How to Protect Your Wealth Before the Next Market Shift | Courie Gayle

Courie Gayle (00:00)
The biggest risk would just be being consistent and seeking, in my personal opinion, seek you first the kingdom of heaven and everything will be added unto you. So when you start chasing money, that’s when you get in trouble. If you chase righteousness, integrity, truth, love, you love on somebody, you’re never gonna be at risk because I got fifty six people on that group personally.

Scott Bursey (01:55)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast, powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. And today we are delighted to be joined by Courie Gayle, the founder of Courie Mortgage and the Business Ministry Group. After navigating the significant financial fallout of the 2008 recession, Courie transformed those difficult lessons into a specialized career focused on financial planning, risk mitigation, and wealth navigation. In this conversation, you can expect to learn how to turn market adversity into a strategic blueprint for long term business growth and financial stability. Courie, welcome to the show.

Courie Gayle (02:35)
Thank you. Thank you, Scott. I appreciate being here.

Scott Bursey (02:37)
It’s awesome having you here, my friend. And to help our listeners get up to speed, please give us the ninety second highlight reel of how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Courie Gayle (02:49)
Very well. So I would say my career ignited where I was—I was so enthusiastic selling D’Angelo subs. The same guy, Kevin, would come in every day to get tuna, and I’m, “Hey Kevin, you wanna get tuna with tomatoes?” I was just so extra and passionate. Someone said, “You know what? You’re in the wrong place. You need to do something else.” So the next thing you know, I’m in bill collecting, and God had favor on me. In the first bill collection, instead of arguing, I’m like, “You know, let’s get on the same team and let’s attack those guys,” meaning my company. So building synergy is what I learned young, and then me and the debtor paying off—well, they use their card, you know, getting out of the debt together. It was—it was fun. And that landed me into mortgages, which—and there was a company called American Mortgage. And that was a kind of a subprime mortgage company where they—they deal with bad credit people. And I realized, you know, unfortunately some people would pay more money than they should.

So I started to—then I opened up my own mortgage company. I’m like, “What, I can get my own license?” And when I did that, a lot of people started to follow me, and then I could therefore leverage my time, where whatever they close, I get paid as well. And then especially helping people, I would go to auctions, and if I couldn’t approve somebody, I would go to the auction and, “Don’t worry, you know, I got your back.” Now I’m at the auction buying the house, and I would rent it back complimentary while they can go ahead and repair their credit report and not be kicked out. And you know, that was fulfilling. I think I’m around ninety seconds.

Scott Bursey (04:16)
That is remarkable. What a journey. And you know, Courie, what really caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to take the experience of the 2008 market crash and channel it into a mission-driven approach to financial education and risk management for business owners. Building on that, what do you consider your greatest strength when helping business owners manage financial risk today?

Courie Gayle (04:43)
Greatest strength is listening. That’s the key, key word. A lot of times, in this day and age with the technology, everything going so fast, they’ll shake their head, but they’re thinking of a question to ask because they’re—when they have the attention span of a squirrel. If we can just digress and listen intently, you’re going to see everything that you need to know from the person. You’re gonna hear anxiety, you’re gonna hear fears, you’re gonna hear all of these things. They literally tell you.

By telling you—and that way when you listen and you have that—that’s a unique skill. When you listen, there—therefore whatever you give back, it’s passionate, it’s love, it’s—it’s—it’s cheering, and then, you know, I—I’m proud of you at the end. Encouragement, you know, how many of us were grown up without dads, no pat on the head. This is the time that we’re supposed to deposit into one another. It’s not just business. The bottom line, it’s love. That—that—that’s the key, is love.

Scott Bursey (06:29)
That makes total sense. And Courie, really interested in your take on the common financial weakness or pitfall you see entrepreneurs fall into when they start scaling their own businesses.

Courie Gayle (06:42)
Mmm. Not understanding, not being in the know. For example, what’s BOLI? People—I don’t know, is it basketball? No, BOLI. It’s bank-owned life insurance. Bank-owned life insurance. So if your bank is getting life insurance policies with your money, that means it’s something for you to look into because the banks know how to leverage your money and borrow it back. So there’s just—you gotta know what you don’t know. You gotta really try to look into it.

So when I found out about BOLI, bank-owned life insurance policies, and then I found out that Disney—Disney was running out of money, so they put a life insurance and then they borrowed it back, and then you’re able to use one money two different places. So when I lost the—the—my houses and my wealth, somebody said, “Well, why didn’t you use life insurance?” I’m like, “No one told me.” So I—I decided to blow the whistle. It’s been around twenty years. I got licensed in ’99, and I’m telling everybody that the foundation is life insurance. And ironically, unfortunately, my mother did pass away in a car accident. She did not have enough life insurance. She didn’t have a trust, and she had some property, and—and—and her husband at the time sold it for millions of dollars, and none of us five kids got it. But I’m—I’m not knocking the guy, but it’s telling me to tell y’all to get a trust, make sure you protect it so you—so the kids can survive. Because all four of my siblings, we were all brought up with different families because of that accident. So when you don’t have protection, it’s very, very dangerous. And it’s not just money, it’s bonds.

Scott Bursey (08:15)
Thank you for taking us down that path, Courie. And where do you see the biggest opportunity for business owners to truly secure their wealth in the current economy?

Courie Gayle (08:26)
Buying land. You gotta buy a lot of land. Buy a lot of land and—and—and even stock up. Stock up with, you know, resources. And one of the things that I’ve learned is “love thy neighbor” isn’t John down the street on the left, it’s Pakistan, it’s—it’s—it’s Bosnia. You—you use the tool of ChatGPT, and I’ve been doing that and I realized—you know, Pakistan, she’s asking me for all this time, “money, money, money, money.” Why—and then I realized in the communication she doesn’t know how to fish. She just knows how to—to do that in survival mode. So I created a plan to buy a bulk of rice, Sam’s Club style, and then it’s a marketing play. And then with the baggies, Courie Gayle Rice Company, right? Good name, and then teach them how to reinvest. What? Reinvest fifty percent. “What, I don’t have to ask for more money from Courie?” That’s correct. None of these countries know how to reinvest. And then therefore they’re the rich, that now they’re the drones. And then they start a trend. And—and before, we could get away with it ’cause we could communicate, but now with ChatGPT, I’m—I’m going at—I got seven on my list right now.

Scott Bursey (09:38)
Thinking about, yeah, the current market, Courie, and the landscape, let me ask you this, my friend. What’s the biggest threat that you’re most focused on regarding business stability?

Courie Gayle (09:51)
Man, that’s a good one. Woo! Yeah, I took that one out of your—the biggest risk would just be being consistent and seeking, in my personal opinion, seek you first the kingdom of heaven and everything will be added unto you. So when you start chasing money, that’s when you get in trouble. If you chase righteousness, integrity, truth, love, you love on somebody, you’re never gonna be at risk because I got fifty six people on that group personally.

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” Yes, they’re not gonna let me fall. So not only are you being disciplined and—and doing in truth in—in self-control, it’s the fruits of the Spirit. You gotta have self-control, stick to a system. But worst-case scenario, my family got my back. I’m never gonna fall—well, I don’t wanna—God willing, day by day.

Scott Bursey (10:38)
Thank you for highlighting that, Courie. And we want to dig deep into, you know, the core strategy you teach to help business owners achieve growth while maintaining a solid safety net.

Courie Gayle (10:50)
That—that’s life insurance. So this term—term is if you can’t afford it per se, only one percent of that pays out. So that’s just—that’s like a Planet Fitness payment. You know, but the—that’s—is—it’s a band-aid just in case. But with the whole life insurance, because of the way that it’s structured, that money when you pay it in, a percentage of it goes into the cash value, they pay you a six percent dividend, and that starts to compound. There’s a rule called the Rule of 72, where you divide the interest rate that you’re getting by 72, that answer that you get, if it’s five, that means it’ll take five years for your money to double. So you gotta get into the double game. You gotta keep up. Your savings can’t keep up with compound interest. So whenever you’re in life insurance, you have that savings automatically happening. And then you’re able to leverage it out, buy properties, buy two-families. That’s where most of the sky rises are built, when you are leveraging it.

That’s how you do it. You just don’t—and even when you’re paying your taxes, why keep paying your taxes? Why not leverage your taxes? Just let me give them—you know, let me be in control.

Scott Bursey (11:56)
Courie, when it comes to relationships and networking, what has made the biggest difference for you?

Courie Gayle (12:01)
Relationship and networking is when somebody is doing way better than they were and you just see somebody’s growth. I remember when I was flipping a lot of property, I’m gonna mention his name ’cause this is a positive, like Sean Curry, a nineteen-year-old kid at Best Buy selling me the—the dishwasher. “What—what do you—what’s a dishwasher for?” “Flipping a property.” “What is that—what does that mean?” And I—and I told him. Now this gentleman now is an owner of a very successful cell phone store. And—and I was just seeing this nineteen-year-old kid grow, and I just remember that initial conversation, and we did stay in—in contact. But success stories like Sean Curry is—is one of the most fulfilling things that you can get, to make some—to see somebody grow.

Scott Bursey (12:45)
And I know our listeners are gonna wanna hear this from you, Courie. If an entrepreneur is staring down a potential market shift today, what is the most critical financial move they should make immediately to protect their future?

Courie Gayle (12:58)
Make sure they have the foundation: life insurance. You gotta look at it as a—a house. With, you know, the foundation, and then the walls—that’s the savings, and then the roof is the interest. So it’s that simple. So you—you gotta have your house in order. So when you have your house in order, that means you can’t really necessarily—and then you gotta maximize the Roth IRA. You have to. It’s like seventy five hundred a year. You gotta do that because it’s like—it’s like life insurance, and the life insurance and Roth IRA is the similar, but Roth IRA you can only do up to seventy five hundred. So with life insurance, a lot of times people utilize it because you don’t have to pay taxes on the money coming out. Because when you—when you get the money back, it’s not income, it’s a loan. So just these—knowing these loopholes. There’s an IRS code called 7702 that the wealthy has set this up where they can make all this money, put it on insurance, take it, and then still not pay the taxes because it’s a loan.

And then set up the LLC and write off your lifestyle per se if it’s all documented and legit, and then they end up paying—they—they—that’s how the wealthy do it. And—and—and I’m here to blow the whistle, you know. We—we all—we all have access to this knowledge.

Scott Bursey (14:10)
Courie, thank you for sharing that. And for those of our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane, or collaborate with you, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Courie Gayle (15:03)
Can I give my number?

Scott Bursey (15:04)
Sure.

Courie Gayle (15:04)
603-722-8208, and that’s it. And what you’re gonna get is love. Love. Love is what this world needs. Love.

Scott Bursey (15:15)
Courie, thank you for joining us today on the Real Estate Pros Podcast.

Courie Gayle (15:19)
I’m honored. Scott, you’re an amazing interviewer. I appreciate.

Scott Bursey (15:22)
I appreciate you. And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you receive value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be fueling your tanks with the lineup of elite guests just like Courie Gayle, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.