On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. I lived on nothing. I tell people part of my story is I lived on nothing for so long that when I actually had the ability to live on more than nothing, I didn't really need to live on more than that, nor did you want it, probably. I didn't really I didn't really matter. It really became about a higher purpose, which I'm sure we'll talk more about in a few minutes, but Yeah. It's about people.
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 they've made along the way, they give a true and accurate picture of the journey of success and how you too can get the Through this dialogue, you will learn the value of growing your network and surrounding yourself with power players and kings like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe gathering the King's podcast today. I've got Roy Wood here on the King stage.
My brother Roy. How are we doing? Good. Good. Wonderful. Wonderful in Tennessee. Ready for spring. Wonderful. Tennessee. That's right. That's right. There's, you know, there's some there's some beautiful places out in Tennessee. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. East Tennessee is beautiful. Southern Middle Tennessee is beautiful. I mean, there's beautiful places everywhere in Tennessee. So We call it god's country here. Yeah. You know, I think there's a couple of states that claim that Yeah.
That title of god's country. You know? Got some family and questions. It's my story that I'm sticking to it. So exactly. Well, I was gonna say, you know, it doesn't I don't know if if the one himself has come down and determined which date is his. So I think you can keep on claiming it, brother. That's right. And and as far as I'm concerned, Nebraska, although I I I love a lot of people in Nebraska, the actual area itself, I can think of Tennessee being way more beautiful. Yeah. Right.
Yeah. Alright. So is that where you're in you're in, like, in Nebraska? I'm in Kansas City, but the Okay. I've got I've got some family in Nebraska and and the state sign. You drive into Nebraska and it says, God's country. You know? So Yeah. You're right. I guess I guess to each their own opinion on that. Right? That's right. Roy, tell us what kind of business that you got, brother? Well, I'm in I'm in the, I would say, small, construction company.
We do kind of midsize commercial, do some retail. We have a fire and flood damage division. We do residential remodel reconstruction approach, and we're pretty versatile in terms of all the different trades that we do. And that just was sort of an involvement over time of I guess just being a good relational contractor and people trusting and saying, hey.
We need you to take care of this and a lot of large GCs that I've started working for from Small to midsize commercially, you know, 50,000 foot and down and just handling more and more trades and and the super subbing some and So and we're just basically in general construction altogether. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love how you gave the depiction there just real quick for the listener. It's not so much that you have all these different trades.
Yes. You do, but you're in the relationship business. And when you build a relationship with someone, that person has a lot of different types of needs, and, that's different than trying to be everything to all people. So I'm I'm a definitely wanna get into that here in a little bit because you definitely honed in on the focus there of the relationship, not necessarily the trade, so I wanna get your opinion on some of that in a little bit. But I wanna know why. Roy? Why are you here?
Why are you in business? Why are you still in business after all these super successful years? For all these relationships, you're still at it. Why? Well, I think for for me and and my story, a little bit of a backdrop to my story is they have an old saying that a necessity is the mother of all invention. And for me, it was kind of started out as mere survival.
My story is not really one that consists of I had this dream become some kind of a 7 figure entrepreneurial, and I certainly didn't dream to get into construction in particular. But being a small tab, blue color, kid from North Alabama originally. It had a couple of uncles that kinda built their own houses and things like that and just grew up on a dirt road, barefoot it, and know, just had to work for everything. Hold hay when I was, you know, junior high school.
And so you kinda grow up that wood collar work ethic and kinda tackling things, but In all reality, I moved to Tennessee about 23 years ago and married my Wolfe, and we began to raise a small family. And, You know, I had some problem areas in my life between the age of seventeen a night taking them at a radical intervention in my life and my faith. And, well, that sent me on a course, but, you know, I didn't even finished high school. And I've I've saved that to be kinda raw and real.
I had to self educate certainly in the process of life. You you have an opportunity to become educated Yeah. And and so I just evolved and started out really just having to make a living for my family. When I moved to Tennessee, my father-in-law, and it did remodel work. And I certainly look for a job, you know, look for that path away. But truthfully, my own story kind of revolves around ministry.
It was the purpose of calling and, always worked hard for my family, but I needed to do so with a flexible schedule. Always considered that my family and and ministry obligations, so to speak, were a big priority, and I needed to not just give myself to a career. So to get to how I ended up getting a stretch and, you know, I did side jobs. You know, I figured out I could do a little painting to do a few things and I began to incorporate.
And as I learned a few things, I remember it the first time, but I I actually did some work My wife and I got married in May. Now we were broke. You know how it is most of the time, unless you get some money. And we were going to be going on a little honeymoon a couple of days, but her family did a big 4th July 7 day deal in the Smoky Mountains every year. Okay. And so we said we're just gonna take a little short, honey, ma, to 3 days, and then we're gonna come back.
We're gonna go on vacation with the family. Well, I didn't even have the money to go. And I ended up going out, and I saw my father-in-law do something and selling a driveway. I mean and I had this lady 9 Blazer And I'm like, well, I've got money that I I've worked on my job to get by. Yeah. But I need to make a little extra money to go on this trip. And so I went out of the neighborhood on a on a Saturday, and I just started talking to some people and said, hey. I can I can steal your driveway?
And and I was so amazed that the the one guy, he said, well, what do you charge us? Well, I I need to educate myself a little bit. I'll just tell me what you charge. I looked it over. I had no idea if I was in the stratosphere. Right? So he put me on the spot. You know, and I didn't have to say that. So I told him $500, and he said, I was so blown away. I know I didn't. I was gonna make any money. I love it. It was so blown away. And before I got out of the neighborhood, I did 5.
And I remember Wolfe. I ended up clearing, like, $1500, and that was a big deal. It was a big confidence booster. And so I knew that I could do at least something on the side. Yeah. And over the years, I had a couple of jobs, and I had to go through a couple of job changes. And so I found out that I could sort of bridge the gap. And I could make a little bit of side money. And then to fast forward, really, to the last 10 years, about 10 years ago, I assumed another level of ministry calling.
And, and when I did so, I knew I had to get myself to such a degree that I I couldn't just go work in a factory and be dictated or take on a particular career. One time, I remember in particular I went, to take a job, but I just felt the whole time it was the right thing to do, but I was needing financial Right. Support, you know, needed some for my family that was I could just rent then.
Mhmm. I remember thinking the whole time I was offered the job, I ended up turning the job down again, to be flexible. And I started to have a backup truck, and I just started doing enough work to get by. So the long story to the short is I needed to survive. Yeah. And with a standing a deck or pressure washing house, it often times I'd have to go get a down payment, go buy a small tooth just to go do the job and It all worked out in the end.
And I remember some really difficult times, but it evolved over time. One thing that I was blessed with was people trusted me. Yeah. And Chaz just grew. And then I would even be honest and say, I don't know how to do that. I'm not that's not my area. And they would say, well, can you get it done? Can you handle it? And I found out that people just wanted somebody to handle it. Yep. And I found out that I could handle things. I coordinate.
I could line things up, and then I've learned in the process. And so and, really, it wasn't a dream, but as I as I grew, And I really began to dream. I really began to envision that, hey, if I can do this, you know, I mentor young men and, They'll let you respond to this, but, mentoring you a minute along the way and not tell them, you know, I used to think, man, if I could just make $25 an hour. Right. Or if I could just make $50 an hour.
And I talked to a young man now, and I can comprehend making $10,000 in an hour. Right. They can't even relate to that. So it's a journey. It's it's a stair step up to where you believe and you begin to envision and and so forth. So that's really how I got you. Yeah. Well, you've given us so much value already. I wanna try to just to pick some of this for the listener if they're paying attention. Number 1, I just love how it it gets stemmed from survival. It's just so real.
Like, most people listening today, myself included, We we do the things that we do or started doing the things that we do out of necessity. It was yes. It's who we are because it was always there. You just hadn't maybe stepped into it fully, and it was your external circumstances that pushed you into that sit situation.
Yeah. And and so and maybe maybe you wouldn't have been pushed as hard if you didn't wanna be involved with the ministry and absolutely had to have, you know, the the the flexibility. Yeah. Absolutely. You were pressed Right? And so that's what I love about about everything that you just said is that you were pressed in multiple different circumstances, and then you figured it out along the way.
The the professional piece that you also gave too around, even just the understanding of how much money to make, it made me think about a a story that I told a couple times, but I haven't I haven't shared it very often. I used to do a ton of sales training. So similar to you, you know, new sales guys would come in. I was the top dog. I had a a couple thousand in the company and making gobs more, you know, 400 plus, and they're, like, doing 60. Like, there's a big gap in in our sales commissions.
And but I'm the I'm the I'm the guy doing some coaching, and and a lot of people even wondered why I did that. And to you, the same thing. I'm sure you just get a bunch of fulfillment from helping those guys, but the reality of it is that I transfer courage to that individual, just like you just said, they can't comprehend making the 10000 an hour yet. But when they hear guys like you talk, They began to think about those things.
And so I remember those moments where, you know, I would talk to sales guys, and they could just, you know, they were dreaming of the day and make a 100, 120 5000. And I would always say, like, absolutely Chaz that that now that reality here is selling this product as possible, but here's what I'm excited for. And they'd be like, what? I'm excited for you to think back one day and go, how did I even live on a 125? Yeah. Right. And he just watched their mind go, like, wait. What?
I don't even know what that feels like to have it let alone to feel that way. And so I just love what you're saying there as far as being able to not only transfer courage to other people, but even the people listening right now. Yeah. They are thinking about ways for them to be able to grow their business, whether they're doing 10,000,000 or a 100,000,000, or they just got started and they did their first 100,000. It takes another level of courage to believe that you can do it.
Is exactly what you were just talking about. And sometimes that takes a little bit of time. Would you agree? Oh, abs absolutely. I think the the process, which is honestly one of the things that a lot of people try to avoid. It's right. And, really, it's inevitable.
So there are certain things that a person can achieve, maybe by lesser than strenuous means, but at the same time, somewhere if you're gonna really get all in and you're gonna make the jarity, and there's a process that absolutely develops the person. The character of an individual. And if you're really gonna grow broad, you know, you can in sales, yeah, you can go out and one person can really kill it.
If you're ever gonna have an organization or build a team or grow broad or something that's gonna grow beyond your own efforts, Chaz you're gonna have to be made as a and built and processed as a person. Because it's gonna involve other people. Right. People that grow networks of teams of people are people who have excelled in developing things about their character. Yeah. I think the more genuine you are, the more human you are, the more relatable you are.
I mean, I I'm surrounded with great people. And to say the truth about it, it's not because I'm smart or have somebody that it it I think a lot of this because People are attracted to being genuine. They're attracted to somebody. I think that they know came from nothing. And they fought 3. Right. A lot of difficult days, cold days, hot days, long nights. That's right. And then the sense of Chaz, you're being made as a person.
And as you're being made as a person, it makes you more understanding sympathetic, compassionate, relatable, all of the things that you really need for people to not only be attracted to you, right, because there's people who have a surplus on it and people are attracted to them. But then when they get close to them, they realize there's things that really begin to turn them off. That's right. So guys, I see guys that can sometimes attract people. They got a good charisma.
You know, they're kind of fighting or whatever. Well, they really can give a really good spiel out there to give people some hope. If I hook up with this guy or this lady and we Chaz really go somewhere, But then they began to question the sustainability, the long term vision. And as a matter of fact, is there goals to really help me and grow us, or is it just all about them? That's right.
So I think the process of difficulty and challenge kinda takes some of that out of us and makes us kinda humble. And and really, honestly, my success story is I got 2 things going for me. The people around me and the fact that I didn't quit. And that's just really that's about it. I didn't I'm trying to be as genuine as I can because anybody that listens to this needs to kind of take a little courage of I had a lot of days, a lot of days where I thought. I'm trying to do it right.
And I'm trying to do it all the right way and do it all honest, all above board. Right? And it just felt like I wasn't getting anywhere, but I think God saw fit that at a time where my character become established enough that god could put people with me the people that god began to put with me, including my own sons, is really what helped us broaden and grow. And I really think buying it is is that I lived on nothing.
I tell people part of my story is I lived on nothing for so long that when I actually had the ability to live on more than nothing, I didn't really need to live on more than that, nor did you want it, probably. I didn't really I didn't really matter. It really became about a higher purpose, which I'm sure we'll talk more about in a few minutes, but Yeah. It's about people.
So if you really wanna grow a business and as an entrepreneur and you want something that outgrows you, yeah, first of all, you've got to grow. And if you grow, then there's potential for a lot of growth to happen. Yeah. I mean, Roy, you I hope the listeners paying close attention. And taking notes.
And if they're and if you're listening right now and you're not, you need to go back and listen to the last 10 minutes again, Roy, if we ended the podcast right now, Whether you've given them so much value to be able to walk away with.
And so I wanna know along the way, a couple of, maybe good and bad decisions here, and you've hinted at already a couple of principles that just are so profound that we could probably spend an entire podcast on multiple of these principles that you've already listed. But some of them are obviously an individual growing. Like, the business is never gonna outgrow you. Or if it does, you even gave us that answer too. I've been I've been in organizations where the business outgrew the individual.
And soon as you get close enough to that individual, you realize it's selfish ambition. You're like, I don't want anything to do with this. And I think more and more people, including our our clients, are becoming more knowledgeable or maybe just more in tune with this genuine or authentic authentic perspective that that you're talking about giving. And so I wanna encourage the listener in that. You also talked about building a team and and obviously building people.
And so inside of this good decision, how would you narrow one thing down. Like, what what was the one decision that you made that you can look back on and go? And that I would do this thing over and over and over again. What is Wolfe, to to to touch on something just prior to that Chaz you just said that I'd like to comment to the for the purpose of the listing issues.
Think the reason people are kind of was you say kind of being more and more attractive, more aware of of genuine, is because corporate America Chaz really felt people in its greed. Yeah. Yeah. I've got a a friend of mine that manages, say, I would go to name the particular, but they do 5,000,000 and 1,000,000 of dollars a year. And he's always struggling to manage a group of people because they pay down the least they can pay down to get the job done.
Wow. The goal is to keep corporate profits high. Right. And we are in this to make money, right, because you need money to grow and to make money. But at the same time, the the connection of people's lives and other people's dreams and for goodness sakes just to give them a real livable wage. And then we create this top down pressure. And we have managers overworking themselves to try to make up gaps because we have high turnover rates, the attrition rates are through the roof. Right?
And so I think people are just you know, I've had people say I work for the last if I like who I work for. Yeah. And that's certainly been the case for me, and I want people to make the most they can make. That's the goal. Right? And you wanna help them get to where they wanna get to. I don't even like to talk about ceilings. I like think that, hey. If you buy in and we're together, they there is no ceiling.
Yeah. And give everybody room to dream and to grow, but you have to build a built there's times that I couldn't compete. There's a company that already had 500 employees and they're big and, you know, somebody and I just couldn't compete at that but there's those who who actually came from a company or 2 that probably had a higher ceiling at the time, but they realized there was a vision And they they came on and said, you know what? Yeah. It's less now, but we like our environment.
We like what we're building. We like who we're partnered with, and we see the vision. And You can really unfold and develop some. As far as a particular decision, particularly that I made, I can't really name one particular decision other than keeping god first. And, and I think just not quitting. There were so many times that you can make all kinds of good decisions, but if you quit, All those good decisions are over. You know, I think the thing was is the times that I just wanted to quit.
I mean, I've set out at at, you know, 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. I had a deadline. I had something I had to do. Something went wrong. I've got nobody to help me. I don't even know what I'm gonna learn how to fix something. It's freezing cold. My hands and knuckles are And I'm just I mean, there's times of grown man cries, and I just wanna quit. You know? But I think, again, what lens to my success was just I just didn't quit.
Yeah. And I've never made the customer pay for my inadequate seeds are my lack of knowledge. You know, I see guys that go out. They try to price something because they're not efficient. They're not well versed in what they're doing. They just wanna make a big buck, and so they try to drain the customer. And, you know, if I messed up, I considered it. I'm learning through this.
I'm gonna be better next time being more efficient, but the customer doesn't deserve to be penalized for my lack of knowledge or understanding. So I think my biggest decision that I made honestly, truly, was to to follow God in my faith and those family values, and that become the moral compass that really transcended all of my permeated my whole atmosphere in business myself and all the people around me in my environment And other than that, it was just learning along the way of not quitting.
Yeah. I mean, if the listener is is any sort of in tune with what you're saying, you just drop, like, 6 great decisions on us. So I appreciate you saying you don't have any, but, man, you just gave us literally, like, 6 of them, which is fantastic.
And so not only to, you know, keeping god first, keeping your faith first, which I love how you you you present you presented that as, like, a pinnacle and then how that drips down into who you you are, moral compass, core values, you can you can say it a lot of different ways. But in essence, you see people in a specific way because you've got a certain appreciation or maybe even a gratefulness for what's been done for you and your faith.
So because of that, you then project a certain experience, a certain leadership, like, all these things. You said hiring people you know, even though even though it was the most you could pay, it was probably less than than maybe a competitor, but they still wanted to do it because they wanted to be with you. That's vision. That's Yeah. That's an environment that you were creating that they wanted and and and and that was exciting to them.
And then you talked about your customer and and the experience of keeping them from this, like, up and down and so many contractors out there that just have no clue of customer experience, and they take their their client on this up and down. And this is why you have homeowners all across the country contractors. And it's guys like you and me that are out there right now literally creating an experience because you see them as a person. And say, okay. Well, my basis is that you're a human.
My second basis is that god loves you the way he loves me. And so, okay. Well, I need to treat. I need to treat you and the situation. Uniquely and and and with with, like, as a good steward. You know, I wanna I wanna hold this opportunity well. I wanna do it with excellence. And so, man, you gave us a lot, actually, in Chaz, you know, I I think that, you know, we're all attracted to a story. Right? I mean, you do this podcast and you hear people that in some cases, story is incredible.
You just get all wrapped up in it. And I always love to hear a good story. You know, anybody's been in marketing and things. Those are Jim were on his. I just farm board from Idaho and that's right. And, of course, all of it, Robert Kiyosaki and all of the notable names of people that's been in marketing and and financial advisors and Dave Ramsey and all. And then there's other people out there.
And the stories are attractive, but my story, I'd just say it this way, For whatever it is, I don't have a story without faith. Because, you know, at nineteen years old, I I contemplate the suicide. And I just I had all these certain ambitions, but playing ball and, you know, my small town mind. I wanted to do this next And I got actually real close to achieving them, and then I made a couple of decisions that that really just wrecked things for me.
And they sent me on a downward spiral, and I got into a lot of things Chaz I wouldn't go into detail, but it certainly brought me to a point of desperation. And in that desperation, I I literally just said, I mean, I literally had a moment where I God, if you're real, you got one chance. And if you could fix this mess or or help me or whatever, and it was a absolute bonus surrender, And and it just went from there. I just didn't look back.
I just said, Don, first, no matter what, there was times that I gave up jobs, response that I gave up opportunities for certain things. Yeah. Because it meant I would have to compromise my Sundays with my family. And then it was certainly times I had to make a few, you know, I had to oblige in insert situation, but I didn't it it never was a long term thing. You know, I might have missed a Sunday or something in extreme case, but I was just that radical. And so there's no story.
You know, without faith, without my faith, there is no story. And it's what's guided me. And and honestly, as I'm brewing that faith, he was talking about, you know, what books have you read or whatever the Bible?
I mean, man, what better book can you read if you wanna know how to treat people and and how to be a good steward and and and be faithful and and be persistent and Then when you're dealing with people relationally, long suffering and understanding that when times I pulled employee aside and said, look, I'm not your boss right now. I'm your friend. Yeah. And what can I do to help you? What are you going on? What's going on in your life? Is it a financial thing?
Are your your wife, most family you're okay? And just to let them know that you're there to meet their need because, you know, money, hey. You can you get you can get it here. You can lose it. That's right. You can achieve a business, get sued, loop on your insurance, wipe you out. But but what you what you have forever is people and time. And the 2 most expensive things that you have is time and people.
Yeah. And, think if you learn how to prioritize those 2 things, everything else kind of will fall into place in its time. How do you talk to a young entrepreneur? And I don't mean young necessarily in age, but I mean young and tenure. Because at the beginning of any business, no matter our age, you know, we've got these big hopes and dreams, and we want it to all happen right now. Right?
And, basically, what you just said is Chaz, actually, what's the most important or time in people, and, we even talk about this in Gathering and the Kings, we talk about leveraging time, leveraging resources, and key relationships. Those are the key for the 3 points. But for the young entrepreneur, young and tenure, It's so difficult to focus on your time and people because there's just so many tasks and actions that you have to take to get a business up and going.
And then on top of that, we want it now rather than later. And so it's not until normally later that we realize, oh, man. What's really important arm people, clients, my team, my family, and then also my time. And so what would you say to that young tenured entrepreneur right now listening who hasn't quite gotten to that. They they hear it. It sounds nice. But, you know, what would you say to that person? Find some good mentors. Listen.
Yeah. There's a lot of things that we don't have to learn everything the hard way, but typically, we have to learn enough the hard way until we start listening and find out It's kinda like when you're growing up, you're a kid, right, and, you know, your parents don't know anything. If you get to a certain age and you, you know, I don't I don't need them anymore. Right. And then now you start facing life and it's reality as opposed to what you fantasize it would be. Right?
Cause it's a same way with marriage or anything. You envision the end result, and you have no idea of the process. You have no there's no relatability. Your parents or somebody around you in your life knows a little bit about talking about living and to be successful, there's other things that are really important. I I would say if I have somebody to listen to that Chaz a heart of a teacher that would that would pour into you.
And there's an old saying, you know, the push tag term getting the cart before the horse in marketing, you know, just, you know, this, there's a big question of wine. What is your wine? Right? And I think a person, a young person needs to be introspective, but it helps to be for where and who they really are and where they really are and have that introspection and understand what you're missing. Understand what you're lacking.
And if you don't know what that is entirely, just ask somebody around you, that'll be honest with you. Yeah. And just say here's some things because If you can get some awareness about what it is that you're lacking or what it is at your mission, maybe you're going at something too hard. And, Right? You're excluding your family. Right? You're on the Chaz and you're not you don't have that inner balance yet. You don't have those priorities right yet.
Yeah. What good is it if you're gonna gain a dollar and lose the things are most important around you. And you gotta lose that selfishness. Typically, when we're younger, it's just by nature. We're much more selfish because we don't have the awareness to really know where we're officer term. That's right. So find somebody, listen to the mentor, somebody in business, and, you know, and surround yourself The Bible it says there is there is the multitude of counsel, there's wisdom and knowledge.
More than one person. Find somebody in your age. I had a wise man tell me one time. You need 3 types of relationships in your life. You need the people that you're pouring into. You need the people that you're sharing with. They may be kind of similar in your age group, similar in marriage experience. Maybe they have a young family. And then you need those who can pour into you. Yeah. So you pour into somebody.
Have a group that you share with and have somebody and maybe more than one who can actually guide you Yeah. What is the people that you can look at in respect? Okay. I'm I'm respecting because they're a successful businessman. Yeah. Well, some people to hear successful businessmen, but they got it in the old means. Alright. So can you respect their character? Can you respect how they balance their life? Can you respect their integrity?
So maybe you have an aim because somebody flashed and dashed and, you know, gave you the get rich quick. And that's your well, find you somebody else that you can look up to. It's kinda got a life a little bit more, and it and it's more wholesome, a bigger picture, 30,000 foot view. That's right. And kinda emulate those people. Ask those people the questions. And and Hush and Lish. You know, Lish, we do what we're young is we just talk too much. But, you know, Lish, be a good list.
And to absorb, take the time to invest in your because sometimes less is more. You know, right there in the Chaz, slow down a little bit. Listen a little closer. Take a little time to educate yourself a little bit. That'd be some of my advice to a young entrepreneur. I love that that you gave such clear direction there. And and I love it. How it lines up even with what we're doing with Gathering the Kings, you know, a a peer to peer 7 and 8 figure group where it's like, okay. You're successful.
I'm successful. It's this like idea of a literal group of kings coming together. You take off your crown. I take off mine. We've you know, separately successful and leaders in our own right in the family and the business and the and the whatever. Yeah. We're gonna put that aside for a second so we can we can do this. And then gain value and add value to each other. And so I think that would ask a young person is tell me what success is. Yeah. No. I do mentor young men.
I you know, and and I do give some advice, and I've worked in the political rim of the bus campaigns. So so I've got a kind of a well versed of dealing with people. And, you know, I have questions. Because we go through life just kind of assuming we know because of how we feel about something. Right? But we don't really know And I have some people sometimes that'll say something to me and I'll say, why is that? And they're stumbled by that.
I think Chaz was Edmond Burke that said, if you don't know how to explain what you're doing process. You don't know what you're doing. Sometimes the the the question kinda makes us revisit a refi. You know, I'm talking about people especially I get young men that coming off of drugs. You know, their their minds are always going a thousand different directions, but they're never getting done. And so they're kinda wasting away and the busyness of of nothingness.
And tell me I'm not only getting where you slow down and read, but write your thoughts because there's a different way that you have to refine your thoughts. You can read something absorbent and just keep going. But when you have to ride it, it makes you refine it. And it developed something in you. It developed something in your mind.
It's just like training your you get when you get to your limit and you go another step, you're actually training your mind by conventionally, go past what my limits are. And We need things that test our limitations. So I I just think that a young person needs to be asked the question. Well, before we get started, and helping you get to where you wanna go. What is success to you?
Yeah. And when you can sometimes recalibrate them in terms of what success really is, so that when they achieve because, you know, you know, we talk about money and we talk about achieving certain goals or whatever. For what purpose, Right? And and then and then when you get it, what is it gonna do to you? Because if you're an ego driven person, you're just gonna be more egotistical. You're gonna become less attractive. Your pride's gonna stink.
But if you if you take a person who's humble and who's learned some things and people is their priority and and time is precious to them, their family's important to the home, helping others important to them, then it's just gonna be a means to do more. Yeah. And certainly that's true in my life. I've been I I'd like to think I'm not selfish, but there's selfish aspects that we have to continue to discover about ourselves. But Right. I would tell everybody.
I would ask the question to every young person at a young entrepreneur. You may be forty and and just now getting all this journey, and you may certainly more know more about life than a twenty year old would know Sure. But at the same time, this is a new venture, and you've gotta keep things straight. You gotta learn things along the way. But what are you aiming for? And what does success mean to you?
And sometimes we need find some of those things so that we can really be successful in the long run. Yeah. I love I love all of Chaz, knowing what you want and what you're going after, and sometimes even having someone help you recalibrate, is huge. And so I think that that needs to be written down as a major note for the listener.
Also, too, tying your previous point in with this and when you can get around other people, who think like you in that way, in that wholesome way, and they can keep you aligned because the more successful you become, the more temptation for the lack of better terms that you get to, yeah, go towards the things that maybe aren't in alignment with what it is that you originally set out. So I could easily say, legacy is my thing, and I wanna take care of my kids and my grandkids and my family.
And I wanna have impact on people, but, you know, okay. So I made an extra $300,000 this year. I could go buy a Lamborghini. It's like but but the guys the guys in gathering the Kings, the guys that I'm putting myself around that are also doing 7 and a figures, They're not interested in Lamborghini. They're interested in maybe some some real estate or another business so that they their family and their grandkids are well taken care of.
And so it's like, I want I need to further my decisions, further solidify my decisions by putting myself, you know, it listening to a podcast like this with guys like you. It's like, it didn't have to be in a in a paid situation. It can be in a free situation right here. Listening to the show, but it's like, you have got to resolidify those things that you say that you want over and over and over again exactly what Roy is saying here. So, Roy, I I gotta know. What was a bad choice that you made?
Looking back, what was something that you did that we can stay clear of? Well, there's certainly, I think a a number when you really start to think about them. You could think about a number of specific small decisions. Sure. Yeah. I think the biggest one is wasting time. Mhmm. You know, and that's a decision, right, is how you use your time. And when you're younger, especially, right, because you're you've got your whole world in front of you.
You know, when you're twenty, It's like you're just getting started and alive. And then you go 20 more years in your life. Wait a minute. If I live to be 80, I'm halfway Chaz, you know, and how fast it go and everybody on here that knows it's over forty years old knows exactly what I'm talking about. You start thinking about time in Chaz perspective. And you start realizing, well, wait a minute. I'm 40. I'm 45. I'm 50. Yeah. Hopefully, I've got 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, maybe.
But how much of that is strength? How much of that is could help? How much of that is good mind? And, obviously, we're not promised tomorrow, you know, death of those no age. But at the same time, I think it's looking back and realizing what I know now that I see guys inside board. How can you be bored? Tell me. Right.
I mean, if you've got any purpose at all, I mean, I I raised my sons when I realized that there were some things I was missing from my childhood, and and I was certainly missing when I was younger. As I learned them, I try to make them important to my my children, and especially my boys, I've got 4 boys and 2 girls. And and they and they all do really, really well, and I put books in their hands. I let them be kids, a coach them in basketball, coach them in softball.
You know, we played some video games, but I teach them the balance what to focus on and what was really important to have some fun in teaching my kids the finances. There was just three simple things. You know, the OTS had to help the samples do. My kids in finances, I kept it simple. I said save some. Give some. Spend some. It's really easy to understand. Chaz they get a little older, you could hone in where you need to save a good spend a little bit and and give generously.
Yeah. And those are principal things. And when you get them established, you know, it's it becomes a foundational part of their their life and their success. Chaz to keep them humble. So I think my biggest regret is the time that I realized that I wasted. Mhmm. Well, now that I realized I expensive time is and what all you Chaz do with your time and how much you can get done. I think everybody's kinda laid around. Alright. You spent a day sleeping in, and sometimes that's needed.
And you just couldn't get going next thing. You know, it lost to everybody. You get up to 4 o'clock in the morning. You hit the ground running, and I'm about 10 AM. You can get done more than what a lot of people get done all day long. Oh, yeah. And it should tell you something about the developmental aspect of your life too is When you get up and get going and you don't just waste your time and meaningless frivolous things, what can you learn?
Did some kind of a metric one time on, not listening, that there's so much information out there. You can drive to and from work in an hour. And within so many days or weeks or or months, you can earn a PhD of knowledge, right, just not what's available to listen to. Oh, yeah. So for theory, by saying on board, it's just someone who's just absolute I their eyes need to be opened and they need to have focus and they need to have a sense of purpose.
And sometimes, there's people like us that traveled along the road of life to say, you know what? There's so many things you could do. Tell my boys, look. Do it now. Do it while you're young. Get all that you can. You know, they're electricians. They read philosophy. They do all kinds of things. And to just pour it in because you're gonna get married. You're gonna have kids. Jobs gonna challenge you and your time's gonna be fragmented.
I think my biggest bad decision was the time that I was wasting on things that just weren't really Chaz in. Yeah. It's so good. And you're right. It really is probably the overall arching you know, bad decision probably for all of us. We just don't know it in the moment. And so it's tough to know in the moment you've given us some practicals here of just get up and get going. You know, it's funny. I I I keep my calendar pretty tight, but I don't share it a whole bunch.
And at the times that I have, not knowingly of, like, hey. Look at this, but, like, you know, share my screen with something and I'm popping, you know, and I've had the wait a second. Go back. Is that every day? I'm like, what are you talking about?
You know, and so it's just like so not only am I cramming it in, getting up early, getting after it like you talked about, it's it's gotta be listed on the calendar so you can literally just go back week after week, after week, and see what I've done. So it's not really I love how you you gave the depiction of. It's not like the task, it's it's this principle of just getting after it and not wasting time. And sometimes the time is spent reading. Sometimes it's You know, maybe it's with family.
Sometimes it's on a business. Sometimes it's with a relationship. Like, there's lots of different ways. Sometimes it's in ministry. Lots of different ways to spend the time. But what I got from all of that is if you value the time, then you can be intentional with the time. That's right. And then therefore, you'll typically get after it a little bit more because you you value it and your intention with it. Would you agree? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, Erast is is doing something.
Oh, yeah. Rest is needed, man. These guys go out here and just work crazy. There's there's times of moments that you have to do what you have to do. But one of the things I could advise any person is get the structure of rest within your life because I've burned the candle at both Chaz.
There was one particular in my life where I was helping a young man fight a court case, get wrongfully convicted, and some information came to me after spending a number of years in prison who assessed the 6 years of prison. It's an actionable case. And I got involved to help solve the case, and at the same time, I'm coaching basketball at the same time, I'm coaching softball. I'm working in ministry. I'm doing mission work.
I'm actually managing a couple of political campaigns, and there was a night that I laid down and my wife literally said, and I'm talking. I'm in my late thirties, early 40. And she's like, I don't wanna lose you. And because it just became so took so much.
But I felt like there was some degree of purpose in everything I was doing at that time, and, went through a a season where I almost went bankrupt I had a series of issues that happened in about a 3 month period that almost sucked me in business because I hadn't got to that place of business where I could absorb it. Much of a hit. And when I got 1, it it it just about sunk me. And then I found out my mother had cancer and spent 10 months through Chaz.
And 11 months later, my father died There was a season, and I I would just tell people you have to learn how to build these things into your life Chaz you don't think you need. Yeah. Because they'll come seasons in your life. And if you're gonna successful in the long term. You don't know what you don't know. You don't know what tomorrow. You don't know what next year's gonna be like. You don't know what's gonna happen in your life.
And if you just run crazy, just to achieve and object, you're actually losing. You've you've got to build some things. Again, the balance within you've got to be able to rest and you don't know what life's gonna throw at you. And if you crash and burn, then you're gonna have to start all over from the ruins of things. And, certainly, that happens sometimes. I think I have I've avoided so far a major crash environment.
I've had small ones that got my attention where I just felt like I was gas, or, you know, it just got to a point where I just about about just almost threw in the tal kind of thing. But, yeah, well, yeah, I think arrest is something that needs to be in size. It it's part of the balance of life that we need because if I rinsed, I could get up with more clear mind. I can plan a little better. End up less frustrated. So that'd be another piece of advice I'd give.
Yeah. It's funny how you you bring that up because it's on the tail of getting after it. And there's a lot of times that people it's really tough for them to understand this this dichotomy of getting after it and resting. It's not necessarily in the same moment, but it is in the same brain, and it's 2 different pieces. And and so for me, a great resource, I'll just throw it out there.
It was the ruthless elimination of Hurry written by a pastor, and he basically breaks down this idea of rest and, of course, the Sabbath. But for guys like me, and it sounds like you too, Like, I can go 18. 18 hours a day, every day all day. Like, that is just in me. Like, that I am a machine. There's a lot of juice in the machine, and I can just go and go and go. Whether it's work, whether it's travel, whether it's family, I can just go. Yeah. And so I have to choose to rest.
And so just I mean, one of my companies edible arrangements, Valentine's Day is the busiest day of the year. The day after is always a cleanup day. And so what I've learned now 11 years in is that not the day after, but the day after the after. Is it rest day? And and this year, I'm 11 years in. This is my 11th Valentine's Day. I've got I've got pro like, it's all pretty smooth. Still a lot of work, but it's all pretty smooth. And so that day, I didn't really need it.
But I literally forced myself. I said, no. No. No. Today's rest day. Like Yeah. You did the work. You went to a look. You did it. Yeah. Rest. Knowing that I was gonna be up, you know, 18 hours every day after Chaz, and it's okay, but there has to be there has to be both. So thank you for giving that to us. We're gonna transition here to our speed round. We're gonna go fast and and get some get some solid hard hitting answers from you.
I wanna know inside of the business, practically, what would you track if you could only pick one thing to track forever and ever? What would it be? Oh, that's That's a good question. You know, I'm not I'm not really sure. I didn't I didn't give a lot of thought to that in particular. You know, what's the first thing that comes to your mind? Wolfe, you know, time management. I'm always about being more efficient. Yeah. And trying to track where we are on things, and can we do it better?
Can we do it more efficient? You mentioned systems. Yeah. I'm really big on trying to achieve systems and certain things. Right. Because it streamlines things. It organizes things that we can do more with less. Yeah. It's leverage. I think ways to track time, I think. It's probably one of the biggest things, I think. Which ties into a lot of what you've mentioned here today that that's really important to you, obviously, time.
If time becomes valuable to you, you know, in a really serious way, then you look at ways to not only be efficient, but to create repeatable process, systems, SOPs, even team members, like, there's just a lot of things that can go under that category of of becoming more efficient or creating time, leveraging time. Yeah. Okay. What about a resource?
You've, like, you've mentioned kind of a handful of things throughout the show here, but what would be a resource that you would suggest a business owner reading, listening to grow their business. Well, there's there's so much information out there. You know, these podcasts like yours, I mean, there's so much information you can glean. I mean, YouTube, there's certain kind of books. We already spoke about some of the people you could get into for financial investment.
You're saying any particular thing that you really wanna learn about, self help, self development, just find somebody that you're attracted listening to that have somebody agree of success and who has a platform, a stage, a way to communicate. Right? And just listen to it. There's there's several bugs. I I've read a few bugs, just books, business books, and things like that. Nothing specific per se comes to mind, but, again, I wouldn't read a lot of books.
I would a lot of stuff without incorporating the Bible. Yeah. Person needs to read the Bible. He's just really good. I don't care if you don't say I'm not a man of faith. It doesn't matter. Read the Bible anyway. Because there's historical counts of real people who face real difficulties and challenges, and there's a certain, a quality, I think, that we can gather information from real stories, real people, historical figure, go back in ancient times and realize, hey.
People were dealing with the same things that we deal with today because to be successful again, it's not just about achieving objective in a business a Chaz particular thing, muddy, but it is about the success as a person. And to do that, gather your information far and wide, you know, just glean. Find some things that hone in in specific area and listen to it. I think every guy out here construction anyway.
And I know there's people in your podcast that have many different diverse backgrounds, but in construction, you may be getting ready for some kind of speaking engagement. And you go home that night before, you know, and you got yourself together, you thought about it, and then you get some last minute rundowns. You're gonna spend 2 hours on YouTube, right, get a message. Yes. They prepare you for something. And so, you know, customer says, hey. I need you to do this, and he's like, okay.
You go home and you crank up YouTube, right, and you find 4 or 5 Chaz are showing you how to install schluterboard or so. Right. Right. Yeah. Just find resources. They're out there. A million resources and just listen. Get write your thoughts, read, find somebody in a podcast that's educational, download them. I mean, you could bid your own YouTube playlist. Alright. Cut out the noise. Fine. Things aren't gonna pour into you. They're gonna add value to your knowledge. Yeah. I love that.
Good stuff. K. I got a question for you about family. You've mentioned family. Of the word balance a little bit. I'm not a big fan of the word balance, but I liked how you used it. I'm a I'm a fan of the word obsession. Right? I I wanna be obsessed with my wife, with my marriage, with my kids like I am with my business. Give us some give us some practicals along the way here as you've got, you know, many years of success, not only in business, but also with the family.
Guy listening right now, what can he do to keep the obsession burning in in all areas? Well, you you know, what what really works well is what we invest in. Right? And So good. Say it again. What what we invest in is what works well. That's right. You can't lose the investment. You know, you've got to think about many times, we get on a chase of something, and then we just drag other things along with it. That's so good. Creates the frustration. And there has to be understanding.
There has to be flexibility to relate ships because there are times. If you're a wife and you have a husband and and he's a, entrepreneurial minded, he's a he's a dreamer. He's a go getter. He's an achiever. You know, don't go against that because that that that could be your future. But at the same time, he's gonna learn some things along the way that are really important, and you got to be supported. There's times can't be home. He's gonna pull an 18 hour a day like you talked about.
But, again, for him, he's got to develop, the awareness to say you can't have 18 hours a day every day. Right. Because if you don't have any time to invest in the things that are, you know, more important to you. Yeah. When you're sixty eight years old and you're half crimp, would you probably not gonna be doing that job. But hopefully, you can have your family with you and your kids are coming to see you and your grandchildren are coming to see you. That's right. So you have to invest.
So I I would say, the things that work well is what you invest in. So you can't just let some things go by default. Don't live in default. You have to live with some intentionality in every area that's important to you in your life. Yeah. That makes me think of the old, you know, I I laugh every time I hear it, but it's it's sad and and true for a lot of marriages, unfortunately, where it's like, you know, I told you that I loved you when I married you, and I'll let you know if it changes.
And it's like, you know, as funny as that is, and there's a lot of guys, we kinda we ride that line a lot. And it's like, well, wait a second. No. There's actual work that has to be done investment, as you call it, which, you know, that can be time investment. That can be money investment. It's a big reason right before the show, I was telling you about our our family mastermind crews that we're doing.
And, you know, it's a big reason why I wanna give people a platform or a curated environment to say, you know what? I, yeah, I value business, and I wanna be around some other high performers and talk business, but you know what? I also, as much, I'm gonna invest time and money Yeah. Into my marriage and my family, we're gonna do it all together. And I just think that sometimes Chaz entrepreneurs, there's just a lack of, Like, where can I invest?
And so I just love how how you've given us that language because you can invest in different ways with different resources. And, We we we talk with our resources. Let's just say that time and money. Anything that we get involved, we have that requires a lot of moving parts, fast decisions, kinda overwhelming at first. That's right. I know you can go from a single guy. You do what you want to. You word. You get up when you want to. Go hang out. Just do what you want. Get married.
It's a little different. You start having children. It's even more different. And I would tell every person, men or women out there, it's not just about taking your kids to their ball game, you know, So I give them time. You know? Okay. You ran in last night. You ran to the ball game. You finished this over. You were back doing something else. They gotta have your sit down time. They've got to connect.
And so if you're not establishing connection, you could do tasks, and you could do you'd have experiences, but if you're not connecting, then relationship's not really being built on the foundation. Yeah. But, yeah, I think Chaz when you, like, when you're in sports, you're growing up and you get involved with a football team or basketball everything's so fast to you. You know, you you went through practice, but then you're on the field and everything.
And after you get more experience, it starts slowing down. And I think that's what happens is you give yourself time to grow. You get over excited. You get over committed, over extended. Everything's moving such a face. You get frustrated. You're like, I can't do it all. You know, I can't be the perfect can't be the perfect the father. You know, I'm I've gotta do this. This is the man. But after you kinda walk through it a little while, just try not to lose too much while you're learning.
That's the focus. But, yeah, you're gonna evolve in growth, and and it's gonna slow down a bit for you. People say, I don't know how you handle all the stuff you do. How do you make time to do all the stuff? You just have to grow into it. You know? Yeah. And part of that is refining of what's important. You know, hey. I had a a 2 hour conversation with that guy because and I could have been 30 minutes have been died, and it would have been good and fulfilling.
Nobody feels like we're shortchanged. Right? You're just gonna learn, and you're gonna grow, and you're gonna rid of fine. And and so doing balance within is gonna begin to develop, and you're gonna juggle things without a lot better. That's right. Good stuff. Okay. Last question here for you, Roy. I wanna know if you had a chance to whisper in the younger Roy's ear. What would you say? Well, there's a lot of things I could say. I would say sit down. I wanna talk to you for a few days.
Yeah. I I think it's a drive the selfless home point even more. You know? I would I would give the advice that I have now. Obviously, we We we say Chaz the term, if I knew then what I know now, don't know if there's any one particular thing. You know, I I I didn't give up, and that's why I'm here. That would be one thing. I said, don't give up. You know, I'd reiterate that because right now I know that, but the end is just a step by step decision day by day.
Yep. I would say don't give up, and it's worth it. Don't lose your family. Don't those are the things that are most important. Stay focused. Right. All those kind of things. Be intentional. You know? Just a good advice you would give. And to help somebody than starting out. Yeah. It's good stuff. Right. You've been absolutely incredible. How can a listener find you?
So Whether they're in your area and they need a commercial or residential GC or if they're a resident or if they're a business owner, they wanna reach out to you because you've just filled their their nuggets bucket with wisdom. How can they find you? Well, they can they can email me if I'm, like, put my email on here. Yeah. Perfect. And my company is allied contractors LLC based Manchester, Tennessee. You can call my office. You can email me direct atroy@alliedcontractors.com.
Just ran this podcast. One of the things I do is take time with people. I'll take time with them, give many advice that I can. Yeah. Life in general, business in general. And I may not have all the answers, but I certainly share my experience of things that I've learned from the good and bad choices that I've made. And so, yeah, those those are two main things they could they could get get me good stuff.
We'll put all those in the show notes as well so that way they can easily access you and if they want to, if they want them to make those moments real for themselves and and take it a little fur further. So Roy and upon you, your family, your business, your team. Thank you for being here. You've given so much such a big heart and a lot of store stories to be able to, retail over and over and over again here on the show. So thank you again for being here, brother. Yes. We appreciate it.
I I'm thoroughly honored to be here and enjoyed every minute of it. Maybe I can get a part of one of your gathering of the king's events. That's not Sounds good, brother. Thank you for listening to gathering the king's today. Hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away.
More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself What I have realized, not only in my own journey from multiple businesses and multiple different industries, and now interviewing literally over 2 or 300. Other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone.
And so gathering the Kings literally exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1000 kings specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's 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.