On today's episode of Gathering The Kings. What was a bad decision that you've made, as you've gone through your journey, something that maybe we can stay away from? Believing that people wouldn't do it better than me, and building a business that was focused on me. When you say what's a bad decision, anything that came out of that belief Yeah. Exactly. Like, waiting way too long to hire somebody. Right? My first tire.
I I I had this belief that no one would be able to ever get through to our clients and coach as well as I could. I met someone. I talked to her. And I was like, you know what? She might be someday be able to help with clients. And the second that I let it go and said, you know, and it was actually It was one of those slap upside the head moments. I got real sick, and I couldn't coach for a couple of weeks. And she stepped up. She said I'll do it. I was like, oh, this is gonna be a disaster.
Clients loved her. She has a different approach than me. She communicates differently. She's way better at nurturing than I am. And so the clients loved it. And I was like, that's it. I and and that was a that was a moment me when I said, you know what? I should have done this 5 years sooner. What's up everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe, gathering the king's podcast back with you here today. Another king on the stage, Ryan England. My brother. How are we doing? Oh, doing great. It's amazing day. It is.
It's always an amazing day, but today's Thursday. And Thursdays are great days. Right? It is. And, you know, waking you had to huge thunderstorm roll through last night. I love thunderstorms. So I woke up. I slept so good. My wife's like, did you hear all the thunder and then see how light now? Nope. Went through it. It was amazing. That's it. You felt like, subconsciously, it was, like, soothing you all night. Even though you couldn't hear it, you heard it. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
There's been a lot of rain actually recently here in the Midwest. I'm not too far from you. I know you're Nashville. I'm in Kansas City, but it's actually been been a pretty wet, a little summer here, but we've been thankful for it. I'm sure the farmers have been thankful as well. That's what they tell me. You know, I came from Phoenix and in a year, we would get the same amount of rain that we got Nashville yesterday. So, yeah, it's definitely wet. Little different. Little different.
Ryan, tell us what kind of business that you have. Let's start there because you've got a you've got a an amazing track record, and I wanna make sure that we give lots of value here today. Absolutely. So name of the company is Core Matters. We are a coaching and training company, and we teach small business owners how to fish for great employees. I love that. I love that.
What what an incredible time to be in that business, which I know is part of your story, as far as the transition that you've made, but We'll get to that here in a second. I wanna know for you personally, Brian, you've been successful, not just in this one business, but you've had you've got a track record. So Chaz is it for you, about the game or about this life? That's just so exciting. What what's the why, the deep itch? What are you after?
You know, it reminds me back to a conversation I had with my high school guidance counselor. Remember those? They let me figure out my career path and what I wanna do and not quite sure that they were qualified to help me with Chaz. But That's right. That's right. I remember sitting down and saying, you know what? I just wanna be able to have control of my time I wanna be able to choose what it is when I wake up in the morning, am I gonna do x or am I gonna do y? And I get that choice.
That's what I wanted. And that's what I think drives me towards entrepreneurship is I get to wake up every morning. You made that choice now. That said, and we'll probably talk about this. I don't always make the best choices. That's right. But I do get to make the choice, and that was important to me. Yeah. Yeah. For you, this is an interesting conversation, so we'll see where this goes. But for you, The and or now, and maybe those answers are different.
Is it control or is it freedom, or are those the same, but just masked differently? Yeah. I I would say for me, they're the same. I mean, Chaz freedom allows me The have that control. For example, when I had this conversation with my guidance counselor 20 plus years ago, I was never thinking about having a family. It was the last thing in my mind. And then 10 years ago, we got blessed with a daughter.
And all of a sudden, I was like, you know, I have the ability now that freedom to control my schedule in such a way that I can spend more time with my kids. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of times, we think freedom is just the looseness of life and being able to do whatever whenever. Although, yes, that's part of it. Yeah. But I think as what you've just described, it comes from order or control. Like, if I can control the circumstances, then it gives me freedom.
Okay. So you're after this thing for freedom, for control. I get it. I think that all the listeners are probably in some sort of a boat, that's similar. How has that portrayed itself for you in different industries? Because you've done you've done several things here. You're you're not just a single pop up entrepreneur, you you've got a track record here. So has that looked the same for you over the course of time, or has that changed? Oh, I mean, there's a maturity factor that's come.
So, of course, things have changed as I've I've learned what I didn't know. I didn't know. Right? Like, learn new things. So I think as I've matured, that has changed. But I think that in everything I did, it was all about being able to have that freedom. And really the the another element of it besides just the time freedom and the control over my time and and what I get to do and what I choose to do is really that creative freedom as well.
Yeah. And that was something I learned in my corporate days was that they don't give you creative freedom there. Right. Right. Okay. And so help help I'm I'm just imagining this new entrepreneur. They're within the first, you know, 2, 3 years. And they're like, okay. I gotta get control in order to because I started my business to get freedom, but you're about control, but now you're talking about creative freedom. What is that? You know, I I'm not really good at being a a yes man.
So, I'm very much a forgiveness, not permission Kings of guy. That's right. And so for me, I think that there's always a better way to do things. There's always a different way to look at a situation. There's always a different solution available for us And when I was when I was bound within that corporate environment, I didn't have that. And as an entrepreneur, I get that. I get to create something that no one else is doing.
I get to create opportunity for our clients and for our followers that no one else is creating for The. And that creative freedom, I mean, we just had this. We just had one of the biggest shifts in the way we deliver our services, like, 3 weeks ago in the history of the company. And it was such a dramatic shift. My team's really uncomfortable about it. But now they've embraced it and they're like, this is gonna be cool. This is gonna be great for us.
And you don't get that when you're when you don't run the company. That's right. That's right. Okay. So the creative juices are flowing. You're, you know, even though you're years in and you're successful, you're changing things, it sounds like. Talk about that process just for a half second of, you know, did it start as an idea and then you talked about it with your leadership team and then and now it's implementing across the entire team, like, just give us a little bit of the the journey.
Yeah. So one of our core values, I'm a big fan on core values, and and really The those foundational behaviors inside the company is always improving. Always improving. When I interview someone from my team, I say, here's fastest way to get fired. If you ever don't wanna be here, I will fire you on the spot when you tell me this one thing. When I ask you why you did it that way, And you tell me because that's the way we've always done it. That's right.
I will walk you out the door faster than you can blink. Because I want us to always be thinking, how can we do things better? How can we serve our clients better? How can we serve our families better? How can we create more freedom inside of the the role that we have so we can do more with what, with our lives and and the things we want to accomplish.
And so for years, I had clients and prospects, suggesting not really pushing hard, suggesting that there could be a better way to deliver our services. And for years, I was resistant. I was like, hold on. That's not my vision. That's your vision.
And, over a series of just events that have happened over the last couple of years, and most impactfully The last couple of months, some people that I've met that have just dropped great words of wisdom on me and just got me thinking about it differently. I finally said, you know what? This is I I always tell my, my family and my friends, you know, when god wants to get my attention, he stops tapping me on the shoulder. He just smacks me upside the head. And that's what happened.
And it was just, like, this moment of clarity, and I was like, this is the direction we need to go. I'm not quite sure what that means. I'm not quite sure how to get there. But this is the direction we need to go. And it was just just a bunch of those taps on the shoulder over the last couple of years before it finally got my attention. Yeah. Little The taps and and then the blop upside the head at the head. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That those are those are always nice to have.
Especially if you see him as that, you're like, oh, thank you. I, for whatever reason, I need the board and not just the tap. Okay. Fine. Yeah. That's just the relationship that we have. Fantastic. I've said this for a long time too. It's totally different scenario, but I was like, you know, the relationship that I have with the lord is I just go And it doesn't matter if it's a brick wall. It doesn't matter if it I'm gonna get over it. I'm gonna get through it.
I'm gonna tap every single brick to see if there's loose. I'm gonna dig. I'm gonna go around. And if all of that hasn't been exhausted and I still can't get over a rounder through, then maybe just maybe I recognize that he put it there on purpose. Yeah. And he knows this about me, and I know that about him, and we're gonna go through this routine every single time. It's okay. Mind usually The tap on the shoulder, and I'm just like, yay. Yeah. Yeah. I got Kings.
And then finally, it's just the 2 by 4 across the head. And I was like, got it. The message received. Yep. I'm with you on that. Okay. So, The is this is an interesting, you know, angle here, but for you, you know, having this this visionary perspective, but then also hearing from your customers, like, your vision and theirs was different, I heard you say. How does how does the listener take that away? Like, is there is there, you know, a survey that they should go ask their customers?
Is there a, like, a process? Like, Or is it more just like you should just be listening more? Like, give us a little bit of insight here on how you got that. So you'll find that a lot of my ideas and a lot of the ways that I approach business is very disruptive. It's very different than what a lot of people say, but I believe the customer is always right unless they're not. I couldn't agree. More with what you just said. I love that. Keep going. So, you know, I think people are so surveyed out.
People don't know how to people don't know how to build good surveys. And the people you're surveying don't know how to respond to a good survey. Seriously. So not surveying. And and the other thing too is there's a difference between what the customer wants and what the customer needs. I did not get into my business to just give the customer what they want all the time, because that's not what they need.
We we talked a little bit about that freedom, and I know that there are people listening right now, like, yeah, I left corporate because I want to work less. I want to make more. I want the other things. And they're like, now corporate felt like a part time job compared to the journey of entrepreneurship. That's right.
That's because I think a lot of times what we do as entrepreneurs is we focus on the things that we want and not on the things that we need because the things that we need sometimes hurt. Sometimes they're uncomfortable. Sometimes it's, an a hard truth to swallow. And for for me, it was no if I deliver it that way, the customer's not gonna get what they need. And it was through, an act of maturing that I finally realized I can deliver that way and still give them what they need.
And that when that's when the moment clicked for me. Interesting. Can you give us maybe a practical of what that Like, what was what they wanted? What was what you think that they needed? And we'll try to bring that down into, like, understandable terms. Yeah. You know, it's funny. I was just having coffee this morning, right, before here, with someone that I just met in the area, and we were talking about the way that people are today. And there are 2 things about people.
Number 1, we won it yesterday. And number 2, we want everything with a big splash. Like, it's not enough he was using a baseball analogy. He's like, everybody wants the home run or the strikeout, but no one wants the bunt. No one wants the base hit. Like, we don't want that anymore because it's not as fun or exciting. But Right. It's the bumps and the base hits and and the sacrifices. That's what wins baseball gains. That's right.
And I think we forget that, especially in our always on moving super fast. I mean, we just moved cross country, and one of the conversations my wife and I had is does Amazon Prime have same day delivery? It's just The world we live in. I'm like, we're picking a house in a neighborhood based on whether or not we can get Amazon Prime same day. I I can only imagine what that conversation also entailed, but, I think you're too sure right.
Yeah. You're we have certain there's certain really, I if it actually sounds like were were dopamine deprived or or that we're sir we're searching for the next immediate hit. Right? Whatever that looks like. And so I think when it comes to business, And it it we help our clients find amazing people to build great teams. That's what we do. And there are the people that want to, you know, I go back to the fishing analogy.
There are people that want companies to just The call them up and they order some fish, and the fish gets delivered same day. And they're like, great. You know, I want that recruiter. I want that staffing agency because they'll do all the hard work. And they'll just deliver somebody. Right. And then and then there are people that say, no. You know what? I wanna learn how to do that because I wanna be dependent on someone else.
And I don't want clients to be dependent because when we get to a little bit of my story and, you know, what I did with my dad and and watching him go through what he went through, you never get out of that cycle. Yeah. You if you are ordering all your meals out and you don't learn how to cook, you don't learn how to fish for yourself, you're always gonna be dependent on someone else. That is not a way to grow and scale a business and create that freedom that we talked about.
Yeah. Well, I I want you to answer my next question, but maybe maybe do it inside of your story because it sounds like they're they're connected. The question really is is, like, why as a service provider, would you teach your client how to do what you do for them? I mean, obviously, I know what you're saying. Chaz as I'm sure many people listening to today have a service business to a degree, why would I teach them how to do it?
Or in this case, especially in a coaching space, why would I give away all my stuff? Alex Ramosi, why would I give it all away for free? Yeah. Right? Well, there's obviously reasons. So tell us what your answer is to that, but but weave it into your story because we wanna hear about the story with your your pop. I wanna hear about your background as well. So kinda take the stage here, let us know.
So, yeah, yeah, you're talking about Alex, of course, gives away everything for free, but he knows just like you and I know that 1% of the people are actually gonna hear it, and 1% of that group's actually gonna go do it. And so, you know, giving it all away sharing it. I got a book coming out in a couple of months. Like, everything is in there. Like, you could take it and go do everything we teach and and we coach, from the book. But I also know that most people aren't.
And and the reason why is we get in our own way. That's right. It's not because I don't have the desire to do it, or I don't have skills to do it, or I I don't have the ability to do it. It's because The overthink it, and I get in my own way. We joke with our clients a lot Chaz the the single biggest bottleneck in any business is the owner. Oh, yeah. And for the owners that have realized that, they start looking at the world differently.
For the ones that haven't realized that yet, they they just keep grinding and they keep pushing and they keep doing the hard stuff. The way, and they never able to break out of it. And so being able to give that all away and shift the way people think about it and go, hey. Maybe I'm the problem. Maybe I'm the one that needs to be worked on so that I'm not dependent on someone else forever. Because here's the Kings. We saw this with COVID. Great example. Right?
We have all this dependency on all these other service providers who are delivering for us all the time. And then also there's a supply chain issue. Well, now I'm far because I don't know how to go out and fish for myself. Right. You know? And that will happen. And So to to bring that back to my story, you know, my I grew up in a entrepreneurial family.
My dad was in manufacturing my whole life, and I remember I'd get home from school, and my dad would come home and you get a phone call at 7 o'clock at night. He's like, hey. You wanna come hang out with me at the plant? Or or on the weekends. He's like, I'm going to the plant. You wanna come hang out. I'm like, well, yeah, I wanna hang out with dad. And then he put me to work. You know, he put a broom in my hand through that corner. And Yeah. That's right.
You know, I I watched my dad go through The. And while he had a successful business and we had a great relationship, he was just a slave to that business. 12 hour days, 6, 7 days a week. I mean, all The way, he still is not fully retired. Like, he's still a slave to the business. It's crazy. And It was all because he couldn't hire the right people. And it wasn't because he wasn't a good boss or a good leader.
It was because no one ever gave him the skills and taught him how to actually go do that. Right. So he just kept dealing with this this fallout going, well, no one wants to work. Everybody's lazy. Like, the things that we all hear now. That's not true. Yep. Chaz which he's probably been saying for 50 years. Yes. And so is everybody else? Like, this labor shortage that we talk about is nothing new. I have an article that I clipped from a, a magazine.
Someone took a picture put it online from the sixties about the labor shortage. Like, labor shortage isn't new. And then people are like, oh, millennials now Gen Z. Right? Gen Z doesn't wanna work. They're so lazy. And it was decade before Chaz. It was Gen X. And a decade before that was the baby boomers. Like, we When you get out of high school and you're in your twenties, nobody wants to work. Every Yeah. These ladies. I just wanna have fun, man.
The they go out and they start a family and they go, what better have responsibilities? And then you see they stop bouncing around, they start focusing on their career and everything. Every generation goes through The. But we think we're unique. We think we're special and we're the victim. And Yeah. Going back to my dad, if someone had just sat him down 40 years ago and said, hey. This is the way to do it. This is the way to communicate. This is the process you need to build.
This is how you get your message out there so people know that you're looking for great people. This is the way to do it. If he'd had that 40 years ago, his business would have been so different. Yeah. What do you think in today's environment, your dad. Right? So bring him forward 40 years, and that person's listening today. What is that first, like, step that you're talking about?
There's obviously a process, like, not just a singular step, but what's the first step for them to take when they're hearing you going, oh, well, I need to know what he knows Chaz I'm not your dad 40 years ago. Yeah. You know, I think The I sum it up this way. If you're not attracting good people, it's probably because you're not attractive to good people. It's good. I want you to sit down and take a look in the mirror and say, Hey, what do I need to do differently? Who do I need to become?
How do I need to communicate What message do I need to share with the world so that people know the opportunity that exists when they join our team? Start The. Focus on you first. How do you become more attractive to the people that you want to attract? Yeah. And so Is that a general formula, or am I hearing you say I should pay attention to who I want to attract? And based on those qualities, That's who I need to become attractive too. Right? That's my target now.
Yeah. I think that there's there's people, and it really depends on where they're at. There are some people that can really enact change and do it well and say, hey. This is who I want to attract, so this is who I need to become to attract those people. And then there are other people that say nope. I know who I am. I'm comfortable with my skin. I'm gonna be authentic. Stop putting out this persona that's not real.
Stop being inauthentic in the marketplace and just be who I am and let people know that and attract them. We had a client years ago, five guys started this company together. They all went to high school together. So it was like a good old boys club, this leadership team, always razzing each other, always super passive aggressive. Like, it was weird. It was just weird. And they did not want to own this passive aggressive nature. And I called it out in a meeting The time.
I was like, You gave them The most passive aggressive bunch I've ever seen. It's crickets. And finally, the president's like, yeah. We know. Like, so why don't we put out there? So they were struggling to hire for their sales team. They Wolfe just turning salespeople over left and right. And, The were putting out this persona, this it was false. It was like, oh, we really care about each The, and we're o forthright in our communication, and we're open and honest, and blah blah blah.
And they get these people in, and the people be like, this is not what I signed up for. And they leave. Interesting. So we rewrote all their job ads. We redid their interview process. And we said, yeah. We're passive aggressive, and we own it. Yeah. We love beating around the bush and not telling you what's really going on. You know, we we're kind of each other. We're like a fraternity here. You know?
And it was and all of a sudden, I rewrote this ad, and I sent it to, their director of procurement, and he reads it. He goes, dude, I wanna I wanna work here. This sounds awesome. I go, you do work there. Yeah. He goes, we've never communicated it like this before. And so for them, they weren't one that was gonna change. Right. And but it was like, now let's just own who you are. And guess what?
They started getting these sales guys that were just, it was a different breed, but they started getting these sales Yep. Flying, and they just clicked. And it just worked. Sales went up. Customers were happier. Morale around the office was better because they just owned who they were. And instead of putting out this this false front to attract people that weren't gonna be a good fit, they started attracting the people that were.
Yeah. This is, I that's such a great example of the authenticity piece and owning who you are. This conversation, this topic of you know, becoming something that you need to become versus being who you are is just such an interesting little you know, back and forth because I think there's obviously, you know, there's there's 2 sides to every story. And so I wanna hear a little bit more of your thoughts around this, before I move on. So I I have I have an individual who needs to become better.
Like, generally speaking, we're on a trajectory of becoming our best selves, which includes leadership, which includes you know, all the Kings. Mindset, it could be the way that I handle employees, the way that I communicate. Like, I just need to become better, which Chaz become better in those things, I then attract better candidates Yeah. To your point.
But then there's the, like, well, I'm me and I and I'm unapologetically The, but that shouldn't keep me from growing and wanting to be better and to attract better people, but that's not false. So, like, what you see what I'm saying here? Like, how how do I how do I get out of the stuck? It's not an either or. It's a yes The. Love that. Yeah. But I think, you know, I I I like to use a lot of analogies because it helps people really connect with this. You've gotta know where you're at.
You have to be real with yourself and be authentic and say, okay, this is who I am, These are the things that aren't changing, and these are the things that I can change. It's good. And just like, just like that GPS system, when you're like, hey. I wanna go here. The first thing it does is says, Wolfe, I don't know where you're at. Like, turn on the turn on the GPS so that I can figure out where you're at, because I can't tell you how to get where you wanna go if I don't know where you are.
Yeah. And so I think sitting down and being really honest with yourself about where you are. And being authentic and saying, this is who I am and then saying, okay. This is who I want to become. What needs to change? And then make the decision. Make the conscious decision. Am I willing to change Chaz? Or not. And when I went through that process about a decade ago, there were some things where I'm like, this will never change. And now when I interview people, I tell them upfront.
In the interview, here's the deal. You're not gonna like this, this, or this about The, and I know you're not gonna like it. But I own it, these things are not gonna change. So I'm actually building processes in my business Yeah. To minimize the negative impact of those things that will not change. Yeah. The practical answer. Love it. I could probably just curiously pick that apart and and just extract your thoughts, because it was so good, but let's keep moving.
I wanna know of a good business decision that you've made. And maybe maybe if you Chaz, because we haven't talked about your, like, your just major business transition you were in a different business altogether. Mhmm. And you saw a need. And so was that part of maybe one of the greatest decisions that you've made? Cause I wanna incorporate Chaz. If possible, but I wanna know just the way that you think and what you consider a good decision. Maybe we can implement it as well.
Yeah. I I do think that the best decision I ever made was to stop focusing on improving my weaknesses. You hear that a lot. Like, oh, you're weak in these areas. You need to get better in these areas instead of focusing my energy on that, which was exhausting. See, these are the things I'm good at? I'm gonna go become better at them. Good. And then the things that I wasn't good at, those weaknesses that everybody was like, oh, you gotta figure this out.
They they become so minimal that it was easy for me to give them up. A a great example would be sales. I am not a good sales guy. I am not a good sales guy. What I am good is compelling people to action, motivating people, standing in front of a room, and rallying people, getting them excited, And, I I I dug into this. It was probably about 6 years ago. I dug in steeply and said, how do I get my message in front of more people in a way that's authentic to me?
And, you know, my sales coach is like, oh, cold calling and The, and I'm it never worked for me. And I realized that if I learned stand in front of a state on stage in front of people, I can compete with people to action all day long. That was very natural for me. So instead of pushing this cold calling, marketing funnels, all this other stuff that wasn't natural for me. I said, you know what? I'm gonna focus on the things that I'm good at. I love standing on a stage.
Sharing this message, why I do podcasts all the time. And, become good at Chaz, become a better storyteller because I enjoy telling stories. How can I do that better versus focusing on those things that I'm not good at? Yeah. What do you have what what have you found in Chaz, that those the weaknesses just like you said, just get minimized Chaz a person that is, like, your expertise is finding people for the team, Are are you building a team that where someone else takes those away?
You Chaz mentioned just slightly, it's easy to give The away at that point. Yeah. Yes. And, it's the same thing as both. Right? All of a sudden, guess what? I don't need to cold call anymore because they know how to stand on stage. So that that weakness of not being able to cold call or what my coach used to like to say pressure people into closing. Right? Sure. Because nobody wants to change, change stuff. Of it's hard.
Nobody likes it, but if I want to help people, they have to be willing to change. And so there's one way I can grab their arm and and and twist their arm behind their and say, hey. I'm gonna let go when you decide to change, which is one sales technique that I'm not yet, or there's another one that I can say, hey. Let me give you some Kings. That you can go do, you can see the change and go, oh, that tasted good. I want more of Chaz, and then they come back. And so that that was part of it.
But then there are other things about the business that won't go away. There are other things that I still have to do. And so, for example, I have lots of great ideas. Don't ask my team if they're all great. They wouldn't You have a lot of ideas to them. I don't know if they're good. No. A 100% of my ideas are amazing, Chaz. Let me tell you. They don't always agree. Said every entrepreneur ever. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. But there are some things that can't go away. I still have to deliver.
A great example is I love coming up with the ideas and the strategy. I hate, actually, I I'm just I'm not good at it. It takes me a lot of energy. It takes me a lot of to actually put pen to paper and create that final piece. So what did I do? I went and hired someone that loves that. They're amazing at it. In fact, The get energized by doing that. So I started building a team that gets energized in ways that I don't. And they're okay with that.
Like, they we never feel like we're stepping on each other's toes because the things that energize me, they want nothing to do with. That's right. You got one person on my team right now. If she could she would admit she would just every communication would be an email. We would never hop on the phone. We would never get on a Zoom call, and she would definitely never turn her camera on. Right. Me, if I'm doing any kind of conversation, and I can't see that The person have a problem.
Yeah. I can't. Come on. I can't. Or are we even talking? You know? Yes. Yes. And so building a team that can take over the things that I'm not good at or that I don't enjoy but our strengths to The, that that was a real practical use of that. Yeah. It's good. Let's flip the coin here. What was a bad decision that you've made, as you've gone through your journey, something that maybe we can stay away from? Believing that people wouldn't do it better than me.
K. And building a business that was focused on me. Yeah. We do this. Yeah. Yeah, we do this, but, like, you're saying it's a it was a belief. Well, like, you it's not like you set it out to just be that for yourself. Yeah. But eventually, you realize that that's what it was. So, like, Give us that moment. So when you say what's a bad decision, anything that came out of that belief. Yeah. Exactly. Like, waiting way too long to hire somebody. Right?
My first hire, I I I had this belief that no one would be able to ever get through to our clients and coach as well as I could. Yeah. And so, I met someone. I talked to The, and I was like, you know what? She might be someday be able to help with clients. And the second that I let it go and said, you know, and it was actually it was one of those slap upside the head moments. I got real sick. And I couldn't coach for a couple of weeks, and she stepped up. She said I'll do it.
And I was like, oh, this is gonna be a disaster. Clients loved her. She has a different approach than me. She communicates differently. She's way better at nurturing than I am. And so the clients loved it. And I was like, that's it. I and and that was a that was a moment for me when I said, you know what? I should have done this 5 years sooner. Yep. Yeah. Because like you said, at the very beginning of the show, you don't know what you don't know until you know it.
And then, you know, then it's almost, it's almost like Chaz as much work not to get into like, a mental spiral of, like, you know, like, of all the what ifs of how much it how much better it could be if I just done this sooner. You know? Now we have five people on the team. And in the last 6 months, because I'm just like, that's it. Everybody is good at stuff. I'm not. Right.
Well, because once you know, you know, and so that was gonna be my question is, how how does the person listening right now who had has the belief that you had. Yeah. How do they break through that without experiencing it firsthand and getting the 2 by 4 across the face like you did? And and this is where I'm really passionate about process. See, the thing is the reason people will never do it as good as you, for all those entrepreneurs listening, they have that belief.
The reason they will never do it is because they don't know what you expected them. Yeah. And if they knew what you knew about how it should be done or how it should be delivered, The they'll probably have even better ideas and take it to another level, which is what I've seen my team, and I see what clients' teams do. But you have to get that stuff out of your head. You cannot be the bottleneck when it comes to how to deliver, how to create that great experience for your customers.
Have to get that out of your head. And that includes sitting down, getting on a piece of paper Chaz you can hand to somebody, or the one I like to do is just record a video. Yep. Right. Set up your phone on a tripod. Hit record and just think out loud while you're doing the work. That's it. And then people can watch that video and go, now I know what my boss wants. And they'll go knock it out of park for you every time. They will.
Yeah. That's such a big, bridge that you just built within 30 seconds there. I I I wanna just maybe highlight some of your construction there. The the mindset or the gap of willing to hand it off, because even some of that's the nervousness of, like, Oh, like, I don't it's my baby. I don't want them to mess it up just like you felt like, oh, this is gonna go terrible. Mhmm. But if if you are handing them the exact blueprint, and so that's the work.
The work is sitting down, slowing down to speed up, So for the person listening right now who hears you, they understand, and they've probably heard. I gotta create SOPs. I gotta create process. I gotta record myself. Yeah. But Ryan, I don't have time. Yeah. No. I had that belief too for a long time. Sometimes it still frees it even. You know, I guess I guess the question is, do you wanna create a job for yourself, or do you wanna own a business?
Yeah. Because if all you wanna do is create a job, Yeah. Fine. You don't have time. I get it because you're too busy doing the work. But if you actually wanna create a business that turns into an asset that creates a legacy for you and your family, which is what most entrepreneurs I run into want. That's what they say they want. That's what they say they want. Their actions aren't always in line with that.
The imagine I I it was something that I that I was doing for a while, and I'm like, it takes me 7 minutes a month. To do this thing. And then I had a I actually had a time coach for a while that actually had me write down every 15 minutes what I was doing of every day. And he'd throw it into this weird spreadsheet that he had. And he's like, here's how you spend your time, and it was just so eye opening.
He goes, that 7 minute process that takes you to do that you don't like, by the way, takes you way longer than 7 minutes. Like, we always underestimate how long things take. That's right. That's right. So it might take you an hour a month. He goes, but think about the bookends of that time. How you have to prepare your head to get in the right head space to do that work and then you have to get out of it and get back into creativity mode.
He goes, it's up almost a full day a month for you to do this thing that you thought took 7 minutes. Jeez. How much time it's taking you. And so let's just go back to the 7 minutes. Let's just say it takes an hour. And it takes you 2 hours to put together a process on how to do it. Guess what? In month 3, That's you just started getting an ROI. It's paid for itself. Yeah. In month 3. And so if if you're always thinking about how do I get through this week, How do I just get to Friday?
Because I get the weekend because I created a job for myself. You're right. You probably don't have time. But if you're Kings, how do I focus on the things that I'm best at so that I can grow this business into something bigger. It's a it's a fallacy to believe that you don't have the time to do that. Hey, Kings and Queens. Chaz Wolfe. 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 The, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too. So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again all of the things on social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast mediums of Apple and spotify.
We would love to be able to get our content into more hands, more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as possible. Together, we are building a community of like minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights. So let's do this. Let's help each other. Let's help each other grow. I don't have the time to do that.
Yeah. Wow. I hope the listeners paying attention, taking notes, beliefs, have been the core underneath all the practical that you've given to us. Have you done I mean, you've you've mentioned you've had several coaches, a time coach, and other sorts. Have your beliefs changed from that? Have they changed from you maturing? Like, how have the beliefs shifted for you?
Yeah. You know, the the thing that I realized is that you go back going back to how I started with freedom and control and all that other stuff. The things that I thought I had control of, I didn't. And so that was a big shift for me in the beliefs is is just letting go of the things that I can't control and let other people do those things. There's so much in business that we can't control, but we think we can. And just letting go of those things and saying, hey. You know what?
I'm going to find a way to make sure I never have to do that again. And that either is giving it to someone like truly giving it to somebody. Of not the decision delegation where it's like, Hey, Chaz, I want you to go do this, but when you're done, bring it back to me so I can approve your work. That's not what I'm talking about. If it's used to the point where I forget we even do it. Like, that's the level of delegation. That's one way where the other thing is automated.
Find a way to automate the process so you don't have to do it anymore. And so I think my beliefs have really shifted into how do I get the things off my plate that don't bring real value to me, to my family, to my team, to my clients, Where is the real value given? In fact, right now, we just had this conversation, I got the book coming out, and I've been doing a ton of podcasting. And people are like, but you're not doing this, this, this, and this, and this.
I'm like, but where's the real value come? It comes with me getting this message out there and sharing it with the world and letting people know that they can solve this problem of building an effective team, and it's not as hard as they think. Yeah. Yeah. I think it goes back to what you were even just saying a few minutes ago when you're when you're, you know, determining, if I if I tested slow down to create a process as opposed to just keeping going.
It's the same kind of almost like, you're associating value with the tasks and or, initiatives, really. And so you're saying that there are things that are important. Sure. But for you, for your business, maybe even particularly for your skill set, like you talked about a few minutes ago, this is just higher on the priority. And then therefore, then that's how we that's how we, assign our time. That's how we assign our our, executable energy. You know? That that I don't know.
For me, that's taking time, you know, to, like, realize those Kings. You know? And then even once you've realized it, you're like, okay. This doesn't serve me. I need to get rid of it. And that might even be a of getting rid of it or letting it go, as you said, or truly delegating it, or actually, like, cutting it out. There's a lot of cutting out that has to happen it seems like. Yeah. We we do talk about the the Eisenhower matrix. I don't know if you've ever seen that. I haven't.
Give us a little we'll see. It's a it's a way to prioritize your time. Like, one of the important and urgent things you've probably heard it described that way. Right? That's important. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So things that are important and urgent, you need to deal Kings that are important, but aren't urgent, you schedule time for them. Things that aren't important, but are urgent to delegate get them to somebody. Like, hey. The isn't important for me. You deal with it. Like, or stop doing it.
Right? Like, what's one of the things that people think is urgent all the time? Oh, I gotta stay on top of the The. Because that impacts my business. It's urgent. News is changing all the time. You but it's not important. Like, you can run your business if I can. And then there's the not important urgent, like, scrolling the Facebook feed. Right? It's not Yeah. And it's not urgent. Like, stop doing those things.
But we sell ourselves on this idea that the things that we're doing are important and are urgent. Oh, yeah. The reality is the majority of stuff that we do is not either. Yeah. I mean, we're really good at justifying. Absolutely. You know, when you were talking about the, the delegating and then finding time and everything else, another analogy came to mind And I think a lot of this comes down to what is it that you really want out of your business? What is it that you really want to accomplish?
And if you're not clear on that, that's step 1. But I think about The. I think about professional athletes. Like, I think people have top of their game. The amount of time they spend performing actually doing the thing they're getting paid for is so minuscule compared to the amount of time they spend practicing and warming up and stretching and everything else. I even think about running. I've I started running lately.
It's not something I've ever liked, but for some reason, you know, mid forties, all of a sudden, I like running now. Might just be a change of scenery because now that I'm in, the Midwest. But Yeah. You know what? Stretching has to become a very important part of my running practice. And it feels like stretching is a waste of time. But you know what's a bigger waste of time? Getting injured and not being able to walk.
I threw my back out a couple years ago so bad that I was bedridden for almost 2 weeks. That was a waste of time. Why? Because I wasn't spending time taking care of my body. Yeah. And so it simply happens in business. What happens when you get sick? What happens when something comes up? Like, does your whole business come to a screeching halt? And all of a sudden, you have customer service issues, and you got customers that are leaving you because you weren't there to serve them?
Like, that to me sounds like way bigger waste of time than sitting down and giving a process to someone on your team and saying, hey. Go do this. Yeah. And those are just the calculatable, measurements there, I guess, not not even considering the however many customers that didn't even come to you because you didn't have the capacity. Whether they actually tried to come to you or whether it was just, you know, a belief thing that you weren't attracting The.
Mhmm. Because you didn't have the capacity because you you already know you're the bottleneck. Tell us a little bit about your book. I usually give a a snapshot here of, like, what resource have you used that you can reference to us, but you're creating a resource. Tell us what's in it and how can we find it it's about to come So the book comes down October 17th. It'll be available everywhere. It's called Higher Better People faster. Love it.
And it's all about a proven process to attract and retain the best people. And there's nothing in there that is incredibly difficult to do. And it's very practical, very how to, like, here's the process that we build. Here is the way to build this process. Here's how to think about where your company is going you want to accomplish because that's gonna dictate the kind of people that you're gonna hire.
You you may have heard this before, but the the people on your team that get you from 0 to a1000000 not the same people to get you from a 1,000,000 to 5,000,000. Aren't the same people to get you from 5 to 10. And if you don't know where you wanna go with your business, It's really hard to figure out what Kings of people are the right people for you. And so book is very practical, very how to.
It'll be available on audiobook too because I know target market, busy entrepreneurs who don't spend a lot of time reading, but listening. So you'll be able to get an audio book as well. We're gonna have a bunch of downloads and resources available that we use in our program that you'll be able to get for free and actually implement some of those tools right away. Love that. Well, they the listeners would be silly not to take you up on that and purchase the book.
For for and actually, let me just say this. For those for those right now that are listening that know they have a problem with their hiring process or that need good people, don't wait for the book. Just hit all I'm gonna ask his contact information here in a second. It's gonna be in the show notes. Don't be it. Don't be a goofball and wait for a book when you can just hire Ryan. So I don't do that often, but, obviously, he's he's already giving you plenty of value.
I got a question for you about family. Yeah. And I know we talked off air just right before we got started, you know, about, you know, you guys moving across the country, and and I'm sure that's been a thing. And you mentioned you, you know, having a daughter a couple, you know, 10 years ago. It's about how old my oldest is as well. But there's this there's this, run, or this journey that we're on as entrepreneurs and we're obsessed. Right? The is what we do. We're all in.
We've talked about this already here today. But a lot of times people go all in on the business, but then they don't know how to go all in on marriage or all in on, you know, dad or mom roles. So for you, what are what's some practical things that you've done to be obsessed in in all areas, all at the same time. Yeah. You know, a a practical thing for me and I get that there's 99% of people listening.
It's not gonna be practical for them, but giving up the office and working from home was a very practical thing for me. And again, a lot of people can't do that. But that was something that I did. Before I did that, something that was very practical for me was I, I live and die by my calendar. A lot of entrepreneurs, like, if it's not on the calendar, it's not happening. Well, guess what? Put the important things on the calendar. Time with the kids, taking care of yourself.
Time away from the office. Like, put it on the calendar. It's amazing, how more how much more likely you will be to adhere to it, especially if you one of those entrepreneurs that swears by the The, and I get not all entrepreneurs do. And if you don't That Chaz might be step 1. It might be some time for some organization in your your life, but, That was a real practical thing for me. It was working from home.
My my daughter is almost 10, and she'll she'll slide notes under the door when I'm on a call, and it'll say daddy, I want to work with you. And she just comes to work. She just wants to spend time with me, and we wouldn't even have those little moments Chaz I not been? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right here on my screen, I've got 2 little notes just like that from my nine year old, almost ten year old daughter. And it You're right. Not everybody can can do that.
But the decision that you made was what do I need to do practically to be able to focus on not just solely my business? How can I do my business Wolfe? And do dad well and, you know, love my wife well. Whatever those things. I've got a practical exercise that people can do that can help with us. K. Perfect. We don't give this to all of our clients because some aren't ready for it, but for the ones that are. So if The, if this scares you to death, then you're not ready for it.
So Yep. Is figure out what you need to do, Gary, for it. But one of the things we talked about earlier, justifying, we can justify anything is important and urgent. And for those of you listening that have a team already, but the team always loops you in. They always send you the email, and you're always the first to respond to email. You're always the first one at the office. You're always the last one to leave because you believe that your team needs you.
I will tell you right now that you are a crutch to your team, and you are not equipping them with what they need So one of the exercises that we take people through, for these owners that want to get out of the day to day and create some of what I call margin, right, so that you can focus on things that are really important is set a self discipline that you will not reply to any email outside of someone being physically harmed because that stuff
that's usually any other thing is really not that important. You will not respond to it within 24 hours. That means no email response, no phone call. 24 hours. Watch how many things get solved in that 24 hour period without you. And Yep. Every con time we've ever taken a client through that kicking and screaming. Nope. It's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. They finally do it. And they're like, I don't need to respond to anything anymore. My team can actually do this.
Because as long as they know that you are going to make the decision anyways, what incentive do they just defer? Yeah. Yeah. I had I had a similar conversation, I don't know, maybe 5 or 6 months ago with a podcast guest. And he said, when are you gonna quit being addicted to being needed? I love that. It's like, wow. Yeah. K. Last question here for you, Ryan. I wanna know if you had the opportunity to reach back into time and whisper in the younger Ryan's ear. What would you tell?
Nic, deep, and niche quickly. Yeah. Give us more. Give us give us why why why that message. You know, when when I started my business, I was we were digital marketing. We we were helping people with generating leads. And when I found this opportunity to help people with recruiting, I was like, oh, I'll do both. Right?
When business is booming, they're gonna need help when businesses and booming, they're gonna help with lead generation, and I became so distracted by all the different systems and processes and everything we had to do. And had I gotten to the point where I said, you know, I'm gonna do one Gathering, and I'm gonna do it better than anybody else. My processes are easier to create. The are easier to create. It's easier for me to hire. It's easier for me to go to market.
It's easier to me for me to figure out which vendors I need to work with. It's easier for me to figure out systems I need, software systems I need in my business. But when I'm everything to everyone, I'm no good to anyone. Yeah. And I had this belief that I could not be a big fish in a small pond that I had to be playing in the big the big pond with everybody else.
And I was such a small fish, and it was so inconsequential to everybody else because I wasn't clear on what I wanted and how I was gonna deliver and everything else. And I still don't think I niche deep enough yet. I still think that there's a way for me to even niche deeper and to where it's You know what? There's I I met I met somebody one time, and, I I forget. He he was a marketing company. He was a marketing company. And he only served a certain type of CPA.
And, I asked him, I said, so how big is the the pawn that you're fishing users. 372 people in North America that are target markets. Wow. The are only 372 firms that can use my service. I'm like, oh my gosh. How good that must feel to know that? Yeah. Versus I remember really early on in my career, I there I was in a networking group and somebody stood up, and she was she worked for a dentist. And so many the question was, what's a good con customer for you? Or a a good, referral for you.
And, she stood up. She goes, anybody with or without teeth? I was like, great. You know, what's funny is I never refer anybody to it, but I still tell that story 10 years later because Yep. Imagine how hard it must be to go to market like that. Yeah. Whereas Yeah. How am I supposed to refer anybody? And then about a year later, I remember her standing up. Same gal stood up. And she goes, Who do you know that's having trouble controlling their blood pressure? That's a great referral for me.
And we're like, confused but I'm like, I know people, like, personally, they're struggling with blood pressure. And, and that's important. And, she told a story about how that to gum disease and some other things when you have high blood pressure. Yeah. All of a sudden, the referrals can't flooding it because she decided to knit. Oh, yeah. So then focus only on people with high blood pressure. And you wouldn't normally make that association. It was such a pattern interrupt for us.
Referrals came flooding in the door. And so Yeah. If I were to go back I would niche deep niche early. Love that. Alright. Well, Ryan, I'm I I I have been honored to have you here on the show. I think we could probably go another days. Honestly, I do. You're just that you're you're a you're a mysterious a a box of tools over there that I think I could just keep pulling them out if I if I was here long enough. But I appreciate what you've given to us here today.
It is valuable, but how can or find you if they want more. Obviously, your book's coming out. I'm sure it'll be on your website, make sure you give us that. But how can they just go straight to you, find or hire you, and or if they just wanna connect with you, follow what you're doing. Yeah. How can they find you? Core matters.com is our website. Real simple. Tons of free information on The, lots of free tools, education, everything you wanna get a hold of us. We make that pretty simple as well.
If you wanna connect with me, I am most active on LinkedIn. Ryan England. Just look me up. Most active The, so you can feel free to connect with me directly there. And The, of course, I've got a podcast as Wolfe. Talent tackle box. So, you can get access to that from core matters.com. Of course, on LinkedIn, we promote it quite a bit. And there's a lot of great guests that we have on that show as well. Yeah. It's amazing. Well, the tackle box you have been, my man.
So appreciate you appreciate you coming prepared. You have been, incredible here today, but we also just wish you nothing but success and blessing, especially in the new, the new part of the country where you're, now a midwestern fellow. Appreciate the the joining of forces there, but in all seriousness, thank you for being here. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings today.
I hope they 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 business and multiple different industries and now interviewing over 2 or 300 other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is that It's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1 1000 Kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done.
We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy. So if that relates and and resonates with you, and you know that you need people around you, sharp, qualified The very successful business owners. I want you to go to Gathering.
Kings 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.