On today's episode of gathering the Kings. Customer always has an option always. And the minute you forget the customer has options. I'm gonna get in trouble. My failure was always looking at the next piece of business. My So I had to recognize where my weakness was, and I had to have people behind me that would honor my commitments.
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 good and bad decisions they've made along the way Chaz give a true and accurate picture of the journey of success and how you too can get 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. I am your host. And today, I have Doug Groves here on the King stage.
Doug, how are we doing this morning? Oh, fantastic. It's a bright mutual day in Las Vegas. Where? There we go. We got a great view. That's right. That's right. Well, I know that that that you don't call Las Vegas home. Where do you call us at Austin, Texas? A little town called used to be a little town called Georgetown, Texas. Now it's on the map of everybody. And, yeah, we're fighting fighting all the wonderful things Yes.
Well, you say Austin, and and I think everything around Austin has has, like, tripled or maybe 5 acts in the last even just 12 months. But a lot of lot of places across the country. Doug, I'm I'm excited that you're here with us, even though you're traveling and and doing some business building while you're there, giving us some some value here today of your years of experience. Tell us what kind of business that you got. We're property and casualty insurance agency.
We sell, property and liability and workers' compensation and commercial automobile. And we we move those products in every state in the the US, even in Hawaii. So I love it. We're a little bit different than normal PNC guys on the corner. Because our customers trade across the country. So we had to be licensed and ready to go and knowledgeable about rules and regulations in all states. So yeah. We're in insurance, Scotts. We we moved those products. You you you say it so simply.
You have a little bit of a niche in the market. Tell us who you work with. I I work mostly with franchise awards. People like sport clips to travel to smoothie and US lawns. Our expertise is really in the franchise disclosure document. There's a a contract that holds the franchise award with franchisee, and we have a little bit of expertise in that language and how to structure insurance products to keep everybody happy and keep the attorneys up and and may as much as we can. Yeah. That's right.
And and, obviously, we've talked about a couple locations of a franchise that I have, and And you're right. There's I get a friendly reminder anytime that that renewal comes up because one policy Chaz ended, and I've I've, quote, unquote, fallen into noncompliance or, you know, obviously, they just need a new certificate, but it there's there's there is there is such a thing as what you're talking about. I get it. Yeah. There's and then every brand has different language.
Every brand has different penalties, which sounds like a rough word, but there are consequences if you fall in non compliance, like you just said, and and Chaz we try to keep everybody in compliance. Right. Keep the brand growing. And that's what we've tried to do is keep their staff focused on generating revenue, and we'll keep our eyes on the insurance, Paul. Yeah. I love that.
Yeah. And and it's even inside the insurance, appointing this out for the listener because we talked about this with several guests on the show Chaz far as being able to kinda, like, really find your area where you're really, really good.
And in this huge sea of insurance, you've narrowed it down to, you know, some franchise systems, specifically working with the franchisor, and then the individual franchisees, but even more than that, like, your gateway, like you said, is let's help you with this. Make your life easy. Make your life easy. And then out of Chaz, obviously comes a relationship and and you get to sell a bunch of great products, but but you found your you found your, like, your entry point.
Yeah. I mean, You can't be all things to all people. And if you try, you normally fail. It just people's needs are too divergent. The way business is tracked, it is too divergent across the country. People in Dallas, trade with people in Dallas, people in Houston, trade with people in Houston, and there are 2 different business models and there are are business appetites in the way that people handle business.
And so I'm a real believer and you got an Be really good at what you do, and you better have a pretty narrow focus on what you do. And if that is an a narrow brand across the country, you gotta be able to move. And local although we are a local insurance agent, we handle All kinds of insurance locally. As do we move cross state boundaries, we're gonna be very narrowly focused because people are gonna try or Margaret trade with Guyana, Austin, Texas if you're in LA, California. So Right.
Yep. Exactly. Focus. Focus. Yeah. You know, I I wanna bring this up a little bit later because I think that that this is a thing that most entrepreneurs struggle with and myself included for many years. And so before we do Chaz, though, I wanna know the bigger picture for you, Doug. I mean, you're a king here today because you've had success. You didn't you didn't just come across it overnight. But you're still at it.
You're you're literally in Las Vegas right now as we're doing this recording, building your business. And so why? I can't stop. I've tried to stop Sold a business, bought another one. My success comes from my children. They're all in my team. It's been a great ride. They kept me alive and keep me motivated.
And, yeah, I had had had an insurance position in Austin that I sold and one of you retired figured out that retirement launch is not for me and developed this franchise program and the kids all showed up and away we go. Yeah. I want you to talk a little bit more there because you've you've mentioned that you sold you had insurance company before, but you sold it. So there was something, I guess, almost in the negative of, like, the the the retired life wasn't for me.
So what what is it about business that gives you the fulfillment? But then on top of that, the second layer I want you to go into, if you can, What is, like, doing this with your kids? Like, I just can only imagine being in that position one day. Well, I don't have to teach the basics to the kids. They they get it. They've been with me for I was gonna say you already taught them the basics. Yeah. Yeah. So they they know what to do.
They know how to handle although we all do something a little bit different in our business k. In and of itself. Sure. We have a couple of offices to keep people separated We all do a little bit different, but we're all the same team. And my first business I bought from my dad had ran it for years and actually just really burned out. Bored. Kids weren't involved.
No reason to grow the business and need to sell Shellette, and then he realized, well, I mean, it might've might've might've always given himself something to do and stay in it. And then the kids decided that they are one of their retired from there. Chaz profession at the time. They were pretty young, but they had taste of the world outside. And they said, hey. Let's go do what Dan does. So, wow. Worked out for me.
Yeah. Well, I'd say for them too because a conglomerate or a collective effort, And so I I definitely wanna dive more into that maybe a little bit later. I got some questions around family and stuff, but I I envision myself in your shoes one day where not that I not that I don't want my kids to go do what they want. I I, of course, I do. I just want what they wanna do to be altogether. Yeah. You know? And not really just because, like, selfishly, I wanna, like, just keep running up the mountain.
I just want to build something that's family oriented. You know? I I want like, when I think about just huge family names, just these big family names that we can think about from a 100 years ago that are still around and they're operating as big companies and foundations and all this stuff. It's like, man. There are there's a collective effort to that, and that starts with someone. And I'm just trying to be that someone. I don't I don't even need my name really remembered.
I just want it to be, like, this now huge effort that comes together of all this talent in in my family. Is that is it as you've done? Sure. Everybody has a different talent, and you have to realize that nobody's a saying that the kids are like me and but they're all very talented. We just have to focus on what their individual talents are and keep them doing what they do well and they what they enjoy and It's not necessarily about what I do, but we move the ball forward each day, let's say.
With that big common goal is what drives us. Yeah. So yeah. It's fortunate that they're my kids. So, yeah, I love that. Alright. Well, let's get into some of your story. You've you've kinda hinted at it a little bit that you've been insurance for a long time. Tell us just how you got you said you bought a business from your dad. Like, just how did you and business and entrepreneur at at Lism come together? Well, most insurance people are masters at failing and other things.
So when the graduate from Texas a and m in 1982, I didn't really know what to do. Went to work for a couple insurance companies. Because the economy was although it was rocking and rolling in 1982 and 83, interest rates were very high, know, they started pushing up into 14, 15%. So I didn't really know what to do. Been a people guy probably all along through college, high school, not a not a academician. Sure. Although I'm thinking pretty smart, I'm not a book guy.
Worked a couple of years with some insurance companies and decided that wouldn't, you know, work because I really like to answer to people. So went over and knocked on my dad's door and said, hey. I'm thinking I wanna work here. I need to screw the business, but in in that business, we are really involved in their home build world. The homebuilder. Okay. It's amazingly the similarities between a homebuilder and a subcontractor is a lot like a franchisor and a franchisee.
Yeah. It's the same working relationship. So we developed some ideas and some marketing plans, and we We grew the own builder business, and we stayed mostly in Texas. Just Texas domiciled, and we grew a big team and Really just got bored over a 30 year period of time. Kids weren't in the business. No reason to grow it. No reason to stick around. Find other interests and you say, hey. I'm not interested in this anymore. I probably ought to sell it. And so I sold my dad's business.
I mean, I've audited probably ninety 7 ish. Sold it in 2010 and I just bought another little insurance agency in down. They had some good people, pretty small, the legacy, but had good people. And I bought it mainly just out of boredom. You know, it probably was unemployed at Stitchley or whatever out of the same business for about a month and a half. And you just can't get out. People call you and They say, hey. I I got a problem. I got an issue.
And if you get anybody to help me, so he said, well, I might as well do this. And So I bought this little business in Georgetown and within a period of 2 or 3 years, all of my kids, Come. I had a son that was in a real estate business. I had a son that owned a restaurant and an daughter that was a CPA for for a big national company in. Wow. Next day at home, we're all together. And they said, well, we're gonna be together. We're gonna we're gonna have to grow this thing up a little bit.
So that's right. Wolfe started mainly working in the franchise business because it was a business model that we knew how to work. We had had some franchises ourselves. Sure. Nothing Chaz you're out really, very good, but we learned the basics of the franchise business and, you know, with Shailis selling shirts of these folks, but, you know, it's been a 40 year run. And, I really take we're just getting started. If I happen to check out, the kids are fully capable of running the business.
I mean, yeah. Yeah. Grand Grand Canyon kids, all the stuff. So I think we're in pretty good shape now. I love that. I think that that's encouraging. For the listener because, you know, you're like I said, you're 40 years in. Maybe a listener is 4 months in or 4 years in. And the the difference is a stick to itiveness. Yeah. I hire a lot of the other people. I like the young youth kids to be busy. They tire me out extremely quick, but I like youth and I like enthusiasm.
And if you can bring those things to the table with us, you can do pretty well. You got a good team. We're probably up to around 30 players on our team now. And what I have to caution my kids and myself is you don't have to do it. You have to lead. Be a leader and lead these people down the trail, and they'll do some good things for you because that's that's really the people business. I mean, the insurance business is the people business. Pretty much any businesses.
I really think dependent on the staff that you have, the training that you have. Right. And the model doesn't really matter what you do. You gotta do it well and you gotta be somewhat creative in how you deliver those products. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Chaz construct Wolfe definitely dive into some of that. I wanna know, Doug, what was a good decision that you made? Could be in the early business before you sold it. What about this new one also?
Just a a good decision that you could look back on. And this one thing led to a bunch of other things that went really well. Well, Selling my dad's business was probably, on one hand, the stupid thing to do On the other hand, I wouldn't be where I am today. Had I not done Chaz? So that is a good and bad decision at the same time. When you don't think you bring any value to a business and you're not adding to it anymore, you know, it was probably a good time to sell it.
However, it was a good revenue stream for me, but I I thought I got enough money when I sold it that I could live for 10 or 15 years and He got something else to do. Yeah. Assisted. I didn't really have any talents to go do anything else since So I said, well, that game worked pretty well. Let's just do it again. And that probably wasn't probably not the smartest decision either, but it was the way I Chaz, but then that allowed the door to open for my kiddos, which just Yeah.
By far, the best decision I've ever made is having them joining. And you can go to work every day if somebody's willing to listen and willing take your ideas and and then you see that you can push that on to the younger people. Then in Chaz, that's the reason to go to work. Is is to be able to help the next person in line. Right. It's I I my dad always told me. It doesn't matter where he start. It's what are you gonna do with it?
And if you can do something with what you have been given or have earned or whatever that's how you're gonna get measured. And that's what I tried to do. Yeah. So, yeah, there's a a cool story in a in a pretty well known book about a certain number of talents given and what we do with it. Right? Sure. It is. You know? But, I love how you how it opened up to the end there. You gave several, you know, good, bad scenarios there, but isn't isn't such as life. Right?
Like, business and life decisions. And it's like, well, they kinda just are. Good or bad. They kinda just are, and they've led us to where we are today. But inside of that, it sounds like, you know, having your kids with you has been an incredible piece of that. So I wanna dive into that just a little bit. What would you say for the listener right now? Cause, I mean, maybe their guy like me, and I got I got little kids.
I can't I can't go employ my my kids quite yet, or they can join the partnership, you know, ownership pool yet. But what what inside of that am I looking for or that you have that maybe I I can get with other people that aren't my kids yet? Like, What's the juice in that decision? That's just been so wonderful. Well, I mean, I think young people are the magic of everything.
They bring an enthusiasm and energy to a project, a job, a a career that that the older side of the generation just says, well, hey. I've done this, hell. I don't need to make any new relationships. And Sure. You you guys go do that. So the young people And you have to keep it exciting and and knowledgeable and somewhat profitable for the young people or that you'll lose them. And because else will make their life better.
And so if you can make people's lives better and you can show them a growth track, not Not overnight. Insurance business is way Not overnight. Way way slow. Build. Yep. It's steady. It's very steady. And if you can put some new business on the books, You could create a system to handle your existing business and keep that business renewing. You can grow. And if you can grow then you have to duplicate yourselves.
And and and people that are one man, ensure people are not picking on them at all, but pretty much I can tell you how much revenue they can handle because they're a one man band. And some people wanna be a one man band. Yep. I never did. And I thought, well, if I could just clone my dad and clone me, then we can grow. And, I think it's about cloning the good talents that your team has. Yeah. It is so simple, but yet so profound.
I say that often on the show because we make points like that, but, like, wow. Duplicate the things that work and and don't don't duplicate the things that don't work. I mean Yeah. And we but but it's it's difficult to actually do that. Yeah. Oh, it's simple to say it's difficult to Well, I think you have to look outside of yourself and see talents of people in your community, and how can you emulate their duplicate what they're doing in their business that would fit you and your business.
And That's right. And if you can do that, you you can add to your team. And and and I think that's what we do. We we I can't take care of everybody's insurance needs personally. And the ones that if I had to take care of them, personally, I can tell you how big I could grow to because I'd be answering it full, but I can sell a wheel that on that wheel, we have different team members that accomplish different tasks. And so If I question gets comes my way and I say, well, that's Joe's wheel.
And let's see. And that's his boat in the wheel. Let's let Joe get involved and fix that problem so it doesn't happen again. And and and I think we are selling a wheel. And and and the wheel just keeps rolling. That the analogy that you just gave is very profound for the guy listening right now or gal, and they don't have a wheel yet. They're they're the one man band. Maybe they've got even a team of 2345.
But generally speaking, they've been, you know, working that that one man band, even mindset. How did they change from the 1 man band or the 1 spoke wheel to an actual wheel. Providing a service around a wheel. You have to trust people. You have to have people on your team that you do Chaz rely on you if you if you hire a staff member and you were embarrassed to put that staff member in front of your finest client, then I I wonder why we hired that person.
If if we're not if we're not capable of putting our weakest to leak in front of our our best customer, and the weekly needs to kinda go away. Wow. And I I that is the mistake Chaz I've made in my 40 years where I tolerated behaviors or actions from from teammates that I Right. But they they crossed my boundary, whatever my boundary was, but I didn't address that quickly enough. Yeah. And so I think that's what you happy to do.
And I If we say, oh, we can't let Betty talk to Joe because Joe's our best customer. Betty's pretty weak. They would probably need to replace Betty. And Yeah. Let's That's kind of that's kind of the I I wanna be the week link on the team, and everybody else needs to be a star. Yeah. Take your you're really giving it giving good stuff here. You're saying it so casually because you've just done this for so long, but I'm I'm I we gotta stop here for a second.
Because the listener may not have the decades of just like, this is real. What you're talking about right now is 100% real, and I love the distinction and just the sheer logic that you've used. Can my weakest go before my best? And if not, not only not not sure I get rid of them. Yes. That that may be part of the solution. I, we have work to do is the honest looking in the mirror. Let's actually try to do this thing well. And so it it's just it's just very enlightening.
I hope that Elizabeth is paying attention. I think of hires that I've made in the past as Wolfe, and I go, everything you just hit strikes the cord, and it's like, yep. I'm yep. You're right. And I found out later, obviously, that they weren't a good fit. What did we lose in between time? What was the opportunity cost? I did. And then I'd say I was a master at it. I I I have failed. I have failed.
It probably the biggest mistakes I've made is having staff people that didn't Wolfe weren't like minded. That he doesn't it's not good or bad. It's just like minded. And if you put like minded people together and you don't have somebody way off in the right field, right, or left field or wherever you're Whatever you are. Yeah. That I think you're gonna probably regret it. You're not gonna move. The team Chaz fast.
And that's probably every person's problem is getting the right Hindmates and Yeah. Yeah. What would you say to the person right now who's listening and they they invite they know like, we're talking about this topic and they have a name in their brain of that person that's in left field and the rest of the team's in right field. What did they go do? How well, how should they handle it?
Well, that's, you know, probably one of my failings since I, every time I went to fire somebody, by the time I was done, I didn't give it over a raise in the next day off. I mean, I just didn't hand handle handle it Wolfe. Okay. Wow. But, really, you're having that conversation because you're not happy, and you're not happy Right.
Because of your observations of what that teammate was doing and and addressing that quickly so that it doesn't affect other teammates You can't have one teammate bringing down the whole team. I think I do a better job at realizing somebody It's not all bought in quicker than I used to, and I used to be probably a little more tolerant of a different behavior just because, well, I I had a hard time finding that one. So I I don't wanna go look again. I don't wanna start over.
And all of those things are valid points. Yep. But the quicker you get it over with, better off you're gonna be. And that's the problems linger. They won't go away in a tighter Chaz changes stripes. All the cliff shades, you can say. People are the people. You're not gonna change them. That's right. So they had to be bought in.
Yeah. You know, just to give the listener just a slight bit of encouragement on what you're saying here is that oftentimes what I have found, not only in my own experience, I'm sure you can relate to this as well, but even the business owners that are in our mastermind, 7, 8, even 9 figure business owners, they have big businesses, lots of employees, and they would all agree with me because we've had these type to conversations where you don't know what you don't know.
And so everything you just said, as far as like, oh, but if I let him go and I gotta start over and, like, that difficulty part of it, Chaz person that's describing that hasn't felt what it's like to have the absolute right person. Because when you get the right person, Is it night and day? Yeah. And you go, wow. This is what it's supposed to have been this whole time. It's almost like a cheat code. Like, this is easy.
It doesn't mean that the management of people or the finding of a players is easy. It just means that when you find 1 and you put them in the right seat, on the bus that's fit right just for them. Everything is just so much easier. You agree with? Yeah. And I sure. I mean, anyway, you know, personal mistakes are probably the the biggest errors that I ever made. And and you look back and you said, well, why did I wait a year? Why did I wait 6 months? Why did I wait a month?
If I was and I I still go back to the best the the the best thing I have is take your weakest person How you discover that? It's tough, but if you're if you're embarrassed about them meeting your best customer, then you probably need to make a change. And and that's that's just so simple to say and so hard to dig, but That's the game. And if I if I got people on my team that I don't want to see my best customer, they're like, why are they on my team?
If they If they're the ones that answered the phone that day, I need them to be an a plus. And yeah. It's good. It's a good it's a good measurement stake for sure. A plus an effort. I don't always sure. But, you know, I don't I'm not I don't know all the answers. I said, I'll tell the customer something, man, you know, that's a great I'll have to go read on that and I'll get with you tomorrow by noon and I'll have an answer or I'll find somebody who has the answer.
Yeah. And that's I just need effort. Yeah. It's a big deal. It there's there's obviously several components to the effort. You know, hungry, humble smart is what Patrick Lindsay only talks about in one of his but all those things go into. It's like, okay. Can I can I work with this? Like, is there something here to work with? And that's what I'm picking up when you say effort. Is that can I can I mold this? Can it get better? Do they wanna be better? Do they wanna go to the next level?
Because when they're the wrong person on the wrong seat, it it just is a challenge. There there's usually it's there's like, like you said, everybody's over here. And, actually, Chaz that that you gave of right field left field and everybody's over here and that one person's over there, usually the rest of the team can see it. Pretty obvious. Yeah. The rest of the team was not typically happy Chaz you allowed that person in the opposite field is to to to drag the team down. Right.
Now you also need to be aware that sometimes that person in left field has a good idea, and maybe the rest of it should even with a little bit just a little bit different. That's right. Yeah. They took a little bit different in, and maybe there's some use for them after all. It's yeah. I think that that is that they're not causing negative Yep. Big different.
To the other teammates, negative reactions amongst your customers, then possibly you can harness that in and I'm not saying that I'm a master at that. I think I'm a master of 40 years of being pretty much in the same business. And trying to and I've been able to see what works and doesn't work. Yeah. And, obviously, we're always looking to improve what what we do. I'm technologically pretty challenged. You know, they turn around words like AI and Yeah.
All the all this stuff nowadays, and I have a computer program that what works with franchise awards. So I'm somewhat ahead in flea. Strong. I know what a is supposed to look like. I know what z is supposed to look like. I'm not real sure what goes in the middle, but there's people that are sure what goes in the middle. It's gotta surround myself with. Yeah. So it's such an honest answer, and I appreciate that the vulnerability even there to be able to say that.
Because it's not necessarily about ego at the king stage or even beyond, you know, the sage after the king, but it's about it's about you know, putting it's about people, really. We've already talked about that just this entire time, but inside of people, there's there's real answers as well. Our ability. It's actually, like, relationship. It's moving the needle like you talked about. So I I wanna ask you about your decision making process.
You've been in this business 40, you know, years, and you got lots of team members. You got your kids. Like, all these different things Chaz you got going on. Is there a process that you follow in order to make quality decisions. I'm very guilty of keeping all of those processes in my head and not sharing with my team members, what drives that decision. Yeah. What metrics that that I use If I had metrics, I'm pretty much of a a gut feeling person.
Yeah. And so decisions I make Although they might be correct. Some oftentimes, they're not correct, but Right. If if they're correct, and my and I'm having to explain it to my team members and my my kiddos. They're not kids, but they're like, why why are we doing this? I go, well, because that's what I wanted. Although maybe we're doing it because I want to do it. Right? Probably they they make you think through the process. Okay. What is this gonna affect? If I do a, how is it gonna affect b?
Right. And do I have justification for doing this? Right. People that count on you or follow you, I think it helps that they understand how you're how you got to that decision. Not the best at it. Probably a lot better today than I used to be, but sharing the thought process of how we get to a decision I think helps the next decision. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So that they they're not they don't feel like you're coming out left field, and we're just gonna change.
Yep. But I I think that's where I try to do better because the kids will hold you accountable or or you're the teammates. Uh-uh. Yeah. They will. Everybody has a different set of teammates, but your teammates will hold you accountable previous decisions. And if everybody knows the metrics that goes into that decisions, I think you'll be better off. Now that's sharing. Sharing is hard for entrepreneurial guys. They Yeah. They wanna just drive through the Wolfe. And That's right.
I I have that in My teammates, I have I have sons that are probably more like me. I have a daughter who is analytical. We'll take things through and say, hey. Wait a minute. This doesn't make sense. Yeah. They go oh, oh, yeah. Yeah. That doesn't make sense. And then and that's probably good to have people bouncing the ideas off mine. Yeah. Are are unique because they're somewhat like me, but Yeah. Wolfe, they hold you to a kennel. Yeah. That's right.
And and if your team doesn't, it kinda maybe goes back to your point a couple of minutes earlier, which is, like, are they even the right ones, or maybe you just haven't relinquished that ability to them. I think it's important to say, I need you to keep me accountable on this or this or this, and it gives them permission because to your point, we're big personalities. Well, you don't you don't you don't You don't not work for somebody else and and then just walk in quietly.
Usually, there's a little bit of a there's a presence. There's a little bit of maybe even ego. All those things go into business ownership. And so for someone else, especially someone on your team or even a kid who's on your team, your dad like, how are they gonna approach you and keep you accountable unless you pave the way for that to actually be possible, which is authenticity and vulnerability and being able to share and allowing them to hold you accountable, apologizing.
Like, all of those things that, you know, the nuances of the things we can get into, but gave a really, really, really great perspective there. I think I think Age has a lot to do with that. Now past the point of the proof. Should be. Yeah. And just, you know, I think that we have a a system now that we can plug and play and she still will go with her without me. And I think that's where we all want to be. It's at a place that Hey. This has been good.
It's been good for me personally and financially. It's not about financials expenses about hap are you happy in your life? And are you doing what you want to do? Right. And if you're not here tomorrow, Are you happy? I mean, would would that be okay? Yeah. And there's a lot of times in my life when I couldn't answer. I couldn't say those things because Sure. It was 40 and It hadn't gotten what I wanted yet. And our and it wasn't always about money.
It was about happiness and and customers make me happy. I mean, getting a new customer is the the satisfaction of somebody saying, hey. We're gonna go with your team because, we like your game. And that's pretty satisfying. Yeah. I received that. I think every entrepreneur gets the gets the juice from that squeeze as well.
But if we can catch that earlier on to your point of the happiness part of that or the fulfillment part of that Chaz opposed to just the money, I think, is is, ultimately, where it leads us to, maybe more wholesome perspective. And you're right. Usually, as age, an experience wears on us. We we look at things a little different. We have a different perspective.
And and as a young guy, I can remember being 23, 24, 25, and and thinking that my stuff didn't stink and and that I was probably a little bit more capable than I was and taking on some some big challenges and risks, which is what you need in that moment to be able to charge the hill, but so I'm not, like, putting a twenty five year old me down, but as you get older, you get perspective. And you have, you know, you have different clients. Alright.
I run into 2nd generation leaders, become CEOs And I'll usually, my normal comment is gonna be it's a lot smarter. The second generation is a lot smarter. Miles ahead of where the 1st generation was. The only thing they're missing is water under the their bridge. They just That's right. Have it faced Real world problems or issues. They're smarter than hell. I mean, unbelievable. They're they're they're smart. So you gotta get them some experience.
And you get them experienced by allowing them to work, by allowing them to fail, Yeah. They don't need to hang themselves. They they need to fail a little bit, and then they go, oh, that doesn't work. And I need to involve my team a little bit quicker and faster. I It's not about me. Right? Yeah. You know, it's funny. I gotta tell the story partially because it it is good. And it totally relates to where you're at.
You're at, but then Also, because my wife when this happened yesterday, my wife was like, you're gonna talk about this on a podcast. I just know it. So here we are. A day later, I'm gonna talk about it. So my son, he's three and a half now. He learned how to ride his bike yesterday.
And so everything that you were just talking about, you know, took me about 15 minutes to get him up and going, but he's been He's been riding the bike for a couple of years now without the training wheels, but without the pedals. So he just he runs and balances and kinda, like, floats a little bit. Yeah. He's got the feeling. And that's still after 10:15, maybe 20 minutes of just kinda going around the loop yesterday. He got it. He was up and running.
And, there was a couple times at the beginning, where he was about to crash, and I caught him. And, it was cute because he was like, good job, dad. You saved me. And it's like, wait a second. You're congratulating me, and that's cute. Okay. Cool. But know, we went around a couple more times, and then I didn't. I let he was gonna go into the grass. I let him fall. And I just you know, it was a soft landing. It's grass. But, man, he just he bit the dust a couple times.
And then I let him bite the dust on the concrete. And then I let him bite the dust, you know, over the bike, and he's just Exactly. He needs to know how to fall. He needs to know how to be able to get back up and brush his knee off even though he hurts a little bit and get back on. And And how do you do that if you don't allow the water to go into the bridge, as you were saying, or give them the experience, or allow them to fall? And so I can't ride the bike for him forever.
I could I could ride the bike right now I can in fact, I could I could run around the circle all day with him and hold on to him. But how long can I really do that? And then And then I leave him I leave him, you know, not capable. And so I think between my little story and and your real life example, I think that we hit the point here pretty good. But you did anything to that? No. Yeah. The internal struggle between what grandpa thinks is or bad things needs to be done.
Which he needs to crash because I'm not gonna be there to hold you all the time and grandma say it, well, we don't want his knee to get scratched up. We'll try it. That's the struggle. And then you gotta figure out how to teach them. Yep. He wanna protect them. You don't wanna be hurt, but they need to know it's painful Chaz you go that direction. And yeah. That's the struggle. And it's it's the same in it's it's amazingly similar in everything you do. Yeah. Yeah. I love that perspective.
Doug, I wanna switch over here to our speed round. I got some got some hard hitting questions I want you to answer, but the first one is around KPIs. Obviously, there's lots of things track inside the insurance world. I'm sure you guys got all kinds of measurements. But what would be the most important or low way? I like to say it, but the one thing that you would track, if you could only pick one. Would it be? Well, I would say our new business writings.
If we're bringing new business to the books, Yeah. That's key. There's number one key. Wolfe, number 1, before you get to number 2 key is are you keeping me the business that you already wrote. So Yeah. Yeah. As as motivating as I am for new business, My team members will caution me and say, let's feel great. We can't take care of what we got yesterday. And I I I need to stay attentive to our service levels. Our service modules are backloads are Are we sad? So what one goal the sales.
We have we're a sales organization. Ultimately, But we can't be a sales organization if we're not a service organization. So That's right. It's so hard to say I only have one metric And I'm just gonna dial that one metric here because if the other metric is not holding and I don't have somebody watching then I Chaz tell all I want. And if I can't keep it, I'm not doing any good. We gotta keep it. That's right. And so I think my talent was always getting the next one.
Yeah. Probably probably in Chaz I didn't pay attention to the last one yesterday's work. So I had to backfill my weakness, which was service that we gotta take care of our existing customers. That's right. So everybody can have a main goal A. That's what we do, but you better have something like a and a half. Yeah. Chaz that's before you get to b. And a and a half is we gotta keep what we already you know, we we we have getters. We have people that get the business. Yeah. We have keepers.
That's right. So if you only have getters, you're gonna be out of business. If you only have keepers, you're gonna be out of business because they can't get it. Right. You gotta blend those 2 people. Yeah. Get urgent keepers. Yeah. And that works for every business. I think there's a lot of probably guys listening or or even gals that have a business and they service customer, you know, once I build them a deck, right, or whatever the circumstances.
And they think, well, since I've I took care of their deck, then there's not really anything else I can do. I'm gonna, you know, onto the next And Chaz couldn't be further from the truth because that person now represents future business And and I've got some clients that have really dialed this in. They know that person represents, you know, another 87 300, you know, $87,300 in business to them over the next 3 years or whatever that time frame is.
And it's not to take a face and a name in a relationship and turn it to a dollar. It's to realize that that person, that hunter that you're talking about, is like, woah. Woah. Woah. Were you over here out here hunting? All you had to do is just curate this relationship, actually take good care of them, actually give them even beyond the service. You built them the deck. Fantastic. But did you disappear? Did you you send them a Christmas card? Do you do stop by every once in a Wolfe?
And and make sure the deck is good. Like, what there's so many ways that you can curate that that relationship and service them beyond the initial product And and then whether it's a referral or they move and they need another deck and, like, all these things that could potentially happen over the next 2 to 5 years, And unless you're just in the business to, like, make a 1,000,000 today and then go to the beach tomorrow, I I think that the 2 to 5 year plan is actually a pretty good one.
Would you agree? Oh, absolutely. I mean, you Okay. My my failure was always looking at the next piece of business. My so I I had to recognize where my weakness was, and I had to have people behind me that Wolfe honor my commitments and service the account and, you know, handled the claim and all that stuff because I was singularly focused on grow growing customer count, and somebody probably needs to be that person.
But there's other things in the business have to be attended to and and referrals and meeting the neighbor and meeting the neighbor's friend and and, like, deal. So so that's it. It's it's the same. We're in we're in the insurance business. There's a lot of people in the insurance business. I know people use the yellow pegs anymore, so I just dated myself. But The yellow pages is full of insurance people. So the the customer always has an option. Always.
And and the minute you forget the customer has options, they're gonna they're gonna get in trouble. Yeah. It changes the game. Doug, what what type of book or resource would you recommend for a business owner trying to grow? I like I'm not a voracious reader. I do Read snippets of books, I like podcasts. Nice. There's there's Sky out of Salt Lake City. He He he he doesn't know me. He's written a couple books, and I like 2 of his books.
1 is called killing sacred cows, which has nothing to do with the Bowbines. Sure. It's a guy at Garrett Gunderson. I believe he's the author's name. This guy's out of Salt Lake City. He's a guru. K. I watched him on the YouTube. He's pretty far out there and Chaz ideas, but it fits my it fits fits my bag. There you go. He wrote killing sacred cows, and then secondly he wrote, and then we mentioned something about a while ago, is what would the Rockefeller do?
Yeah. And it was a book that compared how the Rockefeller family compared against the Vanderbilt family from the late 1800s and the early 1900s and how those families were so so successful. And how one of those families is still around and one of them is not still around because of the way that they transacted the business amongst family members.
And then I think it is a it's a a unique, fascinating story to look at the Vanderbilt of fellows and 2 families that had everything in the Wolfe, and one family still operates and one doesn't. And we'll tell you which one. He can go read the book but he he wrote both of them, and I I like both those books. He doesn't. And, killing sager cows is just thinking about, well, this is the way we've always done it, so this Chaz gotta be the right way. And that's, yeah, probably not true.
And with technology advances. And, right, if you think that you have a better mousetrap, You're probably way way way behind. And interesting. There's some people out there that are so far ahead of you the you, the individual. And I know it's saying you have to compete with them, but be cognizant of the fact there are people that are way smarter than you are, and you kinda gotta be somewhat on the leading edge on something. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I love the perspective of both of those.
We're gonna drop them both in. I don't say this all the time, but because if I do, if I say what I'm about to say, then my my editor orders the books for me. So I I started getting a stack of books, but both of those I wanna read, so she's gonna she's gonna hear this and be like, okay. Well, Amazon drop drop drop, and here it comes. You know? So I just appreciate sharing that. I got a question for you, Master Mining, and and the time that you spend with other entrepreneurs.
And do you find it valuable to intentionally get an strategize with other business owners. Absolutely. I think you are an average of your your peer group. I mean, would you take the top 5 of your peer group? You're probably an average of your peer group. And as a as a parent or as a person, if you can show me your care group, I've been pretty well telling you how you're gonna do because of who you associate with.
So it If associating with successful people or other business holders, if that is the thing that you desire, then I think you should do that. And if you don't, then stay on the couch and drink beer and watch football. I'm not I'm not I'm not throwing rocks in any of those. I enjoy all of that. Yeah. But I I get up and try to be around pretty successful people and make and and be held accountable. That's right.
As they're in insurance guy, or are we thinking about things that are out on the edge on their behalf? And I I think that's what we do. But you you seem pretty well Tell people this. Tell me your best five friends and what do they do for a living? Yep. Yeah. And that's probably where What you got or you're gonna fall.
Yeah. The one thing that you said there that was super intriguing to me is that basically you've got, you know, these these people that held you accountable, but you can only get to that place if you allow it, just like we talked about earlier, being accountable to your children, you have to almost, like, lower the ego and realize that it's maybe not necessarily that something that you're learning from them, although it could be. And and if and if you did, Great.
I just think that there's a certain, maybe, arrogance that comes with or confidence, even, that comes with business ownership because I had it for many years, and I just lone wolf it. You know? Like, I wasn't sitting on the couch wasting time, but I was all by myself, and and and I was charging a big hill. Big business, lots of employees, lots of money, and but I was all by myself.
And not that necessarily I needed someone to teach me something, although there's been a lot of things that my peer group has taught me. But the the very existence of gathering the Kings is because I wanted to put people around me, just like what you're saying, that could elevate me to the next level. I already felt pretty good about where I was, but I knew I wasn't done. So I needed to get around other guys who also weren't done. Guys like you that came retirements for the for the bird.
Let's go to the next level. Let's bring in the family. Let's go to the next next level. Like, all of that is not only just inspiration, but when you rub shoulders with guys like that, It's like, okay. I have no other option. Yeah. I I, I totally believe in that. I believe when I was a parent. I'm still a parent, I guess. You're always a parent. I watch to my kids. Who's your peer group? Who Where are we gonna go? We're gonna go somebody's house to stay at night.
I'm probably gonna find out who that is. Yeah. I'm not it wasn't a helicopter parent. I don't think, but I Paid attention to who they were associating with. And and myself tried to have a friend of mine, a contractor, long time client of mine Chaz Even though we have different things that entertain us, we probably sink a lot of the like. And, you know, we made a goal years ago. We tried to do a personal, something, a development Ceminar once a year.
I'm probably not fulfilled my end of the bargain, but maybe I'll take 2 1 year, and then I don't take one But I try to go learn stuff. Yeah. And learn what other people are doing in other businesses and yep. Just the communication with I'm in Las Vegas at the International Franchise Association meeting right now, and there's lots of people here are not my customers.
When I still learn from those people, what they're doing and how how what they said is probably affecting my customers and press Chaz he's feeling Chaz maybe my customers are feeling that. And Yeah. The communicating with those people Chaz I can't do on zoom and I can't do by telephone. There's nothing like meeting people in this in the in the community that you're in, you would need to learn from that community. And it it can be an association and it can be your local community.
It can be your neighborhood and whatever your community is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. Because so you could look at that community and at the end, the result is gonna be a hodgepodge of that group is gonna be basically where you're gonna end up, like you said earlier. So I agree. Doug, I got one last question here for you, man. I wanna hit this sucker home all the way. Here's your home run moment. I wanna know if you could whisper in the younger Doug's ear. What would you say?
I would say it's not gonna happen at home. You you're gonna have to You're gonna have to leave the house. You gotta have support behind you, uh-uh, spouse, significant other, that makes you proud of what you're doing and and support you. It said, you go get them, Tiger, and I'll be here. And you you gotta go. And and you gotta fail.
You you you know, it's frustrating when when when you don't get a piece of business that you wanted, it's probably not the customer's fault And I counsel with my team and say, look in the mirror because that's probably the guy that messed it up. And what did you do wrong and analyze and say, okay. I I see. I didn't attend to his needs correctly. We we had the price. We had everything we didn't get the business. And I need to find out why what I did didn't move the needle.
Yeah. And I think it's normally in the mirror. And and if you can do that, it's not a mistake, maybe, Maybe you didn't attend to maybe you didn't find out what drove the customer to 1st place. If you find out that his brother in law's his current insurance agent, you you might just not waste anybody's time and move on because of the chance of moving that piece of business probably is not very good. Right. So Yeah. That's what I would tell people.
And I know I there's a lot of things that are done all over Zoom and Yep. We're on Zoom right now. We gotta go. You gotta go. You gotta go. You gotta go. I think that speaks to the soul of of the entrepreneur. Right? Got it. That's that's the old guy's opinion. And look for successful people and somewhat mimic what what they're doing, and you'll probably be okay. Yeah. I love that, Doug. How can the listener find you?
I know Chaz, obviously, you work a lot with, you know, franchise systems, but I'm sure you that you could write a policy for any business. And so how can they find you? Number 1, if they need insurance, or they wanna they wanna check you out in that way. Or number 2, they just wanna pick your brain about business, family, that type of thing. How can I Well, we have a website, w? PIG, which stands for Program Insurance Group, BCS, which stands for Brian College Station. So it's www. Picbs.com.
So website kind of explains everything that we do. Our computer compliance software program that we have for Chaz awards or or builders or contractors is www.ez cert, certmanagementmgmt.com certmanagement.com. You will get it up on certificate compliance software systems, it will show right up on that. And then my email is, doug@pigbcs.com.
And now I answer all emails usually the first thing I do in the morning, we want something to do at night and for all kinds of motivational stories on how you're supposed to leave email alone, but I've I'm pretty quick. In responding to emails. I I just usually people are if they email me, they have a a question, and I think they want an answer. And I should Yeah. Give them an answer or get them who they need. But it's Doug at prgbcsdot com.
It's the best place to catch me, and I tell everybody my email address, my cell number. We'll put all that in the show notes as well. I want them to easily connect with you. You have you have literally poured out just decades of wisdom. You've done it so so casually today. I know I mentioned that a couple of times, but I want the listener to pay attention because it wasn't just King Wisdom today. It was Sage Wisdom. It was somebody who's been there, done that.
And like you said, someone who, you know, maybe stumbled across a couple good things and made some good decisions along the way, plenty of bad ones. But, Doug, even incredible is point. Thank you for being here. This is upon your business and your family, your kids, the whole deal that you got going on there. The groves are the are the new rock the fellers. Oop, did I? Did I let the secret slip from the book? No. It's good. Yeah. That's all. Doug, thank you for being here, brother.
Appreciate it. Thank you for listening to gathering the Kings 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 what we believe. That in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy. So if that relates and and resonates with you and you know that you need people around you, sharp qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com.
I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings. Talk soon.