Brett Swarts shares his story from Cheesecake Factory
Dr. Nate Lambert is a real estate investor, a world traveler, 45 countries, and counting. He’s a psychology PhD, the father of five boys, a philanthropist, and an international speaker. He flips roughly 20 houses annually and has over 50 rental properties, numbers that continue to grow every year, he has helped more than 180 people find the right real estate deals in 46 states. His goal is to achieve over $100,000 per month in passive income and to help over 1000 people become real estate millionaires.
He helps equip people with the knowledge, skills, and resources to get into their first investment property without all the stress, worry, and anxiety of having to figure it out yourself.
He created systems that give him the time freedom to do what he wants when he wants, where he wants, and with whom he wants for how long he wants.
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Nate:
All right, welcome, everybody. I’ve got Brett Swarts on here with me, I am so excited to have you, bro. I know I was on your show, I learned a lot. And I’m so excited to have you and have you tell me more about what you do. And, especially I want to hear more about your story. So maybe we can start there. Can you tell me a little bit about kind of how you became such a successful entrepreneur?
Brett:
Thanks, Nate. Absolutely, it’s a pleasure to be here and I had a ball having you on my show to thank you so much for having me on. So we’ll start back in the kind of the earlier days it’s gonna introduce to real estate and my family life and grew up in the original from the Bay Area, like Mission San Jose, Fremont, it’s kind of near the Silicon Valley and, my dad, he was building these custom homes in my mom, they’re owning rentals, and, things are going pretty good. And my brother and I, we would go to the job site and hammer the nails, driving the tractors, and learning about entrepreneurialism, how to work hard and, and kind of having a good childhood, then the parents got divorced. That was really tough. Because we went from having a lot of wealth to next to like, nothing overnight, and that my mom didn’t have a lot of support from my dad financially.
Nate:
You live with your mom then right?
Brett:
Basically the majority of the time. So I would say 90% time with my mom. Now some certain summers, I spent extended summers or time with my dad, when school is off. We couldn’t afford the Bay Area anymore. So we had to move to Sacramento was more affordable. So lots of kind of change in dynamics. But, that was a big challenge for us. So I knew early young age, I wanted to make it financially and I wanted to succeed and in my marriage, and family life, and my marriage and academics and sports. And so I went to college and had a chance to play basketball on scholarship, which is really cool. I love basketball. And I had a chance to study business and as well as Bible and theology. And I also got a minor in counseling psychology. So I was very successful academically in five years, got two degrees in a minor, and also took an internship at a company called Marcus & Millichap where I learned about investment, real estate, brokerage underwriting properties, cash flow, IRR, cap rates, all of those things that are entailed with the kind of financial success. And but it wasn’t always easy, because I knew I wanted to succeed. I had been successful in the past, but my journey was one that when I started in 2006, things are going pretty good. The marketplace was pretty hot. There wasn’t, there was a lot of people making a lot of money, let’s just say and I had a chance to sit on the sidelines and in Commercial Real Estate’s 100% commission sink or swim, no benefits, no salary. But I knew I had a chance to make it big and get a lot of margins. And I love the business. I love the people I was working with. I love the competition. But I found myself not making a lot because it’s a hard business to kind of break into. But I was learning I was growing, I was getting a little better every day. And all of a sudden I started getting better, better things are going to start to go well and then I make a little bit of money, and then all of a sudden the market falls apart. So the 2008 crash hits. And I go from making a little bit to like nothing overnight. And I don’t know if you’ve ever been super neat where you just feel so scared you’re not sure how you’re gonna provide for your family. And you’re not sure how you’re going to keep the lights on and you may be considering giving up on your dreams. Well, that’s where I found myself like, I was loving what I was doing. But all of a sudden I wasn’t just single Brett anymore in college playing basketball hanging out at the dorms and having an internship It was no this is real life and I’m married and my baby baby baby at home with my wife and I’m going oh my gosh we’re running out of money like fast and so it was a couple of option It was like honey you can go back to work which she didn’t want to do and I didn’t want her to do and or I can get a side job hustle at somewhere else and that’s what I did I said you know what, and also we need to move in with my brother his small condo, right it was going to do whatever it takes to cut the expenses and keep this dream going. But also the part of this that was actually really really kind of interesting. These fears started coming up about my parents divorced at a young age you see the finances was a part of that whole dynamic again dad not paying the child support he probably should have been paying right and not having a lot and a lot of that was this like these question marks when I was 15 and 16 and really angry and then then I forgave him and moved on and but all of a sudden I was feeling like a failure because I wasn’t able to provide for my family so I was questioning myself, never questioning our marriage but more so like oh my gosh, like how am I gonna keep this thing going with the family and so really scared really frustrated. I remember breaking down crying in my mentor’s office because the stress just built and built and built and it came to a tipping point a random Thursday raining outside another deal just fell apart. And I’m just like all just kind of came out like what why I’m actually sitting in this room, it was really tough. So I get a job at Cheesecake Factory. And so by day, I’d make cold calls. And by night, I’d serve Cheesecake Factory. So it was like the Hollywood Story. Except for the Commercial Real Estate style where they get the waitress job and they try to make it in Hollywood, I was trying to make it in Commercial Real Estate. So I did that for two years. And for two years I struggled financially but at the same time I clients are going through a very similar struggle at bay wasn’t on that scale, but they were going through potentially losing everything. You see, they had done what’s called a 1031 exchange, they had overpaid for properties. They had taken on too much debt. They knew they were overpaying. 04 05 06. But they felt trapped because of the Capital Gains Tax 30 to 50%. So they felt like they had to do this thing. So I was negotiating with banks on their behalf, trying to renegotiate with the city on property taxes, trying to help them get creative solutions to get tenants in their buildings, day by day, not really sell any buildings, a lot of people didn’t have any money couldn’t really sell. I sold some. But eventually, Cheesecake Factory, I just kept that going. So during that time, my manager brought in a gentleman to speak on the Deferred Sales Trust. And that’s what we can talk about here and maybe in a minute. And that changed everything for me. And that I had finally a clear path to make a solution for my clients and a clear path to grow my business. So I started to apply this talk about it close deals with it, and my business grew. And Fast Forward 10 years later now just training coach people how to do this, create transformational exit plans for cryptocurrency primary homes, businesses, save failed 1031 exchanges using a thing called a Deferred Sales Trust. So that’s the story and I was able to retire from the Cheesecake Factory. My wife and I have five kids now. We live in Sacramento, California. And she never had to go back to work full time, which was a big win for us. And so here we are.
Nate:
Wow, what a story. So you felt some of that trauma from the divorce in your childhood coming back and you’re like, I can’t be in that spot where I lose everything. My kids lose a good life. And so what got you out of there? I mean, what kind of help do you keep going during those really difficult times?
Brett:
It’s a great question. First thing was, my wife was super supportive. She was very, she believed in me. And I also had a cousin who was a mentor, he believed in me, my manager at the office believed in me out God see, my faith is the foundation of a lot of, I think, who I am, right. God blessed me with people in my life to speak life. And we’re father figures and mentors and coaches and youth pastors throughout my entire life. And with that, despite my circumstances, with the words of encouragement with good mentorship. And with me being humble enough to do whatever it takes, like, you know what? Whatever it takes, I’m willing to get the side job. I’m willing to grind 50 60 70 hour weeks, I also got a side job doing basketball tournaments on the weekends, I would make smoothies and serve hotdogs and take the money at the door and, and organize these tournaments and all kinds of just stuff to keep the lights on. So there was a mixture of those things. But my brother let me move in into his condo, on a very low rent basis. He’s my big brother. He’s been an amazing support. So I think it’s a number of things there. But I think at another part of the heart of it is just, I knew I really was called to be there. as funny as that sounds. Like, I knew, I felt like God was still telling me Hey, no, this is where I want you even though it’s crazy. And there’s, you’re like in a hurricane and everything’s moving fast. And things are challenging. Like, I was learning I was growing. I was it was the foundation for who I am today. It was a part of that journey. And giving up just wasn’t an option if that makes sense.
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