We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stephen Davis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stephen below.

Stephen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

As I grew up in a poor/middle class family where everything was scarce. Especially money. I watch my parents suffer with massive fears and insecurities about money. I will never forget the look on my parents faces when they had to tell me that they could not afford something that I was asking for. It was so painful, I stopped asking. I experienced the same fear and insecurities as I moved out on my own. After struggling for about 9 years, I received a pay cut after winning a national sales contest. They cut my pay by $20,000 a year after sending me to Hawaii for a week. This woke me up to the stupidity of relying on a job as your sole source of income. I began investing in real estate and quit my job two months later. Now my mission is to help stop the fears and insecurities that plague the average American. I teach people how to do what I did. Build a second stream of income with real estate. This allows people to live more balanced and joyful lives.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

After receiving my paycut at my job, I fully committed to never being at the mercy of corporate America again. Starting with bad credit and no money, I started wholesaling real estate, then moved to flipping and single-family rental. I eventually moved out of single-family and into apartments. I ended up invested in over 4000 apartment units. I now teach people how to do the same thing. The goal is to build a second stream of income outside of your job, that meets and exceeds all of you needs and wants. This gives you more time for fitness, travel, romance and all the other parts of a balanced life and you can even quit your job at any age when you do this. At Total Wealth Academy, the mentors and consultants take people by the hand, step-by-step, through the investing process. Real estate investing is very hard if you don’t know what you are doing. We educate people so that they do.
Our members purchased over 20,000 apartment units last year along with self-storage, senior living, hotels, and more.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn my entire life story and “map” to success. After reading “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Dr. Stephen Covey, I realized that everything that I was taught in high school and college about success was wrong. I was given the wrong map to success. I was told to work hard in high school and get into college. Graduate college and get a high paying job with good benefits. Work and save for 45 years and retire on my savings. This is completely ineffective. 95% of Americans cannot retire by age 65. About 30% are dead by then. The golden years are a golden lie.

The reason we are getting the wrong map is because the people who are giving us the map are not qualified to give it. Where your parents, high school teachers, or college professors multimillionaire, entrepreneurs? No. There advice is therefore unqualified. They are not mean or malicious. They want to tell you the right things to do but they just can’t. They have never done it.

I had to let go over everything I was ever taught, and start finding a new map to success. It was easy. I started studying the 5% that do succeed financially. There are literally thousands of books by multimillionaire, entrepreneurs explaining it. I took their advice and it has made all the difference in the world. We teach this at Total Wealth Academy.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

My near death moment came just 2 months into my new business. I am in the education and seminar business. Covid hit, and the government shut down the seminar businesses across the country. A few days later, I was hit with a potential $3 million lawsuit. My attorneys said give up. Stop, and go out of business. This was gut wrenching. My life’s dream was this company. I had invested almost everything I had in it. I thought is might be over. However, I knew what to do. Push forward. Not give up. Thanks to studying Anthony “Tony” Robbins and Arnold Schwartzeneger, I knew giving up on my dream was a cope out. I told my attorneys to tell the opposing counsel that we would fight and we did. Now that that is all past me, I am a stronger person and the company is stronger as well. I will never give up on my life’s mission.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.totalwealthacademy.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TotalWealthAcademy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/total-wealth-academy/