On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. It's right there in our mission statement. We're a transformation company. Yeah. And how do we transform people in their lives and careers of through one person, one conversation at a time. It's all about creating that ripple effect. And I'm not hallucinating that we're gonna save every person and swoop in and rescue this entire industry and yet, every bit matters.
If I can just move that needle in the opposite direction, and be a part of the solution to give people a fighting Chaz, then I've left it better than I found it. You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe, featuring fellow 78 and even 9 figure business owners who have real battle scars from business and life, but have prevailed as the king that they are designed to be. We welcome high performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the reel of the reel.
On what it takes your 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 Kings like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe. Gathering the king's podcast today. I've got Jake Dixon on the king stage, my brother Jake. How are we doing? Doing well, man.
First time caller, long time listener, and honored to be in the presence of royalty here. Hey. Hey. I appreciate that, man. You know, it's it's funny. The first time collar that we we need to have some collars. You know, that'd be kind of fun. Do a do a live show. Time to upgrade the the old GTK podcast to a live show, but all seriousness, we're thankful that you're here. Thankfully that you got to experience the show before coming on to the show. This makes it even sweeter, doesn't it?
Yes. It does. Yes. It does, man. This is really cool. Looking forward to the conversation and porting into the community here. Jake, tell us what kind of business that you got, brother. Yeah. So we run a real estate coaching and training company where we partner with broker owners to serve them Chaz well as their agents and all things related to growth, retention, productivity and profitability. I love it. It's like you've said that before. I've said it a time or 2. We were just talking off air.
You know, you've you've done keynote speaking. Obviously, you have your own events. This is, like, not a little coaching business. This is, like, you're serving agents across the country at a mass scale. You know, like, you've been doing this for a minute. Like, you're an expert. Yeah. Yeah. We actually are approaching our 7th full year since we lost the locker room.
And since then, we've we've served 100 of real estate brokerages and brands, tens of thousands of real estate agents, and yet you know, as well as I do. Looking back at it all, it's like, dude, we're still figuring this whole thing out. So I don't pretend to have it all figured out by any mean, but we did. You know, have quick success and a lot of momentum and create a lot of buzz, which is always a good thing because that lets you know you provided a solution to a common problem. That's right.
And for us, we have really planted our flag in the ground to to support the the underserved for lack of a better term. There's an 87% failure rate in our real estate industry, and we have taken a stance to serve the brand new agents, the dual career agents, the people struggling to make it, Knowing there's tons of coaching and training companies out there for the, quote, unquote, already successful agents. Yeah. Yeah. I love that.
I mean, I think we all kinda understand that, you know, 87% failure rate, but when you say it like that, you're like, woah. You know? And if you make a difference in in 10% of those people, I mean, you're talking about changing careers, changing lives at a really large clip. No. You're right. It's right there in our in our mission statement as well. We're we're just like you and gathering the king. We're a transformation company. Yeah. And how do we transform people in their lives and careers.
That's through one person, one conversation at a time. It's it's all about creating that ripple effect. You know? And I'm not hallucinating that we're gonna save every person and swoop in and rescue this entire industry and yet, as you just said, every bit matters. If I can just move that needle in the opposite direction, and be a part of the solution to give people a fighting chance, then I've left it better than I found it.
Yeah. I've I mean, I, obviously, I have a I have a soft spot in my own for real estate. I don't sell real estate, like, like, how you guys teach, but real estate itself, like, a lot of times, someone becomes an agent out of, I need to make money. Right? Or I need to make money on the side. And that's just the beginning of their journey because then they can learn about what it means to either buy and sell or them then themselves buy or hold assets, what real estate really is.
And it's not just the transaction of it yet. Lot of money to be made there. That's for sure. Sales, communication, high level. Like, that's where I come from as Wolfe. Just I wasn't selling real estate.
But there's another level to to wealth building, which is obviously accumulating assets, specifically ones at cash flow, and cash I could if I could go back and start with selling real estate Chaz opposed to selling advertising or all the other insurance, the other things I was selling, I think I probably would have done that. Yeah. Yeah. No. You're exactly right. And it starts there. It's it's it's Charlie mindset.
You know, it's it's not unique to just real estate with that with that statistic. It's small businesses in general after 5 years, you know, but a lot of what we do is not just teach agents or broker owners how to sling real estate you know, it's not about a transactional component. It's it's really training them and coaching them up of how to be a business owner who just happens to sell real estate. Very different. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
I'm actually working through a program right now and, you know, Everybody needs a coach. Right? Even even a coach needs a coach. We we were talking about that.
I don't know, like, a month ago when we were doing our little intro call, but The I think the point here that that we're that we're making is that you have to be able to think whether you're selling real estate or ensure whatever you're selling, you have to think like a business owner or in the program that I'm going through right now, it's more things like a marketer. Right? The next level up is like, okay. Yeah. You gotta understand you're running a business. For sure.
You can't be the technician or the sales guy in in your case with real estate. Like, you can't just be a a real estate salesperson. You have to understand that you're running a business. Okay. Fine. There's some tactics there. There's some understanding of structure, process SOP, team building, maybe even. A lot a lot a lot of systems. Okay? But in order for that to grow, you gotta be a marketer. You gotta understand marketing filling the pipeline. Would you agree with that?
I would completely agree with Chaz. And Although we've had good success for now 7 years, I'm just now realizing or at least admitting something that I've tried to be stubborn and deny this whole time, which is the marketing component. Right? I never wanted to be the face or the brand, and I and that still remains true. And yet, I'm realizing some of that is necessary and required to step out from behind the the locker room brand, and people have to know who the heck Jake is as well.
And there's a whole marketing world and component to that as you full well know. So Yeah. Well, I I hope that here in this conversation, we'll get into who Jake is a little bit. You're a 100% right. For the listener here before, we just move on from this point because you're you're making such a great point that there's a brand a personal brand and then a company brand. Okay. So how do these 2 things work? How do they work together? Yes. Gathering the Kings is existing as a brand.
But Chaz Wolfe is a brand. My beard is a brand. But in all seriousness, It is to a degree. Like, I'm not saying, like, my beard actually is a brand. It's a part of my brand. Right? Exactly. And so okay. Well, how do we how are we leveraging these things And and I I I was kinda picking up some pieces there from you that I felt like I may be related to. Maybe the listener does as well. I never wanted to be the marketer or the push.
Like, even when I was in sales, I never wanted to be a pushy salesperson. I wanted to be an like, I wanted to help people make educated decisions that were beneficial for them. Like, that's real sales interpreted. Okay. How do we do that in marketing? Wait. Just don't lie, bro. Like, come on. Don't don't don't put some huge, ginormous fake claim out there, and then and then underneath, it's different. Like, for gathering the Kings even, I've had so many members.
These are these are 7 to 9 figure business owners. These are big business owners. They've done masterminds before. Who have told me? Bro, how you know how many times I've heard of this grandiose group And then you get in, you're like, oh, wow. You sold me the dream. Wow. No implementation. No real networking. No real connections. It's just a big thing. And it's like, okay. I didn't I for sure don't want that. And I know you don't either.
So how are you doing and or how are you teaching your other agents? In your in your specific section to to not be like that. You know, that's such a big topic and something I'm incredibly passionate about. One of my biggest pet peeves I cannot stand is the whole fake it till you make it concept, right, to me, a professional, which is what I hold us in regards to, a professional knows what they know. They know what they don't know, and they know the difference between the 2.
So there's nothing wrong If somebody comes to you, when you're supposed to be the expert, you're supposed to be this guru, and you say, you know what, gents? That's a great question. I don't know. But I tell you what, I'm gonna go find out. I've got a network of people I can go to and ask who who might know the answer to that, and I'll get back to you by 5 o'clock today. That's what a professional would do.
And so the whole fake it till you make it, I I'm all about being real, being authentic, being transparent, If you you like what you see, great. If not, that's okay too. I'm not everybody's cup of tea. You know, so it's just operating and really owning who you are in your strength zone and letting that shine. And I know that might sound cliche or cheesy to some, but I'm walking proof as are you that it worked like, I don't need to be Mister Popular or everybody's best friend.
Actually, as they say about business, the riches are found in the niches.
So Yeah. Yeah. There's a there's a genuine, like, really authentic approach that we're talking about, and it doesn't mean that you don't market or that you don't do paid ads or you don't have a big claim because when you understand the value that you do bring, whether it's in a mastermind group or a real estate coaching, program or an event or a car, like, whatever it is that we're selling or promoting, it's okay to be loud Yes. About what's real. Right? Like, I'm not saying to not be loud.
In fact, I need to be probably louder. Right? But there's this humility or this, like, just genuine, like, do the right thing approach to marketing that I feel like Chaz we're both kinda, like, aligning on right here. And and in that, it's okay. I guess for me, I've I've ok'd myself to be smaller. Like, I'm not trying to, like, Okay. I'm I'm small I'm okay with smaller dreams or goals. That's not what I mean.
What I mean is that as we've been building Gathering the Kings, I've been okay with having x amount of members because it's been done the right way as opposed to having X X X X X number of members because we threw out some random big marketing thing, and it drew in a bunch of people. And then 95% of those people left. Like, I'm just not interested in that. Yeah. No. Exactly right. I posted this quote. I'm gonna read if that's okay real quick.
Today on my Facebook page, Carmine Gallow, talk like Ted is where this is sourced from. This is his quote. He says, Science shows that passion is contagious. Literally, you cannot inspire others unless you are inspired yourself. You stand a much greater chance of persuading and inspiring your listeners if you express an enthusiastic, passionate, and meaningful connection to your topic. And sales, whatever. You know, it's nothing more than the transfer of enthusiasm.
And so that's, I think, ultimately, what we're getting at here is I can put together the best value stack and best click funnel pitch in the Wolfe. But if I don't genuinely feel that, And you can't, as a consumer, feel that hurt, that this is a passion project and a business of mine at the same time. That's right. Then people can smell your commission breath coming from a mile away, and and that's most people are skeptical right up front.
So how are we creating trust and rapport in letting them know I authentically care about you and what it is I'm quote unquote selling over here that can help you. Yeah. It's good, man. So good. Good. Great quote. Thanks for sharing it. I wanna transition from that into a little bit about you, not your story, before we get started story. I wanna know that passion or that enthusiasm word. Does it come from that burning desire that's, like, deep down inside of Jake? What is that? So I have a story.
If it's okay, I'll I'll be brief. A lot. Yeah. So, honestly, this dates back to when I was a sophomore in high school. I know. Like, dude, get over your high school glory days. For me, this was real. So check this out. And everybody can relate and find their own story. I'm sure similar to mine here. Yeah. So I'm a baseball guy. I'm a sports guy, hence, the locker room. Okay? Yeah. So my sophomore year of high school, it was a playoff baseball game here in the Midwest.
And a the thunderstorm blew through so the umpires postponed the game till tomorrow. So at that time, our coach was yelling at us players to pick up the equipment. Hurry up. Get it inside. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. And we were probably just lolly gagging around goofing off, and so he was getting pissed. And so after we got all the equipment up, we run-in the gymnasium. He sets us all down, and he's just ran and raving in at one point.
He puts his finger right in my face in front of all my teammates, and he says, none of you will ever see the inside of a college or professional stadium unless you buy a ticket. Verbatim, those were his words etched in my mind forever. And so I had a decision to make. And as the story finally conclude, I went on to play and I saw some really cool stadiums. Thank you so much. And yet, it didn't stop there. It wasn't until several years ago.
I was listening to an audio book called The Storyteller's Secret. And I was like, oh my god. It that that's it. The real gift in that day Is my coach, I guess you would call him, is it it's internal flame inside of my freaking body that I cannot and will not shut off. I will never be that person to someone else. Yeah. Now there's a fine line between goals and being realistic about things Chaz I'm not talking about that.
Yeah. Who is that guy to try and Chaz on my dreams and tell me I can't do something just maybe because He lost his own dream or something himself once upon a time. So don't let somebody else talk you out of your dreams just because they gave up on their own. Yeah. It's so big. It's it's such a big mountain, really. It's a it's, you know, I was just on a on a podcast a couple days ago and just an incredible guest. And he said, execute the cliche.
And it was like, oh, you wanna, I mean, you wanna unpack that one for a second? Like, everything you're talking about is this cliche Get off me, bro. I'm gonna go do it anyway. Right? And and as entrepreneurs, we all know what this feels like. Like, that that that, like, uh-uh, get, get off me, bro. Like, And and then so we have this chip on our shoulder, and we're gonna go prove them wrong. And you've been proven this dude wrong ever since. And I love it.
I can tell you a couple stories of mine like that as well. But what we do with that at each level, I think, is important. So my follow-up question you is, okay, so that was then, and you used that as fuel. Right? Like, that's everything you just said is that you used it as fuel. It wasn't cliche. It wasn't like he just know, no. No. No. No. No. And then, like, oh, it's just this memory. Like, no. No. No. You use it as real fuel. I Chaz feel it when you were talking about it.
Yes. Okay. So that was to get into some stadiums and play at a higher level. And I know you've been still using that into your career, but, like, How has that morphed? How has that changed over time from just being like like, I'm gonna get that, dude, to, like, maybe a more kingly or more mature perspective on that chip. What does it look like now? That is a beautiful question. And so what that has you're exactly right.
What that was as a eighteen year old kid just trying to prove somebody wrong and a nanny and a boo boo. I did it in any ways. That's where the story always ended. Right? Now how it's packaged up together is to show people, look. I'm nothing special. Like, I've been just taking Little bits along the way of people that maybe were the haters. They were the keyboard warriors and what that day really triggered was an a new awareness that says, hey, who I surround myself with really, really matters?
I need people to help support and build me up. And you know what? There's gonna be a lot of dogs barking along the way. But I'm gonna take that noise, rise above it, and so now how I funnel or fuel that two other people that I'm in relationship with is saying, look. I can do it. Where in your life have you done it? Because everybody listening to it or watching this right now, I guarantee Chaz been through something probably 10 x worse than what I just shared.
I've never met a successful person who hasn't been through some some stuff. That's right. And so so it's just realizing that not everybody's gonna be for you, and that's okay. I don't have to be combative. I don't have to be ugly about it, but I'm like, okay. I'm gonna take that deposit, put another Chaz on my shoulder, and use it for the greater good. Versus this. I'm gonna prove you wrong and leave it there. Type attitude. Yeah. I love that. What does it take for you as an individual?
And, really, my question is how does the listener do this? But each moment that you've taken that adds a Chaz, right, you know, the the code in in high school, the the keyboard warrior, the family member that said what you're, like, oh, that little business or, like, just stack them up. Right? No. What do you have to do as an individual or in your mindset as you kind of alluded to to be able to overcome that and be able to use it for the greater good. Good question.
So so I have a 4 part process for this. So anybody who wanna write this down, write this down, step 1 is examining your current reality and belief system. What does that mean? It means things like, well, what does success mean to you? A lot of times as as leaders and coaches, we focus on that very question. Very, very few people can actually define what success means to them, and yet they're chasing it somewhere comparing themselves to somebody else.
My fear is when you say, oh, that person is so successful, what you're really saying is Chaz person makes a lot of money. So are you equating success to money? Right. And what's that old saying? Right? Some people have so much Some people are soap or all they have is money. Yeah. Because they don't have relationships. Their marriage failed or or or or or. So sorry. That's step 1. Step 2 is where you have the collection. So I want pages of this stuff.
I mean, you go through your life and look back and say, what are those defining moments? Yeah. Pis, the lows, the whatever. This is what I call watching your game film. Think about the Super Bowl. Right? What were those teams doing 2 weeks leading up to the Super Bowl? They were in the war room watching and studying game film, not just on themselves, but on the competition. That's right.
How many times in our life do we pause and just look back and study the game film and ask ourselves what went right, what went wrong, how can I do it better next time? Yeah. David Goggins calls are reaching into the cookie jar. There you go. No. There you go. I hadn't heard that. So that's number 2, just creating a list of all these moments like my sophomore year. That's right. Step 3 then is is really the essence to your question. What do I do with this?
One of the most profound questions I've learned to always ask myself in the moment when I'm going through something that maybe is otherwise a challenger adversity is, yeah, pause, Jake, pause. How is this, whatever this is going to serve me in the future? There's a gift. There's a lesson. There's something inside of this that I am meant to take out of it because I am not a victim to the situation.
Yep. There's some some way this is going to serve me even when I can't see it for what it is right now. That's right. Now that's step 3. And there's so it's a line of questioning And at step 3, you're gonna take each one of these defining moments and say, because of blank, I am blank because of it. Yeah. I want you to make a declaration because of plan. This is step 4? This is step 3. The Okay. Continuation of step 3. Because of blank, I am blank.
Yeah. Yeah. And then step 4 is just about what do I do with this? And how do I utilize this new clarity to be a better leader in my family, be a better leader in my community, to inspire somebody else, Not does somebody need to hear my story? Who needs to hear my story? Chaz, you and I are here probably and doing a lot of things that we're doing because somebody once upon a time shared their story, and you're like, dude, I see myself inside of that. You just gave me hope and inspiration.
So who are you and I who are we, not to share our own, knowing it might liberate somebody else along the way too. Yeah. Yeah. Hope is liberation. And for the person listening right now, Number 1, we hope that just even listening to Jake, like, this is the point of gathering the king's podcast is to is to transfer courage or, you know, give you hope that if Jake can do it, you can do it. But it doesn't stop there. Jake is telling you that, like, it now has to be transferred on.
And so, I love the 4 step process gonna have it in the show notes as well, but, man, just 1, 2, 3, 4. And what that produces is not only taking the bat and turning it into good, but it it gives you, like, a an actual formula to then walk it out. I think they're gifts. Like, you're saying, like, the failures, the the chips on the shoulder, the people that told me I couldn't do it, I can get wrapped up in the negativity of that, or I can use it as fuel to actually become who I'm designed to be.
Which is everything that that Jake just gave to you. So love Chaz. Was not anticipating a 4 step process, but, wow. I wanna know let's go into your story a little bit. How did the locker room start? What'd you do before? Give us a little bit of the beginnings of it. Yeah. So I did play college and professional baseball, hence, the sports analogies and things. But my very first real job after playing pro ball was working for a staffing agency and and, hey. No. I'm not hating on that.
It might be some people in gathering the Kings who are who are staff staffing agency owners, but it wasn't for me. So after 7 months, I'm like, this is crazy. I'm helping other people find jobs And so hope it's okay. I used part of my working day to look for a new job for myself. Yeah. So I'm still yourself. I I'm scrolling through, and this is how I got into real estate. This is why this matters.
I found Lennar Homes, which is a large national homebuilder, Lenar Homes, And I was in Jacksonville, Florida at the time, and so they Chaz, like, a speed hiring event. I swear to god, so that night, I went to the Ramada Inn, Wow. Yeah. There was a line of people out the door, and you had 5 minutes to interview with all of the, like, higher up people. And I was one of four people they hired from the speed hiring event.
Wow. And so that was really getting how I got started in real estate and being that I was in Florida at the time, and I'm from the Midwest just like you. After a few years of doing that very successfully, I'm like, what am I doing here? I don't family. I don't have a girlfriend. I, like, I'd have a good job. That's about it. So I use that as an opportunity to move back home to the Midwest.
And give my first crack at entrepreneurship, which is I started an indoor baseball training facility called the Players Edge. And so I did that for a number of years, dabbled in some network marketing stuff, and then got the itch again to get my real estate license and And that was the journey from thereon and that became a CEO, team leader of a of a very large real estate office for Keller Williams at the time. And, that's where I found my true calling.
It wasn't just recruiting people and growing and managing the office. Man, it lit me up when I could sit across the table from an agent and just help them uncover their why, establish their goals, hold them accountable. And that's that was really where I started to tie. Jake, with all the sports and coaching and all of that, coupled with what your coach said to you back in in your sophomore year, Right. Why aren't you a real estate coach and breathing life into other people?
And that's why I kinda have that to tap on the shoulder, if you will. Yeah. You're already doing it. It just wasn't in the most fulfilled way or the or the biggest way that it could be. You're reaching thousands and thousands of people now where maybe there's only a couple hundred in that office. So Exactly. I think even that is just an incredible, like, showing of what it means to be a king is, like, we can look back and go, okay. Well, I've I've been pretty successful along the way.
Of course, we've all had failures, but in that moment there, I was really successful, but in comparison to where I am now. It's like, wow. I mean, knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have stopped there. Thank goodness. I didn't stop there. And so that's encouragement for the listener right now because they might feel like they're feeling pretty good. You know, like, hey. I'm making I'm making good money. I'm I'm I'm at where I'm at. But what what Jake just said is that there's more.
Would you agree? There's more. And and if I may, and I I don't wanna get 2 down the story trail here, but what what I want your listeners to know is I was a complete fraud. Chaz. Well, so when I was a team leader for these 3 years at this organization, what I mean by that is Everything on social media was the highlight reel just like for most people. And yet I was broken behind the scenes. Literally broke. People didn't know, but, oh, I had a fancy job. He must be making bank. No, I was broke.
I put my family through a lot of crap. My Wolfe, who I'm still married to, thank god, said to me at the time, I don't have a husband. I have a roommate. Yeah. Listen up, gentlemen, I don't have a husband. I have a roommate. Are you freaking kidding me? I'm $35,000 in back tax debt. I'm $30 in the hole on credit card debt. Life was like not great. Oh, but to the world, I've got a fancy title and look at me, look at me.
And so I share that because, yes, I can do something on paper that makes sense. And, yes, sometimes when you take a risk and I got denied four times, another chip thing, to be a real estate coach, because I've sold one home in my entire career in general real estate. Wow. Doesn't make sense that I'm doing what I'm doing. Okay? Right. And so nobody would give me a chance finally until one of my friends did. And I became a real estate coach through her opportunity that she afforded me.
And within six months, we had the number one coaching program in the world for Keller Williams, all built on passion and persistence and belief pouring into other people. Yeah. And it yeah. I I'm made more Chaz very 1st year $100,000, $360,000 to be exact, which is 3 times I more than I ever had made in any given year with a quote unquote comfortable job. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, you wanna talk about giving hope. I'm dripping some lines in the in the water for some inspiration. You know?
Yes. Well, I think we Chaz, I think yeah? Well, I appreciate that.
And I and I was gonna say that I think that every listener, especially the for the guys listening right now that have big businesses, and that listened to the show, not because necessarily they need tactics, but because they're looking for that little drip, you know, that just that little transfer of courage, even at a level of, I'm running $10,000,000 business or a I mean, I got guys that email me that are running a couple 100 a couple $100,000,000 businesses.
And they're like, dude, love what you're doing. It's like moments like that that what you just shared were Big, big successful entrepreneurs, male or female. They they hear that, and they go, you know what? Yep. That guy's like me. Yep. That guy's like me. You Chaz all remember those moments. Right. Hey, Kings and Queens. Chaz 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. Alright. Let's get into some nitty gritty.
I wanna know of a good decision that you made, Jake, that changed everything or that you can look back on, and it was like a lot of things came from this one decision. Okay. I think I'll take it back to what I was just hitting on, and that is this defining moment, if you Wolfe, It was that it was that moment Chaz whisper in the ear, the the metaphorical tap on the shoulder, and I'll never forget it.
I was driving outside of Raleigh, North Carolina crossing a bridge over Jordan Lake, Lake outside of the Triangle area. And it's important because if you don't know me, I'm I'm a I'm a rustic guy, like the lake life and cabins and all that kind of thing. Right? So I'm looking at my right. I'm looking at my left as I'm driving over this bridge, and I see all these families. I love the lake life. I'm like, what do they have that I don't have? I'm a smart guy.
I work hard, but I see all these other families on boats and doing things creating memories and experiences with their families. Yeah. And it was in that literal moment that I had decided Chaz I'm going to become a real estate coach. I am not doing something. There's more in there, and I think this is it. I'm gonna take a chance on me and leave the comfortable, fake it kind of fraud life.
Yeah. Yeah. And that was turns out to be one of the best decisions to spite getting turned away from some very, very I won't drop names because whatever, but very big coaching entities in the real estate space Yeah. And I don't blame him. I mean, who who am I? What experience do I bring? You know? Right. Nobody gave me gave me a chance.
And I think looking back, that was undoubtedly one of the best decisions and it was a decision that I have been able to now take that opportunity and help a whole lot of people along the way and not to get all preachy about the decision thing, but decide. Some of you listening to this right now just need to make a decision. It is that easy. Is when I look at the root or decide what the side mean, CID, you and I both know it means to kill off. Literally means to kill off pesticide insecticide.
So when I decided that day, I cut off everything else I was going to do this. Didn't know how. Didn't know who was gonna give me the Chaz, but I decided, which means everything else was was cut off and this was the way in path forward. Yeah. Wow. I'm over here making decisions. Yeah. Wow. I just I mean, Woo. I I I love everything you just said. I could hit the end button and probably go run through a wall. Right? This is how I operate, man. Like, you just spoke absolute truth and and wow.
I kinda wanna hit the pause button and go back and let's do it myself right now. Producer, please send this to me in a clip. Yeah. She will. Okay. So no. Let's flip the coin. That was so good. I I don't even have time to go into that. I because I'll just take it a whole show. I can't. I have to I have to I have to decide to cut that off. Wolfe done. I see what you did there. You see what I did there? Okay. Okay. I gotta know the other side of the coin. What's the bad decision?
That that has happened that we can all learn from and stay away from. Bad decision number. Well, there's plenty of them, first of all. So where do I need to begin? No. Chaz decision that I'm gonna use for right now is more tactical, okay, in the the process of growing a business. And this is for me, okay, It was about 3 or 4 years ago Chaz we were really looking at scaling the locker room in doing what we do.
Now up until that point, we had a tracking system where agents would report their numbers, and we could manipulate and look at all this data. I like to interpret data. Give me data, and I'll I'll find the story that lives inside of it. Okay? That's right. That's right. And so what we did to scale, this was built in a very elaborate, like, Google sheet tracking system. That wasn't gonna work unless I continued to add manpower. So we went to software developers and said, hey.
Can you turn this into this badass mama Jama like software that's web based? Yeah. And so 3 different developers and several 100 of 1000 of dollars later, I still to this day don't have a product. To show for it. It never won't. I didn't know what I didn't know. I got in a game of technology Chaz forced me to scroll out and take my eye off the prize because the cold hard truth was that was my style of coaching. What I learned was even when it was kind of working, nobody else cared.
Just because my style of coaching was taking this data, and using it to further an agent's business, most other people didn't really give 2 rips about it. And so the point or lesson is stage true to your model. Stay true to your business. If you're not a software, a SAS company, or you have no place for tech because you're so relationship based so service oriented. Don't go there.
Don't follow the trap thinking you have to and make investments in things just because your competitor or something over here is doing it. Or that at list school? I'm sure looking back, yeah, there was questions and different things, and my DNA is all over that. But now I'm not a tech company. I don't have an app or a tracking system. And you know what? We've grown anyways. Nobody cares.
Instead, I reinvest my time and money into creating courses and trainings and going around and speaking and doing these things, which actually is what my audience cares about. Right. Right. Yeah. I know it's it's good. There's actually a lot of lessons in what you just shared. I know. I know. But wow. Yeah. No. In all seriousness, I think that you could probably dissect that in at least 4 or 5 different ways of of, like, okay. This, this, this, this, but, okay, stay in my lane.
Don't don't do things because it looks shinier, cool, or because the competition's doing them. Really, I guess, actually, probably the main thing that I heard underneath all that, which you just said at the end is pay attention to what your clients actually need and want. I mean, that that you can do this through a simple survey. Know, we've done this even just recently with some of our events. It's like, hey. What part did you like? And and, actually, it was so funny.
I'm getting some feedback on a on a couple things that went really Wolfe. In their eyes Chaz I thought went terrible. And I'm like, oh, okay. So more of that, I guess. I I I would not have signed up for that piece of it again. But that's what brought value. Okay. Great. So let's bring more value. And then what we're in business to do? That's a 100% what we're in business to do and and looping that to what I said earlier in that moment, I was blaming mad.
But I paused and I asked myself the question I shared earlier. Okay, Jake, how is this gonna serve me in the future? Yeah. What can I take away from this to better serve me moving forward? That's right. And you know what it has done? And I just did it last week. I now, captain obvious here, I conduct focus groups.
So what I did last week, as in this pivotal kind of moment, we're looking at maybe making some strategic chess moves with the locker room here, but before I did, before I took it and ran and said, well, this to me sounds like a good idea. I conducted 3 focus groups, one with current partners, One with people broke her owners who have never been with the locker room ever, and 1, believe it or not, with people who were with the locker room, but they ended up canceling.
And I just rolled through a series of questions, good, bad, or indifferent saying, give me your give me your feedback. What do you want? Yeah. And it was so enlightening, and that's been made of this ever since that day to just go to the people that you're serving. Ask them.
Yep. Captain obvious, like you said, it it it's actually pretty difficult to, like, not only remember, but to then implement because I think we get so wrapped up in a lot of times what we want, but we're we're I I don't think that you had any ill intent. I don't have any ill will towards my members. Like, I want to provide an amazing experience, but it's based on what I think is an amazing experience. Which some of that is not like, okay. Fine. I'm part of my avatar, so there's some value there.
But, again, why not why not just ask? Just go to the people and ask what they want. And and you're right. It's all within the right context. It's never so absolute where just because they may not see it or say anything about it. Doesn't mean I still won't move forward if it's what I believe is right for the future and the vision.
Yeah. But that real time crunchy practical stuff And and frankly, something that I took away kudos to you with what you're doing with gathering the Kings is they wanted they want more community. They want less of me or our coaches talking to them and all these training materials, and they want more community. Yeah. They wanna form a group of dads. They wanna form a group of bosses with bambinos. They wanna form a group of wealth building.
So putting together broker owners and or agents for that matter in these little micro tribes or subgroups and pod kinda concepts That's what they want. They want the community. Go figure. And you figured that out here, obviously, that's what you're doing. I wanna relate to the party. That's all. It's all good. There's plenty of space in the table. We only require that you take your crown off now if you can okay. I got I got some speed round questions there. Y'all. Thank you.
Appreciate you, guys. I got some speed round questions here for you. The first one is inside of your business. In this case, we're talking about a platform. We're talking about coaching. We're talking about maybe community building. A lot of different things going on inside this business for What's the number one KPI that you would choose to track if you could only pick 1? Oh, boy. Okay. And we do track those Wolfe say I would say meaningful conversations. Is is that too fuzzy?
No. I mean, you're talking about pipeline building. I'm talking about pipeline building. Meaningful conversations. The reason I say this is because we're we're not a product. We're a service. So I need people to experience us. I built something I call the consumption model, which is based which which was inspired by the food pyramid, believe it or not. This is how my crazy brain works. I saw a food pyramid. I'm like, oh my god. How does that apply to us?
And we build a consumption model out of it. There you go. I can put things out there and we do. And we do track the KPIs of click rates and emails and different things like Chaz, but the one that matters the most, to me, is a one to one meaningful conversation because whether it's me or one of our amazing coaches, That's the connection point. That's now you're experiencing us, and and I often find that's actually what leads to partnerships. Yeah. 100%. I agree with you.
And there's actually something to be said about exactly what you just said, even if it is a product. So let me give you an example. We've got, you know, some home service guys or really just even even tech. But, like, guys selling a deck. Right? I can make my quoting process and experience. Absolute. I don't have to go build them a whole deck yet.
They can experience me, my brand, my team, the just premium ness of us and our brand way before I actually show up to install a premium deck or whatever the product is. You know, that, oh, man, you're so spot on. Somebody just shared with me. Now this was relative to network marketing, MLM, but who who cares? It's across the board in my opinion. They said they just conducted a survey research that 70% of people said. The buying experience was just important as the product or service itself.
Yeah. And that buying experience starts from the very first time they they googled you. Right? So I love the point you're making of a book of mine. Yes. It is sports, but it's business. It's fans first. If anybody out there has has knows who the Savannah Banana's Baseball team is. Yep. Fans First is written by Jesse Cole, the owner of the Savannah Bananas. That book Yeah. You wanna talk about how do I create a a world class experience for my audience? Check that book out. Yeah. Love it.
My next speed round question is a resource book podcast that you're gonna recommend. Do you wanna go with that one, or you wanna give us another one? I'll give you a different one, man. I know this is supposed to be speed round, so I'll I'll be brief. My favorite book of all time is the traveler's gift. Interesting. So I don't know if you get any other time when I just needed to hear it, and you might listen to it and say, it's alright.
But the traveler's gift for me is is always my go to number one book recommend. What'd what'd you take away from it? What didn't I take away from it? Man, it just spoke to my soul. It was in that that I shared earlier of being a fraud and all of Chaz, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. And so what I love the most of it is the 7 decisions There's that word again for success. It was written so beautifully.
It's it's just this captivating story, but at the end of each of the 7 decisions, he he writes essentially this big affirmation. And so ever since then, I don't have to go back and read or listen to the book. I'd have them print it out Yeah. The decisions. Yeah. I can just read the 7 decisions in affirmation form. And so Wow. I don't wanna spoil it if you haven't read it or somebody hasn't. So just, you know Sounds sounds extremely powerful.
Okay. Well, we'll we'll drop the drop the link and everything for all that in the show notes as well. I got a question for you about family. Okay. Jake, I I believe in Work Life Obsession. I'm gonna write a book on it. And I I believe that obsession is the key. It's burning desire is what thinking Girish talks about, a definiteness of purpose. And you and I have it displayed that in our businesses. That's why we're successful.
But it's the same level of burning desire or obsession that we need for our families, our marriages. You mentioned it earlier saying, oh, I wanna have memories on the lake with my family too. What have you done to be able to obsess over your family, your wife, your kids, at the same time as your business? So there's a lot of emotion packed into that question, man. Is They're why we do what we do. I mean, I I can't help it, and I share this.
It might sound weird to some people, but I'm literally come to work every day. And when I'm at work, I'm freaking working. Otherwise, I might as well cash it in and go home and be with those my loved ones, my wife, my kids. What am I doing? And so I pretend that there's a little camera up here in the corner of my office. I swear to god. And if that camera was live streaming to them at home, is Chaz doing what I would be proud of them doing? Am I demonstrating?
Am I role modeling the behavior that I want them growing demonstrate. So I bring my kids to our locker room event. I want them seeing and being involved in this business, knowing it's all for them. And so I obsess over them as the reason the fuel to why I even do what I do in the first place. I leave at 5 o'clock every day. I don't take calls at night. I don't work on weekends. I'm very disciplined and clear on that because work will always be there.
Your family and the time and how quickly they grow if you have kids? It's it's Chaz, you know? And I wanna be here for the I'm going to my kids' soccer games. I'm not taking calls and teach their own. If you do, that's that's your jam. But for me, I obsess over them creating a world of experiences that I don't have to say no unless it's just to prevent them from being spoiled little brats. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Well, there's a level to that.
That's a whole strategic play, but the energy that you're bringing is is abundance of of attention. Abundance you're obsessing with with them when you're with them and you're obsessing with work when you're at work. There's no balance to that. It's just it's pointed. It's intentional. I'm all in here. I'm there. When I'm at work, I'm all in at work. When I'm at home, I'm all in at home with them.
And that's a learned discipline Chaz did obviously, that didn't always happen when my wife is saying I don't have a husband. I have a roommate. Yeah. Exactly. I stopped taking this computer home believe it or not. And it made all the difference in the world. Sure. I've still got my cell phone. But years ago, I said, okay. What what is the pattern I can disrupt? Yep. And I stopped taking my laptop home because that was the thing I had on my lap laying in bed until 3 in the morning just working.
Oh, hey. Oh, hey. Oh, you you're still here. Oh, hello. So I stopped that and it changed everything else after Love it, man. Appreciate the vulnerability. It's a big deal. You know, even for someone like you that has figured a few things out, the humility of what you're talking about is that you're still working on it. That's what you just said.
And and I haven't met an entrepreneur yet, even for someone like yourself who has gone through kind of like the tough time and figured some things out and then kind of on a on a better trajectory, We still gotta work on it. It's hard, dude. It's hard. Every time I get to get on this show, I get to ask this incredible question, which I'm just really asking myself. Because I'm working on it too, Shannon. It's it's hard. It's one of the hardest things in the Wolfe, and yet it is so worth it.
It's so worth it. Exactly. And that's why it that's why it's it it's something that we need to talk about and and keep going for. And and I don't and I don't wanna ever even just like I'm never gonna arrive in business. Like, I have this grateful, but not done spirit about business. Like, I'm never gonna I'm not gonna retire. No. I'm a builder. Let's go. Okay. So how does that different over here with my family? Like, no. No. I need to keep building. I need to keep strengthening.
I need to keep pressing into and and building intentional moments and memories and and and and everything inside my kid, my marriage, my everything. Like, There's so much work to do. How could I be bored or or not engaged in that? There's just wow. When you really look at that opportunity, That's king mindset. That's kingship. It's like, wow. These are the people that are closest around me. My team, my podcast guest. My my wife, like, all of this is like, wow. This is real impact.
You know, reminds me of Tony Robbins or, you know, people that talk about pain versus pleasure. Most of us are actually more motivated by getting away from pain than it is going towards pleasure. And so, for example, anybody listening to this, if you're fortunate to have kids or whatever, I look at the calendar right now. I've got a nine year old and a almost eight year old. And what do I have? Like, 8 or 9 summers left? That's all I got.
I only got 8 or 9 summers left at the time of us recording this. It's almost summer summer break. Yep. That's scarcity. Like, that's not scarcity. That's like, holy crap. I gotta make the most of what I have. Yeah. I have 8 or 9 summers left with my kids. Are you kidding me? Yeah. Dude, work will be there long after they're gonna be out of my house. Yeah. So Yeah. Anyway Yeah. There's a there's an app. I had a good good friend of mine tell me about.
It's called Que, CUE, and you type in your children's date of birth, and it it's quite sobering. It tells you the number of days you have left. Until they turn 18. And so you open up the app. You flip over to the the kid that you got. You've got 300 days left at this 1 or 3000 days left or whatever the whatever the numbers. And it's like, you you look at that, like, the 9 summers, and you're like, oh, okay. I should probably leave the laptop at work today. Yeah. Good stuff, man.
I got one last question here for you. Do you have the opportunity to go back in time and whisper in the younger Jake's ear? What would you say? That's a great question. I would say Do it anyways. It's worth it. And I would bust out my college baseball coaches thing that he said every time when we broke to take the field. He said to us, have fun, stick together and play like champions. So, Jake, have fun.
That's number 1. Stick together, whether it's my family, my team, whatever, get out there and play like a freaking champion. People need you. People need what you and what you bring to the table. And so despite all the naysayers and whatever comes along the way, man, continue to play like a champion, which forces you to rise above the noise. Yeah. That's right. Be who you're meant to be. Jake king, Jake. My my brother, I appreciate you being here.
You have given such incredible just vulnerability even, inspiration. I mean, the whole, I can just keep going, but how can they find you? How can the listener? Number 1, if they're in real estate, and they need coaching or they wanna go to the next level in their real estate business, or they're a broker, and they wanna bring you in to talk and and teach their agents, or if they're just an entrepreneur listening and they wanna get to know Jake better, how can I find you?
Yeah. So thank you for the opportunity. No. Our website is tlarnation.com tlarnation.com, and we're real people. So if you email in or fill out a form, it it comes to us, And, otherwise, on a personal note, look me up on Facebook. Like, I yes. I have profiles on other platforms, but I'm most active on Facebook. So just look up Jake Dixon. You can find the locker room real estate coaching and training company and follow our business page on there, but reach out.
I'm very accessible, and I'm not so whatever big time, no offense to anybody out there that it's it's not me responding. I don't I'm not that cool. So it it is me responding. Okay. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, it I think that even just speaks to a little bit of the, you know, what where social media has gone, and you and you wonder, you're is this a VA? Or I don't know. So I appreciate that that's just genuine this really is what it is. Thank you for being here. We appreciate it.
I hope that my listeners appreciated it, but wish you nothing but blessing in 2023 on your family, on your businesses Chaz you continue to grow. And then maybe we'll see you at the Kings table again. Thank you, Chaz. Appreciate the opportunity, man. 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 industries and now interviewing literally over 2 or 300. Other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is Chaz 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 gatheringthekings.com. Once you 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.