On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. I didn't walk across the stage. I had to finish during the summer just to let you know, nobody gives you anything. Yeah. Nobody gives you anything. Also, a start up. Nobody's coming to help you. Yeah. It's time to buckle in. Do you think that's, like, maybe the seed of what you said earlier, one of your parts of what beats inside of you is to do it right. Do you think that maybe stems from that angle?
If in that moment, you made a vision that, like, I'm gonna do life on purpose now rather than reactionary. What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe, gathering the king's podcast, coming to you, your host. Got JD Broadwater here on the King stage, my brother, JD. How we doing? Doing good, brother. Thank you for thank you for having me. Yeah, man. I'm excited for this conversation. We've been trying to do this, what, for seems like forever, but here we are. 2 freaking studs.
Actually, you know, this is know your background a little bit, so I'm I'm kinda leading in here getting the the listeners a little bit of taste here, but we both have an extensive sales background. So this conversation could be very, very intense and interesting. And so I'm excited for that. Also excited to be able to talk about all the other cool things that that you're great at. I'm sure. Tell us what kind of business that you got, JD.
So we we are a smart home security company based out of Birmingham. So we are heavily involved in our builder community. So you you build a house more than likely. Here in Birmingham, I would say we we have about 70% of that market. Where you'll move in. There'll be a a touch screen. There'll be a video doorbell there. The builder will provide for a smart lock and a thermostat So that homeowner really moves into really a starter smart package.
Yeah. You know, it's it's sort of what people are expecting now, especially when they build a house. DR Horton really sort of started that trend, but a lot of builders now are really following suit to that, which is great for us. And so move into that house. Our guys go out. They meet with you at orientation, tell you exactly what to expect, And what's in it for us obviously is, you know, the security portion of it to to get the the monitoring of the security.
So that's probably one of the the bulk of our business. And then really branching out into commercial as well. So we're we're trying to branch out into bigger, higher revenue, jobs. That's sort of my role of this year is to go out and explore that. Yeah. So, yeah, that's what we look like. That's awesome, man. Appreciate the the almost like inner inner parts there because I just built a home, and we moved in, I don't know, maybe just over a year ago.
And everything that you just described did not happen for me. And I was like, why? What? Like, I'm hodging it together myself as the homeowner. Luckily, I know a guy and a and another guy and we put, you know, we did it all together, but, man, just to walk into what you just said, that would have been glorious as far like a customer experience perspective. You know? Well, yeah. I mean, for sure.
I mean, if you if you're a builder and you're let's say you're not a builder, let's say you're a homeowner, and I'm looking at 3 different neighborhoods. Love the layout of all three of them, but this one comes with the smart home package and a company that is really trusted that does, you know, that'll hang my TVs. If I want a soundbar, they'll do all of that. So they're not your traditional. We are not your traditional ADT Vivint kind of companies.
I mean, that's where I came from, but we do things a little bit different. So we we hang your TVs, we can do the audio. We can do everything to make the move super easy for you. So I think that really makes us a little bit different when when we can handle everything because Yeah. You know, there's a lot going on when people are moving and and Oh, yeah. Sometimes they can't see straight. Oh, yeah. Most times You can't see straight.
In fact, you you move so many times, oftenly, or at least I have at least. And you're like, you know what? I'm not ever doing that again. And then it always comes up and you always make you're like, am I gonna do that? I told myself last time I wasn't going to. So I I appreciate that because I've I've since then done a lot of work what you do for people.
And I think that it would've been way better to have a guy like you, but I wanna know kinda getting into a little bit of your background and kinda what makes you tick and stuff like Chaz. Before we get into the super, like, Chaz and o's, what makes JD wake up? What's the burning desire? What's the bigger picture? Okay. So you're installing cool stuff, but, like, Why?
I could give you the generic answer of helping others, but that's part of it, but I'm really I just I wake up and I start at 0 and I look in the mirror and say, We're either gonna kill it today or not, and it starts with you. So I'm really competitive. I used to have a leaderboard when I was a sales rep, and I would I would be chasing the number one spot, not really for revenue because that sort of stuff comes with the with the territory if you're, you know, selling.
You're the number one person in the country. Yeah. But there's just something about just me dominating the outside the competition. So I would say that's sort of what drives me right now is for us to absolutely just explode be the biggest security company in the southeast. That's what's driving me now. And then another thing would be to do it right, you know, I was a technician for a long time before I went into sales and then before I left and partnered with this here.
And I've just seen so many companies that really do a terrible job, and you can tell they didn't care about the customer. They Right. They got in. They got out. They took advantage of the customer. They didn't explain the terms. A lot of lot of bad practices out there. And so I want to be somebody that's that that is open and does it right. We don't always get it right, obviously. Yeah. Really is gonna tell you exactly how much it costs and how long you're gonna be paying Chaz.
And we're also gonna make the installation look like it it should. Yeah. Nothing like installing a system. Really, it could be of any kind, any anything in my home or anything in my business, but we're talking security. Okay. Fine. Nothing to install a security system and then years later need or think one thing, and you make a phone call and they tell you something else. And you're like, wait a second. That was I'm sorry. What? Yeah. You did tell me I was in a 10 year contract.
That's Yeah. That that actual conversation happened. And and I took ownership and said, you know, on me, I should have read the contract better, I guess, but holy moly 10 years in small print. And so that's that's a big deal. Yeah. Yeah. It's a bummer. Yeah. Okay. So you're out to dominate and to do it right. I I've got a kind of a follow-up question. I I love this question. Actually. I used to ask my sales reps this all the time. Are you a love to win, or are you a hate to lose person?
Oh, I probably hate to lose. I do love to win, but I don't celebrate it very much. That it I forget about it pretty quick. Yeah. I I I'm more eat up by by somebody beating you. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. My wife was a a fitness company and sort of started off as CrossFit and now it's, you know, it's it's different, but I I still do bunch of of those competitions and things like that. Sure. Yeah. And, you know, winning 1 is great.
You're beat up and you're proud that you did it, but Chaz, you know, the next day, you know, other than maybe some people commenting on your Facebook that you crushed up something that, you know, you sort of forget about it. But if you lose and you knew you could have done better, that really, like, sits with you for a while. Yeah. Yeah. There's there's a motion attached to loss. And so the matter of how we process that, I think that determines whether we love to win or hate to lose.
And so some of the greatest competitors out there are hate to lose individuals. There's no right or wrong answer. It it really when you said the word dominate though, I actually wondered if you would answer it the other way because dominating or winning, yes, there's competition involved, but really at a domination stage. Who are you competing with? Like, you said you're 70% of the market share. Like, who are you running after? Who's beating you? Who's even close?
Probably nobody, but I guess now you gotta just set your sights on something bigger, nice at the southeast. Now we're trying to be the biggest in the southeast. So there's probably somebody bigger than you now. So is that kinda how you think about it? Like, that's who I'm after now, or that's the target? Yeah. I mean, I would say we're we're we're about 70% on new construction.
Now, you know, I also came from the biggest security company in the world for 13 years, and they dominate the retail space. Right? They dominate the phones. They dominate the commercial. They dominate the internet. So I would say, yes. We we are doing a killer job in the builder world, which they don't really, right, care much about. They're know, they're gonna spend 1,000,000 of dollars on advertising. So there's a there is another flip side to this coin that we've gotta get better at.
Because, obviously, you know, you're talking about some monster companies that are out there. I would love to to go head to head with them. And, you know, we we will, you know, just depends on if if we believe that we can do it or not. Yeah. The the action there that you just described of that there's another side the coin. Okay. We've we're good over here or we're we're pretty good.
Obviously, you're not gonna, like, stop getting better at dealing with, you know, builders, but there is a whole another area that you guys can not only get into, but start winning and dominating. And so what do you think that, like, I mean, the listener right now, depending upon their in the trades or in security or they're in marketing or they're in, I don't know, the airspace. You know, there's always gonna be another or another vertical or another thing that they can go win in?
How do you know when to go win in another vertical? Like, okay. Is it 70%? So now we're like, okay. We feel pretty good. And so now let's go take a look at retail, or is it a different formula? What how do you think about that? I don't think you I don't think you could or or should be moving on to the next vertical and and unless you say you're close in 70% of the vertical that you're super focused on.
So when we're in that market, we're when you know, if we if we have a if I have a a sales rep that that has 10 appointments of those a month, we expect to close 6 or 7 out of them. The hottest sleeves that you can possibly get. So I would say 1st perfect the process of your your first baby, the one that that you wanted to go out and go after first, Yeah.
And then after you feel like you've gotten a good handle on it and a good process to keep that process going, then move on to the next one and and you have to take I mean, it took us 2 years before we ever talked builders into, you know, letting us or spending the money to put panel in a doorbell. And then back then, like I said, they didn't need to do any of that stuff to sell a house 2 years ago.
Yeah. So you know, I would say perfect the first one and then really start learning what it takes to to dominate second aspect of it, but don't don't don't try to do too many things at one time or or you're you're gonna really drop the balls and all over the place. Yeah. Do a lot of things half well. You know, there's a lot of entrepreneurs out there that kinda reach the first initial glass ceiling, and they think that it's just time to go open up another business.
And and I would say that then there's certain personalities in mind being one of them, which I I like a lot of things going on at once. And so if you're that type of person and you're listening, it's like, okay. Well, there's there's a lot of opportunity inside of this one vertical. Even the 70%, like, you could really dial that down and go, okay. Well, what's the other 30% or how do we shield from a a looming recession?
Like, there's so many angles that you could go to still yet dial down further and still, like, have this presence of something new or exciting, you know, Chaz an entrepreneur to work on. It's a good perspective. I wanna ask you about a good decision that you've made I want you to kinda, like, tell me your story.
You said 13 years with a competitor or and maybe not even a competitor because you guys do something a little bit different, but 13 years in the industry and you transition to your your own deal. Obviously, you've got some quite a bit of success behind you. Why did you transition out? Why not just keep being a salesperson? Give us the story. Yeah. So I worked for the 3 letter. You know, the other one. Big one. For I feel like I I promote them a lot because I say the name a lot.
So I'm trying Yeah. Uh-huh. That's good. So I worked there for, like, 13 years. 9 of the technician and then went 4 years into sales and really moving to Birmingham from a small in Alabama and immediately, you know, working there and sort of figuring out what I wanted to do. You know, I got there was a there was a time in in my career where I wasn't getting along with, you know, my bosses and just sort of had a bad attitude, and I had to get surgery on my wrist. I tell people this all the time.
I had to get surgery on my wrist. And during those 30 days, I just sort of recommitted myself and came back in there and said, listen. Apologize for being disrespectful, and I'm gonna be the best technician that you've you've ever had. So Wolfe. I did change everything and they're, you know, refocused my mind. Why did you do that? Or, like, what what caused that? I mean, obviously, there was an injury that made you think a little bit, but What was the deeper story there? Why?
I was just tired of being being just not getting along with people. You know, I'm a very competitive person, but I'm also very, like, one of my traits is restorative. So I don't like there being friction and things. And I know that, you know, I was causing most of it. I went from having a boss that was very, very cool. And then the next thing I know I had 2 boss sort of like office space and 2 bosses, you know, and I was like, do I need 2 bosses?
And so we just didn't really get along there for a little bit all because of me and and my attitude. So I really had to I had to check myself and say, I mean, do I wanna continue coming to work every day with this attitude, or do I wanna look in the mirror and say, no? This is all you. You're the one that created this. So the the 30 days off with the wrist surgery was sort of a blessing. I came back, said I'm gonna be the best technician that you've ever had. I really did focus hard on that.
And then in in the meantime of that, you know, there's all kinds of sales competitions. And I was just killing it. Just killing it. I won, like, every one of them. And my mom and my dad and my wife was like, I think you're pretty good at sales, and I was, I'm just in their house, and they trust me. And so after some belief some with some people that believed in me, you know, I made the jump to sales and talking about a lot of sales reps. And within 3 or 4 years, I was ranked number one.
I just jumped the the ladder and came from the bottom of the barrel and next, you know, next year I was ranked 7th and then 5th. And then I was like, wow. I'm killing it. I'm pretty good at it talking. So, you know, that that sort of how that transition, I caught some attention of business partners here in Birmingham, who were running a massive pest control company, like a 150,000 customers. Now it's way more than that, but he he wanted to get into this vertical because it's not too far.
They're pretty much similar. And so me looking at, you know, can I continue to just crush it year after year? I was confident that I could do that, but I don't know if I would have learned too much more about himself or leadership or anything like that. So so, yeah, it was hard. You know, I I left, and we basically started started from nothing. Was the security expert. I was leaned on heavily to figure it out.
Yeah. And I sort of built a security system security company along with an AV company that we had purchased and brought those 2 together. And so Yeah. I mean, that was your first sales rep, 1st technician. I installed first edition at about Hyundai Tucson, and now we've got, I don't know, 40 vehicles.
So it's busy for a while, but, yeah, that's where I'm sure I'm sure it has been wild to see that, especially coming from a a sales rep position at another company and and really where it is all about you. Like, you it's just you, your list, and and the leaderboard, like you said, And so for you to start something or partner up and then, you know, have the ability to now say we got 40 vehicles. I mean, that's that's a that's a stark difference.
So along that journey that you kinda just described as well as maybe even after that, give us a good decision that you made. Something that just like when we did this, all the dominoes fell for us. What was that major decision that you made Chaz was just really, really good? One decision that we that we made that was a really good decision was to keep things simple. We would do theaters, and we would do these jobs that would take, I don't know, months.
And, you know, if you got, you know, 3 for guys on a job. I can't just came in. It's all good. He would should be on TV? Yeah. He opened the back door himself pretty soon. Oh, there you go. But we we just really decided to to keep things simple. And, you know, that was a that was a a good decision because it let us really focus on doing the our builder thing.
You know, getting super hyper focused on a panel and a doorbell on every home, meeting with builders, pitching them, letting them see the value in Chaz brings to not just them and then their homeowners. Yeah. Because they make money off of this too. You know? Yeah. You know, it's a revenue stream for them So we got super hyper focused on that.
So I would say that's one good thing that we pivoted on a couple years ago and, you know, we're seeing the fruits of it now, even in a downturn market, you know, not a ton of people are willing to give up a 3% interest rate, sell their house and trade it for a 7.5. Right? Right. But, you know, the builder market went down for a little bit, but now it's coming back out of this Wolfe because if I'm gonna pay 7% interest rate, might as well be a brand new that I can refinance in a couple of years.
So they're they're starting to pick up and, you know, they're really moving along. So that was that was a good decision for us as to really get super hyper focused on what we should be good at. Yeah. Yeah. Identifying that. What do you think for you? Because, obviously, you could've installed security systems anywhere because that's what you were doing before. Why do you not Chaz, like, why did you choose builders, but how what was the process that you guys went through to choose that niche?
Hey, Chaz Wolfe here. As many of you know, I have been on an absolute mission to help entrepreneurs from all across the country in many different industries, level up their game and grow their business, and intentionally connect with other entrepreneurs. We do Chaz, obviously, through the podcast, but We also have a peer to peer mastermind group specifically for 7 to 9 figure business owners.
We are bringing some of the best and most successful entrepreneurs and minds together in a regular and a super intentional way to not only grow our network but to be able to leverage. And at a certain point in business, success becomes about leverage, leveraging time, leveraging resources, leveraging key relationships. This is exactly what we're doing inside of the peer to peer mastermind group called Gathering the Kings, specifically for 7 to 9 figure business owners.
So if that's you, if you're ready to level up your 7 to 9 figure business, even to the next level and get around other big hitters just like you. I want you to go to gathering the kings.com, flood a short application, And, it'll come to an application, call with me, and I wanna chat with you, see if it might be a good fit. Talk soon. Company before they they did the same thing. It's a little bit different, but it's not too far off.
So, you know, you know, when somebody closed on their house, The termite bond was with this pest control company. We do what we call a welcome visit, and and that's sort of what we with the orientation. So a week before somebody closes on their house, they're gonna meet with the the builder. They're gonna walk through and talk to him about the devices or, you know, even nicks and crannies that need to be fixed and stuff like that. So we we wait. We wait out in the vehicle.
And when they're done, we come out. We explain the program. The the pest control company used to do something very similar to that. They would deliver a welcome gift to the homeowner And then at that time, they would explain the termite bond. And then when they were there, they would say, hey. While I'm here, let's talk about your pest control. So it weeds out your door knockers and your competition because you get to catch them before they even close.
So that's, you know, that's where we just followed suit of of what those guys were doing and they were very successful. And we said, you know, if they can do it, we can do it. It's not the same product, but Same process. Same process as long as you execute. Yeah. Yeah. And and just your history and sales and knowing that there's obviously a process to sales, would you say, you know, for the personal listing right now who maybe is the sales guy in their company or maybe he's has a big company.
He's got sales teams. Do you think that as a sales top performer and a sales leader Chaz your process that you learn even back in the day has served you now, has it changed that much, or generally is it the same? Like, the principles of the process, anything like that? No. I think it all starts with the realization that, you know, it starts with you and ends with you. If you're prepared, then you're gonna do well.
If you, you know, drill, rehearse, if you find some kind of sales mentor that you like. I'm a big Grant Cardone guy, but there's plenty of people out there. If if you get obsessed with being an expert in sales, then you'll then you'll do well. But if you don't put in the time and the effort to get better at it, then you're gonna sell some stuff on accident and think that you're a decent salesperson. But most of the time, those people already had their mind made up That's right.
Most of the time, you're gonna accept for let me think about it. Email it to me. Let me talk to my wife. If you're not good at at handling objections and being comfortable with that stuff, then it's gonna eat you alive. And don't blame the leads Don't blame the company. You blame yourself because, you know, I I can motivate you And I can tell you to do this sales training and and this right here, but if you don't have a drive to to be good in sales, then Right.
There's nothing I can say to motivate you. Yeah. Yeah. I used to train new sales reps at a large company I worked for years years ago. And similar atmosphere, although it was inside sales as opposed to your outside. And I would ask, you know, sitting in room of 50, 75, maybe even a 100 new sales reps. I'd come in. I was the top salesperson in the in the company. I have a couple 1000, and I'd say, hey. Look. Wants to make 6 figures? Obviously, every hand goes up. Right? And then it's like, okay.
Well, who in the last year has done something towards, like, what you're saying, getting a mentor, they're reading a book, listening to a podcast like just anything. Right? And, you know, some hands go down. Some hands are still up. Okay. What about the last 6 months? Some more hands go What about the last 3 months? Hands go down. What about the last week? Nobody's hand is up. Right? It's like, I I don't know how you expect come in and get paid extra ordinarily by being ordinary.
Yes. You can get into sales quickly. You can get into business. Quickly. Like, you can go you don't even have to start an LLC. You can just start doing some business. Start providing service to somebody, but you're never going to get extraordinary results without mastering certain things, which is, in essence, what you're saying here, if you don't, for sale specifically overcome objections, learn how to handle communication with other humans. And there's obviously other things with business.
That same thing. Like, you have to learn to master these things. And if you don't, then you're just doing ordinary things, having extraordinary expectations. Probably not gonna work out so good. Probably gonna be pretty frustrated. Like you said, it's gonna eat you alive. Would you agree? Yeah. For sure. I mean, you you don't win the US Open or the Masters without spending hours on the driving range. I mean, Right. You could, you know, couldn't say I wanna be a professional golfer.
I don't really like to practice and say, Wolfe, you might wanna find something else that you one. There's something. This isn't gonna work for you. Yeah. And that's just, you know, it's just crazy. It seems like you're preaching at people because you sort of want to just sort of, like, shake them and be like, dude, dude, you can be you can make 200,000. You can make 300,000. Like, literally, sales is in untapped market.
Man, it depends on if you take these in our scenario, you take these 10 to 20 builder leads and you convert on those, but you're also an absolute hustler that self generate leads Mhmm. Network and you're part of this association and you're part of this association. And you're omnipresent and everybody knows what you do on Facebook on Instagram. You're providing content and saying, hey, man. It can go nuts for you, but Yeah. You gotta decide you wanna do that. You can't just watch for it.
Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Everything that you described there is a salesperson running a little mini business. And that's what most salespeople don't realize, but even as a business owner, as an or maybe they're listening, running a if if they're running a sub million, if they're under 1,000,000 in revenue, they're probably not making the 2 or 300,000 that a sales rep could make it a big company, but both of them have the same, like, directional challenge, which is run it like a business.
Like, an actual business, be omnipresent, do the marketing hustle up new leads, create process and SOPs, like, all those things, even as an s as a as a salesperson, can can skyrocket your results. What about a bad decision or something that you did that just didn't work out at all? In this company? Or Yeah. I'll give you I'll give you your your whole career. Whatever comes to mind first. I'm curious because you got you've got one there.
Oh, I would say I would I mean, this is gonna not sound good for them, but I would say good at IT tech was a bad idea for me. You know, I came from a small town, saw all these commercials. And, like, oh, Johnny came from nowhere. Now he's circling with his wife in California. He's in a He's some kinda communication expert. You know, they were good at those commercials Yeah. TTEC. And so I remember Chaz. Yeah. I'm moved here, and and I'm I bought all in.
I really wanted to become a a MRI Chaz scan technician, you know, Okay. Electrician before I moved here, and I worked in a lot of hospitals. And they would those guys would fly in. They would put an MRI machine together. And if you've seeing the cover off on one of those things. It literally looks like the terminator. It's it's the craziest thing you've ever seen in your life. All these spinning parts And so that's what I wanted to be.
And then when I, you know, I got here and and, you know, I'm about a year into into school at night ago, you know, as a technician and then go there at night and be covered in spider webs and stuff like that. And, you know, I was looking around and was like, I think I'm the smartest person in this school. Something ain't right. And, you know, I would realize, like, all tests were open book.
And then I looked further, and I was like, I'm spending all this money and this this business is not accredited. I should've done my research. And so I finally graduated, and I think I owed, like, $40,000 on a done a bunch of credits that can't go anywhere, which I'm not saying that you need education to make it because that obviously helped me none. Yeah. You know, if you could learn to market promote sales network, you'll be fine.
But if I can look back, I may have may have chosen a different school. There was there was a, you know, I wanted to be an electronics technician, and there was there was a there's plenty of them here around Birmingham that are pretty, pretty good schools. And so if I could go back, I would say, I wish I would read the fine print on on that. Because 0 of my credits will transfer anywhere ever. Right. Right. And then they went out of business. Yeah. Then they went bankrupt.
So Yeah. Yeah. I think that, obviously, there's an underlying thing there of of you are where you are today because you were where you were. But I I feel you on that, man. I I started school and thought I it was a little different thought, but I thought this is not for me. That's for sure. I'm not seeing the point here. We keep doing all he said, the open book test or whatever the thought is. Just like, you know what? Just gonna go you know, learn sales.
So, anyway, just the encouragement to the listener that you're talking to a couple of the successful entrepreneurs here. One that's a college dropout one that did finish. I gotta give you the credit. You did finish, but who's who's saying that it's not necessary. I think there's probably a lot of people in our camp. I'll tell you even more deeper than that.
Like, I've made a video about this and told people whenever our 20th So I graduated in 2020 during, you know, during during the virus, you know, there was I saw a video of a bunch of these people and my high school walking across the stage, and I made a video about it because it sorta hit me emotionally because I messed around so much in my high school and my senior year Chaz it came down to one test. I've really just had a good time on senior year And so came down to this one test.
I studied for, like, 3 straight days I made, like, a 95 or 96 on this test, and it wasn't enough. I I graduated with a 64 point 4. I needed a 65. And the teacher, she said, I'm not gonna let you slide. Well, it was heartbroken because I was like, you know, how many invitations I've sent out. Like, I'm not gonna walk across the stage for one tenth of a point. And she said, that wouldn't be fair. To the rest of the people.
So I say that to say, all these people came to show up, and I was off in the corner sulking somewhere. Wow. So I didn't walk across the stage. I had to finish during the summer. So just to let you know, nobody gives you anything. Yeah. Nobody gives you anything. So, you know, that was sort of the start of. Nobody's coming to help you. Yeah. Time to time to buckle in. Do you think that that's, like, maybe the seed of what you said earlier?
One of your parts of, like, what beats inside of you is to do it right. Do you think that that maybe stems from that angle of, like, at in that moment, you kinda made a decision that, like, I'm gonna I'm gonna do life on purpose now rather than reactionary? I don't know. I don't know when I became a perfectionist, really, because after that, I spent a couple of years still pounding around until I decided to pull myself out of being a little baby.
I think I just sort of became a more of a perfectionist, maybe a little bit later whenever I became a a technician. I like to see things done neatly. And, you know, if you ever had to go back on your own job, which we had to do a lot of times, to fix something or a service issue, like, or you would go behind somebody else. You really you really could see what kinda the difference. Put into the job. And so I I didn't want people coming behind me saying, this is terrible.
Did Yeah. You really spent no time and and no pride in this job. So yeah. I wouldn't say that that started it. I would say that probably started maybe a little more of a kick into the competing thing and and saying like, alright, like, let's show this town that you're not a loser and that you can defeat the odds and you can somebody else because, you know, that day, I I I feel as low as you can feel. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I was a loser. That day. For sure.
So, you know, don't wanna feel like that again. Yeah. It's the Chaz. The the proverbial chip that we all carry on our shoulder Whether there's somebody else that spoke towards us in a way or it was ourselves going, man, dude, today's not a good day. And I don't wanna feel it again. That's for sure. I wanna ask you about, I mean, your sales guy.
So I'm a I'm gonna assume some of your answer here, but if you could only track one thing, like, or what's the number one thing you're track right now in your business. Let me say it like that. The number one thing that we're tracking right now would be revenue and gross margins. So, you know, we're pretty hyper focused on the conversion rate of our builders, but this year, we we've got real focused on not giving things away.
Like, there's so many companies out there that just to get the agreement, you know, give her a $1000 or $1500 off on it. And I know how much the the equipment cost those companies. They obviously get better margins than us because they're buying a bigger bulk. Right. If you're good at what you do, you don't have to give it away. And so That's right. That's where we're we're focusing on right now is, you know, what's the price per install that you can get? And then Wolfe you sell that for?
What gross margin are you at? You know, we're we're rolling at a 50% north gross margin on security systems. Pretty damn good. Yeah. We're not the cheapest, but we're a little more versatile than other companies. So we feel like we can charge a little bit more And, you know, it there's it's a very competitive market. I mean, we I leave sales all the time. I'm back out in the field with my guys element and stuff like Chaz.
And I see there's, you know, certain times where I say, I'm not even gonna try to match that. Like, it's Right. It's not a good business move for me. Yep. So right now, we're we're tracking the the heck out of margins. Yeah. Good. It's easy to let go of margin when sales come easy the last 3 ish years since COVID. It's just been, you know, sales coming in the door because there's been money everywhere.
But I think that you're you're giving the listener actually something really, really quality to be thinking about if they're not already doing it when times get lean or before times get lean, the focus to margin versus just top line can can really make the difference on whether you whether through a a downturn of sorts. So whether there'll be 1 or not, we don't know, but the reality of it is is that the margin is actually more important because it's what you keep. It's not what you Chaz.
It's what you keep. Yeah. I sell, you know, we could sell a 100 systems and basically give them all away, and we'll we'll we'll get that revenue from the monitoring? Yes. That will that is a machine that churns in the background, but if you give it away, the multiple on it. It will take you 3 years after labor, commission, and Right. The cost of goods sold. It'll take you the 3 years to make your money back. So you really ain't gonna make a dime on that thing.
Even though the background is churning, you're not gonna make anything for 3 years. And if they decide they wanna jump ship in 3 years, then you wasted a lot of time, energy, resources. You wasted a lot of time and made no money. That's right. That's right. You mentioned Grant earlier. I I built a sales team for him a couple of, well, several years ago, but down in Miami, the the the attacks headquarters anyway, I'm saying that because I wanna know of a book resource. Is it is it grant?
Is it a different book? Like, what would you recommend to the listeners? Go grab off the shelf and and take a read or listen. Oh, man. I could give you the the think and grow rich answer if, you know, that everybody says, but I I really do think maybe one of the the best books that I've read is, you know, it is a grant book, seller, be sold. If you're gonna be in sales, you need to realize that there's 2 transactions that are make being made right there.
You're either selling the customer on yourself, your product, the value that this is the right thing for them to do, or they're selling you. 2. Let me think about it. Let me talk to my wife. It's happening one way or another. It just depends on, you know, Have you risen enough to make them believe and trust in you, or are you unprepared enough and didn't display enough value to where they sell you. So Yeah. It's big. He talks about, I'm curious to hear just your couple of 2¢ on this as Wolfe.
In that book, he talks about the idea of being sold yourself and being sold on yourself, being sold on your product so that you can then obviously sell. For sure. In your experience, Is that a 10 out of 10 necessary? Is Chaz a 5 out of 10 talking to entrepreneurs right now? I mean, they're either selling or they're leading sales teams in their own business. How important is it to be sold on your product or convicted about it, rather? I mean, for for us, there's a good number of them.
I've got a couple new guys who don't have our system in their house yet, but they're going to Yeah. I mean, the easiest thing for me to sell somebody is to show them my phone and the system that I have. That means that I I actually use the product that I'm trying to pitch you on. Yeah. I mean, my advice would be if if you won't buy your own product, don't know how in the world you can convince somebody else to buy it. Yeah. It's it's it seems like treason to me.
Like. I don't believe you if if you're, you know, if if if I'm a if I'm if I'm at a Mercedes deal, ship or a Hyundai or or or looking for a Toyota Tacoma. And you'd tell me that you drive something different. I'm like, Man, you're selling Mercedes. Why don't you drive a Mercedes? Like, even if it's a 85, like Right. I don't believe you. Like, you're telling me how great Mercedes are, but yet you drive a Honda Accord. Yeah. You're not branded.
Yes. So, man, Chaz that may be a little bit extreme there. Not everybody, you know, in sales can can afford to buy Mercedes, but, you know, it it really just depends on, you know, you know, the product, like I said, I think you've gotta be sold on your own product before you can sell somebody else and and what better way to do that and to own it. Yeah. And spend every day with it. That's right. So Yeah. Wolfe you sell it to your friends? Would you sell it to your mama? That's right.
Yeah. If you won't, then maybe find something else that you trust in. Yeah. Exactly. I got one last question here for you, JD. I wanna know if you had the opportunity to whisper in the younger, Jade easier. What would you tell that guy? Be yourself. Don't worry about Wolfe anybody else, you know, Thanks about you. Don't go out and try to dominate this world for anybody else other than yourself.
You need to make sure you're super happy with who you are before you can go and please other people and lead other people. So figure out who you are, learn about him, like him, and then and then go out and and do what you're gonna do, but don't do it in reverse. Yeah. Don't go out and just say because, you know, I didn't graduate. I had to learn how to talk again. All these things. So now I'm trying to show the world that that I'm worthy.
No. How about you figure out and accept that you are worthy and then all the other things will come? But don't do don't do all these things. For anybody else. Otherwise, it'll it'll be really empty feeling when you accomplish it. It's good stuff, man. That's deep. Appreciate your perspective. How can the listeners find you?
Maybe they're in the southeast region of the United States, and they want a a bomb security system and or audio visual, or maybe they just wanna reach out to you and pick your brain as a as a sales guy Chaz a entrepreneur. How can they connect with you? How can they find you? Yeah. Yeah. You can connect with me on instagram@techboyone. So I'm I don't know how I got that.
Tech boy 1 seems like somebody big would have Chaz, but at at tech boy 1, Facebook, John Daniel Broadwater, or JD Broadwater is my my business page. Shoot me a message on either of those. I'll definitely respond to it. Our website, www.callcores.com is our is our our business in Birmingham. We all acquired a company out of Texas called BSG. So BSG of Texas, either one of those, like I said, call our office 205 978-1234. Tell him you wanna talk to me.
I'll be glad to glad to have the chat with you and you know, anything you wanna discuss. Yeah. That's awesome, man. Appreciate your openness to, what's a chat with listeners, and they can bring some business your way, bring some new sales. Appreciate your time. Blessings on your family, your business, your partners. I'll let you got your hand too in 2023. Thanks for being here, JD. Thank you so much for having me, man. I appreciate you. Thank you for listening to gathering the Kings today.
I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away. More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself.
What I have realized, not only in my own journey, from multiple businesses and multiple different industries, and now interviewing over 2 or 300 other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1000 Keynes specifically who are grateful, but not done.
We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family 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.
I want you to take a look at what we're doing if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings. Talk soon.