Nick Vertucci: Seven Figured Decisions

Transcript

[0:00:18] Charlie Hoehn: You’re listening to Author Hour, enlightening conversations about books with the authors who wrote them. I’m Charlie Hoehn. Today’s episode is with Nick Vertucci, author of Seven Figured Decisions. Nick believes that you don’t strike it rich by playing it safe. It’s the seven figure decisions that lift you out of the middle class and into the millionaire’s circle. Nick achieved this success by taking these bold calculated risks to reinvent himself after he lost everything. In this episode, he starts off with that story of how he lost everything and you’ll want to stick through that story because then he outlines the fundamental building blocks that form the foundation that changed his life. Nick is an inspirational guy and he will help you push past your fears and alter your mindset so that you can actually pursue your goals with meaning and passion again. By the end of this episode, you won’t be focused on small changes in your life anymore, you’ll be focused on going big in both your business and your life. Now, here is our conversation with Nick Vertucci.

[0:01:50] Nick Vertucci: Back when I was on my real estate journey of investing and I had created a cash flow system which means I had a partner who I brought in to my business who – what we did effectively was by foreclosures, put renters in these foreclosures after we rehab these properties and we provided a turnkey system. At some point in my investing career, I met another gentleman who owned and ran a real estate training company. That relationship was made and I and my partner were teaching a three-day cash flow class. We were providing properties for students, for new investors because a lot of people don’t know until you read my book or get to know me, I was a product of the real estate training company. I was a student which had actually saved me in a really tough financial time and I worked really hard for about 10 years, pulling myself out of a real financial – millions of dollars in debt and paying off everything and then creating some massive wealth and in this process, I built two really close friendships One, with my business partner and his wife and then the owner of this training company who I had kind of had a joint venture agreement with. I got to tell you man, these two guys were two of my closest friends and we were having a ball doing this and we were providing a great product for these students, we were having wild success, well, what started happening is – You know, in this business of real estate training and any business and I’ll always talk about this as a key to your business, is this: integrity is longevity. I will tell you that possibly on the training side of that company, things wouldn’t be done how they should have been done. The company started to struggle, the company started to have some bad times. Well, the one good thing –

[0:03:39] Charlie Hoehn: What do you mean by bad times?

[0:03:41] Nick Vertucci: Well, what I mean by that is, because their brand wasn’t protected and their name wasn’t protected, business started going down significantly. Less people were showing up to the training, less revenue was being brought into the company and he was losing money. I’ve been there before too in different businesses, so I understand that. You know, there’s some tough road ahead of him but to be honest with you, he created himself because of ego and pride and a lot of other things but the one good thing about that movement was my cash flow, was my partner and I’s cash flow training and the properties that we were selling to the students. It was very profitable, it was a win/win for the student and it was a win/win for us. That was the only thing generating I believe at the time positive income. What started happening, slowly but surely, it was one of those things where you kind of cocked your head and wondering, you know, my business partner and this particular gentleman, the owner of that company, didn’t always get along very well. I was the kind of the glue that held that together and they pretty much stayed away from each other. But it was the oddest thing, Charlie, after, right in about the middle of 2013, these two guys that could never find any common ground started acting a little more chummy. I was, you know, initially happy about that but it started to go in a direction where things started getting a little weird. You know, my closest friend is the owner of that company, I felt a distance, maybe a cool breeze, some things just started not feeling right, started feeling the same thing for my partner. I thought to myself, no possible way could this be what’s happening which I was creating in my mind which was maybe these guys are getting a weird idea. Because, what happened was, I was one part of this business. I was the one teaching and speaking and my company here in southern California was the backbone of the customer service of this. I brought in my business partner who was working on the ground in markets like Vegas to Orlando, running our management company, buying their properties and doing the hands-on stuff. Now, of course, the other fellow was bringing in the students who were buying the properties. What I think they figured, excuse me, not even my partner but the owner of the seminar company, figured was, you know, “If I could hop over the wall of Nick. Maybe I could probably take his share and make some more revenue because I need it.” Long and short of it is, I was pretty much brutally extracted from my business partnership. I was circumvented, it’s called being torturously interfered in a partnership and that’s the legal term for it. I got to tell you man, it’s funny because even though I was at the top of my financial game, it was the single most toughest emotional time I had in my life. I had my life. I had my whole identity wrapped up in working within this company, working with my partner, created a massive cash flow system and make no mistake, I created it. They figured I was expendable which you know, again, later if we talk about it, what you will find out that I wasn’t. I was out, not long before that, in June of 2013, because I was a reserve police officer for 18 years, I had stepped away from that, I had done it long enough. Two major things in my life were gone and it was tough man.

[0:06:55] Charlie Hoehn: Your identity, your business and your friends.

[0:07:00] Nick Vertucci: Yeah, here’s the thing and it was done, if we get into the details, if we want to and you want to, it was done pretty brutal and it wasn’t done with class and it was –

[0:07:08] Charlie Hoehn: How do you mean?

[0:07:09] Nick Vertucci: Well, I was informed by a phone call by the promoter, the seminar owner, I was informed by him on a phone call because for the couple of weeks leading up to it, I couldn’t even get a conversation with him. I knew this was coming a few weeks before. I just didn’t know in what form and I wasn’t prepared for it. I didn’t have things structured properly which is in my book, I talk about that which ultimately became a blessing because sometimes the worst – I’ll get back to the point but sometimes the worst things that happen to you, if you had a gun to your head, you would say “There is no way this is ever going to be a positive, there is no way this is a plan for me, this is just a bad hand being handed to me.” I got to tell you, it wound up and we’ll find out later why being the best thing that ever happened to me, but it was the lowest point in my life and during that phone call, that person called me and said: “Nick, I am ending my business relationship with you” and I said, “I don’t get it.” He said, “Hey look, I’m not going to go into the details, we’re not going to come to an agreement and you’re not going to ever like this, so just understand that.” He said, “You know, we don’t have to end the personal relationship if you don’t want to because this isn’t personal.” I don’t know what kind of language I can use on your show, but I basically said, “You know what? This ain’t personal? Are you kidding me?”

[0:08:24] Charlie Hoehn: Yeah, that’s like breaking up with somebody and saying, “But we can just be friends” because they don’t want to feel like a monster.

[0:08:32] Nick Vertucci: Well, it’s funny too because this individual had a reputation of being kind of a monster, he just never acted that way to me that I ever knew him and now I was getting a taste of it and we can go into some of the things that happened after that. This is not the worst part of the story. You know, I talked to my partner right after that and I said, “Is this call I took really true?” He just said, “Nick, you know, my family and my employees and I don’t have a choice and it was either we’re both gone or I keep this gig.” I said, “You know, what about my family? What about my employees” because we kind of had separate businesses. We had two entities running even though we had kind of a partnership and you know, that was that. They rooted me out, it was that quick, it happened fast, there was no hugs and kisses and you know, this was something that I’ve been doing close to six years successfully that I started and I was out. I kind of put myself in that position and that happened. But again, you know, the real story really happens from that time kind of on. Where it really gets interesting and the reason for the book was, post what I just told you. Again, I don’t know how far you want to get into it but that’s the real reason I wrote this book and there’s a reason why it’s called Seven Figure Decisions. There’s an actual moment where something – two moments where something happens and that’s the name of the book.

[0:09:52] Charlie Hoehn: Wow, all right, I’m on board Nick, by the way, thank you for sharing all that. That is brutal and I can absolutely see why that was the hardest period of your life, that is wildly traumatic on multiple levels. Tell me what happens next in the story? Because I want to hear what’s next but before we talk about Seven Figure Decisions, what started to unfold?

[0:10:18] Nick Vertucci: Well, what happened from there is, now, I have a whole building in August, this is August 28th, I get the call 2013. I have a building full of people that we’re running my system here in Orange California that I had no idea what to do with them because we were out. You know, I went back to them and I leveled with them, we had a big meeting, I told them exactly what happened and I said, “Listen, I‘m going to pay you guys through December for two reasons. One is, I want you to stay on board with me because I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet and maybe nothing, maybe after December I tell you, you know, go find something but I’m going to pay you so you don’t have to worry through the holidays and stress on that and I just want you to stay plugged in with me until I can figure it out.” I kind of – got to tell you, for the first couple of weeks, I disappeared. I had a tough time even ripping myself out of bed. I started to get depressed. I lost my mojo, two of my closest friends had circumvented me, I honestly was embarrassed. I felt the rejection of that. It just was a horrible thing and I really didn’t have any fight in me at the time. What started happening Charlie which was the weirdest thing is you know, my business partner just went away. One of the things they did though – I had a lot of money, millions of dollars tied up in my inventory. Because I didn’t have a lot of that structured perfectly, my partner had more control of the dispersement t of that, well, the person who cut ties with me, the promoter, basically had enough leverage with him to say, “Do not pay him until he signs something for me.” He wanted me to sign a one-sided owner risk, like liability, he’s free of and et cetera. You know, I wasn’t prepared to do that, I couldn’t get my money and I was pretty leveled emotionally so I didn’t have much fight in me and strange things started happening, not from my business partner but from the promoter. I started getting a lot of different – now, this is the part where most people don’t even understand why this would be because you just figure, “Man, if you’re going to do this, just do this and go away.” I started getting kind of taunted and you know, I reference a book in my teachings called Who Moved My Cheese?, it’s about two mice who their cheese moved and unless you reinvent yourself or go down a different part of the maze, you starve or you can live if you’re willing to change. Well, some of his people, his production people, he had of course take the mouse off the cover, put my face on it and they would text me things like “Who moved my cash flow?” instead of “Who moved my cheese?” Just, a lot of weird things that were just like a putting your thumb in a wound but it’s funny because –

[0:12:37] Charlie Hoehn: Sorry to interrupt Nick. Those are really like, not only is it kind of Machiavellian to go behind your back and well, it is, it straight up is. It’s just like a-moral. What they were doing at that point to taunt you. Did you know that they kind of had that in them until this happened?

[0:12:57] Nick Vertucci: No, I did. This is the one thing I’d say shame on me is I seen this behavior from him with others but I got to tell you, I hung my hat on two things, one is, it’s a shame on me in which would be, you know, I was making a lot of money and it’ll never happened to me. I try to base my opinions and things off of how I’m treated and not what other people think or say but if I’m being completely honest with you Charlie? Yes, I had seen it. He was very litigious too and he attacked his competitors, he attacked employees that left at other places. I’ve seen this behavior out of him. So, I wasn’t completely shocked but what I was shocked about is listen, I was the executor of this person’s estate, okay? If something happened to him. It’s hard to articulate on a podcast the depth of these relationships, okay?

[0:13:46] Charlie Hoehn: Right. Yeah.

[0:13:47] Nick Vertucci: I had seen it before but I was shocked it was happening to me, okay?

[0:13:52] Charlie Hoehn: That makes sense.

[0:14:00] Nick Vertucci: From there, I just didn’t have much fight in me. I was fighting for my money, I wouldn’t sign the release and I had thought three or four weeks later, I said, “Okay, let me try to get back out there.” Now, you got to understand, what I built with my partner took years, there was years of building the landscape of this business, the management around it that we managed the companies, the pipeline of properties, the money we were raising, mostly I was raising and using my own capital. This is not something that you can build overnight but I thought to myself, “Well, this is what I’ll do.” I couldn’t do my radio show anymore because I had a radio show that was another vehicle I had for selling properties because my relationship was ended with my partner. There was now ability to do that and you have to do it right when you do it. I think to myself, “I’m going to get out there and I’m going to go into a market that I think will work with this,” which I decided on the market, I went out there and I tried to start building it again. I flew back and forth, I had kind of put together another, if you will, partnership, it really wasn’t because that’s how these things start. They start out slow and you have to build them and sometimes they don’t work and so again it takes a while. But I’m trying to rush it, I’m trying to do it, I have a gentleman, a friend of mine, his name is Scott and he was also a promoter of other brands and other things and he understood this business and I had been speaking with him and he’d say “Hey, you know, I do have some students that come through my stuff. If you can provide me with some…” because I wasn’t allowed to really work with anyone else because this particular guy that I’m speaking of, that was his policy: We work exclusively, or we don’t work at all. All my eggs were in one basket which was even worse. But now, you know, Scott’s telling me “Hey, you know, if you can provide me some of these turnkey properties, maybe we can use some.” I started doing that, I handful here, handful there, I started doing that, I wasn’t teaching any of his stuff, I just was providing the properties. I just got to tell you Charlie, it was the weirdest thing because even though I could have put that together because it’s what I do, there was something missing. I didn’t know what it was, I couldn’t figure it out but I was just a shell. I couldn’t do it and I called Scott up and I said, “Listen, this relationship I’m building isn’t strong enough. I’m not really sold out on the guys that are on the ground. I’m kind of putting this thing together, it’s like a house of cards right now and I’m not going to put my name behind and I just – I don’t want to do it man.” He appreciated it, he said, “Nick, thank you, you’ve always had integrity. I appreciate that. I’d rather you tell me that than provide me something you can’t stand behind.” Then he said something that was interesting. He said, “Why don’t you start your own real estate training company?” I said, “Scott, come on, I don’t have a TV flip show, I’m not one of these guys they put on the banners, I mean, I don’t know anything about doing that. I’m a real estate investor.” He said, “Well, I believe you could do it because you are the real deal.” “You’re a real estate investor, most of these guys, they promote really aren’t or they don’t do as much as they say and I know a little bit about it, maybe I could just help you with some of the moving parts until you get going.” I said “Scott, I don’t think so, man. Let me think about it.” It sounded like a big undertaking because it’s a front heavy industry of marketing and most people that try don’t make it anyways, it’s a really tough endeavor. We hung up but it was the weirdest thing Charlie, about a week or so, kind of doing my thing, still kind of just basically dog paddling. It occurred to me, why I couldn’t find any happiness doing what I was doing is because what I missed was, teaching my three-day class that I created within that company. Teaching the students because I was a student and product of that industry and seeing the success that I could help them create and also of course, provide them the properties but really was the training and the teaching aspect that I really thought you know, “Holy shit, this is what I love.” I called Scott back and I said, “I can’t believe I’m telling you this but I’m in. I think I want to do this” but again, doesn’t end there. The bulk of the story, still is yet to come and I’ll just tell you this, the abridged version for your listeners. I was lacking big time, lacking confidence. My mojo was crushed, these guys were mocking me or telling me that I didn’t bring anything to the table that you know, what they did was the value and I was just kind of the term was a “broker” which was just horrible. I lost my mojo but I had learned something in a mentorship I took years before this. This was how and why and we can talk about it later because it’s a the crucks of my success and I believe success of people but to have a strong mind game. It doesn’t matter how trained you are, how much knowledge you have, how smart you are, what your aptitude is, you got to have a few other things but you don’t need all of that. What you have to have is a strong mind game and the will to succeed and win. I was taught that. I reverted back to that during this time and with some other things I learned which was pattern interruption, which is how to take negative thoughts, negative feelings and negative experiences and to process them and pattern and interrupt that pattern and bring it in to something that’s more successful, more positive. It’s not just like “Oh change, you know, how you're thinking and it all gets better.” You have to do that at first to have a strong mind game and then you have to get to work.

[0:19:07] Charlie Hoehn: Give me an example of that that a listener could try this week?

[0:19:12] Nick Vertucci: Well, okay, I wouldn’t recommend them to try in this exact interruption but I’ll give you an example. When I was taught this, by my main mentor who taught me the real estate cash flow business but he pulled me aside and again, there’s a story to that and if you want to hear it, I’ll tell it to you but he pulled me aside and he said, the things that I told you quickly, which was that I had to change my identity and learn how to pattern interrupt. What that means is, for instance, if you think to yourself and I’ll give you the exact thing: “I can’t do this business because it takes too much cash flow. They said I was a broker, I probably don’t have that type of value. What if I fail and then they laugh at me, what if I fail and then they laugh at me, what if I fail and I’m embarrassed again and it’s a two strike for me. Maybe I shouldn’t do this?” Because sometimes we don’t even know the fear we have of failure, right?

[0:20:00] Charlie Hoehn: It’s just complaining in our head. It’s automatic reflexive thoughts.

[0:20:06] Nick Vertucci: We don’t say to ourselves, “I’m not going to start my business because I’m afraid.” I say to myself, “Well, I better not put all this money on the line, well, I don’t have any experience in that, well, that’s probably not for me because I think I’m going to get attacked when I do this” – because that’s another part of the story that comes. Then you justify it, because you never look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I’m not doing it because I’m afraid of failure.” You make excuses for it and then you never go to your destiny. I realized and I was aware of that because of some training I had and so, what I was doing, when I was afraid and when I was thinking, “Maybe I shouldn’t do this,” my pattern interruption for all those thoughts that would come in and be little overwhelming was? “Bullshit. I am the best in the business.” I would repeat that in my head as one of my interruptions. Anytime I would feel that, I’d say “Bullshit. I am the best in this business.” I didn’t even have the name of this business yet but I was convincing myself that I was going to be the best at this and I was getting rid of those thoughts that would stop me and I was replacing them with something that would keep pushing me forward like a beast. There’s a saying that I came up with and that is you have to see it, then you have to believe it, then you have to map it, then you have to execute it because if you don’t see where you’re going at first and really know where you want to go, you’re not going anywhere. If you don’t get yourself to truly believe it and really take it in and you’re a believer in it, doesn’t matter who else believes in you, you will not do it but you have to have a sound plan. A system, that’s where the map it part comes in because you have to have something that’s going to work. I tell my students, “If I wanted to be an NBA basketball player, I don’t care how hard I work, morning, noon and night, no matter what. I do not have the physical ability to do that, I am never going to dunk on someone, no matter how strong of a mind game I have. You have to be real, and you have to map it.” Then, last but not least, you have to execute it and it’s so cliché to say take action and all that but if you don’t execute it then all those other three parts are just a good idea, a good plan or a good dream but they’re never going to come into play. See it, believe it, map it, execute it.

[0:22:15] Charlie Hoehn: Author Hour is sponsored by Book in a Box. For anyone who has a great idea for a book but doesn’t have the time or patience to sit down and type it out, Book in a Box has created a new way to help you painlessly publish your book. Instead of sitting at a computer and typing for a year, hoping everything works out, Book in a Box takes you through a structured interview process that gets your ideas out of your head and into a book in just a few months. To learn more, head over to Bookinabox.com and fill out the form at the bottom of the page. Don’t let another year go by where you put off writing your book. Just to restate what you said, because it’s important. By the way, I’m feeling jacked up just listening to you Nick. We’ve been talking for I don’t know how long and I’m like, “Wait. I have questions that I need to ask you.”

[0:23:11] Nick Vertucci: Right.

[0:23:12] Charlie Hoehn: I can see why you’re a speaker.

[0:23:13] Nick Vertucci: Sorry about that. Cut me off at any time.

[0:23:16] Charlie Hoehn: You’re good. No, it’s a complement. You said, we have to see it believe it, map it, execute it – which is we need the vision first and then the believe part, I actually think it’s this, probably the one that ends up missing the most. At least, for me personally, is if you don’t change your story about yourself, if you don’t actually feel that your narrative of where you’re going is the truth then you’re never – You can come up with the best map in the world, you’re not going to execute the last part. The belief part is really fascinating to me. How do you – actually, before I ask you this, I want to ask a bigger question which is like, you know, I’m familiar with self-help. I’ve heard of the term pattern interruption, is this just another self-help book or real estate book? It’s Seven Figure Decisions, I mean. Is this – am I going to learn anything new here?

[0:24:16] Nick Vertucci: Sure. Well, I’m glad you asked me that question for this reason. Listen, here’s what I will tell you. Are our self-help principle’s good? Yes. Are there a ton of good things that help you in life and to change your attitude from positive to negative and live a happier life? Yes. Here’s the reality of it. A lot, I mean this respectfully as I can, a lot of self-help books in my opinion leave you hanging because they are just – things you say to be more positive. I’ll give you a perfect example, there is a teaching out there that says, you know, “Be more positive, be this, that,” yes, if you do that, more people will want to work with you, yes, things will happen. But I will tell you this. By being positive, a check will not show up at your house in the mailbox. There’s some teachings that said, you know, “The check just showed up.” Let me tell you something. You have to have a vehicle and a plan and something to go out and create a check and then you got to get off your ass and you got to work and hustle harder than the next guy or gal to make that check show up. I will tell you this, if you do change that mind game, and you do learn how to do some of these self-help things and get a strong mind game and then you attach it to a good plan and you attach it to a vehicle is what I call it. In my case, it’s real estate investing, then the checks will show up. This is not another self-help book, it is a lot of those principles of how to have a strong mind game attached to a vehicle which is real estate investing but here’s the beauty of it. Even if you’re not a real estate investor, nor you ever want to be one, attach it to any business, any concept, any product. That’s what this book is about. You have to have a vehicle attached with a strong mind game and you have to be able to see it and of course the second one, believe it is the key component, map it and then execute it. This book is a business book of how to win in business and in life. But it will give you in my book, attached to my story how I applied it. I’m not just going to say, well do this. Here is how you do it but here is what I did and here is the pain that was in it when I did it and here is the fear I felt when I did it but here’s how I overcame that and here is how I kept going over and over those obstacles to get to where I was because – Listen, I’m a K through 12 educated guy. I’m not going to split the atom with you or any of my students or anyone else. The reason I went through this real estate training and I got to the top and him here and now with this training company is not because I was the smartest person in that room. I was one of the people in that room that decided I was going to. Period. End quote.

[0:26:45] Charlie Hoehn: All right. I’m your perfect listener then Nick. Because, I’ve read tons of self-help books, I don’t necessarily want to get into real estate as an investment vehicle but I’d imagine a lot of listeners are thinking the same thing where yeah, I’ve read a bunch of self-help books and it does almost always leave out this component that’s essential which is, how do you earn enough money to – like your mindset is not the only piece of the puzzle obviously. Let’s talk about the belief part.

[0:27:20] Nick Vertucci: Sure. Let me say one thing and you asked me that question. Let me say one thing. There is no way around hard work and you got to rise and grind. I just want to say that. That’s the difference between most books.

[0:27:30] Charlie Hoehn: Yeah.

[0:27:30] Nick Vertucci: Because I’m going to tell you that straight.

[0:27:34] Charlie Hoehn: The people listening to this podcast, I’d imagine most of them don’t take too much issue with the rise and grind part. I definitely have no problems in that regard. I work really hard, I can come up with a great vision, I can come up with a great game plan and I’m a great executor. The challenge that I have personally and I know a lot of people have this challenge is their inner story, their inner resolve, the self-doubt that creeps in. Talk to me about that part of the book?

[0:28:04] Nick Vertucci: Well, that part of the book which is obviously the believe it aspect is like this. If you learn pattern interruption which is replacing a – listen, we have, sometimes generations of patterns that people are taught and you’re taught something from a young kid or maybe your family wasn’t successful or maybe your parents told you to be nothing and you know, all that stuff you hear and maybe had a couple of failures and now it becomes your identity but the fact of the matter is. What people have to understand is, the most successful people have more failure in their stories than they do success generally. But the differences of success speak for itself. That’s why you see that part of it. The difference in successful people is they’re willing to go out there and do that and how you get a belief system is just because you have to will it and demand it. First of all, you have to get rid and I mean, if it’s your family, then you can’t get rid of them but you have to setup barriers. There’s people in my family that know I am going to stay positive and I am going to stay in my lane. I tell my students, “If you have in-laws that are going to tell you you’re stupid for doing this, you’re stupid for telling the chance, you’re going to lose everything doing this, politely excuse yourself and go out and get back in your own head and don’t go back into that environment.” If you’ve got friends because listen, misery loves company. Failure loves company and I don’t tell people to change their environment. You know the old saying is who you hang around is something of your net worth or whatever, well there’s a truth to that and we don’t want to just hang around smarter and more successful people because we want to be pompous or because we want to be better than someone or the elite. We do that because we want to raise our game. We want to shoot for what someone has and has already got it. And you want to associate yourself in that environment because it’s a winning environment. It’s a wealth mentality not a poverty mentality. Then what you have to do is you have to take your own accountability because no one else is going to do it for you and that is you have to stay disciplined to your pattern interruption to the principle. I’ll tell you an example of this and you can take it for what it’s worth and so can your listeners. When I was 10 years old, prior to being 10 years old my father had me when I was really young and he was my first mentor and we were into baseball. My father played baseball with me morning, noon and night and I took more reps than catching baseballs and hitting and doing everything and I tell you that to all say this, by the age of 10 years old he passed away when I was 10. He was 60 and I was probably one of the best on the team from seven years when you start playing until 10. MVP short stop the whole nine yards, well guess what? I was only 10 so I didn’t understand hard work. I didn’t understand when you start tasting failure what you do. So as I started tasting failure which means I wasn’t practicing as much, taking as many reps, I started experiencing that but I didn’t know what it was because I was a kid and instead of working harder and putting myself back on track and being positive and putting in more reps, I started to pretend that I didn’t care. Because when we pretend that we don’t care about something then we don’t have to feel the pain of it because we’re really not failing because we don’t care but it’s a lie because it is in our core and we are building up these bad patterns. So again to make it quick, instead of going the right way, I grew my hair long, I started screwing off, I started doing things because that was my medication to not feel the failure. Now, take a story that is parallel to that. Two years ago, I had a young lady who works for me, her name is Mindy and she has a son named Drayden, 10 years old at the time. He’s 12 now, his step dad works with him morning, noon and night, he’s a little pipsqueak like I was when I was a kid and he’s not gifted but because his mechanics are so good from the reps and the practice and he believes in himself now, he’s the best at whatever he does. Quarterback, short stop, he’s just a little guy. Well, they moved him up on a soccer team two years older. He started tasting failure because these kids were just stronger and bigger. Well guess what? He starts going in the tank. He starts not wanting the ball. He starts not taking the shot. He wants to quit soccer. She says to me, “Can you have a talk with him?” I go have a talk with him and I tell him a couple of things and I say, “Listen to me, you’re afraid to fail. You’re afraid that you are not going to be the best.” And I really hit him between the eyes and he started crying because it was what it was more than anything and I am trying to make a fast version because I know I am long winded and basically I said, “Dre here’s all I ask of you” I said, “Here are some of the things you’re going to tell yourself, here are some of the things you’re going to write down and here are some of the things you’re going to put in your head and you’re going to marinade on from now to the next game.” “Then you are going to go out in that game and you are going to try harder than you’ve ever worked. I want them to dread you when you’re coming, when they see you coming and if you have the shot, don’t be a bull hawk, if you have the shot you take it. You do everything you know that you do and if you fail and if you miss the shot or you suck, you’re going to feel better about yourself and let me tell you why because you left it all out there and you gave it everything you had” and I asked him: “Are you going to do that?” and he said, “Yes” and I said, “Are you going do that?” He said yes and I made sure my point landed. He went out the next game and did everything I told him and he did score a goal. He was playing better than he ever played and his coaches looked at each other and said, “What in the hell happened to this kid?” I will tell you what happened to him, somebody told him. Somebody gave give the formula of how to win and have a strong mind game. And to believe in yourself and to leave it all out there and that is a story of two parallel kids, one that had to live with that pain, one that had to go through all that and learn that the hard way and one that had someone mentoring him to help him understand that and he’s never looked back since. So that’s how you do it.

[0:33:38] Charlie Hoehn: That is a beautiful story. Thank you for saying that to the kid because I don’t know if you realized there are guys like Jordan Peterson who is a big author, a big thought leader right now who gets flooded with these expressions from men that are like, “I never got any encouragement growing up. I didn’t know what to do when I ran up against failure or the wall being hard.” So you’ve done a real service there just by pulling him aside and encouraging him. Why don’t we hear this kind of encouragement? I mean you start your book actually with mentorship. Why don’t we get that?

[0:34:18] Nick Vertucci: Well I could tell you, I mean gosh you can edit this out if you want to but I am going to say a couple of things that I believe are happening when you speak about men okay? Again, I don’t know if this is too much for your listeners but I am going to be straight and if I lose a couple, I lose a couple. Here’s what I think is happening. What I think is happening is there’s a pacification of America, that’s what I think. I don’t think everyone should get a trophy because you try hard. I think you need to earn it as a young kid and I also think that the men aren’t stepping up and telling the other young men this and I see it’s so much because I wish somebody did it with me. I have something in my book that’s called “The Rise of Victimhood” and what I mean by that is that I do see grown men that have said to themselves, “Hey look, I didn’t have any nurturing. I didn’t have any mentors. I didn’t have any of this” and I get it. Don’t think that I don’t have a soft heart because I do and it’s a valid point and I’ll answer that question in a minute because we need that. Everyone needs that but at the same time, look I lost my father when I was 10 and I had to grind it out. It was horrible. It was a tough experience and I lived a lot of really fearful years, but you know what? You have to man up. You do. That’s my opinion, you have to man up and you have to play. Look, we all have people we lose. We all come from different economic backgrounds. We all have different challenges and we’re all going to have it. I don’t care who you are so you are going to accept what that is, you’ve got to man up and then you do have to find mentorship. Yet it is key and I tell that even to my real estate students. You’ve got to have it because that’s the difference between someone being told and not being told. Why it’s like that? Well that’s a whole other story. I mean gosh, I don’t know what break down of family. I mean again, I don’t think that’s what your podcast is. I know you don’t want me to go there.

[0:36:02] Charlie Hoehn: Yeah we don’t have to get to into that. It’s a complex issue and I don’t expect an answer to that, but I agree with you that the one change I would make to the phrase “man up” which I’ve always taken issue with, is “rise up” because it’s not about being a man. It’s about taking responsibility for your life and just rising to the occasion.

[0:36:25] Nick Vertucci: Yeah, it’s an expression. That’s for female too, man up isn’t just gender that’s like you said, rise up. I mean sure I think that’s perfect, same thing.

[0:36:33] Charlie Hoehn: Yeah absolutely. So tell me about you have done a lot of speaking, you’ve done all these workshops, tell me about some of the transformations that you’ve seen in the people that you’ve guided?

[0:36:47] Nick Vertucci: Well I’ll tell you, I’ve just got done doing one of my four day main events that we call them our Four Day Bus Tour and I will tell you this, at this one here were close to 400 students who come in and I will tell you every time it’s the same experience with this students and almost all of them. I would say almost every one of them but here’s what they get and why this is happening. When they come in on day one, on Friday, they’re afraid. They’re excited as it could be because of the potential of this and the potential to change things financially but they have a lot of anxiety, a lot of skepticism and what I do in the morning on Friday for three hours is we deal with a lot of that. Then all weekend, what I tell them from stage is this: “You are going to get so much content, we’re going to fill your slates with so much knowledge, you are not going to leave here pumped up by just false motivation.” “But you are going to be motivated because you are going to be prepared to do what you know you could do to trade your time with a lot more money than you have been if you stick it out and you keep grinding.” At the same time, I intertwine the strong mind game with them and we work on this all weekend. We work on the principles that’s quite successful. I do a piece on Monday, the last day of why I believe the successful people in the world are successful. They are such simple principles that successful people will apply and so I take that strong mind game principle and I attach it to a vehicle and I give them the best training in the industry. So they know what to do and actually execute not just in theory, so when they leave, they have the ability to really change their financial life. I will tell you and I am straight with my students not all of them will do it. I tell them that. I say, “The bad news is not every single one of you will go home and become a success. The good news is you get to decide who that is because it works.”

[0:38:33] Charlie Hoehn: And so what have been some of the things that you’ve heard from people and the students who have gone and attended?

[0:38:41] Nick Vertucci: Well we’ve been in business for four years since January of 2014 and we have thousands of students. We have about 5,000 students in our top network in a Facebook page. It’s a private network and they are joint venturing, they are flipping properties, wholesaling, gap lending, and we have massive success. We have more success testimonials than I think anyone in the industry and they are going out there and they are just applying it. I have guys and gals out there. And they are all at different levels of success because again, everyone is different and it’s just been a fun ride. I love watching it because that’s what happened to me so that’s my goal in this business. See I am good financially now that I am finally doing something that I really love for the first time ever in my life. That’s why that bad thing that happened to me became the best thing.

[0:39:29] Charlie Hoehn: Right, it makes total sense. Have any of the success stories really hit you right in the heart?

[0:39:36] Nick Vertucci: Oh yeah, I have students that have went out there and made enough financial gain to walk away from different things that they were doing, as far as jobs that they were miserable in. A lot of my students go out there and I could tell you a couple of them that I know off the top of my head, go out there and help and they’ve now had the ability to help their family to do things. It’s just been an amazing thing and again, that’s one of my goals when I am spending that four days with them or running my team as I am mentoring them or working with them is to put them in that position, to change it at some level.

[0:40:09] Charlie Hoehn: If I want to go to one of your training sessions, how do I do that? Where do I go?

[0:40:16] Nick Vertucci: Well, how it works now is I run TV infomercials and radio ads and I go throughout the nation. We were in pretty much every state-ish and the students show up to a free event. We have a free two-hour event that they hear about, they register for it, they go to it and we’re around different parts of the nation at different times and then from there, the ones that want the opportunity that they feel something that this might be for them they go to a three day class. We’ll come back two weeks later and they’ll register with a three day class that they go and they start their investing journey and then from there, they go on and on depending on where they want to land. It’s like anything else like if you are going to a college, you start out you get your A, your BA, your masters, your PHD and it just depends what you want to do, where you want to take it and where you want to land and that’s usually completely up to the student.

[0:41:06] Charlie Hoehn: So Nick just to wrap things up, I wanted to leave you with two questions. The first one is can you give our listeners a challenge, something they can do from your book today that will make a big impact and get them going down the right path.

[0:41:23] Nick Vertucci: I don’t know if just a couple of things that I could think of would do that but I could give you a couple of things that I think are a start to again, I don’t know how much of an impact other than to say it’s a starting premise. If you are somewhere in your life and it’s not where you want to be, maybe you are. If you are that’s great. Hey listen, if you are doing something you love and I tell my students this, never stop. You can use real estate investing as a side hustle and making a ton of money. You could trade four hours or 40 hours a week into it and you’ll get out what you put into it and it is a very lucrative exchange but if you’re not and I will tell you this, people say doing the same thing over and over with the same results is insanity, I believe it’s stupidity. So what I mean by that though is this, there are no Lotto ticket type of scenarios but if you want to start changing right now, I think you need to write down a list of everything that puts you in either a really bad position, habits or patterns if you will or even the stuff that has created some good of success for you. I would start by being really honest with yourself and writing those down and then you’ve got to start there. You got to change. It’s one in the success principles I teach, you have to change the things that are not working for you. You’ve got to and listen, habits are hard to change. It takes a long time. You’ve got to keep taking reps before you change your habits. Once you do that enough and it becomes your core then you create a character. Once you create a character then you can start creating a destiny. You have to take each step one at a time and it wasn’t an easy journey for me. Look we’re talking an hour maybe Charlie and we talked about some things and we are trying to hustle it up and talk about some key parts but my journey is so complicated. I mean we didn’t even scratched the surface of that and that’s the same way in life. So it’s really hard to give someone something that quick that will change anything for them but you really have to start by taking a real strong look at what got you to where you’re at.

[0:43:20] Charlie Hoehn: Great advice. Now final question, how can our listeners connect with you, follow you, where are the sites and stuff that we need to go to?

[0:43:31] Nick Vertucci: Sure, so that’s a tough one too because nvrealestateacademy.com, you can go there and see some – we have a great website but you are not going to get what you’re really looking for there. I think and I am not trying to sell books man, I’m really not. I don’t care how many sell, how many don’t. I wrote this thing for me and my students love it and it’s going to help them but on Amazon on the 16th, the book will be out. You can get it on Kindle. I think it’s a good starting point to really get to know who I am and hear the full version of what we didn’t get to and hear it that way. From there, you know my name, Nick Vertucci and you can Google me or you can look me up on all the different social media. My personal Facebook, I can’t accept anyone else because I have too many already as it is. So I don’t have like you mentioned Jordan Peterson, I don’t have a bunch of training videos. I don’t have that, look I wrote this book and I’m running the most successful real estate training investing company out there and that’s just the extent of who I am. I wish it was cooler than that but that’s it.

[0:44:28] Charlie Hoehn: Awesome. Well this has been great and again, I agree with you. I feel like we could go for much longer and I really appreciate you sharing your personal story at the beginning and that’s people always appreciate that stuff and we’re so often hesitant to share those details but it is so important to know. So thank you again for sharing that so this has been great. The book is Seven Figured Decisions, thank you so much Nick. Many thanks to Nick Vertucci for being on the show. You can buy his book, Seven Figured Decisions, on amazon.com. Thanks again for listening to Author Hour, enlightening conversations about books with the authors who wrote them. We’ll see you next time.