"The Hardest Thing To Do Is Finish!" with the highly impactful, Nathaniel Waller

What makes a truly meaningful life? For Nathaniel "Nate" Waller, the answer lies not in fame or fortune, but in the ripple effect of positive impact we create through others.

From the football fields of Ohio to the recording studios of Chicago, Nate's journey is one of reinvention and purpose. After a devastating injury ended his athletic dreams at 17, he discovered an unexpected talent for music production that would lead him to work with major artists—yet he deliberately chose to remain behind the scenes, keeping his name out of the spotlight.

This decision wasn't made lightly. A chance encounter at Disneyland showed teenage Nate how fame could disrupt family life, leading to a career philosophy built around impact rather than recognition. "It doesn't matter how much money you make," he shares. "If you don't change someone's life for the better, then it all means nothing."

Through candid conversation, Nate reveals how becoming a father transformed his perspective, and how therapy helped him recognize when his own high standards became unfair expectations for others. His reflection on teaching at-risk youth, coaching his children's sports teams, and launching a non-profit to make travel sports accessible to underprivileged families showcases a man driven by service rather than acclaim.

The wisdom Nate offers throughout our discussion transcends the music industry: embracing discomfort as a pathway to growth, understanding that "the hardest thing to do is finish," and recognizing that our legacy lives not in what we create, but in who we impact. Like what he calls "a good virus," positive influence spreads exponentially as each person we affect goes on to influence others.

Ready to rethink what truly matters in your life's journey? Join us for this powerful conversation that might just change how you measure success—both professionally and personally.

Transcript

Introduction to Nathaniel Waller

Speaker 1 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Bamboo Lab Podcast with your host, peak Performance Coach, brian Bosley. Are you stuck on the hamster wheel of life, spinning and spinning but not really moving forward? Are you ready to jump off and soar? Are you finally ready to sculpt your life? If so, you've landed in the right place. This podcast is created and broadcast just for you, all of you strivers, thrivers and survivors out there. If you'd like to learn more about Brian and the Bamboo Lab, feel free to reach out to explore your true peak level at wwwbamboolab3.com.

Speaker 2 0:41

Hey everyone, welcome to this week's episode of the Bamboo Lab Podcast. Today we have a guest that I've been recommended by a good friend of mine for a few months and I finally pulled the trigger and reached out to him, and I'm so glad I did. I think this is going to be one of our probably better shows we've done this year. I'm looking forward to it. We have Nathaniel Waller on. Don't call him Nathan. You can call him Dommy or Nate, but we're not going to call him Nathan today.

Speaker 2 1:09

He has been producing music since the age of 18. He got a start in the Chicago hip-hop scene, collaborating with a lot of popular artists, but then as a ghost producer, really. But then he started to expand his reach throughout the United States. At age 24, he decided to branch out even further and work with international artists, creating music for film, television and symphonies. He is a musician, he is a producer, he's a business owner but most importantly and I got this so much in the conversation before we started recording he is an educator. He is driven by the journey to constantly grow his knowledge as an artist, teacher, mentor and father. I love that last one, Nate. Welcome to the Bamboo Lab podcast. Hey, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. Hey, I appreciate you. I know you're a busy man, so juggling a lot of balls out there, and you've been traveling recently, haven't you?

Speaker 3 2:00

Yeah, oh yeah, traveling a ton. It's nice to be at home for at least a week.

Speaker 2 2:06

Yeah, I know. So I got to give a shout out to Todd Wigg, who is a mutual friend of ours, and just thank you, Todd. I'm not sure if Todd even listens to the show, but I know his wife does and maybe his daughter and son do. But make sure that you tell Todd that we appreciate hooking us up together today. So, Nate, if you could start off by telling us a little bit about yourself? I know I've done some research that, as you said, you don't put a lot out there. You stay behind the scenes and create the magic behind the curtain. So can you tell the audience and myself a little bit about yourself, whatever you want, where you're from, your family growing up, who or what inspired you?

Speaker 3 2:41

Oh yeah, absolutely it's.

Speaker 3 2:42

That's really a loaded question so yeah, I'm originally from a really small town right outside of Cincinnati, ohio, called Oxford Ohio. Oxford Ohio is really small, but there's a university that a lot of people know of, miami of Ohio is right there in Oxford. So that's where I'm from. I currently live in Kalamazoo, but you know, when I was, when I was born in Oxford, my father he's a college basketball coach and he was actually coaching at the University of Miami. So that's where I was born.

Speaker 3 3:17

And when I moved to Kalamazoo, michigan, which is where I currently, where I currently live, I kind of, you know, I was all about football, you know, being from Ohio football's life. Then I had a little we'll talk about this a little bit later but I had gotten to music, got into the music scene after that through a girlfriend, and from there things kind of went to Chicago and met some famous people, started making music there. They said, hey, you make this music. I said, yeah, I made this. They're like like, oh, you got to come with us, went with them, started doing tours, um, things like that. And then, uh, I found out you know I'm not big on on a lot of people just coming up to me, random people. I'm not too big on that one. Um.

Speaker 3 3:59

So I started, you know, going behind the scenes and staying low-key on things and then I started teaching, um. So I taught in Kalamazoo public schools for about seven, eight years sorry, I'm sorry, nine, ten years. Uh, taught in the college level for seven, eight years. Um, do some work at at the juvenile home. Um, you know I do a lot of things around and then but music was the was you know, my biggest, was like basically safe in my life. It's who really mold me into what I am now.

Speaker 3 4:29

So I started making music and got my kids into doing music. My wife and friends and you know a whole bunch of things just came with music. And I do seminars. I make music, as you said. I make music for films, behind the scenes, with TV shows. I own a few businesses. That keeps my name out of things so I don't get hounded all the time. But yeah, I keep my name out of things so that way I can still create the music and still have fun doing it, but kind of do it on my terms and not just be, you know, like forced and rushed into doing things.

Speaker 2 5:05

That's a pretty interesting perspective that I mean. I think most people who are into music or have the potential to be celebrities are going to take that route. Why not you? Why do you want to stay behind the scenes?

Speaker 3 5:17

Oh well, this is. You know, a lot of things that I decide off of comes from experiences, things that that that I decide off of comes from experiences. So when I was a, when I was a junior in high school, uh, my dad was coaching um in tennessee and their their team was was doing a tournament out in disney, uh, out in california. So anytime they do tournaments, stuff like that, my dad would fly me and my brother out so we could go have fun with the team. And you know, like overseas stuff and things like that. He was like like, hey, we got a tournament in Disney. I'm like, oh yeah, I need a plane ticket, I need to go, I need to go to Disney. So he flies me out to Disney and while we're out there, you know the team's walking around, we're in Disneyland in between games and things and we see I hope people know who this is mr gains from the tv show a different world. Oh, yeah, yeah. So we see mr gains and one of the players goes mr games, mr games. We all rush mr games like, oh snap, it's mr games. Uh, so you see all these huge dudes, six foot eight, six foot nine, seven feet tall, surrounding by, surrounding mr gains and we all take a picture. We get those.

Speaker 3 6:21

This is back in 2003, 2002. So we get um. You know, it's not like cell phones where you just take the picture and it's already there. We had to get the. It was off of a camera, everything developed. We had to get the camera, the film developed.

Speaker 3 6:33

So I'm going through looking at the pictures and I see that picture because I was wanting to show everyone. In that picture I see mr gaines, grandchildren, smushed in between all these huge guys and at that moment I was like you know what that's gotta? He was just out with his grandchildren having fun at disney and people recognized him and we didn't. I didn't even I didn't. When we took the picture, I didn't even see his grandkids. I didn't even know they were there. All I saw was mr games and that's all I saw. I didn't see anybody else.

Speaker 3 7:06

So you see his kids being smushed in between these. They look uncomfortable and all that. And at that moment I was like you know what? I don't think I want that because I'm definitely going to have kids. I don't think I want that for my family. I wouldn't want someone to see me and just rush in and just have my kids or my wife or whoever that I'm with at the moment, just push to the background, because they see this person there. So at that moment I didn't know what I was going to be, but I knew I didn't want that for my kids or anything like that. How old were you then? I was 16, 17 years old.

Speaker 2 7:43

It's pretty young to recognize that. I mean a lot of people in their 60s who would love to have that attention or who would see that wouldn't even think twice about it.

Speaker 3 7:54

I think that's is that one of the things that really kind of turned, inspired you as a young man to kind of it was, yeah, because you know, always being around, being around I said my dad was a college basketball coach and he's not like someone who coached like a small, uh small school or anything like that. My dad has multiple championships, uh, been to the final four, uh, coached in the nba, so he's, you know, I was around famous basketball players all the time ron harper, who was the point guard for the chicago bulls, with mich and Scottie Pippen that were playing. He was my babysitter. He went to the University of Miami.

Early Life and Transition to Music

Speaker 3 8:29

So I was around famous people, famous athletes since I can remember. So I kind of had that understanding of what they go through growing up and having my dad talk to me about things all the time and stuff like that. So I kind of had an idea already. So just from that and seeing it I've never really seen it though. So by seeing that picture and I got to see his grandkids just smushed in between these huge basketball players it kind of instilled in me. It was like, oh yeah, that's exactly it right there, that's what I don't want.

Speaker 2 9:02

Well, when did you start getting into music, though? You mean you started um hitting the hips hop scene around in your eight, when you're 18 or so yeah, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 3 9:12

Um so, um. I was always big in football. Football was my, was my passion and, honestly, to this day, if I had a chance to play football and get rid of the music scene, I'd do it in an instant. Not even a thought, not even a thought, um. But during high school I got injured. I was being scouted by a lot of division one schools and um, but I got hurt and couldn't play anymore and that was. That was really devastating to me, like I couldn't. I didn't know what life was without football. My entire life was dedicated to football. Uh, but even during practice when, when I was at practice and stuff, you know you have your knee pads and your shoulder pads and all that I was always tapping on, making music like drumming on my knee pads or shoulder pads or something. So when I got hurt, I was like man, I got to find something else to do. School wasn't my thing. I'm not that guy. I'm not that guy. Even though I ended up teaching, school was not for me.

Speaker 2 10:08

Did you have any musical talent, though, before you were drumming on your new pads, or was that your first introduction to actually trying something?

Speaker 3 10:16

So I had already because I was always drumming. I was already a drummer. My mom noticed that I was always tapping on things so she got me into like band classes because of that it was. It was never anything serious, I never took it serious. It was football, football, non-stop, um. So once I got hurt I was like man, I gotta figure out something else to do. And I always liked music. I always liked listening to music and playing, uh, when I was in band class and things like that. So I was like you know what I what I'm actually going to buckle down and take this serious.

Speaker 3 10:45

And my girlfriend at the time she has a great voice. Now, honestly, I do credit a lot of my career to her, but she had a great voice and she said you know what, you should make me a song one day so I can sing to it. I was like you know, I don't really have any equipment or anything like that, but my cousin's roommate I had a lot of music equipment. So my cousin was like, hey, just come through here, I'm sure he'll let you use it. So I went and used it, made a song, she sang to it and it went so well, it went around. She put the song around the school.

Speaker 3 11:22

Everyone loved it. They was like yo, who made your music? She's like, oh, my boyfriend made it. And then it just spitballed. It was like yo, can you make me something? Can you make me something? And it just spitballed and spitballed, and spitballed and I started having so much fun just being around different creative ideas and different types of music and seeing people light up to the music that I created. It just started from there. Once that happened, I was off to the races.

Speaker 2 11:50

So, Nate, did you write the lyrics to the song she wrote or that she sang?

Speaker 3 11:55

We did it together. Okay, she was much better at it at the time, but we did it together.

Speaker 2 12:01

So were your mom or dad. Were they at all musical?

Speaker 3 12:04

No. Dad's a basketball coach, so I assume you didn't have time for music, Right? No, not at all. You know, I was told my dad when he was in high school he used to sing, but I never heard it.

Speaker 2 12:23

Well, so was it a natural gift that you have then, or how did that your first time doing this and everybody loves it, so that's a pretty rare thing.

Speaker 3 12:33

You know, I say this to everyone you can have natural talent and God gifted abilities at anything, but without hard work and dedication, it doesn't matter how natural you are You're not going to geted abilities at anything. But without hard work and dedication, it doesn't matter how natural you are, you're not going to get feeling good at it. So do I have natural ability? I'd like to say yes, just from you know, because I just have an ear for it and a passion for it. So I would like to say yes, but even still, I'm talking nonstop. I wouldn't go to sleep until 3 o'clock in the morning just working on music.

Speaker 2 13:09

Okay, All right. Wow, that's pretty interesting. You normally hear people when they start off doing things like that. They kind of suck and everybody laughs at them and tells them you know, this is not your track.

Speaker 2 13:20

You better go get a degree in something stick with school, you know, go down the traditional path and so it's a unique story. To start with um, a question I like to ask people, because we've gone through a lot of changes in the last couple of years. You know we all have what would you say is one of your biggest life lessons or learnings you've had during that time so I'm very critical is what I like to say.

Speaker 3 13:47

I'm very critical and I'm very hard on myself, um and to the, and for that reason I'm very hard on anyone that I work with um. But one thing that I've learned, especially in the last, the last year I'm going to be honest with you the last year has been very, very troublesome. It's been tiring, it's been a lot of work. Things weren't going the way they're supposed to One of my businesses. We kind of got dismantled, Everyone moved out in their own direction and I kind of got left with myself. It's been a lot for the last 12 months.

Speaker 3 14:25

So one thing that I've learned from that and after speaking with my business partners and people that were working with me, they're like you just expected too much, You're just doing too much. We just we couldn't get all that stuff done, you know. So they figured they would be better off on their own. So the biggest, the biggest thing that I learned from that is I can't put expectations that I put on myself onto others. I have to let others be who they are instead of expecting them to be either the same level as me or better.

Speaker 2 14:55

Okay, you know, one of the things I learned, nate years ago and I think this was when I was married, I'm pretty sure it was, this was 20 years ago or more going through relationship counseling, and my stuff at the time was more like I like to be on time, I don't like to be late for things, and I was irritated with my wife at the time and our therapist said Brian, the best advice I can give you is keep your standards high, but keep your expectations lower. They'll save you so much headache in life when you keep your standards, your expectations of others, at your standards. It's going to be a nightmare and the same thing with other people If they expected me to rise up to their standards and the things they are good at and that I suck at. It'd be terrible for them. So I'm glad you got that learning this year. I mean, it's a lot of pressure on other people, but it's also a lot of pressure on yourself.

Speaker 3 15:50

It does. It does. And that's what I learned Like I was putting I was putting way too much pressure on someone to do so. So, for instance, I'm, as soon as someone tells me something, hey, we want to get this done, I start working on it immediately. I'm like, okay, we can get this done. You know what I mean. I'm like, hey, let's go. I'm a go go, go, go go type of person. I'm not a let's sit down and let's think about it, let's discuss, let's weigh the goods and the bads. If I want to do it, I go do it. That's it, plain and simple. There's no ifs, ands or buts. I get to work on it immediately.

Speaker 3 16:21

However, I can't put that expectation on someone else, and I've learned that it was always a it was always a hassle between me and my business partner. Someone gives us a call hey, we want to do this. I'm like, yeah, we there. Absolutely, we're going to go to Toronto. All right, right here, let's go. But my business partner was like well, we have this, we have this going on. The next day, we have this. Aren't you going to be tired? Aren't you going to do this? No, we'll be fine, let's keep it moving.

Speaker 3 16:46

And it created conflict between the two of us. Now we ended up, everything ended up being okay, like I knew that it would, but it was a lot of stress during the travel. It was a lot of stress on this. It was a lot of stress that was put in there, that was unnecessary, just because of the expectations of of that I put on my business partner that they were not ready for. And you know, like you said, keep the standard. I want the standard there. The standards have to be there. You know, cause there's still a quality of work that needs to be, that needs to be reached.

Speaker 2 17:21

But, like you said, if you force someone to be this way or have expectations on them, they just can't meet the expectations that you put on them you know, yeah, and I think when a lot of people get that pushback like you got from your business partner, a lot of people will either say, screw it, I'm still, you know we're going to do this or they will actually lower their own standards. And I think we need crazy people like you out there. You know we need those guys like you that will just drive, drive, drive. I mean what Steve Jobs said the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. I mean we need those people, but the problem is is they have to.

Speaker 2 17:57

You know, like you said, you have to realize that the people around you may not be as crazy, they might not have that drive, that just let's get it done right now, let's move tomorrow, let's go to Toronto tomorrow and get this started. But if you can encapsulate that, keep your drive going. But then bring other people around you and get them to their highest level without them having to be at your level. That's when you create a real solid team of people. That's right, and I see so many leaders out there, nate, who you're in a role of leadership, because you're really good.

Speaker 2 18:26

You can't expect the people around you to be as good, but you can expect them to be the best they can be. And that's where I say you know, I don't expect people to be at my level and doing certain things, but I just expect them to be at the best level they can be, or at least striving for it. And the same thing. They can't expect me to be at their level and things that they're really good at, but they should expect me to try and be the best at my level that I can be in that thing. And it goes hogwire when you expect them to be at your level every single time.

Speaker 1 18:51

Now, how does that apply?

Speaker 2 18:53

with your family, though with your personal life, does that same level of intensity and now realizing, hey, I can have those expectations. Does that also apply to your personal life?

Speaker 3 19:03

It does. And you know one thing you it's funny cause you were talking about how you were going through marriage counseling. Be like that. I'm actually going through a therapist right now Shout out to Tracy Um going through a therapist right now, because I'm having such a hard time not forcing those expectations on my own children.

Speaker 3 19:23

And I'll give you a prime example my oldest son at baseball is his talent level, his natural, god gifted ability is off the charts. I mean, he's throwing like 68, 70 miles an hour at 12 years old. He's, he's, he's just incredible. His, his swing. And he's hitting, he's hitting the ball out of the park all the time. He's, he's incredible. I play catch with him, honestly, I play catch with him and I get scared because I hear the ball coming so fast. Cool, all right, easy, tiger, easy, easy.

Speaker 3 19:56

But the expectations. Coming from an athletic background, I know what it takes to get to that next level. So, even though he's only 12, I'm like, hey, what did you do today? What workouts did you do today? He's like nothing, dad, I'm 12. I'm like, hey, what did you do today? What workouts did you do today? He's like nothing, dad, I'm 12. I play video games and watch TV Like relax. But my expectations for him are hey, did you go outside and work on your ground balls, did you, while you're watching TV? Are you working on any sort of footwork or anything else? You can do that while you're watching TV.

Speaker 3 20:27

And that's an unrealistic and unfair expectation that I put on my 12-year-old son just because he's good at baseball and so it makes that effect. But, however, he does have some drive that I had. So he plays travel baseball and what he wanted to do he played travel baseball and then he just played regular little league. So he's, this kid had games Tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, sunday and was off on Monday and he just kept going and going and after games he's like, hey, let's go hit, let's go do this, let's go work on this, let's go work on this. So he wanted to play nonstop.

Speaker 3 21:06

So he does have that drive, but I still put those expectations that I would put on myself onto them. So it affects it in that way. I get agitated, I'm like, hey, what did you do today? Come on man. And I can see it in his eyes. It kind of makes him feel like he's not good enough when I get upset when he doesn't work on things when he's doing nothing, and that's something that I'm working on now.

Speaker 3 21:31

So I can see the hindrance that I'm putting on to my own kids, and all three of my kids are that way and I keep putting them on. But you know, as parents we just want the best for them. You know and we know, especially since I know what it takes to get there. That's what I want and that's what I'm pushing. But I have to learn and I'm learning to ease up. I'm learning to ease up on him because he's still doing great. My other son in soccer is still doing great. My daughter is still doing great and she's only seven and I'm putting those expectations on her. So I'm learning. It has made a hindrance, but I'm getting better, just like. That's all we can do in life is just get better and learn from the mistakes that we've currently made.

Speaker 2 22:10

Amen. I mean you know we do a lot of destructive things for the love we have for our children, you know what I mean. Right, I mean, but the thing is so they're 12. Oldest is 12. Youngest is 7.

Speaker 3 22:24

How old is your middle child? So yeah, my oldest is 12, but he'll be 13 in a few days. Okay, he'll be 13 in a few days. My middle son is 11, and then my youngest is 7 years old.

Speaker 2 22:34

Well, it's a good thing. You have a lot of time, so you know you come to that realization this year. You've got a ton of time to turn that around and hopefully they'll listen to this episode and realize, hey, dad really is thinking about that, it really is on his mind. I hope so. You think about it though.

Learning to Adjust Expectations

Speaker 2 22:54

I, when I played, uh, sports, I could see those, those athletes who, like for me, I never had any natural ability, I never really did in sports. I think it was more. You know, I just worked at it and and I loved it. Um, I was probably more aggressive. That was probably what got me good, decent at sports, and it was because I was aggressive and assertive. Because I was aggressive and assertive. But I always looked at the people who came on the team who were just naturally athletic but didn't train, didn't, um, didn't do anything. They just came out and played and they, they excelled at it. But the problem with that is I always thought I learned this later in life I didn't know this in college when I was seeing this, but I learned it later is those people can't replicate what they, what made them great, like, Like Michael Jordan could replicate what made him great because you know he was natural. But he also got cut from his freshman basketball team and he wasn't a superstar even at North Carolina until like the last year. But he worked so hard he could replicate because he knew what got him to be great.

Speaker 2 23:50

But those natural athletes who don't try at all or naturally anything, and you don't really try, you can't replicate that. You can't say, okay, how did if I get in a slump, how do I get out of it, if you don't know what got you there to begin with? It was just a God-given talent. And then you can't teach other people you know cause, I don't know, I just had this gift, I just did it.

Speaker 2 24:09

But you can't say if you do these exercises, these routines, these habits, you're going to get great or you're going to get the best you can be, but if they've never done that, they can't teach it. And that was always a problem for me later on and I think that's what's helped me professionally is not being a great natural athlete but being a good athlete. At the end I could replicate those skill sets later on in life and other things you know, and I think that's the benefit of having both natural talent and that drive and that you know attention to detail and your kids will get there. I mean they're young 12, 11, and 7, man.

Speaker 1 24:39

And having you as a role model just being in your life.

Speaker 2 24:42

You can pick up your energy. I can pick up on it on the phone call prior to the recording. I can pick up it now on the show. That just you can pick up on it now on the show. That's the kind of stuff that just that ability to dream and drive is something that's contagious for people, especially if they're your children. They're around you all the time. I mean, how does your wife deal with that?

Speaker 3 25:04

Oh, my wife hates it, she hates it. Okay, so let me put it this way. All right. So this is, I'm going to give you like a like a day in a life oh, let's not say a day, let's give it like a week in a life of kind of what she goes through by being, by dealing with me, all right. So, um, right now, uh, we are currently working on a TV show. Um, the TV show is it follows me and my music company as we travel from country to country, as we make pop songs with that nation's pop star, right, okay? So to give you an idea, we're in Brazil. So we go to Brazil in February for Carnival. We're working with Gabby Lee, which is a pop star down in Brazil. You guys can look her up. She's actually dating Neymar, which is a famous soccer player from Brazil. So, gabby Lee, we're working with Gabby Lee, and that is a week and a half long shoot. So we're gone for a week and a half.

Speaker 3 26:00

The day we come back, we have a show. I've made music for, a symphony. So the day we come back, I get to stay at home, see the kids for a little bit, but that very next day I'm doing the show, the concert for the show with the, with the orchestra. So I go to that location, we're practicing for a little bit and then the show. We have the concert the next. I come back home for for about a day or two or two and then um, I also I started a youth sports organization, um, to help inner city youth, inner city youth, be able to play these travel sports, because travel sports are expensive. Yeah, so I'm trying to make it it's a non-profit to make it cheaper for for parents and stuff, so kids that are that come from underprivileged families can actually still participate. So after I get back from doing the orchestra stuff, I now have meeting after meeting after meeting with different parents and organizations and things like that to get this organization up and running, and then I go to go to work at the juvenile home after that.

Speaker 3 27:05

So out of that two week, two, two-and-a-half, three-week span, I was at home for maybe four days. And for my wife, like I said, we have three kids that are doing all these things, so now she has to stay at home with the kids all by herself and cook and clean and make sure the kids are ready to go, get to where the things that they need and I'm just going to be honest, I'm still a needy person. So I give a call like, hey, is my thing at? Is this the thing that I need to the home? Could you grab that and send it to this person for me, thank you. So she's, she's wrangling, she's she's busier than I am and I feel like I I feel like I'm non-stop running, but she goes and goes and goes, because that's that's what she has to deal with, because I'm always going.

Speaker 2 27:48

Well, I hope the four days you're there you treat her like a queen.

Speaker 3 27:55

I like to think so.

Speaker 2 27:59

Well, she can answer that question when she hears this episode. So, gabby Lee, how do you spell Gabby?

Speaker 3 28:06

G-A-B-I-L-Y.

Speaker 2 28:09

Is it one word? It is one word, yep, oh, okay, okay.

Speaker 3 28:15

If you put Gabili and Brazilian pop singer, she'll pop right up.

Speaker 2 28:18

Oh, right here. Yeah, popped right up. Okay, perfect, All right, perfect. I just want to have that so I can look at it later. So how long are you home for now?

Speaker 3 28:30

So I will be here. This is the, this is the. Travel baseball is about to start up. All the travel sports travel, soccer, travel, baseball. So from and my son's birthday and things like that. So from beginning of I'm sorry middle of March to about the middle of May. I kind of block off for family time till about the middle of May. I kind of block off for family time. That's when I'm going to be at home and making sure I'm at sports, at the sports things that my kids do, because, to be honest, I also coach. I coach for a lot of things. So I'll be coaching with my kids to make sure I'm there. So I will be at home for a while, but the music and business never stop. So once the coaching is done, from about I'd like to say 8 o'clock to about 2 o'clock in the morning I'm down in my basement in my studio getting work done.

Speaker 3 29:24

Do you drink a lot of coffee?

Speaker 2 29:25

Cherry Coke.

Speaker 3 29:26

Cherry Coke is the go-to. That's your poison, eh, wow.

Speaker 2 29:34

Cherry Coke is the poison. Absolutely your. When does your?

Speaker 3 29:36

son turn 13. Uh, he'll turn 13 april 8th let's wish him a happy birthday.

Speaker 2 29:41

From the bamboo pack audience. Uh, this this will air, I think on the 24th or something, but we'll wish him an early, uh. Happy birthday. Welcome to teenagers. Dude, you'll have a teenager now. And for you too. Yeah, I will. I'm so nervous, but happy birthday to you too, right. I appreciate that. Yeah, coming up tomorrow actually.

Speaker 2 29:58

Yeah, there we go you know I keep forgetting it's my birthday and typically what I would do Nate is for years. So I started doing my coaching practice almost 29 years It'll be 29 years this November and I always took off two days a year. I took off the anniversary of my business, which is November 20th, and I took off my birthday every year and I just stopped doing both of those things. I just, you know, I'm an empty nester. Now my kids are grown and they're gone, my dog's not with us anymore, and so I tend to say if I'm, I travel a lot, you know mostly, for I can work from wherever I am, so I can work, I can do podcasts.

Speaker 2 30:33

I'm actually at my daughter's house right now, in her home office, shooting this podcast. I carry what I call my micro studio with me and my Jeep and all my client files and I just go. I'm at my house usually about I think since Christmas I've spent three nights at my house, three, yeah, so I kind of get. I'm not going to brazil, though, um, I'm a little more domestic in my travels, but um, but uh, I forgot what I was even going to say. Oh, so this I'm like why would I take off my birthday when usually I'm I mean I'm, I'm gonna, wherever I am. I'm usually at home alone on my birthday, because if I'm traveling other people, wherever I'm staying, they're all working um. But I think I'm gonna take a half a day off tomorrow. I might do that.

Speaker 3 31:12

Oh, I have to have to branch out.

Speaker 2 31:14

I love it. Well, I'm at my daughter's house now and then I'm going tomorrow to spend. My son lives 15 minutes away, so we're gonna go tomorrow and have a late lunch and he bought a new vehicle from my brother, my son-in-law. We got to go do the title exchange and all that at Secretary of State. He said, dad, I'll take you out for Thai food and I'll buy you a new hat, which is what I want.

Speaker 2 31:35

I want a new baseball cap. Then we're going to go to Black Rocks Brewery in downtown Marquette, michigan, and have a couple of beers. I might take half a day off tomorrow. I keep forgetting it's my birthday until somebody will say, hey, it's birthday coming up and uh, I guess man isn't that how it goes.

Speaker 3 31:49

The older you get, you just forget. When you get your age, you forget the birthday because there's just so much going on.

Speaker 2 31:55

Days just go by so fast you just kind of forget you do what I start doing, nate is about four months before my birthday. I start considering myself that age, so like. But back in november I consider I said I'm 58. That way, when it hits, I'm like I don't really care, the age means nothing to me because I've been 58 for four months now. That's the way I look at it. I always round up, I don't round down. I like it.

Speaker 3 32:17

I might have to adopt that system. It works, man it works.

Speaker 2 32:21

But age is irrelevant to me. I don't even think about age. I mean, age is just stay young inside, keep moving, keep going, keep growing, keep serving others, keep expanding yourself. That's all we got to do in life, and when you do that, you really never age inside, in my opinion. Exactly, exactly. I agree, 100%. Okay, I got a question this is one of my favorite questions to ask and you can go as deep as you want with this Nathaniel but in your life, what was one of the most difficult things you've ever gone through and what did you do to get through that?

Speaker 3 32:51

uh, yeah, we're gonna go, oof, oof. That's a load of questions, so I have a lot of them.

Speaker 3 32:56

Yeah, I like them. I like it makes me. You know what questions like that make me learn about myself. So I love when people ask me these types of questions, because then I really have to dive deep and really pull it out and that just helps you grow. So I love quests like these. So keep them coming. I love it. I love it, I will for sure. Um, all right.

Speaker 3 33:13

So in my mind, difficulty is relative, is relative, right. So I'll say when, as a kid, one of the most difficult things I went through was when my dad left. Now, my parents didn't get divorced until I was about 14, 15 years, but at nine my dad left to go. He took another job at Howard University, so my mom didn't want to move us to Washington DC because Howard University is in Washington DC. So my dad is now gone for however many months out of the year. So now it's just me, my brother, my mom, at home and that was really difficult. So at that time, at nine, 10 years old, that was one of the most difficult things I had to go through and in my mind I'm like man that really, especially as a kid, when one of your parents just leaves, that really, you know, alters and changes your mentality and who you are. And that's a big moment and that's very difficult for those kids and especially for me when it happened because, like I said, my dad was a college basketball coach. We were always together. I would be in locker rooms when he was, when he was coaching, at halftime and before the games. I knew all the players. Now all that's gone, he's gone, all that's gone. So it was really difficult and how that, how I kind of got out of that was especially especially and I remember this vividly was I would train nonstop and that's where I kind of pushed it on my kids for football. I was big on football, I was really good at football, so I would just go outside and run, I'd do push-ups, I'd run routes, I'd just do random football drills and that kind of got my mind off of him being gone and moved me into the space for football.

Speaker 3 34:52

You jump forward to age 16, 17, and now I get injured from football, now I can't play football anymore. Well, at that point football was my whole life. What do I do? So then that became the most difficult thing that I've ever gone through and that was huge. I went through this huge depression. I went through this huge depression because, like I said, football was the only thing that I ever did. I wasn't good in school or anything like that. So I went through a huge depression and I had to find something that pulled me out of it. In this case it was music, and I even got a tattoo that that said music saves my life, with a treble clef on it. And because it did, I was I didn't know what to do. At this point I'm 17 years old. My whole life is football. It's kind of too late to start something new in my at that. At that time that's what I was thinking. Now I know that I was still super young. I could have done anything but, um, at the time, I'm like yo, my life'm like yo, my life is over. Football's over, my life is over. What am I going to do? And then music took over, and then that became my new love and passion and things like that. Then you jump forward to when I'm 26.

Speaker 3 36:06

My oldest son was born. He was born with something called gastroschisis. Gastroschisis is when the skin doesn't form all the way, so he was born with his intestines outside of his body OK. So that at that time was the most difficult thing I've ever done. Now he's fine, you know, you would never even know, but he doesn't. It's actually kind of cool. I tell him all the time he doesn't have a belly button because, no, he doesn't have a belly button. So the umbilical cord, um, and the umbilical cord was cut, but his intestines were on the outside of his body. So what they did? They put him in an incubator and they put his intestines in a little bag and held him up and they just fell right back into his body. They sewed him up and he was good to go. It took about three weeks he was in the hospital for three or four weeks for all of this, for this whole process to go through.

Speaker 3 37:03

But at that time, seeing the person that you created of your son, you know, your, your child, go through a surgery, have all this pain go through I granted he doesn't even remember any of it because he was, you know, he's just born. But that was the most difficult thing. And what brought me through that one was the people around me. All my friends came to the hospital and would hang out with me, my students. I was teaching in public schools at that time. My students came up to the high school, came up to the hospital to come see me just make sure I was OK. Come see the kid and hang out and just have fun, and that at that moment, that's when I knew I was doing something right.

Speaker 3 37:46

Um, when you have family and friends and students come up to support you during your time of need, you know you're doing something right in life. Um, yeah, but so so, yeah. So difficulty is just relative. So I've had many, many, many difficult things in my life, but I'll say this that as long as you I like to call it your tribe, I like to call it my tribe as long as you have a great tribe around you your family, your friends, loved ones, things like that if you have those, you have your nice tight tribe around you, you can get through anything, because people, the people around you, is what makes your life valuable. And the people around me, the people that keep around me, I make sure, are good, solid people and they can help me through it.

Speaker 2 38:36

Did you find, as you've gotten to be more of the man you want to become? And you know we all go through phases, nate, where we do stupid things in life. You know, we've all been. I mean, I'm 58 tomorrow and I still do a lot of stupid things. But when I was going, when I was doing the things I'm least proud of, I had the most people around me because those people were also. When I decided to change my life and start living the life based on my values and my beliefs, my, my circle shrunk, but it got so much stronger. Yes, absolutely, you know you shed the weight and you gain the muscle. You shed the fat and you gain the muscle.

Speaker 2 39:12

During those times of our lives and it sounds like you know, with the way you lived your life, at least you know, during your son having gastroschisis. Am I saying that right? That's correct. Yeah, you are. Wow. I usually stumble over words like that. Obviously that's a good sign that you were going. At that time you were going in the right direction.

Speaker 2 39:32

I wonder you were talking about. You know your dad left when you were. You know coach at Howard when you were nine, I think, yeah, and then at 16 or 17,. You kind of lose this, your passion of football, and you got to wonder if your connection with your dad still was athletics. You know he was an athlete, he was a basketball coach and his life was revolving around. You know high level basketball you were going on to play. You know potentially high level D1 football. You know or at least through the beginning stages of that, being scouted for that. You wonder if there was a if that that losing your ability to football too was some type of subconscious loss of connection with your father to some degree as well.

Speaker 3 40:09

You know, it is interesting that you say that, because that is absolutely correct. That is exactly what happened. So, once I was done with football, I didn't me and my dad didn't talk for a very long time because I didn't know what to talk to him about. I wasn't working out, I wasn't, you know, getting, he wasn't helping me with scouting, we weren't talking with coaches. I wasn't asking to go here or there. You know he was still coaching himself. So we would talk about if I did talk to him for a brief moment, like at Christmas time, or he'd call on my birthday, I'd call on his. It'd be oh yeah, how, how's the team doing? All right pops, nice to talk to you, talk to you later, and then we wouldn't talk for months and months at a time. Um, so, yeah, absolutely, once I got done with football, it was a definite, definite, definite hindrance between the relationship between my dad 100 percent.

Speaker 2 40:55

Yeah, I mean that. That was when you were saying I'm like, yeah, that's something like there's a correlation here between that, between the two difficult times in your life. And you're right, difficulty is relative. And I have people on here who have these heart-wrenching stories of you know, abuse and drugs and alcohol and homelessness. And then I have people who say I really didn't have anything like that, but I had this.

Speaker 2 41:16

I'm like it doesn't matter, man, we've all gone through some moments in our lives where we felt at the time that was the lowest moment we can go through. When you got injured, you said you faced depression. As a 16, 17-year-old young man. I mean, that's just as deep as anybody. You can't really compare that, because you felt the same way. A lot of people going who went through what you would think would be even more difficult times. But when you're going through depression, or you feel like you're the lowest that you can be in your life, or you feel like you're the lowest that you can be in your life, or you feel there's no hope in your future. You don't get much lower than that. You know it's. It's just it's. You're right, it's all relative and what's hard for me might be easy for you. What's easy for hard for you might be easy for me to go through, but we all go through. That's one thing I really like to share with people is like a guy like you who is doing some amazing things, has has been in multiple facets of life, not just music and coaching and parenting, and being a great husband and at least a very intentional husband, because we even admitted that she puts up a lot and she does a lot of work around the house and around the family.

Speaker 2 42:16

A guy like you, when you can say, hey, I've gone through some difficult shit in life, pardon my language. I've gone through some difficult shit, but yet I can own up to the mistakes I've made. I've gone through some difficult shit, but yet I could own up to the mistakes I've made. I can continue to try to get better and I can pull myself out of the depths of some difficult times. That gives hope to everybody, no matter what they're going through out there. That just gives people the chance to say he did it, I can do it. I can do. I'm not going to become a musical talent like he is and be. You know producing, you know TV shows or behind the scenes music. I can't do that, but I can do this really well and I'm going to do that, despite what I've gone through. I love that.

Speaker 3 42:52

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 42:53

And.

Speaker 3 42:53

I say this Everyone has their niche. Right, everyone has their niche. My business partner would say it all the time. She's like, okay, what's our niche in this? I'm like we know what our niche is, but everyone has their own niche. It doesn't have to be music, it doesn't have to be entertainment. You can build things. Um, you could, you know, I have a lot of people, a lot of students. Um, that was like you know, I really love to knit, and they started knitting quilts and selling them at school and that was. That was incredible. She didn't know what she wanted to do with her life and then, just because she started knitting, one day we had a small conversation she found her niche. It could be building, it could be riding a bike.

Speaker 3 43:34

I'm talking with the kid in the juvenile home right now and he Okay, so when you get angry and everything else, we have to find an alternative to what you're doing now, because what you're doing now lands you here. We don't want you here anymore. What do you like to do? He's like I love riding my bike. I go, okay, what's the farthest you've ever ridden? He's told me that he, as a 15-year-old kid. He rode his bike from across two different cities and I said do you know how big that is as a 15 year old to go to just get on your bike and just ride? You could be.

Speaker 3 44:06

And then we started talking about the Tour de France. He's never heard about the Tour de France. So we started talking about the Tour de France and, like this is these people ride bikes for a living. He was like I'd love to ride bikes, I would love to do that. So now he's starting to get into bike riding and things like that. There's always something that you can find. Everyone has their own niche. It doesn't have to be something that everybody does or everyone's thought of. It can be the smallest minor thing. As long as you find your niche and the things that make you happy, you'll be all right.

Speaker 2 44:36

Amen to that. It can be your niche, no matter if somebody else agrees with it or not. That's right. I wouldn't imagine anybody at 18 telling you hey, go into music when you've never had any musical lessons before. I'm sure a lot of people thought what are you doing, dude?

Speaker 2 44:52

I mean you know, come on finish your degree, get your degree, finish your schooling and focus on like I said earlier, focus on something more pragmatic, but everybody's got that. You know there's a draw something more pragmatic, but everybody's got that. You know there's a draw, there's a purpose we all have in life and if you, just if you just open up to it and plug into it and listen to it, it'll I, you know, I think, um, I, I call it like the muse. You know, there's a muse out there that drives me to write, to speak, to do podcasts, to coach people and it and I don't think I even comes from me, I think it comes from some other source and it just goes through me. But I plugged into it and I and I love it.

Speaker 2 45:24

A lot of people just, they don't want to plug into it, they just want to go through life just doing exactly what they do every day, being miserable at their job, being miserable with their personal life. And man, that's a self-imposed, imposed prison right there, man, and yeah, it is the, the mundane life.

Speaker 3 45:39

I just, I just couldn't imagine having the straight nine to five and coming home. But but you know, but I'll be honest, some people love that I know, that's what some people live for, but so and but, man, it's, it's not for me and it's definitely not for everybody. I can tell you that right now.

Speaker 2 45:54

No, they don't. What is the quote? Most men live lives of quiet desperation and you know, I yeah, if that's what you love to do and you feel comfort in that, I mean by all means do that I. You know, I did a show last week that probably won't air. I did it by myself last week. So I did a podcast last week, then I did another one the next day. Just me talking on the concept of practicing voluntary adversity, meaning, get out there every day and do something that scares the hell out of you. Get out of your comfort zone every day. I, the hell out of you, get out of your comfort zone every day. I don't care what it is. And I thought about this. I was. I was running hills a week or two ago and thought about how uncomfortable some things that we do are, like running. I, I hate to run, I don't like it at all, and when we're done here I'm going to go find a trail with a bunch of hills.

Speaker 2 46:36

I'm going to do four miles with a 20 pound pack on my back and I despise every single minute of it. I don't like it, and we're supposed to get three to 12 inches of snow tonight and I'm going to do it again tomorrow in snow. But here's the thing, what I've learned. I'm not a strong man, I'm not a super disciplined man, I'm not that at all. But one thing I've learned is that if we seek comfort, we'll never catch it. If that's all we're saying. Just comfort in life, just comfort. But if you do the difficult things and you earn the comfort, then you actually feel the comfort. When you do something difficult in life, whether it's something going for a run or jumping on a cold lake or living a life like yours where you're traveling and then when you finally find the comfort, you deserve it, you've earned it and you can actually feel it. But if you just seek comfort all the time, you never actually experience comfort. You got to push yourself.

Speaker 3 47:25

Amen to that, you got to push man.

Speaker 2 47:27

And push yourself, whether it's doing quilts or riding a bike or making music or podcasting or running hills, it doesn't matter Whatever it is. If you push it hard and you find that discomfort in that and you lean into that discomfort when you're done, you've earned the comfort you have now and you really experience the comfort.

Speaker 3 47:46

And that's what it's all about. It is.

Speaker 2 47:47

That's what it's all about. And if you do that, you will not live a life of quiet desperation. I can guarantee that.

Speaker 3 47:54

Man, that is the. I think that is that just inspired me right there. I hate colds. I'm going to go do the cold plunge Just to say I conquered it.

Speaker 2 48:04

Yeah, you know and I know the audience can hear me saying this because I talk about it all the time I take an ice cold shower every day. I do six days a week. I give myself Saturday where I take a normal shower, and sometimes even on Saturdays I'll be done. I'm like, oh, screw it, it's going on and I do the coldest the shower can get, and it's about four to five minutes, and when I'm ever around a body of water that's ice cold, I jump in it. I mean, I, just I in fact at Todd's house last, not this past December, but last December of 23, he and his daughter and I, on the last two days of December, jumped in their lake and this is in Michigan, obviously you know where they live, you know Hastings and that lake was cold and I told todd, I said I'm gonna jump in at midnight at new year's to bring in the new year.

Speaker 2 48:48

Well, I didn't make it to new year's, right? I was in bed by like 11, 15. Guess who woke me up at 1201, midnight on new year's eve, or new year's, new year's day, yep of 2023, or 2024? Todd, he goes hey, you made a commitment, get up, so I throw my shorts on, throw a robe or a towel around and he walks down the lake with the flashlight and I jumped in at 1201 a or probably 1205 am by this time on New Year's morning, and it was the scariest experience because the water is black, dark like you can't see and.

The Impact of Fame and Recognition

Speaker 2 49:20

I went in and it kind of lost my bearings and I popped up and I turned around. I could see him at the shore with the flashlight waving it. So now I knew, okay, because you don't even know if you're up or down in water. When it's dark out you can't tell what's up or what's down, and uh, so he made me do it. But I'll never forget that was a lesson that you made a commitment to yourself, brian. You got to do it. Oh man, why did I put myself in that position?

Speaker 3 49:41

and you. You know that's the hardest thing when you make those commitments. I teach this. I teach this to everyone. I've been teaching it and because it was taught to me, I've been taught this ever since I was a little kid.

Speaker 3 49:51

The hardest thing to do is finish right. It's the hardest thing. Anybody can start something but and they call, they have what they call a senioritis. When you're in high school, you get to the end. You just don't want to do anything anymore. They talk about it in sports. You have to finish the game out. You're up by three, but you got to finish. It's the hardest thing to do in life when you're making commitment to yourself. You can start the commitment, whether they have New Year's resolutions. Everyone starts it, but most people don't finish it. Hardest thing to do is to finish. So if you and then Todd for you, in this case, for you, he was your, he was your, he was your, he made sure you got it done. But if you didn't, yeah, but so everyone. I say it all the time hardest thing to do is to finish. But if you have somebody in your corner that can help you finish, everything will go smooth. All right, I got to write this down, hold on.

Speaker 2 50:42

You know I'm always looking for titles of the show. That's a potential one right there. The hardest thing to do is finish. Well, it's true. I think what I read last year, two years ago maybe it was I was doing research on people's goals and how many people reach their goals every year, and I think it was 9% of Americans actually reach their New Year's resolutions every year 9%.

Speaker 1 51:01

That's crazy.

Speaker 3 51:02

And trust me.

Speaker 2 51:04

I'm part of that 9% on some of my goals.

Speaker 3 51:06

I am, I am definitely, I'm definitely part of it. This year, my goal was to drink. My goal was to drink less cherry Coke. I think I had a two liter yesterday by myself.

Speaker 2 51:17

You still got nine months to go, nine and a half months to go. We're going to push you for that one. So I have a question for you. So big football fan from Ohio.

Speaker 3 51:27

Are you a Buckeyes fan? So here's the thing Although I am from Ohio, I'm from Ohio and a lot of my friends played for Ohio State. My family is Michigan. Oh yes, we are goat maize and blue all day, thank you. University of Michigan was one of the teams that was scouting me. There was no ifs, ands or buts. If I got that offer, I was definitely going to Michigan. There was no ifs, ands or buts Michigan all day. I have uncles that played for Michigan. There was no ifs, ands or buts in Michigan all day. I had uncles that played for Michigan. I just had Michigan's national championship winning team 2020-2023. My little cousin, dj Waller, was on the defensive side as a freshman. We're a Michigan family. Michigan all day.

Speaker 2 52:13

Oh man, I just pulled him up. Yep, DJ Waller.

Speaker 3 52:20

He transferred to Kentucky Like come on, bud, but you know it is what it is.

Speaker 2 52:25

I got to tell you when Harbaugh left I'm a diehard Michigan fan. My son is too. I mean, we bleed maize and blue for football and basketball too.

Speaker 2 52:35

I watched the Michigan game on Sunday against Wisconsin for the Big Ten tournament and basketball and I was in a Wisconsin bar surrounded by Wisconsin Badgers and I was pretty quiet the whole game. But I got a little vocal at the end, but very little. I was respectful after we won. But I can't imagine because he could have. When Harbaugh left I thought, oh man, sherwin Moore, I don't know, he has no head coaching experience. Didn man, sherwin Moore, I don't know, he has no head coaching experience. Didn't start off well, but man beating Michigan State, ohio State and Alabama and the way he's been recruiting, I have high hopes for Michigan.

Speaker 3 53:07

Oh yeah, I have huge high hopes. What's his name?

Speaker 2 53:11

The kid that's from Granville or something like that yeah, the quarterback, yeah the quarterback, yeah, yeah yeah, what's his name?

Speaker 3 53:20

I can't think of his name. I can't think of his name right now, but he better be worth all the $10 million. I'll tell you that oh boy?

Speaker 2 53:28

Yeah, I hope so too. I mean, yeah, what is his name? I can't, even I can't. I love JJ McCarthy, by the way, I loved him.

Speaker 1 53:35

I loved his leadership style.

Speaker 2 53:37

But yeah. I'm going to type this in, because we can't go without knowing Bryce Underwood.

Speaker 3 53:43

Bryce Underwood, that's it. And you know what? It's funny that you brought in the Harbaughs, because John Harbaugh actually went to University of Miami in Oxford Ohio. So while John Harbaugh was there playing football for Miami, my dad was a college basketball coach at Miami. So I don't know if they know each other, but I'm sure that they met because you know the sports they hang out all the time in the rec center and stuff like that. So I'm sure my dad met him at some point. Yeah, they crossed. I'm sure they met at some point. And he's a heck of a coach, yeah, buddy they have all family.

Speaker 2 54:21

They're they're. They're like we talked about. They're the crazy people we need in this world. Because jim harbaugh is crazy, but I love that crazy man. I mean spending nights in recruits bedrooms, on the floor wearing khakis when he's lifting weights and jumping in the in the cold plunge and in his khaki, and it's just crazy man but we need those crazy people.

Speaker 3 54:42

We need them, inspirations to us all. Man, oh man I mean we?

Speaker 2 54:46

I took my son and my best friend and I went to the first spring game of harbaugh walking with the first spring game of her first year coaching and when he walked out there were like 60 000 people in the stands. He walked out and it was like the king walked out or a god walked out of there for the first time, on the field, in front of the fans. I have it on video. He's got his khakis on, his blue shirt on and he walked out for the spring game and people just roared not realizing we thought we're going to win a natty the first year.

Speaker 2 55:14

But we went through some tough years. But man man, that last season 24, 25, that was worth everything to me.

Speaker 3 55:20

Everything, everything. It's just one of those guys that are just larger in life and I'll tell you, it never was a goal, but I think that's one of my new goals in life is to have that kind of impact now.

Speaker 2 55:33

Amen, amen. Well, you already got the crazy part down. I definitely got the crazy part down. You got the crazy in the drive but if you, if you make that impact, you might have to come up from behind the curtains a little bit, being a little more noticeable. Yeah, yep, that, that is true that is true, which leads me to the next question, nathaniel, what do you consider to have to be a win or a victory in your life?

Speaker 3 55:57

so here's where more of the crazy part comes in. So I don't necessarily consider wins in my I don't necessarily consider things wins. Okay, um, I have expectations and goals that I that I meet and so I'm like, okay, this is what's supposed to happen, I'm supposed to get this done. And then I, I get it done. I'm like, good, I can check that off my list. It's not necessarily a win, right, it's more of this is what I was supposed to do. This is how I'm going to get it done. What is a window is when I have someone that I inspired do something to meet their goals. That's my win, right. So when me doing something for me, it's just my expectation. But when I can inspire or help someone else reach their goals, that's where my win comes.

Speaker 3 56:53

From One of my mentors in music when I started touring and all that and some of these more famous music producers my mentor he told this is a direct quote and this is kind of what I live by. He says it doesn't matter how much money you make or what you do in life. If you don't change someone's life for the better, then it all means nothing, Right? So that's kind of what I live by. So my win is when I help someone else reach their goals. Me doing something. That's what I expect myself to do. I expect that from me, but when I get someone else to do something, that's more of a win than anything else.

Speaker 2 57:37

So it goes back to those standards you have. You have the standard your standards are. I'm going to do something that's more of a win than anything else. So it goes back to those standards you have. You have the standard your standards are. I'm going to do this. This is not a. This is an expectation I have of myself. What's interesting?

Speaker 2 57:46

because, I always considered myself, I always thought of my. Every year, I always said these are my goals for the year. It was this year when I in January, and I have an expectation now of how many clients I'm going to help this year additional clients in addition to what I currently have and I stopped calling them goals late last year and called them expectations. So I tell people, my expectations this year are helping 20 new people, 20 new companies or 20 new individuals to help them achieve their goals this year. So that's interesting.

Speaker 2 58:14

So that's where that idea of you are. You know you're a musician, you're a producer, you're a business owner, but most of all, as you said we said earlier, you're an educator. And that's where that comes from. You know helping people to educating them, inspiring them, mentoring them to become their highest level potential, to get to the goals they want to establish in life. We need more dudes like you out there. We really do. But you know what, when I talk to you, you're exactly why this podcast is alive, because there are people like you out there that need to be. You know, I know you like to stay behind the curtains, but I like to spotlight people who are doing this, that even the ones who like to stay behind the curtain and don't want to get noticed as much and don't put a lot of stuff on social media or on media. But it's people like you that it's good to know, for me and, I'm sure, for the audience, that there are men like you out there because it gives hope.

Speaker 3 59:06

It gives hope, man. It does well. I'm glad. I'm glad I'm able to do that. But I'll be honest, if there was, if there was more, if the world consisted of people that were wanting to stay behind the scenes and things like that, the world wouldn't change. We need those guys that want to be in front the michael jackson's, the steve jobs, the princes. We need those guys that want that spotlight, that want to be in front because they have more of a of a global reach yeah, compared to the ones behind the behind the scenes.

Speaker 2 59:32

You know what I mean yeah, but if you take those people who are behind the scenes for them, they're not going to have that global impact either. You know, you, yeah, it's got to be the collaboration, you know, santa claus needs his elves man. Otherwise there's a fat man in a suit driving around a sleigh going to house to house on christmas eve. Nobody wants that nobody wants that hey, I this question here.

Speaker 2 59:58

I know we're getting behind, but I'm okay, I don't care how long we go, but I know you're busy. I want to ask this question If you and I, if I, were to drive down to Kalamazoo right now with my time machine, you and I were to jump in it. We're going to go back to maybe 16, 17, 18, whenever you want to go back in time, and you're sitting down and you're talking to your, the younger version of yourself, what would you give, what would you say? What advice or words of wisdom would you share with your younger self, nate?

Finding Your Niche and Purpose

Speaker 3 1:00:25

Oh man, well, you know. So here's the thing. I don't want to give advice that would alter what I'm going to do, because I feel like if you alter what you're going to do, then that changes your future, and that means so. For instance, if I told myself when I got injured like, hey, take the rest of the year off so that way you might have a chance to play football again, well, if I did that, then I would have never had my kids, wouldn't be the same, because I would have never met my current the person you know. I would have never had my kids wouldn't be the same, because I would have never met my current the person you know. I would have never met my wife. The relationship with my dad might have been different.

Speaker 3 1:01:05

A lot of things would change, and I don't want to necessarily change anything right? So I think what I would say to myself young 17, excuse my french asshole, nate is, I think I would say no matter how tough things get, just remember that you are a fighter and you will be okay. Keep your tight circle of friends and never let them go, because they are your rock and they'll keep you and they'll get you through anything. So that's what I'd say. I wouldn't. I wouldn't, yeah, I wouldn't give any. Hey, change this, do this different. No, just remember that you're a fighter and you'll be OK. That's what I think I'd say.

Speaker 2 1:01:58

I love it. I mean, that's a pretty broad break to cover so many aspects of life. Remember, when things get tough, you were a fighter, life's going to be okay. And keep those circle of good people around you, your tribe, would you tell yourself to invest in Amazon when you see this company called Amazon, come on, bet, bet on it.

Speaker 3 1:02:21

Amazon Netflix.

Speaker 2 1:02:23

Yeah, exactly, well, I always hear the question.

Speaker 2 1:02:27

I hear the question a lot. If you could have $10 million or go back in time and change one mistake you made, what would you do? I'm like I would take the 10 million because I mean, I don't. I agree with you a hundred percent. Every bad thing that's happened to me, every bad thing I've done, I don't regret it. I feel bad for the if I impacted other people in a negative way and I so. But it's not a regret, it's a I don't even know what the word is, but it really. Everything we've done, good or bad, has forged us. Everything we've gone through, good or bad, has forged us. And you know, when you go through difficult times or you do dumb things, you either come out of it stronger or weaker. You never stay the same. And if you've gotten through it stronger, then why would you want to go back and change that Exactly?

Speaker 3 1:03:10

What doesn't kill me makes me stronger.

Speaker 2 1:03:12

Amen to that I used to have a key chain when I was in college that said that I don't know where. I'd like to have that again.

Future Projects and Coming Out from Behind the Curtain

Speaker 3 1:03:22

What's next for you, my friend? Oh, so, we were actually going to talk about it. I got to get out of the behind-the-scenes thing. That's kind of what I've learned in the last 12 months. It kind of ties in together. I'm now going to start going in front of the camera, this TV show that we're working on it's called Global Icon. That puts me in front of the camera and I'll tell you, being in front of the camera is a brand new experience for me. They say I'm good at it. I don't believe them, but we'll see. So, yeah, I'm going into this TV show, so I'll be in front of the camera. I'm getting into voice acting, so I'll be in front of the camera. I'm getting into voice acting, so, again, not in front of the cameras, but we'll have um, we'll have. You'll hear my voice all over the place where I'm getting into a lot of different things. That's going to put me in front of the camera instead of behind the scenes, which is going to change a lot, and it kind of goes against what you know.

Speaker 3 1:04:14

I decided when I was a 17, 16, 17 year old, uh, teenager. But my kids like no, we'll be fine, let's go, dad, let's make this happen. So the kids are on board with it, I'm on board with it and it's time to get in front. So we got the tv show voice acting, starting a brand new business where, um, I have a lot of producer friends, um, who are around the world. We're going to start a global music company, um, so it's a lot going on. Again. I started the youth sports organization and that's grown. So we started off with that one. I'm going to talk about this a little bit. We call the calamazoo royals. We started off with two teams, um, two baseball teams. Uh, this started last year. This is going to be our first season actually playing in tournaments and everything but we went from two teams to six teams in one year. So we've grown quite a bit. And then we're adding another sport as well. We're going to add soccer. So now we're going to have travel baseball and travel soccer. So we have that going on.

Speaker 3 1:05:15

I'm writing a couple musicals. I've done work for the Negro Ensemble Company in Harlem, so some great actors come out of there Denzel Washington, don Cheadle, I can't think of. Chadwick Boseman used to be with the Negro Ensemble Company, so I've done some work for them. I'm actually writing a musical and got to present it to them and they're going to help me actually develop that. So, again, it's behind the scenes, but when they do that, you're going to see my actual. I'm going to start putting my name on things, which is different, instead of trying to stay hidden and be ghost productions. It's going to I'm going to have my name on things now, so I'll be easier to find. So a lot of changes are going to happen in 2025. And I'm not going to lie to you. I'm very excited and I'm nervous, but, like you said, you've got to do something that scares the hell out of you.

Speaker 2 1:06:10

When you were talking about that, I thought about that's the definition of voluntary adversity. Is it something that takes you out of your comfort zone? Yes, is voluntary adversity? Is it something that takes you out of your comfort zone? Yes. Is it something that's good for you? Yes. Is it voluntary?

Speaker 3 1:06:20

Yes, it meets all three criteria and that's what you know, that's what makes men and women great, right there, that's the goal.

Speaker 2 1:06:30

That's the goal. All right. My final question before we wrap up, Nate is there any question that I didn't ask, that you wish I would have, or is there any final message you want to?

Speaker 3 1:06:40

leave with the bamboo pack? The final, you know question no, but the final message and this is something that I've said it once, I've said it a million times, but it's the God's honest truth it does not matter how much money you make. Everyone always asks what's the meaning of life? What's the meaning of life? What's the meaning of life? The meaning of life is the impact that you have on the others around you. There's no definite reason on or definite meaning for life, but it's the impact that you have on those around you. Everyone always talks about legacy and things like that. It's what you, the impact that you have that lasts forever. For instance, what I was taught the hardest thing to do is to finish. My kids now know that. I know that. My father knows that. I'm sure my grandfather's the one that taught it to my father and his father before him. That's the impact that you leave.

Speaker 3 1:07:36

Money does not matter. You can't take it with you, it doesn't. None of those things matter. What actually matters is the impact that you have on the people that surround you. It's like a good virus is the best way I'll put it. You impact one person. One person now impacts their kids, which may be one or two or whoever else they get around, so that's two or three people, then those two or three people go, and then those two or three people go and it just spreads and spreads, and spreads. It's not about money. It's not about how much money you can make or how much money you spend or anything else like that. The time and energy and effort that you put into people is the only thing that really matters in this world. So if you do that for a positive excuse me you do that for a positive reason and for a good reason. Your legacy and your impact on the world outweighs any money that you have ever brought in.

Speaker 2 1:08:32

I don't even know how to recap that. Honestly, that's the best ending to this show. Usually I try to recap, recap, but I can't top that right there at all. That was beautifully stated and I I couldn't agree with you more nate. I mean, that's that really what I? That was the vibe you gave off for the entire hour and eight minutes we've been talking together. Is that impact? How important the impact is for you, and I think the impact you made today at least I know you made it on me and I guarantee the Bamboo Pack out there, those audience members listening today, are going to be highly impacted by your message. So I can't thank you enough. I really appreciate your time today. This is one of those inspiring episodes that I had a feeling and I got to thank Todd for putting us together, because you have been an amazing guest on the Bamboo Lab podcast.

Speaker 3 1:09:15

Well, I appreciate it, and you know what bringing me on here has been a highlight for me too. So, uh, this is the first time I've done a podcast and it's definitely a highlight. I'm gonna, I'm very excited. Thank you very much for having me, for bringing me, uh, onto your show. I appreciate.

Speaker 2 1:09:30

It was a pleasure, and now, in a year from now, when your name is more pronounced out there, I want to get you back on. So don't't forget us people who were talking to you before your name before your voice was all over the world, hey this was the start.

Speaker 3 1:09:42

This is the start.

Speaker 2 1:09:44

I got you the beginning of the year that things start to change for you.

Speaker 3 1:09:48

That's right. Hey, where'd you get your start? Oh, the Dan Boo podcast, hey you tell everybody that too. I'm on it.

Speaker 2 1:09:58

Don't worry about it, I got you, brother. Hey, give my best to your wife and your children and please wish your son a happy birthday coming up here in April. From all of us and thanks again.

Speaker 3 1:10:06

Thank you, you have a great one. Happy birthday to you.

Speaker 2 1:10:09

Thank you, brother. All right everyone. Thank you for tuning in this week. We'll be back again next week for another show.

Speaker 2 1:10:13

Joe, I'm going to ask you, please think about what Nate said the hardest thing to do is finish. Because I know all of you out there or I shouldn't say all of you, many of you out there are in the middle of something right now. That's very troubling, very challenging, that you're pushing your limits, you're out of your comfort zone and you might be thinking of giving up. Well, you've done the easy part. You've started it. Now prove to yourself who you are and how badly you want to become a better version of yourself by finishing what you started. I know it inspired me to do so, because I've got a few things that I've been contemplating not finishing, but after today, I think I'm going to kick myself in the ass and finish them. In fact, I know I am. So anyway, in the meantime, I'll talk to you all in a week. Please get out there and strive to give and be your best. Please show love and respect to others and show it back to yourself, and please work.