Brett Jennings got into real estate right after the market crashed in 2008. At that time, he saw an opportunity doing short sales and foreclosures, which gave him the experience necessary to understand the value of leverage and importance of building a team.
Yet, Brett knew that he couldn’t do short sales and foreclosures forever. So even before the market turned a couple of years later, he was already looking for his next niche opportunity. That’s when he shifted his focus into building a real estate team.
He worked the real estate team model successfully for about 6 years until he started to recognize that it also has limitations. The people he hired, trained and supported eventually wanted to get a higher split, have their own identity, and build their own brand.
Although the situation left Brett feeling frustrated and betrayed, he wanted to know if it’s possible to create a team environment for these people, and still be in a relationship with them. This ultimately led to the “teamerage” (team+brokerage) model.
Today, Brett Jennings is a Founder, Award-Winning REALTOR®, and Luxury Home Marketing Expert at Real Estate Experts. He is a best-selling author and is recognized as one of the top 1,000 agents in the country.
Let’s hear from Brett as he shares his journey from being a solo agent to building a team, then eventually landing on this hybrid model of a “teamerage”, which has enabled him to scale and grow his annual production from $124 million in 2019 to $1.2 billion in 2021.
Top Takeaways:
04:35 How Brett recognized the team model’s limitations
08:10 The most discouraging and frustrating moment in Bretts business career
11:37 What is the “teamerage” model?
12:38 The Brett Jennings Group’s value proposition
13:36 What made Brett decide to start the “teamerage” model
16:01 The changes Brett’s team had to go through to support an increase from 160 to 804 transactions
18:01 How Brett dealt with a painful business experience and how he managed to fix it
26:18 What are some of the key things that people should take advantage of to invest in themselves?
28:26 The power of a mastermind
31:07 How meditation changed Brett’s life
Episode Transcript:
Brian Charlesworth 0:35
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Grit Podcast. I'm Brian Charlesworth. I'm the founder of Sisu, and the host of the show. And today, I have an exciting guest here, Brett Jennings, Brett and I met at dinner, geez, about three years ago, I want to say, Brett, at a kW event, actually, I think it was, you know, we've been in touch ever since a while after that Brett came in as a customer of Sisu. And just been great to work with and see his growth. So I'm not going to take a lot of time with an intro. But Brett has an extensive background in real estate, obviously, the main thing I want to hit on, and Brett really is in like the top 1/10 of 1%. And that he has a team or a team Ridge now doing over 1.2 billion in closed volume. And I think that that pretty much says it all like listen as soon as you hit the billion mark, Brett, I mean, everyone has respect for that. So is there anything you want to add to that? And congratulations.
Brett Jennings 1:40
Oh, thanks, Brian. And yeah, it's Is there anything that I want to add to it? Um, it's, it's been an awesome journey, and not without struggle and challenge. You know, having been in the business, a little over 14, you going into my 14th, August 15 year now, going from a solo agent to building a team, finding the limits of the team model, and then eventually landing on this hybrid model of a team rich, which has enabled us to continue to scale so.
Brian Charlesworth 2:13
Okay, so I want to hit on that right away head-on. Because, number one, I didn't even know you had moved from a team to a team rage. I mean, I knew you were a brokerage since you're deciding, but maybe didn't understand the full meaning of what that is. So tell me more about that. Brett. Yeah,
Brett Jennings 2:32
Well, I think it was, what I got into the business in 2008, was just right after Bear Stearns collapsed. And if you're going to be successful as an agent, you're always going to find a look for the areas of opportunities and the niches of opportunities within our industry. And in the early stages, you know, coming out of the Great Recession, that meant short sales and foreclosures, which, interestingly enough, gave me the early experience necessary to understand the importance of building a team. Because with short sales, if anyone has been in the industry long enough to have had the privilege to do those, there was nothing short about them, you know, the escrows on him were anywhere from on the short end of the scale, eight weeks, to eight months. And that was to get bank approvals and things and you'd have to sit on the phone every week on hold for two hours for every single transaction with the bank just to get an update trying to move the thing along. So what happened was I ended up deciding to specialize in that niche and help other agents with it. So in my second year, in the business, I had 100, short sales. And if you had to spend, you know, two hours a week with every transaction that was, you know, going to going to become impossible. So I learned the value of leverage early on. But I also recognize that that was what we call a window business, right? It was, it had a certain lifecycle from where we were in the industry. And so before the market turned back in 2010, and 11, I was starting to look for what was going to be that next niche opportunity. And clearly, it was real estate teams, real estate teams were on the rise. And obviously, we've seen that the proliferation of teams, how they have eclipsed the solo agent, and I think, you know, it's either at this stage of the game either have to be a part of a team or be running a team to do well, in real estate simply because of the demands of the consumer. Right. The industry has changed so much with Amazon training our consumers to expect instant delivery on every element of what is real estate that the solo agent just can't do it. So I dove into that real estate team model and successfully built and grew a team for a number of years for about six years and then started to recognize the limitations of the team model. And teams are great and I had a great experience scaling my team from you know, being in personal production as a solo agent doing 40 transactions a year in about 25 million in business To then scaling my team up to about 160 million in business, and then I started to find the challenges and limitations of the team model. And specifically for for where we are, we happen to operate in the Garden of Eden real estate, as I like to call it, Silicon Valley. Because what before just, you know that some of the highest medium price points in the country are currently or meetings about 1.3. But with all that opportunity comes challenges. And the challenge here is that we have the most sophisticated, educated consumer base in the country. And what we found, through my recruiting training and hiring efforts of running a team was that brand new green agents, which I know there's a lot of teams that are tremendously successful bringing agents with no experience, because they don't have any bad habits to unlearn. It wasn't going to cut it here in this market, because, you know, the average home buyer is buying a million 2,000,003 house, typically, they both work in tech, they have advanced degrees. And the implied assumption was, hey, you know, we want the guy or gal who's sitting across the table from us counseling us on real estate, to be at least as smart in real estate as I am a tech right. And they can smell it out, we could sniff it out pretty quick, someone didn't have those, you know that that technical knowledge working knowledge of real estate, so we found to really make traction here we had, we had to work with what we call emerging talent, these are agents that have been in the business a couple of years done five to 10 transactions. That was, you know, our ideal agent. At the same time, you know, I think and Anthony LaMacchia, who is a great operator and team Owner-Broker, put it best when he articulated that, you know, the limits of the team model is ultimately you're really good talented people want a path to growth. And eventually, the lifecycle of your agents and your business would be probably two, three years max. So you have a constant turnover that happens with a traditional team model. In that lifecycle for us a shorter, right, because we were already hiring an agent that was two years in the business. So they get that itch to want to do their own thing. Even faster. So it was interesting because I really built my team on the Keller Williams platform, I followed, you know, the Red Book, which is, you'll see it's all highlighted marked up and…
Brian Charlesworth 7:29
The MREA book hasn't only read, he's memorized.
Brett Jennings 7:33
Yeah, it's been signed by Gary that was in Gary's group for a period a long period of time. And so I adopted and implemented and executed everything in there. But interestingly, so I, that's where I was running my business before I left. It was something Gary told said to me, that actually caused me to make the leap and actually start the teamerage model and eventually lead Keller Williams. And that what he said was, Brett, your role? I was I challenged him, I said, you know, look, I've got this problem where these agents, because Gary Keller,
Brian Charlesworth 8:04
You're talking about you had this conversation with Gary?
Brett Jennings 8:09
Yeah. This, I said, Gary, you know, the problem I'm having is, I'll bring these agents in another, you know, they're doing five to 10 deals a year, when I come onto the team, I'll work with them for, you know, 18 to 24 months, and they'll get up to doing between 25 and 40 deals a year. And then they invariably get the edge, you know, where they say, hey, it's been great, this is awesome, you know, I made more money than I made before, I really liked being a part of the team. At the same time, I kinda would like to have the opportunity to get a higher split on my sphere of influence, and, you know, have my own identity build my own brand. Yeah. And at the Keller Williams franchise, I didn't have a path to growth for them, you know, they would basically lead my team rollout to the market center. And I go from making $100,000 a year off an agent to making three or $4,000 on their profit share model. And I put it to Gary and Gary said, well, Brett, you know, you need to think bigger. Your role as a leader is to consistently expand your world so that your greatest people can live out their ambitions within it. And I was like, I remember that, like verbatim, because it was a turning point in my business life because these agents, I had a group of them that came to me, I think three or four of the five agents on my team at that time, kind of came to me and said, Hey, look, you know, we want to talk to you. And, at that time, it was probably the most discouraging and frustrating moment of my business career. Because, you know, I created a platform and an opportunity in a team where everyone had been there crushing their goals are making more money than ever, and they're saying, hey, you know, we want to we want a higher split. And they kind of all wrapped together, right? So I felt betrayed, I felt cornered. But in hindsight, I look back and it was actually a defining moment that helped us kind of go to this Next level. And I remember talking to my wife, I was just like, man, you know, the audacity, these guys like shit, I've done everything I take all the risk I pay for all the leads, I hired all the stuff, you know? And
Brian Charlesworth 10:11
And they really don't understand that right? They don't know. And you've got hundreds of 1000s of dollars a month on the line with all the money you're putting out?
Brett Jennings 10:19
Yeah, they don't. And so they were asking for 20% more, you know, and I said, Look, we operate on a relatively thin margin, if we give you back this, what you're asking for will operate, you know, at a 10% net profit. And that's not a durable business. So if we go through a market shift, this golden goose that's lined your pockets is you're gonna kill it. So. But I thought about what Gary said. And then I just asked myself, you know, what, what could I do to create a team environment for those people that we're going to leave that where it can provide them some level of support? Because typically, the people who would leave the team, they go from doing it from selling 25 to 35 homes a year? Back to sound like 15, maybe 10? Or 15?
Brian Charlesworth 10:58
I can't I see it all the time, right?
Brett Jennings 11:02
And we usually leave a part on good terms. So I talk to these guys or gals and say, hey, you know what, you know, are you having all the success that you really want to have? And they said, Well, you know, I mean, I'd like to do more? I said, Well, why don't you? And they said, Well, you know, it was what's missing? And they said what's kind of the environment was a combination of like the leads the culture, the camaraderie, all of it. And so that led me to question, you know, how could I create a team environment for these people, and still be in relationship with them. And that ultimately, is what led to the teamerage model. So what is a teamerage? a Teamerage is a new brokerage model, the future, you know, where an agent can find way more support and opportunity than they would at any kind of traditional brokerage. And in higher splits than they would find on a team that was tricky to make the economic model work. And this kind of leads to what you and I talked about, before we opened up the call, you know, is every business leader, you know, when you push for the next stage of growth, at some point, there will be a chasm where your growth is not linear. You know, as far as adding resources and people to get to that next level, at some point, you're going to need to put in more time and more money. And your business will become less profitable on a percentage of net profit basis to get to you know, that higher net profit by dollar eventually. And that's what happened for us. But the teamerage model, I still run a team at this might our team are just called broker just called real estate experts. So I still run my team, Brett Jennings group, here at real estate experts. And then I provide a platform for agents typically doing over 10 units a year that, you know, have pretty well established in the business, our value proposition to them as they can come in and leverage the same opportunities as far as marketing and lead generation, the same support the same technology stack that I use to scale my team from, you know, 10 to 160 million in four years, or five years that they can come in and use those access all those same resources. And it's, it's been great, it's been a great ride, we've, it's certainly provided us the growth we were looking for, and the impact. And so that's kind of where we're at.
Brian Charlesworth 13:31
So Brett, how long ago, were you at 160 million in volume?
Brett Jennings 13:36
So 2018, we were at 160 million. And that's when we, when we made the decision to start the teamerage model now. Honestly, like, we didn't do any growth that first year in 2019. Because we were I was still a little gun shy. Like do I really want to do this? Because I tell you, Brian, every Coach and Trainer that I talked to, that I had worked with, I shared with him the model like because I kind of created an economic model. I thought you know what would work and but we did have to get we did have to add a good number of people because it wouldn't be as profitable per person. They all told me I was crazy or stupid. It wouldn't work. You know that the only way to do this was to run a traditional team.
Brian Charlesworth 14:22
Okay, so tell me how many people are on your team? How many people are in your brokerage?
Brett Jennings 14:27
Got it. So the team now I have six partner agents on my team at Red Jennings group will do about 200 transactions this year for 300 million last year, we did 140 transactions for 240 million. And then I have another 60 partners, partner agents at the brokerage and they did another billion in sales last year. So we did just around 1.2 billion in 2021.
Brian Charlesworth 14:56
That's That's awesome. I mean, if you look at that growth from 19 21 was unbelievable. Right? So congratulations.
Brett Jennings 15:04
Thanks. I mean, I think it really is, it's because I, you know, was forced to ask the hard questions and the right questions. And, and then it was what I call a market to model match, you know, for our market and what we're doing.
Brian Charlesworth 15:21
So I've heard, I've heard you talk bread about like, You speak very highly of your team and the people that run your team. When I say your team, I'm not talking to your just your agents. I'm also talking about your team that you have. They're running your business, right, your team of admins and TCS and all this stuff. I've heard you say many times, I couldn't do it without them. I couldn't do without my systems. So tell me, I mean, like, what, what made the difference? Like, what did you need to do to get from? How many transactions are you doing in total now?
Brett Jennings 15:57
We did 804 transactions.
Brian Charlesworth 16:00
Yeah. So to get from, you know, 160 to 804 transactions? Like what needed to change for you to be able to support that kind of growth?
Brett Jennings 16:10
Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, the reality is, what it takes to grow a real estate business is pretty simple. You need three things, you need really good quality, scalable lead generation, you need an amazing admin team, you know, an operations or admin team that can fulfill on those services, so that your agents are not getting stuck doing the bit busy administrative work, but they can really just be there and doing five things we call plant prospect, lead, follow up, appointments, negotiate, and training. They should only be your agent should only be focused on those five things. If they're not, they're not maximizing their opportunity, nor are you as their team leader. So
Brian Charlesworth 16:53
Can you repear those five things for me, Brett? Yeah, just I want everyone I want everyone to be clear on that.
Brett Jennings 16:57
Yeah, the acronym we use is plant, it's prospect, lead, follow up, going on appointments, negotiating contracts, whether listings or buyers, and then training, right constant training, just to consistently sharpen the saw and get better every day, because we know our industry is changing. So you know, support so that your agents are only focused on that. And then the third piece you just need is really good quality agents, you know, and you, as a team leader, or broker-owner, you know, need to have a value proposition that is strong enough to attract and retain, you know, those those those people. So, you know, most of the time, a lot of agents when they're looking to grow, they go, they go for the looking for the agents first, you know, really what you need to do is dial in your operations and admin team so that you have a platform or base to scale on. Because if you grow quickly, and you bring, you know, quality leads, and you attract quality agents, without that support, the wheels can come off the bus, and that did happen for us in 2021. It was not, it was a painful experience.
Brian Charlesworth 18:01
So you experienced that Brett, and you know, everyone sees the glamour, they see the 1.2 billion and they're like, but it was only a year ago that you're saying the wheels were falling off the bus? Can you give us like, give us the story here, like what happened? How did you fix it?
Brett Jennings 18:18
Yeah, it really you know, about every doubling, whatever, between somewhere in doubling and tripling the business volume at every stage that either we had a breakdown in whatever system or process that we built in almost every department, you know, to go from processing 200 transactions to 800 transactions, you know, the same systems or process that you built is is probably not going to function or work at that that higher level. And that's what happened for us, we actually had to put the brakes on recruiting, our goal was even more aggressive. We wanted to go from Weed last year, we did 470 million, we wanted to go to 1.6 billion, and about July right in the middle of the year.
Brett Jennings 19:15
You know, the wheels were coming off the bus and what do I mean by that? Our transaction department or transaction team was working 14 hours a day. And what we recognized was that like the systems that we were using, we were using, I think for task management, we were using Trello which is great for you know, a couple 100 transactions but when we get up to 800 and we have you know departments and things It wasn't it that wasn't the right system and Sisu with your task management became our default or our next step to get our systems right, which we've done, but it also required elevating our people, you know who was running our transaction department up until or who was effectively running our operation Up until June of this year was my main assistant who's been with me for 10 years, an amazing committed individual that technically, you know, with 20 years experience can like, get the toughest escrows across the finish line, but she's not a clock builder, you know, or a systems developer for scalable, really high functioning systems. So we had to find, identify, Find, Hire, and in onboard our next operations person, which is Beth Lazar. And she's amazing, you know, she helped put the wheels back on the bus and had enterprise-level business experience, that is what was required, right to help us build and scale the system. So that was one thing. You know, the other piece of it was marketing, we had, you know, we grown so fast, we had a marketing coordinator and a marketing manager. But we didn't really have a true director of marketing. And so we do a lot for our agents, you know, we market to their sphere of influence for them on our 33 Direct, we do client appreciation events, we do client gifts twice a year, as well as manage social campaigns drive farming campaigns for those agents. So there's a lot, there's a lot that's got to get done. And as we, you know, doubled our agent count and tripled our transaction volume. They all became overwhelmed again, for the same reason. So but it comes back to what I started this, you know, your answer The answer to your question with this. It's just three things really. You need to scale leads good quality lead generation, not Facebook ad leads that so
Brian Charlesworth 21:35
where do you get your leads? Brett? I mean, give us some detail like, Yeah, I know, I know. You're big. I know you're big at Zillow. But like, where what do you do for leads?
Brett Jennings 21:45
Yeah, I mean for us, but 30 between 25 and 30% of our business comes from Zillow. We were a big spender on Zillow, and then flipped to their FLEX program. That gave us some scalability. As we grew this last year, about 40% of our business comes from sphere of influence. Most of the agents when they come to us, 70% of their business is coming from sphere. But what we end up doing is adding Zillow as well as the third pillar is what we call event-based farming. So every listing is getting direct mail social, for just listed pending sale just sold. And we also provide those phone numbers for those agents so they can call around those listings call or knock around those listings. That's great. Yeah, so So those are, you know that the three, the four main pillars are high quality online, which is Zillow, home light is another resource for us. Ojo labs, we're not using
Brian Charlesworth 22:42
It's crazy, yeah Upcity.
Brett Jennings 22:44
we're not using op city. But that is, you know, we talked about high quality online, that's another one that's out there. And then sphere of influence, event-based farming, and open houses, you know, those are the four pillars. And then there's, you know, agents are doing some of their own stuff, from time to time, but those are the core for that we really help them scale quality, lead generation
Brian Charlesworth 23:06
around. Okay, so you get the leads coming in, you have the right team. And, you know, I see this all the time with growing companies, there are always players that are the right players to get you to a certain level. But at some point, you know, they may take a different role in the company, or they may, you know, they may not be with your company, but you need to recruit and bring people in to get you to where you want to go, right. I mean, so recognizing that, as a leader, Brett says a lot about you. And then when systems, I got to work very closely with you. And I remember, first, we replaced Google Sheets or Google Forms, right. And then we replace Google Sheets for commissions. And then we replaced Trello. And I think the key for that was Sisu. And it takes some people sometimes a while to figure this out. But if you're doing your intake forms, your Commission's and your task management, and Sisu all the data is in one place, and you eliminate so much duplicate entry.
Brett Jennings 24:10
Yeah, potential and potential opportunities for error. Yes, a thing that we didn't recognize what we felt the pain of, as we scaled and grew was all the little places in our business where we had a VA, you know, entering stuff from Google Sheets, or taking it from one system to another, you know, you know, when you're only doing 100 transactions, the opportunity for error is not that great. But when you're doing 800 transactions, and those errors come up, it's it's debilitating to the company because someone's got to slow down some of that stop what they're doing, you know, go fix this problem for this agent or the end or this client. And that really, when you're trying to grow it can take the wheels off the bus pretty quick.
Brian Charlesworth 24:50
Yeah. Well, congratulations on figuring that out. And, I mean, you're one of the largest out there that I know of. So it's incredible in 1.3 A million-dollar average price point doesn't hurt either. So for sure, Brett, I want to talk about something I observe about you. And you know, you are always growing. So we were just talking you were at a Tom Ferry event last week, your first Tom Ferry event, but the week before I was skiing with you. And what event were you in Park City for?
Brett Jennings 25:32
Go abundance, which was a mastermind kind of a Whole Life Mastermind, started by some retired real estate team owners and broker-owners. But yeah,
Brian Charlesworth 25:42
So go abundance, you're surrounding yourself with these individuals who are, you know, just crushing life. And, you know, we all know, who you surround yourself with is who you become. So you do that. Anyway, whenever I see you, you're at something where you're, you know, you're growing, right? You're paying, you remind me a lot of my wife because you guys both invest in yourselves. I know, she spends over 100 grand a year, investing in herself? And I'm sure you do as well. So like, how did you learn that this is so important, and what are some of the key things that you maybe you have recommendations on some of the things that people should take advantage of to really invest in themselves and, and to grow internally?
Brett Jennings 26:29
Yeah, that's a great question. And it ties back actually, a question that was asked out of mastermind at TED, last couple of weeks back. One question was, what's the best investment you've made in your business? You know, or not in your business? What's this? What's the best investment you've ever made? It could have been a flip, it could have been anything. And I look back, hands down like I've done tons of seminars, workshops, training, coaching. I know for you know, I got relentless in the pursuit of the business where, you know, I guess you'd say obsessed around 2010 or 11, like my goal to hit the first million in GCI I hit like, 433 years when our price points were like 400,000. And then I got stuck there for like, three years. And if you're trying to get to the next level, and you're, you're giving it all you got, you're missing something. And it could be a coach, it could be a new environment, but it's usually some perspective because we can't see our own blind spots. Right. So for me, I remember, you know, that first kind of game-changing since the answer that question, the best investment I've ever made, was in the mastermind groups that I've participated in Mote in the highest level ones were typically there was they were paid, there was a fee associated with them to participate. I remember the first one I participate in, it was put on by the guys who were running the coaching, I was paying, you know, I don't know, 1200 bucks a month for coaching. And then it was an additional 15 grand a year. For the mastermind. I remember the time I was like, I clenched up, right, yeah, I make this investment. And it really was the best investment I ever made. Because the power of mastermind, if it's a really true mastermind, where they do not just let anybody in, right, they're trying to cultivate or curate the level of the people in the room and that people are at different levels. What it did for me, I was stuck, you know, at a certain unit number, I think we were doing about 80 transactions a year or something. And then spending time hanging out with and then unpacking the business of these 15 other agents that we're working with people doing anywhere from 50 transactions to 800 transactions a year. Something happens, right? Where you recognize if you are in the room, Brian, I'm going well, she, you know, Brian's doing 800 We've been hanging out like, I'm talking to him, he's not any smarter than I am. Like, now this isn't this is an unconscious conversation on my shit, you know what, if he can do it, I can do it. And so it's the power of borrowed belief. And that probably is also why you hear that saying, you know that your net worth or your level of your life is the sum total of the five people you spend the most time with because we unconsciously gravitate to the standards and levels of art, our peers, and so on. And then that element of just believing what's possible when you do that. On the flip side, I know that happens to me too, when I was doing CrossFit, you know, I'm 51 years old now. But I remember you know, six or seven years ago and going to CrossFit and I'm in the room with 2526 year old guys. And I would have no evidence to get injured because I realized I wasn't trying to compete with these guys, but I'm unconsciously sizing them up and recognizing Well, I'm strong, I can do this. I can go this fast. Right and unfortunately, the body has limits that my business does it. I mean, yeah, but my body has limits that my business does it.
Brian Charlesworth 30:02
I went into CrossFit twice and injured myself the second time and I was like that, that is not where I should be getting my fitness from now I was in my 40s when I started that early 40s. Yeah, I was like, not not a good time to start CrossFit probably. So, Brett, I mean, it's, it's really fun to spend time with you. Because, like, you are always asking great questions. You're always leveling yourself up. And Tony Robbins always says, you know, if you're not growing, you're dying. Right? And, you know, I see you, you're so passionate and your company is just elevated. You know, in the three years I've known you, you've gone from here to here to you know, and people can't who can't see me. But I mean, he has gone from 160 million to 1.2 billion in a couple of years. So just incredible. I know, we're a little bit short on time here. Brett, I really would like to spend at least another 30 minutes with you. But something I'm interested in, I read that you have been teaching meditation for 18 years. Tell me about this.
Brett Jennings 31:14
Yeah, and actually, that's kind of been on the down-low when I've probably if masterminds were the best thing that I've ever done to elevate my, you know, personal growth. The X Factor, and I'll call it a leverage point, would be meditation. Because, you know, people don't really understand what meditation is, for me. My journey started when I was in college, I took meditation classes in my senior year as an elective just because I needed to take something and I thought, wow, you know, okay, meditation is better than basket weaving. So, but it was interesting because we had to meditate 20 minutes a day, five days a week for 12 weeks. And that one experience completely changed my life. Like Buddha didn't appear Jesus didn't appear. But what I saw and what I felt I experienced, was a flow that was like, happening in my life, my grades got better my relationships improved. I started a business in college. And it's just started taking off. And I was kind of like, well, whatever this is, I can't put my finger on it. But whatever it is, is good. So I want to go deeper. So a year after I graduated from college, I sold my business and went kind of on a journey, went spent a few months in India backpacking around an ashram hopping. Then I went to Japan and meditated with the yogi's and monks there and Buddhist monasteries, and spent a year when I finished the tour in San Diego, studying and learning from a former Indian, I mean, he was he's an Indian doctor, and Deepak Chopra, and learn to teach his meditation practice to other people.
Brian Charlesworth 32:51
You are directly with Deepak Chopra?
Brett Jennings 32:53
Yeah, I spent a year. Wow. Yeah. So So what was interesting is, you know, the two years, I have not experienced, and I also worked for Tony Robbins companies for a couple of years. And you know, both of these individuals are having a huge impact in the world doing big things. Yes, they but what I would say about the difference between Tony and Deepak is, it's a different order of creation. Right, Deepak, when you really get to tap into what is it's not your unconscious mind or subconscious mind. It's the power of the soul, the intelligence that's there, within you. Beyond your thinking mind, it has three attributes to it. It's omniscient, it's omnipresent, and it's omnipotent. So it's all it's ever-present everywhere is always here. It's everywhere. And it's all powerful. And, you know, you've heard this before, right? There's a power and a force in the universe, you can't use it, you can't use it, you can align with it. And what meditation does is, the now is, enables you to find and align with that flow, and the greater flow of life that always wants to expand and deliver more good, everywhere, all the time. That practice that most people will overlook, because they ask themselves, what am I doing? You know, sitting here in silence, in my mind is making a bunch of noise is super, super powerful. So that is a, it's been a passion of mine. And I taught meditation for a number of years. I took a break when my son was born, but I'm actually going to resume teaching again this year.
Brian Charlesworth 34:31
It's awesome. Great story. I'm glad I asked that. Brett, just congratulations to you. It's clear that you are aligned with the universe like you care about your people you care about your team you care about your clients you care about, you know, just the approach you take is somewhat unique in this space. And just the fact that you're always investing in yourself and surrounding yourself with players I think if you know if we can all be, just learn from just doing these simple things. And the best investment I would say the best investment we can make is an investment in ourselves, right? Whatever that is for you. But if you're growing, you're going to be happy. You're going to be thriving, man. So anyway, great time spending with you today. Brett, thank you so much for being on the Grit podcast. Everyone. Thanks for joining us today and we'll catch you next week.
Brett Jennings 35:29
Awesome. Thanks, Brian.
