On today's episode of Gathering McKens. The biggest thing I learned is to always act in the best interest of the company, even when it comes to yourself too. You can screw over your business for your own benefit and then your business is dead. You are listening to Gathering the Kings Chaz Wolfe featuring fellow 78 and even 9 figure business owners who have real battle scars from business and life, but have prevailed as the king that they are designed to be.
We welcome high performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the reel of the reel, on what it takes to build a success and how you too can get there. Through this dialogue, you will learn the value of growing your network and surrounding yourself with power players and keys like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. Alright, guys. Welcome to Gathering the Kings Chaz Wolfe here, your host.
I have a guest today who is just going to rock your socks at the story of literally coming over to America as an infant with a family who had absolutely nothing starting in business all the way to running multiple $1,000,000 businesses. So that's multiple $1,000,000 businesses in multiple industries. This story today from Igor, the moments here that you're gonna get are incredible, not only from his history, how he makes decisions.
And so I want you to buckle in, get that notepad and pin because here we go. Alright, Igor. Welcome to the stage, my friend. Let's jump in and get right into business. How you doing today? Good. How are you, Chaz? I'm good, man. It's Friday morning. I know we were just chatting off air a little bit about, us both being gone and jumping back in.
I'm sure every burnure can relate to a being gone, whether it's for family vacay or for me, it was a business trip, but still coming back in the swirl of everything. Is that what you're trying reorganized the swirl? Yeah. Absolutely. There's weeks where you spend 60, 70 hours working and then weeks where you can take off some time and enjoy yourself. Yeah. So I did that, but coming back is always a hassle. That's right. That's right.
Yeah. And I think too, I think that there's some value there of I'm gonna a I'm gonna get into some of that with you here because Chaz I told you, probably the likeliness of someone listening here today is a 6 figure business owner, and they're trying to to that 7 figure mark. And so we know that you're a 7, plus figure business owner. That's why you're here on the king stage today, but some of that reason of, like, how you can take time away is why you're why you're 7 figure business owners.
I wanna dive into some of that. Before we do, though, tell me what business you're in. What's the industry? Tell me how many employees you got, stuff Sure. I own and operate a commercial general contracting firm. We specialize in renovating multifamily and office tenant improvements. But I also own a 4 plex duplex in a single family home, so I could landlord co developing a 208 per track of land for, single family homes, multifamily, and commercial. So, yeah, pretty busy.
And then also in the process of launching and net funds soon. So stay tuned to that. That's awesome. Yeah. That's I I I always a lot of that is in the same vein of real estate development, construction, like, they're not the same thing, but they're so closely knit together. And so you're gonna be able to drop a lot of knowledge on us today about how you're doing that, but selfishly, I wanna hear more about the land development.
I personally, under contract for a 150 acres and looking to develop it in a couple of unique ways. And so you and I were gonna have to get together and talk about what you're doing and, how I can glean from your knowledge. Good, man. So the question is at at this level, you gotta ton of stuff going on, but you're doing millions in revenue. What drives you at this point? Like, you in essence, you've made it. Right? Like, the top 9 percent of businesses do 1,000,000 or more.
So 91% of all businesses do less than a 1,000,000, and you're in the top 9%. And so what drives you now compared to maybe before? Sure. Constantly thinking about the future. I think every successful entrepreneur is in the business of delaying gratification.
Sure. But now for the future and just trying to take advantage of being young, ambitious, and capable at this stage of my life and knowing that what the decisions I make right now can impact my future, my family's future, my lineage, and bless others in Chaz, as well as myself. Yeah. I love that. It it's such a a, like, what you just described is so how I think on a daily basis. It's like, bro. We're young. I got ample energy. I'm ready to rock and roll. Fill the calendar. Let's go.
But it's really all onto the the legacy piece. It's I wanna think bigger than myself. And so has it always been like that for you, or or is that now that you've gotten to this level where you've got maybe more resource, you can think at a bigger level, or is that always like that? Yeah. Starting off, it wasn't like that. I'm starting off, you're that was flat broke. I had nothing in the bank.
So more or less, yeah, more or less thinking about myself and how can I get at least a little bit of money, put away, take care of my needs? And then and then once you've achieved that and you have a family or you have loved ones around you that you can help out. You start thinking, okay. I've taken care of my own responsibilities. I'm well off myself now. I start providing for a family, or can I start providing for others? Yep. That's huge.
It's in fact, the the language that you're using, it's like you've read my playbook, bro. The difference between the 6 figure conversation, right, that and gathering the Kings obviously has mastermind groups for 6 and 7 figures, but that's the difference in the conversation. Everything that you literally just said the 6 figure is you gotta go get yours, and it's okay to be selfish for a little while. Like, you gotta go get yours. You gotta grow the business. You gotta get sales.
You gotta make money. You gotta take care of number 1, which could be you, your immediate family, your business. You gotta grow the business to a point, but then eventually Chaz 7 figure conversation comes in and you start thinking about the community. You start thinking about your team, your family, how do I have a legacy? How do I think bigger than just right here the daily battle? And so I love what you're saying, man. And and so what was the switch for you?
You said it wasn't always like Chaz? What was the switch? I guess once I started a family once so once once I got people, I needed start taking care of. It was a entirely different shift. And and but the thought always scared me of not being able to provide for a family. And just that a little bit of that turned into motivation, and then that motivation eventually turned into success. And that success skills on itself.
Yeah. I think that you're right when you mentioned the first step Chaz being fear, but I don't think either one of us would actually admit to operating in fear. It's more of a, let's just go charge the hill. But every warrior, if we're using that language of charging the hill, every warrior, there's a little bit of fear in there. Like, holy Chaz. I might die today. But but the end result is almost like it it's worse. Like, the fear of not is worse than the fear of potentially losing that day.
No. Absolutely. And at that moment, you have nothing pretty much to lose. Right. Nothing to really risk. So you just gotta do it. Exactly. Exactly. No. I I totally relate to that. Okay. Let's continue the conversation around for that six figure mark of thinking and and what you were doing. But how did entrepreneurship start for you? Maybe it was this business, this, a commercial contracting business that you have, or maybe it was before Chaz. Like, where did entrepreneurial ship start for you?
Sure. My family immigrated from Communist Soviet Union. Wow. Back in the late eighties when I was an infant, and my my parents came here with nothing. So they they started off extremely poor. I grew up in a pretty poverty stricken neighborhood initially for the 1st few years of my life there. And then eventually, they started their own little cleaning business. Wow. And I was still in elementary school. And they I got the privilege of helping them out with the cleaning business.
So drafting invoices, drafting proposals, going on cold calls with them tran at times translating for them. Yeah. As well as cleaning nights weekends. That's right. So I got immersed into the business world at a really young age at that time. I probably hated it. Now I'm really super grateful. Yeah. You used the word privilege. Why did you use the word privilege to to be able to help them as opposed to force?
Yeah. Yeah. Because a lot of kids, I feel like, especially now they're not helping their parents out in in their business ventures. Except where kids are meant to go to school, go to college, and then they can start thinking about life, and my parents immersed me from the very get go. That's right. That's right. And so you plan to do the same for your kids? Yes. I think so.
I probably won't be having them clean weekends and nights or anything like that, but definitely, yeah, I definitely want them to learn the fundamentals of business Yeah. Economics and other. Yeah. It's just so interesting how, basically, what you're saying is that the journey for you started with your parents being back against the ropes. Obviously, we are we're all familiar with the story of the immigrant who came here with nothing and then boom. Created something.
But, obviously, that's not how the story goes. You got to see the inside scoop of, I'm sure, countless nights of frustration and no money and all the things and me being raised from a single mom, like, similar stories. I'm sure that you and I both have. What do you think for them?
Just two seconds from the immigrants of what do you think that you can pull out, or what did you pull out, or maybe what the listener can hear today that you were able to get from your parents having that history of literally coming to a country and having nothing. Like, what's the what's the nugget? Yeah. It's just taking advantage of our a lot of, a lot of us would consider them as victims. They came here with nothing. They have barriers of speaking English, numerous barriers.
They have no money to really invest. But from their perspective, they went from Soviet Union, which, you know, they were blue collar workers. They were not able to have upper management positions. They were not able to go colleague because of their faith. So they came here, and they have endless opportunities. And from their perspective, they just have the world at their fingertips. Wow. And so they took advantage of that, and I think it's a mental shift going from you're a victim.
You cannot you have all these barriers too. We live in one of the most freest countries in the world Yeah. With endless opportunities. Yeah. And I think, yeah, that would be probably the biggest nugget. Yeah. Perspective and optimism, really, is what I'm hearing. And so if you're taking notes here listening, not only has Igor himself built something from nothing, but he watched his parents literally do that. And I think that he's right.
The perspective is absolutely the game changer here because when I love what you said there that Chaz your parents saw it as, man, we got here. We made it like, wow. We're in America or what we have opportunity now. We can own our own business. Like, it was the sky's the limit for them as opposed to thinking, I can't speak English. I I don't know what to do. I have no money. Like, they weren't even thinking those things. I'm sure. Probably secondary thoughts. You know what I mean? Absolutely.
Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah. Okay. So let's switch over to your business. I wanna know about some decision making stuff. One of the key things in this show is that I try to dissect a good decision and a bad decision, and I wanna know something specific because the listener here today is listening to the show because they might be in construction. They may not be, right, but they're 6 figure business owner, and they're making decisions. They might be delayed in decisions.
They may not very good at making decisions, and you and I aren't necessarily that great at making decisions. We probably just made more and made more mistakes, honestly. I'm sure you could probably agree to that. So tell me about a good decision first. Yeah. Tell me about a good decision first that was like, wow. This is how I made the decision, and I'm glad that I made it.
Sure. One of my biggest, or best of the students that I've ever made, I feel like, was hiring the right people to delegate aspects of my business too. So probably the best decision I made was to hire an accountant early on. Have somebody to track the finances to to let me know where the numbers are. A lot I feel like a lot of businesses due to a lack of knowledge surrounding their financial status, where they're at. And, but sometimes it seems like the business is growing, but is it profitable?
So I I feel like the best decision I made for my business was hiring, an account early on. That's a great decision. And so I'm hearing actually two things. For the listener, I'm hearing 2 things. Not only did he hire out something that he didn't want or couldn't do. Like, he he he was saying I didn't wanna do the the accounting, or I'm not very good at doing the accounting. So I knew that it was important.
And so then there, I made the decision to hire an So number 1, make sure that you hire out things that you're not good at Chaz need to be done. Don't skip. And I would a 100% agree with you as one of the very decision that I made as Wolfe, hire somebody to track the money because even though I'm super detailed and I like tracking money, when you're a business owner and you're moving fast, It's not your role. It's not your Wolfe. Hire it out.
Okay. So the second thing I heard you say, though, is that you gotta track money. Because if you just go off of the feeling of, man, we're doing good and I feel like we're getting more jobs or we're closing more clients or whatever, that's not good enough. You gotta actually know where you are. So speaking to Chaz, just a half second, like, why is it so important to know? And is it every month? Is it every week? Is it every day? Like, how often do you need to know these?
Yeah. I would say it all depends on the industry you're in. Absolutely. In my industry, it's consistently. I do I read through reports at least once a month. I'm tracking my projects on a weekly basis and but these could your revenue might be growing. You might be closing business. Your income might be growing, but you might be losing money. And it's happened to me before where there wasn't as diligent as I am now. And I look back and it feels good, feels like you're grown.
It feels like you're getting projects. Feels like you're you're doing really well and you look back and and you've been losing money the last few months and that feeling a 100%. Yeah. I I can think of I can think of a couple of different periods of time where I that almost exact feeling that you just described, I'm, like, crushing. I'm growing my locations we're having awesome holidays, like, just growing revenues by by millions. Like, I'm crushing it. I'm in my twenties.
I'm just, like, top of the world. And then at the end of the year, I made no fact, it was naked. It's like, wait a second. How does this work? Absolutely. Yeah. You gotta pay close attention. That's right. And I'll talk on top of that. I'll say one last thing here, and I learned this from a couple of different people that I follow as well many years ago, but you gotta you have to pay attention to money.
Because if you don't pay attention to it, not in a in an idle list, way because I'm definitely not money motivated from an angle of what money can get from me other than the legacy piece, but you gotta pay attention to it because it's a moving, flowing thing. If you don't pay attention to it, it will go wherever it wants to go unless you tell it where to go, and you can't tell it where to go unless you're paying attention. So Yeah. Absolutely.
One thing to add to that is also paying attention to cash flow. That's another thing is don't spend even if you do, even if you end up profitable and and more to both in your salary. Don't just spend all of it. Keep some back for cash flow and some emergencies. Yep. And to finance maybe some mistakes, some contingencies in the future. That's right. So you're what you're saying is that you've made bad choices, and you're actually anticipating making bad choices again in the future? Absolutely.
A little bit. You never know how things could go. You you don't like to admit that. I know because I don't either, but the reality of it is that it's gonna happen. And so to be smart about it is what you're saying is, look, when the going is good, save a little bits. That's that's a that's wisdom right there. So thank you for sharing that. Okay. Let's switch over to a bad decision. Me about something that just, oh, bad. Like, the listener needs to know this so they do not make the same mistake.
Give it to us, Igor. What is it? Made some bad hires and then partnered up, with some wrong people. And as far as the bad hires goes, some of that was my fault. Sometimes you know, you make decisions based on emotion and not logic. Yeah. And sometimes you don't act in the best interest of your company. You acting the best interest of that person or yourself.
So, yeah, I've made some really bad decisions regarding some partnerships and specific people at heart, and and then hiring people that I, myself, wasn't able to develop or invest enough time into that person to help them out. And Yeah. Some of that was my fault as well.
So Yeah. I love the ownership there of of especially with the hiring is that if you can't spend time with your folks or have a system where someone on your team spends time with your new hires, then it's probably not gonna work, and it's not their fault. It is. To a degree, a winner always finds a way, but but we have to take ownership in that as the owner and top down leadership. In the bad decisions, it sounds like they're they're people oriented Right?
So whether it's the hiring or the partnership. And so what have you learned about people that allows you now to either make better decisions when it comes to partnerships or hiring? What what have you learned? I'd say just making decisions based on logic and not emotions. I always once, you know, when it comes to individual, you're getting a retire. Somebody always ask myself, is this in the best interest of the company?
And and if you're wanting to hire a relative to help them out, but you, in your gut, know that they're not the right person for the job don't do it or a friend. A lot of times, it'll ruin a friendship or ruin a relationship, and it's all because you try to be a good person, and then it ends up backfiring. And it hurts your business, hurts you, hurts them.
So I'd say the biggest thing I learned is to always act in the best interest of the company, even when it comes to yourself too, you can screw over your business for your own benefit and then your business is dead. 100%. Yeah. The business is a living, breathing thing. And and so you have to it has to sustain. And that's what you're saying.
And so whether it's the decisions with people or I love the point Chaz just made about how you can sabotage your own business by squeezing it too much, whether it be with money or not putting in enough effort when it comes to new deals or whatever. If you take your foot the gas or you take too much money or whatever, those decisions squeeze out the business. And then, therefore, there is no more, so you gotta take care of number 1. I love that. Love the logic versus emotion too.
I think that we all have those moments where we're like, oh, man, I wanna be a good person, because I think most entrepreneurs start business, obviously, to make money and to have a good life. But eventually, we do wanna help people if not at the beginning. And so that's a real thing.
And I think probably most listeners listening right now are are probably chuckling like I am because they've made that same bad decision of hiring, whether, like you said, whether it's a relative, a friend, even if it's not, and this person probably isn't a good fit, but you're hanging on because you are a good person and you don't wanna do what's right for the business. Do the logical thing. And that's really good advice.
So I hope that listeners taking good notes here because paying attention to the business, although it seems cold sometimes, if you don't do it, there is no more business. Absolutely.
How do you have just a as a secondary thought here, how do you have the ability to still care for people and to have an awareness around, like, emotional support for your team, even for yourself or your family, but not affect the business, like you're saying, but to be able to make decisions logically, and black and white 123, but still have the capacity to be a leader of people. Sure. I separate it.
I I see my business, not as an extension of myself, but more as a separate entity And I've been given the privilege to manage this entity for its own best interest, and that's what you gotta do to it alive. Once you start seeing it as an extension of yourself and you're the king, you're the ruler, things can go downhill real quick. I always and I don't always do it perfectly, but I always try to act in the best interest of the business first.
Yep. And then and with that, once once you start doing that, you're you match the efficiency, you you maximize what you can do. And then once you start making some income and, and more income than what you've expected, you can start sending money to charities and helping out relatives and providing for others through other means instead of directly from the business, but achieve that success first. Yeah. 100%.
Because otherwise, you kill the very thing that's potentially gonna feed you and or the person you're trying to that makes me think of this is a little off topic from a 6 figure perspective, but as a fellow higher, revenue individual, I know you and I have talked off air, just other investments. And eventually, what happens is that you make investments to have legacy.
We talked about that, but really what we're saying when you really boil it down is I wanna have money put in places that pays my family forever. Okay? And so if if you can grasp this concept that you just said, but it's actually applied to investments as well. And so instead of taking the thing, in this case, the business, what you're saying, and helping somebody, you grow the business so that the business can produce something that then helps them. Same thing with investments.
Rather than buying the the house or the car or the the new clothes or the whatever it is that I want or my kid's school or whatever, I'm gonna buy an asset that then pays for it. I don't wanna buy it directly. I wanna buy the asset first, and then the asset pays for those things. It's the same concept. Right? Yep. Yep. Exactly. No. You gotta keep the golden goose. Right? Don't kill the golden goose. Yeah. Keep it alive. That's right. Okay. Very good.
So I appreciate the honesty around the good and bad decisions. I think that those are super applicable. And if the listeners pay attention, they've already got a ton of value. So One one quick thing here before we, transition away from decisions, do you have a process that you follow when you're making decisions or any sort of, like, discipline that you have when you're thinking about how to make good Not really. As they come in, I I just try to think logically about them for a little while.
I don't rush into it. Sometimes that creates a little bit bottleneck, but I try I try to think thoroughly, through my decisions. Now other aspects of my business, I absolutely try to, systematize and put in process and procedures. Sure. I believe in that highly, and I just try to eliminate as much of my own time as possible and and delegate it out and put it in a processing system. Yep. I understand that completely. And systems obviously are huge for business.
When it comes to decision making, though, what I'm hearing you say is logic number 1. And logic really comes down to re the removal of emotion. Doesn't mean that emotions are bad. It just means that we wanna be we don't wanna be swayed by it. We wanna Like you said, does this make sense for the business? And so I think that's huge. And it's also a discipline too because we all have emotions.
No matter how logical we are, we all have emotions, and we can get in those moments where we're like, oh, but it feels this way or whatever. And so we can get suede. So the discipline I'm hearing you say is is to just stay true to logic. Stay true to does this make sense. Is there a business case for this decision? And if so, don't delay, do it. Right? If there is no business case, don't delay. Cut it out. Don't do it. That's what I'm hearing. Am I am I picking up the good stuff here?
Yeah. Exactly. Alright. Good. Let's transition to the speed round here. I love this part where we're gonna go we're gonna go through these quick questions here, and I want you to give me basically one word answers, but I'm notorious Chaz I told you off air to maybe dig in a little bit here. But this first question, love hearing the answer to. So everybody seems to have a little different answer, and it's so intriguing to me.
So the first question is if there was only one metric that you could track forever and ever. Like, you couldn't track anything else. Just one. What would it be? I'd say profitability. Margin. May are you making money? Yep. Exactly. Because you believe that you could be making sales. You could be doing well in March you could be being a good leader and still making no money, and that's no Bueno. Yeah. Exactly. Your business is derived by the the profit it brings, not by your gross income. Right.
A 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Because because at the end of the day, the revenue is just the money that you managed. It wasn't necessarily what the business produced. Exactly. Alright. That's awesome. Okay. So thinking back to when you were a 6 figure business owner, what book did you read, or what book have you read Chaz thinking back to that time would be super helpful for the listener right now. What would you like? I think rich dad poor dad. Oh, that's a lot.
That's that's the main book for a lot of real estate investors. And, yeah, that kinda shifted my state of mind. 100%. Love that book. Probably need to reread. It's been many years, but but such a great book. Okay. Next question on the speed round is, do you intentionally net or mastermind with other business owners and why? Yeah. Absolutely. So I'm a part of a CEO networking group. I constantly reach out to successful business owners via social media platforms.
Have a group of friends who are in business, and we meet every couple weeks. Nice. It's a lonely world out there for us. And so it if you'll get to have other guys, and gals that are in business around you. Yeah. A 100%. I think you hit on a couple of things there that's in lonely world, especially inside of your business, because you're probably the only one inside of the business that sees it like you do. A cares about it like you do that works on like you do. So it's it can be lonely.
And so getting not only just, community, but but I heard you but I heard you hear or I heard you say strategically, you've met with people inside your industry and out, and and that's probably changed the way that you've thought about business in general, not just generating your industry. Yeah. Absolutely. And just getting advice.
And some of the guys that I've talked to have gone through the very things that I'm going through, and and you can get some gain some wisdom from others that have gone through the same process. Yep. Huge. I love it. Now the secondary question to the mastermind or networking is do you intentionally spend money, or do you have a budget on personal development, whether it's the groups or other things that you're part of?
Shows or weekend trips, like, anything like that that you're spending, actually, like, this, I'm investing into myself with dollars. Yeah. Absolutely. On average, and and this is probably low on the low end, especially for someone in my industry or one as a CEO, but I spend roughly around $10 a year on networking and mastermind groups and educating myself and then I have a country club I'm part of. Yep. Yep. All that. And in fact, it was funny.
I was talking to a guy just the other day bringing up the country club. And for him, it was an opportunity to get around local business owners and banks, which were who he needed to talk to to grow his business. And so it it it wasn't because he loved golf because he doesn't, but it gave him the opportunity to be around exactly who he needed to be around.
And for some people, that's a boojie thing, but it was like, no. This is a 500 or a $1000 a month or $2000 a month that, like, literally brings me business. And so when you think about it in those terms, it's, like, makes perfect sense. So I love that. Love that. Okay. Last question, this is my favorite question of the whole show, Igor, if you lost it all, today. Literally. No. You couldn't lift another hammer, not that you lived a hammer currently now, but, yeah, your teams, you have no team.
There is no construction to do. Everything's gone. What would you do? So I'd probably just start over in another industry. Once you learn business and once you learn how to manage and operate a business, you can pretty much go anywhere and find success when you actually learn the industry. Yep. So, yeah, I I just start over. That's awesome.
I love the answer of of starting over, but then you gave it just a little bit more meat there and really the person listening, the nugget there that I want you to hear is he didn't just say, I just start over because I already know how to do it. Yes. That's part of it, but what he said is that when you are purposeful about learning how to run a business, not to be in a business, not to be a good tradesman, not to be a good marketer, not to be a good sales guy, not to be a good specific thing.
That's okay. You have to be those things too. But when you know how to run and operate a business, which includes hiring, which includes marketing and sales, the whole picture together, working on the business, not in the business, that you can do it again and again in different industries you had to or if you want to. And and so thank you for that. That's incredible value. Igor, you have brought so much to us here today.
How can someone connect with you if they wanted to grab some coffee with you or figure out how to do another project with you or this fund that you've got coming down the pipeline, they wanna invest with you. How do they connect with you? Sure. You can reach me at Igorigor@tkckc.com. Add me on social media. I'm on Facebook Instagram LinkedIn. Yeah. That's perfect. You guys can can have a moment here to just realize that you've been in the presence of greatness. I know Igor enough now.
We don't know each other super well, but not well enough to know that he probably would shake that off a little bit. But, dude, thank you for sharing your story. You have a business that's incredible, and not only just one, but multiple. And, and what you've done here today out of your free will and time is is to give back to the entrepreneurship entrepreneurship community. And, and we thank you for your time, man. So thank you for coming to the stage. We appreciate you.
Absolutely. Thank you, Chaz. Appreciate it. Yeah, man. Thanks for listening to Gathering the Kings. We hope you got a ton of value today and learned a thing or 2 about taking your business to 7 figures and beyond. If you does or more and want a community around you to help you get there. I want you to go to gathering the king's dot com. That's gathering the king's dot com and I want you to apply for our next becoming a king 90 day intensive. We are extremely exclusive by nature as a group.
What that means that we're really wanting only the entrepreneurs who take their business and targets super serious to apply. So if that's you, you think you got what it takes. Level up your business, I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com and apply. And we will see you on the other side.