Today we’d like to introduce you to Victor Gurley Jr.
Victor, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m 32 years old. Born in Nashville, TN. Started first real business at 12 years old, which was “Vic’s Lawn Service.” I wheeled a lawn mower around cutting grass in the neighborhood. I was forced to buy my own school clothes and shoes at age 13. Graduated high school in Virginia Beach, VA. I went to college at the University of Tennessee because of the pressure of being the first one in the family to graduate college. I was placed on academic suspension and dropped out of college after a year and a half of partying and not going to class.
After dropping out of college, I moved back to Nashville, working odd jobs. Then I got a job as a janitor at McMurray Middle School in Nashville. This was one of the most humbling experiences of my life at age 20. One day after coming home from work, while living in CWA homes in East Nashville with my girlfriend, at the time, I sat down on the mattress we had as our bed, which was on the floor, and pushed up against a headboard that leaned against the wall, and I decided to look through the phone book and find the number to a military recruiting office. I called a Navy recruiter first and scheduled an appointment to go in the next day to take a sample ASVAB test. I passed easily and they scheduled me for the real thing. I scored high and decided I was officially going to join the US Navy. My plan was to use this as a stepping stone and only enlist for 4 years and get out.
I ended up doing 8 years in the Navy as an IT and during my time I learned the importance of structure, attention to detail, and traveling the world. I also learned the importance of never settling or becoming complacent. I was exposed to the views and perspectives of individuals from all over the world and this allowed me to reshape my own way of thinking. While in the Navy, I was living check to check for most of my time enlisted. Military members do not make much money at all. I volunteered to take some overseas deployments so that I could stack up more money. I spent 2 years in a row away from family and friends during the entire holiday season. While I was in the Navy, I purchased my first house at age 24, I started my first legitimate and registered business, which was a computer repair company, and I got my real estate license. Prior to moving to Tampa, FL, I made the decision that I wanted to purchase a house every 2 years, which I did. That is how I got started in the short-term rental game with Airbnb.
After completing my 8 years in the Navy, I got out in Tampa, FL, and got a job as a government contractor. I worked as a contractor for a year and a half. While I was working as a government contractor, I found out that I was going to have a son. I was terrified. This changed my life. I was no longer just living for myself. I had to focus on how I was going to take care of this human being. I was working 12-hour shifts when he was born. My son came to my house with me from the hospital. I experienced waking up every two hours for feedings, getting peed on while changing diapers, and the feeling of being a zombie due to lack of sleep. For about a year my life was wake up at 4 am, get myself and my son together to drop him off to his mother, I would work from 5:30 am to 5:30 pm, pick my son back up while on my way home, get him bathed, fed, and in the bed, work on my business, and eventually fall asleep.
Then, I would wake up and do it all over again. My son was born 3 months after I separated from the military. After a year of exhaustion, I made the decision to leave my job so I could focus on entrepreneurship and my son. The day after I left my job, I went back to where my entrepreneurial journey began and I started a landscaping business. I use my savings to go purchase all new equipment, a truck, and a trailer, and MVP Luxury Landscaping was born. I knew I didn’t want to do this forever but I needed to make more money and I had skills that I could monetize. After scaling my business from scratch for a year and a half, I decided I was ready to sell the company. I ended up getting a buyer that had just moved from Texas and I sold him everything, including the current clients. This was my first taste of actually selling a profitable business. I did this so I could focus on my Airbnbs, which was now up to 7 properties, and have more time with my son.
After selling my landscaping business, I really began to focus on personal development so I started reading books, watching podcasts, and learning about how to create real wealth. This journey led me to create REAL Clothing Company. REAL is an acronym for Rich Even After Losses. REAL is a brand, a movement, and a lifestyle that was created to inspire individuals to stay tapped into their abundance mindset, despite any adversity. Sometimes we tend to focus on the bad more than the good. By living a REAL lifestyle, you learn to understand the power of your thoughts and once you master those, you will always remain RICH, EVEN AFTER LOSSES. Another concept that stemmed from my personal development journey is the importance of collaboration. One day while at a bar in Tampa, I realized that there is not a lot of black representation here in the city as far as ownership is concerned. I was with my good friend and now business partner SDot and mentioned the idea of rounding up a group of entrepreneurs and business professionals that I know to sit down and discuss a plan to grow our footprint in Tampa, FL. SDot is the owner of the restaurant Rose Bar in Tampa so he opened the doors early on a Saturday morning for us to meet. I included SDot and contacted 6 other individuals to meet at Rose Bar on that Saturday morning. I introduced everyone to each other and we began a conversation about what we can do to positively impact the community and be a positive representation of the black community in Tampa.
After about a month or so of meeting and some planning, I realized that everyone wasn’t really committed and the Power Circle faded. Shortly after that, SDot took the baton and gathered some other individuals to go along with three of us from the Power Circle, and The Society of Influencers and Creatives (SIC) was born. With this group, we have been able to catapult into an atmosphere that I honestly never imagined. Now we have for-profit and nonprofit SIC entities. Our mission is to organize and execute a collaborative mission between men and women, to positively impact underserved communities, foster joint ventures, and curate purposeful fellowship opportunities for influencers and creatives around the world. My journey was a long and rough one, with much more to go, but it all led me to where I am right now and it’s a blessing to be able to be a blessing to others.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road, but every bump in the road has taught me a valuable lesson. My biggest struggle in life was my relationship with my father or lack thereof. This subconsciously made it difficult for me to open up, trust, or let anyone get close to me. The last text I contact from my father was a long text saying that he questioned whether I was really his son and him asking me to change my name. I am a Jr. I had to go through hypnotherapy to deal with this. I’ve also dealt with the challenge of not having anyone teach me the things I needed to be a man. I had to teach myself how to be handy and work with my hands by watching videos on YouTube. Anytime I don’t know how to do something, I go to YouTube because I didn’t have anyone to teach me.
I use to also struggle with being a big fish in a small pond. A lot of people in my life were leeches and they were able to stay attached for so long because they would compliment and give me praise as if I was the best of the best. It wasn’t until I was exposed to individuals that are really doing big things, that I realized what I was doing was mediocre and I was getting complacent. After realizing this, I took self-education and personal development a lot more seriously and that led to a lot of my success today
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The Society of Influencers and Creatives is a conglomerate of men and women who are entrepreneurs and business professionals that come together to promote collaboration, community outreach, and celebration of success. We are based out of Tampa, FL and we have members that came from different states across the country.
Our ability to come together as individual business owners and leaders to successfully collaborate and curate events and opportunities for the community, without ego, greed, or jealousy getting in the way is what sets us apart from others.
Brand-wise, I am most proud of being able to curate a brand and culture that makes it cool to work together to give back to the community. Since our inception, there have been multiple businesses and organizations that follow what we do. It’s a great feeling to be able to influence other influencers and creatives in a positive way.
I want everyone to know that SIC will be a global brand. We are recreating the concept of Black Wall Street by building a powerful network of men and women across the globe that can learn from, support, and build with each other, all while replenishing our communities with the resources, knowledge, and love needed to build successful lives in this generation as well those to follow.
Currently, within our SIC community, we have the following product and service offerings:
– Nonprofit Organization: SIC, Inc
– Business Coaching and Consulting: Rich Even After Losses, LLC
– Real Estate Agent: Victor Gurley Jr.
– Real Estate Wholesale Education: Secured Home Buyers, LLC
– Clothing and Lifestyle Brand: REAL Clothing Company, LLC
– Clothing and Lifestyle Brand: Lite Butta, LLC
– Restaurant/Hospitality: Rose Bar Tampa
– Event and Private Security: T&T Security, LLC
– DJ Services: DJ Silencer
– DJ Services: DJ Donny Da Don
– Audio/Visual Production: Lawson’s Audio Visual (LAV)
Any big plans?
The plans for the future are to continue to build and expand. SIC as well as each member’s individual businesses will continue to gain exposure and grow.
I also plan to create a massive footprint in the Tampa Bay area for black-owned commercial real estate ownership. I will also be leading the charge to establish more education programs and facilities for our youth to learn essentials such as financial literacy, business acumen, and personal development skills.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.RichEvenAfterLosses.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/therealvicg
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vic.gurley
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@sicpresents
- SoundCloud: https://m.soundcloud.com/therealdjsilencer?fbclid=PAAaZTEuh-h36Ir2qkBzCff9yQNiQYUBGeAPuhA8AwIGVnwKprm-N5bd65WBI
- Other: https://www.realclothing.io
