On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. This is super personal, and I've never I don't know if I've ever said this exact thing on a podcast, but you know, I believe I I think we can all look around at the Earth. Chaz politics, the environment, business relationships, marriage, and say, man, something's wrong. Something's wrong on this earth. And I really believe I think we all have an innate sense that it wasn't meant to be this way.
I think some of our failures are the launching points for our greatest success. The right answer often comes through a voice that sounds an awful lot like my wife. In other Wolfe. I agree already with whatever you're about to say. What's up everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe. Gathering the king's podcast. I'm back with you here today with the king on the stage. Paul Moore Paul, how we doing? I'm doing great, Chad. It's wonderful to be here. What an honor, man. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Also, appreciate the the energy and light kind there. I I know some of my guests get a little fired up and others don't know what to do with my my little intros, but it's real. And I get excited about Personally, having conversations with incredible people like you. I just get to share it with the rest of the world too, but I'm over here, like, mentally downloading and learning and learning. Take a note. So I'm excited to learn from you. Paul, tell us what kind of business that you have.
Yeah. I run a com a commercial real estate fund. It's a diversified fund where we work with 100 of accredited investors, and we invest in self storage, mobile home parks, RV parks, multifamily, and more assets. So that's that's what we do. We're on our 6th fund now and having a blast. I love it. I love I love the word diversity inside of real estate. In fact, I truly believe that you could be anybody you wanna be in real estate. There's just so many different avenues.
Wolfe you would you agree with that? It's so true. You know, I I mentioned to you earlier, I wrote a book on self storage, and there's, like, I I said, here's 7 different paths, you can go down within commercial real estate. And there's probably a lot more I don't know, you know, I don't have in the book. So I absolutely agree. Yeah. It's like, you know, the the the power of niching is is there, and I get it. And you can go deep in 1, but I just really like to diversify.
I like lots of things, lots of different types of projects, different angles, and it sounds like that's a little bit of the approach that you guys take too. So I'm sure we'll get into some of Chaz, but before we do, I gotta know what makes you tick, Paul. You've been doing this for a Wolfe.
And even before we hit the record button, we found out that we're kind of associated to a couple of folks here in Kansas City that we might know that are the same folks What's, like, the deeper inner, like, makes you wake up and get fired up after all the success that you've had? Yeah. This is super personal, and I've never I don't know if I've ever said this exact thing on a podcast, but, you know, I believe I I think we can all look around at the earth.
Politics, the environment, business relationships, marriage, and say, man, something's wrong. Something's wrong on this earth. And I really believe I think we all have an innate sense that it wasn't meant to be this way. And so, really, my desire is to bring, I mean, just put it super bluntly.
Jesus said, pray on earth as it is in heaven, and I just my desire would be to bring a sense of heaven to earth in every relationship, in every business, in every interaction, even with a telemarketer on the phone, I just really want to make people happier and make them, you know, better. And even if it's an employee who works for us and then leave, I want them to have a better life afterwards than before, and we, of course, that's a big focus of us with our investors as well.
I like how you put the perspective there of, yes, it's them being better or having a happier, more joyful life. But you associated that to, you know, the things of heaven. And so does that does that come from, like, a a journey that you've been on just real quick here? I don't wanna dive you know, the whole show on this, but when I think of being heavenly, right, you're talking about joy and being better, Sometimes people don't connect those things. Why why have you connected those things?
Yeah. You know, for for years, I actually became a Christian 38 years ago, and I for the 1st 28 years or so, I lived with a huge problem, and that problem was right here between my ears. I actually thought that there was a dichotomy between my personal life and my business life. Or another way to say it would be my business and my faith. And I realized that was ridiculous.
I mean, I could spend a long time talking about this, but honestly, there are some people call 7 mountains of culture and these 7 mountains, these 7 different arenas, you know, it's it's, like, they're all supposed to be reformed, if you will, or they're all close to work as they were designed. And those would be things like business, the arts, government, family, religion, entertainment, sports, you know, there there's a few more.
And I would really think that all of them should have an equal, you know, like, if I'm in the business realm, that's not separate from me, you know, living a good life with my family. Or going to church. I mean, I think it's all integrated. And I really think that, you know, like, if I have a chance to love one of my invest who's having a difficult time in their life, and I actually was able to pray with one of my investors who's having a hard time.
Earlier today, Chaz is going to make their life better. And so that's that's my desire once I've come to that realization about 10 years ago. Well, I appreciate the vulnerability there and how that's impacted, you know, just your life, but others around you. I feel the same way that there's situations that we can be in, and it's not like, you know, wearing a a flag of sorts, right, and try to convince anything of any or any one of something.
It's living in a specific way that agitates thought and they go, that guy, Paul. He's a little different. Yeah. Different. Little different. I don't You've never had anybody say that about you, have you? I'm pretty sure they have. Yeah. Yeah. As have I. And so let's get into some of that because we are different, and I wanna be able to share some of that Chaz far as what makes you different. But You've got this heart to to help people realize what I heard you say.
And so tell us the journey that you've been on. I know it's been, you know, obviously, there's a lot to it, but before you got into real estate or business before you're in this mountain of business, what'd you do before? Yeah. So I got an engineering degree in the eighties. That was my first mistake. And then I got I got a business degree after that, which wasn't was probably closer to who I am. And I went to Ford Motor Company, you know, a company with 100 of 1000 of employees.
And I actually really liked it, but I noticed after a short time, I was constantly daydreaming about doing something entrepreneurial. And so a friend of mine said, hey. I'm having the same experience. So we started strategizing on a business to start on the side. And after 5 years at Ford, we left and we started our own company. We were very fortunate to be in the right place, right time, and, we're able to sell that to a publicly traded company 5 years later.
And I thought I wanna start a nonprofit to serve people, but actually it was, like, the the nonprofit we started, it just didn't it it It was okay, but I I was a thirty four year old high energy type a entrepreneur. And so I found myself Daydreaming again about starting another company. So we started flipping houses, then flipping waterfront lots, and then building houses I also thought, hey. I've got this money from selling my company. I thought, I'm a full time investor now.
And, you know what? I say that that way because I felt I was more proud than I should have been because I wasn't a full time investor. I was actually a speculator. I didn't know the difference, Chaz. And, you know, I now I think, you know, investing is when your principal is generally protected, and you've got a chance to make a profit. Speculating when your principle is completely unprotected, and you've got a chance to make a profit.
And the older I've gotten The more I want to avoid speculation, I think it's fine for a small amount of your portfolio, but generally, I think the path to wealth for the vast, vast majority of people is to invest, invest wisely, invest safely, and, you know, it's a lower stress path. And, I mean, let's face it. If you lose all your money playing double or nothing, you'll have nothing. And then where will you start?
You'll have to start over again in your forties or fifties, and that's just not what I want to do again because I have done that to be really honest with you. That's one of the reasons I had a podcast for years called how to lose money. You're gonna give us a couple of tricks and tricks of the trade here on how not to lose money because not only have you lost it, but you've interviewed so many people that have.
I think actually that any entrepreneur at a at an eventual success level can join that club and say, yeah. Ouch. You know? Chaz that that wasn't a great decision, and I appreciate you being so forthcoming and and being able to maybe share some of those things. I I do wanna get to Chaz. You you kinda mentioned, though, that there's been this, I guess, I don't know, like, risk reward, double or nothing.
You know, I think the only way to protect your capital playing double or nothing is to not play or or to to keep your original investment over here and you're only playing with the house money if we use less language. Yeah. So for you, what what you do now, just kinda put a bow on this for us. Why do you, like, what you do today? How is that so safe, secure, the right type of investing in your opinion. Yeah. I'm really passionate that people diversify why and my investing hero is Warren Buffet.
And the Buffet says diversification is for people who don't really know what they're doing. Now I'm writing a book about Warren Buffett's principles for real estate investors, but I don't like that one. And then I realized, wait a minute, Berkshire Hathaway is The most diversified company in the fortune 500 or at least for sure in the top 10 or 20, they've got a 100 and I think it's 108 companies and massively different arenas.
I just realized, wait, it's good for the investor to have diversification, but it good for the individual operator to have hyper focus. And so we're out there. Our company, we consider ourselves due diligence partners for our clients. And we are looking for the best of the best operators in recession resistant asset types.
And then we put them together under one umbrella for our operate for our investors to be able to invest, for example, $50,000, and then they can get a diversification across these different What we would hope to be best in class operators, though there's no guarantee, but diversification helps in the case where some of them fail along the way.
What I realized is I don't know if you know p follow Perry Marshall, but he wrote amazing book called 8020 Sales And Marketing, and he says that the eighty-twenty rule is fractal. And that means at the top 20 percent of the top 20 percent of the operators in my realm, Wolfe produce the top 80 percent of the top 80 percent of, you know, the the investments. And what that means to me first is safety and principle. It's gonna be way safer if you're one of those top 4 percent of the operators.
And then, of course, that's gonna lead to higher cash flow and ultimately higher returns. We would hope Though, like I said, again and again, for my compliant person who's gonna be listening, Chaz, there's there's no guarantees. Yeah. Of course. At the end of the day, you Chaz I I think that's why the, like, maybe the the picture that you've given here is It's still investing. You're still taking money to make money. It can be lost.
You said there's no guarantee, but I think that's why it's led you to want to be in, not only diversification, but be in an industry that maybe has a real asset attached to it as opposed to let's say, you know, a coin or a business even. Sometimes the businesses can be gone as opposed to a physical asset. What do you think? So true. Yeah. What do you think for you in inside of building, obviously, a couple different companies now?
What do you think has been just a really good decision you've made. I we're gonna get to your plenty of juicy bad ones here in a minute, but just something super practical that you can share with the listeners that's been just you would do it over and over and over again. The best decision business wise I stumbled into, I met a junior at Liberty University named Ben 10, maybe 11 years ago, And he actually, unlike 90% of people who said they wanted a mentor or mastermind, he really did.
And he actually followed up after I met him at a chance meeting at a spring break camp where my daughter was going. They were both about the same age. And so he said, hey. He he got hold of me, and he said, hey. Can I pick your brain? So we spent 3 hours on my hit my picnic table, you know, talking about stuff. And then I followed up with him more. And when I eventually hired him as a senior at Liberty University, Well, he's become what they call an integrator in the EOS world.
So if you've, you know, for those of you who've read traction, Gina Wickman, are following that whole mindset. He is actually what an EOS consultant who's done 5 to 700 companies over the years. He said, you know, at age twenty seven at the time, he said he was equal to the best integrator he had ever met. And the reason this is important, Chaz, is I'm this, you know, head in the clouds entrepreneur. I'm dreaming. I'm coming up with the next big idea.
I'm out there kinda floating around looking to meet people, you know, have fun. Take a 20 minute coffee meeting and turn into 2 hours, all that kind of stuff. He's got all Chaz stuff dialed in, timelines, deadlines, accountability, managing people. He's got He's just got a fabulous way of doing that.
So the best decision I made, and one of the reasons this company has worked so well in comparison to some that didn't was Ben is a fantastic integrator, and he allows me to dream to write to do shows like this. Wolfe he runs the nuts and bolts. Yeah. I appreciate Chaz. Gathering the Kings also has that Jake has been a great friend of mine for a long time, and we finally circled up as just that visionary and integrator.
And so funny when those things happened because for both, He and you for Jake and I. It's it's like, oh, this it does exist. I can do all the things that that I'm that I'm meant to do, and you can do all the things that you're meant to do. And Yeah. And it just works. What what would you say for the personal listing right now? I mean, maybe they're familiar with EOS. Maybe they're not. But they understand, like, okay. You got you got a number 2 or a a Copart, and it just works.
What what are they doing, or what are they taking away from this going other than that they need one? What are they, like, what can they take from this from you? Yeah. I so I've partnered with one of my best friends a number of times. It just we were We were best friends because we were so similar, and that didn't really help. And one time, we were managing a multifamily property years and years ago. And I was like, okay.
So remember, I'm the guy who's finding the deals, raising the money, getting started, and I'm handing it off to you to do Well, he was more like me than he had originally represented. And it's not that he was lying. He thought he was an operations guy, but when Rubber met the roadie wasn't. And especially when, you know, I met Ben, I was like, oh, well, here's an operations guy.
And so I think The answer would be don't necessarily partner with someone like you, and it might not even be somebody you really even like all that much Chaz long as your skills are complimentary. Yeah. You're right. Because especially on Chaz, there's a a book rocket fuel that talks a lot about this this partnership, and and there's a little survey in there, but they also use Culture Index, which we use as well.
I'm not sure if you're familiar with them, but on the on the call trandex, Wes talks about or or in rocket fuel, he talks about there being this this certain profile, but there's there's this one in between, like, where about 5% of the people, maybe even less he says, think that they can do both. And so there's a lot of people that think that they can do both, and then they get pressed into the situation. They're like, folks.
No. I'm not a visionary or, no, I'm not an ops ops guy, whatever those things are. So it's pretty cool that you've Yeah. Been able to experience that. Yeah. It's been great. What would you say? Just flipping the coin just really quick here just because you've kind of already tipped into this bad decision, but you've been on a lot of podcast with a lot of people making bad decisions, losing money.
What's the very craziest story from your podcast, actually, that that you can remember as far as bad decisions losing money? Oh, yeah. You really put me on the spot here. It's been 3 years since we recorded any. And I I could I actually give you a couple of the principles Wolfe learned and then circle back to Chaz. If I think of the worst, there's so many. They blended to get a whole bunch of them were from 2008 era, as you can imagine. I can imagine it.
Yeah. Well, principles are what we what we take away and learn from anyway. So, yeah, give us the juice. Yeah. So one principle we learned and listen carefully, it's so strange but it's really, really important to walk away quickly. One of the folks we interviewed was from Charlottesville, Virginia, and he actually has mastermind and mentoring program in real estate, and he said, hey. You wanna know how to become a millionaire in real estate in the restaurant business? And I said, well, sure.
He said start with $2,000,000 and buy a restaurant. And so, anyway, He basically said it's so important to walk away quickly if you see you're on the wrong path or just start it off wrong or you just get out while you can. Salvage as much money as you can and start somewhere else. And, you know, I'll tell you, I failed at that. I we had a 6 successful multi family business in North Dakota in the Bakken, doing oil and gas employee housing. And that was going super Wolfe.
And we noticed that there was really poor internet up there, and there were thousands and thousands of people like 12,000 coming into a town of 3000 residents, and they needed internet and cell service. So we started Bakken wireless. And spent 100100 of 1000 of dollars and several many years actually trying to get that to profitability and failed.
We should have probably pulled the plug on that 6 months in when we realized that a lot of these wireless radios froze up in the 40 degree below Prairie in North Dakota, and we could have saved us all a lot of money, but we didn't. So one lesson is walk away quickly when you realize you're on the wrong path. Now here's the bizarre one. Our second biggest lesson we learned from this show was never walk away quickly. Stand in. Stay in there. Persist. Fight to the end. Never give up.
You know, the the what was it? The picture of the the Pelican swallowing the frog, but the frog's got his hands around the pelican's neck, and it says never give up. And people would come on the show and say, if I would have quit, like, I wanted to quit in December of 20 Oh, you know, 2002. And, but in January 2003, I got the biggest contract ever. If I would've quit, I never would've got there. Don't quit.
And so it's like, so we tried to write a book called how to lose money and we were like, wait wait. These are 2, like, opposite principles and they're the biggest thing we heard. And, of course, the answer is a little hard to explain, but I think the the way to put that together and integrate it is if you find out you're on the wrong path with the wrong people, with the wrong product. Going down the wrong path, you quit quickly or very quickly pivot.
If you think you have the right product, you're on the right path, right people, that's when you persist. Yeah. You gave a really succinct answer there. And in fact, as you were saying, the first principle in my mind, I was lining up my second question to be like, I hear you, Paul, But what in the moment? What about all the successful people that say you gotta persist and stick through it? Yeah. Because you're right.
It's a double edged sword, and I think Chaz, you gave actually a really great description there. But the listener right now who's, like, pondering this and going, okay. Yes. I I have heard to persist not to quit and but yet at the same time, you know, like, Move when you need to move is is the second piece. And so it's like for them, how do they know if they've got the right person the right product. Like, where does that discernment come in for them to be able to actually go?
Do I stick it through, or or do I hang tight? Or or do I get rid of it? I mean, Well, here's another crazy paradox. Proverbs says in the abundance of counselors, there's wisdom. That's a paraphrase. So I think it says very I think I'm very close. Yeah. And and also Wolfe found people on the show. So we found people on the show who said that. I had to get in my life who would be confronted, who'd be honest, who would hold me accountable, and it would, you know, speak the truth.
The other people on the show would be like, I had to ignore all the voices around me. I knew I was right. I knew I could do it. And so another paradox is created by your question I really don't have an answer. I mean, we could talk about it for a while. Maybe we'll come up with 1. I just think it's different for everybody. And I here's one simple principle, and you might laugh, but, you know, the right answer often comes through a voice that sounds a awful lot like my wife in other words.
I agree already with whatever you're about to say. Yeah. Like, the Bakken wireless debacle, for some reason, the day I told her about it, I remember right where I was standing, excitedly waving my arms and telling her how we make 1,000,000 of dollars. She said, I don't feel good about this. Don't do it. And she kept saying that. And I was like, you can't give me any solid reasons. Well, she had a somehow or another, she had an incredible ability to discern that it was a bad idea.
So guys listen to your wife. Wives, I don't know if you should listen to your husband's or not, but anyway, that's my 2¢. 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. Yeah. I I've I've shared in response to something similar here in the past situation where my wife and I were expanding our franchise territories. This is years ago. And there was a store that I wanted to and I had a strategy, and then there was a business case. And there was Oh, yeah. None of on her side, at least not that my opinion supported. And and she just was like, no. I don't we shouldn't do it.
And I and I went ahead with it anyway, and I lost 100 of 1000 of dollars on that deal. And I think that the the the takeaway, yes, it's different for everybody. Listen to your wives. All that's really good. What I'm what I'm picking up, though, from you is that in these in these paradoxes, it's like it really comes down to, like, what is truth know, and then being able to sit true to it, I guess, is what I'm saying.
Yeah. Because to you in that moment, it's like whatever the desire is, you're even if it doesn't work out. So, like, in this situation where it didn't work out for you with the wireless, it didn't work out with me on that location. It's not like it It's not like it killed me all the way, right, because my desire was to win holistically around it. It wasn't just that one little piece. And so even in that, it was like, okay.
Fine. I'm still gonna win the business life marriage, you know, the whole deal. So I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are on that. You know, it's funny. I think some of our failures, and that was one of the themes of our podcast, are the launching points for our greatest success. So if you wanna look at my life, you know, the fact that I was a speculator was a launch pad for me to be the extreme opposite now.
And, you know, I mean, I can't say I hate speculation, but, I mean, I really believe that the vast majority of wealth is for the vast majority of people is created for care by careful wise planning, stone upon stone, growing slowly. And so I I really, really believe that, you know, that that the seeds Howard Marks says the seeds of success are born in our failures. And that's I really think that's absolutely true. And I and I really I I really believe that that's part of our story.
And I think so I can't remember who said this, but somebody said I would never trust I would never invest with somebody who hasn't failed in the past. Yeah. Yeah. I think that a lot of people would maybe shy away from that failure or that badge, if you will, thinking that, other people will maybe look down on them, but, actually, the ones that are successful. Like you're saying, they know that it's like, oh, well, if you haven't failed yet, then, nah, I'm gonna wait because it's coming.
And and, also, I don't know what you're gonna do with it. If if I've seen that you failed and you're still winning, like, in the example that we were just giving, then it actually builds my confidence that you know how to handle it because we both know it's gonna come again. It will come again, period. Yeah. We just gotta know how to handle. Yeah. That's one of the reasons I like diversification. I used to put all my eggs in one basket, and that was one of the big mistakes I made over the years.
Yep. Let's talk about, you know, you're in commercial real estate, but yet you're diversified. So, you know, we're sitting in here. The, you know, q 4 2023 is about to start There's a lot of lot of, you know, maybe speculation if you might wanna go to that word about commercial real estate and some peep some people are very excited about lanes on commercial real estate and some are not. What what says what says the guru on the other side of the mic here?
Well, you know, we are doing the same thing that we were doing when the market was booming, you know, trying to hit singles and doubles lots of people were hitting grand slams regularly. And we're probably gonna do the same thing now in commercial real estate, like a lot of businesses, Well, actually, let me back up. So Buffet talks about the efficient market hypothesis, and he says we're pulling.
We're rooting for everybody possible to believe that because and he says that tongue in cheek because he says as long as people believe that we'll continue to profit much, much more by proving it's not true. Now here's the thing. It is true, but it's gotta accept and those exceptions as or where the money is made in stock and biz you know, investing in businesses. What's similar in commercial real estate, while in general, commercial real estate may be going the wrong direction.
It may be, you know, the cap rates may be expanding, which means the values are going down. The resale values are tanking right now. People with floating rate debt are in massive trouble right now. While all that's happening, There are still exceptions, and those exceptions usually come, and this is I'm being overly, you know, I'm over generalizing this. But she has the exceptions in commercial real estate and residential are by buying the 1 off unusual deals. And that's a lot of work.
It doesn't mean, like, you're checking through your broker's website. It means you are working really, really hard to find those mom and pop one off under managed, well located deals. An example would be we recently invested in a self storage property near Las Vegas where the going rate on a 10 by 10 storage unit was 148. This one was charging $60 They weren't full. There was no marketing.
They had a bunch of homeless people living there, and they weren't even collecting from a bunch of the and I don't even think they had signed, really good signs, no website. And so, you know, buying an asset like that and paying the owner a very fair price It was on a great location, you know, in a great city.
So turning that around, you know, getting the illegal homeless folks, you know, to vacate getting the tenants to pay, putting up signs, putting up a beautiful website, getting great managers, and raising rents, even Halfway from where they were to market is a massive, massive win in any economy, and especially since The operator we invested with paid cash for this. It just creates a very, you know, again, I would say not guaranteed, but likely quite a safe investment.
And I could just spend the rest of the next hour telling you other things like that that we folks that we know have invested in where there's like a mom and pop asset that was just completely neglected one of them in your area we bought recently. The the guy called and said, hey. You've been calling me for 9 straight years since 2014. To buy my self storage facility, would you pay me the same thing you offered me in 2014? Because I gotta be honest, This place has gone way downhill since then.
And the answer was, let me think about, yes. The paid him what in his mind was too much and a fair price, but now we're able to take that and turn it around and turn it into what it should be. And maybe I I'm not saying we the operator could we'll do this. But he could easily potentially double the value of that facility and 4 x the value of the equity.
Now Wolfe he we don't know if that'll happen, but When you have a bunch of deals like that in your portfolio, it makes you feel a little safer in any economy. Yeah. You start to see trends. And although one one job or one business or one property doesn't speak or influence the other, it it begins to tell you a story. And all data tell stories. Right. And I just I just wanna throw in. I mean, you know, in some of these same funds, we've had other deals like 1 had an 8% loss.
It was acquired in Saint Paul, Minnesota right before the riots the unfortunate riots that happened in 2020, and it was hard to staff. It was hard to keep it safe. And the police had other things on their mind at the time. And so after about a year of that, you know, sold it for an 8% loss. And that's one of the reasons I love being part of a portfolio because it didn't hit our cash flow at all. And that money, that 92% of money that was left was redeployed into something more pro profitable.
And so but there are those losses. Now if I put a 100% of my money in that happened to be in that lost one, I would've lost all my money, and so that's why I don't like going big on a single asset. Yeah. Well, I I think you just gave a great example of the advice you gave few minutes ago getting out when you know it's a bad deal or a bad operator or whatever the situation is. You made a recognition. Sold the deal. Even if it was at a loss, it's fine.
Like you said, that 92% that you were able to obtain was able to go back into another investment and probably has grown past the original 100% at this point anyway. Yeah. You would hope. Yeah. That's that's the that's the that's the idea. Yeah. Okay. Let's let's talk about a little different angle here. I wanna go family for a second. I'm just a really big believer that I can obsess about multiple areas at once, and balance doesn't really exist.
In fact, you said it a little bit earlier Chaz far as being able to put attention on a lot of different things, but for business, investing, and my wife, or and my kids, or and anything else, really, that that I think is important. But for me, those those are the 2 kind of, like, things that always get, you know, pinned up against each other. How have you over the course of your successful year been able to obsess or go all in on both of those at the same time?
Yeah. I've really failed more than I've succeeded. I think it's amazing. All my kids love me. I'm hanging out with all four of them for the next week starting tonight. And but, yeah, I think I I'm I'm failed a lot at that. I Gary, again, I think I mentioned this earlier. Gary Keller and Jay Papazon's amazing book. The one thing 1 of the chapters is work life balance is a myth. And the point is when you're at work, you're all in. You're giving it your all.
But when you're hanging out with your family, you're all in with them. You're giving it your all. And that's one thing that I learned from that book that I wish I would have known. I wish I would have implemented what my kids were little. However, I think that would be the answer if that makes sense. Yeah. No. Absolutely does.
For the guy or gal, listening right now Chaz maybe does have youngers, and it's the younger version of you, maybe in your in your trying to give this depiction of being able to go all in when you're with the family, all in with the with the business. What does that look like practically on a day to day for that person listening going, I'm just so busy and overwhelmed. Don't even know how to do what you're talking about.
Well Yeah. One thing was a realization that for an entrepreneur, there's no I'm never gonna be finished. Time when I worked at Ford Motor Company, I was done with work at 3:30 or 4:30 or whenever I quit. For the day, but I I'm not as an entrepreneur. There's always more to do. And so it's kind of a leap of faith for me to basically say, okay. I'm gonna leave my iPhone and my computer in my office in the basement or wherever, and I'm gonna go hang out with my family and focus with them.
The evidence that I'm, you know, again, if I could only roll back 25 years, but the evidence of this was The one vacation I went on, I left my iPhone. Actually, it was a blackberry at the time with my administrative assistant. And furthermore, we didn't have cell coverage at the house, so I couldn't even use my wife's. It was a cabin in Tennessee. We had such a great time there. That we got hold of the owner and extended it and stayed 2 weeks instead of 1. It was so amazing.
And, again, I wish I had lot more vacations like that. I've intentionally since then scheduled almost once a year, a week away at a remote place with no cell coverage, and that's been great. We've been to Alaska and Canada and Yellowstone and Graham Canyon, and some of those had cell coverage. Obviously, but a lot of them, Alaska and Canada did not. Yeah. Yeah. I can think of some of the very first LC that I was going on.
You don't know the full story neither does the audience, but I didn't know my dad till Chaz 24. He didn't know I existed even. And so I'm I'm elk hunting after I met him. It's been the thing that he's done for his whole life. And I'm I've got a couple businesses, and I'm like, you know, a little bit freaking out. And you realize that you're going to a place where I had no service we were in the wilderness.
And that you just it things be put they get they get put into perspective really quick that, like, if something were to be wrong, then I'll handle it when I get back. And and you can do the same thing with your family, and it's taken me probably like you longer than I would be willing to admit. Chaz that was important to me or important enough has been my story.
It's always been important, but just not enough to actually take the tech the steps of, you know, leaving the phone on the desk and and checking in, checking out on 1 and checking in on the other for for that for that important time. So thanks for that. Appreciate that. Absolutely. I've got I've got one last question here for you, Paul. I I wanna know is similar similar lane here, but if you could go back into time again, but you're whispering to the younger Paul about anything.
What do you tip him off with? I would definitely hit this fan thing really hard. I would definitely hit the faith thing really hard. I would have, you know, gone back and said, look. Your face should be part of everything you do in business and life, etcetera. One thing I would say, and now this is very particular to me personally, Chaz, I would have said early on, learn all you can about commercial real estate and jump into that.
And, again, that's very much for me personally, but it took me way over a decade in single family and all the stuff I did there, before I realized the power of commercial real estate. I mean, honestly, If I could really go back, I Chaz gone back to when I was 18 and got at some degree around real estate and tried to stay in that lane my whole career. Yeah. That's huge. Do you think that the value not necessarily of commercial real estate.
Yes. I see what you're saying there, but the the compound effect of you being able to start sooner. What does that look like in today's environment if you had had those compounding years ahead of time commercial real estate, family, like, all the answers that you just gave. You know, the interesting thing is I I told somebody this yesterday, you know, we talked about, again, about the the success being, you know, starting in the seeds of failure.
If I would have taken the money I made in 1997, when we sold to a public firm and just invested with the knowledge I have today, 26 years later, we would have been, I mean, quite well off if we hadn't given a lot of away, which we wanna do all the time anyway. Wolfe, we would have been quite well off, but I wouldn't have had 760 investors that I'm speaking to now. I wouldn't have been on your podcast. I wouldn't be writing, you know, a couple hundred blogs for bigger pockets than others.
I wouldn't be on a stage with bigger pockets. In a couple weeks. I wouldn't be speaking into culture. I would be I mean, I don't know for sure what I'd be doing, but I know I wouldn't be doing this. At age fifty nine and a half. And so I'm actually in a funny way, really happy. It happened just the way it did. And I'm not just making lemons and lemonade. I really am genuinely happy to be doing what I'm doing right now, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
So As far as business, yeah, a lot of failure, a lot of pain along the way, a lot of mistakes in my thirties and forties, but I'm super glad for where I am now. I'll just answer that one for now. Yeah. I appreciate that perspective inside of gathering the King's mastermind. I've kinda dub this this hashtag grateful, but not done. And I don't know how you can be grateful without looking back like you just did and thought, you know what? Yeah. Maybe it could have gone different.
Maybe things would be different. I don't know exactly what they would be, but I wouldn't be who I am. I can say the same thing about growing up single mom family. Not knowing my dad, till I was 24 going Wow. That could have changed a lot of things for me. Right. Is that what I desire, though? I don't know. I could, like, I I I really like who who god made me to be right here right now talking to you. Right. And and the journey is only gonna continue from here. You you got years years left.
I got years years left, and and we have now the amazing opportunity to continue to compound in what the cards we've been dealt. Right? Right. Very true. Yep. Alright. Well, Paul, you've been incredible. The conversation has only just itched my curiosity just slightly. I've got so many more questions. And so I'm gonna be I'm gonna be like your your implementer, and I'm gonna I'm gonna reach out to you. You're not gonna get be able to get rid of me. So our our our relationship has only begun.
I appreciate you being here and being willing to now share with me, but but the audience as well. How can the listeners find you? Number 1, if they wanna just get to know you and and follow your content, maybe pick up your podcast from from even years ago, or if they are looking for an incredible place to invest, How can they connect with you that way as well? Yeah. So we would love I'd love to have people follow me on Twitter at Paulmoreinvest.
And if they want more information about commercial real estate, wanna connect with me, if they wanna read special reports on mobile home park, investing RV Park, self storage, some of the books I've written, you can do that at Wellings Capital. That's w e l l I n g s. Wellingscapital.com/resources, and you can get access to a lot of that free stuff and some of the links to the books. That's incredible. Well, you've got plenty to pick from as far as if someone's interested in learning.
That's for sure. So I hope that they take you up on that. Know, real estate has been a big game changer for for me and my family and wealth generation. I can only imagine hooking a a wagon to someone like you and your experiences and your ability to find amazing deals. So thank you for being here. Blessings to your family, especially the time that you guys are gonna get starting tonight. All the things that you're touching here in 2023 and then years beyond. Thanks for being here, Paul. Alright.
You bet, Chad. It was great. Thank you. Thank you for listening to gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull 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 in 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 gatheringthekings.com.
Want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings. Talk soon.