On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. What I'm hearing you say Chaz far as, like, your leadership abilities, specifically with this instance, is that It didn't have to be your idea. It didn't have to be your thing. Like, it was also their thing because they built it with you. You didn't say me. I what I did, it was what we did together. And and although that's so small, it makes a big difference on how then they accept it because If it's not theirs, then why would they act like it's theirs?
I think if you wanna be growing a growing business, you've gotta have other people that have that Yeah. You know, as an entrepreneur, you know, you've obviously got Chaz, but if you can surround yourself with other people that have a version of it, like, okay. Maybe they don't have the same risk because what you're putting in, but, you know, you open a new store, a new retail store, like, it's a lot of hours. It's a lot of freaking work. It's a lot of days in a row. It's long nights.
It's it's people yelling at you and you deserve it. It's you're gonna screw some stuff up. And, you know, if they've gone through the grind with you, And, you know, they had bad days, and they I've had plenty of them cry on me and had rough days and wanna give up. And when they get through that, that's when they feel the pride in it and Yeah. If you did it all and then handed it to them, then they wouldn't have that. So, yep, you know, sharing it is is one of the best parts.
You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe 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 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 kings like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. What's up everybody? Chaz Wolfe Gathering the Kings podcast today. I've got Nick Daniels on the King stage. My man. How are you? Very well. Very well. Very excited. Good. Well, I'm excited that you're excited.
I I well, what we were just talking about off air, you dropped a couple of Chaz, hope that we get into because you had mentioned, you know, kind of the region of, you know, the country that you're in, maybe a certain school that you went to. I wanna make sure. Make sure that all that gets brought up. Oh, you're making me warn him from the beginning. You know, there's some beginning. I wanna about it. Yeah. Buckeye nations coast to coast, man. I know. I know. It's a real thing.
And when you said the Ohio say I knew exactly the presence that I was in, you know. At least you understand. I I do. I I I I can't I'm not in the camp, but I I see the camp. I understand the camp. I know the camp colors. Exactly. Hey. Pride is a great motivator. It is. It is. That's one thing Ohio State definitely brings. That's right. I love it. Nick, tell us what kind of business that you're in, man. So I'm gonna retail furniture business. Good, better, best.
I mean, we sell any household income. Like, our target ZIP codes would be between $40,000 Chaz probably around 200, 220, the average household income in the Midwest, Cincinnati Louisville, Dayton, and ten locations up in a number number 11 in the spring. So we're definitely in the growth phase. And, that's pretty much where we're at. Yeah, man. I love the multi city. I know a couple of things about having a couple franchises in different cities.
There's some awesomeness to that Chaz well as some struggle. Maybe we'll get into some of that as well, but I wanna know, obviously, in the you know, furniture space. I'm sure COVID was a big deal. I I know it was a big deal. The the challenges even coming out of, like, you know, what do they call it? A sofa foam. When I ordered my my my freaking sofa, they were like, we we ran out of foam. I'm sorry. What? Yeah. We barely had days.
And I if you're not familiar with our severance, I mean, I probably have a 120. So if it's total in the store, people would walk in This is probably late 2020 or early 21. Can you show me any surface you have in stock? Yeah. I there's none. Like, don't worry about it. They're RNA. 0. Yeah. Yeah. And and then and then not even just like, hey. I'll order it. Have it shipped to your house next week. It's like 6, 8, 12 months. Just this crazy thing.
2 to 4 to 6 to 8 to 12, somewhere in the background. That's a that escalated quickly at 2 to 4 to 6 to 8 Okay. Well, so I wanna know, before we get too much into this, Nick, at this level, you've obviously achieved a certain level of success. You think in a certain way, your your You're on the grind, man. You've been on the grind. Why continue forward? You know, at this level, there's something pushing you beyond it. What is it? Definitely.
So being in the family business, my grandfather started it. He obviously took a huge risk. That's, like, where the initial entrepreneurial risk came from was him starting at Erlanger, Kentucky. Kinda going all in. Family didn't have a lot at the time. Slowly built it from there. He had worked in a French store before. Wow. And then for the most part, my uncle took the company from for, I don't I'm roughly 20 years or so.
Maybe 30 until the mid, probably 2015 or so, and he built it into the market dominance in Cincinnati that we have. Chaz was kinda his. I would largely credit his accomplishments as my uncle, Rick. We have a dominant market share in the city of Cincinnati. We have way too many stores there. If you're, like, actually, like, lay out a strategy to it, you'd say we'd have way too many. But where my cousins and I started to come into it, Wolfe finally made the leap.
You know, I I opened our store in Dayton, Ohio. That was our first one out of the Cincinnati market. Yeah. And then I opened the store in Louisville. That was our 2nd venture outside the Cincinnati market. So now it's like us proving that we Chaz, you know, we have this mouse trap and we can expand it outside that. And then also, like, we have this giant distribution center.
Until we can maximize its, you know, facility, like, as a facility, like, maximize its capacity and get the best value out of it. That's kinda like the next goal. Yeah. And then who knows whether it's me or somebody else that has to decide if we need a a bigger facility or what to do from there. I'll figure that out then. I love it.
I love it for multiple reasons because it's multigenerational, which, you know, I know we talked about just briefly, you know, at the beginning here, because a lot of entrepreneurs are 1st generation. Right? Like, tired of it. I'm gonna I'm gonna, you know, shove it to the man, if you will. I'm gonna I'm gonna go do my own thing. That's not your story. And that's okay. I think there's a lot of entrepreneurs that are second and even third generation. But for you, what was it like inside of that?
Because that's, as a 1st generation entrepreneur right now, myself, you know, 1st generation millionaire, 1st generation, all of that. I'm thinking my kids, my grandkids, their kids' kids, right, which are cousins, which are you guys, you, What was it like inside of that? Because I need to know the listener, even though they got this little bitty business, they need to know. Tell us. So my I'll I'll first say my cousins and I all have different stories here.
But I'll tell mine, but because mine mine's definitely a little different. I grew up. You know, I remember, like, my t my T Ball shirt said furniture fair. Am I, you know, my sponsored the team and everybody knew, you know, that that's what I did and went up 14, 15, started working in the stores. Right. Semblin stuff, cleaning, washing windows, cleaning bathrooms, carriage, or whatever.
Yeah. Of age fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, all the other employees, the way they treated me was, well, obviously, you're gonna work here. Well, obviously, you know, this is gonna be yours one day. And I just hated that with everything I Chaz. Interesting. So it was like everything I had was to prove that I don't need this this wasn't handed to me. I'm gonna go do my own thing. I'm gonna paint my own way. Watch what I can do. Got it. So went to Ohio State studied fisheries science.
Always love to fish. That's I mean, I've never will stop loving to fish. That is, like, you know, they're bashing in my life. Like, edition and furniture. Kinda Yeah. And had some internships, Ohio EPA, Ohio Division of wildlife, and I had grad school paid for Minnesota state. I was gonna do a research project on a stream up there. Dream job was fisheries biologist for, like, a, you know, divisional wildlife type of thing. Yeah. And I was making, I don't remember exactly.
It was, like, $10 an hour and 2% commission or something like Chaz. And I just called dad, like, hey, I, like, have a summer job? And he's like, yeah. We got this tent sale going on. Just, like, manage the inventory, sell to overflow, whatever. Okay. And I'm looking at this paycheck. And I'm like, damn. 2% commission to heads up pretty quick. I'm kinda good at this. Like, is kinda fun.
Like, people are instantly respecting me and, like, kinda, like, going to me for, like, things I'm in no way shape or form qualified to do, but they just kinda, like, trusted me. Yeah. And right then, like, in the parking lot, I got a call from my professor that had an assistantship, and he said, I don't need as many TAs. This upcoming quarter. You can either come up here, start your research, or wait till next quarter. And I'm just like, you know what? I'm gonna cash in is what I'm gonna do.
Called dad said, yo, this furniture thing, I'm pretty good at it. I kinda like it. I'm all in. Let's go. Wow. So my start was a little different. I've kind of been all in since then, but Sure. I had to I had to prove it my own way first, I think, to myself, if anything else. What what was it like to, obviously, as an individual, you have all the entrepreneurial qualities, like, all the things that you just got done talking about, we, as listeners, can all relate to.
The proving of of yourself, you know, just going off and doing your own thing, even though maybe it was laid out for you or whatever. All feel that way to a degree. So what was it like in response with your uncle, your dad? Like, you know, were they teaching you business? Were they were they affirming you as an individual? Like, what was it like that that way? Oh, yeah.
So that's that's an interesting part of, like, my career is like, yeah, a lot of it is, like, natural in my choice, and I made it. Yeah. But I'm not gonna lie about, like, the, like, opportunities that I had and, like, the environment that I was given to be able to, like, be developed. Yeah. Like, I remember being, like, eight and nine years old. And, like, if I had call the friend to, like, ask if they wanted to come over and play, I was coached how to make a phone call. Who do you ask for?
How do you leave a voicemail? Like, all of that, like, from the very beginning. So, you know, and then I think my cousins also had different paths. The ones that were in the business at the time hadn't gone to school. So I think the idea of one of us coming in that kinda came from a different background, I think they were pretty accepting. Yeah. As well as, like, what I did next, which was dad's response was, okay. Let me find somewhere else for you to work.
Wow. Which was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I moved to rural Pennsylvania. I worked for another furniture company out there. So I got to work in the furniture business like, where your parents don't own the place. Yeah. And you treat it a little different. And Yeah. Luckily, that company was, like, incredibly good to me. It looks like the best thing that coulda happened in my career. Kinda, like, with all furniture.
Like, they would give me a day off, and I'm like, I don't know what I'm gonna do with this. I guess I'll drive to Baltimore and visit furniture stores. So It was just like all work all the time. So it was like that whirlwind level experience to, like, be able to come back, like, have things to bring to the table. Totally. Did your dad know that? Is that why he strategically did that, or he was just like, I we'll we'll kill each other if we do it together.
He didn't learn that till later, but, no, he was smart enough to have seen it in other people. So the guy that I worked for out in Pennsylvania's name was Doug Wolf He did the same thing. His parents his dad was in the furniture business. He went and moved. I think it was somewhere in North Carolina at the time and lived there and worked for someone else for a while. And talked about how good it is.
And now interestingly enough, like, now that I have that experience, so I know what it did to me, it's, like, one of my major career goals is to do that for someone else. Like, Yeah. I really wanna take someone else in and, like, show them Yep. How we do it so they can take it back to their place is, like, definitely one of my goals. Yeah. Love Chaz. Just the giving back aspect. Okay. So let's go a little bit more practical now.
Now that we kinda know what's what's driving on the inside, in the 1st couple of years Chaz you're maybe opening up that new location that you talked about, maybe that might be practical here, but I wanna know of a good decision that you made, a business decision, Chaz you can share. Listeners are about to write down whatever you say, and they're gonna go implement it. So where where are you leading us? A good decision I made.
I was afraid you're gonna Chaz I'm I'm much better at speaking about the bad ones. Yeah. Don't worry. We'll get there. You know, I I would say you know, when you when you have to consciously make that click, when you're building something, it's like, I need to stop doing and start watching. And it the first time I did it, I didn't didn't do Chaz good of a job. The second time, it was like, okay. Let me see if I can sit here and do nothing.
Because if I say this is done, there's nothing for me to do. I can go home. Right. And so the second I backed off, you know, I kinda realized that one of the managers I had put in place didn't really represent what we were and kinda had to make a last second change that meant me staying there for another 4 or 5 months. Right. But it definitely turned out to be the right call. Had to restart, hire a new manager, train a new manager, get there. Right.
But now that the stores pipe and hot and on fire and doing nothing but gross since I left. Like, that's, I think, the sign that you made the right call is it grew from where I left it. Yeah. 100%. And so the decision, actually, in that moment, yes, to rehire and pull the plug on the 1, but what I heard you say before that was slow down to speed up, which was, you know, intangible, obviously. Like, we can do that in lots of different ways inside the business.
For you in that moment, it was being able to see that maybe this person wasn't the right fit, be able to make an adjustment. What would you say to the person? Because we both know. Especially early on. The listener right now, they're running crazy. They're all over the place. They got too many hats on. Not one of them says king, you know. But What I mean by that is that they're obviously busy being busy like you're talking about. And for them to slow down in order to speed up sounds nice.
How did they go do that? What would you suggest? Well, I think you I mean, first, hopefully, you have a plan, a goal, a an exit plan. And, like, if you're building a division, a new location, whatever it is, like, if the end game shouldn't be for you to run everything all the time. If it is, then that's you're pretty much maxed out as big as you're gonna be. So Yeah. I knew from the beginning, like, even though it was my baby, I hired everybody there.
Like, I my heart and soul into the store, like, everything in it. Everyone knows I have their back, but some point, it's like, I've gotta transition this to somebody else. Yeah. And slowly being able to back off and, like, just watch them and I had to do it every time because, like, sometimes it came to, like, hiring decisions like this salesperson could wouldn't work for me, or I'm sitting there thinking, like, dang.
This person can sell, but they're a real pain in the butt, and I don't think my replacement's gonna be able to handle it. Yeah. So it's, like, just, it's not really an acceptance of failure, just like an acceptance of, like, they're gonna do a little bit different. Do I trust them to turn this over to them so that I can go build something Right. And it's it's a strange feeling to, like, sit in the store and not carry furniture and not wait on customers and not train people.
It's Yep. A little difference to just sit there, but I've gotten better at it, actually. Yeah. For a minute. Or 2. Good. Okay. So I I wanna just hit this home one more time here because the the principle of what you're you're breaking down is is something that we have to repeatedly do. Right? Like you just said, I'm still kinda working on it. I'm still getting good at this. As high drivers, as entrepreneurs, as ones that are, you know, like, it's our baby.
So then, therefore, we need we feel like we need control. We may be a perfectionist. Like, all these things kinda swirl into one equation that equates to you doing it yourself forever. And so I loved what you said there is that if the goal is for you to do it yourself. Maybe we need to start identifying Chaz that actually means to you because I guarantee you started your business for freedom and you doing everything yourself is not freedom.
So when they think about hiring a salesperson, when they think about hiring operations or admin or marketing or all these things that you have currently, but they get nervous. What would you say to them about that? I've had to have this conversation a few times. Like, one, no. It's not gonna be easy to find someone that you deem good enough. Like, especially right now, like, hiring people is hard and training people is hard.
Like, that is that is what it is, but get over it and understand they're gonna do it a little bit differently. You gotta find out Hey. Hey. There's probably ways better than you can do it that somebody else might be able to. So if maybe identifying some of those and And in the case I'm talking about, I got lucky there. Like, this person definitely had skills that I didn't. Yeah. So it was easier to, like, say, okay. Run with that. Like, you've got this I I don't have design skills.
You know, I I can tell you how a surface made beginning to end. I can tell you everything that's in it and how they did it. Right. But you wanna ask me about what color looks best, which everyone you like is my favorite. Exactly. But being able to cultivate that skill, hey. She had it. I didn't. Run with that. So I would say being able to recognize, like, some there's gonna be other ways that people can make it better.
And then Chaz always keep an eye on, like, the things that that you do better necessarily is, like, the things that you're gonna watch moving forward, but you just gotta have some find a way to trust them. Chaz Chaz your time is valuable too. You gotta put it somewhere. Yeah. But if your time is best suited as building something, making something more, then and the maintenance and slow growth has gotta be left up to somebody else.
Yeah. And also too, if you can identify what you just said, to the team member, to the person taking this thing from you, the slow growth or the maintenance, then they know that there's a purpose for that. It's not just you going to the beach. It's you, moving on to the next stage of the business growth. Oh, yeah. No. They've gotta definitely feel like they're part of the team. And, you know, luckily, it was something that I had in there from the beginning.
So, like, they had just as much pride in it as I did. And by the time I handed it to him, they were excited to, like, see where they could take it. And that's exactly what you want. Like, someone else taking pride in in what you built together. Okay. That's that's what it's all about. I'm also one last thing here before I move on to the bad decision. What I'm hearing is just that, like, a lack of ego. I mean, you did say that you went to a certain school and maybe you didn't lack ego.
But what I'm hearing you say Chaz far as, like, your leadership ability, specifically with this instance, is that It didn't have to be your idea. It didn't have to be your thing. Like, it was also their thing because they built it with you. You didn't say me. I what I did, it was what we did together. And and although that's so small, it makes a big difference on how then they accept it because If it's not theirs, then why would they act like it's theirs?
I think if you wanna be growing a growing business, you've gotta have other people that have that Yeah. You know, as an entrepreneur, you know, you've obviously got Chaz, but if you can surround yourself with other people that have a version of it, like, okay. Maybe they don't have the same risk because what you're putting in. But, you know, you open a new store, a new retail store, like, it's a lot of hours. It's a lot of freaking work. It's a lot of days in a row. It's long nights.
It's it's people yelling at you and you deserve it. It's you're gonna screw some stuff up. And, you know, if they've gone through the grind with you, And, you know, they had bad days, and they I've had plenty of them cry on me and had rough days and wanna give up. And when they get through that, that's when they feel the pride in it. And Yeah. If you did it all and then handed it to them, then they wouldn't have that. So, yep, you know, sharing it is is one of the best parts. 100%. Alright.
The inevitable bad decision, give it to us. What was it? I know there was lots, but Man. Give us that moment in time that was just rough to get over. Even though it was like a singular decision, it was just more like an attitude. Mhmm. And I think he kinda stemmed from, like, the confidence in the mousetrap that we had in Cincinnati. But the first time we stepped out to Dayton, you know, I just thought, so much better than my competition.
Like, everybody's just they're just gonna be so excited to buy from us instead of them. And the same with, like, employees, like, oh, all I've heard about my whole life is how they're a terrible place to work, and this is gonna be so much better. And they're just gonna run Like, it's gonna be easy. We're gonna unlock the doors. It's gonna be a pretty store. We're gonna have all these options. And holy crap Chaz I wrong. Like, it did not work like that. The beginning was a real grind.
We unlocked the door and stared at the parking lot for a long time. Wow. And I kinda had to earn it slowly, but surely and give people the right experience and get them talking about it and get them in it. And same with, like, employees. Like, we had to prove to them that could make money here and that we've got something that works.
And, yeah, it's a little new here and it's a little different, but just that we just had way we were way overconfident in in what we were trying to fire up and had I had so a little bit more humility and a little bit more like I need to find the right team right now. They're not gonna come to me. I need to go get them. Yeah. I I would have saved a year of my life, probably. Yeah. Okay. So I I liked how you gave just like that last little tidbit there.
Basically, if if you're not overly confident or don't have this ginormous ego about certain things happening, then you kinda have to go make it happen. So I like that as far as a practical, but what would you say if you had to do it all over again, which you have done it over again in other cities? And so how have you done it differently, or what would you suggest to the listener as they're taking notes on, okay, don't be overly confident. Don't have a big ego.
Don't have an attitude that things are gonna be handed to me Chaz I'm just better. The things are gonna work in one location like they did the other. What's the practical underneath I mean, I've listened to this podcast, and at times, I've heard it from enough other people to to pretty confidently say, like, have a freaking plan. Know what you need. And that's what I screwed up. Like, we didn't have a 100% of the plan. We just knew we had to hire people, so we hired a few.
And we just thought it would, like, work out from there. Like, that's not a plan. Like, for me, like, in order to build a sales team, I need top performers. Like, I need a couple people showing them the way of what's possible. And until you have that, you're you're gonna struggle. And it was like, I I didn't have that plan. I just kinda thought it would slowly all come together. It wasn't it wasn't thought out. It wasn't You know, here's what I need.
Here's the pieces that I've gotta put in place. Yeah. And so, you know, I've heard I've heard enough people on here, you know, most sound silly not having one, but in the moment, it was just like, you know, like I said, we thought we knew what we were doing. We we'd opened stores before, but it was in a town that knew us. It was people knew that we were a good place to work. People knew we were a good place to shop. They're just we're just making it a little closer for them.
So I that would be my biggest thing is, like, just because one neighborhood trusts you doesn't mean the next one does. Like, you're gonna have to do whatever again. Yeah. And what you just said there too, that the overconfidence leads to lack of preparation. You know, and so how many times true is that it doesn't mean necessarily that you have to have everything planned to a tee in order to execute. A lot of times, it's just, hey. Look. Get some confidence and just jump. And don't get me.
I hope my dad doesn't listen to this because he'd be screaming in the around. I told you to hire 30 sales people. Well, for you to be able to even admit Chaz, it's it's a good stage of of bringing bringing the ego down. Because, dude, I've I feel you. This is a process. You know, a lot of people that know Chaz Wolfe today don't know you know, 10 or 15 years ago when when I just was a young guy who thought I could do anything.
And and you Chaz, but, like, you have to like, what you're saying is that you if you overly think it, if you overly project it without any sort of detail behind it, then then you're just gonna just gonna injure yourself. No doubt. No doubt. Not too many. What type of process do you have now? Nick. Like, when you when you think about making a decision, opening up a new store, marketing, like, all these decisions that come across your desk, is there a process, certain steps, anything like that?
Well, that's where I think, you know, it might might be a little bit different in a medium sized business where it's not a me process. It's definitely a we process. Like, I have people here that all think differently, you know, in, like, our our inner circle, whatever you wanna call it, I we have, you know, in our family business world, we call it a key employee. Like, yeah, she's not family, but she might as well be, who's our merchandise manager, she has a design eye.
She knows what women thinks she knows, what, you know, higher end clientele, more affluent neighborhoods are gonna think. We're gonna take her opinion. I've got my introverted cousin who's, you know, that's he's got plenty of money but still drives peters, you know, that kinda guy that's just, like, ready to work. We're gonna take his opinion. That's not gonna be as pretty, but that might be a little more efficient.
Yeah. And so it's like, then you got people like my dad and I and a new, like, a more engineering accounting background. And so by the time you'd, like, add up everybody's evaluation, you can kinda, like, make an overall decision and kinda weigh whatever it is, like, who should probably have a bigger say, who should I listen to more?
Yeah. So it's just it's more about, like, having the right people in your inner circle and And, you know, listening to them, trusting them at this point than it is necessarily following a real specific process for us. Yeah. Well, that's good. I mean, because each decision looks a little different. It waits a little different. I love how you guys who gave each person maybe, like, their own lane. It doesn't mean that they own it completely, but maybe they have the expertise in that lane.
And so maybe you wait their decision making in that lane differently. I think all that's super strategic. So I love that. That's that's the other, like, advantage that I had, like, being developed is, like, I spent time in almost every department of this company. I've been in the call center. I've done customer service. I've then in purchasing, I've driven a delivery truck. I've sold stuff, managed stuff, hired stuff.
Almost nothing I I haven't done, which means They know when I'm asking for their opinion, they know I know I understand what struggle or what this decision means for them or who I need to check with. Before we make a certain decision how it's gonna affect people. Yeah. You know, I've kinda earned that trust with them, and that I think that's probably one of my biggest advantages.
Yeah. I think, you know, just spitballing with you here, but I think it also gives you the ability because they know that you already know and that you're still asking for their opinion. It actually shows the your value in them as an individual. And I think that's just a huge leadership tactic that I think that the listener can take away. That's why I'm saying it, but you got to see it in real life. Right?
What Nick was just talking about is that in essence, I don't need the opinion of the delivery manager or the whatever. Fill in the blank. Because I've done it. I already know the struggles. Could be an attitude, but, yeah, you'd be in big trouble there if you if you take that one. Exactly. Exactly. You value people. At this level, like, you just too many people and there's too many people that's affected. Like, you think just Wolfe furniture delivery, it's not that freaking complicated.
I really wish it was that that way, but there's a lot of pieces to the puzzle that work together. And Yep. You know, I've seen people in this business that are, like, real reactionary and don't take the time to, like, realize Hey. Do you just tweaked how you sell something? Okay. You didn't tell customer service. Now they're selling a different story to your same customer or your delivery drivers in the house, quote, and one return policy because you changed it and didn't tell everybody.
Like, it it all works together. Good stuff. Okay. I'm gonna switch over to speed round on you here. I wanna know in the furniture business, multi location, different cities, lots of stuff going on Chaz you just pointed out. What's the number one trackable KPI that you're paying attention to? Okay. So for me and my business, it's called dollars per rep. So that's a that's a combination of many people walk through the door, which may or not be that controllable.
You know, that's that's subject to economics. It's subject to whether it's subject to if the Bengals are playing But whatever that number is, what did you do with it? Got it. So it's a combination of average ticket and close ratio. Is dollars per rep. I you can't control how many customers I'm gonna be able to put you in front of. I'm gonna do what I can today to get as big as I can, but Yep.
If at the end of the day, if you're converting that to a high dollars per up, be it high close rate or average ticket, Right? And I'm gonna be okay. We're gonna be fine. Yep. Everything else is is figure it outable, right, as I say. K. What book would you recommend or resource for business owner trying scale? You know, I I that's why I'm in retail. So, obviously, I've read a couple things on Jeff Bezos but I think it's called invent and wander.
It's the one where he, like, goes through all of the, like, letters to stockholders or shareholders, whatever they call that. Gotcha. Listened into that and the progress and, like, how the the percentage of hits that he had of, like, predictions was just incredible. And then If my dad were to answer the question, he'd say good to great. So that connection of, like, the flywheel concept, I think it's kinda big here. We like that. Yeah. That's good stuff. Both great resources.
I have not heard of the Jeff Bezos book, but I can only imagine, like you're saying hearing him throughout the years and realizing I I guess it's really actually what the show's about. It's like, it yes. We make mistakes. Right? But the idea of me asking guys like you about a good decision, a bad decision, and now your process is so that the listener Chaz make good decisions. You know? And and if they can just make more good decisions and bad decisions, doesn't mean that we don't make mistakes.
We do. And we learned from them, ideally. But if you can just have a track record, a history, as you said, from Jeff Bezos, a wood like man, he called it he did it, it was on. Man. That's you use it. Like, you get to what I mean, I listen to it. I'm I drive a lot having multiple stores. It's like, I'm all over the place. I'm always listening to them, but you listen to what he told people in 97, and then you listen to what he told them in 98.
And then you listen to what he told them in 99, and it's like, Dude, dude, knew what he was doing. He had a plan. He knew what was going on. Yep. Exactly. Love it. Okay. What do you think about intentionally network working or master mining with other entrepreneurs. So I was pretty lucky there too that I was exposed I think I told you before the before we started that my industry's unique in that, yeah, we've got some national players like Ashley Home Stores pretty much everywhere.
Although, they're sometimes regionally owned and rooms to go is pretty big. Average is pretty big, but a lot of our industry is dominated by regional chains. 3 or 4 markets, give or take, maybe even one if it's a big one. Yeah. And we don't compete. So Literally, the biggest resource I have is a group of roughly 6 or 7 other retailers, and they're all over Wisconsin, Minneapolis. DC, Florida, Boston, but they all are on the same struggle that I am.
Like, they're all making the same calls into COVID. Like, when that was going on, we were on a weekly call. Like, what are you guys doing? So that resource to me has been, like, unbelievable. Yeah. And then I I've got a pretty good one locally. The city is or the University of Cincinnati has a family business center, family and private business center.
Yeah. That puts a lot of stuff on so you get to connect with, like, a lot of the other local, family, and private businesses and see what they got going on. And that's been pretty good to us as well. Yeah. What do you think the mindset is for, you know, you mentioned, you know, the person maybe has a different story. They're not multi generational. They're brand new in business. They're only doing 6, 7, 8, 100,000. What what's the value in what you just said for them?
How should they go about utilizing those things? Well, I think if your goal is to grow it, which hopefully it is, because the other option's usually not very good. But being able to meet people that have you know, maybe it's a similar business, being able to meet people that have done it, been there, done that made the wrong mistakes, or under like, listen to the process that they're making.
You may agree with it or disagree with it, but, like, the idea that you understand, like, how they're processing, what's going on. I think that's crazy value.
And maybe you use it later, like, oh, how they the approach they took to making that decision, you know, they took the aggressive approach they they chose to barely listen to the government when the government said close, you know, whatever it was, like, and how did that play out for them and being able to watch it and or hear their feedback afterwards. It's kinda like you're you're having 7 experiences at one time. Yeah. Exactly. I love that. Okay. Last question.
Is gonna be an interesting question for you because you're a young guy. Are you saying that hasn't been interesting yet? This is this is gonna be good. Only only a guy from the Ohio state would say something like that. Okay. So I'll I'll the question is if you could whisper in the numb younger Nick's ear, What would you say? It wouldn't matter. He wouldn't listen anyway. K. What is it? What would you tell the listener? The younger Nick listener.
Man. I kinda struggle with that one because, again, I I mean, I I do sometimes have to learn it the hard way. I would probably say you know, take more risks. A lot of times, like, I've had a high risk tolerance always have always will. I enjoy it. I get burned sometimes. I don't take it personal. Yep. I've taken pay cuts just because I rolled the dice and took a all commission pay rate. Like, is what it is.
But at the same time, like, every time I did that and got hurt, that's when I learned the most. That's when I buckle down the hardest. Like, that's when you get better. So, like, I I even though I've taken a lot of risk, I'd take more. If I could do it again, I'd go out later, stay out more. We're Leave leave the girl a little earlier. Yeah. Whatever it is. I understand. Okay. Very good. You have been practical. You've been you've given us just attitude. You've given us so much value here today.
Nick, obviously, if people are in your area, I want them to know how to find your location. So please drop that information, but also just how can they how can they connect with you, whether they're in the furniture business or not, and they just wanna pick your brain, give us all that information where can they find you? Absolutely. So business is furniture fair dotnet. There are a couple other furniture fairs in the country like North Carolina net, but we're furniture fair dot net.
Sunny date and Louisville. But you can definitely find me on LinkedIn, Nick Daniels. Happy to talk to anybody in the grind. Happy to learn from anybody. So look forward to it. Yeah. I mean, I love that. We'll put all in the show notes as well, but we definitely want people, especially if they're in your area to to reach out. You've been sensational, to say the least, But in all seriousness, thank you for being here.
We appreciate just your, directness, confidence level, but just the ability to be able things from a different perspective, like you said, at the very beginning. So thank you for that. Wish you nothing but blessing for your family, your businesses, your locations, your teams. Thanks for being here, ma'am. Definitely appreciate the time. Hope happy to help anytime. Thank you for listening to gathering the Kings today.
I hope the you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away. More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself. What I have realized, not only in my own journey from multiple businesses and mall industries and now interviewing literally over 2 or 300 other very successful 789 figure business owners. Is that It's tough to do it alone.
And so gathering the Kings literally exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy.
So if that relates and and resonates with you, and you know that you need people around you, sharp, qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com. I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings, talks in.