Warren Buffett once said, “If you have a really wonderful business, it is very well protected against the vicissitudes of the economy over time and the competition.”

I sleep well at night managing hundreds of millions in assets—not because of sleeping pills, hope that interest rates will fall, or because things are working out today. I sleep well because every investment I’ve made has one thing in common—assurance of outcome. When you have it, you know your assets will perform well, you know they’ll be profitable, and you know you’ll get your money back.

But most investors are following another strategy—save, hope, and pray markets cooperate. It's fragile, stressful, and entirely dependent on timing.

Today, we’re talking about the sixth step in the Sunrise C.A.P.I.T.A.L. Strategy—assurance of outcome. More specifically, how to ensure any investment you make will safely profit, grow in value, and generate durable cash flow that will support your family for generations. It’s how we’ve done hundreds of millions in full-cycle deals, with zero principal loss, and 30+ consecutive quarters of distributions. 

You’ll learn the four Sage Principles we’ve taken at Sunrise Capital Investors to produce safe, calculable, consistent cash flow, take our chips off the table and “play with house money,” and know, without a shred of doubt, that our assets will perform.

Sage Wisdom from Today’s Episode: 

• How we invest to make an infinite return on almost every deal we do 

• Diversifying is killing your returns: why you must stick to one lane and learn it well

• “Boring” businesses that have made some of the wealthiest investors in history 

• The one thing that preserves your wealth over generations (no matter what happens) 

• Risk vs. uncertainty: you’re planning for entirely the wrong thing when investing 

—

The Sage Investor - #2 - The Buffett-Inspired Approach to Building Enduring Wealth (C.A.P.I.T.A.L. Strategy) 

Recommended Resources:

• Learn more from Brian and listen to past episodes of The Sage Investor 

• Connect with Brian on LinkedIn

Are you a high net worth investor with capital to deploy in the next 12 months?Build passive income and wealth by investing in real estate projects alongside Brian and his team!

This is costing you millions of dollars—and you don’t even know about it.
That’s not a theory or a scare tactic. I’m going to show you today how one simple thing is quite literally costing you seven figures in wealth and adding decades to your timeline for reaching financial freedom. 

The bright side? It’s easily avoidable, and at Sunrise Capital Investors, we’ve proven this wealth killer can be slain with the right strategy.

If you make a high income and are paying hundreds of thousands in taxes, this single episode could change your life. We’re talking about the fifth step in the Sunrise C.A.P.I.T.A.L. Strategy—tax efficiency, more specifically, how you can keep millions more dollars in your pocket and have significantly higher (and more durable) returns.

If you’re investing in fix and flip syndications (or performing them yourself), I’ll bet I can prove to you that it’s costing you more than it’s worth, and how the 1031 exchange trap (so often pushed by real estate investing gurus) is slowly killing your returns. 

I’ll even lay out the three steps Sunrise Capital Investors takes to achieve remarkably tax-efficient returns and give our investors six-figure (pushing seven-figure) “phantom” write-offs. 

Sage Wisdom from Today’s Episode: 

• How to create hundreds of thousands in paper losses to (legally) avoid taxes 

• The four “friction” costs that prove that “fix and flip” is not worth it 

• How tax drag is costing you millions of dollars over your career 

• The 1031 exchange “trap” that “savvy” investors are falling into 

• Why selling a mobile home park for millions in profit was the worst decision I’ve made 

• Three real steps you can use right now to create huge write-offs, tax-advantaged cash flow, and tax-free cash in your bank 

—

The Sage Investor - #2 - The Buffett-Inspired Approach to Building Enduring Wealth (C.A.P.I.T.A.L. Strategy) 

Recommended Resources:

• Learn more from Brian and listen to past episodes of The Sage Investor 

• Connect with Brian on LinkedIn

Are you a high net worth investor with capital to deploy in the next 12 months?Build passive income and wealth by investing in real estate projects alongside Brian and his team!

“Our favorite holding period is forever.” Most investors say they agree. Almost none invest like it.

Buffett wasn’t mistaken when setting forth this guiding principle—and it has made him billions in profits as a result.

For Buffett, Munger, and a long line of sage investors, buying at a low price and hoping for a high price is not investing—it’s speculation. But, in today’s economy, it seems that 99% of “investors” are only concerned about the short-term payoff of their principal, not the long-term compounding that made investors like Buffett and Munger some of the wealthiest in the world.

Now ask yourself: Are you investing, or are you speculating, merely hoping that your assets increase in value?

This is the fourth step in our Sunrise C.A.P.I.T.A.L. strategy—invest, don’t speculate. And there’s one factor that turns a speculative guess into an actual investment. I’ll prove it by showing you a real-world example of how we put speculation aside to generate durable, strong cash flow for our investors. You can do the same if you invest, not speculate. 

Wisdom of wealth from today’s episode:

• The single most dangerous lie that “fix and flip” operators try to peddle 

• You can’t eat IRR: why durably wonderful cash flow is the lifeblood that outlasts all other returns 

• The one factor that turns your risky gamble into an airtight investment 

• A real-world example of how “buying time” made our investment a cash-flowing machine 

• The one thing that crushes good investments—and the only way to mitigate it 

• Appreciation cannot be trusted—if your wealth relies on it, you won’t be safe

—

The Sage Investor - #2 - The Buffett-Inspired Approach to Building Enduring Wealth (C.A.P.I.T.A.L. Strategy) 

Recommended Resources:

• Learn more from Brian and listen to past episodes of The Sage Investor 

• Connect with Brian on LinkedIn

Are you a high net worth investor with capital to deploy in the next 12 months?Build passive income and wealth by investing in real estate projects alongside Brian and his team!

“It’s insane to risk what you have and need for something you don’t really need.” 

Most investors make one massive mistake: they think success can beat out survival. When a deal is going great, you look like a genius, a hero, a person who has “won.” Then, liquidity dries up, cash flow disappears, you’re searching for a buyer, hoping to limit your loss as the value of your investment sinks lower and lower. 

You forgot to protect the downside—the third step in the Sunrise C.A.P.I.T.A.L. strategy. 

But, there’s a way to profit, even when everything (and I mean everything) goes wrong. It won’t make you look like the smartest person in the room, but during the next black swan event, you’ll be the only one left standing. And that is where the real wealth is made.

Today, I’m showing you what I really mean—sharing real-life case studies and steps to protect the downside on your investments, so you’re never out of the game. Anyone, no matter the size of their portfolio, can implement these steps, and I’ll prove how they’ll protect your capital even when the walls start to close in on you. 

Wisdom of wealth from today’s episode:

• How to lose over $4,000,000,000 (that’s four billion) in just four months—a lesson you can’t repeat 

• The most dangerous tool a real estate investor has, and how it can kill your business if used incorrectly 

• One of the most successful real estate investors of all time says this is the “oxygen” for your investment to survive 

• How to buy with a “margin of safety” on every new property you acquire 

• Profiting when everything goes wrong (real example of one of the worst deals we’ve done) 

—

The Sage Investor - #2 - The Buffett-Inspired Approach to Building Enduring Wealth (C.A.P.I.T.A.L. Strategy) 

Recommended Resources:

• Learn more from Brian and listen to past episodes of The Sage Investor 

• Connect with Brian on LinkedIn

Are you a high net worth investor with capital to deploy in the next 12 months?Build passive income and wealth by investing in real estate projects alongside Brian and his team!

Most investors have it completely wrong. 

Their portfolios run on theory, hope, and speculation—an educated gamble (at best) that they pray will pay off. 

What if there was a way to ensure your hard-earned capital was put to good use, grew stably, and had such a definitive upside that it’s almost impossible to lose? There’s only one way to do it, and every investor can: Add value. 

We’ve done it—and continue to do it—on almost every asset we own, creating nearly unbelievable returns and increasing property values by many multiples by doing what most won’t—prioritizing the value we put in, not the value we take out.

In this episode, I’m walking through the second pillar of the Sunrise C.A.P.I.T.A.L. strategy, sharing real-world examples of how we created tens of millions in value from simple, tiny, incremental changes. Don’t take my word for it. Buffett’s examples are showcased, too—the billion-dollar “boring” businesses everyone missed, but did one thing right—always added value.

If you can learn to truly add value, you can control your destiny and build a legacy in any market.

Wisdom of wealth from today’s episode:

• Our three-lever value-add method that has created tens of millions 

• Warren Buffett’s $40B bet on a business most thought was dying, but just had one of its most profitable years yet

• The tiny changes you can make today that will produce massive results for your wealth 

• Stop speculating, start participating: the market can’t carry you to worry-free wealth 

• Trading “pain today” for “gain tomorrow” and the fatal mistake that can destroy decades of growth

—

The Sage Investor - #2 - The Buffett-Inspired Approach to Building Enduring Wealth (C.A.P.I.T.A.L. Strategy) 

Good to Great

Scaling Up

How to Make a Few Billion Dollars

Recommended Resources:

• Learn more from Brian and listen to past episodes of The Sage Investor 

• Connect with Brian on LinkedIn

Are you a high net worth investor with capital to deploy in the next 12 months?Build passive income and wealth by investing in real estate projects alongside Brian and his team!

If you don’t solve the cash flow “riddle,” you will forever be riddled with anxiety. 

Most multimillionaires think they’ve “made it” because of their high incomes, large nest egg, or vast investment portfolio. But during every downturn, they’re sweating—the anxiety is taking over, and everything seems so fragile that a single recession could destroy decades of hard work. They haven’t solved the cash flow riddle that is the only path to durable financial freedom.

Investors have been getting it wrong for centuries, looking at “earnings” or “income” as a sign that a business, or their personal balance sheet, is doing well. Yet, time after time, corporate megaliths fall, billionaires become penniless, and aggressive investors lose everything. In short, they never had durable cash flow—the first step in the C.A.P.I.T.A.L. strategy (https://brianspear.com/how-we-built-a-9-figure-business/). 

In this episode, I’m breaking down how we have solved the cash flow riddle, so you can reach unshakable financial freedom, too. I’ll give real-world examples of investments we’ve made with tremendous upside on foundations that even hurricanes couldn’t shake, why Buffett, Munger, and Singleton value cash flow far over earnings, and what you can do to solve the riddle and finally reach financial peace. 

Wisdom of wealth from today’s episode:

• The cash flow “riddle”: If you can solve it, you’re free for life 

• A true, real-world example of how to make durable, unrelenting cash flow 

• Why free cash flow must come before everything else in investing

• EBITDA and earnings: Why valuing them often leads to massive financial downfalls

• Why many NOI-focused syndicators went belly up while cash-flow-first Sunrise Capital (https://sunrisecapitalinvestors.com/register-for-the-deal-room/) never paused distributions 

• The greatest weapon for wealth that will propel your legacy during downturns  

00:00 Intro

01:17 The Most Powerful Force for Wealth

03:32 Don't Trust "Earnings"

06:01 Most Investors Are Completely Wrong

09:51 The Cash Flow “Riddle”

14:13 Your Greatest Weapon

17:33 Real Life Example

24:52 This Kills Investors

26:38 Cash Flow ALWAYS Comes First

—

Hear the Full Episode on the C.A.P.I.T.A.L. Strategy (https://brianspear.com/how-we-built-a-9-figure-business/)

Hear Kevin Bupp’s Real Estate Investing for Cash Flow Podcast (https://kevinbupp.com/podcast/)

The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success (https://www.amazon.com/Outsiders-Unconventional-Radically-Rational-Blueprint/dp/1422162672)

Recommended Resources:

• Learn more from Brian (https://brianspear.com/) and listen to past episodes of The Sage Investor 

• Connect with Brian (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian--spear) on LinkedIn

• Are you a high net worth investor with capital to deploy in the next 12 months? Build passive income and wealth (https://sunrisecapitalinvestors.com/register-for-the-deal-room/) by investing in real estate projects alongside Brian and his team! 

This is the framework for generational wealth—wealth that lasts hundreds of years, grows progressively, is prudently protected, and makes your legacy last over lifetimes. 

Over the past few years, we’ve seen millionaires lose what they had worked decades to build and watched as capital calls forced investors to hand over tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars they relied on. Now, more than ever, high-net worth individuals are realizing the truth—one bad deal can undo years of disciplined progress.

Your wealth feels fragile, but it doesn’t have to. In this episode, I’m unveiling the capital strategy that built us a nine-figure business, has allowed us to achieve over 30 quarters of on-time distributions, and has enabled us to generate millions of dollars in wealth individually for our investors. We’ve combined centuries-old knowledge from the wealthiest families, like the Rockefellers, with the Warren Buffett investment strategy to create a framework that will preserve and grow your wealth for lifetimes.

Once you know the C.A.P.I.T.A.L. strategy, you’ll see a clear path toward generational wealth.

Wisdom of wealth from today’s episode:

• The Sunrise C.A.P.I.T.A.L. strategy that built us a nine-figure business 

• Why your wealth feels so fragile—and the key to making it durable 

• The one overlooked asset class Warren Buffett and Sam Zell bet big on 

• How to build a lasting legacy within a single generation (just like Buffett) 

• What every investor must do before taking a calculated risk 

• Why your “long-term investment” isn’t as safe as you think

• Three ways we “add value” to any investment we buy

00:00 Intro

04:42 Your Wealth Is Fragile

07:26 Centuries-Tested Wealth Wisdom

10:08 The Sunrise CAPITAL Strategy

10:56 C. Cash Flow First

16:25 A. Add Value

20:07 P. Protect the Downside

23:06 I. Invest, Don’t Speculate

26:38 T. Tax-Efficient Structure

—

Learn More About the Sunrise C.A.P.I.T.A.L. Strategy

Recommended Resources:

• Connect with Brian on LinkedIn

Are you a high net worth investor with capital to deploy in the next 12 months?Build passive income and wealth by investing in real estate projects alongside Brian and his team!

You make good money. You’ve invested, saved, and spent wisely. Everyone looks at you and thinks, “they’ve made it.” And yet, something still feels missing. 

Welcome to The Sage Investor with Brian Spear. Over the last decade, I’ve studied what makes and breaks America’s wealthiest families, building a framework anyone can use to preserve their legacy with purpose. 

But why listen to me?

I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon; instead, I was raised in a trailer park. Through years of disciplined work, continuous learning, and an uncompromising standard, I now manage hundreds of millions in well-stewarded capital. 

My goal is simple: pair your wealth with time-tested wisdom, so future generations don’t just survive on your labor—they thrive. That’s how living legacies are built, and fragile income is replaced with lasting wealth.

Are you ready to become a Sage Investor?

Wisdom of wealth from today’s episode:

• What a billionaire said to me at his private estate that changed my worldview forever 

• How I went from being raised in a trailer park to managing nine figures in real estate 

• Why you don’t feel truly wealthy, even with a high income or a high net worth 

• The framework America’s wealthiest families use to preserve wealth with purpose 

• The golden goose vs. the nest egg (and which will raise or ruin your legacy)

• Why life is much, much more than your net worth 

—

Recommended Resources:

• Connect with Brian on LinkedIn

Are you a high net worth investor with capital to deploy in the next 12 months?Build passive income and wealth by investing in real estate projects alongside Brian and his team!

At ten years old, my mother and I moved into a mobile home. More than twenty years later, my partners and I have operated and owned over a dozen mobile home parks with many hundreds of lots, and thousands of residents living in them. The jump isn’t lost on me—and one timeless principle guided every step of that journey.

There’s a Sage Investor in all of us. One that works to build not only unshakable wealth, but wisdom paired with it. The investor whose children learn that growth requires sacrifice, that giving back gets you ahead, and that the fruits of frugality compound for generations.

My goal is to help you become a Sage Investor—so your wealth and wisdom create a life more durable and meaningful than you ever thought possible.

In this episode of The Sage Investor, I’m talking to friend and partner Kevin Bupp about the early stages of Sunrise Capital, the fateful phone call that changed our lives forever, and the lessons in investing that shifted my worldview and fed the Sage Investor inside.

Wisdom of wealth from today’s episode:

• Burn the boats - commit so completely that failure isn’t an option

• Leapfrog your wisdom - compound your growth by standing on others’ experience

• Fail fast - don’t win or lose, win and learn instead, and make your mistakes your lessons 

• Compound interest - the irrefutable evidence of becoming a millionaire 

• Delay gratification - live like others won’t, so you can do what others can’t

• Pass down wisdom - inheritance rarely survives multiple generations, but wisdom fortifies your wealth 

00:00 Intro 

00:59 A Fortuitous Meeting

09:24 Use Others’ Experience

11:29 Burning the Boats Moment

17:44 Rough Childhood, Rising to the Top  

23:47 Living Off Nothing for a Decade 

29:49 Step Up to the Plate  

36:43 Pass Down Wisdom, Not Just Wealth

44:20 Help Everyone Along the Way 

50:50 Advice to My 22-Year-Old Self

—

Think and Grow Rich

Recommended Resources:

• Connect with Brian on LinkedIn

• Are you a high net worth investor with capital to deploy in the next 12 months? Build passive income and wealth by investing in real estate projects alongside Brian and his team! 

You’ve worked hard, invested wisely, and built real momentum. But if you're like many high-net-worth investors… you still feel exposed. Maybe it’s rising tax burdens. Or fragile cash flow. Or the growing sense that today’s markets run more on emotion than fundamentals. Over 10 years and thousands of conversations with investors, Brian Spear discovered something surprising: most aren’t chasing the highest return. They’re chasing clarity. Control. And peace of mind. The Sage Investor is a podcast for wealth builders who want to think deeper, move smarter, and invest with intention. Hosted by Brian—private equity executive and co-founder of Sunrise Capital Investors—this show translates decades of real-world experience into actionable frameworks for lasting wealth. At the heart of this show is our blueprint, the Sunrise C.A.P.I.T.A.L. Strategy:
💵 Cash Flow First
🧩 Add Value
🛡️ Protect the Downside
🧠 Invest, Don’t Speculate
🏛️ Tax Efficiency
✅ Assurance of Outcome
🕊️ Legacy
Tired of market noise, tax surprises, or sleepless nights wondering if your wealth is truly safe?

This show is for you if you're ready to:
❌ Stop guessing and start investing with a durable strategy
❌ Break free from the anxiety of unpredictable returns
❌ Escape the tax traps that quietly erode your net worth
❌ Avoid speculation and wealth fragility masked as opportunity

And instead…
✅ Build a portfolio that cash flows in any market
✅ Invest with clarity, not confusion
✅ Protect your downside—and your peace of mind
✅ Leave a legacy built on principles, not hype

Whether you're a seasoned operator or rising Limited Partner, you'll get a front-row seat to the thought process, tools, and mental models behind real people building real wealth—in the real world.

The Sage Investor is rooted in the lessons of the timeless thinkers: Buffett. Munger. Rockefeller. Zell.
This is a calm, clear counterpoint to the hype-driven investing landscape.

Because as Warren Buffett reminds us: “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”

Tune in. Slow down. Think deeper.

Become a Sage Investor.