EPISODE OVERVIEW

Duration: Approximately 45 minutes

Best For: Trapped entrepreneurs who have built success on paper yet feel vulnerable, overworked, and disconnected from what matters

Key Outcome: Understand how to rebuild purpose-driven income when everything falls apart, and why your deepest hardships might become your greatest business assets

He never had to work again. Then he woke up and could not pay the electric bill.

THE BOTTOM LINE

You have probably had the thought. What if it all disappears tomorrow? What if the business you have sacrificed your health, your time with your kids, your marriage for, just vanishes? Brent Phillips lived that nightmare. He built a tech company from nothing, sold it for a fortune, bought a McLaren, built a mansion. Then the stock collapsed. Overnight, the man who never had to work again could not afford a $500 utility bill. The thing is, what happened next matters more than the money he lost. With no savings, no backup plan, and a family depending on him, Brent turned an act of kindness, a converted garage he had built for Ukrainian refugees, into an Airbnb listing. That single desperate move became a 36-unit hospitality empire generating over 1300% growth in one year. His story is not about luck. It is about what becomes possible when you stop building for your ego and start building for your family. If you feel trapped in your business, terrified of what happens if the wheels come off, this episode shows you that rock bottom comes with a launching pad.

WHY THIS EPISODE MATTERS TO YOU

Your family did not ask for the BMW or the mansion. They asked for you. This episode reveals what happens when a successful entrepreneur finally understands that, and builds accordingly.

You have probably felt that nagging fear that one bad quarter could unravel everything. Brent shows you how to build income streams that survive catastrophe.

If you are the bottleneck in your business, you are also the single point of failure. Brent's story demonstrates how to create something your whole family can contribute to, together.

The cost of waiting is measured in missed school plays, declining health, and relationships that quietly erode. Every month you stay trapped is a month you cannot get back.

KEY INSIGHTS YOU CAN IMPLEMENT TODAY

Your career might be isolating you from your family without you realising it.

Brent spent years in technology work his family could never participate in. When he shifted to hands-on work building the ranch, suddenly his wife and kids could contribute. They built a house together in 30 days with no experience. Ask yourself: is your current business designed to include your family, or exclude them?

Speed of implementation matters more than perfection when survival is at stake.

When Brent needed income, he used AI to create images of properties that did not exist yet, listed them for future dates, and built them just in time. One house was finished five minutes before guests arrived. The trapped entrepreneur waits for perfect conditions. The free entrepreneur builds the plane while flying it.

Love and genuine appreciation can outcompete resources you do not have.

Brent had no fancy amenities when he started. He had homemade cakes, fresh bread, and his wife offering to cook dinner for guests. People came back not because of what he had, yet because of how he made them feel. Your customers remember how you treat them long after they forget what you charged.

The businesses that survive hardship are born from deep personal need.

Second MD came from his niece having a stroke. Milk and Honey Ranch came from desperately needing to feed his family. The most powerful businesses are not built from market research. They are built from moments when failure is not an option.

Rock bottom gives you a launching pad, yet only if you keep moving.

Brent applied to over 40 jobs on LinkedIn. Not a single callback. He took it as a sign to focus entirely on what was working. The trapped entrepreneur keeps pushing against closed doors. The free entrepreneur notices which door is actually open.

GOLDEN QUOTES WORTH REMEMBERING

"I really believed it would bring gratefulness out of them if they worked this." - Brent Phillips on why he moved his family from a mansion to a horse barn

"When you don't have an option to fail, you're going to run farther, you're going to run faster. If you didn't have that tiger, you would have given up way before." - Brent Phillips

"The most authentic and powerful businesses come out of a deep need. The most meaningful things are things that so deeply connect with the heart, because then when you have initial failure, it doesn't matter because there's something far bigger driving than just financial." - Brent Phillips

"For an apple to gain its sweetness, it has to go through a bitter winter. The greatest people I know, every single one of them, have been through some bitter winters." - Brent Phillips

"Life only gets better from rock bottom. Because you've got a launching pad. That's always the good news about rock bottom. There's only one way to go." - Brent Phillips

QUICK NAVIGATION FOR BUSY LEADERS

00:00 - Introduction: Fellow South African entrepreneur who never imagined this path

04:30 - The Wake Up Call: How COVID brought Brent home and changed his priorities

08:15 - The Texas Freeze: When technology failed and he realised he could not provide for his family

12:45 - Buying the Farm: The decision to get his kids out of entitlement and into purpose

18:20 - The Sale and the McLaren: Building a tech company and the brief taste of "never working again"

24:00 - Losing Everything Overnight: Stock collapse and the morning everything changed

29:30 - The Ukrainian Connection: How an act of kindness became a survival strategy

35:15 - Building While Desperate: Contractors, creative financing, and finishing houses minutes before guests arrive

40:00 - The Car Accident: When his wife nearly died and the business grew 1300%

44:30 - Lessons on Raising Resilient Kids: Why bitter winters create sweet fruit

GUEST SPOTLIGHT

Name: Brent Phillips

Bio: Brent Phillips is a technology leader turned hospitality entrepreneur with two decades of experience building and scaling companies. After co-founding and selling a major tech-med company, he lost everything when the acquiring company's stock collapsed. He rebuilt from nothing, transforming Milk and Honey Ranch in Texas from a survival strategy into a 36-unit hospitality destination. His journey from mansion to horse barn to thriving business makes him uniquely qualified to speak to entrepreneurs who fear losing it all.

Connect with Brent:

Website: milkandhoneyranch.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentgphillips/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx3IjbNw1kMIYHYl81hJxNQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MilkandHoneyRanch/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/milkandhoneyranchtx

YOUR NEXT ACTIONS

This Week: Identify one aspect of your business that completely excludes your family. Ask yourself if there is any way to create a version they could participate in, even in small ways.

This Month: Audit your single points of failure. What happens to your income if you cannot work for 30 days? Begin building one additional revenue stream that does not require your daily presence.

This Quarter: Have an honest conversation with your family about what they actually want from you. Not what you assume they want. What they say might change everything about how you build your next chapter.

EPISODE RESOURCES

Airbnb - Platform Brent used to list properties and rebuild income

Round Top Antique Festival - The local event that drove early bookings to the ranch

Cinderella Man - The Russell Crowe boxing film Brent references about fighting for milk during the Great Depression

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READY TO ESCAPE THE TRAP?

Take the Freedom Score Quiz: https://scoreapp.atpbos.com/

Discover how trapped you are in your business and get your personalised roadmap to freedom in under 5 minutes.

Book a Free Strategy Session: https://www.atpbos.com/contact

Let's discuss how to build a business that works WITHOUT you.

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CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST, ROY CASTLEMAN

Roy is the founder of All The Power Limited and creator of Elevate360, a business coaching system for entrepreneurs ready to scale without burnout. As a certified Wim Hof Method Instructor and the UK's first certified BOS UP coach, Roy combines AI automation, wellness practices, and business operating systems to help trapped entrepreneurs reclaim their freedom.

Website: www.atpbos.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roycastleman/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@allthepowerltd

1

Hey, guys. I'm here with Brent Phillips, fellow South African,

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fellow entrepreneur. Done some amazing things, and we'll dig into

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that a bit more. He runs an amazing place called

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the Milk and Honey Ranch in Texas. Yeah. Not. Not

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ranch. Ranch. Ranch, for sure. Yeah.

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So tell us a little bit about your journey. So

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if. If you had bet me a million dollars that

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this is where my life would end up, I would

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have lost that bet. I never, ever imagined. You know,

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some people are like, was this always your dream? It

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was never my dream. I love technology. I've got a

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master's in software engineering, and I was very happy to

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do that for the rest of my life. Not outdoorsy.

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I didn't go camping, fishing. I was very happy indoors.

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As Jim Gaffigan said, since they invented the house, why

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would you want to camp? Anyway? What led to this?

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I built a few companies. The last one was with

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my brother. It was a big tech med company. And

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a few events happened. Covid happened, which changed a lot

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of people. We'll never be the same after Covid, but

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it brought me home from the office. Like you, I

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was working very long days and happy doing it. But

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when I came home, I was like, I quite like

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this woman that I married, and I remember I married

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her on purpose because I wanted to spend time with

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her, but I'm gone most of the time. And my

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kids, I was like, my kids are growing up. I'm

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barely seeing them. So that was a big wake up

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call that I was like, I have to change my

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lifestyle. Then we had a big freeze in Texas that

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literally shut down the whole state. Texas was not prepared

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for that kind of weather, like Colorado. But we had

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no food, we had no water, we had no heat.

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It was crazy. I expect that stuff in South Africa

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for everything to stop working, not in America. How long

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was it for? It was like four or five days.

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Wow. And so we were fortunate to have a swimming

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pool so we could flush the toilets. We were getting

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water out of the swimming pool and flushing the toilets.

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We were fortunate to have a gas stove so we

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could boil the water from the swimming pool, but our

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pipes didn't work. Everything was frozen. And anyway, it was

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very scary in that I could not be the provider

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for my family. Up until then, my technology had insulated

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me. I loved using Uber Eats and every smart switch

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I had it all, all the automations, Alexa, home, whatever

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it might be. And none of that mattered when the

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power went out. I eventually got to Home Depot to

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try fix some of the things in the house. And

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I got into Home Depot and I was like, who

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am I kidding? I don't know what I'm doing yet.

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I don't know what to look for. I don't know

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what tools, but anything. And I really need to learn

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more about life than just technology. And I need to

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take my family with me because I've just perpetuated a

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pure technology lifestyle to them. I feel like I've actually

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disadvantaged them by doing that. So that was the shakeup

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that happened when we started talking about, hey, we need

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to buy some land and learn the whole other side

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of life that we know nothing about. That's such a.

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Such a. Honor. Wake up. Right? That understanding that you

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never get that time back with your family, right? Yeah.

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We do this as entrepreneurs. And I had a guest

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the other day who really hit. The point is that

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you go through life and you think you're doing this

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for your family, but they never asked you for it.

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Right? We definitely buy into the. Well, I'm providing a

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certain lifestyle, and that's like a check mark in the

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society that we live in. If you can provide your

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wife a BMW, like, you're doing really well as a

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husband, but if you provided her a BMW, you never

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see her. It's better. You provided her, you know, some

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smart car, and you get to drive together to places.

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One of the things, when we would travel, I would

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see old people traveling, and I was like, I don't

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want to wait till I'm old to do these things.

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I would rather take cheaper trips like to the Holiday

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Inn now, than wait some Europe trip to travel with

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my family. And then I've missed the boat. I had

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an experience. I was 19 on Fields Hill in Durban,

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and I got run over by a drunken driver. I

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was hitching on the motorway, they call it my white

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line moment. I lay on the road, his bumper hit

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me. I went into the windscreen, my arm wrapped around

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the side, and it flipped me into the middle of

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the road. And I was laying there, I was like,

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ah, yeah, I'm dead now the claws are zipping past

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my head. Luckily, two amazing Samaritans stopped. They saw it,

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and they pulled the car behind me and they pulled

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me onto the. Onto the white line so that, yeah,

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I wouldn't get hit. And the thing that I regretted

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wasn't the things I'd done, it was the things I

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haven't done. I want to go skydiving and I want

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to go travel more. And that was such a blessing

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because since then I've seen the World. I've traveled all

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over the place. I've done two and a half thousand,

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skydived, I've free dived under the ice and all sorts

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of things. Would I have done them if I just

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got into the business and run through it? Maybe not.

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So it was a real blessing. So let's go back

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into the early Brent. What was. Yeah, got a university,

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went into a career, or started your first company. How

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did you get into a company? I love building things.

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I still do, you know. And at 4 years old,

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we've got a Commodore 64. And

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I got this programming book and I literally just parrot

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typed it at 4 years old, not understanding anything I

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was writing, just matching letters on the keyboard to the

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page and then run the compiler and it had me

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hooked from then. We only got our first PC when

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I was 14. Yeah, on that moment that was going

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me, me, me. It took like 30 minutes to download,

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but oh my gosh, but I loved computers and I

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think it really was the creation that, that in this

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digital world I could bring something to life that wasn't

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there. And started with Visual Basic and by the time

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I finished university, Visual Basic was already extinct. But I

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started at rao, I finished at unisa, and then I

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started my first company while I was still in university.

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I wrote some software for the Johannesburg International Airport for

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Lost Baggage. And then after that I got a company

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where I was writing software for banks, for transport companies.

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The company was called X Soul, that I was working

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for. And then at 21, my brother came to the

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States to play rugby. He got recruited to a little

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town called Aspen, and so he came out there to,

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to play rugby. I came about a year later and

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I was like, I think I need to do this.

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I think I need a change of pace. Started a

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company in Aspen and so it was a hardware company

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and helping with servers and all of that. And then

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I actually sold that and moved back to South Africa

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to be a missionary. All right. I mean, we had

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a great life. I just, I really wanted my life

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to have purpose. And then my niece had a stroke

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at a few days old in Aspen. It was a

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big deal for the family. They didn't know what was

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wrong with her. Nobody knew. The doctors there had no

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clue. And it led my brother down this journey of

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trying to seek out a medical specialist to understand what

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was wrong. And that journey led us to start what

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became second md. So my brother asked me to come

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back from South Africa and he said, look, we're going

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to help far more people than what you're going to

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do. We can help millions of people. And I came

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back and built the software. We helped so many people

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with things that doctors had missed for years or decades.

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I remember one guy, his wife had been in bed

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for like 12 years, misdiagnosed with a disease she didn't

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have. We were able to get her to the right

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people and got that lady out of bed. I really

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felt like I was making a difference. And then we

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got bought out by a public company which was supposed

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to be the greatest day of our lives. I'm hearing

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that there was a period that it seemed unreal, you

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know, to start a business from scratch and to get

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bought out by a public company, that's everybody's dream. It's

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lightning in a bottle. Anyway, we got bought for a

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crazy amount of money and I never had to work

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again. I would log in all the time and check

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the stocks, and I just couldn't believe it was real.

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When the company sold, my brother bought me a McLaren

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as a thank you gift. So I went from driving

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a Smart car to a McLaren. We went from living

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in an apartment the entire time in the US to

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building a mansion. And so my life changed so much.

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And I really got enamored by my bank balance, which

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I'd never had before. You know, that balance became my

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defining moment. I was finally rich. And you never know

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how you're going to be until you have a ton

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of money, you know. And I tell you, it started

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to ruin my family. If I'm completely honest. I can't

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believe how quickly it made my kids brats. And our

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lives just became about buying this. And, you know, when

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we were living month to month, we were super dependent

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on God to get us through. But as soon as

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we had a ton of money, it was like, okay,

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we got it. You went from this position of having

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such a purpose, you know, and doing good work, to

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not having that purpose anymore. Well, that must have been

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an eye opener. Yeah, for sure. And so, you know,

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when I bought the farm, I had enough money for

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this farm to never have to make money. It was

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just going to be a playground. And of course I

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wanted to get my kids out of the city, get

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this entitlement out of them. And of course, for us

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to get closer to nature and agriculture. I really believed

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it would bring gratefulness out of them if they worked

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this. How old are they? They were 13 and 11

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when we moved. So they were not happy. They didn't

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want that. So I moved them from a 5,000 square

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foot dream Home into a barn with no toilet, no

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air conditioning. That was just horse barn. And so my

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son was on a hammock and my wife and daughter

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were on a blow up mattress. And they hated me.

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I'm sure it worked. And once they got over hating

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you, they saw differently. It really. I remember one of

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the moments that changed my daughter. We had a goat

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giving birth and I didn't know what to do, but

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one leg was sticking out. And I was typing that

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into a YouTube video, leg sticking out, a mom goat,

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what do I do? Kind of thing. I found this

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video saying, you want to find the other hoof? These

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little goats we had. I couldn't fit my hands. I

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grabbed my daughter and I'm like, listen, don't give me

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attitude, don't give me a long story. I just need

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you to come save this goat's life. She saved the

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baby and the mom and that changed her. How can

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it not? Yeah, for sure. And so the plan was

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working. It was working. We were definitely better off for

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being here. And then I woke up one morning and

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everything was gone. I went from never having to work

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again to literally the next day not even being able

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to pay the $500 electric bill. Wow. So

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the company that had bought us, we were in a

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lockup period with the shares that given us some cash.

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The rest was in shares and they had lost a

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major client and missed all their projections. And it was

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just a FIAs sale or whatever it's called. The stock

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dropped from. They bought US at like $60 a share.

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It dropped to like $3 a share. Wow. And it

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never recovered. And so the last 10 years of my

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life, that had been such a triumph that we had

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taken a company from ground up to sale that really

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like, who wants to interview somebody who, who

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like made it and lost everything? Oh my gosh.

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And I felt like such a failure. Even though it

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wasn't my fault, I didn't have anything to do with

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it. I also had spent like, I had that money

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forever, you know. So I bought the land, cash, and

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I had nothing. I had no savings, I had no

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401k. I had nothing. And now here we were completely,

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completely exposed and I didn't know what I was going

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to do. So I started working jobs like every time

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zone for different companies. I think I was working like

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four or five jobs online at the same time and

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still working on the farm. So I was doing all

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these technology jobs and working on the farm and still

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couldn't come through. This farm was so expensive with the

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Animals and all of that stuff. But what had happened?

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Just before I lost all the money, I had converted

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our garage into a hotel for Ukrainians. I

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have a lot of Ukrainian relationships because of being in

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software and they're really good programmers. When the war broke

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out, I created the hotel and I said, guys like

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you and your families, your friends, whoever needs a place,

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if you can get you out to the States, I'll

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take care of you. Not realizing that my act of

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kindness that God would use to help me. And

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when I couldn't make it, I put it on Airbnb

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with high hope but low expectation. I didn't know anything

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about Airbnb. I put it on Airbnb and it booked

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almost immediately. It turned out we were close to this

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round top area. I didn't even know of. They do

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this antique festival, right? As I was putting it on

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Airbnb, people were looking for a place to stay and

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it booked up. In the summer. I bought a mobile

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home for the housekeeper. But after losing everything. You don't

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have a housekeeper, right? Poor people don't have housekeepers for

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sure. I put that mobile home on Airbnb. I'm like,

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it's a mobile home. I don't know if people are

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going to like this, but it's all I got. So

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I put that on Airbnb and then there were two

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units providing an income. And then I built a house

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for my brother and sister in law and they had

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moved off the farm by then. I put that on

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Airbnb and that booked up and then all my IT

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jobs dried up. I'm very well qualified and really well

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experienced and I couldn't even get a call back or

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a follow up email. I applied to over 40 jobs

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on LinkedIn and nobody gave me the time of day.

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And I took it as a sign from God that

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that was not my path to pursue. Like he was

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focusing me. It's like I'm closing all these other doors.

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Focus on this, this short term rentals. Oh my gosh.

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And so I did everything that I could. I didn't

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know anything about short term rentals, but I knew that

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I was going to love these people like they had

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never been loved. Yeah. Or any Airbnb. I mean, they

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would arrive and I'm like, he has a cake, he

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has bread, he has cupcakes. Like, you know, do you

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want my wife to cook dinner for you tonight? Like,

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what do you need? We made it such a exciting

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experience that people came back even though we didn't have

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what we have. To offer now. Back then, all we

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had to offer was love and genuine appreciation for people

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to come, and people responded. So it was all women

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who was booking. I'm so grateful to those early adopting

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women that were willing to take a chance on coming

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to this farm in the middle of nowhere. South Africans

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generally are more entrepreneurial, and I believe this

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is because we come from a place where. Where if

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you don't work, you don't eat. And as hard as

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that is, it's actually a blessing. And I had this.

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My daughter's 21, 22 in a couple of weeks, and

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she grew up in the uk, and I was quite

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worried about how do I give her that drive, how

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do I give her that inspiration? And I tried to

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get her involved in things. Teenagers, they don't do that.

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It doesn't work like that. But I kept on doing

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what I do with honor and hard work. I was

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also guilty of not spending as much time as I

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could with her, but tried to make as much time

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as possible. I'm very proud that she's turned out the

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way she has at university and she's doing these things.

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But I often wonder, how do we as parents foster

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that drive in our kids? It is so difficult. I

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never wanted to raise spoiled kids, and I say no

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to a lot of things, but it's in the fabric,

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it's in the culture. You know, where in South Africa

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you had a traffic light and there's 10 guys selling

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things. It's in your mind that people are trying to

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make a living. You're very aware that the level of

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poverty. And I think you were more grateful that if

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you did have something, you knew that this wasn't guaranteed.

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Like, you had to work hard and you weren't just

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passing up your job because there wasn't another 10 jobs

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that you could just go get. Yeah. And you look

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for every opportunity. My first job was selling newspapers at

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11 years old, right? Yeah. My mom couldn't afford the

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sweets that I wanted. Yeah. And then I worked on

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a mushroom farm. So chanterelle mushrooms, you probably saw supermarkets,

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right? And yeah, as I was leaving the farm, you

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know, people started asking me, can you bring me some

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mushrooms? I went to the farmer. I said, I'll buy

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these beforehand. Yeah. He's like, yeah, cool. So by half

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a kilo for four and then again, sell them for

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six rand. And. Yeah. Because I worked from three in

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the morning, Mushrooms don't care about your schedule at all.

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I left at 11 in the morning. So I started

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putting mushrooms in the car. Then I took 10 bags

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and one day I was like, okay, I'm gonna buy

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20 bags of mushrooms. I was only making 1500 rand

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a month. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even then I had 35

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ladies working with me. And I'd get there in the

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morning and they'd sing and they'd just harmonize. Bring tears

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in my eyes and. Yeah. So I cooked this 20bas.

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Mushrooms. And I stopped on the way home at the

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first office block I could come to. And I was

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like, hey, does anyone want some fresh mushroom? Okay. And

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I did that. Yeah. And literally within three months, I

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was making 10,000 random. Wow. Doing that. Yeah, yeah. Then

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I had leftover mushrooms. So I went to pizza parlors

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and I sold them. Yeah. That. Then they wanted more.

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And. Yeah. I mean, that was my real eye opener

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that the multipliers are so important. If you can get

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the multiply. Yes, yes. But it's always that looking like

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you say, these other people are less well off than

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I am. And they can smile and they can do

350

whatever, work as hard as they can. Yeah. What's the

351

opportunity? Yeah. Yeah. I used to go down to the

352

beach and buy salt water and put salt water in

353

two liter bottles. Coke bottle. Then take them up to

354

the farm and sell them. Anything you could do to

355

make an extra buck, Right? Yeah. You know, memory that

356

I have from South Africa that has been burnt into

357

my mind. My uncle was quite wealthy when we were

358

growing up in South Africa. He always had a BMW

359

and you know, when nobody had. He had a car

360

phone when only James Bond had a car phone. And

361

he lost everything. I remember him asking if I'll help

362

him sell popcorn outside of a stadium. I will never

363

forget that. Because nothing was beneath him. He sold popcorn

364

outside of a stadium. Then he sold jackets. And he

365

did whatever he needed to do to provide for his

366

family. That was his motivation. It was never about the

367

money. It was about providing for his family. That has

368

stood me in such good, steady. Instead, I drew off

369

that memory many times while I was grinding here on

370

the farm doing things that I never thought I would

371

have to do to provide. But I don't regret it

372

one bit. To answer your question, how do we teach

373

our kids? I don't know when the sun is shining,

374

if we can teach them their real life lessons. It's

375

rarely in the valleys where they see it, they learn

376

it. Like with my uncle selling the popcorn at the

377

stadium. It was the tough times that I believe produced

378

the most beautiful people. And us going through this tough

379

time on the ranch and the kids realizing and us

380

having no money for anything, but still happy. And it

381

has produced some beautiful human beings that I'm very proud

382

of. That's amazing, man. That's amazing. So tell us a

383

bit more about the ranch, because I saw that. That

384

is so awesome. If I'm ever there and we're going

385

to come and visit you guys, we'd love to have

386

you. It's the ACC rental business, right? Yeah. It's the

387

business I never asked for, never planned for, but it

388

was the only option I had was to have people

389

coming to sleep on the farm. Yeah, that was the

390

only way I was making money. But I definitely didn't

391

do it alone. There were some key people in my

392

life that without them I couldn't have made it. Those

393

people were contractors because the bank wouldn't lend me a

394

century. And so I gathered a little bit of money

395

together and I said to one of the contractors, like,

396

how much will it be to build another house? And

397

he was like, it's 70,000. And I was like, okay,

398

I can give you 10. Will you build it? And

399

hopefully by when it gets to the end, I'll have

400

the money to pay for the house. And so we

401

would get money in and I would pay for three

402

quarters of the house. I wouldn't have enough money to

403

pay for the whole thing. And I was like, hey,

404

can you take this other money that I'm paying you

405

for the first house? Can you use it to build

406

the second house? And so I owed this guy like

407

a million dollars by the end, but had he not

408

done that, I could never have scaled the property enough

409

to actually cover the expenses. Yeah, it would have taken

410

way too long. I would have built a house again

411

by that time. We would have been bankrupt and locked

412

and lost the farm. So what lessons did you learn

413

there? Because I, I. Yeah, I've only spoken to you

414

for 45 minutes. Yeah. And yeah, there's a character piece

415

that's so important in that I think authenticity comes in

416

out of that and willingness to help. But what lessons

417

have you learned during that process? Speed is a big

418

deal. Yeah. I realized the longer this takes to build,

419

the more expensive it is for me because it's not

420

earning money. And also selling people on a future dream

421

was important. So I was AI ing images of

422

what this house was going to look like and then

423

putting that online for people to book at the date

424

that I hoped it would be ready. Did you get

425

that wrong? No, no. He never missed a deadline. There

426

were some times that we finished Five minutes before the

427

guest arrived and two days before, we didn't have any

428

septic, any power. We were working like crazy. But I

429

will tell you this, the beauty about farm work or

430

this kind of blue collar or hands on stuff is

431

I could share it with my family where I could

432

never share programming. Yeah. I can't say, hey, come write

433

this algorithm with me, but I can say, hey, I

434

need you to come nail a drywall or whatever that

435

is. So that was a beautiful thing that brought me

436

closer because my career was very isolating from my family.

437

And this career was a beautiful thing that friends, family,

438

everybody could come together. We built one house in 30

439

days ourselves and a frame. I looked up the designs

440

online and everybody built it with no experience. We like

441

with a nail gun and wood and we got this

442

thing done. I got a that can do attitude right.

443

Like this needs to be done, we'll do it right.

444

And that's where when you don't have an option to

445

fail. Yes, you can get it wrong, but you don't

446

have an option to fail. It's like you say you're

447

running away from a tiger. Like you forget that being

448

unfit is an option. You're going to run farther, you're

449

going to run faster. If you didn't have that tiger,

450

you would have given up way before. And we were

451

in such a desperate place that like it was either

452

I feed my family or I don't feed my family.

453

As a father and a husband, I would rather die

454

than ever not provide for my family. I feel like

455

that's the absolute worst. That was a driving motivator that

456

gave me infinite energy. I never felt sorry for myself.

457

I knew what I was fighting for. There's this old

458

movie with Russell Crowe. It's a boxing movie during the

459

Great Depression. He loses everything and eventually he gets back

460

to fighting and they ask him, are you fighting for

461

the prize? Are you fighting for this? I'm fighting for

462

milk. I'm fighting for my family. I'm literally fighting for

463

the sustenance of life for them. And it gave me

464

such purpose, such drive. When I put my head on

465

the pillow at night, it was like I was fighting

466

a war for them. And my wife was so amazing

467

because, I mean, she just encouraged me all the time

468

to keep going and how proud she was. And those

469

words, when you're in the middle of a fight. Yeah,

470

it means a lot. Yeah, for sure. So what's the

471

future look like? Tell us where you are now. I

472

will share the links for. Yeah. Looks amazing. You're

473

an entrepreneur. So, yeah, I'm seeing like seven of these

474

places building up everywhere now. I'll tell you this. In

475

2024, January 8th, we had $5,000 in the bank, but

476

we were making it like we had five units at

477

the time. And things were looking promising. And then on

478

the 8th of January, my wife was in a massive

479

car accident. And when I got the call, I said,

480

I don't think she's going to live through the night.

481

So much stuff was wrong with her. Her face was

482

crushed, her brain had swelled. It was just a mess.

483

And I stopped all marketing for Milk and Honey Raj,

484

obviously. And I posted on our business accounts asking people

485

to pray for my wife. Didn't ask people to book.

486

Didn't ask people anything. Anyway, she made it through the

487

night. Then I said, she's in a vegetative state. Then

488

they said she came out of that. Then they said,

489

she's crippled and blind. Then she came out. And I'm

490

just sharing all these things as we're praying for things.

491

And I had fully expected to lose the ranch, to

492

pay $10,000 just to keep her in ICU. And it

493

was half a million in medical expenses. And we had

494

this Christian Medicare thing that didn't pay. And it was

495

just a given that we would lose the ranch. And

496

I had achieved everything I wanted to achieve. Yeah, I

497

loved where my kids were. We had learned I could

498

do it all, you know, so we had achieved everything

499

that I'd wanted. And I was like, we'll move back

500

to an apartment and my wife's alive. Anyway, the ranch

501

grew 1300% in bookings. It took some people

502

a year and a half to get to the ranch

503

from the time when they booked because they paid in

504

full a year and a half out. So I had

505

all this money come in. And then the McLaren that

506

my brother had had given me, I raffled to pay

507

for all the medical expenses. So the year that should

508

have killed the business was the greatest year of growth

509

we've ever had. And so we now have 36

510

stays. We can sleep up to 145 people. We've got

511

a wedding chapel. We've got a venue for 150 people.

512

We've got a cafe, a spa. We are about to

513

install our floating water park. We're about to launch our

514

golf simulator. We've got a little putting green. We've got

515

a dirt bike track. And then, of course, all the

516

animals. We got kangaroos, all the little mini cows. I

517

mean, it's just. And I say all that. And I

518

hope nowhere in my talk does anybody think that I

519

think that I should have achieved this. It's. I explained

520

it the other day to somebody. I said, it's like

521

going to Vegas. I threw the dice as I took

522

a chance to do this, but I had no control

523

over the numbers. Yeah. And that's where I give credit

524

to God. I could have done all of this, and

525

nobody came to book. I could have done this. And

526

my wife crashed. And nobody bookings while we're in the

527

hospital. Like, there's so many things that were outside of

528

my control, like those women coming back. I mean, they

529

can go to a Hilton or a Hyatt or a.

530

There's a thousand other places that people could have gone

531

instead of Milk and Honey Ranch that I had no

532

control over. And so to people who are listening and

533

are thinking, I think the most authentic and powerful businesses

534

come out of a deep need. Second MD came out

535

of my niece having a stroke. Milk and Honey Ranch

536

came out of me desperately trying to put food on

537

the table for my family. Yes, there are some people

538

that can start businesses because they see a financial gap.

539

But the most meaningful things are things that so deeply

540

connect with the heart, because then when you have initial

541

failure or it doesn't work out, it doesn't matter because

542

there's something far bigger driving than just financial. Yeah.

543

And that's before and after. Right. Because my current drive

544

is because of the dark places I went. Yes. You

545

know, I lost probably £3 million because I bought an

546

adventure center before COVID And I always had this innate

547

belief that I could fix anything. You can't fix hovert.

548

When people aren't allowed to come to your place and

549

you got 150 staff, you can't fix that. Yeah. And

550

I ended up nearly committing suicide. I'm glad you didn't.

551

Yeah. Thank you. And I'm glad your wife's okay. But

552

I don't want other business owners to suffer that. That's.

553

That drives me. But also, I got to say, would

554

you be the person you are today without that

555

event in your life? Not a chance. And. And that's

556

the thing, is, yes, we want to offer a class,

557

and yes, we can help people navigate some things, but

558

there are some things that happen in our life that,

559

like, in hindsight. Yeah. You don't want to miss that

560

exit. Even though that exit was flipping rough. You

561

wouldn't change it. Yeah, I wouldn't change anything. Yeah. It

562

just wouldn't change anything. The things that have made the

563

biggest. You're talking about your often. And my wife, when

564

I was married many years ago, pregnant with my daughter

565

and the brain hemorrhage, and then she had a second

566

brain hemorrhage in the hospital five months pregnant and had

567

to have brain surgery. Yeah. You're talking about your wife

568

brought it back up again. Ten days of sitting with

569

that brain swelling and looking at the little pipe coming

570

out of her head and seeing what the numbers were

571

saying. Yeah. And there was just this piece of not

572

knowing if she was going to live. Them saying that

573

they have to put her into a. A butchered coma

574

to stop the branch running. They don't know what that's

575

going to do to your child. Yeah. And it was

576

just a. Yeah. But all these moments in life, they're

577

so formative in who you are. Yes. Right. And we

578

have to remember we're dealing with people and people all.

579

Everyone's got a story. Yeah. Everyone. Yeah. My story is

580

not better than your story, and your story is not

581

better than master. We all. You put your problems in

582

a bucket and you stir them all around and you

583

take your own problems back. You know, almost everything for

584

sure. Because we've been uniquely equipped to handle the hardships

585

that we will face. I learned this about farming. But

586

for an apple to gain its sweetness, it has to

587

go through a bitter winter. You know, it's got to

588

have a freeze. It's got to have a hardship to

589

be sweetened. The greatest people I know, every single one

590

of them, like yourself, have been through some bitter winters.

591

And with the kids, this is something I've learned, is

592

we don't want our kids to suffer. We want to

593

protect them from betrayal, from bullying, all of these things.

594

Of course, there's a level of parenting that you can't

595

just throw your kids out to the wolves, but we

596

have to be careful that we don't stop them from

597

actually developing the core skills that make dealing with life

598

possible. Because this is why I believe then people experience

599

something and they're like, oh, I'm triggered. And they fall

600

apart over something that you're like, are you kidding me?

601

Look, the stupid thing is a big deal. It's because

602

they never got to actually develop any toughness in their

603

life. The coping skills come from doing that. Right. They

604

come from knowing that you've dealt with a problem before

605

and maybe it wasn't the same problem, but you got

606

out of that. The other side. Yes. They don't come

607

from somebody fixing all your problems all the time. Yeah.

608

So, yeah, for sure. Brent. It's been amazing chatting to

609

you and I'm going to come visit you and. Yeah,

610

let me know and I'll hook you up, man. I'll

611

hook you up. So I would love to have you.

612

Yeah. Amazing. Can't wait to see the place. But any

613

last words for people out there? Yeah, there probably

614

are people who were in the place that you were,

615

you know, like, wanting to give up. And I can

616

promise you that life only gets better from that place.

617

Rock bottom. Because you've got a launching pad, right? That's

618

always the good news about rock bottom. There's only one

619

way to go, but you have to keep moving. You

620

can't get lost in regret. You can't get lost in

621

bitterness. You can't get lost in what ifs. You got

622

to dust yourself up and say, okay, I've got to

623

make the most of today with what I have in

624

my hands and do it. Yeah. Amazing, dude. So amazing

625

to speak to you. Thank you for sharing your story.

626

Thank you for asking.