We were lucky to catch up with Nick Lamaison recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Nick thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think first you have to understand that your talents and abilities are God given. So you have an obligation to live them out to the best of your abilities to glorify God and bring more people to his kingdom. In addition to that understanding, you have to realize that human nature is not to be successful, it is only to survive. So if you want to be successful you must fight against your own human nature every day. Discipline and daily habits help tremendously with that battle and are at the core of all successful people. You must do what needs to be done, regardless of how you feel that given day and you must align your daily habits with your annual goals. And lastly, you must have a purpose that is much bigger than you. This will help you weather the storms of life. If you are only doing things for yourself, you won’t be able to maintain the endurance needed to succeed, this has to be for a bigger cause than yourself.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I grew up in a single mother household. My mom always did the best she could and the greatest gift that she gave me was teaching me that I could do anything in life.

I was a 2X Junior College All-American and State Player of the Year in football, I played Quarterback. I received a scholarship to the University of Tennessee and played for Lane Kiffin, Ed Orgeron, and Monte Kiffin. I transferred to UTEP and started at Quarterback for Mike Price for two seasons before graduating with my Bachelors in Psychology. I played one year in Europe and won a European Championship.

Then post athletics, I took my raw leadership skills and started developing them in the Director of Operations space for companies like Uline, Target, Semmelmann Interiors, and several others. Simultaneously, I started my investing journey in real estate, saw a lot of success early on, and quickly developed a passion for the industry as a whole. I then received my Texas real estate license and started helping others build their real estate portfolios as well.

The thing that separates me in my industry is my investor level knowledge, immense problem solving abilities, negotiating prowess, and hustle. I put my clients in the best position to be successful long-term and I use my personal experience to help them build wealth.

I also have a creative side and am stepping into the entertainment space as a music artist (NIXK), I make Pop/R&B/HipHop music with a motivation and God focus. I have never failed at any industry I have attempted, so we look to be successful in this space as well. The goal is to cross collaborate a lifestyle brand (Ninth City) with our real estate and health and wellness businesses to inform followers and fans of the most beneficial and helpful knowledge as it relates to financial education, health and wellness, and the encouragement of listeners/viewers to follow their dreams.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My life was built on resilience. I grew up in a low-income area of Los Angeles, California. I was exposed to daily drug abuse, violence, gang activity, and at 8 years old my father was involved in a drunk driving accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down. My main outlet from these unfortunate realities was athletics. I went from playing football in the streets with friends, to finally my brother talked my mom into signing me up for tackle football at 9 years old. I was the MVP of my team my first year. I wish I could say it was smooth sailing from there but it wasn’t. My mother and I struggled financially and for many years lived in motels, back rooms, and garages. Finally, the year I got into high school, my mother and I got a 1 bedroom apartment. These distractions in life bled over into academia as I failed my entire Sophomore year of high school and had to go to adult education for a summer in order to move to the next grade and play on the football team. I eventually turned things around academically and became the starting Quarterback on my team my Senior year of high school and received an offer from Kansas State University. Unfortunately, I was ineligible to attend a four year university due to my Sophomore year and I had to go to junior college to continue my career in football. Again, I ran into obstacles there as the Head Coach of San Diego State, Tom Craft, had just taken the job at my junior college bringing with him his son who played Quarterback, Kevin Kraft. I felt discouraged and quit the team but was talked back into “grey shirting” which didn’t allow my eligibility to start until the next season. Kevin Kraft received a scholarship to UCLA and finally I got my shot, became an All-American, California State Player of the Year, won the State Championship, and received a scholarship to the University of Tennessee. I remember vividly my first day in my dorm at Tennessee listening to the buzzing sounds of the cicada’s (as a California boy this sound was new to me), I remember saying to myself, after everything I’ve been through, I finally made it!

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

While working in Operations at Uline during an extra shift on Saturday I was picking the brain of our building General Manager and he was talking to me about his 9 rental properties and the success his wife and him had seen. I became obsessed with the information he shared and had to learn more. I also at that time read the first 72 pages of Rich Dad Poor Dad by Rob Kiyosaki and understood clearly the benefits of owning your own business and assets versus liabilities. I then immediately took money out of my 401k to buy my first house. I then did a process called “house hacking” where I rented out my two empty rooms to friends, saved up all of that income, then replaced myself in the room, lived with my then girlfriend now wife, bought my next home, and repeated the process several more times. My wife saw what I was doing, got interested, we became business partners, and now she manages all of the properties, while I continue to focus on acquisition. Currently we own over 3 million dollars worth of real estate and have a long-term gameplan of continued acquisition and management.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @nicklamaison (Business) @nixk626 (Music)
• Linkedin: Nick Lamaison
• Youtube: Channel: Nixk626
• Other: Tiktok (nixk626)

Image Credits

https://crucessports.blogspot.com/2012/09/scouting-report-utep-miners.html

247sports.com

Scout.com