On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. So many people go into businesses thinking that this is my precious little baby, and I just have steward this thing, and this is gonna be with me forever. Right. That's a dangerous mindset. When you start a business, you need to have the wherewithal and the mindset to even if you don't do this next step, you still have to build it in order to sell it, and you have to prepare it in order to be sold. That's right.
You never know what happens with the economy yadayadayada, but at the end of the day, in order to be successful business owner, you have to build it in order to sell it. You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe featuring fellow 78 and even 9 figure business owners who have Chaz that they are designed to be. We welcome high performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the reel of the reel, on what it takes to build a successful business today.
We dissect the good and bad decisions 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. Your host gathering the king's podcast, and I've got Matthew McReynolds here on the king stage.
My brother. How you doing? Yep. Yeah. What's up, man? It's great to be here. Appreciate you, and I'm humbled to be on your show. Yeah, dude. We appreciate you being here. Just off air, we were I had to I had to curb our conversation because we were getting into some really good stuff. I'm like, dude, we gotta hit the recording button. So all these other people listening can get the benefit because you're growing. You're making great moves in your business.
And, and I think Chaz the listener is gonna learn something here today. So I want them to pay attention, get their notebooks, all that fun stuff. So, Matthew, tell us what kind of business do you get, brother? And so I am in the home services sector. We have 2 businesses. We have a mosquito Joe franchise out here in the DFW area. And we also have our 2nd business hero home services that we actually started as a spin off company, but we've been growing Chaz.
And building out 2 separate teams, and it's been great, man. We're having a lot of fun working really hard. Yeah, man. I I love what you said a little bit before we hit the recording button and just that you've been you've been growing. You've been trying to get in certain situations to be able to make higher and higher quality decisions. And then you're doing a lot of this with with teams. I know you got some family involved in the business.
A lot of dynamics that we might get into here today that I think it would be beneficial. But before we do, as you because you've heard a lot of the shows. My first question is always the same. My question is why. Right? You've you've you've been crushing it, dude. Why are you at the office right now? I can see you in the office chair grinding away. What's the bigger picture, man?
Man, you know, the late great Kobe Bryant, man, after they won that big game and the reporter asked, why are you not smiling as an answer? Classic. I love it. Thinking about every day, man. At the end, job's not finished. Job's not finished. We are at the cusp. We're at the beginning of what we're building here. I I didn't come from a lot. I middle class, My dad, my mom, they did not have college degrees coming up. My dad Chaz gone back to school.
He's been able to provide every opportunity I've been extremely blessed in that sense. And I wanna provide for my family, I wanna be able to create a platform that can be used to change lives or not just my family, for the people that are on my team, for my community, at large and and to be an impact, I just have a big desire to build something that lasts longer than me. And like I said, man, we're barely at the beginning of it. I love it.
You've you've just recently hit on two things, and I have I have to take just a quick second and commend you, number 1, but then also just talk about this mindset of a king because in our purpose statement, as gathering the kings, of course, the podcast is part of that, but it the whole thing started as this mastermind group. And part of our purpose statement is that we are we are gathering a fellowship of successful entrepreneurs who are grateful, but not done.
And, like, that sentence right there Yeah. Is exactly what you just said, which is, like, dude, how can I be done? There's so much more potential to go. And then the second thing you just said, which we we kinda talked about a few minutes ago before we hit the recording button, is that you you transition in the business. You transition from a perspective of being in the business and then to working on the business.
And we talked about that and some of the moves that you've been making recently, but the mindset behind that turns from warrior to king, which is the language that we use, you went from thinking about yourself. To thinking about you, your family, your kids, your team, their family, their kids, your community, as you said, like, Chaz is straight king mindset.
And so I just wanna encourage you, man, that that you're making the right moves and and the people that are in your influence your kingdom, if you will, and they're counting on you. And so why why would we not? Did you feel the same? Oh, absolutely. We recently had our very first first of many exits. We had built up a couple territories, and we just transitioned it to a new owner. And Oh, it felt nice. That money in the bank, the transition of funds, and you see it, and it's like, wow. I did it.
And that feeling lasted for a couple days. And the money is there, and it's like, it just it just sits there. You know what? I've never had it before. And now I do. And it's like, nope. That's that's not it, though. That's not it. There's so much more. It's just a small fraction of the equation. And so I I agree 100%, man. Appreciate that that you said that. Yeah, dude. Alright. Well, let's get into the practicality here. Tell me about story.
Like, tell me tell me how how would you guys start the business? What was the beginning like? Have you always been entrepreneurial? That type of stuff. So, yeah, no. Good question. So I I have always been entrepreneurial, but more of a hustler mindset. I was always the type when you just said that warrior and the emet, the the technician, somebody that could I could always wear a lot of hats. I could always navigate through an organization.
And if you weren't careful, I'm gonna stack up your responsibilities on to mine as a highly capable, highly hungry individual, as Pat Lincione talks about it, and Chaz I'd be team player. Extremely hungry, man. Yeah. Extremely hungry. And so every organization that I've been in, I've always been the type of person to were multiple hats. As a kid, I was always I was always a hustling.
I was always he had the lawn mower pushing it up and down the street, knocking out doors, trying get people to 10 bucks, 15 bucks, I'll cut you grass. I I was told this story. I don't remember this, but as a kid, I would use to trade the wrappers on fruit roll ups and also serial boxes that had the promo codes I would trade those for kids toy. And I do remember this in elementary school.
I would my first my first product that I would sell, I would make I would create nerf air quotes, nerf footballs out of brown paper bags or use some sand, some leaves, wrap it up in duct tape, and you could get one solid throw out of that thing. I think it gets some distance. If it touched the ground, though, it probably busted, but no refund. So I'd sell those for 5 bucks to pop after school. So I always been a hustler. I always had a lot of jobs.
When I was in college, I worked for the career services department. For the university. And so I would be the one you peep there was a platform where it was kinda like task grab it, but a little bit before, task, grab it around the same time Sure. Where, you know, people would need jobs done. I would be the one that would schedule and post the jobs. Yeah. But on the side, I would be taking the jobs and also place the bar and ran track.
I would take the jobs for myself to facilitate but I would also, offer the jobs up to my peers Yeah. To give first diff. So if there was a way that I could be the to be the source of a product or service, I figured out a way to do Chaz, and it wasn't always above board. I've gotten my my hand, my hand slapped and narrowly escaped. Nearly escaped some some significant trouble in my life.
Learn learn from the streets, the school of hard knots, span, but was able to transition into an actual entrepreneur in 2016 Before that, I was working in the nonprofit sector down in South Dallas. My whole background is working in the intercity and school. I studied criminal this sociology, I wanted to go in and my favorite book growing up and growing up, I mean, through through school, through college, Sure. It was gang leader gang leader for a day.
It was written by a sociologist that went and did life with a gang leader in the inner city of Chicago, learned the business of what it meant to be in the gang and actually got the opportunity because of his friendship with the gang leader to make the decisions for the gang for a brief amount of time, I love the book I love the concept. As soon as I graduated, I went to school in Chicago. So as soon as I graduated, I went right into the inner city. I worked on the west side.
Very rough neighborhood. I was in I was an athletic administrator, but I Wolfe, again, a lot of hats. I moved to Dallas, in 2014 and then 2014 through 2016 kinda worked in the inner city before we started our franchise in 2016 and became an official above board, entrepreneur, representing the Mosquito Joe brand. And they haven't been rocking it ever since. Yeah, man.
I just I appreciate how articulate that you are through that because I think a lot of people can relate not only just to the wearing of many hats. I think every entrepreneur If they didn't if they didn't understand that language before now being in business, they, a 100% understand that language now. Yeah. No doubt.
I just appreciate the the ability, like you said, for you to be able to articulate problem solving because everything that you just described, in my opinion, was you people came to you and you solved problems. Whether that was with the mower or whether that was with a football or whether that was used taking other responsibilities that weren't even yours in a job, the reality is that we're problem solvers. And so I see that in you. I see that as a as a superpower even.
Where you can come, you can articulate and calculate and make a decision, solve problems, which is probably why you guys are growing so fast. And so I appreciate that backdrop. I wanna know so I know mosquito Joe, you started with a franchise originally, and, obviously, that brand just in general is growing. And then, of course, you've done your own spin off and all that fun stuff.
Practically in the business, what was a singular good decision that you made that you can look back on and go, because of this thing? And we would do it over and over and over again. It's helped us grow. Wow. I've made so many good. It's so many bad decisions on this journey. A good one would have to be the concept of I gotta give it to you in two parts, a, educating myself, educating myself and and putting more investing in me.
Has been probably the number one thing that has helped my business and my team to grow Again, like I said, I mean, I studied sociology. Like, I was Right. I was a kid that came from not much and was a knucklehead and just had this hustler energy. And I wanted more, and I was hungry. And I just I was talking with my wife the other day about how silly it was, how little vision I had growing up. And now I'm running this business, bleeding money the 1st couple years. Yeah. Leading.
I mean, poking poking holes in the cup, man, losing fast. That's right. But the ability to pick up a book and not just go through it, but to study it and to Yeah. Stamp it on into into my mind as nobody can take that from me. That's right. To do that over and over and over, it compounds on itself. And so even in the last 8 months, the what I know and what I can do is exponentially different than what it was. Before that time.
So taking the time to to, a, grow myself intellectually invest in myself, put myself in the right rooms, and then continue to push myself physically and spiritually Chaz changed the game because not only does it affect me, it affects my circle. It creates a vibe and an energy for the people around me. And so people know now it's very clear when they enter into my space, what is okay and what is not okay and what's not accepted. And it took me a long time to to build that Yeah.
So that that's kind of a generic, but, you know, I gotta throw that in there. And then secondly, promoting people and being willing to invest into others not being afraid to delegate. I've I've made the mistake of there's a very key difference between delegating and abdicating Mhmm. And I've flirted with that line more aggressively than, comfortable saying. Sure. Give it for the listener What what what do you what's the difference there? How how did you do that? How did you flirt?
What shouldn't they be doing? Man, delegate if I delegate to somebody, I don't necessarily have to do the thing. Right. I can give somebody a role Chaz they can do better than me, but that doesn't mean that I no longer have responsibility for that role getting done at a high level. Right? So we were operating our business. It was around year 2 that my first my son was born, And I had people in place. I had technicians going out and doing treatments.
And for context, my 1st year as a mosquito Joe owner and operator We did 996 treatments. K. We opened up in late April, and we went through the mosquito season that year ended mid December in in the Dallas Fort Worth area. For those of you who don't know, mosquitoes are active. If it's if the temperatures are higher than 50 degrees, right, so In us, that's that's as long as our season went. So 996 treatments, and I did every single one of them.
Wow. Every single one of them, man, grinding out there. But, you know, now that we built out this business, I I've got some technicians. I've got somebody with my phones, and I got a son, and I wanna be there because I've always wanted to be a dad and a a father and to be there. I, Houdini, I vanished. Yeah. I was at home every day. I did they didn't see me at the shop. This was before my dad and I co owned this business. So this was before he moved to Dallas.
I'm from the Austin area, Flugerville, Texas, My parents still live down there. This was before we acquired some additional territories, and my parents were not my dad wasn't involved in the day to day yet, but leaving the business to kinda my people to operate self over you don't notice those things instantly. That's right. You come in and you check-in every once in a while. Okay. You guys good. Alright. Cool. I'll be I'll be over here. You got my phone number.
Oh, you guys, we need some more product. Alright. Cool. Let me put that order in real quick. But then 6 months goes by. And you see your your net promoter score. Right. It was at 86. Now it's a 58. Oof. What just happened? Right. How how did we get here? Yeah. Now I've got our cancellations. Our retention rate is down. Your trucks are What's broken? Right. How long has it been broken?
These things when you don't have that accountability chart in place and you don't have a true system and you just leave it. Yep. It causes issues. And so I you can delegate. And on the flip side, that concept is what scares a lot of small business owners into promoting people and investing in people because nobody will do as good of a a job as I will. Nobody will care as much. Nobody sell as good as me.
Nobody Chaz, and all those you could argue for that 100% if you remain in that technician role. Yeah. For an extended amount of time and you don't move into the manager, into the entrepreneur, you will forever be stuck beating your head against the wall. And so it definitely it's it's a delicate balance. And so when I say I flirted with it, I mean, we were we were buds when we we shouldn't have been.
Yeah. Well, I think the reality there that you're that you're describing is when people think of entrepreneurship, right, they think of the dream right, having the the cash coming in and me sitting on the beach and someone else doing my work and me chilling. And and not to say that there isn't freedom because there is.
I just think that there's a distorted view of what that that freedom actually is And I love how you said the word accountability because just because you delegate something doesn't mean that it's completely gone from your responsibility. But the level of accountability is gonna be based on a level of person also that you're delegating to.
And so that accountability sometimes can be done from a beach or from another city or whatever, but the reality is still the same is that there has to be a system in place. There has to be accountability checks. There has to be things getting done. And then going back to the very first thing that you said, which is not being afraid to pour into other people. You didn't say promote only and, like, just Get them into the right place and delegate them. You said to pour into them.
What do you mean by that? Got investing them. I have a I'm very clear when I bring people on that when you transition out of our organization, when that day comes, I wanna make sure you leave in a better place than you were when you came in. Because if that's the case, I did I did a good significant part of my job. Yeah. You can't you there's no staying saying either you're getting better or you're getting Wolfe. Did we gain from this time, or did we waste time?
I need you if you're gonna level up with me, I need to be pouring into you. There's the there's the adage of, but what happens if I invest in my people, and then they just leave And I wasted all this time. Well, what happens if you don't invest in them and they stay? Stay. Right? Which one is which one is Wolfe? And I could tell you Yeah. Having somebody who doesn't have a growth mindset that you're not investing in that is lingering in your organization Yeah.
Is much, much worse than investing in them and then they leave and find something and they level up. I mean, I can I can give you an example? I had so this was a good lesson for Chaz. I learned very recently. I had some very key players. They were my top performing individuals, top performers. I mean, these guys where they changed the game. And I wouldn't have been able to if COVID hadn't happened, they wouldn't even have been on my team because they had lost jobs, and I was able to secure them.
And We grew so much in 2019, 2020, 2021, and I promoted them all to manager level roles. And I was feeding into them. And actually, very recently, they all of them, all three of them. Took other jobs and left where these guys came in and they were making maybe 10, 12 bucks an hour when they started with me. Right. And now they're making so much 60 k a year plus benefits, plus stock options, plus all the all the things that they could be provided by an employer.
And you think, like, oh, but these were your your key leaders. Yeah. A, that's a proof of concept to the type of platform that I'm building and why people wanna work for me That's right. But also a key distinction too that I I recently realized is not all your top performers are gonna be excellent managers to help you grow your business. What I did, I created a glass ceiling in my company to where we didn't grow to the extent that we had seen, and there are a lot of reasons for that.
There's a lot of things that I've learned through this process, but Sometimes you you'd need to be okay with investing and then helping people transition into a better role. They roll that better suits them where they can continue to be highly functioning and high performers if that new role doesn't necessarily fit into their skill set. If they don't get it, want it or have the capacity for it. Yeah. Wolfe, you you said a couple of things. You said a lot of things.
I hope people are paying attention to taking notes. You you are a sharp sharp business owner. You you said that you know, when someone joins your team, you set an expectation of when you exit. What that tells me is that you already have the mindset of that you're not gonna be here forever.
And I think that's step number 1. I wanna point that out for the listener is that you not to say that you don't pour into people so that they leave or you pour into them so that they stay, you you just pour into people. You just The realization of this person's probably not gonna be with me until the end unless they have ownership. Probably not gonna be there, and that's okay. There's going to be something else at some point that's maybe a better fit for them.
And so there's, like, this realization of, like, okay. I have them for a period of time. How can I be a good steward of the resources that I've been given? Which is part of that is them. Right? Yeah. And you pour into them and and when their time comes, you you let it go. But on the reverse side, when you said that some of your top performers aren't always manager material, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're not capable.
It comes down to personality or just high performance traits And a lot of a lot of times, the traits that are good at keeping people accountable or managing or bringing energy to leadership in a room is completely different than selling a deal or doing the tech role of an actual project.
And so that that level of thinking, I wanna point out to listeners at some point when they're growing their business on the way to 7 figures or even eight for that matter because it becomes even more important eventually is that you have to put the right people in the right seat. You might have the right person, but if he or she is on the wrong, seat, the it's not gonna make sense for them or for the business for very long. I've seen that you have in the time that my history in sales.
Yeah. Exactly. So what what else do you wanna say around that? I I didn't mean to cut you off there, but you've kinda transitioned this good decision into several really, really helpful things, good and bad. It's been phenomenal. Else do you wanna say there before we transition?
And, yeah, and that's and that's why it's it's so good, a, feeding into yourself, but also feeding into your people because as you feed into them, you find out who you have and who you need because you're constantly growing because at the end of the day, no one stays the same. You're either getting better or you're getting worse. And, obviously, I would love it if I bring somebody on and they're just amazing and they last and they stick forever.
But at the end of the day, relationships are all about timing. And there's so many things that go on in life, and it's Yeah. It would be foolish to expect that everybody that walks into your door Chaz perfect as they may seem is a gonna be perfect forever, but then b is gonna wanna stick around in their life. Isn't gonna alter, but I'm and even operating a business Yeah.
You go in so many people go into businesses thinking that this is your precious this is my precious little baby, and I just have to steward this thing. And this is gonna be with me forever. Right. That's a dangerous mindset. When you start a business, you need to have the wherewithal and the mindset to even if you don't do this next step, you still have to build it in order to sell it, and you have to prepare it in order to be sold That's right.
You never know what happens with the economy yadayadayada. But at the end of the day, in order to be a successful business owner, you have to build it. In order to sell it. Great book too. And you can't sell it if you're selling you. Who? You know? So if you're in the day to day, right, like, if you're literally the guy, there's nothing really to sell. Unfortunately.
And and that's that's where we're gonna find ourselves in the next 5, 10, 20 years is that there's gonna be boomers selling their businesses. There already are. Right? And and they can't find buyers because they're trying to sell a business that's It's just them. It's just them. And the reason they're selling is because they wanna be out of it in the first place.
And that's why franchising is is so hot right now because you're buying a proven system and a blueprint that all I gotta do is plug and play, and I can be successful. Yeah. We both know that it's there's a there's some layers deeper than that, but, yes, you're right. Absolutely. You still gotta you still gotta have a good mindset and build a good team. And there's there's some work that comes around with that, but I wanna flip the coin here real quick.
We we actually talked about some of your bad decisions already, but I wanna give you the opportunity answer the actual question of what's that one bad decision that you learned so much from that you could help us stick far far away from? Back in 2018, we acquired 2 additional territories in mosquito Joe in the brand, and it was due to a relationship that I fostered and got close with the owner and decided that he wanted to he wanted to sell us his 2 territories because he wanted to exit.
And the idea of having this beautiful territory that was just so perfect. And the mindset behind it was if we could just have these 2 territories. Everything would be great. Yeah. We didn't do the due diligence of actually looking at I mean, we did we did our in the process of acquiring a business. You air quotes. So you do your due diligence. There's a face titled the due diligence phase. Right? But you know, and we kinda we took and I was young.
I I took the it's not an excuse, but I took the relationship at face value. And we acquired that company for it took us about 3 years to build that company back up to the value that we had purchased it for. Yeah. We took we took word on what the what the current worth was and he wanted to make it quick. He didn't wanna cause a a scene with some of the other owners in the area, so we didn't reach out to some of the people around and talk about kinda and to compare other territories at the time.
All I knew was what I had to work with with the 2 kind of small, cute little areas that we were building up. And we went from servicing a 180 customers to about almost 700 customers overnight. Wow. And our business boomed and expanded, and we paid a lot of my dad calls it idiot tax. They had a lot of idiot tax in that process.
And if we were to even if we were to sell that portion of the business day, we wouldn't get we would get a fraction of the value that we would have had if we would have been more diligent on on the front end. And so Yeah. Be careful of the the thing that's shiny. That's also been a trend. We've we've kind of tried to do too many things at once without building out the systems in place.
Yep. Mike Michalowicz in profit first, man, talks a lot about, the guy who gets up on his roof and then he gets up on his roof and starts selling him a whole bunch of other services at once. The first time I heard him say that in the auto the audio book I got mad at him because he calls the guy an idiot. And I was like, woah. Woah. That's aggressive. I'm I'm literally doing that exact thing. Right? I'm offended. Because, yeah, I'm I'm this is a major offense.
Yeah. But it but, you know, but it's true. And we we don't lost a lot of money trying to do a lot of things at one time. Last September, we acquired a lawn care company and merged it into our Hero Home Services business. And it was from the from a boomer who no longer wanted to operate the business. And so we bought it. We merged it in with our systems, with the idea of okay, we're gonna modernize this thing.
We're gonna add some technology to it, and we're gonna make this thing make this thing rock. Yeah. Wolfe, instead, we used it as an opportunity to add a plethora of additional services that we weren't and we didn't have we didn't have the systems to support. And so the 1st 6 months of operating that new business, we created a lot of stress for ourselves. That wasn't necessary. And the last, you know, year or so.
We've had to kind of fight back from those mistakes and learn and and just getting that jump. We've had to take a step back and and read and build a better foundation, if we would have just been a little bit more patient in the process. Yeah. And I I'm glad you said that at the very end there because both the the shiny object syndrome Chaz well as the kinda not doing the due diligence in the due diligence phase are both from an angle of urgency. I wanna get it done now.
I wanna be successful now. Wanna put in the work. Even though necessarily you weren't saying those things, that's what causes us to maybe skip over some of those things or make some of those decisions. And and and there's a there's a point in order to be able to grow much, much bigger that you have to really, really, really dial into those things and saying no actually becomes the regular word as opposed to yes, there is a phase there. And I've talked about this many, many times.
And even in my own history, there was it was yes. You just say yes. Figure out the rest later. But that that becomes harmful at some point if the yes is not in in the right lane. And so there there's a there's a transition there that happens Chaz you have just described that you can say yes. It just needs to be a very, very calculated, yes. No is probably more often what what needs to be said. At least at this 100%. Man, we we literally had that phase in our business.
So I can remember a time where in team meetings, we were we were pumped about, we don't say no to anybody. We'll figure out how to do it. And, oh, I just created so much pain points in that process where now I take pride for telling people no or a, add context around my no. That's something that we can we can touch up on that. It depends on the scale. I definitely have people that I can refer to you to get that done. At a higher level at a better price point.
I I make a joke regarding things like this. So I'm definitely not the best. But I I'm gonna be around the most expensive if you want me to do that service. So just give people like, there's people out there that can do that better than me. That can do it quicker and can do it cheaper. Therefore, I'm gonna point you in that direction, and I feel pride in in in doing that. I love to be able to Chaz was our core value.
Chaz was what why we started your home services was to bridge the gap for homeowners that that were in need of something. But in order to do that, we don't necessarily have to do all of it in house. And that concept has actually given us an opportunity to kind of spin off and do some additional sales oriented business platforms that we're working on now around that same idea without having to do everything in house. Thing we made.
Yeah. Because you still you still win with the core the core value of of serving and and bridging the gap, but without literally being the builder of the bridge, you could still be the bridge. Love that perspective. Okay. What what about decisions come to your desk today? You've kinda made yourself through this long transition of growth and fresh and good decisions. How do you make a decision today? Right now, the sharp successful individual that you are today?
Yeah. So we've been self implementing EOS, Gina Wickman's whole platform that he's bet that team Chaz built out EOS worldwide. We've been doing that. And so we have our level 10 meetings every Thursday, 6 AM, where I've got my team of leaders sitting around in every single thing that we have to, to talk about from headlines on the team to issues to our 90 day rock things that we wanna have accomplished in the next 90 days, things that don't are we on track for those things, or are we not?
It has to be involved in that conversation. Also, learning to be more open with my my greater circle, you know, my family life being open with what we have going on in the business. Something about women. They got some great intuition. And and sometimes it it hurts to hear the heart because they don't have a feel Chaz nobody talks to me the way that my beautiful, loving Wolfe feels The agility. I love how you said she feels. She she could talk to me in a certain type of way That's right.
With full vigor and and energy and passion nobody else is gonna give me that clarity. And so having people in place that you can just talk to, the circle, the peer group concept, going to people that are not necessarily in your business as well, but they are in a similar situation as you. It's crazy when you go around small, other small business owners, they might not be in your industry, but they go through the same things.
I mean, that's why This platform that you're building is so as great as it is. That's why it exists because we don't have to be in the same industry to learn from one another. And so building that around myself, understanding that I don't have all the answers that I that I can add value from a mentor, a coach, a peer group, my circle, people that love me, my in house team building we're currently building that out now, and the EOS process has definitely been a huge benefit.
Yeah. But we have a long way to go. I I we're working towards having an implementer actually come and and guide us through that. I think that's huge and highly necessary. Self implementing is harder than it was on pages. It gets you so far. Right? It gets you there, but, again, there's that ceiling that you hit. That you need somebody to come in and guide you along the process as well.
I think it's funny that you that you're talking about that in this way because it's obviously the the difference between visionary integrator. The integrator goes to doing as opposed to putting systems and peoples and things in place. And so I think that that's applicable for the listener is even just listening to you, because before we even hit the record button, you and I were talking about how we we we have the ability to do both. We can be a visionary. We can also be an integrator.
We can get dirty in the weeds, but we can also see the thirty thousand foot view. And, you can get stuck in the weeds. And especially for entrepreneurs listening right now, potentially, why they're not at a 1,000,000 in in revenue or more is because they're in the weeds every single day, and they they they haven't come up for error to be able to make bigger decisions.
And so it's funny that you say even in the process of learning how to do that better, you've been self implementing which is kind of like, oh, this is, like, totally what, like, we do in the weeds. Not quite there. Yeah. So, anyway, it's just funny that that you'd correlate that.
I think super applicable for the listener, like you said, whether that's a coach, whether that's a peer group, obviously, gathering the Kings as a mastermind group, but there were so many other things that I was a part conferences and industry specific groups, non industry specific groups, and other people that I just grabbed lunch with, like, having those perspectives. Is really what you Yeah. Said to help you make the decisions. Absolutely. I wanna go to our speed round here, Matthew.
I wanna come at you with a KPI question. If you could only pick 1, one thing to track forever and ever, what would it be? Okay. It's gotta be profitability per service. If I would have known profitability per service 2 years ago, man, I'd be sitting in a in a nicer office. I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what, man. Because we try to we try to do so many things, but if I know profitability per service. I know, is this a service that will bring me profit? Right. And if not, is it worth?
Because some things are you do things to retain people. Sure. Right? Is this a service that will bring me profit or is it a service gonna help me retain this customer because I wanna have a holistic approach to their experience with me. I wanna guide them through a process and doing this thing over here, it doesn't bring me a lot of profit, but there might be another reason for it. There might be things that are that are bleeding me, though.
That I I am losing money with equipment, with people because I don't have the right systems or training in place And I have an idea in my mind as visionary wanting to create this big, huge thing that this looks pretty but if I don't understand the profitability behind because then I have to know what how much does it cost, how much time is it gonna take, what training do I have to implement, what people can I put in this space? Do I have those people?
And if not, I shouldn't just start running with it because then what happens is me as the owner, convinces myself that I need to be the one to go and facilitate that service in order to make it happen. Yeah. Yeah. That's how I get from that. I love I love that. He goes back to what you already talked about, which is that information empowers you to say no. Man. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. What book or resource would you recommend for a business owner trying to grow their business?
Man, now book, I've got a list, man, and resource. Wow. Those are 2 different. Oh, man. Include the restore. I'll tell this. This is the first time I've actually said this on the on the show, but I had to I started to include the the word resource because I've had not a bunch, but some people would be like, well, I don't read. Like, Wolfe but you still learn. I mean, what we're talking about here is as a business owner, you gotta freaking be coachable. You gotta learn.
You gotta be the dumbest guy in the room. Like, always, like, put yourself in the position to learn, learn, learn, and whether that's audible, whether it's a paper book, whether it's a conference, whether it's a whatever, What's been the most helpful for you? Well, you're saying resource opens it up because gosh. Audible has been has just been, absolutely outstanding for my growth. You talk about a single book. I probably gotta put out rocket fuel by Gino and Mark and Mark Winters.
Rocket fuel is what taught me Chaz in the role of integrator, I've always done it. I can do it. I'm good at it. But in my heart, I am a visionary. And the reason why I'm frustrated with what's going on and why I find myself literally tripping over all these things and dropping all these balls. I'm juggling is because my integrator or no, my visionary is kicking the feet out from under my integrator, and I'm not allowing myself to operate at a high level.
So I need to either empower my people, or I need to come find 1 and put that in place. And that's the only way that I'll be successful. So reading that book and listening to it, of bajillion times Chaz, man, not only invigorated, kind of, my energy around what we're building, but it's allowed me to realize I need to put people in the right seats. We have transitioned so much of our organization after reading that one book.
Yeah. It's been a game changer, but and I say audible because there's so many, but you talk about a 6 figure becoming a 7 figure Right.
I would challenge them to read the book profit first and just study study Mike Michalowicz and everything that he puts out because So what if you go from 900 to a1000000 if you're still taking home the same or if you're taking home less or if you hadn't been taking home anything, I mean, wouldn't it be better to to for your business to make 500 if I could take home 250 of that rather than have a business where, sure, on paper, it produces a 1,000,000,
but I only get 150 And I gotta split that with my business partners at the end of the day. Right. Man, I'm sitting here. I got a $1,000,000 business, but I'm struggling. So what? Exactly. Love that. Oh, man. Emit, though. But if your people haven't read the Emit, I mean, why are you even listening to the podcast? I mean, come on. Seriously. Come on. Come on. Seriously.
So being a part of now I don't wanna jump ahead, but putting in your mind resources using I mean, I'm a I'm a minty of Mike Bacath. I have never met him. I'm a minty of Robert Robert Green. And he doesn't even know I I exist. Ryan Holiday. All these great people and thought leaders. Yep. You have access at your fingertips. Literate. That's been huge for me, but the one book, I've wrestled with this. This is a hard because I, yeah, I listened to your show, man. I knew this was coming.
And, this morning, I woke up. What am I gonna say to the question? God, you you just put our seat belt on tight because, man, you ran us through 33 books there fast. And with with with great tidbits on each one, I think that, both of that both of the or all three of those recommendations are are incredible.
I think that just your vigor as you as you used the word earlier for just learning the fact that you know these guys' names, not first names, but first and last names, that you know who they are, that you're a student of them Yeah. I think that's what I hope that the listener takes away. Of course, we'll put all the book recommendations in the show notes and all that fun stuff so they can just easily click and purchase and become a student.
But I want them to walk away with what you just struggled with, which was, oh my gosh. I've gotten so much value from books and podcasts and and learning, that's what I want them to walk away with is being like you, man. Yeah. Do you know? Yeah, Mark. All those but I want him to be like Matthew. Hey. Let's go. I appreciate that. What are your thoughts on intentionally Masterminding or networking with other entrepreneurs? 100%. Gotta do it.
I have businesses and concepts that concepts for businesses that would not exist if it were not for the people that I've met, the rooms that I've been in, the things that I've learned from people in peer groups and networking Circle back in 2018. I talked about Christmas lights because mosquito mosquitoes is a seasonal service, but we wanna do something in the off season.
This was as we were the first service that actually helped us to start Hero Home Services was Christmas lights and to give us something to do when it was colder and all the reasons. But I didn't I've done Christmas fights at my house. I never. And it I talked about it. I talked about it for years. And there was a guy that was in my group out in Rockwall. He owned a that one painter, no, a Wolfe one day painting franchise. Wow, one day painting.
And he he was sitting next to me, and we were just talking, like, yeah, man, one of these days, one of these days, one of these days, one of these days. And I get a call on my phone Chaz afternoon, and it was this lady that she represented an HOA. And so she had the entryway and all these things that she wanna Christmas lights. And Mister Ron actually gave referred, and I'm sitting here. And I'm like, oh, man. I gotta figure out how to do Christmas lights. So I got my measuring stick.
I got I had in a laptop with the with the hotspot on Wolfe so I could start looking up prices for all the different products. And I quoted it all out. I sent it in, and I didn't get the job. But that year, I did 11 Christmas light installs Chaz year. And, yeah, I was the I was the foot soldier. I was going out there. I was the warrior as you put it, going out there, doing the work, the technician, Yep.
But now we're however many years later, and I've made however many 1000 of dollars doing Christmas lights and Chaz in and of itself will be a spin off business one day that will operate and support itself with its own key. I've trained a number of people. I've got Christmas lights going up right now, and I'm sitting here talking to you because of that one referral that I got from that networking group, sitting next to another business owner that didn't do what I did, but Right.
Honestly, he did because it's still home services, and we're really not that different. And it's crucial, man. I mean, the whole the whole concept of abdicating versus delegating, I got called out from a guy that he owned a foundation and I was like, Matthew, you know what? I hear you talking, but you know what you did. Right? No, Mister Roger. I don't know what I did. You abdicated. And then he went on the whole thing, and I got to think, oh, wow. So it's pivotal, and I need it more in my life.
Thomas, tremendous Jones, in 5, 10 years, you're gonna be the same person unless the books you read, the people you meet, and the places that you go So I That's right. The books you read, the people you meet, the places you go, I, in my mind, the rooms that I sit in Yeah. The rooms that I sit in, I wanna be the person that can earn that phone call that can get invited into that room.
That's who I'm building myself to be, and it can't happen unless you're putting yourself around people that are at your level or above. So I highly recommend it, and I would argue that you could be the best in the game at what at what you think you're doing, but there's still rooms that you should be in if if you're not if you're not if you're comfortable. Yeah. And if there's not really a place for that in your life, then, you know, it's different.
Some people take a step back But if you wanna grow, you gotta have it. Yeah. I loved your last little comment there about already taking it. I'll say 2 things to that in the book atomic habits. He talks about curating your culture, basically, and and you join a group of people that have a normal habit that you want to develop. Right?
And then you also join a group of people who are like you, who have that habit as normal, And so if you wanna win in business, you get around business owners who are winning. And for gathering the Kings, it's more than just been business. It's family. It's community. It's the whole king mindset, but you have to be able to get around that specific group who then have that that that same trajectory because then now it becomes a a shared identity which is what you're talking about.
The even he re quote unquote referred business, so he called you out is what he Yeah. He said, oh, one day, one day, one day is today, friend. Today, son. Yeah. Exactly. And he did you a favor as what really what he did. Absolutely. I mean, I love that guy. And to be and and the last little comment in in the Tom McCabets on that on that chapter, he talks about even after you've achieved the desired result, you stay in the group because It's the camaraderie. It's the relationships.
It's the it's the rising tide that raises all shifts, even though you've already achieved it, is what keeps the momentum moving forward. And I'll point out one guy. I had him on here on the show, but he's come to several of our events. Obviously, he's part of the gathering the king's mastermind now, but he has 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars. We did a little q and a session with him here at my house a couple weeks ago at an event.
And his perspective, even though he was the 1, we were all trying to like, hey. Like, let me get some little nuggets from you. Was like, hey. I'm here to learn from you guys. And it was like, just an incredible humble perspective of, even at this stage, you've got so much to learn, which is a 100% accurate. So Thank you for that. One last question for you, Matthew. If you could whisper in the younger Matthews ear. Oh, wow. What would you say? Wow. Don't waste time. Don't waste time.
The minute that you are sitting in right now you will never get it back. Time is fleeting. It is the ultimate resource, man. If you want something, you have the time to achieve it. Whatever is important to you, whatever is valuable to you. There is no there is no I can't sit with my kids for breakfast in the morning because I'm so busy. If, no, you won't sit with your kids for breakfast because you're prioritizing something else. Yeah. That's it.
You can do whatever it is that you prioritize and that you value if I'm gonna go and I'm gonna run marathon under x amount of time, I can go do that. I have to sacrifice a whole bunch of other things in order to achieve that goal. Time is everything. It's more valuable than money. It's more valuable than any other resource that we got on this planet. So much of my time was wasted and squandered because I was hurt emotionally.
Back in my college football and track days, I pulled my pulled my hamstring, or I suffered so many injuries. I broke my broke my broke my leg, and I wasn't gonna play. And so instead of staying in the weight room, instead of really focusing on my studies, I messed around. I got on academic probation because I was too worried about partying or hustling, as I said earlier, that I wasn't focused.
There were other parts of my body that I could have been working out, getting stronger, getting better, and I didn't do it because I was emotionally up set. I felt wronged by a situation where I look back now and think about how much farther ahead I could be if I wouldn't have wasted so much time. So I wouldn't only whisper that into Young Matthew, I would I would bring I would bring all my brother in law's now, and we jumped that dude. I'd beat it into your land.
I always stomping into a man and aggressively with some vigor. Yeah. But, yeah, man, I I, that's really important to me now. Time. And, you know, my kids are still young, 5, 2, and and 6 months. But, you know, especially with my five year old, I want him to understand how important time is. Yeah. And enjoy it. Enjoy the process.
This this chapter of our lives is is fleeting Chaz even though it might not look like what we want today, we'll look back on this time right now, And this will be the good old days. You know, our pro life doesn't get easier. It gets gets different. And as we level up, it gets harder because we could do harder things because we're better, and we're more capable, year 18, 24 months from now than we were today. So the problems that you have now, you'll solve them and move on.
That's why you'll just have new problems. So you gotta keep working on yourself. Appreciate the time that you have and don't waste it. Yeah. Well, I don't if if the listener isn't inspired, convicted, ready to beat their chest and run through a wall. Holy my goodness, because I am. I'm gonna hang up with you here, and I'm gonna go I'm gonna go downstairs. I'm gonna snuggle my three year old, and then I'm gonna run through a wall. Let's go. But in all seriousness, wow.
Wow. You've been incredible. How can the or find you. Whether they're in your area, they're in the Dallas Fort Worth area, they need mosquitoes gone, they need to call and hire you, and they need to home service call you for all the stuff around their house and their Christmas lights because it's going up here soon. How can they find you? But even if they're an entrepreneur and they just wanna pick your brain. Man, I I love what you're doing.
I I aspire to be like you with a platform that you have when I grow up and just kidding. But, no, in all seriousness, I I I want to be able to provide value to other people, and I've learned so much, and I've messed up so much, but we're all growing. I'm on Instagram. I'm on Facebook. I'm on LinkedIn. Matthew McReynolds at be in the show notes. I'm sure. But, yeah, reach out to me. Let's link up, man.
A part of my a part of my the love the best part about what I get to do is to feed into other people, develop other people, but then also network and talk and speak with and learn from other entrepreneurs and business owners. This has been such an honor and such a humbling experience because you got some big some big players on this thing, man. And to be a part of this platform is amazing. So anything on social media, please reach out.
I would love to connect because there's so much that I can continue to learn because, man, I want it all and I'm Yep. Only just beginning. That's right. We're we're gathering a fellowship of successful entrepreneurs who are grateful but not done, I think, is how we phrase it and how you just confirm that. So just thank you so much for being here. Blessings upon blessings on your family, your business, your partnership with your pop, The whole deal, man, thank you so much for being here.
Absolutely. Appreciate it. Thank you for listening to gathering the King today. I hope that 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 multiple different industries, and now interviewing literally over 2 or 300 Other very successful 7, 8, and 9 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 Chaz 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. Talk soon.