Nick Bravo

Ben BeeriWell, I'm really excited to introduce our next guest here, uh, my good friend Nick Bravo. And I'd love to tell you a lot about Nick, but I feel like there's no better person to introduce himself than Nick.

Nick BravoYeah. I guess, uh, I guess I can go into a song. We'll do that or no? Do it. Alright.

Speaker 3The greatest gift that I got is grit. Resilient. I don't know how to quit. And I don't know what it is. You could call it a Nate. Call it what you want. I'm calling it Grace. All the trauma and the drama that I face. Yeah. Stand tall even though I'm five eight. And I don't care about the hate. I got faith in my God. I don't know if you relate. You miss a 100% of the shots you never take, but I'm not afraid to make a mistake. I might fail in your face, you can never call me your fake. I know I have faith. Nah, never played safe. I'm just wired different. Yeah, my why's different. Yeah, my vibe's different and my drive's different. I've been to the bottom and survived different. I've been lifted from the pit that thought I was down and out, that doubted the kid, doubted myself, but I'm proud of myself for finding way up a way out. Now stand out, no doubt, woo. I've been lifting from the pit, thought it was down and out, the doubt of the kid, the doubt of myself, but I'm proud of myself, I found a way up, a way out, now stand up and stand out, no doubt, uh. Every moment of adversity,

it's like a year of university, you could say I got a PhD in life, not about always doing right, took L's and I turned them into lessons, I gave them hell God turned them into blessings, I'm confessing that I'm still taking hits and I'm still in the ring but I'm still throwing fists, the greatest gift that I got is grit, Resilient, I don't know how to quit. And I don't know what it is. You could call it a nick, call it what you want, and calling it fate. All the trauma and the drama to the face. Stand tall even though I'm five eight. And I don't care about the hate. I got faith to myself. I don't know if you were late. I been lifted from the pit. I thought I was down and out. The doubt of the kid. The doubt of myself, but I'm proud of myself. Find a way up a way. Yeah. Now stand up and stand out. No doubt. Woo. I've been lifted from the pit. Thought I was down and out. The doubt of the kid. The doubt of myself, but I'm proud of myself. I found a way up a way. I now stand up and stand out. No doubt.

Ben BeeriThere we go.

Nick BravoHow do like that for an intro? Love it.

Ben BeeriLove it. It's exciting to have you on. And, yeah, just you bring the fucking energy. Thanks, dude.

Nick BravoYeah. So for you who don't know who I am, I do motivational hip hop. I got a sample of it. I'm a TEDx speaker, and I do a lot of other stuff. Amazing. What's it like to be, like, a TEDx speaker, go into all that stuff? It's cool. It's like one of those things that you think is bigger than it is, and then you go through the eye of the needle, and then you're part of the club. And you're like, oh, this wasn't so bad. So it was bad. It was hard. People don't realize how hard it is. Everybody thinks it's easier than it is.

People are actually intimidated. Some people are intimidated by it, but it's, um, it's it's a sixteen minute talk within a certain cadence and a certain time frame and a lot of not restrictions, but a lot of parameters. It's most people haven't had to do that when they talk. And so it's challenging. It it challenges you in a way that you're not used to. But once I got through it, I was like, oh, this is cake. In the in the middle of it, it a little rough.

Ben BeeriWhat inspired you to do that? Know a lot of those TEDx talks are really inspirational.

Nick BravoUh, it was actually just a good buddy of mine. Uh, I felt like I was supposed to get in the motivational speaking space. I had an old buddy of mine reach out to me and book me for something. It was my first booking. And then I had posted on I posted on Facebook that I guess I'm starting a motivational speaking company because I got my first booking and, uh, kinda all happened naturally. And, uh, you know, shared that and then another buddy of mine that worked for a local newspaper is like, hey, you should apply for a TEDx.

And I was like, uh, I don't know. What would I talk about? He said, you can talk about your long COVID issues or you can talk about your motivational stuff you want to. I was like, alright. I went online to look at it. And I was like, this is not gonna happen. I got seven days to apply and all of the application stuff was, like, very, show us an outline of your talk, show us a sample of all your speaking. And I'm like, dude, before that, all I had really done is wrapped and spoken word. I'd spoken at some spaces, but I didn't have any recorded of me speaking. It's like, I don't even have anything for this freaking outline, and I don't have an outline. Don't even know what I wanna do.

So I came to a moment where I was, like, almost got in my head and wasn't gonna apply for it because I like to prepare, and I was like, it's not in my control. I only have a few days, and I don't have time to really apply, like, and prepare in seven days. So I you know what? If I don't go for it, I'm gonna guarantee I'm not gonna get it. And if I go for it and I get it, it's an act of guy because I didn't plan on it. Because point 006% or some ridiculous low percentage of people who apply for one get one. Wow. So who's the guy that's last minute told about it, not prepared, and doesn't have any speaking, gonna get it? Like, that's not gonna happen.

But I didn't use my marketing skill set, which is like, here's my background. Here are the awards I got. Here's what my skill set is. Here's what I could talk about. I just threw up on on the application. I don't have any outlines. Here's what I could talk about this. I could talk about that. Oh, by the way, here's a music video I did for long COVID of me rapping about how angry I am about long COVID. And they picked me, which is crazy. But come to find out, TEDx had been focusing on music because they wanna start integrating musicians and music. So you can actually get a TEDx of just music.

You can go up there and do a full song set, which is kinda dope. Uh, and since I was doing music, I kinda set myself I was set apart because they're like, oh, this is kinda what we want. So crazy. Yeah. The whole story is pretty crazy. It's a lot longer than that, but that's that's basically in a nutshell. I didn't plan on getting it. I didn't think I was gonna get it. It was last minute. I didn't follow the application process, but I still went for it. That's the lesson. I had nothing to lose. Love it. And I almost got in my head about it, but I did it. So later on, the coordinator down the road, four or five months later, there's another rapper out there that applied, and the guy was pretty big for the local area. He had opened up for Kevin Gates and Tech nine, and he was well known out there.

And this this person who ran the TEDx knew him from high school. And they have when you when you when you go through the voting process, they have a board. So it's not like one of your homies can just pick you. It's pretty they have a board. They have multiple layers. But he told me, this guy who I was cool with afterwards, he said, I didn't pick you. I picked him. He said, god picked you. You were chosen. So he told me, you were chosen because I didn't pick you, but everybody else did. They saw your bio. They saw everything that you'd be a better fit. Was crazy for that guy to tell me that after the fact. He's like, god chose you because I didn't pick you.

I was like, wow. That's crazy. I've had it happen a few times in my life where people are, like, on the back end and be like, dude, you shouldn't have got this, but you got it somehow. So so I got it. It gave me local local some local notoriety. I got to get on the local news and local radio stations as they're promoting it. Now now the executive producer and executive director are really good friends of mine. I've helped multiple people get TEDx talks. You can't get someone a TEDx talk. Like, it's not legal. Like, they have rules and regulations. You can't, like, buy your way into it or anything like that. But I've been able to introduce people and get them an opportunity to share their heart and stories so that when the application comes through, at least the at least the people on the board at least know who this person is or has an idea what their heart is when they look at their content. So that's my job is just to connect people with good people.

Ben BeeriSo I feel like the world needs more of that. Just not only connecting, like, people with good people, but people who are willing to, like, show themselves and share their heart with the world and inspire people. No. I I I agree with you. And I'm I'm just a big advocate of, like, helping other people get where I got and not having to not not having it be so difficult

Nick Bravobecause I want people to help me too. And with the TEDx thing, that's been fun because everything that I ever do, it's just my natural it's just naturally how I work, how God's wired me. I just love people. So I, like, build relationships with people. So now all of a sudden, the TEDx people are, like, my friends, you know, and we're just hanging out and I just introduced them to people and they see me as a pipeline of somebody that's like, dude, every time you put someone in front of us, they're freaking incredible.

And I'm very calculated about who I put in front of them because I want to respect the people. But I helped a few people get in position to get a TEDx talk. And the only thing better than getting something yourself is helping other people get it and elevating people around you. So I feel like God allows me God allows me to walk through doors because he knows I wanna keep the door open for other people. It's powerful. And so I get a lot of open doors, and I know my responsibility is to reach back and help other people walk through it with me. It's a lot more fun too when people walk through the same door. We can hang out afterwards on the other side. It's a lot lonely road to just do it all for yourself.

And, ultimately, I knew that that door being open for me was a freaking miracle. So I might try to get one more TEDx. I wanna talk about TEDx global or something, though. I just wanna do a hip hop set, motivational rap. It's the only reason I do another TEDx. What would you rap about? I just do all my songs. Yeah. Just do a full set. Show show them what it is. And what better spot as a motivational spot and they'd be branded with motivational rap? I mean, I could talk in between and talk about the uniqueness of using your voice and creativity to get your message out. It doesn't have to sound like everyone else. I mean, I can make it into a keynote, or I could literally just do four songs back to back to back and give people freaking four hours worth of value in fifteen minutes.

Ben BeeriAnd what do you think

Nick Bravothe message gets received as when you go and you start singing on that stage? The only way I can know is by asking people what they you know, because the thing with this kind of stuff is you don't get to experience yourself. I mean, sometimes I do if I hear the if I watch the message myself and it's it impacts me. I don't know. People just seem to walk away changed. Mind's a powerful thing. The spirit's a powerful thing. You speak into it and you lift people up. It changes their perspective on life.

And, uh, I don't know. I I don't wanna I don't wanna make that sound, like, egotistical. Like, I'm I'm out there to just change people. I think I'm connected. I know I'm connected to a divine source that has a transformative power to renew minds and move people's hearts. And I'm a conduit and people don't know what they're getting until they get hit with a fire hose. They're just like, I don't know what happened, but I'm thinking different. I'm acting different or I'm believing different. And, uh, and the Christians would call it an anointing. They'd say that you're anointed. Like, when you speak, power comes through you. Other people just say, I don't know what it is. I got goosebumps and I feel moved and I'm I I feel connected emotionally or or I feel like I can overcome this addiction or I feel like I can win at life.

Whatever it is, I know I feel like it's God's hand on me. And maybe I get a lot of the credit because people do not believe in God or not know what it is. I get kind of the credit for what God's doing behind the scenes through me, but people just feel something. Oh, what was it for you? What was it for you in the room when I rapped? I have no idea what people are feeling. We're in Newport. We're at dinner. I'm rapping with no music.

Ben BeeriI think for me, with you, it was you came from a place of giving. There's people who talk to showcase themselves and draw attention to themselves and make the moment in the spotlight about them. Yeah.

Nick BravoYou seem to make it about the other people in the room. Well, that's a growth point for me because I used to make it about myself ten years ago. But, yeah, I I just wanted to pour into people. You know? I love watching people go, what, rap? This is weird. And you just pour it all out, leave it all on the stage, leave it all in the moment, and the people are edified. They're encouraged. They're inspired. They're excited. They're happy. It's a great feeling, dude. Love it. And I love what comes out of it. When I pour myself out, I end up with relationships with people like you and other people that come out of that genuine giving.

And I attract the right people. I attract the right people when I'm in a place of giving. When you're taking your attract takers. Totally. It's like the hustler is always hustling the hustler. Yeah. But when you're on givers, givers are trying to out give givers. Yes. Oh, yeah. And that's why you that's why I told you, you're the first one to get the paycheck out of my hand, uh, for for lunch. Because I'm the one that's always like, no. First lunch, do with everyone. First meal, I do with everyone. Whatever I'm paying for it. I don't care what their what their financial and I'm really careful about that with the really wealthy because, um, they're used to being taken from. Yeah. And it's like, don't even care if my money's tight. I'm gonna pay for this this lunch or this dinner, uh, because I want them to know and set the boundary that I'm not a taker, and that I'm I'm here to give, and I'm here to support you. Uh, this isn't about money. This is about me getting something from you. You're the first person that had the manhandled that bill, and I couldn't I couldn't pay for the first bill.

But I was like, alright. Well, I'm not gonna fight this guy over it, but I like this guy.

Ben BeeriHere we go. I guess all it took is a lunch, and I I bought myself a motivational rapper. Yeah.

Nick BravoHey. You know, people are trying to hustle, manipulate, and work an angle. And it's like, actually, if you were just generous, half the things that you wanted would probably come to you.

Ben BeeriWell, interesting. Right? Because it's like come like, looking at somebody and coming from a place of giving, like, unconditionally. And it's like, what, like, can you instill in others? Like, I mean, will that inspire others to give? Like, it's like, when I give to you, I don't need you to give back to me. You can give to other people. There's gonna be other people that will give to me. And it's like really cool to see just to be in this constant cycle and circle of people of just giving. And to have that energy because it's very uplifting. Like, everybody wins.

Always. There's really no such thing as like a win lose situation. With generosity. No. It's all just a win win. And it's like, and when both sides win, like, the winds just compound. Like, there's just so much more to go around, and there's always plenty to go around. I mean, that's just People don't realize that, you know,

Nick Bravospecifically, God told the Jewish people, he set up a system of generosity, which was that there's a poor there's poor here and you see them, you know, and you're you're doing you're you're getting your grain and harvest. And if anything falls to the ground, it's theirs. And God will continue to tell the wealthy, like, this is what you need to do. And I will bless you because of your generosity. I will use you to help the poor. And I will Wow. That that and then the Jubilee is a big one that people don't understand, like, why it's such a big deal. I think it's every fifty years, uh, that they would reset all the debts, which means if you your brother owed you something or a family member or some poor poor person that everybody's debts would be reset. So God had this ingrained in the Jewish people that he established at the time, whether you agree with me or not, but the Jewish god, okay, Yahweh, he established principles of generosity and resetting debt and, uh, and creating a community of people that if you have resources,

you give because I will fill up your cup. So you're not giving out of lack. It's actually tied into, like, gravity. You give and I will literally fill you up. Because I what I love about God in my opinion the way, God is a God of community. So God could just give to the poor person. But God wants you to experience the process of partnering with him to give that poor person so you can experience joy. God is a god of community. There's joy in community. And God could do anything for just one person by himself. He could just handle it. But he likes to work just like we like community. And so I think what you find to me when you find that generosity of giving, it is literally ingrained like gravity.

You just understand it that god has said that's good. And when there's a community of generosity, everyone wins. And, uh, that would solve a lot of problems for real. Um, but you're tapping into me in my perspective. Right? I don't know how many years. But my perspective, you're tapping into something that god has put in as real as oxygen, that you're tapping into something divine. You don't know what it is, but you're saying it just makes me happy. It makes me it's joyful. It's it's community. It's win win. Yeah. God designed that a long time ago, and he told his people to do it. Not not that people don't do it, but he told his people to do it. And, uh, he created an entire kind of government system around that so that the poor would be taken care of.

And it was supposed to be done through the blessing of the rich, which is what is the opposite of what we got. You got, you know, not everybody, but, you know, rich are like, I've earned my money. But if you really believe that it comes from God, all things come from God, you're gonna be more generous with it. You know? And, uh, I'm around wealthy people that know that everything comes from God, and and they're they're 10 times more blessed. It says, what what's the point of stacking up all the freaking hay in in in in your barn?

You know, and and creating more barns to stack up more hay. But I'm gonna require your life of you tonight, and it's gonna be robbed and stolen by other people. Wouldn't it been much better if you would've took the you know, had the one barn and used the other barns to take care of people that needed it. I think the only reason people aren't generous is because they think they're gonna run out. It's a scarcity mindset. Well, I've earned this money, and if I give it away or help people, I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna lose what I earned. I'm never gonna get back.

God says, no. Actually, you you give generously, and I'm gonna fill you up more than you could ever imagine.

Ben BeeriHow can someone shift from scarcity to abundance?

Nick BravoThat's hard for me to talk about because it depends on what day you find me. I just feel like if you don't believe in something infinite, it's impossible because you live in a scarcity mindset. You're thinking about finite lack of lack of. You know, all the billionaires that are like, oh, there's not enough resources for all these people, so let's just do population control. And their solution is let's kill everyone else, not themselves. Let's kill everyone else and make sure there's enough resources while they're already, like, have, like, majority of the resources. Right? Human nature.

Yeah. How do you go from that to, no. I have more than enough to help as many people as possible because God's blessed me. I I personally don't know how to do it without, uh, an understanding of there being a divine infinite source that is kind and actually wants to help you as you step into possibility. I believe on the other side of that dark road is God. And if God's on the other side of my dark road, then I'll be okay. But if I don't know what's on the other side of the dark road and I only am relying on myself and I have a finite mind and finite resource, I don't know how you do it. I don't. Honestly don't.

I just know if I have an infinite god, there's infinite possibility. I'm not an infinite human, but I serve a god that can turn two two loaves of bread and three fish into feed 5,000. So I have the faith to believe that if you want me to feed the 5,000, I don't need to have 5,000 pieces of fish. I just need to be tapped into a god who does, who can duplicate what I have. So abundance comes from, I don't have everything, but I have enough. And if you bless it, it can be infinite. It can be infinite.

I didn't have capital to do anything I'm doing right now. I had the raw talents god's given me and people who believe in me, who open all the doors for me and introduce me to VPs and people and got me got me booked for all these opportunities. On paper, it doesn't make sense. But, hey, god. Here's my two loaves and fish. Here's my wrapping gift and my business mindset, and I'm gonna put this together. And and you're gonna you're gonna use this gift to feed millions. Yeah. So that's where my my abundance comes from. If I look at my own resources, I can always be scarce.

If I look at an infinite god that will bless me as I serve other people, then it's nothing's impossible. Nothing's impossible, bro. Nothing. Nothing. Like, for real, you feel that for me? Like, I'm telling you right now, nothing's impossible. I believe it. 100%. And that you you've caught me on a good day because I may not say that two weeks from now, but I'm in a good space where I'm just like, woah. Like, I was just tripping the other day. Was like, man, I can't wait to be in the NFL locker rooms doing the motivational rap and rapping to these guys.

Not just like a delusional belief, like, just a calm confidence. Like, that's not impossible. That's probably a phone call away.

Ben BeeriThe phone call is gonna come when you're ready for it.

Nick BravoYeah. And when I'm not I'm not I'm not doing it because I'm enamored with athletes. I'm doing it because a lot of them are African American, love hip hop, and Hispanic, and I'm Hispanic. And that's the language. Hip hop is their language. They can go watch any mainstream rapper whenever they want. They have motivational speakers. They don't have anybody that goes into this motivational speaking through hip hop. I know that what I say in my music is exactly what their mindset is that got them there. I know it because it's a winner's mindset.

So I know that if I were to bring it in music before they go into a game, it's gonna be like, wow. This is, my language in my in the way I wanna receive it and get me my mindset for my sport.

Ben BeeriWhat is a winner's mindset?

Nick BravoUh, there's a lot that goes into it, but one is taking personal responsibility for your actions, understanding that not everything's your fault, but it's your responsibility, being humble enough to know that everything you have is God's. So even your athletic abilities and stuff like that, you can work hard, but being being humble, infinite possibilities if I continue to press and, um, not being afraid of losing, being more afraid of not trying. I know this all maybe sounds generic, but this is about, you know one of the mentality is I'm gonna do whatever it takes, and I'm gonna leave it all on the field.

Not I don't know if I'm gonna win a championship, but I can guarantee you I won't if I don't leave it all on the field. So I gotta know what I'm capable of. And the only way I'm gonna know is by pressing myself to the limit. And that could also be by collaborating with more people and being a team player. Winners mentality is about what's the end goal. It's not about just me winning. How do other people win? If I'm the only one that wins, did anybody really win? I get it in golf. You could get you get away with that in some sports, but most sports require a conglomerate of people winning and elevating those around you.

So I don't know if that helps, but it's a never ending cycle of I wanna be better, and I wanna be the best version of myself. And that never stops until the day I'm in the grave.

Ben BeeriThat's amazing. Where did your Winner's mindset come from?

Nick BravoI don't know, bro. Sometimes I think it's innate. That's why I don't that's why I'm not judgmental on people that have, like, victim mentalities. I'm very gracious because I'm like, dude, I don't know. God put this fire on my soul since I was a kid, bro. You know what I mean? Like, I just have the I have an intense temperament, bro. I don't know. I'm super competitive. Right? I I don't know where it came from. I mean, I was trained in personal development at Clemont and Associates. That helped me work on the victim mindset.

Uh, I'm just a very intense human that wants to win and be better. Um, I don't know where it came from, though. High stakes, baby. High stakes. I mean, I know it sounds like a cop out with God, but I I mean, you'll see me meet a lot of people with my temperament that have the same type of mindset. That's, like, innate. They're like, dude, since you're coming out the womb, they were, like, freaking getting after it. You know? I've just been an intense human who wants to win and wants to grow and wants to be better.

And I'm just super competitive, bro. I think there's something to be said for living life with a sense of urgency and, like, wanting to, like, go get it. Oh, what's my job in this industry? Just to bring value to the audience and to create a unique experience. And so, um, that's what that was cool. So I kind of opened my eyes to the possibilities. And then I do want, uh, you know, I did my I had my daughter go with me a few times for free, which is fine. But at this point, I'm like, she needs to get paid. She can hold her own. She brings a lot of value for a conference with, uh, like, when they see, like, a girl go up there and rap, people go nuts, dude.

They go nuts because they're like, well, she's 15 years old. All you gotta figure all the women are projecting themselves on her. Like, man, I can't imagine being 15 being on a stage or wow. And then this is what people have told me. So I didn't know what people experienced, but people would tell me, like, wow. Like, it's crazy seeing you up there with your daughter because all these motivational speakers, we don't even know who they are. We wonder if they're legit. But the moment you're up there with your daughter, we're just like, dude, what kind of dude has a relationship with this teenage daughter that she's willing to come on stage with him? Yeah. I don't even think about that. And some it's like some of the businessmen are sitting there going, I I wish I just had a better relation with my teenage daughter. So it's like, there's all these things that by you just performing with your daughter, there's a message, like, just by your presence together with her that's impacting people. And men and fathers and husbands and and wives and women and and, uh, all this kinda, like, subliminal subconscious message that's going forth. So once I heard that feedback, I was like, well, this is powerful. This is not just me performing with my daughter. This is people are experiencing

people are experiencing something very unique. So, yeah, my goal is to get my daughter booked, uh, if they want her, you know, and then her to see what's getting paid for her. She's like $7.50. That's some money. Yeah. You know? But I remember when I first brought her and I told her, you know, I'm gonna be getting paid $10 $10 for a booking and stuff. Maybe I might break her off something. I told her maybe I break her off a certain amount. She's like, oh, how much? But you're making that much. I was like, hold your horses, girl. I told her I said, you're riding your daddy's coattails.

You gotta earn your keep. You know? That booking fee took me x amount of years to get. You know? So but now that she's not asking for it and now that she understands the work, now I wanna give it to her. I wanna give her something.

Ben BeeriIt's amazing it's amazing what happens when you realize it's like, hey, I've gotten to the point where I've invested in myself. Right? And a lot of people don't see that. They don't see how much went into investing in your craft, not only from a financial standpoint, but from, like, a time standpoint. It's like all the thousands of man hours to actually become good at something and master it. Yeah. And so many people see the person on stage or with a platform and they're like, oh, that could be me or I want to do that. Yeah. And it's like, great. Take the first step. Start investing in yourself. Start investing the time. Start investing the money. Start investing whatever it is.

And a lot of people aren't willing to put that investment. They just want the result.

Nick BravoYeah. And I think part of my gift is surrounding myself with people that I know I can trust and I care about that have decent hearts or the people that have capital in other areas, so they're not they're not needy and taking. Right? Uh, they wanna invest in themselves and the vision bigger than themselves. But yeah. No. I I agree with you. People do not understand what happens behind the scenes. They do not know, especially in this industry, because they see me on stages so they see the highlight reels, like, legitimately. They see promo footage.

You have no idea what I wanted to to get there. You have no idea the amount of meetings I had to have and opportunities I had to press on and things I had to work through my head and let alone the craft, development of the craft and the creativity, and the money I had to put in, and the time I had to put in, and all of that. Um, and I'm not one of those guys that's like, you have to grind like I grind. Like, I don't want everybody to go through the freaking eye of the storm exactly how I did. I don't.

But there's a benefit. Right? So if I work with you here and I show you the path, I'm a mentor, and you get to get a kind of an expedited route if you do what I say, and you you could be excellent at what you do. I'll still give you the principles. But on the flip side, if all these dudes are rolling with me and I help expedite the process for them and they understand the fundamentals, who's selling them? I'm gonna get the reward on the back end by making it efficient for them as well Because once they elevate, you know what I mean, and they're working together and we're all loyal, um, I'm the one in closing all the deals. And they're the ones like, yeah. If can give me a booking fee. And I'm like, yeah. We're gonna split it fifty fifty.

Well, why wouldn't I? I'm gonna get that 50% because I basically paved the way. And so now I'm still getting compensated for my work ethic as opposed to having the idea of like, well, no. I'm gonna make it really hard on you. I don't need to make it really hard on you. It's hard enough. You're not gonna get it overnight, and you're definitely not gonna make what I make overnight. And even if you start making some good money, I'm still gonna make more because I'm the one spearheading the way. And then if after three, four years, you get to a certain threshold where you can go do it yourself, go do it. I don't need it.

I would that would be the biggest joy because I'm not afraid of competition. Like, if you're in a motivational state and you're lifting people's spirits up and you're speaking life in them, that's not competition, bro. I'm not gonna be mad that you're at other conferences pouring into the lives of people. Like, what are you talking about? This isn't basketball. Right? Like, only one person can win the championship that year. Like, this is like, what's our mission? Our mission is to breathe life into people.

Why would I care that you got to a point that you're self sustainable and can go breathe life into people and pay yourself? Cool. That's awesome. But I know that it's not that easy. It's like all the good people who try to build the, uh, you know, other UFCs. They all dog Dana White, but they don't understand. You know? Uh, it's like I think Khabib tried to build the sport and didn't realize, I'm gonna pay the guy as well. Okay. Well, you're not profitable and you don't have a brand. So you can all dog the guy at the top, but the guy at the top is the one that's feeding everyone.

So you can complain all you want, but you didn't build that brand. And that the only reason you get paid is because of that brand. And if you want to test the market, then go exit that brand and see if you can get compensated more. And if you can, great. It's like all the electric car brands that hate on Tesla. And it's like if it's not like

Ben BeeriElon Musk spearheaded Tesla to the point where it's like, hey, it's okay to have an electric car now. And Yeah. He made it. Have you have all the because it was lame before. Yeah. And it's like before Tesla came along, it's like nobody wanted an all electric car. No. And then now all of a sudden, it's like you have all these different electric car brands coming up, and you have people that are hating on Elon Musk and rooting for Tesla to fail. And it it's It's just the nature of the beast. I mean, I

Nick BravoI don't have a lot of hate. I do see it, though, when I go to conferences and I people that are in the professional space that I'm speaking in, and I can tell they used to do hip hop or rap. And either people really respect what I'm doing and love it, or they have, like, this envious jealousy I could see in their eyes, which is, like, like, you're not that good, which I don't care because I was like, I'm kinda just I just know they're wrestling with their thinking, dang. Why am I in this business when I could have been up there at this conference performing?

Like, why didn't I think of that? Why didn't I come up with that? Uh, I've seen it. I've even seen it with vendors, different people that have different marketing schemes that are well known in the industry whatever industry I'm in, and they're kinda like not the gimmick, but they're kinda like they got the, like, unique disruptor. And then I come in with music and disrupt that I can see, like, there's not like, man, that's sick. That's awesome. I love what you're doing for this industry. I love what energy you're bringing. It's just kinda like, whatever.

And I'm like, this is weird. I'm literally just motivating people, and I'm rapping.

Ben BeeriAwesome. And what does it take to find your niche?

Nick BravoOh, man. I don't know. Uh, everybody told me my whole life I need to niche down. I didn't know how to do it, especially with all my skill sets. I was all over the place. That's why I said Joe Rogan is one of my favorite guys even though people may hate that I say that depending on what their political views are or whatever, but or what do they believe, but I it's he's one of the first guys that I saw that was doing he started with he started with just doing martial arts and then, you know, got invited to do the UFC, and he just wanted to sit ringside something he loved.

And I think, uh, Dana White couldn't pay him in the beginning because it wasn't profitable. And he did, like,

Speaker 3fear factor. And when he did his podcast, I could tell that he just genuinely wanted to hang out with his boys,

Nick Bravohis friends. And so he he got all these things, and he's a comedian. He's comedy. And then people see him at his peak. They're like, dude, he's on Netflix. He's got 200,000,000 for the freaking podcast. He's like the UFC. And it's like the dude was doing what he loved. And at some point, he was doing it for free. But he did it because it woke him up, and he was passionate about it. So where did Joe niche down? I mean, just invested in himself. I mean, what else because you can't say he niched down. Can you or no? I mean, where where did he niche down? I mean, he was he's in four he's like multiple laterals.

Ben BeeriUh-oh. Multiple multiple laterals, but at the beginning, he kind of carved out his own niche and kind of worked towards doing things that

Nick Bravoweren't very popular. I think one thing can open other doors. I think the UFC launched him in a lot of ways and then he was he did comedy, but I think it's easier to get a comedy special when you already are a brand and Fear Factor. So for sure, he definitely built the brand. I don't know if that was his plan. I don't he doesn't seem like the guy that plans like that. Seems like a guy that just enjoys what he does, and it just seems to work out for him. But I think I think he's brilliant. I think he enjoys what he does. I think he's

Ben Beeriand he just really leans into it. And you can tell that the guy is genuine and that he does not only what he enjoys, but what he thinks will move things forward not only for him, but for people that are following him. Yeah. And I have a great admiration for people who go and do things that move other people forward. Yeah. I agree.

Nick BravoUh, he's also a very hard worker. Yeah. So that's one thing I've always had, but I don't think I I've been doing music for twenty years. When I when I was young, in my early twenties, I just used to preach about God in juvenile halls. I used to rap and preach about God. This is before Christian rap is big. You know, Christian rap is a big thing now with Lecrae and, like, everybody, like but it wasn't that big back then. People getting Grammys and stuff. It's like a thing now. But when I was coming up, we just used to rap in the juvenile halls.

And I used to rap at churches and stuff. And so and I wasn't very good. I mean, what I mean when I it's hard because you always criticize yourself. Actually, my stuff was decent. You know, I could still hold my own because rappers suck now. A lot of them are just so bad, um, and the standard's so low. So I wasn't bad in my twenties. I just wasn't as good as I thought I was. I felt myself a little bit. I wasn't that good, um, compared to some other rappers. But I kept listening to music that my wife would listen to. She's a big Justin Bieber fan. I finally you know, after having three girls, I finally became a Justin Bieber fan.

And then when he went through kind of a spiritual awakening stuff and he had some depth in his music, and he seemed like he was growing. I enjoyed his music. But, um, he always have these features of these crappy rappers that were big, but there's terrible rappers. And I don't care what your brand is. If you suck, you suck. What I mean by that is I grew up on Dre and Eminem, and I grew up with certain level of cadence and skill set and messaging. And it's like, this dude's auto tune. He's not saying anything. He's not rhyming with the right words. He's got, like, no substance. Like, you gotta have one. You gotta either be, like, really good substance. Maybe your cadence is bad, but, like, all of it's just like, man, you literally were propped up by the industry.

And so I was telling my wife, if this guy can make it, I can make it. It wasn't cocky. It was just like, I know I got a better skill set than this guy. He's obviously got connections or he's putting a message out that the record labels like, which is fine. Uh, but I just had to find my voice. You know? So passionate about God. I've always been passionate about God, but I was pretty intense just preaching, and that was cool. And the whole Christian hip hop scene was weird too because right? Like I told you about, like like, why would I be competitive with somebody that if I help bring up a motivational rap and then and then they went up and did their own thing, I'd be happy for them because what are we doing? We're pouring out. Right? So what is Christian rap supposed to be? He's talking about God. Right? It shouldn't be like a lot of competition in my mind or like but it it almost seemed like the culture became a a religious culture that was like the hip hop culture in the sense that, like,

there's still a lot of ego, still a lot of competition, people still being pretty arrogant. I remember there was this magazine place that I share with them some of my music when I wrote some really vulnerable stuff about me going through a separation of my wife, and it was really powerful stuff. I knew it was good because it was real. And they were listening to it, right, and giving feedback. And one of the guys was mocking it because he's like, you sound whiny in it. And it's like, first of all, you're a Christian in rap rap magazine.

I literally poured my heart out about my wife and my redemptive process. And you guys are so disconnected from reality that you can't even, like, stop for a second, see me as a brother in Christ or, like, a human that's like, man, that's tough, bro. Hey. Why don't you work on this and this for your message? But you guys just mocked it. Like, what is this? So I never felt accepted in the Christian hip hop scene. I felt like and then a lot of rappers that couldn't make it in rap just went to the Christian hip hop scene because they're like, we can't make it in rap, so let's try to make it over there. I didn't like I didn't like it. And it was also very got to a point where, like, they only like certain rappers just like the industry is now, and I never felt accepted, and I didn't like it.

And that's the temptation when you're in your early twenties to wanna sound like other people that are making it, wanna adapt to their voice. I finally found my voice. I really liked NF because all of a sudden NF starts doing really emotional songs that are real raw, and even people are making fun of him, and then he blows up because Capitol signs him, and he's really good. And all of a sudden, he's no longer all of a sudden, what I was doing was some emo stuff, not even emo, just, like, emotional deep stuff was now socially acceptable because NF NF took off. But I also liked NF because he did cinematic scores, and I really liked that vibe. I was like, this is sick. These cinematic scores are dope.

And so it's just evolution of all of it where I don't know what happened. I just I was I was running a company, and I just started pouring out. Music's always like a an expression of my soul. So as a really passionate Christian, I wrote about God When I was really going through hard stuff with my wife or I was really depressed about certain areas of my life, I wrote about that. So I'll have really emotional songs that are real raw. I never fit into, like, writing for one genre one way. I was always an expression of who I am. Well, I just I'm an entrepreneur.

So I just started writing from the mindset. I don't know why or how it happened, but I started writing from that place. And it just was the right place at the right time. I was coaching a client from New York. He was gonna be at a conference. He wanted me to coach his CEO. I helped him hire his first CEO. And then he wanted me to go to a conference, and I had already shown him a sample of my first motivational rap song because I was like, what is this? I want people to like it. He beta tested it at a big mastermind with people who didn't know me, people that weren't into rap, they all loved it. So I was like, oh, that's interesting.

Looks like looks like maybe some of my preconceived notions on whether people would accept this form of music in the business realm. They just they're they appreciate the message. So then when he wanted to have me do a summit with him and his team, he's like, I wanna integrate you with my team and for us to have a summit. But he's like, I'm actually gonna be at this conference. I spent, like, $30 to be on the stage. So my team's already gonna be out there. I already spent everything. Why don't I just pay for you to come out and coach me on my talk and meet with my team?

So then I was it was just really naps it was honestly organic, bro. I didn't I didn't know I found my niche. Does that make sense? I just said, well, if I'm gonna be out there, why don't you use me up? Why don't I why don't I perform that song before you talk? Why don't I open up for you? And he's like, that'd be cool. And I I always say this joke because he's kind of a nerd because he's an analytical guy, has a software, But he's changed his brand. He's pretty cool, dude. But it was pretty it was a pretty big flex for him to have a rapper come out. What was the song you guys performed? I opened up the song called Level Up.

Ben BeeriOkay. And where did that song come from?

Nick BravoThat song specifically came from because I moved to California after living in Montana for seven and a half years. I'm from California, but I moved back to California. And I was making good money, and I found myself getting really, like, comfortable. And so the lyric show, it's like I'm ready to settle for the bronze instead of the gold medal. No. No. Never. It's pedal to the metal. I go to make six figures, six figures made, but I could have been better. Thoughts, they invade. Yeah. But you're doing okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm doing okay, but okay is mediocre, and I'm not okay with that. I need to be better. I wanna be the best. I cannot settle. I will not rest. I see the devil. I see the truth, and I'm leveling up. Yeah. Leveling on levels. It was just writing from his perspective of I can't get comfortable, and I'm scared that I'm getting comfortable.

Because it's not about what you make. That's not the point. The six figures or seven figures, eight figures, none of that's the point. But the point is if I'm getting comfortable and I'm not giving my all, and there's there's a place for for peace, there's a place for rest, there's a place for contentment. So don't get me wrong. But there's, like, a comfortable that, like, I'm just gonna chill now.

Ben BeeriI think I've done well enough. I I saw something the other day that there's no such thing as unmet potential. Potential is unlimited. The only thing that's unmet is your expressed authenticity. So the only thing we're missing is what we could have possibly expressed.

Nick BravoYeah. And that's that's where I say and some of that's manifested in a number where, hey, if I bring this much creative value into a space, I will be compensated x amount. So even though I I don't use money as a only marker, I do say, like, hey. If I'm making a 150,000, I can be making 1,500,000 because I create this film or I I speak on stages. It's not about the money, but the money can be a marker of, like people are sitting there going, I wanna get to $1.50, a 150,000. And maybe depending on your skill set and expression of your skills, maybe that's a great number for you. And maybe that is fine for your skill set. I don't know. But for me, if I'm a $1,500,000 man or a $150,000,000 man and I'm settling for a 150,000 because that's a good number that most people settle for, it's like, this is why you don't do self comparison about I mean, this is why you don't compare yourself to other people.

I think John Wooden, that's how he created championship teams. There were times they won games and blew teams out, and he yelled at him in the locker room because it was like, I don't care that you beat the competition. You sucked.

Ben BeeriYou weren't you were better than that. And and then there would be times they'd lose, and he would encourage them because he saw that they gave their all. Yeah. You're supposed to only compare yourself to yourself. I I think I think there I think there was something with John Wooden where he was asked what his favorite team was that he coached, and it wasn't like he he had a few really dominant teams that won x amount of consecutive games or championships. It's historic and still hasn't been touched.

One of his favorite teams was a team that didn't really make it that far in the tournament because he said that he felt that that team got as close to full like, they gave everything they had. Full expression of all their efforts.

Nick BravoYeah. And I think that's kind of where I'm at in my life is is, um, that idea of selling isn't a number. It is, is there more in you that you can give and grow in and that you've gotten comfortable because you look at the world standards or so let's I'm in the insurance space a lot. I'm not not an insurance guy, but all these guys got the Lamborghinis, and there's, like, this marker of success they have. I I don't care if you have that stuff. That's cool, man. If you got if you can do that fiscally responsible and not be a knucklehead and trying to flex on people and that's a small portion of your income. Me and my wife are like, don't think we would ever do that no matter what our money is. That's just the way because we could help a lot of people with that.

Uh, I'm not saying I wouldn't get a nice car or something, but just the idea of a $300,500,000 car. Um, but in that industry, it's kind of like a rite of passage. Right? But it's like but what if that's your floor? What if for you that's your floor? And in that industry, it's the rite of passage to the top. And if you're just looking at everybody as the rite of passage and that's what the top means, you're gonna miss out because you have so much more potential to build and grow and do things that are bigger than that Lamborghini or that, uh, McLaren.

And you've now told yourself, oh, I'm like everyone of the top guys, so I'm good. It's not about that. It's like it's like somebody being okay with one championship. There's a bunch of guys that are coiled with one one championship. But, like, Kobe and this, and people are like, no. No. No. No. I don't want one championship, and I don't have a certain number. I want as many as a humanly possible within the capacity of my skill set over my my my life. And that's one of the things why it was so hard to lose Kobe is because you could see that his mindset wasn't just for basketball.

It was writing his children's book with his daughter. Like, when he stepped into different areas, he took he seemed to wanna be the best version of himself and the fullest expression of himself in ways that you don't see other basketball players. So you see Jordan, you love Jordan, but you hear about his life. You're like, man, he says sounds like he's pretty miserable, they say. He's super competitive, but he doesn't sound like very good with his personal relationships and stuff. And you see Kobe come out, and Kobe is just, like, thriving with his daughters and, like, writing children's books. And he's like, this guy's brilliant. He's found a way to not just win at basketball. He seems to be winning at life, and then we then he was taken from us.

Right? So which is I think that's honestly, I think that's why it was so painful. It's because I'd watched his interviews where he's talking about so many beautiful things, and you're just like, you don't wanna see him. You're like, man, this guy is just such a gem. And more than bat he's more than basketball.

Ben BeeriYou know? Well, it's interesting. I mean, the guy was such a killer on the court. Like, he would go, he would play, and he'd play to tear your heart out. Like, I mean, that guy was disciplined. He'd outwork everyone. And all of a sudden, the guy retires after twenty years of being on the same team. His body couldn't give anymore. Yeah. In the last few years, he went through some injuries. And he's just like, wow. Like, I'm done. But the guy showed up every night, put on a show for the fans, outworked everyone, and then he retires.

And it's like, all of a sudden, the guy just became, like, so ingrained his identity as a girl dad. It's, like, all of a sudden, there's, like Yeah. A soft side to Kobe Bryant. Yeah. And it was so interesting to see because this is the fucking killer that's gonna take a game winning shot in, like, four people's face Yeah. And not pass the ball to any of his teammates Yeah. And say, like, I'm not gonna what do you say? I'm not gonna pass, get the rebound type of thing. Mhmm. And then it's, like, all of a sudden, it's, hey, I just I want my daughters to do what they love. I wanna be there for my daughters. I wanna inspire my daughters. Yeah. And he wanted to push forward just the thought and the notion of, hey, like, here's what women are capable of.

Nick BravoI'm going to instill my work ethic into my daughters. They're going to do whatever they want to do in life. So I think his oldest daughter was into Volleyball. His daughter would have changed that in WNBA. It's like yeah. I mean, the the level of skill set his daughter would have came in with, because there's not a lot of development for the girls coming in WNBA, but, like, his daughter would have been freaking Yeah. Unstoppable.

Ben BeeriYeah. No. And it's just it was it was cool to see. And it's cool to see who a person develops into after they've spent their time doing what they're best at. So you get a guy who's played basketball for twenty seasons. He put the first however many years of his life into that even before he became a professional. It was his craft. It was his love. It was his passion. But then afterwards, his skill set no longer applies to the rest of his life. Him being a professional basketball player, that skill set's not going to get him anywhere when he's not playing in the NBA. Yeah. And but you can take all the lessons about principles and the mindset that you have Yeah. And apply that to everything else you do in life. All of sudden, the guy's winning an Oscar. The guy's an awesome father. He's coaching his daughters at basketball.

The guy's inspiring people. He's writing books. He started a podcast. Like, he did all this stuff to inspire people. And then it's, like, one day, it's, like, he's no longer with us.

Nick BravoYeah. I know. That's why I think it was so heartbreaking.

Ben BeeriOh, it's interesting. I was looking through I've been really interested in, like, people's vibrational frequencies recently. And I was looking through it. It's like, what is a guy like Kobe Bryant's vibrational frequency? Right? And you're saying, hey. He found joy. He found peace. And it's like it seemed like as he grew, like, in age and as a player, it's like the guy's vibrational frequency as a person increased. It's like so on Hawkins scale of vibrational frequency, it's like when you vibrate above 200, you're vibrating it at courage.

And then you get to about I think it's like three ten is willingness, and three fifty is acceptance. It's like 400 is reason, five hundreds love, five forties joy, six hundreds peace, seven hundreds enlightenment. Not many people get to that. That's like Jesus, Buddha, Krishna. Like, very few people reach the stage of enlightenment. We look at a guy like Kobe Bryant. It's, like, throughout his career, it's like, hey, I've gotta be good at basketball. I've gotta be good at basketball. I need to work on this, and I need go win a championship.

Things aren't working out here. We gotta get rid of Shaq. Like, then you had obviously, he had some public issues with his wife. Right? That he kind of was able to work through his really hard Yeah.

Nick BravoBut, I mean, he worked through it and seemed like Honestly, kinda good that that happened ahead of time because his athletes so he can get it nipped in the bud because he was he had women throwing themselves at him. And and he had

Ben Beeriand it seemed like that kind of was a moment of darkness that kinda set him to go the right way. And it seemed like as he continued to go on in his life, the guy really just seemed to realize, like, hey, as I continue to raise my vibrational frequency, I continue to elevate the people around me, and especially my family, my wife Yeah. My kids. And it's like, I mean, like, what a story with Kobe. It's like he just had I mean, he had a daughter, and then he had another daughter. And then he had another daughter, and then he had another daughter. And it's like and it's just kinda cool. And it's, like, sometimes it's, like, guy like Kobe is such a go getter. It's, like, it's, like, the guy's purpose was, like, hey, we need to send this guy all this feminine energy to calm him the fuck down. It's funny you say that because I got three daughters. Yeah. And make him, like, and bring him, like, kind of, like, to a certain level of, hey, let's raise this guy's vibrational frequency, because he's such a powerful vessel that can go and inspire

all these people. And it's, like, you look at it now, and it's, like, it's, like, maybe a guy like him literally needed to get to the point where it's like, he understood from perspectives, like, hey, I've got my wife. I've got my daughters. Like, I can show up this way now. I can be softer. I can be more vulnerable. I can share about the more important stuff. And

Nick Bravothis is what's gonna move things forward now. Yeah. And and I think I'm on that journey right now because it's it's always been difficult for me because I have a very strong masculine dominant energy motivator. I don't know if it's masculine energy, don't what you wanna call it, but it's intense testosterone. And I'm surrounded with women who I love, who I have a hard time knowing how to love because I'm like a blunt hammer, dude. And in in what works in the business world that makes me successful does not work alone.

Ben BeeriWell, there's no playbook on how to love and how to receive love. Yeah.

Nick BravoWe're all Oh, there's not in trauma. Trauma is a real thing. My wife's been through a lot. I've been through a lot as kids and stuff. Uh, it's just little women, at least my experience with my little women, they're better communicators than boys. Right? Um, but maybe that's because my wife has worked with them. So I just I'm very well aware of how I can be a hammer instead of a like, maybe you won't see it with your boy. Maybe it'll come up later in therapy when he's in therapy and talking about it. But my girls, it's just like because they're so, like, gentle and feminine, you can see the imprint quickly on how you hurt them or it's just different, dude. I mean, people don't understand. Everybody wants to argue that difference, that there's no differences in genders. Yeah. Have a son and have a daughter and please tell me I'm not talking about now. There are some boys that grow up really gentle for sure.

But like, girls have a certain sensitivity to them. And and that's maybe why I know about connection is because of my girls. But, yeah, it's weird. It's I have to constantly figure out how to turn it on and turn it off. And I've actually become more vulnerable on stages and more open and trying to figure out for a long time. My girls are like, they never see me cry a weird amount when I cry. I just don't see it. You know, girls cry a lot. At least my girls do when they when they need to process, and my wife does.

Uh, but I'm still trying to figure out how to enter that space as a very vulnerable, humble, kind man because I'm just dominant, dude. I'll get in an argument, and I'll be defensive. And that stuff works when you're dealing with another type a male in the workforce or you're it's different, dude. It's just different. You can make jabs at guys and you can say stuff. And it's like a man code where you make a jab and the guy can take it, like, we're good. You do that to a girl, bro. You could really you could really break them. They already have the thoughts in their head about the insecurities, and they're already being judged by their girls or other women. And you come and say something that would be totally okay to say to a guy.

You say it to a girl. She's gonna think about that for for a long time or it's gonna feed the insecurity that she already doesn't think she's enough. I don't think I ever walk away from a conversation with a guy making a joke about me unless it's real real, like unless it's a real pointed aim, But making a zinger at me and me going, like, I don't know who I am as a man because my homie told me that. This just doesn't does that make sense? It's not the same. I think the male ego is bigger. Always said that. It's not always good.

Male has got a pretty big ego that allow us to overcome

Ben Beerisome things, but it also makes us go to war. I mean, the ego is a very masculine thing. Right? So when a male has an ego, it's masculine. Yeah. And when a female has an ego, it's also masculine. Yeah. And so it ends up in a spot where, as a guy, you almost need to, in a way, again, it's ideal to let go of an ego, but maintain a certain standard of kind of confidence, like maintain a certain level of

Nick Bravorespect for you need to balance kind of confidence and ego because you need to be sure of yourself that you do. Have a you need to have a yeah. You need to have enough ego to survive the freaking world, bro. And and to be able to be confident enough to go do something. But you need to be humble enough to know I remember I went to go work for a company, and this is me trying to balance my ego. This was years ago. I walked in and they they said this market has failed five years. We bought this we bought this branch. It's it's only failed.

Nobody's ever succeeded. Uh, and there's a lot of reasons. But I called some of the top reps from different markets, and they're all kind of mean to me because I'd seen so many people turn over and then just had a cold shoulder towards any rep that was hired there. But then they started telling me all the excuses, but they weren't their excuses. They were the excuses they heard from the reps. So they had believed them. Well, I heard the markets like this or it's not it's like this. And then the trainer was telling me some things I told myself, okay. Well, I need to be confident enough because I need to be able to come here and test the market and see if it's the the market or the sales reps or the management, like the the company.

So so I'm gonna take everything I've learned in business and impose my will in this place. But I'm also gonna be humble enough to know that, uh, I don't know the industry. So that's that balance. Right? As opposed to me going and say, I'm gonna I'm gonna go and impose my will, and I'm gonna no. I wasn't wasn't sure. I

Ben Beeridon't know this industry yet. So I'm gonna be humble enough to know that there might be some truth to what they're saying, but we'll test it. Yeah. Well, it's interesting. I mean, we often think that, like, having a certain level of ego is what actually gets us the respect from other people. But sometimes it's, once we let go of the ego Yeah. And people can see that, then we get the respect that we're looking for. Well, it was interesting because I did impose my will and I grew the market by 278%,

Nick Bravothen we killed it. But when I was with the trainer, we clashed and I told him, here's the deal, bro. I'm never gonna do a 100% of what you tell me to do. And he's like I said, I'll do 50% because I'm betting on myself. I can't do what's not in my gut. I'm I've been in sales and business my whole life. I'm not gonna the old me would have only done 10% of what you told me to. So I've grown. So I'll do 50% of what you told me to do and implement the rest. I'm gonna go with my gut because I'm my necks on the line. My job is on the line, you guys expect me to produce. And if I'm doing your way that I don't believe in, it's not that I don't believe in you. You have a standard in the way you roll because of your personality type.

You don't even realize you have a personality type. You don't even realize you're training me in a one dimensional way to the what your strengths are. But if I were to apply your skills to my weaknesses and strengths, I would fail. So I gotta go with what I know because of my background. And we've had that agreement because we both have pretty big egos. But it was like, dude, I'm not gonna do what you told me to do because I'm gonna fail. Not because it doesn't work, but it works for you. It doesn't work for me.

And, um, and so that's like a kind of a little bit of a balanced ego because it was like, I'm willing to listen to you to up to an extent, but I also know the goal here. I'm required to win. So I'm gonna do whatever I can to win, and I'll take whatever information I can for you that will help me because I understand I don't know the industry, but I will learn the industry and I will win. And I did a bunch of unorthodox stuff outside of them that they thought was possible because of my background in in business and sales that had nothing to do with the industry and I won. So, yeah, egos necessary.

You have to have enough of it to be able to persevere through people's doubts and your own doubts.

Ben BeeriIt's an interesting perspective.

Nick BravoI think you need some of it, You know? But I think anything in excess is a problem. You have too much potassium. It's a problem in bananas. Can you have trust in your can you you let go of an ego but have trust in your ability? Like a calm confidence. Like,

Ben Beerihave full trust in your ability, but not in a way of having an ego and still achieve similar results.

Nick BravoI don't know. Like, I guess, I mean, it's all the pine defines ego when people talk about let go of the ego. But I always feel like when they're saying that, they're talking about people that are blinded by pride. Right? And don't wanna be wrong. It's just kind of this arrogance. I don't wanna say arrogance. Right? This pompous attitude that even though I know I'm wrong, I'm not gonna admit it because I don't wanna admit that I'm wrong. And I'll even to my own demise. Wait. Which which, by the way, pride on the vibrational frequency scale that I think one seventy five, which is Yeah. Just lower. It's a negative vibration. Yeah. So Satan lives there at one seventy five. So, uh, that's why he's so unhappy.

You know? Uh, he's on a low vibration. But no. Um, I think you got that ego pride. Right? But then you gotta have the guy you have to have this you have to have that certain level of ego like Mike Tyson said, where you go in there and say, I'm delusional enough to believe I can win. Yeah.

Ben BeeriSo that so that that I agree with. Though to be delusional enough that you believe you can win But there's a there's some ego there, bro. But is that ego? Or is that just an is is that just a delusional self belief? I guess it just comes down to, like, what you define as ego.

Nick BravoI don't know how to define it. Yeah. I I just feel like, oh, he's egotistical. What are we saying? He's arrogant. You know, he's egotistical. He's full of himself. He doesn't listen. So

Ben BeeriI feel I feel like the word ego is just Is it possible to to

Nick Bravosay there's there's zero ego, but a 100% confidence? Are there is there a way to separate that? I don't know. Yeah. There is. Yeah. Then I'll agree with that. I do believe that ego could maybe be an immature version of confidence because ego is like insecurity.

Ben BeeriYeah. Well, ego ego is a lower vibrational Yeah. Kind of level or version of confidence.

Nick BravoI do know that if I were to look at my life from where it was twenty years ago to now, I have less ego and more confidence Yeah. And more peace. When I go on stages, I'm not trying to prove myself to people that I can rap. I'm not trying to validate myself on stages with my ego and and and be respected by anyone. I already know what I'm capable of. Now people can say that's ego. No. No. No. I just I have receipts.

Ben BeeriI'm good at what I do. I get paid for it. What's your mission when you go on stage? I believe

Nick Bravoevery time I get an opportunity to speak to people like that, God's put me there. And I have no idea what people are going through. And even though I might wanna land into their booking, maybe there's some pragmatic stuff in the back of my head that I wanna earn a spot for this and that. My goal is to pour my life out into speaking to the lives of people that God put in front of me because and to get vulnerable because I might save a life. Um, someone might be in there wanting to commit suicide and there's at a conference, business conference, or maybe their wife text them is that they're gonna divorce someone, maybe she's taking the kids or maybe someone just lost a brother and is drinking.

They're gonna show it. They're at the conference though. But I'm in front of people. I don't take it lightly. And I think that's why God allowed me to go through the journey I went through because before it was when you're when you're egotistical and wanna do it for validation, who are you thinking about? You're not thinking about serving anyone. You think about serving yourself. And I don't think it's a light thing for me to be speaking into the lives of people. I think it's a God given platform that's supposed to be stewarded in a manner that understands this the seriousness of it, that this is not a money grab on stage to entertain people. Sure. It's entertaining. And sure, I like getting paid.

But actually, when people's hearts are impacted and they're inspired and moved and they they tell me that when they hear the music, it feels like I'm filling them up with water. Or some guy approached me at this last conference and shared me how he's like, when you rap that song, I know you've been in a dark place. He said, because three years ago, I put a gun to my mouth and I was gonna blow my head off and something happened and misfired her. And he's like, was in a dark place and he just could resonate with my spirit that I wrote that song in a dark place.

If I'm performing, he's not gonna be able resonate. He can understand that I'm my heart same thing with you said, what you told me. You didn't remember what I said. You said I just felt my you felt my energy. Yeah. That it was honest. And so that's that's what I feel like. And so when I the other thing is the reason I bring so much energy to it is it's not like, oh, there's only 100 people. I just performed in front of 15,000. No. No. No. There might be one person in here that this saves their life. And that's what that's what and that's what I would say if I looked at myself twenty years ago. I've changed in a lot of ways because no matter how big the stages are, uh my goal is to connect and pour into the lives of people and I don't think that was always my motive because I was dealing with insecurities. I wanted to prove myself.

I'm at the point now. I was like, you can like it or not like my music. I'm on stage and what a more do I want? I'm getting paid. I'm good at what I do. Like, I don't I got all the receipts. Why do I need someone to validate my receipts? You know? And then, obviously, people's lives are being impacted. I feel god using me and doors are opening. So I don't really need anybody's validation. I don't need other rapper's validation. I don't need other business people who don't like me. It doesn't matter. God's putting me on these stages, and I'm he's already punched my valet ticket. I'm validated, baby.

I'm here for a purpose. You can't stop it if you wanted to. Your opinion doesn't matter. God established me, and he'll open whatever door. I do believe that there's niching down and there's marketing, but, dude, it's really hard to explain how I created an entire brand and in a year and a half gone to the MGM Grand. So that's record labels. You gotta be on a record label. You have to be signed. It's not it doesn't make any sense other than God's like, it's time. I prepared you your whole life for this, now I'm gonna put you in front of people to speak. I had a vision since I was, like, 19 years old that I had dreams of me being in stadiums speaking.

Do you know what it's like to tell a pastor that? It's like it reminds me of Joseph. It's like, oh, I saw these stars and they were bound down to me. I mean, for Joseph to say that to his older brothers was, the most disrespectful thing you could ever say. Poor kid was so naive. Had a dream. Had no idea what he was doing. This is a culture where the oldest son was the most respected, and you got the youngest son being like, you're all gonna bow down to me. What? Shut up. Don't say that. At 19 years old, I've seen myself in stadiums rapping and doing stuff before I'm any good.

How do I tell a pastor that? What do they what do they think the first time they hear that? This kid's got a big freaking ego. They don't know how to handle it because you're not supposed to be vain and ambitious. But unless, of course, God was revealing something to me at a young age that a purpose he had for my life and he was going to fulfill it. All of a sudden, now I'm at the MGM and it's oh, this is pretty familiar. And that's probably probably going to become my floor in the future. You know, I don't care the stadium size, but I'm competitive. I am competitive. I'm like, what can we do? I would love to be in a stadium with 60,000 people. I'd love to I'd love to be in the NFL locker rooms. I hope my goal is to get in the NFL locker rooms, NBA locker rooms, stuff like that and come in and do motivational stuff through hip hop Because that's all their mindset. Right?

But yeah, I had a dream about it twenty years ago that I was going to be right where I am. I had a desire in my early twenties to be a motivational speaker. I listen to Zig Ziglar. I never I never thought I would be doing motivational rap. That's definitely, like, the the part that I I didn't. What is motivational rap? It's the name I called what I do. You know, basically, I blended the mindset of my motivational speaking, but took what takes people forty five minutes to say, and I say it in three minutes.

So if if you were sitting there and going, like, if we were to blend rap in a motivational speaker and put it into something and and not be corny, like, not just be like a sound bite, What would it be? Motivational rap. Oh, so you can spit. You you got a dope vibe to the way you say things, but you bring that heat and you bring that passion and energy. But then you got the content of a motivational speaker and you got the depth of it. That's what it is. So it's really just an expression artistic expression of my soul. I'm a very motivational guy. I'm I'm very very motivated human. Like, I I coach myself. I'm passionate. I'm driven.

I just blended it. I think the only difference is like like I said with Eminem and those guys, they all have their own style music and they have some motivational stuff. It's just I'm putting out constantly custom tailored motivational content that if you were to listen to a whole sound in the gym, a whole set of it, you would just want to go break through it all. And you'd be like, man, this is like listening to 20, you know, motivational speakers at once. Well, because I've grown up listening to all these motivational speakers I've picked up. I've been on all this training. So I'm really kind of, like, bringing all of the knowledge of all the people that I've learned from and under one umbrella and a succinct, uh, it's it's it's valued because it's so potent.

It's freaking potent. You get a freaking shot of it ninety seconds, a minute of it, two minutes. And the other thing that music can do that a motivational speaker can't is it it music immediately tugs on the subconscious emotions. The track can start before I say anything, and people already dropped into an emotional state to receive. Motivational speaker might have to be ten minutes in, tell a story before he can get you into that space where you're ready to receive. So music has the ability not only to hit the mind, but hit the subconscious and get to the soul. People who'd usually be resistant to a story from a motivational speaker if they don't agree, they're not resistant to the music. The people are resistant to hip hop. There'll be people that told them, like, you gotta really got a rapper here.

But then, like, the second day, they're like, wow. I'm really liking rap. It breaks through because music is hard not to like. And then if the content is something you really believe in, now you're in cognitive dissonance. You can't say you hate it if literally everything I'm saying is in alignment with your values. So then you have to reevaluate what what you thought about hip hop. I thought rap was only this, so you got a stereotype. So I like breaking stereotypes. You know? I had a buddy of mine reach out. It was he reached out to contact of his there's a record label contact that's looking at my music. Because I don't know if I ever wanna work with the record label, but I do wanna get my music synced and I wanna get it on a bunch licensed and get it out on a bunch of, like, movies and, like, sports stuff. So I might look at a label if that's what they can bring to the table. Unfortunately, labels wanna own everything, and they're not gonna own everything I have. But I will let them sync my music if they want to.

But he he reached out to them and it was crazy because I was like, well, show him the MGM footage and show him this. And he's like, dude, you're bigger than MGM footage. Like, what do you mean? He's like, your heart your heart is bigger than the MGM footage. I called this guy, and I told him, this guy is, like, at a conference, has his own niche, and he got 70 year old women crying at the conference because they're so touched. I'm thinking in the sales tactic, you're not gonna tell the label that, like but he's like, the guy I was talking to already made 300,000,000 selling world of dance. Like, he doesn't need to help anybody do anything. The guy's about purpose. So the guy made a phone call because how your heart.

And he's like, I'll show him a song about your heart more than I'll show him the MGM footage. So it is encouraging, you know, for my buddy to tell me that, because he's like, dude, I'm I'm referring you to people because you have a massive heart for people, not because you're at the MGM Grand Arena. I was like, oh, that's pretty cool. You know, when people see past your gift and see into your intent and your passion, it's validating. That is very validating. Like, oh, you see that I really do care. This music is just an expression of how much I care. Well, once you can get past the level of having a human connection

Ben Beeriand you can have a soul connection with someone and you realize it's like, hey, this isn't coming from the person. This is coming from the soul.

Nick BravoIt's like Yeah. Then it hits. It's it's satisfying, dude. Like, it's we had a session in the conference because they let me basically run it, which I never got to do. I got to run so much of it. So we had a vulnerable session because I knew that I wanted to teach people. Okay. So you're used to hearing these motivational speakers. We're all gung ho. You see us on on, like, stage, but I want you to know that we're still struggling. And how do we move through that? And so we had a vulnerable session with two of the top speakers, and I asked them what their biggest fear was. They got pretty raw. Both of them did.

Uh, tendencies for them to reframe it and say, well, actually, don't have a lot of big fears because I I get it. I know you know how to coach yourself. I know you know how to reframe your fear. But, honestly, what's the deepest one? And it opens no room up because people go, okay. Well, if they are such a powerful speaker and a winner, but they're struggling, and, uh, then maybe maybe it's okay that I struggle. And so what I said though is, like, we all have our moments. It was, even coming to this conference, I was in a bad headspace, and my buddy here who spoke, he called me and ported me for, like, three hours straight because I was just tapped out. And if he didn't porn to me for three hours straight, I wouldn't have came here and poured out.

And, uh, I just explained that the community is so important to have people you can be honest with because you can recover quicker. So if you wanna know the hack to success, one of the hacks is have a score group of people that you can be honest with that'll tell you the truth, that care about you, where you can call them and say, I'm in a really dark place today. So that dark place maybe is only for an hour or for a day, not a week, not a month, not a year. The way it becomes a week, a month, a year is because you're isolating and you're not open, honest, and vulnerable. So I I we had a session where we said, hey. We're gonna take ten minutes and three people at your table. Want you to tell them your biggest fear.

And then at the end of it, after you guys talk, I want you guys to get a cell phone to push put each put each other in a group text. Just you're having a hard day. Hey, dude. I'm getting into it with my wife, or I'm having a hard time with my kids, or my you know, I'm I'm really stressed about my health, or just something you can offload into a safe space, and they're not gonna judge you, and they can support you, and you can get back on the horse quicker. Coaching can help with that. Obviously, coaching helps with that. But sometimes it's just having a good community of people that you know that don't just love you because of your performance and your projection of success that know that you can share the dark stuff with.

And what was interesting being on stage is you wouldn't know that's what people are talking about if I just filmed it. I was literally watching people with smiles on their face, with joy, laughter. I was like, oh, people are connecting. Something about being honest with people allows you to feel connection because you're not hiding. And I was like, wow, there's so much connection in this room. This is powerful. And to this day, when people left that conference, I've been in lot of insurance conferences. It's a small conference.

People said that's probably one of the most impactful life changing experiences they ever had at the conference. And people walked away with like, this is a different conference. Well, it's because of the connection. It's because of the vulnerabilities. It's because of honesty.

Ben BeeriWhat what does it feel like to knowing that you can deliver that?

Nick BravoUh, this is that it was weird. It was it was not weird. Uh, I mean, it was just different because you think it's a smaller conference and, you know, you think bigger is better. MGM had its own cool vibe, but this was the most meaningful event I've done in a long time. I felt like so connected to everyone in the room. And I felt like I can't explain it. Like I had friendships and like we bonded. And when you're performing at events, there can be a lot of disconnect, the bigger the crowd because you can't talk to the people.

And then if you get out, it's like fanfare. Everybody's like, oh, I loved it, but you get you get bombarded. You know? And and I was like, for the first time, understood, like and this sounds ridiculous because I'm not that famous at all. But I did understand for a second the disconnect between humans when someone's a fan. The reason these some of these people, actors, people don't like it is because people will just take from you. Like, I wanna look at somebody and say, how's your day going? Oh, you like the song? What was what did it mean for you? Blah blah blah. Well, I just wanna snap a picture and move on. Sometimes it has nothing to do with you. It's usury. They just wanna they're just like I had people one time on stage just like snap picture and walk away. It's like, it had nothing to do with me or our or our connection. It had everything to do with the fact that he just wanted to post on Instagram he had a picture with the rapper. I was like, oh, so no matter how much money you have or what you have, nobody wants to feel used.

And the reason people sometimes are irritated is because it's like, I just wanna take from you. I wanna take from you. Wanna take from you. I want to take from you so I can put it on my reel so that I can get my notoriety. I don't really care about you. And it's like, well, you have all the notoriety. You should be satisfied. No, no, no. Humans want to connect. They want to connect. And so after I got off stage and spent time with these people, I was connected. I felt like I had a of friends. So it was very, very, uh, powerful. I'm wondering if that could happen in a bigger crowd. I don't know. My wife talked about that 19,000 person magnet conference. She tried to talk to the guy, one of the guys that spoke afterwards. She was really good. She felt connected, but he was just like, hey, nice to meet you. Goodbye. Maybe it's just a crowd. It's too difficult to do that. But this one was special.

This one was special because my friends were there. This one was special because there's so much honesty, dude. I just felt like what I've learned is not magic. It's just if I am willing to show my nakedness, no, not really. But you know what I mean? I'm willing to get vulnerable. It permissions everyone to get vulnerable. So I'm a leader. Leadership isn't just for being strong, leadership is showing your weaknesses. So I just know that if I get honest, I'm gonna free the whole room. It starts with me.

And I've been given the mic. And that's, I think, the change that God's done in my life in the last twenty years because before it's a lot of hiding or performance and wanting to show myself a certain way because I don't wanna be judged or I don't wanna be unloved or I didn't want people to see my darkness or the issues I have or not care about me anymore. Now it's like, no. God loves me, and I know these people. I actually I'm not worried about them loving me and caring about me. I'm worried about them me loving them and them getting the support they need so they can thrive.

It's beautiful. Does that make sense? And that's why I can be vulnerable. And that's why I can be honest. Because I don't carry your judgment towards me. If I can help three people in the room that get free, that's that's what I was there for.

Ben BeeriAt the end of the day, what matters the most and has been a big theme for me in my life is what do you want for someone Yeah. Rather than what do you want from someone. Yeah.

Nick BravoI used to be a taker. It's not there's no joy in it. There's just no joy in it. And people don't realize when you're a taker, you put yourself in a beggar's position. You don't respect yourself. But because I believe I'm connected to an abundant god who has all the resources I don't need to take, can give. I'm tapped into an infinite resource. And that's why when I don't have a lot of money sometimes, I believe everybody has a different belief system on this. This is what I believe, and it's just because I've been in some dark places. And I remember this one time I was in Montana, and I could have been in a hard I could have been in a really bad spot. God humbled me. And this guy was homeless, and Nicole was sleeping in front of a music studio, and my daughter saw him. And I was like, just let him be. That could have been me.

So god just gave me a lot of compassion. So anytime that god puts somebody in front of me, he does. He does. He will literally he I told god, if you put someone in front of me, he'll help him no matter what situation I'm in. And it's the people that my wife grew up with drug addict dad and, like, she gets really triggered by some homeless people that are drug addicts and stuff. I don't tell her to have the same belief, and my wife's got a big heart. But for me, was just this woman who's at the gas station.

She's she could be telling me a lie or not. I'm pretty good at reading people. What she's like, I just got kidnapped at my house. My boyfriend, I don't know. I wanna go. I'm gonna fill this up. I don't even care. It's not even, like I'm not even I don't even know if your story is true or not. God put you in front. I'm gonna help you. And I fill up her gas tank. And and at the end of the day, it's like

Ben Beerialso, let's not judge exactly what people are saying. Like, if somebody asks you for something, it's like, honestly, like, you asking is enough. Like, you wouldn't have asked if it wasn't important.

Nick BravoWhen I see when I see people humbled, like, that's not easy to ask, dude. I mean, there's some hustlers out there. You can tell that are hustling. But some people, it's humiliating for them to ask. And I can see it in their eyes. They're desperate. And it's like, so it's very freeing when God puts them in front of me or something I'll be sitting there, some woman will walk up to my car and I'm like, yep, God put her in my life. God blessed me with something. Just handed her money or just got her lunch or whatever.

Um, but it's almost like God's like, dude, generosity is is like the fuel which I use to bring joy. And we've been lied to that selfishness and taking is what will satisfy us. And I've done that. And the only time I find joy, like I told you, is, like, when I'm on stages bringing other people in to help them. I'm not sitting there going, are they taking from me? Are they gonna take from me later? Or I'm I feel like they're competition. No. This is my homie over here. I believe in him. I want him to see a bigger vision for his life and if I can help put him in a space where he can experience and transform his mind and see something different. Or my daughter, I wanna show her that she could pour into the lives of people at 15 years old and be impactful.

If I could put her in that space and have her use her gifts, I could be part of that. That's generosity. Yeah. And I've and I my reward is like a proud dad, dude. Even my buddy who's older than me. He's like a proud dad. Like, that's my boy up there. Fuck you. He's my boy up there winning, finding joy, pouring into the lives of people, and now he's lit a flame. Now I don't do anything. He's freaking on fire. He's going. Right? And that's like that's joy, man. That's that's generosity. And I just feel like I've been I've had so much hardship in my life, and it started with God being so merciful to me and gracious, and I've seen his hand on my life. And I felt like God is so generous that it made me a generous person.

Ben BeeriYeah. And it's it's amazing what can happen and how liberating it can be once you can take away somebody else's need to justify something. Like, people ask for stuff at times, and they try to justify why they're asking. And when you sit there with somebody and you tell them, like, you don't have to justify it to me. Like, you're asking Yeah. Is enough. Like, you're asking. I honor you in your request. Yeah. I respect you. I love you. You don't have to justify it to me. Like, asking is enough for me to say yes because I love you, and I respect you, and I wanna give to you. I wanna help you. I wanna help you. Yep. You don't have to justify to me as why you're asking. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna step up. I'm gonna be there for you because you asked. You don't have to tell me why. Yeah.

I'm there for you unconditionally Yeah. As someone I love and somebody I wanna And that's just that's a pretty liberating feeling.

Nick BravoIt is. I had a buddy recently because I used to be a taker. Right? So I try not to take. I I I and it is unfortunately, with history like that, it's hard for me to accept things because I used to be a taker, which means that but he he told me one time when he was gonna help me with something, he said, don't take that from me. Like in the way that don't take my generosity from me. That's all I got. Don't rob me of my generosity. It brings me joy to help you. I was like, wow. That's beautiful. Because he saw me kind of being like, oh, no. You don't have to help me or this, this, they're all I don't wanna be a taker. Like, no. No. No. You're you're robbing me and my generosity. I I this is what makes me tick. This gives me joy and passion. Please don't rob me of the opportunity to help you. It's like, wow. What a perspective.

You know what I mean? And I I agree with that because I've tried to help people sometimes and they they don't wanna want to help. And it's painful because it's like, um, I'm not shaming you. I want to help you because all of us have been in need where we need someone to help us At some point in our life, we've all been the recipient of generosity from somebody that we're grateful for, that didn't hold it against us, that didn't look down on us, that didn't judge us, that didn't tell us our mistakes and why we ended up in situation that were just merciful and kind and good and compassionate and said, I got you.

I got you. Don't worry about it. That's the kind of human I wanna be.

Ben BeeriThat's amazing. So

Nick Bravoand I surround myself with good humans like that, good mentors, good people that I got some wealthy people around me that love God and care deeply and are incredibly generous. That's who I wanna be around. I don't care if you have a lot of money if you're not generous. It actually is one of the ugliest things in the world to me. When you're stingy, you don't take care of your people and your cutthroat. I don't care about your nice cars. I don't care about your money. You look like an incredibly selfish human who's full of themselves.

And you have such a capacity if you flipped on its head to help so many people and find so much joy in your life with the resources you've been given. But you've convinced yourself that you've earned all that by yourself and you've worked on it by yourself and it's all yours. You don't realize that the breath you have to make anything is from God and that he could require your life of you tonight. You're proud. You're arrogant. Even the fact that you have both arms to do something. You were born with both arms. There's no gratitude.

If there was gratitude, you would be more gracious and understand that those resources, once they're past a certain threshold and you have everything you need, that there's people around you that could that you could bless, and that you would find joy, that you would actually find joy in in serving other people. And that the the pursuit of that wealth with vanity is only leading to more depression and thoughts of suicide and darkness because you have no purpose. You've already exceeded the max load you needed financially.

You don't need more things. And everybody's told you where you earned it, so just spend it on yourself. That's totally fine. Spend stuff on yourself, but there's other people around you that I think deep down in your soul, you know you could help, but you built a belief system that, well, they shouldn't be helped.

Ben BeeriWell, it's also like, are you looking for things internally? Are you looking for things externally? It's like I know a big theme in my life has been when I was younger, was looking for things externally. It's like, hey, can I get this to work so I could fill some kind of a void? Yeah. And once you get the things that you feel might fill that void and you realize the void isn't filled Super diverse. Then you realize whatever the void is is internal. And then how do you go and you do the internal work? And it feels like a lot of people look at themselves in the mirror and they're like, it's not time. It's not time for me to do the internal work.

And taking that first step to defeat the fear of doing the internal work, I think is one of the hardest things any human will ever do in their lives. And to go down that path of doing that self work, that internal work to become whole with yourself as a person is one of the most powerful gifts you can give to anyone is just a person that is at peace with their, like, internal selves that is ready to share themselves with the world and ready to shine their light on everybody else.

Nick BravoNo. I agree with you a 100% on that. Um, I think we live in a a place of distraction. And in order to be able to do the inner work, you have to acknowledge that maybe there's some darkness there or some trauma or there's some problems or that there's some things you need to fix. And that requires a heavy level of humility and also courage. I know some people that are really good people, like kind humans, that don't wanna do it because they're scared. They don't wanna remember. They don't wanna deal with stuff. So it's not always just pride. Sometimes it's just fear of the unknown.

I don't wanna dig into that. I've set up my coping mechanisms so I don't have to remember that, so I don't have to think about that, so I don't have to look at myself. Takes a lot of courage to look in the mirror. And for me, it's been a faith journey. This is just me, like I said, but, God, there's some things I don't know how to fix and I can't see. Help me with what I can't see. My belief in God is that a physician can't do his own operation on himself. He can't put himself to sleep and then cut himself open.

And there's certain things I've learned in life that I can fix through work ethic, that I can fix through introspection. And there is just some things that are so deep that I don't know where they came from that I need to get on the operating table and close my eyes and say, God, if you don't come in and cut me open and do some of the incisions and some deep work that I can't see, I'm gonna die of cancer, metaphorically. So I'm at that place in my life now where I'm like, there's some things I don't understand, and I don't understand how to fix, and I'm not gonna fix the work ethic.

Pull all the knives out. Let's just start getting at it. And even chiropractors can't adjust themselves. They need other chiropractors, right? So I've come to the point of I'm humble, I'm willing to be on the operating table. Some of these things that are deeply rooted, some trauma, some issues, ways I respond to things no matter how much work I do. If there's something that I need your help with that you know you could fix, I'm all yours. I'm open. Do your work. Do what needs to happen. And typically when you go under the knife, it's not fun.

I cut you open, and you gotta pull some things out. It's painful. But it's a journey for people, and there's a lot of things people can fix that they're not willing to. And then there's some things that for me, it's like I have to surrender to God and go, I know you want the best for me. And I know if a physician is trying to work on somebody, you're grabbing their knives and slapping them and hitting them, they can't work. So God ain't gonna come in if I if I don't want it. He ain't gonna come in if I'm not willing. Nope.

Alright. I'm willing. There's some things here. I I'm almost 40 years old. There's some things, and I'm a personal development guy. You know, there's some things here that I can't figure out. So would you please help me? It takes a lot of humility. Everybody's an atheist until they're on and until they're not. All my buddies are atheist, man. The moment they're on the deathbed or something, I've seen it like clockwork. So there's a certain humility that's like, listen. I don't it's it's a humbling.

I don't know how to fix this. I need some help. God, if you're there, if you really exist, show me I need some help. And here's your opportunity to show me. Because if you can fix the unfixable, something I've working on my whole life and you can heal the unhealable, now I know you exist. And I think God likes the challenge of people going, I don't know if you exist, but I'm willing to acknowledge that maybe you're there. And if you are there, here's an opportunity to come help out. And trust me, I'll That's willingness. I'm super loyal, and I got your back if you can fix this because then I know you're real. Whatever. I think God God's God's God's God's that. But for me, I I I I just know God's existed in I don't know. You can say it's a it's a God given faith. I don't know what you wanna say, but, uh, it's got me through my whole life. And I'm just, like, at a point where I'm, alright. What there's a couple core things here if you could help me out a little bit.

Mean, I believe you formed me in my mother's room. I believe you know my internal, mental, emotional, spiritual. I know you see everything, and you're the great physician. So I'm willing to come on the Operating table and have you cut me open and take some of these things out so that I can be different. So I'm still in that process. I'll let you know how the operation goes. There we go. I'll let you know how the surgery goes. That is so exciting, Nick. That is so exciting. I know you created this podcast not as a business venture to make money, but in a way to hear people's stories and to draw something out of people. And I know that you said you created it because you had to work through the process in your mind because your mind always thinks about business. Right? And you're like, this is not, uh, this is not a money money thing.

This is, uh, something that's gonna fulfill me in helping other people tell their story. So my question to you, because I know you're telling me that a few months ago, how's it going? How's it going with your interviews? How's the whole process with this? What's the process? You've been in a lot of work in, dude.

Ben BeeriIt's a really interesting perspective. I'm at a place now where it's like, I can sit down with somebody like yourself, and I feel that you've got so much to share. Yeah. And so much wisdom to share, so much experience to share. And I believe that the world needs more of that. And I feel that people are reluctant to share their wisdom, their experiences, who they are, where they came from. And I struggled with that myself for a very long time. I wasn't willing to share my story or who I am as a person or the challenges I went through or how I overcame them.

And I kind of got to a spot where I'm like, would the world be a better place if it had more of Ben or less of Ben? And before I invite a guest on like yourself, I ask, would the world be a better place with more of Nick Yeah. Or less of Nick? And I'm sitting here going, the world would be a better place with more of Nick. And how can I help Nick shine his light? Yeah. That's cool, dude. And just really showcase yourself to the world. And not just you, my other guests that come on. Like, I'm really grateful that they're able to shine their light.

And none of it is about me today, Ben, it's about to turn 30 years old in less than a month. It's about teenage Ben who didn't have that compass to feel inspired. And having that understanding that there's so many people out there who are in a spot in their life where they don't have that compass to feel inspired. People of all ages, whether they're teenagers, in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, wherever they're at in life and they're feeling less and inspired is can they hear wisdom from somebody that can share it? Can they hear experiences from somebody that can share it?

Can they receive a genuine message from somebody who really just wants to give and wants to share and doesn't have any strings attached to it. And it's like, how do we go and inspire people to be themselves authentically and share what they have and what they know with the world and just do more of that. So many people I feel like could just share more of themselves, myself included. And how can I go down the path of inspiring people to do that? So I'll say that I feel like we're heading in the right direction with that. Yeah. Uh, it's been fun.

I enjoy sitting down with a person like yourself today, because I already know you. Yep. And I already love you. Thank you, buddy. And to get to know you better is such a privilege. And Appreciate it. So for me, that ends up being, in a way, my return. Mhmm. And hearing that people are impacted by the wisdom and experiences shared, that gets to be my return. Mhmm. And I'm grateful to get to know somebody better, and I'm grateful to impact people. I'm grateful for people who send a message and say, hey, I heard what you said on this episode. I heard what your guests said on this episode.

I can apply that to my life. That's gonna make a difference. Yep. And, like, I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful that I'm in a position in my life now where I can step into that and just give Yep. Without expecting anything back, without wanting anything back, without needing anything back. Yeah. And just how can we just share? Yeah. Share light, share love, and have people grow from it. And I may never hear from some people that this impacts positively, but I don't need to. Like, I just want people to just take what they hear and hopefully take what works for them or what they view as valid or relevant or whatever they can apply to their lives and just run with it. Become the best fucking version of themselves that they can. Yeah. So that'll give us a better world.

Nick BravoAlright. You know what I think is interesting? The immediate reward is spending time together. Absolutely. Because we have had good conversations, but the mics and the podcast facilitate. Nobody's gonna sit down usually for just three hours and talk. Yeah. And you're right. This is you get to start off with the reward already being abundant. We walk out of this room and we get to talk and to hang out and connect at a level that so you're already in a surplus. Everything else is just freaking ice cream and, uh, whipped cream on the top, bro. Totally. I'm here for it. Yeah. It's good. You're facilitating good conversation. I mean, I enjoyed myself. This was just really peaceful and enjoyable to hang out.

So keep doing it. Best way you can do is show people, and they're gonna see it by being people being vulnerable. I'm excited for you.

Ben BeeriNick, you've got such powerful insight to share. You've got a hell of an operation coming your way. Yeah. Where can our viewers check you out and connect with you further and check out some of your songs and your lyrics and get motivated.

Nick BravoUh, I mean, if they're on Spotify or, uh, YouTube premium or, I mean, YouTube premium. I do everything on playlist on YouTube. But, um, you know, on YouTube, look at Nick Bravo, rapper. There's some weird guy on YouTube. Uh, he's a thorn in my flesh. Super weird guy. That's not me. He doesn't even look like me, but people think it's me. If you see some weird white guy posting weird stuff up, that's not me. Look up for Nick Bravo motivational rapper on YouTube. Might just come up with a phantom channel. Just call it Nick Bravo. I'll be the third Nick Bravo. Was he but Yeah. I was like, god. You gave me my thorn in my flesh. This is the weirdest Nick Bravo. He's like a satanist on top of it. So I was like, what a what a copycat, like, the complete opposite of me. It's a weird dude.

Um, but, uh, you can go to Spotify. You can get Amazon Music, iTunes. Um, my stuff's on there. My song with my daughter called Courage is on there. It was her rapping. That's pretty dope. I'll be releasing some more stuff. As far as my, uh, like, booking is nick dash bravo dot com, but that's gonna be changing because I'm launching Level Up Live, which is gonna be, uh, added to my marketing agency, which can be a live events with all the like I told you, all the roster of bookings. So we're in the development of that. But you can look me up at I am Nick Bravo, uh, on Instagram.

Look me up as Nick Bravo on Facebook. Look me up on LinkedIn. Wherever you wanna find me, man. I post everywhere. Oh, there there there you go. You gotta find the real Nick Bravo, not the, uh, not the other guy. So we call it Where's Waldo? Part of the part of the process is the search. So you you get to search for me and and find me. You look me up, though. Look at Nick Bravo, motivational rapper, and Google and my stuff will pop up. And I would I I would highly recommend that. Nick has some incredible songs, some incredible lyrics that are really inspiring.

Ben BeeriUh, I I really am grateful

Nick Bravothat you're able to join us today, Nick. You want me to leave you with the the rap verse or something? Let's do it. Let's do it. What are gonna do? I don't know what song. I'm I'm a big fan of Dark Road. Do it. Or I can do the grit song that you liked.

Ben BeeriBut Whatever's gonna resonate the most with our viewers.

Nick BravoUm, I don't know who your viewers are, so I think any of it can resonate, but let's do dark road.

Speaker 3There are days that I'll and I'm gonna do this more of a light, low key, not hard rapping style as for the lyrics. But there are days that I wake up feeling motivated, inundated with innovation and inspiration, fascinated with the possibility of the future me, making my dreams reality. But then reality hits me between the eyes. My vision blurs. My mind tells me a bunch of lies. Why? Why there's too much risk. There's too much this. There's too much that. It starts giving me stats. Yeah. And I start to react acting like these doubts are actual facts. But the fact is every innovation started with the dream. You'll never know if you never believe, uh, the tension I feel is a real thing.

There's only one choice to where I see things. Keep climbing till you keep climbing till there's nothing in the tank. Keep climbing till you run out of string. You don't know what you don't know. No. You won't know if you don't go. You won't know if you don't grow. So embrace the dark road, see how things unfold. You don't know what you don't know. You won't know if you don't go. You won't know if you don't grow. So embrace the rock, dark road, see how things unfold. You can just sit there quiet and safe, doing the same things, thinking things will change, trying to make the perfect decision. Decisions aren't perfect. They're just decisions. Keep making them till you find what's working. It's a process of testing and elimination. Failure is the prerequisite to innovation. I I don't know what you're facing, but I know if you embrace it, you can elevate and change the situation. Or you could choose to ignore me and tell yourself a story, and then complain to everyone while your life is born. Or you can take a risk, shoot a miss, hit the rim, hit the gym, set your feet, make adjustments, shoot again.

You don't know what you don't know. You won't know if you don't go. You won't know if you don't grow. So embrace the dark road, see how things unfold. You don't know what you don't know. You won't know if you don't go. You won't know if you don't grow. So embrace the dark road, see how things unfold. Here you go.

Ben BeeriPowerful. Powerful. Well, if anything resonated with you guys that Nick shared with us today, please share this episode with your friends. Give us a like. Let us know how you like the episode. You can follow us on Instagram at the authentic journey pod. I'm your host, Ben Beeri. It's great having you on. Shout out to Ben Beeri. Whoo. And we'll see you guys on the next episode of the Authentic Journey.