Bradley Bevers on Real Estate Success & Reading Habits

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Casey Cease Show. Casey is your entrepreneurial guide. Dive into weekly insights that blend inspiration with practical strategies to grow your business with integrity. From boosting sales to building strong relationships, Casey shares the essentials to help both your venture and personal dreams flourish.

Ready to elevate your entrepreneurial journey? Let’s dive in.

Casey Cease: Hey everyone. Thanks for stopping by again to The Casey Cease Show, this is your host, Casey. And I’m here with one of my close friends, Brad Bevers today. And I’m so excited to have Brad on the show with us. Brad and I have been friends now over 17 years and live together in Brenham, Texas.

We’ve done business together, we own real estate together, we are elders together at Reedemer Church here in Brenham, but Brad has an amazing story of just business ownership and the highs and the lows and the innovation. And he has really been in a huge encouragement to me over the years and in life and [00:01:00] ministry and in business. And I’m really glad to have him here today.

Share a bit of his story and share with us what he’s been up to. Also, if you’re ever interested in owning farm or ranch land in Texas. Specifically in the Brenham Chapel Hill, Washington County and beyond he’s spreading like wildfire. He is the go to expert for what to look for and what to buy in the area.

And I’m excited to have him talk about that, his personality isn’t just put himself out there, but I love supporting Brad because, it’s just been such a joy to watch him, Jessica and their family continue to thrive and flourish with such a posture towards the Lord and towards generosity.

And so Brad, I’m honored to have you with me today on the show. I’m actually sitting in our building that we own together in downtown Brenham that’s where I’m using my studio and there’s books around you, so you’re someplace where you work. So anyways, Brad, thanks for being with us today.

Why don’t you share a little bit more about yourself, just your background. You can even tell where you went to school so people can have their moment that listened, because I know we have a lot of listeners that went to the same Alma mater. So, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Bradley Bevers: Sure. Thanks for having me, Casey. Looking forward to catching up. Fun [00:02:00] to spend time with you, even if it’s on a podcast.

Casey Cease: Yeah, it’s great.

Bradley Bevers: Yeah, I’ve been selling real estate in the Chapel Hill, Washington County area for almost 20 years now. So, started off as an agent, ended up buying the company from my grandparents who started the company about 7 years ago now and have been running it since then.

Really enjoy selling real estate, that’s part of what I do. I also invest in real estate, dabble in a few other things. We’ve gotten the chance to work together on a number of different opportunities. So, enjoy what I do here.

Casey Cease: Yeah. So when I first met you, we met back in 2007 and we were looking to move to the area with our good friend, Justin, to help start a church. And at the time you and Jessica weren’t committed to coming to the church or anything else. You were just our realtor and I know Brad looks like he’s about 26 years old but he is older than that, but when I first met him, I was like, okay, is this, kid working for his dad and like opening the place up and it was like, wait, no, this is the realtor.

And man, I was [00:03:00] impressed right away. I could tell you’re super sharp. Brad is also, you can’t tell on the screen what’s 6’6”, something like that. 6’8” 7 feet, 6’5” whatever. Yeah. And, I have a thing about tall people cause I’m 6 foot.

And so I feel like I’m decent sized, he’s a tall drink of water over there. But newest stuff back then and we became immediate friends and watching Brad and Jessica grow and navigate life and parenthood and all those different things has been fun. But really, we had some really interesting, fun times early on helping start what is now Redeemer Church in Brenham.

And also watching him grow in real estate from little houses that he was helping sell to me and grow. But he did mention, we were actually partners for several years at Lucid Books. And it was so much fun because Brad is the one that connected me to folks like Dan Kennedy. And other people who are really into marketing.

Brad’s always had a good eye for marketing. Brad invited me one time to meet with him and Ryan Holiday on a phone call because he had helped support one of Ryan’s early book launches [00:04:00] and when we were in the publishing company together. And so Brad, I’d love for you to share a little bit about early in real estate.

Now, we just meet you today, you’re the farm and ranch land guy. In this area, you’ve sold a lot of large ranches and everything else, but talk to us about early years of getting started in real estate.

Bradley Bevers: Sure, I started real estate in 2005 right after I graduated from A&M. Got a business degree from Texas A&M and felt like I wanted to give real estate to try, my grandparents owned the company. So I decided to work as their assistant my last semester and have been here for 20 years.

So, when I started in real estate it was slow, I ended up living in my grandparents barn for almost a year. Had a car that could barely drive, I used to have to fill it up with water every time that we stopped somewhere because it was the radiator leaked pretty bad. So, 2005 to about 2008, my business kind of slowly grew. Became my own agent rather than just working as an assistant.

And then the ’08, ’09 financial crisis, we were in a recession [00:05:00] things really slowed down. My wife really supported us financially during that time, I was struggling to make ends meet. I ended up writing a book about my struggles early on and how I’ve grown my business since then called the mental game of real estate.

So if anybody’s interested, you can read more about that there but the short version was really having trouble making ends meet. Trying to decide what to do, Casey reached out to me and gave me an opportunity that I couldn’t turn down. So he owner financed half of Lucid Books for me. He knew that I liked to read and we thought we would work well together.

So, ended up coming on board for Lucid Books and, worked with Lucid for about four years or so while we were making ends meet in real estate, trying to get Lucid Books off the ground. Eventually real estate got so busy that I couldn’t put the focus on Lucid that it deserved. So I ended up selling my half back to Casey and he’s done a great job growing it since then.

So, it was a small company when I left, but he’s done a fantastic job growing it, and then since [00:06:00] then my real estate business has continued to grow. Like I said earlier I bought the company about seven years ago. We’ve got 7 agents now and had really been able to help a lot of people in the Washington County area specifically.

So it’s something that I’m proud of my agents and what we’ve been able to accomplish over the past few years.

Casey Cease: you know, I was here in Brenham the first time, 2007, 2010, and I remember the 2008 and when that was all happening, I wasn’t very attuned to the financial markets or anything else. I just remember it was really hard, to do business of any kind. You were here doing real estate and I was trying to be tri vocational of being a community pastor at the church and then doing some speaking, but the speaking slowed way down.

The charitable giving to my non profit slowed down and so I started pressure washing because, some friends were generous there. And I remember uh, how hard it was to make a living. I remember you were going to estate sales and buying books and taking them up and selling books for gift cards and then selling the gift cards.

And entrepreneurial making it happen, you and I both worked IT for awhile for a nonprofit [00:07:00] here in town. And neither of us, I mean, we know how to like blow on a disc and reboot and reinstall windows and things like that.

But looking back in hindsight, going through a recession. When I wasn’t very in tune with what it was, I just thought, man, things are really hard. But I think, the work that I saw you do during that recession, you’re an avid reader. I don’t even know if that’s the right word to describe how you read.

You’re an avid reader and watching you not only work so hard, you and your wife joined forces and that was before really having kiddos. And so y’all had some more flexibility to do multiple things to make it work.

But then also I remember you would spend a lot of time reading and at the time I didn’t appreciate to the fullest extent. The benefit of even during that season, you were still trying to take care of the clients you did have. You were working hard with Lucid, you’re trying to make money, Jessica was working hard, but you kept up the habit of reading and I’ve really seen that benefit you long term. So why don’t you talk to us when you got into reading. You’re pretty much a [00:08:00] speed reader so, maybe share a little bit about that journey. How that’s impacted your career and your life overall?

Bradley Bevers: It’s not something that I forced myself to do. It’s not something I’ve ever struggled with something that I was born enjoying as, far as I remember. So I’m sure my parents instilled part of that in me but I’ve always loved to read. Started off with fiction and then after college, started getting into nonfiction and filling in some gaps that my business degree. I didn’t feel like fully covered and then exploring other things, theology, the church, even being at Redeemer ended up reading a lot, more books and in those genres.

But, the reading for me is it’s not an option, really. It’s something that if I’m not reading, I can feel my focus kind of drifting and going away. So, even if I really wanted to do other things and focus on other areas. I can immediately feel my brain not working in the way that I like to work.

So, there, it becomes very difficult for me to focus. I wouldn’t say that I’m a speed reader. I do read [00:09:00] a lot. And I know most people think of me as a speed reader. For some context, I read between 125, 175 books a year but I’d spend a lot of time reading. It’s not that I read them fast.

It’s I read for hours every day even this morning. My daily reading routine before I open up my email every day is, I go through about 25 different books and read 2 or 3 pages out of each of them a day. Some of them are devotional, some of them are books that I’ve read before. Rereading Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg right now, which is fantastic.

But even taking books like that in bite sized chunks has been really helpful for me. Throughout the day, I’ll read nonfiction, whatever nonfiction I’m focused on at the time and fiction in the evenings to wind down. But I just read a lot of the day. It’s not that I read fast, but I feel like anybody can do that. And just most people don’t want to put in the time that it takes to actually read in that way. And I understand most people’s brains don’t work the way that mine do. So, [00:10:00] not everybody has to read in order to work on other things.

So,

Casey Cease: but I mean Let’s talk a little bit about though, the way that you read. I mean, You have like a, a multicolor pen, the way you read, you actually do work with the books. It’s not like you’re just casually doing it. You engage with the content in a unique way, which I’ve seen firsthand, it benefits your reading and to downplay whether you read fast or slow.

I would say, some people have never read 175 books in their life and you’re doing that 150 to 175 books a year. That’s a lot of content. So, how you glean from that information and content and how you sense that affects how you operate in life and in business?

Bradley Bevers: I’ll go as quickly as possible.

but I read and It’s my

I read.

Casey Cease: We got plenty of time.

Bradley Bevers: Yeah, I read in, really three different ways. So I love Audible, I love Kindle, and I love physical books. So, What works for me the best on Audible, I’ll often listen to biographies, true crime, usually nonfiction that I don’t have to take a lot of notes on. So [00:11:00] something that is more narrative driven but not fiction. I don’t enjoy fiction on Audible, but that narrative nonfiction works really well for me on Audible. I’m listening to a book right now called the Midnight Assassin. That’s about a serial killer in Austin, true story. That was kind of the first recorded serial killer in the United States, actually before Jack the Ripper Oh

Casey Cease: Oh wow,

Bradley Bevers: over in England. So it’s been interesting. And then Kindle, these days, Kindle for me. I love reading books, the daily books. Most of what I read daily is on Kindle. And it has a fantastic ability to highlight information. For me, the Kindle going through and highlighting things that are memorable, but usually in short snippets of philosophy devotional type of books, even enjoy reading the Bible on Kindle.

I’ll go through and highlight them. There’s a great app called Readwise, that I would encourage everybody to get. It’s only a few dollars a month, but when you highlight in your Kindle, it actually creates a [00:12:00] personalized newsletter that gets emailed to you every day with 5 quotes that you’ve highlighted in your own books.

So I found since I started using that. All the content that I’m taking in on Kindle is not just forgotten. It’s a lot easier to remember and recall those things that are important to me. And then last, I like reading physical books. The physical books that I read are often denser nonfiction.

So business, theology, Christian that I take notes in with a multi pen. I’ve got my own system for underlining in different colors and making marks on pages where I can find content easily. But, for those things that I’m, taking a lot of notes on or want to highlight and go back to. That’s kind of book I read on that.

And then, as far as what kind of books I like to read. I find at this stage, because I’ve read so much, I really enjoy books. And reading books that I don’t agree with a hundred percent. So I know that sounds strange to people who don’t read maybe quite as much, but I love reading books that I’m hit that 80% mark. [00:13:00] Because it engages you a little more fully, there’s things to wrestle with and things that stretch you and can change your mind.

So, I love reading books that are not quite in alignment with where I am. Because it’s always fun to go back and forth with those types of books.

So

Ready to skyrocket your business and truly connect with your audience on a whole new level. Unleash the power of your story with Lucid Books. Imagine transforming your insights and experiences into a captivating book that not only cements your status as a thought leader, but also weaves a strong bond with your ideal clients at lucid books.

We’re more than a publishing house. We’re your creative partners on a journey to turn your wisdom into a masterpiece that speaks directly to the hearts and minds of your audience. Join forces with us and let’s embark on this incredible adventure together. Your story has the power to inspire, engage, and elevate.

Are you ready to share it with the [00:14:00] world?

Casey Cease: So how would you say, you know,

Answer for me, how has reading so much content impacted you? Do you realize the effect it has or how it helps you think differently? I mean, I’m assuming it does, but I think. how does it affect you?

Bradley Bevers: I mean, It affects me in a ton of different ways. I’ve learned, way more from reading and being self taught than I did from a college degree. So I think that’s true for a lot of readers, but I can certainly attest to that. So that’s been important and then beyond just the learning impact, I think regularly reading long form content changes your brain in a way that’s really helpful for me.

So if I, find that if I get away from that or if I’m on vacation and can’t find the time to read, my brain starts behaving more like, YouTube videos or short snippets where I can only focus on things for a very short time. Where reading long form content. Gives me the ability to really focus on things and longer stretches of time.

Get a lot more done when I am working and when I [00:15:00] don’t. So reading has been the most impactful thing for my business, for my family, for my Christian walk, spiritual life, really everything has gone back to reading and that content. So.

Casey Cease: So, let’s talk a little bit about your first book that you wrote. I remember when you reached out to me 2013, maybe something like that saying, Hey, I’m going to write a book. And you had been through getting a publishing company going, trying to keep your nose above water with real estate.

And you’re turning the corner and you came up. Talk about how you came up with the idea and what your strategy was. Because for me, at least as a close friend, but an outsider looking in, It was one of the most pivotal things, there’s a lot you did, but one of the most pivotal things for your business.

So let’s talk a little bit about that, the idea, what you did and how you executed on it.

Bradley Bevers: Yeah, you know, I don’t really remember where the idea came from exactly other than I love to read and that this is also the way I’d like to communicate is through a book. So, I wrote a book specifically for buyers and sellers who are [00:16:00] interested in farm and ranch property, So, very short book.

It’s about, 90 pages or less, and it goes through a number of different things about farm and ranch property, what you need to know about the farm and ranch contract, how you would think through ag exemptions, water wells, septic systems, all of the things that are important whenever you buy land in Texas, wanted to convey as much information as possible.

For my clients and for potential clients, just so they could see the value that I was bringing to the table. So, there are a lot of agents who don’t really have that knowledge or don’t take the time to inform their clients and hold some of those things back so that they’ll be the gatekeepers of information.

The way that I operate is I like to share everything and I, feel like I am an expert in those areas, but I want my clients to feel very informed and able to make the decisions on their own. So I wrote that book, put it out there, have used it for marketing. And it’s been, like you said, fantastic tool to grow my business.

There’s [00:17:00] not a lot of people who actually read the book. So I’d say, probably 95% of people don’t read it. And in some ways it’s a very fancy business card, but it has been very effective and growing my business. Reading has been great for me personally, but dollar for dollar, putting out the Texas farm and ranch guide has been worth thousands of times more than the effort and money it took me to put it in writing.

Casey Cease: Can I share a little bit of your strategy? Because I remember very vividly. I don’t want to give away the trade secrets, but I remember you reaching out. You’re like, Hey man, like I’m writing this book, I want to publish it. You were a part of Lucid at the time and it was like, of course, go for it.

And I said, how are you going to get it out there? You said, I’m going to send it to the top landowners in our county that’s it’s not their primary residence. And so I think you sent out around 300 copies or so with a letter. And I remember some guy reached out to you and we were meeting up for lunch after that.

And the guy was like, well, you’re the expert. You have the book on it. And I remember you tell me about that and you were able to get some decent [00:18:00] listings out of that first batch. And then it, began snowballing. I don’t remember who it was you’re listening to, but you brought this idea and I was like, that’s a strange but interesting idea. Because, you know, up until that point in business, we’ve been doing a lot of Christian nonfiction for pastors and leaders and speakers.

And so it made sense of how it’d be used. And you said no, I don’t care if anyone reads it, it’s going to be good, but I’m going to send it out. And you send it out in the first batch. And I remember we’ve done batches since then that you sent out and now you give away free copies and eBooks of it and everything else.

But you had a really strong marketing, your view of it wasn’t book sales. I remember you telling me because like for me I was like, I don’t understand you’re like I don’t really care if anyone buys it. I want to give it out and just watching the effect that has had compounded with your hard work and your great customer service and your knowledge of the opportunities along with just being able to help other people find a solution for what they’re looking for has been really great to watch, but I love bragging on you with that idea because it [00:19:00] wasn’t my idea.

I wish I’d came up with that idea and came to you like as the lead publisher. Hey man, I think you should, you can be like, I want to do this. And we were like, of course, let’s go do it. But it’s just been really neat to see that as a piece of the puzzle. In addition to that book, what else would you say has contributed to you helping grow your business? You sell a lot of real estate every year and a lot of larger properties, any other tips or kind of thoughts or things that you’ve noticed worked really well in building that.

Bradley Bevers: yeah. Oh, I’ll talk about a couple things. So the book has been really helpful and making first contact with people and getting my foot in the door, establishing myself as the expert. But then the, 2 things that I think have really helped beyond that. One is my follow up I think is unique, I send out a lot of gifts and things.

I know you’ve been the recipient of some of that, but that really started I think 8 years ago or so now I had an idea to send out Thanksgiving cookies to all of my clients. Because, everybody sends out gifts on Christmas but nobody was doing Thanksgiving. So I wanted to [00:20:00] own that holiday and also a good opportunity for when people gather for holidays, they can share cookies that have my labeling on it. That went so well that now, ever since that first time, my clients have insisted that they get

Casey Cease: We insist on them

Bradley Bevers: So that’s right.

Casey Cease: And just in the reciprocity, the reciprocity principle of your gift giving every time Abby opens a gift from you, she’s like, we need to buy something from Brad or we need to maybe sell it. And it’s like, sweetheart, you know that when it comes time that Brad is our go to guy but it works.

I mean, The family loves getting them. You send out thoughtful gifts and everything. So that’s been a huge thing. Yeah. I think your follow up your gift giving, what else do you feel like has helped set you apart and establish your business?

Bradley Bevers: The other big thing that has helped me for about 12 years now, I’ve used a business coach and in fact, now I use two different business coaches. That has been extremely helpful for me. The first business coach who I met, we actually published his book, that’s how I met him.

But I remember, you know, meeting with him and it was something [00:21:00] that I was pushed to do probably by something that I read, but I remember at my first meeting with him. I told him, you know, this will probably be my first and my last meeting with you. I don’t really think I need a business coach, I do a lot on my own.

I’m pretty self motivated but I feel like I want to jump through this hoop and just see and I’ve been meeting with him for 12 years since then. So and he has the value add that he’s given me is has been tremendous. What I tell people you know, even if you’re self motivated, you’re getting a lot done by yourself.

A business coach can help you get things done 30 to 40% faster than you would otherwise. Just somebody helping you stay accountable and really focused on the right things has been extremely helpful for me. And that 30 to 40% faster compounded over 12 years has been huge.

So even my book, I started working with him before I published my book. I probably published it two years earlier than I would have without him. And just those two years, that book made me you know, well [00:22:00] over six figures. So it’s, just in a quantifiable amount that has been well worth it working with a business coach.

Casey Cease: Yeah, I believe in coaching. I am a business coach. I’ve been coached by the same coach. And I still receive coaching invest a lot in coaching because, I mean, that has been our secret sauce. Because for me, we’re pretty smart guys. You have tons of books that you can read. I’ve listened to a lot of books, read a lot of books as well, but there’s something sitting with a business coach and being encouraged, being challenged, being held accountable.

In a way that’s helpful. All those things are very important especially because leadership in and of itself can be pretty lonely. And if you’re your only advisor, I think you can get yourself in trouble. So what do you see moving forward? I mean, I know you’re active in real estate, you’re active with church, you’re investing, stuff like that, but what do you see the next three to five years for you and your business and, other interests and everything else?

Bradley Bevers: Yeah, I think you know, as my business continues to grow, I’ve become more and more focused on my agents more than myself. So, I pour a lot into my agents. I want to help their [00:23:00] businesses grow. We have a very entrepreneurial company, I am still working as an agent. I still enjoy selling property, but my focus has really shifted more and more towards helping them grow their business.

I think that will continue over the next five years. I also enjoy investing in, real estate. I own a few buildings in downtown Brenham and some rental houses continuing to double down on those things and just invest in Washington County. And the growth that we see coming this direction and this area of Texas between Houston and Austin is something that I’ll continue to do. And then also, diversifying into investing in different businesses, something that I’ve, done a little bit of over the past few years, but really over the next 5 years when I become more informed and angel investing and different things. And I love helping people get started with their business and just being a small part of helping somebody realize their dream and seeing what starting from nothing and creating jobs and [00:24:00] really money out of thin air has been fun for me to go through personally.

And I, love to be a small part of helping other people do the same thing.

Casey Cease: That’s great, anything else I should have asked you that we should have talked about in this episode?

Bradley Bevers: Nothing I can think of. Yeah, I think we covered a lot of ground.

Casey Cease: Yeah, we get a lot done together. So where can people find you online? I know you’re not super active on social, but if people wanted to connect with you, where can they find you?

Bradley Bevers: Yeah, probably my business website would be the best place. So it’s LegendTexas.com I also have TexasFarmAndRanchGuide.com if you’re interested in seeing what I did with that book and how I grew my business that way. Those are the two best ways to get a hold of me. I am not active on social media.

Casey Cease: Oh, that’s great. Brad, thanks so much for joining me today, and for those of you who listened this far, thanks so much for listening to another episode of The Casey Cease Show. If you can make sure to leave a like or a heart or a whatever review if you can, wherever you’re listening, and feel free to share with a friend.

[00:25:00] Until next time, thanks so much for stopping by.

That wraps up this episode of the KCC Show. Make sure to visit our website, thekccshow. com, where you can subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, or via RSS, so you’ll never miss a show. While you’re at it, if you found value in this show, we’d appreciate a rating on iTunes, or if you’d simply tell a friend about the show that would help us out too.

You might also want to check out our book for business consultation available at lucid books or double your sales strategy session at planify agency. Be sure to tune in next week for our next episode.