:07.543)
Mm-mm.

Stephen Schmidt (14:15.231)
Right. Yeah, it’s really hard to see the picture when you’re in the frame, right?

Bethany Brokaw (14:20.811)
Yes, that’s a great way to put it.

Stephen Schmidt (14:23.777)
So when you were going through all that and now where you’ve gotten today, do you feel like you’ve fully stepped out of running away from poverty and running into, and now you’re focused on doing what you do, not for the same reason, rather you’re running to the prosperity of being able to actually give back and help people? And where would you say you’re at in that process, mindset-wise?

Bethany Brokaw (14:44.461)
Thank you.

Bethany Brokaw (14:50.797)
Yes, yes, definitely. We said, because my long term pipe dream is to start a nonprofit for single parents. So you know, I the ultimate goal is to be able to help more and more and more people. I would say I feel like I’m probably eight years issue away from there from actually getting that started. But that said, I tend to hit my goals quicker than I want. I wanted a house in Florida by the time I was 60, so I got it when I was 42. So I just mean like things.

Stephen Schmidt (14:54.967)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Bethany Brokaw (15:19.585)
do sometimes change as far as that. And I’m really a full circle turnaround into the investor mindset. Because something I did a long time ago, which will horrify anyone that’s investing, is as I was working out of poverty and saving my money, I saved up enough money to pay my house payment for the whole year. So I went to the bank and I paid my house payment a year in advance because I just wanted to know that my house payment was paid and no one could take my house.

Stephen Schmidt (15:46.817)
Hmm.

Bethany Brokaw (15:48.174)
Well, anyone in the world that knows anything about numbers knows, how stupid is that? I didn’t put any of that on principal. I could have not so much money off my house. But again, when you’re in that poverty mindset, all you think is, I just want to be safe. You just want to be safe. And I just wanted to know they couldn’t take the house away. Now I would never do that. I would never pay a house payment a year in advance. I would put it on principal.

Stephen Schmidt (16:04.606)
Right.

Bethany Brokaw (16:13.963)
So things have really changed that way, but yes, I’m definitely not working as hard as I’m working right now for money. Money, makes the world around, we don’t have a choice. I mean, it’s just, we need it to live and we need it to open businesses and we need it to help people. But that’s not the mindset because I can pay my house payment every month. I can pay my bills. I get to drive a nice car. I get to have a boat. I get to have jet skis.

Stephen Schmidt (16:34.806)
Right.

Bethany Brokaw (16:41.333)
I’m blessed beyond belief, but I’m pumped because once you feel like you know your purpose in life, it’s pretty easy to get up every day and want to work hard. I just feel like it is.

Stephen Schmidt (16:51.659)
No.

Stephen Schmidt (16:55.453)
While you were going through that, how did you, or maybe not how did you, but what were some of the unique things that only you could do for you to maintain a high level of self-confidence and belief in yourself even while going through those really tough times?

Bethany Brokaw (17:02.423)
Thank

Bethany Brokaw (17:15.403)
Yeah, that’s something important that actually I think a lot of people should consider doing. As I first started going through the hard times, like I mentioned to you, was definitely very depressed. However, because I had a daughter, I told myself every day, she didn’t ask to be born. She will not suffer because of my choices. I have to get my act together. And so when I would look in the mirror and think bad things, know, things like, you you look so ugly or you’re so fat.

I would make myself stop and I would play something called the opposite game. And I would instantly change it in my head to like, you’re strong, you’re beautiful. And even though I didn’t believe it at all, and I mean, I didn’t believe it at all, not even slightly. And I started changing my mindset that every time I would think something negative about myself, which was literally 85 % of the day for multiple years, I would change it to the opposite, even if I didn’t believe it. And that would help. And then I started actually getting into affirmations a little bit too.

So I would wake up in the morning and I would write down, you know, sentences, things like I’m strong and capable. I can provide for my children. can eat things that I didn’t believe, but you know, I’m an avid reader, so I knew it was going to retrain my brain and I would force myself to do affirmations. I also really believe in having an attitude of gratitude. If people would oftentimes stop being the president of their own pity party, and I say that with love because I’m the press, I can be the

best president in the world of a pity party. I mean, you don’t even know because while I’m being the president of my pity party, I’m becoming the CEO of everybody else’s pity party because I’ll start to think to myself, how can you be upset and sad right now? You can walk and you can talk and you have a house and you have this and you have this. Who are you to be upset? And so then I’ll my pity party. I’ll just keep going and going and never quit with it. And when that hits, though, people need perspective.

and they also need to look at others. And so a good thing I had done a while back, my oldest was about five years old. And I was, I mean, I was in the trenches as far as my attitude and my thought process. just, felt like the biggest loser in the world for a decade. I kid you not, I drove the worst car in the parking lot. I had permanent Bell’s palsy. So I looked like a stroke victim walking around for two years straight with my face like, so, I mean, I just.

Stephen Schmidt (19:26.455)
Hmm.

Bethany Brokaw (19:36.832)
My story could go on for a while. I’ve had a lot of trauma in my life and a lot of tragedies and such, and I’ve had a hard life. so one day, again, I’m in the trenches, everything’s really bad, Thanksgiving’s coming up, and I thought to myself, I have to stop being this way. I can’t be like this. And mind you, I’d hide it from my daughters. I’m a professional silent crier. I cry in the shower only. They don’t need to be raised by thinking their mom’s a hot mess. I will act like things are happy and good in front of them no matter what.

And so I decided that year I was going to volunteer at the North End soup kitchen in the city of Flint with my five year old. And I called them up. I had to get special permission for her to volunteer with me because they said traditionally children don’t volunteer. And so we volunteered that year for Thanksgiving at the North End soup kitchen. And I needed that more than those people needed me there to volunteer for them because watching people in line to get a hot meal, watching people feed their babies Kool-Aid out of bottles instead of formula or milk.

watching people be so thankful and grateful and riding the city bus there. And you know, I might’ve had a 1993 Denad Buick Lesteber, but I still had a car. I might’ve barely been able to make my house payment, but my house was in a safe area, like a very safe area. And that completely changed my perspective that who am I to be over here crying? Because when it comes down to it in life, every single one of us will always feel in some ways like we’re not enough or we don’t have enough.

And comparisons the thief of joy. And it doesn’t matter where you’re at in your journey, whether you’re here, here, here, here, here, there’s always gonna be someone else above you or doing better or someone else to be jealous of or however you want to feel as far as that. I definitely don’t have any jealousy anymore. Now I just have love for people who want to do everything because I’m mentally healthy now. But that was a big turning point for me.

And so ever since then, I kept the rule to myself that when I am being the president of my pity party, I need to help people. And when I do that, it gets me out. And so I’ve done everything from sending 50 personal texts to people telling them good things to I had a good month in real estate, sending people money to pay their bills for cancer, which I ended up actually saving someone’s life because of that, which was another story that was really awesome to I was able to buy somebody a house once now.

Bethany Brokaw (21:58.828)
When I stopped being poor, I adopted a child in Romania through like World Vision, because you always have a pity party. What can I do? I want to help somebody. I don’t have the time anymore, but I’m not super poor. I got a little money. I have 13 kids now. So now I have 13 children worldwide. I’m officially cut off. I’m not even allowed. When I go to concerts and things, I’m like, nope, I have 13 kids. So every time I get sad, like, cut it out right now. There’s people out there that are walking two miles.

Stephen Schmidt (22:05.75)
Hmm.

Bethany Brokaw (22:27.799)
to have a drink of water that would give anything to even drink from one of my four toilets in my house. Who am I to feel this way? And so I go to the stance of helping someone else and it immediately makes me stop being the president of my pity party.

Stephen Schmidt (22:46.776)
What’s a conversation you wish you could have had with your younger self that now with the experience you have right now that you wish you could have had?

Bethany Brokaw (22:57.771)
I think this all the time and I tell people this because I wish somebody would have told me that. Important things that I wish somebody said to me would have been things like, this is only temporary. Like this is only temporary. Your life can radically change in a year, two years or five years. The way you’re feeling right now is only temporary. That could have changed a lot of my trajectory quicker. Someone just simply saying that.

Because when you’re in the frame, like you said, when you’re in it so low in the trenches, you oftentimes can’t see the light. You only see the darkness. And you don’t think there’s anywhere out. And you oftentimes think that you’re just spinning your wheels and spinning your wheels. And when is it going to ever happen? When is anything going ever change? And it’s really difficult, especially when I was financially responsible for two children by myself and could barely pay my bills.

I mean, that’s so taxing upon humans. Anyone that’s been in that type of situation, every day you’re just right to the cold, feeling like a horrible loser because you can barely keep the lights on and these innocent, sweet, wonderful gifts from God, I’m responsible for that. And how do I not have my act together? And why didn’t I plan better? And why did this and why? And if someone were to send to me like, hey, Beth, this is only temporary. You need to realize this is only temporary in your journey.

That could have made huge difference. Just knowing that. Because I even look now, my life has radically changed in the past two years. It’s beyond radically changed in the past decade. And it’s a lot of times we just can’t realize that, that this does not have to be your forever. This isn’t your forever. This is just a little chapter in your book. Just let it be a chapter.

Stephen Schmidt (24:29.997)
Hmm.

Stephen Schmidt (24:35.384)
sure.

Stephen Schmidt (24:45.325)
Right.

Stephen Schmidt (24:50.773)
Right. Yeah. You know, I resonate with that a lot when my third was, well, my first, but my third, I married a single mom funny enough and took her two boys on. And so in my first, our third was born. We had just moved from Jacksonville to Melbourne, Florida. Actually, we were in the process of moving from Jacksonville to Melbourne, Florida. And it was the day before we moved. had taken a job, had been traveling down there as the sales and marketing manager of a roofing company.

And I got a call from the owner and he said, Hey, we need to talk. And he had just gone on a three week hiatus for his brother’s wedding and ghosted us in the office for like 12 days and didn’t speak to anybody. And his mom was running the operations. And so I get this call and he goes, what are you doing? And I said, I’m packing. Like, what’s up? And he goes, well, call me when you got some time. And I’m like, well, if you’re going to say like that, then we got time right now. And

Bethany Brokaw (25:17.751)
Please.

Bethany Brokaw (25:45.453)
Right.

Stephen Schmidt (25:46.328)
He said, yeah, well, I just wanted to let you know, you know, I decided, you know, had an epiphany on this trip that my wife and I, just, we’re going to shut everything down. We’re going to go do real estate. So you’ve got two weeks and then I’m to let you go. And so we were moving, taking on an extra $500 a month in rent. I thankfully had several marketing, like personal marketing clients that I’d consulted with and built some systems for. And so I looked at my wife and I was like, well, this is about to suck.

We’re moving to a place where we literally don’t know anybody, have no support and taking on extra expenses, but at least we’ll be able to pay the rent and keep the lights on. We’ll see what else happens from there. And, know, kind of to your point, the grace of God, we, we, we never missed a pill somehow during that season and we might’ve racked up, you know, a little more credit card debt living, trying to, you know, live a little, but, in that same time process, we never ran out. And so.

to your point, I tell myself all the time when something happens that I don’t appreciate or it’s out of the blue or whatever else, I look at it and I say, I ask myself the question, is this gonna matter in five years? And if it’s no, then it’s really not worth spending any more emotional turmoil over. And if it’s yes, then it’s okay, will it matter in 10? And if it won’t matter in 10, I find that 99.99 % of things will not matter in 10 years. Death, divorce, it’s about the only two things from a…

Bethany Brokaw (26:59.007)
No.

Bethany Brokaw (27:03.851)
Hahaha

Bethany Brokaw (27:12.194)
Right?

Stephen Schmidt (27:13.273)
from what I’ve found. So, you know, it allows me to have a perspective even when I’m going through my own stuff that like, hey, it’s only temporary. So I love that you said that. If you could go back, and this will be our last question, because we’re already over time, but if you could go back to the beginning when you started everything, but you could do something different and do something the same with the knowledge that you now have today, what would you do different and what would you do the same?

Bethany Brokaw (27:39.426)
I would have taken risks sooner and would have invested and had a growth mindset sooner. It took me a long time to get out of that poverty mindset. And I was smart in the business sense as far as I started building systems from day one. It’s easy for me to look at things and figure out a better way to do it and do systems. And once you do something once and you do it again, you don’t repeat it, you get a system for it. So that part I was…

successful at even back in day. However, had I not been afraid to make some moves, multiple houses, I could have flipped things that I had. had opportunities, but at the whole time, no, I need all that money in my savings account. no, no. What if the rug, you know, what if the floor falls out from underneath me? Because I was so afraid of that happening because of it happening. I didn’t take opportunities that I should have.

And a lot of my nurse clients have always told me that people stay on their deathbeds. Their biggest regret in life is the things they didn’t do, not what they did. And so since I’ve learned those things and also changed my mindset, it’s pretty rare I’m going to not jump on a potential opportunity these days, unless I don’t have the means. But other than that, because I don’t want to regret it. I don’t want to regret it. And so

One thing I would have changed for sure is that the rest, as awful as it was, it can be the way that it was because I wouldn’t be where I am right now or who I am right now had I not went through that. And I think I had to go through that to be where I am now. I do. And so I don’t really regret much of it other than four or five, six, seven years ago, not making some moves I should have made, that I could have made, that I was afraid to make.

Bethany Brokaw (29:41.453)
I can’t hear you, Stephen.

Stephen Schmidt (29:45.547)
My mic got muted somehow. I said, well, folks, this has been great. And I know that I know everybody’s gotten a ton of value out of this. And what an incredible story, Bethany. And so appreciative of you were able to take some time here and hop on with us. But for people that want to connect with you for more, see what you’re working on, those types of things, where should they go for that?

Bethany Brokaw (30:07.681)
Yeah, anytime come to my website, which is bethanybroca.com or elsebrocagroup.com. Please feel free to reach out for anything at any time. I truly love to help people and a lot of it is because no one had really helped me when I needed it. And everyone needs to spread the light and spread the love and let people know they are so much more capable than they know themselves of doing anything. And I promise all of you out there, whatever you’re going through, whatever it is,

You can do it and it’s only temporary. It’s only temporary. I promise you if I could do it, you could do it. So just don’t be afraid and do the right thing every day and it will pay off.

Stephen Schmidt (30:43.833)
100 % well Bethany thanks for being here folks go drop her some love show her some love from the real estate pros and the investor fuel community We appreciate you guys a ton and we’ll see you in the next episode. Thanks again, Bethany

Bethany Brokaw (30:55.182)
Thank you.