Breakdown to Breakout: The Journey of Nick Huber, Thriving Real Estate and Private Equity Investor
Episode Details
Transcript
Have you ever wondered how a series of unfortunate events and failures could lead someone to their greatest success? Meet Nick Huber, a seasoned entrepreneur, investor, and the genius behind the impressive growth of a small moving and storage company that expanded into twelve states and handled 50,000 items per year. Currently wielding a personal brand that sees 90 million eyeballs across various platforms, Nick is an expert in building teams and capitalizing on talent. Get ready to be inspired as we explore the importance of thinking logically and evaluating ROI in business decisions. Stay tuned to discover the pivotal moment that changed everything for Nick, and how you can apply his newfound perspective to your own entrepreneurial journey.
“Just because you see them winning doesn't mean its stress-free, doesn't mean it's easy, and doesn't mean they're not having a ton of uncomfortable conversations and doing hard things all the time. You get better at business, the stakes go up.”
Books and Resources
Entreleadership - 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom From the Trenches
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement - 30th Anniversary Edition
Connect with Nick Huber:
BOOKLIST: https://sweatystartup.ck.page/b3c17cfb83
NEWSLETTER: https://sweatystartup.com/
BUSINESS BROKERAGE: https://nickhuber.com/
SELF-STORAGE: https://boltstorage.com/
BOLD SEO: https://boldseo.com/
INSURANCE: https://titanrisk.com/
RECRUITING: https://recruitjet.com/
LANDING PAGE / WEB DEVELOPMENT: https://webrun.com/
OVERSEAS STAFFING: https://supportshepherd.com/
DEBT AND EQUITY: https://bluekeycapital.com/
TAX CREDIT: https://taxcredithunter.com/
COST SEGREGATION: https://recostseg.com/
PERFORMANCE MARKETING: https://adrhino.com/
PEST CONTROL: https://spidexx.com/
TWITTER:https://twitter.com/sweatystartup
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/sweatystartup
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sweatystartup/
Haven Financial:
https://www.myfinancialhaven.com/jamiebateman/
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Connect with Jamie
BOOK:From Adversity to Abundance: Inspiring Stories of Mental, Physical, and Financial Transformation
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Speaker 0
You guys are gonna love this episode. Nick Huber, a k a, the sweaty startup, joined us. Man, he's He's only thirty three, and he's he's had a lot of success already. He's an entrepreneur. He's got ten different businesses, and I feel like he's adding one every week. It seems like, I follow him on Twitter along with three hundred and five thousand other people. This is a very, very good episode. We talk about how when, Nick was in college, he started this moving company, storage company, and how it really kinda started to fall apart before his eyes, and he hadn't slept in three weeks. And that was one of his worst days of his life. I think he said it was the worst day of his life. During that period in college, but he rebounded and he's gone on to do some incredible things, in self storage. And other real estate ventures and mostly service, service businesses. So he he talks about that. But talks a lot about how health and family and and fun, are equally as important as making money so, man, he's, this is a fun one. He drops a lot of knowledge. I got a lot out of this one. I'm really thankful that that Nick took the time to talk talk to us, and I know you're gonna love it. Speaker 1
Welcome to the from adversity to abundance podcast. Are you an entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur, then this show is for you. Each week, We bring you impactful stories of real people who have overcome painful human adversity to create a life of abundance. Of abundance. You are not alone in your struggle. Join us, and you will experience the power of true stories and gain practical knowledge from founders who have turned poverty into prosperity and weakness into wealth. This podcast will encourage you through your health, relationship, and financial challenges so you can become the hero in your quest for freedom. Take ownership of the life you are destined to live. Turn your adversity into abundance. Speaker 2
Welcome everybody to another episode of the from adversity to abundance podcast. I am your host, Jamie bateman, and I'm pumped today to have with us Nick Hubert AKA, the sweaty start up. Nick, how are you doing today? Speaker 3
Jamie, thanks for having me. I'm excited to chat. Speaker 2
Yeah. This is gonna be fun. So, along with three hundred thousand plus other people I followed Netcom Twitter. I get your newsletter as well. And, Nick, you have a a big big following, relative to the, I think, my four Twitter followers. I'm just kidding, but But now I'm excited to chat. I know you have a lot of experience in in, you know, self storage, different aspects of real estate, commercial, real state and now now the, ever growing, service company, I guess, portfolio, I should say. But instead of me telling the audience about you, why don't you tell a little bit about yourself? What are you up to today and, kind of, who do you serve? Who are you today? Speaker 3
Yeah. So I, I started in two thousand eleven with a small moving and storage company, grew that company by the time two thousand fourteen, fifteen rolled around, we in in twelve states, twenty five major colleges with five part time employees and a hundred and fifty or a hundred and fifty part time employees, about four or five full time employees. Two thousand sixteen, we started construction on our first self storage facility, opened it up in two thousand seventeen. Realized real quick that we wanted to get out of that business and do more real estate. So two thousand twenty came around. We sold that moving and storage company had a you know, a a sizable exit for us at the time, for sure, a sudden figure exit. And then we got serious about real estate private equity, have kinda since went and raised. A lot of capital from outside investors. We bought sixty three self storage facilities. We bought them for a little over a hundred million dollars raised. Forty million of outside capital. And, also, I'm a investor and partner in several other, like you said, agencies, real estate services, you know, small business services companies and also kinda growing a personal brand with three hundred thousand followers and about ninety million eyeballs a month across all my platforms, which is getting pretty crazy. So, yeah, I guess I I guess the best way to put it now is I'm a I'm a gatherer of people. I I I build teams. I I attract talent, and I'm trying to put as many smart people in the room as I possibly can, and and, good things already happening. So that's where I'm at today. Speaker 2
That's awesome. Yeah. There's there's obviously a ton there that we're gonna start to unpack. We can't cover everything. You you've done a ton yeah, it's it's really, really impressive. So I know our listener's gonna get a lot of value out of this for sure. So as you and I were talking before we hit record, the show is primarily, you know, it's from adversity to abundance. And just to set the stage a little bit, I don't pretend that, you know, Nick has no more challenges and he's reached a abundance in in your adversities in in the rearview mirror. Hundred percent, of course, and we're gonna talk about the challenges with entrepreneurship, etcetera. But but there are lessons we can learn from some of the adversity that you've been through, maybe, you know, either on a personal level or or business related. So I'll let you pick it up where you'd like to as far as, you know, what age you wanna start at, but let's focus in on some of the adversity that you've been through, Nick, where do you wanna start? Speaker 3
Yeah. So I was lucky enough to be raised in a in a very loving household with two parents that were relatively stable. I don't I don't have a lot of past trauma. Or, you know, all the negative, you know, psychological and emotional effects that can come from that stuff. But, yeah, I went to dove into entrepreneurship, and I realized really quick that, hey, this stuff is hard. It's hard for everybody. And I think a great analogy of this is is running a a marathon. A marathon doesn't get easier as you get better at it. You just get faster. Entrepreneurship is the same way. Like, just because you look forward and you see somebody killing it, they're making all the money, they're starting multiple different businesses. They're thriving. They're succeeding. Just because you see them winning doesn't mean it's stress free. Doesn't mean it's easy and doesn't mean They're not having a ton of uncomfortable conversations and hard doing hard things all the time. Business the stakes go up, you know, you get better at business. The stakes go up, the the amount of people, the amount of families, the amount of, you know, direct impact that you have on your community around you through your employees, through the work that you do, it all amplifies. So naturally, the problems are amplified. More money, more problems is a very real saying. And and, yeah, entrepreneurship is the exact same. It's it's hard from the beginning, and you're not moving very fast. And it's hard when you're good at it, and you're moving really fast. In in a way, gets harder and harder as you go and maybe maybe, some of us are kind of a a glutton for punishment, but I think the I mean, it's it's no one story that stands out for me. I mean, we've we were in a we were in a brutally hard business. That moving in storage company, it was called storage audit. Talk about Speaker 2
that a little bit. Speaker 3
It's a it's a pickup and delivery student storage business. So when the kids moved out of their dorms in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, all these major cities, We would show up in box trucks with laborers to pick up all their boxes, label them, take them back, drive them to a warehouse, store them in the warehouse, and take them back to where they move the next year. We did seven thousand five hundred students and fifty thousand items a year at our peak in two thousand seventeen. And, I mean, yeah, you're you're hiring you're hiring part time laborers that don't really care that much about your business or your bottom line to drive around major cities and pick up people's stuff. And massive stress ensues when you gotta when you have nothing going on in January, nothing going on in April, And then May hits and the students move out and it's a Super Bowl and you have you have to have all the trucks rented, all the supplies ready, all the laborers ready to work and trained all the warehouse spaces, you know, rented. You can only be in one of those cities. We we were operating in, you know, at fourteen locations in twelve states. Twenty five major colleges. I could only be at one place at a time. So we had to learn how to run a business remotely. But look, I think that's the beautiful thing about business is that When you grind your when you grind yourself and you and you hone your skills in a very difficult business, Once you get into a good business, amazing things can happen. And you can hire, you can train, you can do every business is the same. Like, no matter what business you're in, if you're doing it well, you're hiring, you're firing, you're managing, you're training, you're solving problems, and you're delegating tasks. And once you get good at that stuff, you can do amazing things. And and, we got ground down by a really hard business and and came out the other side stronger for it. 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 maybe one time you had Correct me. If I'm wrong, I forget, but it but I forgot the details, but maybe a breakdown on the side of the road or some something like that. Can you speak to that briefly? Speaker 3
Oh, you're gonna make me reliving on you? No. I mean, the hardest the hardest day of my life was, you know, three weeks into a a busy season, and I hadn't slept in more than three hours in in a a a night for three weeks straight. And I was laboring myself because we didn't have enough workers, and I was running a truck by myself and picking up boxes all day long and filling a truck and then spending the entire nights unloading the trucks at the warehouses, And, yeah, one day when your entire workforce is burnt out, they're quitting on you. They're making mistakes. And one day, a a One of our employees ripped the top off of one of our box trucks. That's the one area that you can't buy insurance through Pinsky. So we knew it was gonna be a three to five thousand dollar f up on on our part when we didn't have the money to to to cover those things. And the same day, a guy put gasoline fuel in a in a diesel truck, and it broke down the side of the road full of people's stuff that they needed to get back. And, another prove just left the truck abandoned on the side of the road. And this is at two PM on a Sunday, and I I realized real quick that, hey, my whole business falling apart all the way around me, and I got no choice, but to suck it up and work. And so, yeah, it was a it was a panic attacks slash anxiety attacks slash mental breakdown for about an hour on the side of the road in Boston. Speaker 2
Yeah. So and the point of this, you know, podcast is not to, you know, bring drudge up difficult times. I mean, it is it is one of the risks we run. But I, you know, on some level I can relate, not not the exact same situation, but entrepreneurship definitely puts a lot of pressure on the the founder and the business owner. One thing I wanna touch on before we move move on to some other, you know, some of the progress you've made through other businesses is, the whole argument of, you know, following your passion versus, following the opportunity or trying to add value to people. You know, I just curious what your thoughts are I think you've got a lot out there, you know, that would probably relate to this, that people can can read on your Twitter, you know, in other other other places, but I know you tend to to focus on or or promote at least like the service related businesses. So I guess my question is, what do you say to the person who says, follow your passion and you'll never have to work a day in your life. What is that? What's your response to that? Speaker 3
I think far too many entrepreneurs look at the world with an emotional skew. Maybe it's a selfish skew because we're told our whole life that, hey, do what you wanna do, find a way to make a living, doing what you love, do what know, makes you happy, follow your passion, follow your dreams, aim for the stars, you know, all these different things we're told our whole life. And and and look, I get it. These teachers and and family members are trying to inspire trying to give us hope. They're trying to give us dreams. The truth is that if I was doing what I wanted to do all day, I would be playing a game would be playing golf. I'd be on a golf course chasing a white ball around. And in no way, in no freaking world, am I entitled to earn money and pay and and live and and and feed my family paying playing a game. Speaker 2
Yeah. Speaker 3
And no way, like, how how many people are out there trying to put a round peg in a square hole because they wanna do something. They wanna start this business. They are passionate about x, y, and z. They love this, that, or the other. Mhmm. Yeah. That is such that is such a horrifically wrong way to look at the world and the business world, especially because, look, capitalism, our economy. Yeah. It doesn't give a shit about you. Like, I'm just gonna be the I'm gonna be the guy to say it. Sure. This world doesn't care about you. Yeah. It doesn't care what you want. It doesn't care who you are, and and the world is hard. It's hard. This this this this world that we live in is brutal. It's hard. And it's tough to be happy. It's tough to find meaning. It's tough to build relationships. It's tough to you know, earn money. It's everybody on the internet makes it seem like earning money is just an amazing, the easy thing. Like, hang out on Twitter and you just you would just think money grows on trees. That is that is not true. So so too many entrepreneurs think about the world in an emotional way. Yeah. But in reality, they're sitting at a poker table and they have chips in 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. You got chips represent an hour, and you got twenty four of a day given to you, and you can choose how you spend them. And you should be thinking about it like a a a poker player. Somebody's gonna play the odds at gambling. And if I'm gonna devote my time, energy, and resources towards this, what's gonna be my ROI? Am I taking a one in a million dream shot or am I making a wise bet that a poker player would make? Too many business people, you know, they start a restaurant because somebody told them they're good at cooking. Sure. Speaker 2
Yeah. Speaker 3
They're start they're they're gonna they were gonna go to art school because somebody told them that they were, you know, could could be an artist. They're gonna go to music school because they think they can play an instrument and get paid, you know, great salary to to play an instrument. I mean, these things this is insanity. Like, this is insanity when you when if we step back on emotionally and we think about that, we think about the fact that there's There's probably five hundred grown men that just got out of college that are going around trying to make a living playing golf. Three or three or four of them are gonna make the tour because these guys play on the tour till they're fifty years old. It's the most competitive sport to play in the world. Yet we have these twenty four year olds that are told by coaches told by their parents, told by all these people that they can make it playing a game. And that's one of the things that's wrong with this world. Speaker 2
No. I couldn't agree more. And I love the fact that it's really a matter of even though you may have your own personal goals and ambitions and all that. And like we all do, we all should. I mean, really it's a matter of focusing on others and where where the value is to add to others And so I I imagine when you were in college, you started this moving and storage business. You weren't drawn to move it in, like, boxes and, you know, it's like I mean, who who wants to do that all day? That sucks. So I I I love it. It doesn't mean you've gotta be you know, miserable every second of every day, but it's it's not about you. It's really not about you. And when I say you, I mean, you, me, the listener. Speaker 3
Life is a life life is a a marshmallow game. Have you heard of the marshmallow game where they put it? They Speaker 2
put a they Speaker 3
put a four year old in front of a marshmallow And they say they say, hey, if you don't eat this marshmallow, I'm gonna come back in this room in five minutes. I'm gonna give you two marshmallows. But if you eat it now, you're only gonna get one. And you see, you know, what percentage of the kids can actually, like, delay gratification and hold off on what they want that very moment in order to get something that they want two years from now, three years from now, four years from now. And a career is no different. Like, you have to work hard, you have to grind, you have to do things that you don't wanna do so that two, three, five, ten years down the road, you can do what you wanna do, and you can spend your time playing golf, and you can spend your time doing what you wanna do. Yeah, it's about looking at the market unemotionally and seeing who you can help. And and money is money is nothing more than exchange of value. That you're you're you're adding value to people's lives in a way that they're gonna give you money and there's gonna be excess money. There's gonna be excess money. Every party has to win. Your employee has to win. The customer has to win, and you as a business owner have to win if you're doing business well. It's a win win win win. Scenario where your employee is working. They're earning fifteen twenty, fifty dollars an hour to work for you, and they're happy about that. That's a win for them. They're they're doing it out of choice. Your customers paying you one hundred, two hundred, three hundred dollars for whatever you're giving them, and you as a business owner get surplus because you're adding more value to the world than you're taking, So if you look at the world unselfishly and say, hey, these are all the different things that I could potentially do to add value, I'm gonna do one of these instead of doing what I wanna do. It's not about me. It's about them. It's about who I'm gonna serve. Speaker 2
Love it. Awesome. So, you know, so you had a pretty, pretty difficult, I guess successful moving storage business, but then some difficult times when it sounds like it it started to fall apart right in front of your eyes. So walk us through, you know, the next five or ten years. How did you progress through after college and all that. Speaker 3
Yeah. We I mean, it wasn't another thing that I've learned in in this entire thing is that every single bad situation that I've been in It looking back, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was at that very moment. When when you're sleep deprived, when you're angry, when you're stressed, when your emotions amplify situation and they amplify your feelings and they Speaker 2
amplify your stress and they amplify the chaos. Speaker 3
So looking back, it wasn't an insurmountable issue at all. We, you know, couple hundred customers got their stuff a little bit late, but most of them were still happy. And the business went on, and we got better. And we and we had more systems better hiring more people the next year. And it was a blessing and and and, you know, We were twenty five, twenty six years old, a few years later, in two thousand fifteen, and we had a half million dollars in the in the bank. You cannot do that. Cannot do that if you work a w two job. You can't. So entrepreneurship gave us that gift, and we were able to, then, you know, leverage that cash to, the next bigger thing, and and that was real estate for us. And the lesson there for me looking back at it is that business is all about momentum. If I would have I would've hung out on Twitter or hung out, you know, on social media and and looked at all the people who were where I wanted to be and said, hey, I need to get there. I need to get to where Chris powers is with, you know, over a billion dollars of industrial real estate. Or I need to be where Moses Kagan is with two hundred million dollars of real estate in in LA wanna beat where all these people are. I would have never started a moving a moving company. Like, it's about momentum and and taking one step after the other. So the small goals and the and the achievable stuff was was a necessity requirement for me. Speaker 2
Yeah. A little bit. You're focused on I mean, you you again, you have long term goals, I'm sure, but you're focused on kind of what's right in front of you doing doing a great job with with the the service you know, to others in your service business. So top so why I mean, I'm a huge fan of real estate. A lot of listeners are big fans of real estate, but at that time, why did you decide to go into real estate? Speaker 3
We realized that our business was stressful. It was not ultra scalable and looking back, it was a horrible business. But at the time, we're like, it's not the best business. We could maybe find a little bit better business. Where where are people making really good money that are not are not working that harder and not that smart. Speaker 2
Right. And, we saw Success leaves clues. Right? Speaker 3
Yeah. And and we saw a lot of very wealthy, and people who had and and I and I say wealth, I don't just mean cash. I mean, they had time freedom. They had, you know, good quality of life. They could control their schedule. They could do what they wanted to do in life. And a lot of them were real estate investors, and and then we started looking closer at self storage and the way self storage was managed. And we just thought, hey, This is a good business. We don't need to we don't need to take over the world, but we can we can slice out our piece of the pie. We can get our piece of this. We don't need all of it. We don't need to be a billion dollar startup. We don't need to scale it. We can we can get our piece. And so we we dove in and did it. Speaker 2
Yeah. So now you don't have to get too specific, but when you say we, is this the same business partner that you had before or or did the partnership look? Speaker 3
Yeah. I had a I had a fifty percent partner in that first business who's still a fifty percent partner in my real estate private equity firm for this day. Speaker 2
That's awesome. So on that point, you know, did you just get lucky or, looking back, like, how would you advise the listener to approach a partnership. Not I'm not talking about a deal level partnership. I'm talking business long term partnership. Speaker 3
Yep. I think if you're If you're inexperienced and you have like, there's three things you're required to build a business. It's capital, it's a network, and it's experience. If you don't have any of those things, if you don't have any of those things, you're in trouble. And and going and get a partnership is kinda shooting in the dark. If you're in college, somebody's room and shake at hand with somebody. It's it's, it's like getting married on a first date. Not ideal. As you get more experienced in life. And now in my current situation, I'm doing a lot of partnerships with a lot of different people because they bring different things to the table. There's operational partners. There's capital partners. There's, you know, network partners. There's partners for distribution. There's different skill sets. And you and you gotta form that team And, yeah, right now where I am in my life, it's, hey, I have the distribution. I have the capital, and Speaker 2
I have Speaker 3
some guidance, but I don't have the time to run a company. So I need somebody who knows how to operate and run a company as a partner. So building building partnerships that have that going on inside. But, yeah, look, I'm a I'm a big proponent of partnerships. I've never started a business where I'm a hundred perform. Speaker 2
Love it. So it's essentially finding what other people have to offer that that complements what what you bring to the table, basically. Awesome. So so walk us through kind of that first, you know, first real estate, I guess, company and then how have things progressed up through today? Speaker 3
Yeah. So we had We had, like I said, some cash. We had we're blessed to have some cash sitting in the bank. We went after a self storage development project as our very first deal that we ever had, which I don't rec I don't rec doing that. Looking back, I would have, I would have bought a property instead Speaker 2
of building. So that's a so that's a ground up construction. You bought the land and then built the the facility. Right? Speaker 3
Our idea we had the idea of to do this and the cash to do it in January of two thousand fifteen. We didn't get the building built and opened until May of two thousand seventeen. And we didn't make our first dollar of profit until May of two thousand nineteen. So it was four and a half years from idea to making some money. So you talk about delayed gratification. That's the old that's the ultimate That's the only big deal. But we built that we built that property for two point nine million dollars all in, and it's worth eleven and a half million dollars today. And it's been a a life changing deal. That one deal, set my family up to where I never had to work again, which is pretty insane Speaker 2
to think about. And you still you still on that? Speaker 3
Yeah. We bought out our partners, and and, it's just been a great deal for everybody who got involved. Speaker 2
Super cool. So Now, I mean, I I understand, like, you kinda combine real estate with self storage and and service in that sense. But, why the emphasis on, I guess, service businesses as as you progress through your entrepreneurial journey? I Speaker 3
think Well, I'm I'm not too arrogant to think that I know how to scale a product company or a software company. And I it's just not it's not what I know how to do yet. Will I try to do it? Yes. Is there a lot of time left in my career? Yes. I'm thirty three years old. But I know I know service companies. I know how to build teams, I know that the playbook is is very similar on how to build teams and deliver products, you know, services. Yep. So I I'm a fan, and and they're cash flow positive. They're low risk, and and you can and they can still be big, and they can still make a lot of money. Speaker 2
Sure. Makes a lot of sense. I mean, from my perspective, I mean, it really, of course, depends on the industry, but it's a fairly fairly low barrier to entry. Right? I mean, I think your brother owns a a lawn mowing landscaping company I used to a long time ago. I'm sure it is, you know, much more successful than mine was, but, but, I mean, you can get in with it. You know, lawn mower. I mean, you can start it. And so you say low risk. It's low risk in that sense as well. Just just starting it and if you try it for six months, it doesn't work. So what you learned some lessons. So that makes a lot of sense. So okay. So I guess it will give us kind of the last five or six years how things really progressed with your with your businesses. I know now you've got maybe upwards of ten different businesses going on. So talk to us kind of, you know, in the recent rearview mirror, if you will. Speaker 3
So I started sharing online my experience with real estate, small business, hiring, and I started writing about it. And, you fast forward three years, and I have over three hundred thousand followers on Twitter and, and, you know, a platform that has sixty to ninety million impressions a month across everything that I do, which is just insane to think about. So when you get that kind of distribution, you know, some people look at it as though I can, it's fun to tweet to people and then read my thoughts. And the first thing I thought is all the entrepreneurial, you know, opportunity that comes with having that kind of distribution. And everybody in my following is business owners, people who are managing, people who are hiring, people who are trying to get better at running their companies or buying real estate. So it's a kind of a direct you know, direct path into offering some services to those folks who trust me and know me and partner and partnering with world class operators. So, yeah, it's a it's a recruiting company for Latin American talent and Filipino talent. It's a recruiting company for American talent. I have a a web development agency. I have a seO agency. I have a performance marketing agency, paper click agency. I have a a business brokerage, actually buying and selling businesses with that platform that I've lost recently. And just a a lot of other on, you know, real estate real estate related. We have a cost segregation firm and a and a, property and casualty insurance company. All with different partners and all with kind of the same playbook. So it's That's amazing. I'm sure Speaker 2
you've got a few, in the hopper as well. If not, just ideas, but something you're working on. But, I think the main reason you have, such a Twitter following is is you're, you know, like, your your bourbon posts and things like that, your bourbon tweets. I saw your, your recent one or I just I just love it. It's I mean, the fact is, like, correct me if I'm wrong, but you're kinda just toying with people a little bit. Speaker 3
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I, I I do some you know, really silly things that 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 people on social media get angry about what other humans post on social media that's not even a direct insult to them. So I don't understand who in their right mind would get upset about what somebody posts on the internet that doesn't have anything to do with them. Yeah. But that's a big that's a big chunk of people, and I I enjoy making those people angry. I can't help it. Speaker 2
Yeah. For for example, for the listener who doesn't yet follow you. The you know, you'll you'll tweet about, paying virtual assistance five dollars an hour overseas, which, you know, I I have BAs on my team. I'm a big fan of it. And people get so offended and so angry at you for, you know, for for, I guess. Slave labor or whatever else you wanna call it, but it's hilarious to me because it's like these for the most part, these VAs are making a lot more than they would have otherwise. The opportunity that they're not Speaker 3
even just VA's. I mean, these are employ these are employees running teams and and having, like, key key roles inside of my business. But, yeah, I've hired them through a company called support Shepard, which I'm a partner in. And we have thirty plus employees in Columbia, the Philippines, and, you know, five to five to ten dollars an hour for phenomenal talent Speaker 2
is is amazing. Yeah. I wasn't planning on saying this, but they are only my only two virtual assistants who've lasted. I'll be honest, I got through support sheppard, so I've tried other agencies It's not, you know, Nick didn't pay me to say this, but that that's actually it's actually a fact. But my I also enjoyed your your recent Cappy Venwinkle one with the, mixing it with caffeine free diet coke, I think it was, but we'll let the listener go check that out. So I do have some rapid fire questions. Do you, I guess, you know, looking back before I get to those questions, looking back, I mean, from adversity to abundance, would you say that, you know, your that that episode we talked about earlier was the biggest that was the the most adversity you've faced. I know you spoke to the fact that the adversity continues throughout your career. What other adversity or periods of adversity stand out to you. Anything like, compared to what we already talked about? Speaker 3
Yeah. I think the the amount of stressful situations I've been in is I I can't even count them all at this point. And stress is stress is something that you your body gets used to and your mind gets used too, and it's like a muscle dealing with stress is like a muscle. And the more practice you get in stressful situations, the better you're gonna be able to handle yourself in stressful situations. So, it's It's hard for me to point to the numerous stressful. I mean, it's We're running that. Running companies and teams with, you know, a hundred plus employees now in your network. It's there's problems all there's problems all the time that you have to that you have Speaker 2
to study. I mean, I love it because you're not avoiding problems. You're not avoiding pain. I mean, you know, it's you just get better dealing with them. That's that's so far the consistent message I think of this episode is You have improved it at managing businesses and solving problems internally and externally for other people. And therefore, you're getting paid more because you're adding more value in the world to the world. So, yeah, I I just today's world, it's like everybody's so afraid of stress and and, you know, stress is bad. And it's like, not necessarily. I mean, that's where the growth happens. So I love that. Alright. 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 get points across sales copy is harsh. I I write punchy. I write arrogant. I I have kinda very strong opinions on Twitter. What people don't understand is that they're pretty, loosely held opinions. I changed my mind often, and The way that you went on Twitter is the way is different in the way that you went in life. So I'm not a I'm not a arrogant jerk, like you may think, don't let me read my, please. Speaker 2
Well, I I I love the fact that it's really it's a game. Right? I mean, it's all they have different games within this within this game of life. So you approach Twitter like any other game. Your three hundred thousand plus followers must be doing something right that came. What's one of your biggest failures? I mean, looking back and you can frame it however you want some some people don't like to call things failures, but do over regret, you know, in your entrepreneurial journey, what would you what would you look back at and say, I I would have done this differently? Speaker 3
That's a good that's a good question. I I didn't start these businesses soon enough. I've had influence on online for three or four years now, and I didn't get serious about it until more recently. But, no, I think I I've been blessed. I haven't I haven't made a serious mistake that really set me back. I haven't went bankrupt. I haven't lost any properties. I haven't, you know, really let down anybody close to me from a poor decision that I made So I don't really I don't re yes. There's yes. There's minor things. Like, I could nitpick my whole life and think of three or four hundred things that made a poor decision on it. I wish I would have done differently. Right. But I wish I had started buying storage earlier, and I got more serious about buying it instead of building it. But, no, I think I can't I can't, I can't point to any major regrets. I'm I'm pretty blessed there. That's awesome. Speaker 2
So, yeah, and this wasn't this isn't written in my questions, but you know, with ten different businesses that you're involved in, how does I mean, what does your what does your week look like? How do you how do you spend your time? Speaker 3
So I have a team of people that help me run the companies. I have a marketing officer. I have a copywriter. I have a video editor. I have a, operator. I have an HR person who's running payroll. I mean, So it's it's a a lot I have a lot of help and I also, you know, pretty clear I'm pretty careful about who I select to run these make sure they're pretty good at building teams, and and they're not gonna be somebody who has no idea what they're doing when it comes to running a business. So, I spend about half my time on content and growing 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 running these companies. Speaker 2
Got it. Awesome. If you could go back and give your eighteen year old self some advice, what would that be? Speaker 3
Man, I I'm glad I don't I'm glad I don't know how good it can be and how fun entrepreneurship can be or I would never have done that first three years slog or five years slog in that business. Like, that was just so hard and brutal, and there were so many easier ways to make money that I probably would've passed it up or not done it, but I'm really glad that I stuck with it. So I would I'd say just do it again and stick with it and don't get don't get too don't set two larger goals and and pass up the necessary, not fun stuff you gotta do to get there. Speaker 2
Love it. If you can have coffee with any historical figure, who would it be? They could be, you know, dead or alive. Obviously, you'd be having the coffee with them alive, but Speaker 3
Yeah. I don't know. That's a tough one. Yeah. I don't have I don't have a good answer for that. Speaker 2
No worries. If you were given ten million dollars tomorrow, Not saying you don't have ten million, but it's somebody wrote you a check for ten million dollars. What would you do with it? Speaker 3
I'd go and be my own LP in the next years where the storage deals. I'd invested all with my invested all with my private equity company. Speaker 2
Love it. You must believe in your company. If you had the one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Speaker 3
One meal for the rest of my life. That's that I don't know. That would not be fun. I mean, I like a lot. I like all food. There's not single food I don't like, actually. I love sushi. I love steak. I love chicken. I'm I'm I'm definitely meat eater. Speaker 2
You too. Back to your business. What's one challenge that you're facing right I know there's always numerous challenges, but what stands out is, like, the number one or one of the main challenges you're looking at. Speaker 3
Yep. I've never I've never grown a company from you know, five hundred grand a month of revenue, you know, five or ten million dollar valuation, never grown one to the next level. And, the next five years are gonna be me trying to do that. Try to learn how to do that. Speaker 2
So who do you, again, not not this is not written, but Who do you follow-up for that? I mean, you mentioned a couple of guys, you know, that are big in real estate, and big on Twitter, but who do you follow from a business standpoint so that you can kinda emulate. Speaker 3
Yeah. I have I have a I have a lot of mentors and people that I look up to. But I mean, it this all is kinda secondary, like living a good life and being a good husband and being a good dad, my kids, and also having fun. Like, that stuff's important. And far too many of, like, the far too many famous or, like, really, really, really successful people. Yeah. I wouldn't want I wouldn't want their life. Like, I wouldn't want their relation the wake of destruction they've left behind them when it comes to relationships and, you know, the physical health is important and having hobbies is important. It just look at life as a kind of a balanced thing. So it's not that I don't look up to people at all, but I kinda I set I I look for a mentor who has the other areas of life too because I don't wanna I don't wanna be a one personal person. Speaker 2
Sure. Yeah. I tend to do that too and and try to pull from, you know, doesn't mean I have to do everything that that person does. Right? But I might learn from wherever they're whatever they've obviously excelled in one area of life and then pulled from someone else in another area, but I think, yeah, I forgot that you you ruptured your Achilles. Was it last year? Speaker 3
I, I don't The Achilles thing I have, that's my worst fear because I play pickleball and stuff. But she, I I severed the tendon on top of my I severed the ad doctor tendon on top mine. Okay. 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 recovered. So I feel really lucky. Speaker 2
Got it. I'll try not to bring that up again with you. No. I I interrupted my Achilles playing Batman. It's super, super, you know, tough, you know, sport, apparently, but you know, having I was, used to be an athlete who was in the military and then I go and rupture Michaelie's playing badminton. So I I think you did your injury shortly thereafter. So, but I love I love the post. I mean, you are always posting about like, hunting or just different, things with your kids and golf, and it's not all about just making money. What's one of the in your industry? What's one of the the personality traits that you think is required to be successful? Speaker 3
I think you have to be To generate serious wealth, you have to be charismatic and be able to bring people together. And if you can't get people excited, if you can't lead other people and make them wanna follow you. And people are naturally people naturally gravitate towards the person who has the most energy and is the most excitable and is in the best mood. So if you're not in not energetic, not excitable, and you're grumpy all the time, like, Good luck getting rich. Good luck. Speaker 2
Love that. It's awesome. Is that something you've you've just kind of always had a knack for or mean, I imagine your intention about trying to develop those leadership skills. Right? Speaker 3
I think I'm I got a lot of it from my dad who's loud and, you know, once everybody be having a good time, for sure. Speaker 2
Got it. What's one thing in your field of expertise? Not maybe not on Twitter, but just in in real life that almost no one agrees with you about. Whether it's building business or self storage or real estate, or, it's just one what's one thing that you have a real conflict with today? Speaker 3
I think that I think that wasting any energy at all on politics or world geopolitics or the Russian the Russian war or the presidential elections or a sum of submarine pod wasting any energy and time thinking or worrying about that stuff. There's a lot of people who actually worry about that stuff. That's just that's just, like, the number one trait that is gonna make somebody, like, not be able to achieve their goals is spending time worrying and thinking about things that they can't control. And almost everybody on the internet does that, and it kinda upsets me. Speaker 2
That's a great answer. Yeah, I know for me back in twenty fifteen, I made a real mental shift and stopped stopped watching the news, stopped, you know, I just started focusing on who's on my team, who who can I influence, you know, what is my circle of influence what are my strengths and my businesses started to really grow from there? So it's great advice. Any other kind of productivity hack that you have for entrepreneurs out there, anything that comes to mind? Speaker 3
I think, writing and learning how to write well is a superpower. So if you can practice if you can practice writing copy, writing short emails, writing short punchy, informational, you know, I I run my company with the written word. Period. If you have to pick up the phone to get a message across, you are going to get passed up in business, So learning how to write well and learning how to, write sales copy and learn how to, you know, get points across and get your ideas across with the written word in a in a clear and concise way. The only way you can get better at it is to practice, but if you, If you start to practice that, you're gonna watch you're gonna watch your, effectiveness skyrocket. Speaker 2
Awesome. So speaking of writing, or reading, 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 you know, mainstream. Everybody loves atomic habits and, you know, five five hour, four hour work week or whatever it is. But I I like the book on your leadership by Dave Ramsey. He's -- Okay. Speaker 0
-- Speaker 3
everybody thinks of him as a super Christian, you know, no debt, like, personal finance guy. But he's also a really good businessman who has grown in a media empire, and he's been through a lot in real estate and small business. So his book on true leadership is really good. It's also a book called The Gold by Alay Who Goldrat. And and that's about it's about bottlenecks in your business. It's a fictional story told to get a point across about business. And it's a it's a about bottlenecks and how to, you know, look your job as CEO or owner of a business is to remove bottlenecks at all times. Sometimes that bottleneck is yourself. Sometimes it's an employee. Sometimes it's the way the information's flowing around your company. But if you can remove those bottlenecks, then it kinda unlocks your business for growth, and that's a big mindset shift for me. Speaker 2
That's great. Yeah. On the Dave Ramsey point real quickly, I I it's like it's like Grant Cardone. I mean, not that they're They're they're pretty different. Right? But people get so hung up on, you know, not liking Grantone, you know, for for whatever reason, but it's like Who cares? He's done really well from a business standpoint and a marketing standpoint. You know, same thing with Dave Ramsey. It's like he obviously knows how to run a business and grow a business. I love that. So, what's one question that you, that I haven't asked that you wish I had? Speaker 3
I don't know. I think you asked a lot of really great questions. I appreciate Speaker 2
that. Awesome. Well, talk talk a little bit more before we wrap up here, talk a little bit more about your current businesses and what you have going on today, maybe into the next year or two. Speaker 3
Yeah. So I, if if people kinda wanna follow along, I I don't really wanna pump pump the businesses, but we'll put the links in notes of the different business business services that I that I offer. But, yeah, if you wanna kinda get a look into my brain and kinda think about how I think about managing and hiring and delegation and and, you know, building businesses and and real estate portfolios, then my newsletter is the best resource, I think. And you can go to sweaty startup dot com and sign up for my newsletter. I send a a pretty long email every Monday, and it's It's, you know, on on a management principle or a real estate principle that, is pretty important to me. Speaker 2
Awesome. Yeah. I know I I get a good bit of value out of that. It's really good, so I definitely recommend it. This just popped into my head before we wrap up. What's one thing you've changed your mind on in the last twenty years when it comes to business? Speaker 3
I changed my mind a lot. I have a little I have a little piece of tape, a note taped to my window or my mirror when I brush my teeth every morning. It says change your mind on something. Today. Just because I know that as you get more successful, as you win more at life and as you get more confidence and more, you know, sure of yourself, it's so easy to just you know, reject and turn away other information that contradicts what you believe. And I think that that's a dangerous to be as an entrepreneur, especially when you're managing capital, other people's capital. And if you start to think that you know everything, then it opens you up to some serious problems in your business. So I encourage the trusted people around me to call me out when they think I'm wrong, and they do often. And I also use Twitter and these other tools is a place where people can give me real time feedback. And if their arguments make a lot of sense, and, you know, they have some credibility, then I think It's a it's a beautiful place to start to change your mind on something, but one huge one is that I don't think I don't think entrepreneurship is for everybody. You talk to me you talk to me three years ago. And I think entrepreneurship is the dream. Everybody should start a business. Everybody should found a business. Mhmm. If you're working a normal job, then you are missing the boat. And that is simply not true. It's not true at all. I think very few people are actually designed to be an entrepreneur. Not very many people want that stress of every problem ending with you. Not many people want the hard decisions, not many people want the confrontation, and not many people want the risk in the in the downside of this is real. And we see it all the time. It tears people up when they can't win or they can't make it they can't hack it. And I also see a lot of people who are really happy and living amazing lives going to work and getting home at five o'clock and hanging out with their family, exploring hobbies, doing whatever they wanna do, but also, you know, I say that to say, like, You can you can apply almost everything we talked about today if you work at a company. And you can earn more money and live a better life by delegating, managing, you know, leveraging other humans in win win scenarios to to build where you wanna be. But I think the sad truth is is that most people are not better off starting a business. They're better off getting jobs. Speaker 2
Well, I'm glad you threw in the last part about, it's still applicable to a w two because all my listeners would have vanished and dried up after this. No. I'm kidding. I couldn't agree more on that. I mean, it's it's so true that it's it's not it's not for everyone. But awesome. So, sweaty start up. We talk about Twitter, your website, your newsletters, anywhere else we should check out. Speaker 3
Yep. Sway start dot com is how you can find me. And if you wanna follow me on Twitter and get a look into my brain all day, then, at sway start up on Twitter. I really appreciate it. Speaker 2
Have me. Speaker 3
Thanks for thanks for a great interview. Speaker 2
Yeah. It's been great. Nick. Nick Huber, thanks a lot for joining us. We really appreciate you taking the time. Into the listener out there, thank you for spending your most valuable resource with us, and that is your time. Thanks, everyone. Take care. Speaker 4
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