Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim Nichols.
Tim, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
“You only get paid for the risks you take.” Shhhhh. Delicately breathe these words with the quieted anxiety of a salted, sweat-soaked bomb technician navigating the detonation trigger on an explosive device that is so powerful that it could impact your children’s children. The mere murmurance of these eight words carries the world-change of a fault-line earthquake in the sound of a whisper.
These triggering words came to me in a subconscious revelation as I labored over writing a dossier to prove my worth to both of my employers, the County Commissioners, and the University of Georgia. Out of the high regard that I hold for those in this role, I won’t share with you that position title, but I’ll share my revelation. I worked extremely hard for very little money with a college degree in that field. Frustrated and burned out after only a few years after graduation from Texas A&M, I began to ask myself why I had chosen the field that I had chosen. Yes, I was passionate about the people that I served, but the answer that just kept circling back was fear. Self-limiting beliefs had smothered me into the feeling that salaried employees were the only ones that were ever successful. That mindset created this image for me that the path taken by commissioned salespeople, business owners, and entrepreneurs was a fragile, thin sheet of ice down a river to which I could see no end. The jaded voice kept telling me that their big houses, nice cars, and financial freedom came from some fortunate circumstance that was unachievable to the rest of us.
That Tim died at the street corner of Discouragement and Doubt from the improvised explosive detonation of the aforementioned 8 “risk” words in the frontal cortex of his brain circa July 1999. The initial triggering mechanism set off a daisy-chain of sequential concussions that broke me open to experience an array of changes in my mindset and heart set. As you can imagine, the aftermath of such a percussive conclusion would require years of reconstruction. Thus began my growth journey of incrementally progressive change.
Having roots in both agriculture and finance, in 1999, I left the “safety” of government employment. I began a job originating crop loans to struggling farmers throughout the Eastern half of Texas. Easing into the idea of risk-taking, I was paid a base salary plus commission. I drove approximately 1000 miles per week, so my opportunities to create individual relationships were limited. So, I learned to build relationships with key points of contact with the farmers in their local communities in an effort to generate referral sources. After all, we were searching for struggling farmers, and the businesses such as seed, chemical and fertilizer distribution centers would know exactly who was challenged to pay their bills. Considering that it was my first ever sales position, I can honestly say that I wasn’t great at it. I never felt that I was good with “words” to say that would make someone buy something. I remember being frightened by that. Then, on one of my long drives home from being on the road, I remember this self-talk conversation that I had with myself. I asked, “What if it’s not about the words? What if it’s about the relationships? In fact, what if it is about how fast I can build trust in a relationship?” Now I could work with that. So, I began to work toward building relationships quickly, and so grew my self-confidence and communication.
My brother, a fantastic salesperson and budding Financial Advisor at the time, convinced me that our upbringing, personality and timing in 2002 (right after the 2000-2001 “dotcom” crash) made me a great candidate to become a Financial Advisor. Considering my newfound confidence in my ability to build relationships quickly, I set out to grow a financial practice from thin air. In a town where I knew no one, I began working as a Financial Advisor for a financial firm that grew through the age-old practice of door-to-door sales. They had equipped me for the job, and it was up to me to sink or swim. Oh, and I was paid by 100% commission and I had no safety net. I was scared out of my mind, but I told myself, “You get paid for the risks you take.”
Fortunately, I learned to deepen relationships quickly and to elevate my profile within the community through my volunteerism within the local Chamber of Commerce and various nonprofit organizations. Due to that, I was able to experience seven years of solid growth and a peek into a comfortable existence. My confidence increased, and my business grew as I began to make strides in my own personal growth.
I felt like I was about to hit another level of sales production, then BOOM! The economic implosion of 2008-09 was an improvised explosive detonation that took my feet out from under me, imploded my community, and ripped my heart out. I’ll spare you the details, but I fought for hope like I was the 3rd monkey on Noah’s Ark. Broken-hearted and defeated, I couldn’t take rejection or disappointment anymore. Eventually, I moved to Dallas to work for a large bank to let them do the heavy lifting of marketing. “Life” was heavy enough.
After a few years of reconstruction on my heart set and mindset, I felt God’s call to once again, adventure into the entrepreneurial wilderness. As you could imagine, given my previous experiences, I was very nervous. In 2012, I left the big-name banks and brokerage firms to open an independent financial practice in Rockwall. I didn’t know a single person there and I had no clients come with me from my previous roles. I was starting with an absolute $0 in Assets Under Management (a metric used in the financial industry). But, I had confidence that I could apply all that I had learned from my previous work experiences to survive. Within the first 12 months, I had grown my practice to $3,000,000 in Assets Under Management (AUM). That meant that I had grown my practice by 3,000,000% (AUM) with no print, radio, digital or social media advertising.
My growth was the “proof of concept” for a relationship marketing strategy that I had developed for a process of deepening relationships quickly, elevating your profile within the community, leveraging networks, building immediate credibility and establishing community. I call this process the “3,000,000% Process.”
Zig Ziglar once said, “You can have everything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want [in life].” Upon hearing this at one of Ziglar’s Small Business Bootcamps, it hit me that I could use that concept to make a model to create referral generators for my business by teaching other businesses to grow through relationship marketing by use of the 3,000,000% Process. Thus, the faster that I could help other businesses to grow, the faster that I could grow. So, that became my focus. This idea led me to author a book in 2016 entitled, 3,000,000%: 5 Proven Keys To My Success With The Chamber of Commerce. In January 2018, to help businesses with the implementation of the process, I created a small, peer-advisory group format called Growth Groups. These business Growth Groups teach the 3,000,000% Process, mentor implementation, encourage active engagement and establish community and accountability. As our participants experienced such great success with capturing thought-leadership within their markets, they began to request higher level mastermind groups that would allow for them to receive feedback from other successful peers. So, we launched these mastermind level peer-advisory groups and we call them Inner Circles. Additionally, I launched an online course, “Masters Of Influence,” to dive deeper into the strategies and tactics of capturing thought-leadership. In April 2019, the demand for this relationship marketing program progressed into its own stand-alone business that required my full attention. After 17 years as a Financial Advisor, I sold my financial practice to continue to create, write, train, mentor and transform business owners into dynamic Influencers.
I’m so excited to see how this idea has become a movement that has created a cultural shift in how business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals approach sales, marketing and life. Our “3 Million Percenters,” with changed heart sets and mindsets, love one another as a family, always seeking opportunities to speak the truth, share ideas and experiences and lift one another up in hope and encouragement. I love what we do here.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Actually, the 3,000,000% Process, strategies and tactics are all solutions to the very challenges that I faced throughout my 23 years working life. Of which, 17 years of that was my career as a Financial Advisor. My transformation from the “employee” mindset to the “entrepreneurial” mindset was truly an adventure. From highs of making over $50,000 commissions in one month, to lows of having my electricity cut off, I’ve learned what it takes to survive this journey.
“You get paid for the risks you take.” I learned what that meant to both extremes. My mission, with all that I’ve created, has been to walk side-by-side with these business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals. Sharing insight, experiences, burdens and celebrations, we offer hope, encouragement, connections and referrals to those that journey with us.
Please tell us about the business.
3 Million Percent is an idea, belief, product, service, program and way of life. Honestly, it just depends upon where someone is in the transformation of their heartset and mindset, as to which applies to the member. You could ask 100 different participants and receive 100 different answers. We are a relationship marketing strategy program with a concentrated focus on the capture of thought-leadership within the markets of our members, for our members. Although I take pride in the book, online course and curriculum that I’ve created, I feel that 3 Million Percent is highly sought after for its peer-advisory program and structure. As we learn and grow, we see great results from within the business community. Although we don’t measure our results in “revenue dollars referred to one another” or how many “leads” we shared, we’ve noticed that our members are winning achievement awards, board positions and highly competitive jobs and contracts due to their engagement of the 3,000,000% Process within their markets and communities. Public education, universities, hospitals, nonprofits and corporations are now watching closely. They’ve noticed the cultural shift created from within the undercurrent of the business community and are asking how they can implement this program to create cultural shifts from within their structures.
I’m so excited to see how this idea has become a movement that has created a cultural shift in how business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals approach sales, marketing and life. Our “3 Million Percenters,” with changed heart sets and mindsets, love one another as a family, always seeking opportunities to speak the truth, share ideas and experiences and lift one another in hope and encouragement. I love what we do here.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Son to a Farmer/Rancher, Banker and former Texas A&M University football player, one of my favorite memories was standing with my Dad, Jerry Nichols (Class of 1965), as he burned his cattle brand into the wall of registered cattle brands that honored ranching Aggies from all counties throughout Texas. This was done as part of a celebration of the opening of a new agricultural building on Texas A&M’s College Station campus circa 1981. This building is known as the Kleberg Building and serves as a mainstay of the Agricultural & Life Sciences Department. I was about seven years old when we did that. Then later, as a Texas Aggie (Class of 1996) myself, I had the opportunity to spend many hours in that building as I earned an Agricultural Science degree. Having had the opportunity to be a part of such a lasting, historic event and to be able to walk by our family’s brand always caused me to hold my chin a little higher. I was proud of who my parents had taught us to be.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://3millionpercent.com
- Email: timnichols@3millionpercent.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/3millionpercent/
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-nichols-leadership/
Image Credit:
Abundant Media Company (headshot)
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