On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. You know, a lot of times that you're not gonna necessarily grow up in the environment that you need to be in in order to be successful. And to have the people around you, the network that you need to be successful. You have to go out and seek those like minded individuals.
You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe, featuring fellow 78 and even 9 figure business owners who have real battle scars from business and life but have prevailed as the king that they are designed to be. We welcome high performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the reel of the reel. On what it takes to build a successful business today.
We dissect the good and bad decisions they've made along the way Chaz give a true and accurate picture assess and how you too can get there. Through this dialogue, you will learn the value of growing your network and surrounding yourself with power players and keys like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. What's up everybody? Chaz Wolfe. I've got Johnny Linam on the King stage today. My brother, how are you? Man, outstanding, man.
Bless and I'm glad to be here with you today. Dude, I love, and I I love the phrase blessed. Before we jump in completely and you just give us all the juicy details, why are you blessed today, man? Tell me why you're blessed. Man, I'm alive. I'm just here. Food to eat. The family's healthy. No complaints there. And there's a lot of people out here that are way worse situations than I am. Yeah. I keep that perspective.
Whenever things get tough, challenges, keeping it in perspective, there's somebody else out there that has a harder issue right now for sure than what I'm dealing with. That, especially with me being active duty air force that there's always brothers and sisters were in harm's way away from their family. So I'm definitely grateful. We appreciate and are thankful for your service. So thank you for that.
And, of course, for all the folks that you know, Freedom Freedom is not free as they say, so we're definitely appreciative to that. And it's funny too that you say just to be grateful for the small things. I think entrepreneurs like us, especially ones that have come from nothing, have that perspective so easy, but it's now it's about for me. How do I, like, sift that into my children.
And I'm like, in our prayer time or whether it just be talking as a family, thankful for the little things that we got to eat today or that we had a warm bed. Like, of the things that my kids are like, wait a what? You what? Yeah. So, anyway, Johnny, tell us what kind of business that you're in and what brings you to the King stage. Yeah. So today, real estate investing brings me to to the stage today. Started a business back in 2015 with my wife just fixing and flipping houses.
For me, I like to say transforming communities, but really getting down that path to being able to add value through real estate. And for me, I joined the Air Force back in 2005 after graduating from college and been serving almost 17 years now active duty. And so for me, that transition was taken to skill set that I had built up over the years serving in the air force. So those intangibles that my parents taught me and then taking that into the real estate investing business.
Yeah. I've got so many questions for you in that and the journey of being raised that way and, of course, being in the military. But before we do that, I wanna know why are you pushing now? Cause you've been in business for a minute, coming up on the 1st decade. You're clearly a king in the business. Otherwise, we wouldn't have you here. Why are you still doing this? Why are you pushing? No. A generational Wolfe.
Chaz down, generational wealth and that time freedom that comes with owning real estate, your cash producing assets, and just from now, who Wolfe be able to build a secondary business with coaching actually teaching real estate investing and those fundamentals of entrepreneurship and of just how to run a successful business that now It's just giving back and more service to my family, but then now to other people who are hungry for the
information that's trying to do the same thing for their families. Yeah. I what you said a few minutes ago Chaz far as transforming communities, I've used the same similar language in in my, real estate investing company, which is basically taking something that that once was and restoring it or bringing restoration to city or neighborhoods.
And so I love the thought there because you've even then extended that into your coaching model here, which is helping restore families who are hungry, who want the opportunity and giving folks that to be able to transform as well. So I love it. Why legacy, though? I'm gonna dig in just a hair on you. Was it always like this? Was it something that developed when you had kids? Like, Why legacy for you specifically? Great question, man.
For me, it was in steel from day 1 where my parents, more so, my mom, that she let it be known. I came from humble beginnings group was born in Detroit, Michigan, but moved to lower Alabama, the other LA, not Los Angeles, but lower. I know that LA. Yeah, man. So we're up for country boy about our own north of mobile Alabama, and my mom let it be known that, hey. You gotta get out of here. This is not the end for you.
This is only the beginning, but when they weren't well off, they were hardworking, blue collar for people. They took care of us and provided for us And she let me know, hey, you need to get good grades. So that was always instilled to me. I had to be a genuine person. I had to be a person of integrity, man, of my word, and get out of here. But for initially, it was, go get a good job. Go be an engineer. You know, you can provide for your family, save your money. And go.
And then as I got off on that journey and started a going, I put the rest of it together to take it to the next letter. My and my dad was entrepreneur. He had his own television appliance repair business. And he told me when I was young, it didn't really hit me till years later. After I was serving in Air Force, that, hey. If you wanna be rich, you wanna be wealthy, you gotta create your own business because you won't achieve that by working for someone else.
Yeah. Love what you've generalized, obviously, which is what gathering the Kings is about. It's not just about real estate specifically, although I love real estate and the asset that's producing something doesn't have to just be a physical building. It can be a business. It can be a business system, and so your dad is a 100% right. The problem is that a lot of times that people don't get it to be a system. They just have a glorified job.
And hope hopefully, we can get into some of that along the Chaz as well. But so you were raised in a pretty tight home, but given you a lot of opportunity to be able to kind of kick you out and and tell you to go do the good things. And then the military, tell us about how, like, your upbringing slash the military played into you being a successful entrepreneur? No. Most definitely grew up, PK pastor's kid, my dad was a pastor for a Wolfe over 20 years.
So growing up in the church and just all those values that were instilled into me, Yeah. And, was pretty smart and had a 4 year army ROTC scholarship out of high school. Okay. And, when they interviewed with them, my dad told me he was a Vietnam vet on the army side. He's like, hey. You need to go talk to the air force while you're there. So Chaz that conversation Was that because he was like, don't do what I did, son? Chaz quality of life, and it was a 100% right. And I talked to him.
They told me, hey, if you come in for freshman year, that with your major, we can almost guarantee we'll have you on scholarship your your 2nd semester on your 1st year. And I took them up on their word and the, as I say, the rest is history. Yeah. And graduated and commissioned as a officer in Air Force, and it's been a blessed a blessed journey so far. He's coming up on 17 years now, man. It's going by fast. Yeah. That's incredible.
So how do you think those things, those years of not only just being in the home specifically breach kid, mom that's telling you, hey. You gotta get good. Like, that's pretty pretty straight and narrow. And then the straight and narrow of serving our country in the military, how did that play into what you're doing now? Give me the give me the backstory there. Yeah. So I think it really came into discipline.
I bought my first house a year after coming on active duty And for me, full circle with it, I had screwed up my credit coming out of college. I didn't know a lot about financial literacy. Didn't know about stocks. Didn't know about real estate. And so it was humbling, having to have a family member signed on my lease for my first apartment here. I am starting my career.
And so after that, the next 10 months working my credit, getting my credit repaired, doing those things Chaz I had a buddy present a offer to me where he saw this duplex come on the market. He's like, you need to get a side. I get a side. He's he's gonna be way less than what we're paying and rent. I was like, okay. Sounds good. The more I I look into it, I'm like, yeah. This is a good deal. And I actually got money back at closing.
When I used my VA loan and from there, I was hooked on real estate. And from there, just as I was moving around to buy foreclosures to live in when we changed Dewey's stations and things like Chaz, and then it just took off once 2015 came around. I was like, okay. Now that I've been in the military, I do project management. I manage complex software development projects for the air forces. Okay. How would I take this skill set and bring it to real estate?
And so it naturally went to that side of it with me now managing teams to put systems in place from day 1 because I've been working my day job And so I had to build a team around me in order to execute on my behalf and being able to be an astute manager and go through the process, learn, ask questions, but still be a leader in order to see the project through. What do you think that you attribute? Because what you just said there, you you had to because you were still in the air force.
You were still doing your thing. You literally couldn't go do the thing, but you had to build team or a system around you to do the thing. And I just so many people listening right now probably even are trying to do that, but they're in the business. It's tough to remove yourself. It's tough to give things away. It's tough to trust other people, but you had to. So, like, give us some insight there. Was there tough moments there, or was it just just, like, I have to do this? Of course.
It was tough tough moments. We went over budget. We still were profitable. But I learned a lot about the the phase of construction, how to phase in the work, the cost of materials, the the different trades, the expertise, and being able to have subcontractors. And so it was a lot learned over time. When you learn something new every project, every house is gonna be different.
And let me just take those bits of wisdom and take it to the project, network, and learn from other people's mistakes, and you go through and do the business. But I mean, it was no different than other people where I was too I was still even though I was virtually, but our first deal, we started flipping 14 hours away in Alabama. We live in Virginia, but it was still the same process.
We're going through managing the team, and going through, but it still took me some years before I hire full time people to help me through that process outside of just the contractors doing all the Exactly. That's incredible that you had to have that experience. And I would probably say that helped you scale quicker than you thought you maybe needed to, especially when you stepped away, probably put gas on the fire.
But I wanna know along the way, a good decision that you made, and maybe it can be around scaling a team that we've talked about, but maybe it could be something else. Just something that you've done that just catapulted the rest. Maybe it's the reason why you don't even you're doing this full time now. That's a good question. Because I really think for the what catapulted our business was something that was devastating at the same time. And, it was almost a Phoenix rising from the ashes.
Where we took a setback and turned into a setup for everything that we were doing because after we did the 1st house, we were just a Wednesday, Tuesday while still working full time this is there's no reason. It's a marathon. There's no reason to just sprint. And so we just did one house at a time. And upon us being stationed, we moved to Panama City, Florida, in June of 2017. And soon thereafter, I got hit with orders to deploy the spring to 18.
So I did some wholesaling because I I wasn't able to put a team together. And while I'm deployed, I'm building a business. I hired my first virtual assistant on going through and building out the structure. And then after I got back home in September, 4 weeks later, category 5 hurricane hit Panama City directly. I remember. We were displaced for 6 months. You know, so I had all these aspirations I was ready to hit the ground.
I already had started sending marketing out and everything and then to get hit by the storm to be displaced. My wife was pregnant all during the deployment. And the my son was born and over in Mobile 5 days after the hurricane hit. We didn't even know if we still had a house yet. And just going through that adversity, But I started looking at it. It was like, overnight, we had thousands of dilapidated houses all over our area, just like that.
And so many people in need And ever since that that came up, we, we got our crew. We we hit 3 years together with them this past spring, and Chaz just been a blessing to now doing 9, 10 deals a year and scaling up by multifamily. And just Chaz been a blessed journey ever since, man, and just being able to help people and at the same time, build up the business and build Wolfe. Yeah. Wolfe, such an incredible story, especially with the sun being born in another city 5 days later.
I'm sure that was a stressful time for your Wolfe. I wanna know, like, in that moment. So, like, maybe not the day that your son was born because I'm sure you're pretty focused on on him and your wife, of course. But Chaz general time frame. You're anxious. You're worried. You're watching the screen. You're, like, wondering about your house. I you're not sleeping. Like, give us that piece. Or was it, like, Oh, this is gonna be incredible.
I'm sad to know all this is gonna happen, but I'm jacked for the opportunity. Like, when did you know? Oh, no. I didn't know the opportunity it took a while for me to say, I had started pivoting to look at mobile, to start doing some things. Got a couple of deals doing that. But for me, it was definitely it took the wind out my because at the same time, I was a direct operations for my unit there. And so I had a lot of people to work and help process.
I had people that everything during the storm. We had to re we had to build up our mission back simultaneously. So I didn't really have a lot of time to focus on real estate We didn't do any deals until we got back home March of 19 hopping around with a newborn and 2 other kids from Airbnb to Airbnb every 2 weeks, moving around until our house was ready. Was stressful itself and then doing a mission just just long days. I were in, I were out commute and just working.
So it took me a minute to get some perspective I got my legs under me and just seen everything at the my house was there. I've realized the house is here. It's got some damage, but we don't it's not a complete tear down. We're gonna be okay. And the air force did a solid. They took care of us and and made sure everybody was good. It took a while. It took a few months before I was able to get back in real estate mode just with everything that happened.
Yeah. So my my my black swan question for you is what was your wife feeling about all this during this time? Like, you just described you Chaz was she doing? Obviously, other than giving birth? Yeah. No. She's always been with me. She's a trucker. She goes hard with whatever we're going. She's always been supportive of my goals and the business back then.
She definitely saw the vision after doing it for a couple of years, Wednesday, Tuesday, And once we put the team together I mean, that's a whole another story. We put the team together because that was all her. We were literally out putting bandit signs, and we saw a guy bringing some sheet rock to the curb she's like, you should go back and talk to them and and kick them to give us an estimate on the house we got under contract. I was like, yeah.
No. She's like, we need to turn around and go talk to them. And sure enough, went back, talked to him, gave him my card. They called me a couple of weeks later. We got the estimate. We gave him a job, and we've been together 3 years. So she's been instrumental in our success with building the business. And she's been right there day 1, stay at home mom, but she's always coordinating, turning on the utilities, paying the bills at Home Depot, taking phone calls during the day.
So she's been right there. I love it. The one thing I wanna point out, what I've just gotten from you for the listener particularly because I I'm in alignment with you on what you just said. I've had probably 2 or 3 large, very large, some in the negative because I didn't listen. Moments where my wife suggested something, and it's it would have been amazing if I listened to her. Or like you, I did and was like, wow.
But that I just wanna pull that out for the listener because so many times as entrepreneurs, male or female, just the other person who's not in Chaz this an innate ability to see things sometimes that we don't. And then I would even just because I'm a man and you're a guy and we've got wives, I think that there's like a women's intuition thing.
And so I've learned that voice that you just described, even though it doesn't have a business case, even though it doesn't make necessarily logic sense to go wait a second. Let me go back and give them my card because what the whisper that was working through her was something that probably would have been missed. And and the blessing that came through that whisper would have been missed as well. Yep. 100%. Okay. So let's flip the coin. Bad choice.
Tell us the juicy details of something that you've done. That we can all run-in the opposite direction and never have to worry about doing because you've shared it with us. It's a I'm gonna say it was a bad choice. At the time going back with another contractor work working virtually. Whole another level house from a $150,000 house to a $400,000 house, different project, different finishes. And we went with the contractor that had done a good job on a cheaper house that we had.
And lo and behold, he wasn't able to perform. And we ended up having to fire a mid project for with me being having to go out of town, take leave, and go down to Birmingham, drive 10 plus hours. To get down to working with my realtor and hire a new contractor, meet your job, and do that. And hindsight I learned from is look at contractors that can excel at a $100,000 house, $150,000 house.
It's a whole another level of finishing and expectations when you're talking about $400,000 house in the level of attention to detail and materials. So that was definitely a, opportunity to learn. Yeah. Yeah. The moment there. And so I the lesson I just wanna pull out for the listener, whether you're in real estate or not, is a person that's sitting in the seat might be skilled at certain things. And as they're position changes or as the expectations of that position change.
That person may or may not be the fit for you any longer. And I've had this happen even in business where someone's sitting in a seat and they're doing a Wolfe, and then I give them something else, or it's not even intentional of me giving something else, because we've maybe been a little disorganized or maybe not knowing what the expectations were. It was basically what you just said.
We we we had a higher expectation without really knowing it with the $100,000 house and putting that expectation on this person, not knowing it also. And then what tops out the end of that equation is this doesn't work.
And I think that, I think the listener can pull that away for sure because there's probably somebody on your team for the guy or gal listening right now who is doing something or is being expected to do something that they're just not very good at, and it's just gonna cause frustration. And they're probably not very happy about it either. That contractor was probably swimming in his shorts every day. When you're calling him going, hey, bro.
Don, he's he's probably having to half lie to you just because he doesn't really know. Yeah. Sound a good scenario for either person? It's definitely not. I've definitely taken that one across the board in my real estate and entrepreneurial career. We're just knowing that with everybody isn't able to execute at every level. Yeah. And so does that mean you get rid of the people who don't, or do you just find a different role for them? I think it depends.
It depends on the on the relationship and, the nature of the business. And if they if at the end of the day, they gotta still be adding value wherever they are. If they're able to bloom in another place where you Chaz plan them, then so be it for sure. But if not, if it's not working, then you gotta make that tough decision And I think that's the I think the saying is to hire slow and fire fast.
And it's a tough decision to make, but if you're in it for business and then you gotta take care of business. Yeah. 100%. I love it. Okay. Do you have any sort of a process now, Johnny, that you followed to try to, like, really press into making the good decisions rather than the not so good ones.
Yeah. For me, I came up with a framework when it comes to real estate investing and the projects, just the my fine fix finish framework where with how we go through an approach with finding the deals, finishing it with going in, and we actually go in fix with the renovation Chaz piece of it didn't finish just with our whether we're gonna incorporate into our portfolio or we're gonna sell it retail, then I'll just go through that whole cycle. Of fine fix finish.
And that's worked really well for us over the years. Yeah. That's great. I think that's knowing what you wanna do over here when you get started helps that. And in essence, that's what you just described. You know, what you wanna do through project. You even mentioned having different expectations of a different price point, and there might be different projects that the listeners listening. They got different type of clients or maybe they've got, even customers in different industries.
I'm just thinking of the trades or marketing or whatever it is. And you've got some different levels of a projects or clients. And, so you might have, you know, different expectations on the front end. And so that, that's what I'm pulling away. Anything you wanna add there from a process? Most definitely, I think it comes down for all of us as business owners and managing risk. And, like, for me on the real estate side, it was the learning lesson out of that was like, okay.
Our niche is the lower end of the market, the capital to get into deals, the capital for the interest payments is all cheaper on that end. There's more potential borrowers. And looking at the risk and long term that We're not overexposed. If a change in the market happens, it's gonna hot it's gonna happen at the higher price points and knows the type of homes and then we can see it coming.
And whereas that we still have a extra strategy, whereas that now, if there aren't a lot of buyers, then we can also refinance and keep the property and there's still cash flow from that perspective. It help us get clarity on our risk and cash flow. And for those of pre perspectives to narrow in on, hey, where's our priority? Should be And I think it's with any product with, okay, what product is paying the bills? So if you got 6 products, maybe you should just focus on 3.
What are the most profitable? So if you got three products that make up 75, 80 percent of your revenue, then maybe you should drop those other 3 that aren't really converted because your customer's gonna tell you. What's important to them. That's right. That's right. I love that. Okay. Are you ready for the speed round? Yeah. Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay. First question is this. In your business, If you had to dwindle it down to just a 1 and only metric, what would it be?
How many offers we make? K. Fill in the pipeline is what I hear. Yes. Make offers without excuses. Yeah. I love it. I love it. I love it. Okay. So we translate this in other businesses to lead generation or expecting or deals in the pipeline. Like, we call it whatever you want, but if you have nothing coming down the pipe, you have no business is what I'm hearing you 100%. That's it. Now for you, I'd love to dig into this a little bit more.
Is that so if that's the one metric, is Chaz, like, where the majority of your tension is spent in the Right now, it's not because just where we've done really good with realtors bringing this deal with the network inside. And we're for the sales agents, whereas that we're having a lot of deals brought to us ver versus us having to generate leads Sure. From other marketing You're still making the offers, but they're just coming to you a little different. Yep. Got it. Okay. Very good.
And that can be that can be used. I mean, in the industry, I love you gotta have you gotta have deal Hello. You have no money. Okay. What book would you recommend that a 6 figure business owner read to try to scale to where you are? Building a story brand by Donald Miller. I think that's the biggest thing is the marketing.
The marketing is the lifeblood of any business and just understanding that stories resonate, understanding what your story is, I think, really, just depending on the nature of your business, understanding that you may be in a position where you are the brand. And that you need to step into their role and understand where you are in the business and the marketing and what all goes with it and how to translate your story.
And the story behind your product and the story that comes with the product that your customers have by using your product and being able to take that and then fold that into your marketing. 100%. Yeah. You're right. And I think that the underlying bullet point of what you just said is that it doesn't matter Like, I think a lot of people hear, oh, yeah. I have a story. But what does that really look like?
I was talking to some guys yesterday in a group setting, and I I just said, what happened today? Like, literally, what happened today? And he was like, well, we, you know, we da da da da da. I go, great. That's that's that's all I'm talking about right there. That's the story. And it is so simple Chaz it's like, poof, people miss it. Myself included. I think that I think that every entrepreneur is, like, head down. Let's go. What does the story really matter?
I know that it matters, but what is really matter. Let's just get work done. And so I think that's the difficulty piece in the mindset for most. At least it is for me. Did you experience that same thing a little bit, especially being military, you know, on it? Yep. Checklist and everything's need to be straight narrow, but people are emotional. People make decisions based off emotions. And the more you can tell story, get get good at it, you Wolfe do fine in your business. Yep. I love that.
Okay. Do you intentionally network or mastermind with other entrepreneurs? Yes. 1000%. It hadn't always it hadn't always been that way, but okay. What changed? Why did you start? I saw the benefit of it. Just being able to be around like minded people, and I think it's a great card on that says that, you know, everything that you wanna strain your hands And, you know, that's true. We grow up. They say, don't talk to strangers. Don't talk to strangers.
But every it's you'd a lot of times, you're not gonna necessarily grow up in the environment. That you need to be in in order to be successful and to have the people around you, the network that you need to be successful. You have to go out and seek those like minded individuals. And that has been a game changer with me just being able to be in the right rooms and, to be able to call up the right people when you're running to challenges in your business. To get over your home. Yeah. I love that.
Okay. Question for you. That's a little bit of an oddball. If you only had 1 hour each week to run your business. What would you do in that 1 hour to successfully run it like you do now? And my staff may leverage. Have my staff meet, give them the directions, and let them go be great. And that's why we have to hire great people. That's right. 100%. I couldn't agree more. K? Last question for you, Johnny. What would you do if you lost it all? Build it back. I think I'm bullish on real estate.
I'm a go back networking. Start raising the capital if I gotta step into another job, but just start back from square 1, one property, 1 mo I will start with multifamily. Now knowing what I know. That I'm just syndicate, find the deals, network, and raise the capital and start building. Be good to go. I love it. I love your perspective. I love your hustle. For the listener who hasn't been able to see Johnny on the other end.
He's got a sign behind him that says grind and then a picture of a Kobe Bryant, the mamba himself. And so I just I feel both of those coming through the screen as we've been talking just this just this, you know, I I I could see why you bet on you, man. You're straight as they come, and I can see why your wife gave you the, the the nod that she did as well. So Thank you. You built a history, man. I would love for the listener to connect with you. How can they find you?
I know you've got some coaching programs. I know you're really you're trying to help people in real estate, or just probably in general, you got a big heart. Like, how can they find you? Yeah. Most definitely, they can find me on LinkedIn, Johnny line them. Facebook as well too. My book is out there on Amazon, millionaire, real estate success strategy, what they forgot to teach you in school.
That's their I'm actually one of the things with that I wanna do is, oh, yeah, YouTube YouTube is a big one Chaz I'm trying to share more real estate investing with Johnny Lionel. But for your listeners, I wanna give them actually a free download, the pdf version of my book Chaz they can download at socialproofwealth.com/free. And they can get a copy of the book there. I love it, man.
So whether you're in real estate or not, having cash flowing assets is a king move as I like to call it inside of our group. It doesn't matter if it's something that's in your portfolio yet or not. It needs to be. So grab Johnny's free download. We'll put the link below, but, dude, everything that you've shared is just spot on, not just for real estate, but for business, man, and you've given us life perspective along with it. So thank you for that.
If there's anything that we can do, of course, let us know. But, man, could you drop so much value here today? Thank you for being here. We appreciate it. Yeah. No problem at all, man. And then if there is anybody that interested in real estate on the coaching side that we help professionals to work through with self directed IRAs and get started with with building passive income. So that's something we offer as well too. I love it. I love it. The right people heard what you said.
That's for sure. And they'll be in your LinkedIn or Facebook DM here before the end of the show. That's right. John, thanks for being here, man. We appreciate you. Cool. Thanks a lot, brother. Thank you for listening to gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away.
More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself. What I have realized, not only in my own journey from multiple businesses and multiple different industries and now interviewing literally over 2 or 300. Other very successful 789 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 1, 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling Kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities. And here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy.
So if that relates and and resonates with you and you know that you need people around you sharp, qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go gatheringthekings.com. I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit. To 1000 kings. Talk soon.