On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. And he's like, Dave, do you have anyone looked at Shark Chain? This is a big deal. Alright. Then I find out they get 40,000 applicants per season And I'm like, I'm not gonna get in, but I will say that I lied and cheated to get on the show. Okay. What's up everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe, gathering the Kings podcast today. I've got Rick Hopper, my man Hopper here on the king stage. How we doing, Rick? Dandy Chaz usual.
Dandy, you know, we just went through a a rolodex of of nicknames that that you were telling me that you had as a kid with your last name Hopper. I had a good buddy, or at least, an acquaintance that had the last name. I don't even think anybody knew his first name, but you know, it sounds like your story is a little bit the same. A lot of names that the people have called you over the years, but we call your Rick Hopper today. King Rick Hopper today. Prince at best. Prince at best.
Well, we appreciate the humility, but I wanna know what kind of business that you got or businesses. Oh, boy. Okay. So I don't know how far back you wanna go, but I developed a line of products for a specific industry in 2001. Did that for 10 years and sold it. And then I did a another product, and I got on Shark Tank in 2012. I I did that from about 2011 to I sold it about a year and a half ago, 2021.
And I just started a company last year called The Wicked Good Adhesives, And now I've got to just about I'm working on a a recipe for some chicken food called Hoppers happy chicken feed. Rick, you you're an inventor Chaz well as an entrepreneur and and so many so many cool angles that we can go here today. But the one the business that you just sold, Telstra's a 30 seconds on that because like you said, you're on shark tank. You got a deal. You you exploded that and obviously sold it.
Tell us just a real quick what that widget was and give us a 30 second snapshot. It'll it's called a reader rest. I had to start where it hangs in your glasses hangs in your shirt like this, and I'll show you a little example. You bend over and your glasses don't fall out of your shirt. Like, when you hang on your shirt collar, people absolutely love these things. I I sold 1,000,000 and 1,000,000 of these things all over the Wolfe.
Then I lost a line of reading glasses, and then we became viable. So somebody bought the company. There you go. There you go. I love even just the little tidbits that you drop there about making strategic moves to become viable. And, obviously, that that's into what you did. I'm sure there's gonna be plenty of stories there for us to get into. Like, okay.
So the inside of Rick, we've already heard just in the quick, you know, minute that we've been on here Chaz that you're inventing multiple things. You got multiple companies. You've exited. You've, you know, built and exited multiple times. What's the deep core inner part of Rick and what's the burning desire down in there? I drive my wife and my friends crazy with this lingering question in my mind that is forever I'm plagued with This idea, there's gotta be a better way.
Everything I look at, everything that's happening around me, I look at it, through the ice. And this this is not a conscious decision. This is this is not a gift. This is a curse. Trust me. When you look at something being done and you go, Oh, god. There's gotta be a better way. And Yeah. Along with that comes with and my friends, all my best friends, and my wife, I drive them Chaz, because no matter what the plan is, it's always or you know what we could do?
Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's hard to get anything done with with because there's always there's always another way and a better way potentially. Right? Well, you know what? You get it. It was funny. Everything I've ever done. I had a vision for it. I took I started taking action knowing that the my original plan is at best a b minus, but I know it's gonna turn into an a plus because it always takes a shape of its own no matter what I think it's going to be, and you have to have an open mind.
And and you have to be very malleable. You have to be able to just roll with the changes, man. Yeah. I I love what you said there because for a half second, you know, the listeners don't know this, but with with our show, we're we're introducing a new platform. We've been using zoom for 3 plus episodes, and now we're over to Riverside. And and even just our first, like, 15 minutes of inter interaction here has been a little bit a little bit clunky and and us trying to figure things out.
This is only our 3rd or 4th episode recording on here. But for that per first of all, piece of you saying that there's always a better way. In my mind, I was like, oh, no. Like, he just totally judged me, not really. But, like, the whole process. I'm like, yes. There's a better way. And I'm like, oh, man. No. I was I was actually more curious. You did high school of, what, 350 episodes.
Yeah. In your, what, 4 or 5 episodes into this new platform, we was Chaz was that we had problems with the other one, or somebody says, hey, bro. We gotta better way to do it, and they convinced you to do it a different way. Which one was Yeah. We we just we were just looking to upgrade, looking to looking to do better. And so to your point, actually, of iteration, the the it's not that you look at something and think, well, it's not perfect. It's just like, okay.
Well, maybe there's a an another level to go to, which I think is actually super in line with just how entrepreneurs and how even myself operate because we're always we should always be looking to grow ourselves or our family or our business or a process to do something. And and so the mind that you've described that you have, I think we all have to a degree. It just maybe burns inside of you a little bit a little bit to deeper for for you to, like, change the price.
Yes. There's one factor that a lot of people get hung up on, and that's every once in a Wolfe, we think we have a better way of doing something. And we make a change and we go that direction, and it turns out it was a Chaz sandwich. And I heard recently that's I heard somebody say it recently. Just because you order a Chaz sandwich doesn't mean you have to eat it.
And so if you're if you're prideful and you try something new and you're going down that road and you go, Well, because it was my idea. I'm gonna do this. Even though it's worse, you convince yourself that you try to convince everybody around you that it's still a good idea instead of humbling yourself saying, hey, man. That was a bad idea. Let's go back to the way we were doing it. Let's go a different direction. It's hot and hard for a lot of It is.
It's a really good point, and thank you for bringing that out, Rick, because as entrepreneurs, we do this a lot. Inventors, I'm sure, even more, you know, the old adage of a it took Edison you know, thousand times of not creating the light bulb to create the light bulb. But imagine if you had given up, in essence, is what you're saying. And so I love that. I love that. Just ability to keep going, but also to maybe take a couple steps back.
Humilities required in that anything else to be able to actually move forward with a different idea, even though you're quote, unquote, new idea that you thought was better. Wasn't? Yeah. Yeah. It it's it's it's tough. There's a lot of there's a there's a lot of things going on in the world right now that we see in the news. I'm not going to name it. But there are some people that are trying some trying some new stuff.
And and the suicide rate is in absolutely insane for some people who try something new And what's sad is all the people that are out there talking about this stuff, they leave one very important part out you can change your mind and go back. People think that they can't humble themselves and say, you know what? This is this is what I thought it would be. I'm gonna go back. People don't know that they can go back. Yeah. That's so good.
There's there's obviously human psychology that we're really getting into here and the idea of once I've planted my roots, I you almost, like, dig in your heels, even if even if someone knows that that is not no longer a good idea or that, you know, that whatever they chose is a crap sandwich, but we have this ability to just naturally dig our heels in, and, yes, it's ego, it's pride.
We don't wanna be wrong How have you as an entrepreneur in that moment been able to not only enlighten yourself with the ability, yes, I can go back, but then to take the actions rather than digging heels in, to actually start heading back. That's a tough answer. I think I the the trick is, I think, being completely honest with yourself. Having the ability to be completely honest with yourself.
And when you realize you made made a wrong choice, saying being able to look yourself in the mirror, right, straight dead in the soul and say, bro, you're going the wrong way. You have to home you have to go tell everybody in your company, hey, man. This was a bad choice. And and, you know, it's even it's even more difficult if you allow somebody inside your company to make a decision, and you're the authority and you gotta there's a sometimes it's tricky to go to that group and say, hey, guys.
I think you're going the wrong direction. Because there's there's always the the risk of are you doing this because you're the boss and you you're you have the authority, or is it really a good idea? Especially if you have, but, somebody in that department that is maybe personally invested into the project, and he's pride for us. He's prideful and they won't admit that it's the worst wet bad direction, or they try to convince you that, oh, we're just not there yet. You know?
Yeah. It's It's it's tough to everybody involved and humble themselves and go back and say, hey. Listen. This is not we gotta make an adjustment. Yeah. Yeah. I think one thing that you've mentioned Chaz far as not only just the recognition, but then the the action of communicating and and just trying to come to a consensus that maybe we do need to go back.
It's usually a domino effect that first person who's humble and who lets the ego go and says, I made a mistake or, hey, maybe maybe just maybe back where we came from or a different direction is where we need to go. Do you do you have you found that in your companies as well? Like, when that first person humbles themselves, then the rest of the people kinda, like, follow suit as opposed to digging in heels and saying, no. Let's let's fight forward anyway.
Yeah. It's actually honesty is is as contagious as anything else. It really is. This vein that we're on is so interesting that we just we just jumped right in and we're right on it, but I I wanna I think that we're on something super valuable here, and you just have you have some language that I wanna be able to pull out for the listener. The last little piece I've got here for you on this like, staying humble or going back to where we came from. How do you know in that moment?
Because, again, you've invented certain, you know, so many different things. You've you've created companies built and exited multiple, there's been moments where you've had to choose to either persist or to say, no. I'm gonna be humble and go back. How do you know in that moment whether to just push through maybe what's a little bit hard? And it's not really a Chaz sandwich. You're just you just gotta persist. Versus this is a Chaz sandwich. It wasn't a good idea. We should go back.
Any insights there? Yeah. I I've 2 two things come to mind. One of them was there was a I when I developed a product called TrimQuik, back in 2001. It was a peel and stick window trim for window installers because I had installed thousands of windows, and and I I needed a I needed had a problem I needed to Wolfe. And I turned out I solved it for many me, I mean, thousands of window installers that fell in love with this product. But when I first manufactured it, it was It wasn't perfect.
I wasn't a manufacturer. I was the designer developer, and I was the sales, and I'm I I did the rental company, but I hired an extrusion company to make my tool, my dye for me, and and and manufacture the product. Well, it wasn't perfect, and it it was flawed. And he It was close to perfect, but the product didn't even work. My customers were mad. They wanted their money back. This is my very beginning of this business.
And so I went to bed that night, and there's been there's been 3 or maybe 4 times I've heard a voice outside of me that I my my god every once in a Wolfe. Audibly speaks to me. And I was in bed. It was 2 o'clock in the morning. I was totally defeated, and I heard this voice get up. 2 o'clock in the morning, and it was maybe 5 or 6 times over and over. Get up. Get up, and it filled my mind and the room, get up. And I'm like, what on earth is the weirdest thing.
So I gotta anyway, And and then once I was up, I knew it then the the clarity came to me is I have to go to him and tell him what the problem is And instead of giving up and saying, this, this isn't gonna work because I was nothing. I was a little guy. Nothing. I had no money. I started this company with my only $5000 I had left over from some savings or whatever back in 2001. Yeah. And that worked out.
But more importantly, the other story I wanna say talk talk about is I had had to make an adjustment to my back place. See, this thing here, I think I got some in my pocket. I'll just show the camera a little bit. This is my giveaway version. So it's got white back plates. Just this little white back plate right here. K. So this little guy here marries up to a front clip And this goes under the shirt and that's clamps onto your shirt and hanging glasses.
Well, I originally made these out of steel, and we glued with double part 2 part epoxy glued magnets to the steel plate. Well, this violent contact right there was shattering the adhesive, and it had probably 30% product failure. You're out of business. With with 2% product failure. Well, people still are buying the product. And and I had these customers love this product so much that they would actually Find another one. Glue them back on instead of complaining.
Sure. People would call me and say, hey. What kind of glue can I use with this back together? It was amazing. So I had to make an adjustment, so I did it. Now I made a mistake. Instead of re engineering it into plastic, I tried to reuse about a 100,000 magnets that were not the right magnets to put inside the plastic, and they were weak I had my injection mold guy drill three holes.
So I had these little, I'm gonna call them little nipples, these little tiny nipples that, you know, didn't like, in three places where you, when you when you set the magnet in there, you tried to slide it off. It would lock it in. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Because I was trying to save money, on tooling. And and I was trying to save money on magnets. It wound up costing me at least ten times more Chaz it would have been to spend the 20 on a brand new tool using more powerful thicker magnets.
Wow. It was I wound up I literally wound up throwing 300,000 back plates in the trash. Yeah. That was painful. It it that that caused me. And it was and I was just fine. My customers kept all my customers were telling me, hey, product. You're you're this this new product. This new variation is terrible. I'm like, no. You'll get used to it. Really, it's yeah. And I'm like, I'm I have one day I go. Oh my gosh. This is wrong. I have to go I have to change it up.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You weren't listening, and but eventually, you did. I I actually, you know, you you did. A really good job of answering that question. The persistence for you is in alignment with, you know, what you've been called to or maybe an essence of faith or an essence of maybe an audible instruction, which I think is incredible. And and then there's the times where you gotta be humble, and I think that there's a mixture of both for all of us listening today.
We've I mean, maybe we haven't heard an audible voice, but we we've had those moments where we know we need to persist, and it's not ego. There's a there's a big difference between persistent and holding on to something or digging our heels in when when really we know that it's not the right thing. Like, that moment that you said, this isn't right. It's like, It came to you. There was clarity. It was like, oh, it was enlightenment of I need to do this a different way.
And if you had chosen at that moment, to stick your no. No. No. This is the way we're gonna do it. Dig my heels in. Then that may have been the detriment. Would you agree with that? Would you add anything to that? Yeah. I would also I'd I agree with it also. I would I would add that that, you know, having been on Shark Tank, you know, you got you get in Shark Tank and you're you got 15 minutes of of TV time. Everybody thinks you're a genius.
No matter what kind of no matter what you're capable of, everybody thinks you're a genius because you got on Shark Tank. Wolfe, turns out I have I have an eye for I do have an eye for products that may or may not make it into the marketplace, and I've had literally hundreds of people contact me with their with their projects, their ideas, their patents. Some people have just a a an idea on a napkin and no intellectual properties or no inventory.
Some people have intellectual properties and they haven't manufactured it yet. And so they have no product to sell. Some people have products, tons of products. They have a product that they have tons of inventory. They just can't get it sold. Anyway, I've had every variation of people come to me with, hey. I got this idea or this thing.
And Yeah. The worst thing the hardest part, the worst thing that I I experience is when I have to tell somebody, honestly, that their product or their idea that they've been they've been working on for 2, 3, 4 years is gonna die a natural death and there's no way it's gonna that people are gonna buy it. I mean, I've had people tell sit in front of me to cross from a cup of coffee, he's saying, tell me, give me a 100 why people are gonna buy their product.
And I only need to give them two reasons why they won't, and that's why they won't. Yeah. So Yeah. Some people don't some people don't actually solve a problem or meet a demand. They actually just try to create something that they think they can convince people to buy And if people don't want it because of the other all the other alternatives, it's it's just really tough when I I'm watching when I watch people persist on something that they should give up and move on to something else.
That's really painful to watch. So there's re there is a time There is a time to push through and persist in drives. I know this one this one of my my biggest mentors, the Rogers Betty and Jay Rogers. They had it started a company that's worth, I think it's, I don't know, how many 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars it's worth now. They sold it for plenty of money before the a new company took it up to the next level, but they had a product that they knew was gonna be big.
And they'd they tried to get sales for 2 years without a single sale. 2 years. But It it was a really difficult product to sell, but once the market took it on, it blew up. And they knew it Wolfe. And they didn't give up. They knew to persist. And they had had other companies, and they They've had they do wanna talk about having an eye for victories. They've had many, many victories. Yeah. And they're the ones that started biz owners in.
I was telling you about biz owners at There's they're the ones that founded this nonprofit that service that that serves the the small business community. We'll we'll talk about that later, but the persistence, it's gotta be it's it's gotta be in the right direction.
Yeah. Yeah. It's tough to know in those moments which which it is, but I think we've given a pretty clear understanding, like, in in your inner part, you know, you know, call it to call it intuition, call it you know, maybe even the holy spirit, if you're a faith filled or if just a consciousness or subconscious voice, there's something on the inside of you that's whispering this or Chaz. And it's just a matter of how much we're in tune with that and how much we take action on that.
So I think that you actually gave several examples. I wanna give you a second here to give us a little bit of your history. Like, let's let's just go super practical. Give us I mean, you give us, like, like, 30 seconds, but tell us about these previous companies that you've built and exited. Give us a little bit of your wrap sheet here.
I I want I want the people to know just what kind of a genius to your own words that they're listening to, even though you probably wouldn't take credit for that, I'm gonna give it to you. I'm gonna I'm gonna serve it up to you. Oh, man. Like I said, the having that that mind that the ideas come from the ether and you get a little lightning bolt of idea because I don't think that I'm not the author of my skills. I'm not the author of my abilities. I'm not the author of any of my capabilities.
Those are granted to me by the creator. So it's my job is to take the action and do the hard work that comes along with what what I really believe is a is a either a good idea or a great project. And when I was a little kid, I was I didn't know long before I knew I could make money at anything. I was designing stuff and building stuff. I I built a sail for my skateboard because I saw wind surfers out in the ocean windsurfing. I thought, man, I could windsurfer my skateboard.
So my dad was a plumber. I grabbed some PVC pipe and a some duct tape, and I built a sail. And I I had it. I always had a hole in the toe of my suit, so I tore the hole big enough to fit the piping and curl my toe back. And I'm sailing around the neighborhood of my my sail, my friends are chasing me. Hey. Let me have a anyway, Oh, wow. So when I was 8, I think I was 818, I there was no word called SER snowboarding. There wasn't there was no such thing as snowboarding.
There was skiing, and that was it. Yeah. And so I I was shaping skin boards. And a lot of people don't know what a skin board is, but when the wave breaks and that comes up to sand and it leads a little film. You can ride us a board and you'll ride the way. Well, I was shaping the boards because I couldn't afford a good steam board. And I so I my friends Wolfe going skiing up in Mammoth in California. And I thought, man, I always wanted to surf in the snow. I'm gonna make me a snow surfer.
So I built this thing that looks a lot with a surf a snowboard looks like today, Chaz a foam and fiberglass and put brackets in it. Literally, with rope, I tied my hiking boots to this board And I went up and I hyped up for hours with this power to mountain, and I surf I surfed in the snow. This thing I know Burton shows up with his civil board I think I was in my mid thirties.
I finally decided I was installing some windows and it, you know, you had to cut the trim around the interior and then cut it and put nail gunk. And then you gotta cock it and paint it to match the windows. So that, man, I need to. I I wish we had something else. So We did a we did a strip of plastic that matched the window, applied double sided tape to it, sold it in twelve foot lengths, and people bought the heck out of it. Mean, it's just we we we we're we're not pretty quick.
Started the company with $5. And within, I think, 3 years, we were selling $5,000,000 a year with these strips of plastic with double sided tape And that company's still going today. They're doing great. I think I I sold my my part of that in 202010.
And right about that time, I had to start wearing reading glasses because I turned 40 and anybody in their forties that most people Chaz nerve that it makes the adjustment to being able to read the client front when you see people doing this That's because that that adjustment nerve doesn't work anymore. And so I had to start wearing reading glasses. Well, now you put them in your shirt collar. I Yeah. I've already told you the story a little bit.
And my best friend says, April, I saw this this this lady with a pin. He should do something with magnets, something to that effect. If he if he if he see if he sees his podcast, he'll be gone. That's not what happened. I said. I'm trying to keep the short the story short. Anyway, so that's right. Of course, I went out and bought bought a bunch of magnets, and I'm I made a prototype.
Well, actually, the first thing it is I took a paper clip, a of a paper clip, vented in a u shape, and snipped off both ends, and I pasted it to two magnets. And put a put a fender washer under my shirt, and I literally wore a paper clip on my fur for about a year. And it wasn't a this. It was just a place to hang my glasses. And every day at least three people would point at my shirt, what is that? Where do I get one? And so I thought, well, maybe that's the next big thing.
Next thing you know, I'm going to trade shows street fairs, farmers market, Wolfe show, gun show, home show. Anywhere there were thousands of people, I would have my booths set up. And if people walk into my booth, like, Chaz is it? Because it was a new thing. It it it didn't it didn't register in people's minds what it was. So they walked into my booth and look at, like, what is this? And then when I showed them, a lot of times, I didn't have to say a word.
I would just, you know, put my glasses in there and flip around like I did earlier, and they're like, oh my gosh. And before they even ask how much they are, they're pulling money out of their pocket and going on the table. They just How much are yeah. Is it yeah. How many can I get? Yeah. How am I? Anyway, so we're sort of selling. And then for 6 months, I was selling these things just direct to people across the table and at at events.
And Yeah. The number one thing I heard I literally heard a thousands of times was, dude, you gotta get on shark tank. And I don't watch a lot of TV, so I'd be like, what's that? What's hurricane? Like, what? You don't know what? Because this was about the season 3 was come about to start. And I'm like, and I didn't even I didn't pay attention to all the suggestions. You do gotta get a start date. Sure. So finally, about 6 months into it, my best friend calls me, like, up at 11 o'clock at night.
He knew I'd be up with my fingers bleeding because I couldn't make these things fast enough. I was making them by hand in my garage. And he he's all he's all you're an idiot, and he hangs up. Those weren't the exact words he used, but something to that. That's what you heard at least. Right? There's one of the word in there. He it hangs up on me. Like, that's old school for hangs up on me. I think, yeah, we're I I've done that same thing. I'm like, yep, hangs up. Yep. Right. Got it. What?
And all the kids are like, why do you do that? When you say that. Yeah. And you didn't want it to be good. Even mean. You said you put your phone down? Yeah. They don't even put their phone up in it anymore. They got an earpiece, so they got it on speaker phone. Yeah. Change offense. Anyway, so so I, like, what's up, bro? He's like, dude, you haven't even looked at shark tank. This is a big deal. So, alright. Well, Then I find out they get, like, 40,000 applicants per season.
And I'm like, I'm there. I'm not gonna get in, but but I will say that I lied and cheated to get on the show. Okay. So I I did Chaz email submission. There's all they have all these things that go around the country. To go to the country and they do auditions and all this stuff. I I've never I've never did any of those because back and applied for season 3, and I hadn't seen the show ever. I just looked up online a couple little 2 minute snippets of what the premise is. And I realized, oh, wow.
This is kind of a big deal. A lot of everybody knows about it, but me, I do an email submission, and there's rules. Do not send samples. Do not send videos. Here are the things we want. We want your domain, your your, you know, a description of the product, a picture of the product, a picture of you, and that's it. We don't wanna hit we don't wanna because they get think about having a rifle through 40,000 applications. You wanted a lit as little information as possible.
And you don't want videos piling up. So I I gave all the information at the bottom. I said, if you wanna see a picture of me, click on this link. It was a moving picture. So I sent a video anyway. And I'm like, what do I got to lose? I don't even know about you. You're gonna fire me from your show? I'm not getting on your show anyway. I'm just one out of 40,000. So a week later, I get a call from the producer He says, hey. It's a nice video. I know you like that. He's like, actually, I did.
Anyway, that that was fun. And then I so I got on the show, and the rest is history. If you wanna see the show, you can it's season 3 episode 6. It's a really cool little little event. Check it out. I can jump around, swing a golf club, bend over all I want, and they're not going anywhere. A matter of fact, I Chaz take a major tumble, and there they are safe and sound Chaz usual, right where I left them, and always, within arms reach. I'm gonna make you an offer.
Yeah. You got a deal, and they can they can take a look at it there. We'll put actually the link in the show notes for them to check out, but Okay. So you've got this incredible history. Thank you for sharing. Love the story, honestly, because there were so many little tidbits in there of you said, you're not listening to your friends talking about, you know, the show. Even when you got to the show, it was like, oh, man, 40,000. You could have just said, no. Thanks.
Like, so many you know, steps along the way and you didn't. I think that that goes back to our initial conversation of persistence versus, you know, knowing when to hang it up. I think that all of the all of the roads were pointing towards this way. And you kinda just persisted through those little things, which I think is which is great. You you had mentioned earlier some good decisions or good decision making.
I wanna know through your journey, because you've got so many different, maybe, examples that you could use, but I want you to pick out one thing that you can think about. This is a really clear good decision that's led you to maybe a lot of what the success you have today. What would be that one thing that we could maybe learn from and apply apply to our own businesses?
You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna go I'm gonna go biblical on you for a minute because there was a time in my life when I was a young man. In my team. Somebody challenged me to read the provers. That goes out every single day. And if you And it's perfect for people sort of value or insight from Really are are stye away from religion. It's stye away. Jesus and hell and heaven and condemnation and all just for a single point. You know, it's all of the things.
Do this on social media and all the different platforms. The the the book of Proverbs was written 4000 years ago. Spot. By a guy that's quite possibly the most successful guy that ever walked the other business as quick as possible. And who happened to be the spawn of sin for asylum seekers scaff with David, and That's. I'm pretty sure it's that that seems that seemed to see. That's a whole another story. That's a story you can't even tell in Sunday school. Anyway, you don't wanna talking about.
That's right. You're a 100% Hey. That hot girl over on that roof. Go get her. Anyway, No. So King King Solomon was was was blessed by god in a in big way. He had more property and more cattle and more I mean, he just this King's song was super successful. And at the towards the end of his life, he wrote a couple of books, the Psalm Solomon at Ecclesiastes Proverbs. So the Proverbs is packed with basic wisdom. And just so happens, there's 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs.
So, like, today is what? The 13th? What's today? Yep. Yeah. He's the 13th. So if I haven't read the proverbs in 3 months, I'm like feeling spiritually hungry because I'm just feeling discontent in some way. And I challenge people all the time. Like, hey. Listen. If you're just feeling sideways, even the slightest bit sideways, and there's nothing you can eat or nothing you nobody you can talk to this to make you feel better.
It's because you're spiritually hungry and there's nothing else that will fill that hole except for god's word. It just still happens. You can read some read some proverbs of the day. Literally, it takes 3 to 5 minutes. I'm a slow reader. It takes me to 5 minutes. So you take go to proverbs chapter 13 there will be something in there that's gonna take root in your heart that's basic wisdom that really ultimately comes from the creator.
And Yeah. That's that has had an unexplainable yet undeniable effect on the way I see life and the Wolfe. And it gives me a really unique perspective on business relationships and how I treat people and how I make decisions. Because it gives it it kinda it gives you a an eternal perspective, and it's we're just we're just here for a little while. I said goodbye to a lot of friends lately.
I'm about to this week, I'm gonna I need to sneak up to Seattle because I got a friend that's gonna make an exit. He's he's got some stuff that's he they can't fix. And he's in mid fifties. And I've I've said goodbye to a lot of people lately. I said, I had another friend die last week, and and, you know, just a reminder that we are We are here for a little Wolfe, and while we have breath in our lungs, we make high quality decisions.
We build high quality relationships We're super cautious about who we surround ourselves with. And, I mean, not everybody thinks this way, obviously, But everybody's good. Hey, Kings and Queens. Jazz Wolf. I wanna talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort. We, meaning myself and my team, into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day.
And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too. So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the things on social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast mediums of Apple and Spotify.
We would love to be able to get our content into more hands, more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as 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 hope each other grow.
Yeah. Well, I think that, you're speaking to the right audience because the people listening to this show wanna make good decisions, and they wanna surround themselves with good people. They wanna be able to go to the next level. I I loved your biblical reference there. I think it's super applicable. Knowing a little bit of your backstory that that is maybe more relatable to the nonbeliever, how did you come to this place here where proverbs is your is your go to? This was the best decision.
Because it actually plays into all of your decisions. So it's it's the the one decision that plays into all of your other decisions. Like you said, you open it up, read something, actually, there's quite a bit of very practical wisdom in there that you can apply to almost any decision that you've got.
So I totally agree with you, but how did you get to that point Someone might be listening right now, and maybe their point for them is listening to you say it, but how did you get to the realization that opening that book on a regular basis can fill the cup of making good choices.
Yeah. I'll I'll get to that in one second, but I do wanna say that I mean, I have a lot of the properties memorized and one of the proverbs says, of what use is money in the hand of a fool, for he does not even desire to get wisdom. Yeah. I mean, how powerful is that? You've stumbled across something like that. You're like, oh my god.
I I've bust my I bust my ass day in a day out 7 days a week, 14 hours a day to make money, and I have even bothered to get wisdom and it's and I don't even know how to keep the money. I don't know how to invest it because I'm just so busy trying to get of what uses money in the hand of a fool for a anyway, and then there's another one. Another one of my favorites is a proverb in the mouth of a fool is like a a a a drunkard swing around a thorn bush.
Wolfe. And this is I just want to throw a little peas out for people that are thinking maybe I should read the progress, like, no. Read the progress. Yeah. Anyway, Okay. I will tell you how to how to how did I come to the realization that might have some value in my life? Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Yep. I had I had the privilege of having a girlfriend in high school for 3 years whose dad was a baptist preacher.
K. And I didn't know it at the time, but he he when I go hang out with my girlfriend who I really liked a lot, so I wanted to go hang out with my girlfriend. Every time I Chaz leave, A lot of times, he had hand me a little business card with a bobble burst on it, and he'd say, don't come back to you. You got it memorized. Wolfe, you know what I did? I wanna go hang on with my girlfriend. I didn't memorize the stupid Bible. That's right. That's right. And it had Whatever it takes.
And it had an undeniable effect on my soul, and it turned a light on Chaz that no way else Chaz light comes on. I have a lot of friends that are atheists, and I love hanging out with people that don't believe in in challenging them. And I asked I I have a, an uncle that's gonna be he's, in his mid 70, and he's not a believer. And I want everybody I care about to be at heaven when I'm there. So I I tell people all the time. I go, hey, man.
I I ask people, do you know how much faith it takes to get to heaven? Yeah. A lot of times they they're like, no. They don't know. I go, almost none. I mean, it's very, very little. They talk talking about the mustard seed, how tiny it is, and how tiny that seed is and what it grows into. And I I explained that the guy hanging on the cross, the the criminal that's hanging across next to Jesus. He didn't believe in god. He just looked over. Jesus says, hey.
And, you know, And there's this thing that in people's minds ago, what if it's true? What if Jesus is who he said he was? What if there is a god, a loving curing creator? What if there's just in case it's true? And so that thief on lacrosse, in his mind, he goes, Wolfe, just in case it's true, he says to Jesus, remember me in paradise or remember me when you get to heaven. So This guy says, what if it's true? Jesus well, hey.
Remember me and have it in the and Jesus says, well, that's all it took. That's a tiny bit of faith. So and I tell all my friends who don't believe I go look. I found a ton of relief when I decided to let god be god, allow myself to understand god in a very limited capacity because there's no way I'm gonna ever figure them out. I promise I will never argue with anybody who claims to have god completely figured out because they're selling something.
And so you let god be god, you allow yourself to to be a really bad prayer and really not very good at faith because none of us really is that good. People that pretend to be really good at having tons of faith, very few. We're actually really good at it. So I think that that humility of going, hey, man. I'm gonna let god be god. I'm gonna seek him to the best of my ability, even though I suck at seeking god. I'm gonna seek him to the best of my ability, And like God, he got, oh my god.
What a relief. And then that's that that attitude is more attractive to everybody around you That's why my atheist friends, when they have questions about the Bible, they don't go to the preacher, they come to Rick Hopper because he's gonna be honest with him. I'm not saying that preachers aren't honest. Don't don't give me wrong. I'm just saying that sometimes some of us are easier to approach.
For the person listening right now, that's wondering, if this is a tangent or how this is applicable, it makes a big difference when when you understand what faith is because I can first off, I agree with you. From a faith perspective, all of the things that that Rick has shared, the the same effect has been in my life.
However, even if that hadn't, I can associate those things directly to what belief or faith in your calling, your purpose, your business, your family, I can associate all of those things, and and it's the exact same seed or the mustard seed, the the seed of faith. Because if you do not believe genuinely, or even just a little bit. There's no there's no chance. And so, like you said, it's like it's the what if? It's the true optimist perspective of, well, what if? That's what an optimist thinks.
Well, what if this what if I could create a new product? What if I could do this? What if I could do it better? What if there's a better way? What if I can have an amazing marriage? What if I what if I could make it to heaven? Right? Like, all these questions of what if it opens up the realm of possibility based on belief. And that what if is the beginning of belief?
And so I love the way that you said that because that must have seemed I I wanna circle back real quick and and my my uncle the seventies that's in his health is weak. I I wanted to call him and challenge him on this. And I told him, I said, what? I I said, what if When you say, what if it's true? Maybe Jesus is who he said he was, and I can relax and and not waste my energy defying and denying the existence with a loving creator. And I just let god be god.
And and and and just to the best of my ability just even though I suck at it, and I really don't even know how. And my uncle says, Wolfe, He says, well, even I can do that. You know what I mean? You pop the door open. True. Yep. Even I can do that. It's like, What an incredible approach to give people an opportunity to seek god or the best of the best of their ability and to give them permission to suck at seeking god. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's authenticity of what it means to be human.
And and what it means to be human is that we're broken, that we're not perfect, and that, you know, we are gonna be separated unless we accept it. And so for the person listening right now who's still listening, who's curious, I think that this this angle of the what if or the what if I'm wrong or the what if it's right, it can it can it doesn't have to be a fear tactic. You mentioned, you know, the the kind of like the the preacher that maybe isn't honest.
It was something that they're not honest. It's just that the way that the information is presented sometimes comes across as fear. The way that Rick's talking about it, though, here is just very open. It's like, hey. Why not why not why not at least think about it for a half second. And I think that there's freedom, really, in Chaz, and and you kinda just describe that for yourself. And obviously now for your seventy year old, you know, uncle, it doesn't it's not about perfection.
It's not about getting to the place, which, again, this call all correlates to business. It's not about the perfect product. You talked about iterating several times through different magnets. It's about just going, okay.
Well, what if we can do it better, or what about the next level, or what about the next choice And when you know that it you're a broken individual and that we're gonna try to better our business or better our marriage, or in this case, I'm gonna get better and better at seeking god It's okay that I'm not perfect right now. Yep. There's there's a ton of there's a there's a lot of release in freedom in letting god be god. And there's, you know, what if is one concept? Another one is Chaz if.
I'm gonna use the word as if because I had this guy reach out to me. He's a kind of a big time dude. He's very, very successful, and we don't compare to others We don't compare ourselves to others, but you can compare others to others. And you when you identify somebody who's very successful, the guy calls me out of loop. He doesn't even know me. Zane's John. I'm I'm not gonna say his last name. He's kind of a big deal in Vegas. He says, hey. I saw you in shark tank. I wanna take you to dinner.
I'm going, oh, this is kinda weird. That's not creepy at all. And, Ella, you know what? I I I'm I'm going to Vegas first to show next week. I call him and say, hey. Let's go to it. The guy just wanted to pick my brain on something. There's he saw something. I mean, this has happened. I could we could spend a whole episode on the people that have contacted me that said Yeah. Dude, I saw you on TV and I know I can trust you.
Weirdness. The number one thing I've heard more than anything, I was a weirdest thing. I know they Chaz trust me, but you could trust John Jeffrey Dommer too, and he had to eat you. So how do you know that you could trust me? Anyway, so this guy calls me, so I go out to dinner with him. And and I he and I And I know what the guy's in the middle of. I know he's doing, and we've worked talking for and I stopped him and I go, hey.
What's the difference between A guy like you that takes massive immediate action all the time gets almost bats a 1000, has mad success goes, I mean, do it. I mean, it's got properties and businesses and partners and just nothing but win after win after win. I said, what's the difference between you and a guy that is out there is just floundering. He goes, well Yeah. I can't sail. I know I know no matter what I do, I can't fail. And I'm and he says, look. There is no fail.
There is no such thing as fail. There is only win and there is learn. Yeah. And you've heard everybody that was listening to this podcast has heard it a hundred ways and a hundred different ways, but I'm like, oh my gosh. This is the guy everybody's talking about. This is the guy when everybody says the word Oh, you all you have to do is is is wave your life as as if you can't sail. Well, this guy's not losing his life Chaz if he can't bail, This guy knows he can't fail. So Yeah. He's absolute.
It's pretty when I when I first heard, the the best way to win is to live life as if you can't fail. Wolfe, that's a wannabe version of the guy that knows for a fact he can't fail because there's no fail. There's only when and there's only learn. I mean, so as yeah. I I I so appreciate that perspective. I heard from one of the guys in my mastermind group. This was in the last week or so.
He said, I think I've become dangerous because I I just have finally gotten to the point where I don't actually think I can fail. And so and he used the word dangerous because and I loved it. I loved every moment of what he was saying because it's exactly what John in Vegas was talking about is when you have complete permission to just go knowing that it's either gonna work for you or you're gonna learn from it and it's gonna work for you.
You just go and you go fast and you don't worry, and it doesn't mean that you don't have bumps along the way. You you even in this show, you've described several bumps along your way. But that's those things have helped you become the Rick hopper who's talking on the podcast today. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. I wouldn't change the thing. I made a lot of mistakes in my life, and they all they're all part of the recipe. So how do you how can you have any regret when you when you become who you are?
That's right. That's right. Alright. I gotta go to our speed round here. I wanna know of, you know, like, when you okay. A lot of different businesses, a lot of different products, But when you think about, like, a top KPI or, like, the one thing that you would track in any business that you've ever had, what would be that one thing if you could only pick 1? Math. You you just took, like, 3 or 4 and shoved it into 1. I love explain yourself. Please ask. No. Your numbers.
Okay. Oh, you know what else? It also is relationships. I mean, I've Yeah. If I if I fall in love with my employees. I fall in love with my vendors, my suppliers. I fall in love with everybody I do business with because at the end of the day, when I'm laying on my deathbed gas with my last breasts, I'm not gonna remember bank accounts. I'm gonna remember people. Right. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Well, I love I love both of those answers, math and and relationship inside of math.
What came to your mind when you were thinking that? Like, my P and L, the calculations from top line to cost of goods to, you know, profit margins and, you know, controlling expenses and I mean, really, it's something I ignored for a really long time because I just I was more of an artist in my mind, and I was more interested in in the art and the product than I was the Yeah. In that when I figured out, I'm not making any money. What the heck's going on here?
Boy, we got all this revenue and and, yeah, it wasn't controller expenses, and I wasn't, optimizing, you know, cost of goods and Now, you know, anybody that's thinking about going into business is like, bro, how how much do people how much are people gonna pay for it? What's the perceived value? How much is it gonna cost to make? And how much is the business gonna cost to run? Do the math. I mean, it's not I can't believe how many people don't do the math. Yeah. Yeah. You're right.
You you called yourself an artist. There's a lot of craftsman. There's a lot of specialists. There's a lot of fill in the blank. Not a lot of business people. And and that's what you're elevating the listener to right now is to be a craftsman of the business, which is the P and L. Yeah. And if you suck at it, find somebody who likes doing Chaz, dude. One of my keys to success is most of business, I don't like it. I don't like the the the calculations. I don't like the the the doing bookkeeping.
I don't like having to deal with tax records. But I surround myself with people who love doing this stuff I hate to do. It's a beautiful road build beautiful relationship. That's right. That's right. What what business resource have you gotten value from? You've already given us the book of Proverbs. I love that. Is there another book, a podcast, an event, Anything like that that you have gotten value from that you can share with us? I'm gonna plug biz owner's ed to North Texas theFW area.
Some organizations started 10 years ago. Number 1, surround yourself with people that know how to win. In business and life. And, god, dropped me into the laps of these people. I mean, I could've moved. I I spent 48 years in Southern California surfing and snowboarding And I moved 10 years ago. I moved to Texas for obvious reasons. We're not gonna get into that. And god dropped me into the laps of the most incredible human beings on the face of the earth.
And they recently asked me to take over a nonprofit they started about 10 years ago, and their their their their goal is to help serious committed entrepreneurs grow their companies. And Yeah. They do it through mentorship and an annual event for 10 weeks called the the main session of biz owner's ed, but you can look up biz owner's ed.org and check into that. We've had people fly in for 10 weeks from New York Wow. To to attend this class.
We select Wolfe people, just like Jesus did, we select twelve people to sit up in front of the class each year. And the gallery in the back will have a 100 to 200 people in the back every single Tuesday night for 10 weeks watching these twelve people interact with a different different instructor every night, different mentor speaker, all all Watson. So this owner's ed is really powerful.
But when you say resource books, you know, what what, you know, the the obvious list of books that that all that everybody talks about Read them all. Yeah. I mean, it it there's so much incredible content. As far as as far as far as that goes, I I think having the right people in your life surrounding yourself with people that know how to win and always call in and asking questions to people that have the answer to the to the questions.
You know, if they don't have the answer, I mean, always asks, you know, if if if you're alone inside your head, you're an Dangers neighborhood. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. You gotta be able to have have a community. That's how we're designed to do life. I got a question for you. Kind of in that same line around community.
But more so specifically family, but it can be extended to community, the people around you, the families that surround you, as business owners, we know how to, like, go all in on our business. And, like, recommit, be obsessed. But a lot of times, we're searching for balance, and I think the balance is, you know, kind of a a term that is doesn't exist. I think obsession exists. I think that we can obsess over our business.
We can obsess over our wives or our our spouse or children, our community, you know, a church, anything like Chaz. And so my my question to you, Rick, is how have you obsessed over both of these things? Like, let's let's call it family and business or business and all the other things. At the same time. Well, first, I'll give you my definition of I'll I'll first, I'll give you my definition of balance.
When I was a little kid, I was probably seven or eight years old, park down the street had the biggest teeter totter you've ever seen and was a piece of lumber that must have been like. A 6 by 18 big giant heavy piece of lumber and 1 and it was balanced. Right? And I would climb up on that thing in the middle and I would stand right in the middle, and I would get that thing, and it would stop perfectly balanced. That's not balance.
The next thing I would do, I would get it going to where I wanted it to not touch the ground. So when the when the bean would go up, I would run up the beam until it started going down and run as fast as I can to the other side. Uh-huh. And I would go as far up the beam as I could possibly run, run-in full speed both directions. And as long as it wasn't touched in the ground, I had balance. Yeah. And that's what you do with your family and your business.
Yeah. And you go you go if you want more specific details, I could say, you know, I go. When I'm at I'm at in the office or out on a job doing sales, I'm focused on the sales. Yeah. I got a family I love dearly, and that's why I'm in this. But Yeah. When it's time to go be with the family, you go be with the family. Yeah. I love the the visual there.
The running up and down the side here is with the family or running up and down the side Chaz your sales meeting or whatever in your and it's it's not a matter of choosing one or the other. It's actually a game. Like, I saw you as a kid in my mind, having just a blast going back and forth and back and forth and and, like, competing with yourself, almost. You know? I'm sure you wiped out a couple of times, would you? Oh, oh, yeah. You know, but I would give anything.
I got my knee replaced 2 months ago. So there's no more beam running for me. Yeah. Yeah. But you gave it. You gave a great description there how how you can do both and and have a blast doing it. That Chaz is what I took from you. It's what I've actually taken from you this podcast is Chaz you're full of joy.
And and at each thing that you're doing, you bring a level of joy or levity, as we call it, one of our core values with Gavin Kings is Kings are levity, and we remove stressful or pressurized situations and and we bring joy. That's what a king does. And so I just appreciate that perspective. I got one more question here for you.
Rick. Because I gotta, you know, you you've you've said something that maybe would deter me from asking this question, but I think that you'll give us quite a profound answer. And this is this. If you could go back in time to the younger Rick and you could whisper in his ear, what would you say to him? Wolfe, there's a lot of Christians listening, so I've gotta be out of a Chaz my words wisely. Because my first Okay. You can edit this out if you want, but it would be don't be a pussy.
I mean, go for it. Go for it. Go for it. You have one life to live. Surf bigger waves. Jump out of airplanes. I mean, go Jump, but do the biggest jumps you possibly can. You're gonna ruin your knees anyway, and you're gonna need to get new knees. You might as well completely ruin them to get new knees. Sooner and they'd go through those knees. I think doing more and and and not being afraid you don't teach your own horn, but I've had a very good effect on people throughout my life.
And it matters to me. How people feel matters to me. There's a fine line we walk to where we care about people We care about how they feel, but we don't dictate our lives around other people's opinions. So caring about how people feel It doesn't matter. You're gonna go drive your life, and you're gonna go succeed, and you're gonna go make money, and you're gonna take market share from somebody.
You're gonna upset some people out there by going out there and winning and taking market share from an industry, and you're injuring somebody unintentionally Well, you can care about how they feel, but it's our jobs to go out there and be good stewards of the talents that we've been given. Hey. Yeah. Look at this. Look at the the look at the parable of the talents.
He the the master didn't just reward the guy He took the talents away from one guy and gave it to the guy who was gonna do something with it. Well, that guy was bummed out, but, yeah, it was a lesson for him as well. So I think what would I what would I whisper into my own ear as a if I could go back and say, hey, Rick. There's some things if you need to know. Number 1, the Cubs are not gonna win the Worldsters in 2015. It's actually 2016. You know what I'm talking about?
Yep. But it's, yeah, continue to treat people great. But go big in business because it's it's as easy to make a $100,000,000 as it is to make $3,000,000. And Knowing that now, I probably would have made a lot more money, but I'll tell you what'll be on my tombstone. And I and I think this is what drives Rick Hopper. What'll be on my tombstone is it's gonna say Rick Hopper. He could have made more money, but he couldn't have had more fun. Yeah. I mean, we picked it up here for me today.
I mentioned just the joy. And, obviously, that that's a piece of what you just said. So I'd I I can already tell that I'm picking up the the vibes that that you're wanting to give, even your tombstone, phrase there. You're you're a 100% joyful and and excited about life. Your energy is contagious. You think you've been incredible here today, but I don't want it to end for the audience.
You've already described how many people have found you via, you know, shark tank and and plenty of your companies, but How can how can they go find you? Listen to right now. They're trying to find Rick Hopper. How can they find you? How can they connect with you and and get more information about you or your products, the things that you're involved with, your projects, all that stuff?
Yeah. I got the hopper's happy chicken feed is not alive yet, but I would love for people to go to Amazon and buy a Wolfe of my adhesive. It's incredible product wicked good. Don't judge me. My logo looks just like Gorilla tape, and I don't love it. I don't love that I look so much like Gorilla, but we're gonna make some adjustments to the logo. And if anybody's, like, super inspired, they wanna ask to question or something. You can email me. My it's rick@rickhopper.com as my email address.
Super easy. I sold the Readarest company a year and a half ago, but I I wear them every day. It's a great product. I swear by it. I don't know if I'm allowed to say this on camera, but the guys that bought my company they suck at customer service. So that's that. And we we loved our customers since you guys don't seem to care that much about our our customers as much as we did. But I think that's the nature of a, you know, somebody that, you know, buys up a 100 companies in 2 years.
They're they're aggregating stuff, but, right, it's what their thing is. Yeah. So if you if you have a bad customer service experience, it's not Rick. I tell you what, right now, though, if if I get a bunch of solicitors, emailing me for to sell me services. I'm just deleting them. I just I just delete all those.
Yeah. We've we've we've had so many incredible guests on the show and and so many of are willing to give a personal email or a phone number even, social media, and and we try to we try to protect those things for for what it's meant to be. And and that's that's for a handout, a hand up, and so Rick's giving you not only just, gosh, what, 40 minutes an hour of just incredible value, but, you know, just being respectful of of the reach out as well and being valuable.
Actually, that I had just a couple of podcast guests just, I don't know, last month Chaz were like, look, man, if you're gonna bring value, that's that's what I did when I reached out to people on podcast. You you reached out to bring value. Not always get stuff. And so that's that's the best way to build your network. Rick, you have been a blessing to me and the audience here today.
I hope that the blessing is returned back to you and your family and the projects that you are still connected to or the new ones that are coming because my wife is a is a big chicken farmer, and I bet you she'll be looking for that chicken feed in our local store or Amazon here soon. And so, again, Rick, you just been incredible. Appreciate you being here. Right on, bro. Thanks for the opportunity. I appreciate it. Thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings today.
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 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 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 belief that 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. 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.