Season 2 – Episode 11. Released on April 21, 2015.
Waking Up Debt Free (with Brittain Kovac)
INTRO
Today on Waking Up In America I’m talking to Brittain Kovac a brand enthusiast, entrepreneur, world traveler and a beautiful soul who took Dave Ramsey’s challenge and became debt-free at the age of 29 so that she could focus on living her dream of building homes in Jamaica.
BUMPER
I am Tajci.
At 19 I was a superstar and I was lost inside. I left it all behind, switched continents and started all over. Years later I found myself lost again. This time in the American dream.
This is a story about awakening. About living the life you were created for. About going inward and discovering the joyous and purposeful person you and I are both meant to be.
This is “Waking Up In America.”
TAJCI
Here she is: the world traveler Britain on Waking Up In America! Thank you so much!
BRITTAIN
Thank you Tajci.
TAJCI
So, you traveled the world and now you are waking up in America. I love it!
BRITTAIN
Feels great, right?
TAJCI
We met you at your house, at your parents’ house in Kansas City, right?
BRITTAIN
Yes, on Missouri side
TAJCI
On Missouri side while we’re doing concerts… what else? And your parents live on a farm your dad is a Veterinarian, who’s got… I’ve never seen this, it’s like a… what would you call it?
BRITTAIN
We call it a mobile unit or a RV and converted into an animal clinic.
TAJCI
Into an animal hospital. How beautiful! I just love you mom. She handles horses and people
BRITTAIN
She does
TAJCI
With the same care and love.
BRITTAIN
She does and, depending on the day she is just she loves being with her horses… and they are her delight every morning and every evening.
She works with some children at a counseling and therapeutic Riding Center so she uses horses to, counsel children who have maybe like a life-altering illnesses, which is really huge.
TAJCI
Wow just beautiful! So when I first met you you were doing a big job I thing it was with Google Fiber
BRITTAIN
Yeah with Google Fiber in Kansas City.
TAJCI
So you were a brand manager and is that your passion?
BRITTAIN
I love experiential marketing so yeah it is one of my passions in being the brand ambassador of brands that I believe in and we go out to events, concerts, sporting venues and update people on the newest products, the newest automobiles, whatever the case may be and that’s been really great!
TAJCI
That’s wonderful. And you’ve been your parents… your dad always tells and oh, this is the most important thing you have Croatian blood, right?
BRITTAIN
I’m Croatian!
TAJCI
Kovač! Of course!
BRITTAIN
Am I your first Croatian on this show?
TAJCI
No, I already had some.
BRITTAIN
First one this year!
TAJCI
First one from Kansas. Yes first one this year.
So you always had this entrepreneurial sense and also serving. You started going on mission trips when you were very young.
BRITTAIN
Yes, I was 13 or 14. It was 1999 the first time I went on a mission trip with my church to the heart of Jamaica and it literally changed my life and the direction that I had planned for my future.
TAJCI
So you know, I hear a lot of young people and you’re so young… and I always wanna know waking up and having this shift in life is not just for after you’ve been through ups and downs and are in your fifties and then you’re awaken…. No, I mean you can you can really get stirred at such young age.
Would you say that was your first stirring?
BRITTAIN
That was the start of it. But I didn’t know it at that time. I didn’t know it in 1999. It was a few years later… I went back every year sometimes every other year and every year the people just tugged at my heart. Every year you know we would see the same people and grow up with the kids that were our age and the first time I was there we didn’t know if we’d ever see each other again so it was a very, very, very emotional departure.
But once we knew that we would be seeing each other we built friendship and we would see each other every year.
It was probably the mid 2000s when I knew that that missions and the Jamaicans would have kind of a place in my future, but I didn’t know quite then what that was going to be.
TAJCI
Because here you are, a girl growing up from a very nice family, a girl… you have a your career, your goal, you’re passionate and then you see… you come in touch with people who have a lot less than you.
BRITTAIN
We… couple of things I remember, the first time we went… and it’s a little different now, it’s still a very underdeveloped country but things are better than they were fifteen years ago.
But I remember when we first went there was no electricity in the homes, and there was no running water and they shared a community well, and they lived in a house that was the size of this room and that might be anywhere 2 to 6 people living in it. There might be a grandma and five grandkids, and the parents might not be there and so there is just so much to stop.
It just really touched me and then to come back home to everything we have here and to see the disconnect…
TAJCI
How did that you make you feel?
BRITTAIN
Like I wanted to do more.
TAJCI
You wanted to do more. So how did it affect what you decided to do later?
I guess what I’m trying to get to is you know… so, most recently you’ve… Actually I was at your house. We arrived to Kansas and your Dad said: Okay, I’ll see ya! I’m going on a trip with my daughter. She’s taking me to Nashville!
BRITTAIN
He didn’t even know we were coming to Nashville
TAJCI
That’s right!
BRITTAIN
He was surprised
TAJCI
He said, he said that you’re going someplace and… but he did say I think he did say that he was maybe going to a concert and
BRITTAIN
He thought that we were a big country star here in Nashville! I brought my dad here to Nashville and we went to the Dave Ramsey Show.
TAJCI
Dave Ramsey. Give us a little bit of background.
BRITTAIN
Yea, Dave Ramsey is a he is talk show, radio talk show host here in the US, and he is a life and money coaching.
TAJCI
Life and money coaching
BRITTAIN
And he is funny and he does not mess around, he tells it how it is, so
But he’s really… You know I was the teenager that my dad would turn on the AM radio I would be like, oh what are we listening to again, and then after so many years of listening to Dave as a teenager I got into it the teachings and the lessons.
I remember my eighteen birthday I went to the Best Buy and I got a credit card. That was my birthday present to myself. And so that was the start of the downhill… of major debts.
TAJCI
I gotta tell you a quick story. When Dante, my teenager now, was about three or four years old he saw this commercial for these shoes that they claimed if you jumped in them they would like, you would shoot six, six feet into the in the air. And so he
said: let buy these, I want to jump six feet…’cause he always wanted to fly and we went, and I bought the shoes and he was
so excited he ran out in the parking lot jumped and nothing happened. He said: they don’t work. and I said well… he said: But they said it would work! And I said: it’s just marketing… It’s kinda like if you believe and they’ll give you strength and then you’ll jump
I was trying to, like make it up, and he said: but they lied. And he started crying and said: why would anybody lie? But you know all this is to say that we do things, and we see how other people live, and we want to follow we want to be a part of this experience that looks great on the outside.
And so here you are spending your money and racking up the debt, which happens to a lot of people because like, in the search of that life, to fit with your friends.
BRITTAIN
Yeah, if you don’t… if you’re not a part of that you’re not a part of the circle, or the club, it’s what our culture tells us.
TAJCI
There you go. And so what got you out?
BRITTAIN
You know I think what it was in 2009 and I was in Jamaica on a mission, I was kind of getting to that age where I was thinking about my future and something in me changed and I said you know I’m gonna own a house in Jamaica. I’m gonna give myself twenty years to own a house. I figured that was enough time to figure out my life and save money for the house in Jamaica. And it was 2009 and I had already by that time just not not much before that started saving money and putting it towards my debt.
But that became a reason. That became my… I call it my ‘why’. That became the real big picture reason.
I had a goal to work towards. I had something, like, had a greater purpose to work for.
TAJCI
And why Jamaica?
BRITTAIN
The people. The people just…
From 1999 for when I first met them, they just tugged at my heart. And it was my home away from home. So, that’s what it was initially, because I had a purpose, a reason…
TAJCI
That was bigger than you, bigger than your yeah! It’s wonderful! ‘Cause the shift… when we allow ourselves to step away from our reality and connect with other people and we will allow that beautiful grace that comes and awakens us… So you set your goal…
BRITTAIN
Right! So I set my goal, and a year later I paid off my, since this was 2010, I paid off my college debt, my student loans and some money that I had owed my dad, I paid everything off I was completely debt free, and it was 2010 so, bringing us back to the story about when I brought my Dad to Nashville in 2013, December it was actually to tell him that I had paid off my home.
So I had paid off my school in 2010 and in 2011 three months later I bought a home, and then about 30- 33 months later, I think, I paid off my home. So I was surprising my dad because it was so important to him. My dad’s dad went through bankruptcy when my dad and his siblings were kids and so that had a really that big impact on their life.
So it was a special moment for us.
TAJCI
I know! He was so… It was beautiful! I watched it. He was so
emotional and just to… it’s a gift to know that here you are, and Dave Ramsey said so well
He says what a legacy now that you’re you are continuing from your dad, that you didn’t allow yourself to go until something really bad happened.
BRITTAIN
I learned along the process you know something else that Dave says is that we are a stewart, and it’s not our money but it’s God’s money and we’re called to be stewards and one of the lessons is that when we’re responsible with God’s gifts that he will reward us, and so I became responsible and I learned from my mistakes.
TAJCI
And you say it was hard. It wasn’t easy right? Sacrifices?
BRITTAIN
Tons of sacrifices. Lots of… no movies. little things, again, just like the little things added up
It was like the little things I had to say no to. So a ten dollar movie I had to say no to. Ten dollars is not a lot but ten dollars times a hundred…
TAJCI
Right! Cause you can think, oh what’s a ten dollars, what’s a Starbucks coffee…
So you know all of this is only possible if we are willing to I guess sacrifice those little pleasures those short term rewards for a long-term goal and that’s exactly what you did.
Step out of yourself and see the big picture for your life.
BRITTAIN
I’d always… from the mid 2000s I’ve seen this as kind of my future and then when I paid off between 2011 when bought my home and the next couple years I was getting to that point in my career where I wanted to build something that would leave a legacy, that would be bigger than myself, that would serve.
Going back to entrepreneurial spirit as well… what can I do to bring… how can use my passions and my talents as my offering back. And so… and that’s how I’m able to now be working towards living that life that I was created to live.
TAJCI
Yes! So, also you know at the same time… do you, have you experienced that when we awaken, and we start giving back and we step out of our little you know those short term little pleasures and goals and see the bigger picture and how our lives are meant to serve really, that then more comes to you right?
BRITTAIN
Absolutely!
I often remind myself if I’m in a struggling time… something I say a lot to myself is just to let go and let God.
‘Cause if you just…
TAJCI
It’s easier said than done.
BRITTAIN
It is, but once, personally, once I started doing that, maybe 3 months, 6 months into really believing and living that, then I saw, like I could feel the strength, then I could… the reward but not the rewards, but But you know I could see how I stress… I’m not stressed when I just know that
God’s in control. I might want to take this path but I know his path is…
TAJCI
It’s good to step away and… but see we can not… again, I always say this: only when we’re awakened to that knowledge, to that to that connection to that… and really we have to… for me, the only way I can do is if I step outside of all of this noise and in silence and stillness look inward and make that change within to… and you said it… You said there was a one point when you made a choice to start saving money so that you are able to live the life… And then you went across the world around the world!
BRITTAIN
I traveled the world. That was my celebration for myself, and you know you just mentioned about just stepping back a little bit that was my time to just step away from technology and just do something and experience the cultures, and the people, the places that I was going now.
That was so important for me because I had gotten so wrapped up in my work at one point that I needed to step back and I needed to just see where my life was taking me.
TAJCI
And then in Australia you get the whole kangaroo experience..
BRITTAIN
Yes I… not just seeing them… I ate them.
TAJCI
It’s a little much. I don’t know that I would do it…
BRITTAIN
Yeah, it’s culture!
TAJCI
I guess.. Yea, so you really immersed yourself.
BRITTAIN
Yes
TAJCI
Okay, now… I love just love your “hostel with purpose”
BRITTAIN
Yes, where sleep has a purpose.
TAJCI
Because otherwise I’m always trying to wake up people like don’t sleep, but here… you can sleep with purpose
BRITTAIN
Oh, I didn’t even think about that!
TAJCI
Feel good about being asleep.
BRITTAIN
I love sleeping.
TAJCI
It’s so good… So now I have a purpose. Well you know… but we all, and thanks for bringing that up, it’s like one thing that goes when you get busy when your passion takes you, you don’t want to sleep. A lot of people say: I’ll sleep when I’m… you know, when I die, whatever, No… sleep is so.. and there is a lot of symbolism in that too: sleep is so healing and recovering and important and now you’re even giving it a purpose tell us about it.
BRITTAIN
Talking about how I can, with entrepreneurial spirit, how can I take my passions and my talents and create something to offer back and so what that looks like is opening a hostel in Kansas City for the future, down the road to have hostels in Jamaica, for mission teams, but I wanted to start home close, kind of perfect the model you know, go through the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur.
The cool thing about what we’re doing is where sleep a purpose, for every 300 beds that are booked we are able to build a home in Jamaica for a family in need.
TAJCI
That’s beautiful! What a great idea! That’s awesome! I wish to see… I wish you to have as many as you can handle all over the world.
That would be just wonderful! Because like you said, something special happens when you travel and specially when you travel, you meet other people that are traveling. My husband Matthew always says those who travel they’re seekers, and when you are seeker in life you have a lot better opportunity to awaken and to get out of, like what we were talking, out of your little perspective and see the bigger picture.
BRITTAIN
Absolutely!
TAJCI
So when I watched your, I think it was the the trip from Morocco, at one point you say: I’m free because I’m out of debt, and of course that the theme of course
I mean there’s no better feeling of freedom then being out of debt, you know. You don’t owe anything to anyone right?
BRITTAIN
You don’t have those 20 pound chains holding you down.
TAJCI
20 thousand pound more! You know that’s how I felt when we were
shooting the music video “Breathe!” actually around your house and your dad was most amazing in his big car I was just…
BRITTAIN
And his cowboy hat…
TAJCI
His cowboy hat! And I was just sitting on the back of his Cadillac and… that’s the kind of freedom I felt I can breathe. And in that song I say: ‘we’ve been lied to, we’ve been wronged’ but really I say know all I want is to stand tall and breathe, because I think through breath is when I’m able to be aware of the grace and the life that flows through me that God created us for.
BRITTAIN
Absolutely!
TAJCI
Thank you so much!
BRITTAIN
Thank you! Oh my gosh it’s great to be here in your home
TAJCI
All the best
BRITTAIN
I appreciate it so much!
TAJCI
And we’ll see you again somewhere in the world! Maybe Croatia!
BRITTAIN
I hope so! We should make that happen!
TAJCI
Yea!
TAJCI
We’ve been waiting for too long
We’ve been lied to, we’ve been wronged
We’ve got nothing but
bags of fool’s gold.
I’m done playing for the prize,
I’m cutting off all ropes and ties,
letting go, free my soul…
I’m standing tall clearing voices in my head
Where are clouds that will bring the rain
I wanna clear, clear mind and a
clear, clear heart, so I can
breathe, breathe air
unafraid and unrestrained
propelled by love and
enlightened by grace
so I can breathe, breathe air again.
And I don’t really care if you don’t like my song
Just because you’re right it doesn’t make me wrong.
And it’s ok if you don’t like my style
It might be me still doesn’t make us who we are
I wanna clear, clear mind and a
clear, clear heart, so I can
breathe, breathe air
unafraid and unrestrained
propelled by love and
enlightened by grace
so I can breathe, breathe air again.
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