Brearin Land is a BJJ Black Belt and instructor at Gracie Barra HQ in Irvine. He is also the CEO of a wealth management firm Irvine Wealth, and is specialised in Retirement Income Planning. Check out his FB Page and blog Black Belt Of Finance
Brearin, tell us how you got started in BJJ
Well I come from a very small town of about 1000 people. The closest city is 26 miles away in Springfield Illinois. People generally find an average job to fall into or they get into trouble, and as a teenager I got in a lot of trouble. Drugs, alcohol, fighting (not winning, just fighting) and being expelled from school was my life between 13 and 18. There were a few near death instances around the age of 19 where I just said “enough is enough” and decided to get my life together.
When I started working out I was so out of shape I couldn’t run half way around a track without stopping. I worked out for 6 months but this eventually got boring and I decided to start putting the workouts toward something. I looked up “most effective martial art,” Jiu-Jitsu popped up and the rest is history.
To be honest, it was a rough start. I had just quit smoking and was about 120 pounds. For two years I was getting absolutely wrecked, but I was obsessed with improving myself. I showed up to every single practice, every day, every week for years. Fundamentals, advanced, competition, black belt, kids classes; you name it I was there. When I wasn’t training I was at Barnes and Noble reading about training, or at the gym training, or at the academy drilling techniques. I traveled from competitions and seminars across the Midwest sometimes sleeping in my car outside the venue. I did nothing but live to train for close to 6 years because I was committed to becoming the very best version of myself and for that I had a lot of catching up to do.
What impact has BJJ had on your life?
Everything I have in my life today I owe to Jiu-Jitsu. Specifically I wouldn’t be anywhere without my Professor Marcos Barros, Professor Marcio Feitosa, and Gracie Barra as an organization for the outlet to progress and the opportunities they allowed me to earn.
These two Professors in particular took me from a cornfield in the middle of Illinois to living the dream in Orange County, California. They took me from a troubled kid who no parent wanted their kids around, to a leader and mentor of one of the world’s largest martial arts kids programs. These two gave me the tools and confidence necessary to develop skills beyond BJJ that lead to starting my own business. Every aspect of my life is molded from the life lessons I’ve learned on the mat and from the leaders I’ve met there.
How is it training and instructing at GB HQ in Irvine, please tell us about the facility, instructors, students etc?
The Gracie Barra HQ is just legendary. It is the headquarters of over 500 school and it really lives up to its stigma. My friends and I would always come out a couple weeks early to do the Pan Ams and Worlds training camps there and I remember in 2011 I came out and just thought “alright this is crazy, I have to move here, ” and 1 month later I did.
The facility is huge. We just installed a 3rd mat area. Professor Philipe Della Monica took over as Head Instructor and since then the place has never been better. From the remodel to the cleanliness of the place.. it is just a next level facility and of course the training partners are second to none.
The environment in the higher classes is interesting because there is just absolutely ZERO ego yet you better come to each class on your game because there is just an army of brown and black belts in every class. And just when you think you’re safe from those guys you’ll have Master Carlos Gracie Jr., Rafael Dos Anjos, or Shogun show up and just wreck us all.
How did you get started in finance?
In 2008 I was living near Chicago and working full-time as a crain operator. I spent every single dollar I had on Jiu-Jitsu. Tournaments, Seminars, Crossfit, Gym membership, Wrestling membership, Jiu-Jitsu membership. I got little sleep, but I got very good in a short amount of time. But when the financial crisis hit in 2008 I lost my job and had nothing financially to show for it despite having a pretty high paying job.
On top of this, I was clueless as to how the economy had affected my job and I wanted answers. When I moved back to central Illinois I started working just enough to pay for my gas and Jiu-Jitsu. In my spare time I was studying the stock market like a second language. It wasn’t until I moved out to California that I had a chance to apply what I had learned. I was told without a big name degree I would have trouble getting a decent job in the industry, so naturally I ignored this. I decided instead to tap into my bjj network and did around 30-40 informational interviews with CEOs, CFOs, and other Orange County executives. This gave me a tremendous amount of experience and contacts within the industry and lead to a once in a lifetime opportunity designing portfolios for a premier wealth management firm in the area.
What made you start your own wealth management firm?
I wanted to be able to help as many people as possible. In the broker dealer world I was in there are a lot of proprietary products being sold and the focus was always on high net worth individuals… all the time. Look, I love helping out high net worth clients. That is where the majority of my experience comes from, but my main goal was to help out the people I loved associating with: martial artists and their families. I wanted to help them regardless of what they had in their bank account.
Without big brother looking over my shoulder I was able to set out looking for ways to help more people. I did not have to get every blog, social media, or video post approved before posting. I did not have to sell expensive products to clients. On my own I’m able to operate as a fiduciary financial advisor, meaning I am not married to any products or services. I can make decisions based solely on the client’s situation and not have to charge them an arm and a leg to do it. Being able to operate as a fiduciary was crucial for me since the people I call clients are family.
Please tell us about your wealth management business
Well what I do at Irvine Wealth Management is truly state of the art. I was a computer programmer at a very young age and always look to utilize technology to increase efficiency. I already addressed that a lot of these shops are not fiduciaries, but another problem with a lot of these financial plans being created out there is they use what is called “straight line appreciation” to make calculations.
This is no different from why online retirement calculators are junk. The advisor says “we think we can get you an 8% return” and then arbitrarily puts this number into their calculations. This is what they were using to design retirement plans when the caveman invented the wheel. This is like using Tae Kwon Do vs Jiu-Jitsu.
We have what is called the Portfolio Stress Test. Instead of selecting an arbitrary return and using one iteration the Stress Test calculates the precise risk and return of your portfolio and runs 1000 iterations and “what if’s” to give you an accurate look at your chances of success. We either determine if we can improve your situation or send you on your way with a couple tips. It’s free, its simple, and it is revolutionary in the field of financial planning.
Do you use any principles of Jiu-Jitsu in your business and vice versa?
Absolutely. Each and everyday I draw from the experiences I’ve learned on the mat to help out my clients. From speaking at public events, to meeting with executives, analyzing a customer’s situation, or simply how to treat a customer, my business is just an extension of the lessons I’ve learned on the mat.
I think Jiu-Jitsu does that for all of us right? The day-to-day grind on the mat tells us more about ourselves than our own self-notion or another persons words ever could. It is such a humbling experience and it allows you to determine what is real and what truly works.
There are just an infinite number of parallels that can be drawn between Martial Arts and the work I do. That was the motivation behind creating the Black Belt of Finance Blog. I mean trust is huge aspect of financial planning and I think that having an honest and objective resource to pull from provides a ton of value to our community.
