On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. We go to a lot of showers, and we see a lot of really nice bathrooms. And a lot of these showers are not waterproof correctly, and we have to tear out a brand new shower because it's leaking. Yeah. So I make sure that my guys are trained with waterproofing and that they do a really solid job with waterproofing. And the office understands All the components of it, how to. The education is huge with my team. It really is.
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 reel of the reel. 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 assess and how you too can get there. Through this dialogue, you will learn the value of growing your network and surrounding yourself with power players and keys 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 today on the king stage. I've got Jeff Curran. My brother. How you doing?
Chaz, what time, man? Everything's good. We're You know, we're just We were just talking about our beards. Well, you you're sweating when we're talking about our beards, for the listeners that are listening on Spotify and Apple, This dude right here has got another great beard. This is like a a bearded podcast today. It is. It is. And I'd I take pride in my beard just like you do. So Exactly. I'm thinking that maybe this show, we don't have any sponsors.
Maybe we should get a beard, a beard oil or some sort of a company beard company that sponsored this this episode. We're we're so looking good over it. Yeah. I got a buddy named the bearded Bricker. He he takes a lot of pride in his beard too here in Dallas. So I think you could probably imagine it would be difficult to keep a beard in that industry. Well, my my wedding picture back here behind me, almost all of us have beards. So Yeah. That's my that's my people.
I'm gonna have to meet your people. Yes, sir. What what kind of business do you have, Jeff? We do residential remodeling. We do some commercial remodeling. We do some real estate investing, but our primary business is residential remodeling, kitchens and bathrooms. It's probably 85% of it. I love it. And you've got a specialty inside of that even. Right? We started in tile. That's where we cut our teeth as tile, and and I think that's what most people hire us for is but detailed tile work.
You know, really big elaborate showers, a lot of patterns, a lot of deco, you know, the the fine cuts, the miter cuts, all the stuff that that makes the shower look, you know, premium and and top notch. That's that's our specialty. Yeah. You know, it's obviously, I'm in Kansas City and you're in Texas, so I I couldn't have the opportunity to hire you, but we just had we just had a home built and It is just Chaz you just said.
One of the highlights of the home, as we're taking friends through or folks that wanna see it, is our master shower. From I mean and I wouldn't have thought about it because I'm not, like, you know, I'm in and out for 2 minutes. Like, shit. What's the shower to me? You know? But people walk in, and there's just certain places in the house, and this is absolutely one of them where they go. Wow. And it's the tile. It's the detail. It's the pattern. It's size.
It's like the it's like a grand entrance to the shower. That's and that's why people have tile inlays in their entryway. That's why people have big tile mosaic fireplaces and, you know, it's just the focal point of a lot of things. The back's flag all your all your really luxury things are tile related. You can have nice carpet. You can have nice wood floors. But the tile is really where the the luxury comes in in in the kitchens and bathrooms.
You know, it's so fun that you're saying And and and we don't have to hang on this point for very long. I think it's good for the audience and also even folks that you know that listen to this. When I think about my home now, now Chaz you say it, Those keep those places that I just described where the Wolfe comes out, it's those it's those place that you just said. It's the it's the master bath with the tile. It's the it's the kitchen backsplash, and it's the tile behind our fireplace.
Incredible. Yes, sir. I do. Details. Yeah. It's the details. And and like you said, it's the upscale perspective, that it works. But you're you're obviously doing more than that, but but, man, it sounds like that's like the hot spot for you. I wanna know clients need more than that. Clients need more than that. And Yeah. That's how you get a lot of your tile jobs. Is they don't wanna go find a plumber. They don't wanna go find an electrician. They don't wanna go find a painter.
They wanna talk to one person, and that one person can do everything. So they hire you to do all of it. And, again, the the finished product is the pile work. That's the most that you know, the most visible thing is the tile. So, you know, people look for somebody who can do everything encompassing and Right. That lands us our really big projects. Really, really big projects.
So yeah. And I'm gonna I wanna talk about this here in a minute, because, obviously, what you're describing is this natural progression in business. You got started. You cut your teeth, like you said, and then you figured out that there's more to the story of what your capabilities are, what your team can handle you as the owner, your mindset, I'm sure, grew through that process of being able to have this more of a GC perspective. And so I definitely wanna get into that.
Before we do, though, you've been building this, and you've been very successful, and then now you're even continuing to do it. And my question is why? Like, what's the bigger picture for you? I'm always looking into the future. I of course, we have to we have to stare at the day to day stuff, but I'm always thinking bigger and thinking more. We we've got a big showroom coming that we're building here, Rockwell.
So that's, you know, I've had a showroom for 12 years and just the the bigger picture of leaving something for the family and you know, having something that's that's gonna be here. I'd I'd we we've been leasing a showroom, and that just it burns me up every month I pay rent. It just it burns me inside. So, you know, this this showroom we're building now is the thing that's gonna be left, you know, to the family and making a a family business for years to come. Yeah. What what about family?
Has you, I mean, pushing so hard? I mean, obviously, I'm sure we can come up with a lot of cliche, you know, things, but, like, each one of us have that little Chaz little burning thing inside And for you, family, what does that mean? What does that look like in your world? 3 kids, 2 college graduates. The idea that they can continue on what we've started. And, yeah, you know, my my wife works with me, but she has her own stuff too.
So You know, we're both very self motivated, you know, very entrepreneur type people and, the the two of us when we came together, it really made a team that was able to take things to the next level and and really push you know, the, our our business up the ladder and the type of projects we've been taking recently are Just it just scaled. Amazing, honestly. It's amazing.
You you've hit on a point here that you know, sometimes we get to, sometimes we don't, depending upon the guest, but this decision of the spouse or, you know, a partner, significant other Yeah. I feel the exact same way what you just said. Like, I know that I can run way faster because of my Wolfe. Even though like you guys, you know, she's kinda she kinda does her thing. I kinda do mine, but the way I see it is that she she has her lanes. I have mine in I don't need to worry about her.
She doesn't need to worry about mine. So, therefore, we can just run fast, you know, go fast. Talk about that decision. Like, did you did you did you meet her, and did you know that ahead of time? Was that, like, you guys met young like we did? You didn't really have a clue, and it kinda just worked out. Like, tell us about that a little bit. No. We've we were married. We were married 6 years ago.
And I think when we met, we we both had kinda been on our own journey and, both had kids and, you know, coming together Chaz It it just made things exponentially grow. And, we we both had our own households We we came together. We built one massive house for our family. Yeah. I mean, honestly, it's, you know, it's 8000 square feet. We moved both of our parents in. Wow. So it's, you know, sick takers, and we just make sure that, like, our whole family was gonna be taken care of. I love that.
And and and neither one of us had a lot of money. It wasn't like we were we were filthy rich, but being able to come together and use our brains and figure out how to do it Yeah. I I think it's made it's made Chaz both successful. And, you know, that that's what I look forward to is leaving this for our kids and leaving the business for our kids and, you know, just not having not having to see them struggle or not. Like I said, they're both college graduates.
They both have, you know, they don't have really good jobs yet, but they both have the potential. The older kids have the potential to do all kinds of they've all and they work in the business. Yeah. Our daughter takes the professional photographs after the jobs are done. Yeah. My son's a really good carpenter. I don't I don't know where he learned it, but he's a really good carpenter. So That's awesome. You know, having having those skills and being being business orientated people already.
Yeah. Yeah. Whether they continue our business or not, they're gonna be successful. And modeling ourselves for them. I think that's that's the reward for me. It's not it's not a monetary reward. It's just the fact that I know that they're seeing us be successful, and if they're gonna be successful because of a what they've seen with us. Yeah. Such a simple principle, but It fires me up just thinking about it. I've got young ones.
So we're in different stages, but every decision that I'm making, I'm going, okay. How's this gonna affect the next 10, 20, 40 years? How my grandkids gonna think about this? You know, that's tough to be able to apply that level of thinking to the day to day. Grandkids. Making me sweat That's a tough one. Yeah. Well, you because it it for you, it's like, you know, I don't wanna say around the corner, but in in in comparison to me, it's around the corner.
And so maybe it's a little easier for me because it's still, like, out there. Yes. I Chaz talk about it and I have to worry about it anytime soon. What it's obvious with my gray and and you're non gray that that I'm a lot closer than you. So Hey. But that's the actual progression. You know, like, having kids myself, I have been able to have the perspective of the interactions of grandparents. And it has given me a whole another light of going, okay. Here's what I wanna be when when I'm papa.
You know? Because it's different. And and I love being dad. Don't get me wrong. But to be able to, like you said, take what I've been able to do. Learn and instill into my children, obviously, through it's gonna look different than to my grandkids because it that's gonna be their job to instill in their kids. But, but to to watch that flow through multiple generations and then to be able to, like, connect with the next generation below them. My my kids, my grandkids, you know?
Like, I just get so fired up thinking about that. I don't know. Maybe I'm kinda weird. No. No. I I I can tell you, you know, my my dad. He worked 45 years for one company, gigantic company, and No college education. Just got in there, started working, and worked his way up the ladder. When he retired, He helped me with my business. He became part of because I I was a guy in the truck, and I had a helper and, right, we're just doing jobs and doing our best.
You know, meeting meeting new people, trying to grow the business. When he came in, he he took it where I was riding all my invoices on pieces of paper and napkins, and he put it on spreadsheet. And he started showing me financially what the business was doing and what it needed to do better and Yeah. His his expertise helped me grow my business to work now. I can do it on my own. I don't I don't know. He's fully retired now. He had a heart attack in January, and he's covered me.
You know, now I'm able to take over all of it because of his health. And, you know, that that's something if if one of your viewers sees, and they they wanna bring in a family member. Gotta be a good family member, but if they wanna bring in a family member, That's gotta be one of the best things you can do as somebody you really can trust, whether it's a dad, an uncle, a brother, somebody who's really you know, those those family members, they can really help you take it to the next level.
Yeah. Yeah. I I as you said, you know, it's gotta be a good one because there's obviously the plenty of people out there that said don't partner with anybody, especially family. And then I talked to guys, you know, that their whole life been standing around their brother or their uncle or, like you just said, their cousin, you know, whatever, and and it's worked out great. So I think there's some definitely some key components there that make it Great.
But you kinda given us a little bit of of how you got started a little bit. You kinda you inkling that, you know, you or you and a guy and a truck and kinda just going job to job. Tell us why tile. Like, how'd you get started? Kinda give us the very beginning. Like, why even owning a business? I needed a job. Know, honestly, I applied several places and at that time, there was not too many people hiring. I wasn't college educated. I had some college under my belt.
But I I just needed a job, and the guy was willing to offer me 15 an hour. And, you know, it was it was decent money. So I started just doing tile jobs for him, just cleaning grout, and, you know, doing little things and then he offered me 25 an hour. And at that point, I realized, okay. There's probably a lot of money in this because if she's willing to pay me 25 an hour, I I could probably go do this on my own.
And I I started coaching football, coaching my oldest kid, and I met a plumber, I met another plumber and I met another plumber and they all needed tile guys. I said, wait a minute. There's definitely a market for this. I'd I'd never Chaz thought, you know, Kyle's just in the shower. I never thought about what what the real, you know, moneymaker was here. And you know, for meeting all those people.
And and I've always kinda just been a a person who can meet people and just kinda talk to them, and they wanna talk to me. And, yeah, So, yeah, just growing it that direction. And, you know, I I I did I worked for the tile doctor 2 years, and and after that, I took off on my own and it's just kinda been it's been history after that Chaz far as, you know, it's we struggled. We we struggled because When you do good work, everybody wants you.
Yeah. So, you know, if you don't and you don't get the right people to bring along with you, You really struggle. Right? You're chasing behind people. You're fixing things. They don't do right. Right? You're paying people for nothing. So there's a lot of there's a lot of growing pains when you're hiring people in the beginning. But yeah. What what you find that good network of people? Most most of my guys have been with me for 5 to 10 years. Yeah. And that's that's just consistency.
That's paying people properly. That's making sure they're taken care of on the jobs and that you do the additional things they need, which they need another bag of material, you make sure they get it. You don't You don't wait. You make sure they get it. That way their job's finished and, you know, we try to do that as a team. I try to make sure that I have 3 ladies that work in the office, and they're all solid.
Like, they they all have good experience in in construction and I make sure I train them well. That's another thing. I I promote the education with my my crew and make sure they understand what they're using. You know, new products Chaz come out. I make sure that they're trained on them. They don't just go out and try it. They, right, they need to understand how to use it and You know, I send them to to classes. There's a one product we use is called Sluder.
It's, it's the underlayment, the waterproofing, per tile, which is the important thing. Yeah. Exactly. Because we we go to a lot of showers and we see a lot of really nice bathrooms. And a lot of these showers are not waterproof correctly, and we have to tear out a brand new shower because it's leaking. Yeah. So I make sure that my guys are trained with waterproofing and that they do a really solid job with waterproofing.
And the office understands all the components of it, how to use it, you know, what what's proper and what's improper, like what like, how to. And, you know, the education is huge with my team. It really is. Yeah. And so you kinda just gave you gave a struggle and a and all in kind of like the same, story there, which I love. The struggle was hiring, which I think everybody can relate to, and especially in today's environment. And so you're part part of your solution to that.
You had mentioned paying good, taking good care of them, making sure that they have what they need. Make their job as not it sounds Weird to say as easy as possible, but they're a professional. Let them do what they do. Fill in the gaps around that so they can do what they do and not have to be frustrated is what you're saying. But then the last piece I wanna just kinda hone in on, because the listener is the guy in the truck, or maybe their guy and and 5 guys with them with a truck or 2.
They haven't hit the $1,000,000 mark yet. And so what they're trying to do is they're trying to pull things from your story here today. They go, okay. What do I need to implement today? Or maybe it's a a a a guy running a, you know, he's a dentist, you know, and he's got him, and he's got 1 hygienist. You know? And it it's a it's the same. It's the same across the board. Right?
And so the last piece, the training piece, You have invested into not only the folks doing the work, but then also the staff in the office that's communicating with the client. You've invested in training What has been the biggest? I mean, obviously, then then they're trained, but, like, what's the outcome of that? What, like, what's the benefit of spending all this time and money and effort into getting them to a professional level is what Chaz I'm hearing you say.
I I need them to be smarter than the homeowner. Every time. Every time I want my people to be smarter than the client, even they don't have to act like it, but they need to understand whenever the client has a problem, they they either need to answer and solve the problem, or they need to be able to contact the right person to help solve that problem. Right? So them being on-site and not having to call Jeff for every single thing, right, has been the biggest benefit.
If If I wasn't training them well, I wouldn't be able to be on this call because I would just be answering phone calls, and I wouldn't be able to do anything else productive. Because I would just be answering phone calls with problems and how do we fix this? And what do we do here? Right? Right? So That's been that's been the biggest win for me is is that you train them. They can take off on their own. If you don't talk to them for a whole day, Nothing went wrong.
Everything went smooth, and and they were able to solve every problem. Yeah. Exactly. So we're gonna get into a couple things here because we're on such a great vein. I wanna keep right here. The mindset of the listener, not because necessarily they want to be limited, they're listening because they want to be unlimited. But but their limited thinking is what's got them where they are, and so we're trying to open it up for them. Okay?
So what what I'm hearing you say in all of that is, number 1, you had to hire people. Because if you hire people, they're doing the task, and then they're gonna have questions, which then led to maybe you weren't doing the work, but then now your phone's blowing off the hook with questions. So it's like this, actually, this 2 step process of being willing to hire, being willing to give it away, being willing to let someone else be the expert. Right? Because you're talking about high end tile.
You're talking about, man, if this something messes up, I'm gonna have to come in behind. But but I'm gonna give that away because if I don't give it away, I can't grow. I can't open my thinking to a bigger way of thinking, but then right behind that is if you don't train them, Do you think he wants to call you all day long? Do you think that that is an environment where he constantly doesn't know what to do?
And he feels great about it at the end of the day when he he comes home or she goes home and and they and their spouse says, how was the day today? And they're like, oh, I can't wait to go back tomorrow. I had I had no idea what I was doing today. I had to although the boss is fourteen times, like, no. So then now now we're talking about the listener who's, like, I can't I can't keep them. I I I hire somebody, and then they just they just leave, or they just don't know what to do.
Like, it's this place of first they have to hire Some people are in that place. They just need to go higher. Then there's people who are like, I've tried Chaz, and that didn't work. Right? And I'm here, and you say the solution is Get in there, train them, spend time, effort money. You wanna add anything to that, please? Higher, warm, where you hire somebody close to you.
Now that may be somebody where you you currently I I've seen it very very well where you go to a tile store and you find somebody who's very educated in the tile world, but they're not very well taken care of within that business. Chaz Wolfe be a warm, warm person to hire somebody you know, somebody you know, they know what they're doing. You can put application You can get applications from hundreds of people. You can hire all of them. They may not ever work.
But if you hire somebody that you know has experience and you know has and maybe not all the best experience, but you can you can something you can start with and work with. Somebody who's already knowledgeable. One of the ladies I hired, she worked with computers. She had nothing to do with construction, but she bought and sold computer parts online. And I knew that that selling I made her my sales manager because I knew that that selling was in our DNA already, and she knew that how to sell.
And from there, I just needed to train her how to do the work and Yeah. How to, you know, how to sell a large brand. Yeah. How to trans transition from computers to remodeling and construction. There's hiring, you know, is the first key. Once you hire the right people, and then make them all work together. Because the three ladies in the office, they can independently call me all day long, or they can just talk to each other and help figure out amongst each other.
Yeah. You know, how to solve different problems, scheduling issues, material pickups. You get you get materials all in one spot that can be picked up all at one time for all the jobs. It doesn't have to be you know, individual pickups for each job. So yeah. You know, figuring out how to streamline things and make things, you know, all in one Yeah. That's it it's easy at that point. And it sounds easy. You can say you can say anything or call them easy, but, you know, But you've done it.
You've done it. And so you can say that not only I'm sure there's some difficulty. I know everything we've been talking about has been difficult stages for me, but I wouldn't go back. I wouldn't stop trying to hire or train. No. You you can't. You can't build a business. You you have a job. Otherwise Absolutely. Absolutely. No. There's Once you commit to it, it if you stop, I mean, the only the only thing could could really stop me would be a help. Thing.
That would be the only thing that would stop making doing what I do because I love it. I love making people's houses look nicer. I love the smile on their face. I love all the messages I get to tell. People say you're awesome. Your team's awesome. I love you're this guy or that guy. Though those things are what drives me. I I'm hardly even look at the money in the deal because I know as long as we're bidding it correctly, The money's there. Yep. You know, we'll we'll figure that part out.
We if we do our job correctly, the money will be there. Yeah. 100%. Jeff, I wanna flip the coin on you. We've been talking a lot about stuff that you've done well and some good decisions that you've made. I love good decisions. I think that Our history is made up of of a lot of good decisions. Generally speaking, that's why the reason why we are where we are. But there's always those bad decisions too.
So I want you to give us a good example and a story maybe with some good details inside of something that, just wasn't so hot. And That hurts. I hired a guy. And Like, I hired a couple guys. So it it's along that same vein you're talking about of hiring. I hired a guy, and he he really came in and he knew what he was doing. But he hired the wrong people, and he brought in some really bad apples. And that and that happened several times along the way.
One instance, we were doing a bathroom and The guy came in and he was doing was doing the work. Everything was going okay with the shower. But one of the guys who was there working with him called me that night, he said, Jeff, well, I got something to tell you. And, okay. Talk to me. It's late. It's 9 o'clock. Tell me. What what's up? What would you do if somebody you saw somebody steal something on your job. You worked for me. Like, tell me, what what are you what are you trying to tell me?
Right. The guy the guy was working there today. He took a Rolex. He took a Rolex out of a customer's house. So, yeah, I, jumped in the car, and I went to his house, and we got the Rolex back. Retrieved the goods. And went straight back to the homeowner's house the next morning and put it back where he took it from.
And I never told the homeowner, It didn't end bad, but, yeah, it's a lot of heartache and a lot of a lot of things that you know, I had that guy working for me for, I don't know, 4 or 5 months. He coulda did that in the mini houses. Yeah. And you just don't know about people and how they're gonna how they're gonna change. That's why I say hire warn hire people, you feel like you know, And it it can go bad for those people too, but yep.
You know, the hiring process here, I'll try people out in certain places, but I won't try them out in houses that are, you know, $1,000,000 house where the where there's a Rolex. Yes. Yes. And we we do other kinds of projects too. I I I have to make sure I keep our teams busy. You know? Every everybody wants to make figures or 7 figures doing what we do like. Right? So, you know, I have to keep them busy, and we'll do a We'll do a a bank or a hotel, or we'll do something that's yeah.
We'll lower our price point to work in those places, but Our primary business is residential remodeling. I am remodeling. Hey, Kings and Queens. Jazz Wolf. I wanna talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort. We, meaning myself and my team, into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day. And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too.
So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the things on social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast, mediums of Apple and Spotify. We would love to be able to get our content into more hands, more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as possible. Together, we are building a community of like minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights. So let's do this.
Let's help each other. Let's help each other grow. Yeah. It's good. I mean, I think that what I've what I've learned from that, scenario really isn't even the the bad hiring decision because those are gonna come. You're not an ape to it now. It's not like you can't it's not like you're immune to it is what I mean to say. I'm gonna hire somebody in the next 20 years, probably multiple. That were didn't vet them enough. Didn't it wasn't a good fit. They changed. Their life circumstances changed.
Whatever. But what I learned from you in that moment was the speed to actions, the speed to resolve, the situation, the conflict, the whatever, And so that part wasn't the mistake. I think that you've you had set on it that night. If you had, you know, delayed on any I mean, like, the urgency that you acted immediately with. Is what solved the problem. Absolutely. We yeah. I could have been arrested. They could have came and dragged me out of the house the next day. I mean, I Right.
There's there's no telling what could have happened. Chaz we waited Yeah. And, you know, we're fortunate the guy didn't sell the thing. He could've went on and sold it for 500 bucks. I mean Yep. Or whatever. He you know, anything could have happened, but we were able to resolve that and, you know, we we we didn't have to break any arms or legs or anything. He came and he said Peaceful transfer. He said, I'm really sorry. I just wanted to show it to my wife.
Oh, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm glad she got a look. Won't be any more opportunities to get a look on these jobsite. They have them at the jewelry store, so you can take her there. Uh-huh. That's right. Okay. So what about now a days? You know, so that was back then, but what about now when it comes to making decisions? Is there sort of a discipline or maybe a process that you have when something comes across your desk? Yeah. I think making decisions now is Chaz we do it or not?
Is it a fit or not? Right. That's step 1. You know, every every lead that comes in, I either field it or I'm part of the discernment on. Are we gonna use are are they gonna use our services or Are we gonna, you know, pass on it? And we don't we don't pass on a lot. We may overbid on some things, but we don't pass on a lot. It's generally how fast does a customer need it. Do they have the budget for our for our services? And, you know, from there, the league goes in. We schedule an appointment.
Since COVID, you know, I've been a huge proponent of virtual. Send me pictures. Send me measurements. Send me specs on your materials, and I'll give you a price. And there won't be an exact price, but it'll be it'll be a ballpark to know if we're a good fit. Right? And I don't mind doing that. I may do you 10 of those a week just just by you know, message. We have a lot of realtor we work with. I have a pretty pretty good side providence Realty group in Dallas. They send me Tons of leads.
Yeah. We also have several designers we work with, and those generally are lead. Those are jobs. When they call us, they give us a list of things. This is what we need to get us what we need. Yep. They they've already been with the client. They've already gotten their deposit. They've already worked up scope of work. Yep. And then at that point, the client can decide, do they wanna scale down, scale up, modify, Right?
And we work on those projects for up to a year sometimes where they're they're pretty extensive jobs. And You know, they they order things that don't come in for 6 months or a year. They have things cut custom made and you know, those are the those are the good jobs. That's our, I'd say bread and butter. Yeah. Where, you know, we come in and we're working you know, later to the night. Their clients move out. They go on vacation for 3 weeks and, right, work on their on their home.
So Yeah. Yeah. That's incredible. I think I think Chaz, obviously, the the niche that you're referring to is just, like, where you found home is just this in this detail. Let's say you even have it on your shirt, just the detail, the type of person that responds to detail, that likes high attention to detail, you know, I think that those A lot of people would say, I don't want that client because they're gonna be difficult. But I think it can be difficult for somebody who doesn't pay attention.
Absolutely. If black supervision, lack of attention to detail, or just lack of skill, Those things will turn you off from doing those kind of jobs. And and some people don't like to be trapped in a house for 3 weeks. Some people would rather work on a different job every other day, and and that's fine, but I, you know, Arned Rich is is coming in and making sure that, you know, We take care of every detail down to the to the corners like that. That was our original slogan.
It was detailed style, even the corners. Yeah. And, I just think, yeah, I just think that a lot of the guys that work with us, they understand. And they they were kinda Of course, you come in, you're you're hesitant on how we work at first because, you know, these are big jobs, and these are really expensive houses, and you got a lot of layers. Right? We get approvals. We're getting approvals from a designer, from a homeowner.
Sometimes there's other trades, other builders involved in this, and You know, there's a lot of layers to this sometimes, but I'll I I think we we do a really good job of of communicating group messages and making sure that everybody's on the same page. Yeah. Yeah. Communications is huge. You're given you're given so many small things, tactically without even knowing it. You it's been great. You're it's flowing right out of you, so thank you. I do wanna transition to the speed round.
I'm gonna kinda come at you in a couple of different angles here. I wanna know if you dwindled your entire business down to one metric. What would you track? One thing that's really hard to track, but I track happiness. K? Satisfaction of clients. K? If I look back at the 5 hun last five hundred jobs we did, how many of those people were happy in the end and how many of those people were unhappy at the end? And generally, they're they're gonna argue about their bill if they're not happy.
I mean, that's gonna be the the main part of it. But I would say we're way under 1% on people who are unhappy in the end with their product. Yeah. And you know, that that's the metric I look at is, are they satisfied? And every every job's not a home run? But if you continue to salvage 5 people, you're gonna continue to grow and continue to get more work and continue to to keep that And if if you're working with somebody and that it just it fizzles out. You're like, okay.
I don't we don't we don't mesh anymore. Chaz happens. You know, you work with somebody 5 years, and then all of a sudden, you're not you're just yeah. They wanna do something else. You wanna do something else. You're not working with it. And that's Chaz happens, but, you know, the metric of happiness. I and I don't besides besides looking at the invoices and saying, They paid. They paid. They paid. They paid. They paid. Right. Most of those people were a 110% happy. Right?
Yeah. And referrals is referrals is probably the other metric too where right? How many referrals do you get from your client? McClay. They won't tell their friends if if you did a bad job. Nope. Nope. They weren't satisfied. They're they're not they're not telling the neighbors because they're not telling anybody. Wolfe tell them what a bad job you did, but they won't tell them what a good job you did. That's right. That's right. Jeff, what what book would you recommend?
For a 6 figure business owner to read. The Bible. That's a good one. I like that one. I I would I would say I'm not a huge reader. Just just because that's me sleepy. Yep. Yeah. I can't I I can't make it through a chapter without it. Uh-uh. I relate to that.
But but, no, I think, you know, the Bible would definitely be one that you can pull a lot of a lot of parables out of, a lot of things that you know, don't make a lot of sense in today's world, but make a ton of sense at the same time where, you know, you find you find things that, you know, practices like, you know, give something ahead of time. You you give your clients you know, what they eat, just something, and they'll take it and say, okay. Thank you for that.
Now I'm gonna give you all the work. You know, I'm we're gonna do the entire house, right, you know, and instead of just coming in and and, you know, trying to get the money and run. And, okay, I did the bathroom. I'm done. Be the man. I look to be I look to be these people's contractor for life. Yeah. You know, every time they're looking for something fixed or so. In in 2016, we had and I know it's a little off subject, but we had Hailstorm hit our city, and the hail balls were softballs.
Yeah. I had so many clients in our city. Our our city is 25,000 people or so. I had so many so many clients in our in our city. We we didn't sleep. And that was literally because family, friends, church members, people I've known for years. Mhmm. And You know, they they just trusted me with their homes, and they, you know, they put they put faith in us to come in and You know, when when those hail balls came through the roof, it damaged bathrooms, kitchens, floors, furniture, complete guts.
The whole city had tarps. Yeah. And I I know in Kansas City, you probably have some some, yeah, wicked weather. We do in Texas too, and, you know, it's just I think I think the the feeling you get from helping those people and getting them back to you know, Wolfe again. That's right. Yeah. No. It's good. And and you can definitely pick that up from the Bible for sure. Yeah. What do you think about networking and or master mining with other entrepreneurs? What do I think about it? Oh my god.
That that's how I grew the business. It was meeting plumbers, meeting electricians, They're networking with glass guys, shower shower frameless glass guys. They they all need that other trade. Yeah. They all work hand in hand and You know, you you talk to the guys who do the work, but talking to the business owners and telling them that, look, we're If you're a plumber, you're gonna do 80 jobs a year for us or more.
You you and we're gonna refer you when we don't want the job when it's just changing out a water heater or you got a slab leak or whatever the problem is. Right. We'll just tell them to you, call you, and use you. And, you know, you're gonna get You're gonna get tons of work with us. Just be our referral partner. Yeah. And that that goes with the the the pliers as well.
When you when you talk about who provides us with the materials, the tile, the setting materials, the grout, those people will give us as many jobs as we buy from them. So if we make home base with one tile company and we buy all our materials with them, every designer that comes in and says, do you know any good tile people? That's me. That's who. Yeah. So we try to attend all of their events.
I try to have one of one of our team members at every casino night or every barbecue or everything that they're gonna have. I try to have somebody there to make sure that we're represented And then if there's an opportunity to keep keep our name out there and continue business with somebody, we we continue we we push for that. Yep. I love the love the mindset there. Last question here for you. Jeff, if you lost it all, what would you do? Uh-uh.
Wolfe, the if you spread it out enough losing at all is really not an option. Yeah. I'm trying to you know, they we keep a lot of jobs in progress, and I I guess there's There's always, you know, if I lost it all, it Wolfe be my help because, you know, that that's the one thing that what would I do?
I'd somebody Somebody would have to take care of me, and then I feel like I've taken good enough care of people around me and my family, and Chaz I feel like somebody would take care of me because I've done my best for for them. Yeah. So I think I would be okay. I feel like I've built built myself up to be okay. Damn. And But as far as this is inside, if you have if you have your health intact and you lose it all, you just it no big deal because you just do it again.
Yeah. It's I I have the same mindset with tile work, as with anything. That's we I tell you we do a little real estate too. Yeah. I'm definitely not a slumber. We make sure we take care of our houses. We make sure that the people are comfortable if their AC goes out, you know, picks it right away. And, you know, there's just there's there's no way to lose it all when you when you spread it out.
You know, if your if your dad's okay and your cousins are okay, And, you know, if everybody's doing well, you're not gonna lose at all because you Chaz come right back. You know, the the mindset that you're that I've I've never had the answer given quite like this, but I wanna I wanna use some language inside of Gat and the Kings. Obviously, we talk about what it is to be a king and and even the transition from warrior to king and warriors pretty selfish.
And and and rightfully so, you gotta grow you gotta be selfish for a minute. Grow the business, and you gotta get it to a certain point to be able to think about others. And that's really where the, you know, the King mindset comes in is that it's about your team. It's about the clients, about the community. Church. Your family, you know, buying back your time, leveraging resources, leveraging key relationships like this. And so everything that you just said, about you've been being a king.
You've been taken care of people. You've been pouring out when you probably didn't have to. You've been pushing the line and taking care of people over here and over here and putting investment over here and leveraging Reece and relationship over here, here, and here. And so you're right Chaz if it, quote, unquote, all fell away, there would be so many deposits that you've made.
In your people inside of the, quote, unquote, kingdom or even other kings, that I'm I love the perspective of, like, bro, I It wouldn't be a big deal because I just called my I'd call the I'd call the neighboring king. It you know, the the realtor's asking me to get my license. They almost beg me to get my license. Yeah. I'm like, but you Chaz make so much money. I gotta read a book to do that. You know, I need you to make money. When I refer people to you.
I've had I've had the plumbers try to hire me. And I'm like, I understand plumbing. I know plumbing, but how long? Spend all that time to get a license and then continuing education and all that stuff, I'd rather just hire you to do the plumbing. Yeah. But those are just you just think of all the options you would have If I lost it all, if if details, Kyle fell apart, I had no more jobs. Nobody wanted to hire me.
Wolfe, then, you know, I I would I would network with somebody else and we would start over again and do it all over again. I mean, that would be the only option. So yeah. 100%. And and you and me would always have an option to to be some sort of a spokesperson for a bearded company. Chaz is that is an option for sure. Jeff, you've been incredible. How can the listener connect with you? Chaz is another way that we market, which we don't spend any money on this, really.
I mean, besides besides I pay my daughter to do our social media Right. You know, with Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok. We we do all of them, managed I think it's connected with a younger audience and that younger audience grows up and they're having houses on me. They They absolutely love it. They they've never seen anything like it. And, you know, I think TikTok has really exploded. And, yeah, I think that just the ability to reach each other through social media. Yeah. Details tile.
That's all you have to look for is details tile. Search any any other platform, reach out style, and you'll see us. Cool. Yeah. You've been you've been insightful, purposeful, and your answer is you you've been a king, my man, and I appreciate your perspective. Even just your time here today, We wish you nothing, but, success, blessing on your family, your your your, ginormous estate, your business, your team, all of it, man. I love it. Thanks for being here.
Hey, Chaz. You know, Kansas City is really not that far. So whenever whenever that new house starts to fall apart, let me know, and I'll be there. Like, I'll be there. I'll be there. I hey. Look, I got I got several guys in my mastermind group who are coming here, hopefully, to do, like, a water feature, and I got another guy gonna, you know, work out some some, some some outdoor things. I don't know what he's gonna put in, but but yes. Yes. And yes. We will continue the relationship for sure.
Again, thanks for being here, brother. Whatever you need, let me know. 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 business 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 1 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done.
We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy. So if that relates and and resonates with you, and you know that you need people around you, sharp, qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gathering the king's dot 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.