FM Centric

Speaker 2 (00:01)
Hey, thanks for joining us. My name is Tom Tucker and I'm joined by Brady Nash, who is the founder and CEO of Nash Capital. Brady is the co-founder and former CEO of BNG Team and Connect Booster, which provides fintech products and B2B services to thousands of companies in all 50 states, as well as around the world. Brady started his career selling credit card processing services door to door in 2005. That was in the payment processing industry.

eventually growing a nine-digit portfolio of companies and real estate ventures. During this journey, BNG made the Inc. 5000 list seven years in a row for fastest growing private companies in the United States, ranking as high as second in North Dakota and 1,769 in the nation. Even more impressively, they were recipients of the Inc.'s Best Workplaces Award in 2019 and 2020, being the only company in North Dakota to receive this award.

and one of only 300 companies to receive this award nationwide. Brady, thanks so much for joining me for the conversation. It's a pleasure and a treat to be able to talk with you about your experience, your entrepreneurial journey. So thanks so much for taking the time. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12)
Thanks for having me. I'm excited to discuss and chat about wherever you want to take it.

Speaker 2 (01:17)
I appreciate that. When you think about where you've been and where you're at today, what comes to mind? It seems like you have accomplished a lot at a relatively young age. When you look back on things and consider where you are, what comes to mind?

Speaker 1 (01:36)
I mean first thing not to be cliche is like man God is so good and faithful and it's just man I just there's so many highs and lows and challenges and just you know God's provision you know took myself and our business partners and our company through so much and you know he sees things that we can't you know see even to the point of you know now being here at capstone I felt like the last 20 years have been a process

process and journey to allow me to be able to help in my role here for right now. Like I feel called to help in Capstone and taking those experiences of really two decades. I started startups, I worked with startups, not only startups but really businesses from every stage from getting going to small medium sized companies to large companies to Fortune 500 to Fortune 100 companies. And so for those 20 years, our whole

journey was working with other entrepreneurs and businesses. So I tell people it's not because I'm so smart, it's when you're in it every single day for 60, 80, 100-hour weeks in the early years.

you're just learning and seeing what other people are right, what other people are doing wrong, besides your own journey where you're making mistakes and making good decisions and going through it. I'm learning from everyone else's real time, all the time. And so, I mean, I was so in it for so long, it's just was in our DNA. You your gut and your instincts, right, is coming from those experiences and how hopefully as a Christian, you know, the Holy Spirit about how you read situations that's like, I've read this book before, I've read this story before, I know how this goes to a

large probability, you know? And so I think I've just had the unique position because of what we did to just experience, I feel like several lifetimes in that period of time because I got to be a part of so many people's journeys in helping their business grow, become successful, helping those entrepreneurs get their time back, how to scale their business, how to, you know, be more involved with their family and still keep the business successful.

So I feel very privileged and honored because my career and that journey kind of happened that way. Which you could say like, that's my plan. It wasn't. It was more about how do I build my own initially financial freedom so I could be a dad and a husband one day and afford to spend time with them and afford to do things when I did it. And it just kept growing. And so now, you know, my time is really focused on how do I spend time with my kids? How do I be a good steward?

of my talents and gifts, but also the time I get with them to shepherd them the right way. And then their peers, which is why, again, at Capstone, you talk about the opportunity of having their time in the mind share. And so I loved, for years, I've been helping other entrepreneurs. Now it's just drop the age bucket, right? And it's these kids of how do I, through athletics, build a team that's helping to mentor these kids and give them really good experiences that'll help them.

Speaker 2 (04:50)
For those who are watching

and listening, Brady mention Capstone a couple of times. We're talking about Capstone Classical Academy. That's where we are right now, here in Fargo, North Dakota, a brand new classical Christian school. Actually, we've been in existence now for about three years. And among all the other entrepreneurial ventures that Brady is involved with, he is also the associate director of athletics here at Capstone, having children here at the school. I'm Tom Tucker. I'm director of advancement at Capstone. have a child here as well.

So we're just having a conversation talking about Brady's business side and entrepreneurial ventures and such. You your resume is incredible. I know you've had lots of conversations with lots of people about the things you've done over the years and the things you've accomplished. What motivates you? I mean, you've done so much in such a short period of time. Where does all this come from?

Speaker 1 (05:41)
Yeah, think, like I said, it was different stages. think I went to school not knowing what to do. was introduced, make a long story short, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Cash Flow Quadrant were kind of the first business books that opened my mind. Robert Kiyosaki. it was my first experience even thinking about business, about how money is made, how wealth is controlled in the United States. And it was just an opening moment of like, Brady, what side do you want to be on?

You know, employed and self-employed people, you know, in the book it describes, you know, make up 95 % of the people fighting for 5 % of the money.

Self-employed. Self-employed and employed. And then you have investors and business owners are 5 % of the population controlling 95 % of the wealth. So it's just as an 18-year-old kid, hey, if you want to go and compete, which side do you want to compete on? You want to compete with 95 % of people fighting for five? Or do you want to compete with the 5 % competing for 95?

That was it. That was like, I don't know how at that point, right? I just want to figure out how to get over there and become a business owner and an investor. Then it was at the time finding the right vehicle, which at the time, you know, was network marketing and, you know, the idea of leverage, selling services that people use on a monthly basis and pay for that you can get paid on going forward. might be like insurance, you know, eventually we found our way to payment processing because people take payments daily. So it was like, I can help a customer get set up with payments and we get paid every single time they take a payment.

So I like that scalable. It's not just my time. And so really being focused on recurring revenue businesses and solutions to scale and we did that for

long time, like 17, 18 years before we finally sold. But we had built up a pretty good business. And you how do you provide value to people that they want to pay for it monthly? You know, now you see that in car washes, you see it in gym memberships. Everywhere is like, how do we get you to pay monthly versus one time? You know, because if you only get paid one time, well, how do you support it five years later, 10 years later? At some point, you've got a charge again. So I think everyone's getting more comfortable with a subscription model, which as a consumer can also be a lot because you're

man how many subscriptions do I need to everything and it be frustrating so it would be interesting to see how this plays out going forward with everything. But you know even entertainment right everything's a streaming service. That's right. Everything's another membership even our newspaper now and again they're like how do we make money? How do we pay the bills and pay our employees? So I mean it's I get it.

Speaker 2 (08:15)
What was it like for you as a young entrepreneur getting coverage in magazines like Inc. National coverage, national rankings. It must have been pretty heady.

Speaker 1 (08:25)
Yeah, yeah, you know, right away, was... I'll be honest, I was...

When we dropped out of school, we didn't get a lot of love, right? There's a lot of people like, you're crazy, what are you doing? My business partners were in their fifth year of college. I'll say my business partner Ryan was in his fifth year of architecture school, last semester, top part of his class and dropped out. I was a freshman. So it was like, hey, I didn't throw away that much. I was like, what are you doing? But we had this dream of being entrepreneurs. So there's a long time journey. I was pretty jaded.

was like, I'm not doing this for other people's approval. I believe in it and I'm going after it. So a lot of what motivated us was we're going to prove everyone wrong. It was that we took any frustration, anger, we use it as motivation. I'm going to prove every single person that's doubting us and saying how foolish we are wrong. And then eventually that you grow out of that, you're having the success. And then some of those people start cheering for you along the way. But I really stayed away out of the media for a long time.

realized I was really kind of being selfish because of that. I'm like, Brady, my role as the CEO and the face of the company is like, I got to help us in marketing and who we are because I just stayed away from it. I didn't want any part of it.

Speaker 2 (09:45)
So why was that?

Speaker 1 (09:46)
I just didn't

want to feel like I was doing it for ego. I didn't want to feel like people were praising or penning us on the back. like, head down. I don't need people telling us how great we are. We're going to do the job. We're going to execute it. We're just head down. And we had so many other people that weren't doing a fraction of what we were doing, that were in marketing, in media, doing all this stuff. I'm like, you guys aren't even close to what we're doing. Why don't you just go focus on working versus trying to tell everyone how great you are? Why don't you go be great? Why don't you go be great versus trying to tell everyone you're great?

And so we really did that. And think eventually we got to the size where people had to notice us. And it's like, why not embrace what we've done? Because we were proud of what we did. Mainly how we built our culture. And we had such a dynamic, fun culture of people. And that was, for many years, the thing I was most proud of was the relationships we had with our employees and the staff. mean, we were a family, even B &G team. I mean, we talked about it as B &G families. Because that's how close knit we were.

Friends and relationships and I mean I remember you know just helping people when they're going through family stuff And we really didn't have the money. It was just different. I you know I tell people we had employees that would run through walls Not because I threw them through a wall, but because I ran through walls for them and unfortunately corporate America I feel like it definitely private equity a lot of these big companies They throw people through walls like I'll just grab the next person and throw them through a wall and they burn people out people don't feel valued and so what we

learned was actually caring about people, which wasn't like, it's not a pretend thing. We actually like people. I actually care about people, but you show them. It's amazing how much more you can get done when you go through adversity and challenges. We had people that all hands on deck, whether it was a weekend, you know, a night, if a customer had an issue, I had people that would jump on, what can we do to help? It wasn't, that's not my job. But don't talk to me after five.

Like when you're in a startup in a business that cares, it's like, but we also took care of people like, hey, your kid has an event at three o'clock, yeah, you should go to that. So we had a culture of people that would get things done. We gave them flexibility and they gave us flexibility. So there was that mutual trust to accommodate everyone and kind of the journeys they were at. then it was more about like culture, proving that you could have a successful business, you can make money, you could treat your employees well,

treat your customers well and you could be profitable because I felt like there was this misnomer about

either you're cutthroat and you make a lot of money and you burn people out and you take advantage of customers, but you make a lot of money, or you take care of employees and customers, but you don't really make any money. Like, which one do you want to be? And I was like, I don't think it's this or that. I think you can take care of your customers, treat them well, actually care, take care of your employees, and I think you can grow and make money. And that was really kind of became our battle cry of like, what did you do? What were you proud of?

embracing that marketing. That's why I was proud of like, you know, making the top places to work in the country because it was just a little bit of the award. I'm more proud of probably those than anything of like, hey, we made the Inc. 5000 list seven years in a row. So it's a credibility of, hey, we're growing, we're doing it. Like actual data, actual numbers, not because I paid someone to give me award. This is actual financial data. So we've done it consistently without private equity. But oh, by the way, we have raving fans as customers. We have raving fans as

employees were having fun and were making money. Like the whole thing. Because I was hoping, and I think we did that, inspire.

other places, other companies to stop and reflect and like, are we doing enough? Like, can we do more? You know, and so, I mean, you take pride in like, why do you do what you do? I think that was your question. It's like, like that was it for a long time. Now, you know, as I've sold and I've done that journey, what I'm doing now is I want to be a good dad. I want to raise my kids to know and love God. That's why I'm helping out Capstone. It's why I'm investing into these young people. I believe they're going to change the world and be educated.

to be able to defend their faith. I feel like I'm, God's called me to be here for a moment in time. I don't know how long that is. I'm here as long as I feel called to do it, whether that's two years, five years, 10 years, 20 years, whatever He calls me to do, I'll do. But I do also have a lot of other businesses that are building and growing since we've sold and investments. And the key to that is having really good operators that are invested into what we're doing. So I provide them support, but you know, on a more limited basis.

try to stay out of their way, but help them. Usually it's banking relationships, finances, recruiting talent, or just working through issues. But again, we have really good talent on our company, so I don't have to get that involved most of the time.

Speaker 2 (14:42)
When you mentioned just now the phrase our company, presumably you're talking about Nash Capital and some of the...

Speaker 1 (14:47)
So yeah, so Nash Capital is just kind of like my main top entity where then we'll invest in. So we've got Good Nash, which is myself and Ryan Goodman. They'll do a lot of our real estate stuff. There's Guna Capital. And through those kind of holding companies, you've got your real estate side. We've got Guna, which just kind of replaced what B &G, because we sold that as like, OK, how do we invest our capital into these multiple businesses that own like DonorDoc, OnPoint Insurance?

Speaker 2 (15:14)
So yeah, that's really what Guna is set up for is kind of our business investments. And then you have the good Nash on the real estate side. OK. So.

Speaker 1 (15:25)
So some different

ventures within Nash Capital. Talk about some of those businesses specifically in terms of the ones that you're most compelled by, the ones you find most interesting, know, great areas for opportunity. What are some of the things you're working on now specifically?

Speaker 2 (15:45)
You know,

for different reasons I'm excited about all of them. I just came, on the board of Abernathy Holdings. We are doing public storage across the country. have a really good team.

Speaker 1 (15:58)
I know one of those

team members, Chris Berg, is a very good friend of yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:02)
Well, Nate Mahus

is also... Correct. ...manages all the projects. So yeah, they got a great team. They're lean. They're smart. I think the investment and the need is there. So that's a great place for me to deploy some capital, right? A safe place to grow and have good returns and something that's got a tangible physical asset, which coming from the software development world is not the case. But I'm excited about that team. I'm excited about DonorDoc. So we've got a really good team there.

And software is always a scary thing if you don't have a good team. If you don't have a good dev shop, you could just be lighting tons of money on fire. And so what's nice, there's Matt Bitzegayo, who's our CEO, is also a developer, and he's got his team. And that's a product that's really taken off. We have less than a 1 % attrition rate.

We're on the same trajectory that we saw with Connect Booster. So it's growing in revenue and sales. What's fun about the revenue and sales, for me, it's proof that people like it. Once they get on it, they typically don't leave. And we're building that product to continue to create more value. So I'm excited about the direction of that. It's fun to help nonprofits because as much as I love entrepreneurship, nonprofits is entrepreneurship.

Normally in business you think about the success being profits. How much money did you make? How much revenue did you do? Well, nonprofits are really based upon impact. How many lives did you change?

Speaker 1 (17:36)
That's the business

we're in here at Capstone.

Speaker 2 (17:37)
It's like how

many students, what's happening with them, like that's really your measure, right? It's not about the dollars, right? And so when we get to have a business that supports nonprofits, like I believe the thing that makes the United States is so great is it's the ability to be an entrepreneur in capitalism, people that can go and create and make the life that you want that is the lifeblood of America. Well, nonprofits then are, I believe, the heart of America. It's people that see a problem and see a need

go and create something to go and solve a problem. And it's not about money, it's about impact. So like, I love that. So the fact that we have a business that I know that can help them run more efficiently and save them time, like I love that. Like that hits on multiple fronts for me. You know, some of the other investments, there's good ones, there's ones that haven't turned out, but sometimes you gotta take those shots. I love helping out the young entrepreneurs, but my problem now is time.

So the problem is is I love being a dad, I love being a husband.

I actually really like coaching. I love helping Capstone. My problem is I have so many things that I love to do and there's not enough time to do it all. I could sit and meet with entrepreneurs all day and learn about their business, learn about them, offer advice and want to help them and encourage them. But there's not enough time in the day. I love to hang out with my kids all the time. I love to watch and play sports. I love my wife. I love to build companies. I love to build my own stuff. I'm always trying to, and this is where the priority comes

comes back to, hey Brady, faith's the most important thing. where are you putting your time there? But now I get to put my family. So Capstone allows me to serve and put action behind my faith and my family and the bigger mission. And business fits in there. Obviously, that's my real skill set. I'm way better at business than I am probably as a dad or as a husband, but I'm trying. so yeah, I just try to use those experiences, and gifts to help others.

Speaker 1 (19:44)
I

want come back to faith in just a second, but one other venture I wanted to ask you about was if I recall the name of the company correctly or your investment, is it Mission Homes? Do I recall that correctly? And I heard you talk about Mission Homes, I think, I don't know, once or twice over the past year or so in another media format. Talk about Mission Homes and kind of what that is and what the mission is there and what you guys are trying to accomplish. it sounded quite interesting. If I recall correctly, I think you were talking about 3D printing homes.

Speaker 2 (20:12)
Yeah, just, well, so we're not 3D printing homes. I think that's something that could happen. I haven't seen enough positive test results to know that you would get the cost down to what I'd be trying to solve. So the mission, right, any business or anything you should first start is what are you trying to accomplish? So I believe you have to have the unified vision. And then we discuss about how to get there, right? But you have to first agree on what we're trying to solve. So part of mission was, hey, we believe homeowners

is important. We want to allow people to get into a home. We want them to have a quality home, right? So we're not a luxury home designer. We want our things to be nice. We want houses that people love and appreciate and feel good about. But it was more about can we get an inexpensive home but not...

kill the quality. Like, don't we want a good quality home? And normally quality and then low cost doesn't go hand in hand. And so part of it was like, what if we're just really focused on efficiency? What if we're focused with our contractors and we built enough houses so we could drive that price down to keep the cost as low as possible? Now, unfortunately, with inflation, I feel like even now we're building house efficiently, it still seems expensive because the products and supplies and everything is so expensive. But we're still coming out and doing really well.

comparatively to where other builders and houses are at. So I feel like there's a niche that we can serve. But that's the idea, right? Is, you know, can we do contract for deed? Can we help them out with a down payment? Can we like, we just believe in families. We believe in home ownership and then building that equity and like, how do we... So that was kind of the point of mission. You know, if we're not doing that, if we're not doing that, it's not something like, I want to be a home builder. It was more about like, hey, here's an opportunity.

can we solve this to help people? create a great experience for a family to raise their family. Yeah, we've got a lot of places out in Horace. We had some in the wild. I know we're looking at building a few houses right now out in the Bismarck area. So we're always testing and trying some things. And then Solution Investments is where we buy houses that are

Speaker 1 (22:07)
developments happening now in the FM Metro.

Speaker 2 (22:27)
Distressed right having issues someone needs capital it needs money invested into it and so we're buying and fixing them up and then Selling them once we kind of get everything under control. So

Speaker 1 (22:39)
Speaking of the Metro, how would you rate this area in terms of business climate, business environment, prospects for the future? What's your assessment of the current pulse of our area?

Speaker 2 (22:52)
I am super super high on our community I've always felt like since I've been here 2004 when I went to college I just felt like we are in a bubble here It just seems like even when other places are going this area just continues to crank along Businesses always been consistently, you know pretty solid for us now We did we you know build a company that became more nationwide, know, but so we could see spending and

trends because we moved the money, right? We we're moving billions of dollars to repayment processing network and we work with technology companies that then ran, you know, security services for hundreds of businesses. So we had a lot of data, a lot of insight. could probably see what was going to happen before it was happening because you'd see the spending before that then gets reported later. So we're on the front end of that, which was kind of interesting. But yeah, I mean, I think, you know, there's a reason I know you want to talk about to, you know, building and

putting our family here. Like I, we're here for the long haul, you know, I believe it's just one of the best places you could ask to raise a family. You know, our weather's not the greatest. But I also think, you know, I like four seasons, you know, if I could, you know, make summer six or eight weeks longer, that would probably be perfect for me. But I like all four seasons. And I can vacation when we want to go to warmer weather at different times of the year.

But when I'm home, I'm inside working, running around anyways.

Speaker 1 (24:26)
When you talk about

the feeling or the perception that this area is kind like in a bubble, what do attribute that to? you attribute that to North Dakota being primarily an ag economy where things are steady and consistent over time? Do think that plays a factor? What is it about this area?

Speaker 2 (24:44)
I mean, I'm not an economist. mean, I maybe know more than most, but I'm sure someone else would have a better answer. I think it's all of it. think, so you got a community. I think we have a couple big, large employers, you know, in this area that serve not only the country, but world. You've got Microsoft, you've got Bobcat, you've got, I don't know, there's a lot of large companies around here, RDO, there's, I mean, the Shields, Oregon, I mean, there's a lot of very successful places that aren't just successful in Fargo,

actually have national footprints in a pretty small community. So I think you've got very generous families that are investing into the area. I think there's been very good tech culture for a small community of startups that are building and going. So I think all of those things drive right on all ends from a young family building. I think our education overall is probably pretty solid compared to other parts. I think our crime rate is still really good compared to most. I think we've got land to build.

I think even though things have gotten more expensive, I think it's less expensive than most other places. I think you tie in our people overall are really friendly. know, I think the faith side of our state is really high, which I think hopefully that drives people that have compassion, right? If we're following now, and I hate that because some people might, you know, use a tag of Christianity and then abuse it. And that's unfortunate. But for the most part, if you're really following Jesus and faith, you're kind.

you're empathetic, you're patient, you're kind, and I think that hopefully spills over and just how people feel the energy of the community is. So I think you tie in all of that stuff. I mean, I'm not saying we're the only place in the country, there's lots of great places, but specifically here, I love the area, I would encourage anyone to raise a family here and be here, and like me, when we wanna go to another place to visit, we can go do that, and do that for a week or two.

Speaker 1 (26:39)
Well,

as you know, I moved my family here from Southern California, Palm Springs, three years ago in July. And Fargo was never really on our list of desired places to be, but got a good job offer to come out here. And we came out for a visit, and there was just so much that we liked about it, and so much of what you say, I think, is true and accurate about the kindness of the people, the Christian spirit that permeates much of North Dakota. It's a dynamic community.

the ag, the entrepreneurship, the business ventures, there is so much to really like and appreciate.

Speaker 2 (27:16)
And I think we're

growing. think they built that sports complex, the Fargo Park sports complex. So I think some of the things that you could say we didn't have, we're growing towards that. It's like, what do you have to do? We've got the Bison, you got UND hockey, not too far from here. Those are quote unquote kind of our pro teams, but you get to get excited about. I think as we grow in population and excitement, more and more of those bigger things will become accessible.

Speaker 1 (27:46)
One other business thing I wanted to ask you about, when you kind of look at what's happening in the economy today in terms of opportunities, what are other areas where you see opportunities that have your attention that maybe you're not directly involved in right now, but you think, I see something there. I'd like to maybe dabble in that a little bit or see what I can explore.

Speaker 2 (28:08)
Yeah, mean, AI is changing everything. I think I'm not scared about really AI from like, you you think about like the movies of taking over. I just think it's a tool, it's another tool and aid that can help you with efficiency and proficiency in anything. Whether you're a teacher, a coach, an entrepreneur, it just can make things faster, more efficient, because you're talking about how you access data, consume that data, and kick out something

that's usable. I just think it makes all of that faster. So I think AI, using AI in various industries for improvement is a huge opportunity. what I've learned in business, and I've started dozens of companies, and I say that not because, this is how smart we are, I've just realized 80 % of running a good company, a good business, it's the same thing.

But it really is. You've got maybe 15, 20 percent unique industry product knowledge you got to have. Right. If you are insurance, you got to know insurance. If you're in payments, you got to know payments. But taking care of people, taking care of customers, communication, building a culture, delivering excellence, getting referrals, how you communicate like that stuff is the same. Like that blueprint is the same stuff that you can bring into a school. How do you how do you have leadership? How do you build leaders?

you address issues? How do you like that culture stuff? like, I just after 20 years of doing it and seeing these ones, I'm like, this is the same thing. You got to have your industry, you got to have your knowledge expert. The rest of this stuff is really you can take this huge part of it and apply it. So a lot of what I've done is you find the industry category expert. I know we can fix the other 80 % of it.

Speaker 1 (29:58)
You talk about.

faith and you credit God for the many blessings that you've enjoyed in life, the many successes and victories that you've enjoyed in business and entrepreneurship. A moment ago you talked about it kind of being cliched, a lot of people like to thank God, but what can you say, what can you tell us to help us to know that that's really true and real for you in terms of you giving God the glory and the credit and the thanks for what you've achieved. Talk about that faith walk a little bit and some of the ups and downs, twists

and turns.

Speaker 2 (30:34)
mean,

I just, there are so many things that got to the ninth hour, you know, that we didn't know that, or we didn't even see that God provided with opportunities, whether it was a deal closing a negotiation, a client call, that continue to support us along the way where if a couple of things fall differently, we don't have the success story. What's crazy to me is I felt a lot of the stuff I've known

and it would say, but it carries different weight when you have the success. Do people want to listen to someone that hasn't had the success? It's like, well, on paper, looks like you've failed at a lot of things. You learned those lessons. But the failure becomes more knowledgeable when you've had the success.

Speaker 1 (31:09)
What do you mean?

Speaker 2 (31:26)
So I feel like there's a lot of stuff we knew we believed to be true. And the success just kind of, if you want to say stamps it, makes it a bona fide like, yeah, this is the journey. That's kind of what it did for us. Like treating people well and doing all that. Well, yeah, OK. But actually, we did well. We did very well. And so I love being in a position then. You don't like to brag about what you've done. But sometimes you want to establish credibility.

Speaker 1 (31:52)
And sometimes tooting your horn can be a good thing. They've done the right way.

Speaker 2 (31:56)
Yes, and it's just

more about just credibility of saying hey, we've gone through this. We didn't have money. None of us came from money. We didn't get someone that wrote us a check. We had to use our own credit cards to finance the business. We were doing prac studies. You know, I got the big needle mark here. You know, so when people say blood, sweat, and tears, that's legitimately what we did. We were sleeping on, I remember going to Walmart and buying cots and putting them on an office floor in Brainerd, Minnesota to sleep on the floor.

and our arms and legs going numb, we'd wake up but we couldn't move because we couldn't afford the hotel.

Like that's all the reality. was a complete grind and dog fight the whole way. I just, I don't take that for granted that the journey, the encouragement that I know that God had on us and my business partners to keep going and to keep moving. mean, it was, it was never easy. Like the thing that I would tell entrepreneurs, you know, you see the success at the end, but it was an absolute fight and grind the entire way. No, we had fun. We chose to have fun.

We chose to have fun. This is how I relate it to sports. It's like, if you're playing football, and you're fighting, and you're tired, and you're sore, and you're bruised, and you're hitting, and you're like, hey, we're looking at each other, you're sweaty, you're tired, let's go win this game. Let's go. You're in a brotherhood. We're going to keep fighting and pushing. That's how I relate to business. You get your guys like, hey, man, we're getting beat up. We're tired. We're sore. We got people booing us and yelling at us. But we're in this together. Let's go.

you know, let's go take the hill. And so like I love the camaraderie in the belief of what we were doing. Like that was inspiring for us. Like that's the stuff even now I miss a lot was the brotherhood of the family of the people fighting for this when we were the underdog. You know, now I feel like you're on the other side. now you're the success story. Now you've got this capital. Now you do that. But, you know, some of those days early on were the best memories. And I feel like we knew that we knew that we were in it. And these would be the

best memories. know, Brady today, myself today, gets the benefit from what

Brady 20 years ago did. Not what I'm doing today. The life I live today isn't from what I'm doing today. It's from what Brady did with God's provision and his hand in our business and company. And I believe it's because we gave and we tied before we had money. know, all of us, we were gifting and donating money we didn't have. I remember taking out 0 % credit cards and donating large amounts of money, tens of thousands of dollars of money I didn't have.

because I felt called to do it. And that came from a book called The Blessed Life by Robert Morrison. It was just talking about giving in the Bible.

And I just, when I was like 18, 19 years old, I got on that and believed in, you know, trusting in God and that you put God first and He'll bless the rest. But if you don't put God first, the rest is cursed. And so, know, tithing and giving above that's been a big part of our journey. And I truly know in my heart, unequivocally, that that's why we had success. If God can't trust you with a little bit, He's not going to trust you with a lot.

And because we were obedient when we didn't have much and we gave more than we ever should have, you'd be like, what are you doing? I believe that's why he blessed us abundantly. And even recently, there's times I've got investments, we've got businesses we're funding, or feel like God's called to give where I'm like, right now, can I wait? Wait for some of these investments, some of these things to come back?

And I felt like God was like, Brady, do you not trust me after this whole thing? I was like, well, what if I get part of it now? And then I get like, and I felt like God hit me. was like, I want you to give it all right now. I was like, all right, here we go. Like I've done this. But it's funny because when you're growing up, you know, or when you're going through a journey, 10 % of $5,000 is 500 bucks. You're like, are you kidding me? That's food. That's a car payment.

I can tell you it does not get easier to give even 10 % when you have 50,000. You think, oh yeah, well that's enough. $5,000 and I was like, that's someone's house payment. That's someone that's, there's always these things that, materialistic things that come up that we'd want that you could say like what you could do with it. Now imagine giving 20 or 30 % or 40%. Now you get a million dollars. I made a million dollars in my whole life's business. Yeah, I want you to give 30, 40%. I want you to give three million, four million of it.

And God doesn't need our money, God wants our hearts. He doesn't need our money. You can get that lots of different ways. God wants our hearts. And so I just know in our journey, myself and our business partners, there's multiple times that we were obedient to trusting in God. And that's what I mean is like we gave when we didn't have the money and God provided and allowed things to happen because I believe we were faithful in that. Despite maybe how incompetent or dumb decisions we made in the business or incompetency,

felt like he provided that provision for us along that journey.

Speaker 1 (37:15)
Well, you have worked hard and the Lord has blessed you wonderfully, but you also have a record of blessing others through significant stewardship, including your support here at Capstone Classical Academy in Fargo, North Dakota. And we're incredibly grateful for that. And it's great to see a faithful Christian do well in business and succeed and win in business, especially when you're devoted to God's kingdom and to blessing others. So that's a wonderful and amazing and beautiful

thing. Other thoughts with regard to kind of giving in general and what you might say?

Speaker 2 (37:52)
I mean, just

just always question I think it sounds a bit morbid, but you just like you build this wealth So in the 20 years I was doing this I was working with entrepreneurs, right? Yeah, I've got friends that are not only you know, our millionaires multi-times over I've got some friends that are our billionaires super successful and Through this journey and I always ask people what you do, right what you do wrong. Do you have any regrets? Right? Just learning and The theme that I saw constantly was when you're talking to someone 60 70 80 the

reflecting on their life, if they had regrets, the number one thing was relationship to kids. Two was spouse or ex-spouse.

Meaning it was never a business deal. It was they didn't take the time They were working so much their focus on making their money into their wealth they have strained relationships with their kids where either the kids went down a path of drugs Bad habits bad things that wrecked them their kids are dead gone or there have all sorts of issues or Maybe their kids have so much resentment Maybe their kids turned out, but they want nothing to do with them. And so my point was it was relationships, you

that I saw on that journey which I think you used to think about you like yeah true because you can't take it with you and so I've always had this reflection of like looking on my life like Brady imagine you make it up you know we're never guaranteed tomorrow but imagine you make it to 80 like pick a number 80 90 whatever you're sitting on your deathbed you're reflecting on your life yeah what do you

Speaker 1 (39:18)
see.

Speaker 2 (39:19)
And so I

just, I asked myself those questions. So it's like, Brady, do I want to move my kids where they can be the best athlete in the sport? And that's my God. Cause I'm saying that's the most important thing. I like sports. want them to have success. Well, no, God's the most important thing. Okay. How are you living your life? Are you proving that? I'm like, I don't know. There's an option I'm seeing right in front of me to do better. I'm like, I should probably do that. And I'm like, do I think that God could provide for my kids if they were supposed to have an athletic career? But I put God first and I serve him for

If they're supposed to do that, do you think that God could provide a path if that's what's supposed to happen? Of course. That's like, that's nothing, right? And so, and I've seen them do so many big things. So it's like, hey, I'm going to put God first in everything that we do and try to hold myself and my family accountable and just trust God's plan. And if these things are supposed to happen, they'll happen. they're not, they weren't meant to be in to trust his plan because it's better than our plan. And so with the finances, you know, even you talk about the home for us is I want a place

to facilitate great memories for our family and for our friends in a way of giving that doesn't make it about money, but just that fellowship and that community. And I want to use the resources to build and grow to help support God's kingdom in whatever direction He wants that to be, whether it's capstone, whether it's a college, whether it's an entrepreneur. We've got a good group of strong Christian friends that are on the same thing. We want to do kingdom work. And so the money we need

when you get to the point, like, we don't really need any more personally. Like, we're fine. The family's taken care of. Like, what can we do? And He didn't bless us so we can just sit back and do nothing. If I got time, talents, and gifts, we should be using those, trusting in Him, right, to go and get God more of those gifts and talents and play our part in that role. So that's why it's like, well, I've had people, Brady, why don't you just kick back and relax and...

Go to the gym and sit on the beach and go to the steam room and the sauna. And not saying those things are wrong, but it's like, no, feel called. God didn't bless me so I can just sit back and do nothing and wait until I pass this earth. He blessed us because I feel like he's given us the motivation and drive to keep pushing and do things. And if we don't need it, we should use that, position to go and help others and play a role. So that's the constant thing of trying to do. And, you know, I fall short of that, you know, every day, but it's constantly trying

call myself out and like push get up and go get out of bed do this you don't want to make the phone call make the phone call you know i know if i don't need it but there's someone that does if i don't need the money you know people that do and by the way deserve it and are in a position so if god bless me with this talent and gift i want to take my talent my position to play my part because other people have talents and gifts that's capstone you got teachers that that love teaching kids and that's their talent and that's their gift and that's their time but we also need people of financial

means that provide for the facilities and the sports and the opportunity. So you know it's like for me I had the unique position of time right now. I feel like some of my talents and experience and also the treasures to be able to give some and all of that to try to help the school just like there's many others doing what they can. So I feel honored to do that and I feel like right now being with my kids getting to tie in sports that I'm passionate about in the face side I'm just very thankful and grateful for the opportunity.

I do think there's going

Speaker 1 (42:47)
be a time as the kids are growing up, I will shift more back into business and growth, but not because it's about personal wealth creation. It's going to be, hey, let's create wealth as a tool that then God can use for different things that he has planned that I might not even see yet.

Speaker 2 (43:06)
Praise God, that's amazing. Do you have a particular verse that you kind of live by when it comes to this? No? Maybe a handful? Is there one that comes to mind at least, maybe, when you just kind of think about where you're at today and where you've been?

Speaker 1 (43:13)
You know, I don't...

man, that's hard for me to put one. There's, you know, we've been recently working through like even our house, like with a gym, my wife's calling soul fit. You know, it's like working on your body, working on your soul. I don't know, I don't have a family biblical verse that I can, you know, there's...

Speaker 2 (43:43)
Fair enough.

Yeah. You talk, you talk, bring up your house. You're building the home now in Fargo and I've driven by it. It looks fantastic.

there's been a little criticism locally, know, hey look at this big house that this guy's building, yadda yadda, know, blah blah blah blah. It seems to me as though maybe criticism like that maybe comes from those who don't know you, who don't know your journey, who don't know your stewardship, who don't know your heart.

Speaker 1 (44:19)
I mean, I mean,

it's, it's what I would have, I mean, I knew before doing it, that the criticism, when we built our B and G building and we had slides, you're going to have people that criticism. But what was cool about that was we got to bless our, our team and their families. Right. And so that you kind of got to have some protection because it was like, Hey, you're giving back to your employees. They all get to enjoy it, which was true. And you know, the, the, the house thing for us was something I've always wanted to do. We always put the business first, our employees first in every

anything else, including giving, right, was always first. And then it's like, well, hey, at what point do I want to do the thing that's not a need but splurge on the family? Because we could always reinvest. We can always give more. We can always do. So it was like, hey, I'm going to do something. I don't hunt. We don't fish. Sports is our thing. We're in a gym every single day. And so it's like, hey, I didn't even want a leg place.

Because that's just not us. We go to like two, three times a year. So this house was like, you know, building a, what makes it really big is we have a full high school sized gym. Like that was the splurge of like, that's what we do. Our kids, their friends, our practice and training. So it was a way of blessing our family and making it super convenient and fun. And I knew anywhere we built this house, it was going to be an issue. But I'm like, Brady, do you really care what people think? I'm like, no, like, listen, in nowadays with social media,

Like you just see the way everyone gets torn apart. Any athlete, anyone that does anything, if you go into a comment section, unfortunately it's like littered with negative. Like people that have done amazing things, like if they're a hero, it's a moment in time. If you're around, then you're gonna have people that will just tear things down and say whatever. So we know doing it, which is why I've never shared anything.

anywhere because I'm like it's never going to be received or looked well I'm not doing it for other people. On this house, no.

Speaker 2 (46:14)
Have ever shared anything, anyone on social media?

in terms of like images or? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:20)
You'll find, I think the most recently I had a, I took my wife in there for Valentine's Day, there was shot of the kitchen under construction. And that was a fun, romantic thing, our first dinner together. But it was, honestly the thought behind that was,

Speaker 2 (46:35)
Good for you guys.

Speaker 1 (46:42)
How do you bless your family? And there's actually, Dave Ramsey had a book, what's it called? It's The Legacy Journey, I think, and he did a really good job talking about, do we give our money away? Do you provide anything to your kids? And you wanna give them enough they can do anything, but not enough they can do nothing.

You know, and you want your kids to work. You want them to be good stewards. You want them to be grounded. But you also, you know, we did this stuff to bless our family. So for us, instead of having multiple houses or having a lake home and all these things, I'm like, we're going to put it all in one where we're at all the time. I've got, you know, a lot of people have lake homes and they love it, but they're out there a couple of months out of the year or a few weeks. Well, this is a place we can live in and enjoy every single day. know, instead of doing a lake place, we built a pool that's an indoor and outdoor pool. And so

friends when the weather's bad in North Dakota we talked about that it's perfect there we can use it 365 yeah you know and then time wise instead of having to drive to a gym we can have people to come to us we can practice and train and make memories and do nerf gun fights and bouncy houses and pickleball and so that was really kind of the splurge and then the the size of the rooms we made sweets was we want a place that like when these kids grow up they want to come back to

And when they get married and have spouses and hopefully we get grandkids, they want to come and like, we have our own room or bathroom or just like it's comfortable to stay because we love our family. We are investing a lot into our kids, into our relationship. Most of my time is spent with my kids, like building a relationship. that foundation is there when they grow up. Hopefully we like each other. We want to be around each other. We want to be around our grandkids. And so that whole thing was even a way that I've learned to bless family and

friends.

without making it awkward. And what I mean by that is if you just give someone money, it's a weird situation. It can make it awkward. If I were to say, hey, Tom, hey, I'll take you to Florida. Hey, Brady, we're watching our finances or whatever. Hey, I'll pay for your trip. It's kind of like, dude, I mean, I appreciate the offer, but that's kind of weird. Like, yeah, something. It's a weird thing. And a lot of relationships and family dynamics get destroyed over wealth.

And so, but it's not normal. It's not weird to invite someone to a lake place or to your house. Hey, come and hang out. You would never ask them for money. So it's a way for us that we can provide our family and our friends access.

to a pool, to a gym, to all this training stuff, to a really nice, fun entertainment place without it being weird. You can bring someone to a Vikings game, we've done that and that's been pretty good because we have the tickets, but they're expensive tickets. And so I've just learned how do you keep healthy boundaries? How do you bless your friends and family without making it weird? And this is one of the ways I felt like we could do this for our kids.

for our family and those friends, you know, the right way.

Speaker 2 (49:52)
So that's wonderful. And thank you for sharing that. And I think it's kind of relative, too. I mean, it seems like if you think about the ways you've been blessed, you could build a house much bigger and even greater than that one if you chose to. It's all relative.

Speaker 1 (50:09)
It's like

saying, well, I always have a tough time. People are like, dad, you make a lot of money. You're well. I'm like, we've done well, but I said, compared to what? And I remember after we sold, we had a nine figure exit. It was a very successful exit. Then I'm getting flown on a private plane, and we're going to the Masters with some people. And there's a gentleman on a plane. I won't say his name, but we're talking about investing, and they were getting 16 % returns. And I remember feeling pretty good about myself. And I said, well, hey,

if I was going to give you $100 million, you're saying you could get me a 16 % return. And he's like, well, first of all, I would say that $100 million isn't enough to invest with us. I was like, wah, wah, like humbling, right? And so I was like, oh, jeez. And then he went on to explain that. He's like, you know how much money we have to deploy a month? And I had no idea. And he's like, I have to figure out how to intelligently spend $7 billion a month.

to invest. And so he's like, you're right. You can get better returns when you define the deal and you know your market. I have to do it at such a macro level. But my point is, there's always a bigger fish. So no matter how much success you think you have, it's like, there's so many people that do so much better. And I've been blessed. We've done well, better than we deserve. But like you said, it's a perspective.

Speaker 2 (51:30)
You've covered so much and you've been so gracious with your time and just with your life story. thank you so much for that. Anything in closing, anything else that you want to people with?

Speaker 1 (51:39)
man, I just think what I would say is be intentional. Know what you want out of life. Know where you're going. Imagine yourself on your deathbed reflecting on your life. You can't change the past, but if you...

Go to that point in time when you're reflecting on your life. if you're 40 now, and you imagine you're 80, and you're reflecting on your life, you can change from 40 to 80. So what you do every day when you wake up, what you do for a job, how you spend time with family, is it right? Are you happy with it? Yes or no? Why or why not?

If you don't like the answer to it, change it. I feel like it's like having your own time machine. If you really reflect on those things, why do you get up every day? Why are you fighting? And what's the race you're running? Because I feel like some people are running a race, they don't even want the prize if they win it.

You know, they work hard, you get there and then it's like, this is it, this is what I want. So what do you want? And I think it's different for every person. It doesn't mean you have to be wealthy. It doesn't mean you have to have all the success. Like you need to define what's important to you. That allows you to fight so much harder when you've really defined what's important to you and why you're doing it. That'll allow you to deal with challenges of the everyday life, the stress, all of those things, because you have a compelling vision to drive yourself forward. And so that's what I would,

I every listener is just knowing what that is and why and defining it and then getting after it.

Speaker 2 (53:12)
Yeah,

makes me think of the phrase, the concept, begin with the end in mind. Yeah, totally. And speaking of the end, that's the end of this conversation. Brady and Ash, thanks so much. I really appreciate it. I tried. Appreciate the visit. It was great, inspiring. And thank you so much for that. And again, thanks so much for all you do for Capstone and for the community. We appreciate it. For your time. I'm Tom Tucker. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. And we'll see you again next time.

Speaker 1 (53:31)
Thank you.