Episode 42-From Po’boys to Property: Building Muscle, Business & a Legacy with Brian Maurice

00:02
Gentlemen, welcome to the War on Dad Bods podcast. You're in for a treat today. Today we've got Brian Maurice is here. Hey, Brian, what's up? What's up, man? Brian is a father of three through real estate agent with 200 plus homes.

00:16
So Brian helps people find their dream home. He's also an investor and an entrepreneur. Interesting thing about Brian is he's the founder and leader of an Instagram page called eating NOLA eating NOLA has 153,000 followers.

00:33
I find it fascinating that Brian has an Instagram page into ones all about eating, yet he is extremely jacked and in great shape. So we're gonna be asking about how that's possible. Because that's pretty cool.

00:46
Brian, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for being here. Oh, thank you for having me, man. I generally start off this is a wildcard question from the start, but I generally start off my my workouts classes in the morning with a dad joke.

01:00
Do you have any horrible dad jokes? Lord, the kids always ask Google to tell them jokes in the mornings. And this morning was what was it? What's the difference between a fish and a guitar? You can tune a guitar, but you can't tune a fish.

01:29
That's perfect. That's perfect. All right. All right. So Brian, tell us about your career. You kind of have two careers here with the real estate and with the food blog. Do you call it a blog? Yeah, food.

01:43
But what what attracted you to your careers? We've got you into it. What do you do every day? Uh, yeah, that's a good question. I got I got a lot of hats. I guess the first one I wear every day is just being a dad.

01:59
I got a a job that allows me to to kind of get up with them in the mornings. I'm not a great morning person, but it's nice to be able to, to feed them and get them off to school or whatever they're doing for the day.

02:12
So that's great. But but otherwise, yeah, real estate is my kind of my first and foremost, that's my full time job. So that involves a lot of kind of back work in the mornings, but leg work in the afternoons.

02:27
So I'm out and about a lot. I'm moving around. I'm traveling, you know, within this 30 minute metro and meeting people and torn houses and doing inspections and it's kind of a nonstop thing. And the eatingola thing is my hobby.

02:43
I've been food obsessed since I was a little kid. Probably got it from my grandfather and my mom. My first word was cook. I cooked a lot when I was young. I don't cook as much as I'd like to now, being so busy.

02:58
But yeah, food is like the best thing you do every day. It really is. It nourishes you, but there's so much creativity involved. And man, I meet some amazing people in this city that do that for their full-time jobs.

03:16
And that's the best part of it, 100%. You mentioned that you got into food really early in life. When did you get into working out? Well, I was always into sports. So I think that was just sort of what came with the territory.

03:33
I played every sport that you could possibly imagine well into high school. At high school, I kind of narrowed it down. It was football. It was track. But I was on the bowling team. I was doing everything.

03:46
And all that sort of instilled this work ethic in me into just taking care of your body. And at first, it was to perform better. And now, I guess it's more the same, but it's more of just to feel better.

04:04
And it makes you better at everything you do. It makes you better at your job. It makes you better. You're taking care of three young kids. You better be physically fit because they'll hurt you. Seriously.

04:17
It goes from sports and the girls are in there somewhere. By the time you hit late 30s, 40s, it's like, I just want to feel good, have energy, and survive. I had a lot of injuries too over the years.

04:32
When you play sports, you get banged up. that if I, I stop working out all those injuries, I start to feel again, especially like my shoulders and my back, but, um, and then if you work out too much, you start feeling so everything's about balance in life.

04:48
I've, I've found. So that's what I want to ask you about. Um, sorry, I cut you off. Go ahead. No, go ahead. Um, so balance in life. So total foodie gets to work out 10 father of three husband. Um, how do you think about balancing all these things?

05:08
How do you, gosh, just simply eating great food and staying in shape. Like, are there any rules or guidelines or boundaries? So like, how do you do it? Uh, yeah, I mean, it can be, it can be a challenge.

05:22
Um, but you know, what you see is content can be put out whenever some of these places that I ate a month ago. And then I'm finally putting it out. During the summers, I'm so busy with real estate, you don't really see me doing too much on the page.

05:36
It'll fire back up again soon. But usually I go for lunch because it's hard to get away from dinner with the kids. So I'm out doing lunch, usually in the neighborhood that I'm working in or someone invited me in.

05:51
And that's usually like my big meal for the day. So if I know I'm gonna have this massive spread, maybe I'll go easy on breakfast, I'll go easy on dinner. It's all about balance in your diet as well.

06:08
So, and then you're not eating everything either. I'm taking a lot of that stuff home. I used to tear it all up and I'd be miserable for the rest of the day. So now I've learned to take some stuff home, share it with the family.

06:22
Yeah, so there is deliberate thought around reducing the calories in the other meal. Oh yeah, for sure, for sure. I wanna highlight that because like there's gotta be something that makes sense. So you can't just like run amok eating whatever you want and like silver six pack, it doesn't happen.

06:41
Yeah, and overeating, I mean overeating something like I kind of struggle with just because you used to be so young and playing football, you could just pack anything into, I mean, there wasn't enough that you could feed me.

06:54
I mean, I ate an entire oyster loaf one time at Mandina's and I was ready for like another one. The guy was like, are you sure you want like the other half? I remember he gave me the half of po'boy, like a full po'boy length.

07:08
And I was like, man, I really wanted the whole one. He's like, I don't think you should do that. He said, I'll tell you what, I'll give you half and if you're still hungry, I'll give you the other half's on me.

07:18
So I ate that half. He brought the other half, I ate the whole thing. I was like, don't mess with me. But, you know, I was also 16 years old and running nonstop. Like now, there's no way I could possibly do that.

07:31
So yeah, it's a conscious decision. And if that amount, if that amount of good food is in front of you, like you're going to finish it. So you just learn to like, hey, this is what I'm going to eat. And, and let's stop.

07:44
But it's hard sometimes, because I eat some good stuff. I bet I mean, gosh, and there's, is there any better city on earth to, you know, taste foods, the New Orleans, like, what would be second? Not that I found.

08:00
I mean, Las Vegas, Las Vegas has some really, really good spots. And they're all like within striking distance. So I've eaten a lot of good stuff there. A lot of places in, in California have it because of just the mix of cultures there.

08:16
I haven't been in New York City, which I'm sure is way up there on the list as well. But yeah, this, this city is great, though. And my experience, New York City is up there for sure. It's like so compact and dense and like people like I'm looking at like the price.

08:31
Like I imagine prices in Vegas are going to be up there. Prices in California might be up there in New York. Like people are trying to survive. So like they can grab something ethnic quickly. It tastes good.

08:43
Yeah. Well, I've, I've learned my lesson in Vegas too. I've been there so many times, usually for these company conventions that if, if you go off the strip, even like literally two blocks, the prices are actually very reasonable and the food is just as good.

08:57
So I've learned to explore more of just get off the strip and, and you'd be amazed, uh, how good the food is there too. Um, so one of the qualifications I have to get guys on the podcast is like, I'm always looking for guys that are exceptional and like multiple categories of life, you know, they're, they're in shape.

09:14
They got their business together. They got their family together, their careers on track. Um, and to have all that right. That means you have to, there's something, there's gotta be something a little special about you.

09:28
And my question is, have you ever broken through a frustrating situation in the past and eventually found success? Was there something that sort of made you tougher? Um, yeah, I mean, there, there've been a lot of, a lot of instances, but, um, I think the main one is, is back to what we talked about is, is balance, you know, um, and balance never really happens all at once.

09:56
Um, I mean, you think about it in the gym, you lose your balance, you shift over to the right, and then you got to bring yourself back to center. Um, sometimes you overcorrect. Sometimes you, sometimes you fall off.

10:08
Um, I think I've just learned through many of life's challenges that it doesn't, it's not all going to be perfect. Uh, I was, I'm very much a perfectionist in some things and, and that, that really kind of holds you back.

10:21
Um, so I think it's just realizing that. not everything is going to go perfectly that every day is sort of just just put one foot in front of the other and by the time by this time next year like you're going to be you're going to be miles ahead and it's hard to see on some days it may only be just like this much but you just got to keep building and keep building and keep building instead of instead of quitting because quitting you know many people just quit and move on to something else and uh and i've been guilty of that too just quitting before uh before you see that you know that prize at the end of the tunnel um because we we live in an instantaneous world you know it's it's all instant gratification um everything happens so fast that um you just got to roll with the punches well you mentioned perfections um as i've gotten older i'm conscious you know we get older and we understand who we are what we're different what you know unique traits we have And as I'm interviewing high performers and guys that really climb fast and kind of get rich young or just do a lot at a young age,

11:35
I noticed that they move quickly. And they don't always have things button up before they move forward. And with me, like sometimes I tend to be like too organized. And I'm spending too much time organizing when I could just drop it and move on to the next thing.

11:51
So I'm kind of asking you about perfectionism and how have your thoughts or your recognition about that trader quality? How would your thoughts about that evolve? Oh, that's a that's a really good question.

12:06
Yeah, I mean, it's something I still struggle with, to be honest, with consistency with, you know, making that decision and just seeing where it leads, because I think the older you get, I think the harder it is to you realize like your time gets shorter.

12:24
And not like in the sense of you're gonna die or anything, but it's like, I have so many minutes in a day that I have to myself now, because I have my kids, my job, all those things have to happen first.

12:35
So it's like when you make a decision, you realize like, how long am I going to give this before I have to say, this isn't working. So I think that's kind of the hardest thing. So you really want to, you really want to make that decision and go with it and give it a chance.

12:52
But at the same time, I think as the older you get, it's harder to be patient. Oh, yeah, it's less of an option to be patient. Yeah. Yeah, I'm really I'm really seeing that now. I've got a he's almost two and a half.

13:08
And then we got a second one on the way now. And like, I'm having a real hard time, like, not hanging out with him and doing work instead. And I'm like, gosh, like, like, how much can I hang out with him?

13:21
And how is little work can I do but then I'm like, all right, I can't just drop the ball over here. So you know, you got to be really precise. about the time we do invest you know the work they're only at school so many hours and we got to get it done mm-hmm yeah and I think it's it's really the it's the quality of time that you spend doing something because you can spend hours doing something that's really not substantial or you could spend you know 20 30 minutes having like a really quality time and I find that most with my kids it's like sometimes we can go on a weekend escapade and it's sort of like I got so many things in my mind I wanted to just be in a day that that just kind of pass and you and you kind of feel guilty about that but then it's like I have all right I got I got 30 minutes before I have to leave for this appointment let me just go see what Tommy's doing and we play in his room and we fight and we wrestle and we do whatever and it's like man that we both needed that and it was like this this uninterrupted quality time and that's worth that's worth more than than a whole day you know if you can if you can make time to do that That's great.

14:28
That's right on point. We're going to bounce around a little bit. As a real estate expert, you've got, you know, how many years have you been a real estate expert? So I've been investing in real estate probably for the last 12, 13 years, but I've been an agent for going on seven now.

14:51
All right. So over a decade, you've just seen a lot of different properties, a lot of different deals. I've never seen all that. I don't have access to that experience. So with all that experience that you have, is there anything that like only you would know from that experience?

15:13
Well, yeah, it's efficiency now. It becomes, I know what's going to happen before it happens almost, and not every time, you know, I'm not a, I'm not a guru. I can't see through walls and do all this kind of stuff.

15:31
But yeah, it's become very efficient. You know, the when you sell 30 in a year, you know, suddenly this an agent that's been doing this for six years is worth a lot more than one that's been doing it for 30 and not doing much.

15:52
The more deals you see, the more problems you see, the more familiar you are with just the construction of a home. And that's where the investment side comes in as well. Like I've seen so many houses put together from beginning to end that I have a good understanding of what a home consists of.

16:10
And so on the other end, as an agent, I'm able to guide people to making a good investment, you know, something that's not going to cost them money constantly. It's going to be something that they can just live in and enjoy, you know, for as long as they stay there.

16:27
It's about, again, we come back to time, we come back to balance. People don't need to move in and start worrying about everything that's going to break. They want to move on with their lives, you know?

16:38
And that's what I see as my job. And you're working in Metairie, you're in New Orleans, you're in Destrehan, you're all over the place? Yeah, I cover about a half hour radius is where I try to stay. You know, I do a lot of things personally in New Orleans, I own a lot of property in New Orleans.

16:58
I've got a lot of friends that live there. I grew up in Destrehan, but I went to school at Rummel in Metairie, so I know a lot of people in Metairie, my parents, my mom's side of the family is on the North Shore.

17:10
So I kind of have all these roots set up in different places. So that's where I work. Nice, nice. So if you have busy dads that are looking for help getting their dream home, you'd be able to help them.

17:21
For sure. Yeah, and that's what we got listening. these busy dads that are thinking about buying a home or selling a home? I mean, that's a really broad question. But like, what's like the biggest thing that they're gonna know out the gate that you constantly find yourself repeating or just something a problem that you keep running into that like, let them know right now.

17:42
Well, I think it, you know, there's a couple, two categories, there's there's the people who don't own a home right now. And they're kind of waiting for that right moment. They're trying to they always try to time the market.

17:54
And look, I've been through a lot of markets now, buying for myself personally and as an agent. So, so I know kind of what you're what you're thinking about. And really, the best time to buy is when you're you're capable when your finances say that I can do this that is that's the right time to do it.

18:13
Quit trying to time the market, just do it when you're able to, you know, handle the payments and the things that come with it. You know, quarter of your salary is kind of like the rule of thumb. If you can put that down, get in now because the fact is, how's how's prices are going to keep rising forever on a quarter of your yearly salary as a down payment?

18:39
No, as your monthly payment. That's like a rule. Okay, okay, okay. You'd like to keep your, you know, your your mortgage note somewhere 25 to 30% of your your monthly income. All right, that's, that's a good number.

18:54
I'm thinking about how close I'm to that. That's pretty close to where I'm at. Okay, switching gears into something a little more inspirational and motivational and maybe just fun. But your friends are some pretty fun guys who are inspirational and motivational.

19:11
Do you have any off the top of your head favorite all time quotes? Oh, yes, I definitely do. It's Success by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Are you familiar with that one success? No, that's that's one of my all-time favorite quotes You pull it up but basically the to sum it all up it's like It kind of ends with a line.

19:44
I see you pulling it up now or what? It is. It's fine. It's my favorite quote. Actually, it's right here There you go, it's right on my shelf All right, so yeah, go ahead Yeah, it's to laugh often much to win the respect of intelligent people the affection of children To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends To appreciate beauty and to find beauty in others to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child a garden patch Or a redeemed social condition To know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived,

20:23
this is to have succeeded. That sums up, it's by far my favorite quote. It sums up just about everything I believe. It doesn't say to have as much money as possible. It doesn't. Yeah, it's interesting.

20:41
Yeah, so this is a really cool, all encompassing quote on success. Wow, guys. Rewind, listen to that again, fellas, that's a good one, I like it. Yeah, it's great. I mean, I keep it there to glance at it every once in a while and kind of remind yourself, you know, this is the point of all this, is to help others, you know, success is like how many people that you've helped along the way, in my opinion.

21:07
Money can help you do that, sure, but a lot of times it's more of a distraction than anything. It kind of leads you in places that aren't helping you or anyone at all. So it's all about, it's that B word again, dude.

21:27
Yeah, all about the balance. So to do a lot of the stuff that you do, you gotta wake up every day and do a lot of work. And sometimes you're tired, sometimes it's just a rough day for whatever reason.

21:41
When you need motivation, when you need psychological fuel, inspiration, like what do you go to? What thoughts do you go to? Where do you draw the energy then, you know, why not just be average? What gets you go?

21:55
I mean, it's hard some days, it really is. I just think back, I think back at my grandfather a lot, he was one of the most influential people in my life and he was one of those just self-made, just all around, just a fantastic person.

22:19
Um, he, the stories he used to hear where I trudged six foot through the snow, barefoot to go to school, blah, like he, he really did that. You know, he grew up in the, in the thirties and forties where, um, things were much different than they are today.

22:36
Uh, he was in Buffalo, New York where it's snow nonstop and he worked. He, he never even graduated high school. Um, you know, college wasn't even in the, in the question. Um, and he just, he just worked his tail off and eventually became one of the top regional salesman for Ross laboratories back when baby formula came out.

22:59
And you know, you think, wow, baby formula, it's like, yeah, but baby formula wasn't trusted until like five minutes ago, he w he had to go into, to people's homes and he went to a lot of, um, hospitals, which were run by the diocese, uh, in, in, in.

23:17
in his city and you had to convince mothers that they were supposed to pour this in water and feed it to their kids. And that was like a, that's science fiction, you know? Now we take it for granted, we have it there every day, but so he worked really hard.

23:37
He was self-taught and he just, he did what was best for his family. And, you know, we'd always used to go to the house and he'd have the whole family over and it was always him providing that meal. And, you know, imagine 20 people coming over and feeding them.

23:57
It's just like, what a privilege to be able to do that and to provide for your family and for others. And he was always just so generous, so willing to learn. And so I think about him and about like how hard he had it.

24:13
It's like, I don't have it that hard, you know, because of him. And so I look at my kids and I want to do the same thing for them to instill those values. And so that's what keeps me motivated on the days where I just, you know, which happens, it happens a lot.

24:31
Well, the outcome seemed to be there. He didn't be doing all right. So having that standard, having that role model, having that, yeah, you know, it was tougher for him. At least I can do this. It's like you're surrounded by a certain standard.

24:49
And that's just, that's how it is. Like to be less than that standard is just like, I can't do that. Yeah, absolutely. Interesting. Yeah, it's interesting how you stuck to that and stayed encouraged by that.

25:06
You mentioned getting the family together and your kids. Is there anything that you do with your parenting that might be different or deviate from the norm or seem when you... one of people? Anything unique?

25:21
Um, I don't know. That's hard to say. I'm definitely, you know, very animated with my kids. You know, I, I try to play with them often. I'm, I'm a pretty silly person myself. So I try to get on that kid level.

25:37
And it's just as much for me as for them. It's like you always want to tap into that inner child when you can. Do you have any, do you have any characters that you perform as they come back to often?

25:48
I've got too many to count. I can't, I can't even remember them. It's something different every day, but I try to keep them on their toes, you know, and, uh, but while still holding that, that standard for them, and it, it's hard with so many, we've got different ages and different personalities and, uh, man, kids are tough.

26:09
They, uh, it's really hard to figure out what exactly, you know, your your philosophy is with them on a given day because they'll they will challenge you and they're always growing and changing my son he uh he wants to play chase but he doesn't know it's called chase he thinks he thinks it's called you get back here he's like now now you see you get back here so then like i'm like you get back here you get back here and i'm chasing you get back here right now that sounds like my uh my middle child like we don't we don't play like she will tell you what to do and you do it that's kind of how it goes with her yeah they were interesting to see what kind of career those are going to have oh i know i know um speaking of careers um all right so um getting stuff done you know getting results having fun doing it is there simple things low hanging fruit that like you interact okay here's a good question you interact with a lot of real estate agents and real estate agents are not known for like you know being on top of things and always doing everything perfectly and doubting everybody and crossing everything what are what's the lowest hanging fruit that can make their productivity better oh it's consistency 100 consistency um and that's you know that's that's what i struggle with i know i guess it's the type of personality that's attracted to this business it's just doing things very consistently and that's you know most of that is staying in touch with with clients clients that you've you've already worked with um clients that you that are kind of on the fence here and there they don't know what they want to do and it's just kind of just being around and not being this pushy salesman that's like hey you need to buy a house today you know like i need to get my numbers up here it's it's more of like being there when being there for them when they need it and it and really that's um that kind of goes back to the other things we talked It's just being a good,

28:16
being a good friend, being a good person. It's just like, be a resource, don't be a salesman, you know. Well, there's, there's something I've noticed about, I really got tuned into like personality types and personality traits.

28:34
And a lot of times what you see with real estate agents is some people like a variety in their life, like they could not sit inside of a cubicle or anything. They need variety. So getting to bounce around and physically move around to different places and do different things every day, real estate agents are drawn to that lifestyle and they kind of flow with it.

28:54
But that personality type is not the best at consistency structure shown up at the same time. So those pieces, so it's like if real estate agents are listening, like if you can beat people at that organized structure game, I mean, everybody likes to run around and see beautiful houses and all that.

29:12
But that's where the edge is, I think, with those guys. At least that's where they could potentially make a lot of mistakes. Yeah, for sure. But it's like anything else in life. It's very difficult to do it all by yourself.

29:25
You need people that help you. You need a team. So I have a lady that helps me stay consistent with my paperwork. I have a great title company that keeps everything consistent on that end. I've got a great lenders that I work with that make sure all the deadlines are met.

29:43
So it's while I'm a mostly solo agent, there's a lot of other people that help me be successful. It's not just me. And that's in all aspects of my life. Like without my wife, ain't no way these kids would still be alive and we would be anywhere on time.

30:04
With my fitness life, like we talked about, I train with Brandon two to three days a week. And it's because with my ever-changing schedule, it's very difficult for me to stay consistent unless Brandon, I am paying Brandon so that I know when to show up at the gym and I'm gonna be there every single week.

30:26
It's gonna hold me accountable and it's gonna push me beyond what I could just showing up there by myself. And people are like, oh, it costs you this, that. It's like, yeah, but how much is it costing me to not do this?

30:41
How much is my health gonna cost me if I don't do this? How much, there's so many other things. People just look at the bottom line of how much they're spending, but they don't see a return. And that's what I'm always focused on.

30:55
It's not how much I'm spending. It's like, where is it going? How is it helping me? And I guess that's the investment mindset in me too. Yeah, and so here's what I'm noticing, but everyone's got some secret sauce.

31:07
And here's what we're pulling out of you, Brian. Grandpa. wife trainer Person helps you with business title company you are surrounding yourself with great people that fill in the gaps and help you solve Problems so you can flow and do what you do best.

31:25
Oh Yeah, a thousand percent. I mean I try to surround myself with people that are better than me That's like that's probably the number one That's that is the secret sauce surround yourself with people that are better than you that are that are more successful and that's why you know a good handful of my friends are in their 40s and The wisdom that comes from someone being you know 10 15 years older than you my god I mean,

31:56
it's like it's like cheating at life It's shoot me and Brandon were talking about this last podcast We have been able to train these older successful guys our whole life So we're hanging out, working out, just picking their brains about life and they're paying us.

32:12
Yeah. It's crazy, but so many people don't recognize that. They don't, um, it's this, uh, it's this like deficit mindset where, where it's like, if someone else is succeeding, then it's like taking away from me.

32:27
So some of like the people you work with, it's like, uh, like other real estate agents were like, Oh, well, so-and-so it's like, yeah, I'm good friends with them. But, but aren't you, aren't you like, isn't that like the competition?

32:37
It's like, not really. I mean, I'm sure there's some crossover somewhere, but I have my sphere. They have their sphere. Like we all have people we know. And, um, it's not, it's, there's, there's plenty of houses that sell every day.

32:51
You know, um, some people have a, it's like a scarcity mindset of like, there's not going to be enough. There's not going to be enough. That's it. This is that people that have this abundant mind setting of like, we can all win.

33:04
We can all win. Let's just figure out how we can all win. And then, you know, when your 10 best friends and 10 people around you start to become very successful, then they start to refer business to you and their success rubs off.

33:15
And, and the abundant mindset is the way to go. I think there's rare situations where you have to have a scarcity mindset and be able to do it. Yeah. Yeah. A rising tide lifts all ships, right? That's my second favorite quote.

33:26
You can, you can put it in there. There you go. We'll write that one down. All right, Brian, is there anything in the last year, five years? Is there anything that you changed your mind about first you thought this, and now you think differently?

33:43
Um, yeah, there, there've been a lot of things. Um, I would say, um, you know, our family has been through a lot these last five years. Uh, it's been, uh, it's been a whirlwind of things. Um, we've, you know, lost, I lost my mom a couple of years ago.

34:06
My wife lost her, her dad. the same month. You know, my daughter battled cancer for two years, my oldest daughter. There's just been a lot of things and it's not, you know, I'm not alone. People go through things every day, but it kind of just re-centered my focus on like what being successful really is like going back to this quote, like it's really about your quality of life and how you're helping others and how you're raising your kids and like those little moments that you get with them that you're not working and you have time to just share lessons about life.

34:45
It's like that really is the secret sauce. And I'm not going to say it's taken away from my motivation a lot, but it's definitely like redirected it to where it's sort of like You're always, as a competitor, you're always trying to hit that next goal.

35:04
You're trying to close that next deal. You're trying to hit that next number, the next investment. And I've really kind of, I felt in the last year or two, I've really kind of slowed down with that. Not to say I don't want to keep progressing and succeeding, but I really want to make sure that I am present for my kids in these younger years.

35:31
Because that's another thing that, you know, my friends that are now 10, 15 years older than me, it is unanimous that they all say they wish they could go back to those years. They all say to slow down and like soak it in and like, man, I'm doing my best to do that.

35:49
But it's so freaking hard. Like, it really is because you still have to produce and you still have to discipline them and oh my God, it's just, that really is, that's the biggest challenge that I face every day.

36:06
It's like trying to remind yourself, like this is like a, my wife says this is a season of life that is eventually going to pass, so you need to hold on to it while you have it. Yeah. We'll have a rough day with the kids screaming and crying and being sick and then you talk to your older friends and they're like, man, I wish I was you.

36:27
I know. I know. And it's hard to wrap your head around, but if, you know, if everyone's saying it, like it, there has, it has to be true. And so you know it is, but you got to keep reminding yourself of that, you know, when they're all screaming and having meltdowns, it's like, look, they're, they're four years old and they're going to figure this out eventually.

36:49
And then we can, you know, maybe go out to eat without, you know, and you know, and sometimes if you forget about, you know, what life was. like before you had kids and and where you're going to be when you're 60 or 70 like people at those ages, they have a thought and a curiosity about like, what is my purpose?

37:09
What's my sense of importance? What's where you know, why am I here? But when you're a parent, you never have that question. You are completely fulfilled. You know exactly what you're supposed to be doing today.

37:21
Yeah, make sure these kids are fed and eat and you know, so like you never you're full of all the time. And like, I guess that's one thing that we can like appreciate because once we get older, we can go back to work.

37:33
And you know, try to make ourselves a little more significant that way because then we go on at some point. Yeah, yeah, 100%. Yeah, I mean, that's that's the that's the purpose, you know, and if if you want to, you know, if you want to leave, I think everyone wants to leave a legacy in some form or fashion.

37:54
Some people work their whole lives so they can stamp their name on a building or or have a statue or whatever it might be, but it's like everyone has the capacity to have a child and leave your legacy through them.

38:06
Like you literally live on through them. Like the blood of my grandfather is inside of me right now and he's still here and that's an amazing thing. So that sounds like we just tapped on some of the best advice we've got.

38:25
Spend time with your kids when they're young and no one's saying you should work harder when your kids are young so that you can afford to send them to the best school. No one ever says that. No, no.

38:38
So what's the worst advice you've ever received? Is there a traditional belief, something you were taught in school or just anything that you heard that you're like or maybe took and did, what's some bad advice?

38:52
I don't know. I've really gotten a lot of good advice and like I said, I attribute a lot of the successes that I had to the people around me giving me such good advice. I think there's been a lot of maybe risks I didn't take or that I was sort of cautioned against.

39:13
That's probably maybe something that comes to mind and I don't mean like, oh, you should have gone bungee jumping when you had the chance. Like no, not stuff like that. I mean, calculated thought out things that are more on the risky end.

39:27
Like a bigger real estate deal. Yeah, or real estate to begin with. So I was actually a teacher for six and a half years. Wow. And yeah, and that's kind of how real estate investing became something I did there in the summer when I had three months off.

39:44
I bought my first house and I lived in that. It was a foreclosure. I had a few of my friends move in and pay me rent while I fixed up the place and then I sold it. And that's kind of what stirred me on real estate.

40:00
So I was teaching and when my daughter was born, I just wanted more. I really enjoyed teaching. I loved it. I love being around the kids every day. But it just wasn't paying me enough. And when my daughter was born, it was kind of like an eye opener.

40:19
I was like, how am I going to do this? This is the vision I have and the numbers just aren't making sense. And that's when I quit my job. My daughter was like six months old, six, eight months old. And I left teaching to start real estate.

40:35
And plenty of people told me like, hey, why don't you just do this part time? Or why don't you just like, slow down a little bit here. Well, there's a there's a burn the boats metaphor, like you quit your job, you got a daughter to like, you have to survive on the island, you have to win the war.

40:57
You gotta be successful as an agent. Yeah, yeah, no, it definitely was that. And so I kind of tossed the turn with it. My plan was to go back and just kind of do it part-time, but then it was like a couple of days before summer.

41:12
And I just, you know what? I went into the office and I just, I did it. I ripped the band-aid off and I was like, I'm gonna do this this full-time. So that was in, that was in May, when was that? 2018, I think.

41:31
And yeah, in June, I got my license and boom, never looked back. Wow, you came pretty far, pretty quick. Yeah, so that way it was just like, it was a gut feeling. Sometimes you gotta listen to your gut.

41:46
A lot of people may try to talk you out of things. And mostly it's your family. And they're really just looking out for you. They're not, they don't mean anything by it, but at some point you're like, hey, you know, I'm a young man, I got the rest of my life ahead of me.

42:01
Like now is the time I should be taking risks. You don't get to 50 and realize, man, I wish I had done this because at that point, like it's not too, I wouldn't say it's too late, but it's very difficult at that point to figure out, you know, the financial side of it and everything else at 50 than it is for a young man at 21, 22 years old.

42:24
It's like, that's, get risky when you're young, you know, fail, fail often and do it now, fail as much as you can while you're younger so that. Well, any big mistakes you made when you were younger that you learned from?

42:38
Oh my God, I made a million. I've made plenty. A couple of them got me in trouble with the law. Everyone remembers my alligator story where my friend, Tony and I decided to catch an alligator. uh, there were so many things, you know, that you just don't, tell us, tell us the alligator story.

43:04
Well, my friend, Tony, idiot, you should have him on your podcast next. Actually, that's, that's a guy I a hundred percent recommend he's got some stories, but he, um, he moved to Houston, Texas after, um, Katrina and, uh, we, we visit often we were best friends growing up.

43:25
So he comes back and he gets this idea in his head that he's going to catch an alligator. Um, and so we wind up, he comes home, he gets a big fish hook and some chicken meat sets a trap. And I'm like, I'm out of this.

43:41
I'm, I'm like, I'm, I'm, I'm going. So I go home. And by two hours later he calls me and he's got, he's got like a six and a half foot alligator on the hook. And he's like, I need your help. And it's, it's like, that's what you, you don't want your friend to say that.

43:56
I need your help. Cause he's trying to bring in a, an alligator that could possibly kill him. So you're like, Oh God, if I don't go help him and he gets attacked by this thing or something like, so anyway, I show up him, me and Charles, his cousin.

44:15
And we show up and sure enough, this thing is on, is on the hook. And, and we wind up, we wind up killing it. And so we thought, and we dragged this thing, like five, six houses down to an empty lot, loaded in the back of Charles's truck, where we're going to go cook it, you know, we were going to eat this thing.

44:33
We had, we had plans. Well, we get about halfway to his house and this thing comes back alive in the back of the truck starts whipping his tail, like we were banging on the window because we can't jump out of a moving vehicle, but at the same time, we don't want to be anywhere near this thing.

44:49
So we bang on the window. He stops, we jump out the car and this thing is like still alive. And, um, finally, finally dies. And, um, you know, we're making plans for dinner when, uh, when St. Charles police department and wildlife and fisheries comes knocking on the door.

45:07
And, and, uh, you know, we didn't, we were so stupid. We didn't know you need to have tags and all this and how illegal it was. And they were saying they could have seized our cars. So we got community service and everything else.

45:20
And, uh, I think we actually got bailed out though, by, um, one of the next hurricanes hit and we had called in, uh, I'd done a little community service at the, uh, the animal hospital or anything, which, which was, which was good.

45:34
And, uh, we called in and they were like, well, you got other things to worry about, like go away. But there were plenty of stupid things that we did, but, um, you just you don't think at that age, you don't think of any of the consequences.

45:50
I'm amazed that we made it through. Yeah, that's funny. It reminds me of that movie Tommy boy where like they have the moose in the back of the car and he like wakes up and like, it's exactly how it was like a fun memory.

46:10
Yeah, it's fun looking back now. But oh, yeah, my dad was not happy with him. I had to pay like 1200 something dollars in fines. Oh, god, which was a lot when you had $0. So yeah, I worked that thing off for for a long time.

46:26
Oh, god. That over my head, too. We gotta, we gotta be mindful by the time I want to keep going. All right, I gotta get into some some health questions. We got to get these guys healthy. And then one more AI question.

46:43
So do you use any health tracking tools like a whoop or an orang or any metrics that you track in general for your health specifically? Not really. I think I did a whoop for a little while. And other than that, no, it's really just Well, you and you're trying to weigh in do y'all do body fat testing?

47:05
Do y'all do I mean, you know, y'all Yeah, we do that occasionally. Y'all y'all track any strength metrics? Yeah, and we do the what's the scan called? Yeah, biological impedance. The one of those tools.

47:20
It's like an embody. Yeah, we do that occasionally. But, you know, just being as busy as I am, you know, I, I feel it every day. If I'm not in that gym, I really what became is like, hey, I'm gonna dedicate two days a week is really I probably work out five days a week now.

47:42
Because I feel like I need it now. Like days that I don't work out my brain just, you could tell it just does not function as well. My energy levels not there. It is. I don't need a watch to tell me that it's a it's 100% apparent on days that I'm not feeling right.

48:00
It's either I hadn't worked out and been active enough, or I didn't sleep well. Those two things. I mean, I mean, eat well, too. But more of Yeah, it's like if you handle those three things, you can feel great.

48:15
It's really that simple. But it's it's also not that simple. Get your workouts, get your sleep, eat clean food. And you should be pretty focused and mentally productive after that. Absolutely. And I would add in what you said, surround yourself by good people and remove the toxic people.

48:33
Yep. What are you seeing with AI? Like how has AI entered your life? Maybe your business? Maybe your household? How is AI? What tools are you using? You know, what's what's going on there? Yeah, chat GPT, I would say I didn't dig into it.

48:52
it until really about six months ago. So I'm still learning a lot. But man, I think I use it on a daily basis now. I've solved a million problems, you know, sometimes you show up to a rental property, let me see what's going on before I call somebody.

49:08
I have solved like 90% of problems with air conditioners. I had something going on with my truck the other day, something going on with one of the computers like, I mean, you name it, it can pretty much walk you through or at least get you to the point where you know what it is.

49:29
So then you can, you can call someone to make it easy. As far as my business, it saved me so much time on certain tasks. It's helped with, you know, photo edits, just different ideas. And now it's starting to help me I need to to get back on my content creation.

49:51
I've just been very sidetracked lately and just helping me kind of structure my ideas like I love when it can write a prompt for you and you don't want to use the exact prompt but at least gives you a framework to go off of it's like hey these are the main ideas I want to talk about can you arrange this and then I can shorten it to make it the way I want that is just it saves so much time so that's really been the biggest difference for me.

50:17
I'm most excited I guess if you pick the thing I'm most excited about is just the the possibility in the the medical industry to me is the most important thing especially you know my daughter my daughter beat cancer but she still has a few health issues and you know I just I know that in the next few years I think they're gonna they're gonna solve it I really do it's it's almost like inevitable they're going to be able to to do decades of research I think it's happening right now I think yeah the next 10 years are going to be warp speed yeah and I'm wondering where doctors are going to be because the protocol right now seems to be here's your blood work here's your stats here's your metrics and now I'm supposed to tell you to take this pillar to do this they seem like robots right now that are programmed a certain way I won't get into that but you know how much different are they than robots at least some doctors you know in certain spots in certain channels well I think two or three years ago they were saying yeah you know it's not quite there now they're like yeah this this this version of chat gpt can outperform a doctor in every single way as far as like passing the tests doing all that stuff now is there the intuition to know this versus that I may but I think it's very close and there there've been many stories you know I've I've read about this stuff constantly,

51:51
but there's already been many stories where people's health problems that they've had for years and years and years have suddenly been solved by literally typing it into chat GPT. They go to their doctor, consult, they realize, oh man, I've never thought of that.

52:06
Drug interactions. I mean, there's a multitude of things that have already been solved. Yeah, I got the most extensive blood work, but I got some really extensive blood work done, and then I punch it in and said, hey, act like a functional medicine doctor.

52:21
What issues are you saying? I was like, wow, this is the stuff I'm kind of working on. Wow, that is. Yep. That's it. And different solutions, different protocols moving forward. It's incredible. I mean, it's like every bit of research that's ever been done, you know, pulled instantaneously.

52:38
A doctor can't do that. They only have their, they have their training and they have their experiences, but on their best day, they can't have recall like that. And that's going to be across the board for all industries.

52:51
I don't think it's going to replace doctors or anything, but it's going to be from what I'm told, at least what's going to happen now, which is it's happening right now in some of the top hospitals, is that instead of the doctor listening to you and asking you questions and talking, it's like y'all are just going to have a conversation and the AI is going to be listening and inputting all this immediately.

53:13
And your medical records are going to be basically a live update of this transcript, and it's going to know everything about you, everything you came in prior to, and it's going to be able to pinpoint what's going on with you.

53:25
Crazy quick. I've got a, I've got three projects opened up in chat, you'd be to that I keep going back to keep the memory on. One is like the morning class business. One is like therapy, it's like my therapist.

53:41
And then one is like my health. Looks like my business, my physical health and my psychological health. And I just keep updating that so it knows all about me and it can go in and, you know, have more.

53:53
Yeah, it's great to be able to look back on that stuff too. You know, you, to recall the conversation that you had or go back when something, a new development happens and you can kind of pick up right where you left off.

54:04
And I just started talking to it the other day too, where it's like live, a live chat. Oh, really? Have you done that? I always like, I'll talk into it and push the button and it'll text and then I'll highlight it.

54:17
Cause like I'll be on a road trip and I'll highlight what it says and just read to me while I'm dry. I know. Try the, there's now the, the live talk. It's kind of like at the bottom, right? And it'll talk to you like you and I are talking right now and it's, it is pretty damn undistinguishable from a conversation you have with someone else.

54:34
My daughter is talking to it asking about, she's really into sharks right now. And so she just kept asking questions about sharks. And this, this thing is like chuckling to itself. Like I'm like, Hey, this is my seven.

54:47
daughter. She's very curious. Like, like, my son won't be able to read, but he'll be able to talk back and forth with this thing before he can read. And I'm like, the sooner he can start to get answers to questions, whenever he wants them, he's going to get educated quicker.

55:04
Yeah, I guess the type of questions they're going to be talking about are going to be relatively basic and not, you know, you know, deeply political or anything. Yeah, it's a it's a little scary. But it's also, you know, you can see there's going to be a lot of a lot of value to it as well.

55:23
Um, so keep it going here. Talking about working out any favorite supplements, any top supplements? Um, I have, I mean, I, I drink creatine every day. That's probably the most common one, I try to get my protein naturally, but sometimes I'll leave the gym and, and grab, uh, what are they?

55:45
What do they have over there? Actually, here it is. The core power. Yeah, I like the they've got these ready to drink core power shakes at a gas station. I think that one was the 42 gram one. Yeah, man, when I was in my 20s, and I was trying to stay jacked up, all I had was like maybe beef, jerky and almonds at a gas station.

56:03
Now you can just get whey protein and like just get it's like, at any time. All right, we got creatine, we got protein, anything else? Um, I take I don't know exactly what it's called. I'll have to take it back here on that.

56:16
But it's like a glue to me. It's like more of like a recovery mix. I use that. Probably sounds like workout. Yeah, so the the supplement stack that you like are the ones that keep these muscles fueled and jack and performing well.

56:31
Yeah, I'm always trying new stuff. I got some nad plus that I'm trying out. You know, some activated charcoal every once in a while. I do a round of multivitamins, that kind of stuff. So yeah, I try to make sure everything's topped up.

56:49
All right, we're entering the rapid fire portion of the contest, Brian. I'm ready. We use that term loosely rapid. Any any big health, fitness myths could be real estate myths or any just myths that drive you crazy?

57:11
Oh, health myths. Well, the myth continues that, you know, like animal fats and protein are are bad for you. Or so somehow eating eggs for breakfast is not healthy for you or that continually drives me crazy.

57:35
Health wise, like yeah, me eating an egg is that's what yeah, they've some people don't like fat and they don't like animals. all in meat and for whatever reason, they get excited about that. Yeah. And I get the ethical reasons, but don't don't deny the the science, you know, that's good stuff.

57:57
All right. If you had to do one exercise for the rest of your life, you only get to do one workout, one exercise for the rest of your life. What would it be? Most favorite. Just one one exercise. Yep.

58:09
I probably probably be the fly peck, the peck deck, the fly either either cable cable flies may just make sure it's my favorite muscle is the chest and isolators. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Makes you a good hugger, too.

58:26
You just squeeze your shoes. You know what I like to do is as a superset I like lying on your back with with the dumbbells flying and then burning out the fly and then just switching to presses and just burning that up.

58:39
And then now you got this like heated burn. Then you're going to push ups and it goes heavy. and it hurts and you really, it'll, it'll flap the chest. Show Brandon that one. I'm gonna do that one. Put it on the list.

58:51
All right. Most hated exercise, most hated exercise of all time. Probably squats. Squats, yeah. Squats for sure. No question. Guts up. Do you have a go-to healthy meal when you're short on time? Ooh, when I'm short on time.

59:11
I really like just, I'll take an avocado, just cut it open, salt and pepper, just spoon it out of there. Nice, nice. That's my bird though. But sushi will be my, sushi's like my go-to, just get a, just sashimi man, just, that's all I need.

59:30
Wow, that was a good answer. Which book has influenced you the most? Ooh, that's a good one. I just came off the top of my head and I'm just gonna say it, cause it's funny, the godfather. Oh really? Why?

59:55
I don't know why that came to my head. Cause I was laughing at this guy who, he takes every bit of advice he gives, he somehow works the godfather into it. And I think it's hilarious, but it actually, there actually are a lot of people who are a lot of good lessons in there.

01:00:09
And I think it's one of the best, the best movies of all time. So I'm just going to roll with it. I think you can argue it's, it's the best movie of all time, that person. A business one, I'll throw a business one in there for you too.

01:00:20
It's the seven levels of communication. Oh wow. It's excellent. Anything that you remember specifically from that book? Just the, it's just the philosophy of it all about how to communicate with your clients, how to keep them in your sphere is almost like, almost like family and not to be this, like I said earlier, like a cheesy salesman, like come from a place of caring, showing interest in them and their lives and take care of them,

01:01:02
even when it doesn't come to buying or selling their house, like how can I help this person today? Has nothing to do with a house or anything else, how can I help them? Wow, that sounds like a really good book for anybody that's...

01:01:16
Yeah, it is, not just for real estate. Cool, man. All right, dude, we did it. We got through all the important questions. Currently, what is your service? Who do you serve? What problems do we solve?

01:01:31
Where can we find you? Uh, mostly on Instagram is where I like to be. But uh, yeah, Facebook, Instagram, Brian Maurice, um, you'll find me there. Um, and I serve pretty much the whole greater New Orleans area, but I also refer my brokerage goes all the way across the country.

01:01:48
So I can help you literally anywhere in the United States. And um, you can find me on eating NOLA too, if you want to find out what I'm eating today. Yeah. So guys eating NOLA is the Instagram page. That's got a bunch of followers on it.

01:02:03
Pretty cool. Um, we can find me in the streets of Desrahand. Well, thanks for hopping on today. Um, it wasn't honor any last words before we sign off. That's it, man. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

01:02:21
All right, guys. See you next time. .