Confidence Comes Last: Nick Koumalatsos on Leadership, Purpose & 8-Figure Brands

and sometimes whether we choose it or we don't choose it,

a chapter comes to an end,

“and that chapter sometimes creates our identity.”

And so when we have this identity about ourselves, we don't know how to change it. We don't know how to move on. We really get stuck, and it becomes self-destructive, because we can't move.

What if the next chapter is the best chapter of life, but you are too afraid to close this one and start writing the next one? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another exciting episode of "Mick on Plodent Day."

We've got a force whose term "special operations grit"

and to entrepreneur gold.

He's co-founding successful businesses from a grooming brand, to high impact coaching, to doing so so much more in the community. He's here to share the blueprint for smashing and growing through your barriers.

Please join me and welcome me, this strategic, the impactful, the Titanic, himself, Mr. Nick. Come alasos, Nick, how you doing today, brother? I'm just cheering for a great, that's a tall order, Nick.

That's all you, bro. It is all you. I've been a huge fan of you for a while, man. I'm following just, I'm going to say post-service and we're going to talk about all that a little bit. But just following your journey, you and I have a lot of similarities

where we talk about the difference between those who do and those who don't really start up here. And if you're listening, I'm pointing to our head into our brain. And Nick, for you, man, all the things that you do

that you've done for our country, that you do for use, a lot of the things that you do that people don't see. And again, we're going to talk a lot about that today.

“I always ask my guest this question of what's your be called?”

What's your purpose? That thing that's deeper than your why. All the amazing things that you do, bro, like, what's the fuel to make you continue to do those great things? That's a great question.

Sometimes I don't have the answer for it, honestly. There's just this internal desire to move forward and to grow. And a lot of that probably comes from a lack of childhood, a lot of missed opportunities or lack of opportunities.

So I never want to go back to that.

That's a foundational thing that happened that I'm like, I will do anything in my power to ensure that that's not a reality for my life anymore. So that's always probably been a driving thing, even at my age now.

Obviously, I've gotten a lot smarter and wiser over the years about how we go about that in my earlier days and early 30s. It was just like grind to a die and work as far as possible. Now I'm like, wow, how can we do the bare minimum but get the highest ROI, right?

But at the end of the day, through this growth thing that's happened, I've learned and we can talk about it a little more in depth. But there was a book that I walked through, a good mentor, a mind gave to me. And it really unlocked what that mission and what that purpose was. And it was to inspire, educate and motivate others to live a more healthier

and successful life. So if I look at my businesses and look at the things that I do,

“that's exactly what it is for me, that's how we get all of this done.”

And if anything from Johnny Slicks to core medical to what I do in the egogy, whether it's social media and other podcasts, at the foundation of it is like how do I, through my own life experiences, through the things that I've learned and inspire, educate and motivate others to live a more healthier and successful life.

Oh, that's it. And what's interesting is when I learn that, when I kind of deconstructed that exercise and figured out what that was, I was not even really doing that work. But that's what a line with me.

That's what inspired me. That's what made me kind of motivated me to put one step foot in front of the other. And then once I realized that it was interesting to watch life unfold and to for me to fall in the vein of that work. Yeah.

But that's not the way it goes, right? We manifest our reality and then we start, you know, we start getting to become a self aware of certain things. And then we naturally navigate or gravitate towards those opportunities. Dude, and you said that so eloquently, man, and there's so many places that I want to go with what you just said on your because,

But you talk about inspiring others and no matter where you are and whatever journey

it is that you're going through, like, you want to make sure that you're inspiring others. Where do you think that started for you exactly?

“Oh, man, that's a great question. I think that”

probably honestly, like in the Marine Corps, coming up through, you know, getting in the force reconnaissance going through that training and then becoming more of a leader. And the Marine Corps really does force upon you this leadership roles. They really do, they want create leaders. Now, I'll say that not the best leaders in the

world come out of the military or in the military. We have this, we have this fascination with

military leadership, but it is very one-dimensional. You know, there's a lot about leadership that I had to learn outside of the military and that really made me an actual leader. In the military, it was much more, like I said, very one-dimensional, very niche, if you will. But the one thing that happens in the military is as you grow up in the military, and I'm really mean grow up, because I joined when I was a team graduated in a group training

in Paris, I was 19 and then right into it. So, like you really do learn how to grow up and be a man in that environment. And that's good and bad for different reasons. But at the end of the day, you know, several years into your military career, you have younger guys coming in and they're looking to you for guidance. And I think that that was one of the things that stuck with me, especially when you operate in a small team and a special unit, you have this kind of

risk, you have this responsibility to bring them up with you as they don't know. So, so, you know, next thing you know, I'm an assistant team leader and I've got these young guys that I'm putting through training. And at the end of the day, if they're good guys, you want them

“to succeed. So, you have to help them and pour into them and give them the advice and give them the”

the house so that they succeed and become part of your team. And then at the end of the day, it's really important because you're in a warfighting job. So, lives run the line. And I think that's where it came from, as you see these young men, even though I was a young men at the time, but, you know, they're anywhere from, you know, four to 10 years younger than me. And in the Marine Corps, that's old, you become, you know, 25 years old, you're the old guy, right? Right?

Because 18 girls are coming in and it's like, oh, wow, he's so much older than me. You know, it's funny to think about that now because I look, I look back and I was like, man, you're just a kid. And in some ways, I still am. But I think that's where it came from was this responsibility as a leader to improve the people below you. And there's this great quote of leaving, you know, you talk about, talk about leaving things better than we found them. But can we leave people

“better than we found them? And I think that one of my, like, good friends, it was my”

patronage sergeant for two years and then when I became patronage sergeant, he was in Recon. And he was my ops chief Phil thumb. He was really big about that, about transferring knowledge and bringing people up with him and making sure they had the tool that they needed to be successful in this community. And that really stuck with me over the years. So, like, regardless, I mean, we've talked about it in the past, but whether he was intentional about it or not,

it really did make a huge impact on my life and it still still continues to make an impact on my life. And that's kind of where I think, because I didn't have that growing up myself. That wasn't something that, you know, there were, there were individuals over a course of, you know, years that, you know, mentors and people that, you know, that took care of me. But there was no consistent father, no consistent anything that was like, took me under his wing. You know, my grandfather was

great, but I wasn't always there, you know, he was probably the most rock, you know, solid person

in my life. But we, we were gone all the time. So when he was there, it was nice. But there was no, I had no positive father figure to be able to do that or mentor that that was consistent over my youth. And so earning that in the Marine Corps and then taking it outside of that and leaving special operations and then guys on the team, you know, as a, as a, you know, as a team off-chief before I got out, um, operations chief. And when I left, even though on the team, I was taking, I was taking

trans, it, it transpired a different way of like helping them transition and, you know, that my

own, and then dealing with my own struggles and then having the, this empathy of wanting to help other people. Um, and I think that that, you know, to get to the answer to your question, I think it be, it really became rooted in leadership as the Marine Corps was pushing me along to be a leader.

“It just clicked that like you have to take care of the people underneath you. That doesn't mean”

like wiping their ass form. It means holding them accountable. It means it means bringing them up. It means creating standards. It means sometimes it means being hard on them because you love them. Um, and you want them to be successful. So like, you know, it's not, it's not just about, you know,

doing everything for them. It's about holding the accountable and making them the very best

versions of themselves that they can be. Yeah. Absolutely. And that, that transitions really well into this next segment that I like to call the unplug truth. And you've said before that, you know, when the uniform is gone, it doesn't mean that the mission is over. That's right. Right. And the outcome at all. That's right. Right. And I love that quote from you. And I love to talk about that just a little bit of the mission wasn't over. And then I also want to parallel it to, you know,

you said something profound. But I think if you were watching or listening, that we need to go back to, you know, you said that military leadership is essentially one way, right? And you had to learn

other facets of leadership. And that's the first time I've actually heard that, man, because I think

most of especially in the civilian world, right? Like, we look at military leaders and they've got their stuff together and they're going to solve all the problems and they know how to build the team and put it there. But you just told us, man, that like, there's things that you had to learn as well too, so I'd love to talk about that as well. Yeah. Which one would go with the leader one first? Yeah. Yeah. So here's the deal. You got to think about it from this standpoint.

The military industrial complex is a system. The way that you get promoted is a system. It's not necessarily rewarded on good behavior and productivity and your effort. Right? So it's not something that we think about when we look at the US military. Yeah. So we see these leaders and we just assume that they're great leaders because they hold

“this certain rank and they hold this position. But the reality is all you have to do is to be there”

and hit the hit the requirements, check all the boxes that you need for promotion and over a period of time. As long as you don't leave, you get promoted and you do all the right things and you say all the right things, you get promoted. Now you're the leader. Well, that's not, that doesn't make you a good leader. That just makes you left. You're just, you're just what remains. There's a pyramid that, you know, there's a, the big chunk of, like, for instance, the rank or the big chunk of, of the rank or

is actually e4 and below, really e3 and below. And it starts to get smaller as, as it goes up, like, it's like with anything. Any, any, you know, corporate ladder. Yeah. There's more workers than there are executives. That's just the way that it is. So guys stay in, guys get out. The guys stay in. They're going to move up. It doesn't mean that they're naturally gifted as a leader, or they have, they inspire others to do great things. You know, I think, I think great leaders

inspire others to want to be, like, I want to follow. And that, that'll give me a wrong. There are great, there are, there have been leaders in, like, the one, like, Phil, like I talked about. There have, there are great people in the, in those commands that are, like, holy cow, I would crawl through glass for three miles for that guy. And then there are other leaders that literally would be like, I wouldn't, you know, forgive my language, but I wouldn't piss on the guy

if he was on fire. Right. Right. Right. So, and I, I think that's the, that's the difference between the two. Can there be great leaders in the military? Absolutely. There can be.

“But you have to think, what is the mission of the military is to train, equip, and to fight,”

and win our nation's battles, period. Whatever we have to do to make that happen, it's not to make nico, good civilian, it's not to make nico a good husband or a good man, it's to execute a very singular mission, and that's it. So, now, as a CEO, as a thought leader, as, you know, as a father, as a husband, if I want to lead, I need a lot more tools than just

and win. There's definitely things that I can take from that, and I can apply to my business

and apply to my life. There's tools in that toolbox for sure, but it's also very limited. Right? Like in the real world, we're dealing with real people with real problems, and it's just more complicated. There's different personality types. You know, you look at, you look at people in special operations. There is a very unique personality that's being selected

“for that job. You have to fit into this box to be selected. That's just the fact.”

Yeah, out here. And yeah, we have some selection protocols, as far as hiring and requirements, and this and that. But you're dealing with a wide rate of personalities. You're dealing with, and you can say, like, what's just a job, and you don't have to worry about their families, and I don't have to worry about their kids, and like, okay, you can say that,

or you're not going to keep people around, because the reality is you're dealing with people,

you're dealing with all the people stuff too. Yeah. And if you want to leave people better than you found them, you're going to have to learn how to communicate and handle all those different problems. Yep. So, anyways, dealing with things like, you know, having tools in your Bobox to deal with empathy and and secure it being, you know, jealousy and all the different things that make us human, right? I had to learn those tools, and I couldn't, when I first got out,

I really was like the bulldoze guy. Like, it's my way or the highway. This is, I'm right, you're wrong, period. No, line in the sand. Yep. But if there's line in the sand, there's no,

there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no opportunity for understanding, for change and

perception, for growth. I can, I can be perceived right, right, but it doesn't mean that I'm 100% right. Right. And so there's, that that was a big change. And, and when I did that is when I was able to scale more people and deal, and the thing is, man, nobody's perfect. Right. How to, and again, I can go through here and flame through. I can flame through every single person in my company

“if I want. But where does that, what does that give me? Like, how do you inspire people to grow?”

How do you inspire them to do better? Yep. That's the real challenge of a leader. Amen. Amen. And I'm on record for saying, I don't know five better leaders than you, and this is me looking you and the eye and telling you that, not just as a friend, but someone that I truly look up to. And I think you hit it all on the head. Like, there's certain things that, as leaders, I don't care, military leader, corporate leader, whatever. Like, if you don't take the time to truly

know your people, but you're not leading them, your title is. Right. And they're respecting the title, and they're not respecting the person that goes with it. And I learned that from you, bro. So I want to be a shout-off. And that's the difference in the military. In the military, you have a title, you have a rank, and it's like, well, I have to follow that guy because of that. But that doesn't mean that like, they respect them, or they actually want to follow them, they're required to.

There's a difference there. I want to be the leader, or the like the guys that I've looked up to over the years that go, I do whatever you go, I'm in. Yeah. Like, I can work with you, or for you, all day long. Yep. That's a difference. Absolutely. Absolutely. So this next segment, Nick, is all about you. I call it the hot takes. And you are the hot take king. But one of the best hot takes, and it really wasn't even a hot take that you tried to classify it as. It's just a quote that

I love. It's a quote that that I actually write on my wall back here. And it says this, you don't gain confidence before the challenge. Right. You gain confidence by doing these, I'm going to tweak

“it a little bit by doing the damn thing. That's right. And I think a lot of times again, when we talk”

about separating average from good and good from great and great to be elite, it's really about doing the damn thing. Right. Because most of the time we know what to do, we know how to do it. We know when we're supposed to do it. But most people don't put the action behind it, bro. And again, I love that from you. And I love for you to talk us through that mentality a little bit of just do the damn thing. Yeah. And I think what people are waiting for is they're waiting for

the confidence, the confidence to do the damn thing. But see, confidence comes with experience.

going to have the confidence, what you actually need to do is first and foremost, commit. You first and foremost commit to the thing that you're wanting to do, the challenge that you're wanting to achieve, the objective that you're wanting to overcome, whatever the thing is that you that you feel in your heart that I need to do this or I should do this, the first and foremost thing is commitment. I'm going to commit to this thing. The second thing is the courage to do it.

You don't know how to do it. You're not going to be good at it. You might fail, but you have committed and now you're going to have the courage to do it. Now when you go to execute that thing, whether it's failure or win, it doesn't really matter because it's an endless circle. Once you've done it, well, now you have the experience. It's not a big scary thing anymore. You've already entered the door. You've went through the process, whether you failed or you did,

“but you have the experience of the thing, which then what happens when you have experience?”

Well, now you have confidence. You're confident. Yeah. I've done the thing before, and then the more that you do the thing, the more experience that you gain, the more confidence that you acquire. Okay, here's something my younger self would have benefited from. Most of us

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So if you've never public spoken, if you've never stepped on stage and talked to

100 per people, 20 people, 1000 people, it doesn't really matter. The first time, that's going to, it's a commitment and a courage thing. I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't know how I'm going to get through this, but I've committed, and I'm going to have courage, and I'm going to step on the stage, and I'm going to talk to people. I'm going to share a story. Now imagine yourself, you've done that a hundred times, two hundred times, three hundred times.

“Now you're giving other people the advice because you've done it so much, that it's now”

it's no longer about courage. It's the, I'm confident in my ability. Yep. And if you look at anything, like, for instance, you get in a car, you drive down the road to the grocery store. Do you need courage to get your car and drive down the road to the grocery store? No, why? Because you've done it a thousand times. Yep. Your confident in your ability to get in your car, turn it on, put it in drive, drive down the road to the grocery store. There's no difference in anything else.

We don't have to overcomplicate it. Commitment, courage, equals confidence, and then we go back to

commitment to the next thing, and then have courage to the next thing, and it cycles. The problem is,

we get hung up on the first thing, expecting to have the confidence to start something when you've never done it. And you're never going to get that confidence ever. It's never coming until the end. What you need is the courage to execute. And if you can't find that, I can't help you. Amen to that brother. And so this next hot take is a moment we're going to share together, man, because if there's one thing that has pissed me off, and I own an AI company. So I'm not anti-AI. Let's talk.

Let's talk on the side that I'm interested. But here's what pisses me off to you. And I know you're going to get this because you have the best coaching platform for entrepreneurs and leaders and individuals talking about the thing we just talked about. And you said something that sparked this, and this is why I want to talk about it. I call it receipts, right? The repetition of doing the thing over and over and over again. So that now you can't be like Nick and coach other people through it.

But here's what pisses me off Nick. AI has allowed a lot of people to do something one time.

do something. Let's just use public speaking as an example. You've been on one freaking stage

and now you're a speaker coach, right? You've lost 10 pounds. Amazing. Great job, by the way.

Yeah. But now all of a sudden you're a fitness expert, right? You've helped maybe yourself get over a hump. And now you feel like you can help others, but you're not qualified. You don't have licensed like bro, it pisses me off that there's so many people that are trying to convince others. Next part. Bro pisses me off, bro. Does it piss you off too? Or do you just not care? I can probably, I probably just don't care. This is what I tell people is with this.

There's so many, and I get, I get, I think people say this about me, to like, grifter, guru, whatever. Fake. I don't really care. I have the back, I have the businesses in the

money in the bank account. Yeah, there are seats. I have the receipts. Yep. I'm always concerned.

I might be very wary of the people that are selling this stuff that don't have the receipts to back it up. So the business coaches out there that don't have a business. They're only business is business coaching, but they've never built a business. They've never scaled a business. They've never exited a business. Now, look at P&L statements. You're not managing a team. You're not managing P&Ls. You're not managing cash flow. Be very careful of those individuals that like, where are

“you're, if you want to help people, where is your experience coming from, other than just”

a lie help people? Well, where did you learn to help people? Right. You know, and for me, the difference is one, I went through it myself. Every coaching call that I talked to, like, like, right now we're talking about winning the word home. We talked about today this morning. We were talking about having, is your wife, your audience? Is she your CEO? Or is she a co-author of your life with you? Are you building this life together? Or is she in the, is she in the, you know, the back seat?

You're driving along. You're the only one holding the map. And what the problem is is if you're the

only one holding the map, if you're the only one building a life when you die, your whole legacy, your whole that map dies with you. And we talk a lot about legs. Anyways, so my point being is that came from me, man. I, I got, I left, I got divorced and I didn't want to copilot. I was done with it. I was like, no, this is next time I'm going to drive forward. I'm going to hold the map. Everybody else is a cop, like everybody else is secondary to me. And so I had this amazing woman and I'm putting

her in the, the COO seed or better yet. I'm not even putting her in the CO, I'm putting her as the audience.

“You're just an audience member and, and to my story, right?”

Yes, what? I'm just trucking along, barely making, barely making along. And then all of a sudden over, you know, through evolution and growth, I start realizing this. And I start co-authoring our life together. And guess what happens? Guess how much faster I moved, how much more money I made. Right. How much things grew as a, like, I drew, I was able to grow my team. I was able to take things off my plate. And it, and I wasn't handling her as a COO. I was handing a finally made her a

co-author of our life together of what we were building together and wholly counted everything. Change. Yes, right. So all the stuff that I talk about and all these different people, I really be care, this is what I tell, this is the advice. If they have the life that you want, go listen to them. If they have the receipts that the same receipts that that you want to have, go listen to them. But if they have not produced, if they have not exited to eight, nine figure

“business and you're one to exited, why would you listen to them? Or the best business coach in the world?”

Based off what? Where's the evidence? The guys that I talk to are freaking cheese, man. Like, they're, they're ahead of me. They have businesses. They've exited businesses. You know, one of the guys that we talked to for our company, they exited, they exited a business that the company starts with the you and an A. You know what I'm saying? Right. Right. They were up against Nike. Right. Like, I want to know those stories. How did you? How did you manufacture that? How did you how did you solve

that problem? Yeah. And they hear the stories of of going up against one of the biggest fitness where companies and what they did and how they like, that's value. Some guy on Instagram talking

ever had is the one he's talking about right now. Right. Like, I ain't, I ain't enough for me, man.

And like you said, you know, listen, I, I think it's great that, and this is what I tell people as far as helping other people. It doesn't necessarily want to have to be a business, but too, you are uniquely qualified. Every individual is uniquely qualified to help the version 1.0 of themselves. Right. And I think, I know, I don't think I believe that you have a unique

“responsibility to do so. No. So I said all that to say that, yes, you should help the other version.”

Now, what that looks like is that a business? No, not necessarily a business. That's just being a good human. If you lost a hundred pounds, right, and you're like, man, this is what I did for me, for my family, for my kids, whatever the thing is, right? And then there's somebody, and I tell somebody, every time you should go do that, you should go build a business. You should go executing your dreams. You should go lose the hundred pounds. You know why? Because there's somebody

waiting to watch you that you are going to directly change their life by doing so. Amen. And by you making the change, by you becoming successful, you're going to inspire that one person that goes, dude, I'm going to go do that because he did it. And because if he did it, I can do it.

But that is, if you don't ever actualize your own plan and your own growth, you might never

say that other person. And you don't even know who that is, but he's waiting for you to make the change. He's waiting for you to be successful. And listen, it's pressure. I get it. But you are the only person uniquely qualified to help the version 1.0 of you out there. And that version, there's so many versions of the 1.0 of you out there waiting for you to be inspired by your change. And so if that's the case, then you have a responsibility to do so.

Love it, dude. Completely love it. Spot on with that. And I want to talk about Johnny Slicks, Johnny Shit, product that I love. Yeah, man. And in this segment, I call it the room.

“But, but was there a room? Was there a moment? Was there a meeting? Was there a conversation?”

That made you say, Johnny Slicks needs to be a thing. Like, walk me through, walk me through that moment, bro. It's interesting because what's cool is we have the moment, that moment, is on caught on camera. I was doing an unboxing in 2018, and John brought up some stuff. And there was no business made. It was just him trying to figure it out. And the branding was different. And, but he had his, he had his working formula and he gave it to me to try and

and I smelled it and used it within a week. I was like, this is a, this is a million dollar

business waiting to happen. Like, this is some good stuff. Completely organic, American made, American sourced. I mean, like, what more could you ask for? Right. And, and at that time, there was a lot of products, you know, a lot of products going through the market,

“to Instagram. Everybody was making beer oil. Everybody was doing their thing. You know what I mean?”

It was kind of a big boom there. And, and so people were sending me stuff all the time. I was buying random things. I had a much, you know, if you remember the back of the day, I had a much bigger beer, long hair. And, um, in any way, so I, I, I tried it and I told Aliah said, I said, I got a pardon with this guy. And this is back in the day when I was like, I was like building businesses and selling. I, I think we had sold three businesses back then. We were like, build a business, get it to a

certain level sell it. You know, nothing big, nothing to the level that we were now, but we were doing all right. We were thinking things happened. And I was like, I think I got a pardon with this guy. And, and, and take this to market. And, she funny. She's like, babe, you can't just be taking people's companies because I negotiated my way into several different business deals and became, it was funny. I became, but I negotiated, I accidentally, but kind of, kind of,

became the majority shareholder of a certain company at one point. And, uh, all they wanted me to do was market, but I was like, I'm, I'm not into that. I want to be equity holder. And so I negotiated my way in and it ended up becoming a majority shareholder of the business. And then we took it to another level and we exited and sold it to a Canadian company. And it was, it was a huge success. But anyway, it was just funny. It's like, yeah, because we did that with the gym. You know, they tried to

run me out of the gym for taking, for doing videos because I was doing vlogs back in the day. Yeah. So I just bought, they were like, you can't film in here. So I just contact the owners, and hey, I want to buy your business and I bought the business. I fired everybody. And I said,

And, but I met with John and, and I was like, let's do like, I asked him a bunch of business questions. He was like, maybe make a joke now. He said, what's your infrastructure like? He's like, info what? And then, make he makes a joke now. He's like, I was in no infrastructure. He's like, I know, I had no infrastructure. So we, you know, we built the website. We did the branding and we

“launched it and crooked the market. And I think was it, I can't remember exactly, but within two”

years, we were seven figure business. Two and a half years, we had seven figures. For sure, it was only six figures. We just broke a hundred grand within the first 12 months of launching. And then it was like, the next year was 600. And I think it was one point nine, the following year. Like, we hit seven figures in that third year. It was just like, wow. And then we hit eight figures and now we're on, you know, chasing nine figures. Um, but yeah, there was, it was the moment

that I, I used the product, the way it smelled, the way it felt. I was like, oh, there is nothing like it on the market at all. Like, there's nothing to compare the quality and that, and that's the reason why like John and I set down is like, what does this look like? And we certainly had certain

things that we would never outsource. We would, like, we would, you would be the manufacturer.

“We would source American ingredients. And we would make it in house. And we would scale. And we”

would do whatever it took to scale that to give, to give Americans jobs, whether it's, whether it's, you know, buying, you know, large quantities of beeswax from a bee farm in, in Idaho, right? So they can scale and they can employ people and then, and then we just trickles down from there. So we've just scaled the team internally to where now we have a real company. And, you know, we're, you know, trajectory and now we're going to retail and, you know, it's been, it's been a journey

and it's been a lot of hard work. Um, but now we're in CVS. We're talking to publics. We're talking

to Whole Foods. Like, it's just, it's amazing to see. And then from those three products, we created

an entire line. We just launched the other one. Clones coming in the fall. You know, he's Johnny, John's in the lab working on toothpaste. I mean, we're just, Johnny says this is going to, you know,

“the goal is to make Johnny six a household name. And it's to be one of the leading leading”

men's, you know, cosmetic grooming companies of the nation. I love it, dude. I love it. I told you offline, uh, I will be, uh, unsolicited, unpaid spokesman for the products for sure, um, because I believe in it and in the brand that much. And so I'll make sure that in the descriptions and the showups and everything that we have, uh, links to Johnny slicks. I also want to make sure that we have links to the ex-communicated warrior book. Amazing. I want to talk about that. We've

kind of highlighted some of the stories that are in the book, but I love how you, you're very vulnerable in the book, bro. Like you, you talk about the personal challenges and the looking at the mirror, as I like to say, right? That makes all of us uniquely who we are. I want to do something special. One, everyone, ex-communicated warrior, amazing book. I'm going to let, I'm going to let

make give you a little bit of the, the cliff notes of the book. But here's what I want to do, Nick. Now,

like the next 20 people on Instagram that tag Nick and myself, the word warrior, I'm going to purchase a copy of the book for you. Nice. Right? Because as a fellow author, I understand the importance of purchasing the book. So I want to make sure I'm getting 20 copies. If you're number 21, sorry. That's just how it works. I'll do the first 20. But if you're number 21, you've got Amazon, you've got Barnes and Noble, as you've got your local bookstore, go get the book.

But, Nick, let's tell them about ex-communicated warrior lately. Absolutely. It was um, so as I went through my transition and it was a very, very rough one for me. I wasn't expecting a difficult transition on the military to be honest. I was like mentally. I'm like, I'm out. You know what I mean? I did my time. I made my decision. It was my life. It was my turn to run my life. And I even told a friend, I was like, I'm already transitioned out. He's like, I just take it easy.

You know, maybe go one step at a time. And this is not like, oh, no, I'm good. And I'll tell you what, brother, it hit me like a ton of bricks, man. 300 miles an hour just smack me right in the back of the head. And there's a lot that I had to deal with anyways. So as I worked through that for several years and came out the other side, I started I was

And I kind of developed what I called the seven stages of transition.

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$350. And as I spoke about them, I started to realize that there was law enforcement guys. Fire service guys. Mothers, people, random civilians that would come up to me and be like, "I listen to sounds crazy. I'm not special operations, but everything you described is exactly what I've been feeling and where I've been stuck." And I realized that it was much more of a human being thing than it was a veteran thing. That we live long enough that we get stuck. We have chapters

in our lives. And sometimes whether we choose it or we don't choose it, a chapter comes to an end. And that chapter sometimes creates our identity. And so when we have this identity about ourselves in regards to this portion of our life, we don't know how to change it. We don't know how to move on. We really get stuck and it becomes self-destructive. Because we can't move in the thing is, and the thing that I talk about in the book is, what if the next chapter is the best chapter

life, but you were too afraid to close this one and start writing the next one? I appreciate what it was. My military service, listen, I appreciate what it was. A chapter is closed and I'm writing another one. You know, I'm several chapters actually past that now. And so what that book is is really talks about the seven stages of transition. And I utilize my story of leaving special operations and going through those seven stages.

So I give you the seven stages of transition, but I also give you my point of view as I walk through

“those and the things that were happening in my life. And I think that's what made it so powerful.”

Actually Simon Schuster was looking at publishing the book, but they wanted to remove the story. They said we either remove your personal story and just talk about the seven stage transition. Or we remove the seven stage transition and just make it a memoir. I'm like, absolutely not. The only way this works is they go together. And I think I made the, I think I made the right call.

But it's an incredibly powerful book. And I'm not saying that from a selfish standpoint or

ego-tistical, I'm saying that because after over 10,000 readers, I mean, I counted 10,000 years ago. So I don't know how many it's been now. The feedback from it has been overwhelming. And it, yeah, I would say that it has to be a god thing because I wrote it from my point of view. I wrote it, it's it's it's it's not well written to be honest. It's because it's it's me. It's funny people read people that know me go and it was like you were talking to me.

The way that you wrote it is literally the way that you speak. And I was like, yeah, because I was in Greece. I'm not free. It's on a patio.

And I bang that thing out. I wrote the first chapter, the first chapter and the concept.

Simon and Schuster got the overview. And then we waited for a year talking to them about publishing and finally I just pulled the plug and went to Greece for three weeks and set on a portion. Finish the finish the remaining chapters. Which was interesting by itself because I had to relive a lot of things and my wife warned me. And you know what, there was some heavy days and writing that book. But, you know, now after all these years, it's like, you know, people read it

and they go, dang, it was like reading my own story. You could have changed my name from all different walks of life. Professional athletes, moms who dedicated 20 years to raising kids in the kids, leave the house. That's a transition. That's an identity, fire service, you know, police officers, you guy from UPS hit me up one time. He's like, I did a 30 year career with UPS

going through this, going through this life when we have chapters. And when one chapter ends,

“it can be difficult to navigate how to pick back up. And that's what that is. And I'm proud to”

announce that on June 21st, the second book called "Reenclaiming the Man Within" is dropping

on Father's Day. So that, and that picks up in 2016. Some of the stories pick up in 2016 right around the time that the estimated were kind of ends. And it wasn't really meant to be like that. It just kind of the way that it worked out. So 2016 picks up on my entrepreneurial journey and kind of what I went through and, and, and some of the tools that I've created to, uh, to get to where I'm at today in 2026. I love it. So how about we're going to do this? We're going to double dip on some

books here today, like I feel generous today. So warrior 20 for that book. And what about reclaimed for another 20? Let's do it. Let's do it. That's it. But Instagram, you got the tag making I both reclaimed the first 20 I've got you. And again, for 21, 51, 171, Amazon, bars and ovals, whatever, civilian, skill get the book. Promise is going to change your life. That's right.

That's right. That's right. Amazing, brother. Well, I know how busy you are. I'm going to get you out of here

on this. It's, it's my unplug five. Rapid fire five questions. No prep. You ready? Yeah, everybody. All right. Because I know you the way I do, I know this is going to be hilarious. What is the most special ops way that you ever fix anything in your house? Um, you use an external force.

“Meaning I hire from body. That's why I'm afraid to find the guy that can get it done”

quickly and efficiently. Because if I do it, it's going to take me three weeks and a lot more extra money. Right. You, you've made a bigger problem than it existed, right? That's right. That is me all the way through. What's one business lesson from the battlefield that has parlorate

into the entrepreneur life. Operational planning. Uh, I'd really quick, basically something that

it took me way too long to realize that that worked in the military, that that applies to businesses. What does the end state look like? What does the result look like? Where are you at? Reverse engineer from where you want to be to where you're at? You create phase lines. And next thing you know, you've got to, you've got to phase line approach to getting to where you're at.

“First thing you got to do is understand what done looks like. What does a win look like?”

What does the win in the battle space look like? Feel like smell like? Have a very clean, have a very clear, and then reverse engineer from what done looks like back to where you're are. And now you have a road map to get you where you can be. I love it. I love that completely. What's one small but unexpected joy that you found in fatherhood? Oh, man. When you get to be present with your kids, watching the connection in the way that they look at you in the small things.

You know, I was gone for for my first two that are grown now. How to 12 years in the military. I was gone for six years. And so I made it count where it counted. But now I get the second go around around all the time and they go on a lot of trips. And the fact that I'm so present through practices, through whatever it is that we're doing, I just make it a priority and I have a busy life and it's just I'd make it a priority to happen. And a lot of times, you know,

if I go on a trip, the family goes with me. And we spend the money because it's worth it. But because of that, watching that connection, watching the little things like adding my dad, where's my dad, what my dad, and then we make that, it's just, it's just different. And having that connection that way has been a really beautiful thing. And I know that's that's hard to describe. But that's that would be my answer for that one. I love that man. Yeah. When is Daddy's turn to cook?

What's Nick making? Oh, I cook a lot, man. Let's see. We got burger night on Wednesdays. Nobody's going to beat my burgers. Okay. Nobody's beating my steaks. And then nobody's beating my pizza. Homemade pizza. Homemade pizza. You're coming over. Yeah, you ain't, you ain't beating it. And even Ali's like, listen, like when I'm out of town, they have to do burger night. She's like, and my son's like, he's five. He's like, ah, he's okay, Dad. He's not as good as yours, but, you know,

he's okay. I love it, dude. I love it. All right, Nick, last question.

What's one word you want to make sure is in that story that truly defines you.

“Legacy. My man. Yeah. My man. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been Nick.”

Kumalasos. Go actually check out his podcast. The Nick Kumalasos show. If you love all the conversations

we've had today, he has conversations that go much deeper. Same personality that you hear today.

“But if you love that style, that flow, I would definitely tell you to go check out the show.”

I'm going to have links to that as well, too. Do Nick a favor. This isn't even for me now.

Go subscribe to his podcast. And then go leave him a rating and review. Right? I'm man. So we appreciate that stuff. Let's appreciate that too. Nick, bro, I'm so glad I had time for you today that you had time for me today is more like it. I'm glad we could do this together, man, because you're a huge fan of you, a huge follower of you, and more importantly,

“man, I believe in you and all the things that you talk about and the things that you do to make”

America a better place, probably. So thank you for being who you are. Thank you, brother, very much. You got it. To all the viewers and listeners, remember, you'll be called. Is your superpower. Go unleash it.