If you don't have a reason that is way bigger
Speaker:Your friend that passed two weeks before coming to Australia, everything
Speaker:that you're building, are you building that in somewhat of like a legacy because of
Speaker:That's one of the people that I can't let down. I started seeing
Speaker:A lot of people are going to listen to what Nelson's saying and being like, he's
Speaker:going a bit f***ing hard, he needs to chill out a little bit. That's because you felt
Speaker:so strongly about not being adequate and there's two courses
Speaker:It's if you're currently in a job that you hate, do something
Speaker:about it. Go get skills that will get you paid. Get
Speaker:a mentor and then learn how to pass those skills and have
Speaker:a hard look at your environment. If all your friends are losers,
Speaker:Welcome to the Better Bloke Podcast. I'm Matty. I'm Rob. And
Speaker:we're just a pair of average blokes on a mission to try and be a
Speaker:We're going to speak about all things highs and lows of what it feels like to be a bloke,
Speaker:plus speak to some legends along the way about what it takes to be a better bloke. Let's
Speaker:get stuck in. Welcome
Speaker:back to the Better Bloke Podcast, where
Speaker:I don't trust myself to introduce this person for
Speaker:One of my best mates of all time. And one
Speaker:of the guys that's been through probably one of the biggest, I don't know if
Speaker:it's rags to riches or personal transformation. You came
Speaker:over from Venezuela as a waiter
Speaker:boy, like you weren't speaking English, you were all
Speaker:alone in this country, and you had to hustle
Speaker:and find your way through, find yourself. And I've been there and
Speaker:seen this transformation in you. And it's probably one of the
Speaker:most remarkable things that I've seen. Welcome,
Speaker:I'm great. Thanks for having me, boys. Nelson here, founder and
Speaker:CEO of Vibes Creative, the number one video
Speaker:podcast agency in Australia and soon the world.
Speaker:And we should probably also lean on that. You are the man that's
Speaker:been behind the creative of the Better Bloke project. So a lot of
Speaker:the philosophies that we like, you share, right?
Speaker:So you jumped on board and you're supporting the project. And as we always say, support
Speaker:the blokes that support us. So get around Vibes Creative and check
Speaker:And I've said it plenty of times if they can make
Speaker:me look semi okay, behind a camera and behind a microphone. They're
Speaker:fucking wizards. Yeah. So and not only just with the production side
Speaker:of it, like Nelson as a bloke, has helped us so much with
Speaker:sort of progression and do this, do this, do this. And he
Speaker:has no issues with ruling with a stick. So
Speaker:it's good. He beats us into line. But you know, guys need that. So Yeah.
Speaker:My pleasure. I've been a part of Blocks of Ice for about two
Speaker:years or something when I found out through Mari. And
Speaker:I love what that group stands out for. And
Speaker:when I found out that you guys were launching a charity, The Better
Speaker:Block Project, and you told me everything about it, I was like, fuck
Speaker:yeah. I want to be the person behind your
Speaker:podcast, along with my lead team, of course. And
Speaker:it's been awesome, boys. We're just getting started. You guys will dominate as
Speaker:well, this industry. And this specific, as
Speaker:well, subject and topic, which is men's
Speaker:health, men's improvement, men's mindset,
Speaker:is definitely something that needs to be touched on. And
Speaker:for sure, we need more male role
Speaker:models, that's what I keep coming back to. So I'm
Speaker:Yeah. And that's what we're here for. Not to talk about us, to talk about
Speaker:you. You encapsulate so
Speaker:many of those things that we talk about on this thing all the time. Discipline,
Speaker:motivation, goal setting, mindset, all of that stuff.
Speaker:But you didn't always have it. It's been a
Speaker:super I don't know, a rough work in progress. There's
Speaker:been the ups and the downs and it took a long time for
Speaker:you to even kind of find your feet. So let's take
Speaker:it back to when you first came to the country, sort of give us
Speaker:an overview of why you came and how you were feeling.
Speaker:And I guess, I don't know if helplessness is
Speaker:the right word, but there was definitely a lot of anxieties in that.
Speaker:Absolutely. In terms of background, I come from
Speaker:Venezuela, their world country. Some
Speaker:people might not even know anything about it, but it's in
Speaker:South America. So I speak Spanish, obviously.
Speaker:And back home, just growing up, I
Speaker:always tell people I was extremely lucky
Speaker:to have the best circumstances that
Speaker:a man can have, which is Not much,
Speaker:but a loving family and a great male
Speaker:role model, which is my dad. My dad, to me,
Speaker:is a superhuman. It's literally
Speaker:my hero. That man should have been dead, quite literally.
Speaker:Many times he has gone through some of
Speaker:the worst things that someone can go through in
Speaker:his lifetime. divorce, you
Speaker:know, relationships broken, business issues,
Speaker:sickness, illness, accidents. So
Speaker:I got to see him go through most
Speaker:of these things and the ones that I wasn't pressing on, I
Speaker:got to find out the stories about it, right? And the lessons that
Speaker:came from it. So I had a really good example
Speaker:or male figure in my life. So. Because
Speaker:of that, I feel I'm the luckiest man alive. We
Speaker:didn't have much, but certainly we didn't come
Speaker:from the slums, but we were far from being a
Speaker:rich family or anything like that. We were just
Speaker:a standard family with a great mom, great,
Speaker:caring, loving mom that was always present and
Speaker:always making sure that I wasn't derailing or
Speaker:hanging out with the wrong kids, all these things. And
Speaker:I had a great male role model. So honestly,
Speaker:you don't need anything else if you
Speaker:have those ingredients. And just giving a
Speaker:little bit of context in terms
Speaker:of growing up, as I said, we didn't have
Speaker:much. But we had what we needed. We had food. We had a ceiling.
Speaker:And my dad was an extremely hardworking man.
Speaker:So at some point, we did have you know, a few things
Speaker:that I guess contribute to having
Speaker:more fun in life, like a boat and a beach house
Speaker:and all these things, right? And eventually, because of the situation
Speaker:of the country with a dictatorship and a regime going
Speaker:on, essentially things just went to
Speaker:shit. And I got to experience all of that because that regime took
Speaker:place since I was very young. So I
Speaker:got to basically see the entire journey of
Speaker:my parents just being a middle class, working hard
Speaker:family that had everything they needed to. Oh, now we can't afford
Speaker:this. We can't do that. There's scarcity in the country. The
Speaker:country just became one of the most dangerous countries in the world as
Speaker:well. Keep napping was a common thing
Speaker:and still is. And that's just an example
Speaker:of what it was. But just touching a
Speaker:little bit more, I guess, on the part of what
Speaker:made me who I am today, going through school,
Speaker:I The thing that I
Speaker:keep coming back to my experience going through school is
Speaker:that I was a complete average
Speaker:kid. And I hated that.
Speaker:I hated the idea of being average. And I only
Speaker:found out that I hated that by being one
Speaker:of them, by just realizing that I
Speaker:was never one of the kids that didn't
Speaker:pass maths or any other subjects in school.
Speaker:Even those kids got attention. Even those kids
Speaker:were known because they sucked at something really bad
Speaker:enough for everyone to know, oh yeah, he's not good at that. He's terrible.
Speaker:Oh, he didn't pass or whatever it is. And then you have the opposite
Speaker:to that, which was, The kids that were doing exceptionally
Speaker:well, right? The kids that were acing everything,
Speaker:and they were known for that. They were known by, oh, that
Speaker:guy's a savage, or physics, or chemistry, or
Speaker:whatever it was. I was a
Speaker:part of the bunch, the guys in between, the guys that
Speaker:you know nothing about. There's nothing special about
Speaker:you. I wasn't even great at any
Speaker:particular subject. I would just get always average
Speaker:grades, average everything. And hence, that
Speaker:started putting fire on me. I just realized I
Speaker:didn't want it to be average anymore. I was tired of being average. I
Speaker:had no attention from girls. I
Speaker:was never invited to the stuff or
Speaker:the parties of the cool kids, of the really cool
Speaker:ones, right? I was never picked when you,
Speaker:you know, it's funny, like even looking back now at, you
Speaker:know, when you have those sports events and you're just playing
Speaker:for fun, but kids are ruthless. You're,
Speaker:you're having to pick a team and it's usually a cool kid, one
Speaker:of the guys that is the leader and he's getting to pick the team. I
Speaker:was always one of the last ones to be picked with
Speaker:the fat kids, with the fat kids. Because I
Speaker:wasn't the tallest one to play basketball or volleyball or
Speaker:anything like that. I wasn't an extremely talented
Speaker:soccer player. I couldn't run fast. I couldn't lift
Speaker:heavy. I was nothing. So they will look at everyone. And
Speaker:I remember always being one of the last ones to be picked. And I
Speaker:remember just the feeling of that and
Speaker:looking around me and just looking at the fat dudes next
Speaker:to me. That's what was left. I hated that
Speaker:feeling. And just after school, I
Speaker:realized I started getting into gym because I found out that I
Speaker:had a lot of deficiencies and certain things
Speaker:I couldn't change. Like I couldn't change my height, for example. I've
Speaker:never been the tallest, right? I couldn't change that. But
Speaker:I realized I could change the way I look
Speaker:to a certain extent, how fit I get. And
Speaker:luckily, I had a mentor that started teaching me the
Speaker:fundamentals in a gym, just started becoming obsessed with it.
Speaker:And guess what? People started paying attention. People started looking
Speaker:at me differently. Girls started asking questions. Suddenly,
Speaker:I was seen. So to me, the
Speaker:foundations started with getting fit. And
Speaker:I remember a specific conversation where a
Speaker:girl came in and she said, oh, the
Speaker:guys that have six pack, those are the best. And
Speaker:I remember there was a group of us there and everyone
Speaker:was looking at each other after she left like, And
Speaker:then one guy pulls his chair up and he's like, oh
Speaker:yeah, I don't have a six pack. And then everyone started looking at each other and
Speaker:we all started putting our chairs up. And I'm like, oh, so I need to get a six
Speaker:pack. That planted the seed for me in
Speaker:terms of how important fitness is in the eyes of
Speaker:women and other men. Because guess what? She brought it. So
Speaker:she deemed it to be important. But all of them were
Speaker:checking if everyone had a six pack. Like
Speaker:a self-reflection thing. Exactly. Everyone deemed it
Speaker:important. So I started there. I started just getting feed, getting
Speaker:my six pack, all this stuff. And then after school,
Speaker:I told myself, I don't want to be average anymore. And
Speaker:once I got into university, I'm a fully qualified dentist. So
Speaker:I went to study dentistry. And I
Speaker:just made a commitment to myself that this time I'll be one of
Speaker:the greats of this specific thing of dentistry. Fast
Speaker:forward to that, I became number six out of 200 people in
Speaker:my year. The only men, by the way, in there, so
Speaker:everyone else was out of the top ten places,
Speaker:nine of them were women. I was the only man and number six. And
Speaker:I realized by being at the top how much I
Speaker:loved it. how much I loved it. You have no idea
Speaker:how much I enjoyed my university time
Speaker:and journey. I was one of the best. Everyone knew me by,
Speaker:especially some of the subjects that were extremely difficult.
Speaker:I just became obsessed with them because I knew if I can be at the
Speaker:top here, I will be known. People will want
Speaker:my help. I will be valuable. I'll be useful in
Speaker:my specific year because guess what? By me being at the top, All
Speaker:my mates and all the chicks and all the stuff, they all wanted my
Speaker:help. They knew I understood the
Speaker:things that to most people was Chinese. You
Speaker:know, anatomy and all this physiology and all these complex
Speaker:subjects when it came to dentistry. So I
Speaker:just made that commitment to be great at that one thing, finish university,
Speaker:and because of the circumstances of Venezuela, I
Speaker:had to look for other options outside the country. I did work as a
Speaker:dentist in a dental clinic, earning like $80 a
Speaker:month. So for working an entire month, I would
Speaker:get the equivalent to $80 USD, which obviously
Speaker:leaves you with not many options to whatever, just live life.
Speaker:I was 23, right? And changing your car or even traveling, that's
Speaker:unthinkable, right? And at some point, my mom was
Speaker:the one that, when I was looking at potential options overseas, they
Speaker:told me, we will help you get wherever you want to go. And once
Speaker:you step a foot in there, you're on your own to make
Speaker:sure that you either stay or figure a bigger life out,
Speaker:essentially. So my mom came with the idea of Australia.
Speaker:It just seemed to have all the things that I was into, surfing,
Speaker:cool weather, whatever. And it just felt like
Speaker:an opportunity to start from zero, which is why university
Speaker:gave me an opportunity to start from scratch. Nobody knows me.
Speaker:Nobody expects anything of me. It's
Speaker:an opportunity for me to become whoever I want to become. Australia
Speaker:felt like that. It's so far removed from where
Speaker:I come from. Nobody knows anyone from there. Our
Speaker:only image of Australia is kangaroos, koalas,
Speaker:and beautiful people. That's kind of like the perception of people
Speaker:back home of Australia. Oh, yeah, and I think they have surfing, for
Speaker:sure, and beaches, right? So we don't know anything else.
Speaker:So you've obviously just said that going to university was like a,
Speaker:that's a fresh start. All that stemmed from being that
Speaker:last kid to be picked for sport. You've obviously
Speaker:made yourself physically, you're a specimen now because you learned how to do gym
Speaker:because, you know, the girl was like, Oh, we need six packs. And you
Speaker:put such an onus on your physical attributes. You
Speaker:as a physical specimen is not just you though. Like you've
Speaker:obviously got some pretty serious mind games that you've
Speaker:played with yourself to be able to get to that point where you've gone, this
Speaker:is my fresh start. I'm going to be the best. What led
Speaker:you to, before you even got to Australia, seeing university and
Speaker:That feeling of just always being the
Speaker:last one or Nothing
Speaker:is special about you. You're not
Speaker:Do you think you always had that in you then and you just coasted and you were part of
Speaker:the middle group in like, just say, junior school then? And that's
Speaker:Looking back to it, I think it just
Speaker:started building that fire in me, along with
Speaker:my dad. My dad was, he has
Speaker:very high standards. I remember coming back from school
Speaker:or even university at that point, and I'll
Speaker:tell him, oh dad, I got this really good grade. Every so
Speaker:often in school, when I had a really good grade, I'll
Speaker:come and show it off and expecting kind of like, oh, well done or
Speaker:anything like that. And he will always say, oh, why didn't you get A? If
Speaker:it was a B plus, A minus, whatever you
Speaker:guys call it, we have on the scale of
Speaker:20 back home. So I will bring an 18, which is pretty damn close.
Speaker:And he'll be like, oh, why didn't you get 20? And even when
Speaker:I got the 20s, I remember coming in and being
Speaker:so certain that he's going to be stoked or
Speaker:whatever. He was very unimpressed. That's what you were supposed to get. Yeah, exactly. It's
Speaker:almost like, yeah, that's your job. You should be getting 20s
Speaker:That's rough, because even I see that from a perspective now with Hemi, with
Speaker:my little one. And I'm his biggest
Speaker:critic, so I will critique him and I will do that. But then I will also
Speaker:give him his flowers when it's needed. But now I'm thinking, I'm
Speaker:not making a little monster like our mate Nelson here. Nelson's
Speaker:A lot of people are going to listen to what Nelson's saying and being like, he's
Speaker:going a bit fucking hard. He needs to chill out a little bit. So
Speaker:that's because you felt so strongly about not being adequate. And
Speaker:there's two courses of action for that. It's A, turn
Speaker:into a savage and do what Nelson did. Or B, would be
Speaker:the self-acceptance movement. You could, I
Speaker:know you have a lot to say about this. accepting being
Speaker:average, accepting this is who you are and finding enjoyment in that
Speaker:life? What's your views on making sure
Speaker:Well, I decided that for me, that
Speaker:was fire. That was motivation. I
Speaker:wasn't going to give up into when my dad told
Speaker:me, oh, why was that at 20? Just go and cry. Probably
Speaker:the first times when I was very young, it hurt. Probably the
Speaker:first times, maybe I did cry. I don't know, when I was a
Speaker:kid or whatever. But it just, now
Speaker:looking back to it, It was one of the greatest things he
Speaker:could have done. He set up a high standard for me and
Speaker:he was getting me prepared for how difficult life
Speaker:is as a man. That's the reality. As a man, life
Speaker:is going to punch you in the fucking face every
Speaker:single day. Nobody cares about you. It doesn't matter if you're
Speaker:really tall, strong, beautiful, whatever
Speaker:it is, nobody cares. Exactly.
Speaker:I was just looking and I was like, done, done, done. But
Speaker:yeah, nobody cares about you. You have to be useful. You have
Speaker:to be valuable in society. So it
Speaker:just put the fire to me that in order to be someone
Speaker:great, one of the greats at whatever I choose to do, I
Speaker:have to have extremely high standards. And
Speaker:even when we do, we do podcasts every day long and
Speaker:We do an exceptional job to it. It doesn't matter if
Speaker:a shoot goes perfect. If we didn't make a
Speaker:single mistake and the client is stoked and we
Speaker:got results, everything went our way. I'm still thinking,
Speaker:what didn't go exactly perfect? What's
Speaker:the next level of perfection
Speaker:that we could achieve within our craft? How do we get? And
Speaker:by the way, you never actually do anything perfect. So
Speaker:I'm always questioning, even if everything went our way, what
Speaker:could have been done better? How do we get closer to
Speaker:that perfection outcome that we're looking within
Speaker:this specific thing? So going
Speaker:back to your question, the way I took it was, I
Speaker:need to be tough. I need to have a high standard regardless
Speaker:of what I choose to do. It doesn't matter where I'm doing. I have a high standard
Speaker:with everything, with my friends, with the way I treat my
Speaker:time, with meetings, with podcasting, with
Speaker:my content, with the way I show up, with my trainings, with
Speaker:everything. So I think it just gave me that understanding that
Speaker:as a man, that's my way to actually be
Speaker:Fast forward to when you landed in Australia. You're
Speaker:in this different country. You didn't have money. You barely
Speaker:spoke the English language. I think it was kind
Speaker:of crucial that your dad did put all those skills inside
Speaker:of you to be able to deal with it, stand on your own two feet. And
Speaker:if you hadn't taken that more savage route, perhaps you
Speaker:wouldn't be able to deal with it. You sort of spoke
Speaker:about those years earlier, like going through university, becoming who
Speaker:you are, like strong, finding yourself, getting to the top. But
Speaker:when I met you, that wasn't you. You'd sort of
Speaker:been thrown back into Australia and you were more lost
Speaker:than you sounded like you were at uni. what were you
Speaker:dealing with that you were trying to figure out?
Speaker:How can I stand out? How can I achieve? How
Speaker:can I succeed in Australia? Because it took years for you to kind
Speaker:Two weeks before coming
Speaker:to Australia and starting this crazy journey and
Speaker:completely changing all the trajectory of my life.
Speaker:My path was I'm going to be a dentist in
Speaker:this new country. I'm going to build whatever dental
Speaker:clinics, all this stuff. I was so into
Speaker:just doing what I was told I needed to do, because also everyone
Speaker:told me that if you become a dentist or
Speaker:a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer, you make a
Speaker:lot of money. And that's something that I didn't grow up with. And
Speaker:I knew as well that a lot of the issues
Speaker:or conversations we had at home it
Speaker:was always around money. So to me, since I was a
Speaker:very little kid, I was always trying to get more money.
Speaker:And just before coming to
Speaker:Australia, two weeks before, I lost my best friend on
Speaker:a car accident out of nowhere. I had a conversation with
Speaker:him the night before. We were planning certain things that
Speaker:we're supposed to do before I left the country, all
Speaker:these things. And next thing is I'm waking up
Speaker:at six. My dad is waking me up. And I
Speaker:knew instantly the way he was waking me up. He sat down on
Speaker:next to me and he was being very gentle.
Speaker:But I knew there was something in there and in the energy that
Speaker:something really bad happened. And
Speaker:he just told me about it. I could
Speaker:not believe it. I could not process it in the moment because I
Speaker:just spoke to him a few hours. That was the last thing I did before
Speaker:going to bed was speaking to him. We had plans, all this stuff. Next
Speaker:thing, he's gone. After
Speaker:that, I started to check my phone, had
Speaker:all these messages, all these calls from friends. And
Speaker:yeah, the word spread out about the thing. That was
Speaker:my last two weeks in the country. I'm
Speaker:still getting everything ready to start my life from scratch
Speaker:on a different side of the planet. And I have to somehow
Speaker:now face this monster. Not
Speaker:only that, seeing his family, completely
Speaker:broken. And I didn't
Speaker:speak to anyone for three days. I was just silent. I was just trying
Speaker:to understand what just happened and just trying to process it.
Speaker:And I started seeing that, OK,
Speaker:this person that was same
Speaker:age, 23, he is fit, he's
Speaker:an athlete, he has great friends, he has a
Speaker:beautiful, supporting, loving family, his whole
Speaker:life ahead, dentist as well, extremely
Speaker:smart, just doing good, suddenly
Speaker:he's gone. And that
Speaker:doesn't justify what maybe he
Speaker:could have done differently to still be here, right? But
Speaker:he's gone. So we're dust. I realized, OK, I'm dust. And
Speaker:that could be me. So if that could be me, and
Speaker:that happens tomorrow, I just started painting almost
Speaker:this movie of me, of if that was
Speaker:me, and I'm in front of God or whoever
Speaker:created this beautiful planet, and
Speaker:he's telling me, hey, Welcome. This
Speaker:is your life. Watch it back." And I
Speaker:started imagining, cool, what if I do accomplish all
Speaker:the things I've been told, that I needed to be a dentist. Maybe
Speaker:I have dental clinics all over the world. I'm known as
Speaker:the number one dentist, all this stuff. And
Speaker:I was like, fuck, that sucks. I don't want that.
Speaker:So I started questioning the things that I've been told and
Speaker:where my life was heading to. So
Speaker:I arrived to Australia. Again, there's not even time to process that.
Speaker:I just have to tackle this new challenge.
Speaker:And I remember as soon as I stepped foot in Australia and just started walking
Speaker:in Brisbane City, looking around
Speaker:everything, how nobody was scared to
Speaker:be kidnapped, stolen. I could walk with my phone
Speaker:on the hand. Nobody was going to do anything. Nobody knew
Speaker:me. It just felt right.
Speaker:I fell in love with it. You found a level of comfort that you hadn't previously experienced.
Speaker:And yeah, just looking around, looking at the people, nobody judged
Speaker:me for being South American, whatever. I
Speaker:couldn't speak English, and people didn't care, most people at least. So
Speaker:it just felt like this is the right
Speaker:opportunity to build the next level Nelson.
Speaker:And yeah, so I just started working slowly, no
Speaker:money, I barely have any money. My parents gave me
Speaker:some money and a close family member as well
Speaker:for me to get started and just... sort
Speaker:myself out. And the first thing that I realized is if
Speaker:I want to be a part of this country, I need to speak
Speaker:the language. I need to speak English. And I need to do it at a high level. Because
Speaker:then I started looking at my competition. Guess what? You're always competing.
Speaker:You're always competing with someone. It doesn't matter if it's in business,
Speaker:you're competing with other businesses in the same industry. In
Speaker:friendships, you're competing to have the best friends and
Speaker:to be the best friend of your friend. In relationships,
Speaker:you're all competing for the same girl. Everyone wants the
Speaker:hottest chick. And even within your
Speaker:teams, everyone's competing to be the best team player, the
Speaker:best team member. You're always competing. And I realized, just like
Speaker:I want this citizenship, this residence here,
Speaker:there's a million immigrants that want that. And
Speaker:I realized that a lot of them were not taking it seriously. A
Speaker:lot of them were not learning the language. A lot of them were just distracted with
Speaker:the shiny objects of being in a new country. And
Speaker:I just saw an opportunity to tackle.
Speaker:That's what I did. I just started learning English like crazy. I put myself in
Speaker:positions where I didn't need to speak to any
Speaker:Spanish speaker as well just to force myself. I started
Speaker:reading all my books in English, watching everything in English,
Speaker:and having as many jobs as possible just to have real life experience
Speaker:of people talking to me in the language and
Speaker:just moving slowly as well. Because of what happened
Speaker:as well with my friend, then I realized that I didn't want
Speaker:to do dentistry. And after doing some
Speaker:introspection and just thinking for myself, which is what I realized a
Speaker:lot of people don't do these days. I came to the conclusion
Speaker:that I just wanted to tell stories through videos. And I just started,
Speaker:initially started as, I just want to document my journey here
Speaker:in Australia to show my family what it's like in here and
Speaker:what I'm doing and all this stuff. And one
Speaker:thing led to another until people just started asking, hey, how
Speaker:much you charge for video? That blew my mind. The first time
Speaker:someone asked me that, I was like, You're telling me someone
Speaker:is going to pay me to do this thing that
Speaker:I love so much that I'm doing for free
Speaker:and that I'm so obsessed that I go late to bed
Speaker:just watching YouTube tutorials to learn how to use
Speaker:a camera. You're telling me someone is willing to pay me for that. So
Speaker:yeah, getting that first client, getting that first win, it
Speaker:just pulled gave me
Speaker:the proof that I needed that I could make money
Speaker:off the things that I love. Just kept
Speaker:doing it, doing it, doing it, hammering at it. That's how I
Speaker:actually met Maddie. Maddie and I are only friends because of
Speaker:me pursuing this crazy thing. Everyone told me I was crazy when
Speaker:I started telling everyone that I'm not going to be a dentist anymore.
Speaker:I'm going to be a videographer, a filmmaker. I'm going
Speaker:to make videos. Everyone told me I was insane. There
Speaker:wasn't a single person that came to me and said, dude,
Speaker:That is a fucking great idea. Get after it. No
Speaker:one, my family, that was another thing to explain. Friends
Speaker:were just laughing. Some friends, because
Speaker:your friends shouldn't, if you have friends that are just laughing at
Speaker:your shit generally and not, there's certain things
Speaker:that are, is, you know, sarcasm and just having a
Speaker:laugh at things, but generally laughing because they
Speaker:don't believe in you, you should be changing groups straight away.
Speaker:To put that into context, just for those listening that might not actually understand
Speaker:how it works, even though you're a qualified dentist in Venezuela, what's
Speaker:the process like? You can't come to Australia and just go, I'm a dentist, bang,
Speaker:straight into a dentistry, because that's how it doesn't work like that if
Speaker:anyone's sort of coming from a different country. So what options did you have? that
Speaker:were there for you to sort of start doing when you came
Speaker:Great question. And by the way, looking back,
Speaker:I remember I was so pissed. Why the fuck do they make this so
Speaker:hard for me to be a dentist here? It's not fair. Put
Speaker:six years of my life to become a dentist. I have real life
Speaker:works experience, all this stuff. I have all these accolades,
Speaker:titles, all these things. Everything was worthless
Speaker:in this country. And that's gonna fuck with you. That fucked with
Speaker:me initially. But now looking back, I was like, fuck, that was the greatest
Speaker:thing ever because it made me have to
Speaker:do all the things. It made me have to go look for a job as
Speaker:I remember we were discussing it and it's not like you have to do a full
Speaker:six years again, but you still had to go and do a couple of years of
Speaker:study or whatever it was. And that made you question
Speaker:way harder, is this what I want to do? Because I've
Speaker:got to put more work into this thing. I don't want to put more work into
Speaker:what I don't want to do. And that was probably like a little thing
Speaker:that helped make the decision to go, no, I will
Speaker:It was a blessing in disguise. They put so
Speaker:much friction for me to be a dentist here that I was like, fuck
Speaker:it. I have to think, I have to do all the things. I
Speaker:started getting jobs in hospitality. I have done almost everything you
Speaker:can think of from being a barista to being a waiter
Speaker:to making bagels. Is that where the hat came from, the barista? The hat came
Speaker:actually from Maddie. Come from Maddie? Yeah, that's a good story right
Speaker:You look like a barista when you wear the hat. Like you just suit the mold. I
Speaker:I will be the best barista you have ever met. But yeah, essentially
Speaker:just went through all these difficult, hard
Speaker:jobs that gave me a lot of time to think. And guess what? I was always the
Speaker:person less paid in the team as well, because I was the immigrant, so
Speaker:everyone was taking advantage. And because I was the hardest fucking worker, I
Speaker:would show up Every single day, it didn't matter. I would tell my
Speaker:managers, I was, man, I was an exceptional worker. That's why I'm
Speaker:very hard on my team these days. Because also, it
Speaker:doesn't matter what position you have within a company or within a
Speaker:business or whatever job position
Speaker:you have, you should be trying to excel
Speaker:and have a high standard with yourself. whether you're the cleaner, the
Speaker:waiter, the barista, or the business owner. You should have
Speaker:a high standard for how you do things. You should be the hottest worker
Speaker:in the room. You should try to be great at whatever you
Speaker:are currently doing. And it doesn't matter if it's for you or for
Speaker:someone else. I was being the best worker that I could be. Man, I've
Speaker:never, never called in sick to my job. Not
Speaker:a single time. I never lied to not go to work. I
Speaker:never, ever, showed up and
Speaker:gave my worst. I always tried to
Speaker:do my best. And yes, sometimes wasn't my 100% energy
Speaker:or whatever it is, but I was always really just trying
Speaker:to put a mask and do great because that's
Speaker:what they were expecting from me at that specific position.
Speaker:And it put the fire on me. I remember making
Speaker:bagels. And I was doing that at a market for
Speaker:a year and a half. I showed up every single Saturday to
Speaker:that market that was 12 hours straight for work for
Speaker:18 bucks an hour when everyone else around me was getting paid around 25 and I
Speaker:knew it. Waking up from 4 a.m.
Speaker:to 4 p.m. and then going to be a
Speaker:fucking waiter at a restaurant and making drinks and stuff. And
Speaker:I remember making those bagels for people that were wearing Rolexes, people
Speaker:that were... Just look, you could tell this guy knows something that
Speaker:most of these people don't. and just put
Speaker:in the fire on me, how the fuck do I get out of here? I
Speaker:remember having so much fear to stay
Speaker:on that bagel shit for longer than I
Speaker:needed. And I remember when I clocked the first year, I'm like, fuck,
Speaker:how many more years do I need to do here? What do I need to do
Speaker:to get out of here? I remember coming back home, being so obsessed
Speaker:to making better videos, to learning how people were charging for this, to
Speaker:learning how to get clients, how to get my work
Speaker:to be known, all these things, because I wouldn't stand another fucking
Speaker:With that, so did you reach out to anyone or were you
Speaker:that set that you're like, I need to do this on my own? Or because you
Speaker:are very, I guess what you would say is like the hyper
Speaker:masculine with how competitive you are. you would come across
Speaker:as the type that most people would say, oh, Nelson, he's
Speaker:not going to reach out to ask for help. Did you reach out and ask for help to
Speaker:be able to find, like, intel from what people were charging or
Speaker:The first thing is that within the group that I had, I
Speaker:was the crazy one. I was the guy that was telling everyone, hey, I'm going
Speaker:to be a multimillionaire. Hey, I'm going to build this incredible business.
Speaker:I even had any idea what kind of business I was going to build. I remember It
Speaker:just became, and also I realized all of them were so distracted with,
Speaker:oh, I'm hanging out with these chicks. We're going to this party, this. And
Speaker:I was the guy that always was saying, no, I'm not going. I'm watching YouTube tutorials.
Speaker:I'm learning how to make better videos, going to bed early, trying
Speaker:to still go to the gym, all this stuff, work every
Speaker:day I possibly could. I was making like 80 hours of hospitality
Speaker:every single week. I just had
Speaker:no time for fucking around. And I
Speaker:didn't have anyone here that could give
Speaker:me an indication of what I needed to do.
Speaker:So I didn't have the access. And then I tried a couple times, people
Speaker:that I found out, OK, once I decided, OK, I want to pursue this
Speaker:video thing, I reached out to a few people. Hey, dude, if
Speaker:you ever need anything, by the way, one of those was Guillaume. currently
Speaker:one of my best friends that Matty knows, and he has a video agency. Back
Speaker:then, he was so ahead of me. And I remember when I came across his work,
Speaker:I DMed him, hey, if you ever need a free hand, whatever, I
Speaker:can assist you with whatever you need. He never got back to me about that. So
Speaker:I tried a few times, but no one got back to me. And it just... The
Speaker:way I saw it was a reminder to nobody gives a
Speaker:fuck. Nobody gives a fuck. I have to sort my
Speaker:shit out. There's no hero that is coming to
Speaker:save me. I have to become my own hero. That's why I was repeating
Speaker:myself. And because I didn't have access to
Speaker:any mentors, I just started using these
Speaker:people that I respected and admired in some way, shape,
Speaker:or form. Eminem, Conor McGregor. There's
Speaker:certain individuals that I realized I
Speaker:have something to learn from him. I just started to listen. A lot
Speaker:of it was podcasting, which led me to eventually start my own
Speaker:podcast. But I was just looking for mentors where
Speaker:I can get an information where I could get it. I didn't have it next to
Speaker:me. That happened way further down the track. I
Speaker:just continued to build and do my own thing. But back
Speaker:then I just had to get the information however I could
Speaker:It got to the stage where you were doing the YouTube thing
Speaker:and then one of our friends, Darren, knew this other friend
Speaker:and then he knew you and me and Darren were going on a trip and
Speaker:they're like, there's this Venezuelan dude, like.
Speaker:do you want him to go on the trip? We're like, he looks good. So
Speaker:whether or not he can speak real good English or not, we'll, we'll take him down.
Speaker:So we took him down and that's like when we kicked off
Speaker:our thing and I've been doing film for a little while then. And
Speaker:I remember, man, we've had years and years of like going
Speaker:back and forth with questions and whatnot. You did
Speaker:ask me a lot of questions and then it kind of flipped. I'm asking
Speaker:you so much shit. Um, Seeing
Speaker:the drive you've had is
Speaker:undeniable, I think it's clear by this stage, but your
Speaker:struggle for a couple years was in the how do I get it? You
Speaker:didn't know how. He'd put in a million hours work, he'd go as hard as
Speaker:humanly possible, he would be doing self-help, he'd
Speaker:be working for free, he'd be getting experience, he'd be networking, but
Speaker:it wasn't clicking. How was it dealing
Speaker:with that and sort of delaying
Speaker:the gratification knowing that it's gonna happen sometime, you just need
Speaker:that part of the journey, it's really
Speaker:tough. And that's why most people never make it out. There
Speaker:is a stage where you need to have You
Speaker:need to have the courage and just be extremely bold
Speaker:to pursue the thing that you really
Speaker:love, that you're passionate, or a specific opportunity that
Speaker:you may be seeing. But because of your background,
Speaker:because of your lack of proof, because of maybe
Speaker:the circle, the environment that you have around, Everything is
Speaker:pushing against you. Everyone's telling you, this is crazy.
Speaker:You can't do this thing. You're not meant to do this thing. You have
Speaker:all these stories. I was telling myself the story
Speaker:of I come from a terrible country. I'm not meant to achieve any
Speaker:of this. I come from a standard family. I'm not meant
Speaker:to be rich, whatever. So you have
Speaker:so much bullshit that you have to overcome within
Speaker:your mind and around you. And you just
Speaker:have this little voice telling you, dude, just
Speaker:keep going. Just keep going. Keep trying. A
Speaker:little bit longer. A little bit longer. So I was trying to
Speaker:just listen to that voice and convince myself. To
Speaker:an extent, you're delusional. I had to be delusional. I
Speaker:had to believe that any of this was possible. But
Speaker:no one is believing you. And you even question yourself
Speaker:because you don't have any proof that you are who you say you are.
Speaker:The only option is either quitting or getting
Speaker:to work. So I was just trying to show up every single day.
Speaker:And every day, some days were fucking hard.
Speaker:Some days I was questioning everything. Some days I was
Speaker:just thinking, yeah, I should just go back to hospitality, whatever
Speaker:it is. And as you said, I was working
Speaker:extremely hard, but that wasn't the answer. Because
Speaker:if you're working extremely hard on the wrong thing, you
Speaker:will never get what you want, which is what took me a long
Speaker:time to realize that I was, yes, I was one of the hardest workers
Speaker:in the room, but I was working on the wrong things. And
Speaker:eventually, it became clear that I
Speaker:needed to acquire more skills than the ones that I had. Because
Speaker:I became a master at my craft, But that craft
Speaker:could not get anywhere else if I didn't acquire the
Speaker:next skills to help me, in this case, build
Speaker:a business or make more money, which for me were
Speaker:sales and marketing. I was just lacking those two tools. And
Speaker:until you become aware of that, there's no way for you
Speaker:to improve. You just don't know what you don't know. And as soon as
Speaker:I got those tools, because I already had the work
Speaker:ethic, I was obsessed with getting the
Speaker:know-how, and I was willing to invest in
Speaker:myself as well to get mentors and someone that could tell me
Speaker:what I just didn't know I didn't know, then the way
Speaker:we've been progressing after those first six
Speaker:and a half years of not getting any incredible results,
Speaker:now it's skyrocketing. But nobody sees
Speaker:that. People just look at the stuff you have now. Oh yeah, he has
Speaker:a Rolex now. Oh yeah, he has a studio, he has a team, all this stuff. But
Speaker:nobody sees the six and a half years that
Speaker:had to put off just blind belief, plain, raw,
Speaker:It's what you got. It's what they look at, not how you got it.
Speaker:100%. We've said that so many times with no one sees the amount of
Speaker:times you had to fall down and pick yourself up or no
Speaker:one was there to pick you up. You did that all yourself. So
Speaker:like everything you've built here, it's a credit to what you've done.
Speaker:And whilst we're on that, you said that you had to
Speaker:learn that sales and marketing side yourself. Those
Speaker:that are listening with businesses don't need to learn that themselves because we've got you Nels. So
Speaker:reach out if you need anything done because you're a fucking wizard
Speaker:at what you've done and like, a credit to what you do with us anyway. It's
Speaker:I'm going back to drive because that's the main thing for you. I love the
Speaker:drive. Something I've struggled with personally is the
Speaker:reason why. Why am I doing this? Like, I
Speaker:work pretty hard, but sometimes I lose
Speaker:track of why I'm doing it. What do I want? You
Speaker:have a bit of a bigger why in the sense of
Speaker:where you came from and what you want to achieve in that. How important is
Speaker:having a clear vision of why and what you're trying
Speaker:to achieve to allow you to go to that level of
Speaker:If you don't have something and
Speaker:a reason that is way bigger than
Speaker:you to be used as fuel,
Speaker:you will not make it. I have seen so many
Speaker:people around me that started strongly pursuing a
Speaker:project, that they were working super hard. And
Speaker:at some point, they either quit, they gave
Speaker:up, they lose the incentive, the motivation.
Speaker:Your mission has to be way bigger. And the reason why
Speaker:you do things have to be way bigger than yourself. I
Speaker:have so many people that currently are relying on me that
Speaker:there is no option for me to not show up. There is no option for
Speaker:me to just quit because me quitting is
Speaker:quitting on a bunch of people around
Speaker:me, my family, my team. This
Speaker:thing that I built is now providing way past
Speaker:me, provides for so many people, our clients,
Speaker:and everyone around me. And my
Speaker:goal is to not only provide
Speaker:for my family all the opportunities that we never had
Speaker:and that seem impossible, but it's to show everyone
Speaker:all around the world, and especially people from terrible countries,
Speaker:that whatever you want, you can have if
Speaker:you're willing to pay the price. I'm at a point now that
Speaker:I truly believe I could get anything I want. I
Speaker:can bend reality to my willing. I'm a world
Speaker:bender. Anything I want, I can get. I
Speaker:just need to be willing to pay the price and I cannot have
Speaker:every single thing all at the same time. So
Speaker:I have to be very diligent with getting clear on
Speaker:which is the thing that I want. What do I want to be known for?
Speaker:And as a result of that, what am I
Speaker:trying to do? Why am I doing things? And I'm just trying to
Speaker:show people that came from the same journey as me that you don't have
Speaker:to be the tallest, you don't have to be the fittest, you don't have to
Speaker:come from a wealthy family. You can build any
Speaker:life that you want. You can bring it into reality. These
Speaker:crazy dreams, you can literally bring and
Speaker:craft your reality as you please. So I'm just trying
Speaker:to show people what's possible as a
Speaker:Beautiful sentiment and probably a good place to round this one
Speaker:Before we round that off, there is one thing I want to go back to. So
Speaker:your friend that passed two
Speaker:weeks before coming to Australia, before kicking off this, I
Speaker:guess, rise of the phoenix of what you've done right now. So
Speaker:do you use him as motivation from that chat that
Speaker:you guys had? Obviously you guys made plans together and all this
Speaker:sort of stuff because he knew you were coming over. Everything
Speaker:that you're building, are you building that in somewhat of like a legacy because
Speaker:of what is the plan to do? So like, it's sort of like you're a,
Speaker:That's one of the people that I can't let down. I
Speaker:had the opportunity to keep playing the game, this thing that
Speaker:we call life. And I
Speaker:know in some way he might be watching, and
Speaker:I don't want to be the guy that quit, and he was
Speaker:rooting for me. And then he
Speaker:goes like, oh, fuck, dude. You could have keep going
Speaker:on. No, you had the opportunity. Dude, I can't play. You
Speaker:know, you're still in the game. That's kind of how I
Speaker:see it. And I keep a photo of him to remind myself that
Speaker:life is fleeting. I have it with me all the time on my wallet.
Speaker:And dude, I have my motivation
Speaker:is goes way beyond me. I don't I
Speaker:really don't care about myself. I already I already
Speaker:accomplished almost everything I ever wanted. I
Speaker:want more now and at a bigger scale. I'm
Speaker:going to make $100 million and all these things, but I
Speaker:don't need that. I don't need it anymore. I
Speaker:wanted to work for myself. I got that. I
Speaker:wanted to be fit. Got myself
Speaker:fit. I wanted to be well respected
Speaker:within my circle. I got that. I wanted to
Speaker:have great options when it comes to partners. Found
Speaker:a great partner. Again, the list goes
Speaker:on and on and on. I got my dream car that I dreamt
Speaker:as a kid. It's an old Prado, but as a kid, that was
Speaker:my dream car. And it felt completely out of reach. And
Speaker:I always remember watching the rich kids with their Prados and all these
Speaker:things. And I'm like, fuck, I'll never be able to get a Prado. I
Speaker:got a Prado. You know, I wanted a Rolex for
Speaker:the longest time ever because it's the symbol of status and
Speaker:all these things. And I just love watches in general. I
Speaker:got that, like, there's nothing that... I'm
Speaker:doing anymore just for myself. To me, there's
Speaker:no better accomplishment than just being useful
Speaker:and just being valuable to the people around me. We have two
Speaker:team members overseas that, because of
Speaker:the job and the opportunities that we have provided for them, they
Speaker:got to fulfill their dreams, which were getting houses, two
Speaker:of them already. That, to me, is such a massive flex, bigger
Speaker:than any Rolex. I, nobody could give
Speaker:me my visa. I had to find a fucking way around it
Speaker:through the system, through everything to get my visa
Speaker:and earn my place here. And that cost me not only thousands
Speaker:of dollars, but it cost me time, tears, effort.
Speaker:I had to pay a big price to do that. I didn't see my family for
Speaker:eight years. Just recently finally got to see them
Speaker:after eight years. And now I have the opportunity to
Speaker:give the visa to someone that is working with me. That's
Speaker:a flex to me. That's a big flex that now I
Speaker:can do it for someone else when no one could do it for me. I'm
Speaker:providing work for guys that were like me, just
Speaker:obsessed with making videos and shit, and nobody could provide a
Speaker:job for me. I had to create all this stuff. Now I get
Speaker:to provide these opportunities for the ones that are ready for the
Speaker:takeover and want to be a part of a mission that is way bigger than
Speaker:themselves. So everything I
Speaker:do these days ultimately is not for me
Speaker:anymore. Yes, there's stuff I want. It's cool to
Speaker:get certain things and celebrate yourself with
Speaker:material stuff or hitting certain milestones. But ultimately,
Speaker:you realize, especially after I just came from seeing my family
Speaker:in Canada for whatever, after
Speaker:not seeing them for eight years. And that was just my
Speaker:reminder that, yeah, this is exactly what you do. The conversations that
Speaker:I have with my dad this time around and with my
Speaker:mom and just getting to spoil them, pay
Speaker:for everything, took them to stay in hotels, all this
Speaker:shit, hence why you should be
Speaker:trying to get money at some point in your life. But Yeah,
Speaker:it just made me realize that you need to have a
Speaker:motivation that is bigger than you. And if you're just chasing something
Speaker:that is for you or just chasing numbers
Speaker:in a bank account and whatever it is, eventually you're
Speaker:probably going to fail or eventually you will start questioning
Speaker:all the meaning of life. Life is not about you. Life
Speaker:is about everyone else around you and
Speaker:what you leave behind. I find that the people
Speaker:that don't
Speaker:care more about the people around them and about bettering
Speaker:themselves for the greater good are doing
Speaker:a fucking disservice to the planet. You
Speaker:shouldn't be here. You got the opportunity of a lifetime. You're alive.
Speaker:You get to breathe. You have a body. Holy shit. And you
Speaker:just love being lazy. You just love complaining. You
Speaker:just love blaming everyone around you. You
Speaker:are a slave to bad habits, like
Speaker:vaping, like not working out. You're just
Speaker:fat. You don't even care about how you look. Dude, come
Speaker:on. You have this incredible opportunity of
Speaker:crafting this reality however you
Speaker:want it to be. You can get anything. I'm the living proof of it. You can
Speaker:literally, I'm telling you, the secret is you can bend reality. You
Speaker:can get anything you want. But everything should
Speaker:be for the greater good, because ultimately, you're just dust. I
Speaker:don't want this reality. I want to bring everything into reality. Where should I
Speaker:start? If you're currently in a job that you hate, you
Speaker:don't like anything about your boss, you're always complaining about it, do something
Speaker:about it. Go get skills that will get you paid, whatever
Speaker:that is, for whatever you want to do. There's a million skills that
Speaker:you could get that transfer across many different areas
Speaker:of life and business opportunities in itself. Get a
Speaker:mentor. Don't think that you know everything. You
Speaker:need to get many different mentors across your life. I have
Speaker:mentors for how to get in shape, how to play chess,
Speaker:how to fight, how to do business, marketing, sales, and
Speaker:so on. I'm constantly investing in myself to learn the things that I don't know,
Speaker:I don't know, and then learn how to pass those skills. So
Speaker:all the people, I'm constantly now passing the things that I'm learning to
Speaker:my team and friends and everyone around me. And
Speaker:have a hard look at your environment, the people around you.
Speaker:Because if your friend sucks, If all your friends are
Speaker:losers, you will be the next loser. That's how
Speaker:it is. You want to be a killer? Surround yourself with
Speaker:a bunch of killers. I'm very careful with my circle these
Speaker:days. I don't speak to anyone that I don't want to speak to.
Speaker:I don't spend time with people I don't want to spend time with. I don't talk
Speaker:to people that are in the Matrix. I
Speaker:don't need any of that. I'm working towards being... My
Speaker:circle is going to be the greatest of the greatest. Yeah,
Speaker:That's good. I want to, before we wrap up, I just want to say
Speaker:a quote that I read, which you've just inspired me to sort of follow on.
Speaker:So we should all count our blessings, but
Speaker:we should definitely make our count, our blessings count. So,
Speaker:and that's everything that Nelson has just sort of gone on about. is you
Speaker:haven't taken anything for granted. You've worked for fucking everything. And
Speaker:like, you are crushing it. And you should be very, very
Speaker:proud of yourself. Fuck anyone else being proud of you. But personally, I
Speaker:Always been proud of you. And obviously the rant
Speaker:is, I guess it encapsulates why we
Speaker:have you around. You're such a role model when it comes to motivation
Speaker:and discipline and accountability, huge on accountability. So
Speaker:I think just like soaking all that in is good for the
Speaker:As always, be better. Thanks for tuning into today's episode of
Speaker:Better Bloke. If you got anything out of it, show us some love by dropping a five star
Speaker:If you want to learn more about everything we're doing, head to the description, hit
Speaker:the links and follow us on the socials. If you want to learn more about the project,