On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. What I do is as little as possible. And, hopefully, Hopefully, by the end of this time together, we're gonna convince you out there who are listening to us to do less more often. That's the challenge today. I think that too many of us are waiting for somebody to give us permission to be who we're supposed to be. What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe, gathering the king's podcast, coming back to you here today with another King on the stage.
My brother J R Rivera. How we doing? Yeah. Can can I get prints? Can I just change things? Chaz I just be a prince, please? The prince of podcasting. The printer. There you go. P. P. Maybe prince of podcasting. My man, jr, you you you just told me just super nonchalant before I hit the record button that you've been podcasting since 2008. I don't was I in diapers into that? No. I'm just kidding. You've been doing this a long time, man. And so I think King is the proper term, my man.
Tell us what you do in the podcast space. Man, what I do is as little as possible. And, hopefully, hopefully, by the end of this time together, We're gonna convince you out there who are listening to us to do less more often. That's the challenge today. Alright. Let's let's get into that. Can we get into that? I'm blessed. I'm blessed to be here, man.
And the only reason that you and I are sitting together is because I was on the other side of the speaker or the headphone or whatever you wanna call it many, many years ago trying to figure out business, entrepreneurship, leadership, all of that. I didn't I didn't know anything about Chaz, and I was running my own real estate business and doing a terrible job at it. And fortunately, I found audio books and podcasting, and I started learning and learning and learning.
And it's been an amazing journey where I've had amazing mentors who have lifted me up, taken me to new heights, and I've been able to pay that forward by using the tool that we're using right now, podcasting to be able to bring The right words from the right person at the right time into someone's ears to be able to change everything, everything in their lives just from one new idea. So what I'm doing as little as possible, I'm just changing lives. Just just changing lives. No big deal.
The the seed of a new idea or the change of someone's perception or their perspective is is really a seed of 2 minds coming together. The the book that both you and I read, it says that when 2 come together than than there I will be. And so there's there's a there's a there's a another perspective that always comes from being with someone else like you're talking about.
Or listening to us, but just being in a room where there's other people who want to win or be better or want to learn or wanna give can can be the seed that you're talking about. And so where does this understanding come from? And and don't don't think you're off the hook because you haven't You haven't really told us yet. What podcast factor does? I'm a circle back to it. Don't don't you don't you think you're off the hook here, Mister I changed lives? But Where did that come from?
Where did that seed come from for you where you're like, no. No. No. I just wanna, like, deposit this one little piece because that's all it takes. It's I just feel lucky, man, because what we're kinda dancing around is our faith. I am a Catholic. I guess they call us cradle Catholics, but faith is always a part of Our lives, but not necessarily the center of our lives. And so through the ups, through the downs, The one consistent in my life is Jesus Azaire. God, the father's there.
Open Arms welcoming me home. No matter how bad I've been, how ashamed I feel, how unimportant I think I am. And so I feel like what happened, and and I can bring it back to to the business part since you won't let me let that go. But during COVID, There was this time where we were not supposed to go outside. They told us, stay inside and lock your doors and don't look out at other people. And I thought, man, how could fresh air and vitamin d three be bad for me?
So I used to go walking every day. Right? And I have a I have a lake out outside of I'm I'm in downtown Orlando. So I have Lake Kiola. I get to walk around Chaz. What a blessing. Right? And so one day I was out there trying to figure out What? What can I do? Right? Because the world was in a bad place, and people there was darkness everywhere and people were scared. We couldn't be with our families. And and and a lot of people went downhill during that time. And and I was fortunate, man.
I had started a new challenge. I was doing 75 hard, so I quit drinking. It's taking care of my body. I had all this clarity, and it hit me one day. Walking around the lake, and and I'm gonna I have it written down because I know I will butcher this if I don't have it written in front of me. Yeah. As he walked by the sea of Galilee, He saw 2 brothers, Peter and Andrew, casting into the sea. They were fishermen. Come after me, and I'll make you a fisher of men. There it is.
He gave me the answer right there. Jonathan, JR, the work that you're doing right now, you're fishing men to god's light. And whether that's the conversation that you and I are having right at this moment, And one of you out there here is something that changes your life or whether it's the work that I do with the experts at the podcast factory changing lives every day.
I am fishing God's men, to him, bringing them to the light, showing them the love, having the open arms, and, dude, That's my job. That's what I get to do every day. How could I not get out of bed stoked Chaz god gave me this gift? The I guess it's it's humility to find pleasure in that, and I don't know if that necessarily would be the first thought for most.
And so I guess, the humility that I see in that is, you know, it it would be pretty easy to, you know, I don't know, put ourselves in a place where it appears that we've we've done it all. And there's a lot of things that you described that you did in that process, even of that revelation, you chose to go outside and walk even though you maybe weren't supposed to. You chose to you know, bring a pen and paper and write it down.
Huge I mean, there's a lot of a lot of partnership going on there, and so I think that there's, you know, this perspective switch or the depositing of things that we get to put in people's brains, whether it be about business or podcasting or faith, require both hand. Right? It's a both hand story. It's not just Oh, I heard something faith or not faith related, and then great. My life changed. It was, oh, I heard that one thing that J. R. Said, and then it stuck with me. I went back to my desk.
I wrote it down. I thought about it the next couple of days. I talked with my wife about it. I really just I just couldn't get past it. I I I I started implementing my business or in my morning routine or whatever the the nugget is, there's like, we have to walk it out. Right? There's a there's a there's a there's a double edged sword here. And so I guess I I love what you're saying, and I wanna set you up for my next question with the like, you came to that place, but what why were you there?
Why, like, why were you walking? Why were you even open to a new perspective change in that moment? I wanna piggyback off of what you said. We're searching for wisdom, and wisdom doesn't come from reading the word. I mean, we have a four thousand year old manual on how to live life, all available to us. Right? But reading the word is not the end of it all. It's reading the word.
And like you said, thinking about it, planting that seed in your head, and then the other part that that is most important is living the word. So doing the acts, doing the work when he calls to you, and he shows you away. You you might actually have to pick up and do something. Right? And that that's that's the thing that I think separates people who are living quiet lives of desperation from those of us who are living lives of limitless possibility is picking up and doing the work.
And so I feel like I I'm I'm blessed because I'm so dumb. I don't ask too many questions once I get an answer. I just try it. I just try it. And I always always like that, man. When I I was an electrician at a high school, and I had a journeyman, and he told me I had to do something. I'd try it. I'd try it and learn it. Whether I knew what I was doing or not, at least I was getting the muscle memory. And I think that's where most of us fall short is we'll read 10 books.
We'll watch a 100 YouTube episodes We'll we'll listen to the the the podcast, but we don't roll up our sleeves and do the work. And and here You've touched on it a couple times, and I wanna go even further. It it's not just hearing it. And doing it. But guys like us, guys like you and I, we are control freaks. We we control our schedule. We control what we put into our body. We control everything, and then we start thinking we're in control And what that does is make us miserable.
So here's an idea. Here's a life changing idea. If you choose to accept it, ponder it, use it, Let go. Let him drive. Surrender. This is the part that I had been missing for so many years, such a high achiever. And every time I hit a goal, bro, it was empty. No matter how big the goal, how amazing the accomplishment When I hit it, I became depressed. I became depressed when I got what I wanted. So I had to start questioning. What what do I really want? Yeah. What am I wanting the right stuff?
And that's when I started realizing that maybe my plan maybe Jr's plan wasn't so good. Maybe I should let go and give god's plan a try, and my life has been infinitely better since I did that. There as far as, like, maybe why you were in that position. It was you control related, and you felt like you were, you know, there. You had arrived, achieved, gotten the things that you were looking for, but but maybe actually hadn't.
There's people listening right now that I'm I'm sure feel the same or have felt the same. And so for you in that moment, describe it for me because they're gonna have to have that moment kind of like you know, drawn out for them Chaz then shortly after that came, new revelation. And so oftentimes, it's in that it's in that dark place that you're describing, that then we if we press into it, then it's like, oh, then then then we're able to see the light because it got so dark.
So for you, it was like, okay. Based in control and some of these other things as far as achievement based, but but why had that driven you so far this way to where you just had to have something different? Because all all that was followed by suffering and emptiness. And I think that's what motivates all of us. And that's what I'm telling you, dude. I told you I was an electrician, and I worked at some condos.
We're here in Florida. So Ponton, let anybody in central Florida knows Ponton, like, kinda hoity toity, nice place. I worked in condos over there right after high school making about 6 bucks an hour, building those condos for the rich people who would eventually inhabit them. And I sat back there thinking, One day I'm gonna have one of these, really, $6 an hour boy. One day you're gonna have one of these. I kept that dream. I kept that dream. For 20 years.
So I got my condo here in downtown, the exact unit that I had visualized and meditated on and prayed for. There it was. And I got sad. I got sad, man. And I started drinking and drinking a lot, dude. Downtown, we can do bar crawls. All you have to do is up and down, and you can stop at 10 bars and get drunk. And I was getting drunk all the time, and I was trying to fill an empty spot and I didn't know what that empty spot, why it was there, what it was, or any of that.
All I knew is I wasn't satisfied. And no matter what I did, I couldn't be happy. And I started looking at it and saying maybe I need to ask different questions. And the first one and this is how I I mean, The first way that I ever changed my life as a young man in my twenties, even while I was still was was an electrician, was going from a £135 skinny weakling to a £175 muscle guy. Oh, I can do that by nutrition, by exercise, all that stuff. So I went back to what I knew at that time.
I I had a friend that put me on the challenge of 75 hard. And I said, well, this sounds like getting in charge of my body again. That's that's probably what I need right now. So it was a detox from the alcohol. It was a detox from the the bad eating. It was a detox from the distractions. And during that time, space opened up, and that space was filled by god's light. I realized what I was really missing. And from there, it really started building. That was my probably my most recent renewal.
Because we have renewals through our whole life. Right? That's right. That's right. We re sign up for things. Okay. So Let's I'm gonna I wanna take this. You you've hit us, you know, square but, you know, just, boom, David and Goliath, right, between the eyes. I always say that because my my four year old son is just completely obsessed right now. He's always swinging a sling. I'm constantly goliath, and he's constantly trying to hit me between the eyes. Nice. But you really did.
You hit us right between the eyes here. Some some, you know, fairly heavy stuff right at the beginning. I wanna I wanna lighten up a little bit. I want you to actually tell us what podcast factory does and don't worry. We're gonna bring all this full circle. Yeah. So that's that's the thing is I I've had some absolutely brilliant friends and mentors in my life who have helped me, who have given me new perspective, given me a new way to look at things, lifted me up.
And so when I got a chance to pay it forward, I was doing podcasts with these guys. Like I said, I I think we mentioned it earlier. I been podcasting since 2008, so it was pretty early on. And not as many people knew how to do it. It wasn't as easy as it is now. And so I was collecting my friends who had helped me and say, hey. Let's record some conversations. Let's put them on the air, and maybe we'll help some people. Maybe we'll help some people get some answers.
And most importantly, for me, It was me elevating the people that I knew to be real, that I knew could help and saying, hey. More people gotta hear this. More people gotta hear this. And so It started with Chaz. Just me. And at that time, bro, I was on 7 days a week on a different show. I was co hosting different shows every day. I don't know how I kept that schedule, but it was I guess it was a labor of love, but eventually people started asking me, hey. I heard you on a show with so and so.
Can you help me? And that was one of those things where it's like, oh, oh, this is this could be a big business. Yeah. So maybe people pay for this. And people started paying us for it. And so in 2015, we opened up the podcast factory as an agency to the public where we are helping experts with a message and a mission connect with their exact right listeners.
And ever since then, it's just it's just been fun, you know, picking the people that we get to work with and helping enlighten all our listeners. Well, I appreciate that. And so let's talk about, you know, you the journey here. So you kinda gave us a little bit of the backdrop. You podcasting with some friends, really just having the desire to help elevate their story. For for you, why did that come naturally? Like, okay. So we are just talking more buddies. You're telling me your story.
And I'm like, oh, More people need to hear this. I need to create a podcast to amplify your story. That's in essence what I heard you just say. So why were you driven towards Chaz? Do you think? To amplify their story. Well, there's there's a couple things. I had the skills to do it when nobody else had skill. So it was a new angle, and it was also a way for me to get closer with these friends. They had helped me so I could help them. It it was also the mission piece is hey. Really?
This has helped me truly. And if more people hear it, we can help them. So it's always, from a place of giving, I guess, a more generous, and I think but it it was really for that. And then and then realizing that it was a a a potential business was just the next gift to me. Oh, I could get Oh, okay. We can make money doing this. And then to to where we are today is I start looking for people that I wanna work with, and it's not that we're out there trying to do podcasts with everybody.
I'm looking for guys like us, guys of faith, guys with families, guys with missions, guys with the ability to change somebody's life because then I get to do that. Right? It it's just fun for me to get to get into their business and help them get their messaging better. Help them get their targeting better. Help all of that stuff, that marketing that brings people in, work better for them because they deserve it. Number 1, and number 2 because our listeners. They deserve it.
You guys out there who are listening to us, you deserve the best, and that's why We do this. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. It it it's interesting. Some people have asked me the same question. You know, how did the podcast start or what, you know, do you serve? That type of a thing. And it's like, well, actually, what I did was I I did this other thing first.
You know, I started the mastermind, and I just had a bunch of people who wanted to be part of what we're doing, but we didn't have it set up for smaller business owners at the time. And so it was like, well, I I'll just interview people that are either in the group or other successful people. We'll just help them that way, and that way I can help lots of them. And and like you're saying, labor of love, it takes so many hours, especially at the scale of every single day like you're talking about.
But when I look back on it now, you I love the language that you said. The next gift was the fact that it was a business and people were willing to pay money. It's like you look back and the gift of podcasting in general has just been relationships, shaking hands.
For you, that's exactly what you just described, you know, that that this whole thing started with relationships, but I think the the message at least that I'm balling up between the two of us and our both of our experiences for the listener right now is whether it's through a podcast or not, obviously, We both believe that podcasting would be great for them, but shaking the other person's hand with no like, I have no I have no I have no construct here. Like, I'm gonna interview JLR.
We're gonna get some amazing stuff flowing here Chaz listeners are gonna be get value. Hopefully, the whole process is is valuable to J. R. But but what? What happens after that? I don't know. But now I know J. R. And that right there sounds surface, you know, like, oh, that's I don't know if that's worth it until you do it enough times and you're like, talk to us about Chaz, the relationship piece of podcast. I am thinking back, and I feel like I wouldn't be here.
Without all these relationships. Because like I said, it was people who have mentored me, people who I wanted to be mentored by people who I've done business with, people who I have helped, is really Jim Rowan says you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So me, guy from Deltona, Florida. Yeah. You never heard of it. That's right. Not Daytona. I said Deltona. How the hell am I gonna be able to speak? How am I gonna meet anybody?
And this was a tool to to meet people and to bring value. And it just still happens, like you said, before we got on the air. Hey. This is gonna be around forever. Well, forever is a long time. So I think it's amazing that we're able to have these discussions, share these ideas, and continue impact lies, not just today, with you listening to it right now. But you, the guy who's listening to this 3 years later, and it's still relevant. It's like, holy cow. This is so amazing.
And this is, to me, really about the legacy. When I start thinking about it, it's it's the legacy, and I tell our clients the same thing. When they get stuck, they say, well, what would you want your son or daughter to know about this particular topic? What would the you want them to know about the way you're thinking or the way you look at the world because this can be something that you hand off to them. And I I do it with my son. I do it with my son.
Is sometimes I let him listen to these things or sometimes I let him sit in on an interview so that he can get these messages earlier than I did, but Part of it is, a legacy piece, and the other part is the relationships. Incredible because, like I said, I I'm can Deltona, how am I gonna meet people? I don't know. I can go to the library, get some biographies, and maybe get some cool thinking that way. Or nowadays, we have YouTube. We have podcasts.
We have all different ways to elevate the people we're surrounding ourselves with. Incredible. I think about I mean, legacy came to my mind as well, but you went ahead and said it. So I'm thankful for that. When I think about your clients that you're just describing and pulling their children in, I personally think about my grandkids. Going back, you know, pulling out the archives of MP 4. Yeah. And, like, what was Grandpa talking about? You know? And maybe I'm not even around anymore.
Maybe it's great grandpa. I don't know. But that piece right there that just has never been possible before. Like, I can't pull up the videos necessarily of my grandfather who I don't even know. You know? Yeah. But my grandkids, my great king kid, grandkids, will know me from from this conversation right here. They're gonna hear me talking about them right now. But 50 years from now. And and I just get so jacked up about that, dude. I don't know.
Maybe I'm just super weird, but does that kind of fire you up to a little bit, This is it, man. I told you. It it's like, I have a morning ritual. So I had a old guy challenge me the other day at at my men's small group. And he said, I like to play this game where I think as if somebody was watching me from when I wake up and get out of bed in the morning, how long Wolfe it take them to realize that I'm a Catholic man? And so then you start thinking about your morning, your day.
When did you pray? Did you you know, all all of that. And and I like I like that idea. And the reason it made me feel good is because I hop out of bed I start the coffee machine and I go straight to a rosary, and then I read the, the Bible. And I have that That's the first thing in my morning. So it wouldn't take more than 15 minutes for somebody to know that. But inside of that program, I'm always reading these books, these daily devotionals, and stuff like that.
And sometimes my son comes out and I get to share them with him. He sees me highlighting, tabbing. What do you what what are you doing, daddy? I mean, you read those all the time. I said, yeah, but I'm getting these ready for you. You're getting them ready for me. Yeah. So that when I hand these to you and you start using them, that I have areas highlighted and tab, so you can know what I'm thinking, what I think is important, and so you can get those lessons quicker.
The same thing is what we're doing with this podcast or any other way that we're passing our our legacy. Yeah. Hey, Kings and Queens. Chaz Wolfe. I wanna talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort. We, meaning myself and my team, into this podcast into the content that goes out every single day. And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too.
So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the 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. It's huge, man. I think I think the listeners should just hit the pause button and go back and replay what you just said, the impact of of that. And you're right. This is just a, you know, video digital format. It matters is, I guess, the point. And and I've had several people here on the show, guests, or even friends that I have that don't have children, but their legacy just looks like it's it's always exponential impact.
And that's what I've learned is that we all all of us have exponential impact. Or the possibility of, it just might look a little different. For me, maybe it's, you know, the obsession with my grandkids. And, of course, I'm impacting other as Wolfe, but for someone who doesn't have children, it's their community. It's the church.
It's the, you know, I had a person on the show that doesn't have kids, and they're It's like a oh, it's they're sending people, like, all over the world to to study abroad. And he has he has a target of a million students And for whatever reason, that was part of his story, and it just impacted him when he was able to see other things in the world. And so that's his legacy. He's gonna send 1,000,000 kids to different parts of the world to study different things. It was just like, woah.
That's pretty cool. You know? So what what do you think the value for the listener right now? Like, why should they thinking in such big terms. Like, this other guy had on the show thinking a million kids, you know, going across the world studying, you're talking about handing things off to your son. I've talked about doing, you know, deals and business, you know, building things with my grandkids on a business side. Why should someone right now listening to us?
For the first time thinking about legacy, why should this be important to them? Well, I think that if you're here with us right now, You're not the the the 95% of people out there who who take the status quo as it is. You you want more. You want more. Maybe you're feeling unsatisfied. Maybe you're you're feeling like you have more to give this Wolfe. And that's why it's important. And this is a a lesson I learned very early on. Like we said, I was an electrician.
I I climbed the ranks very quickly as a young man at about 23 or 24, I was running jobs. I was a foreman. I was running crews, and I had the blueprints and the van to prove it. And I was running guys that were older than me. Guys that were older than my dad. And that's when I had to ask myself. Is this it? Is this All I'm supposed to be doing wiring up buildings and running jobs. Is is this it?
Is this all I have to offer the Wolfe, and that's the question that I urge you to ask yourself every time you get stuck, Is this it? And write it down, journal it. Is this it? Am I supposed to be doing other things? Am I happy? What do I want of, what do I want less of? If we do that more and more often, we can get closer to who we are meant to be. And do the work that that brings us purpose and fulfillment. But if you don't ask the question, if you're like most people saying, yeah. This is it.
I got the life. Yeah. That's it. You're done. But switch those words around. Turn them into a question. Ask yourself. Is this it? Am I meant for more? What do I want more of? And I think that's that's what you can take away today is just being able to ask yourself that question and honestly answer it. And if you're not living up to your potential, there's things that you want more of, and the awareness is the first step to getting it.
Yeah. Recognizing the desire, the awareness for whatever that is more, and then, like, said earlier, action to go after it. Going back to your storage, a few minutes ago, how you were walking around the lake, and, you know, the 75 hard had released some space for you to be able to think differently. You had a revelation, and then you started to take action. In essence, there's one of these re up moments that you were just talking about.
Listener right now might be thinking bigger now, more legacy oriented, maybe more purpose driven based on the thoughts that you've just given them. But what did they go do. You had that revelation and you wrote it down, and then you started doing things differently you said a couple years ago. But for them, thinking now, they've just heard you Chaz need to be more purposeful. That's why Chaz is so tied to his grandkids because it's really purposeful.
It's it's what I it's what my oh, makes my heart come alive. Okay. And so they're listening right now as a listener going, what makes my heart come alive? And so maybe they figure that out. They've just taken your suggestion. They've written it down. They've spent some time on it. Now what? Yeah. You gotta have faith. But fate without work is useless. And so I'm positive.
That when you have that moment Chaz that lights you up and and brings you joy, Chaz the follow through piece of even taking one step closer to it is gonna be what? Begins to bring you peace. And I'll give you a perfect example. I went to a retreat this weekend. It's called the the welcome retreat at my dad's church And we spent 2 days going into scripture and and hearing people's stories and and sharing and all Chaz. And The the guys loved me over there because I was young. Dude, I'm not young.
They were just old. Okay. But they love me and they were like, man, man, we we wish we wish we could have you here. You you you'd be great energy and great for this. And, yeah, okay. Well, dude, it's it's an hour a half away from my house, so that's not really gonna happen. But What if I brought this to my church? What if I gave people here at my parish the experience that I just had? Chaz was transcendent. What if I did that? Okay. So there's the purpose. Right?
There's a desire And then how how do you follow it up with action? Well, the first thing I did was when I got here, I talked to one of the guys that used to run the the ministries, and I'm gonna grab coffee with him and just find out what it takes. Okay? So that's one step. The next step is I found out father John Bosco was the one that brought to that church. He's in Melbourne. I can get one of the guys to connect me with him. The next step is who are the pieces?
So just start thinking about what's the one step and the one step. The first step was, hey. Contact this guy who ran ministries and just have coffee with him, and that's the first step. Doesn't have to be anything big. It just has to be a step in the direction to the light. That's right. It's good.
Yeah. You've referenced several things to the show here of, you know, we've whether you realized it or not, we've been weaving in and out of you know, biblical language and also, like, thinking Growerich language, you know, and which is great because all the success principles that thinking Growerich does an amazing job of outlining You can find them. Shucklyn. Shocking. Right? But here's the reality. I love that book, and and I'm a student. Okay? And so I love how you snuck in faith there.
I know you didn't sneak it in, but you did a little bit. You're like, you know, the the desire, the thought, the the the initiation of it was one thing. Okay. Fine. That's also called desire. And then it's is followed by the plan, which is obviously what you follow with action. Okay. Cool. But what snuck into that equation is fate, and it's not just the initial belief, which is kinda tied to the desire. You have this desire. It's more than a want. It's like, oh, maybe that could happen for me.
There's a little bit of butting of belief, but faith is going, no. I see it. And so now I'm going to put the plan together. I'm gonna start taking action. And so even though you slipped it in there kinda like not, you know, not a big deal, it is the actual equation. This is actually how it works. It's desire, which kinda ties in with belief, faith, building the plan, doing the plan. Right? Works. Yeah. That's thinking grow rich. You very, very nice how you brought that together.
I mean, I'm just I'm just repeating back what I heard Jay RSA. You know what I mean? He's decoding for us. He's de co yeah. That's right. That's right. I have the I have I have been known as a decoder. So alright. So Here we are. You've tell you've told them to just take the next step. Sometimes they don't have the whole plan. Right? You don't need the whole plan. Don't need the whole plan. The whole plan is bad for you. It holds you back. It's so good. Give us just another sentence on that.
I mean, I can't pass that holy moly. Well, that's what we talked about earlier. Do do less more. Right? So, what's the least thing I can do? Text a friend. Talk to my wife. You know, listen. Read read the instruction manual for the book. I don't know what it is. What's the next low low hanging fruit? Because if you can just get The next little step next little step, which is not a leap. It's not a jump. You're not gonna be out of breath. You're not gonna get hurt.
It's just like, you could stumble forward and and still do it. Just forward. Is this the point, like, forward? Well, I stumbled. No. And you could stumble backwards too, but if you want it, the faith is what's gonna pull you back to where you need to be.
And that's why I keep talking about the light in the dark is just bringing you closer to what you want or further, and that's for everything in your life, every action you take when you start being the observer of your thoughts and your actions is just bringing me closer further. It's not complicated, guys. You can ignore it if you want, but it it is that simple. Is this bringing me closer? To my grandkid's legacy or further. It's a very simple thing. Yeah. It's a filter.
I used to ask, on this on this very show, hundreds of episodes ago, I used to say, you know, how do you how do you make good decisions? You know, you've given us a couple of good decisions made. You've actually given us a couple of bad ones already just in our natural conversation here, but, you know, the con or the the question of how do you like, what's the process of making a good decision? How do I sit down and think about the 4 steps to making a good decision? Whatever that looks like.
And oftentimes, if I could if I could submit all those answers, it would be decide what you want. And then does this thing that I'm considering help me get it or not? And if I if if it does, I do it and I'd go all in Or if it doesn't, I'd I just I just don't even consider it. I close the book immediately, and I move it to the side and throw it away for that, you know, just completely disregard. You wanna speak to that for a second?
I think that too many of us are waiting for somebody to give us permission to be who we're supposed to be. I know that I agree. If you went to school, if you went to college, especially, that could be burdening you. And I'm gonna bring you back. Be here. Listen closely. Sit down. And get ready for this. Let go. Surrender. Let it go. You don't have control of any of it. Right? All you know is where you wanna be. And if you take the actions to get there, you're gonna get there.
If you don't, you won't. So how badly do you want it? Yeah. The thing that makes me think of, which I'll parlay this into, the next part of the conversation, which I think is great. You've already family a little bit, but for me, a long time for a long time coming up until, you know, not that long ago, maybe 5 or so years ago, really in the last 3 years, though, I said that my family was important. Not that I was dis I was disengaged or not around. I've always been around.
I've always tucked my kids in. We've always read the Bible right before bed and prayed together. But there were things that I wasn't doing that I should have been doing or putting it on the calendar just more intentional. Right? And so what it came down to, though, was what you just said. Is I wanted to do those things. I just didn't want it bad enough, or I didn't want it enough. I love them. I just didn't love them enough to make it high enough on the priority list or to put it on my calendar.
Fill in the blank. Right? So Yeah. I wanna parlay that into the question really is, you know, I I really don't believe in work life balance. I I believe in work life obsession, and we've gotta be all in in all areas, but it's just it's it's tough to get there if you don't currently know that reality.
And so for you, How are you obsessed with your family Chaz well as the business, as well as being on podcast, as well as sharing the mission and being, you know, a fisher of men, like, a lot of things you got going on and you're going all in. How do you do it all at the same time? You don't you don't do it at all at the same you're gonna have to pick some priorities, friend. And I'm gonna tell you what a mentor showed me in the last year that was eye opening.
I didn't I didn't realize I had this this power. And and he's like, here it is right in front of you. And and his name is Mark Sacosto Rubio. Look him up. He is a genius, but he talked about this idea. And and I liked his ideas so much that I ended up doing a series of podcasts with him, the double double show, actually, because I'm like, dude, we gotta get this in people's hands. We've heard this before. Right?
And he had me flip the pyramid because most of us have this pyramid where at the very top is, like, our success when we're thinking, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it's at self actualization and all that stuff. We put we put this at the very top, but we put work and success and When I make that next 1,000,000, I will be happy. When I get that condo or that car, I will be happy.
And we run around work hard and Chaz these things, ultimately, to find that they don't fulfill us Chaz I have witnessed for you in today's show. And what Mark's told me was why don't you flip the pyramid? So flip it upside. Can I do it upside down? Let's see. Upside. Right. Flip the pyramid. No. That little piece at the bottom. Yeah. That's still financing.
What I had to do was figure out my my priorities, what was important, and in what order of importance And this is real, and this is gonna sound weird. But at the very top, for me, the big fat part of that upside down pyramid, the base is God, the father. Faith, the word, everything I say, everything I do, ought to be to glorify his name. So faith is number 1. That's why I get up, and I do my rosary and I do my readings. After Chaz, and this was a a struggle.
Most of us would put family after Chaz, and I used to, but Mark's fixed me up. He's like, well, how important is your family? If you don't take care of your body, wouldn't you be a burden to them? And I was like, Snap. I would. So faith is 1st and then fitness. So my diet my weight lifting, my exercise, all of that to make my body strong, and not only that to glorify god because he gave me this. He gave me this, and I need to keep it strong so that I can keep doing his work.
So faith family or faith fitness and then family. Right? Then my family because now I've got god. I've got my body. I'm strong, and I'm able to give them everything. And then the leftovers go to work. That's hit the leftovers. Whatever scraps I have left, are what go to work. And this was hard as an alpha as a driver as an achiever to face. And if I hadn't surrendered, Before I got that information from Mark's, which is the humility piece, I wouldn't have been open to this idea.
But let me tell you something. When I turn that upside down, I started looking at my life differently. I started looking at what I really wanted. Do I really want another client? Do I really want another 100 k? That's it's just not gonna change my life. But do I wanna wake up without an alarm clock? Do I wanna spend my morning with my son? Do I wanna go for walks around and homeschool him? And spend a whole day with my family and then just do a little bit of work. Hell, yeah. Hell, yeah.
So figuring out Those pieces for you. I'm not saying that my pieces are right. You gotta figure out what your pillar is, what your pyramid looks like. For me, it's faith fitness, family, the rest goes to finances, and so all the decisions are made for me already. Mhmm. Does this bring me closer or further from having an alarm clock this morning. Closer or further than having the morning with my son closer or further than having 9 point 5 percent body fat at forty six years old.
Yeah. Decisions are easy right now. Yeah. Yeah. You've you've prescripted the decisions for yourself ahead of time, so that way it's easy in the moment. One quick thing, this might be a little bit derailing what the show is normally about, but what I have found in, let's just call it, the church in general, is that there's a disconnect between what it means to be excellent in faith and what it means to be excellent. Let's just call it in work.
And so the the upside down pyramid that you just gave, I love everything about it. What I what I hear some listeners hearing of the leftovers being for work is I just give it leftovers. Now I know I know I'm seeing what you're talking about is making those other things up priority doesn't mean that you don't have excellence in the leftovers because every part of you is excellent. Clearly, you're already making decisions around excellence.
What I'm trying to, you know, help the listener understand because I see such a big gap. I've hired so many of these types of people that let's just say they're Jesus followers, but they're the they're the most terrible employees I've ever I've ever had. And it's like, for me, the excellent seas of crap. It's it's not necessarily that I should be, perfect at everything I do. That's not what I mean.
But I should I should be a representation whether I'm in my fitness time or whether I'm in my marriage or whether I'm being dad or whether I'm at my job or, in this case, running a business, it's a representation. And so talk to us about that because I didn't hear you say, show up as nothing or as as, you know, what leftovers might entail. Like, I just it's the worst part. I just heard you say it's just a lesser part.
Talk to us about what that means for you, but also excellent because I I I wanna make the gap here. So, I love the way that you set that up. So thank you for that. And and it's true. Some people could have heard that as my crappy time goes to work. But when we're thinking of that upside down pyramid, at that very bottom, it's very small. It's very tight. It's got a point. It's almost like a laser. Rather than a shotgun, it's a laser.
So when I show up to work, brother, I show up my freaking best. When I get to talk to a client, I get did you hear did you hear that? I get to talk to a client. When I get to talk to a client, I'm bringing a game. How can I bring a game? Because I took care of my faith. I took care of my body. I took care of my family and I am so amped up and so charged when I go to work Chaz I am more efficient than I've ever been more effective than I've ever been.
And my clients are telling me this when I show up on calls now, they're like, dude, dude, you brought it. Yeah. I brought it inside 30 minutes. And the rest of the day was mine. Like, today, you and I are talking. I've got 2 client calls, 90 minutes, 45 minutes each, and I'm gonna bring I'm gonna bring it for them. Yeah. But I already worked out. I already spent time with my family. I already did all that, so I poured into myself and came out strong.
And so now I am a an espresso version of Johnny. I love that, man. Thanks for thanks for riding that to that little trail with me. It's important. Some people may not even have a clue what we're talking about, but it still remains the that if we're gonna be if we're if we're gonna if we're gonna tote the flag, right, We're gonna wear the Jesus sticker, if you will. I just just like, man, I I can't tell you how many times I've seen. It wrongly represented.
And it's just like, man, that bummer, dude. You're bummer. It's all the right words. But the way you live your life doesn't doesn't line up, which which then actually turns the message upside down for people who like, they're trying to reach, and they never can reach because they're looking at them like I hear you, but I see you also. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. I mean, I I pray to be a a reflection of of god's light, and that's look. I I am not gonna not gonna sugarcoat it.
I still think people are dumb when they screw up. I still cursed to myself when somebody cuts me off in traffic, and I'm still working on knowing that These people are god's children. These are my brothers and that I need to show up like they are Jesus. So I'm still working on that, but I can tell you what, And the times where I'm really feeling that and the times where I'm really rooted in it, it reflects in the world around me because everybody is attracted to the light.
Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Alright. I've got one last question here for you, JR. I wanna know if you had the opportunity to reach back into time. Tap the younger JR on the shoulder, and you whisper in his ear. What do you tell him? S t f u. Oh, you're such a Bad Jesus freak. Little, honey. Yeah. A little bit of honey was cocky. He talked too much. He he was not, doing enough listening. He was not humble enough.
And so while it might be a bitter pill for him to swallow If he could just s t f u, look it up. And, listen, I think that he would have done better sooner but I wouldn't change anything right now. Just hear you and I are together. Yeah. Yep. I received that message. I think that you've you've positioned yourself as a recovering achiever. And, you know, I don't I don't know if we ever fully get away from that. I think that's our design. Right?
Like, that's how god made us is to to go after things. You just looks different for JR today as opposed to little Johnny. And that's the beauty. That's the beauty of the journey. So I I can appreciate that perspective as well. Jared, how can the listener find you? Number 1, if they're not for an error, they're just like, gotta connect with this guy, everything he was saying, and just I need to hear more. Or if they need to contract services through the podcast factory. How can they find you?
And what's the easiest way? I'm gonna give you 2 resources. And number 1, we talked about surrounding yourself with better people, better thinking. People who lift you up, inspire you, help you get to the next level. If you don't have enough of those people in your life, I got them in spades over at the podcast factory dot com forward slash client showcase. Pick a mentor. Take a journey. Change your life.
And if you are a man with a message and a mission that needs to reach more people, Maybe I can help the podcast factory dotcom forward slash call. Love it. Jr, you're incredible. Thanks for sharing your journey. And I love that it's not over. It's not done. You're not there. Still more to be written. Maybe we'll hear chapter 2 at another time. So Blessings to you, to your family, your business, all your clients, everything that you're touching here, this year, next.
Thanks for being here, brother. Peace be with you, brother. Thank you for listening to gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away. More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself, doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself.
What I have realized, not only in my own journey, from multiple businesses and multiple different industries, and now interviewing over 2 or 300 other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1000 Keynes specifically who are grateful, but not done.
We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail as family and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignite 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 king's dot com.
Want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings. Talk soon.