You want to build wealth so you can get out of the pointless daily grind. You want to build a dream life for yourself and your family. You want to build a legacy that even your grandchildren can be proud of. But where do you start? And more importantly, how do you achieve results faster? The bad news is there are very few people out there who will teach you how to do this. The good news is the people who do teach this are legitimate givers who go out of their way to extend a hand to others. And here’s one right now on the show with Chris Miles. Tune in to this episode and let Brian Fouts, CEO of Living Legacy Association, take you for a ride as he shares everything one needs to know about real wealth-building and legacy-building. Among many other things, Brian discusses who finding your purpose and being clear on your legacy will help you speed up results. Join in and start your learning and doing process now!
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How Purpose And Legacy Speed Up Results With Brian Fouts
I brought out a guest. He is someone who has become a really good friend of mine, Brian Fouts here. This guy has got such a cool story that I want you guys to hear about. He struggled on that traditional path, maybe like some of you are on now. He had basically accumulated almost no wealth. He decided to go on this journey to educate himself about money, wealth, and what real investing actually is.
He has a very similar path to me in a lot of ways. He learned strategies anywhere, from real estate investing to lending, cash banking, you name it. The knowledge he has got him these great tools but especially got him more control over his life and his financial destiny, especially. As a result, he has now created The Elevation Group. He started helping many people to be able to create their own freedom and their own path of success as well. Brian, welcome to our show.
I appreciate it, Chris. Thanks for the invite. It’s awesome to be here.
Fill in the blanks. Tell us a little bit about who Brian is and what got you here.
I started out in life on that traditional path, with lower to middle-income family, good parents, and all that kind of stuff. I was taught from a young age to try hard, go to school, get good grades there, get a job, work hard there, put money into a 401(k), and save for the future. That whole traditional path was what I was force-fed in life. It’s exactly what I did. I went to school at Washington State University. I got a degree in Construction Management and dove into that career. I was in that career for about thirteen years and did all the traditional trappings of that path. I got a mortgage, car loan, student loans, credit card debts, and personal line of credit, and all of these things. I was dead inside.
I did not enjoy what I was doing because I realized that I didn’t have a personal purpose in my life. I realized eventually I was going through these motions that I was taught to go through. I realized that I’m just doing the same thing everybody else who was around me is doing. That’s all I’m doing. I’m not living with any passion or purpose. What happened and what switched for me is I realized I’m working for an employer. I’m making them money, and they’re paying me for my time, and that’s a bit. I realize I’m putting money into a 401(k). I’m making a 401(k) provider a bunch of money and fees, yet I’m taking all the risk. I realized I’m getting a mortgage.
I thought about that, and eventually, I started reading some books and started getting into finances because I realized I didn’t have any financial literacy. That was the one thing I realized I didn’t have. I went to school, got a degree, and I had no financial literacy or knowledge about money. When I started to learn that space, it took many years. I realized when I had a mortgage, I was making the bank money. I was an asset for them, yet I had a liability that was sucking away my cash loan and my wealth. I got a car loan, and it was the same thing.
I’m making a lender a bunch of money, yet I have a liability that’s reducing my wealth. It’s the same for student loans, credit cards, and all these things. I realized there’s a whole other world out there that I’m not seeing. There’s a world of the 1%, or the other side that I’m not privy to because I’m not taught that. I looked around and saw it. Guess what? That’s what we’re being forced. That’s what we’re being taught. We are being funneled like cattle to make other people very wealthy. Call it the government or all these different organizations.
That was a huge awakening for me that’s putting me on this whole path and mission that I’m on today to understand how money truly works, how the 1% do things differently, why we are doing what we’re doing, and why we are here. As you alluded to it, it’s about having that life where you can live a passion and build a legacy you can be proud of. That set me on my journey and there were some rocky experiences. I ended up losing everything at one point in time by going massively into debt of over almost $500,000.
I really didn’t understand what I was doing and trying to learn all these things because there wasn’t any place to go to learn all this stuff. That was the start of my journey. I dug a big hole, and it set me on a passion and a mission to find out what was going on, teach other people about that same journey, and how to have the same success that I’ve experienced throughout my life so far.
How did Elevation Group get into this?
Elevation Group is a business that I came across when I was on my journey. I was still learning and still trying to experiment with some different entrepreneurial things in real estate. I came across the business and fell in love with it because I realized that it was the gold mine that I’d been looking for. It was that source of knowledge, source of opportunity, and source of resources that I was missing in my life.
I dove into that business. From what I learned inside that business, I ended up acquiring that business, which is an eight-figure business with no money down, no personal money. I acquired this massive business and set myself on a whole other journey to help and educate people because I have a huge passion for this. I dove into it. I started learning about all these things. I built a massive network. I have spent multiple 6-figures to 7-figures, just learning and building a network, getting access to all these advisors, and making the Elevation Group a powerful place where people can go and learn. One of the things that I learned is, one of the best things you can do on this journey is to find out your purpose, your passion, and your big why.
What is your why? Why are you doing this? Here I was with this business. I had some challenges in that business, Elevation Group, trying to make it grow, but something wasn’t in alignment. If you’ve ever been in life and you’re not aligned with what you’re doing, whether it’s a job, a career, a business, or a relationship, it’s challenging. It is so hard. I see that oftentimes when it comes to building wealth. People are so challenged. They don’t understand why they’re not having success. It’s because they’re not in alignment.
They’re trying to work a job they don’t like. They’re trying to invest in something they don’t understand. They’re trying to run a business they don’t have any passion about or don’t understand either, and they’re challenged. One of the things I’ve seen with a lot of my advisors, friends, and network that have success is they find that big why first, and then everything follows behind it, versus trying to find that perfect, “I’m going to make $1 million, and then I’m going to be happy.” That’s not the way that it works. I realized with my Elevation Group business that it wasn’t in alignment with what I wanted to do.
We had a lot of content that we created. Now, we’re in the middle of rebranding it to Living Legacy Association. Our new brand for the Elevation Group is Living Legacy Association, and it’s a cool one. It’s how to teach people how to have financial mastery in their lives so they can take control of their lives, have that financial independence that they dream of, and create that legacy they can be proud of but also live today. The way we do that inside Living Legacy, we have what we call our 5-Step Elevation Method™. We walk people all the way through from basic to no financial literacy or knowledge or mastery to becoming a financial master in their life.
It’s being able to invest, understand how to grow and create capital, how to create cashflow, how to acquire assets, and how to become a real money master in their life and create that legacy. We have that 5-Step Elevation Method™. Here’s what’s really cool. These lessons are taught by financial experts. Chris, you’re in there as an example. We’ve got Robert Kiyosaki in there, teaching them strategies and lessons. One of the things that I learned is that I don’t need money to make money. That was one of my biggest epiphanies. I acquired an eight-figure business with no money down. I just acquired a percentage in another business with no money, and it’s going to be a massive business. That’s one of the first things I learned about what we teach inside there.
You don't need money to make money. Click To TweetThe other is that there are opportunities and strategies that the ultra-wealthy 1% use that the average person can use as well. That was something that I didn’t understand. I thought that this is their strategy, but I realized it was not. When you have the knowledge and access, anybody can do this stuff. The last thing I realized when I was building this new brand was this. Have you heard the term, “Your network is your net worth?” Yes, to a degree. Accessing the 1% or accessing their knowledge and strategies is really where it’s at. Being part of another network doesn’t mean you got to have to sit down and have lunch with those people. Surround yourself with that knowledge, and you’ll absorb it and you’ll start to understand it. All of these things are possible when you have that knowledge.
Guess what? In this day and age, you can get it. That’s one of the things that we do in Living Legacy. Our membership is to teach people that 5-Step Elevation Method™ and how to do all of these things that we’ve done in our own lives and teaching them. Chris, you’ve done them as well. We have courses on real estate, banking strategy, how to become your own bank, how to do day trading, and also how to invest. We got a lot of resources inside there. The cool thing is as we have this brand, Living Legacy, that is now in alignment with what I’m doing, and it’s exciting to have that in your life. For those that are reading this, find that purpose and that why. Why do you want to do these things? Why do you want to invest? Why do you want to have the cash and this freedom in your life?
Have that first, and then when you come across the opportunities, the knowledge, or the strategies, it becomes easier because all of a sudden, you’re excited. You know why you’re going to learn the strategy. You know why you’re going to put money into this asset class. You’re going to know why you’re doing these things. That, for me, has been one of my biggest epiphanies. It’s understanding why I’m doing this. For some people, it’s their families. For some, it’s something else. For some, it’s bigger. For some, it’s a legacy. What is that reason? You then follow that. Find those things that can really fulfill you. That’s where I’ve had success in my life. That’s what we teach now inside Leaving Legacy.
I’ve spoken with people that have been through your program or been doing the program currently, and there’s some amazing stuff you teach in there. We teach a lot about passive income in our program. You teach a lot about how to create that active income now and how to build that wealth, so then you could have additional passive income down the road, too. There are some cool ways that people can start businesses, even if it’s a side hustle, wherever it can be. There are so many things you could do there that, strategy-wise, you don’t see that taught very often.
When I went to school and stuff, none of the stuff was taught. I was taught, “You work hard, you save money, and then you stop working. You live off of what you have, but a smaller percentage of it.” I had that laid out in front of me, this plan. I said, “Wait a second, I’m going to work for 40 years. Let’s say I’m making $200,000 by the time I’m done and retire.” Now I’m 65 and inflation has happened. Now I’ve got to survive on $100,000 or $120,000 a year in retirement. That sounds like it’s going to be a lesser quality of life. I’m like, “This sounds like a pretty crappy plan.” I remember that. One of the first things I realized is I had to focus on what’s my mindset around money. I had all these misconceptions about it.
One thing I thought of it was I didn’t understand the three sources of income. There are three sources, and the main one is what you want to focus on. There’s active income, which is trading time for money. If you stop doing that, you stop making money. There’s portfolio income. In my world, a portfolio is like stocks or 401(k). You have to sell the asset to create the cashflow. I’m like, “That’s the traditional path right there.” Active income, and then portfolio, and then you die. I realize that’s a scary concept if you’re going to be selling an asset and hoping that it doesn’t run out before you do. The third one is passive income, the cashflow that you talk about. That’s where a lot of people are working their entire lives but not realizing that they need to be focusing on that other one.
Leveraging your active and your portfolio into that passive one is where things start to happen. We talk about different ways to do that. Those are online businesses, eCommerce businesses, and buy a business. By the way, that’s phenomenal one right now. Buying an existing business is an incredible opportunity. You can acquire real estate with no money down if you really want to get into it. That’s how I got my start.
There’s so much out there, but here’s a thing. Have some steps to go through to create that, and that’s the huge thing. We used to have a vault of information, but now we have a 5-Step Elevation Method™ that people then can follow and realize, “I’m building my foundation. Now, I’m going to protect what I have around me, so I have that certainty, then I’m going to grow it. I’m going to become an entrepreneur. Maybe if I want to be a business owner, then I’m going to invest that capital to create that cashflow, and then I’m going to have a legacy I can be proud of.”
That path right there, I have seen it. Time and time again, people go through that. I realize we have all the content to help everybody walk through these steps easily and the connections to have them implemented for them. It’s essentially almost done for you. You go there, you learn, you choose what you want to do, the advisors will connect you with you, and they put it in place.
It can be simple, but here’s the thing. Nobody’s teaching this stuff out there. There’s nowhere to go to find this stuff out. If you go to traditional financial planners, they’re going to give you their plan for you, versus you having a plan of what you want to accomplish and they can help you implement that plan. That was the big switch for me there as well. The traditional methods can work sometimes, but the problem is the people that are like me or the individuals who don’t have a plan. We don’t understand how to utilize those things to create an overall life that we can be proud of. Instead, now you have people that can’t retire, struggling, and are challenged. The middle class is shrinking.
Wealth is being transferred to those that are in the know. That’s what I believe when it comes to money, wealth, the 1%, and everybody else. Realistically, you just got to understand what’s going on with the other side of the equation. What’s going on the other side of the curtain or behind the scenes? Once you can see that and understand it, it becomes simpler to build wealth and create that cashflow you want in your life. You have to access that 1%. That’s what you and I both do. We help people do that.
I want to go back to a point. You keep saying legacy and purpose. It’s funny. We just did a show on how to identify that purpose. What’s the purpose in your life? I’m curious. What’s a good first step for somebody? If they’re trying to get clear on what that why or that purpose is, what do you recommend?
There are three steps that I look at. The first two are what you’re talking about. There are some exercises that we have inside of our membership that help people accomplish this at a very deep level. The first step is to identify where you are right now. A lot of people don’t truly understand that where they are in life today is a result of their subconscious programming and their journey so far through life.
Influences from family, friends, employers, social media and all those things have led you to make decisions, oftentimes subconsciously, that led you to where you’re at today. As an example, if you’re not quite happy with where you’re at today, you’ve got to understand why. What has influenced you? What are your thoughts about money that might be limiting you?
If you're not quite happy with where you're at today, you need to understand why. Click To TweetOne of the things I do with people is say, “Write down what you think about the rich. What do you think about money? What do you think about the 1%? How do you feel about investing? How do you feel about passive income?” Start getting your thoughts out and start to look. Are there any limiting beliefs that would hold you back from having all the things in your life? “What do you think of the 1%?” “They’re sleazy and skeezy. They’re not paying their fair share in taxes. They’re taking money from the 1%. They should give the money back to everybody else.” If you have those kinds of beliefs, I can tell you right off the bat that you’re probably not going to be the 1% or have that success because you cannot become what you do not like.
That’s the thing. You’ve got to understand the 1% are not those things. That’s just what we’ve been taught or what we think from our influences. You’ve got to understand limiting beliefs and start to reverse those things in your head. When you fear yourself thinking those things, you’ve got to have an alternative statement or thought to have. “No, the 1% are the ones that employ the majority of the middle class. They’re the ones that create the businesses. They’re the ones that do X, Y, and Z. They’re the ones that have the biggest charities. They’re the ones that give back. Their corporations pay a lot in taxes.” You got to start thinking differently about these things because your subconscious programming can be limiting you.
That’s the first step. There’s a lot more to that. Understand where your money is going. What are your assets and liabilities? People understand that if you have a mortgage, a car loan, or student loans, you have a bunch of liabilities, but those are not assets. What are your assets versus what are your liabilities? Who are you making wealthy in your own life versus yourself? Start to understand where you are at today.
The second step is, where do you want to go? I usually write this down or start to brainstorm it. What’s your ideal life look like in three years? What’s it look like? Where do you live? Who do you live with? What do you drive? What do you spend your time doing? Where do you vacation? What are your kids doing? Get the details on. You then start to look at, “What’s this life going to cost me? What’s the cashflow? What am I going to be spending?” Dive into it so that you can close your eyes, think about it, and picture that life. You can experience it. You can see yourself skiing wherever or driving this cool car down the roads by your house. You can really experience it, and then write that down.
Get it very specific. What I recommend doing is recording yourself talking through this two-page thing about your life and where you’re at. Listen to that every single day. Oftentimes, I recommend doing it at a very low level where you can’t hear it, so your subconscious mind can’t pick it up and identify that. Part of the purpose of step two is to understand why you want to do this.
What’s your passion? What do you see yourself doing now that you’ve achieved this life? What could make that journey enjoyable? Start to think about that. What are you spending your time doing? I got to be honest. If someone says, “I want to be wealthy, so I can spend time traveling with my family,” guess what? After a while, you’re going to be like, “I’m sick of my family. I’m sick of traveling.”
Believe me, I’ve talked to guys that have done this. They have no passion, and they get depressed. They retired, spent time with family, and realized, “I can only spend so much time with my family. I traveled, but I can only spend so much time doing that.” They didn’t have a why. That’s what you got to identify. One of the best ways I’ve done this is called the seven whys.
I first experienced it at a Tony Robbins event. It’s like someone asks you the why seven times. If your first answer is, “So I can spend more time with family,” the second question is, “Why do you want to spend more time with family?” “So I can spend more time with my kid because my father didn’t spend time with me when I was a kid.”
That’s a pretty big deal. “Why is it important that you spend time with your kids, and they experience time with you?” You do that seven times, and typically the seventh answer is your true why. For me, I used to say, “I want to spend more time with my family.” It’s not true. I ended up finding out that mine is I want to be in control of my time so I can do what I want, when I want, and not have a boss or someone tell me what to do. That ended up being my true why. It wasn’t about having the big house and all this stuff. It was being in control of my time. That’s my why. You’ve got to find out yours. Have it written down. Have it part of your overall life that you’re building. Have that why built into it.
That can be the heart of it. That’s the thing that pulls you. One of the things I’d recommend for people to be very careful of is investing out of fear, frustration, or anger, or trying to build wealth because you hate something. That used to be me, by the way. I used to say, “I hate my job so much. It’s so negative. I want to get out of this. I want to become an entrepreneur, so I can quit my job.”
When I quit my job, that immediately satisfied that why, but there was nothing left to fill that void. Here I was, investing and building businesses, but I was empty inside because I didn’t have a purpose. What ended up happening is some of those businesses didn’t do well or failed because I didn’t have the passion for them. Once I found out that passion, and it happened a couple of years ago, all of a sudden, I had something that was pulling me towards it, and it was strong. That’s what you got to find. It’s that thing that pulls you forward and keeps you going in your journey. Not that thing behind you that’s pushing you because that will not last.
You need to find that thing that pulls you forward and keeps you going in your journey, not that thing behind you that's pushing you because that will not last. Click To TweetIf you have that passion, purpose, and your big why, that’s always going to be there pulling you forward. As part of our program, that’s what we do. We help people identify that right there. We call it our wealth guide. When people go through that, it’s like a light bulb goes off oftentimes. Some part when they’re going through that exercise, they’re like, “Wow.” It changes the way they think about everything, like money, job, career, relationships, friendships, and wealth. All this stuff changes when you have that, and things become clear. If you’re struggling right now or having challenges building wealth or investing in your business, identify your purpose and your why, and then let everything else clarify itself around that. I guarantee that things will become easier.
In the last five minutes or so, I hope you’ve been taking good notes on this because he seriously gave you a lot right there, and it’s good stuff. This is the stuff that’s so necessary because I’ve done these same activities. It’s amazing how much faster it gets you to your goals than you would ever imagine because you have that why, that vision, and that purpose pulling you to it. It’s huge. Everybody, I recommend you re-read this thing a few times and capture some of this.
Once you have those first two steps down, it makes step three easy. Step three, I don’t get into it very much, but that step three is just the plan. It’s like, “What are you going to do now?” Oftentimes, people try to go to the plan first off. “What should I do?” That’s what people sell oftentimes. They’ll sell the sizzle. What you need is the first two steps because then the plan, all of a sudden, becomes easier.
All we do is now that you know where you’re going, reverse engineer that to today. “Here’s where I’m going to end up,” and reverse engineer to today. “I got to do X, Y, and Z. I’ve got to create the foundation. I’ve got to make sure I protect this stuff. I got to have the entities around this stuff.” This is what we do. This is our structure. As an example, in our content, you’re saying, “I’m going to go watch this, then this, and implement and put this in place.” It becomes clear. You can see the path. All of a sudden, the sun came through the canopy of the trees. You can see the path ahead of you, and it becomes simpler. That’s what I enjoy doing. It’s understanding what that plan is.
“I’m going to start doing this, and then at six months, I’m going to buy my first property. I’m going to do one property every 3 to 6 months with this formula. In three years, I’m going to have that cash. I’m going to have that life. I’m going to have that business, whatever it is.” All of a sudden, you’re working on the plan. That’s awesome because there are always going to be opportunities. There are always going to be new things out there, but if you have a plan, you can look at those opportunities and say no. By the way, saying no is a very powerful thing when it comes to investing your money. If you have a plan and an opportunity, you can look at it and say, “Does this fit in my plan or not?” If it does, cool. If not, that’s cool as well.
It helps you make decisions around your money and building your legacy. If you don’t have a why, it’s very hard to have a legacy. For me, a legacy is not something that happens after you die. Your legacy is something that you can know what is going to be. You’re building it today. You’re experiencing and living that legacy today all the way through the next generation and three generations from today. That is a true legacy that you can feel and experience today and see that impact. That’s why we call our business Living Legacy Association. It’s because you want to live it. You want to experience it today by taking action to make that thing happen. That’s what my passion and purpose are now.
I love it, Brian. It’s awesome. From even my own clients, the one-on-one clients that work with us that are getting out of the rat race, doing these exercises alone is something that could even speed it up faster for them. This is something that they need to do. I encourage them to do it, but I know not every one of them has done it. Those that haven’t done it are missing a key piece to their true financial freedom. Check that out. Brian, thanks for being on the show. It’s been awesome as always. Probably, I’ll have to have you back on again, I’m sure. I appreciate it.
Thanks, Chris.
Everybody, you can read this all you want, but it’s about how you take action and get results that make all the difference in your life. Go and make a wonderful and prosperous week. See you later.
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About Brian Fouts
After struggling on the traditional path and having accumulated virtually no wealth, Brian decided to go on a journey to educate himself about how money, wealth, and “real” investing actually works. He learned strategies ranging from real estate to private lending to cash banking. This knowledge gave him one very powerful tool… control of his financial destiny and ability to create financial freedom.
Brian now has a passion and vision to empower others… those who have followed the same path he started on… with these same strategies and principles. This led him to becoming the owner of The Elevation Group, a beacon to those looking for actionable education and resources to take control of their financial security.