Overcoming Challenges: Real Estate Success Stories That Inspire Resilience

John Harcar (00:01.44)
All right. Hey guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host, John Harcar. And I’m here today with Brandon Barber. And what we’re going to talk about is kind of his journey in business, but also really the five steps of resilience. Something that can really help you in those specific difficult situations. Remember guys, at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, I mean, all real estate entrepreneurs, really two to five extra business by providing tools, resources, and things that can help you.

grow that business you’ve always wanted to have, which helps you live that life that you wanted to live. Brandon, welcome to our show.

Brandon Barber (00:38.11)
Hey, thanks, John. Thanks for having me.

John Harcar (00:40.332)
Yeah, I appreciate it. I knew we talked a little bit on our offline before we got in here. And I’m excited to talk about kind of what you do. I’ve never heard of a resilience manager or resilience guide. That’s pretty awesome. And I can see where it definitely come into effect in real estate. But before we get into all that, why don’t you give our audience a little background about you, kind of your journey and how you got here.

Brandon Barber (01:03.753)
Yeah, I think how I got to resilience. I’ve been a coach for 25 years. I’ve been coaching people so long. remember telling people I was a coach and they’d say for what team. And so that’s how it kind of dates me a little bit, but 25 years working with over a million people. Yeah, I got into the coaching arena because I wanted to serve people. I’d overcome massive amounts of fear. I was…

John Harcar (01:18.956)
Right?

Brandon Barber (01:31.134)
I had so much anxiety in my late thirties that, or my late twenties, that I literally became agoraphobic. And so, overcame that agoraphobia, then I wanted to serve people, I wanted to help people. Obviously, when you do something and you have some breakthrough, you wanna help others. That was my first resilient, you know, overcome. And then we’ve had different business resilient processes that we’ve walked through. In 2018, I got a cancer diagnosis.

John Harcar (01:38.37)
Mmm.

John Harcar (01:52.75)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (01:59.948)
man.

Brandon Barber (02:00.086)
And that really set me for a, you know, just a whole other process of becoming resilient. We went through that and then not long after that COVID, which basically shut our business down overnight, because we were in the workshop business. So we had to be resilient there and learn the resilience. And then at some point over the last four years, I realized that there’s a system that I learned through resilience. So no matter what walk of life you are, no matter what

John Harcar (02:14.848)
Yeah. huh.

Brandon Barber (02:29.948)
journey you’re on, that there is a resilience process that you walk through. And when you walk through these things, you do become resilient. And that’s what separates, you know, the the the leaders from the rest of the field.

John Harcar (02:45.41)
Right? No, I agree 100%. So all this time as you’re building and going through these things that you mentioned, I mean, was this your full-time occupation? Was this kind of something that you’re just building on the side? I mean, what does that look like?

Brandon Barber (03:01.729)
This has never been a side hustle. was actually, actually that’s not true. It was a side hustle in 1999, I guess, 1999, 2000. It was a side hustle along with my, I was a VP of sales for a company and did this kind of became a facilitator with Tony Robbins, became a facilitator of John Maxwell and Bob Proctor and Jim Rohn, all the.

John Harcar (03:08.546)
Okay.

Brandon Barber (03:29.121)
All those guys became a facilitator. So it was a side hustle until 2000. And in the year 2000, quit my job, started doing this full time, have been doing it full time ever since.

John Harcar (03:40.878)
Okay. When you turned it from a side hustle to a full-time gig, mean, were there any type of struggles you had, challenges in the beginning, obstacles to growing and getting where you want to be?

Brandon Barber (03:56.131)
my gosh, you kidding me? That’s massive struggles. Massive, massive struggles. It was slow growth. I think I went into it with probably some pretty high expectations, but yeah, the struggles were how do I get clients? How do I coach effectively? How do I help people really transition?

John Harcar (03:57.742)
Is that a loaded question?

Okay.

Brandon Barber (04:22.498)
and do this thing I’m promising them that I’m gonna change their lives. How do I build a website and at the same time be a coach? How do I go out and sell and at the same time be a, how do I go market and sell and at the same time be this wise coach to help people? So that was a constant struggle for a lot of years, yeah.

John Harcar (04:43.214)
Okay, and how did you overcome that?

Brandon Barber (04:47.916)
five steps of resilience. Yeah, I mean, I was always the believer that if I work harder, as long as I outwork things, then it’ll be okay. Somewhere along the line, I realized I needed to work smarter and I needed to go out and ask for help. If we’re looking at the hero’s path, the hero’s path is you get a call to adventure and the call to adventure

John Harcar (04:49.902)
which we’ll touch on.

John Harcar (05:01.526)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Brandon Barber (05:17.856)
then leads to a road of trials. And during the road of trials, you’ve got to ask for help. You got to have a support team. So it was a lot of asking for help. It was a lot of sucking up my pride and being willing to speak out and get help where I needed it. That was probably the thing that was the most important.

John Harcar (05:37.534)
Why do you think people don’t, know, what triggers them to not reach out for help? Why do you think people are just so afraid of it?

Brandon Barber (05:48.236)
There’s some weakness in asking for help, right? It’s presupposing to some degree we don’t know the answers. And if we don’t know the answers, we might be less than. We might not be able to be the expert and people might not want to. Yeah, I mean, think it just shows our weakness to some degree. We become vulnerable.

John Harcar (06:15.779)
Right.

Brandon Barber (06:15.872)
And let’s face it, most of us are avoiding vulnerability.

John Harcar (06:19.054)
Right. Yeah, a lot of people are kind of hesitant to put themselves out there to make themselves look not knowledgeable. And that’s really prevalent in this, or in real estate especially. So what does your business look like? mean, is it just you? Do you have other coaches within your business? Do you teach at big events? What do your business look like today?

Brandon Barber (06:44.419)
Yeah, I was working from about 2013 on, was working on this building this massive coaching empire. I had 12 employees, four coaches and an entire event staff. We were sort of, you know, just like clockwork and then COVID hit and it changed everything. I went from, I went from.

a lot of employees to me, my wife and my admin. And what I realized through that is that I like it actually lean like that. we, right now, our business consists of me, my wife and an admin. And then of course I have an entire support team of people that we work with that help on the backend. have a sales force, we have a…

We have a team that handles all of our tech and all of our social media. And so we have people that handle those things, but our team right now consists of me, my wife and my admin. And our goal is to help people become more resilient in what they do so they can impact the lives of more people and make more money. Bottom line, bottom line.

John Harcar (07:59.054)
sure, 100%. You probably have a ton of them. Just tell me a quick success story that comes to mind.

Brandon Barber (08:09.249)
My gosh, a success story of somebody that we’ve worked with.

John Harcar (08:12.94)
Yeah, somebody helped.

Brandon Barber (08:15.48)
Yeah, we, I mean, there, there, we just did a collection of a lot of our, of our, of our people we’ve helped. We asked, we asked a group of our, our clients to come up with all of the ways in which they’ve impacted other people. And we thought, well, if we’re asking other people to do this, we got to do this ourselves. And it was really cool to go back and see all of the individuals that we’ve served and helped. I can think about an individual right now who we’re working with in the real estate arena. He called me out of the blue and said, Hey, I want to,

I want you to come help my team. He’s a broker with an agency here in Salt Lake City. And he said, I want you to come help me with my team because of how you helped me in my life. I have a successful business because of what you’ve helped me realize. I have a successful marriage because of what you helped me realize. And here’s what we really walked through with him. We found out what’s the stuff that’s really holding him back.

And we found out it was simply the inability to say no and his desire to please people at a level so deep that it was like, I can’t be a bad guy. I gotta be a good guy. And the only way to be a good guy is to say yes to everybody and to please everybody. And at the expense of his business, of his relationship, totally. his being a father,

John Harcar (09:35.725)
Marriage.

Brandon Barber (09:42.797)
and his ability to step in and live in his, I wanna call it his core maybe, but being able to go, hey, I’ve gotta be there for me. I’ve gotta have my own back. I’ve gotta be willing to ask for support and not to be able to really tap into an old trauma or an old system that was running him and be able to work with that and work through that. Come on on the other end of that being.

Somebody that can speak from his core. Somebody that can speak what’s important to him. Somebody that’s willing to say my needs are important as well. To be able to take care of himself so he can take care of other people. That’s somebody that I’m thinking of that really we made an impact on him so much so that when I met him he was driving a 10 year old vehicle and a, you know.

John Harcar (10:25.858)
Mm-hmm.

Brandon Barber (10:39.59)
I think he had maybe five or six agents that he was working with. So now he has 175 agents. He is driving, I don’t even know what kind of car, but I know that it’s a lot nicer than my car. I’m not a car guy, but the door opens like this. he’s driving.

John Harcar (10:48.494)
Wow.

John Harcar (11:00.202)
Okay, probably one of the new Teslas or something like that.

Brandon Barber (11:05.006)
He’s got a really incredible home. He’s running a very successful business. I see him with a new grandchild. He’s holding every, it seems like every other month, great relationship with his kids, great relationship with his spouse, and he’s balanced. He’s got all these hobbies. He’s playing guitar and he fishes and he’s got all these balances in his life.

It’s cool to see where he’s at today versus where I saw him a few years ago.

John Harcar (11:39.476)
So did he come to you? this the guy who said to come train my team? I, or did he come to you, but for that, with, know, a different reasoning. And then I guess that kind of maybe leads to another question is like, is there an overall theme or a specific string of events that have that people say, Hey, now I need to talk to someone like yourself.

Brandon Barber (12:01.923)
So he, I don’t know how originally we connected or how we met. I think he was referred to me by somebody. I don’t remember. He was referred and I talked to him on the phone and said, let’s create a coaching situation. And we worked one-on-one together. And then, you know, this is probably, it’s probably five, six years ago, maybe even longer. And he just recently came to me a few weeks ago.

A months ago, I guess it was, and said, hey, I want you to work with my team. I want you to work with all my realtors in helping them with this concept. He said, I want you to help like you helped me. And I said, well, I have a system. I have a system now where I didn’t then, I was just helping you and doing what I saw come up and work with you. And today I have a system. So he said, yeah, I want you to bring that system to my team. Is there a place that people get to? Here’s what I know.

John Harcar (12:54.67)
Okay.

Brandon Barber (13:01.575)
There’s an ancient Roman proverb that says, fate will help the willing and those who won’t, she will drag. So are you volunteering for support or help or are you waiting to get drug? An example, I 30 to 40 pounds overweight most of my adult life.

Got a cancer diagnosis in 2018. I’ve been at my ideal weight ever since. I watch exactly what I eat, everything that I put into my body. I look at every label. I exercise every day. I meditate every day. I practice restorative yoga. I practice breathing. All of those things I wanted to do at some point, but then I was drugged by cancer diagnosis. some people, they’re in a financial crisis and then they do something.

John Harcar (13:50.968)
Yeah.

Brandon Barber (13:56.39)
Some people wait to work on their relationship until their spouse says, hey, I want a divorce. So we can either volunteer for what we know we need to take on or we can wait to get drug. And I’m in the business of helping people volunteer for their stuff instead of waiting for catastrophe to strike, instead of waiting for the worst case scenario. So we help people say yes to getting help in whatever that area is.

as soon as possible. Volunteer for it if you

John Harcar (14:29.134)
Got it. Is a lot of your business or most of your business by referral?

Brandon Barber (14:34.664)
I’d say probably 50 % of it is referral and 50 % of it is us going out and shaking the tree, if you will, going out into the, guests on podcasts, going out and doing Facebook ads, going out in the world and communicating with people and asking for referrals. So I’d say it’s about, it’s 50-50 today.

John Harcar (14:43.246)
Got it, yep.

John Harcar (15:03.278)
Okay, very cool. Well, now let’s talk about what our topic was and that was kind of the five steps of resiliency. I’ll let you have the floor.

Brandon Barber (15:13.843)
Yeah, I think there’s five key things that I’ve identified in my life whenever I’ve had to be challenged with something, whether it’s business, whether it’s personal, whether it’s health, whether it’s my relationship. Step one is making a decision. We gotta get clear about making a decision. Indecision is the worst form of self abuse. So deciding.

John Harcar (15:38.254)
you

Brandon Barber (15:41.342)
to take action, deciding to say yes to the call to adventure. What do most heroes do, heroines do when they get called to an adventure? They say no. You got the wrong person, I can’t handle it, I don’t have the time, I don’t have the energy, I’m not capable of this. And eventually, again, we either volunteer for it we get drugs. So I think step one of any resilience is making a decision, deciding that

Yes, I’m in. I will do this. I’m saying yes. I think making a decision is hard because we get stuck in this concept of what we call dualistic thinking where it’s very black and white. What if I make the wrong decision? What if I don’t make the right decision? What if I screw up? What if this isn’t gonna serve me? What if this cost me everything? So being decisive, that’s step one. Step two is.

is creating drive and passion. I think what we do is we wait to be excited or motivated by something. excitement’s like waiting for, it’s waiting for Christmas morning. Like I’m excited, it’s a very adolescent behavior. I’m gonna go work or take my business on when I’m excited or when I’m motivated. So people are always waiting to get motivated or get excited and I think what’s critical is to have drive and passion.

John Harcar (16:48.93)
Right.

Brandon Barber (17:09.076)
Can you teach that? Yes. I think you teach drive and passion by helping people get clear about really the six, we call them the six human needs, identifying the six human needs are, hey, are you driven by certainty? Are you driven by significance? Are you driven by really contribution at the core? So when you’re driven because you wanna contribute or you wanna grow,

instead of just getting certainty in your life or getting significance, that’s drive. That’s passion. When you wanna contribute at a core, that’s being driven and passionate. And I think step two is having a drive to make a change. The third thing is being willing to pivot. It’s not a matter of, if you’re gonna hit a plateau,

It’s a matter of when and how long do you stay in that plateau. business owners, whether you’re in real estate or whatever business you’re in, your business will have a plateau. Whether a recession hits you or something else, it’s a matter of when. And what do you do during that plateau? Do you wait for things to change? Do you hope they’re gonna change? Do you get on your knees and just like pray that everything’s gonna change?

John Harcar (18:07.18)
win. Yeah.

Brandon Barber (18:36.007)
or do you make a pivot? Especially if it sends you in an opposite direction and you’re not seeing growth for a while or it’s like the antithesis of what has got you where you’re at, but it’s something to change. It’s doing something different so that you can create growth and then you can handle plateaus much better. So I think step three is pivoting. Step four is being willing to welcome discomfort.

John Harcar (18:38.84)
Yeah.

John Harcar (18:54.828)
Right?

John Harcar (19:05.038)
Get uncomfortable being uncomfortable.

Brandon Barber (19:05.982)
discomfort.

Gotta do it, right? Gotta do it. Uncertainty, I think people’s success in their business is in direct relation to how much uncertainty their survival brain is willing to tolerate. So what’s taking down most businesses today? It’s all the uncertainty. I don’t know if this is gonna happen. I don’t know this is gonna happen. So if we can get good at welcoming discomfort and recognizing it as growing us and helping us and serving us, it’s game changer.

John Harcar (19:38.2)
Yeah.

Brandon Barber (19:38.208)
And then step five, step five is really creating a plan, having a plan of action. Like, hey, this is my plan. This is what I’m doing. This is what I’m gonna do. Having a vision and creating a plan. And those are the five steps of resilience. Pretty simple, pretty basic. Each one of those has deeper and deeper components, but those five things are what I built my resilience around and what I teach others to build theirs around.

John Harcar (20:06.51)
Okay. And then when you walk into some of these companies that have, these teams and stuff, do you kind of go through those five and assess where they might be? Like where their level is on each one to kind of gauge how you would approach them, approach them or the group.

Brandon Barber (20:22.923)
Yeah, certainly there’s some businesses that are, you know, further along than others. There are certain places and people that are further along than others. And maybe there’s only a few of these steps we need to work on or one or two. Maybe we don’t have to go through all five. Yeah.

John Harcar (20:39.502)
If anybody’s dealing with, you know, stuff, right, people going through things, as we all know, it’s been, it’s been, especially in the real estate world, it’s been pretty hectic last couple of years. You know, what advice would you give to someone? What kind of tools, what piece of advice would you give to help them deal with some of this anxiety or some of this stress or things that they’re going through?

Brandon Barber (21:01.111)
Yeah, it’s interesting. I have the privilege of being part of this group where there’s some top industry people, real estate industry, top income earners. get to be part of this, sort of kind of be a fly on the wall for this mastermind. And there’s some financial geniuses that are in there. I’m certainly not that, but that’s Warren Buffett.

They said, Warren Buffett, hey, what’s your suggestion? Where would you suggest we invest in the middle of a recession or with all the things that you’ve seen going on and all the problems and this new Tara thing and all the uncertainty in the world, where would we invest today? And Warren Buffett said, in yourself. So where would I tell people to do when there’s this

this uncertainty in the market, in the real estate market, when there’s all this, know, not clarity, if you will, and there’s these changes going on and maybe you’re, you don’t know how to stand out in the market, invest in yourself, invest in yourself. Learn the skills, learn the success, model what’s working, what other people have done.

model what’s worked for other people. We this program called Unlock the Top Producing Real Estate Secrets Masterclass. I’ve never necessarily been in real estate, but I know how to be resilient in a business. I know how to invest in yourself. So I think we can help anybody make more money. I think we can help anybody stand out in their marketplace. think we can help anybody create a six, seven, an eight figure

John Harcar (22:31.95)
All right, that’s huge.

Brandon Barber (22:58.318)
business, whether it’s a real estate business or whatever that is, simply by investing in themselves and modeling. Now we learn from some of the best. So, you know, we learn from some of those people like this individual that that that I’ve worked with, or I’m working with right now in real estate. So I bring him him in into these expertise, so he can talk the real estate language so he can help these realtors and in what they’re doing day to day. So it’s not just me.

I’m helping with the resilience, but I always find an expert in the real estate market if we’re working with real estate or if we’re in another industry, find the expert in that industry. yeah. So we work together to help the process.

John Harcar (23:33.122)
Whatever industry, Yeah, smart, definitely.

That’s awesome. If there’s anybody out there listening that wants to maybe take part in that master class, I don’t know if it’s open to the public or they want to get in touch with you to have you help their team. What is the best way for them to connect with you?

Brandon Barber (23:55.234)
Yeah, Brandon Barber Coaching is a great place to look, this upcoming real estate masterclass is called unlockrealestatesecrets.com. Unlockrealestatesecrets.com. So you can go there, check it out, check me out, size it up, see if it’s something you wanna look at. We have a couple of other experts that are gonna be joining us in this, but it’s a masterclass we’re doing next week to really help people, you know.

Give them the tools to launch, grow and scale a six, seven and eight figure real estate business, something they’re really proud of in the middle of all the uncertainty.

John Harcar (24:32.728)
That’s awesome.

Yeah, especially the middle of all the uncertainty. Well, we’ll put all the con or that contact information that you shared in the notes So guys if there if you do want to reach out, maybe do you want to take part in the master class? I’ll be down there Brandon. I appreciate you coming on man and sharing that information. I think that I think what you do is huge to help a lot of folks But guys Yeah guys, I hope you had a good show. I know I did and I’ll look forward to seeing the next one Cheers

Brandon Barber (24:51.534)
Hey, you there!

Brandon Barber (24:57.592)
Yeah, you bet, you bet.