Nathan Thomas: From Professional Basketball to Helping Businesses Scale

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What’s up everybody. Thanks for joining. For another episode of learning from others.com today’s guest is Nathan Thomas going to be a super cool interview today. He’s got a, he’s going to bring a little bit of a different background than our other guests. And he played professional basketball, which I think is super cool.

And I’ll let him talk about and intro Nathan, I’m going to steal his quote. He says, if you show up your life will blow up. Mason, welcome to the show. Hey, how you doing? Thanks for having me. Doing good. Hey, so, um, you know, tell us, uh, give us a little teaser. So the listeners know, you know, your background and you know, what you bring to the table and just kind of real quick, just, just the highlights.

And then we’ll kind of dive into it more as we progressed. So tell us about your career background and, and what kind of got you, um, joining the show with us to kind of talk about what value you can bring to listeners. Absolutely. Uh, what a little bit about myself. Um, I am from, let us out of town, right outside of Nashville, Tennessee, Mount Juliet, Tennessee, uh, born and raised there, uh, transitioned to college, obviously played basketball at Auburn university.

Montgomery had a great career there. All sound lead, shot blocker and some other records, but, uh, that allowed me the opportunity to play professional. Um, and I took my talents, obviously overseas had a chance to play in Brazil, amazing country, very welcoming new experiences. Uh, just life changing opportunity.

Uh, slammed me to speak with you guys today. And, um, obviously from there I transitioned online. Well, I’ve had the opportunity to work with, you know, top tier universities from Villanova and Michigan state university, university of Notre Dame. Um, and obviously just learn from some of the most prestigious universities and, uh, be able to provide some value in regards to education and, uh, helping online learners, you know, take advantage of the, of the world we live in today here and the 21st century where they can use their expertise and background to, to, uh, you know, take it to new Heights.

So, um, that’s a little bit about me in a nutshell. Yeah. You know what it was, I think there’s going to be a lot of cool takeaways from relating your basketball career to your current career. Um, before we kind of make that bridge was basketball, always your thing. Was that something you were into or did at some point you realize it was your thing?

Oh yeah, absolutely. Actually didn’t start playing basketball. I was in fifth grade. Um, and then I noticed I was kind of a taller than everyone else. I’m six foot seven. So it kinda, it kinda helps me be a little bit closer to the basket. Yeah. You always got, you got that advantage that other people can’t eat.

You can’t build up to that. You either got it. Or you don’t absolutely. People ask you, Hey, you’re tall. Do you play basketball? I get it all the time. So I’m used to, it can try, it comes with the territory. Is that like one of those things where as you walk by, you see people kind of like break their necks, like damn not the install.

Yeah, absolutely. What are you doing here? Okay, well, that’s cool. Tell us a little about what about what you took away during your, from your, your basketball career, you know, when you travel, um, and being in Brazil, and I’m assuming that you hit other places, was there any eye opening moments and things that you took away from different cultures and traveling?

Yes, absolutely. I mean, from a personal standpoint and a business standpoint, um, Traveling, you know, going to Brazil and bring us there as Argentina and Kenny Cohen, being able to play in these different places and seeing these different environments, uh, from a personal standpoint, that allows me to, you know, discover some things about myself.

Um, because when you grow up in a certain area, uh, you can, your mind, it has a tendency to get formed and shaped in your environment. And it’s so easy to get closed minded. Uh, from a personal standpoint, and then from a business standpoint, you know, it allows you to see different, different people, different cultures come together, uh, to show how you can create value in the marketplace.

Uh, it doesn’t matter what industry you work in. You know, sometimes it takes leaving your state to get a new state of mind. And, um, you know, so being able to leave, you know, this familiar place that I’ve been, you know, for Tennessee to Alabama to, so now it’s a South America. It allowed me to see new opportunities.

In ways that maybe I wouldn’t have seen just, you know, it’s kinda stayed in the same place. And so it allowed me to see, see things differently about myself to learn. Um, you know, obviously Portuguese, I knew I could speak a little bit of Portuguese now. It gave me a chance to, to learn and communicate on a different level.

And, um, I would definitely encourage anyone. That maybe they they’re granted their profession. Maybe they’re they feel like they’re stuck in their life. I would always encourage people to change their environment sometimes because sometimes it just takes a new state to give you a new state of mind, whether it be educating yourself, listening to new things, going new places.

Sometimes those simple refreshes could, could be life changing for you. And that was the case for me. Yeah, I was reading, um, just actually a day or two ago, Sam ovens. I don’t know. You know, some of the listeners will know who he is. He’s a big entrepreneur. And he was just talking about, he was born in New Zealand and moved to New York when I think like a teenager.

And he said that helped him grow as a person. And, and now that guy does like 20 million a year and now. And now he says, you know, I had my growing experience. And so now, now we’re moving to Venice, California, because now the Scruff experiences for my team. And so he was saying exactly what you just said, you know, you gotta move, you gotta have new experiences.

And it’s just going to give you a whole new, uh, perspective on life and bring more skillsets to the table for you. Absolutely. And that’s, and that’s the key. I mean, you’re absolutely right. And Sam, I followed him as well online with this consulting and you know, how he’s entire people and even listened to some of his testimonials.

Um, and that’s something we can, all we can all learn from various entrepreneur. Mmm. Well, even if you’re an entrepreneur, but if you’re with a company you’re an entrepreneur, your job is just your largest client. Um, you know that, so we’re all actually entrepreneurs, whether we realize it or not, that’s what people have to constantly realize that even if not running your own company, per se, you are your own company.

You are the CEO of your own life, right? When you take on new obstacles and new challenges with Denise, you know, this is an opportunity for you to expand your resume, but also to diversify yourself because you are a CEO of your own company. When you speak the clients that you speak to prospects that, you know, I want some new information to provide value, to help solve their problems.

They want to know, you know, how you can be a blessing to them, how you could provide a service, that’s going to help them solve their problems. And that’s all life is, you know, you just find problems and you just become the solution and it makes life a whole lot easier. I really liked what you just said, your job is your biggest client.

And I think that’s, um, a good takeaway for clients or per listeners. Um, and you know, it’s funny is like, I think there’s always an opportunity to take away something from every job and whether it’s in your career or personally, I’ll give you a funny example is my very first job. I was a janitor at a junior high, so I was like 16.

And I’d go from high school straight after school and go hit the junior high and start cleaning rooms. And you know, one of the takeaways I still take away from that. Career, you know, 20 years later, is that when you put your garbage bag in your garage exactly the first time I saw you do this and the, and the SAC in place, like, you know, you throw your garbage in there and then there’s like a counter pressure from the air.

And the garbage bag thumbs up. And you’re like, man, that’s so annoying. You just talk a little bit when the top of the bag,

I know you gotta credit when he explains this, Damon can put a garbage bag while simultaneously poking a hole in it. And then talking about that, he does it all in one room and it’s not like he puts the bag in the hall. No, he’s got this down in one movement. Yeah, exactly.

Janitorial artists. I love it. That’s going on my headstone Rasor guy. So now, um, like you were saying, your job is your biggest client. I think, um, you know, Tim Ferriss is famous for his book four hour workweek. And although the. The premise of the book is, you know, how to expedite your, your career as an entrepreneur.

It’s just, like you said, you know, your job is your biggest client and you’re, I think you said an intrepreneur. So even reading like four hour work week, there’s so much to people well that even if you’re not self employed, that you can take away to really master whatever it is you’re good at, even if you’re employed by somebody else.

So I like that. You know? Um, so it sounds like you, you, you had a, uh, so how long did, did you do the basketball thing with, uh, the management? Yeah, absolutely. While I was there for about a year and a half. Um, and, um, It was a good time that the team that I was with, uh, they were number two in the NBB, which was Nova stands for Nova basket Brazil.

So it’s pretty much like the NBA, uh, for their league. It was one of the top leagues there it’s very competitive. The rules were a little bit different. So for example, if someone shot a basketball and it was on the ramp, you could actually take it off the rim and it would be goaltending. So I kinda liked that approach.

Yeah, so it’s pretty neat. He just plucked them right off the rim, pluck them right off the rim and take off running and duck it. It’s it’s it’s like, Oh, you thought you had a set? No, let me take this and go the other way for me. I’m like, no, no, no, no. I’m still in my basket. Um, you know, I kinda asked offline about what you feel like your greatest achievement was so far, whether it was your basketball career or what you’re into now, which, which we’ll get talking about here in a moment.

And I liked how you said, um, honestly, I don’t feel like I’ve had my biggest business achievement yet. Can you kinda touch on that? Why you feel that way? Yeah, absolutely. I don’t feel like I’ve had my business, my biggest business achievement yet because I’m constantly evolving. I mean, you get to a place that, not that I’m.

Not grateful. It’s just that you’re constantly evolving as a person. You’re constantly evolving as a, as a business owner, as a, as a business leader, um, for normal entrepreneur, even if you’re on social media and you have a strong following as a social entrepreneur, you’re constantly evolving. So you never arrive.

Uh, and I think when you have that place, if you have that mindset, you’re grateful for where you are, but you’re constantly evolving because you want to add value to your family. Um, you want to add value to your coworkers. You want to add value to your, so your team, if you run into a company, uh, dependent on regardless of what area you’re in, in your life, you’re constantly evolving.

So that’s why I feel like, you know, I’ve never had my biggest achievement yet because I’m constantly evolving and I’m learning along the way. And that’s the most exciting part for me. Yeah. You got 40 minutes. The go ahead. For example. Yeah. Yeah, for, for example, it started even when I was in Brazil and the team, the team was paying me.

So they were my biggest client. Obviously I had the opportunity to speak to about 40 or 50 kids in the city next to us. And the city was high in crime, right outside of ballroom. It was about 30 minutes away from me for a city where we played basketball. And just the kids, there were very welcoming. They were very hungry.

A lot. Some of them had. We’re starting to get influenced by games and, and different, you know, negative things or not. And actually I had a chance to partner with the governor of the city and, um, and some of the law enforcement there and we did it, I did it in a contest for them and just to speak to them on a one to one basis.

And I had a couple people to translate it for me and the kids had a chance to. To answer, to ask questions and just about life and basketball and you know, just personal things. And I think that was one of the most rewarding things for me, was being able to give back and taught me is that we all have an opportunity to, regardless of where we are in life.

Even if we don’t think that we are where we want to be, if you’ve learned anything in life, then that means you can learn. You can earn and then you can return. So we all have an opportunity to give back. So you’re going to learn something in life. You got to earn it, something in life, and now it’s our obligation.

So return. So if we missed it, so any listener that listened to this call myself included, if you’ve learned anything in life, then you can, then you can earn. Then you’ve earned something that nobody has that not everybody has. So you can return that. And it’s our obligation as humans, right? Uh, you know, in order to continue to, to go on, to help others expand and, and be inspired to go higher, we have to, we have to be able to return back.

And that’s something that, that I’ve been able to experience. And that’s what I’m trying to do now. It seems like as we have these guests on the show, so that there’s this evolution that’s consistent with everybody is where, you know, you have your hungry phase, um, or you fall into being an entrepreneur.

And then you go into the next phase of wanting to, to scale and chase your dreams. And then you finally accomplish your dreams or reach, you know, a respectable level of success. And then after that, it seems like everybody, the next. Phase to find satisfaction alive is, is giving back. Like it’s the total opposite.

You stop pursuing the material things and, and you want more simplistic things in life and you want to give back. So it’s interesting that that’s just a consistent role with everybody we talk to. That’s awesome. Yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s just in our DNA. You know, to be able to help, to help one another.

I mean, I know there’s a lot of negative things in the media, so it’s always good, you know, to create a new environment. Some people can’t leave their physical environment for various reasons sometimes, but I would just, yeah. Towards people to just, you know, change their environment of their mind. Because as you, if you see it, you can be it, you know, and, and it’s, it’s important for us, you know, to, to change what people hear and it change what people see.

Because that changes and it creates new normals for people to see that there’s something different, that there’s someone doing it a different way so that they can be inspired to go higher for themselves and their families. So what are you up to, um, so, so you have your success, the basketball career, and then now you get into, um, I think, I think you’re into, you know, sales and marketing and online, you said you got into that through family owned business.

So tell us about. Um, what you took away from family owned business and how you made that transition into your current career? Absolutely. Well, tell me cover from the basketball court. I wanted to be around something that’s competitive and obviously sells, uh, gave me an opportunity to do that because it can be very challenging and competitive and competitive, but the competition has really just remained.

So, you know, just competing with yourself, uh, Dalian. I took a position as a sales manager. I didn’t have any background as a sales manager, but I took that opportunity as a challenge because in life, one thing I’ve learned is there’s no real problems. There are only challenges. Um, so as long as you have breath in your body, you can, you can make a change.

You know, you can, you can change where you are. What I mean, we’re not a tree. And so we can always uproot and change if we don’t like something. So. That job gave me an opportunity to discover things about myself. I had a chance to do some, uh, business to consumers and B to C and also some B2B, uh, working with different business owners around the city and partner with them and said, Hey, we have this.

Value in the marketplace, you guys should come to us for these services. And if you do, we’ll provide you 10 to 15, 10 to 15% discount for you and your, uh, your employees or some exclusive benefits to them based upon some of the things that they may already need. And, and that gave me a fresh perspective and great relationships in the city, you know, coming from a basketball background and now into the, into the business marketplace, this allowed me to establish some really good relationships early on.

And, um, and, and it was just, it just helped with the transition. I learned a lot from that, and it really helped me see things in a new, in a new light. What you, you had mentioned that you taught you, you got some big, you know, uh, groups and agencies and entities that you work with, like universities. Um, what, do you have any advice as far as what it takes to speak on a higher level or have the confidence to, to deal with big context like that?

Uh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, What I’ve learned from that. I mean, if anyone that’s aspiring to speak to these clients, I mean, at the end of the day, just have a regular conversation. A lot of times we over, we overcomplicate things, you know, depending on who we’re speaking to, you know, if I’m speaking of Donald Trump or if I’m speaking to.

The, the local, the local, um, artists in it in a, uh, in a nightspot that’s playing an instrument. Doesn’t matter who you’re speaking to, you know, just having a regular conversation and realizing that we’re all human at the end of the day, regardless of our professions, regardless of our backgrounds, we all have some kind of value that we can bring to the table.

So I would just say, just speaking to a group of people, treat it just like you’re speaking to your mother treated just like you’re speaking to someone that you truly love and care about, and that will always keep things. Um, that always keeps things fresh. And then obviously your education is important, not just personal education and expecting the school system to educate you, but just doing some self development and educate yourself.

What, speaking of education, um, did you have any continued education? And if you did, do you think that contributed to your career? You know, some guests or some guests come on and they say, uh, you know, I went to college, but it didn’t necessarily contribute to my Camaro career or now they think college is good or bad.

Did you get a return out of your education? Uh, I definitely did. Um, I mean, I was in college for four or five years. I read started my freshman year. And, uh, my senior year, I majored in sports leaderships, physical education with a minor in business, but then this was before I left to go to Brazil. And even, even after returning from Brazil, the company that I partnered with, uh, I was in the online education space as a consultant and recruiter, and I had a chance to work with those types of universities.

And I also had an opportunity to acquire my, uh, my. Certificate and expert selling from university of San Francisco. And then also my agent, my human resource management, executive search of the Eli school of business and Michigan state university, uh, which has paid for as well, uh, through the company. So that those opportunities did allow me to, to increase, obviously increase my revenue opportunities, but also allowed me to speak to different people in different levels.

So you had said, um, I got a quote here where he said my takeaway is that some certifications carry more weight than degrees is, is what you’re saying. That, um, you’ve found more value in the experiences and pursuing the certificates, um, provide more real world experience than the degrees, or you want to touch on that.

Absolutely. I’ve been in, I’ve worked in all my education space for approximately four to five years outside of professional basketball. And one thing that I have seen, um, is there’s a lot of Indians there’s those that may have a degree, but they come to us for continuing education. They will, they will come to us for a continuing education and the certificates a lot of times, and certifications would allow them to.

To increase their revenue obviously, and also their education, because what I’ve found as well is a lot of the employers, when they see that certification, it shows that they’ve mastered that skill set, you know, cause there’s a lot of people that have a general degree and that could be broad and they could be.

They can train you in almost anything. But when you have that certification shows that you are specifically skilled in that specific area and a lot of companies like that, and they favor that and not just where the company is, but even if you’re also looking to acquire some training for yourself as a business, this owner, I think I’ve had a lot of clients that have found value in that.

Because maybe they don’t have the time to spend three to four years on something. So that’s when other programs come into play. And that’s what a certification is. They’re really carry a lot of weight for business owners. And even if we’re just trying to educate yourself in a specific arena, whether they be marketing or human resource to run your company better, you can take those principles in that short amount of time from eight to nine weeks and apply it and increase your revenue.

So, I know you only got a few minutes synchro about seven more minutes, so I’ll be respectful of your time. So why don’t we kind of touch in, uh, talk about, uh, a few, um, know, wrap up a couple of things. And I wanted to ask, if you had to summarize what you think has contributed most to your success, you know, and I’ll let you define success.

Um, what would you say has, has had the biggest impact on achieving your goals? Uh, so far, I would say just faith, um, my faith in the Lord, honestly. Um, cause sometimes you don’t feel like it. Uh, I’ve learned that. So I would say my faith a lot of times it’s really just pushed me, but there’s been times where I wanted to give up or I had doubts, but every time I extended my faith to say, you know what, I’m just going to go forward.

Regardless. I’m going to show up, um, that having that faith is really. Has been the greatest motivator for me, just been able to get this belief that there’s something better in store than what I’m, what I’m currently seeing. So, uh, and that’s, that kind of ties into what I shared earlier. And you mentioned it, uh, if you show up, you know, you go up, you blow up your life will blow up, honestly.

Um, Prime example, I got, I met my wife, you know, two years ago and, uh, you know, I was out outside of a pizza shop and in South Tampa and I could have, I could have just let that pass by, you know, but I did not actually had to. So I had to show up, I had to show up, you know, in order for it to work and you can take the same approach to business.

Is there anything else when you’re working with clients and we try to improve, um, my biggest thing, you have to have faith in what you’re doing. Well, that’s your relationships, whether that’s business, whether that’s partnerships, you have to apply that faith and you have to show up because you could prepare and you could take notes and you could do all these great things.

But if you they’ll show up, nothing’s going to happen. You know, this holiday for a basketball game, the game comes and I don’t step out there on the court. Coaches can’t help me. The mentors can help me. Your wife, can’t help you, sir. Your husband can’t help you. Nobody. It’s going to help you if you don’t show up.

And that’s one of my biggest takeaways is just to make sure you show up. Sometimes you don’t have to have it all together. When I first went to Brazil, I didn’t even have a contract. I withdrawn state. And the agents said, Hey, I got five teams and I want you to try out for and we’ll and we will go for it.

We will go from there. So I got there, I had the faith to say, you know what, I’m going to trust this agent. And when I got there, when I showed up. I played extremely well and they offered me like, you know what, here, here’s, here’s, here’s a, here’s a contract. We want you to run our team. So, because I showed up, had I not showed up, if I would have just listened to my fears and I would have stayed in that same place and I never would have had the opportunities that I do now to share with you guys.

And the same thing happens with my business owners that I speak to on a day to day basis. Now I have multimillionaires that I speak with on a day to day basis. And they, they took an idea with nutraceuticals or skincare or muscle products or, or whatever apparel company that they started online. And they just started.

And because they started because they stepped out on faith, whether they had everything together, not it came together, but nothing will happen until you start. And that’s what I’ve learned. So that’s been my biggest takeaway just to show up and have that faith. Yeah, there’s a famous quote from Woody Allen that says 80% of success is showing up.

And, and I agree, you can have you just gotta be there. So, um, before we wrap up, you know, outside of basketball, what are you into, what do you do outside of work and basketball? Yeah, absolutely. Well, I thought of working basketball and not to train kids. Uh, had a couple of kids that I worked with, uh, for quite some period of time.

Just give them the opportunity to work on their game. And, and that gives me opportunity to give back. And also I donate my time sometimes at least once a month at the homeless shelter in downtown Tampa, where I donate clothes and also help with the food drives as well. So it gives me an opportunity to give back.

It keeps me humble as well. I like that. All right. Well, Nathan Thomas, before we let you go, um, why don’t I, you know, why don’t you throw out any contact information, phone number, website, email, social media, just anything you want. A humble, humble brag about let people get in touch with you, uh, while I’m there.

Yeah. Thank you so much for, yeah. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn. Uh, Nathan Thomas also Facebook, you’ll see a picture of my wife and I on there and Nathan Thomas, um, on Facebook. And obviously if any business that anyone that’s looking to start an online business, or maybe they currently have on my business and they need fulfillment, I can definitely help you in that.

In that regard have some phenomenal fulfillment. Um, with the fulfillment lab, you can contact me there@nathanthefulfillmentlab.com. And also my personal email is inspirethe world@yahoo.com and that’s an I N SPI R E T H E w O R L d@yahoo.com. It’s been a pleasure. Nathan, Kyle, you got anything for Nate before we head out?

No, you’re going to spin him up. Does he have a Metta for our Oh shoot. Yeah, we got two minutes. Gosh, I always forget about that.

Nathan, we got a random question generator, so I don’t know what’s coming your way. So hold on. Let’s see. Okay. This one’s an easy one. What was your first car? My first car. Oh man. I think it was a Chrysler Concord, I think for privilege gear, the car was, it was a blue Chrysler Concorde. Is that the real long head?

No, no. It was four door and it had extremely long hood,

extremely long. All good, man.

The pleasure. I appreciate you calling in. Thank you. Thanks for your time. Awesome. Thanks a lot, guys. You got to be blessed. Take care.