Breakdown to Breakout: The Journey of Nick Huber, Thriving Real Estate and Private Equity Investor

0:00 Speaker 0: You guys are gonna love this episode. Speaker 0: Nick Huber, a k a, the sweaty startup, joined us. Speaker 0: Man, he's He's only thirty three, and he's he's Speaker 0: had a lot of success already. Speaker 0: He's an entrepreneur. Speaker 0: He's got ten different businesses, and I feel like he's adding one every Speaker 0: week. Speaker 0: It seems like, I follow him on Twitter along with Speaker 0: three hundred and five thousand other people. Speaker 0: This is a very, very good episode. Speaker 0: We talk about how when, Nick was in college, he started this moving company, Speaker 0: storage company, and how it really kinda started to fall apart Speaker 0: before his eyes, and he hadn't slept in three weeks. Speaker 0: And that was one of his worst days of his life.

0:40 Speaker 0: I think he said it was the worst day of his life. Speaker 0: During that period in college, but he rebounded and he's gone Speaker 0: on to do some incredible things, in self storage. Speaker 0: And other real estate ventures and mostly service, Speaker 0: service businesses. Speaker 0: So he he talks about that. Speaker 0: But talks a lot about how health and family and Speaker 0: and fun, are equally as important as making money Speaker 0: so, man, he's, this is a fun one. Speaker 0: He drops a lot of knowledge. Speaker 0: I got a lot out of this one. Speaker 0: I'm really thankful that that Nick took the time to talk talk to us, Speaker 0: and I know you're gonna love it. Speaker 1: Welcome to the from adversity to abundance podcast.

1:23 Speaker 1: Are you an entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur, then this show Speaker 1: is for you. Speaker 1: Each week, We bring you impactful stories of real people who Speaker 1: have overcome painful human adversity to create a life of Speaker 1: abundance. Speaker 1: Of abundance. Speaker 1: You are not alone in your struggle. Speaker 1: Join us, and you will experience the power of true stories and Speaker 1: gain practical knowledge from founders who have turned poverty into Speaker 1: prosperity and weakness into wealth. Speaker 1: This podcast will encourage you through your health, relationship, and financial Speaker 1: challenges so you can become the hero in your quest for Speaker 1: freedom.

2:03 Speaker 1: Take ownership of the life you are destined to live. Speaker 1: Turn your adversity into abundance. Speaker 2: Welcome everybody to another episode of the from adversity to abundance podcast. Speaker 2: I am your host, Jamie bateman, and I'm pumped today to have with us Speaker 2: Nick Hubert AKA, the sweaty start up. Speaker 2: Nick, how are you doing today? Speaker 3: Jamie, thanks for having me. Speaker 3: I'm excited to chat. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 2: This is gonna be fun. Speaker 2: So, along with three hundred thousand plus other people Speaker 2: I followed Netcom Twitter. Speaker 2: I get your newsletter as well. Speaker 2: And, Nick, you have a a big big following, Speaker 2: relative to the, I think, my four Twitter followers.

2:45 Speaker 2: I'm just kidding, but But now I'm excited to chat. Speaker 2: I know you have a lot of experience in in, you know, self storage, Speaker 2: different aspects of real estate, commercial, real state and now now the, ever growing, Speaker 2: service company, Speaker 2: I guess, portfolio, I should say. Speaker 2: But instead of me telling the audience about you, why don't you tell a Speaker 2: little bit about yourself? Speaker 2: What are you up to today and, kind of, who do you serve? Speaker 2: Who are you today? Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: So I, I started in two thousand eleven with a small moving and Speaker 3: storage company, grew that company by the time two thousand fourteen, fifteen rolled Speaker 3: around, we in in twelve states, twenty five major colleges with Speaker 3: five part time employees and a hundred and fifty or a hundred and fifty Speaker 3: part time employees, about four or five full time employees.

3:32 Speaker 3: Two thousand sixteen, we started construction on our first self storage Speaker 3: facility, opened it up in two thousand seventeen. Speaker 3: Realized real quick that we wanted to get out of that business and do Speaker 3: more real estate. Speaker 3: So two thousand twenty came around. Speaker 3: We sold that moving and storage company had a you know, a Speaker 3: a sizable exit for us at the time, for sure, a sudden figure exit. Speaker 3: And then we got serious about real estate private equity, have kinda Speaker 3: since went and raised. Speaker 3: A lot of capital from outside investors. Speaker 3: We bought sixty three self storage facilities. Speaker 3: We bought them for a little over a hundred million dollars raised. Speaker 3: Forty million of outside capital. Speaker 3: And, also, I'm a investor and partner in several other, Speaker 3: like you said, agencies, real estate services, you know, small business Speaker 3: services companies and also kinda growing a personal brand with Speaker 3: three hundred thousand followers and about ninety million eyeballs a month across Speaker 3: all my platforms, which is getting pretty crazy.

4:29 Speaker 3: So, yeah, I guess I I guess the best way to put it now Speaker 3: is I'm a I'm a gatherer of people. Speaker 3: I I I build teams. Speaker 3: I I attract talent, and I'm trying to put as many smart people in Speaker 3: the room as I possibly can, and and, good things already happening. Speaker 3: So that's where I'm at today. Speaker 2: That's awesome. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 2: There's there's obviously a ton there that we're gonna start to unpack. Speaker 2: We can't cover everything. Speaker 2: You you've done a ton Speaker 2: yeah, it's it's really, really impressive. Speaker 2: So I know our listener's gonna get a lot of value out of this Speaker 2: for sure. Speaker 2: So as you and I were talking before we hit record, the show is Speaker 2: primarily, you know, it's from adversity to abundance. Speaker 2: And just to set the stage a little bit, I don't pretend that, you Speaker 2: know, Nick has no more challenges and he's reached a abundance Speaker 2: in in your adversities in in the rearview mirror.

5:15 Speaker 2: Hundred percent, of course, and we're gonna talk about the challenges with entrepreneurship, etcetera. Speaker 2: But but there are lessons we can learn from some of the Speaker 2: adversity that you've been through, maybe, you know, either on a personal Speaker 2: level or or business related. Speaker 2: So I'll let you pick it up where you'd like to as far as, Speaker 2: you know, what age you wanna start at, but let's focus in on some Speaker 2: of the adversity that you've been through, Nick, where do you wanna start? Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: So I was lucky enough to be raised in a in a very loving Speaker 3: household with two parents that were relatively stable. Speaker 3: I don't I don't have a lot of past trauma. Speaker 3: Or, you know, all the negative, you know, psychological Speaker 3: and emotional effects that can come from that stuff.

5:57 Speaker 3: But, yeah, I went to Speaker 3: dove into entrepreneurship, and I realized really quick that, hey, this stuff Speaker 3: is hard. Speaker 3: It's hard for everybody. Speaker 3: And I think a great analogy of this is is running a Speaker 3: a marathon. Speaker 3: A marathon Speaker 3: doesn't get easier as you get better at it. Speaker 3: You just get faster. Speaker 3: Entrepreneurship is the same way. Speaker 3: Like, just because you look forward and you see somebody killing it, they're making Speaker 3: all the money, they're starting multiple different businesses. Speaker 3: They're thriving. Speaker 3: They're succeeding. Speaker 3: Just because you see them winning doesn't mean it's stress free. Speaker 3: Doesn't mean it's easy and doesn't mean They're not having a ton Speaker 3: of uncomfortable conversations and hard doing hard things Speaker 3: all the time.

6:42 Speaker 3: Business the stakes go up, you know, you get better at business. Speaker 3: The stakes go up, the the amount of people, the amount of families, the Speaker 3: amount of, you know, direct impact that you have on your community Speaker 3: around you through your employees, through the work that you do, it all amplifies. Speaker 3: So naturally, the problems are amplified. Speaker 3: More money, more problems is a very real saying. Speaker 3: And and, yeah, entrepreneurship is the exact same. Speaker 3: It's it's hard from the beginning, and you're not moving very fast. Speaker 3: And it's hard when you're good at it, and you're moving really fast. Speaker 3: In in a way, gets harder and harder as you go and maybe maybe, Speaker 3: some of us are kind of a a glutton for punishment, but I think Speaker 3: the I mean, it's it's no one story that stands out for me.

7:25 Speaker 3: I mean, we've we were in a we were in a brutally hard business. Speaker 3: That moving in storage company, it was called storage audit. Speaker 3: Talk about Speaker 2: that a little bit. Speaker 3: It's a it's a pickup and delivery student storage business. Speaker 3: So when the kids moved out of their dorms in Boston, Philadelphia, Speaker 3: Washington, DC, all these major cities, We would show up in box trucks with Speaker 3: laborers to pick up all their boxes, label them, take them back, drive them Speaker 3: to a warehouse, store them in the warehouse, and take them back to where Speaker 3: they move the next year. Speaker 3: We did seven thousand five hundred students and fifty thousand Speaker 3: items a year at our peak in two thousand seventeen. Speaker 3: And, I mean, yeah, you're you're hiring you're hiring part Speaker 3: time laborers that don't really care that much about your business or your bottom Speaker 3: line to drive around major cities and pick up people's stuff.

8:09 Speaker 3: And massive stress ensues when you gotta when you have Speaker 3: nothing going on in January, nothing going on in April, And then Speaker 3: May hits and the students move out and it's a Super Bowl and you Speaker 3: have you have to have all the trucks rented, all the supplies ready, all Speaker 3: the laborers ready to work and trained all the warehouse spaces, you know, Speaker 3: rented. Speaker 3: You can only be in one of those cities. Speaker 3: We we were operating in, you know, at fourteen locations in twelve states. Speaker 3: Twenty five major colleges. Speaker 3: I could only be at one place at a time. Speaker 3: So we had to learn how to run a business remotely. Speaker 3: But look, I think that's the beautiful thing about business is that When you Speaker 3: grind your when you grind yourself and you and you Speaker 3: hone your skills in a very difficult business, Speaker 3: Once you get into a good business, amazing things can happen.

8:56 Speaker 3: And you can hire, you can train, you can do every business is the Speaker 3: same. Speaker 3: Like, no matter what business you're in, if you're doing it well, you're hiring, Speaker 3: you're firing, you're managing, you're training, you're solving problems, and you're delegating Speaker 3: tasks. Speaker 3: And once you get good at that stuff, you can do amazing things. Speaker 3: And and, we got ground down by a really hard business and and came Speaker 3: out the other side stronger for it. Speaker 3: And it's one of the reasons why we've been pretty successful so far. Speaker 2: So now I know you've you've had threads about, you know, I think Speaker 2: maybe one time you had Speaker 2: Correct me. Speaker 2: If I'm wrong, I forget, but it but I forgot the details, but maybe Speaker 2: a breakdown on the side of the road or some something like that.

9:37 Speaker 2: Can you speak to that briefly? Speaker 3: Oh, you're gonna make me reliving on you? Speaker 3: No. Speaker 3: I mean, the hardest the hardest day of my life was, you know, three Speaker 3: weeks into a a busy season, and I hadn't slept in Speaker 3: more than three hours in in a a a night for three weeks Speaker 3: straight. Speaker 3: And I was laboring myself because we didn't have enough workers, and I was Speaker 3: running a truck by myself and picking up boxes all day long and filling Speaker 3: a truck and then spending the entire nights unloading the trucks at the warehouses, Speaker 3: And, yeah, one day when your entire workforce is burnt out, Speaker 3: they're quitting on you. Speaker 3: They're making mistakes. Speaker 3: And one day, a a One of our employees ripped the top off of Speaker 3: one of our box trucks. Speaker 3: That's the one area that you can't buy insurance through Pinsky.

10:18 Speaker 3: So we knew it was gonna be a three to five thousand dollar f Speaker 3: up on on our part when we didn't have the money to to to Speaker 3: cover those things. Speaker 3: And the same day, a guy put gasoline fuel Speaker 3: in a in a diesel truck, and it broke down the side of the Speaker 3: road full of people's stuff that they needed to get back. Speaker 3: And, another prove just left the truck abandoned on the side of the road. Speaker 3: And this is at two PM on a Sunday, and I Speaker 3: I realized real quick that, hey, my whole business falling apart all the way Speaker 3: around me, and I got no choice, but to suck it up and Speaker 3: work. Speaker 3: And so, yeah, it was a it was a panic attacks slash anxiety attacks Speaker 3: slash mental breakdown for about an hour on the side of the road in Speaker 3: Boston.

11:00 Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 2: So and the point of this, you know, podcast is not to, you know, Speaker 2: bring drudge up difficult times. Speaker 2: I mean, it is it is one of the risks we run. Speaker 2: But I, you know, on some level I can Speaker 2: relate, not not the exact same situation, but entrepreneurship definitely puts a lot of Speaker 2: pressure on the the founder and the business owner. Speaker 2: One thing I wanna touch on before we move move on to some other, Speaker 2: you know, some of the progress you've made through other businesses is, Speaker 2: the whole argument of, you know, following your passion versus, Speaker 2: following the opportunity or trying to add value to people. Speaker 2: You know, I just curious what your thoughts are I think you've got a Speaker 2: lot out there, you know, that would probably relate to this, that people can Speaker 2: can read on your Twitter, you know, in other other other places, Speaker 2: but I know you tend to to focus on or or promote at least Speaker 2: like the service related businesses.

11:57 Speaker 2: So I guess my question is, what do you say to the person who Speaker 2: says, follow your passion and you'll never have to work a day in your Speaker 2: life. Speaker 2: What is that? Speaker 2: What's your response to that? Speaker 3: I think far too many entrepreneurs look at Speaker 3: the world with an emotional skew. Speaker 3: Maybe it's a selfish skew because we're told our whole life that, hey, do Speaker 3: what you wanna do, find a way to make a living, doing what you Speaker 3: love, do what know, makes you happy, follow your passion, follow Speaker 3: your dreams, aim for the stars, you know, all these different things we're told Speaker 3: our whole life. Speaker 3: And and and look, I get it. Speaker 3: These teachers and and family members are trying to inspire trying to give us Speaker 3: hope. Speaker 3: They're trying to give us dreams.

12:38 Speaker 3: The truth is that if I was doing what I wanted to Speaker 3: do all day, I would be playing a game would be playing golf. Speaker 3: I'd be on a golf course chasing a white ball around. Speaker 3: And in no way, in no freaking world, am I entitled to earn money Speaker 3: and pay and and live and and and feed my family paying playing a Speaker 3: game. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 3: And no way, like, how how many people are out there trying to Speaker 3: put a round peg in a square hole because they wanna do something. Speaker 3: They wanna start this business. Speaker 3: They are passionate about x, y, and z. Speaker 3: They love this, that, or the other. Speaker 3: Mhmm. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: That is such that is such a horrifically wrong way to look Speaker 3: at the world and the business world, especially because, look, capitalism, Speaker 3: our economy.

13:20 Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: It doesn't give a shit about you. Speaker 3: Like, I'm just gonna be the I'm gonna be the guy to say it. Speaker 3: Sure. Speaker 3: This world doesn't care about you. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: It doesn't care what you want. Speaker 3: It doesn't care who you are, and and the world is hard. Speaker 3: It's hard. Speaker 3: This this this this world that we live in is brutal. Speaker 3: It's hard. Speaker 3: And it's tough to be happy. Speaker 3: It's tough to find meaning. Speaker 3: It's tough to build relationships. Speaker 3: It's tough to you know, earn money. Speaker 3: It's everybody on the internet makes it seem like earning money is Speaker 3: just an amazing, the easy thing. Speaker 3: Like, hang out on Twitter and you just you would just think money grows Speaker 3: on trees. Speaker 3: That is that is not true. Speaker 3: So so too many entrepreneurs think about the world in an emotional Speaker 3: way.

14:01 Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: But in reality, they're sitting at a poker table and they have chips in Speaker 3: front of them, and those chips represent twenty four hours in a day. Speaker 2: Mhmm. Speaker 3: Everybody's sitting at a poker table. Speaker 3: You got chips represent an hour, and you got twenty four of a day Speaker 3: given to you, and you can choose how you spend them. Speaker 3: And you should be thinking about it like a a a poker Speaker 3: player. Speaker 3: Somebody's gonna play the odds at gambling. Speaker 3: And if I'm gonna devote my time, energy, and resources towards this, what's Speaker 3: gonna be my ROI? Speaker 3: Am I taking a one in a million dream shot or am I making Speaker 3: a wise bet that a poker player would make? Speaker 3: Too many business people, you know, they start a restaurant because somebody told them Speaker 3: they're good at cooking. Speaker 3: Sure. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 3: They're start they're they're gonna they were gonna go to art school because somebody Speaker 3: told them that they were, you know, could could be an artist.

14:46 Speaker 3: They're gonna go to music school because they think they can play an instrument Speaker 3: and get paid, you know, great salary to to play an instrument. Speaker 3: I mean, these things this is insanity. Speaker 3: Like, this is insanity when you when if we step back on emotionally and Speaker 3: we think about that, we think about the fact that there's There's probably five Speaker 3: hundred grown men that just got out of college that are going Speaker 3: around trying to make a living playing golf. Speaker 3: Three or three or four of them are gonna make the tour because these Speaker 3: guys play on the tour till they're fifty years old. Speaker 3: It's the most competitive sport to play in the world. Speaker 3: Yet we have these twenty four year olds that are told by coaches told Speaker 3: by their parents, told by all these people that they can make it playing Speaker 3: a game. Speaker 3: And that's one of the things that's wrong with this world.

15:27 Speaker 2: No. Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more. Speaker 2: And I love the fact that it's really a matter of even though you Speaker 2: may have your own personal goals and ambitions and all that. Speaker 2: And like we all do, we all should. Speaker 2: I mean, really it's a matter of focusing on others and where where the Speaker 2: value is to add to others And so I I imagine Speaker 2: when you were in college, you started this moving and storage business. Speaker 2: You weren't drawn to move it in, like, boxes and, you know, it's like Speaker 2: I mean, who who wants to do that all day? Speaker 2: That sucks. Speaker 2: So I I I love it. Speaker 2: It doesn't mean you've gotta be you know, miserable every second of every day, Speaker 2: but it's it's not about you. Speaker 2: It's really not about you. Speaker 2: And when I say you, I mean, you, me, the listener. Speaker 3: Life is a life life is a a marshmallow game.

16:10 Speaker 3: Have you heard of the marshmallow game where they put it? Speaker 3: They Speaker 2: put a they Speaker 3: put a four year old in front of a marshmallow And they say they Speaker 3: say, hey, if you don't eat this marshmallow, I'm gonna come back in this Speaker 3: room in five minutes. Speaker 3: I'm gonna give you two marshmallows. Speaker 3: But if you eat it now, you're only gonna get one. Speaker 3: And you see, you know, what percentage of the kids can actually, like, delay Speaker 3: gratification and hold off on what they want that very moment in order to Speaker 3: get something that they want two years from now, three years from now, four Speaker 3: years from now. Speaker 3: And a career is no different. Speaker 3: Like, you have to work hard, you have to grind, you have to do Speaker 3: things that you don't wanna do so that two, three, five, ten years Speaker 3: down the road, you can do what you wanna do, and you can spend Speaker 3: your time playing golf, and you can spend your time doing what you wanna Speaker 3: do.

16:50 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's about looking at the market unemotionally and seeing who you can help. Speaker 3: And and money is money is nothing more than exchange of value. Speaker 3: That you're you're you're adding value to people's lives in a way that they're Speaker 3: gonna give you money and there's gonna be excess money. Speaker 3: There's gonna be excess money. Speaker 3: Every party has to win. Speaker 3: Your employee has to win. Speaker 3: The customer has to win, and you as a business owner have to win Speaker 3: if you're doing business well. Speaker 3: It's a win win win win. Speaker 3: Scenario where your employee is working. Speaker 3: They're earning fifteen twenty, fifty dollars an hour to work for you, and they're Speaker 3: happy about that. Speaker 3: That's a win for them. Speaker 3: They're they're doing it out of choice. Speaker 3: Your customers paying you one hundred, two hundred, three hundred dollars for whatever you're Speaker 3: giving them, and you as a business owner get surplus because you're adding more Speaker 3: value to the world than you're taking, So if you look at the world Speaker 3: unselfishly and say, hey, these are all the different things that I could potentially Speaker 3: do to add value, I'm gonna do one of these instead of doing what Speaker 3: I wanna do.

17:39 Speaker 3: It's not about me. Speaker 3: It's about them. Speaker 3: It's about who I'm gonna serve. Speaker 2: Love it. Speaker 2: Awesome. Speaker 2: So, you know, so you had a pretty, pretty difficult, I guess successful moving Speaker 2: storage Speaker 2: business, but then some difficult times when it sounds like it it started to Speaker 2: fall apart right in front of your eyes. Speaker 2: So walk us through, you know, the next five or ten years. Speaker 2: How did you progress through after college and all that. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: We I mean, it wasn't another thing that I've learned in in this entire Speaker 3: thing is that every single bad situation that I've been in It Speaker 3: looking back, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was at that Speaker 3: very moment. Speaker 3: When when you're sleep deprived, when you're angry, when you're stressed, when your Speaker 3: emotions Speaker 3: amplify Speaker 3: situation and they amplify your feelings and they Speaker 2: amplify your stress and they amplify the chaos.

18:27 Speaker 3: So looking back, it wasn't an insurmountable Speaker 3: issue at all. Speaker 3: We, you know, couple hundred customers got their stuff a little bit late, but Speaker 3: most of them were still happy. Speaker 3: And the business went on, and we got better. Speaker 3: And we and we had more systems better hiring more people the next year. Speaker 3: And it was a blessing and and and, Speaker 3: you know, We were twenty five, twenty six years old, a few years later, Speaker 3: in two thousand fifteen, and we had a half million dollars in the in Speaker 3: the bank. Speaker 3: You cannot do that. Speaker 3: Cannot do that if you work a w two job. Speaker 3: You can't. Speaker 3: So entrepreneurship gave us that gift, and we were able to, Speaker 3: then, you know, leverage that cash to, Speaker 3: the next bigger thing, and and that was real estate for us.

19:08 Speaker 3: And the lesson there for me looking back at it is that business is Speaker 3: all about momentum. Speaker 3: If I would have I would've hung out on Twitter or hung out, you Speaker 3: know, on social media and and looked at all the people who were where Speaker 3: I wanted to be and said, hey, I need to get there. Speaker 3: I need to get to where Chris powers is with, you know, over a Speaker 3: billion dollars of industrial real estate. Speaker 3: Or I need to be where Moses Kagan is with two hundred million dollars Speaker 3: of real estate in in LA wanna beat where all these people are. Speaker 3: I would have never started a moving a moving company. Speaker 3: Like, it's about momentum and and taking one step after the other. Speaker 3: So Speaker 3: the small goals and the and the achievable stuff was was a necessity Speaker 3: requirement for me. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 2: A little bit. Speaker 2: You're focused on I mean, you you again, you have long term goals, I'm Speaker 2: sure, but you're focused on kind of what's right in front of you doing Speaker 2: doing a great job with with the the service you know, Speaker 2: to others in your service business.

20:00 Speaker 2: So top so why I mean, I'm a huge fan of real estate. Speaker 2: A lot of listeners are big fans of real estate, but at that time, Speaker 2: why did you decide to go into real estate? Speaker 3: We realized that our business was stressful. Speaker 3: It was not ultra scalable and looking back, it was a horrible Speaker 3: business. Speaker 3: But at the time, we're like, it's not the best business. Speaker 3: We could maybe find a little bit better business. Speaker 3: Where where are people making really good money that are not are not working Speaker 3: that harder and not that smart. Speaker 2: Right. Speaker 2: And, we saw Success leaves clues. Speaker 2: Right? Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: And and we saw a lot of very wealthy, Speaker 3: and people who had and and I and I say wealth, I don't just Speaker 3: mean cash. Speaker 3: I mean, they had time freedom.

20:41 Speaker 3: They had, you know, good quality of life. Speaker 3: They could control their schedule. Speaker 3: They could do what they wanted to do in life. Speaker 3: And a lot of them were real estate investors, and and then we started Speaker 3: looking closer at self storage and the way self storage was managed. Speaker 3: And we just thought, hey, This is a good business. Speaker 3: We don't need to we don't need to take over the world, but we Speaker 3: can we can slice out our piece of the pie. Speaker 3: We can get our piece of this. Speaker 3: We don't need all of it. Speaker 3: We don't need to be a billion dollar startup. Speaker 3: We don't need to scale it. Speaker 3: We can we can get our piece. Speaker 3: And so we we dove in and did it. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 2: So now you don't have to get too specific, but when you say we, Speaker 2: is this the same business partner that you had before or or Speaker 2: did the partnership look? Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: I had a I had a fifty percent partner in that first business who's Speaker 3: still a fifty percent partner in my real estate private equity firm for this Speaker 3: day.

21:28 Speaker 2: That's awesome. Speaker 2: So on that point, you know, did you just get lucky or, Speaker 2: looking back, like, how would you advise the listener to approach a partnership. Speaker 2: Not I'm not talking about a deal level partnership. Speaker 2: I'm talking business long term partnership. Speaker 3: Yep. Speaker 3: I think if you're Speaker 3: If you're inexperienced and you have like, there's three things you're Speaker 3: required to build a business. Speaker 3: It's capital, it's a network, and it's experience. Speaker 3: If you don't have any of those things, if you don't have any of Speaker 3: those things, you're in trouble. Speaker 3: And and going and get a partnership is kinda shooting in the dark. Speaker 3: If you're in college, somebody's room and shake at hand with somebody. Speaker 3: It's it's, it's like getting married on a first date.

22:08 Speaker 3: Not ideal. Speaker 3: As you get more experienced in life. Speaker 3: And now in my current situation, I'm doing a lot of partnerships with a Speaker 3: lot of different people because they bring different things to the table. Speaker 3: There's operational partners. Speaker 3: There's capital partners. Speaker 3: There's, you know, network partners. Speaker 3: There's partners for distribution. Speaker 3: There's different skill sets. Speaker 3: And you and you gotta form that team And, yeah, right now where I Speaker 3: am in my life, it's, hey, I have the distribution. Speaker 3: I have the capital, and Speaker 2: I have Speaker 3: some guidance, but I don't have the time to run a company. Speaker 3: So I need somebody who knows how to operate and run a company as Speaker 3: a partner. Speaker 3: So building building partnerships that have that going on inside. Speaker 3: But, yeah, look, I'm a I'm a big proponent of partnerships. Speaker 3: I've never started a business where I'm a hundred perform. Speaker 2: Love it. Speaker 2: So it's essentially finding what other people have to offer that that complements Speaker 2: what what you bring to the table, basically.

22:55 Speaker 2: Awesome. Speaker 2: So so walk us through kind of that first, you know, first real estate, Speaker 2: I guess, company and then how have things progressed up through today? Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: So we had Speaker 3: We had, like I said, some cash. Speaker 3: We had we're blessed to have some cash sitting in the bank. Speaker 3: We Speaker 3: went after a self storage development project as our very first deal that we Speaker 3: ever had, which I don't rec I don't rec doing that. Speaker 3: Looking back, I would have, Speaker 3: I would have bought a Speaker 3: property instead Speaker 2: of building. Speaker 2: So that's a so that's a ground up construction. Speaker 2: You bought the land and then built the the facility. Speaker 2: Right? Speaker 3: Our idea we had the idea of to do this and the cash to Speaker 3: do it in January of two thousand fifteen.

23:37 Speaker 3: We didn't get the building built and opened until May of two thousand seventeen. Speaker 3: And we didn't make our first dollar of profit until May of Speaker 3: two thousand nineteen. Speaker 3: So it was four and a half years from Speaker 3: idea to making some money. Speaker 3: So you talk about delayed gratification. Speaker 3: That's the old that's the ultimate That's the only big deal. Speaker 3: But we built that we built that property for two point nine million dollars Speaker 3: all in, and it's worth eleven and a half million dollars today. Speaker 3: And it's been a a life changing deal. Speaker 3: That one deal, set my family up to where I never Speaker 3: had to work again, which is pretty insane Speaker 2: to think about. Speaker 2: And you still you still on that?

24:17 Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: We bought out our partners, and and, it's just been a great deal for Speaker 3: everybody who got involved. Speaker 2: Super cool. Speaker 2: So Now, I mean, I I understand, like, you kinda combine Speaker 2: real estate with self storage and and service in that sense. Speaker 2: But, Speaker 2: why the emphasis on, I guess, service businesses as as you progress through your Speaker 2: entrepreneurial journey? Speaker 2: I Speaker 3: think Well, I'm I'm not too arrogant to think that I know how to Speaker 3: scale a product company or a software company. Speaker 3: And I it's just not it's not what I know how to do yet. Speaker 3: Will I try to do it? Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 3: Is there a lot of time left in my career? Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 3: I'm thirty three years old. Speaker 3: But I know I know service companies.

24:57 Speaker 3: I know how to build teams, I know that the playbook is is very Speaker 3: similar on how to build teams and deliver products, you know, services. Speaker 3: Yep. Speaker 3: So I I'm a fan, and and they're cash flow positive. Speaker 3: They're low risk, and and you can and they can still be big, and Speaker 3: they can still make a lot of money. Speaker 2: Sure. Speaker 2: Makes a lot of sense. Speaker 2: I mean, from my perspective, I mean, it really, of course, depends on the Speaker 2: industry, but it's a fairly fairly low barrier to entry. Speaker 2: Right? Speaker 2: I mean, I think your brother owns a a lawn mowing landscaping company Speaker 2: I used to a long time ago. Speaker 2: I'm sure it is, you know, much more successful than mine was, but, but, Speaker 2: I mean, you can get in with it. Speaker 2: You know, lawn mower. Speaker 2: I mean, you can start it. Speaker 2: And so you say low risk. Speaker 2: It's low risk in that sense as well.

25:37 Speaker 2: Just just starting it and if you try it for six months, it doesn't Speaker 2: work. Speaker 2: So what you learned some lessons. Speaker 2: So that makes a lot of sense. Speaker 2: So okay. Speaker 2: So I guess it will give us kind of the last five or six Speaker 2: years how things really progressed with your with your businesses. Speaker 2: I know now you've got maybe upwards of ten different businesses going on. Speaker 2: So talk to us kind of, you know, in the recent rearview mirror, Speaker 2: if you will. Speaker 3: So I started sharing online my experience with real Speaker 3: estate, small business, hiring, and I started writing about it. Speaker 3: And, you fast forward three years, and I have over three hundred thousand followers Speaker 3: on Twitter and, and, Speaker 3: you know, a platform that has sixty to ninety million impressions a month across Speaker 3: everything that I do, which is just insane to think about.

26:24 Speaker 3: So when you get that kind of distribution, you know, some people look Speaker 3: at it as though I can, it's fun to tweet to people and Speaker 3: then read my thoughts. Speaker 3: And the first thing I thought is all the entrepreneurial, Speaker 3: you know, opportunity that comes with having that kind of distribution. Speaker 3: And everybody in my following is business owners, people who are managing, Speaker 3: people who are hiring, people who are trying to get better at running their Speaker 3: companies or buying real estate. Speaker 3: So it's a kind of a direct you know, direct path into Speaker 3: offering some services to those folks who trust me and know me and partner Speaker 3: and partnering with world class operators. Speaker 3: So, yeah, it's a it's a recruiting company for Latin American talent and Speaker 3: Filipino talent. Speaker 3: It's a recruiting company for American talent.

27:04 Speaker 3: I have a a web development agency. Speaker 3: I have a seO agency. Speaker 3: I have a performance marketing agency, paper click agency. Speaker 3: I have a a business brokerage, actually buying and selling Speaker 3: businesses with that platform that I've lost recently. Speaker 3: And just a a lot of other on, you know, real estate Speaker 3: real estate related. Speaker 3: We have a cost segregation firm and a and a, property and casualty insurance Speaker 3: company. Speaker 3: All with different partners and all with kind of the same playbook. Speaker 3: So it's That's amazing. Speaker 3: I'm sure Speaker 2: you've got a few, in the hopper as well. Speaker 2: If not, just ideas, but something you're working on. Speaker 2: But, Speaker 2: I think the main reason you have, such a Twitter following is is you're, Speaker 2: you know, Speaker 2: like, your your bourbon posts and things like that, your bourbon tweets.

27:52 Speaker 2: I saw your, your recent one or I just I just love it. Speaker 2: It's I mean, the fact is, like, correct me if I'm wrong, but you're Speaker 2: kinda just toying with people a little bit. Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: I, I I do some you know, really silly things that Speaker 3: just trigger trigger people and and Speaker 2: It's awesome. Speaker 3: I think it's, I just think it's pretty wild that a humongous percentage of Speaker 3: people on social media get angry about what other humans post on social Speaker 3: media that's not even a direct insult to them. Speaker 3: So I don't understand who in their right mind would get upset about what Speaker 3: somebody posts on the internet that doesn't have anything to do with them. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: But that's a big that's a big chunk of people, and I I enjoy Speaker 3: making those people angry.

28:32 Speaker 3: I can't help it. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 2: For for example, for the listener who doesn't yet follow you. Speaker 2: The you know, you'll you'll tweet about, paying Speaker 2: virtual assistance five dollars an hour overseas, which, you know, Speaker 2: I I have BAs on my team. Speaker 2: I'm a big fan of it. Speaker 2: And people get so offended and so angry at you for, you know, Speaker 2: for for, I guess. Speaker 2: Slave labor or whatever else you wanna call it, but it's hilarious to me Speaker 2: because it's like these for the most part, these VAs are making a lot Speaker 2: more than they would have otherwise. Speaker 2: The opportunity that they're not Speaker 3: even just VA's. Speaker 3: I mean, these are employ these are employees running teams and and having, like, Speaker 3: key key roles inside of my business.

29:12 Speaker 3: But, yeah, I've hired them through a company called support Shepard, which I'm a Speaker 3: partner in. Speaker 3: And we have thirty plus employees in Columbia, Speaker 3: the Philippines, and, you know, five Speaker 3: to five to ten dollars an hour for phenomenal talent Speaker 2: is is amazing. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 2: I wasn't planning on saying this, but they are only my only two virtual Speaker 2: assistants who've lasted. Speaker 2: I'll be honest, I got through support sheppard, so I've Speaker 2: tried other agencies It's not, you know, Nick didn't pay me to say this, Speaker 2: but that that's actually it's actually a fact. Speaker 2: But my I also enjoyed your your recent Cappy Venwinkle one Speaker 2: with the, mixing it with caffeine free diet coke, I think Speaker 2: it was, but we'll let the listener go check that out.

30:01 Speaker 2: So I do have some rapid fire questions. Speaker 2: Do you, I guess, you know, looking back before I get to those questions, Speaker 2: looking back, I mean, Speaker 2: from adversity to abundance, would you say that, Speaker 2: you know, your that that episode we talked about earlier was the biggest that Speaker 2: was the the most adversity you've faced. Speaker 2: I know you spoke to the fact that the adversity continues throughout your career. Speaker 2: What other adversity or periods of adversity stand out to you. Speaker 2: Anything like, compared to what we already talked about? Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: I think the the amount of stressful situations I've Speaker 3: been in is I I can't even count them all at this point. Speaker 3: And stress is stress is something that you your body Speaker 3: gets used to and your mind gets used too, and it's like a muscle Speaker 3: dealing with stress is like a muscle.

30:48 Speaker 3: And the more practice you get in stressful situations, the better you're gonna be Speaker 3: able to handle yourself in stressful situations. Speaker 3: So, it's It's hard for me to point to Speaker 3: the numerous stressful. Speaker 3: I mean, it's We're running that. Speaker 3: Running companies and teams with, you know, a hundred plus employees now in your Speaker 3: network. Speaker 3: It's there's problems all there's problems all the time that you have to that Speaker 3: you have Speaker 2: to study. Speaker 2: I mean, I love it because you're not avoiding problems. Speaker 2: You're not avoiding pain. Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it's you just get better dealing with them. Speaker 2: That's that's so far the consistent message I think of this episode is You Speaker 2: have improved it at managing businesses and solving problems internally and externally Speaker 2: for other people. Speaker 2: And therefore, you're getting paid more because you're adding more value in Speaker 2: the world to the world.

31:32 Speaker 2: So, yeah, I I just today's world, it's like everybody's so afraid Speaker 2: of stress and and, you know, stress is bad. Speaker 2: And it's like, not necessarily. Speaker 2: I mean, that's where the growth happens. Speaker 2: So I love that. Speaker 2: Alright. Speaker 2: Are you ready for some rapid fire questions? Speaker 3: Let's do it. Speaker 2: What do people misunderstand about you? Speaker 3: I think I have to put a certain persona on Twitter to Speaker 3: get points across sales copy is harsh. Speaker 3: I I write punchy. Speaker 3: I write arrogant. Speaker 3: I I have kinda very strong opinions on Twitter. Speaker 3: What people don't understand is that they're pretty, loosely Speaker 3: held opinions. Speaker 3: I changed my mind often, and The way that you went on Twitter Speaker 3: is the way is different in the way that you went in life.

32:18 Speaker 3: So I'm not a I'm not a arrogant jerk, like you may think, don't Speaker 3: let me read my, please. Speaker 2: Well, I I I love the fact that it's really it's a game. Speaker 2: Right? Speaker 2: I mean, it's all they have different games within this within this game of Speaker 2: life. Speaker 2: So you approach Twitter like any other game. Speaker 2: Your three hundred thousand plus followers must be doing something right that came. Speaker 2: What's one of your biggest failures? Speaker 2: I mean, looking back and you can frame it however you want some some Speaker 2: people don't like to call things failures, but do over regret, Speaker 2: you know, in your entrepreneurial journey, what would you what would you look back Speaker 2: at and say, I I would have done this differently? Speaker 3: That's a good that's a good question.

32:58 Speaker 3: I I didn't start these businesses soon enough. Speaker 3: I've had influence on online for three or four years now, and I didn't Speaker 3: get serious about it until more recently. Speaker 3: But, no, I think I I've been blessed. Speaker 3: I haven't I haven't made a serious mistake that really set me back. Speaker 3: I haven't went bankrupt. Speaker 3: I haven't lost any properties. Speaker 3: I haven't, you know, really let down Speaker 3: anybody close to me from a poor decision that I made Speaker 3: So I don't really I don't re yes. Speaker 3: There's yes. Speaker 3: There's minor things. Speaker 3: Like, I could nitpick my whole life and think of three or four hundred Speaker 3: things that made a poor decision on it.

33:39 Speaker 3: I wish I would have done differently. Speaker 3: Right. Speaker 3: But I wish I had started buying storage earlier, and I got more serious Speaker 3: about buying it instead of building it. Speaker 3: But, no, I think I can't I can't, I can't point to any major Speaker 3: regrets. Speaker 3: I'm I'm pretty blessed there. Speaker 3: That's awesome. Speaker 2: So, yeah, and this wasn't this isn't written in my questions, but you know, Speaker 2: with ten different businesses that you're involved in, how does I mean, what does Speaker 2: your what does your week look like? Speaker 2: How do you how do you spend your time? Speaker 3: So I have a team of people that help me run the companies. Speaker 3: I have a marketing officer. Speaker 3: I have a copywriter. Speaker 3: I have a video editor. Speaker 3: I have a, operator. Speaker 3: I have an HR person who's running payroll. Speaker 3: I mean, So it's it's a a lot I have a lot of help Speaker 3: and I also, you know, pretty clear I'm pretty careful about who I select Speaker 3: to run these make sure they're pretty good at building teams, and and they're Speaker 3: not gonna be somebody who has no idea what they're doing when it comes Speaker 3: to running a business.

34:28 Speaker 3: So, I spend about half my time on content and growing Speaker 3: my personal brand because that fuels all these companies and drives opportunities. Speaker 2: I spend Speaker 3: the other half of half of my time interacting with these operators and and Speaker 3: running these companies. Speaker 2: Got it. Speaker 2: Awesome. Speaker 2: If you could go back and give your eighteen year old self some advice, Speaker 2: what would that be? Speaker 3: Man, I I'm glad I don't I'm glad I don't know how Speaker 3: good it can be and how fun entrepreneurship can be or I would never Speaker 3: have done that first three years slog or five years slog in that business. Speaker 3: Like, that was just so hard and brutal, and there were so many easier Speaker 3: ways to make money that I probably would've passed it up or not done Speaker 3: it, but I'm really glad that I stuck with it.

35:10 Speaker 3: So I would I'd say just do it again and stick with it and Speaker 3: don't get don't get too don't set two larger goals and and Speaker 3: pass up the necessary, not fun stuff you gotta do to get there. Speaker 2: Love it. Speaker 2: If you can have coffee with any historical figure, who would it be? Speaker 2: They could be, you know, dead or alive. Speaker 2: Obviously, you'd be having the coffee with them alive, but Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: I don't know. Speaker 3: That's a tough one. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: I don't have I don't have a good answer for that. Speaker 2: No worries. Speaker 2: If you were given ten million dollars tomorrow, Not saying you don't have ten Speaker 2: million, but it's somebody wrote you a check for ten million dollars. Speaker 2: What would you do with it? Speaker 3: I'd go and be my own LP in the next years where the storage Speaker 3: deals.

35:51 Speaker 3: I'd invested all with my invested all with my private equity company. Speaker 2: Love it. Speaker 2: You must believe in your company. Speaker 2: If you had the one meal for the rest of your life, what would Speaker 2: it be? Speaker 3: One meal for the rest of my life. Speaker 3: That's that I don't know. Speaker 3: That would not be fun. Speaker 3: I mean, I like a lot. Speaker 3: I like all food. Speaker 3: There's not single food I don't like, actually. Speaker 3: I love sushi. Speaker 3: I love steak. Speaker 3: I love chicken. Speaker 3: I'm I'm I'm definitely meat eater. Speaker 2: You too. Speaker 2: Back to your business. Speaker 2: What's one challenge that you're facing right I know there's always numerous challenges, but Speaker 2: what stands out is, like, the number one or one of the main challenges Speaker 2: you're looking at.

36:32 Speaker 3: Yep. Speaker 3: I've never I've never grown a company from you know, Speaker 3: five hundred grand a month of revenue, you know, five or ten million dollar Speaker 3: valuation, never grown one to the next level. Speaker 3: And, the next five years are gonna be me trying to do that. Speaker 3: Try to learn how to do that. Speaker 2: So who do you, again, not not this is not written, but Who do Speaker 2: you follow-up for that? Speaker 2: I mean, you mentioned a couple of guys, you know, that are big in Speaker 2: real estate, and big on Twitter, but who do you follow from a business Speaker 2: standpoint so that you can kinda emulate. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: I have I have a I have a lot of mentors and people that Speaker 3: I look up to. Speaker 3: But I mean, it Speaker 3: this all is kinda secondary, like living a good life and Speaker 3: being a good husband and being a good dad, my kids, Speaker 3: and also having fun.

37:19 Speaker 3: Like, that stuff's important. Speaker 3: And far too many of, like, the far too many Speaker 3: famous or, like, really, really, really successful people. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: I wouldn't want I wouldn't want their life. Speaker 3: Like, I wouldn't want their relation the wake of destruction they've left behind them Speaker 3: when it comes to relationships and, you know, the physical Speaker 3: health is important and having hobbies is important. Speaker 3: It just look at life as a kind of a balanced thing. Speaker 3: So it's not that I don't look up to people at all, but I Speaker 3: kinda I set I I look for a mentor who has the other areas Speaker 3: of life too because I don't wanna I don't wanna be a one personal Speaker 3: person. Speaker 2: Sure. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 2: I tend to do that too and and try to pull from, you know, Speaker 2: doesn't mean I have to do everything that that person does.

37:59 Speaker 2: Right? Speaker 2: But I might learn from wherever they're whatever they've obviously excelled in one Speaker 2: area of life and then pulled from someone else in another area, but Speaker 2: I think, yeah, I forgot that you you ruptured your Achilles. Speaker 2: Was it last year? Speaker 3: I, I don't The Achilles thing I have, that's my worst fear because I Speaker 3: play pickleball and stuff. Speaker 3: But she, I I severed the tendon on top of my Speaker 3: I severed the ad doctor tendon on top mine. Speaker 3: Okay. Speaker 3: And it was I was laid up for about a month, but Speaker 0: -- Speaker 2: Gotcha. Speaker 0: -- Speaker 3: I'm about six months at post post that happening right now, and I'm fully Speaker 3: recovered. Speaker 3: So I feel really lucky. Speaker 2: Got it. Speaker 2: I'll try not to bring that up again with you.

38:40 Speaker 2: No. Speaker 2: I I interrupted my Achilles playing Batman. Speaker 2: It's super, super, you know, tough, you know, sport, apparently, but Speaker 2: you know, having I was, used to be an athlete who was in the Speaker 2: military and then I go and rupture Michaelie's playing badminton. Speaker 2: So I I think you did your injury shortly thereafter. Speaker 2: So, but I love I love the post. Speaker 2: I mean, you are always posting about like, hunting or just different, Speaker 2: things with your kids and golf, and it's not all about just making money. Speaker 2: What's one of the in your industry? Speaker 2: What's one of the the personality traits that you think is required to be Speaker 2: successful? Speaker 3: I think you have to be To generate serious wealth, Speaker 3: you have to be charismatic and be able to bring people together.

39:24 Speaker 3: And if you can't get people excited, if you can't lead other people and Speaker 3: make them wanna follow you. Speaker 3: And people are naturally people naturally gravitate towards Speaker 3: the person who has the most energy and is the most excitable and is Speaker 3: in the best mood. Speaker 3: So if you're not in not energetic, not excitable, and you're grumpy all the Speaker 3: time, like, Good luck getting rich. Speaker 3: Good luck. Speaker 2: Love that. Speaker 2: It's awesome. Speaker 2: Is that something you've you've just kind of always had a knack for or Speaker 2: mean, I imagine your intention about trying to develop those leadership skills. Speaker 2: Right? Speaker 3: I think I'm I got a lot of it from my dad who's loud Speaker 3: and, you know, once everybody be having a good time, for sure. Speaker 2: Got it.

40:07 Speaker 2: What's one thing in your field of expertise? Speaker 2: Not maybe not on Twitter, but just in in real life Speaker 2: that almost no one agrees with you about. Speaker 2: Whether it's building business or self storage or real estate, or, Speaker 2: it's just one what's one thing that you have a real conflict with today? Speaker 3: I think that I think that Speaker 3: wasting any energy at all on Speaker 3: politics or world geopolitics or Speaker 3: the Russian the Russian war or the presidential elections Speaker 3: or a sum of submarine pod Speaker 3: wasting any energy and time thinking or worrying about that stuff. Speaker 3: There's a lot of people who actually worry about that stuff.

40:49 Speaker 3: That's just that's just, like, the number one trait that is gonna make somebody, Speaker 3: like, not be able to achieve their goals is spending time worrying and thinking Speaker 3: about things that they can't control. Speaker 3: And almost everybody on the internet does that, and it kinda upsets me. Speaker 2: That's a great answer. Speaker 2: Yeah, I know for me back in twenty fifteen, I made a real mental Speaker 2: shift and stopped stopped watching the news, stopped, you know, I just started focusing Speaker 2: on who's on my team, who who can I influence, you know, what is Speaker 2: my circle of influence what are my strengths and my businesses started Speaker 2: to really grow from there? Speaker 2: So it's great advice. Speaker 2: Any other kind of productivity hack that you have for entrepreneurs out there, anything Speaker 2: that comes to mind?

41:32 Speaker 3: I think, Speaker 3: writing and learning how to write well is a superpower. Speaker 3: So if you can practice if you can practice writing copy, writing short emails, Speaker 3: writing short punchy, informational, you know, I I run Speaker 3: my company with the written word. Speaker 3: Period. Speaker 3: If you have to pick up the phone to get a message across, you Speaker 3: are going to get passed up in business, So learning how to write well Speaker 3: and learning how to, write sales copy and learn how to, Speaker 3: you know, get points across and get your ideas across with the written word Speaker 3: in a in a clear and concise way. Speaker 3: The only way you can get better at it is to practice, but if Speaker 3: you, Speaker 3: If you start to practice that, you're gonna watch you're gonna watch your, effectiveness Speaker 3: skyrocket.

42:15 Speaker 2: Awesome. Speaker 2: So speaking of writing, Speaker 2: or reading, Speaker 2: what's a a book or two that you could recommend for our listener? Speaker 3: I like, there's I'll I'll kinda say two books that are not Speaker 3: you know, mainstream. Speaker 3: Everybody loves atomic habits and, you know, Speaker 3: five five hour, four hour work week or whatever it is. Speaker 3: But I I like the book on your leadership by Dave Ramsey. Speaker 3: He's -- Okay. Speaker 0: -- Speaker 3: everybody thinks of him as a super Christian, you know, no debt, like, Speaker 3: personal finance guy. Speaker 3: But he's also a really good businessman who Speaker 3: has grown in a media empire, and he's been through a lot in real Speaker 3: estate and small business. Speaker 3: So his book on true leadership is really good. Speaker 3: It's also a book called The Gold by Alay Who Goldrat.

42:57 Speaker 3: And and that's about it's about bottlenecks in your business. Speaker 3: It's a fictional story told to get a point across about business. Speaker 3: And it's a it's a about bottlenecks and how to, you know, look Speaker 3: your job as CEO or owner of a business is to remove bottlenecks at Speaker 3: all times. Speaker 3: Sometimes that bottleneck is yourself. Speaker 3: Sometimes it's an employee. Speaker 3: Sometimes it's the way the information's flowing around your company. Speaker 3: But if you can remove those bottlenecks, then it kinda unlocks your business for Speaker 3: growth, and that's a big mindset shift for me. Speaker 2: That's great. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 2: On the Dave Ramsey point real quickly, I I it's like it's like Grant Speaker 2: Cardone. Speaker 2: I mean, not that they're They're they're pretty different. Speaker 2: Right? Speaker 2: But people get so hung up on, you know, not liking Grantone, Speaker 2: you know, for for whatever reason, but it's like Who cares?

43:38 Speaker 2: He's done really well from a business standpoint and a marketing standpoint. Speaker 2: You know, same thing with Dave Ramsey. Speaker 2: It's like he obviously knows how to run a business and grow a business. Speaker 2: I love that. Speaker 2: So, Speaker 2: what's one question that you, that I haven't asked that you wish I had? Speaker 3: I don't know. Speaker 3: I think you asked a lot of really great questions. Speaker 3: I appreciate Speaker 2: that. Speaker 2: Awesome. Speaker 2: Well, talk talk a little bit more before we wrap up here, talk a Speaker 2: little bit more about your current businesses and what you have going on today, Speaker 2: maybe into the next year or two. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 3: So I, if if people kinda wanna follow along, I I don't Speaker 3: really wanna pump pump the businesses, but we'll put the links in notes of Speaker 3: the different business business services that I that I offer.

44:24 Speaker 3: But, yeah, if you wanna kinda get a look into my brain and kinda Speaker 3: think about how I think about managing and hiring and delegation and and, Speaker 3: you know, building businesses and and real estate portfolios, then my Speaker 3: newsletter is the best resource, I think. Speaker 3: And you can go to sweaty startup dot com and sign up for my Speaker 3: newsletter. Speaker 3: I send a a pretty long email every Monday, and it's It's, Speaker 3: you know, on on a management principle or a real estate principle that, is Speaker 3: pretty important to me. Speaker 2: Awesome. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 2: I know I I get a good bit of value out of that. Speaker 2: It's really good, so I definitely recommend it. Speaker 2: This just popped into my head before we wrap up. Speaker 2: What's one thing you've changed your mind on in the last twenty years Speaker 2: when it comes to business?

45:08 Speaker 3: I changed my mind a lot. Speaker 3: I have a little I have a little piece of tape, a note taped Speaker 3: to my window or my mirror when I brush my teeth every morning. Speaker 3: It says change your mind on something. Speaker 3: Today. Speaker 3: Just because I know that as you get more successful, as you win more Speaker 3: at life and as you get more confidence and more, you know, sure of Speaker 3: yourself, it's so easy to just Speaker 3: you know, reject and turn away other information that contradicts Speaker 3: what you believe. Speaker 3: And I think that that's a dangerous to be as an entrepreneur, especially when Speaker 3: you're managing capital, other people's capital. Speaker 3: And if you start to think that you know everything, then it opens you Speaker 3: up to some serious problems in your business. Speaker 3: So I encourage the trusted people around me to call me out when they Speaker 3: think I'm wrong, and they do often.

45:51 Speaker 3: And I also use Twitter and these other tools is a place where people Speaker 3: can give me real time feedback. Speaker 3: And if their arguments make a lot of sense, and, you know, they have Speaker 3: some credibility, then I think It's a it's a beautiful place to start to Speaker 3: change your mind on something, but one huge one is that I don't think Speaker 3: I don't think entrepreneurship is for everybody. Speaker 3: You talk to me you talk to me three years ago. Speaker 3: And I think entrepreneurship is the dream. Speaker 3: Everybody should start a business. Speaker 3: Everybody should found a business. Speaker 3: Mhmm. Speaker 3: If you're working a normal job, then you are missing the boat. Speaker 3: And that is simply not true. Speaker 3: It's not true at all. Speaker 3: I think very few people are actually designed to be an entrepreneur. Speaker 3: Not very many people want that stress of every problem Speaker 3: ending with you.

46:32 Speaker 3: Not many people want the hard decisions, not many people want the confrontation, and Speaker 3: not many people want the risk in the in the downside of this is Speaker 3: real. Speaker 3: And we see it all the time. Speaker 3: It tears people up when they can't win or they can't make it they Speaker 3: can't hack it. Speaker 3: And I also see a lot of people who are really happy and living Speaker 3: amazing lives going to work and getting home at five o'clock and Speaker 3: hanging out with their family, exploring hobbies, doing whatever they wanna do, but also, Speaker 3: you know, I say that to say, like, Speaker 3: You can you can apply almost everything we talked about today if you work Speaker 3: at a company. Speaker 3: And you can earn more money and live a better life by delegating, managing, Speaker 3: you know, leveraging other humans in win win scenarios to Speaker 3: to build where you wanna be.

47:12 Speaker 3: But I think the sad truth is is that most people are not Speaker 3: better off starting a business. Speaker 3: They're better off getting jobs. Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad you threw in the last part about, it's still applicable to Speaker 2: a w two because all my listeners would have vanished and dried Speaker 2: up after this. Speaker 2: No. Speaker 2: I'm kidding. Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more on that. Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's so true that it's it's not it's not for everyone. Speaker 2: But awesome. Speaker 2: So, Speaker 2: sweaty start up. Speaker 2: We talk about Twitter, your website, your newsletters, anywhere else we should check out. Speaker 3: Yep. Speaker 3: Sway start dot com is how you can find me. Speaker 3: And if you wanna follow me on Twitter and get a look into my Speaker 3: brain all day, then, at sway start up on Twitter. Speaker 3: I really appreciate it. Speaker 2: Have me. Speaker 3: Thanks for thanks for a great interview. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 2: It's been great. Speaker 2: Nick. Speaker 2: Nick Huber, thanks a lot for joining us.

47:54 Speaker 2: We really appreciate you taking the time. Speaker 2: Into the listener out there, thank you for spending your most valuable resource with Speaker 2: us, and that is your time. Speaker 2: Thanks, everyone. Speaker 2: Take care. Speaker 4: Investors have you ever experienced challenging communication or Speaker 4: the headache tracking taxes and insurance, meet, WiFi, Speaker 4: a loan servicing company founded by investors, for investors. Speaker 4: With an expert team and best in class vendors, Bifi will partner with you Speaker 4: to service your loan from start to exit. Speaker 4: Visit wifi l s dot com to see how you can get started Speaker 4: today. Speaker 4: That's b I f I l s dot com.

48:35 Speaker 1: Thank you for spending your most valuable resource with us. Speaker 1: Your time. Speaker 1: If you like the show, please share it with your friends and fellow podcast Speaker 1: listeners. Speaker 1: One entrepreneur at a time, we can change the world. Speaker 1: See you next time.