Brandyn Cottingham's guest appearances

Brandyn Cottingham

The Private Lender Podcast

The Cam & Otis Show

Build It Bootcamp

Strategic Advisor Board

Travis Johnson

Jules Weldon

Otis McGregor

Corey Peterson

Mitch Stephen

Gary Boomershine

Larry Goins

Kevin Bupp

Jason McCarthy

Matthew Sullivan

Jason Miller

Patrick Brown

Chris Anderson

Neil Peart

Ron LeGrand

OwlTail

In this episode, Phillip Lanos and Jason Miller are joined by Brandyn Cottingham, Founder, and CEO of Lumiere. Brandyn shares his story and unique approach through Boutique funding. You will also uncover how to overcome a business struggle that may help save your business. Tune in to learn more!ConnectStrategic Advisor Board: www.linkedin.com/company/strategic-advisor-boardJason Miller: www.linkedin.com/in/jasontmiller-sabPhillip Lanos: www.linkedin.com/in/philliplanos/Lumiere Investment Design: www.linkedin.com/company/major-gainz-capital/about/Brandyn Cottingham: www.linkedin.com/in/brandyn-cottingham

In this episode, Phillip Lanos and Jason Miller are joined by Brandyn Cottingham, Founder, and CEO of Lumiere. Brandyn shares his story and unique approach through Boutique funding. You will also uncover how to overcome a business struggle that may help save your business. Tune in to learn more! Connect Strategic Advisor Board: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/strategic-advisor-board/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.linkedin.com/company/strategic-advisor-board</a> Jason Miller: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasontmiller-sab/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.linkedin.com/in/jasontmiller-sab</a> Phillip Lanos: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/philliplanos/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.linkedin.com/in/philliplanos/</a> Lumiere Investment Design: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/major-gainz-capital/about/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.linkedin.com/company/major-gainz-capital/about/</a> Brandyn Cottingham: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandyn-cottingham-29262786/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.linkedin.com/in/brandyn-cottingham</a>

Episode 128 "War Room Round Table": Brandyn Cottingham Helping Small Businesses Fund Through a Boutique Approach

On this episode of The Cam &amp; Otis show we have with us Brandyn Cottingham. He was born in North Louisiana, and he comes from a family of music geniuses. At the age of four, they moved to Houston, Texas but later, while in ninth grade, they moved to a small suburban town. Living in the two worlds has enabled him to have empathy and understanding with people’s different needs. Brandyn started his music career at a young age, and he’s a former Marine musician. He has also worked as an audio engineer, social activist, Quant/investment banker, and as a government assistant in housing. Today Brandyn is a partner of the capital group and he’s working to make the world more equitable for humanity. To hear more about Brandyn's backstory, how he got into military music and his experience that changed his life check out this episode!!As always this show is brought to you by Tribe and Purpose.  You’ve put the work in but you’re not sure how to reap the rewards. It’s time to focus on the success you have planned for yourself and your team.The Tribe + Purpose team can guide you to build on that success to have even more.Learn more at www.tribe-purpose.comYouTube Link: https://youtu.be/tFyRfiQVaDYand connect with Brandyn on LinkedIn here:https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandyn

On this episode of The Cam &amp; Otis show we have with us Brandyn Cottingham. He was born in North Louisiana, and he comes from a family of music geniuses. At the age of four, they moved to Houston, Texas but later, while in ninth grade, they moved to a small suburban town. Living in the two worlds has enabled him to have empathy and understanding with people’s different needs. Brandyn started his music career at a young age, and he’s a former Marine musician. He has also worked as an audio engineer, social activist, Quant/investment banker, and as a government assistant in housing. Today Brandyn is a partner of the capital group and he’s working to make the world more equitable for humanity. To hear more about Brandyn's backstory, how he got into military music and his experience that changed his life check out this episode!! As always this show is brought to you by Tribe and Purpose.  You’ve put the work in but you’re not sure how to reap the rewards. It’s time to focus on the success you have planned for yourself and your team. The Tribe + Purpose team can guide you to build on that success to have even more. Learn more at <a href="http://www.tribe-purpose.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.tribe-purpose.com</a> YouTube Link: <a href="https://youtu.be/tFyRfiQVaDY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/tFyRfiQVaDY</a> and connect with Brandyn on LinkedIn here: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandyn-cottingham-" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandyn</a>

Everything We Need is WIthin with Brandyn Cottingham - Lumiere Ep 165 

Not many of us realize the things we are destined to do immediately in life. Sometimes, we have to take a couple of detours to get there. Sharing his own road to real estate and creating a fund is Brandyn Cottingham of Major Gainz Capital. He begins by talking about joining the Marine Corps band playing the podium. Later on, he got out of the military and was faced with trying to figure his way around after. Going from one odd job to another, he eventually ended up getting the taste of executive level management to creating his own fund. Brandyn talks to us about Major Gainz Capital, breaking down its structure as an opportunity fund while describing the great ways they do to legally get money. He also shares his philosophy that not everything is about money and how he applies that with his clients. — Listen to the podcast here: Brandyn Cottingham’s Road To Real Estate And Creating A Fund Lender Nation, I hope you’re ready for a very interesting conversation because I interviewed Brandyn Cottingham with Major Gainz Capital. He’s the principal partner. Brandyn, I want to thank you for coming on and welcome to the Private Lender Podcast. Keith, thank you so much for having me here. It’s an honor. I’m very humbled to be asked about you to be on your show. I follow your podcast. There’s a lot of great content on there. To be a part of this conversation is an honor for me. Thank you for that. You and I met at one of Steven Kaufman’s events. Steven was interviewed on episode number one. I was honored to have him. That’s how you and I started talking. Lo and behold, we keep running into each other at various industry events. Finally, here we are together. You have a very interesting background. I know you moved to Texas when you were young, grew up the south side of Houston, in Pearland. I’ll set that up and let you talk. I appreciate it. Both my parents are from small towns in North Louisiana. They both went to Grambling State University up there. It’s an HBCU, very famous HBCU. A lot of strong football tradition up there. They graduated from college, moved to Houston with opportunities where. I was maybe about four or five when we moved here. I ended up in Pearland. We moved there. I think I was I third grade. This is back when it was a small town. There was a beltway. It was like one major highway. It was fifteen minutes to a grocery store. It’s a small town, very rural by today’s standards. My father was a musician. On my dad’s side, everybody was a musician. My uncle was a music major. He taught music. He was a jazz musician. He was a jazz teacher. Aunts, uncles, they all played instruments, orchestras and symphonies, things like that. Music’s in my blood. I picked it up when he taught us how to read music at a young age. I was very blessed that in Pearland at that time, I found out the high school is going to stay competition again for a marching band in August. When I was there, we were third and fifth in the state in the marching band. Both years that we went, third my sophomore year, fifth my senior year. I was always in a leadership position there. We would go competitions to warm up the water. It was low acumen for the discipline that we had to have to perform at that level and compete at that level. I learned a lot from our band director, Mr. Jack Perez. I have a lot of respect for him. He taught us a lot. A friend of mine dared me, bet me that she would make the Marine Corps band before I would. It was an interview process or audition. I’m super competitive. I was like, “No way, I’m going to beat you. There’s no way you’re going to beat me.” We ended up going to Lake Charles. There were eight people. I was the youngest person there. Everybody went. I went last. Nobody had made it the whole day and passed the audition. Everybody was coming in, “Nope, I’ll go and do my thing.” I remember putting the thing down and sitting in this room and said, “Congratulations.” I was like “Okay.” He was like, “You made it.” I was like, “Okay.” Here I was on track to go to college. That was a long conversation with my parents, with the recruiter coming to the house and all that. We went and long story short, I ended up in the Marine Corps band. I graduated high school in ‘95. I turned eighteen that September then October I was in a boot camp. The Master-Key to Riches: The World-Famous Philosophy of Personal Achievement Based on the Andrew Carnegie Formula for Money-Making I enjoyed the boot camp experience. It was freaking crazy, intense, but it’s one of those things I look back. I’m like, “If I can do that, it doesn’t matter to me anything is possible.” You have to push your body to those limits, your mind in those limits and keep going and understanding how far the human experience can go. I never reached anything on a SEAL level or Special Forces level. I know some of those highly intelligent men. What they do or how they do is amazing. I’m not on that level. I’m very fortunate I never saw any combat. I have a lot of respect for combat veterans. I respect minor combat veterans. From that, I had a cool experience at the Marine Corps. I got to do a lot of cool stuff and met some cool people. I was part of pomp and circumstance at the Marine Corps and the military part being a musician. I ended up in San Diego down there for a while. Did you go to MCRD in San Diego or Parris Island, where did you go? I’m a Hollywood Marine. I’m scared of Hollywood Marine. Everybody west of the Mississippi goes to San Diego, everybody east goes to Parris Island. On the west, we got those mountains. We have to hump those mountains up there. It was a cool experience in San Diego. I was stationed there too, MCRB San Diego. It was hard. For a young marine, it was a lot of distraction. I would put it to you that way. I’ve heard the mountains and scenery are very nice down there. That’s all I know. The scenery is nice and the mountains and the valleys. I appreciate your honesty and your service. Thank you for that. A Marine Corps band, what did you play? I played the euphonium. It’s like a mixture of trombone and a tuba. I found a close instrument to the human voice. It was a great experience. Like I said a lot of marches. I did Rose Bowl Parade a couple of times. I’ve still got some great relationships from that time period. I graduated in Sugar Land a few years before you did so I’m sure that we saw each other at UIL competitions, Road Stadium in Katy and all that fun stuff. Once you get out of the Marine Corps, I know you were flushed with cash and you decided to open up a fund or what happened? I was out bankrolling me. I got out of the military. I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. I was married at that time. I wasn’t playing the instrument anymore. I didn’t have a tracking plan. I did odd jobs trying to figure it out in life. I didn’t know where I was going to go. Eventually, I got divorced, ran out of money in Southern California. It’s in the ‘90s. It’s so expensive. I run out of money. I was like, “Let me go back and get my life together and see what’s up.” I came back home. I started going to school trying to figure my way around. I did sell cars. I ended up waiting tables for a pretty long time. I’ve got introduced to network marketing. It was a great experience for me. The people that I was introduced into that business, they were very big on education and knowledge of self-understanding, self-improvement. I started reading a lot of books. The first book I ever read on that subject was The Master-Key to Riches by Napoleon Hill. A lot of people know his book, Think and Grow Rich but to me, I like The Master-Key to Riches better because it is more of a holistic approach. It’s not about money. A lot of people gravitate to that because they’re on the money, which is a part of it. That’s why I love more The Master-Key because it talks about all the twelve riches and what they are. It tells you why finances have the most importance. He explains it as, “Finance is the most important because it’s only one of the twelve riches you can measure.” You can’t measure integrity. You can’t measure love. You can’t measure honesty, but you can measure whatever denomination that we have agreed upon is our means of understanding. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies It’s the only reason why most people put so much perceived importance on it. I started reading books like that Built to Last, Good to Great, I read all the Robert Kiyosaki books. Literally every single book he’s ever written, I’ve read. I started reading. My parents aren’t business owners. They’re good at what they do. They’re great at earning a living but I knew I wanted more. After that Marine Corps experience, I knew there was more you have, the more you could be. I didn’t know what that looked like. Finally, it was like I got to do something different. I went back to school. I was like, “Let me go to school for a look.” I went to school for audio engineering. I went to HCC here in Houston. I got an Associate degree. That was an amazing experience. It helped me ground myself and found myself again in where I was trying to go. From there, I ended up going to Texas Southern and try getting a four-year degree. I was supposed to get an audio engineer degree with a minor in business. I knew I wanted to own my own studio. I wanted to have the business acumen as well with the knowledge of the actual operations also. From there, I ended up getting a Finance degree with a focus on risk management, which is probably one of the best experiences and decisions I’ve made. A buddy of mine was like, “Why are you doing management?” It’s nothing against management, but he was like, “You’re smart enough. You need to do this finance thing.” I was like, “Why?” He was like, “Finance is like being an engineer in science. You leave with hard skills that you can then go, and you can apply. You can apply across many different aspects in business.” Accounting is the language of business. Finance is the sister to that, which is the projection of business and the manipulation of those currencies. Accounting is what has happened because of the basis of finance. When I understood that, I fell in love with it. I ran off of that and it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Were you part of the Ocean of Soul at TSU? No, I wasn’t. It’s funny that you asked that. I thought about going back and play the instrument almost a decade when I was at TSU because I was 32 or 33 when I got to TSU. One summer, I’ve got this window. I want to join the band. If I can get in, I can practice, and I’ll be able to get my chops up. By the time the marching band starts, I’ll get in. It never worked out. It’s one of those things the universe, God works in mysterious ways. It was wasn’t meant for me to do that anymore. I shot my shot and it got shot down by the universe. I have a lot of respect for all those fans. My dad was a musician like that in the marching band at Greenland. I love those shows and performances and I’ll show my son the YouTube videos. “Check this out. They’re so entertaining.” You have to push your body and mind to the limits to understand how far the human experience can go.Click To Tweet I want to have my parents check this episode because back in the ‘80s we go to the Astrodome for Oiler games and nine times out of ten, TSU Ocean of Soul would play the halftime show. It was so funny because they would come out almost the drum and bugle corps they’d march out. They’d get there very rigid and then that big bop and bass would boom. My parents were tapping their feet. It was always an experience and my mom would always say, “Who’s playing halftime? Is it TSU?” My parents went to Sam Houston State and we’d watch Sam play and it’s like, “This is boring.” There was so much energy. I know we went down a rabbit hole that’s my fault, but I was curious about it. After TSU, what happened then? While I was at TSU, I was a non-traditional student. I was in my 30s and technically a freshman there because I got this audio degree. I was trying to get this business degree now so I’m certainly a freshman. I’m a non-traditional student. I was like, “Let me take real advantage of this college experience while I’m here.” I joined organizations. I networked with the faculty and staff who were there. I’ve talked to a lot of the younger people who were there trying to help them. One young guy and from there, he became as one of my good friends. We had an accounting class together. He was struggling with it. I helped him out. I was in this group and I wanted to do some good while I was there. I saw that there were needs. I come from a family of giving, service. I was raised in the church and we did roadside clean up. We took communion to the people and the elders and old folks’ home. We went to house visit sick and study and all that stuff. My mom has always been into politics. My grandpa was into politics in North Louisiana. I knew when I was there, I wanted to make some social impact. I didn’t know what it was. I ran across this opportunity of urban gardening. We had times when I had to go see this guy at this farm in Fifth Ward, this urban farm. I was like, “Urban farm, what is that?” I went there and I met this guy. His name is Joe Isaac. If you’re interested in that stuff, look him up on Instagram or Facebook, Joe Isaac, he’s doing a lot of great stuff around the city of Houston. He had developed this urban farm at his old rice mill. You’re there and he’s growing like okra, tomatoes, kale, lettuce, and corn. I was like, “What is this?” He told me it was on top of what used to be a parking lot. What is this? It is crazy. It’s a holistic, cool place. They turn the loading dock into a big aquaponics farm. They had had tilapia and blue crab in there. They were siphoning that off to feed plants hydroponically. It was amazing. They had chickens and all the stuff. The place is still there but Joe now moved around the city doing other things. From that experience, I ended up getting this knowledge and getting this bug in my life about I can do that here in the Third Ward. My buddy was like, “I’m interested in connecting with the university to make this happen.” They had torn down an old dorm. It was two acres. It was the exact same size as what this place was at the Fifth Ward. We were like, “We can do the same thing.” Basically, me and my buddy, we went, and we lobbied with the university for them to give us the servership of the two acres in the middle of a city, which is amazing. We turned it into an urban farm. The best part about it was we have social impact aspect where we engaged directly with the university. We engaged with the faculty and the staff and the students at the university. We engaged with the community itself. We have a program called the Icarus International Green Program. He and I were founders of that. That’s how I got my first taste of executive level management and running an organization. This was all totally conceptual. He and I came up with the concept. I learned about understanding your personal growth as a person and how you as a leader have to grow because a lot of time it’s not about the people in your organization, mostly it’s you. When you fix you, the right people will be attracted to you. Those things will work themselves out. We went through like three iterations of a board. It was bad like I didn’t know if we were going to make it. It was one of those things. It was my first entrepreneur taste of things. We were out here trying to raise money. We were putting out this program. It ended up being in a great situation. I ended up being on the sustainability board of the university. We worked projects for Earth Day, Sustainability Day. We were the student representatives on our undergrad standpoint for the university and that voice of what we wanted to see...

Not many of us realize the things we are destined to do immediately in life. Sometimes, we have to take a couple of detours to get there. Sharing his own road to real estate and creating a fund is Brandyn Cottingham of Major Gainz Capital. He begins by talking about joining the Marine Corps band playing the podium. Later on, he got out of the military and was faced with trying to figure his way around after. Going from one odd job to another, he eventually ended up getting the taste of executive level management to creating his own fund. Brandyn talks to us about Major Gainz Capital, breaking down its structure as an opportunity fund while describing the great ways they do to legally get money. He also shares his philosophy that not everything is about money and how he applies that with his clients. — <h3>Listen to the podcast here:</h3> <h2>Brandyn Cottingham’s Road To Real Estate And Creating A Fund</h2> Lender Nation, I hope you’re ready for a very interesting conversation because I interviewed Brandyn Cottingham with <a href="https://majorgainzcapital.com/" rel="noopener external noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Major Gainz Capital</a>. He’s the principal partner. Brandyn, I want to thank you for coming on and welcome to the Private Lender Podcast. Keith, thank you so much for having me here. It’s an honor. I’m very humbled to be asked about you to be on your show. I follow your podcast. There’s a lot of great content on there. To be a part of this conversation is an honor for me. Thank you for that. You and I met at one of <a href="http://privatelenderpodcast.com/001-2/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Steven Kaufman</a>’s events. Steven was interviewed on episode number one. I was honored to have him. That’s how you and I started talking. Lo and behold, we keep running into each other at various industry events. Finally, here we are together. You have a very interesting background. I know you moved to Texas when you were young, grew up the south side of Houston, in Pearland. I’ll set that up and let you talk. I appreciate it. Both my parents are from small towns in North Louisiana. They both went to Grambling State University up there. It’s an HBCU, very famous HBCU. A lot of strong football tradition up there. They graduated from college, moved to Houston with opportunities where. I was maybe about four or five when we moved here. I ended up in Pearland. We moved there. I think I was I third grade. This is back when it was a small town. There was a beltway. It was like one major highway. It was fifteen minutes to a grocery store. It’s a small town, very rural by today’s standards. My father was a musician. On my dad’s side, everybody was a musician. My uncle was a music major. He taught music. He was a jazz musician. He was a jazz teacher. Aunts, uncles, they all played instruments, orchestras and symphonies, things like that. Music’s in my blood. I picked it up when he taught us how to read music at a young age. I was very blessed that in Pearland at that time, I found out the high school is going to stay competition again for a marching band in August. When I was there, we were third and fifth in the state in the marching band. Both years that we went, third my sophomore year, fifth my senior year. I was always in a leadership position there. We would go competitions to warm up the water. It was low acumen for the discipline that we had to have to perform at that level and compete at that level. I learned a lot from our band director, Mr. Jack Perez. I have a lot of respect for him. He taught us a lot. A friend of mine dared me, bet me that she would make the Marine Corps band before I would. It was an interview process or audition. I’m super competitive. I was like, “No way, I’m going to beat you. There’s no way you’re going to beat me.” We ended up going to Lake Charles. There were eight people. I was the youngest person there. Everybody went. I went last. Nobody had made it the whole day and passed the audition. Everybody was coming in, “Nope, I’ll go and do my thing.” I remember putting the thing down and sitting in this room and said, “Congratulations.” I was like “Okay.” He was like, “You made it.” I was like, “Okay.” Here I was on track to go to college. That was a long conversation with my parents, with the recruiter coming to the house and all that. We went and long story short, I ended up in the Marine Corps band. I graduated high school in ‘95. I turned eighteen that September then October I was in a boot camp. The Master-Key to Riches: The World-Famous Philosophy of Personal Achievement Based on the Andrew Carnegie Formula for Money-Making I enjoyed the boot camp experience. It was freaking crazy, intense, but it’s one of those things I look back. I’m like, “If I can do that, it doesn’t matter to me anything is possible.” You have to push your body to those limits, your mind in those limits and keep going and understanding how far the human experience can go. I never reached anything on a SEAL level or Special Forces level. I know some of those highly intelligent men. What they do or how they do is amazing. I’m not on that level. I’m very fortunate I never saw any combat. I have a lot of respect for combat veterans. I respect minor combat veterans. From that, I had a cool experience at the Marine Corps. I got to do a lot of cool stuff and met some cool people. I was part of pomp and circumstance at the Marine Corps and the military part being a musician. I ended up in San Diego down there for a while. Did you go to MCRD in San Diego or Parris Island, where did you go? I’m a Hollywood Marine. I’m scared of Hollywood Marine. Everybody west of the Mississippi goes to San Diego, everybody east goes to Parris Island. On the west, we got those mountains. We have to hump those mountains up there. It was a cool experience in San Diego. I was stationed there too, MCRB San Diego. It was hard. For a young marine, it was a lot of distraction. I would put it to you that way. I’ve heard the mountains and scenery are very nice down there. That’s all I know. The scenery is nice and the mountains and the valleys. I appreciate your honesty and your service. Thank you for that. A Marine Corps band, what did you play? I played the euphonium. It’s like a mixture of trombone and a tuba. I found a close instrument to the human voice. It was a great experience. Like I said a lot of marches. I did Rose Bowl Parade a couple of times. I’ve still got some great relationships from that time period. I graduated in Sugar Land a few years before you did so I’m sure that we saw each other at UIL competitions, Road Stadium in Katy and all that fun stuff. Once you get out of the Marine Corps, I know you were flushed with cash and you decided to open up a fund or what happened? I was out bankrolling me. I got out of the military. I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. I was married at that time. I wasn’t playing the instrument anymore. I didn’t have a tracking plan. I did odd jobs trying to figure it out in life. I didn’t know where I was going to go. Eventually, I got divorced, ran out of money in Southern California. It’s in the ‘90s. It’s so expensive. I run out of money. I was like, “Let me go back and get my life together and see what’s up.” I came back home. I started going to school trying to figure my way around. I did sell cars. I ended up waiting tables for a pretty long time. I’ve got introduced to network marketing. It was a great experience for me. The people that I was introduced into that business, they were very big on education and knowledge of self-understanding, self-improvement. I started reading a lot of books. The first book I ever read on that subject was <a href="http://www.naphill.org/shop/books/the-master-key-to-riches-2018/" rel="noopener external noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">The Master-Key to Riches</a> by Napoleon Hill. A lot of people know his book, <a href="http://www.naphill.org/shop/books/think-and-grow-rich-the-original-hardcover/" rel="noopener external noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Think and Grow Rich</a> but to me, I like The Master-Key to Riches better because it is more of a holistic approach. It’s not about money. A lot of people gravitate to that because they’re on the money, which is a part of it. That’s why I love more The Master-Key because it talks about all the twelve riches and what they are. It tells you why finances have the most importance. He explains it as, “Finance is the most important because it’s only one of the twelve riches you can measure.” You can’t measure integrity. You can’t measure love. You can’t measure honesty, but you can measure whatever denomination that we have agreed upon is our means of understanding. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies It’s the only reason why most people put so much perceived importance on it. I started reading books like that <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Built-Last-Successful-Visionary-Essentials/dp/0060516402" rel="noopener external noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Built to Last</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others-ebook/dp/B0058DRUV6" rel="noopener external noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Good to Great</a>, I read all the Robert Kiyosaki books. Literally every single book he’s ever written, I’ve read. I started reading. My parents aren’t business owners. They’re good at what they do. They’re great at earning a living but I knew I wanted more. After that Marine Corps experience, I knew there was more you have, the more you could be. I didn’t know what that looked like. Finally, it was like I got to do something different. I went back to school. I was like, “Let me go to school for a look.” I went to school for audio engineering. I went to HCC here in Houston. I got an Associate degree. That was an amazing experience. It helped me ground myself and found myself again in where I was trying to go. From there, I ended up going to Texas Southern and try getting a four-year degree. I was supposed to get an audio engineer degree with a minor in business. I knew I wanted to own my own studio. I wanted to have the business acumen as well with the knowledge of the actual operations also. From there, I ended up getting a Finance degree with a focus on risk management, which is probably one of the best experiences and decisions I’ve made. A buddy of mine was like, “Why are you doing management?” It’s nothing against management, but he was like, “You’re smart enough. You need to do this finance thing.” I was like, “Why?” He was like, “Finance is like being an engineer in science. You leave with hard skills that you can then go, and you can apply. You can apply across many different aspects in business.” Accounting is the language of business. Finance is the sister to that, which is the projection of business and the manipulation of those currencies. Accounting is what has happened because of the basis of finance. When I understood that, I fell in love with it. I ran off of that and it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Were you part of the Ocean of Soul at TSU? No, I wasn’t. It’s funny that you asked that. I thought about going back and play the instrument almost a decade when I was at TSU because I was 32 or 33 when I got to TSU. One summer, I’ve got this window. I want to join the band. If I can get in, I can practice, and I’ll be able to get my chops up. By the time the marching band starts, I’ll get in. It never worked out. It’s one of those things the universe, God works in mysterious ways. It was wasn’t meant for me to do that anymore. I shot my shot and it got shot down by the universe. I have a lot of respect for all those fans. My dad was a musician like that in the marching band at Greenland. I love those shows and performances and I’ll show my son the YouTube videos. “Check this out. They’re so entertaining.” You have to push your body and mind to the limits to understand how far the human experience can go. <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://privatelenderpodcast.com/plp-051/&amp;text=You%20have%20to%20push%20your%20body%20and%20mind%20to%20the%20limits%20to%20understand%20how%20far%20the%20human%20experience%20can%20go.&amp;related" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a> I want to have my parents check this episode because back in the ‘80s we go to the Astrodome for Oiler games and nine times out of ten, TSU Ocean of Soul would play the halftime show. It was so funny because they would come out almost the drum and bugle corps they’d march out. They’d get there very rigid and then that big bop and bass would boom. My parents were tapping their feet. It was always an experience and my mom would always say, “Who’s playing halftime? Is it TSU?” My parents went to Sam Houston State and we’d watch Sam play and it’s like, “This is boring.” There was so much energy. I know we went down a rabbit hole that’s my fault, but I was curious about it. After TSU, what happened then? While I was at TSU, I was a non-traditional student. I was in my 30s and technically a freshman there because I got this audio degree. I was trying to get this business degree now so I’m certainly a freshman. I’m a non-traditional student. I was like, “Let me take real advantage of this college experience while I’m here.” I joined organizations. I networked with the faculty and staff who were there. I’ve talked to a lot of the younger people who were there trying to help them. One young guy and from there, he became as one of my good friends. We had an accounting class together. He was struggling with it. I helped him out. I was in this group and I wanted to do some good while I was there. I saw that there were needs. I come from a family of giving, service. I was raised in the church and we did roadside clean up. We took communion to the people and the elders and old folks’ home. We went to house visit sick and study and all that stuff. My mom has always been into politics. My grandpa was into politics in North Louisiana. I knew when I was there, I wanted to make some social impact. I didn’t know what it was. I ran across this opportunity of urban gardening. We had times when I had to go see this guy at this farm in Fifth Ward, this urban farm. I was like, “Urban farm, what is that?” I went there and I met this guy. His name is Joe Isaac. If you’re interested in that stuff, look him up on Instagram or Facebook, Joe Isaac, he’s doing a lot of great stuff around the city of Houston. He had developed this urban farm at his old rice mill. You’re there and he’s growing like okra, tomatoes, kale, lettuce, and corn. I was like, “What is this?” He told me it was on top of what used to be a parking lot. What is this? It is crazy. It’s a holistic, cool place. They turn the loading dock into a big aquaponics farm. They had had tilapia and blue crab in there. They were siphoning that off to feed plants hydroponically. It was amazing. They had chickens and all the stuff. The place is still there but Joe now moved around the city doing other things. From that experience, I ended up getting this knowledge and getting this bug in my life about I can do that here in the Third Ward. My buddy was like, “I’m interested in connecting with the university to make this happen.” They had torn down an old dorm. It was two acres. It was the exact same size as what this place was at the Fifth Ward. We were like, “We can do the same thing.” Basically, me and my buddy, we went, and we lobbied with the university for them to give us the servership of the two acres in the middle of a city, which is amazing. We turned it into an urban farm. The best part about it was we have social impact aspect where we engaged directly with the university. We engaged with the faculty and the staff and the students at the university. We engaged with the community itself. We have a program called the Icarus International Green Program. He and I were founders of that. That’s how I got my first taste of executive level management and running an organization. This was all totally conceptual. He and I came up with the concept. I learned about understanding your personal growth as a person and how you as a leader have to grow because a lot of time it’s not about the people in your organization, mostly it’s you. When you fix you, the right people will be attracted to you. Those things will work themselves out. We went through like three iterations of a board. It was bad like I didn’t know if we were going to make it. It was one of those things. It was my first entrepreneur taste of things. We were out here trying to raise money. We were putting out this program. It ended up being in a great situation. I ended up being on the sustainability board of the university. We worked projects for Earth Day, Sustainability Day. We were the student representatives on our undergrad standpoint for the university and that voice of what we wanted to see...

PLP-051 Brandyn Cottingham’s Road To Real Estate And Creating A Fund