Draft:Brady Johns

Brady Johns is an American author, investor, adventure traveler, U.S. Air Force veteran, and philanthropist. He is a real estate investor who, at one point, owned more than 30 residential and commercial properties across Texas. He has also worked as a global tech executive whose resume includes tenure with Google, Sun Microsystems, and Dell.

Johns is the author of Flip-Flops and Fortunes: Buy Your Life Back Through Real Estate Investing and Passive Income Strategies, a Wall Street Journal bestselling book. , published by BenBella in 2022. He is an avid philanthropist who supports causes ranging from the arts to the natural environment, and has donated more than $125,000 in proceeds from the sales of Flip-Flops and Fortunes to purchase jungle habitat for orangutans in Borneo. In 2022 Johns appeared on the Team Building Podcast.

In 2023, Johns chose to pivot away from rental properties and reinvested in commercial holdings and mineral rights. In 2024, he began assembling true crime stories from his home region of north Texas and began work on his first novel. He is a distant cousin of American television and film actor John Cason.

Early life and education

Johns was born in Sherman, Texas, on October 18, 1966, and grew up under the care of his mother, Peggy Case Johns. Peggy was a single mom who worked as a teacher at Gainesville Independent School District School in north Texas for 30 years, and raised her son to be budget-conscious and goal-oriented.

Johns graduated from Gainesville High School in 1985 and joined the US Air Force in 1986 to become a medic. During his time in the military, he earned the Air Force Achievement Medal for Heroism and the National Defense Service Medal for service during the first Persian Gulf Conflict. He also connected with his first mentor, a dentist who taught him the basics of investing, knowledge that would serve him well later in life.

After completing his service, Johns moved to San Marcos, Texas, to study Communications at Southwest Texas State University (since renamed Texas State University). He earned a Bachelor's Degree in communications 1994, but before he’d graduated he began to explore the world of entrepreneurship. That same year, Johns used his VA Housing Assistance benefit and began investing in rental properties in the Austin, Texas, area. He founded Case Land Company

Career

While still in college, Johns shadowed a successful rehabber/residential real estate investor in hopes of learning the skills he needed to build his own real estate empire. He learned quickly, and by age 26 he’d purchased his first rental property and began to renovate it himself while living there. He established the Case Land Company in 1994. Over the decades that followed, he continued to buy, renovate, and rent single-family properties in Austin and San Marcos.

Philanthropy

In addition to donating book sales proceeds to the TREE Foundation, Johns’ work as a philanthropist and advisor includes roles and donations to Mission Green, the Conservation Fund , New Orleans jazz foundation and venue Preservation Hall , and the world-renowned Explorers Club in New York City.

Personal life

Much of his work across both corporate and entrepreneurial ventures was undertaken to fund Johns’s love of adventure and travel. He made an agreement with himself to work for four years at each of his tech jobs, then take an entire year off for travel and learning.

To date, he has visited 74 countries and 5 continents. He’s climbed both Mt. Everest and Mt. Kilimanjaro. He’s visited Angkor Wat in Cambodia, been on safari in Tanzania, and seen the Mona Lisa twelve times. He’s gone swimming with whale sharks in the Maldives Islands, and he has gone cave diving with Navy SEALs in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Johns has been quoted as saying, "Anywhere I have never been is someplace I need to go."

Johns retired from the technology field in 2020 and currently splits his time between his homes in Austin, Texas, and Del Mar, California. His wife, Sherri Manning, continues to work as a technology senior executive and both of their children, Madison and Braxton, are pursuing law degrees.

Awards and honors

Legion of Honor, Issued by DeMolay International

National Defense Service Medal, Issued by United States Air Force

US Air Force Achievement Medal for Heroism