On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. We are the new generations of business seminars. With this new era where everything is genuine all, we're communication is, like, instant, you can't afford to be the guy that's not doing anything, not knowing people, waiting on Rochelle's strength path customers or whatnot. You gotta go out. You gotta show yourself. You gotta let people know what you're doing and why you're the best at it.
You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe, featuring fellow 78 and even 9 figure business owners who have real battle scars, from business and life, but have prevailed as the king that they are designed to be. We welcome high performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the real of the real on what it takes to build a successful business today.
We dissect the good and bad decisions they've made along the way to give a true and accurate picture of the journey of success and how you too can get 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 Fernando Perez here on the king stage, a fellow Kansas City in. My brother. How you doing? Hey. Pretty good, Chaz. Thank you for having me on your show. Very excited. Very excited. Well, I'm glad that you're here, man. And, you know, I've said this a handful of times when I've had other Kansas Cityans here on the show.
It's like, man, I've got to get a a a studio where it's not just me, but I can invite some people over because we're gosh, we probably had 15 or 20 Kansas Cityans on the show at this point. And so I'd, again, I just appreciate you tuning in and and helping us out even though you might just only be, like, 20 minutes from me. We're not that far, but but we're gonna bring value here to to the listeners. What kind of business do you got, brother? So I own 2 businesses.
One of my businesses is real estate. It's called flippant KC. As the name says, we flip houses in the KC Metro area. And my second business is called F And J Services. We are a remodeling house remodeling and outdoor living services. We do high and outdoor living. Yeah, man. So if you're in Kansas City and you need a need a an outdoor kitchen or a high end remodel. This is your guy. The guy.
Love the perspective and all the different things that you're gonna bring to this conversation, especially since you're on the real estate side as well, we're gonna have lots to talk about. Before we jump in, though, Fernando, you're a young guy like me. You're you're you're hard after it. I'm sure. Even though you've already had a bunch of success, so my question is, you're at this level. Why not just sail away into the sunset? Take all your money and run. Why are you still building this thing?
Why are you after it hardcore like I am? There's no way that I'm taking the money and just running away. If I'm at this point, the success, I'm just gonna keep pushing and going further and further because I already made this far. So one of the things that, like, keeps me going, it's my family. I have a wife. I have 2 daughters. They're three years old, and My second daughter is turning 1 on Friday. So everything I do, I do thinking on them.
And also my parents, they are we're not from Oreno from Kansas. We are I was born in Venezuela. My parents are Venezuelan. So they moved here back in 2014. We'll move here back in 2014. And one of the things that I said was like, well, my dad was a contractor. He owned his business there and all Chaz. And they left everything behind. So me and my sister could have a better life here in the US, you know, following the American the American dream.
So I feel that I have the purpose, and I I have to repay that debt with my parents. My it that sacrifice for me to be successful. So the only way that I can pay it back is even successful. Yeah. I love that. So cut and dry. You know, honestly, the way that you said, it it's not it's not a weight, the debt that you're paying back. It's a it's a it's an honor, actually. Would you would you agree? It is because Since I was little, my dad was an entrepreneur. He owned his businesses.
He owned land and raised cattle and all Chaz. And I was raised with that mentality of, like, I never saw him, like, punching in and punching out a 9 to 5 job or whatnot. So I was like, I want that. I want to be able to say, well, today, I'm just gonna spend the day with my family or go go do what I want and that's he did it, and I think that's great. And I wanted to do it so he can see that I was successful and Chaz I reached what he wanted me. Yeah. That's right.
Yeah. I just appreciate that perspective because I think there's a lot of entrepreneurs, even like me who are here today, listening to your story who are first time generation, right, first time entrepreneurs, our 1st generation entrepreneurs, and where your dad is maybe first generation. And we're like, okay. We're building something, and I'm gonna have a son like you who's who gets to grow up in this environment of entrepreneurialism. And and mindset and be able to see, like, okay.
What's he or even my daughter? What are they gonna what are they gonna come out with this on the other side? You know? That stuff gets me fired up when I really start thinking and even doing deals with their kids. That's that's actually probably what gets really gets me fired up in the mornings. But Fernando, I appreciate that perspective of legacy and and almost like forwards and backwards.
Like, you get this, you know, this forward family that you're fighting for every day, and then you got this major piece of gratitude that you know, you you owe in an honoring way, you know, to your to your mom and and a dad Wolfe for making such a big move. Do you think that like, have you always been on the trajectory? Because of those 2 things, obviously, you haven't always been married.
You haven't always had a couple of little girls, but you've you know, Chaz this perspective of entrepreneurialism from your family. Have you always known you wanted to be a business owner, or did you did you play around with other things first, or did you just go right into it? Well, you know, I actually went to school for sealing in here, and I graduated and all that.
And I thought I considered the thought of, like, well, maybe I'll just go work for a company and grow that way because, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. There's some people that can just go and work for somebody. But then I started, like, I did a list with the pros and cons of working for somebody else set up just starting my own business.
And I was like, you know, even the even though the path might be harder, having my own business, and I will have to do more sacrifices, I'd rather take that Chaz and enjoy the rewards after I have done it right. Yeah. That's awesome.
Yeah. I think that, you know, there's there's probably some folks that are listening that are like that, you know, but at the end of the day, you've gotta have, I guess, you know, I guess it's just a a a gratefulness to to be able to navigate in both spots because because you say there's nothing wrong with having a job, but I think everybody listening today is, Heck, no, man. Right. I'm not trying to go down that path.
And and also we've probably been down the path of doing our own thing for a long time. We couldn't imagine working for somebody but it's cool to to hear that. So tell us tell us how, like, the beginnings of it. Like, I know you just said you kinda always felt that way, but, like, what was the beginning? What did it actually look like? Did you He just started doing some landscaping for somebody and said, screw the screw the degree I just got. What what does that actually look like?
So it's kinda funny because once I actually got out of college and then I decided I wasn't gonna work for a corporate business. I started doing, like, small stuff, like, working at this landscaping company and, like, being the crew chief and whatnot. And then I realized that this company that I work for, and I gotta say names, but they had, like, many flaws that I saw that were easy to, like, fix and be more efficient.
And I was like, man, if they can do it and they can make money, even though they're not doing it the most efficient way, I can jump in And if I do it right, I can make money out of this. And that's kinda how I started one day contractor my friend, I'm thankful for. He called me, and he said, like, hey, man, do you wanna come work for me? I was still at the landscaping company. I was like, Wolfe, what do you have to offer? And he offered me a good deal. So I was like, yeah. Let's do it.
After 1 year working with him and all that, I started lining up my own projects. I joined, hey, Zach. You know, I like working with you, but I kinda wanna do my own thing as I always been telling you. It's like, cool, man. So I started with F And J. I bought my first Priya in November of 2016. It was, painting prior. I have no clue. I have no idea, but the customer asked me, like, hey. Do you guys do painting? I was like, yes. We do. And that's how it started. That's how it all went off there.
Like That's awesome. That's it's with a simple yes. Right? Yeah. I'm sure that you've you've said a lot of yeses along the way, and you're probably now more focused on the nos, but I'm sure we'll get to that here in a little bit. I wanna know, especially maybe early on when you were talk just talking about maybe, you know, building those 1st couple of years because you've been successful, man.
Like, looking back, I mean, I know it hasn't always been, you know, probably the easiest, but you've been successful. You know, you you you started with literally nothing. When I'm sure when your family moved here, there wasn't a whole lot of luggage that came with you, you know, so your story is inspiring. But in those 1st couple of years, what was a good decision that you made? Right? So you're a young guy. You're you're saying yes to some stuff that you don't even have a clue how to do.
Well, something that you did that you're like, man, I would do this over and over and over again. Save my money and don't go crazy after, like, started bringing in a money after a couple first few riots. Like, people will I have friends that they will go and buy a fancy truck or whatnot, go on a vacation. I was like, well, I have this money I need to buy more equipment. I need to reinvest it, and that's how it went from there. That's awesome. Yeah. Not being money saved.
What do you think that that came from? Is that is that a, like, a a principle that your parents instilled in you, or did you just happen to have that inside you? What? That was 100% my debt. My dad, he, Chaz him being a business owner. He told me, like, hey, man. You can go crazy whenever you start making money. You gotta reinvest it because if not, you're gonna be successful a couple of years, and then you're gonna have so much debt. You'll have to, like, close it. So okay.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's there's wisdom in Chaz. And I think, actually, I've seen this from, you know, several times, friends have started businesses and stuff, especially in the home services, because, you know, you can you can you can jump on and build a home service business pretty quickly. Even still, the stats are still the same. I mean, less than 9% of businesses do over a 1,000,000, but you can make some good money, even if you're smaller than that.
And the point is this, is that I've seen a lot of businesses get started and buy the truck or even spend money in re reinvesting. Like, maybe it's in in an advertising campaign or in a fancy website or on a lot of things that we that we think are good moves, The point being is that we spend a lot of money real quick, which I think is actually the underlying principle that your dad was sharing. Yes. You wanna reinvest.
Yes. You wanna be you know, like, ready for growth and stuff like Chaz, but sometimes it's just a matter of, like, like, live below your means personally and in the business. You know what I mean? Right. Yep. Yeah. For several years, I didn't take a vacation. I my truck was, like, a used company truck, all Chaz. And I was just running around with a notebook and all that. It's like, I don't need an iPad. I don't need a truck of the year.
You know, I did get a web side, I did get some advertising, you know, the stuff that you wanna do, but Yep. Nothing super crazy. Yeah. Yeah. I think they're super, like, practical things inside of the conversation that we're having even at a bigger level. Like, okay. So you and you and I are successful now, and maybe we can take a vacation.
Or we can buy a nice truck or whatever, but I still think and I try to, at this point, make sure that it's not limited thinking, but I try to think is this something that it it's like a lever? Is this is this a lever that I can pull that gets that gets me a a greater output than than the current input? And, and I think when you think like that, then you start not necessarily second guessing things of, you know, don't spend money or being lack minded, but more so, like, strategic and going, okay.
Well, I have, you know, 50,000 or a 100,000 or $500,000 to spend. And it's like, okay. Well, what's the greatest return that I can get? And when you start thinking like that, you start, like, really capitalizing on every single dollar, I have found personally that a lot of the decisions on some of the fancy things of life kinda just go to the side because it's really not that great of a reward. Doesn't mean that we don't like nice things.
My wife and I built a beautiful house here in South KC, but that was after years and years and years of you know, doing all the stuff that you're talking about right now. And I still find that same mindset of going like, you know, we don't really like, that doesn't really give me a great return. So why don't I put dub wanna double down over here where this is getting me a great return. Would you agree with that? Yeah. I do agree.
As a matter of fact, we spot our house back in November and I told my Wolfe, we're not buying a $1,000,000 house. We're not doing any of that because even though we could, it's we don't need it right now. We can put that money. I can put that money into our business or something like Chaz. And then in the future, we'll buy it, and it won't be an issue for us. Yeah. I agree a 100%.
In fact, I would even I would I would align with you with a strategic moment in my life where We talked about building this house years ago, and we'd the initial, you know, idea is my wife wrote the whole thing down on a on a napkin. She's not architecturally inclined. I have no idea how she came up with it, but she just sat down and she's like, this is what I see, which is great. We ended up building the exact house that she wanted. It's fantastic.
However, in that moment, we were starting to put these plans together and all these thoughts, and we had a little bit of money aside. And, I I came to her and I was like, hey. So instead of building the house, now, why don't we wait another, like, 3, 4, 5 years? And you just are, like, wait a second, dude. You've already told me you know, we've already delayed a couple years. What are you talking about? I said, yeah.
Yeah. But but if we take this a little bit of money, it was, you know, couple couple 100. And I'm like, if we put if we go buy this small apartment complex, then that that starts bringing in some some additional passive income. And and then this and then that, I'm I'm I'm, like, strategically putting out all the moves for her. You know? And she's like, you know, she just shakes her head because she knows me. And she's just like, gosh. Dang it. Okay. Fine. You know? But I'll tell you what.
The the pieces that you can put in place will later than pay for the the thing that you want. And so if you just take that one little side step, you just get an asset that then pays for the thing that you want, rather than just paying for the thing that you want, even though I would you know, this is still a piece of real estate. I guess we'll sell it, but there's no income being produced here. Right? Right. So if I can buy an asset that pays for it, then why like, that's just a way better way.
Would you agree? Yeah. As a matter of fact, I was just reading something yesterday that said that bank loans and this getting off a little bit on the topic, but it says that the loans created by the banks are actually, they were created. So banks would lend money out on houses because no one wanted to take money. They cannot lend money as easy on businesses because, you know, a business liability might succeed.
It might fail, but if you buy in a house as an asset, right, the bank can always get money out of it. So, yeah, I agree with you, man. That's awesome. Well, so I wanna know I'm gonna flip the coin here. And I wanna know of a bad decision that you made. Something that you've done that you can tell us about, and we can stay far, far away from those bruises.
Maybe not stay away, but, like, the bad decision that I had was, like, I brought in a partner in for my business for F And J Services, I thought we were ready to expand and escalate to the actual next level, and it was probably the worst decision I ever made. Wow. Okay. Tell us more. Why do you why was that the wrong decision at that time? It just it just didn't work out very well. I think we were on the same page.
I was definitely put in, more of more amount of work than what I was doing previously used by myself. So that's kinda what I was, red flag for me. I was like, Wolfe, I have somebody that I should be relying on as Wolfe. And now he's also relying on me, so I have to do twice as much. And this is like, it was taking a toll on me personally and in the business. So I was like, man, this can this can go. Yeah. Exactly. Okay. So so the lesson here, you brought in somebody.
You had built it up to a certain point and you were trying to bring in from somebody from the outside. Yeah. And just didn't meet the work ethic obviously, communication wasn't the same, like, just not in alignment. It sounds like. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And he was he was kinda, like, bad because he was a friend of mine too. So, yeah, it didn't end up Wolfe. And I don't wish that for, like, anybody in the industry.
I will say, like, if you're thinking on that, like, consider it 2, 3, 4, 5 times, before you actually pull the trigger because if not, you could end up using a friendship or whatnot. But Yeah. I mean, here we are, and we're doing awesome. Yeah. Exactly. And and maybe it wasn't necessarily the partnership that you needed. Maybe maybe there is a partnership out there for you, but now you now you have maybe a better way to go about setting up the the construct for that. Right? Right. Right.
Correct. Do you think that, getting to that that that level that you were desiring before? Do you think a partnership is an important piece of that, or or is that just like a myth in your mind? Well, Dallas so I thought it was actually a key part of my expanded process, but you know what? I came to the realization after it didn't work out, and I had to still do all that by myself and I did it. I can't do a realization.
Well, that was just something that I was thinking of, but I didn't really need it because I'm still here and I'm still taking my business to the next level. So I just Chaz to put extra energy and use power through. But Awesome. Awesome. I appreciate the perspective there and I think that we've all considered or thought about partnership. I I I have multiple partnerships that I've entered into, but you're right.
A lot of it based on on strategic leverage and and, obviously, very clear communication. What's your role? What's mine? What do we bring into the table? What's the end result? You know, how do we exit if this doesn't work out so good. Right? Yeah. It's it's a whole process. It's a whole process and just people saying it's easy and the hardest part Chaz you say is, like, accident whenever it doesn't work. In this case, like, how do you do it on a way that everyone's happy? Right.
Unfortunately, in our case, not everyone was happy, but It's business. When I say business is business and a friendship or family, it's a separate. So we gotta handle it that way, and we can all be Good. We're all grown people. So That's right. That's right. Well, that's great. That's great perspective. What what what do you use Fernando for decision making steps, if you will.
If someone comes across your desk today, it's a big, you know, financial decision or a marketing decision or a hiring decision. Is there a certain methodology or a mindset that you follow when it comes to making good decisions? Yeah. I never. I never make a decision right at the moment of the opportunity or the decision being presented to me. I sit on it. I think about it. I still have my dad, he's still around here. So I can just talk to him, hear his opinion, call other fellow business owners.
Yeah. Now hear what they have to say, and I even will go online and just do some research because, you know, I'm one of those persons that like to know everything about what I'm gonna get into, it might be good or bad, but I wanna know everything. So I do some richer research think about it, talk to people. And once I have enough information that I can form my own idea, then that's when I proceed to make a decision. Yeah. Love that.
The the younger, Fernando, would would he have made decisions like that? Has that always been a skill set of yours, or have you grown into that process? Now the younger Fernando, he was very impulsive. As I said, he will say yes to everything and mostly yes. Like, I Wolfe say no to barely any of that, but then I came to the realization. Like, I would say yes at the beginning is not the best. You gotta think through. You gotta do your research. And you hang with your mind, Wolfe.
Yeah. Yeah. There's an instinct. There's a gut feeling, but most of the decisions that we make as business owners can can you can take, a a 5 minutes, 2 hours, or 2 days, Whatever that time frame is that you need just to kinda maybe process that information. What I didn't hear you say is delay overthink. It says paralysis. I didn't hear you say any of that. I heard you say get information. Feel educated. Make a decision.
Yeah. You don't wanna like overthink it and you don't wanna have analysis paralysis. You know, now I know that's pretty common, but, like, that's one of the things that I try to avoid because whenever you start experiencing those those symptoms, your mind, your train of thought, mine start getting cloudy, and then you just, like, get prejudice on your own decision making so you don't make the right or the best decision because you're already, like, putting obstacles on your own mind.
So it's like, gotta be objective. That's what I always say. You just gotta be objective. Like, see everything on black and white and leave the colors on the site. Yep. Understood. I I think you're giving really, really good stuff. So I hope the listener is paying close attention. I'm gonna go to the speed round here, Fernando, and my first question is always around KPIs. I say it like this.
If you can only pick one thing to track inside your real estate or inside your remodeling business, what would it be? Profit. Profit. Okay. Why? Yeah. Because I guess it's pretty simple. We are all in business to make money. Right?
So one of the things that I will say is, like, when you have a good understanding of your profit, then you can see if you have set goals let's say, for your business and on a certain amount of profit, you can track that, like, goal or that percentage of success that you're having based on Chaz. You can see, oh, well, this is not what I have projected for this month or year or whatnot. So then checking those numbers, then you can just actually check the other metrics then.
Oh, what's not what's going on that's not giving me the profit that I was expecting. Is it the efficiency? Is it employees? What? But you can always check based on that. Yeah. I think that Wolfe be the Yeah. The mindset that Fernando is talking about right now is is exactly why I asked this question. So, obviously, if you're listening right now and you've heard any more than just one person on this show, you realize that I get answers all across the board on this question, which is great.
And and the point really is is that they're, as a business owner, there has to be some one quick metric that you as long as I know this thing, it, like, tickles trickles down, you know, to the rest of the business, which is exactly what Fernando just described. She said, you know, if I know this number here and if it's on pace, then we're good. If it's not on pace, then it tells me there's problems that there's an indicator. And so then I dig in a little further.
And and that's how you work on the business as opposed to in the business. I don't necessarily need to know all the numbers underneath, although I'm not suggesting that you don't track other things. Don't get me wrong here. Okay? There's lots of things that I track, and I think business owners like you and I know there are key metrics, key indicators, and and, you know, getting in there and making sure that there's either me or someone who's managed that number makes sense.
However, working on the business as opposed to in the business means you are managing a figure, not necessarily a team, or not necessarily a process even. There's, like, multiple layers going backwards. You have to set to be there's a team. There's people. There's a thing. There's a widget. Then there's a process that helps manage the the the widget.
Then potentially there's a manager or you've got a GC or you got a a a foreman or someone managing the process and the people, And then as a business owner, you're managing a number that then gives the result of that division or that project or whatever, and there's certain metrics that if you follow those numbers and what Fernando is saying is that they're indicators. If it's an indicator that's showing it's off, Then I dig in further.
I have a follow-up meeting with this GC or this or this informant, or I have a follow-up with the team manager or whatever. And when we dig into what the actual process is, is it a people person? Is it a process person? Is it an efficiency thing? Like, all the things that he just mentioned. Super good information. What would you add on to that, Fernando? No. You pretty much cover everything, but that's that's exactly what I do.
I check the profit, and then I meet with my contractors, my subcontractors, and then we talk about that and say like, Hey, so this is not what we're expecting, what happened here, then we'll figure out, well, it was a delay because of permits. It was a material, so it it was this, but you can always have an idea if something is going as smooth or not based on the numbers that you have projected. Yep. Exactly. Love it.
K. What book or resource Wolfe you recommend for a business owner trying to So I read this book, and it's called the e myth. Why and it's called y must contractor business days. Don't work and what to do about it. Chaz is a good business book, and I got it actually not too long ago. I think it was, like, 4 or 5 months ago, and it's it's a big gray. It's one of the best books I read so far. Yeah. And so give us a little mindset there.
What's what's it helped you grow into, even just over the last 4 months? So it just it kinda guides you through the process, and that's one of the things that I started doing.
It was just like, instead of trying to do a whole bunch of things as a business owner as a contractor, you gotta narrow down that focus on where you're actually where your actual function or, like, role in the company is instead of trying to work all the hats and all that stuff because then you will never take your business to the next level. Right. Or succeed for Chaz matter. Yeah. Exactly. Otherwise, you stay confused. Right. Doing too many things at once.
I think if if the listener right now relates, they're like, they're shaking their head going. Yeah. I've been there. And or the other guy's listening, going, man, that's me right now. You know? So grab the book. There's plenty of others like it, but that's a great recommendation. And and there's to your point, you didn't really say this, but there's several versions of that book, E Myth or contractors, E Myth, you know, down down the line.
So I think that there's a lot of a variation even within that system that makes a lot of sense. Right. What would you say, Fernando, about intentionally networking or master mining with other entrepreneurs? I love networking. I that's actually one of the things that I encourage people to do and I encourage my fellow contractors to do. It's like, attend to business networking groups.
Just attempt to, like, get together with, like, people on your own, like, industry, go out to conventions, do all that stuff. I used to go back from Vegas for the international builder shadow. I was there. It was my first time. I went there by myself, And I was like, I told my wife, hey. I'm going there. It's just like, oh, yeah. He's gonna go party and gamble.
I was like, no. There's just all these sales men and all these people that are in the same industry Chaz I Wolfe like for them to know me, and I would like to know what they have to offer because networking, that's how to do business. I I love networking. That's awesome.
This sounds like for you, it's been, not only meeting people, but strategically, knowing maybe who to meet at the right spot, whether it be technology or services, maybe Chaz you can even use, which is a whole another way of thinking. So I wanna I wanna dive into a little bit with you because a lot of contractors, a lot of business owners, but a lot of contractors are fairly closed minded, you know, to a trade show or to a convention or a cold call of someone offering a service.
And it's because most business owners are just closed minded anyway. Right? Most people are just afraid of change and doing something a new way. Why are you why did you even go there, like, seeking out you know, something maybe that you could use. What what what's inside of you that made you wanna do that? Well, we are we're the new generations of business owners.
So with this new era where everything is digital where communication is, like, instant and all that, like, you can't afford to be the guy that's, like, not doing anything, not knowing people. Use, like, kinda, like, waiting on referrals from past customers or whatnot. You gotta go out. You gotta show yourself. You gotta let people know what you're doing and why you're the best at it. That's right. That's right. It's good stuff, man. Alright.
I wanna know you mentioned a few minutes ago about your your family, your beautiful wife, and and children, your daughters. How have you, even in the short time, because I know I know your daughters are young, but how how do you build your family alongside your business. I know that you're obsessed with the business because you're successful. Right? You've got multiple businesses even. So I know you're, like, grinding in your in your in your forward thinking and you're in there.
You're like, oh, this is, you know, getting me excited just thinking about it. How do you apply those same obsessive principles to your marriage and to being a Well, I think if you are for you to be a successful business owner, you also gotta be a successful person in life. Somehow because the you can be not so good person and actually have a good business because they go together. You have to have, like, you have to be well personally to have to be well on your business.
And I think, like, That's what also one of the things that I love is my wife who's very supportive with me. Like, it will be Sunday at 9 PM. And she will be watching a movie, and I'll be here on my tablet just, like, working and doing stuff. And she'll be like, hey, are you gonna come down? So, like, No. I still gotta work, and she will understand because, like, she knows that this is my 3rd child. This is my first baby. So That's awesome. There's an understanding there.
And I I'm sure that there are other moments where you press in to her and and to the kiddos. Is there anything specific that you'd like to say on the things that you do to be able to press in to your family specifically? Well, what I have to say is, like, Don't go well, go crazy about your business all the time, but don't just focus on your business. You gotta also have time with your family. Because they are a very important part of your business as Wolfe.
Even if they're not actually having a role in it, but Once again, your mental and your physical wellness will help you out with your business. So if you have a good family, if you got a hoo a good home at home, you are gonna be good in your business because you're not gonna have any of those preoccupations, any of those worries of, like, Wolfe, my daughters are not doing good or well, my wife might be upset. So if we're all on the same page, then that's how stuff starts flowing the right way.
Yeah. Love that. I got one last question here for you, Fernando. Are you ready? Go for it. If you could whisper in the younger Fernando's ear, What would you say? Keep doing it. You're on the right track. That's what I will say because if I I always think about it, I'm 31 right now. And I think about when I moved here, I was 22. I basically, like, moving from another country. I had no friends. I had nobody. I was just starting from scratch.
So there were times where I was like, Man, I wish I could back go back to my country with my friends, whatnot, or blah blah, but, Dan, right now, I see all the path that I've been walking through. And even though I have had, like, a few bad decisions through it. Like, the good decisions outweigh the bad ones. So the bat's never gonna be easy. I tell these to everyone, even people starting their business now. It's like, hey. The 1st 2, 3 years are the hardest.
Like, even if you think that you're not doing it good, don't quit. Just keep doing it. Ask people I wanna help you. I know other people out there will help you. Right. Business owners are business owners. They want other business owner to be successful. So Yeah. I always encourage people to do it. Yeah. I I think just to give you, the listener, just a really quick example here. The very first thing that I opened up this pod cast with was a little promotion for Nando. I said, hey.
If you're here in the Kansas City area, this might be your guy for for a remodel. I own a remodeling company here in Kansas City. Like, what? Now granted it's a it's portfolio company. I'm not involved in it every single day, but that just is a great example of what he just said is I'm a fellow business owner in the same Metro who gave him a platform, a literal platform, and a promotion for the same service that I offer. It's like, look. There's plenty. There's plenty. It's abundance.
And when you come across other people who are like that, it changes your mindset for everything. Would you agree? Correct. Yeah. And that's one of the things that I also say is, like, I want to create business owners that have my same mentality because whenever you're doing business with them, you know, that they will do the right thing for their customers, and their customers might be my customers. So if they do a good job, then that leaves me in a good spot. And I want that.
I want people to know that we're good people, that we're quality people. We don't cut corners, and we offer the best. Yeah. I love that. Those are those are all extremely good things to be known for in business, especially if you can build a history of actually proving those things, which obviously you have done.
So, Fernando, how if someone is in Kansas City and they wanna reach out to you for remodeling or a a a high end outdoor kitchen experience, how can they find you, or if they're just a business owner across the country listening right now and they wanna pick your brain, how can they They can reach me out to my cell phone are pretty easily available. My cell phone number is 913-636-3607. We also have a Facebook page. If It's FJ Services. We are on Instagram, and we're on Google.
So every major, listen, I we try to be out there. So If you type F And J Services, you'll be able to find us. That's awesome. Well, of course, we'll put all that in the show notes as well. Fernando, you've been credible. You get you've given a unique story. You know, I love I love where you come from. Although, you know, I I didn't come from another country in my family.
I guess eventually, far enough back, we did, you know, but but I I feel related, you know, to your story, you know, growing up single mom family. So I just have mad respect for everything that you've been able to accomplish, of course, for your your your family, just blessings on your family and your team. And, thanks for being here, man. We really appreciate it. Thank you, man. I really appreciate your opportunity. Thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings today.
I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away. More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself doing it all on your own. Carrying the weight all by yourself. What I have realized, not only in my own journey from multiple businesses and multiple different industries and now interviewing literally over 2 or 300.
Other very successful 789 figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone. So gathering the Kings literally exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done.
We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy. So if that relates and and resonates with you. And you know that you need people around you, sharp, qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com.
I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit. To 1000 kings. Talk soon.