May 15, 2024 • 37 mins
Discover the remarkable transformation of Nico Morales, a man who has traveled from the depths of addiction to the peaks of authorship and motivational speaking. Join us as Nico shares his powerful journey, offering a raw and honest look at the struggles he overcame to become the beacon of hope he is today. His philosophy, "Don't be perfect, do better," isn't just a mantra—it's a battle cry for anyone yearning to turn their life around, echoed throughout our conversation.
Embark on deeply exploring the mind's potential to reshape reality and find success, even amid adversity. We examine Tony Robbins' analogy of seeking colors and how it relates to our pursuit of opportunities over excuses. Through candid discussions about critical thinking, social media's impact, and the need for authentic leadership, we uncover the generational shifts in work ethic and the power of mentorship. Our dialogue with Nico inspires and offers practical wisdom for harnessing one's inherent abilities to foster personal growth and community improvement.
Lastly, the pursuit of consistency in podcasting unfolds as a testament to dedication—revealing the myths and realities behind the journey of "Chasing Financial Freedom." Sharing my experiences, I highlight the discipline required never to miss an episode release and the resilience needed to maintain momentum. The episode invites us to harness the strength inherent in our most challenging struggles. For listeners seeking a transformative experience, this episode promises to guide the quest for financial and personal emancipation.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, ryan DeMent from Chasing Financial Freedom
podcast.
Hope you guys are having agreat day.
Today on the podcast we haveNico Morales and we met up on
Podmatch, but I love what he hasfor his slogan, or saying don't
be perfect, do better.
Today, nico, welcome to theshow.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hey, ryan, thanks for having me, man.
I appreciate you opening upyour platform.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
You're more than welcome.
Before we get into what you'redoing, can you give the
listeners a little bit somebackground?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
of who you are and what you've got going on.
Oh yeah, absolutely Quickquibbles about who I am Athlete
turned into addict, turned intoauthor.
Some people I've been called agoon and I turned that into a
graduate.
Really, what I am, man, is ayoung man that came up from the
Southwest in a lower middleclass family who idolized money
(00:51):
and idolized, admired the thingsthat came along with money.
The only people that I saw thathad money were drug dealers.
So why not pursue that as agoal?
And that's what I pursued to do.
Unfortunately, I broke one ofthe rules of that game, and that
was get high on your own supply.
I grew up in early.
2000s was my teenage years,2010s was my 20s.
(01:13):
The opiate epidemic the firstwave of it, I should say, is the
one that I got caught up inwhen pills were just everything
and everywhere man.
They solved problems for me,and I don't say that to
encourage anybody to use drugsor alcohol, but one of the
things that I think a lot ofpeople don't recognize is that
substances are a solution to asymptom that people feel.
(01:36):
After I kicked my heroinaddiction, I started drinking,
which is a legal drug, and theonly reason why it's legal is
because the government gets atax off of it, and repeated the
cycle of addiction.
Right there I found myself inthe same scenario that I was
previously, with just adifferent substance.
So I knew that there wassomething wrong internally.
(01:57):
There was something that I wasdoing, there was something that
I hadn't solved and I startedpursuing that.
I learned about the professionaldevelopment arena and industry
and probably late 2017, 2016,just on my, their kids, and then
somebody who has a ton of money.
We lived in one of the mostwealthiest countries in the
(02:34):
world.
Why shouldn't we all be wealthy?
Is one of my theories, and I'venever seen a man that has all
three.
So in my pursuit to find, orfind, somebody that can give me
that blueprint, I came across aman named Eric Thomas.
Et the Hip Hop Preacher is whathe goes by and I started just
studying his curriculum, hismaterial, his podcast, and it's
(02:56):
what really helped shift myparadigm around both lifestyle
what wealth actually is andmoney habits.
So from there I kept on diggingin.
That was, like I said, late2017.
Since then, I've been on thispursuit of building skill sets
(03:16):
that can generate whatever typeof currency is going to be used
in whatever type of environmentI'm going to be in, and that's
what I'm about now is helpingindividuals create and cultivate
those skill sets, because weall have natural abilities.
We all have natural skills.
Why not use them to benefit notjust yourself, but your
community and your family?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So you're coaching today as we speak.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, I coach today, I facilitate corporate trainings
today week.
Yeah, I coach today, Ifacilitate corporate trainings
today, and I think that's it.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I do keynotes too today as we speak.
Okay, so, with all that said,you've had some ups and downs in
life.
I'm with you.
We all have them.
How did finding ET reallychange your life?
What did that do?
I want to start there and thenstart digging in under the hood
to understand how people canreally pull themselves out of
that deep, dark place and findthat passion that they have
(04:14):
inside, that they're wired forby the creator, god.
However, people want to talkabout it to make a difference in
this world, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
When I first heard ET talk about the paradigm, it
made sense to me, because mostof the programs that are out
there and available forindividuals that come from the
background that I come from,I'll tell you that you are
worthless, that you have nopower and that you are powerless
, and that don't make no senseto me.
(04:45):
That don't make no sense to me.
It doesn't make any sense to mehow I can be the highest form
of creation on this planet, butI'm powerless.
So I understand that there is ahigher power than me, but if
there's a higher power than methat's outside of this world,
then that makes me the mostpowerful thing inside this world
.
And the way that you thinkabout things is one of his key
(05:08):
topics.
Right, when you want to succeed, you want to breathe.
There's this key note that hejust blew up on.
But that's a thought process,that's a thinking pattern that
you have to create, that youhave to cultivate, and that's
what's made it snap inside of myhead.
Is that what I was thinkingabout?
My adversities as a child comingup in lower middle class
America?
(05:28):
Yes, I had two parents.
Yes, I got the opportunity totravel.
Yes, I got the opportunity toengage in cultural experiences,
but other things that happenedin my life.
They made me feel less thanthings that happened in my life.
They made me feel less than,and so when I thought about it
(05:48):
as that victim mindset, insteadof no, I survived all that stuff
.
I made it through.
All this stuff that gave mepower, and by that, having that
internal power, that validatingmyself through my own self-talk
and changing my self-talk iswhat really made it click inside
of my head that these thingsdidn't happen to me.
These things happened for meand because I survived it, I'm
(06:09):
able to share that knowledgewith other individuals.
And today we live in the dayand age of information, right?
These podcasts that we're doingare going to be the books that
are out there.
People don't like to sit downand read books.
So if I can take my life,script it in a way that is
palatable to the generalpopulation and teach quibbets
(06:30):
little quick notes that they canuse on their own, that's the
best thing that I could do formy community.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
So how do we start with that mindset and that talk
that's in our head to get us outof where we're at?
Because I'll back up Today'sday and age you talked about.
We're in the age of information, but we're also in the age of
instant gratification.
People think you're going toput a video out, you're going to
go viral and you're going to bea billionaire overnight, and
(06:58):
they don't realize the time andeffort that goes into this.
And a good example is thispodcast is now turning six years
old.
I've put 260 or 70 episodesdown.
I'm just this last year and ahalf of starting getting
traction to where I'm down.
I'm getting a thousand, 15,2000 downloads an episode before
(07:19):
, 25, 50, a hundred, maybe 300.
If I would have given upwouldn't have saw the other side
of it.
But this is just a passion ofmine and I don't think we know
how to connect passion into endresults.
When I say end result is whatare you trying to do with it?
Because we're only worriedabout the one thing you spoke
(07:39):
about earlier is the money.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Absolutely.
So the first thing that we haveto do is we have to identify
the lies that we're tellingourselves.
So what is that lie that we'retelling ourselves?
Let's use that exact sameexample the instant
gratification I'm going to blowup after one video.
Yeah, maybe if you go dye yourhair blue, eat a stick of glue
and dance around with some catears like, oh, you might get
(08:05):
10,000 views your first videoAwesome.
But what kind of value did thatbring into our community?
So what are the lies that weare telling ourselves?
That's the first thing.
One of the lies that I toldmyself was that, oh, I'm from
New Mexico and New Mexico ispoor and New Mexico is high in
violence and there's nothingthat comes good.
We don't have opportunities.
(08:26):
I had to stop that.
I had to stop telling myselfthat type of lie.
What I had to switch that samescenario up with is that you
know what You're right.
New Mexico doesn't have highlevels of education.
So if I create myself a path toeducation, I can show others
and that'll help out mycommunity.
So it's not that it's notaccessible.
It's that we just don't takeadvantage of what is accessible
(08:49):
to us.
Second one it's high violence,absolutely In 2023,.
They just came out with themost violent cities in America.
Guess where Albuquerque ranks?
That's where I'm born andraised.
We're in the top five.
Yeah, violence is huge, butguess what, nico?
You made it 35 years throughthis city at doing stupid things
(09:09):
like participating in actionsthat you shouldn't have
participated in.
That just should highlight thatyou were built here to do
something immaculate, somethingincredible.
So it's just switching thoselies that we're telling
ourselves and nothing comes goodout of New Mexico.
I can tell you so many things.
Jeff Bezos comes from NewMexico right, that's one Exhibit
(09:31):
, if you like, rapping comesfrom New Mexico.
Born and raised I'm talking.
Billy the Kid calling back inhistory comes from New Mexico.
One of the only reasons why theNorth won the war over the
South was because of the Battleof Glorieta, which happened here
in New Mexico.
So there are some amazingthings that have come out of New
Mexico when you actually switchwhat you're looking for.
(09:53):
I think Tony Robbins is anotherguy that speaks in a way that
makes a lot of sense to me, andone of the things he says is
wherever you're at right now, ifyou just start to choose to
look for something that's red,you're going to find things that
are red.
If you start looking for thingsthat are green, then you're
going to find things that aregreen, and that's how you start
to change the way that you think.
What are you searching to find?
(10:14):
And for me, I was searching tofind excuses.
I was searching to find reasonsthat I was lacking, and so I
found all of those.
When I switched that and Istarted to search for
opportunities and obstacles thatI had overcome that I can
leverage to my benefit, then Istarted to find those as well.
(10:36):
So really, it begins with what'sgoing on between our ears and
the majority of individuals withthe saturation that we have of
social media, the saturationthat we have with instant access
to information.
Yes, technology is great, butaccess to a cell phone isn't
always that good, because thenyou don't know how to formulate
your own thoughts, you don'tknow how to have critical
thinking.
I can get on here and say someBS that sounds nice, and if you
(11:01):
don't actually challenge itagainst your own morals and your
own values, then guess what?
You're just playing along withwhat I decided to spew that day,
and that's where we're seeing alot of the influencers die off
because they can say it, but dothey actually live it Right?
And one of the things that Ilove about ET himself is that
(11:23):
he's a man of his word.
He lives what he talks about,and in today's society that's
very difficult to find.
One of my other mentors that Ilove to death is Wes Watson, and
that man lives his life exactlyhow he speaks.
He's on the complete oppositeend of ET right.
Et is a pastor, come up in thechurch and started working that
(11:43):
way.
Wes Watson teaches the exactsame thing and he learned it in
the California penitentiary.
So for me, when I see polaropposites speaking the exact
same truth, I know that it'struth and being able to
articulate it in a way that canbe communicated to individuals
who maybe don't relate witheither one of those, but they
can relate with Nico.
(12:04):
Oh yeah, I did have a problemwith drinking.
Oh yeah, I did.
Yeah, I remember what it's likein the early epidemics of 2000s
.
My generation is a generationthat I know what it's like to
call someone's house.
I had to speak to their fatherbefore I ask the girl, before I
ask to talk to the girl.
I know what it's like to talkto a landline.
I know what a rotary phonelooks like.
(12:26):
My generation.
They call it the Oregon Trailof the digital world because we
get to explore it.
And it's a fine balance that Iget to stand on both lines,
because I know that when I meetanother man inside of a room,
physically I stand up and I lookhim in the eyes and I shake his
hand.
(12:46):
Today's society kids aren'ttaught that and so that is a
opportunity.
Right, that's the way that Ithink about it, instead of
saying kids these days don'tknow how to act, no, they just
haven't been taught, becausethey're learning everything from
the internet and they thinkthat immediate gratification and
not blowing up in a matter of10 minutes after you post the
video is a failure.
They don't understand whatactual failure is.
(13:09):
They don't know what it's liketo be dead broke, have your bank
account overdraft and peoplestill needed to collect their
bills.
They don't know what it's liketo have the car break down and
catch the bus because they don'thave a cell phone to call
anybody.
They don't know what that'slike, and when I compare that to
the generations before me,they're like Nico, that you even
(13:29):
have a bus is great.
You know what I'm saying.
So we are building on top ofeach other.
But that thought process is whatreally captivated me by ETT's
teaching, because even if we gointo history further as I
started doing this, personaldevelopment studies he teaches
the exact same thing thatEpictetus taught back in Greece,
(13:51):
that Marcus Aurelius wasteaching.
You can even take it back towhat Jesus was teaching.
Prior to Jesus there was otherpeople, so they're teaching the
exact same things.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I'm not comparing MarcusAurelius and Jesus or all my
religious folks out there.
I know there's a difference.
I get you, we can have thatconversation.
But the fundamental thing ofthinking is what makes it so
(14:16):
crucial.
Then you learn from theGodfather, napoleon Hill himself
.
That's what he talks about Likeyou think and you grow rich.
It's not.
You hope and wish you actuallygot to put in the work, but you
got to think about the work thatyou're doing.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
It's put in the work.
Think about it.
But can we go back to these?
You're talking about kids notbeing taught.
Do you think they want to betaught?
And I'm not.
I'm not trying to pick a sideor anything.
I'm just trying to have ahealthy conversation because I
have nephews that have the sameproblem and they see what I'm
doing.
But that sign that's right belowme is very indicative of my
(14:54):
life as an entrepreneur.
No one sees all the junk that'sbelow the waterline that you
have to go through.
And, believe me, I've had lotsof failures.
I've had a lot of mentalanguish, but if you ask me if I
would do it all over again, thejoke is prior to this, I spent
25 plus years in corporateAmerica running billion dollar
companies.
(15:14):
I was running call centers,collection agencies, any type of
financial instrument.
I touched and managed it.
And my mom still asks me, afteralmost 10 years of doing this,
of would you go back?
Not a day goes by that I wouldeven think about going back,
just for the simple fact of Iget to create my own destiny.
I get to learn so much.
But the other thing that I toldher yesterday on Mother's Day,
(15:38):
was I've learned so much in theperseverance, but also being
consistent in what I'm trying todo.
And that starts up here and,believe me, it sucks on every
day.
That ends in Y, because there'salways something I'm anxious
about.
Because I'm an entrepreneur, Iworry about the future and the
(15:58):
only way I know how to describeit is get grounded in what helps
you get there.
Me, it's a daily devotional.
I actually am a lot older thanyou.
I write things down on a pieceof paper with a pencil or a pen.
I journal, I read verses in theBible.
People think that's crazy, butyou know what?
There's a lot of things thatare in that Bible that were said
(16:19):
thousands of years ago, thatare really tied into today's
society's issues that we all canlearn from.
You just have to have an openmind and say I'm willing to
change.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Oh man, you dropped so much there.
I want to touch on all of it,but the question that you had
asked me at the beginning was doI believe that they want to
learn?
Yes, in my heart, I believethat they want to learn Because
there is something about it.
When I walk into a room ofyoung adults and they can just
sense it, they can sense thatthere's something different when
(16:58):
I enter the room and that senseis what they are.
They have no exposure to it sothat when they come around it,
it freaks them out at first, butit's like that adrenaline freak
out.
Yeah, it's a little bit scary,but I know this is right.
That adrenaline freak out, yeah, it's a little bit scary, but I
(17:20):
know this is right.
So when they don't look me inthe eye and I tell them stand up
, when you shake my hand, or I'mnot shaking your hand, they
understand that there'ssomething to that.
Right, there's something to it.
So I, in my heart, believe that, yes, they do.
They do want to know what it'slike.
There's a young man that I'vebeen mentoring for the past 10
years and he has special needs,right.
So he doesn't think with all,he doesn't have all the full
(17:42):
capabilities in his mind.
Physically he's able, butmentally he just has some gaps.
And even with him there's acertain way that I conduct
myself that when he's with me heknows to conduct himself the
same way.
My good friend he just had ason on the godfather.
He's maybe about three or fouryears old and when we me and my
(18:02):
homie go out to eat with his son, he acts differently than when
he's with his mom.
He knows there's a certainconduct that you got to have
when you're walking around menand so, yes, I truly believe
that they are seeking for it.
Now, where are they going tofind it?
That's where the gap needs tobe built, and what I've learned
is that we have to give themwhat they want in order to teach
(18:25):
them.
What they want is to see peoplewith those flashy watches.
They want to see people withthe big chains.
They want to see people whohave the nice cars, who have the
nice mansions, who have thebeautiful wives.
They want to see that becausethat's what they want.
But then we need to teach themthe consistency that brings that
about right.
(18:45):
We need to teach them that it'snot about short-term rentals
and leasing a car.
It's about learning how tocreate generational wealth by
getting titles and deeds andlearning how to put those
underneath.
Llcs and creating EINs,creating trusts, creating
manager accounts so that you canput all your assets in one
account, manage account withanother, so when things go crap,
(19:07):
you're still protected.
We need to teach them that andthat's our duty as the
generation that is going to bepassing the torch.
So that's where I find theobstacles, because many of the
people that I'm around who areolder than me, they're like Nico
, you don't need to be buyinganything that's nice, you don't
need to get a Mercedes.
Nico, I'm like I actually do.
I need to purchase a Mercedes.
(19:29):
That young man who's out therewho's thinking about selling
fentanyl tomorrow to pay hisbills will look at me and be
like what do you do?
And I could teach him.
You know what?
I teach people how to live abetter life, and I don't even
pay for this car.
I rent this car out on Turo andI drive an 03 Chevy Apollo most
of the month.
That's the gap that I thinkthat we need to fill.
A long answer to your question,but I do want to just touch on
(19:51):
that other thing.
Is that the habits that youjust described I share as well.
Even this morning, I was doingmy devotion, I was doing my
reading, I was spending timewith God, and I've read the
Bible front and back a couple ofdifferent times.
I get the opportunity to teachon the Bible every once in a
while.
I have pastors ask me to go inand speak for them while they're
on their breaks and it speaksto you.
(20:15):
So I was reading something thatI had.
I read some texts that I'veread before, but it stood out to
me in a different way thismorning.
So, absolutely, those type ofhabits are missing.
And writing if you can't writeout your thoughts, communication
for me, one of the reasons whyI love it, why I need to be
articulate, why I don't speakwith my volcano accent no more
(20:35):
and tell the homies what's up,man.
I don't speak with my volcanoaccent no more and tell the
homies what's up, man.
I don't speak like that isbecause I need to reach out to a
mass of people, and in order toreach that mass of people, I
have to speak in an articulateway that can communicate
thoughts both to laymen and veryeducated individuals, because
it's the same truths.
So if I have to say it inmulti-syllabic words and write a
thesis about it, great I can dothat.
(20:57):
But if I also need to just sitdown and chop it up with the
homie and be like here here'swhat it is, I know how to do
that as well, and writing helpsyou do that right.
Writing helps you do that,reading helps you do that, and
the more that you can use thesetype of habits that are becoming
scarce, the more of a rareindividual you become.
(21:20):
I think it's the law ofcompensation that says the
ability to do it, the need forit to be done and the
opportunity for you to bereplaced.
So if we are creating thesehabits like you just described,
then the opportunity for us tobe replaced dwindles little by
little.
You said you've been at it forsix years, right.
For somebody else who's been atit for just a year, the
(21:44):
opportunity for them to bereplaced is far greater than it
is for you.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
With podcasts.
They talk about the magicnumber 100 episodes, and for me
do.
I believe it Somewhat, but I'mnot sure, because ultimately I
took a screenshot of iTunes whenI started this podcast and my
other podcast and I went backevery year to take a look at the
active podcasts If those samepodcasts when I started were
(22:10):
there.
They're not.
There was 22 that started onthe day, 21 that started on the
day, something like that.
There's only three of us leftthat are actually active in
producing.
Have I figured out how tomonetize this yet?
It's been, it's always been onmy mind, but it's not top of
mind.
I truly am putting out thereand this is again we can talk
(22:32):
about this and go through thatis I've been putting out there
that I need to find a producerthat's willing to work with me,
because I don't have a hugebudget, I don't have thousands
of dollars to throw at aproducer that could help me grow
this.
I'm willing to share in therevenue and go through that, but
that's my next step is I needto find a producer that can help
me take it to the next level,because today it's just myself
and a VA that we do all thepost-production stuff.
(22:53):
We put it out there, do all theshorts, connect all the guests.
We have automation.
But I think there's people thatare a lot better at this than I
am that could change it.
But that's just being patient,persistent and consistent every
single week.
I never miss.
Episode goes out everyWednesday.
Just don't miss, I don't miss.
(23:13):
And if I'm sick, I find a wayto get something out to make
sure that people understand that, hey, something happened.
But that's life and making surethat you have it up here so you
can get it out there.
I think it's Bob Proctor thatsays if you can envision it in
here, you'll have it here inyour hand.
Or maybe it's backwards, Ican't remember, but that's big.
(23:35):
If you can envision it andyou're positive, up here you're,
you can always get it there.
It's just not going to happeninstantaneous.
But if you have a scarcitymindset and you think of all
these bad things that arehappening, guess what, like you
said, you sought out thosethings, you thought of them and
they all came to you.
So why not use it forpositivity, to better yourself,
(23:56):
to help others, to get them in abetter place?
Speaker 2 (24:02):
in their lives also.
Absolutely, you have that right.
Bob Proctor did say you have tosee it in your mind first
before you can hold it in yourhand I was listening to.
I think his name is AndyFrisella.
I saw one of his shorts andhe's the owner of a bunch of
different.
He's coming up pretty heftyright now in the personal
development game.
But he talked about exactlywhat you just said.
(24:24):
He said you got to just keep ondoing it.
If a hundred people start yearone by year three, 80 of them
already fell off by year six.
17 more just fell off by yearnine and 12, there's only three
that actually started.
And you had mentioned workingin call centers or work with
call centers earlier.
I used to work in a call center.
That's how I paid to get myeducation right.
(24:46):
I wasn't going to pay for it.
I don't know, baki, I don'tpersonally.
I'm a hustler Like I need.
If someone else could, I coulduse other people's money.
I'm going to use other people'smoney.
That's just how it goes.
And so the call center that Iworked at gave that opportunity.
But even there, I worked atthat call center for eight years
.
And there was maybe 50 peoplethat started in class with me.
(25:07):
By the time that I left I wasone of two, three that were
still there.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
It's an overrate for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, and even now I took a class from ET et.
I was in one of his speakingclasses.
This was about three years agoand everybody's all gung-ho and
think they're gonna blow up justbecause et puts people on.
No, he does it.
He wants to see how consistentyou are.
I'll get me wrong.
I've been blessed to get toknow him.
I've been blessed to get toknow his team pretty well, where
(25:37):
they know me by my first name,but ain't't nobody's going to be
like oh yeah, nico's the nextone up, let's just go ahead and
put his name out there.
You got to do your work and soeven with us, there's only maybe
about two of us that are stillactually in this speaking game,
constantly doing keynotes andfacilitations, and a lot of
people don't want to do thatrejection.
Work, man.
(25:58):
For the first like year and ahalf that I started speaking, I
pay for my own salary out of mysavings, just so I can stay
afloat, and I got told no.
Each and every freaking day Isend out 100 emails a week and
out of those 100 emails I got100 no's.
And I get it.
(26:18):
There's a defeating mindsetthat can kick in there.
What am I doing?
And again it comes back to.
Are you thinking about thehustle?
Are you thinking about thegrind?
Are you thinking about thefailure?
Are you thinking about thepatience and the discipline that
you're creating during thattimeframe?
Or are you just thinking, oh,it's not for me, I'm not gonna
do it, blah, blah, blah, blah,blah.
No, bro, and because of that,I've been able to meet
(26:42):
individuals.
So now when I travel, it's justoh, nico, you're here again.
Yeah, hell, yeah, what's up?
I'm here again.
I still need to learn and youget credibility by doing that,
because a lot of it is juststaying consistent People.
Right now, I've seen in asociety a huge uptick in health
(27:02):
influencers and it's cute, it'scool, but one of the things you
can't buy is a body, and I thinkthat's where that's why it
makes it so admirable right now.
I don't get me wrong there'ssome guys who start off with
just a nice physique and thenthey hop online and they do it.
But watch somebody I used toweigh 260 pounds when I was over
drinking.
(27:22):
Right, I cut down to 170 poundsand then I started rebuilding
my body mass up, so now I sitabout 200 pounds.
I can show proof of that wholejourney, right, and that, for me
, makes me more proud than thephysique that I have right now,
is that look, this is how bad Iwas, this is how good I got and
this is where I'm at on thejourney, and so I think that
(27:45):
whole consistency and stayingcommitted to your own word is
what's really important.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And it starts with goals, and I think that's a
whole nother thing we could gointo that we could talk about
hours on is, if you don't havegoals and you don't write them
down, you try to.
You're consistently trying toaccomplish something.
You're just chasing your tail.
And taking it one step furtheris have those high level goals
but then break them down in babysteps that you can actually
(28:14):
start accomplishing to get whereyou need to go.
Otherwise, you get overwhelmed.
I know I did, I still do, andthis morning I wrote down some
goals that I'm trying toaccomplish this week and I'm
like how the heck am I going toaccomplish those?
And I've got to really breakthem down, cause one of the
things I'm really focusing on isgetting out of the business and
getting on the business andworking on it, and one of those
(28:35):
things is the outsourcing of ourmarketing and our sales, and AI
is perfect for that.
So I've been training an AIoutbound caller for probably
about six weeks and we're close.
She literally sounds real, butI'm not trying to have her sound
real, but I want her to have aconversation.
Her name's Alexa, not Alexa.
(28:56):
I called her Sarah was Alexainitially, but now her name is
Sarah, but I want her to have aconversation with somebody
because it's a reflection of ourbusiness and who we are.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Absolutely Did we lose you.
And uh, I'm still here.
I just had to take a breatherbecause goals are great.
I truly believe that you shouldhave goals.
What I've learned in my journeyis that the goal is not as
important as the habits to buildthat goal.
So when you said that you haveto break it down into smaller
(29:31):
chunks, absolutely Recently Ijust finished a book called who,
not how, I've read it, goodbook.
Yeah, great book, and it talksabout you need to become the
person that can achieve thatgoal.
It's not so much about what areyou doing as what or who are
you becoming.
So exactly what you just saidyou're becoming innovative with
(29:54):
your strategy.
I can't pay thousands ofdollars out to a marketing team.
What do I have options for?
What do I have access to?
I got access to AI and I dohave the option to train it, so
why not use it?
But people don't want to dothat, right?
If I can't pay somebody to doit, then why should I even do it
?
Speaker 1 (30:15):
It's being resourceful and I really liked
that in that book, and it's beena while since I read it.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
They talk about an impactfilter and being able to be able
to actually walk through thosesteps, and I still use somewhat
of the framework, but a littledifferent.
An example of AI is it coststhousands of dollars to get it
right, but there's platforms outthere like airai, blandai, and
(30:39):
by all means guys, I'm nottrying to endorse them, they're
ones that I've tried.
There are people.
If you go onto Fiverr's website, if you're familiar with it,
you can actually find peoplethat have the experience and
knowledge that are at thefraction of a cost that you
would pay somebody to bededicated, and I found two guys
that helped me out.
I did most of the heavy lifting.
(31:00):
They got me to the finish line,to where I have a prototype
that I can start training forless than 200 bucks.
They spent probably another sixto eight hours, maybe 10 hours,
on it to get it to the finishline, to where it sounded more
realistic.
I probably have about 30 to 40hours into it at least, but
(31:20):
that's how being resourceful andfinding ways to get it to work
because ultimately at some point.
I'm hoping this week that I canlaunch it out and start testing
it on potential cold calls andthen start getting that feedback
and then I can readjust it.
But the thing is, if that'sonce that starts working, guess
what that does?
That frees my virtual assistantup to do other things, it frees
(31:44):
me up to do from doing coldcalling and it allows me to
focus on more revenue generatingsteps that I'm good at.
And that's closing deals.
Put those meetings on mycalendars.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I'll close those deals Absolutely when you were
talking about the time that youput into it.
The way that I learned this andthe way that I thought about it
was that you have one of twothings.
You have one of two resources.
Either you have time or youhave money.
Both of them are resources.
Now, when you have them, whatare you going to do with them?
Because if you have time andyou're not using that time, that
(32:19):
resource, effectively, whyshould you get the other
resource?
Again, all reality.
Why should you be blessed tohave money if you don't even use
your time correctly?
And at the opposite end, if youhave money, if you are one of
those listeners who has a ton ofmoney, what are you doing with
your time?
How are you using your time?
So why should you be blessedwith more time if you're not
(32:39):
even using your money to createmore time?
Use that time in a positive way.
So you only have one of tworesources, and how you use those
resources creates yourresourcefulness, and most
individuals don't like hearingthat because again it goes
counterculture of well, I justneed it now.
I just need it now.
I just need it now.
(33:00):
Like no, you don't need it now.
You want it now and you believethat if it doesn't come in a
specific timeframe then it's notfor you.
The reality is, the world isgoing to check you.
The universe for me is God.
He's going to check me.
Do you really want this?
I gave you the vision.
I showed it to you in your mind.
Are you really going to gothrough all the steps?
Because I didn't show you thesteps because you would have
(33:22):
quit?
I showed you the end goalbecause I know that is what
would get your attention.
That is what you needed.
Sorry, that's what you wantedand that's why I'll give you
what you need along the journey.
Look at all of the RussellBrunson.
Let's use him as an example,right?
People don't go watch his oldvideos where he's standing in a
room full of six people makinghis call to action and, well,
(33:45):
stuttering the whole way throughit.
They want to be the RussellBrunson that's doing the
ClickFunnels summit with two,three thousand people in front
of him.
That's what they want.
But the reality is, if you wereto get that right now, do you
have a offer that you can pitchto them that's actually valuable
?
Do you have a way tocommunicate that offer?
No, you probably don't, becauseyou haven't been told no.
(34:06):
One of the reasons why I canget keynotes now that other
people can't get keynotes isbecause I can effectively
communicate the solution that Ibring to these organizations.
You need interpersonalcommunication skills built
amongst your team, because theyhaven't had them in the past
three years.
I'm somebody who has a tool,scientifically based, that can
(34:27):
engage your team in a verylogical and meaningful way to
teach them those interpersonalskills and show them where to
use them, and organizations lovethat.
What do you know?
But if you just go say hey,like I used to, hey, I'm a disc
practitioner, hire me, ain't,nobody cares about that Shut up.
So you have to use yourresources accordingly in order
(34:48):
to be given more resources.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
I know we've talked about a lot.
We're getting close to the endof this, but I wanted to ask two
questions.
First question is if someone'sstruggling, they're in that dark
space what would be that nuggetor two that you would share
with them right now that couldhelp them, potentially get them
into a better place?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
One of the nuggets that I would share with somebody
who's struggling in that darkplace that I used to struggle in
is that, if you're given today,then, you do better today than
you did yesterday, because ifyou are willing to put so much
effort and energy into gettingthat substance, getting that fix
, getting that drink, you arefix.
(35:33):
Getting that drink.
You are one of the strongesthuman beings on this planet.
You have a superpower.
You just haven't learned how touse it yet and that's why it's
killing you.
So think about it that way.
Don't think about it as, oh,woe is me.
You survived a lot, so now usethat survival technique to
actually thrive in this world.
Drug addicts and alcoholics are, for me, the most powerful
(35:54):
human beings out there, becauseyou know how to create an
emotional connection and you donot let anything stop.
So use that superpower, just ina different way.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
And then, lastly, if someone wants to work with you,
how can they get a hold of you?
Are you bringing on new clientsRight now?
Speaker 2 (36:14):
I do have a application process.
I choose to work withindividuals who are actually
putting in work themselves.
Yes, you can reach out to me atnohalonmcom.
That's nohalonmcom Instagram atnohalo.
Those are the two best ways toget in contact with me.
You can also shoot me an email.
It's nico at nohalonmcom.
(36:35):
I am pretty choosy on who Iwork with, mainly because if I'm
going to put my name on you,then you got to be about your
business and in today's societywe don't have that type of a dog
inside of a lot of people rightnow.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
I will put those links in the show notes for sure
to get that out there.
Sir, thank you very much forcoming on.
Love what you're doing.
Love your story, but also whatyou're doing to help others and
inspire them to get to the otherside, because we all need it
today.
Thank you, I appreciate yousharing this time with me.
You're welcome.
Hey guys, ryan DeMent from Chasing Financial Freedom
podcast.
Hope you guys are having agreat day.
Today on the podcast we haveNico Morales and we met up on
Podmatch, but I love what he hasfor his slogan, or saying don't
be perfect, do better.
Today, nico, welcome to theshow.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hey, ryan, thanks for having me, man.
I appreciate you opening upyour platform.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
You're more than welcome.
Before we get into what you'redoing, can you give the
listeners a little bit somebackground?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
of who you are and what you've got going on.
Oh yeah, absolutely Quickquibbles about who I am Athlete
turned into addict, turned intoauthor.
Some people I've been called agoon and I turned that into a
graduate.
Really, what I am, man, is ayoung man that came up from the
Southwest in a lower middleclass family who idolized money
(00:51):
and idolized, admired the thingsthat came along with money.
The only people that I saw thathad money were drug dealers.
So why not pursue that as agoal?
And that's what I pursued to do.
Unfortunately, I broke one ofthe rules of that game, and that
was get high on your own supply.
I grew up in early.
2000s was my teenage years,2010s was my 20s.
(01:13):
The opiate epidemic the firstwave of it, I should say, is the
one that I got caught up inwhen pills were just everything
and everywhere man.
They solved problems for me,and I don't say that to
encourage anybody to use drugsor alcohol, but one of the
things that I think a lot ofpeople don't recognize is that
substances are a solution to asymptom that people feel.
(01:36):
After I kicked my heroinaddiction, I started drinking,
which is a legal drug, and theonly reason why it's legal is
because the government gets atax off of it, and repeated the
cycle of addiction.
Right there I found myself inthe same scenario that I was
previously, with just adifferent substance.
So I knew that there wassomething wrong internally.
(01:57):
There was something that I wasdoing, there was something that
I hadn't solved and I startedpursuing that.
I learned about the professionaldevelopment arena and industry
and probably late 2017, 2016,just on my, their kids, and then
somebody who has a ton of money.
We lived in one of the mostwealthiest countries in the
(02:34):
world.
Why shouldn't we all be wealthy?
Is one of my theories, and I'venever seen a man that has all
three.
So in my pursuit to find, orfind, somebody that can give me
that blueprint, I came across aman named Eric Thomas.
Et the Hip Hop Preacher is whathe goes by and I started just
studying his curriculum, hismaterial, his podcast, and it's
(02:56):
what really helped shift myparadigm around both lifestyle
what wealth actually is andmoney habits.
So from there I kept on diggingin.
That was, like I said, late2017.
Since then, I've been on thispursuit of building skill sets
(03:16):
that can generate whatever typeof currency is going to be used
in whatever type of environmentI'm going to be in, and that's
what I'm about now is helpingindividuals create and cultivate
those skill sets, because weall have natural abilities.
We all have natural skills.
Why not use them to benefit notjust yourself, but your
community and your family?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So you're coaching today as we speak.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, I coach today, I facilitate corporate trainings
today week.
Yeah, I coach today, Ifacilitate corporate trainings
today, and I think that's it.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I do keynotes too today as we speak.
Okay, so, with all that said,you've had some ups and downs in
life.
I'm with you.
We all have them.
How did finding ET reallychange your life?
What did that do?
I want to start there and thenstart digging in under the hood
to understand how people canreally pull themselves out of
that deep, dark place and findthat passion that they have
(04:14):
inside, that they're wired forby the creator, god.
However, people want to talkabout it to make a difference in
this world, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
When I first heard ET talk about the paradigm, it
made sense to me, because mostof the programs that are out
there and available forindividuals that come from the
background that I come from,I'll tell you that you are
worthless, that you have nopower and that you are powerless
, and that don't make no senseto me.
(04:45):
That don't make no sense to me.
It doesn't make any sense to mehow I can be the highest form
of creation on this planet, butI'm powerless.
So I understand that there is ahigher power than me, but if
there's a higher power than methat's outside of this world,
then that makes me the mostpowerful thing inside this world
.
And the way that you thinkabout things is one of his key
(05:08):
topics.
Right, when you want to succeed, you want to breathe.
There's this key note that hejust blew up on.
But that's a thought process,that's a thinking pattern that
you have to create, that youhave to cultivate, and that's
what's made it snap inside of myhead.
Is that what I was thinkingabout?
My adversities as a child comingup in lower middle class
America?
(05:28):
Yes, I had two parents.
Yes, I got the opportunity totravel.
Yes, I got the opportunity toengage in cultural experiences,
but other things that happenedin my life.
They made me feel less thanthings that happened in my life.
They made me feel less than,and so when I thought about it
(05:48):
as that victim mindset, insteadof no, I survived all that stuff
.
I made it through.
All this stuff that gave mepower, and by that, having that
internal power, that validatingmyself through my own self-talk
and changing my self-talk iswhat really made it click inside
of my head that these thingsdidn't happen to me.
These things happened for meand because I survived it, I'm
(06:09):
able to share that knowledgewith other individuals.
And today we live in the dayand age of information, right?
These podcasts that we're doingare going to be the books that
are out there.
People don't like to sit downand read books.
So if I can take my life,script it in a way that is
palatable to the generalpopulation and teach quibbets
(06:30):
little quick notes that they canuse on their own, that's the
best thing that I could do formy community.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
So how do we start with that mindset and that talk
that's in our head to get us outof where we're at?
Because I'll back up Today'sday and age you talked about.
We're in the age of information, but we're also in the age of
instant gratification.
People think you're going toput a video out, you're going to
go viral and you're going to bea billionaire overnight, and
(06:58):
they don't realize the time andeffort that goes into this.
And a good example is thispodcast is now turning six years
old.
I've put 260 or 70 episodesdown.
I'm just this last year and ahalf of starting getting
traction to where I'm down.
I'm getting a thousand, 15,2000 downloads an episode before
(07:19):
, 25, 50, a hundred, maybe 300.
If I would have given upwouldn't have saw the other side
of it.
But this is just a passion ofmine and I don't think we know
how to connect passion into endresults.
When I say end result is whatare you trying to do with it?
Because we're only worriedabout the one thing you spoke
(07:39):
about earlier is the money.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Absolutely.
So the first thing that we haveto do is we have to identify
the lies that we're tellingourselves.
So what is that lie that we'retelling ourselves?
Let's use that exact sameexample the instant
gratification I'm going to blowup after one video.
Yeah, maybe if you go dye yourhair blue, eat a stick of glue
and dance around with some catears like, oh, you might get
(08:05):
10,000 views your first videoAwesome.
But what kind of value did thatbring into our community?
So what are the lies that weare telling ourselves?
That's the first thing.
One of the lies that I toldmyself was that, oh, I'm from
New Mexico and New Mexico ispoor and New Mexico is high in
violence and there's nothingthat comes good.
We don't have opportunities.
(08:26):
I had to stop that.
I had to stop telling myselfthat type of lie.
What I had to switch that samescenario up with is that you
know what You're right.
New Mexico doesn't have highlevels of education.
So if I create myself a path toeducation, I can show others
and that'll help out mycommunity.
So it's not that it's notaccessible.
It's that we just don't takeadvantage of what is accessible
(08:49):
to us.
Second one it's high violence,absolutely In 2023,.
They just came out with themost violent cities in America.
Guess where Albuquerque ranks?
That's where I'm born andraised.
We're in the top five.
Yeah, violence is huge, butguess what, nico?
You made it 35 years throughthis city at doing stupid things
(09:09):
like participating in actionsthat you shouldn't have
participated in.
That just should highlight thatyou were built here to do
something immaculate, somethingincredible.
So it's just switching thoselies that we're telling
ourselves and nothing comes goodout of New Mexico.
I can tell you so many things.
Jeff Bezos comes from NewMexico right, that's one Exhibit
(09:31):
, if you like, rapping comesfrom New Mexico.
Born and raised I'm talking.
Billy the Kid calling back inhistory comes from New Mexico.
One of the only reasons why theNorth won the war over the
South was because of the Battleof Glorieta, which happened here
in New Mexico.
So there are some amazingthings that have come out of New
Mexico when you actually switchwhat you're looking for.
(09:53):
I think Tony Robbins is anotherguy that speaks in a way that
makes a lot of sense to me, andone of the things he says is
wherever you're at right now, ifyou just start to choose to
look for something that's red,you're going to find things that
are red.
If you start looking for thingsthat are green, then you're
going to find things that aregreen, and that's how you start
to change the way that you think.
What are you searching to find?
(10:14):
And for me, I was searching tofind excuses.
I was searching to find reasonsthat I was lacking, and so I
found all of those.
When I switched that and Istarted to search for
opportunities and obstacles thatI had overcome that I can
leverage to my benefit, then Istarted to find those as well.
(10:36):
So really, it begins with what'sgoing on between our ears and
the majority of individuals withthe saturation that we have of
social media, the saturationthat we have with instant access
to information.
Yes, technology is great, butaccess to a cell phone isn't
always that good, because thenyou don't know how to formulate
your own thoughts, you don'tknow how to have critical
thinking.
I can get on here and say someBS that sounds nice, and if you
(11:01):
don't actually challenge itagainst your own morals and your
own values, then guess what?
You're just playing along withwhat I decided to spew that day,
and that's where we're seeing alot of the influencers die off
because they can say it, but dothey actually live it Right?
And one of the things that Ilove about ET himself is that
(11:23):
he's a man of his word.
He lives what he talks about,and in today's society that's
very difficult to find.
One of my other mentors that Ilove to death is Wes Watson, and
that man lives his life exactlyhow he speaks.
He's on the complete oppositeend of ET right.
Et is a pastor, come up in thechurch and started working that
(11:43):
way.
Wes Watson teaches the exactsame thing and he learned it in
the California penitentiary.
So for me, when I see polaropposites speaking the exact
same truth, I know that it'struth and being able to
articulate it in a way that canbe communicated to individuals
who maybe don't relate witheither one of those, but they
can relate with Nico.
(12:04):
Oh yeah, I did have a problemwith drinking.
Oh yeah, I did.
Yeah, I remember what it's likein the early epidemics of 2000s
.
My generation is a generationthat I know what it's like to
call someone's house.
I had to speak to their fatherbefore I ask the girl, before I
ask to talk to the girl.
I know what it's like to talkto a landline.
I know what a rotary phonelooks like.
(12:26):
My generation.
They call it the Oregon Trailof the digital world because we
get to explore it.
And it's a fine balance that Iget to stand on both lines,
because I know that when I meetanother man inside of a room,
physically I stand up and I lookhim in the eyes and I shake his
hand.
(12:46):
Today's society kids aren'ttaught that and so that is a
opportunity.
Right, that's the way that Ithink about it, instead of
saying kids these days don'tknow how to act, no, they just
haven't been taught, becausethey're learning everything from
the internet and they thinkthat immediate gratification and
not blowing up in a matter of10 minutes after you post the
video is a failure.
They don't understand whatactual failure is.
(13:09):
They don't know what it's liketo be dead broke, have your bank
account overdraft and peoplestill needed to collect their
bills.
They don't know what it's liketo have the car break down and
catch the bus because they don'thave a cell phone to call
anybody.
They don't know what that'slike, and when I compare that to
the generations before me,they're like Nico, that you even
(13:29):
have a bus is great.
You know what I'm saying.
So we are building on top ofeach other.
But that thought process is whatreally captivated me by ETT's
teaching, because even if we gointo history further as I
started doing this, personaldevelopment studies he teaches
the exact same thing thatEpictetus taught back in Greece,
(13:51):
that Marcus Aurelius wasteaching.
You can even take it back towhat Jesus was teaching.
Prior to Jesus there was otherpeople, so they're teaching the
exact same things.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I'm not comparing MarcusAurelius and Jesus or all my
religious folks out there.
I know there's a difference.
I get you, we can have thatconversation.
But the fundamental thing ofthinking is what makes it so
(14:16):
crucial.
Then you learn from theGodfather, napoleon Hill himself
.
That's what he talks about Likeyou think and you grow rich.
It's not.
You hope and wish you actuallygot to put in the work, but you
got to think about the work thatyou're doing.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
It's put in the work.
Think about it.
But can we go back to these?
You're talking about kids notbeing taught.
Do you think they want to betaught?
And I'm not.
I'm not trying to pick a sideor anything.
I'm just trying to have ahealthy conversation because I
have nephews that have the sameproblem and they see what I'm
doing.
But that sign that's right belowme is very indicative of my
(14:54):
life as an entrepreneur.
No one sees all the junk that'sbelow the waterline that you
have to go through.
And, believe me, I've had lotsof failures.
I've had a lot of mentalanguish, but if you ask me if I
would do it all over again, thejoke is prior to this, I spent
25 plus years in corporateAmerica running billion dollar
companies.
(15:14):
I was running call centers,collection agencies, any type of
financial instrument.
I touched and managed it.
And my mom still asks me, afteralmost 10 years of doing this,
of would you go back?
Not a day goes by that I wouldeven think about going back,
just for the simple fact of Iget to create my own destiny.
I get to learn so much.
But the other thing that I toldher yesterday on Mother's Day,
(15:38):
was I've learned so much in theperseverance, but also being
consistent in what I'm trying todo.
And that starts up here and,believe me, it sucks on every
day.
That ends in Y, because there'salways something I'm anxious
about.
Because I'm an entrepreneur, Iworry about the future and the
(15:58):
only way I know how to describeit is get grounded in what helps
you get there.
Me, it's a daily devotional.
I actually am a lot older thanyou.
I write things down on a pieceof paper with a pencil or a pen.
I journal, I read verses in theBible.
People think that's crazy, butyou know what?
There's a lot of things thatare in that Bible that were said
(16:19):
thousands of years ago, thatare really tied into today's
society's issues that we all canlearn from.
You just have to have an openmind and say I'm willing to
change.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Oh man, you dropped so much there.
I want to touch on all of it,but the question that you had
asked me at the beginning was doI believe that they want to
learn?
Yes, in my heart, I believethat they want to learn Because
there is something about it.
When I walk into a room ofyoung adults and they can just
sense it, they can sense thatthere's something different when
(16:58):
I enter the room and that senseis what they are.
They have no exposure to it sothat when they come around it,
it freaks them out at first, butit's like that adrenaline freak
out.
Yeah, it's a little bit scary,but I know this is right.
That adrenaline freak out, yeah, it's a little bit scary, but I
(17:20):
know this is right.
So when they don't look me inthe eye and I tell them stand up
, when you shake my hand, or I'mnot shaking your hand, they
understand that there'ssomething to that.
Right, there's something to it.
So I, in my heart, believe that, yes, they do.
They do want to know what it'slike.
There's a young man that I'vebeen mentoring for the past 10
years and he has special needs,right.
So he doesn't think with all,he doesn't have all the full
(17:42):
capabilities in his mind.
Physically he's able, butmentally he just has some gaps.
And even with him there's acertain way that I conduct
myself that when he's with me heknows to conduct himself the
same way.
My good friend he just had ason on the godfather.
He's maybe about three or fouryears old and when we me and my
(18:02):
homie go out to eat with his son, he acts differently than when
he's with his mom.
He knows there's a certainconduct that you got to have
when you're walking around menand so, yes, I truly believe
that they are seeking for it.
Now, where are they going tofind it?
That's where the gap needs tobe built, and what I've learned
is that we have to give themwhat they want in order to teach
(18:25):
them.
What they want is to see peoplewith those flashy watches.
They want to see people withthe big chains.
They want to see people whohave the nice cars, who have the
nice mansions, who have thebeautiful wives.
They want to see that becausethat's what they want.
But then we need to teach themthe consistency that brings that
about right.
(18:45):
We need to teach them that it'snot about short-term rentals
and leasing a car.
It's about learning how tocreate generational wealth by
getting titles and deeds andlearning how to put those
underneath.
Llcs and creating EINs,creating trusts, creating
manager accounts so that you canput all your assets in one
account, manage account withanother, so when things go crap,
(19:07):
you're still protected.
We need to teach them that andthat's our duty as the
generation that is going to bepassing the torch.
So that's where I find theobstacles, because many of the
people that I'm around who areolder than me, they're like Nico
, you don't need to be buyinganything that's nice, you don't
need to get a Mercedes.
Nico, I'm like I actually do.
I need to purchase a Mercedes.
(19:29):
That young man who's out therewho's thinking about selling
fentanyl tomorrow to pay hisbills will look at me and be
like what do you do?
And I could teach him.
You know what?
I teach people how to live abetter life, and I don't even
pay for this car.
I rent this car out on Turo andI drive an 03 Chevy Apollo most
of the month.
That's the gap that I thinkthat we need to fill.
A long answer to your question,but I do want to just touch on
(19:51):
that other thing.
Is that the habits that youjust described I share as well.
Even this morning, I was doingmy devotion, I was doing my
reading, I was spending timewith God, and I've read the
Bible front and back a couple ofdifferent times.
I get the opportunity to teachon the Bible every once in a
while.
I have pastors ask me to go inand speak for them while they're
on their breaks and it speaksto you.
(20:15):
So I was reading something thatI had.
I read some texts that I'veread before, but it stood out to
me in a different way thismorning.
So, absolutely, those type ofhabits are missing.
And writing if you can't writeout your thoughts, communication
for me, one of the reasons whyI love it, why I need to be
articulate, why I don't speakwith my volcano accent no more
(20:35):
and tell the homies what's up,man.
I don't speak with my volcanoaccent no more and tell the
homies what's up, man.
I don't speak like that isbecause I need to reach out to a
mass of people, and in order toreach that mass of people, I
have to speak in an articulateway that can communicate
thoughts both to laymen and veryeducated individuals, because
it's the same truths.
So if I have to say it inmulti-syllabic words and write a
thesis about it, great I can dothat.
(20:57):
But if I also need to just sitdown and chop it up with the
homie and be like here here'swhat it is, I know how to do
that as well, and writing helpsyou do that right.
Writing helps you do that,reading helps you do that, and
the more that you can use thesetype of habits that are becoming
scarce, the more of a rareindividual you become.
(21:20):
I think it's the law ofcompensation that says the
ability to do it, the need forit to be done and the
opportunity for you to bereplaced.
So if we are creating thesehabits like you just described,
then the opportunity for us tobe replaced dwindles little by
little.
You said you've been at it forsix years, right.
For somebody else who's been atit for just a year, the
(21:44):
opportunity for them to bereplaced is far greater than it
is for you.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
With podcasts.
They talk about the magicnumber 100 episodes, and for me
do.
I believe it Somewhat, but I'mnot sure, because ultimately I
took a screenshot of iTunes whenI started this podcast and my
other podcast and I went backevery year to take a look at the
active podcasts If those samepodcasts when I started were
(22:10):
there.
They're not.
There was 22 that started onthe day, 21 that started on the
day, something like that.
There's only three of us leftthat are actually active in
producing.
Have I figured out how tomonetize this yet?
It's been, it's always been onmy mind, but it's not top of
mind.
I truly am putting out thereand this is again we can talk
(22:32):
about this and go through thatis I've been putting out there
that I need to find a producerthat's willing to work with me,
because I don't have a hugebudget, I don't have thousands
of dollars to throw at aproducer that could help me grow
this.
I'm willing to share in therevenue and go through that, but
that's my next step is I needto find a producer that can help
me take it to the next level,because today it's just myself
and a VA that we do all thepost-production stuff.
(22:53):
We put it out there, do all theshorts, connect all the guests.
We have automation.
But I think there's people thatare a lot better at this than I
am that could change it.
But that's just being patient,persistent and consistent every
single week.
I never miss.
Episode goes out everyWednesday.
Just don't miss, I don't miss.
(23:13):
And if I'm sick, I find a wayto get something out to make
sure that people understand that, hey, something happened.
But that's life and making surethat you have it up here so you
can get it out there.
I think it's Bob Proctor thatsays if you can envision it in
here, you'll have it here inyour hand.
Or maybe it's backwards, Ican't remember, but that's big.
(23:35):
If you can envision it andyou're positive, up here you're,
you can always get it there.
It's just not going to happeninstantaneous.
But if you have a scarcitymindset and you think of all
these bad things that arehappening, guess what, like you
said, you sought out thosethings, you thought of them and
they all came to you.
So why not use it forpositivity, to better yourself,
(23:56):
to help others, to get them in abetter place?
Speaker 2 (24:02):
in their lives also.
Absolutely, you have that right.
Bob Proctor did say you have tosee it in your mind first
before you can hold it in yourhand I was listening to.
I think his name is AndyFrisella.
I saw one of his shorts andhe's the owner of a bunch of
different.
He's coming up pretty heftyright now in the personal
development game.
But he talked about exactlywhat you just said.
(24:24):
He said you got to just keep ondoing it.
If a hundred people start yearone by year three, 80 of them
already fell off by year six.
17 more just fell off by yearnine and 12, there's only three
that actually started.
And you had mentioned workingin call centers or work with
call centers earlier.
I used to work in a call center.
That's how I paid to get myeducation right.
(24:46):
I wasn't going to pay for it.
I don't know, baki, I don'tpersonally.
I'm a hustler Like I need.
If someone else could, I coulduse other people's money.
I'm going to use other people'smoney.
That's just how it goes.
And so the call center that Iworked at gave that opportunity.
But even there, I worked atthat call center for eight years
.
And there was maybe 50 peoplethat started in class with me.
(25:07):
By the time that I left I wasone of two, three that were
still there.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
It's an overrate for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, and even now I took a class from ET et.
I was in one of his speakingclasses.
This was about three years agoand everybody's all gung-ho and
think they're gonna blow up justbecause et puts people on.
No, he does it.
He wants to see how consistentyou are.
I'll get me wrong.
I've been blessed to get toknow him.
I've been blessed to get toknow his team pretty well, where
(25:37):
they know me by my first name,but ain't't nobody's going to be
like oh yeah, nico's the nextone up, let's just go ahead and
put his name out there.
You got to do your work and soeven with us, there's only maybe
about two of us that are stillactually in this speaking game,
constantly doing keynotes andfacilitations, and a lot of
people don't want to do thatrejection.
Work, man.
(25:58):
For the first like year and ahalf that I started speaking, I
pay for my own salary out of mysavings, just so I can stay
afloat, and I got told no.
Each and every freaking day Isend out 100 emails a week and
out of those 100 emails I got100 no's.
And I get it.
(26:18):
There's a defeating mindsetthat can kick in there.
What am I doing?
And again it comes back to.
Are you thinking about thehustle?
Are you thinking about thegrind?
Are you thinking about thefailure?
Are you thinking about thepatience and the discipline that
you're creating during thattimeframe?
Or are you just thinking, oh,it's not for me, I'm not gonna
do it, blah, blah, blah, blah,blah.
No, bro, and because of that,I've been able to meet
(26:42):
individuals.
So now when I travel, it's justoh, nico, you're here again.
Yeah, hell, yeah, what's up?
I'm here again.
I still need to learn and youget credibility by doing that,
because a lot of it is juststaying consistent People.
Right now, I've seen in asociety a huge uptick in health
(27:02):
influencers and it's cute, it'scool, but one of the things you
can't buy is a body, and I thinkthat's where that's why it
makes it so admirable right now.
I don't get me wrong there'ssome guys who start off with
just a nice physique and thenthey hop online and they do it.
But watch somebody I used toweigh 260 pounds when I was over
drinking.
(27:22):
Right, I cut down to 170 poundsand then I started rebuilding
my body mass up, so now I sitabout 200 pounds.
I can show proof of that wholejourney, right, and that, for me
, makes me more proud than thephysique that I have right now,
is that look, this is how bad Iwas, this is how good I got and
this is where I'm at on thejourney, and so I think that
(27:45):
whole consistency and stayingcommitted to your own word is
what's really important.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And it starts with goals, and I think that's a
whole nother thing we could gointo that we could talk about
hours on is, if you don't havegoals and you don't write them
down, you try to.
You're consistently trying toaccomplish something.
You're just chasing your tail.
And taking it one step furtheris have those high level goals
but then break them down in babysteps that you can actually
(28:14):
start accomplishing to get whereyou need to go.
Otherwise, you get overwhelmed.
I know I did, I still do, andthis morning I wrote down some
goals that I'm trying toaccomplish this week and I'm
like how the heck am I going toaccomplish those?
And I've got to really breakthem down, cause one of the
things I'm really focusing on isgetting out of the business and
getting on the business andworking on it, and one of those
(28:35):
things is the outsourcing of ourmarketing and our sales, and AI
is perfect for that.
So I've been training an AIoutbound caller for probably
about six weeks and we're close.
She literally sounds real, butI'm not trying to have her sound
real, but I want her to have aconversation.
Her name's Alexa, not Alexa.
(28:56):
I called her Sarah was Alexainitially, but now her name is
Sarah, but I want her to have aconversation with somebody
because it's a reflection of ourbusiness and who we are.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Absolutely Did we lose you.
And uh, I'm still here.
I just had to take a breatherbecause goals are great.
I truly believe that you shouldhave goals.
What I've learned in my journeyis that the goal is not as
important as the habits to buildthat goal.
So when you said that you haveto break it down into smaller
(29:31):
chunks, absolutely Recently Ijust finished a book called who,
not how, I've read it, goodbook.
Yeah, great book, and it talksabout you need to become the
person that can achieve thatgoal.
It's not so much about what areyou doing as what or who are
you becoming.
So exactly what you just saidyou're becoming innovative with
(29:54):
your strategy.
I can't pay thousands ofdollars out to a marketing team.
What do I have options for?
What do I have access to?
I got access to AI and I dohave the option to train it, so
why not use it?
But people don't want to dothat, right?
If I can't pay somebody to doit, then why should I even do it
?
Speaker 1 (30:15):
It's being resourceful and I really liked
that in that book, and it's beena while since I read it.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
They talk about an impactfilter and being able to be able
to actually walk through thosesteps, and I still use somewhat
of the framework, but a littledifferent.
An example of AI is it coststhousands of dollars to get it
right, but there's platforms outthere like airai, blandai, and
(30:39):
by all means guys, I'm nottrying to endorse them, they're
ones that I've tried.
There are people.
If you go onto Fiverr's website, if you're familiar with it,
you can actually find peoplethat have the experience and
knowledge that are at thefraction of a cost that you
would pay somebody to bededicated, and I found two guys
that helped me out.
I did most of the heavy lifting.
(31:00):
They got me to the finish line,to where I have a prototype
that I can start training forless than 200 bucks.
They spent probably another sixto eight hours, maybe 10 hours,
on it to get it to the finishline, to where it sounded more
realistic.
I probably have about 30 to 40hours into it at least, but
(31:20):
that's how being resourceful andfinding ways to get it to work
because ultimately at some point.
I'm hoping this week that I canlaunch it out and start testing
it on potential cold calls andthen start getting that feedback
and then I can readjust it.
But the thing is, if that'sonce that starts working, guess
what that does?
That frees my virtual assistantup to do other things, it frees
(31:44):
me up to do from doing coldcalling and it allows me to
focus on more revenue generatingsteps that I'm good at.
And that's closing deals.
Put those meetings on mycalendars.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I'll close those deals Absolutely when you were
talking about the time that youput into it.
The way that I learned this andthe way that I thought about it
was that you have one of twothings.
You have one of two resources.
Either you have time or youhave money.
Both of them are resources.
Now, when you have them, whatare you going to do with them?
Because if you have time andyou're not using that time, that
(32:19):
resource, effectively, whyshould you get the other
resource?
Again, all reality.
Why should you be blessed tohave money if you don't even use
your time correctly?
And at the opposite end, if youhave money, if you are one of
those listeners who has a ton ofmoney, what are you doing with
your time?
How are you using your time?
So why should you be blessedwith more time if you're not
(32:39):
even using your money to createmore time?
Use that time in a positive way.
So you only have one of tworesources, and how you use those
resources creates yourresourcefulness, and most
individuals don't like hearingthat because again it goes
counterculture of well, I justneed it now.
I just need it now.
I just need it now.
(33:00):
Like no, you don't need it now.
You want it now and you believethat if it doesn't come in a
specific timeframe then it's notfor you.
The reality is, the world isgoing to check you.
The universe for me is God.
He's going to check me.
Do you really want this?
I gave you the vision.
I showed it to you in your mind.
Are you really going to gothrough all the steps?
Because I didn't show you thesteps because you would have
(33:22):
quit?
I showed you the end goalbecause I know that is what
would get your attention.
That is what you needed.
Sorry, that's what you wantedand that's why I'll give you
what you need along the journey.
Look at all of the RussellBrunson.
Let's use him as an example,right?
People don't go watch his oldvideos where he's standing in a
room full of six people makinghis call to action and, well,
(33:45):
stuttering the whole way throughit.
They want to be the RussellBrunson that's doing the
ClickFunnels summit with two,three thousand people in front
of him.
That's what they want.
But the reality is, if you wereto get that right now, do you
have a offer that you can pitchto them that's actually valuable
?
Do you have a way tocommunicate that offer?
No, you probably don't, becauseyou haven't been told no.
(34:06):
One of the reasons why I canget keynotes now that other
people can't get keynotes isbecause I can effectively
communicate the solution that Ibring to these organizations.
You need interpersonalcommunication skills built
amongst your team, because theyhaven't had them in the past
three years.
I'm somebody who has a tool,scientifically based, that can
(34:27):
engage your team in a verylogical and meaningful way to
teach them those interpersonalskills and show them where to
use them, and organizations lovethat.
What do you know?
But if you just go say hey,like I used to, hey, I'm a disc
practitioner, hire me, ain't,nobody cares about that Shut up.
So you have to use yourresources accordingly in order
(34:48):
to be given more resources.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
I know we've talked about a lot.
We're getting close to the endof this, but I wanted to ask two
questions.
First question is if someone'sstruggling, they're in that dark
space what would be that nuggetor two that you would share
with them right now that couldhelp them, potentially get them
into a better place?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
One of the nuggets that I would share with somebody
who's struggling in that darkplace that I used to struggle in
is that, if you're given today,then, you do better today than
you did yesterday, because ifyou are willing to put so much
effort and energy into gettingthat substance, getting that fix
, getting that drink, you arefix.
(35:33):
Getting that drink.
You are one of the strongesthuman beings on this planet.
You have a superpower.
You just haven't learned how touse it yet and that's why it's
killing you.
So think about it that way.
Don't think about it as, oh,woe is me.
You survived a lot, so now usethat survival technique to
actually thrive in this world.
Drug addicts and alcoholics are, for me, the most powerful
(35:54):
human beings out there, becauseyou know how to create an
emotional connection and you donot let anything stop.
So use that superpower, just ina different way.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
And then, lastly, if someone wants to work with you,
how can they get a hold of you?
Are you bringing on new clientsRight now?
Speaker 2 (36:14):
I do have a application process.
I choose to work withindividuals who are actually
putting in work themselves.
Yes, you can reach out to me atnohalonmcom.
That's nohalonmcom Instagram atnohalo.
Those are the two best ways toget in contact with me.
You can also shoot me an email.
It's nico at nohalonmcom.
(36:35):
I am pretty choosy on who Iwork with, mainly because if I'm
going to put my name on you,then you got to be about your
business and in today's societywe don't have that type of a dog
inside of a lot of people rightnow.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
I will put those links in the show notes for sure
to get that out there.
Sir, thank you very much forcoming on.
Love what you're doing.
Love your story, but also whatyou're doing to help others and
inspire them to get to the otherside, because we all need it
today.
Thank you, I appreciate yousharing this time with me.
You're welcome.
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