On today's episode of Gathering The Kings. We actually started the division on September 10th 2001. Oh, goodness. So our new electrician on September 11th was down in DC. With guns pointed at him, in his van, trying to go to work with them saying you take everything out of your van and put it on the sidewalk. And, that was his first first night of work for us. Goodness. Or may maybe that was a sec that was the 2nd night of work for it. It makes it so much better Chaz it was night too, you know.
Night 1. Can't handle it. Night 2, we're good to go. You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe Gathering fellow 78 and even 9 figure business owners who have real battle scars from business and life, but have prevailed as the king that they are designed to be. We welcome high performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the reel of the reel on what it takes to build a The The and how you too can get there.
Through this dialogue, you will learn the value of growing your network and surrounding yourself with power players and Kings like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe, Gathering the Kings podcast, I'm your host. And today, I've got Dave The here on the Kings stage. Dave, good morning. How are you? Good morning. I'm doing well.
Thank you. You know, I I I haven't I didn't mention The to you off air, but you're sitting next to some beautiful country there. Looking at your window, I can see the autumn colors in the trees. You got a beautiful place there. It is Chaz that is my backyard, and it's in the fall array my favorite time until the leads come off. Yeah. And then it gets a little bit gray, and then we wait like crazy for spring. That's right. That's right. I feel the same way even about the Midwest.
It's like, you know, there's a couple of times a year, spring and fall where it's like, man, this is beautiful weather. But the summer and the winter, man, it just some people like the snow. Some people like the hot, and I just I would prefer about 78 I can do the sun I can do the changing of the trees. I like to hunt. We talked about that briefly, but I'm with you on that one. Kinda wait. Hold tight till the till the spring comes. Debbie. Tell us what kind of business that you have for them.
Okay. Well, Hope Builders is a commercial facility service construction business. We primarily serve national chain restaurant. K. And we do remodeling and we do maintenance. And repairs. And so we have night guys to go in at night, and they fix things, fix things up, change things out, And in the morning, customers right back in The, making stuff.
Never well, hopefully, And then we have crews that are out all day long, fixing stuff, doors that come off, broken, Kings, putting things back together, plumbing, electrical, carpentry. We do deliveries of equipment as Wolfe. Well And and we are on call weekends. So we are what do I call us? 24 or 5? Yeah. We're 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. And then we're on call all weekend. So it is a relentless business.
Yeah. It's like a full service thing that I need, building maintenance, delivery wise, for my commercial building, it sounds like. Yep. With a few exceptions, HVAC is not something we do, and we don't work on, say, the show to machines or Sure. All the equipment just of a few select things. Yeah. Well, that's that's great. I'm I'm excited to kinda dig into your story a little bit and hear how you built that relentless machine Chaz you as you said.
Be before we do that though, I'm curious at this stage. We've talked about, you know, your position in the company. I'd love for you to be able to tell us Kings what you're doing there and and kinda like your, I guess, your hope at this stage in the business. I I wanna get to one other question before we get into your story, but tell us what your current role is in the business and why. Okay. Well, my current role is, I'm the vice president.
I'm a co founder and I also call myself chief culture officer. So I'm very, very passionate about the special culture that we have. I promoted the vice president of the company a year and a half ago, and so he's now my boss And I'm the vice president. We switched positions. He's over sales operations and and the whole company.
I'm focused on leadership, which is the culture part, finance and administration is my strength, and So I spend a lot of time Gathering the next generation of leaders in the company Yeah. And helping the finance and admin folks as well. Yeah. I just I I wanted you to say all that because I think it really it breathes hope or maybe lack of better terms, maybe pun intended, to the listener because, man, they they're doing it all right now. Right?
They're just trying to build their in the early stages. And to hear someone successful, uber successful like you, and to say some something like I promoted someone on my team to be my boss. Right? The is, like, such a far distance of no ego in what you just said there. Because it's intentional. And I loved what she followed it up with by saying I did Chaz. Not because I needed to beat my chest and be the guy anymore, but but I wanted to pour into the next phase.
And and for you, that's equally as important. I don't think it really matters that The title or what departments he's over or or you, but I think the leadership in raising up the next generation is probably as important, if not even more, And I just I just loved your humility, as you said, that I wanted the listener to really pick that up because that's something that can happen in businesses. It doesn't have to always be you know, the grind and the push and the ego of of of look at me.
And so I just think that you embody, even just a few minutes I've spent with you this morning, even before we hit the record button, you've just embodied humility and just the idea of being intentional. And so I wanna explore that with you here, I'm here this morning, but before we do, Maybe this is a parlay into my next question. Maybe maybe it's different. I don't know what's your answer, but why is my question? Why did you start the business? What's really the big picture for you?
Why are you still doing it? Like, what's what's what's your purpose? Well, The why? You gotta go back to about 1992. I was The senior vice president at a large general contractor. And I had, it all happened in conjunction with recruiting my brother-in-law. My wife's brother, Andy, to that company to start a small division there. And I had a dream at that time, and it was really out of reading covey's, 7 habits of highly successful people. Sure. Writing a personal mission.
And then leading that company into a mission driven company. Yeah. And So that went on for a year and a half, and that division grew rapidly and was very successful in the midst of a recession. And it was mainly because it was focused on small small work as opposed to the big work. And so a year and a half in, it became evident that I had a little bit different of a vision than my boss and the owner of the company.
Yeah. And I just couldn't shake The thought that I wanted to have a mission driven company that focused on the people in the company with the thought that if you satisfy your staff, they'll satisfy your customers. Yeah. And that takes all the pressure off of me to be the man. And so we I would say very unlike me, I started contemplating this seriously on December 22nd, and I resigned on December 27th. Wow. 5 days later.
And, January 3rd, I hope Builders was incorporated and We started a company with the owner's blessing to take that small division into our own company with 8 men and 3 days work. Wow. It was it was a bumpy year. I mean, you wanna talk about starting something in a lightning quick fashion mode.
You had 8 you had 8 lives and and families and not a whole lot of work and a bunch of experience and heart and grit, I'm sure, but Man, there's other parts of the business that I'm sure you had to quickly learn, but what about at this stage? Like, after all the success now, why why why do you exist now? Why I just hope exists now? Well, I would say the The vision of the company, which was not defined when we started.
Sure. It took years and years to Kings put in words what was the heart of the the initiation of the company. Our visions to create and encourage opportunity to accomplish your greatest potential. And so our thinking and what drives me is to see people like myself, people that are not supposed to be anything, become something, and we've just seen this happen over and over and over again.
So I I just come from, a background where I really wasn't supposed to be anything, and I just never listened to any of that. I just put one foot in front of the other. And you just put a day, a week, a The, a year, on top of a year, on top of a year. And the next thing you know You're look you're on top of a mountain. Yeah. Kings down, and it's like, oh my goodness. Look look look where we've gotten Unfortunately, I look up, and there seems like there's always another mountain.
Yeah. There's always these Fox tops. Aren't there? I've never arrived So, you know, when you use the word success, that that word Kings scares me a little bit. All I can say is, you know, we started We celebrated art at 5 years because we knew very few companies ever started and made 5 years. Right? So I glad I did. That was in 99. And my mom died in 2000. So, so grateful that we paused to celebrate and and got to include my mom in that Yeah. Well, you you've said several Kings.
Whether you've realized it or not, the the the gold is flowing from your from your fountain there, but I I wanna I actually wrote it down. The I I have done over 200 of these recordings, and I have written down, like, in the midst Chaz to grab my pen and write something down a couple of times. I I remember things pretty well. I'll always go back after The shows and and take a couple of notes Chaz I really appreciated.
Of course, I have a team that takes full on notes and all that fun stuff, but I had I literally just grabbed my pen and my notebook. Kings I wrote down, I wasn't supposed to be here. I wasn't supposed to be successful. Written. And I relate to that because, obviously, growing up single mom family, there's a lot of stats out there that, you know, say I should be in prison or whatever. And I think the listener feels the same way. I don't know who the listener is.
I don't know their name, but I know that they're an entrepreneur and they're pushing and shoving and grinding, and they're trying to build this business. And it feels like a mountain. It feels like they're pushing a big old rock up the mountain. And to have a guy like you so simply say, I wasn't supposed to be here. I just kept taking another step. That's so simple. So simple, but so profound.
I just wanted to, like, sit in that for a second, and I wanna give you a chance to respond to my comments because I want the listener even if they needed to pause right now and just literally pause the podcast and think about why where they are and probably why they shouldn't be there, how all the things have been against them, whether that's been people or circumstance or or literal, you know, roadblocks in life. I was just telling you before before we got on the on the show.
I didn't know my dad growing up. I met when I was twenty four years old. He thought somebody he didn't even know I existed. I thought somebody else was my dad who had who was not even in my life. Wow. So I I wanna give you a chance to respond here, but in this in this, like, sitting here for a second realizing that neither one of us are supposed to be here, but yet we are.
What are your thoughts on that specifically to the person who's contemplating maybe maybe they're not where they need to be, but they're not where, like, where they are even they should be grateful for that. And, of course, there's so much more. What what what are some comments that you can add here?
Well, I would say that success in in from at least my experience, and it's not everybody, but for me, The success is in the grind, and the fact that when you never give up, Good things ultimately come out of it even in failure Yeah. That you you just keep getting back up and fighting. So, you know, I just go back to childhood, and this is this has been in me Since I was born, I'm not an academic. And I was, like, straight c student all the way through.
I got a college degree, which is you know, close to a miracle. I my second semester at University of Maryland, I've got the lowest grade grade in the class. And The professor, you know, pretty much mocked me in front of the class and then suggested that I drop the class and find a something that I was capable of doing. And, you know, that's the kind of thing that just ignites me into a fight. And so the next, the next class don't ask me how, but I got the highest grade in the class.
So Chaz f The an a equals a c. And that's that's the name of my education is a c for me was The a Yeah. Because I got to keep moving. Sure. Sure. And and so that just Kings been a picture of my life. In terms of, you know, all the naysayers and the people that say you can't do that, I pretty much have not listened to those people if I feel differently. And if I feel differently, I just keep scrapping and and moving forward.
So Yeah. No. I think that that's Who wasn't who I've been, and and it's still who I am. Yeah. I It's it's it's interesting. As a young man, we were talking about this, you know, some of the ages of your of your sons, and I'm right in between your sons, you you wonder how things develop and change over the course of time. I can at 35, I look back, and I go, okay. I'm different now than I was when I was twenty, but my my mind still is the same.
I've grown, obviously, and I've matured and and developed, but So I'm still the same person. And so everything that you just said makes me think of some of those things of, like, you know, okay. So maybe you've been doing this longer, but who you are, especially in the mindset of, like, scrappy, grindy. Like, don't tell me I can't do something because then I'm gonna go do it. Like, I think that Chaz relates to almost every single entrepreneur out there.
And even for you at your at this level, it's like that's still what gets you fired up. In fact, It's probably why you've made the transition in your own company because it's like, okay. Over there is where the fight is, where the scrappy is. It's in the building of the leaders. And, and that's where I wanna put my hand to. You wanna add anything to that before we before we move on? No. I think you you said it well.
You've described it Wolfe, and I'm 65, and I'm still I'm still playing basketball. You know, I played basketball last night with twenty year olds. That's interesting. I forget I'm 65. Chaz. As soon as the ball's on the court, the next thing you know, I'm on the floor diving for a ball, and then I get up and go know, are you why, you know, the next morning, my hip hurts and, you know, it's like, when are you ever gonna stop doing Chaz?
And Yeah. You know, up to this point, I'm I'm Kings of still doing it. And, well, I think with a lot more wisdom, Sure. And The before, I'm I'm intentional about trying to preserve the body that I have so that I can keep doing what I love to do. So Yeah. Well, you're prep you're better than I. I gave up the basketball in preservation. Yeah. Exactly. My mantra at age sixty five, preparation and preservation. Well, I think that that's a good mantra to live by.
And, man, you getting out there some agility on the court. Like, that that's that's inspiring because I played basketball for the 1st, you know, 20 years of my life pretty hardcore. At a somewhat high level. And I if I never saw another basketball, I would be just fine. I I'm not eighteen anymore, and I know it, and I don't I don't have any interest. But we it doesn't mean that, physically, we talked about elk hunting and The of your sons and Ira will nail cutting in September.
Like, there's always that that physical, you know, pressure next level. So let's go into your story a little bit. Kinda kinda like a big picture of who you are and and maybe why you're doing the things that you're doing. I wanna talk about maybe the beginning. You talked briefly about why you started the The.
But in the midst of those 1st couple of years, especially as you were building, you talked about maybe The 1st year being kinda bumpy, I want you to just generally tell me about that 1st year, and then I'm gonna dial it down with a couple of questions. Just talk about that 1st year in business. The 1st year in business was very difficult. We were not established. And so It was Kings hand them out. There was never a backlog.
There was a number of times when the guys would come in and say, Well, you know, what where am I going tomorrow, and there's no place to send them. And, that was it, you know, 3 o'clock or something. And then the phone rang at 4 o'clock, and somebody need yeah. I mean, they're just miracles in terms of the Chaz were coming in at the right time. We did a a relatively large residential addition. We started out 50% commercial and 50% residential.
K. And so we had a payment problem with that person that put a huge strain on on us as a business, not the kind of thing you really wanna that's that's something for, you know, after you're established and you got equity and cash flow and everything else. Now you don't you don't want that to have you don't want payment problems in your 1st year, but we had that too. So it was it was stopped, and we got through.
Our 1st year, we did $670,000 of construction business, which in 1994 was that's a lot of not not a little bit about us. And Yeah. And then we finished the year with 3 decent sized contracts. Signed. And so we were Kings of established at the end of that year, and we went into the new year with a bit of a backlog, and I would say we never looked back. Yeah. So year 1 was a very difficult year, and we just Kings tough to down. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's dive in here.
I wanna know in that 1st year, specifically since you said it Kings like sets you up you know, for the rest of your time, it sounds like. What was a good decision that you made in that in that time frame that you can share that maybe we can go replicate in in our businesses? Well, I think the best decision was we we really focused on our only commercial customer. Which was a Friday's TGI Fridays. That was a customer that followed us from The original company over.
Yeah. And they they were in a growth phase as a as a company. And so we We hitched our wagon to to their horses, and they really fueled our growth. And and, ultimately, that was the momentum that resulted in us pivoting out of residential and focused entirely on commercial. So in those 1st few years, we started to phase out and of residential and really focused on the commercial. And then we started adding additional customers in the commercial world after that.
Yeah. Well, that's, you know, recognizing what you're best at or where the money is. In this example, maybe, impressing into Chaz, do you think that if you had capped residential around Chaz you would have the business that you do today, or would would it be more spread out? Would it be more confused, like, Give us the the consequence if you can't admit that choice. I think the foe we are laser focused. On commercial facility services. And Yeah. The other is it's just a different business.
And so Recognizing the The differences and then looking at the the marketing end in the residential, you're constantly having to generate leads. And in our business, once you get the customer, their needs never end. You don't have to develop new customers like you do elsewhere. Right. Our marketing budget is very low. Because our customers their needs are relentless. Yeah. Well, and keep your keep your people in good condition.
Culturally wise is probably why you're doing what you're doing and and then keep your customer happy. And it sounds like you retain retain a good amount of the business every single year. What about what about a bad choice? That 1st year, something that you did that, you know, kinda wish you had that. I'll go to about year 3 or 4. K. We decided to start an electrical division k. And we have been awarded a addition on one of our locations. And so Our we saw this as the opportunity.
Now is the chance. We're gonna add electrical, and we're gonna do electrical in house and we're gonna make all this money, and it's gonna be a new department for us. And so What happened was greed was the motivator. It was all the money we were gonna make was the motivator for starting this abruptly, almost similar to the way we started the company, except the motives to start the company wasn't greed. The other one was greed.
And so we lost money out of the gates, and we shut it down after 2 months. Yeah. Because we were losing much faster. And the reason was we never thought it through. Yeah. We we didn't The was no organization behind it. There were it was just go do electric work Kings of a thing on this location. Yeah. And so the the good that came out of that was we made a decision that we wouldn't make any major decisions without counsel and presenting the decision to somebody to put put holes into. Right.
And so that was a costly mistake that wound up serving us for the next 25 years. Right. Very Wolfe, and we still practice that at this point. And and then with 2 years later, we wound up Actually, starting an electric division, which is still active and successful. 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 this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too. So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the Kings. 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 in to 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. Did you had mentioned that you're obviously doing electrical now so I was in the story there. I was wondering when it actually rolled out. So what was the difference between that moment when you originally and then 2 years later when you actually were you know, profitably able to implement it.
The first one was we knew a guy, and he was a good friend of ours. But we never thought it through. And so we we ruined a good relationship with a a very, very fine man that we chose to to lead Chaz. And, you know, it's not not good to hire somebody away from their job, and then 2 months later, tell them they're fired, Not a proud moment. But 2 years later, the another opportunity came up with another very, skilled person, and it was thought through. And there was structure and we executed.
We actually started the division on September 10th. 2001. Oh, goodness. Right. So our new electrician on September 11th was down in DC with guns pointed out in in his van trying to go to work with them saying you take everything out of your van and put it on the sidewalk. And that was his first first night of work for us. Goodness. Or maybe maybe that was a sec that was The 2nd night of work for us. It makes it so much better Chaz it was night too, you know. Night 1. Can't handle it.
Night 2. We're good to go. Yeah. I mean, I guess, I guess you knew in that moment whether he was gonna last or not, but But in all seriousness, I I think that the the takeaway there for the listener, you've given several, but just real quick on that last little piece is you know, the the execution of then the forethought plan.
One last little quick follow-up question on that because what was I mean, if if the difference was that the second time around it was well thought out and then you executed on the well thought out plan, why not the first time spend some time to go, oh, crap. We're losing money Gathering than shutting it down. Spend the time to think about it. Why wouldn't that have worked, or why did you just elect to to not. Why would we not? Probably because we were busy.
Yeah. Just running the business Should have been doing anyway, to begin. Say say the business running us, you know, if you're like on a treadmill, you're going a hundred miles an hour, and then you're like, let's just turn up the speed a little bit here. Chaz would I I would say that that was the The. Yeah. Not Kings. Not having the time to think and Yeah. Not taking the time to think.
Yeah. This is something that I think that even me personally Chaz I'm I'm still walking through in my own companies because I'm a doer. You know, like, what we just talked about, I'm a doer. I like to get things done. The challenge you know, we're very similar in that way. And, that doesn't normally leave a lot of time for us thinking. I like to think ahead. I like to plan, but it's, like, Kings build the ship at sea process.
And what you eventually realized and this is, maybe more so for the listener right now because I I've learned and and still learning, but learning these lessons The same as you have, is that you can do that for a period of time. You have to do that. For a period of time. The warrior stage, right, as we call that in in Gathering The mastermind. It's like you you have to be able to fight the battle, be active. You gotta survive.
You know, maybe you could look out for the guy to your right and your left, but it's pretty much like you just gotta you gotta you gotta figure it out. But then there comes a there comes a day where you you The thinking time actually becomes more valuable than the fighting time. And that's really the depiction that you're giving The this Kings mindset of Hey. Like, when when when you feel like you can't you don't have enough time to think. It's probably when you need to think the The.
It's probably why that that civil set there didn't work for you. But 2 years later, when you had the time, you you purposely and intentionally sat down, you thought thought through, you know, strengths, weaknesses, goods, bads, con pros, whatever you wanna say, and and then executed. So you wanna add anything to that little mindset shift? Maybe the for the listener Chaz you transition here? Well, I'm I'll be 29 years in January. And so at this phase, a mindset is building into Building based.
Like, don't hire people just to get the job done. Create space instead of staying in this rat. Treadmill. Treadmill. Yeah. Cycle. And and so that would be, you know, later on, there there just has to be a realization that You can't just keep hiring to cover that you need to create the space for yourself and your people. You know, it's not space for me now. It's space for the leadership team to do things other than pay us.
It's time for everybody to create space because you can't grow well without it. Yeah. That's so true. I think that the listener's probably wondering how do I how do I do that? You know, my calendar is already so full. Things are running so crazy, but I I would say that for me, literally adding it to my calendar. And then probably phase 2 is, which I'm still guilty of now, is having to defend that time. Like, It's on the calendar, and then I I do not put anything in The.
And that's still probably a battle that I face even still today, but but you're a 100% true. I love the depiction of down the road for the listener. You gotta do this for yourself, but, man, you're gonna have a team that you gotta do this for.
And, and I think that we've probably all had the people that because we're entrepreneurs, because we're fast moving high high performers, We just can burn people out because we can we can operate at a level that maybe some can't, and we don't create that space for selves, no chance you're gonna create it for them. And if you don't create it for them, you're probably just gonna have a huge attrition problem if we're just being honest.
K. What about process or even mindset maybe around making decisions today? We talked about a good and bad decision from your past, maybe when you're a little smaller from a king's perspective now. How do you make decisions? I don't make many decisions anymore.
My role is to let other people make the decisions and be accessible to them to get answers and information based on what experience or intuition that I have So I'm I'm very intentional about not making decisions and letting other people do it. We have a leadership team that presently has I'm I'm on it. There's 4 others, and those people are running the company for the most part and doing an excellent job. I always say I The the company runs great without me. I hope it runs better with me.
If it doesn't, then it's time for me to quit showing up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that the, I guess, the mindset of letting other people, it's really just the They're raising up, which Kings goes back to your now current role is that when you raise up other leaders in your business, you realize that that they're as good, if not better, than you, which is a little bit of an ego check at the beginning because you feel like you still wanna be needed or or purposeful in the business.
And so I think that you've given us that even because Maybe it's not in the tasks, but then it's in leading, making decisions still, but then even another layer on top of that is letting them do that also. So I think that you've you've given us this road map of of or maybe not only Kings, but what it means to be sage after the king, you know, like The this this this full of wisdom available, calm, you know, perspective that I'm sure you're leader leadership team, very much appreciates.
Any any sort of a decision making process that they go through as a team or collectively or individually around the business now? Yeah. Well, we have we have some healthy patterns that are built into the business and So we have a biweekly leadership team meeting. And then on top of that, we have a quarterly, we call it a summit where we pull away for half a day or a whole day. We review the quarterly financials of the The. And and that's more strategic in terms of bigger decisions.
Yep. But, the The rhythm of every 2 weeks having a leadership team meeting where we just get together for a couple hours and everybody brings The responsibility to that meeting Yeah. To either inform other people or to get counsel on some aspect of their job. And so that that process, you know, you you need to you don't have time for those Kings? You don't. I mean, the business is just relentless. Yeah. But you don't have the time not to have that.
And then further, every leader meets with a direct report every 2 weeks. So we have this 2 week rhythm that is just it's we we call those meetings big rocks big rock Kings, and that goes back to 7 Avitz and covey and the Eddance thing in the book talks about. If you don't put the big rocks in first, You'll never do them. So we just make it a priority to be talking about the things that if you put them off, and wait for a crisis. Right. They're gonna be much more difficult to manage.
Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Putting it on the calendar and getting in the habit of it. But then even in those meetings, which I love that you just gave, is it's the discussion of the is the the most important Kings. You know?
Whether it's the leadership mean meeting or whether bringing these maybe individual situations or struggles or whatever, or just needing to be around some The high performers, like, from a listener's perspective, maybe they don't have a leadership team in their business, but they can go you know, to a local and entrepreneurship lee meet up or have lunch with a couple of The guys join a mastermind group or whatever, and and get that council, if you
Wolfe, and we don't have time for those things either. But we don't have time not to do those things. No. We don't. You're right.
It's the it's the growth or what you don't know or who you don't know Chaz is the question mark And if you never do those things, the meeting, the group, the The meetup with a buddy, to talk specifically about business, If you don't do those things, then then that question mark never gets filled, and you don't you don't know what it could have been as far as, like, that one key that unlocks something. And I love the leadership team aspect because same thing as a mastermind. It's like, hey.
I'm dealing with The. And the other guy's like, hey. That's great. I I did this with my team, and this worked. And it just it it unlocks Kings. When we step out, step away, get other perspective. I think it's just a huge mindset to growth opportunity. Will you wanna add anything to that? I think that's good. K. We're gonna go to speed round. I've got a couple of different, the unique questions in the speed round, but from a from a tracking perspective, I'm curious, what would you track.
If you could only pick one thing to track inside the business, what would that one thing be? I have wrestled with this. I'm an accountant by training. So The I'm a numbers guy, and I'd I thought, well, cash is king. Yeah. Cash without cash. You can't operate. And so it's so easy for the busyness of a business to distract you from the lifeline that having cash flow affords you as a business.
Yeah. So, you know, I'm I'm watching all sorts of numbers, but at the end of the day, if you miss that one, you go out of business. Right. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of things that go into making a business and keeping it alive. But the fact of the matter is that it's only alive if it has cash. Very good perspective. I appreciate that. I think there's a lot of things that go into that. I was curious to see if you'd go culture or or money seeing that you're over both.
I was charged Kings concerted. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I I I would yeah. Well, I I'm certainly passionate about the culture. Chaz one's a difficult one to measure. It is. It is. And and I think that you're I think even you making the moves that you have to own that side of the business, speaks to the level of a maturity in the business from a financial perspective. You can't do cool things with the team and culture if if if everybody's stressed about not making payroll.
And so there's just a a whole another level that you can go to if if the business is is in a good position financially. Next question for you is, Dave, what book would you recommend or maybe, resource for an entrepreneur trying to grow their business? I would recommend Joshua Medcalf's book called Chopwood Carrie Water. K. Give us the takeaway here. It's a sable about a samurai archer.
And so I would say it's kind of a Lindsey only type style where he uses even if you're not a reader, it's like I've every person I've given to the book too, most of them start out with a kind of a funny look on me, and they always call back and say, I can't put the book down. And it's so relevant to where each person is in life. It's a very simple, simple book but it is super accentuating this issue of the grind. Faithful little Faith 1 much. And and there's no shortcuts. Yeah. And that's true.
That's true. Even when when maybe you personally are organizing the grind. Maybe you're maybe you're not literally the grindr. There's still a grind to that or a stewardship. To your perspective there of what's happening, even if you're not the one doing the task, very similar to what you were just talking about with your leadership team. Whether it's you or them even now, potentially, you still have to have a a a stewardship or a I wanna take good care of The.
Kings, even if it the thing isn't being done by by you individually. Yes. And let me just adjust you. It's Tim's leadership team. Love it. I I'm honored to be a part of that. That's cool. That's cool. Yeah. I know that's, I I think, again, just really, really healthy. There's a lot of ego in business, a lot of ego in sales, a lot of ego win money. And I just every time I I sense that it's not about that, I just love to highlight it because I think it's it makes all the difference in the world.
What what is your thought on intentionally networking or master mining with other entrepreneurs specifically? Well, I'm a part of a business roundtable and have been since about 2012. I was looking for something like Chaz, and and a member of my community invited me to a business roundtable. And once I got there, I'm like, this is The is what I've been looking for. This is what I I want. It's a place where other business owners come together. We can then It's safe.
You realize that you're not the only guy feeling the way, you know, they're you're in a room full of people that all feel alone. Yeah. And Yeah. Chaz saying it's lonely at the top is true. It's very lonely at the top. When you're at the top of a company, you can't talk to it. You can't talk to all your people about everything that's going on in your heart and your mind. There's a lot of stuff that you just you just have to suppress because it's not gonna be helpful.
Yeah. But to have an environment to go into, where you can be transparent, where you can listen to other people's problems and other people's solutions, I mean, Chaz it's been it's been wonderful. Yeah. That's incredible. I appreciate the perspective. Obviously, it's it's whatever business owner desires, whether they realize it or not, it's it's a missing link to to accountability. It's a missing link fuel, energy, just ideas.
There's a lot of things that I've personally gotten out of that same format that you just talked about, so I appreciate that. One last question here for you. Dave, if you could whisper in the younger Dave's ear, What would you say? Whisper in the younger days here. I would I would say watch the pride. I would say the quicker you can realize. Value in other people is probably much more than the value that I add, the quicker I would have got there. Yeah. So good. So good.
I think Chaz, the listener probably got 2 or 3 doses of of what they expected here today. And so I just so appreciate you pouring out especially from a from a vulnerable perspective like that. How can the listener connect with you? Whether they're in the area and and they need to become a customer of yours, or maybe they're just an entrepreneur. They wanna reach out and they wanna pick your brain. How can they find you? Well, my email would be easy It's dave@hopebuilders.com. That's easy enough.
Pretty simple and easy, and I will eventually get back to you. Well, we appreciate yourself making yourself available, and we'll put that information in shown us along with your website and just all your company information as well and and taking care of you there. But, Dave, you've been incredible. Thank you so much for your time here today. So your family, your sons, your team, the leadership team, the business, everything. We just really appreciate you being here. Thank you. It's been a joy.
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 and now interviewing over 2 or 300 The 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 The Kings dot com.
Want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings. Talk soon.