OSR 003: Nate Holzapfel from Mission Belts talks about life, passion, and the mission

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In this episode we will talk about:

I have a very special interview to share with you his name is Nate Holzapfel he is the creator of the Mission Belt Co.  I first heard of Nate when I was watching Shark Tank with my wife Vanessa.  We saw Nate pitch his Mission Belt Company to the sharks.  Once I hear him talk about his company I knew I had to get him on the podcast.  I wanted him to get on the OSR podcast because of his passion, intensity, and determination twards his business and life.  During his pitch Nate talked about what he did when he arrived in L.A. for the shooting of the show.  Nate decided to work and took 20 Mission Belts and knocked door to door and within a few hours he sold all of his belts.  Most people would go to a fancy restaurant, a bar, or just sight see.  Not Nate Holzapfel.  That is a man that loves what he does.   That is what passion is all about.

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In this session you’ll discover:

• Why Nate started Mission Belt Co.
• What Nate did when he was turned down three times from friends when he asked them for finical support
• How Nate has self confidence to talk to anyone
• You will hear how Nate was raised and about his family
• Why Nate has no t.v. and lives a very simple life
• How you can find your passion just like Nate
• How you can become confident and comfortable no matter who you are.
• Why Nate does not set goals.
• How to find ways to let the money roll in.
• Why giving is a huge corner stone in the Mission Belt Company’s business plan.

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Links:

• www.missionbelts.com
• Mission Belt Co. on Facebook
• Mission Belt Co. on Instagram
• Scaling Down : Living Large in a Smaller Space
• On Combat, The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace
• The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Classic Collector’s Edition: Includes The Classic Giles and Full Length Translations
• Three Men on the Bummel
• www.thenatestateofmind.com
• www.nateholzapfel.com

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Leave Me a Voice Message with your Questions or Feedback…!

If you have a question or comment, no matter if it’s a constructive criticism, praise, or just feedback in general, feel free to visit my voice mail page to quickly and easily leave me a message.  You can also always send me an email at jake@operationselfrest.com; I will get back to you as soon as possible.

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[spoiler]Welcome to Operation Self Reset: the one and only place to change the way you think, act, and believe in yourself. My name is Jake Nawrocki, and I am here to reset your life. So let’s begin.

Hey, guys, and welcome back to another great episode of Operation Self Reset: the one and only place to change the way you think, act, and believe in yourself. And today is the new opportunity to change the person you are to the person that you have always dreamed of. Before we jump into the contents of the show today, I just want to reach out and say thank you again for the comments, concerns, the ideas, and suggestions you guys have sent to me via email and also the comments on the website at OperationSelfReset.com. And feel free to post a review of this podcast—if you love it, you hate it, or you want some more of it. I think that was a song or something; I don’t know. But any suggestions or any comments are greatly, greatly appreciated.

Today, we have our first interview in the OSR podcast, and I am extremely excited to bring this gentleman on. I am so honored to have him on the podcast. He is very exciting to talk to, very inspirational, and also, too, you get motivated after you listen to this guy. So the reason why I brought on our guest today is because I saw him on the Shark Tank. Now I don’t know if you guys know what the Shark Tank is. The Shark Tank is basically a person comes on in to a group of five investors, and that person either has an invention and an idea or he is already selling a product. It can be food-related. It can be a gadget, a gizmo. It could be a clothing line, jewelry, whatever it is; anything goes in the Shark Tank. So this guy comes in, he pitches his product to the investors, and the investors either like it or they don’t and they exchange a percentage of the company for a certain amount of cash—to give you kind of the Cliffs Notes version of the Shark Tank.

So my wife and I, Vanessa, were sitting down Friday night just hanging out, enjoying TV, and the Shark Tank was on. And I love the Shark Tank, so I turn it on. Vanessa, not so much—she’s not a fan. But I will tell you what, in a couple of months I think I will have her dialed in and she’ll be enjoying it just as I do. As we’re watching the Shark Tank, halfway through the show on comes a guy named Nate Holzapfel, and he is the creator/inventor of Mission Belt Company. You can check out his products at MissionBelt.com, and basically his product is reinventing the belt because I am raising my hand because I actually own a few belts. I know, call me ridiculous and a trendsetter, but I think you guys might have a couple of belts too. So I think we have a couple of things in common. Hmm, interesting. So, long story short: he invented a new type of belt that is basically a zip tie for your waist. Instead of having the eyelets in the belt itself, it’s kind of a ratcheting feel of the belt. There’re no holes. It’s real streamlined, clean-cut, has a really cool design, really cool belt buckle, and you can interchange the belt buckle. The belt comes in different colors and different styles and everything like that.

And so he gets on the Shark Tank, and right away from the get-go this guy knocks it out of the park. I mean, he has the dedication; he has the passion for this company just beaming off of him. He comes in there with all the questions, all the answers, and he’s ready to go. At the end of this meeting with the sharks, he gets his deal, but the guy just had an amazing story not only about how he created his product but his life story and why he is dedicated to it and how determined he is to see this product succeed. I don’t want to ruin the interview that I have with him, so I’m gonna kind of leave this a little open-ended. But one thing that I want to say about Nate, this is just mind-blowing how he was able to get back to me so fast and considering this is a newer podcast and I emailed him basically I would say around 11 a.m. on Monday, and I received a phone call from him probably about two hours later. I wasn’t even expecting anything from this guy. I thought he was gonna be so swamped with coming off the Shark Tank and having all these investors talk to him and other people wanting to get him on TV shows and just the local news wherever he’s living. So I was thinking to myself, “There’s no way this Nate guy is gonna come on the show, right?”

Well, sure enough, he gives me a call and says, “Hey, Jake, you know what? I saw that you’re doing a podcast. I’d love to come on. You know, I’ve got the next half hour open. Give me a call and we’ll chat.” I’m thinking, “Holy beep.” And I’m running to my desk. I’m organizing all my stuff. I turn my on computer. I’m trying to get into Skype and get the mikes all set up and stuff like that, and I called Nate. I say, “Oh my god, Nate, thank you so much for doing this.” He says, “No problem. You know, I’m a humble guy. You know what, I’m very blessed to be in this position. I just want to share my knowledge and share my insight.” And I say, “Perfect.” So I sat down with him. We had about 35-40 minutes of conversation. An amazing guy and I think the OSR community will greatly, greatly appreciate Nate’s wisdom, passion, and just figuring out that there’s more to life than the gizmos, the cars, the lifestyle of the rich and famous, and how to just live your life the way it was meant to be.

I want the community to know that I’m not bringing on inventors and people that started businesses because I want you guys to start a business or to find the invention that’s within your head. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m trying to reach out to individuals that have put themselves out there, that have got past the fears, the letdowns, have struggled. The people that have eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for years on end to see their product succeed. Their minds are like a well-oiled machine. These are the people we need to learn from. It’s not about the process on how did he find a manufacturer for the belt. It’s not about the process of how did he think of the graphic design for the logo. It’s about his mindset and the way that he believes in himself every single day to wake up and trust that this product is going to sell. And he’s doing it for all the right reasons: he’s not doing it for the fancy cars or the fancy lifestyle. He’s doing it because of his family. He’s doing it because he knows that this is his passion, and he’s doing it because this is him. He’s not here to impress anybody else. He’s doing it because he loves doing it. So sit back; don’t relax because you’re probably gonna want to get out a pen and paper to write down all of the great information Nate has to share with us. And here is Nate from Mission Belt Company. Check him out at MissionBelt.com and here we go.

Today we have a special guest. His name is Nate Holzapfel. How do you say that, Nate?

That’s Holzapfel. You got it right, man.

Alright, perfect, perfect. He is from Mission Belt. He was recently on Shark Tank, and he nailed it and I had to get him on the podcast so hopefully we can pick his brain and see how is mind is operating and kicking butt in the business world. And, Nate, again thank you so much for joining me. Let’s just dive right into this because I know you’re a very busy man. First of all, your product is a belt, and what I saw on Shark Tank was basically seeing you be passionate about what you’re trying to sell and being dedicated and confident. Do you mind kind of diving into that and your mindset when you’re producing this belt?

Absolutely. So, I’m a, I’m a very intense person. I’m laid back and I’m one of the chillest guys you’ll ever meet in your life. I don’t get angry. I don’t get upset. I don’t yell, but I’m very passionate about what I, what I do in my time and whatever that is. Every job I’ve ever had in my life I’ve made it my point to do it as very, very well as I possible can, and if you really love something you will find success. You can’t chase the success with things, quantitative things like money or whatever. You’ve got to chase your passion and all those things come.

Yeah, and how do you find your passion? A lot of people that are listening to this podcast are kind of confused and in that state of I hate my job, that things aren’t going well for me. Do you have any suggestions of sharing ways for people to find that internal desire that you’ve found?

Yes. 100%. So the trick in life that I’ve noticed for me is finding out what truly makes you happy. I’m talking about, I’m talking about raw, what really makes you happy, not about what sorts of topographical things, you know, seem to make you happy or you think will make you happy. A lot of guys think, “Well, I’ll go out and I’ll buy a Ferrari and that’ll make me happy.” And the reality of it is most people are not happy when they buy a Ferrari. They think they are cause it’s hard but at the end of the day they’re really not happy. It doesn’t change them. For me, I like ping-pong. Ping-pong makes me very happy, so I think about how I can play more ping-pong or whatever that is. So find that passion, find what you’re excited about; find out about you. As soon as you find out who you are, then you will be able to broadcast you to everybody else, and most people are pretty wonderful but nobody ever knows because there’s so much stuff they’ve got to get through to find out who’s who. With me, you know exactly what you’re getting, and people like that. And I like that. And it’s very, very easy to be me. A lot of people ask me if Shark Tank was difficult or hard. It wasn’t. I was just being myself, and people respond to that, you know? You’ve got to know your stuff. You’ve got to work it; you’ve got to want it. No one will ever give it to you: you’ve got to take it.

For sure. For sure. Quick input there: I love ping-pong too, man. I just got into it and I’m in love with it. It is an awesome, awesome sport.

You can play until the day you die. It’s fun. You know, you can play it with kids. You can play it with your girlfriend. You can play it competitively. It’s fantastic to chill. It doesn’t cost a lot of money. I love it.

Oh, for sure. Exactly, exactly. When you were going through and producing the belt and getting everything going were there any times of self doubt? Was anybody affecting you going, “You know what? This is a stupid idea, Nate. Why are you wasting your time with a stupid belt”? Was there any negative feeling surrounding you?

Well, there’s always people who will try to take away from what you’re trying to do. A lot of people look for negativity and they look for things to tear down because if you go out and do something that’s great—whatever it is—whether you hit a home run in your baseball game in Little League or it’s a business or trying to date some cute girl. It doesn’t matter: there’s gonna people who hate on you for doing that. It’s 100% because if you’re doing something and they’re not able to do it then somehow there’s something wrong with them. A lot of people build themselves up by tearing down others. So there’s always gonna be that. And I remember specifically when I started, you know, the idea of doing this. I remember there was a couple different guys who, you know, I went to and said, “Hey, look, do you want to put some money together and be a partner on this with me?” And I got turned down three times, all in the same week. And these are all people that would give me money for any other projects except belts. They thought that was crazy. Oh, that’s too boring. It’s not exciting enough; it’s not fun enough. And when the third person told me no, that’s when I knew I had a total hit on my hands. So I, I quit my job, went crazy, took the money I had saved up, and just went full bore on Mission Belt Co.

Nice. And when you went full out, obviously you were kind of nervous. I mean, quitting your job and kind of resetting your life in a direction that you just crave and you know that you wanted, obviously you kind of stepped outside the box. And where was your self confidence during that time?

You’ve got to have self confidence. So, you know, trusting yourself and knowing your weaknesses and your strengths. There’s a lot of things, I, I have two business partners besides Daymond John and they make it all work. I get up there and I can sell the belts. I’m a fun, exciting guy—great. But they’re the ones who make all the real math happen. They handle production. They handle shipping right now standing in the back of a warehouse and there’s 30 employees hurriedly wrapping up product and mailing it out to people all over the, the nation and the world. And they make all that happen. That’s something that I was, you know, I knew I couldn’t handle it. So recognizing yourself and knowing yourself: it’s back to that. Knowing what you can handle and then figuring out who can help you get to that next level.

Right. You know there’s a lot of people out there that have great ideas on certain products and inventions and whatever and I made a product—real quick—called TailgateSpotter. It was for a truck because things fell out of my pickup truck, and my biggest thing that I realized once I finalized my product was putting it out there and going, “Oh my gosh, I got to sell this now to my friends and family, and people are gonna laugh at me” and stuff like that and just doing the hustle. And when I heard your story, I don’t know if you wouldn’t mind sharing a couple minutes here about how you went to California when you were about to film the show what you did in your spare time. Would you mind sharing that?

Yeah, it’s, it’s a funny story. I wasn’t trying to tell the story to talk about how cool I was which was how it ended up being. I was just making a point that it’s a product that everybody wants. When I got to Los Angeles I decided that I didn’t want to sit around in my hotel room and do nothing, so I put some belts in my bag, walked out to the street, starting knocking doors in West Hollywood, and sold some belts. And to me, that’s just, that’s what you do. You want to do something, you just get going. You get going crazy on it, and everybody thought that was really cool. I mean, it just seems normal to me. It’s just me being me, doing what I do, doing what I think is, you know, the very best thing. I mean, no one’s gonna work harder on my business than me. So if I don’t put in 100%, I can’t ever expect anyone else to come even close. So I do those things to really get out there and just really go for it.

Right. Now you sound like a very dedicated, you have the confidence like nobody else—was this instilled in you as a child or did you grow into this?

No, I was very confident as a child, and I’ll tell you one of the things that made, you know, one of the things, I was a late bloomer for starters.

Sure.

Very, very, very late. I didn’t, I didn’t stop growing until I was probably 24. But as a young man, as a boy, my parents, we didn’t watch TV growing up. My dad only let me play with like Legos and things like that, very, a very conscientious set of parents. We weren’t rich growing up. My dad was poor. He was a student until I was about 14. My dad’s got a Ph.D. and very well educated.

Nice.

I barely graduated high school myself though. I mean, I’m not a smart person, not by any means. And, you know, it’s having the freedom to make choices when I was a child about what I wanted to wear to school and be able to be me and do my own thing was definitely helpful. But as I found out more about being me in my early 20s, being me and finding out who I really was and not about all the peripheral stuff that’s really not you, that’s, you know, that’s so many things that the world wants and the world tells you it’s cool to do this. Like, I don’t even own a television.

Wow.

So I’m pretty, I’m a pretty weird dude. I mean, you know, I’m, I’m pretty bizarre for sure.

No, not weird. You’re just different and unique and you know what? You’re killing it because a lot of people—like we talked about right before you were getting on the podcast here—how they want to contact you and pick your brain and they want speeches from you and all this stuff.

I’ve had companies call me that want me to endorse Tupperware for them. I’ve got a place that wants me to, just wanted me to lose 30-40 lbs and, you know, and then do a before and after thing and then, you know, do an infomercial for them. I mean, it’s, you know, it’s, it’s crazy, you know, but that’s the thing is though is if you will be yourself and you will, you will find your core, your center, your you, your passion, people respond to that. Because, you know, when you look at, when you look at whatever brand, you look at a big, a big brand, a golf brand or whatever, they hire professional golfers to endorse their product. Why? They do it to add realism, to add identity to their product and so when, when, when you’re you, people want that. They want that authenticity. So being yourself is, it’s really, really important.

Yeah, and how do you be yourself? People will get wrapped up in the whole I want to be cool and popular and have the fancy cars and they’re in this separate world and really their true personality. Do you have any suggestions to those people that are caught in that fake self per se?

Absolutely. I’m a recovered pack rat. I am a true minimalist. I’ve been a minimalist for eight years.

Awesome. Good for you.

I read a book that, that spoke to me and it just, it just spoke to me, and then.

What is that book?
You’re gonna laugh. It’s called Scaling Down: Living Large in a Smaller Space.

Okay.

By Marj Decker. And it’s a book, it’s actually geared towards people, you know, scaling down their lives and living a more simple life, and the reason I, when I read it—I read everything. I’ve read, how many books? I can’t even remember. But I just, it was one I read and it spoke to me, and I said, “Okay, I’m gonna find out about being me.” It sent me on this past of finding out that I am and once you find out who you are there’s nothing to hide. I don’t want a Ferrari. It doesn’t interest me. Ferraris—not interesting to me at all. Ping-pong table’s totally interesting. Big house? Not interesting. Swimming pool? Very interesting. So there’s things I like and things I don’t, and I think, you know, as you go down the path of life and, and you can, you can figure out really what makes you happy. But your life is like a drawer, there’s only so much room in it for things. You know, everybody has that junk drawer at their house with just tons of stuff in it?

Right.

There’s no way to make sense out of it, and your life is like that. You’ve got to get rid of everything. I just realized it. I don’t, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do that and you figure out the two or three things that you’re good at or that you like and then you push those things. You push that, that you, you’re that product. You push that product. You become you. You sell you and people. You don’t have to be like me. You don’t have to be a salesman. You don’t have to be, you know, but be confident and aware of what you’re able to do. I never make excuses. I never, when I make a mistake, I’m the first person to say, “I’m a total idiot.”

Yeah.

Cause I am, you know? I mean, nobody’s infallible. But sticking to those types of things and being confident about who you are, and there’s a big difference between confidence and cockiness. Nobody likes somebody who’s cocky, you know?

Right. For sure.
It’s just horrible. A lot of people will tell you in life that there’s the haves and the have-nots. It’s not true. There’s the selfish and there’s the selfless. And people who are truly selfless, they don’t mind taking the blame for something that they shouldn’t be doing. They don’t have a problem with, you know, being themselves and accepting mistakes, accepting imperfections and that’s very important.

Yeah. For sure. Now, along your journey here, you said you read a lot of books. Do you have any top two books, top three books that you would just say everybody has to read?

Yeah, absolutely. There’s a, I’ll give you a couple that are, that are really worth reading. There’s a book out by Colonel Dave Grossman. It’s called On Combat. It’s an interesting thing. It will teach you about the human brain, and it’s about the, it’s about the muscle memories and the triggers. The premise is basically that we do not rise to our ability; we sink to the level of our training. And that’s true for anything; it’s not just for soldiers. It’s true for you in your daily life. Sun Tzu Art of War. It sounds like I read a lot of war books, but that one’s really good. And, and I would totally recommend another book that’s just phenomenal. It’s, it’s kind of a, it’s kind of a different book, but it’s, it’s a great read and it’s called Three Men on a Bummel. It’s a good laugh, and if you like to read and you like a good laugh. It’s by Jerome K. Jerome. It’s old but it’s funny.

Yeah. For sure. Okay, great. Hey, I appreciate that. And also too, going off of your education, you feel you’re not a smart guy, obviously, but you have the street smarts like nobody else. Do you ever use your education as a crutch or do you use it as a springboard into going, “You know what? I know my abilities are not in the educational department, but my abilities are on the street, the hustle, the downright I’m just gonna make this thing work.”

It’s a crazy world we live in. the year’s 2013. I’m wearing a bathing suit right now. I’m not wearing, you know, any socks, and I, I mean this is what I wear every day. I don’t look like a bum, but I, I wear whatever I feel like doing. And it’s a strange thing that, you know, I, I don’t pretend to be anything I’m not, and people accept that. The reality of it is at the end of the day is nobody cares if you wear cufflinks or drive a fancy car or show up with a, you know, whatever it is. People want to make sure that they’re dealing with somebody who can actually do what they say they’re gonna do.

Right.
And, you know, not leave you hanging high and dry. That’s what’s important. Everything else, it’s all peripheral and it’s, it’s all, it’s all hard to read through.

Right. Right. During the progress, and obviously you’re still growing this business. Obviously, you have kind of launched into outer space here. Do you set goals for yourself or do you kind of flow with it—you adjust accordingly?

I think goals are important. I do not sell myself on a goal or a daily thing. I don’t write down a list of things that I’m trying to accomplish this year. I find that when you do that, for me personally, when you do that you psych yourself out because you say, “Well, I want to be this person in one year. I want to be this guy in five years.” Some, some newspaper called me two days ago, and they asked me, “Where is Nate Holzapfel gonna be in 15 years?” I don’t, I don’t have any clue.

Okay.

But I know thing for sure, I’m gonna be playing ping-pong. You know what I mean? Like that’s, that’s a fact. That’s something I can accept now. I can do now. So I don’t really worry about, you know, daily goals or anything like that, but absolutely time management is the key to success.

Yeah. Right.

People who manage their time win. People who don’t, don’t. And I’ll tell you honestly, a lot of people they don’t manage their time well. They get stuck doing things that are, you know, unimportant—shopping for things they want to buy one day. You don’t want to do that. You don’t want to do a lot of shopping. You want to spend a lot of time thinking about what you’re gonna do to create security for yourself and your family. And the thing that’s so strange about it is as you go through life and you find when you stop chasing these things, you stop chasing girls and girls ask you out. You stop chasing money and the money rolls in.

Yeah.

Everything in life is like that. Stop, stop trying to be everybody’s friend and everyone will like you. You don’t have to be the life of the party. People will like you.

Man. Dude, Nate, you are crushing this. I appreciate it. You are giving so much valuable information. When you say time management, obviously you live a very minimalist life. Obviously, you don’t have a TV. You must have a smartphone, correct?

I have a smartphone. I live and die by technology.

You do. Okay.

I have the very best laptop money can buy. I always have the very, very best. I have the very best phone I can buy, and I have the unlimited plans. I get everything so data can be transferred quickly and fastly. To me, information is power.

For sure.

But that being said, I probably only own ten changes of clothes and two pairs of shoes.

That is awesome. That is awesome. Basically, if a friend came up to you, your best friend was like, “Nate, man, you’re doing so good, so successful. I don’t want to work for your company. I want to start my own kind of thing. I want to figure out who I am. I want to find my true calling in life.” What steps or what would you say to guide him in that direction?

The path to finding yourself is simple, but it’s not easy. And I, I would, I actually have had people come to me and do this and, you know, I really at the end of the day it’s, it boils back down to that thing. I’m not about you. You can, I can ask a series of questions. If you wanted to, we could sit here for another 35-40 minutes, and I could ask you the appropriate questions and I could break it down to a point where you would be able to find out what you want. I can’t tell you. No one can tell you.

Right. Right.

But you find out what things really make you happy. Asking questions, asking these deeper questions that require you to come out and be yourself. Once we identified the things you wanted, then we can move forward and say, “Okay, this is what we’re gonna cut and change and do this.” And a lot of people want to start a business, but they’re not willing to sacrifice. You, literally, have to make the sacrifice. You’ve got to [jump up 24:07] from your job. You’ve got to, you know, maybe not drive a nice car, not go out to dinner. I mean, it’s just, you’ve got to. There’s some people who are born with money and they don’t have to worry about anything, and that’s great. But if you’re like me, you have to make it—no risk, no reward. And the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. And betting on myself is easy because I know what I’m capable of and I know me. So it’s a hedge bet.

Right.

So, you know, when, when friends come to me and ask me, “Hey, Nate, what’s this?” I, I’ll take the time to go through it and say, “Look, let’s find out about you.” And I actually have a friend who is making huge changes in his life right now. It’s incredible to watch. And he’s not starting his own company, but his happiness level, I’d say it’s three times higher than it was.

Awesome.

He’s figuring out about him. He’d gone through a miserable divorce—a bad, bad, bad situation. And all these different things that, you know, he thought, “Hey, my life’s falling apart.” At the end of the day, his life is not falling apart; his life is fine.

Right, right. Yeah, the way I kind of got inspired was a friend of mine. He had a couple of blood clots that traveled through his body, and he’s 28 years old, like myself. And it was really like a, “Wow. Life is really precious.” Every single day that we’re able to wake up we’ve got to make the most out of it. I will say, I have clutter in my house, but I know the benefits of living the minimalist life. And you know what? I stopped going out and I stopped watching TV because I want this podcast. I want to become a true motivational speaker. I want to interview some just great, successful, motivating individuals that just kick it in life. And that’s why I have you on here. But to kind of wrap this all around. Talking about what does resetting yourself mean to you?

Okay, so when I became a minimalist. I’m a, I’m a changed man. I’ve always been this intense, but when I was a younger man—[as of 25:52] today I’m 34. Eight years ago, I made the change to decide I’m gonna become a true minimalist. Dejunk your life. Dejunk your mind. Dejunk your stuff. Get rid of those things. Find out who you are by, by, by canceling the things you don’t need out of your life so you can focus on the core, so you can focus on you. Everything else is a distraction. Everything that stops you from becoming you is a distraction. You look at anybody who’s achieved anything, anybody who’s making anything happen, and they will all tell you—super focus, super focus. And you’ve got to delete, you’ve got to delete the, the nonsense. I truly believe it. The less things you own, the happier you’re gonna be. There’s a finite amount of possessions you need in order to stay clothed, sleep, and eat. But besides those things, delete them. Get, get rid of them. Move on.

Awesome. Awesome. Very true. What are you eating nowadays? Are you still eating the peanut butter and jelly? Or have you kind of upgraded a little bit?

No, things are going really, really well. I still like peanut butter and jelly cause that’s a, that’s a good, that’s a man’s meal, but money’s rolling in like crazy.

Good.

I’ve got so many people calling up wanting to do deals. It’s, it’s humbling to receive calls from some of these people and have them want to meet you. It’s, it’s, it’s truly, it’s truly nuts.

Do you think being on Shark Tank elevated you tenfold or do you think that if you weren’t on Shark Tank you would get to this point but not as fast? It’s hard to say?

No, it’s hard to ever [find 27:19].I mean, when someone buys some of my products in a store, anyone who actually buys the products knows, “Hey, that’s Nate and whatever.” Shark Tank is an interesting experiment because it allows the entire country to see who you are and what’s [unclear 27:32]. And at the end of the day, like I said, there’s a lot of incredible people out there, but nobody knows it. And like I said, just be yourself and people pick up on it.

For sure.

You know, that whole thing Shark Tank is it’s not, it’s not rehearsed. None of that is and so you go out there, they don’t know you. It’s a conversation. That was actually about an hour and 15-minute long conversation that they pared down to about ten minutes for television.

Wow. How interesting.

And it’s, it’s heavy duty, and to not go out there and get beat up, the trick is be myself and not, not using anything like a crutch. When I went there, they asked questions. I had answers. Have your answers. You can’t ever expect to, you know, everybody thinks they’ve got an idea and that they’re gonna be able to sell and get a million dollars. It’s not how it works.

Right.

You’ve got to, you’ve got to be you and you’ve got to execute. There’s no million-dollar ideas, only million-dollar executions.

You’re darn right about that. Were you nervous? Are you a nervous kind of guy?

No.

Okay, alright. Okay. So being in front of new people speaking, you have all the confidence in the world. I know you said it kind of was a foundation from earlier on, but nervousness affects a majority of America or the world. That’s why a lot of people don’t go through with things because they’re nervous about other people. They’re nervous about failure and nervous about this and that. Was there one thing that you did early on that instilled it or was it just a gradual thing that you just had it when you were born?

You know, I don’t know.

Okay.

I think, I think experiences build upon each other, and I think you have one good experience and it leads into another and so on and so forth. And, and in time, you know, you become you. I mean, I’m, I’m a neat guy. I’m interesting. But imagine when I’m 50, I’ll be really neat and really interesting.

Right. Exactly.

And it’s, it’s a lifelong thing. I had a really good friend. He’s 75 years old and he said, “Nate, by the time I learned about being a father, I was a grandfather.”

Oh, wow.

And the truth is is that’s, that’s really profound because everything you’re gonna do, you’re always gonna be able to do it better. You’re always gonna become more so one way or the other and it could be for the worst or for the better and that’s really up to you.

Yeah. Growing up, did you have any people that inspired you? Were there any people you looked up to and kind of like, “Wow, I want to be like that” or “Wow, I strive to be that person”? Was there anybody in your life?

Yeah, you know, and, and most of them were inconsequential in the scheme of the world and the relevancy of the world. They’re people that are not necessarily famous or well-known, but, you, you know, you meet people that teach you about work and teach you about, you know, teach you about identity. And, you know, I, I had very good parents. I, I won’t lie. I had an idyllic childhood. What my parents lacked in financial resources was definitely overshadowed by their caring and their desire to do wonderful things for me. and I’m not saying that you need to have that in order to be successful, but I recognize and I acknowledge that freebie, that handout that I got from my, my parents. You know, from them treating me like a, like a person. I always felt cared about and loved. And, you know, that’s, that’s irreplaceable. Not everybody has that. A lot of people really don’t and they can go out and be successful on their own.

Yeah. Yeah. How proud are your parents? They must be ecstatic.

Yeah, you know, when I was a, when I was a younger man, my dad, like I said he was very well educated, and when I told him that I didn’t think I wanted to go to college, you can imagine that didn’t go over very well.

Right.

As time went by and my father watched me grow and be able to provide for, you know, people around me and my children, you know, attitudes changed. And now, today, my dad is just, you know, it’s just a big, huge support group and everybody’s excited and, and happy and, you know, he, he’s beside himself with happiness. It’s always awesome to see somebody you know do well if you truly love them, and when it’s a child, I got to imagine it’s pretty incredible.

Oh, for sure. For sure. Yeah, I got a baby boy coming on the way now. I came from a great background too—very loving parents. They gave me the inspiration and the motivation just to become whoever I want to be. Are you married at all?

Yeah, I have, I have a wife. My wife is from a foreign country. She’s from Mexico.

Okay.

And I have two little children.

Wow.

But when I met my wife actually, she didn’t even speak English. She was here visiting a sister. I speak Spanish from living in Latin America.

Cool.

And, you know, I, I met her. We have two little children. My little boy is Lorenzo who is now five and my little girl Catalina who is gonna be four in June.

Congrats, man.

And they’re, you know, I mean, that’s what you work for. You work for your children and for your, for other people that depend on you to provide.

Yeah. Yeah. Obviously your wife was supportive through this. She never gave you any slack or anything like that?

No, but then again, you know, I’ve never given, I’ve never given her any reason to worry or be upset in the past. I always made sure that food was on the table. Never borrowed money from my parents or hers, so I started out very good posture with her always saying, “Trust me. This will be fine.” And I’ve always made it okay. Having the confidence, you know, it’s, it’s, we went without some things. You know, we, you know, instead of having a big house we own a belt company.

Right.

You know, you, you, you do make some, some real sacrifices that really do exist. You know, no vacations. You know, no time to go out and screw around and do anything. I mean, almost not going out to dinner, not doing any of that stuff, things that, you know, drain the money. I didn’t pay myself until just barely, yesterday I paid myself. And so, you know, it, it takes all of that to do that. And we did it without debt. We did it all with just straight up cash. We made it work. We, we, we found a way to get the money together, and we worked it out, and we did it. So she has been super supportive, and I’ll always thank her for that. But at the same time, I know a lot of men who’ll say, “Well, my wife would never let me do that.” Earn your wife’s trust by being the man that you can be. Or if you’re a woman, earn the trust from whoever you need to. That’s, it’s, it’s about, it’s about having the fortitude to do what you say you’re gonna do and then beyond that be the person that will do what they say they’re gonna do. And whatever it takes.

And I realize that at a certain point, if Mission Belts didn’t take off or whatever, I would have to eat humble pie and go back and get a job, maybe a part time job at night. I wasn’t afraid of that, and I just said, “I’m not gonna do that. I’m not gonna end up, you know, boxing groceries or whatever.” You know, I, I used to have a job when I was a young, young man digging holes. That’s about the worst job anybody can ever have, but it was, I got paid by the hole so it made sense to me. You know? And I just never wanted to go back to anything like that, and I had to take a big jump and a leap. No one’s gonna ever give you that dream job. You’re not gonna start making 100 grand a year the first day you start, you know? I’ve had Mission Belts now for just under a year, and we are just absolutely zonking it. And I have been extra lucky. I’ve been extra lucky. And I, I realize that sometimes the stars align. I know it’s not all me. I know that it’s just everything shows up in the sky, and sometimes it just works out.

For sure. For sure. Mission Belts, was this your first—not invention—but your first product that you decided to push or did you have a couple of products that didn’t do so well and then you thought of this?

No, this was my first product I decided to push, but I had tried a lot of different things. I ran some insurance agencies in Mexico for Mexicans crossing the border who needed to buy insurance [unclear 34:44]. I sold cars for many years. I did a lot of odds and end things and for one reason or another you’re going down the path, and you keep waiting for the door to shut and say, “Well, here’s why you can’t scale this business. Here’s why you can only make $150,000 a year selling cars. Here’s why you can only do this.” And with Mission Belts, it’s been totally the opposite. Just when I’m waiting for a door to shut, nothing does and two more open. And today, I, I, the, the options and the possibilities that I have laid before me would, would blow anyone’s mind. They’re truly incredible.

And why Mission Belts? What’s the meaning behind the name?

So, every time we sell a belt our mission is to help other people.

Perfect.

There’s a lot of people in this world who do not have the, the, I mean due to the geopolitical climate in which we live, let’s face it, there’s a lot of people who are not lucky enough to be born in the United States or to [unclear 35:36] or what have you. And so there’s tons of people all over the world, if you go to our webpage, actually MissionBelt.com and look at the mission. If you go to the bottom, you can see what I’ve done with the money that’s come in. We take a percent from everything we sell—a shirt, hat, belt, anything. And some of that money goes to help these people. What we do is we do it through microlending, and it’s people who would never get a loan in a million years. Most of these people don’t even have, you know, none of them have cars. They don’t have anything and a lot of people who are, you know, they’re not, they’re not out in the middle of, you know, the desert, you know, you know, with Tsetse flies buzzing around. They live in green places. They just don’t have the tools to feed themselves. And we wanted to help some of these people, and so what we do is we loan the money out to them. If they choose to repay it, which 98% of them do—these are just good people. No credit scores. I mean nothing at all. They pay it back and then we take the money and we lend it back out there. So if someone buys a belt from me, that money goes to help people over and over and over. And when you look and see the lives we’ve changed, it absolutely blows your mind. I have a real passion for that, and I truly believe that giving to people and giving back to people is the key to being happy. If you want to make yourself happy, do something nice for somebody else.

Yeah, the more you give, the more you receive. For sure. That is unbelievable and awesome, awesome story. Have any of those people that you’ve lent the money to use that money to really blow up to start a company from ground zero, any great successful stories from that?

Yeah, I mean, these people are not, these people, I mean, that’s the difference is, you know, you’ve got first world problems and third world problems. My problems are first world problems. My problem is, “Oh, my pH in my pool is off.”

Right.

Or, “Oh, man, I can’t believe it’s snowing.” And I look outside from my heated, you know, 3,000 square foot home with a two-car garage and a, you know, a fireplace, you know what I mean, with electricity and water pumping in. Real people have real problems. Their problem is, “I don’t have a place to sleep. I don’t have food to eat. I’m not sure if my family’s gonna survive the next three weeks.” Whatever. And so these people are not going out there trying to, you know, blow up a business. They’re trying to get the bare necessities to survive. And we’ll help families buy cows, chickens, seeds—all these things. Instead of dropping a bag of food on them from a Black Hawk helicopter which is fine. We teach them to fish; we don’t give them a fish.

Awesome.

And these people are allowed to fend for themselves, and you get some of the emails and the letters from, from some of these people, it’s just, it’s phenomenal to see what they’ve accomplished and it’ll almost make you cry. It’s a humbling experience to be part of the Mission Belt experience. Mission Belt Co. And it’s, it’s the most fortunate thing in the world to be able to, to see this. It’s not me. It’s, it’s, it’s the universe. It’s, it’s everything, everything that’s happening happens. And I’m just lucky to be a part of it.

Cool. Cool. When you started the product was this kind of a main staple? You knew going in that you wanted to do this, correct?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, cool.

Absolutely. That was, and that’s why it’s named what it is.

Oh, for sure. For sure.

I have a lot of people who will ask me, “Well, why is it named that?” And our mission is very clear and it’s to help others.

Cool. Cool. Cool. Well, Nate, I appreciate your time so much. How can people get in contact, buy a belt, get in touch with you? Are you guys on Twitter? Can you give a couple of your social media sites?

I have, I have two gals that do full-time emailing for me, and they’ll sort out emails. Just write Attention: Nate. I answer everybody personally. You know, there’s so much mail that comes in every day, but just like, like we got your email. They’ll get sorted and sent over to my box, and I’ll be happy to send you an email back and, and talk. It’s MissionBelt.com. Send an email: hit Contact Us. Or you can go to, you can follow us at, I think it’s MissionBelt on Twitter and I believe we are MissionBeltCo on Instagram.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, Nate, thank you so much. You’re in California, correct?
Today, I’m in Utah at our warehouse. I’ll be in California on Sunday night and I have a bunch of things there and an interview and things to do down there.

Perfect. Perfect. Well, we’ll have to get together and play some pong, man. I appreciate your time so much. My community will love this. Great information. Great insight. And you are just a very powerful, confident man that I think so many people can learn from and believe and trust in themselves that they can achieve anything that they want in life. So, thank you so much, Nate. I appreciate your time so much. This is great.

Not a problem. My pleasure. It’s, to tell about anything, I, I have experience. My pleasure.

Yeah. No problem. No problem. And one last thing, are you a quote guy? Do you enjoy quotes? Anything you live by or anything like that you could share?

Oh, sure, sure, sure. I mean, you read as many books as I do and you’re, you’re always gonna, you’re always gonna like them. I’ll, I’ll give you a quote that’s, that’s mine, though.

Okay. Go ahead.

In life and in real estate, there’s always one constant. In real estate, it’s location, location, location. In life, it’s attitude, attitude, attitude.

Wow. Dude, that is awesome. Nate, you are killing it, man. I hope that I can reach out to you again and we can chit-chat some more. You are an amazing inspiration I think to everybody that listens to this and whoever saw you on Shark Tank I think was smiling during that and just realizing that they have the power within themselves to believe and choose their destiny and you’re killing it man. Thank you so much.

[40:50] incredible and so is America.

Thank you, Nate.

See you.

Wow. What a great, great interview. Isn’t Nate from Mission Belt Company amazing? This guy is rocking it. If you didn’t gain any information from that interview or you’re not motivated or you still are not inspired, I think you should probably call 911 and check your pulse because you might not be alive because Nate had the energy of a Super Bowl crowd. I mean, that guy just was vibrating energy waves through my computer. I was just getting jacked talking to this guy, and just a great, great guy to talk to. A funny little thing—after we ended the interview, I called him back to thank him again, and I asked, “Nate, how do you keep so positive and just so full of life?” And he said, “You know what? I don’t drink any energy drinks. I don’t drink coffee. I don’t drink tea.” He says, “This is the way I am 24/7, 365.” That’s something that all of us could give a try. Cutting caffeine, cutting the energy drinks and the sodas out of our diets and kind of resetting our body and figuring out do we have that type of energy within us and we just keep on drinking these caffeinated drinks to kind of amp ourselves up? Is it really necessary? I don’t know. It’s one thing I kind of want to look into. So maybe we’ll have another podcast on energy drinks. Get jacked on life, not jacked on caffeine. I don’t know, we’ll see.

Nate had some really good links and tips, suggestions of books that he read that kind of inspired him to be where he is today and during the interview—I know it can kind of get garbled and stuff, so that’s why I want you guys to go visit OperationSelfReset.com/podcast003. In that link, you guys will find out, you know, about Nate, about Mission Belt Company, links to his social media, links to his website, where to buy the belts, and also, too, links about the books that he suggested and also, too, other links that we talked about in the interview. Nate and Mission Belt Company is currently swamped just with orders because of being on the Shark Tank, national exposure, and everybody’s wanting to get in touch with Nate and pick his brain and everything like that. I actually ordered two belts from him. They should be coming within the next week here, and if you guys are hearing this for the first time and if you caught this on the day that this was published, feel free to go to OperationSelfReset.com. On the left hand side of the page there is a voicemail button and on that button you can just click and record a message to me. If you’re one of the first two people, I will send you the belts 100% F-R-E-E. Free belt, free shipping. Just go there, leave me a voicemail. Let me know what do you need help resetting? And from there, I’ll send it to you. I’ll get in contact with you. Make sure you leave your email address or a phone number and we’ll touch base. And maybe, you know what? Maybe I’ll get you on the podcast. Maybe I’ll pick your brain. See what you’re about. See what we can work on.
I want to try something new when I interview successful people. Because these interviews are so crazy dense with some great information, great tips, it’s kind of overwhelming at times. When you walk away from it, you’re all motivated and stuff, but at the same time, you’re thinking, “What did he say? What does he live his life by? Or what was that quote?” So that is why I started, it’s called the Seven Tips. Basically, the reason why we talk to other people and interview other people is because we want to pick their brain, figure out what makes them tick. So during the interview, I pull away seven ideas, Seven Tips, from these great, great successful people that I bring on this podcast that I want to share with you guys. Tips that we can use daily, tips that we can walk away with and try to implement into our daily lives and maybe do a little bit of a reset. Feel free to go to OperationSelfReset.com/7tipsmissionbelts. And go there. Check out my Seven Tips. Hopefully you guys enjoy them. Leave comments. If you guys pulled different ideas out of the podcast, write it down in the comments below. You can add your own ideas, your own things that you walked away with.

So, again, guys, thank you so much for listening. I appreciate the support. I appreciate the comments, and like I said, if you’re listening to this for the first time go to OperationSelfReset.com. Make sure you click on the voice mailbox button on the left side of the page. Leave me a voicemail. I will send you a free belt, free shipping, free belt, and let me know what you need help with in resetting your life. Again, feel free to go to the website. Also, too, check me out on Twitter: OpSelfReset@twitter. And also too on YouTube: OperationSelfReset Channel. Great videos coming up here. Again, guys, rock it every single day. And you know what? Today is the day that you can reset your life a little bit. Try something a little different to improve it, and if it’s not improving it for yourself improve it for your neighbor, improve it for your wife, girlfriend, husband, boyfriend, dog, cat, gerbil—whatever it is! Just do a little something different.

And one last thing before I let you guys go and reset your lives today I want to leave you with a quote from Mission Belt Company owner, founder, Nate Holzapfel. He states, “In life and in real estate, there is one constant. In real estate, it’s location, location, location. And in life, it’s attitude, attitude, attitude.” Go reset your lives. Change it for the better. Take it easy. We’ll catch you on the next podcast. Peace!
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