On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. Those were some of the thoughts that went through my head. Every time that I thought about shutting the doors because it wasn't going the way I envisioned it would. Yeah. And but then, yeah, like I say, every time I got close to those moments, something would break through. Something would happen and it'd be like, okay. Well, I guess we can go for another year and reevaluate.
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 a successful business today. We dissect the good and bad decisions they've made along the way to give a true and accurate picture of the journey of success and how you too can get 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. I'm Chaz gathering the king's podcast. I have an incredible guest on the stage today. Douglas Mast Welcome to the stage. How are you? I'm good. Thank you. You know, we in our in our short interaction already today. We have laughed.
I think I think that my cheeks hurt just from us laughing in the last 5 or 10 minutes setting up this podcast. Think we're gonna be friends forever from the last 5 minutes. I I don't know what you feel about Chaz. But, Douglas, I'm I'm excited to have you here. Tell us what kind of business that you have, brother. So I own a residential remodeling company, and we also have a a separate business.
It's kind of operates as a wing of mass construction, but it's called snow fighters of Baltimore, and it specifically does snow and ice management work. And then I own a small farm. You gotta throw in the farm. Tell just for 2 seconds before we get into your story, what Does the farm entail? We make 60 acres of hay three times a year. We run a small herd of beef cows, a small flock of sheep, goats, and then we have chickens, ducks, and turkeys. Wow. You said you said small, but, I mean, Okay.
You're not doing 10,000 acres. You you don't have a combine. Okay. Fine. But, bro, you got a little little side farming going on. Yes. It is. I love it. Actually, I have a one of my I've got a couple of brother in laws that are farmers, actually, but one of one of one of which I was having a conversation with, not that long was trying to convince me to get goats. And I'm like, bro, I don't want goats. He's like, yeah, but they'll eat all your grass.
They, you know, this the other, and then you can sell them. And people really like goat meat and Chaz and that and goat milk. And I'm like, dude, we got, like, 30 chickens, and I'm like, I'm here. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not trying to have all this stuff. I, you know, I'll go out into the Wolfe, not hunt, but that's that's that's what I like the woods for. Douglas, I'm excited to know your story here.
And before we get into, like, how you got started and all the fun stuff of your journey or maybe even the not so fun stuff, At this level, you've been you've been successful. You've got a track record. You've achieved, like I told you before, something that you know, less than 10% of all businesses, 9 point, whatever percent, businesses achieve, why are you still doing it even after all this success? Well, I mean, I gotta feed my family somehow. I've got 6 children. And my oldest is 14.
So they're gonna be dependent on me for a good little while longer. That's right. But, you know, beyond Chaz, with with where I'm at today, it's given me a lot more flexibility and free time that I get to use to spend time with my children And, ultimately, I feel like that is the most, Chaz the highest calling I have as a father, as a person, is to ensure that my children are on a correct path for life.
And so the business is really just a tool that enables me to to lead them, guide them, train them, in the way they go. And then, you know, above and beyond that, where we're at today has allowed me to do volunteer work on a level that I've never been able to do before. And Chaz radiates with me in a way that probably nothing else does.
The 2 weeks in Poland earlier this year working on Ukrainian refugee housing did a a 1 week rebuilding project last fall, planning another 1 week project in Louisiana this fall, and I would love to do more of that. And so I need the business to continue where it's at and, you know, add it to its current level or more to if it's gonna continue to give me that free time and that flexibility with my time to do those things that I love.
You know, the things that that you love I mean, we all have the things that we love, the hobbies, the the the free time things, but what I heard you say was legacy. What I heard you say was you know, you building the next generation, building other communities. Like, when I talk, you know, inside of gathering the king's mastermind and we talk about this warrior to King mindset, everything that you just exuded is kingship. It's not just about you anymore.
And and the and the greater purpose of I mean, I love the kids. I've got 4 of my own. Maybe one day I'll get to your level. I don't know. Out test. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. But, you know, 6, that's a crew. But but you're right. You know, that the fact that the business is a tool. I don't know if I've actually ever had anybody say that specifically Chaz it's a tool in order to then build those those bigger callings.
I love the way that you said that specifically with the kids because that's how that's how I see it too. I didn't grow up in a, you know, entrepreneurship fam family. Did you? A little bit. Okay. My my father, he his success was kind of up and down with his various ventures, but yes. It was an entrepreneurship family. Yes. You got to see you got to see probably the the risk factor taken if if you're saying is up and down, he he took a lot of risk. Maybe maybe not so much on the execution.
Or maybe it's not consistent, but the reality of it is that you get to at least see the freedom aspect. Yes. Yes. I did. Is that what burned in you all this time of, like, I gotta do my own thing because of the freedoms? So and then maybe over the course of time, the freedom turned into these other bigger purposes? You know, not necessarily. There was actually various moments in my career where I got really, really frustrated with running my own business.
And there was multiple times I nearly shut it down and went to work for somebody because I was given some offers. And and I felt like I was going nowhere. We were just spinning our wheels going nowhere. And and every single time that I came Chaz close to pulling the trigger and saying, I'm done closing the doors. Gonna go work for x yz company. Something would happen. And and I I attribute it to god. Resolving that conflict that was Chaz it was causing me to feel like it's time to shut it down.
And and he would, you know, give me a renewed vision, a renewed passion and the business kept going. Yeah. But I I I never felt like I had to do my own thing. But I always weighed out, like, the the benefits versus, yeah, the risks or the yeah. Because you know, as a business owner, I have the opportunity to use my business to advance the kingdom of Christ in a way that I can't as an employee of somebody else's business. And that was always extremely important to me.
It was always very high on my priorities when making decisions for the business. Yeah. 100%. I agree with that. I think that the, oh, just the, I guess, the motion, not of of of, like, the freedom necessarily. You're you weren't you weren't grabbing onto freedom, but it was this you didn't wanna quit in those moments. You didn't really want to to to close it down.
And and you held on just long enough so that the 9th hour because because that's that's my experience as well is a lot of times in the 9th hour, that's when the miracle or that's when the things come together, you know, the provision, which is obviously a biblical truth, even in itself. You could you know, go story by story and go, oh, that happened in the 9th hour. We're on the red sea, and we're about to get crushed. Boom. It's, you know, like, this happens.
But but what I wanna point out for the listener is that you had the tenacity and the moment to go. You didn't really wanna shut it down. Right? Because of us. Oh, sure. Oh, sure. No. I didn't want to, but there's a point where, you know, a person can really just only handle about so much mental stress or, right, financial stress.
And then act those were some of the really key components where I felt like, you know, if if what I was doing was not actually creating a good life for my wife and children. Right? Then I need to say, okay, Doug. You're not cut out for being a business owner, you need to go work for somebody because they're more important than, you know, being a business owner.
And and and Those were kind of some of the thoughts that went through my head every time that I thought about shutting the doors because it wasn't going the way I envisioned it would. Yeah. And but then, yeah, like I say, every time I got close to those moments, something would break through. Something would happen and it'd be like, okay. Well, I guess we can go for another year and reevaluate. Yeah. I think that line right there has saved a lot of businesses.
I was just talking to somebody the other day about Schugug. Have you read this book? It's it's the story of Nike, Phil Knight? It happened. Yeah. I he didn't use this exact language, but I'm telling you he was on the verge of bankruptcy so many times, and he's kept kicking it down the road going, well, maybe we'll hold on for another month. Hey. You know, he not this exact language I'm paraphrasing, of course, but it's the same thought of, like, you know, like, let me squeeze one more time.
And then eventually, you persist through until the breakthrough moment. So I you have set this up beautifully for me. Tell me about one of the breakthrough moments. What was it a good decision? Was it something that you had been working on that finally happened? Like, tell me a story, bro. So to in in order to tell you that, I really kinda gotta tell you a few other things about Perfect. The way the so when it started, it was just me.
And and I actually was interviewed by local newspaper and I actually got the clipping somewhere in the 1st year of of starting the business here in Maryland. And they said, what is your vision for the future? And I said, I I I plan to hire one guy, and that's it. I have no plans for growth. Chaz was in 2000,087 2007. I had no plans for graves. I my target for marketing was things that I could do with me and one other guy. And that was it. I had seen people manage employees.
I had seen the headaches, and I said, I don't have nothing to do with that. The problem is that I got the calls that I got was not for the things that I was targeting. It was things that needed multiple people, larger cruise size and general contracting work managing subs. And I needed to feed my family. So I took that. Because those were the calls I got. And I agreed to accommodate the needs. The problem was that I had been so used to doing everything from my head Yeah.
And making so many decisions by the seat of my pants. I could outwork anybody that ever came beside me. In fact, one guy told me he said, somebody asked a fellow employee of mine at one point, said, hey. Well, hi. How do you like working for Doug? He's He's a he's a real task master, isn't he? And, he's a he's a real pusher. I think that's what he said. And the employee looked at the the friend, and he said pusher. He's a dragger. He drags you along.
And and that was the was that I had everything up here. Had it was a horrible communicator, And I literally just dragged people through the work with me and we got crazy amounts of work done. But she can't operate that way when you're managing people. Yeah. And so not for very long, at least. Not for very long, at least. Yeah. And and so partway through this process of hiring employees managing subcontractors to try to execute the work that fell in my lap.
Yeah. I started to realize my horrible, horrible communication skills and my horrible style of management. Wow. And and so I said, okay. Why gotta get things out of my head, and I gotta get them on paper so that I can communicate more effectively to the team. Yeah. Chaz process is is what nearly killed me multiple times because I was such a horrible communicator. And there there were so many things that I assumed.
I didn't know the things that I needed to say because I assumed Chaz that so many things were just obvious. Yeah. And and and it was when I was able to and and, literally, this took years. Years. There were several years the company went backwards, and I borrowed money to keep the company afloat because I was determined to learn to make that switch in my brain. I think it took 3 or 4 years. No lie. Wow. Wow. Because I I guess I'm just hard headed. I don't know.
But when I was able to finally get myself into a a rhythm where I captured the information from the client, I got it down on paper in a format that was understandable. Yeah. The teams could execute work with out asking me a thousand questions or me showing up on-site every single minute to explain something, that's when things changed. Yeah. Incredible. Was there a specific moment?
I mean, you kinda mentioned just, like, the frustrations of just over and over dragging people through that and, eventually, that caught up with your psyche. You you acknowledged it. Was there a moment in time where you, like, when I heard this, or was it when that guy said he's a dragger, like well, you're like, okay. I gotta change my mindset because that doesn't just happen. No. No. No. You really can't.
It it that came about as a result of having multiple jobs either go backwards financially because I had failed to communicate certain details or cussed not just financially, but customers actually getting angry with the end result because of my failure to communicate. And us losing the entire job. We're having to refund money. And and I realized that if I don't change like, this is an absolute death trap. We're we're going to go bankrupt.
I have to change in order for us to stay viable or else we'd go back down to just me and one guy because my style of communication is not working. Right? And now I'm gonna add there there one other piece to this that was a catalyst in that change. 2 years in. I was doing all my own book work as well. And I think it's about 2 years in. I was approached by another local businessman, and he said, hey. You think you would ever be interested in somebody helping me with your bookmark?
And I said, not really. I don't do a very good job of it, but we're getting by. And we were still pretty small at the time, and he said, well, I know this lady, and she's looking for some part time work, and she could really use the work, and and she's really good. And I was terrified to meet with her because I knew my books were missed.
Wow. And she came in She was extremely patient with me, and she set our book work in a desk work on a solid foundation and and that was a huge component of that growth in that mindset and that shift. When I hired her, and I took that piece off of my plate, and I was able to focus more on the actual sales and production instead of everything. Yeah. And and because of her background, various times when I would hit a wall, she would say, Doug, why don't she do this?
She was, you know, ten or fifteen years older than me had a lot more experience than I had you going to college. I You know? You you had a little mama bear, sounds like. And and and that was a huge part of that growth. Obviously, she couldn't change me. I still had to change, but she gave me a lot of suggestions along the way. There were a huge part of that change, and we would not be here without I say we wouldn't be here. She was a she was a big part of the story.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and and the reality of it is is that you may not. It might look a little different. You may still be a couple of steps back. But you are where you are because of the pieces, and she's one of them. That's the reality. Yes. Yes. Wow. The the simplicity of that choice but the resounding impact, because I I'm sure at that point, what clicked in your brain and tell me if I'm wrong, is that you gave something away that you were terrified of and then you saw it work.
And that probably gave you some confidence to go, if I hire a guy here and I hire a salesperson here, and you start building out a little bit more of a of a team, which then enables growth, in a lot of areas. Anything that you would add there or am am I off basis there? Well, so in that at that particular stage, I I didn't hire any additional, like, a salesman or anything like that. Sure. I simply had I gained family time.
Yeah. At that point, because I was working all day and then doing desk work at night. And so I gained not only my evenings back, but I also gained a much clearer picture of our our books. Things were being done on time. And what that did was it set a foundation for the growth.
So when we did we're gonna add another team on the ground, At that point, I was still doing all the sales and all the production management, but I went from being sales production and actually working to strictly sales and production. And we hired additional teams that actually did the the physical work. So, yeah, that that was certainly a part of that. Yeah. Yeah. It it obviously is the part of of scaling. It sounds like for you that that which I I think is so important.
The buying back of your evenings. I think I think every entrepreneur goes to that phase of of working all day and then working all night. And I think there's been several seasons, and it comes and goes, especially as I'm building multiple businesses and doing multiple things. And especially if I start something scratch again, you're like, I remember this stage. I remember the grind. I'm kind of addicted to it.
I don't know why I'm a little bit crazy, but this reality of if I I give this away now I know, like, if I can give this away sooner Chaz I can keep the evenings or I can I can separate the time for the family, or whatever, but I think that there's, like, this this horsepower that runs in? That's probably because of necessity for a long time. Right? But it doesn't have to be like that. Is the point I'm hearing from you.
Like, you can you can lean on other people, hire good people, and you can have your emails. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. You have to know what you're looking for. I mean, I went through multiple production managers before I am at the one where I'm at now. I mean, I don't do any of the production anymore. And the others didn't work out, but mostly the reason they didn't work out was because I didn't know what I was looking for.
Yeah. And until I had one that failed, and I was like, oh, well, I need somebody who doesn't do that. Such a easy way to learn. Right? An obvious way to learn. I don't know about easy. They were very expensive. Yeah. Yes. Yes. But but you have you have the things in place now. Those are expensive lessons, not just expenses, investments, rather. Right? I love the perspective there. I wanna know.
You've kinda just threw natural conversation here giving me, you know, good and bad things along the way. I wanna know if if you do you have like a principle that you live by or like a discipline that you follow when it comes to decision making? So the first one is is just prayer. I mean, just straight up. If there's a I mean, I I would like to say that every decision I make, I pray over it, but that is actually not true. But big decisions, for sure, there's your prayer.
And and then the second one is counsel. Big decisions I always talk with my wife about. And she's not a businesswoman. She's the Wolfe maker. She she doesn't always have, you know, the business perspective. Yeah. But she will see things within a decision Chaz I would not see. And so, you know, asking her advice on things like that has proven to be extremely valuable, but Bigger than that is asking advice from other men who are not necessarily in the same industry.
But, you know, that that might have valuable insight, you know, whether it's the purchase of a new piece of equipment or a new truck versus a piece of used equipment. Picking on when I when we took on our first big snow contract, I was absolutely terrified of it, and I actually turned it down. And and and I was prodded and pushed and and this deal was sweetened, and and I just kept going, no. I I'm making a and construction. I don't need this right. I don't need this date.
And I I've finally went to another fellow business center in the community who, by the way, Wolfe Like, I don't necessarily specifically target Christians when I'm looking for advice. Sure. And he was not a believer, but he was a businessman that I respected and went to. And I said, This is being presented to me. I don't want it. What do you think? He said you are insane not to take that deal. And and I just kinda threw his advice out the window because I said, well, he's just jealous.
So I went to a financial advisor He has nothing to do with the construction industry. He knows nothing about the snow industry. I presented it to him. I said, what do you think of this? Like, I'm getting begged to take this contract. And he said, well, the numbers make sense to me. What's wrong? I said, I just don't want it. He said, Well, I don't know what to tell you, Doug. Yeah. And I went to 2 other people, and every single one of them said, that's a good deal. What's wrong with you?
Yeah. And I followed him back to the guy who was begging me to take the contract. And I said, we'll take it. But I'm telling you straight up, I don't know how we can fulfill this thing because this is way over the top for us. Was one of the best decisions we ever made. Wow. So there's there's a big the bigger the decision, the more counsel gets Yeah. And especially from outside influencers that are not connected to what you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. You hit it.
You hit it home for me on on that for sure. There's a story there, though. I wanna take 2 minutes. Because the best decision I mean, wow. That that's quite the statement. Followed by the sentence before Chaz, you said, I don't know how we're gonna do it. And so I I love moments like this as entrepreneurs. We can all relate to this of I have no idea how I'm gonna do this. Wow. I did it, and it was the best thing ever. Like, I I can relate to that. But I wanna know why. Well, how? Chaz happened?
Tell me the story, Doug. So I gotta I gotta call from back up. We we'd always been involved in in snow a little bit. Not much. We Chaz two pieces. And, and and and the contract that that we were working as a sub, and the contract that that guy had fell through. And so my equipment was just sitting. And another guy found out about it, he introduced me to This snow general contractor, he called me up and he said, would you take 2 properties to post offices in Baltimore?
And I said, no. He said, why not? I said, I don't wanna go to Baltimore. It's an hour away. He said, Chaz I take you to lunch him? I'll show you the properties. Sure. I'll take a free lunch. What's up with that? So we wrote out there. We looked at him. He said, what do you think? I said, I think they're terrible. I don't want him. And he said, why not? I said, good scenario. I don't wanna do it. He said, would you at least give me a price? I said, it's gonna be high. You're not gonna like it.
He said, would you give me a price? I said, Shire. And so I made it high because I didn't want it. It didn't. He didn't take 5 minutes to responder after I emailed it to him. He emailed back. He said, oh, that's good numbers. I like those numbers. Oh, brother. Here we go. So that was 2. The next year, he said, Doug, he did such a great job. Would you like more? Uh-uh. I guess it's okay. We added a couple of plows on some existing trucks, bought another skid loader. We went from 2 to 11.
Chaz was a big jump, felt like we had really stretched. We had put every trunk to work, every skid loader. I was like, Man, this is this is a big deal. And it was a big deal because that year we got 30 inches of snow in 1 dump. Woah. One dump. It was Yeah. Chaz a lot. Me and I nearly died. Like, I worked my tail off. I I got I don't even know. My wife could tell you because she's got it memorized, but almost, there's no sleep for 7 days. It was he was terrible.
So out of that, I said, well, I'll never do this again. Like, this is this is terrible. You know, he came back to me the next year. He said, Doug, I'm bidding on 45 more post offices. I said, no. He's, why not? I said, you're crazy. I said, we barely could do 11. You're absolutely insane. He said, why not? I said, well, I can't I I don't have that much equipment. He said, can we at least eat meat? And, you know, I'll I'll take you to lunch. Don't worry. You had a lesson for y'all.
Let buy me lunch because we were gonna keep doing the 11. Sure. And in between there between when we set the meeting and when we met, My brother-in-law came to me and said, Doug, I lost in snug work. Any way you could put a truck to work for me? And a window guy came to me and said, Doug, I wanna buy a skid loader this year, and I wanna put a plow on my truck. Would you happen to have any work for me?
I went into this meeting fully prepared to tell me I'm absolutely no, but I went into it and I said, Okay. Let's find work for 2 trucks and one skid loader, and I'll just pass it off to them. We're not gonna take any more. So I had sifted through his pile. I picked out what I thought was nice and easy work. And I said, we'll take these. He said, what about the rest? I said, no. He said, what would it take? I said a $100,000 in cash to buy equipment with. Right?
He I mean, he said, can you get the drivers? And that was a question I hadn't asked before. Uh-huh. And I sure I think so. He said, you get the drivers. I'll get you the money. Boom. Deal. And I was well, well, the the the it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. He removed the excuse of the dispute. And and it was obviously a lot more complicated than that, but that was kind of the initial discussion that led to making that decision to He did.
It ended up, but he gave me $80,000 to go buy equipment with that was free in place. I did not pay it back. Mhmm. And we actually spent 120. So we were in the red by 40 till the year was over. Just get you in the equipment budget. But that grew and he kept adding more post offices in subsequent years until when the contract with USPS corporate ended, we were servicing 50 two locations. Wow. And we over time developed a really good routine in the last 2 years, I never even went to the city.
I managed everything from right here in Mount Airy. Yeah. And that What I didn't know going into that is that my parents were gonna end up with some fairly significant financial needs. And not only was I able to bless them and help them because we made so much money off that contract, I bought a new family vehicle. I bought a whole bunch of farm equipment that I wanted, didn't need, but I just wanted to extend a farming and hay operation. We got, I don't know, a newer truck.
I mean, we just we spent the money wisely. We didn't throw it away. We didn't do a lot of vacations. We had reinvested it paid off debt, but it set us on our feet financially. And beyond that, that was a huge part of going from warrior to King because I went from being the guy who drove a plow truck to being the guy who was managing 30 some odd people Yeah. And and I took those uh-huh. Okay. This is way over 2 minutes. My snowball.
Ended up inviting me to go to the snow and ice symposium, which is the national snow and annual snow nice convention. On his dime, I would have never gone because I didn't know nothing about it. When part of my industry. Right. And I went, and what I discovered was that in all the questions they Chaz in the conference where they they they They have all of the equipment Chaz personnel and ice management, but then they have classes. And those classes are all centered around leadership skills.
Then you can choose which classes you want. Some of them are specific to salt milk product. But my first Simon convention was in 2018. And it was monumental for me in that I was introduced to leadership concepts Chaz I did not know existed. You know that's saying you don't know what you don't know until you don't know what you know? Something like that.
Anyhow, I realized things that I didn't know that I was struggling to implement in the re remodeling side of the company And I found that info at the Snow And Ice Convention. I brought it back, started implementing that stuff and those were huge components of of taking us to the next level in business in in really getting me to think You know, so I I was still doing sales, but I've gone from doing sales to now. I've put ourselves in a place where I'm looking hire a salesman.
I'm looking out of that seat because I realized there's more out there for me and I've outgrown my spot here at Master Construction. I need to be managing culture or something and not actually doing the sales every day. And a lot of that is because of things I've learned through those leadership pod pods. Pods. No. They're not deposit and classic jobs classes. And I wouldn't and none of that would have happened. If I hadn't have said, we will go.
We'll take down those 32 more post offices and and and went through that time with with Bill. And today, today, we we've got an amazing snow contract Like, we after that when he ended, I just said we're not gonna take anything on. We're just gonna sit tight. We're not gonna do anything. And my account said, are you gonna close note fighters? Said, no. So why not? I don't know. We'll just we'll keep it open for now. We'll see what happens.
In November 1st last call, we we were able to score this massive contract and It's been awesome and amazing. Off to the races ever since. I I I I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you going through that. Probably one of the most open and vulnerable stories that I've had here on the pod, not even kidding. It's so real. I can think of, like, 3 or 4 circumstances in my own journey that just line up with that. I'm like, oh my goodness, dude. I've I know what you were feeling in those moments.
And the scarcity, the the no, but then, like, okay. But then, like, thank goodness. Like, you just took me up and down. And through my story, And so what I want what I wanna encourage the listener here is that the the probably I mean, there's I mean, you shared a lot if I could pull out one thing, it's it's go for it. Go for it.
Because there are so many trickle things that happened to Douglas's life, his business, his multiple businesses, his family, all these benefactors because he just went for it. And I know that there's so many other things, like, obviously, the leadership and and investing in equipment and and thinking bigger. Like, we get we could write a long list of things to take away from that story.
But it all started with you going actually, you were saying no, but eventually you got convinced to just to just go for it. And so if I don't hear another entrepreneur story this week or this month, bro, I'm I'm good. I'm my cup is full. Thank you for sharing that. I appreciate it. I'm gonna I I want more detail now. I want a I want we're gonna have to carry this offline. See, I know how to get to you now. All I gotta do is buy 1.
Okay. So we're we're we're wrapping up here, and I wanna go through the questions here. We got the speed round. I wanna ask you a couple questions that that are meant to, you know, be a little faster, but it's a different angle question. K? So number 1 is These couple of businesses, your farm, all of this stuff that you got going on. I want you to dwindle it all down to one trackable metric. What is it?
Hey. Permian would have to be profit because if the money doesn't flow, you you're you're just dead. Yeah. And and, you know, I I feel like customer service is super important in customer satisfaction, but at the end of the day, you can make all the customers happy all you want. And if you're not making money, you're dead. Yeah. It's true. It's true. What book would you recommend Douglas for a 6 figure business owner to read? God is my partner by RG Laturno. I haven't heard of that one.
That's good. We're gonna put down the show notes on hold. Shit. Yeah. I know. Gotta get this. How have I not heard of this? I mean, I Chaz I can reverse engineer the life of David for you and how it's been, like, instrumental in my business? Like, I mean, but, no, I haven't heard this one. I'm I'm gonna have to order it right now. You've already mentioned the power of a council. My my question here on the speed round is, do you network or intentionally mastermind with others.
You've you've given us the value. Anything that you wanna add there for the listener, maybe specifically thinking back to that stage. I don't know if this was for you, but for me, when I was, you know, early on, I knew that I needed council. I was hearing people like Doug say I needed to get around council and ask people whether that be join a mastermind or go to networking events or have key people. But I was nervous. Nervous about the commitment, nervous about the money.
Like, what would you say to that person? So I I would say, you know, especially early on, when you're in the growth page, you you don't have a lot of money. But you still need to cancel. And so probably we need it most. Yeah. So what I did was find local businessmen that appeared successful, invited for lunch, coffee, breakfast, take an hour, and What's going on in your world? What challenges are you facing? You know?
Yep. And literally just back and forth asking those each other those questions, and and usually picking one challenge to discuss. Sometimes it might be employee retention. It might be the surging price of materials. I mean, whatever your challenges, like, be very specific in that hour to discuss that and have one of those a week find, and and it can be different industries. Right? It doesn't have to be I mean, I I'm met with my insurance guy one time, and we talked about employee retention.
And he's in a totally different industry. Yeah. But he's still going with employees. He is a 20 or 30 people. And and so finding those people getting with them, talking, get outside of your business because hearing somebody else's story usually gives you a nugget a takeaway to plug into your own, and you can do that for the price of coffee or a meat. Yeah. 100%. You you can connect with a pretty good guy as long as you buy him lunch, it sounds like. That's a good it's a very practical step.
I love that. Last question here for you. If you lost it all, what would you do? You know, I would probably go back to how I started, find a need, and fill it. Yeah. Whatever that would be. I'd done a a little bit of business coaching with new startups in the area. And I thoroughly love that, but I don't know if there would be enough of that to support my family. So I'm probably Wolfe go pick up my hammer and put on my tool belt and go fix a screen door or something. Find a need and fill it.
That's what I would do. Just start over. Start small. Yeah. And go back to where I started. I love I love that. And and with a big smile on your face, I know the listener maybe isn't necessarily watching the video, but the fact that you could, in one sentence, say I would have to start over and with this just ginormous grin, tells me that you had this unbelievable confidence. I do. I do. I have been solo. I have been so near bankruptcy. I've been in lawsuits. I had an employee die on the job.
I've had so many things happen throughout my short career, and I just I know that when god says his heart is towards his children, it does not matter what circumstances hits you if you live a life of integrity and you seek to purpose to honor him and all things, you can have everything taken away from you just like Joe did and he is going to take care of you. You may not be rich, but you will not starve. Yeah. Yeah. No. That's good.
The baseline of of need gets redefined pretty quickly in in those circumstances. Douglas, you've been incredible How can someone listening today connect with you? So I have Facebook. It's just my name, Douglas Mass. I have a very, very tiny YouTube Chaz, again, just my name, videos from the farm, videos from my trip in Poland, and then email Yeah. Which is dd.mas@mastconstructionllc.com. It's very long, but it works. And, I mean, I guess you can call me.
There and I'm sure it's listed right there on the website. Yeah. And phone numbers on the website. Yeah. That's good. That's good. We'll put all that in the show notes as well. I I hope that the the right ones that have questions reach out to you, but you've been incredible. I know gonna continue the conversation with you. I have absolutely enjoyed our time. I wish you nothing but success and blessing on your family, your businesses, your farm, Chaz your animals, all that good stuff.
Thank you for being here. Absolutely. 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 buyer self 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 in multiple different industries and now interviewing literally over 2 or 300 other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is that It's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings literally exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 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.