Brooks Breakthrough Podcast: Recent Episodes

Ashley Brooks

Breaking through the following topics: entrepreneurship, leadership, finance and real estate.

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April Roberts is the founder of Vixen Gathering. Through this new venture, April is helping ambitious women return to their true selves so they can live their best lives. On this episode, she shares how her experiences as an attorney at one of the most prestigious law firms in Atlanta and as the owner of a wealth management firm lead her to starting Vixen Gathering and empowering women throughout the country and abroad.

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Gabriella Thompson, a real estate broker, based in Houston, TX, joins me to discuss all things real estate. Gabby has spent just over a decade growing her real estate career here in Texas and California. She takes great pride in mentoring and developing real estate agents to becoming the best of the best in our industry. She’s going to share how she got started, how she’s helping agents grow and advice for agents going into 2023.  

Instagram - @gabby_thomps 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/gabriellathompson89

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriella-tassociates/

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Terri Mund is a real estate agent from Houston, TX. Terri and I are both members of the Texas Realtors Leadership Program through the Houston Association of Realtors. In the time we’ve spent together over the last 6 months, I’ve learned things about her that inspire and motivate me in both my professional and personal life, and I hope her story will do the same for you. Terri is a loving wife and mother of 6. After spending 3 decades helping her husband with 2 businesses, raising and homeschooling all 6 of her children, serving in a variety of ways in her local church, Terri decided to get her real estate license in her 60’s. She has only spent 4 years in the industry, but has already earned a broker’s license and is outperforming a majority of her real estate peers in Houston. Terri is going to share her experience of serving and growing her family, the rollercoaster experience of her family’s 2 businesses and venturing out on her own to start her own business later in life.

terrimund.com

terrimund@yahoo.com

Instagram - @terrimund

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Shelle Vernon, founder of Mylestone Development & Management, a leadership and development design firm based in Houston, TX, spent over a decade with Dow Chemical Company before making the leap to creating her own company. Mylestone’s mission is to inspire, motivate, empower and enhance every person’s human potential. She will share just how she and her team are doing that, along with their work with both corporations and local schools. We will also discuss how she’s grown as an entrepreneur and what’s she’s actively teaching her children about leadership, ownership and investing.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shellevernon/

Instagram - @shellevernon

Website - https://mylestonedmc.com/

Books:

• The Checklist Manifesto – How To Get Things Right by Atul Gawande

• Why should white guys have all the fun? – How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion-Dollar Business Empire by Reginald Lewis & Blair Walker

• The Code of the Extraordinary Mind- 10 Unconventional Laws to Redefine Your Life & Succeed on Your Own Terms by Vishen Lakhiani

• Transparency- How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor by Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman, and James O’Toole with Patricia Ward Biederman

• Exponential Organizations – Why new organizations are ten times better, faster, and cheaper than yours (and what to do about it) by Salim Ismail

• Grooming the Next Generation for Success by Dani Johnson • Concept of the Corporation (or anything) by Peter Drucker

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DJ Baluyot, a retirement strategist from California, is on mission to help families gain financial literacy and grow their legacy and wealth. Today, he’s going to share why he made the switch from being a teacher to entering financial services, exactly how he’s helping families create tax free retirements (yes, tax free) and how he’s grown his business through social media.   

Instagram - @dj_bethebank 

TikTok - @dj_bethebank

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Karrie Calloway, also known as Chef Karrie, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and new mom. Today she’s going to share her story of growing up in a family of entrepreneurs who focused their skills on the food and beverage and restaurant industries. She will also share what it’s looked like to build her brand, work with non-profits to grow their footprints and serve families as she teaches them to grow their own food and help them understand the food system from farm to table.

Instagram - @chefkarrie

South Union Community Development - https://www.southunioncdc.org/

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Wendee Saunders is an entrepreneur, business coach, ACN Regional Vice President and most recently founder of Stay Pretty Forever and The SPF Method. Wendee is a passionate advocate for helping people thrive financially, mentally and physically. On this episode, we are going to dive into how she’s been able to grow her financial, mental and physical health and how she’s helping others do the same.   

Instagram - @wendeesaunders 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendee-saunders-39a55524/

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Candace Parker is the owner & founder of Big Bunny Creative, a design and branding agency that specializes in graphic design, brand strategy, print and promotional products. Candace has 10 years of graphic design, and she has a passion for building brands and creating meaningful design. Today, we are going to discuss her journey of building her business, how she’s helping her clients and life as a business owner and mom.   

Website - bigbunnycreative.com 

Instagram - @bigbunnycreative

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Daniel Gillaspia is a retired attorney turned business consultant and founder. Throughout college and grad school, Daniel experienced many opportunities to travel and even live abroad. Through his travels, he earned and redeemed millions of rewards points and travel miles. He inevitably got hooked on the amazing world of credit card rewards. This led him to starting UponArriving in 2014, an authority in the credit card rewards and travel space. UponAriving covers the latest developments in credit cards, airline and hotel loyalty programs and a variety of travel topics. This then lead him to found WalletFlo in 2019, an app that helps people optimize their credit cards by earning more points, maximize savings and getting them the best offers. His knowledge and expertise has been featured on National Geographic, Forbes, Smithsonian Magazine, US News & Business Insider, just to name a few. Daniel and I are going to be discussing his journey from attorney turned world traveler and entrepreneur. He’s also going to share insights into how you can get the most from your credit cards and stories from his amazing travels around the world. 

Instagram - @uponarriving 

YouTube -  @UponArriving   

Website - https://www.uponarriving.com/

Website - https://www.walletflo.com/

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Seth Saldivar, Loan Officer with Fairway Independent Mortgage, joins me to discuss the current real estate climate, what we can expect over the next year and what he and his team are doing to prepare for the next season of real estate.   

Seth Saldivar 

Instagram - @seth_saldivar

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Jeff Howard serves as co-founder of Vika Living, a company making modern tiny homes that are lightweight and easily transportable. Think glamping, but for Airbnb. He shares his experience in starting this company, what he and his team are doing and how investors can partner with Vika Living to provide memorable experiences for travelers around the world. ⁠

Vika Living

www.vikaliving.com

Jeff Howard

jeff@vikaliving.com

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Tiara Toney, native Texan who has spent the last few years as an educator in Egypt. She has served as a teacher here in the states and oversees. She shares her experiences of working through the education system in Texas and in Egypt. She also shares stories from her adventures of traveling all over the world.⁠  

Tiara Toney 

Instagram - tiaratoney_09

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Janese Williams (Loan Officer) & Waseem Bari (VP & Branch Owner) from Jet Mortgage join me this week to discuss the start of their new company, current real estate climate and life as entrepreneurs.  

Janese Williams 

j.williams@jet-mortgage.com 

Instagram - @janese_lends  

Waseem Bari 

w.bari@jet-mortgage.com 

Instagram - @wazzyb09

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Jimmy Woodard and Bryan Marks are the founders of Cloud Castles, a company helping more people enter the world of real estate investing via short term rentals. Join us as they share how they started the company, how they are helping investors and what they've learned along the way  

Cloud Castles

cloudcastles.io 

Instagram - @cloudcastles.io  

Johnny Woodard 

jimmy@cloudcastles.io  

Bryan Marks 

bryan@cloudcastles.io

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Johnny Tumlinson comes from the world of finance and assists every day families with creating financial legacy for themselves. He why he’s passionate about helping families and how he helps them.   

Johnny Tumlinson 

Instagram – @johnny.tumlinson

Calendly - https://calendly.com/mrjohnnyt/skipthebank?month=2022-07

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Ever wonder what life looks like from the eyes of a teenage millionaire? Ever wonder what happens when they lose it all to a market crash? In the very first episode of Brooks Breakthrough, we get the chance to chat with Richie Cook, and hear his journey through finances, grief and learning to live in the now.

Richie Cook 

Instagram - rags2richie