How Financial Woes Can Give Birth to a New Business With Brad and Megan Skaggs

April 16, 2024

On this episode of The Same Day Podcast, Yoni Schmidt chats with Brad and Megan Skaggs about their career evolution. Brad and Megan share their insights on real estate development, lessons on determination, and how they started a new business venture.

How Financial Woes Can Give Birth to a New Business

Brad and Megan Skaggs are the Founders of Beauty of Wealth, a venture that empowers and supports beauty professionals to become financially literate. Brad is also the Facility Solutions Manager at City Wide Facility Solutions, an experienced real estate developer, and an inspirational business leader. With over 12 years of experience in the real estate industry, Brad’s expertise spans development, property management, and entrepreneurship.

Megan is a hair stylist professional at HAIR+CO and has launched multiple businesses. The two continue to invest in real estate as a way to increase wealth while teaching other beauty professionals financial literacy through their Beauty of Wealth platform. Together, they aim to inspire and positively impact people’s lives.

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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

  • How Brad and Megan Skaggs started investing in real estate and are living mortgage-free
  • The ups and downs and the lessons Brad and Megan have learned over time
  • The challenges of remodeling and rehabilitating East End Village Apartments
  • Treating others as you want to be treated: words to live by
  • When to say yes to opportunities — and aligning it with your values
  • Leaps of faith: the payoffs of taking calculated risks
  • How Brad and Megan balance personal and professional ambitions
  • Building Beauty of Wealth and where the business is headed

In this episode…

Working with your spouse comes with its share of challenges, but running a business together can be even more complicated. How did one couple merge their careers?

When you have a vision for your life, perseverance can open up new opportunities. Husband and wife duo Brad and Megan Skaggs found themselves in a mound of debt but had aspirations of financial freedom. Although Brad was in real estate development, and Megan was working in a beauty salon, they aligned their careers toward one common goal, which gave birth to a new business. They began their journey by paying off debt and investing in real estate. As they began learning new wealth-building strategies, Megan’s colleagues started asking for advice and direction. By pursuing opportunities that align with your values, you can achieve your goals while helping others work toward theirs.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Sponsor for this episode…

Keyrenter Property Management:

This episode is brought to you by Keyrenter Property Management.

Keyrenter Property Management is a full-service property management company that helps clients buy, renovate, and operate real estate assets.

The team helps clients build wealth while taking the headache out of property management.

That’s why, no matter what rental you have — single-family homes, condos, townhomes, or apartments — they can give you the management solutions you need.

To learn more about their services, go to https://keyrenterpmc.com/ or send them an email at [email protected].

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:05

Welcome to The Same Day Podcast where we discuss driving incremental business growth and other topics related to real estate, property management and entrepreneurship. Now to the show at hand.

Yoni Schmidt 0:20

Yoni Schmidt here hosting today’s episode of The Same Day Podcast where I connect with top business and real estate leaders. Past guests include Brandon Neth, a local self managing real estate landlord Jared Goldfarb, Vice President of BancFirst and Noah Bleicher Director of Operations at Capital Homes. Today’s episode is brought to you by Keyrenter Property Management. At Keyrenter Property Management. We are a full service property management company helping our clients buy, renovate and operate real estate assets. We help our clients build wealth while taking the headache out of property management. That’s why no matter what rental you have single family homes, condos, townhouses, apartments, we have the management solutions you need, go to keyrenterpmc.com or email us at [email protected] for more information. Today, we are honored to welcome Brad and Megan Skaggs to our podcast. Brad is an inspirational business leader who happens to also be my former boss, whose expertise spans real estate development, property management and entrepreneurship. His journey in the industry is marked by a decade of dedication to Larson Development, where he played a pivotal role in transforming Tulsa’s east end Village Apartments into a sought after Residential Complex. His passion for reviving historic buildings and his transition to facility solution manager and a serial entrepreneur at City Wide showcases his dynamic approach to real estate and his commitment to excellence. Outside the professional spirit Brad alongside his wife Megan founded the Beauty of Wealth, a venture dedicated to empowering beauty professionals with the financial literacy and support that they need, demonstrating their diverse interest and desire to positively impact lives. An Oklahoma native Brad that is and California night. I’m not sure if that’s how you say it. Megan, fitness enthusiast and loving pet parents, Brad and Megan’s multifaceted lives reflect their drive determination and ability to inspire those around them. Join us as we delve into the insight and experience of two of the most engaging and coolest figures in the business world. Brad and Megan Skaggs, welcome to the show. And thank you for being here. Good morning.

Brad Skaggs 2:39

Good morning. Thanks for having us on.

Megan Skaggs 2:41

We’re excited.

Yoni Schmidt 2:43

Well, I guess let’s dive right in. And I’ll start with a question for you, Brad. You’ve, you’ve had a remarkable journey from working alongside Mark Larson and who we both know at Larson Development to your current role at City Wide and owner of, four now, apartment buildings and in Oklahoma City alongside Megan, you, too, have, you know, went off after some good deals? Can I guess each of you maybe share what inspired you to embark on a career in real estate development? And now also, property management? As far as I remember, you still manage your own buildings?

Brad Skaggs 3:22

That’s correct. Yes, sir. Yeah, so I think it was, I’ve always been growing up, my dad was in real estate. And so seeing, seeing him, it has always piqued my interest this, so but he actually dealt in maybe some lower income areas. So I knew what type of real estate I didn’t want to do. And so I started to a little bit of nepotism here, I guess my my brother’s best friend is, as you mentioned, Mark Larson. And I saw Mark. He had he was when I met him, he was he looked like a, you know, wealthy guy, very smart. He had a bunch of real estate. And I was like, Oh, I like that. I think that’s an approach that I kind of want to take. So I asked him, I said, Hey, if it right out of school, I said, Would you allow me to come shadow you or work for you? I’ll work for free or super cheap. And so he was like, Yeah, let’s do this. And basically spent almost 12 years under him, and helping him with his real estate development empire and just learn a lot about real estate. And so Megan and I, when we moved to Oklahoma City, we were like, Hey, why can’t we do this to as a start a little side hustle. And so we started to invest on our own as well. So you want to tell the story about the five Plex?

Megan Skaggs 4:43

Sure. Yeah. So we moved to Oklahoma City. I fell in love with the plaza and the Paseo district, and definitely reminded me of home being back in California. So I knew I kind of like saw the potential of like the art districts and just really fell in love with the term and saw the development going in and I I found a five Plex it was needed a lot of work. Um, it was the back to center, the two units, the back were like on cinder blocks, the homeless guy was living there. And I brought it to Brad. I was like, We can do this, you know, I see the vision. He’s like, hell no. So, but I was like, No, I swear, this is gonna be worth it one day. And that’s kind of like how we started like, if we fail, we fail. But at least we tried. So and it’s been going, we still have it today. That was five or six years ago now. Yeah, six

Brad Skaggs 5:29

years ago now. So we, we bought it for a few $100,000. And then we put a few $100,000 in it. And it’s more than double that now. And it’s spin off cash. And so that’s just sort of the we got the ball rolling that way.

Yoni Schmidt 5:41

Yeah. Love that. And that was all while you were also living in a duplex if I’m not mistaken. Yeah,

Brad Skaggs 5:49

good memory. Yeah. So one thing that that we did as well as we wanted to live as minimalistic ly as possible. So we bought we bought a duplex lived in one side leased out the other, and that basically we live we lived for mortgage rent free for almost three years, which allowed us to save a lot of money and to put into more investments.

Yoni Schmidt 6:09

Yeah love that.

Megan Skaggs 6:11

We’re still able to live rent free mortgage free because our duplex pays for itself on the other side, pays for a new mortgage.

Yoni Schmidt 6:17

Wow. That’s one of the one of the greatest ways to launch into real estate. It’s just almost like house hacking. But with the with a higher level of privacy when you buy that duplex, because you don’t have to rent out a room or anything like thMat. Reflecting on, you know, your 10 I guess 12 years of loyalty at Larson Development? What are some of the key lessons that you learned about entrepreneurship in the real estate industry? And Megan, I know you weren’t not at Larson Development. But you know, you still had that entrepreneurial spirit, you’ve always been working for yourself. And you’ve been essentially a contractor and you you’ve launched a business, you’ve launched multiple businesses, you’ve went after opportunities. What What were those lessons that you’ve learned throughout your time? Running your own hairstyling business, if I’m not mistaken?

Megan Skaggs 6:19

Yes. What are some learning lessons? There’s always ups and downs. So not to be too hard on yourself, because there’s always life is always going to it’s not perfect. And it just you got to go with the flow. Don’t focus on the small things. Just keep going. Just show up for yourself. And just being consistent. It doesn’t happen overnight. I think a lot of people want to see overnight success. And that’s just not a reality. And just being true to yourself and being consistent.

Yoni Schmidt 7:48

Yeah. Brad, anything on your end with 12 years of experience in in the real estate development world? Yeah. So

Brad Skaggs 7:57

for me, it was, you know, I come from a small town in Oklahoma. And I wasn’t exposed to a lot. So working, working for a big real estate developer, I moved from from Muskogee Oklahoma, 30 40,000 people, and moved to Richmond, Virginia, I didn’t know one person. And my boss was there maybe a week out of the month. So I was forced to really grow up and, and live on my own and become social on my own and make friends that weren’t in my circle. So there was a lot of hard lessons in that. And it was lonely at times, but it was probably the best experience of my life. It really made me grow up and, and just see things outside of Oklahoma. So just wanted to start it off with that it’s getting uncomfortable. And I knew I was going to be uncomfortable with it. But I knew that I wanted that because I wanted to grow. So with that being said, working for a very successful, high driven high octane person, like, like my old boss was also eye opening. Just seeing how like Megan said, there’s so many ups and downs. I know you experience it. In your real estate business and things Yoni, there’s a lot of, you know, it’s getting over the harps. It’s just being dedicated and staying, you know, if you want to do something, stay at it, you know, it’s it’s over time you will get there. It’s not a you know, quick and easy thing. So that was one thing I really learned is making sure that that you have a goal and a vision for your life and you stick with it. And that was the biggest thing I probably picked up over 12 years. I saw a you know, our the company I worked for went through a lot of ups and downs. I mean, anything you can imagine construction delays, lawsuits, just units not getting ready on time, just so many different things. And you have to just persevere through all that. Yeah.

Yoni Schmidt 9:53

I mean, there’s there’s always going to be discomfort when there’s growth and all right, that’s part of it. And like Megan said, consistency is key. So you gotta keep at it. Love those lessons. Keep at it. And yeah, just, you know, know that growth starts at the end of your comfort zone, which is, I guess a soundbite that people say, you know, often the overhaul of East End Village Apartments into a high end industrial modern residential complex is a significant achievement. Can you walk us through the process and challenges of transforming this historic 1920s? Building? What was your experience? I think you were like sleeping at the construction site at some point on mattresses or something, if I recall correctly? Yeah.

Brad Skaggs 10:43

Well, it was, well, first of all, it’s when you’re when you get into anything that was the building of that age 1920s, I think it was built in 1918, or something like that. You’re obviously going to remodeling and re rehabilitating an old building will come with those challenges of just dealing with something that old, right, you have a lot of structural problems, environmental problems. So it’s, it’s obviously figuring out those hurdles. But then, first and for our secondly is I guess, once you do get in there, and you start renovating all the surprises that come along with remodeling, right, not just financial surprises, but just emotional surprises. It’s it’s crazy. But I think, and this was one of the one of the key things that the the project was supposed to take 15 to 18 months, okay. And it ended up taking, I think, four years. Okay, three to four years. And so that was one of the things that I saw Mark Larson of Larson development persevere through because I think, having seen that, like I think someone that maybe didn’t have his drive and determination would have just threw in the keys and quit, right? Because it was very, it went so over budget, there were issues with the general contractor, and there were lawsuits and at no fault to Larson development. But seeing him and us persevere through that was very, very eye opening and rewarding. And although it did take a few did go over budget by a lot. And it did take another couple years. It was worth seeing the what it turned into today. It was it was totally worth it. And it was just a great experience. And it taught me a lot of things like, you know, I don’t want to get into a lawsuit number one, because that was a nightmare day, right? Just imagine that kind of money in that many subcontractors, how tough that how tough that is, when you deal with that much stuff. So taught me I don’t want to get into a lawsuit. And it taught me to be very, very specific and transparent with your general contractor, and also the bank as well, just making sure everyone’s on the same page. So it was a great experience. And I’m super thankful for that. I think it turned out to be a great product.

Yoni Schmidt 13:05

Yeah, it definitely did. I mean, the impact on the community and alone, you know, the additional housing and I high density, mixed use area, and I love managing it, I was very proud of being the manager there. So I have that, I have you to thank for that because you were the one who, you know, pulled the trigger on hiring me there. So I guess, you know, with both of your passion to revitalizing old buildings, you know, you went after that five flex and convinced I guess, Brad to do it, which, given the fact that you’re his wife might be a little easier. If I was coming to him as a business partner, he probably would have said, Yoni, you’re just crazy. Let’s, you know, let’s go find something, you know, that’s a little bit more of a low hanging fruit. But you know, with your passion and drive to revitalizing these older buildings, what do you find most rewarding about, you know, bringing that history back to life and for modern use, and Megan has has, have you been infected by Brad’s love for revitalizing old buildings and bringing them back to life?

Megan Skaggs 14:18

I mean, yeah, definitely. Like, I mean, nothing is always old in California, you know. So learning about all the history and stuff has been really awesome. And I can have like, really appreciate the beauty and all the hard work that goes into it. We do have a lot of cool things like the National in Oklahoma City, and it’s just beautiful, seeing what they’ve done and, and all that stuff. And just the passion behind it versus a keeps the character versus just tearing something down and building a cookie cutter thing. So I think it’s really fun. I think it’s really fun to give a safe space for people to live in. And everything

Yoni Schmidt 14:55

and a community. Yeah, the housing market is not going anywhere, people will always need a roof over their heads, which is why being in real estate is such a great industry in such a rewarding industry to be in, you mentioned Ud. And I want to segue a little bit into that topic, a main topic of today’s conversation. Can you share a little bit more about the Beauty of Wealth? What motive motivated the two of you to launch this business focused on financial competence and freedom? For Beauty professionals, specifically?

Megan Skaggs 15:33

The web, of course, um, so I work in a very large salon, I think there’s 35 of us. And they’ve kind of seen our dream, I guess we have had a few assets. But we also found ourselves like in a lifestyle creep hair, stylists make really big money every single day. And Brad was used to getting paid every two weeks, and I was bringing home 1000 $1,500 A day working and so we just with both, both things combined, we’re like, man, we’re making good money. And we were spending good money too. So we’ve kind of found ourselves in a little bit of debt, but the girls we crawled out of that put some of our money

Brad Skaggs 16:14

in a little we had a lot of debt out here. Yeah, like six figures of of credit card debt vehicle loans. It was it was very cumbersome on our shoulders, I guess it just trying to keep up with the monthly bills of trying to keep up with the Joneses that drive the nice cars and have the nice things and all that stuff. So yeah,

Megan Skaggs 16:34

with that being said, like we were able to get out of that we’re debt free except for our mortgages. And we a big portion of that was able to I just really hustled behind the chair and made sure that we had a plan for our money and the girls on Isilon saw that they saw the success we were having that we were able to buy another 20 unit property, we were able to just have a little bit of love I felt they saw the piece in me when I wasn’t so stressed with that so they started asking us Brad specifically to help with create hit their LLCs separate the bank accounts and they were like Where’s our money going? I’m making six figures a year but I don’t have anything left to show for it. So people started asking me Hey, I need help and we decided to do a program and just making sure that stylists are set up for success not only behind the chair but in their life in general making sure that they do have a retirement they have some investments working for them their business is set up for success taxes giving them the their power back and said yeah,

Yoni Schmidt 17:38

definitely so important. Because so many out there lack that financial literacy and they don’t even know that they may be able to refund on their taxes they may not even filing taxes. So it’s it’s truly inspirational. The fact that you know, you’re helping your own community and peers within the industry, you know, gain that financial literacy has anyone in the stylist world world that you work in, bought any real estate yet for investment purposes. Actually

Megan Skaggs 18:13

one of my whenever first we did a kind of like a beta course. And we did it live and launched it live and for over eight weeks. And one of my good friends actually, I’m proud to say did buy a piece of real estate, their first investment home just bought a single family home. And that was awesome. She never really started hearing the word invest until we started talking to her. And I’m like, oh, yeah, you Yes. So it’s not easy. But if you take away everyone sitting there saying how hard it is, it’s anyone could do it. And I’m also proud to say that she is in the process of owning opening up her own salon too. So just things

Yoni Schmidt 18:52

in Oklahoma City. Yeah. What’s her name?

Megan Skaggs 18:57

Mikayla St. Germain? Okay,

Yoni Schmidt 19:00

cool. Maybe we’ll have her here on the podcast. In she can talk about, you know, how the Beauty of Wealth helped her achieve her financial freedom. That’s amazing. Tell me just a little bit about loyalty and business relationships. You guys work together a lot. You know, every single day, I guess you’re you’re married, you live together, you’re working together. Can you share a little bit about how you know these values specifically like loyalty and and business relationships have played a role in your career and personal growth?

Brad Skaggs 19:40

Yeah, as far as loyalty between us too. Is

Yoni Schmidt 19:42

that what you mean between you two between you and Mark where you spent 12 years? You know, Megan, you’ve been at the salon for quite some time now as far as I recall. And just loyalty and business relationships right. You will rely on contractors every single day. And you need to make sure that they’re getting paid so that they pick up the phone when your tenant calls you and says, my hot water heater is out. How how can these values play a role? Or how have they played a role in your career and personal growth and gentle success?

Brad Skaggs 20:20

Yeah, I think, I think really, truly it is at the most simplistic level. And I just think about this all the time, just treat others how you want to be treated. And I really, like we want to be here for the long haul. We want to be here for 20 3040 years as far as doing business and in Oklahoma and Oklahoma City. And so it’s, you don’t it’s easy to get a bad reputation. Or if you don’t do what you say you’re going to do. People figure that out real quick. So we don’t, you know, we just want to make sure that we always our whatever we say we’re going to do we do it. And that just creates value and trust. And, and like Megan said earlier, just showing up every day, people see you every day, and they see you trying to do good things. And that’s what we’re all about. And I was listening to this was probably I don’t know, 10 years ago, I just this has always stuck in my head, I listened to it was a Bill Gates interview. And he was talking about the interviewer asked her asked him why he was so successful, or one of his keys to success. And he said that it’s his wife, Melinda, I think now ex wife, but not the point. That great like 30 year marriage. So I think he said it was his wife that was able to help him become who he was their relationship. And now they could lean on each other and knowing that she was always there, and then vice versa. They were able to build each other up. That’s what I wanted in a partner with my wife, Megan. And so, you know, yeah, of course, we work together every day. And it’s sometimes there’s the ups and downs in it. But there’s no one else I would rather be doing it with. So I just say like, if you’re, it’s your business partner, your wife, whatever, just makes sure that just make sure you are looking for the right person to go to war with if that makes sense.

Yoni Schmidt 22:13

Yeah. And have fun along the way a little bit later. Exactly. One that may have anything to add on that. Yeah, I

Megan Skaggs 22:23

think it’s just important to I feel like sometimes it’s so easy to say yes to every opportunity that looks shiny and new and everything, but just staying true to your morals and who you are, is so important. Because you don’t want to get yourself in a situation where it doesn’t align and you’re stuck. YouT’re like man, I that doesn’t feel right. Just listen to your instincts and the other new opportunities will come I promise. And opportunities for you and your business be true to yourself and your morals.

Yoni Schmidt 22:53

Yeah, the shiny objects that are always out there in our, you know, periphery and I’m, I’m a distracted little ADHD squirrel, just always, you know, seeing a shiny object and trying to gravitate towards it. And then thankfully, I have people in my life who say Yoni, you know, calm down this, stay in your lane here. Because, you know, this is what we’re good at. And, you know, do what you’re good at and what you know, but also take some risks and try to grow, but do it in a way that’s smart and calculated, you know, reach out to all the people in your network and, you know, kind of lean on your mentors. When you’re doing those kind of things. We all know that entrepreneurship often involves taking significant risks. But aside for the five bucks that you guys went after you went after other buildings, too, can you share more of a moment where you took a pretty big leap of faith and how did it fail?

Brad Skaggs 24:00

I’m trying to think which one so there was a building and we’ve that we still own it’s it’s in Midtown Oklahoma City, it’s inherited hills. It’s a 20 unit apartment building. And it was a probably it was for sure out of our out of our price range. It was something that we couldn’t tackle on our own. And, but we we knew the it was we were getting it for a good deal because the seller had to sell for other reasons. And so we we this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but at the time it was we had to convince a banker to give us a multimillion dollar loan and we had to find someone that would help us take down the the the downpayment to get to buy it and renovate it. So not only did we have to purchase this 20 unit building, we also had to take out a construction loan and renovate all the units. So all the units were going to be empty for a year. Yeah, so that was very nerve racking, we had to personally guarantee it, we had to, you know, put our house up. And we had to do some other things to be able to do that. And I’m proud to say today, all the units are renovated, the partner is no longer involved. He’s been bought out. And so it’s it was, it was, it was really, really tough. 18 months on us, stress wise, but definitely paid off today. So we’re super excited that we went ahead and went through with that.

Yoni Schmidt 25:30

Yeah, love that. That must have been definitely anxiety provoking. Having to put up the house go after a big deal like this. And you just have to make it work. There’s just no other way. Right? Exactly. Love that. Oh, yeah, go ahead.

Megan Skaggs 25:50

Lots of trying to do hair extensions to keep up on

Yoni Schmidt 25:54

it. Yeah, for sure. Is that where the money is? Because I don’t think though I, you know, are gonna grab on to whatever’s left here. But yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s amazing. Yeah, a lot of hard work, sweat, blood, tears that, you know, goes into this. And I’m sure I know, from experience. So definitely. It’s exciting to see this, you know, building come to life and midtown Oklahoma City. And I think I walked that building with you at one point in in OKC. So that was exciting. Can we just see what you’ve done with it? So how did you and Megan balance, you know, the professional ambitions with personal interests and commitments, especially, you know, with these shared business ventures, right, you guys like to travel? You guys. You know, have a life outside of this family? Tell me you’re always with each other a lot, I’m guessing. How do you balance these professional ambitions? You know, Megan wants to go buy another building? Brad wants to, you know, let it let the ones that you already have season a little bit. What’s your formula to saying? You know, yes, let’s go after this opportunity or that? Yeah. Yeah, I

Megan Skaggs 27:14

feel like it changes every day, every hour. on it. We, man Uh, yeah, we do spend a lot of time together. And a lot of talk is business. I think. I I’ve pretty tried to set pretty bad boundaries of afford dinner. I’m like, Okay, we’re not talking to you about board or, you know, trying to have that balance. But right now, we’re just focusing on the market, the stock market. And just like, that’s been kind of our goal right now, currently. On so

Yoni Schmidt 27:44

just putting money into equities and letting it rip out like 5% and 6%, whatever the return is, and

Brad Skaggs 27:52

yeah, we’re, we’re trying to all of our effort and things are going into Beauty of Wealth right now getting that up and going. So that’s real estate’s sort of like you said, it’s, we’ve we’ve we’ve done that and we’re letting the buildings just do their thing, right, pay off and cashflow so all the money that we’re we are investing is typically right in Beauty of Wealth right now. So just there’s a lot to getting an online educational platform going there’s a lot of expenses with that we just got our sounds crazy, but we just got our website up and going and all of our funnels. And we wish we did a lot of professional shooting and videos with some of the key hairdressing people in the industry. So there’s just a lot of a lot of time and effort and money that goes into that. So we just getting all of that set up. Time and Effort is going into Beauty of Wealth, but at the same time, we are trying to put money away into the market and and let it grow. So that is working on its own as well.

Yoni Schmidt 28:53

So and for Beauty of Wealth specifically, what’s the next step? Is it something that you want to go take nationwide? Is it something that you know, you’re keeping local at the moment, are you you’re creating this online course right? For Beauty professionals to come online, sign up, take the course become more financial, financially literate and confident so that they can start taking that money that they’re making every single day? And you know, money has a tendency to evaporate especially when you don’t have a purpose for it. So you know, finding a good purpose for that money so that they can actually invest it and help it grow. Is that the is that the pathway forward? Is it franchising? Is it staying in Oklahoma City? Tell me about the plans.

Brad Skaggs 29:44

Yeah, so basically, it all of you kind of dive Do you want to get eager for so basically how it’s Megan mentioned how it started but we to our vision and goal for it we interviewed 60 to 70 stylists before we even made the program, then I didn’t know. Yeah. So Megan had to cold call 60 to 70 people and I say cold call, but Instagram message and stuff like that nowadays, right?

Yoni Schmidt 30:10

And customer discovery basically,

Brad Skaggs 30:12

there you go. Exactly. We wanted to find out find our, our ideal client avatar and figure out specifically exactly what they wanted. So we had a list of 20 curated questions it took about an hour for person took us about, I don’t know, eight weeks to do, to do six to get 60 people on the phone, and we were able to curate a program are geared around those specific things that were needed and wanted in the industry. And so once we, once we made that program, we did a beta test program live, as Megan mentioned, and we we wanted to get direct feedback, what was good, what was bad, what we should change what we should do differently. So when we taught it live, able to get that feedback, then we did pre recorded courses of us teaching it modules teaching it. So now, instead of teaching it live, now we are it is nationwide, we have students and basically every state now Yeah, so it’s all over the country. And we they can go in and learn at their own pace. And we are just trying to spread our name and and get our name out there. And we’re getting a lot of great feedback. We’ve got amazing testimonials. And so we are just plugging away and trying to get are trying to get the program to grow. Yeah,

Yoni Schmidt 31:33

love that. Tell me what were the things that you found from these questions that were the most important to incorporate into the, into the course like maybe like a shameless promo for you know what people can expect when they sign up?

Brad Skaggs 31:50

I’ll say my and then you can say, Okay, I think for the biggest wake up call for me was when Megan approached me to do this, this was Megan’s idea. I was like, Okay, it’s got to be so good. And I want it to be life changing. So I saw Megan and I started making an outline of what we wanted the course to look like before we did the interviews. And she kept telling me, No, this is not you’re making this too hard. This needs to be very, very simplified. And so we we we did make the course. And then we started doing all the interviews. And I realized after we did the interviews, it was nothing like the course we made. So I think to answer to answer your question, is speak and speak specifically to simplicity of it’s not about information, it’s about transformation. People don’t want 100 modules of everything that you know, they want, how do I get from zero to 100 as quickly as possible, or from A to Z as quickly as possible? And without it consuming my life making me feel like I have to go back to school. So that was probably my number one thing.

Megan Skaggs 33:10

Yes. And I am very happy that we learn that because that was that was difficult because he was so determined on making sure that the course was like a financial course. Coming straight out. But um, I don’t know, it’s been really just fun seeing people pay off their debt and paint making sure that their business is set up correctly. We have a CPA on team so he gives off he makes sure that you’re using all your tax deductions correctly. Growing

Brad Skaggs 33:42

there is Paul Bowen.

Yoni Schmidt 33:44

You know, a really well. Yeah. I love it. For the Beauty of Wealth full time now.

Brad Skaggs 33:52

He’s not full time now. He’s part time.

Yoni Schmidt 33:54

Got it. Wow. What a full circle. I miss that guy.

Megan Skaggs 34:01

I love Paul so much. He’s so funny. The girls love him. Of course what’s not to love. But um, yeah, it’s just been really fun seeing them set their retirement, watching their retirement grow. And just really being confident in the the community that we’re growing is amazing. Like, it’s so fun. We have a private Facebook group and there’s girl three, we have a few girls in Boston, they’re doing a meet up now. And I’m like, that’s so cool that we started that and they’re growing and it’s really awesome to see be a part of.

Yoni Schmidt 34:28

Yeah, really just like adding value to people’s lives is what it sounds like through education, financial literacy, financial confidence, and that’s incredible. Does Paul actually do the taxes for some of the stylists or no, we think that you are doing in the future.

Brad Skaggs 34:50

Now we’re very specific and we say that we are not giving anyone specific financial advice. Neither is Paul. We do not tell him They want to specifically do anything we give them the tools they need, the education, they need that there that now them and their family can go make the decision that they need to make based on their circumstance.

Yoni Schmidt 35:13

Yeah, but under estimating the ability of a good tax accountant is a big mistake, if you’re in this industry, and you’re, you know, paid on a 1099. And you don’t know what deductions you are entitled to or not. And, you know, you may be missing out on, you know, 1000s of dollars at the end of the year. So, super important. One thing, one podcast that we recently recorded, Mat Zalk, from our office in Tulsa, and the owner and founder of Keyrenter PMC, reported by the corporate Transparency Act that just came out and making sure that you’re filing your business entity with the financial crimes. What is it zero or? It’s 10 cent? Yeah. Right. Because the fine at the end of the day is like $500. A day, right? something outrageous that if you don’t know about this, and you wouldn’t have people like you yourself, Brad and Megan, the wealthy the Beauty of Wealth, you know, that would be detrimental to you. And it could cause a lot of financial loss.

Brad Skaggs 36:25

The the real quick, I’m sorry, we, when we heard about the that the boi Act, or the fence that Megan posted a video on it on Instagram, and it just like took off. They got like six or 700,000 views they was or Yeah, right. I don’t even know it was crazy. And we’re in keep in mind, our Instagram is geared specifically just for hair stylists. So it just like went gangbusters. It was pretty cool to see. Yeah.

Yoni Schmidt 36:55

I mean, how many of the hair stylists are plugged into this kind of news? Right? And where else will they get it from? To know that this is coming down the pike. And if you if you started an entity, you need to make sure that you’re filing this. So that’s incredible. I love that. So for each of you, I guess reflecting on your careers, what are some of the most important lessons about determination and perseverance that you’ve specifically love? I’m sure there’s a lot you can go for you go.

Megan Skaggs 37:31

I can’t think I fell on the spot. I don’t know. I guess always putting your best foot forward, like making sure that you’re gonna be like, the best version of you. For me, it’s making sure I’m not lazy for my clients and making sure I do the best hair and it reflects poorly on me. And I feel like crap if I don’t if I don’t do a good job. So I just always tried to do my best.

Yoni Schmidt 37:55

Yeah. For

Brad Skaggs 37:57

me, it’s just showing up for myself and for my family every day. I think one thing is, and I mentioned this earlier as just having a vision and a goal for your life. You know, what do you want, it’s, you know, it’s kind of a played out analogy. But just like you don’t want to be a plane in the air or pilot in the air and you have no destination in mind, you’re just kind of flying around, you’re floating around, you’re letting life dictate what happens to you, instead of having a determinate set destination for yourself. So, you know, I think it’s it’s waking up every day with purpose of like, hey, I want these are my goals and my vision and my promise to myself for my life. That’s for sure. The bigger the nose, the number one thing I could ever tell somebody is to make sure that that is because that’s where it starts. That’s the foundation of everything as far as success goes, not just financial success, but I think personal success as well. So,

Yoni Schmidt 38:54

yeah, love that. Speaking of goals, and be conscious of the time. So lastly, looking towards the future, what are new goals or projects that you’re most excited about in your, you know, continuing journey in real estate entrepreneurship. You know, it could be a new a new course or model that you’re opening up with the Beauty of Wealth, another building, potentially that you’re going after, I don’t know that you’ve bought anything in 2023 or 2024 so far, but it’s been a couple of rough years for people who are looking to pick up investment properties, interest rates, and you know, the challenge of the challenges that we’re facing in the market for the two of you what are those new goals or projects that you’re most excited about?

Brad Skaggs 39:45

I think for well for me, I think it’s we want to grow Beauty of Wealth into a community of in the next year or two of couple 1000 stylists and so that’s we’re really focused in all in on that and and that will help the other real estate ventures in the future but we are solely focused on that right now. What about for you?

Megan Skaggs 40:06

Yeah, that’s my main focus to you right now.

Yoni Schmidt 40:09

Beautiful and if anyone wants to reach out to you and is a stylist works in the beauty industry wants to learn a little bit more about you know, financial literacy and financial competence, pay off debt, whatever that looks like, how can they find you?

Megan Skaggs 40:26

So we have our Instagram is beautyofwealth_ and we have a website our homepage is beautyofwealth.hair, we have beautyofwealth.hair. Sorry, we just finished it. Um, so you can book a discovery call with with me and I would love to talk to you.

Yoni Schmidt 40:43

Love that. We’ll put the link in the comments if you’re looking to connect with Brad and Megan. Click that link, go to their website, beautyofwealth.hair, and book yourself a discovery call. Brad Megan, so nice to catch up and record this podcast with you today this morning. It’s been a second since we’ve gotten together and I’ve seen either of you. But thank you for sharing this time with me and I truly appreciate it. Very exciting stuff coming down the pike and I’m excited to see it come out of Oklahoma City. So I really appreciate your time.

Brad Skaggs 41:22

There. Thank you so much for having us on. Appreciate it.

Megan Skaggs 41:24

We appreciate it.

Yoni Schmidt 41:26

Definitely. Thanks. See ya.

Outro 41:31

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