
Episode 194: W2 Prison Break - Helping people to get unstuck!

Summary
In today’s show, Pancham interviews Brian O’Neill – real estate investor, author, coach, and podcast host of The W2 Prison Break Show.
Feeling stuck in your life and seeing that there’s no way out? That’s what Brian also felt while being in his W2 job for 25 years. After escaping from his W2 prison, he is now taking charge of his own life as he controls his own time and manages his own finances through real estate investing!
Get a headstart on breaking free from your W2 prison as he reveals how he altered his mindset, the importance of mentors on your entrepreneurial journey, and how gratitude and journaling goes the long way. Get the clarity you need as he discusses why you tend to feel stuck and what you can do about it!
Listen and enjoy the show!


Tune in to this show and enjoy!

Timestamped Shownotes:
- 0:39 – Pancham introduces Brian to the show
- 2:21 – How he escaped the W2 prison after being trapped for 25 years
- 6:09 – Importance of mentors and how they help in shifting your mindset
- 11:19 – Game-changer practices that help in providing clarity on your goals
- 16:56 – How he helps you with an escape plan for your W2 prison break
- 21:41 – Seller financing and other strategies for no-money-down deals
- 28:39 – Taking the Leap Round
- 28:39 – His 1st property investment outside of Wall Street
- 29:05 – How business transactions in a parking lot helped overcome his fears
- 29:55 – Why his 2nd property investment didn’t work out as expected
- 31:13 – Why you should get educated and start listening to yourself
- 32:39 – How you can connect with Brian
3 Key Points:
- We create our own personal prisons as we’ve felt stuck and have felt like we aren’t where we’re supposed to be. You’re not stuck but rather need clarity of what your goals are.
- We tend to think that we got it all figured out, but having a coach to mentor you will actually help you get the support and push you never thought you needed.
- Instead of borrowing money from a bank to buy properties, you can use seller financing since. In addition to keeping your money, you can obtain additional benefits.
Get in Touch:
- W2 Prison Break Website – https://www.w2prisonbreak.com/
- Get your FREE copy of the “5 Step Guide To Jumpstart Your W2 Prison Break” at https://www.w2prisonbreak.com/5-step-guide
- The Gold Collar Investor Club – https://thegoldcollarinvestor.com/club/
- Pancham Gupta Email – p@thegoldcollarinvestor.com
- The Miracle Morning Series by Hal Elrod – https://www.amazon.com/The-Miracle-Morning-15-book-series/dp/B07B5RD8MK
- Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear – https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299
Welcome to The Gold Collar Investor Podcast with your host Pancham Gupta. This podcast is dedicated to helping the high paid professionals to break out of the Wall Street investments and create multiple income streams. Here’s your host Pancham Gupta.
Hi, this is Joe Fairless if you want to diversify out of Wall Street investments and listen to The Gold Collar Investor podcast.
Pancham Gupta
Welcome to The Gold Collar Investor podcast. This is your host punching really appreciate you for tuning in today. My guest is Brian O’Neill. Today he spent 25 years in corporate sales stuck in a job he didn’t like and being away from his wife and young son. After decades of trying, Brian was finally able to break free and start his own real estate business. And now he helped other aspiring entrepreneurs in similar situations to help them break out of their W2 jobs. And he has a coaching program and a podcast named after that. And it’s called the W2 Prison Break show. Brian believes strongly in giving back. He has experienced many challenges and roadblocks in his life and has had lots of help from family coaches and mentors along the way. Providing the highest value to his clients to help them realize their dreams is something that drives Brian on daily basis. Brian, welcome to the show.
Brian O’Neill
Hey, Jim, great to be here. And look forward to speaking with you today. It’s gonna be a great conversation. Thanks for having me.
Pancham Gupta
Absolutely. I’m super excited about the show today, given we were tied chatting just before the show you have something that you have to offer, which I’m sure the listeners will enjoy before we get going, you know, are you ready to fire up my listeners break out of Wall Street investments?
Brian O’Neill
Absolutely. I was stuck in Wall Street investments for so long. I can’t even tell you. And I remember the day I took every penny I had out of Wall Street, and it was one of the most liberating moments of my life. So yes, let’s do it.
Pancham Gupta
Awesome. I love that. So, Brian, like tell our listeners about your background and more importantly, the person behind that background?
Brian O’Neill
Sure. That’s a good one, that person No, thank you for asking about the person because that’s important to you. Right. So, as we had talked a little bit offline, I’ve been I spent most of my life in corporate America, right, I had a I had a high paying sales job for I worked for the same company for 17 years, I was in corporate sales for 25 years. So right out of college, I did what I did, what we’re all kind of programmed to do, Pancham. I did well in school, so I could go to a good college, and then I did well in college so I could get a good job and look for a company that had a good management training program. And that’s what I did, you know, I was fed that my whole life and you know, no fault of my parents, that’s just what they were taught, I did the same thing. And I jumped in and that was really supposed to do and then I got my job and I pumped as much money as I could into my 401 K and hopefully and when I’m 65 years old, I get to retire and I’m a millionaire right. And what happened to me was, I was good at sales right? I was I had a knack for it, I found something that I was good at I was good with people. And when I got to the point where I was really kind of hitting it with my sales career is my income plateaued. So, I can only make so much money and the only way I could make more money was if I decided to trade my time for dollars. So, climb the corporate ladder work more. And that wasn’t something that I felt comfortable doing. Because I felt pretty good about my job. You know, I was traveling I was working from home, and I didn’t really want the stress of the corporate guys. Now what happened to me ultimately was I created this lifestyle Pancham that was a result of my success in sales. So instead of being super smart with my money in as I made more, I bought the bigger house I got the bigger car from my wife had like a nicer car from my wife. We started buying stuff accumulating stuff, so I was a little bit irresponsible there. And as a result, I became crap.
Pancham Gupta
That’s what your thoughts right to interrupt, right? Like that’s what you’re keeping up with the Jonases, right?
Brian O’Neill
Yep, exactly. And I just kind of became trapped in that cycle because it’s like, hey, look, no one’s gonna hire me at my age and pay me what I’m earning now. So, I felt like I was stuck in that job, and I would just never find a way out. Ultimately, I did. I’m more than happy to Talk about that. But, you know, it was really my son who motivated me to get out of my corporate job because I was missing him grow up. And as I, as I had mentioned, I had a high travel job and I was gone all the time I was every other week, I was on an airplane, you know, flying somewhere in North America, Europe all over the place. And I come back from, you know, a two- or three-day trip and he looks different. He’s talking different. And I’m missing him grow up. And then when he got old enough to voice his opinion, he used to tell me he one day said, hey, Dad, I like it, when you go, I’m scared to be at the house with mom, by myself. And that just chipped away at me ate away at me. And when we talk about these wise, these big whys of why we do things, well, that’s it like hearing that that voice in my head, it’s like I can’t, I can’t, I only got one shot to be this kid’s dad. And that ultimately was what pushed me over the edge to leave that job, where find a way to leave that job. And I was able to do it with his motivation and support my wife support and now I, you know, I leave a W2 in the dust like that was the rest all time a risk? That was the risk?
Pancham Gupta
Right? What happened then after that, like, you know, you quit that job? I want to talk about that, like, how hard it was for you to do that. And how old was your son when you did it? And did you have a backup plan there? Or did you just quit cold turkey? You know, like, okay, I’m just going today, and I’m gonna put in my resignation.
Brian O’Neill
Oh, it was a here he was a little bit of both really are all of the above. So, something happens to us, Pancham. And I don’t know what it is, or if it’s a man thing, or whatever it is. But we have coaches and mentors our entire lives growing up, right? Yes, school, if we go to church, you know, if you sport, whatever it is, we have people helping us, then we get to get done with school. And it’s like, I got it all figured out. Now, I don’t need anybody. And that was the biggest mistake I’ve made in my life, there wasn’t until I found a coach, someone to mentor me where I’ve started to feel comfortable about number one a different way to make money as opposed to you know, being a W2 employee. So, I found ways to make money real estate was the vehicle that I chose to make money. And then having the mindset to be able to realize that the job was the risk, like I’m expendable, like this can all end at any moment. And it’s completely out of my control. Okay, so the security of the, you know, benefits and the 401k. I mean, it’s all crazy. It’s nonsense, it can be taken out, it can be pulled out from under you at a millisecond, you have no control over it. So, I took control over my life, my situation, I took control over my money, I took control of the way that I make money. And I never have to go back again, because I learned how to do that. But I had support. I had help. And I had mentorship. So, when I got to the point to answer your question, it was a little bit of a leap of faith because I started to make money. I started to do deals in real estate. And then I had a conversation with my wife, and I said, look, let’s set ourselves up, like we budgeted for it. Right? So why is it that we set ourselves up to where we wouldn’t have to take any money out of the business for 12 months? I was comfortable with that she was comfortable with that. And that didn’t happen. Okay, because we continue to do deals. But that was really that helped me get over like, okay, I can leave this steady paycheck and this high paying job and pursue my business and my dreams, and I can be home with my son. So, I didn’t like you know, cut the tape, you know, just pull the band aid off and burn the ships. But it took me about nine months from the time that I started investing in real estate to where I was able to leave.
Pancham Gupta
Wow, just nine months. That’s awesome. Yeah, that’s, that’s pretty cool. And we’ll talk about that, like, how did you do that? But, you know, with the benefit of hindsight that you had, and you mentioned about coaches, right? Like that’s so important. Like, would you say that if you didn’t have the right coaching, would you be able to quit, that you would be able to quit,
Brian O’Neill
not only would I have not been able to quit, but I also don’t think I would have ever started. That was always the block for me was that I was too scared. And I was too afraid to fail. When people don’t do something when they don’t chase after their dream or their goal. It’s usually for a few reasons, right? You have this fear of losing money. Number one, you have a fear of losing your reputation. And then you have a fear of losing time.
Pancham Gupta
So, you’re a failure. Yeah, all of that. Yeah.
Brian O’Neill
It’s all fear based. That’s what it was for me. And then once I found a way to deal with that by hiring somebody, or you know, finding somebody that’s done it before did exactly what I wanted to do. And I started to feel better about that. And then I just got over the fear because I worked on myself my mindset, I worked on my you know, most of us who were thinking about our outer world changing that’s never going to happen. But until you look within first you got to look at you got to look yourself in the mirror like how I change first and then your outer world can start to change. It took me 20 Something years to figure that out.
Pancham Gupta
Absolutely. So, knowing what you know now, and given a chance that it if you have to go back, like, would you do it? Was it a good decision? Would you do it again?
Brian O’Neill
You mean leaving the job the way I did, or how long it took me? votes. That’s yeah, it’s easy to sit here and say, I wish I would have started sooner. And everyone says that I also feel that I had to go through this so that I can help other people who are in my shoes, like maybe speaking to the younger Brian, you know, the 30-year-old Brian, or the early 40s, Brian, and let that person know that it’s okay. It’s okay to chase your dreams. And there is a way out, you don’t have to feel stuck in this prison, if you will. And that’s what I’ve kind of dedicated my, the rest of my life and business to is to helping people who are in a similar situation, because you can get out right, it doesn’t have to feel it doesn’t have to be that way. So, I really don’t have any have any regrets. And you know, I got plenty of time left, and I’m having fun.
Pancham Gupta
Awesome. So, let’s see, you mentioned something awesome there. Like I want to talk about that. So, if anyone listening Brian Right, and I have listeners who are making high salaries in their W2 jobs or small businesses, right? A lot of them are very passionate in doing what they do. But for some others, it’s just a means to an end, right? Because they’re making good money in life goes on. They have great benefits, all that right. So even though they’re making good money, but they feel stuck, there’s something missing in their life. They can’t pinpoint it. They cannot put a finger on it. Okay, this is what it is that what’s wrong, but they feel stuck. They feel like they need a change. Yeah, they make, you know, let’s say they’re making 500. Now, next year, they may have a goal for making 550, 600. They’re managing, let’s say, 10 people now they may have a goal to manage 20 People next year, whatever the case may be, but they just can’t tell what it is. They feel stuck. So, what advice would you have for someone like that? Who is feeling stuck in life on how to get unstuck and create a life of their dreams?
Brian O’Neill
Yeah, this is I really love this question. And you’re, you’re sitting here giving the scenario and I’m like, That’s me. That’s me. That’s me. Right? And good. Because, you know, look, I was I earned a lot of money in my sales career. And I felt stuck. Because I did, I just was like, well, I can’t afford my lifestyle, right. And the advice that I would give to anyone, and this is when my life started to change was when I started to really look within, and I made a couple of tweaks with the way that I handled my day. All right. The first thing I do is I practice gratitude, I practice it. The first thing I do when I wake up, is I practice gratitude. It takes 30 seconds to be grateful to wake up the air you breathe, being able to put your two feet on the ground walking, I mean, these are easy things to do. And if you, do it for 30 days straight, it’s become a habit. It’s also the last thing I do before I go to sleep before I go to sleep, I put my head on the pillow. A lot comes out you’re during the day stuff happens, bad stuff can happen, you know, you can’t control things, but I always try to find the one or two things a that was really cool. I threw the baseball with my son, or you know, I had a, you know, I had a great one of my buyers, you know, set a good thing about me or you know, a moment I spent with my wife, these are easy things to do. And you do them every day. Because here’s the thing about gratitude, okay? If you can’t be grateful for what you have right now, today, it makes no difference how much money you make, or how many cars you have or houses, it doesn’t make any difference. So, when you were describing, okay, well, my goal is to go from half a million to 700,000. Like you’re not gonna be any happier because you got 200 more grand, you might think you are you still gonna have the same problems, right? So, gratitude is huge. It’s been a major game changer for me. The other thing I would say is journaling has been huge, because you can literally, when I describe journaling, I tell people, like just start writing, and just let the pen do the work. Okay, and let just let it come out doesn’t have to be like perfect scripted. Just write out what you’re feeling. And you’d be amazed what comes out of you. Okay, and you can write this out like and then you might discover what is ailing you why you might not be happy or really what it is that you want, like write down what you want. We all have, there’s an idea and all of us I believe, I firmly believe this is an idea maybe multiple ideas that you can create a business around and make a lot of money doing it. But you got to you got to script it out. So those are two things that I’ve done. And that’s really been a game changer for me.
Pancham Gupta
Right? So, going back to the question, so if anyone listening, if you do, basically what you’re saying is that if they start doing gratitude and journaling in their life, they will get more clarity. And whatever they want to do. You know, it could be clarity and knowing what, where they’re stuck at or what’s wrong. That’s also huge. When a lot of people, they don’t even know what’s wrong. And they’re just doing things and going with the flow. Or they will also get clarity on what they really want to achieve. And do, right?
Brian O’Neill
great word you use clarity. Yeah, that’s what journaling does for you is clarity. And gratitude is the same thing. So, I love that you brought that up.
Pancham Gupta
Yeah, no, absolutely. And I’ll tell you not met before, but these are the things that have changed my life. I practice these things every day. I don’t do journaling. I do more like a couple of things that would make my day great. Like there is this five-minute journal, which I used to write on, and, you know, practice savers routine in the morning, like that from Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. So, yeah, these are the things that have changed me. And I used to do the short clip episodes, which were like, one to five minutes. And just about mindset, and these are the things I always talked about that, you know, do these things, and you will get more clarity, the biggest issue and I’m reading this book, atomic habits right now, and I’m actually at that chapter by James clear, you know, where he says, it’s not that people cannot do those create those habits for them. They just lack clarity. And that’s why they cannot do because they don’t know what time and when they are going to do those things. So, this is awesome. I absolutely love your answer there. So, let’s talk about your business. Now, like you said, you help people. You’re dedicating your life you have a podcast, you know, why don’t you talk about that? What is that? And then also, how do you help people getting out of, you know, if someone’s listening? And I don’t know, how do you help? So just my own way?
Brian O’Neill
Yeah, definitely. So, my podcast, which is brand new, is called the W2 Prison Break show. And if you go to my website, W2prisonbreak.com, there’s actually a free guide that you can grab, it’s free. And it’s just a little guide that I created five steps to jumpstart your W2 Prison Break. And it does talk about some of the things I just mentioned with, you know, gratitude and journaling and a few other things. So, my aim is really to help people understand that you’re not stuck, like we create these prisons, right? Like, I created my W2, my prison because I again, I the lifestyle that I created, and I just felt like I was stuck there. And I wasn’t, I wasn’t I just didn’t really have clarity, as you say great word. By the way, Miracle Morning changed my life, I read that book twice, and my life hasn’t been the same sense. So, anybody who has not read that book, it is an absolute must. And if you just do probably one of the Savers per day, you’re going to see change in your in your life, like do something. My advice to everyone is, if your life isn’t where you want it to be right now, we’ll wake up tomorrow and do something different. Like why would you continue to do the same thing, if you want your life to be different, or you know, or quit whining about it? I don’t mean to be harsh here. But like, if you want your life to change, you have to do something different. It’s not just going to change, right? So that’s what I’m looking to talk to you. So, I’m looking to help. I mean, I’ve been down that path. And it’s not easy. It really, really isn’t easy, especially for, in my opinion, because I have a lot of friends who are in a similar situation for men, like men just feel like they can’t, like I can’t be grateful I can’t practice gratitude. I can’t do journaling or, you know, I can’t look inward. That sounds kind of silly, and it really isn’t. It’s been like I’ve been seeing; I’ve been seeing a counselor for the last five years. And I continue to go to this person, and I don’t think I’m broken, or I need fixing. It’s just it’s a way for me to continually improve and grow and have an understanding of I mean, we went all the way back to my childhood, right? There are things that happen and all even if I have great parents, right, I had a great childhood growing up, but there’s things that happen to us that we carry with us and we hold on to and we stuff it down and then all of a sudden that kind of shows up in other areas of our life. And that’s been a huge for me, is just having that outlet to speak to somebody who doesn’t judge me, right. Who doesn’t pass judgment upon me? And I think that’s a huge thing for a lot of people is to just have that outlet to be able to speak and share. And that’s what I want to be for people. It’s like, hey, I’ve been there. I’ve been there like however bad you think Get is like I’ve been down that road, and I can certainly help move you forward.
Pancham Gupta
That’s awesome. So, can you talk about your real estate things like what you do there? And also, do you do coach on that side of things?
Brian O’Neill
I do? Yes. Yeah, I do I buy real estate. So, which is kind of interesting too, because once you like, I’ve gained all this clarity, right. So, what I do on a daily basis is a direct result of experiences that I’ve struggled with in the past, right? Like I had a hard time selling my last house like seven, eight years ago, I had a hard time doing that I lost a bunch of money, because I didn’t do the right stuff. And I used to have, I had a difficulty when I was younger purchasing a home because I mismanaged my credit a little bit when I was younger, because no one ever taught me how to do it. You know, unfortunately, Pancham, when Bank of America send you that credit card in the mail, when you’re 18 years old, in college, it doesn’t come with a user’s manual, right, they just kind of tell you, here you go, are just 1200 bucks Have at it. And they don’t tell you how to manage it. So, it got away from me a little bit. But now I help people in real estate who have had similar problems that I’d have, like, hey, they lost all this equity, or you know, they weren’t able to buy a home. So, what I do in real estate is I buy properties on what’s referred to as creative financing term. So, and the main strategy involves purchasing properties that you can use on single family homes, multifamily homes, commercial buildings, with no money down no money down without having to go get bank loans, to buy properties. And it’s real, it’s a great thing. And we’re able to help a lot of people who are in trouble.
Pancham Gupta
Got it? Okay, that’s awesome. Actually, let’s go a little bit deep in that, right. Like, how do you do that? Is it more seller financed? Or like what kind of strategies to use for no money now?
Brian O’Neill
Yeah, that’s exactly what it is. It’s seller financing. So, whether a seller has debt on their property or not, you can do seller financing. Now the conventional way. And by the way, for most people, most people don’t know this, there’s 1/3 of all houses in North America, not sorry, in the United States are owned free and clear, no mortgage, right. So, you, as the owner of the house with no mortgage, you have the ability to be the bank, and finance somebody. And if you’ve ever looked at your very bought a house and looked at the Truth in Lending statement, you can see why there’s banks on every street corner, okay, because they’re making a lot of money loaning out money, at 4%, or whatever the interest rate is compound interest over 30 years. So as a seller, if you look at doing something like that, you will get way more money for your house, not a little more like way, way more money for your house than taking six or 700 grand rights now, what if you sold that same house $700,000. And trade, if you charge 3% interest, you’re going to double your money over a 30-year period. So, we talk to sellers who are open to doing that for a variety of reasons. And they might just for planning purposes, for tax reasons and estate planning purposes, they may not want the $700,000 right away, because I got to pay tax on that. So, they’ll take payments over time. And that’s one-way other people have inherited properties that they don’t want tired landlords, these are the folks that we talked to. Other people might have debt on their houses, and they owe exactly what the house is worth. So, they would have to write a check at the closing table. To sell the property, which is crazy, you don’t have to do that. There are other ways to do it. That’s where we come in. And then other folks, you know, just can’t sell their house. Like regardless of what you hear in the news and the media, not every house is selling and five minutes $50,000 over asking, with multiple offers. There are people out there with real problems in every market in the United States. There’s death, divorce, job loss, job relocation, those types of situations occur in every market, you just can we talk to those people every single day. So, you just got to go find them and see if you can help them. And then again, we structure something on seller financing where we don’t have to go get borrow money from the bank or from other people to buy these houses. Now, sometimes we raise money from private money to do some of these transactions that make sense, but we don’t get bank debt to buy the houses.
Pancham Gupta
Got it? Right. Cool. And when you raise this capital from private investors, I’m sure you can give them something in return for the money, which could be either is that that or is that equity?
Brian O’Neill
It could be both. I mean, typically it’s just a flat rate. And these are for folks maybe who have they want to be in real estate but don’t want all the headaches of being involved in managing it. Maybe they have you know, a lot of people have self-directed retirement accounts, and they loan money out of that. So, there’s a bunch of different ways that that you can put that money to work without being involved in the transaction, which you know, more People don’t have the stomach for, fortunately, but I love it. I mean, it’s something that has served us well. And I’ve been able to build a business around it. I have a team now. So, and again, I don’t have to ask anybody if I can go on vacation anymore.
Pancham Gupta
That’s awesome. But I will ask you this one question before I move on to the second part of the show. And this question is, what is one goal that you’re most inspired by and at the same time, very uncomfortable with that you’re working towards now?
Brian O’Neill
One goal that I’m most inspired by, but I’m uncomfortable with working towards now that’s a, that’s a great question. You know, my goals. Pancham used to be very material related. Okay, like stuff, I wanted stuff. And I think what that’s kind of left me I mean, I, you know, I can get the stuff, and that’ll happen. But everything shifted as I’ve gotten more clarity, as you say, and my biggest goal, this might sound corny is just the best father and husband that I can be. And that scares the living daylights out of me, because it’s something that I have to work out every single day. And I’m faced with it every single day. Right? So, I’ve really tried to become a better person, a better father, a better husband on a daily basis that I don’t always succeed either days, or, you know, man, I wish I would have said that to him. You know, I wish I wouldn’t have done that. But you just got to, I think you can do that and anything in life, right? You can beat yourself up. So, you just got to get up the next day and or even that moment, you can repair those situations, right. So that’s really my biggest goal. And also, my biggest fear is like, am I gonna? Am I gonna live up to this?
Pancham Gupta
That’s awesome. Brian. This has been great. Let’s give it a quick break, and we’ll be back after this message. If you’re an accredited investor and have been thinking about putting your money to work for you, then I have good news for you. I have created an investor Club, which I call The Gold Collar Investor club, I will be putting together investing opportunities exclusively for the group. These are the opportunities where I have done the due diligence for you and will be investing my own money alongside you. If you are interested, please sign up on The Gold Collar Investor.com forward slash club, I repeat The Gold Collar Investor.com forward slash club, I will reach out to schedule a 30-minute phone conversation to discuss your investing goals. Once you sign up, this can be a good opportunity to diversify and take some chips off the hands of Wall Street to produce some passive income. And in case you were wondering, what is an accredited investor, accredited investor is someone who has earned more than $200,000 as filing single or more than $300,000 Filing Jointly for last two years. Another way to qualify as an accredited investor is if your total net worth is more than $1 million, excluding your personal home. It includes your stocks, 401K’s, IRAs, cars, etc. Just not the equity in your personal home. If this, is you, I would highly encourage you to sign up? So, Brian, let’s move on to the second part of the show, which I call taking the leap round, I asked these four questions to every guest on my show. My first question for you is, when was the first time you invested outside of Wall Street
Brian O’Neill
outside of Wall Street. Let’s see that was about three years ago when I bought my first property with no money down on a lease purchase that I still have. And it was a liberating feeling. It was great. I remember when I got that first check. It was like wow; this is this is unbelievable. This is amazing. And I can do this.
Pancham Gupta
That’s awesome. Did you have any fears at the time to overcome when you did that?
Brian O’Neill
100% I didn’t remember why I think I could do it. Right. I didn’t think I could get it done. It was right in the middle of COVID two because COVID Come out 2020 So this is the end of 2019 and then we did the closing and I remember we did it in a parking lot because everything was closed right? You couldn’t go in anywhere. And you know I didn’t think they would show up I you know I told all the all the stories possible. And they did and it worked out and I just remember I remember I said to myself, if I can do this in a parking lot passing contracts through car windows that I can hail as business. So, I think the fact that it was so difficult the first time really, really kind of grew you know, thicken up my skin a bit if you will,
Pancham Gupta
not a quote. So, my third question here is, can you share with us one investment that did not go as expected
Brian O’Neill
Yeah, it was my second property. And I still have that one. And, you know, unfortunately, the person that we placed in the house, because we help people get bank loans, so we sold it on at least own situation, the gentleman stopped paying his rent, and you know, kind of backed out of the deal. So, he stopped paying, it was probably about 11, almost 11 months of not paying. And the eviction process here in Illinois is very long, and it’s costing about $20,000. That’s still not over yet. But that was a seminar and in evictions, and you know, it’s gonna happen again, I can tell you that, but now I’m ready for it. So, it was it was a nice $20,000 learning lesson.
Pancham Gupta
You know, that’s what I say, in business side. And in W2 job, it’s so different. And here, this is exactly what you get in business, that you get seminars, these are real world education lessons, right? Every single day, you just don’t stop learning every single time there is something that you will learn. And that will make you a better operator or a businessperson, whatever. I want to call that. So. Yeah. My last question for you is, what is one piece of advice would you give to someone who is thinking of investing in Main Street that is outside of Wall Street?
Brian O’Neill
Yeah. So I was, again, we talked about being programmed, like I was just programmed to give my money blindly to my retirement account, and, you know, watch it grow, and hopefully it would grow. And that was a huge mistake. For me, I remember the day that I took control of every dime of that money. And now I control where it goes. And I think it’s it really just boils down to being educated. Number one, you have to understand there are alternative assets out there. For me, real estate, makes a lot of sense, because of the tax advantages are so many different ways that you can benefit from real estate, you know, you’ve got the cash flow, you got the tax benefits, you’ve got appreciation, you’ve got depreciation, stock market as an offering that stuff, nothing. So, I think it’s just a matter and there’s no real estate, just one example. There’s a bunch of other ones as well. I think being in business makes sense. If you look at the tax code, it’s written that way. So just get educated. Definitely. And start listening to yourself. Like I say this all time, turn the TV off and start listening at yourself because I don’t know what they’re talking about. They’re just trying to get you to watch so they can get paid.
Pancham Gupta
But thank you, Brian, for sharing that. Anyone who’s listening. They want to reach out and find out more about you. I know you mentioned your website, which we’ll put on the show notes W2 Prison Break. Is that it or is there anything else?
Brian O’Neill
Yeah, W2prisonbreak.com That’s the website you can go there and grab the free guide and you’ll see the show on there as well.
Pancham Gupta
Awesome. Thank you, Brian. For your time here.
Brian O’Neill
This has been great, Pancham. appreciate you having me.
Pancham Gupta
That was a great episode. If you know I truly agree with Brian on lot of mindset related things. If this is something that has resonated with you definitely reach out to Brian. And if you have questions for me, email them to me at p at The Gold Collar Investor.com. That’s P as in Paul @thegoldcollarinvestor.com This has been Pancham signing off. Until next time, take care.
Thank you for listening to The Gold Collar Investor podcast. If you love what you’ve heard and you want more of Pancham Gupta, visit us at www.thegoldcollarinvestor.com And follow us on Facebook at The Gold Collar Investor. The information on this podcast are opinions. As always, please consult your own financial team before investing
