Welcome to today's episode, and I am stoked because Blair is going to be interviewing a good friend of mine, a friend that I pray with every single Monday morning, we're in prayer group together. This is a guy that I heard about several years ago. And, you know, here's what I love about this guy. This guy understands. He understood what I was walking through when I had first met him a few years ago, because I remember thinking, like, he had done some really cool stuff to get really the attention of other people when nobody knew who he was like.

He had no name, like nobody really knew who he was. And he really did some interesting things in his business to get known and to be known. And that was encouraging for me back then when I met him. I don't know, maybe twenty, fifteen, twenty sixteen because I was just getting started and I was trying to figure out like, how do I get out there on a bigger scale? And so I was encouraged by that.

But today, I hope that you're encouraged by that, because Nick went from a guy who is really a well-known person to really understanding how to scale his business and began to get on stage after stage after stage. And so Nick is going to talk about that process and what he did and what you need to do. But he's also going to talk about the process of what he's doing to to really use digital right now. Like it's so important to use digital stages right now.

And he'll be getting into that. And then I think there's a thing that so many of us lose track of around the importance of not trying to be all things to everybody. But really, knowing who your audience is, I just put out a request this week for a big name speaker that you would know, and he this big name speaker would normally say yes to me, but I loved his response. His response was, that is not my target market and I cannot serve them powerfully.

Could I create something for them? Could I go speak to them? Yes, but it's not going to serve them nor serve me in a powerful way. This gentleman was really crystal clear on his niche market. And so today I'm excited because Nick's going to be talking about niche market in a way that will make sense to you guys. And so I'm stoked about today.

Let's dive into the green room with Blair and Nick.

Welcome to Inside the Green Room with P v three each week. Pete Margitza third. Yes, that's me. Let you inside his virtual green room to hang out and learn from the meeting planners who control the most prestigious stages in the world and from the speakers who use those stages to increase their income and impact. Now let's dive into the Greenland. Hello and welcome to Inside the Green Room with PV three. As you know by now, I am not PV three.

I am glad Brian Nichols, your co-host. And today we have a very special guest, Nick Ounsworth. Nick is a business coach, international speaker and best selling author. In fact, Tony Robbins called him one that in the one percent of marketers and funnel experts in the world as the CEO of Life on our next mission is to build a thriving community of faith based entrepreneurs online and support them through digital marketing to grow God's kingdom. Nick sold a marketing agency by 30 years old, coach over ten thousand entrepreneurs, and has consulted clients like Daymond John, Spartan races, Navy SEALs, Dotcom, Joe Polish, John Assaraf, Keller, Williams, Safeco, Wakin Church and many more.

He's an expert for sure. And all this space. So, Nick, thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, I appreciate it.

Pumped to be here inside the green room. Let's go.

That's right. All things, meetings, events. But you got your start in digital marketing. At least it sounds like that was your big kind of breakthrough company that you sold at 30. How did you make the transition? And tell us a little bit about getting in digital marketing and then how you started to move into speaking in stages?

Yeah. So I think what's interesting is how I got there, you know, so for me, I grew up where I recognize that that most adults, you know, spent most of their lives working. And I always was wondering, you know, why is everybody so busy? How come you can't be at the football game or you know what I mean? It was that adults were just always working. And so as a kid, I just set out on this mission where I want to be different.

I want to be an entrepreneur. And I had these big dreams, big vision. I'm going to build and sell a company before 30. So I'm going to give, like, the super fast, as if you hit like four X, like going through the story.

But I want to touch on it because I feel like for everyone that's listening to this podcast or in the Facebook group that you may connect with it at some level. So so for me, I get excited to be an entrepreneur. I dive in, I start buying books and courses and anything I can get my hands on to learn how to do it. And so fast forward through 11 different business failures. So I got into network marketing. I got into real estate.

When the the Great Recession happened, I chased money in and out of different industries, just trying to figure out my purpose and live this purpose. And I found myself, you know, working myself to the bone. I found myself, you know, where the doctors literally thought I was going to have a heart attack. And, you know, they had to give me Lipitor and blood thinners and I had to wear this mobile EKG unit. And so I had these big, crazy dreams.

But why did I keep failing over and over and over? And and it was driving me crazy. You know, I started drinking a lot and had really tough times and even got to a place where I considered suicide and and it was so dark and so challenging. And what brought me out of it was a couple of things. And, you know, the first thing was my mom gave me a book Rights and I believe in you. So, you know, I get this book and it's about vision.

And so you read that from my mom, read it in one sitting. It's called The Secret. And that book actually inspired me to get into, you know, pursue my relationship with God.

So it's kind of funny. Some people are like, oh, the law of attraction is just, you know, just wishing in this and that. But I looked at it and said, how can I take, you know, my thoughts captive? How can I build a vision for my life? So I created a vision. I wrote it down in the present tense of what it would look like, feel like, be like when I sold the company.

And then I started telling people and this is one of the things, whether you're a speaker, whether you're pivoting and you're moving your company online like we all need to right now, we've got to get the vision out of our heads and we got to get them out in front of people. Clarity is key, you know, and the more people that we can tell, the better. So I started telling everybody and I'm like, you know, I'm going to build and sell a company in two years.

That was my vision. That was my what problem is. You know, you can probably relate to this, like when we don't know the how it's really daunting. It's really scary. And so I a lot of naysayers and I took it a step further and said, all right, well, I'm going to tattoo this goal on my chest backwards. So there's that's what I call burning the boats. So I'm going to put a date to it.

I'm going to tell people I have no clue how I'm going to do it, but if I don't do it, I may not be here. So I'm going to go all in. And once I did that, the declaration attracts resources. Not it's not just about accountability.

It attracts resources. And so people came back and they're like, well, Nick, if you're going to go do that, you got to go hire this guy named Evan Pagan. You got to go, you know, get in this thing called the mastermind. And so I had no clue what that meant. I never heard. I actually thought when I heard Mastermind for the first time, you know what I pictured? I pictured like a scientist in like, you know, like those Flass, you know, with bubbles.

Coming out of a mike, what's a mastermind, right? And in the problem was it was a five thousand dollar investment and I'm like, I'm in all this debt. I've now have no ability to earn income. How the heck am I going to get there? And so I ended up resourcing up. I borrowed the money I got there. And to get to to the specific part of your question, man, is is the common thread throughout all of those failures?

Was that ever been looked at my story and said, Nick, the one thing you're missing, man? The one thing you're missing is marketing, the next thing you're missing is is a coach to guide you in support. You've been doing it all alone. So I came back and I said, oh, my gosh, I've figured it out. You know, I'm going to be a Facebook marketing expert and I'm going to learn marketing. I'm going to learn digital.

I'm going to stand out in a space that was new. I mean, this is in 2010. And would you have to imagine you've got to be prepared for this. So if you're an event planner, if you're a speaker and you're making a big pivot, you know, it's not impossible or implausible for someone to come back and say, you're crazy, you can't do that.

So I came back from the trip and I was met with. But, Nick, you're not even on Facebook. How on earth are you going to be that expert? How on earth are you going to, you know, start to describe yourself as an expert? And I said, listen, I'm going to start for free. I'm going to be an integrity. I'm going to do things for free, and then I'm going to learn. And then as I create results, I'll then increase my pricing, you know?

And so from that, it was pretty wild where I ended up getting my very first speaking engagement and I had a complete phobia of public speaking. So how I broke through the phobia and the. Well, let me back up. The reason why I had a phobia was that I won this award in high school and it was this big scholarship dinner. And, you know, I get there and it's for football. I got like the High School Football Hall of Fame.

And and I look at these other nine guys, they're like they're all going to play D1 football. They're all these big dudes. And I see this one guy and he's flipping through, you know, index cards feverishly. And I'm like, hey, what's up with the index cards? And he's like, Well, man, I'm just so nervous about the speech. And my parents even hired a coach in a speaking coach and riding coach. And I'm just so nervous about it.

I'm like, why are you giving a speech? And he's like, well, we all are. And like, get out of here.

I'm like, no way you're messing with me.

He's like, no, we all have to give a speech. And I started freaking out because the mayor was there. My parents were there, our coaches, principal news crews, and we're at this head table. My last name is Ounsworth. So I was accustomed to being at the end, you know, and it was at the end of the alphabet, you know what I'm talking about kind of go last, you know. So I'm like, sweet.

The one time this is going to benefit me, I'm at the end of the table. I've got basically nine guys to figure out what I'm going to say. So the first guy goes, that's the guy with the index cards and he just nails it. I mean, this guy's been practicing for weeks, right? So he nails it. Everyone's cheering for him.

And here's what they do. They decide to flip from one side of the table to the other side of the table. And so I go second.

I'm caught completely off guard. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me.

I didn't even, you know, like, I was only warming up to think about what I was going to say. So I get up to the podium and the guy before me, you know, is going to play D1 football. I mean, he was like six four, six five. So I had to take that, you know, like the like the metal microphone on a podium and like it screeches. And I pulled it all the way down to like where my mouth was.

And I looked out into the audience. I've never done this my whole life, you know, at this point still in high school. And I look out the sea of people, I see news crews and dude, I just completely froze. Like 100 percent, like a block of ice, like froze and I see my brother in the crowd, he's cracking up, laughing. I see my coach with his jaw on the table like water. Ounsworth What are you doing?

Say something. And it was so quiet and you could tell people were just like, say something, you know? And I just was so freaked out.

And the only thing I could say was, thank you. And then I turned around with my tail between my legs and I went to the to the table.

And it was one of the most humiliating, embarrassing things that I've experienced, you know, at that age in my life. And and I literally made a vow to myself. And this is what's crazy about language and what we say to ourselves and the stories we tell ourselves. And I don't think we can relate to telling themselves stories about something and giving it a meeting. But I told myself that I would never for the rest of my life, put myself in that situation again.

So that's what I was working with. Right.

So I was like, never again am I going to be up in front of people so fast forward. And it was so bad I would go to a B and I'm meeting, which is like a local networking meeting with like 15 people. I'd have to say my own name and read like a commercial, kind of like you did my bio. I'd have it in my my hand as an index card and my hands would be shaking. And it was so bad I had a physical response where I would actually get sick.

I would run I would go and get sick, like, actually, you know, I don't have to go into detail, but I'm say like I had a physical response. That's how crazy of a phobia I had.

And so fast forward, you know, here I am, you know, back to the story of I had this vision went from all these failures to, all right, I'm going to be this Facebook marketing expert to start creating some success. And the crazy thing is, and this is, I think a word for somebody here, is that if you're an event planner, if you run events and you're not, you know, running ads online on Facebook and Instagram, you're missing out on the world.

Right. So as soon as you start running ads, you put yourself out there and all the and people perceive you as a certain way. So even though I was brand spanking new people perceived because I was in an ad that I knew what I was doing. And so it literally the first 30 days I started this thing and I get a call from this guy and a guy named Quincy calls me up. Now, mind you, I just started this business.

You know, I'm still in debt, you know, and I pick up the phone. I'm like, hi, this is Nick. And he's like this. This is Nick Ounsworth. And I'm like, Yeah.

Oh, I just thought I was going to get to a receptionist or a front desk. And I was like, oh, well, you know, we believe in long lunches over here at New Media 2.0.

And, you know, so how what's going on? How can I help you? And he said, Nick, you know what? I've been seeing what you're doing online. I've been seeing your Facebook ads. And, you know, my team and I were so impressed. We want to fly you out to Honolulu, Hawaii, and we want to put you up and we want you to be our keynote speaker at our technology conference with over 500 people.

Now, mind you, this whole phobia thing, you know what I mean? That's still running in the background. And for some crazy reason, I had the courage to say, you know, what are you what are you paying? And he said, we'll cover all your expenses and we'll put you up for three nights and we'll pay you fifteen hundred bucks. And so I stepped into it and said, yes. And and that kind of led me.

That was the first speaking engagement that broke through the phobia. And it literally was just about going and doing the thing that you said that you fear the most. You a lot of times breaking through a fear is just about actually going towards it and doing it. And then once I did that and made a few bucks, it was, you know, it was on from there. But just to round out the story and back to you, man, this is because of the vision, because I declared it and because I resource stuff, even though it was it seemed impossible and got to the mastermind.

It was that that mastermind that I met clients that became big clients like five and even a six figure client.

It was that that mastermind where I got my first coaches at that where it became a decided to crown myself, put the hat on as a Facebook marketing expert. And then ever since I got people results and then in two years, a guy that was in that mastermind, Scott from Wisconsin was his name badge ended up buying my company right before I turned 30. And you can only imagine how many people were saying, like, OK, cool, Nick looks like you're doing good.

But how's that tattoo going to treat you when you don't sell this company and you turn thirty in two months? And it's just one of these things where when you have a vision that's so strong and you've got a letter that it's all written out, and then you you just choose faith over fear and you just choose to believe it's possible, you know, crazy things can happen.

So so that's kind of a kind of wove in like our five steps, vision, declaration, letter, resource up and then faith over fear.

So I love that. And let's let's kind of break down each of those and talk through it, because what I was really interested interesting is you talking about how you then started to get those resources to become a better speaker. So I know you joined Toastmasters, you became a coach in your own right and started becoming an expert in this, but you still needed coaching around speaking and getting yourself a little bit more proficient and comfortable, I imagine. Tell us about your journey to, like, really perfect your speaking because you're a powerful speaker.

You've done tons of keynotes now and you're always presenting. How did you get yourself to that level?

Yeah, great question. And I would say that this is, you know, one that I'm sure a lot of people say. But, you know, practice is truly everything. And I think what happens as a speaker, as in the beginning, we you want to invest in yourself and you want to get the training. So you want to know the framework. You want to know, you know, what's a good framework, what why, how what's next?

Like that one framework is burned in my mind. So I could plunk down anywhere in there like, hey, talk about, you know, this water bottle.

And it's like, well, what is it? Why is it really good?

And, you know, and so you want to get yourself like a framework and get around the right people and and learn a couple processes, if you will, of how to think about presenting and get you want to get that education and training. And so I was a student of it, like you said, Toastmasters.

I've invested tons of money into always getting better and better and better and better, but the other thing is for me anyway, it took took a couple to a few years to realize that the best speakers in the world are the ones who have just truly stepped into their authentic self and are no longer trying to be like anybody else.

So for me as a speaker in the beginning, I remember I got trained where you stand and you put like your hands like this diamond formation, like, you know, and and I learned all these different sayings and things.

And I was being robotic, trying to be like the person that I just invested in to learn from as opposed to being me. And so it took a little bit of time. But I feel like some of the best speakers, it's like we got to peel away all those layers of the onion and strip off everything of like who we think we need to be, how we think we need to walk around the stage. You know how Brand Ambassador PVG three does it?

We want to look at how do you do it? Right. And so I feel like it took time and it took that realization to to step into that and say, you know what, like it's OK. I mean, I get ripped the new one and Toastmasters for my arms. But you know what? At the end of the day, like, I want to flow as me. I want to get out of this thing. I want to get out of my head.

And if I can just speak from the heart every single time and if I can speak through stories and connect and never make it about me and always make it about them, then then this thing will work out and I'll be OK. Love that one of my first bosses at a big speakers bureau in New York always used to say that any speaker that would come in, he's like, you have to understand that speaking isn't a vocation. It's an application has to be something you're passionate about.

There's a lot of people who get into speaking, wanting to make money. But the people who are really good at it, I think the people who've really stayed around and made it a successful career and or tool for their business or the people who really have something that they're passionate about, that they really believe and that they speak from their heart each time. It can't just be rehearsed and can. So that's a really important thing to keep in mind.

You do a lot of coaching as your you're continuing to coach and help your your students and your clients. How has that shifted? Right now we're in the midst of this pandemic. You're talking about thinking ahead. You've already kind of touched on everyone getting digital talk. Tell us a little bit about how you're coaching and how your message and how you're trying to implement your five steps in resources with with your clients in this time of uncertainty, when when a lot of what you talk about is is having faith and getting prepared for what you envision.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, you know, I would say as soon as it hit, we think back to those days, right.

In March, I feel like there was a certain level of panic and fear because when it first happened, I mean, if you think back to the toilet paper hoarding and shortage and there was that moment of like safety, security of like, are we going to need to, like, find a place to bug out to if things get really weird and there's looting or if it gets crazy or so there is that immediate fear that that came over.

And as soon as we could kind of collect ourselves from that, we dropped in as fast as we could into how are we going to literally make this the best time of our lives and the best time of our business. And that right there, no matter what you're facing, no matter what the obstacle is, no matter what the choice, no matter what you're facing. Right. Whether it's a pandemic or whether it's a partner that steals from you or something crazy, that happens.

We have one or two choices. We can be the victim and we can be like, woe is me, or we can drop into how am I going to use this and find the blessing in disguise and find something, you know, in sometimes, you know, it might take a it might take a week, it might take a day. Sometimes it might take three, four or five, six months. I've even had one that happened just this past weekend where something that was really awful, that happened in business three years ago.

If the person ever did what they did and betrayed us the way that they did the person's wedding, I was that none of that we would have never met them. And all this craziness, they never would have met each other. Right. So there's always that blessing in disguise. So we my wife, Megan, she's a powerhouse. So we looked at it and said, let's literally make this the best time of our lives so far on a family perspective.

You know, we started thinking about how do we spend more time together, ride home together. Right. So we chose that direction. On the business side, we said, how can we dig in and serve not just our community but the world at a higher level in a way that's more accessible and in a way that is just undeniably heartfelt and serving. And so, you know, for us, we do these these live challenges we've been doing for about five years and so do challenges.

We do coaching and we've always charged form. So as soon as this happened, we said, you know what, it's not about surviving right now. Let's help people rise up and thrive. And that became our whole messaging of like rising and thriving and and and so we made it free. So the first time in the history of the company here, we here we go with our first free challenge and we just put it out there. We got people together.

And I think as as a speaker, I think even as an event planner, if you can build community right. People are on lockdown. People are quarantined. People are getting bombarded with fear and messaging from the media, friends, family, you know what I mean? There's so much noise. If you can create a safe space and you can build community inside of a Facebook group and go accomplish something together, go do something hard together. Right.

That's what I love about challenges, is that will push people to define and clarify their vision and then launch into action, make a declaration to go get it. So when we built that community, it ended up being the biggest challenge we've ever had. We ended up sharing our group coaching program. And and, you know, it's not a hard sell or anything. It's just like, hey, if you like this for free, here's an irresistible offer that's at a discount.

That's like a crazy deal. And then, you know, we had the best promotion we've ever done in the history of the company. So we gave more than we've ever given and then we received more than we've ever received. And so I think, you know, right now we know that covid and events are not going to really be picking up. And for I don't maybe a year, you know, and to twenty, twenty one, who knows, like we're not booking any hotels.

And until at least we're going to give a couple more months, get through the election. But what a beautiful time for all of us to pivot and innovate together. So. Yeah, I love that, I mean, and that's the kind of vision that we all need looking forward to to make the most of this situation and to come out better than where we started, it doesn't have to be a total deterrent. You can you can pivot, create new opportunities and build your business in a new direction.

You mentioned a challenge and we haven't talked too much on this show yet about launching challenges. I know your digital marketing expert meeting planners are probably used to just a single day event or two or three day event, and they kind of understand and now they understand kind of the virtual summits and conferences and the challenges might still be something new for four speakers and meeting planners as they're adapting to this online world. Take us through the steps of launching a challenge, creating a challenge.

What as you touched on it a little bit, I just want our our audience to really understand the opportunity there and what it looks like and and how you go about thinking about what's going to be impactful to to entice people to learn more about what you're doing. Yeah.

So so basically the the biggest difference just to define himself in super clear is virtual summit is it can be anywhere from let's call it five to shoot.

We've seen like 30, 40 people all on this online summit basically just delivered through Zoome It can be on a weekend or every week or daily. And typically this summit is about like a topic. And then you bring in all these really cool speakers that are experts on the topic, and then you build a big ol Facebook group and create a lot of community and everything is a give. You can tie it to nonprofit. You can sell your program. It's awesome.

It's a great way to build influence. It's a great way to build the list. As far as a challenge goes, the reason why I love a challenge is that similar concept. It's all delivered virtually, except it's a very specific period of time. So we love seven day challenges. Now, as far as the days goes, we actually do the Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday. So it take place over about two weeks, their 90 minute coaching sessions.

But they're very, very specific. So we do a challenge on the life and fire challenge that's on your vision. So in seven days with us, over the course of two weeks, we're going to push you to stretch and clarify your vision to the point where you've got it written down in your letter to the point where you literally have a vision board with twelve months smart goals that you know, that you're then in a position to declare it to the world.

And so if you help any human being clarify their vision, have goals, it's going to be a massive breakthrough. So the other key thing is that after every session we have a very simple action step. So when you're in a group of we started I mean, we we have clients.

We've been also teaching people how to do challenges for about five years. We've had clients do it with ten people. We've had people do it with fifteen. You know, we did it with hundreds.

And now that it's free, we do it with thousands. The next one we have coming up is our goal is ten thousand and we're we're on pace.

So when you have these action steps, you get everybody doing the same motion at the same time. And it creates this unbelievable community. It creates momentum. And so if anyone's ever been stuck, you know, and what happens is if there's a global pandemic that hits, you can find yourself stuck. You can find yourself in a loop of a story in your mind. And we got to break through that. So how do you break through it? Well, community also have a peak emotional experience, as Tony Robbins says.

And then if you create progress, that is the fastest way to shift even the chemicals in our brains into a happier state and get into action together, because that action will help you break through and get into momentum. And so they can be on vision if for anyone who is a speaker. Right. I really want you to hear this is that if you've been speaking for a number of years and you've got these keynotes, look at what topics are you speaking on?

If you're speaking on, you know, whether it's vision, it's goals, it's, you know, company profitability, it's leadership. It's, you know, whatever the topic is, turn that into a challenge. It breaks my heart when I hear just yesterday I heard. Oh, yeah. You know, one of my clients was a multiple six figure earners speaker and got wiped out because of covid. I said, bro, give me their number, I'll call them, because that breaks my heart because he shouldn't be getting wiped out.

He should be accelerating or he or she in this case, it was he, but they should be accelerating because if you're a speaker, you've got a message on the inside that people resonate with, and that's why they pay you to speak or you sell your programs. So if it's already landing, you're already uniquely equipped. We just got to get you on line with the challenge. Right. And so that challenge is you take your keynote, you wrap it into three days, five days, seven days, and then you just get online with some ads.

Targeting is not a hard target. Your competitors, you know, I believe in abundance. So any competitor, I believe that, like, we're all doing this together. But you know what I'm saying? That makes it clear targeting is simple on Facebook when you target competitors and then from there in terms of fulfillment, you know, one action step for. Every session game a fight like crazy, so we have prizes, if people attend the sessions live, they get raffle tickets.

If they actually win the challenge, we have over 50 percent completion rate because there's no joy in, like, you know, having everybody in this thing and no one does it. It's like we're going to prove to them and prove the community that anything is possible. So, you know, the industry average is like 10 people, only complete about 10 percent of a program that they buy. And what's crazy is only 10 percent of the people that complete it actually get any results in a challenge.

The outcome happens during the process and it just blows people's minds. So basically what happens is that you lead by giving. And so once they've experienced so much value, there's rapport and trust. And they are even if you're like, I don't like to sell, people will be asking you what's next?

And we have people that have never sold anything online before, people that I've never sold from stage. They do a really good challenge. But pouring their heart out and giving and people literally are like, hey, how do I coach with you? How do I do more with you? And if you're a speaker and you're like you don't have a back end offer, put on the coaching hat. If you're a speaker, you've got a message and you can have this amazing offer as a coach.

And so, yeah, I just it's one of these things where speakers that are leveraging these tools are thriving.

And if and if you're not, that's OK. But you take this session and I hope it fires you up and, you know, go resource up and and get yourself in the right community and let's go do this thing. I love that.

I mean, so much of what you shared. I just want to kind of unpack a little bit. First of all, there are so many speakers out there who are suffering right now. We just spoke with someone yesterday who was saying that on a recent NSA call that a lot of the speakers were helping each other figure out how to file for bankruptcy. And that's got to be the most depressing thing, because this industry, like you said, is definitely been affected.

But there is opportunity. And so I want everyone to really understand what you're what you're saying here. Nick, you laid it out so brilliantly is a challenge is more than your keynote. It's unpacking your keynote to actually incentivize new behavior to actually move people forward. I love that it challenges what it says. It's going to challenge people to do something differently. But you get to be the leader of that. You get to help share your expertise and not just in 60 minutes over the course of a week.

That's actually going to give people the opportunity to take little steps each way. And like you said, that's going to lead to a connection or relationship now with these people. That's going to make them want to work with you. So if nothing else, you can be a coach. The other thing Nic said that's super important to keep in mind is that you don't have to have the the biggest, smartest psychological minds to do Facebook ads. It's not that complicated.

I always tell speakers as they're getting started, look at the speakers that you admire, that you feel like you want to be like and see where they spoke and then go and pursue those same places. That's a way to get started as a speaker. Same thing with your ads. You can target those audiences of the people that you feel like also represent your values and maybe have a similar kind of audience. And it can be a little bit more simple for people.

So don't be afraid. If you want to launch a challenge, it doesn't have to have ten thousand people in your first one. It probably won't get started and start making an impact with that small group and you can then build up to bigger products, offerings, et cetera. But you still have your time to offer right now, especially. So I love that. That's that's great. And I want to get back to your business because you sold your digital marketing company.

How did Life on Fire come about and talk to us about the decision to really go nesh with your audience rather than trying to just appeal to all entrepreneurs out there, all types of business owners?

Yeah. So with so sold the company and I thought that that was like this American dream. Right. So I went from living in a really dumpy place in Hartford, Connecticut, with my grandmother's furniture. God bless my grandmother. But the furniture was about forty years old and and wasn't ideal at twenty eight years old. And so I sold the company and I did what was in my letter. I moved across the country to San Diego. I got a place on the water on Sale Bay, which is in Pacific Beach, San Diego, got a sweet couch that had these like recliners on the side.

I'm like, I still like smile just thinking about, you know, recliners on the couch. It was so cool. So I go in, accomplish these, go get the things in the letter and then, you know, I'm like, got this balcony on the water and I'm like, this is supposed to be the like the best thing ever. Right. And and I'm not sitting here say woe is me here with a place on the water.

But what I am going to say is that what I thought was going to happen didn't I thought that the money was going to make me happy. I thought that. Selling the company was going to fill some void in my life that had been missing and it didn't, I thought I'd have more joy and I didn't. I thought that, you know, like my life would be, you know, everything that I wanted it to be. And it wasn't.

And so it was actually very is a very interesting time. It wasn't as hard as when I was had the health issues and I felt all those businesses and I had that last surge to go make it. But I just I felt like I had been duped. I felt like I had been lied to of this entrepreneurial journey and dream. And in so in San Diego, I was alone. I didn't have love. I didn't have any family. And I was like, well, what the heck did I do this for?

I felt I felt like like almost foolish for working so hard and neglecting family and friends and love and everything else. So I basically looked around and I said, Who's got a life that I want? And Shania Sumpter was a new friend. And I'm like, Why are you so happy all the time? And, you know, and she's like, Oh, I love my business and I love my coach. And I'm like, who's your coach? So, you know, I went to go hire her coach.

And I said, How do you have this life? And I said, Well, I wouldn't be able to do it without my coach. So I'm like, OK, like I'll do anything, right? Like, who's your coach? So go to our coach.

And her coach was full and I'm like this. Thirty six thousand dollars was the most. I'd never even heard of someone charging that much for coaching. I thought it was insane. And but if it will help me get what I want, like I'm all in. And she was full. Right. So I had to, like, break her door down, you know, beggar to give her thirty six thousand bucks. But what happened was it was the same process, the same exact process, just a different stage of my life.

And this is this I believe that this process works for everybody. Everybody listening, everybody watching. And so the process where she looked at my story and she said, well, Nick, my full story is that I had always been seeking the destination and the goal and, you know, oh, like like a lot of, you know, different generation would say, like, oh, well, once we retire, then we'll be happy. And it was like, well, once I sell a business, I'll be happy, but I forgot to live along the way.

So that was this theme that she pulled out. And she goes, I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it. She says, what's your stance? What lights you up? And and she even said, what pisses you off? And my stance was what I said was, you know, I want to take a stand for people, you know, to live their life now. Like, the thing that I want to do, like I did all this stuff just to sell his business and make some money.

And I feel like I was fooled or duped. Right. And I'm like, I want to I want to help people do it. Took me ten years. I want to help them do it in one year. I want to live my life to the fullest every single day and have it be about the journey, not the destination. I want to find love. I want to help with love and faith. And so we create that. And then we had a session to name it.

And on a 30 minute call, I'm like, I'm like, Suzanne, this has to be cool enough or that you would tattoo this on your butt. And she's like, well, I don't know, I'll actually get the tattoo. But you're going through this naming. And she says, Life Tribe. I'm like, that's so close, but would you tattoo that on her? But she's like, now. And then she goes, how about life on fire?

And all of a sudden I was like, that's it. It was the last minute of the call. Cool story and how I got the call and everything. And Life on Fire describes, like, you know, the way of life, health, wealth, love and faith. And so in the beginning, it wasn't always about faith in the beginning, life on fire, because I was far from God. I grew up Catholic. I wasn't going to church.

You know, my life was pretty crazy, you know, drinking a lot, partying and whatever. And in so life on fire was about making money and, you know, living in the now. So still about your journey. So I had learned. And so it was all about like this entrepreneur lifestyle. So we're doing YouTube videos, podcasts. It's kind of cool stuff and and started building it up. And what I realized is that December 8th, 2013, the first year I had the business, I had a radical encounter with God at church.

I had a friend that brought me to church. And it's just a crazy story. And she brought me to her church. I'd never seen anything like I'd never seen a big church. It never seemed like a rock concert in a church and seen people their hands up worshipping, never seen anything like it. So I had this radical encounter. I couldn't stop crying and end up rededicating my life to God. That night I said, God, if you're real, I command you to give me my wife.

Like I was bold, like I need to pray like that all the time. And so within a couple of months have this miraculous story how I meet my wife in in in meeting my wife before any of this happened.

I use the same process I describe. Ten minutes ago on this podcast, I had a vision of what my life would look like, feel like, be like in twelve months, what it would be like being engaged to the love of my life. My soulmate, my best friend. And I even wrote in the letter that she would help me grow my faith in God. And so I write all this stuff out, even described her hair color, eye color, because I had a vision of it, so I wrote it all out.

I got on stage and I declared and I told an audience of 350 people at Michael Turnoffs event, this is the woman who I'm going to meet and marry. And they're like, you're crazy. Is she here? I'm like, no, she's not here. She doesn't exist. Well, you must be dating her because you said you're going to be engaged by next year at the event. And I said, yeah, the guy you're dating her said no.

Do you even know her? Said No. So I use the same process, vision, declaration, letter. I resource up. I hired a health coach, you know, faith over fear. So step into that. I meet my wife. It is the most incredible miracle of my entire life. In every everything about my life has changed our company, who I am, our values. And basically I realized that this company called Life on Fire, that people would always pulled me aside and said, hey, does that have to do with God?

In the beginning, I was like, no, it's about entrepreneurship. But now it all makes sense.

And it took a couple of years or a few years to really figure this out. Sometimes we need some action to figure out, you know, our purpose, our God given assignment. And so what I realized is that my greatest calling, my greatest assignment that's from God is is to is to build a kingdom. And it's to raise up kingdom builder entrepreneurs. And it's to help people with a message like speakers get online and flourish even amidst crazy times.

And so the more people that we have that are online, that are touching people all over the world, that are glorifying God, building the kingdom, this is the answer to chaos in the media to hate in the media and all this division. And so, you know, I got a vision to build a platform with over 50 million people two years ago scared the crap out of me, took me two years to step into this thing and I finally just rip the Band-Aid off.

You know, I was the guy in mastermind's with Pete and other people and saying over and over, OK, I've got this vision. Fifty million people on a platform. It's going to do videos and this and this. And it's going to be like gold cast. But for Christians might be a non-profit and then finally, you know, come back to the masterminds and people started losing steam, like, dude, you keep talking about it, man, when are you going to do it?

And so I finally ripped it off and said, you know what, during covid like this is it. So now, you know, our whole mission is to build the largest movement of faith based entrepreneurs in the world and to inspire people to pursue their relationship with God and, you know, to build a platform with over fifty million people on it. I have no clue how that's going to happen. But I keep saying it. I keep thinking it.

Hey, we're start with ten thousand people on a challenge. We're going to keep on building from there and it's going to be a wild, wild ride. But the whole thing is that it will never happen unless we're building up other people.

So the very nature of everything we're doing with life on fire is about taking people. If they don't know God, help them to know God, and then take in people that love the Lord, help him build a business that's thriving and crushing and exceeding expectations.

And what we find is that when your life is on fire, people want that. They want that it's contagious. It's it becomes a wildfire. It spreads. And so our whole thing is, whether it's a free challenger, someone's our client. Like we we our mission is to get your life on fire, because as soon as it is that we're going to want that and that's how we'll build there and get there. So it's been a journey, brother.

Yeah, that's incredible. And what a time to do that, to provide that for people at a time like this where it's really hard to to say that anyone has any certainty or vision for what the future is going to look like. But you can have a vision for what you want your life to look like regardless of the circumstances. And you can get there by aligning with the people that inspire you. We always say, you know, the way you can help others is by being the best version of yourself that you can really impact change if you're actually have done the work on yourself to and then to be able to share that with others.

It's just such an incredible gift. I want to touch on some of the people you've mentioned, some of the coaches and some of the people along the way that have given you guidance. But talk to us a little bit about some of the speakers or other people that have come into your life that have made a big impact. Who are some of those folks for you?

Yeah, the first person that comes to mind is a guy named Dr. Matt Hubbard. And so he has become a best friend. He's actually godparent to our kids. So talk about like a deep relationship. He recently passed couple of years, became a pastor of a church that we go to the campus pastor. So here's how this happened, is and I think this can be easy for for anybody is when I met Meghan, I realized that so many people that I knew in my life were kind of doing marriage wrong or, you know, it's just just different different values versus you know, when I met Megan, she brought me to the church that we go to and I met Dr.

Matt. I saw a man who had the fruit, the fruit that I wanted in his. And so what that means is basically his marriage, the way that they looked at each other after 10 years, the way that they loved each other, they they date each other every single week. He's built incredible businesses as a chiropractor. He's a speaker. He does coaching. He's now a pastor. He owns restaurants like the dude's a serial entrepreneur, you know, and I like how he lives.

Like he invests in his future. He gives he's one of the biggest givers at our church, but he also likes nice things. His Maserati is a nice house. His kids are, you know, little champions. And so we looked at that and I started, you know, just to get near the guy, like I have not had back problems ever in my life.

And I never, never will knock on wood.

But I started going to get chiropractic adjustments by him just to get near him. Like, if somebody has is bearing good fruit near you or somebody on fire near you, like, what can you do to be around them? All right. We all have heard this different sayings about, you know, you become who you hang around and you're at the average of the five people, but like put it into play. And I mean, I went and started getting chiropractic from the guy will go into the church.

I'm like, OK, Doctor Matt does a men's prayer group at five, 30 a.m. every Tuesday morning in person. OK, I've never prayed out loud before, but I'll do it, you know. So he wants me to serve. I'll become an usher in passbook buckets, like I'll do whatever. And and so we built a friendship I just got in his world. And, you know, this might sound crazy, but I mean, this is how seriously we took it.

Like, if that's the life that we want to live. My wife and I, we moved into his neighborhood.

Now there are more modest houses at the front and he's got the big monster in the back of the views.

But like we moved into his neighborhood and, you know, in the in the result of that is not only becoming best friends and godparents to our kids, but like they have given something to us that money can't buy. Right. They've instilled values and imparted wisdom into us spiritually. But literally, you know, and it's just it's one of these things where it's like find somebody who's doing it the way that you want to do it and just get close to him.

And if you can cut a check and and get mentorship, if that doesn't if that's not appropriate, you know, like find a way to to take him to lunch, dinner, get to know him, because that I mean, he's had such a massive impact in our lives. So.

Yeah. And like you said, it might not be a they might not be available for coaching, but you can you can invest in them and what they care about in other ways. You can find out the charities that they support. You can find out what causes that are really important to them and and do your best to kind of build a relationship in that way. So that that's awesome. And a really, really cool story about how you actually became close friends and and best friends with with someone you admire like that.

So we're coming to the end of our time together. Any any closing thoughts for our audience. You've shared so much valuable wisdom, and I really appreciate everything that you've taken us through on your journey and anything that you want to kind of close out with. And then I would love to hear how are our listeners can get in touch with you.

Yes. So last thoughts I would say is I would love for everybody listening or watching. I would love for you to really take inventory right now and to truly think about how are you showing up during covid during this pandemic. Now, what I mean by that is, are you looking at it and are you in a survival mode, which I understand people losing jobs like shoot, we had events, all of our events went bye bye.

Like everything was looking real bad, like it was we're all in the same boat. Right. But how are you showing up? So just no one is take inventory and have a level of awareness of like how are you looking at it for your family, for your business, your career. And then the next step is what can you do to catch a new vision?

Can you have the courage right now literally from this episode to literally do what I was sharing? I mean, if this process worked for me and thousands and thousands of other people, why not catch a new vision, even if it seems impossible? You've got to remember, when I wrote my letter out, you know, it was impossible because I feel that eleven businesses and I was broke again. I was humiliated again. But I wrote that letter anyway of to as to what it was going to look like.

And I put a date to it when I kind of fast forwarded through meeting my wife Megan. And, you know, it just I wrote the letter, got the coach, met her. But in between that, it was me having these insane dates from Match and Tinder and, you know, getting catfish with a dude showed up like crazy stuff. Right. And I almost I almost made this interview to myself. I'm never going to go on a date again and forget it.

I guess I'm not going to get married. Right. But instead, no, I. I took the circumstances that were nuts and I instead decided to write out a vision and believe it was possible. So I understand that this is these are tough times. And what are my encouragement to you is to write that out and write it out as if anything is. Possible put yourself in the right state, go for a jog, go to your favorite place, like write this thing out and write it as like this.

When I wrote it for my when I turned 30, I wrote as the morning that I woke up at 30 years old, what I looked like and I wrote the story of how I got there. So you write the letter to yourself, present tense, as if it's already accomplished. There's actually a lot of science and it's about your subconscious mind. This is not just some neck thing. This I think, Michael, I was on just a I know he's big into this to catch that episode.

So you want to write that out in vivid detail. And I tell you, you just do that and you shift the way you're thinking about this season and you can go from it being a really bad season to being the best season in your life. And the only reason that that's shown up for making and eye is because that was our mindset coming into it. We're going to find the blessing in disguise and this literally will go down as the best season we've ever.

And right now the best we've ever had in our marriage, the best we've ever had in our business. And we're just choosing to keep believing that. So stay on that same train with us. And then as far as connecting, I would love to connect with you. I would love for you to be a part of our free challenges. It's our gift to you and the world. This is something that it was part of our pivot, you know, and what I would say is see how we do it and then you can model in your business, you know, model in your business and also get some awesome results.

So Life on fire challenge dotcom. And, you know, we often run this life and fire challenge about vision and goals and action, and we also change them up. So we're going to do that. We're going to do one about launching your business online and how to do challenges and how to do virtual summits. But that's the best way to connect the best way I can serve you and my wife can serve you as well. So thank you for your ears and your time, and I hope to connect soon.

Thanks, Nick. That's Life on Fire Challenge Dotcom. You guys definitely check it out, take advantage and and learn a lot and join an amazing community that's going to help you grow and overcome some obstacles that that you may be facing. You can always connect with us as well through Inside the Green Room podcast Dotcom. Check out the resources tab. We've got a lot of great free resources there and you can find other ways to connect with us directly. And if you're a meeting planner, join us and your events matter.

And on Facebook, our private Facebook group, just for meeting planners. And you can be part of our next conversation live. We'll see you next time inside the Green Room. Thank you, Nick. Thank you.

Thanks for listening to Inside the Green Room with PV three. If you liked our show, make sure you never miss an episode. Subscribe and leave a review. Wherever you listen to podcasts to see the full show notes and more resources go to Inside the Green Room podcast dotcom. Make sure to join us next week for more cutting edge actionable tips from the meeting planners who control the most prestigious stages and the speakers who use those stages to increase their income and their impact.