Nathan Tabor: 25 Companies & Over $150 Million In Sales | The Business Blast Podcast #609

Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.

¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás?

All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Nathan Tabor with us. He is an entrepreneur, life coach, business consultant, trainer, speaker, and author. He has founded 25 companies since 1999 which have generated over $150 million in sales. He has had amazing successes and epic failures, but definitely learned more from his failures than his successes. So welcome to the show, man.

Hey, Tyler, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

Of course, grateful to have you here. We'll jump into the first one, Nathan. The first one I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

The best story from my life is learn to listen, uh, be slow to speak. Um, you know, look back over— I just turned 45— I look back over my life and the The time that I got my— or the times I got myself in the most bad spots or binds in business was when I reacted too quick with an emotion, a temper, or anger or frustration. And if I'd have just paused for a minute, listened, analyzed it, I could have avoided a bigger mess.

And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

So as a business consultant, also as a writer, you know, whatever I've been involved with with entrepreneurship is developing the plan or developing the outline. We do it in our everyday lives. If we travel, if we go on vacation, if we're planning a trip, we take time to make sure that everything is in order. But something about when we go to start a business, or, you know, launch a new line within our business, we lay all of that to the side and just run out and start producing or trying to sell or advertising. And then when it doesn't turn out the way we want it to, we question why. Why did it fail? Well, if you don't have a plan, if you don't have the foundation, you know, the likelihood of succeeding is slim. And if you do succeed, the likelihood of sustaining it becomes even slimmer because the foundation's not right.

Agreed. And it might tie in, but what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.

You seek counsel, seek wisdom from others. Don't just, you know, oh, this is a great idea, or this is how it needs to be done. You know, go in and find a mentor or find you know, someone in the company or someone in your same industry, but in another state that's not your competitor, someone and say, hey, this is what I'm thinking about doing. Share the plan with them and then let them speak about what they see that you have missed. Because I found, Tyler, I don't know about you, but I can have the greatest plan and go sit down with my wife or someone else and show it to them. They're like, oh, you missed this. And it's like the simplest thing. But it was a pretty important thing.

Yeah, yeah, I've had that happen before.

It happens to me every time.

Yeah, yeah, literally every time, especially, you know, because we were talking before about books and stuff like I can proofread and edit my— like, not really edit. I'm definitely not an editor, but I can like proofread my own book like 10 times and there will still be mistakes. And it's that— and that's why you need an editor and you need some other eyeballs on there because I don't know what it is. My eyes play tricks on me or It's just like when you're so deep in your own work, like you just do not see everything as it is.

So you got all, you got all the main points, right? Right.

Yeah.

All the major components are there and all the major thoughts are there, which is great. But I always tell people, you know, the biggest problems, you know what they always start at? Something small.

Ah, yep.

They might quickly become big, but everything traditionally starts very small or minute and it builds over time. And so when you're reading that, you look for the big things, but the smaller things, you just— your mind, for whatever reason, mine does it too, skips over those.

Yeah, it's very interesting. But yeah, no, you're right. Even the big problems start small. Um, and if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

Oh, if I could give my younger self advice, I would fall back to the same, along the line of listen and counsel and planning. 'Cause when I was younger, the type A personality, if the door doesn't open, get a bulldozer and push it over, push it open. Or, you know, do whatever it takes to get the deal done. I've flipped 26 apartment complexes in the last 11 years, and at the beginning, it was all about getting the deal done or making money. In hindsight, looking back, if your only desire is to make money or get the deal done, probably is not going to end very well because you— I miss things.

Got it.

Okay.

So yeah, just a question then on that. So with your flippings, was there ever a time where you flipped it and it wasn't necessarily profitable, but you just had to get the deal done because it was like taking too long or something?

Yeah. So, you know, the first deal I ever did in apartments, I made a little over $230,000. The next deal, I lost a little over $150,000.

Got it. Okay.

Missed a zoning issue. The attorney and the landscape— the surveyor told me that it was grandfathered in and it wasn't. So a 5-minute phone call, or lack of a 5-minute phone call, cost me $150,000.

Damn. Hey, it's the small things, right? Living, you learn, man. Um, thank you for sharing that with us. Um, so kind of going down a little bit of a different path, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

In my opinion, the key to happiness for me, I'm an evangelical Christian, is, you know, having not only your faith but actually applying it. So if you're not an evangelical Christian, everyone has a set of morals and values. Everyone has, you know, who they want to be, but very few people are actually what they want to be. I don't know if it's the fear or the pride or arrogance, but it really comes down to knowing versus applying. People know, I know I should do things, but then actually applying it and doing it is a struggle.

Yeah, it is interesting. I think it could be like a self-image thing sometimes too. And I think like, you know, a lot of us, like you're saying, like it's like we have this like idea of what we want to be in our heads. But a lot of the times, like, we don't take the actions that we know we need to take to actually be that person. So when you can actually be honest with yourself and like do the things that you say you're going to do for yourself, it's almost like treating yourself like a best friend. I feel like then things really start to happen from my experience.

Absolutely. And that's how it is. I mean, if you want to feel better, eat better. I mean, I know I should eat more greens, but I love Hershey's chocolate, man.

Me too, man.

At least I'm honest about it, right? But if I wanted to feel better, I would eat better.

Yeah, I agree. And it is, it's actually, it's like a very small, simple thing. But sometimes we let it get like, we complicate it. So it's interesting.

Wait, I don't know, are you married?

No, I'm not.

You're not? I'm married. So anybody out there has a spouse, if you want a better relationship with your spouse or your girlfriend or boyfriend kids, it's simple. Spend more time with them without your phone.

Yeah, true. I know the phone has become an addicting thing. Um, but yeah, I think it's important to just turn the phone off. There's usually on Sundays what I'll do is I'll just turn my phone off, um, for an extended period of time, and, uh, it actually feels really good.

Yeah, and once you get into the groove of it, the first time was hard, the second time's a little harder, but Somewhere along the line, I'm like this, it's like, wow, I can't wait to turn my phone off.

I agree. So I'm excited for your answer on this next one. What is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

You know, this is a cliché saying, but for me, the book of Proverbs, not only from a biblical standpoint, but just from a practical, One of my life lessons, kind of my two after listening, is a soft answer turns away wrath. So, yes, that's a Bible verse, but it's also just good common sense wisdom. If someone's getting ready to argue with you and you argue with them, I always say if your voice goes over, if you start yelling, both have lost. And I think back over my life, the times that if I'd have just shut my mouth and been quiet, the feelings I wouldn't have hurt, the mean things I wouldn't have said, the smart-butt answer I wouldn't have given. So from a practical standpoint, whether you're religious or not, the book of Proverbs is full of amazing counsel and wisdom of how to operate your life. If you look at self-help books out there, Tyler, that's been published in the last 100, 200 years, I could sit down and show you a Bible verse that will line up with most everything that's said in those books.

Huh.

Because there's only, there's only so many self-help things you can say, right?

True.

You can say it a different way, but it all comes down to common sense.

Yeah, I agree. And I think sometimes what I found is the different stories, um, is what really helps it like stick. But yes, I do. I mean, and I've actually heard that. I've never read that book, but I will tell you that I have heard that and just, you know, in the Bible that most of the things that you can learn, like from personal development side of things, pretty much everything in there and it's weaved in throughout. And then a lot of personal development books on their own do have like alignment with that. So I have heard that.

Yeah, I mean, then the author might not, you know, be coming from a Christian standpoint. It might just, you know, love thy neighbor, you know, be kind to others. Yeah, no, it's, it's the same philosophy, right?

Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, and it is interesting where, like, I totally agree with you with that, where we, our emotions get triggered, and it's hard Actually, it's not as hard when you're aware of it. But when you're younger, I feel like a lot of times you're not aware of it because you react on emotion a lot of times. But like you're saying, you had just like been quiet and just like been soft-spoken and just spoke about it instead of reacted to it. It would have turned out a lot better.

Oh, you know, just looking at my life from personal and professional, I mean, the money, the time, the stress. You know, if anybody out there starting a new business or involved in business, you know, we're a sue-happy nation. Like, you do me wrong, I'm gonna sue you. I mean, the only person who's making money in that is the attorneys, and my best friend's an attorney. But you never— you never— even if you win, you never win. Yeah, because the stress, the time, the times you don't sleep The aggravation, the frustration, I mean, all of those while you win, it took up 18 to 24 months of your time.

Yeah. Which is a loss.

Which is a loss.

Yeah, I agree. And the next one I have for you, man, is what is your favorite quote and why?

My favorite quote is, the answer is always no until you ask. And the reason why is I'll use my wife. I married way above my means. She's beautiful and talented and smart and don't know why she married me per se. But if I had never asked her out, the answer would have been no. And if you have a dream, if you have a passion, if you have a calling and you never do anything about it, you never ask, The answer is default defaults to no.

Yeah.

So, you know, if you have something that you have that burning desire inside of you to do, if you don't ever try, you automatically fail.

Yeah. And I think it's the fear, man. A lot of people are fearful to even ask. And that's what I say to a lot of people as well, because, you know, how I kind of got started was I would reach out to conference coordinators to ask them if I could help them put on events. These were like entrepreneurial events so that I could learn. So I'd be like, hey, can I help you put on, put on your event? I'll do anything you need in exchange for letting me come for free. And you'd be surprised at how many people said yes. And most people thought that was like crazy, like you're asking to go to events that cost thousands of dollars for free. And I was like, yeah, at the time I didn't have the money. I was a broke dropout out of college. So I was like, yeah, that's what I did. And it worked. And a lot of people won't even ask a question like that.

So Well, the first time I ever tried to do a real estate deal, and I had sold $80 million online, so I dealt with a lot of banks with a lot of money. The first 5 banks I went to to do a $325,000 deal, all 5 of them told me no. But it was one at a time. The 6th one said yes. So had I stopped at the first, the second, the third, or the fourth, I would have never gotten that deal done.

Yeah.

But you know, today we kind of take that of, oh, you know, Tyler, why would you ask someone like that? Well, why not?

Yeah, that's how my head thinks too. I'm like, why not? Like, I, that's what I want to go to the event. So, right. Why not?

And you know, and if it's an entrepreneur or a business event or something, I mean, they're probably like, well, hey, if this guy's, you know, got enough gumption behind him to call up and ask, and be honest about it, he's the type of person we want to learn our system.

Yeah, exactly, dude. That's awesome, man. I really, uh, I really appreciate you coming on. This was a— this was a fun and insightful, um, episode. The, the last question I have for you, man, and then we'll let you go, is, uh, where's the best place for people to find you online?

Yeah, so the best place is Nathan Tabor, and that's T-A-B as in boy, O-R, nathan.tabor.com. I'm also on Facebook and LinkedIn under my name as Nathan Tabor. Hey, I really appreciate you taking your time to have me on your show, and it's been fun. I always like it, you know, discussing these items because hopefully it helps someone, gives them that little motivation to get out there and at least try.

Of course, man, and I appreciate you coming on. So we will definitely talk with you again soon.

All right, thanks, Tyler Wagner. The podcast you just heard was published with Anchor. Got something you want to say to the creator of this show? Send them a voicemail. Message using the Anchor app, free for iOS and Android.