From Army Special Ops to Real Estate Success

has it really helps out in the entrepreneur world. If you have a bad day in business, it's just no it can be all hours. I can control my emotional state and how I handle things. I can't control what's going on in the American world. I'm not going to try to because I know that at the end of the day,

I'm going to be fine because I'm going to control me. Nate Hirschberg is a disciplined mission-driven entrepreneur, real estate investor, and the founder and CEO of Stag Mountain Properties. Drawing from his experience as a U.S. Army Special Operations Veteran in Business Leader, he helps homeowners and investors navigate complex real estate challenges

while building opportunities rooted in integrity, accountability, and long-term value.

Well, literally one of our culture points in the companies never problems only solutions.

It's just that no matter what, you've been equipped to deal with adversity and as long as you lean into it the right way, hire those mentors, be in the right environment, and run with the right tribe. You'll be alright. Welcome to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast. The Operation CEO edition, joining me today is Nate. And I'm just going to call him Nate because he has an amazing last name and I hate to

watch it. Nate, what is your amazing last name, sir? Hirschberg. Mr. Hirschberg. What brings you to the show, sir?

Well, I got a random Instagram ad for Operation CEO, "Ply it on the wind, here I am." So you saw Ned, you clicked on it, and then magically, you're transported here. Transported here. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Yeah, it's like an awesome man. He's very ahead of zero expectations, just going into this whole thing. So it was really, really, really fun. Cool, man.

“Yeah, I think you're officially our first or second Operation CEO episode, also.”

They're really excited to speak to that, it's just a no-brainer, like, really hires literally

from folks that have served, or, and, you know, I run a lot of film crews, and I always

look for soldiers versus, you know, videographers. Yeah. Can you talk about the difference? We talk about this in your episode. The difference between an entrepreneur and an entrepreneur that has served.

Yeah, I think it was a good subject that we touched on for sure. Just that discipline, and the consistency of the discipline that isn't still through the military, it really helps out in the object or a world. Can I add that your partner is literally reading in the middle of this podcast and I mean, yeah, fucking awesome.

And she can read anywhere. That's amazing. That's amazing. Good for you, man. It's a podcast mod, yeah.

Yeah. I'm only going to be faced here. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, we're not.

Yeah, yeah. Amazing energy, by the way. Killer tattoos. Absolutely. Nice work.

Exactly.

“So what does one do for a living to attract energy like this, sir?”

Yeah. I want to real estate company. Of course. Yeah. But it's not.

It's a very specific niche in the real estate. It is. Yeah. It's true. We talked about this on the podcast as well, or on the episode, rather, the podcast is

happening now. I guess, having now delusional and I'm going to think about that chicken downstairs. But, yeah. I mean, I think that it's a sales and marketing company. Right.

At the end of the day, all businesses really are a sales and marketing company. It's just real estate is that niche that we're in. And it is, it is to your point, a really specific niche. But talk about your workflow, you buy houses, you flip them.

Do you always flip these homes, or do you kind of like invest your time and energy into these

“homes, and maybe you air and be a more creative partnership with someone?”

How does your workflow work? Yeah. So I think about the structure. It's a really good question, too. I think about the structure.

It's like buckets of revenue, right? So we might buy a property and just simply clean it out, put it back on the market, and that can quit term quit. Sure. Another one, we might do a four or five month renovation on, then list it.

Something we build from the ground up that I say year. But the importance of that is you have slow, you have fast cash, like midterm cash, flow, and longterm cash flow. Right. So that way you have sustainable business.

Keeps the likes on. Sure. So what we do is we take all the overflow and buy longterm properties, like mobile home parks and commercial assets, like that. Is this something you're keeping close to the chest?

Because you've invested the time and not just your life, but in coaching and mentorship and running your business.

Or is this something you're, you're notably going to teach others to do?

“I think inevitably will teach, so I had a coaching program two years ago, two and a half”

years ago. I did. It was, I did a poor job of setting it up. So it became chaotic, too chaotic, and I had to kill it. I would love to do it again, just on a more appropriate format, and this whole experience

is undoubtedly going to help out. Absolutely. How do you feel, you know, sitting in front of fancy cameras, you got a giant screen behind you with the American flag, and all these lights, and how do you feel, like sitting there, surreal?

Cool. I still kind of like, I don't know, we were talking about this when we were filming.

I don't know, I never thought when I started to stack, and never did it from the intent

of like, oh, man, I want to be on a podcast, or I want to be on a TV show or whatever. So surreal. All the way around. You and I come from a very similar start. We love whiskey.

We use whiskey to operate. Yeah. I shot a whole feature film, literally, on makers. Every day, I just just like, stress reliever, or like, no, I don't want to feel anything.

I just want to shoot. Boy did it when we a lot of awards, but a lot of PTSD and a lot of things that I'm still like suffering from that experience. Yeah. You turn your love for whiskey into a positive serve.

Talk about that transformation. We still is. Yeah. I really did. I'm still training on that for sure.

“I mean, I think that, I mean, it's gotten a lot better.”

Oh, good for you. Yeah.

It's gotten a lot better.

I'm not drinking a fifth of whiskey. Gosh. But yeah, it can be a slippery slope, because for a lot of people, especially entrepreneurs, I think, unfortunately, combat vex is well fit into that is you become, you can operate a high functioning.

That's what I'm looking for. You can operate on it. A lot of them people don't even know, which is terrifying in itself. And then yeah, you start getting some achievements and doing well, but then it's really all bootstrapped together by you having that substance and things going to unfold.

Yeah. Yeah. We can make it through that process and not lose everything. Great. Yeah.

Yeah. Some folks complain, some actress complain that when they're film, I max cameras. I max cameras too loud. You guys are trained to like, you're just like, cool as a muzzle. Yeah.

Imagine that now using that superpower for entrepreneurship. I'm sure it's a breeze dealing with what entrepreneurs do. Yeah. I'm really, it's funny. You say that.

Okay. So I think you're right. I was talking to somebody else. It's like, if you're having a bad day in business, it's just no. It's going to be all hours.

Yeah. Oh, no. So I do think about that. Sometimes kind of, you know, honestly, yeah, this sucks right now. It is big deal.

We're going through this problem, but it could be so much worse. So, talk about mindset. I'm sure with your coaching, your life experience, you kind of realize that all of these phases, all of these negatives that attack our brain waves are essentially just that negative frequencies that are stopping us from our greatness.

I'm talking about some of your experiences with that philosophy.

“I think, right, so it's extremely hard. you have to now, like, today, I think, be more”

aware of that than ever. Oh, absolutely. Because every time you, every time you're having a phone, there's something there, right? And it's extremely targeted. And unfortunately, I love it, since it's extremely negative.

Oh, yeah. So, I mean, I think my mindset is, isn't there's a little, I can, I know it can control me. I can control my emotional state and how I handle things. I can't control what's going on in the frickin' world.

I'm not going to try to, because I know that at the end of the day, I'm going to be fine because I'm going to troll me. For sure. Yeah, good on. Good on you for that.

I'm 42. I'm still kind of not struggling with that, where I'm going to struggle. Yeah, I just, like, I remember when I could just downplay video games in peace. Now, I've got to have the TV running, I've got to have do this thing, I've got to have a plate running behind.

It's like, what, when did I become a TikTok ad? I know. Literally. It's like, no. So, let's talk about, you know, I hate to say, because almost feels like this respectful, like

scene action and scene, like, because I remember hearing your story, you signed up at 1718. And you went down the line, you got rejected, you want to be a co-scar, the Navy rejected here or something. Walk us through that montage and how you landed in the Army. Yeah, man.

So, yeah, I left my dad was a naval surgeon, so it kind of inspired me to military there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I was a six-year-old. And then that went to co-scar to your waiting list for the job that I wanted.

Well, I will do, I'm going to be in jail in two years. Yeah. Right, I was going.

So, then, yeah, went down the line, the Navy got us out for lunch and then just never really

nothing against Air Force, long story short, Army is the last one, walked in, done a most similar. I said, yeah, I'm here. I'm trying to join the military and, guys, what do you want to do? I said, bro, I don't know.

What do you do? And he starts from your pictures in, like, jumping out of planes, flying in blocks, shooting guns, and shit. It was awesome. Yeah.

It's a cruder videos. Yeah. Basically. I was like, well, I want to do that. Was it cut to, like, limb biscuit montage?

Yeah. Yeah. But it was cool, man.

really hit me. What I had signed up to do until I was in training.

“And I'm like, do why am I jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft right now?”

Hold on. But at that point, then, to salt through and I loved it, man. Well, you were, like, standing out of tension, I apologize for being a geek and not knowing how this works. Because video games, when you're looking at your left and you're right, did you see your

fellow comrades like in the shit with you, like, fuck, how did I sign up for this? Yeah. I think. Yeah. So the cool thing about my job was reconnaissance scalp.

So we were a smaller group, nearly six to eight of us. And I was attached to this personal forces unit. So we had all the, we had cooler gear and shit like that. But everybody, at one point, looked to our left and our right. And we're literally set out like, what the fuck are you doing?

What the fuck are we doing? And why? And different training, like, the retraining environments is like, what are we doing here? It was really cool, because a camaraderie, you got to be a point where we would train so

much day and day out, we could clear a building and never, never say a word to one another.

We knew where each person was going to go and, you know, there's muscle memory. I'm sure intuition, long as I take the train and how much of it is just being within the tribe versus training, a lot of fundamental training is really what it is. People think like, they see this image like, oh, and man, I'm going to learn how to clear buildings, like kicking in doors, really, you're moving slow and you're moving, talking

like, yes, sir. All right. Bass train is basics. How to change your mag out really quick, like going to the high ready.

“And just those bases, because that's what keeps you alive.”

Seriously. You can have the best gear ever, but if you don't know how to use it and move meticulously calculated and risk it first in a risky environment, then you're fucked. Where have you, like, naturally evolved when you're in that mindset and your in action or in duty, like, are you two steps ahead of you learn how to compress time or are you moving

slower or you're learning faster? What is your, what have you, how have you trained that has given you the superhuman strength, slow as fast and slow as fast and what is it, slow as fast, slow as steady something like that. And the day, I think it's being an environment, the environment, yeah, for sure, because in

those environments, like, especially operations teams as a whole, don't carry dead weight. Dead weight. I don't know. You have to want to be there, not just because you signed up for the job, like, it's true, true family, right on, for vets that are listening and they're running their own

business or, you know, they're, they're evolving from, you know, a business owner to an entrepreneur. What tips can you give them for folks that are, you know, skeptical about leaning into their training versus, you know, being a civilian? Yeah, it's trusted. Yeah, I just trust it.

“Yeah, I think it's, it's easy to say now, but yeah, trust it, like, everyone has a plan.”

I love this, and one of our commanders used to say this, and it's so true.

I think Mike Tyson said this first in a different way, but this command is said, everyone

has a plan to get shot at. Like, you can think, like, you have everything figured out. Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan to get punched in a face, right, which is equally true as well. So, this trust that no matter what you've been equipped to deal with adversity and as

long as you lean into it the right way, hire those mentors being the right environments and run with the right tribe, you'll be all right, run on. Yeah. When, when you're hiring and recruiting, do you kind of just set a stack of, like, all right, these are all the vets they go first, or do you kind of specifically look for a skill set?

It's appealing, yeah, for sure. I mean, other stuff, like, I love athletes. Okay, I love athletes because they're really competitive and in a sales marketing space, like, the more competitive healthy competition, which is definitely right. Yeah.

But so, yeah, veterans for sure, veterans, athletes, really, and even super passionate about what they want to do.

Gosh, I always have joy talking to someone, you know,

it's a veteran that's seen action that's served. What, what, what is your opinion of the world today? [laughs] Being in a positive, you know, whatever it is, man. I think there's a ton of positive.

Absolutely, I agree. And I, you know, it's unfortunate that negative gigs, the spotlight, but there's a reason. There's a narrative behind it, right? But I think there's a ton of positive and ultimately more content like this needs to be possible and truly that's one of the things that pushed me over the edge, not only this because, like, the business is where we're at now.

And we need that next step that Brandon wearing this, but if I can just, if someone's listening to this and they're having a shit day, they're surrounded by negativity, maybe they're in a nasty relationship with personal life, whatever. And this could help them, it's worth it. I would actually, if they're in a shitty environment, stuck in traffic, I mean, it literally take a deep breath, pull over.

I'm looking at this traffic of a completely different perspective. Now I'm kind of seeing where I fall in line in this gear that is called traffic.

Yeah, what are literally one of our culture points in the companies, never problems only solutions.

So, yeah, like, we do a lot of problems. I know if Jake comes to me or somebody on team, they have a problem, but they've already thought about a solution. And if we operate with that, yeah, this shit sucks, like for example. But we're going to be all right, we'll go through it and sometimes it's easier said and done.

All right, cool. What do you do with, let's say, asking for a friend, you have a Rudy that has always

poker face, rock solid, no emotion, then you have his counterpart, which is Ray, very theatrical.

“Really, where is, where is his emotions on his shoulder or whatever the saying is?”

Yeah, how do you manage that balance? I think that balance is awesome, though, because I'm always down for solutions, but I'll give you a bit of the theater to show you how severe the problem is before. I know problem is long. It's awesome because like, so as an example, Jake, my director of operations I mentioned in the code on, he's awesome. He's very calculated, very analytical, where he's like, I'm like, ah, let's just do it. He's like, oh, no, no, no, no.

And it works out well, because I'll push him when he doesn't maybe like want to be pushed. Sure. But he also will slow me down and it'll be like, yeah, that was kind of talking down. Yeah, right on. That it's cool that to have that, you know, a fraternal kind of like

instinct where you can always kind of on your comrades. Exactly. So what's your day-to-day

“hustle now, man? What's your mission? Where can people continue to learn more about you?”

My mission is it's continued to pour into others and whatever capacity that might be. So continue to grow, stagnant mountain, you know, more employees helping more folks cross the nation. And see where that takes me. I'm sure I'll get into some other business venture outside of that. But thanks for your time. Best place at the REI Nate.

“And probably the best way. Cool, man. Nate, thank you so much for your time and energy.”

Yeah. Lovely audience. Lovely interview. Lovely everything. Yeah, thank you. And with that buddy, I'm Ray Gutierrez and we're again one more time. Nate here's for Extagon Properties. And Nate and I are inside success.