Left Corporate Sales Career to Build Business With Spouse, with Brett Thomas EP 4

Brett Thomas left a 25 year career sales career to move his family across the country and work together with his spouse Brooke Thomas to build a successful mastermind and coaching business. In this episode, we talk about the challenges of leaving corporate security behind and the insights and strategies they’ve discovered in working together as a couple, while still maintaining important time for each other and their family.

Brett also helps men transition from the golden handcuffs of corporate life to the freedom of unlimited income and entrepreneurship. His approach centers on performance based lifestyle habits, business development strategies and financial planning necessary to support an effective mindset, plus the physical and financial changes of making a life altering move. Brett knows the journey very well. He was a top producing, 25-year Corporate Executive Sales Leader who built a 6-figure side business before leaving the corporate world to partner with his wife as Founding Partner and COO of their business. His expertise goes beyond building teams and systems that increase profitability and flexibility. His one on one, small group executive mentorship programs, and couples coaching help men and couples complete the shift to a rewarding life filled with true leadership, confidence and faith. Brett says the greatest accomplishment in his life is his beautiful wife and 2 amazing daughters. He says he’s learned so much in his career from them as a husband, father, and as a professional. The greatest lesson he wants to share is that communication and strong relationships with those around you is everything. He wakes up each day with a deep passion for inspiring, motivating and leading those around him to live, create and to have the most incredible life possible.

More On Brett

Instagram: @brettcthomas1
LinkedIn: Brett Thomas
Live Out Loud: BrookeThomas.com

Resources
Chris Harder Podcast Episode

More On Thor
On Instagram: @thorchallgren

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

Thor Challgren  00:04

Welcome to the Course Change podcast. My name is Thor Challgren and every week I love sharing with you stories of people who have made a dramatic career change. We talk about the challenges they faced, the lessons they learned and the success they found on their own unique journey. Over the course of my own life, I've worked in multiple industries, from startups to corporations, a common factor in my work experience: the ability to adapt to change. If you're looking for insights and inspiration to thrive during change, you'll be glad you listened. 

Thor Challgren  00:37

You know your mindset determines your success and happiness. If you win each moment, then you win your day and win the week. To maintain that success mindset. I've created the Win Your Week guide. It's a 7-day plan with daily pages to plan with purpose, affirm your goals and celebrate your wins. The Win Your Week guide is free. Just go to ThorChallgren dot com forward slash win. That's ThorChallgren.com/ win. All right, let's dive into today's show. 

Brett Thomas  01:08

"That's one of the biggest reasons that I got out of the corporate job. I was just tired of being on planes, trains and automobiles, living in a Marriott 73 nights a year, flying 100,000 miles a year on American Airlines."

Brett Thomas  01:18

"When you have a vision and you have a plan, and you know you're gonna have to burn the boats, you've got to have a date in place. And so that's one of the things that my wife and I both said, Hey, listen, we're not going to do this -- we're going to kick the can down the road unless we say, our house is on the market. Good, bad or indifferent, we are going to be out there by July Fourth."

Thor Challgren  01:36

That is Brett Thomas, my guest today on the show. Brett was a senior vice president of sales with 25 years spent in the same company. But in 2019, he left corporate security behind to move his family across country and to work full time in scaling his wife Brooke's already very successful business. In our conversation, we talked about leaving his career, the challenges with their move to California, and the strategies he and Brooke use in working together. Here now is my interview with Brett Thomas.

Thor Challgren  02:13

Brett, thank you so much for being on the show today. I'm really looking forward to our conversation because, well, it's spring 2020 as we're talking here, and obviously there are people now that are navigating some significant challenges in life and maybe for some time to come, who knows. But my hope is that in hearing your story and our discussion today, that people will be able to see some strategies and ways of thinking that will help them now and in the future. So, are you up for that?

Brett Thomas  02:41

Absolutely. Thank you for having me on. Honored to be here.

Thor Challgren  02:44

Awesome, perfect. Well, I want to start by taking you back to your 20s and I'm in my 50s myself, so sometimes that takes a little bit of conjuring to remember that time, but you graduated from Auburn University with a degree in economics and within a couple years you had a job working for a medical supply company. And then you did something that I suspect most people that are in their 20s today could not possibly imagine, which was you stayed for that company- with that company for 25 years. When you look back at that time when you were in your 20s, what did you think you'd be doing in your life?

Brett Thomas  03:21

Man, at that point, I was like a maniac. I was- I got married late in life, right. And so I used from my early 20s when I got out of college up until my like, early 30s when I finally got married, to just go to the wall with everything. I mean, I was having an awesome time with my career. I was moving up the corporate ladder very quickly. I was- didn't have to move around a whole lot. I moved twice. But I mean, I was just going as fast and as hard as I could and everything and that included all the stuff that kept me out at night. And all the stuff that kept me going hard during the day. I mean, I was traveling. I was really just focused on my career until I met my amazing wife. But yeah, that was really what I was doing in my 20s all the way up into my 30s.

Thor Challgren  04:16

And when you started with that company, did you see that at the time as a career? Or maybe a stepping stone to something else? Or how did you view it at the time?

Brett Thomas  04:24

You know, things have definitely changed. I would say back in the 90s when I started, I probably would say I was looking at this as a longer range career. Because I really followed more of the pipeline traditional methodology of, Okay, this is what I'm gonna be doing for the next didn't know is gonna be 25 years, but I thought I was going to be hopefully engaged in that same company in multiple positions for a long time because that was the traditional pathway, right? 

Thor Challgren  04:56

Sure. 

Brett Thomas  04:56

Because it made the most sense. You know, it was what I was taught. And it's definitely not what we're teaching our daughters, but I was taught you graduate from high school, you go to college, you get a good job, you stay with that company for a long time. And then your life just, you know, you just walk into the sunset. But I definitely chose, thankfully, a different pathway we'll maybe talk about later. And things have changed. I mean you don't need to go to college anymore, you know, and we have two daughters. And we're kind of teetering on, like, where do we direct them and probably talk about entrepreneurial life later. But but that's really the one thing that we're, like evaluating right now in terms of- Gosh, I mean, the world has drastically changed in the last seven weeks, too, right? So all these things are coming into play as parents.

Thor Challgren  05:49

Well, I think there was nobody in the 90s who talked about anything like hey, you're your own personal brand, and even if you're going to go on and work for a company now, the advice would be, you know, think of yourself as a free agent. You know, you are a brand and you are offering your services to companies. But that wasn't sort of the mindset in the 80s and 90s. When when we were coming up.

Brett Thomas  06:12

Correct, correct. I mean, and then that's why i said earlier that I think my vision, you know, in my mid 20s, was I'm gonna stay there for a long time. Because even back in those days, you know, the medical device world that was really kind of like the- not the total upper echelon, you know, but it was, it was viewed as a really, really solid career and a solid industry, which it still is today, absolutely. I mean, especially with what's going on with COVID right now. I mean, if you're working for a medical company, you're probably fairly secure. Maybe, maybe not. But yeah, so that's really kind of how I viewed things back in my mid 20s, all the way up into my 30s.

Thor Challgren  06:47

You stayed there 25 years, you advance up the ladder to senior position in sales, but a couple of years ago, you get an itch. I'm curious, tell me about the decision for you to, not only leave your job but for your family to move to California. When you were talking about this with your wife, who was the first one to sort of broach what that might look like and how did you guys discuss that?

Brett Thomas  07:10

You know, we really fell in love with California six years ago. One of the nice things about the company that I worked for, they didn't really move you around a lot. It was really a company that was based heavily in deep relationships. And fortunately, I had those because I lived in the southeast for my entire career. So I had big mixture of various hospitals, had super deep relationships, and many of those that I had responsibility over. And I had really good deep relationships in all the people that worked on my sales team, so it was in a great position. 

Brett Thomas  07:42

But they offered me a job to come out to California and run the West Coast. You know, the Cliff Note version was we came out here, made a lot of decisions, pick the school for the kids on and on, but at the last minute they said you know what, Brett, we want you to move to Los Angeles instead of San Diego. For me at the time, or my wife and I, that was that was a deal breaker, we really didn't want to raise our kids- Nothing, I mean, I love Los Angeles and the surrounding areas, but we just at that time, didn't really want to raise our kids in LA. Now if I knew now what I know about that whole area, I probably would have made a different decision. But, you know, six years ago, that was really the decision we made. We were comfortable with that, but we fell in love with California six years ago. So fast forward to, you know, about a year ago, post two years of an itch that I got that I've continually got about really wanting to step out of the corporate world, do something different work full time with my wife, you know, she runs a really really successful mastermind and coaching business. And she also runs a super successful network marketing business as well and I was involved in that business. All that business you know, more of a sideline, more as a behind the scenes COO kind of position, but we really wanted to work together. And so we made a financial plan, a career path plan for us to be able to do that. So I would say about a year ago, we really made the decision to what I call burn the boats, right? 

Brett Thomas  09:14

So I resigned from my job, we had a good financial plan, had some financial means that we had saved you know, to give us a long runway if we needed that. So I would say it was really me, but I mean, we don't ever make decisions like that, especially without prayer first for us. And secondly, for us really coming together making those joint decisions.

Brett Thomas  09:34

And to be very frank with you were in a mastermind that's typically based in the Santa Monica area. And Chris Harder is a good friend of mine, or ours, and that's whose mastermind we're in. And I listened to Chris' podcast about a year and a half ago, and he had a podcast that literally rocked my world. I think the title of it is like the five reasons you're not rich yet. And some of those reasons were, you're stuck in your job, you lie to yourself every year that says, oh, next year is gonna be the year. You're not up leveling with relationships around, you know, you're staying with the same people that don't challenge you. Like all these things. I was literally at my driveway at our, you know, house in Charlotte, North Carolina listening this going, man, this is like rocking my world. My wife was actually already in Chris' podcast. So I had a lot of respect for Chris, knew what he and his wife had done since 2010, when the first recession hit, right. So that's really one of the things I tell Chris all the time, I remind him that, I thank him. I go, man, thank you for that podcast. Because- And this also is a plug for podcasts in general, right? I mean, these things, the podcast can make a massive difference in your life, in decisions you make and what your future is going to look like. So that's really one of the major factors that allowed me to say, you know what, if you're gonna do this, you're not getting any younger Brett. So if you're gonna do this, let's do this. And let's do this now. 

Thor Challgren  10:57

And you guys made a lot of big changes all at once. Was there ever any- I know California was your passion. Was there ever any consideration of maybe taking, "baby steps" is not the right word, but to say, Alright, I'm gonna leave my job. But maybe we'll wait on California. I mean, you guys just jumped all in, right? 

Brett Thomas  11:15

We did. And we had just moved network marketing companies about a year before we made the move. And the headquarters is actually about 10 minutes outside of Newport Beach, which is where we moved to, and so that was also one of the factors that really enabled us to make that decision. You know, what if we're going to do this let's go all in. That was a big part of the reason, because we wanted to be close to the headquarters. We've already had a really large amount of business on the East Coast, some of it in the central part of the country, but we just said you know what, company's based out there, massive opportunity, timing is everything and we want to get close to the corporate office. We felt really, really got solid relationships with all the executives at the company. So we just felt like it was the right decision. 

Thor Challgren  12:03

I'm curious with a background in economics, and you've talked about numbers and being smart about that. When you thought about the excitement and the passion of the idea of this move, would you have ever been in a position where if the numbers just said, Naw, this doesn't make sense that you would have held off? Or how do you evaluate kind of- and maybe this is in general to when you're making a business decision? How do you follow your passion, at the same time respecting what the numbers and the business strategy of the decision say?

Brett Thomas  12:36

My wife and I always make decisions together, and she's really good at certain things. I call them lanes of traffic, because we work together now. So sometimes we run in each other's lanes and we always have to caution each other, Hey, you're in my lane. So we actually mirror each other in a lot of ways, okay. And so I'm a lot more analytical. I'm a lot more linear thinking. I like to have a plan that's kind of like my lane right? And her lane is more, I'm gonna jump- she says this all the time, I'm gonna jump in, I'm gonna build my wings on the way down. So when you merge that crazy, energized, visionary type of person with more of a- and believe me, I mean I love taking risk. I mean, don't get me wrong. I mean that's when I sometimes almost get into her lane too much and she's she's a risk taker too. So you merge her creativity and her dynamic personality and her "build the wings on the way down" type of attitude with more of a systematic, let's have a plan, let's make sure that finances are there, make sure the visions, their strategy, and let's do that. So when you combine those two, they tend to work pretty well. And so far, it's worked out really well for us. 

Thor Challgren  13:45

I'm also curious, you work for a company for a long time. You know, you're working in their environment, their rules, their approach of doing things, and now you're contemplating a future where it's essentially, you make up your own rules, you're the boss. Did you have any trepidation at all about whether you were going to be the kind of person who could work from home who could set his own schedule? Or did you feel confident about that? 

Brett Thomas  14:10

You know, one of the main reasons that I was able to stay with the same company for 25 years was they allowed us to have, and built an entrepreneurial culture and an entrepreneurial framework. So, the entire time when I worked there, it was an amazing place to work for so many years, I was able to plan my own schedule, hire my own team, develop my own people. I mean, back in the earlier days, I mean, I wrote and signed my own contracts, you know, 100 plus million dollar contracts. We used to actually write them ourselves. And then you know, get them approved and then we move forward. So you know, that was back in the wild wild west days. In today's world it's a $14 billion company, things have drastically and understandably changed. We have, you know, we had corporate compliance. We had a whole host of attorneys and we we had a much much bigger process.  But just in the majority of the years that I worked there, I felt like to a degree that I was running my own company, right. And so that's one of the good things about making the leap out of that corporate structure into a full time true entrepreneurial framework. It just allowed me to kind of test drive the car for a lot of years before I actually went out and bought it and jumped into it myself. 

Thor Challgren  15:21

So you weren't necessarily like one of those people who fantasizes about you know, "Oh, it'd be awesome working from home" and then you discover the reality and go, Oh, I'm not really that kind of person. 

Brett Thomas  15:30

No, I actually had an office in my home for 25 years. So I never literally went into a corporate office, unless I flew to the Midwest where the headquarters was. And you know, I would sit there for a couple days, which always- after being in an office in a Midwestern very cold city in the winter, after two days, I was like, man, I am so glad that I don't work in the corporate office. I'm ready to go back home.

Thor Challgren  15:55

So I want to talk about the sort of moment and I call it the "I quit" conversation. And some people when they think about leaving their job if they don't like the job, and it doesn't sound like that was the case with you, but they fantasize about that moment like they're going to go into the boss's office and say I quit. How did that work out for you? I mean, was it something where- did they see it coming? Do they try and talk you out of it? Or what was that conversation like?

Brett Thomas  16:19

I think ultimately, by the time I resigned, they definitely knew it was coming. There was some conversations about staying on, and maybe, you know, moving out here to the west coast and doing something for the company out here. But, you know, by that time I was so far beyond, "The decision's already made" it was not even really a conversation that I had. But to answer your question, you know, in my case, it wasn't the one of those scenarios where Oh, I am so looking forward to going into his office and just quitting today and really sticking it to him. It was almost like some grief about it because I mean, that company provided an amazing runway for my family and my career for 25 years. Great place to work. But I've said it about in some other situations. I mean, I just kind of outgrew the company, you know, they were going in one direction, and they're doing amazingly well. And I wanted to go in a different direction. And I just think it was definitely the time to part ways.

Thor Challgren  17:15

Do you recall the first time, once you've made that decision, you made it formal with them, do you recall the first time that you said to someone, I'm moving to California?

Brett Thomas  17:26

Man, I don't know if I can say the first time but I know a couple of the conversations that I had. And I would say, if I had 10 conversations, nine out of 10, including, you know, friends that were not even in the company or colleagues outside of the industry, or you know, friends at church, everybody or nine out of 10 people said, Man, are you crazy? You know, and I probably had some like automatic association. You know. And people definitely just kind of looked at me is that same corporate guy's been working for the company for 25 years. And so there was definitely some personality that people attributed that to, you know, they always looked at me like as the, you know, the corporate guy, but I kind of stepped away from that. I really didn't find my identity in that. And I think I probably did in my earlier years, especially in the last two or three years when I was probably two years late on really pulling the trigger and making the decision. Kind of went through the motions the last two years in the company, but yeah, I definitely separated and I tried my best to remove any of my, quote, identity from that corporate world.

Thor Challgren  18:31

I wonder if the people who maybe expressed that sort of doubt to an extent, that just sort of is validation for that decision that hey, I gotta uplevel my tribe and be with people who support my vision and see where I'm going and not people who go, What are you crazy? 

Brett Thomas  18:48

Yeah, yeah, you know, every time we've moved from a different area to another one, I felt like we've always done it to improve everything around: our environment, the people that challenge you. My corporate life didn't change, you know, but I just felt like it was definitely time to take the next step. And that's the reason I referenced that Chris Harder podcast because everything he said in that podcast, I was like, Yes, that is the next step. That's the next level. That's what we need to do.

Thor Challgren  19:19

Obviously, you know, medical sales, probably a huge field right now. Do you ever- as you look back at your decision, I assume no doubts, but do you ever imagine what your life would have been like now if you'd say to them, and obviously you're probably not going to be doing as much traveling the last two months, but what what's your perspective on the decision a year removed from it, especially with what's going on now?

Brett Thomas  19:41

You know, people have asked me that thinking they're going to get a different answer from me. But it even solidified my decision even greater, because I've got colleagues that I work with alongside for a lot of years and I've, you know, kept in touch with them over the course these seven weeks during the pandemic. And they have been working- not so much in the last few weeks because things have kind of, you know, quarantined down, and they can't do as much. But you know, there's still requirements. I mean, they've been working like they were working 18-20 hour days, you know, in my position, you know, I was responsible for like, everything sales, operations, distribution, I mean, everything. And so, you know, I would have been working a ton and there's always that risk of bringing something you don't want to bring home from the hospital to your family. 

Thor Challgren  20:28

Yeah. 

Brett Thomas  20:28

So it's just a combination of just all those things that makes me even more happy, more satisfied that I made the right decision for sure.

Thor Challgren  20:38

Boy, and you guys sure were guided in the sense that the timing could not have been better. It was a year ago. So you're all settled in here and everything's good. I can't imagine if you were thinking about the same kind of decision now what that environment would have been like.

Brett Thomas  20:55

Yeah, it's just beyond crazy. Every time I get out of bed, honestly, I'm just thankful. And I say prayers every morning with my wife on my knees. And that's always one of the things that I always thank God for, is because this decision was definitely the right one.

Thor Challgren  21:11

Do you have friends or people maybe that you worked with, who reached out to you from time to time and go, Hey, tell me more about what you're doing? I mean, they see now that you're sort of living a life that that you're inspired by and that you love. Do you see people from before that maybe want to know how you did it?

Brett Thomas  21:29

Yeah, people have reached out to me and really have had a lot of, I'd say covert interest. You know, I know, some of the colleagues that weren't super happy around the time when I left and my phone is definitely rang quite a few more times then you would think from those same types of people. No one's really come out exactly and said, Hey, can you help me to develop a plan? 

Thor Challgren  21:51

Yep. 

Brett Thomas  21:51

But I've gotten a lot of emails, decent amount of phone calls that have that have kind of hinted like, Hey, man, I'm looking to potentially do something like what you did, I would love to talk to you in the next couple of weeks once things start to die down about some kind of a transition plan. I know you've done it, you've done it well. It's worked out successfully for you. So I got I've got people in that stable, right? 

Brett Thomas  22:14

Listen, I'm super busy doing what we're doing with our network marketing business. And with my wife's coaching program and her masterminds, she just launched a brand new program, actually, she's launching next week. So I've been really working with her. And we've done exactly what we've needed to do in the first seven months, you know, hiring and, and developing a really, really solid team of people that are amazing that believe in our vision. And then I'll be launching my own coaching program, potentially focusing on men or women that want to transition you know, get out of the the world of the golden handcuffs and I can show you how to do it and what my plan was and depending on what their industry is and what the runway needs to be. I feel like I've got enough experience where I can absolutely show people, knowing I've got 25 years in successful sales and operational experience, and then I can show people how to transition into what could be a new career.

Thor Challgren  23:07

And I think there's going to be a lot of people that emerge from this with their eyes open about what their future looks like. There have been, I'm sure people in businesses, in industries that never would have imagined that their business could be affected. And yet, when you sit down and you go, you know, what's essential, what's not and what do we need? People are like, you know, I had too many of my eggs in one basket, and I need to be smarter about how I look at my future now.

Brett Thomas  23:38

It's true. I mean, I can tell you that, you know, in a lot of industries, some of the more senior level executives are a little bit more concerned, because they know that you know, this the simple economic theory, supply and demand, there's going to be a relatively higher number of maybe younger, more energetic, more, you know, just a large group of people that are willing to take that same job for potentially 50% less. So I think there's gonna be a lot of changeover, a lot of transition, I think people are going to really start to necessarily both by force and just by introspection, really start to evaluate where they're gonna be in the next two to three to five plus years.

Thor Challgren  24:24

Yeah, a lot of change. I'm curious, just to sort of round out the conversation about your former work and sales. When you look at where we are now, with so many people adapting to either working from home working on platforms like Zoom, any thoughts on how the future of sales is impacted by the sort of new familiarity we have with being able to do business from home and do it online? 

Brett Thomas  24:53

You know, as a traditional guy, I guess you could say, I hate to think in the future that a lot of business is going to be continually conducted over Zoom. But I think unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on which camp you're in, I think that is a good portion of our future. And at the same time, a lot of like our kids, for example, I mean, they're used to being on screens a lot, especially obviously in the last seven weeks. And so I think there is some good parts to it. I mean, you know, if I roll back my career, there has been, or there's definitely quite a few times when I could look back and go, man, I really would have liked to have that meeting over Zoom versus getting on a plane and flying to Tennessee to have that 20 minute meeting, because it could have probably been as productive if not more on Zoom. And now there's a lot of cost savings, a lot of benefits too, for the company and a lot of cost savings, emotional cost savings, personal cost savings, time cost savings that would benefit you, as a quote unquote, traveling salesperson, not having to get on a plane for every, you know, moderately important meeting. It would be more time with your family. And that's one of the biggest reasons that I got out of the corporate job. I was just tired of being on planes, trains and automobiles, living in a Marriott 73 nights a year, flying 100,000 miles a year on American Airlines. So all those factors will definitely come into play. So I think like everything else, there's both good and bad to it. And I definitely think this will change how we do business in a lot of ways across the globe. 

Thor Challgren  26:22

And I guess the trick part of it too, is you just never know when that meeting that you have with someone that you do in person, something comes out of that interpersonal being with them that never could have come out in Zoom. I know in like my daughter's case, she's a sophomore, just finished her second year in college. And her rest of the second part of her semester was all online. And she just said it's just not the same. You know, there would be situations where she'd want to be able to go in and talk with the professor and have that exchange and she couldn't do it. I imagine it's the same in business and you can't predict when being able to be there with someone in person. would have made the difference in that piece of business that you guys did together. 

Brett Thomas  27:04

Yeah, you just look at the way we are designed as humans. We are designed to need and some people are more so than others. We are designed to need personal interaction. You know, I met a guy yesterday for the first time and it was so weird that upon the introduction he didn't reach out his hand and I didn't reach mine out and we were laughing about it, we kind of like bumped elbows. Hopefully this is not our future, you know. Because people have said that like Oh, the handshakes are gonna go away. And I know it may take a while to get back to whatever normal is gonna look like in the next couple of months but little things like that, I really hope that people don't take that away because I think that's one of the negative things that will come out of this situation. Granted there's gonna be some positive things too. But the human, the personal touch, the personal interaction and face to face discussions in both business and personal. I just think that you're missing out on so much if you don't have that in your life.

Thor Challgren  28:05

It makes such a difference yeah. So you left your job sort of in our storyline. And now you guys are in a position where you have to sell your house. And as I think you've described, a big sales hot sales market in Charlotte. So in theory, this should be easy. But things didn't go exactly as you had planned. So tell me about the challenges you faced. Once you decided we're moving to California, but now you have to sell your house and it didn't work out exactly like you thought.

Brett Thomas  28:30

You're right. Ultimately, it did. But we had to definitely jump through some hoops and wait on what I call, you know, God's timing, which is always perfect. Because we- and I'll give you again, the Cliff Note version. So we put our house on the market knowing we wanted to get to California, feet in the sand by July 4. That was my declaration, right? When you have vision and you have a plan, and you know you're going to have to burn the boats. Like I said, you've got to have a date in place. So that's one of the things that my wife and I both said, Hey, listen, we're not going to do this. We're going to kick the can down the road unless we say, our house is on the market. Good, bad or indifferent we are going to be out there by July 4. And so, put the house in the market went under contract, full price within about 10 days. 

Thor Challgren  28:30

That's awesome. 

Brett Thomas  28:34

And- Yeah, I thought it was awesome. And then the buyers cancel the contract after the house is off the market for 30 days, literally with six hours to go on the contract. Don't ever know exactly the reason. So anyway, so it didn't really matter, right. So house goes back on the market after being off for 30 days. And so we're thinking Well, great house, renovated, brand new pool, all these things that it's going to sell again, and it did went under contract again, in about three weeks. So at this point, you know, we're almost two months into the selling process, still feel good about it. House comes off the market again. And I actually flew to California for a business meeting with our network marketing company and to look at houses out here. And I am literally on the plane Sunday afternoon about two two and a half weeks after it had been under contract again, my real estate agent texts me when I get off the plane to change planes in Dallas. "Hey, can you call me?" Never usually a good thing Sunday to have my real estate agent call- cuz I think it was actually on Father's Day. 

Thor Challgren  30:16

Oh goodness.

Brett Thomas  30:18

Yeah. So that gut feeling right? So I knew it was not going to be good. Their financing falls through. And so the house goes back on the market for a third time. And you know, in the real estate world, if your house falls through, regardless of the reasons, it tends to potentially get a stigma among all the hundreds of agents in the city, right? They don't really understand or they need to know why they just look at it go wow-

Thor Challgren  30:45

Sure. 

Brett Thomas  30:45

Awesome house, price is right? But it's fallen through twice. What's the reason? And so we were starting to get concerns. So fast forward, house goes under contract again, had to jump through some hoops and you know, just typical- It was a market in Charlotte where, like people, this is what we kind of found out had a tendency to make quick decisions on a house that they thought was exactly what they wanted. And then a couple weeks might go by, and they're like, Oh, you know what this house over here is really cool, too. Oh, and this house over here is really cool, too. So I think that's really kind of what we had to deal with in the market from talking to my agent after the dust had settled, and he started to get some feedback from, you know, the reasons. So end of the day, finally closed after the closing attorney from the buyer made a bunch of mistakes. We had already gotten out to California, we were literally in a hotel, waiting on the moving truck, my agent calls and says, Hey, bunch of mistakes were made. You got to fly back and long story. We literally thought the house might actually have to go back on the market again, because it was just just a cast of errors that happen. So finally closed end of the day. We were out here we're about- which was nice. Actually, it was only about about 10 days later than we declared. Because we said, you know, Fourth of July, we're going to have feet in the sand. And so it was about 10 days after that I was about the about the 14th, 15th, something like that. 

Thor Challgren  32:10

And did you actually go and put your feet in the sand? 

Brett Thomas  32:13

We did. I mean, we were living in a hotel, a couple different hotels waiting on the moving truck right by the beach. And so I told my wife, I said, Listen, I'd rather spend a little bit extra money if we're gonna have to live in a hotel for a couple of weeks waiting on the truck, I want to do it and I want to do it and enjoy where we are, instead of you know, living in a hotel inland somewhere. So yeah, it was great.

Thor Challgren  32:33

Yeah, great. I think that's so important if you have that vision of what you want, and you've got that sort of picture in your mind, and I'm a huge believer that the more that you create that tangible feeling, whether it's touch or smell or sight.  And "feet in the sand," boy, that's a perfect one so, you can really feel the warmth and feel what that sand feels like. It's a big thing to sort of drive you through those difficult times, I imagine.

Brett Thomas  32:59

Yeah, and especially when your moving truck is about 10 days late as well. But you know what- I say all of that, and I sugarcoat it, a lot of it because it some it was it was frustrating in a lot of ways, understandably, but I say all that because if you know that you have a plan in place and you're resolute, which we were about the plan and where we wanted to live, what we wanted to do, if you feel 1,000% confident in that, which we did, it didn't really matter. I was going to jump over whatever hurdle that was thrown in front of me, regardless if it was, you know, putting the house on the market, again, price reduction, delaying it until August, you know, whatever it was going to take. We were going to do this and we were going to do it without looking back. 

Thor Challgren  33:47

Tell me about that. Because I'm curious when you get a text in the airport in Dallas, and it ultimately becomes, at the time temporary, bad news- What's the mindset that you have that prevents you from sort of going into doubt or questioning whether you made the right decision? Is it as simple as just, We're 1,000% and nothing is gonna get in the way of that? Or tell me how you navigate through those moments of doubt?

Brett Thomas  34:15

For me, it's always about my faith, because there are good ideas and there are God ideas. And so in this case for us, you know, and for me as the leader of our family, and my wife would tell you the same thing, we knew that this was the plan that we needed to step into. And so our faith got us through it. Our faith allowed us to jump over those hurdles. Our faith allowed us to hit our knees on the mornings, in the afternoons, in the evenings when things did not look or feel all that great, but you know, I'm a big believer in: if you have the vision, and if you have faith and prayer behind it, and you develop a plan and then you've got to launch the plan, and listen- pivoting is always an option. But we felt super resolute that this was a plan. There was divine intervention and a lot of ways that that we saw. And so we felt beyond confident. Regardless of the hurdles, we had to jump over.

Thor Challgren  35:13

Were there any moments where you had to at all compromise on the original vision? Or did you pretty much get what you wanted?

Brett Thomas  35:22

I would say the only thing that we really had to compromise on was we didn't have our feet in the sand on July 4th. That was really the only thing that you know, after looking back, I mean, we- I call them the hurdles. I mean, we had more expenses than we anticipated with the move and the moving truck and our- you know, we have two really large dogs and we initially- because I didn't, dumb me, I didn't really look into it enough as far as how difficult it was going to be to fly the dogs to California from North Carolina. I just assumed, hey, you know, I see the dogs at the airport all the time when I travel. Sure. You know, I thought it'd be fairly simple. Just put the dogs on the plane and the cargo hold and those in those pet carriers and it would be simple. Well come to find out it's not that simple at all, you know, there's not a lot of new regulations to protect the animals, especially during the summer. And so we actually had to have the dogs driven with with a pet service across country,

Thor Challgren  36:13

An animal chauffeur.

Brett Thomas  36:15

Yeah. And you can imagine what the cost was for that. And so, you know, a lot of extra costs, you know, moving truck was 10 days behind when they said they were going to- all they were- they were technically you know, within their contract. So, you know, that's another 10-12 days in a hotel that I didn't anticipate. So, all those things, you know, looking back, they're just an expense that can be absorbed, and it's this part of the deal, you know, because it could have definitely gone significantly worse. We could still be sitting in Charlotte right now.

Thor Challgren  36:44

So now you guys have been here short of a year and you've kind of settled into your new role and working from home. Is there anything as you compare your experience now to working with your previous company, anything that surprised you or took some getting used to?

Brett Thomas  37:03

I would say two things. Number one, the home that you can get in Charlotte, North Carolina, as compared to the home you can get in Newport Beach, California is significantly different and smaller. And we knew that coming in. But you know, my wife and I both work out of the house now. And we used to have two separate offices, about 40% more square footage, you know, so those are the kinds of things that you have to adapt to. And then obviously, we're in the quarantine right now. And so everyone is home right now. So that's been somewhat of a challenge, but our kids have been great. they've adapted super well, kind of set them up with you know, desks in their respective rooms. And so, you know, it's it's worked out good, but that's one thing, just from a logistical and tactical point of view that's been challenging, and we're still working through it. I mean, we're, we're still kind of, I mean, literally before I came to do this podcast interview, my wife was upstairs in our, one of our offices that we've made and we flipped. And so we're getting used to that we can we can pivot fairly quickly. And we we live by our calendars. And that always helps because we know where each of us need to be. 

Brett Thomas  38:12

And then the other thing is, since my wife and I have never worked together full time, that's also been a big piece that we've had to adapt to. And we've done a lot of things to do that we hired a communications coach. We are, you know, we're both in the same mastermind. So we've gotten a lot of advice from people we respect, who as spouses, they work together. You and I have a mutual friend Rob and Kimberly Murgatroyd. You know, I've gotten some advice from Rob and Kim. They're great people. And so that's the other thing that we've really had to adapt to. And that's the reason I always reference, you know, this is my lane of traffic and this is hers and we come together to make some big decisions. But if it's something that I really need to lean into her on, I'll do that and vice versa and we are drastically better than we were eight months ago and working together, but we're still working out some, some details. But we have a daily kickoff meeting, we have a wrap up meeting three days a week, we try to, it's not definitely not perfect. We try to not talk about business past a certain time. We've really tried to do that too, with our kids being around all the time, you know, especially during quarantine, because it almost feels like you know, we're talking business 24/7. And so we've really had to kind of step back and say, Okay, this is the time that we're going to take for the calendar. This is the time we're going to take to you know, watch TV or go bike riding or go to the beach or whatever, and really try to stick to those, those blocks of calendar time. That's really been a big help.

Thor Challgren  39:40

Yeah, let's talk a little bit about that. Because I think you guys have an interesting perspective. Sometimes when couples get together to work on a business, it's something that they both create from scratch from the start, or at least that's one of the ways that it can be done. You guys have a little bit different story where your wife had an existing business and then you guys sort of said, Let's work it together so that it's a different situation. I mean, using the metaphor of a lane, it's almost like there was an existing road and then you both look at it and go well, how do we collectively turn this road into like a superhighway? So how did you guys navigate saying, you know, you're coming in and you take an existing business and and change it into what it's ultimately gonna become? What did that conversation look like?

Brett Thomas  40:28

You know, one of the things that I really wanted to do was get her existing businesses to a point where they can scale and they could function a lot more effectively and smoothly and they could automate. Because when you automate your business, it's almost like compounded interest to your money, right? Your time, you produce interest on your time, you know, you have a lot more time, the more you can automate. And so over the past, you know, couple of years when her business started really grow, I got to watch it, but I wasn't really that immersed in it. And so we really just looked at everything that wasn't working as well what needed to scale, team members that we needed to hire, you know, a podcast that that I felt very strongly she needed to launch. So all these things that we just basically spreadsheeted everything and said, Okay, this is everything that exists, what's working, what's not working, what's working moderately well, what do we need to improve on, what teammates do we need to hire, things like that. And so that's what really what my job was. And that's what my vision was for the first, you know, seven months or so being out here. And so that was one segment of our business.

Brett Thomas  41:35

And then our network marketing business, she was with another company, she took that company, or she took her organization to be- she was named the global distributor of the year so she was super successful. But I always looked at that and said, You know what, you can take that success, and we can work together in that in that market. And I think we can really blow this thing up. And so we did that, fortunately, and I had to learn some things from her. Definitely she's an amazing, amazing mentor when it came to that, and she was able- I say she- really, we, I guess, we're able to take what she, what took her eight years to build in that other business, eight months in the business that we're in now.

Thor Challgren  42:13

As you guys both work together, are you discovering- and you probably already knew this to an extent, but I am assuming knowing what your strengths are. And each of you knowing how to play into those is important. 

Brett Thomas  42:24

It is and it's definitely not perfect, but I think I referenced it earlier. We're getting better. And we laugh at this all the time. We say this probably more times now than we have ever before. You know, we always say we're, we're both really good at being the boss. And so and so we've had to figure out who the boss really is right? Because I always said in my previous job if you have two or more people leading, no one's leading. So that's one thing that we've really had to navigate in terms of who is leading. And I'm typically leading the operations and all of the tactical and logistical things. And then she more so really leads the mindset, the sales discussions, depending on which business that we're talking about. But that's really where we've relied on our strengths. And really, we appreciate where we're not so good. And you know, I always I try to teach people I mean, like, if you're, if you don't enjoy something, and you're not good at it, don't do it. Hire somebody to fill that void if you don't have a spouse to do that. Fortunately, in our case, a lot of times the stuff that I'm not good at she likes and she's really good at and vice versa. So it's worked out really well for us.

Thor Challgren  43:39

Do you ever have moments and presumably, if you're both playing your strengths, the moments of disagreement are rare. But how do you resolve those? Like Rock Paper, scissors? Flip a coin? How do you resolve situations where you both fundamentally go, this is how I see it and you don't have an agreement. 

Brett Thomas  43:58

We've essentially got roles and responsibilities laid out. And so if it's a decision based on what is currently assigned under her role and responsibility, I really lean into that and allow her to do that. And then the same way with me. And so a couple of good examples, so if it's like a financial decision, I typically would, you know, bring her into discussion, but evaluate it, look at the forecast. Does it make sense? You know, what are we- what's the ROI on this? And so, maybe I would make more of that decision. If it's going to be something more on you know, something that we're trying to do to build our sales team or something that's a little bit more on the creative side, I definitely lean into her for that. 

Thor Challgren  44:40

And that makes sense. 

Brett Thomas  44:41

She's a master when it comes to bringing people together of whatever personality type. I mean, I have never in my life, I know she's my wife, but I have never in my life seen a person that has been gifted with that ability. I mean, it is truly amazing what she does when she brings people together from all walks of life. Our old church, I think she literally was responsible for probably bringing 40% of the people that go to that church into that place. Yeah, yeah. So that she's, that's definitely a talent that I've never seen before.

Thor Challgren  45:13

It's easy for all of us to imagine the challenges of working with your spouse. But what do you see as the upsides? What's something that you know about her now that if you guys hadn't been working together that you would know that?

Brett Thomas  45:28

What I just described, I mean, I always knew she had an uncanny ability to bring people together. It's been amazing. Just sit there and watch her. To see her level of creativity and her ability. And the biggest thing is her work ethic. She will literally get up in the morning, we usually get up at 430 or 5. I mean, if she's got a busy day, she'll start, if she needs to, at 6am. And she won't stop till eight o'clock that night. And I've never seen anybody work like that. But the one thing that we really have tried to do and obviously with quarantine, we have not been able to do that is, we've really tried to separate and work in different spaces or different locations. You know here in Southern California, it's sunny and 72, basically every day, right. And so one thing that's really helped us, since we both work quote from home is many days, I'll get my computer and all my stuff, and I'll go to a different location, you know, and sit outside and work. And then she might sit outside in our house, the days that I'm not here, and then we'll flip because that way, you know, it really just creates space between us. And so we're just not in each other's business all the time. Because, you know, for the first 16 years of our marriage, I mean, I was traveling two to three days a week, and so that's what she was always used to. And so that's really helped us. So that's one thing that I am looking forward to getting out of quarantine so I could actually go out and not have to work at home, 24/7. 

Thor Challgren  46:48

That's interesting, because I'm thinking back to my own parents. My dad was in the Marine Corps for 29 years and then he was an airline pilot, so probably very similar to your schedule. He was not home a ton. Maybe in his case, less home than then you were but I think it took some getting used to where once he was home all the time that it wasn't easy for them to sort of adjust to "Oh, we all are together now." But it sounds like you guys managed to work it out pretty well.

Brett Thomas  47:15

Yeah. Because there's a difference between being home and being at home. And what I mean by that is, even though many times separate the quarantine fact, right, so in a normal day, if I am working at home, I wouldn't call me really at home. I'm like, focused, you know, my kids need something, I have a tendency, you know, it's like, okay, you know, can you give me like 30 minutes, and I'll be able to help you with that. Versus in my previous job. You know, when I was home, I was home, I was focused, I was more engaged. And so that's, that's one thing that we've always tried to work on. That's the reason I always say we really try our best to calendar block and so our kids know that if they could look at the calendar up on the board and say, okay, dad's gonna be busy till four o'clock, but after four o'clock, he's done and we're gonna go ride bikes, we're gonna go to the beach, we're going to go surf, we're going to do something cool. So that's what we were. They try to do so that way they can literally look at the calendar and say, Okay, that makes sense. And I'm looking forward to at four o'clock time.

Thor Challgren  48:05

And are you pretty successful at saying the work day ends at this time? And after that we don't talk business or how many times have you you know, like a great idea comes in your head, you're having dinner and you're like, Oh, I got to share it with you right now. But are you able to hold that off? Or how do you guys handle that?

Brett Thomas  48:22

I would say for the first seven months, it was not very good because it was a new environment. I don't have this very lucrative corporate job with compensation to fall back on and so all those things go into your head like Hey, man, we got to we got to make this thing work. We got to you know, replace that income. 

Thor Challgren  48:42

Gotta hustle. 

Brett Thomas  48:43

Yeah. And so it was a lot more business talk all the time. You know, one of the things I always say God speaks to you through your children, and our kids did, lovingly say some things to us and Brooke and I had to pull back and go, You know what, this is not the plan. One of the reasons we wanted to do this and work together is because We want to be more engaged as a family versus less. And so I would say, I would say we've done a lot better. And we have to catch ourselves too. Because like, I think yesterday morning, six o'clock in the morning, Brooke, start talking about business. I'm like, Brooke, it's six o'clock. We said, we're not gonna bring this up. She's like, you're right. You're right. You're right. I'm sorry. And I do the same thing. She'll catch me. And, you know, we, we, we laugh about it now. But for the first seven months, it was, it was a lot to get used to. 

Thor Challgren  49:23

And I think that is probably true with a lot of couples. I know, sometimes I'll come home and my wife will, you know, she'll say, hey, and she's much more direct, I think in that respect than I am, but it'll be Hey, and then whatever the business thing is, and I'm like, Alright, babe, slow down. Like, first, let's just say catch up and see how each other's day was before we move into, you know, the internet is down or whatever the issue is.

Brett Thomas  49:44

Yeah. Because I mean, my wife and I are both like super competitive, super driven. And so that's like in our DNA. And so we really had, you know, that's why say it's, it's important for us to just do our best to live by those calendar blocks, and really live up to those and hold each other accountable to. I mean, the best players need a coach and the best people need to be held accountable for sure. Especially when you've got that in your DNA.

Thor Challgren  50:09

You mentioned at the top that, you know, maybe you're having conversations where people are saying, Hey, you know, how'd you do what you did? If you're giving advice to someone now about, you know, they're considering a similar move, where they're starting to try and think about that, whether it's leaving a longtime job, or starting a new career, or even working with a spouse, what is the most important thing that you would say or that you think they should consider when they're evaluating that move?

Brett Thomas  50:35

I would say the most important thing is really figure out what you want life to look like, including income and lifestyle and geography, and your family and the time that you want to work during the day, and then reverse engineer that. Because if you do that with the vision of where you want to get to and have all those components, you've got to figure out how to work backwards and get there. And you know, one of the reasons that I felt very comfortable is we had a really solid strategic plan for the business growth as well as a financial plan. Because the last thing I wanted to do after being, quote, unquote, secure in my corporate job for so many years was move out here with no financial plan with no financial security. And, you know, granted, it's not always perfect. And we probably burned through more of the financial plan than we thought, because it's definitely more expensive to live out here. I always say, you know, just make more money. It's that simple. And it's definitely a part of our plan, because we knew we wanted to, I mean, right now, I'm looking out the window, and it's four o'clock and it's sunny and 74 degrees. But yeah, I would, that's what I would say, you know, you've got to have a big vision and figure out what all those components look like and how you want to get there and then you've got to work backwards.

Thor Challgren  51:51

And that's the key.

Brett Thomas  51:52

Yeah, and whatever industry that you're gonna maybe jump to just make sure the timing is right. Make sure that it's relevant. Make sure that the culture is there, make sure that you are not doing it just for the money because that burns away very quickly. I always say that if you're moving into, especially if you're transitioning into another career or another job, if you're doing it just for the money, I would advise to stay away from that because that reward burns away very quickly.

Thor Challgren  52:19

You got to have that passion for it to sustain you when those times are challenging. If it's just money, it's going to be easy to quit but if you have a belief in it and there's a faith as to why you're doing it makes it a lot easier to get through those challenging times. 

Brett Thomas  52:33

100% 100% Well said.

Thor Challgren  52:35

Well, I am so grateful to you for being on the show today. And just curious if there are people, listeners that want to know more about you where can they find you?

Brett Thomas  52:45

A couple things. You can find me on Facebook at Brett Thomas or Instagram at BrettCThomas1. You can also check out my wife's website. That's where we house all of the amazing things that she does. It's her name Brooke Thomas. It's BrookeThomas.com.

Thor Challgren  53:00

I'll put that in the show notes.

Brett Thomas  53:01

So those are the best ways to get in touch with us and see what we do. 

Brett Thomas  53:05

Awesome. Well, Brett, thank you so much for being on the show today. I really appreciate it.

Brett Thomas  53:09

Absolutely. Thank you for having me. 

Thor Challgren  53:10

Take care. 

Brett Thomas  53:11

You too.

Thor Challgren  53:14

All right. Thanks for listening to the Course Change podcast. If you like this episode, I would be incredibly grateful to you if you jump over to iTunes and leave me a five star written review. This one simple act will help others find the show and build a community of people who support each other. You can always find me on Instagram @ThorChallgren. Send me a DM and let me know what you thought. Thanks again for listening and until next time, Namaste.