On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. Well, one of the things about our organization that is really important to understand is I have no yes men working for me. Not one. As a matter of fact, if I feel that somebody is doing that, that is that is, like, the the unpardable sin. Like, they get called in my office. Like, do not tell me what I wanna hear. Tell me what you actually think.
That's why Yeah. To the point where in all of our meetings, we actually have we assign someone to be almost like a devil's advocate. So if everybody's everybody agrees, somebody has to disagree, and we we pick that person, and, ahead of time, and they have to they have to poke holes in whatever we're doing. Find it. Yeah. As as my leadership team was sitting here and we're going, hey. We think Chaz this time, we think that this is the right thing.
Even the person who we Chaz I paid to disagree with me was having a problem poking holes in the business case that that I was presenting Yeah. That's when we knew. You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe featuring fellow 78 and even 9 figure business owners who have real battle scars from business and life, but have prevailed as the king that they are designed to be.
We welcome high performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the real of the real on what it takes to build a successful business today. We dissect the good and bad decisions they've made along the way Chaz give a true and accurate picture of the journey of success and how you too can get there. Through this dialogue, you will learn the value of growing your network and surrounding yourself with power players and keys like today's guest.
Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe, gathering the king's podcast, Today, I've got Joe Alterry on the king stage. My brother, how are you? Good, man. I'm so excited to be here. You know, I I also am excited, but We've got a little uniqueness here. You're gonna have a little different story than than most of my guests. You've got a little bit of a background that brings some flavor, and I'm excited to get to that.
But before we do, What kind of business do you get, brother? I sell window screens. That does not sound very sexy. Does it? So sexy. In fact, they're flexy. They are. They they are. So they are they are the world's 1st and only flexible windows screens. So we sell flexible window screens, which is impossible for people to imagine, but you say people are gonna have to go on our website, check it out, see the videos, all that stuff, but Of course.
But, yeah, it's it's it is a unique business and a unique product, but we're having fun doing it. It's it's it's we're having a blast. I love I love the the attitude towards, you know, the non sexy business because honestly, let's just, like, we look at all the businesses. Most of them aren't. Right? Most of them are not. Most of them are not. We all can't be, you know, on stage somewhere, but but some of us are making a ton of money in the background with with window screens.
I I have to tell you what I have found is is industries that aren't that people don't think about a lot are where people there's tons of opportunity. Again, who sits around thinks about window screens? All day. Yeah. Me peep people who problem Wolfe them, you know, solve problems. Exactly. Yeah. Yep. So It's awesome. Well, I wanna know from the top here is my same first question to all my guests. You've obviously had an immense amount of success.
And before we get into your story, I kinda wanna know what makes the heartbeat. Like, why are you doing this? But but my secondary questions I'm gonna give it to you already is why still? Cause you've already had a certain level of success. You've already been hitting the the the pavement. You've already had this, you know, like, sail away moment. Why are you still at it?
Well, the I guess the the the Man, the the the the best answer I can give to that is I love the people that are part of my team. I mean, I I don't know how else to say that. Like, because we talk about it a lot. We get we get approach for buyout options and and things like that. People people have made significant offers for our company. And, you know, it really comes down to I'm still having too much fun. You know, my my COO is my is my best friend.
I have some young people that I'm just I love mentoring them and seeing them grow and stuff like Chaz, and and it gives me purpose. I mean, right now, this is this is my purpose is is to lead this little organization that's becoming much bigger, but this is this is what I feel that I'm called to do. Right now, not by change in the future. And and but but for right now, I I jump out of bed in the morning. I was here at the office at 6 o'clock this morning. Yeah. And not because I had to.
It's because I wanted to. Yeah. When that when that stops, maybe things change, but that's that's where I'm at today. What do you think fuels that? Cause, I mean, you're talking about the fire, right, desire, burning desire, you know, thinking grow rich talks about this, like, immense thing that's burning. That's what you're referring to. Okay. Great. Where does that come from from you? Is that is that is that your background? Is that your upbringing?
Is that just because you just had to get after it? Like, why does that even exist in you? Wow. That's a that's a big question, man. Let me lay down on my psychiatrist couch here. But no. I mean, I've I've always had a a a driving me, even from the time, you know, when I was in middle school, you know, I was an entrepreneur, you know, I I cut grass. I mean, my I remember one of my earliest memories, was my grandfather.
I went to him and and asked him for, I don't know, a couple dollars or something like that. And he instead, he bought this this lawn mower was like the the one with the orange bottom and the little white top, right, from, like, 1960. Right? You know, I mean, we had to pull it for, you know, half an hour to get it started. And he's like, I won't give you money, but here, you can have this. And and he's like, go start cutting all your neighbor's grass.
And I went around in middle school, I was cutting people's grass and then going and knocking on the door and asking for money. That that was me. Right? Like, hey. I cut your grass over there. You know, I'm not asking for anything. If if you don't wanna pay me, great. And I made a killing do doing that in in middle school. Wow. And all through high school, you know, did things that make money. So there's just something in me that is is driven. And I'm hey.
Look. That's I'm not saying that, you know, hey. Joe's great because this is it was just Yeah. There's some there's some people that there's that that inherent in them. You know, Flexscreen, you know, my company is was born in my out of my garage. So it's it's one of my kids. And so the this inner drive that I had along with this passion for something that I created just has led to this excitement about our company. And and the excitement isn't just through me.
Yeah. You know, our our whole team is excited about what we're doing. We're growing fast. We were doubling every year. I mean, it's really it's it's really easy to be excited when you're seeing the the type of success that we have. Yeah. Absolutely. What do you think about the time, you know, or maybe you're not doubling? Like, does the burning desire, or have you experienced that so far, or does that burning desire kinda go out a little bit? Does it get frustrating?
Have you had those moments with this specific business yet? So, yeah, early on. So we you know, traditional window screens were invented in the early 1900s, like, 1907. Sorry. So there's, like, hundred year old technology, and they look like just just like the screens that are on your you know, has the rubber spline, metal screens with a rubber spline, invites them in 1907. So we're we're bringing something new to a market that is a hundred years old. Over a hundred years old.
So there was a lot of pain in the 1st couple years. Trust me, I wanted to throw in the towel about a million times Like, like, literally the, you know, end of the day is, like, 6 o'clock. I'm going home. I'm like, this is this is my last day. That's it. I'm not coming back tomorrow. Like, I'm I'm I'm finished. Then you wake up the next morning and you're like, well, it's another day. We're gonna we're gonna do better today.
And so, yeah, I mean, there's been lots of opportunities to to to quit in the early times. Yeah. I also know me as a as a person, there will come a time where my my little company, you know, will become a big company that needs somebody that will help to sustain it. I'm not a sustainer type of leader. Right? I'm I'm a I'm a hunter.
I'm not a, you you know, so there will come a time where this isn't as exciting for me, but we don't see that in the next you know, by that time, I'll, you know, be ready to turn it over to my son or some of the young people that Sure. Have been on this journey with me. Yeah. You're right. There's a big difference between a CEO, a fire starter, and a maintenance mode. Yeah. And so, yeah, that's a that's a great distinction.
And to also know where you're at in Chaz that life journey, I think, is probably important as well. I wanna know who inspires you. You know, I personally, I have some some great business partners that I look to and see what they've done and and past businesses. Yeah. And and they're they're the people Chaz, I mean, I could give you, like, the you know, the Bill Gates, the the the China sky ones. Right? And everybody knows who those are. I mean, we could talk about all those.
But on a personal level, know, I have a couple business partners that are just amazing business people, and that they they mentor they have mentored me over the past several years. And they're the guys that really inspire me. They're they're the the the people that, you know, when I have a problem, they have great advice, or maybe they don't even have but they have new perspectives. That's probably a better way of putting it. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And the guys that have been there, done that.
But then from the other side, I see some again, because of of the things that I've gone through and some of the notoriety that that that our company has gotten, the, you know, the the young people that are trying to start businesses or have started businesses, and they're out there grinding away. Those guys in inspire me too where they're like, hey. I might fail four or five times. And I'm still gonna dust myself off, get back up, and do it again.
Yeah. And I get to I get a chance to talk to a lot of them. And and there's a there's a there's a little point of pride that I have for them Chaz they're that they're out there doing what they have to do to be successful. Yeah. Just to give you a chance to plug your your show here. I mean, obviously, you've got a a podcast that helps entrepreneurs as well. If they're listening here to this show, they probably would like yours. What what's the name of your show, and where can they find it?
Yeah. So we be because we were on Shark Tank, we do a we do a podcast with other people that have been on the shark tank show, whether they've gotten a deal or not gotten a deal, but they were on. They they actually walked down that hallway, had all the same pressures that that I had. I mean, it's called lessons from the tank, so you can, you know, look at it up on your your podcast of choice.
You could also look at our I have a website joelterry.com where I do a bunch of blogs and and all those shows are are also on that that website as well. Very cool. Yeah. I'm sure that a person listening to the the type of show, listening to guys like you Wolfe we get some major value there. So make sure you hop over there and check out Joe's show over there. But I wanna go into your story a little bit. Take us back.
Like, you know, maybe even pre shark tank, or maybe you wanna talk about that portion of it, but I wanna know the garage story, the 1st couple of years. Like, how did this happen? Why did you even think of this? Give us the beginnings. Yeah. So I'm I was a independent manufacturer's rep in the window and door industry. So I sold pieces and parts to window manufacturer. So things like glass and and silicone and hardware, things to make a window.
Sure. One of the things that most window manufacturers buy are window screens. They They don't make them them themselves. They they buy them out. And, I was really frustrated. I sold a lot of of window screens traditional aluminum ones. And my customers were really frustrated with the problems that come with regular screens. They're hard to install. They and dent and get damaged easily. As a matter of fact, they are the top damage complaint on a window universally across the entire Wolfe.
Are the, by far, the biggest frustrating. Let's just be honest. They are. And so, I would again, it was it was a daily struggle with my customers complaining about not the company that I represented, but the product that we they were being sold. Not not that not that the company was doing a bad job. There just wasn't a better product out there. Yeah. So I literally just started walking around Lowe's in Home Depot and and grabbing things going, wonder if I Chaz make a screen out of this.
I wonder if I can make a screen out of this. And and I cleared out my my garage, my my Wolfe. I I asked her if she could pull her her car out for, like, a couple weeks. You know what I mean? 2 years later. 2 years later, I had this ugly prototype of what is now flex screen, our product, and showed it off to some people in our industry. One of the lucky things for me was I didn't invent something in the auto industry. Or the aerospace industry where I had no connections. Right?
I I Sure. I it was this is my industry. I had I knew the the players Yeah. And so I went out to some of my customers and said, what do you guys think of this? And they're like, build it and we will come. Yeah. And so So we we opened up a it took me about a year to go from prototype to an actual manufacturing process. We opened up our our first manufacturing location here in Pittsburgh, which is where I live. And so we're 3 years in now at this point. So, yeah, so 2 years, company's not real.
This is just me messing Right? So then so then I get some some investors. Again, we'll call it end of year 2. Sure. It takes me a year to to Bring to life. Did bring it to life. We we spent a bunch of money on a manufacturing plant, 1,000,000 of dollars. And the 1st year, the 1st year, because I know, again, I have these letters from from customers going, we Wolfe this. This is amazing. This is awesome. And our 1st year of sales was $400,000, which Probably not the projection.
Chaz was not the projection. Yeah. So at at a couple zeros, that's what we were projecting. Right? And so then the the next year was was better, but it wasn't much better, not enough to to to sustain. And so now we're 2 years into manufacturing. Right? And and we're kind of limping along And so we started and and the the the issue was unknown product that I'm selling it to a window manufacturer, Now the window manufacturer has to sell it to a dealer.
The dealer has to sell it to a homeowner, and the homeowner has no idea. They've never heard most of your listeners same flexible window screen, they're like, what the heck are you talking about? You know what I mean? Sounds cool. What is it? Yeah. And that was the same thing that that these, at the homeowners were having. That was the same reaction. And so we had to do something to get the word out to the eventual end user. Right?
And I didn't have $10,000,000 for a 30 second spot on the Super Bowl. Right? And so we started going all in on social media. And so we just started, you know, doing putting tons of money. I hired some some people to to content creators, young people, and just said, hey. Try it. Let's go. Yeah. Let's let's just do some crazy stuff.
So we were driving them over with cars, throwing our screens off of buildings, you know, hitting with hammers, like, doing all this this crazy stuff, just trying to get attention. And a couple of our videos went viral. And through that, the shark tank producers found us. Now just a little history. Most most people that go on shark tank were either part of a cattle call or they put an application. It's about a hundred thousand people a year applied to be on the show. Right?
Businesses wanna be on the show. Every year, about 4 or 5 come from the producers finding companies, and they actually invite us on to the show. Right. And so we were one of those. We we got a phone call, and I personally Look. If you invent something, especially this, like, something quasi cool, you hear you should go on shark tank. You should go on shark tank. You should go on shark. That's just yeah. That's what what they said. What what did you think when people said that, though?
Well, I it was it was, like, one of those, like, that seems really unrealistic because that's the that's going to happen. You you know what I mean? First of all, you know, if you go online, you can see how many people apply, like, for us to to rise to the top of that, put all this effort in. Right. And we're not a we weren't really a consumer product either. Most shark tank companies are it's it's about getting to the homeowner or not. Right, 2 or 3 steps. You know, hey.
I'm changing an industry type of thing. Right. And so I didn't think there was much much there. Well, yeah, that would be great, but you know, we'll be sure. I am a guy. Yeah. And when they contacted us, I thought it was a joke. I thought it was one of my buddies. Right? Yeah. And and so we got an we got an email saying, you know, hey, this is so and so. I'm a casting producer for a popular show. We'd love to have you have you on. I know, like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever.
You know, it's either a joke or wanna pay to play type of thing. Yeah. You know what I mean? Right. Right. And then we got a phone call the next day. Like, hey. This is so and so, one of the casting producers from Shark Tank. I sent you an email yesterday. Could you please give me a callback? And I'm like, okay. Well, now this is getting kinda serious. Like, we're going a little far for a joke. I should call I should call this guy back.
Yeah. Well, we looked up the number, and it was Sony Sony Pitcher Studios where the number came from. And I was like, alright. Still possible a joke, but the the likelihood's getting to be a little bit less. You you know? Right. And so call back, and they're like, Hey. We saw your videos online. We think you have a great presence, and we'd love to get you into the mix and see if this is something that will work out for both of us. And so we went on this, well, freaking roller coaster.
I mean, from the time we got that first phone call, I was out there filming in 6 weeks. So it was it was intense. Now most people take them, like, a year to Yeah. Through the application process. Through the application, and there's, like, all these things you have to go through and they keep cutting things. But but, yeah, it was it was pretty intense, but when on the show, Chaz a couple sharks fighting over us. For a little while, we were one of the the most popular clips because Okay.
Barbara Barbara and Lori were fighting. And bar Barbara dropped the f bomb on on, national TV, and it was in a spot where they couldn't they couldn't cut it. So they actually had to bleep her out, which to really happen. It's a family show. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And so we were, like, one of the most popular clips for a while, but but got a deal with Lori Grenier. And it's been off to the races since then. Yeah. We've we have 7 manufacturing plants now.
We're growing like to weed a 150 employees, come a long way over the past, well, little over 7 years now. Yeah. You go from my garage to Exactly. Where where we're at now. Is it is it, I mean, I've most people are wondering, you know, from that level of connection? Is it just people that Lori knew? Is it process that you guys because you said you had to sell to this person that sold to this person that sold to this person. Did you did you kinda make a new path?
Like, what what was the the catalyst in all of that, obviously, outside of this, the notoriety, being on a TV show, getting an incredible partner, or was that it? Was that was that a big part of It was it was a bunch of things. It was like the snowball was getting bigger anyway. You know what I mean? So, again, the the grind of bringing new product in is is a grind. I mean, it's, you know, you have to you have to continue smacking your head against the wall until you finally get through.
And so as we were making progress with the window manufacturers and the window dealers, then shark tank hit. Right? So now all of a sudden, it's no longer an unknown product. You know what I mean? Shark Tank brings a tremendous amount of credibility to any product that gets a that gets a deal. On there. Sure. Yeah. Of course. There is a big risk to shark tank.
If you do a bad job, it is just as damaging as it can be a positive you know, so we've all watched that episode where we're like, dude, oh my goodness. What are you doing? I you know, what's funny is I I had watched the show a couple times, you know, a handful of times. Sure. But I wasn't like an avid shark tank watcher because I was going through. Right? You know what I mean? We're we're we're building businesses. We we don't have time for that.
Like, Like, I like, and then you see, like, some people that get deals, you're like, oh my god. How does this person get a deal? Like, he Chaz, you know, but all that to be said, there was there came a point where I had to do I had to write my pitch you know, like, the hi, sharks. My my name is Joe Alterry from Pittsburgh Prince. You know, they they do that little pitch. Yep. So I'm like, okay. I need a marathon Shark Tank episode.
So about 6 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday morning, I start watching Shark Tank episodes. About 7:30, one of my daughters came down, sat next to me on the couch, And we watched this episode where this guy just got absolutely destroyed. And she looks at me. She's like, are you sure you wanna do this Yeah. Like, and Well, I was certain until you said something. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, are are you concerned for me or your reputation? Because I You know?
Because she was still in high school at the time. You know? Oh, yeah. But, yeah, it's, you know, so so back to your original question. So the snowball was getting bigger. Then Shark Tank hit. Laurie did help us to get into Home Depot. So now now we had started an ecommerce and like, oh, a homeowner can buy our stuff. We were doing really well with it. And then through Shark Tank and and Lori's efforts, we we got into Home Depot and we're launching with Lowe's and some other ones this year.
But that's where they have a lot of value is is the the notoriety, you know, just getting those millions and millions of people to see it. Then the repeats and all that stuff. But then they're really good with retail. They really are, which is not our core business. Yeah. But but she helped out there. And then she also helped us get because we're growing so fast, we we got another another episode where they got a we did an upstate update episode, the the season after.
Yeah. Nice. And so, you know, highlighting our growth and stuff like that. So we got another another 3 minutes of fame, which is pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure that fuel on the fire. And and as I say, the the attention is the is the monetization of today. It's the the eyeballs, and so I'm sure that's only added fuel to the fire. Alright. So you've given us this this wonderful picture. Thank you for sharing. Incredible story, but you mentioned a couple things in there of, like, some struggle.
So I wanna get to the the good and the bad. Tell us early on, maybe even before Shark Tank potentially, of a bad decision, something that you did that just did not go well at all. You look back, you know, exactly which moment talking about. What is it? Oh, man. It's gonna be hard to just to There's one stat. There's been a lot of them. Yeah. We we introduced a we introduced a new a new product about 3 years ago, which was a cheaper version of of our product.
K. And, we were it was right before COVID hit and and all that stuff, and we brought in a bunch of inventory. It probably 50, $60,000 in of inventory. That literally last week, we scrapped every single every single bit of it. And that's, again, for an for a young company Okay. Cool. $60,000 is, man, that's painful because it's true cash flow. This is, you know, this isn't, like, you know, I, like, went out and got a loan. Like, we're we're Right. You know, we're debt free.
So it was money out of our pockets, you know, money that I could have used for for something else. Yeah. They could hire somebody. Yeah. But but from our side, we do try to fail a lot. And I know that that sounds really weird. Right? We we try to fail small. So we try a lot of things. And so we we do mess up quite quite often. Yeah. Hold on. You know, I I've had I've had customers where where they they've come in, and they're, you know, they're like, hey. We'd like to do this, this, and this.
And I'm like, he you know, hey. You have to give me for me to do that. You have to give me a really strict written commitment and and all this stuff. And they're like, no. We're no. Thanks. You know, and and, again, I look back and go like, why why did I do that? Like, why was I so rigid in that one case where, you know Right. And so but they're just learning lessons.
You know Yeah. And that's one of the things that we like, even with my team, I try to explain to them, like, man, I want you to fail because every time you fail, you're gonna learn some Don't cost me a million bucks. You know what I mean? The guy I had one I had one guy who's doing our customer service for us, and he messed up a a big order, and it ended up costing us, like, $5. And he came in. He's like, Joe, I I'm I'm so sorry. He goes, I I'm this is I'll give you my 2 weeks.
And I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, go back to work. I'm like, are you are we gonna do this again? He's like, no. I'm like, well, that lesson cost me $5000. Why am I gonna let you go now? Yeah. I think so. Yeah. I just don't I just untaught you. Yeah. Exactly. Oh, like, so let let's let's move on and and and, you know, go get forward from from this. And so Where does that come from, though? Joe, like, think about it.
Like, there's so many entrepreneurs out there that are perfectionists, high standards, They would have been completely upset. $5000 is $5000. That guy would have been gone before he even wanted to be gone. Why why did you change it like that? I I think it's well, first of all, I have a really young staff, which is which is great because man, I don't know how else to say this, and they're listening. I'm sure they're over in the other room. I don't pay them a lot of money.
Right. And I'm not I'm not saying that to be, but these guys aren't you know, they're getting experience. Yeah. And I and I have to I have to appreciate what they are. They're they have tons of passion. They have tons of energy, you know, they don't have tons of experience, which means that they they don't cost as much as on payroll. They do cost with my time. My energy and the mistakes that they're going to make. Yeah. But I'm grooming them to be leaders within this organization.
They understand that. They see it, and they're and there's a road map for them. And there's a road map for them. Exactly. Yeah. And I and I also do want to, you know, I do wanna give them opportunities to to mess up because with a company like us that is growing, there has to be permission to screw up. There has to be. There we wanna have checks and balances and make sure they don't screw up too bad, but you have to give them Otherwise, they get locked up into indecision.
And for us, we we pride ourselves on being able to shift, and we're we're flexible, you know, Sure. Yep. You know, just to so we so I have to give them that that permission to to go out there mess up knowing that there's there's a safety net under them. They're not gonna get fired. They're not gonna get berated in front of everyone else. We're going to learn less than And so Yeah. There's a youthfulness to your culture of, hey.
We're kinda bumping around here, but, man, we've got a big, big heart, big mission, big passion. That's it. Yep. I don't wanna pick it up. Very cool. Absolutely. Tell us about a good decision that you made. Something that, just spot you can think of this exact moment. It's led to not everything, but a good majority of of the success you have today. So we just made a big move. So right now, if you wanna buy our product, you have to buy it from one of my manufacturing locations. Right?
So, you know, whether you're a window manufacturer, a homeowner, you have to buy it from from one of us. Yeah. The we just made a big move into licensing our technology to the window manufacturers. So we had a company that we we spent 1,000,000 of dollars and tons of time developing a fully automated line to make our our equipment. And we've had window manufacturers have started buying these lines and sort of licensing. And Yeah. We knew that this was going to be our future.
We had to create the demand through our own manufacturing and and things like Chaz. But it was a scary decision, like, where we said, we're completely changing who we are as a company. Manufacturing is no longer a it's a it's a necessary evil now. It's we are going into this this new phase of our our business. Which is licensing and just getting, you know, mailbox money. You know what I mean? Like, hey. You you you make you make my my screens, you know, and you just pay on the royalty.
Yeah. Yep. And so that's where we actually our our first licensee is starting to manufacture this month. And so so we started that down that path a little over a year, year and a half ago. And that was the biggest decision that we've made as a company. Yeah. It's incredible. Yeah. Scary, but we had to bring people on to to be able to manage that. You know? It's Yeah. We we brought on, you know, employees a year and a half ago that I've been paying in preparation for this. Right?
And those are those are big investments into the future. How did you know at that moment? Like you said, it was a it was an identity shift in your company. Right? Like, this is not who we are now. We know this is who we need to be. How did you know then was the moment to start making that transition? But one of the things about our organization that is really important to understand is I have no yes men working for me. Not one.
As a matter of fact, if I feel that somebody is doing that, that is that is, like, the the unpardable sin. Like, they get called in my office. Like, Do not tell me what I wanna hear. Tell me what you actually think. That's why I think to the point where in all of our meetings, we actually have we assign someone to be almost like a devil's kid. So if everybody's everybody agrees, somebody has to disagree, and we we pick that person in ahead of time.
And they have to they have to poke holes in whatever we're doing. Find the perspective. Yeah. As as my leadership team was sitting here and we're going, hey. We think Chaz this time, we think that this is the right thing. Even the person who we that I paid to disagree with me, was having a problem poking holes in the business case that that I was presenting. Yeah. That's when we knew. And and, again, that's we could we could have all messed up a 100%.
We could we this could be the the worst decision in our company history, but I've done everything possible to try to make sure that that isn't the case. Yeah. In including, like I said, paying people to disagree with me. And the people that I paid to disagree with me, if they couldn't if they couldn't find a way to do that, feel like we're on pretty solid footing. Yeah. I I I love the perspective. It's strategic, not only planning, but then, like, like, almost wrestling, strategic wrestling.
It is. Yep. You know, to to really battle it out. And then and then when there's when everybody's tired and winded, it's like, well, what's left? It's just to just go for it or or to get rid of it one way or the other. What would you say for maybe the smaller guy who he he's not paying a guy to disagree with him? Right? He's he's just stumbling along.
Maybe like you were in the 1st couple of years trying to figure it out probably bleeding cash flow and and but he he needs to make that transition of some sort. He's he's been he's been knocking it back and forth, pinging and and can't. What would you say to that guy? Well, early on, I didn't I didn't have any money people to disagree with me. I did have some great mentors in in my life.
And to me, that is that is probably the most valuable piece of that can come from anything that I ever say is get people in your life that are not afraid to tell you the truth in love. You know what I mean? Because they want things to to be better for you. Right. But get people in your life that will give you a perspective that you don't have.
Yeah. And and that's that's huge, whether it's a mastermind group, Whether it's mentors, whether it's, you know, local rotary, you know, get around people that are either going through the same things of you or have been there, done that. And and can give you some some good advice. Yeah. It's huge. And and it it's I I can't even I can't even express the the amount of value that that you would get from or one of your listeners would get from from doing that.
Yeah. Yeah. There's there's 2 different types of entrepreneurs. There's the one that doesn't knows that he needs help, but doesn't wanna ask for it. And then there's the guy that doesn't think that he needs help. Yeah. Both of which are completely wrong. You know? And we've I think we've all probably been you know, in both of those seats if we're honest with ourselves, but I just I love your just directness around, like, hey. It doesn't really matter, like, what level you're at.
You didn't you didn't hey. If you're at this stage, you need help, or if you're at this stage or whatever, I mean, you bringing on Laurie, I'm sure, has just in enlightened you to a whole another level even after your already current success. And so there's always another level to go to is what I'm hearing you say. They might There there is. Yeah. Absolutely. And and also being humble. Now, again, I don't come across as a humble person.
I I really don't, but internally, I know who I am, and I I know that there's a ton of things that I don't know. And that's that is that is the important thing. You know, I'll give you a great example with Laurie. We're doing our displays for Home Depot. And we always talk about flexing our window screen. Right? That's just how we describe it. The the name of the the name of the product is flex screen. Right?
Yeah. And she's like, She's like, Joe, I want you to think about this from a homeowner's point of view. They have no idea when you say flex a window screen. Does that mean flex like your arms flex? Does it, like, mean, like, what, like, what does that mean to a homeowner? Or why why do I need it to flex? Why do I need it to flex? And she's like, she's like, a homeowner word is squeeze.
Like, you squeeze the the thing, and they're like, it's much more descriptive when you think about squeezing a screen, you know, blah blah blah. And I could go, you're an you're a moron Lawrie. You have no idea what you're talking about. My this is flex screen. You know, I could go all this up, but you know what? Every one of our displayed in Home Depot says squeeze in like, squeeze your screen because there's a she brings perspective that I don't have.
And, and and she's also much more accomplished than I have than than than I've ever been in a lot of areas of business. So why wouldn't I take her advice and at least strongly, strongly consider it. Yeah. Exactly. That's the other thing that that I do internally is, you know, if somebody gives me advice, I almost use that as a default in my head. And and and instead of my my opinion being the default, Right? That's a big shift. That's a big mental shift to say, maybe they're right.
And let me think about it as if they are right. And is there what are the negatives of them being, right, other than my pride? If it's only my pride, then that's a stupid reason to do it. Yeah. Yeah. But but if there's no other negatives, Wolfe, who in the heck cares? Like, I if I take zero credit for anything else that happens within my organization, hallelujah, I don't care. You you know? I you're talking about an incredible heightened awareness. You know?
Like and, like, is this is this learned? Is this something that you just had a name inside of you? Give us Like, someone's like, I don't know how to do this. I How do I become like Joe? Well, it w which of the irony of it of it is is like, hey. Don't become like me. They become like, you know, the people that in your life that you can can look up to. That's right. But I I don't know. I I early on, I I found that every time that I think that I know it all, I get proven wrong.
And so I've I've just I've just gotten to this point where I I would prefer to use the people around me and the expertise that they have rather than trying to rely on myself. Because me relying on myself has left it left me sleepless at night. It left me, you know, sick at times. You know, this business almost killed me. I said it several times just just because of the stress. Because I I it was all on my shoulders.
So by but and and again, I'm not saying that I put pressure on the people around me, but in my mind, I'm saying they're also responsible along with me. And and along with that responsibility comes my trust in them. And and I have to I have to do that internally before I can do it externally. Yeah. It's good. Does that help? Oh, yeah. No. It's good.
It it really, I mean, it breaks to a level of intensity that just is, like, that we're always constantly pushing out, which then obviously what comes out of that is the pressure. And then the people around us either, you know, like Chaz? Are they telling themselves? Yeah. So and which is great. It's a great filter, and we're now we're over here on, you know, culture and team building all of a sudden again, but that that's that's a a result or a production of that as well.
I wanna go over to our speed round here, Joe. I wanna know inside your business. You know, obviously, got a lot of things going on. What's the most important KPI or, like, the way I like to say it is If you could only pick one thing to track ever and ever, what would it be? Growth. I mean, that's just for for us right now. We Is that top line? Is that is that unit sold? What what it what's the KPI? Unit units sold. Right now, you know, top line and units sold are kinda go hand in hand.
As we go into licensing, they they have less of a relationship. Now licensing greatly impacts the bottom line. You know what I mean? So bottom line will grow, but our our top line will grow slower. Right. But it's it's units units produce, not even units sold because we're we're trying to take over a market know, we're we still have, of our general market in North America. We're still less than 2%.
Yeah. There's a there's a figure out there that essentially says that if a new technology can get to 5% of the market share Chaz the old technology is is like dead man walking. Like, it's it's dead. It just doesn't know it yet. Right? Yeah. It's just a matter of time. Yeah. Like, how many people, I remember back in the day when when cell phones came There was very few people to have them. Right? Now I don't know anybody that has a home phone. Right? Right. Exactly.
It had it had come to a certain point where the snowball was getting so big, so fast. You couldn't stop it anymore. Yeah. And and from everything that we've read, it's it's around 5%. 5% of market share for a new technology. It's a it's for a disruptive technology. That's the you can you can almost sit back and watch it happen at that point. So so it's it's for us, it's units produced. How do we grow? How do we get more and more very units out in the wild?
Yeah. We just went through a home build in 2020, 21, 22, and the the process of going through those things picking all the way down to the littlest things, you know, the the outlets now have USB in them as opposed to not. Right? So, like, even something super simple like that, like, where that becomes now the normal, the other outlet wasn't even offered. You know? And so at some point, your product is just what will be installed in the house. It it it it just won't even be a thought.
The I'm sure the other technology will still exist as the cheap, you know, low grade. Nobody does this option, but the standard eventually will become yours Chaz, in essence, what the plan is. Right? That's that's the plan. Yeah. We're we're the we're the smartphones. Will the will there always be home phones and dumb phones and stuff like that? Sure. But the the the percentage is so small that it's almost irrelevant. Yeah. Exactly.
Yep. Okay. What what book would you recommend for just a business owner in 2023 trying to grow their business? So one of my favorites is how to swim with the sharks without getting eaten live. I don't know if you've ever ever read that since. I have it now. To tell us a little bit about it. It's it's it's all about it's a sales book primarily, but it but it's really it's a it's a perspective book.
You know, one of the things that that I got out of it, you know, is you know, if a problem can be solved with money, it's not really a problem. You know, it's just it's just things like that. And, again, you know, solving a problem with money is, you know, that's a that's a big thing. Yeah. You know what I mean? But is it really a problem if you can write a check and make it go away? Right. And so Chaz one's really good. I I like this, you know, 7 habits of highly effective people.
I mean, that's Yep. That's a one. That's a classic. Yeah. So But but, yeah, those are those are ones that I read every every couple years. You know, I I read it several of those. And I I love reading. I I I do love learning and and so, but yeah, the resources out there, obviously, even your podcast, you know, is is just a great example of how learning today, the learning spirit didn't have to be a book. It can be a podcast.
Yep. It Chaz be experiences from other people told, but I think that those are great examples. I love that. We'll put those in the show notes as well. Yeah. I've got a question for you around habits. I want I want you to tell me a habit that you have or maybe it's a characteristic trait that you feel like you have or had that unexpectedly kept you from success. Wow. That's a that's a good one. You know, one of the things that and this is gonna sound like really strange.
This is gonna most, like, sound like the the the interview. Yeah. Give us the good stuff. Yeah. I never stopped early on. Right? I I worked 7 days a week, you know, 12 hours a day, 15 hours a day. I was just go go go go go go go go go go go go go go And there came a point where my wife and and again, I wish I had the internal fortitude to make this change, but she had to make it for me. And she said, you need to stop. And I'm like, I don't know how to stop.
This little fledgling company needs me. Yeah. And she's like, but you need to you need downtime and you need family time. So you can keep your perspective on why you're doing this. And she she, we, I'll say we just to make people take a look at that credit. Yes. She came up with this plan where it's like, every Sunday, I no longer work on Sundays. Like, that's it. Like, it is Oh, it is our day. And so there's no emails. There's no phone calls.
There's we we try not to even talk about work on on Sunday. And so that was a big thing because I was I was well on the path. You know, we we've made compromises with even family vacations and stuff like Chaz. You know? Yeah. Where it's like, hey. You, you know, I Wolfe work through the whole vacation, and and she's like, look. Hey. You can work, you know, from whenever time you get up until the family eats breakfast, so around, like, 9 or 10 o'clock, answer emails or whatever.
And then around lunchtime, when everybody comes back for for, you know, meal, you know, work for an hour or so to stay caught up. Other than that, you know, nothing at night, nothing. And, and, again, I credit her for Chaz, she knew that I needed to do that, but I would have I would ended up in the hospital. I mean, that was just the grind is is important. It can't be it it's not sustainable. You you have to you have to take some time for yourself. That's incredible perspective.
What I wanna point out. We've talked about this with a couple of guys in the show, but you, obviously, you're a mover and shaker. I mean, the the fact that you're willing to go 7 days a week is like a lot of entrepreneurs. I think that a lot of guys don't really realize that there's an engine inside of us and some more than others. I mean, 7 days a week for a long period of time, I can say I've done that. Right?
And so when you look back, you're like, sometimes that's what it takes, right, especially if it's it's a a a new baby and a business form. But, man, your wife must be, like, direct and strong be to be able to to corral a bull like you because I had the same situation. My wife did the exact same thing. Basically, it was like, Hey, Chaz. Yep. I see you running fast, but I see you running fast in the wrong direction. So we're gonna need to make some adjustments. You know? Yeah. And and and it is.
I mean, having good people in your life, whether it's a spouse or or partners or whoever that that can see you, you know, heading towards that cliff. Yeah. Is again, that's that's important. Like, even my my staff, I mean, there's some time for, like, like, hey, man. Why don't you take an afternoon off?
Like, we got this, you know, just just go go relax and and so it it is good people that it's it's good to have people around you that care enough to tell you those hard things you don't wanna hear. Yeah. Especially in those moments where you know that you probably could, and and it's almost maybe of a guilt factor. And when you have the guy that that you really do trust, say, hey. I got it. Go, that's pretty special to be able to have that type of person.
So this this parlay is perfectly into my next question, which is about family. I mentioned to you briefly before I hit the record button that we've got this family, a mastermind cruise coming up this year. And the same revelation that you just described, is there very similar to my story where it's like, okay. I've I've wanted to go hard after business, and I have gone hard after business. But I love my family, my wife, and my kids, and it's just always been lopsided.
And the last couple of years, I've really tried to be more intentional about that. And so I wanna know what have you done? You kinda gave us some some information about Sundays and being kinda blocked off like that, but what's been some, like, practical structure or maybe even just mindset between you and your wife that's enabled you to go as hard after your family as you do for the business. So one of the things that that I talk about a lot, even with my my staff, is that this that flex screen.
Our our little company here can't be a mistress. It can be a child, but not a mistress. Interesting. Big big big differentiation. Right? Yeah. So that it's it's part of our family. Because it the work life balance thing, and and I know people like talking about it. It's a freaking thing. It doesn't exist. There's no It doesn't exist. There's no, like, oh, I'll do this over here in this. Like, if you're really a an aggressive entrepreneur, they are so intertwined.
It's it's hard to tell them apart. Right? Absolutely. So we go out with friends, and we talk about business stuff because they're curious, and they wanna talk about it. And I'm passionate about it. If I was, Nope. I'm sorry. Work Life balance. I don't talk about business at, you know, in your family. Yeah. Yeah. It's like it's just it's it's not real. Right? So Yeah. So integrating it into our family life has been really, really important. But, like, my son works for me now.
So he he runs our our our Pittsburgh manufacturing plant. My my daughters, they, you know, every time we get new screen gear, new t shirts, and all this stuff. And, I mean, they're down here. They they gobble it all up, and they give it out to their friends and and stuff like that. So it is it is part of our family. And that's a it's a weird thing Chaz that my wife doesn't feel jealous of of it. My kids don't feel jealous of it. Yeah. They're proud of what we're doing. Yeah. They embrace it.
And they do. They they embrace it, but that's also important. You know, there's there's times that that you, as an entrepreneur, have to turn it You know what I mean? You you have to be able to say, you know what? I'm not gonna take my cell phone. Like, we my wife and I went to go see a Circa Circus show last week. Didn't even take my cell phone in. Like, I don't even wanna I don't even wanna have the the temptation of emails going off and me looking at them and her feeling that I am misconnect.
Yeah, that that we're that I'm disconnected from what we were doing together. And so but, again, those are really those are things that you have to purpose to do. You have to purpose to make it part of your family. You have to purpose to take the time off that you need to take that that off. And you also have to purpose to give the people attention that deserve attention in your life without being distracted by this child over here.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can't let the, the youngest, loudest, most expensive child get all the attention. And that's exactly what it is. That's awesome. I I so appreciate the dynamic that you set for us there of child versus mistress. And then you circled it back around later.
I don't know if you meant to or not, but as far as the jealousy factor, because, wow, what an incredible picture that would be if your kids and your wife if there was a mistress in play versus another child, like, their perspective of the business is what that is. Of course, for you, yes, like, that would be a dynamic change as Wolfe.
But for them to embrace it, to be open to it, to want it to be part of their life as Wolfe, of course, another child would be would be welcomed and and and honored through that process. And there's a there's a balance even in that of them being open to that. So just really, really appreciate that. That's really good. Probably gonna steal it. No. I got Wolfe last question here for you. Yeah. Go ahead. I wanna know. If you could whisper in the younger Joe's ear. What would you say?
Man, I I'm gonna I'm gonna take this back to so so I was married very, very young. And I I would I I would tell younger Joe to make sure to to take care of my wife, Alicia, better than I did when I was when I was young. Yeah. Again, I I and I know this is not a business thing. Right? But but Yeah. But a business life, it's it's altogether.
It is. And I I I cannot stress enough how important my wife has been to my journey as a as an entrepreneur and how big of a pain she could have been if she wanted to be, and she was so supportive through all of the craziness that that has happened. I've met a lot of people whose spouse was the reason that their their business failed. They you you know what I mean? For what it the plethora of reasons.
And I, yeah, I I I would I would tell my younger self, like, she you need to hang on to this one. Do whatever you have to not and, again, not that I cheated her badly. But she he is a big big way, a a big reason that we are as as successful as we we are today. Yeah. It's a catalyst. It's a perspective that you just don't know until you know. And you can look back with that perspective now and be grateful. Thankful.
That's probably the too that earlier on, maybe you just didn't have as much, which I think we all we can all be there. Yep. Oh, you're right. I mean, 2 years in a garage fumbling around while she parked side in Pittsburgh, I'm sure she had other friends going, he makes you park where? Like, like, Wolfe, it could've it could've died a long time ago. Even better was the conversation.
Again, I don't know what conversation you've ever had with your wife, but I I made a really great living before before flex screen. And so I went to her and said, hey. You know this ugly thing that I made in our garage? I'm gonna bet our life savings. Our security, you know, everything on this thing because one of the my partners that came on, they're like, hey.
We're willing to invest, but this has to be your number one thing Chaz was So I literally I had to quit what I was doing before and make a bet on this. They weren't they didn't want me to be in halfway. Good for Chaz. That was that was great. Absolutely. They should have done that. But, man, to have the faith of a spouse go Hey. If you think this is the right thing to do, let's do it. That's huge. It is absolutely huge.
Yeah. And and, of course, the alignment in that, but I don't know about you because you you're you're talking about from the almost like a entrepreneur perspective, but but just like from a guy, when when my wife has done just what you just described. I'll run through Wolfe, bro. Absolutely. Right. I I don't need any other motivation. I mean, I love listening to that type of stuff, but I wouldn't need any of that. If she just came up here and said, hey. Look. I trust you. I believe in you.
Go get it, champ. I'll run through I'll run through days of Wolfe. Absolutely. Yeah. Again, the the difference between, well, I think you're making a mistake, but go do whatever you wanna do anyway. Man, that is a completely different message. It's still a yes. Right? But but it's not it's not the same Chaz as I trust you. You have this. You know what I mean? We're we're here to support you. I Chaz little kids when we started this. So it's, you know, big big deal. Big deal.
Joe, you've been incredible. I wanna give the listeners an opportunity to find you, find your product, give us a little promo here. Where can they find your product? Obviously, in stores, but maybe online, give the the juice. And then if they wanna just reach out to you or they wanna find your podcast, how can they find all that? Yeah. So you can go on homedepot.com, home depot.com/ flex screen. Flex screens all one word, or you can go to flex screen.com. You can order screens e either way.
If you're buying new windows, tell them that you want flex screen on them. I I really appreciate that. If you're interested in, in our blogs and our podcast and all that stuff, you can go to joe Alteri.com, which is joealt ieri.com. Love to have you as a love to have your listeners as part of the part of the crew that that listens to our podcast every every couple weeks. I love that. Good stuff, Joe. You've been incredible again.
Thank you for just the journey of success that you've been able to share with us and, wish you nothing but blessing in 2023 on your business. And your entire family, including that child business. And, of course, your partners and and and your team as well. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings 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 business and multiple different industries and now interviewing literally over 2 or 300 other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is Chaz 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 1 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. Talk soon.