How to Find Investors, Build Trust, and Raise More Money for Real Estate | Brad Blazar

Brad Blazar (00:00)
And it’s a concept that I talk about, which is market to the one to reach the masses, right? And so a lot of times people say, well, Brad, you I got to raise $20 million or I want to raise 20 million, or my God, Brad, I got to raise $50 million. And I’m like, okay, let’s do the math on this. If your average investor is going to give you a hundred,

You’re looking for 500 people. How many telephone calls, how many Zooms, how many networking events do you think you’re going to have to go to find 500 people to cut your check for $100,000?

Scott Bursey (00:00)
everyone. And welcome to the real estate pros podcast. I’m your host Scott Bursey. And today in studio, we’re joined by a tight enough Capitol and the architect behind the Texas Blazar group, Brad Blazar. Brad dominates the Capitol raising space.

If you’ve ever felt like your portfolio is hitting a ceiling due to a lack of funding, today is your lucky day. Brad is a world renowned expert in equity placement and literally has written the playbook on how to attract high net worth investors. He’s the founder of the Blazar Group and the force behind Capital Connections. Brad has raised over 2 billion in his career and now mentors the next generation of elite closers. Please welcome from the great state of Texas,

The master of the rays, Brad Blazar.

 

Thank you, Scott. It’s a pleasure to be here. Well, I’ll tell you, with that introduction, I’ve got some big shoes to fill this afternoon.

Scott Bursey (02:15)
Brad, it is a privilege to have you here.

Brad Blazar (02:17)
I appreciate that. Well, thank you for hosting me and I’m looking forward to adding as much value as I can to your audience today.

Scott Bursey (02:24)
On today’s show, we’ll be talking about Brad’s proven framework for raising capital, the core philosophies from his bestselling books, and how he coaches investors to master the high stakes world of syndication. Brad, you’ve reached incredible heights in the world of capital and syndication, but every empire has a foundation. I’d love for you to take us back to the beginning.

Brad Blazar (02:43)
Mm-hmm.

Scott Bursey (02:49)
What was the initial spark or pivotal moment that launched your career in real estate?

Brad Blazar (02:53)
Yeah. Well, it was really, you know, interesting. I grew up in your traditional middle class family. I had three siblings, both parents. My dad was an executive and in his career, we had to move around quite a bit from job to job. My mom was a stay at home housewife for the most part until, you know, my siblings got a little bit older and then she went to work in Dallas as a real estate agent. But, you know, as I was growing up, Scott,

I saw the struggles, you know, like so many families, you know, not necessarily living paycheck to paycheck. Certainly we weren’t poor, but it was just the struggle of, you know, saving for kids’ college educations, you know, going on nice vacations and maybe not having to go as frequently as we would have liked. But in my life, I was very fortunate. Much like Robert Kiyosaki writes about in his book, I had a very wealthy, rich uncle.

as my Uncle Henry. And so my Uncle Henry was an orphan, never had more than a sixth grade education, but started with a partner, what ultimately grew to become one of the preeminent, one of the leaders in the women’s fashion brand. And they successfully exited and, you know, sold that company. And he came into tremendous wealth. And ⁓ in doing so, had, you know, multiple homes, had Rolls Royces that were driven for him by chauffeurs. And so I said,

that’s the life that I would like to live. And so my Uncle Henry, for me, kind of became, you know, at a very young age, I won’t say a mentor, but somebody that I had idolized.

And so when I went off to college, I initially pursued a degree in architecture. And I think that I did that because I was really pushed in a direction largely by, you know, my parents, I think, growing up.

Our parents tell us, Scott, you know, what do we need to do? We need to go to college, get a good education, find a career path, work really, really hard, save, and then hopefully at some point in the future, retire. But when I went to school, I ended up getting sidetracked. I responded to an ad in a local newspaper and I went to work in the oil and gas industry, basically raising capital at the age of 21. And so this CEO,

Kind of took me under his wing. I guess he saw a college cocky, little confident kid. But what I learned very early in life was a skill that has stayed with me now all the way through 40 plus years. And that was how to build trust, how to build relationships and how to talk to investors. Initially on the phone and of course now also in person and via Zoom. But at the age of 21, 22, while I was going off to school studying,

I would come in between classes and at the end of the day, I’d raise capital. And I was probably working no more than 12 to 15 hours a week back then, but I was making six figures. And so I said to myself, what in the world am I doing? Going to college to get a little piece of sheep skin that says, hey, college graduate, to go out in corporate America as a young architect to make 60,000. Maybe if I’m lucky, 70, working a full 40 hour work week.

I’m over here working part-time. making six figures as a 20-year-old driving around town in a little Porsche, you know, enjoying my… So I said, I’m just going to do this full-time. And so unbeknownst to my parents, I kind of turned my back to school and I went to work full-time in the oil and gas industry. And then with some savings, I started my own oil company at the age of 23. So I launched an oil company, never drilled a well.

I had no idea how to build a multi-billion dollar business. But I remember what my uncle Henry had taught me, and that was surround yourself with a team and people that are smarter than you, and they will guide you, and they will, of course, give you the answers you need to grow the platform. So that’s exactly what I did. So from 23 all the way up till my mid-30s, I was basically the founder in building an oil and gas company ⁓ until, as they say, you know, the industry imploded.

Oil prices plummeted in the late 80s, early 90s because OPEC had much more control in those days. And largely, the Tax Reform Act in the late 80s took away many of the incentives that were in place for investment capital. So over about a year and a half, I just made the decision to slowly just collapse the business. We consolidated. We never had to file for bankruptcy. We’d had no debt. But I realized that

there were things beyond my control that were affecting the business’s ability to grow and raise capital. So that’s when I went back to school. And so I go back to college, I finished my degrees, I come out and literally, Scott, for two years, I was just very disillusioned, probably went through a depression because people wanted to hire me, but pay me a salary close to what I used to make in a good month. And I’m just like, this is not the life that I want to live. And so one day as I was watching TV,

It was actually Steve Harvey, this was many years ago. He was talking to his audience and he said, I believe that everybody here in this audience today has what I call your something special. It’s a hard skill or a primary talent. But if you can find out what that is, and most people never will, if it solves a real world problem and you can create content around that and deliver it to the world, it’s wonderful for you and it’s wonderful for the people that obviously it affects.

And a few days later, it just hit me. like, my God, my talent is I know how to raise millions of dollars. That’s what allowed me to build my business. That’s what allowed me to grow. I bet that is a skill that many companies would hire me to go to work for them. And so that’s what I did for roughly 30 years. I was a hired capital raiser for some of the largest financial services firms in the world, really raising hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, you know, through not only accredited investors.

but also of course, you know, registered investment advisory firms, family offices, know, broker deal or sovereign wealth funds. And so that skill over many years has given me a special talent that very few people possess. And it’s the ability to really mentor and advise people on the proper way to raise capital, which is something that most business owners obviously need, not just real estate, but in any endeavor in life.

And so we’ve used that skill over the last few years really in our platform, Capital Connections, to empower people and show them how to do it number one, compliance, because it’s a regulated industry and the securities, but also just how to raise money from accredited investors or open the network to family offices and more serious amounts of capital, as well as, of course, raising capital myself for my own fund because we currently invest as well.

Scott Bursey (10:20)
Brad, something that stood out to me in regard to you at Capital Connections is that you aren’t just teaching sales, you’re teaching executive clarity. You help people get so, so clear on their why and on their how that investors find it impossible to say no. That’s a rare skill set.

Brad Blazar (10:31)
Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, yeah, well, it’s building trust, obviously, which is very important in the capital raising space. ⁓ It’s also understanding what your story is. But I think you also hit it on the head. It’s really having that why. think that so many people roll out of bed in the morning and they go to work. And I always ask people, why do you do what you do? And they tell me, that’s because I have to. I’ve got a boss, I got to go to job. I got bills to pay.

And I’m like, that’s not your line. That’s not your purpose. And I said, you’ve got to have something deeper inside you that’s driving you because there will be days that you don’t want to go to work, but you still go. But once you get to a point kind of financially where you can start focusing on what I call the bigger picture, because I tell people, you know, you’re exchanging your time for money right now.

Let’s show you how to use other people’s money to invest in assets. You know, could buy a small business, you could invest in real estate, but let’s start creating some passive income to give you more choices in life. And once people get to a point where they’re making a couple thousand a month in passive income, it really just takes the pressure off them. They’re like, wow, I don’t need to go to work this week if I choose not to, because I’ve got $5,000 over here coming in from my rental properties or from the few businesses I own.

And at that point, life becomes really fun now because now it’s not just about building the income, it’s about building the legacy and scaling. when you understand the OPM game, you could literally build a financial fortress. I many of the people that I consult, they have investment portfolios of hundreds of millions of dollars and they’re not public companies. It’s just some dude that’s been raising money for the last 25 years that’s invested in multifamily or.

some other sector in commercial real estate. And here he is, you on top of this $400 million real estate empire. And if you know enough about syndications, a lot of times these deals are done where the sponsor gets 30, 40 % of that. That’s a big payday in somebody’s future for just understanding this principle that we’re talking about here this afternoon.

Scott Bursey (13:22)
Absolutely. Love it. Brad, what is the one thing most people get wrong when they ask for money?

Brad Blazar (13:30)
⁓ The thing that I see the most common, which is the biggest mistake, which is very easy to solve for, is talking about your deal or the opportunity way too prematurely in the relationship. You know, so many people have a time constraint. You’ve got a closing deadline or you’re just so excited about the deal that you approach people, you know, kind of as if they’re an ATM machine. And so you pitch, well,

when you pitch an opportunity to another person, the follow-up to that, Scott, is something pretty similar to, Scott, it sounds like an interesting opportunity. Can you send me some information so I can take a look at it? And so now we send them everything, and then they never end up investing with us. Well, what’s happening at a very subconscious level is the other person saying, Scott, we just went out on one date. You’re trying to get me to the altar. Let’s slow down.

What people need to realize is when we’re raising capital, you really need to go through what I call a discovery process. know, spend the first two or three meetings with that other person, just asking really good questions to get to know them. You know, what’s their risk tolerance? You know, what’s the best investment they’ve ever made? People love to talk about that. You know, are they trying to do something special with their money, like put children through school in a few years or?

see the money grow to maybe buy a second home as a vacation property. You can uncover the temptation. Then eventually, you know, at the end of the second, as you’re getting into the third call, people now know you. They understand your values. Now it’s okay to pitch because now they’re more inclined to move forward and actually open up their checkbook. So the first and the biggest mistake really that we typically see is just, you know, talking too early about the opportunity and not slowing down that process.

Scott Bursey (15:15)
Sure, that’s a profound take, Brad. You can’t play in the big game if you aren’t a high-level steward of other people’s capital and trust. Give us the real, yeah, it’s so important to build that trust, and thanks for elaborating on that. Give us the reality of how do you handle the word no when negotiating a big deal?

Brad Blazar (15:24)
Absolutely, you bet.

No, to me, is not no. It’s just I don’t have enough information. And a lot of times, you know, ⁓ an objection or the hesitation that we see is really just apprehension. And very commonly, it’s not even the real reason that somebody might give you for not moving forward. So I think one thing is trying to isolate an objection if, in fact, there is an objection and just basically, you know, asking really good questions. But the other

is understanding that from the potential investor framework, or of course I’ve negotiated large transactions before, the note sometimes is the terms might not be amenable to the other party. Okay, well let’s sit here at the table and let’s try to figure out what might be a win for you and a win for us so that we can effectively move forward in this relationship together. If they don’t have enough information, sometimes it’s not talking to me, it might be talking to other people that are on the team.

that have the information they might be looking for. But you know, the thing I tell capital raisers is you have to kind of adopt this mindset, and I learned this very early in my capital raising journey, that the investment you’re offering is not going to be for everybody. That’s fine. You know, some people might be accredited, others may not. Other people just financially might not be liquid enough in the moment.

And so you’ve got to adapt this mindset because if you come across to a potential investor from a place of desperation or in a manner where they sense that there’s a bit of desperation coming through to them, you’re never going to get capital raised. And so my philosophy is some will, some won’t, so what? There’s always somebody next to them that I can be talking to. And it’s that very nonchalant basically attitude of, I’ve got an opportunity here.

that I really believe and I’d like to share it with you. But you know, if it’s not for you, that’s fine. You know, I’ll go share it with somebody else. And you know, it’s that nonchalant attitude of I raise capital all the time. This is what I do. And you know, that served me and it served most of the people that we’ve helped really, really well because people want to invest in others that they perceive as successful. And if you’re not chasing money,

Money will actually come to you. We actually become kind of a capital magnet when we adopt that philosophy and that attitude once people really know what we’re doing.

Scott Bursey (18:46)
Hey, I’m with you on that. Speaking of mindset, walk us through the biggest shift in your mindset that allowed you to go from raising thousands to millions.

Brad Blazar (18:58)
Well, it wasn’t really mindset. It was really something that happened very early in my capital raising career. That was kind of what I call the big revelation, you kind of that big aha moment. When I started raising capital, Scott, I started raising capital very similarly to probably what many people here that are your listeners are doing, you know, picking up the phone, hosting events. And we were raising money from accredited investors.

you know, largely 25,000, you 50,000. My God, if I got a $100,000 investor, I was doing the happy dance. That was a really good day for us. But there was a gentleman that called me one day. He was actually a friend of mine. His name was John. And John was a very small registered investment advisor in Austin, Texas. And he said, I’ve been following you, and I think what you’re doing would be very suitable for some of the clients whose money we manage here. And I said, oh, great. I didn’t know what he did.

And so we got together for lunch and I gave him the PPM and he asked a bunch of questions. And then eventually, you know, he got on a call with my security’s attorney just to make sure that we were dotting our I’s and we were crossing our T’s. And then he proposed something to me that was, why don’t we co-host an event, Brad? I’ll do the work. I’ll get 12 to 20 of my better clients together. And you you come in and you speak a little bit about what you do. And, know, we’ll serve some wine and some appetizers. And so we did that.

And then after the event, again, he did all the work. So he went around to each couple or each family that was represented there and said, oh, Mr. Mrs. Bursey, what did you think about Brad’s presentation the other day? Oh, we loved it. I mean, my wife and I talked about it, John. We’re going to do 200,000. OK, great. And then he went over to the next couple. And so as he went around, in two and a half weeks, he sent me almost $3 million. And I’m sitting over here going, I’m busting my butt.

making hundreds of calls to pick up checks for 25 and 50, and this one hour out of my week last week just sent me $3 million. So that was my aha moment. That was the shift or that cracked the code. And so I got my little sales team together and I said, hey guys, we’re going to get a list of other people like John. We’re going to call these people. We’re going to build relationships with these people. And if we do that, I think we can literally raise three to five times as much money over the next year.

compared to what we had raised in the prior 12 months. And certainly that’s what happened. And so that was the big shift for me.

And it’s a concept that I talk about, which is market to the one to reach the masses, right? And so a lot of times people say, well, Brad, you I got to raise $20 million or I want to raise 20 million, or my God, Brad, I got to raise $50 million. And I’m like, okay, let’s do the math on this. If your average investor is going to give you a hundred,

You’re looking for 500 people. How many telephone calls, how many Zooms, how many networking events do you think you’re going to have to go to to find 500 people to cut your check for $100,000?

Like that is hard work. You’re going to get frustrated. You’re probably going to give up. You’re going to probably just say, is impossible. I’m looking for just four to six guys.

where each guy can send me five to 10 million, just like my friend John did. You see the difference in strategies here? And when people see that, they’re like, yeah, that makes sense. You see, now 50 million is much more attainable and it’s much more realistic because now what you’re doing is you’re leveraging the relationships that other influencers have to tap into their networks. That is how you raise serious capital. That is how you can scale.

Now, many the companies that I’ve worked with now are raising literally hundreds of millions of dollars because all they’ve done is they’ve just gone deep in that direction building out a platform of advisory relationships and these other guys are raising all the capital for them now.

Scott Bursey (22:45)
And that’s how you work efficiently. Now, I’m curious, what’s the one piece of advice you wish you had knowing when you first were starting out?

Brad Blazar (22:48)
Exactly.

You know, to be real honest, I would have started sooner. I mean, you know, I think that’s what we all try to tell our younger version of ourselves. I’ve seen what raising hop rule can do for me and how it’s affected a lot of the people that I’ve touched over the years. It’s allowed me to do some really amazing, wonderful things in my life, know, ⁓ donate money, you know, be somewhat philanthropic and, you know, give money away to charity. But it’s really just getting started.

The one thing that I’ve learned being around some very ultra high net worth, very, very successful people is professionals do not listen to the noise. There are going to be days when you just don’t want to do what you know you need to do. Professionals do it anyway. You know, we just have this innate way to be so focused and so driven that we basically just don’t get distracted by these things that come up in front of us. And there will always be a

things that try to pull you down or knock you down. You just get to get back up and you just got to keep moving forward. But the one thing that I would tell your younger listeners and even those really that might be a little bit more mature is learn how to raise capital. Because in any business setting, you can only grow so much. You can only get so far bootstrapping it or using your own resources.

Kiyosaki in his book says the key to legacy wealth is understanding the OPM game. Because once you learn how to attract and raise capital, now the sky’s the limit. There’s no ceiling on what you can build. Because once you master retail investors, Brad Blazar can show you how to raise more millions from RIAs and family offices.

and build broker-dealer distribution. Imagine building distribution with broker-dealers where you get the registered reps that are affiliated with broker-dealers now also raising capital for you. That’s another venue that you can tap into. So, you know, that’s how billion-dollar real estate companies are built, Scott. It’s not that they go to Wall Street. It’s just that they have lots of investors. They have built a base and have built a community over many, many years.

And a lot of these are still privately held companies. know, they’re not publicly traded like some of the big real estate investment trusts. It’s just that, you know, this entrepreneur learned how to raise capital. He’s been doing it for 20, 30 plus years, and he’s been able to scale and grow, ⁓ which is just an amazing, wonderful thing. And so the biggest thing that I would tell people is just get started early, or you have, and get started now and learn how to do this.

Scott Bursey (25:32)
Absolutely and ⁓ you’re at an elite level Brad but what are you most focused on solving your scaling next how do you keep that momentum going at your level?

Brad Blazar (25:43)
I’m just really driven. I’m just like the Energizer Bunny, know, and you know, people that know me just keep basically saying, man, every time I look at social media, like you’re in front of me, like, I don’t know how you do it, Brad. You know, you must have a whole team of people. And I just kind of smile and say, no, it’s all me. I just wake up at two in the morning. No, just, I have a whole team, of course, behind me. But, you know, I think that when you look at what we’ve built,

And you look at the fact we are a global platform. We got many clients. We consult in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, over in England, many other countries around the globe. So we definitely have expanded into a global platform here. We don’t have people just here in the US. We have people that we work with all around the world. The thing for me really, later this year and going forward,

is to really start speaking on more global stages. I’m speaking in Ottawa, Canada later this week, so I’m flying out there Wednesday and we’ll be speaking in front of a few hundred entrepreneurs in Ottawa. But you know, to get over to the Middle East and speak in Dubai or, know, one of my clients wants to bring me to Australia and have me speak in Sydney this year. So, you know, it’s getting out around the world as we get in front of more people because what I’ve learned is I don’t need more money.

I just need to get in front of more people because the people are the ones ultimately with the money. And it’s the same thing in raising capital or doing deals. So many people are just so focused and just so myopic at what’s in front of them. But I think we’ve lost touch with we got to look out in front of us. And, know, what really has amazed me is I’ve just witnessed how people have evolved and changed over the last 10 years is I think a lot of people have really lost the art of communication.

And just networking. mean, I see this on airplanes. We’re so focused on our little movie or we’re reading a book. We’re not even talking to the person to the right or to the left of us. And, if you’re flying in first class a lot, which I tend to do, that person next to you could be your next potential investor and you’re not even opening the conversation with them. You know, and to me, that’s just a terrible thing. Like when I’m at a restaurant, you know, I engage the people that might be at the table next to me when I’m at Starbucks on a

Saturday morning having a cappuccino, if I see someone pulling up in a Bentley or a pretty nice car, I’m going to ask them, you just noticed your beautiful car. I’m a car guy. What do you do for a living here locally? I strike up a conversation. Can I buy you a pastry? And before you know it, we’re best buds and we’re exchanging contact information. I really think that we’ve lost that. And I don’t know if it’s cell phones and just the fact that so many of us are just so akin to.

checking in with our phone every 10 or 15 minutes, but my God folks, start talking to people. That’s how you raise money and that’s how you network.

Scott Bursey (28:23)
Absolutely, that’s big. Now, Brad, this question has been on my mind since we booked you. You’ve raised over $2 billion and taught thousands how to command a room. When an operator finally gets that seat at the table with a high net worth investor, what is your best advice in regards to shifting their mindset from solicitor asking for a favor to a partner?

Brad Blazar (28:31)
You

Mm-hmm.

Scott Bursey (28:48)
offering a massive opportunity.

Brad Blazar (28:50)
What I have learned about the ultra wealthy and just talking to a lot of very, very wealthy people is they really get turned off when people approach them talking about their deals or their need for capital. I always talk to people and I ask about their family. I ask about them, what they’re passionate about.

And I say, what are you working on now, Scott, that you need some help with? How can I add some value to what you’re doing at this point in your life? And if there’s any way I can, and usually there is, they’re very indebted. It might be a few days later. It might be a week or two later. But if I can think of someone in my network that might be able to open the door or help that other person, or if I actually can contribute and help them, they are so appreciative.

Because now you’ve shown that I care about you. I want to add value to you. And then at some point what naturally happens? The conversation turns to, what can I now do to help you, Brad? Oh, funny you should ask. But I’ve learned that these very wealthy people are very, very relationship driven.

They’re looking for long-term relationships. And what you want to do with successful people is really add value to them, network with them, open doors for them, because they become so appreciative that then it’s almost like this sense of obligation that they want to help you, which they do. Now, they may not invest with you. That’s okay. But what I have found is that rich, wealthy people

know a whole lot of other rich, wealthy people, right? Richard Branson’s not over there at Necker Island hanging around with bums under the palm trees. He’s out hobnobbing with celebrities and movie stars and other rich, wealthy people. So that’s really the best advice is that always approach people and say, what are you passionate about? What are you working on? there something that you’re frustrated with or struggling with that I might be able to help you with? And to the extent you can, that’s how you lead with a

affluent family offices and other very, very successful entrepreneurs.

Scott Bursey (31:01)
And that’s dynamite advice. Now, I know a lot of our audiences either early in their journey or looking to level up, Brad. And I think they’d benefit from hearing this from you. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Brad Blazar (31:19)
You know, I think it gets back to what we had just talked about. It’s, trying to add value. ⁓ It’s really just kind of stepping back and for me, you know, having a purpose or a mission in my life and really knowing why I get out of bed and show up and do what I do every day. It’s not for me. ⁓ It’s really for others. And I heard a story a number of years ago that I very commonly share from stage.

And it really brings audiences to tears because it is such an emotional story. But it allowed me in the moment to really say, wow, like that is why I do what I do. And it was a gentleman by the name of Matt that runs three companies that do about a hundred million a year in gross revenues. And he shared a story where one year during the holiday season, his sister-in-law came over with her husband.

And it was a couple of days before Christmas. so, you know, the men went upstairs to watch a football game and the ladies were in the kitchen. And ⁓ as his brother-in-law kind of started dozing off on the couch next to him, as the game progressed in the third quarter, he leapt out of the couch like he’d seen a ghost, very startled. And Matt’s like, are you okay? And he’s like, yeah. And then Matt said, there was like this expression on his face where what he said next hit me like a ton of bricks. He dropped his head.

And he said, can I share something personal with you? Of course, Matt’s like, yeah, I you’re family, you’re my brother. I said, I was just diagnosed with stage four cancer, Matt. I just want to let you know it’s pretty bad. And so Matt said, well, what does Suzy say? Of course, that’s the wife. He hadn’t even told her yet. He’s like, you haven’t told your wife you got terminal cancer? Like, what’s wrong with you? And then he said, my brother-in-law started to cry. He said, Matt, I didn’t plan for this. I’m 48. I have no will.

We don’t have life insurance. I’m so worried about my kids. So obviously Matt said, well, don’t slide the man up. We got to go downstairs and we got to have a little family get together here, which of course they did. And so as you can imagine, hugging and kissing and not knowing what the future was. And he said, it wasn’t even six months, folks. Three months later, they said their goodbyes and they buried him. Well, the next day, now Matt’s wife, of course comes down, her name was Cookie and she’s been crying. And he said, what’s wrong, honey?

He said, I’m thinking about my sister, Matt. They’re not privileged people like you and me. She’s going to have to sell the house. They have to go back to work. She’s got three little boys to feed. And Matt just said, you know, it’s going to be really, really tough. But God always has a way to work miracles. And so that day, he called his sister-in-law. And he said, you know, we’d like to invite you and the boys over this weekend and just do some barbecuing. Kids can play in the back in the pool, which they did. And at the end of dinner, everybody, I opened up the lapel to my sports coat and I handed her a Hallmark gift card.

And she opened it and she broke down in tears and she said, I cannot take this from you. He said, yes, you can and more importantly, you will. Inside there folks was a check for $3 million made out to her to be the insurance policy her family never had. And then he raised his hand to the audience. He was in front of him and said, who here in the audience wants to be just like Rich Uncle Matt? And every boy’s like, I mean, we all leapt out of our seats. And then of course to the ladies, who here in the audience wants to be like my wife, Rich Uncle Cookie and every woman.

Scott Bursey (34:16)
You

Brad Blazar (34:23)
He said, folks, that’s your purpose. You want to make so much money that you become the foundation and bedrock, not for you, but it’s for those that you care about. And so in my life, it’s my siblings. It’s my close friends. If I can help them at a moment in need financially, I step in. And that’s what drives me. You know, it’s that desire, just like Matt, to know that you can positively influence and affect other people. My Uncle Henry’s name is on the side of a building in New York. The common…

research center at the school there for $10 million donation he made. He didn’t have to do that, but he did because his money had an impact and an influence on something that he was obviously passionate about. So that’s really kind of the why, and that’s what I tell people. If you find that why that gets you going every single day,

you’ll keep getting back up, you’ll keep moving forward, and you’ll keep just basically focused on a bigger thing so that once you reach the level you’re trying to hit, I guarantee there’s always gonna be another level. And once you hit that, there’s always gonna be another level.

Scott Bursey (35:23)
One last question. You’ve literally written the blueprints for attracting and closing high net worth investors. Out of everything you’ve published, what is the one truth about human psychology or money that you hope stays with your readers long after they’ve closed that first big deal?

Brad Blazar (35:42)
I think the hardest thing in something that I have learned is always be transparent and be honest and be truthful. You know, we, unfortunately, as capital raisers have to deal with the fact that we are in a very regulated industry, obviously securities industry. So you have, you know, the regulatory environment that is there to prevent fraud and misrepresentation. But let’s face it, you know,

Sometimes in life just bad things happen to good people. I get it. You know, the best underwriting, the best of intentions could somehow just go astray. If something happens to an asset or to a business, mean, COVID affected literally people globally around the world. Did we plan for that? No. But I think what happens is a lot of people are just really apprehensive to have those tough conversations with investors, you know, try to sweep it under the rug or, you know, you sugarcoat things a little bit.

best policy is just be open and be transparent because that’s how you build trust. And I remember, you know, my grandfather told me that the one thing that we carry with us throughout our life, that if we tarnish it really affects us very poorly is our good name, our reputation. You know, once you get the reputation of being dishonest or not being truthful or, you know, only telling half of the truth, you just make your life that much more difficult and challenging. So I think that the biggest thing

especially in this space, ⁓ is just be transparent, be truthful, and always talk about the risks. I tell my students the best way to raise capital after you’ve shared the opportunity is to pause and say, Scott, you know, I’d also be real remiss if I didn’t discuss and walk you through some of the potential risks. You know, you’re smart enough to know that every investment has risks, So let me just share with you what some of those are. And now I’m responding to some of the risks.

on how we would handle them in the event they happened. But that just builds even more trust and gives that person more of a reason to want to invest with me. It’s because I’m being fully transparent. I’m saying, here’s the good and here’s the bad. We don’t expect the bad. But if it happens, we’re prepared. And I just want to let you know that we’ve dealt with some of these challenges before.

Scott Bursey (37:51)
Thank you for dropping those gems, Brad. That is exactly the kind of conviction our audience needs to win at the capital game. All right, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing. What’s the best way for them to reach you?

Brad Blazar (37:51)
bet, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Well, naturally through our contact page ⁓ on our website, just, you know, bradblazar.com. It’s spelled B-L-A-Z like zebra A-R. You can find me all on social media, LinkedIn, Instagram. Just send me a DM or a personal message and my team or me will personally get back to you typically within 24 to 48 hours. That would certainly be the best way to reach out to us to inquire about our services or our upcoming events, things that we do throughout the year.

And we welcome all of you to reach out. We’re here to help. We’re here to show you how to grow. And more importantly, we’re here to help you uncover how to raise capital. Do it the right way. Do it with some of the strategies that we’ve talked about today, opening up our network so that if you’re raising capital now, perhaps you can raise even more. Or if you’re just a beginner, you can have the blueprint and, of course, move forward and be successful. But that would be the easiest way. Just send me a DM through social media or reach out to our website.

Scott Bursey (39:04)
Brad, this has been an absolute master class on executive clarity and what’s required to play in the big leagues. For our listeners, the takeaway is very clear. Brad has illustrated this fantastically. The capital is out there, but it follows the person who has the conviction and the standard to lead.

Brad Blazar (39:14)
I appreciate it.

Absolutely.

Scott Bursey (39:28)
Brad,

thank you for being so generous with your wisdom and for joining us on the show today.

Brad Blazar (39:34)
You’re very welcome, Scott. It’s been a pleasure.

Scott Bursey (39:36)
And for everyone tuning in, if you found value in today’s episode, do us a favor. Take a screenshot of the show, post it to your stories and tag both me and Brad with your number one takeaway. We’d love to see what resonated with you most. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you on the next episode, everybody.