Trading Tales: From Sleeping Bags to Rolls Royces with James Brown

FN Intro/Outro: 00:00:02

Welcome to the Freedom nation podcast with Jeff Kikel. On this show, Jeff shares his expertise in financial and retirement planning from a different perspective, planning for your Freedom Day, which is the first day that you wake up and have enough income or assets and do not have to go to work that day. Learn how to calculate what you need, how to generate income sources, and listen to interviews from others who've done it themselves, get ready to experience your own Freedom Day.

Jeff Kikel: 00:00:36

Hello, Freedom Nation. It's Jeff here. And another exciting episode of The Freedom nation podcast. And I today have Jason Brown on. He is the founder of the brown report. And we're going to spend some time learning a little bit about his history of stock trading and options trading that's helped him get to where he is today. And he's not a flash in the pan because he's been doing this for over 10 years. Jason, welcome to the show. But

James Brown: 00:01:05

Jeff, thanks for having me, man. Excited to be here.

Jeff Kikel: 00:01:07

Good to have you on here. I'm really excited to share the story that you already told me. But let's kick off with your story. So how do you get to where you are today?

James Brown: 00:01:18

Yeah. And so for people who don't know me, let's I mean, I'll give them a little bit about what is today and then I definitely want to go back. So for example, you know, we live here in Michigan, say we meet my wife, my two kids, we retired my wife, she's home, I've been a full time entrepreneur and investor for the last six or seven years but I've been on this journey for over a decade. And you know, recently bought a Rolls Royce if anybody's a car fan out there. Love pulling the Rolls Royce Dawn out. And I just say that to say like today we're living the dreams of things that we used to see on TV, and it's like, whoa, what are those people do that drive those cars live in those houses? And you know, fortunately, today, we're one of those people. But the difference is we said once we started to make that type of money, I always wanted to share with people how it works. So if you backtrack, though, I was on nobody's radar to become a millionaire to live in the lake house paid off drive a Rolls Royce, retire as wife. I wasn't really. I don't know if I would say I wasn't on anyone's radar, because in high school, I did when most likely to succeed. But when you look at how things started, Jeff, you know, we grew up in Detroit. You know, we were sleeping in sleeping bags. I remember going over my best friend's house. And I spent the night over his house. I was like, wow, you have a bit. And he was like, What do you mean? Like, of course, I have a bit and I'm like, everybody has a bed. Come on. Right. So in our house, we thought this was only for grownups because only the grown ups have been it's not the kids who slept in sleeping bags. So that was my first kind of introduction. They're like, okay, there's a financial gap. So I saw my mom worked two jobs. And so I was like, well, maybe because he got two parents and has two jobs. You know, that's two incomes. But I saw my mom work two jobs, and we still were struggling financially. So I grew up always thinking like, Okay, how do I get quote, unquote, to the other side of the tracks, and what I was sharing with us when I was 18, you know, graduated from high school, I had about $2,000 of graduation money, and you always hear like, you know, you want to invest in the stock market. And if you had invested $2,000, back in, you know, 20 years ago, it would be grown to a million today. Some like art. I don't know why everybody just doesn't, why don't they

Jeff Kikel: 00:03:39

Do it? This doesn't make any sense.

James Brown: 00:03:41

Like, guarantee thing. So I put $2,000 into I went to a bank. It's like, I want to open an investment account. Girl, Linda asked me like two questions. She was like, Why do you want to invest? I'm like, to be rich, like, Why else do people do this? It's just like, so you want aggressive funds. I'm like, Yeah, I'm young. I want aggressive funds, I need aggressive growth. So I'll come back two and a half, maybe three years later, I'm 21. How's my investments doing? I'm just sure I'm on my way to becoming a millionaire in 20 years. And they lost $1,300 of my money. And so my account is down to $700. And I'm thinking, like, I thought you go to the professionals because they don't lose money. And so I'm like, if y'all lose money, too, I literally told her, I said, no disrespect, I could have lost my own money. Give me the $700 back. That's laugh I'm gonna do this on my own. So I spent like $200 on some Jordans or something like that. I bought some shoes. I have $500 left. I'm working for Sprint PCs. You ever go into Best Buy and there's like a person standing by the cell phones like trying to sell you a cell phone like I don't know if they still do that today, but that was me. I was that guy like who's your cell phone provider you thought about switching the sprint? So I'm selling phones inside of BestBuy for Sprint and making $8 An hour or I'm working on my weekends or holidays, Black Friday Thanksgiving, they opening up. And I'm like, this cannot be the rest of my life.

Jeff Kikel: 00:05:10

For eight bucks an hour. You're doing all that? Yeah.

James Brown: 00:05:14

Yeah. And so you know, I'm like I make $64. On the Saturday I'm like, take home was 50 bucks. If I could just make $50 from the stock market, at least I wouldn't have to work Saturdays. So I took that $500 I did what most of us do, I bought stock in the company I work for it was a sprint, it was $5 a share. I got 100 bucks. I'm like, great. I could buy 100 shares. I just needed to move 50 cents, I don't need to do nothing crazy, just 50 cents. As soon as I bought at five. I mean, as soon sure as the sun rises in the east, assessing the West stock just fail down to $4. And I'm thinking, Okay, this doesn't work. There has to be more to it. I thought I was smarter than those guys.

Jeff Kikel: 00:05:54

I call that Murphy's Murphy's Law of investing. Anything you buy is guaranteed to go down right away to test your mettle.

James Brown: 00:06:03

Oh my goodness, right? So it tested me for sure. Because then when it went back up to five, I'm like, okay, just need to go to 550 and then went down again, the four bucks. And now I'm like pissed. I'm like the markets rig. I think it's a man behind the curtains that's just like, don't let it go up just sitting back now, you know, I just feel like they know my number and they won't let me get to.

Jeff Kikel: 00:06:27

Literally, we want to take Jason's money away from him. We did it really good the last time?

James Brown: 00:06:32

Yeah, I'm just like, do they got a connection with the broker and they know, like, they just know how much I paid for it. And so then the stock went back up to five and I had this crazy idea. Like, I've seen this before, I'm gonna get out at five, and it failed on the four then I got in at four and went back up to five I got out, I made my first $100. What I didn't realize at the time was that was called a channeling stock part pattern, it was challenging 544 to five, five to four. And I learned that if you were to plot that on the stock chart, or learn how to read a stock chart, you could spot these patterns. So then I'm like what other patterns exists? I spend the next several months, tons of hours researching patterns, I get really good at it with the 500 bucks. I'm like, How do I get more money into my account? Because I'm like, if I had $1,000 to know what I made 200 bucks. And I'm like if I had $5,000. Now, Mike, whoa, what if I had 10,000 I'd be rich and as rich according to a 21 year old kid making eight bucks an hour. Right? And so I'm like, How do I get $10,000 in my account, I have a scholarship to Wednesday University's Mike Gillis School of Business here in Detroit. And I apply for financial aid because I knew we were below the poverty line, I would get approved and they would double pay the account, I would get the check back as a refund. I took that $10,000 student loan and actually grew it to $120,000 something like that as a college like a 21 year old college student. Like

Jeff Kikel: 00:08:01

Getting the best education possibly could and investments.

James Brown: 00:08:06

Exactly, in and what was interesting about that time is you know, I was studying engineering at that point. And you know, I saw people go through get their engineering degree, but they were starting to get laid off. And so I'm like I'm two years away from getting my degree and they're already laying people off. What's it going to be like when I graduate so I pivoted hard, dropped out, start trading full time. And that's what started my career. Now, I want to tell the other side of the story. Some people don't think it was just all sunshine and roses. Go on my third year I got about a quarter million dollars. And I decide I'm gonna buy this condo downtown royal love for half a million. I risk quarter million dollars trying to make half a million. I lose everything. I have to move back home but my mom's back to the house with bars on the window over people's trying to steal our cars. I felt defeated. But I'm actually the crazy guy on

Jeff Kikel: 00:09:02

The floor because he didn't earn the bed at that point.

James Brown: 00:09:06

I have my old twin bed. Okay, all right. But you know, I mean even that, I mean I went from sleeping into full size clean bed beautiful apartment out in the suburbs, you know bachelor pad Lexus on 20 inch rooms back to like twin bed in the hood bars on the window, no air conditioning just fans. I mean, it was it was it was just not your ideal lifestyle. But something in me was like, I can't be the only guy that's ever lost money before. And so I had this crazy idea. I was like, I don't know what is bobbins has that bravado. Like when I went to the bank and they lost money. I'm like, I could have lost my own money. I'll do this myself. Well, I had that same energy when I lost the money. I was like, I'm gonna videotape myself making it all back and I'm gonna come back bigger, better and stronger. And that's actually how my youtube channel got started. I was recording myself login, making the money back. And then people started asking, Can you teach me? And I eventually was like, How come they don't explain it like this or that regular people can understand it. And that's literally how I started teaching the stock market because I was like, I want to explain it to where regular people like us can understand it. That's, like, launched my career.

Jeff Kikel: 00:10:20

That is awesome. So you started, you started with the YouTube channel, kind of getting yourself out there? What is that become? You know, after that they do you have the teach people how to do this. What's What all do you do today?

James Brown: 00:10:35

So so much, much like when I was trying to figure out how to get 10,000 in the account, my next question, I'd already made hundreds of 1000s of dollars in the stock market, but I had never gotten to millionaire status. So my next question was like, How do I get a million dollars in my account? In, you know, just to kind of relate to the audience, we were talking about how, you know, people are looking to understand how can they hit their financial freedom number someday? Well, when I had to go back and get a job, when I lost all that money, I like built my lifestyle to live off the hourly, and my commission I was using to get back into the stock market and start investing. And so as I started making money in the stock market, I was doing okay, and I kept my lifestyle below my hours. So I kind of use my job to get back into the investing game. Still, though, it's like, miniscule, took me forever to get a million dollars. And so when I started teaching, I started realizing like, this is my way that Well, I was like, well, maybe I'll open a McDonald's someday, then I looked at how much it costs to have a McDonald's. But what I love about McDonald's was that number one, it reaches a lot of people for a reasonable price point. Number two, you can earn money, 24 hours a day. But the third thing I didn't like about it was that you can only earn money on that street corner. But I was like, Where can I get my 24 hours a day and help a lot of people are you if McDonald's helps a lot of people not by the type of foods they sell. But I looked at this as my way to create my McDonald's without having a physical building without having to come up with a million dollars for a franchise fee. And I was like, I can help real people. And so I eventually built that business into a seven figure business, which then allowed me to just double triple down on how much I was able to put back into the stock market in addition to what I was putting from my job, but at my job I was making like 110,000 When I left, but I was living on 50,000. So I was getting 30 to 40 back into the market. Just investor.

Jeff Kikel: 00:12:38

That's fantastic as absolutely fantastic. So, you know, when if somebody's sitting out there today, and they're saying, Well, yeah, Jason story sounds great. I mean, he took $500 and turned it into, you know, 250, and then turn that 250 into zero and then turn around, turn that back up to, you know, all of that. And they're thinking, well, maybe this kind of route is, is what I want to do. I've got a I've got a job that I'm working out today that I make Okay, money, but I don't really enjoy doing what I'm doing. I want to do something different. And this whole stock trading thing, you know, what, what's the start point? You know, were did they get started?

James Brown: 00:13:17

Yeah, so the key to becoming successful in the stock market is understanding what trading is and what it isn't in. Sometimes when people hear trading, they think I gotta be a day trader, I gotta quit my job and be in front of the computer all day. Yeah, that's not what we do. We just look for what are called PRP, we look for predictable, repeatable patterns. And when we see those patterns, kind of how sprint was going from five to four, four to five, five to four. Sometimes those stocks do that 6789 10 times, maybe look for those predictable, repeatable patterns. So the first thing is understanding how to read stock charts and spot those patterns. That's number one. Once you understand how to spot those patterns, we use options to supercharge our returns. And so the reason I was able to grow that $500 in that $10,000 I wasn't buying stock, I was buying options, and I was controlling either bigger stocks or control using leverage to control more than I could afford. If I was buying the actual stock.

Jeff Kikel: 00:14:17

Protect yourself a little bit because you're not investing. You know, you're you're controlling 100 shares of stock with one option, but you're only investing in one option. So you're putting down a lot less money towards it.

James Brown: 00:14:31

You put down a lot less money and most people don't understand that you can't lose more than you put up in options. The second thing that most people don't understand is that I learned how to make money from stocks falling because stocks don't always go up so you can protect your account you can actually make money from stocks falling. So it's actually less risky than most people think people think options are risky and I like to say not using options is risky because if you only know how to buy low, sell high, you only make money one way and if the market goes up, then we all know that it doesn't go up. And so that's the steps that I would take if I was just getting started today, or I'm listening to this, like, how does it all work? It's like, learn how to read stock charts, learn how to use options to supercharge your profits when you're right, and learn how to use options to protect your account when you're wrong. Or if you think the market is going to go down. And then third, you just have to kind of break away from that old mindset of like, I'm going to find a financial advisor, I'm going to stick it in this 401k for 40 years. My problem with that was like, I need to change my life now, not in 40 years. And so I was like, How do I change my life now in the next five years, and that's kind of what our program is about. And that's what options trading is about. It's, you can use it for long term, but more importantly, you can use it to turn around your life and about the same time that it takes to get a college degree.

Jeff Kikel: 00:15:49

Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, you know, once again, this is a, yeah, it's not going to be for everybody, not everybody's going to want to spend the time. And I think it's more than anything. And it's what I talked to people about, when we talk about real estate, when we talk about any investments, even starting a business, you need to spend some money educating yourself on it first. So get a good grounding and a basis on it. And then start small, you know, think think in the JSON mode, pay only have 500 bucks or 1000 bucks, don't take your entire 401k that you've had sitting around and dump it into, you know, stock trading or options trading. If you don't know what you're doing. Yeah. And you haven't made those mistakes. I mean, you know, you you learned a pretty big, you got a pretty big education when you were trying to shoot for the moon and you know, ended up back in the back in your old bedroom at home. That was a hell of an expensive education. But I think it taught you about risk management.

James Brown: 00:16:49

Oh, it was it was the best and the worst thing that could happen to him, because now when I teach, that's why we have the sand on my shirt. You never go broke taking a profit. Like we teach people like look, you're up less follow the plan, is it 10% A month is it fit, like whatever the plan is, let's follow it. And let's not shoot for the moon never go broke taking a profit. We teach people risk management. And this isn't stuff I read in a book. This is stuff I live through. Email, people always ask well, how do you control your emotions, when you're up, I'm like, you try losing a quarter million like you don't do that, right? borrow my experience, like I my emotions are under control now, because I know, it can go back the other way. And so I teach real life principles that I went through. And that stuff that I'm reading in the book of how to control yourself, and you said something to like, most people won't spend the time. What I find interesting is it doesn't take a lot of time to get good at trading in the stock market. Let me give you a quick example. If you own 100 shares of Amazon Tesla, the stocks are like, you know, Amazon's trading, it would be $120. So I mean, if you got a $12,000 account, you can buy 100 shares, most people don't know that you can sell covered calls, which I call rental income, you can rent out your Amazon stock. And every month you can collect, you know, anywhere between three and $600. You don't have to look at it again, for 30 days, you can go work your job, do everything. And then if you can sell it again, you sell it again in 30 days. So there are strategies that don't require you to be in front of a computer, or do a lot of time. And then from a risk standpoint, we put people who say, Well, what if I lose all my money? Well, you own 100 shares of Amazon, the only way you lose 100% of your money is Amazon goes out of business. Well, what's the chances that kind of

Jeff Kikel: 00:18:37

The worst case scenario is your your stock gets called away from you at that point. And you've got to go back and buy it again, at a higher price. That's really the only

James Brown: 00:18:46

Strategy to get it at a discount, because you could sell what's called a covered put and get a discount on buying back into it. But people just don't understand. They're like, what's a covered put? What's a covered call? How does this work? And that's the part where nobody's explaining it in layman's terms. They're like, Oh, options are risky. You don't want to do that. And it's like, no, no, like, is actually less risky than you think. And it takes less time than you think. But there is a learning curve, like anything in life, you do have to learn the skill.

Jeff Kikel: 00:19:15

Well, it's funny, you know, as managing and and, you know, working with financial advisors, pretty good chunk of my career almost 30 years now. And you know, it was always the funny part because it's, I mean, options take, it just takes time to get it in your head to understand it. And once you do you get it. And it was just so funny to watch people as they were taking their series sevens, too, you know, it's like they just were beating their heads against the wall and then all of a sudden, one day the aha moment happens. And it's like, Oh, I get how that works now, and all you know, then it's Oh, okay. And then they totally forget it when they go in because all the firms that they work for, like no options bad, don't touch those. It's all Trouble? Yeah. Well, I mean, it's funny, you were talking about the Amazon strategy. I remember, you know, years years years back, I was, you know, kind of doing the same thing you were doing. But, you know, I was making really good money as a manager working for a firm and I was trading silver. And, you know, you always hear these guys, oh, you know, silver is gonna go through the roof. It's, you know, it's gonna go up to, you know, $150 an ounce and everything else. And, you know, I noticed a trend that it never seemed to go above 25. And the problem is, it's not a store of value like gold, it is in industrial metal, so it's only going to go up certain times. And I was Stein, I think, you know, I was doing a strategy where I was selling covered calls on on SLV. And I remember it was like, I picked the right spot. And I literally resold options on that thing for almost like 14 months straight. Because I would just hit that little part, right, it would hit that little pop, right? Just at the end of the the option cycle. And I'm like, Okay, well, I guess I'll just do the same thing again. And yeah, that one that one trade, I think I paid for, you know, I may have paid 10 grand for the stock and then made, you know, probably three times that amount back, just selling cover calls, which is such a, I mean, it's actually a pretty low risk strategy in the end. But yeah, hilarious. I mean, exactly the same thing. And you know, it's it's not hard. I didn't have to do a lot of work. I was really busy person. But I was doing that. But it just takes time understanding why and what and certainly educating yourself on those trends.

James Brown: 00:21:42

Yeah, absolutely.

Jeff Kikel: 00:21:44

Do you like your organization? Do you have like a special software that you use to do you know, to identify some of these trends and things like that? Are you mainly kind of identifying a group of stocks and you kind of keep your eye on them.

James Brown: 00:21:57

So we can use any software to identify the trends? I do. I did write some scans to find specific things like breakout break down. Bollinger band squeezes different things like that. But to the average person listening, I can take the most basic free software and weeble, Robin Hood, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, any trading platform, as long as I can pull up the chart, I can spot the patterns once I know what to look for. Now, once you know what to look for. So I don't want people to think there's some hocus pocus. Once you get this software, it saves your life just paying

Jeff Kikel: 00:22:34

This $1,000 a month for this software will make a fortune I mean, you will make a fortune.

James Brown: 00:22:40

Exactly No, I can do it with any free software on myself, I like to do it more on the computer screen because I'd love to have like six months, six to 12 months worth of chart data as hard as the hardest thing on the phone. But big picture, I could do it on the phone, do it on the computer, any free software, as long as you know what to look for. That's the king. It's kind of like the weather map on your phone like you know what to look for is a 76% chance it's gonna rain the day. It's like, okay, I understand that. There's different grass where you're like, there's the peak, there's the bottom and it keeps pinging between those two points. You know what to look for.

Jeff Kikel: 00:23:15

You're you're not necessarily a day trader, you're more of kind of a position trader.

James Brown: 00:23:22

Yeah, we're they call it a swing trader, we call ourselves power traders. That's our terminology sounds better swing trader, I like that better. So we look for these powerful chart patterns. And then we put powerful like we they use options to control a lot of power, or we put a lot of financial power behind it. And then we take a power profit, which is usually these 2030 40% returns that people blame. There's nobody making that. It's like no, there's some people making that they're just the banks aren't going to tell you how to make that because they want you to put your money in there and get 4% annually while they go do options or why they go loan the money out to people on 30 year mortgages and get a better return. So as people are getting those returns, you're just getting those returns. Yeah.

Jeff Kikel: 00:24:10

Well, Alex said I mean, it requires it and, uh, you're not going to find that in your traditional wealth management company. I mean, I think, you know, there's, it's not a bad thing for somebody to to have some exposure to, you know, all right, just the regular markets and you know, that piece, but, you know, also there's the option, the ability to enhance your returns with these type of approaches. I mean, I think it's right up there with starting a business or buying real estate or whatever, it's just a different vehicle to do it. It's somewhat in some cases less risky than then doing some other strategies like starting a business for passive income and and it can be done from anywhere in the world, which is phenomenal.

James Brown: 00:24:54

Exactly right. You just need a laptop and a high speed internet connection.

Jeff Kikel: 00:24:59

I love it a lot. Have it? Well, let's change gears here and talk about the Fast Five questions. You're ready. I'm ready. All right, here we go. So first one, you wake up in the morning, business is gone, you have 500 bucks in your pocket, laptop computer, place to live, food and clothing, what are you gonna do first.

James Brown: 00:25:19

So if I have $500 in my pocket, honestly, I'm either going to a get a job, or I'm either going to be start, you know, offering my skills, which is, you know, social media marketing or something like that to somebody where if I could start to make some margin between what it costs to live and have a little bit more margin to put into the stock market, but I'm immediately going to start investing that 500 bucks. And then I'm going to start either with a job or some type of small business or job and a side hustle, to where all that money from a side hustle, I can just dump straight into the stock market, and just start growing it again, because it's a skill that you know it you stick with you for the rest of your life. I started looking at the charts, and looking for the opportunity.

Jeff Kikel: 00:26:06

I love it. Absolutely love it. What's the biggest business mistake you've ever made?

James Brown: 00:26:12

Oh, biggest business mistake. I feel like business has been pretty good. I would probably say the biggest business mistake is ignoring some ignoring my own red flags and my hiring process. And then that person turned out to be exactly what that red flag said they would be. And it's like, I had a warning. And I was just like, well, I like this person, or they have a great personality. And I just, I was like our hiring process is the process for a reason. And when they failed a certain point, it says something about him and I ignored it. But now don't ignore. I don't care how well I like you. I don't care how good you talk. If you miss something in our process that is a big red flag. I'm just like, nope.

Jeff Kikel: 00:26:59

One of my one of the first interviews I ever did was a guy named Marcus out of Houston. And he had the best expression for this every I asked him that same question. He kind of answered the same way. But he finished it up with you can't have Eagles if you hire chickens.

James Brown: 00:27:16

Like that. I've heard it put like you can send ducks to Eagle school like Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah, I would say good to put a person say, she said, and I really liked this. I got this from Amy Porterfield, who's a big internet marketer. And she said, if it's not a hill, yes, then it's a hill. No. And I like that if I don't walk away, like, Yes, I gotta have this person on my team. No, I'm like, Dennis. Oh, heck no. Like that. Yeah,

Jeff Kikel: 00:27:47

I have to, I have to always I have to my belief and people tends to be bigger than their belief in themselves a lot of times. And so I have to step back from that and say, Okay, no, don't don't project what you think they are on to them if they don't believe who they are to begin with.

James Brown: 00:28:06

Yeah, let them you know, Let them

Jeff Kikel: 00:28:10

Prove it to me. Yeah, exactly. And if they if they can't prove it to me in the interview, they're not going to be able to prove it to me in the job.

James Brown: 00:28:19

What I'm paying him for. Hmm, awesome chance that they're not.

Jeff Kikel: 00:28:25

What's a good book that you would recommend for our audience?

James Brown: 00:28:29

You know, I actually have one of my all time favorites right here it would be thinking Grow Rich. First thing I think people need to mean that nice, nice the exact same copy to

Jeff Kikel: 00:28:42

The beat up old one. I think mine's a little yellower than yours. But yeah, same exact copy.

James Brown: 00:28:47

Yeah, it would be thinking Grow Rich, I think a lot of people, they they're so worried about the tactic of getting rich, but they're not really reprogramming their brain of how they need to think act and be how they need to perceive failure, which are certainly to be met with on your journey to becoming rich. And so I really think that book just really frames like the mindset, the energy, the tenacity, that you have to have to, you know, go on this wealth journey, because it's less about what you do and is more about, like, who you are at the core and how you think about money. I mean, you got to think I had to be a unique person to see an opportunity to take a $10,000 student loan. You got most college students who get a student loan and they go party with it. You got some people who's like I got a scholarship I don't need that money. I won't take it What if I lose it all, but it takes a certain type of mindset to say wait a minute, this is low interest rate is deferred interest rate until I graduate. I'm not taken to see if I can grow it and that takes a different mindset and books like thinking Grow Rich help you get into that mindset of seeing opportunity, where other people's see fear or scared of something.

Jeff Kikel: 00:29:58

Yeah, well, I mean it or just, they don't value how much that money actually could be worth down the road. Yeah, and I think you realize what that could potentially be worth,

James Brown: 00:30:08

You know, or put also like to say, when you said they don't value how much the money could be, they also don't value themselves. Some people are so scared to bet on themselves, they're like, you know, let the job telling me how much I'm worth, let someone else tell me how much I can make. Not a lot of people's like, I'm gonna bet on me, I'm gonna take this 10,000 and see what I can do, I believe in myself. And that just takes a whole different energy and mindset because we weren't really taught or raised like that. Give them your resume, let them tell you how much you were. Let them tell you when they come to work. Let them tell you how much you can make when you can take vacation, submit it and see if it gets approved. So when it comes to thinking about can I do something? They're looking around? Like, maybe I should ask my boss, you know, because that's what you've been taught? Versus I'm like, Nah, yeah, I can make $100,000 I can make a million.

Jeff Kikel: 00:31:01

Well, but, you know, in the end, you You sat back and went, Okay, well, alright, so I made 10. You know, I made $50 or $100? Well, geez, what if I just had more money to do that with, I could probably replicate the same thing. You know, and there's a lot of people that would get to that point. And they're like, Man, I made more money today than I've ever made on any day in my entire life. I'm just, you know, I'm done. I don't have to do anything anymore. But you just kept going? Well, let me just take it one step farther, one step farther, and then you took it one step too far, and then got knocked back. And, you know, you just went back and use the same knowledge that you have. And, you know, I think that was that more than anything, no matter what happens to you, they can't take away your experience or knowledge, period. Yeah, I'll go off on a whole book tangent, never get done. What is a tool that you use in your business every day

James Brown: 00:31:55

That you'd recommend? stock charts. I use charting every single day. So I looked at charts every day, even if it's just like, just the opening, just to see how the market open. I just said, Yeah, you know, first 10 minutes of the open, I just like to see how did the market open? How did the stocks come in open. And then about four o'clock, really about 330. I like to see how they're closing like how are stocks in or thinking about getting in performing going into the close, but chart, any type of chart and software, some that I use, or even just even on my iPhone on my home screen, you can't see it, probably, but I have the charts up of like four or five stocks that I felt like, so when there's two

Jeff Kikel: 00:32:39

Rolls on there, too. I could say,

James Brown: 00:32:40

You know, always reminds me like we've come this far. It's funny, sometimes the chart goes across the windshield, and it looks like the windshield is cracked. But I look at a stock chart every single day. That's the one tool I can't

Jeff Kikel: 00:32:59

Love it. Alright, final question. What is your definition of freedom?

James Brown: 00:33:04

So, you know, I've been asked this over, you know, different times, like, what does freedom mean? What does financial freedom mean? What does success mean? And for me, it boils down to really having time, money in my health without having to decide which one is more important. So that is freedom than me, you can have a lot of money, but you're physically not taking care of yourself. That's not wealthy. For me, you gotta have a lot of money and a lot of time, but you don't have a great relationship with your family. That's not wealth to me. So like, when you're truly free. You have time you have money, you have your health and your relationships without having to decide which one is important. That's freedom.

Jeff Kikel: 00:33:49

Yeah, I always love the expression, the money doesn't buy happiness, but I'm like, I was sure happier with money than I was when I didn't have it. That's for sure.

James Brown: 00:33:58

Absolutely. And the cool thing about you know, when people say money, no, by happening is this, like, true. But I have more resources to find happiness, I can hire a therapist, I can hire a coach, I can go visit Africa, you know, and see if that inspires me. Right? I have the resources to figure out why is it lacking?

Jeff Kikel: 00:34:19

Yeah, as well, you have the resources to give back to I mean, that's the other part, one of my friends said it best, you know, it's like Who can it because people get this thing about, well, if I make money, or if I have money, that I'm an evil person, and I'm like, you know, the expression I heard best was from my friend, Matthew Pollard, who said, you know, who can change the world more, the guy on the street corner with the little sign that says give peace a chance? or Bill Gates. Bill Gates changes the world every day. You know, and he the only way he did that was by having money. And you know, he didn't start from money. He he started being smart and figured out How to make money for that. And, you know, the next thing is he's given back to the world and he makes the world a better place every day.

James Brown: 00:35:07

Absolutely, I think about my church, you know, we went from, we just only be able to put $1 in the church, when we were little, and I used to be embarrassed, I would borrow the dollar up in my hand and kind of throw it in there hope nobody saw that over $1. Maybe they thought it was $10. But I think now to the amount that we're able to give them like, we're the ones that are funding these outreach project Z's going out into the neighborhood and taking things given baskets, right. And so you really realize the more money you have, you can really impact some of these causes that are near and dear to your heart by being a financial resource to go out into the community. Yeah, well, but I

Jeff Kikel: 00:35:47

think you know, even more than that, you you know, you and I and other people that have been successful, are great examples. For those kids that aren't, you know, they don't think of themselves as being able to be there or do that. Over time. You know, I think that's, that's the other part of it. I mean, I volunteer my time with a local incubator program, you know, helping kids that are in high school, learn how to start businesses. I mean, I wish I had that education. I mean, I had to, I had to spend eight years and almost lose my house to get that education. And they're getting it just by showing up to a class every day.

James Brown: 00:36:23

Yeah, essentially a volunteer running accelerator program for iOS Entrepreneurs Organization. Yeah, our coastal accelerators. But yeah, there's so many ways you can give back you have time. Yeah, financial resources, you have life experience, business experience. Now. It's just there's so many ways you can be an asset to your friends or family and the entrepreneur community at large mean, your podcast is going to help a ton of people just listen to these episodes, but it costs to have a microphone and have cameras and have the best recording software. Yeah,

Jeff Kikel: 00:36:57

Well, and just the time to be able to do it. I mean, that's, for me, that's that is the my freedom story was the fact that I have the freedom financially, that I can spend time doing this. And I don't have to worry about making money. I mean, I've got money coming in. And I can focus on doing this type of stuff. Because I feel like it's extraordinarily important for the world. And you're doing the same thing. It's what you did on your YouTube channel, you know, you built you built a nice little Empire, and you're on your YouTube channel, by just going you know what, I'm gonna show other people that this isn't as hard as everybody makes it sound like.

James Brown: 00:37:35

And the cool part is, we're both doing it in the middle of the day, right? Yeah, we don't have to ask our boss if we could take him on record.

Jeff Kikel: 00:37:43

Know, finally, I have to answer to my wife. And she's the worst boss I've ever had. But we'll just go with that. Because she's at the office right now. And I'm sitting at home, working in the studio at home. So yeah, that's, that's, that's the challenge. But well, Jason, thank you, my friend, I so appreciate you being on it was just an absolutely enjoyable conversation. You're an inspiring inspiration to folks. And I hope they're inspired to take the time to look, what's the best way if somebody wants to learn a little bit more about what you do? And the brown report? What's the what's the best place to find you?

James Brown: 00:38:18

Yeah, and thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it good conversation. And the the best way to find me is just go to the brown report.com, then connect with my LinkedIn there, my Youtube, Instagram. And then a lot of people always ask kind of like you did in the beginning, like what's the best way to get started, we also have something called the stock market starter pack, which will teach the three most profitable patterns. And we have the stock option starter pack, which will teach you how to use calls and put options completely free. It's just a PDF download that people can get. But all of those resources are just right at the brown report.com.

Jeff Kikel: 00:38:54

Love it. Love it. Well, fantastic. We'll put a link to that down in the show notes. Folks, thank you very much for spending your time with us today. It's been a pleasure to share Jason's story with you. And to be able to share another method or another way that you reach your Freedom Day. We do these shows twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So make sure wherever you're at you subscribe to the channel and being hit that little button that notifies you when a new show comes out. If you're watching us on YouTube, we're really launching our YouTube channel massively. And we're dropping a video a day for the next 60 days. So make sure if you want to learn more about the the Freedom Day story and certainly in anticipation of the Freedom Day book, which he was going to be coming out in about six weeks. Make sure you go to our Freedom Day or freedom nation by Jeff Kikko YouTube channel and we will see you back here the very next time.