The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex - From Marine Raider to Millionaire Mentor: Nick Koumalatsos on Discipline and Success

Episode Date: November 9, 2024

In this episode of The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex, we sit down with Nick Koumalatsos, former Marine Raider turned entrepreneur and leadership coach. Nick shares his journey from military life to building successful businesses and mentoring others in leadership and discipline. Discover the essential mindset, daily habits, and discipline required to thrive in both business and life. Whether you're aiming to enhance your leadership skills or seeking entrepreneurial insights, this episode is packed with actionable advice.Check Out Nick Koumalatsos!https://www.instagram.com/nickkoumalatsos/?hl=enhttps://nickkoumalatsos.com/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZcQGaAW40K2Ic9dAKb8GyVmMNnODlcCponMLrJ8RPY9ho4pCHJD2Od3c4_aem_tgT1j_hjyIOLSCRCK9yaVg“Your Network is your NETWORTH!”Make sure to add me on all SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:Instagram: https://jo.my/paulalex2024Facebook: https://jo.my/fbpaulalex2024Youtube: https://jo.my/ytpaulalex2024Linkedin: https://jo.my/inpaulalex2024Looking for a secondary source of income or want to become an entrepreneur?Check out one of my companies below to see if we can help you:www.ATMTogether.comwww.CashSwipe.comFREE Copy of my book “Blue to Digital Gold - The New American Dream”www.officialPaulAlex.com

Welcome to the Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight-figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together.

Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now. Hey guys, and welcome back to the Level Up Podcast. I'm gonna be your host, Paul Alex. And today we have a truly special guest joining us. He's a man who has overcome adversity, pushed through incredible challenges, and now helps thousands of people worldwide do the exact same thing. From serving in the Marine Corps Special Operations to becoming a successful entrepreneur, coach,

and bestselling author, Nick's dedication to building both mental and physical resilience while empowering others to reach their full potential is truly inspiring. We're gonna take a deep dive into his journey from military service to creating a lifestyle of freedom and purpose. Get ready to level up your mindset and take action towards your goals.

Let's welcome Nick Kumalasos to the show. Nick, how you doing, brother? Thanks, Paul. Appreciate that. That was great. No, absolutely, dude. I got to give you props, dude. I did a little bit of research before you came.

You know me, former law enforcement. So I have to do my due diligence before guests come on the show. And from dude, Johnny Slicks to being in the restaurant business to being now a best selling author, dude, let's dive into your background, brother. So I, um, high school dropout. Yeah. Uh, two felonies by the time I was 13 years old. And, uh, that's how the story starts. Uh, grew up in a, from a very poor family, single mom.

And obviously when and actually I talk about this, you know, not to fast forward, but I talk a lot about this in the one of the programs we run, the Squire program, the father and son event, the rite of passage for young men that they do with their fathers. But I talk about when a young man does not have that strong father figure or mentor in their life, there is a evil enemy out there just with their arms open waiting for that young man. Like, come on over. We got you. Join our crew. We'll take care of you and

the reality is Young men are seeking that we were we were tribal were tribal people we require it We require try we require require that kind of community and when a positive one is not Available there's gonna be a negative one that scoops him up and that was me I got scooped up in that negative one so yeah by the time I was 13 two felonies locked up you'll get you'll get a kick out of that this both times I was arrested and locked up no lawyer no parent and I don't know how they got away with it but it was the 90s so I don't know how they got away with it, but it was the 90s. So I don't know.

It takes me back to when I was working in Oakland, California, just roughly four years ago, dude, I was dealing with a lot of juveniles, you know, from like, dude, like eight, which was the youngest to crazy, right? 17, dude. And I would ask him to be like, Hey dude, like, where are your parents? And I'm like, dude, I don't know. my dad. My mom's like, you know, prostitute on the street. Yeah. Like, what do you my mom was not prostitute. She was just working two jobs to hold things down.

I was being a little asshole. No, dude, but I resonate. But that's the reality. That is the reality of the world that we live in. No, absolutely. I mean, we need direction as men. And likewise, dude, you know, my dad dad he left my mom at the age of two and my mom she was working literally 18 hours a day as a housekeeper and

Dude, I didn't know the direction I had in life. I had to figure it out. I had to figure it out So dude, so let's let's dive into your story. Mm-hmm. So how did you actually get into business yourself, man? Because with this podcast, a lot of people that actually watch this, they're like beginner entrepreneurs. They're trying to figure it out, dude. And we got age range from probably kids

to our age right now. What's the secret? The secret. That's what everybody wants to know, right? I got the secret for you. And people really do believe that there's a secret and there isn't and it's and people are like, oh, come on, man. What's the thing? What's the one thing? And there isn't just one thing.

It's it's just having tenacity over and this never quit mindset over a very long period of time. And there's a lot of little things that you can do, right? That you can get coaching. We talked about that before we came on. We've both done that. You can have vision, you have to plan, you have to, and then the execution.

But it's always about executing. And I think that's where people go, no, there's this There's this formula that that you're not sharing with us and there really isn't Yeah, I mean there's things that you can do but there's a lot of little things that you can do but the reality is when you want it if you want the secret dude is just not quitting and just Continuing to sometimes eat a shit sandwich for a long period of time before it's not a shit sandwich anymore and so so that's kind of the the wave tops but going back into entrepreneurship and my story I served I served in the Marine Corps from

2000 to 2012 I made a joke saying those are the fun years because it was like the most time we were in active combat, the most the entire time from September 11th to the time I got out. And I was a different person, Paul. I was just angry, tired. I mean, I was just one deployment after the next from the time, pretty much from the time I joined.

And then I was just worn out. I was a very different angry person. And I made the decision after after some things transpired with you know some things the State Department said and things that I've been witnessing myself and probably stuff that you probably saw in law, you know similar bureaucratic BS that you saw in law enforcement you know and just like I think I'm gonna do something else you know. And like I said, I was angry. So.

How old were you? When I got out, 30, 31 maybe. When did you start? I joined when I was 18, turned 19 in recruit training. 19, and then when did you get into like special ops? Pretty fast after I did three years in the regular Marine Corps.

I went to Turkey and Iraq first. And then when I came back, I took selection for second force reconnaissance. At the time was like the top command in the Marine Corps. Couple of years after that, they stood up Marine Special Operations Command, took selection for that. And then spent the rest of my career there.

And how difficult would you say for somebody that's joining the military, because we have a lot of people that actually like, they're like, hey dude, I'm about to go to the Marines. After I come out of the Marines, I'm gonna come and like do business with you. And I'm like, hell yeah, let's do it, right? So like, for everybody that's like right now watching,

they're about to join the military, how difficult is the process to go into special ops? I'll give you an idea of this is how difficult it is. Now granted this is in my time, you know, I'm an old dude now, but in my time when I showed up to what now is basically Coniston school and when I was in second force, I showed up there was about 80 something people that showed up at the school on the first day. We graduated 14

Yeah, so That's the attrition rate and what people don't realize is there's that's not even the full attrition rate because there's a three There was a three-month preparatory course to even go to the school. And that attrition rate was the same. So then you go to that, you just stack onto that. So it's the majority of young men underestimate the physical attribute that they need to endure that level of training for that amount of time. That's one.

Second, they underestimate the mental fortitude that they need to complete those courses. You have to be willing to, and this is gonna sound really dramatic, but it's the truth, you have to be willing to go, okay, I'm either gonna graduate or I'm gonna die on this dang course. I'm to push my body to where I'm just going to drop dead. Yeah, because that's what it's going to take.

And I remember one we were I was at amphibious for kind of school at Four Story, Virginia. And I failed a rock run. It was funny, I was talking to my former teammate now business partner Josh Hansberger about this in the car yesterday Is You've been doing this so for a long You've been up since like four, you know, you're who knows when you're gonna go to bed You got a long day ahead of you. You've been on this ruck run for X amount of time and you're like

I'm gonna I'm gonna throttle back a little bit because I got a long day ahead of me. That's a quit. You just took your foot off the gas. And I'll never forget, in that course, you got, I think you had homework and stuff you had to do on the weekend, like write your patrol orders and all kinds of different SOPs that you have to do.

But they let you go off base and like, you know, grab a burger, do whatever you want to do for a few hours. And that was like coveted, man. Like those few hours off, you know, away from the command was coveted. But if you failed that Friday Ruck Run, no liberty, no off base privileges for you. And I failed and you only have so many failures,

and I don't remember exactly what it was or what it is now, but you only get like a couple, and then you're done. And I'll never forget, it was a mental choice to throttle off, and to me, looking at even that throttle back, kind of like we were talking about business, right? Like you get comfortable, you get like though there's runway or maybe I'm making money and everything's good so I'm just gonna throw it back a little

bit and chill that's when you that's that's a quit you just quit on yourself because you throw it back you know I mean and I'm not talking about setting things up setting systems in place to where you can strategically plan and throttle back when you, not even say throttle back, it's like while you're doing something with your family, your team's throttling down. You know what I mean? Like there's a difference. I'm talking about you personally in your own head choosing to take the easier road because it's hard. And anyway, so that was that was the, that was a thing that really stuck with me. And there's another story about when I actually did add some physical injuries and I got tapped out.

I went through a great story. It's really this is a story of next weakness. I like talking about those. Let's hear it, dude. Yeah. So back in 2000, had it been 2001, the Marine Corps, you ever heard of the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program? Maybe they call him a map, McMap. Dude, when my COO gets here, I'm pretty sure you guys would be like, I like it. Yeah, he'll know. So it was the infancy stages of the Marine Corps martial arts program. And I was, I want to say I was like a Lance Corporal or something like that. Corporal or Lance, E3 or E4 in the Marine Corps.

Young, a couple years in the Marine Corps, if that. And I got this opportunity to go to this Greenbelt Instructor's Course, which back then was like totally unregulated.'s it's it's not that difficult anymore but it was three weeks of getting your ass beat like I mean you just got beat down rules no rules man it was just eight hours a day of PT and and fighting like fight club style fighting. And right towards the end of the three weeks, I had fractured a couple ribs. I tore my ear off, a portion of my ear off,

and I sewed it back on. Black eyes, concussion, and I remember the night before, I'm like holding my ribs, like, you ever fracture your ribs? Yeah. There's nothing you can do, man. Light sucks. Every time you take a breath, you ribs, like, you ever fracture your ribs? Yeah. There's nothing you can do, man. Light sucks. Every time you take a breath,

you're just like, you're losing your breath. You know what I mean? So I show up the next morning, and Paul, the next day is the final exercise and it's graduation. It's a wrap after this. It's like a two hour FTX, and then it's graduation.

So I show up and I tell the guy who was the gunnery sergeant that the senior instructor of the course I'm like, hey gunny like this is the situation. I just don't know if I can do the FTX So you're already quitting in your mind. Yeah before you're even going to before I even before I even tried to do it He's like, I know, cause I'm like. They made you pay for it, right? No, he didn't. Yes, but not physically.

Watch, this is the most brilliant thing he ever did. And usually he was a hard ass dude. And he wasn't hard. He goes, so I just told him, and I was like, you know, people were telling me like, oh dude, you got fracture ribs, you twist wrong, you go through your lung, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, all kinds of, you know.

Not, yes, that is true, but it's also nonsense, a little bit of nonsense, right? But like, the reality of how, what would have to transpire for that to happen is pretty drastic, you know what I mean? Anyways, so he goes, he goes, all right, Cpl. K, you're good, just follow along and you'll sit this one out.

You'll watch everybody do it and then that'll be a wrap. So he goes back and then I'm right there. I watched the whole FTX happen. I'm sitting on the sidelines watching it all happen. And then they graduated. He's like, I can't graduate because you didn't do the FTX. He goes, here's the thing, Corporal K.

He goes, if you would adjust, everybodyal K. He goes, if you would've just, everybody knew you were broken, you were hurt. But if you would've just showed up and did your best, the team would've carried you and I would've graduated you because you did all the work up until this point. Wow. He said, but you let that get into your head. He was like, and for that I can't graduate you.

Wow. So I did the whole thing. I was there just getting my ass beat the whole time. Dude, that's heartbreaking, man. But you know what? That was the deciding factor in my life to where I was like, I will never, never tap out ever again.

The only other time I, and it wasn't really a tap out, it was like a throttle back, which I consider, you know, kind of an internal quit. But even then I was like, I'll fucking die. I will die here before I quit. But that was such, that was one of the biggest lessons of my life, was him doing that. And Nick, would you say that being in the military,

going through these experiences, just that alone, dude, it showed you to be resilient, but do you think that contributes to your success in entrepreneurship? I think it definitely played a factor, but it definitely wasn't, I don't want anyone to think that I got out of the military, started my first business,

and it was like, I knocked it out of the park, and I didn't have failures, and I didn't lose things, and that, as a matter of fact, the first, let's see, 13, four years, five years, sucked. I mean, Paul, it sucked. It sucked. And you got out of the military at 31.

Yeah. And how long until you got into full-time entrepreneurship? So I got out in 2012, immediately started working. I was contracting for Intelligence Operations Company. Kind of doing some of the similar stuff that I was doing in special operations and still very rough around the edges like still really rough around the edges and which cost me essentially the contract so I rubbed some people the wrong way on On a Monday, I had 26 people in my office getting support.

I was supporting three guys down range on a secure network all simultaneously. Got the call from my team lead saying, hey, they just canceled your contract, you're done, you can pack your shit and go home. And I was like, on a Monday afternoon, that was my first wake up to, oh, I could be fired? Yeah. Like, I'm done? Yeah. And, that was my first wake up to, oh, I could be fired? Yeah.

I'm done? Yeah. And so that's what happened, man. I got canned right out the gate. And ironically, this is the story. This is the story of how, if this would not have happened, I probably would not have started my own business.

So I got canned out on Monday. On Tuesday, a teammate, so I developed a team. They let me handpick a team to create this program that we were working on that I created with my team. And Nick, just real quick for the listeners, somebody that does know nothing about the military, dude. Like when you see program What do you mean by that? So so for the front? How do I word this the right way for civilians? Yeah, so It was a process So we utilized a certain System and we created a process and a program around that system of how to use it and it became wildly successful

and And it was something it was it was basically a Concept that I had done in special operations already And so when I got contracted to bring to do this program to do this for this company I brought that expertise of real world intelligence and operations to that company. And then we created a formalized program around it, a system, a training program, and a execution program around that.

So essentially you were like a consultant because you were special ops in the military. You went to a private company. The private company was just like, hey dude, we need your expertise because you're badass in the military. Yeah, I went to a private company the private company was just like hey, dude We need your expertise because you're in the military Yeah, you set up you did the big and they knew because I we had I had worked with them in the military So they knew me. Okay, and then it was one of those things and it was like I got out and they're like we're gonna hire You so for private companies does that happen a lot is like a good old boys club it very much

So it's it was you know, it is in business. It's network. It's networking. So it's all who you know. And so anyways, I got out, you know, and I thought I was rich. My first year out of the Marine Corps made $165,000. Dude, for somebody coming out of the military, that's badass. I was like, I'm rich, bitch!

Yeah. But definitely not. But I felt that way. Yeah. And anyways, so I got canned on Monday. On Tuesday, one of my good friends who was on that team called me and said, hey dude, they just rolled out. They were in a, he was in a meeting up in DC.

He goes, hey, they just rolled out our program to the whole company nationwide, or worldwide. So they profited off of the process that you created. That's awesome. And then canned me. Because, I mean, in reality it's their IP, right? Because I worked for them. So anything I created under that company,

it's their intellectual property. So they made you sign like a contract and all that. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Anything that you produce under us. And that's normal business for Corp. If you work something and you create a program, you do something for that company, you make SOPs, it's not yours, it's the company.

You know what I mean? And which was, you know, whatever. At the end, it's what got me to where I'm at today. But on that Tuesday, I got that call, and he's like, dude, they just rolled out our program to the entire company worldwide. That's the standard now. And I was like, and I had a job offer

with another company making more money almost immediately. And I turned it down. Because it hit me that if I can do this for a company that's valued in the billions, I can do it for a company that's you know valued in the billions I can do it for myself. Yeah, if I can if my work ethic Brain power, you know, whatever it is my expertise could do that for a company

Then I should be able to do it for myself and I started my first business now. I Legit legitimately thought and maybe some people have done this but it wasn't me. I legitimately thought I was gonna be like a millionaire within a year of starting my business. Dude I feel like social media makes that like... Social media wasn't even that big back then though. Dude I feel like social media no no like social media now portrays that. Yes. I'm not saying that it's going to happen, but it like it

portrays that. That's why people are like, oh, they end up quitting like after a couple of months. I'm like, bro, like you're not going to be a millionaire. You haven't gotten your first failure in a couple of months. You got to have a few failures in order to build off of that. Right. And then go ahead and do it.

You know, but no, I feel you on that month, man. So what exactly was your first business? It was. It was, it was, I'm almost embarrassed to even talk about it. It was called STS, Survival and Tactical Systems. And this is where, so the number one, the number one thing, and I released a course on it. I have a 14 lesson course on this particular thing

because I struggle with it. And it's the number one thing that people struggle with and it keeps them from being successful is their own limiting beliefs. Facts, 100%. Their own limiting beliefs and their limiting beliefs come from childhood, it comes from your parents, it comes from your teachers, it comes from working environments, things that people have told you about yourself and over a period of years and decades they stack and it is just an absolute it's just a soul crusher. The force of average man. Yes and kind of like what you know you're with your story like your co-workers telling

you you're gonna lose all your money and yeah you're never gonna make it. Freaking s***. Yeah. So I've believed that because of my background, that's all I really had to offer the world. Nothing I did because you got to think I joined, you know, when I was 18 years old. Now I'm 30 31 years old. Yeah, like I don't know any difference. The milk special operations is what I know, right?

So you knew your entire tactical stuff. Yeah, my whole thing, my whole 20s, everything I've done. So I didn't believe that I had anything else to offer. So if this is what I do, then I might as well start a training consulting company. So that's what we did. And I had this and I call it my first failure because I had this business plan. I mean, dude, you would, people, I would, I laugh at myself now because I worked for.

Let's go into the process, Nick, like, okay, right now you're in your first business. Yeah. You're basically like, dude, I just made this company a ton of money with my processes. Yeah. Let me start a consulting company based on what I know for like more than a decade, right? In the military. So like, did you have a friend that like told you, hey dude, you should be your own consultant.

Was your girl, was your wife? Like, how did you come up with that idea, man? Because I feel like a lot of people that watch this or are listening to this, they're probably like, they're probably in your spot back when you were like 31, dude. Nobody, nobody gave me the idea. It was really that phone call from Darren telling me

that they took what we did and rolled it out. And I was like, well, shit, if they are taking what I did and rolling out, then I can do it for myself. So you were pissed? That was it, yeah, I was pissed. Okay. That was it. Pain.

That's, I mean, there's no big story other than that. It was just, I was watching them take something that I did, can me over it. Yeah. And it wasn't just that, it was also probably a little bit my attitude, but that's a little rough. It happens. You know, and I'm way calmer now.

But in some ways, but it was really that, that took me down that road. It was just that. And I was like, well, if I can do it for them, why can't I do it for myself? And then that's when I legitimately thought that I'd be a millionaire within a year, because I was that confident.

But you need that level of confidence in entrepreneurship. You do, encouraging confidence in entrepreneurship. You do. Yeah. Encouraging confidence and be able to do it. And then. 100%. Anyway, so I had this huge business plan and you would laugh. I'd sit at my desk and I'd like be like building numbers

and spreadsheets and like all that. I mean, I had the most beautiful business plan of how it's gonna make millions of dollars. And I was looking for him. I mean, dude, I went all over the, I went all over the nation looking for investors. I talked to 511, this CEO of 511. I talked to-

I talked to- Wearing their shorts. I talked to all kinds of people and it just never came to fruition. And eventually things started to, and this is what I'm gonna tell, this is what I'll tell people. You're never gonna have that first million dollar business

until you start walking down the yellow brick road. If I wouldn't have started that first business, it wouldn't have led me to where I'm at today, sitting here talking to you with the three main businesses that I have now. Yeah. It never would have happened because every single business, every single failure

Led me to the next one So things started to pivot it was kind of strange So while we were doing good work, we were making a little bit of money. The profit margin was nil I mean, it was just like chasing your tail. You don't I mean just like we did one course We did one training session and it was like all the money was gone again Yeah, you know, so it's painful painful and But through that that networking of doing that job Introduced me to people and showed me more opportunities and it really changed and I was because of my background I was like not into the personal brand thing. It was all about we're stronger as a team than an individual but as I networked and as

people saw me doing what I was doing they wanted me they wanted to work with me they're either way they're privately or they want to do some sort of marketing endeavor like I've done for I've done guns I've done flashlights I've done so they and my background flashlights, I've done, so they, and my background, right? They're like, here's a special operations raider. They, you know, would you test out our gear and see if you'd endorse it and we'll pay you, et cetera. So that started to happen more and more. So the business started to pivot

from training and consulting to marketing. And then I got picked up on a Discovery Channel show training and consulting to marketing and Then I got picked up on a Discovery Channel show and it just kind of things started to kind of go down there And I just followed the yellow brick road. I just kept doing the journey. What year was this? 2015 2015. Yeah, so a couple years in were you like on social media at that time? Yeah I finally got on social media my actually my wife my wife now is the one who's our marketing director And she was like nice, so I had and I met her actually on Instagram. It's hilarious through the business account Really? Yeah That's all I had

That's all I had you know a story Yeah, and then she actually hired me and my team to come out and teach She got a group of people together out in Kansas City. And she goes, hey, if I get enough people together, can I hire you guys to come out and do a course? I'm like, well, here's the minimums, this is what it's gonna cost. And she pulled that shit off. And she pulled, and that's, and that now,

we just hit our 10th year, and we've got a kid together and everything, it's beautiful. Dude, that's a great story, bro. Yeah, but she's the one who said, she goes, so you need to do like your own Instagram and your own social media and we need to brand you and this and that and I resisted, bro.

I hated it. I hated it. Dude, you were like me. Sometimes I'm still like, I feel weird. Sometimes I still feel weird, dude. Like, you know, my marketing guys are like, hey Paul, we need like more pictures like selfies, dude. Yeah.

Like you in the mirror, like just cheesy. But it's just because people are buying you. Yes. And you hit it right on the target, dude. People buy you. So you got on social media. When did you start like building that up, dude? It was within those two years of the business,

that's when it started to happen. And it was almost like within a year of starting it, it was like, okay, we need to, Nick needs to be his own thing also. And what's crazy is I was getting more traction on me than the business was. But it was driving the business. But, and now I just know that, now that's the play.

The play is me. I will drive the business. Personal brand. Personal brand will drive the business. And it does for all of my businesses. I am the marketing machine for all of my businesses. Like by themselves, they don't stand by themselves. Well, a few do.

But how do you funnel traffic to those businesses? Personal brand. Yeah, 100%. It's my voice. And I've learned that over the years, but a lot of that's been from my wife kind of. Pushing you. Yeah.

Making it happen. So for right now, if you have, let's say, somebody from the military or law enforcement, or just in general, entrepreneur, that's trying to start in the humble beginnings of their social media branding, what would you recommend? I would recommend doing the Limiting Beliefs, my Limiting Beliefs course, for sure.

Like, start there. I love that, I love that. And that's really because that's gonna be your holdup, because you're not gonna wanna share videos of yourself. You have to get out of your own damn way. The reality is you have a story to tell and people wanna hear that story and they wanna see you successful.

They want to see, you're always gonna have haters out there but believe it or not, I do believe that people want to see you succeed. And when they see you're, with the story that I found, how found you like that was I was like I saw I was like I immediately liked this guy Immediately because he did this thing people told me couldn't do this other thing Fucking did it anyway. Yeah, and he was successful and what did that do that means?

He was able to provide a life for his family his kids He was able to provide a life for more employees in an environment that they like. And that's what we do at Johnny Slicks. That's what we do at Core Medical. That's what we do with the agogi. That's, that's my businesses. And going back to the law enforcement military guy, like, you have so much more value and worth than you believe. It took me, probably three, probably the reason why I struggled those four to five years,

first four, is I did not take, like, Paul, dude, I was, I mean, do you know what the percentage of people that served in special operations, and not only just served in special operations, but a leader in special operations? Dude, it's like the one of one.

One of one, one of one percent, right? For sure, 100%. And I didn't bring, it took me four to five years to bring any of that experience to business. But as soon as it clicked in my brain that I was like, wait a minute, I don't have to just talk about guns and tactics and all this stuff.

Like all of this operational planning, what do businesses do? Operational planning, create visions, create objectives, build a plan to accomplish their objectives. Well, shoulda did that on a national, I know, on a international level with multiple people. You know, we had a 314 man surrogate force riding around in motorcycles in Afghanistan.

We already did that. Yeah. So all I did was when it clicked, I was like, holy shit, man. I can do this for business. Yeah. And that's when everything took off. Yeah.

That's when I got out of my own way and I realized my value and my self-worth and I removed my limiting beliefs That's when my life Exploded you dominated I dominated and not only that I started helping other people dominate I started taking my phase line approach to planning that I didn't in special operations And applying it to their own life and their own businesses and then they started dominating. It's not rocket science, but we are just in our own way.

No, exactly, I always say it's you versus you, man. It's you versus you. And at the end of the day, why allow other people that have less skills than you, less life experience than you, become multimillionaires, leverage what we have right now, which is social media, leverage personal brand. I think there's a lot of people out there dude that have like specialty skills and they just don't leverage it because they they don't think that they're marketable but like dude that aha

moment that you had where you were like dude i was like the one percent the one percent of the special ops like bro like if you would have started sooner you'd probably be like in freaking hollywood movies right now exactly you know and I always tell myself the same thing I was gonna you say that yeah, he's just like actually was or about to be you know Hey, who knows right might be a special announcement right now. You know what I'm saying, but um, no, dude So alright, let's get into your three businesses. Yeah, so which one came first and how did you come about it? So the first one came about, let's go with the agogie, the first one came about I had owned my shit. I love sharing the fat photos of me.

And that was kind of like, and there's a story, there's a book on my website, or you can get it on Amazon, but I sign them on my website. Called Excommunicated Warrior, The Seven Stages Transition. That is the story of me leaving special operations and kind of my transition out of that and the struggles I had leaving the military. And then where could they get that book? NickKumalansos.com or Amazon. Sweet.

But if you figure out my website, then I'll sign it for you. There you go, guys. It's a great story and really it's your story. It's the reader's story. And even though it's my story, every single person who's read it from every walk of life is like, dude, I felt like I was reading my own story.

Because it's not about what's happening,'s about how you feel it's about the levels of transition that you're going through and where your heart and mind is at the time and that's why it resonates with the reader that's why it feels like their story it's not about what's actually going on in the story it's about the emotion and the heart pulling that's happening in their life at the time so that's that story but I got I, I was like, when I got out of the Marine Corps, I was 240 pounds, 10% body fat. Like I was jacked. You know, I'm 205 now, but I'm also 42. And I like to do other things than I used to do. But I got to 240 pounds and almost 30% body fat within a couple years of being out of the Marine Corps And I took a look in the mirror. I was like what has happened to you and a lot of that's in that book but at the end of it, I got I started to own my shit and got my got squared away and

When people saw that they were like, how did you do that? And it wasn't just nutrition and fitness. It was so much more mindset and the limiting belief stuff that I had to overcome. Because people don't, I don't believe people have a fitness and nutrition problem. The problem is between their ears. Because if you got your mindset on point,

well nutrition and fitness is easy. Yeah. But people try this fitness nutrition thing, but they don't handle the mindset part and they constantly self-sabotage. They can't, they don't understand why they can't reach their goals. It's because you have an issue that you're not dealing with. There's something in your life, there's a traumatic event, there's something that you're holding onto that's keeping you from reaching your full potential. So when I went through that transition,

we had me and my business partner started this little program, little side program called Surviving the Cut. And it was just like, I think like a 90 day program that we were putting guys through. And it was like rudimentary, it was like Google Sheets. And like, I think we had like a Facebook group and that was it, man.

It was just really rudimentary. But we had a little bit of success with it. And I was like, okay. And I talked to Josh, I was like, dude, I think we're onto something here. And that gave birth to the Yagoge, which is our coaching group. And now it's now it's a whole community. We have two apps that are, you

know, we have a fitness and nutrition app, we have a coaching app. It is a whole community of individuals just trying that are going to level up their life. We have multiple tiers. I do all the business coaching for guys that are entrepreneurs and want to do like my phase line approach to planning I do all that through through the ago gi as well those are my tier one clients and then we have you know, I have multiple mentors and multiple coaches in the program and It's been a beautiful thing to see grow to see fathers take ownership of their life back

and not fall prey to what the opposition wants. Right? Those core values. And I just found out this morning that I was on Instagram. I can't be shown to non followers anymore. Emilio, didn't I just say that, bro? Dude, like he forgets that I used to be former like a former detective dude and like I observe it almost like hey how come I can't find Nick on one of my other pages and he's just like I

don't know bro like I don't know maybe you guys got each other blocked I was like there's no way so I'm like looking dude and I was like hey can you and then he has that idea he's just like hey, send me Nick's profile to the podcast page. He sends it to me and I'm like, dude, he's not blocked or anything. So then like I go ahead and I hit follow and that's it dude, so yeah. And I'm like, maybe he has like sort of political views

or something like that, Instagram dude. So I went through to like a lot of my, like my last, I just made a video on the way down here. I made a little video. So I got that screenshot like a lot of my like my last I just made a video right on the way down here I made a little video So I got that screenshot. I was like what the heck man something was up I knew something was up But so I got that screenshot of them saying like you can't be seen to non followers anymore Like we're not gonna share your shit to anybody. That's crazy. And and so I went to I went to all my posts and I was like

family anniversary fitness health And so I went to all my posts and I was like, family, anniversary, fitness, health, training, jujitsu, yeah, like faith, Jesus. But this is violating community guidelines, wholesome core values, like wanting what best for families and fathers and for wives and for children, that's violating community guidelines. Yeah. Wild of the world that we live in.

Dude, it's crazy. I think if you accumulate enough haters, they'll dispute or like they'll mark your profile if enough people go ahead and they actually tag your profile. So they'll get enough alerts where essentially it'll do that. Dude I've got in freaking um what was it not in Bessel but uh I've got in uh Black Build dude like for like $15,000 the past year where hackers from India dude they would message me like hey like me and my gang we're gonna take down your profile and we know who you are and all this jazz so pay us $5,000 or we're gonna take it down and I legit I'm like fuck off

So then the next day they take down my shit and I'm like, all right, dude, where I send the money So I'll fucking send the money dude, and I get it right back, but they're fucking doing this, bro They've done it to a ton of other people that I know they're entrepreneurs What is the proper term? people that I know they're entrepreneurs that what is the proper term? Um, extort. Yeah, they extort money do like the fucking mafia like the online mafia. So do the online game is fucking crazy now. Like, I don't know. It's just wild. It's just wild. And I was really I was like, okay, what have I done? You know, I do. I do share some political stuff, but so does every like, dude, everybody.

Everybody does. Like so. But why are you like, you know does like so but what's the why like you know? You're gonna ban Fox News for sharing political stuff. It's wild bro like I share a pin an opinion Yeah, you know and I share my I share about my core values And I want what's better for for people for Americans in their lives Yeah, and that goes against your community guidelines, so you're not gonna show my shit Anyways, yeah, so that I digress. Yeah. Anyways, we will win in the end I don't really care because we're gonna keep going let's go let's go block me turn my shit off it doesn't matter I'll keep going keep building

keep you down I actually fantasize sometimes about losing it all just so I could show people how to do it all over again yeah faster because once you know not I don't know leave you dude like you know, it doesn't leave you dude. Like you know the process, you know what you have to do, you'll do it faster. I'll do it faster, I've got the experience now. Absolutely. I know it works.

So that's the agoghi, that's, I mean, we're just transforming people's lives into the lives that they want and taking what I've learned and all those things that I failed at, when I sucked at, and utilizing those as lessons for them so that they can not make the same mistakes or we can collapse time, right? Yeah.

And that's really what it is, like when we talk about coaching, it's how do we collapse time? Yeah. You know, something that's gonna take them maybe three, four years on their own, dude, how can we do that in 12 months? Like let's collapse that in 12 months.

Let me take all the failures in my network and my lessons that I have and then impart that on you. So we just skip all the BS. Now you have to be ready for that, right? You have to be like, I'm an open book. Let's just let's just get after it. But anyways, so that's that's the gogi. And then it's kind of all is weird. It's weird. It's all kind of happened simultaneously. Like my my relationship with core medical and Johnny Johnny six like it all just kind of came to fruition Which is it's weird, but it's not because I gave space for it to happen

By removing those limiting blues by taking care like owning my shit getting back in shape By Leaning into coaching of my for myself, you, and my own personal development. It's just, it's like all these opportunities that we're waiting to happen. And I tell people, opportunities won't show up on your doorstep. You have to go walk the path.

And just like walking that, I like to use the word walking the yellow brick road, because what happened when Dorothy started walking the yellow brick road? Who she come across? The Tin Man, the lion, the people, the friends, the network. Like the whole, that's the whole thing is the teacher will appear when the students ready. Like you have to walk the path, the teacher's out there, but he's not gonna come knocking the door and be like, hey

you ready to learn? Yeah. No, you got to go, you got to go walk the path and you'll find them. You'll find the coach, you'll find the hey, you ready to learn? Yeah. No, you got to go. You got to go walk the path and you'll find them. You'll find the coach. You'll find the mentor. You'll find the teacher as you're moving forward. And I think that's what happened with all of my stuff because it all happened simultaneously. So with Johnny Slicks, it's a beautiful, beautiful story.

My business partner, John Rush, he got out of the Marine Corps. Crazy stuff. He was working at a gas station. He's working at a barbershop. And his hair was dead. And he was like, he was like 21. He was like a young, young kid. Yeah. And he goes, you know what, I started looking at the products he was using and they were filled with chemicals. And he goes, hmm, well, if I remove these chemicals, maybe these chemicals are the problem. He was like, you know, Google searching him and everything. He's like, what if I came up with an organic solution? So he worked for like a year trying to figure out what this organic solution was.

And he was like burning shit and setting shit on fire in his house. So he was like the chemist? Yeah, we make a joke like he's like in a meth lab making like cooking stuff up. Like breaking bad? Yeah, breaking bad. Yeah.

Awesome. We actually have in the original lab, we have like a, what was his name? Mr. White, was that his name? Yeah. Walter White. Yeah, we have like a little printout of him on the wall above the lab.

What year was this? This was, so this was for him would have been 17. 2017. 2017, yeah. And we started the company. Anyway, so he, cause I was getting big on personal brand and marketing, YouTube, et cetera.

And he tried to hit me up for six months, bro. For six months And he tried to hit me up for six months, bro. For six months he tried to hit me up about, and at this time, what I didn't share with this, I have three main businesses now, but at the time, at one point, Ali and I had seven businesses all at the same time. Holy shit. Yeah, too much.

It's control chaos. Yeah, don't do that. Don't do that. Go get an itch and then go all in on that one thing. But I had a team, I had shipping and receiving, I had all, it was easy to like, I'm gonna do this, and I just stacked it on top. So I come in on Monday, my team be like,

I got an idea, my team be like, oh no, Nick. But we sold off a bunch, made money on them, shut a couple down we sold it. We sold off a bunch made money on on them. Shut a couple down and sold several. But anyway, so he hit me up and he's like, hey, can you can I bring some to you because he just want me to share it like a like an ambassador or something. And so we finally got a hold of me six months later. And I said sure man drop it by the office.

I'll check it out. So I show up he had dropped it off I messaged him on Instagram I said hey man I just I just saw your stuff are you still close he's like yeah man I'm like five minutes down the road so he turned to you he came back and we hung out for a little bout and I asked about business questions like what you know what's what's his infrastructure like how you taking orders what you know just random stuff that stuff that you and I are interested in and he had no answers for business questions like what's his infrastructure like, how you taking orders, just random stuff. The stuff that you and I are interested in.

And he had no answers for anything. He makes a joke now, he's like, I was, yeah, he goes, Nick was asking me about infrastructure and I was a no for structure. No, I mean, it makes a lot of sense, dude. Because when I started just business in general, like, I think at the beginning I got very vulnerable with going ahead and saying,

well, I'm the CEO, this is my business, right? I feel like there's a lot of entrepreneurs that think they can do it all. But then what I found out is that I don't know shit in the beginning like everyone else. So I'm more of a visionary guy. Like I'm a marketing guy. And then I just hire smarter people than me to go ahead and do the processes. Yeah, who's gonna do it? Yeah. Yeah, not how are you gonna do it? Who's gonna do it?

Exactly. Yeah, absolutely and So so we've started talking and then I used the product for about a week and I tell Ali I'm like This is a million dollar product Now the branding was garbage and I'm sorry John the branding was garbage, and I'm sorry, John, the branding was garbage, the infrastructure was garbage, but the product, what he had created was genius. And I was like, this is a multi-million dollar product. And so I'm in Texas and I shoot him a message,

or I give him a phone call, and I was like, hey man, oh no, I shoot him a message, it's like, hey call. I was like, hey man, oh no, I shoot him a message. It's like, hey, love your stuff. When I get back from out of town, I'd like to sit down and talk to you about it. And he hits me back. He's like, Nick, I'm gonna be real with you. If we don't have this conversation right now,

I'm not gonna sleep for a week. Cause he was like, there's no way that I'm just gonna like, cool, that's a cool text message and then just go chill for a week, wait till you get home. So I just laughed. I said, okay, let's jump on the phone. And I told him on the phone to say, hey man, I think you really got something here. I think you got a million dollar product.

Yeah, I think you have a million dollar product and I want to partner with you. I want to make this an actual business. And said I don't want an answer think about it we'll sit down we talk about we'll sit down and then we'll go from there and and we sat down in Chipotle with him him and his wife Rebecca who were like so young and didn't hardly even know him and I think I asked him I was like yes you guys have drug problems how old was you at that him. And I think I asked him, I was like, you guys have drug problems? How old was he at the time? Shit man, I think they were 24 and 23.

Oh wow, okay. And what, and unbeknownst to me, he had just had his car repoed. Wow. So like, they were selling plasma to like try to buy materials for it. So like on a weekly basis, they were selling plasma to get money to buy materials for the business.

And then he had his car repoed, like two months before we started Johnny Slicks so we officially started in 2018 and I launched it on YouTube we Ali built the website we rebranded everything I told him to make as much I was like how much can you make I was like how much you guys I got 20 jars of pomade he thought that was a lot 20 jars of pomade. He thought that was a lot. 20 jars of pomade. 20 jars. And like some beard oil and stuff like that.

Awesome. Yeah, and I was like, yeah, you need to make more. So we both invested money. We started the business with $400. And his biggest sale of a month was like 300300 something. Which he didn't even make profit because of the way he ran his business.

Like he made 348 and it probably cost him like 375 to make. So we redid all that of course. And within the first hour we made more in the first hour of launching than he had ever made it a month First year we did six figures. Yeah, and this year we became an eight-figure company, dude. I love that within seven years, bro Congrats because that that alone just shows you perseverance discipline visionary right and just somebody that knows a process,

like a facilitator. It's huge, it's huge, dude. Make sure to check out my YouTube channel, officialpaulalex.com for more motivational episodes. So when you guys did the launch, how did you guys set up something like that, man? Because you said 400 bucks, you talked to your business partner at that time,

dude, who was essentially broke, no disrespect, to your business partner, but he didn't have any money. And there's a lot of people in the same situation right now, man. So, how did you guys come up with the plan to actually launch that product? So that's where I kinda came into play with my expertise and everything we've talked about

in special operations and everything we've done, right? That's where I came in as the, I guess you could say the integrator for that business and really just integrated everything and made it a business. Let him focus on the juice, right? And let me focus on the customer and building the foundation

of what that business has become. And what's beautiful about it now is in the things that, and it's always been this way, but we've hammered down on the message now that we're all American made, we're all American manufactured with organic goods. So all of our products are 100% organic. Okay, I mean 100%, not like all natural. Asbestos is natural, you know? Yeah.

But like products that aren't gonna cause you discomfort, pain, I mean the reality is some of our competition sells the disease, I mean you can Google this, they're selling you a product that causes a type of skin cancer and if you look at that same company 40% of their profits for the year come from chemo treating that cancer that their product causes. That's wild dude. That's wild. It's legit. But I mean that's how these large pharmaceutical companies are

making billions of dollars. They're selling you the disease and the cure. So like so we're and a lot of it's overseas and it's you know it's all companies are making billions of dollars. They're selling you the disease and the cure. So like, so we're, and a lot of it's overseas and it's, you know, it's all garbage stuff. So we're just like, nope, we are, we've been told to outsource manufacturing. We're told to outsource customer service. We've been told to outsource fulfillment

and basically just be a marketing company. But how does that benefit, we have 417 vendors or suppliers that are all American American owned that all have so not only do we hire people and Give them and our starting salary or starting hourly wage is above the national average so like in North Carolina North Carolina, I think it's So like in North Carolina, North Carolina, I think it's 7.25 or seven something an hour is minimum wage. So we won't we start the beginning employee starts at 1750. Wow. An hour. If you're a low level employee, you're starting at 1750.

That's amazing, dude. And because I'm not going to, Because I'm not going to I'm not going to skimp on cutting corners or cutting margins so that we can make an extra dollar and then send our money to China or India or Pakistan or whoever, you're supporting Americans. You're supporting the people that work in this business and you're supporting the 417 other companies that we get our materials from that are also all American made. You got to think every single one of those companies have however many employees that have however many families and people they're taking care of. So this is like, you know, not to get political, but this is the reason why, like when Trump talks about American made businesses and what he's going to do and the tax breaks

and everything that is that is huge for America. And it's huge for us because what that would do for I mean, that would add so much more to the company to be able to pay more and be able to scale our business, hire more employees, maybe we've got a whole family's working for us. We got wives, husbands, and sons in our company. Like multiple, it's wild. But that's what it's about. So when we talk about Johnny Sixx

and we talk about body wash and shampoo and conditioner and the 40 something SKUs that we have, it's really not about soap. Yeah, it's really not about soap. It's about America, American manufacturing and keeping our dollars here in the United States. Supporting America. Supporting America. I love that.

That's what Johnny Slicks is really, really about. Yeah. And it's awesome to be able to have a company that can do that. Like, obviously, we want you to use Johnny Slicks because it's good products and it's healthier for you. And if you love your family, your kids, don't put bullshit on them. You know what I mean? Obviously we want you to use Johnny Slicks because it's good products and it's healthier for you. If you love your family, your kids, don't put bullshit on them. You know what I mean? But the meaning and the value, dude. But that's what... the opportunity to be able to serve people like that with a business is just rad.

So that's Johnny Slicks. That's badass, dude. I'm gonna go buy some supplies after this man. It's awesome I love that so careful. Yeah, I'll one warning with Johnny slicks is When a man wears Johnny slicks women smell it am I wrong Brandon? there you go, and We've had several we've had several babies created from We've had several babies created from men. I think we're over like 15 now. I love that.

I love that. Gotta try it for myself, bro. Let's see what the wife says. The last one is, and this kind of came out of my book as well, Leaving Special Operations is Core Medical, which is actually it's one of the reasons why I'm down here is our partners, Sydney Gordon is the CEO and one of the owners of Core Medical Group.

I started working with them six years ago and it's really out of my own education of leaving. One of the reasons why I kind of struggled was, dude, I got out and through multiple TBIs, etc. What we call now is type 2 hypergonitism. I had a testosterone level of 91. Oh wow. So no wonder my drive was down. Yeah. No wonder why I couldn't sleep depressed, anxious. You know my hormones were whacked. Yeah. 91 for a man is, there are women that have higher testosterone than a 91 and I'm 31 with a 91. Yeah. Anyways, so through through that I met I met core medical group sort of work with them and then became a managing partner to be able to provide kind of the same operational

experience as well as the marketing efforts to help veterans and men in general get with a clinic, a nationwide clinic that's not a cookie cutter TRT mill that's going to look at your blood work and look at your symptoms and treat you like a human being. Core Medical is one of the only national TRT clinics that can do telemedicine that still maintains a human to human relationship. Wow. So there's a lot of companies out there. You fill out a form online and you have, you know, you pick your finger,

which if you're pricking your finger for blood, that's that's the first red flag. Yeah. Because when you go get blood for core, they get six vials. Yeah. 100 percent. It's a 28 panel blood test. Like you're going to know everything under the sun. And then you have a human being human being relationship with your doctor and your patient coordinator. And we're one of the top three at this point, the top three clinics in the nation. So like the be able to and that's really, I got a hand I got to give credit where credit to

that's that's Sydney Gordon's gotta hand, I gotta give credit where credit due, that's Sydney Gordon's vision for that, because he just absolutely hated this like form fill, you know, process where you can't talk to anyone. So you have a symptom, you're having a problem, maybe you're having, you know, an issue with, you know, erectile dysfunction or sleep or recovery or brain, whatever it is, whatever the thing is

that you're dealing with, and you can't talk to someone. Yeah, like that's garbage. That's garbage care. So being able to actually do that, but at scale is impressive. No, it comes back to old school values and just customer service, dude.

You know? I think that's what makes a couple of my companies a little bit different. We're very old school. We'll pick up the phone, dude. We're not texting. I hate texting. So at the end of the day, I'm a big believer in that. Question. Do you think becoming a managing partner with your last business, okay, did building a personal brand contribute to that, dude? Like, do you think that way, like it just gave you an easier access to network with like high level individuals? Absolutely, because they see what you're doing,

they see what you have, you bring to the table. It's your resume. Yeah. Like it is, it is my resume. And one of these days when they're all done, said and done, if I want to do something, if I want to teach somebody something, if I want to do something, I have a customer base. With no business, I have a customer base.

Yeah. So it doesn't matter what it is, if I get passionate about something and I, you know, and listen, there's always chapters to everything. Of course. You know, I won't be with Johnny Slicks forever, you know, probably will be with the Agoge forever, not forever, but for a very long time. But when the other ones go away, right, when we when they either get sold or bought or who knows what will happen, you know, down the road. Nick will always be my mission in life is to inspire, educate, motivate others to live

a healthier and successful life. I'm on this at this point in my life. I am here to just help humanity. So my personal brand will help drive that for the years to come. And I'm never going to stop working this idea of retirement. That was a boomer thing. It's not real so I'm telling my dude like I'm gonna work until forever now granted what that looks like will be different you know I might work a few hours a day here and there and then be you know

kite boarding in Greece or something you know what I mean why not whatever but nonetheless like my work and my value to humanity is ongoing and having a personal brand is the only thing that's going to facilitate that over a long period of time. Right now with you focusing a lot on your personal brand as you should, right? Being an entrepreneur in 2024 going into 2025, dude, I can't believe this year is already over. It's freaking crazy. I can't believe the elections is about to happen in the next couple of weeks, you know?

Everybody's like, you know, fear, fear, fear. It's just like, dude, like, focus on what you gotta build right now. I'm gonna do, we're gonna do the same thing regardless. Exactly, regardless, right? At the end of the day, you stay on task for the mission, dude. So with that being said, dude, what upcoming things do you have going on, dude?

We are working on, so the big thing right now is Johnny Slick's going into retail. Nice. Yeah. Nice. Scarily awesome, huge, huge deal. Huge opportunity? Huge opportunity, but.

Good for you, dude. But so going back to that, going back to that, we, when I hit that, like you said, like foot off the gas, you got complacent. Yeah. That year, like three years ago, and I saw the annual revenue and the growth of the company. When I jumped back on board and was like,

I talked to my partner, everybody was like, I'm sorry, this is all my fault, I'm the one that drives the train. And then I was like, but strap on because we're gonna make up for it. And we have, but by doing that year after year and double, over doubling our business year after year is what drove us to have the opportunity

now to go into retail. And that's just gonna open up a hole. I mean, that's really where we're gonna get a piece of the market share and become dangerous. Good. Yeah, so that's the big thing coming up. And then of course, always my events. GoGi Live, my entrepreneur accelerators, Squire program,

these are things that I'm massively passionate about that are ongoing always. Nick, and one question that I wanted to ask you, man, in the very beginning when you were telling the story between you and your partner with Johnny Slicks, what do you think is the determining factor to actually have somebody join you as a business partner or to even have a business partner, dude?

Because I've, you know, me myself, dude, like I've ran a few businesses here and there and I've had it where it worked out well with business partners and then others where it was just a complete shit show. Disaster. Right? So what would be like- That like robs you from like your peace,

insanity in your life. Dude, like you don't even understand bro. I have so much gray hair because of that. So what would be your guidelines dude, for a beginner right now that's just like, dude should I partner up with family members? Should I partner up with like my friend? Like, so it's, you know, Paul, it's hard because, you know,

this these are some of the stipulations that I talked to and I've and I've one. What do they bring to the table? Can you do it by yourself? And I don't mean do it by yourself as in like do it by yourself. I mean, can you find the right team of people? To do to be the who's you know what I mean for you that you don't bring to the table Yeah, okay, so and a lot and a lot of times I I coach people on I coach people on doing that like

Let's won't you just do you? Alright, do you. Now, great partners can make the world go round. Like, I would not, Johnny Sixx wouldn't be what it is if we didn't have the team that we had, right? We didn't have the ownership that we had. Core Medical would not be what it is and be able to serve as many patients as it does if we didn't have the partnerships in place that we do. Like that's the reality.

Your network is your net worth. Now with that said, what is that individual's core values? Those are your rules of engagement. So coming back from a military background, right? My core, because we had ROE's in the military, you had probably something similar in law enforcement, right? Those rules of engagement were my, our go and no-go criteria. Well in the regular world, those are core

values. Your core values are how you analyze people, is that core, are they above the bar on that core value or they above the bar on that core value or are they below the bar on that core value? If they're below the bar, it's a no go. So I would analyze their core values and make sure they match. And then the second thing is, what is the goal on the board?

What is the vision on the board? Do those align? Because a lot of times what happens is you can have the same core values, but one person sees the vision, the goal, something different than you see it. And at that point, you're always going to have these polarizing pulls because they're trying to take the company in two different directions. So with our businesses that we have right now, all of my business partners, and I have partners on every single business. Every single business I have I have partners, but all of us go what is on the board?

Does that align? Okay, let's move forward because it doesn't really matter. I might have an idea for something. Does it get us closer to the goal? Yes or no, if it's a no, it's a no-go. So there's no there's no emotion or ego involved. It's just simply does this thing get us closer to the goal that we agreed on?

And if it does, cool. If it doesn't, it's a bad idea, we're not doing it, period. Because that's what we agreed on. We agreed on that goal on that board. Dude, I love that because the simplicity of just having core values knowing your mission And then if it if it doesn't do if you guys are thinking of doing something that doesn't move the needle towards that goal You don't do it. You don't do it. And that's that's good man, because I know in business, you know, I've met people that

Sometimes they come off prideful. Yeah, and they're just like no dude. I want to do it my way, right? Especially, you know when when you have two guys coming from a background either law enforcement or military and it's hard dude. Ego and pride will ruin it every day. Well there's one thing that I always say to all my guys you can be prideful or you can be rich right? It's true dude in business you know even when the customer sometimes you know they're not happy but you got them great results or whatever right your product is great you know it's great they're like ah dude I'm or whatever, right? Your product is great, you know it's great. They're like, oh dude, I'm just not happy, right?

Dude, they might be going through something in life and what can you do? We're all human, right? So I was just like, all right, cool. Why always stay neutral? But Nick, dude, I love the stories, love the company. I love that you're really bringing America into this, dude. I'm all about that, man.

So last question, my friend. If you could talk back to your old self when you were 31 dude, and you just got kicked from that private company, and what would you tell yourself then? Now that you know all this great stuff dude, that you basically have the roadmap to success, what would you tell yourself back then,

and how to get to success faster? I would first, I'd give him a big hug hug and tell him it's gonna get real rough, but it's all gonna be okay and that I love him and you're gonna be you're gonna be just fine. Now after that I would say hardcore lean into personal development. Just get out of your own way and lean into personal development sooner rather than later. The sooner you do that and the sooner that you take a hard look first, first things first read Napoleon Hills outwitting the devil. Take a hard look in the mirror.

See how you're being controlled. See what you're living for what your core values are and then get some just like you. You have to go on the the growth train Physically mentally spiritually you have to do it the more the faster you grow the faster everything else grows around you And that's what that that's like you said like if I would have done that I Would have been I'd be double where I'm at right now Yeah, but it was that resistance of that first four or five years. You know, so if, that would be the one thing.

Personal development and get coaching early. Do that. Out the gate. That's great advice. Did you have mentors in the military? Not really. No? Listen, I had some really great,

I had some, you know, in certain times, in certain chapters of my life, I had some really great ads, you know in certain times in certain chapters of my life I had some really great leaders that I still consider great leaders now and I'm still close with but That was a different world man. We were fighting a war. We're fighting. We're fighting multiple wars Yeah, you know, so it was the focus was just Train fight train fight train fight train fight. Yeah, you know it wasn't really about anything else Different life. No, absolutely, dude, and you transformed your life man. Yeah

Crazy, I'm a different person I make you know I make it I make it a light of it But I make a joke all the time that if I'd meet myself, you know 12 years ago, we wouldn't be friends really I'd be like you need to get your shit together I love that dude I think I told myself that at the age of 29 about to be 37 yeah 29 I was just like bro could be in a little bitch just fucking do it you know like I sat there like my 15th hour of work dude in the office with paper stacked up to my freaking head and I'm like

Am I gonna do this for another 35 years? My relationships already fucked up at that time before I met my wife Dude, I was seeing my parents less. They all have medical issues Dude, I was depressed as fuck. I was in a dark hole. No one knew So I had to climb out. Yeah, I had to figure it out. Mm-hmm And that's just all it is but I resonated with a lot of the things that you said dude thank you yeah so Nick where can they find you bro huh good luck Instagram everybody please everybody go find me on Instagram real quick no I'm on all the social

media channels and all my all my activations and everything that I work with are all on my website at nickcomalassos.com. Hopefully I can spell it. Love it. Yeah, find me on YouTube as well. I got a YouTube show that's up there as well. I'll get you on there, talk about your story. Yeah, dude.

And yeah, that's it. Love it, love it. And guys, there you have it. Nick's powerful story of how he was able to go from the military to a successful entrepreneur with three businesses that's changing the world and bringing America back. That's what I'm talking about. So with that being said guys, make sure to subscribe, like, comment, share this with somebody you care about guys. And as always, let's level up. Thanks for listening up to the Level Up Podcast.

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