Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / The Importance of Identity Beyond Roles with Nate Green

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The Importance of Identity Beyond Roles with Nate Green · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

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Welcome to another episode of 6 Figure Secrets for Fractional
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Experts. My name is Bradley Jacobs.
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I'm your host today, founder and CEO of Mylands.
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Today I have Nate Green on the show.
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Nate, welcome. Appreciate it, Bradley.
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So Nate is an award-winning entrepreneur, best selling
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author and leadership coach, was a former police officer turned
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CEO, had an 8 figure exit Inc 5000 honors 4 years in a row.
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There's a hell of a lot there. So excited to have you on the
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pod. I know there's a lot longer of
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an intro that I'm going to really let you share.
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What what did I miss? Like what should?
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What's the next few sentences of that that are the most important
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for the rest of this conversation?
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You know, I think the most important part is just walking
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through in, in the journey. You know, the journey has been
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filled full of some great successes, which is awesome.
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And I love, I love those pieces. But there's a lot of the
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hardships, you know, and that's where I feel like so many people
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talk about all those, those glory reels and, and I prefer
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being the reels, you know, talking about, you know, the
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heart failure, the paralysis, the rough divorce, you know,
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walking through, you know, the sleepless nights, the panic
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attacks, the tough moments and really hit your head against the
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wall over and over again. But then rebounding and
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constantly coming back and being relentless and never giving up
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on the journey. Because I, I don't want to just
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talk about my successes. I want to talk about my
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difficulties because I really feel like that's what people
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find the encouragement from is through those moments.
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These hardships, they're not small things that you just
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mentioned. You went through a long list,
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all each one of them was significant, right?
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And you add them all up and they're, they're intense and
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they're big and they're, they're challenging, right?
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There's just no way around it. What is the mindset required to
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see those maybe as a blessing or see the value in the hardships
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so that you're able to maybe ask a biased question there?
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What is the mindset required to move past those hardships?
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In those moments, it's really hard you you can't see the
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fruits that come from the challenge in those moments.
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I think for me, I've always told myself that my life is bigger
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than this. And whatever it is, it's my life
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is bigger than this. It's meant to be more than this.
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I will not be defined by heart failure.
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I will not be defined by divorce.
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I will not be defined by XYZ. I'm going to be defined by what
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I choose to do with it on the backside.
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And so reminding yourself in those hardships, my life is not
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defined by this. I think it's something that
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really kept me motivated during the storms and constantly
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realize that I have the ability post storm to write the script
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and write the outcome and that kept me driven and motivated
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towards the bigger vision, the bigger version of who I was
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built and being built to become. Along that thread, right, one of
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the most interesting questions is about success, and everyone
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has a different definition of what success looks like.
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I'm curious about yours of what is success look like to you?
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I'll be honest with you, what success looks like to me is
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nothing that you read, nothing that I define my success in, in,
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in, about and for. That's all still on my journey.
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That's my lighthouse. That's that's where my goal is
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to impact millions of people by giving them hope and helping
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them break free from their hold backs.
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And I only hope and pray that my story, the these little Nuggets
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that have happened, these little successes and the failures and
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the rebounds, that this is just all a part of that journey that
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leads me to be able to help people break free and really
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chase after their future and really find what they consider
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success. So you know, success to me, man,
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that that's that's in process and man, it is bigger than I can
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even explain in this moment. I love it.
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So many people be like success is when I have $10 million in
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the bank or when I have this family or when I have the
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ability to travel to, you know, wherever Southeast Asia, you
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know, and, and it's really about the journey.
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I'm not even sure that there's really a there.
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Yeah, it's, it's very interesting.
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I, I, I don't think so because you know, like I call it
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missions to millions. I, I want to impact millions of
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people, but what happens when I get to 1,000,000?
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Will, will, will that be enough? And, and I would probably say,
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knowing my personality, every goal I've ever set that I've
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hit, I've always said a, a bigger and more ridiculous goal
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on the backside of that. So, you know, I think it comes
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down to, you know, what God blesses me with in, in the
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journey. You know, I think with severe
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hardship comes a severe capabilities to connect and
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relate to people in different phases of their life, which give
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you the ability to impact them on their journey.
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So I feel like I've been in the trenches and I feel like God has
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blessed me with a killer resume, which is great.
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And so if that opens the doors, amazing.
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But for me, like people talk to me and they're like, Hey, man,
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like, you know, what do you do? And I'm like half the time I
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just tell people I'm a chief janitor because like, sometimes
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it's, it's, it's funny because like, that's what I do.
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My entire life is, is clean up messes, whether it's my mess or
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somebody else's mess. So if I'm on a cruise ship, I
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don't tell people really what I do unless I really want to get
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into what I do and work through that.
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I just tell them I'm chief janitor because like for me
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it's, it's not about what I do. It's more matter of who I am.
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And if I can't impact you as a chief janitor, if I can't impact
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you as a lunch man, you know, whatever it is, then none of
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that matters. Now, my story is my story.
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And I do like talking about it. People, I was like giving them
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hope. But, you know, just for
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instance, like what I've done does not define me.
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It's how I show up today and then how I show up tomorrow, and
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how many lives I can change in the process.
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The sentence it's not about what I do, it's who I am.
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It's probably one of the most powerful frames I think that's
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ever been said on this podcast. At least go tell us more.
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Like, I don't want to. I don't want to oversee that one
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or miss that one, but that is gold.
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So talk about that. So in my life, there's been a
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lot of identities that I've helped.
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And so, you know, talk about my let's let's take Nate at 15.
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My identity at 15 was my parents were incredible.
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My older brother was relentless. He was, you know, about five
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years older than me, bigger, stronger, faster, beat me
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tremendously from probably, you know, 11 years old till 15 years
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old. And so who I was at 15 was
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somebody that lacked hope, I lacked a vision.
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I lacked that potential, or at least what I could see because
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I've been beat down for so many years.
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And so if I clung to that identity, then where would I
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have gone next? And then you talk about my
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identity as a cop. Well, I mean, yeah, Like, I felt
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like I had overcome these obstacles and I wanted to help
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people and want to change lives and do all this, and that's how
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I could see it. But then if my identity was
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completely tied up and being a cop, which for a season it was,
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then what happens when you have heart failure and you can no
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longer be a cop? What happens when your identity
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is tied to being a husband and the marriage falls apart?
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What happens when your identity is tied to being aceo of a
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specific business and you either change or you sell a part of
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your identity is gone. See, that's what a part of
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relinquishing part of my identity to be about who I am
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and who I'm built to be rather than the roles, the positions,
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the situations that I am in. It helps it where you don't
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identify yourself as a failure when you're in the moment of a
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failure. And so it's not just the good
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stuff, it's how easy is it for us to define ourselves and have
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the identity connected to moments in time.
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And without that, it separates you from it in a way that you
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can learn from it, grow from it, and make yourself better, make
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your identity better because of no matter what's going on over
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here, it's a separation between circumstances, situations,
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positions, and who you are. So all to say, let's say you
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know my business fails, right? And we shut the whole thing
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down. Whatever it is, I am not my
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business. I am not a failure, right?
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Is that basically the distinction?
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It's like, OK, the business I was running no longer exists.
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I wouldn't even necessarily call that a failure to to be honest,
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but I don't even know if I like the term failure, right?
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It was an experience, it was a learning, it was a path on the
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journey, you know, whatever it is, but I'm not a failure.
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Certainly I learned a million things.
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I helped a lot of people. The business maybe not have hit
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the goal that I wanted to hit. Yep.
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Is is that would you? Would you change anything about
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that frame? No, not at all.
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Because here's The thing is, is failure to me is a is connected
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to feelings because people feel like a failure.
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Now it's up to you what you do with it.
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And so if we said, hey, listen, I don't believe in failures,
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then what? What do you do with the feeling
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that you're a failure? Because you're going to feel
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like you're a failure in moments, whether whether you
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want to accept something as a failure or not.
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But when you accept something as a failure, then you can reframe
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it into a learning experience. But first you have to accept the
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situation that connects with the emotion to then be able to
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reframe it into something else. If you don't do the first, then
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you're basically like putting lipstick on a pig.
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And you're saying, you're always saying that And versus if, if
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you just connect it, like your friends might know that one
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business didn't succeed, which means it, it failed.
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And so like, hey, guys, listen, like I have failures.
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I've learned from my failures and it's incredible what I can
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do on the backside. But none of that my success is
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nor my failures define me. And so when you look at that,
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because you could be at the top of the pinnacle of your success
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career with a business, but you might be an alcoholic and you
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might have spent all your money, money on drugs and addiction.
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And to everybody else, you might be a success over here.
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But really in life, your failure or at least in that moment and
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you're failing. And so that's really where like
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when you start defining and identifying based upon
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circumstances, I think that's one of the biggest mistakes that
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people make. And so then what they do is
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sometimes even create false realities that they're living in
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such a social media. We see it all the time.
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Like people, oh man, I'm here, I've done this, this, this, look
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at me, look at me, look at me. And really in their real life,
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they haven't done half of that. They're just claiming it.
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And it's just what they can get people to believe.
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So they like and follow them. So like, there's all these
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things that we have to really work on.
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And that's where social media can't be our identity.
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We have to be true and concise about who we are and what we're
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built for, and then that's where our identity sits.
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Something I've thought about a lot is how do I avoid probably a
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very common outcome where the very successful entrepreneur is
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incredibly unfulfilled, right? Like let's say you get to it
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there. Let's just say you sell your
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business for 100 million, whatever.
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It doesn't matter, right? Like you, you hit your financial
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goals, maybe the family, maybe you don't, it doesn't matter,
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right? You, you have the things that
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people generally define as that's the good route.
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And so many of those people are totally unhappy, unfulfilled,
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miserable. How do you avoid that?
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Well, the there's two sides of it.
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I think the people that are driven and motivated, the people
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that are really chasing the best version of themselves are not
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settled with a certain achievement.
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Like it like the resume that that you read off of me, you
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know, like that intro, like that.
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And I'm just getting started like that.
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That's just like, OK, cool that that's awesome.
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But I have to live with myself every day and I'm not settled in
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that just because I could sit on the beach and smoke a cigar
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every every day doesn't mean I should.
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And that's not what I'm built to do.
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And so I think there's these obligatory sides that that we
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really have to confront about being true to ourselves.
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And, and you got to, I call it the inner 2 year old.
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You always have to ask why behind everything great.
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You want to have a Lamborghini STL.
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They're incredible. I love performance vehicles.
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Once you get it, why did you want it?
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You didn't want it because it was just a cool vehicle.
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You probably wanted it. Not saying you, but in general,
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like maybe it's the attention side of the coin.
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Maybe. For me, I love fast cars and I
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buy fast cars because I love sitting behind it and feeling
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that power. I love that adrenaline dump.
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That's because I was on SWAT and I did the fun stuff and so I
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miss adrenaline dump. So if I get on the motorcycle,
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if I get in a fast car and if I can RIP it as fast as possible,
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I'm not going to tell you how fast I go.
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But if I RIP it and run it a little bit when everybody else
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is like freaking out, I'm like, I love this.
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Why? Cuz you know, maybe a few screws
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are loose up there, but you know, in that process, like what
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is the why behind it? But the problem is for a lot of
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people, they want the flashy things, they want the success,
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they want certain things that appear successful to get a
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certain feeling out of it or a certain attention out of it.
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So the problem is when somebody is quasi successful, they're
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buying things as if maybe they were this successful.
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And the problem is, is they're, they're creating a false
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reality, but they're already getting those dopamine hits.
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And so then it's like you're chasing your tail.
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And so when you're actually successful, you can't go do the
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things that you already faked before.
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And so like there's this, this is issue versus when somebody's
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really successful and they're really chasing that future.
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That's the greatest version of what they can become and what
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they can achieve with the greatest version that they can
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become. It is endless.
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And I think that is the key is being aware that you're not
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chasing a rainbow, you're not chasing a specific outcome,
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You're chasing a betterment of you and achievements based upon
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the betterment of you and what it can go after while keeping
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the right boundaries in place. So you don't burn the bridge
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with your family. You don't go off and chase all
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this alcohol and addiction like all these other pieces.
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Boundaries are the key in your life and making sure that you
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actually find yourself in a moment where you can actually be
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satisfied as a bad word, but you can be connected to your
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successes and be like, man, like this is cool.
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I love my family, I love what's going on.
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I love my relationships, I love what I've done, but I'm still
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hungry and we still running and and there's there's that balance
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that you got to really deal with in in our heads is learning how
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to take the breaks, enjoy the breaks, take the time, enjoy the
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time and really go after this better future in a healthy way
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and really going after it where you know, we're always going to
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be a little unbalanced, but with the right boundaries.
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To me, it does come back to what you said about it's who I'm
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being every day. Because if I'm focused on who
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I'm being every day versus what I'm doing every day, the doing
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the numbers, the outcome that this, it's not really the focus.
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Like yes, we all have goals. I think goals are healthy.
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But if I'm focused on, let's say, delivering value, being in
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service, being a loving, kind, genuine, trustworthy, hard
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working, disciplined person, there's no there in that, right?
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It's a constant practice every day.
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And then if I'm those things with a clear vision, I'm going
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to hit my goals. I'm going to build a really
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fulfilling, beautiful life. 100% and and like in my businesses,
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my my modus operandi, my my theme has always been people
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first. Money will come.
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Yeah. And, and when you care about
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people and you go beyond the dollar signs, that helps you
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sleep really well at night. That helps where we're down the
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road. You know, you have a bunch of
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advocates in your corner. You have a bunch of people that
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actually care about you and you're doing something to really
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impact their lives in the process.
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Whether it is the financial services, whether it's, you
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know, whatever you're doing, what whether you're a content
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creator, focus on impacting lives in the process.
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Don't focus them on how much monies you can get, what kind of
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deals you can get. No focus on what can you do to
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help people in their lives in their moments of need?
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What can you do to give hope and inspiration and impact them in
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some kind of way? Yeah, yeah, I love it.
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I want to talk about your book. Your book is called Suck Less,
16:00
Do Better. So concise, so punchy.
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How did you come up with the title?
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So, so the title and me, my wife talk about this a lot.
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It's very sarcastic. We were actually walking last
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night and I told her. So the problem with that title
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is like, if you meet somebody in, let's say, Starbucks and
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you're talking, they're like, hey, listen, here's a copy of my
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book. They're like, thanks, jerk.
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You know, like, but but you know, we were laughing about
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that. And like, it takes a little bit
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longer to kind of give the background behind it before you
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just be like, yeah, suck, let's do better, fool.
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You know, like it's so so where that term came from?
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Suck, let's do better. It came about about 13 years
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ago, maybe 14 years ago. And the problem is when I
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started my first business, you, you naturally connect with other
16:44
entrepreneurs. And so then you start seeing
16:46
what they're doing and you start seeing their success levels and
16:49
you start worrying about, oh, what is, how does this compare?
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And oh, wait a second, then you get a little derailed.
16:54
And then you start working through the process.
16:56
And next thing you know, you got to realize, you got to put these
16:59
severe boundaries. I got to stop worrying about
17:01
everybody else. I got to work on my plan.
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Where am I going? Because I'm chasing after my
17:06
life, not their lives. I'm going after my future, not
17:09
their future. And so the term suck less, do
17:11
better is forget about everybody else.
17:14
Don't compare. Cut out the noise of what's
17:17
going on everybody else's life. Figure out who you are, what
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you're built for, what are the goals you're chasing after and
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then how can you do it better today?
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Compare yourself from how you showed up yesterday, suck less,
17:30
do better today. And every single day, just that
17:33
momentum of just like, hey, better than I was yesterday,
17:36
better than I was yesterday, suck less, do better, suck less,
17:38
do better, suck less, do better day in, day out.
17:40
That's how the concept came in. And then when a publisher
17:43
reached out to me about writing a book, I was like, oh, I got a
17:46
title. I'm not sure if you're going to
17:48
like it. And so I pitched them the title
17:50
and the concept and and funny enough, they loved it so.
17:54
Why do you think they loved it? You know, it had that edge, it
17:57
had a little bit of a a different spin on it.
18:02
And then inside the book, it's basically a road map that works
18:06
on eliminating a lot of hold backs for entrepreneurs
18:09
everywhere from crack lenses of how we can't see ourselves for
18:12
who we really are because of our childhood, our past and all
18:15
these things that really affect. It's called cognitive biases.
18:18
It creates these cognitive biases on how we see even our
18:20
opportunities in our future. And those create what's called
18:23
automoticities. Not trying to get too nerd on
18:25
you, but automaticities are automatic responses.
18:28
And So what goes on is next. You know, our life is built off
18:31
of all these automatic responses that keep us inside of a box or
18:34
keeps us inside of this one arena or moving only in so many
18:38
different directions. So what happens?
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We have to break free from that stuff.
18:42
We have to acknowledge them, reframe them and really help
18:44
ourselves move forward. And that's where the book diving
18:46
into those pieces, diving into, you know, the noises that
18:49
surround us, you know, wait, wait a second.
18:51
What is your lighthouse? How can you be chasing down the
18:53
sink? Like, what is your lighthouse?
18:54
Why is it there? And then who are you really?
18:57
How long have you spent getting to know your greatest asset,
19:00
which is you? And so putting all these pieces
19:02
in place to really create a framework or this nice road map
19:05
for people to really understand how to break free from these
19:08
limitations and really grow, go after a better future.
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There's an element for me around so many titles of books in this
19:14
category are somewhat nice in their title, right?
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Like do the hard thing or say no more.
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You know, I'm making it up. But right there kind of like
19:25
kind ways of saying what you're saying so directly, poignantly,
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right? Like so just suck less?
19:32
They just suck less. Do better, right?
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That's it. And it's very patchy in a way.
19:37
And I think that's, you know why you're publisher, I guess like
19:39
it, it's just different. It stands out and it's edgy and
19:43
stand out. Edgy is great.
19:45
It's amazing. I appreciate it so.
19:47
Yeah, yeah. No, it's exciting.
19:49
Now, the great news is I do have a second book that is coming out
19:53
probably around August of this year and maybe August,
19:56
September. And this one's a little bit
19:58
softer. And this one's called Cracked
20:00
Lenses Breed Broken Dreams. And so this one is going to be
20:04
really focusing on the dreams that that we don't chase after,
20:08
the dreams that we really should, the dreams that we've
20:11
let go and maybe even the dreams that you never knew were yours.
20:15
And how do you really chase after this future that that you
20:19
have the capabilities at your fingertips to go after, but yet
20:22
you're letting all these things derail your process and derail
20:26
your progress and you're never going after it.
20:27
So I'm, I'm really excited about that.
20:29
That one's a softer title, so I can actually hand it out at A at
20:32
a coffee shop without gonna give a 10 minute disclaimer.
20:35
I love it. I love it.
20:36
Well, it's exciting and I'm looking forward to it.
20:38
Yeah, man. You have a mastermind called
20:41
Built Unstoppable. Tell us about that.
20:43
And you know, you mentioned about a process that people
20:46
really work through in that mastermind.
20:49
Tell us about that process. Yeah, so the mastermind, this is
20:52
probably one of my most exciting processes, my accept most
20:56
exciting project that that we have going on, because inside of
21:00
this we walk people through a journey.
21:02
And and I think the first part is this major self discovery
21:05
journey where they really figure out the core of who they are.
21:09
They really figure out what are they built for?
21:11
Like what is the skill sets, the capabilities?
21:14
You know, we have them do career tests, cognitive tests,
21:16
personality tests, you name it. We have them do so many
21:19
different things so that they can really see themselves on
21:21
paper. And then we have them create
21:23
what's called the display. The display like a trophy.
21:26
Think about like in a cabinet, there's all these lights that
21:28
shine the lights on, all the greatest attributes.
21:30
Same thing in this program. We have them list out and some
21:33
people even name it different things, like, yeah, this is
21:35
John. This paper works all John, I
21:38
don't care what you do. Like, name it all then.
21:40
Then that way you can see all these skill sets on paper and
21:43
then you can start realizing what is the greatest version of
21:46
what that person should be able to become.
21:48
And then when you start looking at it that way, that really
21:50
helps you understand who you are and your capabilities.
21:53
Then we focus on the fuel. What is your driving force?
21:57
What are those things that keep you hungry, motivated, driven?
22:00
And we work through all these things, even going into people's
22:03
basements, which is where some trauma sits, some some past
22:06
difficulties, hardships, stuff that they really don't want to
22:08
talk about. We dive in there to really try
22:11
to figure out that fuel system for them.
22:13
And then we have them set their lighthouse, which is that end
22:16
goal of like I call it their deathbed goal.
22:18
What does that look like? What do you want to achieve in
22:20
your life? And then from there we start
22:22
working through all their limitations, the noise that's
22:25
distracting them, you know, the different focuses and what are
22:27
the actions they need to take And also what are the corner
22:30
that they need to have like the people around them?
22:32
What does that look like? So we take them through this
22:34
entire process. And by the time we're done with
22:36
this 12 week intensive program, we've had people that have
22:41
restored marriages, we've had people that have sold
22:44
businesses, we have people that have shut down businesses they
22:47
were launching because it was no longer in line with where
22:50
they're going. We've had people make complete
22:52
changes in life, even 1 gentleman that was like Nate,
22:55
I've been living the last 30 years as my father and I am not
23:01
my dad. And so all these things, all
23:03
these expectations and everything that his parents put
23:05
on him and we finally helped him break free from all that and
23:08
he's literally selling his business and chasing after a
23:11
completely different future. And he's 50 years old.
23:13
Imagine that complete change at 50.
23:16
So it, it, it's exciting and, and actually right now we are
23:20
working on and we're finalizing what we call built unstoppable
23:24
teams. And this is for the corporate
23:26
environment and it's an adjustment of that program for
23:29
the corporate teams to really walk teams through how to become
23:33
the best inside of that. How do you connect with who you
23:35
are and where does this business that you're working in fit in
23:39
line with your lighthouse? And then we start working
23:41
through that and really help teams become higher performers.
23:44
I'm such a big believer in mindset to be successful, like
23:49
with without the right mindset and right is a judgement, but
23:52
you know, without some kind of a different mindset that's
23:58
required. So in in your mind, it sounds
24:01
like you have some strategies and processes to help people use
24:05
their mind to get in the right headspace for success.
24:07
But we'd love to hear about some of those.
24:10
Yeah, you know, I agree with you, mindset is key and a lot of
24:14
times people really focus on I am statements and and that's
24:17
great. You know, the one thing is I am
24:19
statements, you actually have to have some kind of realm of
24:22
belief in there. So I could be like, I am 6 foot
24:26
5 and I'm not I'm not I I'm going to be a Pro Football.
24:30
I'm 5 foot nine. I'm not going to be a Pro
24:32
Football player. You know, like you have to be
24:34
able to have it within reason, because our our minds have ABS
24:37
meter. We know what's what's true and
24:40
what's potential. So I think the biggest thing
24:42
with with mindsets is we can have great mindsets for how
24:45
we're going to show up daily. You know, whether it's
24:47
standards, whether it's principles, we can have that
24:49
process. But I think the most important
24:51
thing is eliminating the wrong mindsets.
24:55
And I think that is the key. So many people try to set the
24:57
right mindsets and then they start running forward, but
25:00
they've got 10 parachutes on their back.
25:02
What are the parachutes limiting beliefs where the parachutes
25:05
fears insecurities? Wait a second.
25:07
It's things that my parents told me.
25:09
You know, I use my dad as an example.
25:11
He's a incredible, incredible father, but he implemented and,
25:15
and basically told us over and over again.
25:16
Now it's so important to have a pension or retirement that we
25:20
need to get a job or a career that has a pension and
25:22
retirement. And so that's part of why
25:25
wouldn't law enforcement that now I'm adrenaline junkie.
25:27
So a little bit of that stuff. But then when I went to start my
25:29
first business, he said, Nate, I, I think that you should
25:32
probably go get a job that has a pension retirement.
25:34
He he tried to say, Hey, listen, what?
25:36
Let's go this more protective. And I love my dad for it.
25:39
But that was a big resistance that I had to fight through in
25:42
my first year of business. Every time I hit a hiccup, every
25:45
time I almost failed, like so close to failing.
25:48
You know how many times I was like, oh man, I should just go
25:50
get a job because that's what was ingrained in me.
25:54
So part of it is reframing some of these things that were told
25:57
to us past relationships that maybe we had had a spouse or a a
26:01
girlfriend, a boyfriend that maybe said some very rude, mean
26:04
things. You know, in my case, my older
26:06
brother, like we all got these things in our past.
26:08
You know, you're always going to fail.
26:10
You're going to suck. Trust me, I was not on the top
26:12
ten list of most likely to succeed.
26:14
I was on other lists. I don't want to talk about that,
26:16
but you know, we can. When you push through, you got
26:18
to release that stuff because you can have as much positive
26:21
mindset about your future, which is incredible.
26:23
But you you have to also know what mindsets to let go and
26:26
reframe so they don't become those parachutes holding you
26:29
from chasing after the right goals, the right ambitions, and
26:32
even the right frame of mind. Yeah, wow, so, so much there.
26:37
I really appreciate that. Nate, tell us about going from a
26:42
police officer to being your own boss, running your own company.
26:47
I mean, what are the some of the biggest lessons and takeaways
26:49
from that? Like crazy transition?
26:52
Yeah, You know, with heart failure at 23 and and having to
26:55
make that adjustment, I mean, I went into a very weird mode,
27:01
even I'll be honest with you, like extreme depression right
27:03
after that. It was, it was a very tough
27:05
time. And you know, looking back,
27:08
there's so many things I could have done better.
27:10
You know, one thing is I should have actually taken unemployment
27:13
for a little bit and like taking some time to breathe and to set
27:16
my foundation better, which I didn't.
27:18
I literally was like immediately like I go take nothing.
27:21
I don't need nobody. I'll go figure it out, you know,
27:23
bootstraps kind of guy, you know, And so that was tough.
27:27
The the planning, you know, I, I think the planning is key is
27:30
setting the trajectory past. Now going back to in this
27:35
doesn't define me. You know, that thing is like
27:38
you're, you're always trying to like put back the puzzle piece,
27:41
put all back in a box to make it OK.
27:43
And then you make the decision to jump off a Cliff basically as
27:46
an entrepreneur. And this was about a year post
27:49
law enforcement and, and in there you're still trying to
27:53
figure out your identity. And, and I'll tell you what it
27:55
was. It was a tough turn, a tough
27:57
process. And that's where I had to live
28:01
beyond today so many times, man. Like with all realness, there
28:06
was some of the darkest of days during that season of my life,
28:09
and it's only by the grace of God that I I made it through.
28:13
I'll be honest with you, He gave me some hope inside of some
28:17
utter darkness. That man, I, I don't even, I
28:20
don't even know looking back, you know, when I talk about
28:22
those times, it was, is very tough.
28:24
And then, you know, taking on the adventure of, you know,
28:28
building a business and that first business back in 2008 is
28:32
the business that ended up being sold last year for eight
28:35
figures. And I'll be honest with you once
28:36
again, it was only by the grace of God that it it took off and
28:39
that it kept on going And obviously a lot of hard work.
28:42
But God gave me clarity, gave me vision and really helped me keep
28:46
my heart right with people first money will come mentality and
28:49
just impress the right people around me and the right things
28:53
on my heart through the seasons. Yeah, wow.
28:56
The people first, money later. Tell us more about that.
29:00
What does that really mean? So that came.
29:03
From an old guy in Starbucks, my, my first six months to a
29:08
year, I call those Starbucks days, you know, before I had my
29:10
first office, I think got my first office at like, you know,
29:13
8 months deep. And it was just always focusing
29:16
on, you know, going there, getting out of the house because
29:18
I get a little stir crazy if I'm by myself for too long.
29:20
So me and this old dude, just what a nice guy he was in his in
29:24
his late 70s, early 80s. And one day as he was leaving,
29:28
he put his hand on my shoulder and he's like, Nate, focus on
29:32
people. You don't have to worry about
29:35
the rest. And I was like, I was like, man,
29:38
like, OK, so I went back to like my mission statement and I, I
29:41
had, I had this mission statement all written out and I
29:44
basically just like scratched it out.
29:45
And I was like, people for people.
29:47
First money will come. And it's all about making sure
29:51
that if, if Bradley's in front of me and yeah, I might be able
29:56
to charge him extra, but he's going through some life stuff,
29:59
you know, let me take care of him.
30:01
Let me spend a little more time with him.
30:02
Let me let me find out about his life, not just about, you know,
30:04
financial stuff. Let me figure out like, man, how
30:07
you really doing, man? I, I see you're a little rough.
30:08
You're a little different today. Like what's going on?
30:10
You care a little bit more, You go with the extra mile.
30:12
You don't always charge what you can.
30:14
Just because you could doesn't mean you should, you know, And
30:17
and it requires sacrifice in so many different ways.
30:19
Time, sometimes monetarily. But guess what?
30:22
The business that I started in 2008 grew Inc 5004 years in a
30:27
row, $0.00 spent in advertising. We were 100% referral base.
30:33
People First, money will come. Wow, What was the business,
30:37
Nate? It was all inside the the
30:39
financial spaces, tax, accounting, bookkeeping, OK.
30:43
And who is your customer in that business?
30:45
Entrepreneurs. Early stage startups or was it
30:49
more like SMBs or just. The whole spread we didn't do
30:52
publicly traded. It was all, you know, your, your
30:55
small guys, you know, all the way up to, you know, $100
30:58
million. So the whole spread, you know,
31:00
obviously early on it was like whoever could pay whoever that
31:05
needed help. And then then as you grow, you
31:07
could be able to work through the process.
31:09
The great part about, you know, referral bases, you know, we
31:12
were based in, in Lake Mary, FL, which is by Orlando and we had
31:16
clients in other countries all over the nation, you name it.
31:20
We, we got some kind of niche inside of the, the digital
31:23
space. And so everywhere from, you
31:25
know, affiliate marketers all the way through to content
31:27
creators, you name it, we had we had clients all over and
31:29
partnerships and you know, a lot of great clients, a lot of great
31:32
business owners. What are you most excited about
31:35
today And you know, maybe over the next 12 months, Like what I
31:38
know you're, you're writing and you're working these masterminds
31:40
and all these things, but like what?
31:41
What's really top of mind for you?
31:43
You know, I, I would say that the biggest thing for me is in
31:47
the last five months, I really became extremely dialed in as to
31:53
what I want to be known for. And I know that is kind of
31:56
goofy, but for me, like your vision, your future, your life,
32:03
every single thing has to really amount to something.
32:07
And I don't want to be the guy that made a lot of money.
32:09
I mean, like, cool, like if I make a lot of money, that's
32:12
cool, but that's not how I want to be known.
32:14
And so, you know, it took me a long time to really find that
32:18
heartstring of like, what do I want?
32:20
And that's that's what inspired this next book is I want to be
32:25
the guy that helps people break free.
32:28
And that's to me, it's, you know, these limiting beliefs,
32:31
man. I struggle with him my whole
32:32
life of like, am I really good enough?
32:35
You know, like do I really deserve this?
32:37
You know, even even things I'll give you a funny joke, you know,
32:40
imagine the the 11 year old or the 9 year old Nate sitting in a
32:45
Baptist Church hearing the preacher talk about it's easier
32:49
for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich
32:52
man to go to heaven. 9 year old Nate's like, I don't want to be
32:57
rich. Like simple things.
32:59
Even when you're young, you don't understand context.
33:01
You just hear things that catches your attention and you
33:04
listen to the rest and and then you grab hold of one thing's
33:08
limiting beliefs. And so these different things
33:11
shape our entire experience, our entire existence, what we take
33:14
on all these expectations from family members and girlfriends
33:17
and boyfriends or whatever. You have husbands and wives.
33:20
These shape what you do next, and somebody has to come along
33:23
and really help you break free to really chase after what you
33:27
have potential to go after. And that's what I want the rest
33:31
of my life to really be really dialed in and focused on helping
33:35
people break free. So everything I do, whether it's
33:37
programs, courses, speaking, you name it, it's always going to
33:39
have a laced feature of helping people break free.
33:44
Break free from what? Hold backs, limitations,
33:47
mindsets past, you name it, drama, trauma, I mean like that,
33:51
that's it. And that that's where there's
33:52
all these pieces that go into that bucket of what we want
33:56
people to break free from. But that's if we can help people
34:00
level up because they have all these limiting mindsets about
34:02
the business. If we can help people take on
34:04
that next risk because they've they've been so afraid because
34:08
of certain things that were said to them.
34:10
Because every single time when people have fear or resistance
34:12
or are stuck, there's always something holding them back
34:16
further down in her two year old comes out.
34:18
Why, why, why? We go back down to wherever it
34:21
started and then we work to reframe it back here to really
34:25
be able to move back forward and then take different actions
34:28
moving for the rest of the life. The there's lots of different
34:30
kinds of people that listen to the podcasts, you know,
34:33
entrepreneurs, practical executives, independent
34:35
consultants, probably people that are thinking about
34:38
consulting, but they haven't done it yet.
34:39
And so they're still working in a company.
34:41
You're figuring it out. In what way do you help
34:43
different people? Like I kind of want to give you
34:45
a moment for self promotion if it's, you know, like the
34:48
mastermind or is it the book? Like what would you really
34:50
direct people towards and who is that person that you're looking
34:55
to attract right now? You know, in the process, I, I
34:59
think there's everywhere from one-on-one coaching that can
35:02
have massive impact, but also a lot of it can be found inside of
35:06
the group. We keep the mastermind at 15
35:08
people so that we can get real, we can get intimate, we can dive
35:12
deep. And so each person has a
35:14
different level of need. And sometimes it's like Nate, I
35:18
want to take fast, quick, swift action to move forward.
35:23
And so some of those people, we start them in one-on-one
35:25
coaching and then we get them into a cohort of the built
35:28
unstoppable to work alongside of that.
35:30
And then other people it's hey, listen, we just stay on
35:33
one-on-one coaching and we get them fast movement.
35:36
And so I think that the hard part is everybody has different
35:38
resistance. And so, you know, it's never a
35:41
bad thing to reach out just to get a discovery call because
35:45
like, I can't, I can't tell you how each person needs help until
35:49
we get a hold of them. And that's where we do free
35:51
discovery calls. Why?
35:52
Because we want to make sure that we identify the exact need.
35:55
We also identify is this somebody that is fit for us and
35:58
us fit for them. So then that way we can push
36:01
them. For me, I have a great network
36:02
of major player coaches and it's like, sometimes it's like, Hey,
36:05
listen, like I can help you from here to here.
36:07
And then I'm going to connect you with this coach that's going
36:09
to help you in this exact space because there's so much
36:13
opportunity to go around. And when you have a people first
36:16
mentality, then nothing else matters.
36:19
Actually, funny enough, I, I was on a call with another coach.
36:22
He's, he's been an NFL coach, he's been a coach in the
36:24
Canadian leagues and, and he's a good friend of mine.
36:28
And we, I, I had a discovery call with somebody and then I
36:30
connected him with that guy to be a coach for this guy.
36:34
And then he basically kind of was like bragging about me.
36:36
And we were just kind of like battling, trying to cross sell
36:38
each other versus our own self. It was like, OK, you know, but
36:41
that's, that's when you care about people and you care about
36:45
people actually getting help. That's the important part.
36:47
And, and there's so many people out there that are doing things
36:50
wrong in this space. And so we want to make sure we
36:52
do things right and really drive people to what can actually get
36:56
them the right momentum in their life.
36:58
And there's, there's an integrity piece that really is
37:01
coming through. As you said, I want to help
37:03
someone. Of course, I want to grow my
37:05
business, but my business will grow by helping people in the
37:10
way that they truly need help. And that might mean referring
37:13
them to another coach, right? And it's not just a selfless
37:16
act. It's not it's not about ego and
37:18
looking good, right, As you said, caring about and and I
37:22
tell this, this comes up in the podcast a lot, the integrity
37:25
piece, the doing the right thing piece, the, you know, being
37:28
patient around, if this isn't the right client customer for
37:32
you, be honest about that, right?
37:35
It will come back to you tenfold.
37:37
But you got to be honest, even if that means short term, you're
37:40
saying no to revenue or you know, potential. 100%, yeah.
37:44
And it's tough. It it is hard sometimes saying,
37:46
hey, listen, like we have the opportunity to serve, but we are
37:48
not the best fit. The key is best fit, not a
37:52
possible fit. And so that's really what when
37:54
you're dealing with that, it's who is the best fitness
37:57
situation. Is it myself?
37:58
Is it one of our coaches or is it another coach that I know
38:01
that's like, man, like this is right, Exactly what they work on
38:05
day in and day out. Let's get them with them.
38:07
Once they work on that piece, they can come back to us and we
38:09
can work on the rest, if that makes sense.
38:11
Yeah. Totally, Nate, If people want to
38:14
find you, whether they want that free console call or interested
38:18
in one of the programs you have, what's the best way to find you
38:20
right now? The best place is success with
38:23
nategreen.com. That's the best place to find
38:26
me. And there is no E on my last
38:28
name. It's just GREEN.
38:30
So it's success with Nate Green. Dot com OK, and we'll link it in
38:34
the show notes so people will be able to find it easily.
38:37
Anything you want to leave our audience with before we end the
38:40
podcast today? I would say just the biggest
38:43
challenge is how are you showing up today as the true you?
38:50
How are you living your life to the fullest today with what you
38:54
have in front of you? OK, amazing.
38:57
Well, Nate, thank you so much for your time, your wisdom, just
39:01
sharing your journey or at least a tiny part of your journey with
39:03
us today. It's really enjoyable for me to
39:05
learn about and listen to and I'm sure our listeners will
39:08
really enjoy it. So thank you.
39:09
I. Appreciate you.
39:10
Thank you. Absolutely.
39:12
Uh.