On today's episode of gathering the Kings. You could be worth tens of 1,000,000 of dollars, but if you're living in scarcity, you don't feel abundance. The goal might be a 6 pack. It might be lower clutch solid, but the wind is showing up at the gym and putting in the works. Good. Like, that's that's what needs to be celebrated. My business transformed because I transformed. I changed how I looked at at failure and setbacks and rejection. 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. This king's coming from a different part of the country, y'all. Chad Hubbard, my brother. How are we doing? I'm doing great, Chad. Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate you getting up at the crack of dawn. It may not even be light where you are yet.
Chaz tells where you're coming from as well as what kind of business that you got, my It's not light yet, and it's not gonna be light for a while. So I'm up here in Anchorage, Alaska. We've already started that, trudge into winter and short days, long nights, cold and dark, and, yeah, born and raised up here.
So Alaska is where I call home and started business doing wealth management, financial planning, and really what it comes down to Chaz, it's it's turned more of a of a coaching business because I realized is, you know, giving somebody the right investment strategy and giving them the the right investment tools doesn't create wealth anymore than giving somebody a gym membership, gives them a 6 pack. So it's really about behavior change.
And what we try to do is just people create, a life of abundance. And there's all, I I think faith fitness finances a lot of different ways to do Chaz. Finances is just the tool that we use. So we partner with Dave Ramsey and some other larger organizations to help people clarify their financial path and and set real meaningful goals and then attach their current behavior to what they wanna become, where they wanna be in the future.
I love what you're saying here as far as behavior analysis and then also change, because that's, you know, really anything that we want in life. In gathering the kings, you've kinda mentioned a few of the, what we call dimensions of kingship. You know, you've got your fitness, or your health you've got your family and marriage. You've got your misfinance, you know, spirituality. You've got lifestyle. There's just a lot of things that kinda hinge on our behavior or our habits.
And so I love that you're kinda going down to the core and not just saying, hey. You can give me your money. I'll put it in an account. And, and and grow some money for you. I'm curious, though. I know your background a little bit, and and we'll get it into it more here in a second as far as, like, this is kinda how you grew up. You this Chaz been in your family for a minute, but this is something different. What you just said isn't financial planning.
Chaz this is like, I'm gonna make you a whole human. Well, So I did I grew up in a a household where finances was was taught and and and modeled, like, good financial behavior. And I just thought it was normal. And then When I grew up, I realized just how how frustrating and anxiety ridden finances can be and how that has a has a tendency to bleed into other areas of somebody's life. Like, if they're if they're worried about their their job, they're worried about paying bills.
They're worried about their 401 k being able to retire. They're worried about running out of money if they've already retired. That that riddles the rest of their life with fear. Yeah. And the other thing, though, too, is what I realized, like, when when people open up their financial goals and dreams do, like, we ask the questions that nobody else asks. Like, how much debt do you have? How much money do you make? How much you what's your biggest financial mistake?
And when people open up those parts of their lives too, there's not much that isn't off the table. Yeah. And you really become you become a trusted part of that person's life team. It goes far beyond finances. And the other thing too is, you know, I've seen way too many people Chaz had great investment strategies a great financial plan, and they just abandoned it. They burn it to the ground. So we realized it's not just about giving people the right plan, the right strategies.
It's about execution. And making sure they continue to execute those things day after day, month after month, year after year, because this is a marathon, building wealth and financial independence, It's not about getting rich quick. It's about building wealth slowly, but maintaining it. And we both know plenty of people that that maybe got lucky in business that made a lot of money, but they they didn't have the right habits to maintain it.
So easy come, easy go, and we're so we're really trying to change how that person interacts money. So we do all the basic stuff, the financial planning, the investment manager, like, all this stuff that everybody else does, but we're really trying to change that person from the inside out, change their behavior, even change their relationship with money because abundance, the the experience of having abundant life is not something on a balance sheet. It's it's something that happens internally.
And I meet a lot of people who are very wealthy still live in scarcity. And they're war they're more worried about losing their money than they are about using it. And it doesn't matter how much money you have. If if you are living in a scarcity mindset, the more money you have, the more anxiety that you're gonna face. So it's it really becomes a transformational process. Yeah. The the money becomes the tool at that point.
Or if it never becomes the tool, it it always is the Chaz, right, the chain to scarcity or really just the stressors that come with with scarcity. It's all the it's all the the the physical and emotional and mental just pulling down, really, is what it what it breaks down to. You call it depression, call it anxiety, call it frustration, whatever you wanna whatever you wanna say from a from a mental health perspective, it's tough if you're not operating in abundance. What why that word for you?
Like, okay. You saw your dad or or your family doing you know, finances and what you felt like was normal, but you found out that it's probably not normal. I'm gonna dive into that here in a second. But that's connected to abundance for you. So you're helping people with their finances. Yes. But you're also helping the result. Well, you're absolutely right, Chaz. Like, money is a tool.
And if money becomes the focus, the end in itself, I've seen that become very destructive So money should be a tool to something great is to build a better life. And it's just the it's the tool that we that we help people utilize. There's other tools that should be in your toolbox to build a life abundance. But when I started my practice, it was fall of 2007. I missed the the peak of the market right before We went into the financial meltdown 2008, 2009.
I got licensed about 2 weeks after the peak of the market. So the beginning of my career was pure chaos. Yeah. And I've I felt like my job was to help people overcome fear to, as you talk about, be their source of of courage, be their source of of persistence, keep them going, and make sure people didn't run out of money in retirement. Right. But then as I got further into this, I realized making sure they don't run out of money is not enough.
It's making sure they don't run out of purpose Chaz people have meaningful pursuit Yeah. That they have something that they're building with their money. And that's why I call it abundance because you Chaz have you could be worth tens of 1,000,000 of dollars, but if you're living in scarcity, you don't feel abundance. If you sacrificed your health to to build wealth. George Eastman's a great example that he he founded Kodak was one of the richest, most powerful guys in the Wolfe.
And committed suicide. I think in the sixties or seventies because of debilitating pain. His health had been sacrificed. Yeah. He had a horrible spinal condition and he had all the money in the world, but he couldn't fix his health or relationships. People that sacrifice their their family or their friends to build wealth they get there and they've they've got this wealth, but if you got nobody to share it with, it's still scarcity.
So I think abundance has a lot of different facets And we we try to help people maintain Chaz. We're actually oftentimes create that balance. So their money is a tool to you to live a better life, not something that that drags them even deeper into that anxiety or depression you already talked about. Team, Chaz you're building someone, one of your clients, is building a team, a life team, and you get to be part of that team.
We use some similar language in our peer to peer mastermind because you know, you're surrounding yourself with the right people. In this case, it's other business owners that are successful. That can be helpful with mindset. They're helpful with tactics. Chaz can be helpful with accountability around business or marriage goals or money goals, whatever that is. But in essence, you could do the same thing, but specifically on the money side, I loved it.
What you just said about 2008,910 is people are freaking out, in essence. And this is what happens with money because when you don't live in abundance, well, let me define abundance as open handed. Right? It it it it can come easy, and and I'm not and I'm not stressed. It can go, and I'm not stressed. It's not not a matter of come and go.
It's not what I mean, but, it it I understand that it's a tool, and, I'm not I'm not too stressed one way or the other, but when things happen dramatically, like 2008 and 9, I'm sure that you got to see the worst of people, and what they wanted to do was kinda cut their own legs off and sell or get their money out or, you know, all the practicals of those bad decisions. Well, we haven't been in something quite like Chaz.
But, I mean, the past past 2 years, we've had the most prolonged stock market decline since 2000 2009. Right. In in 2020, with COVID, we had the most violent market crash since the Great Depression. We've been also 100 years since we've seen large companies valuations drop that quickly. And to your point, like, what happens when when there's a lot of stress in somebody's life. It doesn't even have to be a global phenomenon.
It could be something, you know, a health event or they're getting ready to lose their job. Yep. The tendency is to lose sight of the long term goal and focus on the money itself. Focus on the tool itself. Not what you're building. But they they start hyper focusing on what it is they're building with. And it creates myopia creates somebody being very short sighted. And what we try to do is is get people back to the long term goals. Like, okay. We're in a storm right now.
But it doesn't change what you're trying to build long term. Right. And connecting that back to what is deeply meaningful to that individual. And that's that goes back this idea of abundance. Chaz is deeply meaningful to you, Chaz gonna be a little bit different than me.
My my pursuit, what gets me up every day, what drives me is a little different than you, but we have to get people back to what it is that they're trying to build more of or create more freedom in beyond just the dollars, the investments, the financial strategy, because that's not the main goal.
That's a means to an end and refocus them what is the life that they're trying to build, who they wanna become, where do they wanna be, what do they wanna be doing, and and get them past the current circumstances just like you talk about the mastermind with your businesses. Like, you we have to do that a lot with business. We we're pivoting in the moment, but we're we're maybe rerouting our course. Right. But it's based on a a a longer term destination.
Yep. And you also mentioned accountability, and that's huge and reminding people here's what you said was important to you. Is that still the case? Here's the pathway that we lined out to get you there. We have to stay consistent. We have to we have to stay the course. Yeah. And that piece right there that you just said is so much easier when you got a guy on the other side that says, Hey. Wait a second. First off, you can't hit the button. K?
I I I control the button, because you gave me the control to the button back earlier when we set your targets. And and we actually came into an agreement, so that way when this moment came, I could be an in between you and the button, of making those, like, short term decisions. And so here I am. I'm blocking you, and I'm reminding you potentially of how bad of a decision this could be or realigning Chaz as you kinda mentioned back to what was important because you're right in those moments.
It's tough. It's tough to see beyond right here what's in front of your face, which is obviously 2008, 2009 was chaos and lack of funds and market crashing and And who knows what'll happen here in the next couple of years? There's there's there's talks on both sides, but I think the preparation of that is important. So give us just a little hindsight.
Like, when I think of business owners, we've kinda aligned your business helping people with finance and and my business helping business owners kinda do the same thing. Set a target and then stay focused towards it.
I can think of a lot of things up front that are good exercises to be able to identify what it is that we want, that purpose, and be able to kinda make some markers along the way to help us kind of be reminded of that we're heading in the right direction, but that there's still gonna be some bumps along the way. I'm gonna get to your bumps here in a second, but what do you do for your client, maybe their business owners, maybe they're not.
It doesn't really matter, but they they're trying to grow their wealth, but they're trying to do it in an abundant way. And they're sticky along the way, but what do you tell them to what do you tell them ahead of time to kind of prepare them for that is what I'm trying to say? Well, we we have a lot of a lot of steps before they even become clients to scare them off because we want them to know what they're up against.
And I used to do this back in another life when I was when I was training athletes. And I would let him know. Like, you know, everybody says, you're gonna be stronger. You're gonna be fitter. You're gonna be able to jump higher. You're gonna be faster and all that stuff. Right. But man, it's gonna be painful in between gonna hurt. It's it's gonna hurt, you know, because I don't want people going to this thinking, like, they're they're only seeing the end result.
And not be pay the price along the way. So I think getting people to a healthy view of optimism is really important because optimism It's not this polyanistic you're head in the ground. Everything is roses and gumdrops. Right. But it also isn't things always get better. And I think there's this tendency for people to believe that optimism, but things always get better. They don't. True optimism, healthy optimism is I believe there's a better scenario.
I think things things will be better in the future. But, man, there's gonna be a lot of trials and tribulations in between. So people want this nice staircase of life. Like, every step brings them a little bit higher, or or, actually, a lot of people don't even wanna staircase. They wanna escalate it. They just wanna stand there, and this thing brings them up. And we're here in Alaska. There's mountains all around us. I tell people Healthy optimism is like climbing a mountain. It's jagged.
Sometimes you have to cross valleys before you keep climbing. Not every step brings higher Chaz every step brings you closer where you want to be, but there Wolfe be storms. There'll be crevasses. There'll be valleys along the way. Sometimes you will have to go down and do a Wolfe before you can come back up. Yeah. And that's true in investing. It's true in business. So this idea that you are going to go through trials and difficulties and frustrations is a normal part of the process.
But we also, again, try to attach that to what that long term goal looks like. And we ask people questions. Like, if you never if you never needed a paycheck ever again, if you never had to go back to your job, what would you want your life to look like? What would you be doing now Or what was your viewing then that that you're not able to do now either because of time or money constraints? What things would you add to your life? And what things would you take away?
What things would you want to eliminate if you didn't need to go to work anymore? You didn't need to run your business. Yeah. But also what are the non negotiables that are in your life right now? You absolutely would not give up. And it's almost like building a house Chaz. We're trying to get them to design what they want this thing to look like knowing that as we build Yeah. That'll change. You know, if you've ever built a house, we did a few years ago.
My wife had this great vision of what it's gonna look like. She's like, We've already made these decisions. It's wonderful. It's gonna be easy. We changed everything, and everything changed. Yeah. But we still had a blueprint. We still had something guiding our decisions. We still had this end goal in mind saying, this is what we want this house to look like. Yep. But we also had a blueprint that attached our future goal to what we were doing in the moment, and those things evolved.
And plans changed. We revised that blueprint because the long term goal shifted, and that's okay. But we always had this vision guiding us, and we had something connecting our future goal with our present actions. Yeah. I mean, you've given it to us beautifully. So I hope the listeners pay attention. This is one of those cliche things. I had a guy on the podcast about a year ago. He said, look, I'm just trying to execute on the cliche jazz.
Just like, dude, if you could just execute on what Chad just gave to you of clearly identify what you want, be okay with the fact that it's going to take some work and probably a setback or 2. But that doesn't have to change that you can't get it. It just means Chaz, you pivot along the way, especially in business.
So I'm gonna this is a perfect you know, parlay right into what was one of those challenges for you, what was one of those moments where you had to pivot, or is a bad decision, something a struggle that you had to overcome, give us Give us that trying moment for you. Well, I'll I'll tell you one of the one of the biggest things I had to overcome beyond the financial difficulties of of starting a business, starting from scratch, was imposter syndrome, feeling like I I don't belong here.
What do I have to give? You know, those doubts that a lot of business owners have. My story is a little bit different because I actually have I my background, my my formal education, was actually on the medical side of things. My degrees in biochemistry, and I plan to go into medicine. I was really interested in endocrinology, the study of hormones, all those interactions, they go on in the body and and surgery, and I had a lot of surgeons mentoring me.
And I actually took classes here up in Anchorage, Alaska, but with professors who taught at the University of Washington Medical school. I was a few years into my practice. It's probably 2010, 2011. I was making a big shift, a big pivot Chaz was ultimately going to build more momentum long term, but we had a rough year. Let me just put it that way. Wasn't making much money and delaying gratification in a huge way. And I bumped into my this professor. And I taken a couple classes with him.
Again, this is a medical school professor. And I bumped into him. He says, what are you doing here? And I just kind of explained, like, why was in this building at that time? He's like, no. No. No. No. Why are you here? You should be in residency right now. You should've been finishing up medical school. You should be a physician. Why are you here? You're wasting your talent. And for somebody to say something like that that I respected, I looked up to, and that knew that side of me.
They knew the biochemistry, the medicine, the surgeon, like, all those things. It was a huge blow. I remember going home just thinking, what if he's right? What if I'm completely off track? And I had to remind myself that that my why never changed. My my why was to empower people to encourage people to live a better life and live a better version of themselves. And if being a surgeon and fixing Hunting Dumpty was was my first way of doing that, I realized finance was my second way.
And I believe even better way because I had the opportunity to change behavior and how people actually live their life, not just put them back together again and send them back to the life that they already had. I hope they learned from whatever mistake got them into that position. Yeah. But actually changed how they look at life Chaz I had even a more powerful opportunity.
But in the moment, that was pretty devastating to my psyche because I started thinking about yeah, is this really what I want? And and and it was almost like having the the easy button there, not that becoming a surgeon would be easy, but it was a clear path. Right? And Yeah. Chaz like, it and going to medical school is kind of a nice thing to fall back on. Like, if that's your fallback strategy, it was super tempting. Like, it doesn't need to hurt this bad.
Chad, that's like the the voice was telling me. It doesn't need Chaz. You could be a doctor. You have letters after your name. People look up to you. Not not this scumbag financial professional in the in the middle of this financial. Because 2010 2011, people are still super fearful. Oh, yeah. It's 2000 Yeah. You know, it was it was a it was still nobody trusted anybody, especially not some some biochemistry guy pretending to be a financial adviser. You know, that's that's how I felt at times.
So Yeah. That was that was a very, very difficult time, and I really had to dig deep to find out, really ask myself, you know, why why are you really doing this? Like, what what is your purpose in this? Because, Chad, if it's just about money, there's easier ways to make money. Than than doing this. So it it really forced me to to be introspective, and I'm glad that I had that that conversation. But it it really has stirred up a lot of doubt inside of it.
Yeah. I think that there's, you know, you kinda mentioned it, a few minutes ago. My my target here is to always transfer courage to the listeners because doubt is real. You even mentioned imposter syndrome. Some people may not know what that is, but you know, you're you're positioning yourself as an expert. And it's not that you're you weren't an expert. You felt, and then was confirmed by that guy. What are you doing here?
And he's like, that's what you were you were already asking yourself that question. What am I doing here? You may not have verbalized it Wolfe, but subconsciously, you were wondering, gosh, is this the right decision? I don't and, and he just gave you some confirmation. Unfortunately, it was on the negative side of confirmation. And so it equaled into doubt, but that same doubt is what all business owners go through. Sometimes daily. Am I good enough? Should I be here?
Like, you know, are my people gonna leave? Is my spouse gonna leave? Like, man, it just is like a lot of weight that you carry But yet, we just kinda pack it on in the backpack and head up at mountain. What would you leave the listener right now who who understands what you did? And you kinda had to dig in, dig deep. They know that they've gotta be, maybe, introspective. Maybe they've done that work. Maybe they haven't. They're they're touching this moment going, yeah. Like, this is heavy.
And maybe I'm in one of those moments, what practically do I do? So here here's where the biochemistry comes in. This is a little bit interesting because as business owners, especially in the financial industry, it's it washes a lot of people out. Right? Running a business is difficult. Running a business is psychologically difficult. It's physically difficult. It's emotionally difficult. You don't get to clock out and go home. Yeah. It's still on your mind. And it can really wear people down.
And and what can happen is we can start creating a a bad relationship with failure. And I I did this very early on because, again, 2008, 2009, 2010, I'm jumping out of the bushes at people and saying, hey, Chaz. I've never met you before, but somebody said I should talk to you. How would you like to turn over your entire life savings to me and almost complete stranger and I'll run your finances for you. I'll take it from here. And people are like, no. That's crazy. And what?
You have a degree in biochemistry? What? What? Hey. Well, this doesn't make any sense. Get get out of here. You know? Like, you're a meathead. Pick things up. Put them down. Like, just don't talk to me about my money. You know? And so there was a lot of rejection, and I took that personally. And I had to create a better relationship with failure. Good. And and what, for me, what it did is focusing on the inputs. I couldn't control if somebody was like, yeah. I'll talk to you. Or, yeah, Mitch.
In what you have to say. I had to create the wins differently. And the win was not whether that person made an appointment, whether they were interested in my services, Whether they became a client, the win was putting myself out there and saying, my name is Chad Hubbard. I run Veritas Wealth Management. This is what we do, and I think it can help you. Are you interested? Chaz was a win. If they said, man, shut up. Never talk to me again. I hope your cat dies. That was a win.
Yeah. And I never had to talk to that person again. So I had I had to measure my inputs and celebrate the inputs. That's good. Rather than just focusing on outcomes, And here's where the biochemistry was was a great background for me because in biochemistry, we ran thousands of experiments. And I a lot of my research was in the lipid, lipid metabolism, like fat metabolism, that kind of thing. Yeah. And we would run these experiments.
And we would go into these experiments with an idea of what we thought was going to happen, and we would plan, and we would research. And there was a lot of of time in preparation But at some point, we just had to execute and run the experiments. Right. They usually didn't go the way we wanted them to. That's why they're called experiments. And I I looked back, and I was like, there's no difference between failure and an experiment, except when an experiment, you're going into the process.
With a willingness to learn from the process. Probably gonna happen. Rather than just being attached to the outcome. So we weren't married to the outcome. We were committed to the process. And as a business owner, we need to go into these situations, being willing to learn from the process, looking at it as an experiment, where we don't know what the outcome is called. We have a hope. And and and it's not to to say that we go into this willy nilly, like, making this up.
Like, oh, we're just gonna invest in this thing over there. We're gonna pay this guy you know, all this money for marketing. We're trying this new product that's never been tested. I'm not saying that. You prepare. You research. You put the time in, but at some point, you go execute. And you go into it loosely holding on to the outcome, but intensely focused on the process. What can I learn from this and focusing on the input, not so much the outcome?
If you take care of the inputs, the outcome will take care of themselves. 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. You said this is this is like textbook. Just wrap it up, bottle it up. We can sell this. In all seriousness, I hope I hope you, the listener right now. I hope you're paying attention and you go back. You you said something, as far as, like, winning. One of my favorite quotes is confidence is the ultimate drug and winning is this dealer. And everything that you just said is about redefining what winning is. And it's not the result.
It's the process. And when you fall in love with the process or when you become obsessed, what I heard you say about the process. The result eventually then becomes what you want, but that holding of the the result openly is so important The, I mean, there's poise there. There's maturity there. They're hearing you say it, but maybe they're like, I don't know how to do that.
Any last little piece here on being able to hold it openly and focus on the inputs when you've got somebody who's maybe been so results driven their whole life. Any sort of chain breaker there that you got for us? So, obviously, the results matter. Right? Like, people wouldn't go to the gym every day if it didn't make them fitter. So the the the the goal might be a 6 pack. It might be lower cholesterol, but the win is showing up at the gym and putting in the work. It's good.
Like, that's That's what needs to be celebrated. So when you when you're running a business, when you're running your life, it's knowing what's important, knowing what the outcome your desiring looks like, but attaching attaching an action that you have complete control over. So I can't control if I'm making it a sales call. I can't even control if somebody picks up the phone, but I can't control how many calls I make to a large degree.
Yep. I can't control what happens even in I might go to the gym later today and and screw up my ankle not be able to finish, but I showed up. And I and I and I executed. So it's it's looking at what do I want to happen, but it's probably somewhat or largely out of my control. There's there's maybe some luck that needs to happen. There's maybe my team members need to do some things, but what can I control that leverages that outcome? It may not be that come, but it's a lever.
It's something that I can press on over here to to drive the needle over there. And and I think if we measure those things, and we celebrate those elements that are in our control. Not only does it help you become more strategic. It also empowers you because a lot of people, a lot of business owners, their focus on their sales and revenue, their focus on the economy, what, you know, what the the the hiring culture has looked like what the employment culture looks like.
It's hard to find good people right now. All those things are things that are out of our control. And it can give our agency away and it can create a prison of our own making. So when we focus on the the levers to our success, that we have influence and and nearly a 100% control over is very, very empowering. It can get us through this deep dark things. It might not even change what we do, but it changes how we look at it.
It it changes our level of persistence and perseverance because we feel that, okay, I can make a difference. Yeah. I I can be the variable to my own success. I don't have to sit here running my business. Hoping that my fairy godmother comes on and and sprinkle some magic in and and things just work themselves out and we take control of our lives. Yeah. That ownership is important in my in my morning visualization.
I have a little little paragraph that I'm reading, know, in essence, it's the same stuff that you're talking about, which is I can control the things I control. I don't worry about the unlikely, that this is this is being mentally strong. But the the the what that gives me, the sense of control that you're talking about, is I'm able to order myself.
I'm able to keep myself in order And I've just found that where there is not order, there really can't be much success in really any area that we've we we break down. And I don't mean like, being super organized, I mean, order. And everything I heard you just say is that there's a focus on the order or the process.
And if I can boil it down to this is good, and it will eventually get me what I need, and maybe I have to tweak or or or change some things along the way, but I focus on the thing that's gonna get me there at which gives me maturity or poise or the confidence to go, okay. It's just a matter of time at this point. Like, I know I'm doing the right stuff. It's just a matter of time. I met with someone a couple days ago, and we were talking about net worth. And I was like, look.
I don't know if my net worth target is gonna be achieved in my lifetime or in my children or in my grandchildren's lifetime, but it will be achieved. Because I know how to do it or I know the process that I'm in, I will teach my children, and I will teach my grandchildren. And I hope that it goes on from there, but it will happen at some point because we're all in one here working together as a family mission, and it will happen. And not that network is everything.
That's just a little piece, but It was just a small example there of going, you know, it will happen. Now I don't know. I can't control the timeline. But I'm gonna I'm gonna say pretty busy on the things that I know I can today. So I appreciate that. I'm gonna use this opportunity to jump over to the opposite end. Something that you did that was just like, yes.
You do it over and over and over again, a practical good decision that you made in the business that helped you scale or helped you get to a place where you are now that you call success. It actually goes back to what I just talked about. There was a book I read called The Game of Numbers. And what it did is it helped me shift my focus to to celebrate inputs. And I I looked at business. I looked at failure differently. That was that was really kind of the moments.
When I I realized, like, what I'm doing is an experiment. I'm doing another experiment. Every call is an experiment. And if I'm willing to learn from the process, and it being able to shift how the metrics in my business and what I what I looked at and measure wins differently, measure success differently. And when I look back, there was a pivot point. That was an inflection point in the business. And you can see it in the numbers. And I didn't know it at the time. Right?
And it's kinda like what you were saying. You you you don't know how long it's going to take. Yeah. But you realize I am on the right path now. Yep. And even if I'm going the right direction slowly, it's better been going any other direction at any other speed. And my business transformed Wow. Because I've transformed I changed how I looked at at failure and setbacks and rejection, all those different things. Yeah. And I the the the author is Nick Murray, and he's become a mentor to me.
And that was just an absolutely huge breakthrough that started very small. And I wanna remind people, like, do do not despise the the small beginnings because it's amazing how a small change executed persistently over time can have a huge impact. And the trajectory of your life and your business, but that's but that's where it started is was reading that book, game of numbers. Love the recommendation there.
We'll put down the show notes as well, but What what I'm hearing you say is that your perspective changed, and this can happen in different ways. You've actually said a couple of different ways, even just in that in that little phrase, you the book number 1, but your willingness to read it, be open minded. Like, there was a lot of things that you were before you even opened the cover.
Because I'm sure we've all read a book and weren't in that place of being open minded or willing to see something from a different angle, and it's just another book. But it changed you. And then I also heard you say that he's become a mentor, and so whether that's a physical relationship that you have, like an actual mentor or a ship, but I also heard you say several minutes ago that you had a couple of doctor mentors, and that was, I know, in person because one of them talked to you.
So I've heard you say a couple different things here, mentorship, reading books, Is there anything else for you that kinda fits in this category of putting ourselves in a position where we can change our perspective or grow ourselves by changing our perspective? So let me let me answer that question, but backing up just a little bit because even though I'm really grateful that I I went through biochemistry and did the whole thing even though there was times when, like, was that a waste?
You know? But one of the things Chaz did it was that that I took turned into a negative was there was so much reading and studying that it kind of ruined me for or I let it ruin me for reading other books. And when I finished that, I remember thinking there was and I never said this out loud, but I remember there's this mindset that I kinda had that I'm done with school. I'm no longer a student. Yeah. And and that carried me through my twenties.
And some at some point in my thirties, I realized I'm running a business. I've got a family. I had 3 kids at the time. We have 6 now. I'm trying to I'm trying to be better husband, better father. I have to be always learning. I have to be a lifelong long student. And I committed myself then to I'm gonna be a lifelong learner. I will always be a student. I will always be growing. I will always be learning.
And and this kind of when podcasts started I didn't start listening to them yet, but they started coming on. Yeah. You had books on on, let's say, books on tape. But, you know, audio books, Chaz that, you know, that dates me, you know, puts on tape. But, Chaz, there's so much out there. We can learn and grow. And and being mentored. Like, if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. Like, there's gonna be people who are better than you at something.
And and it's easy as a business owner, especially as a guy. I think we get we get intimidated. You know? It's it's hard to be around people that have so much more expertise or experience in in a certain area. Sure. But we need that. You know, iron sharpen's iron. We need to be around those people and and to be challenged, to be stretched, because I I come I come in contact with a lot of people that say, like, yeah, I've got 20 years of experience. Then you get to know them.
You're like, No. You've got 1 year of experience 20 times because they're doing the same things. They haven't really grown. And it's it's like It's like driving. A lot of us, probably not a better driver today than we were 5 years ago. Yeah. Because we're doing we're we're doing the same routes. We're we're driving the same way, and we don't challenge ourself. We don't push ourself to a point of possibly failing. There's a reason we don't do it because in driving, me the end of your life.
Yeah. But in in business, in personal growth, we have to be pushed those limits because if if we're not failing, then we're not stretching. And if we're not stretching, we're not growing. And if we're not growing, then we're just eating the same things year after year, day after day. So this is getting long winded Chaz by just being a lifelong learner and and being exposed to people that do challenge you.
They they ask you those difficult questions that put new information inside of you and in front of you. And they also are willing to share their mistakes because I don't have the time to make them all myself. Yeah. The power of I mean, Napoleon Hill talks about the the the original definition of a mastermind is just Chaz, whether it's us to hear on a podcast or what we do in Gathering King's as an actual mastermind, it is the it's the coming together. Definiteness of purpose of K. Sure.
But we have to come together and it agitates the thought process so that there's a new perspective, I loved the 20 year experience or one year experience 20 times, I think that's the question that someone needs to ask themselves, the listener right now, you, me, I think you and me have already asked that question because we're lifelong learners. And it's like, okay. I've become the best version of myself. I've scored myself 10 on everything. Great. Now it's time to change the perspective again.
There like, there has to be that notion that there's never gonna be a 10, and it's not because I'm unrealistic or I'm hard on myself and I'm not being fair and no. It's like because I there there's time. If I'm still awake and breathing, then there's another version of me, which is what I'm hearing you say is, like, as long as you have that realization, then it's like, okay. Great. It's not a matter of driving to, like, oh, I gotta be this other person.
It's like, no. I get to I could actually press in and, like, figure out who he is. Like, I wanna meet just 5 years from now. Right? Yeah. And it's it yeah. This isn't this obsession, like, where I can't enjoy the moment because I'm always chasing this better version of myself. That's And for me, it's an opportunity. It's an I get to.
I get to improve, and I ask myself, am I in various areas of my life, I say, you know, if this area of my life is important, am I better in this area than I was 3 years ago, 5 years ago? How am I improving? And what are the measurable inputs that I'm committing to to change? Right. You know, I'm not just sitting on waiting to become better.
But for me, it is an opportunity because I we don't have time to get into this today, probably, but I had a a horrible experience since 19 and should have lost my life to carbon monoxide poisoning. Wow. And the the quick version is I I I went to sleep and with carbon oxide, you don't wake up. You fall asleep, and that's it. Bye bye. I woke up. I got sick. I thought it was food poisoning, went back to bed, kept happening all night long.
I was I was exposed all night long was was exposed to lethal levels of carbon oxide. There's Wow. There's no there's no medical reason for me to be here other than I and god wasn't done with me. Yeah. And I was really angry at first because it was devastating. It was it was a devastating experience. But what I realized months later was I've got a new lease on life. I I I should've been nineteen years old standing before god, giving an account of my life, with not a lot to show for it.
So every day I have is a gift, and I don't call it borrowed time. I call it bonus time because I have an opportunity every day to to learn, to grow, and to serve in a better way and to impact the lives of those around me. And I'm 42 now. So it's been over 22 years that I've had as a gift of a new day and viewing it that way changes my perspective on growth. It's not something I have to do. It's something I get to do. And it's it's the pursuit. The the meaningful pursuit is what's so important.
It's not getting it's not it's like a dog chasing a bus. Catch the bus. You don't even know what to do with it, but the chasing of that is exhilarating because I get to go out every single day and chase a better version of me. Yeah. I love it, dude. We could talk about this for hours and hours and hours. You just mentioned, though. I always like to circle in the family here. I've got 4 kids and you you've definitely went up with a 6, and I appreciate that because fatherhood, is a big deal.
And, 6 is a is a whole basket full. My question for you, though, is with this pursuit of the Greater Chad, this willingness to always learn and grow and obsess, really, is about just all the areas. I I find that a balance comes up a bunch and, you know, really balance doesn't perfectly exist ever. We we create our own circumstances. And and so my question for you is, obviously, you've been successful in the business. You're even helping other people. Clearly, you're obsessed.
But how have you also been obsessed as a father or as a husband or with your fitness, clearly, you're you're you're very fit. You we've talked about all the other areas of your life. How are you obsessing in all of it? At the same time? Well, a lot of those principles, the the discipline, the perseverance, the the commitment to service, all those things, Chaz be in all those areas. It can be in fitness. It can be in in in my family life. It can be in my faith.
And they all tie in and for me, one of the reasons I chose this was because of the balanced life that I was able to to build Yeah. And I'm not saying you can't be balanced as a surgeon. There's people that do it. I know how I'm wired, and I don't believe even to this day. I don't believe I could have been an excellent surgeon and been an excellent father husband. I know people that have done it. Me personally. I don't I don't know that I could have done that.
So I chose this profession because it allowed me to help people in a deeply meaningful way. And it was a way that I could have a business that I owned instead of a business that owned me. Yeah. And I have a lot of people in this profession, a lot of colleagues that still have a business. That owns them. Absolutely. So it doesn't matter what industry you're in.
You have to be super intentional to make sure your business doesn't consume you, own you, but I have 6 wonderful kids, a beautiful wife, and and I am very I I am almost a zealot when it comes to protecting that time. Yeah. I don't do emergencies. I don't do evening calls. I I I used to bring my laptop home with me and work after the kids I stopped doing that. I don't I don't even check an email after 5 o'clock.
And some days, it's earlier than that, but that forces me to be even more focused in disciplined during my work hours. And I'm not saying I've got this perfect, Jazz. I've I'm still working on a lot of things. I've got a lot of shortcomings but I carve out areas for my my my faith, my family, and my fitness every single day. Those are non negotiable. And my my business fits in between those, but I also realized that all those things help me run my business. It makes me more effective.
I'm I don't have to spend as much time in my business if I'm sharper. Just think about, like, if you had to cut down a forest full of trees every day. If you spent the 1st couple hours of your day sharpening your ax, the 8 hours of the day that you spent cutting down trees Wolfe go by a lot. You cut down a lot more trees. There's a lot of people that spend 12, 14 hours a day trying to cut down trees with a dull ax. So I wanna make sure that I'm showing up every day as sharp as I can.
And I can get a lot more done at work in less time because those other areas. So for me, I don't see them as mutually exclusive. Like, oh, I'm spending this time with my family. I'm spending this time in the gym. I spend this my this time in my faith and is taking away. Yep. I believe Chaz it's an added effect because it makes me a better human Yeah. I love that perspective. We had a guy this past weekend. We did an event out in Utah.
And, he's new to the group, but his his revelation was very similar to this right here, and we talk about you know, business and finance, family and marriage, faith, lifestyle, and, and health. And in his his thought process was they they weren't 5 dimensions. It was really 4 dimensions that gave me the lifestyle that I wanted. Right? And it's like, yeah. Absolutely. Everything that Chad just said is is the same thing. It all flows into what you want. What we call the exceptional life.
It's like, okay. Well, This is what I'm after. It's not money. It's not a stage. They might be a part of that, but what I want is to be in a great marriage and and for my wife to respect me and love me and and actually want me to come home. You know? Like, there's a lot of work there that that that takes. That doesn't just happen.
And so I just appreciate the the vulnerability number 1, but then also just the the summation of all these things that you're working on coming together because it really does. It's all these different pieces that you can win in every day, every week, every month, every year. Ultimately, it does give you exactly what you're looking for, so I appreciate that. I got one last question here for you, Chad. I gotta know.
You kinda you kinda gave us a version of this a little bit ago, but I want you to roll back the clock. I want you to tap on the shoulder of the younger Chaz. Lean over and you whisper in his ear, what do you tell him? You know the right things to do. Just do it. Don't worry about what you don't know, worry about what you can do, and execute the right things that you know to do because all too often, our our knowledge outpaces our obedience.
And what I mean by that is we focus on learning and and preparing and and and things like that, which, again, they're all important, but but action wins, execution wins. And and and for too long, I stood on the sidelines of my own life waiting for the right, the perfect time to jump in the arena. And there is no perfect time. It it's always gonna be muddy and bloody. It's always gonna hurt. There's always gonna be people that that are waiting for you, even looking for you to fail.
There's always gonna be doubters, always gonna be haters. Oh, yeah. But it's to execute the things we already know to do. But committing to learn the rest along the way. Yeah. I love it. You gave, I don't know if you realized this, but you gave both sides of the coin. You said you gotta spend time sharpening the ax. Because the time that you are cutting the trees will go that much better for you.
But then you gave a huge caveat, and you said, but if you spend all your time sharpening the ax and never swinging at it out of the tree, no trees ever get cut down. And and somewhere in the middle there is working on the axe and sharpening it, but yet cutting the tree. And guess what? At the end of a certain amount of trees, you gotta sharpen again. We have this ebb and flow between knowledge and execution, which I I just you just made an amazing point. I appreciate your clarity on that.
I hope that a listener got plenty from that wanna give them an opportunity to connect with you. 1, if they are, looking for that, that guy to jump out of the bush and say, hey. I can take your money and help you win with it. Now in all seriousness, clearly, you've been successful in the the world of finance. You help clients win not with their money, but with all the other areas you talked about.
And if they wanna you to do that for them, how can they find you, or they're an entrepreneur, and they wanna connect with you? How can they do Well, we're on we're on Instagram. I'm on LinkedIn. You can find find us in either place, just like Veritas, Alaska. We are nationwide. I was founded here. So that's that's kind of the the starting point. That's where I live. And website is veritasalaska.com. And if you look on a social media site, just search for Veritas, Alaska will pop up.
Hi, everyone. I'm Chad Hubbard, owner and founder of Veritas Wealth Management. And I wanna share with you my new book, forging financial freedom. It's about the lessons and mindsets necessary to build not only a life of financial independence, but of abundance. And as a valued member of the Gathering of King's audience, I want to extend some special offers and bonuses, so please visit forgingfinancialfreedom.com to pick up your copy of the book and some valuable bonuses. Perfect.
Well, we'll put all that in the show notes as well. Chad has been incredible chatting with you. I wish you nothing but blessing in your family and your business. All the folks that you're helping live a an abundant life. It's a pleasure to get snow and run with you. So, we appreciate you being here, sir. It's a privilege to be here. Thank you so much for the opportunity. 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 business 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 1 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done.
We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy. So if that relates and and resonates with you, and you know that you need people around you, sharp, qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gathering the king's dot com.
You 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.