On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. If you combine your purpose, your strategy, and the desired impact into something that is holistic and makes sense and can actually be put into action, then you're onto something really, really big. 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. They've made along the way that 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. Gathering the king's podcast. I'm your host. Today, I've got Alex Brookman on the king stage. My brother. How you doing? I'm doing really well. Thanks for having me. Of course. It's an absolute honor to have you. We just we just had an absolute laughing fest before we recorded this. Talking about German heritage, my attempt at saying your German last name, how did I do? That was as good as it gets. It was very close to the original German, actually.
I think that was a very polite way of saying, you know, it could have been better, but that's okay. You know, you're here and and and we're excited to have this conversation. We've already we've already had so many laughs already. So I'm gonna bring the audience into the good time that we're already having. Alex, tell us what kind of business that you have.
I have a small business in terms of how many people There are, but it's a business that's big enough to support my family, and and that's what counts in the end. We do facilitation keynote speaking. And online courses in the context of business strategy. So you you see a lot about marketing strategy out there. So that's not what I do when I use the term strategy. I mean, business strategy. So the overarching trajectory of your business.
And Yeah. That's what I've been doing for more than 15 years first as an employee in a large media organization then later as a management consultant then as an entrepreneur. And now running their own business since we moved to Canada, like, 3 years ago. Yeah. I love that. I fall into the, you know, strategy, loving bucket myself. I love high level thinking, but also strategy is like a good mix between high level thinking and then tactical.
Like, what what's the actual plan to go do the big thing. I'm curious. Like, why does strategy other than you just have a history in it? Like, why is it deep inside of you and why is it so important to you? Why are you teaching it to people? Like, you know, what what why is this so special to you? I actually don't have a large history in it. I had no love relation to the topic until I was thirty years old, actually, because my first profession is I'm a I'm a trained radio journalist.
So Wow. That's what I did. I was a semi professional DJ. Everything around music was what I loved. And then at the age of twenty eight, I was like, okay. This was fun. What else? What what's next? Yeah. I didn't wanna belong to those DJs that stand there bald and gray and need the crane to walk. You know, I didn't want a dining club. I wanna do something that that fulfills me on a on a deep level.
So I went to business school and studied general management, and then actually through my first job after business school, I got in touch with the topic of corporate strategy and realized, hey. This is kind of fun because at university, I didn't feel that. It was theoretic. It was not very tangible, at least not for me. So but as soon as I understood the relevance and what strategy actually is and how it impacts the lives of countless people in an organization.
Yeah. I fell in love with it, and it was all strategy from there. Well, we're gonna dive into why strategy is important for business owners. I'm sure you're working with, and then specifically the audience here today, but You said you wanted to go after a bigger purpose. You know, the the the club wasn't it for you. By the way, we call that the cowboy stage. Cowboy, you eventually get into the warrior stage. You got something to fight for.
And then eventually make it into the King stage, which is which is where we are today. So I'm gonna try to take us through that journey maybe through your walk, but What's this bigger purpose? Like, you said you were searching for it. Obviously, you've done some different things in business in your vocation, but what's the bigger why or purpose for you as a as a man, as a as a builder, you know, that type of thing. I have a pretty specific understanding about the term purpose.
For me, purpose is just an intent. It is something that you aim to become or aim to achieve. Yeah. And that can be something that you actually never reach in your life. Therefore, purpose matters to me, but it's not that I help my clients define their purpose. And then link their strategy to purpose with so many others do. I try to go beyond purpose. I try to help them see how they can move their purpose into tangible outcomes. That's what I call impact.
So moving from purpose to impact for me means moving from an intention that you have to tangible impact that you create for yourself, for the community around you, for the world you live in. And that can be, like, really tangible, visible things. So if you, for example, say my my purpose in life is to leave this world better than I found it, And then I start to ask you questions, and we start to understand that in this case, it's about environmental protection, for example.
Then we we narrowed that purpose down to something really specific and then take that step from purpose to action. And that is something that is truly important for me, and that is a concept that not many really understand because we've been I don't wanna say indoctrinated, kind of, but it's kind of that. This this whole purpose thing has been around for, I would say, latest since Simon Scenic Road start with y. This has become a huge thing.
Everyone's talking about it, but few people really understand that it doesn't matter. No one cares about your purpose. People care about the impact that you create. And and and and if you take a look around, especially when it comes to topics like environmental protection, we have too much purpose and not enough action. We need more impact. Yeah. You're a 100% right. The language that you're using is is is very, a connective.
I think that everybody can understand what you're saying very easily, actually. And you're right. It's also something that kinda misses the mark purpose versus the actual action behind it. I was just having this conversation just the other day, and I wanna I'm telling you this because I wanna know your thoughts on this. Thinking grow rich is a book that I read every single year. Obviously, definiteness of purposes tied to many other things, but it's the beginning of desire.
And then desire is in you create a plan, and then the plan is in the action steps. And and they all have to flow together. And so you're right. Definiteness of purpose or defining who it is that you wanna become or this thing that you're after, and then that's it. Doesn't get us anywhere, but Exactly. How how did you come to the conclusion that these other things are tied? Like like Napoleon Hill, obviously, he says it very different. But I loved how you changed the word from purpose to impact.
Was that an moment? Were you a part of something that gave you that that realization? Where did that come from? Between 2020 and, actually, mid 2022, I finished writing two books And one of those books is around I started out to write a book about business strategy, and I was like, okay. This book is morphing into something else than I thought it Wolfe be. And I'm and I dare to open the doors that I saw in the writing process, and I went through these doors. And Interesting.
I did a lot of soul searching, a lot of digging into topics that I didn't understand Wolfe, because that's what you do when you write, you start to really dissect topics because you need transparency. The moment you start writing, you need to make the precise point and a clear story. Yeah. Writing crystallizes your thinking. And the moments I found black spots in my thinking, I tried to shed some light on them.
And in that process, I actually realized that the whole purpose talk is exactly that it's talk. And I'm personally fed up with talk. I there there are enough businesses out there that have a purpose, and we don't see enough action. So why is that? That's why this that the reason is businesses use purpose as a shiny veneer that they wrap around a less noble core. And then they don't do enough to actually earn the right to put that purpose out there in the world and say that's our purpose.
Yeah. And there are there are countless examples that are guilty of purpose washing that they they use that purpose to attract talent to to greenwash who they are or what they do, and they actually don't. And it was in that writing process for the book that I understood for myself that purpose matters, intent matters, but it matters more what you do with it. Yeah. Yeah. I we're just we're just so on the same page on this topic. It's it's actually pretty scary.
All I'm thinking about is just the time that I've spent personally, as well as with entrepreneurs, where you're right, it's like it's so easy to go to the clouds. So easy to talk about what makes us feel good. But that the execution of it, the actual the doing of it is is often what's left behind. And as a doer myself, I feel like it's like, man, if if I can look back at the separation, it's, you know, persistence doing.
It's the actual, like, holding to the little things consistently over a long period of time. And it's all wrapped up into what you're saying because you don't have impact unless you you actually are doing the thing consistently over a period of time. Such good stuff. You could say is start with your purpose. Understand what you are uniquely positioned to bring to the Wolfe. Or to your clients or whatever it is and then ask yourself, how can I use my business to actually create tangible impact?
And that needs to go beyond money. It needs to go beyond a product that you deliver or a service that you provide. And if you combine your purpose, your strategy, and your and the desired impact into something that is holistic and makes sense and can actually be put into action, then you're onto something really, really big. Yeah. Yeah. The formula just gave along with you said it a few minutes ago.
I'm a let you say it again, so I I don't butcher it, but you said writing crystallizes our thoughts. Is that what it was? Yeah. Writing crystallizes your thinking. Wow. I mean, what like, we know this to be true. Everything you just said, I'm like, yes. Yes. But it is so profound at the same moment. So let's let's switch a tactical here now that we've come out of your out of your impact, not necessarily a purpose purpose and impact together. I wanna know of a good decision that you made.
So you you moved across the country and you started this business. You had been in in different corporate arenas before. Early on, that 1st year, maybe 1st year and a half, what was a good decision that you made inside the business that the listeners can take a quick note here and and go duplicate. I think the best decision of my life was really starting to write a book. Wolfe. To and and that that it was not to be become rich and famous.
I wrote the book as a farewell present to my clients in Europe. When we relocated from Germany to Canada, I felt strangely guilty leaving my clients behind, even if I was at the same time moving closer to the clients in North America, I think you get the point. It's just this emotional connection that you have after so many years. And, actually, a friend of mine, when I talked to him about this feeling, he joked and said, hand them a present and move on, get over it.
So you there's nothing you can do about it. And we had a a hearty laugh and, you know, moved on to another topic. So But in the back of my head, this concept of handing over a a meaningful present started to develop over weeks weeks into the idea of Write down what you've been doing with them so that they can replicate it without you being present. Yeah. And that was the starting point for writing the strategy legacy. In the end, the book developed into something completely.
I wouldn't say different, but way more than just this tiny little part about strategy design and implementation. And allowing myself to sit down and claim the time to write a book. And by the way, writing a book takes a lot of time. It's at least writing a book that is the Chaz is thorough enough and worthy of anyone's reading time, it allowed me to understand the holes in my own thinking.
It under it helped me to understand where I needed to learn and study myself in order to credibly claim that I have understood a topic. So allowing myself to go back to the drawing board and to learn and to open doors and explore what's behind these doors in these rooms. Chaz was probably the best decision because I'm I'm heavily benefiting from that right now. Yeah. Yeah. I heard several things even underneath this.
Of course, the practical is writing the book, and I think that there's plenty of listeners myself included right now who's like, I've I've got 2 or 3 of them in there, man. Like, and I know I know I should be I know it. I should be writing them. I should have already written them. And so that's just hugely encouraging, but underneath that even, what I heard was, I was willing to be I was willing to slow down. I was willing to to challenge myself.
I was willing to be open minded to the fact that maybe I wasn't I I needed to learn more or I needed to level up. And and that's really the language that I like to use. I'm always looking for another way to level up. To me, that's what I just heard you say is that you slow down enough to realize that it was one of those moments in life, and there's different indicators that I feel like we get where it's like, it's time to level up again. That's what I heard you say.
You wanna add anything to that? It's funny that you that you use the same terminology. This actually it's actually the same terminology that I use. So my next book that is coming out in April 2023 is called secrets of next level entrepreneurs. So that terminology is also part of my offering for my clients and it's exactly that what you just mentioned. The realization that you don't know enough is it it comes to me sort of it's a red thread throughout my life.
I mean, who goes back to business school at 28? It it's when you realize that you probably should learn You should study more. You should understand your own path or reinvent your own path And you do that by going back to the drawing board. So, like, more than 10 years ago, I pledged to myself that every year, there needs to be one major personal development milestone. And I've been true to that until I started writing the book because that then became my personal development milestone.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And I'm just trying to correlate this. We got listeners from across the country, maybe Wolfe, and in different industries. And so they're hearing you say there's these, you know, times where I have to go learn. And and so it's personal. It could also be in the trade because for you, learning business or strategy at another level, is is part of your trade. It'd be similar to me dialing into windows or marketing or whatever my whatever my skill set is in my business.
And so is it is it is it just the trades knowledge, or is it a mixture of that impersonal? Is it eventually does it turn into your like, helping your team learn those things, like, give us an insight there. The biggest part of my personal development journey was not around strategy. It was around learning skills that help me help my clients. So that is, for example, going through CTI coach training.
So There's millions of people out there that call themselves coaches, but only a handful who really are coaches because they've gone through us proper training. Right. They're there are tools and techniques out there that help you help teams that help you support executive teams so called psychometric tools, like the leadership circle profile.
So getting certified in these tools is not only about how new clients, but you actually also, every time, take a deep look into your own soul because you can't study those tools and learn how to apply them in a theoretic bubble. You just need to be very vulnerable and throw yourself in there and explore it your yourself because then you really experience the transformational power of something like that.
So Yeah. Chaz was most of what I did in the past 10 years is learning skills and techniques that helped me support my clients. And then from time to time, I throw in the occasional strategy deep dive. And I don't know. There are tons of of courses. For example, Harvard Business School offers some that help you dig deep in a certain area.
For example, how to create sustainable business strategy in the sense how how do you create a business strategy that takes a close look at how do you set up your business in ways that are diverse inclusive that do less harm than they do today, especially when you take a look at a supply chain, for example, and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of lot of a lot of of Chaz that you can take when it comes to to the individual pieces of the strategy. Let's flip the coin here.
I wanna know, Alex, if you, not if, which one you're gonna tell us about. What bad decision did you make that maybe you'd go back and do it again if you had the chance, but you probably learned from it. Save us some time here. Sherris, your mistake. I think the biggest mistake that I made was investing in thing before I had the structures and processes in place that allowed me to deal with the amount of work that would come my way.
Okay. So I did that mistake in an earlier business, so I didn't repeat it in my business now. And Okay. So my business is about a bit more a bit older than 3 years now. And I'm just starting a marketing campaign for the very first time.
So I didn't spend a dime in any, like, ads or anything yet because what I needed to do first was be 100% clear on who my serve, what the products look like and the services that I offer, how all these different things, like keynotes, books, strategy online courses and the strategy facilitation and workshops that I do, how do they connect? How is that a cohesive story? And you could easily say, well, that's totally fine. Just market it and people will come.
Yeah. That's just not gonna happen because you need to understand what makes you unique in the unique values that you bring to your clients because only then it makes sense to invest in marketing. Otherwise, it's just like taking the hose of your in your backyard and being spraying all over the place, and maybe you also water the flowers. But most of it is just going down the drain into the into the soil somewhere where you don't need it.
So this was a mistake that I did in the past that I did not repeat this time. Yeah. That's a that's a huge deal. You know, a lot of a lot of companies, I think, especially online. Right? Like, it's it it's just, you know, something that you're you've got this vast internet source. And and who who are the people that I'm trying to grab?
Maybe the people that are running, like, more local, whether it be retail or or, like, in the service industries, maybe it's a little bit, you know, there's local meetups and there's there's just it's a totally different marketing strategy. So I think that it's applicable to both, for sure. I think that the mindset, though, is dial in to who you are. Right? You already talked about Chaz. And then, obviously, who you're servicing through who you are or what your offer is.
And I think that I think a lot of companies still maybe even today, 3, 5, 10 years around. They've been doing marketing, whatever it is, and they still need to dial this in. Do you find that a lot with your clients too? There's so much money being wasted on untargeted marketing people that throw their money into the pit, and they never get it back, or they maybe earn I don't know, a fraction of the dollar that they actually invested. So it's it's often really Not about the products or services.
It's about the story that they tell and the the how well people can relate to what they do. And if you if you really wanna have a good investment on marketing, especially when it comes to paid ads, you really have to have a your whole tech stack, your whole journey, the client journey needs to be incredibly clear. Otherwise, there is always a breaking point and you lose that person on the other end. And unless you have that journey is smooth and seamless, you will just waste ad spend.
And especially when you take a look at with whom you compete. I mean, yeah, paid ads is just a nightmare because you are competing against those that spend 100 of 1000, if not 1,000,000. And this should not be your your approach. Unless you are fully niched in, and you are absolutely clear that your client journey is smooth. Yeah. Those are great. Both great things to take away. The client journey has to be smooth and also your your story or your message. I wanna know about a process.
You're obviously a a fairly process driven individual. What about now? Three and a half years in? You obviously have businesses before this, but how do you make decisions now? We've talked about a good and bad decision. What's the process or maybe steps that you follow now? That's actually what a strategy is. Many people understand strategy as a plan with milestones and steps and their actions. That's not a strategy. That's operationalizing the strategy.
A strategy is a framework against which you benchmark daily decisions because the strategy is nothing but your priority is to bring you to a desired state in the future. So a strategy is not tactical. There is this is just this kind of opposite ends of the spectrum. Anything comes around if I receive an email, if I receive a phone call, if someone offers me something, if I see something that I'm like, that is an interesting way of doing things.
The the first thing that I do, I go back to my strategy and ask myself, is this a shiny object, or does this help me somewhere to get faster to where I wanna be in 2 years. Yeah. So by identifying in which of my 4 priority buckets an opportunity that comes my way actually falls. I identify whether it's worth my time and money or Whether it's just a cool idea that I really like, but that doesn't help me right now. So I park it. And maybe in 2 or 3 years, it will come back when the time is right.
Yeah. But that is what most people don't understand. A strategy is a framework against which you benchmark options, opportunities, and every decision you make along the way. If you become that strategic about how you run your business, you just don't waste money and time anymore because you just realize when something works for you and everything else gets Hey. Great idea. Not for me right now. Thanks, but no. Thanks.
Yeah. Yeah. Even just the clarity of what you just said there, the strategy in essence keeps you from wasting time and money, which on the other end of that, if that's the negative or the consequence, the the result of that is to get what you want faster and and with a higher quality end result. It's actually the opposite of the Hasu culture. Being strategic and being a hustler does not work together.
And the the moment you realize that this illusion of real time and reacting quick and being nimble and agile that all has its place. But it's the opposite of being strategic. Being agile simply means that you understand that things will come your way that need that Chaz that that that demand you doing things in a slightly different way, but you should never lose your your goal out of site. This is like being agile does not mean, and then I needed to pivot and do something else.
For me, the term I needed to pivot is when I hear it from entrepreneurs, it's often a red light. It tells me they have no clue where they wanna be in 2 to 3 years. Because if you stick around long enough, you see that people that pivot every 2 years, they just fuck up every 2 years. Because they have no clarity in what they want to achieve in life. They have no clarity in what their business needs to look like and how to get there.
These are people that dream big and talk a lot, but are no action. And the moment they hit a wall, they are off to the next thing. Sorry for being that blunt. No. It it's so good. I I I have I think we've all been that entrepreneur at some level. Right? Like, I can think back to moments where I did certain things and it worked out in my in my favor, but, man, what did I miss out on? Because I was doing maybe multiple things or different things that maybe weren't congruent.
We all have the shiny distraction ability as entrepreneurs to have big ideas and low implementation. So you're right. What's the what's the antidote to that? How do we solve that problem, or how do you help your client solve that problem? Really?
Hone in on what what it is that you want to build, like, really specific, not that big head in the cloud stream, but when you when you write down a vision, the term alone just opens so many ways of interpreting it, and everyone has their own understanding of what vision vision and strategy actually mean and are. So the first thing that I help my clients understand is when I use certain terminology, what is it that I actually mean?
And when I use the term vision, what I mean is If you could time travel 2 to 3 years, what is it that you would see? How would your business look like literally look like? Yeah. And this is not a one sentence inspiring quote or something. This is like nuts and bolts, really write down. What does your business do for whom do you do it? Where do you operate online, offline? Which geographic footprint?
How big do you wanna be in terms of team size in terms of, clients, in terms of revenues, what's what's your profit margin? All these things paint that picture. The moment you painted, the moment you understand it, you also understand the loopholes in your thinking. You realize some some things might actually be realistic and others are just total fluff dreams that are not backed up by anything. Yeah. So that this is the first step.
Writing down a vision that is rooted in your purpose and the impact that you want to create that is detailed enough at the same time to make it measurable and actionable. And then you break it down into what I call a strategic dashboard. You make those gold nuggets in your visual measure you identify how you see every time you wanna do it. Like, I don't know. I do it three times a year.
I sit down and take a look at my strategic dashboard and to figure out whether I'm actually moving in the right direction because if you're not measuring these things, you can't just write your vision down, put it in the drawer. And then in 3 years, put it back out and be like, hey. Have I achieved my vision? That's not how it works. You need to measure your progress along the way. Not so much to see how great you are, but actually to be able to react when you see you're not moving.
To keep the pace. Or even in the wrong direction. Right? So to course correct. Yeah. And then when you know how you can measure that you're moving in the right direction, Then you decide what your priorities are because these are the things that will move the needle on those strategic KPIs, as I call them, key performance indicators. When you do that, all of a sudden, you realize that this pet project and this thingy, that's so much fun. And this I don't know.
This idea that I'm trying to implement really hard that's that's really difficult for me to get my head around. I can just let go of them because they don't help me. Yeah. You all of a sudden, you create so much clarity. For me, strategy is about 2 things, clarity and empowerment. You empower yourself to say yes to a handful of things and no to everything else and therefore accelerate the development of your business into the desired direction. I I think you just took us to school.
You gave us the test. You gave us all the answers to the test. You gave us all an a, and and I I feel worked over. I feel like you you just took my mind to another place, and I was really trying hard to make sure I was paying attention because, man, you got you got me thinking. Which I love. I love this type of talk. And and like I said, we're we're we're so strategically aligned. We're so we're so saying the same things. It's just really incredible.
It's actually really encouraging to know that that there's other people in the world who are focused like this, and it makes me wanna be even more focused. Because, I mean, we probably know the stats that most people don't don't write this stuff down. Most people don't even write their goals down. Most people definitely don't follow-up. You know? So you you have It comes back to what you said earlier, writing crystallizes your thinking.
You didn't you don't need to write a book in order to crystallize your thinking. Right. But by writing, as you said, write down your goals. That's a that's a starting point, at least. Mean, this is not the right right level where we're at, right? Right. Those come after vision and after strategic framework, they are part of it. But they are too granular already. They are already too tactical. Yeah. But writing, writing, every just writing down your thinking helps you understand the way a minute.
That doesn't make sense. Yeah. Yeah. Which which, I mean, we could go down a whole rabbit trail here. It's usually where negative thinking, like you said, you start realizing, like, well, jeez. That's not possible at all. I mean, so we can, you know, maybe that's for another topic. But what I loved, what you just said there, which I I wanna spin this to an encouragement to the listener, is that I don't know what the stat is.
It it's a pretty large stat that most people don't do any sort of think and then write. Whatever we wanna call that. Yeah. And then for the for those people who do Chaz, for them to be able to go to another level and do the things that you're talking about here, It really is the the separator, the the the gap. And so I'm identifying the gap for the listener right now. It's like, look, they're busy. They're wearing a lot of hats. They're frustrated.
They're just trying to keep up with this machine that's a little bit all over the place. Exactly. And this you know, maybe mixed with the hustle culture. There's there's there's times in my life. We call it the warrior stage where you just gotta grind. You just gotta, you know, do the tactical. I think Chaz we're in agreement there, but but, man, you have got to find the space that that we're talking about here that Alex Chaz given you literally these key places.
It doesn't have to be that you disappear for a week and that you spend all this time thinking it could be be, you know, a few minutes here and there, but that's the differentiator. Not only just thinking and writing, but then really putting time into what you're doing, how you're thinking about it, how it's gonna apply, got him smiling over here. What do you wanna say? Yes. Let me be clear. There is nothing wrong with hustling as Oh, yeah. No. No. No. We're we're in agreement there.
The moment you have your strategy in place and the moment you have your priorities clear, you go full force into hustling, but not like all over the place. It's focused hustling. And Yeah. The term hustling for me just means put your head, get your head down, go into the trenches, roll your sleeves up, Get your hands dirty and do the work that needs to be. And just don't sit there and be like, have an awesome strategy. Yeah. Guess what? You need to put it in a interaction.
Otherwise, nothing happens. So strategy comes first and then focused hustling. Yeah. No. I I love the the focused hustling is is a phenomenal way to say that we'll have to we'll have to quote you on that one. I wanna I wanna switch over to speed round here. I want to ask you a question about tracking You talked about KPIs earlier. So this is a perfect parlay. If you could only pick one thing to track in your business, what would it be? Just one.
I think the most important key performance indicator in my business is conversations with with clients, with the potential clients are people not buying. That's a lagging indicator. At the moment, people buy everything else has happened. So for me, it's am I able to create curiosity about a topic that most people don't even know exists because they do not have a background in this area. So the issue about strategy is that many people think they know what it actually is, but have no clue.
They have heard the term. They use the term even, but they use it in a in a context that kind of twists and turns the word on its head. Sure. Yeah. So for me, it would be conversations with people around what strategy actually is. And that happens on social media a lot. People reach out and be like, hey. I think I have a strategy in place. Is that actually a strategy, or am I missing a point here and there?
And this type of conversation shows me that people are in touch or get in touch with the topic and want to learn more. Think this is the this is the leading indicator for me to see whether there's business coming my way eventually. Yeah. A 100%. I loved what you said there as far as the leading and lagging indicators because, man, so much in business is predicated on the revenue, which, look, we can't get away from revenue.
And then even more so than the profit line, you don't have a business if if you don't have those things, but some of those indicators that are earlier on, you can control the back end Chaz much more. Love the perspective there. What book would you recommend other than yours? Of course, I want you to say yours first and then then maybe a recommendation because we're gonna put it in the show notes as Wolfe, in all seriousness, what book would you recommend for a 6 figure business owner?
I think anyone, whether you're sorting a side hustle or whether you decide to go all in or whether you run a fairly successful family business already and maybe have even a team of a few people. You should always put the value that you create into the core of what you do. The value that you create is not shareholder value. It's not your value. It's the value that you create for your clients. And sometimes the value that they perceive is not even what you think the value is that you create.
Yeah. And in order to wrap your head around that concept, I'd recommend you read this book, better, simpler strategy by Felix Oberhotseki is a Harvard group professor strategy. This book does not require any any pre knowledge about strategy or business, okay, centers around the concept of what he calls a value stick. Understanding how you can expand the value that you create on both ends for your suppliers, for the people that work with you, and for your clients and as a result for yourself.
This concept of the value stick is really interesting, really powerful, nicely put into graphics that anyone can understand. I recommend reading this book. Well, I'm glad that you gave us the the elementary version there because as soon as you said Harvard and strategy, I'm sure a lot of people were like me and went, So I'm glad you I'm glad you gave the disclaimer there. It's not a heavy textbook at all.
Actually, I've never read a book from a Harvard professor that was sort of a heavy textbook and a heavy read because that's not how Harvard Business School works. How they operate is based on case studies mostly. And that helps people relate to a topic. It's not an academic bubble. It's very, very action and and and reality oriented. Love that. Okay. Very good. What do you think about intentionally master mining or networking with other entrepreneurs?
I think for many people, this is really important because it brings them out of their own bubble and it helps them understand 2 things. First, my problems are really, really small compared to the problems of other people sometimes. So it helps you gain perspective and helps you deal with feelings like overwhelm or stress. Yeah. And on the other hand, it sometimes helps you see, hey. Wait a minute. There are people having similar issues. Maybe I don't need to reinvent the wheel here.
What have they done that actually work? And I'm not saying every problem can be solved by the approaches of other people, but we can always learn from other people and twist and tweak their approaches and make them work for So on the other hand, I know that this is really difficult, especially for introverts to just be out there and network and open up about who you are and what you do.
I think it's not for everyone, but there are ways to do it for everyone even if you're an introvert that does not necessarily enjoy or get energy out of being around a lot of people. Yeah. You're right. It's it the introvert extrovert conversation, specifically around the value of being around other people, is very interesting.
There's a lot of people, you know, I'm 200 plus episodes in sales, you know, creator and sales you know, team leader, multiple businesses, lots of people counting on me, and I'm an introvert. And and I've I like Sam, I learned extrovert.
Because even though maybe I get more value or maybe not value more energy from, you know, maybe sitting in a tree stand by myself, Hunting, I there's value in the perspective Chaz well as solutions in other people, and and you can't get it unless unless you're around them. And then even, I would say, another level is to be curious and to For sure. Yeah. Yeah. They actually wanna know.
I think the fundamental skill that an entrepreneur needs to acquire is shifting mindset from I think I know it too. I know I have no clue. Because the moment you realize that there is so much more out there for you to learn and embrace. The moment you become humble and the moment you start learning and you start to create an open mindset, and it's all captured in terms like growth mindset or learner's mindset. Right? Sure. Yeah. Understanding that things aren't limited.
There is actually an abundance of knowledge out there that you can embrace. And the moment you realize that the moment you open up and you're ready to learn from others, and that it it doesn't necessarily require an organized mastermind to do that or an organized networking event to do that. It depends on what works well for you at that very moment. Sometimes it's reading a book and sometimes it's getting out there and having a blast at at an award, gala, and meeting other people.
And sometimes it's an organized mastermind group. It's just what what what is the right thing at the right point in time. Ask yourself what is what is it that I don't know? I I do this every week. What is it that I don't know? And I need to know and where do I find that knowledge? And then identify the source of that knowledge. And sometimes I need to talk to other entrepreneurs who are maybe 2 or 3 years further ahead in their journey than I am. To learn from them.
And sometimes it's really about a technical skill that I need to learn and take an online course, for example, or, and I don't know how to program HTML. Right. Right. Yeah. Such valuable advice and content here. I'll say one last thing from my angle. You said it's not or what what do I need to learn or what do I need? What do I know? What do I not know? And I would also say who do I not know?
And you alluded to that, obviously, it was sometime that I need to meet people, but that who, because for me being a guy that's, like, easily, I can get in the tactical and I can get busy. Sometimes it's not me. It's it's someone else, whether that's a strategic partnership, whether that's a new team member, whether that's, you know, just meeting a guy on a podcast that changes a a few few pieces of mindset. You know? So Yeah. I think I think the who is is pretty powerful.
Yeah. I gotta I gotta, I guess it's an operations question based on your on your comment earlier, but If you only had 1 hour to spend in your business each week, what would you do in that 1 hour? I Wolfe go back to my strategy and take a look whether what I've what I have in my calendar for the next 3 to 4 weeks is actually paying into me achieving what I want to achieve. And I do this regularly not often enough, to be honest.
Yeah. When I do it, I typically clear up at least half a day to a day in my agenda. And that that sometimes means I I just cancel appointments that someone made where I don't see the value or I go back to the drawing board and and send that person email and be like, Chaz you please specify what you want to achieve in that half hour with me, or why would I why where do you see that your offering is plugging into my business and how could it create value?
So I'm very intentional who gets my time and who doesn't and what I do with my time. And it's one of the first things that I actually do with my clients. I help them make space to be strategic. The problem is if you don't have space, there is no way you can be strategic because you're knee deep in the hustle culture, and you're not focused on what you're doing. Yeah. So one of my clients recently was like, oh, you wanna work really, but I wouldn't know when.
And I said, Jay, this link take a look at my calendar. You you tell me when's when's the right time. Yeah. The next 4 weeks are fully booked, and I'm like, Are you the president of the United States or what? And even they make space when something important happens and strategy. Right. There's nothing more important than strategy. There's always something more urgent. Sure. When the tree is on fire, you wanna put out their fire.
And when the whole forest is on fire, there's no way you're gonna find the time to work on strategy because you're always putting on fire. So the first thing that I help my clients is identify those things in their calendar over the next 2 to 3 weeks Chaz don't help them in any way. We get rid of these things and make space for strategic thinking. And then we start working together.
A 90 minute session at a time, and they are often blown away by how fast they then clear up their agenda, their calendars because all of a sudden, the more strategic you work, the more clarity you're getting, the more in the more you empower yourself to say no to things because you all of a sudden realize, hey. This is really helpful, and this is not. So let go of it. Yep. Exactly. Love that. Okay. A last question here for you, Alex.
If you could whisper in the younger Alex Azir, What would you say? I would say don't go for 2nd best baby. And, yes, that's a Madonna song reference Good. Meaning what? Like, to you specifically, what does that mean? Don't settle for something that you know is not the best thing for you. And that includes choosing a romantic relationship that includes finding the right subject matter for you when you decide to go to college. That includes doing something you're really passionate about.
Let let's say you you go into the trades find something that you burn for, find something that you that you really wanna do, not because your parents think that's the right thing for you or not because your friends say this is not cool. If you want to do something, don't settle for less. I wasted a lot of time in my life. Trying to fulfill other people's expectations. And the moment I stopped that, it was extremely liberating. People don't care about what you do.
They are so busy and inward focused on themselves. They don't care whether you make mistakes or not. Just follow that passion, and that's why I would say, hey. Don't go for second best. Go for what's the right thing for you. Yeah. What a what a way to end after after a a mind crunch of a conversation, a challenging conversation. I love it to end with such a inspiration How can how can the listeners connect with you?
They wanna learn more about you or just connect with you or maybe even try to become one of your clients. How can they find you? There are tons of free resources on my website. So before you even think about reaching out to me and wanting to work with me, go through those free resource is they might even solve your problems already. And there on my website, alexthestrategist.com. Just go there. There are free video series. There there are toolkits.
There are articles on my blog page, tons of stuff that you can use to start becoming more strategic. Love it. Yeah. We'll put all that on the show notes as well and and give them easy access to you. And, and, of course, just we thank you for being here. You just sensational. Really, really appreciate it. I we get we have a lot of good guests.
I've said this recently a couple times, but, man, we've got hundreds of amazing guests And I walk away with at least one thing from every show, but I've walked away with several here today. So thank you. Really appreciate it, and we wish you nothing but blessing. In your new place and your business. And, of course, everything you put your hand to. So thanks for being here. It was a pleasure to talk to you, Jess. Thank you very much for having me.
Yeah. 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, but want you to go to gathering the king's dot com. That's gathering the king's dot com 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 To level up your business, I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com and apply. And we will see you on the other side.