On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. I'm still an engineer, and it was a it came time for a review with my engineering boss. And I sat down for 4 of them. He's like, you're, you're doing great. And we wanna keep continuing giving you the work that we're giving you, and we wanna give you a raise. And I was like, I gotta stop you because I'm I've made a decision to leave the company. And after at first, he was probably like, what engineering company are you going to?
And I was like, no. I'm I'm going to build house This is what I'm gonna do. Yeah. And and he just very supportive person, very supportive of the military. And he was like, great. Best of luck. And he sends me Christmas cards still every year to this day, and that was whatever it was 15 years ago or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And then from there, I just I just took it to the next level, and I just started building more and more homes.
You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe featuring 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 real of the real on what it takes to build a today.
We dissect the good and bad decisions they've made along the way Chaz give a true and accurate picture of the journey of 6 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 king's podcast. I'm your host. Today, I've got Mike Christiansen on the King stage.
Mike, how you doing? Doing well this morning. How about yourself? I am also Wolfe. It's Tuesday. What? I mean, how could I not be? Right after Thanksgiving. Right. Exactly. If if anybody's been listening to the show for any length of time, they may have heard me say it's Monday. How can I not be that they may have it may hurt me say it's Thursday? How can I not be? I think the attitude of let's go get it today, whatever day it is. Is what guys like you and I feel.
Would would you agree with that? Absolutely. It's it's the motivation and the purpose that drives us to get up every day. Right? That's right. Exactly. Mike, tell us what kind of business that you got, brother. So I've got a custom home building company that we're in our 20th year now Wow. Out in Arizona. That's incredible. And so a lot of years, a lot of, probably up and down that we can get here to today.
Before we do that though, I wanna know after 20 years, I mean, I'm sure you've built some incredible homes. I'm sure you've set your family up with the success that you've already Chaz. My question is why? Why are you still at it? Why are you here today? What's the bigger picture? What's that motivation and drive you just talked about for you?
Yeah. So going into into 20 years now after leaving a w 2 job kind of a a story that a lot of us share I've got kind of 3 different whys that that get me up every morning, and and and one of them is is to be able to my my parents recently have moved from Arizona back to Chicago. I'm originally from the Chicago area.
Okay. And one of my whyses Chaz they get older is to be able to have the the income and revenues for my business that Chaz their health maybe eventually starts going downhill 20 years from now or whatever that looks like. To be able to jump on a plane and be able to get out there and and be with them and and help them as much as I can. So that's that's one of my wise.
Yeah. The other one is is to create the time freedom for for my wife and I and really, be able to create that freedom so that my wife doesn't have to work. She can truly pursue the things that she wants to do from her creative side. Yeah. And then and my last why is is is is helping veterans. I've got a a big why based on my my military background and and what I'm trying to do to help vets long term because I've I've been through some some friends taking their lives and things like that.
So I'm trying to create some different things for that as well. Yeah. I mean, first off, that's incredible. We we, as in me, my family, anybody who's listening, we appreciate any service that that you've given to the country Chaz well as any of folks that you're referring to that are in your immediate circle, those those things are very, very heavy and and impactful, and so we thank you for that. Absolutely. I mean, okay. So you had 3 clear, distinct. Here's what I'm doing and why.
Have you has it always been that clear for you? Did that Did that come about at a certain moment in time? Like, tell us about how you got so clear on these wise. No. I'd say it's come up the last a couple of years, maybe a year and a half. I I never I mean, we always I've always been a very motivated person to get up every day, Sure. And I don't know know if that's from my military background or whatever, but getting these things written down and to be able to spout them off like that.
Like, that's not a question you you asked me to prepare for. Right? It was it's it's so I know what I what I need to do and what I'm getting up for every day. But but to answer your question, I think a lot of things that have changed for me in the last couple of years is because of the mastermind group that we're in, and it's just open the doors to so many things about so many different things. And and, honestly, it's come up so many different times. I was like, I just gotta think about this.
I gotta I gotta get it written on, and that's what I did. That's incredible. Obviously, the the impact of your clarity on all these other people, right, is is stemmed in your answer what you just said from other people impacting you. Yep. How the how the full circle comes about, doesn't it? Right. Yeah. I never really thought about it that way, but you're absolutely right. Yeah. And and, obviously, there there's lots of opportunities to connect with other entrepreneurs.
We're gonna get to that here a little bit later in the show, but Gavin, the Kings started as a mastermind group before the podcast. And so that that's for 7 and 8 figure owners, and and we dial in to these things. And and it you're right. When you have other people who are dialed into what they're doing, and you're running alongside that person and you don't have it dialed in, it is evident. Yeah. And, like, pressure, obviously, good pressure.
But it it forces you to think and do at a whole another level. So I appreciate that perspective for sure. Let's go a little bit practical. Tell us you got started in the business? I assume it it was some sort of a connection getting out of the military, but give us a little bit of your backdrop.
Yeah. So looking back all these years, and I I've done a couple other podcasts, and it's really made me think back to what made me decide to be an entrepreneur and and my my journey along the way, which led me to where I am today. And when you look back and you start thinking about, like, where did they actually start on? It was, for me, growing up as a Midwest kid.
It was my dad was like, go get a paper you want money, go go start slinging papers up, you know, in people's driveways and then go collect that money. So that's a that's a young kid that that was a little bit of a daunting task. It was it was being uncomfortable and going, okay, I'm gonna go knock on somebody's door and go, hey. You owe me $5 for last week's papers. And and trying to go back over and over to collect that money. But and then eventually Chaz my dad helped me with Chaz.
We threw that little paper up business to where we were instead of me doing it on my bike with the paper sitting on the front. It was now we're doing it out of the car, and we're doing three times as much. And My dad and I are doing this doing this at, like, 3:30 in the morning because Yep. He's gotta leave for work at 4:30 or 5 or whatever it was. And so it became this little bonding thing that brought us together. So that was kind of the start.
And then I I turned it into, well, I'm gonna go cut grass for people. And then I'm gonna rake their leaves, and I'm gonna shovel their snow. I had I I came up with a little company name and a little whip that went with it and Yeah. And started marketing to the neighbors. And then once the neighbors start talking, next thing, you know, you're doing five 5 five lines on one street or whatever.
Yep. And then that kind of progressed into when I got into high school, I really didn't know what I wanted to do, but I had an old car that I was storing. And it seemed like to me, well, that's what I wanted to do is go be an auto mechanic because I really didn't have any other idea of what I wanted to do. So Sure. Right after high school, I went to a a, automotive school in Wyoming. It was one of the best ones in the country at the time. It was very expensive.
But it was like a a 6 month course, basically, where you went every day, 8 hours a day, you you didn't it made you work somewhat of a uniform and Yeah. My parents paid for that, and it was very expensive at the time to go through that. And when I got done, I went, found a job and then realized this is kind of it was more of a hobby for me. Like, I I enjoyed the old muscle car type thing, but I don't wanna do this for a career.
I don't wanna come home with written dirt under my fingernails every day. No offense to anybody. It just it just wasn't I felt like I was limiting myself and and even though I kinda went through high school, I never I never really the math classes I really, really struggled with, and it was probably because I just wasn't focusing on it, honestly. Yeah. And so I decided I don't wanna do this anymore. What am I gonna do?
And I I just kinda had this pivoting moment where I was like, I gotta use my brain more, and I gotta use what god gave me. And and so I decided to go back to college. And, originally, my thoughts were, I'm I'm gonna go be an architect. Because I did I did have a building trades class in high school, but it was really more just because I love working with my hands.
Yeah. And, but I I thought to myself, god, my parents are paid for this this other school that I went to, and I better figure out how to pay for this on my own. Now I'm not gonna go back to the Wolfe and ask them for more money. Sure. They were like, scratching their head going, what in the world? So so, yeah, I I was literally driving down the road one day. This is no no joke. Like, I looked off to the side, and I saw in the strip mall.
It was just a recruiters, an army recruiter thing, like, free college. And I I literally turned did a u-turn, went right back in the parking lot and was like, what do I gotta do to get my free college? Wow. And and that was how I was solid. Your life away here. What's your Social Security number? Yeah. So that was back in that was back in, like, 92.
And and and and I just so I ended up joining the national guard in the in the at the time, Illinois was one of the states that gave away free tuition if you joined the guard for basically an 8 year contract of doing your weekend drills in 2 weeks in the summer. Never what I have ever guessed, I'd find myself in a foreign country fighting a war, but Right. That's a whole another piece. But so that doing that then allowed me to get back into college.
And so I I go to a community college and I start going back through the general education stuff. I'm taking math classes. And I and then another another realization was I don't wanna be an architect. I wanna be an engineer. So I just pivoted again. I'm like, alright. Start start taking more math classes. And then eventually, I get to a university and get my engineering degree. And the whole time I'm I'm going through college, I have my own side business.
I'm I'm like a remodeling contractor for lack of a better term. Sure. And I'd so I'd go home on weekends and I'd do jobs and I'd go back to school on Monday. And I was, like, I was in ROTC at the time, becoming officer in the military. I'm working on the weekends. So I I just I've always been that way. It's like trying to bring much in. Yeah. So, eventually, I I I get my degree and I moved from Chicago to Arizona.
Didn't have I tried to get a job here through multiple ways through a recruiter and finally someone just said, look, just your stuff up and move. It's the only way you're gonna get a job here. And so I did just box my stuff up in a fifteen foot moving truck and drove across the country with my dad, and within 30 days, I got a job as an engineer.
And it was it was kinda cool because and I didn't realize this was gonna kinda go this direction, but couple years in as an engineer, I became, like, the residential guy in the office. There are people that they were giving me all these big high end homes to do engineering on, do the structural engineering on. And I had engineers that would come to me and go, basically, look, I've been designing this stuff for 15, 20 years, whatever, but can we actually can you build this in the field?
And so I became this sounding board for a lot of engineers that come me and say, hey. Look. We designed this detail, but can a guy actually construct this in the field? Like, what's the constructability of it? Yeah. And so I I really enjoyed doing all these big high end cuss them homes. I'm designing all these structurally working with the architects. And then I would go up and do, you know, inspections in the field as well. So I I it was just a really good thing for me to to be involved in.
And then, like, once again, like, I'm my mind just starts I want another direction. It's like, do I really wanna sit behind a desk and be an engineer for the rest of my life? Yep. And so I don't want to. Whisper. Yep. And so I I had done a ton of remodeling. I had worked for a general contractor back in Illinois. And and when you're a general contractor in Illinois, Arizona. It's 2 different things. Like, back there, you you do a lot more of the work yourself as a g as a GC or working for a GC.
But out here in Arizona, everything's subcontracted. Got it. So, fortunately, for me, that was a better path because I got to learn so many different things. Yeah. And then and then you put the engineering aspect into it. And I just said to myself. Yeah. So I said to myself, let's let's let's try to build a house and sell it. And everybody, of course, thought I was out of my mind. And once again, I I reached back to my parents.
I'm having this conversation with them when they don't remember exactly how the conversation went, but they were like, well, what do you need to do this? And I said, I need, like, $30. Can you can you get me a forward me a loan And I don't know. Still to this day, I I should ask them a question, but I don't know where they got where they pulled the money from, where they had that kind of liquid money.
And I went I I went all over the place and and then Scottsdale where I where I live and tried to find some land and I stumbled upon a builder that He had 2 houses side by side that were under construction. They're both at the framing stage, and I think he was a little bit in and over his head And so I ended up buying one of the houses from him at the framing stage. Wow. And I've never built a house in my life. Right? I I've done some remodeling. I've done some some other things.
Yeah. I was just, like, done it all on paper. Yeah. And and so it just kinda was, like, one of those things. Like, I'm just gonna figure it out as a Like, how hard can it be? You don't know what you don't know, and a lot of things I ran into stumbling blocks and and obstacles or whatever, but the end of the day, it's puzzled. Just start putting it together, finding the right people. And so I I built that. I finished building that house. And and literally, that was the time right around 911 hit.
And I got orders to go overseas for the first time, And we put the house on the market. It's sold within a week. So it's like, you couldn't have asked for a better result. You know what I mean? So Chaz went really well. After that, I find myself in a foreign country over there on my first deployment So it it was 911. I I'm literally it was kinda just the weird chain of events. I I had gotten engaged a week later. I get orders to go overseas. Wow. And then I'm I'm building this house.
So I got house. Yeah. Yeah. I gotta finish this thing. And by the way, I'm still an engineer at the time. Yeah. And and so we we get the house done. My wife and I go to the justice of peace and just get married. We're like, we're just gonna do this because if something happens to me over there, I wanna make sure she's taken care of. Yeah. So so we'll do the we'll do a big wedding when I come back. And so Wolfe finished the house, the house sells within a week. It was unbelievable.
I get deployed. I come back. Like, I'd go back to my engineering job, and I'm like, okay. Let's let's do this again. We've had success it tasted good. Like Let's hit the repeat button. Yeah. And so it's just weird back then how much and I was probably 31, maybe. K. When I and I look back now and I'm like, god, I I was kind of fearless. Right? And and really naive. But but that lack of fear just it just pushed me forward. It was just like, alright. We're gonna do this again.
Never had anybody mentor me. No coach. Nobody teaching me what to do. It was like, alright. How are we gonna do this again? And I just go, okay. Well, We just finished 1. So let's go buy a five acre piece, and we can split it into three lots, and let's build 3 houses. Yeah. And so we just we kinda started started doing Chaz. And and then, again, I built another house and sold it. It was doing this on speculation.
And and and Chaz a nice paycheck from that end up paying my parents back on the other one. Sure. And at that point, I was like, I'm good. I don't need you guys to fund my my future and Yeah. And I'll figure it out from here. And so I'm still an engineer, and it it was a it came time for a review with my engineering boss. And then I sat down in front of him. He's like, you're, you're doing great.
And we wanna keep continuing giving you the work that we're giving you, and we wanna give you a raise. And I was like, gotta stop you because I'm I've made a decision to leave the company. And after at first, he was probably like, what engineering company are you going to? And I was like, no. I'm I'm I'm going to build house. This is what I'm gonna do. Yeah. And and he just very supportive person, very supportive of the military, and he was like, great. Best of luck.
And he sends me Christmas cards still every year to this day, and that was whatever it was 15 years ago or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And then from there, I just I I just just took it to the next level, and I just started building more and more homes. And I should back up one too. After they did that first house on speculation, the very first house that I would have built from ground up because the other one I built pathway. Right. Yeah. The very first one that I built.
I I I knew how to physically build it, and I knew how to get the subcontractors together. I didn't know what the heck I was doing as far as business and budget and Oh, sure. I I had gotten involved with some high, like, load sharks, basically, guys that are providing capital at very high rate. Yeah. But I lost $8000 on the first house I built from the ground up. Wow. But fortunately for me and I I don't know if my wife even knows that, but She does now. Yeah. She won't now. Alright?
I I didn't wanna say anything. I was like Yeah. Exactly what a free her out here. I am putting a job as an engineer in the first house. I lose 8 grand. Like, what the heck am I doing? Yeah. But Chaz was a kind of school, a hard knocks, and I already had multiple house in the queue in for permits because it was a time when everything was really starting to grow nationwide, but really big. And, again, Scottsdale, Arizona was was growing really fast.
So it was easy to go and and get work for people. And so I had enough houses in the queue that it just kept me going. And then I I never looked back. Yeah. And then back, I'm trying to think here. Oh, gosh. It was sometime in 06. I had, like, 14 years in the military, I think. Wow. I made the decision that I was out. I was like, my business is just skyrocketing. I I can't manage what I'm doing. I I can't be focused on on that.
And Yeah. And then, also, I didn't wanna deploy again because I was like, scared to death. I'd I'd lose my business at this point because back then, I didn't it wasn't really it was started, but it really wasn't. And now I got all these houses under construction. I've got huge responsibilities, and and I'm I'm, I've got loans out there and things like that. So Yeah. I I went I went to my military boss at the time. And I was like, look. I'm I'm done. I wanna get out.
And and she she says to me, Look. You're probably making a bad decision. You got 14 years in. You got 6 more years before you can retire and collect something from that down the road. Right. Why don't you why don't you rethink this? Take a take a hiatus or or a or a break in the service. Sure. And I take a year off and then and then reassess it at at a year. And I thought about it, and I was like, yeah. It's probably a smart thing to do.
And so I started but kept kept building my houses or whatever. And then all of a sudden, one day I get a phone call. And it's from some lieutenant colonel that says you're deploying to Afghanistan. It'll probably happen within the in 90 days. Basically pack your bags. You're gone. And that was a game changer. Wow. Chaz, I think I had don't know, whatever it was, 4 or $5,000,000 worth of houses going at the time.
And I was the guy, but it was a point in my business where I I didn't understand what scaling Chaz. I had an employee that was working in the field, and I Chaz, like, another employee that was project managing, but I was running everything. Like, if if I stepped out, the business was gonna collapse. Oh, yeah. And so it was a huge blessing for me so many different ways, but And I tried to defer the deployment. I said, look. I'm not trying to get out of this. I'm not trying to do my duty.
I just I need to finish these houses, and then I'll and then I'll go. And they were like, oh, no. You're you're going in January, and it was, like, October or November at the time. Wow. And so I had to go through the whole processing thing, and I left very 1st week of January, I was gone for 16 months. Wow. Yeah. And that was that was during the, basically, the the start of the great recession, if you will. Yeah. Exactly. Hey, Charles Wolf here.
As many of you know, I have been on an absolute mission to help entrepreneurs from all across the country in many different industries level up their game and grow their business and intentionally connect with other entrepreneurs. We do that obviously through the podcast, but we also have a peer to peer mastermind group specifically for 7 to 9 figure business owners.
We are bringing some of the best and most successful entrepreneurs and minds together in a regular and a super intentional way to not only grow our network, but to be able to leverage. And at a certain point in business, success becomes about leverage, leveraging time, leveraging resources, leveraging key relationships. This is exactly what we're doing inside of the peer to peer mastermind called Gathering the Kings, specifically for 7 to 9 figure business owners.
So if that's you, if you're ready to level up your 7 to 9 figure business even to the next level and get around other big hitters just like you? I want you to go to gathering the king's dot com, flood a short application, And, it'll come to an application, call with me, and I wanna chat with you to see if it might be a good fit. Talk soon.
Okay. So I have, obviously, so many questions you've you let us right to the edge of of our seats, really, but there's there's some good things and bad things that you've already described, which have been just incredible. I wanna point out a couple of things to the listener, the fearlessness that you've already described, the it's it's being naive. Right? Like, let's just be honest. Early on, the fearlessness that we have is just the the fact that we don't know. Right.
Because later on, when we know we hesitate or we double check it, which can be in itself a negative thing because we don't just jump. And so I think that from the listener right now, because they haven't probably built a big business, It's more of the law in the lines of quit overthinking. Quit knowing just, dude, just jump in. Be naive for just a half second, and that sounds like terrible advice.
But it really is how all of us that have been quote, unquote successful in business, at some point or another, we just kinda just jump like that. Yeah. Cover the eyes and cross the fingers and and and go. Yeah. Exactly. I would even venture to say that you would probably agree that even in the last couple of years, you've done that a little bit because I know I have, even at a a certain level of success, you still take kinda un not uncalculated moves, but risks.
And, hopefully, they're just more and more calculated, from a risk management perspective. But okay. So all of this. I mean, I in my back of my mind, you're telling the story, and I'm like, okay. This is 2001. Okay. Then then then then the boom. I'm I'm following along the the timeline. Waiting for what happens in 2008, 2009, but you've already you've got 1,000,000 of dollars out on inventory, and you physically are in another country and your business does what?
Like, I want this to turn into 2 things. As you continue to tell a story, I want you to be specific in regard to one thing that worked, a good decision, and something that was just a terrible decision that we, as the listeners, can can learn from. So please keep keep going with the story with those 2 things in mind. Yeah. So one of the things from from the from the bad perspective of things, I played the victim in my head. I was like Because they made you go.
Yeah. Yeah. Like, not only did they make me go, they were so inflexible. Like, put me on the next rotation. There was rotations going all the time. Like, if you're telling me I'm to do my duty, like, just give me a little bit of flexibility here. And and so everything was a was a victim mindset. Why is this happening to me? It's not happening for me. It's happening to me. It's it's complaining to other people. It's complaining to my wife. It's how are we gonna solve this problem?
This is horrible. This is the worst thing ever. Yeah. And and it's hard to to take something like that and turn it into a positive at the time because you're you're in. You're trying to triage everything, like, how am I gonna solve these problems? And what's the first thing I need to do is, well, you better have a candid conversation with every customer you're building a house for Chaz you're on the hook for 1,000,000 of dollars in some cases. Yep. And so it's it's getting through that.
Unfortunately, everybody that we are building houses for was like, look. This is where this country's at war, and and we're gonna support you, whatever it takes. We we probably know that it's gonna be a bumpy road, but we're here to facilitate whatever we can do to help get through to the end. And my wife got involved. And so she was she was very good with customer service and just making sure the customers were okay.
Yeah. Yeah. And it was a lot to put on the 2 guys I had worked for me time, but I was like, look. We've we've got emails. I I first went to a a mobilization station for whatever it was 3 months or something. And so I had I'm still in the States. I can use my phone when I can email when I get get time, and so we we just slowly went through this process of of weaning me out of the situation and and putting more and more on them.
So Yeah. Being in the states for a few months doing my training before we went overseas was very helpful in that regard. Yeah. And then once we got over there, it was it was touch and go. There was ability to email and get on on phone calls. But it was very few and far between and satellite phones were so expensive back then. So it was just you guys gotta do it. It's like ripped the band aid off. This This is what's happening. Sorry. I'm gone. I'll talk to you in a week.
Yeah. And and that's how it was. And then once once I got established in country over there, you could buy, like, satellites. People were doing all kinds of crazy stuff. And back then, it was it wasn't Zoom. What the heck was that I can't think of. That'll come to me. But, anyways, it's how we how we were interfacing and talking overseas. And so We were able to communicate much more, and it was good for my wife too because, no, I'm Chaz I'm over there.
And and I didn't really tell her what I was doing exactly. I was I was an infantry officer. So Yeah. I was Right there. Yeah. Boots on ground for a year. And between me and another platoon, we conducted, like, 500 and 30 something patrols outside the wire every day. In multiple days, we were outside Yeah. Couple times a day. And and and so it really helped being able to communicate like that.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think, obviously, not not all of us are get being put in that situation, but it's it's funny because there's a couple of guys that I've I've said what I'm about to say. To you. I've said it to them, couple of guys in my mastermind group, due to circumstances, I can think of one guy having a surgery where he physically cannot do the work anymore. In his construction business, and and then some other situations like this where you physically were taken away.
And in the moment, it it appears as if, oh my goodness, how am I gonna do this? But what it actually forces your brain to do is solve it in a different way. And, probably when you came back, and we'll give you a chance maybe to answer this, but I'm gonna guess that maybe you jumped back in right away, but then you realized pretty quickly that you could run the business in a completely different format because you had to.
And and it's almost like a blessing in disguise because during the process of having to do it being forced to do it that way, it sucks. Let's just just be honest. There's there's it's just bumpy. But when you have that then process in place or at least the awareness that, like, oh, wow. This can exist. Right? Like, when I opened up franchise locations in cities where I did not live.
It was, like, a little bit of being naive and just kinda going for it, but then I realized, like, because I physically cannot be there today, tomorrow, even this week or this month, I had to operate and manage those businesses in a totally different way And then when I looked at the businesses that I had that were, like, just right down the road, it was like, I'm enabling all of this because I physically am here. Yeah. So what would you say?
I wanna pull this out for listener, and then we'll move on. What would you say to the guy right now who's doing everything? Like you were, like I was years ago, and he maybe isn't physically being removed. Right? What would you suggest that he do to be able to get to the place that you and I are now where we understand maybe systems or teams of people. Like, the other things that maybe we didn't have then, but we we eventually had to figure out through the bump. What would you say?
Yeah. I I've learned. I've learned the hard way. I know like I said, I never had a coach, never had a mentor. Didn't really understand. I never took a business class in my life. I was an engineer. Yeah. Very, very left brain. I kinda figured things out along the way to some extent, but I never understood what scaling meant. Right.
And so one of the biggest recommendations that I would say was go find a mentor, find a coach, find somebody that can help you because when you're wearing all those hats, you're I'm I'm doing the estimating. I'm kind of running and interfacing with the customer. I'm writing checks or whatever. And and back then, that's how it was. I had a big checkbook and has physically handwriting checks back then, but you're wearing all those checks. And you have to do that in the beginning.
You've got a hustle. You've gotta You've gotta grind like Chaz. You gotta get out there and skin your knees to the point where this hurts now. Like, I gotta figure out my who, not how, right, which is a great book to read. Yep. But it it's and it's starting to bring people in that can that can remove those hats from you so that you can work on the business versus constantly working in the business.
But the mindset back then, and it was just hard for me to get past this was nobody can do it as good as me. Right? Like, how many how many entrepreneurs go through that? And Oh, yeah. The light bulb went off. I I had heard this somewhere, and I don't know where it was. They said, well, What if somebody could do it? 80% as good as you or 90% as good as you.
And I'm just like, that's pretty powerful, actually, because quick quick thinking nobody can do it as good as you, number 1, because there's lots of people out there that have different experiences. But what if you hired somebody that could do it at 80, 90 percent? And and you gotta bridge that gap in the 20 or 10%. And and that Wolfe that itself was a mindset set shift, but bringing bringing a coach into my life even just a couple years ago has been a game changer for me.
Yeah. And people said, well, what the heck are you getting a coach for? You've been in business for 18 years at the time. Like, what do you need a coach for at this point? And it's like, once I got a taste of it Oh, yeah. That that coach looks for my blind spots. He's approaching problems from a different angle that I never thought of because most of the time, we're so ingrained to look one direction or think one way Yep. And that's where coach can can really help or or if you can find a mentor.
That's those are probably the the biggest solutions, but the other thing too is not trying to throw money at a problem, throw a process at a pro throw a system at a problem. There you go. And that was another hard knock I had I had an employee one time that tried to explain that to me, and I was just like, whatever. Just get out there and run these jobs. I just need these built. Like, I I wasn't listening to what somebody was telling me. Yeah. And Yeah. Moving too fast.
Yep. And so Chaz starting to create systems and processes and throwing those at a problem is a game changer as well. Yeah. You're a 100% right in the in the the process or the system can be a, like, a thing, a checklist of sorts at SOP, or it can be people, a team, or maybe a mixture of both. And And to your point, that that is what solves most problems, but there's obviously skill sets that go along with building a team or being a good leader.
Or understanding what steps or being able to dial something down into simplicity 1234, that that some people just don't maybe come too naturally. That's okay, but there's ways for you to be able to hone those skills for sure. One one quick thing that you said on the the 80%, I I, a 100% agree with you because I've been talking about this for probably 10 plus years, and and that's the only way I was scale. I had close to 70 employees, 3 different states. I didn't even live in the states.
How do you do that with without allowing someone else to be them. And and and so I agree with the 80%. And what I had to come to a realization was that it wasn't them only producing 80%. It was just 80% of my 100. It was their 100. Right. And I had and and so it wasn't like they were maliciously trying to harm me or do less or that they were lazy. They just their 100 looked different. That's all.
And so I needed I needed to be better, a better architect, a better facilitator of what those 100 look like pieced together. And and, again, I think a lot of entrepreneurs, like you said, think that they can just do better. I had a guy on the show here probably a month or 2 ago.
And he said, I used to think the same thing too Chaz I was better at every little thing, but here's the reality is that if you're doing all of them, even though you might be individually better at each individual task than all of them, let's just say that you are, if you're doing all of the tasks, there's zero chance you're operating at a 100% at all of them anyway. In fact, most likely, you're only operating at 20, 30, 40%.
And so Chaz 80% that they're producing is actually like a huge upgrade to Yeah. You being a Momo and doing it yourself. That's right. Absolutely. So I I just I I appreciate the perspective and humility there because it takes a lot to be able to say, man, I'm a pretty qualified individual, but Man, it I I Chaz only go so far by myself. That's really what it is. Yep. It's it's so much of it's empowering people and leadership.
And for me, trying to to run my company with a military mindset or a military leadership perspective versus how civilians are led was 2 totally different things. So that was a a hurdle for me as well. But the biggest thing that has helped me and my company is is creating a culture and and investing in the employees. We're trying to do things like educating them on money, bringing in a nutritionist, just all these different things. We do staycations with the families and things like that.
Yeah. It's it's investing in them and showing them that you truly care and people will will go the extra mile for you all the time. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I heard a a video from Elon Musk in the last month or 2, and he said in one of his factories, he he slipped at his desk for a period of time. It was like a 2 or 3 month period. And purposely, not because he had to, obviously, but purposely, and his desk was, like, right in the middle.
And so, like, everybody walking in and out, and he said, I the the shift change crowd Chaz people change the shifts, they would walk by and I'd be sleeping at my desk. Or I would be waking up from my desk or whatever. And it's like they they knew I was in it, for sure, without a doubt. And so it it rather than necessarily doing something for them, obviously, those things are great also, but it's same mindset of, like, if if if I'm gonna ask you to be in it, you know I'm gonna be in it also.
And that obviously looks different for maybe an owner versus a a laborer or whatever, but Right. The mindset or the commitment level is still the same, and that can go as far as doing cool things for them, and their families. But I wanna transition here to to our speed round. We've got we've got a couple different unique type questions here, where maybe a little bit more business practical. You've given us just an incredible story of of overcoming.
And then, obviously, you were able to come back and and and pick up the pieces. So I I do want you to kinda pick up the story a little bit here, but I wanna know about KPIs. And what is the one thing inside of your business today Chaz if you could only pick one thing to track, what would it be? Yeah. And it's people are like, oh, yeah. If you got quick books and I can analyze spreadsheets to the Costco loan, but the 11 metric that is important to my business is customer satisfaction.
And it's having these what we call a mid job survey. And then once the job's completed, having a survey at the end, that is so much more important than tracking revenue and and all these other KPIs that you can pull out of QuickBooks, right, that an account can analyze, but that customer service and that their satisfaction on what we're doing for them. We're providing a service. We're solving a problem for them. And how are we doing at it? That's really what Chaz owner of the company.
I I'd really focus on and pay attention to. Are there any quick tidbits that you can give to us on either strategy or tools or anything that you use inside of that mindset to be able to actually deliver good results, but then also to be able to collect the satisfaction reviews or whatever? It's it's having that call churn and instilling it in every person in in this in the company. And making sure that they understand what your vision is, what your intent is, what your core values are.
And I think everything follows We recently instated this mid job survey Chaz we call it Okay. Just to get a pulse on, hey. How are we doing? Is there anything that we can do better for you to solve your problem ultimately. And I think that it's it's the kind of a kiss method. Right? It's very simple, and it just works. We've had complicated project management software and all this stuff, but it always falls back to the simplest things.
Yep. If you got people who understand the mission, Chaz usually turns into people who care and people who care deliver the mission and which turns into a customer that feels well taken care of. Am I picking up what you're laying down? That's exactly right. Most of the people we build for have a lot of money. They're business owners as well. So they they get it. They understand they they wanna feel important. And and when you got 15, 20 customers, everybody wants to feel important.
So you have to but it is a challenge. Yeah. Those touch points in that customer journey is is that's gotta be dialed in. That's for sure. Yeah. What book or resource would you recommend, Mike, for a business owner trying to scale since before you never knew what that meant. What what would you recommend now? So I I got turned out of the book. Who not? How a few years back? And, honestly, that was a game changer for me. Got it. I've got it right here on my desk. Yeah. It's great. The great book.
What was your takeaway from that? Just just as simple as it says. Find your Chaz quit trying to do everything yourself. Take the hats off and and really force yourself to find your who to solve your problem. And it and and I instill that in my employees all the time. It's like, I'm not I'm telling you what needs to be done, but I'm not telling you to do it. Like, find your who. Yeah. And I I I definitely ingrained that in them. So I think it's been very helpful.
Yeah. Which ultimately leads to teamwork and in that thing. I'll I'll throw this out real quick. I don't do this very often, but one of the things that hit me, like, a ton of bricks in that book was the the procrastination. I do not see myself as a procrastinator at all. I am a get it done, task oriented, freaking. Let's check the list. Let's work until midnight every night. Like, I'll I'll I'll get stuff done.
But I'll tell you, obviously, as the list gets long and longer and longer and longer if you don't have the right who's. And so procrastination for me, the one that I've learned from this book, is not necessarily that I'm a procrastinator that I'm not willing to do it or that I'm lazier that I'm pushing things off. It's an indicator to me that I don't have a who that needs to be in place to be able to take care of that list or that thing on the list or whatever.
Which it ultimately comes back to if if I'm if someone like me Chaz, like, a get it done person is not getting stuff done or procrastinating. It's just because I'm trying to do it. I'm trying to do too many things myself. Right. And, again, it's just like a natural check of like, okay. Am I operating at the highest level? No. Because I'm doing things that could easily be given to somebody else, but why haven't I?
I don't know just because we just get caught in the in this realm of just Wolfe, just I'll take it. I'll take it. I'll take it. Yeah. Rather than who needs to who needs that? Who needs that? Who needs that? Yeah. And as you scale, honestly, I mean, yeah, you could do it. You could solve that problem right away, but you're not helping the long term problem. And and procrastination is, like he says in the book, it's not necessarily a bad thing, and you mentioned it's basically a metric for you.
Right? Like, either you gotta find a who or there's something that's holding you back because you're over analyzing it maybe or whatever. It's not necessarily a bad thing. Exactly. Love it. Okay. What do you think about? You kinda briefly mentioned a mastermind group earlier, but what do you think about intentionally networking or master mining with other what has that been able to do for you in the last couple of years, as you said? It's it just opens your eyes to so many different things.
I subscribed to the University of YouTube for quite a while, and that's how I found the mastermind that I'm in. And, ultimately, ended up joining another one as Wolfe. And and and having all that experience from both a both a business side, but also having these pillars and and having the spiritual side as well. Chaz feel like it's really balanced my life out, and it's really made me think so much differently than I ever had in my entire life. Yeah. Yeah. That's incredible.
To basically press the bounds of thinking is what I'm what I'm picking up from you. Yeah. You don't know what you don't know, and you don't know who you don't know. Right. And it's all these tools that you kinda learn and and the people that you come across that have already experienced these things, or maybe it's you're watching somebody on YouTube.
That you follow, whether it's business or nutrition or finances or whatever it is, and being able to lean on people and ask questions and ask for help, which was always a hard thing for me, but but having a a group of people that you can really truly be present, be transparent, and ask for help is is such a game changer. Yeah. It really is. Okay. I've got one last question here for you, Mike. If you could whisper in the younger Mike's ear, what would you say? Probably ask for help.
Yeah. Don't try to do it all yourself. And it's funny because my wife for years was always kind of trying to get me to do that. Go she was trying to get me to go find a mentor, and I would say, well, what what builder's gonna mentor me? Competition at that point. So I'm not even gonna look into it, but asking for that help and having that open mind to to know that you don't know at all. Yeah. And and and using all the resources possible and leveraging that is is huge.
I mean, it's it's changed it's made a hockey stick in my life as far as running a business, being a better person, and just continually striving to be 1% better every day, whatever that means. Yeah. I love the answer. I love your mindset. I love the overcoming of your story. You've been incredible in sharing all that. I can't agree. With you even, like, with with you more on on what those relationships can do.
And you even slipped in there at the very end there Chaz, say, even listening to your wife earlier, which I think a lot of a lot of us listening here today can maybe relate to that as well. So, again, even though we just met and and you haven't met the listeners, you've been vulnerable. You've shared, man, and and it's been really, really impactful. So thank you for that. How can how can the listener connect with you?
Maybe they're in Scottsdale or in and around the area, they know somebody, and they wanna build a fantastically beautiful house, or maybe they're just an entrepreneur and they wanna reach out. Pick a Yeah. So we our company has a website. It's peakonebuilders.com, the one spelled out, and our company phone number is 480 481-5150. And I I definitely love networking and talking with other individuals.
And I I've I've tried to give back as much as I can whether it's to the veteran community or to to help anybody else, and I'm I'm I'm all about it. So Yeah. We love it. We appreciate that openness as Wolfe. And put all that in the show notes. That way people can easily connect with you and and the socials and stuff like that. But, Mike, you have been, again, just incredible. We wish you nothing but blessing to your family, your business. Your incredible team.
It sounds like that you have in place and their families. Thank you for being here. Thanks a lot, Chaz. I appreciate the opportunity. It's been fun. Thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away. More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself, doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself.
What I have realized, not only in my own journey, from multiple businesses and multiple different industries, and now interviewing over 2 or 300 other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1000 Keynes specifically who are grateful, but not done.
We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and community here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy. So if that relates and and resonates with you and you know that you need people around you, sharp qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com.
I 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.