On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. You're not alone in whatever way you're thinking. And for entrepreneurs, I mean, have you ever read staff on entrepreneurs, I mean, suicide rates and depression rates. And then because they don't have people to lean up. They don't have it at corporate office. You know, a lot of times, the the only thing they have is the space between their ears. And I think having been such a voracious reader in my whole life, I just I didn't think that I was alone.
I just knew that what I was experiencing was wrong, and I had to and I had to figure out a way to never let that happen again. What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe, gathering the Kings podcast, coming back to you again with another king on the stage. Roderick Lenhart. My brother. How are we doing? Man, I am great. Thanks for having me on. This is, gonna be a good time. It is gonna be a good time. You're halfway across the world right now.
You're just telling me, you know, you're you're preparing for a book launch, and you're on hour 12 already for today. And you were telling me that you've got another another whole day ahead of you, another 7 hours. Most people are are trying to figure out how they can take a nap, get some rest, and you're full force here. So I'm I'm thankful that you're here. Tell us what kind of business that you got, my man. Oh, man. It's relatively complicated, but I've got the book coming out.
We'll start we'll start with author. My book, $1,000,000 flip flops launches tomorrow. So that'd be September 12th, depending on when you listen to Yeah. I am in Salzburg, Austria. We're on about a 10 country tour for book launch, and Chaz is just the first side of the business. There's the book. The courses, the journal mastermind, private coaching, all the things we do on that side of the business. And then that all feeds the foundation, which we can talk about later.
You've been stepping intentionally. Let's just say it like Chaz. Even even your book tour and just being very purposeful, it sounds like. So you've got a lot of history here, a lot of things going on. Like you said, it's somewhat complicated. It's it's not you're helping a bunch of people win. Okay. Right? Like, I wanna know, though, before we get rolling, what's on the inside of Roderick? Like, deep? The burning desire way, way, way, way down there.
Like, you've probably never said this answer before. Burning desire. So Yeah. I mean, I guess that's a good lead in to why I'm doing any of this. So I sold my business last year about 14 months ago, I guess, and was very much set up to not really do anything at all ever again. But if you're wired like all entrepreneurs are, that is simply an impossibility.
So I could have just I, like, say, I could have strapped on my white Velcro new balance and called it a life than just I build classic cars in my spare time, so I could easily do that for the next 40 years and just bounce around and and have a good time. But I lasted about 6 months, and I was on a beach in Thailand and had this crazy idea to start this new business.
I had already went to Brown for my ICF and professional coaching, and I was just gonna pick up a couple clients here and there based on my expertise, 20 years of experience, and that's good with me. Right? Sure. Well, it ends up being coming much, much bigger than that. Hence, the book and all the other things that go along with it, and we donate a 100% of what we do. So Wow. That's why I get up every day. That's why I put an 18 hour day is it's it's not for my money.
It's for our foundations, and it's called to send a student leader abroad. And we're partnered with EF Tours. If you're familiar with EF, they're a $7,000,000,000 global leader in student travel. Wow. And I've got a goal, a crazy big goal to send a million kids abroad. In my lifetime. So Wow. That's my burning desire. That's why I get up every day. I love it. Well, there's a lot of meat here on this bone that I'm gonna try to try to pull off a little bit, give a little bit to to digest.
The the action for you, let's go back to you saying I did it for 6 months. The retirement, live, do whatever I want, you know, whatever that looks like. What do you think is the biggest misconception that most people listening here today who have never experience Chaz moment where they could literally do whatever they want, and they still choose like you to go after it. They haven't experienced that, but they're hoping for that day where they can just sail away to the sunset.
What's the biggest misconception that maybe you realize in that moment that they don't realize now? Yeah. There's and, man, we can we can go into some major stories around around lessons learned in the last 20 years, but the biggest misconception is that that is what's gonna make you happy. And, ultimately, that's what my book is about.
You know, the inside the book, it's not just a story about my life and my businesses, what have you, but it's it's kind of part memoir, part manifesto, part manual, if you wanna that's how my publisher would put it to you.
Sure. The what we try to get out of people is that deep why, and we can go into the waves method that's inside the book and what the exactly that is later, but it was a tool I developed at a really low point in my life where I had not been honoring my values, and I was going down the wrong and this was, at this point, feels like ages ago.
The misconception, I start the book with this phrase, and it's from a Tolstoy book called The Death of Ivan Ellich, and I don't know if you're familiar, but it's a it's a short book. I recommend everyone, especially if you're an entrepreneur. I recommend everyone to read this book, but spoiler alert. Turn off your turn off right now and come back in 12 seconds. At the end of the book, the main character Ivan, Chaz on his deathbed.
And he's looking up at his Wolfe, and he says, what if my whole life was wrong? Wow. That stuck with me. I read that when I was probably eighteen or nineteen years old. And I've lived every day to make sure that if I'm gone tomorrow, I had a really good run. And I did all the things I and that's true right now. If I got hit by a bus here in Austria, I had a really good run. I did everything I wanted to do. And, I think people wait.
I'm answering your question in a really long form way, but I think people wait until they wait until they're retired. They wait until they have this amount of money in the bank. It's it's a constantly a tomorrow tomorrow, tomorrow, someday, someday, someday, and someday never comes. And next thing you know, you're seventy years old, and your life's more than half over for most people at that point. So Yeah. That's what I've tried to avoid. That's why I wrote this book.
It is I want this in as many hands as possible, and that's a lot of the reason we donate a 100% of it because I don't able to think, it's just another huster selling some IP. You know, I'm not gonna give him my twenty bucks. I want him to know it's going to a good cause that's gonna help kids, but ultimately, I wanted to help change their perspective on where they wanna go in their life. Yeah. What do you think? You said you you figure this out at at a rock bottom place for you.
What do you think was unique to your situation? Not necessarily the the sticky that you were in or the the wave format that you've created, but in that moment, why were you able to create the format? Like, what was what were the ingredients of being at the lowest point, but yet still able to create something that now you're teaching to others. Yeah. That that's a really good way to phrase that question because everybody just what that moment was. Right?
And maybe that's not where the the secret sauce is. Exactly. So, yeah, let me think about that for a second. So I'll I'll give you just a short piece of background on what what that moment in time was. I had I had taken a job with a that's the first dirty word job. I had taken a job with a fortune 100 builder, and I was 24. I was making more in a month than my parents ever made in a year. And I could buy, do go anything anyone thing I wanted. And I absolutely hated my life.
And I woke up every day with that. Is this all there is syncing feeling in my stomach, and it was anxiety and depression and Wolfe. And I had to dig myself out of that. Now What's unique in my situation is that I've always just kinda been a non fiction personal development nerd like, since I was really young, I probably yeah. I've probably, at this point, read, you know, 500 plus books, and I would say 3 of those are are fiction books.
You know, they're they're always a biography or a memoir or a how to or why do people do what they do? I've always been fascinated with that. So it made me good at sales. You know, Chaz I've been a sales Wolfe class salesperson in a lot of different industries. And that's why it's because I've I've always wondered how why do people do what they do? And once you understand that, that that's the key. Right? Yeah. That's how they think.
So the ingredients in that moment where you had the subconscious training, hundreds of books, personal development, where you were able to kinda pull yourself up. Was there anything else that you used along with the kinda what you had been feeding yourself for years at that point? Chaz was that was really it. It was I I knew that I shouldn't be feeling this way.
I knew I knew to ask for help, which I think a lot of people don't do, and whether that's a coach or a therapist or counselor or whatever you wanna put it. Yeah. And I think it was the combination of those two things that that both pulled me out of where I was, and it allowed me to develop tools that were specific to me that I could then reference for the rest of my life. Anytime I felt coming on again. It was alright. We're, you know, we gotta run through this again and see what's happening.
Right. Now, now I'm curious to know what was unique about the situation that allowed you to pull all of that depth that you had been feeding yourself and actually put it into a a different action. Obviously, the situation was what changed your perspective so that you could start using. It's not like all of a sudden you read 500 books in a week period and then and then used it, but you called on the information differently. Why?
It was just having the perspective that it it could and should be different. And I think that speaks a lot to, I think, the power of having the right tribe, you know, you have with your audience, you know, and and masterminds that you're a part of. And just knowing that you're not alone in whatever way, whatever you're thinking. And for entrepreneurs, I mean, if you ever read stats on entrepreneurs, I mean, suicide rates and depression rates, and then because they don't have people to lean up.
They don't have it at corporate office. You know, a lot of times the the only thing they have is the space between their ears. And I think having been such a voracious reader in my whole life, I just I didn't think that I was alone. I just knew that what I was experiencing was wrong, and I had to and I had to figure out a way to never let that happen again. Yeah. Yeah. Our stories are pretty similar in that way.
100 of books and I knew better, but yet we still go down roads that were, like, maybe in the moment, we're not, like, consciously choosing. This is the wrong path, and I'm gonna do it anyway. It's more of a I just I thought this is what was good, and so you get down the road, but then you realize, oh, man. This is not where I needed to go. And I knew better, but how did I not know then?
What would you say if in that moment looking backwards, you know, whether it was a year or 2 years or 5 years, what were some of those things? And I'm kinda laid lead this in. The audience knows I always ask good and a bad decision, but what was maybe that decision beforehand that you had made that maybe led to that, you know, down moment? Chasing chasing the money. I mean, Chaz was that was hands down what it was. You know, I was I had already started multiple businesses at that point.
I was perfectly happy as an Prenuer. And I Chaz just moved to Charleston, South Carolina from Michigan and saw this, I who's now a friend, still a friend. This woman in this model home making $300,000 a year and driving a BMW, and she's only working 36 hours a week. And I'm like, man, That seems great.
So Yeah. I I started with Chaz, and then, you know, that you get lured into Chaz, you know, the stock options and 401 k and sales trips out to Palm Beach and dinner with Karim Abdul Jabar and all these things that you're like, I couldn't health insurance. You know? It's like, now it's laughable that I would why anybody sticks around a job for things that are ultimately just a number. Yeah. You know, and but it was the money.
It was the Chaz and the money, and it goes back to the first question you asked is most people, they don't get to that point in their life. I think the reason most people have a midlife crisis is because they finally achieved that material success. Now, they've got the the house and the Porsche and the vacation home or whatever, and they're like, wait. I'm not happy. I was told I was gonna be happy. I'm I want a refund. That's right. So. That's right.
I I just was fortunate to figure that out at a really young age. Yeah. You you've mentioned something that obviously plays well into what we do with Gout and the Kings that started as a as a mastermind group. And and so we're in the same lane from that. So I wanna add some value to the audience from both of our perspectives because you said, you know, whether you realize it or not, you were alone. And, you know, I don't think I consciously thought, oh, man, I'm I'm sitting here by myself.
I'm so lonely. You know, like, although I do some feel that way, it wasn't a conscious thought of I'm by myself or I'm scared or I'm, you know, I'm in my bed by myself and the lights are off as dark. It was it was me just doing what I knew, what was best, And then eventually, that takes a toll. Like you said, all I had was me between the ears and you don't know what you don't know. You don't know who you don't know. And so therefore, you don't have perspective.
And so just tough for just a half second here on what it's like to solve that one problem. Because for us, it's like, once I solve the loneliness problem, like, once I can put you around some other people that are high quality, we can start working on your mindset. We can start working on tactics in business and your marriage. Like, The rest of it starts with Flores, but we gotta solve the loneliness thing first as cheesy as that might sound. What what's your comment on that?
I mean, I 100% agree. And, you know, the waves method, what let me give you the rundown of kinda what at least what the component parts of that are. So it's your why, and I'm just gonna go, I'm not gonna give you explanations. I'm just gonna go through them. So it's it's your why. It's authenticity, values, it's exploration, and it's your statement of purpose.
And the a in that authenticity, the reason I put that second is as you're building your y and you're building your values, you've gotta be coming from that or coming at that from a really authentic place. You can't be doing something because it's for your wife or your parents or your pastor or your business partner. It has to be for you, and we're not it's okay to be selfish in that moment. And it's very much that principle. I can't fill anybody else's cup unless my cup is filled first.
So Yeah. Same thing. You know, human we're human beings. You know, connection is huge. And as an entrepreneur, you don't get as much of that as you should. And gotta solve the loneliness piece to your point. So and that's where I'm or mind or, you know, other groups that like minded people come in. Yeah. Yeah. I think that there's there's a a hidden piece to the puzzle. That you just don't know, and and I can remember being an entrepreneur, you know, 6, 7 years before really going like, oh, wow.
That happened because I met a guy. Who then introduced me to a guy who introduced me to a gal who, like, you know, down the road. And so, you know, it's funny because I I just had a dinner in Atlanta last week. And I had the same feeling a couple months ago when we did our family mastermind in Bermuda, but it was like, I look around the table.
I'm like, I have literally met everybody from my podcast or someone I met through the podcast or from the group, like, I I built this circle, like, not knowingly. But in essence, what you're talking about, you're saying, hey. Like, no. Be intentional about the relationships. And so give us give us some other things. Like, okay.
So Chaz be authentic and I can create values, but you're talking about doing this inside of help from others, whether it, you know, be working directly with you or being in a mastermind setting. What's the value of other people looking in on you being authentic and creating values and and that type of thing?
Yeah. I mean, man, there there's a million reasons I could give you two have a coach, right, and why I have my own coach and always will, you know, and why the greats in, you know, the goats in every industry, they they all have coach or multiple coaches. Right. Yeah. You know, I heard I don't know if you know Dan Martell, but he put up a funny meme the other day. It wasn't a meme.
It was just short, but he was saying, you know, I show up to the Olympics, and I've got a team of coaches behind me and the guy that's competing against me shows up by himself, you ask him, you know, where where's your coaches? Is that right? I just do it all on my own. I'm gonna obliterate this guy. You know, you said, you have to have people all day. That are looking from the outside in. You're just too close to your own situation to know what's best for you all the time.
Yeah. Still think you have to go with your gut. Still think there's a lot of things that are internal, but there's, you know, I'll give you some examples, but there's it's why you videotape your golf swing. It's why sales calls are recorded. It's why the world's best eye surgeon doesn't perform his own eye surgery. He's just too close to his situation. And we see it a lot going through the waves method in particularly in values. So we do a really deep dive into values.
And most people, that's why authenticity is second. Again, most people are going to put down things they think that they want to hear or that others wanna hear. They're even when they're doing it themselves, they're just going they're reading the book. Or right in their or they're self pacing through one of our courses, and they're they're not engaging in any of the accountability that we offer. Invariably, they're gonna put down things that aren't really what they want.
And the example I use most often is parents. So a mother or father, they're going through the program and out of the list of a 100 different values they can pick from, which one do they pick? Family. And because what what kind of dick would I be if family's not number 1 if if Johnny and Timmy are playing in the backyard, And it's back to you gotta fill your own cup first. Like, you you are a good mom or a good dad because you take care of those other things.
Yeah. Not because your kids are your number one thing. And it's it's a hard concept to wrap wrap yourself around and unless somebody's looking at it from the outside and it never gets caught. Another example just going from the waves method is when people get to their SOP, their statement of purpose invariably, it'll just look kinda like their why. And it's not meant to your why it can be huge.
You know, there's a lot of reasons you do things that and I say it can't involve money, power, and notoriety when we're when we're building your why. But your statement of purpose is very it's very personal.
It's it's what you wanna do with your life, how you wanna show up in the world, and it's this really finesse, you know, elevator speech if you're from the sales world, but it's that 3 sentence thing that says, you know, this is who I am, this is how I'm gonna show up in the world, and this is who I wanna be for the people around Yeah. It's good. It's good. The power statement, a stat a statement that empowers identity, all of those things are super super important.
You you mentioned there for a second there family and and, like, the realness of that sentence of, like, I gotta put down my kids as being number 1. Otherwise, I'm gonna look like a dick to my wife or to whoever else is listening. That's real, especially for high performers, and I've talked about that on the show here several times where it's like, you know, I many years ago, I would say my kids were important in my family, but my calendar reflected otherwise. Right?
Like, I was just working all the time. It doesn't mean that I actually didn't love them. I do. But the dopamine hit of playing Uno with my four year old and my three year old at the or a two year old at the time, was different than doing a podcast with a guy like you or, you know, building a deal or getting the next thing. You know? And so I had to change my language, and so I'm curious to hear what you have to say about this.
I changed my language to, that I'm a builder and that whether I'm building a podcast or whether I'm building a business or building a team, while building my marriage, building my children. Like, now I get to be super intentional about the things that actually do bring me joy, which are like, oh, there's all these little pieces, and I get to, like, build and put it together. Oh, I just happen to be building my four year old son now. Oh, okay.
Cool. Or I'm building a podcast with this awesome guest. So you know what I'm saying? Like, what what are your thoughts I think I think reframes like that are important. And and a lot of it comes down to, you know, what are your global metaphors too? You know, like old NLP, Tony Robbins stuff. I mean, it's it's the way you frame it is how you show up for it. And, you know, we have I'm doing the finishing the journal right now, the journal that accompanies the book, or you can buy it separate.
Comes out a couple weeks after the book releases tomorrow. And every 14 days, you fill out it it looks like a wheel of life if you've ever seen a wheel of life, but we've kinda tailored it to the waves. So, ideally, your waves should all be the same height. And so and you put in your own 6 categories, but oftentimes it's family, it's career, it's, you know, personal fitness, those kind of things.
Sure. Yeah. But to your point, you know, it it lets you recognize where maybe these areas are suffering, and we can look at it together and figure out how to make it all more rounded. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Because if you got a clunky, we we've done exercises, you know, like Chaz, and it's always funny when you you really do it authentically to your point and you got a square and you're like, I don't know how this wheel is gonna make it down the down the road.
What do you think that the listener needs right now? They're hearing you talk about, you know, building these areas of life and being able to maybe be intentional about the things that they're projecting over themselves or even writing down as a statement of purpose? What if they've never heard anything like this before? What's their first step of action? You know, my my initial reaction is I'm I'm not here to sell anybody on anything.
And if you're if it's not where you're at in your journey right now, that's okay. You know, I think there's I think you can't unhear things. You can't unsee things. And the the example I always use is the KFC logo. Like, once you realize that it's not his string tie, he's he's a little stick figure. You'll never look at the KFC logo the same again. And so I can't unsee it. Right? I never see a string tie ever again. I just see a stick man on a giant head. That's right.
And It's the same thing with this talk we're having right now. You know, some people are gonna listen to this, and they're gonna be like, man, these guys are nuts, you know, but they won't be able to forget it. And at some point in their journey, they're gonna be ready. And when the when the student's ready, the teacher appears. You know? Yeah. I I appreciate that. I think that the acceptance Right? It's what you're saying. It's like, hey.
Look. Like, when it's right for your journey, first off, the journey is the best part. Like, you already said that. Like, don't hurry up quick and get to it. And so it's okay, actually, that you don't have it altogether or maybe that you've never heard of creating a statement of purpose or that you don't, you know, read out loud the articulation of your life back to yourself every single thing. Like, it's okay. It's okay now that you don't do anything with it. And so so there you go.
We'll put that one in your lap, and, you can figure that one out. Roger, I gotta ask I ask, you know, kind of a side question here because, you know, I've been wondering from the beginning, but I keep looking at it because it's the name on your screen. Why why $1,000,000 flip flops from for for the name book or for the book of the name or the the title. Name of the book? There you go. Yeah. But, yeah, I'm I'm right there with you.
Do you want the do you want the newspaper answer or the I want them both, actually. I want them both. I want I want what you would give to everybody else, and then I want the secret side. Honestly, do you know who Mike Kim is? He wrote, you are the brand. Okay. So I was reading his book. Again, nerd and out. I'm I'm semi retired. I'm I'm on that beach in Thailand. And that was the book I brought with me. And there's an exercise in there.
That's clearly what other people read for pleasure reading, right, when they have nothing else to do. Yep. So another writer with Next week. There is an exercise in there that says look around. And at this point, I'm just trying to name my coaching this. You know, what do I wanna call this thing? You know, like, my last business, I just called Everlong because I love the Foo Fighters. You know, like, there's just there's reasons. You didn't name these things. But yeah.
It was look around in your immediate environment and pick one thing that represents who you are as a person. Interesting. And for me, it's flip flops. So I I I call them foot prisons. Like, I very rarely have real people's shoes on. And I've and it's it's sounds crazy, but I I have these little indicators of success that tell me if I'm I'm doing the right things, right, and deeper it goes back to values and why and such. But Right. Right. I don't set an alarm every day.
Like, I'm, I'm usually up at 6 in the morning, 5 in the morning. Like, you know, I get up in there. That's my time. I won't have appointments till 11. But I'm able to just get up naturally every day, which is a huge thing for me. I don't have notifications on my phone. I my phone hasn't made a noise in, like, 10 years. And I wear flip flops every day. And if if one of those three things is not happening, I'm doing something wrong. It's like an immediate indicator that I'm doing something wrong.
Yeah. So I look around. I go, I don't know. Flip Flops. Yeah. Well, what's her everybody wants a million bucks and everybody wants to live in flip ops. Right? Like, with exception. But Yeah. Like, that's something to name it. And everyone's, like, typical. You know? Oh, that's a stupid name. I'm like, what's Google? What's you know, none of these things make any sense. Nope. So I'm like, that's what I'm naming it.
And it it ended up being really apropos as we built out the waves method and everything because ultimately, you know, my superpower forever has been the ability to identify change and make those changes with confidence and quickness and ease. And, you know, businesses and going right by a relationship doesn't look like it's working out by. Like, there's a lot of people know they need to do something. Sure. But they just don't do it. You know, and that's what the waves method builds.
It builds that confidence because you have it's not just a, you know, positives and negatives, should I do this thing or not? You have have a really structured way of making any decision in your life. And it's It's a game changer. It takes this mental weight off of, oh, man. Should I take that job? Should I start a family? Should I even pick up this hobby? You know, it doesn't matter what the thing is. It's does it go through this filter clean? And if it does, it's a yes.
If it's not, it's a no, and it takes all the pressure off of you to make those decisions. So the flip flops identify that change. So why do I have 1,000,000 of dollars? Because I've been able to change $1,000,000 flip flops. I love it. You've you've done a really good job of actually connecting all those dots. So that is not a Hollywood answer or whatever you called it. It actually makes a lot of sense.
I think that there's there's a lot of ties to your identity too, which I think is actually the most important. Even though someone like me, flip flops would be the last thing. That you Wolfe catch me in. I love shoes, and I used to wear shoes until I went to bed because I didn't wanna have to re put them on. Wants to get married and you have kids, and she's like, no shoes off of the door. I'm like, okay.
Fine. And so the flip flops to me, I'm like, I don't relate to that at all, but everything apart of that story, I'm like, Yes. So thank you for sharing that. Yeah. We talked about, a bad decision, but it's been something that you've done that's just really practical. That you did that kinda tipped all the dominoes, and we can maybe go implement in our business. Practical.
I don't know if it would be practical, but it's just just really leading with intention and thinking from the end, you know, in everything I've done since then. I call it the dark place in the book, but since that day, just just having a really clear purpose about why I'm doing everything I'm doing. And recognizing that has been the best decision of of my life because it leads to all the other things, whether it's business or relationship, etcetera. Right.
Yeah. And so for the person that is like, okay. Like, they hear the word intention. I know the weight that you're talking about when you hear intention. We use that in my family. Like, like, it's it's our identity where I was like, no, everything is done with intention. Everything intention and then followed by attention and which I'm sure that you would agree. But for the person that's like, okay. Well, okay. I can intentionally do these things. What does that mean?
Give us just a smidge on what does that look like on a day to day for you. You've kinda given some hints around it, but what is an intentional morning or an intentional day, or what could they be doing right now to be intentional like you were back after the dark day? Yeah. So it's probably two parts to that question. And one is a little I'm gonna give you a little time hack for you and the audience. But how you can buy back a lot of time for for $0. So that's the teaser.
But I I think it's it's looking at everything in your day. I mean, from the time you wake up till the time you go to bed, why are you doing that thing? You know, and it can be as simple as a walk. It can be time with your four year old. It can be a new business deal, but it's why are you doing that thing? And once you've built, that's why the values piece of the waste method is so important why we spend so much time on it.
It's it's easily the biggest part of the book, the journal when I'm working with you 1 on 1, if you're in mastermind with us, etcetera, until you those component pieces. You don't know if what you're doing is intentional. It's as good as the, yes, no, good, bad list that you're making to make major life decisions. You know, and the the key with all this is that you're you build these things when you're not in a time of you're not making a made major decision. You're not in the middle of that.
And you're not in crisis of some kind. Like, you have to be really even keeled. And we, we take people through when they do their first values list, they go off into their world. And when they're having a really great day or a really bad day, they pull that list out and they say, okay, I'm everything's jamming. I'm in flow state. I haven't the clock in 9 hours. What am I what's on this list that is causing that to happen? And there's things that are on there. There's things that aren't.
Or the opposite of that. You know, I'm having a terrible day. Everything's shit. I wanna sell my business. You know, what am I not honoring right now? Right? And you identify those values in those moments, and it helps gain more clarity so that tomorrow, when my buddy says, let's go do X Y Z, I can easily say no, and I'm not I don't feel bad because it's not in line with who I am and how I wanna be 40 years from now. You know, and I'll give you the time hack.
So this was in in mastermind a while back, and this may not be her idea, but it's what she brought to the table. But It's basically if you if somebody asks you to do something, you know, paycheck is like, yeah, this, thing in 6 months. It's in Vegas, you know, I want you to come speak. If you wouldn't do it tomorrow, you say no now, because you're not gonna have any more time in 6 months or a year or 5 years than you do right now.
So in our minds, we're more free next week or next month and that's how our calendars get full. So if I wouldn't do it tomorrow, the answer is no. Interesting. It's a perspective switch for sure. The the moment for you, I'm thinking of a specific one that I'll share after you, but the moment where you were able to, I guess, pick something that really, really was specific to the intention of what you've already defined as a value. Right?
And that could be maybe sitting on the beach, but what's what's a personal example for you? When you said something was in front of you and you said, yes. That matches what I've already previously stated as my value. What what was that specific thing? Let me give you I'll give you this example. So when So I sold the last business. I didn't necessarily have to do anything. It's alright.
I'm doing this new thing, and I have a clean slate, right, which was I was very fortunate to be in that position. And you often heard me say, I called in life number 1 in life number 1 that, you know, I I don't know what 2 is gonna look like, but I can't see it while I'm in 1. So I very intentionally build a business to scale and exit so that I could give myself that runway to figure out what it is I wanted to do with chapter 2.
And as I was building this business, if you're looking at my top 3 values, their freedom, autonomy, and connection. And, I'm in Austria right now. I don't necessarily have to do anything, and I'm talking to you. So the building of this business feeds all three of those things. So but had I not taken the time to look at that? I might be like, well, I'm gonna go sell forklifts in Louisiana. That pays well. You know, like, there's a reason behind it. Hey, Kings and Queens. Chaz Wolf.
I wanna talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort. We, meaning myself and my team, into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day. And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too. So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the things.
On social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast mediums of Apple and Spotify. We would love to be able to get our content into more hands more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as 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'm gonna give you an example.
That's not very motivational like the one that you just gave because I think the two two size every coin is good. I can remember being 17 18, and I was just very different than my friends. And I would get calls at, you know, 9, 10, 11 o'clock, and from my buddies, and they were, you know, at I hopping pancakes, and then they were gonna go to some late night movie or something, you know, what high schoolers do, I guess. And I get a call and, I would say, hello.
I'll tell you where I was in a second, but I'd say, hello. And they would say, you won't. And I would say, you're right. I won't. And I hung up, and I would roll then back over and go back to sleep because I was already in bed because I was gonna be up in the morning and go into work. I started working when I was thirteen, basically, in the summertime, and then actually full time when I was sixteen.
And so for me, even though I wasn't I didn't have this value system that you're talking I still knew what I wanted. And at least at that point, it was like, I know because we poor. I need money. And so I was not willing to exchange that for, you know, going to the movies or eating pancakes. I wanted to. They were my buddies, but I wanted this more. So greater, lesser desire is what I'm hearing you say. You can have that greater, lesser desire kind of like, compass built off of your values.
That way when you're put into a situation, all you have to say is, you're right. I won't. Right. And not feel bad about it. And not feel bad about it one lick. I'll see you next time, bro. Or not at all. Who cares? Absolutely. If it either serves You all. I love that. They knew exactly what it was, and I knew exactly what it was too. So, anyway, alright. So let's talk about let's talk about family for a second or really just some of those other dimensions in life.
Or how would you suggest a listener? How have you practically gone after those things while you've been obsessed with the business? I'm I'm not a fan of the word balanced. I'm I'm an all in type of a guy. I can clearly see that you are as well. So how have you gone all in in those other areas, whether it be family or or other dimensions? At the same time as building a company that you eventually exited and then now building this one traveling. That type of thing.
Yeah. I mean, it it all just keeps coming back to back to the values piece. You know, it's it's you hear me say it again and again and again, but it is who we are as as people, and we just haven't been taught at any age to to look at that in a really structured way and then build a life around those values versus having life happened to us for 50 years and then going, well, it was okay. You know, it's just a really different way of looking at it.
And I think once you can sacrifice things in the short term, but ultimately, you have to it's back to that way over the wheel. You know, you you have to eventually have it even out, you know, or else you're just not Wolfe rounded as in a great term, but it's, I mean, it's what ultimately leads to, you know, kind of base level happiness. You know, is you have to have all of those things.
So and I think that's why, you know, we've got some strange qualifiers if you wanna with me privately, and I not only work with six people at a time, but one of them is you have to be making a certain amount of money for a certain number of years. And people look at that on its face, and they say, well, he just wants to know that I've got the budget. And it's like, well, the price for me doesn't change. So it doesn't it doesn't matter if you have the budget or not.
But it does tell me that you don't think money answers all the problems. You know, you've you've had enough success that you go away in a minute. Like, so That's more. If I'm talking to your seventeen year old self or and I was in that same boat, I mean, we grew up with nothing. You know? So I've been a hustler since I was a little kid. I'm gonna get anything, I've gotta get it myself. You know, as mom and dad can't buy it. Yeah. So yeah.
Until and I, again, I was fortunate to learn that lesson when my early twenties, and that certainly changed my trajectory and what I value as a person. But I don't wanna have a a forty year old sit in front of me. Well, but I have to take this job because I'll make $200,000 more a year, and then I'll be happy. Like, it's just not a conversation I'm gonna have. Like, you already you already have to be at that level of awareness.
Because I'm not gonna be able to nobody's gonna be able to get you there. Like, you you have to have had that experience for yourself. Yeah. I appreciate that perspective. It's tough. For someone listening right now who, has yet to be in that position. But for the ones that have where, you know, you've you've made enough and then eventually get to a place where you either sell or you you build assets that pay you enough or more than enough passively.
And it's like, well, I could I could literally do whatever I want. And it's like, What else is left? Because once you've gotten that check, there's gotta be something else that we're going after, and so I appreciate you bringing it back to the values. Why do you think that this purpose for you, like this mantle, if you will, to go and help other people get so deep on this? Why do you think it's for you? Why why why are you made for this? I don't I'm not gonna toot my own horn.
I I don't know that I might not be the right person for a lot of people listening to this, you know, and I think if you're if you haven't clicked off of us 38 odd minutes in, maybe I'm the right fit. You know? So I've had a lot of experience around this and I can tell you the reasons why I do it. And then if that resonates with people great, but I, you know, I coached baseball for a long time for over 10 years in Charlotte.
And even though I don't have any kids in my own, and I've had half a dozen boys make it to the major leagues and I'll run into him on the street. And they'll say, oh, coach writer coach writer. And they'll fill me in on their life, and it's awesome. And they'll be, Remember that thing you told me x y a day? And I'm just like, I don't, bro. I love you dearly, but I do not remember what what that was. You know, because I was with these kids 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, 5 months a year.
I mean, it was a lot, you know, for over a decade. So but you get those chills. I get chills now telling you the story, like, having that kind of impact on someone. And, I've seen that happen on the business side too. I never did this professionally, but people, thanks to social media, I always say it looks good on TV, but people see me traveling all over the Wolfe, and but I still have these businesses back home, yet they're working a 100 hours a week, and they can't how do you do it?
Like, if I could had a nickel for every time I've been asked, how do you do it, bro? You know, and there's people that I would take under my wing and help them and show them these principles. Right? And then you watch their life change. Yeah. And so when it was time to, I don't have to do anything or I'm going to do something, that's why I decided to do this. It was one of those.
This is it's silly for these to go to my grave with me, you know, or the 20, 30 people I helped over the over the last number of years. So and that's why we donate all the proceeds of the book. Like, I re I really just want this in people's hands, and it's either for them, or it's not, but at least they have the idea in their head.
And then with their 20 bucks for the book or however much it is, 9 bucks for the ebook, we donate all that money, and then I get to have that exact same experience on the other side of the coin. So the foundation and sending these kids on these trips, and we can talk about if we have time, we can talk about how that's all structured. But I literally get to live that dream every day.
Like, I get to watch light bulbs go off for people like you and I who have never been exposed to these things, and then I get to provide this opportunity for these kids that could arguably change their life. And then they take those experiences back to their community that might not be talking about these things and change other kids' lives. It's an exponential thing that I get to be a part of, and I'm just I'm grateful is really what it boils down to.
Yeah. I I do wanna give you a second to talk on that. You you can tell when you've talked about this project of yours two times now. The energy of which you bring, just your tonality changed even. And so I definitely wanna give you a chance on that. The the the exponential piece is what's caught my attention from what you just said. How can the listener give us one last piece here? How can the listener find that exponential thing for them?
Because that's really what legacy is or when we talk about whether it's our kids and grandkids like I do or whether you're talking about these kids and communities or whether we're talking about our own communities or we wanna influence nations. It's all this exponential piece. Give us a couple steps on how to find that, like, what we're tied to because we're all in it for this exponential thing. But how do we know what our exponential thing is, like, for us?
You know, we do a lot of there's exercises in the book, and I clearly do it in the private us. We do a lot of visioning exercises, and it's, you know, if if I do this thing in a year, how does that make me feel and you run through I have my private clients run through a an entire week of their perfect year. Or, yeah, it's a year from now, and it's their perfect week. And it's every 5th minutes. It's I'm getting up at this time. I get to do this. I get to do that. I get to do the other thing.
And then what values does that check off? Right? We're always back to values. And then ultimately, how does that make me feel? And that's that's different for a CPA than it is for the CEO of a hospital or a volunteer worker. You know, and then you just have to identify those things for yourself. And, like, you just heard my tonality or inflection change when I talk about the foundation.
Yeah. That's another benefit of having a coach or somebody that's just outside of your immediate situation because they're gonna pick up on those things. And they will help point you in that direction of what it is that drives you. Yeah. Yeah. The thing that, gets you excited. And I think that a lot of guys just doing the things that are dutiful. Right? Like, I'm gonna take I'm gonna check all the boxes because that's that's my duty.
But there are things that make us come alive, and that's what that's what I hear you saying that it's worth pressing into. So give us a couple minutes here on on the exponential piece you're talking about with these kids. You know, give us how that structured the impact of those things, why you came up with this, and then I got one more question for you. Alright. So send a student leader abroad.
Dot org if you want to go look at it, but we are partnered with EF Tours, and they have been absolutely phenomenal to work with. Like, I cannot sing their appraisers high enough for being such a massive organization. I mean, they're in 150 plus countries and, you know, 1,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 of dollars. And, ultimately, they are the facilitator for what we wanna do. So when I was thirteen, my mom spent money we didn't have.
And I can remember her and my dad arguing about sending me on that trip between 7th 8th grade. To visit, we went to Italy, France, and the UK. And coincidentally, exactly 30 years later, I've done Italy I'll be in France next week for Halt Price, and then we're gonna leave out of London just so I can have recreated the tree. Yeah. That's awesome. I love that. It just it's the universe at work, buddy. Like, we weren't supposed to go to a halt prize in Paris, and it popped up as an opportunity.
We got invited to go. So I'm checking it off, but my mom sent me on that trip, and it changed my worldview it very much taught me there's no them. There's only us. We are very much one human family. And I think the earlier you can recognize Chaz, and without getting into crazy details, but our, you know, our history is the history of who we're taught to hate at any given point and they'll let you know, go look right now. Who are we supposed to hate? Go 20 years ago. Who are we supposed to hate?
Go a 100 years ago. Who are we supposed to hate? And if you ask anybody, they don't know any of those people. They've they've never met any of those people. And so I think when you can leave certainly the US because we are very privileged to be born and grow up in the United States. And when you can see what's actually happening in other parts of the world, it just gives you a level of compassion that you can't get otherwise.
And at this point, I've been to 50 plus, I guess, after this trip, it'll probably be 54 countries on 6 continents and all for pleasure. I've never had to travel really for work. You know, it's just I wanna go experience. And when you can give a kid that opportunity, And so it's called send a student leader abroad because it's ultimately a matching grant. So these are kids that can't afford to go.
And their teacher nominates them as somebody that's got hustle and got germination and just deserves a chance. And we work with them. It's not just here some money. You know, thanks, Timmy. It's we work with them every week to, like, how can we earn this money? You know, you want some buy in from them. And whether they raise 5 bucks, the trips are about $4. Now, whether they raise 5 bucks or the whole 4000, we pay for the rest of the trip for them to go.
And so they go have this experience that they otherwise would not have been able to. Hopefully, it changes their worldview, their and now they bring that conversation back to a community that also probably couldn't afford to go. Yep. And that's why I have a goal of sending a million kits You know, and I'd I've told everybody since the beginning, I say, you know, if I only send 10,000, well Darn it. Yeah. I love the thinking there.
The piece that's impactful Chaz last little sentence was that they're gonna go back and hopefully be able to articulate that perspective change. You know, that and that's the real ripples. So you get to ripple, yeah, with thousands, maybe even millions of children, but then what about all the others that they're gonna be able to share their experiences? Not only on top of that impact the people that they're going to visit from all over across the world. Right?
Yeah. It's it really is a spider web. It really is. It's pretty cool. Alright. I got one last question. You kinda hinted at it a few minutes ago. You almost stole my thunder bud. Okay. Just kidding. I wanna know if you could go back into time and whisper in your younger ear. You you told me what you'd whisper in my younger ear. What would you whisper in your younger ear? Do I get 2 shares or just one? Oh, give us both. If there's 2, give us both. Come on, man.
The first one is it's been done before. Do it anyway. Oh. That's no that's number 1. And then number 2, which is usually my my mic drop moment. So if this is the end, you gotta tell me because this is the mic drop moment. We'll talk for a few more, but it's the end. Alright. So give it to us. It's If you remember, I'll I'll send it all the way back to MySpace. It was on my wall on my MySpace page. It's on my Facebook and my LinkedIn now. It's tattooed on this arm.
K. It says the cost of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. The Heavyness of that. Why why would you share that specifically? Why is that heavy for you? It's heavy for me because I it would have taught me earlier not to trade my time for money. And that's something that my mom certainly understood. And my mom didn't, you know, she wasn't an entrepreneur or anything, but she's, I mean, wise Wolfe beyond her years.
And, you know, looking back now, all the things that come out of you, she died a couple years back. We actually dedicate the book to her, but Wow. All the things that she taught me that were like that. And you don't believe, you know, and my mom was great, but I still didn't believe her when I was a kid. You never believe your parents about anything. They're stupid. You you know all the answers. So That's right.
You know, I I think just having that perspective, and that's it's back to, you know, the money's not gonna solve your problems. And, trading more of the only commodity that is fixed in this life for more of that, maybe isn't the best idea. Yeah. When you can put it into perspective tied to then your values, it gives you the compass needed to make right decisions We're just mixing my language and yours so beautifully together. Don't you like that? It's a dance, buddy. It's a dance.
Well, actually, I appreciate the dance because, you know, a lot of people get get really scared and worried about, you know, other people. And like you said, it's been done before, and there could be plenty of reasons why there are people in my audience need to join your thing as opposed to mine. And and I'm glad to have you here because there's it's in abundance. And the the the nuggets we've been able to pull out here today are worth it.
So like you're saying, it's like, there's not a there's not a wrong move here. It it helps us both get what we're what we're looking for. So it's a pleasure. Been able to align with you in that. How can the listener find you? 1, if they just wanna get to know you better, maybe follow your content, or, obviously, or buy the book, or actually wanna work with you. They wanna join, one of your programs. How can they find you?
Really easy at $1,000,000 flip flops on every channel and $1,000,000 flipflops.com. Easy enough. We'll put it on the show note for the listeners, make it easy for them as well. You've been incredible. Thank you for being here. Dropping us nuggets from halfway across the world and and another time zone. So Thank you for Chaz. Blessings on your book launch. And I will put the information for the book launch.
If you're listening right now and you wanna go grab the book, click the link below and grab that. I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Especially it's got flip flops, golden flip flops from my understanding about on the website. Take a look at these things. They're they're amazing. Appreciate you being here, Roderick. You've been an absolute king here today. Thank you. Thanks, Jeff. 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 Kings. Specifically who are grateful, but not done.
We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business family and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy. So if that relates and and resonates with you and you know that you need people around you sharp qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gathering the kings dot 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.