On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. When you're a small team, everybody's gotta be on the same page. The biggest value has to be that we're all marching in the same direction in feeling that we're all putting in the same sweat, blood, equity, and tiers.
And if you don't have that from one of your teammates Chaz you have to make some hard decisions because there's there's too much work to be done by too few people at that time, and and you really need people to to carry the water 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. 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. We're back today. I've got Kevin Rinderley here on the king stage. My brother, Kevin. How you doing? I'm good. Thanks. How are you doing? Doing wonderful. It's Tuesday. Right? I mean, how can you now be happy on Tuesday? In fact, don't I I don't know if you know this. At least one of the companies that were for a long time ago, they said Tuesday was always the best closing day. So at the end of the team huddle every day, they'd say, what day is it?
Every Tuesday. It didn't matter what day of the week it was. So here we are on the actual Tuesday trying to get some sales with Kevin Rindley. Right? That's right. Well, I'm I'm appreciative that you're here and, thankful for your time, and, we're gonna get into some cool parts of your story, get some value to the listeners here today. But Kevin, why don't you tell us what kind of business that you have? Yeah. So I own and operate a company called Yukon Trading.
We're an outdoor rep group that's based here in the Pacific Northwest. So we cover the classic Northwest 5 States, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho. We partner with manufacturers primarily in the outdoor gear space. Make quality products and we we work to build successful partnerships with the a wide variety of retailers and organizations here within our territory. We pride ourselves on introducing new and existing products to the marketplace.
We ensure that success through our efforts in selling and marketing and promotional activities and consumer and retailer events and work to educate the retailers on our products so that they get sold through the the chain effectively. That's awesome, man. You you find cool brands, and you help them get their stuff to guys like me. That's right. That's right. We're we're out there always looking for new toys coming out to the market. And and seeing how we can plug them into our distribution chip.
That's awesome. I love it. I'm digging the the the the the the the foot apparel display behind you. I spent quite a bit of time in Foot Locker as a youngster, leading and and selling a bunch of shoes, but a little different type of shoe, but I'm still a big shoe fan. And I tend to buy the shoes that are more like the ones behind you nowadays than than the ones at Foot Locker. Yeah. I think we under undervalue and underappreciate what a good pair of footwear is.
For for your your mind and your body, man. I mean, you're giving to your base. And so if you don't have a good pair That's right. Your your feet lets you know and everything else follows suit. You know, I find as I get older, I'm I'm less concerned about how they look and more concerned about how they feel, you know, when I was back in the day at Foot locker, I Wolfe, you know, you always had the the old dad that came in wanting those darn new balance.
And and you just go on and on, especially as a young a young chap trying to buy the the the shiny ones, but now it's like, look, man, I'll buy those new balance all day long or even better. A little half hiking boot that, you know, I got some Columbia's downstairs. I'll wear those things every day. I'm totally that dad now. Yeah. Well, it helps to be married. Right? So you That's right. We'll we'll have to get you a pair of barrels in when we get off the show here. I I love it.
I'm I'm all about it. So Wolfe, okay. So Kevin, I wanna know you've got a super unique business. You've been successful. You've got this deep seated purpose and and drive, but I wanna know what that is. Or even a second question to that would be why are you still doing it at this level? So you've been successful. What is the why and why are you still at it? Yeah. You know, I I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I would answer this question without sounding arrogant or cocky.
You know, I think everybody pushes because that, you know, intrinsically, they make money or because they wanna win. You know, I think those were 2 adjectives that are gonna be often associated with entrepreneurs, you know, and and myself included there. Right? I'm I I get up and I get out of bed so I can I can make some money, but I think if I boil it down to the essence, I I keep pushing because simply because I like to play the game? I like to like to be in the game at a high level.
I love to be in the room where decisions are getting made, whether it's the the color on a hiking boot or the the marketing language around how we're gonna to sell something or at the at the table where we're we're negotiating pricing or or the size of a contract, Sure. It's a lot of fun just to be just to be in the game. And and I really enjoy it, and and that's really what keeps me keeps me coming back. Yeah. There's this there's this game aspect.
Once you realize it's a game, it changes because a games are fun, right, when you know the rules of the game and that you can compete in the game, The games are never fun when you're losing repeatedly, so I I definitely recognize that piece of it as well. But when you can understand how to play and win, And then also, like you said, when you realize it's a game, it's it's almost like Chaz, like, the pressure goes up, but yet it comes way down also because you realize it's just a game anyway.
But, yeah, guys like you and I like to play it again because we like to win. For sure. For sure. You know, I I laugh. My son and I play a lot of ping pong and and we don't We don't ever really get down to playing a game. We end up kinda having these endless volleys, and I just love batting the ball back and forth. And, you know, One bounce, 2 bounces off the wall. It doesn't matter, man. Really, the the the goal is to keep the ball in play. And I thought that was a great analogy.
I mean, you're you're gonna no. It's never gonna be perfect. It's not gonna be a perfect game, a keeping score, you know, that really that puts that bogs it down, takes some of the fun away from we we just bat it back and forth and and have a lot of a lot of fun. You know, it's interesting because you're right. That what you just gave to us is really, really important. I wanna I want the listener. I wanna dive into a little bit. This, like, okay. Play to win.
Okay. Fine. Like, I don't think that you just said I don't like to win, but what you said is I like to play more. So, like, if if I win and the game's over, then the game's over. I don't get to play anymore. I would rather just keep playing it doesn't mean that you don't win. It just means that you like the action of staying in the game. And that comes. I feel like at a certain point because at the beginning. Like you said, it is about maybe ambition or maybe making money.
Maybe it's just straight survival that we start our business, and we gotta put food on the table for for the family. Which is all okay. At what point for you or maybe what's the listener looking for if they haven't hit this point yet where it became like, I'd rather just keep the ball in play, keep this thing rolling, because I really like to play. What what what happened there? You know, I think some maturity in in having a a bunch of of history and perspective behind me.
Unfortunate, our business is has always been relatively successful. And so I haven't had to sweat a lot of the the small nuggets that I think a lot of entrepreneurs do have to sweat Sure. And so I think just having that allowed me to take a step back and have a a different perspective and not not worry so much about keeping the lights on, you know, on any particular month or or meeting payroll on any particular month. I was able to focus at a higher level.
And, you know, once once that pressures off, I think it it shifts your perspective and allows you to to think differently and and really think more about keeping the game going than sort of the dollars and cents, Pete. Yeah. I hope the listeners paying attention to you, Kevin, because everything that you just gave from even a business perspective actually is the same thing in in the personal Wolfe. Right?
Because, yes, the business and the personal work come together, but generally speaking, if you're a good steward of how you live, It doesn't really take that much to live. Right? You, your family. I understand things are expensive and, you know, cost of gas going. I mean, all this stuff. Right? But really, it's not that much. I mean, my family and I, we've lived pretty conservatively or humbly for quite some time.
And so when you have that and then you have a business or even passive income, that covers that, then you go. Alright. Now it's time for the fun stuff. I don't have to worry about the nitty gritty. Something that's not that you never fall back on, like, not doing those things like you said.
Or it's just like, I get to operate over here now, and that's just a little bit more of a free space, even personally, because of the business or or whatever systems that we're setting up that can that can cover those things. Would you add anything before I move on? Yeah. I think, you know, we we talk a lot about flow in life more probably so in in your personal life, but I think, you know, it applies also to your business life. You know, I think Oh, yeah.
Back to when I'm I am playing ping pong with my sun. It's it's certainly easier to get lost and flow when that ball is always staying in motion. You know, I think when you stop and you count points, you have to remember, okay, whose serve it is and who's who's up next. It really, you know, it brings sort of a a a stop to that flow, and then you have to kinda work to get back into it. And so I think just keeping keeping the ball in motion, keeping the business in motion.
You know, it's easier to to to dive into a state of flow, and and that's where the that's where the magic happens. Yeah. It's so true. Okay. So, Kevin, let's talk about your story a little bit. You gave us the juice. You you like to play the game, the ping pong ball example, I think, was really great. Give us how you started. Like, how did you and entrepreneurialism or you and this brand? Like, how did it all combust?
Yeah. You know, I think, like, a lot of your guests, I I don't know that I ever would have considered myself an entrepreneur growing up. I I'm not sure that I'm I'm Chaz smart or and I'm certainly not that creative. I think in in general, I'm I'm quite risk averse. Slow to make decisions. So I think a lot of those things are are probably not adjectives that you would find in in, you know, good to grade or any other business books out there Chaz being said, I I do have a strong work ethic.
I'm very responsible. And I think in general, I have a kind of a path or a direction on how I think things should be done. You know, really, when you show up every day with effort and direction, good things come your way. You know, we talk about it a lot, you know, in books and and podcasts showing up and doing the work that leads to good things. They lead they lead to things, you know, opportunities like ownership of a business.
I started with Yukon trading out of college, really, at the the lowest level position available at the time. I I put in a lot of hard work and dedication, and that allowed me access to to really the the key portions of the business. Back in the day, I I grabbed ahold of those and I made my myself invaluable by leveraging my my access to that those zones of the business.
Right. And the more invaluable I became, the more important I became to the the owner of the company at that time and and when the when the time was right, we we created a a transition plan. And here I am an an unlikely entrepreneur. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that even though it may be unlikely and different than a story of, you know, I, you know, forget the corporate world. I'm out and I'm starting my own thing. It's like, that's not your story.
Okay. Fine. But all the things that you just said along the way were value. I pressed more than what I was expected. I wanted to get into different areas of the business probably because you were curious, but that what that did is that it brought you value. It may you said the owner then couldn't get rid of me, basically.
Yeah. And so not only is that super unique, I think, valuable to the listener because even though that may not be their story, it might be actually what they're trying to build or allow someone inside of their organization to become. And so I wanna maybe go down that road a little bit with you, but even even just the combustion, you you wanted more, I guess, is what the baseline I I saw, even though you didn't start the company, you wanted more.
And then even taking the opportunity to now be the owner, that's still a whole another level of I want more, even though I'm unlikely on premier, you still now are. So tell us about that moment there where you were, like, deciding. Do I do I really want the whole thing? Do I really wanna be the owner? Like, tell us about that moment. Yeah. You know, I I feel I have mixed emotions about where I'm gonna take this conversation. You know, I think it's it's really a lot about control. Right?
On the one hand, I I pride myself as a as a people manager of letting them control their own destiny. I pride myself on there there is never one way to do a job. There's a lot of ways to do the job, and I I work hard to make sure my team feels empowered to do the job their way. But if I if I jump back to sort of the turning point on where I transitioned from being sort of an employee to to wanting to be an owner. It was really about control. Right?
I wanted I wanted to control the game, and I wanted to be, or at least be as in control of all the variables I could be so that I could march toward success and then and then measure myself up against that.
And so every opportunity I had to pull something within my control, I grabbed it And at the end of the day, that's really just another word for entrepreneurship when when you are controlling all of the variables the the buck stops with you and and usually that guy's the the owner of the business. Yeah. I I actually really appreciate the examples that you gave there of control. Control seems like a dirty word sometimes, but but you gave it in a unique way.
You said, I let them control their destiny. But yet you're still controlling the variables. And so there's an interesting, like, balance here where you can be someone who doesn't necessarily troll everything or everyone, but you're architecting culture. Right? Like, you're high level and you're putting things in place, and that's the control of the variables that you're talking about.
But down in the nitty gritty, whether that be in teams or specific processes, the things that are happening later today in the afternoon on this specific team in your business, maybe you don't actually have exact control over that one thing that's being done. Talk about the dynamic there. Yeah. I think, you know, if if you if you read any Buddhist philosophy books, I'm sure that control is is really an illusion that we we really don't have control of nearly as as much as as we think we do.
You know, I I certainly have some control over our ecosystem. Right? And so when I think about what control I have and how I manage it versus the control of the folks that we work with. You know, I certainly get to manage it at 10,000 feet the variables that come into our ecosystem, you know, whether it's the territory that we cover or the brands that we represent. And so I try to make sure that that that, you know, macro ecosystem is is the world that I want to live in.
And then from there, I let my team kinda help figure out how we're gonna live in that ecosystem. So Yeah. There's a there's a lot of communal decision making so that everybody is sort of signed off on the way that the ecosystem is is moving. And if I don't have that sign off, then I go try to figure out how to to update the ecosystem and get everybody's What do you say to the guy listening right now who is a much smaller business owner?
And maybe we've got some big business owners listening to that he just applies to, but immediately my mind goes to the guy that only has maybe 2, 3, 4, 5, maybe 10 guys on their team or or ladies. And in that scenario, it really is, like, they're in control. For the most part, Right. And and and they might even have that, what you're talking about, where I believe that maybe I do have all the control. Right. They might be a micromanager.
They might be a per as, you know, some of these entrepreneurs are pretty high standards. Oh, maybe I'm just talking about myself. I don't know. Right? So in that smaller environment, it's so much easier to, like, suffocate because of the apparent control.
What would you say to that guy that's listening that's going, oh, it's this is so me, but how do I get to that level that Kevin's talking about where I'm architecting culture around my ecosystem, but, yes, I'm I'm allowing, you know, a dynamic of other people to play into that. That's a tough one. Because when you're part of a small team, you you have to be responsible for for more things than than maybe are are your specialty. I mean, you're you're you're cleaning the toilets.
You're you're answering the phone, you're you're writing marketing plans, and you're asking everybody around you to to do that as well. I don't, you know, I I I think back, and I'm not sure I'm not sure. In our early days, anybody was really worried about control. We were just trying to get our jobs done. It's good.
Chaz that sort of that luxury of talking about control came later in life once we were we were successful and we we had the the car moving down the highway with the steering wheel on it and and having the, you know, the the ability to say, what do you wanna get off at? You know, exit 2, 3, or 4, right, which which direction are we gonna go to to head north? Yeah. Yeah. I just appreciate that perspective. I even think about gathering the Kings. It's one of one of my companies.
And so I've built teams with a lot of employees gathering the Kings right now. It started with a small mastermind group, which has grown, which is incredibly exciting, And then it turned into a podcast. So we've got just like this really sharp professional team, but you're right. That's exactly what that looks like is a lot of people doing a lot of things inside this one company of mine, but we all just kinda wanna just get it done and done well.
We're not really worried about control, What do you think that the person who's listening who has a small team where it doesn't feel like that? What what are some things that they can do as the entrepreneur or leader that kinda is like, too tight on those things. Maybe they haven't had the experience like you and I where they've lots of people, lots of success, and it's, you know, we have the car with the steering wheel. Do they get to that place where they can start giving some things away?
Yeah. You know, it's tough if, you know, to your point, when you're a small team, everybody's gotta be on the same page and you gotta everybody, you know, the the the the biggest value has to be that we're all marching in there in the same direction and and feeling that we're we're all putting in the same sweat, blood, equity, and tears.
And if you if you don't have that from one of your teammates, I I think you you have to you have to make some hard decisions because there's there's too much work to be done by too few people at that time, and and you really need people to to carry the water. So, yeah, I think you gotta you gotta make some hard decisions and move on and find that person that that is gonna march hand in hand with you and put put in the work.
Yeah. So that you can get to that spot where you have the the luxury of of hiring a specialist to do something that that they have the skills and the capability and the talent to do it better than you do. Right? And then every opportunity you you get, I think one one great thing I learned from from my previous boss was when you find good people, hire them, and then figure out what do with them, and we've always tried to to follow that philosophy.
I think the last 2 or 3 hires that we have had have been from outside the industry. We hired on sort of personality in in how they would fit in with our team from a personality level and then That's the hard part in my book. I mean, I can I can teach them how to sell shoes or fire pits or trekking poles? What I can't teach is is how to to to show up every day, work hard and and be part of a bigger team. Yeah. Exactly. That's just some really good perspective there.
Patrick Lindsay only talks about the ideal team player, hungry, humble smart, and none of those things have to do with selling the the shoes like you talked about. So Right. Yep. Some of those some of those skills can be can be taught.
Other thing that that you mentioned that I wanna just make sure that the listener heard is you talked about maybe in a smaller company, hiring generalist and then eventually being able to hire specialists And it doesn't mean that you can't hire a specialist early on.
It just means that more likely that that generalist is gonna wear 2 or 3 hats where the specialist is gonna wear maybe one And so that dynamic changes with growth, with a little bit more resource, with a little bit more just capability or or or flexibility, maybe, just because you're not doing all things in the business. So I wanna move on here to get some super practicals. K? So inside the business here, you've got a dynamic of you you know, being in the business before you were the owner.
So I'm curious to where you'll take this on my question of good and bad decisions, but I wanna know if a good decision that was made by you inside of the business that you can look back on and go, freaking did it on that one. What was it? Yeah. You know, I think I there's one decision that always kinda sticks out you know, it's one of those sort of moments. We had, we had a sales rep that was covering a territory and, you know, he was doing a pretty good job.
Not great, but good enough to sort it to get by and and and keep the lights on. And I could always tell that his his heart wasn't in it. Right? It just it it it didn't light him up when he when he made his sale or I didn't get excited about sort of going out and pumping it.
Yeah. And I had been contemplating hiring an additional special as somebody that had the ability to really analyze our sales data and crunch it and and kind of create a a better analytical view of who's selling, what, where, and and where there might be opportunities.
Yeah. The more I got to know this sales rep personally, the more I realized how interested in tech and software he was and and he, you know, he's kind of a a geeky introverted kinda guy in in sales is often an an extrovert you know, specialists role. And so what I realized is I I had the right guy, but just in the wrong role. And so instead of looking internally for what we would call it a data analyst.
I move this fellow over into that Wolfe, and then I went back into the marketplace and looked for a salesperson to backfill him. Yeah. It was amazing, you know, the the light in his eyes when he came to work every day. Was totally different. He was so excited to showcase things that he'd been thinking about and, you know, his ability to to manipulate data and and create graphs and and the dashboards. And it was awesome. I mean, we we literally watched and bloom in front of our eyes.
So I I think it's it was a a great reminder to us to, you know, to work hard to make sure that the people are in the right roles and and to give them, you know, give them room to shine. That's an incredible story. I'm glad that you shared that even specific down to the detail because we have people like that right now on our teams. And they're in the wrong seat, and it feels like they're disengaged or that they don't wanna be there.
And and all it really is is that we just don't know them well enough, or we've got there. You know, I use the culture index and or there's, you know, plenty of other similar, you know, type surveys where you can I can see someone for who they really are, and they might be telling me something different? I I like sales. I wanna make money. But, really, what it is is that he likes numbers, and he wants to create graphs. And those are two different people and two different seats.
And so, again, architecting culture over there, and you're just going, okay. Let me move the right pieces in the right place. It's a big deal to to do it to move somebody, but, man, is it rewarding? So I gave I'm glad that you gave that example. I'm I'm curious. From a backfill perspective on filling that guy's role with the salesperson, did you notice, like, I'm assuming so, but you fill it with a with an actual salesperson. Right?
And I assume that that performance just was night and day as well. You know, to his credit, he wasn't doing a bad job. You know, so the the the the new salesperson that came in, you know, was was able to to elevate sales, but not dramatic. I mean, he was he was covering the bases and getting the job done. He was modifying pretty hard. Yeah. Yeah. It just wasn't lighting him up. Yeah. Exactly.
Good stuff. Well, I I think that the honoring piece of that is being able to not only figure out that he's in the runs or wrong spot, but then being able to give him space to do the thing that he loves is probably the coolest part. Oh, man. It was amazing. I mean, and and we never felt better about our business than we did those those years. He he since moved on and we've carried on without him and and continue to to to march down that path.
He set up a he set up a great you know, division for lack of a better word, and we still have that Wolfe in today. But, you know, within that 1st year, I think he leveled our business up two or three times. I mean, we were really able to to take our services and go back out in the marketplace and really be proud of them. And I'm I'm sure that helped us garner more business. Oh, I'm sure it did. Kevin, talk about a bad decision that you made that we can all learn from and stay far, far away.
Yeah. I this one was a tough one for me because I I don't wanna say that haven't made any bad any bad decisions. Sure. And and usually, my personality is I always remember the more bad things than good things to my detriment And so I was really surprised that I I could not remember a bad decision that I made here at work. I thought long and hard over the last forty hours trying to find something that that I could use as an example here. And, you know, I I I haven't been able to.
I think I do have one answer that that sort of probably falls within the same question Chaz I have made a career long, bad decision by not leaving in the value of my time and my company services. Wow. I spent probably way too much time in my career worrying about being good enough instead of believing the truth that we were amongst the best in the business.
Wow. And that, you know, that way it was If nothing else comes from this podcast, it was sort of some good recognition to me internally, on that subject because I think we all work hard and we all wanna be the best that we are, but I've I operated a long time out of fear of of not being good enough and You know, every once in a while, we would have a manager that would leave or that would would give us some insight into how we stack up against what he sees nationally.
Not not necessarily our competition, but maybe our peers in the same space. And Yeah. You know, they they would give us some flattery and say, you know, there's there's Yukon trading and then the the cliff goes deep from there. There's not not a lot of people. To do what you guys do at the level that you guys do it in. It was always appreciated to hear at that moment in time, but I never took it to heart as as deep as I should.
And as a result, I probably spent too much time worrying and and not enough time appreciating and valuing the business the way that it should be. Yeah. You know, it's interesting. There's you know, Jeff Bezos is kinda known for, like, the obsession over the client experience or, you know, these things that you're talking about, the worrying of, like, is it good enough? Right? Like, let's make it better. Like, a better and better and better and better.
And I think that there's a there's a hidden superpower that you have. Yes. It comes across as the worry and and I and maybe unbelief or maybe we're not there yet when maybe you actually are. But inside of that, there's a superpower of, like, but we're not done yet. You know, like, good, but, like, let's keep going. What's the next level? Which is probably a lot of reasons why you are where you are even today because you just never settled. Would you agree with that?
Yeah. You know, I think that, especially in the last couple of years, businesses is constantly evolving constantly new puzzles to solve and and new challenges. And, you know, I think the desire to to figure out how to solve those puzzles and and and to help people out, you know, make their lives easier and and and get them outside. I'll really drive the desire to make that happen.
Yeah. Yeah. Wolfe, I love I love your your vulnerability, really, to be able to share that and to know that, you know, you you've put yourself in a position where maybe you spent too much time thinking about things that you had already done. Ultimately Chaz probably made you better, but, yeah, like, I could see some some time there lost. I I feel the same way. Like, we hone in or we obsess on certain things, you know, I find myself even even in some of the new endeavors.
You know, because because it's new. And I'm like, I I wanna make it the best. And and we we we've gotta really, like, press into this here, and and I can I can relate to that even with Gathering the Kings on the mastermind side? It's like, we're a year and a month old or two months old, and we've got, you know, 40 or 50 entrepreneurs in in the group. And it's like, That's really, really good. And I have nothing but great feedback coming to me like, wow.
This is really special, and I can't believe the high quality of people and the types of discussions that we're having, but I'm still, like, over here tinkering going, it's not good enough. Let's let's add something else. There's more value. And you're right there. There's, like, sometimes we gotta just see, like, hey. We've I'm we're doing it. Right. Well, and it's always the it's always a mistake. You know, if you if you're if you're in able to close a particular dealer.
It doesn't come in where you want it or or something didn't go your way. It's it's always it's it's easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater and and think. That you've failed and, you know, it just it's it's not match point all the time, but I think as a as an entrepreneur, it feels like match point to me all the time. My value is what I I'm working on today, right, not what I did yesterday.
Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting because this this this conversation can go a whole another podcast on its own, you know, and, you know, whether that's deep seated from, you know, me not having a dad growing up, telling me that I was I was good enough or, you know, maybe it's just this extreme obsession with achievement. Who knows, you know, these deep seeds that we have as entrepreneurs or accidental entrepreneurs, but it's it remains the same. We have this, immense desire to keep going.
And I think that if the listener is hearing you talk about this, they should be they should relate to that a little bit because otherwise they probably aren't an entrepreneur, but then also know that, like, it's okay to, like, celebrate along the way. Right. But then also be okay with, like, this is who you are.
And, like, this is why you're pressing forward and and, eventually, you're gonna be like Kevin and beyond the show because you're, you know, a a successful entrepreneur because you've you've continually pressed. Over and over and over again. Right. I wanna switch over to our speed round here, Kevin. I'm gonna have some questions that maybe, you know, angle a little differently here. First one's around KPIs. It's always the same.
If you can only pick one thing, you know, for you to be able to track with your team over and over and over again, what would that KPI be? You know, the the metric that we have always rested on is what we would call new accounts, you know, the I think we represent, I don't know, 12 or 13 different brands. We still in the 7 or 800 different retailers in the Pacific Northwest. And so Our ability to open new accounts with our brands is is I've always thought the lifeblood of our agency.
You know, the dollars don't always add up to a ton because we've got, you know, big players in our within our territory, like our rei that that generated the bulk of the income and we've got small mom and pops that that really don't do enough sales to to really warrant the attention, but that's what we do. We we take good care of them. And so new accounts really tells me 2 things.
Number 1, it tells me if I've got a brand that is gonna get traction within the space, which is important because nobody wants to push up a rope uphill any more than they have to. And then the second thing that new accounts tells me is that my team is out in the field doing their job and that that they're good at it. You know, if they're if they're able to open up a new account, they've got a good relationship with their with a retailer. They've got solid presentation skills.
They showed up, organized, and they had a brand that was desirable within the marketplace. And so that's the the one metric we really try to keep our eyes on. Yeah. I love how it it's telling you kinda like the forward and backward is telling you about how how popular the brands are that you're associated to. Yep. But it's also telling you a lot about your team. Also, too, it's the top of the pipeline. Like, if you don't have new any new accounts, probably not gonna grow in sales. Exactly.
Exactly. Because, you know, business is tough. Right? Entrepreneurship is tough. The world is getting more and more complicated. And more and more expensive to to operate in. Not a lot of new people are opening up retail stores. And so if we're not opening up new accounts, we're going backwards. That's right. That's right. What what book or maybe resource would you recommend Kevin for a business owner trying to grow? There's a book called Impact Players by Liz Weissman Chaz I read recently.
And I I I resonated a lot with what she said because I felt like it validated the way that I run my business. It's it's a it's a great playbook on hiring the right people and empowering them to do their their job and and in quotes their way. Any company that is filled with what she calls an impact player will have a high quality of worker engagement and satisfaction. And Yeah. Think if you have that, then, you know, the dollars will will show up behind that.
We're super proud of the fact that I think 40% of our team has been here with Yukon trading for 10 plus years. Another 20% of the team has been we'll we'll hit that mark at the end of this year. And so I think We're doing something right to keep people around for that amount of time in in today's Wolfe. And I think Liz's book really is is the playbook for getting good people, letting them do their job and celebrating at the end of the year. Yeah. I love that. Great. Great resource.
Hiring is absolutely the key. To a lot of problems in business, or it can cause problems if you don't know how to do it well or manage the people well. So Right. Okay. What do you think about intentionally networking or master mining with other entrepreneurs? You know, it it's really it's always time well spent. That being said, I I don't ever seem to have enough time to do as much of that as as I want.
You know, I certainly have a network of a few good buddies here in Seattle that have all started up their own business. And Sure. Every once in a while, we'll we'll get together for a lunch, and it always sort of comes back to to business and, you know, solutions. I've got one friend, JP, that that definitely he joined an entrepreneurship, you know, club here in Washington, and he ran with it.
I mean, he spent about much time with with that club networking as he did with his family, and it it paid a ton of dividends for him and his business. I always sort of appreciated just being in his aura because I felt like got little snapshots of of that where I didn't have the time to do it. So it it's it's time Wolfe spent. You always learn something about yourself and about your business and maybe a better way to think or a better way to do.
Yeah. I love that to that mirror perspective that you just gave. You said learn things about yourself. And, of course, other people in the way that they do it, but A lot of times, it is a mirror, whether it's we think like, oh, that's good. I should do Chaz. Or, oh, maybe I should change Chaz. You know, like, maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm not leveled up as much as I thought. Yeah. I think you always have to start with yourself.
I mean, I it's I'd I'd tell my kids all the time, like, if you've got a problem, you look in the mirror first. Make sure it's not starting there and then then go try and change the world, but make sure it's not coming from inside. That's right. That's right. Well, that's a good segue into my next question, which I I I didn't send you ahead of time. Sorry. Not sorry. And it's about family because I wanted to I wanted a really, really authentic answer. And so I I've got kids. You've got kids.
A lot of entrepreneurs have a family. We a lot of times we say we're doing the business for our family. And but our time is represented maybe a little little different than what we say. So my question to you is, how have you been obsessive about your family and or even marriage alongside of the obsessiveness about the the business. I'm just not a big fan of the word balance. I just think that we're successful because we haven't been balanced.
We've been successful in the business because we're obsessive. We you talked about Right. I'm always trying to level up. Well, so what are those things that you do inside your marriage or your family to level up over there while you're leveling up a biz in the business. Yeah. This is gonna be a a a great experiment to analyze, but probably not until my kids are older.
And have rearview perspective on mom and dad working hard and and and trying to to give them a a good quality of life, you know, in our family We we have not one CEO, but 2 CEOs. My wife also owns a company. And so our our our first time suck is is my business, and the second time suck is her business. And then the kids probably, from a time perspective come behind that.
We Wolfe fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of family here in Seattle, and so there's a lot of extended love and family for our kids, and and they've been, I think, fortunate to have been raised by a a number of folks within our family. You know, I I'm pretty good at at closing shop here at at 5 or 6 and heading home for for good quality dinner. Yeah. I try never to miss a a game, or we're we're a big ski family.
And so we spend a lot of time skiing in the mountains in the winter, and I I really try to to get it when it's available and and get good quality time there. But, you know, I I I our hope is that, you know, our kids always have viewed us as as hardworking driven to succeed. We hope that they see those those qualities in us and that they they demonstrate them them later in life. Yeah. I love how you started off with the the one day in the future.
They'll have a perspective of behind because that's as a dad. I mean, that's what we're trying to do is we're trying to build a human. And and in the process of building them, they're gonna be able to make decisions. And our hope, especially as entrepreneurs, is that they would be able to provide a level of solutions in those decisions that are that allow them to make good decisions. And so, yeah, you're right. It's not always necessarily about the quantity of time Chaz the quality.
But I love you gave some examples of even the tribe around the family. Like, that's a big deal. Whether the entrepreneur listening right now has that family support or not, I still think that there's, you know, there's there's community, there's church, there's other friends.
Like, there's a lot of ways to be able to provide support around a family and or even you know, being able to support a marriage in a way that doesn't have to always come down to to that, but it can be, you know, encouraged by other people around to think that that dynamic is huge. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it it's not easy, but it's it's it's possible. Right? And you just you you try to do right by everybody and and do the best you can. Yeah. Absolutely. Last question here for you, Kevin. You ready?
Sure. If you could whisper in the younger, Kevin's ear, What would you say? I would go back to that statement that we we started off the podcast with. I think I need to have more belief in the business that I've built, and I need to I need to take more value to that and not not sweat the little things so much. I think I think We at the end of the day, we are amongst the best in the business.
We provide a lot of service and a lot of value to the to the brands that we represent and yeah, to the retailers that we work with, and I need to I need to believe in in that and and value it. More appropriate. Yeah. That's incredible. Great insight, great reflection. You've got a great story to be able to reflect on too. As we all do, I guess we we all have our our ups and downs that we can reflect on, but might just appreciate that vulnerability. How can the listener find you?
Number 1, how can they find your brands? Obviously, they're probably not gonna find you your company's you're behind the scenes selling products, but where can they what are your brands? How can they find your brands? How can they connect with you? And then even if they wanna pick your brand as a business owner. Where can they where can they do that? Yeah. Absolutely. So you Chaz find us at Yukontradingcompany.com. We we, you know, we don't sell anything.
We're not a we're not an online marketplace. We we sell only to the wholesale channel, but you can go to ucountrycompany.com. And learn more about our business and and see the brands that we represent among them, you know, Merrill footwear and choco sandals, leaky, trekking poles, Grail, water filters, fuel, Raven, apparel. It's got an amazing mix of outdoor gear that we represent. Can certainly find our media and our happenings on Facebook through you contracting company as well.
And there's a contact page on on both of those sites that you can easily get through to me. Awesome. Kevin, I appreciate you giving all that information. We'll put it in the show notes so they can easily connect and find you, but I'm gonna take you up on getting some mails. And I just wish you blessing on family and your business, your team. Thank you for being here and giving up your time. Alright. Thanks for having me. It was a lot of fun and, best to you and and all of your adventures.
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 mall businesses in 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 one 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done.
We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy. So if that relates and and resonates with you. And you know that you need people around you, sharp, qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gathering thekings.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.