On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. What do you think now being someone uber successful, maybe on the other side of the track, if you will? If someone showed up at your business or someone showed up at your house wanting to basically be you, a younger version of you in the beat up Pontiac, What's your perspective on that person? What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe gathering the Kings podcast. Today, I've got Dustin Parker here on the King stage. My brother, how are we doing? Great.
I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah, brother. I'm so, thankful that you're here. You, are a freaking king. Let's just say it like that because that's what we're that's what we're talking about here. But, dude, you're crushing the game, and I'm excited for this conversation. And, I think you're gonna bring a ton of value because you got a lot going on, man, like a lot of them. And so tell us what kind of business that you have.
Yeah. Our I say our because my my wife and I are are partners in our businesses, but our primary business is a real estate brokerage. That we started a few years ago, and we have layered on several other ancillary businesses kind of around that. But we we spend most of our days kinda managing our our real estate brokerage and growing things in this crazy market. I love it, man. And like you said, crazy market, there's been some, you know, high highs.
Maybe not necessarily low lows recently, but there's been some uncertainties. I'm sure we can talk about how you've navigated some of Chaz. But before we do, I I'd love to know, actually, this is kind of like a twofold answer for you because you've already introduced the fact that you guys do it together, a husband and Wolfe. And and that's different than not doing it together. I mean, for obvious reasons, but I wanna know from like a like a burning desire perspective, What's in it for you?
What's the bigger picture for Dustin? What wakes you up? And then same question for the 2 of you, for the entity of of 2. Yeah. So it probably would help to give you kind of a bit of our origin story, I guess. So we were my wife and I were both teachers about 7 or 8 years ago.
And we were enjoying life as teachers, and she was pregnant with our first child at the time, our little girl, Avery, and we thought that we love teaching, but we need a little extra income to support the lifetime that we wanted to to be able to provide for her. And so kind of on a whim, I signed up for the real estate course, not knowing a about it, not knowing what I was getting into, and just kinda fell in love with it really quickly.
And I got my license actually almost the exact same day that our little girl was born. We plan to do it part time. I I started first, and then Rachel kinda followed me a few months later. And things just kinda took off for us. We loved it, and we were very coachable, I think. And we just started doing some things that were a little bit unique in our market, and We had to make the decision after about a year of of trying to juggle both, which direction we wanted to go.
And, obviously, we chose real estate in We just love that entrepreneurship, the building of business, the being able to do things together, and kinda grow something and and help those around us. And so that That's kinda wakes us up every day. That's awesome, man. There's obviously a couple layers there because you were helping people before, obviously, as teachers, obviously, you gotta have a heart for helping people to be a teacher, but it looks completely different in real estate.
And so you kinda mentioned entrepreneurship, maybe like a flexibility or a freedom to maybe do things together as opposed to separate. Even if you were teaching in the same school, it would have been, you know, somewhat siloed, you know, different. Is that what you're talking about as far as that level of, like, doing it differently now because you're still helping people, or is it the layer, like, that you get to help people specifically with real estate? Is it with their investments?
Is there more to the story there? Yeah. I think I think for us, we've always really just been passionate about our community. My family's been in the same area for, like, 9 since the harrods run deep in Lower Delaware where we where we primarily do our business. And so, obviously, teachers create tremendous impact in the community and and change the lives of of young people and our future leaders and business owners and and doctors and everything else.
But the thing I really like about real estate and just business generally is that we can impact people in our community kind of in a different way. By having some success in real estate, you know, we're able to give a ton back to local nonprofits and organizations. A big part of our focus with our team is service community service.
And so almost every week, every other week, every month, we're doing something, whether it's a habitat for humanity build, We're hosting some sort of a fundraiser for a local charity. We're involving ourselves as much as we possibly can into the community, and we're able to do that now more at scale because, you know, we have, a pretty large team of people that that can join us in this journey, and and they all have giving hearts too. And I just think that Yeah.
When you're really surround yourself with that that type of personality that you can really do a lot of good in a small community. Yeah. I I love that. I think we're getting to and the reason why I'm pressing on you here is because I think that a lot of entrepreneurs wanna help people. I think a lot of entrepreneurs wanna make more money. Like, all those things are great. But when you start getting into now another layer here of, okay, works community driven.
It's our roots are here for centuries or decades, you know, Now we're talking about, like, deep seated. This is who I am identity. You know? Do you think that, you know, you would say now it's almost like a a fulfillment or, like, like, this is what you were made for. Is real estate what you're made for, or is just community building what you're made for? How would you answer that question?
Yeah. It's funny you ask because I I sometimes ask myself the same question, and I don't think I was made for real estate specifically. I like real estate, and it's a it's a it's a great business to be in. I mean, it's been very good to us, but I think more than anything, I like the journey of entrepreneurship. You know, I like building things and Yeah. One of the one of the most exciting phases in a business, I think, is that kind of beginning phase where things are kinda messy.
You're trying to figure out your identity. You're trying to build your team, and that probably is it's one of the primary reasons why we keep adding businesses as crazy as that sometimes may be. That's because we just really like building things and then and then building that team around it. And so I I would say that's that's probably more of my passion than than it would be specific just to real estate. Yeah. Yeah. I love that.
There's a there's a technical difference here, right, where you don't have to necessarily love what you do. Although I I wouldn't suggest doing something that you hate every day, but there there are certain people and and kind of the there's books, Emith, being one of them kind of breaks down maybe the technician that actually has to love what he does and and more of the owner operator or or entrepreneur where it's just like, look. I just wanna do business. I just wanna build. Right?
So this is this is a good mindset shift for the listener because they might be just building a business because they love that particular task. Maybe they haven't graduated or or understood that they need to be a business person, and more maybe they don't want to be. And that's how they would grow, though, is to find a person like you or me, you know, to come in and love business or love building.
Do you think that there was a specific moment that where you had this realization of, like, your identity was more in a builder than it was as a real estate guy? Yeah. I think so. So in our market, you know, we we're kind of an interesting market where we have the resort, vacation home, And then we also, a little further inland, have that very much traditional long term, I wouldn't say low end, but middle middle priced market as well.
And what I saw as I kinda entered the real estate field was, you know, there was people locally that I really looked up to in their production and just how they ran their businesses and the things that they were doing. But for the most part, what I didn't necessarily envy is that some of those people that were the biggest producers and and some of them ranked nationally selling 3 or 400,000,000 a year in real estate, they're still very much the practitioners in their business.
And so I think that Wolfe I enjoy, you know, blowing on listing appointments and certainly helping buyers and sellers and doing all the things that real estate agents do. I think if you're always the practitioner in the business Chaz limits the potential growth that you may be able to have, you know, as as great as someone like an Elon Musk is at coding. He's not coding every business that that he's involved with. Right.
Because he just couldn't, you know, and he can't scale if he continued to be practitioner. And so I think it was it was a point where I had reached a a a fairly successful amount of production personally, and then and then what our team where I said, we can do this forever and make a lot of money.
And so, you know, a couple $100,000,000 in real estate every year, or we can try to expand and do some different things and and bring other businesses into this, but that's gonna require me to likely get out of production and not be that top producer within our own company. Yeah. It's interesting. This this same kinda almost three steps that you just took us through.
I wanna highlight them for anybody who's in real estate listening, but then also really, this applies to sales in general or really I Chaz even take as far as just business, but you have the single salesperson, or in this case, a real estate agent, Then you have somebody who is a top producer, but also maybe has a small team or has a team. And then you have the realization that I can do more, the lever that I can pull if I get out of production altogether, even though I'm the top producer.
Is is a totally different mindset shift, and it and it actually has to be for somebody who wants to pull that lever. Right, because that lever is systems and people management, leadership, you know, growing locations, growing the team, like, a whole different puzzle to put together and solve, and somebody might really like being the top producer. Somebody might really like having the top producer position and having a a team of 3 or 10 or 20 agents, but they like the competition.
They like having their name on the scoreboard. And that's okay, but what what I'm hearing you say is that that third step is that you gotta be okay with giving that up to pull the the next lever, which is more of the scaling operations SOPs, you know, putting teams of 10 together, not just a team of 10 together. Yeah. Yeah. And it's really just kind of In some ways, it's almost like getting off the hamster wheel.
You know, if you're the top producer and the entire company is dependent upon your production, you really can't have a bad day or a bad month because everybody may reveal it. And, you know, as a as a leader who's not in production, you still can't have a ton of bad days in a row. You know, you're still responsible to motivate and inspire and build systems and everything else that that go to business.
But, you know, if I am, I still have a sales team out there that's still rocking and rolling and selling houses and doing great things and And that allows me then to refocus my energy on things that are gonna allow it to do those things better and then at scale. Yep. Yeah. I love that. I wanna know just a little bit of your story. You kinda gave us the snapshot of we were teachers and then we became real estate agents and then we crushed it, but give us a little bit more detail in there.
Why did you wanna transition out of teaching to begin with and tell us about those 1st couple of years. Yeah. I think probably, like, most kids in college I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, to be honest with you, when I was in college, my undergraduate degrees in foreign policy and international relations. And so for for the first conscious areas of of my working life.
I was actually running political campaigns and kind of a political junkie and and going through that circuit a little bit. Which was fun and exciting, and there's a lot of crossover between that and real estate in terms of prospecting and door knocking and doing all those types of things.
Sure. Yeah. But I also, you know, I saw both sides of of the political arena, the good and the bad and the ugly and and everything kind of in between and probably got a little bit burnt out and jaded in that life. And so while I was trying to kinda figure out what was next, I always had some interest in teaching and and being around kids and helping them grow and kinda being a mentor for them. And so it seemed like a a logical next step for me.
I have some teachers in my family and people that have worked in the school systems, and so it seemed just like something that was almost kinda like the safe thing to do at the time. So I went back and got a master's degree so I was able to enter the classroom and do that. And I did enjoy it.
I think the challenges that teachers face are are certainly underpaid, you know, and that's that's something that maybe isn't talked about enough, but there's for as much as they're evaluating the expectations that they have in the classroom, outside the classroom nights weekends and everything else, they're certainly not compensated as they should, and that's, I think, so. That should certainly be addressed. But the other piece to it was there was a year.
It was actually my last year of teaching where I was able to get my kids to score number 1 in the entire state for our subject in our in our state testing. Wow. Hoping we were super proud of, you know, and And, really, the kids were just it was an incredible group of kids, and so they made my job somewhat easy from that regard. But at the same time, you know, I'd I'd kinda had that achievement. And my administrators at the time were like, great job.
You know, they were they were certainly congratulatory, but do it again next year. And for someone that I think is is motivated by progress and trying to find better ways to do things and growth, I think that was a little bit disheartening because, you know, as most teachers know, that doesn't come with pay raise in most cases. It doesn't come with any extra benefits.
And if you were interested in climbing any type of a ladder in education, then your next step is an administration, which in itself is also limiting. And so I just felt like I was kind of constrained in that field a little bit. I couldn't do and have as much impact as maybe I would have liked to have. I didn't feel like the reward system was necessarily there either. And so Yeah. We were just kinda searching. My wife and I, the time for what what what does kinda fit what we're looking for.
And we know that, you know, income was important to us. Having a little girl, weddings aren't Chaz. And so that was a that was certainly a component to it, but what is a limitless career that we could get into where we can kinda work as hard as we can and and really achieve the results that we wanna achieve based on that work. And real estate was was kind of the thing that was presented to me at the time. And when I when I jumped into it, I just it didn't take long.
It was really by the time I got my first sale under my belt, which was probably 3 or 4 months in, I was I was hooked. You know, I had never in my life gotten a check that was, I think, at the time, that that commission was 5 or $6000. And that was the biggest lump sum of money I'd ever received in my life. You know, I grew up very a middle class, and it always worked, like, retail and restaurants and different things Chaz a kid growing up.
And Yeah. I think that kind of that gave me the drive and the motivation to then explore what possibilities could exist in this realm and and in others in business. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. So the so the hunger was ignited. It was. Yeah. Absolutely. Actually, I think that that's a a fairly true perspective of even a little bit of my story, but, you know, humble beginnings, but restaurants and you know, retail, selling shoes and stuff like that, but that was all, like, itty bitty stuff.
And then you get into a position where it's like, okay. Well, I'm I'm frustrated with this. So I'm gonna I'm gonna really just try to go for it in this other thing, and it looks really, really hard and and Mine wasn't real estate, but it was, you know, advertising sales and cold calls and, you know, hundreds of calls a day, and it's like, Chaz was really scary at nineteen years old. And it's like, but the possibility of something that I had never imagined was there.
And it's like, What do I have to lose? It's kind of what I felt like from you. It's like, what do I have to lose? Yeah. And I was I was terrified, to be honest with you. Completely terrified because my My family and and most of my friends come from a background of, like, you need stability. You have to have a safety net. You need benefits. You need a retirement plan. And All of those things are well and great, but, you know, there's there's limitations in golden handcuffs.
I think sometimes they go with that too. So because I was so terrified, we actually We sold our nice house, and we bought a total fixer upper. I think we paid $62,000 or something for it at the time and did a lot of a lot of the work ourselves in it. We sold our nice cars, and we bought beaters. We kinda went the, like, the old school Dave Ramsey style.
And it was a it was sometimes a little bit intimidating to show up in a in a beat up Pontiac sunfire to a listing appointment for a $800,000 house, but I think in some ways, it was it was endearing to sellers. You know, they saw the grit. They saw the determination and Yep. That was that was what we needed at the time to be able to make that leap.
Yeah. Yeah. That's actually a a pretty huge point, which in real estate is so funny because there's a lot of times people feel like they do have to the flashy car to show up to the $800,000 house to make be able to feel like they're up here and be able to get, you know, on that level. But what you just said is I actually think probably more true than what people give credit to. What do you think now being someone you know, Uber successful, maybe on the other side of the track, if you will.
If someone showed up at your business or someone showed up at your house wanting to Basically, BU, a younger version of you in the beat up beat up Pontiac. What's your perspective on that person? Yeah. I I think I have that that same feeling towards them. I still today. We drive we drive Kias, you know, nothing flashy. I just cars are not something that I think is a is ever a good investment.
You know, it's certainly fun if that's what you're passionate about, but I I'm always more interested in the person that showed up in the beater than the one that showed up in the Maserati, you know, and then I always, in my in my head, whether it's fair or not, I tell my my own story about that person. You know? Yeah. I imagine how they got the Maserati and probably not in the best way is is where my mind goes.
But then I think about the kid and the beater and maybe the sacrifices that they made to get where they are or where they're coming from from not much at all. Yeah. I mean, the honest truth is that that guy with the Maserati could have been in the position 4 of grit and and all that stuff, but but we don't know. I think that your perspective on that situation is probably one that many hold. I loved how you framed it, though, is that that's the story that you tell yourself.
And this is when you get into psychology and you get into your beliefs, You start recognizing that that we tell ourselves stories when when something happens, whether what's happening is true or not, like, it's it's dependent upon what story that we're telling ourselves. And so there is a story that's going on in your head about that guy with the Maserati, but we'll leave that to the side for now with the because you and I both are the guy in the beater. Right?
Like, I remember those moments showing up and, really, it wasn't even so much the the the I mean, it was definitely a Peter. I just but I wasn't worried about other people thought. I was worried about getting there because I didn't have money enough money for gas. And so you there's a a down to earthness or a wholesomeness. I think that that guys like you and I hold where when I look at value to your point.
There's people that kinda, like, throw the flash, the Lambrose, the nice things, the cars, and all those things Chaz, like you said, they're fun. Like, I have no no judgment against that. I just think in investment terms, like you, or it's like, man, that same money could have been put towards fill in the blank, for me, it's gonna be most likely, you know, legacy or community building or or something that's just gonna my future self is gonna thank me for it. Right. Absolutely.
Yeah. And it's and, you know, everybody has their vices and things that they enjoy. And so there's certainly a judgment for those that do that, but every time I I look at a Maserati or something drive by, I think, man, that could have been 22 rental properties, you know, and and Yes. Think about the value and the return that we get on that compared to to the Maserati, and then what then impact you can create from the income that you make from those running properties.
And so I try to take that thought process a couple steps down the line, like you said, and think about my future self and which one would be happier with the choice that I make. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Do you think I mean, because what we're what we're talking about, the principles here are delayed gratification. We're talking about discipline. We're talking about having goals. And then, obviously, you've been using that blame himself or delayed gratification to then achieve the goals.
Is this something that you just, like, stumbled across? Have you read books? Do you have a mentor or coach? Like, what what can the listener do to get on the the the obsession level that you and I, but you have displayed? Yeah. So I this was not something that was natural to me probably when I was in in school. You know, it was kind of a goofball. Actually got arrested for fighting, like, C student, like, not the ideal high school student at the time.
And and I was also, believe it or not, about a £130 heavier than I am today, you know, so just kind of a a mess as a whole. But I think for me, when things started to shift a little bit is when I went to college, because my parents did insist that I at least make an attempt in going to college, which I'm I'm grateful for. I was kinda on my own. You know, we were, like I've mentioned before, kind of a middle class family. And so if I wanted to go to college, I had to pay for it.
And Yeah. As soon as the as soon as I started getting those bills and realized that this is now my responsibility, I I quickly went from a a goofy c student to someone who was working really hard to get b's and a's in college and and to graduate. Yeah. Wolfe from there. So I think that's really where I started with just kind of that responsibility being put in my lap.
And then as we, you know, as my wife and I kinda progressed in our careers, just generally, We always have had a passion for for learning as adults and grabbing books and finding podcasts and different things that are that are inspiring to us is is a big part of our daily life. I think the the one that maybe had the biggest impact in kind of for me, I felt like gave me the permission to leave teaching and and jump in the business, was reading the 4 hour week, actually, by Tim Ferris.
Yeah. When you read that, it's just like, wow. You just you think that the possibilities are endless. And I think so many people that are in that 9 to 5 grinds and they just have that employee mindset, they don't think it's possible.
And and and they think the risk is too great, which one of the things I think the 4 hour work we teaches us so well is that the risk is actually greater by staying in a job that you don't love for your whole life than you know, being seventy or eighty years old and looking back and thinking, man, I wasted 20 or 30 years of my career that, you know, maybe I fail.
You know, maybe I jump into something fail, but I didn't try, you know, and I think it's always if you have an itch to do something else or you don't love the thing that you're doing, I'm not saying be dumb and just sell everything right away or or just jump into something without thinking it through first, but You should take the risk.
You should take the gamble, especially while you're young, because worst case scenario, and you fail, and you can go back to whatever it was you were doing before, or you can build something else. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. It's really good perspective. What do you think that because in that moment for you reading that book, really, it was optimism of Wow. Look at all the possibilities. And and you were not an entrepreneur at that time or maybe just beginning.
And so someone listening right now, they've already made the jump to entrepreneurship, but they still have the construct of 9 to 5 in my business or that I have to be the one, you know, being the technician, like we talked about a little bit ago, there's certain belief frames that we have just because of our parents or what we've learned in school or whatever the scenario is. And so I guess It's it's optimism that gave you hope, but if someone read that and was like, that's not possible.
Only 4 hours a week or, you know, obviously, he breaks down several principles, but What would you say that that person who didn't just naturally think, woah, and kinda almost get captured by the wonder of optimism? Like, how did they get there? Yeah. So I always tell people, especially as they're just entering real estate that and most of them, of course, do come from 9 to 5 jobs.
If you just treat real estate like a 9 to 5 job, you will be successful, and that's the problem with so many real estate agencies. They get into real estate because they want the flexibility and they wanna, you know, Right. Go more vacations and do all these different things and all that's great.
But if you just show up to your brokerage every day, at 9 o'clock and you work until 5 o'clock and you spend time around people in the office that are successful and are doing the things that you hope to achieve, It's just gonna rub off on you, and and you're gonna have success. And we see so many agents that come into the industry, and they They start that way. They have that mindset initially.
And what they don't realize is those 1st 3 to 6 months, you feel like you're grinding and you're making no money. And that's just how this business works. It's a it's a little bit longer selling cycle than if you're selling retail or if you're at a drawn or something, and you do have to grind for those 3 to 6 months relentlessly before you start to see those rewards. And people that do, the people that continue to show up 9 to 5 every day for those those 3 to 6 months.
I haven't seen one of them fall off and not be successful after that. It just It requires the same effort and energy that you may have put into your previous job in real estate, and you can't just, you know, wake up at 11 o'clock every day and say, oh, I don't like, going to work today because you don't have a boss, but you kinda do. I mean, it's it's yourself and your family. People that you're gonna disappoint if if you don't show up and do the things that you need to do.
Yeah. Yeah. That perspective of changing the boss to some other person to yourself or your spouse or even your children, is a huge shift that, like you said, most people don't make, even if they're not agents and they're just listening right now and they're in marketing or, you know, they're a contractor or, you know, whatever. The it's discipline. We go back to one of the things that you mentioned earlier, and that was kinda pulling out from what you were sharing with us.
But, like, that is a that Chaz an extreme power to to hold yourself accountable or to allow circumstances like spouse family children to hold you accountable because, man, we get up and we're rushing to work across town and hurry up quick. I don't wanna be late, and we're slipping into the office. For for someone else, but as soon as as soon as we get the freedom to be our own boss, we schedule meetings at 10 instead of 8 or whatever.
And so I think I think there's kind of like two pieces here because you've said that there that there is freedom, that there is a, like, a whole another life when it comes to business ownership and that the possibilities and the optimism of a 4 hour work week or really just freedom is really what it is. And it's like, okay.
Well, that is possible, but for a period of time, especially as a salesperson, that's because really what a a sales or a real estate agent is, Chaz well as a brand new entrepreneur, you're building a sales pipeline. Absolutely. And if you don't do that for a consistent period of time, over a long period of time, you can't sit where where Dustin is and and be able to have the success because he's just he's just built the pipeline consistently enough and long enough. Would you would you agree?
Would you add anything? Hey, Kings and Queens. Chaz Wolf. I wanna talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort. We, meaning myself and my team, into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day. And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too.
So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the things on social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast mediums of Apple and Spotify. We would love to be able to get our content into more hands, more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as 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. Help each other.
Let's help each other grow. Yeah. A 100%. And and just to clarify too, we I'm still very much in in the grind, but I it's the grind that I enjoy. You know, I've never worked a 4 hour work week, and I think Tim Ferris says that in this podcast and other things.
That's not the intent is to get you to work 4 hours a week is to really optimize your time and to be efficient with your time and to think about maybe different or or more creative ways to do things to get to get more out of the effort that you're putting in. And so Yeah. It's leverage. It is. It's leverage.
And I'm, you know, I'm still putting in 40, 50, 60 hours a week, depending on what's going on right now, but I I always tell our agents too because now that I'm not in some of the business that they're doing now 7 years later is business that I began prospecting at that time.
And it is incredible to see that that I remember, like, being on the phones and calling the expired listing or for sale by owner or something and and generating that pipeline at the time of people that really had no interest in selling. But I was relentless in my follow-up. I would call them every single week or month or whatever the cadence was that was appropriate for that person for literally years. And eventually, They they came back around. They're ready. Venture, they're ready. You know?
And and most salespeople, regardless of the industry, I think they say almost all salespeople fall off after that second or third or 4th call. And it's Oh, yeah. And it's the ones that keep grinding. They get all of the money, all the reward, and and really keep those clients in the long run. Yeah. It there's a there's a magic at some point that happens where not only do they eventually need who sell and they remember you and call you. But then once they experience you, then they refer you.
And then, like, you know, like magic, like 2 or years later, they need they need to sell again. And I was just talking to a guy yesterday. Actually, I spoke at an event here in Kansas City, and he's in the assigned industry, but commercial, like, schools and and some businesses, but he's like, you know, it's funny because I didn't know this years ago when I started, but superintendents in schools.
You maybe you know this because you've been in that industry they've only got about a 3 to 5 year, like, set down before they then bump over to another opportunity. And he's like, so I started building relationships genuinely because that's just kinda who I am. And, yeah, I'd get a sale here, sale there, and, you know, kind of a growth thing building the pipeline we're talking about.
He's like, but a couple years later, they moved to another school district And now they're now they got multiple schools, and they remembered me because I stayed in touch with them over this last couple of years. He's like, so I'm getting business left and right because I just made I didn't even make that many contacts.
He's like, I made a lot, but in the grand scheme of things, not really, but I should make some really good, thoughtful, and and great connections that I've kept in touch with, built relationships with, and as they move around every 3 to 5 years, here comes a whole new gob of business. And it's like, man, for someone to be able to do what you're saying, which is, like, to do the action today knowing that maybe there's a reward the next week or 2 or 3 or month or 2 or 3. Like, like, okay.
I'm gonna sell the house this one. But to really have that bigger perspective of, I'm gonna gain a relationship that's gonna I'm gonna sell 3 to 8 houses associated to this one individual over the next 7 to 12 years. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And it's amazing. You never know when you plan a seat, really, what's gonna come of it. And I've seen this happen so many times, and that's why I always encourage you know, our agents and sales reps really to don't be afraid to work for free.
You know, I've given investors and other businesses and and clients so much of my time that I think for the average person Wolfe say, well, I didn't get anything in return for it. You know? And for me, that's, like, I don't sweat it at all because Yep. I know eventually something will come back to me good from that relationship. And Yeah. It it happens every day.
You know, there's people that that I gave, you know, or maybe I helped facilitate a sale for them at some point for for no money at all. Or I was connecting them with someone else and and, you know, You don't expect those things necessarily to come back to immediately, but they find their way back to somehow some way almost every time.
Yeah. Yeah. I think for just a really easy example for people to see in my own life is that the fact that they're this name of this podcast, I don't we at the current moment, 300 and something episodes in, we have no sponsors. We've just totally done this out of, I wanna shake hands with incredible people. And, yes, some of them after, being on the show and we really hit it off. They're like, I wanna know what you're doing with your mastermind group, and many of them have joined.
I've had some that have been like, this is awesome. You're great. I have no interest in that, but we've gotta do a deal together. Or I hear the stuff that you're doing with families and and and pressing into marriages and how that ties to business. I wanna Like, let me know about your next family mastermind event. I wanna go to Bermuda with you guys. Or I have dinner in New York 2 weeks ago with big daddy, Rich Sagalo, Sagado, who's on Fox, who's on my podcast.
And I would I mean, I'd eaten a $400 stake with this guy. Like, Just shaking a hand of a guy who's who's got a much bigger network than I do. You know? Regardless of what happens in the moment, or even shortly thereafter, knowing that, like you said, good seeds planted always reap a good harvest. Right? Yeah. Absolutely. It's It's never a bad thing to provide value to people, I think, ever, you know, regardless of the income or money around it.
And that's how that's how we feel just about our community and the nonprofits that we were involved with as well. If we can provide value, there's Chaz you're not gonna regret you know, even if you don't make anything from it, nothing comes from it, you're gonna feel better about yourself, which in turn, is gonna help you do more and be more productive and and be a higher achiever and to grow and progress in ways that you don't even understand yet.
Yeah. This is all really, really almost cliche items, but their mindset tricks and hacks that, you know, some people don't have, and they wonder how you operate at such a high level. And Dustin's giving you the secret right now. Like, you're going and giving time, pouring into potential prospects, but also people that have nothing to do with your business whatsoever. Those seats come back to, and and it's all about intent too.
Like, I can't go volunteer with, like, the hidden motive behind me that, like, you know, I better get something from this at some point. It's like, no. No. No. Go serve. Just go love on people, man, and and people recognize the difference, even though you might be literally doing the same thing, the action of serving food or working on a on a home that is gonna be presented to a family doesn't have one like I've done many times or whatever.
It's like, your heart in the matter, I guess, is really what we're talking about. Your intent, it shines through more than most people realize. Right? Yeah. It really does. And and like you said, you can tell when someone's doing it for the wrong reasons. And that's not a good feeling. You know, it doesn't make the people that that are receiving whatever it is that you're providing feel good about themselves either, and it's almost worse to do that than than just to do nothing all. You know?
And if if you don't have a heart to serve, whatever it is that you're you're passionate about, then then don't do it and find something else that you are passionate about because it's just It's not effective when you're not doing it for the right reasons. Yeah. Love that. Okay. I wanna get into some practical stuff that you've done in the business.
We've talked about a lot of great things that you've done a lot of mindset and a lot of conceptual, just like grit things, which I I just I could live in that space. Sounds like we could both just have a party over there with mindset and grit, but I wanna know some practicals. What's a good decision that you've made in the business while growing and scaling that we could duplicate in our own businesses?
The first decision I made in in the business really was probably maybe one of the most influential and and impactful for me, and it was the higher real estate coach And so when I got into the business, I knew very little about real estate. It didn't come from, like, a real estate family or background or anything like that. I had bought and sold, I think, at the time, 2 houses, and so that was my total experience in real estate at the time.
And I entered a brokerage of very kind, very sweet, very nice people, but the average age in that brokerage was probably 75. And it was a very small shop who had been around for a 100 years, and it was just, I think, if someone in my family said, hey. Why don't you go check them out? Because they're they're good people.
And And I did, and I don't regret that experience, but it didn't take me very long to realize that if I wanna really scale and grow a business, then I'm gonna need some help beyond what they're able to provide because they're they're very knowledgeable about contracts and agenda and all that. Little things that go into real estate, which are super important, but none of them have ever sold the amount of real estate that I envisioned myself selling.
And so I found someone else just that I happen to be connected with recommended Tom ferry, who's who's probably the biggest coach in in our industry. Yeah. And so I I did the free call, you know, the talk to a coach. And my wife and I, because we we were considering leaving teaching at that time and just a little girl, we had no money. And we literally, like, we're scraping together pennies to be able to pay for our first coach. I think the cost was 5 or $6000.
And when we wrote that check, we didn't have anything else. And so in some ways, it was like, a motivation that, hey. We are going to go up and we are going to do all of the things that this person tells us to do because we can't afford not to. Yeah. And we were very coachable. We were, you know, what I liked specifically about this coaching program in particular is You know, we live in rural, Delaware, which is kind of an old school area.
You know, people have been doing things kind of the same way for 20 or 30 or 40 years, and You know, we're seeing an influx now from some of the neighboring metropolitan areas, and it's changing pretty quickly. But at the time, some of the things that they were doing out in Southern California and and New York City weren't even thought of here.
And so if we just kinda did some of those things that they were already doing here, We were innovators, and we were we were so different than all of our competitors. And that really gave us a leg up pretty quickly, and it it became apparent, I think, when we started seeing other people doing the exact same things that we were doing. You know? Yeah. Yeah. It worked for us. And having a coach, I is is really probably the best decision that we made as we got into business. Love that.
Love the transparency too of, you know, the financial situation. Oftentimes I found even in myself, even even in moments where it wasn't the last penny, but because I put up a sum and sometimes a large enough sum Mhmm. Where I'm like, Wolfe, I'm not gonna do this for no reason. And I'm gonna go all in. That's kinda our personality anyway, I think.
But when you when you attach a dollar amount to it or a rather large dollar amount, It's oftentimes what allows for the rest to really play out because if I don't, then it's kinda like, yeah, one way or the other does really matter, but when I'm all in, like, I'm gonna do the work. I'm gonna listen. I'm gonna be coachable. All these things Chaz I've heard you give us. What about a bad decision? You've had lots of opportunities.
I'm sure for that, but give us some super practical wasn't the best hour, and you wouldn't recommend doing it. Yeah. That list is probably much longer than the successes, but it's I I think one of the most challenging things for us has has always probably been hiring and then managing the people that you hire.
And especially as the job market has changed over the last 2 or 3 years, and living in a pretty rural area, finding talent is is a challenge because oftentimes there's just not a lot to pull from. And if we are pulling We can find some local town or we're trying to pull from neighboring metropolitan areas, but now we're convincing someone to uproot their entire life and move to us. And and change everything for for a job that, you know, at a small company that they don't know a ton about.
And so that's been, I think, a bit of a challenge for us is just finding top your talent to continue to help us grow. We've been really fortunate in that we have a tremendous team around us, but never having managed people really before this is all you know, we're kinda learning on the job and just a lot of reading books.
It's a lot of listening to podcasts and and trying to emulate what others that we have respect for due, but we're still, every day, are learning and trying to figure out how to best do that. You know, whether it's figuring out our time off policy, which we just had a meeting about yesterday, or how to maximize the potential out of someone that we know has more potential than what they're displaying.
And, you know, there's just so much that goes into managing people that you you can't know until you're in it. Yeah. Yeah. It's a it's a whole pool. What would you say in that pool of just like leading people. Like you said, you'd you'd not manage people up until now. Is there one, like, quick, like, oh, man, if you could get good at this, this will help so much when comes to leading other people. Is there a little little tip that you can give us?
I think for us, one of the most successful things that we've done as it relates to that specifically is we created an advisory board within our company. And so that advisory board is made up of of agents and staff And specifically, we try to find people in in different areas of focus within those two groups. It also includes one of our affiliate businesses Chaz well a representative from them too.
And what's helped us with the advisory board is not only having them kind of spearhead a lot of the brainstorming and ideas for change and innovation and things within our company, but it's given us a mouthpiece that's not me. You know, I can I can rain down orders and policy changes and direction for the company? But I think in in a lot of ways, it's it's less effective than if it's a if it's a peer decision that's being made.
And I think They think of considerations and things from different angles than I do because they're in it themselves. They bring to light benefits and challenges maybe that I'm not considering. And I think just having that advisory board has just been huge for us. And and I don't participate in the advisory board. It's led by our sales director. I'm intentionally out of it.
I get a a note wrap up after they meet, and then I meet with our leadership team to kinda review what was discussed and and what we can do moving forward. But I would say that's been one of the best biggest changes in terms of managing people that that we've implemented. I love that. What's your thought around not being in the room? I could see it being beneficial both ways. What's your thought on not being there? Yeah. We really wanna get open and honest feedback.
And so You know, some of our staff has has told me over time that people may react a different way around me than they do them, or they express different problems or challenges or successes around me than than they would someone else. And so we wanted, honestly, we wanted transparency, and we wanted people to feel really comfortable to share some of the challenges that they're having.
And we felt by not having me in the room and having it be more of a peer group, it was it was gonna allow that to happen a little bit more easily. And I I would say that's the case. And I think if you asked our advisory board, if someone else him probably not me. If they wanted me in the room, I think they would say probably not. You know, I think I think it is a nice platform for them. And, you know, I appreciate that because I don't want things sugar coated.
You know, I if I want the good, the bad, the ugly, and I wanna know if there's a problem of how we can fix it directly. And I don't wanna find out about something or someone discontin or unhappiness after it's too late, you know, if we can solve the problem now before it gets too big, then let's do it and let's figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. You're you're dealing with a lot of people, a lot of revenue, and you're scaling quickly.
What is the number one thing that you're tracking in your business right now? Right now right now, we're looking at really top line revenue because we're in our market. We have the market has dropped about 40% year over year. So significant hit. You know, I know different markets throughout the country are experiencing things a little bit differently right now. And even just neighboring states in some cases, to us Yeah. Experiencing a totally different market than we are.
And so we're really focused on top line revenue. We cut back some of our expenses going into the year, knowing that that the market had shifted pretty significantly. But we we've been able to maintain our entire staff. We haven't laid off anyone. We Chaz to kind of drive forward with marketing and and our lease spend, the number of strategies we're doing to generate business. And our thought process is really we wanna focus on revenue and then market share beyond that.
Because if we can grow in market share and if we can keep revenue coming in the door, even if our profitability isn't maybe the same as it was a year or 2 ago, We're okay with that because, you know, we're young. We're building for the future, and we don't wanna lose momentum in our growth trajectory just to weather a storm. You have to be smart about it. You have to be strategic.
You can't be dumb in going out and spending money on things that that you shouldn't be, but at the same time, I think if you're focused on revenue and market share, I think those are the two things that can really continue to track road. Yeah. Appreciate that. You kinda mentioned some resources earlier, but any other top book recommendations that come to mind that you can point out will put in the show notes for the listeners?
Yeah. There's I feel like there's books probably for every level of business that you're in at the time. So there's books that if I had read them early on wouldn't have made any to me, and there's books now that if I I read probably would would not be as helpful as they were at the time, the 2 that have been most helpful for me, probably over the last 2 years, I would say, are good to great by Jim Collins.
I think it's it's probably, I think a lot of people consider, like, the Bible of business books. It's incredible, and it's very strategic and tack but, you know, there's not a ton of philosophy in it where you can get lost in in the weeds of those types of things. And so I found that to be really helpful. I took tremendous notes on that when I was reading it and still refer back to those notes today.
And then the other one, which was probably just as impactful for me, was the hard thing about the hard things. By Ben Horowitz. I mean, he actually he wrote that book, obviously, in his business and and venture capital and things. You know, he's He's buying businesses and and and mentoring 100 of CEOs. And so he almost wrote this as a manual for all of those CEOs. That are under kinda his mentorship.
And I found it to be truly a a great book, again, very tactical and as I was reading it, every chapter I got to, it just was like, man, I'm going through this exact thing right now. Like, what he's sending is exactly what we're going through, and here's how you come out of that thing. And, again, similar to a coach, if you just kinda follow the playbooks that are out there for you and and and listen to them, you don't need to reinvent the wheel.
You know, there's no sense in making the same takes that everyone else has before you a million times. Yeah. Yeah. It's sad a lot. I don't know if someone can really truly grasp. The meaning behind it until they've experienced it where someone has said, hey. Wait. Wait. Wait. Do it like this instead. And you're like, Oh, wow. That would have taken me years to figure out of my own. Yeah. Or this much headache or this much money, you know, whatever the whatever the resource is.
I got a question for you about family. Dustin, and you've talked about your wife and she's involved, and you guys are both pretty intense when it comes to self development and kind of pressing forward in the business and growth. The I'm gonna assume that we're gonna align in this, but I'd I don't like the work balance. In fact, I don't think it exists. I think it's a myth. And so what what is what I believe or what does exist is obsession.
We've talked a lot today about obsession in our business, building people and teams, and even our own minds. How have you been obsessive over your marriage and and your family and maybe the other things that work life balance, people talk about where I'm saying it's work life of session. Were you obsessed over there? Yeah. I think at different points of your life, you kinda have to lean into different areas. You know, I think it's I think we can be pretty good at all of the things in life.
I'm I'm I think that you you can't have that limiting belief that you can only be good at business and you just have to ignore your family. Now there's some people that are like Savants and business that maybe that is the case. You know, there's we've seen the billionaires that do nothing but work in their family life and and personal lives are a disaster. But for me, for us, really, it starts with our marriage, and we talk about this often.
If our marriage isn't good, if we're not in a good place, we'll other. I mean, we basically spend 24 hours a day together because, you know, with parents, we're married, we're in business together. Nothing else is good. And so we are Yeah. Religious about date nights. We go on a date night on Friday nights pretty much every single week. And then we try to have a little earlier dinner away from our kids on Tuesday nights as well. And so 2 nights a week, we have time away from work.
To really just focus on our marriage specifically. And those really are good points for us to kinda check-in to see how things are going not in business, but in our personal lives, in our marriage, in in our health and fitness, and and all of the other things that go into life that aren't specifically work related, And for us, that's the foundation to build everything else on.
You've seen, you know, if we're, you know, if we're going through a tough time where maybe we're arguing a lot or we're just not seeing eye on a certain thing. Every single other area of our life is is nowhere near as good as it was when when things were good between us. And so Yeah. I think having realized that probably 2 or 3 years ago, we really kinda shifted things to make that the priority before everything else.
Yeah. It's a little bit of a nucleus, which you're saying basically what happens there stems from everything else. And a lot of times, people in business and almost every single person of a of of interviewed here doesn't feel like they get it a 100% right, but they know the feeling of obsession. So the listener might be you know, listen to us talk about this right now. And they're like, yeah.
I can hear you date night, nucleus Chaz starts from the marriage, but, like, there's just so much going on or whatever their feeling is. Right? The reality is is that they know what obsession feels like in their business, and what you just described is saying, okay. This over here is as important, and they might even be saying that. I was saying that this over here was as important for a long time, but I wasn't obsessing over putting it on my calendar, making it a point, studying Right?
Like, working things out like I'm a study of marketing book or study a real estate book or study a new technique or listen to a business podcast, Chaz am I doing in reference to my marriage? What am I doing in reference to my wife? What am I doing in reference to be a dad or to build legacy or, like, all these things over here? Am I just with my kids present while we're wrestling, or am I thinking about the next deal?
So I think there's just a lot of things that we talk about or that we can, like, they are even hearing us talk about it, but they're like, oh, man. I don't know. And for me, the answer Chaz been, like, the same feeling that you get over here with obsession and building something. Like, we talked about at the beginning. You're saying, I'm a builder. Oh, man, I get to actually I get to build my family. I'm building my marriage. Look at this beautiful woman. I get to build her up.
This is incredible. Like, what an opportunity. Now we're talking about kingship. When we're talking about responsibility and we're talking about duty, and it's like, woah, the honor I get to bestow my family, my wife, just like I do with my business. This is cool, but it takes that mindset shift that you've just given to us of like, okay. Not only is it as important, but here are the super practicals that I'm gonna do. You wanna add anything to that?
Yeah. For I think the key to having that basics lessful other than just mindset and focus really is like you had kinda references your schedule. You know, if it's, you know, please say is if it's not on your schedule, it doesn't exist. And and we really truly believe in Chaz, you know, our Google calendar is True. A shared calendar in our family that, you know, is is That's if if it's on the calendar, that's where we are. If it's not, there's a good chance we're not gonna be there.
But I think there's always enough time to do the things that are important And I always get frustrated when people when I'm maybe I'm leading a meeting, for example, of a bunch of agents in our firm or or outside. Of our brokerage and people have to leave and take a phone call. I get it.
Emergency and things happen, but if I have time to be here right now, and lead the presentation or to give you all of my focus if you're presenting, how can you not, you know, because I know how many houses you're selling. I know what's going on in your life. I know how busy you are. And to me, that's just a lack of focus and lack of priority in in the things that maybe are more important.
Yeah. But getting up early and starting my day with my my morning routine and then keeping that mindset and that focus throughout the day, I think, is what allows us to have the time and to prioritize all of the things that are most important. Yeah. Love that response. Dustin, if you had the opportunity, last question here, to go back in time and whisper in the younger Dustin's ear. What would you say? Joe, that's a tough one. Probably don't don't take the losses so seriously.
You know, you're gonna lose. If you're not if you're not losing and you're not failing in business or life or whatever is that you're doing, you're probably not doing anything worth doing. You know, it's If it's too easy, then what fulfillment are you getting out of it? How are you growing? How are you progressing in life?
And I think when you're in that moment and you fail or you know, in in real estate, if you if you lose a listing or whatever it might be, you have a bad month or a bad year even. It's okay because those are learning and growth opportunities And in fact, I would say that you can't grow and you can't learn and you can't build and be over successful without those failures.
And so think being a little bit easier on yourself when those things happen or or something that I would like to think I would give myself as advice. Yeah. That's good stuff, man. How can the listener find you? 1, if they wanna get into real estate and move to your area of the country or or some sort of a deal that way. Of course, if they're just an entrepreneur, they wanna pick your brain or connect with you in that way, maybe add some value before they pick your brain.
But how where can where can they find Yeah. I mean, you can find me on all the socials. Our website for the brokerage is the parkergroup.com. So real easy. And then I I do a a weekly newsletter too that really for for folks that are interested in the same things we're talking about growth mindset and high achievers. And the website to sign up for that is just the vibe weekly.com. Love it, man.
We'll put all that in the show notes as Wolfe, and I just extend my appreciation for your time and willingness to serve and to give back to other entrepreneur, but we wish you nothing but blessing and success and all that you put your hand to your grit and your family all that here this year. Thanks for being here, brother. Thank you. I appreciate it so much. 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 and multiple different industries and now interviewing over 2 or 300 other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is Chaz It's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs.
In fact, we are putting together 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy.
So if that relates and and resonates with you, and you know that you need people around you, sharp, qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gathering the king's dot com. 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.