The Gentlemen Project Podcast
Bi-weekly podcast highlighting impactful stories of parents and what they do to be successful at home and at work. Helping you turn the time you have with your kids into time well spent helping them learn the most important lessons in life. The Gentlemen Project Podcast is hosted by Kirk Chugg and Cory Moore-friends who are passionate about fatherhood and raising the next generation of great kids.
The Gentlemen Project Podcast
How it's Built: Traditions, Family, Faith and Service with Built Bar CEO Nick Greer
Sit down with us as we capture the fascinating wisdom of Nick Greer, CEO of Built Bar, founder of several successful tech companies, and devoted father to seven flourishing children. Learn how he applies his innovative marketing tactics not only to his successful protein bar company Built Bar, but also to the distinct personalities of each of his seven children. Understand the value of individuality within a family and how the power of tradition can cement lasting bonds.
We also delve into the heartwarming traditions that the Greer family cherishes. From family reunions to packing food bags, secret pals and weekend adventures, these customs have not only been instrumental in creating a nurturing environment but have also led to personal growth for each family member. We dissect the meticulous planning that goes behind these traditions, which interestingly, also involves the children in creating these memorable experiences.
We also unravel how Nick's faith has guided him in life decisions, his business ventures, and even his day-to-day routine. Get a glimpse of the impact his wife has had in managing both their family and business. We also explore his compelling thoughts on taking risks, portraying love, and creating a legacy.
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Welcome to the gentlemen project podcast.
Kirk Chugg:I'm Kirk Chugg. Today we have Nick Greer in the podcast studio with us. Nick and his wife, Deborah, have seven kids and two grandkids. The Greers love to spend time together. Each one of the family brings a unique personality and lots of energy to everything they do. Nick and Deborah create experiences for their family and others that connect people and inspire them to do good. One experience the Greer's have that we'll talk about today is their nonprofit organization, 512 Foundation, where they pack lunches over 2,000 bags of food for children each week Take home who don't have food at home over the weekend. Things like this are why we have Nick on the podcast today.
Kirk Chugg:He's also the founder of Built Bar. The world's best-tasting protein bar.. It's like candy and I think that's kind of like the marketing that they use rice. Like you want protein and candy, we have that. Nick is involved in his community and his church. We're just happy that he's taken the time out of his busy schedule to be here with us today. So, nick Greer, welcome to the podcast. Happy to have you.
Nick Greer:You guys are great, thank you. What an opportunity, what a blessing. So thank you.
Kirk Chugg:One other thing I have to mention is if you follow the gentleman project over the last decade and you may have been a recipient of the Daily Doodad Nick and his company Scipio. We've been a benefactor of Scipio's generosity Because the Daily Doodad was donated from Scipio so that you could receive those texts. So if you've ever received a Daily Doodad it's because of the generosity of the man To my right. So thank you for that over the years.
Nick Greer:What else can we do for you? I'm ready.
Kirk Chugg:He brought us like he brought us a couple of boxes of bill par today, like he's spoiled us already. So you're in for a treat today.
Cory Moore:Yeah, I'm going to come home and my wife's going to be like you're amazing, I'm not going to tell her that you brought him.
Nick Greer:I'm just going to pretend like I went and bought a box of bill, you got it. I could be the man of the hour you know it shows you how much your wife listens to this podcast, then if you're going to tell me that, she'll listen to it, but she won't listen to it until way after this is over, so you get all you get the reward, get all the brownie points.
Kirk Chugg:Then later she'll be like oh it's coconut brownie Chunk puff and a mint brownie puff and a mint brownie why not?
Cory Moore:So so give us a little context on like you're doing the bill bar thing now. Give us a little context, you know a couple minutes, of where in the world did that come from and what does it look like today? The bill bar universe, it's a wild universe.
Nick Greer:I tell people, listen, I'm so dumb, I've got to. I'm in chocolate, and what I love about it is we're always innovating, creating new products, new, different flavors, new iterations. We've created a new chocolate milk it's called spilt that we've launched twice and it sold out within hours. And so you know, at the end of the day, we're creators and we get to create, and that's the great thing about it. I think, at the same time, what we're talking about today you know here, with what you're doing and what you've done for so many years now is the fact of how do we become better fathers, better mentors, better leaders, better men, better husbands, and, at the end of the day, that takes creativity, it takes effort, it takes, you know, a lot of trial and error, a lot of risk, and that's what business is all about. But that's what's being a dad is all about, and so it's a matter of how do we do it, and how do we do it better today than we were yesterday. So I'm excited to talk about that today.
Kirk Chugg:Yeah, you do like a lot of AB testing and marketing, right, and you're a chocolate salesman like quote unquote if your own naming, but you're in marketing and you've got a background, a very successful background, in marketing too, with your very first company was a was a marketing company. Yeah, and so translate that for us, as you do like these AB testing and you go, oh, that didn't work or that did that worked great, we're going to run full steam ahead with that. How do you apply that in your fatherhood and in your home with your kids, your wife and the people that you spend your time with?
Nick Greer:Yeah, it's a great question. You know. It's much more than just even AB testing. It's what we call multivariate testing. You're constantly testing, but you're doing that in partnership with those on your team. You're doing that in partnership with those you know that are on the marketing side, on the sales side, on the finance side, and making sure that you're all tapping into the, the strengths that each of you have. And it's no different in the family, like with my wife. It's we're we're doing multivariate testing and but you have to do that with all of your children.
Nick Greer:We have seven children, but there's different tests, different things we have to do with each of them and it's very unique Each and every child. It's not the same template that you use for every child. It's a different template. Now there's there's the common core that we're focusing on as a couple, as a family, that we're always making sure as far as traditions are concerned, but there's that individuality that we've got to make sure we're always answering those opportunities, and that's how it is in marketing. It's the same thing.
Nick Greer:We see that we have an individual, you know, maybe segment of the market that we need to answer that opportunity with, and then we know their taste buds in our case with a bar or with, you know our products it's that taste will work with them.
Nick Greer:So we can actually run, you know, let's call it a hundred thousand bars, but we know we can sell out within hours because this segment of our demographics or of our customer base will actually love this bar, and you know that already and we know that already.
Nick Greer:But I also know that with I have two girls that I know if I can go spend time with them, not just individually but collectively, because two of these daughters get along so well that it builds the relationship with them but it actually bonds them to me and to us as a family and then bonds them back to their other siblings. So what am I going to do? I'm going to make sure that activity is specific to their needs and it's much different than my youngest daughter where she just wants one on one time with her dad and she doesn't mind it with their other siblings. But give her that one on one time and let her talk away. My goodness, all right, I'm going to pull that multivariate test in that segment, right, and to make sure I'm actually answering her needs within that opportunity itself. I don't know if that makes sense.
Kirk Chugg:No, it's like a brilliant analogy. You know, you, and sometimes you do something and you go that absolutely did not work. At some point in your life you're going to have to switch gears, you're going to have to change lanes with a kid and go that really didn't work Right, because the first thing you try nine times out of 10, it's not going to work Right, you know. And so you're going to have to change lanes at some point. So I think the lesson I'm taking out of this is you've got to be nimble and you've always got to be evaluating did that work or is there something that I could have done better? And that's kind of what the podcast is about. Maybe you'll hear an idea today on the podcast and you go I'm going to try that Right.
Cory Moore:Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. It's not. Certainly every kid is different, right? You have seven, so you have seven very different kids likely have three. They're very different and I don't feel like they're just the DNA of mom and dad. It's like the DNA of generations in these kids that are showing up depending on who they are and kind of their, their makeup, right. So you do have to treat every single one different. You mentioned traditions, so let's talk about some of the things that are traditions, maybe in the Greer family, or things that you've done fairly consistently that have been a positive impact on your relationship with your kids.
Nick Greer:Yeah, it's actually a sickness of ours as far as when it comes to traditions, and, in fact, I got in trouble this year by not falling through with our fourth of July tradition, because I saw our family and the family dynamic is changing and I have three older children, two of which who are married, one of which who has two kids, who I felt like, okay, we need to focus on the four youngest, and so we had to be intentional with the four youngest and go off and do something with them out of town, but we didn't include the other three, and that's hard, um, and that was a change. Now I broke that tradition, that tradition of fourth of July, what we always do and how we do it, and I I definitely got the wrath I shouldn't say the wrath, but I definitely got feedback of dad. Why didn't we do it? Even from the younger kids? Cause they want to be with the older, and so maybe we made a mistake. In fact, I felt like I even told my wife afterwards okay, next year I'm not going to do that again, but we had to try. We definitely had to try.
Nick Greer:I'll tell you a tradition that we're doing now, we've done for the last several years, as our, as our kids are getting older, as our family dynamic is changing and we feel like we have two separate families our four youngest, three oldest, um, but uh, we have a family reunion and people think a family union with, like your in-laws, or with your parents and their no, no, our little family. We go on a lot of family vacations together, but a family reunion has to be completely different, and so the way we planned out the family union this year, then we did differently with what we've traditionally done in the past was every minute was planned out and, in the intent of what we did, there was a theme behind this family reunion. But how we assigned it, how we we mapped it out, even down to the music, and what they chose as far as, like this was our music list, this is what we're listening to. But they saw that, oh, we're starting a new tradition and we can expect this every single year as we continue to get older and as we have kids and they can continue to contribute to it. So we let them contribute in smaller ways, but yet we created the platform, the foundation, for them to actually be part of this new tradition, of this family reunion.
Nick Greer:But we had to be very intentional with everything we did, from the very morning to the very night, because I wanted them to leave. And for me, this is the thing. This is how it works in business, this is how it works in family, this is how it works in relationships. If you could have a mindset of what your vision is, is what you want to actually end up happening at the very end. Meaning for me, when I walked in this room, one of the first thoughts I had was what do I want the two of these gentlemen to think and the others that are listening, the second I walk out of this door. What do I want their experience to be and how do I want to interact with them, to give them an experience in a way that's going to be meaningful? So the same thing goes with my kids, my children, our children is what are they going to experience and how are they going to feel when they walk outside that door?
Nick Greer:In this case, at the end of that reunion and it was amazing to see what transpired, what was learned. I don't know if we'll do relays again, because we're very competitive and there was a little heat. The heat was on, and I looked at my wife and I'm like, well, we messed that one up, didn't we? But it was a great lesson. So, traditions, lots of traditions. If you want me to go over those traditions, there's quite a bit, but we are a tradition-based family 100%.
Cory Moore:I think going over them is probably a good idea.
Cory Moore:I think sometimes we get caught up in the daily grind of the daily, and not that daily traditions are good Lots of us have daily traditions but I think some people could give themselves a little bit of a break. As a parent, if you can insert four, five, six traditions a year, you're going to be having quality time with your family. So maybe the reason I say give a bit of a list is because there may be one or two where someone says I'd be perfect for my family.
Nick Greer:No, it's a good question. I mean, so early on, what we did is we realized we were doing a lot of stuff out of the country, as far as on a non-for-profit basis. My wife looked at me. I remember working out one morning yeah, only one morning working out but she comes downstairs. She's like we got to do something locally. So we found something locally where we realized there was a need and the need was these kids need food on the weekend. They don't get food on the weekend. So we started talking about, well, what do we want to do with this? And we said we want to do this weekly with our kids.
Nick Greer:So the tradition of packing bags of food every week on a Wednesday night, let's just start it. So we started a little farmhouse of ours next door. Then we went to a little barn in Alpine in our neighborhood. This guy said hey, you can use our barn. Then we bought this building and then we ended up buying another building and adding to it. So it's continued to add over the last 13 years, but I looked, or about 12 years, but I looked back and it was a tradition of Wednesday night. We as a family will pack bags of food at six o'clock, let's just do it. And so it started with 20, went to 60. I think we do 2,500 or 2,600 bags or so 2,400 bags, it just depends on the week. But that is a tradition and the kids know, as they're getting married they come by. They know six o'clock Wednesday night. We still have about 120, 150 people that come every week and pack bags of food. We book it out almost a year in advance. But that's how to start somewhere, how to start small to your point, corey, just those small things.
Nick Greer:The tradition of secret pals. We have secret pals on Halloween, we pick them and then they know from Thanksgiving on they have a secret pal that they give gifts to service to. It's a simple act, it's a simple thing. But they're focusing on one sibling or one parent and they try to keep it secret and discreet. And then on Christmas Eve we guess that secret pal. They love that. That's cool. You know we we different trips, weekend trips. They know every year they can count on certain weekend trips on a Friday night, and we've actually now increased that time of Thursday. So we go two nights on some of these weekend trips, but every year, and they know we eat at the same place we do the same thing, we swim in the same pool, we play the same games and it's like expectations.
Nick Greer:Setting those expectations for those kids Like, oh, I can expect it. Kids want structure, they want expectations, they want traditions, they're craving it. But yet we think they want freedom and I would tell you, contraire moan frayre, no, that's not what they want. They want, they want structure and they want, like, consistency. And if we can give these consistency through traditions, gosh, it's powerful. What can happen. And they know what to expect from their parents. They know every single time, every day, what to expect. They know, in our case, mom will be there at home when I walk in. That's in our case. It works for us, right. They know what to expect. They know dad will be home at a certain time and they know what to expect. There's certain things they know.
Nick Greer:Every night we open up those scriptures and it's just, they know it's a night, nine o'clock, like there's no questions. Traditions they know they don't get a smartphone. It's like they get the gap phone and, yeah, when they get to college, all right, great, you get a smart. It's your tradition. And it's like there's no question, there's no fighting, and so it's like you create these traditions, these consistency. There's no fighting, there's no quarreling, there's no disagreeing. It's like that's what it is. Let's keep moving. So that's a long winded answer to a short question, but there you go.
Kirk Chugg:I think we got to like keep just going with these traditions. These are all really good ideas. Cory and I are looking at each other and I'm like, yeah, that's a good one. You have more. Oh there's, because I really wanted to ask you about the 512 foundation, but you already covered that. That's awesome. 12 years, like 2000 to 2500 bags of food a week yeah, that's, but that's startable.
Nick Greer:That started years ago when my daughter's 22. She's she was six years old at the time and we had a neighbor diagnosed leukemia and I get this impression while driving three different times. You need to help them. Help them now and three different times. I felt that. So I said fine. So I sent out some emails and made some phone calls and in two days $64,000 came in to help pay for this young man who has two kids himself, who had no insurance.
Nick Greer:But it was my daughter on the second day that came to me and said dad, will this be enough to save our neighbor's life? And she hands me $5 and 12 cents and she said it's everything I have will be enough to save his life. And I looked at her and I'm like, oh my gosh, I love you and I've repeated this before. It's like I remember thinking at that moment oh my gosh, what we're teaching actually is working, and even at six years old. And so I framed that $5 and 12 cents and, I don't worry, I replaced it. But that's why we created the 512 foundation, because sometimes we feel like we have to give so much in order to make an impact, but in reality it's a reminder for us as a family, you can just give your time. You can give some of your talents, your efforts, and it's like give a little bit of money but yet really, at the end of the day, just start giving. And that's a tradition we start teaching our children is just give. We've even set up a way for them every year as a council, like they'll counsel together as a family, and each kid will take a year as far as owning it, of what to contribute and how to use some of these monies and how they can contribute to it. And I only bring that up, not to you know, not to tout or not to say hey, look what we're doing. It's just a matter of. I'm trying to say we're starting a tradition Because I want them to understand that's what they can do as a family and that's where they're going to find true happiness.
Nick Greer:For me, traditions are all about where they can find true legitimate, long term happiness, not that short term, immediate happiness. And that's what they're looking for online and social media. It's like immediate now, now. Now. It's like no, let's talk about big picture, longer term. So a lot of those things that we do, it's. You know, we used to have a tradition every Saturday morning we wake up certain time and it's yard work. But then they knew, at two o'clock we went to the antique store, I mean every single Saturday, and I took my boys because I wanted to teach them how to negotiate for signs, old signs, and that's what we did. It was a tradition for years. That worked for us at that moment of time of life, for my boys to understand okay, this is how I'm going to learn how to go buy things, but it was also kind of cool old signs to at the same time. But I mean, listen, tradition after tradition after tradition, we have it. Just it's it's a bit endless, but they keep adding, we keep that's okay.
Kirk Chugg:I think the theme of this podcast will be traditions.
Cory Moore:Yeah, when adding one at a time, we're always telling people on the podcast hey, you don't, you don't have to do everything that Nick does or everything that Kirk does. Just start with one thing, pick one thing and get, make it a habit and then pick another thing. Right, and I'm sure that's how you guys started when you first had little ones. You know. You didn't start out thinking we're going to have these 30 traditions or these 15 traditions.
Nick Greer:You probably thought let's start out with reading the scriptures, saying the prayer, but that's the problem, corey, is like I think we, we, we definitely look at comparing ourselves to others. And I know I'm not, I'm not trying to be a dead horse here, because we talk about this a lot, but we do view the outside world on, maybe the social media, those goggles that we put on potentially on a daily basis and multiple times in a day, and they're like, well, why aren't we doing that? And then you feel like you have to do it now. Now, now to your point. I love it, I just won. It's just one little one.
Nick Greer:We didn't know we're going to be packing 2000 plus bags every week. It was like, well, there was, there was two schools that needed it, and then three. And then like, okay, it was actually school supplies at first. We did it once, and then the schools like, well, we also need food. We'll win Well, every weekend. And then you start realizing, well, we can do that, so let's just do it. My wife won't fill in up her van. I'll never forget this Going to Costco. I have pictures of it still and my wife would text me. He's like are you serious? Are we adding more schools? I'm like I got to think of a better system. I can't put that much pressure on her to make her feel like she has to be doing this and running it so anyhow. So.
Kirk Chugg:I have a couple of questions with that and the people that might be listening, Because that's a really. I've done some stuff like that with the Rotary Club. They do the Bridge the Gap program during the summertime and I've taken my kids and we've filled sack lunches and handed those out and it's really great for my kids to see Not everybody goes over to the fridge and opens the fridge and sees food that they can eat.
Kirk Chugg:So are you self-funding the 512 program or are there donations that come in, or are you seeking donations to help buy some of these food items that you can pack? Tell us how that's working and if there's anything that we can do as listeners of the podcast, let us help you.
Nick Greer:Oh, you're great. Thank you, kirk. It's always hard for me to ask for money, so we've self-funded it. But so many people have come to the table without us soliciting and just did right checks and we've been very blessed in that and it's always there. It just works. And do we have to self-fund a lot of it? Yeah, but it doesn't bother me. It's more like well, just how many more kids can we feed?
Nick Greer:Because I'm a firm believer that if you're doing good, there's going to be a way. I mean John Huntsman, what he did and the way that he funded that for so many years and he just kept. He was putting everything on the line. He had so much faith and if you read his books and you understand it's beautiful. That's a dad that was teaching his kids in so many different ways. And look what they're doing now and look at the legacy that's left and what's being added to it's just like he knew. It's like well, there's a will, there's a way, and he had faith and he knew through God that he was like all right, it's going to work, so let's go. So it's like how do we do that in even small ways? Like, is there ways just to do that, is there just need 10 kids? Or how do we go help five widows? Or how do we just go say hi to 10 new people and just start off? Small Years ago, when I was teaching at BYU sorry, bear with me, I want to just say this example.
Nick Greer:But I gave him a note card and I brought this up a couple times before, but it was the note card exercise on a Monday. And then on Wednesday I had him come back with 100 different opportunities on that note card and they're like oh, professor Gray, professor Gray, this is so hard, are you serious? And I'm like, yeah, but I want you to drive down the I-15 or the Freeway and say you know what? That billboard's blue, it should be yellow. Or you get this thought I should text my mom. Or you read an article and you're like it has nothing to do with the article. You get this thought in your head and like, oh my gosh, I should go do this. Or I should say hi to that person when I'm walking by her. That little bassinet, it's too small. I'd probably make it more square and not oval, or whatever it may be. I want you to recognize opportunities. They come back and their note card front back just packed, and they're coming back and they're saying, after 30, after 40, after 50, they were flowing in like crazy.
Nick Greer:I believe the same goes with opportunities and everything in life. If we just slow down and just listen a little bit, we're going to see opportunities. How to serve our kids, how to benefit them, how to love on them. We're going to slow down. If we slow down, we can understand how do we go, lift others around us, how to take our kids and involve them in the process. Just start listening, slow down a little bit and listen and, especially as a father, I will tell you right now just slow down, just slow down a titch. I'm trying to slow down a lot more and I've got a lot going on, but I need to slow down even more. But listen and just practice that, and maybe even practice it as far as the note card is concerned, and you start seeing opportunities go all around you.
Cory Moore:Go a little further with that, because you're probably one of the busier guys out there. Lots of us are busy, but with religious obligations, with companies, with the charity with your kids, your wife, I mean there's a lot going on. So how do you slow down and maybe emphasize, how do you give the right attention to everything? I feel like there's times and seasons for everything. It's not necessarily balance, but it's. How do you do it? Maybe even go through, maybe, what your habits are of trying to manage your time and your effort and your focus on all the things that are coming at you.
Nick Greer:Yeah, first off, I would say number one rockstar wife, the greatest wife of all times. It's just the way that she manages our house and our children and I couldn't do anything without her. I mean plain and simple. And there are many out there who may not be in that situation or doing it alone, or maybe it's a little bit rougher situation, and I get that. That's real. Everyone, behind every door of every home, everyone has a problem, Everyone has an issue, Everyone has something they're trying to deal with and they're getting punched right, hook, left, hook, uppercut, left and right, and it is a battle every single day. And so the slowing down aspect for me has changed over the course of my career, over the course of my life. It depends upon where I'm at, based upon what you said, Corey, this season that I may be in Right now it's like I don't schedule any meetings until 10 AM, at the very earliest.
Nick Greer:Why I want my mornings. I don't even set an alarm anymore, except for Sunday mornings. I have to set an alarm. That's a whole different story. I got to make sure I'm up, but I will tell you every other morning, 99.9% of the time, no alarm. I want my body to wake me up and then it's like I know what I've got to do in the morning. I know there's a certain routine, there's certain things I need to study, I need to work on. I need to work on my spirituality. I need to work on that Wall Street Journal Every single morning. I dive deep into it. My books, I dive deep into it. My workout I dive deep into it. It's just my routine. This just works for me.
Nick Greer:But for me this season, right now, my assistant knows nothing before 10. What's crazy? I got an 8 AM meeting tomorrow morning and I'm dying right now, but it's a group coming in from out of town. They're like that's the only time. And I'm like Robin I hate 8 o'clock meetings Because I know what it does to my balance. But my routine it changes and it needs to change. And that balance you talked about well, balance, but not balance. What is that? We all have to do it different. My equation is, and the variables I have to deal with are different than you and you and anyone else, and so it's just a matter of trying to listen to yourself, of how you need to balance that.
Nick Greer:And sometimes I realize there's something very important to one of my daughters. On Thursday I had a very important all day retreat and this morning I woke up and the feeling I had was change it. You can change the retreat, Everyone else can move and you've got to be with your daughter on Thursday. I'm like crap, All right, here we go. All right, you know what? We've got to move everything to Wednesday, move my appointments. There are Wednesdays, We've got to do it next week and then let's do the retreat Wednesday. But my 17-year-old daughter, at a critical time in her life, needs her dad there, and so what I'm going to do she's top priority. She is top priority and I will tell you, for me, in my life, God is number one priority, and when I put Him first, everything else falls in line. Everything falls in line, and he tells me exactly what I need to do and I'm going to follow that to the day I die.
Kirk Chugg:I know that this is true because we rescheduled the podcast once or twice and I think both times were something where something had come up with your family, oh yeah, and you had to be at no of any people that understand this. Corey and I did, but you're practicing this on the regular, and it was Robin texted us or emailed us and said, hey, so sorry, we need to reschedule, but Nick's daughter had I think it was a volleyball tournament. That one was a golf tournament out of town and he has to be to it. I admire that, I really do. You mentioned something about your daily morning routine, about diving deep into books, and you'd mentioned a couple of the Huntsman books, and I love those books. The part where he's borrowing money to pay for his charitable obligations, it just got me, I'm saying, man, he's got big guts.
Nick Greer:He's big guts, that's all I can say.
Kirk Chugg:Yeah, he's amazing, he wasn't mean what books have you read that have really made an impact on you, that maybe you would say these are my must reads.
Nick Greer:Wow, it's like that typical question, right, like what books? Books have always been hard for me because I can recommend a book and someone's like what is this going to do for me? And I believe I've read multiple books multiple times, but I needed it at multiple different times in my life. And one of my favorite books and I've read it four times because in this stage of my life I need it and that's Shoe Dog. You know Phil Knight and the whole story. I know I have four different times.
Cory Moore:So I look at my favorite books a lot of time. Why?
Nick Greer:Why is it your favorite book?
Cory Moore:I think it's the perseverance, I think it's the I know how hard business can be and he just keeps going and keeps going and he tells it in a really great story like way you know, plus you know the success of the book after I. Just there's just so many similarities to totally our lives. You know it never give up.
Nick Greer:But yeah, but how slow it was for so many years, for forever, forever. And you don't realize that and you appreciate, ok, the grind and the absolute grind is the greatest things that happen in life. It takes time. It takes time and we talk about traditions earlier. It takes time to build traditions. It takes generations and you only hope that then you know, by the time you're done on this earth, then your next generation and the next couple are taking that and building upon it.
Nick Greer:But I would tell you one of the most impactful books for me. Besides, you know, on a spiritual standpoint, as far as the scriptures are concerned, I would tell you how will you measure your life, by Clayton Christensen. I mean, that is a book that I remember reading and I was on a plane and it helped me make the decision. I've got to leave my company. I got to tell the board. I was going to a board meeting and I had sold the business a year and a half before and I was staying on, I was running it and with the board meeting I'm like you guys, I'm done and in three months I'm out. And they were furious, they were upset, they said you're going to throw away a ton of money and I just said, well, no, this is what I need to do and this is what's important to me. And so I'm so grateful for the way that Clayton Christensen has written his books and the way he thinks, and I love to follow that model in so many different ways.
Nick Greer:All the Malcolm Gladwell books are great about halfway through, and then it starts repeating itself. Every single time I feel like I'm like OK, so read half of his book and you'll get it, every single book. But I love books. I definitely love books. I wish I had more time to read them, a lot more time, in fact. I turn off my phone. I tell you I'm audible. Is two speed, two X speed. Money. I'm on the treadmill, the best, that's, that's the way to do it.
Cory Moore:You get good at it too. I do the exact same thing. My wife's like how do you do it Right? Yeah, but once you're used to it, you can't you actually can't turn it back down because it's boring One.
Kirk Chugg:it was like no, no.
Cory Moore:Exactly so. Talk to us about some of the things that your parents did that you feel like influenced you to become the person you are today. When you look back, what are some things whether they be traditions or maybe values that were instilled in you, that you've tried to instill in your kids?
Nick Greer:You know a couple of things right. When you said that came to my mind. Every time we went on vacation, it was all about where we ate and my dad. It didn't matter what the cost or anything else. It was like. To him it was the experience of the eating, the eating experience, and so I've carried that tradition on as far as making sure it's like, guys, we're going to eat good and that's how you remember it.
Cory Moore:It sounds like your dad was a bit of a foodie.
Nick Greer:It was great and I look back on that and I was so grateful because it's like let's go, we can order soda. You didn't have to ask, you just did it. And it was always great food and great experiences. One of the things that I was taught by my dad at an early age was how to take risk and it was like don't be afraid. And it was constantly teaching me. It's like well, let's take it, we'll start that business, you have that idea. And so he instilled into me where the confidence in myself to give me that self-assurance of, well, when I have an idea, I can just start it, I can just do it. Well, why not, instead of asking why he was telling me, well, why not? And so I can't tell you. Business after business after business, after concept after concept, after whatever. It was, even down to buying and selling fireworks illegally in Arizona when I was in junior high. It was just like it worked and it was just so fun to teach me that model or that pattern of taking risk and not being afraid to take risk, but then also, the same time, teaching me at the same time of, when you see successes, how do you build off of those successes, how do you increase the momentum from those successes? And I was so grateful for that.
Nick Greer:On my mom, with my mom it was just that sweetness, that tenderness. I love that her little 5-foot-3 frame to be able to give her hugs. She was always giving me hugs. I always felt love Every time I came in that home. There was love constantly there. I knew I was loved and how could you ask for anything more than that as a child to know you are loved, no matter where you're at, even if you've got to be in not an A or a C and not an A? That was my dad's. He had an issue on that one. You get an A, he's like why not an A plus?
Nick Greer:I'm like well, hold on a second dad, but you just always felt like, just loved, and I was so grateful for that every time I came home and what a blessing that was and I hope I only hope and pray that I can even be a fraction of that to my own kids.
Kirk Chugg:I'm going to ask you a loaded question. Load it up. When your time on Earth is through, what do you want your legacy to be?
Nick Greer:Oh man, you know it's so funny and I'm going to answer this a little bit differently than I did the other night, because I asked my kids that same question as we sat around the campfire at that family reunion and it was interesting because I told them to give me one word and we went around. It was wonderful. I'm gonna get a little spiritual here so I'm not gonna apologize for that, but I want to tell you this is just who I am. I want them to know and I want everyone to know that I keep my covenants. I what I promise, I follow through with.
Nick Greer:I'm a believer in Jesus Christ and I will talk about Jesus Christ until the day I die. I love my Savior, I love Jesus and I wish people would talk about Jesus more and I want them to know like he was never afraid to talk about Jesus Christ because he is my older brother, he is my Savior, he is my redeemer, he's my advocate, he is my rock and I can't wait to meet him and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to get to know him at least a little bit more here on this earth. I want people to know that about me, like, wow, that man loves God, he loves Jesus Christ and he talks about him all the time. It's like, yeah, I don't just talk about him, but I want to emulate him, I want to be like him. I want to have every single characteristic like him, or at least a fraction of those characteristics, and that's what I want to be remembered by. And so the greatest of that is love.
Nick Greer:I want people to know I love him. I want them to know that when I see him they man, that guy's kind of weird, but he just I feel like he loves me. Yeah, that's me. That's what I hope for. That's loaded and that was a little bit of a loaded answer there, but you asked it. You gave me that little softball pitch and I took it.
Kirk Chugg:I said lobbed it up, I took it. Well, I think that's a very admirable legacy to leave. I mean, what more could you ask for?
Nick Greer:Yeah.
Cory Moore:Yeah, thanks for sharing that with us.
Nick Greer:Yeah, I got a little real. I don't know if they do that here on this podcast, but we like real, love real.
Kirk Chugg:Yeah, we never sanitize anything, like the people that come on the podcast get to be themselves. Yeah, totally so if that. If that offends you, sorry, there are lots of other podcasts.
Nick Greer:And I will never apologize for that myself.
Cory Moore:So I think we need a little bit more of that in our in our world today. Like you said, you talked about faith a couple of times. Certainly you know your religious faith, your faith in being able to achieve things, your faith in listening to promptings, your faith in having confidence that your dad instilled. So maybe a little bit more on where do you gain, when does your faith come from, and how do you instill that idea of faith in your kids?
Nick Greer:Right, no, I love the question. I would tell you I'm going to bring it back to business real fast. You know, for me it's, it's a. You know, success is a cure all. I'm a firm believer in that. And so when you can create wins and victories, W I N? S and victories, you know people start becoming believers. They start seeing, oh, because most people don't have vision. And so you try to share it. And you know, as business leaders, you understand you try to share a vision. They don't see it, but you've got to make believers out of it, out of non believers. And so for me, in a business world, it's like Okay, how do I create an instant win or get to a win or victory fast? And so that win will actually create momentum and that momentum can create bigger wins and bigger opportunities. Right, and then those believers start coming in and they're like what? I want to sign up, yet I want to be part of this great Come on board and this is how we're going to continue to grow from this. And so that's how I've grown businesses in the past.
Nick Greer:Well, with faith, it's no different in a lot of ways, where it's like I need little wins, I need little victories. I just need a little like just feeling like you know what, I'm being heard, I'm being listened to, I'm being noticed, but sometimes it just takes a little victory. So maybe you need to flip the pistol around and say, well, if I need a victory, maybe I can help someone else get a victory. If I need to win, maybe I can help someone else get a win. If I need to feel like I'm wanted, maybe I can help someone else feel wanted. And so it's like, well, maybe I need to look at this in a different light to actually gain that faith and gain that momentum, in a way where I'm like, okay, you know what, I'm expecting people to come to me. Maybe I just need to go to them and just reach out to them and okay, so I'm gonna pray today. Who do I need to help today? Who do I need to help? And then you're like, why did I think of you? Know, old man withers down the street. All right, I'll just go by, just slap, you know, just slap my five, and say, hey, how's it going? And you know, or it could be, I just need to text this person and just say what's up, man, just been thinking about you. Hope. You're awesome. Now, at the end of the day, it's like you feel victorious when the person reaches back out and then you create a win.
Nick Greer:So for me, with faith, faith you build at those building blocks of faith and you have to continue to build off. Of those people like in, who have lost their faith and lost hope, I would say it's like Okay, how do you just get it in a very small way. And when they're in a dark place, that's real and they don't feel like it's possible, and that that inner self is saying it's not possible to gain that faith, it's not possible to have that hope. It is dark and it's never gonna be light again. Great, can I just tell you, you are an incredible soul.
Nick Greer:And when they tell me that, when they tell me that they're in a dark place, I'm like Can I just say Can I just celebrate right now that you're actually sitting here with me? Can I get my spiritual pom-poms out and just root you on and just say Thank you for being here with me, slap you high five and like we're good, we don't need to talk about anything else. And they're like Well, what are you talking about? And then you start creating a little bit of confidence in who they are, their self assurance, and then start gaining that faith back that they actually can get that momentum back going again. And so I mean that's a roundabout answer to actual faith itself. But I believe faith is something you have to continually build upon, and when it's as small as helpless or hopeless, then how do we just create just one victory, give me one win, create something that puts those rally caps on so you have a little bit of hope like we can win this game. We can win this.
Kirk Chugg:So you know, my thought is right now I wish my kids were listening to this at this moment, but I'm definitely going to send this to my 14 years to listen to, because I think what you just described of helping others achieve helps you. Achieve like it builds you and out of like a selfish nature you're never going to. You're never going to go out and say I'm going to do this because it's going to help me. But you realize over time, every time I help somebody, it builds and lifts myself Absolutely. And that's really the secret of joy, not happiness, but like. Actual joy is being in the service of other people and you rise with everyone that you help, right, because the minute that you turn inside and start thinking about yourself, you've you've lost the ability to help other people, which is really where the true happiness is found.
Nick Greer:So I've told my kids.
Kirk Chugg:that's like the secret of life. You know, if you want to know the secret of life, I'll give you the cheat code. And you just did it a lot more eloquently than I ever have with my kids. So I'm going to make sure that they listen to that, because that's I really do believe, that I I you know what I would say to your your?
Nick Greer:you said four teenagers. Yeah, is it four? I would tell them their capacity is incredible. They've been saved at this time to make a massive impact and they have no idea how great their capacity is and they have no idea the impact that they can make, not just in their like house, not just in their community, but in the world.
Nick Greer:I sat down with a young man yesterday and I and I'm sitting there and also I get this feeling he's not going to have an impact on 10, 100 or 1000 people. I told him, I said you're going to have an impact on a nation. And I looked at him and I said I don't know what that means, but you better come back to me in five years and tell me what nation that was and what you're going to do with that. And you've got a responsibility and you better rise up to this occasion because, boy, you are incredible and God saved you for these days to do some incredible things. And he's looking at me like, oh, shoot, like me, are you sure Me? I'm like, yes, all I know is you better go and do and go conquer. And I would tell your four kids are you kid made you know your capacity and the impact that you're going to make and can make. Go do it and watch the miracles occur around you. That's what I would tell them.
Kirk Chugg:Hear that kids. Yeah, that's for you guys. That's a good message. Thank you, nick, and you didn't pay me for that, by the way. No, I didn't, I didn't. You paid me and bill bars. For some reason, the payment's going the other way, so I'm hoping I instilled that in my kids.
Cory Moore:You know unconditional love, faith, confidence, ability to become more than they think they can be. Good stuff.
Nick Greer:Amen. I loved this podcast.
Kirk Chugg:Yeah, I did. I absolutely loved it, and I can think of like 100 people that are going to like it, and just in my own personal circle. So if this podcast did that for you, to make sure and share it with those people, that you've been prompted to share it with Nick, at the end of every podcast, we ask our guest one question, and that is what they think it means to be a gentleman. Would you answer that question for us?
Nick Greer:Yeah, I mean, the first thought that came to my mind was it was just the opposite of a gentleman or a gentleman, it's the woman.
Nick Greer:And how I treat those women around me and how do I love them and how do I revere them, how my partners with them, especially in my case my wife. So a gentleman or a gentleman, truly, you know, don't put themselves first, but they put others first. And it's for me, it's that good woman that sits right next to me in that partnership and that we have that companionship, that we're doing some mighty great things here upon this earth, and I sure hope that I can just stay up with her and just do half of what she can do and what she's doing. And so you know for that that that makes a gentleman, and that gentleman is because of those women who they surround themselves with. So that was the first thought that just came to my mind. I didn't know you would ask that question, but I was like, immediately, I can just see my wife sitting next to me and I was like it's the woman.
Kirk Chugg:I know it sounds a little bit unique. No, no, it's awesome, it is unique and that's the power and the magic of that question, right? Yeah, we've asked it 108 times and we've never had the same answer twice. That's great. So thank you for sharing that with us. I do believe that it is impossible to be a gentleman without showing respect to women. Yeah, it is impossible. Amen. Thank you, nick. Thank you for joining us, taking your time out of your busy schedule. I've really enjoyed the conversation. Hopefully we get to hear more from you. I wish you had a podcast. I'd listen to it.
Cory Moore:It would be good. He's got enough on his plate. One more thing to do Nick.
Kirk Chugg:One more thing to do when you start a podcast, Don't do it. We could have you back on the Gentleman Project podcast anytime, whenever you like, anytime.
Nick Greer:Thank you for the opportunity.
Cory Moore:We could definitely put another hour in with him. No, problem?
Nick Greer:This guy talks a ton.
Kirk Chugg:No no Fantastic content.
Cory Moore:Thanks for being on.
Kirk Chugg:All right, everybody, you got your marching orders. If you've felt a prompting to share this podcast with somebody that popped into your head, make sure that you follow that Act on each good thought. I'm Kirk Jug.
Cory Moore:I'm Corey Moore. Have a great day.
