On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. I was in one of our roundtables just this last week, and this was a question that was asked. And so I'm gonna use that question to you the same. The question that was asked was, are you okay with no longer being addicted to being needed? What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe gathering the king's podcast. I'm your host. Today, I've got Craig Leslie here on the King stage. My brother, Craig. How are we doing?
Doing great, Chaz. Thanks so much for having me on. Yeah, man. I appreciate guys like you that are in the mode, but flexible humans. We have we have tried our Darnedest to get this show recorded a couple times, but but here we are, man, and I'm excited. So tell us what kind of business that you got, brother. Yeah. It's actually happening. So Yeah. I've been involved in multiple businesses, but right now, I own a ground, a coffee chain of spice company, We have multiple brands.
We have San Diego Coffee and then the Bean Coffee company, which is an all organic line, mainly sell the San Diego brand wholesale in San Diego. And then the bean is our ecommerce Amazon. D2C brand. Yeah. I love that. You know, the the industry that you're in has only gone up, I feel like. Yeah. Highly competitive, but has only gone up. And so I I've got some interesting the questions, and, hopefully, you'll be able to give some incredible value to the listeners.
We'll get the journey and the story, but my first question's always the same. Craig, I gotta know You don't just build not 1, but multiple businesses successfully without having something on the inside that just is screaming pretty loud. It's I call it a burning desire. Same as thing, grow rich. What's yours? Yeah. You know, I think it's seeing opportunity and success. I I love seeing things get built. So we sold a company in the last couple of years.
And in my mind, like, we built it to the point where I knew how to build something, and then I was like, okay. Now it's time to go back and build something again. Yeah. Yeah. Do you find the value in because what you just said was actually multifaceted. It was I love to build, and I was recognizing that maybe it could have been built differently or better or bigger or whatever from the moment, but that there was a recognition of, like, I like this part of the building.
So I'm a builder, but, like, I like this area of building. Would you say that's true and give us a little bit more detail there? Yeah. I think it's absolutely true. I mean, everyone has different skill sets. Mine is being very gritty. And I'm really getting into the weeds and helping with the growth. I don't mind getting my hands dirty. That sort of thing. But you know, once you get to a certain threshold, you gotta get other people in there to understand taking it from this mark to this mark.
Sure. Sure. Yeah. And it's a, you know, I feel like the beginning stages are the fun part. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it it you think it's fun because you're gritty. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's obviously it can be super tough, and it can be super overwhelming to people. I mean, you talk to some business owners, and it's completely opposite. They're like, Once we hit this threshold, I started having fun. But Yeah. Yeah. I don't you know, I love seeing things grow, and I think that's it.
Like, it's I like to see the success of it. And, obviously, there's ups and downs in all businesses, but, yeah, at the end of the day, it's fun. Yeah. You have to take 1 or ask. Yeah. Absolutely. I relate to all Chaz. And I know that many listeners do as well, but I I want you I'm sure you've probably thought about this, but I want the, like what's the emotional piece to building for you? You know, like, okay. We get it. You're a builder.
Yeah. Why the why why get up every day other than just like, I love it. Right? Like, what's the love inside of it? Yeah. Getting deep. You know, I think it's it's not just about me. Like, we have employees. We have, you know, we have customers. It's about it's about the whole ecosystem. So it's not I'm not just getting up to work for myself. It's I'm getting up to employ people and Right. You know, over the years, I've employed a lot of people. Yeah. And it's fun to see them grow as individuals.
So it's, yeah, it's seen everybody evolve together as a company. Yeah. I love that, man. I think that everybody can relate to that. For you, was there a moment in time that, like, it crossed over from, like you said, maybe building for yourself? To the whole ecosystem? Yeah. I think I've always been pretty driven by helping others. So Wolfe yes, like, financially in that realm for, you know, making myself comfortable and working towards a goal, yes. But I've always wanted to bring people along.
And I've been brought along in other businesses. So it's Yeah. It's kinda like, you know, you give and people Wolfe get back. Totally. Yeah. There there's a real law there. It's also too like, I you mentioned it a few minutes ago. Is that, like, I'm not just doing this for myself, but underneath that, it's like you realize that there's, like, weight of responsibility on those people, but what you just said on the tail there was actually I get to collaborate.
It's not like me providing for them, although there is a major layer there, and there's huge responsibility there. But it's also like it sounds like you've got a great team because you're getting as much value from them as you're giving to them. Would you agree with that? Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, we have we I've been in the restaurant industry. I've been in consumer pack goods, and we have a row seat factory. So we have a manufacturing side.
So I've worked with individuals of all different levels. And everybody can provide value, you know, as long as you're willing to accept it. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Well, I wanna I wanna dig into some of that value and maybe how you've been able to use your past experience. Give us a little bit of your road. Okay? So you're, like you said, you're in this business now, but, like, what was it? What was Craig like before now? Yeah. You know, I've I've been entrepreneurial my whole life.
I started well, my brother and I, he's two years older than I am. So he was able to get a paper route at nine years old. Okay. And I negotiated with them, and I was only seven. So I I wasn't allowed to technically have it. So we created a little secret secret company within it. Little entity. Offshore accounts, I assume Chaz well. Right? Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's what's funded all in my success. Chaz right. But, you know, I always had that drive.
Like, we had that company from the time I was 7 until the time I was 18 and went off to college. And growing up, like, I never wanted to sit still. Like, I had a landscaping business. I had a, like, I had, you know, back in the day when they played those slides shows and at, like, sporting. Yeah. Award ceremonies. Like, I create those. Like, I just find ways to make money and to be entrepreneurial, like, all throughout my childhood and then a college. I just said marketing and entrepreneurship.
And then once I graduated. I went and worked for a corporate 500 company for a little bit and then moved out to San Diego. And actually got involved in a restaurant group. I was involved in there at that restaurant group until 2012. And then I was pulled into another small mom and pop restaurant. Chaz to correct equity in Chaz. And met my current business partner through that. We created a really, really nice bond. He's been a mentor to me.
He's brought me along, and he was actually the one who owned the coffee company before I got involved. So, yeah, so I think that's where it's like you give and you get get back. Right? That's right. I wouldn't be where I'm at if I didn't try all of these things and meet these people along the way. Yeah. You know, add trials and tribulations and Yeah.
So that's, you know, and then we started, I guess, for the full journey, through the coffee business, we started another bone graft company in 2015. Well, it was all powdered bone graft, and then we exited that in 2021. That company is still around doing really well. I actually still advise on Amazon front for them a little bit. Nice. But it opened up a lot of free time for me too. Yeah. Refocus on the coffee businesses, which over the past year, that's really what I'm diving into.
And Yeah. Focus him. Yeah. I love I love all parts of that. I gotta pull out one, maybe odd question, but coming from a guy who's not college educated, I I I think I have a semester. Hey. I dropped down. I'm out. And, yeah, it's not it's not for everybody. That's right. That's right. But I gotta know because you studied marketing and entrepreneurship. Yeah. And then eventually, you became an entrepreneur.
So I gotta know, did you Did you learn what it's like to actually be an entrepreneur in college, or was it was the actual entrepreneurship different? It's a mindset. It's You know, I don't think you can be taught entrepreneurship. I mean, there's ritz involved in it. There is, right, you can always read so many textbooks, like, especially on the marketing front. Right?
Like, in the marketing books, I read back then probably are completely different now, but You know, I think the entrepreneurship is an amazing program because there weren't textbooks, and it was very new back It was one of the first programs in the nation, and it was, like, how do you think outside the box or, like, you know, really creating, like, our capstone project was create a company and such. Okay. Where do we begin? I think Yeah. Exactly.
And and I guess, like, I've just wondered, you know, because, you know, the college is very, you know, theoretical and books.
And so Yeah. Even even what you've done here and and shared with us, sounds like they've used try to use experience, and I don't wanna make the podcast about about, you know, college or educational purposes, but it's it's kinda why podcasts like this exist and lots of other business type of functions and and events in coaching and and groups like Adam and the Kings, all that because there's not really a manual. Right? Yeah. Well, I think that's entrepreneurship. Right? Like, it's That's right.
My manual Wolfe look very different than your manual. Like, that's right. You know, and it's every Man, I Chaz pick up things from your manual. And vice versa. Yeah. Vice Chris. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, you know, I'm a for e commerce, I'm involved in a couple of different groups, and it's like, everyone's always sharing these little nuggets of information. In and That's right. It's like, great. We're collaborating. Like Yeah. Yeah. It's good stuff. Good stuff. Okay. Sounds good.
So So you're a stud. Okay. Fine. We get it. Thanks for sharing. I wanna know in that journey, let's get into some nitty gritty. Give me a good decision that you made, maybe with the exits, or maybe it's with the coffee now. What have you done looking back? It's like, I would do this over and over and over again. I think the best decision is people. Right? Like, who you're working with?
And that kinda goes on both of these answers because my first frenewal experience out of college, I probably joined with the wrong people. And that's why I ultimately ended up leaving that group. Sure. That's where I found my current business partner was after Chaz. Right? Like Yeah. It's making sure you mesh well with the people that you're working with, and you kinda have the same vision and goal, but have different skill sets. You can't have the same skill set as somebody else.
That you're trying to work with. Yeah. Exactly. Okay. So if somebody is, you know, considering a partnership or they're in a partnership and maybe they're even feeling like what you just said. Like, we have the same skill sets. We're not in alignment. Is there a way to salvage that, or is it more of a, like, let's just recognize and move on? What would be your experience there? I think you can definitely salvage it. I mean, you can always learn. Right?
I'm fortunate that my current business partner, he is much more numbers oriented. He's on the finance and accounting side, and I'm us more operational in Amazon focus. All our relationship works very well from the start. Think where it is not salvageable is when you have very, very different ideas on where the company is gonna go. Yeah. That makes sense. And that and that was where that was probably my biz biggest mistake because in the first company I was because It was very sexy.
It was very cool what we were doing, and we were giving a lot of press, and it was great. But I was focused on. We need to stop growing, and we need to focus and really dial in our operations in this. And the other individual was completely opposite. I was just like, no. I'm gonna go sign leases. I'm gonna do this. I'm doing To the moon. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And then like, well, that's great if you have a ton of financing, but we don't. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.
Yeah. I think that there's you know, a value alignment and and then vision alignment. You know, I think if there's value alignment to your point, I'm just kinda maybe clarifying this for the for the listeners Chaz If you can take a look at your personal values, your family values, what your business values are. If you don't have them, you should you should have them. And if you align on those things, you could probably work out certain things.
And if you have a certain skill set, that's the same, it means you need somebody else in the mix to kinda, you know Yeah. I makes that makes that a lot. It's not that you can't have the same skill sets, but there's gotta be either some overlap or there's gotta be something else or bring somebody else in. Totally. Which you can always honor. So it's Exactly. But I also think to to add to this whole question. The exits while some people get, like, really, really excited about it.
It is exciting to exit the company, and I wasn't sure how I was gonna feel when we exited. And we exited We sold the restaurant in November, and then we sold the bone graft company in October 2021. So it was, like, within a year, spam. We sold 2 businesses. Yeah. Wish there was a time where you're like, I had a little identity crisis. Like, it was like, what? Do I do and people would ask me, and we still have the coffee tea and spice company. So it's not like I didn't have anything to do.
Yeah. But people would come to me and be like, What are you gonna do now? Like, I'm like, I still have another company. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. It's interesting that kind of the rollercoaster of a motion but Yeah. The exits were they're probably the best thing that actually happened to me, especially from a lifestyle balance. And Okay. I have a thirteen month old daughter. It freed up a lot of time to speak with her. Which is awesome. Yeah. That's a big it's a big angle here.
I'm gonna come back to that because I was just telling you, actually, before we hit the record button Chaz we just got back from our family mastermind cruise. And there's this idea that a lot of entrepreneurs feel that they're, like, on an island. And I'm, like, obsessed with my business and then, like, my family, my wife, my kids, my fill in the blank. Mhmm. But you can do it all.
And so I'm gonna ask you another question about that here in a little bit, but on the decision making, I just really appreciate your perspective there on alignment and giving the the value piece, but also then, like, hey. Like, if if it's just we're not gonna work or if the values don't align, then then We gotta be able to move on. For you, it it wasn't just moving on.
It was I then met the people I was supposed to meet for my next venture, and then you even gave the the the description there of exiting in a healthy way. Like, it wasn't like you had to, you know, like, it was a, like, a divorce. You sold a company. Congratulations. But you still have that moment of like, oh, it might. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What what now? So I I'm excited. What what is now? And I know you have this other company, but, like, What did you use in that moment to fuel forward?
You know, I it's interesting because you really do go through an emotional shift whether you share it with people or you don't share it with people. Like, you're, you know, I who's 3 businesses running at the same time and one you know, as a restaurant. 1 was a, you know, brick and mortar and the e commerce, and then we have the coffee, which is wholesale and e commerce. And it's like, So you're always moving in different directions. Chaz you weren't. Yeah. And it's not pleasant.
And I didn't have people, like, asking me questions. I'll time. So yeah. It's a huge shift. You're like, wait. Like, is this supposed someone's supposed to text me or call me or ask me? It was really redefining what I wanted Yeah. Which wasn't overnight. Like, it took some time. And, like, you know, I was always saying before the sale, like, or dealing during the process is, like, I'm gonna jump into coffee. I'm gonna get it back in.
Like, we're gonna focus on this because coffee was kinda on autopilot. Like, We had the wholesale side. We had the Amazon piece, and it was just, you know, growing slowly. Plug and play. Yeah. Yeah. We didn't have to do a lot, but The flip side of that is if I did spend some time on it, like, we could see it go like this. So, yeah, it was really resetting my priorities. But it was hard.
Like, you wake up in the morning and you're like, I don't have any meetings today or, like, you know, the water heater isn't broken at the restaurant. Right. Right. Especially coming out of an industry like hospitality where there is just constant fires. You know, it's interesting. I I was I was in one of our roundtables just this last week, and this was a question that was asked. And so I'm gonna use that question to ask you the same. The question I was asked was, are you oh, shoot.
I wanna mess it up. He said, are you okay? With no longer being addicted to being needed. I wasn't. Yeah. I wasn't. And that was the biggest shift, like, especially mentally. Now now I am fine with it. And it's actually It's helped me a lot. Right? Like, especially with a new family, like, it's Yeah. Your priority shipped.
And, like, I knew they would shift, but you know, I'm also very driven to succeed and for growth, but that's why I'm reading a book right now, and I'm drawing a blank on the name of it, but it's about, like, partnership and family. It's, yeah, the Wolfe. What is it? The family entrepreneur? Or Okay. Not to look it up, but Okay.
I'll share it with you so you can put it in the show notes, but really good because it was kinda, like, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, and they were setting these false expectations or growth goals. And, eventually, it was a family business. And, eventually, they just broke. Right? And really step back and they're like, why are we creating these false? Goals? Like, what are we happy with? Like, do we really need to grow double this year, 20% this year, or Right.
Can we just sustain where we're at? Which has a huge mindset. So, like, I think in the US, probably worldwide, but, like, entrepreneurs, all you see in the headlines, right, is, like, You need to grow. You need to grow. You need to grow. Grow. Grow. And Right. Raise money and blah blah blah. But Yeah. You know, for a smaller business, It's really looking to see what are you happy with and what where do you need to be? Yeah. Yeah. It's a the growth is always gonna happen in some some area.
What you've described in that that season for you, the growth wasn't necessarily in revenue, but the growth was individually. Your identity, you were inventing yourself, the way that you thought was changing. And so there's always growth. It's just a matter of where we heightened with our attention to be able to, you know, focus on whatever growth is applicable in that moment. I was just telling a an entrepreneur just a couple days ago. It's like, there's 2 There's there's like, okay.
Like, think about, like, okay. We're gathering the kings. Think about, like, wartime and kings. Like, we got actual crowns, and you got your army. I got mine. It's like there's, like, war season. Right? Like, we'd go out. During war season to take ground and and overtake the next town over and take their things and their farm ground and and their ox and cattle and all the stuff. Right?
But if I if I'm always in wartime, if I'm always trying to expand and never cultivating what I took, then eventually supplies run out, resources dry up, the the ground that we took is no longer valuable because we didn't pay attention. We didn't cultivate it. And so there's a season of back and forth, which you gave a beautiful upward picture of. There of being able to navigate the emotion piece of it because but it's real. A 100% real. Right? Right.
I mean, the emotional roller coaster you go through. And I do some breath work, which helps me get through just to think the thought process of it. Yeah. I listened to a podcast last night. It was It was a lady who sold her business after, I don't know, many years, but she decided she wanted to retire. And, you know, kinda went through the same thing. Like, she had an identity crisis. Like, when people, like, you or I asked her, it was like, well, what do you do?
You know, over, like, what do you do? She can't say I'm retired. Uh-huh. Yeah. Like, but Right. So it's interesting. Yeah. It's interesting. How we think it has to be. Where we have these constructs or these these belief frames that were given to us by somebody else most likely, or we just conjure them up ourselves, but many of them are actually true. It's just what our current belief is or our current enlightenment. You know?
Right. I I appreciate your vulnerability in sharing maybe the difficulty of that time. I I think it's, you know, whether the listener has exited and has had that moment or not, the the reality is is that it's not just machine work. It's not like just Chaz a as a successful entrepreneur.
It's numbers and sales and growth and push, push, push, although it there's a lot of that regarding mindset, but also the flip side of that, the mindset is When it's stressful or when it's unknown or when you're reinventing yourselves, sometimes it takes quiet breath work to get through it all. Yeah. Absolutely. Love that. Okay. Tell us about a bad decision, something that it was just not your hottest hour.
Oh, man. I'm sure I I've gotten so many, but, yeah, I think I think the biggest thing my worst decision goes back to that first company that I was a part of. Right? It was there were times where I just went along with it. It went along with the ride and less some of the decisions happen where I shouldn't have.
And I should've I could've probably seen the writing on the wall a little bit sooner than I did, you know, and it was I got sued by the it like, at 29, you know, which isn't it's like, well, Chaz, I guess. But it was a learning experience, and it like, alright. Well, we're going through that. It's a life experience, but on the flip side of that, as you guys know, like, that's where I met my next business partner. I did business partners with him since 2012.
So I think with bad decisions, as long as you handle it properly, good things can come out of that, and it's a good learning experience. Yeah. You know, I I right before we hit the record button, we were talking about a couple of different things, but one of the things that you and I were mentioning was just that, you know, if you do good things long enough, we were talking about podcasting and YouTube and content and stuff.
And You do good things with good intentions in an inconsistent way for a long enough period of time. In essence, you've planted good seeds and and a good harvest will come up. And so that's that's Chaz I'm hearing you say is that even though it was a bad choice of maybe partnering with this individual or maybe not aligning yourself with the right person, you are doing good things for a consistent period of time. And so even though this one little snippet of time wasn't the harvest.
The harvest came later, which it always does. It always always always does. And and so now you've been enjoying not necessarily easy harvest, but you've been enjoying a a great partnership with somebody that you met through a tough tough circumstance. Right? Absolutely. What would you say to the guy listening right now who's maybe in the thick of a bad decision? Like you, like you said, okay. I realized now that maybe I should have paid attention. There were some decisions being made.
Maybe I shouldn't have been dragged along. May like, going back to you in that moment, that guy's listening right now. What do you tell Hey, Kings and Queens. Jazz Wolf. I wanna talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort. We, meaning myself and my team, into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day. And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too.
So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the things. On social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast mediums of Apple and Spotify. We would love to be able to get our content into more hands more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as possible. Together, we are building a community of like minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights. So Let's do this.
Let's help each other. Let's help each other grow. Talk to other people. I think that, like, I harnessed a lot of it myself and on the outside, everything looked rosy, and it looked like everything, you know, with the relationship was good. Chaz ego blinding you, you think? Or was that just like Yeah. For the Jones type feeling? Ah, look at it. I think it's a little bit of a mixture. It's yeah. I think one, it's not understanding how to be vulnerable. I mean, I was in my Oh, right.
Early early twenties, you know, now it's good in my late thirties, and I've learned, like, You can talk to people and other people have gone through Chaz as well. So That's right. Ask questions. And, you know, if you're not sure, ask people. Like, it doesn't have to you don't have to ask your business partner, but ask ask other people that you trust and you can talk to about it. Yeah. And ideally, you do trust your business partner.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm saying, I'm always saying, like, in the bad decision. Yeah. Yeah. No. I'm with you. I'm with you. I just had to make a little poke there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. I talked to my business partner all the time. Yeah. Yeah. I I think that that point of vulnerability is right. And it's also you give a huge little piece there of, like, being just youthful and not really understanding the value of vulnerability or sharing or asking for help raising a hand.
I think that's what actually keeps entrepreneurs stuck for so long. Even if they're not stuck and they're having success, what happens is eventually maybe you can relate to this is that you you isolate yourself. It the, you know, the lonely at the top feeling. And so okay. So I've accomplished all this stuff, and I'm in my twenties or whatever. But I'm all by myself, basically.
I might even be surrounded by a bunch of it, people, team members, family members, whatever, but really in my mind, at the level of decision making that I'm at. I'm by myself because I haven't been vulnerable. I haven't asked for help. I haven't joined you know, a a group, like you said, of ecom business owners where I Chaz, you know, go back and forth. What would you say to that guy who's, like, isolated and all by himself? Join groups.
I mean, this can go back to after I sold the where we sold the companies. It was it there were lonely points. Because it was like you're not needed anymore Yeah. Every day.
So that's actually when, you know, it was a part of other groups, but there's a couple other econ focus groups that I joined, and it's like, whether it's slack or whether it's, you know, work groups or, like, now We have a contingency of probably 25 to 50 ecomm business owners that try to get together once a month for a breakfast or lunch or last night. We had a happy hour, and It's create a community because it's Yeah. You can't do it a lot, and you're gonna be lovely.
Like, a lot of entrepreneurship Yeah. What we see in the press is not on not necessary. Like, there's a lot of businesses that are 1 man businesses, 2 man businesses. That's right. And that could be that can be very lonely. So, like, build your network outside of your business, whether it's friends, family, or ecom groups or masterminds. Yep. Yeah. They're all available. Okay. I wanna I wanna switch over here.
I wanna I'll get to speed round, ask you some kind of not related at all practical questions. Yeah. In in this ecom space, there's coffee space, t space. What's the number one KPI? If you could only pick 1 forever and ever to track, what would you check? That is tough. I think it's lifetime value, especially for coffee because coffee is such a subscribe and safe product. And I know that does not go across the entire ecom. Business, but I have customers that have been with me for 11 years.
And, like, they have my cell phone number. So it's like Wow. If they need something Chaz you caught me, so that says a lot. Like, obviously, there's all these KPIs, whether it's marketing or growth or whatever that you can do. But, yeah, I think the one that probably makes me feel the best or validate the business is the lifetime of the customer. Yeah. Yeah. I think that there's a lot of value in knowing what that value is. It also speaks to a lot of other things going on in the business.
So I I think that's a good one. Good choice. What about a business resource? Podcast, you said you listen to those often, maybe it's a book that you've read, something that you can share that we can go pick up and and get some diver. Yeah. So there's, I mean, there's 2 groups Chaz I'm involved in. Both are Forest 7 and 8 and larger fit your brands. They're both e commerce focused. 1 is e commerce fuel, great network, and there's people who have been in ecom since ecom is born.
So there's people who have seen every aspect. So I love that group for that. The other one that just started probably within the last 6 months to a year is Workspace 6. It's a k. A slack a slack group. And Yep. It's awesome, and that's actually where I was talking about the happy hour last night and breakfast and stuff. Like, it's a group. There's people worldwide, but they've also created city segments. So now it's helped us build that community and, you know, some of us compete.
Some of us are in different businesses, but it's all relative, and we can all share similar stories and Right. Help each other out. Yeah. You just dropped several very easy on ramps that we could probably spend multiple podcasts on, but I wanna try to pick at least 1 or 2 of them you said that I heard you say number 1 that you're in two groups. So there's people listening right now that aren't in any sort of connection or community or mastermind or trade specific type of group.
What would you say to that person? And then the second thing I heard you say was that you that you've gotten value so much so to where you're you're collaborating with competitors. And so is that okay? Aren't they robbing your secrets? I mean, I know they're not, but, like, give us give us your thoughts there. Say the guy that's not part of anything? And then my second question about the competitors. Yeah. The first part, if you're not involved, get involved, it doesn't matter what you joined.
It can be industry specific, or it can be larger. Right? Like, it can. It could be gathering the king. No. It's good. Right. Yeah. Yeah. No. Exactly. It could be gathering the king. You're right. But it's I wasn't I had to I had to the moment, but you you Absolutely. But, no, it's true. It's like just join join something because you're gonna have questions. And if you don't ask him, you're not gonna continue to grow whether it's personal or business. And then what was the second piece?
The your your your competitors are they stealing from you in the groups? Come on. Correct? I mean, there's no secrets in econ. You know, I think I there's not Are there no secrets in business? That's true too. Right? Right? I mean Yeah. We think that they're secrets. It's just things that we just don't know yet. Would you agree? Yeah. Exactly. You know, hide your recipes.
Don't give your recipes away, but You know, I I talked to somebody the other day, and I've Wolfe I've worked on Amazon since 2012, but I said, hey. Do you mind sharing your launch guide so I can see how you do it. And he's like, yeah. Here you go. Hey. You know, it's it's sharing because the world's big enough for all of us to succeed. So it's, you know, and there's actually a competitor Chaz I'm looking at collaborating with to a standpoint. Like, he needs help to roast and some coffee.
I'm like, alright. Well, I'll roast it for you. I Right. You know, so it's I don't know. You Chaz be friendly competitors. Yeah. Yeah. I I think that you've kinda scratched a little section.
I mean, we always hear about, you know, big business owners and their cutthroat, and you watch a movie, you know, like, a founder about, you know, Ray Crock and how he cut off the Mcdonald's brothers and what I have found is that the bigger the business owners typically, not always, but typically the the more success that someone has, the more willing they are to share or to slow down. Secrets. Yeah. I'd agree on that wholeheartedly.
I mean, you look at some of these groups and the people who respond to questions more often than not are the larger businesses. Yeah. When when they don't need to. Resources too. Right. When they don't need to. And they have more resources. Right? Like, they Yeah. If they don't know the answer, they can go to whoever runs Chaz department to understand, like, what the answer is. Yeah. Yeah. It's so true. Okay. Let's get to that family question I was telling you about.
I kinda hinted at my beliefs earlier, but the word balance is is not in my vocabulary. And what I'm what I am a friend of is is obsession. And I know that I've been successful in business because of my obsession, and my, like, my extreme devotion. That's the definition of obsession. And so what I'm trying to do is apply that same extreme devotion to my marriage to my children, to my everything else.
What would you say that you've done alongside of all the things that you've got going on to be obsessed in those areas also? I think it's a work in progress. Amen? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's I'm I'm not the best at it. I try to be. And I wanna be upset. With it. I wanna be there all the time. And, like, as my daughter and, you know, future kids grow, I wanna be at every soccer game or every baseball game or whatever it is and give them the same devotion that I have given to business. Right. Right.
But it's a big mind shift. Like, how about that grade over the last 13 months? Yeah. I think so. Like, I'm there a lot, but Could I do better at some things? Yeah. Yeah. I could. Yeah. Yeah. And no one's perfect. Yeah. But I think in the last months talking to other entrepreneurs and and or people in corporate America, like, I feel like there's some sort of shift going on where it's that family is just as important, if not more important than your business.
So I hope I hope that people can understand that because without your family, you really don't have anything. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. I think the old school, you know, grind because we have to, you know, think about our generation, the generations ahead of time. You know, the the boomers. And then before that, it was basically the depression. And so it's like, okay. Well, there was real survival like, here.
Like, we we need to, like, buckle down and and order for there to even be a family, grandchildren, and so forth. Rent, food on the table, we have to, like, really, really, you know, pay the price here. And so, yeah, you're right. I think that we are reaping a lot of that reward now And so we it doesn't have to be we have to x yz to be able to get, you know, the the same result. And on top of that, technology has allowed us to have leverage.
And so that's the probably the biggest point there is you can still have an incredible econ business. And and make probably ten times as much money as if you didn't know that style of business, but you're just pulling a bigger lever, making more money with less time. Right? So for the entrepreneurs that right now are maybe getting started, they haven't been able to, like, really pull the lever of, you know, there's leverage in building a team.
There's leverage in in duplicating yourself through that team. There's dev there's leverage in knowing how to operate your time. There's leverage in in resources, having money to put into effect, whether that's in other investments or investing in your business. If that guy's not there yet, what do you tell that guy to do? Well, that's hard because we've all been in that situation. You and I have been in that situation. Right? It's Yeah. That's right. There is a component of grinding.
And you That's how you started this podcast. Right. Yeah. Right. And you have to give what it takes, but don't let that pigeon hole you because I think Chaz actually ties into loneliness. Right? Like Yeah. Yeah. If you don't make time for yourself or your family or your friends, You're gonna be miserable. And Right. You're not gonna be successful.
Like, you need to step back at times You know, I listened to a podcast yesterday that was saying that forget if there's a lady or the the host, but they were saying that now they try to get off at 4. And they end their day at 4 every day or at least a couple of days a week because The incremental free time that that gives them to spend with their family is investable product. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. There's there's an understanding there of even just mental health.
I think that category opens us up to a bunch of things that probably I'm not in alignment with. However, here's what I mean is that you have to fight for mental space as an entrepreneur, really as people, but but as entrepreneurs. And so like, having think time on the calendar and being able to step away out of my office environment and put, like, high level thought towards my business or my family or whatever it looks like.
That's that's the the space that we've gotta create that you're talking about, really. Yeah. And what that does, even for someone who works for us, is it gives them the ability to come back tomorrow at a 100 x because not only do we care, but then also in addition, they're just they're just better. As a person in their mind. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I think to that guy or gal that we're talking to, right, like, Listen to people that you trust.
Don't listen, like, don't listen to everything else you hear in the media about entrepreneurship or business or anything. Like, You know, there's a lot of saying, like, don't work in the business. Work on the business. And it's like, well, there's truth to it, but there's also a time period where You do need to work on the or work in the business, and it's gonna happen more often than not. But you're gonna read these books to tell you not to and articles that say not to, and it's Yeah.
Sometimes you just have to do what's necessary. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I I think that that's it's super, super healthy to have that perspective because I'm not only in agreement with you. I've done these things because, you know, you can say, okay. Well, I'm gonna start from the top and build the company down, and I'm gonna pick I'm gonna pick my number 2, and I'm gonna pick my leadership team, and and you can do all that pre revenue if you have resources.
Because it and if you don't, that's okay. You gotta start the business and you start you gotta figure out how to go get the client. And then you gotta service the client, whatever your product or service is, And then once the revenue comes in, the resource, then you can start maybe putting some pieces of the puzzle in place, but there's gonna take just a moment in time where maybe that's 2 weeks, maybe that's 2 years. I don't know.
But I think that once you know some of these things, you know, the puzzle can actually be put together quite a bit faster, but it's still the same pieces if that Right. Yeah. I agree with you. I also think one thing that I did not adhere to, which is probably a bad decision of mine at one point, was make sure you're paying yourself. So let you know some sort of wage because Yeah.
Most entrepreneurs will put other people first or try to grow their teams before they're ready to or don't have it or they're not paying themselves. Yeah. Yeah. No. It's true. There's a there's an angle there for sure. For the listener who's not paying themselves, but there's money there. Like, there's a difference between, like, early stages. There's no money. I'm grinding. I'm delaying gratification That's not what we're talking about.
We're talking about you have a business and there is money, but you're not paying yourself a salary for what it is the work that you're doing. And but you are paying someone else's salary. And that's like, okay. Well, wait a second. You're the owner. You're doing work, but then there's ownership. So there's a whole another mindset there around how the business is structured and how things are paid, but That's a great point.
I'm so interested now because of your perspective of exiting on what you're gonna say. My question is this. If you have the opportunity to whisper in the younger Craig's ear. What would you say? Wow. That's a good one. Probably believe Please what? Because well, I think, you know, there's a lot of people who tell you you can't do it.
There's a lot of people who tell you this isn't gonna work or, like, when I was having that issue in the first company, like, Family was there, but other people were like, why are you doing it's like, why would you leave? Like, you know, and it's like, if you feel it, Really just believe in your gut and believe in yourself that you're going to make the right decision. Yeah. Yeah. Chaz if I had to boil all success down to one thing, I think that would be it. It also takes the right answer.
Yeah. I know. Well, the answer I mean, yeah, I guess I would probably be of similar mind is what I'm saying. The answer could be whatever you want. Actually it's funny. I'll say this I'll say this for the first time on the air, but one of my team members who's part of the production team, she was like, hey. I've heard you ask a similar question like this Like, a lot of times, what what's your answer? I'm like, by Bitcoin, by apple, by you know, she was like, no. No. What's the real answer?
I'm like, okay. Correct. Yeah. I think you have a great job there of of helping us understand what the real meaning of it is, and and and it really is belief because belief then spurs into the decision, which then spurs into persistence, which in person, you know, all the things that you've done after all that to then have the success that you've had. So all you can't have any of that without first having that that conviction or the belief that you had in yourself. So I appreciate Sharon.
Craig, okay, couple things. Gotta we gotta I need to know how to find your coffee and your tea and anything else that you're associated to. I need to know how to find you because maybe I'm listening right now and I wanna connect with Craig, and I think he's a cool guy. How can we find you? Yeah. Super easy. So my email is craig@craigblessley.com. Feel free to reach out to me there at linkedin. It's just craigblessley. And then the coffee websites are sandiegocoffy.com.
That one should be pretty easy. And then the other one is the bean coffeecompany.com. And then we also have a very, very small brand, but in my opinion, some of the best Spice blends in the Wolfe, It's called Lux Spice. That one, you can get on Amazon. So Okay. Lux Spice. Go and support. And my past company, LONO Lite, which is how did bone broth. So yeah. There you go. Lots of steps you can eat and drink. I was gonna say lots of consumables you might just get us hooked. I don't know.
Maybe we'll be on a subscription. There we go. That that's ideal. That's ideal. That's right. I was gonna say you already said it, so I appreciate that. Craig, you've been incredible, man. I I love your story. I love your vulnerability. Just sharing some of those moments there, success, and failure, but I'm glad that I personally know you, and I'm thankful that you were here to share some value. We wish you nothing but blessing and success in in all that you have your hands to.
And probably all the new other things that eventually you end up doing at another point in your life. So, yeah, one day. I appreciate you being here. Yeah, Chaz. Thanks so much. It was a lot of fun. 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 doing it all on your 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 1 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done.
We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy. So if that relates and and resonates with you, and you know that you need people around you sharp, qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com.
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.