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Kickoff Sessions
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Kickoff Sessions
#296 Nik Setting - From $0 to $2,000,000 at 21-Year-Old (Here’s How)
Watch This NEXT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlK2P76_ZZs
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(00:00) How Nik Built a $170K/Month Business at 21
(04:18) Why Tracking Data is Important
(10:11) Nik Setting’s Content Strategy
(13:21) Nik’s Client Acquisition Framework
(17:51) Advanced Tracking Systems
(24:45) Diagnosing Growth Problems
(29:30) CEO Systems: Team, Margins & Emotional Check-Ins
(34:42) Why Building Deep Client Relationships is Ke
(36:53) Sales Psychology
(40:05) How to Optimize for Peak Output
(45:54) Nik’s Secret to High-Converting Ads
(51:43) Content Longevity & ROAS: What Actually Works
(56:07) Nik’s Ethics in Business
(59:55) How to Build Valuable Offers
(01:03:15) Why Nik Doesn’t Help Beginners
(01:06:42) Sell by Chat vs Sales Calls
(01:09:20) The Hidden Growth Lever of Your Business
(01:11:23) Long-Term Monetization Strategies
(01:14:35) Nik’s Content Ecosystem
(01:16:46) The Dark Side of Success
(01:22:48) Redefining Success: Time Off, Identity & Self-Worth
(01:25:08) Nik’s Vision For Life
(01:29:06) How to Be a Good Leader
(01:31:33) Building With the Right Partner
How old are you? I'm 21. And how much money do you make a month? I make $170,000 in profit. How? If you don't have people copying you, then I don't assume you're doing something special. The type of client you attract reflects on everything. The better clients you attract, the better marketing you have to attract better clients. The biggest problems are internally, because that's what reflects on your business all the time. So I feel like the biggest thing that I can improve on is I also disagree with the standpoint of saying like the more you work doesn't mean the more money you make. I technically think that's not always true. You just need to make sure you do different work and the right work.
Darren:Nick how old are you? I'm 21. And how much money do you make a month?
Nik Setting:I make $170,000 in profit. How?
Darren:I built and scale info products. Why do you think what you've done has worked so well compared to everybody else out there?
Nik Setting:I look into the details of things.
Darren:But for what particular reason Do you think a lot of guys overlook that and just go straight into almost like trying to get people results by just kind of hoping or what's been backed right, because there has to be so much in your results to have this consistent wave of results every single month? Man.
Nik Setting:I feel like people see the info space as air, most of it. Right, right, yeah, could be technically true, but I feel like the moment you back things up with data, it makes it so much stronger, it makes the solution so extremely powerful. And the only thing that we're doing here every day is we're looking at the ICPs the ideal client's problem and we'll see if we have a solution for it. And I feel like I'm figured out exactly and I have all the data on knowing how to figure out what that client's problem is, for me to know exactly what to provide with my team to solve their problem.
Darren:What was that journey for you in doing that? So, when you move more into a data approach, what was the trigger for that? With the current offer you have?
Nik Setting:Super good question. The trigger for that was me working in a US-based company as an appointment center. I realized super quickly that this company was capped under six figures and I was the one that figured out what the main components, the main reasons were of why they stayed at that level. Right, it was like 70, $80,000 a month and they didn't have data, so sometimes they had 70K revenue months and then it was 20, back up to 50, 50, back up to maybe sometimes 100 and then back to 10. So there was so much inconsistency and I realized, if I figure out with my team back then because I had a team working with me already how to create consistency within this company, I can scale and the only way I can create consistency is if I have the data to be able to prove you know dude.
Darren:There was a clip on this recently which was if you're trying to lose weight, if you do nothing else but weigh yourself every single day, you will inherently lose weight because subconsciously you're going to think about losing it. You know you're not going to eat the donut. You know you're going to actually move more, sleep more and looking at it from like a fitness perspective which obviously you're into fitness as well that same logic, when it's applied to your business, means that the results become consistent. They're just going to work right, because if you're in good shape and you eat well and you go to the gym, you're going to wake up tomorrow and probability says you're not going to be fat. So the same goes for your business. It's like people just don't have a hold of the numbers. If you do nothing else but just have the numbers tracked, they will get better without even making changes.
Nik Setting:It's applicable to every single thing in life. And the most important thing I want to add to that is that most people have data but they don't know how to read it to improve it, meaning they make the same mistakes again. Right, and that's where most people fail, because 90% of the market doesn't have data, but the other let's say 9%, you know does have data but doesn't know how to read it to make improvements. And there's 1% that knows both, which are the people that skill super quick.
Darren:I think for today, man, we can go the whole way through that kind of funnel like process even from the very top down, because one observation I have made is that a lot of the data in the online business space is manual. So guys are either like hacking their way to getting numbers or they just don't have any numbers at all. How are you approaching that?
Nik Setting:When it comes down to creating numbers.
Darren:When it comes down to like tracking everything, right? Because if you're saying when, even when you're a DM setter, right, a lot of DM setting is quite manual and guys are kind of like using spreadsheets and shit for absolutely everything. So when you were in that role initially in that previous company, what was it you were doing initially to start that journey for people? Because some people now listen to this are at zero, right, they have no idea of like their numbers, making 10k, 20k a month, but again, they're guessing their way to it. Just want to take one quick break to ask you one question have you been enjoying these episodes? Because if you have, I'd really appreciate if you subscribe to the channel so that more people can see these episodes and be influenced to build an online business this year.
Nik Setting:Thank, you, I have a leverage letter, meaning I write down all the tasks that need to happen within the company, every task. I write it down from one to 10, and I reorganize it in a way where I say, for example, let's say content, something I can't automate, I need to do content myself. You need to content yourself, meaning it's the hardest to delegate, right? I write down everything from one to 10. And then I ask myself the question can I automate this or delegate it? Most of the things I can automate, because tracking is the most important component. But you don't want to do it manually and you rather also don't want to spend money in labor to be able to automate it. You want to do it completely automated with AI. So that's why we now, at the stage where I'm at, we build custom ai systems that track, for example, like the ads we're going to talk about tracks, every single component of the ads, step by step. For me to know exactly where my money goes to, where my time goes to. You know where my labor's time goes through.
Darren:that's the most valuable thing and I find this is interesting because even guys in my network who are making like multiple six figures a month, they still don't have a hold of their ads, especially like follower ads, indirect ads. They don't actually have a hold of what they're tracking and why they're tracking. So I think even if we just add that component people, that's going to be so valuable for people to start with. So let's go at the very very beginning, right? So your top of funnel is your ads. I think what you've got known for is your ads and your content. Let's go through the methodology there. And why does that work so well for you?
Nik Setting:The most important thing I wanted to touch on that you said. The people that make 300k per month, that make that amount of money without data, are people that rely solely on their personal brand, meaning there's not a lot of longevity into it, which is fine, but like there's no longevity into it into decades, for them to create scale, unless you know, unless their personal brand keeps growing, then there could be it's not a business.
Darren:It's not an actual business.
Nik Setting:It's more like a?
Darren:yeah, it's more like a showman. Yeah, they have to get up and dance.
Nik Setting:yes, for them to get results which is exactly, most of the time, the reason why these people don't provide great services, you know, because they don't build an actual company. And they also, when they don't have the front, the front end data data, they don't have the back end data, which is the reason why they can't build a great solution most of the time. Right, and I think that's super important to touch on agreed.
Darren:So let's go top down. So let's focus first on your organic content. So your organic and all your moral boards is so fucking sick that everyone in the industry has started copying it right now.
Nik Setting:I know, which is a good thing, because if you don't have people copying you, then I don't assume you're doing something special. So I think that's important in the first place. Second, I feel like content is the foundation of everything. I think if you don't have content in place and right now we're distributing content with stories, with reels, with ads, creatives, but also with YouTube right Podcasts so content is the foundation of everything, because that's what creates conversion. So you can get top of the funnel ads, you can get eyeballs to see you every single day, but when the foundation in content isn't good, nothing will happen. How?
Darren:do you build a foundation?
Nik Setting:Building a foundation with content is figuring out three things. So you have verbal content and visual content, right? Visual is what people see. So, for example, when people see all my data points instantly, it makes them recognize okay, this guy is data driven and this guy knows what he's talking about. Second thing, verbal is I'm aligned with these three things, and that's charisma, conviction and confidence. So every single piece of content that I bring to the market I think about is this conviction driven, confidence driven or charisma driven right? That's the reason why I'm a super big fan of posting quality instead of volume based, because you only put out a reel every couple of days, exactly, oh, not even, not even man. No, I'm inconsistent in that sense.
Darren:How did you think of those three buckets? So I want to go deeper in your mental model right.
Nik Setting:It's like where did you draw that out? Where did you learn this from right? It's interesting because, uh, I have never had a mentor, I've never invested. Um, my main drive and experience comes from taking massive action and failing as much as possible, and I feel like that. My skill lies into taking action without even thinking about if it's a great decision all the time. Obviously, you make rational decisions, but I tend to take decisions sometimes too quick, which is either why I fail too quick right, or learn too fast. It's one of the two right, which is where that comes into place.
Darren:It's funny enough that was actually the exact same as me. I couldn't afford any formal education, so anything in the online space, so I had to just chew glass enough to be able to get some data To be like, okay, this is working, this isn't working, this is improving, and so on and so forth, you know. So let's go top of funnel. When you're looking at that content originally and you're creating that emotion in the content, why do you think it's hitting so well? Because you're putting so much detail into your mirror boards and everything. What is it that's really triggering with people? That's hitting the nail on the head with them.
Nik Setting:You have the front end, which is, like me, speaking right, which is the reason why, if people speak, this is what people always say right. If you speak with conviction, although what you're talking about doesn't make sense, it still works yes, which is a fact, which is a fact, but which is a?
Nik Setting:fact. But there is also a backend component to it which makes people transform from viewers to buyers. So I can talk about a lot of stuff, but whenever I talk about things that doesn't really make sense, people will like me, but they'll never convert into a buyer, right? So the backend component is the actual skill that people appreciate, for example, about me in business, right Data-driven, solution-driven, problem-oriented things like that. But the front end is the actual thing that gathers people's attention and converts them.
Nik Setting:So, when we go back to the whole point, you have verbal content, you have visual content, which is, for example, my Miro boards, and I use it as trademarks as well. Right, I invented myro reels, or at least, maybe I didn't invent it, but I claimed it. Meaning, if other people start copying me, for example, you distribute certain content where people know, okay, there's always a guy at the top, right. What I'm doing right now is I'm running retargeting ads on these types of people, so it funnels itself down to me, right, where I have the main frame into creating that type of content, you know and eventually those guys that are copying you will actually come to work with you they're either my clients or my potential client yeah, because they're mirroring, and there's nothing wrong with that if, especially if they're your clients, they're mirroring your actions because they admire you.
Darren:Right, and that's why the, the guide or the mentor, needs to lead from the front right, he actually does need to lead from from the perspective of people can follow you and inherit your beliefs, which is great, but it shows, like that's why you need to be constantly staying ahead and evolving.
Nik Setting:It's the point, like you know what it is with copying it. There's no longevity into it, because you're kept based on the other person's potential. You're dependent right and when.
Darren:You're always innovating constantly, you're the one that always stays on top I think that's where you can create your own path for that right, which is like you're out of the trend. So what you're doing the the way that you've built your infrastructure, way to build your back end. That's just the way that you do things. It's kind of similar to how we build our business right, we have a very lean team but we have a big operation. Like we have multiple moving parts, but it's still very, very lean. Someone could look at that and think I want that, but they wouldn't be able to copy it because it's kind of my background in hiring culture, building teams, building systems. You are the USB, you are that main edge that people want to buy in the end.
Nik Setting:Correct and you kind of copy everyone right Because you didn't figure out the wheel, nobody did right. But that's where you take inspiration from other people all the time because you extract information from so many different socials or content or you know thoughts network, where technically every single time you're, you know like, depends where you draw the line of copying. You know what I mean. I think that's super important to to dissect. Yeah, would you?
Darren:would you say that all of your organic reels they're with the goal of becoming ads?
Nik Setting:no, there's a difference. I have problem solution driven ads and content, which means it like specifically explains a specific problem and I'll add the solution to it, which is technically value driven. We have credibility, which is purely with clients, so it's a transformational reel. And then there are the main two that we focus on, that we distribute right now. When it comes down to reels, and then with ads, it's also like transformational education or value-based, but it's a different type of scripting, a different type of hook and body. Um, right now we're testing new ads, which is super interesting for everyone to listen to as well.
Nik Setting:Um, controversy works, works super well, like three years ago right, saying something completely out of the blue which catches people attention, which increases retention. But right now, for example, in our vsl, we say 11k per month and then people start to think like 11k per month, everybody says 10k. Why does this guy say 11? Right, yeah, and people are like, damn like, and then the moment they start to think about that for three seconds, they they're already in the body, because the whole point, the body of the ad, you have a hook and you have a body, and I run both ads and the retention was going sky high with the ad where we set 11K Because people start to think about the reason why I set 11. So when you can make people think, in the hook the body does the conversion right, because the whole point of the body is doing the conversion. And then you do a CDA at 65% of the reel and you do a CDA at 100%, so the end. And then you get qualified followers. With the funnel that I run.
Darren:It's perspective shifting. You can shift people's perspective, get them to change their mind, get them to open up their eyes and everything. Do you find that some of the ads in the online business space now are becoming so repetitive, like that everyone is used to the fucking hero's journey, the story arc and then the hard pitch? Because when you look at your ads, you look at your reels. They're very native, and what I mean by that is the way that we're running this now is we just have natural reels that just look organic, they feel organic, to give a good vibe. So then someone's like oh okay, I want to follow this guy, or I want to engage with this guy, or I want to start a conversation with this guy, versus, like you are going to be poor, you're stuck at 5k a month. This is the way forward. Come by my program.
Nik Setting:There are normally the super direct ads You're like VSL ads I call them profile funnel ads which is driven based on paying for eyeballs instead of paying for booked calls. And, the most important thing that people don't understand, this is super direct driven. This is super indirect driven, meaning sometimes it takes two weeks before people pay me 12K. Right, with the direct funnel. It's super emotional driven as well, instead of people making decisions from a rational standpoint, which is the reason normally why reputation is a cause of the fact of onboarding a lot of people from a volume perspective based on emotional decisions instead of making a rational decision, onboarding quality people. And, I think, info. One of the most important things in info is the name behind it. Right, you can sell people super direct on like a mechanism, which is what normally people do with like a vsl funnel super direct, right, and the reason why people pay is because the offer sounds too good. But the longevity is created when people buy into a person.
Darren:Yeah, that's the first thing I said.
Nik Setting:People pay me because they like me and if they don't pay me, fine, and they'll pay someone else that they like clients are a reflection of you always.
Darren:They'll always be a reflection of you. I find, like the whole vsl funnel. So with the new approach of like indirect ads, running them into your Instagram, I find the idea of a VSL funnel to be so outdated, because you're going to get leads that don't want to be on the calls. They're not going to show up. When they do show up, they're going to be super hostile. They don't know much about you at that point, and then you're really wrestling with them for a pay in full, whereas it seems very inauthentic, and also you're going to get the wrong buyers, whereas if you look at an indirect ad, an instagram ad, a follower ad, people buy and they move through the journey when they're ready, right. So that's why I wanted to ask you about your duration before they start paying, because I would love to get your thoughts on what you think the lag is between a new follower comes into your world and when they pay, and what should be an acceptable metric for that it's a good question.
Nik Setting:With my funnel it's even harder to track compared to a vsl funnel. Yes, with a vsl funnel you can use irox, whatever right? Yes, yes, that's why we right now we're building custom driven solutions to create, you know, a way of tracking qualified followers and things like that Tracking cost per qualified profile visit which you can already see on the ad. But then again, if you utilize Facebook to utilize Advantage Plus, instead of using like a manual campaign, facebook decides where you spend your money towards, which is not a good thing because you want to have control yourself. We'll go into that later. So it's a manual campaign. I decide where my money goes, and we built custom solutions right now around being able to track exactly where each individual eyeball comes from follower comes from, setter reaches out to the follower. Then we have a different automation that tracks show up rate, that tracks closing rate, that tracks the amount of conversations we had every single day, the inbounds, the warm outbounds. You get my point. How do you do that building?
Darren:that animation. But, yeah, as in, how do you integrate that into instagram? Because isn't there a lot of restrictions with running an api into instagram? The reason I'm saying this is because I have that exact same issue and well, everyone does, obviously, and that was the whole point I was saying it's very difficult to automate it all because the way that I think about this and I would love to get your criticism, critique on this is there's follower, there's there's new followers, there's ad spend per month, per day, so let's say $100 a day, there's 10, there's 15 new followers. That's $2 or something I can admit. Yeah, $2 per follower. Then there's cost per qualified follower. So of that, 50, let's say 30 are qualified, 60%, it's probably a bit high, but let's say 60%.
Darren:And then of that cohort, when they book, when they book, what's the lag between there that we can contribute to cost per call?
Nik Setting:So that's not the only metric right. I think the most important metric besides cost per call is cost per qualified follower, that's the first.
Darren:That's what I meant, sorry. So cost per qualified follower is the next subsection to the cost per follower. Good question.
Nik Setting:So when you go to notifications, you click on notifications on your Instagram on your phone, and you go to follows. You see all the people that follow you. You have a name Darren started following you from your ad. You've seen that before. You can click on the side and you instantly get redirected towards the ad that that person came in from. That's unique.
Nik Setting:Now it's manual, purely manual, but in the business manager you can go to the specific creatives that you've launched. So let's say there are five similar creatives. You still don't know which one it's coming from. Right, because you have five creatives. That one came in from one of them. You can click on the creative and you can go to instagram pulse with comments. So you go to that ad in the desktop and then you basically have like five different creatives open, because you launch and you run five different creatives and you can see exactly which one it's coming from based on the engagement, so the amount of likes and the amount of comments. This is all manual, but now, the moment, we understand the foundation of the system, understand can hire a programmer, a developer, to build an automation around tracking everything manually, right?
Darren:so then basically, you filter creative based on most engaged and then scrape from there yes, the ai does that.
Nik Setting:You can do that manually, but it takes a bit more time. So we do it manually now because there's nobody in this whole market that has figured out how to do it automatically but I think the issue is not because we can't do it, it's because instagram don't allow it right, it's instagram. Api is terrible. It's putting a square picture of a circle hole yes, you know, I would say it comes down to knowing the right people that's what I mean.
Darren:you know, it's like there's nothing natively not native, but even indirect to connect to make sure that this is aligned like you can't necessarily just build upon this, and this is where Instagram and even DMs on Instagram can be quite muddy right, because it's very difficult to backtrace a thousand conversations right.
Darren:A thousand percent was a set or two is like tracking instagram, dms, and that flow is way harder than linkedin or emails or anything else, because the conversations don't natively update into close I'm not using ghl, but into into close anyway for the most part. So you do need like a sales assistant to measure that now. You could correct me if I'm wrong here, but how have you solved that problem, right? Because this is the whole issue with scale, right? Is it works? Obviously, everything works at 20K a month. It works at 100K a month, but does it work at 2 million a month, right?
Nik Setting:Instagram is built as a social platform. It's not built to sell, right? So Instagram is technically just a social platform to share each other's experience, share photos and things like that. It's not built for business, whereas LinkedIn is right. It's more for business. That's the first thing right.
Darren:Instagram is for dating Right?
Nik Setting:Yeah, instagram is for dating nowadays. That's crazy. So I feel like that there's always a solution to find when it comes down to creating scale. Now, let's say you're a two million per month and you run a volume-based company, a volume-based info product, meaning you get a lot of leads coming through the door and things like that. There are obviously things like ManyChat in which you can automate things with and whatever right, but I think it's super important that the Instagram API constantly evolves and changes, which is why Instagram is one of the most complicated platforms to actually build something sustainable on.
Nik Setting:Besides that, when you figure out how to build an automation to constantly track each conversation and each inbound and each outbound, you get it all into a data, into like a. How do you say that? Like a data, like a platform of data, data lake? Yeah, like a memory card or like a big memory cart, which is what AI technically is, so it can gather all that data and it can make improvements based on the data. Now, I'm not a developer. I'm not a programmer. Happily, because it's not where my skill lies.
Nik Setting:But again, I feel like the most important thing is that everybody knows it's when it comes down to labor, knows its tasks and its role within the company, to know exactly what to do. So, for example, right, like I have my company built on quality, meaning I don't have a lot of dms every day, I don't have like hundreds of dms per day. My business isn't optimized for a volume, meaning I could have three inbounds per day and 20 conversations and make thirty thousand dollars in a day, right. So I feel like it's going to be hard to get to a point where volume is going to overpass these types of automations in a way where you'll need these types of complex things.
Nik Setting:Complex things because complex things, because the second thing, you gotta ask yourself the question. Let's say you have a lot of volume coming through the door, right, you have to ask yourself the question and you're making. Let's say you have 500 DMs per day, every single day, inbound DMs, and you're making less than 500K per month. You gotta ask yourself the question does the problem lie in the conversion mechanism or is? Is the traffic the problem? Right, because people get so much attention every single time but they don't convert. They have 12 calls a day with three setters or closers. They have two different setters in their general and their primary, and they'll make less than 200k per month yeah, it's kind of like.
Darren:It's like you have so much opportunity, they have no opportunity because they're missing the whole goal. And I think this is kind of an issue with setting in general, which is, if you have one setter or two setters, their focus can't be on the 100 conversations a day because they're spread so thin, but if they have 23 a day, they can look at it objectively and say, okay, well, this person is a coach, they're making 10k a month. I know I can push them into this product. This makes sense in this way. It's more consultative, correct. And it's funny because in our high ticket program we've many guys. They're doing like 130 150 k a month. One of the guys in particular has so much volume of leads but the setters can't keep up with it.
Darren:And it's funny because we just do sell by chat which I'd love to chat to you about as well versus a call funnel, um, and we just can't sit in the problem long enough with the prospect because there isn't enough time in the day. And then if you pipeline sell that too, it becomes harder. So it's kind of like ads, right, what ads do you? You find this break point whereby it's hitting, and then, when you go above it on the spend, you could hit fucking the worst audience, correct? You know? I I think that a huge organic audience, a huge organic audience, has the same tendencies to ads, because there's people in there that are super cold, that will never, ever bite, so they're inevitably air.
Nik Setting:It's a point of diminishing returns, right. Yeah, when you spend uh, like right now, of the profile funnel, you can spend. I figured out a way to spend more now, but I could. I could only spend 300 a day, meaning that's ten thousand dollars a month. The return is 10x, so that's 100k, right, with specifically profile ads. Now I figured out a way to scale it horizontally and get it to 500 per day, right, while still making it worthly profitable in a way. You know what I mean. But then when you start spending seven, eight hundred bucks a day, the problem comes into place where the return isn't worth the extra spend you get where I'm coming.
Darren:Yeah, so I was just at a mastermind and a lot of guys were in that exact same scenario.
Nik Setting:So they were doing 2 million a month, so 25 million a year, but then their margins are around 25%, Gotcha exactly, and there are also probably guys that spend a lot, a lot, a lot of money on ads right, but technically the profit margin is lower again. I think we made two to 16k last month, but like 170 000 is pure, pure profit. Meaning there are people that run a million dollar company, right, they make a million dollars in revenue, um, but the profit margin is 20 25 at the end of the line, which is fine. It's just like what is the type of company that you want to build, but also where your value is at.
Darren:You know and also like this is ironic because if your margins are 20 and you're making 20 million, that's 4 million in profit, but you'll also get the 4 million in profit if you make 7 million. Right, it's gonna be the same. It's the same thing exactly. And it's ironic because I started it and I still do have an agency I know of two, and agencies are historically very low margin and I just never really believed that it was like things that you were told right, and we just kept our margins really high. We sold really high ticket stuff. We saw year pro year um contracts anywhere between 40k to 70k a year and it's the things check out right. Then it's still like 60 and it's doing like 2 million, and then a year, and then on the coaching side, margins are like 70.
Darren:Yes, you know, and but for me I just don't understand it, because we literally looked at numbers yesterday. My client acquisition costs are the lowest I've ever been, had a really good month last month, but I think it's because I have a strong hold of the data. So I'd love to get your thoughts on this. Like and I'm going to actually put this on my story today I forgot to do it yesterday because I was so busy Like what we're tracking internally. Okay, so let's have a take a step back. What would be like your CEO dashboard? What are the main things that you would track, as a CEO, across your company?
Nik Setting:So I have different departments, right? You have front-end and then front-end is divided in traffic and conversion and back-end is divided in team and fulfillment. So the most important thing is you have fulfillment trackers, you have team trackers that track all the KPIs and things like that.
Darren:And then front trackers. You have team trackers that track all the key pi's and things like that, and in front.
Nik Setting:And same thing what would you track? Let's let's talk with the back end later, but maybe on at a high level. What is it you would track individually? Let's say, with team. So my team, every single person, takes responsibility for their own tracking. So for the setter, it's like a conversation started, it's inbounds, it's show up ray, it's um conversations and gains engaged and offers presented, it's booked calls, it's for the closer, it showed up calls, things like that. Right, super, super generic.
Nik Setting:But I think people know with team is like this this is a little bit more complicated because it's not only tracking. If each individual team member is pursuing its actions every single day based on the kIs they need to hit, but, for example, like a closer messages people on WhatsApp every single time Tracks all that stuff manually, but at the same time, with tracking and this is interesting as well I have an individual call with each team member every single week. I spend five hours a week on this Nice. Nobody spend five hours a week on this Nice. Nobody does this. The reason why is because I want to understand the way they're into, like their emotional perspective on things, and I think this is the most important thing.
Nik Setting:We can talk about hard data. But now again, I told you before this podcast, I have my whole team here in Dubai. So, coming back to tracking things, I don't track their KPIs solely. I track their emotional stay, which is the reason why people stay with me for years and I think that is the most important component. With teams specifically, same with clients. The backend and your team is way harder to track than setting and closing because it's purely KPIs. That's why I fly out my team like four times a year to a specific place to work together. We do specific retreats, um, I have an individual call of each one of them every single week.
Darren:It's like a therapy session it's amazing, dude, because you'll connect with them on a personal level at the professional goals will become achievable the biggest trust me forever and you'll you know you share opinions.
Nik Setting:I talk about extreme personal stuff with them. The relationship that it builds is creating so much longevity forever, which is absolutely amazing, and I think most people don't underestimate the importance of having A players on your team. The only reason of why I'm at where I'm at today is because of the people within my company. It's not because of me, so I could have not done this alone, and I feel like that personal relationship is really what builds and creates that trust. Now I want to reflect on clients as well. Yes, when you track clients' KPIs so we have complete client dashboards and things like that right, we track each individual client based on progress, action, things like that. Now, it same counts with clients. I do one-on-ones for a reason. People say it's not scalable. I disagree with that right, but it's important. It's exactly the thing that matters into cross-selling, upselling people, getting them to stay with you for two to three years, and that's where real wealth, you know, is built internally in the team.
Darren:Dude this is where this is such interesting conversation. So and I love this, by the way, and I really appreciate you being so open with this as well is because a lot of guys in this info space they're selling chop shop 10k a month offers. They're getting 1500 from a client and that's it, as in no one's, no one's buying anything afterwards. But the big shift is having longevity, with the client giving them more stuff, more value, being part of their growth engine so that they can pay and they want to pay more. Let me give an example.
Darren:I have this young guy called Andrew, an amazing client, amazing guy. We met when he was 19 years old, 18, 19 years old. He was making 4k a month in his agency. He wanted to come into our content agency but he couldn't afford it. So I said look, we'll start you out in incubator, which is our kind of a beginner program. We helped him, did the one-to-ones with him. He scaled up to 24k a month and then at that point he kind of evolved. He'd finished right and he was kind of with guys that were getting started. We built a second program which is allowing people to scale up with setters mainly setters, setters and multiple offers. For the most part he now is in this part of building on the sales team. He's 20 years old, he's scaling and now, because we have a recruitment agency, we have all we've given him all of the rest of his team. So his LTV has obviously hugely improved but, most importantly, his results have conditionally improved. We're now super close.
Darren:He moved to Bali from Wisconsin in America. We like spend every fucking week together. I love that man. It's part of the journey because your friends, I always say this that if you truly trust someone, it's part of the journey because your friends, if you, I always say this that if you truly trust someone, you should work with them. My best friend is my cmo, because we are just vibing together. We're in war together, same with my clients, man. This is why I love client retreats and masterminds. We're all on the same mission and we're all doing the same thing and I think that's that's.
Nik Setting:That's what a company is and then I can ask the question like how does it feel to help someone like Andrew? It's amazing. It's beautiful compared to selling Exactly.
Darren:And doing it on your own right. As a solopreneur doing it on your own, because I have this thing where, like, I feel like a lot of solopreneurs are not good with people.
Nik Setting:Oh, I think being a solopreneur good that you addressed this point. I think it's absolutely terrible. A solopreneur, you know how boring that is. It doesn't matter the amount of money you make. I don't want to make 500K per month in profit. Being a solopreneur, it's the worst thing because people are everything your team, your clients, your friends, your family, everything right. So that's a super good point you're making. I can understand, especially for Andrew. That feels amazing, right, that feeling of knowing you're his mentor. You can help this person and you've helped elevate this person to a point where you're so happy with the outcome and the end result that it feels so extremely fulfilled. You know not only externally where you sell a course and you made money from it, but internally as well. And I think externally where you sell a course and you made money from it, but internally as well, and I think that's something most people forget and that's also where the longevity from clients comes into place.
Darren:It's internally and not externally, and I think that's how you build again real business and it's a control part again, right, when you feel out of control because you know you're not getting results, because you're not, you know you're not able to get results, it's a big part as well. Right, you're selling something you don't know, what you're not able to get results on, and that's the reason why people feel out of control with theirself. I think it's a big reflection I've had working so closely with people and having like a podcast, meeting all these guys that are like at the top level is there is a big element of they don't know what's going on in their life my, my conviction purely comes into into the fact of knowing that I know what I'm talking about.
Nik Setting:I know what I'm fucking doing. You know what you're doing with podcasts. You've done 200, 300. 300. 300, right. So, like we know what we talk about in our field, that makes us valuable. And that's again to the first point we started talking about in this podcast. That's where conviction and confidence comes into place, and with conviction and confidence, you can attract more people, because that's what people are looking for. When people see this is interesting, when people see that you believe in your product, they start to believe in it.
Darren:People love people who are obsessed Right.
Nik Setting:Always, man, and it go in every single detail. Yeah, man.
Darren:And then that's the energy to mirror, right, you're a very calm guy.
Nik Setting:Where you're red, you're very calm go. Where did you? Uh, where does that come from? Um, I was around three to four years ago. I was always talking every single day as much as I could, which made me realize that people never took me serious. So I had to learn my biggest lesson and lesson and the moment you're talking for 90% of the time, right, and you're silent for 10% of the time, you're valuable. The moment you're silent, because people value what scares, right. When you're always always talking, for example, you're always talking and you're silent for 10% of the times, people value that 10%. You get my point? Yeah, so I was always talking for 90%. So the moment I was silent, people were like Nick is silent.
Nik Setting:Finally, within my family, with my friends, and I had to learn to know when to speak. I want to go into that as well communication and speaking. I think that's one of the most valuable skills every single individual can learn. So I learned how to be quiet and to know when to strategically use my conviction and my confidence and in moments, to be more calm. Why? Because the moment you strategically choose how to talk, with conviction or not, and when, when to talk, you position yourself in such a way where you always almost create benefit for yourself and that makes you a lot more valuable than people think, and I think that's the a better skill that I've ever learned, compared to any single business activity such a good point, man, and you're way more observant you're way more observant and that are the people that are highly respected deeply internally.
Nik Setting:The moment you're on a table with, you know like nine different people, and eight are always talking the moment you. This is interesting. I said this in one of my short form content clips. Let's say you're at a table with 10 people and you start to interrupt people. People make the decision to either tell you like what, what are you doing? What the fuck are you doing? Stop talking. You know they'll either hate you or they highly respect you. Well, even though you're talking, you know people are like I respect this guy, this guy is talking even though I was talking, but they'll still respect him. You get my point? Yeah, and that's, I think, what's really really, really valuable, and that's also where influence is created. The moment you have influence, you can make everything happen in life, like everything, because you you can control how people make decisions. And the moment you can control how people make decisions, you can make people pay you right in a good way. Your influence is super good the moment you utilize it in the right way.
Darren:Not everybody's doing that 100 and like they're like influence spans. Have you read robert cialdini influence? I've never read a book in my life really never. How come?
Nik Setting:you've never read a book in my life, really never.
Darren:How come you've never had many external influences?
Nik Setting:I don't have the patience to read a book. Yeah, I'm super active, I cannot I cannot sit still in a chair, so this is super rare. No, we're now, we're having an amazing conversation, but no, I, I I don't have the patience to read a book, um, which is something I would love to learn. Like I still have to learn patience to read a book, which is something I would love to learn. Like I still have to learn how to read a book technically, you know, and I always was figuring out like, ah fuck, I want to learn how to read a book, and at a certain point I was like, wait, maybe I take and extract my information from different things and that's fine and from action. I love to meditate.
Nik Setting:That's where I get my peace from, and I was always looking because everybody told me, nick, you need to learn how to read books. I was figuring it out but it didn't work, and I think it's fine to accept the fact that I don't like reading books, but I do meditate and that's where I reflect, journal and where my creative mind starts working, so to say. So, how do you?
Darren:do that Because, of course, you're very, very action orientated, so you'll have a preference towards mind active, body active, yes. So how do you, how did you switch to mind active, body still?
Nik Setting:I think that's actually a super interesting question.
Nik Setting:Mind active comes from, obviously, the vision you have and the goals you want to achieve.
Nik Setting:But I think most people and this is also the reason why most people in our market are confused, right, they don't know their actual vision and their goal. They're just not clear on it, and I think that really prevents you from pushing every single day. No matter the money I make right now and the things that I have, the assets that I have, I'll still keep pushing every single fucking day because I want to become the best and I know I will. Right, that's the confidence I have. But at the same time, when it comes down to a body perspective, I feel like, like, as a super interesting example, right, when I don't go to gym for a week, it starts to reflect on my mind easily, right, and and I really recognize that based on, uh, knowing that every like I need to move, I need to move and do shit every single day, whether I go for a drive with my car where I get a lot of dopamine and adrenaline right or whether I go I need to do that every day.
Nik Setting:Yeah, man, to just really like relieve my energy, leaves my energy in a way where, um, I will be able to sit behind my chair and think for 8, 12, sometimes 16 hour days yeah, I'm laughing man because my like fitness coach, he's always telling me like you need to take rest days, you need to take a break, you need to take a break.
Darren:But if I'm really busy with work I'll always go to the gym because that would just be my only time where I'm not working like actually, like at my desk. So that's like my, that's my relax is training. And the only day I didn't was in Istanbul last Saturday. Well, I obviously take rest days, but where I didn't have any recovery modality like ice bath, sauna, swim or whatever.
Darren:And on Saturday I walked like 11 kilometers around Istanbul because I have to be body active, mind active, and then I was just kind of writing some notes on my phone and then I was sending like a few like voice notes to friends or to team members, should I say, who are also friends, and that's where my release comes from. So then I got back at like 9 am, because I went out at 7 am and I had walked like 20,000 steps and I was like, oh, that was great, I had a great release. Yes, so people's release comes in different mechanisms. It doesn't have to be reading a book, right, not correct, and you know it can be anything and, to be honest, dude, it can actually be like watching TV. If that's your release, if you're working 16 hours a day and you want to fucking chill out and watch some more TV to reset, because you know that's the modality, you have to see where it fits into your journey.
Nik Setting:I would disagree with the TV. The reason why is because it's a distraction, so it's not like an actual pure focus of focusing on yourself. It's like a distraction, you know what I mean when you technically rest, but internally not, because you're putting something on pause Good point Instead of continuing something. And this is a good point, because people always feel like I need to meditate, journal, like, do super quiet and chill things, but again, like gymming, it's high dopamine. As entrepreneurs, we're always moving, so we tend to look for things that always give us super high dopamine. Gym is the perfect example of this. Like it's the first step where you can let go of your energy, you know, and fuel yourself while doing something that, that that creates high dopamine with a lot of activity. I think that's like. That's like kind of like a hack.
Darren:It's a glitch, similar with food. I also find food very interesting too, because obviously, like, the food you eat is going to obviously feed your brain, but you can kind of hack food from a perspective as an entrepreneur too, in terms of what is it I need for the business and what does it need for my body. That's the reason why I have a coach is my background is in bodybuilding, he is a bodybuilding coach, but we still all my food is engineered towards the business. Everything I do is engineered towards the business that's super interesting that's the, that's the focus, right?
Darren:so, whether it is my villa at home, uh, the way it's structured, um, going to the gym, the way I come back from the gym, everything is engineered for the business, because I, like, naturally, wasn't a smart person, so I have to create that environment to be smart in that moment you feel like there's going to be a point in life where that's going to switch around, no, where things are going to be engineered around your life or family or things like that, and then I'm already married so this is a lot of respect for that, yeah this is the argument, uh, people like have of me, which is like, oh, he's always working, he's always working, but I'm actually not always doing things.
Darren:I'm in the environment of it, right. So at least we'll travel with me everywhere I go. We work at home and everything At least also works in the company now as well. So everything is engineered around. That. Does that make sense? And we enjoy it, right. So, just like you do, I enjoy it. So even the dinners we have with our teams, they're still for the business. Does that make sense? So you just create a life that you don't want to escape from effectively yeah, exactly, and I think that's especially like the age we have.
Nik Setting:It's super valuable because, again, like the age we have, it's super valuable because, again, like we have energy. So it's supposed to be like that and you're building your future, yeah exactly you know.
Darren:So let's take a bit of a detour into so we've went through the organic side, went through the ad side. Let's go to your stories. So your stories is super unique and I think the way that you've manufactured and created different archety to your stories so your stories is super unique and I think the way that you've manufactured and created different archetypes, your stories is really, is really unique. And one thing that I've really noticed is the fact that a lot of guys do story formats to get people to buy their shit but they're kind of ineffective, right, because I think people are getting kind of known to it as well. Maybe that's my level of awareness because we're in the space kind of known to it as well. Maybe that's my level of awareness because we're in the space. How do you think about your stories and how do you think about the strategy behind it?
Nik Setting:we recently run story ads and it's been going exceptionally well. Interesting, it's one of the best numbers I've ever created in business, based on every single thing that I've ever tried. The reason why is because supply and demand not everybody's's using it. No one is using it Story ads Technically, stories in general not a lot of people are using it for actual powerful conversion. Now stories are super slow so Nobody wants and can commit to start to it and do it consistently every single day because it takes three months to see your first couple of results from it. Meaning people, as we know, always want to see a direct return. When they don't see a direct return, they'll think it doesn't work and they'll stop. Now again, longevity comes into place. Where I look at this metric Every single time a person sees my story, it adds 1% to the potential buying power. So when they watch a hundred stories sequences for, let's say, a hundred days, they're at a point of conversion where they're ready to pay and I feel like that stories are powerful because it reflects on a personal situation in that moment, which is exactly the reason why that separates itself from YouTube videos where you talk about a specific topic, or reels where you talk about a specific like asset or, you know, like a myrobor, a data driven solution.
Nik Setting:Now, stories is always different. Sometimes I drive my car, sometimes I create curiosity in stories, sometimes I do a CTA Sometimes, and it's super personal driven. So I don't prepare my stories at all for like two weeks straight. It's the only touch point where I don't have leverage. What do you mean? I have leverage in my reels. I know how to create them. I have people that help me with it. I have a team that backs it up Same with YouTube, it's all systematized.
Nik Setting:Same team that backs it up. Same with YouTube, it's all systematized. Same with client fulfillment for the big part. And then, obviously, team and like setter and closers are all automated With stories. This isn't the case, and the reason why is because I feel like that I create the best stories the moment I want to like, based on the situation that I'm in at that day at that situation. So I take an hour of my day to make these stories, but, again, no leverage. So it takes up all my time, but it's worth the conversion, it's worth the longevity of it when you post stories every single day and a new eyeball comes in from the story ads. So the ads that I create with follow me to learn more or follow to interact, people start to follow me. They start to see my stories every single day and because I'm consistent, because I almost don't miss a day, there's going to be a point of conversion where they're going to be like you have to pay this guy how do you create your ads for stories?
Darren:Is it one slide Like? What's the mental framework? One campaign?
Nik Setting:five different ad sets retargeting, ig, the engagers of the last 180 days. That's the retargeting campaign. Broad call folks from Denmark, us for me specifically Germany and Spain. Spain yes, I have the most amount of clients out of these four countries and United Kingdom as well, which is broad called. So you exclude the audience of the retargeting, it's just broad called People that don't have a clue about who you are. And then you utilize targeting like entrepreneurship, lead generation, content marketing, social media marketing, high level achievers.
Nik Setting:I'm giving so much sauce away. This is super valuable when people implement it, so there are great interests to target. So you have five different ad sets, one campaign ABO campaign, so manually spend. And then I have 150 creatives. I have 150 creatives Anywhere between 25 to 150 creatives with such small different angles, prior stories added, with text added, with a CTA I can see exactly which one is working individually. Well, I create a new campaign, I duplicate it and then I purely solely run it with the best ad set and the best creative. Do you do your own ads yourself? Yes, I do my ads myself, yeah, yes, the only people that I give the actual sauce to how I run ads is my clients and myself, because it's too powerful when you know how to run ads correctly, and people would disagree with me with this because they're always a big fan of organic. I would agree, but you can rely on organic.
Darren:I have a lot of insight on that dude because my background's in I love to talk about that right.
Darren:So my background's in organic and a lot of my friends are organic. I would call them like organic princesses, because when you have an organic background, you're the enemy is ads. It's bullshit, right, but the enemy is ads. And you start believing these things in the online space that are just like not true, they're just all these things in the space like ads are bad, calls are bad, like they just. They just don't know why they believe these things, whereas I believe if you come from organic, you're going to be 10 times better at ads because you know how to show up, you know camera work and everything so when I went into ads last year that's when I started last year, so four years into my journey went into ads. It was just so easy. It was like here's the copy. I'm like all right, that sounds like kind of like a real whatever. That's fine. And then recording this way. I already have a studio in my house at home. I built the studio from scratch awesome, fantastic, great.
Darren:The only issue that the organic guys have is how to run the ads. I'm just gonna ask you. I've had a ton of issues with my ad accounts. A ton of issues, bro, like a ton of issues, new accounts, just ton of issues and new accounts and shit, the usual stuff. But I guess like that's the non-media buyer in me that struggles with. But what I'm trying to say is that it's possible. Same with the paid guys. The paid guys like William Brown's, a good friend of mine, william's last business was all based on uh paid and then he went into organic and was like what the fuck? This is great. And then he kind of thought, oh, maybe I don't need paid. And now he's kind of the same settling that I'm on is like boat do boat do it all I just wanted to tell you that.
Nik Setting:Why would you choose? Why would you hate on organic or hate on ads? Both is necessary. You'll create the highest return on ads when your organic problem is solved Right. It's the unique yeah, so true, man. So it's so stupid that people tend to choose for one thing or hate on the other thing. It could be a good marketing angle to say, oh, don't do organic because, whatever right, yes, you need both, everybody needs both. And your ads give you the data on knowing how you could make organic more optimal. And your organic stimulates the conversion in ads because people see credibility assets, they see a testimonial. People see my Miro videos with data-driven solutions or a specific value. People see my car. They're like, damn, this guy has a Porsche Interesting, you know. It creates the conversion. So ads are excellent to create massive conversion. Um, and it goes hand in hand with organic and that's the reason why people always tend to choose for one specific thing, but it never works.
Darren:They both need each other and I think the mental framework here is if you come from an organic perspective, just think about, it's almost as if you're putting out reels every single day, but you don't need to do it. You know like I was speaking to Jeremy Pogue. You know, jeremy blonde guy yes, awesome guy, such a nice guy, such an awesome guy. He's follower ads. He said he was running them at one point for three months straight. Like he's running for three months straight. He was three months straight.
Darren:He was busy and he said it was still working, still bringing in leads. He's still closing them the same ad. So I think it's hilarious. And actually I was at a mastermind and I met richard woo, very big guy on instagram, and uh, they're doing like a million a month. And I was like, oh, like what's the strategy? Like what are you doing? And he was like I just run one ad how I gave up porn, found fade and now I help people build digital products, and I was like that's it. And he was like, honestly, dude, like that's it. So it's simple.
Darren:It's simple but not easy yes and you can very much uh, which I did at a time. I kind of scared myself out of it because I was like, oh my god, there's so much work involved. But I mean going zero to one. Go zero to one and then hit the next step up the complexity isn't within the ad, the creative.
Nik Setting:I can help people with the custom scripting that goes extremely well and gives a 10X ROAS, but is the 10X ROAS actually coming from that creative? As you said, right, it comes from so many more external things within the whole funnel that matter and that's what people don't understand. That's why, for example, a specific ad scripting is a super good mechanism to utilize within your front-end marketing. Say, I help you build your ad scripts automated from an agency perspective as an example. Right, but it's not the thing that solves the problem. People always think that certain things solve the problem, but normally the problem lies somewhere else and the solution lies somewhere else than what people actually think, what the problem is. That's why people always say you sell what people want and you give them the solution that they need.
Darren:And that's the way to become rich. It's a consult of selling right, finding out exactly what it is they actually need yes and having a suite of products you know Correct and the more niched you look for the problem, the better the solution will affect.
Nik Setting:The solution will be so much more effective for the problem that you solve and you can charge way more money. You have a way better client, because this is super interesting I have so many clients that make like three to $400,000 per month and the main reason in the backend of why they have such good reputations is not these are normally people that sell courses. Right, I'm specifically talking about volume based companies that sell courses. It has nothing to do with the results that they get for their clients Nothing. They're literally 80 to 90% doesn't get results within these specific companies, but the expectations are set right within the front end. Can you spend?
Nik Setting:yes so expectation setting is one of the most important things. When you set the right expectations, you don't do crazy guarantees, you don't over promise people stuff, you're up front about the actual solution that you're selling and you explain it in the most clear way. People take responsibility for their own actions instead of putting the responsibility on you. Meaning, if they take responsibility for their own actions and they go through something and they've gotten the exact thing that they've expected and, of course, as we all know, people don't take action. Whenever they don't take action, they take the responsibility for themselves, so they would never blame it on the service provider.
Nik Setting:Now are results important, obviously. Do you need to have a streamlined process to create the best client results? Yes, but we're specifically talking about a specific service provider that normally, you know, doesn't really care about their product, cares more about their marketing, provides courses on volume, you know and once to get people these results, the point I'm trying to make is that expectations is more important than outcome. It's the most important thing, and make sure you don't put the responsibility on yourself, because if you put the responsibility on yourself, you have a hundred clients you can fulfill. People are going to be mad. People are going to be mad at you. People want refunds. People do disputes. I'm not sure how long it has been since I've never I don't know when I've had a dispute ever.
Darren:I've never had a dispute. I had someone uh go to the bank about their card because, um, it was a huge company we were selling to this is in the btb side and uh, this massive company and a random finance manager was like I don't know who this company is, and they went to their bank and then they had a huge issue in my stripe account and then we literally sent them an email and they said whoops, that was a mistake by me and it goes back to the bank. You know, and that's the irony was that I didn't even know what a dispute was because I was just so used to just people just banging and that was the end of it. That was my only ever instance and the guy literally responded going that was a massive mistake Because our company is called. It's a different name than what you see on the front end. It was just funny because in the info space this dispute shit happens every day, right?
Nik Setting:For a lot of people does. It happens a lot, and that's why the industry has you know, so like it has given such a vibe where people think it's like whether it's a scam or whether it's this or that, right, yeah, although I do agree with the fact that most people provide shit. Yeah, yeah, there are not a lot of people in the space that are so good at providing a solution that actually creates scale or that actually creates improvement or that actually creates something valuable into the return on the money that they've spent, and I think that's something that need to be changed.
Darren:What's the main dream outcome you have in your offer?
Nik Setting:So my whole marketing runs on my solution. Right, I don't have guarantees. When people work with me, I'll tell them you lose your money, right, if you get your money back. Super simple. I set the expectation so clear that there are no guarantees and things like that. And I don't need to, because my credibility I have the best client results in the whole market. So people see that the solution does the conversion, my marketing does the conversion. It's like a cycle, right? I have good marketing, I provide client results. These client results and all that credibility I put back into the marketing which feeds me with more clients. So it's an endless cycle because people know that what I do works. People know that what you do works, which is the reason why the solution is the main component within a marketing that drives that result. And I think that's like incredibly important um based on outcomes. I don't want to say anything. You can just look at the testimonials and the client results and then you'll know because you've different clients, right.
Darren:It's similar to us, like you guys in the beginning of your journey, you guys further on um. It's just interesting, right, because most people are known for like what their dream outcome is, yes, but yours is more like this is. So this is interesting, right, because a large angle that we, we do is like like your youtube, your, because it's basically real, real top of funnel stuff that we're helping people with, and then it's I'll actually give you an insight, so give a bit of a backstory. So we're helping people build and grow youtube channels and podcasts and that was great and we blew the shit out of the channels and just it's not that difficult, right. So we're doing that for quite some time and a lot of our clients were like this is great, but we can't monetize it.
Darren:But because over the years, I had to figure out offers, I was like, well, yeah, it's simply just have an offer on the back and then what we're talking about on the front end. We connected to the backend and they're like, oh, that's interesting. So we had to add that component in and this is still undone for you before it was done with you as well. So we were now helping them with the content and then helping them with their offer, but then the guys couldn't close the door, let alone a 6k paid in full. So then I was like, well, it's simple, you have to run your calls like this. And they were like, yes, you need content, give people what they want. So that you can give them what they need, which is we need to teach you sales and how to build an offer. So that became the 80, which is ironic.
Nik Setting:Yes, so people still come in to build, uh, like an ecosystem of youtube, linkedin, instagram, but it's actually offers and sales, you know, and they kind of see that afterwards exactly because your whole job as a service provider is to figure out exactly what your client's problem is and help them solve that, and they can think they always think it's something else. That's the reason why they need your help. They need your help because they think the problem lies somewhere else, so they're they technically not aware, meaning you need to help them become aware, and the purpose of being a good consultant or a good coach is helping them become aware about their problem and providing them the resources, support, implementation, information, whatever you do to help them solve their problem, and I think that's one of the most valuable things. To go back to the point of saying you can help different types of people. The difference between this is my solution is personalized, so it's personalized based on each individual client because we do one-on-one, so it doesn't matter if people start at 10K when they get to me or 100K.
Nik Setting:We don't help beginners. So people that haven't figured out the business models, like that makes sense. I don't want to help them. They normally don't have the capital and they don't have the awareness they need for us to implement all the systems we have. You know the implementation, information, accountability, communication but the moment you sell a course. Most of the time, the reason why the core, like the reason why people say the course is bad it's technically not always about the course, because there are really good courses out there. It's because the service provider decides to take anybody in. Well, if you take a hundred percent in, only 10% fits the exact problem, meaning only 10% of the people get results because the course is useful for them.
Darren:You get my point.
Nik Setting:90% buys it but doesn't need the exact solution the course is providing. And because the course is systematized, it's a framework, it's one evergreen asset. It's going to be super hard to solve each individual's client's problem and that's why I like personalization so much.
Darren:Well, this is so interesting, right, because that is what consultative selling is, because take a step back. So like, our methodology is like offers, content, sales. The order is important because from creating so much content, I believe that you shouldn't create content. You know what the offer is because I've seen so much as massive content creators just not be able to sell anything right. So it's so much easier.
Darren:But a lot of people might come into my world or come into your world and say, look, I don't need help my youtube. You know they probably do, but I actually I need help with my offer. But their offer could be great. They just might need help with their sales process, correct? So then we would look at it and be like, look, we'll help you. That no, no doubt. But this is the thing you need and it's a yes, we have all the other bells and whistles, but this is the thing you need.
Darren:If you, you solve this bottleneck, this constraint, under the theory of constraints, all the other shit doesn't matter, and it's getting people to that point, and I think that's where you sell to business owners. When you're speaking to business owners, it's like we agree that these components are in place. This is the one we need to solve, and I feel like that's how sales can become easy, and it's so easy. It's actually easy to train reps based on that, too right, because it's like, look dude, you just got to find out where the issue is and just solve that one it's so, it's.
Nik Setting:It's so extremely easy. It's same with clients. When we walk from the front end what you just said towards the back end, it's like look at what each individual client needs, you know, also from an emotional perspective. Like, what do they? Some clients ask 10 questions and some clients ask one question a week. Like, like, try to adjust yourself towards knowing what they need. That's how you make a relationship successful. You can talk about that more. That's how you make a friendship successful being able to adjust based on who's in front of you. And that's also where speaking comes into place Knowing when to speak and how to speak in what situation. Right now I'm in a podcast, you know. Like tonight I'm dining with my friends. Tomorrow morning I'm on a client call. Like when you can adjust yourself in so many different situations and you can make yourself adaptable while maintaining leadership. Or like certain standard with clients, for example, right, you become so good at fulfillment. You become excellent at solving people's problems and that's where you're called an expert.
Darren:An expert, get paid well what's your opinion on sell by chat versus calls?
Nik Setting:I love selling by chat. The reason why I love it is because people are paying a massive amount of money with massive trust, and that creates so much longevity. Because they have seen your content, they trust you. They technically don't know you, but they still have the balls to pay you $12,000 in the DMs without knowing you. And I respect these people a lot, always my best clients always. So I respect people that are able to make decisions and take risks, and people always say, yeah, I take risks, but that is an actual risk and I want them to take that risk because if they take that risk, I know there will be a great client.
Nik Setting:There has never been someone that DM closed that hasn't been a great client, and I'm at a point right now with my clients where I absolutely love each individual client I have. I work with amazing clients, it's excellent and it fuels me, whereas when I run the agency back in the day one and a half year ago, it was a done for you solution. I work 70 hours a week. I had 25 virtual assistants working, managing, providing a solution that was hard to provide, and I worked with companies, but I didn't work with great people. You understand the difference.
Darren:So one of my mentors said to me if you provide a service to other people, you'll always be a servant of them in many ways. So if you imagine like a Roman Empire, if the writer at the Roman Empire is writing down the words of the emperor and he makes one mistake, he loses his head. He gets the head chopped off because he's always a servant to that person, whereas in consulting and coaching, you liberate other people, you give them the tools and, as a result, they feel empowered. I think it's a beautiful example of why service delivery can be looked down on a lot of times. I would completely agree. And it's unfortunate, right? Because the people that provide services people, they, they do so much and they are so talented and that's why they're so good at coaching, but they have low self-esteem because they get battered over their head with their clients all the time yes, you know absolutely.
Nik Setting:The type of client you attract reflects on everything. It even reflects on your whole fulfillment, on the type of client results attract reflects on everything. It even reflects on your whole fulfillment, on the type of client results you get on your marketing, on the better clients you attract, the better marketing. You have to attract better clients. Yeah, it's a cycle, it feeds into everything and that's super, super valuable because it has a drag.
Darren:Negative clients has a good drag on the business overall and that's why you'll never scale. That's why you'll never do well, that's why you'll never kind of cap out. So what's your sell by chat process? And then when would you say you need a call?
Nik Setting:the moment the chat. The chat isn't a sauce. The chat is just payment link, pay done. It actually happens in the conversion. So, for example, within my stories, within my reels and with my YouTube videos, I'm super upfront to people and nowadays in this market we're in a situation where people respect other people that are super upfront and straightforward. Good point the moment you're super upfront and straightforward, I literally say in my story sometimes I'm not looking for more clients right now, pay me next week. And people are waiting, trust me, people are waiting. So next week when I do a CTA, I say, okay, ready Offers, 12k, you can pay me.
Nik Setting:People are in the DMs, ready to pay, meaning it's not always driven on a CTA specifically where I say, okay, dm me the word info if you want to scale your own consulting company. It comes down to a perspective of indirect marketing where I constantly push value-based marketing in a way where, for example, if somebody DM closes, I make a screenshot. Say, here another guy calls in the DMs, it incentivizes more people to pay in and DMs it incentivizes more people to pay into DMs. The more you talk about something, the more people you attract that want that exact same thing, because they're going to think, fuck, this guy paid into DMs. I don't want to look like a loser. I don't want to hop on a call with Nick's team, spend an hour asking questions, yeah, and then potentially pay like I don't want to be like that, yeah, and that's also how I segment a specific group of audience right.
Darren:Such a good point, man. That's such a good point. That's an amazing point, dude, because, like you have to, you have to do what you want your clients to do, which is like buying a portion full, so the piff is portion full.
Nik Setting:I said, I bought my portion in full and the reason why I did this is really because of the reason that I want to respect my clients. Now, obviously, this is an incredible marketing asset and I use this marketing asset as well, but the fact that I can say that I bought it in full is one of the most valuable marketing assets that I have and one of the most valuable sentences that I can say on podcast, on person, with friends or whatever right With clients, for people to see that I practice what I preach, because every single thing that I teach is what I do myself and it works, because you can see where I'm at, where my clients are at. My clients have public names. Everybody knows my clients. Everybody knows my numbers. I share my numbers.
Nik Setting:People see my youtube videos, they see my I want to say stripe dashboard, but I don't utilize stripe anymore. Stripe is terrible and you see what can you use. Can use like its promotion, but it doesn't matter. You can use WAP, you can use fan bases, you can use things like that, but I really like to use bank transfer, true.
Darren:It's no you know, Especially if you're not doing like reoccurring. You know it's just less complexity, you know For sure yeah absolutely.
Nik Setting:I think, like with the type of clients I track right now, bank transfer is super easy, same with crypto. It's super easy. Yeah, um, but yeah, when you, when you sell an offer for five times a day, payment processor, just the link, a stripe link or, uh, any specific link, yeah, that you can use is going to be so much easier do you um?
Darren:do you have a reoccurring element to?
Nik Setting:your business. Yes, after six months people upsell. So we have a six month process where we help clients one-on-one, we guide them, we scale them and, yeah, our retention rate is incredible. So we upsell a lot of clients in the backend for a yearly offer.
Darren:Okay, so they move more into like another mastermind effectively.
Nik Setting:Correct, and the beauty is the problems are more complex but at the same time more simple, right they're harder, but simple and meaning the most valuable things that I teach.
Nik Setting:clients that are clients for two years require the least amount of time. Make the most amount of progress. Make the most amount of progress. There are clients that hop on a call with me for 15 minutes every month while I'm in my car driving, while I go to dinner. Quickly, WhatsApp call done and next month they'll send me a message. Yo, Nick, I scaled from 210K to 370K in one month because of that one call, and that's where real value comes into place. Right Put your finger, Value isn't measured by time. It really doesn't matter how much time you spend on something. As long as you know exactly what that person needs for them to scale their company, they'll blow up.
Darren:That's super interesting man. My mentor says to me the more you pay me, the less I give you. Yeah, he just knows where to put the finger. What's your? How is instagram versus youtube warming up for you? Because youtube is. You're about to post inconsistently again um like, how much clients, what percentage do you think comes from youtube right now?
Nik Setting:instagram stories. I think right now, like around 60 to 70 percent comes from ads. Top of the funnel, obviously, really yes, but a lot of conversion happens on Instagram and on YouTube, and then 30% organic as well. We have a super high referral percentage as well. So, like people know me, they say okay, nick Selling, have you seen his stuff here you go done. And clients referring other clients where they get a 10% commission. That's also an income stream, for sure, but again, we don't want to be dependent on that. The ads is something that's predictable and consistent, meaning we can decide how much money we make and the direction we want to take it in right.
Nik Setting:When it comes down to YouTube and Instagram, instagram is for nurturing. Youtube is for conversion. Every single person sees my YouTube videos, interesting Every single person. Without my YouTube, the conversion will be complicated. Although interesting every single person. Without my youtube, the conversion will be complicated, although my instagram is again super niche, specific, meaning it does a lot of the conversion work already. But youtube is definitely the platform where people are like, yeah, this guy is he.
Darren:he really knows what he's talking about but sorry, they buy on instagram, but they they complete their own decision making through youtube.
Nik Setting:It's an ecosystem so that's the the best thing. Yeah, and the reason why I make the money I make is because people cannot get rid of me until they pay.
Nik Setting:Yeah, they cannot get rid of me. So, whether it's they heard, they hear me, they hear something from a friend, or they click on this link, they'll go to that link. They'll click on this link. It's a whole ecosystem and that's the reason why I said organic and ads. You combine them together Instead of doing one separate thing. You'll combine them together and do both right. Basically, the funnel that I've created is perfect because each component stimulates each other, which creates massive scale. They'll see my organic. They go through my ads. They can just not get rid of me until they pay. Do I mind if they're going to take six months for that or two months? No, I don't mind, right? I just want to make sure they pay at a certain point, whenever they're ready.
Darren:Yes, when do you think your weak spots lay? What's something you're working on?
Nik Setting:That's a good question Do I have weak spots, absolutely In business? I think I sometimes feel like and this is super interesting but the things that you're most busy with are always also things you think you do wrong, right? I feel like I haven't even got enough data on on improving the things that I want to improve on, which I see it as a negative improvement, as a weak point. So, from a perspective of people, they think I have a lot of data and I do. I have massive amounts of data, but I do feel like I can get so much more. And this also reflects on the standpoints of always willing more, right, because, like, I feel like the biggest problems are internally, because that's what reflects on your business all the time. So I feel like the biggest thing that I can improve on is reflecting and knowing the situation that I'm in. Knowing what I have, will kind of learn me to how do I formulate this the right way?
Nik Setting:I think sometimes I get into the struggle of feeling I don't have enough, which constantly pushes me to get more of something. But that's infinite. You get where I'm coming from. It's double-edged sword, correct, and there is never an end at infinite, so it's never enough technically right, and not having enough is good because you constantly push yourself to get more. That's a super good quality, that's a super good skill.
Nik Setting:But you also need to understand, um, the point of you know, like, like, I feel like that I struggle a lot also within my personal life with I always keep working more and right now my situation I could see myself work 12 hour days for the upcoming like 50 years based more. And right now my situation I could see myself work 12 hour days for the upcoming like 50 years, based on my situation right now. Because technically, your mindset goes into like, okay, the more you work, the more you make, which is completely right. And I also disagree with the standpoint of saying like the more you work doesn't mean the more money you make. I technically think that's not always true. You just need to make sure you do different work and the right work and the right work. Yeah, so you can work 12-hour days, you'll make more money constantly. You just got to make sure you do the right work in things.
Darren:And there's a lag too. Right, like I don't give a shit, I'm happy to share. Like we had a really good day yesterday and then this morning I woke up we had done like 2700 before I woke up and then I was like, right, well, it's only seven. We could probably do like 12k today, like we can now before back in the day. I would make 12k in a month, right and it's like now I have the infrastructure, the team in place.
Darren:Like five calls in the calendar okay, close, like one or two, fantastic you. You, that lag didn't happen overnight, man lag didn't happen overnight, man right, it didn't happen overnight, it happened over a long period of time, long period of time getting one thing right, the next thing right, the next thing right, and then you are lucky, and I think that's an important point, right is for you. You're creating so much infrastructure that that lag of success is just going to continuously increase.
Darren:And then I guess it comes down to the point of the way I always frame. It is like I have everything I already need. I'm, I'm married, I have a business, have my house, have my dog, have everything I need I'm playing for like bonus points and, as a result, it's like fun, great team, great culture. There's yes, there's problems, you know, but it's great though. We enjoy it.
Darren:So I wouldn't see a scenario whereby I'm not doing this that's interesting right I wouldn't see a scenario where I'm not doing this because insert what I'm doing would fucking b2b, sass and it's the same shit. Good team, good problem we're solving. It's fun, it's enjoyable.
Nik Setting:New challenges, that's such a good point and that's where I struggle with, at moments where I'm like, okay, I'm looking for the infinite meaning, I never have enough and maybe I'm not always happy with the things that I like, I'm not always feeling how grateful I am for the things that I do and being at a point of um abundance, you know, where I feel like, okay, I already have so much. I don't enjoy that specific moment, do you struggle with money.
Darren:Spending money, yes, I do too. Yeah, it's been a inflection point because I grew up very poor.
Nik Setting:I know where to spend my money towards to create returns, so I'm super good in in spending money on business in this way, but at the the same time yeah, that's a good point I have a hard time spending money, you know, sometimes even in business, but I've learned certain things with A players and team and ads. The biggest mistake I made in business at the moment I had a 12-act row as a year ago not spending 10x the amount. That's the biggest mistake I made.
Darren:The moment you know something works, you need to put all your power and all your capital and resources into it to make it as best as possible I feel like the entrepreneur adjust the spending in the business because, like for us, like we do spend a lot in the business, uh, like, I'm open to spending more, hiring more. Yeah, we need more editors, cool, fine, because it's not for me, it's for the business, and that's bullshit, right, that's a bullshit mindset. Because it's like for x, it's like my wife right, if she needs something, we might go to the doctor. I'm like, yeah, yeah, cool, just might be. Like doctors expensive, right, private doctors expensive, gotta, gotta pay for it. But then what I'm saying, in a personal life, on your own, do you spend the money on yourself? Do you value yourself to take care of yourself? Right, does that make sense?
Nik Setting:it does I don't do that enough.
Nik Setting:Yeah, not at all it's like a respect and value thing again, exactly, and also going back to that infinite point, you know like you never have enough, that feeling you're constantly striving for something more. That isn't there. Technically, you get my point. And that reflects also on not taking the time for myself on sundays, for example.
Nik Setting:I always work, so I work for 80 hours a week. I don't do anything else and obviously in my content it looks like I'm doing something different, which is fair right, because I do go on a client retreat and I have fun, for sure. But I work so much and I'm gonna grow even faster when I do decide to take sundays off to reflect, to do fun stuff with great people and to create space in my mind to think. You know what I mean, because that's super important as well, and I learned how to delegate things with my company to create that space from a business perspective. But if I do learn, for example, how to take Sundays off and not work at all, I think I grow a lot faster. Doesn't mean it's not difficult.
Darren:It's insanely difficult, we both know, yeah, for sure, but it's super important you know, and that's definitely one of my weak points like if you have an element of rumination in your mind where you ruminate a lot on things that made you successful because it made you not watch the football game and instead do things.
Darren:but again, it's a double-edged sword it's like the people that make 10 million a month do less. You know they're not fucking taking 100 client calls every two minutes because they know, like, where the energy flows and where the frequency is and where to put their finger on to get that 10 is leverage activity, what they need to do to make their company move to the next level.
Nik Setting:Yeah, that's why it's also like super difficult to say, okay, when do you stop what we said right? When do you stop working less? It depends on your point of satisfaction. Like, are you excited and happy with a million dollar a year company, $10 million a year, $100 million a year, or do you want a billion dollar company, right? It depends where your values are at, the outcomes you want to create for yourself, the people that you have around you. But technically you can always keep building, working, working, working. And it's also what do you give priority Money isn't everything in life which I had to learn.
Nik Setting:There are things that are way more important. Money is just a tool that we utilize to create freedom, or to create scale in companies, or to you know things like that. So that's super interesting.
Darren:Is there anything super long-term you want to achieve or build?
Nik Setting:I was at the Atlantis yesterday with Isaiah, my ops manager, and we were talking together and he said like the only thing that we care about is becoming as big as possible, because I know I'll be the biggest, like I really fully have the confidence becoming as big as possible because I know I'll be the biggest, like I really fully have the confidence in every single aspect that I will be the biggest in five years. But the most important value comes into place that I want brotherhood, I want to build things with great people and I want to build a family. That's such a good feeling. Isaiah works for me for two years. He is so extremely loyal to the company, he is so extremely good at what he does, he is on my level and I know he will stay with me for years. So the most valuable thing comes into place because, technically, I have money, I have everything I need to live my life on my terms, but it's technically building that family in my company and then building real family yeah, that's everything man like.
Nik Setting:Imagine my company can take care of so many different families. It can create brotherhood, it can build a family within the company. That's everything I need. That's everything I ever want.
Darren:Dude. It's so interesting. One of my employees, magno. He joined us when he was in school in Brazil, so he was finishing high school at 17. And then he missed a team meeting like a month ago and I was like, ah, chill. And he was like, ah, I'm out buying my first investment property. He's 19 now. Wow, fucking awesome. He's 19 now. Wow, fucking awesome, dude. And I think that creates the culture.
Darren:We do company retreats as well. In bali. They're going to come for our masterminds. Um, another guy like vietnam lifelike change. I think that's the biggest impact you can have is true. Your content too. Even the free people who don't buy anything, is. This starts the journey. Well, if nick can do it, I can do it, and I think I know that you're you've only been kind of well getting known in the past year, but in five years time because this is what happened in five years time you'll be speaking on events and some guy will be like five years ago, I watched that real, I watched that podcast yeah, I think people underestimate how difficult it's it actually is thinking from a longevity perspective.
Nik Setting:People always say, yeah, I understand, but if you really do, you take different actions and I think it's super important that you think in decades and not in months.
Nik Setting:Where do you want to be in a month? Yeah, it's not important compared to you want to be in like 10 years from now. And when you start to think that way, you start to reflect it on yourself into taking different types of actions. That's why, the most important thing, for every single hire you make, you make people see the vision. A players wanna see a vision and they want to have the trust in you that you can be the leader in accomplishing that specific mission or vision. Right, that outcome. When they see that Not, important.
Nik Setting:I said exactly the same thing which is when they know you will become the biggest one.
Darren:The payment is unnecessary. It's nothing.
Nik Setting:It doesn't matter, because they know that you will be the leader that takes care of their family in the future. They know that they will be working with the biggest company. They will literally be part of the biggest company ever and that's the most important thing. And I don't treat my company at all as my company. It's not my company, it's our company, and that is one of the most important skills that you learn as being a leader. It's like you know you help them build something instead of being their boss, and I think a lot of people struggle with leadership. I think it's one of the most important qualities besides communication. I do definitely think communication is number one, but second in leadership. If you build a company, you want to grow it past a million dollars a year. Leadership becomes the second most important component Because your people drive your team right. Yeah, 100%. Without your people, who are you really? Yeah?
Darren:Such a good point. Such such a good point because you'll be at that cap and I think it's the true statement. As always, like your, your own personal development, your own business development, is always capped by your personal element. So if you're someone that people don't want to follow, well then your business is not going to grow, it's not going to take off. I want to ask you about, like, even your personal relationships, like are you, are you in a relationship now? Do you, do you have like a romantic partner? How does romantic partner? How does that fit into the ecosystem?
Nik Setting:I don't have a relationship at the moment. I'm really focused on what I do right now and I feel like my time is spent perfectly in the way I do things. Now. My goal is to marry at 25. Awesome. That's why I have a friend. His name is Quinton, he is married, he's 22. That's why I have so much respect for what you both do. My goal is to marry in five years. I feel like people always say, okay, you marry when you're 30. I disagree with that, because the most valuable thing in life is family, always, and I think everybody internally knows maybe not externally, but internally knows. So the faster that opportunity presents itself, the faster you have to take it Now. Are you gonna force these things? Absolutely not. When you force it, it's not gonna work and you have more experience so you can tell me all about it.
Darren:But that's my goal and when my energy is open to it, I know I'll make it happen and dude, the focus you have when you're married is hilarious because you think you think before you're driven, but when you are now responsible for multiple people, you become super, super focused. Dude, because I remember the day that we got married, the next day I just like went, like the pressure just goes up and then you either rise or the pressure you fall, and for me it was just like step up and it's hilarious. If you track when we got married, which was in october of last year, the business has just gotten like this since. Wow, because there always is a second component, right and like when you, I've always taken care of elise, but I mean, I did it in a kind of a kind gesture way.
Darren:She doesn't, she doesn't need me to help her, but she doesn't work, and that was a voluntary thing. That we decided was that she would stay at home and then I would work, but a lot of it was in good faith. But then when you're married, it's like you as the, as a caregiver or a care provider, need to step up to that mark yes and things like small things like this man.
Darren:Like you know, elise has had like a few surgeries and operations and she's had issues with her stomach, and we have like a private health care in in thailand, in bangkok, which is very good for health care, oddly enough. Um, that stuff isn't cheap and me, knowing what that pat may look like, it's like I do need to get my shit in order. Yes, we're health-wealth relationships and I think it makes you a better person and leader, and I actually gave up alcohol three and a half years ago and that was a huge proponent too in my ability to step up right. Respect.
Nik Setting:I feel like a lot of guys always say like girls are distractions. I never say that and I'll tell you exactly why. The guys that say that haven't figured out who they are to attract the right girl. So it always reflects on yourself. Girls aren't a distraction to your business. Some girls are, but you are who you are and you attract a specific girl. Meaning, if you say that and you attract the wrong girls and you think that you're not the right guy, your reality becomes what you say becomes your reality.
Nik Setting:Exactly, and it comes back to short-term and long-term. When you have a wife, you will stay with her until you die, right Meaning. If there is longevity, it doesn't matter, because you know you solve problems and marriage is one of the most difficult decisions you make in life and one of the most important decisions you make in life.
Darren:so when you do make that decision, that's why I asked you, because you're super young, super successful, like good looking dude, well put together. So a lot of guys your age will say, oh, I want to make the bag before I find the woman. And my argument has always been the antithesis of that, which is you find the partner just whenever, and then that person is with you on that journey. You know, I met Elise when I was in loads of debt and just coming to university, like I was in uni and had a student debt and shit. And the money hasn't changed us. Right, we have some nice things, but it hasn't changed us, our relationship.
Darren:And are you familiar with Sahil Bloom? I'm not, so it was really cool guy. Um, he has an amazing book called five pillars of wealth young guys early 30s. He was in investment banking in america uh, private equity and making a lot of money in his early 20s and then left it all, went into building his own business and has gone through this cycle too and again married to his wife very early. They were like mid-20s college sweethearts, all the usual stuff, and I've talked to him at lent about this in podcasts and we both sell on the same thing, which is it's not about making the money first, or anything. It's about finding that right partner for you. And then, when you find that right partner for you, no matter if you're sleeping on the street or in a penthouse in dubai, it becomes irrelevant exactly I would agree with that so much.
Nik Setting:That's such an interesting take and that that's beautiful again, because you will go through everything and you'll do everything to protect that women for the rest of your life and she'll do everything in her power right to support you in any way, and I think that's that's the best feeling that you can ever have. Yeah, having a partner and trusting that person in any single way.
Darren:It's only you can yeah, it works both ways, you know, because, like, the man provides and then the woman takes, takes care, right, correct, so, like, if something goes wrong in the business, I'll often say the least. I might just be like, oh, what's your thoughts on this? Like, would you prefer this or this, what sounds better? And just having a sounding board. I think it's a massive, massive leak that, like, online business bros are not thinking about online business. Yeah, no, they're just not thinking about an interesting take. No, they're not. And they see it. They have just not thinking about it such an interesting take?
Nik Setting:no, they're not and they see it. They have tunnel vision. They see it in one specific way, which are normally the guys that don't have experience, you know, which is completely okay, but they they're such in a tunnel vision where they see only one thing. You know, and I think it's beautiful when you have a wife, you can communicate with her about your business problems in specific ways. That's super interesting and super, super valuable. You know, and I think obviously for men and women is different. But even having somebody that just listens, you know, I think I became that person from my mother. My mom has a struggle sometimes and just knowing because she's a single mom as a struggle sometimes, and just knowing because she's a single mom, so knowing that she is somebody that can, just that she can just talk to you, that's enough, right, I'm just there to listen to her and hear out what she has to say. She doesn't need a response. I don't need to solve her problems. She just wants someone to talk to you and I think that's enough for most people, because the biggest problem is people always tend to solve other people's problems. It's good point.
Nik Setting:Another point to go into. I don't have to go in depth but I've, when I was, when I was younger, like there, I have been like my parents. Government money spent a lot of money on me to go to therapists. It's like a different conversation, but the one that helped me was the one that helped that. That helped me solve my problem. Yeah, I saw the problem myself and all the other 13 tried to solve the problem for me, which is why it didn't work, because nobody can solve your problems ever that's in coaching, in consulting, in therapy, in relationships, in friendships. Nobody can solve your problems.
Darren:It's impossible, mmm people only help you solve your problems.
Nik Setting:It's impossible. People can only help you solve your problems and they can help you.
Darren:see right, they ask you the right questions.
Nik Setting:So coaching is which is?
Darren:helping Coaching is asking the right question, correct. Why do you believe something? Why do you feel like that? How do you want to feel? And I think it's funny because whenever anything happens to my wife, she's upset or whatever. I'll often ask like, okay, do you want me to be supportive or do you want me to be like logical? So logical is like we should do X. Supportive is how do you feel? And she's like, oh, just support. And it's masculine, feminine, male, female. But it's the same with your employees, the same with your team. Like I have guys and women on my team vastly different. My COO, she was in Goldman Sachs, so me and him are just like to the book. I'm like, bro, fix this, let's do that, let's go here, move forward. Many other people on my team I have to ask like, how do you feel about this? What would you do differently in this position? And they will come to the same solution. And that's what eq is. So the emotional intelligence is exactly understanding who you're speaking to.
Nik Setting:Yes, back to the prospect to you, right yes, exactly, and that that's that's understanding and being adaptable yeah, based on who you have in front of you and the situation that you're in knowing how to act, knowing how to help people and know how to create a win-win, a benefit for for both. You know what I mean such a good point, man.
Darren:Well, dude, I want to say a huge thank you. This was such an amazing conversation. You need to do more podcasts and, uh, I've no doubt, man, it's just going to keep going up from here, and I want to support you as much as I possibly can, man, and I feel like we have many more of these on the way you're a great person, but I really want to appreciate you for uh inviting me and I think people had a lot of value from this talk together.
Darren:Oh, dude, I feel like every 18 months we'll do this conversation and we'll just see this huge gap between where you've just been continuously. You know Promise.
Nik Setting:Big thank you, brother. Of course You're a legend Ron.