The Hitstreak

Nick Hiter
  • 5.0 (21)
  • Entrepreneurship

“The Hitstreak” is a podcast hosted by the one and only Nick Hiter. Former professional athlete and serial entrepreneur, Nick has also recently been featured by CBS, NBC, FOX, The New York Times, and others. This show allows Nick the chance to meet, collaborate, and feature other successful individuals that have great stories to tell; whether it be personal or professional. This world is filled with too many people who are doing amazing things that haven't been talked about enough. This podcast is here to shed some light on some of those untold stories from some incredible people.

  1. 3h ago

    Episode 256: Work Until You Die? From Giants Draft Pick to Cheap Homes University w/ DJ Thielen

    This week we are joined by real estate investor, entrepreneur, author and former pro ballplayer DJ Thielen! Episode in a Glance: In this episode of The Hitstreak, I sit down with DJ Thielen, a former San Francisco Giants draft pick who has spent more than two decades as a real estate investor and is the founder of Cheap Homes University. DJ was a 19 year old sixth round pick out of a junior college in Oregon, hitting third and wondering if he belonged, and he tells the story of his first big league spring training game: an error on a Rickey Henderson squibber that showed him there was another level, then an inside the park home run in his first at bat. We talk about the delusional belief it takes to compete, the goal he never reset after draft day, and the third grade paper his mom kept in a drawer that taught him to watch what he says. Then it gets personal: the single mom who raised two boys working multiple jobs, retired, and passed away 30 days later, and how that moment turned real estate from a business into a mission. Plus why he would have handed over the money from selling his first company for the right mentor, the one book he tells everybody to read, fast, medium and slow money, why we were wired backwards as kids, and why you never pull the ripcord on your first deal. Key Points: - You have to have a delusional belief that you are the best one on that field. - Control the controllables. If it is out of your control, do not give it your energy. - Watch what you say, especially to yourself. - A lot of times those negative voices are not your voice. Someone spoke them over you. - If you do not learn to make money when you sleep, you are going to work until you die. (Warren Buffett, as DJ quotes him) - Stop tending the fruit on the tree. Fix the root: mindset, energy, habits, routines. - The right mentor collapses the learning curve. Do not try to figure it all out on your own. - We were wired to believe external things dictate how we feel. It is the reverse. - Do not pull the ripcord when the first deal gets hard. - The expert in anything was once a beginner. About our guest: DJ Thielen is a real estate investor, entrepreneur, two time author and the founder of Cheap Homes University. Raised in Portland, Oregon by a single mom alongside his brother, he was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the sixth round in 1991 at 19 years old and played professional baseball before leaving the game to be the dad he never had. The entrepreneur kicked in at 28, and for more than 21 years he has been in real estate, doing his business out of the Pittsburgh area. The reason he teaches is his mom. She worked her whole life to provide for her boys, retired, and passed away 30 days later, and DJ decided he would help people learn to make money while they sleep so they never have to live that story. Cheap Homes University is where he does it, coaching and mentoring people to build long term wealth with low priced homes, with a turnkey rental operation alongside it for busy entrepreneurs. He is a believer, he does not drink, and he always tells himself that he is just getting started. Follow and contact: Instagram: @d.j.thielen Website: djthielenlive.com Subscribe to Nick's top-rated podcast The Hitstreak on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Spotify: https://spotify.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/NickHiter

  2. 3d ago

    Three Generations of Baseball: Taking the Family Business Into Media

    This week Nick lays out the thing he's been sitting on for a year and a half: a baseball media network, built on a name his family has owned the whole time. Episode in a Glance: In this episode of The Nick Hiter Show, I walk through the night it all clicked. The goal has always been a baseball media network, and it had been slowed down by things outside our control, so two weeks ago I decided wait is a four letter word I don't use anymore. On the way to the batting cages with my son I went looking for a name, found that the good ones were taken, and then it dawned on me that we already own it. The Sandlotter started as a newspaper for the local baseball leagues here, founded by the late Farrell Owens, my dad's college teammate at Lipscomb and his business partner, and it became the official publication of Sandlot Baseball. I can't think of a better way to honor Farrell than to take a publication that lived on paper and scale it with what we have now. We get into what the network looks like, a flagship show with two guys I've handpicked, content from the youth fields to the big leagues, and why it sits somewhere between Barstool, Jomboy and MLB Network. Then I talk about the complex my dad has spent years working to bring to Nashville, why finding the land has been harder than finding the money, why the moment you can stream a game everybody becomes a gate fee, and what is broken about travel ball for the families paying for it. This is how my generation connects to the previous two. Key Points: - Wait is a four letter word. Opportunities expire, so move. - Everybody has an hour or two they can invest into building something. - Sometimes the name you need is already in your own backyard. - The best way to honor what someone built is to scale it with what you have now. - You need a flagship show to launch a network, and the right people around the table. - A media network should enhance what its personalities already do, not compete with it. - When a deal falls through, give it time. You usually end up grateful it didn't happen with those people or in that place. - Media is what connects everybody: the customer to the supplier, the player to the parent and the grandparent. - The moment you can stream it, everybody can be a gate fee. - Get in where you fit in. The family business can go another generation without looking the same. About Nick: Nick Hiter is the host of The Nick Hiter Show and The Hitstreak, the founder of HitLab, and Senior Vice President and COO of Real Financial, where he sits between the field and corporate and turns the vision into execution. Subscribe to Nick's top-rated podcast The Hitstreak on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Spotify: https://spotify.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/NickHiter

    Three Generations of Baseball: Taking the Family Business Into Media

  3. Sep 25

    Why Your Circumstances Are a Snapshot, Not a Sentence.

    Welcome to the Nick Hiter Show,  This week it's just Nick in Studio X with a story he first read at 11 years old, a mile from where he sits: a 15 year old in Wilmington, North Carolina looking for his name on a list. Let us know in the comments what YOU want to hear about next! Episode in a Glance: In this episode of The Nick Hiter Show, I start with the roster that didn't have Michael Jordan's name on it and follow the small wins from junior varsity to six championships, because the part of that story that matters is that the list was right about the moment and wrong about the future. Then I go back to my own list: the night my dad drove me through the night to Kenosha, Wisconsin, the $650 a month contract I signed that morning, my first professional at bat, and why the room was always bigger than me. From there it's the decade I was lost, rock bottom in 2013 with a young child and a wife I couldn't afford to marry, the insurance interview my family told me to turn down, and the licensing exam I failed three times with a 69. I talk about the mentor who told me to give it a real shot, meeting the real Brad Lee and reverse engineering the studio I saw in Vegas, and the winning streak habit that turned gratitude into momentum. I walk through the exercise I'm running with our agents at Real Financial right now, what kind of Christmas do you want, and working backwards from that number to a couple thousand conversations. And I bring it home with the question I want you to ask every morning: who are you three years from today, and what would that person do today? Key Points: - Before the world saw Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan had to see Michael Jordan. - The list wasn't wrong. It described his circumstances, not his future. A snapshot, not a sentence. - You can't hit a target you can't see. Visualize the end and work backwards to close the gap. - When things get the hardest, that's how you know you're on the right track. - What you focus on grows. Look for problems and you find them. Look for wins and you find those. - Everything that's happening to you is happening for you, and you choose how to use it. - Change requires different. Growth requires change. You can't get something different by doing the same. - Gratitude and entitlement cannot coexist. - Most of the problems people bring you are belief problems. - Visualization gives you the target, small wins give you evidence, evidence gives you confidence, and confidence creates momentum. - Ask what the person you're becoming would do today, then go get that one win. Chapters: 0:00 Welcome to Studio X, and the mantra: work hard, dream big 2:39 A 15 year old in Wilmington: Michael Jordan and the list 9:38 Old Nick's shot at pro baseball: the Kenosha tryout 20:36 Lost for a decade, rock bottom, and the insurance interview 28:31 Give it a real shot: who is Nick the insurance agent? 33:33 The winning streak: small wins, gratitude, what you focus on grows 39:23 What kind of Christmas do you want? Working backwards from the number 45:20 Identity, momentum and shiny object syndrome 48:42 Back to Wilmington: the list was a snapshot, not a sentence About Nick: Nick Hiter is the host of The Nick Hiter Show and The Hitstreak, the founder of HitLab, and Senior Vice President and COO of Real Financial, where he sits between the field and corporate and turns the vision into execution. Subscribe to Nick's top-rated podcast The Hitstreak on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Spotify: https://spotify.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/NickHiter

    Why Your Circumstances Are a Snapshot, Not a Sentence.

  4. Sep 22

    Episode 255: From Ballplayer to Ad Man to Portrait Artist, Inside One Creative Life w/ Tim Liddle

    Episode 255 of The Hitstreak, a podcast where we talk about anything and everything! This week we are on location with portrait artist Tim Liddle! Let us know in the comments what YOU want to hear about next! Episode in a Glance: In this episode of The Hitstreak, we leave the Hitlab and set up inside the Point View Gallery in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, the lakeside home, gallery and working studio of portrait artist Tim Liddle. Tim is a Nashville native from a blue collar Antioch baseball family, and I grew up knowing a very different Tim Liddle: the successful advertising man whose family name is front and center in Middle Tennessee baseball. We talk about the summer job crews and the day a car slid off its jack onto his chest at 17 before his father lifted it off with his bare hands, playing ball at Lipscomb while his brother went on to coach in the big leagues, four decades of catalogs, commercials and websites, and the whole time, quietly, he painted. Then the reveal: the long hair, the gallery, and the second act as a portrait artist at 66 years old, because as Tim puts it, I have casted my life a lot, and I am ready to start fishing. Plus the surprise portrait he painted of me that started this whole episode, the Psalm 42 landscape that means the most to him, and the interview he filmed with his 96 year old grandfather Otis and the one piece of advice that came out of it. Key Points: - You can reinvent yourself at any age. Tim is 66 and just getting started. - I have casted my life a lot. I am ready to start fishing. - Respect authority. If you want life to go well for you, respect authority. - Once you get the drawing accurate, the painting starts to reveal itself. - Kids need to be pushed into doing things outside their comfort zone. - You cannot get that time back. Be intentional as a father. - If you do not ask for something, you will not get it. Speak what matters out loud. - Better is not a place you arrive. It is a progression of improving your craft. - Being content is the key. Do not get the cart before the horse. - Life can turn on you in an instant. Do not take it for granted. About our guest: Tim Liddle is a portrait artist working out of the Point View Gallery, his home studio on the lake in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Raised on a small farm in Antioch in a close knit baseball family, he played at Lipscomb while his older brother Steve went on to play and then coach in Major League Baseball. Tim built a career in advertising, starting his own company in 1990 and spending four decades on catalogs, television commercials and later web work, and through all of it he kept painting, watercolors while the kids were young, always something on an easel. The second act is the reason for this episode. Tim rebuilt an old ranch house and its two car garage into a home, gallery and studio, let the hair grow, and introduced himself to the world as the portrait artist he had quietly been all along. At 66 he paints commissions for families, businesses and institutions, works three canvases at a time between Tennessee and the Gulf, and counts a Psalm 42 landscape among his favorite work. He interviewed his grandfather Otis at 96 so his family would keep his voice forever, and the advice from that film runs through this whole conversation: respect authority, honor your people, and be grateful. His portrait of yours truly hangs front and center at the Hitlab. Follow and contact: Instagram: @timliddleart Website: TimLiddle.com Subscribe to Nick's top-rated podcast The Hitstreak on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Spotify: https://spotify.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/NickHiter

  5. Sep 18

    Why Dreams Come True for People Who Act Like They’ve Already Won

    This week Nick is fresh off emceeing the Real Financial training event in Vegas, and the whole conversation comes back to one idea: the people dreams come true for are the ones who were already there in their mind. Let us know in the comments what YOU want to hear about next! Episode in a Glance: In this episode of The Nick Hiter Show, I unpack the training day event in Vegas where I had to open the show in front of the whole field force, and what it taught me about being in the room before you're in the room. I share how Brad gets ready for a big moment, why I didn't feel like I hit it when I walked off stage, and how watching him go next put me back in the room. We get into why you can't dream for a big house, you have to dream for a specific big house and know which wall the TV is on, why proximity through media counts when you don't have it in person, and what I'm on a mission to do with the HitLab over the next 90 days. We spend a while on Dolly Parton and how she took what she did seriously but never herself, why money is the outcome and not the objective, and why if you can't get a machine to do what you want you definitely can't get a person to. Then it turns to speaking things out loud: the business model Brad has said word for word more than twenty times, why manifestation and prayer are out loud for me, and the line I keep coming back to, that almost all doubt is silent. We close with the Podcast Team app, a portrait artist who reinvented himself in retirement, and the first thing Brad ever asked me: four a week? Why not 40? Key Points: - Dreams come true for the people who visualized it before it happened. If the room swallows you, you hadn't been there first. - Don't dream for a big house. Dream for a specific big house and know what wall the TV is on. - Proximity is everything. If you can't get it in person, get it through media until you can. - Take what you do seriously, not yourself. The world is better when we're that way. - Money is the outcome, not the objective. Master something first and the money follows last. - If you can't get a soulless machine to do what you want, look in the mirror. How great a communicator are you? - Real founders show you. Everybody has the idea, so show me and I'll help you. - Say it out loud. Almost all doubt is silent, and your brain can't tell the difference until you speak. - If you don't say it, it isn't your word. It's a thought. - Every tough stretch is a season. Give it a deadline and stay on pace. About Nick: Nick Hiter is the host of The Nick Hiter Show and The Hitstreak, the founder of HitLab, and Senior Vice President and COO of Real Financial, where he sits between the field and corporate and turns the vision into execution. Subscribe to Nick's top-rated podcast The Hitstreak on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Spotify: https://spotify.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/NickHiter

    Why Dreams Come True for People Who Act Like They’ve Already Won

  6. Sep 11

    Put Your Family Last to Put Them First

    This week it's just Nick and the camera. A short one on time, seasons, and the price of the life you said you wanted. Let us know in the comments what YOU want to hear about next! Episode in a Glance: In this episode of The Nick Hiter Show, I work through something I've been chewing on during my morning walks: right now I have a lot of responsibility to a lot of companies and a lot of people, and I'm not going to let them down. So how do I take the same 24 hours everybody else gets and invest them where each relationship and each company needs to grow? That means a season where my family gets less of my playtime, and I explain why that is not the same as putting them last. We get into time blocking and why anything in my life that isn't where I want it has too little intentionality behind it, why doing today what was decided yesterday is the ultimate skill set, and why most of my frustration comes from something I knew I should be doing and wasn't. I talk about auditing my circle with a short leash, why the last ten years have been a literal grind and why slowing down is a skill I'll have to relearn, and the deal my family and I made about where we're going. Every tough season is temporary. The question is whether you know exactly what has to get done to get out of it, and whether you gave it a deadline. Key Points: - Sometimes you have to put your family last to put them first. It's a season, not a lifestyle. - If you're not doing what you should be doing, it's called a distraction. Start by naming yours. - Everything in my life that isn't where I want it to be has too little intentionality behind it. - If you're living today and feeling it out as you go, you've already lost. Do today what was decided yesterday. - Time blocking and prioritizing who and what matters, and why, is the ultimate skill set in life. - When I'm stressed, it's usually because something I know I'm supposed to be doing is being mismanaged. - Audit your circle. Prioritize the people counting on you over the people holding you back. - Success is a combination unique to every person, and that goes for your family life too. - Every season needs an expiration date. Give it a deadline, then stay on pace. - There will be more shows, more concerts, more parties. Know the true value of where your time goes. Chapters: 0:00 Sometimes you have to put your family last to put them first 1:18 Name your distractions and invest the same 24 hours 2:42 Time blocks and intentionality 4:04 Why you get frustrated, and auditing your circle 5:33 The musician on tour and what success actually is 6:32 Ten years of grind and the deal with my family 8:16 Every tough season is temporary, give it a deadline About Nick: Nick Hiter is the host of The Nick Hiter Show and The Hitstreak, the founder of HitLab, and Senior Vice President and COO of Real Financial, where he sits between the field and corporate and turns the vision into execution. Subscribe to Nick's top-rated podcast The Hitstreak on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Spotify: https://spotify.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/NickHiter

    Put Your Family Last to Put Them First

  7. Sep 8

    Episode 254: The Wrong Money? Why Taylor Swift's First Manager Gave Up Millions w/ Rick Barker

    This week we are joined by speaker, author, entrepreneur and clarity architect Rick Barker! Episode in a Glance: In this episode of The Hitstreak, I sit down with Rick Barker, a former manager of Taylor Swift who started at his lowest possible point. Rick was Santa Barbara's number one DJ when he was arrested live on the air, went to jail three and a half years sober, and calls it the best worst thing that ever happened to him because what he got in jail was humility. We walk through the whole road: the mirror moment that ended a crack cocaine addiction with the shortest prayer he ever prayed, coming back to the same radio station to make coffee for the number two guy, the Cindy call that told him not to run, inventing the Nashville to You radio tour that gave Josh Turner his first paycheck as an artist, and the Scott Borchetta phone call that hired him because he was too dumb to know any better. Then the part everybody asks about: thirty days on the road teaching a teenage Taylor Swift the radio business, the liner notes that thanked the back of his truck, and the day in 2008 he walked away from the biggest payday of his life because the money was going to cost him his family. Plus the reinvention chapters, going all in on digital marketing, writing AI for Humans, the live AI workshop he runs on me in real time, and the one better question he asks every business owner. Key Points: - People want you for what you can accomplish, not for what you have done on paper. - Somebody can see something in you before you see it in yourself. - Do not hide from what you did. You cannot lie your way out of it. - Not asking for help is the weakness, especially when others are counting on you. - All money is not the right money. - Nobody cares where you went to school when you can solve their problems. - More information does not mean better. Find the real problem first. - AI will not replace you. The person who knows how to use it will. - Every AI agent should have a human boss. - If your business is not running the way you want, look in the mirror. You may want to fire the owner. About our guest: Rick Barker is a speaker, author, entrepreneur and clarity architect. He came up as a radio DJ, built a country station after 9/11, and created the Nashville to You radio tour that introduced developing artists to California audiences, giving acts like Josh Turner their first run. Scott Borchetta hired him at Big Machine Records, and for two years Rick managed a teenage Taylor Swift, spending thirty days on the road teaching her the radio side of the business. In 2008 he walked away rather than trade his family for the payday, moved to Tennessee, and rebuilt: consulting at Sony, founding the Music Industry Blueprint, going all in on digital marketing, and writing three books including The 150,000 Dollar Music Degree and AI for Humans. Rick is 34 years sober at the recording of this episode and tells that story straight: arrested live on the air as Santa Barbara's number one DJ, jail three and a half years sober, and the humility that rebuilt everything after. Today he is the chief marketing officer of Cool Springs Financial, speaks to corporations and students about using AI as a thought partner, and plans to spend the second half of his life equipping the next generation on five more continents. His whole thing is one better question. Follow and contact: Instagram: @rickbarkerspeaks Website: RickBarker.com Subscribe to Nick's top-rated podcast The Hitstreak on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Spotify: https://spotify.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/NickHiter

  8. Sep 5

    Rules Are for People Who Can't Follow Directions

    This week Nick is in the hot seat, breaking down his first months as Senior Vice President and COO of Real Financial. Let us know in the comments what YOU want to hear about next! Episode in a Glance: In this episode of The Nick Hiter Show, I break down my first months as Senior Vice President and COO of Real Financial. I just got back from the desert, where we rolled out the entire new business model in front of more than half the field force at a two day training event, and I share what I saw up close: a president and CEO who wakes up, has a cup of coffee and goes to the office until bed, a building with people everywhere, and a master class in handling problems without losing it. We get into proximity and why being in that environment felt like a big league clubhouse, the Tim Corbin line that separates rules from standards, the six core values that are all number one, the three KPIs that decide whether Real Financial grows, and why anything that does not check all three boxes does not get considered. We talk about what chaos does for character when a church goes from a couple hundred people to thousands in months. Then it gets personal: the Lincoln quote about chopping off a limb to save the tree and what I had to change about the Hitstreak, why I now ask "why would I put you on?", learning to be a distribution channel instead of a doer, the leader who does not negotiate with himself, and my son Ethan, 17, owning his calendar, speaking on stage and staying home alone for the first time. Key Points: - Proximity matters. You get fed in environments like that, and you have to add enough value to stay in the room. - Rules are for people who can't follow directions. Standards are for people who aspire to do special things. - Six core values, all number one: do what's right, own it, tell the truth, become more valuable, think bigger and move faster, protect the house. - There are only three things that grow the company. If an idea does not check all three boxes, it does not get considered. - Standards determine the rules and the KPIs. First you need standards, then you can build rules. - If everyone sells the exact same way, you rob the team of the next great idea. - You cannot chop down the tree to save a limb. There is no business to serve the people if you kill it. - Solving the problem, or getting it solved, is a valuable position. Be a distribution channel, not a doer. - The less you touch, the more you get to speak and think. That is the trade off of leadership. - When a young man owns his calendar and does not depend on anyone to map it out, that is freedom. Chapters: 0:00 Vegas, Brad and rolling out the new Real Financial model 10:26 Rules vs standards: Tim Corbin and the six core values 15:41 The three KPIs and learning to think 19:53 Pivoting the content and thriving in chaos 27:07 Chop the limb, save the tree: the Hitstreak and life as the integrator 35:50 Ethan: standards at home About Nick: Nick Hiter is the host of The Nick Hiter Show and The Hitstreak, the founder of HitLab, and Senior Vice President and COO of Real Financial, where he sits between the field and corporate and turns the vision into execution. Subscribe to Nick's top-rated podcast The Hitstreak on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Spotify: https://spotify.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/NickHiter

    Rules Are for People Who Can't Follow Directions
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About

“The Hitstreak” is a podcast hosted by the one and only Nick Hiter. Former professional athlete and serial entrepreneur, Nick has also recently been featured by CBS, NBC, FOX, The New York Times, and others. This show allows Nick the chance to meet, collaborate, and feature other successful individuals that have great stories to tell; whether it be personal or professional. This world is filled with too many people who are doing amazing things that haven't been talked about enough. This podcast is here to shed some light on some of those untold stories from some incredible people.

Information

  • Creator
    Nick Hiter
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    270
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Hitstreak
  • Show Website
    The Hitstreak