On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. I was taking new steps and leaps forward as my business was growing. And I would say that that internal inertia is something you can't you can't teach a person. You can't put it inside of them. And if it's there, you must listen to it. And make that the loudest force in your mind.
You are listening to Gathering the Kings with 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 real of the real on what it takes to build a successful business today.
We dissect good and bad decisions they've made along the way Chaz give a true and accurate picture of the journey of 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. What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe. I'm your host, gathering the king's podcast. Today, I have a treat. A queen coming to the King stage.
Melanie Dixon. Welcome. How are you? I'm doing really well. Thanks. How are you? You know, I'm incredible. And we were just talking about some different life experiences of off air that's bring us bring us joy. And so I think we're gonna have a great conversation here and and maybe get a couple of smiles through the through the process. Moana, what what type of business do you have? Well, I am a furniture designer maker and manufacturer.
My focus on textile and leather particularly is my is my skilled craft. So I'm not Wolfe maker, but I do work with finished craftsman and, you know, guys who do iron and welding, and then I create all the really delicious soft parts that your body comes in contact with or full size pieces that are just made of textile or leather. Yeah. I love how you described it as delicious.
That makes me think of my wife describing my my my children, you know, and through the different stages of life and how they're delicious, but you're a 100% right. It's like that that that feeling that you get where you just it just you wanna squeeze it maybe. Yeah. It's, you know, when you're on a long journey or you just had a long day and the only place that you need and want to go is home and you wanna a face plant into that one thing, I make those things.
The face plantable specific items that you just you need that pillow. You gotta hop on that couch. You need that one thing, and that's your comfort zone. That's kind of your Foundation. I think I think that the listener can pick up already so much. And I I'm gonna try to do my best to delineate, language here throughout the show, but but what's your what's your dial into is just something so specific. And but but as you said that, every person that heard it goes Yep.
I know exactly what she's talking about. I got that one that one place that I like to sit repeatedly, and I like to come up with that one little And so you hit on several things. You hit on the emotion. You hit you were very, very specific. And so did you did you have that right away when you started this journey? Did that come over the course of time? Like, how did you have such clarity to that? Ironically, I had my own COVID long before COVID happen.
And I think life kind of happens that way for most of us. I had been I was a VP of sales in the wine spirits industry. I'd been, you know, building my career in that arena for about 18 years at the time. And we, you know, I've worked on startup brands and built them into acquisition. And the brand that I was working on, we had a tragedy and overnight, the founder of our company, who also was bringing in all of our finance saying died in a car accident.
So as one of the top paid people, you know, the organization in order to keep my team. I, along with most other members, went down to half pay, but mine was pretty substantial. And being in my home and does feelings of frustration and just, you needed something to change. It was one of those pivot moments that I thought was completely really related to my professional career as it was at that time. And I was just trying to figure out how to change my mood.
And the thing that I did was I probably at a COVID hour of the day with bottle of wine at hand, over a closet and found all of these textiles that I had collected from all of these incredible trips that I take in abroad into developing countries where I I gather these beautiful hand woven things that these tribes, women have made. And I was was gonna make something for myself. Well, today was the day. So I ended up making a set of pillows. I just that for me was a game changer in my space.
And my neighbor came up and said, these are so incredible. Have you considered selling these on Etsy? And I said, what in the world is Etsy? And a small introduction later and I I listed the pillows that I had made for myself, and I think it was, like, maybe $1500 worth because they were really expensive vintage textiles that I just had, you know, cherished. And I thought, okay. Chaz was cool in a couple of days. I could do that. I can start with squares. And so I started making pillows.
And the thing about pillows is everybody knows. I'm sure your wife has so many of them. You just don't get it. But Yes. The two things is that they they do really shift to space. It's the quickest and easiest way to to kind of change your home environment. You can move them between a bedroom and a living room and the kids' rooms and whatever. But those are the things that support your body. Those are the things that you rely on to lean on and lean into and to support you and give you Yeah.
And as I kind of I really was trying to unpack and consider the value of what that physical item is and does. And kind of how long throughout history. It's been an available piece of just a home environment in one way, shape, or form, or the other. And the importance and the value of that just really started to rise for me.
And so I founded my company basically that week based on kind of the premise and foundation that this Chaz I had that this one thing really shifted my environment, shifted my mood, and eventually shifted my life. Was a a good starting point for me. And I spent the following years just learning how to sew the best kind of square to get the best kind of fills, you know, handmade here in Los Angeles and I just really, yeah, I really focused on it as kind of a primary foundation point for.
Everything that I did. I feel like you could write a whole philosophy book on pillows. You know, that's kinda funny. Maybe you could. But, yeah, it's the bottom line is, you know, and you have kids too. Whatever happens in the morning and that that home environment and at the end of the day, sets up the stage for everything else that you do out side of that environment. And I I just I that was kind of really what I was fine tuning in into essentially was setting a platform and now post COVID.
I think, you know, that was something that became so present to people. Oh, yeah. And which was great because my business did very well. Yeah. Like, I think you've found exactly what you're made for, like, literally the switch and and what it did for your life and obviously, your business has grown and as you've changed other people's lives.
But just the foundational perspective of business, how you leaned into something so functional, where a lot of people are like, oh, it's just, you know, I don't know how to do it or or the I don't I don't I wouldn't wanna sell these, or there's millions of pillows. I I what how could mine be any different? Like, so many reasons why you shouldn't have. And but yet you did anyway.
And so I think that part of the story is just as juicy, you know, from from an entrepreneurial perspective, of looking and going, wow. Like, pillows. I mean, who would've who would've known? Who would've thunk? And so, the, I guess, my question for you, which is the same as every guest, and I'm gonna try to weave this into our current conversation here, but why why not why pillows because you've already given us that, but why are you still pushing now? Like, you've gone through COVID.
Your business has exploded. Is it still about what you just said, the clarity that you have around bringing this this restoration to this this piece of people's lives, or is it more than that now, or is it different? How Chaz it changed? I'm gonna try to answer this without giving too much away. Obviously, I've matured and and grown tremendously. It's been 7 years since I started my company, but The and I have a a really incredible, I think, possibly.
I have a very cool product that I am project that I've been working on developing for the last couple of years. Chaz ends and begins in a sustainable kind of closed loop system, but I can't give you too many details because Okay. You're gonna leave us cliff hanging?
Okay. My first round of financing on this one, developing something that could possibly be very game changing and deliver that same sentiment to people, especially in developing countries or in wartime like the things that we're seeing in a very rapid, sustainable, and reusable manner, if you will.
So I I've really I've really leaned even more into the ethos of of where the identity that I began, the fingerprint of my company, but most importantly, I was reading a book at the time when I started my company that was a complete disruptor. It was something that landed parallel to my fault line. In my life professionally and personally.
And it was this book by a gentleman by the name of Erwin McManus called the Artisan Soul, and he has one sentence in there that is just tattooed on my art forever. He says one who's created, is one who's created creates basically that that's the imprint of of intelligent design. And creates and continues to evolve, but creation is the identity of the core human ethos, if you will, and and his perspective and debatable in a whole bunch of different ways in different contexts.
But if you just kind of strip that down to the one foundational point of what we all do have in common, Even if you're an accountant, you create magic with numbers. If you're, you know, if you're a chef, you can create magic with food and with a steak, you know, or pastry or whatever it is. In every single capacity, what the human being and brain has created out of absolutely nothing, is probably the most powerful enterprise that any of us can actually step into.
And I think there have been so many times. I don't think. I know. There have been so many times that I've just wanting to quit. I've been so frustrated. It's just pillows. It's just someone's house. It's just, you know, whatever. And the thing that does continue to drive me is what else would I do.
I'm sure there are a lot of other things that I could do for money, but I'm intended to do something more with my hands with my life and with my brain than just, you know, be a recipient of, you know, of a system that doesn't necessarily edify what I'm supposed to do. Yeah. I was kinda I mean, I no. No. It it you've I mean, couldn't have said it any better. Just a a beautiful set of words there of what entrepreneurialism is.
I would say every entrepreneur at some stage in their career, it starts off as you know, maybe I'm pissed at the man, and I wanna go do my own thing, or maybe it's out of out of a curious state where it's like, okay. Let me go see what what might be able to happen here with these pillows. But it it it begins. And then there's this journey of, like, where we gotta really iron it out.
We gotta really want it, but then to your point, we determine or we can find, if you're looking for it, the the greater purpose. And so I just appreciate you sharing that. Even more so, the the the we're created to create a 100% we are. Every entrepreneur is creating something. Our we were just off off the air talking about my Wolfe, and it's like, That's what we do. We we create. We created humans, you know, like other humans. Ah, you know, like, this is what we do.
Yes. So I think you're spot on. You know? I just I I finished up. I I reread thinking grow rich every every fall, every September, generally. And so, I mean, what yeah. It's like this is exactly what it is. When we press into the limitlessness of whatever it is that we can create, it's just such a such a big thing that a lot of people kinda run from it because it's so big and vast, or do you chime in with that, you know, not topic there?
The thing that comes to mind to me is always the right brothers. And I'm sure you know the story. I never really probably knows the story pretty well and simply, but I think they were bicycle makers. They were they were doing All of these other things, essentially, professionally other than building airplanes. And there was another gentleman who Chaz well financed. These guys had no money. They built their planes. They took them up.
They always had crash materials on hand, which would be terrifying for a Wolfe, most likely, but they failed continuously. And they were there was maybe another person and probably somebody somewhere else on the planet was probably thinking the same thing at the same time. So That's always kind of something that I remind myself when I'm watching other people doing things that are similar to what I'm doing and or with other similar companies.
I don't ever look at them as competition, but as a driver, because everything that exists was born out of something that did not exist. And by 1 or 2 months, perseverance, and the other thing is that It usually isn't just one man that succeeds on his own. It's usually someone with another partner, but there were two men that elected to envision something being real. And had very little resources and finances to actually make it happen.
We're willing to kill themselves to do it, which is what entrepreneurship for me at points Chaz felt like, but they could not do it. And they continued until they succeeded. Yeah. And that didn't necessarily mean monetary success, but it meant the, that the core mission of their souls journey at that time was to be that that was their fingerprint and mark on on human history, on this human experience, and shifting it for everybody else because they just showed up for themselves.
And I think that that's what comes to mind when you when you kind of start. I have that conversation with myself and my pep talk often includes that environment of communication because my little monkey brain will say everything other than what I just shared with you.
Yeah. Yeah. And so true, but you're also right in what to just share it is that in those moments, what you have to do is remind yourself of those those other stories, the inspirational stories, or this this thing that I'm stuck in now it's no different than what I accomplished then. I can do this. And so I just appreciate that that perspective.
I've heard there are people who do get lucky but I think most people Wolfe probably say, well, but look like luck to you was Yeah. 5 years of something else, but, yeah, That's right. And in business 7 years, you know, COVID could have swung the business the other way, but in and said it was this lightning rod. Of people being in their homes and wanting their space to be upgraded. And I'm sure that was you just you were in the right place by time doing the right thing.
I think a lot of people benefit from the quote, unquote look, but years of work positioning yourself before that. I wanna transition a little bit to your your business decision making. Okay? And I'm I'm sorry if there's a little delay here. We're having this huge storm in Kansas City right now, so I'm not sure if if this recording here at all, a good decision that you made. Something that you would do do over and over again. It really, really worked out for you.
Let me think for one split second. You know, the only thing that I would say is I just went for it. I would I would say that's probably part of my personality, but the one thing that I would encourage in any conversation that I have with any Superneur who says, well, you know, I've I have this thing that I wanna do, and I'm waiting for the right time, or I'm hoping to get this money or this thing, I just say stop. I interrupt you, like, hand in your face. Please. You have to stop.
All of this is defeating all of the energy that you have towards something that is that's being burst inside of you. Listen to that. That that thing that says go balls to the wall. You don't have everything you need. You just barely showed up by the skin of your teeth, that's the thing that I think you need to hold on to and be energized by Chaz I would say being too afraid to just go for it when I didn't I didn't have anything.
And it wasn't it was out of need, but it was also out of a my soul's hunger. So there was something else that was louder than all of the language of I don't have this and I don't have that. And there were oftentimes that that that same conversation would come back into play as I was taking new steps and leaps forward as my business was growing. And I would say that that in inertia is something you can't you can't teach a person. You can't put it inside of them.
And if it's there, you must listen to it and make that the loudest voice in your in your mind. I mean, again, your your word choices are so eloquent, but it's so scary. Wanna, like, I don't I don't know. And and the road the road is uncertain. It's so scary. Yeah. And that's that's, I guess, that is exactly what you're here for.
And, again, kind of going back to you, and I think one of the things that Erwin McVanna says in this book, artist, and soul, was he talks about just an old story about pulling a man going into battle and having a quill full full of arrows. And he says something to the effect of if your life, if your agenda is to to get through this thing, Do you wanna die with all of the arrows or any arrows left in your quill, or do you wanna pull everyone out and actually at least Let it go.
At least pull back as hard as you can and aim for a target. You may miss. You probably will. And I would probably surmise it in the words of Les Brown who says live full die empty. Just do all of the things. And I think that the holding back, that's that's, again, a personal journey and concept for everyone to unpack themselves, but I would say that is that's the the the bottom line is just to go for all of the things. That's what you're here for. I mean, that's life. Yeah. It is.
And I think that, you know, even for somebody listening today who has maybe a smaller business, they haven't gotten to some of the maybe markers that you have. I still think that that message is for them. They jumped originally.
They took the leave, but what I have found is that you have to continue to jump and leap in saying because that initial go for it Chaz an that inertia that you're talking about's on the inside of us Chaz can't train or teach or deposit into somebody, you have to continually, like, resurface that because all the circumstances around us, a especially when you jump and initially try to go after what that looks like for you, there's all these circumstances that start pressing it back down.
And so what would you say to the person listening right now that's like, oh, I I get it. I feel it, but, like, it's it's down in there. I haven't, like, scratched that in a minute. What would you say to that person? I would say 2 things. Number 1, you're right. Those feelings do come back. So it isn't a one time journey, and and it is not a right of passage.
But if I can take you or every all of us back to being a kid and you've told me that you have little girls and I'm imagining there was a time when your daughter maybe wanted to jump off of a chair or, you know, a three steps that were higher and she was afraid and you encouraged her to go and she, she left into your arms and you caught her safely. Hopefully. I was always the kid. This was Chaz one time. You know, I just it's one time. I'm like, yeah.
Actually, I was the kid always jumping, and my dad sometimes did not catch me. Yeah. However, the thing that happens, the little, those butterflies and that joy that she gets in her tummy, and she begins trust and those jumps become a little bit more, you know, they become greater and more adventurous and that excitement. If I could just remind you of what that feels like because we've all gone through those things in life.
And those two words that I would that I would put together and encourage you to exchange with one another. I am afraid to what you really are is excited because this is something you haven't done before. And the excitement is going to continue to come back because this journey is gonna continue to evolve.
And as it does, the jumps and the leaps that you're going to be expected to take will be greater and far more risky, and things get so much more complex but the reward and that feeling and that joy and that in that in that part where you leap down becomes greater and better as well at the same time. And fear is another way of convincing ourselves that we are incapable of doing something we haven't done. And being excited reminds us that There are always things we haven't done.
I I don't know what's gonna happen in this conversation 3 minutes from now, and I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow as much as I could plan. So going back to my first sentiment, you have to go for it and learn to trade out words that hold you back with words that encourage you. Yeah. So good. I think I think listeners already gotten all that they came for if they've been paying attention even a little bit.
They should probably go back and listen again, and definitely not for the things that I've said. You've been incredible. Okay. So what about a bad decision? What what what did you do that was just like, Where do we begin? Yeah. There's This could be my my own Esther Pearl podcast. I have no idea which is so you know, I I look at it this way now knowing what I do know about business. I did 2 things. I think very just unwisely. One of the things was I did finance my business a 100%.
I I put it on my own credit cards and things like Chaz, and I didn't know about grants. I didn't I didn't wanna take someone else's money. I was also a fear element. I didn't know whether or not someone should put their money and invest in me. Looking back tax wise, And as you start understanding your books and the nature of your business, I also didn't pay myself for the first, and I didn't file my co my corporate taxes. Until, like, 2 years in as well.
So I was a late late learner on that lesson. Yeah. The one you cannot write off is your time. That you can write off everybody else's time and everything else that you pay. And I think just the technical details of a business and the financial nature, those things, as I've learned to understand them now at this point, were just technical mistakes that that were maybe kind of my it was technically my software runner to business, but things that I would really encourage a person to to not do.
Is try to find grants. There's so much money available and out there, especially for female entrepreneurs, and especially right now COVID for startups and enterprises that are doing, you know, from creative to technical endeavors, there's money on the table for every kind of business and in individual pockets. It's not like you would be fighting with me for, let's say, a podcast or an app in my space.
We might be fighting for a marketing, you know, grant but they're really geared towards specific types of businesses. And there's just so many resources. The internet is just a gold mine. And you just have to have the fortitude to go and dig. So I would say look for money because it's there if that's one of your fear elements. And, yeah, and make sure that you value your time. And especially because if you don't, nobody else will. Yeah. I the IRS. Exactly.
The phrase that you just said there, you can't write off your time. You can write off what you pay though through other people, which is an incredible mindset shift. I think that the listener right now, generally speaking, pre 7 figures, doing a lot themselves, and I hope that that hit home for them because, yeah, I Chaz even tell in your face right now that you were remembering some of those moments or years. Like, it was for me. All the things I was doing myself. Years.
And then all the things you say, why would I pay someone to do that at this price? But I could do it myself, and you really just have to put the value proposition on the table. What is my time worth? And you really actually have to calculate what could I and the way that it works for me is what could I do in 1 hour? If nobody bothered me, if nobody called me, if I had 1 hour to generate income or to find money, I could apply for 3 grants online. I could reach out to 5 clients.
I could have 3 phone calls technically that took 15 minutes or make 15 phone calls a follow-up in order to generate money and bring resources back in. And depending on whatever it is that you do, that could be between, let's say, in 1 hour. I could possibly, like, very easily generate say a grant. Or even if that's $500 or $250, that now becomes the marker of what I charge per hour in my mind, in my mind bank. Yeah. For for yourself.
And so, therefore, anything less than that you you can't hire you for that task. Yes. And, unfortunately, that, you know, has I've also had to earn my my wages my time has gone on, but even if it's just a $100, whatever that is, because nobody just has money to burn and throw away. And especially when you're starting a business, that's the last thing that you have to burn.
And but your time, if you just think about how to you know, how to kind of say, okay, instead of running this errand, could I possibly send an Uber to pick it up or all the other things that you can do, the task grab, it's not the little small fee things. That add 10% or 15%. Those are the things that I always go for every time. Yeah. I mean, it's it's free at my time. Exactly.
The solution that you're really giving to the to listener no matter how big or small or how many resources they have is if you, particularly, the entrepreneur, can do something in lieu of this thing. Right? And so that's I think that's where a lot of breakdown and mindset comes for entrepreneurs is they think, well, if I hire this, I I I have time for that. I'll do it myself, and he go and put in a pause.
If you weren't doing this, could you go make the sales call or follow-up with a client or strategic partner or a pot or whatever the action is in that moment that's benefiting you at a bigger scale potentially. Chaz is what you go do. You don't you don't go sit on the couch. You don't go take a vacation. You don't just spend the money to have somebody else do it for you. You leverage the higher, you know, activity that only maybe you can do or maybe that you're better suited for.
Would you would you add anything, or would you agree with that? Yeah. And I would say sometimes in those moments, you're so overwhelmed and stressed that even if you've had an hour, you're just not productive with it. But if you can true. If that's the case, because I've been there a lot especially during COVID when getting employees and all the supplies and everything was breaking down.
There were oftentimes when I just had to unplug what was going on in my life and, you know, I I the cool thing about the internet is, like, I everybody, You get to spend time with the grades. So I would unplug and I would go on to YouTube, and I would listen to a great podcast or a TED Talk, and I would reset my mind frame. And I and sometimes, you know, as of late, things are always challenging. I've had to do that maybe two or three times a day.
And if I can't actually get in the place of working out or meditating. That's that's the third thing on my list is to feed my brain something that my conscious Wolfe pick up and reframe how I go about everything that happens after that 1 hour. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, in there too, maybe adding a a a nap with some great pillow. You know? And then and then there's that. You should definitely face plants superman style into your beds. Yep. That's right.
Okay. What a process do you have now around decision making? Obviously, you've been uber successful in all of this. We've talked about some of your mistakes and some of the good choices. What does the decision look like for you in today's world? And funny enough. I I use the Tim Paris's fear setting process a lot. So I have to write things down.
And I'm a really I'm very much perfectionist and and just a highly competent person in in a lot of areas and I expect that all of those areas are excellent. So you can probably say that I come with a sidecar of overachiever and anxiety. I will without create massive story lines around all of the worst case scenarios and spiral completely out of control in a matter of 15 to 20 minutes if left alone with my problems.
And what I learned from Tim Ferris, if you haven't seen his TED Talk, it's a short 15 minutes, but he basically just plays what if and you write it down on paper. What's the worst what's the problem that I have? Give me 2 or 3 possible worst case scenarios. And what if 1 or all of those things happen, is there any possible recovery from Chaz? And also so what?
And I think what you do kind of boil down to at the end of this exercise is that more often than not, most of these things are so what, or they're pushing me to do something uncomfortable. Like during COVID, I had vendors that I simply could not pay. And I had to the anxiety of calling them or not paying them was ten times harder than just picking the phone and saying Mario, I know that you have a family on business and everybody's going through stuff.
I can't pay you, but I'm telling you that I Wolfe. And I don't know when that is. And they continued to let me borrow, if you will, some goods and supplies that I needed, which I didn't expect. They said it's just enough that you called. You know, do you need anything today? And sure, you know, enough, I did, and I was able to get some of the things that I needed, but only because I actually had to write it down on paper because I I already felt that I burnt the bridge in the relationship.
That was what Yeah. I was buying into. My story. But when I actually mapped the story out, the worst cases you know, it ends up in collection somewhere. And at the end of the day, so but if I wanted to preserve the relationship, was there anything I due to mitigate and or to do better and almost every single time there was. And also, almost every single time, the worst case scenario kind of ended in. So what? I'll survive. Yeah. Yeah. It's not gonna kill me.
I cannot tell you how how quality of an answer that is. We have some incredible guests on the show here. We're over 200 at this point, but the reality of that answer and I'm not just tooting your horn here. I I listen to a lot of very successful people. And and I've asked that same question to a lot of people and a lot of great answers. One of the best answers I've heard. Thank you. Okay. Let's go to speed round. And, in the speed round, first, I wanna know about your tracking.
There's lots of things to track inside your business, but if you can only pick 1, Chaz you track forever and ever, what would that one thing be? Cost of goods. Oh, okay. And why? What does that what does that do for you with the rest of the story if you know that one piece of information? It gives me absolute flexibility in times of difficulty to be able to lower my prices and generate greater income by and or creating products for the masses versus elite. It allows me to flex.
And you know how to, very, like, very quickly. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. And that's really the the point of that question is to know whatever that trackable metric is for you to be able to. When you know it, like, how do I adjust quickly? How do I make the move? How do I win today? Tomorrow, that might look different. Yes. Completely. And it always does, especially if there's anything the last few years. Has taught up.
You you need to know where you can, you know, carve some fat and enjoy the fat when you can get it. Yeah. That's right. What book would you recommend? For a 6 figure business owner specifically if you can. Very simply for every human being who I think should be a 6 figure business owner the 4 agreements. That's my book that I read every year over and over. Yeah. Okay. And so why? What what's your what's your main takeaway from that book?
Even just starting the beginning, just the power of your words. I think we've talked a lot about that, how powerful language is, and how much it'll influence and change everything that you do. Operating with integrity just means that people are crappy in business more often than not doesn't mean you should be. And just because the the guy that looks like he cheating you down the street. Looks like he's more successful than you are. You die with yourself at the end of the day.
And so I think just honoring some of those fundamental, you know, core values and always doing your best without question. Also doesn't mean my my best is actually my best. Sometimes my best is just my best today. And you gotta you really just have to learn to honor those things and just powerful. Yeah. No. It's super powerful. And and also it gives you space. To be where that is today and then also permission to to do a better tomorrow. There's a double edged sword there. That's incredible.
Okay. What what's what do you think about intentionally networking? Or Master Mining with other entrepreneurs? Absolutely. I just started a new group with 4 of my closest and here in Los Angeles. It's especially now, a lot of people, I've worked from my home for pretty much my entire career, but now in a creative environment and especially post COVID. I think a lot more people do understand this.
You you end up just talking to yourself kind of most of the time, even if there are people that are employees, sometimes they're just they're younger, they're not necessarily in your same mindset. I think it's imperative. Even if you can't or don't have a mastermind group, like I said earlier, you can hang out with the masters all day.
It's a one way conversation, but on the YouTube, and you can have great friends now, like, over on the Ferris is and and all these other people that you can actually listen to, but I think it's bar known one of the most important things. I think your network really is your net worth. The exchange of ideas is one of the most important things that we can do as humans.
Yeah. Yeah. That that exchange of ideas, at least from my experience, Personally, I value it, obviously, just because I've grown to know the value of it, but the person listening here, like, right to you right now, and hearing of the value of the exchange of ideas. Oh, okay. Well, like, it sounds cool, but, like, what does that really do for me? Because you and I, over the course of time, you're around one person. You watch one video and it goes, ding. And it changes. It shifts.
Something so large in your business And it wasn't even necessarily the idea sometimes, but it was that thing that you heard or that idea that he or she was doing. And then it just correlated some things for you and your business, and it made a shift for you. Maybe speak to that right now for that person who's like, I I've never experienced that. I don't know what you're talking about. Sounds nice. What I would say is one of the gals that's in my my mastermind group, and I get it.
It's a very small circle. She always says, as I'm explaining a problem or a situation, even if I do my Tim Ferris thing, I'll say, well, here's my what I'm working I'm up against. And she'll always say, is there a third door? And the reality is is that when another person is outside of the problem, and can address or even encourage you to think of something differently. It can change absolutely everything. And the reality is is that most of our problems are not just our problems.
We sort of all recreate a lot of the same things in different ways based on, you know, whatever the foundational kind of like core issue is. Yeah. But the thing is is that we are so much more alike, and the truth is is somebody has gone through that same issue and has resolved it and or has resources.
And or might say, you know, I actually have I just went through that and I have the perfect you know, set up for it, and I have the the person that can help you through that or whatever the issue is. Yeah. There's just it's I think that really finding community in one way, shape, or form, even if to your point, it's just listening to something again.
Because you don't have community in the moment, I say I would think that that's the most valuable thing that any person can do in any business enterprise would not fail. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta press in even the where the mastermind idea comes from. You you've got YouTube, or we've got YouTube now, but in thinking grow rich, he had to do it in his mind. You know? Right. And so we we can at least create some sort of relationship with the opers and the Tim Perris', like you said via YouTube.
And so there's this incredible opportunity that that today's entrepreneurs have. Even by listening to a podcast like this. And so they can create these moments of and to be able to go implement. If you only had 1 hour to work on your business, each week, 1 hour each week, and you run it successfully like you do now, what would you do in that 1 hour? Are to successfully run your business? I would.
You know, I didn't actually think about this one and all the questions that you've asked The first thing that came to mind is actually and I think I said it earlier, already, what I would do in that 1 hour. I I would either depending on my mood. If I was, like, really, like, pumped up, I would do that exact thing where I would sit down and I would say, how can I generate x amount of dollars in 1 hour? Go. And I kind of I would sort of, like, mind bet myself. I'd be like, okay.
If I do this, then I could do a b. And if it's just I'm having a really rough day and I'm not motivated to do that, I would go in sit direction, a 100% towards the self care and feeding my my brain body so that I can show up more effectively on the back end of that hour. Yeah. It's incredible. K. Last question, Wanna. If you could whisper in the younger Moana's ear, What would you say? I would say you've survived a 100% so far. You're gonna survive 100% of everything else.
It's all gonna be okay. Yeah. No matter what. No stress. No anxiousness. No worry. Yeah. You know, yeah. And, If I could think about that a little bit more, I would probably say that you have you're you're greater than you you're greater than you allow yourself to believe, just go for great.
Yeah. And I I would say that just all of the the stresses of life and all the challenges and all of the things that do confront a a business owner or a person in general, it's so easy for us to be our own worst enemy. And they think, how I'm not gonna survive this and this or I'm not gonna be able to start a business if I don't have all of these things.
And if you just take the greatness proposition that you're here for a reason, and that may and will change and evolve as you continue to go, but go for that Yeah. Versus the the smaller end of the spectrum. I would always encourage myself to do You've been created. What are you creating? Sorry. Could you say that again? You said you've been created. What are you creating to to take to take some words from the great Moana Dixon. Oh, well, yeah.
Well, I believe that I am creating a more sustainable way for the human body to experience the proposition of rest. Just like I shared with you after food clothing housing, every single person inside of that house, even if it's a shack needs a place to put their body. And I think that rest and restoration is the other primary function of a home and what prepares us to go out inside out to the world.
And so it is my personal belief system that every person, everybody deserves to and have a place to do that. So I am working on creating and shifting, like I said, some part of our our global perspective on how we make those things at what prices and and what they're made out of and that kind of thing. Yeah. I I have thoroughly enjoyed our time.
How can the listener connect you, whether they they wanna buy some incredibly handmade designer, hellos, and other pieces that you're making, or maybe they wanna jump in on this sustainable international global movement that you're on, or or maybe they're just a a an entrepreneur that wants to pick your brain a little bit more. How can they find Well, my website is huntafox.co. I think dotcom gets you there anyway, but you can reach out to me through our website.
And, of course, from, you know, the Instagrams and all of the other fun things. But, you know, and I would say that we I do make a lot of accessible products as well, not just all designer and open price, but but they are all made by hand here in Los Angeles. So we've had a lot of great stuff. And definitely a lot of I I I tend to design for men a lot. In most of my projects. And so I have a lot of really cool masculine stuff too. So it's great place.
Wolfe, I have a I have a an upstairs loft that's that has some elk and deer and a pool table, and that's that's about it. Like, I need some major help. So I wanna be checking out the website. Maybe I'll be texting you on some ideas. Maybe we can get some of your products in in the man loft over here. I sure hope that you do. It's my favorite. Yeah. Perfect. Well, you've been absolutely a blessing here today. I think for many people, I think Chaz that, the lives that'll be changed.
That seems so surreal that through a podcast, somebody could be changed, but you gave some some honest very, very good stuff here today. So thank you for that. And we'll put all your connections and stuff in the show notes so that people can easily find you and connect you to you. And we just wish you nothing but success, blessing on your trip coming up. And, of course, all of your business and your team. Thank you for being here. Thank you so so much. It was a really great conversation.
I appreciated it and enjoyed it. Absolutely. 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 desire more and want a community around you to help you get there, I want you to go to Gathering the Kings dot com. That's Gathering the Kings 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, To level up your business, I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com and apply. And we will see you on the other side.