Nick Koumalatsos: Military Service to Business Brilliance
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So if I want to take over a country and not have to deal with that threat, what do I do? Submersively, through psychological warfare, I want to make them addicted to devices, overweight, unhealthy, distracted. And what do we have in America?

And now, Escaping the Drift, the show designed to get you from where you are to where you want to be. I'm John Gafford, and I have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you on a path to greatness. So stop drifting along, escape the drift, and it's time to start right now. Back again, back again for another Man, I Got a Banger Today episode of Escaping the Drift.

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Today on the program, ladies and gents, I got a dude. And sometimes, you know, you got like, I got a business guy. I got a professional guy. This is a dude. And I mean that like the way that like a defensive coordinator would like describe like his best linebacker. Like I got a, this dude's a dude. One of my dudes. He's an ex-Marine. You're not an ex-Marine ever. I think once a Marine, always a Marine. So he served many, many years in the Marine Corps.

He's the author of the book, The Excommunicated Warrior, Seven Stages of Transition. And after that, as if that wasn't great enough serving our country, then he gets out and he finds three eight-figure companies. And that don't include the period, folks. That is not the period in the sense. That is eight figures to the left side of the period, if you will, including the company Johnny Slicks. It's an organic grooming brand.

and a go just coaching program. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the program. Today we have Nick. Come on, let's us. Nick. Bam. What's up, man? I need to like record that intro and just play it on my video. You know what, dude? I'm probably here's the thing.

Most people are only going to listen to about 45 seconds of this. And I figured if I could entertain the shit out of them for the first 45, then it's good. No, I'm just kidding. They're going to stay with us for a while. That's what I was telling me. That's what I tell my podcast. I'm like, I want to appreciate you six listeners. You guys are like really rocking it. No, we stay pretty consistent in the top 10 of entrepreneurship. So I'm happy with that. I'm very happy with the growth of the podcast over the years.

And, uh, and the amount of subscribers we have, I'm, I'm super pleased with it. I, it's, you know, the fact that we can come on here and we get to help people that maybe are trying to level up in their life that want it. Right. Cause holy shit. You just, I talked about that yesterday.

If you don't want to help yourself, listen to this. They can help you. I can tell you that right now. We're just like, I fought for years trying to help people that don't want to help themselves. And all they end up doing is resenting you. Well, let's talk about you, dude. So starting out, I like to, I like to get your origin story if I can, because hyper, you know, high performers, uh,

I love the saying that, you know, tough times create great men, great men create good times, good times create soft men. And there's either one of two things here. So you're either going to tell me some, some tough time story that there's built you into this machine or even better. You're going to tell me, yeah, not that bad middle-class, but I overcame my, my,

I overcame this terrible yearning to be average, which is even better sometimes. So tell me the story. Give it to me. Definitely was not the latter. Okay. Raised by wolves. Yes. Man, it's even, it's like hard. Sometimes I've talked about it so much, but it's hard. It's hard to say. Single mom, baby.

basically a single mom met me and my little brother growing up. We moved around every six months. I used to make it, I used to think that maybe she was running from the law, but come to find out later in life, she was literally was just jobs. It was just kind of, you know, moving up in jobs and trying to find a job that will, that will support two kids. We were surviving. Yeah. So, so trailer park, section eight housing, getting our clothes at Goodwill, Goodwill clothes had lice in them. So then we would get lice and have to deal with that and use all the different old

you know, tricks to get rid of the lice. I mean, it was just, did you know, as a kid, did you know? No. I mean, I knew, I knew it was different because I would see kids in school with nice houses and nice stuff and things like that. So like, I knew that things were different. Got it. Um, which, you know, we'll, we'll talk about later, which fast forward, a lot of that stuff created a lot of limiting beliefs about me and entrepreneurship and what I could accomplish. And, um, which is the killer of all dreams, you know, your limiting beliefs. So yeah, growing up,

Um, and then there was a stepdad involved, abusive stepfather until I was 11, uh, joined a gang at 11. Um,

By the time I was 13, two felonies as an adult. Oh, shit. Yep, two felonies as an adult, multiple misdemeanors. Had to do, you know, grace of God and my mom being who my mom is with the judge and everybody. I didn't do any long, you know, I went to juvie, but I didn't do any long time in juvie. I didn't get like a full sentence. I just had to be there until court and that sort of thing. And I got, I think, I want to say it was three years probation.

So you're talking about from 13 to 16, I'm on probation, having to do community service. And anyways, so knock that out. And really, it's funny. Like I gave up drugs and alcohol and life of crime at the age of 13. I mean, yeah, I guess that's as good a time as any to give it up. And you know what really happened was I got arrested the second time

it wasn't the second time i got arrested the second time i got locked up um what was was at 13 and and this kind of tells you like this the situation that we were in in our area juvie was full this keep in mind this is in the 90s so this is early 90s um juvie was full and so they they put me in county at 14 13 13.

With grown-ass men. Grown-ass men. And that's when I realized I'm not so badass. Yeah. That's like scared straight for real. Straight up. I went through this scared straight boot camp thing they put me through, court ordered. And I was like, that did nothing for me. You know what I mean? Of course, fast forward to the military. I was like, whatever. But when they processed me through county and I was in there with a bunch of grown men, I was like, this ain't the life. I'm out. This ain't the life for me. That was a big wake-up call for me.

Um, cause I'm like, these guys, these guys, like, I don't know what's going to happen, but dude, like there's no business in me being here with a bunch of like grown, grown, uh, cons anyways. So that was it. And then, uh, straighten myself up by the time I was 16 years old, I was at a, a small little beach house in Panama city beach, Florida. Uh, I was making about four grand a week legally, uh,

Doing what? So from 6 a.m. to 2 o'clock p.m., I was at the Bay Point Marriott. You remember the Bay Point Marriott? Oh, yeah, sure. PCB, buddy. Yeah. So I worked at the Bay Point Marriott. What year was this? Shit, 96.

It'd been like 96. Okay. So like Spinnaker's was still there. Oh yeah. It was all, this was like spring back kick, you know, MTV capital of the world. Oh yeah, dude. That was Florida state central then back in the back of the day. Yeah. So, um, yes it was. I got some funny Florida state, uh,

I don't know if we can talk about it on here. Anything, anything. So anyways, yeah, I was from, I was working in the conference center, setting up projectors and microphones and lights and everything and getting paid. This was, you know, late nineties. So,

I think I was getting paid like $20 an hour. It was like union wages. Yeah. Like it was ridiculous. I was like, you're going to pay me that. How'd you get that gig? Uh, networking friend of a friend. Okay. Friend was working there and, and he put a word in for me and then I would take a, I would take a 30 minute break. And at two 30, I was a bellman.

at the same place until 10 30 at night so i would work from 6 to 10 30. how are you how are you knowing that as a 60 like oh i dropped out of school sorry yeah let's pass up did you get gd yeah i got a gd so i i well actually the summer of my 10th grade year i finished the 10th grade the summer of my 10th grade year i moved out and i got that job so when it was time to go back to school for my 11th grade year i was like yeah this doesn't make physical sense

I'm going to give up four grand a week to go talk about osmosis and dissecting frogs. Pass. Photosynthesis. I'm good. So I did that and, and, and was rocket loving life. And, but then I had this realization about a year in, maybe not even a year in, I mean, I had plenty of money. I mean, I was doing all kinds. I mean, I was living life for a 16 year old, 17 year old.

But this realization hit me that in 20 years, I'd be doing the same damn thing. And I just, I, it, that thought of me being in the same place, doing the same thing for the next two decades. And I knew that like, I would obviously move up, you know, there's positions. What was the moment you realize it? Um, and the reason I say that is because Steve Sims is a good friend of mine on the show and Steve's entire life change. He was at, he was on a bricklaying job.

And he was a bricklayer in London. Yeah. And he looked at it and he was on this job and he looked over and he was standing next to his dad laying bricks. And his grandfather was on the same job. He saw his future. He said, I'm fucking done right now. Yeah. I think it was kind of something like that. It wasn't a family member, but it was another guy. It was another older gentleman. It was two. So I had an older gentleman running the car. That was the manager of the conference center job.

And I would take that 30 minute break. And then there's another pie in his fifties. That was like the senior Bellman. And I just remember one day I just was like, it just all of a sudden hit me like a wave. Like, Oh, this is my life for the next 20 years, 20, 30 years. And I just, I call it, I hit the nuclear option. I just, I just blew up my life. I, I was going to, well, what's the way out in the nineties for a kid with a GED and

you know, a background like that stockbroker. Yeah. Right. Um, it was actually, that was a, that was, it was a thought, but, but the military, I said, you know what, I'm going to go do the hardest thing that I can go find. And at the time the Marine Corps seemed at the entry, at the entry level, the Marine Corps, you know, they were fighting dragons on TV. I don't remember that old commercial. I think I do. Yeah. That commercial, that was back when military had really good recruiting commercials. Um,

But yeah, I went to join the Marine Corps and they were trying to sell me on their process. And I was like, listen, dude, I'm sold. I just want out. Let's just make this happen. And I tried to skip all the process. And he goes, well, let's run your information. Let's get some paperwork involved and we'll get you to take your maps. And I honestly didn't think anything of it. Like there was not a thought that I wouldn't be accepted in the military. That kind of should get a sponge because you were juvenile, right? Right. Okay. So.

That's what I thought. And the plot thickens. And he comes out, he comes out from behind. I'll never forget. He comes out the door and he's holding the thing and his face, his face is like his demeanor completely changed. He's like, kid, you're never joining the Marine Corps. Matter of fact, you're never joining any branch of the military. You're a convicted felon. I was like,

i was 13 i was 13 bro like come on and he goes not happening man i mean keep in mind this is clinton error you know yeah this is when they were like they were literally clinton um he set the brag up the race realigning thing um he was shutting bases down downsizing the military taking arm taking weapons away from people like it was nuts um

I ended up in force recon, but at the time force recon guys and a couple other special operations units could carry their pistols off duty. They wanted SOCOM guys to carry off duty because, you know, obviously if you want, who do you want carrying guns in the nation? Right. The military, you know, well not even just military, but SOCOM guys. And Clinton got rid of that too. And anyways, so it was, it was a difficult time to get in. And as soon as he told me, no,

bro. Worst thing he could ever do. That was it. It's happening. You just, because you told me no, which the, you know, this is going to be a negative of my personality, but you told me no. And that just lit a fire under me. I said, okay, we'll see about that. And it almost took me two years, but, uh, went to college because, you know, military hates, military hates a high school dropout, but they love a college dropout. They're like, come on,

Come on in. Come on in. We got you. Didn't work out a good old Brevard community college. We got you, buddy. Come on down. Yeah. And so it took me a little while. I had over a hundred letters of recommendation, had to do a bunch of, you know, I had to jump through a bunch of hoops, but I quit those jobs, moved in with my grandmother, went to work at nights at a movie theater. I'll never forget my first check after two weeks. You keep in mind, I'm making four grand a week. Yeah. You know, anywhere from two to four grand, but depending on the season, but

Um, a lot of it cash. And my first check that this movie theater as a night, as a projectionist at night, it was like $175. Um,

And I just remember going, how do people support themselves? What did I do? What did I do? But it was a means to an end. And eventually after a year and a half, and then there was more tragedy. I got in, finally got my shot training day seven. I broke my wrist, got dropped to a medical rehabilitation platoon after almost two years of trying to get in. So I ended up spending five and a half months in recruit training.

And then, you know, and then after that, you know, I leveled up and there's a lot of stories there, but, you know, ended up in force recon. And then we, we started SOCOM in 2006 force recon became Marine special operations command. I took selection. I was already there, but I took selection for that. Went through the,

assessment selection for Marine Special Operations. Became a Marine Raider in the last half of my career from then to 2012. Was serving in SOCOM as a Marine Raider deploying to Afghanistan basically. Back and forth. Yeah.

So in Afghanistan. Yeah. Iraq, Afghanistan, and then a whole bunch of other places. Yikes. Yeah. Man. That's where I spent my twenties. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that seems like a, while, uh, the rest of your buddies were still sitting on the beach, you were doing that.

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better than that, want better than this. We all have dreams and want a president who invests in those, not in hate and division. I'm Kamala Harris, candidate for president, and I approve this message. Paid for by Harris for president. At Capella University, learning the right skills could make a difference. That's why our business programs teach you relevant skills you can take from the course room to the workplace. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at capella.edu.

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The point, yeah, there's always a story, man. And it's funny. Most of the guys in SOCOM don't have a relationship with their fathers and then came from something like that background. It's a very similar personality-driven unit. That's interesting. And you go through a lot of psych stuff. You go through a lot of psyche vows. And I think they're looking for...

a very particular personality to be in SOCOM. And that they're looking for an edge of that. Wow. Okay. Almost like a sociopath stable individual. You know what I mean? We want you to have the ability to kill other people, just not us. If we can just focus that. It's like an individual process like...

Almost to the point that we want you educated, but we want you very street smart so that you can solve problems on your own. Essentially, you're talking about a strategic national level problem that you're dealing with that could affect national policy. And you've got this young guy in his 20s navigating that problem. It takes a very special person. And that's why.

the situation that's why the selection process is what it is yeah did you ever get to fly on a blackhawk absolutely i'm going to fly one on the 12th it's fun yeah so random story we're gonna go total sidebar yesterday yesterday i'll one up that though can you please no please blackhawks are cool they're cool but nothing is cool as riding your motorcycle in bad guy land out the back of a ch47

And having it just parachute down. No, no, no parachute. Like they land and the ramp drops and all you just ride out and you and all your homies just ride out on motorcycles. Right. Like that's, we had, um, yeah, I've been lucky enough to get to do some really cool shit in my life. Right. Just randomly, just do some randomly cool stuff. Not like enlist in the military and like that, but just randomly. And like yesterday I sold my boat, right. Which is, uh, you know, say it's the first, the happiest day is the day you buy it and day you sell it. Yesterday I sold it.

And this guy flew in to buy it. And just through talking to him, like, what's your job? He's the aerial stunt coordinator for everything that Paramount films. So if you see a helicopter on Yellowstone, he's fucking flying it. If you see an airplane or a DC-10 or whatever you see, 727, any of those planes. What a rad job. Yeah. He's orchestrating, getting the stuff there. If he can fly it, he's flying it.

And I'm like, he's like, yeah, we got this shoot. We're finishing up this movie and, you know, in Texas and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I just keep adding aerial stuff. It's crazy. And so I was out with my buddy showing the boat last yesterday at the lake and I was telling my buddy about it and he made the joke. He goes, Hey, if he flew here in a Blackhawk, we've got to go for a ride.

So I said to him, I told him that. And he goes, no, no, no. I flew my jet up here. I flew that up here. And we got here quick. I told him a joke. And he goes, I'll tell you what. He goes, if you want to come play Hollywood for the day, he goes, we're shooting the aerial finale for this movie on the 12th. He goes, I got three Blackhawks. We're going to be shooting live round guns and blowing shit up. He's like, if you want to come play Hollywood, you're welcome to. I'm like, yes.

Yes, I do. Yes, I do want to do that. So yes, I do. So I will be adding amateur aerial stunt man to my reference. Life is just rad if you'll live it. Dude, just say yes. I never say no to anything. That's it. I spent so much of my life saying no to shit that probably would have been really cool because either I didn't know how to do it or I was embarrassed how I looked doing it or something else. Yeah.

and dude i think you just hit a certain age when you really don't care what people don't get just say yes don't yeah i mean i i can't i can't really put anything specifically but i'm sure there's stuff that i said no to like i don't want to do that like yeah i guess because of fear of whatever yeah you know like a bunch of my buddies took a surfing trip to like somewhere crazy once and i was like you want to go and i was like i'm busy blah blah just because i'm a shitty surfer and i'm going it would have been a rad trip

Yeah. Right. It would have been, it would have been, I mean, yeah. When you have people do things at a high level, it's hard if you suck. Sure. But like, I'd rather suck it, you know, and have fun than just, what are you going to do? Work sitting on your couch. Well, I, I turn it into fuel though. Like, dude, one of the guys I play a group of guys I play golf with normally every Friday. I'm not playing today. Cause I shit to do.

But every Friday we'd play. One of these dudes shot a 65 two weeks ago. 65. Not like mulligan, bogey, you know, bullseye.

No, the dude shot 65. I immediately went and enrolled in golf lessons. I just can't even humiliate myself out here with these people. This dude's rolling out a tour level score. Yeah. Here's the deal though. If you're, if you're hanging out and you're the best one there, you're in the wrong group. Oh, well, here's the worst part. These dudes are all rich. Yeah. At one point I was down $1,100 because they,

they're all playing for money and i'm like you guys are expensive to hang out with dude yeah i mean luckily i made a putter too and got it back like i think we only was like 220 dollars but dude it could have been like a car it could have been like a serious car payment at some point it was bad yeah but you get out of the military back to you you get out of the military and uh and what now man so i get out of the military and and to be honest everything went to shit uh

You know, and this is where the book kind of steps in. The book is me leaving special operations, me explaining what that lifestyle is. And that's really it comes down to like you have to understand what the lifestyle is and what the identity is and what your personality type to be in that kind of unit. And then once you decide to exit, you think you have it all figured out.

And you don't. And life is just different. And you got to keep in mind also, like my time in service was 2000 and 2012. We were very busy during those years. Yeah. You know, post September 11th. I mean, it was all go. Yeah. All go. And you, you know, you,

you know, get some baggage. And I, and I have this analogy in the book of talking about, you know, basically you're going 300 miles an hour. Cause it's always the next deployment, the next thing, the next workup, the next training session, the next mission, even. And what's sad is even when guys on your team get killed, uh,

You don't even have time to really process and mourn them because it's the next mission or you're on a mission. You got to continue onto the next. And then when you get back, it's just the next mission again. And you clean up, you clean up and you refit and you go again, there's no stopping. So you don't ever have time to process anything. You just go, you know, over a decade of, you know, or more just piling it up in the back, piling it up and you're going 300 miles an hour. So it's not really, honestly, it doesn't really bother you.

until you slow down yeah and then that that freight train that you've been carrying behind you the the front car you know the engine goes back from 300 to 10 well your caboose is still going 300 miles an hour and it smacks you right in the back of the head i just got this visual in my head of like a station wagon where you just keep putting boxes in the back of it and all of a sudden you just slam on the brakes and it's all coming it's all exactly and that's what happens and

So that's what happened to me. And I was thinking about my dad. I was thinking all of a sudden I'm thinking about dead friends and I'm having weird dreams and I'm seeing, I'm like, in a way I'm seeing visions. Like I'm catching people in groups. I'm like, I thought that was my dead friend. It's just wild shit. But it's because you've never processed it and you've been carrying around for so long. So I went through this kind of, what it is is identity crisis. Like Nick was a Marine Raider. He was a forced recon Marine. And if you're not that, who are you? Who are you?

And this, and what's wild is when I wrote the book, I, I, I need, well, first it was a speech. It was a keynote that I was giving and it turned into a full fledged book. And, um,

I thought that it was a veteran issue initially. I thought it was just a military. No. And, and I quickly through my keynotes because now I'm, I had all kinds of people, cops, firefighters, moms who had been a career stay at home mom, and then their kids bounce. And when kids bounce after 18, 20 years, they bounce hard. Yeah. Identity crisis. They're like, peace, peace, not even a thank you. No idea what the, what the parent like sacrifice for 20 years to raise them. They're,

they're just like deuces and and then the person's just like well what do i do now like they put their life on pause for two decades to raise these kids which is honorable like yeah no no but so you know moms were reading my book firefighters cops uh people that you know corporate people that and this is in your book this is all in the book yes you know what's funny this

The same line of thinking is in my book. Cause it's, cause it's a real thing. You can't let what you do become who you are. Yes. Because especially if it's based on a job, right. They can be taken away from you. Exactly. And so that, so I'm glad you brought that up because a lot of people, one of these guys are, I will never forget. I think that the time for retirement and UPS was like 30 years pension, everything he had locked up. They let him go at 28. So all of these people, uh,

That think that they're safe with their, their corporate job. It's a facade. It's all a facade. And this guy worked there for 28 years. I don't know. I don't know the back, the backstory. I just know that he got let go and that was it. Yep. Yeah. At one point I was running the Esquire magazine, called it the top nightclub on the East coast, United States. It's Cobalt lounge in Atlanta. And, uh,

That was my identity. Cause when that place was popping, dude, I could go anywhere. You're the dude. I mean, I could go anywhere and I'm not just talking about Atlanta. I mean, I could go anywhere in New York. I could go to Miami. I could go anywhere and it didn't matter. And, uh,

Then we had an incident during the Super Bowl where a NFL Hall of Famer got into a little bit of a murder problem. I'd heard about that. Yeah. I was on ESPN for all the wrong reasons, as my dad said. For all the reasons he didn't want me on ESPN, I was on ESPN commenting on that, which was awesome. But yeah, when that happened...

that nightclub went from amazing and printing money to dead. I mean, just like fell off the planet. Right. Yeah. And I had done a really good job of training our staff, uh,

And the guys that, you know, the money guys that owned it, you're looking around ways to cut costs. I've trained everybody to do my job pretty much. Yeah. And when I went out the door, this is, it's, it's novel compared to, look, I understand the novelty of what I'm saying compared to what you're dealing with. Yeah. But you can't, I can't compare. Like everybody has their own journey and it's all, it's all based off of their. It is dumb as it was. Right. So they were opening a new club.

around the corner. This is maybe two months after this happened. And I was just, you know, I had enough money. I wasn't worried about jumping into something else. I was just kind of chilling. The club ended up closing when they shut it down and they were opening a new bar in town. And I knew the guy that was opening the bar, right? At this club, it's called Lava Lounge, downtown.

My buddy Ray was opening it and I knew it was opening. And I'm like, I didn't call to get on the guest list. I said, I'll just go. We'll just go with some buddies. The line is around the planet. And I'm like, just like I have for a million times, walk right up to the front door of that club. And I'm like, Hey, what's up, man? I did not know the guy at the front door. I'd never seen him, which was weird because normally the same door guys just bounce from place to place. I did not know this person.

what's up man i'm john from cobalt blah blah blah you know it's right here bye-bye and he just looks at me goes cobalt i placed my business two months ago back in line i was like oh shit and as dumb as that is it it wasn't about not getting in the club it was about shattering the perception of who i thought i was in that moment and that's when i was like i will never i will never let

what I do or become who I am. Your self-worth. And dude, when I'm at networking places, it's so funny. This, this skips people's brains like crazy. Some of my best networking tips and I do it for that reason.

When I'm out networking and I'm like, oh, bro, so tell me about you in a networking thing. People are like, well, I own this and it's blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, dude. I didn't say, what do you do? I said, tell me about you. You married? Where are you from? You have kids? And people are like, huh? They're so dumbfounded by that question because everybody has their elevator pitch. You're just trying to get the elevator pitch and see if we can actually do this.

And when you do that, people will remember you in large groups of people because you're the guy that looks like you actually want to know if they're a good person and you want to connect with them as a human. Right. What's your morals? What's your character? Tell me who you are. I don't give a shit what you do. I can change tomorrow. It can change tomorrow. Exactly. Tell me who you are. So yeah, I love that you're all about that because I had to walk through it myself and I was helping some other people through it and

And that's really what it came down to. So once I did that and I realized that it wasn't a veteran issue, it was just a human being, that we all have these chapters in our life. And the problem starts to happen when you think that this is the best chapter.

Yeah. Right. That this was, this was the best part of my life. So for like, think about the NFL guy, right? You play, this guy plays Peewee football and you know, from the time he's five years old, he becomes a star, ends up getting drafted to the NFL, 23 years old, blows his knee out, done careers over 23. All he knows is that he's a football player.

What happens to that guy? Oh, dude. So implodes. Yeah. It's a complete, you know, I was in an event in Newport a month ago and it was a network of, of ex NFL NBA major league baseball players. And it's a big group of people and they're, and they're money managers and projects and stuff. They have an annual meeting and I was at it. And Eric red was speaking with like metal world. Peace was up there. They were on a panel and,

And a lot of the guys in the room had just gotten out of whatever they were doing. They had just retired or gotten retired, if it would be, from the league and they're there. And Eric was like, how many people in the room is your first season not playing? And a bunch of hands went up and he goes, the first thing you need to do is get a psychiatrist. He goes, you have not been living in the real world since you've probably been about 12 years old. Right.

And I think it's similar with the military, just in the worst possible way. Like with athletes, it's the best possible way. You're living in this fairytale land, but with military, I think you're living in this nightmare land a little bit. I mean, yeah, but you still live in this... I would consider it fairytale land because, let's be real, first of all, in our military, this is something I had to come to grips with. It's all volunteer. Nobody made you do that. And if you're in special operations, bro, you've volunteered multiple times. Yeah. Like, it's...

you can be like, I don't want to be here anymore. And they'll watch out that day. Yeah. Cause you gotta want to be there. You have to want to be there. You need to want to be there. And all the stuff you go through, it's, it's all like, you can quit at any time. You can be like, I quit. They're like, there's the door.

So how did you get through it? You obviously realized life was different. Now everything's hitting you. I mean, obviously, my background, like I talked about, I had some grit built into a new hard thing. Expressing your love can look many different ways. And with the right jewelry gift from Blue Nile, it can truly sparkle. Blue Nile's collection of classic diamond jewelry makes for the kind of gift that speaks volumes without saying a single word.

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Vice President Kamala Harris. I get it. The cost of rent, groceries, and utilities is too high. So here's what we're going to do about it. We will lower housing costs by building more homes and crack down on landlords who are charging too much. We will lower your food and grocery bills by going after price gougers or keeping the cost of everyday goods too high. You work hard for your paycheck. You should get to keep more of it. As president, I'll make that happen.

I did have some failures early on. I remember one of my, I failed a course one time because honestly, it just came down to like, I got in my own head and I talked myself out of doing something. It was young. I was probably 19, 20 years old.

You know, a 19, a 19, 20 year old person's grit compared to a 40 year old man's grit. A little bit different. Yeah. You know, our bodies aren't the same, but our minds are way hardened, you know. And so I failed. And I remember that feeling and what I did. And the guy told me, he's like, you know, if you just would have toughened up and stuck it out, you would have graduated.

And I remember... That's like the worst thing you can say to him. He wasn't even mad. He was just like... And it literally was the day of... It was the final exercise on the day of graduation. I made a video about that on my channel. And...

And that, that was like a, that was a very key moment for me in my life. Cause that's when I said, you know what? I'm I'd rather die than ever feel this again. So when I started taking selection for force recon and going through all the courses that I went through, I was like, I I'm going to die. I'll die on this road. I'll die on this mission before I, before I, I,

I tap out or throw, you know, throw in the towel. Yeah. And that's, and that's never, never quitting again. And that's really the, the, so when you got out of the military, you attacked, you understood you had a problem. Yeah. So, I mean, it got really bad. Uh, it, in the book I talk about it, it ended up to where, uh, one point I was on the beach with, with my, with my, with a weapon and I was ready to call it quits. Um, and Jesus, yeah, it was rough, rough kind of go at the time.

And, you know, people that fight depression, there's a lot of different things, you know, TBI, post-traumatic stress. And I was a big believer that at the time that post-traumatic stress wasn't real, that if people dealt with any sort of thing like that, they were just mentally weak and not cut out for the job. And I literally said those things when I was younger. And then now I'm going through it and I'm like, oh, and I don't think, you know, on the, on the depression and suicide thing, I don't believe that people want to end their own life.

What it is is they're so tired of feeling the way that they feel. They want just some reprieve from that feeling. Yeah. They're so exhausted. They want to break. I don't think they want to kill themselves. Just want to break from that. They want to break from that. So they make a permanent decision off a temporary problem. And that's, and that's the problem. And so luckily for me, there was some things that happened that, that pulled me back a little bit, but I didn't have any tools. So of course I just hit the bottle.

Do you know Kelsey Sharon? You know Kelsey? I got to connect you. She's got a very similar story. She was a gunner in the Marine Corps. Yeah, it happens a lot. She's awesome. It happens to a lot of people. But I tell, so like that was the part of the keynote in that book. I was like, listen, in six months, you're going to want to take your own life. And everybody's like, no, I'm telling you right now, in six to 12 months, you're going to want to take your own life. Here's the reason why. So then I go into the reasons why that you feel the way that you feel and

And immediately it takes the power away from that. Oh, Nick talked to me about this in the past. Cause like for me and a lot of people that get there, they don't know why they feel the way they feel. They just feel like they're not cut out for it. They whatever, you know, all the, all the limiting beliefs that, that, that does sneak up in their head. Um,

But if you can educate them saying, you know, on the identity stuff, on the health things, on the traumatic brain injury, on the hormone stuff, what's happening with their hormones, what's happening with their health, what's happened to their brain, you feel this way because of X, Y, and Z, and this is what you need to do to get out of it. Well, all of a sudden now it takes that power away. Yeah, you still feel the way that you do, but it's not this conundrum of why do I feel. I know exactly why I feel the way that I do, and I have a tool to solve the damn problem.

And that's where, and that's where you can save a lot of people's lives. And I think that in that tool is probably useful outside of just, I mean, obviously great for PTSD, but just for everyday folks. And that's where kind of where the birth of our coaching business came because we realized that it wasn't, like I said, it wasn't a veteran issue. It was a human being issue. And I started looking at the state of men and we pivoted towards, you know, helping men. And that's really where the pillars came from. And

and this process that we have in the Yagogi. Yeah. Well, I want to talk about the coaching thing first. I mean, we're going to get to the beard product because let's face it, if you're listening to this, this dude's beard looks like it's about to knock some Persians through the hotcakes at Thermopolis. It is a Spartan-level quality beard. I got to honor my roots, my ancestors. Yes, you do. Yeah, so the coaching company started four and a half years ago.

And right before COVID happened, we were doing some fitness things. So it was really started out as a fitness based training program. And I just wanted to get men fit. We have an epidemic of obesity and unhealthy men in this, in this nation. And I always talk about, I'm like, if you ever want to take over a country, just look at, you know, any country. Do you worry about the elderly? No, no women or children. No. Who do you worry? Who's your threat? If you're going to take over a country, rednecks, military age male. Yeah. Right.

So if I want to take over a country and not have to deal with that threat, what do I do? Submersively through psychological warfare, I want to make them addicted devices, overweight, unhealthy, distracted. And what do we have in America? Overweight, addicted and distracted. Bunch of men that are supposed to be leading our country, right? Lead in our communities.

And, um, so they've done a very good job. Our own government, our corporations in our, in our country, and to be, you know, the people's Republic of China, China, Russia have worked over the last four decades to ensure that our country and our people are distracted and overweight and worrying about bullshit instead of what's actually what we need to be focused on. And, um,

So we started out as a fitness thing, but the problem was men were not hitting the marks. They kept self-sabotaging. So me and my business partner, actually my former teammate that was with me on my last deployment in special operations, we ended up starting this thing together, Josh Hansberger, Mountain of a Man. And we realized that the war and the problems were between the ears.

And that's where the mentorship side and the actual coaching and the process is like I have to take men's perception of what's important and realize like you're talking about the drift. Like you guys are drifting through life. You're drifting through life. And we need to start being way more tactical, way more intentional about the way we show up, what we do and how we do it.

And we need to give the power back to these men and these families where they can start being leaders in their communities again, because it's like rewind to COVID. I don't really care what your opinion on what it was or anybody's opinion. I have mine. My gym was raided by the cops.

Um, it was just a total freaking, yeah, I'm sure you heard about it or saw it on Fox. Yeah. Okay. I didn't realize that was your gym. Now that you say that, I'm like, yes, I do. There was a several, there was several, but we all kind of connected. There were several gyms that got rated. I was one of them. Uh, we did shut down. Like it wasn't a complete thing. We shut down for, I think three weeks. And see, here's the, here's the crazy thing. You got to shut down because you're a gym.

This is a real estate company. We were here working because we were a necessary business. I don't really understand the whole health thing. So they opened certain things back up three weeks later, but our governor, Roy Cooper, who's just a tyrant and a horrible person, never mentioned gyms. Strip clubs. This was in New Jersey, right? North Carolina. Strip clubs opened up before he allowed gyms to open up. Wow.

Necessities. Right. So he just has, he just had something against gyms. So anyways, we went to the CDC and the effected, um, a little chunky. I don't know. He just, you know, and this is the reason why I know he's, he's full of shit and he's shady is two reasons. One pool companies were, didn't need to be plumbers. They needed, they didn't need a plumber license to install pools or to service or to service pools. Okay. Okay.

He changed the law in North Carolina requiring them to be, because plumbers were essential. And he wanted his pool, because he wanted his pool to be serviced and taken care of. So he changed the law to require them to get a plumber's license. So all the pool companies during COVID had to jump through hoops in North Carolina and get their plumber's license. And once they did, they could service all their clients and they became essential. So he changed the law for his own freaking benefit.

And then the second thing, when he destroyed, I mean, destroyed North Carolina, destroyed it. I mean, there's businesses that have been around for 35 years, and they didn't make it during COVID. And he didn't run. And this other guy, this other guy was running for governor, and he was the whole state. I mean, you couldn't drive anywhere in the state without seeing his signs. He was cleaning house.

Roy Cooper didn't even campaign. Not one commercial. Nothing. Still one. And one by a landslide. Huh? Yeah.

Huh? I'm not saying there's a conspiracy there. I'm just saying it looks weird. Yeah. Anyways, so we opened the gym. We CDC, we opened the gym and cause the guys were hitting me up a bunch of, a bunch of special operations guys trained at my gym. U S Marshall's train at my gym, a bunch of cops train at my gym. And they were like, dude, I, I've got to get like, I can't be just sitting at the house. This is ridiculous. This is affecting my mental health. So we, we put some guidelines from the CDC and then we opened back up and we just got,

smacked to your legal battle that went nowhere. No, you don't really, you don't really win by suing the government. Not really, but I felt like it, you know, it was a breach of the fourth. They have no, they had no search warrant. They had nothing. They just were operating on the guides of a, a statewide executive order, which had no statute to back it up. So anyways, but by, I bring all that up to bring up this, I started to look at the state of us, our community as men in this nation. And I really started to realize that,

Like if men were men the way they were in the early 60s, leaders in their community took no shit, right? They made decisions based off what was best for their community and their families. They weren't overweight. Well, dude, look what, okay, all you have to do is look at a school fitness video with JFK on it from the 60s. Yeah.

Dude, they show a random. Do you know what I'm talking about? 100%. Last year at high school. Yeah. And there's like just a random sprinkling of high school dudes. And they're all like Vikings. You cannot. You will not find. You will not find a group of men like that anywhere. No. Not like not at that scale. No. Those were high school kids. It was wild. Yes. Because that's what they did. I share that stuff all the time. Yeah. So and just look at what, you know, before cell phones, before anything, look at the men that showed up with Martin Luther King.

Yeah. Like how the fact that he was able to pull that off in that era is amazing. That was men. Men were like, we need to do this because this we're going to do, we're going to get together because this is not what's in the best interest of our families and our communities. Those were men. So you fast forward to now, bro, we folded, folded like some loose, dirty laundry with no fight, no voice.

We just took whatever they said. And I'm, and I'm saying, listen, I, people fought. I get that. I'm talking about why it is a community. If you would have had the same men five decades ago, never would have put, they wouldn't have been able to pull it off because they would have said, this is not in what's the best interest of our families or communities or community businesses that have been around here for decades.

Because we're not going to allow this to happen. You have to come up with a different plan. Yeah. But we didn't. We collectively refolded because we're distracted. We're overweight. We were right where they wanted to be. And that's where the fight started to happen for me. But I'll say also during COVID, I mean, I think a lot of people, and this is terrible, they wanted to sit home.

well that because that was the dream that was the dream that's the dream i'm just all i gotta do is sit around i can get doordash yeah i can i want to do nothing i can do nothing watch netflix yeah that's all i want to do check out that's all i want to do yeah and i think a lot of people i wanted that initially initially it was easy it's easier road right but then what happens

What happens when you choose the easy road? I have this whole, like I have a long, like a 90 minute. No, dude, it's like, look, it's like we started easy. Good times produce weak men, weak men produce hard times, hard times produce strong men. Yep. So where do you think we are in that, in that cycle right now as a society? I think that because of what they did, I think we're on just because of what I do in the agogia and the, and the community that we've created internally. And listen, you know, I'm not,

I'm not for everybody. I know that I'm for a very particular person. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not going to sugarcoat your shit. I'm like me. That's why I like me and Brad kind of, uh, align. Cause like, I'm just going to tell you the fucking truth. Yeah. And it's because I care.

Like most people, most friends will not say anything to their friend when they're, you know, 300 pounds and looking pretty rough. And they're like, dang, man, they'll talk about it. Like, I think he's not going to make it. Like, he's probably gonna have a stroke. Like, well, if he's your friend, you'd be like, Hey bro. Like,

Well, it's the running joke. It's like, you know, you get to a point where like there's no candlelight vigil. Like somebody's like, do you hear so-and-so died? You're like, yeah, dude. I mean, like, yeah, not really that surprised about it. I had a client. He's one of my tier one clients. He was over 300 pounds. And then he joined us and got down to like 230. Looks great. Better family man, better husband. Got his own business, multimillion dollar business. Now he's just thriving. He's ready. He's like kicking ass.

And he ran into one of his friends after he lost all the weight. Like,

Damn, dude, what happened to you? You're like, last time I saw you, man, I'd be honest. I didn't think you were going to make it. I thought I was going to hear about you. It took a lifetime to find the person you want to marry. Finding the perfect engagement ring is a lot easier. At BlueNile.com, you can find or design the ring you've always dreamed of with help from Blue Nile's jewelry experts who are on hand 24-7 to answer questions and the ease and convenience of shopping online for a limited time.

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PNC Bank, National Association, member FDIC. President Trump, why do you believe it's appropriate to weigh in on the racial identity of your opponent? I read where she was not black, and then I read that she was black. Vice President Harris. We have someone who wants to be president who has consistently attempted to use race to divide. And I think the American people want diversity.

better than that want better than this we all have dreams and want a president who invest in those not in hate and division i'm kamala harris candidate for president and i approve this message paid for by harris for president he was like why wouldn't you why didn't you tell me that why don't you say something to me yeah yeah it's not a friend yeah it's not a friend's gonna tell you the truth and hold you accountable that's because they care about you and they care about your family

And I think, I think people are so scared that if you try to hold a friend accountable, they're going to, they don't want to hear it. They're going to resent you when you lose a friend. And I think that's why people do it. But I mean, I guess if they're going to die from terrible fitness, you're going to fucking lose it. I freaking care about you, dude. Like, I don't want you to like the same thing. Like you're flirting with your receptionist. Hey bro, what's going on at home? Yeah. You know, do you really want to blow up your life?

like if you don't like your wife and you're not in love with her more end it yeah but don't create don't create this whole don't create a hell for you and your kids and your and your wife you know because you're distracted and that's where and that's what it comes down to is like that napoleon that's why i love i love the name of this podcast by the way just to be clear

I love my receptionist here, but she's a seven-year-old woman, so he was not talking about me. She's a very nice lady. He just met her, so it was not towards me, just to be clear. But nonetheless, that's what it came down to. If I go back to that, the opposition, the enemy, wants you distracted. So how do they distract you? Over 100 years ago, Napoleon Hill wrote in his book, Vices, Gambling, Neglect,

alcohol, nicotine, pornography, women, whatever it is to distract you from your purpose. And all of those things rob you of your potential. They rob you of your relationship with your wife, relationship with your kids, how much money you're going to make. It's all a distraction. And I don't care how successful you are. It comes for us all. It comes for us all. Well, I think you just have to, if you catch yourself

I mean, look, I'm guilty as anybody of doom scrolling on occasion. Yeah. And it's like you just have to catch yourself and you have to start trying to do things that change that behavior. Like when I'm at home now...

I try not to have my phone within arm's reach. Right. I just want to have it. Call it an IED. Anything. Just put it six feet away from me. Right. So if it rings and I have to answer it, I can ring it. I can answer it, but I don't just check it to check it. You don't have to. Right. No, but, but I tell you one of the things also is, is really finding that why to change that behavior. And for me, like recently I've become very hyper aware, hyper aware. I got two summers left with my son. And like you said, he's gone. And, um,

And so, yeah, so I've done some things that really focus on spending as much time with him as I can. As a matter of fact, he's the one that booked you on the podcast. Oh, awesome. It's my 16-year-old son that booked you on the podcast because he's working here now. Oh, thanks, dude. Appreciate it. After school, he's working here. That's what he does. So, yeah, but now when I'm home, you know, we've got a –

We have a fairly large house and it's big enough to where if, if everybody goes to their four corners, you cannot scream and they can hear you. They're gone. Right. So now we've tried to, you know, we tried to close that gap a little bit and keep everybody a little closer together as much as we can and stay focused on that. And again, it's one of those things where I caught it where me and the wife would just be on the couch, you know, just fucking tomb scrolling. Yeah.

And it's like, this is not, this is not helping. No, it's not helping your relationship at all. Like you guys need to connect. I think the doom scrolling is the worst thing that that is the worst vice you can have. Again, it's, it just make it, it's keeping you distracted. And if you really pull it back and you're like, what, what are my, what are my goals in life? And what am I doing to move closer to those? And how am I communicating that with my partner?

How am I talking about what we're going to do? It's that the whole thing is, I forgot who said it off the top of my head, but small minds talk about people. Average mind talk about events. Talk about ideas. Great minds talk about ideas. And that's what me and my wife are constantly in my people. Let's talk about ideas constantly. Yeah, I'm constantly, we're lucky enough that my wife has just been

We wanted to do that when the kids were, you know, learning she's been, she's been mom. That's, that's her thing. And my wife is so crucial. She's incredibly bright and that's great. But like you said earlier, when the kids are gone, she's going to have an identity crisis. So I'm already. Well, and that's, and that's, and that's like my wife wrote a book called how not to be a miserable cow. Um, it's great. Great. Good for her. Great book. I don't know how men buy that book through their wife. That's a tough, it's a tough, that's a tough, tough to crack. But, um,

you know, on hindsight, my, maybe a different name. It's right next to maybe we should have a threesome in the bookstore. You just grab them both and drop them on her pillow. Yeah, exactly. Um, women have to buy that book for themselves, but really she talks a lot about that. And she talks about how, even if you're a stay at home mom, you really have to, and this goes back to identity, right? You have to have something for yourself. Yeah. Like mom has like, even, even if you're in business, like that's why

Guys that do jujitsu, for instance, that do the military or law enforcement, when they get out, there's something that's the same. So the same thing with a mom, right? If they have something that they're passionate about. So when the kids leave, there's this normality still. I still do this thing, even though I'm not doing the other stuff anymore. So it just keeps them a little bit more rooted for them, for their own self-worth and their own purpose. I find that the majority of people that are struggling are doing this because

Like, you know, one of my favorite quotes is, you know, a boat with no destination will sail to nowhere. You'll never get there. And I have most people you ask them why they're doing something. They can't answer that in any aspect. Because it's the way we've always done it. Right. No, no, no, no, no. What I mean is like people will come interview here and like they'll want to work at our company. We're pretty selective about who works here.

And I'll ask this question, I'll be like, "Okay, what are your financial goals?" And they'll be like, "I wanna make $200,000 a year." And I'll go, "Okay, cool, why? "What's the money for?" And they can't answer the question.

I don't know. It just seems like a good number. So no vision. Yeah, you have no idea what you're trying to do. So because of that, you won't ever get there. No. And then you have people that come in there like, I want to buy, I want to build generational wealth. I want to have 10 rental properties. I'm going to use this money. I'm going to reinvest it here. I'm going to do that. And that's a plan, right? That's a plan that's going to make you get up every day.

instead of turning on Maury Povich to find out, you know, who the father is, you're actually going to grind out. Exactly. That's a great thing. I talk about the same thing as I get out of bed early in the morning. Like I did a line of cocaine. Yeah. And the reason why, and I don't do a lot, but I, we figured that I'm not putting my 70 year old receptionist either. So just to be clear, be clear. I've got to say that again. Be clear. Um, so, um,

I do that because the things that I'm building, the men that I'm helping, my businesses that I'm building, the customers that we service are more important than staying in that bed under the warm covers with my hot ass wife for an extra 30 minutes. It's not worth it. What I'm doing, my purpose, my passion, the things that I'm driven to do is more important

Then extra 30 minutes of sleep. Do you have a morning routine you're religious about? Yeah, pretty crazy. See, so do I. And I'm trying to make it okay.

when life serves up that i can't get through all of it yeah that's hard i'm trying because dude i found myself like if i don't like this is what i do and this is how i do it and same thing every morning every day and then and then all of a sudden like oh shit i gotta take an east coast zoom that's gonna happen at 7 30 instead of my normal i'm like oh man well when am i gonna get that in and it sends me

So I'm trying to stop doing that. Yeah. And that's a, it's a good thing that you have to, you have to be able to be flexible and not let it derail you and just blow your whole life up. But for me, I know that I operate better when I take care of me. Yeah, I can. I'm more creative. I'm more clear headed. I can communicate better. So I have to do my morning routine. So,

If my day is going to change, well, then guess what? I'm getting up earlier and I will sacrifice sleep. I know that, you know, sleep's a huge portion of health and I'm a big component of it. But hey, sometimes you got to, sometimes you got to, you got to grind out and you got to do some hard things. And so sometimes, you know, maybe it's a three 30 wake up. But, but I operate because of that. I operate better. And the reality is you can do it. Most men just don't want to. Yeah. It's uncomfortable. What time do you get a bed though?

Oh man. Somewhere between eight and nine. Oh yeah. Nine 30, nine 30. I'm done. Oh, nine 30. I'm pissed. It's nine 30 and I'm not in bed. Like, yeah, I'm done at nine 30. Yeah. So yeah, we should. And when dad goes to bed, everybody goes, it was funny. Cause I remember like the moment I knew I was old, right? Like today, you know, just you're old. And this is, this will tell you how long ago it was. I realized I was old. Me and the wife were riding home one night and she goes, uh,

hey, do you want to stop a blockbuster and get a movie? And I went, I mean, it's already 930. You want to get a movie now? 930? Are you crazy? I'm like, holy shit, I'm old and just happened that quick. And I feel bad for her because when we met, we've been together October would be 10 years. So when she met, you know, I'm in my early 30s and we were just like having a blast.

And at some point in that decade, I turned into like a grandpa. And she's like, God, you're so old now. I'm like, easy, lady. Yeah. She's a little bit younger than me, but she's right. I have, I'm like. Oh, no, dude, I'm hell on wheels till 930. Don't get me wrong. I'm a good time right up until 930. But then I shut the whole house down. So everybody has to go to bed. I don't do that. I grab the dog, head upstairs. My wife normally comes up about.

10 maybe it's because of my background but like any little noise really yeah you're jumpy i'm jumpy i'm a little jumpy so the house has to for me to go to sleep the whole house has to shut down yeah

You guys have kids? I got three. I got a 22-year-old, an 18-year-old, a beautiful, wonderful woman. And I hit the reset button with my wife. And we have a four-year-old little boy. Oh, wow. Just turned four. It's kind of cool you get to do it all over. It is. I get a second shot. I always tell my other girls, I'm like, sorry, that dad didn't know what he was doing. This one's like so easy. Yeah. It's fun and it's so easy. No stress whatsoever. Yeah.

Well, my experience too, especially when they're little, the boys are always easier than the girls are. And I started, yeah, I started out with two girls. So yeah, you know, I don't know. Yeah. They're, they're difficult. I would say they're difficult later. Yeah. Um,

No, my, my, my daughter pretty much dude, my, my, my, every picture that I have of my daughter when she's like under two years old, she's just looking at me like in the look on her face is your suspect. Like you suspect every look. But I always tell people it's so funny. You know, my son is an exceptional student and he'll, he is, he has Ivy league aspirations. Yeah. And he'll probably go to school and get an incredible job working in his field and in a big, beautiful building that'll be owned by my daughter. Yeah.

Cause she is a gangster. Yeah. She, yeah. God help us out. Cause she, she looks like mom and acts like me. So yeah. So like, it's funny you say that cause my son is, is high energy, like gonna go crush the world. But my daughters are sneaky. Yeah. Like they're, they're calculated. They're calculated. Yes. And like you said, like, like I like the way that you said gangster because they're both very much like, like,

so calculated that you're like, you're dangerous. Oh, dude. No. Trust me. The day I can be put in the home by my daughter, I'm at sunny acres the day it can happen. There's no question. You got to set yourself up for success. Yeah. No, I'm just kidding. No, my daughter is the, she's the apple of my eye now. So she's definitely something. But it's a rad experience. And I'm actually, we're actually trying to have another one more. Cool. Good for you. Well, let's talk about, so,

We talked about the coaching business, and if somebody wants to hear more about that, how do they find that? Just message me or go to theagogi.com. Straight up? Yeah. All right. And real quick, I got to talk about the beard products, man, because it's just... Dude. The beard's magical, not going to lie. I just made the commitment just to give up and go gray. I just said... Go a little bit. It's happening, man. Yeah. How old are you? 53. You look great for 53. Thanks, brother. Yeah. Because, dude, you do like the just for men thing, and then the one time you do it the wrong color and you just look so fucking weird. Yeah.

I haven't ever done it. I don't think I can do it. Don't don't wife's like, let it go. She's like, it's hot. I'm like, that's weird that you think it's hot, but I'm down for it. You just got to have some sun. If you go pale and have the gray, now you look like a corpse. You look like one of the dudes. You look like you're in the haunted mansion. One of those guys that are, they hit you. I can go. So, so Johnny slicks is an organic, organic grooming company with the fastest growing organic grooming company in the company and the country. Uh,

Here's, and you'll love this, man. We started this company with $400. I love it. $400. And we hit eight figures. We'll hit eight of those figures this year. I'm an eight-figure company. Good Lord. Are you CEO there? I'm CEO there. Okay. How did you scale up? How many employees now? We're at 25. We're at 25 employees. So you only have 25 employees to do eight figures? Yep. And we are completely vertically integrated. We manufacture our own products. We fill in-house. We have our own media marketing team.

My wife's the marketing director of the company. You should have talked about this the whole time. Man, I might have to have you back now just to talk about that. Actually, it's funny. I'll be back at the end of August. Dude, I may want to have you back. I may want to hold Johnny Slicks because that's scaling a business. That's a whole other podcast. I could talk about that for over an hour. Yeah, dude. We're going to have you back. We're going to do a part two with you, brother. I'm going to do part twos, but I'm interested in that. This one's amazing, man, because it's really coming down to

And there's a lot that goes into it, but we're American made, American manufactured. We source all of our ingredients from Americans. So we have a really big mission to help bring manufacturing back to the States. Love that. And to give people good paying jobs here. Love that. Because-

We've been pushed so hard to outsource everything. Everybody's like, outsource to this. Outsource your customer service to the Philippines. Outsource manufacturing. Outsource fulfillment. And I'm like, well, how does that help our community? How does that help America? Sure, I can add a dollar per product to my bottom line for me. But on a bigger scale, how does that help anyone?

Dude, that reminds me of the Arizona iced tea guy. Did you see what he did recently? No. It was an interview with him, and they said, you know, with inflation and everything, how are you still selling the big iced tea for 99 cents? Yeah. And he goes, because that's what we charge for it. He goes, aren't you making less money? He goes, absolutely. He goes, well, what am I going to, I'm going to make another 45 cents, but I'm going to hurt our consumers that are already hurting with everything else. They're already hurting. Yeah. They're hurting with everything else, and I'm going to hurt my customer? Yeah. Like, over money? Yeah.

Like, no. Well, we believe that and we will, we will continue to make our own money, but we're going to do it the right way. Love that. Yeah. We're going to do, we're totally doing part two on Johnny six, but they want to find that how they find that real quick. Yeah. Johnny slicks.com. It will change your life. Be, be careful though. I'll tell you this. Be careful when women get a sniff of you wearing our fragrances or essential oils, all organic or essential oil fragrances that John makes my business partner. Um,

I don't know what's in it, but it makes women go crazy. We have 20 confirmed babies.

from men wearing johnny slicks all had by women i'm assuming yes okay okay that's because that was gonna get weird we're on that level okay there you go all right you're good yeah okay there you go you're good all right cool good enough well brother man it was a pleasure to sit here with you i can't wait to have you back and because i love talking that because we're like we're totally vertically integrated here everything that has to do with a house we do here all of it everything from top to bottom so anyway we'll have you back but guys

Let today be a lesson to you, man. If you don't have goals, if you are not dealing with your shit, if you're, I mean, the things that are holding you back are between your ears. It's not the outside influence. It's how you choose to react to them. We'll see you next week.

What's up, everybody? Thanks for joining us for another episode of Escaping the Drift. Hope you got a bunch out of it, or at least as much as I did out of it. Anyway, if you want to learn more about the show, you can always go over to escapingthedrift.com. You can join our mailing list. But do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind, throw up that five-star review, give us a share, do something, man. We're here for you. Hopefully, you'll be here for us. But anyway, in the meantime, we will see you at the next episode.

President Trump, why do you believe it's appropriate to weigh in on the racial identity of your opponent? I read where she was not black, and then I read that she was black. Vice President Harris. We have someone who wants to be president who has consistently attempted to use race to divide. And I think the American people want...

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