Welcome to the daily grind podcast everybody. I'm your host Colin Morgan. Listen, are you tired not living a fulfilling life? Do you believe you deserve more?
Do you want more? Is it finally your time? If yes, then stick around. I welcome you to the daily grind Good morning everybody and welcome back to the daily grind podcast on today's episode We are joined by entrepreneur Casanova Brooks Casanova is an award-winning author high-energy keynote speaker and entrepreneur through his battles with adversity and many stages of life including stage four lymphoma cancer To losing his mother job and home in a matter of a couple of months Even with having very limited resources Casanova learned to develop a bulletproof mindset to thrive and succeed in life and business from producing 46 deals and eight million dollars In this first year in real estate to now owning multiple businesses Casanova now focuses on empowering others to focus on developing their mindset to become the best version of themselves to thrive in their own lives As always everyone be sure you have a pen piece of paper sit back and dive deep in today's interview with Casanova Brooks enjoy Casanova Brooks welcome to the daily grind my friend.
How are you? I'm great. My man. How are you?
I'm great. Thanks so much for asking Casanova for people being first introduced to you today If you wouldn't mind just kind of briefly talking a little bit as to who you are and what it is that you do Yeah, man. I appreciate you having me on I'm super excited about today But to give a little bit of background on me I always like to think that I'm really just a relationship builder I've been in real estate for the last five years and that's how a lot of people have come to know me But for me, I always think of myself as a relationship builder going way back I'm originally from the south side of Chicago inner city and I was raised in a single You know parent household my mom raised me and then my grandma kind of stepped in to try to be the dad in my life And I think she did a phenomenal job in that so I was really raised by two women two strong women and growing up I was the only child so dad and I my life had no older brothers and sisters I kind of had to always find my own way with things I just didn't have anybody who could teach me you know what I aspire to learn so I always had a big imagination I was always looking at TV or I was always inspired by by things like that because I didn't have anybody to have that conversation with Like what's reality and what's not so to me growing up my favorite show? I don't know if you've ever seen it, but it was VH ones is the fabulous life of you know that I don't know God so it was basically it was back 20 years ago, but it was VH one's version of MTV cribs So they would show like Richard Branson They would show all these people with mega yachts and things like that so me as a young kid I was like oh man And I didn't know that like that wasn't the reality of what you could have and and for me I didn't have a lot like I was I was never deprived of love and support But I didn't have any financial literacy I didn't have any financial resources So what I was living in I always wanted more So I think that that led to kind of my journey of always being creative and wanting to be exposed to different things So early on in my life I was trying different businesses like I'm in my first ever business I was eight years old and I would go to the gas stations and this was in Chicago I would go to gas stations and I would just wait my cars and when you would come out and then I would just stand there And I would ask if I could pump your gas right nothing too crazy and I'd say yes or no And then if you said yeah pump the gas and then in hopes that you'd give me you know 50 cents a dollar Whatever it was just for pumping gas and that was it and so I remember like there was one night where I walked away with like 20 $25 and I was like oh man I'm eight years old no job no nothing and at this time You know candy and all that was still super cheap like you can get it for a quarter of 50 cents So I felt like I was rich at that time.
So that that kind of you know kept kept going for me and always tried different things Well at the end when I was at the end of my sixth grade year basically my grandma got a call to a lot of my family was moving to a smaller town in Iowa called Sioux City and My grandma and I my grandma made the decision that we were gonna go check it out And so next thing I know after we're coming back from there within two weeks Basically all of our stuff was packed into a U-Haul My mom didn't have a choice but to come and then I got moved to Sioux City Iowa So as a lot of people can imagine that was a huge culture change for me right growing up only seeing people who look like me to Now being in a town that's a lot more diverse than and just had a little bit more resources So that's where that's how I got to Iowa from Chicago And then my first kind of big storm that happened to me was when I was 15 years old I was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma cancer So I was two weeks away from death and that was a huge huge change because growing up I was never ever sick as a child and I've had chicken pox measles the flu like nothing I was always a healthy kid and then all of a sudden to tell my mom and grandma like yeah We got to ship him to the University of Iowa because they're something dramatically wrong So I went through that went through two years of chemo thankfully I've been in remission ever since And that was kind of what first started my path on my journey of being like okay You got to really take this thing seriously because tomorrow's never promised and on top of that I really had to figure out how to cope with different feelings because I'm a 15 year old boy at this time And you know being in high school That's probably your golden years right going from your sophomore to your senior year because you're really trying to figure out who you are What's the next step looking like you know you're now about to become a grown up in about three years? So I have to really figure out like what am I gonna do with my life and all these other things and there's a lot of trial and error I came with that but that was my first big storm and then I wound up basically to fast forward then I went up going through a lot of different jobs. So in my lifetime, I probably had about 17 or 18 different jobs I mean everything from selling vacuums to working customer support at call centers to pushing shopping carts to everything you can think of I promise you I've done it at some point And just so just trial and error just trying to find my way and then so then I was looking at my wife And I were gonna move to a bigger city from Sioux City So we're gonna move down to Kansas City, Missouri where the Chiefs and the Royals are Sports team, so we was gonna move down there We felt that it was a little bit more urban diverse I had my son at the time with my wife and so we wanted to give him a lot more opportunity than what we had and Basically, we were getting ready to move down there But I had a job opportunity down here in Omaha and Omaha is like right in the middle between Sioux City Iowa and Kansas City So since we didn't have any family or anything in between we were like, okay Well, let's make sure that Omaha can work first before we just make this big jump to Kansas City because we'll have no Support for our son or anything like that. So that's how we got to Omaha I had a job opportunity.
I crushed it doing that job I was a digital marketing consultant and within nine months I finished his number eight in the entire company of about 4,000 reps, so it's a really big company. It's still around the day But anyway, I finished his number eight and so I was crushing it there but along my journey, I got exposed to network marketing and I don't I don't do any network marketing today But I got exposed to a company called Amway and so it's kind of like the granddaddy of all network marketing companies Yep And so what I quickly found through that company was those products and services wasn't necessarily for me and what I was trying To sell but me being exposed to that level of personal development the culture the going after it rich that poor dead Riches man in Babylon all these different things I was like, oh man, like there's a whole nother world out there that I've never been exposed to and so doing that that kind of taught me That in the corporate world I wasn't gonna make it one because I never was really a corporate guy anyway But to because it seemed like everybody could tell you no, but nobody could tell you yes So they had me lean all these like emergent leader programs and all these other things But I had already done things that many managers and even directors had not done and when I was like, hey But I want to try my hand at management and they're like I'm casting over like it's great what you're doing But that's not available right now. Just keep and I'm like, okay, I see where this is going So then around this time I started searching on like YouTube and things like that Which a lot of people do and I want to basically get an expose to the powers of a real estate And so there was a guy who basically said, you know You got to figure out a way to be the Lord of your land So talking about owning real estate to create you know passive income and I was like, okay Well, I don't know about real estate, you know And I don't know anything about owning anything because my parents never owned a house car business nothing So how do I do that? Well, I looked a little bit deeper into his story And I noticed that he started out with a real estate license He became like a celebrity realtor and then he moved on to be an investor a developer and all that so I said Why don't I do that path because I know how to build relationships with people and I know how to serve them So how about I just help other people buy selling invest and then I'd take my commissions and buy my own real estate And so that was what I set out to do while I was still working that W2 job I went and researched real estate here in Omaha because I'd only been here for about nine to twelve months at that time And I was like, okay So I'll do that and I got my license But then I kind of go through my second storm as I'm transitioning from inside sales at that company to another like fortune 500 company A big big company and and that's outside sales my mom and grandma calls me up and they say hey, you know We want to move down to Omaha to be closer to you Julie and CJ It was my wife and son my son's about three years old at the time and I'm like, okay cool So within two weeks my wife and I moved my mom and grandma down here Well within 24 hours of my mom and grandma being here my mom goes to the hospital well within a week stretch of that time I lose my mom at that hospital as a domino effect I also lose my job and my home that we were under contract buying it was my wife and I first home So at this time I just lost my all within a matter of a couple weeks I lose my mom my job in my home.
I got no college degree I got no family no friends no church group here all I got as a real estate license So then I decide to go all in on real estate with the support of my wife within nine months I do 46 deals eight million dollars in volume I get the rookie of the year in Nebraska and that's kind of where we've led to my path here today Wow, obviously when you go through a lot of those experiences, you're not ready for them And you don't know how you're gonna react to them What do you think made you kind of take those pain and sort of fuel you into into you know Becoming a success in what you were doing in real estate? Yeah, so I think that at the end of the day We don't know how strong we are into our back serve against the wall So for me every single time that my back has been up against the wall You have an opportunity you can fight or you can fight a lot of the times for me What I had to do is I had to look inside of myself But I also had to look at what was my environment like so what do I mean by that? Not only talking about who were the people that were really gonna support me But who are the people that were really already depending on me? So at all these times like it was my mom and it was my grandma when we had to deal with the cancer because they were looking at me to Be the strength right every day They gained their strength for me because when I had to chemotherapy when I had to fight through it to be able to go to school every day They knew that they had something to continue to fight for and then fast forward to like when I lost my mom And we lost it all I had to look and I said hey I still got my grandma here who she just lost not only her only daughter But at the same time she lost the companion because she lived with my mom for 40 of those 50 years So I had her but then I also had my wife and I had a three-year-old son who was looking at my every single move So I had to really look at myself But I had to look at who were the people who were cheering me on and who were the people who were gonna gain inspiration from me at that time in Their life and I think that's what helped me to keep going every single day Wow So what are you looking forward to like one thing that you know It's always excites me speaking with people like yourself is like hearing from the past But like what are you looking forward to in the future like five ten years in the row?
Where do you see yourself? Yeah, so that's a great question and one that I haven't been asked before at least not in that way So I love that you asked it I would say what I'm looking forward to is inspiring more people and watching more people live a life by their design In the world that we live in today, you know before we all used to think that we had to go one path But nowadays it's a wide open field, right? And so what do I mean by that like my son, you know, we all grew up and I'm sure you probably did as well Because I believe you played golf, right? And you were using the golf.
Yeah, so you know the world of sports and really trying to own it Carve out that path and obviously you were probably inspired in some way by tiger, you know, growing up all these other things So for me my son, he's not the tallest, right? But he's grandpa six three, so I'm a little guy But his grandpa six three so he still has a little bit of hope and his mom her whole side of family my wife is tall But anyway, so I he's played basketball right now. He's a second grader, but he plays up fourth grader He loves it basketballs his passion, but yet here's the other thing a couple weeks ago He looked me right in the eyes and he said I said See Jay, what are you gonna be when you grow up? And this was through a whole bunch of like different things that we're talking about But I can hear the passion in his voice where he said I'm gonna be a YouTuber Right and now I'm just like because we because we're not practicing YouTube every single day, right?
We're practicing sports and practicing going to school all these other things, but then you have listen I could see here's where my passion lies I want the camera like he's now when you see me making content things like that He'll always pop his head in and try to get in a video and I let him but it's the thing of like watching other people create a life By their design because we don't really know thinking that you can really change and impact lives through your own radio or platform Like a podcast nobody thinks about that when they're five to six years old because your parents are trying to guide you in the way That they think that you should go which is a more formalized approach We all had it and we're trying to build structure around our kids So I think I look forward to seeing the innovation and for me I also look forward to seeing so many people to say hey by hearing your story It allowed me to know that my future was brighter than ever because it didn't matter where I was even at that point My life and matter where I told myself that I was going so that's what I look forward to the most and seeing how I can continue to buck The system and and you know be a change maker in the world. I love that I think so many people focus on where they are and they focus on their past But having that sort of mentality where you're focused on where you want to be Like in sports, right? You have to know where you're gonna hit the ball or shoot the basket or throw the ball and life It's no different like what's the end target? Where's your end zone and focusing on that and then your actions will supersede that and allow you to get there?
Yeah, absolutely And I mean when we think about success at the end of the day There's something that I learned early on when you just being exposed to personal development is that we all want to be a success And in the world that we're living in when you really think of it and the grand scheme of things you already are success Just by the fact that you're born and you're still living today when we think about drugs when we think about you know Depression all these other things if you had if you're listening to a podcast like this That means that you're already trying to better yourself and you are a success Now there's a difference between being a success and being successful, right? Because that means if you're successful then you're you're full and you're not really hungry, right? You got to just continue to understand that it's a progression like you are a success already But you're trying to keep that success up because at the end of the day what we can do is we can What's the word that I'm looking for we can get content? We can become in a what right and we can be we can start to become like all like I'm good I'm comfortable and that's not what you want to be you want to be grateful But you don't want to be comfortable and so that's what I think and understanding at the end of the day success is a habit It's the habit that you form every single day to expose yourself to something new and to challenge yourself from where you were yesterday to do something a little bit better today So you don't have any regrets tomorrow.
I love it So what are some habits like what are some success habits that you practice on a daily basis that's worked for you? Yes So I think the first thing that I do is I try to expose myself to some type of like personal development every single day So what does that mean a lot of times I'm listening to books? I listen to a lot of times because I'm not I'm not patient enough to sit still and actually read one I'll be honest So in my car, I'm trying to listen to some type of a podcast I'm listening to an audio book or I'm watching something on Jim Rohn or Something that can make me say ah right like there's a little bit more that I can learn There's a little bit more that I can do so that's the first thing the second thing is I try to expose my kids my family Somebody in my life to something new that they might not have known so it's again It's kind of like we we learn and then we we do and then we teach so for me I that's kind of the three things like I try to make sure I learn something new and then how can I apply just one different thing to my Business how can I be a little bit more creative to like or business today? And then the next day I'm trying to figure out who cannot talk to about it So they can apply that to their life and then it doesn't make me feel as secluded because I have other people who are along This path with me and then they start doing the same thing and they're saying hey Cass and over did you hear that or did you hear this on the podcast?
And I think this really started for me being honest when I first got exposed to podcast because one of the first podcast that I Listen to have you ever heard of bigger pockets? I have yeah So I started listening to bigger pockets because obviously I was in real estate and real estate So then I would find my buddies and I'm like listen here's this guy's journey Here's what he just did and then it just kind of became a contagious thing Yeah, it's funny when you start involving other people and I think so many people try to go along the journey on their own Like should hide in the corner and do things on their own But when you have friends and you have accountability partners, that's really what pushes you absolutely Yeah, I mean you can't go at it alone and you need a team You need a mastermind group you need a mentor you need somebody in your circle because just like you said that is what pushes you And so for me it was being exposed because you don't know what you don't know And that could be just as much of a crutch is what you do know and you're saying hey I've always done it this way so you have to get out there there's you know before you start reading books like Crush it by Gary D or before you start being exposed to like a smart passive income all these other things You don't understand how you can one monetize But to how you can influence and impact other people to do the same thing So you have to continue to be exposed and how you can leverage that and go even faster as you have to have a team around you Which will allow you to go further? How did you develop that sort of belief in yourself because you know there's so much there's so many resources out there and books and Guidelines that literally like for free you can learn how to do something so quickly but very rarely people take action I think that's a lack of belief in themselves. Where do you think you know that belief in yourself came from?
I'll be honest and tell you I think it started with my mom because like I said we didn't have any funny And so I say this because for a lot of us we maybe didn't have that going backwards for me I was fortunate to have it going backwards But here's what I can tell you no matter where you are in life Let's say that your parents were not that supportive you sure you had somebody that was but understand that here's a saying that I learned And it said if I didn't come from a and you could put anywhere there But we're gonna use this word if I didn't come from a wealthy family a wealthy family has to come from me Right so the reason why I say that is because I think that it started with my mom that she would always tell me like you go boy Or you can do whatever and keep in mind my mom never did whatever Nor does she have a college degree or earned in six big years or any of that But I think she instilled that confidence in me and again when we're young we don't know what's right or what's wrong? We don't know the subconscious mind versus the conscious mind or anything else So it's just like you know my daughter right now She's two and we're going through the potty training stage And so even if she goes just a couple drops we get so excited right because you want to build that excitement in her Well, good job everybody's high five and are you know and things like that And so I'm sure you can find that inspiration and lots of videos and things like that But just to understand that you know the lives that you will impact if you can pump people up enough around you no matter What they're doing you will then set the precedence of what's reality and what's not reality and anything can become a reality? So when you ask how did I gain that belief in myself? I think it was because my mom early on instilled that belief in me by just saying you can do anything and I'm like, okay I promise you guys never did so like I don't know what is anything But it didn't really matter.
It just made me feel like yeah, I can go out and crush whatever it is that I want to do Yeah, I love that. Thanks so much comes from that But I think a lot of people have that which you had even though you Went through some trials and tribulations and you're younger you had that belief system You know from your mom and still didn't you I think so many people don't have that and I think it's something that they have to Continuously look for and try to find and it's almost like you have to do it yourself, right? Right and I would say the other thing to add to that is think about how fear comes about obviously We know that fear can do one of two things to you We can either keep you at a standstill or it can propel you to go forward Well, if you think about it when you were a kid when all kids This one makes kids so beautiful is that they had no fear, right? They're not afraid to keep asking no or they're not afraid to keep asking when the answer is no no like we're going to the store My son and I'm like CJ.
We're not like even if he has lots of sports like balls, which he already does But yet if he sees something really cool It could be the same type of ball just a different color and he's like dad can I get this? I'm like you already know, but he was still asked so you have to understand that first off joy wouldn't feel so good if it wasn't For pain, right? So when I say those types of things think about all of the things that you've already went through in your life No matter where you are today and think about how you overcome those things it could be a bankruptcy It could be you losing a parent It could be you losing your best friend It could be you know the love of your life But I'm sure yesterday you found some way to smile whether it was off of a a video that's gone viral whether it was off of tiktok It doesn't matter you found a way to smile so understanding that again pain and and those those hardships are only temporarily And there's something that you can find in yourself that can allow you to smile And if you have an opportunity to smile that lets you know that all is not over if that makes sense And so that's what I would say for me I always looked at how can I find a reason to smile and if I find a reason to smile That means that I have some positive energy out of it And if I can bring that positive energy to somebody else throughout that day That means that they're gonna smile and then it becomes contagious and it lets me know that again The world is not bad and all is not over or lost for me And I think that's what allowed me to keep believing as well I love that man Well, if people wanted to reach out to you cast and know about learn more about what you do connect with you Where's that where's the hub? Where's the best place everyone can go?
Yeah, so I would say it's the dream nation podcast I am very active on Instagram and that's probably the biggest social media platform But the dream nation podcast dream nation has in one word and the reason why I say that is because Again, that's what I love to do is just inspire people and also, you know, be a bridge to people to understand that Hey, you can do whatever it is that you want in life But the first thing you have to do is go figure out What are the things that you want to do and the way that you do that is by being exposed to other people because then it just opens Up your mind to say and hey, do you think like he's doing that she's doing that? Hey, there's a possibility on it. So that's what I love again Dream nation podcast. It's on all platforms and then otherwise you can find me on Instagram Casanova C A S A N O V A underscore brooks B R O K S Amazing.
Well, I'll share all those links in the show notes section make it super simple to connect with Casanova And now man the way we on the show here on the daily grind is we're gonna give you the floor and you have the opportunity today to share with The audience a thought of the day. So one thing or one thought we can all go home with today Yeah, that's a great thing. So I think for me It's always been about relationships when people look at how I've been able to do what I've been able to do in five years I understood early on that It wasn't about what I knew it wasn't even necessarily about who I knew it was about who knew me Who was willing to put their stamp of approval on my name because of the Yeah, the charisma that I had but also the positivity that I tried to bring to their lives every single day And so I think when we first decide that we want to get into business We want to be entrepreneurs, but we start off as solopreneurs and a lot of us never graduate from that because we think that we got Helps but understanding that anybody who you already am I whether it's Warren Buffett Jeff Bezos column organ Tony Robbins they all have a huge team around them, right? And it doesn't necessarily mean it has to be people working for you, but it's people who are pouring into you So figure out how you can build better relationships more meaningful relationships in your life because at the end of the day That's all that really matters is the memories that you build with those people and those people will keep you going But at the same time those people would take a lot of stress off of your plate So that's what I would leave for people.
It's not about what you know It's not even necessarily about who you know, but it's about who knows you and whose life can you impact? I love that man. Well, Casanova. Thanks so much for jumping on the podcast here and sharing your wisdom with us I truly do appreciate it Yeah, man.
It's a lot of fun. I hope to be back again, and I thank you again for having me on Of course, so everyone hope you enjoyed today's episode if you did hit the like button subscribe to the podcast for more content Like this share this up with a friend who you feel like this could really benefit or them benefit from listening to today's episode We'll be back with another one Until then everyone call and we're gonna signing off and always remember to keep on grinding