On the most recent REsimpli Podcast, Sharad Mehta skillfully engaged with seasoned real estate investor and coach Erika Brown. Along with her road into real estate, strategic thinking, and future aspirations, Erika offers insightful analysis for both novice and seasoned investors.
Erika started her real estate path pragmatically—house hacking. Renting her basement to cover child care piqued her interest in real estate and guided her towards future success. She currently oversees two separate coaching programs aimed at varying degrees of understanding. Aimed for novices, her Mentoring Program offers 60% instruction and 30% support with a view toward training new investors in understanding of their options and the resources necessary. On the other hand, the Mastermind Program targets more seasoned investors and provides high-touch help along with encouragement of community involvement.
Although cities are competitive, suburban regions in the Southeast—especially Georgia—are witnessing price rises. Erika offers sharp insight into the present situation of real estate in many different places. Northeast—especially Connecticut—house prices have been either consistent or even growing despite decreasing mortgage rates because of limited availability. After early uncertainty, strong buying at many price points has helped the West Coast, Los Angeles, market to settle. She points out that locations with recent substantial appreciation—like San Francisco and Phoenix—may experience price swings; areas with rising populations and employment opportunities—like the Southeast—would continue to show stability or growth.
Erika mostly pays attention to maximizing her real estate holdings right now. She intends to expand her portfolio via seller financing or cash-out techniques and then switch to a passive income model. Her plan is to remodel reasonably priced suburban houses to capitalize on increased demand and faster sales, then develop flats on already-existing residences. Erika also wants to build a learning center for minorities and women offering courses and services related to real estate.
Apart from her daily life, Erika likes to travel with her family and learn about other cultures. She brought her mother among others to the London and Parisian oldest bakeries. Dan Sullivan’s “10x Easier Than 2x” also had an enormous impact on Erika on her approach to goal building. She says she wants to call her grandmother, whom by her attitude and narrative she never met but yet has close ties to.
She welcomes listeners who would like to follow Erika Brown Investor on Instagram @ ErikaBrownInvestor or visit her website owneditandlivingit.com for free tools and information on her coaching packages. Closing the event with an eye toward the useful guidance and encouragement her leadership provides for real estate investors at all phases of their path, Sharad Mehta with Erika’s experiences and ideas truly resonate with up-and-coming investors and agents.
Transcript:
Sharad Mehta 0:00
hey guys. This is Sharad with REsimpli, host of the REsimpli podcast. Bringing you a very special guest, Erika brown on this podcast. Erika, welcome to REsimpli podcast. How are you doing?
Erika Brown 0:18
I’m doing great. Thanks so much for having me
Sharad Mehta 0:21
absolutely. Thank you so much for being a guest. I know you’re super busy, so I truly appreciate your time. Edgar, tell us a little bit about yourself Radiolab, and how are you related to this crazy world of real estate.
Erika Brown 0:34
I am in the Atlanta, Georgia area. I’m actually originally from Dallas, Texas, and I have been investing, oh, man, for nine years now. I started out I was in the banking industry, got into investing, first as a real estate agent, and I needed to figure out how to come up with some stable income every month while I was starting my business as an agent, and started picking up properties over time, and now I primarily invest between Atlanta and Texas, and I have single family, small multifamily. I do some flipping. We have a landscaping company. I have a real estate team. I’m a co founder of a brokerage. I’m also a coach. So I’m very much in the real estate game, pretty much Monday through Friday.
Sharad Mehta 1:26
Yeah, you basically, with everything going on, you’re not doing much in life, right?
Erika Brown 1:32
Basically.
Sharad Mehta 1:33
So you were in the banking industry, and then you decided to become an agent. Like, what would happen, were you not happy with what you were working, you know, what you were doing at the banking that made you look into real estate?
Erika Brown 1:50
Yeah. So I was, I had, I started out as a banker, then kind of worked my way up to a branch manager, and I was trying to get on the corporate side of things, and was really having a hard time transitioning. And you know, I was, I definitely thought I was gonna be in the nine to five grind until I was 65 I had no type of entrepreneurial desires or passions, actually, at all. And it wasn’t until I kept getting job offers that I didn’t I kept getting declined job offers, and then I knew, Okay, let me pause. Maybe God has something else for me. In the meantime, I had actually relocated. I’ll actually share this off, and this is a good one. I relocated with 25 people from Texas to Atlanta to help start a church, which is crazy. And I moved to this neighborhood, and I fell in love with the neighborhood, and I helped a bunch of my friends move to the neighborhood too, but I kept passing them on to another to the real estate local real estate agent. So through that process, I fell in love with real estate. I started learning from my really wealthy clients, and I figured out, like, okay, whether you know, this person is, you know, an executive for Coke, or they are an entrepreneur. They all invest in real estate. And so I started learning, and just with those closed doors, I felt like, God, kind of like, allowed me to see that there was an opportunity in real estate that I was already doing, but just wasn’t getting paid for, and that’s when I made the transition.
Sharad Mehta 3:23
Okay? So you decided, so you got your license, and then after you got couple of deals, you decided to leave your 95 job, and then pursued real estate as an agent, yes,
Erika Brown 3:36
and even the basis of that change is that I really wanted more autonomy over my time. I just hated staying there all day and I was done with my work. I just feel like I can have more, you know, efficient things to do with my time. So that was kind of like the basis of why I wanted to move.
Sharad Mehta 3:54
Got it okay. So you started as an agent, and then what transitioned you to investing side of the business. Like, what happened as you were helping, you know, these clients, probably clients, and then you’re like, hey, I want to do investing for my side. Yeah,
Erika Brown 4:09
I needed stable income. I needed I needed to be able to have a certain amount of income coming every month while I was starting my real estate business. And so my husband worked in a nonprofit world which doesn’t make a bunch of money, so I was leaving a pretty good, high paying job, and I needed stable income, and I knew that with the right type of rental strategy that I can get, like reoccurring income. So that was the move to investing.
Sharad Mehta 4:39
So you started buying rental properties in the Atlanta, Georgia area.
Erika Brown 4:43
Yes,
Sharad Mehta 4:44
okay, did you your first property? Did you just buy it from MLS? You by grant the numbers? How did you get the confidence to go out? And you know, there’s one thing as an agent helping other people buy properties, but when you have to buy own I’m sure you’re never sanctioned. Was like walking through the first property experience. How did you find it, and how did you get over that, you know, fear of buying your first property?
Erika Brown 5:09
Yeah, no, that’s a good question. So my first property, I was actually I had, I picked up an investor client. I told all my friends, you know, hey, I’m a real estate agent. If you have anyone that is looking to buy and sell. Connect me with them. I had a friend connect me with a with an investor that was looking to buy a bunch of properties, and so he I didn’t have anything else to do, you know, I had some clients that I was working with, but I had a lot of free time, and I was really motivated. So, you know, I wrote around with the investor, and he was like, Hey, can you look up all these vacant houses and figure out who the owners are, and I’ll put offers on them. And so I was looking at this one neighborhood, and I noticed that there was one group that owned a bunch of houses. So instead of me just like looking up all these, you know, all these numbers of these folks, I just called the I found the number and called the agent, or the person who was representing the company, and just say, Hey, can you send me your entire portfolio? And he sent me the whole list of the portfolio. And then I said, Well, you know, I’m looking for my client, but if I see one or two that I like, Would you guys be willing to sell to me? And so a lot of it was just, you know, just asking questions along the way. You know, nowadays I wouldn’t have asked that, but now then, you know, I was just, can I just buy one property? And he was like, Sure, yeah, absolutely. And so I got, I found a bunch of properties for my client, but I picked, of course, the best one for myself, and because I knew some upcoming development that was taking place in the area, and I was able to figure out where that property was located, and identified that this is a really good property. Also, another thing that really stood out about that particular property was that it was already a section eight property. I knew going into buying our first investment that I didn’t really want a big project. And so my thought process was, if it’s already been a rental property, then in livable that it has to be at least decent, you know, a lot of things have to be kept up in order to, you know, meet the Housing Authority guidelines. So reached out to them, placed an offer. They accepted the offer, and then I got to financing, and I was like, well, because I was using a part of my 401, K for the down payment, and my husband was putting in my husband’s name because he still had a w2 income. And they were like, well, you know, you can’t use this money because it’s not seasoned. And so that was my first kind of, like, big big obstacle. But instead of, like, allowing that to just, you know, stop me, I actually did something super crazy. I call one of my investor clients. I really don’t know where I got this episode, because I really didn’t know much, but I called one of my investor clients and I offered them a deal. I said, Hey, if you buy this property for me cash so I can close on it, I will turn around and buy it from you and pay you $10,000 and they say, yeah. And so I was able to buy the property, turn around and finance it once my seasoning period was over, and I paid the my client investor, $10,000 and that’s how we got our first investment property. Isn’t
Sharad Mehta 8:24
that crazy? Erika when, like, it’s true for everyone. When we’re starting out, we don’t know anything better, and we just ask, like, anything. We feel like, there’s no hesitation to asking. And then you get some of the crazy things just by asking. And it’s it’s funny, as you get more experience, more season, some of the things that were working for you just by asking, now you, you know, I feel like, now that I’m more experienced, I feel like, oh, I shouldn’t be doing that. And then when, okay, I’m like, it worked back in the day when I was starting. It should work now, now that I’m more experienced, it’s crazy. Like, you just ask, you know, this big company is like, Hey, can I buy one or two properties? You know, there’s nothing wrong, like, in asking, like, that’s how I bought my first property was listed for 65 or 75,000 I made an offer for 20. I’m like, what’s the worst that’s going to happen? They’ll say, no, yeah. So what? Yeah. Now I feel like, oh, I don’t want to offend someone like, and sometimes wonder, like, it worked in the past. Why wouldn’t it work now? So it’s great. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, it was, it was great. So I want to ask you something so you are in a unique, you know, position, where you are an investor and also an agent, right? How does that help you in your investing business? Being an agent, and how does you know being an investor helped you in your agent business? Because there’s a question that comes up all the time, you know, for investors, hey, I’m an investor. Should I also get my license? Like, what are your thoughts on that?
Erika Brown 9:51
I get that question a lot, too. I always tell people, because people, sometimes they say, you know, I want to be. Be a agent, because you get the best deals. But they don’t think about it necessarily. From when they ask me that, they don’t think about it from, like, a, you know, I get, I meet a client, and they want me to sell their house and I buy it, they think about we have, like, some type of special list that we get before everyone I’m like, that doesn’t, you can buy that list without having to be a real estate agent. So I always tell people, if you have a passion to help people buy and sell houses, and you like to help people, yes, be an agent. If you don’t even like to talk to people, you probably shouldn’t be an agent. Or if you are interested in flipping properties at a high volume, then that also can make sense to be an agent so and also an investor. So I will say that. But for me, as an agent that is also an investor, I had a ton of value with that relationship, because a lot of times whenever I am working with either strictly investors or even just homeowners, homebuyers that have an investor mindset, they really see value in working with me, because I see things differently than your standard real estate agent. I’m involved with figuring out what’s with what the development is coming down the line. I know how to run numbers. You know, there’s tons of value that I can bring with that relationship, which is great. Now, on the flip side, as with me being an agent and also being an investor, I have been able to get deals before listing it because, you know, clients just come to me wanting me to sell their property. And I’ve done that multiple times where I say, okay, oh, wow, that’s a good deal. Would it be okay if I actually placed an offer myself? Or would it be okay is before I list that property on Monday where I can go buy it and see if I want to place an offer, and I’ll still give them a fair offer at a, you know, decent price, you know? But, yeah, I’ve been able to take advantage of some of those opportunities that have been very amazing. But, you know, it is definitely I still have to do the work to be an agent to even get that type of business. Yep,
Sharad Mehta 12:06
exactly. And then one thing that I did not realize, you know, before I got into the real estate, real estate space, was that for me, you know, as someone else in a real estate space, I always thought all the agents are alike. It’s like, you just call any agent that was so far from truth. You know, you work with one agent. Some agents just become agents for the sake of becoming an agent. And they don’t put in the effort. They don’t like talking to people, you know, just exactly kind of what you mentioned. And then some agent just they understand what the investor mindset is. So it makes such a big difference working with the right agent. I had no idea before I got into real estate space. I thought, all right, I just call any agent. They’re going to show me the properties. That’s what they’re going to do. But once you get into it, like, wow, you know, it’s such a big difference. Now I think about that for like, I’m not in the insurance industry, so me, I think, okay, all the insurance brokers are the same. They do the same thing. But I’m sure that’s not, that’s not the case. So you own, you own several businesses. You have your own brokerage, correct?
Erika Brown 13:07
I’m a co founder of a broker. Co founder, yeah. So
Sharad Mehta 13:10
you’re co founder of a brokerage. You have an investing business. You said you have a landscaping business,
Erika Brown 13:15
yep. And then business, and we have an education, education.
Sharad Mehta 13:19
How do you manage all of that? Like, you know, you have so many things going on. How do you what’s, what’s priority for is it, do they all get, like, 25% of your time? Or do you, is there like, one thing that, okay, this is what I need to focus on. And this business kind of feeds down all the other businesses,
Erika Brown 13:36
yeah, so similar to, like, real estate, you know, you have different you’re in different phases. You have acquisition, you have stabilization, you have exit. So I’m in different phases of some of those businesses. So like, when we first started the landscaping company, for the first couple years, I was highly involved in the startup phase, but now I’m not. I’m very, I’m, like, fully passive in that business. And my husband and my brother in law run that business majority of times. And so as a co founder, I have other partners, and one of our partners is a CEO. And so the call I just got off a call with my founders meeting. So I’m very I’m less passive in that business, but I still have a good amount of ownership with the real estate team, with basically I have a I have a internal team. I have operations manager, I have an executive assistant. I have a small team that basically helps me to manage my most active businesses. And we look at the active businesses as departments. So we have a agent department, we have an education department, and we have a property management department, and so I essentially hired a staff that helps to manage all of those businesses so that I’m able to just kind of show up and do what I do best, and I’m not doing things that I’m really not good at. It, if that makes sense.
Sharad Mehta 14:59
Yeah, no, no, it does. I’m curious about education side of the business. How did you get on, you know, in the education, did that happen by design? Was that an accident? Like, people started coming up to you and like, hey, Erika, what are you doing? You know, can you, like, teach me, like, how did that happen? Fully accident?
Erika Brown 15:19
Yeah, because I’m a person I naturally love to share when I learn new things. And so as I’ve been learning in my journey, I’ve always shared with my friends what I was doing because I was myself and one other person. We were the only ones out of our friends that were investing like I didn’t grow up knowing what a landlord is or anything like that. And so we didn’t have, like, a group of people. We, I very much have been like, you know, the one bringing everyone along with me. And so as I am investing, and, you know, my husband, I we’re investing. And so we just have friends reach out, say, Hey, can you help us, too? Can you help us buy and sell? And so basically, I got to a point where I was actually I had too many people that wanted me to teach them. So just based off of efficiency, I started teaching with within a group, and I just started sharing what I was doing online. I didn’t even know the whole idea of, like, real estate influencer. I didn’t know any of anything about that because I was just working. I wasn’t like, online, doing things. And then so I just started based on efficiency, started hosting, you know, groups and teaching them how to invest. And then now it’s grown into a whole community. We have, I’ve helped over, you know, 500 500 students in three years. And we have folks from New York all the way to California. And so it’s been really beautiful to see things grow
Sharad Mehta 16:44
absolutely now, congratulations on all the success. One thing I want to ask is, you know, I’m sure you’ve seen, you know, with your own in your own community, there’s always going to be, like, just the nature of the business we’re in, like, vast majority of people actually never end up doing a deal. You know, so someone who’s listening to this and they’re struggling to get their first year like, what is it that you notice that separates people that are actually going out and doing deals versus the ones that are always trying but never actually end up doing a deal? Two
Erika Brown 17:15
things, two things. One, the people that actually do a deal, they have done, they’ve invested or taken risk in some small way before, buying real estate, whether it is Turo or whether it is renting out a room or just some other small change so Interesting, they’ve done something else before where they have seen the value in that small reward, and they’re more likely to get over their fear and pull the trigger. So that’s one. That’s a big one. And then the other pattern that I’ve noticed is that the people who like struggle with belief, like extreme belief, like they have a hard time pulling the trigger. And so for those people, they don’t need a coach. They need a therapist a lot of times. And so once they can kind of work through that mindset, kind of baseline things, then they can actually get over that fear. Because fear doesn’t actually leave, you know, it doesn’t leave until you get experience. You don’t get to a place where it’s like, Oh, I’m not afraid anymore. I can do this. Like, no, I’m sure you still do things every today that you’re afraid of. And I do too. And so you just get comfortable as you gain the experience. And so people that get that, they’re able to actually push through and pull the pull the trigger. Yeah,
Sharad Mehta 18:41
that, you know, the first point that you mentioned about the Turo that is so interesting, or doing some side of a side hustle, I want to ask you, like a little bit more, do you notice people who have had some success doing that are the ones who get successful, or people who have tried other things, they may or may not have achieved success in doing that, whether it’s Turo Uber or whatever it might be, you know, whether they achieve success in that or not, but the fact that tried are the ones who are becoming successful. Yes,
Erika Brown 19:09
I agree, because they see the value in Oh, wow. I can do this easier, and I get the people who pull the trigger the fastest and are kind of growing the quickest are actually invest people who have tried to invest on their own, and they like something happens and they fail miserably, but they also see the value in what they what they could have done if they knew things up front. Because when you’re starting out, you don’t know what you don’t know. So those are the people that generally would come back. I was just working with the client recently. She flipped a property this year. She’s like, I made $20,000 but I figured, I feel, I feel like I could have done it easier. And then when we drilled her numbers down, she was like, Oh my gosh, I could have made $100,000 if I knew this information. And so now she but she’s all in because. Because, you know, she’s seen, she got a little taste of what’s possible, and now she just needs the systems and the knowledge to tweak it and make it successful, interesting.
Sharad Mehta 20:10
And it’s funny, when I, before I started doing real estate, I had a corporate job, but I had tried playing full time poker on this side, I wanted to be an attorney. I wanted to do all these different things, be a day trade and whatnot. So I was okay to take risk, but I hadn’t found the right, you know, asset, to basically take the risk on, and real estate. Was that for me, it’s so interesting that you mentioned that nobody has ever kind of said that. And now that you mentioned that, it kind of makes sense. I mean, now even when I look at other investors that I talk to it, it seems like that’s very true. They’ve had some sort of a side hustle, you know, before they tried, and they’re like, Okay, real estate is the one that I can really leverage for the long term. So that’s that’s interesting for
Erika Brown 20:59
me. I was a, I was a house hacker, and didn’t realize it. We bought our first house, we rented out the basement and and we just, we came from, like, this kind of church community where it’s just very communal. It’s like, if someone needs a room, you give them, you know, and so I rent, we rented out our basement, and we at the time, because we were just kind of starting out a young family that helped us pay for childcare. So that was my kind of seed that was planted. Like, wow, if we can do this, then maybe we can buy more properties and make up the difference
Sharad Mehta 21:31
Exactly. So what is with your real estate coaching program? Are you helping investors get their first deal? Or these are investors that are a little bit experienced. You’re helping them kind of scale their business. What are you helping your real estate clients with investor clients with,
Erika Brown 21:47
yeah, so I have a, I have a mentorship program that is essentially, those are your beginner folks who are just trying to get the it’s like, I say it’s like 60% knowledge and about 30% support. So they’re really trying to learn what their options are. Really learn like where the capital is, to help them invest, and then they get some support along the way. So my mentorship is, is that way? My mastermind is actually flipped. They’ve already invested in the knowledge, but it’s a high hands on, you know, support model, support and community model. So I have those two programs. The Mastermind tends to be for people with a little bit more advanced. Have a couple property couple, two to three properties under their belt, their belt that just desire more hands on support in in person, community. So we have something for everyone. And
Sharad Mehta 22:39
you have this amazing viewpoint of working with clients from New York to California, and then you’re investing in a client at Georgia. What are you noticing with, you know, kind of where we’re at in August, 2024 the interstate has come down a little bit, and people are hoping and anticipating they’ll keep coming down. Kind of where do you see the market going from here?
Erika Brown 22:58
Yeah, you have to really stay up to date what’s happening in your local market. We were just I was on the call with my clients earlier. I have a client in Connecticut where interest rates have went down, but because of the low inventory, prices haven’t either have not went down, or have actually went up a little bit more. So that’s very interesting. Down here in Georgia, it’s, you know, in the city, prices, everyone down in the suburbs, prices are going up. So is, you have to pay highly, highly attention with your market. What’s going on? Same thing in LA. La is they went through this period of being like we were kind of worried of what was going to happen now, they’re getting multiple bidding wars depending on the price, price point or whatever. So I think overall, the markets where you’ve seen a huge amount of appreciation over the last four years, I think we’re going to see prices fall there, like you got your San Francisco, you have your Austin, maybe even Phoenix, but in other regions where people are still the population is still increasing, jobs are still growing. Like, where I am in the southeast, you’re gonna see, you’re gonna continue to see stability and if not still some growth. How
Sharad Mehta 24:19
is that impacting your investment strategy, like, what are you focused on? Like, this year and moving forward? Two
Erika Brown 24:25
things I’m focusing on is optimizing my current portfolio. So we’re looking at, you know, where can we we added two units this year to in our existing portfolio. So it’s like, we have properties where we bought them, maybe, and like, down here where I am, we have basement. So it’s like, okay, let’s add a unit in the basement instead of buying another property. So our buy and hold strategy, we’re just optimizing our portfolios, and then we’re flipping to just, you know, keep some cash flow going, paying now he locks stuff like that. And so we’re taking that approach. Approach right now,
Sharad Mehta 25:01
based on my market, and you’re flipping in the Atlanta, Georgia market, yes, in the, in the
Erika Brown 25:06
in the suburban market, but the affordable price range, which is also, I think, a really good niche. I think, if you can figure out whatever market you’re in, what the affordable, and I know affordable is very relative, yeah, you know, every like in my area, anything under 450 400 is considered affordable, right? And I know that’s like a it’s a very competitive price range, and so we’re looking to flip properties in that price range. Because, you know, we can get things moving Quicker, quicker, and we have a larger amount of people who are able to jump in. And so, yeah, that’s what we’re doing. No 100%
Sharad Mehta 25:47
in our market. It’s like 250, 300 and below price point where it’s first time home buyers, FHA buyers. And then if they were to rent a similar price, it would almost be their mortgage would almost be, you know, their rent would almost be what their mortgage would be. So I think that is a very, very sweet spot for us, where people are able to, in some cases, have lower mortgage than the rent for the exact same house. And then with FHA, they’re only putting three and a half percent down. And then they can also get some incentives from the seller. So actually, they’re coming out very little out of pocket. So, yeah, absolutely. That’s, that’s 100% our sweet spot. Yeah, so eika, what’s, what’s your like, goal moving forward, if you look ahead, you know, next, you know, 235, years, like, where do you see yourself going?
Erika Brown 26:34
Yeah, I want to continue to grow my portfolio. So then in the next 10 years, we can create an exit. I want to eventually be a bank, whether it is, you know, cash out and just go complete passive, or to just seller finance and just, you know, hold notes. I want to, you know, in the 10 years, figure out a way to be like, like, not having to deal with any maintenance requests. Like, I just want to, like, have residual money coming in every month. So we so I’m working, we’re working towards that. We’re also interested in, like, other businesses that just provide cash flow, you know, just, I don’t like to work a lot if I like to, I’m multi passionate but I also don’t, like, I don’t like to have a lot of things on my couch, coming from
Sharad Mehta 27:25
someone who has full businesses,
Erika Brown 27:30
yeah? But I like to
Sharad Mehta 27:33
collect check. I like your podcast, yeah?
Erika Brown 27:36
And so, like, yeah, yeah. We are also, like, angel investors and a couple things. And, like, we got a surprise check the other day, and I’m like, this is nice. This is what we want to do. So that’s, that’s the season I’m in with my education brand. We really want to, we want to grow to where we become a education hub for women and minorities, where, like, you can come and you can see books that are written by minorities and women, to see courses and various topics. So we want to, like, grow to become like a education publication. And so that will be beautiful to see happen within 10 years as well. Absolutely,
Sharad Mehta 28:15
that’s such a good cause, because sometimes, you know, like the books that are written by a lot of authors may be written from a certain background, which are hard to relate to. You know, me, myself being a minority, you can sense that, you know, there’s like things you have to look at from a different perspective. So I absolutely love, you know, the cost that you have. Yeah. Annika, this has been absolutely fantastic. I appreciate your time so much. A couple of last questions for you. You have so much that you’re working on so many businesses, helping hundreds of clients across the country. What is it that you do for fun?
Erika Brown 28:50
Oh, I love to travel. Yeah, I love to travel. I was just at the Grand Canyon on Saturday. I love to travel. I love travel with my family. So, yeah, that’s something that we’d love to do. We just love to explore new places, learn about new cultures. So food and travel, that’s, that’s, that’s where we spend our money on
Sharad Mehta 29:16
and buying other businesses. Yeah, yes. What’s the most memorable place you’ve ever been to to, like, travel. Oh,
Erika Brown 29:22
that’s a great that’s Well, last year, you know, it’s not a it’s a common place to go. But it was memorable because I took, I got to, we got to take my our whole family, plus my mom. We we did 10 days in London, in Paris, and that was just we went to the I have one of my son is a baker. He has a bakery, and we got a chance to go to the oldest bakery in Paris. So, okay, that is really cool. Yeah, so it’s like, the the opportunities that you know we have and the memories we made are just, they’re they’re amazing. So that
Sharad Mehta 29:55
is so amazing. That’s so fantastic. Anika, what’s the one book that. Had the biggest impact on your life. It could be a personal book, business book, or one of each.
Erika Brown 30:04
So I’m going to say another book outside of first Dad, Poor Dad, because I’m sure lots of investors say that because of that too. But more recently, a book called it’s in the Dan Sullivan group, if you guys are familiar with Strategic Coach, 10x 10x easier than 2x it has become an annual read. It’s so good, absolutely.
Sharad Mehta 30:27
I just had that conversation about that book with my team member yesterday about setting bigger goals, bigger goals, because then you have to look at things from a different perspective. Yeah. So absolutely great. Great recommendation. My final question, if you could spend a day with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would you want to spend that day with? And why
Erika Brown 30:48
it will be, it will. I’m sure there’s lots of amazing other people, but it will probably be my grandmother that I never got to meet. And I say that because So growing up, especially a lot of us that are entrepreneurs, we have been different. We always have probably looked at life a little bit different than our family members. And so I always felt a little different growing up until I and I never got a chance to be my grandmother, because she passed when my dad was four, and when I finally heard about her story, her personality, who she was. I felt seen through her. She was very similar personality to myself, and it made me feel more confident in who I was. Like. I always love to read. I’ve always been very like, you know, bold. I’ve always, you know, all these things. And so when I learned about her story and her personality, I was just I was amazed. So I would love to meet her and have some conversations with her.
Sharad Mehta 31:44
Absolutely great answer. Thank you so much for sharing that Erika. Someone listening to this wants to connect with you. Learn more about everything you got going on, you know, find out about your coaching program. What’s the best way for them to do that? Yes,
Erika Brown 31:55
I’m very active on Instagram. You can follow me at Erika, brown investor on Instagram. E R, I K, A, if you’re not on Instagram, just in case, some people don’t, and that’s fine. You can also go to my website at owning it and living it.com and I have tons of free resources in my resource library to help you get started. Perfect. We’ll
Sharad Mehta 32:17
put links to both of them in the show notes. Erika, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. This was absolutely incredible. Thank you for your time. So much.
Erika Brown 32:24
Thanks for having me. You.
Latest Articles 
Sharad Mehta 
Sharad Mehta 
Sharad Mehta