Challenging Modern Norms & Building Wealth: Nick Huber on Controversial Opinions, Real Estate, and Health Optimization

Speaker 0

Nick Huber joins us today on the show. This is the second time that Nick has been on, and, I had a lot of fun with this episode. It's very different from our typical episodes. Nick is a real estate, entrepreneur, investor, etcetera. He runs several three main businesses that are all multi multimillion dollar businesses. He started his first business called Storage Squad in two thousand eleven, And now he runs, three different businesses, like I said, Bolt Storage, somewhere dot com, and RE Cost Seg. We don't get into the weeds a ton on those three businesses, but he's absolutely qualified to talk about real estate and business. Nick has a a large following on Twitter or x, and that's relevant because we spend most of the episode actually talking about some of the controversial opinions that Nick has. He put out a tweet recently or a post on x, listing I think it was twenty five controversial opinions that he thinks will become, universally accepted in the next twenty five years, something like that. So we go through a lot of these controversial topics, which is really and I and I tried to challenge him on on some of them for sure. Really interesting stuff. We do talk about some of the adversity that Nick has faced. We talk about a couple of these stories that you'll find in his upcoming book, and what the takeaway is for the the real estate entrepreneur, the real estate investor. But just to give you a quick snapshot, a couple of the controversial things we talk about that the opinions that Nick holds. One is that video games are terribly addictive and are ruining kids' lives. Another is, we talk a lot about routine blood work and hormone optimization and how that would keep forty year old men from looking like blobs and forty year old women, keep them sexually active with their husbands. Several other very controversial topics we dive into. We talk about power lifting and long distance running and heart a lot about heart disease and and also AI AI and crypto and and Nick's takes on those, Nick's take on those two topics. There's so much packed into this one. We don't it's not your typical episode of focusing on one on one particular, moment of adversity or Nick's story. We talked in the first episode, a couple years ago about more about Nick's story. This one is is really fun, very controversial, and I think you're gonna love it. 

Speaker 1

From adversity to abundance, hosted by entrepreneur and seasoned real estate investor, Jamie Bateman, is the ultimate guide for active and passive investors seeking clarity, mental fitness, and the confidence to make inspired decisions in the world of real estate. With a decade plus of investing experience across various niches and a background as a combat veteran, former army officer, and multimillion dollar mortgage note company owner, Jamie brings a wealth of knowledge and inspiring stories to each episode. Through weekly episodes featuring insightful interviews with industry leaders and solo explorations of mindset and strategy, listeners will uncover actionable advice and tips to overcome challenges and build lasting financial success. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting, from adversity to abundance is your road map to turning obstacles into opportunities and achieving financial freedom. 

Speaker 0

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 Huber. Nick Nick is a second time guest on the show. Nick, how are you doing today? 

Speaker 2

Jamie, thanks for having me. Love the show. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. Thank you. 

Speaker 2

This 

Speaker 0

is gonna be fun. I know you got a lot going on. We've got, there's so many I could have you on ten more times, and we would barely scratch the surface. So, for the listener who may be unfamiliar with you, Nick, who are you, and what are you up to today? 

Speaker 2

Yeah. I live in Athens, Georgia. I own three main businesses. I came up, you know, two thousand eleven, started a moving and storage moving and storage company for students. Sold that in two thousand twenty, and, Bolt Storage is kinda my main business. We own and operate self storage facilities. I acquired majority interest of somewhere dot com about a year ago, and, I own a real estate, tax service business called RE CosSec that's growing really fast. So, yeah, I'm an entrepreneur, have have a couple kids, and just trying to live a good life, man. It's not always easy. This, this world throws some stuff at you. 

Speaker 0

For sure. I've been following you on, on Twitter or x now, for quite some time as a lot of people do. I think almost four hundred thousand people do. And, you know, it's just been an impressive journey to follow for sure. I know there's a lot of ups and downs. It's not it's not all, you know, straight line to success for sure. But I I guess recently, somewhere dot com last year, right, was your your big purchase. Is that right? 

Speaker 2

Yep. I, look. I'm just I'm just really passionate about business models that work, and I think almost everybody should look the other way from venture capital, new idea, innovation, and, do things that work, man. Like, my storage company is just a good business. Somewhere dot com is a good business, and are you constantly good businesses? But, yeah, I the biggest deal I've done recently is Mhmm. Yeah. I raised twenty million dollars from outside investors, borrowed nine point three million from the seller to buy majority interest in, somewhere dot com, which is a international recruiting company that finds South African, Egyptian, Latin American, Filipino employees for US based businesses. 

Speaker 0

Nice. And I know some of the, you you take a lot of heat for different things, especially on Twitter, like I said. But speaking of Twitter, you put out a tweet the other day that I noticed, and, it's all about your your personal opinions that may be controversial, and that you think will be universally accepted in twenty years from now. And we're we're recording this in twenty twenty five, so we'll have to have you back on in twenty years. Let's do it. 

Speaker 2

Hopefully hopefully, some of these things are accepted a little earlier than that. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. Let's hope. Right? Let's run through a couple of these and talk about them. We're gonna make this show a little different than your tip my typical episode for the show. I mean, 

Speaker 2

the show notes. We'll put in the show notes this exact tweet so people can kinda pull it up That's great. And look at the discussions because because the you know, my opinion is one thing, but I also change my mind pretty often. And a lot of people commented some very interesting things on here, and it's it's a great discussion. So Yeah. Let's do it, man. 

Speaker 0

I remember last on the the first episode, which we'll link also link to in the show notes, you did mention that you like to change your mind often. And, you know, 

Speaker 2

we we last spoke, and it was twenty twenty two. We did the last one. Right? Twenty twenty twenty two. I think I think I've changed my mind on a ton since then, and a lot of it's on this list. Right. 

Speaker 0

That's hilarious. That is a that's an important skill for sure. I I know, I've gotten better at that and not always great at that myself. But alright. Number one, you think video games are horrifically addictive and ruining kids' lives. Why do you say that? 

Speaker 2

I see it in real time in my friends who have kids, whether they're, you know, eight year olds or sixteen year olds. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

They are showing they're showing every sign of, like, severe addiction, and the parents are in denial. They are constantly constantly asking their friends for more screen time or their parents for more screen time. Yeah. They are spending entirely too much time on video games, and that leads to them then being more likely to go to college and play video games the whole time they're there instead of studying, playing sports, meeting meeting women, doing whatever it is. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. 

Speaker 2

But, like, it's highly correlated to living in your parents' basement at thirty years old. Like, I'm I'm sorry. It's it's super addictive. It's very bad for kids. It's it's, it's terrible. So Yeah. Yeah. If you wanna end up, you know, thirty five overweight and casting spells in your bedroom at three AM, then let let your let your kids flip. So, yeah, I'm doing I'm taking the opposite approach of this, and I'm literally not allowing I'm not allowing video games in my house. Wow. So if my kid comes to me wanting to play Minecraft or Fortnite or any of this stuff Right. The answer is no because it is way too addictive. And, look, like, some the argument against this is that it builds community and parents even play with kids. 

Speaker 0

That's what I was gonna say. I was gonna challenge you just in that on that point. It is it's like that's how I know my son likes Minecraft. He connects with other other people that way, and and I'm not I'm I'm intentionally trying to to go against you here. But, you know, so I do agree it is addictive for sure. But what about the argument that it it is it it is a social, you know, network in and of itself where people can connect? What about during COVID when you couldn't go outside? You know, we got my daughter a phone during COVID because she wouldn't have any friends to communicate with otherwise. So, whether or not that was a good move, I don't know. Yeah. But, what do you say about that? 

Speaker 2

I mean, there are a lot of peep there are a lot of people who play video games that end up being high performing people. Like, this is not this is this is not a blanket deal. A lot of the tech a lot of people in my tech community say, like, hey. The highest performers in tech and the software engineers almost all played video games and solve those problems. Right. So I'm speaking out of both sides of my mouth here, but I just think the risks far outweigh the benefit. And it's not true connection. Like, let's be real. When you're on 

Speaker 0

That's true. 

Speaker 2

A video game playing Call of Duty in trash talking a stranger about blowing their head off or Right. Start chirping at your friends during Minecraft Right. It's not real community. They're not in your house. You're not building deeper connections. Right. You are you are literally trash talking behind a little, you know, ten digit, screen name or whatever they call it. So Right. I don't buy that argument. I think there are hundreds of ways that are better for kids to socialize and get involvement with people. Yeah. And I just I I think that some kids can do it with balance. And if your kid can do it with balance, it's fine. But if your kid is showing severe signs of addiction and you're in denial, then it's time to wake up and 

Speaker 0

make some changes. Makes sense. I'm gonna skip a couple of these. Next one up 

Speaker 2

We bet we definitely need to skip number two. Right. 

Speaker 0

Exactly. We may not even get this you know, we may be flagged on social media if we I have had episodes flagged for talking about, vaccines, by the way. But, you know Let's 

Speaker 2

get less and less of that now that the owner of, some social media The 

Speaker 0

risk is lower. That's true. 

Speaker 2

Be able to say what they wanna say. And with some vaccine some vaccines are good and important, but Yeah. It a lot of them make absolutely no sense to me personally. So why are we jabbing why are we jabbing a three hour old baby with a hepatitis b vaccine when the only way to get hepatitis b is intravenous drug use or being a prostitute on the street? Right. The argument for that vaccine is that the mother could have hepatitis b. Do we know how people get hepatitis b, and why in the world are we putting aluminum that goes straight to the brain in our in our new base for that? Right. It's all I'll say there. 

Speaker 0

No. And and I'll just chime in in in that. My issue is that you can't even it it's like it's it's almost like you're not allowed to question it. You know what I mean? It's it's not necessarily that like, you you didn't say all vaccines are are wrong or Yeah. But it's like 

Speaker 2

literally have saved millions and millions of people. 

Speaker 0

Absolutely. But we're not allowed to have a a critical thought about it. You know? That it it feels that way to me. But, so I I wanted to disagree with you on that one, but it's I can't. So let's skip down. So routine blood work and hormone optimization would keep all these forty year old men from looking like blobs and forty year old women sexually active with their husbands. What do you mean by that? 

Speaker 2

When you go to the PCP, your primary care physician, and you say, hey, doc. I would like to know what my testosterone is, and I would like to know a little bit more about where my estrogen levels are, and I'd like to know a little bit more about, you know, cancer markers or vitamin d levels or cortisol levels or some deeper markers on heart health. We can go to the one on heart health because I'm really passionate about that. Mhmm. The piece the PCP, more likely than not, will argue with you and tell you that he does not agree with checking it and you're not showing any signs of issues. He'll ask you if you have erectile dysfunction. And if the answer is no, he'll he'll dismiss what you're trying to ask him to do. And it's just toe it's total BS. It's total BS. It's not healthy. It's not healthy to walk around at two and three hundred testosterone levels. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

It's bad it's bad for you. So Right. These these PCPs are I made a I made a tweet, a very precise tweet about that about two weeks ago. Okay. A doctor in the replies, who's actually a friend of mine 

Speaker 0

Uh-huh. 

Speaker 2

Started saying talking about how, you know, biannual or quarterly blood work is way too often. Like, you shouldn't be doing it. There's no reason to know this stuff. And unless you're finding symptoms, it's it's more worry than it's worth. And I got in the DM. I was like, okay. What's your testosterone? What's your lipid panel look like? Where are your cortisol levels? Where is your vitamin d? Do you know what he told me? You know what he told me? He didn't know. He hadn't had blood work in five years. 

Speaker 0

Wow. That's incredible. That is that's unreal. Seriously. 

Speaker 2

It's it's negligent. Right. 

Speaker 0

Sure. 

Speaker 2

So these these doctors are upsetting me slightly in in in this topic. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. I mean, I and, again, so I've been working with a a functional medicine, nurse practitioner in this case, because in Maryland, it's not it's not that big of a difference, really. You don't necessarily need a doctor for prescriptions. But, yeah, I mean, I've learned so much. I mean and and I do I will say people need to be careful in that world as well because there are people who are gonna take advantage of you and, you know, you always have to be careful and ask critical questions. 

Speaker 2

Oh my gosh. My buddy got put on TRT without without the doctor telling him that he if you're on TRT for a long time, you're not gonna be able to have any more kids because your sperm count's gonna go to virtually not virtually zero. So, yes, there is a ton of bad actors in the in the space. And I'm not talking about, like, I'm not talking about TRT. I'm not on TRT. Yeah. I'm talking about just knowing where you are. Right. Information. And tracking tracking heart health very closely, your stress levels, your vitamin d, these things these other things that are super important. Right. 

Speaker 0

Well and I and I've heard, different podcasts about this, and and the the truth is the insurance companies most people change their insurance company, their health insure insurance provider every I think it's, like, five years or maybe even more frequently than that now. And so Nick Huber's problem in twenty five years from now is not his current health insurance provider's problem. Right? So it's much more beneficial in their mind to pass you on your problem on to somebody else. So they're not proactive. So that so these tests you're talking about, for the most part, are not covered by insurance. Right? So, and so the doctors and, you know, most of the doctors in in the traditional medicine field are good people, I will say. Right? But it's the system, and they're they're not incentivized to 

Speaker 2

And, frankly, they don't have time. They don't have time. Sure. They have fifth they're fifteen minutes back to back their entire career. Being a primary care physician is the worst job in the world to have. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

Like, it's brutal. It's brutal on you. It's brutal on your family. Your clients are texting you on weekends. You're back to back to back to back, and you don't actually have time to help anybody. Right. Preventative. Preventative. So, I've gotten super serious about longevity. Yeah. I went to do a full body workup in Colorado. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

I have a functional health doctor and a longevity doctor who is phenomenal. Yeah. And, and it's just a it's so different than the way normal doctors are trained that it's Yeah. It's kinda it's kinda sad. 

Speaker 0

So what about the the forty year old women being sexually active? Let's let's drill down a 

Speaker 2

little bit. People people don't understand that, like, your hormones being out of whack will mess up everything. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

So, like, if your wife doesn't wanna have sex with you at forty years old 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

That's not that's not acceptable. It's not acceptable. Like, of course, it I'm not that that came off a little bad, like, not not not acceptable. Right. We you have to treat your wife like like a lady. Right. But but still, like, hormone hormones being out of whack will ruin people. 

Speaker 0

No. And they 

Speaker 2

and and And they walk around not even knowing it. 

Speaker 0

I'll I'll you know, physical intimacy, not not that we're gonna spend too much time on this, but it's it's absolutely critical for a romantic relationship. I mean, it really is the defining factor of a of, in my opinion, of a of a marriage or romantic relationship versus a friendship or some other, you know, coworker relationship, whatever. I mean, it is it. So if that's missing, it's not a marriage. It's not a long term relationship. It's not it's not a thriving one anyway. So and you're absolutely right. I think the physiological factors are are huge. So So when I I I 

Speaker 2

was talking to a friend who we were comparing DEXA scans. Okay. 

Speaker 0

A 

Speaker 2

DEXA scan literally tells you how much muscle mass you have and how much fat you have on your on your body and where your bone density is. He's six inches shorter than me. K. And he's he's got forty pounds of extra fat on his body than I have on my body. Wow. Wow. And he tries hard, man. He works 

Speaker 0

that way. 

Speaker 2

So maybe maybe he's actually about only about three inches shorter. Okay. We were having a conversation, and I'm like, he's very against he doesn't know where his hormones are. He doesn't know where his testosterone is. He is very against GLP ones and, 

Speaker 0

you 

Speaker 2

know, Ozempic and these Right. Peptides. Yep. And I was having a conversation with him. I'm like, dude, what are you afraid of with this stuff? Like, what's the fear? And he's like, I just think that there's long term side effects. I was like, you don't think there's long term side effects of you carrying around? Like, I'm your friend. 

Speaker 0

I'm gonna 

Speaker 2

tell you something you might not wanna hear. Right. Don't think there's long term side effects of you carrying around an extra forty pounds of fat. Right. Right. 

Speaker 0

It's a great point. Yeah. 

Speaker 2

Like, if you do it Everything in life has positives and negatives. 

Speaker 0

And doing things like this. 

Speaker 2

If I was carrying around forty pounds while I was trying, a, my testosterone's probably two hundred, and b, I would sure as hell get on Ozempic to, like, get my shit together. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. For sure. And it and it it's yeah. It all plays into, like you know, people talk a lot about time management, and, I mean, that's I do think important, but I think energy management is is really important as well. And if you're running low energy every day because your testosterone levels are low, you're not running your real estate business very well or whatever you're you're working on. You're not gonna be you're not gonna show up as the best version of yourself as a father, husband, etcetera. Yep. So yeah. I I I agree on that one for sure. Let's skip down. Large vehicles are ten times safer than small vehicles. Don't put your wife or sixteen year old in a sedan. 

Speaker 2

Yeah. I feel I feel super, super passionate about this, and it and it angers Twitter every time I talk about how Tesla a Tesla is not as safe as my f one fifty. Here's here's the bottom line is that every crash test compares, a, it compares other vehicles in the same class, same size. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

And they're all single car accidents of a car hitting an object. Those are every single crash crash test. I don't drive crazy. I'm not worried about a single car accident. Right. What I'm worried about is somebody texting and blowing a red light and slamming into my driver's side door or my back passenger door where my kid is sitting. Sure. That's that's my fear, period. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

If I'm sitting in a Tesla and my and my chin is four and a half feet off the ground, I'm getting the grill. I'm getting the grill of that f one fifty that that teenager is driving right in my chin. Mhmm. And we're talking physics here, man. Like, we're talking physics. Right. So peep people will put their families, people high earners will put their families in sedans, and they'll put their daughters in sedans. Yeah. And all it takes is one split second of your daughter, your wife, or you not seeing a vehicle and pulling out at the wrong time and then driving in a Suburban or driving in a Camry is the difference between walking away and dying. Right. And then there's there's people whose daughters want Jeep Wranglers, and they say yes, and it just absolutely absolutely it's just delusional to me because those are the most unsafe vehicles on the road. Mhmm. And you're gonna put a sixteen year old girl behind the wheel. Right. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. Well, sounds like you're putting Teslas down for a different reason than other people are recently. 

Speaker 2

I love I love I love Teslas. I love the tech. Yeah. Cyber trucks, if they didn't look quite so obnoxious, I'd probably get one. 

Speaker 0

They're they're a little extreme. Let's be honest. Yeah. What about what about the Earth, though, with these huge vehicles? I mean, aren't you killing the planet? 

Speaker 2

That's the that is the like, that's a very real 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. Not 

Speaker 2

the not the planet. I don't care at all about gas mileage. But this the fear is you put your daughter in a suburban 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. And she's gonna run a red light. Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

And she is gonna pull out in front of somebody. And so Mhmm. It's it really is an arms race, and you could also get the call that your daughter ran a red light and killed three people in a Camry. And that's Right. Sure. So, yeah, it's a it's a mental it's a mental balance, but, unfortunately, we live in a world where you gotta put your family first. 

Speaker 0

No. I that's that's true for sure. Alright. Let's skip down. So plastics are killing us. Polyester underwear, tea bags, cutting boards, microwavable meals in plastic. I know I've seen heard a lot about microplastics. I guess I'll ask, you know, what are we supposed to do about that? Even if that's true, what are we supposed to do about it? 

Speaker 2

Yeah. There's an eighty twenty that's not, like, you can go you can go Brian Johnson on this stuff, on any of this stuff. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. Go super extreme. 

Speaker 2

And and you can worry about it, and you can let it impact your life. And every time you go to a restaurant, you're gonna bring your own water. Like Right. There's that extreme, and then there's the extreme of, like, using something like this Right. Right. To drink water out of instead of a a plastic cup. Sure. So fluoride is in our water. It's really bad for us. We know that. They're gonna start taking it out. Five years, it's gonna be out of the American water supply. Thank God. But it's not yet. And if you're a pregnant lady drinking fluoride, really, really bad for you. If you're feeding your kids water that has fluoride, really, really bad. So get a filter for that. Mhmm. And then don't eat out of plastic. Right. Especially heat up plastic. So Mhmm. A a teabag is made out of nylon. Did you know that? Mhmm. 

Speaker 0

I didn't know that. No. 

Speaker 2

Go empty out your cabinet now, like, right or right after this call. But a tea bag is made on nylon. So Joe Gebbia from Airbnb has spent a ton of time working on this. I was lucky enough to make friends with him and chat with him a little bit on it, and he's super passionate about it. And he basically gave me the eighty twenty. Like, if you do these things, you're gonna be fine from a plastic perspective. Mhmm. Never ever ever use tea bags is number one because they're made out of nylon, and they release over three billion particles of of plastic into your drink when you dip it in your boiling hot water. 

Speaker 0

I had no clue. I never I hadn't hadn't heard that one. That's crazy. 

Speaker 2

The black plastic stirring spoons for and and spatulas for cooking. Absolutely terrible. Use wood or stainless. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

Plastic cutting boards, absolutely terrible. Meals, like factor meals that come in plastic containers and you put that plastic in the microwave and heat that plastic are terrible. Letting a letting a water bottle sit in your hot car and get hot before you drink out of it is terrible. You shouldn't actually drink out of those bottles at all because they could be in the back of a semi truck getting hot and releasing billions of particles of plastic into into the water bottle. That said, I was really thirsty at the golf course, and I ordered a water and drank it out of a water bottle. Again, it's like Right. There's an eighty there's an eighty twenty here. 

Speaker 0

Sure. 

Speaker 2

And then polyester clothes are bad. It's getting into your skin. The scrotum is the most, like 

Speaker 0

Oh, 

Speaker 2

like succulent. Absorbent. Yeah. It it's the most absorbent part of the body. So Right. A very simple one is to get wool underwear. I use wooly, w o o l l y Mhmm. If you sweat and use cotton if you don't sweat. I like wool. It's it's more expensive. It's it lasts less long. It's thirty five, forty bucks for a pair of underwear, but it doesn't stink, and it doesn't, you know, stick to you when you start to sweat. Right. But get your kids in cotton underwear. Buy the milli buy the milli moon diapers that don't have plastic in them from from Target because it matters. And then the other half of it that you almost have no control over 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

Because every time you put polyester in the dryer, billions of particles enter the air and you breathe it in. 

Speaker 0

Man. Wow. Yeah. Well, have you, ever been on a podcast interviewed about and talked about your underwear before? 

Speaker 2

No. It's the first one. I'm not an expert. Like, I'm not an expert on any of this. I'll just tell you that now. Right. Like, I've done the eighty twenty on this stuff. I've listened to a lot of experts. Yeah. I have have learned enough to form my opinion and my strategy. Sure. But I've yeah. But I don't take it too far. 

Speaker 0

Well and you you are open to changing your mind, like you said. So, two two real quickly that will kind of, well, we'll we'll keep them set up. 

Speaker 2

Nonstick nonstick pans, whether it's a bread maker, a pressure cooker, an actual potter pan. Sure. Throw it all don't even give it away. Throw it all in the garbage now. It is very, very, very bad for you. Man. Use stainless use stainless steel, pans and pots. 

Speaker 0

Yep. Alright. Two that might, one here that may relate more to, you know, the real estate investing that people are are interested in that listen to this show. AI won't change the world very much. 

Speaker 2

People are 

Speaker 0

over overreacting today just like Elon when he told us we'd have full self driving cars by twenty fourteen. It's a long way off. So talk about talk about AI. I mean, it's I I can tell you chat GPT in the last, like, four months. I'm not I'm not an expert, but it's definitely gotten better. It's, like, significantly just just better. It's more efficient. It's smarter. It's it's more practical. So you're seeing, like, pretty quick increases in the efficiency of the the growth of of AI, but why won't it change the world very much? 

Speaker 2

People still live in a house with four walls. People still need to drive on concrete. People still are trying to buy food from Walmart. People are still sending their kids to schools and waking up and putting their pants on one leg at a time. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

Ninety nine point nine percent of people are just trying to make rent and plan their next vacation. 

Speaker 0

Right. 

Speaker 2

Like, I think a lot of VCs and a lot of entrepreneurs should go to Walmart every quarter 

Speaker 0

and just 

Speaker 2

walk around and look at look at the average American. I think they lose touch with what the average American is actually what they're living like. Uh-huh. That said, I'm following AI phenomenally close because my business depends on it, and I like making profit. Yeah. If I can find a way to reduce the headcount of my three hundred and twenty five employees 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

That's millions of dollars in my pocket. So I'm gonna be the very first one to jump for joy when AI allows me to run a more efficient business and do more work with the same amount of people. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

That said, I've demoed. I've I've looked into fifty tools. Mhmm. I've demoed twenty plus tools. Yeah. And I've tried to implement six to eight AI tools into my business. Mhmm. Fathom is the only one that's still here. Okay. 

Speaker 0

The rest 

Speaker 2

of them have the rest of of them have been a utter waste of time. So I have a phenomenally open mind about this. Right. We actually train we train executive assistants at somewhere before we hand them off to clients. A huge chunk and growing chunk of that training is around AI. How to make graphic designs for real estate packages, how to, you know, to have better grammar, like, how to look up how to look up things, like, all the things that can 

Speaker 0

help somebody to create a prompt for AI. Right? 

Speaker 2

Prompt writing. Prompt writing. It's gonna be a it's gonna be like Google searching. I agree I agree with it. Prompt writing is gonna be much like googling. So you're gonna be able to get smarter. You're gonna be able to learn faster. But is it gonna change the way we live our lives? Yeah. Probably. The last thing I'll say about it is that I've listened to Elon Musk on Rogan when he start when he was talking to his AI. Uh-huh. I've listened to my friends who were super excited about AI, talk to their AI things. Yeah. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

I've called and tried to talk on the phone to a couple AI customer service reps. I've listened to Andrew Wilkinson talk to his AI. I've I've followed it. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

All of it is completely laughable. It's laughable to think that any self respecting business owner who pays money for the phone to ring would want that providing a customer service experience to any of their clients, whether they're just trying to pay an invoice or they actually wanna pay them money. People are quite delusional, but there's a shock factor that it can do what it can do. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

Right. But there's no in a way that I'm letting that answer the the phone for my storage facilities. 

Speaker 0

Alright. Last one more that we're gonna talk about here. Crypto outside of Bitcoin is a total waste of time and electricity. Why? 

Speaker 2

It just it's goes back to my my dog is eating a giant piece of plastic. One second. Oh, wow. Okay. So alright. Crypto. It's just another one of those things that has wow factor, has utility, change the world. I see it I see it doing almost absolutely nothing for anybody. Never. I can't think of a use case that it actually solves. I can't think of any self respecting person who would rather send that than money. I know I know twenty people who have gotten robbed blind of almost all their crypto, so it just doesn't doesn't make any sense to me. Gotcha. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. No. I mean, I I threw a little bit of money at it, but but quite honestly, it's just gambling because I have no idea. Here we 

Speaker 2

we've gotta talk a little bit about heart disease because I feel super passionate 

Speaker 0

about it. 

Speaker 2

The majority of your audience is probably men. Yeah. True. So men live an average what is it? Six years less long than women? 

Speaker 0

About I think I think that's right. 

Speaker 2

Yep. The reason the reason why is that we are genetically disposed, and we have larger bodies, and we are more likely to eat heart disease, period. It's heart disease. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

And in men in men, heart disease is a ten times killer, ten x. It kills ten x as many people as cancer, which is number two. Did you know that? 

Speaker 0

No. I knew that I knew one and two, but I didn't know the the difference there. There was that big of a multiple difference. 

Speaker 2

Yep. So how how old are you? I'm forty nine. Forty nine. Have you had a heart workout workup where they have imaged imaged the arteries going up? Or I just did the calcium scan. 

Speaker 0

I did the calcium scan. Actually, recently, I've done two of them in the last, say, five years, but I'm sure there's a more in-depth scan I could get done. I'm not sure. 

Speaker 2

No. It's great. Like, even just knowing your calcium score and, like, how much how much plaque is building up in your heart is something that a ton of high income earners don't know. Mhmm. And they don't know what their cholesterol levels and their lipid panels and other factors that influence heart disease and their blood sugar, insulin levels. Right. They don't know those things and how how serious that is because the odds are you're gonna die of heart disease. If you don't get hit by a car, the odds are you're gonna die of heart disease. Right. So the fact that nobody tracks it and even heart doctors will say, oh, you're fine. Come back in ten years when somebody's, like, you know, scores an eight hundred on the calcium score test, is is just beyond me. So 

Speaker 0

Yeah. So just a practical tip for those listening. I mean, that's the CT scanner calcium score. I I I think it's the same thing. But, 

Speaker 2

yeah, there's different there's there's, like, a five hundred dollar version where they Okay. Where they can get a pretty accurate calcium score and get some imaging. And then there's a two and two to three thousand dollar version where they where they hook you up to you're in an MRI machine. They hook you up to some an IV. They put dye. They put dye in your body, and it flushes your body. And they get an they get an image of the blood moving in and out, and they have wall walls of the arteries. They they have cross sections of it four different ways. Wow. And they get a full image of your heart. There's also a lot of the population that's walking around with heart defects and don't even know it. Bad valves, reversed ventricles, like, all these things that are Right. Super, super, super bad for you long term. 

Speaker 0

Right. And it's not that hard to get a scan done or that expensive, really, if we're talking about saving your life. So, yeah, good point. Awesome. I'm sure we'll get some, feedback on some of those opinions. So you've got a book coming out. Let's talk about that, and then let's talk about a couple of the, passages in the book. Tell us about the the book that you have coming out, Nick. 

Speaker 2

Yeah. So over the last five years well, everybody knows my mission. Like, I'm on a mission to there's two directions to go in entrepreneurship. There's the Silicon Valley raise money, change the world, new idea, Shark Tank version. Yeah. And then there's the path that everybody gets rich in every town in America, which is the normal, boring, old fashioned way. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. Sure. 

Speaker 2

So, like, the wealthy people that I know in this world, they fly private jets. They own the biggest houses. They play golf course. They play golf with the most exclusive clubs. They do whatever they want. Mhmm. Ninety nine out of a hundred of them did not have a new idea. It was built a big surveying business, run underground utilities for, you know, developers. You you name it. Just some kind of business where they scaled it and grew it. So the book is all about that and how to spot opportunities, what skills you need, how to hire, how to fire, how to delegate, sales, you know, how to attract people, the skills you need. And then the last chapter is my opinions on, picking picking the right career, how to move up at work, like, why family's important, how to my thoughts on raising kids, stuff like that. So Mhmm. It's called the sweaty startup. It it I don't know when you're listening to this, but it'll come out on April twenty ninth two thousand twenty five, and I'm really proud 

Speaker 0

of it. Yeah. I mean, putting a book together is is not an easy task for sure. Let's talk about there there's a story in the book, that starts on page thirty one where you were, around the time that you and your business partner were launching Storage Squad, you were in the locker room, and you heard somebody talking about your idea. Right? Tell us about that. 

Speaker 2

Yeah. So there was zero status in what I was doing when I started my first company. I was I was literally sweating my butt off, hauling boxes around, loading them in the back of a beat up cargo van with rusted out panels that I bought on Craigslist for fifteen hundred dollars. I'm at an Ivy League school. This is junior year where guys are about to go off to do their internships at Goldman Sachs, at Bain, at, you know, all of these big time firms. We're in the Ivy League. 

Speaker 0

Right. Sure. 

Speaker 2

And I was electing to move boxes around to make, you know, what I don't know what it was, forty dollars an 

Speaker 0

hour on my time. Right? Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

So, yeah, I was about to I was excited, though. Like, I was just an excitable kid. I don't know if it was the Midwesterner in me or, or just this I've still have this, like it's like an irrational confidence, that I can do that I can do things that I can't always do. Like, I'm humble enough to admit I can't do them, but I think that I can. I think it's gonna be easy. I get excited about it. Mhmm. So I was in the early days of starting this company, and I'm a I'm on the track team. I'm a junior. I'm about to go in the track, like, locker room, and I'm outside the door and, like, I checked my phone or something happens. I dropped something, and I reached out, and I hear some people talking. And it's, like, the big wigs on the track team. Mhmm. And they're not just talking about it. They're, like, making fun of me to them to amongst each other. Wow. His like, we're out here going to get a job at JPMorgan, and Nick is moving boxes around in a in a, you know, a derogatory name for a van with no windows on the side of it. Right? So I just kinda step back. I'm like, holy shit. And it hurt, man. It hurt. I 

Speaker 0

can imagine. 

Speaker 2

So I didn't have a choice but to, like, act like I didn't hurt and go about my business and keep keep doing what I was doing. It was motivating in a way, though. For sure. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. How so? What what what was the takeaway for you? 

Speaker 2

Well, I felt bad, and I was like, damn. They might be right. Like, what am I doing? I could go get a job and try to build a career. And am I am I making the wrong decision with this Ivy League degree that I've been lucky enough to have? And it is a stupid idea, and it is a shitty van and whatever else. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

So those thoughts all were there for sure, but I just, you know, I just said f u instead, and I'm gonna do this. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. It's interesting because, like, on some level, I wanna say you swallowed your ego and were humble because you like, you said you didn't care about the status, and it's not even no status. It's, like, low status. It's, like, less than no status. It's almost I mean, just being honest, it looks like, you know, worse than doing nothing. I mean, in a sense, it's like and so I'm not trying to put you down. It's just like I it's so you kinda swallowed your ego, but at the same time, it's almost like part of your ego said, no. F you. I'm gonna do this. But, so the I mean, you know, what's the takeaway for the listener there? It's just don't ever listen to anybody who's telling you who has, unsolicited advice, or or what should we do? 

Speaker 2

No. I think I've also saved myself a lot of headache by listening to people who Mhmm. Had opinions that contradicted my opinions. Okay. So I don't think that's the takeaway. Yeah. I think the takeaway is that what's high status and the way everybody's going might not be the best way to go. It might not be. Like, you look at the highest status jobs in our world, you know, it's accountant, it's doctor, it's lawyer. There's more there's and and I respect the hell out of all three of those groups, and I think a lot of them do really well and do live a high quality of life. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

But as a whole, they're very difficult jobs. There's almost no quality of life, and your odds of ending up fifty years old, divorced, and out of shape, and unhappy but rich are very, very high. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

So so, yeah, it's it's a it's a really tough thing of, like, what opportunity do I pick in this world? But a big a big passion of in my book, a story in my book is, like, look down the hall. Mhmm. Look down the hall at what it looks like to win the game you're about to play. Mhmm. I love that. Do you wanna go be a consultant and then transition into private equity and then buy companies? Like, that Mhmm. If you if you get an offer at Bain or McKinsey 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

You'd be foolish not to take it because almost all of them end up in different areas of the economy just kicking ass. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

Sure. Before you go to med before you go to med school or before you, you know, take sit for the bar exam or before you go take the job at the company that you're about to take the job at, like, look at what it likes to what it's like to win the game before you become a teacher. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

Talk to the teachers that are fifty. 

Speaker 0

Right. 

Speaker 2

What's your life like? What's your earning potential? Do you have any freedom? Sure. Or are you literally in a group chat just having having parents berate you all day? Right. 

Speaker 0

Right. 

Speaker 2

Yeah. Which is what which what being a teacher today is, unfortunately. 

Speaker 0

That's good advice. One more snippet from the book. On page two thirteen and two fourteen, you you say nobody gave me permission to get rich. I didn't come from a real estate family. I didn't have the right resume. I didn't get a job offer to work at a real estate firm out of college. You know, but here I am. You're probably not qualified either. You didn't get the right degree. You don't know everything you need to know. No way you can do this. You might have to you might have said to yourself, but you say that's all bullshit. Don't wait for permission. Give yourself permission and start now. Talk about that. 

Speaker 2

I think the the anxiety and the insecurity and the feel fear of failure and the feel and the fear of just not being qualified is something that holds so many people back. Some of the wealthiest people I know who earn the most amount of money, there's almost no correlation to how smart they are and their intelligence level to the people who play video games at thirty five in their parents' basements. There's there's almost no difference in IQ. But those wealthy people earn an absurd amount of money simply because many of them, simply because they're not insecure. That's really good. So if like, my story is and look. There are many people who are way more successful than me. I'm not just painting myself as, oh my god. Look at Nick. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

You name anybody out there who's done incredible things. Nobody is gonna give them per nobody gave them permission to do what they did. I didn't study real estate. I didn't come from a country club on Long Island. I'd I would've went and tried to get a job at a real estate private equity firm in New York City or Atlanta or Charlotte, and they would have said no, Nick. Like, you studied you studied labor relations at Cornell. You don't know anything about real estate. Get out of here. Mhmm. I would not have had permission, but I built a private equity real estate private equity company and bought a bunch of storage. Every single defining decision that I've made in my life, if I would have looked for permission or if I would have looked for somebody else to tell me that I was qualified already or that it was risk free, Like, every decision I made had a lot of reasons why I should not have done it. Right. To to moving boxes with that fifteen hundred dollar cargo van instead of going to get that job for Coca Cola for eighty grand a year out of college to to borrowing almost two million bucks and raising five hundred k to build that first self storage facility from the ground up. Literally, ninety five out of a hundred investors told me that I was that it was not gonna work, and nine out of ten banks would not lend me the money because I didn't think it was gonna work. Wow. That's wild. 

Speaker 0

Man, this is this is there's I I need to have you back. There's just a lot here. Couple of quick questions because we do need to hop off here in a minute. Looking back, what's one of your biggest failures, and what did you learn from it? 

Speaker 2

Oh, man. I I mean, I fail every day. I make poor decisions every day. Luckily, I'm at a I'm at a point now where I have enough momentum, and I'm hedging enough risk that there's not a single decision that has the opportunity to sink me. But, I mean, we've we've had seven thousand square foot warehouses full of stuff flood back in the back in the storage days. Mhmm. You know, we've had our driver hit somebody on the side of the road and injure them in our truck. No. I've had to you know, had my one of my best friends crying in my arms, like, two weeks after he stood up with me and my wedding because I had to fire him from one of my companies. Wow. That's a tough one. So, like, everybody wants to own the companies. Everybody wants to have the stuff, I guess. But, man, like, it's never stress free. 

Speaker 0

Right. No. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. That's for sure. If you were given ten million dollars tomorrow, what would you do with it? No strings attached. 

Speaker 2

Oh, man. I think, first of all, I think a large sum of money given to anybody is a is a recipe for total disaster. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

But I would pay taxes with four million. And then the last six million, I would I'd become my own LP in storage deals, for with the rest of it for sure. Gotcha. 

Speaker 0

Okay. What's the challenge that you're facing in your business right now? 

Speaker 2

I oh, man. Every day, man. Every day. Yeah. It's hard. I'm rebuilding the sales teams across a couple companies right now. Okay. It's it's fun, but a challenge. 

Speaker 0

Got it. What is a book besides yours that you could recommend for our to our listeners? 

Speaker 2

Seven, or the five types of wealth by Sahel Bloom. Got it. I gotta take it. I'll I'll be right back. Hold on one second. 

Speaker 0

Alright, Nick. A few more questions, then we'll wrap up. Looking forward, what do you think are some of the emerging challenges in the real estate, space that just maybe whether we're talking single family or storage or whatever you wanna talk about, but just emerging challenges in real estate investing. 

Speaker 2

I think the hard part about my business, self storage, is that you can underwrite with today's technology, whether it be ZoomInfo, Crexi, you know, all the tools out there to get data on real estate 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

Radius, all this information on storage, like, it's really hard to get a competitive advantage from an underwriting from an underwriting standpoint in the storage business. I can somebody can send me a text message with three things, square footage, revenue per month, and address. Mhmm. And I can tell you the value of that storage facility from here, from where I'm sitting, anywhere in the country. I can tell you the value of that storage facility in about ten minutes. 

Speaker 0

Wow. That's incredible. 

Speaker 2

So that that makes it really hard because it's a now level playing field, and people can buy storage anywhere in the world. Now operating these things is not as easy. Mhmm. So that's where, like, you gotta really know what you're doing to operate these things remotely. I've learned that over the last five years of doing this. Mhmm. You gotta run a tight ship. 

Speaker 0

Well, and that's one of the key tenants, I think, for businesses is operations. Right? I mean, that's where 

Speaker 2

we're Still, it's hard. Like, when you're not there, when you're remotely operating a storage facility in, you know Right. Sixty three different, you know, properties Wow. In different areas, it's it's it's hard. So there's always advantages to be had. Yeah. That's why I kinda I really like some of these other asset classes. Industrial is really awesome because it's a local game, man. You gotta understand a you gotta understand an individual city, town neighborhood to even think about buying an industrial building. So Mhmm. But yeah. So that's maybe maybe an issue with some other asset classes as well where technology and maybe it's AI that kinda levels the playing field of underwriting. But Mhmm. But it's always a relationship game, man. Like, if you're good at sales, you can look people in the eye and you can build a relationship, then you can do really well in the real estate business, and I don't think that'll ever change. 

Speaker 0

Right. And that's why you should not be playing video games in your parents' basement. Yeah. It all ties it all ties back to, you know, human interaction and and sales, like you said. And, yeah, these these are skills that seem to be going away, for a lot. 

Speaker 2

My seven my seven year old can walk up to an adult, look them in the eye, and shake their hand and ask them a question about themselves. 

Speaker 0

They're already in the top. 

Speaker 2

There's thirteen there's thirteen year olds there's thirteen year olds who can't do that and take their Nintendo Switch to dinner with them. 

Speaker 0

Right. That's that's pretty sad. How has financial abundance made your life better, Nick? 

Speaker 2

Man, I I don't think money is everything, but unless you wanna buy something. 

Speaker 0

I like that. That's cool. 

Speaker 2

It's so it is so important. It's so important. I mean, I'm not into fancy things. I live in a house that I bought for less than three hundred grand. Mhmm. I don't drive I drive an f one fifty that's almost two years old now. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

I don't have expensive taste. 

Speaker 0

Mhmm. 

Speaker 2

But, man, being able to solve problems and not have a stress on your family and your marriage because you can pay the bills that come up in everyday life is a massive, massive blessing. And then there's a level beyond that of, like, finding out your mom works for twelve dollars an hour and is pretty stressed at work, and you're just like, mom, hey. Like, you're not doing that anymore. Love that. 

Speaker 0

What's one question that you wish I'd asked that I haven't asked? 

Speaker 2

I I wanted you to touch on the power lifting. What no. Just kidding. No. I think you you did an amazing job, man. This has been an awesome conversation. 

Speaker 0

Yeah. And for the the listener, you're Nick's referring to, power lifting. And you also said long distance running, I think, in two different parts of the tweet are are, not good, basically. 

Speaker 2

I think people like, a lot of the guys I know who work out are addict are are addicted to working out, unfortunately. Everything ticks everything ticks balance. Like, there's no no reason why forty year old men should be running forty, fifty miles a week and doing a twenty six mile run as fast as possible. Like that, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. But And you were a track guy. Right? Yeah. I was a track guy. And I also think, like, putting a bunch of putting a bunch of weight on a on a steel bar and putting on your back and taking your ass to your heels as a as a forty year old is is just absolutely silly. 

Speaker 0

Well, you make me feel better because I don't do squats anymore. So 

Speaker 2

Awesome. All the guys I all the guys I know who still do have have a chronic back pain. 

Speaker 0

Right. Alright, Nick. Where can our listeners find you online? 

Speaker 2

I think go to go to sweaty start up dot com slash ideas. You can download a list of bunch of business ideas and kinda get a feel for my mantra. You can also email me if you wanna discount it somewhere. If you got feedback on the book, email me, Nick at sweaty startup dot com. 

Speaker 0

Me and my team read every single one of them. Awesome. This has been really fun. This has been way different than most of my other episodes all of my other episodes. So, yeah, I would love to have you back for a third time. You know, if we could schedule that, that'd be that'd be fantastic. Any parting parting thoughts for, for the listener? 

Speaker 2

No, man. I, I I think I think we covered a lot, and I look. I just really appreciate you giving me the the platform, and and, yeah, you did a great job. So thank you so much. Thanks for 

Speaker 0

your time, Nick. And to the listener, thank you for sharing your most valuable resource with us, and that is your time. Thanks, everyone. Take care. 

Speaker 1

Thank you for joining us on From Adversity to Abundance. We hope today's episode has equipped you with valuable insights and practical advice to elevate your real estate journey. For more inspiring stories and resources, visit us at w w w dot adversity to abundance dot com. If this episode has inspired you, please share it with a friend who could also benefit from our conversation. Together, let's turn adversity into abundance. Until next time, keep building your mental fitness and your real estate empire. 

Speaker 0

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