How to Sacrifice For Twelve Months and Change The Next Decade - Episode 143
In today's episode, I sit down with Jason Brown to talk about money, mistakes, and second chances. Jason shares how he once lost a lot of money in the stock market, then learned simple rules to trade smarter and win back his confidence. We talk about living below your means, making a short “sacrifice season,” and building habits that help your family for the long run. Jason explains options in plain language, why taking small profits adds up, and how to keep your cool when prices jump around. You’ll hear real stories about paying off a house, starting with little, and turning lessons into a plan anyone can follow.
About our guest:
Jason Brown is a stock market expert, power options trader, entrepreneur, and author who teaches the world how to confidently own their financial situations and feel empowered while doing so. Jason’s upcoming book, 5 Year Millionaire, is inspired by the pathway that led him to making his first million in just five years. Brown grew up in Detroit, Michigan and garnered motivation from his upbringing as a child who slept in a sleeping bag on the floor in his family’s home with bars on the windows, and who boldly navigated around drugs and gangs in his neighborhood, to acquire the lifestyle he always dreamed of. The term “power trading” has emerged from his journey in addition to the understanding that truly anyone can use the stock market to trade their way into their ideal lifestyle. Jason says, “it’s all about finding the right trades, applying the right option strategy, mixed with giving the stock enough time to do what you believe it’s going to do”.
Today, Jason is completely debt free, has paid off his home, and is married with two children. The Brown Report and Power Trades University are two platforms he utilizes to help his clients retrain and rewire their thought processes for comebacks no matter the financial situation that they are currently in. In Jason’s upcoming book, he highlights the mathematical fact that the average person can become a millionaire within 5 years from the stock market. Jason has been featured on Smart Passive Income podcast, The Mind Your Business podcast, His and Her Money with Talaat and Tai, and the Passive 25k podcast.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Naseema: [00:00:00] Jason Brown is a stock market expert, power trader. Ah, Jason Brown is a stock market expert, power options trader, entrepreneur, and author who teaches the world how to confidently own their financial situations and feel empowered to do so. Jason's upcoming book Five Year Millionaire is inspired by the pathway that led him to making his first million and just.
Five years. Brown grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and garnered motivation from his upbringing as a child who slept in sleeping bags on the floor in his family's house with bars on the windows, and who boldly navigated around drugs and gangs in his neighborhood to acquire the lifestyle he always dreamed of.
The term power trading has emerged from his journey in addition to the understanding that truly. Anyone can use the stock market to trade their way into an ideal lifestyle. Jason says it's all about finding the right trades and applying the right option [00:01:00] strategy mixed with giving the stock enough time to do what you believe it's going to do.
Today Jason is completely debt-free, has paid off his home, and is married with two children. The Brown Report and Power Trades University are two platforms he utilizes to help his clients retrain and rewire their thought processes for comebacks, no matter the financial situation that they're currently in.
In Jason's upcoming book, he highlights the mathematical fact that the average person can become a millionaire within five years from the stock market.
All right. My financially intentional people you are in for a treat because we are joined today by Jason Brown, and once you hear his story, you're going to understand what I'm talking about.
What's up Jason?
Jason Brown: I am excited to be here. What's up?
Naseema: I am so happy that you are here. If you guys can't tell from the tone of my voice, Jason Brown has really [00:02:00] been an inspiration. I have followed his work for a very long time and I really look up to you, Jason, and just excited to share you with my community if they don't already know who you are.
So let's just get into the background of Jason Brown. Like how did you get into the money space?
Jason Brown: Yeah, so thanks for having me on here and I love the work that you're doing in the space of amplifying voices, especially voices of color to share and get this information. I was just listening to one of your previous episodes and I. I'm gonna repeat what y'all said it was with you and Rachel Rogers
how it's been stale male and right.
So I, I, I
Funny. So hopefully we can bring a little color to the to the industry. That little color, little flavor, a little seasoning to it. But to everybody listening, i'm just a kid from Detroit. I shouldn't say I'm just a kid, but I started out as just a kid. Now I'm an adult making real money and going some interesting places.
But just started out as a kid from Detroit questioning and [00:03:00] wondering why we were poor. I was very observative at a young age, and so when I was little, I remember going to my friend's house and I said, whoa, you have a bed? And he looked at me like. course I got a bed like, what you mean? But I was like me and my brother sleep in sleeping bags.
We sleep on the floor and I thought when you got a bed was once you became an adult because you needed a good night's rest because you actually had a job. You had important stuff to do. As I'm doing air quotes here, so I thought, oh when you become a boarding, you get a bed. I'm like, we're not important.
We're just kids. And I was just observative like, how come he has a bed then and we don't. And I was like he has two parents because my dad passed when I was two in a car accident. So I'm like maybe it's 'cause he got two parents. They got two incomes. I don't know what made me at such an early age, I was always analyzing stuff.
Just I probably was six. Seven years old, something like that. Just always analyzing. And then my mom worked two jobs for most of our life and I just wonder why she had to work two jobs and we still [00:04:00] lived in the house with bars on the window, gangs in the neighborhood, dope in the neighborhood, people breaking into our cars.
And so I'm like two jobs ain't the secret. 'cause this ain't making us no real money. even though it wasn't, I followed that path when I was 16. I got a job working at McDonald's and I was one of those kids that always found the hacks in life. So in high school there was something called, it was like a, I think it was called co-op.
So basically you could go to school half the day and then you can go work the other half as long as you were learning the skill and they had like workshop where you go work on cars. I think they had welding, but they also had a third category was like, you can find your own. Not an intern, but your own co-op.
And so I went to vin's of California and I was like, Hey, I could work here if you just sign these paperwork and fill this out. And so Mervin's oh yeah, we'll be your co-op sponsor. So I was able to leave school, go to work half today, and then I worked McDonald's on the weekends. That was the way to get around working 40 hours a week because you [00:05:00] couldn't work 40 hours for one company, but you could work 20 hours.
Two companies, so I was always trying to find the hacks to life. And then at 18, I took my graduation money and I heard about people becoming rich from the stock market making all this money. I'm like, how come we not in the stock market? And so I took my $2,000 to a well-known bank, invested it. She basically only asked me two questions.
She said, why do you want to invest? I'm like to be rich, like why else do people do this? I thought it was a silly question. And then the second question she asked me was, you want aggressive funds, right? I'm like I'm 18. I need aggressive growth. That makes sense. And this is where the story starts to change for me.
I come back at 20 years old, I'm thinking I'm gonna have like $6,000 or 4,000 and it's doubled or something tripled. I come back about 2021. My $2,000 graduation money is down to 700, and I'm like, whoa, what happened? So I'm like, it's been two and [00:06:00] half, almost three years. You've lost. $1,300 in my money.
I'm like, what happened? And the lady was like, I don't know what to tell you. I was like, I know what to tell you. Gimme my 700 back. I could do this myself because I thought you go to the professionals 'cause they don't lose money. I thought that was what makes 'em professional? I later on found out that's not true.
But that's what I thought. And Well, I'm interested in what she invested in, in, because I'm like, aggressive funds two years. I have to know the years to know that, but still just
you, the po The bottom line is when you turn your money over to these so-called professionals, that is part of the problem. You don't know what they're investing in. You don't know why they picked it. You don't know anything. You just are, you went in on the number one thing. I tell people not to go in on, which is what?
Trust.
Naseema: Mm-hmm.
Jason Brown: I trust you. Even me. I'm like, don't trust me. Ask yourself, is what I'm saying. Makes sense
then
Naseema: make sense to you? Yes.
Jason Brown: Does it [00:07:00] make sense? Can I explain it in a way that you go, okay, I can understand that, but don't just blind trust people. And so I realized like if I'm gonna trust somebody, I'm gonna trust myself.
I'm gonna figure this out by myself. And so I took the 700, I spent 200 on some Jordans because I was like, if I lose this 500, at least I got some gym shoes to show for, right? You feel me? Like at least I got some gym shoes outta this thing. At this point, I had left McDonald's. I had left me's in California.
I'm working for Sprint PCs. I'm making $8 an hour, but I had been working since I was 15, 16, working all my weekends, two jobs for that matter. I was doing the co-op, and so I said if I could just make $50, that's what I made on a Saturday, $8 an hour. Eight hour shift, 64 bucks, take taxes out, $50 take on.
It's if I could make 50 bucks, I could take at least one Saturday off without affecting my livelihood. And our stock at Sprint was $5 a share. And I think this is what most people do. I was like, I'll buy the stock in the company I work for. So I bought a [00:08:00] hundred shares a sprint at $5. I'm like, I just needed to move 50 cents to go to five 50.
I'll make my first 50 bucks. I bought it at five. Stock failed to four. I was like, ah, this doesn't work. Maybe I'm not as smart as I thought. Stock went back up to five. I'm like, here we go. Five 50. Let's make this 50 bucks. Fell back down to four. Now, at this point, I'm sure many people listening can relate to this.
I thought the stock market was rigged. I thought it was a scam. I'm like, that's why they asked for my social security number. They got my IP address. They will not let it go fast. $5, right? Because they know exactly what I need and they won't give it to me. It went back up to five and I said, I've seen this before.
I got out at five. Stock failed at four. I got in and went back up to five. I got out. I made my first a hundred dollars. I did not know that if you drew that out on the chart, that would be called a channel in stock. It's channel 25 and four, four and five, five and four. So then I was like, what other patterns out there exist that I dunno about?
I started studying W reversal [00:09:00] patterns, hidden shoulders, cup, and handles, and there's this whole world of technical analysis that I didn't know was a thing opened up for me. And as I got really good at growing the $500. I started to say how can I get more money in the machine? And then I took a $10,000 student loan out and right about the same time my cousin was like, I figured out how we can afford some of the better stocks because we would only messing out with what we call penny stocks, stocks that are $5 or less.
He was like, but these stocks are doing the patterns, but we can't afford. He had went to a seminar, he was like, I think I found our answer. I was like, what's the answer? He was like, call options. He's we can control the stock versus owning it. I'm like, tell me more. And right around the time I got that 10,000 student loans, I also started getting into options.
And when you married the technical analysis with options. I had grew that $10,000 to $113,000 as a 21-year-old college student. So that, propelled me into the financial industry, into the financial game. Now, I wasn't smooth [00:10:00] from there, but that was like my first foray of breaking into the stock market and making some real money as a 21-year-old college student.
Naseema: Wow. That's incredible. It speaks to how your mind works too, because I, I feel like you see in patterns and so you were able to recognize that. 'cause I wouldn't have been able to recognize that, and I would've definitely been like, this is a scam and I could never win and I probably just would've took my $5 out and then just, ghosted.
But the way I learned about stocks was a little bit different where I learned like you just. Put it in there and then you leave it long term and you wait five years and then it'll grow. And that has served me like, don't look at it every day. So I'm definitely like that lazy investor.
Set it in, forget it. I. But for your brain to be able to figure that out, like just speaks to the level of intelligence you have, but also your background is just hold on. This is a scam. And it is so funny because I [00:11:00] feel like we're programmed the same, 'cause we're always programmed to look at like how the system is rigged against us.
And I think it, it has, its. Place. So I just, I'm just loving this story because I can totally relate to it. But what I know is that a lot of people, especially young men, get caught up in trading and all this kind of stuff and don't necessarily put. Limits in place to protect themselves.
And I've heard a lot of people, get burn from this and, I know you have a long trajectory of doing this. And you already mentioned that it wasn't like a smooth path, I've heard people, get from that $10,000 to a hundred thousand dollars and then lose it all.
So I'm just interested on what happened next
with Yeah.
Jason Brown: you leave. Eating in the monster. I was one of those people. I, I'm not exempt from it. As the second half of the story goes, I actually I [00:12:00] dropped out of school because I'm making more. I was gonna school here in Detroit, Michigan to Mike School of Business, Wayne State University, to be an engineer.
I was in engineering college. I wasn't in the business school back then. I ended up finishing. In the business college, but I, was going for engineering. I said, I'm making more money than the engineer. So I just dropped out, like, why would I finish school? I'm making more money not working. Why would I finish and just go get a job?
And so I dropped outta school. I'm fulltime trading for the next two to three years. I run the account up to $300,000. I'm living off like $50,000 or less a year. Had an apartment, Lexus GS 300, no kids, no family, nothing like that at the time. And I'm just living a major bachelor life. And there's a place in Royal Oak, Michigan called the Fifth.
I was like, I'm gonna buy a condo. At the fifth, it was like this high rise apartment building over, you can see all the way down downtown Detroit, just one to premier pieces of property. And I was like, I'm gonna buy a condo there cash, and I risk a quarter [00:13:00] million trying to make half a million and then I lose it all.
So by 25, 26, I'm flat broke. I lose all my money. I have to move back home to Detroit, have to move back home to that house with bars on the window, drugs in the neighborhood, people stealing our cars. And I felt super defeated to talk about that in the book Five Year Millionaire. Just that whole, it was a dark time in my life, but what got me through it was I was listening to personal development tapes and I remember Jim Roh as well as Brian Tracy, I was listen to those two guys and Jim Roh was like, take a picture.
He said, keep a journal. And he's take pictures of where you're at because you won't be there forever, and you'll be able to reflect on how you dug yourself, out of that hole or outta that situation. I said, I'm gonna do one better. I'm gonna start recording my whole lifestyle and situation, moving back home, selling my stuff, the bars on the window.
I didn't know what I was gonna do with it, but I started to. Talk about it and share some of this stuff on YouTube. And I started to teach how I was making the money back, [00:14:00] and I eventually let me give some details here because I know I don't wanna skip around here. How did I make the money back?
First, I did what every man and every person should do, which is I went and got a job, so I literally had to go get a job. I had to go back home with my tail between my legs and get a job. And so I got a job at Verizon Wireless selling cell phones. I based my lifestyle after hourly, and I use the commission checks to get back into the stock market.
I think that's an important piece because sometimes we don't want to make the sacrifice. I sold my car, I moved out of my apartment. I downsized, downgraded, and that's not what I wanted to do, but. If I wanted to get back ahead someday, I had to stop the bleeding, stop digging myself further in debt and not try to keep up a look, a facade that everything was still okay.
So I moved back home, got a job. Best thing that ever happened to me. 'cause they also had tuition reimbursement, which is how I went back to school the [00:15:00] second time and I said, I know what I wanna get a degree in. I wanna go back for finance. So that's how I ended up getting a bachelor's in finance. I'm living my lifestyle off the hourly,
and this is for anybody working a job who says they hate their job. Did I like working at Verizon? Yes. Did I love it? No, it was never mine. Dream to be standing on my feet inside the mall, selling cell phones and dealing with people upset about a 20 car charger. However, I became one of the best employees there because I knew the harder I worked, I could A, get a promotion.
If I got a promotion, I had a bigger base salary. B, the more cell phones I sold, the more commission I had, the more commission I had, the more money I had to get outta debt. Back into the stock market. And that's how I got my second round of money to invest. It was living below my means. It was taking that commission check as well as my hourly that I lived below, and I was putting it back into the stock market.
And as I started teaching people how to work, people started [00:16:00] following me online and stuff like that. And then from the time I made a decision to want to make a million dollars, it took about five years. And so that's where the book Five Year Millionaire came from. And also when you look at my teaching, my principles and stuff like that, I was into your previous episode and you guys were talking about how like the industry is upset at people like us teaching this stuff.
'cause they're like, you don't have a license, you're not series 6 63 and seven certified. I study for my series six, my 63 and seven, and I passed all the tests. What happened is I decided not to file those because. I found out once I become licensed you have to get a sponsor. Once you get a sponsor, you have to abide by finra, SEC.
That's not the problem. The problem now becomes you cannot talk freely. You actually can't say what you want. You can't talk about news before it happens. You can't talk about things unless it's already been mentioned publicly. You can't [00:17:00] really be free. And I found that being licensed was a legal way to muzzle you now.
And, so I decided. To not file for those security licenses and continue teaching people through YouTube videos, through podcasts, and through my university. And my point around that was that is how I developed my principles, right? So I'm not wearing a shirt right now, but if you ever see my shirts that me and some of our followers were to say, you never go broke taking a profit.
That trade, I lost a quarter million in. I was up a hundred thousand. But I was like, that's not enough.
So I ended up giving back the a hundred thousand and I gave back a little bit more and I started, to go broke. So that's where one of our principles is you never go broke. Taking a profit came from one of our other principles is you should always have a, I'm wrong level, I think it's going this way, but what if I'm wrong? So what's your, I'm wrong level, meaning your stop loss. I'm gonna get out. I'm gonna stop the bleeding. So a lot of my principles and the things I teach [00:18:00] came from living through that experience of kind of breaking all those rules I didn't even know I should have had in place in the first place.
And so I try to teach people not how to just make the money. About how to have a psychological mindset to keep the money. 'cause it's a big mindset game. It's not just about pressing buttons. You gotta have your mind right to really capitalize on this industry.
Naseema: A hundred percent. And I love what you said, a lot of people aren't comfortable with making the sacrifices that they need to get back on their feet. A lot of people are afraid to admit failure or are stuck in this sunk cost fallacy and continue to go down this path. The spiraling into broke.
For a perception for people who don't even really care about you. And I just, I see it happen so often, or they get stuck in this trap like, I made this mistake. I'm a failure. Especially after losing multiple six figures. And most [00:19:00] people have never made that in their lifetime.
Imagine like the weight that that can psychologically have on people for them to think that they can never achieve anything. And again, that speaks to your emotional intelligence and just innately what you have. In the way that you think, which I really, really love. But for you to be able to step back, go back to your mama's house, go back to, a job where, first of all you was making more than engineers, right?
And now you're going back to an hourly job. But taking that, being able to, again, something that a lot of people don't have a concept of. Is lowering your lifestyle. See, deflating your lifestyle instead of inflating your lifestyle, living off of that salary and then only taking your commissions and using that to trade.
That is incredible. But also what I love is you were like, okay, I'm gonna record this, but okay, [00:20:00] like I'm thinking like you just recorded it on your phone or wherever, but you was like, no, I'm gonna set up a YouTube account. I'm gonna be publicly accountable for this. And I know back then YouTube wasn't what it was
now. And so you don't, you had no, you could have not. Ever predicted like what those videos can do, like right now. So I just really like the way that you think and like even in your unintentional, like actions because they had intentionality behind them, it, it has excelled you like so far and it's taking you to a place where you know, you're helping so many people and you've been able to.
Accomplished so many things and you haven't even gotten to that part of your story as that's where I met you at, like on this path of get into this million. And so I'm just interested in hearing like the next steps how did you get outta your mama's [00:21:00] house and then some.
Jason Brown: You get outta your mama's. And so yeah, I think it's important for people to understand just because you're down, you not out. And that's how I felt. I'm like, I'm down, but I'm not out like I'm a smart guy. And in my book I talk about this, so I say it is called the Hero's Journey. It is basically about when you don't believe in yourself, you pick a hero or somebody that you look up to in that specific space.
Now, I don't know if Warren Buffet's a good dad. I dunno if he's a good Christian. I you, I don't know about all that, but investor, I looked up to him in that category and so I said, what would Warren Buffet do if he lost his money? I said, if he never starts again. He never becomes a billionaire. He never becomes Warren Buffet.
I'm like, I'm sure Warren Buffet lost a quarter million on his way to a million. I'm sure he lost a million on his way to his first billion. And so when I started thinking like that, I'm like, I'm right on [00:22:00] track. So you gotta play mind games with yourself. I'm like. I'm on track. I lost my first quarter million.
Surely I'm about to make my next million off of this. And that's just how I looked at it. Because you have to look outside yourself and play some of these mind games to, hold onto somebody else's belief when you don't believe in yourself. And I started saying, this is gonna make a good story someday now.
I had no idea I'd eventually write a book. But I would listen to Jim Rome, Brian Tracy, and all these motivational speakers, and they say it'll make a good story someday. Jim Rome and I reference him a lot, but he has this line where he says, if you read a book, and chapter one said, everything's just fine.
And then you went to chapter two and he said, and everything's just fine. And he went to chapter three and it said, everything's still just fine. Would you finish this book?
Naseema: Hell no.
Jason Brown: and, and as is no. You're like, what kind of book is this? So you want a book that got drama? What happened next? Ooh, he lost it.
He made it. They broke up. They got back together. She saw him with it. You need a book with drama and that's your life. [00:23:00] That's your life. I said, this is gonna make a good story. This is a hell of a drama. I'm witnessing. I made a quarter meal, lost it all back at home, gotta go back to work. And so at my mom's house, I held onto that, belief, that hero's journey of okay, I'm on my way, I'm on the right path.
I knew it worked because I tasted success. I just had to figure out what I did wrong.
Naseema: Mm-hmm.
Jason Brown: As I eventually worked my way back up to a hundred thousand, I ended up leaving Verizon and then going to get a job at Comcast. So I worked at Comcast was my last corporate America job. But again, what was working for me is because I had got my degree, I qualified for bigger and better jobs, and when I got my job at Comcast, I had a bigger base salary. I also still had commission, but I never raised my income, my lifestyle, I shouldn't say I didn't raise it at all. I did move outta my mom's house and I got my own apartment again, but I didn't go like to the top floor of an apartment I could get. I didn't get the top car I could get.
I, I got [00:24:00] enough to get comfortable and get outta mom's house, but I said now I got that much more money. To invest in the stock market. And so I was taking all that money, putting it in the stock market because I was living below my means. I was also maxing out my 401k at work as well, so I was getting that match.
I only did it up to 6% because I put in three and they matched the three, so it was 6% total. And so I did it up to the company or contribution match, and so I was double dipping. I was investing with them, getting that free match, and then I was also taking all my income and getting back into the, in the market.
And like I said, from the time I made a decision, when I say I made a decision, I wrote out a vision board of everything that I wanted. Instead, I wanted to be a millionaire before age 40. I wanted three homes, three cars, all this stuff. Five year, I didn't get it all in five years, but I eventually got pretty much everything that I put on that paper, including when I looked at the timeframe that I became a millionaire and made my first mil not just.
Made [00:25:00] a million. Had a million dollars plus was a net worth million, my house paid off, et cetera. I looked at it and it had been five years, and so that's where the concept of five year millionaire came from because I showed how through compounding earnings or compounding interest using options. Anyone could become a millionaire within five years.
It's a mathematical equation. I'm not saying everybody will, I'm just saying it's mathematically possible to become a millionaire in five years. And when I looked at the landscape, I said. We go to school for five years to become a get a bachelor's degree. If you want to be a doctor or a lawyer, you go to school for longer than that.
So I just looked at this as a different type of school to go to and a different type of study plan to go and follow, except you come out with skills that'll last you a lifetime. And ideally, if everything goes according to plan, you come out with a million dollars.
Naseema: I love that. I love that. And so like the biggest [00:26:00] lessons, like first of all. I wanna know like, how did you know, because innately you are from Detroit. I'm from Oakland, that's the Detroit of the west coast. I feel like oftentimes, especially when we get into professional roles, we kind have to inflate our lifestyle to be seen as acceptable.
So like I never. Understood lifestyle inflation until I got into the personal finance space and understood the psychology around it and all of that kind of stuff. I'm interested to know like how you innately knew not to inflate your lifestyle even though you were in these spaces where it would be perfectly acceptable to do that.
Jason Brown: I really give credit to, which is why I was excited to write a book. I am telling you, audio books and books have changed my life. I was listening to Rich Dad, poor Dad. I read books like The Alchemist. I was reading [00:27:00] Cash Flow Quadrant, or I had that on audio book. I was, and a lot of these books really.
Kind of got your mind right about the person who looks rich, but they're really deep in debt. They don't have any money for a rainy day at the moment. They get into a car accident, they got a deductible or something, it sets them back or they get laid off from their job. And again, for me, that made sense.
It just made sense I had to ask myself, do I want to live like most of my friends now or do I want to sacrifice and later live, like most of my friends won't be able to, and
Naseema: want
to,
Jason Brown: stor Yeah. And that story came true for me because I, I paid the price earlier. It is very easy. And, I'm proud of the, we own a house on the lake here in Michigan.
I have another place downtown Detroit. I had the Ferrari sold it. I bought a Rolls Royce. I still have the convertible Rolls Royce with the Hermes Orange Interior, Rolexs, you name. It was my point. [00:28:00] It is very easy to meet me now and go, oh, it must be nice. It's don't tell me. It must be nice unless you willing to move back home with your mama.
Okay. With bars on the window, drugs and dopes in the neighborhood, people still in your car. We had to park our car on the grass in between the houses. We didn't have a driveway, so we drove across the grass and put our car in between two houses hoping people wouldn't be as brave to come in between the houses to steal the rims off our car.
So it's don't even tell me. It must be nice 'cause you don't know the sacrifice that we went through to get here. However, I look back. I also knew one day I would be 30, one day I'll be 40. One day I'll be 50, and I wanted to make the sacrifice then so that my thirties, my forties, and eventually my fifties will be sweet, 'cause I don't wanna make that sacrifice right now.
However, I would do it if I had to.
Naseema: Yeah, I think that's important to mention is that a lot of people don't understand [00:29:00] like that that is the time to make those sacrifices. And the same thing, I look back, I had to file bankruptcy in my twenties, and I was just like. Oh my God. Like I'm so glad I did that then.
And I didn't put that off because I was able to recover like the same thing. I had to move back home and do all of those kind of things after I had a successful career. And it was like, I'm so glad I was able to do that. And I did not feel the guilt and shame around it at that age because now I have. So much time to build up and bounce back from that.
Jason Brown: And I think it's important to say this too, because I don't want someone listening to this to be like I have a family. I have this. I can't move back home. We all have our own challenges in life. And you can make some version of a sacrifice. And I would encourage people to think that if you have a family, it's no longer a single sacrifice.
The family needs to [00:30:00] get together around a round table and say. I tell you, a easy sacrifice that families can make, that most families don't. I'll tell you this, we don't do Christmas gifts. I don't do Christmas gifts, and people always ask me, how do you get outta buying Christmas gifts for your kids and for your family, and this and that?
I says, because I watched my mother go in debt every November and December, and she took seven, eight months all the way to May, June, July, paying off them Christmas gifts. And in about four or five months she was about to do it all over again, and we slept in sleeping bags because of it. And I said. I'm not having that for myself and my family.
I'm not getting involved in this Hallmark holiday. If you believe in Jesus Christ, it ain't got nothing to do. We're going to target Walmart, best Buy and getting no gifts if you really wanna dissect what Christmas supposed to be about, right? He came born in the main drum, some straw and some hay.
So give somebody some straw, some hay, bring 'em some food. Go wash their feet. If you want to go, really do something that [00:31:00] don't cost that much. But I digress. My point is. A one sacrifice that most families can make is saying, you know what? We're not doing Christmas gifts this year. The money we would spend, we go take that money and get out of debt.
The money we would spend, we go take that money and open our first investment account. Maybe you drive a Cadillac Escalade. It's like you need a car. You don't necessarily need a Escalade. Maybe the family sacrifice like, look, we gonna get a minivan. I know it's not gonna be cool for two years. Year three, we go get the Range Rover, we go get the Lamborghini truck.
If we work the plan family is everybody on board, right? So you there is ways to sacrifice, even if you have a family. How can we get the whole family on board? Sometimes you might have to sit the kids down and say, look, daddy gotta work two jobs, or Mommy gotta work two jobs. But this second job, we taking all that money and we put into investing.
So for the next six to 12 months, you're not gonna see me as much. But, it's about a conversation and an agreement and an understanding that we as a family, as a unit, or you as [00:32:00] an individual are working towards a bigger goal and saying, this is the last time my life will be like this. And when you think like that, you're willing to make the sacrifice.
Because every day I was making that sacrifice. I said, watch, I'm not making this sacrifice for nothing. I'm gonna figure out the stock market. So we finna make this work. Because I ain't moving back home to this neighborhood for no reason.
Naseema: Exactly, and I think a lot of people underestimate how short of a period of time it takes to actually get back. If you make significant sacrifices like that, it usually is only less than two years where you can
Jason Brown: Less easily,
easily.
Naseema: really, really, really, really easy.
Like it's really fast and that time is gonna pass anyway.
Jason Brown: It's gonna pass anyway. And once it passed, you wanna look back. I said, do I wanna struggle for two more years or do I, I wanna sacrifice and in two years be back at break even, and then in four years be living like nobody else. But I [00:33:00] also think it's because most people don't have a vision for their life.
They don't have goals. And when they don't have a vision, they don't have goals. , You have no reason to sacrifice. You have no reason to work hard. But I think the saddest part is we think things take forever. And once I realized, ' when I lost all that money moved back home. Y your first mind goes to it's gonna take forever to move back outta my mama house.
It actually only took 12 months to move back outta my mama house, right? So forever is not forever. Forever is 12 months. So it's not as long as we think it is. If we make the sacrifice. I thought, man, by the time I become a millionaire, I'm gonna be 60 something. I had no idea I would hit it at I think I hit it at 38, 37 some, something like that.
And so like when I hit it, I'm like forever was not forever. It was like till I was 37. But when you actually map and put numbers to it and a plan to it. We can [00:34:00] leave the ambiguity talk because that ambiguity that's gonna take forever, that's gonna take forever will have you not get started. It'll have you not make the sacrifice.
We don't go to school and say it's gonna take forever. We go to Susan, it's gonna take four years, it's gonna take five years. And so that's why when I wrote Five Year Millionaire, it's no, I want people to realize it can happen in five years and we need to go in with that mentality. Not it's gonna take forever.
No, it could take five years if you focus.
Naseema: Yeah, and I think what I wanna add to that too is that. We often don't have that vision because we don't see people that look like us that have done it, or we just have not found people that we can aspire to that have done these things. And I don't wanna undermine that because I know it's easy, especially for people like me to be like, that's great for them and that's something that they can do.
But. It's not real for me. Like I, I remember like when I first this is a really bad [00:35:00] example, but I was just telling you like when somebody first introduced me to Dave Ramsey, I was like, I. He's nothing like anything that I would aspire to be like. Like why should I listen to him? And then I had to learn there's some things you take and then you learn.
And then I just became that person that I can look up to in the space and be relatable in the way that I know people need that they can't get from Dave Ramsey, and so I just think that. People need to look for sources of inspiration. And I think like for example, you're a great source of inspiration for a lot of people.
But if people, a lot of times people just don't know what's possible 'cause it's never been modeled for them in a way that they can digest it. So having those people in the spaces, like how you were able to take so much from those books, like you understood that and a lot of people just don't. Yeah.
Jason Brown: Yeah, and to your point, that's why I love, your [00:36:00] podcast, your Instagram, and I see you have your kids in there and stuff like that, because we need to see people that look like us or that have families or that. Aren't a hundred thousand percent polished and they might use a slang word or something.
It's that's fine. That doesn't stop you from being able to make a million dollars or start this financial journey. And I often say this, sometimes because as you go up, higher up, you don't really see people that look like us. You start to join different affluent clubs and different things like this.
And I know sometimes people. That you know of color might say, oh, you hang around a lot of white people or a lot of this people, or I had a friend one time say, man, like I just dunno that I'd be comfortable in you be in like be the only black and. I said something and he said, wow, like you changed my perspective.
I never thought about it like that. I said one of us gotta get in there so that they can have a black friend. One of us gotta get in there. So the second black person to come to be like, oh, it's at least one of us in there. And [00:37:00] so, somebody gotta be the first to kick the door down, right?
Somebody gotta get in there and let 'em know that we all don't slang dope or play football. I'll take on the brunt of that. Then I'll get in those rooms, I'll get into those networks and let 'em know, like we know some stuff too. And so when my friend heard me say that he was just kind of like, like I never thought about it like that.
Like some, somebody gotta be the first to kick down the door in that room, right? What if we all just said, ain't no black people in there, ain't none of us going. I.
Naseema: I dunno. I guess I'm so used. I'm so used to being the only one I, I'm like, oh, if I see somebody else, like I remember seeing you, I was like, what's up? You know what I'm saying? I'm so used to that, but I know so many people that are of that mindset that is it's yes, it's important to be the first,
Jason Brown: Yeah, same. Whether it's being black, whether it's being a woman, whether it's being, whatever you want to name it. It's important to knock down that door and say, okay, we here [00:38:00] now, let, now let's bring a couple more through the door. But somebody gotta be the first
Naseema: Yes. Yes. I love that. Let's talk about your book and I understand like the inspiration behind it, but let's talk about what you really want people to take from this book.
Jason Brown: Yeah, so the book, there's two things I want people to take from the book. The first thing is. That books change my life. The written word, the spoken word, has changed my life. And so I hope someone picks up my book and they're giving me the same response that I'm saying about reading. Think and Grow Rich.
About Reading Rich Dad, poor Dad. I hope someone's I read this book, five Year Millionaire. I actually walked away thinking, wow, it is actually possible with this stock market store, or it's possible to build wealth. So I want people, I encompassed the book as it's a story of hope for regular people.[00:39:00]
I just hope regular people walk away with hope that if they broke, if they move back home with they mama, if they tried something like the stock market before, if they tried network marketing, some Ponzi scheme, I don't know, and they lost all their money. I want 'em to have hope that they can start over if they've been laid off, fired.
I don't know what's going on, but I want people to walk away with hope that they can turn it all the way around. So that's the first thing that I hope people walk away from. And then the second thing I hope people take away from the book is that it's a big mindset game and can't tell you how many people come through my doors at our Power Trades University And they might have a hundred thousand dollars, they might have $10,000 and they will go through every module, every course, see me, place trades, walk through the simulator, and six to 12 months later, you're like, have you placed your first trade yet? They're like. I can't. I just, I'm, I'm afraid to lose money.
I'm afraid [00:40:00] if I push the wrong button. And so it made me realize how much of this is psychological. You have been programmed. Don't make a mistake. Come to school, sit in your chair, be quiet, raise your hand, ask for permission, and then on important decisions, you turn it over to somebody else.
Important decisions about your body. You turn it over to a doctor, important decisions about your money. You turn it over to some guy or some girl who studied and passed a test and got a series six or series seven. I want people to walk away saying, I can trust me. I can trust myself. And I think more people are starting to take control of their body.
Yeah, my doctor said this, but this is how I feel. I know my body. I don't like that medicine. I think people are starting to speak up more. I also think people are starting to speak up more in their finances I hear you, but I'm gonna take it in control of myself. I hear you, but I'm gonna learn options.
I'm gonna learn the stock market. And so that's what I want people to walk away with, the mindset that. You are enough. You are capable, and us who have made a million [00:41:00] dollars or made whatever in the stock market. I always like to say we're not different people than you. We just know something different than you, right?
We know and we acted on different information, and if you can get the same information, I like to say, you won't get the same result, but you can create a similar result. You can create your version of the result. You might be a five year, you might be a two year millionaire. You might really take a hold of this.
I don't know. You might be a 10 year millionaire. Bottom line is. You go craft your version of the result if you believe it's possible and you get your mindset right and take action on the new information. And so that's what I hope the book brings and inspires people to do.
Naseema: But I love that you say knowing and taking action and separating those two things because you can know all of this stuff. And this is like the information age, and people know all of these things. Inherently, but unless you take action and understand that in taking action, your action is [00:42:00] gonna be imperfect and you, it's okay to make mistakes and you will lose, but you'll always be ahead of where you were because you actually took those actions and now you're learning and you're implementing and you're able to fail forward and I think that so many people I, and I don't know where this comes from and I've had to.
Unlearn this too is that thing of like failure and it's okay. I mean it's, like failure is so scary and intimidating to people that they just don't act and it is tied around a lot around money. It is tied a lot. Around health too. And as a nurse, I'm say, you better take control and advocate for yourself and don't just trust what doctors say 'cause they're not very smart.
And so the point is, is that learn in the doing. Take imperfect action. Don't feel like you have to know everything before you take the first step because you're going to learn more in taking that first [00:43:00] step than reading through all the course material and all of that stuff before you, take that step and so I just want to emphasize the actions, the taking of actions and why that's so important.
Jason Brown: Yeah, and you said something too, I just want to add too, which is people have a fear of failing. I quickly realized, and most people should realize they're already living failure. You are already a failure and you are like, what do you mean Jason Brown? I tell people all the time, if you lose all your money in the stock market, what you gonna do?
I'm gonna go get a job. You already working a job. So like you just go keep working your job just a little bit longer. You know what I'm saying? So when you think about it, you're already living failure. You already don't drive the car. You wanna drive, you already don't live in the house you wanna live in.
You already work the job that maybe you like or maybe you don't. So you're already living what would happen if this doesn't work. So now let's flip it and say, but what if this does work? You mean anytime I get to drive the car, I wanna drive, I get to [00:44:00] donate to my churches, charity, things that matter to me.
I get to put my mom in that nice retirement home. I get to buy her a home. I get to pay off our home. I get to not worry about debt and creditors. I get to not worry about a car breaking down. So you have way more upside because the downside, I got a news flash for you. You're already living.
What happens if this doesn't work?
Naseema: I love that and I do I, what I forgot is that I want you to. Emphasize like you glossed over it. I want you to emphasize like the wins that you've been able to achieve by you just stepping back and starting over and taking those actions. Like I want you to just briefly talk about the, your million dollar trades and you paying off your house and what you have done, like as far as giving back to the community.
Jason Brown: Yeah, so there's just so many things to share that has [00:45:00] transpired. I, I think, if I hadn't documented my life, number one, there'd be no book. If I didn't get back up after getting knocked down the book, even if there was a book, it wouldn't be that interesting. I just, I've been able to, gosh, so many things.
For example, from a trip standpoint, I've been to Africa, I've been to Hawaii, we went to Croatia. Just got back from Iceland about a month and a half ago. It may have been two months now. I've been some of the places in the world that have been on my bucket list that I've been able to travel and go to, but not just travel and go, I'm talking, not worry about.
Taking off for work, not worry about when I gotta be back. Not worry about how much the trip costs, but when we went to Croatia, a group of entrepreneurs and investors, we chartered a private yacht. So it was about 20, 25 of us and we did Croatia on a private yacht that docked at different islands and countries in cities over eight, nine days.
Stayed in dub bruv dock there, stayed at the, inside the castle, the old city wall. Epic stuff. [00:46:00] Eating up in the mountains, having private dinners, so traveling has been epic Church. I remember when we used to, I'll never forget this, I used to be embarrassed that we only had a dollar to put in the church plate.
But what I love about my mom is we always gave something, whatever we had, but I would ball the dollar up in my hand and I would dropping in the plate hoping nobody saw that it was a dollar. They just saw it was something green. But we've been able to be some of those. Let's just say we get divided to the private dinners at church. You know what I'm saying? Like they, when they see them deposits, they're like, who donated this? Which has been super cool that I've been able to give back on that level. At the Mike Dealer School of Business, Wayne State University, actually, when the building was being built, the Illist gave I think something like $40 million to get the building built.
Then they had a capital campaign raised to, raise money to finish the building. And they had where you can give a certain amount of money to name spaces [00:47:00] inside the building. And I just was so proud that I was in the position to write that check and name a space inside the building. So if you ever go to the second floor to Mike Dealer School of Business there's a whole.
Based atrium area that says the Brown Report. That thanks to the generosity of the Brown Report, and it says you never go broke, taking a profit underneath it. Our kids have just been able to be home. They're out there playing. We have a au pair that lives with us. One of my trades where I made one of my biggest trades, I made $400,000 in that trade.
And I document it. 'cause I just, I've been in the process of, documenting my life since I was. 18. I documented taking that money and paying off our house, and I know sometimes people will say if you're making so much money from the stock market, why would you pay off your house?
But again, you also sometimes gotta take some chips off the table. I always say we're doing this to change our real life. We're not doing this to watch numbers go up and down on the paper. I'm also not that guy that's doing [00:48:00] this for retirement. I'm doing this to enjoy my money now because if I do the right things now, retirement will be okay.
And most people's biggest expense in retirement is a home or a car. And those are none of our concerns right now. And so those are just some of the things that we've been able to do. I've been able to buy my dream car, Ferrari. Bought the Rolls Royce. And not just that, but I think sharing it with my friends and family.
So like I go up to the schools with the car they had a Gross point Homecoming parade and reached out. One of my friends was a teacher that had reached out to me and was like, Hey, somebody was supposed to bring a convertible Mustang. They couldn't make it the homecoming court and Queen was supposed to ride in it or whatever.
It's can you help us out? I'm like, I'll bring the Rolls Royce. And so I brought the Rolls Royce up there also, the two kids were black, so they probably had never been in the Rolls Royce before, so it was just super cool to just be able to do stuff like that. And, and then I do a lot of volunteering and, and sharing of my time as but [00:49:00] it's just a lot of stuff have been made possible by having the money, but more importantly, having the time together.
That's been like the true combination of living an extraordinary life.
Naseema: Yeah, I'm all, I'm like all tearing up because I'm just like. That's what it's for, and I just, I love your generosity, but I under, I love the way you understand the power that like. Wealth provides and it's not like a lot of us have grown up and thinking that rich people are greedy or bad and like subconsciously have this thing about like building wealth and all that kind of stuff.
And it's those blocks that also hold us back and just. You being able to do all of those things for yourself, for your family, and for the community is like exactly what [00:50:00] building wealth is for. And you're always gonna be rich because of it. And so I'm just so inspired and I just really hope that people understand the importance of this for them and that it's accessible for them and that.
You started from the bottom you know what I'm saying,
like
Jason Brown: got
Naseema: would out the mud and statistically, there is no probable chance that you , could be in this position. But not only have you done it, you have done it. With so much grace and with, just so much love and like I said, so much like emotional intelligence and like all of these things and I just like it, it just is really inspiring to me.
And I just, I really hope that people understand how what [00:51:00] you're doing not only is for you, is for all of us, and I just appreciate you. For doing that.
Jason Brown: I appreciate you. We having a real conversation and, we hope it touches and inspires real lives out there.
Naseema: Yeah.
Jason Brown: Like you said, there's no statistic or way I should be where I'm at. Most people from my neighborhood, they dead. They in jail or they just getting, just now getting released from something they did at 1819.
They just getting released 20 years later. And I look at my life and. I'm at home on a podcast with you, two people of color able to connect and talk money, talk life. I don't know if you know this or not, but every other Thursday I fly to the New York Stock Exchange. I do a segment from the New York Stock Exchange on the Swab Network.
I do the big three, three stocks, three options, and from a kid from Detroit to be flying to the New York Stock Exchange every other Thursday. Where the stock exchange is closed off to the public. You can only go in there if you know somebody, [00:52:00] if you're a part of a publicly traded company, you get invited.
You can't just walk in and to know that Jason Brown is invited, got a standing invitation every other Thursday and on one of the biggest networks, it's just as they say, nothing but God.
Naseema: Yes,
Yes,
Jason Brown: And.
Naseema: Yes. I know your mom is proud. And we're all proud of you. If people wanna connect with you, get your book, do power Trade, be a part of the Power trading community, how can they do that?
Jason Brown: Yeah, and the best place to just connect with me on everything is the Brown report.com. I'm everywhere at the Brown Report on YouTube. It's the Brown Report on Instagram at Brown Report, or if you search the Brown Report, I'm there. You can find the book everywhere. Books are sold. Barnes and Nobles, Walmart.
Amazon pretty much everywhere books are sold. But if you forget all of that, just go to the Brown[00:53:00]
Everything Power University. It's all at the brown.
Naseema: I appreciate you. Sorry for getting all emotional, but you're just such a phenomenal person and I just feel blessed to be able to have a conversation with you and to, be tangential to your space.
Jason Brown: Yeah you don't ever to about getting emotion because, for me that's a gift because I never want to come on here and just talk fluff. I want to be real. I wanna speak to people's minds and hearts, and I think that's what we accomplished today. And you are a champion in my eyes for, I also think we understand each other.
Seeing, your daughter come in and out the room and I'll just share this one last story. I remember, I actually was, I was on a James We mart more. He was using me as a testimonial. I never forget my son busting the room and my I don't know if it was my wife or the nanny, somebody was like, oh my [00:54:00] gosh, come here.
And I looked up and I said, no, we fine. And I picked my son up and put him on my lap and I finished this and I said, this is what real success is about. I don't have to shoo him away. 'cause dad's on the podcast. You don't have to shoo your daughter away. You not about to get fired. You know how to get your, your your sponsorship cut.
This is your show. Bring your daughter in here. This real, we this real life we doing,
Naseema: exactly.
Jason Brown: we worked hard, so we don't have to be like, go, don't bother me. It's like stuff happens. We still rocked out a great show and my hat's off to you and for, still being mom because that's an important role and that don't stop just.
Naseema: It don't stop. Thank you. And thank you for that, grace for that. 'cause, I feel like. And this is just a thing, , like with men do it. It's just oh, that's what it's supposed to be. But I've gotten oh, how dare you disrespect that man's time by having your child in the background.
And I'm just like, listen, first, first and [00:55:00] foremost, this is why I do all of this. It's for my kids.
Jason Brown: We can't even carry a child, so we got no disrespect. Plus we got in some what? I'll be here.
Naseema: So I appreciate that. But Jason, I appreciate everything. Like you are a true inspiration. I'll have all your links in the show notes. Definitely gonna read this book. I just really, really, really just appreciate who you are, who you have developed into and how many people you're gonna inspire. And I just like you are the prototype and I'm looking forward to sharing you with so many people because I like when I'm talking to you, I know so many people that need to hear your message and your story on so many different levels of life.
And, I just feel blessed [00:56:00] that I have a resource to share with them. So I appreciate you
Jason Brown: I appreciate you. Thanks for having. I'm gonna share it out on my networks too, and people need to know about you.
Hey there I’m Naseema
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