Latest / Scrappy but Successful [Consultant's Personalities When No One's Watching] / 11. From Paper Routes to $2 Billion - The King of Capital Breaks It All Down with Brad Blazar

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11. From Paper Routes to $2 Billion - The King of Capital Breaks It All Down with Brad Blazar · Scrappy but Successful [Consultant's Personalities When No One's Watching]

• 0:03
  Jack Tompkins: What's happening everybody? Welcome to Scrappy But Successful. It's a show where I sit down with your favorite consultants and we take the comedic route through their life, find out if they're successful today because they are scrappy or because they're sophisticated. I'm your host, Jack Tompkins, CEO of Pineapple Consulting Firm. The fun fact of the day, snails can sleep for up to three years. So they're just finding out about AI. I don't know, but that's neither here nor there. Today I'm joined by my friend, Brad Blazar.
• 0:15
  Brad Blazar: Hmm.
• 0:33
  Jack Tompkins: He's the founder of Capital Connections, but that doesn't cover it by any means. I mean, he's written several books. He's a podcast host. He's a world-renowned speaker. He's been knighted, like in England, like that kind of knighted. Raised over $2 billion, making him truly the king of capital. Brad, it's a pretty sophisticated resume, but do you think you fall more on the scrappy side or more on the sophisticated side?
• 0:42
  Brad Blazar: Thank Hahaha! You know, Jack, I don't know, maybe there's a happy balance between the two. You know, just knowing myself and just kind of looking at myself introvertly, probably a little bit more on the scrappy side. You know, I learned a long time ago that I really shouldn't care what others think. It's really just kind of worrying about me and kind of showing up every day and competing with myself. ⁓ Certainly in business, you know, we understand systems and structure and... blueprint and I guess you know to that side of the business and scaling it's a little bit more sophisticated. You don't want to just wing it shoot by the hip but ⁓ you know in terms of just going out there working hard playing hard there is that scrappy side of me too. know, yep as Matt McConaughey would say here in Texas right you know he's a good old Texas boy just go out there and have fun and just show up put up and enjoy what you do.
• 1:38
  Jack Tompkins: Yup. There you go, it's the scrappy mentality, right? It's hey, we're here, we're doing this, you know, I prepped as much as I could and we're just gonna let it ride. So tell me, did you grow up in Texas? Did you have entrepreneurs in the family?
• 1:55
  Brad Blazar: Exactly, yep. No, moved here to Texas back in the 80s actually to become a Texas Longhorn and been here ever since. But, you know, growing around, I moved around a lot. My dad was an executive and so, you know, his companies would relocate him or he'd accept a new position with a new company. And so over the course of my youth, I lived in, you know, probably a handful of states, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana. I went to school in Florida and ended up here in Texas. And so, had to adjust not only to just a new environment, but you know, making new friends, which I think really, really helped me in business. I tend to adapt real well and build relationships pretty quickly. But I came down here basically just to go to the university. was studying architecture and lived in Austin, then relocated to where we are now. We're in a suburb between Houston and Austin called Folshire, Texas, but been a Texas man for the last almost 35 years.
• 2:55
  Jack Tompkins: Okay, tell me about the growth of Austin, because I'm in Charlotte and I look at it seven years ago, it's a different city. Austin must be similar.
• 3:03
  Brad Blazar: It's just booming. You don't even recognize the city as the same city it was even back in the 90s. you know, back in the 80s and 90s and even into the early 2000s, Austin was kind of divided. You know, you had the, I guess what you would call the west side of IH 35, which kind of is the highway that, you know, runs north and south from San Antonio all the way up to Dallas, Fort Worth. But over on the east side, that was like the wrong side of the tracks. Like people didn't go there after dark. But now, man, it's like the bar scene. You got high rises. You got apartments over there. It's completely gone through a gentrification. And Austin's just exploding. Just the high rise office buildings and the high rise residential towers and just, you know, the outreach to like, you know, all the suburbs, north, south. It's really becoming kind of this big metroplex. And what's really amazing is that corridor that was between Austin and San Antonio on the freeway, you you would drive it and you would just see nothing but corn fields and cattle. Now it's all built out with residential communities and shopping centers. So Austin, Texas, it's definitely on the map.
• 4:13
  Jack Tompkins: Absolutely, and I gotta thank the, you know, to somewhat the wrong side of the tracks growing up and to be this, the place where people go now. I gotta imagine there's a little bit of association with you moving from city to city, school to school, like that whole new kid on the block mentality. Did you always have like, all right, I'm here, we're just, you know, we're doing it, we're gonna figure it out or was that a learned behavior?
• 4:21
  Brad Blazar: Yeah. I think initially it was probably I'm here and I'm going to figure it out, you know, and, you know, of course you got the bullies, you got the shit kicked out of you, you know, you just realize you got to roll with the punches, but you learn how real, I guess, at a young age to almost become a chameleon. I hate to use that word, but you learn to assimilate and kind of fit into different groups. You know, when you're a younger person, there's obviously different cliques, you know, you're at school and you got what? You got the jocks, you got the nerds. You got the theatrical group and then of course you got the people that are just kind of whatever, you know. And so you kind of figure out, okay, what lane do I want to play in here? Am I going to play sports? Am I going to be one of the popular people or am I going to be over here and get, you know, kind of picked on? And so, you know, as you grow up, you kind of learn how to adapt and hopefully adapt pretty quickly. And I learned to adapt pretty quickly, I guess. Just fit right in, make friends. And then, you know, you move a couple years later and you're kind of transplanted and you're the new kid that the teacher introduces to the classroom or, you know, you're the new kid walking around the school that just doesn't know anybody. And so you got to build friendships really, really quickly. I guess it's almost like going to prison. You know, you show up in a jail yard, you don't know anybody and either you're going to get beat up or you're going to fit right in and you're going to be one of the gangs. So I'd much rather be part of the gang. Not an allergy, but you know what I'm talking about, yeah.
• 5:55
  Jack Tompkins: There you go. Yeah. Go take down the biggest guy in the joint. Yes. Local gang member, Brad Blazar, of course. No, I love it too, because I guess I was somewhat fortunate, somewhat unfortunate that I grew up in the same school system and I never really changed. I grew up with same set of kids and stuff, but there's a degree of comfort with that. That is nice as a kid. Looking back, I could just kind of coast. I didn't have to meet new people. And as an entrepreneur now, I mean,
• 6:03
  Brad Blazar: you year. Very good.
• 6:25
  Jack Tompkins: a dozen new people a week, if not more, right? And like, you're in the same boat. You have to just find something to connect with on people. So you must be pretty good at finding something really early on. Be like, okay, there's a topic. We've got this in common. Let's chat.
• 6:26
  Brad Blazar: Yeah, of course. Yeah, absolutely, you bet.
• 6:41
  Jack Tompkins: Yeah. Did you have any, so obviously we're talking like that's a little bit of an entrepreneurial spirit in its own, especially a scrappiness too. Did you have like a lemonade stand? Did you sell candy at school or anything?
• 6:51
  Brad Blazar: ⁓ Yeah, believe it or not, you know, as a teenager, I had a paper route, you know, that was a big thing, I guess, back in those days, you you drove your bike around, you had the little saddlebags and you stuffed all the papers in, you delivered them in the morning. So I did that. You know, of course, I'm sure had a lemonade stand and, you know, held kind of odd jobs, did kind of, you know, things, whether it was mowing lawns or, you know, shoveling snow. We lived up in Michigan. We lived up in climates where there was snowfall. in the winter. you know, went around with friends and did that. And then of course, you know, as I got a little bit older, you know, get jobs working in restaurants and stuff like that. And then, you know, eventually went off to school and did internships for legitimate real businesses and real companies. But, you know, I was, guess, ⁓ kind of the entrepreneur, if you will, you know, always loved making money, always loved having that little piggy bank where I could go out and buy stuff that I wanted to buy and not having to worry about my parents. making the decision whether I could go ahead and afford it or not. yeah, I was kind of a little serial entrepreneur at a pretty young age.
• 7:53
  Jack Tompkins: Yeah, man, getting paid under the table, getting like a $20 bill, whew, there's nothing better than that as a kid.
• 7:56
  Brad Blazar: man. Absolutely, you know, and I hate it because my daughter who's now a teenager is babysitting and I keep telling my neighbor, man, quit giving her hundreds, man. You're spoiling her. She'll show up for three hours and we'll give her a hundred bucks. And I'm like, dude, stop with that.
• 8:08
  Jack Tompkins: Peace. Wow, okay. Yeah, we didn't get hundreds for shoveling up in Connecticut, I'll tell you that. Definitely not mowing lawns either.
• 8:20
  Brad Blazar: Yeah. A funny story. we lived in a fairly affluent area in Michigan and, you know, people had big circular driveways and stuff like that. And there was this one road that was right along the waterfront there and it was called Lake Shore and that's where the big mansions were. And so me and a friend of mine had been out shoveling all day. It was like 5.30. We were just beat tired and we were now back home in our kitchen. You know, my mom had made us hot chocolate and then the phone rings and it was this lady. that lived in one of these big old homes and she wanted to know if we could come out and basically shovel. We had a snowblower. Her driveway. And I'm like, oh man, you want to get back out there? And he's like, only if it's for the right price. And I said, man, we've already come in for the night, but we can be back out there in about 30 minutes if you're willing to pay us $180. And she said, that's fine. So we go over there and so $180 later, we're back home like two hours later and he gets on and he's like telling his dad about the story. His dad, you took advantage of that little poor lady, go over there and knock on the door and give her her money back. I'm, I ain't doing that, I'm keeping my money. But that was probably, think, the most we've ever been paid to shovel somebody's driveway, $180. It was about two feet of snow, we were pretty excited about that. That's a lot of money for a couple of teenage boys.
• 9:37
  Jack Tompkins: ⁓ are you kidding me? Yeah, that's awesome. And like, like if we translate this to business to like she values her driveway in her mansion, 180 books, probably nothing to her at the time, right? Just Hey, I just want this clean. How about some kids? Yeah. Yeah.
• 9:48
  Brad Blazar: Yeah. Exactly. You bet. Yeah. Money exchange is when problems get solved and the bigger the problem, the more people are willing to pay. learned that a long time ago, Yeah.
• 10:02
  Jack Tompkins: There you go, and hence this scrappiness begins. Okay, while you're doing this, you've got your money coming in, you're a serial entrepreneur under the table. Are you saving it? Are you spending it immediately? What's the personality then?
• 10:17
  Brad Blazar: No, you know, I kind of have this philosophy where, you know, you need to put money away for a rainy day. You never know what the future holds. And so part of it is ⁓ investing. You know, we have obviously those investments that are, you know, more tangible, illiquid like real estate, things like that. And then of course we have some that we can access pretty quickly, like the stock market. So there is, you know, that side to the business of just kind of growing. ⁓ of course there is also the philanthropy and you know kind of side that's geared more towards humanitarian efforts and then just some of it just gets reinvested back into the business you know more marketing more advertising more events more growth type of thing so you know as an entrepreneur and as a business owner you know you look at what it is you're trying to create and how you want to impact other people and you can only do so much but i think that you know when you really look at the impact that we're making and kind of what we're doing and what we're known for. There is definitely the investment side. There's the philanthropy, the humanitarian, and of course, there's just the reinvestment back into the business. And then of course, taking distributions out of the company. I learned a long time ago that when you're a business owner, you want to avoid taking personal income, W-2 income, because when you eventually get to a point in life where you're Social Security. Social Security won't give you your benefits if you're still earning a certain level of income, but certain ways of getting paid like distributions and dividends, they don't consider earned income. And so we've shifted to that model where my compensation largely now is dividends and distribution. I still get paid, but it's treated very differently from the standpoint of the IRS and Social Security.
• 11:53
  Jack Tompkins: Okay, so you're on obviously the raising money side of things, but now you're also very experienced in this whole, how do we save the most money as well?
• 12:03
  Brad Blazar: absolutely, you bet. I I learned a long time ago man, it's not what you make, it's what you keep that really matters.
• 12:09
  Jack Tompkins: Yeah, ⁓ when you help somebody else raise money, does the relationship end there, say, hey, cool, there's a million dollars, or like, whatever, you just raised a million dollars, congratulations, go have fun, let me know what you need in the next round, does the relationship continue?
• 12:25
  Brad Blazar: i was a continues you know ⁓ we become almost like strategic consultants or advisors just to our network i mean personally you know we have family offices that we've worked with the race capital from we go to a lot of events that open the door to some of the biggest brightest minds you know in the country if not in the world in so just you know for showing up at some of these events in hearing some of the keynote speakers you know these people were hundreds of millions in many cases billionaires and learn their tax secrets and their strategies and what it is they're doing with their investment dollars really just kind of opens your mind to what's possible but more importantly things that you just never would have thought of before, you know. And so one of the things that I really tell people is, know, great that you're doing well and you're making money but, you know, let's also look at the tax mitigation side of being an entrepreneur. because there are ways to reduce your taxes or shelter your income. And, you know, people are in real estate or people that are in business should certainly understand what they can do within reason without being abusive ⁓ because it's in your right to be able to use the tax code to your favor. That's what I choose to believe and certainly other people that are entrepreneurial believe the same thing as well.
• 13:37
  Jack Tompkins: Yeah, think most people don't necessarily have a problem with paying taxes. They just want to pay the least amount possible. Do you learn this, you know, ⁓ saving mentality as a kid when you've got all these jobs going on?
• 13:44
  Brad Blazar: at the most possible. Yeah. Probably so, a little bit. Yeah, you know, it was ⁓ kind of fun watching the piggy bank grow. And, you know, I think that just having a goal in mind and, you know, wanting to say, okay, my God, you know, what it would be like if I had X amount of money, then, you know, you maybe cross that threshold. And so you raise the bar a little bit. And then you say, wow, you know, what would it be like if I was actually a millionaire? And then, you know, if you become a millionaire, great, you raise the bar a little bit more.
• 14:01
  Jack Tompkins: Yeah.
• 14:21
  Brad Blazar: And so for me personally, I've been very, very goal oriented throughout my entire life, both as a kid, mostly then in sports and things like that. Now as an adult, you know, business, health, fitness, other areas. And so for me, it's not necessarily, quote, competing with other people or trying to keep up with the Joneses. It's kind of constantly trying to improve myself and become the best version of me that I can become, not only for me, but also for my family and those people that we serve. Yeah, that's just going to become my mantra. You know, it's I don't really care about other people. I don't look at, what my neighbors have or my neighbors own. You know, certainly it's nice to have nice things, but it's really just about competing with myself. And I think that I won't say that lesson, but that speech, maybe you saw it, maybe not that Matthew McConaughey gave when he won the Academy Award a few years ago, he was, you know, holding the award. was looking out and said, a lot of people ask me who I compete with as it relates to other actors. know, am I competing with Brad Pitt? Of course he points to Brad. Am I competing with Clooney? He points to George. He said, I'm not really competing with any of them. I'm competing with myself three years from now. And that was a pretty, pretty impactful presentation that he said where he always is trying to improve his abilities as an actor, getting better in each role. And that's obviously why he's an Academy Award winning actor and one of the most popular actors in our modern day. But it's just kind of that philosophy, you know, that I subscribe to. And so I think that as a person, if you have those beliefs, you will always do well, hopefully.
• 15:56
  Jack Tompkins: Man, you are Texas through and through. That's two McConaughey mentions already. I love it.
• 15:59
  Brad Blazar: He's one of those cool guys and he's obviously been successful, but he really has a lot of these little what I call McConaugheyisms. I guess like George Bush was quoted with his Bushisms. Matt McConaughey has these little things he says and you're like, like that. I'm going to use that one day.
• 16:05
  Jack Tompkins: Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever met McConaughey?
• 16:18
  Brad Blazar: I have one, many, many years ago in Austin.
• 16:22
  Jack Tompkins: Okay, is this is that sort of same mindset where the whole belief ology comes from?
• 16:27
  Brad Blazar: No, beliefology was mine. I kind of came up with that word and I came up with that philosophy and we trademarked it. And we actually write about that in my first book on the wings of eagles, learning how to soar in life. And the whole concept of beliefology really stems from the fact that the life we live ⁓ is really a reflection of our daily habits. Our habits over time will ultimately then support a belief system in us.
• 16:29
  Jack Tompkins: Okay.
• 16:57
  Brad Blazar: And that belief system then manifests itself into our quote outer being as it relates to how others perceive us and how we actually perceive ourselves. And so as an example of kind of what beliefology is, I write about this actually in the book. Many years ago, I was actually mentoring this individual. His name was Jack. And every time we got on a Zoom, the camera was always turned off. Never questioned it, just never thought about it, just it was always off. And he wanted to get into coaching. And so, you know, he was really frustrated. Every time he came on, he was just bitching and moaning and groaning and he was not getting clients and blah, blah, blah. And I finally said, Jack, I really don't know how much more I can do to help you. Like, what do you think it is? And then one day his camera came on and here I am staring at a 480 pound person. And I'm like, now I know what the problem is. Like, reason I was hiring you is you can't even take care of yourself, let alone help other people.
• 17:53
  Jack Tompkins: Right.
• 17:55
  Brad Blazar: But I said, you know, here's what we need to work on like right away. You know, it's you and you losing weight and getting to health. I'm not just concerned about you financially. I'm concerned about you physically as well. You might drop dead of diabetes or heart conditions. So I said, tomorrow morning you're going to wake up. You're going to run three miles. And there was a pause. And I said, I was just joking. I just want to make sure you were listening. But I said, you if you're going to walk, like get out there in the morning and go walk for 30 minutes. And every week.
• 18:18
  Jack Tompkins: Yeah.
• 18:23
  Brad Blazar: Look for the telephone poles or look for the light poles and just walk from one to the next and then jog and then one to the next and jog and just every week you just double that distance. Well, you know, here in month later he's now running three miles and he's lost about 30 pounds. And so six months into this relationship he had lost about 80 pounds because now he's going to the fitness center and I'm telling him what to do. And he comes on a Zoom one day and he said, you remember how important you told me these like morning manifestations are, like I'm supposed to look in the mirror and say, you hey, I'm a powerful person or hey, I can never say any of those things as I just hated myself for being so obese and being so heavy. But today, I was able to finally think of something and I'm like, man, here it comes. And I'm leaning in and he said today for the first time in about 15 years, I was able to look in the mirror and say, I am an athlete. And I said, boom, beliefology. You see, your habits. that you've subscribed to over the last couple months have created this new belief in your mind because you've lost weight, you'll look better, that you're an athlete, what are you going to do going forward? You're going do all the things that an athlete would continue to do, which is eat, nutrition, Sleep, today the kid weighs about 210. He could be on the cover of Men's Fitness. He's just, I mean, built out, looks really solid, and took him from 480 pounds to basically about 215, 220. Probably saved his life or at least made him much healthier. ⁓ But it was just that belief system in kind of what I talk about in that philosophy, which we trademarked.
• 19:53
  Jack Tompkins: Is that where you kind of, so like manifesting has unfortunately been commandeered by people that get made fun of, of, you know, I'm going to think something and then it's going to happen magically, right? This is a different take on it and a much more accurate take because it's more envisioning what you want. And then if you have that vision every day and you go after it every day, it'll probably happen because you're building those habits, right? Is this
• 20:02
  Brad Blazar: Yeah. Yes, absolutely.
• 20:19
  Jack Tompkins: Is this the, and I'm gonna butcher the pronunciation, the neuro-linguistic programming, is this the same thing with back in your college days that you kind of learned by studying Greg Louganis?
• 20:29
  Brad Blazar: I think so, you know, probably is. know, obviously Tony Robbins is known for that. Greg Louganis was obviously a big proponent of NLP as well. You know, I don't know if it's manifestation, but what I do know is that if we can imagine something in the mind and then create a plan and an action to pursue that to its logical conclusion, we can largely manifest anything into reality. A lot of people have dreams and goals and desires, but they never take action or they just give up prematurely. it's too hard. And I've always told people comfort is your worst enemy. You know, you're going to gravitate to a place in life where your comforts and your needs are met and then you're going to get lazy. You'll never become rich. You'll never become successful because comfort is not your friend. And being ultra successful in putting forth that extra effort and kind of looking at the future and the unknown is scary. And so we tend to back away from anything that is fearful, whether it's a true threat or a perceived threat. That's just the way the brain works. And so we're kind of pre-wired as humans, I won't say to fail, but to back ourselves away from anything in the mind that we perceive as a perceived threat or fear. And that's why moving forward and falling into the unknown is so very challenging for so many people. But if you understand that the word fear, F-E-A-R, stands for false evidence that appears real, it's false. Just fall into it, do it, because that is how you become more confident and that is how you ultimately break through these limiting beliefs to then create the greatness or create the transformation or to start the business or do whatever it is you've been thinking about where that limiting belief has been holding you back. so, you know, understanding a little bit about just how the mind works and how the mind plays tricks on us and what holds a lot of people back from taking that next step as an entrepreneur or as a business owner. It's really been very helpful to me, but also a lot of people that we work with that just kind of sit there and vacillate in indecision. know, they're like this little hamster on a treadmill and they're guilty of what I call randomness in motion where they show up at work every day and then at the end of the day they're like, man, who had a busy day? I'm like, really, what'd accomplish? They're like, I really don't have any idea, but boy, it was a busy day. know, I'm like, you didn't really move the needle forward much. You might have been on the phone and you might have been responding to a bunch of text and you know in your mind it was a busy day but when you look at really did you move the needle significantly to do something big for your business the answer is no. You know and so they just kind of you know get in this loop and they didn't really never go anywhere and so what we want to do is help people go someplace and get them from point A to point B and give them that big you know transformation ⁓ that big you know leap or whatever you might call it. And part of that, of course, is raising capital. know, a lot of people are held back financially where they want to do something, but they just don't have the investment capital. And what they realize, or what they don't realize, is that when we roll out of bed every day, we're surrounded by all the money we need to pretty much do anything in life that we want and desire. We just call these other people, you know, investors. But we don't learn in school how to approach people. how to create or peak that interest and how to move people forward through meaningful conversations and discovery to ultimately get them to the point of wanting to invest with us. There is definitely a process to that. ⁓ But if you learn how to do that, then it just opens up like, you know, the world because now you can pretty much do anything and everything.
• 24:02
  Jack Tompkins: When you're early on, you're very early on, you dropped out of college, you're helping, you're raising money for the one company that you worked for, right, and you built the skill. What is the mentality there of, I'm gonna go fail fast and learn something, I know I'm gonna get rejected 99 % of the time. How does that learning come through in that early stage of actually figuring out how the heck to raise money, the thing that people are guarding with everything they've got?
• 24:33
  Brad Blazar: There really is a structure in a blueprint. The biggest mistake that we typically see people make is they talk about the opportunity or the investment much too early in the relationship. And so naturally, you know, if somebody was to present you with an opportunity, you're going to be polite, you're going to be cordial, and more than likely, you're going to respond by saying something very similar to this. Jack it sounds like a really interesting opportunity. Can you send me some information so I can take a close look at it? And so now that person sends you everything And then of course you go dark you never invest and really what you're saying is man We only went on the first date and here you are trying to walk me down the aisle here, know Let's slow down this process. So the best thing that I always tell people slow down Go through discovery, focus on them, and then eventually at some point after a couple of meetups, talk about the investment when they really trust you and they know you much better. So that's mistake number one. I think the other is you have to adopt this understanding that some will, some won't, so what, who's next? There's always going to be another person to be engaging with because the second you come across to a potential investor from a place of perceived desperation or somebody that really has a tremendous need for the money, they're going to run in the other direction. They want to see you as this cool, calm, collected person where you project this impression of, I do this every day. Like, 100,000 bucks of me, it's like, man, just I do that yesterday and I'm going do it again. It's part of you that I think just comes out in that confidence in how you have to think about this. because investors ultimately want to invest with people that they perceive as successful. Well, if you're, you know, talking up to them, it's kind of like, oh, I know you're a rich dude, please, like, please. They're going to sense that. You put out this almost sixth sense. It's almost like, you know, Spider-Man, they talk about, spidey senses are tingling. You might not realize it, but they see it, whether it's in your tonality, your body posture, how you come across to them. ⁓ And so it's really just kind of having this what I call cool kind of nonchalant attitude and, you know, being open and transparent and being truthful, but just kind of adopting that, you know, hey, we have this great opportunity. If you'd like to partner with us, great. If it's not for you, you know, that's fine. We'll be friends. We'll touch base with you in six to nine months. Maybe the timing's not right. And so you stay in touch. But it's adopting that mindset, but understanding that process of slow down, get to know them, do some discovery. and then speed it up on the back end once you know or feel that there's that connection and they really like him.
• 27:18
  Jack Tompkins: This is really cool. So it makes a lot of sense. Did you ever sell your parents or a wife or a girlfriend? Did you like have that com cool and collected like, hey, I really want a new car, but not a big deal. I can bike ride it.
• 27:33
  Brad Blazar: Yeah, I think, you know, certainly in getting married, you got to sell your spouse and come on out to make a sale of your life. ⁓ But yeah, I mean, think that, you know, certainly sold my parents on, you know, certain things. You know, one, of course, is, you know, maybe go to a summer camp or, you know, buy me something that I really wanted. ⁓ But I think that, you know, like I said earlier, you know, I've always been, you know, this entrepreneur, salesy person. And so even in business, we're constantly selling ourselves. to potential clients and customers. And I think that part of that also is understanding persuasion and really how to persuade people and kind of reach a happy medium. But also I think part of it is just realizing that a lot of times when people give you an objection or say no, it's really not an objection and it's really not a no. It's really just I need more information. You haven't really... made up my mind yet. And so part of being really, really good at raising capital, as well as just in sales in general, is really to understand these signals and always understand that many times that potential customer just needs more information. And so it's really getting past, we kind of call it the smoke screen, so to speak. And of course, there's other names for it in sales training. But it's understanding that you need to kind of isolate that and really ask the prospect, aside from that, is there any other reason that you would not want to move forward and make a decision today? And then usually something else will come up. well, yeah, you know, and then you realize, OK, that first thing he said, let's push that aside. This now is more than likely the real thing that's holding that person back. And so you then address that and hopefully move forward and are able to close the relationship, bring on a new client, bring on a new customer, whatever.
• 29:27
  Jack Tompkins: Okay, different side of sales. Have you ever bought anything off of an infomercial? What was it?
• 29:28
  Brad Blazar: not. I have, I actually bought a watch many, many years ago off of an infomercial. And I think it was actually one of those total gym things, if you remember that, that was actually the Chuck Norris thing and the Christie Brinkley. It was years ago. I it was a long time ago. But it was that total gym thing that looked kind of like a Pilates reformer, you know, that you could slant up and it had the things and, you know, use your natural body weight. believe it or not, it was a pretty cool thing. It actually gave you a pretty good workout. But that was one of the things I bought at an infomercial. And the funny thing actually is fast forward many, many years later, we actually hosted an event in 2020 here in Houston and brought about 100 people together. And one of my keynote speakers was actually the king of infomercials himself, Shark Tank's own Kevin Harrington. And so we had Kevin as one of our speakers and of course he talked about his whole era. Starting the company with Tony Little and everything like that and you know He really is kind of known as the king of infomercials that's where he built a good part of his fortune and so it's kind of cool to talk to him about you know the success of infomercials and how they're structured and you know how they kind of capture the interest of the viewer all those different things believe it or not There's a lot of psychology in the way those are put together And then the way those things are recorded, they're just not popping into the studio and shooting an infomercial. It's really scripted and it's really laid out the right way to convert and then hopefully to get the person to click or to call in and actually buy.
• 31:15
  Jack Tompkins: How much does price matter? So what I mean by that is infomercials, buy now and you get a second one free, right? So it's, my god, I'm getting a deal. If you're raising capital, you're getting a new client, how much should you be focused on price?
• 31:22
  Brad Blazar: Yeah. I think that there's different industries and there's different thresholds ⁓ in terms of where price matters and certainly different situations. I'm of the belief that price is only an issue in the absence of value. If somebody perceives value in what they're paying for, they will pay the price. I mean, let's face it, you know, there's Rolls Royces, there's Mount Blount pens that sell for $1,000. That's ridiculous. $1,000 pen, I'll just, you know, use this one I bought for $15. But what's the difference? this one's got a little gold on the cap and you hand it to someone, they sign it. it's a nice, you know. So price is always going to be an issue in the absence of value. But if there's perceived value, then people are willing to pay a premium for whatever. could be status. Could be just it's much nicer. They know it's better quality. Therefore it will last a lot longer. But I think when you're selling something on an infomercial or you're selling something that people only see maybe for a few minutes, price definitely needs to be at a level that is affordable, that is kind of the deal. Everybody likes a deal. Everybody likes to buy things that are on sale. So I really think it just depends, kind of where you are and what you're marketing and what you're offering to the general public. But I certainly think that price is relevant in that regard on an infomercial, two for one or whatever, buy now, we'll add another freebie to it that offered. Because that's what gets people to obviously then buy. But then there's other things that it's kind of like, oh, wow, this is kind of expensive. But you know, is what it is. I'm going to go ahead pay for it anyway.
• 33:05
  Jack Tompkins: We're in a spot where you have basically no marketing budget and you've got to figure it out. And what we've covered some, a little bit of scrappiness, but a lot of sophistication so far. Let's see if there's any dirt under the fingernails here. Do you have any stories of early on you're eating ramen noodles for dinner or something and you've got no marketing budget, you're selling it with this calm, cool collected mentality of, I'm in a mansion right now.
• 33:24
  Brad Blazar: Yeah. Yeah, we did something pretty similar to, I don't know if you ever heard the story about Jesse Insler and how he basically started his business where he basically bought all the muffins and pastries in the coffee shop. people would come up and they'd be like, sorry, we're out of bases. He's over in the corner. I guess I'm over here, you know. We actually did something similar to that years ago. Man, it worked really, really well. So I was actually working in financial services and raising capital. And my role was to go out and help Financial advisors, you know build their business raise capital for our firm and there was this one little fledgling new advisor that was fairly new to the business and he was just ready to give up and So I sat down one day and I said look, you know, my job is to help you You know build your business Hopefully you'll you know reimburse us with using our product and you know recommending it to the clients And so I said, know, what type of clients do you want to work with? He's like man at this point I'll work with anybody And I said, I've never done this before. So I have no idea whether this will ever work or whether it won't work, but it's just an idea. I said, how would you like to be able to literally walk in the door and personally meet some of the richest, wealthiest people in town? He's like, how am I going to do that? I said, in every rich, wealthy city, there's that little epicenter of wealth. That's where all the big.
• 34:48
  Jack Tompkins: me up sure.
• 34:56
  Brad Blazar: money is like the big mansions and I'm sure you know where it is here. He's like, yeah. I said, so where would that be? He's like, well here in Dallas, it's down around Turtle Creek and it's in that area by the Preston Country Club, know, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, all right, well is there Starbucks in that neighborhood? Sure. Meet me there Monday morning at eight o'clock. Let's see if we can put this plan into gear. So we show up at eight o'clock and we go up to the barista and we order some cappuccinos and I give her my American Express and I said, we're going to go sit over there in the corner. And when you see me wave to you, every customer that walks in, whatever it is they order, you just tell them it's free today. And it's confidence of the two gentlemen sitting right over there. And you point to us just like that. You think you can do that, ma'am? Oh, sure. So we go over there and here we are now. We're sitting there. And what are we seeing? We're seeing Bentley's. We're seeing Jaguars. We're seeing Range Rovers pull up to the Starbucks because the five and the 10 to $20 million mansions are within a three to five mile drive of that Starbucks. That is the epicenter of all these rich, wealthy people. And so now, know, CEOs are walking in, partners at the law firms, the doctors, and I'm sure that they're probably thinking that they're on candy camera when the person behind the counter tells them whatever it was they ordered was free. But when she points to us and she says, it's common to the two guys over there, they naturally kind of look and, we do one of these, they want to know what the hell's going on. So I just introduced my friend and I said, hey, my name's Brad and this is Jack. And Jack is a very successful advisor to the affluent and wealthy here locally. And we kind of get upset when people call us at odd hours in the early evening. That's our family time. We're trying to enjoy dinner. So we just thought a really cool way to introduce Jack to you would be to just treat you to a cup of coffee this morning on your way to the office. Would you like to connect and maybe meet with Jack sometime next week? Sure. That little gesture of just treating someone to a $3 cup of coffee, people are whipping out business cards, and these are Fortune 500 CEOs and surgeons making a million dollars a year. And like an hour later, Jack is walking out with the contact information for the people literally that live within three miles of that Starbucks. And so literally over the next 60, 90 days, he's following up, calling these people. And it was said it was the easiest way to get in the door because when I called, People would say, who are you again? I'm the guy that treats you to co- my god, that was such a cool thing. And before he knew it, he was well on his way to becoming one of the more successful advisors within the firm. Just because we had thought outside the box that we did something that was really scrappy, that it cost a lot of money, that didn't need a big marketing budget.
• 37:29
  Jack Tompkins: beautiful how many times and Jack actually gotten a good affluent client at that time before the Starbucks event
• 37:36
  Brad Blazar: Oh, very rare. He was like really apprehensive to even talk to people. He had this limiting belief that he wasn't good enough, you know. And then I kind of cracked the code and I think, oh, how can I like introduce this person to all these rich, wealthy people? And, know, I just thought this is a great idea. Let's try this if it works great. If it doesn't, you know, no harm done. But it's really funny because I have another good friend of mine in California, John, who's one of the most successful. advisors probably in the country, the guys worth millions and millions of dollars. And I don't know if you know who Ed Mylett is. Ed Mylett's also in the same company worth about 850 million. Well, John's right there below him. He said when he got started in financial services, he would go to the hospital. He walked right into the front desk and said, hi, my name's John Shin. You're supposed to have an office here available for me today. I'm supposed to be working with some of the doctors. And they would look and they'd be like, we don't see anywhere in the system, Mr. Shin. I'm sure it's a mistake, know. But do you have an available office? They brought me in. I'm a financial advisor. I'm supposed be working with some of the physicians here today. And so they put him in an office, and here he is down the hall. And now he's out networking with all the surgeons and all the doctors. And they tell him that, you know, this guy's here locally. And he literally started his business just forcing his way in, so to speak. You know, he didn't have a badge. He just was confident, cocky, and just said, I'm going to do something where I can network with doctors. And just said, I'm just going to go to the hospital, and they'll give me an office. And that's what he did. So a lot of times in business, you you just have to think outside the box and be scrappy and be confident. And, you know, it works sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't. But in the case of Jesse Itzer, if you know that story with the pastries or you adopt the story, if you want to get in front of the fluent, wealthy people that pick the Starbucks or the coffee shop and that little rich pocket of wealth or, you know, one network, there's always riches and niches. But these are true stories of scrappiness and really just having no budget. but wanting something to work.
• 39:33
  Jack Tompkins: Yeah, that's awesome. I love the scrappiness to it too, because it's such a like, hey, I do this all the time, I'm doing it now, we're just doing a nice gesture this time, right? Or I'm just renting an office for the day, know, I gotta go where it landed tomorrow, right? It's not even seeming like you're a big shot, it's just believing that you can do the thing. And if you walk in with that confidence, doors literally open for you.
• 39:57
  Brad Blazar: It's kind of like the wedding crashers movie, know, Owen Wilford, show about a wedding. You were invited, we're on the guest list. Hell no, but we're here anyway. You know, so it's just, think having that mentality, you know, that ⁓ you're going to just do it and, you know, it's going to work. And so you're confident, you reflect that confidence, you exude that and people are naturally just going to assume that you belong.
• 40:00
  Jack Tompkins: Yeah. Right. Yeah. All right. Let me hit you with some sort of lightning round, scrappy versus sophisticated questions. ⁓ If you're going out to a lunch meeting, are you making a reservation every time?
• 40:24
  Brad Blazar: Yeah. depends on who it is and what it's asking. ⁓ But you know, ⁓ I'd say 80 % of the time, no. But if it is a business setting or somebody that I'm trying to impress or I know that the place is gonna be very crowded or packed, then yes, most definitely.
• 40:36
  Jack Tompkins: Okay. Okay. Okay, if you're at an event or a networking meeting or a conference or something like that, how do you get out of a conversation that's kind of run its course?
• 41:01
  Brad Blazar: I say, got to go use the restroom, Jack. I'll be right back. And then I don't come back. I've used it a couple times and it works all the time.
• 41:06
  Jack Tompkins: Okay. Okay. The bathroom. Yeah. Whatever it is, the bathroom and the bar. I'm going to one of those two places and I'll be back and I'm not coming back by the way. ⁓ Have you ever given out a metal business card?
• 41:14
  Brad Blazar: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have not, well, let me take that back. It is not my business card, but I do have a metal card that we do use in my business. So in my business, we have certain levels of consulting. And one of the levels is called the platinum level, which is our one-on-one mentoring. And so when people sign up at that level, we kind of send them a little swag gift box. And what's really funny is when I was in the oil business, you know, many, many moons ago, I always had this goal and this dream and it was to someday have my credit card in the wallet of every American, know, just like Texaco, Shell, know, Gulf oil. I wanted to have my own credit card. Of course, never had it. So what I did when we created this platinum level is we actually created a platinum card that looks exactly like the American Express platinum card. And so on the top it says capital school. It has all the fill degree and everything looks just like American Express. And it has, of course, capital connections on the back. has a little barcode. And so it is made out of metal, just like the real platinum card. But it's not a business card with my name on it. It's just a platinum level card that we put in their gift bag when they do sign up at the platinum level. But it's pretty cool. I've actually gone to restaurants, and I'll just kind of throw it down on the counter. And they'll take it all the way to the back, and then they'll realize, he'll bring it back to me. And they'll kind of laugh. So we have a lot of fun with it. The funniest thing we ever did. Now this goes back about 10 years ago when I was in sales. There was a company that actually used to create this thing called the million dollar bill. And believe it or not, it looked real. I mean, it literally had the thread through it and they had to go to the US Treasury and get all kinds of approval for this thing and, you know, had the holographic image on it and everything. And so I used to order them and I would give them out to customers when I would sign my cards, thanks a million. And of course, we put a million dollar bill in there. And they were, you know, not expensive, but I used to always carry a couple in my billfold. And so I'm out one day at the Houston airport, and I'm checking in for a flight, and I'm upgrading my ticket, and I open up my billfold, and I'm like, man, I hate to do this, but like this is really, this is the only thing I got. I can't earn a million dollars. You gotta be kidding me. I'm like, sorry, man.
• 43:37
  Jack Tompkins: You
• 43:43
  Brad Blazar: She puts it in the tube and she sends it up to the people behind the thing. And I'm just sitting here and I'm thinking she's got to know that this isn't real either. She's playing a joke on the people back there. So finally, you know, they get on the intercom and they're talking and I'm just like laughing inside and she's now I can tell busting a laugh as well. And finally, I just said, you might as well just let the cat out of the bag and just tell them of course that that is a joke. And there's no such thing as a real million dollar bill in circulation. But you know, It's so funny when you go to a restaurant or you go to a store and you're like, kind of open your billfold and they see that, they're like, my God, we had a lot of fun with those back in the day. never had my own metal business card with my name and my contact information on it.
• 44:31
  Jack Tompkins: Okay, okay, I like it. Let's stay in the airport for a second. TSA pre-check, I assume.
• 44:37
  Brad Blazar: yeah, TSA pre-check clear all the way, you bet.
• 44:40
  Jack Tompkins: Are you flying up front usually?
• 44:42
  Brad Blazar: Typically first class or we fly private jet.
• 44:45
  Jack Tompkins: Okay, even better. All right, pretty sophisticated. ⁓ How many phone numbers do you have? Okay. Okay, that's pretty good. At the airport, are you a before flight cocktail kind of guy?
• 44:51
  Brad Blazar: I might just have one, one personal number from my cell phone. yeah, it's always the clubs man, Centurion Lounge or know one of the clubs. I like to get out of the hustle and bustle and be able to work and you know grab a meal or something like that.
• 45:11
  Jack Tompkins: Okay, and then I assume you're going to be one of the last ones to board the plane.
• 45:15
  Brad Blazar: Prefer to be the first. Yeah, prefer, know, usually it's by priority anyway. So, you know, if you're boarding and you're assigned a number, you know, group one or group whatever, and so it's just boarding traditionally with the group. The problem, of course, if you're one of the last is you don't have any baggage space for your bags. And so that's why I try to get on a little early that way. At least I know I'm going to be able to put my bags in the overhead. I hate checking bags.
• 45:17
  Jack Tompkins: Okay, interesting. ⁓
• 45:41
  Brad Blazar: hate the risk of losing my luggage, even though I put an air tag in all my luggage so that if it is lost, I know exactly where it is. Half the time, the damn baggage handler's like, it's back in Chicago. I'm like, no, it's not. It's right here somewhere because it's on my cell phone. It's in the airport. So you guys go find it while I wait here. And they look at you like, shit, it's here somewhere.
• 46:03
  Jack Tompkins: man, beating the TSA at their own game.
• 46:04
  Brad Blazar: You ever want to piss off the baggage handlers, put an air tag in your luggage and call them out on your lost luggage because it ain't lost, it's here somewhere and I know exactly where it is. Of course, they don't want to let you into the area, but it shows exactly where it is like, you know, within whatever, nine feet, 10 feet, whatever the, they say the variance, you know, with the GPS. And that's actually happened to me once before. I was traveling to Toronto, Ontario. And the flight was delayed. was actually the day that CrowdStrike shut down the whole internet. I was traveling on that day, so the whole world basically shut down. A three and a half hour flight turned into 34 hours of travel. And I'm showing up to speak in an event the next morning. And what I'm wearing is flip-flop shorts and a shirt that I had sweat through because I was running back and forth through the airport trying to figure out a way to get on a flight. Well, when I landed, I had about 45 minutes. I took an Uber straight to the mall. Walked in, there's a Johnson Murphy store, bought a whole wardrobe and 30 minutes sports coat, shirt, slacks, belt, you you name it, because they lost my luggage. And showed up the next morning and sure enough, there was my little tag and it was actually there at the airport. And so they finally delivered it, but that's definitely being scrappy, but also being, I guess, sophisticated for thinking about putting an air tag in your suitcase.
• 47:22
  Jack Tompkins: mean, that's you're beating the government. You're beating.
• 47:24
  Brad Blazar: Also, also put a little air tag in your car under the mat or someplace on the seat. God forbid your car's ever stolen or broken into, know exactly where it is.
• 47:34
  Jack Tompkins: This is genius. This is where scrappiness evolves into sophistication.
• 47:39
  Brad Blazar: your backpack, things that you know have the potential to be stolen from you. Just pull a little air tag in there and I guarantee you'll know exactly where it is in the event anything that you value is ever stolen.
• 47:50
  Jack Tompkins: There you go. Well, I mean, with that, I know we got to get you out of here. ⁓ You walk in both worlds, but I got to say there's more sophistication going on than scrappiness. think scrappy roots that have evolved into a truly sophisticated scrappiness.
• 47:59
  Brad Blazar: Yeah, so people that know me think that I should be in that commercial like for Dosek is, you know, the most interesting man with the gray beard, you know, and everything like that, you know. ⁓ But, you know, we like to have fun. know, life is meant to be enjoyed, obviously, and we certainly enjoy each and every moment.
• 48:09
  Jack Tompkins: Yeah. I think your tagline could be, I don't always lose my luggage, but when I do it's air tag. Brad, thank you so much for coming on, man. Anything you want to promote, anything you want the folks out there to know.
• 48:24
  Brad Blazar: Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ No, just, you know, become a subscriber to, you know, Jack's podcast here. You know, give it a thumbs up, hopefully a great review. And if you want to connect with us to learn more about our events and how we can benefit you and help you, just go to bradblazar.com. That's my personal website or seek me out on social media on one of the platforms like Instagram and shoot me a DM. My team will reach back out to you. Never know, or pass my cross.
• 48:58
  Jack Tompkins: There you go, I like it. Brad Blazar everybody, the king of capital and the king of sophistication. Thanks Brad.
• 49:04
  Brad Blazar: I appreciate it. Thank you. You've been a great host today.
• 49:07
  Jack Tompkins: Thanks, appreciate it.