The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 039: Nate Holzapfel – One Of The Best Shark Tank Pitches Of All Time | Teaming With Daymond John

Episode Date: July 23, 2015

Episode 039: Nate Holzapfel – One Of The Best Shark Tank Pitches Of All Time | Teaming With Daymond John I love discussing how we can all better serve our customer base.  The best way to create and grow a thriving business is to create customer loyalty.  Nate Holzapfel is an expert at accomplishing this task.  He goes into detail on this topic in this episode. Similarly to innovators such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and even Elizabeth Holmes, Nate dropped out of college to pursue a career in sales. Having sold everything from cars, to insurance in Mexico, to even houses over the phone, Nate Holzapfel became an expert in sales & marketing. In June 2012, he launched Mission Belt Company. The accessory industry has always held a huge portion of the fashion industry, however, no one company had focused solely on belts. In spring of 2013, Nate appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank, pitching the Mission Belt to seek a capital investment. He struck a deal with fashion mogul and branding expert, Daymond John. Nate pitched to the Sharks that the “old way of selling is dead.” His ideology and method proved not only correct, but to be a huge success. Episode 039: Nate Holzapfel – One Of The Best Shark Tank Pitches Of All Time | Teaming With Daymond John Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. “I love you, I love you man!” Mark Cuban to Nate Holzapfel The Learning Leader Show Some Questions I Ask: What is your definition of success? How did you get to this point with Mission Belts? How did you get on Shark Tank? What was your process when preparing to pitch the billionaires on TV? What are your 10 commandments of selling? How do you prioritize your time every day? Why do you limit who you take advice from? What are your goals? In This Episode, You Will Learn: The process for getting on Shark Tank Nate’s prediction to team with Daymond John prior to pitching the Sharks How he did $1 million in revenue in the 3 weeks after Shark Tank aired The importance of literally showing your sales force how to sell… The importance of TIME… not money How others can do what Nate has done The importance of posture and not being intimidated Why it’s so important to invest in yourself Continue Learning Go to: The Nate State Of Mind Read Meditations By Marcus Aurelius Follow Nate on Twitter: @NateHolzapfel “Never take advice from someone you wouldn’t switch places with.” – Nate Holzapfel You may also like these episodes: Episode 001: How To Become A Master Connector With Jayson Gaignard From MasterMind Talks Episode 033: Erik Rydholm – How To Become ESPN’s Most Powerful Producer Episode 032: Steve Sims – How To Create World Class Experiences | Why Elon Musk Is A Great Learning Leader Did you enjoy the podcast? I love discussing how we can build loyalty with our customers.  Nate has mastered this vital skill.  I loved this episode.  I’m proud to say that Nate has become a friend.  Who do you know that needs to hear this?  Send them to The Learning Leader Show! Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell   Bio from thenatestateofmind.com Similarly to innovators such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and even Elizabeth Holmes, Nate dropped out of college to pursue a career in sales. Having sold everything from cars, to insurance in Mexico, to even houses over the phone, Nate Holzapfel became an expert in sales & marketing. He states, “I’ve always been good at my job and was always a top performer. But I felt trapped. I sold everything I own and put all of my efforts into the best idea I had. The rest is history.” In June 2012, he launched Mission Belt Company. The accessory industry has always held a huge portion of the fashion industry, however, no one company had focused solely on belts. Fashion houses designed and created them as an afterthought. Nate had a vision to create a company that made only belts, the first of its kind in the fashion industry to ever truly brand a belt. Oakley was first with Sunglasses, Skull Candy was successful with making headphones a fashionable accessory, and Nate’s vision was to accomplish this with Mission Belts. In spring of 2013, Nate appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank, pitching the Mission Belt to seek a capital investment. He struck a deal with fashion mogul and branding expert, Daymond John. Nate pitched to the Sharks that the “old way of selling is dead.” His ideology and method proved not only correct, but to be a huge success.   Find out how Nate Holzapfel not only survived in a struggling economy, but thrived in it. Create your own economy or expand upon your already solid foundation with “The Nate State of Mind” using Nate’s expertise. Nate has traveled the country as a keynote speaker and hired to assist individuals, small businesses and multinational corporations. Instead of using clichés and one-liners, Nate will speak directly to your team from his heart with meaningful, real life experiences sharing information that is relevant to growing your business in today’s world.

And most people who are doing this train, all this stuff, whatever, there's just nothing there. It's just a bunch of talk and takes a lot of guts. It'd be like me handing out exercise advice. You know, you don't want to take exercise advice for me. I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. You know what I mean? I look horrible. It's like, I don't know anything.

I'm a workaholic. I rarely get enough sleep. I eat horrible. I have a juice like every other day, and I think I'm doing myself a favor. But I'm the worst person in the world take advice. On the other hand, you look at somebody who's an amazing fit shape. Now, that's the right person. But so many people in this world, they want to hand out advice and they want to do all this stuff, and they're not rich.

They haven't created value. They haven't created anything. All they've done is survived. And so what? Anybody can survive. Are leaders born or are they made? Our host, Ryan Hawk, believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders. Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success.

You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk. Hey and welcome to the Learning Leader Show. I am Ryan Hawk, and I'm really excited about tonight's guest. His name is Nate Holsafel, and you might recognize the name from being on the hit TV show Shark Tank. In spring of 2013, Nate appeared on the show, pitching his company, the Mission Belt Company. He was seeking a capital investment from one of the sharks. after a fantastic pitch, he ended up striking a deal with fashion mogul and branding expert Damon John. In fact, Nate's pitch has been listed by many different sources as one of the top 10 pitches of all time on Shark Tank.

It's incredible. I want to learn about the process that Nate had and went through in order to prepare to go on that TV show. It's very nerve-wracking for a lot of people. It's good to understand how he prepared and what he was. thinking as he's about to walk out under the lights on national TV. Also, why Nate says the old way of selling is dead. He's repeated this many times, including on Shark Tank. Very, very curious to learn more about that.

Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, it's Nate Holsapple. All right, Nate, extremely excited to have you here on a Learning Leader show, but I got a question and it regards success, the topic of success. And you've been fortunate to spend time. with people who have achieved some really, really big things who have been successful. And what would you say is one common characteristic that those successful people, a trait that they share? All successful people are determined to succeed.

There's not a part-time way to go about it. If you're not totally engrossed in the idea of achieving your goals, you probably won't. It's pretty hard even being intense about it. There's a lot of people out there who, you know, have 100% passion, but don't have luck on their side or the right ideas or the right people. So the main thing everybody has is that drive, that dedication, that just nonstop, go, go, go, go, go. Are there certain people that come to mind when you think of the word success? No, for sure.

I mean, there's always, I mean, there's different kinds of success, you know. Not everything's financial, you know, mine's been financial, but there's a lot of people who, you know, my father's a very successful man. My dad doesn't have any money. My dad's a teacher. You know, he's one of the poorest people you ever meet in a lot of ways. But, you know, he loves what he does. And if I gave him a million dollars tomorrow, he'd still probably go to work and keep doing what he's doing. It's all about finding happiness, you know.

Yeah, absolutely. I understand that. Now, I'd like to give you the floor here, Nate, for the people who may not know you, if you could give your, a, story, so to speak, of how you've gotten to the place that you are currently at and really some of the journey that you've been on over the last couple years. Sure. What aspect particularly?

I mean, you're talking about the... Primarily, I think, the fact that you're running mission belts and how you've kind of gotten to the place where you guys are as well as, you know, the events that's led up to this point of your life as well as your business. You know, you find yourself in that moment where you just, you know, you're just, you know, you're just tired. You feel like you got no options or not enough options. I had a good job before. I've had a lot of good careers and jobs and I've done always, you know, okay or better than okay, but never anything where I felt like I had a real gig figured out for myself. It's always been, how do I say this? It's always been a challenge to get, you know, to a spot where I feel like, you know, I'm in control my situation.

I mean, a job for me was always just that. I never felt like I had a good enough job where, well, you know, there wasn't any reason to reach, you know, for something more.

But I just, you know, I'd wake up every month and I'm a salesman. I'd wake up every month, first day of the month, and I had to start all over. There was no residuals. There was no extra things coming in.

There was just the one-time thing, and that was it. And I felt like I was selling my time cheap, and I was making, I was working for a guy, and I was making them a million dollars, you know, every year,

you know, profit and you know I wasn't getting very much of that million dollars at least what I perceived to be a lot I got about 10% of that and I thought well this this isn't working you know what I mean and it's really stressful you know job too you know it took a lot of hours took 70 hours a week to make it happen I guess the point is that I found myself in a moment where I wasn't you know I wasn't moving forward and so I couldn't find anybody who was willing to pay me a million dollars a year so I had to you know I had to go out and you know start a business and you know

anything can be anything can be a great business if you do a lot of it right you know selling chewing gum belts it doesn't matter you can send a lot of either of the items you know what's we do I was like to think about the instructions on the back of a bottle of shampoo you know I think it's wash, lather, rinse, repeat

and that's that's all it is just doing it a lot of times and that you know that really works so now you have mission belts and I think probably a lot of listeners and I'm one of them came to know you from your appearance on Shark Tank. Obviously, a hit TV show and a lot of people are saying you gave one of the top 10 pitches in the history of the show, which is saying a lot,

considering all the businesses and great people they've had on that show. And there's, the leaders of it, the sharks, so to speak, are obviously very people would call them successful, obviously wealthy, their investors and very smart. And it's kind of across the board. They absolutely loved you. So I love to dive into your Shark Tank experience now, if you don't mind, and really learn about kind of a couple things in regards to that. And first and foremost is the process to get started to even be on the show. How did that come about? Oh, geez. You know, it wasn't even my idea to go on the show. Someone told me that it would be a good idea. And I looked at them and I thought, okay, this sounds cool. And I'd never even seen the show before. But, you know,

I saw a couple episodes of it and decided, yeah, this could be interesting. So I went to my brother, Zach, my partner, and I said, hey, I think I'm going to apply for this show. And he said, well, you know, I, he says, you know, hopefully he'll get a response, you know, nobody was too hopeful. In fact, I don't think any of it was expected to even get a call back. There was a casting call that was going on in Los Angeles in a few days. And I thought about getting the car and driving down there and doing it. but later decided that, oh, you know, that's a long shot. Probably not going to do that, but I definitely want to reach out and do it,

so I'm going to send an email. Most people get on through live edition. Very few people get on through an email. In fact, I don't know anybody else who's gotten on through an email besides me. And I sent an email in with a couple of short sentences and a picture of me. Every picture of me is pretty goofy looking. So I just picked out one that I had, you know, right there, and sending off to them, they got their attention.

And next thing you know, I was in the running. And then you go through about six or seven or eight tiers. to get to the spot where you actually, you know, air on TV. But, you know, it's pretty intense. You know, they're looking for, you know, interesting businesses and, you know, interesting people. You know, it's about engaging television. I mean, you know, whenever you watch, you know, reality TV, and that's what that is in the other day, is that, you know, you're looking for people who have a story worth telling or they're going to do something really wonderful or really horrible.

I am lucky to be in that top ten list every time. I'm always in the top three list, top ten list, whatever it is. And I think the real trick is I didn't get beat up on that show. Almost everybody gets beat up. Even people get deals and I didn't get beat up at all. And that's a major, major difference. It's about posture. It's about salesmanship.

It's about showmanship. It's about storytelling. You know, that's what I am. I'm a storyteller. Yeah, it's one of my all-time favorite episodes in that pitch. And I became, I immediately, like, I think I've read that your revenue is won over a million dollars shortly after it aired. And I was a part of that, big fan. Not only was the pitch great, but the product is great.

So I wear multiple different mission belts. So I'm a huge fan because the product's great in addition to you being a great sales guy. So I'm sorry. Go ahead. I love a customer, man. Okay. I'm one of them. And I've referred many others too because I know the people that I, or I've given them as

gifts as well because people love them. And it's like, hey, this guy gave a great gift because people don't think of it as a belt. They're like, I got to go get a belt. But it's a lot different when you get one. You're like, oh, this is cool. It clicks. and it fits perfectly, you know? We got to the moment where we had sold, you know, we had sold 100,000 belts,

and we thought we were just, I couldn't believe how many customers we had. You know, we're way past that now, but I remember that moment. And so thank you for being one of those first people to get on board and do it. I really appreciate it. Yeah, of course, man. Thank you for creating it. So, like, getting back to it, so that was an interesting part of your pitch. Even some of the best ones, they do get beat down, whether it's their valuation or their presentation,

or the way to do it. But you had Mark Cuban, you know, one of the most successful people in the world saying, I love you, I love you twice. Like what is going through your mind with the lights are shining? It's bright. You've just gotten done or you're in the middle of giving a pretty, just an incredible pitch. And you have Mark Cuban of all people telling you that he loves you. You know, yeah, it's pretty intense, pretty wild. In fact, the show, the way it was edited, didn't show all of it. It's about an hour long pitch. They chopped down to a about eight or nine minutes, but Robert, Mr. Wonderful, everybody there was really complimentary and really, really nice.

They kept Cubans comments, but everybody was really pretty generous with their compliments and everything, you know, and they really super. So, you know, you're there, you're doing your part, and you show up, and you're doing your thing, and, you know, it's nice to, it's nice that people respond to what you do. You know, it's all about posture, you know, it's about, you know, there's sharks. You go on there, and they're real people, you know, and I think it's the first thing that Most people make a mistake is they don't realize that these people are real. Now, they're really successful people, but nonetheless, they're real people.

They've got real problems like you and me. And so they want to be treated with respect, and they want to be, they want to be wild. They want to be dazzled. They want to be just anybody else wants. You know, they want someone who's going to come and work for them or with them. They don't want to work for somebody else. I think, you know, most people miss out on what people want. I have 10 commandments of success or 10 commandments of selling.

Really the reality of it is is that I believe in creating value. I believe in showing that value. And when you can do that, well, I'll tell you, things are awesome. You know, I think a lot of people forget that. They don't realize that these people are not there to fix your problems. These people are there to see an opportunity, snag it, and run with it. So if you can't present an opportunity and all you can present is problems, you're probably not going to get a deal.

And, you know, so many people who get beat up, it's just because they don't, they're not ready. They're not prepared. They haven't, they don't have the state of mind to go out and speak to five, frankly, very sophisticated people about a business that's, you know, doing okay. Or, you know, but no matter what, it's not where you want it to be. That's why you're on the show. So it's, it's hard to go out there and do that. But, yeah, it's pretty intense. Yeah, and so I think you initially went in asking for 50 grand for, to give 20,000.

percent of your business. Is that right? That's right. Yeah. And you ended up agreeing to a deal with, with Damon, John, and, but he got, he got more equity than the 20. Is that right, too? And a half. 37 and a half? Yep. So, did you have a strategy or game plan? So you said, I'm going in at 50K for 20 percent, but I would be willing to take, you know, I would be willing to give more equity in order to team with the shark, or what was your mindset going in and what made you take that deal? I didn't care about the money. I would have done the deal for a dollar. Really? So it was just, it was really just getting up, getting one of them to be one of your, your partners. Yeah, in fact, you know, my original idea was to only ask for a buck.

Really? Yeah, but the way that, but, you know, that was, that was discouraged. So, you know, I didn't, I didn't do that. But the way of it is, I just wanted a partner. I mean, the thing about it is, and the reason I get along with Damon John so well, and the reason all these sharks love me and we get along, you know, and, you know, or able to communicate is because the end of the day, I get it. I understand them. I understand what they can do. And money isn't what it's about. It's a tool.

Now, most people see Mark Cuban, the first thing they think of is $3 billion or whatever it is, right? For any of these guys, I think about the actual dollar figures, thinking about their airplane or they think about their car or whatever. That's not what it's about. Money is merely a tool. It's like a shovel, a pot or a pan, a dump truck. It's a tool to make money. and the money does what once you have the money what do you get time that's all it is it's time so if you go out and buy a private jet guess what you've increased the quality of your time and you've spent up your travel you buy a Ferrari you've made your commute a little bit nicer a little bit fancier you buy a nice house the time is going to be nicer you buy a beach house your vacation time's better it's all about time it's not about the money and so when I realized I wanted to be a partner with one of the sharks I didn't care about the money we can make money anybody make money making money is you're making money

generating cash it's not the hardest thing to do especially $50,000 bucks I mean $50,000 man I can make $50,000 in three months selling cars yeah so it's it's not about that it's about it's about heck it's about

that person and their Rolodex in their and their experience I mean Mark Cuban I don't see you know I don't see three billion dollars I see a guy who had the guts to make his own way in the world and it happened to result in him being very successful and a byproduct of that success is $3 billion.

I think that's that's kind of where the mindset changes and I think that's where people get screwed up. Yeah, I love that mindset. I think it's awesome. So when you went in, was there one specific shark that you had your eye on to say, I want a team with that individual or did you not care? Before I walked out on the stage, I asked one of the stage hands for a note card and a black permanent marker and I wrote down Damon John's name on it and I placed it in my pocket.

I believe in mental affirmations. I believe in knowing what you want, writing it down and making it happen. You visualize. Now, I would have taken a deal with Mark Cuban in a minute. I love Mark Cuban. I got a nice email from him just the other day. He's such a wonderful human being. My goodness. They all are. Kevin O'Leary actually buys belts for me. I always offer to send him to him, he always buys him. Really? Oh, yeah. I mean, we got an order the other day.

And, you know, and one of the guys is doing the orders, he says, I think this is, I think this is Kevin O'Leary. And sure enough, we were there, whatever. And I looked at his Facebook, I'm like, yep, he's to hear at that hotel. That's, that's him. These are his size. And he buys him. He literally, he's a customer, you know?

And, you know, so we've always had just amazing support from all these guys, you know. Super phenomenal. But Damon is the one I wanted because of Damon's expertise. and Damon's like a big brother to me. You know, he's a brother. He's an older brother that, you know, I look up to, and, you know, he helps me along and does a lot of favors and a lot of things for me.

But at the same time, I'm still an annoying little brother that's always in your way. And, you know, you got to stop from falling you around everywhere. But, no, we get along really well, though. How often do you guys talk? Let's take a look at the old phone here. The last time I talked to Damon was, let's just see here on my phone.

it's all the time um Damon and John Damon John Damon John yesterday at no Wednesday we spoke we spoke Wednesday at 1145 p.m.

So you're talking all the time? Yeah I mean just it's all the time he's always I mean we've always got an ongoing text or something going on I mean I we're always talking I mean we talk on holidays and Sundays and I remember I remember the first time I felt like We started talking a lot on the phone after we'd been doing, we'd know each other for about a year. The shark tank of aired and stuff, and everything was great. And I remember it was a holiday.

I remember it was Thanksgiving or something. It was some holiday. I remember he called me and he's like, how are you doing? I'm like, you know, what's up? He's like, nothing to just saying hi. I'm like, you're calling me to say hi. He's like, yeah. I'm like, okay.

I've gotten used to it now, but I'm so, you know, I'm so. just turned out to be a really, really good dude. And so I picked the right partner for sure. I hope he feels the same way. I think he does. But, you know, he and I have a pretty awesome relationship. Pretty stellar, so pretty new. So the state of the business prior to going on the show and then where is it today,

as far as revenues, the health of the business, the number of employees, what's the difference from then to now? Went on the show, been in business for about three months at that point. I'd sold $39,000 worth of these belts. And, you know, just basically, you know, door to door, and then a couple small retailers here in Utah where I live. You know, we did that, and then we err on Shark Tank. And, you know, so the business was going the right way.

I mean, we're making money. I wasn't, yeah. I mean, it wasn't huge, but we were making money. Yeah. And, you know, the first month they did like seven grand, the second month I did like, you know, 12 grand the next month, you know, the remainder of the balance. We just kept going up and up.

But, you know, we air on Shark Tank. a million bucks in like three, three and a half weeks or something crazy. I mean, I just kept going from there, but, you know, just, you know, but that million, first million dollars, it's, it's a trip when you look in your bank account and there's a million dollars in it. It's weird. Wow. Yeah.

It's weird seeing seven digits in a bank account. I'd never seen that before in my own, you know, things. So that was, that was a bit of a trip. It's a little strange, you know, getting used the idea that, you know, that there's people out there who, who will give you millions of dollars, just not one person. and it's, you know, a million people. I'll give you a $39.95 and, you know, it's pretty awesome. Yeah, so you go from airing.

I don't remember exactly when it first aired because I've watched it multiple times. When did it first air? It aired in April of, was it, 2013? Okay. So now we are fast forward. It's two years later, more than two years later. How is the business now? Is it still on that same trajectory?

Yeah. I mean, we've made tons of, you know, It's crazy. We've done a lot. It's been insane. I don't even know how much money we made, really. It's a lot. Wow.

It's good. I mean, I don't really worry about it a whole lot. Things get better every year, and we're more and more stores. We just got to roll out into a great chain that I love called Zumies. That's a huge store, golf smith. We've picked them up. We're in all kinds of great stores. Shields.

I mean, you name it. I mean, if it's a great store, we're there. You know, we're working with a lot of other ones right now that we want to do. We're real picky and selective. There's actually a bunch of stores we don't want to deal with. You know, it's all about branding and maintain, maintain some identity and being able to, you know, honestly, if everybody could buy a Ferrari, probably nobody would want one.

You know what I mean? Yeah, that's a good point. Mission belts are reasonably priced. They're hardly like a Ferrari. I mean, they're super reasonable. But keeping everybody on, we don't deal with anybody, but we don't deal with anybody but wants to put the product on sale. We don't put them on sale.

No store sells them on sale. sale. Somebody sells them on sale. They lose their ability to sell mission bills. I mean, just it's very clear in our contracts. So we've maintained a lot of brand integrity and, you know, you don't need to discount something that's good. And we haven't had a problem with it or anything, but just it's a, it's a phenomenal product, you know, and it's a great price point. You get that awesome feel and it's not a lot of money. Yeah, so I'm curious about, you know, what your life is like day to day now. Like you said, you started and it's not like you guys, you had a healthy little business going when you first got started. Obviously, you had the boosters from appearing on Shark Tank,

and now it's rolling. So what is it, what is your life like on a day-to-day basis? What's the average morning, afternoon night for you, Nate, now? I wake up about 7 a.m. I go to sleep really late. I wake up, you know, about 7 a.m. And then, you know, I usually will take a bath instead of a shower. I know that sounds pretty big waste of time, but I actually enjoy that. Sometimes I'll go over to the country club by my house and I'll use a steam room and I'll exercise sometimes. It's like a weekly thing, not necessarily a daily thing. Typically, I'm in the office and ready to roll by, oh, I don't know, about 8.30 or 9. And then I've got employees who come to the house here for my consulting business and do my

personal branding and run my web pages for me personally and all my social media. I walk in the office and then four of them are there doing their thing. I live in kind of a big house. and so that all kind of goes on and part of the house I'll work on stuff there and then depends on what's going on different appointments and things and I'll do this kind of stuff, I'll do interviews and then I

will meet with an occasional client or somebody who wants a consultation we do a lot of consultations over Skype and then right around oh around noon I'll cruise down, my assistant will drive me down to mission belts which is about two miles from my house. We have three

facilities but the one main facility where I don't have an office anymore. I used to to have an office. But I don't now. I have a, I have a, I have a drawer that I keep a computer charger and all the employees moved into all the offices. And we just had to give up space for them. So, you know, people working, that's fine. So I sit in a couch typically when I'm at work. You know, at home I sit in an armchair because I don't have a desk at home either. Everybody's taking over everything. So that's how it is. But that's okay. And then I'll go down there for a couple hours, work, and then around around 6 o'clock, you know, I'll flip the switch,

and then leave, come back home, you know, usually eat something, you know, and then get back to work and then work till off and on until, you know, midnight or one. And it's just, that's just what it takes, you know, and then it's just, it just depends on whatever projects at hands, but that's basically a day. I don't really go outside of my normal routine very much. I go to Chase Bank. I go to the country club. I have lunch there. I have lunch there. lot and I go to mission belts and I think that's pretty much it is and I don't I don't here's one thing that's really weird is that I had this little routine where I kind of do these same things when I go outside of the routine I notice almost immediately because

someone will be like hey aren't you the belt guy from shark tank yeah I'm the bell guy but I don't really beer out of that routine too often I'm pretty busy and so I kind of stick to that but that's kind of like a general day when I'm in town if I'm out of town and it's craziness, it's pure craziness. But it's like a controlled forest fire, all of us. It's, I wake up every day and I look around and right now I'm broadcasting you from a studio. It's in my house to basketball court that we turn into a studio. It's weird.

You know, and I just, I have this weird life. It's weird. You brought something up briefly about people recognizing you. How has it been since you've now, you know, become, has. had some form of fame from being so successful on TV. Yeah, you know, it's weird, but a lot of people, you know, I get stopped. Anywhere I go, I'll get stopped, especially if it's some place where there's, you know, people who are, you know, interested in business and watching that show.

It's pretty calm. The other day I was getting to, I went to a nursery that I liked, and I was having them put together a little potted plant for me and I was kind of picking out some things, you know, to give to my brother as a gift. And I'm there for about 20 minutes, talking back and talking about. forth. And then she just said, I'm sure you get lots of this, but I have to ask you, are you the belt guy from Shark Tank? I'm like, yeah, I am. She's like, your voice is so unique. I just, I knew it was you. I've grown a beard since then. And, you know, so it's, it cuts some of it out,

but still people, I don't know. If you hear my voice, it's over. The new show, I actually have a beard in the new show. Beyond the Tank, it's coming out, so that'll probably spike it a little bit more. But it's pretty crazy. I get paid to speak all over the country. I do tons of consulting. I do sales training to help people build online websites, you know, optimized for business, conversion paths, sales funnels, you know, just video, whatever. You know, we have, we have all kinds of people who come to us for things and we have people who fly here to Utah. Sometimes they'll fly me out there. It ain't cheap, but, you know, it's people want it, so we do it. That's awesome. So now you're opening up multiple streams of revenue by adding this whole huge other arm of speaking,

consulting, training. Is there a big percentage of your time spent on that? No, but probably about 25% of it. I have four full-time employees that work on it and build it. A business makes a lot of money. It does really well. I mean, like speaking, consulting, training, that type? That thing makes it tons of money.

Yeah. And it's just, you know, it's, I, the thing is, I never talk about anything. or offer services on anything that I'm not an expert at. And I can only do like a few things. It's about customer engagement, customer service, whether it's over the telephone, online, you know, through, you know, traditional, you know, social media or more complex things.

That's what it's all about. Me and people face-to-face, closing deals, so and so forth. And I've been hired to do everything from raise money for people to, you know, I had a venture capital firm who hired me to sit in on a meeting and just give them my opinion about somebody where they're not, I thought that they were being truthful or not. I sat there. I was instructed to not talk or say anything.

I sat there. I wore a suit. Nobody introduced me. I just sat there. I listened to the whole thing when I was done. I think the guy's lying. They gave me my money and I left. And that's it.

I mean, just all kinds of odds and then things. I've been asked to do infomercials, all kinds of stuff. And, you know, it's hard to make the decisions about what you're going to do. But, you know, opportunities are no longer my problem. That's awesome. Wow. So, you know, I have a background in sales. and I love the profession of selling, and that's obviously what you are at heart.

I can tell, and you've talked about it. So when you go and give sales training, are there one or two actionable takeaways for the people that are listening that work in the profession of sales? You know, what's a brief snippet of your sales process, your methodology, your philosophy when it comes to selling? I believe this. I believe that the old way of selling is dead. I believe that most of the books that are on sales were written before the internet existed. And I believe that most people in today's world who will give you a lot of advice about selling barely understand the new customer that's alive today. Not only do they not understand selling as far as selling something online, but they don't realize that, guess what?

Information is no longer a bargaining tool. And I can't tell you how many times I've gone to buy a car or buy things in the last year. and salespeople, they think that the information is like a chip, and it's not. I can Google everything. People are so stupid. And so they're selling off this old model from like the 1970s or 60s, and it just doesn't work anymore. Hard clothes don't work.

All that crap. It's just a bunch of crap. I learned how to sell a ton of cars. I mean, just day one, when I started selling cars, I sold two cars my first day. I sold, let's see, I sold only that. I sold 40, 45 cars in the first, no, no, in the first month I was there, you know, something crazy like that, you know, and I split the deals with a guy who had, you know, get them closed down for me, but I would set them up right. That all came from just understanding that people

don't want to be pushed. People don't want to have a bad experience. It's not in 1955. You can't little woman anybody. You can't, you can't do that stuff. And salespeople, whether you're selling cars or printers or aluminum siding, they just don't know. All the old sales tricks, and I'll call them tricks because they are tricks. They're just dead and they don't work. You really have to really, really be up on it. So my whole thing is just teaching people how to deal with customers that exist today. Now, some stodgy thing that was written in 1995, you know, or 1985, or 75 or 65 or 65 or, you know, 1915.

It's just totally different. And almost nobody gets it. And people ask me, how do you sell so many cars? How do you do this? I mean, my boss is when I sold cars, were just, how do you do this? And the reality of it is is that I just treat everybody different. So are there resources out there that you would suggest that people could read?

I mean, obviously I know how you feel about some of the older texts when it comes to selling. There's a ton of info out there. There's good stuff in there. There's really good bits in there. But if you model your mind after that, you may as well just go ahead and build a computer based off IBM's, you know, reports in 1968. Yeah. How would you model your mind then? So, honestly, this

sounds, I don't want to sound like I'm full of it or anything or whatever, but all this stuff, this is all my mindset. I don't know anybody else who sells like I do. I really don't. I just, I mean that wholeheartedly. And the reason that sharks like me and people will give me money to invest or do whatever

is because I treat everybody with respect. I treat my gardener the same way I treat Mark Cuban. And that's no, that's no bull. I'm just as respectful to somebody who has a low-end job that may not necessarily be all that dignified. I treat the exact same way I treat a billionaire. And I treat everybody nice. I treat everybody friendly and I help people get what they want.

And it's that mindset. So, you know, you can follow me on Instagram or Twitter or stuff, whatever. You can get my 10 commandments of success right now on my webpage on thenate state of mind.com. You know, those will give you some guidelines and stuff, whatever. but I'll tell you, it's this whole mindset that's not out there. It's, you know, and there's concepts I have that are not uniquely mine. But the whole thing together is a philosophy kind of is. So it's, it's, I don't know, it's different.

I don't know. I don't know how to explain it, whatever, but I can go on and on for about hours and hours and I speak about it all over the place. I went and trained some salespeople one time, you know, I was talking to them, whatever, and one of the salesmen came to me and said, you know what, Nate, I got to be honest with you. I really think you're right, and I think I've been going about this all the wrong way,

so on and so forth, so forth. And, you know, agrees the whole thing, does the whole deal. And we're talking for a few more minutes, whatever. And I asked him, I said, where have you gotten your sales training? He says, well, I really haven't had any. I think that's one of the things that's pretty common is that salespeople. I mean, even people who, you know, who you think would have spent a lot of time and energy,

getting trained on sales, they really haven't. They've learned some little things from guys in the business or whatever, but there's no studying. I mean, I don't know how well my dad would do. My dad's a PhD. My dad's a teacher, but he's a PhD in first century Roman history. You know, if my dad didn't go out and get the schooling or the education or the credentials, I don't know how he could have really teach or do anything. And so a lot of people, they're giving advice about selling and sales, but they don't have the credentials

to really do it, do they? And so I think that's the thing that struck me. This guy loved what I was saying, but no one had given any information really before. So, you know, I think it's a, it's an area that just nobody spends any time on. They think, well, you just, you know, you just learn as you go. And that's kind of true, but dang, you know, it gave me some perspective on it. Yeah. You know, I think a lot of people, I think the atmosphere of training, sales training,

or just professional business training, whatever it is that you do, is going on throughout the world at all. of times. People are going through it and we do a good job and we take notes and we pay attention. We listen to speaker and even if they're really good or inspirational or motivational, we can listen. However, then we get back to our lives. We get back to our job. And a lot of people, the majority of people I would say, they struggle. We struggle to implement what we've, we're taught or we learned or at least briefly learned at that training. How do you, so you go and you do these things. You help, you train and you help others. how do you ensure that the people you train, you help execute on what you're telling them?

Because really, the training is not worthwhile unless the people you're helping actually go and do it. It's like gym memberships. You know, gyms don't make money when people use the facilities every day. They make money when 80% of the people never come to the gym. Buy the membership, buy the towel, buy the gym bag, get the locker, and then never come. That's what they want. Right. Now, and what I do in my world, whatever, I want everybody to do what I'm, you know, what they

should be doing. I want everybody to win. I want everybody to do the thing. So some of the people that I mentor and some of the people that have personal arrangements with me, you know, I actually, I actually hold them accountable. We actually have a little, a little weekly meeting, talk about what's going on. And, you know, I hold people very, very, very, very highly accountable. And the reality is that sometimes that accountability, if you respect the person who's holding you accountable, that thing, that can change things, you know, heavily. And I think that's, that's part of it. you'll notice a lot of people who are giving sales advice or training or whatever haven't made any real money all the money they've made is from telling people how to be successful i don't know if you've ever noticed that but it's pretty common yeah i know what you're saying i mean it's a huge industry to to train and teach and give speeches and do all that it's a massive industry the other day approached me on on to one of my facebook channels or whatever this whatever and he said you wanted to you want to like co-write something with me whatever and we're like okay so who are you well i really do this and that

I'd be like, cool, what kind of car do you drive? He's like, what kind of car do you drive? He's like, okay, so he's not interested in cars or you cannot afford a good one. And he's like, and he's like, what do you mean? I'm like, tell me about the house you live and tell me about the last vacation you're on. Tell me how much money you have in the bank. And all these things, you know, just, you know, we're just unimpressive. I'm like, you think you have the guts to go out and tell people how to be successful

when you don't have $10,000 in cash just sitting around in a bank somewhere. You get a break, man. That's bare minimum, man. Bare minimum. My dad's a poor college teacher. and he has $10,000 sitting around. So where do you get the way ofos to go out there and teach other people how to be successful when you're not?

You know, I mean, I've been a successful salesman all my life. I've made billions of bucks from my employers. Everyone will tell you that I'm as good as it gets. I've made millions of dollars in, you know, the industries I've been in, including selling belts, you know, that's the track record. That's the authority. And most people who are doing this train, all this stuff, whatever, there's just nothing there.

It's just a bunch of talk. And it takes a lot of guts. like me handing out exercise advice. You know, you don't want to take exercise advice for me. I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. You know what I mean? I look horrible. It's like, I don't know anything. I'm a workaholic. I rarely get enough sleep. I eat horrible. I have, you know, I have a juice like every other day and I think I'm doing myself a favor. But in the worst person the world take advice from it. On the other hand, you look at somebody who's an amazing fit shape. Now, that's the right person. But so many people in this world, they want to hand out

advice and they want to do all this stuff. And they're not, they're not rich. They haven't created value. They haven't created anything. All they've done is survived. So what? Anybody can survive. Migrant workers out in the middle of a farm and in the middle of Orange County, you know, picking oranges are surviving. Everybody's surviving. But nobody's going to take advice from them. But what's the reason? It's because, well, they don't, they're not, they're not selling anything. So I think a lot of sales trainings really suck because the people who do them, well, if they knew so much about it, like marketing, you know? If you knew so much about marketing or SEO, then why don't you have a multi-million dollar business that makes tons of money.

And then the answer is always the same. Just never take advice from somebody you wouldn't switch places with. And I think that's the reason so much training goes poorly. Frankly is because the people teaching it, they don't know anything. Even the ones who are successful from teaching, show me what business they've done before. Show me the other, show me the credits. Show me the credentials. There's nothing.

Just empty air and talk. That's interesting, man. I love to hear the passion behind it. It's, I can tell it'll get you going and that's awesome. It's frustrating because I'll tell you what. You know, I'm 36 now. I started doing my thing when I was 33. You know, it was 21, 22.

I'm looking for somebody to guide me and to give me all this stuff, whatever, and you're looking at all these things. And then one day I woke up and I'm like, oh, you know why? I can't get an awesome job because I have never learned from anybody who has one. Oh, my gosh. Oh, what was I thinking? And so it's very frustrating for, I actually have a little bit of disdain for people who teach something they don't know because it's dishonest. And secondly, it really ruins the hope of the person who's working on the other end.

You know, and so it's, to me, it's a point of passion because I felt so frustrated for so many years because I couldn't, I couldn't make the jump. But all the information I was getting was from a bunch of people who didn't know anything except about writing books about being successful. That's all they knew. And so for me, it's a point of passion because I felt like those people wasted my time. and took my money. And I don't want that to do that anymore. And so, you know, I never talk about anything I don't know about. I know about sourcing, but I never, ever teach any classes on it. You know, prototype production, I don't teach classes on that. Why? Because it's not my strong suit. I've done it. We know how to do it, you know, but it's just not a strong suit. So I'm a

big believer in in doing right by other people. It's hard to do, but man, you know, stuff. So what's, I got a couple more questions. What's next for, for, for you? you. There's no next, man. That's what I do. I love it. I live in a dream world, man. I,

there's nothing else I want out of life. I have a great situation. I get to help people fulfill their dreams. I get to put belts around people's waist. I walk into a building every day for 30, 40 people who

are helping me, you know, follow my dreams and make things happen. And belts are churning left and right and new stores opening it up. And, you know, I'm healthy. I'm young. I drive my dream car. I live in a beautiful house. I eat the best restaurants. There's no next. I'm satisfied with the now. I can't. Something there's a book, Marcus Aurelius wrote called Meditations. It actually was called Meditations posthumously before that was called Notes to Myself. There was something about the thing where it's like live in the now, something like that. And I can't remember the exact quote, but really it spoke to me. And the value of it is that I don't need it next. This is awesome. One day, one day the right will slow down.

And when it does, that's fine. But right now I'm satisfied. I love this. I love what I'm doing. You know, it's wonderful. Yeah, that's awesome. I love it. It's a great book, too.

So one more question, Nathan. I really appreciate you, again, being here. So this show is all about leadership, leading others, learning from the journeys of others so we can help it positively affect our own stuff that you do on a daily basis. It's about learning, leading, constantly striving to inspire others, to help others, and to get better ourselves. And so when you hear the phrase learning leader, what's the first thing that comes to your mind? Is it a person?

Is it a definition? What comes to your mind when you hear learning leader? Learning leader, you know, the reality of it is that, I mean, you can take that a couple different ways, but I mean, one, as a leader, you're always learning, right? Nobody's done growing. Even I learned little tricks here and there that help me get more organized or be more successful. But I think really in the end of the day, the thing that every leader needs to learn is to lead by example. It all boils down to that. It's the whole same thing.

It all blows down to the authority. I can walk into a room and I can tell everybody exactly what I think. And the other day, nobody can say anything because the opinions I have are not formed off of just something I pulled out of the air. They're based on actions. They're based on works. It's based on success. And so I think that's the thing to learn. The thing to learn is if you want,

you want to lead a successful sales force, show them. Be in the office before everybody else, work later than everybody else, work harder than everybody else, you know. You've got to be so many things. A leader is not born, you know. It's somebody that grows, you know,

and I'm not even all that good at it. There's people out there who are amazing that. You know, I'm getting better. I can do certain aspects of it. But honestly, if I ran the whole business, all of mission belts, it would go out of business. I have two partners who help me make that business run awesome.

And those guys deserve a lot of the credit, you know. So, you know, being a leader is more than just having the answers, every answer. It's about making sure that the job gets done no matter how you got to get it done. And that's through partners, it's through employees. And, you know, that's what it is. So that's, how about that? That's the lesson I've learned in life. I love it.

It's great. It's great. So, again, I appreciate your time. Where can everybody go to find you online? If you can figure out how to spell Holtzafel you're in. But I think if you actually just type in Nate and an H, it'll populate Hultsafel. And then the Nate state of mind.com. And I'm on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Perfect. Well, good. Again, Nate. I really, really appreciate it. And I'm excited. Like I said, I'll be a continued customer of yours at Mission Belt. I love it. I give them his gifts.

I love a customer. I'm telling you, man. It's so flattering. I mean, that's one thing that really is crazy, is that no kidding, it's so wonderful to walk around and see people wear your belts or talk to somebody that, you know, I didn't have to sell them the belt myself personally. So it's wonderful. So thank you so much. It's humbling. Thank you so much for buying my products.

Of course. Absolutely. I'll continue doing it. And I appreciate you spending the time here investing it with us here at the Learning Leaders. So, Nate, thank you. Look forward to talking to you soon, man. Thank you so much. All right.

All right. This episode of The Learning Leader Show is over, but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time. Head over to Learning Leadershow.com for more information and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world-class athlete, or anyone else that inspires you. You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time on The Learning Leader Show.