From Factory Worker to Real Estate Investor: How Cisco Brown Took Back His Time

Cisco Brown (00:00)
I hope someone finds value. It’s gonna find someone’s gonna get the value out of it. And please reach out to me because I love to hear your origin story, your successes, what you’re struggling with. Because you know what? Everything you want is on the other side of the things you don’t wanna do. Right. And really there are no bad times. there is no obstacles. It’s how we frame these things, right? So

you don’t have obstacles, you have opportunities. So just capitalize on that, fail forward, take imperfect action, and do not stop.

Quentin Edmonds (01:04)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and you know what I’m gonna say. You follow me, I’m excited to be here today. I always get excited when I get to peek through the lens of other people and their experience. We’re learning from each other. And so today I have another fantastic guest. He believes in networking.

He believes in being yourself. He believes in impacting others. he has a history within wholesaling, but also he’s transitioning to teaching people his methods. And so I’m so excited. I’m so excited that we get to learn today from Mr. Cisco Brown. Mr. Cisco, how are you doing it, sir?

Cisco Brown (01:41)
Pretty good, man. Happy to be here.

Quentin Edmonds (01:42)
Absolutely,

man. Well, happy to have you here. I’m gonna say this probably one time again at the end, but I’ll say it here. Thank you for your time, man. I think time is our most precious commodity. And so the fact that you gave us some of your time, that’s valuable to me. So thank you, man. Thank you for being here.

I like to dive right in. I love for for you to tell people what’s your main focus these days. If you don’t mind, give us a little origin story.

kinda how you got into the spaces that you’re in. And then man, tell where you are in the world. People love to know where people are geographically. And so, Mr. Cisco, sir, you have the floor, my friend.

Cisco Brown (02:16)
Yes, absolutely. So man, right now, currently I have been wholesaling for going on three years. We’re about read about maybe a little over two and a half years. I started off, my journey, just being a single dad, working in manufacturing. I was there for over twelve years. And I had my son when I was twenty-one and

shortly after having him, I’m sitting at work. I’ve got my house, all my cars are paid off. I got everything I could ever want. I don’t have to worry about anything. If I want to go on vacation, I can. And something just hit me. I was just sitting in that factory and just the thought came across me was I’m not meant for this. I’m meant for more. there’s I’m capable of more. I’m smarter than this, there’s more for me out there.

And from there, it was just a search literally over the next decade of, what’s my out? How do I get out of this? What do I do? Right. so I would say the journey started in my early 20s, but I didn’t put it into action till about a decade later when I was working and a guy comes in, he was complaining about work, and I just kind of looked at him. I’m like, man, you’ve been here for 10 years, and every year you complain about the same thing.

either do something about it and leave and do something better or be quiet and deal with it. And when I said that, I felt like I was talking to myself and it was almost like something just broke in me. And so that’s what I started doing. I looked at the job and the situation and I’m like, this is weighing heavy on my mental health. I’ve never taken work home. I’ve never talked about it. And at that point, my then girlfriend,

I told her, I was like, I can’t keep doing this. I’m having these negative feelings. it’s gotta stop. So if, with your blessing, I’m gonna quit the job and I don’t know where I’m going, but I’ll try a few more jobs after that. And if everything’s not peachy, I’m gonna quit and I’m gonna find my own way. I’m gonna make money my own way, And she’s like, How are you gonna do that? I said, I have no idea. So that’s how a little bit about how I got started.

I told her, I’ll try three more times on that third job. What happened was I was sitting there, and it was a great job. I started at six, got off at two, every day was the same. I was making the same part every day, I was making the same check every week. And I was just like, I don’t like that. I need excitement in my life. I gotta shake this up, the story’s not written. So

finding success early on, I guess you could call it success. It just depends on where you were raised, right? The way I was raised was hey, grow up, get a good job, maybe get a degree and just have your family and that’s life. But that wasn’t enough for me. So realizing man, I’m sitting here, I’m listening to music for eight hours, I’m wasting my time. I gotta use this time. time is our most

Precious. It’s the only thing we have. It’s the most valuable thing we have. Right. And so I was like, for 25 bucks an hour. No way. I’m worth more than that. So yeah, man. I started listening, I typed in the podcast. I remember a good friend of mine. He’s like, You ever listen to podcasts? I’m like, no, why would I listen to people talk? he’s like, There’s good information on there. So I download Spotify, I type in finances.

and then I come across rich dad, poor dad, and I’m like, I got that book. So I read the book and it angered me, because it told me everything I’d already been saying to myself. I was preaching it at work, but I wasn’t living it, right? Gotta make this money work for me. And so from there, I typed in real estate. I said, You’ve always loved us since you were six years old. Right. And I told myself, listen until you understand.

that was the only thing I gave myself. There was no next steps after that. Right. So I start understanding it and boy, I’m getting excited. I learn about, the BRRRR method right? Buy rent or buy rehab, rent, repeat. I looked into some other methods, but what I didn’t like about a lot of them was that you had to stay in a job for 10 years and go through the banks and

My finances were great. My credit was great. I don’t want to be here for another 10 years. So I just kept listening. I came across wholesaling. It was funny I was like, I’m not doing that. I’m not calling random people and I’m not doing any of that. I don’t want to do any of that stuff. And so I go to my wife and I’m like, look, I’ve learned these different strategies. I just learned about some creative finance stuff. I think what the next step is the education part, right? Because I could listen to YouTube forever. Mm-hmm.

And so again, with your blessing, so now what I did when I quit that first job, I quit in the next that week we went to Florida and I got engaged to my wife. Yeah,

big risk for her, right? A man that doesn’t have a job anymore, no insurance, and we still got engaged. So I was taking risks, and I guess you can call them risk, but I believed in myself so much that it was always gonna work out. And so I said, Hey, I’m gonna get some coaching.

these are the things they show you how to do. They’re gonna walk me through. So I did that. Yeah. And I got coaching, they helped me get my LLC going. but then I didn’t like it because they’re like, All right, so you’re working, right? I’m like, Yeah, they’re like, Stay at that job and you’ll be able to get loans and stuff. And the more I learn about their strategy, I was like, This ain’t gonna work for me. So I remember I was like, yeah, there’s creative finance. So I hop one of those podcasts and I’m listening, And

I’m like, these are the people I want to coach me. Yeah, and guy comes over, I’d only known him for a few months. So I had only been at this job till I quit for about a year. He’s like, Man, he’s like, I always hear you listen to these podcasts and these people talking about how they did this deal and that deal. He’s like, Why you do that, man? Like, why? I was like, Because dude, I said, You ever see the tattoo on my arm? He’s What is it? I said, It says stay inspired. I said, That was for me initially to just

Remember to create because I do art. I said, but I was inspired. So I said, I’m gonna be one of them people on the podcast. I said, I’m gonna be the person on the podcast sharing their story. It’s gonna reach somebody in a factory or something, and it’s just gonna light that fire in them, and they’re gonna realize that if this guy can do it, mind you, I have no collegiate experience. I graduated high school, but barely, it just didn’t interest me, right? So I’ve always been had that entrepreneur heart and mindset.

I said I’m gonna be one of them people and I’m gonna inspire and I’m not gonna have a boss, right? I’m not gonna have nobody in control of my schedule, my time. Right. Because it’s not about the money, it’s about I want to take my time back. And so yeah, man, that’s just kind of how I really got started, is my kind of my origin story. And I get a hold of the creative finance coaches, yeah. And

I’m like, hey, I want to get some coaching in. well, he’s like, what are you doing right now? I was well, I just got off the phone with some sellers. He’s like, well, how long have you been doing real estate? I was like, I haven’t. He’s like, you haven’t done any deals. I was no. So I’ve only been learning for a couple months. Just YouTube podcast. You’re

already making calls. I was like, well, yeah. He’s like, dude, you’re gonna make a lot of money in this business. He goes, A lot of people are afraid to take action.

Yeah. And so I said with all due respect, I’ve been doing manufacturing for you know almost half my life now, and all I know how to do is to do things. Yes.

Quentin Edmonds (09:02)
Yes, yes. Man, bro, when I tell you, I didn’t realize we had so many similarities. Because I too, I told you I left the post office where I was dating my now wife at the time, but she was my girlfriend. I

Cisco Brown (09:14)
Yeah.

Quentin Edmonds (09:14)
had to tell her, Yeah, after 13 years I’m leaving this good government job because I filled the call. And she was like, okay, and I married her when I’m the stable of the insurance and all that stuff. So she had to take a gamble with me. So

When I tell you, brother, I feel you, man. Bro, I’m gonna love asking you this question. Everybody comes on, I make this statement, Cisco. I say destiny has no wasted moments. We are learning from every leg of our journey, and nothing’s wasted. there’s no losses, only lessons. We are ripped, we are fortifying the people that we are now based on the journey. So I’m gonna love asking you, sir. What has the journey revealed to you about yourself? What has it revealed to Cisco about Cisco?

Has it revealed discipline, humility? Talk to me, man. What has the journey revealed to you about you?

Cisco Brown (10:39)
Man, it’s so one thing I’ve always told myself, but I don’t know if I believed it was you can do anything, everything you do, you succeed at, and you will succeed. So getting into this, it did change me a lot. I changed as a person. at first, it exposed everything, it exposed my weaknesses. It showed me that I wasn’t disciplined, I wasn’t consistent, right?

I didn’t even have a schedule. I didn’t know I was always flying by the seat of my pants. It always worked, but it really, really exposed those things. And then it turned to my mindset. That’s when I discovered my mindset because I didn’t I honestly hadn’t even paid attention to the word. I didn’t realize I had such a strong potential mindset. Come on, man. And just the way I looked at things was.

I’m a very straightforward. So it’s like if I someone tells me about a problem, I jump to solution mode. Right. I don’t have time for the emotions to be sad, to be angry. you can feel those things, but you observe them, you recognize them, and you move on. Yeah. So for me, it really exposed those weaknesses and it exposed that mindset strength. And lucky for me, no, what comes easy for me,

lot of people it comes harder for them and it’s hard for me to fathom. Yeah. I had a friend and this is when I really recognized it. I’ve been doing real estate for about a year. And he says, Cisco, how do you stay motivated? And I was like, motivated? I’m not motivated. Right. I said I don’t believe in motivation. I don’t like it. It’s never there. it’s not real. Right.

I said, but with as far as my mindset, I said, it’s just the things I’ve, starting this business and just try and try and try, right? People say it’s a numbers game, but in the beginning, it’s really about yeah, it’s a numbers game, but it’s really about just learning from each one of those lessons. There’s no such thing as a loss. You

don’t lose. Think of the stock market. You don’t lose until you sell for less than what you paid.

I’m not gonna sell. Right. And so that’s one of the biggest things that it showed me was just that mindset is when I speak passion and I’m looking at someone and I can see their excitement for me, that makes me more excited. So I realized you have this strong mindset, you’re not disciplined, you gotta do something about it, right? Yeah. So that’s what it really showed me and focusing on those things.

I stopped trying to fake it till I make it and I became it. Right. So what does a successful real estate investor look like to me? So I wrote all that down. Yeah. And it was like someone who wakes up and takes care of themselves. They have a schedule. they make sure they’re well groomed and you know their hygiene is good and all these things. I mean, all the way down to the habits. Yeah. Right. and that’s another one that I learned too was.

It wasn’t discipline that I was lacking. It was like, well, what is discipline? Yeah. Well, discipline is a habit, right? Yeah. so it’s like, well, discipline’s only the beginning. So if I get discipline, all I gotta do is write down a schedule and say stick to the schedule for about a week, two weeks, three weeks, however long it takes to turn into a habit. once it turns into a habit.

Then it becomes my identity. Come on.

Quentin Edmonds (13:49)
Yeah.

Cisco Brown (13:50)
if I’m not doing these habits, then I’m not, I’m not me, right? so you kinda almost got to kind of create an alter ego. Yeah.

and really just become that thing. So that’s what it really, really showed me was it changes you for the better as a person. You want to get better at things that you didn’t even realize mattered. You didn’t realize you possibly didn’t do very well.

Quentin Edmonds (14:11)
Man, I’m just gonna briefly comment on some things that you said because man, you are just speaking my language. So you was talking about things that expose who you are. me and my wife, we have a saying that says marriage is a magnifier. It just magnifies who you already are. So if you are a selfish person, don’t think marriage is gonna fix you. It’s gonna magnify your selfishness. If you are a selfless person, marriage is gonna magnify that.

And I believe when we become entrepreneurs, when you step into that role, like you use the word exposes, it really magnifies who you are. If you are a disciplined person, that’s going to continue. But if you’re a person that needs somebody to stay on your tail, you’re going to find yourself looking back like, ain’t nobody on my tail. yeah, ain’t no work getting done. damn, I’m not being productive. Like it exposes like who you are. So I love that. And one of my favorite books is Atomic Habits by James Clear. I mention it a lot.

And I know when he was talking, I was like, he’s talking that talk. So everything you said, man, makes total sense. And I appreciate you saying it. Now I have to ask you, sir, because I cause operations and systems, habits, because that’s what just habits are, just operations and systems that you put in place. So on a business tip, I would love to know maybe what’s one operational thing you’ve put into place, let’s say the last year or two, that has really helped you be successful.

Cisco Brown (15:31)
Yeah. So you mentioned atomic habits. Yes, sir. I’ve read that book four times now. I met three. Yep. Yeah. And I will continue to read it. So I applied atomic habits to my life, my morning routine. So when I meet people especially successful, my first question is, what’s your routine? I don’t want to know about your work schedule. What’s your routine in the morning? So I had and I’ll briefly touch on it so it makes sense. So like what I did was

I don’t sleep much. I do, right? But for whatever reason, I get up at 3:30. Like I haven’t used an alarm since I was in high school. Gotcha. So I just wake up and for a while I would try to force myself back to sleep, go to the doctor’s, whatever. And then I was like, this is how it’s supposed to be. I’m up for a reason. I need to use this time. So what I started doing was I need a routine, right? But well, a routine of what? What is it gonna do? What’s the goal? Well, I need to take better care of myself.

I need to get healthy. And I was like, well, if I take care better care of myself and I’m healthy, that’s gonna make me happy. Well, then that means my family’s gonna be happy and healthy. Right. So, and you mentioned marriage, like instead of, I gotta do this and do that. So my wife feels you take care of yourself, right? Take care of yourself. And I when I started doing that, I had more energy to do the things and keep my wife and my son just happy and healthy. So what I did was

through atomic habits, I would wake up, I’d juice something because I was a skinny guy, I didn’t really eat much, but I would juice, gotta get my nutrients. So I juice. Then I’d head out to the gym. I’d come back, take a shower, or whatever. Then I’d read a chapter out of my book. And people can call it meditation, call it whatever, I put a timer on and when it would go off, it was very light. But for 38 minutes. Yeah. And

For 38 minutes, I would sit in my office, I would close the curtains, close the blinds, no electronics, no computer on, no TV, nothing. And I would just sit there and just observe my thoughts. And at minute 35, I don’t know why I would always have an idea or I would figure out a problem. Right. So what I did was I applied that to my business, how I did my business. So

I created a schedule. So my thing, another thing is presence. I’ve always been very good at being present and I study it more now and I practice it all day, every day throughout the day. Right. so I was like, well, if I’m gonna be at the gym, I’m gonna work out. I’m not gonna check my emails, I’m not gonna catch up on text, I’m not gonna scroll through Facebook. If I’m reading my book, I’m gonna read my book. And so I just applied that to my business, right? So I was like, okay.

From 9 a.m. to 10 to say 930. We’re gonna check emails, text, we’re gonna get back to people that we need to. Right. And then from 930 to 11, I’m gonna season my Facebook groups. So I’m gonna go in there, I’m gonna join some. I’m gonna comment, I’m gonna make a post that’s gonna make people engage. Something simple. Hey, where’s the best place I can go to get a a a beard cut and a boy’s haircut? And I purposely said that because people would chime in and they’d be like,

Well, if you’ve got a beard, why would you want a boy’s haircut? And so it would get people to engage with me. That would make me a top contributor. So now when I’m a top contributor, now from 11 to 12, because this lunchtime, people take lunch breaks and things like that, they might not see it right away, but they’ll see it as they’re scrolled. Now I’m a top contributor. I post that, that goes on the top of that group, and everybody sees it. So

Quentin Edmonds (18:50)
Yeah.

Cisco Brown (18:50)
from this time to this time.

I’m going to Facebook market and those are gonna be my traps, right? cause we’re hunting for leads.

Quentin Edmonds (18:57)
Come on, man.

Cisco Brown (18:58)
So those are gonna be my traps. Yeah. So when noon hit, we’ll say twelve, twelve thirty, I go get some lunch, it’s time to let’s do some outreach. Let’s go hunting, let’s go fishing, right? So let’s do some cold calls. when I would drop my son off at school and stuff, I would

Take some time to drive through a neighborhood and have a driving for dollars list. If I had to go to the grocery store, anything, I was always writing it down. So by the end of the week, I would have this big old list that I could cold call for the next week. So I would cold call them from 12 to 1, right? And then maybe take a little break or something. So then from two to three, I’m networking. I’m nurturing the relationships I made and I’m making new relationships. So that’s just kind of how I’ve

do it in my business is I time block. But I time slice, right? Because a block means it’s two hours, one hour, whatever. I time slice. I don’t care if it’s a 15-minute task, it’s going on the schedule. And for 15 minutes, we’re gonna do that one thing and we’re gonna be present in that moment, and that’s all we’re gonna do. Yeah. So applying those habits and everything, that atomic habits to my business, it allowed me. So now I seem more disciplined, I seem more consistent.

And really I’m just following a schedule that I made for myself. And you know, the good thing about starting a business is I learned early on write everything I’m doing down exactly how it’s done because and I used to train people too because I want anyone who doesn’t know anything to be able to look at this and know exactly how to complete that task.

Quentin Edmonds (21:00)
Man, bro, I feel I can talk to you forever. Like, I mean, it’s so many things that you say. And I know you see me smiling that time. So I’m like, yo, he’s literally talking the language. Like, this is what I do. What’s next for you? Like, what’s the next real goal? What are you looking to solve or scale next?

Cisco Brown (21:15)
Yeah, So for me, I know a lot of people they get in the wholesale and they want to scale, scale, scale. I love doing the things. I love working with sellers, buyers, title companies, creating jobs for contractors and things like that. But what I’m looking to do more now is okay, I know how to generate the money, right? And the whole end game was the same, it never changed. Yeah.

It just took a bit of a back seat. So once I got in the whole sun, I was hooked, man, you can make this money and it was awesome. So the big goal was to, you know, own properties and be able to rent them out for long term and just build a portfolio. Yeah. to the point that, once I’m done doing all that and I kinda wanna retire, then I could just go ahead and just, get a loan on that till I die. And you know how that works. That gets paid off when you die. And now it rolls over, rolls over to my son and my family.

so for me right now is just kind of I’m still doing the wholesaling, but I’m also, transitioned because I I found that it’s not I’ve never liked to be sold or anything. Yeah. But the one compliment I get when I work with sellers is Cisco, it was so refreshing to work with you. It didn’t feel like I was being sold or you were trying to buy my house for cheap. It felt very consultative and you helped me solve problems.

Quentin Edmonds (22:28)
Yes,

Cisco Brown (22:28)
So yeah, next goal for me is just just getting the properties that I’m finding because now I have perfected the finding, right? And getting them at good prices. Now it’s like let’s start keeping those. So that’s kind of the next steps is just transitioning more over to the acquisition side for myself so that I could then hold on to them and then like I said, still continue to educate and grow. So between

the wholesaling and doing that in the middle, what I’m doing right now is I’m working with you’ll call them buyers, investors, whatever, but I’m working with investors and I’m showing them neighborhoods that most people don’t want to buy. There’s not a lot of money in it, right? So I’m working more as a consultant slash seller because I’m able to show them, hey, with these numbers, if you buy at this price with these numbers, you’re gonna be at

nine or ten percent return on your investment. Everybody thinks cash flow, everybody wants money now. And well, you can get money now, but is it a good investment? So, what I’m doing is I’m helping to educate these investors so they can make better decisions when they buy and they can actually buy in these unfavorable areas. Because what that does for me and everyone, the community is now I’m rebuilding a community that’s been neglected.

Yeah. And I’m helping these investors not make mistakes. Yeah. Where a lot of people will get into it. They’ll make mistakes and then they’ll quit. So it’s really my goal is to help. I want to help a million people. whether that’s a million people become a millionaires or a million people solve problems. So that’s kind of the next steps for me is just continue to wholesale, do some consulting in between that and transitioning over into just holding them for myself. And from there, I’m gonna come up with some more crazy ideas and do something else.

Quentin Edmonds (24:15)
Cisco, man, I love it, brother. Man, I have I thoroughly enjoyed talking to you. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you, sir?

Cisco Brown (24:28)
So two main ways, and I’ll do this, I’ll say the first one, Facebook. Super easy. Cisco Brown Jr., trust me, there ain’t a whole lot of us out there. you’ll find me as got the curly hair and everything. You hop on Facebook, you can add me, message me, whatever. there’s also the Instagram. I don’t use it a whole lot, but if you want to check out some of my artwork, you can go to ciscobrownart all one word on Instagram. You can find me there, shoot me a message.

But then the other way too, and I love to do this because I’m a very personable person. You can just, you can call and text me. Call and text me if you got an issue. I will say text me before you call me because I get a lot of calls. But you can always text or call me. You know, I’m out of Iowa, so it’s 563-381-7890.

If you’re thinking about getting into it or you have been into it and you’re a little stuck, even if you got a deal that you need someone to kind of maybe help you take a look at or find, get a hold of me. I love talking shop. I love talking real estate. This is where my passion, I have many passions, I guess, but this is where one of my main passions, are is right now. the art and the real estate. So please feel free to reach out. I encourage you to do it. Whatever it is you want to do, you absolutely can do it.

Quentin Edmonds (25:42)
yeah. Man, so let me say three things to you sincerely. One is a reiteration. Thank you for your time. you said it to time is our most precious commodity. Everything we do, we’re trying to get our time back. And so thank you for your time, sir. Secondly, man, thank you for the gift of your authenticity, the gift of your integrity, showing up as your true self. I believe when we do that, we sprinkle seeds for people.

And we never know when those seeds will take root and grow. But we cast some seeds. And if they hear it and let it and plant it, that thing can take root and grow at any given time. So thank you for coming as your real self, planting some seeds. And then lastly, man, thank you for your mindset. Thank you for the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you coming on today.

Cisco Brown (26:28)
I appreciate it, man. it’s been awesome. And and I know I don’t even say it anymore. I don’t say,

I hope someone finds value. It’s gonna find someone’s gonna get the value out of it. And please reach out to me because I love to hear your origin story, your successes, what you’re struggling with. Because you know what? Everything you want is on the other side of the things you don’t wanna do. Right. And really there are no bad times. there is no obstacles. It’s how we frame these things, right? So

you don’t have obstacles, you have opportunities. So just capitalize on that, fail forward, take imperfect action, and do not stop.

Quentin Edmonds (27:04)
With that, that is the mic drop moment. You heard my man Cisco. His information is in the show notes. Please get in contact with him. You heard him. He wants to hear your story. So get in contact with him. Definitely make sure you’re subscribed here because I promise you. We’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Cisco Brown. Sir, I appreciate you, man. And everyone else, y’all have a fantastic day.