Paul Brown - edited - no email linked schedule

Are you fed up with the corporate bullshit holding you back? Welcome to Invest in Yourself, the digital entrepreneur podcast. The ultimate launchpad for entrepreneurs ready to seize control and unleash their creative genius. Hosted by Phil Better, the podcast mogul. Each week he's breaking the chains of conventional work with bold strategies, raw insights, and inspiring success stories from the digital entrepreneurs who took the risk and invested in themselves. This is your call to arms. Invest in yourself, break free from someone else's rules, and build the empire you deserve. Now let's dive head first into today's explosive episode.

Welcome back to another game changing episode of Invest In Yourself, the digital entrepreneur podcast taking place at Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw

Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw

Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw

Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw

Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw

Paw Paw Paw Paw with a mission to bring renewable water to a billion people, something I love. He's using the power of entrepreneurship to fund this dream. He is, through a strategic real estate portfolio in Memphis. He's not only creating financial freedom for himself, but also using his expertise to help others do the same. In just this past three years, he's helped entrepreneurs from historically marginalized communities secure over 3,000,000, because that's $3,000,000 in funding, provide proving that when you lift yourself up, you can lift others with you. He's also an US army veteran, a devoted father of three, and a passionate storyteller. He travels and he gardens just to name other things he likes to do. He's here to share his journey, his strategies, and his vision for a better world with us.

So get ready to be inspired because today, we have Paul Brown on the show. Paul, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for your kind words, and, I'm just so grateful to be here.

Oh, you got that southern drawl that is just gonna lull us all into loving you even more, Paul. So we're gonna jump straight into it. Why did you become an entrepreneur? What made you decide, hey, I wanna bring reliable renewable water to over a billion people? What what made you decide that's to be your big goal and dream through entrepreneurship?

You know, the first draw was was time, freedom. I I got tired of working for the band and having my time and, my geography where I was dictated to me. And, of course, that's better than not having any opportunity at all. Right? So those jobs were stepping stones that I'm grateful for to my ultimate time freedom. But the the draw to entrepreneurship was how do I is it possible for me to create assets, to buy assets, to create a business that can free up my time? That was the push. Now I don't know that I would have really got anywhere without a a big why, a big life purpose. And that came that came towards the beginning of of, my entrepreneurial journey as far as as far as for me, it was creative real estate and how I leveraged that to to free up my time. But if I didn't have a big purpose, a big why of of helping people get water, then I wouldn't have taken as much action or risk.

And I think I'd still be I think I'd still be working for the man.

You'd still be there grinding away with for the man. What what made you decide this big why? Because it it is a huge why, and it's not one that most people would think would be of, something that encourage you or, you know, drive you because you're looking to help a billion other people and not yourself or your local community. What made you decide on water? What was it about the water situation that just compelled you?

Sure. I'll say to be clear, it's definitely helping me in many ways. So I'm I'm right there along with the people I wanna help. And not sharpshooting you. It just that's an important distinction that that servant leaders need to keep in mind that we're people too. So when we help our neighbor, just remember we're neighbors. Well, it's kinda you're you're included in that help. I, about twelve, fifteen years ago, I was I was on one of my favorite authors' websites, and I was learning about early Christian history.

I saw a book on there about giving to the poor, and I thought to myself, I don't wanna learn about I don't wanna hear about giving to the poor. I wanna learn about early Christian history. And then I then I thought to myself, do you do you realize how dumb you sound right now? So I I ordered the book and became convicted that whatever I didn't need would go to to help people who had needs greater than than mine. And, read another book that really got me sold on this concept of, hey. You know, one one out of eight people don't have water and have to walk miles to get it. And even then, it might be might be gross. And so this this thought of, if you help somebody fix their water problem, well, that fixes not just their water problem, but it helps them grow more food. It helps them stop having to waste, you know, four to eight hours a day walking to get water.

Helps a whole host of things. And, so that was a conviction and concern, and I was I was giving some, but it really became, like, a central part of my life at my first real estate investors conference when I first started getting into real estate. Because I got there on on stage talking about, oh, yeah. Yeah. You can be great. You can do real estate. You should buy my program. That kinda thing.

And all of a sudden, I just heard, a different voice speak to me directly. Hey, Paul. You're gonna fix this water problem in this generation. And, Phil, have you ever had four thoughts in a half second?

Yeah. It's been known to happen.

Yeah. So that happened. And two of the major ones were that well, sure you got the right guy? Because I don't have the right I don't have the network or network for that. But at the same time, it was, well, if I'm being called to something not like that, then whether or not the resort whether or not I have the resources, that's not that's not relevant. Those will those will come up. Those will be sourced. Those will appear. I just need to say yes and and start down that path.

So that calling, that decision, that me accepting it caused me to leave that seminar and build a much bigger and better real estate business than I would have because I had the pressure of, well, if I don't do what I'm called to do, a billion of my best friends might die or get sick. And, so it caused me to take much more risk and action than I otherwise would have. And, about four years later, I was in my banker's office, and, this fellow walked in who runs 1,000,000 wells. And my banker introduced me to him, and he said, well, you should come work with us. And so what I'll tell you is both the why and the how, my life purpose and how to get that accomplished, came to me in the normal course of doing business. So I think the lesson there is to take action and get going.

It's very true that if you don't take action and start moving towards your goal, nothing's gonna happen and you're gonna be stuck in the same place doing the same things over and over again and I love how you taking action ended up connecting and growing your network to include someone who's doing that, who's building the wells to help these people and so you have this opportunity now to work with this organisation and take it to the next level. And they can help you to take yourself to the next level and you can be this symbiotic relationship. When you connected with this gentleman who runs the Well company or the charity, did you get another thought? Like, did you get another presence, like at the seminar saying, oh, this is this is important. This connection is important and we I need to make this a deeper connection?

At that meeting, there was no there was no voice or any profound thing like that. The meeting itself was profound enough that I knew it was important. And he invited me to come with them, and then we got delayed by the pandemic. And then I had a sciatic outbreak, so I was I was basically living on my friend, Britannia's living room floor on my stomach for, like, six weeks while I was recovering from this this back and and leg injury. And, but thank God I recovered from it, and I went with them to Malawi and Uganda. And we trained several teams there on how to dig their own water wells. And, a few months later, they sent me to India. And what I what I loved about what I've learned from that group, and I'm going to Uganda with them again in, ten days.

What I love about working with them is they're all about empowering the locals. So we can get there. We educate them. We equip them. We leave that equipment with them. We install a well or two with them. And then we leave, and they're empowered to maintain those wells and install what we've seen in India and Uganda is two more per week, which is, you know, it's a hundred wells per year per per team that we train. And that also helps us avoid, like, being like the white savior or disrupting local economies or creating dependencies and dependencies and other things that have not gone well in some charities in the past.

It's true. I like this new take, removing yourselves from it and giving them the power so that they can build and they can take it to the next level. With everything you're doing, I want to kind of go away from the water because that's a huge aspect and we've heard about this, but I want to focus on you helping your immediate community and those marginalized communities that haven't been able to access the wealth generation that real estate has been able to give us as you know, the majority, if you will, in most Western societies. How did you get connected with those marginalized groups who don't have access to, you know, the vast resources of, you know, the White population? How did you get in connection with them and how did you start helping them?

I I really appreciate that question. In real estate, if you're if you're building, then you're probably using finance. You're building credit and you're using whatever kind of credit instrument you can get, whether that's a traditional mortgage or a commercial mortgage or credit card stacking. Whatever you need to do to get it done, it's worth doing in most cases. And I do a lot of networking too, and I network with everyone. And at the networking, I would connect with a lot of people of color, a lot of women of color, and and, I'm also familiar and began to become more familiar with the stats. And you can't you don't necessarily look at our world or our country and see this, but if you look at the stats, it's there. Most of the money, most of the credit, whether we're talking venture capital or this the products that I mentioned, like, it's a much higher proportion of those going to white men.

So I don't know how to fix a banking system, but I do know how to be like, hey. Come here. This is what that banker wants to hear, And here's how you can posture yourself in your business so that the banker likes what you present. And so those hacks of knowing you know, being in those rooms and and knowing what they wanna hear. Well, I know that because I've been rejected from loans more than I've been accepted. But the rejections don't matter because you don't lose anything when they say no except for a little bit of time. But I don't look at it as even as a rejection. I look at it as a thanks for giving me that information because now I know more what what to have for you next time and what I can tell my friends to have for you.

So and I've even given tips. I was at I was at, one of my mentors conferences back in '23, and it was a conference that was mainly for, people of color and and for women. And I was I was leading a networking group about how to find business lines of credit, And I advised the the four ladies that were meeting with me on how to present yourself in a bank. And I said, when they ask you, well, what do you need the money for? Say, I don't need the money. If I needed the money, you wouldn't give it to me, now would you? And then laugh. And, one of the ladies and I've I've done that very thing. And one of the ladies that was there, she said, well, Paul, you can you can say that to the banker in a bank, but I can't say that. And, of course, I immediately knew what she meant.

And, I said I said I hear you, and the stats for why you're saying that are certainly true. And you there you still gotta find a way to present yourself in a way that's asking for the money. And in in that case, that's more of a disarming humor thing. And you wouldn't wanna say that if you're not actually comfortable with it because that will come through. But, we we had a moment of hearing each other and me validating that, yeah, I get I get what you're saying. You still gotta go and ask for the money in the way that's comfortable for you. So

I love that. No, it's great because you're fully understanding and this isn't allowing you to see what can work in other places knowing that, hey, yeah, as a white guy, this will work for me, but in a future session when you're talking with someone else, another female, another woman entrepreneur or a person of color, you can go, this is what I do and my other people have tried this and this worked for them and you develop deeper skills. I think that's genius because you're getting outside your little bubble when you're going and helping these people who are outside your regular bubble, right? They're not the people that you normally are in your social economic group and you're now being able to understand and see how what you know can work with them and go on a deeper level. I would love to know in the next ten years, is there a specific goal that you have you want to reach or are you just like, I want to see how far this can go?

Yeah. I'll give you my two year goal and my nine year goal. And I would say ten year goal, but it's specifically something I'm looking to accomplish in nine years. So it's my two year goal and my nine year goal. So two year goal is to complete a about a 6,000 mile walk across the African continent that starts here at the April, and we'll walk across 12 to 15 countries. We'll train folks on drilling water wells along the way. And we're raising 2,300,000 for that journey. And most of that money goes to fund the 70 water well drilling teams that we'll raise up along the way so they can continue to install, you know, a hundred wells per year per team.

And that journey is meant to raise enough attention to help us raise 3,500,000,000.0, which is how much it will cost to raise up teams of teams to install 1,000,000 wells over the next eight to nine years. And that, along with other organizations that are also already addressing this challenge, should should address the worst parts of this water problem. So doesn't mean that there's no poverty or that there's no water problems, but if you're having to walk out into your village square to get water, well, that's a lot more doable and sustainable than having to walk four miles to to get water.

Yes. Of

Of course, once we get there then we'll keep working but that's the two year, that's a nine year.

I love that. No, those are great goals. I'm going to be joyously watching your travels across Africa and reaching these goals in the next two to nine years. I think you're probably going to reach it even faster because you have grit and determination. The two year, I think, is going to take two years because walking is a long time, Especially across Africa. It's it it looks small on the map, but when you get there, you see how big it is.

Oh, I know. Africa is huge. People people don't people forget that it's it's it's not a country. It's a continent. It's fit I think 54 countries or something like that. It's just Yeah. It's I'm not going to every single one of them, but I am going across. So

Are you doing the just out of curiosity, north to south or east to west or, like, west

Right now, the plan is to start in Southwestern Africa, probably Namibia, and then walk up northeasterly. And, it's not gonna be a beeline. It's gonna be there's gonna be some strategic meandering, as I call it, and then end up in Djibouti in the the Northeastern Coast.

I like that. That's that's amazing.

And that is that is designed with political concerns in mind, current connections and water depths in mind. And I'm starting there in Southern Africa in their fall leading into the winter. So I've got six months to acclimate to the heat.

Yeah. Because, they it's a little different in the, the temperatures out there in Africa versus here in North America unless you're in And that sun

is hot, brother.

Oh, yeah. I can only imagine, how hot that sun is for us, you know, pale skinned people since we're not used to being under constant sun. I wanna know with everything you're doing, because I love your vision, I love your goal and I'm just wondering, what do you do to invest in yourself apart from, you know, getting, having mentors, which is obviously the number one thing to do if you're in business to become a better version of yourself and reading, plenty of books. But what else do you do to invest in yourself that my, the audience listening can start implementing to help themselves grow as a better version of themselves?

It's something you can start doing tonight or tomorrow night, depending on your schedule is sleep, start to sleep. There's people that say I'll sleep when I'm dead and when you do that, it will happen a lot sooner than it should. So don't do that. It's foolish. The I think that within within certain natural limits, there's not much better that we can do with our time than sleep because it's just so good for our health. And most most of the profitable things that we do come from our creative efforts, our creative side, and it's challenging to be creative without good, healthy, consistent sleep. So I go to bed on the early side. I don't advocate that unless that's your chronotype.

But for me, it ends up being on the early side if there's nothing keeping me up. And usually, I wake up naturally when the body's done sleeping, which is somewhere between six to nine hours of sleep. And I I rarely wake up with an alarm. And I guard my bedroom. I don't sleep near my phone. My phone's usually on airplane mode. I have a mask. I should be better at blocking blue light in the last few hours of of the day, but I do that some.

And some people will sleep with their phone on making noises while they sleep, but their TV on TV's on making noise while they're asleep, and it's it's dumb. It's usually based on this false belief that, well, people need to get ahold of me. And it may be, like, if your maybe your daughter's in some dangerous place, and she really does need to get ahold of you while you're asleep. And if that's the case, thankfully, modern phones have a way to make it to where only she can get through. But my Facebook friends do not need to be getting ahold of me in the middle of the night. Yeah. So a lot of that is overestimated how much people need to get ahold of you. And the other thing is, I'm super guarding of who's able to stress me out and get to me with drama.

Now I'll also point out that usually stress is from attempting to control something that you have no control over. So that point alone takes some of the stress away because it's like, alright. Let me stop trying to control something that isn't mind to control. But if you let people stay in your life that are drama causers, at after after a few of those times where they've shown you that, that's now your fault. So guard your guard your peace. And you already mentioned it. Probably one of the biggest things I've done to invest myself is is mentors. I spent a lot of money on mentors and programs and masterminds.

And in the conglomerate, it's been extremely worth it, so I I recommend investing yourself in that way. Right.

When you started in your real estate world, I'm curious, did you go down the traditional path of consumer real estate buying duplexes and triplexes or condominiums and that, or did you fall into the more commercial side of it by buying like strip malls and properties like that?

Yeah. I've not done anything commercial yet. I have used commercial financing because you can you can get a commercial loan on a single family residence. A lot of folks don't know that, but that's a powerful concept And it's they're easier to get to because there's your traditional mortgage, I call it a financialoscopy, and I've I've gotten several of those. But they're it can be annoying. So so and and in the investment portfolio, we do use kind of a a semi commercial model in that. In some in some houses, we've got 10 to 12 roommates, you know, paying by the door by the week, but it's all in one big house. So everything I've done so far has been single family residences, you know, normal houses.

Those houses have gotten bigger over the years, and I started started in my own house with a regular mortgage, and I got a few more regular mortgages. Then I started getting more creative with where that financing was coming from. Okay.

With us coming to the end of the episode, which I despise because I'm having such a great time chatting with you, Paul. Same. Yeah. I know you have thousands of information to leave us with and blow our minds with, your visions, but I have your 10 year old self here, Paul, and I would love to know what advice you would like to pass back to your 10 year old self.

Take the risks. The more risks you take, the less risky things are.

That is heavy. Heavy and I love it because it's true because you get to understand risk completely differently and see how, yeah, it looks risky, but the risk is super small compared to what you'll gain from it. It's a genius, level. I'm gonna put myself on mute and just deal with that, mind blowingness. I would love for you to let my audience know how they can connect with you, how they can work with you, how they can help you reach your goal of a billion people, with renewable water. The floor, sir, is yours. And if you have anything you wanna give away, please feel free.

Thank you so much. I would love for you to connect with me at waterwalk.co. That's waterwalk.co. And as soon as that site comes up, you can subscribe to the newsletter. That newsletter comes out every week. I send that newsletter. That's me, sending that to you, to to people in a real exchange there. It's not like some weird company that I don't know what they're sending.

And then respond to it and tell me what you think. And I read those that also comes right back to my inbox. So it's a real exchange. And, if there's a way you wanna get involved or help, tell me that. And, we need all the help we can get. And, I'm updating what we're doing over the next five weeks, six weeks to prep for this walk across the continent. And then once it starts, of course, we'll update what's what's happening. But, yeah, go to waterwalk.co and, put your email in there.

And this Friday, you'll see it respond to me, and I would I'd love to hear from you.

I love it. Paul, I wanna thank you so much for being here, being an amazing guest on the podcast. I'm definitely gonna have you come on because I wanna hear more about your real estate journey and your little tricks to help others. So I wanna thank you again for being here and being an amazing guest.

Thank you so much for having me.

To my audience, make sure you check out the show notes down below to connect with Paul and check out the waterwalk.co website. I thank you so much for listening, and remember to always invest in yourself.

Thanks for joining us on Invest in Yourself, the digital entrepreneur podcast. The podcast mogul reminds you that your journey to freedom and success starts with one powerful move, investing in yourself. If today's episode sparked your fire, hit that follow button on Spotify and drop us a comment. Share your wins, your challenges, and what drives you to break free from the corporate grind. Remember, you're your best investment. Always invest in yourself because your potential is limitless. Until next time, keep hustling and take control of your destiny.