Charge Forward Podcast
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Charge Forward Podcast
Faith, Family, and Forward Momentum: The Nick Hiter Story
How do faith and family play a role in building a successful business and a fulfilling life?
In this episode of the Charge Forward Podcast, we sit down with Nick Hiter, a dynamic entrepreneur, marketer, and family man, who shares his incredible journey from professional baseball to becoming a Nashville business leader. Nick opens up about the importance of his faith and how it shapes every aspect of his life, from his career decisions to his role as a husband and father.
Join us as Nick discusses his collaborations with top minds like Brad Lea, Coach Burt, the creation of the Hit Lab studio, and his relentless pursuit of success in both business and personal life. Through his stories, Nick highlights the power of confidence, the significance of a strong family foundation, and the unwavering belief that faith can guide you through any challenge. This is a must-listen for anyone looking to be inspired by a story of resilience, leadership, and the unbreakable bond between faith and family.
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Hey team, welcome to the Charge Forward Podcast. I'm your host, jim Cripps, coming to you live from the Hit Lab studios here in Nashville, tennessee. Today I have a special guest with me, mr Nick Heider, rock star marketer, podcaster and family man. Nick, how are we doing today?
Nick Hiter:I'm unstoppable brother, as always, and you know, when you ask me that, that's what I'm going to say, right.
Jim Cripps:Absolutely. Absolutely Well man we're here in your studio and it's beautiful. And you know, I think I met you almost two years ago because of our mutual friend Mr Randy Huth. That's right. A lot of things have changed since then. No doubt you got a lot going on what you got going on.
Nick Hiter:Well, um, you know what's today, thursday, uh, where, where, where would you want to start, man? The three things. I got asked this question yesterday. What am I focused on most for the rest of 2024? Well, the first thing is, you know, we've got a big keynote tour coming up that we're starting to unveil some information about. That's one thing that's going to be a big focus for the rest of the year A project that I'm working on with you concerning data records, crm targeting and some AI development in that, and then, obviously, the things that we're doing out there with Coach Burt at the Greatness Factory. We've got some big renovations happening here, as a matter of fact, which is going to be really cool. So, aside from running the everyday businesses that we do, those are the three things like fourth quarter of 2024, that I'm really going to be focused on getting to the finish line.
Jim Cripps:And those are no small projects. No, each one of them. Many people would just be daunted by the task, no doubt. But you're absolutely taking them in stride.
Nick Hiter:Yes, sir, well, daunted by the task, no doubt, but you're absolutely taking them in stride. Yes, sir, well, you know, some days are better than others. Yesterday probably not my best day, you know, but today's a new one and I'm grateful for it. And I'm grateful for this, for what I learned yesterday. And we move on, absolutely.
Jim Cripps:So how did the Coach Burt thing come to play? I know you guys, he's been on your show a couple times and obviously both here prominent in Nashville. But you know there had to be some type of catalyst that started that.
Nick Hiter:Yeah, you know. So Coach and I had been running around and you know, knowing each other for quite some time, I think so much of him and what he does, why he does it and how he does it. But we're sitting at a Christmas party at Bradley's Nashville home December 22nd 2023, as a matter of fact and he's telling me about the Greatness Factory and I literally looked at him. I was like you know what, coach? We're literally looking to expand upon the Hit Lab and we're going on the south side of town and it's going to be about ten times the size of what we got. And he said, well, tell me about that. And I told him and and he, and, and. From there he said, well, tell me, how would you be? Would you mind telling me basically, how, how are you going to generate the revenue and what the business model looks like?
Nick Hiter:Because at the greatness factor they've got unbelievable level 10 spaces and I guess the agencies he was talking to they hadn't quite figured out showed him how he would make money doing that. And, as if you've been in this space long enough, you've seen a lot of studios come and go, especially in the podcast space, it can be challenging if you, if the business model is not right, from jump Right. So basically, one thing led to the next. I told him I just really love to look at it. And I went down there on December 27th 2023 and saw the space and was blown away and, um, and basically we talked more and he said would you be interested in helping out around here? And I said, uh, absolutely I would. So that's, that's literally how it happened. Was that a? Uh, a Christmas party at Bradley's Nashville home last year?
Jim Cripps:I love it. Well, you know, a big thing for me is the collaboration that happens, the energy that comes from, you know, different minds looking at things differently, but at the same time, all being motivated, and so I think it's wonderful Just so many great things come from events like that and, yes, there's great minds being in the same space.
Nick Hiter:There's enough. There's enough to go around. And, and actually something I learned from Brad when he was, when he launched Lightspe is light speed was basically the product, the byproduct of him going in um to dealerships and whatnot and running into his competition tony robbins, grant cardone, zig, ziggler's estate and so on and so forth and he made a better mousetrap that they all needed. Now they're all collaborating and working together and now brad is in all those spaces, even if he's not not Right. So yeah, it's a beautiful thing.
Jim Cripps:I love it. That's great man Just plugging it in and picking up speed, absolutely. Now, one of the things that you know a lot of your shorts are on, obviously, it's just a big part of your world is confidence, and so give me your outlook, or your, your theory on confidence.
Nick Hiter:Well, um, you know, when you, if you, I'm a big fan of Coach Prime and he talks about his confidence a lot. I heard it was actually maybe it was Coach Burt. We were talking one day and we were talking about confidence. I'm a client of brand builders and the first day I met with them they said what's the one word problem you solve? And I thought for a minute and I was like faith.
Nick Hiter:It's like, what does that mean? I was like well, faith is your faith in yourself. It's a form of confidence, you know so, um, confidence is the memory of previous success, right, um, so? And you control your own thoughts. So if you're not, if you don't have the ability to remember previous success, you're probably not a confident person. But for me, it's a reflection of your faith, you know. At the end of the day, so, and confidence is a skill you got to get good at it, you got to practice it, and it's amazing what you know. If you're confident in yourself, other people might be confident in you as well. But what the one thing I do know is is they won't be confident in you if you're not confident in yourself.
Jim Cripps:They're probably going to mirror it Right, Absolutely Well, I think. Just in in the world in general, uh, not only do a lot of people tear each other down, but a lot of people tear themselves down, whether it's through self-deprecation or just not believing in themselves.
Nick Hiter:You know that there's a key word in there believing in yourself, right? So when you believe something right, it means that there's some trust earned there, right? So what do you trust? Something that you've heard one time or multiple times. The media is really good at that about getting you to believe something that's not necessarily true. So there's again, repetition is required to build trust, right, to build a belief in anything, right, and then just like your confidence. So if confidence is a form of belief in yourself, well, you know again that repetition is really really key, absolutely Well, and surrounding yourself with people who think that same way.
Jim Cripps:Absolutely Proximity is everything man, especially at home. Now you've got one heck of a support system. Tell me a little bit about the family. Think that same way. Absolutely Proximity is everything man, especially at home.
Nick Hiter:Now you've got one heck of a support system. Tell me a little bit about the family. My wife's the true superstar. The joke is, but it's the truth. My mom and grandmothers did a great job of raising me, but they got me to a certain point and my wife had to finish the job. She's incredible, and raising two kids with her is the gift of a lifetime. It's by far the greatest thing that God ever gave us. Besides, jesus was our kids, and my wife is she's that, you know, growing up the most beautiful women.
Nick Hiter:A lot of times they came with some baggage. Maybe they thought too much of themselves or they weren't. They just didn't have that kind big, sweet heart, or at least they didn't put that out there. And I think about that movie, the Mean Girls. My wife's the exact opposite of that. She's just an absolute knockout. But she has the big heart and is the exact opposite of of, like the mean girl syndrome. You know what I mean.
Nick Hiter:So, um, raising kids with her and our son is a exact replica of her, our daughter's exact replica of of me and um, just teaching them. You know it's so hard not to want to do everything for them, when actually your job is to, as a parent is to prepare them for life, and you can't prepare them by anything by doing it for them. You know so. On one hand you want to do nice things for them and give them everything, but really the thing you should give them is the knowledge so that they can get hit less when they grow up on their own. And you know so. That way life's going to knock you down. But, man, if you're prepared for that punch and you can brace for it, it doesn't knock you back, as far you know.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, one of the ones that sticks out in my head is and maybe it's a Jordan Peterson or whoever's quote. It says don't interfere in fact encourage.
Nick Hiter:When your children are doing dangerous things safely, yes, and it's so nerve-wracking, you know the first time when they want to go up them stairs. But again, if you raise them, your program. A child's mind is 100% like a sponge. It's subconscious for like the first seven years and they're building up all their beliefs and then it's reaffirmed in 7 to 14, right? So you know a lot of the fears that I have. Like I can't. I'm deathly scared of snakes. Couldn't tell you why. Snakes never done anything to me, I've never even really had. I've had a couple of encounters with snakes, but that's because I had a roommate that had about 25 of them in our apartment when we lived together. That was what he did for a living. But no, man, it's life is just an amazing, amazing time and every, every single day is a gift and um and it's, it's just. It's. Sometimes it's hard to to to realize that. But again, as as raising kids, man, your job is to, as a parent, is to prepare them for what's coming next.
Nick Hiter:I'll tell you a funny little story about my son, um. I've told it a couple of times. I think it was the first time. He was right Learn to ride his bike, took training wheels off, all right. So he had that first one where you, you know, I the strider, I think it's called without the pedals. And then, uh, he had to training wheels and we took training wheels off and we finally got him going and I mean, it wasn't 20 feet after I let go, he wiped out and it was on the street and it was ugly, dude, there was a road rash, um, blood everywhere, like literally like dripping, you know, um like a faucet, and he got up and he was pretty upset, you know, and instead, but instead of cleaning them off, getting him back on that bike as soon as possible was so key, right, and um, you know. So my wife freaked out a little bit.
Nick Hiter:Um, I'm like, get up, get up, get up, you know, get back on that bike. Dude, come on, you can do this, get back on that bike. I can't, I don't want to do it, I can't Get on that bike, rhiannon, trust me, you know. So he gets back on that bike and literally, like, just blood was like we, as a matter of fact, we had to say, hey, dude, let's clean you up for a second, you can get back on it, you know. So, as a parent, you gotta just you know if you, if you raise them to be fearful, that's what they're going to be. And courageous is the word that I want my kids to be.
Jim Cripps:I want them to be courageous and brave you resilient Absolutely, so that when they do get knocked down they know on the other side of getting knocked down they can find that triumph.
Nick Hiter:Yeah, how many fearful people are resilient? Can you be resilient if you're scared? I don't think so. I don't think you can either. You know, um, my wife taught me a lot about how much words mean. You know, as a, as a former pro athlete, um, you know it was. It was a locker room 24-7 in my life and what came out of my mouth was locker room talk, and it took me a long time to understand how harmful that was, because it was not. The reason it was harmful was because I could not articulate how I actually felt about people, yeah, and especially people that I cared about, yeah. And so again she's been. I've learned so much from her. It's been amazing.
Jim Cripps:Well, you know, being a spouse, being a parent none of those things come with an owner's manual. Nope, you know, in either direction, you didn't come with an owner's manual, she didn't come with an owner's manual. We all go through that and we have to grow up into the person that we're supposed to be your kid's character is a reflection of you, but not their personality.
Nick Hiter:Okay, so, like that was something that, like my son is better than me and the every generation does need to get better, right, so that's really important. Like I expect him to outperform me in all levels of life and, um, that's what we're raising him to do. But, um, man, like they are, like he's totally different than me and for a long time it I wasn't secure enough in myself to allow him to do that I wanted him to do like I did. You know, be like me, be like me. No, he's like himself and my job is to is to make sure that his faith's in line, right, his belief system's in line, and that he's a courageous person. So, you know, and that's what is a reflection of me, not his personality and what he likes. You know, if he likes a crazy type of music, go for it, dude. You know it's not a reflection of me and it took me a while to figure that out.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, we're there to help solidify and build the foundation, yep, and then it's up to them to take it on. Come on. Yeah, absolutely Come on. That's fun. I don't know about you, but the most fun thing that I do in life is being a dad.
Nick Hiter:Oh, I can't wait to go home today.
Jim Cripps:You know what I mean.
Nick Hiter:Like I can't wait, I'm already looking forward. I know that we're going to do some with his music and uh, and then we get to cap off the evening after chasing my daughter around the yard a little bit. You know she's potty training and like we're on day three right now. We had some success this morning, so we've had, we had some celebrations, good, and. But tonight I get to end the night after we get her, her to bed, and there's some stuff on mlb, the show that ethan's got to show me you. You know. So, um, dude, I just every time he says hey, dad, can you, can I show you something?
Jim Cripps:I'm just like, yeah, you can, and man, that's so cool that he asks you know cause one day he might not. There will be a day and you know um, I, I count down the days, you know they. They say you, you're.
Nick Hiter:You spend roughly 19 years with your kids because the first 18 they're in your home and the equivalent of the rest of their life equates to roughly a year of them right, and it just seems like that clock is ticking it's going fast and I'm even starting to notice now he's 15 excuse me that um, he's got his own peers in social life and whatnot. So after 16, then, all of a sudden, like you think of the 4th of July, is there going to be other plans versus what we normally do on 4th of July or day after Christmas? He's just got all these things that he wants to do. Jim, the thing that I'm really pushing him the most right now is, seriously, I ask him straight up, dude, for a long time he wanted to be a rock star and, um, you know. So we gave him every opportunity to do that. He's still really good at those things and he still has dreams to be involved in that to some degree. But he got the. He got the baseball bug, um, at age 12 and he's obsessed with it now.
Nick Hiter:And straight up, dude, what do you like? You're never going to get anywhere if you don't set an accurate, small goal like very, very precise. So what do you want to do when you get older? He's like I want to play center field for the New York Yankees. I'm like all right, dude. So I can tell you right now I know a lot of people, I know zero people that played center field for the New York Yankees, which means the 99 versus 1% rule. I'm like, dude, that matters more than anything to you now because that is like, of all the sports franchises, it's the most decorated one, it's the most famous one, it's the most known one, so that's the one that most people would want to play for in this sport.
Nick Hiter:So I'm always reminding him every choice you make is either taking you towards that goal or away from that goal. And I'm talking like, like you know, when you go into the gas station, instead of getting like a bottle of water, did you get a big old soda? Like everything is going to be a factor at some point in time, and that's the hardest thing to do is like all of his friends are going to do one thing and he wants to go do it. I'm like, hey, man, are, are, are they going? Where you're going? You got to ask yourself that. And then whatever you decides, up to you.
Nick Hiter:But know that how we support you is going to be based on a reflection of those decisions, because it's expensive, a lot of time and money and everything else goes into his dreams. So as long as he's dreaming big, but his actions are in line with those dreams, then there's nothing that I won't do to help him get there or make sure he has what he needs to get there. But, like that's, the biggest challenge is the more distractions, um, from that goal that come about with his friends driving and this and that, and Friday nights and Saturday nights and all those things you know I I can tell you what I do Saturday nights and it's not what most people do my age, you know.
Jim Cripps:Right, well, and you can't take it more serious than he does, that's a hundred percent.
Nick Hiter:Yeah, that's a great point. That's a great point.
Jim Cripps:You also can't want it more than him. No.
Nick Hiter:No, and that's hard.
Jim Cripps:It is Especially as a parent Because you know we want the best for them. Sometimes we think we know exactly what that is, but their path is supposed to be their own. Come on, that's good.
Nick Hiter:Come on.
Jim Cripps:That's good. Come on, that's good. So you start the podcast studio a couple of years ago. What?
Nick Hiter:was your vision then versus your vision of it now. So you know, in in 2020, a lot of stuff was changing and when the, the, the insurance industry, which is was was where we spent the majority of our time back then was the business model that we operated under was a brick and mortar get everybody together and conquer the world. And then, all of a sudden, everybody was sent home and we realized there was a big technology gap that we did not have and it made some things hard, but it also opened up our eyes and made us start learning a lot of things. Up our eyes and made us start learning a lot of things. I met Bradley in 2020, and he was kind enough to invite me out to his place in Vegas to be on his podcast, and at the time, honestly, I thought podcasts were a little bit stupid. I thought it was bad radio or bad TV. I really didn't understand the purpose of them because I hadn't explored them very much. I didn't listen to any back then, but I saw his setup and I saw the audience that he had. And then the moment that that episode dropped like literally over 30 days I think, I got like 10,000 new followers on Instagram and I was like holy cow, I was wrong, there's something here, we've got to figure this out.
Nick Hiter:And so I came home and my buddy, lance Wascom, who's a founder of AVLX him and I coach our baseball team, our son's baseball team, together and have even back then we were carrying ball buckets to practice one day and I just got back and I said, hey, buddy, I need you to build me a podcast studio. And he goes OK, and then I showed him videos of Brad's and I said now here's the catch. You know, it's got to fit in this little tiny room and there is no control room. And he was like whoa? And I was like, and I can spend ten thousand dollars? And, um, he was like, okay, and it took him a while and they came back and said, hey, I think we figured it out, because I'm like I need the cameras to switch on their own. I need all this to happen. You know, he said we can do it, but you can do. You can either spend ten thousand dollars and do it. Your said we can do it, but you can do. You can either spend $10,000 and do it your way or you can do it the way we recommend, but it's going to be a lot more money than that.
Nick Hiter:I was like, well, okay, well, why would I spend more? He said, well, we're not. We can serve service If you do it the way that we believe is right. We won't service if you call him, like once, in like three and a half years. So, um, that led to that. I built it off for me and, um, and then, but once people saw it, they started asking if they could use it. And when we built all this stuff again remember it was it was I was trying to create sources of content for insurance agents to be able to reach customers, new customers, um, and so I built this for me with the, you know, thinking I'm going to build this mountaintop for my people to scream from, you know, and a lot of things change and things evolved and we moved, we moved on to some other things and now that turned into what's now an agency known as the Hit Lab, you know. So we've partnered up with some great people like Central Coast Creatives, eagle Eye Experience, among a few, and taking the world by storm, baby.
Jim Cripps:I love it. What do you think is your most pivotal moment life to date?
Nick Hiter:That's an unbelievably awesome question and most pivotal moment for me was the day that my wife and I joined a church and got. We got joined church, got married same day. We had been engaged since before my son was born. All right, now he's four and a half years old. We're still not married. Why? Because I couldn't afford to marry her and I couldn't afford the wedding and all those things.
Nick Hiter:So we were putting it on hold and we got a new pastor at the church we were at at the time and I just I fell in love with that guy and he changed my life. And, um, one day we were talking about joining, rejoining, recommitting our, our family, our faith to the church. And uh, and I said, hey, man, like would you be cool if I married her too when we're up there? And he was like yeah, you want to talk to her about first? I'm like no, I want to surprise her. And he was like, really, I was, so I've videoed. Uh, or I had a I was, you know, still had all my nightclub stuff, so from back that industry, so had all my dj gear. So I literally like recorded this awesome thing where, as soon as we joined the church, we turned around, everybody clapped. They were going to push play on this soundtrack that I had made. That was me talking with all this cool stuff. It was like a little clip from the Wedding Singer on the airplane, you know, with Billy Idol and all that stuff. And basically I re-asked her to marry me, right there on the spot, and Roger was like well, and she was like, yeah, let's do it. So we turned around and he married us right there.
Nick Hiter:That was by far the day that truly changed my life, because that was when we really got everything's in working order. But Roger met us there. You know, you walk out center aisle and somehow, you know. So we're facing the crowd and he's behind us. Somehow he beat us to the front. Still don't know how he did that yet, but when he did, he met us at the front door and he hugged us and said, guys, congratulations, he's like.
Nick Hiter:But I got to tell you one more thing. There's two sides to this story and everything you did is aimed at the good. Well, the bad's going to try to lure you back. Everything that can go wrong is probably going to go wrong. Get ready, your faith is going to be tested, your faith in each other. Your faith in God is going to be tested, and sure enough it was.
Nick Hiter:But he said that and I've always remembered that, and I know now that sometimes God has to remove things from your life to make room for the next thing. I know now that the beginning of one thing is hidden in the end of something else Right, and I know now that, um, all the um, you know a lot of the struggles that we have are all the struggles we have are so we can be astounded by joy. It's preparation for what's next, you know. So when you're going through those tough times, you've got to understand you're being seasoned and prepared for something Just like, as an athlete working out in the offseason sucked and I was always trying to achieve new levels of pain and struggle to overcome Dude, that's life and you've got to do that.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, it's that old saying that these things happen for us, not to us, absolutely 100%. And you know a lot of times what we have in our head or the plan that we had, that's not God's plan. That's right, and when he changes it on you or when that change happens, sometimes it's difficult to let go of what you thought you were headed toward.
Nick Hiter:You know I'm not a quitter, I'm a finisher, right, but but like sometimes knowing when you're finished, you know I, I didn't quit baseball, I finished it okay, um, but like a lot of times quitting and finishing, it's hard to tell the difference you got to make sure that you've left it all on the field when. When that time comes, you know so, um, and you know so anytime I'm around quitters, I run for the hills, get as far away from as I can, but, boy, show me a, left it all on the field when. When that time comes, you know so, um, and you know so. Anytime I'm around quitters, I run for the Hills, get as far away from as I can, but boy, show me a finisher and and and. Let's do lunch. You know what I mean. Let's do something together.
Jim Cripps:Well, cause you're going to learn from both of them? Yes, and you have to decide which one do I want to learn from. If you let those negative people in your life, it's just. I mean, you're going to learn negativity A hundred percent. And same thing with our kids. We have to have to not just not just give them the foundation, but challenge them to recognize that negative energy and to remove themselves from it Absolutely.
Nick Hiter:And, um, you know what's the? It's almost like you need 10 positive reinforcements within yourself to balance out the one negative. And you know we don't get that. And I'm like, you know, if you put negative and positive on a scale and they weigh the same, I think I believe that the positive wins Okay. So, like I'm always telling people, you know, just make sure for every negative thought or negative, anything negative that you think about yourself or want to fix about yourself or anything, give yourself, you know, balance it with saying I need to improve this, but I'm grateful for this, yeah, you know, and just give yourself an opportunity to have balance, Because if you have balance, that's like going back to old Mr Miyagi stuff. Balance is the center of everything. Right, If you give yourself balance in that, like, you see life through a totally different lens, Totally different lens.
Jim Cripps:So you know, life is probably way different today than when you were, say, first starting out, had a vision for your life. Uh, what do you think is one of the biggest kind of knock downs you had? That you had to pick yourself up and decide to charge forward and, and and push had to pick yourself up and decide to charge forward and and and push.
Nick Hiter:Well, one um, weight is a four letter word, okay, so I had to remove that from my vocabulary. You know, as an athlete. Uh, my job was to perform so that somebody would offer me a spot in college at the pro level, whatever it may be, After baseball. Let's just say I would go to church and I'd watch the pastor do his thing and I thought I should be up there. I'd go hear a keynote speaker. I should be up there See somebody perform at the Super Bowl. I should be up there, but I wasn't. And I kept waiting on somebody to come tell me, hey, you should be up here too, or this, you should be doing this. And what I figured out was is you know, I probably sat there and waited on somebody to come tell me I should be doing something for 10 years and I realized that it's up to me to make it happen. So you, you know, built my own studio so I can have my own show. I'll build my own place so I can have my own stage. You know, I realized that nobody's going to do it for me. It's up to me to do it.
Nick Hiter:And the other thing too is like, as an athlete, by me performing, I was asking for the next promotion or the next spot, what I was doing in life after that. I wasn't asking for what I wanted, I expected people to just know. And then, when they didn't give it to me, I was offended by it. You know, like screw that. How could, how dare they not offer me that spot? You know? So what I've learned to do is turn everything around. Everything's my fault, because that's the only way I can fix it. So guess what? There's a couple of events happening in my hometown in 2024 and they didn't ask me to be a part of it. So on one hand I was like, huh, those jerks. And then I turned right around and I was like, well, all right, well, what should what? I obviously didn't. Maybe maybe they don't know that I would want to be a part of it. Maybe I didn't do my part and I give the. I didn't give them what they needed for them to know that, because I point blank didn't ask him. That's for sure. And if I had, what would it change? Changed?
Nick Hiter:Bradley taught me that when we were talking about getting you know on my podcast, a lot of people pay to be on that. I get paid to speak in front of people and I remember when I first started getting five thousand dollars to do that which was good money, brad, you know at the time was getting 50. He said you know why I get 50 and you get five. And I was like, because you've been doing it longer, he goes no. Because I asked for 50 and you get five. And I was like, cause you've been doing it longer, he goes no. Cause I asked for 50 and you asked for five. So, um, you know, I didn't get any dates that I didn't ask for growing up, you know what I mean Like that's right. So it's, it's crazy. You gotta, you know, you gotta ask for it sometimes.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, well, that goes back to the confidence piece, but it also and I think of your transition between baseball and just the regular world. The rule or the way that game is played is different. Yes, you were playing the game correctly in baseball by performing. That's how you got the opportunity. Yeah, because people were scouting for that. People were looking for that. Not that people aren't looking for people in business, but the rules of engagement are different.
Nick Hiter:Yes, and man, the rules of engagement are the rules of engagement. That is, the rules in which you're playing, dude, and, like I suggest, you compete with those same things. What's the old saying? Don't take a knife to a gunfight. You know what I mean? No-transcript. This world is huge. There's so much to go around.
Nick Hiter:If you're not happy with your current situation, dude, that's 100% on you and you, and only you can change that, and you know it. I understand where we're, we're, groomed, we're, we're told, um, when and where to be and for how long you're, for the first 18 to 25 years of life, and, um, and that's the hardest thing to do is taking taking ownership of your time. As a matter of fact, think about all the most successful people in the world. They all do a few things differently and better than all of us, and the one thing is we all get the same 24 hours in a day, and I would say that they're more productive with theirs than we are. You know so, the most successful and skilled people in the world are the, like the. I would say they're the best at managing their own time. You know so that and, like you know, brad told me one time he said Nick, you know I build businesses. He's like I like to sit around and chit chat, so I'd build businesses that allow me to do that. You know I'm like huh, I've been building businesses to work my butt off this whole time. Maybe there's a better way.
Nick Hiter:Um, and growing up, um, middle-class we didn't focus on money a lot back then and money is a great scoreboard, you know, to understand how you're doing and whatever it is that you're doing in the professional world there's I heard a keynote speaker one time say your, your, your impact on this world is when you take your God given gifts and apply it to the marketplace.
Nick Hiter:So even my dad working on this big, big, big baseball development together and we're reminding each other hey, man, this is a business and we need to make sure that we're focusing on the revenue and protecting our investors every bit as much as we're talking about the baseball or whatever it is that's going on there. So a lot of times I'll get hung up in the semantics or the operations of it and forget the purpose of those operations and that that's the most important piece, right? So, as a leader, that's really important to understand that one, that you've cast that vision and you keep putting it in front of everybody. Now, that's one of the things you're so great at, and that's something I still have to work on today.
Jim Cripps:Well, you know, I think that is one of the things that a lot of people lose sight of is they think that everybody knows what the mission is. They think that everybody knows what's going on and, at least in my past, one of the reasons why I excelled was because everybody in the company heard it from me, this is what we're doing.
Jim Cripps:This is the mission every single month, and if you're not in business, if you don't run a profitable business, you're not around to help people. And so even in this baseball venture, you're 100 percent correct. That's right. It's got to make money so that it stays here, that's right, so they can continue to help people.
Nick Hiter:Well, you know, we want, we want to help people and create jobs, and you can't do that if there's no revenue and money to pay to pay them with. You know, you know, but like, not, not, not, not everybody can be the shortstop, not everybody can be the CEO of the company, not everybody can be the leader, not everybody can be self-employed, you know. But like, there are certain people. Tim Corbin's a great example of somebody that's like just an unbelievably great person. But, dude, when it's time to compete, ruthless, okay, and like, dude, you're that way, like you have, you're not somebody I'd want to see across the sidelines, um, but you're. But but at the same time, when you're not playing, there's nobody that has a bigger heart and will care more than you will, and that dude that's who makes the greatest leaders.
Nick Hiter:Not, you know, some drill sergeants and some people are tough and I'm one of those tough leaders. Um, I'm learning how to be that other, that, that other style, let's say, or that, that other, that other way of doing it. Because, like dude, you make everybody around you feel better all the time. Appreciate that. But, dude, when in a competition, I also know you're gonna win. You know what I mean. That's just the way it is and, dude, that's if you're. If you're looking for somebody to follow, find somebody like that well, you know, my cpa has a great saying.
Jim Cripps:I don't know if it's hers or if she got it from somebody else, but she says my success is not dependent upon somebody else's failure, and in the marketplace there's enough to go around. That doesn't mean we don't compete, but there is plenty to go around. If you are bringing value to the marketplace, it will reward you.
Nick Hiter:Yes, the world is such a large place it's massive we can't even really truly understand. I haven't even gone all that, seen the whole place yet, right, you know, I haven't even left. I've only been to like three continents out of the seven. There's seven, right? Yeah, they haven't changed that on us yet, have they? Okay, there's still seven, but I've only seen three of them. There's four left and there's billions of people in those four. So I need to go see them sometime. Maybe I can do business over there, maybe I can help people, you know, maybe I can make an impact, oh, yeah, that's good, Well, and you have to choose to.
Jim Cripps:It's not like they're going to come over and invite you. You know it's no different than your speaking engagements. You got to make yourself available to them because you know, just like you might not have reached out to them in previous years, you might not have reached out and said, hey, I'm interested in doing this. Sometimes they have a fear of reaching out to you, Like, oh, he's too big or he's too busy or something of that nature, and it's just a failure to communicate.
Nick Hiter:Yes, most people. I would say this is my opinion, okay, but I find out that how I see myself, other people see me in a much larger, much bigger light, and I would venture to say that there's a lot of people out there like that. So when you assume somebody wouldn't want to take your call or whatever, you're forgetting to consider how do they feel about themselves. So I'm still grateful, with every phone call that I get, every opportunity that's presented to me, um, because you know, um, I understand my value and what I'm worth. But there's still that you know, I know, also know, I'm very aware of all my flaws, you know, and all my shortcomings, even though they may be in a scale and a skeleton's in the closet somewhere. Um, so people, and everybody has those, you know, and how they, how much, how much rent um, that, that, uh, in space that's taken up in one's own mind. You know, you don't know, you just don't know.
Jim Cripps:Well, you know, I always look at it too, like if I've got that doubt or I've got that moment, I try to reframe it and say I'm going to give them the opportunity to know me or I'm going to give them the opportunity to say, yes, that's right, and I think you just have to put yourself out there A hundred percent.
Nick Hiter:I mean, what do you got to lose there's? I mean, you know you didn't bowl that perfect game by accident. You know what I mean. And nobody's won a championship on accident either. I definitely didn't accomplish anything I've accomplished by accident. I might have stumbled upon an opportunity by accident, but I still had to go out there and do it.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, absolutely so. Circling back to the money piece of it, a lot of families, especially middle class, where maybe the parents didn't own a business or whatnot, money's not talked about enough, in my opinion, at home. How big a role does that play around the dinner table or, you know, with the kids?
Nick Hiter:It's so literally like when my son was like 12 years old. He read Rich Dad, poor Dad. For teenagers, rich Dad, poor Dad changed my life Growing up at the time that I did everybody that was on the world stage or not everybody, but a lot of the folks. People villainized people with money. They villainized the money, and all money is. That, I've learned, is it's a tool and it just basically amplifies whoever you are. If you're a good person, you're probably going to be a great person with more money. If you're a bad person, you're probably gonna be a worse person with more money.
Nick Hiter:Money just creates opportunities and it's a shame. Like man made money but man didn't make the earth right. But man's money dictates how we leverage and utilize our time on this earth, and that just seems silly to me, right? So, growing up, you have a report card in school and so you've got grades and that decides how you're doing in school. And in a lot of the keynotes I'll ask the folks out there what kind of grades you make. I was an, a student. That's awesome. So what kind of grades are you making now? Well, none, I'm not in school, all right. Well, if your bank account's your report card, what kind of grades are you making? That's usually when everybody goes oh, they got me on that one Again. Money is very abundant and it changes hands when problems are solved, but it's literally everywhere, and if you want to know where money is, it's in everybody else's pockets and you've just got to figure out how to give them value or a service or a good to get them to trade money for that.
Jim Cripps:Absolutely, and so how do you have that discussion with your 15-year-old? So Ethan's at that age, he's figuring it out. He's got some goals. He's at that age, he's figuring it out, he's got some goals. He's trying to figure out what the long-term play is. How do you explain that?
Nick Hiter:to him. Well, the first thing you've got to do is you've got to understand the language of money. So you know we go to here in like, when I was in school, we had English but we were forced to learn another language, in Spanish or French. You got to choose Latin, whatever it was. Um, you know it would have been cool if money was one of those money's the language, and, um, you know it's.
Nick Hiter:I heard um former president Trump saying an interview the other day that, um, you know the the tax system is crazy complicated and diverse and, and you know, we're making decisions based off soundbites about who we want to elect an office and stuff, when we don't know anything about what it is they actually do Like, we don't understand the tax system. We don't understand all those things, and you know. So when you like, it was amazing, I hired a great CPA Love her. She's been with us forever and she's always teaching me new things and it's like man, if I didn't, I wish I'd have known that two years ago or three years ago.
Nick Hiter:So, again, most folks, like you know Jensen's a bright young man over there. I've asked him multiple times how much you know about money. Not a lot, okay. So how can you ever expect to have a lot of it if you don't understand it and if you can't be good at it again? Making money is a skill, managing money is a skill, and 2023 was the first year that my wife and I made more money not working than we did working. Folks, that is life-changing and that's what I'm talking about, and everybody needs to experience that once.
Jim Cripps:I love it. That's fantastic, and you know that wasn't on accident.
Nick Hiter:You had to take very deliberate steps in order to get there, jim, at 35 years old I did not speak money, and that was very relevant in how much of it that I had, how I managed it and how much I made. You know what I mean. So I turned 44 this year. Dude, you can change your entire life in five years, your entire life. I lost 50 pounds and learned how to make and manage seven and eight figures worth of money all in five years. First 35, couldn't figure it out. The next five after that changed everything Right. So again, but it was what I was consuming, but it was on purpose. There was less TV shows, less sporting events that I watched and more, uh, more time watching videos about people who knew a lot about money and reading books about money.
Jim Cripps:So was there something that happened at 35? That was. That was that key moment of you know what this? I have not spent enough time becoming a student of money and how it works and how my net worth goes up and how that changes not just my life but my family's.
Nick Hiter:Unbelievable question. So, yeah, the the day that that changed was the. We read um, I read thinking grow rich. And then the strangest secret. And then the strangest secret. There's that exercise with the index card where you write 10 of the easiest things you can do 30 days in a row, and so on and so forth.
Nick Hiter:Well, over that time, my wife and I realized that we were the problem, and that was at 35, 2015. That's the year that my wife and I's dreams collided and started going in the same direction, and all of our dreams needed a certain amount of currency to be able to achieve those dreams, to do what we wanted to do, see the places we wanted to see, provide our kids. Like Brad said something a long time ago. A lot of people have picked on me for this, but in this town, if you make $250,000 a year, you can make all the decisions you need to make. You can basically live in the zip code in the county you need to live in. You can send your kids to the school that is best for them. You can eliminate making subpar decisions based on money. If you remove money from the equation, where would they go to school? Where would you live? How would you live out your life Right. So once you know what that is, then apply the money factor to it and then go figure out how to make that money Right.
Nick Hiter:So that 2015 was life changing for us, because that was the day that we decided we're going to do this together and then now we were locked in arms and we were unstoppable from that moment forward. You know what I mean, and anytime we ever get in any like you know, relationships are up and down. They take work. It's because, like you know, any time my wife and I have any like rough months, we can go back and look. We didn't talk about our dreams as much as we did those other months. We didn't sit down and talk about our finances. Those things got kicked to the back of the line and look what happened. So the discipline portion was incredibly important in that.
Jim Cripps:One thing that I see is, if you're intentional about it and you're having those conversations when you get to a certain net worth or you get to a certain debt, freedom or however you want to look at that, a lot of the everyday problems, a lot of the problems that a lot of people have just kind of wash away and now you're not dealing in the drama that is just normal for most people and now you can actually focus on the things that really matter.
Nick Hiter:I can remember growing up you know, excuse me back to school. It was the rush to get to, you know, to Walmart or Kmart for school supplies and back to school clothes and shoes. And then, literally this morning, I had a doctor's appointment and school just started back this week when we're shooting this today. And so know, I pulled up my gps. All right, I need to leave 33 minutes prior, so I'll give myself 35. Took 47 minutes to get there because I went through four school zones.
Nick Hiter:Um, you know, I mean, and the whole time I'm sitting in this traffic, I'm looking at all these people and I'm like like one. A long time I realized I was like one of those sheep, just in line, and I was like dude, I'm. There's more to life than this, you know, I don't, I, I don't have to choose this, I don't like this. So I'm just going to do different. And and I removed traffic from the equation. You know, we built this office because I got tired of sitting in the car for an hour and 15 minutes one way going to and from our office for those years. So I'd paid my dues so that we could have something on this side of town, so that I could get that time back. You know what I mean.
Nick Hiter:So, cause it was robbing my kids, robbing myself robbing. You know it was literally six, 700 hours a month, or a year, of just wasted time sitting in the car, you know. So there's only so many podcasts I could listen to. There's only so many phone calls I could make it sucked. Looking at brake lights, yeah, you know, missing things, and so it just. You know, literally I was reminded of that this morning as I'm sitting here looking at everybody. I wanted to help every single one of them in their car. Is this really how you want to live? Is this it for you? Is this, and if not, for how long? Yeah, you know.
Jim Cripps:Well, I think they're in this mode of where they don't think outside the box. They're in this rut and you know whether you're winning or losing. You know the difference between a rut and a groove is success. Yes, so you can get used to either one. I'd much rather get used to winning.
Nick Hiter:You mentioned thinking outside the box. Every box that you're in, you put yourself there folks, you know what I mean. So that box, you built it, man, so you can knock it down, that's right.
Jim Cripps:You have the ability to get yourself into it or out of it. That's right. It's up to you. Along the way, do you have any mentors that really just spoke into your life? I know you mentioned Bradley and kind of you know that started the podcast side of things, but anybody else that you think is just like you know that I've had. Yeah.
Nick Hiter:First of all, there's been some great folks that I've worked with along the way my parents. My wife is a mentor. My kids are even mentors. I learned from my kids but I played for unbelievable coaches in the sporting world. Um, but every I played for unbelievable coaches in the sporting world and um I. I'm still living out lessons they taught me as a child, teenager and young adult.
Nick Hiter:Um and um and then, but probably somebody who's had one of the most drastic life-changing effects on me was pastor Roger Patton, that pastor that married us that day Still one of my best friends, um, to this day somebody he's out. Somebody's out in California now fulfilling his mission, somebody that I still keep in touch with. His wife's a phenomenal CEA. You can't have her, but that's our CPA. But that moment that changed our life that I referenced before again, that wouldn't happen without him. So, um, he's, he's had one of the largest effects on life. But obviously you can't mistake parents, man, um, mom, dad, even step parents. They're just amazing people. In-laws gosh, my in-laws have been unbelievably supportive. That's great.
Nick Hiter:Yeah.
Jim Cripps:So blessed, um favorite moment with your parents favorite moment with my parents.
Nick Hiter:Um, let's see it would be. See, it would probably be a holiday. We actually found some old home videos that I'd never seen before. You don't have many of those. I've got 10 million videos of my kids and there's hardly any of me growing up but we found some from when I was like 10 or 11 years old and the great little home that we had in Antioch, tennessee.
Nick Hiter:It was my mom's birthday and um, all the her parents were over and there was some family friends over, but basically, like um pop had hid a bunch of uh, her present was a lot of cash, but he had hid all. It was a scavenger hunt that he had made and I remember in that video I was just watch, following my mom around uncovering it, like opening up the microwave and lifting up the plate. And there it was, lifting up the mattress, going in the bathroom and lifting, you know, looking in the shower, wherever they were, and that was just a really cool moment. My parents were. My dad was always the coach. Mom was always the room mom.
Nick Hiter:Mom was a stay-at-home mom growing up, so my house was where all the kids could come play. She was the room mom at school. So literally to this day around Christmas time I'll get probably five to 10 people that I haven't seen in 30 years or longer will take a picture of a Christmas decoration that my mom handmade and gave them in like fourth grade and it's signed by her and all those things. So my parents have always been very big time leaders in the community and that's still true today, and if every generation gets better, then we got a lot of work to do.
Jim Cripps:I love it. That's good man, that is good. All right, so we have this one semi-controversial part of the podcast.
Nick Hiter:Let's go.
Jim Cripps:It's things that we think but do not say so. What's something out there that you know? I'm not, we're not looking to get anybody canceled, but at the same time, what's you know? What's one of those things that maybe some people don't have the spine to say, but it's just true well, jesus is lord would be my first thought.
Nick Hiter:Okay, um, but um. First thought Okay, Um, but um. Abraham Lincoln said it best a house divided will not stand. So you know, there's a whole lot of finger pointing going on out there and, um, it's just gross, it's not, uh, um, I don't talk about it that much just because I don't want to be exposed to that side of you when you want to come at me all crazy and it's silly.
Nick Hiter:As a kid I can remember seeing the president of the United States talk a few times a year when he addressed the country, a few interviews and whatnot. Now it's 800 clips a day. The politician's turned into a celebrity and it's a service job. It's a service job and it's a service job. It's a service job and it's a lot like being a deacon at church. There's not a lot of work and not a lot of reward, and I think we need to find some balance in that. But again, there's just so much divisiveness in how people are pointing fingers and turning people against each other. All right, put it to you this way Go back and watch the last presidential debate before 2016.
Nick Hiter:I think it was Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. Look how cordial and kind they were to each other. Well, what we agree on is this here's just my take on it versus you dumbass, you know, or whatever it is they're going to do. And my wife and I have a lot of great connections through the national prayer breakfast, where Tennessee delegates um for that, and it's an amazing thing. But when we go to DC every February, we were that breakfast is. There's more foreign countries there than there are more people from other countries there than there are um United States states citizens, and the coolest thing when talking to those other folks is you get real perspective on how we are as a country and where we stand and um like their perspective versus what we think it really is is. I'm just telling you it's not even close yeah and um and they're.
Nick Hiter:You know the stuff we're fighting about. They're just, you know, their views are like guys, you guys have it made, man. It's that. This is the united states of america. This is the place for dreams come true. What are you guys doing? You're tearing it apart. Yeah, you know. So that would be my, my thing.
Jim Cripps:I don't get into politics too much, but it's, it's unfortunate well, I think you know the reality is, if we, if we really it down we agree on more things than we disagree on, oh yeah, regardless of which side of the aisle you're on or if you're independent. I mean most of the things that we take for granted that we are not grateful for, and we should show more, you know, gratitude for it's 90% of it or 80% of it, whatever that number is, we agree Absolutely percent of whatever that number is.
Nick Hiter:We agree absolutely. You know what sells right now is that divisiveness versus. You know, not that long ago, the underdog was what sold, you know, and there's news is there's good and bad news, but when you watch the news you only get the bad portion, portion right, um, but again, the um it people. A lot of times people would say, nick, who are you voting for? I'm like. Well, first of all, like it wasn't that long ago you didn't say that out loud, even husbands and wives didn't know that was protection, right.
Nick Hiter:But regardless, even if the person I voted for did not win, I want to support the person that did and I need them to do a good job, because my granddaddy used to say, nick, shit rolls downstream. Well, we're all downstream from the top and we need whoever gets into that office to do a dang good job and we need everybody that's supposed to hold them accountable to do so. So, regardless, my job, in my opinion, as a citizen and of course, then both sides would argue with this and I'll probably get roasted for saying this, but my job is to be the best version of myself that I can be, make my community better, start at home and expand out. So I want Nashville, tennessee, to be amazing and anything I can do to help that that's how I support the current candidate or current president person holding that office, even if I don't disagree or whatever else. But I need them to do a good job because when they do, that benefits all of us.
Jim Cripps:It's that selfishly unselfish. Yes, I need you to selfishly support the president, whether it was your candidate or not. That's right, so that we are empowering them to get better. We're empowering them to be the best version of themselves.
Nick Hiter:Absolutely, absolutely, and dude, when you can do that, look how much greener the grass is and bluer the sky is. Dude, the world's a more beautiful place when you can see the world through those eyes.
Jim Cripps:Absolutely. Now, we touched on it a couple times. But your health journey, when did you make that commitment? When did you make that turn? Because obviously you were fit. You're playing baseball. Oh yeah, I mean real deal. We're not talking about just local little league. You went up the chain.
Nick Hiter:Yes, I mean real deal. We're not talking about just local little league. Like you went up the chain. Yes, I was in the top 1% in the world at baseball, especially in my position when I played. So my goal as an athlete I wasn't always the biggest, strongest, fastest, but I would outwork you all day long, and that started in the gym. So my goal every time was to obviously achieve certain levels of strength for the game. But I wanted to make a statement the first time we went in the locker room and I took my shirt off, I wanted them to know dang, that guy, that guy works right. And I wanted them to remember me. So I always achieved that.
Nick Hiter:And after baseball, I did that because I just worked hard. I didn't know a lot about it, but I worked hard. And because I worked so hard and was so active, a lot of the bad habits I had weren't relevant. And then, after baseball happened, it was like a slow I did not eat good food, didn't drink the right drinks, drank too much alcohol and over the course of time I put on like 50 pounds to the point where when I look at myself, I'm like God. I don't even know how my wife could be attracted to that. She probably wasn't, and you know. So it was over time. It was like we want to get better. So it was a recommitment. And then I realized about the time that we were always getting it to good enough and then stopping. We never truly achieved goals and fitness, and I realized that that was happening in my faith and happening at work and everything else. It was just like the way you do anything, the way you do everything. That's that type of thing.
Nick Hiter:And then we found out at 40 I mean, everybody knows the story about how we found out my daughter was coming, because we were trying forever and we're about to move on, and and literally like in the final stage of when we said, if it happens, it happens, if it don't, it don't. That's when we found out she was coming and I was like you know, we're going to be just about to be 41 when she comes, and I was like you know, first of all I didn't know if I was when things would hurt, I didn't know if I was injured or if that's just how life is now. You know, you know and um, but I was like she ain't gonna have some old, old daddy and and I definitely ain't gonna be mistaken for her granddaddy when we go anywhere. So I was like you know, this is a great opportunity to level up, take everything in life to the next level, including our fitness, and go from that 80 that we always get good enough at and stop to that 100 and um. So that changed.
Nick Hiter:Literally like I'm drinking over here a kale tonic, a drink that I would never have touched 10 years ago. It looks disgusting but it's delicious and it's amazing how good it makes you feel. The gum I'm chewing right now literally has nootropics in it. Okay, neuro gum. It's fantastic. I recommend it for everybody.
Nick Hiter:You just learn that there's all these God-given things on this earth that we are made to consume and that make us better, that make us feel better, perform better and everything. And I learned that everything that I was eating was total trash. I learned that my habits were awful. I learned that sleep made a big impression on everything that you do. I just didn't. Again, your health is another language and I suggest you learn it. And if you're not happy with the way that you look or the way that you feel, or your shape or whatever it is, well, dude, you're one of one. So again, you're eating and doing the same things that those other people are doing. Well, they're not you. So you can get a genetics test, you can get blood work done and figure out what you should be eating. I found out there was some foods that I ate every day that caused massive inflammation, all right, and that inflammation came with a whole lot of side effects, and the moment I removed those things out of my diet, everything changed. So, dude, it's a journey. You got to get to know yourself, you got to love yourself enough to eat good and drink good and, more importantly, like you know, there was some I have to.
Nick Hiter:I do a little bit of yard work at home. We have unbelievable landscaping. My guy gave me some really awesome chemicals to help me out with the new flower beds we put in where grass wants to keep trying to grow back, literally. Mom lets the dogs out and she sees me out there spraying. She's like, oh, we've got to get the dogs in because you're spraying chemicals out there. I'm like you're right, you're right, they can come back in 30 minutes when it's dry out there. I'm like you're right, you're right, they can come back in 30 minutes when it's dry. Well then I'll go inside and she'll literally be giving her granddaughter a piece of candy. It's got that same chemical in it. And I'm like, hey, mom, let me show you something, show her the back of the chemicals, show her the back of the candy. And she was. I was like same thing. She was like what? And I was like, yeah, like trust is earned, why? Because it's been put in front of you, like we don't even question what we put in our bodies anymore or where it came from.
Nick Hiter:My son was at the Williamson County Fair the other night and I was appalled by something that we saw because I was like, oh my gosh, I haven't taught him enough. He's literally sitting there on the grassy grass hill eating a snack and a drink with a friend and a kid that they didn't know walks up and pours lemonade in his buddy's drink and my son was the first one that took a sip of that. And I was like bro, what would? He was like yeah, it was lemonade. I was like how did you know? He was like well, I tasted it. I was like, but what if it was something else? I was like dude, you realize most of the kids that go to the hospital for something like this. They consumed it thinking it was something else. You know what I mean. So, like, even in public, you don't leave an open drink, you take it with you because people come by. It's very dangerous. So as a parent, I was like, oh man, he's not prepared yet.
Nick Hiter:We got more work to do. You got to be really relevant or aware of what you're putting in your bodies and um and and and understand. Understand it like you know, preserve it. Your body's not made to preserve things, it's made to break it down. So if you're putting preservatives in, it's probably not good. It's probably not a good thing.
Jim Cripps:Well, you know, there there is that old saying that food is medicine. But I think the opposite is what we need to be talking about. Not only can food be medicine, it can also be poison.
Nick Hiter:What's the saying? If it didn't grow on earth and have our mother, you probably shouldn't put it in your body. That's right. But again, I thought I could just work out, because at young I could work out and overcome all those things. And, by the way, the ingredients were better. Back then They've gotten worse. Yeah, ingredients were better back then they've gotten worse. Yeah, um and uh.
Nick Hiter:But, like you know, what I found out is I probably 80, 80 to 85 percent of the journey is the nutrition, not the workout, not what you do in the gym, it's what you consume. Fasting changed my life gym. So I'm 55 pounds down from where I was at my worst. It's life-changing. Okay, um, I learned that I eat once a day and that's at night. Um, I don't get hungry. Today's a treat, a fun treat day, because I get a little, I get a little juice, right. So technically I broke my fast, but my body don't. It's, it breaks it down in a hurry and it don't know the difference. But most days I, um, I eat breakfast and lunch on like major holidays Christmas, thanksgiving, my birthday, um, and every once in a while on vacation. Okay, that's about it. But 350 days a year I fast and I only eat once Okay.
Jim Cripps:So that's a topic that's near and dear to my heart. I do love fasting. Yesterday I finished up a 65-hour fast.
Nick Hiter:Yeah, baby.
Jim Cripps:And you know, broke it with a nice steak and some eggs. And you know, much, much like you. Well, actually, mine's different in that I was always the big kid. You know, I was never fit growing up, in fact, until after 40, and at 40, I had a moment where I realized that I was leading my team in the wrong direction, I was leading my family in the wrong direction and I lost a lot of weight. I was 305 at one point, wow. And you know I sit in front of you today at 221. Congratulations. But fasting was a big piece of that, yeah. And so how did you come to the OMAD, or one meal a day? How did you figure out that that was what was right for you?
Nick Hiter:It was a progression. So it started out, you know, you only eat in an eight-hour window, and then eight hours turned into six and four, and then it just dialed all the way down until we didn't eat at all. And, like you know, I had coffee. I have a nootropics supplement I even put in my coffee. But I ate a lot of fruit. You know, when I was in that window I learned that, man, my body loves fruit. I like literally drinking fruit juice. Right now, a swig of orange juice is like a shot of caffeine for me, especially if it's got pulp in it. You know what I mean. But I found out that fruit was like it's nature's candy and my body just performs extremely well with it. It makes everything move the way it's supposed to move and I love the taste with it. It makes everything move the way it's supposed to make move, and and, um and uh, it's just a and I, and I love the love, the taste of it. So, um, like I, when I crave sweets, I crave fruit, you know.
Jim Cripps:another thing that I think is, uh, really kind of opens your mind is, once you get kind of dialed in well, then you can actually tell what different foods do to you. But while you're inflamed you don't have a guide, there's no, it doesn't make a big enough difference. You just, you just feel bad all the time.
Nick Hiter:Well, you know, and again, look at pictures of a beach picture in the seventies versus now and you see that we are significantly overweight. But like even going back into you know, when we didn't have all the things that we have today. Let's go back to the caveman. The caveman might not eat for days on end because it took him that long to find the food. Food wasn't always accessible. So the three meals a day I don't even think that started until the 1900s sometime. You know what I mean Because again, everybody's body is a little bit different.
Nick Hiter:Mario Lopez is in great shape. He says he's one of those guys that never eats a meal, he just grazes all day. That's what works for him. So if what you're doing you don't, if the results aren't getting you there, then you're doing the wrong thing and just try something else and keep trying new things until you find out what works for you.
Nick Hiter:For me, if I stop first of all, if I stopped to eat lunch today, I just lost an hour or more. And the other thing is I will not be at peak performance the rest of the day. I figure that out real fast. So my favorite thing is when I get up in the morning and I get to do my routine with the lemon water and the good salts and electrolytes and and, and, and nootropics and supplements and whatnot. With that coffee man, I'm ready, I'm ready to go crush it and then I popped me a little piece of gum in and go for my walk. You know, they get my, get my two to three miles in every day, um, no matter what, and then I'll get my weights in later.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, good, deal, good deal, what's? What's one action item that you'd give somebody? This could be in business, it could be in health. Whatever you think is the most important one that you could give a listener today that they could go and plug in and make their life better.
Nick Hiter:When I was sitting there all those years waiting for somebody to say Nick, you should be up here, you should be up here, you should be up here. You got to have a, and you might even want to look in the mirror at yourself. When you do this, all of us believe we're supposed to be doing something. It's in there, and the real question is is are you going to take that and grow into that person and utilize it, or is it going to be something that, like you know, my grandmother used to always say you're going to be the president of the United States one day. Right, and I never took it seriously and I don't want to be, but she was right.
Nick Hiter:Everything that we've done today, it was because I finally made a decision and found a way to believe in it. So my advice would be like if you don't know why God put you here, you don't know yourself well enough. So get to know yourself, learn to love yourself and be grateful for everything that you do have and that you can do, and then figure out how to make an impact, which is, bring your God-given abilities to the marketplace. Okay Again, money to us is the scorecard, right, so if people aren't willing to pay you for it. You haven't achieved the level that you're put here to do so.
Jim Cripps:Or you've picked something that doesn't really translate. That's right.
Nick Hiter:That's right. So get to know yourself, find out what it is that you're actually here to do, and then you've got to feed that confidence. Uh, you've got to feed that confidence until it becomes who you are, and and eventually you'll it'll be what you're known for.
Jim Cripps:I love it. That's fantastic. Um, all right, this is a little bit of a fun one. So you know I'm a bowler, hence the pin Fun fact.
Nick Hiter:I bowled a 197 the other night, but it took me three games. Where'd you bowl. It took me three games. Where'd you bowl it?
Jim Cripps:took me three games. Where'd you guys?
Nick Hiter:go. Pastor Josh Heisman had some men from the church going out last Sunday night and there's some stuff that we were going to talk about. He said meet us at King's Bowl. Oh, that's good, that's a good place. So I went there and was so bad that we decided to all bowl left-handed game, to make it fair. I don't know, I usually with anything with the ball, I can be really good at it, and it's crazy that I just didn't take this ball and knock down those pins right over there. It's all direction. I couldn't get my direction right. So, yeah, I bowled a 197, but it took me three games.
Nick Hiter:Nice.
Jim Cripps:All right. So for this exercise, you got to put together a bowling team. All right, this bowling team is going to we're going to be doing a charity event of some sort, so you want to have as many eyes on it and you want to have a great time. Obviously, you want to be around people that you're going to you're going to learn from, not necessarily bowling. So who are the other four bowlers that you're going to bowl with? And you get to pick a commentator.
Nick Hiter:Well, first of all, jim Cripps is on my team, no doubt, tater. Well, first of all, um, jim crips is on my team. No doubt, um, jim crips is on my team. Um, then I'm gonna go with, uh, randy hooth, because we gotta be good and my man ran bowling alleys, that's right, um, and I don't know a lot of other, um, competitive bowlers, but I know people who are just good at stuff, so I'll pick, I'll throw, I'll throw brad in the mix. Just because we went, we went golfing he made some big time putts and hit some balls to the moon that we used in our group, so he just knows how to win.
Nick Hiter:All right, and I get one more. Yep, I get one more. Let's see, let's see, I'm going to do and I'm going to pick my wife, because my wife's a better bowler than I am, but she makes everything better. Ah, I love it. So those are are my four and the commentator, the commentator to give the play-by-play. Oh, dude, I'm going, um, I'm getting bob euchre out of retirement and, uh, and it's gonna be amazing I love it and if I had an alternate I would go um.
Nick Hiter:I'd go bill murray just because of the movie kingpin, which is one of my favorite all-time movies yeah, you can't go wrong with bill murray no, I mean, I mean, he's literally on my list of if I pick a team.
Jim Cripps:He's there. There ain't no question in that.
Nick Hiter:All right, best book you ever read um, besides the bible all right, bible's number one? Um best book I ever read is, uh, the one. It's the one that I go back and read the most, because I get something every single time. It's a um, rich dad, poor dad, by robert k. Um, just love it. And there's so many things that you just got to remind yourself over and, over and over again.
Jim Cripps:What's a piece of advice you'd give to somebody that's listening right now and they're struggling?
Nick Hiter:First of all, um, all of the struggles that you have, um, outside of your body are, uh, I believe, uh, there's some mirror image within your body, right? So, whatever it is that you're struggling with, it's probably because there's some missing piece of information or something that you don't know that you should. That would eliminate that struggle. So, first of all, get out of your own way, get to know whatever it is enough about what you're struggling with that you can start to build that skillset of confidence in it so that that is no longer your struggle. What's the old saying? Take, take the worst part of your game and make it your best, and now you're a great player, right? Um, dad always said if I'm the worst musician in our band, we're going to be really good because I'm good. So you know. But whatever it is you're struggling with, the easiest thing to do, best advice, would be find the people that aren't struggling with that and surround yourself with those people, because they found a way to not struggle with whatever it is you're struggling with.
Jim Cripps:That's right, good deal. What's the biggest problem you have in your business right now?
Nick Hiter:It's always going to be communication. All right, the best in anything are the best at automation and delegation. They're the best at getting other people having a message that can be sent to the masses, whether it be staff, coworkers, clients, community people, whatever it may be. They're the best at automating that information and then delegating that information Right. So that's something that, literally, you're helping us out big time with right now. We finally got us a hero when it comes to, specifically, the automation baby, because nobody's better than Jim Cripps. But the automation and the delegation man, it's always going to be communication. We can always do better. Not one problem in the history of mankind do we look back and say you know, that happened because they communicated too well.
Jim Cripps:That's right, all right. Last but not least, how do you want to be remembered?
Nick Hiter:I want to be remembered by as somebody that, somebody that faced all of my own uh, my own demons, my own shortcomings head on and through my faith, um was able to take those shortcomings and make them a strength Right. So, um, my my heroes. Professionally, I love Lewis House and what he does. I love even Mario Lopez, ryan Seacrest, bobby Bones, all those radio and TV personalities that do a lot. They're great interviewers and do a lot of things. I love doing that. I love collaborating with people in that realm. So you know, professionally, I would love to go down as one of the greats in that space. But outside of that, you know he loved his Lord Jesus and he put his family second behind Jesus and then everybody else just was better for being around him, and I think that'd be pretty solid.
Jim Cripps:That's great. Perfect, you can do. These are awesome questions, man. Well, nick, thanks. Thanks so much for joining me in the studio. Thank you for providing such a wonderful place for us to do podcasts. Uh, it's been a joy.
Nick Hiter:Yes, sir. Well, thank you for having me, and this is a. Uh, I'm really excited about this podcast, dude. Um, you know you're going to change lives with it, no doubt, and there's that we will be celebrating episode 1,000 before we know it, absolutely.
Jim Cripps:I'm looking forward to it. Absolutely, man. All right. Well, team, you heard it here. On the Charge Forward podcast, as always, I want to say special thanks to Nick Heider and the HitLab Studios team here, and then also our sponsors, charge Forward Solutions and Sense Custom Development. Until next time, we'll see you later. Team, thanks so much for joining us for this episode of the Charge Forward podcast. Look, we'll see you later.