On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. I always looked at sales as, like, you know, a shady used car salesman. Right? Right. Yeah. That's a pretty word. It if it is so far, like, profit is required. You you can't not have profit. Otherwise, you have nothing. Yeah. The goal, my goal is how can I make as much money possible by doing this better than anybody else and making my customers happy that they paid what they paid for what we gave them?
You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe, featuring fellow 7, 8, 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 to give a true and accurate picture of the journey of success and how you too can get there. Through this dialogue, you will learn the value of growing your network and surrounding yourself with power players and keys like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. What's up everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe, Gathering the King's podcast. I'm your host. I've got Greg Gia Quinto here on the King stage.
My bearded brother. How are you? Doing well. Thanks. Yeah. It's almost like you practice pronouncing my name. You did a great job. I appreciate that. You know? And and you're right. I have no shame in my game. Names are important, actually, is really what I believe. Yeah. And I just try to be really, really honoring when it comes to name. And so I tried my hardest. I've had some names on here, bro. I'm sure that I was so far off, and they smiled and said good job, just like you did. You know?
Made me feel really good about it, but I'm sure I butchered it. You know? No. You did. And I I 100% agree with you. If you and this this is something that we've tried to correct, is, like, if I get a check from somebody or an email address and I see that our name their name in our system is wrong, I get I I gotta change it right then. I gotta stop what I'm doing and fix it because I 100% agree with you. But, no, you did great. It was perfect. Thanks, man. Appreciate that. I feel good.
Whether you're lying to me or not. I don't know. I'm just kidding. The you're right. The the the importance really of people, and it's probably one of the coolest parts about this show that know, specifically that we're gonna go through together today with you is because you and I had a chance to meet in person already.
This is not something that is is super typical for my guest because a lot of guests were across the country, and and we they come through our process, our podcast process, just like you did, but I haven't had a chance to meet them in person yet, typically. And so we've had some interaction back and forth. We've had some fairly cool conversations about business and just like people and, like, the importance and seeing people. And so it kinda ties into the name.
Like, if if you see people, you see their name, you see what's important to them, you see them Right? Would you agree with those things? Absolutely. Well, let's jump off here. A great tell us what kind of business that you got, brother. So the business that I have that you know, generates revenue is our our family garage door business. Brief background on that. My father's side job Right? He's a firefighter. He did garage doors for a little bit before that.
Never really planned to do anything with it. Although he did name it JAG and sons, which is, you know, great, Donna, you know, Chaz, but, obviously, wasn't named with marketing in mind, which is kinda tough sometimes. Yep. But, you know, I went through some things in my life, you know, decisions that I made and and the path that I I went down and ended up in a career that I wasn't happy with. And I decided one day I wasn't gonna live like that anymore.
Yeah. Fell back on garage doors, and I actually just posted a picture that I found going through some old stuff. 2016 with tools and parts in the back of a Toyota Highlander from the 4 we had more than one truck. And now Our oldest truck is the 2017. We've got 33 full size trucks that were running plus my father. And I just picked up, like, a kind of a sales sales vehicle. Yeah. So that's where I'm at now. That's my business. My, you know, generate income for me.
And then I have a couple other things that are, you know, hobbies, but they're also networking and stuff that I may be able to generate income with at some point. One of them you're looking at is that elite entrepreneur's logo Chaz was a Facebook group that I I was doing for a while and made some good connections there. And then I was able to start, you know, still engaging with that audience just through my regular page. Which more people see. So that kind of I I just stick with that for now.
I haven't abandoned the elite entrepreneurs Facebook thing yet. It may evolve into something else, which is why I left it up there. So you got that. I also do a weekly podcast. Love it. What's the name? Drop it on us. Well, that is Monday morning mindset, and it's mindset with a y because it's my mindset. Love it. And in it, I like to share things with people that I've learned because I don't come from a business background. I don't come from an entrepreneur background.
So every single thing that I've done, I've had to learn myself or reach out to like, you know, mentor or or somebody. Right? Because Yeah. You can't afford to pay for all that stuff when you're just figuring it out. So Right. You know, that's one of my ways. I've been doing that for a year through a mutual connection of ours. Ryan Lucia. We got Tortian Talk. Podcast. So it's kind of on his network. And so that's another thing that I do. I do have a sponsor on there, which is awesome.
Yeah. Really cool. Dave Mount, Mount on-site. Throw his name out there because he's Absolutely. What do you get Dave on this show, apparently? You you could. You could. He's He's a part of this kind of movement, I'll call it, that I'm also involved in. We're trying to bring the garage door world up to speed with, like, HVAC, plumbing, electrical.
And there's a huge gap in education, which Dave is actively filling, but that's also something that I am passionate about is, you know, bettering the industry for all of us. Yeah. Yeah. We've we've we've already connected on this this fame. Obviously, some of my team members and you are are in talks about doing some some conferences together, us coming to the northeast and serving some other door owners in your area. And, and even maybe doing something cool with your team.
But but the reality, like, our like mindedness there is, like, what you just said is, like, okay. There's an industry that maybe from history's past is a certain way. And but but the cool part is that there's just there's people in there. Like, it goes back to how we started this podcast. Right? Yep. They're just great people. A lot of times, guys, like you said, with not necessarily like a business or a corporate or a, like, a structured background. And, that's guys like me and you.
Single mom family had no one to teach me business. Like, I learned it all myself just like you, of course, through mentors and YouTube videos and books and what, for the most part, it's like, man, we're just just a regular guy out here just doing the thing. You know? So I think that I think that that perspective, especially now Chaz guys like you and I get to give back on a podcast like this as well as then industry, even specific stuff. It's part of being a king.
It's like Chaz mindset of like, okay. It's not just about me anymore. There's other people that are counting on me. Would you agree with that? 100%. 100%. And that's one of the, like, you use the word a couple times there. That's one of the themes. That's one of the big things that I always come back to on my my show. It is a short show. It's just me. You know, it's not for everybody, but it's for some people. And those are the people that I'm looking to connect with.
And that's that's what it's about. And it's cool. People, 100%, networking, 100% mentors. There's nobody maybe there's some people I won't discount everybody. Right? I won't I can't speak for the whole, but there's nobody get where some of our, you know, our people that we look to or there's people that look to you, there's people that look to me. Nobody in this process got there by themselves. Right.
If you're afraid to ask for help or go to a mentor or pay a coach or join a networking group or if you're afraid to invest in yourself and be vulnerable, you're not gonna make it. You Yeah. I can't say that. Maybe you'll make it, but it's a lot more lonely. Chaz way. Oh, yeah. 100%. I was just having a conversation yesterday.
I was on a show as a guest with Carrie Higgins, and she had been on my show previously, but she runs a $100,000,000 business employee owned incredible company manufacturing. And, you know, she was we were talking about this topic, which is, like, She's got a story, and she's even shared it with her employees where she, like, went down to the the rock bottom. You know? Yeah. And we all have those moments when we're like, We don't have what we need personally.
Like, we can't pull up our own bootstraps Chaz she and I talked about just yesterday. You maybe you know that you need to pull them up. Maybe you don't. The reality is is that sometimes you can, like, just do it yourself, but then there's other times where you know you need to, but you just can't quite reach them.
And all you need is someone else just to pull them up just a little bit, and then you you can get it the rest of the way, which is the mentorship, the the, you know, mastermind groups you're talking about, the opportunity to go to conferences and and pay or not pay locally Internationally or across the country. All those things are an option. But it's up to the person to say, I need help. I'm not where I wanna be.
So then, therefore, it's gonna push me into a scenario where I'm willing to get around other people, a mentor, someone who's got answers, someone who can help me pull up my bootstraps just a little bit. You know what I mean? And I absolutely And the cool thing is you don't even have to be relying on people that are further along than you. Like, your peers, every opportunity to learn something, we learn more. And I say we collectively because I think this applies to everybody. I believe this.
Teaching is learning. Teaching is learning. Yeah. So whatever stage I'm in, if I'm able to teach somebody something, it's reinforcing what I know. And, also, I'm learning from it because as you hear it coming out of your mouth and you're giving advice, you say you maybe reconsider it. You see it a different perspective, a different light, and that's where growth comes from for me.
So I I'm very passionate about helping build others up because that's what's helped me get to where I'm at and helping me continue to get where I wanna be. Yeah. You're so right. And if you have any sort of breath of integrity, anywhere near the bones of who you are, you can't tell someone to do something and you not be doing it yourself. Nope. And you gotta let people screw stuff up. That's right. That's right. Alright. Well, we went deep quick. Yes. We did. Some super good stuff.
We could go days on this, but I wanna get into your story a little bit. Sure. Before we get too much into nitty gritty, I wanna know about you specifically why Why are you doing this? Why at this stage in the game? You're obviously a a certain level of success. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here. Why? Why still? Why you pushing hard now? Like, what's what's left? What's the bigger picture? Give it to us. You can't do anything like this without jumping in with both feet. You've gotta be committed.
And just like you said about pulling up your bootstraps, Not every day is gonna be fun. That's right. If you ask an entrepreneur, a business owner, or anybody who's into any any level of wanting to grow, they will give you cautious encouragement, I would say. Because you know, as well as I do, that not every day is a good day. That's right. But the good day is far outweigh the bad.
And when you're doing it for yourself, because, honestly, when you you take on something like this, you end up working more than you would at a 40 hour job. Right? You take it everywhere with you. Guaranteed. But I've actually got a, you know, a y statement. Right? And that's something that I was able to do because I'm in it with both feet and the people I look up to care about this stuff.
And sometimes you don't really see it until you, you know, I kinda had a a revelation one day, and this is just in the back of my mind all the time. And so my why is to provide an environment that enabled me to be the best version of myself that I can be, to be truly great at something, and to inspire those around me to excel at the things they wanna be great at. Yeah. And that's at the core of everything that I do, including employing other people.
Try. Yeah. The, you know, there's a lot of companies listening right now who don't have core values. Don't have a mission statement, a purpose statement, a vision statement, you have taken it to another level. You've got a personal y statement, as you call it, how did you get to that place? Like, for the guy listening right now, it's like, well, that sounds cool. But then they might forget it. Right? Like, they're gonna after they're done with this podcast, they're gonna forget me and you.
Let alone the fact that you personally have a wise statement, what I want them to leave with is why should they have it? And then how did you establish, like, that you needed this? Looking to mentors, right, seeing what people who I look up to are doing, things that have helped them become successful. If you're not listening to audiobooks or reading books or doing whatever research, reading professional articles connecting with people in your industry.
Like, I can't express how critical it is to be Chaz involved. Right. You have to be in it a 100%. There is no I think it's I think it would go back to audio books and reading. I think this came from Grant Cordon, right, to be obsessed. There is no balance. You have to be obsessed not with just your work. You've gotta be obsessed with everything you do. You've gotta give a 100 and a 100 plus percent to everything that you do. Yeah. And what this does is for me, I I forget stuff. I'm horrible.
Horrible at it. Recalls terrible. Memories is terrible. I gotta take notes. And so I've got a running log of notes I use Google Drive mostly. Yeah. And I've gotta run-in log in notes. And every once in a while, I'll revisit it or I'll open it up and say, hey. I haven't looked this in a Wolfe. How is my perspective changed? What have I learned since I started thinking about this, and how can I add to this?
And so my wife statement wasn't something that just came to me because I just thought of it. This was, like, I think you're familiar with Simon Tenek or Sinek. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So he's with my Wolfe, right, with him, I believe. So listen to his book a couple times Wolfe I'm out for a walk in the morning and just constantly thinking about it. It's always on the back burner right now. So I have my Wolfe statement. I have core values.
Right now, the thing that's always in the back of my mind is what is my mission statement. Right? So I might think of something, and I've I've been able to develop a little bit of, like, I'll use the word discipline, but it's like, damn it, Greg, like, do this. Like, you always say you're gonna do this. Do it. Write it down. Write it down right now. And I'll go write it down. I have to do it right then while it's fresh.
I'll write it down and eventually this becomes a series of notes or a or a paragraph or a sentence and then just click. Yeah. I know why I do this. This is a principle. Obviously, you're you're talking, you know, the this personal revelation that's, like, inner work that you're doing. Yep. But we do this for our companies, and I know that you've done it for yours, but I'm just even thinking about your comments a couple minutes ago about wanting to change an industry. Right?
Like, you've got a passion for the door in industry and the guys that are in the door industry and raising up, you know, these people. And you know, I I I'm in the I'm in the service space as well, but then in addition to that, I just built a home and we and then as a homeowner, we all have these experiences with service Mhmm. And it's like, there is such a gap between what you're talking about in a company level versus everybody else. I'll give you an example.
What you just said as far as, like, oh, I heard it. I need to write it down right away. You know how many times I did a walk through in this house? As we were building it with whatever trades guy. And it was like, oh, yeah. We're gonna put a light there. We're gonna put a whatever there. They're there. You know, whatever. Nothing was written down. We had to do it again and again, and it was and turned up wrong and then this and that.
And, unfortunately, for my builder, he just didn't realize that I'm one of the most particular people out there, and we're gonna get it done right. And it really pisses me off that we had to do it again. Right? So why don't we just create a process here? Why are you not writing this down or better yet? Why is it not on this iPad in a fillable pdf so you can email it to your office. Oh, that's right. You don't have any of that set up. Which okay. So now we're talking about super practical stuff.
However, it ties down into what you're talking about, which is like, okay. What do I believe about myself? And am I somebody who cares enough to put these things in place business wise or personal wise. What would you add to this? Well, so you mentioned, I'm I'm a contractor. We come visit. We do labor. You know, we provide a service, but it's it involves materials and labor. The different from, like, building a website or coaching or or whatever.
And you mentioned the people that come work on your house. So let's let's stick with that. Right? Because now we're on topic. This is what this is what I do. I've started paying attention to that. I used to fix a lot of stuff on my own. Yeah. Until I realized you know, well, I just spent a week fixing something that would have taken a plumber a day. $800 on tools that I might use again in 10 years. Like, how how twisted is that? Like, we think that way.
Like, we think that's valuable but what's really valuable is our time. And in this circumstance, this contractor What are you most frustrated about? He wasted your time. Yeah. That's right. Your time is valuable, but so is his? He's wasting your time, and he's wasting his. He's hit. Yeah. Exactly. So there's so many there's so much software out there, and it's so easy to use.
We use we use the software for our you know, it's like a basic CRM, and it's we use it for scheduling and our price book and everything. And it's pretty intuitive. You know, the technicians, which are there's a contractor, technicians, I find that people who work their hands and who are really good at their hands are really bad at returning phone calls and writing stuff down. And I know this because that was me.
Yeah. And and when I learned that, this is a a weak point and then watching how my father does things and and take a note on a napkin from his driver's seat. And then, like Oh, hey. Good. Good. Good. Good. Chaz I totally forgot. Where's his phone number? I can't find it. I know I wrote it down, and it's on a napkin that's rolled up in a ball under his feet. And that that doesn't make him a bad person, it doesn't make him a bad contractor. It doesn't make him bad at his job.
It just makes him bad at writing stuff down and following up. Yeah. That's, you know, and and your thing, right, is is getting how can how can you help people get to the next level? Right? Do you get from 6 figures to 7 figures from 7 to 8? So I'm in a I'm in this position where I'm in, you know, our business does 7 figures. And Chaz was seemingly looking back on it, easy to do. What I was figuring out, it wasn't easy. Right. Right? But now in here, I'm like, why?
I did some pretty simple stuff and it it worked because I just listened to what Chad said about, you know, listening to what he wanted. Right. You know, it's those simple things Yeah. Listening to the customer. Yeah. Making sure that you're hearing their needs and then don't have, like, in your sales guy. Right? So the biggest thing, if someone asks for something, don't tell them they don't want it, Just tell them how you can provide the best version of it and how much it's gonna cost.
They say yes or no. Yeah. Easy enough. Yeah, providing options. It didn't have to be about a persuasion, although there's obviously communication that can be beneficial. Yeah. I love everything that you just said. So for any contractor listening, obviously, those things are those things are incredibly, you know, helpful. Even in even in our remodeling company. It's the same thing.
A little different than, you know, service, but it's still home service where it's like we're going into someone's home. Try not to waste time. I'm curating this experience. Yep. You know, where they've experienced nothing like this before. And it's like, woah. First off, professional everything showed up on time. Like, oh my goodness. What a what a thought. You know? Yep. But but even before you showed up, like, what was the phone call like? And how was it how did that go?
And was there was there a process there? And how did we make them feel through the communication? And was there a follow-up in an email and a text? And do they know exactly who's coming? Maybe even a picture of the tech on the way and, like, a lot of really cool stuff that can happen that builds experience and trust. So that way when the sale, quote, unquote, happens, it doesn't have to be this persuasion twister arm. It's They know and trust you and like you. You have what they need.
You give them options. They pick the best one. You do the work. You create a relationship, and now it's about curating that experience for future business or future referrals. And, obviously, there's so many cool things that go into that, but you just gave so many super practical Things are all the way down to writing it down. It's so simple. It's the it really is the simple stuff.
Taking a minute now to write it down and put it in a place where you Chaz find it is go I promise you is going to save you time. Yeah. And we think of that as, like, I don't have time to write this down. I'll remember it. You're not gonna no. You don't. You are not. It's the it's the proverbial chasing the tail. Like, you're always just chasing the tail. Like Yep. Stop the madness. Stop the downward spiral. You know?
Yeah. And so some advice, like, if you're if you're in, like, if you're running a six figure business, or even because there's different businesses. Right? So, yeah, the position we're in as a, you know, a low 7 figure, a new 7 figure business looking to increase our efficiency, get better at what we're doing, just blow it up from there. Right? You could be at any stage, and it always it always comes back to those simple things. Yeah. And building the processes.
And if you're not willing to spend some time, like, there's a there's so many cliches. Right? So many cliches work in the business versus working on the business. Totally. They have so much meaning and that holds so much weight. Yep. And it it is yes. It's kinda cliche, but you gotta work on the business. It's it's a reason that people say it. Yeah. Yeah. A 100%. 100% build those processes, evaluate what's working, what's not working.
Yeah. Well, for you and anyone else listening who's curious, about the the newly 7 figure because it is different. You're you're you're right. There's certain principles that you carry going forward. Yep. But it's fuel at that point. You've you seemingly got the process. You need to maximize the process. Right? You need to really, really dial in the process, but now it's fuel. It's marketing dollars being spent.
It's a it's a super pin tight sales process with probably some sales people, which is key roles, which is my next point, which is you can't do it all yourself. Like, a lot of times, guys, we'll get that some figure mark. And they're running around like, oh my goodness. Then they got 2 other guys with him. It's like, woah, stop. Stop. You are doing way too much. And I don't even know how you got this far.
Stop. We need to start building a team, and and that's different from just hiring a guy versus putting key roles and, like, okay. What does the business look like? Like you said, working on the business. Okay. So I step back, Like, okay. I got departments here. Maybe they don't feel like departments because it's you and a couple, you know, 2, 3, 4, maybe ten people, but they're departments. Let's look at the business like it is.
And let's start strategically building those sections so that it's not just you, to your point, and that's the fuel. It's like, okay. We got people. We got money in marketing. We got a pin tight sales process. We're working on our experience on the back end to just, you know, create raving fans.
And it's like, man, This now becomes a machine that starts, like, really cranking if the right mindset is in the in the owner, which is what you have was like, I'm on the tip of my tongue waiting to stay mindset. Like, there, man. It it's it's the all in your mindset. And you know, we'll bring the sales thing into it again. Sales, I I always looked at sales as, like, you know, shady used car salesman. Right? Right. Yeah. Some people do. Word. If it is so far, like, profit is required.
You you can't not have profit. Otherwise, you have nothing. Yeah. The goal, my goal is how can I make as much money possible by doing this better than anybody else and making my customers happy that they paid what they paid for what we gave them? Right. Yeah. 100%. If if you if you dissect If the listener just slows down for a half second and actually studies what you just said, it's a game changer.
Because you start thinking about the business like a business number 1, but then you start thinking about the value that's being provided. So to say it like this, because, obviously, this is some of the work that we're doing with the event that we're coming up to the northeast with and some of the other door companies. But if you Chaz understand what I'm trying to leave my customer So as a door company, there's a certain experience that I'm trying to take them through.
A certain trust and a certain relationship that I'm building. We're at the end They've paid me more, maybe even three times as much, but the experience and the trust and the everything that I brought them through was so premium and so perfect that they were happy to pay it, and they left me a crazy review of, like, I would never hire anybody else. Well, so I was like, how do I how how do I have this guy or this gal?
Mister and Missus Jones paying me three times as much as anybody else, and they're happy about it. Well, it's because there was value. Wolfe, what is the value? Well, I can tell you it wasn't you showing up and lubing some springs. Right? Right. You gotta provide options You've gotta listen. You've gotta be there for the customer and give them what they're asking for. You know, we're the professional. They can call you and say, hey.
My door won't open, and we know, okay, it's either the motor's broken or the spring's broken. They'll tell you, yeah, I pushed the button and it opens and it doesn't work. The motor's broken. When we get there and the spring's broken, we know we know they're not a garage door installer technician. Right. That's why they're calling us. Yeah. So they can't do it. Won't do it. Yeah. Or don't wanna do it. 100%.
And for us to be prepared to show up know what we're doing, show up with parts on the truck, 9 out of 10 times, we can leave you with a working door in one visit. That has value. Yep. I want the time that you make the phone call to the time that John we have a guy John answering the phone for us now. He he actually lives in Texas. You you think you met John. Yeah. Maybe you met John. Yeah. Great personality. Great guy. Like, I've never seen I didn't believe, like, someone could be that positive.
And then I meet him in person, and he he is the guy that he is. He's legit. 100% and, you know, he's he's one of the key parts. Right? You don't have to, you know, charging more money or being profit driven doesn't mean that you're not good to people. It doesn't mean that you're ripping people off Now if you're gonna charge three times as much and then, you know, throw a used part on there or give a taillight warranty, yeah, you're ripping someone off.
But if John answers the phone and the person is, like, in a better mood when they get off the phone and then Jim shows up and fixes their door in one visit and gave them 3 options, and they got to pick what they wanted done. Yeah. Right? Yep. That's all great stuff. And you don't, you know, you don't do that by just being the guy in the truck. Yeah. You can't. You can't. You need other people. You need John to answer the phone. You need John to help do the the the service calls.
You know, you need and and I like you know, so with the contractor stuff, we talk about pipeline. Right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. You have a sales pipeline. Right? But you also have to always be looking for people. Right? You gotta have that pipeline open. Yeah. Right. So we have we have a good job posting up now. So we're always hiring. Always hiring. Yep. Which is great. It's it's and until you do it, and you invest the money, you don't see the value. I see the value now.
And then we've also got a couple younger guys working for us. Devin and Ben, and they're great guys. And they're the right guys for us. They don't know anything about BroadSource. But if you got a good attitude Yep. You wanna learn, I will give you whatever resources and opportunities you will take advantage of. Yeah. And that's part of our pipeline too. Training guys. Yeah. Right? So it's all it's all it's such a big peek picture, and I think you started this conversation with people.
Yeah. Right. Something like that. 100% comes down to people. That's it. Relates to people.
Yeah. You know, Greg, I don't I don't I don't do this often Chaz far really share, like, personal stories or even from my business often in the show, but I think that because we're talking contractor, I wanna I wanna flip coin and make it so relatable because it's it a lot of contractors feel that well, if if you're not in my business specifically, then then, like, I don't like, I'm I'm shut off, and I won't listen to you. Just fine. There's value and industry specific detail.
But what we're talking about is experience. What we're talking about is sales process. What we're talking about is people development. Like, these are all business concepts that every business goes through. So I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a quick little story with edible arrangements. Retail franchise.
I owned 7 of them at one point, 3 states, 65 plus employees, and Oftentimes, when someone walks in to an edible arrangement, store, and one of my folks is working there, and they take an order, or what's over the phone. Right? And it's it's grandma Betty. She calls in and she's looking for a fruit basket. Right? And my team member has 2 options. We can we can sell to them, maybe what our pocketbook tells us to sell from, or we can help them get exactly what they want, which could be the same.
It also could be much more. And so in this example of Grandma Betty, Grandma Betty calls in. She's looking for a basket. We don't really ask why. She just we ask for maybe a couple people, and and we get her what we call our our delicious celebration. You know, maybe it comes with half the strawberry dipped in chocolate, and it goes out the door at $65. Right? And it's good. Fine. Grandma Betty does her thing. We have no idea what she's doing with it. It's fine. It it there's no review left.
There's no there's no real much in response. But the other option is this, grandma, Betty, what what do what are we doing here? What what do we what do we need a fruit basket for? Wolfe, my my my grandson Johnny is playing in the soccer tournament this weekend, and they're playing the championship game. Really? You don't say, okay. How many people on that soccer team? What are we gonna be using this for? This is gonna be after the game celebration. Okay. Cool. So these are kids.
So we're trying to go healthy. You want some chocolate on that pineapple and strawberry. Don't you? Yeah. Okay. Cool. Sounds good. And then your grandson, what's his jersey number? Oh, it's 11. Great. I'm gonna put his jersey number in pineapple numbers on top. And, oh, by the way, you said soccer. Right? Like, okay. If I could put this whole basket in a soccer ball container, wouldn't that be cool? She's like, just boom boom boom boom. Like, all this stuff going off.
Grandma Betty walks away with a $175 basket. Right? She's not looking for a fruit tray. She would have gone to, you know, price drop for a fruit tray. Yeah. She's looking for wow. She's looking for experience. Right? She's looking for the expert if I'm looking for the in the in the in the garage door. Right? Wonderful. So grandma Betty, presents this huge package. Got balloons. Congratulations. It's got her grandsons, you know, 11 in the pineapple numbers. It's got chocolate this and that.
And guess what? You know, grandson Johnny is the man on his team, and Grandma Betty is the grandma. Right? That's really what it's about. It's about status. Right? The whole our whole lives about status. And her experience is incredible. She spent three times as much. Yep. And she loved every minute of it. How do we do that in the garage door industry? How do we do that in the HVAC industry? How do we do that in the remodeling business? How do we do it within a in a building of a house?
Like, it comes down to all the principles that you're just talking about. First off, if you don't remember stuff, write it down. And guess what? Even if you do, write it down because guess what? You shouldn't be that guy for very long anyway. Should write it down and record yourself in a video and put it in a folder so that someone else can be trained for that position, like, next week. You know what I mean? Yep. And you just gave us a story about a fruit basket. Right? About a fruit basket.
Anyone could buy fruit but she came there and she got this Wolfe experience. That's right. She paid for it. She was happy with it. Experiences. Anybody could sell a thing But if you can give someone an experience that they remember and that makes them happy, right, why why, like, I don't know, why are we all here? We all wanna be happy. Right? We want some freedom. We want some happiness. We don't wanna be sad and miserable and lonely. Nobody wants that. So you listen to her.
You gave her a great experience. She brought this thing and was the best grandma ever. Right? That's awesome. And you can do that with garage doors. You can do that by changing an air filter in a in a air conditioning unit, it's not about what you're selling. It's about It's, yeah, it's about how you're conducting your business. Yeah. Right? And it comes down to what are your values? Who do you align with? And I don't need to only go to garage door company owners for advice. That would be crazy.
Yeah. I need to go talk to Chaz of all. How how how is his customer service so great, you know, selling fruit baskets? Right. Right? Every contractor that I deal with, and I I told you that I used to do a lot of stuff myself, I learned that it's not not always the best. Like, yeah, it's cool. I Yeah. I changed a couple of doorknobs. I'm like, oh, look. I I know. DIY. Right? That's fun. You wanna take on a project with your husband, your wife, your kids, and and make it an experience. Right?
Because that's what we're talking about at the experience. Yep. I don't wanna come home at the end of my day and say hi to my kids and then go you know, renovate my bathroom until 2 o'clock in the morning. That sucks. I wanna do what I'm good at and then pay somebody for what they're good at. Yeah. And I pay attention to every contractor that comes into my house and how they conduct their cell.
And this is so important to me In general, even if you go to Dunkin' Donuts, I don't care if the person's having a bad day your contractor comes to your house and they miss something, they mess something up. Give them, you know, give them a fair shot. Right? You go to Dunkadona, the girl, you know, what do you want? Say something nice. Exactly. Love it. Mile ladder. You know, the guy comes into your house to work on your furnace. Hey, man. I've cleared some space for you. Do you need anything?
Chaz I get you a bottle of water, treat people like people? Yeah. Right? Yeah. Spread Chaz, like, that's contagious. It's contagious. It is contagious. So you give them that opportunity. Yeah. From a business owner. The rest of their day. Yeah. That's so good, man. It's so good because it's I mean, you laid it on us on the reverse side. That's not your expectation on your people, although it is.
We were over here talking about the listener being who were talking about being as a business owner, but in all the other areas of their life. I don't know if they caught that, but that's what I wanted to just make sure that they knew you were talking about. Yeah. Yep. You gotta you you look at it from every perspective. Right? What's the perspective from the other side? I try to we use some automations. We use different software.
Every once in a while, throw myself in as a customer and let those automations fire off. And, like, am I harassing people Is my punctuation good? Does this present Wolfe, or is this, like, just dog crap? Like, what are we putting out there? Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah. It all matters. Okay. I wanna go I wanna go practical on you again. Yep. I wanna talk about a good decision that you've made.
Something in the business that you can look back on and go, dude, this one thing that I did, I'd do it over and over again. I hear someone. It's just anybody. It's just Just go down the street. Like, if you gotta That's you can't get out of the truck if you're the only guy in the truck or the only girl in the truck. Yeah. I put off hiring someone, and it essentially what it came down to was not making a decision. Right? Right?
Maybe just having the confidence Chaz is that is the worst decision you can make is not making any decision at all. And when I say hire someone, you know, do your due diligence. Don't, you know, yeah. I knew you were kidding, but, you know, you have to you gotta find, you know, the right person. If you can't find the right person, find someone that you can train.
Yep. Have your pipeline full for for team members, just like you have your pipeline full for work or for sales, you gotta have that pipeline full too. And so I I if you're the only person and you're putting off hiring somebody, you have to You have to hire someone. You can't not. And once I hired someone and got them out on the road, And, yeah, there was grow there was growth. Yeah. There was mistakes made. They made mistakes. I made mistakes. You you can't do something.
You know, I used to think that you had to know how to do it before you could do it. That's that's a terrible thought process. Yeah. You gotta have a a plan and you gotta try. And then if it doesn't work out, you gotta figure out why and try something else. Yeah. But, definitely, best decision I made early. I mean, it it I waited too long. To hire somebody. That was the first decision that I made that had a big impact on the business. Yeah. Love it. What about a bad choice?
Something that you did that was a disaster. Set or we'll just take it back to the same thing waiting too long to make a decision and thinking that I had to know how to do something before I knew how. That's that is the worst choice that I made in this whole process. I wouldn't nail it down to like, I didn't I didn't, like, spend a $1,000,000 on inventory that I never used. You know what I mean? There wasn't, like, one bad decision. My bad decision was choosing not to make decisions.
Yeah. That's really good. I wanna dive in just to just maybe another 30 seconds or so to the I didn't think I I had or I Chaz to think I I thought that I had to knew it and know it before I could do it. I share this with you because it's actually why, you know, at twenty four years old, I was looking at businesses. I had looked at know, I looked at everything, bro. Like, service companies. I looked at furniture. I looked at franchises. I looked at smoothies. I looked at I mean, you name it.
You name it. 2 years almost. I looked at it. Sales background, a single mom family, so not handy whatsoever at this point. You know, I've I've become handy, but, you know, the landlord, real estate, owning my own company and and and my own home. You know? So I still don't hire it, though. But going back here, I'm not handy. So I stayed away from the service, the home service, industry because I'm like, well, I'm I don't know how to install a garage door. I don't know how to put on a roof.
I don't know how to clean I I didn't I didn't know any of that. So that's actually what it didn't deter me, but it it pushed me towards more something that I felt like I could pick up on easier. Like, well, I can build a fruit basket. You just cut some fruit, put it in there. Like, you know, whatever. And and and so even though that was limited mindset, like what you're talking about, it it put me on a trajectory. It's fine. I obviously think differently now.
What would you say to that guy listening who's in that same boat that we were, which is like, well, how am I supposed to do that if I don't know how am I supposed to train it? How might like, there's all these questions that we have. Right? Like, what would you say? You can kick the tires all day, and you can kick that thought back and forth all as long as you want, and nothing nothing will ever, ever, ever happen. Nothing will happen if you just stick with that.
So for me, I was familiar with garage doors. I said, okay. How can I take garage doors and make money with it? And then I had this, you know, some eye opening experiences that, hey. People can really make money doing this. And then I say, okay. I'm gonna try and make this a business. I didn't say I'm gonna open a garage door business. I said I know how to put in a garage door, let's see where this goes. Let me start. And that was the path.
You said I don't know anything about installing garage doors or putting in a thing. And you chose a path. But what did you know about making fruit baskets when you made that choice? Right? Well, nothing, but I knew how to market and to sell, right, previous retail experience and previous phone sales experience. So I knew I could I knew I could close deals. That's right there. So you took something you were familiar with and some things that you knew Yep.
And applied it to something that you don't know. Very good. I took garage doors, which I knew, knew nothing about marketing, knew nothing about sales, nothing about people, nothing about but I literally only knew garage Right? I know I know stuff. Right? But if from running a business Yeah. The only part of running the business that I knew was someone called me they asked me to fix something, and I went and fixed it. And that was it.
Yep. I I had one familiar point, and that's where I jumped off from. If I knew what I know now, would I go back and start a garage door business? Yeah. I can't say. I don't know. Sure. But I started from some place, and then just kept doing things that were like, what's next? What else can I do? Just how can I make this better? So you have to just, again, not making a decision is a really bad decision. So if you got something you're familiar with, sales, marketing, check out free basket.
If you know how to fix stuff, see if you can turn that into something. Yeah. If you don't know anything, pick someone who does and who's willing to spend the time with you because I guarantee you, and I know this from personal experience, someone who's good at something and Chaz put in the time to learn and do better at it knows that they're not perfect at it, but they know a lot of stuff.
And if they see that you are willing to put in the time and effort, they will give you all of the answers because they know if you don't do anything with it, that's your problem. And if you do do something with it, there's a 99% chance that you're gonna be so grateful Yeah. Which gratitude is a big part of that. We could do a whole other episode on gratitude. They're gonna be so great.
You're gonna so grateful for what they gave to you that you were gonna do whatever you Chaz, and that's the difference between a mentor versus, like, going to college. Yeah. So true. There's a there's a a given there's a return. And some of that return for your mentor is the satisfaction of knowing that they along something good. Yeah. So Yeah. Even if you know nothing, find somebody that you look up to and ask them questions. Start template to learn. Speak now. How to learn. Jump now.
Don't wait. Take what you have. I mean, so many, like you said earlier, even cliche statements that we can pull out of the last five minutes, but the listener should dash probably pause, go back and listen again because that was incredible. I wanna transition to our speed round. I wanna ask you in the in this garage door, conglomerate that you're building. What is the most important KPI or how I like to say it? If you could only pick one thing to track forever and ever, What would it be?
I am an efficiency. Like, I'm obsessed with efficiency. So everything I look at is how how much so I guess the I guess the answer would be profitability. Right? So you you need to track your profitability. How efficiently can we do this job to make the most amount of money possible while still adhering to our mission statement, our core values, while still connecting with people, take taking care of people. Rob is not a dirty word. Without profit, you have no business. And Right.
If you if you pay attention to only one thing, how efficiently can we like, what can we earn on this amount of production, whether it's man hours, women hours, you know, being inclusive there, like labor hours. Right? Yeah. You know, what are we looking at? How efficient can we be? Let's look at our profit. And then, like, you have to make decisions based on Chaz, because at the end of the day, it's a business. And if something is not making money, it's it's what is it here for?
You can't help people you can't give back, you can't mentor, you can't donate money if you don't have money.
Yeah. It takes it takes it it it's it's funny because people like to run, you know, from this reality that it it takes it but all the people that I know that, like you said, can't give or that don't give or that, you know, are are chasing their tail like we talked about earlier, it's it's usually because they have problems that they can't solve because they they don't have the money to do so. Yep. They're not paying close enough attention to it, at least. So that's awesome.
What what book or maybe podcast or other resource would you recommend for someone trying to grow the business? I do a lot of audio book. Some of them are really crappy to listen to, but they have a lot of value. I'm gonna give you I'm gonna give you a few books because they have different purposes. Right? So I can give you just one, but some books that have been most impactful on me are the energy buff. K. Is it reasonable ones? Little tidbit there. It's exactly what it sounds like.
The energy bus is basically what you put out. You get back. And it's it's, this journey for this guy who You know, it's kinda like a whole, you know, not happy at work, not happy at home, and then now he turns it around. Right? Right. Just by his attitude. Right? So the energy bus is a good one. Atomic habits, right, were creatures of habits. How can you how can you What do you do when you first wake up in the morning? Chaz an impact on everything you do for your day.
So atomic habits is a good one. That's for anybody, business owner, non business owner, Jocko. Everybody knows and loves Jocko. He can be tough to listen to, but extreme ownership. Yep. Really, really impactful. Yeah. Owning owning your decision. And then how can, like, even if someone else makes a decision, caused the chain reaction. What could I have done differently to help? And that's big with developing processes for business. That's right.
Okay. I asked Chaz to do X Y Z and He did x and y. I don't know why he didn't do z. How can I what did I do? What can I do differently? Right? So extreme ownership, And then how to win friends and influence people? That's another great one. Wow. Like, interpersonal skills, dealing with people. Fantastic. But those are my top four books. K. Highly recommend all four of them.
Yeah. We'll put we'll put links to all those in the show notes for listener, but, dude, what a what a gamut of classics and yet it's so practical. And you kinda, like, I don't know if you realize this, but you kinda divvy up the different angles you know, of of what it takes to be successful. And you're right. It it takes ingredients from all those things, so I appreciate that. What are your thoughts on intentionally networking and or Master Mining with other entrepreneurs.
If you're not doing 1 or both, why? Yeah. I don't know. Why do I need to do it, Greg? Why why are we here right now? You know, we're we're We're here. This is We're doing it right now. Networking. I met you at a a paid networking event that I went to, and we're all here to help each other. And networking. There's networking with peers and and whatnot, but mastermind groups and paid networking groups Yep. They're someone is driving it and someone is being compensated to oversee the whole thing.
Sure. Which has value. Yeah. And it helps connect, like minded people, and it helps I've I've learned so much through networking, mentorship, And, like, I'm in a peer networking group that I pay to begin, and it's like, I I see the value. You have to you have to trust it at first. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe maybe, you know, you give it a shot. Maybe you try a couple networking groups before you find one that that's the right fit for you.
What I promise you, if you try a couple and find something that fits, yeah, you will even just from a personal growth standpoint, let's say Let's say there's a $0 ROI. The amount of personal growth and friendships and networking opportunity is invaluable. Yeah. Yeah. You're so right too on that. I I've never really shared this in in response to somebody's answer here, but You're right. Sometimes it's a group or 2 that you have to go through first to be able to find your tribe as they say, maybe.
Or even in the tribe, know, like, we have this with Gather and the Kings. I find out, you know, sometimes, you know, that a lot of times people think that signing up for something, a coaching program, a mastermind group, getting on a podcast, going to an event. It's like, shoot it to me right here in the arm. It's the magic bullet, and it's not. What's the magic bullet, though? Because there is one. It's the relationships that you just got done talking about.
Yep. It's the other people their experiences their networks, connections, their answers and or questions to you, the tough love or feedback or encouragement Yep. All those things that come from the people. And so I've seen this even several times, even in my own mastermind group where someone joins thinking that it might be, like, hard hitting advice, which it is. Don't get me wrong. I think that you would agree with your group as well. It's like, oh, that was good. Let me write that down.
But that's not, like, really the bullet that you're looking for. Right? Talk about leveraging time, resources, and key relationships. And that key relationship piece is the ticket. Right? There was ever a ticket, a golden ticket, You can join as many groups as you want to, and you can hop back and forth and round and round, but it's about you intentionally pouring into others even inside of the group because that's the return. You know what I mean?
Yeah. You've gotta be willing to give more than you expect to get, and that is where that's where the return comes from. Honestly. Yeah. That's you gotta give more than than you expect to get. That's where it comes from. And you're when you join a group like this, you're collectively solving problems. That's why I have an employee issue or if you have a sales pipeline issue or if whoever, you know, Hey, Chaz. I'm having trouble with this problem. Have you ever run into actually, yes.
Here's what I did. By the way, I'm having trouble with this problem. Have you ever run into this? No. But let's figure it out together. That's right. That's right. That's, you know, it's a pretty amazing pretty amazing experience to go through. So Yeah. Highly highly recommended. Like, if you're not, like, if you're trying to learn and run and grow a business, and you're not networking on that level, it it you need to.
Yeah. I did it for years without it thinking that and not that arrogantly, I thought that I had all the answers necessarily, I just didn't think I I saw the value in paying for relationships. You know? Yeah. Got a guy. Actually, it actually garage door guy in our group, and he said to me, this is months ago, he just joined. And he goes, you know, I didn't I didn't realize this, but what I needed was friends. I was like, okay.
So so what you actually mean is this is that you don't have anybody in your life. You have friends. I mean, he goes to church, and he's got, you know, other people in his community. He doesn't have people that also own a certain type of business or certain level of business Chaz he can communicate. Like, you're talking about, at this level. That's what he he doesn't have that relatability.
And, yes, like, there's some good guys, and so it turns into friendship or relationship, but the the relatability at that level is what you don't realize even that you're missing, which is what basically, I I didn't realize either early on. So I wanna get to my next question here, which is about family because I I I prepped you a little bit on this question. You told me you have some good answers, so I wanna I wanna definitely have time for this.
There's this journey that I've been on personally, and I think every entrepreneur is on it, whether they've realized it or communicated it or even acknowledged it, is that were obsessed with our business. You mentioned earlier, obsession, you know, Grant Cardone. I've, you know, obsessed the obsessed would be average. One of my favorite books, even way before that back in the day, you know, thinking about talks about burning desire and a definiteness of purpose.
Like, this is what this is, and and we know that in business, this is how we become successful. I think the the gap, though, is we don't apply those things in our marriage or in our kids as fathers. And so how have you been obsessed if we're gonna use that word in all of those things? It's not one or the other. It's definitely not balanced. How are you how are you doing this? There's no balance.
There's give and take in everything we do in life, and I'm fortunate a a little backstory share share this with you. I I was married before, divorced. It was similar decision to my other career path. We ended up together, you know, the kids stayed together, decided I don't want my kids to see what example am I setting? Yeah. Right? I don't want them to think that this is what a healthy relationship is. And that was my final straw that made me decide This is it.
Whatever fallout there is, I'll just deal with it, but this is the decision that I need to make. And I made a decision and I stuck with it, and it was a good decision. Was it easy? No. But I made it. Led to me, meeting, and marrying my best friend. Yeah. Okay? So I know not everybody's fortunate to have, you know, the relationship that I have. Same with business. Not every day is good. Alright. Not every day is good, but some days are you couldn't you couldn't imagine it better.
And then the rest of the days are in between are are also good, you know, they're good days. And there's give and take and there's respect. And the same values that it takes to run a successful business, it also takes to be successful in your home life. Right? Pay attention, and I've actually told my wife that if I am giving too much attention to the business, I need you to tell me. Yeah. Just tell me. Tell me. Communicate. 100%. Bad news is better than not getting any communication at all.
Yeah. And that applies to everything in life. Feeling a customer, feeling a family. So I have some, you know, some unique life experience that I do share with some, not others, you know, went through the divorce thing, left a a career that had pension benefits, like, stable job union, like, I left it all. It wasn't making me happy. I left that found things that did make me happy.
And because of what I went through, I have a unique perspective and appreciation, And I wanna give as much as I can to what I do have. And I'm not the best father every day. I'm not the best business owner every day. I'm not the best friend. I'm not the best husband every day, but I'm always trying equally in all of those to do better. And when I learned something that applies to business, sometimes that applies to being a better husband or being a better father.
So there is no Such work or wife or kids. You have to be in all of it. And if you choose only the business, tell your wife and kids you you don't just tell her you want a divorce because it's not fair to hold somebody to that. Choose to be at all of it and choose to give a 110% to all of it. Yeah. I think I covered I think I covered everything. Yeah. Super vulnerable, man. I appreciate that. It it's it's real. It's honest.
The, I guess, the the takeaway that I just me personally listening to that is that not only is it is it a choice because you you gave several examples of choices that you made. But that it's it's it's intentional. Like, you you have to choose and then intentionally re choose over and over again, which which we know. We know. I gotta re sign up to be dad today. I gotta re sign up to be husband today. I gotta re sign up.
But maybe the attitude underneath that is not that I have to re sign up yet to get to re sign up. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So how do we think about it? Yeah. Yeah. Mindset. Right? My Yep. Mindset. Oh, yes, sir. A little little plug there. Alright. Last question here for you. Greg, I wanna know. I gotta know. If you could whisper in the younger Greg's ear, what would you say? Just just keep on going. Just let it ride.
Take it one day at a time, and I would not, you know, and what I've been through, I wouldn't change a thing because I wouldn't be who I am today. And I like that person. So Yeah. Good, man. There's a there's a powerful place to be when you can when you can like where you are. You know, I also heard you say that you're grateful but that you're not done. And we use this phrase and gather the Kings quite a bit.
I've said it on the show many, many times, but what you just said even just highlighted it, which is like, man, grateful for where I'm come from. Definitely not done. Happy about where I'm at. Yep. Still places to go. There will always be more And if you care more about the more than you do about where you are, then there's there's no there's no happiness there. Yeah. There's no gratitude. There's no place of peace in that moment. It's the journey. It's the life lessons. It's the bad days.
It's the good days. And you can't and you're you're a religious guy. Yeah. Obviously, right. The Gathering Kings is a right. So I'm I'm very neutral when it comes to that, and we could do a whole I would love to even do a whole episode with you on cause I have very neutral opinions on it. But I respect it, and I understand the teachings and the and the values of it. And I totally just took myself on a tangent out where I was going with it. But it's Bring it back. Bring it back. It's gone.
It's gone. It's maybe it'll come back. I'll call you later and tell you what it was, but it it it's totally gone. But That's awesome. But that that's the life of an entrepreneur. We have we're in so many directions. All the time. You gotta you gotta realize that and stay focused. You know? Yep. Take note. And and then it's okay. Yeah. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay to live with the fact that I You you have been more than valuable today. I don't know what more than valuable is. Maximum value.
Thank you. How can the listener find you? So maybe they're in the northeast and they need their garage door serviced, or maybe they wanna pick your brain. Because they've related to what you said. So I'm definitely spending more than my fair share of time on Facebook. I owe a lot of my networking and finding mentors to it directly. It's that it really shrunk the garage door world and got me in touch with a lot of really, really good people. You definitely can find me on Facebook.
My name is gonna be in the the, you know, title in the notes from the episode. Right? But Greg Buinto, g I a q u I n t o. You'll find me it's a public profile. Our business is jag, it's my father's name, and funds overhead door. We rank very well on on Google in our area. My my boy, Ryan, get it get it what he does. Does our SEO. You definitely find this by Google on us. And if you call the number that pops up online, you will get one of the most genuinely happy guys that answers the phone.
If you call between 8 AM 3 PM Eastern, and, you know, he'll he'll direct you to me. I'm not giving you my my personal cell phone number, but business number is 203-456-9133. So for all of your garage door needs in and around Connecticut, call me. If you're not in Connecticut, call me, and I guarantee you, I could find somebody in my network that can help you out. Awesome. Because we we work like that. So Yeah. Yeah. That's a pretty tight group across the country as we're learning.
So, Greg, again, you've just been incredible. Thank you for giving of your time and of your just knowledge and experience. Is upon your family, upon your business, all the things that you have your hand to in 2023. Thank you so much for being here. Appreciate you, Chad. Thank you, man. 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 businesses and multiple different industries, and now interviewing literally over 2 or 300. Other very successful 789 figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone.
And so gathering the Kings literally exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe. That 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.