From Homeless Widowed to Successful Wholesaler with Bryce McKinley

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From the moment I heard Bryce Mckinley’s 30-second intro on a Mastermind call we were in together, I knew I had to get him on the show. Bryce’s. life story is incredible.

From losing his wife and child, spiraling into a deep depression and becoming homeless, to building multimillion-dollar real estate businesses, he is an incredible man living his life by faith.

Listen and hear more Bryce’s life, experiences, and business as a wholesaler and coach.

Connect with Bryce:

Passive income is in your future. See your potential now: https://bit.ly/3JqHugx

Listen HERE or watch on YouTube: CLICK HERE!

TRANSCRIPTS:

It’s true. I felt like I couldn’t share anything with people because

I just took some time off to really find myself. And about a year ago, actually a year ago, last month, February of 2023, I decided

Chris Miles was able to retire twice by the time he was 39 years old. But he’s not content to just enjoy his own financial freedom and peace of mind. Chris wants you to have your own ripple effect so you can live free today. He’s not the financial advisor you expected. He’s the anti Financianal advisor you deserve. He’s jumping behind the mic right now, ready to make waves. Here’s Chris Miles.

Hello my fellow Ripples. This is Chris Miles, your cashflow expert and anti financianal advisor. Welcome Schultz for you that works so hard for your money and you’re now ready because you’ve been sick and tired of it. You’re now ready for your money to start working harder for you today. You want that freedom and cashflow right now, not 30 or 40 years now for now, because you want to be able to do what you want with those that you love. And most importantly guys, it’s not just about getting rich because as you create a richer life, you have a greater capacity to bless the lives of those around you, creating a ripple effect through them. Thank you so much for allowing me to create a ripple effect through you. As you guys have been tuning in, you’ve been binging and you’ve been sharing all these episodes.

And again, I just love seeing this podcast grow. But most importantly, it’s not just about growing this podcast, it’s about growing you and your life. Thank you so much for tuning in. As a reminder, if you haven’t done so now, go ahead, hit the bell. If you were missing out on video, especially when we always have continuing education, be sure to do that as well as like, and subscribe on this station, whatever. This is not a radio station, guys. That was so 15 years ago. No, we’re on a podcast now, so definitely be sure to like and subscribe. Alright guys, I’m really excited to have my guest today. I have Bryce McKinley on with us. I actually, I’ve never met him face to face yet. We got to miss each other here at a recent mastermind. But I mean, not only is this guy successful in the real estate space, he’s been teaching lots of people with a wholesaling and things like that.

But this guy has been involved in over 10,000 transactions in his lifetime here. Not only has he created that expertise, he’s also been a speaker. He’s been a trainer for many Fortune 500 companies. I mean, this guy has been selling since he was eight years old, so now he’s been helping people that way. He’s also the CEO of Sharpen, which is a nonprofit based in Dallas that we might even talk about that way as well. But again, just excited to have him here because he’s got his own business. They runs called The Five Hour Home Buyers, which you guys are definitely welcome to check out and we’ll be sure to have him share with us that contact information. So Bryce, so excited to have you on today.

Excited to be here, Chris. Thank you, man. I appreciate you. Glad we, I’m on your radio show, appreciate it.

It’s not FM or M, it’s like GM or whatever we want to call pm There you go. It’s podcast,

The triple Quad band.

That’s right. You’re on the waves.

I love it. I love it, man. I’m excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

Absolutely, Bryce. So tell us more about you and your story. I know your story impacted me so much. I was literally almost in tears in a 32nd intro that you had given. Tell us more about you and your story.

Yeah, gosh, where do I start? I’ve been in business for myself since I was eight years old. Growing up in northern Illinois. I had a paper out of eight and you had to be 10. I didn’t know this, I don’t think my parents even knew this until the first pay cycle came around. And I’ll never forget Karen, ironically, that’s now a thing, but her name was Karen. She was my route manager. She came by the house to drop off my first check and let me know that they had to let me go because I wasn’t 10. And I remember sitting there looking at my parents, looking at her, looking at my parents, and I’m like, gosh, I’ve had this route for two, three weeks. Obviously I’m doing a great job. I’ve had no complaints, no missed papers. Why don’t we just put the route in my dad’s name and when I turn 10, you give it back to me and I take on more responsibilities.

And it just happened naturally. It was a no brainer for her at the time, no need to fill in and deliver papers herself till she found somebody to replace me. So we did that. We put the route in my dad’s name and within six months I had five additional routes and hacked by the age of 10. And I was making more money than my parents were. My dad was a truck driver. My mom worked at a factory. We were pretty poor and just been blessed to understand human dynamics and networking, sales conversations, things like that. And so that’s kind of where my career started, got into some trouble.

It’s funny you mentioned your first job. The manager’s name was Karen because that was my mom’s name. Well, still is my mom’s name, but she was my first job when I was eight years old. I worked at her art gallery making like three 15 an hour. Nice. It’s kind of fun world. So yeah, go ahead and continue. Tell us more.

Yeah, so shortly thereafter, by the age of 1213, my parents separated and I had grown up in a very cult-like religion, Chris. And so everything that I knew about God was nine days out of week at church, Sunday school, youth group, youth choir, women’s choir, male choir. My dad was in the quartet. My mom was in the women’s trio. It was like we lived at church, we eat, sleep and breathe church. And when my parents separated, I went into this just dark place in my life, rebellious and hanging out with the wrong crowd, gotten myself into a bunch of trouble. And by the age of 17, I was facing a lot of time in the criminal justice system. And I remember hearing the judge dismiss my case due to some technicalities and my uncle taking me by the ear out of the courtroom and said, you’re going to come get right and live with me, put me on a couch in his basement. And there I am washing cars of a small little car dealership in Davenport, Iowa. And I figured if I could sell dope in Chicago, I could sell trucks to farmers in Iowa. That was kind of my mentality because I had been hanging, especially in Davenport

Crowd. I mean, you could sell anything to people there, right? Exactly. Shout out to Danielle who works for a company living in Davenport.

Yeah, small world if you know someone in Davenport, Iowa. And that was the mentality I had. And he put me in a wash bay detailing cars, and after about a year of begging him to let me sell cars, let sell cars, I could do this. I seen the car salesman making good money and good money at the time was six figures. And here’s these car salesmen making multi six figures. There’s three or four of ’em in the small little dealership. I’m like, gosh, I can do this. And it was the middle of December, snowstorm blizzard as they have in Iowa. Wind is blowing in my face and not washing any cars. Nobody showed up to the dealership that day and we’re all hanging out inside me and my uncle and the little old lady in the back of the office that we had given a ride into that morning to the office.

And he’s like, if you could sell a car today, I’ll put you on the team next week when you turn 18 or next year, whatever. And that’s what I did. I went out to the service department at the time. I had a bad habit of smoking. I went out to the service department to smoke a cigarette. I seen all the names and phone numbers of the people that were supposed to be coming in that day that weren’t showing up to their appointments and started dialing, grabbed a phone book, started dialing, and I had five people show up that day. I sold three trucks and an SUV or two trucks and an SUV, excuse me, to three people and I was hooked. I was just hooked on helping people get what they want before I even knew that Zig Ziglar said that. And the rest is history.

Fast forward into the automotive industry. I was one of the number one car salesman in the world for a Ford motor company. Recruited out of my dealership, traveled with Ford Nissan later Toyota, Honda, and Volvo would pick me up teaching my five and seven steps to business and communication. And the rest is history, man. I blew up in the corporate sector, did really well, had some contracts with Tyco Corporation, Owens Corning, doing sales training manuals, organization curriculums, things like that. Unfortunately, my wife at the time, she had a baby that passed and then going through legal deposition, she ended up committing suicide and doing too much alcohol and medication. And man, that was devastating. It was devastating. Her mom had been my Sunday school teacher growing up, so I had known her my entire life. It was like we were Bonnie and Clyde, we were going to change the world.

When I lost her between 2008 and 2011, I pissed away, upped my nose and in a bottle and lots of bad conversations down the drain. Relationships just tore apart art. I ended up homeless, sleeping in my car millions of dollars later and five companies thrown right out the window. And September 28th, man, my life changed forever. 2011, I had just recently gotten sole custody of a child that I had during that crazy time had sobered up. I realized I couldn’t do it on my own. And I think that’s a big problem with a lot of us entrepreneurs or even entrepreneurs. You think you can go at it alone and that’s just not the case. It’s lonely at the top anyways. So to try to do everything by yourself, all by yourself, you’re setting yourself up for failure. If there’s one tip you can take away, write that down.

Don’t go at it alone. I realized that that was the case, but I didn’t feel like I had anyone. And September 28th, 2011, man, I wrote a letter to my son. I wrote a letter to my mom and I pulled my car out into the middle of a busy intersection at one two o’clock in the morning and put the gun in my mouth that had never jammed before. It hasn’t jammed since, but that night it jammed in my mouth three times. I’ve never been the same sense. I’ve had a completely different shift in perspective on life, on business, on human dynamics and how the brain works and the limiting beliefs that hold us back. And yeah, man, that’s my story. Now you fast forward 13 years later, 12 and a half, 13 years later. I’ve been blessed. I found real estate shortly thereafter on a computer at the library when I was looking for a job.

And man, the rest is history. I’ve just been blessed beyond my wildest dreams, even going through tough times after the fact. I mean, I’ve had business partners still millions of dollars for me in the last couple of years, had to re-pivot, shut things down, restart things up, and even still, I’m able to look at the glass, not from a place of half full or half empty, but that there’s just something in it and keep going. There’s still something in it. And I think that that’s probably the makeup that I have if you wanted to get to know me, is just keep going. Just keep going.

Persistent. You don’t give up.

That’s it. That’s it.

You almost did. Which by the grace of God, I mean you’re here today. That’s amazing.

Yeah, I don’t recommend anybody playing God or giving themselves an ultimatum like that. Definitely not the answer, but that’s my story. And so I believe because I’m here, I’m here for a purpose and hopefully it’s to inspire and encourage and share the wisdom I’ve learned along the way.

That’s obviously true. Like we said about don’t go it alone because shared that on a few occasions on this podcast where 2008, 2009, I had already gone from pretty much millionaire in 2007 to upside down millionaire by 2008, 2009, with all the real estate going upside down and everything. And I remember, I mean I haven’t shared this before on the show, but I remember there was some times, there was a few times I thought, you know what, if I just somehow die, at least my family will get the life insurance, they’ll be better off than where we are right now. It’s just a mess. And our house got foreclosed on and April, 2009, a week before my fourth child was born and all that kind of stuff. And it’s true, I felt like I couldn’t share anything with people because I felt like I had a disease. I felt like I had the scarcity disease that I didn’t want to spread on other people. I thought if I just get myself to a place of abundance, then I’ll talk about it rather than, no, I’m suffering right now. Even if it’s just a lending ear, I need somebody to help out.

I think a lot of us get stuck in our own way, and when push comes to shove, we decide to go in versus out. If you’re not solving the problem now, you’re not going to solve it in the middle of a tough situation.

So true. So how do you feel like that persistence helped you not just find real estate, but really get into that field a very different thing? I mean, there’s a sales element involved, but I mean this is a very big pivot for you to be able to make this change.

Yeah, that’s a great question, Chris. For me, I thought it was easier than what it was, and so I just did it. I remember sitting at the computer at the library and applying for jobs and getting targeted or hit with an ad or something on YouTube. And then I went and searched that, which at the time was what we now know as wholesaling, but it was flipping houses with no money and whatever the ad was, I don’t remember what it was, but I started realizing there are people in tough situations. There are people that have money that don’t know how to find them, and you can connect the two and make money doing it. And we now know this as wholesaling. I didn’t know what it was at the time. And so I started calling for sale by owners off of Craigslist, off of Facebook.

Marketplace was still fairly new at the time, fsbo.com. Zillow at the time wasn’t this big marketing arm that it is now. So not everybody and their brother was calling through those. And I was just under this impression that there’s people that need help selling their house that can’t go the conventional route. I’m going to call them and have a conversation with them and find somebody that will pay me a higher premium than what I contract. And so how behind that is really just, I thought it was easier than what it was. I didn’t have any of these preconceived notions. I went into this with an open mind and an open eye just to look for the opportunity. I think that’s, for me is probably what it was, is just I didn’t know how hard it was. I just went to work.

Yeah. Well, and I noticed there’s a common thread here because just like you said in the car business, it was always about how to give people what they want. It sounds like you kind of carried that same perspective into this one as well.

Yeah. Yeah. Not a lot of difference. Like I said earlier, I later learned Zig Ziglar said it best, if you help enough people get what they want, you can have anything your heart’s desire. And I found that people needed to sell a house that they felt that they couldn’t and they needed help doing that and didn’t want to work with the realtor. They didn’t want to do the showings or they didn’t want or couldn’t afford to fix it up so that it could pass inspections and things like that. And I just found those people.

Yeah. Now, is this still what you’re doing today or have you taken a different pivot at this point?

It is. Yeah. So we built two very large successful wholesale companies. Sold those about six and seven years ago. Took about a year and a half, two years hiatus and decided to start coaching. If I missed that consulting training aspect of what I had done in corporate, that’s my honey hole, that’s my superpower. I can teach just about anybody how to do anything that I’ve done already and break it down really, really simplistically. And so I started teaching sales conversations in and around real estate as well as wholesaling and fixing and flipping. Did that very successfully and did well for about two and a half, three years. And then about a year and a half ago, I realized that I had a bad business partner that was stealing money from me, and I was sick of being the guru at the top that everybody depended on because I didn’t like making social media content, things like that.

So I shut everything down, turned back to my faith. I’m like, all right, God, what do you want me to do? And what is it that I’m supposed to be doing? I just took some time off to really find myself. And about a year ago, actually a year ago, last month, February of 2023, I decided to turn the lights back on and start a new wholesale company. And that’s what we did. And we’ve been doing pretty well, pretty well. First year in business, my partner, new partner and I are on payroll. We’re profitable, we’re doing a lot of deals, more deals in one month than most people do in a lifetime. And I’ve just been blessed with simplicity systems and processes and great people that we’ve been able to hire and bring in to help propel that dream.

How do you feel you’re doing it differently this time around?

Yeah, so we’ve been, one of the things that we or I or my team has done is we’ve been completely virtual, like this entire career of real estate, this last 13 years plus has been completely virtual. I’ve walked in 10,000 plus transactions. I’ve walked maybe five or six houses. So there’s that element to it, right? This time around, we’re in the process of building a tech stack. So I tried to mute myself. I actually had a call coming in, I forgot to turn my ringtone, my call forwarding onto my team. But we’re building a tech stack that’s dialers and texts and email and marketing automation and conversations on top of social media management, on top of ad management, all in one place. Easy to duplicate when you can manage things all in one place. And that’s what we’re working on. So I don’t know, it’s fail safe. Everything just falls into one place online for us. So that’s what we’re doing differently.

See, when you were saying that in my tech unsavvy brain, I thought that sounds hard. And you’re like, no, that makes it way easier

For me. It’s about the same. I’m the same way. I’ve always wanted something that was an all in one place, but I didn’t know how to go out and create that. And so having good people that I’ve been able to network with, show me this system or that system, try this as an add-on, build something different better. Yeah, I’m with you. It’s been a little overwhelming for sure.

It sounds like you kind of mastered it at this point, right?

I’ve got a good team. I’ve got a good team. For sure.

For sure. That’s essential. You got to have a good team for that. That’s it. Well, let me ask you this before I ask you one last question here is people want to follow you. Obviously you’re a natural teacher. If people want to follow you, what’s the best way they can do that?

Yeah, so I mean if you look at my name, Bryce McKinley, I’m on all platforms. I’m not super active a lot anymore, but I’ve got probably the most content on Facebook. So you can search my name and find me there. I’ve actually got a Facebook group that I’m no longer really super active in, but it’s got almost four years of cold calling and coaching calls in the group that you can have access to the world. It’s for free. It’s a public group. So

If somebody wants to get into this kind of business, you’ve got all kinds of content, all kinds of free resources, they can access that.

Yeah, for sure, for

Sure. Awesome. Yeah, we’ll be sure to put that in show notes too, just to make sure we can pass that along. Well, Bryce, let me ask you this question. I mean, what lights your fire right now? What lights you up?

That’s a tough one. That’s a tough one, Chris. For me, I wake up every day and finding my faith and my calling closer and closer to who I am and what I’m doing. But to say one thing lights me up, I would really have to say that I am really drawn to or excited to see people come into faith or come into a relationship with God, to be honest with you. I mean, there’s nothing more that lights me up than sharing my testimony or sharing insight on a relationship. I said this once a while back, and I’ll say it again. We’re just simply humans living. We’re spiritual beings living a human experience.

And I think so often we go through this life with what can I do to be better, to do better? And that’s exactly what religion is. It doesn’t matter what religion, you name it, that’s religion. What can I do today to be better, a better human, a better person, a better closer walk with my God, whatever that God is to you. For me, it’s Jesus. And I know that beyond a shadow of a doubt because I had a relationship with him. And so for me, what lights me up, man, is just to see people come into a new relationship with God. And I’m hoping that you call him Jesus like myself because there’s only one real God out there, and he’s proven that thousands of times over and over. It’s your responsibility if you don’t know that, to seek that out and understand.

Well, that might even tie in with what I was going to ask you next, which is, so I guess there’s one extra bonus question here, but the question would be is what advice would you give somebody who maybe feels like they’re struggling right now, or maybe even just they’re looking for something more in their life? What would you suggest?

I live my life by a few core values, and one of them is the first one is just to trust Jesus. So I mean, if you’re looking for more, that generally is a generic statement, but if you’re looking for more is kind of respective to what, if you’re looking for more finances, go hang out with people that are in the financial world. If you’re looking for more real estate, go hang out with people that do real estate. If you’re looking for more money, go hang out with people that make money. It’s kind of go where the people are, is what I like to say. So it really depends on what you want more of. But if you’re looking for more out of life, someone wants said, I prayed to God for patience and he gave me kits. I prayed to God for strength and he made me sick.

It’s these things like it really depends on what more is that you’re looking for. But for me, knowing that I’m going to expire one day here on this earth and live eternally as a spirit with God, I want more of that every day. And so to me for that, it’s trusting Jesus and getting to know who he is. I mean, no matter what religion or faith you are, you can’t deny that he walked this earth. He did the miracles that he did. And if you’re looking at other religious beliefs that still point back to the God that I serve, you might want to just check him out. That’s the way I look at it.

Amen, brother. I love it. Oh man, I appreciate your time here today, Bryce. Like I said, we’ll put your social media here, the handles in our show notes so everybody can connect with you that way. But again, thank you so much. And really, you are living what we talk about in the show, which is not just getting rich, but living rich life by creating a ripple effect in others’ lives. So I just want to thank you for doing that.

I appreciate that. Yeah. One of the toughest conversations I had to have with my wife who newly married in the last five years, Chris is having the conversation of my bank accounts are froze. I had to sue my business partner and everything’s shut down. And having that conversation opened the idea of her temporarily supporting and having faith and confidence in me to know that I’d be able to turn it around. And having done that, or in the process of doing that, that gave us a lot of freedom. Did it create some tension and some heartache? But we knew we were on the same page. And so living free and having everything is just perspective. And it’s been one of the biggest blessings that I’ve ever experienced in disguise of a tough time.

You have it, folks. It is one thing to listening to this, it’s one thing to be a hero of the word. It’s another thing to be a doer of the word, right? A lot of times being a doer is doing the thing that you think is the opposite of what you want, but it’s actually the very thing that gets you what you want. So everybody just challenge you to whatever you’re looking more for, just be careful what you ask for because you will get it. So anyways, guys, make it a wonderful and prosperous week and we’ll see you later.