Nick:Yeah. And this was nuts. So if you think about 2008, when the meltdown happened. And everyone was skittish and banks were skittish and everything was failing. Credit card companies would literally pull out the rug from under people and they would double interest rates. Remember those days. Remember those times.
Jack:Oh, yeah.
Nick:It wasn’t that long ago, right? They just doubled interest rates. So I was literally carrying fifty-thousand dollars of credit card debt. Maxed everything out. And when they all of a sudden slapped and doubled everything, I was paying over three grand for just for interest a month. It was nuts. You’re talking thirty-five percent interest on Discover. Are you kidding me?
Because they had all kinds of weird provisions. People were skittish. It was nuts. I was calling them multiple times a week and trying to negotiate. The messed up thing was that you can’t claim, the only way they will make you any deals and cut you any favors to help you pay it back is if you’re delinquent ninety days.
I said, this is crazy! I’m a guy that’s calling you and I’m trying to pay this stuff off. And the only way you’re going to allow me to speak to people that can help me set up payments to pay this thing off, I’ve got to be delinquent ninety days. That is so stupid.
And so I never wanted to have a late payment in my entire life, and I never have. And so I said, well, I’m just going to carry all of this debt. And you know, sell a couple of houses here and there and stay above water. That was like, as I was doing it then I became a Facebook marketing expert.
And then I had to hustle. I had to hit the ground running and absolutely just, that was the pressure I needed to go full force. But what ended up happening was I carried so much debt, that my attorney, she says, Nick, I’ve never seen someone come out of this kind of debt, especially in this, with the environment right now. Everything.
Your rates are ridiculous. You know? She said, you’ve never even been late on anything. And she said, you’d be insane to keep this. The business failed. You know? This is why they have bankruptcy.
And she tried to, she spent, she gave me a really good sell on it. And I said, you know what? I’m the kind of guy that if I say I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it. That’s how I was raised.
High integrity. I’m the kind of guy that if I have a debt, I’m going to pay it. And that’s the kind of guy I am.
And so she was like, you’re totally nuts. And I was like, well, we’ll see. I’ll prove you wrong. And I went out. Became a Facebook marketing expert. I pounded the pavement. I got clients. I literally did anything. I got in front of customers, face to face. I got on the phone with them. I did profit producing activities.
For the first time in my life, I started working really efficiently, because I didn’t have a choice. You know, when you start time blocking your day, when you think about, wow, I need to make more money, look at your day. How is that going to help you make more money?
Does going through emails make me more money? No, it’s not. It’s profit producing activities. I would do between five and ten, thirty to sixty minute calls with entrepreneurs, where I gave something away for free. I said, I would teach them social media marketing and make them a plan, a one-page plan, at thirty to sixty minutes, because I needed a reason for them to talk to me.
Instead of going up to businesses and cold calling, that was the old model, I created a new model. I said, hey, I’m giving this thing away. This is two-hundred-and-fifty bucks in value. You come to me and get on my calendar. I will give you this service that I made up as I went. I learned as I went. Converted customers.
Went from local to national to creating software for Facebook. To getting a billion dollar company like Safeco Insurance as a client. Quarter of a million dollar contract. To selling coaching programs. To selling the business by thirty years old.
And then since then, starting my dream business, which is called Life on Fire, which is life after I sold the business. And now teaching other people how to find their purpose and passion and build a business without all the failures like me.
And that landed me on a stage out here in San Diego where I was on the stage for Facebook advertising. And I started sharing the story about untargeted versus targeted. The same story I shared with you guys.
I started sharing about the debt that I was in and how I was able to get out of debt so fast. The reason was because if you or I run Facebook ads, you can run your ads, bring in new leads, make new customers, create a return on your investment. Make money. And just reinvest into your ads and do it again and again and again. And I can take people in literally thirty days, sometimes sixty days, and I can help them make way more money than they thought was possible by running ads efficiently and creating profits on Facebook, right?
And so, when you have that power, and you can help anyone make more money almost instantly, it’s amazing. And that’s what I built my business around. And I share that story on the stage.
