Unarmored Talk

From the U.S. Army to Entrepreneurship: The Journey of Nike Roach

• Nike Roach • Episode 115

Share episode

Send us a text

Embark on an inspiring odyssey with the extraordinary Author, Veteran, and Entrepreneur Nike Roach, as he unveils the rich tapestry of his life, from his African village origins in South Carolina to the disciplined ranks of the U.S. Army, and beyond into the entrepreneurial arena. 

Nike's narrative, peppered with humor and wisdom, serves as an audacious guide through the labyrinth of business ownership and the entrepreneurial mindset. He shares insights on the vital role of mentorship for those embarking on a business voyage, and how facing adversity can temper the spirit of a true entrepreneur. 

Until next time, we part with laughter echoing in the background, leaving you with a wealth of knowledge and a heart full of inspiration.

Guest Links:

Support the show


Mario P. Fields:

Welcome back to unarmor talk podcast. Thank you so much for listening and watching each episode and continue pleased to share with your friends and family members and colleagues, and don't forget to leave a rating or review if you feel this is a awesome show. And you can connect to all of my social media on the parade deck Just look in a show notes or you can put in the search engine Mario P Fields parade deck and get all access To my social media. Well, let's get ready to interview another guest who is willing to remove their armor to help other people.

Mario P. Fields:

Welcome back everybody to another episode of the amazing and the only unarmored talk podcast. You guys know the deal we bring guests on the show to remove their armor to talk about something that an average person may not even know, some of their family members may not even know, and and To discuss, have discussions. That hopefully helps the listeners of viewers Develop an accurate way of thinking, understanding that emotions are normal for humans, but the think is a choice, unless you're insane. We have today knee-kai roach. Before I get into the background about him, first of all, what's going on?

Nike Roach:

Okay, oh, I'm jamming brother. I'm jamming sergeant major. Yes, I did call you sergeant major, even though you don't like it. But anybody who's a senior non-commissioned officer, shit Always be proud that they served in uniform with the stripes, not the stuff on the shoulders, huh and I am super proud man, I'm, I am, I.

Mario P. Fields:

You know there's a background about that. Be another episode on why. A couple of years I was like, yeah, mario P, and but you know, I've embraced it, I earned it and so thank you, knee-kai, thank you, I appreciate that. But everyone, before we get to our amazing guest today, again thank you for all of the Sharing of the videos on YouTube. We're close to a hundred thousand views, but that's charity. Again, you guys hear me say it every episode. You guys are helping us make an impact Through watching the video, sharing the videos even if you just click on the thumb now you're donating and then sharing the audio.

Mario P. Fields:

Continue to share an arm or talk podcast on audio and video with your family, friends, colleagues, your puppies, your animals. They're part of your network. Share with them, make them listen to it. It's therapeutic, it'll help them. So thank you, guys, everyone. We have knee-kai roach. He is just talented. But a couple things I want to highlight. He's a veteran. Thank you for your service. My friend, thank you. He served in a different branch of service, in the Marines, but thank you, knee-kai.

Nike Roach:

Don't even start that. Oh yeah, you go started because we can go at this. Yes, no go ahead.

Mario P. Fields:

Sorry, no, you're good man, but not only that, not only he's an author. I'll have him tell you about his very catchy title. I love it, I. And he's a business owner and more, and also a business partner with solutions of foot. But without further ado, how do I have one of those fancy buttons, nicky Roach?

Nike Roach:

Hey, mario, thank you very much and thank you for your listeners. Allow me to share and is the honor of privilege and the pleasure to be above ground and and do what I can to keep the world moving in a successful way. Hey man, can you?

Mario P. Fields:

talk, talk a little bit about your book before we jump into the topic, and just a little bit of background about you.

Nike Roach:

Oh, cool, well, you want to talk about. The book is called 52 ways to fund your home business Even if you broke your, your credit sucks and all your friends hate you. I, I came up it wasn't for me, it was from a divine source and I was sitting in line at a business seminar and just kind of you know, rolling around, I was like okay, okay, okay, and the name just kind of popped up and I massaged it a little bit more and it just touched on so many ways it's, it's, I did it just from a place that I knew that I came from, just financially just struggling. Son of a of a single mom Grew up in an African village in South Carolina.

Nike Roach:

My dad and my mom separated and so we found ourselves in the hood and the the army came a calling or the prison came a call. You take your pig. So I rolled on that way and I Eventually you know from those experience Learning how to sell in the strange sort of way. So from from the drug dealers. I know that sounds strange, but I think everybody brings value to your life and you can take those blessings and or you can take some of the other stuff Today, throw your way.

Nike Roach:

But anyway, I ended up Learning some of those fundamental skills about business development from you know, when I was 13 and then joined the military, join the Army Med Corps, spent some time doing that, did a dust off in a desert storm. I came out of that experience, of course, entrepreneurial mine, or business owner mine, because my I have. I'm a third generation Business owner. My grandmother, my grandfather they came to this country, you know wanted to start a business. My mom is, my sisters are all Business owner. So we're kind of a weird breed. But it took some. It took some burning to get it going.

Mario P. Fields:

Hmm, wow, and, and you know I love how you, you know I one thing I want to tell you is hopefully Navy beats army this year, but Whatever you sailors can go somewhere.

Nike Roach:

You know we are nights all the way. Sorry, it is what it is black nights. Keep it moving.

Mario P. Fields:

No, that that is cool, you know, but I you know, I love how you know and thank you for for giving us a little little background About you. So, but I love how you mentioned you know entrepreneur. You know from your, your experiences, maybe your bloodline, you may be some belief systems there, but bottom line is how you're an entrepreneur and a business owner, and you mentioned them independently, you know. I mean, let's talk about that.

Nike Roach:

What's the difference in your journey that made you realize that being an entrepreneur and then a business owner, they're not the same per se that is correct and in my understanding and again, you know there are differences but in my understanding, a business owner, simply like the name, implies you own a business and you can own a business and not being an entrepreneur. Somebody else developed it, somebody else came up with the creative Talent, talent. Somebody else came up with the idea, the revolutionary marketing ways, all these different things. Somebody had to build those up and always use their creative mind to solve sometimes simple or complex Problems. And this is where the entrepreneurial you have funding issues you have to do, we have marketing, you have personnel, you have all these different things and even bringing your idea, your service or your product to market, that's an entrepreneur.

Nike Roach:

A business owner, you could simply and I'm not, I'm not, that's not to take away from any business owner, because I am, I am both entrepreneur and business owner is taking someone else's idea and just simply selling it. That's it, so you can sell it. But you're not necessarily an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are unique. They're bread and and and and beat myRED, they're groomed, if you will. To be able to think, you have to be able to pivot sometimes, and that's the beauty of being an entrepreneur. And even if you're a business owner and some business owners move out of the entrepreneurial space intentionally. I think that's harmful because entrepreneurs have to pivot. Whether the economy changes, there's warfare going on, there's strife, there is market volatility in your sector, that sounds strange, then you have to be able to move around. And also, if you're fundamentally an entrepreneur, once you get a business up and running and it's profitable and you put a good management team in place and you don't have to really touch it, you can always go back into the entrepreneurial space and go into something else and build successful strategies.

Nike Roach:

You're learning from your previous thing into a new market, a new industry, because, to be honest, it's fun. Yeah, it sucks sometimes. Yes, you go belly up broke, but it is so exciting I don't think I can do anything else. I try working for somebody else. That didn't work out too well. So I kind of like this. It's exciting. I get to learn so many things from folks on the street. And when I say learn from people who sell those Girl Scout cookies, you can learn so much from some of those girls. Just shut your mind off to what your preconceived notions are and just listen to what they have to say and you'd be surprised where wisdom comes from and knowledge, and you just have to take away some of the things that make you think, oh, I can't learn anything from this person because they're not in my industry, they don't look like me or they don't sound like me. It's just like I said earlier, I learned so much from drug dealers. I have never sold drugs in my life, ever.

Mario P. Fields:

And I'm not a big proponent of it.

Mario P. Fields:

But man, those people they blow your mind and I was going to highlight that, which was very brilliant. Like you said, everybody has a gift. If you would, no matter what they're doing, you can learn something you know from, like you said, from drug dealers early in your life, to anyone selling girl, girl Scout cookies, which you know, my hat's off to them, especially when it's cold as heck. I tell you, man, those girls out there going at it, I'm telling you. And then, when you kind of mentioned, you know, one is a visionary, right, you know, one may have this vision, I have a vision of X or Y or Z, but then that business owner kind of brings it to life. You know, I got your vision and, like you said, you're both at any time that you have a vision and then you try to bring it to reality. He was like what the heck?

Nike Roach:

That is pretty much a daily go. Uh no. So I wanted to also say a little bit more to about, to the vision. But bringing that entrepreneurial idea and I believe fundamentally it's at the core of my beliefs is that the creator of all things, your belief structures. Your belief structure puts ideas in a whole bunch of people's minds. I don't believe the Wright brothers were the only people that that idea was put up. I don't think Bill Gates was ever given. You know whatever, any, any product or service that you brought to market or you can envision. You know this computer service that we're losing out. You know if you're looking at Dell or or or Apple anyone. So anyway, that idea was putting thousands of people's minds. So the idea is great. But if you don't take that idea and turn it in that vision, if you will, you take that vision that hits you in the shower while you're having fun with your lady friend or your man friend, wherever it hits you, whatever is your moment. Mine often hit while I'm on the toilet.

Mario P. Fields:

It is what it is.

Nike Roach:

Put it on the hand screen because you're older now and can't be friends, exactly, you know he probably should be doing that, but that vision hits you and then you take that vision to market. But here's the thing is that vision was for you and a thousand other people. But maybe that vision wasn't necessarily your vehicle, it was just one of the many vehicles. And if you ask practically any entrepreneur, do they ever get ideas for things and visions for business? That's like, oh God, yeah, I got one this morning while I was sitting in the shower, but that was. You have to choose. That's the kicker. You have to decide if this is something that I'm gonna go after, because I have it in my heart and my spirit to develop, or allow someone else to build that and allow them to get the blessing. Because if someone else's blessing, you don't have to do everything. You can just say, hey, you know what, I am quite content in my path, or these two paths, or three paths. Someone else take the blessing, take the idea and bring it to market.

Mario P. Fields:

Man, I like that you guys hear of that. It is okay to have one or multiple visions and it's okay to go hey, I'm gonna give this to Mario or Jimmy or Crystal or whomever to conceptualize this vision. Very powerful. And also, earlier you mentioned some funding opportunities, but I thought about your book in 52 ways so I said, well, we have the blueprint with Nikkei if we have some funding challenges.

Nike Roach:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mario P. Fields:

Go ahead, go ahead. Sorry, no, no, no. So I was gonna. So the one thing, the other question I was gonna ask you did any of your service in the Army help you enhance the skills of the entrepreneurship pathway? And then the business owner Did any of that enhance any of those skills?

Nike Roach:

Oh my God. There are so many skills that you take from your military the ability to understand, as I said earlier, pivot, adjusting, adapting to a threat, I mean and I was in MedCorp. So when we say adjust to threats, we're talking about adjusting to where are the patients, where are the? When you triage a patient, what are their particular conditions? Because you have to adjust. You may leave your garrison and you come to the field or you go to the battlefield or wherever you're going into. You have to adjust because you never know what you're gonna come up on. You may have a head wound, you might have and again, that's a little graphic, but you have to be able. So, being in the military, you have to be able to adjust and adapt and overcome. And even sometimes, when you think about painful environments, I always love veterans because we no matter. And this is not, this is picking on every branch. If you've gone through basic training, you've been uncomfortable before. You have been. Now the Marine Corps' basic training a lot different than the Air Force's basic training.

Mario P. Fields:

It was a little. Let's call it what it is. I was probably drill-stone.

Nike Roach:

It was nice. Are you kidding me? No, I grew up around Paris Island. You cannot tell me nothing about that nonsense. I saw those people sweating bullets after the hell week. I'm like no dog. That is not for me, by the way. That's why I didn't join the Marine Corps, because I grew up around Marines. I said no, I will not go down that path, I will pick another. But if you've gone through that crucible, no matter what branch you've gone to, you've gone through basic training and you've been uncomfortable. You've been on night watch, you've been on fire watch, you've been on guard duty, you've been up, you sleep deprived. You gotta learn a whole bunch of stuff. That ability puts you so ahead in the entrepreneurial world, because you gotta know what it's like to be uncomfortable. And the second part of it is to be able to work cohesively with other individuals who don't look like you, who don't talk like you, who don't have your belief structures, but they have the continued goal to build either the business operations or to successfully move past those mission objectives.

Mario P. Fields:

Wow, yeah, that is so critical, but Yon did latest research. It was almost about 8.5 billion humans on earth and you mentioned that. That diversity and being comfortable with understanding the complexities, right man, of humans and to be comfortable with so many different belief systems, so many different experiences, it's a soft skill that you can't send someone to the university of anything to get so great, great point. Was there any time that anyone close to your family or friend said what the heck are you doing? Why are you? What are you doing? Nikkei Business owner, I know you're a grandmother, I know it's in your bones, but not you.

Nike Roach:

Um, yeah. So when I was young and this is, this is, this is the entrepreneurial. You have to go through this because you have to have both people in your lives. You have to have a support structure, but you also and you have to have the people who's encouraged you. Sometimes that's your parents, sometimes that's your religious leaders, sometimes it's your friends, it doesn't really matter what it does matter but you also have to have the opposite.

Nike Roach:

I love it. You have to have a naysayer. You have to have people who tell you that's a stupid idea, that's dumb. You can never do it, because if everybody believes in you, then there was really no reason to go after the challenge. But it has to be somebody to prevent you. That has and I believe it comes from from the spiritual places that and it's not evil, it's coming from the place to say prove it to me that this gift that I just gave you is yours, because if you don't prove it to me, I'm going to give it to the other 999 people I gave this idea to, so prove it to me.

Nike Roach:

So when I was young, there was this lady and when I was really, really young, I wanted to be a fashion designer. It's a weird, okay, I wanted to be, I wanted to be the next. You know, whoever, whoever. But this one young lady in our small community, down in the village, you know, says some really harmful, harmful things and I said, man, that was cool. That's cold to say to a youngster about, about what their plans were. You can never do it because if you do, you're going to be a particular. You know, whatever. You had an affinity to a particular lifestyle, which was not true, still not true. But when somebody says that to the youngster, yeah, that was different and that was good, because apparently I wasn't supposed to be a fashion designer. So that allowed some mother's kid of my age, of my ilk, of my background, to go on to do that.

Nike Roach:

And I say to the face, there is to say, prove it to me that you wanted to be a fashion designer. Go past the pain of people telling you that's a bad idea, that's dumb, you're not the right, this or whatever. Go past that, because you have to constantly justify that you belong in this space. You have to prove and so that the rest will come. And when I say the rest will come is you have to learn those baby steps before put you way up here. I can't just put you up here because you're going to cause a disaster. Trust me, there's a lot of kids out here and I say kids and older people get put up on that pedestal too fast and they cause a disaster. But if you learn to people who burn through it and I say burn is because somebody or something puts some skin on, put some fire into them, they burn and they burn their way to the top that means that they got pain. But that pain is what gives them their gifts and from that pain they can help other people work through that.

Mario P. Fields:

Yeah, yeah. I like those unique painful expense, especially the painful ones. You learn I just my belief, Nika, you mentioned it. I think I learned more from the I go back to the butt weapons, Absolutely.

Nike Roach:

My mom and my dad were firm believers of a. Yeah, my name is Ninja and I'm a user stick like a sword.

Mario P. Fields:

I'll tell you, man, I am telling you, you know so, you absolutely those unique experience and you know folks being able to get a mentor and be able to connect to someone like you and you know, with those unique experiences you know. So, looking back, if, if you could give a piece of advice to someone who has this vision, or multiple visions, but there's one they pick. They have not. They they haven't built that business plan, they haven't conceptualized it, but they, they really have that passion for whatever in that brain that Oregon call a brain. It's there. What advice would you give them to get that out of that brain and into something we can touch, fill and see?

Nike Roach:

Oh, yes, sir, yes sir. There's a number of things, but the one that just hit me as you, as you, you said that was start moving in that direction. Okay, you know, it's great to conceptualize an idea, it's great to have these many ideas hit you, no matter what, but move towards that direction. It does not have to be perfect and, to be frankly, it should not be perfect on the on the first go round. I don't know if you know, invention works that way, but invention works on failures. The light bulb that I'm actually using, that you and I, the time, the guys failed at this thing. But we don't think about the failure, we think about that one success. You know the guy who created the automobile, the computer, everything that we think is was done. We think it's perfect. It's not moving that direction. If you're doing anything, move towards that, it will get better.

Nike Roach:

And one of my mentors once said, said this, and I love it it's like keep doing it, cause you're going to suck first. Keep doing it until you suck less. That's not to say you're ever going to not suck. It means it's not going to do less of it. And if you can suck less and I mean that sounds graphic. I apologize, but if you're not that bad, you can make millions without being the worst at it.

Nike Roach:

But if you just stay in your bubble and you don't move, and because of fear and here's the other thing is I say you gotta have both people. Make sure that you are around people who are going to push you forward, to get you to that one step, to that next step, to the next step, to the next step. And you gotta have the naysayers. That's their job. Their job is to just sit there and say bad stuff about you, no matter where you go. I don't care If you're your mother Teresa, you are perfect. You walk on water. Jesus got criticized. Oh, they threw them up on some logs. You gotta get criticized, accept that.

Nike Roach:

But there's enough people out there who will build you up, who will support you, who will encourage you, and they're gonna get you through some of the hard stuff. But take that step, keep moving towards your goal and keep going after it. Fight through the trials and tribulations, because that's where the money making is in Is in the trials and tribulation. One of my clients once said to me. They said people pay you to give them the easy button. That's it, so they don't have to go through all. I mean, you're gonna still have to go through some things. But if you're thinking like if I was gonna do a podcast, I would go to Mario and say show me the easy button of all the stuff that you had to spend into all this stuff first, so that I don't have to start in the crappy place and I can skip past some of these phases that trap a lot of people up.

Mario P. Fields:

Well, Nick, I thank you so much. You guys heard the tips. Just do it right. Make the choice. Don't become paralyzed by your emotions, your fears or whatever complex emotions you may have. Do it and you know what. It's okay to suck right. It's okay to fail multiple times, where that's fine. In matter of fact, you get to define what failure is anyway, and I don't let the world do it. You know you do it. And, Nikkei, thank you so much. My friend, Thank you for the amazing conversation and I tell you, man, I enjoy talking to you. I know you're having fun. Last thing is how can people find you?

Nike Roach:

You can find me. You can go. Typically I'm on Solutions of Foot website, so you can go to solutionoffootcom. Or you can send an email to Nikkei that's Nikkei at solutionsoffootcom and just send me a note and I'll be happy to interact with you and go from there. I'm on LinkedIn, Facebook and all the other outlets, but if you just wanna ask me a question, just go there, Nice, and I love his name.

Mario P. Fields:

By the way, before the show I was like Nikkei man, we can build a brand around that Nikkei golf shirt. I mean, you don't know what I mean.

Nike Roach:

If you had time, I would tell you some conflicts I had with actually acquiring the URL for my name. Was harder than you think because of the yes, yeah the similarities with another major brand.

Mario P. Fields:

Sure no, but hey, man, it's been a pleasure. Please just remain a little bit after the show so we can talk a little bit. But everyone else again, you guys know the deal. Gotta let Nikkei go back and have some fun, not spend the rest of the day with me. And also you guys need to get back to what you're doing out in the world, hopefully positive things. You guys heard the tips. Please continue to share. We'll see you guys in a couple of weeks. God bless you, god bless your friends and definitely may God continue to bless your families as well. Nikkei, be safe. I'll see you soon, man.

Mario P. Fields:

Thank you sir, thank you for listening to this most recent episode and remember you can listen and watch all of the previous episodes on my YouTube channel. The best way to connect to me and all of my social media is follow me on the Parade Deck that is wwwparadecom, or you can click on the link in the show notes. I'll see you guys soon.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Mario P. Fields

Host