How You Can Leave Corporate & Scale Quickly With Great Teams Like Chaz Wolfe

Chaz Wolfe joined the guys and talked about building a culture from his business start. He left the Corporate Zoo and bought into an Edible Arrangements franchise system and built that into a multi-wait operation, that he could run with great people, incredible metrics, and drive to succeed and be excellent in all endeavors. He invested in real estate, remodeling, and has created the Gathering of Kings community. This community embodies Chaz's mantra of getting like-minded people together to help everyone excel in all facets of their life. Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!

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GOLD NUGGETS:

(00:00) - Entrepreneurial Journey With Edible Arrangements

(00:00) - Entrepreneurial Passion, Leadership, and Growth

(00:00) - Real Estate Ventures and Mastermind Community

(00:00) - Mastermind Group

(00:00) - Book Recommendations, Home Features, & Customer Service

(00:00) - Navigating Customer Expectations and Belief

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Chaz’s Links:

Website | www.chazwolfe.com

Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/chazwolfe 
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Book Mentioned: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

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Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Dale Cardwell, Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!

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If You Loved This Episode Try These!

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• Turning 23 Years of McDonald's Franchise Ownership to an Entrepreneurial Lifestyle

• Attracting High-Value Clients with Irresistible Marketing Messages | Daniel Den

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Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!

Transcript

Chaz Wolfe: 0:00

I used to say this in my mastermind group quite a bit. I haven't said it in a while, just because you know. I think sometimes it's really hard to understand. But I used to say if you only had one hour a week or a month for that matter to run your business, how could you do it? Not can you do it, but how could you do it? And if literally just limit yourself to one hour a week?

Chris Lalomia: 0:29

Welcome to the Small Business Safari where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in Adventure Team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountain top. Oh, alan, we've got to go. You know what I feel like Singing?

Alan Wyatt: 0:55

You're going to start singing Break into song.

Chris Lalomia: 0:57

Yeah, you know, actually I tried to even hum the A-Team song today and I couldn't get it. How did it sound? That's not bad, okay, pretty close, yeah. So I got, uh, I got a younger person in my office didn't know clue, really, yeah, and I felt like you know what, that's why I shouldn't hum. Yeah, damn it. But no, we we got. We get to talk, I get to hum, I get to whistle. No, can't do that either.

Alan Wyatt: 1:25

You have many other gifts, just focus on those.

Chris Lalomia: 1:27

You know what I feel like doing, though. What do you feel like doing? I feel like we just need to be the gathering of the kinks, like how I did this.

Alan Wyatt: 1:34

I'm starting to do this, by the way, Chad, I mean he's weaving things in keeping the audience on their toes. I know toes, I know I'm excited about this.

Chris Lalomia: 1:41

You are excited, I am, and so you know. So, coming back, we're getting back together this week. Um, I've had a big daddy weekend, uh and week.

Alan Wyatt: 1:48

I was up in dc, by the way chas, this is every weekend, so yada, yada, yada.

Chris Lalomia: 1:53

All right, so what big daddy do this, yeah, so this week, well, the week before I was up in dc in tyson's you ever heard of that? Yeah, tyson's corner. Oh, there's some money there, brother. Yeah, there is, yeah. And so I got to go there for the Nary Conference. Here's tax money, oh yeah, I know. And I tell you remodeling is hot up there. So I was up there for the National Association of the Remodeling Industry and I just got named the National Marketing Chair. Really Right, look at me.

Alan Wyatt: 2:19

Woo-hoo.

Chris Lalomia: 2:19

And then I came back to Athens and we worked on a home show and then I was supporting my manager out there and I think I saw tens of people. Good for you, oh yeah, great home show. So so, yeah, all 10 or 20. Oh, exactly, for all weekend, three days.

Alan Wyatt: 2:35

As long as they were your avatar.

Chris Lalomia: 2:37

The highlight of this home show was one of the roofing guys got a drone out in a in a in a. You know again the facility. Right, he gets it stuck in the rafters, starts ripping up the insulation and the cops the rent-a-cops were running around and I'm behind him going. Use your gun, use your gun, get him get him.

Chaz Wolfe: 2:55

He's only got a taser.

Chris Lalomia: 2:57

He only got tased by Paul Mark. All right, we got to get to this. If you are dialing into this episode, you're going to love this one. This guy's name is chas wolf. Gathering of the kings. You're going to get to know more about him and what he's done. Um, I actually listened to his podcast. He doesn't know that because I just told him and, uh, I always pick up some nuggets when I listen to his stuff.

Alan Wyatt: 3:18

He's had some amazing guests on as well so I kind of get the feeling that everything chas does is amazing. I know, chas, is there anything you've ever screwed up? I mean, look at his beard. I mean even his beard's amazing I know there's been a few things.

Chaz Wolfe: 3:31

We can talk about him if you want.

Chris Lalomia: 3:34

You mean you made mistakes oh yeah, just just a few. Okay. So, chas, uh, thanks for coming on excited to talk about everything, but I think where I want to start is did you always want to be an entrepreneur? Was that always what you were doing?

Chaz Wolfe: 3:48

and you said, man, I'm doing this, I'm going for it well, I appreciate you guys having me um, yes and no, like I don't know if I articulated it like that, but it are it came. It came out as how do I make money? Or what can I do today to make money? And so when I was younger, that was selling candy, bars and popcorn and all the fun stuff door to door. When I got older, that was lawn skate or lawn maintenance and landscaping and doing whatever I could. And and then, eventually, when I was 24, that looked like me purchasing my first, like you know, legit business franchise. And I haven't looked back ever since.

Chris Lalomia: 4:24

So the answer is yes, I got that. I mean for us, for us. I was taking notes actually, because so you're 24, did you go to?

Chaz Wolfe: 4:32

college I started. I went to Ozark Christian college in Joplin, missouri. I had some some thought that I was going to be a youth minister and I had some people kind of scratch their head, you know at at me on that going really okay. Like I had some people kind of scratch their head, you know at at me on that going really Okay. Like I mean I got a heart for people I love to lead. I've always been helpful, uh, mentoring others and stuff like that.

Chaz Wolfe: 4:50

Um, but you know sales and marketing and business, and that that's, that's really the talents that God's given me.

Chris Lalomia: 4:58

That's amazing that you went to uh Ozark did the youth minister? We've had a number of people on there and I'm looking at somebody who's the son of a minister a minister son, as it were.

Alan Wyatt: 5:07

That's right and I came out. Okay, you did.

Chris Lalomia: 5:11

And and bit of a journey. And one of us went through a lot of therapy and one of us didn't guess which one.

Chaz Wolfe: 5:15

Yeah.

Chris Lalomia: 5:15

Not the one who was the minister son, all right.

Alan Wyatt: 5:19

So here I'm back in your business now.

Chaz Wolfe: 5:21

Yeah, I mean, I think that you can. I mean, as a faith filled business guy like I'm going to operate in a certain way. I love how you guys actually you were, you're being funny, but I took it as a compliment. You know that, uh, that I do things with excellence and it doesn't mean that I'm perfect at all. Um, but to me, being excellent is a representation of my beliefs, not only spiritually, but my belief in me, my belief in my family, of my beliefs not only spiritually, but my belief in me, my belief in my family. Basically, if my name's on it, I want it to represent something excellent.

Alan Wyatt: 5:50

It wasn't an attempt to be funny, we were just jealous.

Chris Lalomia: 5:53

Oh, it's jealousy. In fact, it's just the beard that's got you jealous. The hair, the beard, the voice, the look. If I was to go on biblical, I'm pretty sure that's in there and we're just 1,000% personifying jealousy. That's right.

Alan Wyatt: 6:06

Yeah, that is right. So there you go. You don't have to read the book, you're going to have to go do a couple Hail Marys. Yeah, that's right as a.

Chris Lalomia: 6:11

Catholic guy. All I have to do is anything I do. I just go on Saturday, get it all taken care of. I'm back to square.

Chaz Wolfe: 6:20

Thank you, so your first business was what Edible Arrangements Franchise 24, 20, 25 years old, and it was an existing business. And so I had been looking for a business at that point for probably almost two years, maybe 18 months or so. And so I know you guys talk a lot about that. Some of your audience is filled from being in that corporate space and kind of making that jump, that was me 24. I was already in Six Figure Club as a sales leader in a corporate space and I jumped let it all go and said we'll figure it out as we fall.

Chris Lalomia: 6:54

So why the Edible Arrangements? And maybe for our listeners, let's find out what that is first and then, why did you pick that business model?

Chaz Wolfe: 7:02

Yeah, edible Arrangements is a franchise system that we take. It's all treats now, but back then it was fruit and we would cut fruit and put them in baskets and make them look like flower bouquets, and so we still do that. That's the core business and that business really is associated to occasions, right Valentine's Day, mother's Day, birthdays get well soon Congratulations all this stuff Right. And so since then we, they've expanded. The brand has expanded into different treats cakes, brownies, cookies, all kinds of fun stuff.

Chaz Wolfe: 7:34

And so the brand for me wasn't necessarily the kicker. I love business, the motion of you know, creating a relationship, finding a connection of product that solves a problem, selling that product, delivering it with excellence, counting the money. Every aspect of business is the game or the widget for me. And so I looked at all kinds of things. I looked at different franchises, I looked at non-franchises, I looked at service companies, I looked at furniture companies, I looked at food I mean, you name it. So it had nothing really to do with the brand, although I felt like with my sales and marketing background, I could sell the thing. And I felt like I could at 24, I wasn't super versed in a lot of experience in life, especially in the trades, and so I felt like I could learn how to cut fruit.

Chris Lalomia: 8:19

I was confident I could do that part. You know what there's one thing I can do I can cut some fruit.

Alan Wyatt: 8:23

Yeah, as a young guy, and I don't know if you had a million dollars in the bank by 24, but you had to sell yourself to the franchisor too. They had to approve the sale, correct they?

Chaz Wolfe: 8:32

did, and that was a process. And actually the difficult part of that whole transaction wasn't the franchisor, it was the landlord who was assigning the lease right and so he was super concerned with me being 24, which is funny because the business had already been there for years and it's the business making the rent payment. But, um, the guy actually selling that business had to kind of talk to him and be like have you met chas?

Alan Wyatt: 8:55

like I know you've seen that beard dude? Look, just look at his beard. Maybe I didn't have a beard, then no um but you're in commercial real estate.

Chris Lalomia: 9:02

You're not not going to lend somebody or give them a lease because of a beard. Oh, I shouldn't do that anymore.

Chaz Wolfe: 9:07

Oh my God, the beard is not always indicative of rent payments.

Alan Wyatt: 9:13

There you go.

Chris Lalomia: 9:14

You know what Gold nugget, can I borrow your pen? Gold nugget, write that down, gold nugget. So you had to have the guy try to sell the business. Talk the landlord into it.

Chaz Wolfe: 9:21

Yeah, yeah, and I think that you know again, this is for maybe the young guys out there, or gals, um, or really just anybody trying to be excellent Like you. There's going to be things on paper or in situations that might be limiting. But, uh, to the point of the guy that was selling me the business, he talked to the landlord and say hey look, have you met Chaz? Cause I'm going to suggest that you probably haven't yet based on this interaction, because if you had met me and interacted with me, 24 would not have been going through your mind. And so I still think that there's a way, especially as young, hungry entrepreneurs or those that want to be entrepreneurs, you can hold yourself in a way of excellence. And look, here's true authenticity here. Seven months before that, I'm working with the business broker I'm about to buy two location dry cleaners, and I asked that I'm working with the business broker I'm about to buy a two location dry cleaners and I asked him. His name was Tom. I said hey, tom, can you help me understand this P&L thing?

Alan Wyatt: 11:31

Wow, oh boy, that's a quick learning curve.

Chaz Wolfe: 11:34

He's older.

Chris Lalomia: 11:35

That did not come up with the landlord the real.

Chaz Wolfe: 11:40

It had to pay rent every month, every month not just a couple times, right, but so, yeah, this. So I say that tongue in a tongue in cheek because I put together at 24 sure I knew how to carry myself, but it's not like I knew everything and I didn't. I didn't pretend to know everything either. Um, literally seven months before I'm like hey, can you help me understand the pnl? He's like he said. He said oh boy, okay, let's sit down. You know he's helping facilitate the transaction Going geez. I don't want to set this guy off on the wrong foot, but I'm just a firm believer that action first off. I guess it starts more in your thoughts, but action is the driver. I can learn something along the way because of my beliefs, but the action piece is where most people just they're just stuck either thinking or or preparing, and I just took action, so I'll figure it out.

Alan Wyatt: 12:27

He's patting. He's just driving straight through europe and blowing everything up 100 yeah, and everybody else can figure out the details I liked it yeah all right.

Chris Lalomia: 12:35

So he brought up one thing I talk about with my team. It's called called thoughts equal actions, actions equal habits, habits equal character. So your thoughts are would drive it. So the good news is only 10% of them are positive. The other 90% are all negative.

Alan Wyatt: 12:50

So you got that going? Are you saying mine or yours Well?

Chris Lalomia: 12:54

actually mine most of the time 99.8% negative.

Chaz Wolfe: 12:59

So well. And then to kick that in the in the hiney, there it's 95% are subconscious. You, you don't even know that they're happening, yeah, yeah, and then really want to get a grip on things.

Chris Lalomia: 13:08

And then I read another part of that that said that. And then here's, the here's, the here's. The next one is that 80% of them are repeating. Awesome, I said this guy's in a deep dark. I mean, I know I'm excited about running my handyman business after 16 years. Yay, all right, so you're 24. Did you take a loan out? Did you have money or did you were good to go?

Chaz Wolfe: 13:27

Yeah, no, I did an SBA loan. I put 70 K down of my own money and I actually had to borrow a little bit of that from some family, from my, from my mother and father in law, and but I had been saving, I had I had, I knew I was buying a business and um, and I left the whole, the whole deal kind of fast forward that story a smidge, just to kind of make that a point a little bit more exaggerated. Six months later I purchased a second one that was also an SBA loan, another 70 K down. Um, both of those businesses were about a 400,000 or $500,000 purchase. A year later I started a brand new one and a year later I opened up a brand new one in a city three hours away from me. And a year later I opened up a second one in that city three hours, a fourth one in Kansas City and I bought one in Florida all in the same month. So I went from zero to seven locations in four years, 65 or so employees, three states.

Alan Wyatt: 14:25

It was nuts. So the Florida one is an outlier geographically, the other ones are. You can get to pretty easily.

Chaz Wolfe: 14:32

I can get to the three hours away if I needed to. Obviously it's not a you know, hop, skip and a jump, but yeah.

Chaz Wolfe: 14:39

That's a completely different management style A hundred percent, and I'm super thankful for that because it's so funny Again, just driving fast and figuring out the rest later. I remember exactly where I was when I got that email. I'd been a franchisee for a while and fairly well known. I was again pretty young, making a lot of moves, and so I was on some email strand. Don't even know how I got on this email strand, but the lady sent an email saying hey, we're selling, and I saw it pop through on my screen and I literally opened it up and said I'd like to meet with you, what's your phone number and I'll call you. And I think I had her on the phone within like 15 minutes. Wow, and most people were like Florida, why? And?

Chris Lalomia: 15:16

I was like Hello, exactly, exactly, all right. So you scaled. That's very quick, especially in the retail world, in four years. And it's hard because what does everybody tell you about retail? You've got to be there, kind of like a restaurant business, right, you've got to be there or you don't make money. So how were you able to overcome that with people in the beginning?

Chaz Wolfe: 15:35

That's a great question. So my experience before that obviously leading teams in the sales place, so I leaned on that heavily. So personality assessments and just being a good leader myself, I was I'm still growing, obviously, but I had read hundreds of books by this time, like I take personal development extremely seriously. And so me, at 24, even before I even started this journey, I had already still read hundreds of books Terrible in school. Well, I was terrible in school because I didn started this journey, I had already still read hundreds of books Terrible in school. Well, I was terrible in school because I didn't apply myself. But it would have been amazing in school, but didn't read anything.

Chris Lalomia: 16:07

Yeah so he got two Bs. I got two Bs. Yeah yeah, chaz wants to be horrible. I got to be awesome.

Alan Wyatt: 16:15

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we should move on.

Chris Lalomia: 16:18

I choose to be excellent today. But no, it's because you liked it, because you liked the topic, and I think that's.

Chris Lalomia: 16:25

There's a big thing for educational systems, is that? Why are we not making it more interesting? I just had this conversation in my office. We were talking about piano and picking piano teachers and one of the girls she's raising her children younger. I'm obviously older. Yeah, I'm not going to force them to play music. I mean why? I said I'll tell you why. I said I had two years of piano. I can sit down on a piano and I can rip off a lot. You know about five or six minutes of just really quick things. And people think, oh, my god, he's a virtuoso. No, I could barely do anything after those six minutes, but I can do it. I said plus, it was the discipline. I said I, I disagree. I said I think you should. I think you should make them and make it. I said just wish they would have made it more fun for me instead of having me play the the most boring concert. Cheer till. Oh god, they were so boring dude my my experience with piano.

Chaz Wolfe: 17:14

So, first off, I pushed off my fine art credit in high school until the very end. So my senior year I'm taking beginning piano, and so here's what happens I go in and he teaches you know music and how to read it. And I never learned how to read music. I can't, I don't even still today I'm just like I'm confused. But what I could do is I could watch him play and then I could play it, and so I would ask him to play two or three times and then I would sit down for like 30 minutes after class and I would literally just do it until I got it, just memorization, memorization, and I would come back two weeks later, or I would come back to the next class, which was a couple of days later, and I'd play it and he'd be good to go.

Chaz Wolfe: 17:56

So I asked him, I convinced him the second semester that I could do it as an independent study, because it was the only class that I had. I had set up my situation where I could work full time, make money, and it was my only class. I was coming every other day. I was like, look, here's the deal. If you could work with me. I'll come in every two weeks, play the song that you want me to. I'll practice at home. And so he did. He agreed, but here's what I would do it in that class the same thing I would. He'd show me the next song.

Chris Lalomia: 18:25

I'd say, play it two or three times for me and then I would just literally sit there for 30 minutes.

Alan Wyatt: 18:30

I would hammer it out, I'd go home and practice self-taught and he would just watch YouTube videos to learn a riff from a song that he liked. I mean, he's amazing on the guitar, but for the first five years he couldn't play a song all the way through. Yeah, He'll play the riffs. Yeah, he'll play the riffs. The fun stuff.

Chaz Wolfe: 18:47

Yeah, but isn't that again?

Chris Lalomia: 18:48

isn't that how you learn? You want to apply yourself and learn more. Chaz wanted to get into personal development and leadership and he read 100 books. I mean, that's just what it takes if you've got to be interested. That's why I asked about the business model. So for you, your passion was the business. It wasn't necessarily cutting the fruit or doing whatever you wanted to see if you could grow. And that was your passion and you've got to follow that, because if you want to be great at something, you've got.

Chaz Wolfe: 19:13

that was your passion and that's you got to follow that because, if you want to be great at something, you got to follow your passion. Man, yeah, so you're a disc profile guy, did I hear? I'm familiar with the disc. We use culture index, which I think is just a little bit more maybe in depth, but but yeah, I'm totally familiar with the, with the, with the disc. I'm a I'm a big DC on the disc.

Alan Wyatt: 19:27

Okay, yeah, I can imagine. So talk about how you use that when you're hiring.

Chaz Wolfe: 19:33

Yeah, good question. So, first off, if you can identify in a position what character traits are needed, so, again, using the desk even, or culture index, is this a driver? Is this like a revenue driving type of position? Do they need to talk with people? Do they need to be detailed? Do they need to be more methodical, like, what are the things needed in this role? And then I can, I can hire based specifically on that.

Chaz Wolfe: 19:56

Now, in culture index, I can, I can create what's called a C job and I can basically manipulate like this is exactly this would be perfect, right, and so when someone takes a survey, it tells me there's an 89% likeness or a 22% likeness, and so I'm just not going to waste my time with people that don't meet a certain threshold of what I've already predetermined. This this role needs in order to be successful. So, again, I'm not going to put a highly detailed, perfectionist in a sales role, because that's going to hold them back, as opposed to the person that's like not detailed at all, it's probably going to do as long as they like talking to people, probably going to do really well in sales do as long as they like talking to people, probably gonna do really well in sales, right?

Chris Lalomia: 20:36

yeah, I mean obviously so 60 65 people, but uh, every place has that manager right, yep, exactly, everybody had a manager.

Chaz Wolfe: 20:42

And then at one point, uh, with all seven, I had a general manager over all seven um locations. And so, kind of to your point from before, yeah, how did I scale up so quickly? It was building not only the individual teams, but and then doing, but, then doing structure building with those managers, developing them as persons, and then, of course, the general manager spent a lot of time with her, as she then would then pour into each location. Right Now, do you still own these? I own two. Now I've exited most of them. The two that I have are the ones that are not in my city.

Chaz Wolfe: 21:12

Go figure, going back to that point though it's like look, I figured out real quick how to solve problems without me. Now, I was maybe still involved in the problem solving, but it was me on a phone call or in a text thread, as opposed to physically driving to go solve the problem, and I think that that's probably one of the number one things that holds an entrepreneur back is they have this uber confidence in themselves, which is great. That's what got them where they are, but they haven't handed the reins off to somebody else, and I forced myself. I literally had to because I wasn't there.

Alan Wyatt: 21:48

Yeah, you become the choke point of your own business. Literally, you're the problem.

Chaz Wolfe: 21:52

Yeah, right, yeah, we were always the problem.

Alan Wyatt: 21:55

But yeah, how did you decide on keeping the two that you kept?

Chaz Wolfe: 22:00

Well, I sold the local ones in a package, so that was pretty easy. The other two are just kind of hanging out. We've got great people and it's fairly passive now, so it's just part of the portfolio. Is it in Florida? Cause you get to go to Florida in the winter? Yeah, believe it or not? That yes, but but I haven't been there in like two and a half years actually. So they've they've actually been recently been like are you like come on, like, come hang, you know?

Chris Lalomia: 22:27

Okay.

Chaz Wolfe: 22:27

Yeah, just been busy.

Chris Lalomia: 22:30

Sorry, I had to answer that. That was stupid. Back to solving problems without me. Yeah, you need. You need to be more like chas. I know I need to be more like chas, I just gotta. I had to make sure I get this coordinated because you bailed on me any chemicals that get it to grow?

Chaz Wolfe: 22:44

I'm sorry, all right, I I I that spray on stuff.

Alan Wyatt: 22:48

You were talking about this. We can spray it up we can.

Chris Lalomia: 22:50

Yeah, we've done spray out before. That's great. So what? Uh, right now, your primary business is Gathering the Kings, the Mastermind Community. Let's talk about how did you start that, or did you do another business as well?

Chaz Wolfe: 23:02

Yeah, good question. So yeah, just kind of give you the lay of the land here. We did the seven locations with Edible. I started a couple of real estate companies, so we still have some short-term holdings and some long-term holdings and some other investments in that kind of playing field. I love real estate, love the creativity of real estate.

Alan Wyatt: 23:19

We also have a construction company here, is it?

Chaz Wolfe: 23:21

residential real estate or commercial Residential, but multifamily. So sometimes people call multifamily commercial, but yes, residential single families as well as multifamily. And then we do an angle of short-term rentals in the mix of both of those. And what markets are you in there? We are in Kansas City and we are in South Florida, like South South Florida.

Chris Lalomia: 23:43

Gotcha. Yeah, no, I have a handyman remodeling company here in Atlanta. That's why I was just interested just to see how it's going. So you have the real estate arm, you do that, yep, and who did you develop that with?

Chaz Wolfe: 23:55

Yeah, that's me, that's me. So those are all just properties that we own, my wife and I, and just kind of develop systems around what we like to do. And then we've got some investments with other partners that we're not in daily operations. But again that, again I feel like you're going to be looking for opportunities to invest at some point when you're successful financially. So it's just more of a wise decision-making around investing more than anything. It's not like I can, you know, say I've been successful in that. Necessarily.

Chris Lalomia: 24:22

It's not really my business you know, Is that the real estate. Is that a passive or is a passive income, or are you actually actively managing in that one as well?

Chaz Wolfe: 24:31

Yeah, so the, the, the properties that we own, that we are managing. I have a team that manages so, um, I'm involved on a weekly basis with a one hour call from like a leadership perspective, but, yeah, fairly passive.

Chris Lalomia: 24:44

Nice, it seems to be a pattern. I know I'm liking what he's doing, yeah.

Chaz Wolfe: 24:47

Yeah, I used to say this, uh, in my mastermind group quite a bit. I haven't said it in a while, just because you know. I think sometimes it's it's really hard to understand, but I used to say if you only had one hour a week or a month for that matter to run your business, how could you do it? Not can you do it, but how could you do it? And if you literally just limit yourself to one hour a week, and and what I mean immediately your mind goes to oh well, first off, is that even possible? Let's move that thought out of the way, because it's possible. I just told you my edible stores it's one hour a week. What that looks like, though, is you looking at all the movie?

Alan Wyatt: 25:24

pieces, he's going to create a monster. I mean, you already are a monster, chris, I am a monster.

Chris Lalomia: 25:28

I'm going to go in there.

Chaz Wolfe: 25:36

I'm like you get one hour of me this week, go well, is that all you have to say? Say more, yeah, exactly, get out it. You. You start identifying the things that are taking your time and who you would need to give that to. So you know we're. I own a construction company here in kansas city that's fairly new, um, but but we'll do multiple seven figures this year, um, in our second calendar year, and I, 90 minutes a week is my involvement with that company.

Chris Lalomia: 25:55

I've never been on any job sites.

Chaz Wolfe: 25:57

Say it again what kind of? Construction. Is that commercial or residential? High-end remodeling on residential side, so bathrooms, basements, additions.

Chris Lalomia: 26:04

ADUs Nice. So is that a partner you worked with or did you start?

Chaz Wolfe: 26:08

that I started. I'm the founder. I do have two other partners and we have an integrator, so we use the EOS model and most of my companies, but that company, specifically the integrator, is not an owner and the other two owners report to the integrator and I'm the visionary.

Chris Lalomia: 26:24

I gotcha. So your 90 minute, one hour meetings, those are the L10s. Yep, yep, nice, so actually he holds to the traction model, which Nice, so actually he holds to the traction model, which is a big thing.

Alan Wyatt: 26:35

We're going to try to get a little bit more about the L10 for the stupid people. All right, I forgot my glasses. I'm not very smart, tell me what the L10s are.

Chaz Wolfe: 26:42

Yeah, the L10 is a weekly reoccurring meeting. It's on the calendar, same time, same day, and we're going through metrics as far as this last week, and then we're IDSing. We're IDSing, we're discussing the IDS model through traction. Gino Wickman is the author of Traction and Rocket Fuel, but his program called EOS and in that timeframe we're talking high-level leadership problems and solving them and moving the needle. So everybody's got a scorecard. Are we hitting the metrics that we should be? And then we're discussing the issues. And then that same model goes down into the departments. Right, like, everybody's got a score card. How'd you do on your score card? Is it red, is it green? Did you do it, did you not? Why, uh, talk about it in the issues and keep moving the business. Stay focused is probably the best way to say that meeting in a phrase now in the remodeling business.

Chris Lalomia: 27:34

You said you didn't have much experience in the remodeling world to begin with. Well, why?

Chaz Wolfe: 27:38

did you pick?

Chris Lalomia: 27:38

that business model Because I had experience not necessarily in it and I'm in it now and I'm like I would pick something else. Of course I'm not doing high end either.

Chaz Wolfe: 27:47

Well, again, kind of going back to the forced predicament that I put myself in by buying the putting like putting up a store three hours away and then buying that Florida location I put myself in a predicament where I had to do something different. Now, you know construction and I don't still, to this day, I do not. What I know is how to build a business, and customer journey and client experience and sales process. I know all the elements of a business and so for me, it does me no good actually to know, uh, whether it's this type of wood or that type of finish or that type of paint, because I'm not the one making that decision. Um, and so that actually helps me stay out right, because you know it, you're drawn to it, you're probably pretty good at it. You know, um, I'm not, so I stay out of the way now.

Chaz Wolfe: 28:37

Now the process of why did I do that or why did I go into that? We were flipping real estate and inside of real estate, it's like, oh, okay, well, this is pretty repeatable process. Again me going. This is a pattern. I'm recognizing these things that we're doing and we're getting pretty good at. If we did these for other people, this is what it could look like, and this is what the client journey needs to be, and-.

Chris Lalomia: 28:55

We let it roll. That's awesome. I love how you're doing this. But let's talk about the Gathering of the Kings. Sounds like that's where you spend a lot of your time is helping others with your mastermind community. Let's talk a little bit more about that community and what you do.

Chaz Wolfe: 29:07

Yeah, gathering of the Kings exists for a couple of different purposes, but we are a actual like real by the definition, mastermind. And so Napoleon Hill defines mastermind in Think and Grow Rich, or his work Laws of Success that came out before that as this two or more minds that are working in harmony with each other unto the achievement of a definite chief aim or a specific target. And so our specific target as a mastermind group, when we come together and are working in harmony, is to live the exceptional life. Well, what does that mean? We define that as winning in all areas. We talk about business and finance.

Chaz Wolfe: 29:41

You got to be winning in those areas or in that area. You got to be winning in family and marriage. You got to be winning in faith, which is not just spiritual but also belief in self. You got to be winning in your mental and physical health, and my belief is that you got to be winning in lifestyle. Lifestyle, for me, is the things that tangibly bring me joy or intangibly bring me joy, and when you win in all five areas, in my opinion, you live the exceptional life. So our main focus as a group we get together in different formats, some over Zoom, some in person. We're all across the country. We're all high-performing, growth-obsessed entrepreneurs and we know we're going to get together and help each other grow in those five areas so that we can live the exceptional life wow, you got one out of five.

Alan Wyatt: 30:24

Chris, I got the lifestyle one down. I got lifestyle like that one.

Chris Lalomia: 30:27

I'm just gonna, I'm gonna actually sacrifice the others just for that one yeah, just that one can I be in that one master by the lifestyle? We'll bring it on that one leg, just that one. Uh, chris, you get to join us for 10 minutes today. Thank you, chris. Thank you for joining. Okay, you can leave now. You're not harmonious with the rest of us, yeah exactly.

Chaz Wolfe: 30:44

It's a big deal. There's a lot of group coaching out there, which I think there's very valuable. I've spent a lot of money on group coaching or coaching programs. That is not a mastermind, unfortunately. They call themselves a mastermind because that's kind of a buzzword in marketing, but a mastermind is a room of facilitated agitation. Right, it's your thoughts and your thoughts and my thoughts. If I, as the facilitator, can get us working in a harmonious way, like you were just talking about, there is a power that actually comes out of that. Napoleon Hill talks about this. Is that the the the only reason for success, actually not just one of the reasons. The only reason for success is the power that comes from the mastermind principle. This is in your marriage, this is in friendships, this is right here, this dynamic that you guys have. This is a mastermind.

Chris Lalomia: 31:26

Look at you. We just got called masterminds.

Chaz Wolfe: 31:29

Look at you.

Chris Lalomia: 31:29

Mark that down. All right, chaz, you are welcome back anytime. That's right, I appreciate you. I think we should just end on that note.

Alan Wyatt: 31:41

Actually, that's that note, chris, and.

Chris Lalomia: 31:42

Alan just got called masterminds. Thanks for coming, Chaz. Good night Atlanta. That's right, let's go back. So these mastermind groups, how many groups do you have? How do people get involved and check it out? Great question.

Chaz Wolfe: 31:51

We're one big community but we've got different membership levels and so, as you can imagine, as you've grown your business, there's different things happening inside of the business at different levels and so somebody who's you know a couple hundred thousand in just kind of getting rolling. They're having different struggles, they need more tactical sales marketing. You know that type of thing. Somebody who's just hit the seven figure mark you know one to 3 million, they're really like just went through a big growth phase. They're probably very disorganized. They probably need to work on SOPs and just getting things cleaned up and probably hiring a little bit. And then that scale format is really going okay, how do I take what I've got and to make this thing a machine, whether I'm involved or not, which is really processing people? It's like just an exaggerated version of what I just said, but really honing in to make sure that things are really dialed.

Chris Lalomia: 32:36

Yeah, you actually hit on something I think a lot of people when we talk business is that the different struggles you have when you're going from zero to 300,000 are totally different than the deal you're struggling with from one to three million. And then when you start getting over five million, the struggles are a lot different and it's hard to tell people unless you're in it. So I love that facilitated agitation, because I found that I'm in my own mastermind group here in atlanta and it is facilitated agitation. I'd love that for a reason, um you don't need anybody to facilitate your agitation.

Chris Lalomia: 33:08

Well, I know it's funny it's that I don't ever need anybody to stir up my agita. I can go anytime you want this sicilian has agita all day long.

Chaz Wolfe: 33:15

Yeah, that's right so I like how you, how you put, agitize and like there's more than one.

Chris Lalomia: 33:19

Oh yeah, oh, there's always more than one. So these groups, obviously they come in and they get an idea and then you guys help place them and then they get into their groups that way yeah.

Chaz Wolfe: 33:30

Yeah, yeah. So one big community. We do a lot of things as a big community, but then, yes, we got kind of smaller connection points for the members, based on kind of size and stuff like that or region. We do a little pop-up thing. We're going to be in Dallas and Houston next week doing some cool stuff there. I'm sure maybe Atlanta at one point we do have some cool connections in Atlanta, some members as well, so maybe we'll come out to Atlanta.

Alan Wyatt: 33:50

Oh, all right, so I think there were five spokes to this wheel. Is that correct? Yeah, okay, do you actually weight those equally? I mean, I have a feeling a lot of people come in and they want to, just okay. Yeah, my lifestyle, of course, is a byproduct if I'm making a lot of money and, yeah, marriage faith, yeah, whatever. But I want to get around other people that help me be more successful. So I'm assuming there's a little bit of a I don't know a vetting before you let somebody be a part of the group, but then, once they're in, are you spending equal time on those things?

Chaz Wolfe: 34:23

Yeah, Good question. So, yes, it's definitely a curated environment. There's gotta be that, that like-mindedness or harmonious piece, otherwise the mastermind doesn't work. And so, yeah, we're pretty, pretty filtered when it comes to that. What you're asking is, um, is there the same value in each spoke or each dimension of kingship, as we say? And the answer is yes, the time is always the value calculation though.

Chaz Wolfe: 34:50

Right, I can spend eight hours today on Zoom calls, building my multiple businesses, and only three hours with my kiddos this afternoon and evening, but the value or the focus or the intentionality is the same, or the same intensity, right? So I'm going to run after my family as hard or in an obsessed way like I do my businesses, and so, yes, from an equal perspective. In fact, I just pulled this up because I keep it on my desk we have what's like a five dimensions wheel, and so, literally, like we've got all the categories around, right, and so then you just grade yourself like I'm a 10 or I'm a four, or I'm a three or you know, and ideally it's a round wheel, right? And so if you're honest with yourself about where you are in your business or finance your family, your lifestyle, your faith and your mental and physical fitness or health. You can see it pretty obviously. I mean, we just did this with our members and we do this somewhat regularly, but we just did this in Nashville. We had an event in Nashville a couple of weeks ago and it's really illuminating.

Chaz Wolfe: 35:50

You look at it and you're like dang, I thought I mean I'm doing really well over here. I need more intentionality over here and it's really not necessarily more effort or more time, it's intentionality because I can send which I do a text message to my wife every single morning at 5. I'm up at four, 30, and between four, 30 and five I'm doing some mindset prep, just work, um, some visualization and some, some stuff that we were just talking about, that 95% of the subconscious. Like that's all me. Four, 30 to five every day, and at five that alarm goes off and I send an affirmation text to my wife of something that happened yesterday that I can affirm her in, or something that I appreciate, and when she wakes up it's the first thing that she sees. Every morning is better than us in every way.

Alan Wyatt: 36:34

Oh he said I said my wife, my wife doesn't listen to this.

Chris Lalomia: 36:39

And I'm like, yeah, I hope not.

Alan Wyatt: 36:42

I said what is it? We should go to Kansas City on our next vacation honey.

Chris Lalomia: 36:45

Is it what's for breakfast?

Alan Wyatt: 36:47

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, you can't say that. Have you done my laundry yet? Is my laundry ready?

Chaz Wolfe: 36:53

Are my clothes set out yet? Are they ready, did you? Pack deep back of my lunch mom, um but, but in all seriousness, like you don't know my wife at all, not even close.

Chris Lalomia: 37:01

Would I be able to pull that one off?

Alan Wyatt: 37:02

yeah, you'd be smothered in bed, I would be and, and, and, and.

Chaz Wolfe: 37:06

You know we have a pretty traditional house, but julie is an italian woman who put up with anything, so, um, it's not like she just takes correct directions and says, yes, sir, like that's not our marriage, um, and so there's a there, I guess what I'm trying to get information could be.

Alan Wyatt: 37:22

You didn't slash my tires yesterday, great, that would be okay now actually I could play this game.

Chaz Wolfe: 37:27

Yes, yes, see see, thank you for letting me gotta start somewhere, that's right thank you for yet another night where you didn't smother, yeah in bed with a pillow. Yeah, all right, but I think the the intentionality is what we're talking about, right? Right, I know that every day. When I do that hopefully to the listener that wasn't me tooting my horn because I haven't done that forever. That's in the last 12 to 15 months thing where I'm committed to it. We've been married for 16 years, so let me ask you this?

Alan Wyatt: 37:58

We've been married for 16 years, so let me ask you this what I'm hearing is that it requires a little bit of personal maturity to be able to assess yourself correctly, and so all of these intentional movements to try to improve the five different areas have to come from within. Is there an accountability piece with the other people? But then, is there an accountability piece with the other people? Or, for example, if Chris and I were in one of your groups and I'm looking at his lifestyle, but I'm also looking at his health and I'm like Chris, you're solidly overweight, you're almost morbidly obese, you have gout light. Maybe you need to change your Caligula-like lifestyle. So can I do that in the group or is he supposed to come to that on his own? Yeah, I appreciate that in the group. Or is he supposed to come to that on his own?

Chaz Wolfe: 38:41

Yeah, well, I appreciate that very hypothetically, this is yeah, you like.

Chris Lalomia: 38:46

that Should I not say that he couldn't even pull for a friend. He's like all right, so um. So I'll answer for you. Yeah, you know, I'm a teacher of lifestyle. You know what my feet are feeling better now. That's right.

Alan Wyatt: 38:58

Yeah, there's great drugs.

Chaz Wolfe: 39:00

The answer to that is is actually twofold. It's actually a really great question in all seriousness, because he has to come to his own conclusion. It has to be his choice and you get to partner with him in that. And so we I had actually had somebody asked me this the other day like how do I know that I'm winning? And to me, winning is progress, it's moving towards the thing that I want.

Chaz Wolfe: 39:21

Because we know, as entrepreneurs, like we've set the destination thing like, oh, I'm going to get this, and then I'll be fulfilled, or I'm going to, and then I'll have this amount of money, and then I'll X Right and it it just never feels the same Right, like I remember it, you know, 27, I had a dream in my heart from like 12 was to buy a Mercedes.

Chaz Wolfe: 39:38

I bought a brand new Mercedes I'm 27, I think is what it was and like two months later it was just another car, right. I don't know if you've had that experience, but when we do this, it's just like, oh, it's not the destination. So if I can actually take that cliche and take it seriously and recognize that the journey is me winning and me going, oh, oh, I got it. So part of that recognition is the guy who needs to be better in his marriage or needs to lose some weight, or needs to be more disciplined in his business, whatever it is, or multiple of those things going. Okay, what does winning look like? What's the step I can take today, this week, this month, this quarter? And then, oh yeah, I got some other guys around me that are running pretty hard and it's like dude, I want to run harder because these guys are running hard too.

Chris Lalomia: 40:20

Right, yeah Right, yeah Right, yeah, gabby. That's why I say peer pressure works both ways. It's not always negative, it could be positive, and that's where your accountability group puts the pressure on you to do the things you've got to do to keep your business growing and staying on track with your targets and things that you've said out loud. Hey, I'm going to do this by this month, next month. Hey, I'm going to do this by this month, next month. Hey, how come you didn't do it? Ooh Well, um, let me explain.

Chaz Wolfe: 40:40

Yeah, and sometimes tough love is the best type. It's like hey look man, like you know, man to man, entrepreneur, entrepreneur, cause we've got Queens in the group, like lots of them actually winning. Or King is not, um, you know, masculine, it's, it's mindset, winning is mindset, and so you can call somebody out with love and go hey look man, you said this thing for three months now. What?

Chris Lalomia: 40:58

are we doing? You can't keep saying it and not make it happen. Love that, you got to stay with it. You got to stay on it. I love it, love it, love it. All right, we're coming to the end, man. I hate this because I'm soaking it all in. It did. I know it did.

Alan Wyatt: 41:15

Cool.

Chris Lalomia: 41:15

Chaz has got that effect on people. I love that I'm a time traveler. The jazz- effect the jazz effect. What happened all those hours? I don't know. I just hit my ties by that, oh my god, it's like the bermuda train by the beard and the voice that's right

Chris Lalomia: 41:27

look at my beard, listen to my voice jazz. Thank you so much for coming on, but I I gotta ask our famous four questions what is a good book that you would recommend to our audience? I know we've mentioned a few already. Those have already been mentioned, including the Bible. The good book has been mentioned, so what other books would you recommend?

Chaz Wolfe: 41:47

for a book. Yeah, I, there's a lot of great books, but Think and Grow Rich is the only one that I read, I mean outside of the Bible, outside, every single year, multiple times. You know, I've probably read it five times this year already. Why no, I take that back. Sorry, sorry, sorry. It was five times last year, last calendar year. We're already in another calendar year, but you get what I'm saying. There's just elements there that just are timeless, and every time that you go in your retrospective, it's a new message Wow, solid from a different place all the time.

Chris Lalomia: 42:19

I love that, oh my God. All right, what's the favorite feature of your?

Chaz Wolfe: 42:21

home. Yeah, Good question that we've got space. We've got some acreage here in Kansas city so my kiddos get to like play in the Creek and ride the Ranger and just be free. And that's that's why I build businesses is for freedom.

Chris Lalomia: 42:36

So you got lots of property there. I the uh, the quarterback special where patrick mahomes was building his home. Is that anywhere near yours? Uh, believe it or not it is, it's probably 10 minutes from here oh really, yeah, did you put a par three in the back of your yard?

Chaz Wolfe: 42:51

yeah, no, I do have the space for it, though I like it. I'm more of a 3d uh deer target and I shot a nice buck right out here just a couple months ago and I'll shoot. My four-year-old son is already shooting a bow and we're ready. We're big elk hunters in this family. We like to go into the woods and dominate.

Chris Lalomia: 43:11

Oh, that's cool. Wow, that's a great hobby to actually have with your kid too. We are always interested in customer service because we are customer service freaks. Hello, what is a customer service pet peeve of yours when you're out in the marketplace and you're the customer?

Chaz Wolfe: 43:27

Yeah, when I have clearly articulated what I want and you didn't pay attention, you didn't listen, you didn't write it down, and I'm kind of a particular guy and I'm okay with that. I also like to deliver service in that same fashion uh, intentional and so I like to give the example of when I'm at a restaurant, I'm really easy to please. If you bring me the food that I ordered in the exact way I ordered it, and you just keep my glass of water full, I'll tip amazingly. Um, but those two very simple things get missed most times.

Chris Lalomia: 43:59

Yeah, simple, that's just. I mean not to say blocking and tackling, but I said it, so there you go. I've already said it, but that's it, you just gotta. I mean, it's not that hard, it really is not.

Chaz Wolfe: 44:08

It's really not.

Chris Lalomia: 44:09

This is Not Unreasonable Hospitality, which is another book that I brought up, which one of our listeners said you can consider yourself an influencer. I've gone out and buy the book. I said awesome, I think, because that's an amazing book and reasonable hospitality, but will, uh, good ice, good it, I think. Um, all right, last one, give us a diy nightmare story yeah, emergency services, blood yeah, fingers maybe got put back on I don't have any any like that.

Chaz Wolfe: 44:39

I think the the one I was going to use when we built our house. You could just tell a lot of the intentionality that we were just talking about was missed, and so, being the systems guy that I am, Does that mean control freak? Yeah, that was a nice way of saying that. I appreciate you making that clear Systems.

Alan Wyatt: 44:58

how do you say that? Again, Systems.

Chris Lalomia: 45:00

I'm a systems guy, and you say it like that too. A nice way of saying that. I appreciate you making that clear. Systems, how do you say that again? Systems, I'm a systems guy, and you say it like that too. You kind of linger off.

Chaz Wolfe: 45:03

I'm a systems guy and they go oh yeah, and my builder?

Chris Lalomia: 45:09

was not a systems guy. They usually aren't.

Chaz Wolfe: 45:14

Yeah. So it wasn't a nightmare by any means at all. We have a beautiful home. He's a great person and here we are. But there were things along the way where I thought I was not going to have any hair left and I wondered if you know, he may not have a business.

Chris Lalomia: 45:29

Right, oh, that's so hard. I mean, again, setting expectations is well. Now you know you're in the remodeling business when you're doing it. Setting expectations for customers and actually fulfilling on them is very difficult because it's just not a linear effort. Seems like it'd be easy, but it's not like coding. I can't send five poor people in there to fix this code and have it done in two minutes. Sometimes I have to let things work its way out. Sometimes I can't get the product that I wanted. It's just hard. But again, again, you got to set those expectations and then communicate, communicate, communicate, communicate, over and over and over yeah yep, yeah, yeah that's all right chas wolf gathering of the kings.

Chris Lalomia: 46:08

If you don't learn something, man, that's on you, because at least you know how to go get an edible arrangement. I mean, that's a great idea, right there you know another, another cutesy thing that you could send your customer an edible arrangement they love it.

Chris Lalomia: 46:19

Yeah, they might love that is that the biggest nugget I took, and actually not so. Um, we can always be exceptional and what I put is being here's the one thing I actually I'm going to take. Being excellent is a belief, and a belief in self and I talk about that all the time in sales is that in sales, you always fall to your lowest level of belief and we my job in my company is to get my guys up in belief so they can go out there and kill it every day.

Alan Wyatt: 46:43

You're not going to send your wife an affirmation text at five o'clock in the morning every day.

Chris Lalomia: 46:47

I'll tell you what I will do it and I'll report back to you guys on how long it takes her. The over under right now will be 3.75 days To do what To do, what To actually recognize that.

Chaz Wolfe: 46:57

I sent it, okay, good, and then keep going. Don't berate her for it, just keep going, just keep doing it. Just keep doing it. See what happens, because I'll tell you what the results that us guys are truly looking for will happen.

Alan Wyatt: 47:14

Hey, oh, we are done.

Chris Lalomia: 47:16

And on that note, everybody go make it a great day, get up that mountaintop. Let's make it successful. We could do it together. Send me some dms, send me more information. Let me know you're reading books. Let's get out of here, go learn cheers. Thanks jazz, thanks guys.