← The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
From Marine Raider to Millionaire Mentor: Nick Koumalatsos on Discipline and Success
01:12:01
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- [00:00]
Paul Alex
Welcome to the Level up podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together. Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now. Hey guys, and welcome back to the Level up podcast. I'm going to be your host, Paul Alex, and today we have a truly special guest joining us. He's a man who has overcome adversity, pushed through incredible challenges, and now helps thousands of people worldwide do the exact same thing. From serving in the Marine Corps special operations to becoming a successful entrepreneur, coach and bestselling author. Nick's dedication to building both mental and physical resilience while empowering others to reach their full potential is truly inspiring. We're going to take a deep dive into his journey from military service to creating a lifestyle of freedom and purpose. Get ready to level up your mindset and take action towards your goals. Let's welcome Nick Cumulusos to the show. Nick, how you doing, brother?
- [01:06]
Nick Cumulusos
Thanks, Paul, appreciate that. That was great.
- [01:08]
Paul Alex
No, absolutely, dude, I got a. Dude, I got to give you props, dude. Like I did a little bit of research before you came. You know me, former law, law enforcement. So I have to do my due diligence before guests come on the show. And from dude Johnny Slicks to being in the restaurant business, to being now a best selling author, dude, let's dive into your background, brother.
- [01:31]
Nick Cumulusos
So I. High school dropout. Yeah, two felonies by the time I was 13 years old. And that's how the story starts. Grew up from a very poor family, single mom. And obviously when. And actually I talk about this, you know, not to fast forward, but I talk a lot about this in the. One of the programs we run, the Squire program, the father and son event, the rite of passage for young men that they do with their fathers. But I talk about when a. When a young man does not have that strong father figure or mentor in their life, there is a evil enemy out there just with their arms open waiting for that young man. Like, come on over, we got you. We'll join our crew, will take care of you. And the reality is young men are seeking that we were. I mean, we're a tribal. We're tribal people. We require it. We require a try. We require. We require that kind of community. And when a positive one is not available, there's going to be a negative one that scoops them up and that was me. I got scooped up in that negative one. So, yeah, by the time I was 13, two felonies, locked up. You'll get. You'll get a. A kick out of that. This. Both times I was arrested and locked up. No lawyer, no parent.
- [03:02]
Brandon
That's brutal, bro.
- [03:03]
Nick Cumulusos
And I don't know how they got away with it, but it was the 90s, so. I don't know.
- [03:07]
Paul Alex
Takes me back to when I was working in Oakland, California, just roughly four years ago, dude, I was dealing with a lot of juveniles.
- [03:14]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [03:14]
Paul Alex
You know, from like, dude, like eight. Butch was the youngest to.
- [03:19]
Nick Cumulusos
It's crazy, man, right?
- [03:20]
Paul Alex
17, dude. And I would ask him and be like, hey, dude, like, where are your parents? And you're like, dude, I don't know. My dad. My mom's like, you know, prostituting on the street.
- [03:27]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [03:27]
Paul Alex
Like, what do you.
- [03:28]
Nick Cumulusos
My mom was not prostitute. She was just working two jobs to hold things down. I was being a little.
- [03:35]
Paul Alex
No, dude. But I. I resonate.
- [03:36]
Nick Cumulusos
But that's the reality. That. That is the reality of the world that we live in.
- [03:39]
Paul Alex
No, absolutely. I mean, we need direction as men. And likewise, dude, you know, my. My dad, he left my mom at the age of two. And my mom, she was working literally 18 hours a day as a housekeeper. And, dude, I didn't know the direction I had in life. I had to figure it out.
- [03:57]
Nick Cumulusos
Had to figure it out.
- [03:58]
Paul Alex
So, dude, so let's. Let's dive into your story. So how did you actually get into business yourself, man? Because with this podcast, a lot of people that, like, actually watch this. Yeah, they're like beginner entrepreneurs. They're trying to figure it out, dude. And we. We got age range from, like, probably kids to our age right now. Like, what. What's the secret?
- [04:20]
Nick Cumulusos
The. The secret. That's what everybody wants to know, right? I got the secret for you. And people really do believe that there's a secret, and there isn't. And it's. And people are like, oh, come on, man. What's the thing? What's the one thing? And there isn't just one thing. It's. It's just having tenacity over and this never quit mindset over a very long period of time. And there's a lot of little things that you can do, right, that you can get coaching. We talked about that before we came on. You know, we've both done that. You can. You can have vision. You have to plan. You have to. And then the execution. But it's always about executing, and I think that's where people go, no, there's this. There's this formula that you're not sharing with us, and there really isn't. I mean, there's things that you can do, but there's a lot of little things that you can do. But the reality is when you want it, if you want the secret, dude, it's just not quitting and just continuing to sometimes eat a shit sandwich for a long period of time before it's not a shit sandwich anymore. And so that's kind of the wave tops. But going back into entrepreneurship and my story. I served. I served in the marine Corps from 2000 to 2012. I make jokes saying those are the fun years because it was like the most time we were in active combat. The most. The entire time, from September 11th to the time I got out. And I was a different person, Paul. I was. I was just angry, tired. I mean, I was just one deployment after an ex. From the time. Pretty much from the time I joined, and. And I was just worn out. I was a very different, angry person. And I made the decision after. After some things transpired with, you know, some things the State Department said and things that I've been witnessing myself and probably stuff that you probably saw in law, you know, similar bureaucratic BS that you saw in law enforcement, you know, and it's like, I think I'm gonna do something else.
- [06:25]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [06:25]
Nick Cumulusos
You know, and like I said, I was angry. So how old were you when I got out? 30. 30. 31.
- [06:33]
Paul Alex
And then when did you start?
- [06:35]
Nick Cumulusos
I joined when I was 18, turned turn 19 in recruit training.
- [06:40]
Paul Alex
19. And then when did you get into, like, special ops?
- [06:45]
Nick Cumulusos
Pretty fast. After I. I did three years in the regular Marine Corps. I went to Turkey and Iraq first, and then when I came back, I took selection for second force reconnaissance. @ the time was like the top command in the Marine Corps. A couple years after that, they stood up Marine Special Operations Command, took selection for that and. And then spent the rest of my career there.
- [07:07]
Paul Alex
And how, how difficult would you say for somebody that's joining the military? Because we have a lot of people that actually, like, they're like, hey, dude, I'm about to go to the Marines. After I come out of the Marines, I'm going to come and, like, do business with you. And I'm like, hell yeah, let's do it right.
- [07:19]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [07:20]
Paul Alex
So, like, for everybody that's like, right now watching they're about to join the military, how difficult is the process to go Special ops?
- [07:28]
Nick Cumulusos
I'll give you an idea of this is how difficult it is. Now granted, this isn't my time, you know, I'm an old dude now, but in my time when I showed up to what now is Basic Reconnaissance School to and when I was in second force, I showed up, there was about 80 something people that showed up at the school on the first day we graduated 14.
- [07:52]
Paul Alex
Wow.
- [07:54]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [07:55]
Nick Cumulusos
So that's the attrition rate. And what people don't realize is there's, that's not even the full attrition rate because there's a three, there was a three month preparatory course to even go to the school and that attrition rate was the same.
- [08:07]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [08:07]
Nick Cumulusos
You know, so then you go to that and there's just, you just stack onto that. So it's. Majority of young men underestimate the physical attribute that they need to endure that level of training for that amount of time. That's one second. They underestimate the mental fortitude that they need to complete those courses. You have to be willing to, and this is going to sound really dramatic, but it's the truth. You have to be willing to go, okay, I'm going to, I'm either going to graduate or I'm going to die on this dang course. I'm going to push my body to where I'm just going to drop dead.
- [08:49]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [08:49]
Nick Cumulusos
Because that's what it's going to take. And I remember one, we were, I was at amphibious Reconnaissance School at 4 Story, Virginia and I failed a ruck run. It was funny, I was talking to my former teammate, now business partner, Josh Hansberger about this in the car yesterday is you've been doing this so for long. You've been up since like four. You know, you're, who knows when you're going to go to bed. You got a long day ahead of you. You've been on this ruck run for X amount of time and you're like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna throttle back a little bit because I got a long day ahead of me. Yeah, that's a quit. You just took your foot off the gas. And I'll never forget in that course you got, I think like, like a day you had homework and stuff you had to do on the weekend, like write your patrol orders and all kinds of different SOPs that you have to do. But they let you go off base and like, you know, grab a burger, get, you know, do whatever you want to do for a few hours. And that was like coveted, man. Like those few hours off, you know, away from the command was Coveted. But if you failed that Friday ruck run, no liberty, no off base privileges for you, and I failed. And you only have so many failures. And I don't remember exactly what it was or what it is now, but you only get like a couple and then you're. You're done. And I'll never forget, it was a. It was a mental choice to like to throttle off. And to me, looking at even that throttle back, kind of like we're talking about business, right? Like, you get comfortable.
- [10:25]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [10:26]
Nick Cumulusos
You get like, oh, there's Runway, or maybe I'm making money and everything's good. So I'm just going to throttle back a little bit and chill. That's when you, that's. That's a quit. You just quit on yourself because you throttle back. You know what I mean? And I'm not talking about setting things up, setting systems in place to where you can strategically plan and throttle back. When you not even say throttle back, it's like while you're doing something with your family, your team's throttling down. You know what I mean? Like, there's a difference. I'm talking about you personally in your own head, choosing to take the easier road because it's hard.
- [11:00]
Brandon
Right.
- [11:01]
Nick Cumulusos
And anyway, so that was, that was the. That was a thing that really stuck with me. And. And there's another story about when I actually did. I had some physical injuries and I tapped. I kind of tapped out. I went through a. This is a great story. It's really. This is a story of next weakness. I like talking about those.
- [11:21]
Paul Alex
Let's hear it, dude.
- [11:22]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah. So back in 2000, had it been 2001, the Marine Corps. You ever heard of the Marine Corps martial arts program? They call it Map mcmap, dude.
- [11:35]
Paul Alex
When. When my COO gets here, I'm pretty.
- [11:37]
Nick Cumulusos
Sure you guys know. Yeah. So it was, it was the infancy stages of the Marine Corps martial arts program. And I was, I want to say I was like a lance corporal or something like corporal or lance E3 for. In the marine Corps. Young. A couple years in the Marine Corps, if that. And I got this opportunity to go to this green belt instructors course, which back then was like totally unregulated. It was like, it's. It's not that difficult anymore. But it was three weeks of getting your ass beat. Like, I mean, you just got beat down.
- [12:13]
Paul Alex
Rules.
- [12:13]
Nick Cumulusos
No rules, man. It was just eight hours a day of PT and fighting, like fight club style fighting.
- [12:22]
Brandon
Wow.
- [12:22]
Nick Cumulusos
And right towards the end of the three weeks, I had fractured a couple Ribs. I tore my ear off, a portion of my ear off, and they sewed it back on. Black eyes, concussion. And I remember the night before. Like, I'm like holding my ribs. Like you ever fractured your ribs? Yeah, like there's nothing you can do. Man, light sucks. Every time you take a breath, you're just like, you're losing your breath. You know what I mean? So I show up the next morning and Paul, the next day is the final exercise and it's graduation. It's a wrap after this. It's like a two hour FTX and then it's graduation. So I show up and I tell the guy who was the gunnery sergeant, the, the senior instructor of the course. I'm like, hey, Gunny. Like, this is the situation. I just don't know if I can do the ftx.
- [13:16]
Paul Alex
So you're already quitting in your mind?
- [13:18]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [13:19]
Paul Alex
Before you're even going to the law.
- [13:20]
Nick Cumulusos
Before I even. Before I even tried to do it, dude. He's like, I know, because I'm like.
- [13:26]
Paul Alex
They made you pay for it, right?
- [13:27]
Nick Cumulusos
No, he didn't. Yes, but not physically. Watch. This is. This is the most brilliant thing he ever did. And usually he was a hard ass dude, and he wasn't hard. He goes, so I just told him and I was like, you know, people were telling me, like, oh, dude, you got fractured ribs, you twist wrong, you go through your lung, blah, blah, blah, you know, all kinds of, you know, not. Yes, that is true, but it's also not a little bit of nonsense, right? But like the reality of how that. How what would have to transpire for that to happen is pretty drastic. You know what I mean? Anyways, so he goes, he goes, all right, Corporal K, like, you're good. Just. Just follow along and you'll sit this one out. You'll watch everybody do it, and then that'll be a wrap. So he goes back and then in. I watch, I'm right there. I watched the whole FTX happen. I'm sitting on the sidelines watching it all happen, and then they graduate. He's like, I can't graduate because you didn't do the ftx. He goes, here's the thing, Corporal K, because if you would have just like, everybody knew you were broken, you were hurt. He's like, but if you would have just showed up and did your best, the team would have carried you and I would have graduated you because you did all the work up until this point.
- [14:37]
Brandon
Wow.
- [14:37]
Nick Cumulusos
He said, but you let that get into your head. Yeah, because I can for that I can't graduate.
- [14:42]
Brandon
Wow.
- [14:43]
Nick Cumulusos
So I did the whole thing. I was there just getting my ass beat the whole time.
- [14:48]
Brandon
Dude, that's.
- [14:49]
Paul Alex
That's heartbreaking.
- [14:49]
Nick Cumulusos
And then. But you know what? That was the deciding factor in my life to where I was like, I will never, never tap out ever again. The only other time I. And it wasn't really a tap out. It was like a throttle back, which I consider, you know, kind of an internal quit. But even then I was like, I will die. I will die here before I quit. But that was such. That was one of the biggest lessons of my life was him doing that.
- [15:22]
Paul Alex
And Nick, would you say that being in the military, going through these experiences, you know, just. Just that alone, dude, it showed you to be resilient. But do you think that contribute to your success in entrepreneurship?
- [15:35]
Nick Cumulusos
I think it definitely played a factor, but it definitely wasn't, you know, it was. I don't want anyone to think that I got out of the military, started my first business, and it was like, I knocked it out of the park and I didn't have failures and I didn't lose things. And that, as matter of fact, the first, let's see, 13, four years, five years. Sucked. I mean, Paul, it sucked. It sucked.
- [16:06]
Paul Alex
And you, you got out of the military at 31.
- [16:09]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [16:10]
Paul Alex
And how long until you got into like full time entrepreneurship?
- [16:13]
Nick Cumulusos
So I got out. I got out in 2012, immediately started working. I was contracting for intelligence operations company, kind of doing some of the similar stuff that I was doing in special operations. And still very rough around the edges. Like, still really rough around the edges. And which cost me essentially the contract. So I rubbed some people the wrong way. On a Monday, I had 26 people in my office getting support. I was supporting three guys downrange on a secured network all simultaneously got the call from my team lead saying, hey, they just canceled your contract. You're done. You can pack your shit and go home.
- [16:59]
Brandon
Wow.
- [17:00]
Nick Cumulusos
And I was like a Monday afternoon. That was my first wake up to, oh, I could be fired. Yeah, like, I'm done.
- [17:06]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [17:07]
Nick Cumulusos
And so that's what happened, man. I was. I got. I got canned right out the gate. And. And what? Ironically, what this is, this is the story. This is the story of where how if this would not have happened, I probably would not have started my own business. So I got Cane on a Monday, on Tuesday, a teammate. So I had developed a team. They let me handpick a team to create this program that we were working on that I created with my team.
- [17:38]
Paul Alex
And Nick, just real quick for the listeners, somebody that doesn't know nothing about the military. Dude, when you say program, what do you mean by that?
- [17:49]
Nick Cumulusos
I'm trying to. How do I word this the right way for civilians? Yeah. So it was a process. So we utilized a certain system and we created a process and a program around that system of how to use it. And it became wildly successful. And it was something. It was basically a concept that I had done in special operations already. And so when I got contracted bring to do this program, to do this for this company, I brought that. That expertise of real word, real world, opera intelligence and operations to that company. And then we created a formalized program around it, a system, a training program, and a execution program around that.
- [18:38]
Paul Alex
So essentially you were like a consultant because you were special ops in the military. You went to a private company. The private company was just like, hey, dude, we need your expertise because you're a badass in the military.
- [18:48]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [18:48]
Paul Alex
You set up the.
- [18:49]
Nick Cumulusos
You did the process. And they knew because I, we had. I had worked with them in the military, so they knew me.
- [18:54]
Paul Alex
Okay.
- [18:54]
Nick Cumulusos
And then it was one of those things. And then I was like, I got out and they're like, we're going to hire you.
- [18:58]
Paul Alex
So for private companies, does that happen a lot? Is it like a good old boys club?
- [19:01]
Nick Cumulusos
Very much so. Well, you know how it is in business. It's networking.
- [19:05]
Paul Alex
Yeah.
- [19:05]
Nick Cumulusos
So it's all who you know. And so anyways, I got out, you know, and I thought I was rich. My first year out of the marine Corps, made $165,000.
- [19:13]
Paul Alex
Dude, for somebody coming out of the military, that's badass.
- [19:16]
Nick Cumulusos
I was like, I'm rich, but definitely not. But I felt that way.
- [19:22]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [19:22]
Nick Cumulusos
And anyways, so I got canned on Monday. On Tuesday, one of my, My good friends who was on that team called me and said, hey, dude, they just rolled out. They were in a. He was in a meeting up in D.C. he goes, hey, they just rolled out our program to the whole company. Company nationwide or worldwide.
- [19:40]
Paul Alex
So they profited off of the process that you created.
- [19:44]
Brandon
That's.
- [19:45]
Nick Cumulusos
And then canned me. Because, I mean, and reality is it's their ip, right? Because I worked for them.
- [19:50]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [19:50]
Nick Cumulusos
So anything I created under that company, it's their intellectual property. Yeah.
- [19:55]
Paul Alex
So they made you sign like a contract and all that.
- [19:57]
Nick Cumulusos
Oh, yeah. It was.
- [19:58]
Paul Alex
Anything that you produce, that's normal.
- [20:00]
Nick Cumulusos
And that's normal business for Core. If you work something and you create a program, you do something for that company, you make sop. It's not yours, it's the company.
- [20:08]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [20:08]
Nick Cumulusos
You know what I mean? And which was, you know, whatever at the end, it's what got me to where I'm at today.
- [20:16]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [20:17]
Nick Cumulusos
But on that Tuesday, I got that call and he's like, dude, they just rolled out our program to the entire company worldwide. Like that's the standard now.
- [20:25]
Brandon
Wow.
- [20:26]
Nick Cumulusos
And I was like. And I had a job offer with another company making more money almost a immediately. And I turned it down because it, it hit me that if I can do this for a company that's, you know, valued in the billions, I can do it for myself.
- [20:46]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [20:47]
Nick Cumulusos
If I can, if my work ethic, brain power, you know, whatever it is, my expertise could do that for a company, then I should be able to do it for myself. And I started my first business. Now I legitimately thought, and maybe some people have done this, but it wasn't me. I legitimately thought I was going to be like a millionaire within a year of starting my business.
- [21:15]
Paul Alex
Dude, I feel like social media makes that.
- [21:19]
Nick Cumulusos
Like social media wasn't even that big back then though.
- [21:21]
Paul Alex
Dude, I feel like social media. No, no, like social media now portrays that.
- [21:25]
Nick Cumulusos
Yes.
- [21:25]
Paul Alex
I'm not saying that it's going to happen, but it like it pertains that. That's why people are like, oh, they end up quitting like after a couple months. I'm like, bro, like, you're not going to be a millionaire.
- [21:33]
Nick Cumulusos
You haven't even gotten your first failure in a couple months. Exactly.
- [21:36]
Paul Alex
You got to have a few failures in order to build off of that.
- [21:39]
Nick Cumulusos
Right.
- [21:39]
Paul Alex
And then go ahead and do it, you know. But no, I feel you on that month, man. So what was exactly was your first business?
- [21:44]
Nick Cumulusos
It was, it was, I'm almost embarrassed to even talk about it. It was called sts Survival and Tactical Systems. And this is where. So the number one, the number one thing. And I just, I released a course on it. I have a 14 lesson course on this particular thing because I struggle with it. And it's the number one thing that people struggle with and it keeps them from being successful is their own limiting beliefs. Facts 100, their own limiting beliefs. And their limiting beliefs come from childhood. It comes from your parents, it comes from your teachers, it comes from working environments. Things that people have told you about yourself and over a period of years and decades, they stack. And it is just an absolute. It's just a soul crusher.
- [22:30]
Paul Alex
It's the force of average man.
- [22:32]
Nick Cumulusos
Yes. And kind of like what, you know, you're with your story like Your. Your co workers telling you you're going to lose all your money and.
- [22:38]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [22:39]
Nick Cumulusos
You're never going to make it. Yeah. Yeah. So I believed that because of my background. That's all I really had to offer the world. Nothing I did. Because you got to think I joined, you know, when I was 18 years old. Now I'm 30. 31 years old.
- [23:01]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [23:02]
Nick Cumulusos
Like, I don't know any difference. The military, special operations is what I know. Right.
- [23:07]
Paul Alex
So you knew your entire tactical stuff.
- [23:09]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah, my whole thing. My whole twenties, everything I've done. So I didn't believe that I had anything else to offer. So if this is what I do, then I might as well start a training consulting company. So that's what we did. And I had this, and I call it my first failure because I had this. This business. I mean, dude, you would. People I would. I laugh at myself now because I worked for.
- [23:34]
Paul Alex
So let's go into the process, Nick. Like, okay, right now you're in your first business.
- [23:39]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [23:40]
Paul Alex
You're basically like, dude, I just made this company a ton of money with my process.
- [23:44]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [23:44]
Paul Alex
Let me start a consulting company based on what I know for like more than a decade, right?
- [23:49]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [23:49]
Paul Alex
In the military. So, like, did you have a friend that like, told you, hey, dude, you should be your own consultant. Was your girl, was your wife? Like, how did you come up with that idea, man? Because I feel like a lot of people that watch this are listening to this. They're probably like. They're probably in your spot back when you were like 31.
- [24:04]
Nick Cumulusos
Dude, nobody. Nobody gave me the idea. It was really that phone call from Darren telling me that they took what we did and rolled it out. And I was like, well, if I. If they are taking what I did and rolling out, then I can do it for myself. So you were pissed that was it? Yeah, I was pissed.
- [24:22]
Paul Alex
Okay.
- [24:23]
Nick Cumulusos
That was it. That's. I mean, there's. There's no big story other than that. It was just. It was. It was watching them take something that I did can me over it.
- [24:32]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [24:32]
Nick Cumulusos
And it wasn't just that. It was also probably a little bit my attitude, but that's a little rough around the edges. It happens, you know, And I'm way. I'm way calmer now, but in some ways, but it was really that. That took me. That took me down that road. It was just that. And I was like, well, if I can do it for them, why can't I do it for myself?
- [24:54]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [24:54]
Nick Cumulusos
And then that's when I thought I legitimately thought that, that I'd be a millionaire within a year because I was that confident and.
- [25:02]
Paul Alex
But you need that level of confidence in entrepreneurship.
- [25:04]
Nick Cumulusos
You do.
- [25:05]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [25:05]
Nick Cumulusos
Courage and confidence and be able to do it. And then anyway, so I had this huge business plan and you would laugh. I'd sit at my desk and I'd like be like building numbers and spreadsheets and like all that. I mean I had the most beautiful business plan and how it's gonna make millions dollars. And I was looking for him. I mean, dude, I went all over the. I went over the nation looking for investors. I mean I talked to Five Eleven. This, you know, CEO of Five Eleven. I've talked, I talked to wearing their shorts. I talked to all kinds of people and it just never came to fruition. And eventually things started to. And this is what I'm going to tell, this is what I'll tell people. You're never going to have that first million dollar business until you start walking down the yellow bridge growed. If I wouldn't have started that first business, it wouldn't have led me to where I'm at today. Sitting here talking to you with the three main businesses that I have now.
- [26:00]
Brandon
Yeah, you.
- [26:01]
Nick Cumulusos
It never would have happened because every single business, every single failure led me to the next one. So things started to pivot. It was kind of strange. So while we were doing good work, we were making a little bit of money. The profit margin was nil. I mean it was just like chasing your tail, you know what I mean? Just like we did one course, we did one training session and it was like all the money was gone again.
- [26:24]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [26:25]
Nick Cumulusos
You know, so it was painful. Painful. And. But through that, that networking of doing that job introduced me to people and showed me more opportunities. And it really t. And I was, because of my background, I was like not into the personal brand thing. It was all about we're stronger as a team than an individual. But as I networked and as people saw me doing what I was doing, they wanted me. Yeah, they wanted to work with me. They either were either privately or they wanted to do some sort of marketing endeavor. Like I've done. I've done guns, I've done flashlights, I've done. So they. And my background, right. They're like, here's a special operations raider. They, you know, you know, would you, would you test out our gear and see if you'd endorse it and we'll pay you, et cetera. So that started to happen more and more. So the business started to Pivot from training and consulting to marketing. And then I got picked up on a Discovery Channel show and it just kind of. Things started to kind of go down the. And I just followed the yellow brick road. I just kept doing the journey.
- [27:34]
Paul Alex
What year was this?
- [27:35]
Nick Cumulusos
2015.
- [27:36]
Paul Alex
2015.
- [27:37]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah. So a couple years in.
- [27:38]
Paul Alex
Were you like, on social media at that time?
- [27:40]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah, I finally got on social media. My. Actually, my wife. My. My wife now is the one who's our marketing director. And she was like, nice. So I had. And I met her actually on Instagram. It's hilarious. Through the business account.
- [27:53]
Paul Alex
Really?
- [27:53]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah. That's all I had. That's cool. That's all I had. You know, that's a good story. Yeah. And then she actually hired me and my team to come out and teach. She got a group of people together out in Kansas City and she goes, hey, if I get enough people together, can I hire you guys to come out and do a course? I'm like, well, here's the minimums. This is what it's going to cost. And she pulled that shit off.
- [28:14]
Paul Alex
Nice.
- [28:15]
Nick Cumulusos
And that. Now, you know, we just hit our 10 year and we've got a kid together and everything. It's beautiful.
- [28:20]
Paul Alex
That's a great story, bro.
- [28:21]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah. But she's the one who said. She goes, so you need to do like your own Instagram and your own social media and we need to brand you and this and that. And I. I resisted, bro. I hated it. I hated it, dude.
- [28:36]
Paul Alex
You were like, me?
- [28:37]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [28:37]
Paul Alex
I'm. Sometimes I'm still, like, weird. Sometimes I still feel weird, dude. Like, just like, you know, my marketing guys are like, hey, Paul, we need, like, more pictures. Like selfies, dude.
- [28:47]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [28:47]
Paul Alex
You know, like you in the mirror, like, just cheesing, but it's just because people are buying you.
- [28:52]
Nick Cumulusos
Yes.
- [28:53]
Paul Alex
And you hit it right on the target, dude.
- [28:54]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [28:54]
Paul Alex
People by you.
- [28:55]
Nick Cumulusos
Yep.
- [28:56]
Paul Alex
So you got on social media. When did you start, like, building that.
- [28:59]
Nick Cumulusos
Up, dude, it was within those two years of the. Of the business. That's when it's. That's when it started to happen. And it was all. It was almost like within a year of starting it. It was like, okay, we need to. Nick needs to be his own thing also.
- [29:17]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [29:17]
Nick Cumulusos
And what's crazy is I was getting more traction on me than the business was.
- [29:22]
Brandon
Yep.
- [29:22]
Nick Cumulusos
Which was driving the business.
- [29:24]
Paul Alex
Yeah.
- [29:24]
Nick Cumulusos
But. And now. Now I just know that now that's the play. The play is me.
- [29:28]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [29:29]
Nick Cumulusos
I will drive the business.
- [29:31]
Paul Alex
Personal brand.
- [29:32]
Nick Cumulusos
Personal brand will drive the business. And it does for all of my businesses. I am the marketing machine for all of my businesses. Like by themselves. They don't stand, they don't, they don't stand by themselves. Well, a few do. But how do you funnel traffic to those businesses? Personal brand? Yeah, it's my voice. And, and you know I've learned that over the years, but a lot of that's been for my wife kind of pushing you. Yeah. So making it happen.
- [30:00]
Paul Alex
So for right now, if you have let's say somebody from the military or law enforcement or just in general entrepreneur that's trying to start in the humble beginnings of their social media branding, what would you recommend?
- [30:13]
Nick Cumulusos
I would recommend do the. Do the limiting beliefs. My limiting beliefs course for sure. Like start. I love that start there. And that's really. Because that's going to be your hold up because you're not going to want to share videos of yourself. Like you have to get out of your own damn way. Like the reality is like you have a story to tell and people want to hear that story and they want to see you successful. They want to see like there's always, you're always going to have haters out there. But believe it or not, I do believe that people want to see you succeed. And when they see like you're like with the story that I found, how I found you, like that was, I was like, I saw, I was like I immediately like this guy immediately. Because he did this thing, people told him he couldn't do this other thing. He did it anyway.
- [30:55]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [30:55]
Nick Cumulusos
And he was successful. And what did that do? That means he was able to provide a life for his family, his kids. He was able to provide a life for more employees in an environment that they like. And that's what we do at Johnny Slicks. That's what we do at Core Medical. That's what we do at the Agoge.
- [31:09]
Brandon
That's.
- [31:09]
Nick Cumulusos
That's my businesses. And going back to the law enforcement military guy, like you have so much more value in worth than you believe. It took me probably three or the. Probably the reason why I struggled those, those four to five years. First four is I did not take like, like Paul dude. I was. I mean do you know what the percentage of people that served in special operations and not only just served as special operations, but a leader in special operations. Dude.
- [31:44]
Paul Alex
It's like with the one of one.
- [31:45]
Nick Cumulusos
One of one, one of one,. One of one percent. Right?
- [31:48]
Paul Alex
For sure, 100%.
- [31:49]
Nick Cumulusos
And I didn't bring for. It took me four to five years to bring any of that experience to business. But as soon as I, it clicked in my brain that I was like, wait a minute, I don't have to just talk about guns and tactics and all this, all this stuff, like all of this. Operational planning.
- [32:07]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [32:07]
Nick Cumulusos
What do businesses do? Operational planning. Create visions, create objectives. Build a plan to accomplish their objectives. Well, shit, I did that on a national. I know. On a, on a international level with multiple people. You know, we had a 314 man surrogate force riding around in motorcycles in Afghanistan. We already did that.
- [32:29]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [32:30]
Nick Cumulusos
So all I did was when it clicked, I was like, holy shit, man. I can do this for business.
- [32:37]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [32:38]
Nick Cumulusos
And that's when everything took off.
- [32:40]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [32:40]
Nick Cumulusos
That's when I got out of my own way and I realized my value and my self worth and I remove my limiting beliefs. That's when my life exploded.
- [32:51]
Paul Alex
You dominated.
- [32:52]
Nick Cumulusos
I dominated. And not only that, I started helping other people dominate. I started taking my phase line approach to planning that I did in, in, in special operations and applying it to their own life and their own businesses. And then they started dominating.
- [33:05]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [33:06]
Nick Cumulusos
It's not rocket science.
- [33:07]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [33:07]
Nick Cumulusos
But we are just in our own way.
- [33:09]
Paul Alex
No, exactly. I always say it's you versus you, man.
- [33:11]
Nick Cumulusos
You versus you.
- [33:12]
Paul Alex
And at the end of the day, like, why allow other people to have less skills than you, less life experience and you become multi millionaires. Leverage what we have right now, which is social media. Leverage, personal brand. I think there's a lot of people out there, dude, that have like specialty skills and they just don't leverage it because they, they don't think that they're marketable. But like, dude, that aha moment that you had where you were like, dude, I was like the 1%, the 1% of the special ops. Like, bro, like if you would have started sooner, you'd probably be like in freaking Hollywood movies right now.
- [33:44]
Nick Cumulusos
Exactly.
- [33:44]
Paul Alex
You know, and I always tell myself the same thing.
- [33:46]
Nick Cumulusos
Why don't you say that?
- [33:47]
Paul Alex
Yeah, he's just like, I actually whiz, bro. Or I'm about to be. You know, hey, who knows, right? Might be, might be special announcement right now. You know what I'm saying? But no, dude. So. All right, let's get into your three businesses.
- [33:58]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [33:59]
Paul Alex
So which one came first and how did you come about it?
- [34:04]
Nick Cumulusos
So the first one came about. Let's go with the agogi. The first one came about, I had owned my shit. I love sharing the fat photos of me. And that was kind of like. And there's a story, there's a book on my website or you can get on Amazon, but I sign them on my website called Excommunicated Warrior, the seven Stages Transition. That is the story of me leaving Special Operations and kind of my transition out of that and the struggles I had leaving the military.
- [34:40]
Paul Alex
And then where could he get that book?
- [34:42]
Nick Cumulusos
Nick.com or Amazon?
- [34:45]
Brandon
Sweet.
- [34:45]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah. But if you figure out my website, then I'll sign it for you.
- [34:51]
Paul Alex
There you go, guys.
- [34:52]
Nick Cumulusos
It's a great story. And really it's your story, it's the, it's the reader's story. And even though it's my story, every single person who's read it from every walk of life is like, dude, I felt like I was reading my own story because it's not about what's happening. It's about how you feel. It's about the levels of transition that you're going through and where your heart and mind is at the time. And that's why it resonates with the reader. That's why it feels like their story story. It's not about what's actually going on in the story. It's about the emotion and the heart pulling that's happening in their life at the time.
- [35:22]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [35:22]
Nick Cumulusos
So that's that story. But I got, I get. Dude, I was like when I got out of the Marine Corps, 240 pounds 10 body fat. Like I was jacked. You know, I'm 205 now, but I'm also 42 and I like to do other things than I used to do. But I got the 240 pounds and almost 30% body fat.
- [35:44]
Brandon
Wow.
- [35:44]
Nick Cumulusos
Within a couple years of being out of the Marine Corps. And I took a look in the mirror, I was like, what has happened to you? And a lot of that's in that book. But at the end of it, I got, I started to own my shit and got my got squared away. And when people saw that, they were like, how did you do that? And it wasn't just nutrition and fitness. It was so much more mindset and the limiting belief stuff that I had to overcome because people don't, I don't believe people have a fitness and nutrition problem. The problem is between their ears. Because if you got your mindset on point, well, nutrition and fitness is easy.
- [36:28]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [36:29]
Nick Cumulusos
But people try this fitness nutrition thing, but they don't handle the mindset part and they constantly self sabotage. They can't, they don't understand why they can't reach their goals. It's because you have an issue that you're not dealing with. There's something in your Life. There's a traumatic event. There's something that you're holding on to that's keeping you from reaching your full potential. So when I went through that transition we had, me and my business partner started this little program, little side program called Surviving the Cut. And it was just like, I think like a 90 day program that we were putting guys through. And it was like rudimentary. It was like Google sheets and like, I think we had like a Facebook group. And that was it, man. It was just really rudimentary. But we had a little bit of success with it. And I was like, okay. And Jo and I talked to Josh. I was like, dude, I think we're onto something here.
- [37:22]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [37:23]
Nick Cumulusos
And that gave birth to the Agoge, which is our coaching group. And now it's. Now it's a whole community. We have two apps that are, you know, we have a fitness nutrition app. We have a coaching app. It is a whole community of individuals just trying that, that are going to level up their life. We have multiple tiers. I do all the business coaching for guys that are entrepreneurs and want to do like my phase line approach to planning. I do all that through the Agogi as well. Those are my tier one clients. And then we have, you know, I have multiple mentors and multiple coaches in the program. And it's been a beautiful thing to see grow.
- [37:58]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [37:59]
Nick Cumulusos
To see fathers take ownership of their life back and not fall, tempt. Fall prey to what the opposition wants. Right. Those core values. And I just found out this morning that I was on Instagram. I. I can't be shown to non followers anymore.
- [38:22]
Paul Alex
Emilio. Didn't I just say that, bro? Dude, like, he, he forgets that I used to be former, like a former detective dude. And like, I observe it almost like, hey, how come I can't find Nick on one of my other pages? And he's just like, I don't know, bro. Like, I don't know, maybe you guys got each other blocked. I was like, there's no way. So I'm like, looking, dude. And I was like, hey, can you. And then he has the idea. He's just like, hey, dude, send me Nick's profile to the podcast page. Yeah, he sends it to me and I'm like, dude, he's not blocked or anything. So then like, I go ahead and I hit follow and that's it, dude. So, yeah, and I'm like, maybe, maybe he has like sort of political views or something like that. Instagram, dude. Like, so I.
- [39:00]
Nick Cumulusos
So I went through to like a lot of my. Like, my last. I just made a video on the way down here. I made a little video. So I got that screenshot. I was like, what the heck, man? Because something was up. I knew something was up, but so I got that screenshot of them saying, like, you can't be seen to non followers anymore. Like, we're not going to share your to anybody.
- [39:19]
Brandon
That's crazy, dude.
- [39:20]
Nick Cumulusos
And. And so I went to. I went to all my posts and I was like, family anniversary, fitness, health training, Jiu Jitsu. Yeah, like, faith, Jesus. This is. This is violating community guidelines. Wholesome core values, like wanting what best for other. For families and fathers and for wives and for children. That's. That's violating community guidelines.
- [39:47]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [39:48]
Nick Cumulusos
Wild of the world that we live in.
- [39:50]
Brandon
Dude.
- [39:50]
Paul Alex
It's crazy. I think if you accumulate enough haters, though, they'll dispute or, like, they'll mark your program profile. If enough people go ahead and they actually tag your profile so they'll get enough alerts where essentially it'll do that. Dude, I've got in freaking. What was it? Not embezzled. But I've gotten Black Build, dude, like, for like $15,000 the past year. Where? Hackers from India, dude. They would message me and be like, hey, like, me and my gang, we're gonna take down your profile. And we know who you war and all this jazz. So pay us $5,000 or we're gonna take it down. And I legit. I'm like, off. So then the next day, they take down my. And I'm like, all right, dude, where do I send the money? So I'll send the money, dude, and I get it right back. But they're doing this, bro. They've done it to a ton of other people that I know. They're entrepreneurs that. What. What is the proper term? Extort? Yeah, they extort money, dude. Like the Mafia, like the online mafia. So, dude, the online game is fucking crazy now. Like, I don't.
- [40:53]
Nick Cumulusos
It's just wild. Yeah, it's just wild. And I was really. I was like, okay, what have I done? You know, I do. I do some share some political stuff, but so does every, like, dude, everybody. Everybody does. Like, so. But. So why are you, like, you're gonna. You're gonna ban Fox News for sharing political stuff?
- [41:08]
Paul Alex
It's wild, bro.
- [41:09]
Nick Cumulusos
Like, I share opinion. An opinion.
- [41:11]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [41:12]
Nick Cumulusos
You know, and I share my. I share about my core values, and I want what's better for. For. For Americans in their lives.
- [41:17]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [41:18]
Nick Cumulusos
And that goes against your community guidelines. You're not going to show my shit anyways.
- [41:22]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [41:22]
Nick Cumulusos
So I digress.
- [41:23]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [41:24]
Nick Cumulusos
Anyways, we will win in the end. I don't really care because we're going to keep going. Let's go, let's go. Block me. Turn my shit off. Doesn't matter. I'll keep going. Keep building, Keep building.
- [41:37]
Paul Alex
Keep you down.
- [41:37]
Nick Cumulusos
I actually fantasize sometimes about losing it all just so I can show people how to do it all over again and faster.
- [41:43]
Paul Alex
Because once, you know, not. I don't believe you, dude. Like, you know the process. That's right. Know what you have to do and you'll do it faster.
- [41:49]
Nick Cumulusos
I'll do it faster. I've got the experience now.
- [41:51]
Paul Alex
Absolutely.
- [41:51]
Nick Cumulusos
I know it works. So that's. So that's the. That's the agogi. That's. I mean, we're just transforming, you know, people's lives into the lives that they want and taking what I've learned and all those things that I failed at when I sucked at and utilizing those as lessons for them so they can not make the same mistakes. Or we can collapse time, Right? Yeah, like that. And that's really what it is. Like when we talk about coaching, it's how do we collapse time?
- [42:14]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [42:14]
Nick Cumulusos
You know, something that's going to take them maybe three, four years on their own. Dude, how can we do that in 12 months? Like, let's collapse that in 12 months. Let me take all the failures and my network and my lessons that I have and then impart that on you. So we just skip all the BS now. You have to be ready for that. Right. You have to be like, I'm an open book. Let's just. Let's just get after it, you know? But anyways, so that's. That's the agogi. And then it's kind of all. It's weird. It's weird. It's all kind of happened simultaneously. Like my. My relationship with Core Medical and Johnny Slicks. Like, it all just kind of came to fruition, which is. It's weird, but it's not because I gave space for it to happen by removing those limiting beliefs, by taking care. Like owning my getting back in shape by leaning into coaching for myself, you know, and my own personal development. It's just. It's like all these opportunities that were waiting to happen. And. And I tell people, opportunities won't show up on your doorstep. You have to go walk the path. And just like, walking that. I like to use the word, walking the elaborate road because what happened when Dorothy started walking the Olympic road Who she come across? The Tin man, the lion, the people, the friends, the network. Like, the whole. That's. The whole thing is the teacher will appear when the student's ready. Like, you have to walk the path. The teacher is out there, but he's not going to come knock on the door and be like, hey, you ready to learn?
- [43:42]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [43:42]
Nick Cumulusos
No, you got to go. You got to go walk the path. And you'll find them. You'll find the coach, you'll find the mentor, you'll find the teacher as you're moving forward. And I think that's what happened with. With all of my stuff, because it all happened simultaneously, so with Johnny Slicks, it's a beautiful, beautiful story. My business partner, John Rusheye, he got out of the Marine Corps. Crazy stuff. He was working at a gas station. He's working at a barber shop, and his hair was thinning. And he was like. I want to say he was like, 21. He was like a young, young kid. Yeah. And he goes, you know what? I started looking at the products he was using, and they were filled with chemicals. And he goes, hmm, well, if I remove these chemicals, maybe these chemicals are the problem. He was like, you know, Google searching him and everything. He's like, what if I came up with an organic solution? So he worked for, like, a year trying to figure out what this organic solution was, and he was, like, burning and setting on fire in his house.
- [44:47]
Paul Alex
So he was like the chemist?
- [44:48]
Nick Cumulusos
He was. Yeah. We make a joke, like, he's like, in a meth lab. Make it, like, cooking stuff up.
- [44:53]
Paul Alex
Like Breaking Bad.
- [44:54]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah, Breaking Bad. Yeah. Awesome. We actually have. In the. In the original lab, we have, like a. What was his name? Mr. White. Was that his name? Yeah, Walter White. Yeah. We have, like, a little printout of him on the wall above the lab.
- [45:09]
Paul Alex
What year was this?
- [45:11]
Nick Cumulusos
This was. So this was for him would have been 17. 2017. Yeah. And we. We started the company anyway. So he. Because I was getting big on, you know, personal brand and marketing, YouTube, etc.
- [45:22]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [45:23]
Nick Cumulusos
And he tried to hit me up for six months, bro. For six months, he tried to hit me up about. And at this time, what I didn't share with this, I have three main businesses now, but at the time, like, at one point, Ali and I had seven businesses.
- [45:38]
Brandon
Wow.
- [45:39]
Nick Cumulusos
All the same time.
- [45:40]
Brandon
Holy.
- [45:41]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah. Too much control.
- [45:42]
Paul Alex
Chaos.
- [45:42]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah, don't do that. Don't do that. Yeah, go. Go get niche and then go all in on that one thing. But it was, you know, I had a team. I had, you Know, shipping and receiving. I had all, you know, it was easy to, like, I'm gonna do this. And I just stacked it on top. So I'd come in on Monday, My team, like, I got an idea. My team, like, oh, no, Nick. But we sold. We sold off a bunch, made money on. On them, shut a couple down, sold several. But anyways, so he hit me up and he's like, hey, can you. Can I bring some to you? Because he just wanted me to share it, like a. Like an ambassador or something, man. So he finally got a hold of me six months later, and I said, sure, man. Drop it by the office. I'll check it out. So I show up. He had dropped it off. I messaged him on Instagram. I said, hey, man, I just. I just saw your stuff. Are you still close? He's like, yeah, man. I'm like, five minutes down the road. So they turned to you. He came back and we hung out for a little while. And I asked about business questions, like, what, you know, what's. What's his infrastructure? Like, how are you taking orders? What, you know, just random stuff. The stuff that you and I are interested in. And he had no answers for anything. He makes a joke. Now he's like. I was. He goes, nick was asking me about infrastructure, and I was a no for structure.
- [46:57]
Paul Alex
No, I mean, it makes. It makes a lot of sense, dude. Because when I started just business in general, like, I think in the beginning, I got very vulnerable with going ahead and saying, well, I'm the CEO. This is my business. Right.
- [47:11]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [47:11]
Paul Alex
I feel like there's a lot of entrepreneurs that think they could do it all.
- [47:14]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [47:14]
Paul Alex
But then what I found out is that I don't know in the beginning, like everyone else. So I'm more of a visionary guy. Like, I'm a marketing guy.
- [47:23]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [47:23]
Paul Alex
And then I just hire smarter people than me to go ahead and do the processes.
- [47:26]
Nick Cumulusos
Who's going to do it? Yeah, yeah. Not how are you going to do it? Who's going to do it? Exactly. Yeah, absolutely. And so. So we started talking, and then I used the product for about a week, and I tell Ali. I'm like, this is $1 million product. Now, the branding was garbage. And I'm sorry, John. The branding was garbage. The infrastructure was garbage. But the product, what he had created, was genius. And I was like, this is a multimillion dollar product.
- [47:56]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [47:57]
Nick Cumulusos
And so I'm in. I'm in Texas. And I shoot him a message or I give him a phone call. It's like, hey, Man. Oh, no. I shoot him a message like, hey, love your stuff. When I get back out of. When I get back from out of town, I'd like to sit down and talk to you about it. And he hits me back. He's like, nick, I'm going to be real with you. If we don't have this conversation right now, I'm not going to sleep for a week. Because he was like, there's no way that I'm just going to like, cool. That's a cool text message, and then just go chill for a week and wait till you get home. So I just laughed. I said, let's. Okay, let's jump on the phone. And I told him on the phone, I said, hey, man, I think you really got something here. I think you got a million dollar product. Yeah, I think you got. I think you have a million dollar product. And I want to. I want to partner with you. I want to build this. I want to make this an actual business. And I said, I don't want an answer. Think about it. We'll sit down and we talk about. We'll sit down and then we'll go from there. And. And we sat down in Chipotle with him. Him and his wife Rebecca, who were, like, so young and didn't hardly even know him. And I think I asked him, I was like, you have. You guys have drug problems? How old was you at the time, man? 20. I think they were 24 and 23.
- [49:10]
Brandon
Oh, wow.
- [49:10]
Paul Alex
Okay.
- [49:11]
Nick Cumulusos
And what. And unbeknownst to me, he had just had his car repoed.
- [49:15]
Brandon
Wow.
- [49:15]
Nick Cumulusos
So, like, he was. They were selling plasma to, like, try to buy materials for it. So, like, on a weekly basis, they were selling plasma to get money to buy materials for the business.
- [49:24]
Brandon
Wow.
- [49:24]
Nick Cumulusos
And then he has car repoed, like two months before we started Johnny Slicks. So we officially started in 2018, and I launched it on YouTube. We all built the website. We rebranded everything. I told him to make as much. I was like, how much can you make? I was like, how much do you have? He's like, I got 20 jars of pomade. He thought that was a lot.
- [49:45]
Paul Alex
20 jars of pomade.
- [49:47]
Nick Cumulusos
20 jars and like some beard oil and stuff like that. But awesome. Yeah. And I was like, yeah, you need to make more. So we, I, we. We both invested money. We started the business with 400, and his biggest sale of a month was like 300 and something dollars, which he didn't make profit because of the way he ran his business. Like, he made 348 and it probably cost him like 375 to make. You know what I mean?
- [50:16]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [50:17]
Nick Cumulusos
So we redid all that, of course, and within the first hour, we made more in the first hour of launching than he had ever made it a month. First year we did six figures.
- [50:30]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [50:31]
Nick Cumulusos
And this year we became an eight figure company.
- [50:33]
Brandon
Dude, I love that.
- [50:34]
Nick Cumulusos
Within seven years, bro.
- [50:35]
Paul Alex
And congrats, because that. That alone just shows you perseverance, discipline, visionary.
- [50:43]
Nick Cumulusos
Right.
- [50:44]
Paul Alex
And just somebody that knows a process like a facil. Facil.
- [50:49]
Nick Cumulusos
Facilitate.
- [50:50]
Paul Alex
Facilitator. Yeah, it's huge. Yeah, it's huge, dude. Make sure to check out my YouTube channel, officialpaulx.com for more motivational episodes. So when you guys did the launch, how did you guys set up something like that, man? Because you said 400 bucks. You talked to your business partner at that time, dude, who was essentially broke.
- [51:09]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [51:09]
Paul Alex
No disrespect to your business partner, but he didn't have any money. And there's a lot of people in the same situation right now, man. So, like, how did you guys come up with like the plan to actually launch that product?
- [51:19]
Nick Cumulusos
So that's where I kind of came into play. It came into play with. With my expertise and like, kind of everything we've talked about in special operations and everything we've done. Right?
- [51:27]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [51:27]
Nick Cumulusos
That's where I came in as the. I guess you could say the integrator for that business and really just integrated everything and made it a business. Let him focus on the juice. Right. And let me focus on. On the customer and the. And the building. What the foundation was that business has become. And what's beautiful about it now is. And the things that. And it's always been this way, but we've like hammered down on the message now that we're all American made, we're all American manufactured with organic goods.
- [51:58]
Brandon
I love that.
- [51:58]
Nick Cumulusos
So all the. All of our products are 100% organic.
- [52:01]
Paul Alex
Okay.
- [52:01]
Nick Cumulusos
I mean, 100%. Not like all natural. Asbestos is natural, you know?
- [52:07]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [52:07]
Nick Cumulusos
But like products that aren't going to cause you discomfort, pain. I mean, the reality is some of our competition sells the disease. I mean, you can Google this. They're selling you a product that causes a type of skin cancer. And if you look at that same company, 40% of their profits for the year come from chemo treating that cancer that their product causes.
- [52:33]
Brandon
That's wild, dude.
- [52:35]
Paul Alex
That's wild. It's legitimate, but I mean, that's how these large pharmaceutical companies are making billions of dollars.
- [52:42]
Nick Cumulusos
They're selling, you they have to create the market. They're selling you the disease and the cure. So like, so we're, and a lot of it's overseas and it's, you know, it's all garbage stuff. So we're just like. Nope. We are. When we, we've been told to outsource manufacturing, we're told to outsource customer service, we've been told to outsource fulfillment and basically just be a marketing company.
- [53:00]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [53:02]
Nick Cumulusos
But how does that benefit? We have 417 vendors or suppliers that are all American, American owned, that all have. So not only do we hire people and give them an. Our starting salary, our starting hourly wage is above the national average.
- [53:20]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [53:20]
Nick Cumulusos
So like in North Carolina, North Carolina, I think it's 7:25 or 7 something an hour is minimum wage. So we won't, we start the beginning employee starts at 1750.
- [53:34]
Brandon
Wow.
- [53:34]
Nick Cumulusos
An hour. If you're a low level employee, you're starting at 1750.
- [53:38]
Brandon
That's amazing, dude.
- [53:39]
Nick Cumulusos
And because I'm not going to, I'm not going to skimp on cutting corners or cutting margins so that we can make an extra dollar and then send our money to China or India or Pakistan or whoever, you know, wherever. Like I want our dollars to stay here. So when you buy Johnny Slicks, you're supporting Americans. You're supporting the people that work in this business and you're supporting the 417 other companies that we get our, we get our materials from that are also all American made. You think every single one of those companies have however many employees.
- [54:17]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [54:18]
Nick Cumulusos
That have however many families and people they're taking care of. So this is like, you know, not to get political, but this is the reason why like when Trump talks about American made businesses and what he's going to do and the tax breaks and everything, that is, that is huge for America and it's huge for us because what that would do for, I mean that would add so much more to the company to be able to pay more, employ, be able to scale our business, hire more employees. I mean we've got whole families working for us. We got wives, husbands and sons in our company. Like multiple. It's wild, but it's that, that's what it's about. So when we talk about Johnny Slicks and we talk about body wash and shampoo and conditioner and the, the 40 something SKUs that we have, it's really not about soap. Yeah, it's really not about soap. It's about America, American manufacturing and keeping our dollars here in the United States.
- [55:10]
Paul Alex
Supporting America.
- [55:11]
Nick Cumulusos
Supporting America. Like, that's, that's what Johnny Slicks is really, really about.
- [55:15]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [55:15]
Nick Cumulusos
And it's awesome to be able to have a company that can do that. Like, obviously we want to use, like, we want you to use Johnny Slicks because it's good products and it's healthier for you. And you know, if you love your family, your kids, don't put on them. You know what I mean?
- [55:30]
Paul Alex
But the meaning and the value, dude.
- [55:31]
Nick Cumulusos
But that's, that's, that's what the. The opportunity to be able to serve people like that with a business is just rad.
- [55:39]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [55:39]
Nick Cumulusos
So that's, that's Johnny Slicks.
- [55:41]
Paul Alex
It's badass, dude.
- [55:42]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [55:42]
Paul Alex
Yeah. I'm gonna go buy some supplies after this, man. It's awesome. I love that.
- [55:47]
Nick Cumulusos
So careful.
- [55:48]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [55:49]
Nick Cumulusos
One warning with Johnny Slicks is when a man wears Johnny Slicks, women smell it. Am I wrong, Brandon?
- [55:58]
Brandon
There you go.
- [55:58]
Nick Cumulusos
And we've had several. We've had several babies created from wearing Johnny Slicks. I'm. I mean, I think we're over like 15.
- [56:07]
Brandon
I love that. Yeah, I love that. Gotta.
- [56:09]
Paul Alex
Gotta try for myself.
- [56:10]
Nick Cumulusos
But then. So the last. The wife says the last one is. And this kind of came out of my book as well. Leaving special operations is Core Medical, which is actually, it's one of the reasons why I'm down here is our partners. Sydney Gordon is the CEO and the.1 of the. One of the owners of, Of Core Medical Group. I started working them six years ago and it's really out of my own education of leaving. One of the reasons why I kind of struggled was, dude, I. I got out. And through multiple TBIs, etc, what we call now is type 2 hypergonadism. I had a testosterone level of 91.
- [56:47]
Brandon
Oh, wow.
- [56:48]
Nick Cumulusos
So no wonder my drive was down. Yeah, no wonder why I couldn't sleep. Depressed, anxious, you know, my hormones were whacked.
- [56:56]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [56:57]
Nick Cumulusos
91 for a man is. I mean, like, there are women that have higher Testosterone than a 91. And I'm 31 with a 91.
- [57:05]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [57:07]
Nick Cumulusos
Anyways, so through. Through that I met. I met Core Medical Group, sort of work with them, and then became a managing partner to be able to provide kind of the same operational experience as well as the marketing efforts to help veterans and men in general get with a clinic, a nationwide clinic that's not a cookie cutter TRT mill that's going to look at your blood work and look at your symptoms and treat you like a human being. Core Medical is one of the Only national TRT clinics that can do telemedicine that still maintains a human to human relationship.
- [57:48]
Brandon
Wow.
- [57:49]
Nick Cumulusos
So there's a lot of companies out there. You fill out a form online and you have to, you know, you pick your finger which if you're pricking your finger for blood, that's, that's the first red flag.
- [57:58]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [57:58]
Nick Cumulusos
Because when you go give blood for core, they get six bites.
- [58:01]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [58:02]
Nick Cumulusos
100%. It's a 28 panel blood test. Like you're going to know everything under the sun and then you have a human being, human being relationship with your doctor and your patient coordinator. And we're one of the probably the top three at this point, the top three clinics in the nation. So like to be able to. And that's really. I got a hand, I got to give credit where credit do. That's, that's Sydney Gordon's vision for that because he just absolutely hated this like form fill, you know, process where you don't, you can't talk to anyone. So you have a symptom, you're having a problem. Maybe you're having, you know, an issue with, you know, erectile dysfunction or sleep or recovery or your brain, whatever it is, whatever the thing is that you're dealing with and you can't talk to someone.
- [58:51]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [58:51]
Nick Cumulusos
Like, that's garbage. That's garbage care, you know, so being able to actually like do that but at scale is impressive.
- [59:00]
Paul Alex
No, it comes back to, you know, old school values and just customer service, dude. You know, I think that's, that's what makes a couple of my companies a little bit different. We're very old school. We'll pick up the phone. Dude, I'm not texting. I hate texting.
- [59:12]
Nick Cumulusos
Right.
- [59:13]
Paul Alex
So at the end of the day, I'm a big believer in that question. Do you think becoming a managing partner with your last business. Okay. Did building a personal brand contribute to that, dude? Like, like, do you think that way? Like it just gave you an easier access to network of like high level individuals.
- [59:33]
Nick Cumulusos
Absolutely. Because they see what you're doing, they see what you have you bring to the table. It's your resume.
- [59:40]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [59:40]
Nick Cumulusos
Like, it, it is, it's. It, it is my resume. And one of these days, when they're all done said and done, if I want to do something, if I want to teach somebody something, if I want to do something, I have a, I have a customer base with, with no business, I have a customer base.
- [59:57]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [59:58]
Nick Cumulusos
So it doesn't matter what it is. If I get passionate about something and I You know, and listen, there's always chapters to every everything. Of course, you know, I won't be with Johnny Slicks forever, you know, probably will be with you go you forever. Not forever, but for a very long time. But when the other ones go away, right? When we, when they either get sold or bought or who knows what will happen, you know, down the road. Nick will always be. My mission in life is to inspire, educate, motivate others to live a healthier and successful life. I'm on this. At this point in my life, I am here to just help humanity.
- [60:37]
Brandon
I love that.
- [60:37]
Nick Cumulusos
So my personal brand will help drive that for the years to come. And I'm never going to stop working. This idea of retirement, that was a boomer thing. Like it's not real.
- [60:47]
Brandon
That's what I'm talking about, dude.
- [60:48]
Nick Cumulusos
Like, I'm gonna work until forever. Now granted, what that looks like will be different. You know, I might work a few hours a day here and there and then I'm be, you know, kite boarding in Greece or something. You know what I mean?
- [60:58]
Paul Alex
Why not, right?
- [60:59]
Nick Cumulusos
Whatever. But nonetheless, like my work and my value to humanity is ongoing and, and having a personal brand is the only thing that's going to facilitate that over a pre long period of time right.
- [61:12]
Paul Alex
Now with you focusing a lot on your personal brand, as you should. Right? Being an entrepreneur In 2024, going into 2025, dude, I can't believe this year is already over. It's freaking crazy, bro. I can't believe the, the, the elections is about to happen in the next couple weeks. You know, everybody's like, you know, fear, fear, fear. It's just like, dude, like, focus. I'm gonna do what you gotta build, right?
- [61:33]
Nick Cumulusos
I'm gonna do. We're gonna do the same thing. Regardless.
- [61:35]
Paul Alex
Exactly. Regardless. Right at the end of day, you stay on task for the mission, dude.
- [61:39]
Nick Cumulusos
Yep.
- [61:40]
Paul Alex
So with that being said, dude, what upcoming things do you have going on?
- [61:43]
Nick Cumulusos
Dude, we are working on. So the big thing right now is Johnny Slick's going into retail.
- [61:50]
Brandon
Nice.
- [61:50]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah, nice. Scarily awesome. Huge, huge deals.
- [61:55]
Paul Alex
Opportunity.
- [61:55]
Nick Cumulusos
Huge opportunity. But good for you. But so going back to that, going back to that, we. When I hit that, like you said, like foot off the gas, you got complacent. Yeah, that one that year, like three years ago. And I saw the annual revenue and the growth of the company. When I jumped back on board and was like, I talked to my partner, everybody was like, hey, I'm sorry, that was. This is all my fault. I'm the one that Drives the train. And then I was like, but strap on because we're gonna make up for it. And we, we have. But by doing that year after year and double over doubling our business year after year is what drove us to get. Have the opportunity now to go into retail. And that's just gonna be. That's just going to open up a hole. I mean that's really where we're going to get a piece of the market share.
- [62:45]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [62:45]
Nick Cumulusos
And become dangerous.
- [62:47]
Brandon
Good.
- [62:47]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah. So that's, that's the big thing coming up. And then of course, always my events, you know, a Gogi Live, my entrepreneur accelerators, Squire program. These are things that I'm massively passionate about that are ongoing. Always.
- [62:59]
Paul Alex
Nick. And one question that I wanted to ask you, man, in the very beginning when you were telling the story between you and your partner with Johnny Slicks, what do you think is a determining factor to actually have somebody join you as a business partner or to even have a business partner? Dude. Because I've, you know, me myself, dude, like I've ran a few businesses here and there and I've had it where it worked out well with business partners and then others where it was a complete disaster.
- [63:28]
Nick Cumulusos
Disaster.
- [63:29]
Paul Alex
Right.
- [63:29]
Nick Cumulusos
So what would be like that like robs you from like your peace insanity in your life, dude, like, you don't even understand, bro.
- [63:37]
Paul Alex
Like, I have so much gray hair because of that. So what would be your guidelines, dude? For a beginner right now that's just like, dude, should I partner up with family members? Should I partner up with like my friend?
- [63:46]
Nick Cumulusos
Like, so it's, you know, Paul, it's hard because, you know this. These are some of the stipulations that I talked to and I, and I've. And I've. 1. What do they bring to the table? Can you do it by yourself? And I don't mean do it by yourself as in like do it by yourself. I mean, can you find the right team of people to do to be the who's. You know what I mean, for you that you don't bring to the table?
- [64:14]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [64:14]
Nick Cumulusos
Okay, so. And a lot. And a lot of times I, I coach people on. I coach people on doing that. Like, let's. Why don't you just. Do you.
- [64:24]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [64:24]
Nick Cumulusos
All right. Do you now great partners can make the world go around. Like I would not. Johnny Sticks wouldn't be what it is if we didn't have the team that we had. Right. We didn't have the ownership that we had. Core medical would not be what it is. And Be able to serve as many patients as it, as it does if we didn't have the partnerships in place that we do. Yeah, like that's the reality. Your network is your net worth. Now, with that said, what is that individual's core values? Those are your rules of engagement. So coming back from a military background. Right. My core value, because we had ROEs in the military, you had probably something similar into, in law enforcement. Right. Those rules of engagement were my go and no grow criteria. Well, in the regular world, those are core values. Your core values are how you analyze people. Is that core. Are they above the bar in that core value? Are they below the bar in that core value? If they're below the bar, it's a no go.
- [65:30]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [65:30]
Nick Cumulusos
So I would analyze their core values and make sure they match. And then the second thing is, what is the goal on the board? What is, what is the vision on the board? Do those align? Because a lot of times what happens is you can have the same core values, but one person sees the vision, the goal, something different than you see it. And at that point, you're always going to have these polarizing pools because they're trying to take the company in two different. Look in two different directions. So with our businesses that we have right now, all of my business partners and I have partners on every single business. Every single business I have, I have partners. But all of us go, what is on the board? Does that align? Okay, let's move forward because it doesn't really matter. I might have an idea for something. Does it get us closer to the goal? Yes or no? If it's a no, it's a no go. So there's no, there's no emotion or ego involved. It's just simply. Does this thing get us closer to the goal that we agreed on? And if it does, cool. If it doesn't, it's a bad idea. We're not doing it, period. Because that's what we agreed on. We agreed on that goal on that board.
- [66:40]
Paul Alex
Dude, I, I love that because the simplicity of just having core values, knowing your mission, and then if it, if it doesn't do. If you guys are thinking of doing something that doesn't move the needle towards that goal, you don't do it.
- [66:52]
Nick Cumulusos
You don't do it.
- [66:52]
Paul Alex
And that's, that's good, man. Because I know in business, you know, I've met people that sometimes they come off prideful.
- [66:58]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah.
- [66:58]
Paul Alex
And they're just like, nah, dude, I want to do it my way. Right. It's especially, you know, when when you have two guys coming from a background, either law enforcement or military, and it's hard, dude.
- [67:08]
Nick Cumulusos
Ego and pride will ruin it every day.
- [67:10]
Paul Alex
Well, there's one thing that I always say to all my guys. You could be prideful or you could be rich, right? It's true, dude. In business, you know, even when the customers sometimes, you know, they're not happy, but you got them great results or. Or whatever, right? Your product is great. You know, it's great. And they're like, oh, dude, I'm just not happy. Right? Dude, they might be cool going through something in life and what can you do? We're all human, right?
- [67:30]
Nick Cumulusos
Y.
- [67:30]
Paul Alex
So I was just like, all right, cool. I always stay neutral, you know? But, Nick, dude, I love the stories, love the company. I love that you're really bringing America into this, dude. I'm all about that, man. So, last question, my friend. If you could talk back to your old self when you were 31, dude, and you just got kicked from that private company, and what would you tell yourself then, now that you know all this great stuff, dude, that you basically have the roadmap to success, what would you tell yourself back then and how to get to success faster?
- [68:04]
Nick Cumulusos
I would. First, I'd give him a big hug and tell them it's going to get real rough, but it's all going to be okay, and that I love them and you're going to be. You're going to be just fine. Now after that, I would say hardcore. Lean into personal development. Just get out of your own way and lean into personal development sooner rather than later. The sooner you do that and the sooner that you take a hard look first. First things first. Read Napoleon Hill's Outwitting the Devil. Take a hard look in the mirror. See how you're being controlled. See what you're living for, what your core values are, and then get some just like you. You have to go on the growth train. Physically, mentally, spiritually. You have to do it. The more. The faster you grow, the faster everything else grows around you. And that's what that. That's like you said, like, if I would have done that, I would have been. I'd be double where I'm at right now. Yeah, but it was that resistance of that first four or five years, you know? So if. If that would be the one thing. Personal development and get coaching early, dude. That's out the gate.
- [69:14]
Paul Alex
That's great advice. Did you have mentors in the military?
- [69:20]
Nick Cumulusos
Not really, no. I had. Listen, I had some really great. I had. You Know, in certain times, in certain chapters of my life, I had some really great leaders that I still consider great leaders now and I'm still close with. But you. That was a different world, man. We were fighting a war. We're fighting. We're fighting multiple wars.
- [69:36]
Brandon
Yeah.
- [69:37]
Nick Cumulusos
You know, so it was. The focus was just train, fight, train, fight, train, fight, train, fight. You know, it wasn't really about anything else. It was a different life.
- [69:49]
Paul Alex
No, absolutely, dude. And you transformed your life, man, like crazy.
- [69:53]
Nick Cumulusos
I'm a different person. I make it a light of it, but I make a joke all the time that if I'd meet myself 12 years ago, we wouldn't be friends.
- [70:05]
Brandon
Really?
- [70:05]
Nick Cumulusos
Nah. I'd be like, you need to get your together.
- [70:08]
Brandon
I love that, dude.
- [70:10]
Paul Alex
I think I told myself that at the age of 29, about to be 37. Yeah. And at 29, I was just like, bro, quit being a little. Just do it, you know? Like, I sat there on, like, my 15th hour of work, dude, in the office, with paper stacked up to my freaking head, and I'm like, am I gonna do this for another 35 years? Years? My relationship's already up. At that time. Before I met my wife, dude, I was seeing my parents less. They all had medical issues, dude. I was depressed as I was in a dark hole. No one knew, so I had to climb out. Yeah, I had to figure it out, and that's just all it is. But I resonate with a lot of the things that you said, dude. Thank you.
- [70:48]
Nick Cumulusos
Absolutely.
- [70:49]
Paul Alex
So, Nick, where can they find you, bro?
- [70:51]
Nick Cumulusos
Huh? Good luck. Instagram. I need everybody. Please, everybody go find me on Instagram real quick. No, I'm on all the social media channels, and all my. All my activations and everything that I work with are all on my website at, Nick. Hopefully I can spell it.
- [71:09]
Brandon
Love it.
- [71:10]
Nick Cumulusos
Yeah, find me on YouTube as well. I got a YouTube show that's up there as well. I'll get you on there. Talk about your story.
- [71:15]
Paul Alex
Yeah, dude.
- [71:15]
Nick Cumulusos
And. Yeah, that's it.
- [71:17]
Paul Alex
Love it. Love it. And, guys, there you have it. Nick's powerful story of how he was able to go from the military to a successful entrepreneur with three businesses that's changing the world and bringing America back. That's what I'm talking about. So with that being said, guys, make sure to subscribe, like, comment, share this with somebody you care about. Guys, and as always, let's level up. Thanks for listening up to the Level podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to share with a family friend and everyone you know who's ready to level up? Leave a five star review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you tune in. It really helps spreading the word. And don't forget to check out officialpaulalex.com for more episodes and resources to kickstart your journey. Let's level up together.