Brian Page on Airbnb, Influence & Building Beyond the Side Hustle

Video Version: https://youtu.be/CfNHDGgTXq4

Guest: Brian Page — Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker
Series: The First Million is Always the Hardest — ACHIEVE Summit Series

As part of the ACHIEVE Summit Series, host Bo Kemp sits down with entrepreneur, speaker, and HarperCollins bestselling author Brian Page for a conversation about building income, influence, and a business model that creates real freedom.

Brian is widely known for his work in the Airbnb and short-term rental space, where he built a major platform teaching entrepreneurs how to generate income through scalable, asset-based strategies. His insights have been featured in Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur, and Forbes, his ads have been viewed by millions, and he has generated more than $40 million in online sales. Along the way, he has been promoted by names like Dean Graziosi, Grant Cardone, and Robert Kiyosaki—a reflection of both his reach and his credibility in the world of entrepreneurship and personal development.

But this conversation is about more than Airbnb.

It is about what happens when an entrepreneur evolves from chasing income to building influence, brand, and long-term leverage.

In addition to his work around passive income, Brian is now helping people build their personal brands, grow their influence, and most importantly, find their voice onstage. That mission connects directly to his broader message in Don’t Start a Side Hustle, where he challenges the idea that entrepreneurship should simply mean more hustle, more hours, and more exhaustion. Instead, Brian makes the case for building a business around systems, assets, expertise, and visibility.

Bo and Brian explore what it takes to create income through short-term rentals, why so many side hustles become traps, and how speakers, coaches, and creators can turn their knowledge and story into a scalable brand.

This episode is about freedom, influence, and building a business that works for you.

Because the first million should not just change your income.

It should amplify your voice.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, it's OK, inviting you to the Achieve Summit 2026. Chicagoland's number one business, entrepreneur, and real estate ad. It's all happening during 4th and 6th at Win Creek Casino and Hotel. Join this three-day immersive event that will transform you from operator to owner. Whether you're looking to acquire a profitable business, develop a high-value real estate project, or scale in the business, achieve someone to provide the live marketplace and technical tool to make it happen. And this year's keynote speaker is business leader in Atlantic Marcus Lamona. More information and to secure your tickets or sponsorship, visit at Southland Development.org and see you there. Welcome back to the First Million is Always the Hardest. Today we're joined by Brian Page, entrepreneur, speaker, and HarperCollins best-selling author for a conversation about Airbnb, influence, and building a business that creates real freedom. From more than 40 million in online sales to features in Inc., entrepreneur, and Forbes, Brian has built a brand around helping people grow income, expand their reach, and find their voice on stage. Brian, thank you for uh coming. This is the first million is always the hardest. I'm your host, Bill Kemp. I'm excited to have Brian Page here. Um and you have just an amazing background and done so many different things. We're very excited about you being a speaker for the Achieve Summit 2026, which will be June 4th through 6th, uh at the Wind Creek Casino here in the Chicagoland area. Um Brian, I want to take a second with you now and really talk about this issue about financial freedom. Uh-huh and uh the book you've most recently written, um, which is Don't Start a Side Hustle, uh, is really interesting. And one of the things that you say that I think is um a little antithetical to the way people think of a side hustle is that the side hustle actually is the path to financial freedom. And part of what your book argues is the exact opposite. The side hustle actually is the anchor that ties you around your neck and actually stops you from getting to that financial freedom. I I really am interested in you talking a little bit about this idea of the side hustle, why it becomes such an anchor for most people, the concept of that passive entrepreneur that you've kind of uh uh created, because I think that's gonna be really pertinent to a lot of the folks that are coming to the summit.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Sure, sure. Happy to talk about that. Thanks for having me on the podcast, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

Yeah, very excited to talk to your audience. Don't sort of side hustle came about as a kind of a life project of something I wanted to write about my experiences as an entrepreneur over the years. And I have done all kinds of things in my career, all kinds of businesses, some that have failed miserably, some that have been successful. And uh and the one thing that that kind of I guess was the biggest takeaway from what I've done is that I'm I was basically only interested in doing things that had the potential to pay me over and over again. I was interested in something that was as close to passive income as possible that I can create in my life. And I think that that early influence of reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Four-Hour Work Week and some of these books that have been out for a long time kind of influenced me to be able to think about how can I make a good loving living, uh, how can I build wealth, how can I have a great lifestyle, uh, with also having a lot of time. And so one of the things I talk about in the book is the way in which you measure wealth is very different depending on the individual. Some people value it only and measure it only based on income and net worth. Um, but I argue in the book that some people have a high net worth and a high income, but have absolutely no time freedom, no, no ability to do other things other than run their business, I don't think are particularly wealthy. For me, I want to have lots of time to enjoy my life along the process rather than waiting for some far-off point in the future when I can arrive at a certain point and finally be able to enjoy life. And so the concept behind the book is uh a side hustle is something that by definition you have to hustle uh in order to uh to earn money with. And I'm and it's also on the side, it's not the primary thing. And so I don't have any problem with people working hard and building things and building assets and building businesses, but I think at a certain point you need to understand what is your strategy, what's your exit strategy to be able to step back and not spend all your time doing that. And so that's what don't start a side hustle is all about. It's about creating passive income and also building a rich life, not just based on money.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

One of the things about that that's so important is this concept of time. Because time is the one thing that's immutable. All of us get the same amount, all of us can use it very differently. And I do think you are speaking to this issue, how much time you spend on a business, a concept or managing it, or the visionary aspect or working in it really does matter to what you can do in every other part of your life. And I do think a lot of people aren't thinking about that. I think many people who become entrepreneurs, as you you know, speak to, they actually just have a different boss. But their boss is kind of this mythical creature that they don't control because it's hard to take vacation because you're the one who's responsible for everything. It's hard for you to take time off if you've got to go pick up your kids from school. It's hard for you to take any time off for yourself because you're the person who's both the manager, the worker, and the visionary. And I don't think many people really when they conceive of a business plan, what they don't also do is lay out for themselves a plan about the resource allocation of their time. And I think that's the component that's missing that you really are speaking to with don't start a side hustle.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I opened my book with a story about my father. So my father passed away a few years ago, and it was not until after he passed away that my mom told me that one of his dying confessions was that he never got to do the things in life that he really wanted to do. And that was a shocker for me because I didn't know that about my father. And so I didn't know what was he talking about, what were the things that he never got to do? And so I learned a little bit more about what that story was and about what he feel like feels like he missed out on. And I think that's a lot of people. And it's I think a lot of times people who are doing work that they don't enjoy, they're in a career where they're kind of stuck, they're doing a nine to five, and maybe they don't want to be doing that. And and some people, uh, entrepreneurs look down on them and say, Oh, well, you're stuck in your job and you're stuck doing something, working for someone else, and you're not living the life you want to live. In the meantime, they're stressed out, they're working more every single year, they're working harder than they did the year previous, and they haven't even stopped to analyze what they're doing with their life. And so I always ask people to start with the end in mind. So imagine you're on your death, imagine you're on your deathbed, and now you're looking back at any regrets that you have in your life because that that's the end, right? We're all going to get to that point at some point. And so I asked people that what did you dream of being when you were a child? Did you dream of working 60, 70 hours a week, running a company, hiring and firing employees, and building this big empire and working every day in an office and all that kind of stuff? Some people that they love that. That's fine. Um, there's no judgment of people love that. But most of us didn't dream of doing that. And when I get to the end of my life, I want to know that I spent the quality time with people I love, doing work that I enjoy that I'm passionate about, um, having lots of time to do other things besides work and not waiting for that day to arrive at some point where I'm like, okay, when I get to this level, this net worth, this income, then I'll be able to enjoy myself. Then I'll take a break, then I'll stop. Um, because ultimately none of us know when that day is gonna happen. And I've I've heard of several entrepreneurs who died young, uh, died unexpectedly. We just don't know. We don't know when that's gonna happen. So I believe you should absolutely work hard. You should work hard and you should uh uh create something that has the potential to set you up for life. But you should also think in terms of um, what am I doing besides just working all the time? And am I addicted to work? And is that is that the primary motivation of my life is just the work that I do uh to neglecting other things, the relationships in our life, the family, the kids, uh play. You know, I I I had a conversation with a with a an entrepreneur who makes a hundred million dollars a year. And I said, When was the last time you played? And he's like, I don't know, I don't know what you're talking about. I was like, When was the last time you just had fun? You went on a trip that wasn't a conference, wasn't networking, wasn't, wasn't trying to get more business for your company. When was the last time you just went and had fun with like your bros or some people that you care about? And he's like, I I don't even I don't even know. I don't I can't even remember. And to me, that's like that's fine. Everybody has different values. That's just not my value. Uh that's not my value. I want to live a rich, rich life, and uh, and he who dies with the most money does not win. So you know uh so that's kind of my lifestyle.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

You said two things that I think are really important, and I will take license to mention that you know I um um I I just recently uh did this TED talk, and I'm talking about childhood dreams in the talk. And one of the points of that is um I've created this system and it starts with the beginning and uh the end in mind. It begins with the end. And to your point, one of the things I ask people to do specifically is to write your epitaph, write what you want your tombstone to say about you. How old do you want to be at least before you pass? Because the point that you're making is we walk towards things we can see. So if I want to live to be at least 87 years old, am I doing all the things today that move me in the direction of being able to do that? If I want to be known as a uh a person who's invested in my community, am I doing that? If I if I want to be known as someone who is an adventurer and loves a good story, am I taking adventures? Do I tell stories? And I do think your point about uh starting with the end in mind is really important, not in a morbid way, but in a way to give you something to walk towards. Equally important, I think, is your concept of how you spend your time. What portion of your time is an investment, and what portion of your time is kind of an expense. Um, you know, I we have a uh one of the podcasts is called The Five Objections, and the first five reasons why people don't do things, the first one is time, money, of course, fear, doubt, and partner. And we go through each of them and we talk about it. But one of the tangible things that we try to do, and I think it dovetails into your book, is to tell people that two hours of learning a week compounds to actually make you really smart very, very quickly. Twenty hours of doing time a month actually compounds to you doing a week. So if you can just carve out two hours a week to think and twenty hours a month to do, you can actually change your life with just that amount of time. Um and it it feels very much connected to how you are thinking about don't fight a side don't start a side hustle and the idea of the passive entrepreneur. And I wonder to what degree did your experience, even with Airbnb, kind of influence your thinking about how you spend your time and therefore what truly is passive income?

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Well, I've experienced it a few times in my life. So I've had I've had some uh booms and busts. I guess you could say I went through my first uh experience when I was in my 20s. I became a millionaire of my 20s through real estate, and then I went through the 2008 real estate crash. Now, when that happened, it was horrible for me. Um, but it was also an opportunity to reinvent what I could do next, which was I essentially jumped into rental arbitrage so I could control properties and rather than own them. So I didn't have the ability to buy. But what was interesting is I said, okay, I'm gonna do it again. I love the idea of cash flow for real estate, but I want to do it a different way. And as soon as I hit my target, I had a goal where I wanted to be. I think it was$300,000 a year at the time. Once I hit$300,000 a year, I'm going to automate everything. I'm going to get uh VAs to manage my Airbnbs, and then I'm going to just travel the world. And so that's what I did. I could I didn't worry about scaling it bigger at that point. I got to a goal uh within less than a year, and then I immediately hit the road. And I was traveling all the time around the world, which is one of my favorite things to do. My one of my greatest passions is seeing other cultures and traveling the world and been to you know dozens of countries. And that was one of the happiest times of my life is doing that. I had total time freedom. Um, I had made more money at different periods in my life, but that I had no more time than I had at that point in my life. And I was like, this is what I dreamed of being as a child. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an adventurer, I wanted to be Indiana Jones, and I and I got to go, I got to go to the pyramids and go inside the great pyramid of Giza by myself. I got to go to Angor Watt and explore, go to amazing countries around the world. Um, and just that to me lit me up. And I still had the ability to earn money, but independent of my time. Very, very, very limited time involvement in that business. And so that kind of set the tone where I was like, well, if I could do this, why wouldn't I just do this? And I think a lot of entrepreneurs that are very driven, and don't get me wrong, I'm a driven individual, um, but a lot of them are get into this trap of more. It's a disease of more. And the disease of more is when I become a millionaire, that's the thing. Okay, now I'm a millionaire because my buddies are worth 10 million. When I get to it, exactly 10 million, then I'll be set. And it's like my dad always, my father always said, he said, ask a billionaire how much money is enough money, and he'll say, another billion. So you know, so it's this, it's this trap of more. And it's it's it's like, what is the point of more? More for what purpose? You know, at a certain point, you're free. I believe in financial freedom, I believe in time freedom, but it doesn't take a lot of money to for most people to be financially free. It really does not. Um, as as Kiyosaki talks about, if once your passive income exceeds your monthly expenses, you are out of the rat race. You're free.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

And then you're free to do what? Do what? And and there are some people that are free to work their asses off, and that's what they want to do all the time. They want to work, work, work, work, work. Um, and they enjoy their work, and that's fine. But I think uh uh more often than not, it's just a trap of more. And it's almost like the concept of it of achieving to be happy versus happily achieving. And so I've always had uh big goals, big dreams, what I want to do, big uh objectives I want to hit, but I'm happy in the process. Like I'm happy in the process, I'm happy where I am right now, I'm happy where I've been, I'm happy where I'm going. And none of that is is directly related to my joy and happiness in life. So so it just allows me to kind of relax and enjoy the life that I have. And so I just want to instill that in other people. And I think that um there's a time to work really hard, there's a time to double down and to grind and go for it. But you should be doing that on something that has the potential to set you free later, not something that's gonna trap you into working harder and harder every single year to where you neglect the other areas of your life. And I just see it as a warning for a lot of other entrepreneurs, uh, particularly, where they neglect other areas of their life in order to focus on just business. So that's kind of what I what I love teaching, and I love helping people do that and helping people become free, not just financially free, but time freedom. And if you're time rich, you are very rich.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

Very rich. You uh it's it's the one thing, you know. Um, so you said a couple of things that are important. You, first of all, have um really elevated yourself because you are not finding fulfillment in the finish line. You're finding fulfillment in faithfully attacking your daily practices. And once progress is the goal, um, it changes the level of happiness and contentedness in every way, shape, and form. And so I just want to highlight that you've you've articulated that. That's a key element of what differentiates, I'm sure, you from a lot of other people. But one of the other things that you're kind of hinting at um is that you do actually have goals that are outside of just making money. And there are a lot of people who really struggle to tell you what they're interested in outside of what they think it is that they want to do to make money. And you've had to foster that side of yourself. Um You want me to tell you how to find that? You want me to tell you how to find them?

SPEAKER_02 16:05

Yeah, I just very simple way to figure out what those things are that you could possibly be focused on besides the work that you do and the money that you're earning. And that is to just if I were to just give you, I talk about this in the book. If I it's just it's a lottery test. If I tomorrow you won the Powerball, 100 million, 200 million, whatever it is, 500 million. If you won the lot the Powerball tomorrow, what's the first thing that you would do? What's the next thing that you do? What would you spend your time doing? Most people would say, well, I quit my job, I do this, I travel the world, I buy stuff, whatever. Okay, what would you spend your time doing? Okay, so money is no longer an object. You can do anything you want. You have by most standards, you have enough money to go do whatever you want. What would you do now with your time? Yeah. Okay, so that was the thing. That's the thing that you maybe perhaps you should focus on more. That's the thing that you should say, how can I work that into my life? So for me, it's traveling, seeing other cultures. So I want to make that a bigger part of my life for the rest of my life. I want always that to be a priority, just as much as work's a priority. I want to play hard and work hard. And so I ask people that all the time. And so once you start thinking about that, you're like, oh, I've never done that thing. I've always wanted to be an actor. I've always wanted to develop my singing. I wanted to spend more time with my children. I want to do that nonprofit. There's other things I want to do. I just can't do it because I don't have the time. And so that becomes where it's starting you start prioritizing those things and you start finding out how to work those things into your life. Um, and and in the culture that we're in now, I mean, we're it's a hustle culture. It's all about work outworking everyone else. And uh, you know, there's a lot of people that teach that. And I and I just think that's a that's a trap because it's one of those things where you just, you know, you gotta be careful who your gurus are, you gotta be careful who you listen to because unless you want the life that they have and and the and you do those exact same things and you have the same lifestyle that they have. I believe that you know we we are we're living by the algorithm nowadays. The algorithm runs our lives, and so it's addictive. The phones are addictive, the social media is addictive, and I think most people will be surprised to find out that you know, I actually don't have any social media apps on my phone. I have one uh that I put on my phone and I delete it when I'm not at events and I'm not networking. I literally delete it back off my phone. So I have zero ability to fall into that trap. I don't want to spend any of my life on social media and on apps and addicted to the algorithm, feeding my brain with all the things that that advertisers, whoever wants to feed me, uh, and instead have that time and that peace to be able to do the things that I choose to do. If I want to take a day off to go hang out with close friends or um uh take a week to travel through Central America with my buddies, which I do a trip every single year with them, uh I I have the ability to go do that. And so I think that we just need to start giving ourselves a low information diet, start cutting out, start saying no to a lot more things, and uh uh and it just leads to a much more peaceful life, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

I do think there's something about the low information diet. I mean, and the diet is maybe the right way to talk about it because what we feed our brains is what grows, right? It's kind of like if you're only eating fast food, you know, yeah, you can sustain yourself there, but it there will be an impact on your arteries and your heart health and all these other things. The same is true with information. I think the difficulty is that we are an environment, and I really resisted this, but uh one of the people that you've worked with, uh uh uh uh Mr. Cardone said, you know, what is paid attention to is what gets paid. And I really I've been trying to resist this for years, but I had to give in to the fact that that is just a truth, um, that in the environment that we're in, what gets paid attention is what gets paid. And so there is a degree to which you do have to have be someone people pay attention to. How do you manage, given what you just described, of you uh being very vigilant about your information diet, keeping enough of the attention on yourself and the things that you do to facilitate the time that you want to have, but not getting trapped into that. Because I think that's a balance that people are struggling with.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Very much. Uh so I'm not trying to sell books here, but I do talk about this in my book. Uh, the concept of producer versus consumer. And most of us are in a consumer mindset, and we're trained to be consumers by the algorithm and by the apps and by all the all the different things that are coming at us. And so we get in this process where we can get sucked into the rabbit hole. And we all know what this is like because we're scrolling, and then we're like, how do we just waste an hour on Instagram, you know, or two hours on YouTube, you know? And it's it's because we are trained to be consumers. So I tell people get out of consumer and get into producer. So if you're using social media and you're using the internet and you're using you know all these different tools to produce and to add value, something a product, service, something that you can make money with, then you should, by all means, do that. Be careful being the consumer. So I want to spend very little time consuming content, consuming podcasts, consuming all these things. Because quite frankly, we're all drowning in information overload. There's too much information. Our brains were not built, uh, humans were not built for this much information, we're not built for this many connections, we're not built for this many humans and opinions. And so the only information I want to consume is the information that directly helps me achieve my objective, whatever my next objective is. And I like to have very few of them. I don't want a lot of goals, I want very few goals so that I can assure that I actually hit them. So anything that relates directly and helps me to achieve my objective, my next goal, I will consume that and that's it, nothing else. And so that keeps me out of that trap of falling into that stuff. And I think as entrepreneurs, especially since I'm talking to a lot of entrepreneurs here, is that there are too many opportunities. People are, people are always like, I'm looking for a great opportunity. Well, there's no lack of opportunities. There's just too many. There's way too many on the planet. And there's way too many exciting, shiny objects that you can go after. And so it's very hard to achieve any one thing when there's all these other things that are coming at you and attacking you and trying to buy for your attention. So I am very I get better every year at saying no to things and focusing on what I want to do, and I don't care. What other people are doing. I don't care what other how other people are achieving their lives or what they're doing. I only want to do what I want to do and focus. And so it allows me to actually pretty consistently hit my target on what I want to do with every with every big project that I have. And because of that, I don't feel overwhelmed, which is why I have so much time because I'm not looking to achieve 10 different things. I'm looking for one or two vehicles. I talk, I talk call them passive income vehicles, PIVs, a passive income vehicle that would allow me to make money with very limited time, make a good living, uh, build wealth, all that kind of stuff, and also enjoy the other parts of my life. And so there's many, many ways to do that. I talk about that in the book. Um, but that's what I encourage people to do, is find something that gives you a balance of a lifestyle. And nowadays you can do that. But the only way you're not going to do that is trading your time for money. Because if you have a job, you're expected to work there 40, 50 hours a week, whatever, or more. You have to trade your time for money. And when you do that, you cannot, you know, you have an option in this world. You could make 50,000 a year working full time, or you can make 50,000 a year a few hours a year. I mean, you could do that, you could do that very, very, very part-time if you have a different vehicle, right? We have clients. I have clients that I work with. I help people get on stage and speak and and do their own live events. I have clients that can do, you know, in in one day event can do what most people make in a year. So that's a totally different vehicle, totally different vehicle than a guy or a girl who makes$100,000 a year, for example, in a salary versus$100,000 for one day event, and then they can take the rest of the year off. So that's kind of a different, that's the example of one passive income vehicle or semi-passive one. By passive, I mean limited in time. I don't mean truly hands-off passive, although there are passive investments you can certainly get into. But looking at everything as a time-money trade-off, and how can I do the things that I want to do, earn the money that I want to make, make the living I want to make without it taking my entire life? Because ultimately your time is your life. How you spend your time, that is your life. Every day, you're having weight, that you're not in bed. You are trading your life, your time for that thing. So you better make sure that it's a good trade.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Do you get that knot in your stomach every Sunday night? You've checked all the boxes, career, title, income. But if you're honest, this is not the life you imagine. What if the problem isn't you? It's the design of your life. I'm Bo. I help high performers redesign their life for freedom, purpose, and real wealth. Join my master class and I'll walk you through the exact framework. Go to lifedesign.com. That's L-I-F-E-D-E-S-Y-N.com. Your new chapter doesn't start someday, it starts now.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

Your listening to the first million is always the hardest. We are now returning to the show.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Two things that that jump out at me. One, you're saying don't trade your time, your money for time, but rather trade money for value, right? Because then I can actually exponentially get back, if I'm providing enough value, right, then I can get paid for that value and it's not time-based. And that's where I actually can create time for myself to do whatever it is that I want to do. And it kind of goes back to this conversation that we were having before about the the two and twenty, as I call it, um, which is the two hours of learning a week and the 20 hours of doing. You know, one of the things that I did to do that was I actually sat down and I created a weekly map. And I decided I needed, you know, a certain percentage of time for relationships, a certain percentage of time for mind, body, and soul, a certain percentage of time to read reports, you know, a certain amount of time to just think, which was also very difficult. But as I put together kind of a workflow of what my week looked like, and I mapped it out to kind of in its major categories, that's really been a driver that allowed me to identify when I was wasting time. Sometimes I intentionally was wasting time. I gave myself some hours every day to do whatever it is that I wanted to do, which could be watching Netflix and Doom Scrolling.

SPEAKER_02 26:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

That's right, right? But not I couldn't do that all day, right? And so I had to kind of frame it in. And I found that the discipline of just writing that down and making that a part of my yearly update where I go back and I create a business plan for myself to go and look at that really has created a lot of discipline that opens up my ideas to the idea of time. But I want to I want to come back to something you just mentioned because this is something that we're looking forward to you actually helping facilitate during our Chief Summit. The idea of what you've been doing to facilitate people who have uh an a knowledge base, they have an interest in kind of sharing something that they know how to do really, really well or inspiring people, they're interested in being kind of life coaches, executive coaches, speaking, they want to write a book. You know, how have you transitioned into that space? And what are you doing now to help facilitate other people to do the same thing?

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Yeah, this is something I'm very, very excited about and passionate about. It's something that I wanted to develop in myself. So I have had many years of speaking and presenting virtually, but not a lot of experience speaking on stages. And so recently I partnered with a good friend of mine that I've worked with for many, many years named Paul Getter. And we have been essentially doing live events across the country. We do several live events per week in major cities all across the U.S. and now starting to go internationally. And what we do is we help people to get on stage, okay, get on virtual stages, get on live stages, for live audiences, to get on other people's stages as keynote speakers to build their own stage with their own events, which is where the big money is. And we help people go from total obscurity, no niche, no expertise whatsoever, no experience speaking, to being able to make a very, very good living speaking and doing their own events and becoming known and building their personal brand. And we help them do everything from getting on stages to getting booked on big podcasts, TV show uh TV shows and news networks, and also helping them to write their book and to build their personal brand and all that kind of stuff. So we do a whole uh ecosystem around essentially creating experts out of people. And so this is something that would appeal to anybody who is in business currently that's not yet utilizing stages, and by that I mean live human-to-human interaction. And we live in an era right now where AI is taking over, it's threatening pretty much all different job sectors. But the one thing right now, until Elon perfects the uh the new robots he's working on, but people still want to hear from humans face-to-face at live events, and uh and probably more so now than ever. And so people that are pivoting in pivoting into that, some would say that having a personal brand is one of the few guaranteed last things that you could be doing that probably won't get upset by AI because people will still crave human uh avatars and human uh gurus versus the the uh AI generated ones. So, what we're doing now is we take people that just have a dream of getting in front of people and getting their message out there, getting more impact and followers and influence, and also making a really, really good income as speakers, and we help them start from zero and then get to that next level. And so that's what I teach people how to do. It's called Speak Predore, and we have helped people across the country, thousands and thousands of people, and now we're doing more live events than I think any company currently right now. We're doing probably likely 100 to 150 live events in the next 12 months all across the country, teaching people exactly how to do that.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Well, I I had the benefit of actually attending one where I got a chance to meet you. I was very impressed with the work that you did personally, but also the work that was being done in that group. Um, and I was inspired, right? Um, and so I would encourage, and that's one of the reasons we want to bring you to the Achieve Summit. For a lot of folks, when they are thinking about their side hustle, so to speak, one of the things that they first think about is their own personal brand. And they try to think through to what degree can they leverage their knowledge base on their niche to create value that they can trade for time. I'm a trade for money, right? So that they're in a position where they don't have to spend as much time, but they're actually adding a lot of value. Speaking is one of those things, coaching is one of those aspects of it, writing books is one of those aspects, and you guys are helping to facilitate that. So I'm really excited about that as an opportunity. We have an environment right now where we've got so many trends that are happening at once. You know, there's the silver tsunami issue that many are aware of, of baby boomers who are retiring and looking to sell their businesses, and that means a whole number of people that have actually developed a lot of clear knowledge are coming off of the market without a facility to share that knowledge with others. Um we've got this AI kind of advent that's taking place. And I think in the midst of AI, one of the things that we're gonna see, two things I think we're gonna see. Number one, to your point, human interaction will become a premium, right? So in real life events will actually become even more important than they are today. Um but I also know that what it's gonna mean is that a lot of the things that we have to spend time on today, we actually will spend a lot less time. And so one of the challenges that many people are gonna have is what do you do with the additional time that you may have? Um and many people, to your point, haven't done the lottery test as you described, and they couldn't answer that question for themselves today, but that may end up becoming more important than people realize uh in the future. Uh yeah, I I will make an um uh a comment about AI. Uh you know, when in the turn of the century when the camera was uh being developed, you know, prior to the development of the camera, a lot of art was really about reflecting what the artist saw in the most realistic terms that they could, whether they were using paint or acrylic or watercolor or whatever it was. Once the camera was not just developed but in higher use, you couldn't outperform the reality of the camera. So instead, artists moved to more abstract work, right? So we as humans adapt to the environments that we're in to be able to share our creativity in a different form once a new technology comes on board that actually supplants you know what our goals were then, right? So all of a sudden you get the early 1900s, all of the issues, uh everything that people are trying to do right now is kind of abstract, right? Because that was something that the camera couldn't do. And so you were still able to demonstrate your your creativity. I I believe that as the uh AI uh kind of ecosystem is developed, uh, that we are going to equally find a way to do what we've been doing with humans that AI can't replicate. And I think that a lot of that has to do with human interaction, human touch, and so the space that you have been moving into where you are sharing and helping people find their voice and actually be in a position to promote their thoughts, I think is a growth industry without question. And I'm sure that's part of the thesis of why you're doing this as well. But I do think there's there's something substantive there.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Yeah, I I totally hear you and I agree. I one of the things that I tell people is if something existed thousands of years ago, uh technology probably will not make it irrelevant and probably exists thousands of years from now. So for thousands of years, we've been telling stories to one another. We've been telling stories verbally. Uh our our history has been passed down through oral tradition, especially in uh through religious texts and all those kind of things. And so just tell telling stories is powerful. It's always going to be something that will always exist. Uh but also speaking in general, humans speaking to others other other humans will probably always exist. Technologies will will change and they always do change. But there are some things that likely will be forever. You know, gold and silver, uh, although we have digital gold now and Bitcoin and there's there's many other forms of currency, I don't see a point in the future where gold and zero will ever be worth zero. Uh it could happen, but probably not likely. There are certain things that are just universal and that will last and should last a test of time. And I think one of them is is uh humans speaking to other humans. So for people that really enjoy people, if you enjoy people, I personally don't like being behind a laptop, I don't like being behind a computer, I don't like being stuck in an office. Uh in fact, uh most of the today I'll spend outside, not not here and uh talking, you know, obviously briefly talking to you. Uh I think people who like people, the one of the best things you could ever do is find a way to uh to speak, uh to speak to other humans, meet other humans, and get paid well for it. But my book, How Much You're Earning Per How Much Time You're Spending. And I give an example from the stage about how one of the highest paid professions in the world, as we all know, is Pro Ball players. And I think most people people know this, but if you average out what the average NFL player makes across the entire uh the entire league, it's roughly$200,000 a game for an hour game. That's about what they make. Now keep in mind, of course, they're training and they're doing other things. But when they're playing on that field, they're making about$200,000 a game. And I can tell you right now, we have clients that earn considerably more than that from one speaking opportunity, getting on stage and speaking for a very short amount of time. Uh, and there's there's ways to do that. So speaking is arguably one of the highest paid professions. You have to work on your craft, you have to get the ability to speak and understand how to do that, understand how to sell from stage and those kind of things. But it is one of the, arguably one of the highest paid professions. And quite frankly, it's a lot of fun. It's not one of those things that you would not you're not wanting you'd want to stop doing once you start doing it. It's one of those things you can always grow in. And I think that the ability to communicate and speak is something that translates to every industry. There is no industry where communicating and learning how to communicate properly will not serve you. So for anybody that has a current business, a service, product, maybe you're employed by someone else in a career where you could expand your career or take that next level in your track by learning how to speak on stages and becoming more of an authority. That's what we help people do. And so it's something that everyone needs to learn, but most people don't understand. The opportunity is huge right now. There's a huge opportunity for people that are experts in their niche and what they do and finding their audience. And so what's what we help people do is find their audience, find their message, find what they need to be known for, and then make them known. And so if anybody's interested in that kind of thing, that's the thing that we're going to go into and I'm going to speak about at the Achieve Summit.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

That's right. Well, you know, you have one of the other things that I think gives you a lot of credibility is that you've been through good and bad times, and you've seen, you know, everyone got hurt. Um, you know, I I had an internet business before the internet collapse, so everybody took a shot, right? You you were in real estate, everybody took a shot in 2008, 2009. And that makes it a little bit easier because you don't feel like you're alone. It's not fully a function of what you've done. But going through those hard times, you learn a lot of lessons. You know, I I am of the opinion that we're about to go through another hard time. And I'm curious, based on what your past experience has been, your ideas about being a passive entrepreneur, your ideas about speaking, how do these things that you are promoting right now potentially set someone up for the uncertainty that is coming this way?

SPEAKER_02 37:09

The only thing certain in life is uncertainty. Yeah, the only thing is the only thing to count on is change. I totally agree with that. Uh what do they say, except for taxes and death? Those two will always be around. Those two will always be around. But um, you know, the the good times don't last and bad times don't last. So you just got to understand that there's always seasons. There, there will be black swan events in the future. I remember COVID. We all try to forget it, but COVID was scary for everyone. It was scary for me and my business, and especially, you know, teaching what I teach with short-term rentals and everything shut down. So there was there's been many scary seasons, and we're going through a war right now in the Middle East. There, who knows that that will blow up into something bigger? But uh the only thing you can count on is that change will be inevitable. And so the best you can do is prepare the best you can for that and just be aware that it will happen and don't be surprised when it happens. Don't be surprised when the world changes abruptly.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:04

And and and so we can't there are many things we cannot control. So I try not to think about things I cannot control. I can only control a certain very few limited things, uh, particularly like the way I think and the thoughts that I have and the beliefs that I have, I have some control over. And what I put my focus on and what we put our focus on is something we can control. And uh, and so that's why it's important to just um you know, you know, be aware that things change, you know. But I I I love being in something that is relevant for the long term. You know, it's it's for something that I can help people and teach people and help them change their lives, something that will serve them over and over and over again. That's what I get joy out of. I don't want to do something just to earn the money, I want to do something that I when I when I see people transform. Uh I'll give you an example. There's a guy named Alvin, who's one of our clients. He came to an event in Charleston, South Carolina, which is where I live. And he is an MMA fighter, uh, very successful MMA fighter, and he got on stage uh because we asked people, who here has never spoken before? Come on up and speak for nine minutes. He got out in front of a live audience and he could not complete his first sentence. He he was just so nervous and shaking that he could not even get one sentence out. And when he got to the back of the room, uh we we spoke to him, we took him off the stage, said that's okay, we'll we'll give you a little coaching. And he said, That is uh he said, Brian, I get in the ring with guys that can break my face, they kick me in the face, knock me out, and that is scarier. Doing that is scary. It's always scary than getting in a ring. And uh, and I said, I can't even relate to that because I would never want to get uh in a ring with a guy that's gonna try to kill me. But uh, but anyway, so he just had a dream. He's just a fighter that had a dream. He said, I want to be a speaker, I want to get on stages, that's what I want to do with my life. And I was like, great. And so we worked with him. And here, just three or four months later, he was in Chicago, he got on stage and he spoke powerfully. He had he was telling stories from his life. He had the audience, you know, half the audience was in tears, emotionally moved. And I was like, I can't believe this is the same guy. And we've helped him create his first offer, uh, which is simply a product or service that you sell from stage. He's created his first offer with our help. He's uh offered that. He's got his first client signed up, uh, making an incredible living doing that, uh, coming from zero, uh, zero like experience of any kind doing anything like this. His whole life's been transformed. And that's just one example of many of the clients that we've helped. So I love seeing that because it's like this guy had a dream and he didn't know how he was going to do it, and he was, quite frankly, horrible. And he got reps in, got good, better at it, got on stage, got on our stages, got experience, and now he's well on his way. He's building his brand. He's got his followers are blowing up, he's he's on all the podcasts and shows, and uh, his personal brand is just becoming a thing now. He's known as the MMA fighter who speaks uh and does events, and and it's just so exciting to see that happen. And that can happen in any industry. I mean, it doesn't matter if you're an insurance or real estate or or you own your own company or you're working for a big accounting firm, to get in front of people and be known and have your message out there is a way to all kinds of opportunities, so many opportunities, but you have to step up, you have to step out. So for those people that don't find it terrifying, the idea, or even if you do find it terrifying, but you have something inside of you where you're like, I have to get in front of people, that's something I am going to see myself do, then this is what we love to help people do.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

No, this is great. And, you know, the the show is called The First Million is always the hardest because there are specific, you know, technical reasons why making your first million is difficult. But there are also psychological reasons as well. And what I love about what you're talking about and the book and what you're gonna talk about at the summit is the idea that for so many of us, what we have to overcome is our disbelief about what's possible and have to reframe how we think about time, value, money, all these different elements. But in the midst of doing that, there's actually just a tremendous upside of what can happen. You know, freeing additional time every week to spend time with your family or for yourself, taking that trip around the world. I'm totally jealous. That's exactly what I would do if I had that time and effort. I hit my goal, I would travel the world for a year as well. Um, but I think that's a powerful message because it's important to make sure that people are blending the idea that the money is a tool. It's not the goal. It's just a tool to get you to the things that you need and you want, right? But you have to spend some time thinking about what you really need and want. And you need to incorporate into your daily life every day elements that move you closer. It doesn't have to be all at one time. And don't wait until if I achieve this, then I can get that. Start little by little by little, and you move yourself in a direction where you build your capacity to get to that underlying desire as well as you actually move in that direction simultaneously. So I just think this was a powerful message. I really appreciate you taking the time to be with us and can't wait to see you uh June 4th through uh June 6th uh here in uh the Chicago area at the Wind Creek Casino for the Achieve Summit 2026. So just again, thank you, Brian. I appreciate your time.