The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Nick Ford Explains the Exact Side Hustles That Let Him Quit Law Enforcement
25 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: How did Nick Ford transition from law enforcement to entrepreneurship?
I left law enforcement about two years prior to me actually leaving. I started an ATM machine business. Starting that ATM business definitely gave me a safety net for when I was deciding to leave law enforcement. And it wasn't necessarily about like the finances coming in.
Chapter 2: What side hustles did Nick start to create passive income?
It was the fact that I actually created a business, got customers, made sales, and I was actually bringing in revenue. That is what helped to finally make that jump out of law enforcement.
If you were to do 4 to 5K and devote that time in overtime, which I call blood money, dude, you know, you're working 30, an additional 40 hours a week to make the same amount of money you would from those machines, which only take a couple of hours to fill, correct? Correct.
Yeah, that's passive income right there.
What led you to transition to merchant services, which is credit card machines? Guys, welcome back to Love Love Podcast. This is Paul Alex. And today we have another phenomenal interview. We have a first responder. We have a military veteran. He was an army ranger. Thank you for your service. And he's an overall good guy, family guy.
He is what we consider a side hustler when it comes to the entrepreneurship world. But he also took a deep dive into AI automation, which we're going to take a deep dive into.
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Chapter 3: How did Nick build confidence to leave law enforcement?
Guys, as you guys know, AI... has dominated the space in the past couple of years, and it's going to continue to grow. I mean, if you guys are looking at the current news trend right now with layoffs, 40,000 from UPS, 30,000 from Amazon, I mean, it's just the way the world is going.
So this interview is going to be very good because we're going to talk about exactly how Nick Ford has been able to use AI and automate it for businesses in the United States and And also, he's going to be talking about his background in law enforcement. He's going to be talking about his experiences on how he started in his entrepreneurship journey. Nick, welcome to the show, brother.
Thanks, Paul. Thanks for having me. Pleasure to be here, man.
No, absolutely, man. So, Nick, you started off in the military. When did you transition from the military into law enforcement?
So there was actually quite the gap between military and law enforcement. So I got out of active duty military in 2007 and I entered law enforcement in 2012. Um, but in Massachusetts back, back then, everybody wanted to be a police officer. Right. So I had to take the civil service exam twice and it's only given every two years.
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Chapter 4: What role does mindset play in pursuing side hustles?
And there were like thousands of people that took it. Right. I scored a 99. I had veterans preference. Didn't even get a call the first time. Um, So in the interim, I got into technology and started working kind of like entry-level IT jobs, kind of biding my time until I finally got the postcard in the mail inviting me to interview for a police department in 2017. I'm sorry, 2012. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I remember that time I was around 2012, 2011. I started submitting my applications to different departments there in California. And it was a process, dude. I remember going to physical agility tests where there was like 1500 people. And this was for a department where they had 800 officers. So to me, I was just like, there's no way I'm going to get picked out of all these people.
Right. And it was at that time, especially in California, man, where It was one of the first departments that was offering over $100,000 back in 2014 to get paid as a police officer, which is huge, right? And a lot of people don't think that police officers can make that much money, but you can, right? Especially with overtime and all that jazz.
So with your background, brother, you got into law enforcement. How long were you in law enforcement for?
So I was in law enforcement from 2012 to 2017, so five years.
So five years. And then during those five years, did you work any like specialized units? What is basically, I like to say your hero sheet when it comes to the law enforcement career?
Hero Sheet, I wouldn't say specialized units. I was an FTO, which I enjoyed. I taught some classes at the academy. So like first responder, trauma management, things of that nature, Narcan instructor, kind of one-off trainings that I went to. But really the biggest thing that I did while I was there was FTO.
FTO, yeah. And I feel like it takes a special person to be a field training officer, man. You got to really want to prep, you know, the new guys and gals going into law enforcement because it all comes down to, you know, their level of mindset, their confidence, especially being the police, right?
Right.
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Chapter 5: Why are marketing and AI essential skills for 2025?
Right. And I mean, it adds it adds that context and color that I think you can only get so much of in the police academy. Right. And you get out of the police academy, you get into the department. And to me, that's really where the rubber meets the road. And you can have, you know, because there are good FTOs and there are not so good FTOs, unfortunately.
And I think that can really make or break a young officer, a young officer's career and outlook on the job.
Yeah, no, absolutely. And for the people that are listening right now, and let's say they're interested in going into law enforcement, what would be your top three tips to give somebody that's new, like inspiring a cadet that is going through the process? What would you tell them?
So the very first thing that I would tell them is explore the reason why you want to be a police officer. I think that is by far the biggest component that can determine success or failure is the why, right? Just like anything else, right? If you're getting into it for the wrong reasons, right? The half-life on that has got to be pretty short.
So make sure you're getting it for the right reasons, number one. Number two, I would say, regardless of what anybody tells you, whether it's the media or somebody like myself who tries to coach people to leave law enforcement when they're ready to, I tell people, go for it, you know?
don't get involved in the drama like once you get to the to the um department you go through the academy and everything else like obviously prepare for the academy take it seriously when you go for an interview show up in a suit like there are people still that don't show up in suits and it just like blows my mind um but anyway so you go through the academy get to the apartment
Number three, the third tip, right, and I think is one of the biggest, is when you get to the department, try not to get involved in the drama. Try not to get involved in the talking behind people's backs. Everybody's going to have an opinion about different officers. Take it with a grain of salt. Form your own opinions. And, dude, enjoy it. Enjoy the ride.
Get out there and enjoy the ride and do the job and take every day, you know, One day at a time. And there are plenty of people out there that serve 20, 30, 40, 50 years in law enforcement and love every single day of it. And if you're going down that path, I hope that that's you.
It's a great career, man. And it's very refreshing to talk to someone that's also in the same industry as me that I did for seven years. And to me, dude, I think it's great. There's nothing wrong with going ahead and trying to be the police in 2025. The one thing is just being prepared mentally for it, just because now more than ever,
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Chapter 6: What challenges did Nick face when starting his ATM business?
You know, especially with cameras, PDRDs, right? Now you're just dealing with more scrutiny. But at the end of the day, that's just what comes with it, dude. You know, I always say it's a customer service based job. And that's what you're doing. You are providing customer service to the citizens and to the suspects, right?
To everybody. And, you know, if you're doing it for the right reasons, usually you won't have a problem. But like...
yeah there's plenty of components of law enforcement that can be very ugly right like nobody ever calls the police because something good's going on it's always a crisis it's always a problem it's always a fight it's always a disagreement whatever the case may be um and you're brought in as like you know this this impartial you know person to try to mediate and from one call that was the the part that i love about the job but the job the most is the dynamics you never know
what one day, what one hour, what one minute is going to bring from one to the next.
Let's go ahead and transition from when you were in law enforcement now to actual entrepreneurship. So what was your first entrepreneurial venture? And then why did you decide to go ahead and start transitioning?
So yeah, my first venture was I started an ATM machine business. It did that like... about two years prior to me actually leaving. And I did it because it always kind of just interested me, the thought of starting a business. And one night, you know, I worked midnights for three straight years. And if you've ever worked midnights, which I'm sure you have, you think about a lot of random things.
So one of the things I was thinking about was how ATM machines work. And I'm like, hmm, I wonder how they work.
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Chapter 7: How has Nick integrated AI into his entrepreneurial journey?
I wonder who, you know, where does that surcharge go? Like, who does that go to a bank? Does it go to a person? Does it go to the building? So I kind of looked into it that way and really kind of went back and did a deep dive on the business model. Right. And, um, Figured out that, okay, there's definitely money to be made here.
And the sort of competitive advantage that I applied to my ATM company was that it's a veteran-owned business. A portion of the surcharge amount collected automatically gets donated to a veteran charity company. And those were like the two things, because there's tons of ATM machine companies out there, just like merchant services companies, right? They're all over the place.
So finding that competitive advantage, that differentiator was pretty good for me. And then as a result, I targeted... Things like VFWs, things like American legions, like veteran oriented social establishments, because I have that instant credibility walking through the door as a veteran. They like instantly kind of, well, at least listen to what you have to say. Right.
So, so I started that, um, And by the way, I've never really scaled any of these companies like big. I wouldn't even say that I scaled them to a medium size. These have always been side hustles, more of like an enjoyment exploration type deal. However, starting that ATM business, right?
definitely gave me a safety net for when i was deciding to leave law enforcement when i was going back and forth should i do it should should i not um you know it gave me that and it wasn't necessarily about like the finances coming in because even the finances coming in from the atm machine business like wasn't wasn't much you know it was
Between that and merchant services, it was like, I don't know, maybe three, four grand a month, something along those lines. Which is nothing to snark at, but compared to a full-time police officer salary, I couldn't leave policing and continue that part-time. My point is that it wasn't the income that gave me that added boost of confidence. It was the...
It was the fact that I actually created a business, that I actually got customers, that I actually made sales, and I was actually bringing in revenue. That is what helped give me the confidence to finally make that jump out of law enforcement. Because I knew if I could do this, I could do it again. Or I could go to this and scale it and put full-time.
I like to say, I put part-time effort into something. I'm going to get part-time results. And that's okay. But I also know that I have that skillset now. So if I want to apply full-time effort to something, I'm going to get full-time results. So really that's kind of how I was led into entrepreneurship and then the ATM machine business.
And then that just so happened to give me that extra confident boost to actually pull the trigger and leave law enforcement.
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Chapter 8: What advice does Nick have for first responders looking to start side hustles?
I'm like, what? Do you even know what a pyramid scheme is? Because that's not what it is.
Exactly. That is the first thing that someone who is comfortable will say, right? Because they're just not used to thinking outside the box. So when you went ahead and you actually launched that business, did you tell your wife? Did you tell your coworkers? Were you open about it? Or was this something that you were just building on the side as you were still working as a law enforcement officer?
Yeah.
Yeah, so it is something that I was very open about and that I was very transparent about. And that's kind of how...
kind of just how I do things in general like I think there's something to be said about stealth wealth and you know building things in the dark you know without letting anybody know about it and I've really wrestled with like which one should I do but in that case I was very vocal about it because you know the law enforcement community is as dramatic as it can be and as spiteful as it can be it's still a community it's still a brotherhood and a sisterhood and a lot of my co-workers actually a handful of my co-workers like
actually landed me customers, you know, from, from letting them know. Cause I get that credibility from, I mean, your net worth is your network. Right. And it's like, so, so yeah, I'm very, very open. I talked about it, you know, with, with my wife, she's like, whatever you want to do, man. Well, you know what? It sounds good. But yeah, I talked, I told everybody about it.
I love that. I love that. And the fact that your wife was very supportive about it, that's huge, dude.
I think one of the biggest needle movers for any entrepreneur, if you guys are listening to this right now, and you guys are thinking of creating a side hustle, just like Nick did, just like I did, it is very important to find your people that are going to support you through that journey, right? Because it's not easy, dude. It's something new.
You may not be good at it, but you start getting good at it, just like the reps, just like Academy, just like field training officer, right? So, Nick, let's talk about the transition now with ATM.
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