← The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Nick Ford Explains the Exact Side Hustles That Let Him Quit Law Enforcement
00:45:00
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- [00:02]
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- [00:24]
Nick Ford
I left law enforcement about two years prior to me actually leaving. I started an ATM machine business. Starting that ATM business definitely gave me a safety net for when I was deciding to leave law enforcement. And it wasn't necessarily about, like, the finances coming in. It was the fact that I actually created a business, got customers, made sales, and I was actually bringing in revenue, that is what helped to finally make that jump out of law enforcement.
- [00:49]
Paul Alex
If you were to do 4 to 5k and devote that time in overtime, which I call blood money, dude, you know, you're working 30 an additional 40 hours a week to make the same amount of money you would from those machines, which only take a couple hours to fill. Correct?
- [01:02]
Nick Ford
Correct. Yeah, it's passive income right there.
- [01:04]
Paul Alex
What led you to transition to merchant services, which is credit card machines? Guys, welcome back to Love Podcast. This is Paul Alex, and today we have another phenomenal interview. We have a first responder. We have a military veteran. He was an Army Ranger. Thank you for your service. And he's an overall good guy, family guy. Um, he is what we consider a side hustler when it comes to on the entrepreneurship world. But he also took a deep dive into AI automation, which we're going to take a deep dive into. Uh, guys, as you guys know, AI has dominated the space in the past couple years, and it's going to continue to grow. I mean, if you guys are looking at the current news trend right now with layoffs, 40,000 from UPS, 30,000 from Amazon, I mean, it's just the way the world is going. So this interview is going to be very good because we're going to talk about exactly how Nick Ford has been able to use AI and automate it for businesses in the United States. And also he's going to be talking about his background in law enforcement. He's going to be talking about his experiences on how he started in his entrepreneurship journey. Nick, welcome to the show, brother.
- [02:24]
Nick Ford
Thanks, Paul. Thanks for having me. Pleasure to be here, man.
- [02:27]
Paul Alex
No, absolutely, man. So, Nick, you started off as a in the military. When did you transition from the military into law enforcement?
- [02:38]
Nick Ford
So there was actually quite the gap between military and law enforcement. So I got out of active duty military in 2007. And I entered law enforcement in 2012. But in Massachusetts back, back then, everybody wanted to be a police officer, right. So I had to take the civil service exam twice. And it's only given every two years. And there were like thousands of people that took it. Right. I scored a 99. I had veterans preference. Didn't even get a call the first time. So in the interim I got into technology and started working kind of like entry level IT jobs, kind of biding my time until I finally got the, the postcard in the mail inviting me to, to interview for a Police Department. 2017.
- [03:22]
Paul Alex
Yeah, man.
- [03:23]
Nick Ford
I mean 2000, 2012.
- [03:27]
Paul Alex
Yeah, I mean I remember that time. I was around 2012, 2011. I started submitting my applications to different departments there in California. And it was a process, dude. I remember going to physical agility tests where there was like 1500 people and this was for a department where they had 800 officers. So to me I was just like, there is no way I'm going to get picked out of all these people. Right. And it was at that time, especially in California, man, where it was one of the first departments that was offering over a hundred thousand dollars back in 2014 to, to get paid as a police officer. Yeah.
- [04:03]
Podcast Sponsor Host
Which is huge.
- [04:04]
Paul Alex
Right. And a lot of people don't think that police officers can make that much money, but you can. Right. Especially with overtime and all that jazz. So with your background, brother, you got into law enforcement. How long were you in law enforcement for?
- [04:17]
Nick Ford
So I was in law enforcement from2012, 2017. So five years.
- [04:23]
Paul Alex
So five years. And then during those five years, did you work any like specialized units? What is basically, I like to say your hero sheet when it comes to the law enforcement career.
- [04:34]
Nick Ford
Hero sheet, I wouldn't say specialized units. You know, I was an fto, which I enjoyed. I taught some classes at the academy. So like first responder, trauma management, things of that nature. Narcan instructor, kind of one off trainings that, that I went to. But really the biggest thing that I did while I was there was, was fto.
- [05:01]
Paul Alex
Fto? Yeah. And I feel like it takes a special person to be a field training officer. Man. You got to really want to prep, you know, the new guys and gals going into law enforcement because it all comes down to know, their level of mindset, their confidence, especially being the police.
- [05:19]
Nick Ford
Right, right, right. And I mean it adds, it adds that context and color that I think you can only get so much of in the police academy. Right. And you get out of the police academy, you get into the department. And to me, that's really where the rubber meets the road. And you can have, you know, because there are good FTPs and there are not so good FTPs, unfortunately. And I think that can really make or break a young officer. A young officer's career and outlook on the job.
- [05:49]
Paul Alex
Yeah, no, absolutely. And for the people that are listening right now and let's say they're interested in going into law enforcement, what would be your top three tips to give somebody that's new? Like inspiring a cadet that is going through the process? What would you tell them?
- [06:06]
Nick Ford
So the very first thing that I would tell them is explore the reason why you want to be a police officer. I think that is by far the biggest component that can determine success or failure is the why, right? If you just like anything else, right. If you're getting into it for the wrong reasons, the half life on that has got to be pretty, pretty short. So make sure you're getting it for the right reasons, number one. Number two, I would say regardless of what anybody tells you, whether it's the media or somebody like myself who tries to coach people to leave law enforcement when they're ready to, I tell people, go for it. Don't get involved in the drama. Like, once you get to the department, you go through the academy and everything else. Like, obviously, prepare for the academy, take it seriously. When you go for an interview, show up in a suit. Like, there are people still that don't show up in suits. And it just like, blows my mind. But anyway, so you go through the academy, get to the apartment number three. The third tip, right? And I think is. Is one of the biggest, is when you get to the department, try not to get involved in the drama. Try not to get involved in the talking behind people's backs. Everybody's going to have an opinion about different officers, take it with a grain of salt, form your own opinions, and, dude, enjoy it. Enjoy the ride. Get out there and enjoy the ride and do the job and take every day, you know, one day at a time. And there are plenty of people out there that serve 20, 30, 40, even 50 years in law enforcement and love every single day of it. And if you're going down that path, I hope that that's. That that's you.
- [07:52]
Paul Alex
It's a great career, man. And it's very refreshing to talk to someone that's also in the same industry as me that I did for seven years. And to me, dude, it. I think it's. It's great. There's nothing wrong with going Ahead and trying to be the police in 2025. The one thing is just being prepared mentally for it. Just because now more than ever, you know, especially with cameras, PDRDs, right now you're just dealing with more scrutiny. But at the end of the day, that's just what comes with it. Dude. You know, I always say it's a customer service based job and that's what you're doing. You are providing customer service to the citizens and to the suspects, right?
- [08:39]
Nick Ford
To everybody. And, and you know, it's. If you're joining for the right reasons, usually you won't have a problem. But like, yeah, there's plenty of components of law enforcement that can be very ugly, right? Like nobody ever calls the police because something good's going on. It's always a crisis, it's always a problem, it's always a fight, it's always a disagreement, whatever the case may be. And you're brought in as like, you know, this, this impartial person to try to mediate and from one call, that was the part that I love about the job the most, is the dynamics. You never know what one day, what one hour, what one minute is going to bring from one to the next.
- [09:20]
Paul Alex
Let's go ahead and transition from when you were in law enforcement now to actual entrepreneurship. So what was your first entrepreneurial venture and then why did you decide to go ahead and start transitioning?
- [09:34]
Podcast Sponsor Host
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- [09:39]
Nick Ford
It's a total mess.
- [09:40]
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- [10:59]
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- [11:29]
Nick Ford
So yeah, my first venture was I started an ATM machine business. I did that like about two years prior to me actually leaving. And I did it because it always kind of just interested me, the thought of starting a business. And one night, you know, I worked midnights for three straight years. And if you've ever worked midnights, which I'm sure you have, you think about a lot of random things. So one of the things I was thinking about was how ATM machines work. And I'm like, I wonder how they work. I wonder who, you know, where does that surcharge go? Like, who does that go to a bank? Does it go to a person? Does it go to the building? So I kind of looked into it that way and really kind of went back and did a deep dive on the business model, right? And figured out that, okay, there's definitely money to be made here. And the sort of competitive advantage that I applied to the atm, to my ATM company was that it's a veteran owned business. A portion of the surcharge amount collected automatically gets donated to a veteran charity. And those were like the two things because there's tons of ATM machine companies out there, just like merchant services companies, right? They're all over the place. So finding that competitive advantage, that differentiator was, was pretty good for me. And then as a result I targeted things like VFWs, things like American Legions, like veteran oriented social establishments. Because I have that instant credibility walking through the door as a veteran, they like instantly kind of will at least listen to what you have to say, right? So, so I started that. And by the way, I've never really scaled any of these companies like big not, I wouldn't even say that I scaled them to a medium size. These have Always been side hustles, more of like an enjoyment exploration type deal. However, starting that ATM business, right, definitely gave me a safety net for when I was deciding to leave law enforcement. When I was going back and forth, should I do it, should I not? You know, it gave me that. And it wasn't necessarily about like the finances coming in because even the finances coming in from the ATM machine business, like wasn't, wasn't much. You know, it was between that and merchant services, it was like, I don't know, maybe three, four grand a month. Something along those lines, right? Which like, it's nothing to like snark at but compared to like a full time police officer salary, it's like I, I couldn't leave policing and continue that part time. My point is, is that it wasn't the income that gave me that added boost of confidence. It was the, it was the fact that I actually created a business, that I actually got customers, that I actually made sales, that I was actually bringing in revenue. That is what gave, what helped give me the confidence to finally make that jump out of law enforcement. Because I knew if I could do this, I could do it again or I could go to this and scale it and put, you know, full time. I say, I like to say I put part time effort into something, I'm going to get part time results and that's okay. But I also know that I have that skill set now. So if I want to apply full time effort to something, I'm going to get full time results. So really that's kind of how, that's kind of how I was led into entrepreneurship and then the ATM machine business and then that just so happened to give me that extra confident boost to actually pull the trigger and leave law enforcement.
- [15:01]
Paul Alex
Dude, I love that because it's, it goes back to reframing your mind to knowing what you're capable of doing and very similar story like yours. When I jumped in ATMs, you know, I was in an environment and as you know, law enforcement. Because you, you chimed in on this. Sometimes law enforcement, it can be dramatic. Dude, it's almost like high school, right?
- [15:26]
Nick Ford
Just a little bit.
- [15:28]
Paul Alex
It's almost like high school, dude. People are talking. Let's say if you were to bring it up to a co worker or you know, your, your, your buddy that you're in the squad car with and all of a sudden they're like ATMs, what type of scam are you trying to do? Right? They're so negative about it.
- [15:44]
Nick Ford
Brother, did you have a pyramid Scheme. I'm like, what do you even know what exactly is? Because that's not what it is.
- [15:52]
Paul Alex
Exactly. That.
- [15:53]
Nick Ford
That.
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Paul Alex
That is the. The first thing that someone who is comfortable will say, right? Because they're just not used to thinking outside the box.
- [16:01]
Nick Ford
Right.
- [16:02]
Paul Alex
So when you went ahead and you actually launched that business, did you tell your wife? Did you tell your co workers? Were you open about it? Or was this something that you were just building on the side as you were still working as a law enforcement officer?
- [16:16]
Nick Ford
Yeah, so it's. It is something that I was very open about and that I was very transparent about. And that's kind of how I kind of just how I do things in general. Like, I think there's something to be said about stealth wealth and, you know, building things in the dark, you know, without letting anybody know about it. I. And I've really wrestled with, like, which one should I do? But in that case, I was very vocal about it because, you know, the law enforcement community is as dramatic as it can be and as spiteful as it can be. It's still a community. It's still brotherhood and a sisterhood. And a lot of my co workers, actually, handful of my co workers, like, actually landed me customers, you know, from. From letting them know, because I get that credibility from. I mean, your net worth is your network, right? And it's like, so. So, yeah, I'm very, very open. I talked about it, you know, with. With my wife. She's like, whatever you want to do, man. You know, sounds good. But, yeah, I talked. I told everybody about it.
- [17:16]
Paul Alex
I love that. I love that. And the fact that your wife was very supportive about it, that's huge, dude. I think one of the biggest needle movers for any entrepreneur. If you guys are listening to this right now and you guys are thinking of creating a side hustle, just like Nick did, just like I did. It is very important to find your people that are going to support you through that journey. Right? Because it's not easy, dude. It's something new. You may not be good at it, but you start getting good at it. Just like the reps, just like academy, just like field training officer. Right? So, Nick, let's talk about the transition now with ATM, so you're able to do 5, 4 to 5k a month, which is still great, dude, because the way I look at it, you know, if you were to do 4 to 5k and devote that time in overtime, which I call blood money, dude, you know, brother, you're working 30 an additional 40 hours a week. To make the same amount of money you would from those machines, which only take a couple hours to fill. Correct?
- [18:14]
Nick Ford
Correct. Yep. That's passive income right there.
- [18:17]
Paul Alex
Exactly. Passive income. So what led you to transition to merchant services, which is credit card machines?
- [18:25]
Nick Ford
Yeah, so in, in a lot of. And I'm kind of preaching to the choir, right. But so I was, I was all about the ATM machines and, you know, trying to scope out places to put ATM machines, talking with people and generally like the best place for an ATM machine is a place that doesn't accept credit cards. Right. Because that indicates that they're cash only, they need cash. Yes. The problem with a lot of cash only places is that they already have ATM machines. So the way that I looked at it was, you know, a lot of these places I went into, sure, they were cash only and they happened to not have an ATM machine and I happened to be able to put one in there. But then I thought to myself, okay, so if I go into these other businesses that, that, that are cash only, have an ATM machine, is there a play to be made to pitch them merchant services and talk about the benefits of accepting credit cards and how it's easier this, that or the other? So there was a big synergy between ATMs and cash and merchant services, and that is kind of why I went down the merchant services road as well.
- [19:31]
Paul Alex
No, I love that, I love that. So talk about like the merchant services road. Now were you able to scale that at least to, you know, a good number where you were like, dude, this is something that, you know, I could go ahead and actually grow? Or did you just do it as a, did you keep it as a side hustle as well?
- [19:52]
Nick Ford
Yes. Yep. I kept that 100% as a side hustle again putting in that, that part time effort, getting part time results, which again, fine with. I was still working full time in policing. Got the young family so on and so forth. So that was very much a, a part time, passive kind of side hustle venture.
- [20:15]
Paul Alex
I love that. And then that's what allowed you to actually go ahead and have financial freedom in order to leave law enforcement. From the time that you started with ATMs and merchant services, how long did it take to build that financial freedom for yourself?
- [20:30]
Nick Ford
Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today.
- [20:38]
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- [20:58]
Paul Alex
1-800-Contacts contacts.
- [21:00]
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- [21:30]
Nick Ford
I would say, I would say probably four years. Three. Three or four years. And again, that's doing it part time, right? That's. That's doing it. I mean, the income was passive, but to be frank, my sales was very passive. It was almost like if, unless if somebody came to me and was like, hey, such and such said that you do ATM machines, like I know a guy, then I'd be like, okay, yeah, hook me up with him. But I was very passive on sales. Looking back and this is something that I'm changing with my AI automation agency, looking back is like I knew the ATM industry and I knew merchant services and I knew the problems that I was solving, but I didn't know was marketing. And, and really that is, I think is what separates. That is where scaling starts coming into play.
- [22:27]
Paul Alex
No, absolutely, man. I mean, it's one of the three needle movers I always talk about. It is your client acquisition which has to do everything with marketing your sales and then your fulfillment. Right? So no, you're on point with that, man. If, if you guys don't have great marketing and doesn't matter what industry you guys are in, then you guys are going to struggle with getting customers. So exposure is everything, guys. Even if you're doing it old school, you're door knocking, you're cold calling or you're running ads on social media. So Nick, once you left law enforcement, what was your next move?
- [23:03]
Nick Ford
So I left law enforcement for actually a part time, not a part time, I'm sorry, a temporary contractor role. A full time temporary contractor role, doing basic IT support stuff. Now it was for a huge company, a Fortune 100 company. I took about a $30,000 pay cut leaving law enforcement and making this jump. And you know, as I mentioned in, you know, our emails back and forth, I did this with a 2 year old at home and a pregnant wife. So for all of you that are looking for the Right time to make a move. There is no right time, believe me. So that was kind of a pretty scary jump, leaving that stability. And not only did I take a pay cut, but it was a temporary role. Right. It wasn't even guaranteed that it was going to turn into a full time thing, but I went into it betting on myself and you know, went full throttle into that role, which ended up flourishing into a full time career.
- [24:16]
Paul Alex
I love that. I love that. And then since you left law enforcement, what year did you leave law enforcement?
- [24:22]
Nick Ford
Full time, full time? 2017. November 2017.
- [24:28]
Paul Alex
So in 2017 you left there and then you transitioned into entrepreneurship and you found different other ventures to go ahead and actually help you growth, not only your financial freedom, but then also bring back the quality of life. Right? Because I think at the end of the day that's what you were aiming towards. You were aiming towards buying back your time, spending time with your family, not having to go ahead and work a ton of overtime. Right. So no, it makes, it makes perfect sense. So when did you start getting into AI automation?
- [25:04]
Nick Ford
Very recently. So I started getting into it, I would say, I'd say, I'd say a year ago, but really started digging into it probably six months ago. Right, Like a year ago. You know, like AI isn't a new thing, right? But over the past year it's been all the rage. AI is everything. Everybody has AI in their company names and so on and so forth. So, so six months ago I, I actually started like a regular digital agency doing things like SEO and lead gen and things of that nature. But I, me, like everybody else is like, okay, I need to, I need to pivot and or at least add on some type of component for AI, for AI, right. And then once I started looking at AI where I could apply AI, a lot of what can be done with AI, it really goes well with automation. Kind of like ATM machines and merchant services, like AI and automation almost go hand in hand looking at the automation piece. And I think my first product or customer was my wife because she also owns her own business, it's a travel agency. So I actually went and built out this big thing for her that I can definitely get into later if you wanted me to give some examples of some of the work that I've done. But yeah, I've only been doing it for like six months so far, have a handful of clients. And I think one of the differentiators for me between the ATM industry and the merchant services industry versus the AI automation industry is I really enjoy doing the Latter, right? Like, I didn't get into ATMs and merchant services because I was passionate about ATM machines, right? And I'm the type of person, like, some people can do that, some people don't care, you know, where they work or what they're doing, as long as they're getting paid well. And that's. That's not me. I need. I need a bigger purpose. I need, I need. I need more. I'm kind of like emotionally high maintenance when it comes to careers and, like, how I'm spending my time. So the AI automation stuff is. I'm actually seeing how I'm helping businesses be better, right? They're mostly small businesses right now. And like I said, my wife was the first thing I get that tangible benefit of being like, wow, like before, this is how they were doing this process. And now because of me and the work that I've done, now they can operate better. Right. And that is more fulfilling to me. So that's why I'm really gravitating more towards that now.
- [27:44]
Paul Alex
I love that. I love that. Do you think also you're also pivoting to AI automation because you could do it from the laptop. You could do it literally from. From anywhere in the world if you chose to. And, you know, that was something that, that, you know, I thought of. It was just like, okay, I have the grit, I have the discipline. I'm proactive. All right, let me start off my first smaller venture with ATMs, but then later on, once I grew it, just like you, I was like, dude, I need to get into the digital space. So that's when I started educating myself into digital marketing and investing into mentors and courses and programs, conferences, and just grew my knowledge and then also my network as well. So what would you say is an ideal client that you currently serve right now with AI automation?
- [28:40]
Nick Ford
An ideal client, I would say, is a client that has a high intake of, let's say, high touch with, like, customers, right? Like a client that gets a ton of phone calls, right. Is immediately a client for a good client, right? A client like a, let's say like a hair. A hair salon or a barber shop, right? Where there's a handful of barbers or hair salon people, but there's no. There's no receptionist, right? But they still have a phone, and that phone still rings. Every single time the phone rings, somebody has to stop what they're doing and walk over and answer the phone and, you know, they're sidetracked and they're booking an appointment or Whatever. And then they come back to their customer and say, sorry about that. Like, it's, you know, I had to answer the phone. So really like brick and mortar, classic. People call them boomer businesses sometimes like the landscaping agencies, the tree service agencies, barber shops, even liquor stores. Basic retail, where there's like, it's kind of a mom and pop shop. Because those are also the people that have no. Have little experience with AI. Like, they've heard about it, they know it's big, they have no idea where to start. And that, that's. Those are the kind of ideal clients, like the less digital clients and the much more traditional brick and mortar clients.
- [30:14]
Paul Alex
Smart. Smart. I mean, that's, that's a good way to, to go ahead and actually hyper focus on a specific avatar. Same thing with me, man. You know, I was trying to attract, or I'm still currently attracting clients that have very similar backgrounds as me. You know, I'm. I'm 37, about to be 38 in January at the end of the day. I came into the digital marketing world a little bit over five years ago now. And I, me, myself, I've always had a dream of being a highly successful entrepreneur, even when I was in law enforcement. And I think people overcomplicate business. They overcomplicate business, brother. And business is not meant to be complicated, especially when you start seeing these bigger companies, they scale because of simplicity. Right, so the fact that you went to target boomers, especially when they're not educated on AI and technology, I mean, that's the way to do it, dude. So how are you obtaining your clients right now? Is it solely through referrals? Are using social media? I took a deep dive on your Instagram. I know that you're also helping first responders start their own side hustles as well, which is great, dude, because I think that, you know, we need more leaders in the online space to give direction to people that just don't know. Right. So, so what would you say? How are you getting your clients right now?
- [31:42]
Nick Ford
So I'm definitely getting my clients right now through social media and referrals. Heavy on things like Facebook, my Facebook business page. I've run ads here and there. The problem with running ads in this space is that it's very much saturated and it's very hard to differentiate because now everybody online is all of a sudden an AI expert and an autom expert, and their ads are all over the place. So. And the way that I get clients kind of aligns with that whole kind of boomer business. Classic brick and mortar business like that can be done by walking through the door right of the store and like right then and there you've now differentiated yourself from every single other AI expert that they've seen because they're like, wow, this is an actual physical person that is now saying that they're an AI automation experts. Like how often does that happen? It doesn't happen very often. It's usually ads that people see. So by and large it's been, it's been word of mouth and, and actually some pre, pre existing clients that I had when I was doing my kind of regular agency stuff like SEO and things of that nature. I quickly found out that that was not for me, at least not without automation. Very dry, very time consuming. But like one of those people that were my client, my an SEO client signed up to be my client for AI automation, right. And I had a phone call with them half an hour before we got on today. So that's how pretty much social media and actually physically walking into places.
- [33:28]
Paul Alex
Yeah, so you're taking it back old school dude. There's nothing wrong with that. I mean at the end of the day you get able to get a handful of clients paying you recurring revenue. I mean it's all good. Right? So what, what is your future plans right now as far as like where you're currently at, where do you see yourself in the next year or so? Where do you want to take your side hustles and do you ultimately want to just grow them to be this massive company or what's your vision?
- [33:56]
Nick Ford
Yeah, so vision is, is something that I, I struggle with vision now not, not just in general because like at my full time job, right, I'm a people leader. I have a great reputation in the company. People know the name, right? And it's a huge company. I'm very solid on vision in like where I want to be five years in my full time career. Right. In life in general. I really have no bones about. Some people don't like to talk about like oh I'm, I don't want to say that. I just want to have tons and tons and tons of money and never have to worry about money again. But I do and that's my vision and I have no problem saying it. My vision in five years is to have so much money that I can do whatever I choose to do. Whether that's continuing AI automation full time, whether that's just hanging out for a couple years, I might even still work full time for my 9 to 5 job frankly, because I'm one of these fortunate people that really loves like I love what I do at my full time job. And it's really like paradoxical because a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of side hustlers do that because they don't like their full time job and they're trying to get out of like the rat race. I, I'm excited to go into work every day, you know. So it's, it's a really like unique situation. That's why the question of like where do you see yourself in five years in terms of vision I don't have a definite need for because I think like the default answer or an answer that you probably get common is like in five years I see myself out of my full time job, not working for anybody, running my own business and being financially free. That's like, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I'm kind of like an outlier where I actually enjoy what I do full time. So it's kind of tricky to navigate that.
- [35:55]
Paul Alex
No, absolutely, man and I, and I agree, you know. So what type of advice would you tell for let's say even military veterans, you know, because you were in the military, what would you tell somebody who's currently in law enforcement and they're looking for a vehicle just like you that's able to make them financially free? What would you say in 2025 is the vehicle to.
- [36:20]
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- [37:20]
Nick Ford
In 2025 I would say that the best thing, the best skill that you can learn right is and it may, it's not a vehicle in the sense that it's a business model, which I'll recommend a business model. But the biggest skill is marketing, right? Because it doesn't just apply to business, it applies to yourself if you understand how to market a product and you know, if you Start considering yourself a product which like I don't necessarily do that, but you get what I'm saying. Like you can market yourself in such a way that will get you where you want to go. So like learning marketing is like number one, whether like taking AI out of the mix, taking whatever out of the mix. Like you can apply the concepts of marketing to anything, any product, any industry, yourself trying to get a job and so on. So first and foremost like learn marketing and the vehicle for me anyway, and I think it really meshes well with law enforcement is something that is passive income. It's all about the passive income, right? And nothing wrong with starting ATM machine business. Nothing wrong with getting into merchant services. Those are great vehicles for passive income, right? I would say anything you can do to learn about AI, do it because in five years from now there's, there's gonna, I think Mark Cuban said this, in five years from now there's going to be businesses that are great at AI and then there's the businesses that aren't, right? That, that is going to be like the differentiator. So if you start building, you don't have to go and build an automation company like I did, right? There was a lot of learning that, that went into that way before I was like I'm going to start an Automation Agency. And AI is more than chat GPT. So learning things like prompting and chat GPT, how to correctly prompt chatGPT, learning about all the different ways you can automate stuff. And so, so AI is the vehicle like that is the vehicle to, to financial freedom. And you can apply AI, it's similar to marketing. You can apply AI in any industry, any business model, any industry like AI can be applied to it, but you have to, you have to be willing to learn about it first.
- [39:42]
Paul Alex
And how did you learn about it? Brother?
- [39:45]
Nick Ford
I, I'm a lifelong self taught learner man. So like I, my bread and butter right now in full time, full time career mode is cybersecurity. Love cybersecurity offensive cybersecurity, kind of good guy hacker like that is my, I love it so much I do it when I'm not working. Sorry, what was the question again? See I got excited so I forgot what the question was.
- [40:11]
Paul Alex
No worries, no worries. How did you learn about AI?
- [40:15]
Nick Ford
That's right. So similar to cybersecurity, right? When you're, when you're passionate about something, it makes learning about it enjoyable. And once I learned what AI could do and what it was capable of, I then became passionate about it and the more I read about it, the more passionate I became about it because I see the potential. So in short, all of my learning's been self taught. Like, people underestimate big time things like YouTube, things like, things like Google. So you're actually sitting down and reading a blog post or picking up a book. There's plenty of books on AI, right. I think part of the problem is, and it's just like us humans in general is like, we want immediate results, right? We're impatient. We want immediate results. I don't want to sit down and read the books and watch the videos and take the courses and everything else. Like, I just want to build my agency and to just like grip it and rip it and unfortunately, just like, that's not how it works. You have to put the work in.
- [41:23]
Paul Alex
Yeah, no, absolutely, man. It's, it's not easy, but you do have to self educate yourself and you have to go ahead and take imperfect action. So Nick, what would you tell to everybody right now that's a first responder, military veteran if they wanted to go ahead and contact you, where the can they actually go ahead and reach out to you, brother?
- [41:42]
Nick Ford
Yeah, so I think the best way to reach out to me right now is on my Instagram, which is Exit Command. I named it that way so that way first responders would recognize it. Like, I hope you know what an Exit command is if you're a first responder and you're listening. But yeah, it's just at Exit Command. Exit Command.
- [42:04]
Paul Alex
Awesome. And then are you offering any type of services or mentorship or you know, anything for first responders or military veterans to go ahead and actually learn from you, brother.
- [42:15]
Nick Ford
Yeah, so, so I have a couple different things. My Instagram channel is, is really kind of like the main platform that I, I give, you know, advice on. I do little mini videos on like skill, translation, how to, how to translate your law enforcement skills into the corporate world. Another thing I do is I have a school community, so sk o o l.com and that's kind of like the paid community, right? It's 17amonth, but it's a paid community where we do things like weekly lives that I'm on. It's more of a personalized approach if you feel like you want that more one on one mentorship. So I offer that as well. So hit me up on the Instagram and I have links for my school community on my page. So that's the best way to get ahold of me. But yeah, my goal with, with, with Exit Command is to work with police officers who have already made the decision that, like, they want to leave, but they just don't know what to do or how to do it. Right. It's not a platform to, like, convince people to leave law enforcement or to like, I don't, I'm not here to convince. Whether you stay or go is, like, it doesn't affect me. But, like, when I was looking to leave law enforcement, there weren't resources like that around. Right. And I went back and forth, back and forth for years. And I'm like, now I've made this resource to try to fast track that process for people.
- [43:45]
Paul Alex
No, absolutely, man. And I think it's great. I think it's, you know, having content for first responders, military folks that are looking for an opportunity. Just like what you did, dude, is just find a smaller vehicle that could be a side hustle. Doesn't take 40 hours a week, doesn't take a massive amount of your time. You're able to do it part time and then you're able to ultimately transition to what you want to do. And I think that is the key takeaway here, guys, is that Nick's story is phenomenal because he was an army Ranger, a military veteran, first responder, law enforcement, family guy, and ultimately he wanted more out of life. He wanted to go ahead and create a vehicle that can make him financially free and then go find something that fulfills him. So, guys, make sure to check out our podcast on Spotify, Apple podcasts, and on YouTube, we have a brand new YouTube channel, the Level up with Paul Alex, guys, and we're currently running top three in business on Apple Podcasts. If you guys like this interview, make sure to share it with people that you care about, that you love. If you know a first responder, make sure they listen to this and contact Nick. Nick is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to ATMs, merchant services and AI automation. At the end of the day, your network is your net worth. That's it, guys. My name is Paul Alex. This is the level up and we'll catch you on the next one.
- [45:33]
Nick Ford
Steve Cubine and Nan McNamara's podcast. From beneath the Hollywood sign, he pulls out a box and gives McAllister a ring, saying, here's something to remember me by. Daryl Zanuck hit the roof.
- [45:45]
Advertisement Voice
Mary Aster has been keeping a diary. This torrid affair with George S. Kaufman is chronicled on a daily basis, talking.
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Paul Alex
About the actors and actresses who won.
- [45:55]
Nick Ford
An Oscar on their very first first film. Get your fix of old Hollywood on the podcast from beneath the Hollywood sign.