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

We live long enough that 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, 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 in your 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 Unplugged. And today we've got a force who's turned special operations grit into 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 in welcoming the strategic, the impactful, the Titanic himself, Mr. Nick Kummelassos. Nick, how you doing today, brother?

I'm doing great. That's a tall order, man.

That's all you, bro. It is all you. I've been a huge fan of you for a while, man, like 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, uh, you and I have a lot of similarities where, you know, we talk about the difference between those who do and those who don't really starts up here. And if you're listening, I'm pointing to our head and to our brain. And, and Nick, for you, man, like 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 gonna talk a lot about that today. I always ask my, my guests this question of what's your be called? What's your purpose? That thing that's deeper than your why. All the, the amazing things that you do, bro. Like, what's the fuel to, 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, there's just this internal desire to move forward and to grow. And a lot of that probably comes from, you know, lack of childhood, a lot of, you know, missed opportunities or, or lack of opportunities. So like, I never want to go back to that, right? That's a, there's a foundational thing that, 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 a driving, that's always probably been a driving thing, even at my age now. You know, obviously I've gotten a lot smarter and wiser over the years about how we go about that. You know, in my earlier days and early 30s, it was just like grind till I die and work as hard as possible. And now I'm like, wow, let's, I mean, how can we do the bare minimum but get the highest ROI, right?

Right.

Um, but at the end of the day, there, you know, through this growth thing that's happened, I learned, and we can talk about it a little more in depth, but there was a book that I walked through, a good mentor of mine gave to me, and, uh, 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.

Mm-hmm.

Right? Like that's how we, that's how we get all of this done. And if, you know, anything from Johnny Slicks to Core Medical to what I do in the Agogi, whether it's, you know, social media and other podcasts, at the, at the foundation of it is like, how do I Through my own life experiences, through the things that I've learned, inspire, educate, and motivate others to live a more healthier and successful life.

Boom.

That's it. And what's interesting is when I learned that, when I kind of deconstructed that exercise and figured out what that was, I was not even really doing that work.

Mm-hmm.

But that's what aligned 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 is not the way it goes, right? We manifest our own reality and then we start, you know, we start getting, becoming self-aware of certain things and then we navig— 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. And again, we share so, so much in similar philosophies, but you talk about inspiring others and, 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, um, probably honestly, like in the Marine Corps coming up through, you know, the, you know, getting into 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 to create leaders. Now I'll say that not the, you know, 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.

Mm-hmm.

Um, you know, like there, there's a lot about leadership that I had to learn outside of the military. Uh, and that really made me an actual leader. Uh, in the military, it was much more, like I said, very one-dimensional, very niche, if you will. Um, but the one thing that happens in the military is as you grow up in military, and I really mean grow up because I joined when I was 18, graduated recruit training, Parris Island when 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. Um, but at the end of the day, you know, several years into your, 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, in a special unit, you have this kind of You have this responsibility to bring them up with you.

Hmm.

Because 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 hows to, 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 are on the line. And I, and I think that's where it came from is you see these young men, even though I was a young man at the time, but you know, they're anywhere from, you know, 4 to 10 years younger than me. And in the Marine Corps, that's old. You're, you become, you know, 25 years old, you're the old guy. Right. Right. Um, cause 18-year-olds are coming in. It's like, oh wow, he's so much older than me. You know, it's funny to think about that now.. Right. Um, cause I look, I look back and I was like, man, you're just a kid.

And in some ways I still am. But, um, but I think that's where it came from was this responsibility as a leader to, to improve the people below you. And there's this great quote of leaving, you know, you, you, you talk about, talk about leaving things better than we found them, but can we leave people them better than we found them. And I, and I think that one of my like good friends, he was, he was my platoon sergeant for 2 years. And then when I became a platoon sergeant, he in recon and he was my ops chief, Phil Thome. He was really big about that, about transferring knowledge and bringing people up with him and, um, making sure they had the tools they need to be successful in this community. And that really stuck with me over the years. So like regardless, and 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 I, there was no consistent father, no consistent anything that was like, took me under his wing.

You know, my grandfather was great. Um, 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, to be able to do that or mentor. That, that was consistent over my youth. And so learning that in the Marine Corps and then taking it outside of that and then leaving special operations and then guys on the team, you know, as a, as a, you know, I was a team ops chief before I got out, um, operations chief. And when I left, even on the team, I was taking, I was taking care of guys the same way that I did in the recon community. And then when I got out, that kind of just trans— it, it transpired in 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, 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. And that doesn't mean like wiping their ass for 'em. 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 'em. Um, yep. 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 them accountable and making them the very best versions of themselves that they can be. You know?

No, absolutely, man. And that, That transitions really well into this next segment that I like to call the Unplugged Truth. And, 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 end of it all.

That's right.

Right. And, and I love that quote from you and I'd love to talk about that just a little bit of the mission wasn't over. And then I also wanna parallel it to, you know, you said something profound that 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 us, especially in the civilian world, right? Like we look at military leaders and they've got their stuff together and they're gonna solve all the problems and, 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 some as well.

Yeah. Which one you wanna go with? The leader one first?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So here's the deal is like, you gotta 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, uh, productivity and your effort. Right. So that'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 or 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 Marine Corps, the big chunk of, of the Marine Corps is actually E-4 and below, really E-3 and below.

Hmm.

And it starts to get smaller as, as it goes up, like, just 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 that 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, don't get me wrong. There are great, there are, there have been leaders and like the one, like Phil, like I talked about. There are great people in the, in those commands that are like, holy cow, I would crawl through glass for 3 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 think that's the, that's the difference between the two. Can there be great leaders in the military? Absolutely. There can be. Um, but you have to think, what is the mission of the military? Is, is to train, equip, and fight and, and win our nation's battles, period.

Whatever we'd have to do to make that happen. It's not to make Nick a good civilian. It's not to make Nick a good husband or a good man. It's to execute a very singular mission, and that's it. So now as a, as 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 being, figuring out how to take, you know, a group of people and go, you know, send them off into combat 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 a 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 range of personalities.

You're dealing with the, and you can say like, well, it'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 I'm like, okay, you can say that, but you're not gonna 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, well, you're gonna 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 toolbox to deal with empathy and insecurity and, you know, jealousy and all the different things that, that make us human, right? Mm-hmm. 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.

Yeah.

Line in the sand.

Yep.

But if there's a line in the sand, there's nowhere, there's no, there's no learn, there's no opportunity for understanding, for change in 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 is, and, and when I did that is when I was able to scale more people and deal. And the thing is, is man, nobody's perfect, right? How do, and, and again, I can go through here and flame through, I can flamethrow every single person in my company if I want, but where does that, where does that get 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 5 better leaders than you. And this is me looking you in 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, mm-hmm, like 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 wanted to give you a shout out for that.

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.

Yeah.

But that doesn't mean that like they respect them or they actually wanna follow them. They're required to. There's a difference there. I wanna be the leader or the, like the guys that I've looked up to over the years that go, hey dude, wherever 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. All right. And you are the hot take king. It, but, but one of the best hot takes, and it, 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.

Mm-hmm.

Right? You gain confidence by doing. These, I'm gonna tweak it a little bit by doing the damn thing.

That's right.

And, and I think a lot of times, again, when we talk about separating average from good and good from great and great to the elite, it's really about doing the damn thing.

Mm-hmm.

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, 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, 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, right? If you've never done the thing, you don't have the experience, therefore you're not gonna 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 object, the objective that you are wanting to over— overcome, whatever the thing is that you're, 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 are 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, 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.

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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, 1,000 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 100 times, 200 times, 300 times. Now you're giving other people the advice because you've done it so much. That is now, it's no longer about courage. It's 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 in your car and drive down the road to the grocery store? No.

Why?

Because you've done it a thousand times.

Yep.

You're 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 do 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 then. I'm interested.

But, but here's what pisses me off, dude. And I know you're gonna get this because you have the best coaching platform for entrepreneurs and leaders and individuals talking about the thing we just talked about.

Mm-hmm.

And you said something that sparked this, and this is why I wanna 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 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 and now they think they've done it a billion times and they now go try to teach others how to 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, you've lost £10. 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 license. Like, bro, it pisses me off that there are so many people that are trying to convince others.

Everybody's an expert.

Bro, pisses me off, bro. Does it piss you off too? Or do you just not care? But it freaking pisses me off.

I 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, I think people say this about me too, like grifter, guru, whatever, fake. I don't really care. I have the back, I have the businesses and the money in the bank account.

You have the receipts.

I have the receipts.

Yep.

I, I'm always concerned. I'm like, 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, their 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 listen, they don't look at P&L statements, right?

You're not managing a team. You're not managing P&Ls. You're not managing cash flow. Like, No. Be very careful of those individuals that like, where are your, if you want to help people, where is your experience coming from other than just, oh, I 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 talk to, like, like right now we're talking about winning the war at home.

Right.

We talked about today, this morning we were talking about having, is your wife your audience? Is she your COO 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 backseat? 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.

Yep.

And we talk a lot about legacy anyways. So my point being is that came from me, man. I, I got it. I left, I got divorced and I didn't want a copilot. I was done with it. I was like, no, I, this is Nick's time. I'm gonna drive forward. I'm gonna hold the map. Everybody else is a co, like everybody else is secondary to me.. And so I have this amazing woman and I'm putting her in the, the COO seat, or better yet, I'm not even putting her in the COO. I'm putting her as an audience. You're just an audience member. And, and to my story, right? Guess what? I'm just trucking along, barely making, barely making along. And then all of a sudden over ev, 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 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, I finally made her a co-author of our life together, of what we were building together.

And holy cow, did everything change.

Yes, sir.

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 'em. If they have the receipts that, the same receipts that, that you want to have, go listen to 'em. But if they have not produced, if they have not exited an 8, 9-figure business and you're wanting to exit a 9, why would you listen to 'em? Right? They're the best business coach in the world. Based off what? Where's the evidence? The guys that I talk to are freaking G's, 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, the company starts with a U and an A, you know what I'm saying? Right., right? They were up against Nike, right? Like, I wanna know those stories. How did you, how did you manufacture that? How did you, how did you solve that problem?

Yeah.

And to hear the stories of, of going up against one of the biggest fitness wear companies and what they did and how they, like, that's value. Some guy on Instagram talking about he's a business coach and he's never even, like, the only business, the only LLC that he's ever had is the one he's talking about right now.

Right.

Like, I ain't, that ain't it for me, man. And like you said, there are people that, you know, and 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, one, have to be a business, but two, you are uniquely qualified. Every individual is uniquely qualified to help the version 1.0 of themselves.

Right.

And I think. No, I don't think, I believe that you have a unique responsibility to do so. Yep. 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, it's not necessarily a business. That's just being a good human. If you lost £100, 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 the business. You should go execute on your dreams. You should go lose the £100. 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 fact is, if you don't ever actualize your own plan and your own growth, you might never save 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, and, and listen, it's pressure. I get it. But you're, 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 one point of view out there waiting for you to be, 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 wanna talk about Johnny Slicks. Johnny Slicks. 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? Oh yeah. Like, 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.

Hmm.

I was doing an unboxing in 2018 and, uh, John brought up some stuff and we, there was no business made. It was just him trying to figure it out. And, and the branding was different. And, uh, but he had his, he had his working formula and he, he gave it to me to try and, and, uh, I, I smelled it and used it and 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 through Instagram. Everybody was making beard oil, everybody was doing their thing, you know what I mean? It was kind of a big boom there. And, um, and so people were sending me stuff all the time. I was buying random things. Um, I had a much, you know, if you remember the back in the day, I had a much bigger beard, long hair.

Yeah.

And, um, and anyways, so I, I, uh, I tried it and I told Allie, I said, I said, I gotta partner 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 3 businesses back then. We, 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 making things happen. And I was like, I think I gotta partner with this guy. And, and, and take this to market. And she was funny. She was like, babe, you can't just be taking people's companies. 'Cause I had negotiated my way into several different business deals and, and became, it was funny. I became by negotiation, I accidentally, not accidentally, but kind of, kind of became the majority shareholder of a, of a certain company at one point. And, uh, all they wanted me to do was market, but I was like, nah, I'm, I'm not into that. I want to be equity holder. And so I negotiated my way in and 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. And, but anyways, it was just funny. She was like, do you have, because we did that with the gym. Mm-hmm. You know, they, they tried to run me outta the gym for take, for doing videos. Cause 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 contacted the owners, said, hey, I wanna buy your business. And I bought the business. I fired everybody and I said, oh, it's my gym now. I can film whatever I want. And, and, uh, so that was just kind of my MO back then. And, and, uh, but I met with John and, and I was like, listen, dude, like I asked him a bunch of business questions. He was like, we make a joke now. He's like, I said, what's your infrastructure like? He's like, info what? And then we make, he makes a joke now. He's like, I was a no-structure. He's like, I had no, I had no infrastructure. So we, you know, we built the website, we did the branding and, and we launched it and took it to market. I think was, I, I can't remember exactly, but within 2 years we were a 7-figure business. 2.5 years we hit 7 figures. First year was only 6 figures. We just broke $100 grand within the first 12 months of launching. And then it was like the next year was $600,000 and I think it was $1.9 million the following year.

Like we hit 7 figures in that third year and it was just like, phew. And then we hit 8 figures and now we're on, you know, chasing 9 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. Yeah. Like there is nothing to compare it, the quality. And that, and that's the reason why, like John and I sat down, I was like, what does this look like? And, and we cert, we 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, and we would do whatever it took to scale that, to give, to give Americans jobs. Um, whether it's, whether it's, you know, buying, you know, large quantities of beeswax from a bee farm in, in Iowa, 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 into retail and, you know, it's, it's been a, 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 Publix, we're talking to Whole Foods. Like it, it's just, it's amazing to see. And then from those 3 products, we created an entire line. We la— we just launched deodorant. Um, cologne's coming in the fall. Cool. Um, you know, he's Johnny, John's in the lab working on toothpaste. I mean, we're just, Johnny Slicks is gonna, you know, like the goal is to make Johnny Slicks a household name and, and it to be one of the leading, leading men's, you know, cosmetic grooming companies, uh, of the nation.

I love it, dude. I love it. I told you offline, uh, uh, I will be an 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 show notes and everything that we have, uh, links to Johnny Slicks. I also want to make sure that we have links to the Excommunicated 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, the personal challenges and the looking at the mirror, as I like to say, right? That, that makes all of us uniquely who we are. Um, I wanna do something special. One, everyone, Excommunicated Warrior, amazing book. I'm gonna let, I'm gonna let Nick give you a little bit of the, the cliff notes of the book, but here's what I wanna do, Nick, man. 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, I understand the importance of purchasing the book. So I wanna 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 Noble, you've got your local bookstore. Uh, go get the book. But Nick, let's tell them about Excommunicated Warrior really quick.

Absolutely. It was, um, so as I went through my transition and it was a very, very rough one for me, um, I wasn't expecting a difficult transition outta the military, to be honest. I was like, mentally I'm like, I'm out. You know what I mean? I, I, I did my time. I'd made my decision. Uh, it was my, it was my life. It was, it was, it was my turn to run my life. And I even told a friend, I was like, oh, I'm already transitioned out. He's like, ah, just take it easy and, you know, maybe go one step at a time and this and that. I'm like, oh no, I'm good. And I'll tell you what, brother, it, it, it hit me like a ton of bricks, man. 300 miles an hour, um, just smacked me right in the back of the head. And, uh, and then 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 start— I was working with veterans and I started to see this trend and I would go and speak about this story and, and I kind of developed what, like what I called the 7 stages of transition.

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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, this sounds crazy. I'm not, I didn't, not special operations, but everything you described is exactly what I've been feeling and where I've been stuck. And, and I realized that it was much more of a human being thing than it was a veteran thing. That these, that, 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 por— 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. And the thing is, and the thing that I talk about in the book is What if the, what if the next chapter is the best chapter of your life, but you are too afraid to close this one and start writing the next one?

Appreciate what it was. My military service. Listen, I appreciate what it was. That chapter's closed and I'm writing another one. You know, I'm several chapters actually past that now. And so what that book is, is, is really talks about the 7 stages of transition.. And I utilize my story of leaving special operations and going through those 7 stages. So I give you the set, the 7 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. Um, 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 7 stages of transition, or we remove the 7 stages of transition and just make it a memoir. And 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. Um, but it's, it's an incredibly powerful book. And I'm not saying that from a selfish standpoint or egotistical. I'm saying that because after over 10,000 readers.

I mean, I counted 10,000 years ago, so I don't even know how many it's been now. The feedback from it has been overwhelming.

Yep.

And 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 raw. It's not well written, to be honest. It's because it's me. And it's funny, people that know me go, Man, 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, cuz I was in Greece. I'm in Greece on a patio and I banged that thing out. I wrote the first chapter, the first chapter and the, and the concept. Simon and Schuster got it, got the overview, and then we waited for a year talking to them about publishing. And finally I just pulled the, pulled the plug and, and went to Greece for 3 weeks and sat on a porch and finished the, finished the remaining chapters. Um, which was interesting by itself cuz I had to relive a lot of things and my wife warned me and, and it was, there were some, there were some heavy days in, in writing that book. Um, but you know, now after all these years it's like, you know, people read it and they go, dang, that 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 and the kids leave the house. That's a transition. That's an identity. Fire service, you know, police officers, guy from UPS hit me up one time. He's like, I did a 30-year career with UPS and your book is like, saved my life. I mean, because at the end of the day, Mick, we're all human beings going through this, going through this life and we have chapters. And when one chapter ends, it's, it can be difficult to navigate how to pick back up. And that's what that is. Uh, and I'm proud to announce that, uh, on, on June 21st, the second book called Reclaiming the Man Within, um, is dropping on Father's Day. So that, and that picks up in 2016. Um, some of the stories pick up in 2016, right around the time that the Excommunicated Warrior kind of ends. And it wasn't really meant to be like that. It just kind of the way that it, it worked out. Um, 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 gonna do this? We're gonna double dip on some books here, Nick. Like, I feel generous today. So Warrior, 20 for that book. And what about Reclaim for another 20? Let's do it.

Let's do it.

Message. But it's Instagram. You gotta tag Nick and I both. Yeah. Reclaim the first 20. I've got you. And again, if you're 21, 51, 171, Amazon, Barnes Noble, whatever, Books-A-Million, just go get the book. Promise it's gonna change your life.

That's right.

That's right. Amazing, brother. Well, I know how busy you are. I'm gonna get you outta here on this.

Yes, sir.

Uh, it's, it's my Unplugged Five. Rapid fire, 5 questions, no prep. You ready?

Yeah, I'm ready.

All right. Because I know you the way I do, I know this is gonna 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 somebody. That's what special operations do. Find the guy that can get it done quickly and efficiently. 'Cause if I do it, it's gonna take me 3 weeks and, and a lot more extra money.

Right. You, you've, you've made a bigger problem than existed, right?

That's right.

That's right. That is me all the way through. What's one business lesson from the battlefield, uh, that has parlayed into the entrepreneur life of you?

Operational planning. Uh, uh, uh, really quick, basically. Something that it took me way too long to realize that, that worked in the, in 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 gotta, you gotta phase line approach to getting to where you're at. First thing you gotta 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 it very clean, have it very clear, and then reverse engineer from what done looks like back to where you are. And now you have a roadmap to get to where you wanna 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 and the way that they look at you in the small time, small things.

Mm-hmm.

You know, I, I, I was gone for, for my first two that are grown now outta 12 years in the military. I was gone for 6 years. And so I'd made it count where it counted. Mm-hmm. But now I get the second go around where I'm 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 just, it's, I, we 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, um, watching the little things like, I need my dad. Where's my dad? I want my dad. And then we make that hap— it's just. It's just different. And, and having that connection that way has been a really beautiful thing. And I know it's, that's hard to describe, but that's, that would be my answer for that one.

Nah, 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 gonna beat my burgers.

Um, okay.

Nobody, nobody's beating my steaks. Uh, and then nobody's beaten my pizza.

Ooh, homemade pizza.

Homemade pizza.

I'm coming over.

Yeah, you ain't, you ain't, you ain't beating it. And even Allie's like, listen, like when I'm outta town and we have to do burger night, she's like, and my son's like, he's 5, he's like, eh, it was okay, dad. It's not as good as yours, but you know, it was okay.

I love it, dude. I love it. All right, Nick, last question.

Hit me.

As, as your story continues to evolve and unfold and someone else is writing that story for you, what's one word you wanna make sure is in that story that truly defines you? Legacy. My man.

Yeah.

My man. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been Nick Koumelasos. Go actually check out his podcast. The Nick Cumulasso Show. If you love all the conversations we've had today, he has conversations that go much deeper, uh, 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. Um, 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?

Amen.

So we appreciate that stuff.

That's right.

We appreciate that stuff.

We do.

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, I'm a huge fan of you. I'm 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, bro. So thank you for being who you are.

Thank you, brother, very much.

You got it.

To all the viewers and listeners, remember, your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.