Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - 187. Committed to Success

Episode Date: May 4, 2021

In today's Empire episode, Bedros Keuilian deep dives with Nick Koumalatsos, a 12 year Special Operations Marine Corps veteran with Marine Reconnaissance and Marine Special Operations Command.  Nick is now an entrepreneur, philanthropist, producer, and father of two. He is the author of Ex-Communicated Warrior, 7-Stages of Transition, and co-author of fitness training books: USMC Prep, Recon Prep, and Marine Raider Prep. Along with his wife, Allison, they own Snap Fitness, Ship On-Site, Survival, and Tactical Systems, and Miserable Cows. Nick is also co-owner of Johnny Slicks, an organic grooming essentials company.   Nick shares with us his story of a rebellious young man with two felonies, why failure is only temporary, how infrastructure in your business is key to success, the difference between being involved and committed, and so much more. To say Nick is committed to success is an understatement.  "You show me one successful person, and I'll show you the same man that failed fifteen times to get there." -Nick Koumalatsos Here's what you don't want to miss: 2:35 Being raised by a single mother and getting involved with the wrong crowd 6:00 The self-realization that led Nick to join the Marine Corp and getting denied 10:10 Going against the grain and never taking no for an answer 12:20 The "factory-installed" drive that many entrepreneurs poses and steps to develop this skillset 15:40 Developing the right belief system and taking the action  17:00 Why you should look at failure as a temporary defeat  21:05 The importance of influence and the right people pushing you 23:00 How 9/11 changed a generation and going to war 28:30 Knowing when to be the hammer and when to be the scalpel  30:45 Overcoming negative behavior and being in charge of your success 32:30 Impacting lives and writing for a broader audience 37:37 Running seven businesses and constantly chasing the shiny object 40:05 Finding a passion for production and returning to school after 20 years  43:38 Pushing through the craziness of 2020 and getting raided by law enforcement  46:40 Selling hair products out of a briefcase and the importance of persistence  49:50 The difference between being involved and being committed 53:00 How creating infrastructure builds more opportunity for your business 56:20 Finding the right business partner and creating multiple streams of revenue 1:01:20 Training for the AGOGE and gaining back your warrior mindset 1:04:04 Building a routine that serves you and getting the desired outcome 1:06:07 Offering an online training program and the confidence it takes to raise prices Connect with Nick Koumalatsos

You show me one successful person. I show you the same man that failed 15 times to get there. You have your plenty of failures. You know? I sure do. And those failures stacked for you to get to where you're at today. Then any successful person, I don't care who they are. You tell me, you show me a successful person.

I show you somebody who fell 15 times. Yeah. What's happening, friends? look. And today we're looking inside of a business that's very unique because it's got several different components to it. And the character behind it is a very unique character as well. He's not only a coaching client of mine, but he's also a friend. His name is Nick Cumulatzos. Nick, welcome to the show. Thank you, B. Thank you very much. Happy to be here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks for being here. So we just got down doing your half-day coaching session upstairs. And as I've

gotten to know you now, almost a year of working with you, you're a pretty colorful character. and you come from a pretty colorful background in terms of what you did before being an entrepreneur. And then even before that, you come from a pretty colorful ethnicity, heritage. Right? And so let's kind of do a deep dive into kind of who you are and where you started. And we'll, of course, unpack your business because this is the empire show. And that's where we talk about business and how it's doing and how you got into it. But even before you became an entrepreneur, you at some point decided that you're going to go and join. the Marine Corps. Yeah, so I did 12 years in the Marine Corps. So first off, thank you for your service.

What led you into the Marine Corps? So go back even further. When you said colorful background, I was like, oh man, I didn't even know if you knew that. So I was, by the time I was 13 years old, I had two felonies on my record. Good Lord, man. I did not know that. That is a colorful back. Why didn't we talk about that in your coach? I don't know how that never came up. What did you do, man? So, you know, looking at it now, I'm like, human beings are tribal, we're tribal creatures, right? I didn't grow up with a dad, active in my life. And so I think at that age group, I was really, I hit puberty young, and I was, I had my brother and being raised by my mom working like two jobs trying to hold it down.

I was really looking for a tribe. I was looking for that belonging. Yeah. And unfortunately, for me, there was a group of individuals. that called themselves something and they that was a tribe yeah they thought them was tribe so I got involved with them and then that led to two felonies later which was like burglar burglary of some vehicles and then I was on probation then had a got caught with a weapon on school property which led to another felony and yeah so some

juvial bit of a juvie action and okay and that quickly made me realize that that was not the life that I wanted for myself okay so was that a suffer or was that a kind of a judge or no no no it was a system it was a self realization because one of the i think the third time that i got picked up by the cops i was in the seventh grade six seventh seven yeah i think seventh grade and um and juby was full so they had to in process me in the county jail where all the grown men were and i just i just had another podcast where i talked about this and and uh that was a real sharp eye opening thing that like like this is not what I want for my life at 13 years old.

So you might have had maybe like a little flash forward into if I keep doing this as an adult. I'll be here. I'll be one of them. Yeah, I'm looking at all the grown men in county. And I didn't stay there. You know, they processed me there. But I got to look at what that looked like. Because in the juvia, I'm a hard.

Right. I'm a hard 140, 35 pounds. I'll bless you up, man. Yeah. Over here. It's like, I don't want to get raised. Not all. Yeah, exactly.

I'm good. So anyways, I straighten my life up. and then I get into working really hard. Actually, we just talked about this. I finished the 10th grade and was working a couple of different jobs over the summer, making a stupid amount of money for a 16-year-old. And when it came time to go back to school

for my 11th grade year, I was going to take like a $4,000 pay cut. And I was like, there's no way I can do this. You're like, I'm living in Panama City Beach, I'm living the life. I've got my own car, my own place. And I was like, I got to go back to school and just give up all this.

And it just didn't make sense. So I basically dropped out of school, went and got my GED. At 10th grade, you got your GED? That summer. That's going in. Going until 11th. And so doing that for a little bit,

like working the job, I was working as an audiovisual tech guy for conference centers. So anytime you go speak, you know, that guy that hooks up the microphone, the lights. That was me. Okay.

At like, you know, 15, making $15 an hour. That's substantial. Back in the 90s, right? Yeah. So I was making good money, and that was from 6 in the morning until 2. And then from 2.30 to 10 at night, I was a bellman there at the Bay Point Marriott. So if you guys know, Panemal City Beach, the Bay Point Marriott, very nice place. So I was getting just $100 tips all night long.

You're like a young baller. Yes. Yeah. Don't have anything to show for it. I don't know where any of that money went. Right. Yeah. But, you know, it was incoming, so it was also outgoing.

But nonetheless, I remember looking at my life and hitting a panic moment when I realized that the next 20 years of my life could be this. Wow. This could be it. I'm making money. I have a place. I have a car. This could be my old were you at that point? 16, 17.

So that's a pretty young age to start having self-realization. Yeah. I kind of like panicked because I was like this could be it forever yeah and and I wasn't it was no way I was satisfied that before you know landing and there we grew up my mom moved every six months I made the joke that I think she was running from the law it was like a new school and a new house every six months so I was kind of used to that a little bit it was nice to be stationary for a few years but I did hit that panic moment where I was like holy shit this could be my life life for the next couple decades.

And that's when I hit the nuclear option on my life and decided to join the Marine Corps. What did that nuclear option look like? Oh, I mean. Why the Marine Corps? Why not real estate? Why not? Because of lack of education because of like I didn't know, I knew school was not for me. Yeah.

You know, I was a C, I was a D pushing C student. You know what I mean? Guys, let me, let me just say something. Just like right before the cameras rolled, I'm like, I'm like, bro, I hated school. He's like, yeah, man, me too. And then I'm like, do you remember foil first, inner, outer last? And he's like, I don't even remember that. I'm like, all I remember about foil about algebra was that.

I don't even know what the fuck it means. So I can respect the whole idea of like school wasn't for me thing. But how do you find the Marine Corps? Like, was there someone that encouraged you? So my grandfather was in the Army. He retired Army. He did two times in Vietnam, a tour in Korea, ended up retiring out of the Army. He was a paratrooper.

and so I always kind of knew about the military was an option. When I went and looked at the branches, I was like, what's the hardest freaking thing that I can get into? You know, at the entry level, right? Like, if you're looking at the entry level, what's the hardest thing that I can do? At the time in the 90s, the Marines were like fighting dragons on their commercials with swords and shit. Yeah, I remember that.

Yeah, yeah. So I was like, that's, I'm going to go. I could fight a dragon. I'm going to find a dragon with a sword. That sounds like me. So I ended up going to the Marine Corps because it just looked the hardest. and so that's what I did. So anyways, I walked in there and I said,

I'm going to be a Marine. Yeah, yeah. They're like, sweet, sit down. They ran some numbers and they're like, you can't join the Marine Corps. You're two-time convicted felon. Oh, shoot. With a GED.

They're like, get out of here, kid. And I was like, excuse me? The worst thing they ever could have told me was no. Now that became my mission. And when I mean nuclear, I literally got rid of my place on the beach. I think I got rid of my car and started driving one of my mom's,

like cars or I borrowed a car that I didn't even own yeah gave up those high-paying jobs went went to work part-time at nights at a movie theater went to college because because I could go get my certain amount of credit hours and it would neglect my GED gotcha you know what I'm saying which then would give you the opportunity to go in right when there's a lot of the things I had to get waivers for my felonies I had to you know it was a bunch of I had to score a certain score on the ASPAB because I had a GD. So it took me almost two years to get in. So that's when I mean I hit the nuclear option of my life.

I got rid of the place, moved in with my grandmother, and just, that just became my, you told me no. Now that became my soul focused, going to be broke and live with grandma so that I could join the Marine Corps. Let's unpack that for a moment without going further into the Marine Corps because I'm going to come back to that. Okay. What is it about a person?

Like, how old are you now? 39 almost 40 right so so looking back and having you know as you've got a business you got all these employees looking back what is it about a person who can hear no and then go i'll show you and lock on versus the other person who hears a no and accepts it is for what it is and just goes and does something else it's not necessarily in line to you know it's now that i'm older looking at it it's it's very clear that there's all there's always been this entrepreneur mindset of and problem solving aspect of figuring it out, you know, and and a little bit of this like rebellious, it's what got me in trouble in the first place.

Just this rebellious spirit in me that's always gone against the grain. Like a chip on your shoulder kind of deal? No, not a chip on my shoulder, but just like, I want to move the needle forward. And I'm going to be in charge of moving the needle forward. And just because you tell me that I can't move the needle forward doesn't mean that I camp. And there's always been this like, and 2020 was a rough year for me, maybe legally, because of that too, because I just didn't buy into the BS. So I immediately like close your business. No. That's actually how we can end up connecting. Right. Yeah, I wanted to interview you for the

podcast. I created a previous, I don't know what number episode it is, but go back and listen about a year ago, folks. Yeah. So I, so, you know, that kind of triggers that like rebellious spirit in me. But that rebellious spirit is actually what gave, has given me a lot of opportunity in business as well, because I can, I believe that I can figure problems out. I can solve problems. So them telling me no,

I was like, well, that's not, no is not an option. This is what I want to do. This is what I want. So I'm going to go take it. And I'm going to figure it out. And so you kind of, did you ask them like, hey, so what do I need to do?

Or did you just figure out that if I take college credits? No, no, no. I started, I started, I started, I started unpacking that no. Well, why? Okay. You know, well, why this? Well, why this?

Well, what is this need? Well, what is this need? And they just, you know, I would do something and then they would deny me. And then I would do the next thing. And it was just, I would just step up until I got to the point that they just said, you checked off all the boxes. You checked off all the boxes. I mean, I had 100 letters of recommendation.

I, you know, I went to maps like three or four times. I took, like, how many, what more do you want me to do to show that this is what I want? and I'm an asset to you. Yeah. Huh. That's fascinating. All right. So, again, looking back, is that trait factory installed?

Or can someone develop that? Woo. I think it is, I think that a good portion of it is installed. So for you, a good portion was factory installed? Yes. Now, can that be fine-tuned? Yes. So I think for me, it was factory installed.

But there was a lot of, there's almost some negatives, too. that as well that I've had to kind of overcome. You know what I mean? Had to fine, had to fine tune my engine. Sure. That's one of the reasons why I'm here, to continue to fine tune that engine, because you can be a rebellious person

and completely be a complete screw up. You know what I mean? And rebel to the point that it's a negative. Hearing no and pushing against the grain is not always a good thing. And I've learned this in my, and I've learned this in my adult life, it's like, well, you can't do that.

Well, I'll show. you, well, maybe the person telling you know is looking out for you. Sure. You know what I mean? And it's like, and then you just totally went on a wrong direction with your business. It's like we're talking about like chasing the shiny object. Well, no, you can't do that. Well, I'll show you and I'll figure it out.

Well, yeah, I figured it out, but was it lucrative? Was it profitable? Did it move me in the direction that I truly wanted to be in or did I just go there because this asshole told me no? Makes sense. And so you said, again, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but he said, for the most part is factory installed. So if someone's watching this episode or listening to this episode and going like, damn, man, like I don't have any family history of entrepreneurs. I do I. Oh, true. True. Sure enough.

I certainly haven't been like kind of pushed against the grain, but I think I'm inspired by this. I want to be able to fight against no from now on. Are there steps to develop that skill set? I absolutely think so. What would they be? I mean, the first thing is, is believing that you can do it. I love the, elephant in the stick thing. I love the elephant in the stick. Tell that story. So the elephant and I tell this to every single one of our coaching people that might come, that we're interviewed to come on board with us. Because one of the pillars is belief. So you have this baby elephant and, you know, they tie a rope around its neck and they put a stick in the ground. And over a period of time, the elephant grows up. And what do they do? They tie a rope around it. They put

the stick into the ground. And this elephant just stays there. Right. And, and, and, Yeah. So with us in general as human beings and predominantly men, we are typically these massive powerful creatures being held down by a myth, this thing that doesn't exist. And what I tell people is that stick, that rope, that stick is your trauma, it's your past, it's your haters, it's the people telling you you can't. Everything is embodied in that stick in the ground is all things that don't exist. It's all something in the past.

It's all something that something happened to you. And all you had to do, if you chose to, just walk away and this massive creature could trample the entire circus, right? Yeah. The entire problem. That one little stick that held it down, held down the rope when it was tiny little elephant. Yeah. He still believes that that one of those sticks.

He sees the stick and he stays put. Yep. And we do that as well. And we do that as well. And we do that in all his life. And I think that if you can get yourself talking about move, the needle and inspiring and saying, you know, rebelling against no and, and, and solving the problem, I think that you first have to say, I'm going to do it. Just make the, make the, like we

talked about upstairs, was the execution is everything. Yep. So just, if you're that power, if you're the powerful elephant, just back up. Watch the stick come out of the ground and be like, oh shit. Change your beliefs. Yeah. So once belief system is developed, is there another step in being and able to maybe buck the system, doing. Just doing. Doing. And this goes back to like the very first business I ever started in 2013, complete failure.

So I mean, I call it a complete failure, but what that failure did was land me where I'm at today. Because by doing, even though I was on this, I was on this track where I thought I was supposed to go or I wanted to go, by doing, and when that ended, or that led me to a fork in the road, it didn't even leave me to a fork, it just led me to another path.

And I tell people all the time, well, I don't know what to do. I'm like, well, just start doing something. If you're always moving forward, if you're always moving forward and you're always doing, you're going to get to the next thing. And you might fail. I thought I said, you know, you show me one successful person. I show you the same man that failed 15 times to get there. You have your plenty of failures, you know, and those failures stacked for you to get

to where you're at today. Then any successful person, I don't care who they are, you tell me, you show me a successful person, I show you somebody who fell 15 times. Yeah. Yeah. And I think each of those failures, by the way, end up being not only lessons, but also end up kind of fortifying your resolve. Like each time you fail and then you get back up again. You get tougher. Yeah, you get tougher. It's almost like scar tissue, right? It's like scar tissue. And I think Napoleon Hill calls it, he goes, if we can just look at failure as a temporary defeat. And once I started looking at failure is a temporary defeat.

Oh, it's temporary, which means I might have to sulk a little bit. I might have to just whine a bit, but I'm going to have to get up and keep going because there's no other eye. It's going to hurt. It's going to hurt. It's going to hurt. It's going to hurt. Yeah.

I'm going to complain. Yeah. But then I'm going to get up and do it because I want an outcome. My veterans, my military people, my law enforcement guys, our first responders, they're taught and bred that failure is final. So we're so deathly afraid of failure. Failure means it's over. Yeah.

And that is the concept that we have to relearn that failure is not final. It's just a lesson. Yeah. Because in that line of work, failure can be. Could be fatal. Right? Yes. Yes.

And so. But that it's so ingrained. The conditioning is. It's so conditioning that they're almost afraid to try something because there is no failure. Yeah. You know, even below like a 90% average is like if it ain't 100, you're not, you're not winning. Yeah. You know, so that's something that you have to retune, especially in like high, high level performers.

They all are so deathly afraid to fail that they almost don't try. Gotcha. So a dude who, two felonies by 10th grade and then drops out of high school and making good money, having two jobs pre 18 years old. Clearly there was some kind of entrepreneurial spirit there. and there was certainly the spirit of like rebelling against the system. You go and you're like, I'm going to be a Marine. I'm going to join the system. Yeah, I'm going to join a system.

That's pretty structured. Right? I would say, yeah. Out of all the military branches, I would say the Marine Corps is probably the most structured one. But the commercial was cool. Like, you see the Marines fighting a dragon with the swords. Like, doggone it, I'm going to do that. Yeah.

And so you get in there. You get in. But you didn't just kind of stay. Again, you weren't one of many. No. you kind of began to elevate up in the before. Yeah, I realized it happened. Well, what happened was, well, the first thing it happened,

and you know, get a kick out of this talking about failure. So it took me two years to get in. By day seven, I break my wrist, and I get dropped to a medical platoon. Sheesh. All the seven days in, I'm out. After two years of effort? Yeah, so I heal up, I heal up, got smarter,

learned the system, ended up graduating number one in the company, merely because I had a leg up, because I was there so long, I was like well I'm gonna figure this out so I make a choice right I can complain cry about my situation or use it as an advantage to level up which I did anyways I got into the Marine Corps out of the fleet ended up getting put as a administrative Marine like paperwork guy mm-hmm horrible decision because that's not quite why you joined not quite why I joined not only that not where my personality was gonna thrive right

Immediately got in trouble. Do they test you guys to see if you would even thrive? Because just knowing you for a year, I know you wouldn't work. Yeah, yeah, yes. But because of my unique situation and me getting hurt and the way the military works with both spaces and everything, they had to reclassify me. Like with your wrist, this is what you're capable of doing with me. Well, it was more timing. It was like what jobs are opening and what fields.

So they just said, I remember getting the master arm was like, I'm going to give you the best job in the Marine Corps. And I was like, I sir, two bags full sir. I didn't even know. You know, you're 18 years old. You have no clue what's going on. Clearly, he was fucking with you when he said that. 100%. Okay.

Because I'm like, it doesn't sound so awesome, bro. No, no. He was completely fucking with me. And probably laughing. He's probably laughing now. Currently. But anyways, so I show up and I immediately get in trouble because of my mouth. And anyway, I started shredding paper for three weeks when I first got to the fleet.

Luckily for me, there were some good leaders that were involved. Saul that Nick didn't belong there. Yeah. and invested in me, and then I ended up taking selection for, at the time, force reconnaissance, which led to my time within force recon, and then eventually Marine Special Operations. Got it. So for those of us who don't know the difference between Force Recon and Marine Special Operations, can you enlighten us?

Because most people think Marine Corps, all the sense. There's a great video on YouTube that's 30 minutes long that goes Marine Recon versus got like 3 million views. You know, I think I've actually seen it. The guy looks oddly familiar to you. So the difference is a force reconnaissance is a special operations capable unit that provides a certain asset to the Marine Corps. So if you look at the Marine Corps, the Marine Corps, reconnaissance, the asset does special operations for the Marine Corps as a conventional force internally. It's a very broad sprope, you know, look at it. And then, you know, then once you get into the Marine Special Operations Command, that is actually.

what falls under special operations command much like the green berets the Navy SEALs the AFSOC certain AFSOC units things like that got you yeah and so as as you're as you're going through this experience and obviously it was during the height of our war yep right yeah yeah it started from 2000 to 2012 yeah yeah 2000 to 2012 so september basically all of it okay yeah yeah so when 9-11 happens and you're like a pretty much a brand new marine brand new. Yeah. What's happening through your mind? What's going through your head? Honestly, we didn't know so much then. I knew that it was serious. They immediately put us on like guard duty. Like they, I was on an air base. Everything sort of shutting down. Families couldn't get in or off the base. It was, you know, chaotic. But that was a turning point for my generation's time in the military. That fundamentally changed. I feel like changed who we were. as a generation.

Much like I think that the bombing of Pearl Harbor changed that generation for men. Because I think that never happened. What my life would have been like, I would have been a different person. Because of the experiences that I experienced when that happened in the direction that my career went in the military, I don't know that it would have if that did not have happened. So all the tragedy, the loss, the, some of the failures, the things that, you know, that came on my shoulders, you know, both personally and due to operations, would never have happened if that event didn't happen.

That's crazy, man. Yeah. So it's something that my generation, I wrote a great, we did a great video and a blog about that, but basically the generation changed forever. It's kind of a 9-11 memorial about the men who served particularly during that time. Yeah. and kind of how it, you know, our perception of it and how it changed us on a pretty large scale. Gotcha.

In terms of, if you remind me asking, can I ask some of your missions? Absolutely. In terms of missions, are there any standout missions that just kind of like, whoa, I remember that one, and that was a close call or a mission that maybe provided a big learning experience that you carried or just any kind of missions that benefit our viewers and listeners? Yeah, absolutely. There's a, so in Iraq, you know, so I was on a force recomb platoon. So we had just got done doing much more, if you can imagine, like the action, action figure, hero type stuff, like the kicking in doors and doing raids and all this cool stuff, right?

So we went into, so that's what our entire platoon did. And then we went into Iraq thinking that we were going to do the same thing. And initially we did, you know, like, you know, blowing indoors and going to get the bad guys. and you want to kill bad guys and that sort of thing. And so we did that and either it was bad intel or we did it and then it just didn't change anything. You kill a guy and it just, there was no effect in the area. It didn't make a difference. You kill one bad guy, there's like five more that pop up.

How long did it take for the command or the powers that be to figure that out? Oh, they still haven't figured it out. Okay. No, I mean, on a grand scheme of things they have, but there's still individuals that always think that you know going to smash right is always a good idea yeah sometimes you need a scalpel you know always need to be the hammer so on that on that on that on that on that deployment we shifted from so you know a couple months in we're like this is just stupid like we're not we're going to get somebody hurt you know which we're in that during that time in

iraq every we lost people in that it was a very very rough deployment um our company lost a lot of people our platoon loss of people a lot of people got hurt But got hurt, and then we realized that somebody's going to get hurt or dead for really no reason. Like, we're just not making an effect. So we went from doing the tough guy, hardcore, kicking indoors and shooting bad guys in the face to a much more traditional reconnaissance mission. Watching, listening, manipulating the battle space, you know, and really working with talking to locals, you know, a much. more special operations kind of reconnaissance aspect so look you know take you know getting in a place and then watching that place for say 24 hours and then

through night moving to another place and then kind of being in theville but not being so with the word that we use kinetic and much more covert less overt yes right much more covert and much more strategic on the way that we and during that time we went from like 30 IEDs a week getting blown up to zero. How did that happen? Because you guys got the Intel. We were there, we were watching anything that happened,

anybody moved, we just got them. And then people started to tell on other people. Well, that's interesting. Because we were in there, we were talking with them. You know, something got broken. We were like, how I was doing, you know, glass got broken in a house because they got shot up. Because we were there.

Yeah. Here's some money. Go fix your windows. You know, talking to the people and just, really getting into the bill and it got to the point to where the uh the insurgents at the time that were coming from other you know now it's you know publicly known they were coming in from other countries um and fighting that war they were on like the the mosque you know intercom saying we know that you're harboring americans you know give them up it's your duty to give them up

you know yes you know and we just heard it we're talking about it so instead of the like i'm just going to go kick indoors um i'm going to go stay on the base i'm going to I take a helicopter and go in there and just kick indoors and shoot bad guys. We just kind of lived in that environment more. And our teams would rotate and we just live in that environment. And that, I learned a lot there not just in special operations because when I made the switch to special operations, I was like, oh, I get this. This is like what we just did. It's much more scalpel, not so much hammer.

Sometimes there's a need for a hammer. When you have all the data, then it's time for the hammer. your boy Ray looks like a hammer. Ray could definitely be a hammer. Yeah, yeah. Ray could definitely, he knows how we all can't. We all can be. But sometimes, sometimes you got to be a scalpel. And, and, you know, in my world, because I've never been in your world, I have so much respect for what you guys do. But in my world and the world that you're in now, that is a very direct translation. That's what you're, if I'm going to create a business, I'm like, oh, I know what I want to do. I want to say I want to create a supplement line. I want to create an apparel line.

and let's say it's apparel. And I'm like, oh my God, Randall Pitch, lift it. I'm going to, well, if I just go and deploy with whatever, let's say, I have $5,000 in my bank account and just go blow my wad on that and hope that it works, that's the hammer approach. Versus, let me just see what Randall's doing. Let me get on his email list. Let me see how he markets. Let me find out where he makes the shirts.

Let me see exactly what colors, what logos, what designs. And as you kind of quietly gathered data, Intel. Intel. Yeah. Right? Yeah. I mean, it's direct translation.

In our sales world, it's data. It's Intel. If you're about to kill a bad guy who's not, who's going to set IEDs up. Now I can take that $5,000 and use it in a more efficient, effective way. Much more strategic. Yes. Yes. That's such a great lesson that transfers over.

So when I got out of the military, that was one of the biggest lessons that I took operationally. Yeah. Was that exact lesson. like being very strategic and you know granted still failed a bunch but still took that lesson as like how can i be the scalpel how can i do this and no one see me coming brilliant brilliant so now as 2012 comes about and you're getting ready to leave the marine corps do you have any of these anxieties and fears like holy crap what am i going to do or did you have an idea of what you wanted to do when you got out I mean, no, I just wanted out.

What you just wanted out? I just wanted out. I'm done. Here's what I knew. I knew that I was a very capable individual, so I knew that I could, I wanted to be in charge of my own success. At the time where I was at in the Marine Corps, especially when, you know, that whole 12 years and what we had been doing,

I was burnt out. I had not liked the person that I had become. I had not liked the person that I was going to be. that I saw myself down the road. Who was the person that you had become that you didn't like? Just very callous and dark. Is it just because what you had to do

and what you'd seen? Yeah, I think that, sure, I think that, you know, that many deployments, you know, and just working with, you know, in that lifestyle for so long, you can become very jaded to life. Got it. You know, and just very angry all the time.

sure and not happy and you know and and and then things sort of affect like relationships with kids and I just I took you know and a dear friend of mine was like you know you see this guy that's at this year that the grumpy old guy that you everybody talks about and laughs about why didn't I didn't want to be I didn't want to turn into the grumpy old guy got it you know I wanted to I wanted more out of life and I wanted more say at the end of the day you're in the military and you're not in charge of your own success There's not right I can't work harder and achieve more right you know it's not the way it works right

You know yeah and at that point of my life. I was ready to My return of investment. I wanted to be to my output and how smart I was and you know what I could do in life And I was ready for that and so that's what I did I decided I was like I want to I want to be in charge of my own life my own success So I made the exit. Okay, what year was that? 2012 Yeah and I and I and I it wasn't that easy. It's not as easy as you just, you say it is.

He's. Yeah. It's not like, no, and then you're like, I'm out, and then I'm successful, boom. Right. No, no, no. It's not like that at all. And because of that generation, there's a whole, there's a whole, now I call it the seven, the seven stages of transition, which is what that book, what the book is about. Yeah.

And I end up having to go, I end up having to go through that. you know and that and that happens to why did you write your first of all tell everyone the title of your book excommunicated warrior it's a very powerful title that really says a lot excommunicated warrior

why do you choose that title and then why did you who did you write it for so was it therapeutic writing it yes it was I didn't I thought that when I wrote it I was so past all that stuff that I thought it wasn't going to affect me

yeah and it's it super affected me when I was writing it because you had to relive each one of those stages that you go through. So the reason that I wrote it was I started to see a trend in people leaving the military. And it was like the seven, it was like the same things that happen over and over and over. And so I was like, there's got to be, there's a pattern here. There's a total pattern here. And like we can, if there's a pattern there, then I can warn people.

and then I can give them an out. Sure. You know, I can give them a roadmap to success. And so through helping people and then going around and speaking all over the United States about these subjects, I got sort of getting people that were outside the military go, oh, that's, I'm in the same boat. You know, like even mothers who were mothers for 20 years and their kids leave the house and there's like, and I started to realize like, oh, this is not a veteran. This is not a military issue.

This is a human being issue with having your identity attached to a job. Which is what we talked about up there is? Yes. So your identity is attached to this job and then you remove yourself from that job. You're like, well, wait a minute. If I'm not Nick the Raider or if I'm not Nick the football player or I'm not Nick the businessman or, you know, Nick the dad, then what am I? and the human like we the human beings we go through this weird thing yeah and we and sometimes we self-sabotage well it's a loss it's a loss no different than losing a human and going through

those stages of grieving so this is what it sums it up to it sums it up to this is that's a chapter in your life right whether it may be so the people that buy this law enforcement guys firefighters any sort of first responders big in the sports yeah because for instance one of the analogies in the book is you play Little Tykes football at five years old and then you're like boom football football football middle school high school college boom you get drafted the NFL and then at 21 years old or 23 years old you blow out your knee done 23 years old and you're done who are you all I've known is football yeah now who am I and I've had some multiple people that have multiple football guys that have reached out to me,

hockey players that just young guys that's their whole life and they come across my book and they're like, holy cow, this whole, that was me, it was my story. I just took your name out and put my name. You didn't know that you were writing to such a broad audience, did you? I did when I wrote the book. I didn't know when I was developing the concept and speaking to it, I didn't know.

But when I wrote the book, I knew that it. Oh, because you were speaking first? I was speaking first. So I was on these concepts and everything. I was speaking to these concepts. And that led to the book once I started talking to more people. And as we were talking about moms, I was thinking, empty nest syndrome, right? Like that's a very identity-driven thing.

Like, oh, my God, my whole life, or at least my whole adult life that I remember has been nurturing these kids and getting them ready. And getting them ready. And then, well, they just left. And I never thought, what happens that next day? And we know when kids leave, they're not like, oh, thanks and this and that. No, they're like, poof. Poof.

I'm out. Bye. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so nuts how your message from your book translates across just all of humanity in that way. So you wrote the book in what year? I think 16, maybe, 16 published in 17. So 2012 you get out of the Marine Corps. And then as you start kind of speaking and developing this concept going, oh, my God, there's like this thing that we're all experiencing.

And we have this loss that's tied to our identity. and then you write the book, 2016, 17. And had you started? How was your source of income then at that point? Anything that I could do, I threw as much shit at the wall that I could. At one point, I think we had seven separate businesses running me and my wife. Which sounds like a really cool thing to post on social media.

Super cool. Super cool to sound. I'm a baller, seven businesses. No, it's a fucking nightmare. It's a shit show. Yeah, yeah. But is that why? Is it because lack of focus or is there seven things that are just passionate about?

No, it's just, so I started one, right? And with, with infrastructure comes opportunity. Sure. Right. So, and a lot of people get stuck into this. A lot of people get stuck into, we just talked about the shiny thing, right? Like, oh, I have, I have this, I've got money, I've got infrastructure, which means I have opportunity to do pretty much whatever idea I come up with.

So there was a lot of different little things. things that you know that would happen and be like well we we've got the people we've got the marketing I've got the fulfillment I've got everything that I need to just go and make it happen but what happens is it divides your focus now you're having to manage all these different things the one good thing that I that I will say is during this time is all those opportunities is what gave me the opportunity to see what did work so it goes back to us doing I was just doing B, I was just doing as much as I could do. No sleep, just do, do, do, do as much as I could.

And of those seven things, did you realize that, like, hey, some of these things I do and it fulfills me and makes me money and others drain me and kind of just I don't even want to do? Yeah. And that's where I kind of like started to focus. Well, and certain things started to take off, right? The ones that became more successful and the things that started to really work really well. And I was like, oh, maybe I should just.

follow this, you know, the river that's just flowing very fast down this way. And so that's what happened. So as we, as we move forward, and the book was being launched and everything, like I, I started to travel those streams that were just really starting to flow. And then we started to shut things down. So we either started to sell them off. We sold two businesses, shut a couple down, you know, just sort of 80-20 rule, right? Like 20% of your businesses will really bring in 80% of the money when you think about it. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, And 20% of your workforce is making 80% of your company. Yeah.

Yeah. And, but, but, but that kid who had a couple of felonies, who barely eked through 10th grade and then dropped out and ultimately had to get like the GED good enough degree. Mm-hmm. He kind of has a high school, or a college education now, university education. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. How did that happen?

So, when, so I was on a show with Discovery Channel. Yeah. What was your show? It was, uh, Trailblazers. Okay, what was it about? It was about special operations guys going into these remote locations to do something.

We were hunting this, not hunting, we were trying to find this black Cayman alligator that had this special DNA. It's a discovery show. Yeah, yeah. So, and then we had, you know, there's some other guy that was trying to get some rocks

from a volcano and then some, I think, bat poop from Papua New Guinea. It was all like a... Did you ever find the alligator? I'm curious. No, no, no, I cut my hand open right here. and on the show, super embarrassing.

And then they fired me. It's all out there. You can watch all of this. It's all out there. But what that taught me was I had a love for production. I had a love for production. And that's what drove me to YouTube. And then that's going to YouTube.

My wife, Allie, was a full sale university grad. And I had the post-9-11 GI Bill. And I realized I was like, holy crap, I can go to school online while running all these businesses, I can go to school online, and over the period of time, they will pay me $64,000 to go to school. And they're going to give me a bunch of camera equipment.

So I was like, okay, well, as if I'm not busy enough, why don't I just strap on school? Sure. So I did, and graduated my bachelor's, and then I was like, oh, well, I've got money left in the bank account. We'll just go get my master's for business.

So I continued on. In three years, I got my bachelor's, then my master's in business entertainment. So that was almost 20 years later. Yes. Right? Yes. Was education, did it feel different?

Did you like it? Was it all A's easier? Easy. Always. What changed from that dude to that dude? Focus. Focus and desire. You wanted it this time.

Yeah. Yeah. And it was like effortless almost. Now granted the time was there, right? Like I still had to put the time in to do it. Time and the effort. Time and the effort. That's a given.

We all have to put our time and effort in. Right. But it was really, when I was doing projects, I would like, this is so easy. Yeah. You know, some things were like pain. I was like, this is dumb. I don't want to do this. I had to drag my knuckles across the, you know, the concrete to get it done.

But a lot of the stuff was just super effortless. And it was almost easy to get A's. So that's why when I tell people like, well, I'm not a good student. I'm like, well, you're young. and this is not for you right now. It doesn't mean that you're not a good student or you're dumb or anything like that. And I really appreciate you sharing those, connecting those dots, because oftentimes we tend to, well, I sucked in school, and so therefore the rest of my life,

I'm not a good learner. Which is untrue. 100% untrue. All we end up doing is solidifying this false identity. You just put the hook around your, the rope around your neck and put the stake in the ground. Put the stake in. Yeah. And so, well, if I'm not a good learner, I'm not going to learn to be an entrepreneur. I'm not going to be a learned to be a good hook. husband, a good father, a good fill in the blink. So that, back to that, back to that. It's that,

that rope and that stick represents everything from your past, what people have told you in the past. It's, it's all baggage that's holding you into place. Baggage. Head trash. Head trash. I like that. I like head trash. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so here we are now. You've written, you've written the book, you've spoken, you're like, oh shit, I just figured out which of my businesses I like. They give me joy, that give me fulfillment, can make me money. And then also the ones that are just a pain in the butt that I don't want to do. So as you kind of pare down some of the businesses, sell off a few of them,

2020 comes around, and being a gym owner, and of course me being a gym owner and a gym franchisor, you were pretty vocal about what was happening. Well, I wasn't until they raided me. Well, yeah, until you got rated. The raider got raided.

Yeah, the irony there. And so, and you live in South Carolina. North Carolina. North Carolina, I apologize. Small little town. Mm-hmm. And so what happened that kind of changed things for you there in terms of your business? Well, when they, you know, we had multiple things happening going on right now.

The gym was really just a, it was profitable. Yeah. It was doing well. And when the whole COVID thing happened and the gym got raided, it was like, again, that Rebelly Spirit kicked in. And I was like, well, why? What laws would be breaking? And I did shut down. So for the, like, the viewer, like, we did the whole two weeks shut down.

And I was in North Carolina. So the governor was much like here. They were just kind of like, no. And then two weeks turned into four weeks, which turned into six weeks. And about the six week mark, I was like, okay, I'm done. I'm done. People, like, we live in a small town. There's no cases here.

Nothing's happening. And so I just made, I looked at the CDC website. I said, okay, what is your guidelines? You know? Yeah. You actually put out a really good, right around that time, you put out your guidance for a reopening. Our protocol. Our protocol.

Yeah. So we actually used a lot of that. And then we reopened. No issues. Everybody was super, like anybody that knows this is health. Health is wealth. And it's not just physical. It's mental.

It's spiritual. There's a lot that goes into that. For the people that stay healthy, it means a lot to them. Yeah. And so they were all super excited. About two weeks went in and man, all hell broke loose. All hell broke loose in the name of an executive order. And I got real smart on it and I said, what laws are we breaking?

They couldn't answer. So we're currently, so that whole process and the video is up on YouTube as well, you can see that and how Americans and people were taxpaying citizens were treated. And anyway, there's a federal lawsuit pending. So, all right. So that aside, and that's how I kind of started, kind of got wind of you. And I was like, all right, this is, this is great. And that's how the first time you ended up on the Empire show.

And we did it through Zoom. Yeah. And everybody was right. Fuck, I've done more. If I never do a Zoom thing again, I'm happy. That's a whole different story. But at that same time, you're also, you also had a couple other businesses. Yeah.

So what were these businesses? How did you run into them? So, so the, I guess, before that in 18, a young man by John Roshai reached out to me about some hair pomade hair pomade and a thing of beard oil and he reached out to me I think 17 times and I just was like yeah

did you miss his emails to first 16 no I was through Instagram 17 times and I was just like yeah sure kid yeah whatever finally he I think he found out where I was and he was like hey man I just dropped off some stuff and and I just happened to be like he'll He had just left and I showed up and I'm like, hey, I just got your stuff, man. I just showed up to the office.

And he's like, oh, I'm like five minutes of now away. I'll turn around. He was like, whoop. And went back and then we met and, you know, asked him some questions that he had no answers for. Talked about infrastructure and, like website and this. And he was like, I don't know what you're talking about. He's like, I carry this briefcase and I go around selling this stuff. So he's selling hair products and pomade through a briefcase.

Through a silver, like an old school silver briefcase. Yeah, the, the whatever, that metal. Yeah, yeah. And so I'm like, all right, whatever. And we were shooting videos. What's really cool about shooting video so much is the first time that I ever opened the box and tried it is on camera. Okay. And on camera.

And this is important later because you guys will realize why it's important. But the first time I over-opened Johnny Slicks was there. And so I used it for a couple weeks. And I looked to my wife and I said, this is a million-dollar product. This kid's got a million-dollar product. And at the time, he was like 23, 24 years old. And what was his intention? Was he just trying to get you as a...

Oh, I'm pretty sure he was just like... Influencer. Yeah, just share it on social media or YouTube. You know what I mean? Like, that just, that would make his... That probably would have made his day. Just that alone. And, but I used it and I was like,

this is some next level stuff. This is a million dollar product. And so I called him up and I said, hey, man, I want to talk. I think I texted him and said, hey, when I get back, I want to talk about business and how you can grow, how you can grow this thing.

Yeah. And he goes, he texts me, He said, listen, I don't mean to be forward, but if we don't talk about it on the phone right now, I'm not going to sleep for the next two weeks. I can't wait until you get back two weeks. I kind of like how we rolled. Yeah. So we got on the phone and I said, well, this is what I want to do.

I want a partner. I want to do this and this. And so we, within four weeks, we launched, we had a website. I told him how much to make. So he didn't even have a website or anything. I mean, it's literally out of that briefcase, the whole business. Nothing. Nothing.

Does he live in your neck of the woods? He was like 30 minutes up the road. Just happened to be 30 minutes. It was fate. It was all fate. Anyway, so there's a great story on YouTube. The Johnny Slick story, if you Google it, it's amazing because he tells the whole story from his perspective.

And it's very funny, but very inspiring. He's also a Marine. So he got out of the Marine Corps, him and his wife, Rebecca, who's now our chief operating officer for our business, was selling plasma to buy stuff for the product. Plasma, blood plasma. They were selling plasma to get like to like buy labels. You know what that reminds me of?

So there's this little parable I heard. And so there's a difference between being involved in something and then being committed to something. And then the example that was given was on a plate of ham and eggs, the chicken was involved, but the pig was committed. Right? And that's what Johnny did there. That's commitment, man. I'm going to give cell blood plasma. Regularly.

Regularly. Yeah. and my wife, yeah, to fund this business. To fund this business. 40 bucks a pop or something like that. Yeah, yeah, just to buy like, you know, a couple things here and there just to add it up the door. Yeah. So I said, this is what we're going to do.

And I said that we're going to blow this thing up, man. I said, we're going to make, we're going to make this a million dollar product. And we did so with under, in our about two years. Yeah. Well, I'm going to tell you something. And you can pass this along to Johnny or maybe as he sees this episode. But you all could tell that the last. last probably couple months, I've had a new haircut. I've got the old undercut. And you had sent me

once we started working together and I'm coaching you in the businesses, you had sent me a box of the products. Just then I'd gotten sick and I'd gotten bronchitis. And then while having bronchitis, I ran a squire program. So then I got the corona while having bronchitis. But what do you know? In four days, I was just fine because... Weird. Yeah, but I'm sure I'm an anomaly. So all that to say, the box sat there for a while. I remember I texted you. Yeah, I'm like, bro. I'm not feeling good.

I can't talk right now. I can't talk. I'm like coughing. I don't even know what to do with the product right now. And so, but as I pop open the product and start using it, first of all, I love, love the black label shampoo and conditioner. Like, if you're going to buy Johnny Slakes, don't be cheap. Just go right to the omega. It's the omega, right?

Or at least got the omega. If you're 30 and over. Yeah, yeah. If you're 30 and over. go omega. Listen, if you're 20, be mature and go omega. Trust me on this. Like, you're not, you're not, yeah. Buy the black label shit. And this guy, it's delicious. If you guys can just smell my hair right now, you would just be all over me. Because it's like this coconuty smell. So anyway, so I use that first. I'm like, you know what? I like this. And as my dude, Alex comes to cut my hair here here,

I'm like, hey man, I just watch Fury. And give me one of those fucking undercuts. You know, I'm feeling sassy, right? He's like, are you sure, man? You're going to be up on stage. I'm like, just cut my fucking hair. It'll grow. I'm Armenian hair. grows quick. Right? And so he cuts my hair. And then I open up the pomade and I'm like damn it smells good feels good and just whatever was left up from my putting your beard. Yeah, put in my beard and I'm like all right we're good. So I was sold on the product immediately and by the way the little brown leather thing of my jig got all my shit in there for when I travel so I appreciate that as well. I don't know if that maybe I'll don't get

that when you buy the shit. You pay extra. I don't know how it works. Yeah. So anyway I like I'm a believer of the product because I actually use it and actually got a haircut to justify the use of the pomade. So great product. What was, you know, here's what I love about that product, just like my supplement company, Trulene. It's a product that is consumable, by consumable meaning it gets used. You don't have to drink it, obviously. It gets used, and if it delivers results, you're going to buy it again. Right.

Same as supplements, right? What is, like, how did you guys? selling it, how did you create that first bump of income and revenue? So like I said, infrastructure comes opportunity, right? Yeah. Well, because we had in-house, because of the other things I was doing, we had in-house fulfillment, we had in-house marketing, we had in-house ads. So it was just like, oh wait a minute, I need a website and I need to be able to ship this stuff.

I already have accounts with shipping materials, I already have people to pack it. I already have, you know, me and my wife, my wife built the website. website. So we did all the internal marketing and the videos and at the time I was doing this 98 vlog thing. So it was like, I'm just going to turn the button on. It was really that simple. On March 7th, 2018, we turned it on within the first hour. We made more than his like monthly record. Yeah. Within the first hour. That's got to feel so good for him. Oh, he was, he still talks about it. Like if you hear him tell the story from his point of view about that time, it's, it's, it's super inspiring and it's just awesome to watch.

He's so, because he's so animated and he's like, sure, he literally says he was dancing in his kitchen. I told him, I said, well, download the Shopify app on your phone.

And then, so that way you can see what comes in, you know, and anybody has Shopify on their phone, it's like, cha-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ching. It's a great addiction. So we launched it.

I put it up on YouTube, and that was it. We made, first year we broke in six figures. Second year, we over quadrupled that and then third year we did I think 2.5 million. Nothing wrong with that. Good for you guys. So obviously his name is Johnny. So there's a Johnny part of the brand. Yeah. Did he just come? Was it Johnny Slicks when you became a partner?

Yeah. So he had already come up with the name. Yeah. He already came up with the name. We now we now that's all pretty protected. Yeah. Everything is very legal legal. And he's still formulating it. Like he's like the mad scientist. He is the mad scientist. He is the mad scientist. He is He is a genius. For our third year anniversary, he came out with slick day cake. So it's a pomade that smells like birthday cake. Of course. And it smells like birthday cake icing.

And it crushed it. We only made it. There's a limited amount. And I'm like smelling. I'm like, Johnny, how the hell do you do this? But he is. He's the mad scientist. He came up with all the formulas, all 100% organic, not like fake organic or fake natural,

whatever you want to call it. It is stuff that you can go out and buy the ingredients and make it in your house if you had the right formula. And the reason I ask this is because I know what your role is in the company. And oftentimes people ask, well, hey, Pedro, should I get a business partner? And 98% of the time, I'm like, do not get a business partner. Because unless that business partner is going to bring a very unique element that you don't have or can't get, then don't get a business partner. In your guys' case, it's very obvious, like, who does what? Yeah, we're, but I would say that, you know, we're an anomaly.

Yeah. We're an anomaly. And it's very, it's very fun. We've become very much like a family. And there's, don't give me wrong. There's bumps. Oh, there's always going to be tension. There's always bumps.

But the greatest thing about that is working through those bumps, you know, for the common, you know, for the common, you know, goal. And, yeah. So, I would tell you this, I would partner with him again on a different project. Which says a lot. It says a lot, right? Like if I had an opportunity and be like, Johnny, we're going to do this thing, you know, and it requires him to be his mad scientist or his funny self on camera, then he would be the guy. I love that.

And so with that, you all know that one of the big lessons here that I like to teach is creating multiple income streams and creating income streams that have recurring revenue attached to it. And so with that, Nick, you have a very different type of business on the other side with your partner, Josh. Yes. So Josh and I were on the same team. within Marine Special Operations. We're both Raiders together, our last deployment actually. He, I got out, he stayed in, unfortunately suffered a tragic parachuting accident.

His femur came out of the back of his leg, hit turbulence, went up and hit the plane. His leg hit, wrapped up into, if he's listening to this, he's probably like squirming. His leg got caught up in his risers, and then the parachute open snapped. as he was coming out. So it just ripped his femur right out the back of his leg, which ultimately medically retired. I'm going to pass out right now, bro. Yeah.

I got to hear a shit like that. So he, funny enough, he went through that transition too after that, that kind of like identity transition and went through the seven stages and we maintained contact. And then we started writing training manuals together

because people were asking. And, you know, bandwidth is always an issue, right? So like if you can't do something, you get with somebody that helps with the fan with. And there was no other person I trusted more than him. And I said, all right, let's do this together, man. Let's write some, let's get together, let's collaborate. So we started writing that.

Those things led into writing more training and doing more things. And ironically enough, then we got into coaching. So the prior year, we did something called Surviving the Cut. Yeah. And it was just like really rudimentary. and you'll probably appreciate this as a former trainer yourself. Like we were doing Excel sheets, Facebook groups, and it was just a nightmare. No tech.

No tech involved whatsoever. We did a Google sheet and people would log in. And this isn't too long ago. No. Because there was like tech, the technology was there. There. You guys were going caveman style. Yeah, we were just going caveman style.

We're just dragging our knuckles across the concrete. And people really liked it. And they liked what we. what we stood for and what we were what we were imparting in the people and the individuals in the tribe now we call them a tribe that were a part of that and and so like this is this is hold on josh this is something's here we've we've got a hold of something and uh so we launched ironically enough we launched our coaching software um the same month that covid hit and the shutdowns happened and we made more with almost no overhead that month than the gym made and now all of a sudden that too is like

holy crap yeah yep and that's that's when um yeah i was like holy crap and i was like this there's literally just us doing this and uh there's no rents or no anything profit margins are nuts profit margins are nuts and and um now it's obviously grown you know with your help to another level but that was a real big light bulb and then talking about multiple revenue streams like you know people are like oh you got shut down here you got rid of the business here and it's yes but the reason why that it's not a big it's not a big hit for me is because I had multiple revenue streams yeah so people that say well you do too much well no I don't do too much I'm hyper focused now but if one thing shuts down I still have two more things happening yeah you know

And there's ways of, you know, either sponsorships or YouTube or, you know, Johnny Slicks or now the agogi. And, you know, so I'm protected. My family's protected. Yeah, which is a really good feeling for a dude who wants to have peace of mind and know that, all right, I'm taking care of my family. Right. Protected. Right. So, you know, the whole theme behind the coaching program is a gogi.

It's the agogi. And most people may not quite know what it means. And with your Greek heritage. Yeah. There's a meaning there. Why don't you share that? Yeah, so the Agogi was, and the movie 300 made it the most dramatic ever, which I love. It's like the seven-year-old being ripped from the woman.

But the Agogi was the Spartan training camp that young men went to, and they would train for however long it took, decade, if so, from seven, eight years old until they became a man to become a Spartan citizen soldier. And that's what that was. it was their training camp and they lived it and they instilled it and so that's what we to taking a man and giving him that warrior mentality back making him the very best version of himself is what the igogi is about and so it was no better fitting name than that name yeah no it obviously it was a very natural and soon as i met you and soon as you started telling me about it i'm like yeah this

And what I love about it is, guys, you have to realize when you're selling stuff, you have to sell people what they want and give them what they need. And what you guys do with the Ogogi training program is exactly that. Because we men, we need, we need structure, we need discipline, we need accountability. Accountability. Yeah. But if you went out and said, hey, man, guess what? Two former Marines selling you accountability, discipline, support, right?

They're going to laugh at you. Yeah, these are my pillars. Right. Yeah, right. Instead, you saw the key thing. A story. Yeah. And, of course, that story leads with like, hey, it's time to really transform your body.

And you guys use that fat loss and fitness and really lead these men into, I guess, the core values that you guys have, the pillars. Yeah. And that's the reason why, and that's the reason why that we made, the first pillar is fitness. Yeah. And fitness comes in, we've talked about it there, fitness comes in multiple ways. It's physical, it's spiritual, it's mental. And we found that men, surprisingly enough, and especially in your business, you know this, men operate on a higher capacity at a higher level when they're physically fit.

Now, when you get into the medical side of things, there's a lot of reasons why. Hormones are optimized. You're getting a dopamine hit every time you work out. You feel good if you're not, if you're not overweight and you're lean and strong, you have more energy, you have more desire. Your dick's working better. That was a good thing. You know, you're not depressed. As soon as you start getting overweight and you're selling couch, you're lethargic, you're getting depressed.

Everything starts to go down. If I get a guy and I'm starting to get, I start getting his weight cut off of him and he's going to have more energy, he, but then a couple days, he's, I get messages, man, I'm already feeling better. I look in the mirror and I think I look better. Like you don't look better in a company. Yeah, you don't look better, but you're feeling better. But the dopamine's hitting, so they're starting to accomplish more. And we've seen people get raises. We've seen people get job promotions.

We've seen people have better relationships with their significant other. I mean, our whole lives changed just from that one thing. How do we get there? Discipline. People always say, how many times you've heard, I'm just not motivated to be. I'm just not motivated to get it done. Guess what? Are you motivated to go train every day?

Not quite, but I am disciplined to go train every day. Exactly. And one of the things that I say is like, do you think that Olympic athletes go to the Olympics and get a medal if they only train when they're motivated? No. They go and they train every day because that's part of their schedule. So how do you do that? Well, we work with them to build a routine that serves them. Your man, Craig wrote the greatest book ever. And like, just what a great thing. And we kind of take some of those concepts and help them build a routine that serves them. And it's not just a way like, hey, I want you to train all the time and like, you're going to take away your family time. You're going to go. Instead of getting off work and going to go to the gym, no, it's not that way because now we're not serving them and giving them the desired outcome that they need. I need them to be the best version of themselves. To be the best version of themselves, they have to have time with their kids. They have to have time with their wife.

But they also have to take care of themselves. Because otherwise what happens? Men typically put ourselves in the back burner because like, well, I can't go to the gym and all the time. because I have to go home and help my wife with the kids or I have to do this. Well, then what happens when you're 40-something years old and you're a type 2 diabetic, you got heart disease, and you're going to have a stroke and die off?

Did you really serve your family the best? Wow. Because what's the number one killer in the U.S.? It ain't corona? Nope. It's heart disease and obesity. Yep, yep. Preventable.

Yeah. Preventable. And so now kind of turning our eyes onto your business, how do you move people into your online coaching program? Because it is an online coaching program. And now it's not just you and Josh. You guys are obviously, as we're working together. You're building a team for that as well.

You're scaling Johnny Slicks. We're scaling the gogie. You've done, you've made a lot of personal transformations in who you are as a business leader. You've also made some transformations in your business in terms of your price point, the terms in which you sell, you know, it was like a monthly program, then went to three months, and today we kind of changed it to this. It's going to be a five-month program at a time. Kind of explain the business model, the confidence that comes with it, how you felt confident when I'm like, hey, man, we're going to raise the price. And for the next 20 people after that,

you're going to raise the price again. Like, I know from my end, I'm coaching you, but from your end, as you're getting that coaching, do you believe it or do you just go, I'm going to do it and see what happens because from the outside it looks like well shit he made it look easy but there how do you feel about so so it's a great question i think that goes back to the belief structure you just did a great post about your relationship with money right yeah i think everybody struggles with that some at some point especially coming from somebody that like yourself came from nothing yeah like you literally growing up you had nothing nothing same with me we grew up we had nothing.

So there is that relationship. There is a belief factor. Like I already had the belief that I could do anything, right? Like I can achieve anything. I think working with a coach gave me the extra bump that I needed to operate on a little bit of faith based off your experience and go, listen Nick, if you kind of build it, they will come kind of mentality.

And so even though sometimes it was just like, oh man this is going to be i don't know if this is going to work i operated off based off faith off your experience because i i was mature enough and emotionally mature enough in business to know that you need outsiders to look in on you and to give you mentorship and you don't know at all i don't know at all um you don't know at all but we know what we do know and i that's why i look to you and go okay i don't have the experience So I'm going to have faith in you, and I'm going to use your experience, so I'm going to shorten my curve. So instead of having 15 failures to get to my success, I want to have maybe one or two failures and then get there.

Not a bad exchange. And that's what I got out of that. Yeah. Well, I got to tell you, just from my perspective, like to see how you execute and how you and your wife work together. And you guys just from coaching call to coaching call or half day sessions like this to where you guys go and execute, it just blows me away. And I love it. And I just, it makes me proud. And also, I no longer physically train people.

Like, I'm not in the gym training people. So I get that sensation from all of our Fit Body Boot Camp owners who, you know, as they get more clients, I feel good about the transformations they deliver. As you get more clients, I'm like, fuck, man. That guy, like the guy you said who's lost, went for 400 pounds. Yeah, he was, he was over 300 pounds. Over 300 pounds. Over 300 pounds.

paramedic and became, he started to feel like more he was a liability. Yeah. Had a bad call. We had to run up some stairs, didn't perform well, and that was his kind of trigger to get signed up with us. Yeah. His goal, when I got on the call, I said, what you, like, first of all, said, you're going to die.

Let's be real. Great closing strategy. Yeah. You're going to die if you don't sign up with us. And that's legitimate. Like you're going to, he's in his 20s. Like, you're going to die of heart disease and obesity. getting stroke out or whatever, something's going to happen.

And so let's get that out of the way that we all both agree that that you're not in a good spot. Was he quick to agree? I didn't, I never had. Absolutely. Yeah, he was like, yeah, this is something going to give. Like I guess being a paramedic. Yeah, he knows. I mean, it's no surprise.

Yeah, he knows. So, and I said, what's your goal? He's like, I want to be a flight medic. Okay, well, tell me about that. Well, you have to be under 250 pounds. Okay. Let's work to that. Right now he is 255 pounds.

Good for him. He's almost there. He already got the job as a flight medic. on a fixed wing. So he's already transitioned. He's going through training right now. So we've got to lose a little bit more pounds, and he's going to be on helicopter.

Good for him. And that's just, like, I love, like, the money's great. So as I'm, yeah, as I'm cycling clients off to other coaches, he's one of the ones that I'll be keeping. You'll be keeping. Which makes sense.

I have to keep him. And as I get to talk to you and then meet with you like this, and I hear his story and just other stories like that, I'm like, damn. I still feel I'm involved with transforming lives, because that's really why I started. I was a personal trainer in the gym

at 4.30 in the morning training my first client who was like an LAPD homicide detective who was just bitter and angry at the world. I understand why. That's why I got it. There you go. And she was like, I hate being here.

I hate working with it. Like, shit, man. You think I like being here at 430 in the morning having you pissed off at me, right? Anyways, but I still love that. So thank you for what you do there on that front. One thing, and I think our audience we'll get a good takeaway from this.

Stephen King, he wrote a book about how to write books, because he's an amazing author. And I read this book when I was writing Man Up, my book, because I'm like, fuck, I don't know how to write a book. Let me read a book from Stephen King. I didn't know there was a book that. I wish I knew that when I wrote it. And in the book, he talks about

killing your darlings, meaning if there's words, sentences, or paragraphs that don't add value to the reader just because you like it, because it was part of your life, like kill them. Get rid of it. If it'll make the story shorter and better. And I was like, oh, damn. And my book really shrank by about like 14,000 words.

And so as we started coaching together, I was like, dude, you've got several income streams. You've got your book, your speaking events, the speaking that you do, like your personal brand, basically. You got the Ogogi training. And then you've got Johnny Slicks. And we temporarily killed one of the darlings. Yeah. Right? and we've been working together almost a year now, not quite a year.

Has it been a year? Six months. Six months. Six months. And today was our second half day meeting. And as you are scaling and automating both the agogi and Johnny Slicks, you asked a question at the end of our half day, which I thought was really. First of all, it was so awesome to be able to tell you like, hey, man, we're going to have to

kill the personal brand for now. And you were like, I, I, check, let's do it. And you did. Again, I guess now that I know comes from having that faith. So thank you for having faith in me. But guys and gals, you have to realize sometimes you have to kill a darling temporarily to focus on the other two opportunities that you might have, which you did. And here we are six months later as you automated and really start to delegate a lot of work

and the businesses are growing even faster, you're like, hey, man, so about the personal brand. And I'm like, you know what, dude? Great idea. Let's get the book out there and here's a funnel for it. And it's so neat to be able to coach someone, again, from my perspective, where when I was like, hey, dude, kill this. And you're like, check. And then now you're like, hey, so about that personal brand. What do you say I bring it back?

Well, you say check, but internally I was like, I don't know what was going on. So maybe you should tell me. Internally, I was like, I paid money for this. I mean, it stung a little bit. It stung a lot. Yeah. But again, I understand. Based off of my experience, I knew I was like, okay, it's bandwidth.

It's bandwidth and I need to focus on growing these two things right now. And all my focus needs to be on these two things for now. And it took, I mean, we're still getting there on some things. But, I mean, it took a good six months of grinding and putting the systems in place and the right people in place to make those where they're at today. And the irony that, you know, today we talked about how we're going to get your book to be used as this massive lead magnet, both for a gogie, for, speaking gigs and of course you're going to be able to even sell Johnny Slick's product to it. Right. So how neat that it comes full circle but it goes back to you again sometimes having to kill your darlings to be able to focus on having a singularity of focus and then coming

back to that thing again and doing it right. Some big takeaways. What should I have maybe asked you that I haven't asked you that our audience would benefit from and whether it's mindset, whether it's business, you know all I know is from what I, my lens, I want to hear from your lens. I mean, when you say kill your darlings, I think there's some statements that people need to kill. Tell us. Yeah, and one of the biggest ones is I can't or I don't believe. And those two things, if you can kill those two things that I think, and there's something that you've worked with me on as well, on a personal level, to kill those things that got me to where I'm at, don't get wrong, like, we were working and we were making money, but I was also struggling

personally, like, I didn't have any time, you know, and by killing some of these darlings and then killing some of the thought process and the certain belief systems that I had with regards to money or time or anything like that, or even my own personal success, those things gave me the freedom to start living a life instead of just working all the time. Which my wife greatly appreciates as well. You're welcome, Allie. Yeah. But truly that's what it is, right?

Like our business shouldn't be our identity. Our business should be what fuels our freedom, which fuels our lifestyle, which fuels our fulfillment, of being able to give to charities, causes that you believe in, et cetera. And the more structured we've got, the more actually what's crazy is the less I work, but the more than I'm able to actually affect and change lives. I love that. What a great place to end. So if our viewers and listeners want to find you, connect with you, learn more about you, where do they go? Google, N-I-C-K-K-O-U-M. That's all you need. N-I-C-K-K-O-U-M and I start to pop up. I'm active on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook the most. Perfect. Talk a little shit on Twitter. That's really... Wait, you're most active on Facebook?

And Instagram. And Instagram. Yeah, yeah, I know you're active on Instagram. Awesome. Guys and gals, so this... is a very in-depth episode. And I know we typically go like 35, 40 minutes, but we went well over an hour because I believe the content is just worthwhile and you needed to hear this.

So give me a favor. Follow Nick, get his book. And of course, as always, take a screenshot of this episode. Tag Nick, tag myself, shared on social media. And as always, don't forget to tell your mama. We'll see you later.