On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. If you're building a business, it takes time. If you're building into people, it takes time. Rarely is it that good things happen by accident? You gotta put the work in. You gotta put the time in. People gotta know that you're invested into them. It will yield results, but it's gonna come properly later than you initially want it to come.
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 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? Chaz Wolfe gathering the king's podcast. I got Michael Shable here on the King stage. My brother, how we doing?
I'm excellent. Excellent, Chaz. Appreciate you have me, and, for pronouncing my name right as well. You know, there's this there's this secret that I have of before the show starts, you ask. That's right. That's right. I know. I know that's really, really difficult, and a lot of people think, man, this this guy, just really good with names now. In all seriousness, names are important. I I think the value in a name is actually pretty high.
And on top of that, you kinda like to hear your name, don't you? Right. We all do. Yeah. That's right. That's right. So I gotta make sure I say it right. I appreciate you giving me lowdown on that, Michael. I'm excited that you're here. We got a little bit of a relationship. We we met on social media, what, a year ish ago. Kind of tracking with each other and each other's businesses and stuff.
And we've talked a couple of different times in a couple of different formats, but excited to have you here. You've experienced some growth in in your business and businesses. And I'm glad to have you here. So once you tell us what kind of businesses that you have? Yeah. So we have a primarily residential, heavy residential repaint company. Near the Augusta, Georgia area. And then that's been in business for 7 years. And then in January, we started a bounce house rental company business.
So we've got to 4 months under our belt with that. Yeah. It it's it's an exciting time to to to be in the bounce house. Birthday celebration event space, I'm sure. Completely different from painting, so we're gonna get some perspective there from you. I'm sure. Before I do that, you've listened to plenty of these episodes, you know, over the time that we've known each other. So you you already kinda know my question flow here, but I wanna know what the burning desire is.
What's the deep seated why for Michael? Yep. And that's that's a great great, great question. When I first started off in business, I had a buddy of mine. He would tell me what's your wife for being in business. And I'm like, what do you mean? What is my why? And Right. Literally every time that him and I would talk on the phone, he would bring up this question. What is your why? And it got to the point where It was getting aggravating to me. You know?
Yeah. And at the time, you know, really, it was supporting my family. It evolved over time into something bigger. Much bigger as far as myself. And that that question of what is your why, I think, is is a great one for us to to look at and ponder. For for me now, it's it's it's not just about me. It's about it's about our team. It's about our people that we have. And who we can impact in the future. And that's what one of the things I tell my team is, you know, who's coming down the road?
Who who else's life can we impact? And when it becomes more than just the boat and the the mountain or the beach house, and it's on people, it'll keep you grinding when it gets difficult, because Chaz you know, business is hard. It'll it'll punch you in the face. You know, having that having that why in front of you and being clear, is is vitally important as business owners. Yeah. You know, it's funny.
I would I would challenge the situation to say that that guy kept asking you because He knew you maybe hadn't quite figured it out yet. Yeah. You can tell when someone is operating at a deep burning desire. And and a for whatever it for whatever it is. It could be for the family, and and that's a good initiation. I think that that's, you know, good warrior mode. Right? You gotta you gotta get food on the table. Okay. Great.
But as you described, it changes over time, especially as you become a king, and you have more resources and you're looking for better leverage and you're looking for more output for this for the same or even less input, which is leverage, but who does it impact? And that's really what it comes down to as impact or or influence. But my question for you on that is, at what point along the way did that change from, you know, the selfish ambition of of taking care of my family?
To taking care of other people. Let's just kinda broadly stroke that. You said what was the change you said? Yeah. What at what point did you did that change for you? Probably about a year and a half ago, and then really it was just you know, I don't know the exact moment that it changed. It was probably a probably a culmination of things where, you know, listening to other people, but finally, it did click for me.
And, yeah, it was probably just a I would say a culmination of things, you know, realizing like, hey. I've gotta get my eyes on something bigger. There there's a lot more. We We tend to be us and center focused on everything, you know. And, something had clicked. I'm not quite sure what that match was that Mojo or that moment was, but there was definitely a time where it did it did switch for me. Where, you know, I just realized, like, there's a much bigger, you know, picture involved.
Yeah. The intent was starting off and and business was just initially to provide for the family. We we were I was working at a a sulfide line playground equipment. And they were selling the franchisee at Wolfe locations. They weren't gonna retain any of the management, and I was had the perspective of having 4 kids to feed my wife had a year left to school. And what do I do to provide for the family?
Well, I knew how to paint and I had been in retail for a long time, making making that leap into this world was a big leap. And I was like, can I can I just even physically do the work I provide for my family? So It was that that mode of trying to figure out I had 40 how to make a business work. Yeah. And so, you know, that that your business shapes you. And I think it's it's kinda like having kids. You know, you it's gonna challenge you more than you can possibly imagine.
It's gonna shape you into your better version of yourself, and and you get changed over time, and business does that for you. You know, Yep. There's there's obviously a lot of layers there and things that we could dissect. Would you say that the business did that on its own or that you had intentions inside of the mess that we call business of becoming the best version of yourself. Probably there's one. It's a combination of both.
I think I had one of my best friends that owns business here locally him and I would talk pretty much weekly, and we still do. And we challenge each other on the hard stuff, and we have the hard conversations. And that having somebody push me to be better, you know, that that's me becoming, you know, who I am in a better version of myself, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. It it does.
There's a there's a uniqueness about getting, obviously, in a in an environment like Chaz, even if it's just one person that you get together, with, I mean, even before I started gathering the Kings, I had I had that same buddy. And we'd call each other a couple times a week and encourage each other, even pray for each other, and then sometimes say, hey. Hey. Time time to time to quit talking about that one and and make that one work.
So, anyway, I just think that that's a great perspective, but inside of now what's turned into multiple businesses. It's bigger. You're taking care of more clients, more team members. Like, it's it's obviously just turning into more. So Let let's go let's go down deep into practical. So you you you were transitioning out of a job. You didn't wanna work another job. You why did you wanna become a business owner? And and then painting was just I know how to do it, so let me try it.
Give us a little bit of that transition. Yeah. I think I had experienced some some heartache and headache where I didn't have a great experience necessarily working with other people all the time. And, you know, I always remember in the back of my head, you know, I never had this goal when I was younger to be my own business owner, but I remember thinking to myself, if I ever did go on the business for myself, you know, I would change this or I wouldn't do this or I would do this.
Sure. Yeah. And having those bad experiences kinda helped shape me to be the the type of leader I am and and the owner that I am to, you know, and being the my guys call me the boss man, but you know, being the type of boss's bad experiences really helped me to to know not what to do as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and I love I like how you do the air quotes around Bossman. It's not it's it's an endearing term from what I'm picking up and There's a culture that you're building there.
The culture came from a bad experience of of a bad culture from before. I think we can all experience that to a degree. Entrepreneurs wanting to do something different unique of our own. But when we get in there and we'll start building teams and and developing culture, it's actually quite a bit harder than it looks. Someone I don't know. Can Chaz you look back on some of those bad experiences and go, you know, maybe I was being a too difficult with them.
Like, they they were actually doing the best that they could. I I don't know. Did you feel that way at all? Someone had said we tend to judge others based on their actions, and we judge ourselves based on our intentions. That's a 100% right. We we we we tend to hold people to a higher higher level than we hold our own selves. So I was probably a little bit harsh at that point in time, you know, in my judgment of them. Sure. Looking back. Yeah. Yeah. Because we want Grace now. We're like, look.
We're we're figuring things out. We're we're building a team. Like, give me a little time. Give me a little patience. Give me a little grace. The reality of it is is that people, teams, culture, building a business, like, all of it is just, like you said, it's hard, but it it's people. It's really what it is. And so there's this masterful building of of teams and people that come into everything that you're saying. So sounds like you're doing some great things there.
Maybe we'll get into that a little bit more, but I wanna know of a good decision that you made inside the business. Obviously, you guys have been on a growth track, even since we've been talking over the last year or so. You've been just steadily just getting better and better. And, obviously, the revenue's growing. The team's growing. Your mind sounds like it's grown quite a bit. What's been a good decision that you've made to help you and all that?
Investing in my people, investing in myself, spend the time to grow myself and then grow my grow my team as well. We we meet every Friday. We hardly ever miss a Friday, and we take 30 to 45 minutes on developing ourselves as leaders. We now we do have some structure to our meetings where beforehand we're kinda winging it. Sure. We've been It all starts with winging. Yeah. Test plus star school lagging. We started going through John Maxwell's 5 levels of leadership.
We're about finished with Chaz. We're going through that every single week. Yeah. And seeing, you know, pulling ideas out of that to things that we can implement. And we do it with all of our our team members, I believe for us, we're we're trying to grow as a company. And for me to to scale my company, I've gotta have future leaders that I have. That are ready to step into those roles as we grow. There can be better employees. There can be better, you know, to their family members.
We all have leadership abilities that can be cultivated. So for me, I guess the one thing was just realizing that know, I need to invest in myself, and I need to invest in those that are around me. Yeah. Yeah. Which is a little bit at the beginning, that culture. And so, yeah, you're training them specifically to be leaders, which then, like you said, I love how you said Chaz, that makes them better. Men or women. It makes them better spouses. It makes them better.
Husband wives, parents, employees, whatever it is. Community members. You really are building the person. I mean, yes, we call it leadership because, ultimately, we want them to be a strong enough individual to be able to lead other individuals. Right? That's, yeah, what you're doing with your growth plan.
But, really, what you're doing is that you're giving this individual what they need, the building blocks of, like, who they are, and their beliefs and what it means to pour into somebody so that they can be whole kind of. Yep. Yep. When do you find that, like, as you've been pouring in Chaz there's, like, been an immediate response of, like, I don't wanna say return on investment. That's that sounds transactional, but What I mean is you're pouring into them.
Have you seen the response of how they're either pouring out to others on their team or to the client experience? Like, surely, you're getting you know, a response out of them. What is that? It's taken time. You know, with relationships in general, you you've gotta put you gotta put that time factor in, but it's been slow. I think as business owners, we want to, especially as entrepreneurs, we wanna see that quick result. Oh, sure.
And it it doesn't necessarily give you, you know, the quick result doesn't give you that compounded interest. So it's it's taken time. We we were at a stage where we we had moved on from someone that was not good for our company. And was a really bad apple, and it was right at the time, like, we were starting our training. And the the gases from that, the poison from that took a few months to move out.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that that probably played a factors why I didn't see some of the results that I wanted to initially. And it's just it's it's taken time, you know, but If you're building a business, it takes time. If you're building into people, it takes time. You know, rarely is it that good things happen by accident? And, you know, you you you gotta put the work in. You've gotta you gotta put the time in. People gotta know that you're invested into them.
Yeah. It it will yield results, but it's it's gonna come probably later than initially want it to come. You know? Yeah. Yeah. That's the reality of delayed gratification or, you know, reaping what you sew. You you you don't reap right away. You sew, and then you cultivate, and then you irrigate, and and you take care of it. You weed, you, you know, all of it. So I am curious, though, because what you just said is super powerful, but sometimes can be portrayed as maybe not good intentions.
So let me let me paint the picture here for you. There's somebody listening right now, and they they've got a couple team members. Maybe they've got 20, 30, 40 team members. I remember having 65 plus employees in my first business, and there were sections of the team where I'm like, scratching my head going. I I don't know if they believe me. I don't know if I believe them. There's just a lot of, like, you know, especially with different locations and across the country, so forth and so on.
The the the picture is this. You've got people on your team. They wanna believe that you're pouring into them, that you're investing into them. But they're uncertain. They're uncertain of what this leadership stuff is. They don't know if they I mean, they kinda like it, but the like, is there an alternative motive? Does Michael want me to do something different? Is he trying to get more out of me? Like, just uncertainty, unbelief. Right? So Yeah. Absolutely.
Can you have the listener if if they're experiencing the same thing? I'm sure You know what I'm talking about. We both experienced it. I'm sure, but what can you do in those moments to bridge that gap with those people that are a little uncertain? They they are like taking your lead, but they're a little uncertain. They're probably good apples, but we gotta, like, bridge that gap, help them through that kind of, like, awkward piece of self development. You know what I mean?
Think there's it's taking the time with them and and asking questions. You know, I think if you're around somebody, it's like, you know, with my spouse, or one of my kids. Something's wrong with them. If you're around them long enough, you're gonna know that, hey. You're off here. You know, what's going on?
Yeah. And I I think if you're around them long enough, you can you can kinda sense and you you can gauge that, you know, maybe there's a disconnect and, you know, maybe they're all the way bought in.
If you know what's going on in their in their day to day and you're taking time to find out, You know, what drives them, you know, what's what's what their issues are, where they wanna be, what are their dreams, what are their goals, you you can find out a lot, but it's taking that time with that person and and rubbing shoulders with him. Yeah. Yeah. And whether that's on the job or intentional time to be able to get to know them.
Some business owners listening don't don't have the ability to get down into the business at that level. Some people might still be right there doing the work themselves, yeah, all all the above. So what it what it equates to is time or even a layer down below that Chaz I heard you say is intentionality. Seeing them as a human? Oh, but, you know, loving on people. Right. If shocker. Right? Yeah. That would actually move the needle when it comes to people. Do you have any any anything here?
I mean, the practicality of time is so important, but when it comes to building leaders and and they're on your team now and you've kinda bridged the gap and you're pouring into them, do you Do you give them a little bit of rope? Do you give them a a test or, like, a, hey. Go go lead this person, or what's the next step for that budding leader, maybe something that you've done with yours? Getting input.
One of the things that we require for all of our leadership team that we have is to get other people's input. And so it doesn't matter if the person's been here for 2 days or 2 years, You know, what do you think about this? How do you feel about this? How would you tackle this? And so you're getting them to solve problems. You're getting them to think you're showing them that, hey. I value your opinion. I value you as a person because I'm asking you this.
So even, like, for us with our in in painting business, Our crew leaders, yes, they can go in and they can do a job from, you know, a to z and they know what to do and probably could do it blindfolded. Or the hand tied behind their back. But to slow down and ask, hey, guys, you know, what do you see here? How would you tackle this? Right. And and sometimes you'll find out that somebody else has perspective that you just won't see. And, you know, so you're you're gaining a couple things there.
You're gaining an insight that you may not have seen. Right. And then you're you're teaching them to think. And you're showing them that they have value. So you're you're accomplishing a couple things by doing that. Yeah. And the ticket You said it, but I wanna just point it out for the listener. If they're paying close attention, it was to slow down for a half second. It it's rather than getting out of the job site and just doing it.
And we do this as entrepreneurs too, right, that you you gave the example of a team leader, but you were in that shoe. I was in that shoe before some somebody listening right now is in that in that place where they would just rather just get it done because they're faster, better, stronger.
Chaz opposed to taking a moment to walk that person through the process, gain their opinion, help them think develop them as a person, as a professional, as a leader, which then ultimately plays into a a people system that you're building which then leverages your time away from the day to day so that you can work on the business. Would you agree with that? Cause I know that you're you're you've been trying to, like, head towards that since we've been talking the last year. Right?
Yep. Yep. Absolutely. We we need other people badly, whether it's in life, whether it's in business, you know, whether it's just a, hey. I gotta data dump all this junk in my head trash, get it out, you know, just to get that perspective, but, like, we we do.
We desperately, like, You know, we we're we're not meant to do life by ourselves, you know, whether it's, you know, whether it's business, personal life, this church, you know, we we We we can't god didn't design us to walk this this road alone. And and, thankfully, people like yourself and and the business Wolfe, you know, have have podcasts like this where people can come in. They can learn. They can glean. We, this past year, we actually opened up our books to 2 other businesses.
And one of them was a good friend of ours. It's a competitor in the business, and one was another business owner that I trust implicitly. And, you know, that was hard. When you do that, there's so much that you gain when you we can we can be transparent in our relationships. We can be transparent in business Right. That's where I think some of the magic happens, but it's hard. You know, we've got these. We we share the the goods. We share the wins. We don't share the bad.
We don't like to open up about what the struggle is. You know, what is what's the head trash? I'm just gonna grind through it and and grit and Barrett When there's help on the other side, if we'll just reach out to the, you know, people that we've got in our network and gotten to, like, people that god's placed in our bath.
Yeah. You'd you dropped 3 or 4 things that just are really, really impactful, but one of the things that you said there that I've also experienced I would say, and even in the last year, there's been a couple of times where I've opened up different books, different companies of mine inside of, you know, Gathering of King's Mastermind, And I've opened up gathering the Kings. I've opened up some of my franchises.
And, even, I've even, like, analyzed some of our real estate deals and shown people, like, the actual numbers, And and, yes, it's impactful, for me to be able to have, like, it's it's, you know, a little nerve nerve wracking, you know, to, like, you know, you feel like you just got out of the shower, you know, type of thing. But but the impact that it has on them as well for not not just to see it for what it is because they're judging you. That's not what it is.
It's like for them to be able to see how you think and how you've been operating because that's what the books say. The books are just a story of how you've been operating. Right. You know? And so and and good, bad, and ugly, like you said. It's not like we're all perfect. So when I've done that, the the response from different types of business owners has been Wolfe. Thanks for doing that. It really gave me some great insight.
Even though we were talking about some pretty basic things, it wasn't a big deal. Right? It's the vulnerability that sets the stage for Interesting. Okay. Let me how do I apply this? And then that that's actual real growth because that's where it starts. Would you agree? Absolutely. Absolutely. Cool. So let's flip the coin. What about a bad choice? I mean, I'm we've made plenty of them.
What's that one decision that you've made that you can share with us Chaz caught a couple of, maybe maybe a black eye from or maybe a bloody nose. We can stay away. Hey. There's there's there's probably several of them, but then I that I have ventured down, going against, you know, like, written things that I've hit my head on, that I've, you know, I below, I have put down pen to paper to take the time to say, okay. This is how we do this.
Yeah. And then, you know, thinking that at the time, my feeling, my emotion, you know, that I can go against what my experience and my data has told me, and try try to, you know, go outside that. So an example that was somebody that we had hired Chaz if I was going by what I had written down and what our policy was, I wouldn't have hired the Percy. Right.
And, you know, it was out of a desperation that this person Chaz really help me and and not only did Chaz help, They really, really stunk up the place for a few months, and it was it was it was difficult. So you know, your people are gonna propel you the next levels, or they can, you know, kinda tear you down and bring you down. And so that was hiring the wrong person and not following my own procedures on, you know, what I had written out Yep.
For what my qualifications were for hiring somebody that was probably one of my one of my bigger stakes. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. You know, the the people the people play is what you're talking about. Right? They don't even have to be stinky. In order for it to be a bad choice. We just put the wrong person on the wrong seat or, you know, we hired the wrong person at the wrong time. Like, there's just so many nuances that can go into that.
We use the culture index, and so for somebody who's applying for any role, like, I'm gonna try to determine, you know, what what Who is this person? And and do they fit the the the job description that I wanna put them into? And and we have this phrase. The dots don't lie. And and because I can have you take a survey And I can know who you are, man. And there's there's obviously, again, some some variable to that, but but not really. People's people's cake is pretty much baked.
Doesn't mean that they can't modify and adjust. It just means that as a leader, my my best bet is to take someone for who they are, and put them in the seat that they're gonna be the best at. Why would I wanna put them in a seat that they're not gonna be the best at? They're gonna have to be somebody completely opposite of who they are in order to win. Why would I do that? Alright. I love I love that you're thinking like that. I think that's super helpful for the for the listeners as well.
What do you think now? Cause, like, looking back, it's all it's all hindsight. Like, oh, I shouldn't have done that. I knew I shouldn't have done that. The next time you go to hire somebody, what's gonna be different? Like, how do you stop yourself next time? Because we've all done it. Yeah. If, you know, if the pain point it's bad enough. It it sticks with you. You know, it really does.
You know, and sometimes, you know, we learn sometimes more in stages, you know, we think, well, I'm gonna learn more in the growth stage. You know, I'm gonna learn more when I'm happy. No. You're probably gonna learn more when it's when it's painful. When it really hurt GSL, you know, I think just the the experience that I had from beforehand is gonna make me to slow down and say, hey. What was your past experience? You know, what took place last time?
Let's let's make sure that we do this right because the the end result of you not following what you know that you should, It's been painful and hurtful enough to where you you you've just learned. Like, you you got you got stung, you got you got burned by the fire a little bit. And so I I think just just that painful experience will make me slow down enough to say, you know what? I don't wanna I don't wanna dredge down this road again. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's the it's the the the birth pains.
You know, my wife, as soon as we have a child, she's like, I'm done. And then I'm like, hey. Wait. Wait a second. Let's let's let's have this conversation after a year. Because then the baby fever comes back in, we forget. Yeah. How bad it wouldn't forget the pain. So some of those tactics to keep the pain relevant. You're obviously a faster learner than me because it took me 100 of hiring. Bad hires of salespeople when I was before I was even a business owner, I hired a ton of bad people.
And, eventually, I came to the place where I'm like, you know what? If I walk out of the room and it's an absolute yes, they're hired. If it's not an absolute yes, it's an absolute no. Because I'd I lived in that place of Waffle. Like, well, you know, I could see maybe if they could Chaz might be, you know, I could, you know, I could, Right? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. Staying that little middle zone there. That gray will eat you. You know what I mean? Yeah. So it's either a strong yes.
Like, woah. I gotta have this person on my team now, or nope. Not for us. Yep. You know, and so if anything for the listener, they can take they can take your lessons and my lessons, hopefully combine them together and not have to make the same ones. Right?
Yeah. If if you're not operating in desperation mode, you know, for for us, we seem to be juggling the plate of sales and then you juggle the plate especially if you're trying to scale and grow your business, you know, you've got the sales and then you've got your employees and, you know, you gotta build up a team. And hire people. And, you know, it's it's a it's a juggling act, for sure. Yeah. That's right. That's right. There's a lot. There's a lot to consider.
What talking about a lot to consider in good decisions. What do you do now, especially since you're still kind of, like, in the heat of battle? I mean, you're I would say you're in growth mode Chaz you said it earlier. What how do you make a good decision now? Like, something comes across your desk? Is there a certain formula? I don't have a formula. You know, one of the things that I've tried to do I had a business coach that we had brought on at one point in time.
He said, explain your reasoning for everything. And at one point in time, like, he wanted me explaining, like, why I spent $20 on something.
And it's like, you know, it's like, I got a $1,000,000 coming into the business gotta explain $20 to you, really, you know, you know, so you can feel like, man, I'm above Chaz, or what he was trying to do was He's trying to get me to slow down again again and just explain myself because if people understand why you're doing what you're doing, they're gonna get bought into it. Sometimes you just talking out, you realize, you know what? Hey. You know, you you made this decision beforehand.
This isn't good. You know, getting people around you that you can be a signboard to. For me, it's my wife a lot of times. And so that's that's key I wanna rely on my emotions and my feelings versus data and what I, you know, know to be true from natural history. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so it's it's a it's a struggle. Right. You know, and we do.
I mean, we'll gain insights into things and you know, we'll have a pulse on some things, but if you can just slow down a little bit, you know, ex explain and and why are you doing? What are you doing? And and have somebody, you know, close to you in business that you can talk to about some of the decision making and why are you making these decisions? You know, it it can be it can be helpful for sure.
Yeah. The thoughtfulness of each choice, it turns into you know, stickiness inside the business. Even even as simple as accounting for the $20 helps you, you know, especially in growth mode, pay attention to cash flow. There's so many businesses that have no idea. Money coming in, money going out, and just poof poof poof poof. You know? And I have I have I haven't talked about this a bunch, but I I started a company 4 months ago, living with a home remodeling company. It's a portfolio company.
I'm not in it every day. I'm just a visionary. But one of the guys. I've got him in there, and he every single penny manually. I don't even let him auto track it. We've got I've got the accountant. They had the credit card come in. It auto fills. I got his own spreadsheet, and he's gotta track every last little dime because And and as soon as I started heading, it was like, wait a sec. What about this? What about that?
That, that, that, that, that, and he started communicating with the project manager. Wait a second. Don't don't do that yet. You're like, wait. Like, so you said you have a feel of what's happening. And so regardless of whether it's a money choice or, you know, people, whatever it is, If you're paying attention, if you're accounting for or describing why, I love that. It helps you understand not only the next move, but even just the history of what you've been doing.
Because if you chase your tail and you're not paying attention, you don't even know why you've been doing what you've been doing. Right? Yep. Yep. Alright. Let's go to the speed round here, Michael. My first question's around KPIs. What would you say? The one thing is that you would track if you could only pick 1. Hands down to be our customer service experience. K. How do you track that? Our Google reviews, you know, how many reviews that we're getting back from our clients. Right?
We call our clients daily. We have our project director checking on the jobs daily. You know, getting that feedback in real time will help you. So that way, if there's a issue that you've got going on, you're not trying to fix it at the end. You can fix it in the middle on the 1st day. So literally every day we're we're calling our clients and reaching out and saying, hey. You know, how was how's our raw experience today with with our team?
You know, is there anything that we could do differently? And if you can make those course corrections between, then you're gonna have a much, much happier client at the end is what what our data tells us. Yeah. I used to do that quite often inside of our edible arrangements franchise. Call the customer, hey. You got a delivery yesterday or last week. How did it go? Did you enjoy the product?
You know, and and so many people are afraid to do that because we'll what if what if But if something didn't didn't go right, you take a you take a neutral client and turn them into a potential bad client, they're like, oh, no. It's actually the reverse. It's gonna take a neutral client, and you potentially can now take the opportunity to turn them into an incredible referral source and a a net promoter Yeah. Is that what you found in that process that you just described? It is.
We we had a lady miss Lynn this week. She heard about us from 3 of her friends. And so, you know, to me, like, that was one of our wins for the week, you know, that we had list out. We had a few weeks back, we had 3 of our jobs that were repeat clients. 1 of them was a client that had used us four times for painting. And, you know, typically with painting, it's every few years. But, you know, to have this client that heard about us through 3 of her friends was like, yes.
You know, like, we've we've done something right here. Yeah. And we've done some things raw luck in the way, but we did something right. You know? And we're we're trusted within our community. We've got a great reputation in town. Got now over a 100 Google reviews. We got, like, you know, 50 realtors that recommend us and Chaz that recommend us. But to hear that lady say, you know, hey. 3 of my friends told me about you guys. And, you know, they all had great experience. It was like, yes.
You know, so it does you know, it's it's hard work. But it it does it does pay off, you know, and that was that was a gleaming example of that for us. What do you think? I mean, I'm I'm huge on client experience and and so much so probably where I get in. I get a little bit obsessed. Around each little touch point. You know, we do the same thing with the podcast. Each little thing along the way, just super detailed and super just like, I want it to be a rich experience. You know?
But for you, specifically, for those 3 people to refer, what do you think specifically that you took them through? What can you share practically a part of that that client journey? That you guys do that leave such a glowing experience for them to refer, miss Lynn, to you. It's it's evolved over time. I would say You know, it's it's communications trying to set clear expectations. You're gonna be 2 minutes late. Right. Just come on. Yeah. Explain the process throughout. Like, what are you doing?
You know, what are what are the next steps, is they're on the dance with you? You kinda tell them, you know, hey. We're gonna we're gonna twirl at this point in time, or we have this going on. Right? And, you know, it again, it our guys play a big part of that because, you know, they're out there you know, they're creating the experience for the client as well. You know, it's one thing, you know, hey.
We sell a job, you know, but if our if our guys They don't finish the deal, you know, and deliver that good customer experience. You know, so a lot of it falls, you know, back onto our team members that are delivering that experience. So I I definitely I don't get, you know, I don't get, probably a tenth of the credit for it really. It's it's it's our other people that are are delivering on that experience for the client.
Yeah. Yeah. They're the delivery, but, you know, the team or you is building the steps that they're following. And so that's that's the encouragement to the listener is that, you know, Michael doesn't have team members delivering the experience by just, okay. Well, go to miss Lynn's house today and just Do a good job. No. I was like, no. Like, there's a certain formula here that we're following. There's certain communication touch points. That we're keeping her in loop.
We're gonna let her know we're gonna spin here in the dance. Like, those those touch points, and then in assigning, a team member, it sounds like, to those touch points so that Chaz way they know, hey. This is your responsibility, and I'm not waiting for you to do it. You're not waiting for me to do it. In that way, that the ball doesn't get dropped and the client doesn't feel well taken care of. And so whether you knew it or not, you gave us just a bunch of really, really awesome stuff there.
Cool. Yeah. I didn't realize that. I think honestly as entrepreneurs, I I think I will forever the rest of my business career, spend the most obsessive time around the client experience. Of course, I think marketing which is the beginning of the Wolfe sales process. Like, I'm I'm obviously a big sales guy, marketing guy, but the client experience for me is where if I can just over and over and over. Get it better and better and better. I mean, look at Amazon. Right?
Like, it's easier to click it faster. It recommends things to me. You know? Like, come on. Yeah. Could it be any easier. Right? So I wanna be able to overlay that to my business as much as possible because, yeah, it gives me reviews, but this is what it means to have a an actual business, not just a machine where I can put in dollars and it gives me clients. That's good. But I've gotta have a fulfillment on the other side where people walk through that experience, and they're like, woah.
This was I should've paid double or triple, or I could've paid ten times the amount and I still would have been it happy. Like, that's what I'm looking for. You know what I mean? Yep. And they love you for it. Right? We kinda we we like we we call it raving fans, and I wanna I want someone raving about me. They had they paid three times as much for my painting service. And they loved it the whole time. They loved it. There's a big difference in in experience if that's the case.
What book, Michael, would you recommend, or maybe it's a resource? Or a business owner trying to grow right now? I'm the old school, and, yeah, I thought about this question. And so I'll go back to secrets of closing the sale with Zig Ziegler. That's that's who I had cut my teeth on in sales when I first got into sales, and it just kinda helped establish the right mindset. Going into it.
And, you know, Ziggy is a treasure trove of a lot of different things, but that the secret of closing the sale, it was My first sales book that I ever read, so I'd I'd revert back to Ziggy. Yep. Yeah. Tons of the the Anybody under 30 probably has no idea who we're talking about and and shame. Shame shame because they should. All his stuff is worthwhile. What would you say about networking or master mining with other entrepreneurs? Mike?
Yeah. It's it's vitally important, so we've got five things that are focus big focuses for us this year. I'm looking at my Wolfe here. Communication k. Organization. K? Measuring. Our average ticket for us is a is a key factor this year, and then networking is number 5. Yeah. So You know, it it's vitally important. Like and I joined BNI this year again. Yep. And it wasn't so I could get sales from Biena.
It was building towards the future as far as what would come, but also, you know, what can I glean and learn from these other business owners? Yeah. I'm in a group, you know, that I can share the struggles with. I can share the successes with, and and there's a ton that you can learn.
Yeah. It's, you know, it's it's it's a bottle because you just you know, there there are times I I can look back on and have people not come into my life at the time that they did, my business would not be open today. Had I not learn the things I needed to learn from them? So having other, you know, business owners that come alongside you that, you know, know some of the answers that you don't even know the questions to, is is is is is so big.
So, yes, networking for us is is a major focus, and one that I don't see going away at any point in time because, you know, we we need people in life and need people in business.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and and when you get over the idea that I like, when you say I need people, for for the for the egotistical or for maybe the the person that has a self righteous perspective of, like, well, I, you know, I don't wanna use people or I don't I don't I'll do it myself, and it's not it's not like a like a false humility, although it is a little bit. It's like, No. You'd you actually do need people.
You don't wanna be a burden to people, and you have a wrong set on networking and sales and leverage. Oh, okay. Let's just establish what we're talking about here because the other one is abundance. It's a mindset of, no. I actually I need relationships like Michael. I need I need connections, like, guys in the group. I need connections with people in my church. I need I need I need my spouse. My wife, like, when I when I get over the idea of using someone, it's leverage of that relationship.
Everything comes from a relationship. So everything you just said, man, spot on, dude. Networking, it's not gonna go anywhere. In fact, if anything, it's gonna just make its way up on your list. Yeah. You know, someone asked me the other day, like, what do you spend the most time doing? I'm like, bro, do you know how many times I record podcasts? I have no sponsors. I do not get paid from the podcast, but I'll tell you what? It's the number one action that I'm most interested in.
Meeting high quality people. Right? Love doors open, deals, get done. Some some guys like to join the mastermind group. Cool. But if not, no big deal. Like, we're just we're just trucking along, and I'm meeting a bunch of cool people because I know that everything ahead of me is part of you just said networking. So if anything, it's just gonna make its way up that list. I love it. I got a question for you about family. Yes. We've talked family before. I know the family's important to you.
How would you describe practically some ways that you've been able to obsess In your family like you do in the business. I'm not a fan of the word balance. I think work life obsession is the answer. We go all in on all of it. But how have you been able to do that practically to obsess about your family, your wife, those things at the same time as the business?
You know, that's probably been my biggest opportunity to improve upon, you know, is just having that balance because you know, really the last year and a half, like, it's been out of balance. And I realized it, you know, several months ago. It's like, hey. I've gotta get better at this. I've gotta be more present. You know, I've gotta be intentional, you know, and for for me, the way my brain is wired, you know, it's it's Like, Cassie, you know, I've got this going on.
I've got this going on with business, and it just it never stops. You know, there's you you could work till 11 o'clock every single day. I guess it'll be just slow down again and just, like, you know, just spend that time. And it's, you know, it doesn't have to be going out and doing stuff. I went out and bought some yard games for our family a few weeks back. And we'll get out there and we're playing, you know, yard games and Cricket. And, like, my daughter, like, loves Cricket.
And, you know, just, you know, being intentional with it and realizing, like, you know, hey. I've got I've I've got some people that that I need to invest in and spend some time with, and they need to know that a dad cares and husband cares and, just making them harder, but he, you know, I'm I'm a hard judge of myself. I I still I still have a long ways to go and and my eyes on that one. Well, I I wanna I wanna bring you into the fold on that one. It's trick question, really.
Okay. Thank you because I was my my palms are sweaty now. So now that I slaughtered you here on the on the no. I'm In all seriousness, I've asked that question to guests, podcast guests, as well as hundreds of other business owners. And I don't know if anybody has said, you know what, Chaz? I'm a rock star at that. Right. Right. Because we're we're obsessive.
We want to build and being successful in our business has required our attention, our obsession, and and and me, more than anybody, I know what it takes to build multiple businesses, and the translation to that to oh, I get to build my marriage. I get to build my children. Wow. Okay. How do I build a team? How do I build a business? Well, like you said, at the beginning, I invest in people. I make good choices. I time block.
I make sure that I'm using leverage on certain actions, and I'm hiring, and I'm delegating all these things. Right? Like, this is the game. Okay. Well, how do I do that over here? How do I do that over here? How my how my time blocking specifically for my family? Am I being intentional about my decisions? Am I investing time money effort just like I would in my business. Well, you just said all of Chaz, so I think you gave actually a pretty authentic answer.
Cool. Now Once your wife listens, let's see. I mean, she'll be the day. Yeah. Stop talking. Because guess what? I get to hear it. Not only does my wife listen to these shows, but she's probably downstairs right now, and she can overhear me because I talk like a like a loud man. And and she just probably rolls her eyes like, oh, yeah. We're still working on that Chaz, you know, because I know I'm not perfect. Right? I know I'm obsessed.
I know I'm crazy intense, but I'm learning how to be in crazy intents about my family. Crazy intents about each one of my children. Crazy intention about the love that I have with my wife. You know what I mean? Absolutely. Absolutely. I got one last question here for you, brother. You ready? Yes, sir. If you could whisper in the younger Michael's ear, what would you say? Enjoy the journey, and it's gonna be okay. Give us some more there.
You know, looking at the difficulties and looking at the challenges versus just looking at the, you know, it's it's part of the process. It's a it's a journey. You know, like I said, business is hard being an entrepreneur is hard. It's not for the faint of heart. You know, for me, I can look at some of the what ifs, you know, what if this happens? What if I fail here? If I had a conversation, my wife and my son last week, and they both kinda looked at me cross eyed when I said it.
I said, you know what? I said, if both of my businesses fail tomorrow, it's okay. Like, I don't I don't have the worries, you know, and do they still try to creep up sometimes? They do, but you know what? You're gonna be okay. You know, you've you've had food on your table. I haven't missed payroll. Like, you know, these big dark scary mozzers that you think they're gonna crunk creeping up from underneath the bed. You know, it's like, you know, it's you you'll figure it out.
You know, you'll you'll reach out to your network. You may not have all the answers. Just stop. Enjoy the journey a little bit and you know, it's it's gonna be okay. Yeah. It's good. There's freedom in that answer, man. I love that.
How can the listeners connect with you, whether they're in the Augusta, Georgia area, and they need their house painted, or they need to rent a bounce house for their kid's birthday party, or they wanna just reach out to you and get to know you a little bit as a business owner. How can I find Yeah? Well, we're we're all over Facebook. I'm I'm LinkedIn and that m.shebble@cutabuppaintingco.com.
We'll put all that in the show notes as well for you to be able to get some genuine connection points from some of the listeners. I hope that they reach out. I think that, say, your your one worth knowing But your authentic answers have have just provided a place for growth here today, man.
So I just really appreciate you just coming and being real and And given some of those those harder points in business, it's been fun getting to know you over the course of a little bit of time here and and just watching you grow and and the development to business owner that you are today. So excited to see where you go from here. Thank you for being here.
A blessings on your family, both of your businesses, your teams, everything that you get your hand to, just really excited that you were here, and we appreciate it. My my my privilege. I absolutely enjoyed it. Thanks, Chaz. 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 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 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 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.